There's a certain power in dissatisfaction. In giving players bad choices. There are many choice-based crpgs that offer perhaps too much choice in how the world is shaped. In how to influence others. Pentiment wisely pulls back on this to build an aching, intimate yearning. A yearning to make all the right decisions. A yearning to keep everyone safe, to choose a killer that will hurt the fewest people instead of choosing a killer based on evidence. A yearning to protect, and a yearning when we've failed. Our main character is not the hero deciding the fate of the world. He's just a guy, in a place and time. How we all leave our mark on history is subject to so many factors beyond our control.

Mechanically, its hard to say every skill has all the uses it could. Skills mainly make certain investigations easier, but they're always multiple avenues to uncover all the evidence you want. But this also means that every skill choice that does provide a new dialogue path feels all the more rewarding for your commitment. The skill choices in the final act of the game, compared to the others, are much more limited in their scope, but the final act is also much more on the rails than its previous story sections. Less time for choices to matter.

Still. Just kind of a truly banger game with incredible artistic sensibilities.

The original Mortal Kombat, nowadays, could be seen as a mere appetizer for arcade-goers, showing off simple, yet still fun fights, coupled with plenty of bloody fatalities to leave fans satisfied when they were able to pull them off. Mortal Kombat II, in comparison, feels like the true, main course, providing all of the same bloody and violent fun and charm that the original game had, while expanding upon it by refining the gameplay, adding new, fun characters to play as, new gruesome fatalities, new moves to pull off, new stages to play in, and even different types of fatalities, making for a much more enjoyable and violently satisfying experience for fans of MK and fighting game fanatics alike. And naturally, just like the original game, it went onto become a major success, with it selling like crazy for every platform, spawning many imitators, being enjoyed by millions across the world, and is now considered both one of, if not the best entry in the series, as well as one of the best games of all time. So, with that kind of success in mind, trying to follow up that title in any way whatsoever was gonna be quite the daunting task. I mean, with a game that was heralded as a seemingly flawless masterpiece back in the day, how could they top themselves? Well, I dunno, but they sure did try to, and thus, two years after the previous entry, the world was given the third chapter in this blood-soaked saga that would be simply known as Mortal Kombat 3.

Just like with the last two games, this entry in the series was one that I had no experience with prior to me playing it before this review. I had heard mixed things about it before, with people saying that it was either a step-down from the previous games in the series, or just straight up terrible in general. But hey, at the end of the day, only I can decide whether or not I think a game is good or not, and I decided to stick with the original version of the game so that I can properly see what it did for the series before getting tweaked, as well as so that I can nitpick the fuck out of it. So, based on what I did play through…. I think this may just be the most mechanically sound game in the original trilogy, and a really good entry in the series as a whole. I don’t think it is better than Mortal Kombat II, for reasons I will get into later, but for what we got here, this was definitely the most fun and “unique” game in the series so far, and I am glad that I finally played it.

The story is somewhat of a change of pace from what you expect from this series and fighting games in general, where after his defeat in the previous game, Shao Kahn decides to try a different approach to taking over Earthrealm, with this approach being to have his Shadow Priests revive his late wife Sindel, who would allow Shao Kahn to cross into Earthrealm (somehow), and start to murder every living person while merging the realm with Outworld. Thankfully though, through all of the chaos, several warriors managed to survive the onslaught, including both old and new faces, so it is up to them, with the external help of Raiden, to take on Shao Kahn and save Earthrealm from his wrath, which is mostly a typical plot you would see from any other game, but hey, it is different from the typical “there’s a tournament and bad shit is going down in it” plot we have also seen a million times before.

The graphics are pretty good, still using the style of the previous MK games, and containing plenty of great animations and locations to fight in, but as for the designs of the characters… that’s more of a mixed bag (what the hell did they do to Sub-Zero?!), the music is great, having plenty of appropriate tracks for each of the locations, and a good chunk of them are great to listen to throughout, and the gameplay/control is what is to be expected from an early MK game, but they managed to refine and add onto the gameplay to make it into, in my opinion, the best-playing game in the series so far…………. even if the other changes made to the game kinda suck some of the fun out.

