This is probably my favorite pokemon inspired game I have played and I've played a lot of the big ones, nexomon extinction, temtem, coromon etc. What makes this better than all of those in my opinion, is that its what most resembles pokemon for me, but isn't afraid to improve where pokemon doesn't/won't, whereas sometimes in the other games it feels like they hold back in certain areas or make the same mistakes pokemon does. The main example of this is the gameplay flow for Cassette Beasts, its very similar in structure to Scarlet and Violet where there is a mostly open world map, and you have 2-3 core objectives to complete in order to beat the game. It even has unlocking overworld abilities to help you progress the map like SV does but its implemented better here imo. And overall that gameplay flow is done better here thanks to firstly the map design and secondly the level scaling implementation.

I'll start with the map design. While the game is marketed as open world, its not really, but in a good way. You are meant to do the right side of the map first until you complete enough of it to travel to the left side, and how you progress through that right hand side and what order you complete objectives is up to you. This is where the level scaling comes in. At the start of the game you are giving choices in how the scaling will be implemented, for example will bosses scale down to you, how will enemy AI move in the overworld etc. This level of tweaking is fantastic as it allows you to essentially make a custom easy/normal/hard mode, a sorely lacking pokemon feature. This is what truly helps the game flow, as you never feel over or under leveled, I left it on the default settings and while I never truly struggled like say in TemTem at times, I also couldn't just blindly mash away like you often can in pokemon and SV (depending on your order). I also really liked how none of the objective locations are just given to you immediately on the map, you either have to find them yourself or have an npc in town tell you as a quest, its a nice touch for those into exploration.

In terms of beast designs, I liked a lot of them, I feared that the roughly 120 count wouldn't be enough but it is and they are distributed well throughout the map. I also like the sticker move system and the star system for evolving, it makes having a rotating squad very feasible. The fusion mechanic is also cool, the algorithm used is very good in that it never feels like the fusions are just slapped together like the default pokemon fusions.

If I had any gripes, its that I wasn't a fan of how the companions quests are generally tied into a handful of the main objective boss fights, which means for about half of the Archangel fights you have a companion with you that can't fuse until you do the fight. Not a big deal but it came up as an annoyance once or twice. The other gripe is the awkwardness of swapping around beasts, especially if you want to take a beast off a companion to give them a fodder one if you are swapping, you should be able to remove your active beast from the tape inventory menu rather than having to back out to the party specific menu, it just becomes a hassle if you find yourself swapping companions a lot, which you will have to do some amount of due to the quests.

Overall, thoroughly impressed with this two person dev team and I'm glad its on gamepass as that should help with discovery a lot and even on steam its a very fair price of €/$20 I believe. If you are a fan of monster catching games, this is one to try.

PS the music is very good but sadly theres only maybe a handful of tracks, would have liked a few more but at least what we have is good so you don't mind hearing them often.

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

Same score as what I gave the original re4, I think its hard to call one better than the other, when they both have different strengths and weaknesses. Obviously the remake is modernized and adds a bit more depth to Leons combat arsenal, but I feel like certain actions, like shotgun blasts and roundhouse kicks don't have the same oomph as they did in the remake. The knife changes are actually better than I expected. I think it does a good job of showing off memorable locations from the original with modern graphics and lighting, vastly improves most areas but I think some actually lose a bit of magic.

I don't think the remake manages to capture that feeling of "cool" that I had in my original play-through but it does flesh out more of the characters and story, and I think towards the back half is does a better job embracing the cheesyness of the original, when Leon has someone to talk to he hits more one liners and has some banter.

Overall I liked it and any fan of the original will also, some are much more die hard than myself so their mileage may vary but I don't think you can come away disliking RE4 Remake.

PS, they are absolutely setting up an RE5 Remake in this :O

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.

