I actually think about Juice Galaxy a lot.

It's a weird little game that wears it's weirdness on it's chest like a badge, giving it's world a slew of different scapes while never missing that "Juice Galaxy" vibe.

I'll be honest, at times I thought the combat was a bit cumbersome, and even after beating every boss with a multitude of weapons, I still think that. But I couldn't imagine a combat system more fitting than one where you kinda just flop your weapon around and smack the hell out of shit. Imagine if they built this whimsical and weird world and gave you the basic slash, shield, dodge roll, and parry button that so many Action RPGs love to dish out.

For an early access open world game, you'd expect there to be more dull moments as you traverse the foggy and mostly unchanging over world, but I was constantly at awe when I was traveling. I've told one of my friends about this twice now, but somehow Juice Galaxy perfectly that "Adventure Time vibe" without really trying at all. I think the OST plays a big part in emulating that vibe but even on it's own, just walking around the over world made me think of the Land of Ooo. (The OST is fantastic btw)

But the real meat of this game is in it's boss battles, which combat wise can still be cumbersome, but their presentation tends to kick ass. Traveling through the Wawsp nest swatting away low level wawsps as the music builds up and you're greeted by an open room and the one who controls them all, The Wawsp Queen. I'll never forget my first time fighting her, the tense build up to her theme and the fact that she actually got hands! I died at least 4 times before killing her.

Every boss fight in this game feels like some grand battle, even though you're a floppy weird guy fighting another probably floppy weird guy. I love it so much.

I will be watching this game with curious eyes, I'm excited to see where Fishlicka takes it!

To me, it felt like an upgrade to Gunfire Reborn in almost every way. The movement feels way more fluid and with the use of gadgets you can literally fly through some of the stages. Gun and enemy variety is also there and at the higher difficulties the game actually becomes a good challenge.

But what irks me the most about this game, and it's a complaint I had about Gunfire Reborn as well, is that so many of the higher rarity items follow this blue print:

"Increases (some random stat) by a marginal amount but now there's a percent chance that your head blows up when opening a door."

Here's one directly from the game: "Deals 22 cryo damage to enemies damaging you but taking damage has 10% chance to freeze you."

WHY WOULD I PICK THIS UP? I ALREADY DON'T WANT TO GET HIT WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ITEMS ABOUT GETTING HIT. I still don't think any roguelike I've played has done the "get this but lose this" kind of item balancing as well as Lunar items in ROR2.

Both this game and Gunfire Reborn feel like they're filled with them and they always feel useless to the point I almost never pick them up. I don't think they're very fun in this game and tend to pollute the loot pool.

Other than that though the game is pretty solid, but I must mention how B.S. the second phase of the final boss is, literally like 4 different "fuck you" attacks.