The presentation is definitely the strongest part of Necrobarista; it keeps you engaged with what's happening on screen and is very distinct from other visual novels I've played. The main story is strong enough and has some great moments, but I think the real gems come from the side stories you find scattered throughout the Terminal, and especially the two main side stories with different characters and their own plots. I found those to be very gripping tales that had little to no fat. They almost made the main story feel a bit weak at times considering how well told they were, which is why the score is a bit lower than some of the other VNs I've played. That, and the game is sort of short for the price you pay. Still a worthwhile game to muse about death and coffee though, especially if it's on sale.

I gave this game an honest try but I really can't do this anymore. Every level is just monkey in the cage platforming (no tech skill or special movement required, you're just jumping and running around usually with maybe some gravity flipping) where you have to dodge a million obstacles, and they all can easily kill you in one shot. Sure, you could equip temporary shields, but that doesn't fix the problem that there aren't enough temporary shields and that there aren't enough checkpoints, so you're constantly redoing sections of the level for long durations at a time and it feels like you're barely making any visible progress. The boss battles feel the exact same way, where you're just fighting them for half of your life because phases require multiple hits and if you die (from a single hit), that's the entire phase that you'll have to redo. To top it all off, the soundtrack is just generally chiptune classical music (which is pleasant at first, but just loops really quickly and gets really monotonous) and cutscenes are extremely long with robot text to speech narration and extremely zoomed into the pixel aesthetics so everything looks pretty ugly. I finally threw in the towel during the brickbreaker boss, which attacked me with pinecones that split into small projectiles going through my barrier while i had to reflect back tons of actual useable projectiles to both injure the boss and make sure my bridge didn't collapse after being hit with 3 projectiles. And then I saw the bricks respawn after 30 seconds and I couldn't take it anymore. How does a game that has so many interesting ideas with different gameplay and environments end up being such a slog?

I honestly had a much more enjoyable experience with Left Behind than the base game, mainly because due to the shorter timeframe, I feel as if Naughty Dog focused less on the long term game constraints of ammo management and constant push/pull between stealth and open action, and focused more on just inserting you in the moment. The narrative of Ellie's backstory alongside Riley is run parallel with Ellie's desperate search for supplies in the mall, and both manage to capture and display Ellie's emotions quite well. While there still are combat sequences, I especially like that there were plenty of supplies to create traps for enemies (and because you're playing as Ellie, no need to worry about running out of shivs for clickers), and that there were in fact a couple of instances where I could just bait the zombies into fighting the hunters for me, something that I wish was more present in the base game. Maybe the worst part is that the stealth can still be a little inconsistent at times, and there were a couple of instances where clickers still caught me just standing still with minimal noise or a hunter/runner somehow spotted me across the map, especially in the final confrontation. In particular, the final confrontation almost reminded me of how much of a slog combat in the main game felt (considering how concise and honestly well thought out the previous action sequences felt to me), but fortunately there are plenty of supplies as well as a deus ex machina to alleviate this sequence. Overall, Naughty Dog realizes that there is less time to make an impact in their DLC, and they deliver on their premise quite well due to these constraints.

The presentation is great and the game generally controls fine. The main problem is that every franchise plays basically the same here; it's a time trial short level where you race/swim/fly/jump to the end, with the occasional boss fight where you just dodge and throw. Also, some of the levels require AI participation to help you overcome obstacles, and sometimes the AI just doesn't feel like helping or is laughably incompetent (I did have to restart a couple of times because of this). Overall, it's a very short but somewhat samey experience, and there's not much incentive to replay unless you want to grind for achievements (which often don't pop up for some reason).

I decided to put this down for now because I was starting to get tired of the gameplay loop. Rise of the Tomb Raider unfortunately falls into the same classic trap of collect everything and craft everything in an open world environment that looks and feels the same. Stealth is still fun and climbing is quite responsive, but there's only so much of the same open world pitfalls that I can take before I start to lose focus. Oh, and the story is a bit of a convoluted mess. I'll probably come back to this eventually and try to push through to the entire, but I'm not feeling this at the moment.

Despite the fact that the writing often feels a little trite and dull (the rhyming might get a little obnoxious at times), I still love this game; it's one of the coziest RPGs I've played and it manages to feel tinged with nostalgia without being too saccharine. The combat is just intricate enough to have plenty of depth through different side characters and equippable gems and unlike general menu combat, you're encouraged to keep track of the ongoing battle due to the combination of real time and turn based mechanics; the ability to interrupt your opponent and ensure that you don't get interrupted yourself allows for a lot more engagement. That said, Child of Light's strongest point is that the visuals and soundtrack are absolutely gorgeous. It really does look like an illustrated picture book, and I could put the controller down throughout the various environments and just listen to the tunes while life flew by. All in all, it definitely has its flaws, but it has very strong artistic merits. Why can't Ubisoft make a game as beautiful as this anymore?

Can be a little unforgiving with how you don't regenerate your horseshoes after dying (definitely took me a lot longer than I would have liked during the 3rd boss and final boss) and has some jank with the driving minigame, particularly in how tough it can be to turn the van without losing speed. The main platforming, however, is a huge strength. It's not a super technical 3D platformer at all, yet you feel so powerful and accomplished just slinking your way through these crazy looking levels with a few buttons, set alongside fantastic comic book visuals (cel shading never ages) and a great soundtrack. Very much looking forward to playing Sly 2 in the near future.

A phenomenal title and I can easily see why it's still considered a landmark of video games: it really does feel like Super Metroid but in a 3D environment. The abilities feel incredibly satisfying to use and there's so much to see and explore, with tons of great lore should you choose to go down that avenue. The atmosphere thanks to the excellent soundtrack and visuals is also incredible, just getting to explore this once vibrant and now desolate yet peaceful planet now being torn apart by pirates. I could easily see myself playing this again in a year, which rarely ever happens even with games I adore. I'd also highly recommend PrimeHack, as this game feels right at home as a first person shooter. All in all, this absolutely lived up to the praise and is definitely one of my favorite games of recent times.