For the actual DLC content, overall it's a lot of what the base game should have been but wasn't. The gigs in the DLC area almost all have some sort of roleplaying element to them that gives them some substance. Even though the gameplay is still largely the same having a bit of actual interactive narrative goes a long way in making them feel better.

The DLC story is fairly good overall with a decent cast of characters. The main quest tries to add some different gameplay elements to change up the pace and some are better executed than others but the main quests felt longer than most of the base game's main story quests.

The way the DLC story content was handled along with the 2.0 update is really what the base game should have been more inline with at launch, but at least it gives hope for the eventual follow up to Cyberpunk.

I think this game had a lot of potential but there's an incompleteness to the last couple of acts and the large amount of visual, ui and quest killing bugs that holds it back.

On the positive the game really captures the WH40K feeling with the way the characters and environments look and with the writing you can tell that they researched it.

The combat can be fun but there's a lack of choices, particularly near the end, when it comes to builds. For instance you only have 4 starting classes to choose from and once you've chosen one, you're locked in. Compared to Pathfinder where you have a large amount of flexibility to mix and match. But the game does allow you to respec freely so once you find something you like you can change things around as needed.

The systems hold up better than the pathfinder games. The colonies are optional but do give you rewards. Ship battles while not fantastic are better done than Wrath's crusade system.

I think where the game falls apart though is that the last couple of acts were not fleshed out and tested enough. I went heretical and it didn't seem to really impact anything from the story, I was walking around with a Chaos Marine and no one cared at the end, no one commented. It was very disappointing. Also the story wasn't written tight enough at the end and lost a lot of the initial steam in the game, not fitting well together.

And the bugs, as of this review on 12/25 there are so many bugs that hopefully they fix that really effects the enjoyment and I'll have to ding my rating for it.

Overall I feel like this game needs to go back into the oven for another year, do a lot of bug squashing and do some revision/expansion on the story and the paths. It has a lot of potential but the execution at the end of the day is subpar.

Overall a well done indie game with great art style and put together well. Part of the reason it's getting shelved (maybe abandoned) is that it's essentially a bunch of mini and micro games strung together; it just gets a bit repetitive with the main game of diving/gathering fish not being compelling enough. I also wish there was some way to better identify fish or items you need for collections when swimming around. Overall pretty fun for the short term and don't regret trying it out but not something that is able to compete against other games out right now.

I finally dug this out after having bought it when they were going to be delisting it due to the music license.

Overall, it's a product of it's time. I can see where maybe back in 2010 it would have gotten more praise. The narrative is enjoyable and is written well but it was also relatively predictable and by the end of episode 3/start of episode 4 you have all the pieces of what happened and basically what will be happening. It ends up making the last couple of episodes feel a bit more like a slog.

Which is partially due to the gameplay which never really evolves past shine flashlight on enemy to break their shield and then shot them and by Episode 2 you've seen the entire arsenal that the game gives you and every enemy type. By the end the game is mostly just throwing more enemies at you in various combinations. I found myself just dropping flares or flashbangs mostly to get to the next checkpoint and skip all the enemies.

I'm not sure how the remaster was changed but I'd say if you're interested in Control or Alan Wake 2.. go find a summary of this game and save yourself 10-12 hours. It's not necessarily a bad experience but it's not entirely enjoyable.

It's been a pretty fun game with friends I'd like to see where the devs take it. It's rough in some elements like I'd like to see more diversity in the environments and maybe some more in game tips that actually tell you what the heck the things you buy actually do.

Also not sure if the game has any real staying power but at the price point if you can get a good couple of days with your buddies then it's worth it but it starts to get a bit stale like Phasmaphobia as you start to understand how the system works and it starts to get repetitive.

This was made during version 40.

Overall pretty fun on the gamplay front. The Emblem and Break systems felt pretty good and gave some thought and variety to the combat. Much of the other sub systems (Skill Points, emblem weapon upgrades, etc) were half baked and other elements lacked transparency (character stat growth, when you actually should be promoting people). Had good map variety in the main story and paralogues. The paralogues were callbacks to old FE maps which means nothing if you're a relatively new player.

