contrary to its presentation and initial gameplay, chaos legion is nothing like devil may cry

the exaggerated, emo, anime stylings are all there, as is the production of the music (which is fucking awesome) but what starts off as a mindless hack n slash quickly becomes a painfully unforgiving strategy game that's more about bringing the right tools to a fight rather than technical combat or flashy combos

equipping the wrong legions for a boss can be the difference between a 2 minute washout and a 10 minute chipfest, and unfortunately the tutorials do a pretty terrible job of telling you that - they're poorly translated, brief, and barely even helpful in the first place. the actual manual doesn't fare much better, so i strongly recommend checking a player-made beginners guide on gamefaqs unless you get off on trial and error - cause you're gonna be doing a lot of it

highly recommended despite the steep learning curve!

Honestly, I understand why people say Crossbell is peak because this duology probably has the best two games overall in the series.

I just love everything about Crossbell. I initially played this game wih the horrid translation, but still enjoyed my time with it. It wasn't until last year where I actually got to play it with a real translation in my Trails marathon, and my opinions on it definitely changed for the better.

Honestly, I think I prefer Crossbell as a setting much more to Liberl, not to say that Liberl is bad per se. Crossbell is just that good. I just love talking to each NPC in each Crossbell District after every story interaction and seeing how their dialogue changes. I also love walking along the highways (or taking the bus) and visiting the more remote locations of Crossbell like Mainz and Armorica. Crossbell is just the perfect setting for this game, especially when they explore the dark sides of Crossbell, like the Mafia. I just found it interesting how after Liberl, we were sent not to Erebonia, but to Crossbell of all places. A highly contested autonomous state between two major superpowers in Erebonia and Calvard. Crossbell is definitely my favourite country worldbuilding wise because of how much it has to even further paint the world of Zemuria. If you couldn't tell already I think Trails is the only game series ever to actually get me interested in its political structure and world.

Now let's actually start this review. From a story standpoint alone, I think this is the best game that the series has to offer (so far). I say that because, yeah, the game does start extremely slow, but I think that's valid because the Special Support Section are a new section of the Crossbell Police Department, and haven't earned the trust of locals, like the Bracer Guild has. The group has only been functioning for a little while and they're already trying to deal with Mafioso's and threat letters to celebrities. The Arc en Ciel part of Chapter 2 got me hooked into the story, exposing Mayor MacDowell's secretary and apprehending him. Chapter 3 was probably the most hype I've ever been. You got the anniversary festival with high highs with Estelle, Joshua, Wald, Wazy, and Randy. You also got the auction where you get more interested in Wazy, Mariebelle, and Lechter as characters. This chapter introduces you to KeA, who's just the ray of sunshine that the SSS needed to feel complete. The boss for Chapter 3 after stealing one of their prized posessions from the auction is probably the highlight for me. It's just so badass. I love the little intermission that gives us a little glimpse into the life of the SSS with KeA being added to their numbers. Also, storming a mafia base is just badass, and mkaes me love Chapter 4 as well.

I think the finale deserves it's own little section. Everything just hits the roof. The army and mafia have been drugged with Gnosis, and we find out one of the doctors at the hospital is the leader of a cult. The raid on the SSS and the IBC was great, but I hate how side characters like Grace and Cao were just commenting on us fighting hordes of enemies, like bro, help us? Anyways, I love the badass driving scene with Sergei and Noel, and we get to use Joshua and Estelle in the final dungeon. The final dungeon was creepy, stupid D:G cult. Honestly, the final dungeon felt rather underwhelming till the Garcia boss, and then the final boss, Joachim. Dude just downed a bunch of pills and became a demon. If not for Renne, it would of been curtains for everyone. The final boss dies, and the Brights finally adopt Renne which made me shed a tear not going to lie, it's been a three game journey for them. Overall, a very epic story, and personally one of my favourites.