The first few hours of this are really fun, especially if you grew up on the Arkham games or even more recently, Marvels Spider-man, since the combat is an evolution and deeper form of that. But after a certain point, Sifu starts demanding almost nothing less than perfection from its players, and for some people that challenge is welcome and engaging, but for others, like myself, it becomes very grating, especially on a specific mid game boss fight where I shit you not, the boss has three combos, one of them you can't interact with, one you can, and one where you legit have to run away from her and trick the AI into finishing the combo because it can run forever if it thinks it can hit you, and thats all just for phase 1. Thankfully the rest of the game does feel more fair in comparison but that one boss fight in particular at the midpoint of the game really stopped a lot of positive momentum I had for Sifu.

Outside of that, the game is fairly simple plot wise, its just a revenge story. I do like its art design, especially in the museum level, and how the different bosses have a sense of theme around the elements.

Overall, you play this game for the combat, which is very solid and rewarding once it clicks, but its boss fights just are a bit too unforgiving as they require perfection, and even just surviving a boss fight can harm you for the next one.

I really hope no parents were tricked into buying this game for their kid, because unless you play on a difficulty lower than normal, this game can be fucking tough lol.

Lets start with the obvious, the games art style and graphics are beautiful. Its overused to say but its true, it really does feel like playing a Pixar movie at times. Its at its best when you are going through a shimmering forest or through the village, unfortunately the last act takes place in a darker area and while it still looks nice, I don't think it looks as good as it does in the brighter areas.

Peel back the "pixar botw-lite" layer of this game and you'll find babies first Souls game lmao. The boss fights and even some of the regular encounters in this game are deceptively hard, some to the point where its an annoyance more than a skill issue. A few times I debated lowering the difficulty but didn't need to in the end but a bit like Tunic, I don't think I'd fault anyone who did lower it as I think it can ruin some peoples fun with it.

Not much to say plot or character wise, probably one of the weaker points of the game. Kena doesn't really have much of a personality and the game is basically three mostly separate mini stories that somewhat tie in at the end with the main big bad, but its loose at best.

Overall its fun but I think its short length helps as I dont think it would have a lot of staying power if it was a longer game, but a great first effort from the people who are known for a majoras mask video. Definitely some design flaws in the game but I think experience will fix that for whatever they make next.

This was a lot of fun. When it was first revealed, I thought it looked cool but I wasn't gonna play cause I'm not a big fan of rhythm games and I didn't think I would enjoy being punished for having bad rhythm. Then people played the game and said how you don't actually need good rhythm at all really and how easy it is to keep on rhythm, and they were right!

In the best way possible, this feels like a Saturday morning cartoon mixed with the xbox 360 era of action platformers, and the combat even gives me some kingdom hearts vibes at times. The art style is great, levels are vibrant and a good mixup of fights and platforming with plenty of collectibles to find. I played on normal so I didn't have to overly dive into the combat but there is definitely depth there around the various combos and specials for people on harder difficulties.

I also really liked the characters and writing, I did genuinely laugh out loud at multiple points and I really liked both the final boss fight, and how the various characters tie into that fight and ending. My only real gripe is that sometimes the levels can be a small bit repetitive, like the tower climbing one, but overall its not a big deal.

Hogwarts Legacy isn't too far off your generic Ubisoft style open world rpg but with the Harry Potter IP slapped across it. This wouldnt be worth much, if not for the care and detail and sense of nostalgia that comes with that IP and it boosts the enjoyment of the game immensely.

This game does not reinvent the wheel for rpgs or open worlds, but it does give us a version of one that many people have longed for and I think does it quite well. Hogwarts as a building is unbelievable and you'll easily spend the first 10 hours just roaming its halls for secrets and places you recognize. The outside area isn't bad but its nothing too special imo.

The combat was my greatest fear going in to this but it was honestly a lot better than I expected. Its sort of hard to describe but its fun if thats worth anything. The main story is decent, some parts of it are boring and forgettable, mainly the two villains and their whole plot, but the stuff about the Keepers and the trials are memorable, and the side character relationship quests actually end on quite good notes, the game doesn't pull its punches at times.

