2023
Full video review: https://youtu.be/aCOWXtNv4nk
A wizard with spells is cool, but a wizard with a gun that also uses spells might just be even cooler.
Gameplay
Wizard with a Gun is a sandbox roguelike shooter where you turn back time to travel to randomly generated biomes to hunt down enemies, gather crafting materials, and find all sorts of neat loot. The core game loop here is very defined. Each time you turn back time, a new timer starts, counting down until chaos invades the world you just generated. So you need to get all your gathering and hunting done in that short time, lest you be overrun by powerful creatures all resembling some sort of pink blob. Or if you are feeling lucky, you can stay through that chaos and farm those pink blobs for material to make even better items back at base.
It’s back at that base that you’ll find the bulk of the game’s crafting mechanics. There’s simple crafting you can do on the fly, but also research tables, tons of different ammunition types, armor upgrades, elemental upgrades, and a full slate of objects, walls, and flooring to build if you’re into the decoration side of things. This was one of my favorite parts of the experience, just going down these research trees and trying out new weapon combinations.
Just casually exploring usually gave me more than enough material for general crafting, it was only when I wanted something super specific that I would have to generate an entire level for it. I feel like a lot of games reliant on crafting mechanics like this fall victim to slower pacing as a result, but that is not the feeling I had here. Wizard with a Gun is fast and satisfying without sacrificing complexity.
Of course this wouldn’t work without good combat, another area the game does a great job in. Hits have feedback, there’s a good amount of variety with the weapon choices, and as mentioned previously, the sheer amount of customization possibilities make it very fun to play around with.
Level Design
The game could use some improvement in the area of its level design and random generation. It’s kinda basic and lacks the unique structures, enemies, and other random events that really sell a good roguelike. As such, the actual act of exploring isn’t quite as good as it could have been, even if I still had a good time with it.
Bosses & Quests
The bosses have only a few attacks, aren’t all that difficult, and really aren’t that satisfying to beat. The quest system felt like it was implemented just to give a general direction when it could have been so much more. The game has some lore, it just isn’t explored to the extent that I would have liked. It’s not outright bad, just kinda basic and disappointing in comparison to the rest of the experience.
Graphics & Music
Graphically, the game looks great. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but I liked the stylized, darker aesthetic with its heavy use of shading and outlining. This, combined with the lighting, makes for a very cool overall look, one that’s even better in motion as the animations are just as good. The music is less notable, but still fitting for the overall style the game goes for.
Performance
I had no issues playing at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. There aren’t really any settings to change outside of resolution, but it’s not a difficult game to run by any means so that likely won’t pose an issue for most. Controls are also good. I spent my entire playtime using just keyboard and mouse and didn’t feel the need to change any bindings.
Overall
Wizard with a Gun is fast and satisfying without sacrificing complexity, the ideal formula for an action roguelike. It offers up some clean combat, tons of different weapon and ammo possibilities, and a crafting system that doesn’t feel intrusive or tacked on in any way. It’s a fairly solid recommendation for fans of the genre, even if it does struggle with its levels and overall quest system. Still, I had fun with it and would recommend it.
A wizard with spells is cool, but a wizard with a gun that also uses spells might just be even cooler.
Gameplay
Wizard with a Gun is a sandbox roguelike shooter where you turn back time to travel to randomly generated biomes to hunt down enemies, gather crafting materials, and find all sorts of neat loot. The core game loop here is very defined. Each time you turn back time, a new timer starts, counting down until chaos invades the world you just generated. So you need to get all your gathering and hunting done in that short time, lest you be overrun by powerful creatures all resembling some sort of pink blob. Or if you are feeling lucky, you can stay through that chaos and farm those pink blobs for material to make even better items back at base.
It’s back at that base that you’ll find the bulk of the game’s crafting mechanics. There’s simple crafting you can do on the fly, but also research tables, tons of different ammunition types, armor upgrades, elemental upgrades, and a full slate of objects, walls, and flooring to build if you’re into the decoration side of things. This was one of my favorite parts of the experience, just going down these research trees and trying out new weapon combinations.
Just casually exploring usually gave me more than enough material for general crafting, it was only when I wanted something super specific that I would have to generate an entire level for it. I feel like a lot of games reliant on crafting mechanics like this fall victim to slower pacing as a result, but that is not the feeling I had here. Wizard with a Gun is fast and satisfying without sacrificing complexity.
Of course this wouldn’t work without good combat, another area the game does a great job in. Hits have feedback, there’s a good amount of variety with the weapon choices, and as mentioned previously, the sheer amount of customization possibilities make it very fun to play around with.
Level Design
The game could use some improvement in the area of its level design and random generation. It’s kinda basic and lacks the unique structures, enemies, and other random events that really sell a good roguelike. As such, the actual act of exploring isn’t quite as good as it could have been, even if I still had a good time with it.
Bosses & Quests
The bosses have only a few attacks, aren’t all that difficult, and really aren’t that satisfying to beat. The quest system felt like it was implemented just to give a general direction when it could have been so much more. The game has some lore, it just isn’t explored to the extent that I would have liked. It’s not outright bad, just kinda basic and disappointing in comparison to the rest of the experience.
Graphics & Music
Graphically, the game looks great. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but I liked the stylized, darker aesthetic with its heavy use of shading and outlining. This, combined with the lighting, makes for a very cool overall look, one that’s even better in motion as the animations are just as good. The music is less notable, but still fitting for the overall style the game goes for.
Performance
I had no issues playing at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. There aren’t really any settings to change outside of resolution, but it’s not a difficult game to run by any means so that likely won’t pose an issue for most. Controls are also good. I spent my entire playtime using just keyboard and mouse and didn’t feel the need to change any bindings.
Overall
Wizard with a Gun is fast and satisfying without sacrificing complexity, the ideal formula for an action roguelike. It offers up some clean combat, tons of different weapon and ammo possibilities, and a crafting system that doesn’t feel intrusive or tacked on in any way. It’s a fairly solid recommendation for fans of the genre, even if it does struggle with its levels and overall quest system. Still, I had fun with it and would recommend it.
2023
Full video review: https://youtu.be/TwBeboflZwQ
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat among all the other big releases surrounding it. It is not often we get games full of soul like this!
Gameplay
For a game built around skating and cycling, the devs really did a great job with the movement here. It’s fluid, it’s exciting once the speed picks up, and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of - courtesy of the well-placed and helpful tutorials. Skating around, wallriding, grinding, it’s all relatively simple to pull off and the ease of movement here lends itself well to building combos.
A big part of the gameplay is building up those combos by doing tricks and getting multipliers to make that combo grow. The tricks are just a simple button press and that’s the first of my complaints here. You get your little handful of tricks and that’s literally it. There’s no special inputs here, nothing more complex than your simple kickflip or whatnot. Maybe that’s a side effect of having the movement be so easy is that the moves are as well, but I would have liked at least a little bit more complexity there.
Level Design
The level design might just be my favorite part of the game. Every time I entered a new area it was like I was given this entire skater’s wishlist full of things shoved into one package. Grinding rails going everywhere, tubes to skate and slide through, half-pipes to allow me to reach higher areas - the game does an outstanding job giving you these environments to work in and it is never not fun to skate around, doing combos, finding all the graffiti spots, and there’s also a bunch of collectibles too.
I kinda miss when games had simple, yet effective level design like this. Not only do they look cool, but they’re fun to move around in and explore and I don’t know, the devs just really nailed that feeling I got playing 3D platformers back when I was a kid.
Combat
For some reason this game also has combat? And to be blunt - it’s awful. There is no impact, no sense of weight, the hitboxes are ridiculous, and just like the tricks, it mostly devolves into button mashing. That said, the combat is not a main player here. You do get occasional segments where you need to wipe out a small police squad or take down a sniper, but you hardly ever need to utilize the combat in its most basic form. The bosses usually have some clever design to them that encourage skating and graffiti and the devs actually did a pretty good in that department.
Difficulty
I felt like the game may have been a bit too easy. I don’t think I ever failed a single challenge, the combo multiplier on rails trivializes the crew battles, and I only died a few times against the bosses. Given the simplistic nature of the combat, the tricks, and the movement - this is likely intended and I think it might be better to view the game as some laidback dumb fun.
Story
The story actually tackles some pretty mature themes and draws similarities to Ghost in the Shell and even Psycho-Pass in some areas. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was paced well, had nice cutscenes, and just had this energy that kinda reminded me of a Suda51 game.
Length
I managed to complete the game in just under six hours. It’s not a long game by any means, but I wouldn’t say it was too short. For completionists, there is quite a bit more to do. I may have completed the game, but I had less than 20% of the achievements, for example.
Music & Graphics
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a better soundtrack to come out this year. There’s an excellent blend of funky hip-hop, jazzy tunes, bass-heavy beats, and it’s just such a great mix of styles for the type of gameplay here. The visuals too. Not quite as noteworthy, but serviceable enough for a cel-shaded experience like this, with fun character designs and excellent use of color to bring this world to life.
Performance
I had the game crash on me once, but the rest of the experience went by without issue running at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. I also played the game fine on both controller and keyboard and mouse without feeling the need to remap any buttons on either. Plays well, runs well. Just how it should be.
Overall
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat. Fun gameplay, stellar level design, an absolute bop of a soundtrack, a compelling story - the whole experience just has a lot of soul behind it even if it may falter in areas like its complexity, difficulty, and combat. I grew to like it quite a bit by the time I finished and would recommend it to those that miss the feeling of 3D platformers of old.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat among all the other big releases surrounding it. It is not often we get games full of soul like this!
Gameplay
For a game built around skating and cycling, the devs really did a great job with the movement here. It’s fluid, it’s exciting once the speed picks up, and it doesn’t take long to get the hang of - courtesy of the well-placed and helpful tutorials. Skating around, wallriding, grinding, it’s all relatively simple to pull off and the ease of movement here lends itself well to building combos.
A big part of the gameplay is building up those combos by doing tricks and getting multipliers to make that combo grow. The tricks are just a simple button press and that’s the first of my complaints here. You get your little handful of tricks and that’s literally it. There’s no special inputs here, nothing more complex than your simple kickflip or whatnot. Maybe that’s a side effect of having the movement be so easy is that the moves are as well, but I would have liked at least a little bit more complexity there.
Level Design
The level design might just be my favorite part of the game. Every time I entered a new area it was like I was given this entire skater’s wishlist full of things shoved into one package. Grinding rails going everywhere, tubes to skate and slide through, half-pipes to allow me to reach higher areas - the game does an outstanding job giving you these environments to work in and it is never not fun to skate around, doing combos, finding all the graffiti spots, and there’s also a bunch of collectibles too.
