Kurkanox
TBD
bro i couldnt even launch the game
2021
Honestly I'm genuinely glad that I was able to enjoy this game as much as I have already. I've played for about 20 hours (majority with a friend in multiplayer) and my experience so far has been amazing.
I've played Monster Hunter before when I bought World and tried that on PC, but I felt it was too slow and getting around the world was slow and sometimes clumsy. This game is clumsy in the good way and is much faster than the previous entry.
Playing the game from being a complete beginner to a competent hunter was something special for sure. Earlier when I said "the good kind of clumsy" I mean the beginning of the game when you're getting thrown around by creatures 3 times your size while learning how the game works. And after a while of getting your ass politely handed to you, you start to realise your own way of playing the game. Of course everyone who's played Monster Hunter already knows this so as a newcomer I suppose this is what it would have felt like playing the first few games.
With a combination of action-packed battles and a touch of strategy with approaching a monster's weaknesses makes me feel like I'm genuinely getting ready to fight behemoths. With the addition of always feeling like I'm getting stronger by using the parts of the monster I hunted to create brand new weapons with different elemental affinities, I found myself switching weapons for their affinity rather than just using the biggest number.
A great game that I wish I had gotten into sooner.
I've played Monster Hunter before when I bought World and tried that on PC, but I felt it was too slow and getting around the world was slow and sometimes clumsy. This game is clumsy in the good way and is much faster than the previous entry.
Playing the game from being a complete beginner to a competent hunter was something special for sure. Earlier when I said "the good kind of clumsy" I mean the beginning of the game when you're getting thrown around by creatures 3 times your size while learning how the game works. And after a while of getting your ass politely handed to you, you start to realise your own way of playing the game. Of course everyone who's played Monster Hunter already knows this so as a newcomer I suppose this is what it would have felt like playing the first few games.
With a combination of action-packed battles and a touch of strategy with approaching a monster's weaknesses makes me feel like I'm genuinely getting ready to fight behemoths. With the addition of always feeling like I'm getting stronger by using the parts of the monster I hunted to create brand new weapons with different elemental affinities, I found myself switching weapons for their affinity rather than just using the biggest number.
A great game that I wish I had gotten into sooner.
2023
[DEMO REVIEW]
Alright, I'll be the first one to review this game under the pretense that I have never seen this dev before or any of their games, but I have played Undertale.
Look, I completely understand that trying to be the next Undertale is a form of motivation. Making the next big story driven, "wholesome turned creepy", fourth wall breaking, charming RPG is definitely every game dev's (who played Undertale) dream. But what this game has is not that at all.
To start off with the basics, THIS GAME IS A DEMO. The one on steam that you can play right now, over the weekend of the time of writing (18th of June), is an unfinished build that takes you through about the first 30 minutes of the game. It shows a basic pitch for what "combat" will be like as well as a taste for the writing, story, characters, and music.
To start with the positives, the game has good music at times. Some of the minigames have a chiptune style of music that isn't exactly irritating but as I'm writing this I cannot remember what any of them sound like, the overworld music wasn't the greatest either. There are some songs and ditties that weren't as bad although all of the songs suffer their biggest issue of being unmemorable. The gameplay itself is also very basic and bare, "combat" happens when you run into an enemy. These battles are short microgames that barely last 10 seconds and often include a very simple task. This was charming for about the first and second time I ran into each microgame but this quickly became tedium, I ended up ignoring them after I spotted an enemy that I had played the microgame for already. There was no incentive to initiate combat either, because your only reward was more "Life" that I didn't end up losing anyway because the microgames are just a little too easy.
The other positive is I really liked the character "ratboy68", he was particularly written in a very charming way where his dialogue made sense with how he was trying to be cool but not really succeeding. He was also the only character that I found myself enjoying the jokes of. (After rewatching someone play this game, he wasn't written that well either.)
