A delightful bag full of imagination and creativity that ultimately falls a bit short of greatness for me due to floaty controls and a weird structure that starts as a classic 3D platformer with a hub world and distinct levels but ultimately abandons all that for a semi-linear chain of levels that totally fit the dream-within-dream narrative angle and stand as great levels on their own but ultimately fail to tie it back to an accessible pacing anchor and feeling of progression. I admire the unique approach, there really is nothing like this game, but can't say I fully appreciate the execution, which makes me all the more excited for the long awaited sequel.

What looks like a nostalgia-driven Zelda clone on the surface turns out be so much more than that or rather invokes the nostalgia in more creative ways than you would expect. It calls back on the era of extensive game manuals and obtuse game mechanics and channels the experience of playing imported games in languages you don't understand, which is such a specific but untapped experience that is wonderfully translated into a fully formed puzzle-adventure. It is to many parts a player knowledge based puzzle box of figuring out the possibility space and (mechanical) language of the game more often than not feeling closer to an Outer Wilds, The Witness or Fez than its more obvious surface level Zelda or Dark Souls inspirations.
It isn't perfect, though. Hiding all the basic elements of your game and putting tutorials behind obscure scribbles on manual pages leads to many magical revelations but can easily in turn leave you stumped at what to do or how to interpret something when you don't know what the full possibility space of the game is yet. The more traditional meat of the game, mainly the combat never truly felt as responsive or fun as I wanted and there is an overall clunkyness in interactions with the world through weird perspective issues caused by the isometric camera, annoying inventory management and floaty combat. Nevertheless I would probably universally recommend this game to anyone even remotely interested. The in-game manual and related puzzle mechanics are such cool systems and breath of fresh air that absolutely need to be experienced. Even if you don't have nostalgia for this era of games and the surrounding games culture of reading manuals and importing japanese games, Tunic will make sure that you wish that you experienced that era.

One of the most fundamentally satisfying combinations of gameplay loops make this feel so effortlessly solid just from reading the basic description that you hunt fish in a tiny roguelite loop during the day to sell them in your sushi restaurant at night. That is a perfect premise already. The presentation, music and steady supply of new systems, upgrades and tons of little gameplay twists and flourishes then elevate this to greatness and most remarkably keep a consistent fresh pacing over the almost 30 hours it unexpectedly took me to complete this, never running out of steam. It struck a similar nerve for me as Cult of the Lamb last year which I was just as hopelessly addicted to, so beware, Dave the Diver will leech your time and you won't even notice it.

This would have been my favorite game ever if it came out 10 years ago at the height of both my Pokemon and Monster Hunter obsessions. Today, it is a really good game that suffers from a lack of narrative design ambitions and a resulting super repetitive main gameplay loop that is enhanced by a general slowness of combat, even at 3x speed due to the dedication to transition animations for literally everything.

The monstie system with all that it entails, from hatching eggs to transfering DNA blows Pokemon out of the water and is super addictive to pursue, offering lots of rewards if you decide to put the time in.

The whole presentation and animations are absolutely wonderful and add so much to the experience, same with the expanded combat system that kept me engaged this time around where the first game failed and made me actively feel like the game is supposed to be baby's first JRPG not intended for adults to enjoy. This game feels much more mature and balanced for all audiences, which convinced me to invest my time and see it through, which I don't regret at all, the final boss fight was pretty impressive and if I didn't already take almost two months to finish the story, making me completely burn out on the game, I would happily jump into the post-game stuff which features all the best monsters of course but as it is, I will leave it at that .

This was a rollercoaster ride for me of being completely in and out of where the game was taking me. There were definite disappointments and downturns regarding onslaughts of new mechanics and the meta story that got me really close to dropping the game, but ultimately I am glad to have seen it through, even if I wish that this was the moody horror card-game/escape room hybrid it is on the box, because these are definitely the best bits of the experience. It has some tricks up its sleeve that still turned it around for me in the end and if you haven't experienced any other game from the developer you will probably quite enjoy the surprises the game has in store for you. If you know what direction I am hinting at a lot won't be as effective anymore, but it is definitely more refined in what it does than many other similar games. If you are at all intrigued by this game, absolutely try it, if nothing else it absolutely entertains in every minute.

This is the most streamlined Monster Hunter yet and one of the best. It combines the DNA of old Monster Hunter, specifically Portable 3rd and World into an efficient, fluid and truly remarkable achievement carving a fascinating way into the future of the franchise. At about 70 hours this is by far the shortest time I have spent with a Monster Hunter game and the lack of a G/Master Rank or tempered monster equivalent to really incentivize the endgame grind is a bit disappointing and the Rampages are interesting but ultimately tedious and repetitive. Still, the variety created through Wirebugs and Switch Skills adds so many interesting layers. In Generations I quickly bounced off the excessive amount of different styles and Hunter Arts, this new system is very similar but actually integrates naturally through the design of the monsters and world around the Wirebug concept, which is important for me to accept such a drastic design iteration. I really hope they manage to supply this game with steady content to solve most of my issues, but the future seems bright for Monster Hunter. We have come a long way since the days of fan translation patches on the PSP, huh.