The game is your typical 2D fighting game, where you take control of one 15 different characters, consisting of both new and old faces that are fun enough to try out (even if the roster has problems that we will get into), take on plenty of different opponents in various locations throughout the different realms, throw out many different punches, kicks, special moves, and combos to get the upper hand against any opponent that you are facing, while making sure to block and dodge at any appropriate time, perform a fatality, babality, or whatever finishing move you wish to end off your opponent in a glorious, stupid, or gloriously stupid fashion, and take on several boss opponents that will make you want to rip your hair out as you try to conquer the bullshit AI………. you know, the classic MK experience. Everything you know and love is accounted for here, with plenty of new additions that do change up the way that you play, while making the gameplay smooth and tight enough to where, again, it feels the best to play out of any of the games in the series so far.

In terms of the main gameplay, there were quite a bit of changes made to spice up the fights that you will be partaking in, such as with the inclusion of a run button, which… does exactly what you think it does. This is a neat little addition I guess, but I dunno, I don’t find myself using it all too much, as the game feels fast enough to where it seems slightly unnecessary. The same cannot be said, however, for the game’s dial-a-combos, which are new combos that you can initiate that the opponent cannot break out of, allowing you to deal MASSIVE amounts of damage! I don’t find myself using these too often, cause the concept of chaining combos together turns my brain into this, but whenever I can pull them off, BOY does it ever feel so sweet to actually be good at video games.

Speaking of concepts that my brain can’t comprehend, this brings us over to the Kombat Kodes, which are essentially just cheat codes that can be put in before a match for varying effects, such as having an infinite run meter, causing the entire screen to go dark, or even allowing you to unlock hidden characters to play as. While I myself never tried to unlock any of these, they do sound like a neat way of changing up the game, and I appreciate the fact that they are there for those who are big fans of cheat codes. Some other minor, yet appreciated changes made to the formula would be with the inclusion of somewhat-interactable stages, where sometimes whenever you perform an uppercut onto an enemy which can send them smashing through the ceiling, and moving the fight onto another floor of the stage, which is pretty cool, and in single-player mode, you can even select your own difficulty option!............. which doesn’t help out much in some circumstances, but hey, it helps out for a bit anyway.

Naturally, fatalities are back in this game in full force, with babalities and friendships also making a return right alongside them, with them being just as bloody, gory, and ridiculous as ever. However, that ridiculousness gets ramped up all the way to 11 when it comes to the brand new type of fatalities introduced in this game, Animalities, which involves the character who initiates it turning into some kind of animal and proceeding to tear their opponent apart in the way that their respective animal would do so. These are, naturally, pretty fucking stupid, but in a good way, and it is great to see them play out, but… I dunno, I feel like this is kinda jumping the shark when it comes to these finishing moves. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of how ridiculous and dumb Mortal Kombat can get, especially when it comes to its finishing moves, but I dunno, giving all the characters the ability to animorph all for the sake of performing one finishing move………. definitely kinda takes you right out of everything going on, which is probably why this is the only game in the entire series (not counting the later updates) that features these.

This also leads wonderfully into the complaints that I had with this game overall, with the first being that, as a whole, the fatalities in this game are kind of a downgrade compared to what we had previously. Don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty enjoyable ones in there, such as one where Cyrax deploys so many bombs onto his opponent that it ends up destroying the entire world, as well as one where Sindel screams at her opponent so hard that the skin and meat gets ripped right off of them, but most of the other ones could either be seen as downgrades of previous fatalities to an extent, or they are just flatout lazy in their execution. This also applies to the babalities, with them pretty much being the exact same as the previous game, with no changes to make them stand out or be more funny, which does kind of suck. Thankfully though, we still have the friendships, with a lot of them still being pretty funny to watch, especially Cyrax’s, which made me burst out laughing the first time I saw it. Seriously, how can you not love that?

The fatalities weren’t the only thing to receive a downgrade though, as the character roster for this entry of the series is also severely lacking as well. Out of all the characters present here, we do get a good number of classics being brought back, but then we have other characters like Reptile, Johnny Cage, Raiden, and Scorpion, who are completely GONE, which is a MAJOR letdown. I can understand why Raiden isn’t there, because the plot does have an explanation for that, but I don’t understand why several of the other characters aren’t in there, especially Scorpion! Seriously, he is the face of your franchise, and yet you leave him out of this game?! That kind of thing should be impossible to do, and yet, here we are.

