Chrono Trigger’s reputation precedes itself. If you haven’t played Chrono Trigger yourself already, you’ve surely heard tales of its legend. A 30 year old game made in the golden era of RPGs. Back when Square Enix were separated into SquareSoft and Enix. Legendary creators in of themselves. It is no wonder why this game is heralded as one of the best RPGs ever made, if not the best for many. As an RPG lover this was a game that I have been wanting to play but never got around to. I didn’t play many SNES or NES games growing up. My childhood gaming was spent on the N64 and original playstation. It’s been a blindspot for me forever. And now to play the game for the first time, to experience this legendary game for the first time with 29 years of game design between when it originally released to now, it’s astonishing to me that this game not only stood the test of time, but feels incredibly fresh and more modern than some modern RPGs.

TLDR at the end

Modern Sensibilities

Part of this is that it’s filled with modern interpretations that games just recently started incorporating. Things like your entire party getting experience from fights, all fights being on screen or scripted, and I think what really sets the game apart from the rest being the dual techs and how enemies move around and that affecting certain attacks. It’s crazy to see these ideas so early in games when there’s easily 15-20 years until that becomes a modern practice in RPGs. It’s also crazy to see choices impacting the game as well. That’s still not even common in JRPGs as a whole. It’s largely specific styles of RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Mass Effect that heavily employ that. While I don’t think Chrono Trigger has it as in depth as those games, the court scene still blew me away. That mixed with just how each encounter feels so thoughtful. The encounters are quick but a majority of the enemies have mechanics to them and not just higher health values of resistances. And how it organically tells you. Early on in the prehistoric area of the game there’s an enemy type that is resistant to physical attacks, and you only have Crono, Lucca, and Marle. So naturally after the first physical attack doesn’t do much you’d use your newly acquired magic and Crono only has lightning. Then lightning decreases its defense. It’s not even a status effect. It’s just a mechanic of the enemy. Which I found incredibly engaging. The creators were so ahead of their time with so much of the game.

Old Mixed with the New

Not to say there aren't some old school designs or ideas in Chrono Trigger. It is still a product of its time. But I feel these older school design philosophies are feeling fresher again. It’s an old school style JRPG with the overworld map and different areas to visit within said map. There’s old school side mission design with no quest log really, there’s no way points, there’s just NPCs with directions and hints. And I honestly think this is a welcomed change of pace. I think the popularity of Elden Ring and the souls games have brought to the limelight the joys of figuring things out. When the game opened up and provided a variety of side quests I had a lot of fun tracking them down, figuring out when, where and what to do for it. There were just 2 quests I looked up hints for. After looking them up I realized I had already been given the hints in the game but just didn’t register that they were connected to the quests. Which for an SNES title to only have to look up 2 things for just side quests and nothing more was really impressive. Since a lot of the older games tend to have some parts where things just feel obscure. This old school hands off approach feels incredibly refreshing now and I feel is returning to the gaming zeitgeist.

Pacing Perfection

This game on top of feeling so ahead of its time is just masterfully crafted. Chrono Trigger’s pacing is so incredible. Starting at the millennial fair, then quickly getting thrusted into medieval times and stumbling into an apocalyptic future sets up a tone and cadence that just doesn’t slow down or get boring. I think what helps in the pacing is that the game is also shorter compared to a lot of RPGs. This game can easily be finished in 20ish hours in a first playthrough. It took me 30 hours to finish the main game and side quests. Really the only critiques to the pacing could be that the millennial fair takes a little bit to figure out what to do, but it’s largely about exploring the fair. And the end sequence can have just a lot of bosses. But these are more like nitpicks rather than actual critiques. This is one the best paced games I’ve ever played.

Setting, Style, and Vibes

I love sci-fi and time travel settings. I was raised on watching Back to the Future so time travel has always been a favorite science fiction idea of mine. Getting to explore the same few continents and how they chance as eras change is so fun to see and experience. And the vibes and art of each era is so beautiful. And if it wasn’t clear already, the art for this game was done by the legendary Akira Toriyama. (May he rest in peace) It’s honestly incredible how defined his art style in this. It’s not just in the animated scenes and cover art (I played this on steam so I got those, they weren’t in base Chrono Trigger) but it so clearly bleeds into every aspect of the game. The backgrounds, the pixel art. You can really tell upon seeing the fiends, dinosaurs and the final boss. Such beautiful art provides so much life to this game. And possibly even more renowned than the game itself is the game's soundtrack. I heard the chrono trigger soundtrack before seeing the game or playing the game. The iconic soundtrack and vibes of it are unparalleled. From the music in the woods to the music of antiquity. It’s so beautiful and so tranquil. If you haven’t listened to the music of Chrono Trigger I highly recommend checking it out.

TLDR

Chrono Trigger feels so fresh playing it even today which is an incredible feat. This game stands the test of time and it is no wonder why it has inspired so many. This game is simply a treasure and is a must play for anyone but especially any RPG fan. Built by the dream team of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Yuji Horii, and Akira Toriyama. This game’s legacy is well earned and deserved. A masterpiece ahead of it's time.

Let’s get this out of the way. GTFO is a very brutal game. If you are averse to failing in games or don’t have a full squad of 4 to play with I honestly don’t recommend this game at all. This is 100% an acquired taste. That being said, if this is a taste you like then the flavor is exquisite. GTFO is now one of my favorite co-op experiences and I think will go down as an all time favorite for me.

TLDR at the end

What is GTFO

GTFO is a hardcore horror tactical FPS game. You work together to complete missions in the Complex, aka Garganta. These missions are predetermined and not procedurally generated. So these are hand made missions. They’re separated by different numbered Rundowns. Each rundown contains a variety of different missions. Some have more than others and are graded by a letter difficulty. A being the easiest and E being the hardest. The rundowns themselves are numbered and generally the numbers are indicative of what order to start them in. However an A level in say rundown 3 will be easier than R1D1. So it’s not directly the case that all missions on the next rundown are harder than all missions in the previous rundown.

You start each mission in a weapon loadout screen where you can see what all your teammates are bringing. There’s a wide variety of weapons from firearms to melee weapons. Each weapon has its own pros and cons. Some are better for dealing massive damage to tough targets while others are better for clearing our hordes of enemies. Some are quick, some are slow. It really comes down to you and your team bringing what weapons you feel are right for the occasion.

