Probably my biggest disappointment of 2023

While Sea of Stars looks great and walking around the levels was fun due to its excellent soundtrack which accompany us across this adventure, that's all there is to it. It felt like one of the most hollow game I've ever played and that's such a shame because on the other hand it's also of the most spectacular pixel art out there.

There's just nothing interesting to find in Sea of Stars in my opinion, the story and characters never clicked at any point with me. The gameplay is empty and tries to keep you engaged with timed inputs during attack and defense but it felt more like something they added to hide the boring combat while it should have been here to add complexity to an already interesting one.

Talking about complexity, if it isn't present during combat maybe atleast we can customize our characters to a certain degree and have fun with it ? Well, not either, you get 2 accessory which adds almost nothing and that's it. Going off the beaten path if there is one (which rarely occurs) will almost never rewards you anything to be happy about and the overall difficulty of the game won't make it necessary to find such items anyway. I played Final Fantasy V a few months before and it's surprisingly sad how that game felt more recent than Sea of Stars on all points. The game was full of hidden items, there are dozens of hours to spend in customizing your characters and the game's difficulty ask you to think about it, if not you'll not be able to progress. I understand that not every game needs to be deep for players to enjoy it but I think they still need to have some spice to stand out among others.

I think that's the actual problem with Sea of Stars, that it tried to emulate the magic of old JRPGs but ultimately failed and more than that, it forsook all the cool things JRPGs has added to spice up the genre.

That's a damn shame because what could have been a great game and homage ended up being a very hollow experience.

Probably one of the best Touhou fangame I've played, so good I would recommend it to anyone, even people unfamiliar with the series.

Overall great gameplay with very few flaws, great artstyle, an interesting story that allowed the developers to make Touhou characters with a completely different personality while still making sense, which was very weird at the beginning but I ended up quite enjoying it by the end.

I also enjoyed how there's multiple ways to play the game, from all the gear we get through this adventure (even if most of these need a rebalance) and 3 different difficulties challenges for people wanting more.

I, myself most of the time play through the end then move on, in this game I had lot of fun going for the 100% and beating every bosses no-hit, which is quite doable for anyone who want to put a bit of effort.

I'd also add that for a fangame, or even a Touhou game in general, this one definitely put a lot of effort in its presentation with very nice cutscenes and deserve praise for it.

Even if the game as of April 2024 can be considered completed, there are still additional updates planned and I'll be sure to play it again.

Fun at its core but so many flaws make it a very barebone experience

This is 2024 and after years of developpment and open/closed betas we're getting a COD-like fps with :

- Fewer weapons than COD 4 (which released in 2007 mind you)
- Fewer game modes
- Fewer maps (1/3 of them are terrible imo)
- Awful netcode with hitmarkers which don't deal any damage and case of dying seconds after getting behind covers because somehow your opponent still see you on their screen

- Almost no unlockable, where are the camouflages ? COD 4 has around 6, here there are 3, bronze, silver and gold. I'm not counting shitty battle pass rewards, also where are the titles, emblems ? Where's the fucking soul of this game ? It's trying to replicate the golden age of call of duty but don't understand what made it cool.

- Very bad balancing with broken abilities, a spider that you just throw out and it will autotrack any ennemy in the map and jump on them, paralyzing them for a good 5s while you can take your time killing them. Ultimate abilities are broken as fuck, not fun to fight against and can make a battle completely one sided as the team winning will get their ultimate first, which result in a complete snowball in many game modes, notably escort and zone controls, in which you'll probably lose without having the time to get your ultimate and then the meter goes back to 0 at next round, neat.

- It's more of a subjective thing but I personally hate the jumpy metagame where everyone just jump around permanently even during duels as it has no downside and make you harder to hit.

To think this is among the best arcade fps I've played among recent years sadden me because holy fuck there's not a single world where I would not trade this to play COD4 again.

To end on a positive note, I think many of these points can be fixed and the game is not as bad as I make it sound but it can be better and I hope it'll get better.

This mod is, for me, the ultimate Elden Ring experience and by consequences, a far better game than the original.

Crafting finally makes sense, exploration is more rewarding, you have a lot more customisable options regarding playstyles with the help of a new mechanic, the fortunes.
Combat is much more fun and interesting with the crouching and crouching cancels attacks... I could go on for hours but Iron Pineapple's video on YT already describes and shows very well how good it is so go watch it and have fun playing this gem of a fanwork.

The only flaw this mod has is that you'll never want to play the base game ever after.