andrew_mc
2021
This review contains spoilers
I'm a little conflicted about this game. I enjoyed parts of both the dungeon crawling and the visual novel side of things, but didn't adore either and overall it felt quite flat.
The combat was fine, although I'd have liked it to be more varied and less button-mashy (Hades has spoiled us all). I felt like I was taking too long in the first dungeon, but then I beat the second in two runs and was a bit surprised there wasn't a third. Romantic visual novels aren't super my thing so some of the VN moments came off mega cringe, but I did appreciate the variety of personalities and the overall vibe.
My biggest gripe is that to finish the final fight you have to be nice to your weird incel stalker and help him defeat his inner demons after he kidnapped half a dozen people and almost murdered you... like the text of the game understood that what he did was messed up and gave you dialogue options that let you make it clear you hated him, but you still had to be his therapy pal?
The combat was fine, although I'd have liked it to be more varied and less button-mashy (Hades has spoiled us all). I felt like I was taking too long in the first dungeon, but then I beat the second in two runs and was a bit surprised there wasn't a third. Romantic visual novels aren't super my thing so some of the VN moments came off mega cringe, but I did appreciate the variety of personalities and the overall vibe.
My biggest gripe is that to finish the final fight you have to be nice to your weird incel stalker and help him defeat his inner demons after he kidnapped half a dozen people and almost murdered you... like the text of the game understood that what he did was messed up and gave you dialogue options that let you make it clear you hated him, but you still had to be his therapy pal?
2021
Very much enjoyed this one. The core mechanics are super polished and very satisfying. It lures you in to an almost meditative state, and I appreciated the light touch story and humour scattered through. I was initially expecting more business sim than linear progression, but tbh looking back I'm glad it leaned in to more intrinsically rewarding unchallenging gameplay.
2022
Had a great time with this, found the mechanics super engaging and loved the setting, but after a while I'd gotten the hang of it and lost interest long before the game said I was done.
2017
For the first two thirds of the game I was totally absorbed. Its real strengths are in the atmosphere and exploration, with a few very neat abilities to play with, and I could have wandered around the station listening to audio logs and seeking out corpses forever.
I'm not giving it five stars because it didn't quite stick the landing. I can't fault the story or the dialogue, but I found myself disorientated during a few of the final quests. The last few hours were quite frustrating, with it never being clear to me which paths were still open, and with moments where I had objectives in my quest log that led me to an area only for the marker to disappear when I got there because I actually needed to progress a different quest first.
Overall I'm glad I played it, the themes and atmosphere were right up my alley, but it's a shame the last chapter lacked a bit of technical polish.
I'm not giving it five stars because it didn't quite stick the landing. I can't fault the story or the dialogue, but I found myself disorientated during a few of the final quests. The last few hours were quite frustrating, with it never being clear to me which paths were still open, and with moments where I had objectives in my quest log that led me to an area only for the marker to disappear when I got there because I actually needed to progress a different quest first.
Overall I'm glad I played it, the themes and atmosphere were right up my alley, but it's a shame the last chapter lacked a bit of technical polish.
2022
The good: immaculate vibes and beautiful artwork; loved the platform-moving mechanics; the mix of roguey + rpg mechanics felt good; found myself getting drawn in to the world; seemed like there could be lots of interesting spells and items to pick up
The bad:
1. The movement/combat felt a bit off. I found it very sluggish (which might just be a design choice), and struggled to tell whether I was within range of an enemy or which way I was facing when I used the sword's charged attack. Maybe I just need to #gitgud but idk my deaths didn't feel very fair
2. The game seems very keen to take things off you. I didn't play for too long because I kept losing most of my knowledge and realised I wasn't going to make any progress.
Overall, either it could be genuinely great with tweaks to the movement/combat and progression, or it's already how it's meant to be and just not my kind of thing.
The bad:
1. The movement/combat felt a bit off. I found it very sluggish (which might just be a design choice), and struggled to tell whether I was within range of an enemy or which way I was facing when I used the sword's charged attack. Maybe I just need to #gitgud but idk my deaths didn't feel very fair
2. The game seems very keen to take things off you. I didn't play for too long because I kept losing most of my knowledge and realised I wasn't going to make any progress.
Overall, either it could be genuinely great with tweaks to the movement/combat and progression, or it's already how it's meant to be and just not my kind of thing.
2021
A soothing little tile-laying game. Feels a bit like a solo Carcassone, with a lovely soundtrack and some variations. Could see it wearing thin before long, but I can also see myself picking it up for an hour or two every so often for a very long time.
I was glad to retread the paths of the original, and the New Content carried with it all the same wit and charm, although did start to wear thin in parts. I find "lol random" humor and the whole self-referential meta thing more blasé than mind-blowing these days, but despite that there were some real stand-out and laugh-out-loud moments which shone through.
I adored this expansion. It felt like the devs have really figured out how to get the best out of the game. The maps are stunning and incredible fun to fly or skiff around, the soundtrack is unreal, the metas (post-tweaks) are satisfying, and the writing is the best in the game and as good as I've seen in an MMO.
My only real gripes are that I've not found much use for the turtle (although it's a cool concept), and that the new legendaries are a bit plain and not to my taste.
My only real gripes are that I've not found much use for the turtle (although it's a cool concept), and that the new legendaries are a bit plain and not to my taste.
Packed with humour, a killer soundtrack, and solid (if fairly basic) mechanics, all wrapped up in a neat 2-3 hour packge that doesn't overstay its welcome.
Yeah okay maybe Yakuza just isn't for me. I know I'd love the gameplay and especially the sidequests if I got to them, but I 'played' this for 2-3 hours and think I had two fights and walked around for maybe 5 minutes. I checked online to see if I was nearing the end of the intro, but nope there would have been another 5+ hours of cutscenes before it let me actually explore the game. If I wanted to spend 20 hours on a non-interactive piece of media I'd just go watch a show.
2021
I adored this game. I would have appreciated it being a bit more interactive during the loops, when all you do is watch your equipment and think about where to put stuff next, but the equipment treadmill is very satisfying and it's incredibly fun when you manage to "beat the system" and keep going for a dozen loops after beating the boss.
2018
Intriguing and relatively light game. Never finished it but I do remember enjoying it, and don't regret the £4 or whatever I spent on it.
2020
Loved the concept and the humour, and appreciated the wide range of things you can pick up and swing at goblins, but got a bit tired of it all before I'd beaten the second or third dungeons.
TBD
Got super in to this for a couple of evenings. A nice amount of depth, although some quality of life frustrations (some of which got patched just as I closed the game).
2022
A really incredible little Zelda/Soulsy game, although quite obtuse at times. I spent hours decoding the language but never got massively far, and couldn't figure out where to find the final secrets so gave up without getting the 'true' ending. Bit sad because I was hyped to do it, but I just couldn't make head nor tail of what I was meant to do other than "wander around the whole map again and hope you spot some puzzles".