Yeah this really isn't for me, sorry

And I hate saying that since this is one of the most unique, creative, and beautiful games I've played in a while. There's layers upon layers of micro-systems and game tech that makes progression far more surprising then any AAA game on the market. It's character and world design is timeless, and incredibly imaginative with captivating portraits and sprite work. Literally anything and everything can be it's own fantasy race in this world. Yet this game asks a lot from the player, but not in time nor difficulty.
This is a PS1 game, which are well known for being experimental and unorthodox (compliment). Seriously, anything goes during that era of gaming. Nowadays there are a lot of "rules" on how to do things. What is considered "good design" or "bad design" feels established and settled, at least when speaking about the big studios. Despite the many, many issues of modern game design, there is some precedent on why games are the way they are now, and that's convenience and clarity. You're almost never lost on where you can go, what you can do, and how to do it. And I feel you need a certain level of tolerance to truly get the most out of this game in particular, if you aren't one to play the more unconventional games often (Hi that's me). If you aren't paying attention, you can skip text directing you on where to go for your current quest and there isn't a way to replay what you missed. Entire sub-systems are locked due to specific quests you may or may not ever complete. Systems and tutorials are explained in text monologues, again sometimes just once, but are also just not the way I learn the best in any context. That isn't to say it's impossible to proceed if you weren't paying attention, but it'll involve a lot of backtracking, repeatedly talking to the same NPC till you exhausted their dialouge, hugging the wall on these beautiful backgrounds to scroll the screen over and find a new area you would've missed otherwise... I hope you don't mind getting lost. And not just with figuring out what to do but also where you are since these dungeons, unfortunately, reuse room layouts within the very same dungeon. It's genuinely disorienting to me, and apart from maybe the first area I could not for the life of me create a mental map of any of these places. Enemies also respawn the instant you leave a room, but thankfully you can disable encounters. However, that actually messes me up even more with my sense of direction because enemy encounters are fixed; so I would walk in a room, see a familiar formation, and realized I've been here before. Not all dungeons are this bad with the issue, but despite the gorgeous art direction, exploring these places grew pretty tiring. What, I felt, tried to be wonderous yet daunting with its winding dungeons, grew to be annoying and directionless. But "directionless" I feel is kind of the point. (EDIT: Not a fan of using the word "directionless" in this context, but for a lack of a better word I guess it works).
Here's the thing, the game's progression is RNG... well sort of. It's technically consistent, but you sure as Hell ain't figuring that out on a first playthrough so it might as well be random. The world map is created by you, and by placing artifacts found by completing quests in different areas onto the map, you can create whatever layout you desire. The placement of these locations influences a lot of things, including what artifacts you receive from a quest and even the availability of quests. I think, without a extremely specific setup, it isn't feasible to find everything on one playthrough (EDIT: It seems straight up impossible actually, game isn't too long for one playthrough so they took that into account ar least According to @moschidae, it is possible to do it all in one playthrough, just have be careful to not softlock any quests. My mistake). Assuming you weren't copying exactly what I did in where I placed my artifacts, your playthrough of this game will be different from mine.
But if that's the case, then how does the main story proceed? It doesn't. That's the crux and, arguably, the main attraction of this game. There isn't a strong central goal other then "explore and adventure". There is a ending, but more than most other games is this a "It's about the journey" game. Annnnd... that's why I didn't jive with this game. I couldn't find a hook to latch onto to keep me engaged the whole way through. That isn't to say there isn't any story to be found. Faaaaaar from it. There's heaps of characters, quests, and lore to sink your teeth into. But everything is more bite-sized. Some quests are multi-parter that carries a more intricate plot, but there's no real central thread connecting them altogether. No not counting your player character, whose more of an observer than someone integral to the world (until someone decides to pull you into the story). That isn't a bad thing, many games do that, but bottom-line my interest in continuing was waning only three hours in since I couldn't find anything that really caught my attention enough for the entire runtime. There were so many neat tidbits, but they weren't enough.
And then there's the gameplay. As mentioned it has tons of mechanics from learning movement and weapon skills, to crafting magic instruments, raising monsters from when they were eggs, creating your own golem with a massively intricate system, and so much more... but this game was way too easy to care about any of that. It comes off as superfluous when I almost never needed the extra help since store-bought weapons and armor was all I really needed. OK, learning skills from how you fight during combat was neat, but stun-locking foes and bosses are way too easy. With the fists especially, you can jab so many things from 100% to death. Plus you have a lot of health and deal a crapload of damage. Why should I invest myself in these systems if the game doesn't put much of a fight? OK, there was one boss that had a shockwave attack that killed me from full health, but after learning it's generous tell I never got hit by it again. I had to look this up as I was scripting this part, and there is a hardmode, but only after beating the game once. Yeah I don't like that. The first playthrough was confusing and unchallenging, I don't have any desire to try it again. While the combat feedback was nice (being able to throw even the biggest of bosses is admittedly pretty cool), it just wasn't enough to make me care about it overall.

