Trapezohedron
2015
Almost-perfect game marred by some pacing issues.
In order to get the last of the fighting styles you need to basically complete the Real Estate/Cabaret subplots of the characters involved.
These fighting styles are incredibly powerful, but by also completing these sidequests, you are also required to beat bosses tougher than the final boss.
Fortunately, there is a post-game mission you can undertake where you can use this at their fullest, but at the same time you could just pump enough cash towards your stats and become a one-shotting fiend.
If ever you decide to get these abilities at the earliest possible opportunity, be prepared to sink in at least 15 hours minimum for both of the characters, in addition to whatever time you need to actually complete the game.
In order to get the last of the fighting styles you need to basically complete the Real Estate/Cabaret subplots of the characters involved.
These fighting styles are incredibly powerful, but by also completing these sidequests, you are also required to beat bosses tougher than the final boss.
Fortunately, there is a post-game mission you can undertake where you can use this at their fullest, but at the same time you could just pump enough cash towards your stats and become a one-shotting fiend.
If ever you decide to get these abilities at the earliest possible opportunity, be prepared to sink in at least 15 hours minimum for both of the characters, in addition to whatever time you need to actually complete the game.
Very standard, romantic vanilla cohabitation RPG Maker game with a limited cast of characters, the core of which simply being your Childhood Friend and Second Cousin Akira, who is actually a girl per standard plot twists of... games of this kind.
As a game it is atrocious. You have a limited number of actions you can do per game, and a small map segment allowing you to only go to one place per day. There is no time limit, and the game to get Akira Points is grindy enough.
However, grindy as it is, it does properly pace the events, despite the order of events being suitably-questionable to begin with.
The characters... explore themselves long before the kiss, and the tension is so palpable that when they do, you know what follows at that point. And then after that, it's just nonstop 'event' after event.
It's short, but could be shorter still without the grinding.
As a game it is atrocious. You have a limited number of actions you can do per game, and a small map segment allowing you to only go to one place per day. There is no time limit, and the game to get Akira Points is grindy enough.
However, grindy as it is, it does properly pace the events, despite the order of events being suitably-questionable to begin with.
The characters... explore themselves long before the kiss, and the tension is so palpable that when they do, you know what follows at that point. And then after that, it's just nonstop 'event' after event.
It's short, but could be shorter still without the grinding.
2018
This review contains spoilers
The story and by extension its ludonarrative (hah, funny word) integration is what carries this game.
You play as the Son of Hades, not as Hades himself, initially trying to earn your father's approval but later on trying to escape because your father's a bureaucratically-buried asshat.
Things improve later on and the context of the game changes, but you're still trying to escape and fight bosses all the same.
The gameplay is well-balanced and Hades has more to offer later on just when bosses get a bit stale, but you're still fighting the same 4 variants of bosses as you go.
What I'll say is that the gameplay is... inoffensive. Some status effects are virtually identical to each other. Drunk vs. Doom for example, with the former being a fast acting variant of the latter, and the combat being the standard catchy fare of Supergiant games.
If this were any other game I'd rate this a 3.5, but the magical Supergiant touch makes this work, because so much thought was given to integrating the story together with the game, that despite seemingly having an excuse plot, it's not an excuse in the sense that it's bad, but rather it continually justifies in a meaningful way why you keep trying to get out of Hades.
You play as the Son of Hades, not as Hades himself, initially trying to earn your father's approval but later on trying to escape because your father's a bureaucratically-buried asshat.
Things improve later on and the context of the game changes, but you're still trying to escape and fight bosses all the same.
The gameplay is well-balanced and Hades has more to offer later on just when bosses get a bit stale, but you're still fighting the same 4 variants of bosses as you go.
What I'll say is that the gameplay is... inoffensive. Some status effects are virtually identical to each other. Drunk vs. Doom for example, with the former being a fast acting variant of the latter, and the combat being the standard catchy fare of Supergiant games.
If this were any other game I'd rate this a 3.5, but the magical Supergiant touch makes this work, because so much thought was given to integrating the story together with the game, that despite seemingly having an excuse plot, it's not an excuse in the sense that it's bad, but rather it continually justifies in a meaningful way why you keep trying to get out of Hades.
2023
Criminally-cheap, this breakcore album disguised as a game (don't take that as an insult; the game has a LOT going for it despite being short) somehow managed to worm itself into my brain despite being so cheap and despite being grabbed by me on a whim.