Now, this wouldn’t be such a big issue if the new characters that replaced them were fantastic additions to the series, but in terms of the new characters that we do get in this game…. eh… it’s a mixed bag. While I am a big fan of new additions like Kabal, Cyrax and Sektor, you then have other characters like Stryker and Nightwolf, who aren’t terrible by any means, but they just don’t feel like they fit with everyone else, and I never really play as any of them whenever I try playing a round in one of these games. Thankfully though, most of these roster issues are fixed in later updates to the game, so it isn’t that big of a deal, and in terms of any other problems in the game, the only one I can really think of is that fighting game syndrome is present here, with some characters being an absolute BITCH to fight against, but then again, this is standard for Mortal Kombat at this point, so I’m not surprised by it.

Overall, despite the lackluster fatalities and disappointing character roster, I am surprised that I ended up liking Mortal Kombat 3 as much as I did, as it really is a great entry to the series, with plenty of new additions that makes the game that much more fun, gameplay that is much more refined and smooth that makes it wonderful to play, and still just as much bloody gore to where any big fans of the previous games will be mostly satisfied with what they get here. I would recommend it for HUGE Mortal Kombat fans, as well as fighting game fanatics in general, but for everyone else, you would just be best with sticking with the later updates to this game, as they do tweak around a lot of things that this game definitely needed, but we’ll get more into that in a later review. For now though, I would like to leave this review off by showing you one of Kabal’s fatalities from this game that is just… something else. You’re welcome.

Game #591

If you are a creator of any kind out there, whether it be for games, music, or whatever, growing pains are to be expected down the road for you. These can come in many forms, such as you not being able to come up with something truly great to rock the industry that you are working in, not being able to reach a wide enough audience when it comes to actually selling or promoting the thing that you make, or, in the most common of occurrences, the things that you will make are generally not very good at all. One example I find myself stumbling upon time and time again would be Squaresoft, who even before the days of Final Fantasy, had some trouble exactly finding proper momentum when it came to not just the type of games they made, but also their quality, with some games like Rad Racer being pretty good on their own, but then you have games like King’s Knight, which are so bad and outdated, you wonder how they were even made in the first place. But then, you have those games from them that are just… aggressively stuck in the middle in terms of quality, with there being no better example of this other than The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner.

Like with all of Square’s early titles, I hadn’t played this one before deciding to out of curiosity, but I didn’t have too many high expectations going into it. I had seen this game in action once before, and based on what I saw, I figured it was just a clone of Space Harrier with not much else to show for itself, but at the time, I figured there was something… more to it. So, after yet another embarrassingly long time in-between discovery and gametime, I decided to check it out for myself to see how it is, and now that I have fully beaten it, I can say that it was… ok. It is fun to play for a good while, and this spin on the type of gameplay Space Harrier provided is an effective one, but the cracks start to show soon enough, and you are left begging for it to be over by the point you finish the game.

The story is very simple, where in Solar System #517, the many planets of the solar system are being overrun and taken over by the evil Grax and his race of aliens known as Serpentbeasts, so it is up to a space cowboy by the name of Jack the Worldrunner to step up to the plate and take them all down, which is a fine enough premise on its own, because when you are playing the game for yourself, the story is gonna be the last thing on your mind. The graphics are good, having plenty of simple yet pleasing visuals for the levels and for Jack himself, even if the levels themselves can pretty repetitive by the fact that you will be staring at the floor most of the time, the music has caught a bad case of Simpson Syndrome, where there is only one or two tracks playing throughout the entire game, and while they are good tracks, you will definitely get sick of listening to them after a while, and the gameplay/control is pretty simplistic, and it can be fun to get a handle of at most points in the game, but again, as you keep going, the flaws do start to rear their ugly heads eventually.

The game is a 3D rail shooter platformer, where you take control of Jack the Worldrunner, go through a set of eight worlds, each containing their own set of interconnected levels, run and jump your way through plenty of obstacles while either avoiding or defeating the many enemies that you will come across on your journey, gather plenty of powerups by smacking face-first into the many pillars around you, with the powerups being able to do things such as giving you more hit points, temporary invincibility, and the ability to fire at normal opponents, and take on plenty of bosses in free-flying sections, with the bosses themselves being…….. sigh, well, I’ll get to them in a bit. What we have here is a pretty solid foundation for a game here, one that works well enough on its own to entertain those curious enough to try it out, and one that does put an interesting and fun spin on other similar games like it.

