I would probably never have played this if the sequel hadn’t received so many positive reviews. I admit, I got curious, but first I wanted to give this shorter prequel a try, to get a feel for the series, especially the combat system, as I’m not very good at this active/metroidvania style of gameplay.

Well, now that I’m done, I have mixed feelings, but mostly negative ones, I’m afraid. The graphics and soundtrack are nice, in my opinion. I really like this “2.5D” approach with 3D environments and the 2D, pixel-art characters, I think it looks gorgeous, and the music is OK, too (don’t expect any voiced texts, though). Also, the story is… hm, fine, I guess? There wasn’t really anything memorable in it, no huge twists, but it served its purpose, more or less. The characters, however, including the protagonists, are quite bland, if you ask me (except for Garoo – I mean, come on, he’s a cool, one-eyed kangaroo mercenary with a giant sword as his weapon, you simply can’t get more badass than that!).

Focusing only on the main questline, it’s surprisingly short for a JRPG. That said, if you’re a completionist like me, and want to get the max level weapons and armours, well, then get ready for an insane amount of side-quests. I’m not kidding, you can finish the game in about 10-15 hours, and you’ll have to spend half, or probably even more of this time doing extremely boring, repetitive side-quests. “Go there and talk to this person”, “go there and get x amount of this”, stuff like that. And I swear, the quest-givers kept asking for the same two or three resources all the time! Always that stupid hardwood lumber and high-purity ore, God… I must admit, after a few hours I just simply skipped all the dialogues involving side-quests, I lost all my patience for them.

I don’t think I’ll start Hundred Heroes anytime soon, even if it’s much better. I’ve had enough of this world for a while.

Well, this was definitely more fun for me than Echoes of the Fallen, mainly because it was more story-oriented. We get new characters, a number of new locations, new collectibles, new side-quests, and a bunch of new moves for Clive. There’s also the epic Leviathan boss battle, which is just as spectacular and action-packed as the other Eikon battles in the main game. Ah, and there’s even some additional bonus content, like a new roguelike multi-stage battle mode – which was not for me at all, but I’m sure many of you will love it.

I’d say this DLC is a nice farewell to the game as a whole, and it’s worth checking it out as there’s a lot of content here (nowhere near as much as in, for instance, Burning Shores or Phantom Liberty, though, mind you). I still don’t like the whole action-focused direction, I must admit, so I guess I’ll stick to more “oldschool-like” FF titles for the time being.

The artistic value of this one is undeniable. This is one of the most unique games I’ve ever played, and it’s incredible how much work and love the developers put into all the handcrafted assets, with all the characters, props and sets genuinely sculpted and painted. Seriously, they have my deepest respect. But is it fun playing it?

Well… I definitely wouldn’t call this the revival of LucasArts-like adventure games, no matter how much charm it has. It’s more like a really long, interactive stop-motion movie, with only some minimal gameplay elements, like “go there, talk to this person, then come back here”, stuff like that, so expect lots and lots of running around and, of course, even more talking. There aren’t even any puzzles to solve, someone always points you in the right direction. The story is interesting, though, and so are all the eccentric characters the protagonist meets during his journey of self-discovery. Even though there are some really funny moments, I wouldn’t call this a comedy… Let’s go with dramedy, I’d say, with a heavier emphasis on drama.

Harold has quite a lot of psychological issues he has to work through, like how he feels detached from society, his inferiority complex, his recent break-up, and that, in general, he can’t find his place and purpose anywhere. He’s not just physically trapped in a spaceship, but also metaphorically, and thus, a kind of melancholic, bittersweet, sometimes even depressing mood hangs over the plot all the time. The underwater setting and the strange atmosphere reminded me of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, if you’re familiar with it, you can expect something like that with a bit less humour.

Anyway, if you don’t mind that you get hardly any gameplay beyond running around, and watching many, many lengthy cutscenes, give this one a try. As I mentioned, it’s a delight to look at it, no question about that.

I have to admit, this was much scarier than I thought it would be – at least the first 2-3 runs, till I collected everything. Then all the following playthroughs were more of a chore than fun, unfortunately. True, if you’re only after all the endings, it’s enough if you finish the game “only” 9 times (plus one death), but if you want to complete the endings collection, on all five difficulty levels, then you’re in for a lot of grinding, let me tell you that. Honestly, I’m not sure who’s crazier – the one who came up with the idea of giving an achievement for all these, 20-25+ playthroughs (or 40+ without strategic saves), or the ones, like me, who decide to rise up to this insane challenge.

Anyway, the crazy amount of playthroughs aside, this is a solid survival horror entry in my opinion. It’s quite short, but really intense all the way till the end, with some terrifying jumpscares, truly unsettling ghost designs, and a spot-on, disturbing atmosphere. The location is one of the most common settings in Asian horror titles: a spooky high school at night, like in The Coma or Death Mark II, but in a 3D first-person view. I’m not familiar with the original version and how much of it was improved, but this remake looked quite nice, if you ask me, especially the shadows and lights, although it was nothing groundbreaking. The characters were OK, too, with some surprisingly detailed facial animations (although their arms seemed somehow off, I think they were a bit longer than they should have been). And the sound effects were amazing: the various noises like flickering lights, the rain outside, steps in the distance, something crawling near you, someone wheezing and crying somewhere, and, of course, the mumblings and keychains of the janitors… They’re all creepy as hell.

The gameplay was fine, but I’d recommend playing with a keyboard and mouse, as quite often you need quick but precise movements which are a bit more difficult with a controller. The timed events and boss fights can be quite challenging, especially on higher difficulty levels, and when the janitors are around you always need to switch into stealth mode, being extra careful and patient. There are also some complex puzzles here and there, so be prepared. As for the story, it’s a bit meh, nothing special, and there are a few plot holes in it which never get explained (or at least, I didn’t find an explanation for them). English localization was not bad, although there were some instances where the subtitles and audio had different translations.

All in all, as long as you’re not aiming for completing the endings collection, I can recommend this if you like similar entries, but yeah, it’s not for the faint of heart.