We are Owls that never cry..

SANABI is a 2D action title developed by Wonder Potion under the NEOWIZ umbrella. You play as a retired general whose peaceful life changes forever on one fateful day. Armed with nothing but his expert skills in combat and his mechanical arm he seeks out the entity known as SANABI that hurt the one closest to him as he entangles himself in a grander and broader mystery that is looming over the horizon.

SANABI's introduction is brilliant, the game is funny when it wants to, cute when it calls for it and gritty when necessary. It gives the player ample amount of questions that pile on one another, and as the story concludes it answers all of them in a heartbreakingly satisfying way. It's not the most unpredictable story ever created, but damn is it good and well written. And the gameplay accompanying it is as good as the story. On your journey to seek SANABI you'll meet Mari who'll tag along you throughout the entire game. Mari's bubbly and seemingly carefree persona contrasts beautifully with our jaded general. She's a great character, she's bubbly and funny but not to a degree where it takes away from SANABI's darker subject matters. She, like others written for the story are layered and believable and I got heavily invested in all of their personalities during my 10 or so hours of playtime. I cried profusely when everything unfolded as the devs pulled on my heartstrings.

And what accompanies that story and characters is an equally banging and satisfying gameplay loop. SANABI is 2D action game that prioritizes movement. Your base kit is simple but hard to master; you have an ability to climb most walls, jump and your main attraction: the Grapling Arm. The arm works like most grapling hooks with an incredible weight and snappiness behind it. You graple to certain surfaces and swing, how hard could that be? Well.. decently difficult actually since Wonder Potion have done a beautiful job with SANABI's level design. Granted, some of them do get a little.. same-y but considering the game that game doesn't overstay its welcome too badly it doesn't really take away from the overall experience.

Combat is also revolving around your hookshot, and the combat encounters here are mostly just minor roadblocks that are fast to deal. They're not bad, some of them, especially the bosses are a highlight but I was wishing for something just a little bit "meatier" if that makes any sense. That being said they're mostly designed for speedrunners in mind, since the game also comes with an in-built Speedrun mode for those who seek to optimize their routes to perfection.

Music, spritework and overall presentation in SANABI are a joy as well; the game is (seemingly) based in a dystopian fictional version of Korea where a big corporation has taken over the normal, day-to-day citizen's lives. Backgrounds consist (but are not limited to) beautiful mountaintops with lushious greenery to neonlit corporate cityscapes. It's all there and it's accompanied by a great soundtrack that suits every environment beautifully. Characters are lively with so little pixels, so the devs put some extra effort into animating text boxes to bring out that extra bit of personality which goes a long way in making SANABI's world feel truly alive.

I've praised to the Moon and back.. and given it a full, five star score. But SANABI isn't perfect, no game is. So what gives? For one, the level structure can be a bit unclear where it wants you to go at times, and some of the sections feel a bit more trial and error than others (like the Overseer chase sequence). Some text boxes had weird spacing issues between sentences and some of the translations were off by just a bit. Assisted aim needs more, in-depth way to customize it and what bugged me the most was that the main characters is just.. a bit of dick at times. Look, I understand why and I understand the weight of the story but it was overbearing, just by a little bit at points.

Otherwise, SANABI is a true gem. A testement to game development and 2D indie games as a whole. It's getting a physical release soon and I cannot wait to pick it up. Please play this game because it deserves all the love that it's getting and then some. It's also priced incredibly well in my opinion.

I heard a semi-ironic term "goodn't" once and RAIN CODE fits it unironically incredibly well. It's like Danganronpa with unnecessary extra steps in attempt to make it stick out, which do the game absolutely no favours whatsoever.

It has charm, and it has potential to the tenth degree but it's all buried under badly written characters that never fully get anywhere, needless meandering and boring gameplay segments that feel like a disjointed collection of leftover gameplay elements.

That all sounds pretty fucking gnarly, and don't get wrong it is.. but there's a decent albeit wacky story to enjoy here and the characters that are good are pretty freaking memorable. RAIN CODE's OST is also an absolute joy to listen to and it plays well with its overarching mystery that reaches a pretty hype and equally as ridiculous climax.