I kinda miss when games had simple, yet effective level design like this. Not only do they look cool, but they’re fun to move around in and explore and I don’t know, the devs just really nailed that feeling I got playing 3D platformers back when I was a kid.
Combat
For some reason this game also has combat? And to be blunt - it’s awful. There is no impact, no sense of weight, the hitboxes are ridiculous, and just like the tricks, it mostly devolves into button mashing. That said, the combat is not a main player here. You do get occasional segments where you need to wipe out a small police squad or take down a sniper, but you hardly ever need to utilize the combat in its most basic form. The bosses usually have some clever design to them that encourage skating and graffiti and the devs actually did a pretty good in that department.
Difficulty
I felt like the game may have been a bit too easy. I don’t think I ever failed a single challenge, the combo multiplier on rails trivializes the crew battles, and I only died a few times against the bosses. Given the simplistic nature of the combat, the tricks, and the movement - this is likely intended and I think it might be better to view the game as some laidback dumb fun.
Story
The story actually tackles some pretty mature themes and draws similarities to Ghost in the Shell and even Psycho-Pass in some areas. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. It was paced well, had nice cutscenes, and just had this energy that kinda reminded me of a Suda51 game.
Length
I managed to complete the game in just under six hours. It’s not a long game by any means, but I wouldn’t say it was too short. For completionists, there is quite a bit more to do. I may have completed the game, but I had less than 20% of the achievements, for example.
Music & Graphics
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a better soundtrack to come out this year. There’s an excellent blend of funky hip-hop, jazzy tunes, bass-heavy beats, and it’s just such a great mix of styles for the type of gameplay here. The visuals too. Not quite as noteworthy, but serviceable enough for a cel-shaded experience like this, with fun character designs and excellent use of color to bring this world to life.
Performance
I had the game crash on me once, but the rest of the experience went by without issue running at 4k 144fps on my 3080 Ti. I also played the game fine on both controller and keyboard and mouse without feeling the need to remap any buttons on either. Plays well, runs well. Just how it should be.
Overall
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is a real indie treat. Fun gameplay, stellar level design, an absolute bop of a soundtrack, a compelling story - the whole experience just has a lot of soul behind it even if it may falter in areas like its complexity, difficulty, and combat. I grew to like it quite a bit by the time I finished and would recommend it to those that miss the feeling of 3D platformers of old.
2023
Full video review: https://youtu.be/iqwEVZNC0w4
I may like this series and there are some good elements, but honestly, my experience with Fate/Samurai Remnant was just painful.
Combat
I will start with the good. For one, the core combat mechanics are actually pretty good, great even. You get a handful of stances to swap between and are actually encouraged to do so depending on your HP level, how many enemies you are fighting, and what stats you want to prioritize. It adds a good bit of depth to the otherwise mashfest that is Musou-style gameplay. There is still a bit of mashing, but I liked the extra layers added here.
Gameplay Loop & Difficulty
It is just unfortunate that this combat is stuck with some incredibly repetitive and tedious mission design. The game literally opens with you helping a guy collect debts from random people around town. That’s how bad it is.
When you are not running random errands as main story quests, you are dealing with this absolutely tedious turn-based board game style travel system. You have to travel between nodes to get to your destination and if you run into an enemy along the way, jump into a copy-paste arena to fight them in.
And the enemies are copy-paste too. You will be fighting the same type of samurai and a handful of monsters the entire game. You occasionally get some new, interesting ones, but it just becomes tiring spamming buttons against the same enemies battle after battle. Especially so given how this game manages its difficulty level: by simply raising enemy HP. Bosses especially, since they get an extra armor meter that just takes forever to break before you actually do damage. It’s not like the bosses are even hard, just boring and time-consuming.
Story
The gameplay is only about half of the experience, maybe just 30-40% of it. The rest is visual novel style storytelling, which I honestly don’t mind as a VN fan, but not so when it is as wordy and full of fluff like it is here. You get one cool fight cutscene and then a 30 minute dinner dialogue scene to follow. One cool character reveal, and then an info dump where a character explains a simple concept to death as if I was five years old.
It’s just frustrating. Boring and frustrating. I know the Fate franchise is full of lengthy stories, but I don’t recall ever being as bored with them as I was here. The pacing is just far too slow.
Performance / PC Port
I had no issues playing at 4k 120fps, although it was a bit weird that the game is divided into performance and quality modes on PC, the latter of which listed a 60fps limit. The game still looked fine in performance mode - at least, for this developer’s standard - so I can’t say I minded all that much. There are a bunch of video settings to change too, so props to the devs for that instead of just leaving it as one slider as they have definitely done in the past.
Overall
I cannot recommend Fate/Samurai Remnant. There are obviously some good ideas here, especially with the combat mechanics, but the gameplay loop, the mission design, and the story full of filler really sour the experience. The Fate/Extella games may have their issues, but they are at least better than this.
I may like this series and there are some good elements, but honestly, my experience with Fate/Samurai Remnant was just painful.
Combat
I will start with the good. For one, the core combat mechanics are actually pretty good, great even. You get a handful of stances to swap between and are actually encouraged to do so depending on your HP level, how many enemies you are fighting, and what stats you want to prioritize. It adds a good bit of depth to the otherwise mashfest that is Musou-style gameplay. There is still a bit of mashing, but I liked the extra layers added here.
Gameplay Loop & Difficulty
It is just unfortunate that this combat is stuck with some incredibly repetitive and tedious mission design. The game literally opens with you helping a guy collect debts from random people around town. That’s how bad it is.
When you are not running random errands as main story quests, you are dealing with this absolutely tedious turn-based board game style travel system. You have to travel between nodes to get to your destination and if you run into an enemy along the way, jump into a copy-paste arena to fight them in.
And the enemies are copy-paste too. You will be fighting the same type of samurai and a handful of monsters the entire game. You occasionally get some new, interesting ones, but it just becomes tiring spamming buttons against the same enemies battle after battle. Especially so given how this game manages its difficulty level: by simply raising enemy HP. Bosses especially, since they get an extra armor meter that just takes forever to break before you actually do damage. It’s not like the bosses are even hard, just boring and time-consuming.
Story
The gameplay is only about half of the experience, maybe just 30-40% of it. The rest is visual novel style storytelling, which I honestly don’t mind as a VN fan, but not so when it is as wordy and full of fluff like it is here. You get one cool fight cutscene and then a 30 minute dinner dialogue scene to follow. One cool character reveal, and then an info dump where a character explains a simple concept to death as if I was five years old.
It’s just frustrating. Boring and frustrating. I know the Fate franchise is full of lengthy stories, but I don’t recall ever being as bored with them as I was here. The pacing is just far too slow.
Performance / PC Port
I had no issues playing at 4k 120fps, although it was a bit weird that the game is divided into performance and quality modes on PC, the latter of which listed a 60fps limit. The game still looked fine in performance mode - at least, for this developer’s standard - so I can’t say I minded all that much. There are a bunch of video settings to change too, so props to the devs for that instead of just leaving it as one slider as they have definitely done in the past.
Overall
I cannot recommend Fate/Samurai Remnant. There are obviously some good ideas here, especially with the combat mechanics, but the gameplay loop, the mission design, and the story full of filler really sour the experience. The Fate/Extella games may have their issues, but they are at least better than this.
Video review: https://youtu.be/PjrzMvfXiao
After the disappointment that was Rune Factory 5 (it was just... ok), I was very ready to dive back into the gameplay that made me fall in love with the series with Rune Factory 3 Special.
Rune Factory 3 Special is a very good fantasy themed farming sim. It comes complete with all the farming elements, but also a lively town with a full cast of characters to get to know, surrounding wilderness to explore full of enemies to take down with the game’s combat system, and a story that, honestly, I think I might like more than Rune Factory 4. It is less bloated and more straight to the point in terms of the main plot, instead letting the characters shine.
This works in the game’s favor as the characters have always been a strong point in this series and Rune Factory 3 is no exception. I had a great time getting to know each character, completing quests for them, and yeah, there is a romance system too which I cannot deny is one of the highlights of the experience.
Not everything sticks though. The combat is still janky with its hitboxes and targeting, the UI is still not that great, and the quality of life could use some improvement, but overall, it is just a fun farming sim. The farming elements are fleshed out and not super tedious, the story is laidback and matches the setting perfectly, and the upgraded visuals are nice too. Not the highest of quality upgrades, but it gives it a nostalgic look and I cannot deny I love the approach.
It runs well too. I had no issues on the performance front. It runs just fine natively at 4k and at 144fps, coming with a little launcher to allow you to edit these settings.
Overall
Rune Factory 3 Special is a pretty easy recommendation to make. It is a great port of an already great game and I am glad that we are getting more of this series on PC. Rune Factory 5 left a sour taste in my mouth, so it is nice to get back on track.
After the disappointment that was Rune Factory 5 (it was just... ok), I was very ready to dive back into the gameplay that made me fall in love with the series with Rune Factory 3 Special.
Rune Factory 3 Special is a very good fantasy themed farming sim. It comes complete with all the farming elements, but also a lively town with a full cast of characters to get to know, surrounding wilderness to explore full of enemies to take down with the game’s combat system, and a story that, honestly, I think I might like more than Rune Factory 4. It is less bloated and more straight to the point in terms of the main plot, instead letting the characters shine.
This works in the game’s favor as the characters have always been a strong point in this series and Rune Factory 3 is no exception. I had a great time getting to know each character, completing quests for them, and yeah, there is a romance system too which I cannot deny is one of the highlights of the experience.
Not everything sticks though. The combat is still janky with its hitboxes and targeting, the UI is still not that great, and the quality of life could use some improvement, but overall, it is just a fun farming sim. The farming elements are fleshed out and not super tedious, the story is laidback and matches the setting perfectly, and the upgraded visuals are nice too. Not the highest of quality upgrades, but it gives it a nostalgic look and I cannot deny I love the approach.
It runs well too. I had no issues on the performance front. It runs just fine natively at 4k and at 144fps, coming with a little launcher to allow you to edit these settings.
Overall
Rune Factory 3 Special is a pretty easy recommendation to make. It is a great port of an already great game and I am glad that we are getting more of this series on PC. Rune Factory 5 left a sour taste in my mouth, so it is nice to get back on track.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/g-douiTlGcw
We finally have Astro's Playroom on PC. Or rather, as close as we can get. It is called Boti: Byteland Overclocked and it aims to fill that very specific 3D platforming inside a computer niche.
Gameplay
Boti is a competent 3D platformer that tackles the basics and nothing more. It’s got a bit of platforming, a bit of a puzzle touch to that platforming, and the devs really did a good job with the actual variety of the gameplay. You’ll go from one of those platforming segments, to an area with a puzzle or two, to a giant slide that reminds me of the ones from Battle for Bikini Bottom, and then there’s swinging, cannons, and even some vehicle segments.