I hate writing these reviews since I see the audience for this kind of game. It's a game the gives back the more you put into it. It rewards multiple playthroughs exponentially with new scenarios and surprises. It has a superb soundtrack that I'll probably be listening to for a long time. It's sense of discovery can be infectious for those who love to dive deep into a game. And I normally loves games like those, but man this just didn't do it for me. I didn't enjoy myself much with the initial run, sad to say.

Best advice I can give is to give it a look to see if it looks interesting, but beware as the surprises and secrets are part of its charm. I've seen people absolutely adore this game, this has the potential to be one of your favorite games ever. While yes, that can be said about practically every game, you also won't find a game like this anywhere else.

A gripping page-turner of an adventure. The entire experience is marred by poor animation transitions, or rather the lack thereof, and various instances of clipping fabrics, character heads spazzing out wildly, buttons on coats floating where they shouldn't, and whatever other minor presentation blemishes escape my present recollection. Such as the various instances of pop-in.
What I'm getting at is that this is a loveable piece of jank that I look forward to re-experiencing someday in order to angle for different outcomes.

I found the combat system very easy, even on Challenge difficulty, only wiping twice throughout the entire campaign, but it provided enough variancy in the encounters that I managed to keep entertained. I find random encounters so distasteful largely in part due to how rote and routine they become after the optimal series of commands is discovered. Thankfully Thaumaturge seemed to be comprised entirely of hand crafted encounters of admittedly samey ruffians. From one encounter to the next I often felt the need to evaluate for a moment before committing to a plan of attack that might be very different than the input order I employed in the previous encounter.

Wiktor was a wonderful protagonist to puppeteer. With plenty of opportunities to relish in substantiated pride, regret, compassion, a whole gamut of compelling emotional drama with which to weave a personalized journey through this lovingly detailed rendition of Warsaw wherein demons and warlocks are engaged in webs of intrigue.

It bears mentioning that beyond the combat there's little to no game here besides the dialogue tree. Investigation and deduction are performed automatically by the objective wisps, leaving "clues" to serve the purpose of flavor-text dispensers. It'll lack mass-appeal to the general gaming audience much like any other visual novel.

If this gets a round of polish patches I expect it to enshrine itself as being quite good. It's the sort of game that's best experienced when you're in no real hurry to get anywhere and want both a nice book and a nice mini-series to occupy your time.

I wonder if they even know what they did. You know who. That anonymous lower-level business advisory manager who worked at EA between 2017 and 2018. Watched what happened with No Man's Sky and Battlefront 2. Crunched the numbers, surveyed the right people, did the appropriate market research, and found out that most disturbing of truths our artform will likely never fully recover from. They figured out it's financially optimal to release a game before completion. Sure, some equations needed to be done to figure out the appropriate balance between the release date and pre-orders and on release performance and how long the game has been in development and how much marketing expenditure has gone into the release cycle and the estimated time before it's in a state considered 'good' by the populous, but the conclusion is there, and will never go away. Cyberpunk proved it even further. You can have two different 'release' hype cycles around your game, and still leave people with a good taste in their mouths, excited for more, even if you rush it out the door. It's just good business. I wonder if this person knew the damage they'd be dealing. Did it trouble them at all? Did they toss and turn a little before deciding to tell their higher-ups? Or did they not even think twice? We'll never know.

This is far from an egregious example of such. Shoddy and inconsistent frame rates and pop-in are the norm for many of our lazier AAA games, it's telling the completely stock-standard 21st Century Capcom in-app purchases are getting more of the press. People are numb to it, I am usually! In the truest essence of the human experience, I'm only so upset this time because it happened to me. I genuinely really want to play this game, it looks excellent, a truly distinct and singularly innovative piece of art. One of those rare things that can be described as 'next-gen' in a complimentary sense. So what do I even do? Do I simply purchase an unfinished product and support the active malpractice occurring here? I can't do that. Do I fall for the obvious 'second release' model and buy it when they finish it? I feel like I'm supporting the continuation of this practice if I do. Do I never buy the game? This is ethically the right call, but am I supposed to forever deprive myself of engaging with the work of artists I love because the system they work within is so awful? I don't know. The only easy answer is piracy, which in 2024 is both actively illegal and the only moral way to engage with a large proportion of all video games ever released. It's so depressing to genuinely adore the whizbang technical exploration of mega-budget pop art when 90% of current examples of such are visually miserable superhero movies and legitimately unfinished open world junk. This should be neither of those things, yet the circumstances of its release make me feel just as deflated. It's a cruel world out there sometimes.

