Shenobi
2013
The gameplay loop is a decent time (especially once you unlock teleporters). Not fond of the fact that there's only a final boss and no other actual bosses.
Also, very much not a fan of the wall jump, as it always felt finicky to me. Sometimes, I'd jump from point to point no problem, other times I'd just drop back down next to the wall instead of making the jump properly.
That might be a me-issue, but that's not something I usually have a problem with in games.
Also, very much not a fan of the wall jump, as it always felt finicky to me. Sometimes, I'd jump from point to point no problem, other times I'd just drop back down next to the wall instead of making the jump properly.
That might be a me-issue, but that's not something I usually have a problem with in games.
This review contains spoilers
Gotta say, I don't get the super-high ratings. I've been reading reviews to try and feel out what others were saying, but the game didn't hit me the same way as it seemed to hit others. It's fun, but not without its issues.
The game really shines in its cutscenes, which feel like a big step up in content versus the usual back-and-forth dialogue boxes the second and third games had.
Otherwise visually, it seemed fine -- I really prefer the aesthetic of PSII over PSIV, but to each their own.
Speaking of, music varied from awful to fine for the most part -- the one standout gem for me being the updated version of a particular dungeon track from the first PS game. I did not like the shop tracks at all and Gryz's town music was obnoxious.
I liked the concept of returning to combat in the vehicles that you use throughout the game, but interface aside, it just felt like fights took longer if you weren't using something like N-Sphere (of which you have a limited number of uses). Restoring HP after each fight is fine, but I'd honestly prefer just walking my way to new areas and fighting the monsters that were significantly harder on the ground (this was especially a thing in Dezolis).
Story-wise, I didn't feel like it was a masterful work -- it was a nice conclusion to what was going on in the previous three games and explained a lot of answers to questions that didn't necessarily have to be asked. That's not a bad thing, just a note that they did a good job with deciding to link the games together (though it does feel like PSIII got only the most passing of nods to it).
Actual combat was mostly fine. PSIV still used the "here are some unusual names with no descriptions" idea with their spells, so experimentation or Google are your friends in that instance. The macro system is nice -- I know it's me looking back to dated design at the time, but I wish the macros could have been edited and not just deleted and replaced each time, but I don't hold that against the game design.
Enemies are a mix of stuff from previous games along with some new enemies. Since I'm a sucker for PSII, seeing old familiar enemies like the Locusta line or the Dezo Owl line were a nice touch for me.
I noticed that people said experience came a lot more easily in this game and I don't know if I agree. It still felt like it took forever to level in some instances and in a game where levels are important, the grind felt real to me in a few spots (looking at you, Air Castle!). I didn't run from any fights, but still found myself needing to grind up a couple of times in a really bad way. Previous games had this issue, but I think that because I enjoyed the soundtracks of previous games more (not counting PSIII), the grind never felt as bad in those.
The biggest crime (to me) is the dungeon design. I liked the labyrinthine layouts of the first three games and I didn't mind using a Hinas to peace-out if things got dicey and Ryuka back to town. Those dungeons got replaced by mostly corridor pathing with branches that usually lead to a dead end just a short way up the wrong path.
The first time you hit Valley Maze, you think it's going to be something tricky to navigate, but it's quite literally "walk into a room, grab a chest or note a dead end, walk back and take the other path." And it's about what...four, five rooms of that and you're through the dungeon?
A lot of dungeons have that feel. The first time you reach Zio's Fort and go digging beneath, there's an impression that things are crazy with lots of paths...but most of those paths are just a dead-end a few further steps off-screen or another dead-end with a chest. Sure, there were way more of those than in Valley Maze, but it doesn't change how simple the dungeon structure is for MOST of the areas.
I think it's a fun game, I think the story's pretty good overall (and Chaz gets a lot of character development, even if others are just largely support units), but I'd say of the main series of four games, it's probably the least entertaining one for me. Definitely worth a playthrough for anyone that's remotely interested, though.
The game really shines in its cutscenes, which feel like a big step up in content versus the usual back-and-forth dialogue boxes the second and third games had.
