petro_sino
2022
I have mixed feelings for Vanaris Tactics. On one hand, I respect any developer able to do the Final Fantasy Tactics formula justice, since the tactical part of the game is easily its most successful part. On the other hand there are some small blemishes that make me unsure to recommend the game. I'll list a few:
- the game is dominated by green, grey and brown tones. The spritework is nice, but the colors don't give it any love.
- the UI takes a lot of space and the action is very zoomed in, at the same time you cannot move the camera without using the movement keys on your keyboard, defeating the purpose of having a cursor sensitivity. Just stick to controller or keyboard.
- the music does its job, some tracks are quite nice. Special effects are noisy so I recommend tuning them down in the options.
- the story, one of the pillars of its marketing, has an interesting premise and its characters are colorful, yet in its 4-8 hours of runtime, it struggles to give reason for much of what's happening, making sense just at the beginning and then at the end. Half of the time battles are initiated because you happened to walk on someone stealing cookies in a jar and now they want you dead.
Anyways I feel like the game has a lot of soul and would've been perfectly viable if not for small issues like these; it apparently crashes a lot, but in my case it only happened twice, so remember to save your game! The gameplay alone is solid enough for me to recommend the game to any (and maybe only to) SRPG fans.
- the game is dominated by green, grey and brown tones. The spritework is nice, but the colors don't give it any love.
- the UI takes a lot of space and the action is very zoomed in, at the same time you cannot move the camera without using the movement keys on your keyboard, defeating the purpose of having a cursor sensitivity. Just stick to controller or keyboard.
- the music does its job, some tracks are quite nice. Special effects are noisy so I recommend tuning them down in the options.
- the story, one of the pillars of its marketing, has an interesting premise and its characters are colorful, yet in its 4-8 hours of runtime, it struggles to give reason for much of what's happening, making sense just at the beginning and then at the end. Half of the time battles are initiated because you happened to walk on someone stealing cookies in a jar and now they want you dead.
Anyways I feel like the game has a lot of soul and would've been perfectly viable if not for small issues like these; it apparently crashes a lot, but in my case it only happened twice, so remember to save your game! The gameplay alone is solid enough for me to recommend the game to any (and maybe only to) SRPG fans.
2011
being meguca is suffering
2012
It's a fun game until you realize that you'll spend half the time looking at someone's intestines rupturing or his balls splintering into nothingness. The other half is poorly implemented stealth and funny ragdolls.
I will say though that for 2012 the game looks incredible and the multiplayer at its peak was fun and challenging.
I will say though that for 2012 the game looks incredible and the multiplayer at its peak was fun and challenging.
2020
Ciao Nonna is a deeply personal tale about coming back to a place unlike it was before. I will ramble a bit in the review, which is extremely biased for personal reasons; gameplay-wise, Ciao Nonna is a short text-based adventure, where we play as Ofelia, coming to the place she lived as a kid for probably the last time.
We will always carry with us the memories of old, the people who left us will never die as long as we live true to our bonds. My uncle told me that I should try working somewhere else, not to end up like him (his words) while we were gardening for a very low wage. He passed away two years ago, I miss him a lot but it's thanks to his support that I made this choice.
And it's also thanks to you, zio, that I am who I am. I will visit, don't worry. We're doing all fine. Ciao Nonna reminded me a lot of this feeling. It's definitely not for everyone but it's worth a try.
We will always carry with us the memories of old, the people who left us will never die as long as we live true to our bonds. My uncle told me that I should try working somewhere else, not to end up like him (his words) while we were gardening for a very low wage. He passed away two years ago, I miss him a lot but it's thanks to his support that I made this choice.
And it's also thanks to you, zio, that I am who I am. I will visit, don't worry. We're doing all fine. Ciao Nonna reminded me a lot of this feeling. It's definitely not for everyone but it's worth a try.
Timeless classic of Christmas, year 2005. Everybody and their mums were playing on their shiny Ps2 libraries while I was blowing dust out of my older brother's grey brick. To me this game means a lot, being probably one of the first games I ever played, and coming back to it I felt a bit of dread: what if I had bad taste?!
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time is not a bad game at all! Its controls can feel a bit outdated and some levels are a bit frustrating but the fun and chaotic mess of a Bugs Bunny cartoon is captured in its truest form by this collectathon, almost entirely voice acted (take that, gaming year of 2023! Bugs Bunny did it first!). One of my most cherished memories was playing the snow level in the Medieval world and talking about school with my mother present in the room.
At the same time, it's a bit janky. As I said, the controls aren't the best and thankfully Bugs will automatically jump when running towards a cliff, so that you can correct the course. Meanwhile, some levels like the car chase, the trolly level and most of the space era ones can feel like you cannot control the bunny. Time and again, by trial and error, I was able to finish and 100% the game, at time needing to go back to older levels just to collect all golden carrots. I was greeted by a warm, orange tinted screen, telling me Bugs was finally able to go to the beach.
When you're a kid, you don't know you're making memories, you're just having fun. This game, Digimon World, Spyro, just to name a few, have made me reminisce the old times, when me, my brother and my sister were spending time together.
I am calling both of them, right after I'm done writing. Visiting the past is lonely business, you may be mentally there but no one else is; reminiscing together instead is a fun and warm activity. We may live in different cities and live different lives, but we have in common all the good fun we had.