Character wise, there's a bunch that stick out to me: Randy, Tio, Wazy, Fran, Jona, etc. Randy is interesting because on the surface he's all silly, but he's actually very serious. I just love and adore Tio and Fran. Jona just makes me laugh with his silly shenanigans, and Wazy is probably my favourite because he's just so mysterious and intrigues me and makes me want to know more. I actually thought Lloyd improved over time, and is a great protagonist. I know people don't really like Lloyd, but I just like how he's supportive of the entire group, and you can really tell that he cares for the entirety of the SSS, even in the little time that they spent together. Elie, I'm a bit iffy on, because I don't know what exactly she brings to the story, but maybe that's just me. Overall, this game has really good characters.

Battling, there's not much that's different from Sky, besides new Arts. At least they kept the orbment system, which I adore. I also enjoyed the addition of Evasion. Evasion Builds are just so fun in any game. Yeah, not much to say with battling, it is mostly the same.

The music. slaps. so. hard. The crossbell main theme, the highway themes, the Mainz theme, the Revache theme, the Stargazer Tower theme, the Ancient Battlefield theme, it's all just such a bop. I actually think I might prefer the Zero battle theme to Sophisticated Fight from Sky, idk it just hits differently. But yeah, the music slaps.

Some extremely minor gripes. I hate how the translators treat Lloyd like a playboy and oblivious, idk it just grates me for some reason. Also, I do not understand Wald as a character at all, he actually might be my least favourite in the series so far. That's about it for the gripes.

Overall, the game is extremely enjoyable, and I would honestly love to redo it all and experience it all again. It was that enjoyable.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is a lot more unhinged in theory compared to other traditional sports, and I'm glad Disney themselves tried out a concept like this.

The result is a game that's loads of fun. It's very Tony Hawk-inspired, and rightfully so, as that game series unanimously defined the genre as a whole. The stages are locales from the movies with themed objects all turned into half-pipes and guardrails. Meanwhile, the skaters themselves trade in ordinary skateboards for more fitting contraptions, like Tarzan's wooden plank or Buzz' rocket pad.

It's obvious the developers put a lot of love and care, and the effort shows. Instead of just a skating game with a haphazard Disney label, it's fortunately a skating game that comes in a full-on Disney flavor.

i am so fucking tired of every game being sekiro. please god can one acton game come out where you do something besides read animations and deflect on the right key frames. can one historical game about the tokugawa shogunate have some personality to it and not be more boring than reading a book about the actual events. can one open world game come out and have shit to do in it thats fun and beneficial for more than just clearing icons and getting bigger numbers. anyway, Like a Dragon: Ishin! is available now on digital storefronts everywhere

Really fantastic realization of Granblue's scope and charm in stunning detail. Has some of my favorite ARPG combat that I've ever experienced, its similarities to Xenoblade made me realize that those systems are infinitely more engaging to me with full-on action combat as opposed to auto-attacking. It definitely helps a lot that it keeps up an extremely consistent flow to its combat, never feeling like it drones on or stalls too much. I haven't tried too many of the cast yet but Zeta was an absolute blast to play with how much airtime she gets with her combos. The sense of scope is helped even further by having some of the most stunning giant bosses this side of FFXVI, each one feels bigger and grander than the last. Story's not too much to write home about, it's basically the Granblue equivalent of a Shonen anime movie, which is fine as a standalone thing but a bit disappointing since I know that Granblue's capable of really engaging and gripping narratives. This probably being a lot of peoples' first impression of the cast doesn't help since it doesn't really showcase as much of what makes them so charming and likeable as the mobage does. (Lyria and Vryn are hit by this the hardest) Even so, a lot of Granblue's charm is still completely intact in here, so I can definitely see it drawing more people further after the fact. After beating its fairly brisk main story, I wanna keep playing to see everything the game has to offer. I guess I really have been itching for another Monster Hunter-like experience since I played 4U way back. Overall fantastic game, Cygames add Vira in a future update or all of this was for nothing.

This is a game made for speedrunners, and I mean that negatively. If you're someone who has the time and energy to perfect the movement and learn every little trick there is, I'm sure it's a blast. I'll probably love seeing speedruns of it at GDQ. If, however, you're a more casual player, you're probably going to find it okay at best, and a nightmare at worst.