There are also tools which range from a c(ryo) foam launcher, sentry turrets, a bio tracker, and more. All of these tools serve a purpose. Some are more general than others. It’s always a good idea to have 1 sentry and have someone with a biotracker. Those aren’t explicitly necessities but they will 100% help you. There are also artifacts you can collect in runs that give you various bonuses from damage resistance to increased damage dealt.

When you’re all ready you’ll drop down into your run to complete the various missions by trying to stealth around the enemies, scavenging for supplies like medkits, ammo packs and more. When shit inevitably hits the fan that’s when the guns are busted out. The game is all about having a back up plan for your plan. As one mistake that you aren’t ready for can lead to a run ending. One wrong move, one friendly fire incident is all it takes to fuck up run. Which is why I opened up with if you aren’t able to fail at games this game isn’t for you.


Enemies and Hazards

At first the game will seem like there’s not a lot of enemy variety. The game is very slow and intentional about dishing out the new enemies. The main enemy you’ll be seeing are called sleepers. Basically they’re your zombies. They’re scattered across the areas and if you walk fast, shine flashlights or make noise it will alert them. If they wake up they can alert the whole room then you’ve got a fire fight on your hands. Which if you aren’t prepared for can go bad super quick. All the enemies are called sleepers but the primary ones you’ll see are the strikers, which are the melee boys with teeth, shooters, which are the lumpy girls that shoot out projectiles, then there’s the giants. There’s sub categories of giants too. Those are the primary enemies you’ll find in the first few rundowns. There are additional ones but I’ll not spoil the surprise of those enemies. But even then the beginning combination of those is really intense at first. It takes a coordinated team to take down one giant in stealth. And if you kill things too close to each other it can alert others in the room. So it’s a matter of assessing what targets to prioritize and when to team up or spread out to clear out multiple at once.

There are also a variety of hazards in the game. Alarm doors that you need to do scans for while alerting hoards, infection fog that lowers your max health, non stop alarms, and so much more. The game loves throwing new hazards and combinations of enemies at you. All of this factored in with length of missions and many missions are a battle of attrition. In a good way though. The pressure that summounts from being so deep into a run, everyone is low and health and ammo, half of your squad are infected and you’ve got a class 4 alarm to go through to extract is what makes this game so incredible. Using your combined skill and resources to squeak out a win in GTFO is one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in gaming. It truly is one of the most tactical FPS games I’ve ever played. My group and I will spend so much time plotting out what doors to seal, where enemies will come from, where to place sentries and mines and what choke points to hold only to have a plan go to shit and we have to revert to the back up plan of running out of a room or doing our absolute best to survive.

The Difficulty

This brings me to the difficulty of this game. I’ve mentioned it but it's worth reiterating that this game is brutal. I remember seeing a stat that the devs shared on steam saying that there was a failure rate of missions at around 90%. It’s rough but it’s honestly so much fun. And to be 100% honest as long as you are willing to learn, take your time, and are open to trial and error, this game is not as hard as it makes itself out to be. Once me and my group got adjusted in how to play, things were relatively smooth. We’re easily able to clear all A and B levels on the first try. Or at least most. There’s some crazy A3 levels. But I put this part in to say that I think if the game sounds even remotely interesting to you that you should take the risk if you can find a group to play it with. Maybe grab it on a sale despite it being well worth that full price. I think it’s somewhat of a niche game and sometimes $40 is a steep price for a niche game that might make you rage quit. But it’s honestly such an incredible experience.

The Lore

I don’t have the time in the world nor the full knowledge of the lore to explain it or break it down here. But know that the lore is actually really fucking cool. It’s just so dense and truthfully convoluted but in a good way (I love convoluted plots I’m a Metal Gear fan). On the first page of the wiki it drops “According to the ‘Dual Reality Theory’ there are two different worldlines or variants of the story set in parallel universe” and that should be enough to tell you what kind of insane ass scifi horror plot this game has.

Issues

There are some issues with the game that I’ve encountered in my 100+ hours of gameplay. Sometimes enemy detection can be finicky and you’ll be detected by enemies that feel like they were way too far away. There’s some issues with the game crashing from time to time as well. My friend often would have to do hard restarts to fix the crashing upon loading in. There were also some connection issues and some desync issues but they’d generally fix themselves and it was usually due to a blip in internet performance for the host. But overall nothing really that took my enjoyment out of the game. But it’s always worth noting some technical issues. It’s still an easy recommendation but it can depend on your tolerance for that kind of stuff.

TLDR

GTFO is one of my favorite co-op experiences I’ve had in gaming. The strategy and tactics and butt clenching tension of running these missions is unmatched by anything I’ve played and tbh I think anything the market has to offer at the moment. Its atmosphere and lore are top notch and I think if you’ve got a group of friends to play it with and like tactical shooters or scifi horror this is a must play. However do note that the game starts slow and you will fuck up a lot. There’s a reason the game's tagline is “Work together or die together”. I personally say it’s well worth full price but I do always advocate for getting games cheaper when you can. And considering it’s a niche game and you ideally want a full group to play, it’s probably best to recommend waiting for a sale on this game. But it’s so worth it regardless.

SUPERHOT is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!
SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT.

Memes aside this game is fantastic. Short and sweet experience and it really is a cool concept. I'm still playing through all the challenges in the game but it is a joy. A very unique experience that was very addicting. Feels at times like a puzzle solving game and a shooter which I absolutely love. It's got a little bit of a story which subverted my expectations. Overall this game is an easy recommend to anyone in my book.

I’ve been wanting to revisit this game for a while now. I bought the trilogy pack on steam during a sale a few years ago and never jumped on it. I originally played Arkham Asylum back in around 2011 or 2012. I remember it was New Year's Eve when I finished it for the first time. I was amazed and absolutely loved it. And by no means is this a surprise or a hot take. The game is widely renowned as one of, if not the best, superhero games ever made. But it’s been awhile since its release and I had never played any of its sequels. So I wanted to revisit it so I could play those and man what an incredible game this is.Still some of the most fun stealth I’ve played to this day and the game has so many memorable and iconic moments. Rocksteady really have made a timeless masterpiece of a game that’s just as fun to play today as it was when it came out.