But this is where the issue lies, you may have noticed that I phrased his dialogue as "making sense" in terms with everything else. That's because the dialogue is trying way too hard to be funny and trendy. There were many times where I would read a line of dialogue and groan, roll my eyes, or just sit there in silence because I know I'm supposed to laugh but it just wasn't funny. A lot of the humour relies on knowing and understanding internet humour, not terrible as there are games that rely on this as well (à la Undertale) but the way the game does it is not very timeless.
At the time of playing most of the jokes in the demo were already old and dead memes, things like the petting hand gif (which is in the trailer), and the over censorship of minor "curse" words like "H#ck" and "D#mn" would have been relatively funny when they were coded and written, but now I just don't think it sticks anymore. And this will be an underlying issue for the game's future, if these jokes are dead now and are unfunny, how dead will they be when the game releases March of next year?
So a majority of the jokes land flat due to over reliance on fleeting internet jokes, but surely the sentences that don't rely on those could be funny, right? Well, sometimes, but not all the time. While interacting with the world a text box will appear to describe the object you are standing in front of. This is a staple of RPGs like this one so it's only to be expected, the issue lies in the fact that this text box acts as an additional character.
The text box will often times retort, jest, and even poke fun at whatever is happening as if it was a secondary character in the player's head. Sure, I'm assuming that this is on purpose and there's a big ol' twist that the interact text box is a character and you just meet them later, but it's still not an excuse for how unfunny the dialogue ends up being. Example being: the text box stating that the player is not heroic enough to pull a sword out of a stone, and then immediately takes it back and apologises in fear of hurting the player's feelings. It honestly doesn't add anything and probably could have been more effective with one line of text.
Then we move on to the characters that are actually in the world. The first character you meet is unfortunately the most annoying, a rabbit that immediately comes off as trying too hard to be cute and funny when that clearly isn't the dev's intent. Every word she says comes off as both mocking (somehow) and also desperate, and after finishing the demo the latter was more accurate but there is still an issue with how she's written. I wouldn't have minded so much if there wasn't so much unnecessary text boxes coming from your own playable character. Almost every few text boxes the rabbit is interrupted by the player character so they can impart their beautiful wisdom of the lustrous phrase: "...", and every single time it did not get any funnier. It created dead air when there wasn't any, it felt like the protagonist was waiting for a laugh track to end. Using an example from a game this is taking inspiration from, Undertale's protagonist doesn't say a single line of dialogue throughout the whole game, they do not even have a talk sprite. Yet, the player can assume for themselves that the protagonist is not talking or responding due to the fact that they do not have any textboxes, I do not need to be told that my character isn't talking.
The start of this game acts as a "tutorial" that isn't a tutorial at all because it teaches you nothing new (despite having a line of dialogue stating "Well at least you learnt something") and is generally just a frame for the game to throw some more bad jokes at you. The other reason this tutorial doesn't teach you anything is because you know the controls already, because the game's intro actually did a good job at teaching you everything you needed to know: move, interact, and pause. So at the end of the day you have an intro after the intro that just wastes a little bit more time.
Lastly, without saying too much, I completely guessed pretty much every plot twist the game could've had for me. As soon as I learnt the premise I had assumed the identity of the "big bad", and was proven right by the end of the demo (and the trailers).
In conclusion, this game definitely has the Undertale inspiration on it's sleeve; the character designs are a little on the nose, the writing is trying just a little too hard to be funny (and there was in fact an Undertale reference in the dialogue), and it's failing to execute the same charm Undertale had because of the way it's presenting itself as an Undertale successor. And while I listed all of these negatives and I've said the word "Undertale" about 20 times now, I don't think this game is going to be completely dead. It will have its audience and there will be people who will find this funny, entertaining, and charming, but if it wants to be enjoyed by a broader audience it would have to have been toned down just a little. But at this point it is looking a little too late for that, and I don't think the dev is forcing themselves to write like this. That and the fact that this is only a demo, maybe my broad assumptions are not correct at all and the dev is shooting lasers at me.
If this is just the dev making a game that they enjoy that's perfectly fine, it just wasn't for me and I wanted to throw my two cents in as an Undertale enjoyer.