Gripes include the repetitive nature of some of the open world elements, the lack of variety with some dialogue lines around fast travel and Hogsmeade, I think they could have cut some of the more generic side quests to focus on the main story, specifically some characters that I think would have benefited the final act if we had spent more time with them.

tldr if you like harry potter you will like this, if you dont like harry potter, there really isnt anything new for you here.

I played this ahead of the upcoming remake and honestly, I think this game has aged fine. The camera is a bit wonky but it doesn't take long to adapt to. I think the best way to describe re4 is just "cool". Its a cool game, Leon is a cool dude, doing cool shit like kneecapping zombies to them roundhouse kick them into someone else, or surplex them and burst open their head. The game also gives you plenty of tools from handguns to shotguns to smgs etc. It definitely leans more towards action than survival horror compared to its predecessors but it hasn't jumped the shark totally yet.

The plot is fairly simple, you could probably have ripped the plot and villains from a B tier 90s action movie but it works here. Also, anyone who complains about Ashley has to just be bad at the game. I expected an awful time with her due to the hate I had see online prior to playing, but its legitimately just a skill issue lmao

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

Idk how to really format my thoughts on midnight suns, I think my brain is a bit mushed rn but I'll try. Basically it boils down to a fun enough card strategy system that's surrounded by bloat.

The characters are all fairly one dimensional, any sort of development most of them get isn't actually development and is just a reference to a comic run they were in. Out of the cast of like 15 or so
heroes, I'd argue at most that 3 get any sort of relevant development, and even then it's mostly just plot relevant rather than character based.

It also has just so much bloated dialogue. I know a lot of reviews talk about how cringe or quippy it is but eventually you can look past that, it's the fact that it takes them 10 sentences to say something they could have said in 2. So often I'd find myself just skipping through the social stuff cause 1) the personalities are nearly all the same or just a rehash of a select few, and 2) it just fucking drags, it's the bulk of the 60 hour playthrough, it's legitimately like 20 in combat, 40 listening to dialogue.

The combat is what holds the game together and seeing it's the xcom team maybe I shouldn't be surprised. While there's little personality to the heroes in their dialogue, their moves and abilities in battle actually do match their skillsets. Spiderman can string together web attacks, Captain Marvel can go Binary for a boost, Blade can bleed enemies to weaken over time etc. It is genuinely quite fun to just do some missions and listen to a podcast in the background.

Overall, it's fine. If you like marvel and strategy games, get this on a discount and just skip through the dialogue. You can pay attention to the plot cutscenes if you want but tbh it's just set pieces strung together, and the ending made no sense to me, maybe I was too focused on a podcast lol.

I really wanted this to be good but unfortunately I ended up getting a game that was clearly going to be a game as a service but pivoted once Marvels Avengers bombed.

Theres a lot wrong with the game, the level system, messy UI, crafting materials out the ass, lazy missions, repeated locations, boring story. I think the things that annoy me most are the levels, location, and story. The game is set up on a leveling system, complete missions to get xp to level up. Missions will generally give you a recommended rough estimate on what level to be to tackle that mission, which sounds useful so you don't end up fighting a damage sponge boss, but YOU DO. Boss fights are nearly always 1-3 levels higher than you, regardless of the recommended level for the mission. Then there are the locations in the game. A lot of the game is spent in Gothams map doing general side quests as they pop up but they just repeat the same locations each time. Idk how many times I went to the 8 bit bar or the dock up north. Then theres the plot and oml, I can't believe how dirty they did the Court of Owls. Without getting into specifics, the game has 8 main missions, most of which are split into 2 parts. The Court of Owls stuff mostly happens from mission 2 to mission 6. You could legitimately remove those missions and the overall plot does not change since only the first and last mission seem to actually matter. It wouldn't be so bad if that middle section with the Court was good but its just so generic and bland.

