Theres a unique charm Dredge had for me that not many other games have. Theres a peaceful aspect to it as you fish during the day, a rewarding aspect as you slowly improve your boat and equipment, and then an underlying unnerving element as night falls and you experience the atmospheric horror, and sometimes the actual horror of what lurks beneath the water.

Its a fun time that doesn't overstay its welcome, I think there are some small QoL features that would bump this up, the main one being some sort of notification once you catch a fish that you need for a request, that would be great, and maybe a better way of finding fish for quests if you've never found them yet since some can be in kinda specific locations. Outside of that though its a solid game and its even got a little plot to it and plenty of lore notes for people into that stuff.

I played 88 hours of this in less than 3 weeks so obviously I really enjoyed the game. I can't give it a perfect score because it does have its issues and even if they are minor individually, there are enough of them that it adds up. However, there are so many good elements to the game, almost all of them revolving around the characters, that it makes up for a lot of weaknesses, so much so that I had debated only doing 4/5 but I think that would be unfair and time would help me forget some issues.

So I'll start with the issues because I want to end on the good stuff. Some people complain the game has too much padding. I disagree for the most part, as those people will reference the totally optional side quests and open world activities as padding. There is however noticeable padding from around chapter 9/10 onwards in the main story with arbitrary "puzzles" thrown in your path. I also found the gongaga and cosmo canyon region to be designed in a way that felt like everything took longer to get to, like I was being punished for doing the side content. Speaking of the side content, for the most part its fine, doesn't take very long to do and initially its interesting to see where some of them will lead to. Unfortunately I felt some of them had lackluster endings like the protorelic one (which also has an insane level requirement to do???), or some were just way harder than they needed to be, such as the very final side quest in golden saucer (I HATE 3d brawler).

Now for something I dont dislike but I cant say yet that I really like, the plot. The plot does suffer a bit from being the portion of the original game where it does kind of spin its wheels a bit as not a lot actually happens in this portion until near the end, its very character motivated rather than any worldly causes or external factors. Like we aren't even in disk 2 of 3 from the original game yet until the very end of this game. Speaking of the ending, I don't dislike it, but I need to see how the next game follows up from it because not everything is resolved in a way I would have hoped/expected. Its definitely an ending they want people to talk about, similar to remakes.

The middle of most stories is when we get to know our characters best and that is exactly what happens here and its why rebirth is such a fun time. Everyone gets at least one moment to shine, most get multiple. Theres also the banter as you explore around and just the general camaraderie
and support within the group, whether thats Tifa and Aeriths sisterhood or Barrett and Yuffies big brother and annoying little sister dynamic. Also the locations, holy moly some of the locations are just stunning, its insane looking at side by side shots from the original game and seeing how they were brought to life but still keep the vibe of the original locations.

Finally, the soundtrack. I'm not a big soundtrack guy but my god does it do wonders here. Its not even that there are bangers you can jam to, if anything its the opposite. While it does have bangers, its actually the various themes that play throughout the game that works so well, various renditions of the main theme or character specific themes like tifa or aeriths become more familiar to you as you play and especially if you've played the other games and it just adds to this sense of the overall game world.

As you can see there is a lot to discuss about rebirth and this is without even giving any specific around plot or moments within the game. I went from basically never having touched a jrpg a few years ago to loving rebirth and buying four classic jrpgs in the most recent steam sale with even more on my backlog. Games like rebirth prove that some good music and an interesting cast of party members can make any game an incredibly memorable experience.

Realidea System is a well written and beautiful looking fan game that was originally released in Spanish but has now been translated to where about 95% of it is in English and fully playable.

Initially I was lukewarm on realidea as I didn't think it was doing enough to really stand out. It has a well designed region, characters, and the flow of route -> city -> evil team -> gym -> repeat works well even if a bit repetitive. But I felt like the story was lacking and I had hoped for a few more regional forms, I think I came across 4 in my play-through and I don't suspect there is much more than that. This game isn't easy but I wouldn't say its hard either. It might actually have the best level curve in any pokemon game as you will always basically be on par or one level above/below a boss fight. I think slightly better AI in the trainers would have given it a slight bump up. I also think the games gimmick of the realidea system is not nearly as drawing as it needs to be, I can count on one hand the number of times I used it and it was all basically in the endgame for healing.