Alright, I'll be the first one to review this game under the pretense that I have never seen this dev before or any of their games, but I have played Undertale.
Look, I completely understand that trying to be the next Undertale is a form of motivation. Making the next big story driven, "wholesome turned creepy", fourth wall breaking, charming RPG is definitely every game dev's (who played Undertale) dream. But what this game has is not that at all.
To start off with the basics, THIS GAME IS A DEMO. The one on steam that you can play right now, over the weekend of the time of writing (18th of June), is an unfinished build that takes you through about the first 30 minutes of the game. It shows a basic pitch for what "combat" will be like as well as a taste for the writing, story, characters, and music.
To start with the positives, the game has good music at times. Some of the minigames have a chiptune style of music that isn't exactly irritating but as I'm writing this I cannot remember what any of them sound like, the overworld music wasn't the greatest either. There are some songs and ditties that weren't as bad although all of the songs suffer their biggest issue of being unmemorable. The gameplay itself is also very basic and bare, "combat" happens when you run into an enemy. These battles are short microgames that barely last 10 seconds and often include a very simple task. This was charming for about the first and second time I ran into each microgame but this quickly became tedium, I ended up ignoring them after I spotted an enemy that I had played the microgame for already. There was no incentive to initiate combat either, because your only reward was more "Life" that I didn't end up losing anyway because the microgames are just a little too easy.
The other positive is I really liked the character "ratboy68", he was particularly written in a very charming way where his dialogue made sense with how he was trying to be cool but not really succeeding. He was also the only character that I found myself enjoying the jokes of. (After rewatching someone play this game, he wasn't written that well either.)
But this is where the issue lies, you may have noticed that I phrased his dialogue as "making sense" in terms with everything else. That's because the dialogue is trying way too hard to be funny and trendy. There were many times where I would read a line of dialogue and groan, roll my eyes, or just sit there in silence because I know I'm supposed to laugh but it just wasn't funny. A lot of the humour relies on knowing and understanding internet humour, not terrible as there are games that rely on this as well (à la Undertale) but the way the game does it is not very timeless.
At the time of playing most of the jokes in the demo were already old and dead memes, things like the petting hand gif (which is in the trailer), and the over censorship of minor "curse" words like "H#ck" and "D#mn" would have been relatively funny when they were coded and written, but now I just don't think it sticks anymore. And this will be an underlying issue for the game's future, if these jokes are dead now and are unfunny, how dead will they be when the game releases March of next year?
So a majority of the jokes land flat due to over reliance on fleeting internet jokes, but surely the sentences that don't rely on those could be funny, right? Well, sometimes, but not all the time. While interacting with the world a text box will appear to describe the object you are standing in front of. This is a staple of RPGs like this one so it's only to be expected, the issue lies in the fact that this text box acts as an additional character.
The text box will often times retort, jest, and even poke fun at whatever is happening as if it was a secondary character in the player's head. Sure, I'm assuming that this is on purpose and there's a big ol' twist that the interact text box is a character and you just meet them later, but it's still not an excuse for how unfunny the dialogue ends up being. Example being: the text box stating that the player is not heroic enough to pull a sword out of a stone, and then immediately takes it back and apologises in fear of hurting the player's feelings. It honestly doesn't add anything and probably could have been more effective with one line of text.
Then we move on to the characters that are actually in the world. The first character you meet is unfortunately the most annoying, a rabbit that immediately comes off as trying too hard to be cute and funny when that clearly isn't the dev's intent. Every word she says comes off as both mocking (somehow) and also desperate, and after finishing the demo the latter was more accurate but there is still an issue with how she's written. I wouldn't have minded so much if there wasn't so much unnecessary text boxes coming from your own playable character. Almost every few text boxes the rabbit is interrupted by the player character so they can impart their beautiful wisdom of the lustrous phrase: "...", and every single time it did not get any funnier. It created dead air when there wasn't any, it felt like the protagonist was waiting for a laugh track to end. Using an example from a game this is taking inspiration from, Undertale's protagonist doesn't say a single line of dialogue throughout the whole game, they do not even have a talk sprite. Yet, the player can assume for themselves that the protagonist is not talking or responding due to the fact that they do not have any textboxes, I do not need to be told that my character isn't talking.
