Retro
A twin-stick shooter 2D Zelda. I really liked how you can downgrade to change up your stats, and showing your boost on the ship is cool. One of the bosses had like 7 phases and it was pretty funny.
2023
I get that sometimes you can't let people just shortcut their way through everything, especially in platforming areas, but come on, this is crazy in your only open zone. It is a bit underwhelming how short it is, especially when you see what they do with their only zone, but the other levels were some of the best parts imo. I could have done without the dialogue or light combat though.
A bit of a letdown really. It feels like they just extended 16 by a few hours with its own similar sidequests, an okay eikon battle, and just generally easy even in FF mode. I had hopes they would fix some issues and was looking forward to their endgame dungeon, whatever you want to call it. It's just 20 waves, with 15 of them feeling way too similar and the rest just repeating one phase of past bosses. Even the secret boss is just a repeat with a couple of new moves. I genuinely think this hurts my perception of the game. I didn't really think all the new Eikon abilities were great, but a couple were fun to use.
This review contains spoilers
This game is fucking huge.
There are so many minigames and activities, and outside of a couple, they were all great. I especially liked the Johnny quest which made you collect trinkets from all over the world, some from mastering minigames, some from tough challenges, or some from random exploration. The flavour text on a lot of them was really nice too, and it acted as a nice sort of completion list. Another one of my favourite parts was the Protorelics and their overall quest. They are all references to 7/Remake, and I appreciated them bringing back Fort Condor since I thought Queen's Blood wasn't that great. Just like the previous game, the sequel is very easy, even with dynamic (just level scaling?) for most of the time, so I do wish they would just give a harder difficulty from the start...Also, like the remake, the last chapter here kind of gets a little too crazy, and I was equally confused as to how your party members get picked for each phase. It turns out to be set, and it looks like it will be a lot easier when I replay in hard mode. Despite that final chapter, the rest of the game seemed pretty faithful, hitting everything with only a few glaring changes (Gi storyline expanded, Cid introduced & handled differently, Tifa lifestream). The extra postgame challenges and hard mode in general (I assume from Remake) were a nice way to end the game and get rid of the memory of Grasslands (I hate that zone so much now). Though I understand it is much harder to justify for a lot of people with how large this game was (even if they give you more time playing as Sephiroth and Zack).
Did they tease Zack way too much? Yes, but I loved seeing Cissnei and hearing the music in Gongaga.
Could they have deleted grasslands since it is a terrible zone? Yeah, but the later open world zones are much better because you're forced to explore more with your chocobo.
Could they have cut or split another zone like Corel? Yeah probably, Corel being in two different locales at two different times in the story really helped with the pacing.
Could you cut 90% of the things Chadley says? Yes
There are so many minigames and activities, and outside of a couple, they were all great. I especially liked the Johnny quest which made you collect trinkets from all over the world, some from mastering minigames, some from tough challenges, or some from random exploration. The flavour text on a lot of them was really nice too, and it acted as a nice sort of completion list. Another one of my favourite parts was the Protorelics and their overall quest. They are all references to 7/Remake, and I appreciated them bringing back Fort Condor since I thought Queen's Blood wasn't that great. Just like the previous game, the sequel is very easy, even with dynamic (just level scaling?) for most of the time, so I do wish they would just give a harder difficulty from the start...Also, like the remake, the last chapter here kind of gets a little too crazy, and I was equally confused as to how your party members get picked for each phase. It turns out to be set, and it looks like it will be a lot easier when I replay in hard mode. Despite that final chapter, the rest of the game seemed pretty faithful, hitting everything with only a few glaring changes (Gi storyline expanded, Cid introduced & handled differently, Tifa lifestream). The extra postgame challenges and hard mode in general (I assume from Remake) were a nice way to end the game and get rid of the memory of Grasslands (I hate that zone so much now). Though I understand it is much harder to justify for a lot of people with how large this game was (even if they give you more time playing as Sephiroth and Zack).
Did they tease Zack way too much? Yes, but I loved seeing Cissnei and hearing the music in Gongaga.
Could they have deleted grasslands since it is a terrible zone? Yeah, but the later open world zones are much better because you're forced to explore more with your chocobo.
Could they have cut or split another zone like Corel? Yeah probably, Corel being in two different locales at two different times in the story really helped with the pacing.
Could you cut 90% of the things Chadley says? Yes
2024
I think it's time to not play this as a main game anymore. After reaching my goal with nearly all the decks at blue stakes and one deck finishing gold, I will just start to play it occasionally. The challenges look really fun, so I'm hopeful there will be some updates to get me back in here with more of them too. I really liked doing these in other card games, so I didn't really want to rush through them right now. I'll pray for anyone who even attempts to get all the gold stickers.
2024
When are we going to get a mahjong roguelite?