The controls are far from intuitive. They lack responsiveness. They're slippery when you don't want them to be, stiff when they shouldn't be, and obtuse in a way that keeps the game from ever really being fun. And when you finish a level and see a score pathetically trying to fill up a bar, the game might as well laugh at you for moving so badly according to its arbitrary whims.

Hopefully they patch it up, too, because it's a bugged out mess, and not in a silly or avoidable way. It would eat my inputs, or completely refuse to acknowledge me trying to activate an ability. I fell through the same solid floor twice. In the middle of a platform. Why is there a hole there. When I'm barely enjoying your game as is, these things only exacerbate the problem.

There is something here that could have been really good. The art style is charming and vibrant. The soundtrack is way better than it has any right to be (seriously, go listen to it). When the movement is actually flowing and behaving as it seems it should, it's quite enjoyable. But it isn't enough to salvage the rest.

I was really excited for a new, stylish 3D platformer that wasn't just another Mario entry. Guess I'll have to keep waiting.

this game is all about movement and the movement is super slick and i can FEEL that once you've honed it, it's a BLAST. full comboing stages and just flying around and skipping seems so fun, but you NEED to put the time in. it's not something you can pick up and master, and casually? i found a lot of the controls and movement to just... not feel great. maybe in a game drought i'd pick this up as a speed game and change my opinion, but right now it's just kinda okay with a lot of frustrating moments.

Coming to this from 13 Sentinels it is almost precisely the opposite of what I expected. Where 13S has a phenomenal plot full of complexity, mystery, and deep characterization, UO's written like generic pulp fantasy—no, not even that, like a monster-of-the-week TV show apisiring to generic pulp fantasy. But where 13S's combat feels sloggy and bolted-on, UO's is consistently fun and reasonably engaging.

The core failing of the game is the fact that word, "reasonably". Although battles in the game are never boring, the systems promise far more than they're actually able to deliver. The game is stuck between two worlds: a stolid traditional Attack Magic Item Flee system and an FFXII-style fully automated luxury battlesim. It's straining towards the latter and it almost manages to grasp it, but the small gap remaining makes all the difference.

The goal of a system like this is to elicit in the player strategic thinking. Consider which characters complement one another's skills, which skills are useful in which circumstances, how to make a unit that's flexible, powerful, and effective against the present challenge. Find clever combinations of skills and equipment that exploit holes in your enemies' defenses. This is what Unicorn Overlord wants, and it's what it narrowly misses.

This is how a battle goes: your unit (composed of several characters) bumps into an enemy unit. Each unit is arranged on its own 3x2 grid, and each character has a set of active and passive actions they use under certain user-defined conditions in initiative order as long as they have resources. You can customize these before the battle, swap equipment with anything in storage, and the game will tell you how much net damage you will deal and how much you will take. Once you're satisfied with your setup, you hit go and the battle plays out automatically. Since resources are very limited, most battles only last a few "turn cycles" as they would exist in a Dragon Quest style system.

In practice, this system has a few critical issues. The first and most noticeable is the degree of variance in each battle. Whether hits are critical or miss entirely is up to the random number generator, which is of course quite sensitive to initial conditions—as indeed are the deterministic behaviors of a battle. This means that you can change a prospective battle from losing to winning often enough by simply rearranging your characters or toggling skills on and off arbitrarily, a practice which quickly overwhelms the amount of time you spend on actual tactical decisions.

The ability to change a unit's programming for each battle also erodes the gap between this system and something more traditional. With some finagling, you can usually choose fairly specifically which enemy will be hit by which attack, allowing you to essentially route around the automation and pre-plan a more standard RPG battle. That level of customizability undermines the conceit of programming.

At the furthest extreme, because you can swap any equipment with anything in storage before a battle or between battles, in principle the best way to play is to keep all your top-tier gear unequipped and just swap it on each unit before they fight and off once they're done. I couldn't bring myself to go to such noxious lengths most of the time, but I did keep a few "just in case" initiative boosters around.

I hypothesize that this game would be substantially more fun if you voluntarily chose not to change your unit's loadout after deploying them. I just wish this were something that was built into the game, rather than something players have to turn to upon discovering that the game doesn't live up to its own goals.