It’s all basic stuff, but it’s spread out in such a way that the gameplay never really becomes tedious. The collectibles and bonus objectives add to this too, encouraging you to explore further and occasionally solve the extra puzzle or two.
That said, don’t expect any real challenge here. The boss fights are laughable at best, but when you take into account the target audience here, it’s hard to fault the game for that. It is very forgiving with its checkpoints too. Not a difficult game by any means.
Length and Story
I completed Boti in just over 3 hours, but you could probably squeeze double the time out of it if you go the completionist route. I don’t feel like it was too short either, the gameplay pacing was steady throughout and didn’t feel like it was rushing.
The story is hardly notable because of how little it matters here. It’s more so just a means to link together the different levels and felt like an afterthought if anything. Not that the game needs something more than that though.
Graphics
The aesthetic, for the most part, is pretty good. It makes good use of lighting, coloring, and overall just has a nice vibrant look to it. This is while running on Unreal Engine 5, which shows in some ways - such as the ray tracing - but I cannot deny I was a bit surprised to learn that given that this could have easily passed as a last generation game. Not that that is a bad thing, just that when you look at the big picture, the backgrounds are blocky, the textures are not all that high-res, and the overall geometry is on the simpler side.
Performance / Optimization
This is unfortunately not a really well-optimized game. I am running on an RTX 3080 Ti and was unable to play the game natively at 4k with ray tracing OFF without dips to well below 60 fps. I figured - okay, I will just enable dynamic image scaling to hopefully fix that. And while that did raise my fps to above 100, it was not stable and some areas and scenes still caused dips to below 60fps. Which again, is surprising to see given that the game does not have the graphical fidelity to warrant using 100% of my GPU. So while it is not the worst performance I have seen, it could definitely use a bit more optimization.
Bugs / Lack of Polish
I hate to say it, but in its current state, Boti should not be released and I cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone with the amount of technical issues I ran into. Whether that be audio randomly cutting out in cutscenes, cutscene dialogue just disappearing outright, character models getting stuck in the wrong direction, button prompts getting mixed up and displaying keyboard, Xbox, and PlayStation all at once, objects not loading in when they should, physics going out the window at times, and even soft locks on top of that.
Several times while playing I had to reload the level just to get the game to work correctly. And that is before I even mention the crashes - which I unfortunately also had a couple of. Keep in mind, all of the issues I mentioned here are the ones that WERE NOT already included on the “known issues” list I was provided by the devs.
The game even acknowledges its own lack of polish in a way. There is straight-up an “unstuck” button on the pause menu that you can press to move your character out of terrain when they get stuck. I unfortunately had to make heavy use of this button, especially when playing online co-op. And that co-op is a separate issue entirely. My boyfriend and I managed to get through the first level playing online co-op, but I had to play through the rest of the game by myself because we just kept running into issues, including this weird flickering when standing on certain objects and some areas where the game progresses for one player, but traps the other - forcing a reload.
Overall
Boti is far too buggy to be worth a play in its current state. Numerous soft locks, collision issues, broken co-op, and even crashes prevent the otherwise competent gameplay from being anything more than that. Maybe in the future it will be worth a look, but as of now, I cannot recommend it.
We finally have Astro's Playroom on PC. Or rather, as close as we can get. It is called Boti: Byteland Overclocked and it aims to fill that very specific 3D platforming inside a computer niche.
Gameplay
Boti is a competent 3D platformer that tackles the basics and nothing more. It’s got a bit of platforming, a bit of a puzzle touch to that platforming, and the devs really did a good job with the actual variety of the gameplay. You’ll go from one of those platforming segments, to an area with a puzzle or two, to a giant slide that reminds me of the ones from Battle for Bikini Bottom, and then there’s swinging, cannons, and even some vehicle segments.
It’s all basic stuff, but it’s spread out in such a way that the gameplay never really becomes tedious. The collectibles and bonus objectives add to this too, encouraging you to explore further and occasionally solve the extra puzzle or two.
That said, don’t expect any real challenge here. The boss fights are laughable at best, but when you take into account the target audience here, it’s hard to fault the game for that. It is very forgiving with its checkpoints too. Not a difficult game by any means.
Length and Story
I completed Boti in just over 3 hours, but you could probably squeeze double the time out of it if you go the completionist route. I don’t feel like it was too short either, the gameplay pacing was steady throughout and didn’t feel like it was rushing.
The story is hardly notable because of how little it matters here. It’s more so just a means to link together the different levels and felt like an afterthought if anything. Not that the game needs something more than that though.
Graphics
The aesthetic, for the most part, is pretty good. It makes good use of lighting, coloring, and overall just has a nice vibrant look to it. This is while running on Unreal Engine 5, which shows in some ways - such as the ray tracing - but I cannot deny I was a bit surprised to learn that given that this could have easily passed as a last generation game. Not that that is a bad thing, just that when you look at the big picture, the backgrounds are blocky, the textures are not all that high-res, and the overall geometry is on the simpler side.
Performance / Optimization
This is unfortunately not a really well-optimized game. I am running on an RTX 3080 Ti and was unable to play the game natively at 4k with ray tracing OFF without dips to well below 60 fps. I figured - okay, I will just enable dynamic image scaling to hopefully fix that. And while that did raise my fps to above 100, it was not stable and some areas and scenes still caused dips to below 60fps. Which again, is surprising to see given that the game does not have the graphical fidelity to warrant using 100% of my GPU. So while it is not the worst performance I have seen, it could definitely use a bit more optimization.
Bugs / Lack of Polish
I hate to say it, but in its current state, Boti should not be released and I cannot in good faith recommend it to anyone with the amount of technical issues I ran into. Whether that be audio randomly cutting out in cutscenes, cutscene dialogue just disappearing outright, character models getting stuck in the wrong direction, button prompts getting mixed up and displaying keyboard, Xbox, and PlayStation all at once, objects not loading in when they should, physics going out the window at times, and even soft locks on top of that.
Several times while playing I had to reload the level just to get the game to work correctly. And that is before I even mention the crashes - which I unfortunately also had a couple of. Keep in mind, all of the issues I mentioned here are the ones that WERE NOT already included on the “known issues” list I was provided by the devs.
The game even acknowledges its own lack of polish in a way. There is straight-up an “unstuck” button on the pause menu that you can press to move your character out of terrain when they get stuck. I unfortunately had to make heavy use of this button, especially when playing online co-op. And that co-op is a separate issue entirely. My boyfriend and I managed to get through the first level playing online co-op, but I had to play through the rest of the game by myself because we just kept running into issues, including this weird flickering when standing on certain objects and some areas where the game progresses for one player, but traps the other - forcing a reload.
Overall
Boti is far too buggy to be worth a play in its current state. Numerous soft locks, collision issues, broken co-op, and even crashes prevent the otherwise competent gameplay from being anything more than that. Maybe in the future it will be worth a look, but as of now, I cannot recommend it.
2023
Full video review: https://youtu.be/BpfdlXL72XA
Take an umbrella and slap a gun on it and you get a pretty fun little fast-paced indie side scroller.
Gameplay & Movement
Gunbrella is a side scroller that emphasizes fast combat and fluid movement. Most enemies die in one or two shots and this leads to some faster paced gameplay, only helped by how quick the movement is here. Your gunbrella allows you to slide, jump, hover, and otherwise dash around very quickly and it makes for some really fun gameplay. It is never not satisfying to enter a room and dispatch all of the enemies while flying through the air and exiting without even touching the ground. The devs really did a good job making the movement fun and intuitive to use.
Combat
The combat is also quite fun, but not without its issues. Your gunbrella can make use of multiple ammo types, but I found the other ammo types so scarce that I only ever ended up using them for bosses and that just felt like wasted potential. The game could use more of those enemies too. It got a bit old fighting the same types over and over and while new ones were occasionally introduced, they lacked the variety to really get rid of that monotony.
That and the game has a bad habit of sticking these enemies with the simplest of attack patterns. Which unfortunately also extends to the bosses - probably the most hit or miss element of the entire experience. You get some really cool ones that have a bunch of cool moves and then other ones that seem like they should be this big and difficult thing, but end up having just a single move that they repeat the entire fight. Very disappointing there.
Aesthetic & Story
The level design is cool and leaves room for secrets and even full blown sidequests, the game world is incredibly detailed and I really liked the grungy pixel art aesthetic, the music has some standout tracks and matches that aesthetic, and the story actually is not that bad. I did not go into this game expecting the story to be such a large element, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a somewhat well thought out plot complete with characters that are genuinely interesting to talk to, dark humor that matches the setting, and even the ability to make decisions throughout the story that change certain outcomes. It is not something super complex, but it is engaging enough.
Length & Replayability
It took me just under five hours to complete the game and that is with doing some side quests along the way. The experience is rather linear and I cannot say that it is really that replayable as a result. That said, there are some sizeable side quests to clear if you are looking to squeeze additional time out of it, along with some achievements that could possibly require a second playthrough.
Performance
A bit disappointing that it appears to be locked to 60 fps, but otherwise, I had no issues with performance and no bugs to speak of. It is a very polished experience and plays well on both controller and keyboard and mouse.
Overall
Gunbrella is fast, fun, and violent - mixing a dark and grungy aesthetic with some very fluid and satisfying gameplay. It may be lacking in some areas - namely enemy variety, the boss fights, and the ammo types, but the rest of the experience makes up for it. I enjoyed my time with it and it’s a great way to kill five hours or so.
Take an umbrella and slap a gun on it and you get a pretty fun little fast-paced indie side scroller.
Gameplay & Movement
Gunbrella is a side scroller that emphasizes fast combat and fluid movement. Most enemies die in one or two shots and this leads to some faster paced gameplay, only helped by how quick the movement is here. Your gunbrella allows you to slide, jump, hover, and otherwise dash around very quickly and it makes for some really fun gameplay. It is never not satisfying to enter a room and dispatch all of the enemies while flying through the air and exiting without even touching the ground. The devs really did a good job making the movement fun and intuitive to use.
Combat
The combat is also quite fun, but not without its issues. Your gunbrella can make use of multiple ammo types, but I found the other ammo types so scarce that I only ever ended up using them for bosses and that just felt like wasted potential. The game could use more of those enemies too. It got a bit old fighting the same types over and over and while new ones were occasionally introduced, they lacked the variety to really get rid of that monotony.
That and the game has a bad habit of sticking these enemies with the simplest of attack patterns. Which unfortunately also extends to the bosses - probably the most hit or miss element of the entire experience. You get some really cool ones that have a bunch of cool moves and then other ones that seem like they should be this big and difficult thing, but end up having just a single move that they repeat the entire fight. Very disappointing there.
