i can't take this anymore. i will NOT finish this garbage excuse of a game. it's a straight hallway with no interesting story, no interesting characters except for MAYBE lightning, and the worst gameplay the franchise has ever seen, i haven't had the need to stop using auto battle for 16 hours straight, it's just a waste of time. ''oh but the graphics are so good'' I DO NOT CARE!!!! I CAN PLAY GOOD GAMES THAT ALSO HAPPEN TO HAVE GOOD GRAPHICS!!! IF I WANTED TO SEE PEOPLE THAT LOOK REAL I WOULD GO OUT OF MY FUCKING HOUSE! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Hey, remember Bravely Default? This is it's dad.

I was obsessed with this game as a kid. I think I've played through most of this at least 3 times. I have formative memories where this game was present. I think the character arcs for the characters are neat and tidy little things, with not a lot of depth exactly but they get the job done. There's a lot of jobs to try out, some of them better than others, although you can just break the game in half if you run certain party comps. It's sort of tough to try out all the jobs in this one though. You need gems to upgrade the jobs (called crowns in this game), so you never really get an idea of what a class can do until you dump some gems into it. Some of these gems are really hard to find because they generate randomly (with some areas spawning more of a certain kind than others, but I don't know how you're supposed to figure out that one without a guide). All of this leads up to it feeling unrewarding to experiment very much with higher-level strategies. I'd much rather have had a game where you have to grind and are assured that progression instead of screwing around with RNG and hoping you get what you need. The other thing that drags down this game for me is the fact that the story just kind of stops halfway through. The characters stop talking and become just like the FF1 party. You don't get to see what sort of people they're like after their character arcs conclude, and there isn't really enough happening around them to make up for that. It's a massive bummer.

The areas you visit are pretty cool to make up for that though. There's a bit of backtracking involved, like it's spiritual sequel although it's not nearly as mind-numbing. They do the whole "revisit past areas you're familiar with, but now they're different and alien" a lot better in regards to how intriguing the differences are, not with how the characters react (because they largely... don't). I won't talk much more about that to avoid spoilers, but it's pretty neat. With the little bit of leeway you have to experiment in this game, it is fun to see how the classes mesh together. The mechanics are actually pretty simple in this one. It's kinda a "baby's first jrpg" in a way. There's no MP, you only have 5 action points that you can either allocate to using normal attacks or to casting spells and abilities. All your spells are tomes that you must keep in your characters' limited inventories, along with their armor and any other items you'd like to have on-hand. To recover more than 1 action point per turn, you need to defend with the "boost" button. It's a simple to learn system, but still fun to tinker around with. Some of the bosses can be a bit tough too, if you don't learn how to use the systems correctly.

If you want to see what Bravely Default built off of to become what it is or play a newish old-school jrpg, I think this game is worth a shot. All in all, it's a fun little game.

Evil Tonight is fun, challenging, short and beautiful to look at. The characters, however, are wholly unlikable, incredibly cringe. MC is constantly referring to herself as some dazzling star studded gorgeous beauty, trying to portray this big sister archetype that falls on it's face. It's not endearing, it's just weird. Enemy balancing in this game feels all over the place as well, one of the earlier introduced enemies took over FOUR shotgun blasts to kill. That's ridiculous, and a good segue to enemy placement, which at the end of the game is very annoying. It was a good time for the time I spent with it, but there's really nothing there to make me want more.

I love Bugsnax.

I was expecting to go into this game with a neutral/positive outlook. A game I'd play, focus on main objectives, have some minor frustrations here and there, finish it, and just say "that was solid, I liked it." and move on...But then I got hooked. I got into the groove with what the game had to offer: Capturing bugsnax was addictive, fun, and I love how the game encourages & rewards experimentation. I found the Grumpuses charming, funny, and having a surprising amount of deep characterization to them when you learn of their struggles and how you help them through it all. And that ending man, not only was the twist earned, but the (good) ending made the entire experience worth fully completing to me.

I'd genuinely consider Bugsnax in my Top 5 Indie games right now. Stellar work to the team behind it.