TLDR at the end

Premise

I doubt I need to introduce anyone to Batman, nor really this game. This game has a legendary reputation to it. But just for those who may not know, Batman Arkham Asylum is a short but sweet game that combines stealth, exploration, puzzle solving, and brawler style gameplay. Joker is taken into custody by Batman and escorted to Arkham Asylum but that’s just what Joker wanted. Joker had a plan and you go through all of Arkham trying to stop the chaos Joker has sewed. You meet a variety of classic Batman villains along the way when trying to stop Joker. Pretty classic Batman stuff but it has vibes of an ultimate showdown. Most Batman movies only ever focus on one or 2 villains at once. While the comics and shows can tackle the villain of the week vibe they also don’t always have the feel that Arkham Asylum has with so many showing up. And while Joker is the primary villain since you’re in Arkham Asylum itself you meet all sorts of them during the game and it just has such a crazy and hectic vibe to it.

Gameplay

Lightly touched on above, Batman is largely broken into 3 different styles of gameplay. First is a brawler style kind of game where you’ll be in hand to hand fist fights. Batman is equipped with an assortment of fun gadgets to help in this. Baterangs, the BatClaw, explosive gel and more. Some of Batman’s gadgets are more oriented to things like stealth or exploration so I’ll touch on those in a bit. But the combat is so fluid and fun. I admittedly don’t play a whole lot of games like this. My closest game combat wise I can maybe compare this to is Yakuza 0 and even then I think that’s not much of a proper comparison. But with that being said I love the fights in this. Especially once you start getting more of your equipment and they start throwing in harder enemies to fight. Batman has the standard punches, you can counter an enemy attack by grabbing them and essentially blocking that attack, he has a cape attack that briefly stuns enemies. That core toolset mixed with the gadgets is so simple on paper but so compelling while playing.

Second is stealth. And the stealth aspect of the game is so much fun. I actually find it more fun than the parts with the brawling. Some of the enemies you face in the game have guns. And they’re incredibly lethal. So instead of beating the shit out of a crowd you need to sneak around and pick off enemies one by one. These are usually done in pretty large open rooms with a fair amount of multiple paths. Either through vents, destructible walls or gargoyle statues that you can hook shot to so that you can lurk above all the baddies. A lot of times stealth sections of games you’re often made weaker, have to avoid stronger enemies. While the 2nd part of that is true, you aren’t weakened. The game makes you feel like a predator in the night. Stalking prey as they look around for you. And the way the AI interacts to you picking people off one by one plays into that. People will freak out and start acting more panicked. Or there will be groups of enemies that try to work together more effectively. Towards the end of the game I remember after I picked off a few one of the inmates called for help and the other ones said “No way man, you’re on your own” and didn’t follow him but in that same section (I had to restart because I fucked it up) that time he had called for help and there was a 3 man unit walking around watching each others backs. That’s such incredible attention to detail and it really helps sell the inmates paranoia and anxiety while they’re being picked off one by one.

Lastly, the final part of Batman is exploration and puzzle solving. The puzzle solving is generally pretty light and is interwoven with the exploration. You’ll need to look around for areas to grapple to or you’ll need to come back with a gadget you get later in the game. Which is really fun. I initially found it kind of frustrating though since I was seeing Riddler trophies (some of the collectibles that give you experience) through walls with the bat detective vision but I couldn’t figure out how to get to it. I was spending a lil extra time looking around when it was a situation of I just didn’t have the right tool yet. But that’s mostly a nitpick and I got over it once I realized what was happening. But the exploration is really fun. You have the classic grapple shot, you have what’s essentially a pocket zipline as well later in the game, and what can kind of be described as an electronic lock pick. It’s called something else but that’s basically what it is. You can also glide around with the cape. Finding secrets and sneaking around to new areas is really fun. There’s also detective aspects but I find that to mostly be flavoring and less gameplay. Because its largely just scan an object and follow the trace of that object with the special bat vision. It’s a fun set dressing but it’s not much of a gameplay mechanic in the same way as exploring, stealth or combat is.

Iconic Moments (Spoilers)

The game is also filled with so many memorable and iconic moments for me. Just the site and design of Arkham Asylum and the views of the Gotham Cityscape alone are great but there’s 2 specific moments in the game that stuck out to me. Those being the parts with Scarecrow and the parts with Killer Croc. Despite it being over a decade of me not playing the game I remembered those parts almost as clear as day. I obviously didn’t remember them exactly but I remember them being crazy ass moments of the game that were absolute highlights. And revisiting the game they absolutely hold up and were still as incredible as I remember.

First Scarecrow. The scarecrow parts are so fucking cool. I love when games get fucky with the 4th wall that way. Metal Gear Solid 2 and Inscryption are others that come to mind. Where they fuck with the rules of the game in very specific way. Scarecrow being able to basically distort the world you’re in, turning the action combat game into almost a horror game sometimes. There’s some tense and scary moments. I also love how towards the end it acts like the game crashes. You fail and get a game over screen only to be taken to a different part. This is such an underrated way to create games. I love things like this and I think more games should embrace the ability to interact with you on that level.

Second is Killer Croc. Holy shit the Killer Croc sequence at the end is intense and scary. Basically being hunted by killer croc having to walk over wood pallets in the sewer and be quiet about it. The sequence is actually kind of easy but man the way they set it up is so stressful and wonderful. It’s such a cool sequence to the game. And the final run away where croc is chasing you down for the sewer and you need to trap him. It’s just such a good sequence.

The Performances

I haven’t really commented on performances before but I feel like i’d be doing a disservice to not mention the performance of the legendary voice actors on display. Mark Hamhill as the Joker does such a good job. I’ve always loved him as the Joker. I think he does the absolute best take on the joker. And he’s adapted it so well from the kid friendly version of the Batman TV shows to the violent and darker version present in this. Kevin Conroy also does phenomenal as Batman. May he rest in peace. He too was the TV show version of Batman for the longest time. And his last performance will be in the new Suicide Squad game. Just the entire cast is so good and it’s so many recognizable childhood voice actors from the Batman TV shows. I also saw that Steve Blum played Killer Croc in this and damn man just being voiced by Steve Blum makes the character guaranteed to be fucking cool.