Aesthetic & Story
The level design is cool and leaves room for secrets and even full blown sidequests, the game world is incredibly detailed and I really liked the grungy pixel art aesthetic, the music has some standout tracks and matches that aesthetic, and the story actually is not that bad. I did not go into this game expecting the story to be such a large element, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a somewhat well thought out plot complete with characters that are genuinely interesting to talk to, dark humor that matches the setting, and even the ability to make decisions throughout the story that change certain outcomes. It is not something super complex, but it is engaging enough.
Length & Replayability
It took me just under five hours to complete the game and that is with doing some side quests along the way. The experience is rather linear and I cannot say that it is really that replayable as a result. That said, there are some sizeable side quests to clear if you are looking to squeeze additional time out of it, along with some achievements that could possibly require a second playthrough.
Performance
A bit disappointing that it appears to be locked to 60 fps, but otherwise, I had no issues with performance and no bugs to speak of. It is a very polished experience and plays well on both controller and keyboard and mouse.
Overall
Gunbrella is fast, fun, and violent - mixing a dark and grungy aesthetic with some very fluid and satisfying gameplay. It may be lacking in some areas - namely enemy variety, the boss fights, and the ammo types, but the rest of the experience makes up for it. I enjoyed my time with it and it’s a great way to kill five hours or so.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/QIFO26RMaB0
I love visual novels. I also love all things witchy and people often ask if I am a witch when I’m out in public. So you could say that I was just a bit excited for this game 😅
Gameplay and Core Loop
If you’re familiar with the game series Coffee Talk - this game is pretty much that, but with witches, and the coffee making elements replaced with tarot making. Your gameplay is limited to customizing these cards and moving around your small home, jumping between different stations to either make cards, delete them, study, sleep, or talk with visitors to progress the story. The core loop basically revolves around chatting with visitors, occasionally making a new card, and sleeping to the next day when nothing is available. It’s straightforward, but effective.
The card customization itself is mostly just aesthetic, but has some strategy to it in that what you select as templates will ultimately determine the card’s meaning. That said, I never really felt like I was challenged to do so because the meanings are rather broad and I pretty much got the results I wanted each time when doing the actual readings anyways. It’s a neat mechanic, but lacks the depth to be anything other than a fun little distraction from the meat of the game.
Story
The story does a great job laying its foundation - introducing new characters at a relatively steady rate to keep the experience engaging while also avoiding info dumps. These characters introduce various subplots to the game, which ultimately end up changing minor details about the story. A seemingly meaningless decision might slightly change future dialogue lines, which I thought was neat even if it wasn’t some major story-altering change.
And the characters themselves were fairly interesting. They each have their own little backstory and although some are more fleshed out than others, I can’t say I outright disliked any of them. Some made me laugh, some made me interested in learning more, and some outright made me question my ethics.
Several themes are tackled throughout the story. You’ll dip heavily into philosophy, but also relationships and even witchy politics. None of these topics are so deep as to lose the casual player, but they are each intriguing enough that some parts did leave me thinking and I can’t deny I like games that make me do so.
There’s also a romance element, but I can’t say I really understand it. One of the characters I had talked with just showed up and confessed and I suddenly ended up on this romance route that progressed to the point of sleeping together within just a dozen lines and was way too forced to feel genuine. I can’t say I mind the addition of romance, but it was not well executed here.
The overall pacing is relatively slow to start, but picks up steadily as you play and leads to a very engaging story climax that I couldn’t step away from. The studio did a great job balancing the little character building moments with the progress of the overall story, much more so than many other bigger-budget visual novels I have played.
Art and Music
The pixel art is like, really good. The character designs are top-notch, the animation looks great, and there is a ton of detail packed in there. The studio obviously spent their time here and I was very impressed with the result. Same with the music. It’s super somber for the most part, but fits the whole “isolated in space” theme and I really enjoyed that vibe.
Performance and Settings
The game runs at a locked 60 fps, which was a bit disappointing, but at least has no issues staying there. Game settings are limited to audio sliders, text speed, cursor speed, language, and screen mode. Nothing too complex and unfortunately lacking in some basic VN features I would deem necessary, like auto and skip options.
I did run into a major soft lock that unfortunately required input from the devs to fix. The hotfix provided did indeed solve the problem and I imagine that it will be patched in time, if not before release, but I feel the need to mention it regardless.
Length and Replayability
It took me just over 5 hours to clear one playthrough. Of course, this entirely depends on your reading speed and could easily be double my time. It’s not a long game by any means and the story wraps itself up nicely in that time, but I can see this maybe being an issue for those accustomed to longer visual novels.
I was not a fan of the replayability though. I got my ending and then went back to change my last few decisions to see if that would change the outcome, but found that the game auto saves at the credits and I could not do so. This is not helped by the fact that you cannot manually save. So there’s no ability to experiment with different outcomes and this makes any sort of completionist play style really difficult as you’ll have to replay the entire game several times over to see everything it has to offer.
Overall
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood does a great job tackling some heavy topics in its short run time, with some solid pacing, fun characters, and a top-tier art style to top it all off. It does lack in some areas, but I had a good time reading through it and would recommend it to visual novel fans, especially those inclined to the more witchy stuff.
I love visual novels. I also love all things witchy and people often ask if I am a witch when I’m out in public. So you could say that I was just a bit excited for this game 😅
Gameplay and Core Loop
If you’re familiar with the game series Coffee Talk - this game is pretty much that, but with witches, and the coffee making elements replaced with tarot making. Your gameplay is limited to customizing these cards and moving around your small home, jumping between different stations to either make cards, delete them, study, sleep, or talk with visitors to progress the story. The core loop basically revolves around chatting with visitors, occasionally making a new card, and sleeping to the next day when nothing is available. It’s straightforward, but effective.
The card customization itself is mostly just aesthetic, but has some strategy to it in that what you select as templates will ultimately determine the card’s meaning. That said, I never really felt like I was challenged to do so because the meanings are rather broad and I pretty much got the results I wanted each time when doing the actual readings anyways. It’s a neat mechanic, but lacks the depth to be anything other than a fun little distraction from the meat of the game.
Story
The story does a great job laying its foundation - introducing new characters at a relatively steady rate to keep the experience engaging while also avoiding info dumps. These characters introduce various subplots to the game, which ultimately end up changing minor details about the story. A seemingly meaningless decision might slightly change future dialogue lines, which I thought was neat even if it wasn’t some major story-altering change.
And the characters themselves were fairly interesting. They each have their own little backstory and although some are more fleshed out than others, I can’t say I outright disliked any of them. Some made me laugh, some made me interested in learning more, and some outright made me question my ethics.
Several themes are tackled throughout the story. You’ll dip heavily into philosophy, but also relationships and even witchy politics. None of these topics are so deep as to lose the casual player, but they are each intriguing enough that some parts did leave me thinking and I can’t deny I like games that make me do so.
There’s also a romance element, but I can’t say I really understand it. One of the characters I had talked with just showed up and confessed and I suddenly ended up on this romance route that progressed to the point of sleeping together within just a dozen lines and was way too forced to feel genuine. I can’t say I mind the addition of romance, but it was not well executed here.
The overall pacing is relatively slow to start, but picks up steadily as you play and leads to a very engaging story climax that I couldn’t step away from. The studio did a great job balancing the little character building moments with the progress of the overall story, much more so than many other bigger-budget visual novels I have played.
Art and Music
The pixel art is like, really good. The character designs are top-notch, the animation looks great, and there is a ton of detail packed in there. The studio obviously spent their time here and I was very impressed with the result. Same with the music. It’s super somber for the most part, but fits the whole “isolated in space” theme and I really enjoyed that vibe.
Performance and Settings
The game runs at a locked 60 fps, which was a bit disappointing, but at least has no issues staying there. Game settings are limited to audio sliders, text speed, cursor speed, language, and screen mode. Nothing too complex and unfortunately lacking in some basic VN features I would deem necessary, like auto and skip options.
I did run into a major soft lock that unfortunately required input from the devs to fix. The hotfix provided did indeed solve the problem and I imagine that it will be patched in time, if not before release, but I feel the need to mention it regardless.
Length and Replayability
It took me just over 5 hours to clear one playthrough. Of course, this entirely depends on your reading speed and could easily be double my time. It’s not a long game by any means and the story wraps itself up nicely in that time, but I can see this maybe being an issue for those accustomed to longer visual novels.
I was not a fan of the replayability though. I got my ending and then went back to change my last few decisions to see if that would change the outcome, but found that the game auto saves at the credits and I could not do so. This is not helped by the fact that you cannot manually save. So there’s no ability to experiment with different outcomes and this makes any sort of completionist play style really difficult as you’ll have to replay the entire game several times over to see everything it has to offer.
Overall
The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood does a great job tackling some heavy topics in its short run time, with some solid pacing, fun characters, and a top-tier art style to top it all off. It does lack in some areas, but I had a good time reading through it and would recommend it to visual novel fans, especially those inclined to the more witchy stuff.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/U-VMR1uREig
It’s always these super indie visual novels that have the most insane plots and characters. As an enjoyer of insane content, I am here for it.
Story
Your school is bombed by terrorists. You are transferred to the nearest available school, which just so happens to be a private school for rich kids. This is the plot established in the first few lines of the game, setting the stage for the insanity that is to follow. Because although From Madness with Love does operate like a traditional VNs with its four routes, bunch of choices, and plenty of CGs to unlock - the writing is anything but tame.
It’s surreal, it’s fast-paced, and oftentimes doesn’t make much sense, but that is exactly the type of energy the story goes for and honestly, it really helps with the engagement. There may be “filler” content, but that content is generally pretty interesting because it’s just so absurd most of the time. I mean, there’s literally an entire character who speaks in this foreign language that sounds like Japanese, but played backwards. It took me literally halfway through the game before I realized that you can actually read what this character says by opening the log 😅
Characters & Routes
You’ve of course got the backwards speaking senpai, but also the cute gamer, the nurse that is oftentimes scary and seems to be hiding something, and the little one that just comes in and drops some random info that makes you wonder if there’s some deeper meaning to everything that is happening.
Each route kinda goes off on its own and ramps up the pacing to the extreme towards the end, which does detract from any sort of emotion that you would traditionally expect from a romcom, but I honestly don’t think the writers were going for that kinda of impact anyways. Each ending is dropped on you suddenly and - without spoiling - I can’t say I really saw any of them coming.
I would say the story is pretty interesting overall. It’s not the kind of VN that I will see myself thinking of later on, but is fun in the moment and provided for some good laughs and good “what is even going on” moments that just kept me reading.
