This game actually surprised me in a very good way!

From the makers of the incredible metroidvanias Guacamelee 1 and 2 (both of which I loved), comes a... hack n slash RPG with lots of grinding? What?

Well, let me tell you that despite the unexpected premise, this game is amazing!

Most of the gameplay consists of just killing baddies, completing challenges and levelling up, and oh boy, if you're the kind of person that likes to just hit stuff and see NUMBERS GO BRRR, then this is the game for you.

The main feature that makes this work is the ability to unlock new forms (granting you unique powers) and COMBINE POWERS FROM DIFFERENT FORMS! The amount of fun builds and combinations you can make is absurd, and its incredibly enjoyable to try stuff out and find broken combinations. All the while you will almost never run out of challenges to grind, so there is always a short-term objective in sight.

In other aspects, the visuals are charming, the humor is silly and pretty great (even more so if you enjoyed other Drinkbox Studios games), there are dungeons with cool themes, the plot starts out "meh" but becomes surprisinly engaging the more you play.

Overall a great action RPG that actually makes grind work and will net you several hours of button-mashing baddie-killing fun.

I love Dark Souls, but I also think Dark Souls is not a great videogame in 2022.

Having played the original Prepare To Die edition on Steam about 7 years ago and then playing the Remastered Edition in 2022, there were things that were already pretty rough back then, and oh boy, the game did not age well at all.

Well, let's get the bad out of the way. This game has super frustrating areas (Tomb of Giants, Lost Izalith, Crystal Cave, Blighttown), the game's second half is clearly half baked, there are some long distances between bonfires and bosses, almost zero accessability, runs like ass on PC (seriously, I was expecting the remastered edition to be more optimized, but oh well).

I was surprised to find some of the things I remembered as being very good turned out to actually not being that great this time around... Everyone loves to say DS1 had amazing level design, but I... didn't really think that's true for most areas. I mean, sure, there's Undead Asylum, Undead Burg, Sen's Fortress, most shortcuts are really well placed, levels (usually) MAKE SENSE. Even still, I think for a game so widely praised on its level design, most levels were actually "meh" at best. Even Anor Londo was really disappointing. It's so big, but actually kind of just empty. If you think about the "bonfire->O&S" path, it's mostly a long and straight corridor with not that many interesting bits. I think the level design was fine when the original released, but it's really not that impressive years later. Enemy placement is another point that I found way worse and unfun than I remembered.

Even still, it's impossible to deny the impact this game had on videogame history, and how many of its novel and interesting ideas were later polished and expanded on new From Software games (and other games as well). The game's atmosphere is truly unique, it's hidden lore and secrets are so interesting they gave birth to thousands of analysis videos over the years, some of the bosses are so amazing and memorable, combat is (although very sluggish) usually very satisfying when triumphing, the music and sound design are out of this world.

I seriously love the good parts of Dark Souls, I just don't think I can ignore the bad parts anymore, and I wonder why they were largely ignored by fans in the first place all those years ago. Objectively thinking, if it weren't for me already being familiarized with and having nostalgia for the game, I don't think I would have actually had much fun playing this time around, and I bet most fans wouldn't as well.

This game os SO. F*CKING. GOOD.
It's like the definition of the phrase "more than the sum of its parts".

It's just REALLY FUN. I can't overstate how fun it is. Every moment from start to finish is just a joy to play.

Playing with a friend and/or partner is just an amazing experience, I highly recommend it.