The Issues

Despite me saying the game is a masterpiece I do have a few issues to call out. A game can be a masterpiece but also have flaws. Most of this game's flaws just come from it being older. Nothing performance wise. But cutscenes seem a lil fuzzy. They look distinctly worse for me while playing than the gameplay did. I think it may be some kind of rendering that maybe didn’t get properly scaled up or updated. But it also doesn’t look bad. The cutscenes still look great. Just noticeably different and worse than the game. This next one is a minor issue but I feel like it’s worth calling out. But I feel like the design for Harley Quinn in this game is just oddly horny. Same can be said with Poison Ivy but Poison Ivy’s character fits a lil better with that. Since she’s also kind of like a siren and hypnotizes men. I just found it a lil weird with how many panty shots we got of Harley Quinn. Which to many this won’t matter and ultimately it doesn’t dock the game any points for me in the long run but just worth noting. Again a very of the era for video games issue. The last issue is that the final boss fight with Joker is a lil on the uninspired side. Considering all the other villains had great unique fights and then Joker kind of just becomes an extra large titan grunt. I think this again is a very of the era vibe where people were like “we need to have a big bad boss fight at the end” It’s not like it’s not fun or anything like that and again doesn’t really hamper how wonderful and awesome this game is but it does feel a tad out of place compared to some of the other fights.

TLDR

Batman Arkham Asylum is still an amazing game. I think it truly earns its spot as a true classic and also the epitome of what a superhero game can be. And this game I think is simply a must play for everyone but certainly for any Batman fan out there. I can not wait to check out the sequels as I’ve heard they only improve upon what Arkham Asylum was. Rocksteady were truly ahead of their time with this game. I’m glad I revisited this game as it’s truly a masterpiece.

Eastward is a game that I desperately wanted to like. The pixel art and artstyle of the game is unmatched and I was blown away when I first saw it on a Nintendo Indie direct. However I’ve attempted to play this game multiple times and I just have not been able to finish it. I started it closer to its original release in 2021 but dropped it. Partially due to not feeling the game but also partially due other games pulling me away from it. I started it again this year and the same exact thing happened. This time I was playing it on my steam deck to hopefully help me get through it but it simply just wasn’t pulling me in. Then along comes Tears of the Kingdom and Baldur’s Gate 3 and 400 hours of playing games later I still have no real desire to come back to it. I think this game has the potential to be someone’s favorite game. There’s a lot here to love but nothing fully clicks for me like I felt like it should.

TLDR at the end

What Is Eastward

Eastward is an indie game made by developer Pixpil. It’s largely inspired by both 2D Zelda games and Earthbound with some old school JRPG mixed in with it. I think this could be a major reason I don’t connect with it. As I haven’t played any of its major inspirations. I’ve never played a 2D Zelda and have not touched an Earthbound game. Without having played any of its major inspirations I’m unsure of how the game itself holds up to those. With the Earthbound inspiration it is mostly just the vibes and world of the game that are more like that. The game largely plays like a 2D Zelda. You get various items and weapons to help you solve puzzles and fight off various enemies. You also have items that are effectively heart containers and they essentially took the cooking system from Breath of the Wild (which is not a bad thing I love that cooking system). The game also operates with a dual protagonist system. That functions similarly to how the Mario and Luigi games work where you can control both John (your silent protagonist with a frying pan) and Sam (a cute little magical girl with a mysterious backstory). You can switch which one is in front or you can separate them to solve puzzles.

There’s also a whole other sub game in the game called Earthborn. It’s a game that is essentially a roguelike version of the old dragon quest games. The main character even kind of resembles the dragon quest artstyle. Which I’m sure is intentional. I played that for quite a bit on my original playthrough but I barely touched it on my revisit on the game this year. It is not by any means necessary for completing the game but I have heard that beating Earthborn in game does help contextualize the game as a whole. Which is a really interesting take on the idea of a true ending.

The Vibes

The vibes and artstyle of this game are really something else. I love looking at this game and the way the world looks and also the wonderful pixel art. Pixpil have done an outstanding job with the visual design of all the characters, the environments, the creatures and more. I truly can’t emphasize enough how much I love the way this game looks. It’s got a really cool and uplifting take on post apocalyptic. It’s so delightful and colorful. There are even creepy and bizarre moments in the game. One of the best creature designs I saw was one of the first bosses that’s rushing down John and Sam.

The boss design

I will say that in the aspect of vibes, what lacks a little is the music. The music that is in the game is actually really good but there’s not too much variety. A lot of the music is re-used, which of course is fine but I think a lil more variety in the music would’ve been nice. Which could very well be a result of me not getting far enough in the game. As I look up the soundtrack writing this there are 72 different tracks in the game. Which is actually quite impressive for an indie. So while it technically isn’t true I feel a little disconnected with what I’ve heard in game.

Story

As mentioned above, I did not finish the game. I usually like to try and finish a game before reviewing it. But sometimes a game doesn’t hit you right and I do feel like it’s a valid experience to write about if you did not mesh with it and did not finish it. It’s worth noting that I have 21 hours on record for the game. The average time for it on How Long to Beat is 20 hours. So I probably got about half way each time I played. I open this section with this just to let everyone know that I didn’t finish the story. There could be a huge plot reveal that makes it all worth it. And maybe I put it down right before it started to really real me in. Which does happen.

But the story of Eastward isn’t exactly a unique one. But it’s interesting and a good set up and the interest of the story largely comes from the uniqueness of the setting. It’s that of a single silent protagonist who’s a gruff looking man (maybe in their 30s-40s) who works in a mining post in this underground city. It opens up with Sam already being with John but it seems that John had found the girl. The girl has some sort of mysterious power and claims to have seen the surface. Which everyone in Potcrock Isle thinks is uninhabitable due to a deadly miasma. This turns out only to be partially true. There is a deadly miasma but it’s not everywhere. There’s pockets where people live. There is some sort of secret with Sam. There’s occasionally cutscenes where time freezes and she sees a red version of herself who is talking to her. And she has the power to travel during the frozen time. So when time unfreezes she’ll often have left. This is a mechanic explored in a lot of the puzzles with her and John being separated. She seems connected to the miasma somehow but I have never gotten far enough to see how.