Story was pretty meh. It was straight forward without much to it but it served its purpose of giving you a reason to do the map and because of permadeath mechanic being a thing a lot of characters would stop showing up in the story once you recruited them.

Characters are colorfully designed but very one note with one or two defining traits that constantly appear in their support skits which starts to feel samey after enough times. Static endings for supports makes it not worth doing the skits other than your main combat force.

the TLDR is that this is the anti-3 Houses. The gameplay is better but the social elements are weaker. Still worth a look if you're into tactical/strategy RPGS.

Trails into Reverie acts as a closure to both the CS and Crossbell games in many ways while incorporating elements from Sky the 3rd.

The story overall is fine, its mostly self contained but uses elements from Cold Steel 4 so it's certainly not something I'd recommend for anyone getting into the series. It had some good moments overall, not as great as some in CS4 but also no where near as low. General criticism might be that some of the elements the series has been there done that. But the pacing is so much better than previous games.

Part of this is due to a semi optional dungeon area that you are relatively free to go to whenever you want. This also acts as a farewell to the engine before Kuro as they throw every character under the sun at you to use along with all the DLC outfits from the previous games which is delightful. Additionally it shares elements from 3rd where you can watch optional side stories that are this games version of doors.

Music is generally good, very much if you like Trails music there's no real reason you wouldn't like it here.

Characters are all the old ones you love. Most of them have their small part to play but generally fade into the background afterwards, though by breaking up the story into three branches it gives the story and characters in them room to breath and feel a bit more impactful than CS4.

The new ones for me there was one character I really enjoyed and the other two I would be fine if they don't return, I don't feel like they brought anything really new and one of their personalities was as exciting as wet cardboard.

At the end Reverie is a good way to wrap everything up going into Kuro and makes me look forward to what the series has in the future.

Doom and Warhammer 40K make a pretty good pairing. It has a nice retro aesthetic that does try to capture elements of the 40K which is cool. But the main issue is that, it gets a bit stale after a couple of hours. The enemies and environments start to feel repetitive after a bit. Even though the environment's may be 'new' they're structured pretty similar in their design. There's not much to explore, the secrets are temporary power ups either timed or just for that level and they tend to be just tucked somewhere rather than an exciting reward for exploring. Weapons also didn't feel very unique for the most part, didn't feel like it mattered what I used it was about as effective.

I like the idea behind this, it would be cool to see it expanded and some of the design kinks ironed out, tap into the larger roster of 40K races or lore. It is a game that ultimately is difficult to complete because it doesn't do much to keep your attention with fresh game design or story elements.

I won't say it's bad, but it's also not really grabbing my attention from the characters or world and I'm just not super invested after about 6 hours in. While I appreciate the idea of the card combat it just feels a bit sloggy and isn't interesting enough for me. You can build a deck but that interaction is kind of small and you have to actively time the card uses in the middle of battle and draw them so is different than say MTG or Hearthstone type games.

As a remaster I think it's mostly good, you have options to increase the speed up to 3x for in combat and out of combat separately and if you really want to just play for the story you can turn on 1 hit KO or turn off encounters as you do a bunch of back tracking for side quests. My only real complaint is that these options can only be toggled out of combat via pause menu, I wish the speed up was like Trails where you can hold down a trigger and speed up as you want.

While it's a Monolith Soft game it doesn't appear Tetsuya Takahashi has any credits on the game (writer/director/producer) so if you were going in there expecting to have a somewhat similar vibe to the Xeno games (any of them) then I don't think you'll find it.

Overall I thought the game was just ok. It was a short experience that serves as a bridge between Yakuza 6 and Like a Dragon. There's quite a bit of side content that the game really wants you to do because the main story is very short and they needed the padding to justify the price but most of it's optional in the end.

The combat was eh, after Yakuza 0 and Lost Judgement it's ultimately a step back. But it's a little fun to rag doll enemies after the JRPG system.

The story is just mostly ok, though the final chapter is pretty good particularly if you played Like a Dragon.

It's a little hard to justify paying full price for this, I don't think it really brings anything new to the table for the series that you haven't already done or seen before and the story while it fills in some blanks on what Kiryu is up to after 6 going into 7 (and sets up 8 at the end) it isn't particularly critical for the overall story.