Would I recommend it at full price? Not even close, unless you're a fan of the previously mentioned Danganronpa series. If you don't mind its wacky antics, needless eye-rolling fanservice and non-existent gameplay I'd honestly pick it up from a sale. It's no system seller but it's a pretty memorable ride throughout it's 20 to 25 hour runtime.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is very good game that ultimately falls a little short of it's staggeringly high potential. It's pretty much a mixture of Nioh (to it's benefit and detrement) and Sekiro with some added mechanics to spice things up a little.

It's a good game that lacks indentity amongst Team Ninja's other souls-like offerings, and while it's nowhere near worth its 70 euro asking price it will most likely keep you entertained throughout, especially if you like the idea of Nioh mixed with Sekiro's combat. Fantastic bosses, fun combat, mediocre story, okay visuals and much like other Koei Tecmo games it runs like shite on PC. I would still recommend it for Game Pass users or PS5 owners on a heavy discount.

This is easily one of the most fun experiences I've ever had with an open world title and I don't typically like those to begin with. Everything is beautifully crafted with nothing but love and passion for video games. And what is even crazier is the fact that this is running on the Switch at all.

It is exceptional, and not only does it have plenty of stuff to do it also has substance and quality that beautifully works with its great storytelling and gameplay. It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close and it's a good reason to get a Switch if you don't already have one already.

F.I.S.T is a splendidly made metroidvania with great visuals, tight controls, amazing soundtrack and weighty and snappy combat. It has some minor flaws, that hold it back from being a masterpiece but it definitely earns my highest recommendation. While the game falls on the shorter side in comparison some games within its genre it doesn't overstay its welcome and leaves you satisfied, even with a somewhat steep 30 euro asking price.

What F.I.S.T absolutely exceeds in is gameplay - the level design is tight with satisfying shortcuts and easily noticeable paths that require a more thorough look to access while giving little secrets for eagle-eyed players. Combat in F.I.S.T is weighty and snappy, albeit a little too animation forward in its execution (meaning that more advanced combos can be a bit janky to do because the animations don't get outright cancelled by the player at all times without introducing some jank). It is thoroughly satisfying and all the upgrades you receive along the journey to Ray's repertoire get used efficiently and none of them get overshadowed or get left to feel "gimmicky". It strikes just the right balance.

Another highlight in F.I.S.T is its world design, which absolutely floored me. Torch City is an unforgettable place to explore with an amazing diesel punk world where neon signs light up industrial hallways and highly detailed backdrops that are begging to be explored. The entire world is so lively, which is exactly the reason why I'm secretly hoping that this becomes a franchise with a step into the third dimension at some point.

Story is generally well written but nothing special, enough to keep you playing and invested but it won't blow you away. Characters have nice amount of personality to them with charming bits of dialogue. The story starts to lose some steam at the back end of the game though and gwnerally the game is a bit rough around edged (missing sounds, transitions could be smoother, voice acting ranges from good to okay (English), the fast travelling could use few more points to warp to, enemies aggroed me off-screen few times, enemy variety could be increased).

But overall F.I.S.T is a beautiful game. Please support it and give it a try because it 100% deserves it.

Despite its terrible launch state and myriad of baffling gameplay design decisions Pokemon Violet is an undeniably enjoyable experience at its core. It has all the building blocks for a truly fantastic Pokemon experience but it's just not there yet. The characters are great, the traditional Pokemon formula has been brought to the open-world format with varying levels of success (mostly great), music is fantastic and not mention all the three stories are great. Albeit, the lack of voice acting is starting to peak its ugly head more and more noticeable.

It has my solid recommendation, but only when it gets patched to a playable state. Although, people's mileage varies on what "playable" even is, but considering how well documented the issues are it's not especially the beacon of a "finished game" either. Far from it. It is clearly noticeable that the game was rushed to meet TPC's cutthroat deadlines, which hurt not only the overall experience as a whole but technical state the game was left in.