The Issues

Here is where I end the praises of this game. I have a few main issues with the game. I think first and foremost is the pacing of the game. The pacing feels really slow when it doesn’t need to be. And since the story isn’t super interesting or unique there’s only so much the environment and world can do to combat poor pacing. There’s times when playing an hour that it feels like it’s very minimal gameplay and it’s a lot of talking. Which ordinarily with my love of RPGs I don’t mind but the story just doesn’t grip me the way I’d want it to to be able to sit there for an hour or so without playing. It especially feels bad once you get to New Dam City. To add to the poor pacing, the game likes to throw a lot of mini games at you. I'm never much of a fan of mandatory mini games in games. Even games with non mandatory mini games I rarely partake in them unless I’m really feeling it. And this game likes to use them a lot. My other main issue with the game is that it kind of just feels hard to play. I’m not well versed in the 2D Zelda style gameplay. So it very well could be a skill issue moment for me. And I accept that. But something about how it plays just feels a lil clunky to me. Not having much experience in the genre I don’t have much of a frame of reference of how it should feel.

TLDR

The game isn’t horrible and I think there’s plenty here that a lot of people will enjoy but ultimately the game just doesn’t do it for me. And that’s fine. I’m disappointed because the game is beautiful and I really wanted to love it. But after trying to play it twice and encountering the same issues and snags both times I figured it’s time to let myself drop the game. Since I didn’t finish it, it’s very possible the game could’ve grabbed at some point and I wouldn’t have been able to put it down. If none of the issues I wrote above bother you and you’re still interested I would recommend picking the game up and giving it a try but it just wasn’t a game for me in the end.

I usually try to finish the games I write reviews on and I think this is the first one that I’ve written where I haven’t. But I think it’s a good practice to write out my thoughts and feelings on games that don’t necessarily mesh with. Even if it’s not a scathing or super negative review.

Such an incredible game. I’m really in awe and unsure how to really write a proper review of this game. To this date this is the largest and longest game I’ve written a review on. I spent a total of 180 hours on this game, subtracting 10 hours from that for a 2nd character I had started and it took me around 170 to beat. I really took my time with this game and loved every moment of it. There were some ups and some downs. But it was such a great time. All the characters are so excellently voiced and written. The amount of writing and voice acting in this game is astounding. The amount of effort and time that must have gone into making this is staggering. Given that the end credits took me about 30 minutes to go through as well.

I wanted to start off by addressing the issues the game has. There aren’t many and they are mostly performance issues. This game is very taxing on the hardware. They’ve been optimizing it more and more and it has significantly improved since launch. But do know that it’s still not perfect. Especially come act 3. Act 3 is where a lot of the performance issues occur. Nothing that makes it unplayable but it’s certainly enough to give some frustrations. And I feel I’m fairly tolerant of performance issues. So your mileage may vary based on your own level of tolerance.

Still with all that I think this is a special game and will be referenced and replayed for many many years. I have so many hours and it was 1 playthrough. I’ve got a 2nd character and now I plan to start another playthrough. I rarely replay games. And when I do it’s usually at least a few years down the line. Baldur’s Gate 3 just has an aura of irresistibility that despite nearly 200 hours in it I’m ready to go right back in.

I think I’ll do this review a little differently and leave it brief. If you’re a fan of RPGs, D&D, and games with choice and consequences do yourself a favor and just grab yourself this game. Larian has outdone themselves and this will likely be game of the year 2023. It certainly is for me. May Selûne light your path to Baldur’s Gate

Deep Rock Galactic is one of those games that I truly feel like I’ll be playing forever. As long as I have a friend who’s wanting to rock and stone, they’ll have my pickaxe by their side! It’s a wonderful game with friends and might be one of the quintessential games for a Left 4 Dead lover like myself!

TLDR at the end

What is Deep Rock

As hinted above Deep R(C)ock Galactic is a game similar to L4D. It’s a co-op first person shooter where you are fighting hordes of enemies. Instead of zombies and horror themes though, the game is about 4 dwarves mining minerals out of a planet for the titular Deep Rock Galactic company. And instead of set campaigns and zombies you have caves that are all procedurally generated and a bunch of angry bugs. Mission objectives are determined by what mission you select but all secondary objectives are randomized. The mission objectives vary wildly from just going through and mining Morkite, which is a specific mineral, to liquid refinery missions where you build pipes and have to defend them to escorting a huge drill bulldozer that will have what is effectively a boss fight at the end and much much more than that. Between each mission you’re returned to the home base where you can edit loadouts, drink some beer, or play the real game, Jetty Boot.

Classes

There are 4 different classes you get to choose from when playing. You have the Engineer (my personal favorite), the Driller (my next favorite), Scout and Gunner(Who I haven’t even touched). All 4 of these classes play differently and all have their strengths and weaknesses. The scout is useful for lighting up dark caves and zipping around with their hookshot to gather minerals that’d be a much larger pain for other classes to get, the driller is able to drill through terrain and create tunnels and shortcuts to areas and direct paths to extraction. Engineers can place sentry guns and have a platform gun to create terrain where it is needed. Gunners have high DPS and can create a zipline everyone can ride for navigating areas. They all have their functions and might honestly be the 4 most interconnected classes in any game I’ve seen. When you have a team of 1 of each it truly feels like everyone else can cover the weakness of the other and people then have assigned jobs. What’s wonderful is that on top of that you can customize your loadouts. You can unlock so many things in this game. Weapons, cosmetics, power ups, perks. The game has so much customization and progression it truly feels endless and you can play whatever class how you would like.

Progression

This game proves that the idea of a battle pass can be fun as long as it’s not monetized into the ground. Deep Rock, almost at first glance, has all the signs of a monetized hellscape of a game. The game has so many different resources and currencies, seasonal battle passes which allow you to unlock cosmetics and resources, contracts which allow you to unlock additional features of the game. But it’s not monetized to hell and back. The game once you buy it is all completely free. They do sell some skins as DLC but that’s it. This game single handedly proves that the idea of a battlepass, since that’s how the seasonal events are structured, can be incredibly fun. It’s just fun to be able to progress and unlock things all the time and be able to choose what and how you unlock the stuff. What’s not fun about this battlepass structure is how it is normally horribly monetized and the free battlepasses just serve as a general slap in the face and temptation to lure you into the premium ones. This game doesn’t do that and it’s so fun and addicting. Besides the battlepass structure of the seasonal events you have contracts which will have you take specific missions and once you finish all the missions in a contract you will be rewarded with something. Oftentimes it can be a weapon for your class, it’s a promotion for your class since you hit max level on one, it can be for the story event or holiday event. There’s contracts for tons of things and it’s incredibly addicting to run through them. I’ll often just want to sit there and power through some contacts. Especially since I still have so much to do. This game is over flowing with things to do and in a good way. There’s so much to do and unlock. I’ve sunk 60 hours into this game and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what there is to do. 60 hours I will say is nothing compared to what I’ve seen people plug into this game. I have friends who have upwards of 500 hours in this game.