However, as I got into the backhalf of the game, I realised the allure of realidea system was its story and its art. Its not a masterpiece by any means but its also not cringe emo slop and the art work on display in the character portraits and the full screen set piece moments really will make it stand out in my memory as I play more fan games.

Anode heart is a solo indie dev project that is inspired by the classic digimon world games and tries to bring those into a modern light with new creatures and world to explore. The solo dev of this actually made a pokemon fangame called Pokemon Empyreon I believe which I had actually played and thought it was pretty good and I was impressed with what I saw of this game and heard of it from the monster catching/taming community.

To make a long review short, Anode Heart is a very good game. Theres a lot to like, it does manage to bring that classic digimon world feel to a modern setting by removing a lot of the obscurity and required guide reading but still keeping a lot of mechanical depth for those who want to dive into it but not requiring it to beat the game. Theres a whole breeding system for min maxing your tamas (the creatures) and theres stuff around swapping moves around to make illegal movesets, I didn't need to touch any of that to be able to beat the game, which has a decent ebb and flow of patches of difficulty and some patches where its a bit easy, that probably comes down to how well you can come to grips with its reboot system, I've played digimon games before and its basically the same as those so I was fine but for newbies it could require some learning but its not difficult, just different to other games like pokemon.

The battle system is quite interesting, at first it might seem a bit odd or obtuse but it actually reminds me a lot of the digimon tcg system. I'm sure other games have it but basically your moves have a power amount and most have extra effects etc like pokemon, and along with a set "pp" number, they also have a value where once you use up x amount of value then the turn swaps to the opponent and that value can overflow giving your opponent more value to use on their turn, so it adds a layer of strategy which I liked.

I do have some grips though. The first one being around the story. Its not a bad story by any means but I do think all of the jargon and terminology isn't really required, made it a bit hard to follow who was what at different points even if I understood the overarching story. My other grip is that unlike digimon, very few tamas here seem to have branching evolution paths. I think I only found one during my playthrough and discovered my starter also had one but I'm not sure if all starters do or just mine, and even then I had built my team around my starters original form so I wasn't going to swap it but maybe others would. I would have like more branching evolutions since thats a big appeal of digimon for me over something linear like this and pokemon.

But overall, if you liked classic digimon world or even just want a new semi open world monster catching game thats different to the usual pokemon inspired games, I would absolutely recommend Anode Heart and I look forward to seeing what this developer does next.

Glad I replayed this before Ragnorok to get the plot fresh in my mind as I have not played since release and I could only play it once a week back then, so this was a much better experience.

Honestly not much to say here that hasn't already been said by others, its a really good fucking game with engaging combat, interesting characters that grow and evolve as the story progresses, and it still looks visually stunning 5 years later. I only refrain from giving it a 5/5 because I think it lacked diversity in its boss fights, it meanders around in the plot at small periods, and I think the content outside of the main plot is a bit weak and almost filler, might have served better as a more focused narrative experience.

So with that being said, I hope Ragnorok can just improve on those few pieces and so long as its not held back by being cross platform, it'll be a fantastic experience.

Surprised how much I enjoyed this. It just has a particular vibe that I really clicked with and I'm not sure how to describe it. While the plot can be a bit convoluted at times and there are some gameplay sections I didn't like, such as any segments with possessed objects flying at me, outside of that I really clicked with the core gameplay of killing/avoiding enemies, it might annoy some but I found it kind of satisfying to blast them after shining the flashlight at them.

I am glad I'm playing it now compared to when it first released though, because I think the ending couldn't sit as well if I didn't have the dlc, a sequel, and the Remedyverse to know the story would continue elsewhere.

Pacific Drive is a game that on paper seems fairly straight forward, you drive a car across some maps and collect resources as you go which allow you to upgrade your car and progress further into the map. This is true, but it undersells just how much work goes into turning your car from a pile of shit into something that can turn rain into fuel and within radiation damage and give you a gravity boost etc.

That really is the high level overview of the game, along with an interesting aesthetic, Pacific Drive is a fun game to do a run or two in a session since a run can be anywhere from 20-45 minutes but its not a roguelite you can binge through say like Hades, as it can be quite taxing and a grind at times, especially near the endgame, if you are looking for specific resources, because while all the info is available to you in game, its not going to hold you hand either.