I have tried playing Stardew Valley three times in my life. Every single time, I went into it hoping it would captivate me like it did to so many others. I tried playing it with my partner as well as on my own, gave it multiple sessions, but I cannot for the life of me get into this game.

The main gameplay element that makes Stardew Valley so hard for me to enjoy, is that it is agonizingly slow to me. From the actions your character can perform to the item collection and gifting systems: the game made me feel impatient. What could contribute to this, is the fact that most other farming simulators/sandbox games I have played allowed you to quickly speed up the gameplay through certain game mechanics or skillful actions, especially at the start of the game. However, Stardew does this differently. The game introduces you to a vast world to explore, but not that many things to do at first. Yes, you can harvest some debris, plant a few seeds and catch a few fish, but you will be doing so for 2 ingame weeks with barely any progress except a bigger backpack. And, the game has a speed limit (walking, watering, harvesting, etc.) that is inexceedable at the start, even though I longed to do so every minute playing it.

Next to that, the energy and day/night mechanics of this game are just a needless constraint to me. Why do I need to get in bed before a certain time to avoid losing items? If I need to be at the other side of the village for whatever reason, why do I need to stress out getting back to bed in time? To me, this just accomplishes the opposite of how people describe this game: relaxing and carefree.

Lastly, I did not connect to the characters of Stardew Valley. Now, I realise this might be the case due to my small amount of playtime, but these characters felt pretty bland to me. More importantly, the "quests" offered by the people in town are mostly fetch quests and "give gift every day" quests. It just wasn't interesting to me in the slightest.

I recognise Stardew Valley is a comfort game to many people. I also recognise that it is quite impressive for one developer to make a game like this. It truly is a work of art. So, my final verdict will be that it is just not for me, even though I think it is a beautiful game. Hopefully, future updates and games made by ConcernedApe will pull in as much joy as Stardew has until now, because that is what video games should strive to do.

Pep's Detective Deep Dive - Game 4
The bourgeois are not human (literally)

Well, this was a pleasure. Calling Aviary Attorney "Ace Attorney but with birds" feels like it does a disservice to just how funny, well-written and surprisingly deep this game is. I haven't played Ace Attorney yet (watch this space) but if it's anything like this I'm very much looking forward to it.

The art is gorgeous, with every character and background beautifully illustrated. The writing is sharp and funny, and the socio-political commentary is very clever, even down to the choices of which animal would portray what character.

It's funny, it's profound, and what's more - it's all based on real art, real people and real events. Highly recommended.

I dunno man, the visuals are very pretty, but as far as sense of progression goes, Ultros is not hitting the kind of pacing I desire out of a Metroidvania. You're either unlocking way too many skills at once to process the worthwhile usage of each one, or you're finding seeds to plant, the advantages of which are not immediately apparent, and instead delayed until you hit the next bit of story progression. It's too much instant gratification, and not enough clarity messily colliding against each other, with mechanics rarely trickled out at a rate that allows you to slowly learn the advantages of each one, or what each type of seed actually does before you're given more of them.

I also take an issue with the game taking away your skills & abilities per every time loop. I don't understand the intent of this. The argument is that it's pretty easy to re-acquire those abilities on repeat runs, but that's still at least 15-20 minutes of backtracking and grinding up enemies in order to reunlock that stuff, plus another 15-20 minutes per every succeeding loop, and... the fact that it's easy only further begs the question, why did it have to be that way at all? Granted, you can find some items that let you lock some of your skills in place, but... at that point, you've already seen them all, and it doesn't feel that rewarding anymore. Meanwhile, there are some abilities that you are always forced to lose no matter what, requiring you to backtrack to a specific room to re-acquire them. It's incredibly unsatisfying. For every major ability I unlock, all I can think is that I'm about 5 minutes away from losing it.

