IMO, not nearly as bad as some people would like to tell you it is but almost certainly the definition of "Early Access". I enjoy the Blegends Blarceus-esque gameplay, I like the Pal designs I've encountered, some much more than comparable creatures from That other series, and Zoe is an absolute baddie...

...but it's very technically shaky and clearly missing a lot of the meat on the bones, so I have to put it on pause for now 'til release, since I'm not the biggest fan of Ark and its' ilk, even if I enjoy how Palworld specifically handles it. For the people that LOVE those kinds of games and can work through their technical issues and set their own crazy goals I see them getting hooked on this shit.

All that said, isn't it kind of crazy this is the only Blokemon game that actually has natures and personality traits that make each individual Pal a little more unique like the original series???

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

Void Stranger is a 2D sokoban-style puzzle game. But maybe it isn't? But it is, right? Maybe the real puzzle all along is the puzzle of the game itself? Only the Void can answer that...

This game does a lot of things that I've only seen a few other games attempt, and it pulls them off dangerously well. It's an almost euphoric feeling to solve the seemingly unsolvable after hours of theory-crafting and coming to a greater mechanical understanding. Which isn't for everyone, but it IS for me - wow.

Absolutely play blind, and reach for the limits of your faith.

COGEN: Sword of Rewind can be summed up in two words: "skill issue". It's an absolute blast once you learn how to exploit the Ouroboros System, which lets you rewind whenever you'd like, but getting there isn't easy! The tutorial covers only basic concepts; later stages are mercilessly difficult, even if you're doing everything right. The most frustrating aspect is its difficulty curve - while there's a gradual increase in challenge as the game goes on, you'll still get thrown straight into extremely difficult segments without any prior warning.

That said, COGEN's combat feels fast and fluid enough that even a beginner could grasp the basics within minutes, provided they have patience for experimentation (and lots of free time). Unfortunately, it doesn't take long until things start feeling unfair after you master the core mechanics, thanks to some unintuitive design decisions. There's just not much variety when it comes to enemy types, meaning your skills aren't really being tested beyond learning how to deal damage efficiently. Most enemies die easily, which is "solved" by forcing the player to deal with a shitton of them at once, the optimal way to deal with these encounters simply being camping one side of the screen and using their own attacks against themselves. Boss fights don't pose much of a threat unless you screw up repeatedly - though the few difficult bosses present absolutely require memorizing attack patterns. This might seem nitpicky, but I couldn't help but feel that this game had the potential for something special, especially given its beautiful graphics and interesting concept, but falls short because of poor pacing with an excuse plot and forgettable enemies.

It has all the trappings of a classic retro-style action game: good music, cute sprite artwork, catchy stage themes. But while those aspects do add to the fun factor, the experience is marred by uneven difficulty spikes and other frustrating design choices, making it hard to recommend.

If you've got nothing else on your plate and enjoy 2D action with slashin' and dashin', give COGEN a try.

...Also the DLC is stupidly overpriced. 3 character DLCs, each at $7.99. At the very least, they massively differ in playstyle from Kohaku with some interesting mechanics.