Otherwise visually, it seemed fine -- I really prefer the aesthetic of PSII over PSIV, but to each their own.
Speaking of, music varied from awful to fine for the most part -- the one standout gem for me being the updated version of a particular dungeon track from the first PS game. I did not like the shop tracks at all and Gryz's town music was obnoxious.
I liked the concept of returning to combat in the vehicles that you use throughout the game, but interface aside, it just felt like fights took longer if you weren't using something like N-Sphere (of which you have a limited number of uses). Restoring HP after each fight is fine, but I'd honestly prefer just walking my way to new areas and fighting the monsters that were significantly harder on the ground (this was especially a thing in Dezolis).
Story-wise, I didn't feel like it was a masterful work -- it was a nice conclusion to what was going on in the previous three games and explained a lot of answers to questions that didn't necessarily have to be asked. That's not a bad thing, just a note that they did a good job with deciding to link the games together (though it does feel like PSIII got only the most passing of nods to it).
Actual combat was mostly fine. PSIV still used the "here are some unusual names with no descriptions" idea with their spells, so experimentation or Google are your friends in that instance. The macro system is nice -- I know it's me looking back to dated design at the time, but I wish the macros could have been edited and not just deleted and replaced each time, but I don't hold that against the game design.
Enemies are a mix of stuff from previous games along with some new enemies. Since I'm a sucker for PSII, seeing old familiar enemies like the Locusta line or the Dezo Owl line were a nice touch for me.
I noticed that people said experience came a lot more easily in this game and I don't know if I agree. It still felt like it took forever to level in some instances and in a game where levels are important, the grind felt real to me in a few spots (looking at you, Air Castle!). I didn't run from any fights, but still found myself needing to grind up a couple of times in a really bad way. Previous games had this issue, but I think that because I enjoyed the soundtracks of previous games more (not counting PSIII), the grind never felt as bad in those.
The biggest crime (to me) is the dungeon design. I liked the labyrinthine layouts of the first three games and I didn't mind using a Hinas to peace-out if things got dicey and Ryuka back to town. Those dungeons got replaced by mostly corridor pathing with branches that usually lead to a dead end just a short way up the wrong path.
The first time you hit Valley Maze, you think it's going to be something tricky to navigate, but it's quite literally "walk into a room, grab a chest or note a dead end, walk back and take the other path." And it's about what...four, five rooms of that and you're through the dungeon?
A lot of dungeons have that feel. The first time you reach Zio's Fort and go digging beneath, there's an impression that things are crazy with lots of paths...but most of those paths are just a dead-end a few further steps off-screen or another dead-end with a chest. Sure, there were way more of those than in Valley Maze, but it doesn't change how simple the dungeon structure is for MOST of the areas.
I think it's a fun game, I think the story's pretty good overall (and Chaz gets a lot of character development, even if others are just largely support units), but I'd say of the main series of four games, it's probably the least entertaining one for me. Definitely worth a playthrough for anyone that's remotely interested, though.
2020
It's a decent enough time, but can we talk about how it's pretty bad design to tell the player they should be trying to acquire D-Tokens by defeating enemies, allowing the player to progress as far as they can before dying, then informing the player after they died, "OOPS, YOU LOST YOUR TOKENS, SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS THING WE NEVER TOLD YOU ABOUT!"
I sat there and talked to every townsperson, read all the info signs, checked the options page for controls and general info, and they quite literally spring this rather important detail on you AFTER your first death, insuring that your run was a waste of time if you died (and you probably did).
(for the record, if you do decide to play this, open the ring menu and select the magic rope in order to leave...though I can't guarantee that it'll even be available on the first run because maybe the dev expects players to die quickly before throwing that info at them...instead of at the third boss, like I did)
I sat there and talked to every townsperson, read all the info signs, checked the options page for controls and general info, and they quite literally spring this rather important detail on you AFTER your first death, insuring that your run was a waste of time if you died (and you probably did).