Art & Settings
The art is pretty good! It’s got a very indie, pixel art style and the vibrant colors and backgrounds definitely add to the surrealism. What it doesn’t have though, are some fairly basic VN features - like auto mode or literally any kind of font or text box settings. I get that it’s a very indie production, but I would at least expect auto mode from any VN, indie or not.
Overall
So I would say that From Madness with Love is deserving of a light recommendation. It may be no Doki Doki Literature Club, but it does have its own similar sort of appeal. The story is engaging, the characters are interesting, the art is fun, I had a good time in the five or six hours it took me to clear all the routes and would recommend it if you like indie VNs.
It’s always these super indie visual novels that have the most insane plots and characters. As an enjoyer of insane content, I am here for it.
Story
Your school is bombed by terrorists. You are transferred to the nearest available school, which just so happens to be a private school for rich kids. This is the plot established in the first few lines of the game, setting the stage for the insanity that is to follow. Because although From Madness with Love does operate like a traditional VNs with its four routes, bunch of choices, and plenty of CGs to unlock - the writing is anything but tame.
It’s surreal, it’s fast-paced, and oftentimes doesn’t make much sense, but that is exactly the type of energy the story goes for and honestly, it really helps with the engagement. There may be “filler” content, but that content is generally pretty interesting because it’s just so absurd most of the time. I mean, there’s literally an entire character who speaks in this foreign language that sounds like Japanese, but played backwards. It took me literally halfway through the game before I realized that you can actually read what this character says by opening the log 😅
Characters & Routes
You’ve of course got the backwards speaking senpai, but also the cute gamer, the nurse that is oftentimes scary and seems to be hiding something, and the little one that just comes in and drops some random info that makes you wonder if there’s some deeper meaning to everything that is happening.
Each route kinda goes off on its own and ramps up the pacing to the extreme towards the end, which does detract from any sort of emotion that you would traditionally expect from a romcom, but I honestly don’t think the writers were going for that kinda of impact anyways. Each ending is dropped on you suddenly and - without spoiling - I can’t say I really saw any of them coming.
I would say the story is pretty interesting overall. It’s not the kind of VN that I will see myself thinking of later on, but is fun in the moment and provided for some good laughs and good “what is even going on” moments that just kept me reading.
Art & Settings
The art is pretty good! It’s got a very indie, pixel art style and the vibrant colors and backgrounds definitely add to the surrealism. What it doesn’t have though, are some fairly basic VN features - like auto mode or literally any kind of font or text box settings. I get that it’s a very indie production, but I would at least expect auto mode from any VN, indie or not.
Overall
So I would say that From Madness with Love is deserving of a light recommendation. It may be no Doki Doki Literature Club, but it does have its own similar sort of appeal. The story is engaging, the characters are interesting, the art is fun, I had a good time in the five or six hours it took me to clear all the routes and would recommend it if you like indie VNs.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/sxCL3hsqdUU
Atelier is finally back to its roots. And now, over 25 years later, we finally have the chance to play the game that started it all.
Time Limit
Now I know this series is known for being incredibly comfy, but I think this might actually be the comfiest Atelier game I’ve played - which is ironic given that the release brings back the time limit system that more recent Atelier games had dropped. You start the game and are immediately given five in-game years to beat it. Every action you do adds to the internal time.
This sounds stressful and I was tempted to choose the option at the start of my save to completely disable the time limit - a new feature - but honestly, the time limit is extremely generous. I managed to get the game’s true ending with over an entire year to spare. So those worried about the time limit thing - it’s really not that big of a deal.
Gameplay / Complexity
Which brings me back to why I find this game comfy in spite of this artificial deadline. That being literally everything else in the game compared to other Atelier titles. Combat is simplified, crafting is simplified, exploration is simplified - everything takes a bit of a dive in terms of complexity. This is where Atelier started and it’s really just the basics on display here.
And honestly? I kinda liked it. I still love recent Atelier games with their challenging combat and super complex crafting systems, but it’s nice to kick back and play a bite-sized version of the series I love. Is it easy? Absolutely, but I also can’t deny that I had a lot of fun crafting every single item, maxing out my reputation and knowledge, and unlocking event after event in the story - which the game makes immensely easier by actually providing you a checklist of things to complete before an event can be viewed.
Story
The story is not really anything special, but it doesn’t do the Atelier classic of going overboard and losing itself as it progresses. The pacing stays relatively steady throughout and might even be a bit too slow, but it makes for a nice change of pace regardless. There are also a bunch of different endings to unlock as well, encouraging multiple playthroughs.
Length
The game can be completed in roughly 5 or 6 hours. There’s definitely more to do if you’re going the completionist route and want to get all the events, but even then, I had a pretty good chunk of them by the end of my first playthrough. For how simplified the game is, this short length kinda matches that change, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind if you’re used to the usual 30+ hour Atelier experience.
Otherwise, I had a good time with the game. There’s a ton of stuff to craft, the characters are fun to get to know, the combat is straight to the point, and it just radiates that charm I’ve come to love from this series.
PC Port
I had zero issues here. No framerate dips, no stutters, no bugs, no nothing. The game worked flawlessly out of the box at 4k 144fps and didn’t require me to jump through hoops to change basic settings like past Atelier games have. I played through on a controller, but mouse and keyboard also works here (even in menus) and has bindings that actually make sense - so props for that too.
Overall
Atelier Marie Remake is a nice little bite-sized Atelier experience that exemplifies just how much this series has grown while also being a fun little play in itself. It’s very simple compared to other entries in the series, but that lends it its own charm in a way and I had a lot of fun casually playing through it. I wouldn’t say it’s the best choice for series newcomers, but if you’ve already tackled Ryza and maybe a couple others, then give this one a shot.
Atelier is finally back to its roots. And now, over 25 years later, we finally have the chance to play the game that started it all.
Time Limit
Now I know this series is known for being incredibly comfy, but I think this might actually be the comfiest Atelier game I’ve played - which is ironic given that the release brings back the time limit system that more recent Atelier games had dropped. You start the game and are immediately given five in-game years to beat it. Every action you do adds to the internal time.
This sounds stressful and I was tempted to choose the option at the start of my save to completely disable the time limit - a new feature - but honestly, the time limit is extremely generous. I managed to get the game’s true ending with over an entire year to spare. So those worried about the time limit thing - it’s really not that big of a deal.
Gameplay / Complexity
Which brings me back to why I find this game comfy in spite of this artificial deadline. That being literally everything else in the game compared to other Atelier titles. Combat is simplified, crafting is simplified, exploration is simplified - everything takes a bit of a dive in terms of complexity. This is where Atelier started and it’s really just the basics on display here.
And honestly? I kinda liked it. I still love recent Atelier games with their challenging combat and super complex crafting systems, but it’s nice to kick back and play a bite-sized version of the series I love. Is it easy? Absolutely, but I also can’t deny that I had a lot of fun crafting every single item, maxing out my reputation and knowledge, and unlocking event after event in the story - which the game makes immensely easier by actually providing you a checklist of things to complete before an event can be viewed.
Story
The story is not really anything special, but it doesn’t do the Atelier classic of going overboard and losing itself as it progresses. The pacing stays relatively steady throughout and might even be a bit too slow, but it makes for a nice change of pace regardless. There are also a bunch of different endings to unlock as well, encouraging multiple playthroughs.
Length
The game can be completed in roughly 5 or 6 hours. There’s definitely more to do if you’re going the completionist route and want to get all the events, but even then, I had a pretty good chunk of them by the end of my first playthrough. For how simplified the game is, this short length kinda matches that change, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind if you’re used to the usual 30+ hour Atelier experience.
Otherwise, I had a good time with the game. There’s a ton of stuff to craft, the characters are fun to get to know, the combat is straight to the point, and it just radiates that charm I’ve come to love from this series.
PC Port
I had zero issues here. No framerate dips, no stutters, no bugs, no nothing. The game worked flawlessly out of the box at 4k 144fps and didn’t require me to jump through hoops to change basic settings like past Atelier games have. I played through on a controller, but mouse and keyboard also works here (even in menus) and has bindings that actually make sense - so props for that too.
Overall
Atelier Marie Remake is a nice little bite-sized Atelier experience that exemplifies just how much this series has grown while also being a fun little play in itself. It’s very simple compared to other entries in the series, but that lends it its own charm in a way and I had a lot of fun casually playing through it. I wouldn’t say it’s the best choice for series newcomers, but if you’ve already tackled Ryza and maybe a couple others, then give this one a shot.
2019
Full video review: https://youtu.be/B2E3EX64xfE
ALPHA-NIGHTHAWK kinda came out of nowhere and I’m surprised it hasn’t received much attention given it's by Liar-soft. Having now played it... Well, let’s just say there is a good reason this one hasn’t got much attention.
Art and Visuals
Starting with the good: the art style. The characters are full of color, have some solid linework, and just generally have great designs all around. I liked the kind of “splatter” color design that you can see in each character’s hair and elements of their clothing - it’s a distinct way of giving the game its own style and this is something that Liar-soft generally does a good job at. The color choices too, they are both vivid, yet match the sort of dark sci-fi setting that the story goes for.
That said, the style comes with one severe flaw: it’s mismatching with other styles. You get these absolutely gorgeous and colorful 2D sprites and then they are slapped next to these mechs that look straight out of another game with a different art style entirely.
Story and Writing
The writing and overall story here is all over the place - starting off with some minor info dumping before rapidly changing scenes and introducing characters without hardly giving the time to really learn about these characters or the world they find themselves in. The pacing in general is probably my main issue. It goes from stupidly fast during scenes that are actually important for the main story and then these scenes are followed up with something incredibly slow and oftentimes straight up unnecessary, like the numerous random cooking and eating scenes just kinda thrown in there.
Not to mention the insane tone shifts. There was literally a scene where a character goes from scraping gore out of a cockpit to another scene where important plot info is being given while a character projectile vomits, followed up with an entirely too lengthy scene where the two main characters enjoy ice cream at a local shop and it’s all fluffy and happy.
Which is a disappointment really. The setting here is actually somewhat interesting - being this near future sci-fi with mechs, weird creatures roaming about, and some absolutely wild societal structure - it just doesn’t utilize it to its full extent. And even then, a lot of the info that you do learn about this setting comes from info dumping scenes instead of naturally learning it like a properly paced visual novel.
Characters
This is one of those shorter VNs that tries to bank a lot of the experience on its characters and the climax, but they are simply not given the time to properly flesh out and allow me to form a connection with them, leading to an unsatisfying climax and an ending that hardly made me feel anything but relief that the experience was finally over. The romance between the two main characters, for example, comes out of nowhere around halfway through and after that point it felt like I was watching a relationship speedrun that existed more out of obligation than actually wanting to tell a proper romance story.