The start of this game acts as a "tutorial" that isn't a tutorial at all because it teaches you nothing new (despite having a line of dialogue stating "Well at least you learnt something") and is generally just a frame for the game to throw some more bad jokes at you. The other reason this tutorial doesn't teach you anything is because you know the controls already, because the game's intro actually did a good job at teaching you everything you needed to know: move, interact, and pause. So at the end of the day you have an intro after the intro that just wastes a little bit more time.
Lastly, without saying too much, I completely guessed pretty much every plot twist the game could've had for me. As soon as I learnt the premise I had assumed the identity of the "big bad", and was proven right by the end of the demo (and the trailers).
In conclusion, this game definitely has the Undertale inspiration on it's sleeve; the character designs are a little on the nose, the writing is trying just a little too hard to be funny (and there was in fact an Undertale reference in the dialogue), and it's failing to execute the same charm Undertale had because of the way it's presenting itself as an Undertale successor. And while I listed all of these negatives and I've said the word "Undertale" about 20 times now, I don't think this game is going to be completely dead. It will have its audience and there will be people who will find this funny, entertaining, and charming, but if it wants to be enjoyed by a broader audience it would have to have been toned down just a little. But at this point it is looking a little too late for that, and I don't think the dev is forcing themselves to write like this. That and the fact that this is only a demo, maybe my broad assumptions are not correct at all and the dev is shooting lasers at me.
If this is just the dev making a game that they enjoy that's perfectly fine, it just wasn't for me and I wanted to throw my two cents in as an Undertale enjoyer.
1998
this was the first game i ever played in my entire life.
i was like, 5 or 6 when i played it and i could barely remember everything about it except for it's name and the fact i still have it on a cd in my cupboard.
the game is definitely an artifact from it's time, the controls are incredibly strange and platforming in itself becomes a puzzle with set distances for all 3 jump types (short, normal, high). the graphics are charmingly old and i'll most likely play it again for nostalgia reasons.
Eggbert's noises are so memorable that i can still imagine them perfectly in my head, every noise he makes when he touches a hazard and the noise he makes when he hits his head.
definitely give it a try if you like old, weird, and clunky games.
i was like, 5 or 6 when i played it and i could barely remember everything about it except for it's name and the fact i still have it on a cd in my cupboard.
the game is definitely an artifact from it's time, the controls are incredibly strange and platforming in itself becomes a puzzle with set distances for all 3 jump types (short, normal, high). the graphics are charmingly old and i'll most likely play it again for nostalgia reasons.
Eggbert's noises are so memorable that i can still imagine them perfectly in my head, every noise he makes when he touches a hazard and the noise he makes when he hits his head.
definitely give it a try if you like old, weird, and clunky games.
2007
under all accounts i did indeed play this game, it is a rhythm game
definitely the most refreshing kirby experience in a good while, a completely new idea that went all in on what's possible with an extra axis.
the gameplay is still exactly what you expect from a kirby game, you inhale, exhale, and use copy abilities. while there might not be as many copy abilities as there was in previous games, i was still a big fan of the copy upgrades being their own unique thing without having to worry about programming entirely new abilities.
in addition to gameplay, the game has a spectacular soundtrack and incredible new designs.
best kirby in a while!
the gameplay is still exactly what you expect from a kirby game, you inhale, exhale, and use copy abilities. while there might not be as many copy abilities as there was in previous games, i was still a big fan of the copy upgrades being their own unique thing without having to worry about programming entirely new abilities.
in addition to gameplay, the game has a spectacular soundtrack and incredible new designs.
best kirby in a while!