Story/Lore

This section won’t be very long but I wanted to add it. The game is not much of a story game but there is some story and lore. I have not dug into the story or lore of this game much as it’s not much of the game's focus. It’s there for people who want to learn more but it’s not something I’m familiar with really at all.

TLDR

Deep Rock Galactic is a wonderful game. The devs should be proud of themselves and I look forward to their next game which is Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core. They also have a vampire survivors style game but I’ve not checked that out as I’ve yet to catch the Vampire Survivors fever. But this game is certainly a go to co-op game with the buds. A night of Deep Rock is always a good night and I’ve had some nights where it’s just hanging out and cry laughing with the boys. It’s definitely one of the best horde shooters on the market and if you are a fan of that genre, or just looking for a good time with friends, Deep Rock Galactic won’t let you down.

Also worth noting it is playable in single player. I don’t think it’s as enjoyable but it is an option. Still very worth it if that is your preferred way of playing but not the ideal or best way to play.

Exoprimal is kind of a weird game. It’s the latest game from Capcom and they had revealed it awhile ago and it seemed almost universally panned from the get go. Hearing it’s a PvP game and it also just not being Dino Crisis I think a lot of people just reflexively deemed it to be trash upon seeing it. I was actually excited for this game since it looked like such a cool hash up of a lot of games I love. And I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed!

TLDR at the end

What is Exoprimal?

Exoprimal is an absolutely absurd and fantastic game. There’s so many different things going on at once that it’s not easily explained. It’s a co-op horde shooter akin to something like Left 4 Dead but you have hero shooter style characters where they all have different kits and abilities while also simultaneously being a PvP race to the finish against another team where the team can invade you or do various things to slow down your progress. Then at the end of the mission you either enter a specific PvEvP area where you and the enemy team duke it out trying to complete various objects alongside hoards of dinosaurs, a more intense PvE race to the finish or a 10 player co-op raid style missions with boss fights. And I fucking love every single piece of this game. This combines some of my favorite genres into one. I love co-op hoard shooters like L4D2, hero shooters like Overwatch and Battleborn (R.I.P. Battleborn) and I love weird PvEvP experiences like Destiny’s Gambit or Gigantic, although I didn’t play Destiny much, what I did play was focused around Gambit. I think the love stems from how much League of Legends I played when I was younger and I love seeing Moba mechanics or ideas added to other genres. Especially shooters!

Now I don’t think this game is for everyone. I think there’s elements of this game that everyone can enjoy, but I think the collective package is going to hit everyone differently. Which seems to be the sentiment among Steam reviews and actual reviews I’ve seen. But I come here today as a lover of weird PvEvP games such as Battleborn, Gigantic and Gambit. I come here with a love of horde shooters like Left 4 Dead 2, Vermintide, Deep Rock and more. I come here with a love of the Moba formula from my history of League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm. And this game is absolutely what I wanted and honestly more.

Gameplay

At its core the game is a 5v5 race to complete various objectives assigned to you in that match. There’s a pretty decent variety of objectives ranging from killing all the dinosaurs summoned, protecting specific zones, capturing points and more. What’s a little strange is that when you first start out playing you’re actually pretty limited to the various objectives you get in the matches. Objectives are locked behind story progression which is a cool idea in theory and does allow for things to get introduced at a nice pace, if it was paced out correctly. I’ll get into that more later though. Generally the objective race is finished with some sort of capstone objective which is likely fighting stronger dinosaurs or there’s special events like the Raptor Cascade. Where it gets very cinematic and thousands upon thousands of raptors are spawned in. There’s quite a few different ones like this but the Raptor Cascade is by far my favorite.

Raptor Cascade

Then after that you’re teleported to a PvP zone (or it can be extended PvE race) which is where I think this game really shines. That’s when things get the most chaotic. Depending on how much better you were doing than the enemy team you can get a pretty substantial head start in the PvP area. Much like the objectives during the race, there’s different ones you can get at the end like a payload escort, capture points, and more. But these are also locked behind story progression. And for the start of the game you primarily are getting data cube escorts. During the final event teams will get these things called Dominators, which allow you to invade and attack the enemy team as a dinosaur. What you get for invading depends on how far ahead or behind you are to the enemy team. Generally if you’re really behind you’ll get rewarded with a T. Rex, otherwise you could get a Triceratops or a Carnotaurus which seems to be the lowest tier of the invading dinosaurs. But I personally prefer the Carnotaurus over the Triceratops but I think it’s because the Triceratops is a little harder to use. The dominator is really fun and is a really cool comeback mechanic to the game which I think is needed, because otherwise it can be a total stomp if you have no way to slow down the enemy. There’s another comeback mechanic too! This one is called the Neo Trigger Saur. The game summons a gold dinosaur that you can kill, and then from there it grades you on how fast you’re killing dinosaurs and will cause an upgraded dinosaur threat to the enemy team. It’s a really cool mechanic in my eyes. Generally that’s how a match will play out. There’s some story missions that are really cool and will always play out the same, as in the same events but those events are so fucking badass. All of this together creates such a crazy chaotic blend of action that is so cool that I can’t help but to smile while playing this game. And the amount of dinosaurs you get swarmed with can be quite terrifying. Some matches spawn in a Stegosaurus, a T. Rex and a Carnotaurus along with the thousands of raptors getting spawned in and it can become extreme chaos. It’s also important to note that if you ever completely wipe in an event it will reset the event. But if just one person goes down you can either wait for the respawn timer or someone can pick you up.

Classes

In the game you have access to a total of 10 playable Exosuits (7 when you first start), which is what the game calls its different classes/characters you can play. These classes are separated by DPS, Tank and Support. Much like a hero shooter. There’s no role enforcement of any kind and there’s no restrictions to what one person can be in a match. Which is a blessing and a curse. I generally like having the freedom to create whatever composition I want with my teammates but at the same time it’s frustrating when the team is 3 tanks and 2 DPS with no healer. That happened occasionally and it was very frustrating, but for the most part a lot of people seemed to understand the general roles that were needed. What’s nice, is that if you go into a match with an Exofighter but you want to change to say a healer since you don’t have one, you can. You can change characters anytime during a match. You’ll exit your current suit and be just a person running around with a weak assault rifle. If you do it during the down time between objectives it is an instant change but if you do it while an objective is going you’ll have to wait for a cooldown. This is nice to be able to change on the fly and to any role and to be able to have duplicates of any role. Every Exosuit comes with its own set of abilities. I think universally every character has 1 movement ability while the others can vary from damage abilities, blocking abilities, crowd control and more. Every character also has an ult much like your standard hero shooter. What’s nice is if you swap between characters mid match though you actually retain your ult charge.

