hermanbloom
2021
Don't really like the word, but "charming" seems to fit nicely hear. Almost unique in it's look (to me anyway), the characters and story were engaging and I really wanted to play it through to the end. Really cool.
Really struggled with the controls, made my hands ache after a short time of playing. Tried a few things in options but no real difference. Can imagine this looking amazing back in the day, but overall this did little for me.
2013
I had no clue what was going on for most of this, and equally couldn't see 50% of the bullets on screen on the later levels, but I loved it. Just a ton of fun, looked and sounded great and played smoothly.
2017
Hit a wall in level three I think (big wreaking-ball type machine) where I just could not beat the boss. Tried multiple tomes, looked at guides where I was doing the same attacks but less damage, so gave up in the end. Interesting story concept.
2022
Played it on Switch but no option here. Unfortunately found a game-breaking bug about six hours in where my items, including key ones for quests, vanished. Developer was very apologetic and asked for info and I believe at the time (early 2023) were working on a fix, but no idea if that happened or not.
2021
Liked the visuals and the pretty-relaxed atmosphere. Immediately forgot the story though, the puzzles were basic (even for me, a dummy) and I found the combat to be interesting when I got a new weapon, but after a short time it then became repetitive.
2022
Guess no-one played this! Lots of potential in this, as at the base level I found it to be a decent shooter. Very short though and the enemies weren't particularly engaging.
2016
Simple trilogy of bite-sized RPGs that I found pretty interesting. The game-world itself I would for sure like to spend more time exploring but will assume not much happening on that front given the age of these games. Mechanics were pretty run of the mill for me, but the story lifted it a bit higher.
Been loving this series since Xenosaga all those years ago on the PS2. This is no exception. Something about the combat just clicks with me, audio-wise I love pretty much all the music, and most of the characters I like with some standouts. Did get occasionally confused with the map (like the other games) and didn't particularly enjoy the mechanics of the final boss battle, but outside of that I had a ton of fun.
Put 10 hours into this as really enjoyed the first game. I found the look of it interesting, nice take on World War tank warfare. The writing was very odd though, mostly serious but punctuated with people grabbing people's arses or making weird comments. Felt like two writing teams. And when I got to the fourth mission involving hiding behind a tank and trying to take out pillboxes, while it added another mechanic to the mix, I just decided I didn't want to invest any more time with it. Really thought I would love this, so quite surprised.
2019
Absolutely loved it. It's incredibly long, but the characters, the world, the combat and the visuals all work so well to create a terrific game. Only knock I would have is that the DLC character was amazing and I kinda wished they were in the main team throughout, but I can't find much fault with the game at all.
Picked the Deluxe as only £1 than the other version in a sale. Loved spending more time in the world and with the characters, less a fan of the combat system. Just seemed a lot. And despite it being considerably shorter than P5 it seemed one "level" too long. Gonna miss those guys though.
2022
Not as good as the first game, sadly. Everything felt familiar, but equally it just seemed not to gel quite as well. I found it easy to miss jumps and sometimes switches just didn't register (making me think I had messed up a puzzle, then checking with a guide and realising it was the game being buggy). Pretty relaxing when it all worked and the boat is sailing, but too many times I was snapped out of it. Bit of a shame.
Really enjoyed it, much like the first game. Played this on the phone via Netflix and had no real issues aside from the occasional tap not registering. Story, particularly in the back half, I really liked. The family angle hit pretty hard and was well-written. Audio wise it was terrific, again much like the original.