(for the record, if you do decide to play this, open the ring menu and select the magic rope in order to leave...though I can't guarantee that it'll even be available on the first run because maybe the dev expects players to die quickly before throwing that info at them...instead of at the third boss, like I did)
2009
The story doesn't really do anything for me in this game, but damn if combat doesn't feel like buttery goodness.
People who enjoy collecting things must love and hate this. Load times seem long, but that's probably because my first run of this was on my very old PS4, so I can't really fault that.
If there's one thing I can gripe about though, it's making me run back to camp from wherever I am in order to fast travel again. I'm sure there's a good reason for it (presumably to keep people from just ditching out in the middle of combat, but that's what combat cues as triggers to prevent fast travel are for!), but there are times where I would have really liked to clear part of a mission, then just fast traveled to where I wanted to go, instead of running all the way back, sitting at the camp, and THEN fast traveling.
I don't have a definitive opinion on the game yet because I can't stop collecting things. Somebody send help.
If there's one thing I can gripe about though, it's making me run back to camp from wherever I am in order to fast travel again. I'm sure there's a good reason for it (presumably to keep people from just ditching out in the middle of combat, but that's what combat cues as triggers to prevent fast travel are for!), but there are times where I would have really liked to clear part of a mission, then just fast traveled to where I wanted to go, instead of running all the way back, sitting at the camp, and THEN fast traveling.
I don't have a definitive opinion on the game yet because I can't stop collecting things. Somebody send help.
It's fun, but damn if the camera isn't a nightmare sometimes to deal with and some areas have the worst back-and-forth design ever (I'm looking especially at you, Deep Jungle).
Wasn't really here for the story, since I've heard it's pretty much all over the place in later games, but wanted to tackle this one again (via the 1.5+2.5 collection) so I could give the later games a try.
The most important thing to say here is that the music for Hollow Bastion is golden.
Wasn't really here for the story, since I've heard it's pretty much all over the place in later games, but wanted to tackle this one again (via the 1.5+2.5 collection) so I could give the later games a try.
The most important thing to say here is that the music for Hollow Bastion is golden.
2020
Finally got around to finishing it and just want to congratulate RE3make on winning my award for 2020's Average Game of the Year. You did it, RE3 -- you were the most okay corridor shooter of all the things that had corridors and shooting.
I'll take PSX RE3 any day of the week over this.
I'll take PSX RE3 any day of the week over this.
2016
Old me: This seems like a fun game, but even though I've poured dozens of hours into this, I think I need a break. I'll come back to it later in my backlog.
Now me: Let's give it a go!
Ubisoft, Existential Dread Monster: HEY, WE HEAR YOU WANTED FEATURES YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR SO WE UPDATED THE GAME AUTOMATICALLY TO NOT ALLOW FOR YOUR OLD SAVES TO WORK WITH IT! ENJOY PLAYING DOZENS OF HOURS ALL OVER AGAIN TO MAKE YOUR PROGRESS BACK!
Now me: Yeah, that's a big no for me, Ubisoft.
Now me: Let's give it a go!
Ubisoft, Existential Dread Monster: HEY, WE HEAR YOU WANTED FEATURES YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR SO WE UPDATED THE GAME AUTOMATICALLY TO NOT ALLOW FOR YOUR OLD SAVES TO WORK WITH IT! ENJOY PLAYING DOZENS OF HOURS ALL OVER AGAIN TO MAKE YOUR PROGRESS BACK!
Now me: Yeah, that's a big no for me, Ubisoft.
I gave Vesperia five stars because I remember loving it when I played it, but in all honesty, I couldn't tell you much about it now before having played the Definitive Edition to try and re-live that five star experience.
Although some of the issues in Definitive Edition aren't necessarily issues present in the original game (or maybe they are and I just don't remember them!), it's worth noting the following with my PS4 experience:
-- Having to choose which language to play with every single time is weird. Not a big deal, just strange.