That also extends to the actual maintenance and upgrading of your car. If you run out of fuel for example, you don't just press the fill fuel button, you have to grab the gas pump and put it into the fuel tank and wait for it to fill and then put the pump back. If something is wrong with a door or wheel you have to inspect it and if needs sealant or replacing you have to manually get the sealing kit or replacement part and disassemble the old part and put in the new part and then breakdown the old part for scrap because nothing should go to waste when you need resources. It can take a while to get used to all the bits and bobs that go into taking care of your car and unlocking new components and even gear for you to wear while outside of the car but once you get into the swing of things it does all play like a well oiled machine and you really do start to bond with the car, bond as in you will feel miserable if it gets destroyed on a run and you have to remake shit on the car all over again lol

Disco Elysium is a political satire murder mystery visual novel with strong writing, excellent voice acting, rpg elements, and some minor flaws.

I'll start with the positives. As mentioned, the game is very well written, which is great because there is a lot of text in this game lol. Characters are given distinct personalities through their dialogue and their voice acting, even those that are cliches are still implemented well and feel at home in this games fictional war torn city. If I had any critique of the writing it would be that at times, it felt a bit prone to over explaining various historical events and the various fictional races and locations of this games world. This may be due to my build skewing towards an intellectual so my encyclopedia stat was quite high.

While on the topic of stats, the game differs itself from other visual novel experiences by having an rpg element, where as you level up through completing task for the locals and for your overall case, you can invest points into various elements such as Intellect, Psyche, Physique and Motorics, and each of those has six different skills you can increase. These skills will impact your ability to pass various rng checks to help discover more about the world and the case at hand. At first this system can seem overwhelming and you will worry about your build but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't change the end result, just the journey of how you got there, which I like as it doesn't punish you for a "bad" build.

Finally, my only other main gripe that prevents this from getting a higher score would be the reveal of the killer. Without going into any specifics or spoilers, it personally did not satisfy me and thats a let down in a murder solving game. Also I hate that they implemented fast travel but made it so awkward to use in a game that can involve a lot of back and forth walking for various side quests grrr

I know a lot of this will seem like I did not like the game but thats not the case, its just easier to talk about the gripes a bit more but overall I did really enjoy Hollow Knight and it still gets a 4/5 as a game in a genre I don't really have any interest in. But I do have gripes that stop it from being any higher for me personally and they are as follows:
- I'm not a fan of this style of narrative/lore, like ik there's a lot of lore to this game, but from my perspective there was basically none cause of how it's told if that makes sense. It's kinda like botws plot where you aren't experiencing it as much as others are telling you that it already happened
- I think most of the fights I fought were fair and could be done in probably 5 or less attempts, which I think is a good sign of balance, but some are just a fucking headache and would make me want to self rope like the guardians and Traitor Lord
- I think part of this is just getting more used to metroidvanias but I think some of the games progression is a bit more abstract than I would have liked, I think maybe marking more points of interest on the map, specifically points where say you come across a door you can't open yet, so that when you get the key or ability required, you remember where to go, rather than the generic markers you can drop yourself

That seems like a lot, but in the grand scheme they aren't much, I still overall had fun playing, it's got great visual and style, good music, combat feels rewarding when you get into a flow, powerups and abilities feel useful and keep things fresh

A fun 10 hour ish game jam project where you play as the child of a famous samurai warrior who goes on a quest to rescue your missing father along with stopping an evil clan from turning all pokemon into wild shadow pokemon.

Yes thats right, shadow pokemon are back. Thats the main gimmick of this fan game along with its story and aesthetic being all about ninjas and samurais so if you like any of those things, you'll like this. My only issue with the shadow pokemon is that basically none of the ones you get an opportunity to catch during the majority of the game actually fit well into my team as I was playing and I didn't like any of the options enough to substitute anyone out but that will vary person to person.

Not a whole lot else to say, it has some cool custom music at times, region design is simple but effective since there are only like 3 or 4 "gyms" but you will still finish the game around the high 60s so you do get a full experience.

Actually enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. It's basically Firered/Leafgreen with some minor changes to the game plot and layout, nothing too crazy but enough to make it feel somewhat fresher. Obviously the real draw here is the fusions, it really does add a new spin to a game I've played a dozen times, and once you get more mons and come across more of the custom art fusions, that's when it really becomes fun and legitimately difficult at times to pick a team lol. I accidentally played on normal mode not realising that modern mode gives you a larger pool of Mons so if I ever want to replay it, I have that option available to me.