Technical Issues
I don’t know what it is, but I had this constant freezing issue, where I would be reading and then suddenly my inputs would do nothing and all I could hear was the music - forcing a game restart to continue where I left off. At first I thought this was an issue with alt+tabbing out of the game, but it started happening when I was straight up just reading normally. It happened like 20 times throughout the entire reading experience and was just a pain to deal with.
Overall
ALPHA-NIGHTHAWK may have some solid artwork, but the rest of the experience is an absolute slog to get through and a disappointment given the interesting setting it starts off with. The pacing, constant tone shifts, and lackluster character development killed any impact the story was going for and left me feeling practically nothing by the end of it.
ALPHA-NIGHTHAWK kinda came out of nowhere and I’m surprised it hasn’t received much attention given it's by Liar-soft. Having now played it... Well, let’s just say there is a good reason this one hasn’t got much attention.
Art and Visuals
Starting with the good: the art style. The characters are full of color, have some solid linework, and just generally have great designs all around. I liked the kind of “splatter” color design that you can see in each character’s hair and elements of their clothing - it’s a distinct way of giving the game its own style and this is something that Liar-soft generally does a good job at. The color choices too, they are both vivid, yet match the sort of dark sci-fi setting that the story goes for.
That said, the style comes with one severe flaw: it’s mismatching with other styles. You get these absolutely gorgeous and colorful 2D sprites and then they are slapped next to these mechs that look straight out of another game with a different art style entirely.
Story and Writing
The writing and overall story here is all over the place - starting off with some minor info dumping before rapidly changing scenes and introducing characters without hardly giving the time to really learn about these characters or the world they find themselves in. The pacing in general is probably my main issue. It goes from stupidly fast during scenes that are actually important for the main story and then these scenes are followed up with something incredibly slow and oftentimes straight up unnecessary, like the numerous random cooking and eating scenes just kinda thrown in there.
Not to mention the insane tone shifts. There was literally a scene where a character goes from scraping gore out of a cockpit to another scene where important plot info is being given while a character projectile vomits, followed up with an entirely too lengthy scene where the two main characters enjoy ice cream at a local shop and it’s all fluffy and happy.
Which is a disappointment really. The setting here is actually somewhat interesting - being this near future sci-fi with mechs, weird creatures roaming about, and some absolutely wild societal structure - it just doesn’t utilize it to its full extent. And even then, a lot of the info that you do learn about this setting comes from info dumping scenes instead of naturally learning it like a properly paced visual novel.
Characters
This is one of those shorter VNs that tries to bank a lot of the experience on its characters and the climax, but they are simply not given the time to properly flesh out and allow me to form a connection with them, leading to an unsatisfying climax and an ending that hardly made me feel anything but relief that the experience was finally over. The romance between the two main characters, for example, comes out of nowhere around halfway through and after that point it felt like I was watching a relationship speedrun that existed more out of obligation than actually wanting to tell a proper romance story.
Technical Issues
I don’t know what it is, but I had this constant freezing issue, where I would be reading and then suddenly my inputs would do nothing and all I could hear was the music - forcing a game restart to continue where I left off. At first I thought this was an issue with alt+tabbing out of the game, but it started happening when I was straight up just reading normally. It happened like 20 times throughout the entire reading experience and was just a pain to deal with.
Overall
ALPHA-NIGHTHAWK may have some solid artwork, but the rest of the experience is an absolute slog to get through and a disappointment given the interesting setting it starts off with. The pacing, constant tone shifts, and lackluster character development killed any impact the story was going for and left me feeling practically nothing by the end of it.
2022
Full video review: https://youtu.be/HIOOQts-hEw
What if you took Portal and swapped the portal mechanics with time manipulation? Well, you’d end up with The Entropy Centre and I know a lot of people are going to be making that comparison, but there’s really no escaping it here. This game has similar storytelling, similar environments, and straight up takes several mechanics from that series. That said, it can stand on its own.
Gameplay
The main thing here is time manipulation. You pick up objects, move them around, and reverse them through time. The game is divided into 15 chapters and each has a sequence of puzzle chambers to complete. New mechanics are introduced throughout, starting small with simple cubes and switches to eventually jump pads, lasers, and even light bridges.
The pacing is pretty good here, giving you ample time to get used to each new mechanic before adding the next. That said, I feel like the game could have done a better job combining these mechanics. A lot of the time, a puzzle will revolve around one key element and the rest are just kind of tacked on and it isn’t until really late game that you get more than maybe four of them in a single puzzle.
Level Design
It takes a note from Portal, starting you out in simple test chambers before moving into large, expansive environments, shifting between sci-fi industrial to bright and tropical. It’s honestly really cool and the fact that these tropical areas make use of the same bright white test objects from the lab provides for a neat contrast.
Graphics
The game may not be pushing any graphical boundaries, but it looks absolutely solid for what it is and the studio has done a great job with the textures, models, animation, and really bringing the game world to life with all the little details.
PC Performance
On my 3080 Ti I played maxed out at 4k and my fps hovered around 100 for the vast majority of my playthrough. I had no crashing or other technical issues outside of getting stuck in a door once - so the overall polish is pretty good.
Puzzle Design
If you’re going into this game expecting something along the quality of Portal you will likely be disappointed. Not to say that the puzzles are bad - in fact, I would say most are good - it just lacks that depth to really elevate it beyond just being “good”. Most puzzles are very linear in their design. There’s less “thinking outside the box” and it’s more like - okay, these are the cubes and buttons I have to interact with, I just need to place this here, this here, this here, and sequence them in reverse for the time manipulation. There was hardly a moment where I was surprised by a solution because a lot of the time that solution is apparent from the start and I just needed to go through the steps.
Length
Or maybe it’s just me. I looked at other reviews for this game and they seem to be suggesting the length to be around 12-15 hours or so. I have no idea what took all these other people so long, as it took me just over five hours to clear. Maybe it’s my experience with puzzle games or something else entirely but most of the puzzles can be completed in mere minutes, even some of the ones late game.
As such, I pretty much cruised through the game. The length wasn’t even a problem for me, I just feel like it's important to note that my experience appears to be vastly different from the norm.
Story and Writing
The story kinda goes that Portal route where you wake up with no idea as to what is going on and slowly piece together the outside world through dialogue with your robot companion, the environment, and computer logs scattered about. The banter between the protagonist and the robot companion ranges from genuinely interesting to just awful, but its overall charming in its own way.
The overall plot is interesting, but it feels like the game ignores its own rules at times just to push the story further. There were instances where a major problem arises only for it to be fixed just as quickly by the time manipulation from this small weapon, yet that same weapon just doesn’t work the same elsewhere. There are plenty of holes like this, but I wouldn’t say this is a game to be played for the story anyways.
Overall
The Entropy Centre, although clearly inspired by Portal, does a pretty good job standing on its own. The puzzles are generally good, the level design is even better, and the overall aesthetic is some absolutely solid stuff for the genre. That said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the lack of depth in the puzzle design and the game could have done a better job synergizing all of its mechanics together. Still a fun one though for the five hours it took to clear and worth a look for puzzle fans.
What if you took Portal and swapped the portal mechanics with time manipulation? Well, you’d end up with The Entropy Centre and I know a lot of people are going to be making that comparison, but there’s really no escaping it here. This game has similar storytelling, similar environments, and straight up takes several mechanics from that series. That said, it can stand on its own.
Gameplay
The main thing here is time manipulation. You pick up objects, move them around, and reverse them through time. The game is divided into 15 chapters and each has a sequence of puzzle chambers to complete. New mechanics are introduced throughout, starting small with simple cubes and switches to eventually jump pads, lasers, and even light bridges.
The pacing is pretty good here, giving you ample time to get used to each new mechanic before adding the next. That said, I feel like the game could have done a better job combining these mechanics. A lot of the time, a puzzle will revolve around one key element and the rest are just kind of tacked on and it isn’t until really late game that you get more than maybe four of them in a single puzzle.
Level Design
It takes a note from Portal, starting you out in simple test chambers before moving into large, expansive environments, shifting between sci-fi industrial to bright and tropical. It’s honestly really cool and the fact that these tropical areas make use of the same bright white test objects from the lab provides for a neat contrast.
Graphics
The game may not be pushing any graphical boundaries, but it looks absolutely solid for what it is and the studio has done a great job with the textures, models, animation, and really bringing the game world to life with all the little details.
PC Performance
On my 3080 Ti I played maxed out at 4k and my fps hovered around 100 for the vast majority of my playthrough. I had no crashing or other technical issues outside of getting stuck in a door once - so the overall polish is pretty good.
Puzzle Design
If you’re going into this game expecting something along the quality of Portal you will likely be disappointed. Not to say that the puzzles are bad - in fact, I would say most are good - it just lacks that depth to really elevate it beyond just being “good”. Most puzzles are very linear in their design. There’s less “thinking outside the box” and it’s more like - okay, these are the cubes and buttons I have to interact with, I just need to place this here, this here, this here, and sequence them in reverse for the time manipulation. There was hardly a moment where I was surprised by a solution because a lot of the time that solution is apparent from the start and I just needed to go through the steps.
Length
Or maybe it’s just me. I looked at other reviews for this game and they seem to be suggesting the length to be around 12-15 hours or so. I have no idea what took all these other people so long, as it took me just over five hours to clear. Maybe it’s my experience with puzzle games or something else entirely but most of the puzzles can be completed in mere minutes, even some of the ones late game.
As such, I pretty much cruised through the game. The length wasn’t even a problem for me, I just feel like it's important to note that my experience appears to be vastly different from the norm.
Story and Writing
The story kinda goes that Portal route where you wake up with no idea as to what is going on and slowly piece together the outside world through dialogue with your robot companion, the environment, and computer logs scattered about. The banter between the protagonist and the robot companion ranges from genuinely interesting to just awful, but its overall charming in its own way.
The overall plot is interesting, but it feels like the game ignores its own rules at times just to push the story further. There were instances where a major problem arises only for it to be fixed just as quickly by the time manipulation from this small weapon, yet that same weapon just doesn’t work the same elsewhere. There are plenty of holes like this, but I wouldn’t say this is a game to be played for the story anyways.
Overall
The Entropy Centre, although clearly inspired by Portal, does a pretty good job standing on its own. The puzzles are generally good, the level design is even better, and the overall aesthetic is some absolutely solid stuff for the genre. That said, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the lack of depth in the puzzle design and the game could have done a better job synergizing all of its mechanics together. Still a fun one though for the five hours it took to clear and worth a look for puzzle fans.
Full video version: https://youtu.be/cuzB2UBxf0w
So I know some consider it a sin to play this game without playing the others in the series, but that is exactly what I did and you know what - it was actually pretty fun.