2014
if i could play any game for the rest of my life it would be this one
this was the game that got me into animal crossing, there was a good period of time where i would boot this game up almost every day just to check on my little town.
i had most of my fun just customising my room and talking to the villagers, while they definitely arent extremely unique (villagers of the same personality do tend to talk kinda the same) they were unique to me in the way they presented themselves in their home design and outfits, the "animal" part of animal crossing is the part i liked most.
fishing and catching bugs and going to the island were all definitely relaxing and thats the other reason i played daily, i just wanted to go to the island as often as i could. but of course the part that i was always iffy on was how long it would take to get anything worthwhile in terms of upgrades.
it always takes an absurd amount of bells to get something built, or to get an upgrade on a shop in the top half of the town, and then having to wait a full real life day sometimes more just to get that one upgrade or decoration just didnt feel worth it to me when i got it, as the upgrades are usually one extra slot for a store item or just making my town a little nicer to look at.
still definitely a relaxing game no doubt, and when i might end up coming back to eventually when i'm feeling nostalgic.
i had most of my fun just customising my room and talking to the villagers, while they definitely arent extremely unique (villagers of the same personality do tend to talk kinda the same) they were unique to me in the way they presented themselves in their home design and outfits, the "animal" part of animal crossing is the part i liked most.
fishing and catching bugs and going to the island were all definitely relaxing and thats the other reason i played daily, i just wanted to go to the island as often as i could. but of course the part that i was always iffy on was how long it would take to get anything worthwhile in terms of upgrades.
it always takes an absurd amount of bells to get something built, or to get an upgrade on a shop in the top half of the town, and then having to wait a full real life day sometimes more just to get that one upgrade or decoration just didnt feel worth it to me when i got it, as the upgrades are usually one extra slot for a store item or just making my town a little nicer to look at.
still definitely a relaxing game no doubt, and when i might end up coming back to eventually when i'm feeling nostalgic.
i had a general interest in horror and creepy games even before this game, i enjoyed Yume Nikki, Amnesia and even horror-lite games like LSD dream emulator, but suffice to say while the series itself may be flatlining i do have a place in my heart for the original FNAF. if not for the game itself, just for the fact that it kickstarted my love for weird and scary horror games.
the game itself is a pretty decent experience and for it's time (obviously) was unique enough to spawn a plethora of fans and fan games and even termed the coin "FNAF-like", and i cant say i didnt enjoy what it was doing either.
the visuals were uncanny and creepy in the most unsettling way, and it also shined in the audio department making the player unnerved and overall freaked out leading up to an ear piercing jumpscare that acts as a game over, which certainly isn't the weakest part of the game but it definitely wasn't a strong point (not a fan of loud jumpscares).
story definitely was never the intent, it was supposed to be a mysterious one and done type game, but that's alright because my headcanons will always stand as the better story in my head.
a classic.
the game itself is a pretty decent experience and for it's time (obviously) was unique enough to spawn a plethora of fans and fan games and even termed the coin "FNAF-like", and i cant say i didnt enjoy what it was doing either.
the visuals were uncanny and creepy in the most unsettling way, and it also shined in the audio department making the player unnerved and overall freaked out leading up to an ear piercing jumpscare that acts as a game over, which certainly isn't the weakest part of the game but it definitely wasn't a strong point (not a fan of loud jumpscares).
story definitely was never the intent, it was supposed to be a mysterious one and done type game, but that's alright because my headcanons will always stand as the better story in my head.
a classic.
2021
going into this game my first thought was "oh it's trying to mimic undertale", my second thought was "damn the music in this game slaps", and my third thought was "what the fuck is going on and why do i love it so much"
the combination of the art, story, music, and gameplay all hooked me in for an incredible experience that i would recommend if you like undertale, but dont expect undertale of course as it is in itself it's own experience.
there's definitely some weird and trippy moments but it 100% adds to the games charm.
the combination of the art, story, music, and gameplay all hooked me in for an incredible experience that i would recommend if you like undertale, but dont expect undertale of course as it is in itself it's own experience.
there's definitely some weird and trippy moments but it 100% adds to the games charm.