I personally found that all the Exosuits were really fun to play, some fit my playstyle more than others, but every role had at least 1 suit I loved. I won’t go over every single one but I just want to highlight some of my favorites. My personal favorites were Deadeye, Barrage, Krieger, and Skywave. Which I think my personal favorites being half the available roster is a testament to how fun the various classes are.

Customization and Progression

The fun doesn’t just end with the various exosuits. Every Exosuit has its own progression system where you level up and you can unlock modules for them. The modules range from general buffs like adding more base health, faster ult charge, some knockback resistance and more. While others are character specific and usually alter the way a character’s ability operates to some degree. Some are more impactful than others. There were definitely a few modules that I don’t even think I bothered looking at in my time playing. But the character progression system they have in place I think feels really good. I think in 90% of my matches my account level leveled up, whatever suit I was using their level went up and I was constantly getting something.

As some may already know, the game is a live service so it having all sorts of progression systems should be no surprise. And I will address concerns I have about that later but I think overall the game is very generous with its progression and nothing ever felt like a grind to me while playing. As a matter of fact I unlocked things pretty instantly when available.

Story

I think for me the most surprising thing about this game was the story. It’s by no means a great story that can stand next to the narrative giants of the industry. But it’s that capcom camp and dialed to 100. It’s such a good, stupid, schlocky science fiction story involving AI, Mechs, Multiple Dimensions, Time Travel, Dinosaurs, AI artificially created Dinosaurs, corporations being bad and greedy. Basically it’s got almost every single science fiction trope all wrapped up in one package and it just works. Plus the way they have the characters written and voiced they just crack me up and are all very personable. I actually burst out laughing a few times playing this game and watching the cutscenes. I won’t really spoil the details of the story past here since I unironically think it’s worthwhile to see for yourself. Primarily only if you like schlocky sci-fi action plots. It’s campolicious.

Issues and Concerns

While this review has mostly been glowing, I do have concerns about this game. As I’ve noted, the game is a live service. Which means it has monetization outside of just buying the game. And any game that wants to sell itself for $60 up front and then also ask for more money afterwards always rubs me the wrong way. I do believe that since I played this on Xbox Games Pass on PC that it didn’t bother me as much as it could have though. I imagine if I did actually drop the $60 for it, it would’ve been a lot more upsetting. That being said, the monetization isn’t the worst. It’s actually fairly decent. There’s a battle pass that you can buy and then there’s shop only skins. Which at the moment that’s really it. The game does have an in-game currency but from what I can tell you can’t buy it with actual money, so there’s no power buy there. The game does also have loot boxes, but again there isn’t any way to buy them at the moment. I could see the game allowing for either to happen down the line. I hate to be skeptical about that when I love the game so much but that’s just the nature of a live service title. I will say the one monetization thing that does bother me is that you can buy the 3 locked classes with money, and it’s one of the first pop ups in the game. Upon launching the game I was immediately put off by that. But as I noted earlier, nothing ever really felt like a grind, unless you’re craving to play as these characters I got to them pretty quickly and always had the “BikCoin” (name of the in game currency) to buy it.

I’m also worried about the longevity of this game. Based on the steam charts and reviews, not a lot of people bought this. I assume the overwhelming amount of people that played this are playing off of games pass. Which makes sense because I very rarely saw someone with the Capcom ID logo by their name and not the Xbox symbol. And I never saw a Sony symbol. I’m not sure if that exists or if they are also just a Capcom symbol. But we all have seen the graveyard of live services over the last few years. Live service after live service going offline. I’m worried this game won’t get the traction it needs to survive being a live service. And part of the concern comes from my lack of desire to play it now that I’ve “finished” it. After I finished the story I admittedly haven’t played it much. I do still enjoy it but nothing is pulling me back to it now. And with a ton of other games in my library and on the horizon I’m worried this game will just slowly die out. Especially since someone who’s as enthusiastic about it as me has stopped playing it. We’ll see if Capcom keeps up with the support of the game. Would be sad to see them have a blemish on their recent record of bangers.

TLDR

Exoprimal is such a fun, insane, intense and goofy time. The story surprised me with how much I liked it. This game has a lot of fun to offer but I think the pitch of this for $60 for a live service game that already hasn’t gotten much traction is a tough sale. I think the game alone without the baggage of live service might be a tough sale at $60. But if you have Xbox games pass and some friends I 100% recommend you guys download this and play the fuck out of it because god damn it goes hard.

Also Casey Edwards of DMC5 fame did a song for it. And it’s a banger.

Exohuman by Casey Edwards

I grew up playing the first 2 Borderlands games. I absolutely love them. I have nearly 200 hours in the original and nearly 500 in Borderlands 2. I’ve recently gotten a group of friends together and we’re going through the entirety of the Borderlands series starting with the first one. We recently beat it and let me tell you, nostalgia can only do so much. While I actually did have a blast playing this game with my friends, it’s mostly due to the friend group and my nostalgia for this series.

TLDR at the end

The Issues

Despite brandishing the name “Enhanced edition” the game still has plenty of issues. All of us experienced framerate issues, connection issues, and just overall jank. There’d be times where one of us had to restart due to us loading into a new area and our frames would just tank into oblivion. Other times it’s just the longer the session the more likely the framerate would start to drop. I’m unsure why. There is also a latency bug with the game that thankfully there was a steam forums about. The bug being that even if you all mute and disable microphones, it’s still transmitting your mics, or registering it somehow and that causes unbearable lag. You have to go into a file to manually disable the voice chat completely to fix this issue. The steam forum for better understanding of the issue if you find yourself reading this while having issues playing the game.

Steam forum fix for co-op latency issue

Those were the most consistent technical issues. However my brother in law (one of the people I played with and who I played these games with when I was younger) was having issues with just the sound playing for the game. Unfortunately I don’t remember the cause or how he resolved that issue since that happened when we started and he found a fix himself.