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time is not a bad game at all! Its controls can feel a bit outdated and some levels are a bit frustrating but the fun and chaotic mess of a Bugs Bunny cartoon is captured in its truest form by this collectathon, almost entirely voice acted (take that, gaming year of 2023! Bugs Bunny did it first!). One of my most cherished memories was playing the snow level in the Medieval world and talking about school with my mother present in the room.
At the same time, it's a bit janky. As I said, the controls aren't the best and thankfully Bugs will automatically jump when running towards a cliff, so that you can correct the course. Meanwhile, some levels like the car chase, the trolly level and most of the space era ones can feel like you cannot control the bunny. Time and again, by trial and error, I was able to finish and 100% the game, at time needing to go back to older levels just to collect all golden carrots. I was greeted by a warm, orange tinted screen, telling me Bugs was finally able to go to the beach.
When you're a kid, you don't know you're making memories, you're just having fun. This game, Digimon World, Spyro, just to name a few, have made me reminisce the old times, when me, my brother and my sister were spending time together.
I am calling both of them, right after I'm done writing. Visiting the past is lonely business, you may be mentally there but no one else is; reminiscing together instead is a fun and warm activity. We may live in different cities and live different lives, but we have in common all the good fun we had.
2020
Timelie is a short puzzle game that puts a lot of eggs in one basket: time travel, stealth and grid movement. These ideas together work very well and being able to turn back time in order to redo an error doesn't end up making the game frustrating.
Getting the secret ending requires a lot of out-of-the-box thinking and the (free) DLC offers more meat for the hardcore puzzlers; without it the game falls a bit on the easy side. At the same time, there is no real narrative and the game is linear, not having much of a reason to play Timelie again once the game and the hard levels are cleared.
Getting the secret ending requires a lot of out-of-the-box thinking and the (free) DLC offers more meat for the hardcore puzzlers; without it the game falls a bit on the easy side. At the same time, there is no real narrative and the game is linear, not having much of a reason to play Timelie again once the game and the hard levels are cleared.
wen day is dark alway rember happy day
Despite being a "joke" game, CBT With Yuuka Kazami offers a safe space and some well presented self-help care. It's very short, yes, but it's supposed to be there, radiate with happy day energy and fill you with warmth.
Despite being a "joke" game, CBT With Yuuka Kazami offers a safe space and some well presented self-help care. It's very short, yes, but it's supposed to be there, radiate with happy day energy and fill you with warmth.
It just works. There's going to be a time where such titles are going to become a bit too much but I am thankful they exist: it's for a small niche of which I'm definitely part of and it offers a sense of community not many things in life do anymore.
I, petro_sino, humbly submit a toast to Sakuya Izayoi, for successfully managing to give advice, so that she may triumph with helping my sanity. Congratulations, Sakuya. Enjoy your dab.
1989
No business being this funky, Super Mario Land has a lot of weird and experimental ideas, but the novelty doesn't overstay its welcome considering how short the game is.
The wacky setting and the shmup sections alone would make the game worth playing.
The wacky setting and the shmup sections alone would make the game worth playing.
1992
Kirby's Dream Land is a pretty solid platformer, especially for the system and the time. Some levels and bosses are rough around the edges but it's good to see that in its first game Kirby had a clear vision of what it wanted to be.
2001
First part of the duology, Golden Sun takes everything Camelot did in previous years and takes it to the extreme, before they had been relegated to mario sports games.
Golden Sun is a wonderfully presented game; visuals are phenomenal, with charming and colorful sprites filling the rich world of Weyard. The music by Sakuraba is at time soothing, at times imposing, at times inspiring, always perfect for the occasion. The Lost Age will come up next, taking everything the first Golden Sun did and cranking it up to eleven.
Just use a guide for the djinn, I honestly had no idea where half of them were. Puzzles are fun and so is character building, but I will not leave one of those critters behind.
Golden Sun is a wonderfully presented game; visuals are phenomenal, with charming and colorful sprites filling the rich world of Weyard. The music by Sakuraba is at time soothing, at times imposing, at times inspiring, always perfect for the occasion. The Lost Age will come up next, taking everything the first Golden Sun did and cranking it up to eleven.
Just use a guide for the djinn, I honestly had no idea where half of them were. Puzzles are fun and so is character building, but I will not leave one of those critters behind.
2019
Surprisingly fresh take on the battle royale, it plays fast and it's easy to get into, despite not having a tutorial. Its ease of play is so refreshing that whenever I feel like playing I can just sit and do it, hit the dopamine receptors and then put it away.
2021
Battle royale doesn't work really well with Pac-Man for a couple of reasons: Tetris 99 is quick, fast and so are the matches. Pacman 99 requires the player to spend a lot of attention and time for a single match, so it doesn't suit itself for long sessions. Not only that, but being attacked by another player directly slows you down, which affects the player's input and that's not fun.
It was alright while it lasted, RIP.
It was alright while it lasted, RIP.
2022
Played this just for a couple of weeks basically. It is fun with friends and the minigames are fine but as the novelty fades there's not enough content to justify playing.
What probably killed Kirby's Dream Buffet was the lack of promotion and the utter gall of pricing it 15 bucks.
What probably killed Kirby's Dream Buffet was the lack of promotion and the utter gall of pricing it 15 bucks.