-- The audio mixing is horrible at times. In places where dialogue is going on but certain sound effects are really strong, there's an almost "uncanny valley of sound" happening. As an example, when the party is under Caer Bocram and there's this huge rumbling sound, there's an exchange of dialogue between your party and some other characters on the other side of the room. Their dialogue is extremely quiet and distant, but yours is full volume -- even when you're looking at things from the perspective of the characters on the other side of the room. But while both of those exchanges are happening, the continual sound effects are even louder than the dialogue, making it sound even quieter. This happens a lot and is nightmarishly bad in Heliord during a particular incident. Also, adjusting volume does not adjust the sound of staying at the inn or the opening music/sound in general, so those will always be as loud or louder than any other aspect of your volume.
-- Rita's AI is stupid as hell and definitely kept healing a boss by spamming the same attack over and over and I had to fix her AI just so I didn't die from perpetual SPLASH usage.
With that out of the way, combat is very eh. Grindy, but without those points that you're striving for where you feel like levels make a genuine difference. If you fight everything you can along the way to any given area, you might be able to afford stuff as you proceed, but sooner or later, you're going to have to grind if you want to synthesize some decent items. Which...is fine if it felt like they made a genuine impact on combat.
I think there's a lot of potential depth in combat for each character (I think this has always been a staple of the Tales series), but I rarely find myself wanting to engage with those skills and abilities that take combat to the next level. I know that's on me, but it also is worth noting that it means the game's combat feels very one-note if your goal is to push through combat to enjoy the story because basic enemies will be pushovers and bosses will be rough simply because the game expects you to care about investing in utilizing those combat skills.
Visually, it's enjoyable. Add in some good voice-acting (mostly) and you've got a great time with the skits system, as always. The story is worthwhile simply because there's some good worldbuilding going on, but it's not going to be any legendary work that warrants a must-play.
I'm glad to have gone back to this to experience it a second time, but it definitely doesn't have the same appeal as it did when I played it on the 360 years ago. I'm probably in the minority, but for me, the ones that left me with the most enjoyment were Graces F, Xillia 1, and Berseria.
Miss me with that Berseria hate, Neutral Evil characters building redemption arcs is going to be my jam for life.
Although some of the issues in Definitive Edition aren't necessarily issues present in the original game (or maybe they are and I just don't remember them!), it's worth noting the following with my PS4 experience:
-- Having to choose which language to play with every single time is weird. Not a big deal, just strange.
-- The audio mixing is horrible at times. In places where dialogue is going on but certain sound effects are really strong, there's an almost "uncanny valley of sound" happening. As an example, when the party is under Caer Bocram and there's this huge rumbling sound, there's an exchange of dialogue between your party and some other characters on the other side of the room. Their dialogue is extremely quiet and distant, but yours is full volume -- even when you're looking at things from the perspective of the characters on the other side of the room. But while both of those exchanges are happening, the continual sound effects are even louder than the dialogue, making it sound even quieter. This happens a lot and is nightmarishly bad in Heliord during a particular incident. Also, adjusting volume does not adjust the sound of staying at the inn or the opening music/sound in general, so those will always be as loud or louder than any other aspect of your volume.
-- Rita's AI is stupid as hell and definitely kept healing a boss by spamming the same attack over and over and I had to fix her AI just so I didn't die from perpetual SPLASH usage.
With that out of the way, combat is very eh. Grindy, but without those points that you're striving for where you feel like levels make a genuine difference. If you fight everything you can along the way to any given area, you might be able to afford stuff as you proceed, but sooner or later, you're going to have to grind if you want to synthesize some decent items. Which...is fine if it felt like they made a genuine impact on combat.
I think there's a lot of potential depth in combat for each character (I think this has always been a staple of the Tales series), but I rarely find myself wanting to engage with those skills and abilities that take combat to the next level. I know that's on me, but it also is worth noting that it means the game's combat feels very one-note if your goal is to push through combat to enjoy the story because basic enemies will be pushovers and bosses will be rough simply because the game expects you to care about investing in utilizing those combat skills.
Visually, it's enjoyable. Add in some good voice-acting (mostly) and you've got a great time with the skits system, as always. The story is worthwhile simply because there's some good worldbuilding going on, but it's not going to be any legendary work that warrants a must-play.