Perhaps Ultros didn't want to be like every other metroidvania out there, but at the same time, what it tries to do different is unnecessarily gimmicky. A more standard progression system where each ability takes effort to get, but is yours to keep couldn't have hurt. None of what's currently here is necessarily stressful, nor is the game all that hard. I think it just overcomplicates itself in ways that seem pointless, abandoning the structure of a classic metroidvania in favor of one that really just doesn't feel as carefully balanced, or intrinsic to explore. Unless you love plant seeds and cryptic lore. Ho, baby.

This game is a lot. I just 100% it and I'm having trouble finding words. That first sentence was all I had typed here for like 20 minutes.

So I saw this game when it was revealed and I was like "oh cool a metroidvania" and that put in on my radar alone. The fact that a Hotline Miami guy made it or whatever didn't register to me. Just was like "yep ok will play that when it launches. Don't get me wrong, the art style and music are both fantastic and work in tandem to bring together the feel of this alien environment, just wasn't particularly what sold me. Maybe what helped me keep it in mind at least? That and being named after a famous FF villain maybe

Anyway, I start this game recently and standard metroidvania things happen. Get weapon, move around and play with all the buttons (can move with D-Pad thank [deity]), pull up a map you fill out as you go, do platforming. Classic stuff. Early on you find an "extractor" which allows you to double jump. I enjoy a good double jump but having it be the first thing you unlock? Something felt off.

There were a few other little differences from the typical metroidvania as well. As you go through and fight enemies you get their remains as food. Different food heals and increases one of four different levels of your nutrition and these levels are used in your "cortex" to unlock certain innate abilities. What was more curious about this is that you get better, more intact meat if you kill a creature using different combat moves which you can unlock more of in the mentioned cortex. Pretty neat.

Then the one that should have been obvious by the surroundings but the flora of the station plays a vital role in the game. There are various types of plants throughout and they all have unique names and properties. They even have their own fruit which has similar functions to the creature remains you can eat. On top of all this though is an ability to plant seeds you find. Very interesting.

All of this gets introduced as you go through the first hour or so. Then you fight your first boss enemy, find the pod behind it that contains something, smash that, and then follow the trail it gives off to the center of the map. Then STUFF happens and the screen goes white. Suddenly you're back where you started.

So this is where I see some people getting upset. I use the word "filtered" which I think is apt but people get upset about it. I dunno. Anyway so yeah, you start over from where you began, no weapon, no items you picked up on the way, no double jump thingy, and no cortex abilities (probably). You set off again. The map is as it was before and still has your progress shown on it but the way you went before isn't a path you can take again for some reason. The game encourages you to go find another way.

I've seen people refer to this as the game having "rougelike" (definitely not) and/or "rougelite" elements. I don't think this really counts as rougelite though. You don't lose everything if you DIE, you just go back to where you saved last. The map is randomly generated, everything is the same layout it was. Certain events initially change where you're able to go but the map is consistent and reliable. The same creatures and plants will be where they were on the last cycle. You lose cortex abilities at first but exploration grants you the means to keep them as you progress. These things and more make me want to label it as a timeloop game before calling it "rouge-anything". It's a metroidvania where you reset after beating bosses. Hell even as you progress its more forgiving than a timeloop game typically is but that is a core mechanic for sure.

With all these in mind, I ventured forth. Encountered different creatures, plants, and new areas. I picked up on some lore stuff as I tried my best to explore. There's seven different bosses to find in a sprawling classic boxy looking metroidvania map. I beat the various bosses and uncovered a good chunk of the map while looping each time. Got myself and my extractor all upgraded nicely. Then I went to the center of the map for the event that sparks the cycle renewing, the typical flash of white happened and some story stuff.

Then I was back where I started for the eighth time. There was a slight different this time. I was offered a way out. The game deliberately places you between getting out of this mess in an escape pod or, to your other side, is your weapon which you can pick up and continue. Curiously, you also suddenly have the ability to manually reset the loop now. This in mind as well as paying attention to the story as much as I had, I knew that leaving wasn't an option. I had a responsibility to finish what I started and fix what I broke.

This is a another point I could see a lot of people checking out. From this point on, your objective shifts. It gave me a similar feel to The Messenger when open the scroll and the true nature of the game is revealed. What you have to accomplish now requires sharp wits, for you to have really paid attention to your surroundings, and to use your tools to the utmost.