I consider this complete after having farmed 50 rockets with 50 digiwatches and brought my PC to a crawl.
I consider this complete after having farmed 50 rockets with 50 digiwatches and brought my PC to a crawl.
2006
Long swathes of travelling to different dungeons, but flanked by a very-interesting political thriller against villains with virtues and heroes with harrowing flaws.
On PC, with Struggle for Freedom and Insurgents set of mods.
On PC, with Struggle for Freedom and Insurgents set of mods.
2021
A glorious return to the franchise's 2D roots, Metroid Dread understands fully how to guide a player without making it seem obvious, and also provide means to sequence-break the game if so-desired. It's no Metroid Zero Mission or Super Metroid, but it's definitely up there.
The parry mechanic from Samus Returns... returns here, but with a way more lenient timing window, so trash mobs won't be demanding your attention left and right.
The EMMI rooms are quite a bit of a pain, however, especially the later ones.
The parry mechanic from Samus Returns... returns here, but with a way more lenient timing window, so trash mobs won't be demanding your attention left and right.
The EMMI rooms are quite a bit of a pain, however, especially the later ones.
2021
Has a LOT of content and is pretty solid. It also attempts to alleviate the 2 attack Robot Wars trend that has been bucking the series as of late.
However, the animations are lackluster and all over the place. Still, I must recognize the game for what it is, and I would have rated this 2 and a half if it were up to me, but it does have enough content to make it a solid recommend.
However, the animations are lackluster and all over the place. Still, I must recognize the game for what it is, and I would have rated this 2 and a half if it were up to me, but it does have enough content to make it a solid recommend.
2021
Very grindy. I should abandon this, but I end up coming back to it.
Despite the graphics, this is actually a soulslike.
70 hours in, I am still somewhere in the midgame.
Despite the graphics, this is actually a soulslike.
70 hours in, I am still somewhere in the midgame.
2014
A great way to play the old Daggerfall. But note that Daggerfall nowadays is unironically a lackluster experience, probably only slightly less painful to play than Starfield.
1998
BG1 and BG2 with Dragonspear
2021
As a fan of this series, I would actually rate this 2 more stars higher than the indicated rating. So why is it actually low?
The game has a plethora of highly-expensive DLCs, and without it, the game is basically just a slightly-worse R-Type Final, which in itself can't hold a candle up to the older R-Type games save R-Type II.
The gameplay, like all R-Type games, rely less on twitch and more on memorization and trial and error.
I still wouldn't recommend this game if only because of its price point.
The game has a plethora of highly-expensive DLCs, and without it, the game is basically just a slightly-worse R-Type Final, which in itself can't hold a candle up to the older R-Type games save R-Type II.
The gameplay, like all R-Type games, rely less on twitch and more on memorization and trial and error.
I still wouldn't recommend this game if only because of its price point.
1987
The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything.
Except the part where the game is inaccessible, because while the game is predictable enough once you know the outcomes and the fail states... you have a legal binder's worth of rote memorization to conquer if you don't bother with spoilers. So most don't.
For example, did you know that walking into a cockatrice corpse is fine, but when you're not wearing gloves and you're blind, you're feeling around and touching the corpse of a petrifying monster? Add that knowledge together, and you'll see why you're being asked if you wanted your possessions identified.
Nowadays this kind of gameplay is considered highly-inconvenient and such a thing will not find itself in games that is too focused on QoL.
Except the part where the game is inaccessible, because while the game is predictable enough once you know the outcomes and the fail states... you have a legal binder's worth of rote memorization to conquer if you don't bother with spoilers. So most don't.
For example, did you know that walking into a cockatrice corpse is fine, but when you're not wearing gloves and you're blind, you're feeling around and touching the corpse of a petrifying monster? Add that knowledge together, and you'll see why you're being asked if you wanted your possessions identified.
Nowadays this kind of gameplay is considered highly-inconvenient and such a thing will not find itself in games that is too focused on QoL.
2017
Awful naming aside (there's nothing wrong with it, but Zenimax/Bethesda softworks forced Arkane's hand to use a pre-existing game's name to fuck the original IP holders), Prey is yet another one of Arkane's masterful immersive sims, and in fact gives you quite a moment to think about things at the end of it all.
They weren't lying when they said the game was expanded.
High potential, but the first game ports the second game's mechanics in an ill-fitting manner. You're always fighting against nigh-insurmountable odds in this case unless you deliberately scrap all your ships.