This was alright. The setting's fantastic and the rats are genuinely very impressive, but the game never manages to shake off the “The Last of Us/God of War at home” vibes. It also seemingly can’t decide if it wants to be a walking simulator or not, because it gives you a really cool arsenal to approach encounters with but the encounters themselves are so incredibly rigid and usually only have one solution so it ends up not mattering all that much.

The story is fine up until a certain point where it kind of goes off the rails but the characters are great and the voice acting is genuinely fantastic across the board. I really loved Hugo and Amicia’s relationship, but I feel like that has more to do with me and my relationship with my big sisters as opposed to the game actually making me care about them, because you don’t really see their relationship progress naturally like you do in something like The Last of Us with Joel and Ellie or other games of this ilk. Things are weird between them and then they’re not, and then they’re weird again and then they’re not. It never felt natural to me.

I don’t know, it was a perfectly good experience, I’m just a little whelmed given the insane word of mouth this game got.

I am flabbergasted.

This playthrough marks the tenth time I've played through Sayonara Wild Hearts (fifth time logged). Year after year, time after time I think, going in, that this is going to be the time the game doesn't fill me with the euphoric feeling it usually does and yet year after year, time after time, Sayonara Wild Hearts has proven me wrong. This is now the tenth time I have lost it during the final few minutes of the game.

I am absolutely flabbergasted.

This is the videogame equivalent of a rollercoaster ride. For just a fleeting moment, it transports you somewhere else entirely. Music. Colors. Voices. Sounds. Feelings. And then it ends. No game has ever made me feel like Sayonara Wild Hearts makes me feel. Euphoria truly is the only way to describe it. It is fucking enchanting.

Wild hearts never die <3

Still probably one of the most unique looking games I've ever played, if not the most unique. I just wish it was as confident in its structure as it was in its visual identity, because Blasphemous can't decide if it wants to be a Souls-like or a Metroidvania so it ends up doing both and unlike a game like Grime that manages to merge both genres successfully, Blasphemous stumbles and at times feels half-baked. The combat feels great, the bosses are solid, the visuals are gorgeous and the themes the story tackles are incredibly interesting, but some design decisions like the way the traversal “power ups” work are just baffling to me. There’s a lot to love here, I just wish the whole thing came together a little better.

This has been on my radar for quite a while but after trying out Touhou Luna Nights and not liking it much I kinda started ignoring it thinking I'd feel the same way about it. I'm glad I picked this up on a whim because it's wonderful. solid pacing, tight controls, fun bosses, great level design and gorgeous visuals. The solidest of solid metroidvanias. Just don't let Konami see even a screenshot from this game because they'd want to sue and I don't blame them because holy shit does it look like a SOTN reskin.

Wasn't really feeling it initially due to the art direction, but it grew on me as the game went on as did the gameplay. The focus on parrying had me concerned at the beginning as I'm usually a dodge/block type of person when it comes to Soulslikes and Metroidvanias, but the window is generous enough that it never felt frustrating and by the end of the game I wasn't even attacking enemies at all and instead relied on the damage the parry was doing because it was a lot more fun. This is, in general, a surprisingly great Metroidvania with great bosses, fun traversal (when the full moveset is unlocked) and fantastic world design. The story kinda falls flat and the music is fine but largely unmemorable, but I think that's about all I dislike about the game? I'm genuinely surprised this flew under the radar. The sequel is definitely a day 1 purchase for me.

If you know me you know there's nothing I dislike more than a roguelite/like game, so when this was announced with a trailer that completely undersold what it was, I was planning to ignore it. I'm ultimately glad I didn't because yes, while it didn't really do anything for me gameplay-wise (wonderful combat aside), the story it tells was wonderful enough to keep me going. If anything, it made me wish that this was covered in the main game because it genuinely feels integral to Kratos’ character. It helps that it was completely free and took a brief 5 hours to 100%.

I'm conflicted. On one hand I generally had fun with the game and there's a decent amount of stuff to like here, mainly the stunning visuals and the great music. On the other hand, the game kind of fails at being a turn based RPG in many ways that's kinda mind-boggling a little. The story and characters are...there, the combat, while fun, feels like it doesn't progress much so it feels like you're doing the same exact thing and using the same exact strategies for a long stretch of the runtime (each character only having three skills is an unhinged choice for a game this long), the runtime itself is just too long for what the game's trying to do and the story it's trying to tell...I don't know. None of it is necessarily bad, it's just...meh. The Messenger is one of my favorite indies of all time so perhaps my expectations were just a bit too high.

I’ve already played Inscryption so I thought I had an idea of what to expect going into this but it still managed to surprise me. It’s really rough around the edges (especially when it comes to visuals) and some of the sequences go on for too long like Rust’s, but the core idea is so strong and creative that I can’t help but give Mullins his flowers. Would love to see what this game would look and feel like with Inscryption’s production values, because I genuinely think I’d prefer a more polished version of this over it.

Probably one of the best Soulslikes I’ve ever played. It borrows HEAVILY from From’s work, probably more than any other Soulslike I’ve ever played, but that’s probably why it’s so good and honestly, aside from one egregious example at the end of the game where it feels like a boss was lifted straight out of Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, it generally manages to put its own spin on things while also sticking closely to what has been proven to work. It’s absolutely gorgeous, plays like a dream, and has wonderful music. It’s definitely not perfect, though. The level design is good overall but there are a couple of meh/bad areas (Venigni Works, Barren Swamp and Relic of Trismegistus come to mind) and the obsession with two-phase boss fights got old very, very quickly. Still, it’s an incredibly strong debut game from the team and I genuinely cannot wait to see what they do next.