I'm glad to have gone back to this to experience it a second time, but it definitely doesn't have the same appeal as it did when I played it on the 360 years ago. I'm probably in the minority, but for me, the ones that left me with the most enjoyment were Graces F, Xillia 1, and Berseria.
Miss me with that Berseria hate, Neutral Evil characters building redemption arcs is going to be my jam for life.
I guess this is going to exist perpetually in my backlog.
Originally, I played this up to the Tree of Life point and once I got there, I fed it to the backlog monster so I could play some other stuff that was more appealing at the time.
Time passes, I come back and find out my save is corrupt. Eh, it happens, but I remember it being fun enough, so let's start up again! And...some weird jankiness is going on where Death continued to list to the right when I was moving in the opening area, so I deleted the game and threw it onto the backlog again.
Several years pass, I finally go back and the controls are behaving fine this time, so I beat the opening area...and backlog it again.
And...it's April of 2022, I finally come back to it. It's got that Metroidvania-meets-Zelda-with-other-gimmicks feel that I remember that's charming...until you go through a couple dungeons and realize it's TOO puzzle-oriented and the experience system is strange.
You can't grind extra levels because enemies eventually just pay zero experience...which is fine, I guess. But this means that if you're good at fighting things that might be out of your league early, you're suddenly getting equipment that you can't use until Level 10 and you're Level 5 and the only thing you can do is just progress the game normally...and by the time I got to level 10, I had better equipment than the reward I was given from an optional boss fight in the first place.
The decision to use Diabloesque loot drops is fine, but when they eclipse the special rewards you get from beating something optional and significant, it seems like maybe this game is just seated too far into the gimmick territory.
The world is amazing, but it's a shame that the dungeons feel so flat by comparison because it's just stone with different colors to them and maybe some lava or water. I made it back to the Tree of Life area and then went to do an optional boss fight, which descended into doing ANOTHER lava dungeon and my brain just switched off.
I love the first game, but this just feels like the pinnacle of mediocrity. I'll probably come back to it yet again at some point and hopefully my save won't be corrupted this time and I'll discover that the future dungeons aren't just stone with an element theme attached to them and boatloads of puzzles to pad the dungeon time.
Sticking with the 2.5 star rating until further notice.
Originally, I played this up to the Tree of Life point and once I got there, I fed it to the backlog monster so I could play some other stuff that was more appealing at the time.
Time passes, I come back and find out my save is corrupt. Eh, it happens, but I remember it being fun enough, so let's start up again! And...some weird jankiness is going on where Death continued to list to the right when I was moving in the opening area, so I deleted the game and threw it onto the backlog again.
Several years pass, I finally go back and the controls are behaving fine this time, so I beat the opening area...and backlog it again.
And...it's April of 2022, I finally come back to it. It's got that Metroidvania-meets-Zelda-with-other-gimmicks feel that I remember that's charming...until you go through a couple dungeons and realize it's TOO puzzle-oriented and the experience system is strange.
You can't grind extra levels because enemies eventually just pay zero experience...which is fine, I guess. But this means that if you're good at fighting things that might be out of your league early, you're suddenly getting equipment that you can't use until Level 10 and you're Level 5 and the only thing you can do is just progress the game normally...and by the time I got to level 10, I had better equipment than the reward I was given from an optional boss fight in the first place.
The decision to use Diabloesque loot drops is fine, but when they eclipse the special rewards you get from beating something optional and significant, it seems like maybe this game is just seated too far into the gimmick territory.
The world is amazing, but it's a shame that the dungeons feel so flat by comparison because it's just stone with different colors to them and maybe some lava or water. I made it back to the Tree of Life area and then went to do an optional boss fight, which descended into doing ANOTHER lava dungeon and my brain just switched off.
I love the first game, but this just feels like the pinnacle of mediocrity. I'll probably come back to it yet again at some point and hopefully my save won't be corrupted this time and I'll discover that the future dungeons aren't just stone with an element theme attached to them and boatloads of puzzles to pad the dungeon time.
