mrfollowfollow
2022
Oof this was irritating. Matching really ugly audio samples with trial and error gameplay. Presentation is very nice, but this was just unpleasant to actually play.
2022
I loved the characters and much of the moment to moment storytelling, but the overall storyline has a lot of pacing issues alternating between glacially slow and galloping far too quickly. Honestly I had to really force myself to finish this; but I am glad I did as the ending has a lot of emotional payoff.
2022
I found this such a drag a lot of the time; although ultimately found it reasonably enjoyable in enough parts to keep going in order to see the end. The good: the turn based tactical combat is excellent, the 2D/3D art is gorgeous, the branching storyline choices are great and the signature group decision making system was unique and memorable. The drag: most of the major characters are completely forgettable JRPG stereotypes, the voice acting is embarrassingly amateur and incredibly dull, and much of the moment to moment writing and pace of dialogue is SO SLOW. A few other nice things to say about the overall story though; a few side characters are refreshingly quirky and interesting and the overall Game of Thrones esque political storyline is quite enjoyable. I really had to force myself to keep going with this game in order to see the ending, but found it hard to play for more than an hour or two especially during some of the long “cut scene” chapters in which you are exposed to A LOT of bad dialogue.
Maybe i just haven’t played enough JRPGs to be blind to some of these common faults with the genre.
Maybe i just haven’t played enough JRPGs to be blind to some of these common faults with the genre.
The great characters, their witty banter and their story arcs really elevate this game. But perhaps you could enjoy all of that in a YouTube cutscene compilation and skip the dreary level design and absolutely uninspired combat. Parts of the gameplay feel rooted in late 90’s action games like Rebel Assault; Insta-fail on rails space shooter segments especially. Whoever designed the appalling sliding sections between combat encounters (there are so many of them!) needs their Game Design licence revoked.
I'm counting the seconds until I can play this game for the second time; and it's coming up to five years at this point. I want to forget as much as possible so I can try and relive it again for the first time.
2018
Pros: Feeling “in the zone” as you pull off an incredible 30 second feat of uninterrupted first class platforming.
Cons: The thousands of deaths that precede that feeling.
Cons: The thousands of deaths that precede that feeling.
Love the air slash move to death
2022
Hauntingly melancholic score and a surprisingly playable dice roll game mechanic. Will be thinking about some of the sad and beautiful characters for a long time.
2022
So wonderful! A difficult Zelda-like with absolutely charming character design and music. I said “squeeee” a lot while playing this, and I’m a boring middle aged dude, so I think that communicates how adorable this game is. The final secret puzzles are hilariously obtuse so umm, maybe watch a YouTube video to unlock the true ending. It’s worth it, much “squeeeee”.
2001
I finished this 20 years ago and it’s interesting coming back to it again much later. In many ways it has aged a lot, and there’s a lot of terrible character dialogue to suffer through to get to the gameplay of each level. But I also intended to only play one level a few weeks ago, but keep picking up my GBA to play another one every few days. So it can still absolutely get its hooks in you.
2021
Loved the first act of this game but felt it maybe dragged a little in the last two, despite introducing some more great mechanics. Still have to award it five stars purely for its incredible atmosphere and meta game tomfoolery.
2017
I absolutely love this game but really struggled with the difficulty spikes of some of the bosses and sadly decided to shelve it.
2018
Beautiful pixel art, haunting music and a pretty addictive little RTS-lite gameplay loop. It got its hooks into me pretty well and I played maybe 8-10 hours of it, but don't really feel compelled to keep playing as it starts to feel a little repetitive and grindy.
2022
An incredibly stylish and unique game unlike anything I’ve ever played. The card cheating techniques are well taught as they increase in complexity, and do contribute to a growing sense of mastery as you progress through the game. I found myself struggling with executing some of the advanced game techniques due to having a poor short term memory; you do need to be good at memorising instructions and also have lightning quick reflexes for many sections. The story is engaging and the art style and music absolutely a huge highlight.
I ran into a very unfortunate bug that prevented me from completing the last 45 mins of the game, and ended up watching the ending on YouTube. I honestly didn’t mind this as I would have struggled with the difficulty anyway. A very memorable game overall.
I ran into a very unfortunate bug that prevented me from completing the last 45 mins of the game, and ended up watching the ending on YouTube. I honestly didn’t mind this as I would have struggled with the difficulty anyway. A very memorable game overall.
2022
Such a lovely story told in a really novel way. I played it over two weeks checking in once or twice a day with the sound on max volume. The music is fantastic and I highly recommend looking the soundtrack up on Youtube.