I noticed a feeling I have when playing certain games that comes close to 'coziness' or flow. When the movement mechanics are perfectly tuned, the exploration finds the perfect balance for challenge and frequency and the game is polished to the level where you can just let yourself go completely because you are enjoying every step you take. This feeling usually leads me to spend as much time in these games as possible and tedious completionist activities flip to delicious extra juice to squeeze out of the most refreshing fruit. Well, this is certainly one of those games.

Death's Door oozes in polish and uses the third dimension to the full potential in a traditionally flat 2D genre. Style is certainly substance in this case, from fancy cinematography, beautifully layered and detailed dioramas forming a deeply intertwined and intricate level design and world to just hilariously bold title cards rivaling the ones in Control. The balancing act of humor and ernest, heartfelt storytelling works out perfectly in this bleak but intrinsically cheeky setting - you are a soul-reaping crow wielding a glowing sword arriving by bus at an office building greeted by Baul Plart after all.

Something I have to give games the highest credit for is respecting the player's time and dedication. You have an abundance of collectable items to collect and puzzles to solve but you get the option to get hints at various points that don't spoil the solution but relieve the player of needing to backtrack endlessly and should you decide to stick around after the ending and poke a bit more into the game, you will be rewarded for your time not only with a satisfying True Ending but also with great surprises and twists along the way.

A great addition to a masterpiece, brimming with new ideas and content of almost a sequel while finding a fascinating spot in the Outer Wilds lore where you didn't think anything was necessary before but are glad that they decided to tell this story. As two packages Echoes of the Eye feels more mechanical, almost Escape Room-like with new knowledge mainly pertaining and pointing to secrets used to progress, while the base game fed off an archeological and explorative drive making connections along the way, which I personally found to just be more interesting for my taste in the end. They feel very distinct, which is really good since Outer Wilds felt pretty complete already.

Oh, and this is a horror game. Boy, they nailed this aspect (apart from a few overwhelming bits in the latter half) and the music, THE MUSIC. Great new tracks and fantastic remixes of iconic old tracks, almost triggering nostalgia already at this point.

This is a necessary play for everyone who liked the base game and is well worth the price, I was worried I would never be able to enjoy something 'Outer Wilds' for the first time again, so I am weirdly emotional that I still got the chance to have a new experience in this universe.

I really wanted to love this game, it has so much going for it, fantastic music, full voice acting, a surprisingly innovative and unique battle system and a strong story. Ultimately, where it falls short for me though, are mostly technical and artistic issues. This game pushes 3D on a console that can just barely support it, resulting in extremely low draw distances and characters losing most facial features and shapes to pixelation and low fidelity outside of cutscenes which made it difficult to connect to the story at all in the first half. This is a thing that has to be really bad for me to fault the game. The game is really short for a JRPG, which is a positive and it is paced really well for the duration of about 13 hours it took me, however the game still has to rely heavily on reusing areas and mechanics endlessly, seriously hurting my enjoyment when flying through the same corridors, fighting the same enemies and deactivating the same terminals for two hours. I can definitely see artistic appeal and justification for some of that. I really really like the whole aesthetic and universe the game builds, mixing Dune, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Wars and many other interesting influences into a unique blend creating a ton of mysterious lore of ancient civilizations. The game is way more subdued and restrained in its tone and presentation than most other JRPGs of the time and even since, often evoking the same serene melancholy and beauty seen in Fumito Ueda's games before tipping the scale of minimalism and beauty in simplicity to the side of dull repetition unfortunately. I believe a faithful remake of this game, mainly adressing the technical shortcomings and adding just a bit of environment art and enemy variety could be one of my favorite games of all time.

This is definitely carried by an innate pleasure derived from the movement in this game and the stellar audio-visual experience, offering beautiful set pieces and surprisingly varied environments to skate through. What drags this game down though is first, an extremely shallow mechanical depth, offering the same experience throughout the game from the first minute. There are aspects of mastery, but not to a degree that reached a meaningful enhancement of the experience. I wish they leaned into the momentum of the movement way more heavily, allowing for emergent gameplay to happen where it already naturally feels like it could be there, just bubbling under the surface. The main collectibles in this are one of the weirdest systems I have ever seen in a game. It is a generic red substance in form of blobs or crystals found all over the place. It has one use: To upgrade your health bar. The problem: You can easily upgrade your health bar to the maximum before even fighting the first boss, after which you will lose one health upgrade, which you can just as easily rebuy again without any meaningful engagement or choice happening in the process. Either go all in: Remove all health upgrades at a boss and make it really useful to have them for the fights creating a decision for the player or just offer any kind of alternative, be it cosmetics. The current system adds to the overall feeling of the gameplay and systems not fully supporting the vision of the visuals, sound and story. I still immensely enjoyed my experience with Solar Ash, though and loved finding all the secret stashes and just being in this world.