Gameplay
Return to Monkey Island brings out some of the best of the point & click genre and as someone that used to play this genre religiously, it has been fun to get back into it. The game opens with a quick tutorial and then throws you right into it. And by right into it - I am not saying this lightly. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I haven’t played one of these in a while or if maybe I should have gone with the easier difficulty, but this is a VERY difficult game.
The puzzle design here is so abstract that if there wasn’t a hint feature, I would probably not have made it far at all. It’s not the type of point & click that requires pixel hunting - and there’s even a highlight interactables feature to remove that tedium - but the environments are so large and there’s just so many possible item combinations that it can feel quite overwhelming. The game does a decent job in guiding you through its dialogue, but I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t get stuck a few - or rather, several - times.
For example, for one puzzle I had to apologize to a character in order to borrow one of their books. Of course, to do that, you have to find an apology frog. And then you have to write an apology on that frog. And to do that, you need to select the correct dialogue choices in sequence. I spent so long trying all the possible dialogue sequences only to find out that I was actually outright missing some because I had yet to interact with a plaque on a statue way out in town on the other side of the map.
Story
It’s honestly a bit ridiculous at times, but I guess that’s what I get for not playing on casual difficulty. Really though, this game just encourages you to interact with every single object you can. It’s impressive too because practically every object, character, location, etc. all has some expansive, voiced dialogue to match. The main character is constantly cracking jokes, breaking the fourth wall, and the story in general is fairly engaging in spite of its overall simplicity. This is definitely one of those narrative games carried by its dialogue over anything else.
And as someone that never played this series before, I had no problems getting into it. There is a “scrapbook” feature on the main menu which provides an extensive, voiced summary of the previous games, but honestly I didn’t even need that.
Art and Music
I also remember a bit of controversy surrounding the art style, but that too was fine. It’s definitely stylized, but the studio has done a great job with all the little details in the world and the animation too. The music is also fine, but I’d be lying if I said it was memorable enough to listen to outside of the game.
Overall
So yeah, Return to Monkey Island has been pretty good for me, although not without its missteps. The puzzle design is generally good and I love the interactivity, but it can feel obtuse at times. The story is also good - even if simple - although it does take a while to get going. A decent play all around though, worth a look for point & click fans.
So I know some consider it a sin to play this game without playing the others in the series, but that is exactly what I did and you know what - it was actually pretty fun.
Gameplay
Return to Monkey Island brings out some of the best of the point & click genre and as someone that used to play this genre religiously, it has been fun to get back into it. The game opens with a quick tutorial and then throws you right into it. And by right into it - I am not saying this lightly. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I haven’t played one of these in a while or if maybe I should have gone with the easier difficulty, but this is a VERY difficult game.
The puzzle design here is so abstract that if there wasn’t a hint feature, I would probably not have made it far at all. It’s not the type of point & click that requires pixel hunting - and there’s even a highlight interactables feature to remove that tedium - but the environments are so large and there’s just so many possible item combinations that it can feel quite overwhelming. The game does a decent job in guiding you through its dialogue, but I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t get stuck a few - or rather, several - times.
For example, for one puzzle I had to apologize to a character in order to borrow one of their books. Of course, to do that, you have to find an apology frog. And then you have to write an apology on that frog. And to do that, you need to select the correct dialogue choices in sequence. I spent so long trying all the possible dialogue sequences only to find out that I was actually outright missing some because I had yet to interact with a plaque on a statue way out in town on the other side of the map.
Story
It’s honestly a bit ridiculous at times, but I guess that’s what I get for not playing on casual difficulty. Really though, this game just encourages you to interact with every single object you can. It’s impressive too because practically every object, character, location, etc. all has some expansive, voiced dialogue to match. The main character is constantly cracking jokes, breaking the fourth wall, and the story in general is fairly engaging in spite of its overall simplicity. This is definitely one of those narrative games carried by its dialogue over anything else.
And as someone that never played this series before, I had no problems getting into it. There is a “scrapbook” feature on the main menu which provides an extensive, voiced summary of the previous games, but honestly I didn’t even need that.
Art and Music
I also remember a bit of controversy surrounding the art style, but that too was fine. It’s definitely stylized, but the studio has done a great job with all the little details in the world and the animation too. The music is also fine, but I’d be lying if I said it was memorable enough to listen to outside of the game.
Overall
So yeah, Return to Monkey Island has been pretty good for me, although not without its missteps. The puzzle design is generally good and I love the interactivity, but it can feel obtuse at times. The story is also good - even if simple - although it does take a while to get going. A decent play all around though, worth a look for point & click fans.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/VaLxvyMRXBc
Somehow five years have already passed since the last Yomawari release and besides the time passing too quickly, I enjoyed that game a good bit. Super atmospheric, a large world to explore, and some decent puzzles too. This one though? Ehhhh....
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is easily the game’s best point. It is quite literally the same as it was five years ago: limited lighting, grainy world design, absolutely creepy yokai roaming about, and ambient sound design in place of a traditional soundtrack. For the type of story being told here, all of this works in the game’s favor.
That said, I was a bit disappointed that there’s really nothing “new” to differentiate the feel from the last release. It uses the same audio and graphical assets, has a very similar world design, and somehow feels a bit more empty.
Game World
One of the things I praised in the last release was that large world with plenty of stuff to find. This game has some of that, but it doesn’t quite match the extent of the former and honestly, it became boring to have to trek across identical, empty areas just to get to the next story objective.
Gameplay
I won’t make the case that Midnight Shadows was super involved gameplay-wise, but I can’t help but feel that Lost in the Dark took it even further down. Most of the gameplay involves running around, picking up items to get you to the next area, and then repeating. In fact, the first two “dungeons” or whatever were literally me searching however many rooms for a key or other item, picking it up and bringing it to unlock or activate something, and then repeating that in the newly unlocked area.
It’s back and forth busywork and maybe I’ve become less tolerant of such gameplay over the years, but the last one had a bit of this too, it just didn’t feel like to this extent. When you do get to a cool part - the boss encounters - those last maybe a few minutes before you have to cycle through the next hour or so of searching and pressing your one button to interact with things.
Performance
I ran the game at 4k 60 fps with no issues to speak of, although the settings are limited to just simple window and resolution options. Controls are simple enough that you can get away with doing keyboard and mouse, but it plays way better on controller and that is what I opted to use for my playthrough.
Overall
I cannot in good faith recommend Yomawari: Lost in the Dark. The last game - Midnight Shadows - may have been fun enough, but this is somehow worse while adding nothing really new. Great atmosphere, but with the same assets. A large open world to explore, but nothing really rewarding to find. A decently interesting story, but matched with some seriously tedious gameplay that left me bored after just a couple hours. Maybe in a bundle or on deep sale - but for now it’s not worth it.
Somehow five years have already passed since the last Yomawari release and besides the time passing too quickly, I enjoyed that game a good bit. Super atmospheric, a large world to explore, and some decent puzzles too. This one though? Ehhhh....
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is easily the game’s best point. It is quite literally the same as it was five years ago: limited lighting, grainy world design, absolutely creepy yokai roaming about, and ambient sound design in place of a traditional soundtrack. For the type of story being told here, all of this works in the game’s favor.
That said, I was a bit disappointed that there’s really nothing “new” to differentiate the feel from the last release. It uses the same audio and graphical assets, has a very similar world design, and somehow feels a bit more empty.
Game World
One of the things I praised in the last release was that large world with plenty of stuff to find. This game has some of that, but it doesn’t quite match the extent of the former and honestly, it became boring to have to trek across identical, empty areas just to get to the next story objective.
Gameplay
I won’t make the case that Midnight Shadows was super involved gameplay-wise, but I can’t help but feel that Lost in the Dark took it even further down. Most of the gameplay involves running around, picking up items to get you to the next area, and then repeating. In fact, the first two “dungeons” or whatever were literally me searching however many rooms for a key or other item, picking it up and bringing it to unlock or activate something, and then repeating that in the newly unlocked area.
It’s back and forth busywork and maybe I’ve become less tolerant of such gameplay over the years, but the last one had a bit of this too, it just didn’t feel like to this extent. When you do get to a cool part - the boss encounters - those last maybe a few minutes before you have to cycle through the next hour or so of searching and pressing your one button to interact with things.
Performance
I ran the game at 4k 60 fps with no issues to speak of, although the settings are limited to just simple window and resolution options. Controls are simple enough that you can get away with doing keyboard and mouse, but it plays way better on controller and that is what I opted to use for my playthrough.
Overall
I cannot in good faith recommend Yomawari: Lost in the Dark. The last game - Midnight Shadows - may have been fun enough, but this is somehow worse while adding nothing really new. Great atmosphere, but with the same assets. A large open world to explore, but nothing really rewarding to find. A decently interesting story, but matched with some seriously tedious gameplay that left me bored after just a couple hours. Maybe in a bundle or on deep sale - but for now it’s not worth it.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/V0l5u8kWzS4
Last year’s Party Pack 8 was a bit of a disappointment so I went into this one hoping it would redeem the series a bit.
Fibbage 4
Fibbage is back and it’s just okay I guess? Fibbage was never really a favorite in my group and this is literally just more of that, with more categories, a revamped final round, and this funky new VHS feature that incorporates old movie clips into the game. The movie clip thing is cool, but really, your fun in this one will come from how good a liar you and your friends are.
There are some funny moments, but this ended up being one of the weaker games in the pack due to just how little it felt changed compared to past iterations.
Roomerang
Roomerang plays a lot like a reality TV show where you’re assigned a character and a quirk that needs to be acted out on that character. Then you get to answer prompts and vote in order to thin out the crowd - with each round concluding with a vote to eliminate one player.
The catch being that even if you are eliminated, you just return as a new character with one letter in your name changed - which we thought was hilarious and made for some really cool roleplaying moments. One’s success in this mode depends a lot on the quirk you are given - some are SUPER easy to make jokes with whereas others are much more difficult. That and it was a bit disappointing that all of the rounds are simple question prompts and no other activities to spice things up - it would have been cool to see them do another format or something like they did with Fibbage 4 and the video clips.
Roomerang games also last the longest out of any in this pack and feel like they can drag on, ranking it towards the bottom of this pack along with Fibbage.
Junktopia
Junkopia is yet another addition with a brilliant concept. It revolves around receiving a random image of some random item, coming up with a name and backstory for said item, and then having it appraised by the other players based on what you came up with. The items themselves range from artifacts to literal sausage horses and it plays a lot like Talking Points from Party Pack 7 where most of the fun comes from the creative freedom to present as you like with just enough direction given from the game so that you’re not completely lost.