Sticking with the 2.5 star rating until further notice.
2012
I'm sure there's possibly something good here, but the Six-Axis controls are so bad that I just spent five minutes looking like I was jerking off with the controller to try and use a hacksaw in the game and I still couldn't get the action to complete itself.
It's like if Myst and the intangible concept of "misery" had a baby and then gene-spliced the DNA to include Waggle Controls.
It's like if Myst and the intangible concept of "misery" had a baby and then gene-spliced the DNA to include Waggle Controls.
I must confess that I have FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out for anyone who's missing out on what that means) in the worst way -- even if something is rated poorly, I'll keep giving it more chances with whatever justifications I can because I want to experience any potential good aspects of said game.
My first time playing this was on the Wii, and I got to the point where I met Tenebrae and just noped out because Emil's voice acting was so terrible that I just couldn't deal with Shinji 2.0. Tried it again on an emulator years later and dropped at roughly the same spot. Got it in the Tales of Symphonia Collection on the PS3 and gave it yet another go, only to drop AGAIN at the same spot.
Undeterred by my own warnings to myself, I set off a fourth time these last few days, determined to just play it in short bursts -- the idea was that if I don't spend more than a few minutes listening to Emil, I can't get frustrated enough to quit and maybe after a time, he becomes an enjoyable character and I find I really dig the game! People like games that I don't, so it's entirely possible that I can like a game that people don't if I persist (spoiler: although this can happen, this isn't one of those)!
Quick note: I know I could change the audio to Japanese on Chronicles, but I like playing games in English audio if the option is available. Sue me.
I will say that I'm fine with the voice acting from everyone else in the game and actively enjoy the voice acting from Tenebrae.
The decision to make the overworld map into just a list of points instead of a place to explore is a mixed bag for me -- I don't have to worry about any camera issues that are a product of their time like in the case of the first Symphonia game, but I do miss the option to wander a world and see the world design unfold before me.
The beginning of the game really is atrocious -- in the first hour, you're treated to about eight flashbacks that are from literally the scene before in most cases, some of the most cringeworthy voice acting ever from Emil, and the powerhouse statement of "Marta has left the party." more times than you could ever ask for.
With the limited knowledge I have of the game thus far (about three hours), I can say that Emil probably would have been more enjoyable to me as an annoying party member you gain later that eventually blossoms into a likable character. Having him as the protagonist just puts me off.
I like the idea of monster acquisition and leveling them up as party members, but the limited time I spent with them was just underwhelming as a whole.
One of the worst culprits (and this may just be exclusive to the PS3 Chronicles version) is that entering battles takes about six seconds from the point where you contact an enemy. That's just enough time for you to wonder if your PS3 froze, and that's also a minute of staring blankly at a screen every ten encounters. I've had multiple minutes of staring at a screen blankly and wondering if the PS3 froze, so that's more than a bit of an annoyance and I have no intention of finding out if it becomes HOURS of staring.
The best thing I can say about this is that the skits were a lot of fun. I'm determined to not go back to this game again because I don't think I can cultivate enough fun from it to justify the things that bother me, but I will say that it's not the worst thing in the world.
My first time playing this was on the Wii, and I got to the point where I met Tenebrae and just noped out because Emil's voice acting was so terrible that I just couldn't deal with Shinji 2.0. Tried it again on an emulator years later and dropped at roughly the same spot. Got it in the Tales of Symphonia Collection on the PS3 and gave it yet another go, only to drop AGAIN at the same spot.
Undeterred by my own warnings to myself, I set off a fourth time these last few days, determined to just play it in short bursts -- the idea was that if I don't spend more than a few minutes listening to Emil, I can't get frustrated enough to quit and maybe after a time, he becomes an enjoyable character and I find I really dig the game! People like games that I don't, so it's entirely possible that I can like a game that people don't if I persist (spoiler: although this can happen, this isn't one of those)!