As I have brought up plenty of times in this review already, the game, on its surface level, could be written off as nothing more than a Space Harrier clone and nothing more, but when you actually play it for yourself, you realize that there is a lot more going on here. While that game had its priorities firmly set in you flying around and shooting everything that came your way, Worldrunner changes this up by making it so that, for 90% of the game, you are locked to the ground, with you needing to jump around in order to survive the obstacles that you will be facing. Naturally, like any game with platforming elements, one of the biggest aspects of this platforming gimmick is that you need to exercise proper timing and precision, making sure that you jump from one platform to the next while going at the proper speed, aiming for whatever you could use as a landing point, and since you are constantly moving forward at all times, along with there being a time limit, this makes it so that the game provides a pretty fun and challenging set of obstacles to overcome that fill the player with satisfaction once they manage to make plenty of tight jumps, just barely scraping by death with the skin of your teeth.

This, however, all somewhat gets ruined once you reach the last three worlds of the game, where everything starts to fall apart. Once you reach the sixth world, they start incorporating gimmicks that make the entire game a sequence of trial and error, such as with the first level of the sixth world requiring you to hop on top of these pillars in order to cross large gaps, as well as the worlds following that making it so that you are constantly moving at high speeds while jumping and dodging plenty of things. I will admit, some of these changes and gimmicks are clever enough, using what little the game has to challenge the player in new ways, but with some of the gimmicks like the previously mentioned bouncing on pillars, it goes overboard with the difficulty, especially when you are, again, constantly moving at all times.

And then we get to the bosses of the game, which are easily the worst part of the whole journey. All of them behave in the exact same way, with them being long serpent beings that will move from the background to the foreground, and you have to shoot down their bodies as well as the head to properly kill them. This is a fine mechanic and all, but it is repeated for every single boss in the game, and by the time you reach the final boss, you get really sick of constantly having to do the same thing over and over again for the sake of getting a move on. This aspect of the game gets even worse when you have multiple boss fights that require you to take down the enemy MULTIPLE TIMES in order to properly beat it. Nothing about the boss changes whatsoever when it respawns, and it is just meant for you to kill it again in order to pad out the game’s playtime, which not only makes these bosses monotonous, but also extremely frustrating when you die to the 5th copy of one boss, and have to fight all copies over again.

Overall, despite having a fun twist on the 3D rail shooter type of gameplay, the game is ultimately brought down by its insanely specific gimmicks seen in later levels that require perfection above all else, repetitive bosses that take way too long to take down, and its general unforgiving nature that makes it so that I can’t really say it is worth playing all the way through whatsoever. I would recommend it only to try out, not to necessarily try to play all the way through, and I would also recommend it for those who were big fans of similar games like Space Harrier, because while this isn’t too different from something like that, it does things differently enough to where you can have a good time with it and appreciate what it does for the genre……. before falling apart in the latter half. Also, like with Rad Racer, this game also has that stupid-ass 3D mode that Square just loved putting in their games for some reason. I mean, at least it makes more sense here, given the fact that the game is literally called 3D Worldrunner, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Game #592

"I like your gift... but I wish you put more effort into your work" -Lance (╭ರ_•́) ♥(˘ ε˘ʃƪ) ily Lance!!!

King's Choice" offers a rich and immersive experience for players seeking to fulfill their royal fantasies. As a ruler, you'll navigate the intricate web of politics, forge alliances, and lead your kingdom to glory. The game's detailed world-building and strategic depth keep you engaged for hours on end, while the constant stream of decisions ensures that no two playthroughs are the same.

However, it's not without its drawbacks. Some players may find the in-game purchases and premium features a bit intrusive, potentially impacting the balance of the gameplay experience. Additionally, the learning curve can be steep for newcomers, requiring a significant investment of time and effort to fully grasp the intricacies of ruling a kingdom.

ଘ(੭◌ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ♡‧₊˚ Tips: Join a server that communicates well with everyone (the more time u spend time in a toxic server, the less time ull be in a better server), join the King's Choice Discord server and the Discord channel of your alliance & KC server. Don't be afraid to ask questions. We would rather have you play knowing what to do to further not only yourself but also your alliance and server.

"Death is not the end; it is a new beginning."

_(´ཀ`」 ∠) _ Embark on an exhilarating journey through the shadows of Curse of the Dead Gods, where every step is a test of skill and nerve. With its compelling blend of exploration and combat, this roguelike adventure will keep you riveted for hours on end. But beware: like the curses that haunt its halls, once you're drawn into its grip, escape becomes a distant dream. While its difficulty may prove daunting for newcomers, seasoned players will relish the challenge. And for those who thrive on the thrill of evading traps and curses, this game is a sanctuary you'll never want to leave.