It's still pretty early to give a proper opinion, but I really liked this. It's not perfect like I thought it would be with the demo since it seems to lean on a lot from Slay the Spire. The stakes (difficulty system) are really pretty harsh, and it seems very hard to ever come close to consistent wins there. Lots of runs will just die so early if you don't get anything to help you survive. I think doing the highest difficulty really did drain me from how helpless it feels. It also just feels like such an excessive grind for each deck to have its own stake progression. 15 different decks (a good number of them are really interesting though), each with 8 stakes, is kind of insane when I compare it to the two big games I've spent the most time on: Monster Train with 12 (2 dlc) different champions all sharing the same progression up to 25 covenant ranks, or Slay the Spire with 4 (1 new) characters and 20 ascension levels for each. Since these decks need you to unlock stake levels too, it made me feel like I should incentivize 1 deck rather than going for the variety like in MT (rotating every champion to 25).
The unlocks lean more on that too, with some strange out there requirements that pretty much force you to go look up each one if you truly want to get everything and set up your run in a specific way while hoping to get lucky. Not to mention, you can also sticker every joker at every stake level (insane). I ended up winning with every deck at various stakes and got a couple of decks up/at to max (lvl 8), but I didn't really go for insane scores. I can see just playing lower stakes and going for score/variety being a lot more fun. Anyway, this is only after about a week of playing, and I'll definitely get back into it in the future since there are other games I want to play. Maybe I'll go back and joker/voucher hunt the final ones. Maybe it was better to just get every joker before going to stakes. Maybe there will be some new stuff to see, and they will ease up on some of the other things.
It's still pretty early to give a proper opinion, but I really liked this. It's not perfect like I thought it would be with the demo since it seems to lean on a lot from Slay the Spire. The stakes (difficulty system) are really pretty harsh, and it seems very hard to ever come close to consistent wins there. Lots of runs will just die so early if you don't get anything to help you survive. I think doing the highest difficulty really did drain me from how helpless it feels. It also just feels like such an excessive grind for each deck to have its own stake progression. 15 different decks (a good number of them are really interesting though), each with 8 stakes, is kind of insane when I compare it to the two big games I've spent the most time on: Monster Train with 12 (2 dlc) different champions all sharing the same progression up to 25 covenant ranks, or Slay the Spire with 4 (1 new) characters and 20 ascension levels for each. Since these decks need you to unlock stake levels too, it made me feel like I should incentivize 1 deck rather than going for the variety like in MT (rotating every champion to 25).
The unlocks lean more on that too, with some strange out there requirements that pretty much force you to go look up each one if you truly want to get everything and set up your run in a specific way while hoping to get lucky. Not to mention, you can also sticker every joker at every stake level (insane). I ended up winning with every deck at various stakes and got a couple of decks up/at to max (lvl 8), but I didn't really go for insane scores. I can see just playing lower stakes and going for score/variety being a lot more fun. Anyway, this is only after about a week of playing, and I'll definitely get back into it in the future since there are other games I want to play. Maybe I'll go back and joker/voucher hunt the final ones. Maybe it was better to just get every joker before going to stakes. Maybe there will be some new stuff to see, and they will ease up on some of the other things.
2020
It lasts just a bit too long and becomes stale as you near the end once you get tired of it's gimmick.
2021
I had a feeling I wouldn't like Wolfenstein, so I figured I would try a game with some stuff I would like. It's ok; it just feels a bit too basic and needs some sort of difficulty? Music kept bugging out for me a bunch, and just firing some guns seems to delay sounds.
2023
One of the most frustrating games I played in a long time. Everything feels great for a good while, and I was really enjoying myself just moving around, collecting cards, and occasionally going the right way. Eventually you get the slam ability, and for some reason it's on the same key as your slide, so you'll hit it accidentally a few times. There is something very wrong with this entire world; half the time I would get stuck under the floor from a slam. Usually I was able to just close and reload my save before the slam, thankfully. Although every room with the time trial is guaranteed to get you stuck, and somehow I progressed to another room like that, thinking it was intended. I then got an item and was stuck behind a door that would never open, the way I came in was inaccessible, and my respawn was stuck in the room. I was forced to edit my save file just to respawn me in a safe area, and I had to do this two different times. It is insane how this was not tested very well. There are other bugs too, like whatever happened here when I was on my way to the final boss. There's barely any games I will sour on with a lot of bugs, especially if I liked the rest of it, but it happened here sadly.
2019
It's pretty cool how you can just fall forever if you want, and it's surprising that there's no frame drops at all on my PC. This does lead to a couple of puzzles being awkward where you have to find some obscure object, but it's just a minor complaint.
2021
the under $5 shooter should be its own genre
2022
It probably has the perfect length for a collectathon without really any time wasters, unless you really want to find the last pollen (I spent 20 minutes). Slipping around the levels is just such a great time that I really could have gone for more levels anyway. The new update added two races in each level, with the platinum times being a decent challenge. I wish there was more like this or just a secret world with a bit tougher areas.
2019
Ehhh at least it's short, but this portal (barely) and Stanley Parable mix is not for me.
It's still just Celeste, but better.
2008
It's really good and, so far, easily the best blood mod. 2 episodes, with the most recent one being released in 2023 (bias kind of) and of high quality. The creator is also working on future episodes, and I'm very much looking forward to replaying it in anticipation.