Quick note: I know I could change the audio to Japanese on Chronicles, but I like playing games in English audio if the option is available. Sue me.
I will say that I'm fine with the voice acting from everyone else in the game and actively enjoy the voice acting from Tenebrae.
The decision to make the overworld map into just a list of points instead of a place to explore is a mixed bag for me -- I don't have to worry about any camera issues that are a product of their time like in the case of the first Symphonia game, but I do miss the option to wander a world and see the world design unfold before me.
The beginning of the game really is atrocious -- in the first hour, you're treated to about eight flashbacks that are from literally the scene before in most cases, some of the most cringeworthy voice acting ever from Emil, and the powerhouse statement of "Marta has left the party." more times than you could ever ask for.
With the limited knowledge I have of the game thus far (about three hours), I can say that Emil probably would have been more enjoyable to me as an annoying party member you gain later that eventually blossoms into a likable character. Having him as the protagonist just puts me off.
I like the idea of monster acquisition and leveling them up as party members, but the limited time I spent with them was just underwhelming as a whole.
One of the worst culprits (and this may just be exclusive to the PS3 Chronicles version) is that entering battles takes about six seconds from the point where you contact an enemy. That's just enough time for you to wonder if your PS3 froze, and that's also a minute of staring blankly at a screen every ten encounters. I've had multiple minutes of staring at a screen blankly and wondering if the PS3 froze, so that's more than a bit of an annoyance and I have no intention of finding out if it becomes HOURS of staring.
The best thing I can say about this is that the skits were a lot of fun. I'm determined to not go back to this game again because I don't think I can cultivate enough fun from it to justify the things that bother me, but I will say that it's not the worst thing in the world.
2020
A good time waster that's quite fun as deckbuilding games go. I've maxed out one group and unlocked three of the four non-DLC ones (I'm close to unlocking whatever comes after Umbra). Finished the first three covenants and then slammed my head on the fourth one while trying to force a particular combo piece futilely several times.
The art style is alright and the music's mostly eh for me, but I'm not paying much attention to the art except to try and go off with combos and I can just mute the music and play better game music and I'm having a good day.
It's like an easier Neoverse that also doesn't look as pretty, but still guarantees you a good time (at least for me, it still does at 18 hours in).
The art style is alright and the music's mostly eh for me, but I'm not paying much attention to the art except to try and go off with combos and I can just mute the music and play better game music and I'm having a good day.
It's like an easier Neoverse that also doesn't look as pretty, but still guarantees you a good time (at least for me, it still does at 18 hours in).
2021
The graphics are pretty one-note and the combat is about as basic as you're going to get, but for a platforming micro-Metroidvania, the movement/jump controls are GOLDEN and the music ranges from mediocre to excellent depending on the area you're in.
I beat the game in just under an hour, but more importantly, didn't realize that there was a whole DLC area for free that was a separate ship with extra content. Go figure.
For three bucks, it's a steal and you don't even need to wait for a sale. Worst case scenario, you're out 20-33% of the cost of a movie ticket while also wasting less time than if your movie sucked. Give this dev some love, please!
I beat the game in just under an hour, but more importantly, didn't realize that there was a whole DLC area for free that was a separate ship with extra content. Go figure.
For three bucks, it's a steal and you don't even need to wait for a sale. Worst case scenario, you're out 20-33% of the cost of a movie ticket while also wasting less time than if your movie sucked. Give this dev some love, please!
2017
My favorite part of this game was when I came back to it in my backlog, died once, respawned at the previous save point, accidentally hit save again, and my character vanished from the screen and went behind it, but the game saved THAT aspect of it. So, any attempt to reload the game resulted in me trapped inside the save device, unable to move again.
It's my favorite part of the game because I only lost about 90 minutes of gameplay instead of more if that or something worse happened later, so I wasted less time having to play it this way and less of my time overall. THANKS, METAMORFOSE S!
It's my favorite part of the game because I only lost about 90 minutes of gameplay instead of more if that or something worse happened later, so I wasted less time having to play it this way and less of my time overall. THANKS, METAMORFOSE S!