I have never been the biggest from soft guy around, I had my ups and downs before actually getting into the groove and I have been hooked on their games since, playing all their games in a production order has actually changed how I see the studio and how i value productions like this.

Echo night 2 is actually a weird game to talk about because it's very much a lot of things at once, at first is a sequel that mostly works like a resomething of the first game, the concept is there and it works in similar ways but most of the game is brand new and actually very good, then it's a king's field filtered through a horror game and it works very well in that regard, it's fresh, it's interesting, it's a great take on a great formula, then as itself is a great technical achievement on a console that I didn't think could achieve this, the textures are amazing and the game runs pretty well considering the console it runs on.

Now that we can talk about the game as itself, the game is simple on paper, bumble around the mansion lighting up every light switch, find items, make dead people happy and reach the end, easy but the game actually structured itself in a very smart way, you can only access a single block of rooms at once and that's it, keeps the game fresh and flowing nicely, the environments are detailed and that's very important given that this game is supposed to be as free to explore as much as the structure makes you do, most of the items have a brief text explaining what they are, it has a lot of nooks and crannies to look into, the overall moment to moment gameplay is great, the puzzles are really good too, give or take some frustrating ones, like a piano puzzle early on; the plot isn't going to make heads blow off but it's decently written and structured, giving you incentives to go on and has a couple of really cool moments because the non chronological nature of the narrative wants you to figure out a lot, but the very cherry of this cake is the atmosphere, it's thick and rich, it makes you immerse in the game and it actually carried a good game into an experience I won't forget for some time, from actually nailed this and I can't wait for the next great experiment from them.

I'm slowly going through all the from software translated games and here we are, with the first non PS1 game, hurray.

I checked a bit online about this one and found a translation and the fact that it's a bit (a lot) like virtual on, so I played the first 2 virtual on games (great games) and then I played this one, which I must say it's a pretty great way to expand the formula to a single player campaign among other things, the gameplay is simple but it's building virtual on in the direction of Armored Core, you build you mech, you choose the parts and then you do the mission, but this game introduces a crafting element that works decently well in the gameplay loop and actually makes you wanna play better for its sake.

The game is short, really short, but virtual on has always been short so this isn't a surprise, it flows well and the difficulty ramps up decently, the IA is not the best but it's decent enough and the gameplay is solid, and I think it moves forward this style in a great way.

Not the best from software game but a solid entry in their catalogue.