2012
i want a sequel to this game so bad, the characters are all so charming and the dialogue genuinely got some chuckles out of me occasionally. not to mention the gameplay is actually pretty fun despite the odd control scheme, with a variety of weapons to choose from that all function differently from each other and an ability system that treats itself like an inventory management puzzle game its just generally a good time.
i wanna see where the series could go next story-wise, i wanna see both the old and new characters!
i wanna see where the series could go next story-wise, i wanna see both the old and new characters!
2015
one of my favourite fps games i've ever played, it's not the traditional kind of fps so it's already a plus in my books.
the gameplay is the biggest pro this game has, i have played many hours of this game just running around doing global events or just killing zombies for fun while having youtube videos playing in the background. all of the parkour and combat abilities you unlock are all unique and fun in their own right and none of them feel useless or unnecessary.
the fact that the skill tree's in this game all have active abilities that change the game, rather than +2% more fist damage really makes it more engaging to level up and put points into new skills. every single new parkour ability made me excited to start incorporating it into the way i moved around the world.
while i do love this game there are some parts that i definitely can critique and say that i didn't whole-heartedly love. for example the visual style of the game, while not ugly by any means, is definitely not an incredible step forward in terms of visual design. for what it set out to do however the game can look incredibly pretty and even calming when standing on top of a radio tower looking out into the ocean or even over the skyline of Harran, although there are some moments where the game turns every shade of brown or orange which isnt exactly appealing.
where it falls the most flat is the story, and from what i've seen this isnt exactly a "hot take". uninteresting characters and a basic plot direction, and an especially boring villain and "final boss" that just boiled down to a QTE. they were trying to aim for a "crazy but intimidating evil guy that does evil because he just is evil", and i mean sure he does stuff that is "bad" for the sake of "chaos" but it just ends up being kinda boring and even funny at times with how he's written. all in all i had more fun skipping dialogue to create my own cutscenes than actually paying attention.
the game's story isnt so great and has just above average visuals, the gameplay (and co-op) makes up for all of those downsides to create an unforgettable experience that i'll remember for years.
the gameplay is the biggest pro this game has, i have played many hours of this game just running around doing global events or just killing zombies for fun while having youtube videos playing in the background. all of the parkour and combat abilities you unlock are all unique and fun in their own right and none of them feel useless or unnecessary.
the fact that the skill tree's in this game all have active abilities that change the game, rather than +2% more fist damage really makes it more engaging to level up and put points into new skills. every single new parkour ability made me excited to start incorporating it into the way i moved around the world.
while i do love this game there are some parts that i definitely can critique and say that i didn't whole-heartedly love. for example the visual style of the game, while not ugly by any means, is definitely not an incredible step forward in terms of visual design. for what it set out to do however the game can look incredibly pretty and even calming when standing on top of a radio tower looking out into the ocean or even over the skyline of Harran, although there are some moments where the game turns every shade of brown or orange which isnt exactly appealing.
where it falls the most flat is the story, and from what i've seen this isnt exactly a "hot take". uninteresting characters and a basic plot direction, and an especially boring villain and "final boss" that just boiled down to a QTE. they were trying to aim for a "crazy but intimidating evil guy that does evil because he just is evil", and i mean sure he does stuff that is "bad" for the sake of "chaos" but it just ends up being kinda boring and even funny at times with how he's written. all in all i had more fun skipping dialogue to create my own cutscenes than actually paying attention.
the game's story isnt so great and has just above average visuals, the gameplay (and co-op) makes up for all of those downsides to create an unforgettable experience that i'll remember for years.