That all being said, the game isn't completely god awful. Its not very long, probably around 15 hours or so depending how much side content you do, and while not as pleasing as Gotham in the Arkham games, I grew to like this design of Gotham City more than I initially did. I don't think the game uses Batman's rouges gallery nearly enough as it should, but the few villains we did get I liked this games take on most of them. I also didn't hate the knights themselves, I only really played as 2 of them but they were fine. Combat itself overall isn't great, it does improve as you get more abilities but not having a counter mechanic really starts to hurt towards the end of the game as you just have to spam dodge roll against so many enemy types. Speaking of, it does also do a decent job of introducing different enemy types throughout the game.

Overall, unless you plan to play this co-op or something, I'd just advise you play one of the Arkham games, they are all better than this.

Don't let the 2.5 throw you off, that's a 5/10 and for me, that's a bang average score, not good, not bad, and that's how I feel about Frontiers, it's not good, but it's not bad either. Well, it has aspects that are really good, like a fun core gameplay experience of running fast, but some parts are really bad, like the very repetitive nature of the gameplay, how the story is told, the beta feeling of the game.

Probably worth keeping in mind I'm not a sonic fan, this is my first game so when Sonic references something like his human girlfriend from 06, idk what that means lmao. So those callbacks and fanservice moments didn't do anything for me but that's ok.

I personally didn't really like how the story was told. I think there's an interesting story buried within this game but the amount of cutscenes and how often they happen, just didn't click for me. I also don't like how coy they try to play out the plot for so long and then just expect you to connect all the dots at the every end. I will say though the one story aspect I did like, even though it was underused and not fleshed out enough imo, is the Sage and Eggman connection and how that works out in the ending, I think that could have been a much more interesting payoff if more time was spent on it during the game.

Tbh overall, a lot of my dislike is just that it felt repetitive at times so even if I initially liked the gameplay, after an hour or so I'd be bored cause it's just a loop of finding gears to get keys to get emeralds to fight bosses to move to the next island and do it all over again with little variation in-between. All islands are the exact same, they may visually look a bit different but the grass, sand, and volcanic terrain all plays the exact same. I hate saying this and I hate even more that the developers are open about it, but it really does feel like a beta game that was sent for playtesting and still needs to be tweaked a bit and arrange the pieces better.
Tldr: its a mixed bag that feels like a beta for a potentially really good game. Story is told badly even though it has interesting aspects. Open world is better than cyberspace but it was nice to have a mix even if some cyberspace levels were hell. I don't regret playing it, but I'm glad I got it 50% off.
Weirdly, a lot of thoughts for a 2.5/5 lol

Santa Monica studios had probably some of the biggest expectations on their shoulders for this game in recent video game history, and I am delighted to say they have absolutely matched and exceeded all my expectations.

This game is a step up in every sense from its 2018 predecessor. The combats improved and refined, enemy types and boss battles are varied, the story has bigger beats and more emotional moment, the graphics are pristine and it all runs with hardly a hiccup.

There is so much more detail about this game that I could go into but I don't think its really needed. I think the only thing I want to touch on is the story, but I will remain spoiler free. This games story obviously has to be on a much larger scale than the original, in order to wrap up the duology story. I think that hurts this game just a smidge in the story department compared to 2018 as that had such a small but consistent and tight plot thread of spreading the ashes, that sometimes Ragnarok gets a bit lost in its grand epic realm spanning adventure. However, where Ragnaroks story shines over 2018 in my opinion, is its emotional beats and overall theme and message. I nearly cried twice during this game, one of them is a bit of a cheap cry but still, I can count on one hand the amount of games that made me tear up. And there are moments of complete shock that are not in the first game bar maybe the reveal of its ending. So while Ragnaroks plot might have slightly lower lows than 2018, I think its highs are much higher.

Is it a flawless game? No, but I don't think any games truly are, it still has far too many chests and random tidbit collectables laying around, its story does feel like it has some minor padding at times, and some of the combat challenges (which are optional) are repetitive and redundant to 100%. But in the grand scheme of things, these are very minor nitpicks of an otherwise masterpiece game and perfect bookend to the Norse story of Kratos and Atreus.