It strikes a good balance there and a lot of laughs were had from this one due to the sheer absurdity of some of the presentations. Junktopia ended up being the favorite of many in my group.
Nonsensory
Nonsensory is the drawing game of the pack - the catch being that the drawing stuff is only a portion of it and the rest of the game revolves around guessing the likeliness of various prompts written by the players. After a certain point, the prompts become drawings, which is a nice change of pace, but it is a bit disappointing to see the usual drawing game slot in the pack taken up by something that doesn’t emphasize that element.
That said, the game itself is good. The prompts are funny, there’s plenty of variety, and the laughs were plenty. This is another case of a Jackbox game providing a really good base and just letting the players roll with it without being locked into something super specific and hard to work with. As the drawing game of the pack it’s a disappointment, but as a game on its own, it’s actually pretty good.
Quixort
Quixort - my favorite game of the pack and perhaps the best trivia game that I’ve played in any of these Party Packs. You’re split into teams and tasked with sorting tiles based on a given prompt. The categories are all over the place and, as a trivia nut, it was a lot of fun to discuss amongst the team where each tile would go. There’s a bit of strategy too, as you need to leave room on the conveyor in the event one tile needs to go further left or right than one already placed and the game even throws curveballs by giving you fake tiles too.
It’s a bit different from the usual Jackbox game given the team approach and the fact that the teams do not play simultaneously, but it adds a nice competitive edge that the other games in the pack are lacking in, rounding out the collection nicely while still providing the laughs - just in a different way (like suddenly forgetting the simplest of math concepts when solving equations due to the pressure).
Overall
The Jackbox Party Pack 9 is an improvement over the previous pack, including some solid highlights - Quixort and Junktopia - and other fun additions too. It may not be among the best from the series (it may be a while before we match the high that was Party Pack 7), but it is definitely one my friends and I will be returning to, even if just for a few of the games.
Last year’s Party Pack 8 was a bit of a disappointment so I went into this one hoping it would redeem the series a bit.
Fibbage 4
Fibbage is back and it’s just okay I guess? Fibbage was never really a favorite in my group and this is literally just more of that, with more categories, a revamped final round, and this funky new VHS feature that incorporates old movie clips into the game. The movie clip thing is cool, but really, your fun in this one will come from how good a liar you and your friends are.
There are some funny moments, but this ended up being one of the weaker games in the pack due to just how little it felt changed compared to past iterations.
Roomerang
Roomerang plays a lot like a reality TV show where you’re assigned a character and a quirk that needs to be acted out on that character. Then you get to answer prompts and vote in order to thin out the crowd - with each round concluding with a vote to eliminate one player.
The catch being that even if you are eliminated, you just return as a new character with one letter in your name changed - which we thought was hilarious and made for some really cool roleplaying moments. One’s success in this mode depends a lot on the quirk you are given - some are SUPER easy to make jokes with whereas others are much more difficult. That and it was a bit disappointing that all of the rounds are simple question prompts and no other activities to spice things up - it would have been cool to see them do another format or something like they did with Fibbage 4 and the video clips.
Roomerang games also last the longest out of any in this pack and feel like they can drag on, ranking it towards the bottom of this pack along with Fibbage.
Junktopia
Junkopia is yet another addition with a brilliant concept. It revolves around receiving a random image of some random item, coming up with a name and backstory for said item, and then having it appraised by the other players based on what you came up with. The items themselves range from artifacts to literal sausage horses and it plays a lot like Talking Points from Party Pack 7 where most of the fun comes from the creative freedom to present as you like with just enough direction given from the game so that you’re not completely lost.
It strikes a good balance there and a lot of laughs were had from this one due to the sheer absurdity of some of the presentations. Junktopia ended up being the favorite of many in my group.
Nonsensory
Nonsensory is the drawing game of the pack - the catch being that the drawing stuff is only a portion of it and the rest of the game revolves around guessing the likeliness of various prompts written by the players. After a certain point, the prompts become drawings, which is a nice change of pace, but it is a bit disappointing to see the usual drawing game slot in the pack taken up by something that doesn’t emphasize that element.
That said, the game itself is good. The prompts are funny, there’s plenty of variety, and the laughs were plenty. This is another case of a Jackbox game providing a really good base and just letting the players roll with it without being locked into something super specific and hard to work with. As the drawing game of the pack it’s a disappointment, but as a game on its own, it’s actually pretty good.
Quixort
Quixort - my favorite game of the pack and perhaps the best trivia game that I’ve played in any of these Party Packs. You’re split into teams and tasked with sorting tiles based on a given prompt. The categories are all over the place and, as a trivia nut, it was a lot of fun to discuss amongst the team where each tile would go. There’s a bit of strategy too, as you need to leave room on the conveyor in the event one tile needs to go further left or right than one already placed and the game even throws curveballs by giving you fake tiles too.
It’s a bit different from the usual Jackbox game given the team approach and the fact that the teams do not play simultaneously, but it adds a nice competitive edge that the other games in the pack are lacking in, rounding out the collection nicely while still providing the laughs - just in a different way (like suddenly forgetting the simplest of math concepts when solving equations due to the pressure).
Overall
The Jackbox Party Pack 9 is an improvement over the previous pack, including some solid highlights - Quixort and Junktopia - and other fun additions too. It may not be among the best from the series (it may be a while before we match the high that was Party Pack 7), but it is definitely one my friends and I will be returning to, even if just for a few of the games.
2021
Full video review: https://youtu.be/Gde49-yjMpc
A year later and we finally get No More Heroes 3 in all its glory and at an actually decent framerate. The Switch version wasn’t the worst performance-wise compared to some other titles I’ve played, but it still had the classic 30 fps locks, unstable frame rates, and an overall grainy and low-res look to try to optimize for the hardware that it was locked to.
PC Port
Most of those issues I just mentioned are fixed now! But again, that is just most of them - there are still some problems worth noting. For one, the game is still obviously designed for the Switch hardware and it shows, especially in the open-world segments that were previously locked to 30. These segments were easily my least favorite in the game being so large and devoid of life and still having so much asset pop-in despite the upgrade in hardware.
This also extends to the combat segments. In the first two games, you would go through these levels in a variety of different areas, killing enemies, before finally arriving at the boss. In this game though, those have been dropped entirely for almost exclusively arena-based combat segments that you have to teleport into each and every time. It’s a great way to optimize for lower-end hardware by cutting down immensely on what is being rendered, yes, but it does make for some disappointing level design and an overall increase in repetition.
Performance
Both the open-world stuff and combat segments run flawlessly. The 60 fps lock from the first two PC ports is done away with entirely and you can go all the way up to unlimited. The graphical settings, while still minimal, allow some basic configuration including shadows, anti-aliasing, Vsync, and a full range of resolution options.
The game actually looks good at 4k and I had no issues playing at 144 fps on my RTX 3080 Ti. No random fps fluctuations, no freezing issues, and no crashes like I had with the first two games. It was a smooth experience all things considered.
Controls
While I still prefer a controller for this type of game, I played a significant portion of my playthrough using keyboard and mouse and it actually feels kinda nice to use. The bindings take a bit of getting used to, but I never felt the need to change them and it wasn’t long before I was taking down waves of enemies and bosses using that layout.
Mini Review
The game quality itself is a bit more debatable. The combat is the best it has been in the series and it’s a lot of fun to play around with the different abilities and just mow down these enemies as they are thrown at you, but the design issues I mentioned earlier do bring down the experience a bit. It gets a bit repetitive, especially so since this game brings back the system from the first where you have to grind for money to enter the next boss fight. It’s a ten hour game but doesn’t even take that long to start feeling repetitive.
Otherwise, the graphics, the music, the story - all of those are great. The story is completely unhinged and doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s par for the course for this series and honestly, it’s kinda hard not to like with its crazy character designs and plot developments that just keep one-upping each other at every turn.
Overall
I’d say a light recommendation is in order for No More Heroes 3. The combat is fast and fun, even if repetitive, the story is some engaging stuff, and the PC port definitely elevates the whole experience over that of the Switch version. I had a good amount of fun playing it and would like to see what a potential sequel would look like.
A year later and we finally get No More Heroes 3 in all its glory and at an actually decent framerate. The Switch version wasn’t the worst performance-wise compared to some other titles I’ve played, but it still had the classic 30 fps locks, unstable frame rates, and an overall grainy and low-res look to try to optimize for the hardware that it was locked to.
PC Port
Most of those issues I just mentioned are fixed now! But again, that is just most of them - there are still some problems worth noting. For one, the game is still obviously designed for the Switch hardware and it shows, especially in the open-world segments that were previously locked to 30. These segments were easily my least favorite in the game being so large and devoid of life and still having so much asset pop-in despite the upgrade in hardware.
This also extends to the combat segments. In the first two games, you would go through these levels in a variety of different areas, killing enemies, before finally arriving at the boss. In this game though, those have been dropped entirely for almost exclusively arena-based combat segments that you have to teleport into each and every time. It’s a great way to optimize for lower-end hardware by cutting down immensely on what is being rendered, yes, but it does make for some disappointing level design and an overall increase in repetition.
Performance
Both the open-world stuff and combat segments run flawlessly. The 60 fps lock from the first two PC ports is done away with entirely and you can go all the way up to unlimited. The graphical settings, while still minimal, allow some basic configuration including shadows, anti-aliasing, Vsync, and a full range of resolution options.
The game actually looks good at 4k and I had no issues playing at 144 fps on my RTX 3080 Ti. No random fps fluctuations, no freezing issues, and no crashes like I had with the first two games. It was a smooth experience all things considered.
Controls
While I still prefer a controller for this type of game, I played a significant portion of my playthrough using keyboard and mouse and it actually feels kinda nice to use. The bindings take a bit of getting used to, but I never felt the need to change them and it wasn’t long before I was taking down waves of enemies and bosses using that layout.
Mini Review
The game quality itself is a bit more debatable. The combat is the best it has been in the series and it’s a lot of fun to play around with the different abilities and just mow down these enemies as they are thrown at you, but the design issues I mentioned earlier do bring down the experience a bit. It gets a bit repetitive, especially so since this game brings back the system from the first where you have to grind for money to enter the next boss fight. It’s a ten hour game but doesn’t even take that long to start feeling repetitive.
Otherwise, the graphics, the music, the story - all of those are great. The story is completely unhinged and doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s par for the course for this series and honestly, it’s kinda hard not to like with its crazy character designs and plot developments that just keep one-upping each other at every turn.
Overall
I’d say a light recommendation is in order for No More Heroes 3. The combat is fast and fun, even if repetitive, the story is some engaging stuff, and the PC port definitely elevates the whole experience over that of the Switch version. I had a good amount of fun playing it and would like to see what a potential sequel would look like.