2019
this game helped me clean my room so i wouldn't keep hitting objects on my floor while crouched
This review contains spoilers
this is probably one of the most relaxing fishing games i've played with this graphical style, and i'll probably never play anything like it again. the actual mechanics are pretty well implemented and it's one of the rare cases where the fishing was not annoying to do, i knew exactly what to do without any guidance and was able to catch fish by instincts alone.
the only thing i'd probably include (if it was there i didn't see it) was a guide for the controls and maybe some general tips and tricks, as i only figured out near the end of the game that i could instantly call back my line after about 2 hours of playtime (not really detrimental it's just a QoF improvement).
event spoiler:
there was a part on my second day where i ran into a flatwoods monster cryptid of some sort, which didn't have any bearing at all on the story or mystery of the game, kinda just felt like "something creepy" that could happen. which is fine but maybe something else could have come of it as it felt kinda shoehorned in.
in conclusion for the general side of the game, the visuals were very nicely crafted and good to look at. the music and sounds were quite honestly one of the best parts and added to the tension when nothing was even happening.
for the ending, SPOILERS AHEAD
i will say that a confusing ending is par for the course of these types of games but it was still very interesting visually to look at and i kinda got the idea. i was unsure what exactly happened at the end whether our fisherman fella drowned after being pulled in or it was some kind of hallucination? i was not confident. i will say though the game is very calming and fun to play up until the depths made me shit myself.
the only thing i'd probably include (if it was there i didn't see it) was a guide for the controls and maybe some general tips and tricks, as i only figured out near the end of the game that i could instantly call back my line after about 2 hours of playtime (not really detrimental it's just a QoF improvement).
event spoiler:
there was a part on my second day where i ran into a flatwoods monster cryptid of some sort, which didn't have any bearing at all on the story or mystery of the game, kinda just felt like "something creepy" that could happen. which is fine but maybe something else could have come of it as it felt kinda shoehorned in.
in conclusion for the general side of the game, the visuals were very nicely crafted and good to look at. the music and sounds were quite honestly one of the best parts and added to the tension when nothing was even happening.
for the ending, SPOILERS AHEAD
i will say that a confusing ending is par for the course of these types of games but it was still very interesting visually to look at and i kinda got the idea. i was unsure what exactly happened at the end whether our fisherman fella drowned after being pulled in or it was some kind of hallucination? i was not confident. i will say though the game is very calming and fun to play up until the depths made me shit myself.
2005
This game is definitely in my top 3, if not my favourite game of all time. I've replayed it more times than I can remember and it holds a very special place in my heart.
The amount of charm the devs managed to fit into this game, from the amazing art style to the mystical soundtrack I could not love this game any more than I do. Every character is so incredibly unique and the voice actors bring them to life with memorable performances that allow me to recognise any character from a single line of dialogue.
And the gameplay too is everything I love in a platformer. You unlock abilities as you play and grab collectables that let you use for your psychic abilities, and none of them felt useless or ignored (bar one being the shield which I did not use often). The psychic abilities are mostly used for puzzles which are already extremely fun, and not only that but the platforming is incredibly tight and fluid and allows for an incredible experience! I love how the game uses Raz's circus background to allow for interesting circus performance-esque platforming.
And lastly the story is a very very VERY well written escapade, I love going through the story beats over and over again and I rarely skipped cutscenes even on my 7th playthrough. Although they definitely handled the complex mental health talk better in the sequel.
Definitely a recommendation at the top of my "to recommend" list.
The amount of charm the devs managed to fit into this game, from the amazing art style to the mystical soundtrack I could not love this game any more than I do. Every character is so incredibly unique and the voice actors bring them to life with memorable performances that allow me to recognise any character from a single line of dialogue.
And the gameplay too is everything I love in a platformer. You unlock abilities as you play and grab collectables that let you use for your psychic abilities, and none of them felt useless or ignored (bar one being the shield which I did not use often). The psychic abilities are mostly used for puzzles which are already extremely fun, and not only that but the platforming is incredibly tight and fluid and allows for an incredible experience! I love how the game uses Raz's circus background to allow for interesting circus performance-esque platforming.
And lastly the story is a very very VERY well written escapade, I love going through the story beats over and over again and I rarely skipped cutscenes even on my 7th playthrough. Although they definitely handled the complex mental health talk better in the sequel.
Definitely a recommendation at the top of my "to recommend" list.