There's a brief example of what the game wants you to do in one area of the map for a boss fight that you'll just kinda do without thinking and there are various hints to how it leads up to the true ending but when it fully dawn on you, it can seem quite daunting. Essentially what you need to do is connect each area of the map to the center. You do this by utilizing the 10 different plant species as well as the seven different modes you unlocked for your extractor. Dig up and plant different seeds, cultivate their growth while trimming as needed, use the scanner to see what each plant does and it's health as well as the health of the soil. Hell you even splice plants together to make whatever you need to make connections

There's a lot of options on how to make these connections happen. You need to figure out what plants to use and where to use them. Even that can differ though since there are spots with creatures where, instead of killing them, you feed them and they suddenly like you. This gives the benefit of not being attacked BUT ALSO more importantly when you loop again, there will be a space to plant a seed where you fed the critter where there was no space for seed before. The plant cultivation system is robust and quite vague. I spent A LOT of time in trial and error figuring out what the plants do, how they grow, how they interact with the soil. It got frustrating at times for sure but there were a lot of epiphanies too and I overall feel accomplished and satisfied for having stuck with it.

Completing this game 100% and getting its true ending was a gratifying experience in itself but I don't think it would be for everyone. I think there are good points in the game that clearly telegraph to players what they're in for and if they'd want to stick with it. Hell halfway through the story they give you an out. I think the people that get to that point will find this to be a decent metroidvania experience that looks pretty but has some annoyances they could do without.

However, for those that make it past that part and see what the devs are really going for here, I think those people are truly in for a treat. Its a rewarding game that's bountiful in choosing to do things in a way that feels earned and it's a type of mechanic that ties in strongly with the core narrative of the experience. It definitely a game I won't forget any time soon if at all. I think I recommend it for all metroidvania fans as a blanket hopefulness and then the ones that get through the filters will be the ones to find something truly special.

Baldur's Gate 3 is without a doubt the best adventure RPG I have ever played. FINALLY, an RPG in which the choices you make actually matter! From the dialogue choices, lore, and worldbuilding to dice rolls, this is the closest we've ever gotten to a real Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

If I start naming everything I love about BG3, I would be here for a few weeks at least...So, I will reduce it to three things: First, the voice acting. Every character comes alive by their voice actor, impossibly real. How did Larian even get their hands on these people? Second, the choices...everything you do in BG3 has consequences. I did not think we would be able to experience something like this for years and years to come. The amount of times I was stunned at the fact that the game reminded me of earlier choices in this much details...it is truly remarkable. Third, the gameplay and combat. The possibilities are literally endless. You can multiclass into every single class, so there are no restrictions either. And it even felt fair and balanced!

This title truly deserved game of the year 2023, no doubt about it. I am actually going to enjoy multiple replays of this, which is something I rarely do. Applause to Larian studios!!

I have grown more attached to Shadowheart than I have to most people in my actual life and the fact that she's not real depresses me immensely.

Oh, the game? It's great!

The amount of ambition on display from Larian Studios here is absolutely staggering, to the point that it's actually surprising just how much of it pays off. The characters are all incredibly interesting, well-rounded and fantastically written and voice-acted. The gameplay kept me engaged for the most part, and despite my general dislike of turn-based action it was pretty easy for me to get to grips with it.

The story is great and there's enough side-quests off the beaten path that I feel like BG3 is well worth paying full price for. I went through the game at a fairly brisk pace and clocked up 85 hours in the end. If you were willing to explore different ways of playing the game (including the unique Dark Urge path) then you could easily lose hundreds of hours to it.

Sadly a few issues prevented me from giving BG3 full marks. The game's third act can be very overwhelming at first, and it can be difficult to know what to do and where to go without losing certain content. Some side quests feel unfinished, like Larian ran out of time before they could flesh them out properly. That's not to mention that a lot of the stories of your fellow companions, so beautifully developed in the first two acts, tend to fizzle out. Once you complete their personal quests they stop being the fully fleshed out characters they were and end up just being sorta... there.

There were also a few annoying bugs riddled throughout; characters sometimes being unable to jump, textures not loading properly or being stretchy, enemies taking almost a full minute to decide what they wanted to do in a turn. Nothing game-breaking but they added up.

I don't regret any of the time I spent playing this - in fact, as someone with absolutely no prior experience with anything D&D-related this has actually made me want to get into it more, whether that's through other video games or actually playing it with other people. Of course, for that I actually need to find some friends first...

P.S. I don’t care if the ‘Party Limit Begone’ mod is ‘cheating’, nothing feels better than running around the city with my merry band of ten adventurers. The easier combat is secondary to not having to miss out on any companion-specific dialogue with NPCs.