Some various not as common bugs included items falling through maps. Some items stats disappearing and reducing to level 0 (displayed with having no level) when dropped. Characters occasionally t-posing and more.

This doesn’t even really touch on just the game itself. The game itself definitely feels a little crusty to play nowadays. The gunplay feels very stiff and inaccurate, the base weapon sway, especially for snipers, is ridiculous, the loot drops were wildly bad. We would get items that were nearly 10-15 levels below our current level dropped sometimes and if you dared try an encounter even just 1 level above you, you’d get rolled. Now I remember that last one from playing Borderlands 1 back in the day, but I never remember the loot being so bad. I’m not sure if they changed that or not. Memory is hazy since I played Borderlands 1 around release and never went back after Borderlands 2 released. The car physics are also bad but in my opinion they’re so bad that they circle back to being good. But unless you’re like me and my group and you find your car clipping a rock and it going flying or crashing into each other and getting the cars stuck fun then you’ll probably not enjoy it. But to me honestly the car physics are a plus.

Onto the good

Despite all that, I had an absolute blast revisiting it. Borderlands 1 is really interesting to revisit after so long because it hadn’t really found its identity fully. A lot of the humor, while I wouldn’t exactly call it subtle by normal means, was very subtle compared to the other games in the series. It hadn’t really turned into the memey mess that Borderlands has become. And depending on who you ask that can be a good or a bad thing. But it does become more fully fleshed out the longer you play and especially in the DLCs. I will also say that I think the original Borderlands has some of my favorite DLCs. We didn’t actually play them all this time so I can’t fully speak to them but General Knoxx has my favorite loot room of all the DLCs I’ve played, the Ned’s zombie DLC is very fun and goofy. The claptrap revolution DLC is super funny considering every enemy “becomes” a claptrap and the Mad Moxie DLC is a very fun arena DLC. We only revisited the zombie DLC however, as when we beat the final boss everyone kind of agreed that we’d just like to move onto Borderlands 2. Which can’t really fault anyone for that.

There are also some really cool parts in the base game. One of my favorite parts and one of the first times I’ve ever seen a scene like this in a game (I know it’s not the first to do something like this) but when the Guardians are fighting the Crimson Lance at the final push of the game. Those final areas feel really fun and hectic and it’s really cool to experience what is essentially a 3 way fight between you, the lance and the guardians. Again not the first game to ever have a scene like this but I believe it was my first time experiencing one in a game and it has just left a mark on me.

Final Thoughts

With all that being said, I’m not really sure I can recommend this game. Really playing Borderlands 2 no matter what way you look at it will be a much better time. Better gunplay, better skill trees, better story, more customization, really finds its stride with comedy despite it becoming more memey, and better archetypes with the gun companies. The gun companies in the first one more so just felt like different stats. I think the biggest differences you could feel were like the Jacobs and Maliwan guns. Jacobs because they would do ridiculous damage as their slogan was 1 shot 1 kill. Maliwan because they were always elemental and had high elemental effects. In Borderlands 2 all the gun companies have dramatic differences and make them feel that much more unique and zany. Even starting with Borderlands 2 you won’t lose out on any story. Most of what happens in Borderlands 1 is either explained or just some background lore that doesn’t really matter. I don’t really see any reason you’d choose to play Borderlands 1 over Borderlands 2. Unless you have extreme nostalgia for Borderlands 1 and didn’t like 2 for whatever reason. Especially with all the technical issues. Which honestly really is a shame because like I said from the start, I do love this game and I did have a good time.

TLDR

I had a fun time but I’m nostalgic for this game, if you have no nostalgia for this game I would not recommend you play this and would suggest you start at Borderlands 2.

I really enjoyed my time with Tales of Arise. It took me 76 hours to beat the game as a whole before doing any post game stuff with doing most side quests and I now sit at 88 hours after doing most of the post game stuff. There's some I didn't do like getting characters to max level and stuff because that just seemed like a grind. But I did do all the fishing!

Overall I really recommend this game. This was a fantastic game. It's not without it's faults. The pacing between story beats can be slow sometimes, there was certain plot points that just left me with a "Why did you just do that" feeling, and then some of the characters are a little tropey. But I think overall the package is really great. I will say that there were certain spots in the game where I considered putting it down but I pushed through those parts and I'm really glad I did.

The combat is fantastic and addicting, there was never a time I dodged out of combat other than maybe to conserve healing/restorative items while dungeoning. It was also extremely customizable. Not necessarily in terms of weapons but in terms of the artes you get. The weapons I will say left a lil more to be desired because it was always just raw stat boosts. Not necessarily bad, completely serviceable for what else is there but it is worth noting. But you also get this experience with every character in the party. You can play and customize everyone and they all play dramatically different. I spent most of my time playing as Alphen just because I felt the most comfortable with him but I can see people spending their entire playthrough playing as all of these characters depending on what you like. Especially Dohalim or Law.

The characters while I mentioned were tropey I grew to absolutely love. Tales games are usually renowned for their good characters, while only playing this one and Tales of Symphonia I can say that so far in my experience this is true. I don't think I like some of the characters as much as some from Symphonia but I do love all their interactions together and towards the end it really felt like they were a super cohesive family/friend group. It was fun seeing their interactions. And seeing all the skits. Although the skits are dispersed a little unevenly. There will be times where I get 3 or 4 skits at a time. I was compelled to watch them when I saw them, but there was a lot at once sometimes.

I won't touch too much on the story or give any spoilers but it starts out really strong and intense and then can kind of peter out towards the middle of the first act. The act then ends strongly though and I was pretty much hooked afterwards. I will say the 2nd act I can see being very hit or miss for people. It very much has that JRPG off the rails vibe to it, but it had been awhile since I played a JRPG that kind of got that crazy that I actually really liked it. I think I also genuinely enjoy that trope in JRPGs as well.

But if you're looking for a JRPG with really fun action combat, almost akin to a character action game like Metal Gear Rising (only one I have a frame of reference on, not an exact comparison) that's also super customizable, learning and meeting new characters and seeing their interactions and bonding with them, also doing goofy things like dressing them in bunny pig gloves or if you just really love shonen anime then I totally recommend this game. Because this game essentially feels like playing a Shonen anime.

I look forward to checking out more Tales games.