Lunar_Sky
tales of arise but good
2023
Derivative slop
2023
bloodborne but good
2023
A mediocre fire emblem experience made extremely worse by its sexual-assaulter director inserting his weird racism and misogyny everywhere. the first half of the story is an allegory for the drama around mangs' sexual assault and while the second half is somewhat decent, the entire thing is a giant mess. the map design is equally uneven, with the first half of the game being comprised entirely of chapters with the same exact pacing (running away from a killsquad towards the objective) because they couldnt come up with any other anti-turtling methods, and the second half being a series of gimmicky maps that are overall a better experience but share the same issues (reinforcements spawning out of nowhere and spawning constantly, terrible unit balance, etc). the massive cast makes me think the game was intended to be ironmanned but everything about the map design feels like it was made for divine pulse; you constantly face enemies with high crit, reinforcements often come out of nowhere and if you dont know the exact turns they spawn you will lose.
2020
I hated this game on launch but honor mode is such a good addition that it totally fixed most of the game's problems. It's still a buggy mess in the latter half and some of the writing is not good but being unable to save scum makes the game so much better.
2020
Neat little indie game that squanders its potential by putting its best system (the tactical combat) to the wayside in favor of a weird trading simulator that doesn't really have that much depth. What little combat that's there is great, but it was so few and far between the hours of slowly hauling trade goods between ports for a tiny increase in income.
Indie Pillars of Eternity Deadfire but with less pirates and more trading.
Indie Pillars of Eternity Deadfire but with less pirates and more trading.
2021
ripoff awakening with the worst map design of any srpg ever made (bar maybe fire emblem fates)
2023
if you're going to ripoff a bad game at least do the things it did right. also having characters say '...' every other line is NOT good writing. most boring MCs in any jrpg ever
After 130 hours I can only say three things about this game:
1) CRPG developers should stay as far away from TTRPG mechanics as possible
2) The debut game of a new game development studio should not be a 100+ hour CRPG
3) The best chapters are the first and last ones because linzi stops talking
+1 star because I could turn into a dragon and the writing was okay sometimes (whenever nyrissa was on screen)
but -1 star for having some of the worst dungeons in the genre
1) CRPG developers should stay as far away from TTRPG mechanics as possible
2) The debut game of a new game development studio should not be a 100+ hour CRPG
3) The best chapters are the first and last ones because linzi stops talking
+1 star because I could turn into a dragon and the writing was okay sometimes (whenever nyrissa was on screen)
but -1 star for having some of the worst dungeons in the genre
2016
Interesting gameplay but rather short. This type of meta narrative was popular when it was made but now it just comes off as cringey and it took up way too much time.
2015
they should stop referring to it as 'soulsborne' because bloodborne is embarrassingly bad. miyazaki tricked everyone into liking ds2 by giving it an eldritch reskin but it somehow has less environmental diversity and worse boss design. the most overhyped game of all time.
also the performance on ps4 was unacceptable. i sure love playing dark souls at 15 fps!
also the performance on ps4 was unacceptable. i sure love playing dark souls at 15 fps!
Obsidian freed themselves from the mandatory Baldurs Gate copying and made one of the best CRPGs of all time and actually got to say something about colonialism in the process. RTWP gameplay at it's best. Scratches the sea faring itch perfectly as well (the sea shanties are peak).
The only sour points are Nekataka which the game traps you into thinking you have to do all at once, and some of the writing. Also do NOT play on turn based.
The only sour points are Nekataka which the game traps you into thinking you have to do all at once, and some of the writing. Also do NOT play on turn based.
2016
finally, fe5 but good. better map design than fe.
like kaga saga but all the annoying stuff and none of the ingenuity
Unironically better than the main game in almost every way.
The entire thing is railroaded, which was a good thing, considering I didn't have to deal with the kingdom management; the main game has some really awful narrative pacing because of it, so Varnhold's Lot being a faster paced adventure module was a pretty good break from the slog. Owlcat seems to be good at crafting these smaller adventures (The beginning arc with the Stag Lord is the best part of Kingmaker), and this was made after they developed Kingmaker, so it felt a little more professional and well made.
The dungeon was conceptually cool but it dragged a bit near the ending. I thought the 'every object in this room is a mimic' gimmick was funny at first but then it got old because they reused it like 10 times.
I liked the dynamic between Varn and Cephal, but other than that, the writing was messy. As always with this game, the choices you make during the campaign hardly matter unless you follow a specific order of operations by choosing certain dialogue options for the 'best ending'. The endings themselves were pretty unsatisfying; I get that they wanted to tie it into the main game while not making too much of an impact on the narrative of varnhold's vanishing, but the choice of the MC doesnt really matter outside of whether or not they survive, or where you have to pick them up from later. The few sidequests here were well written but held back by the system; I liked the idea of the mystery quest but the entire investigation process being tied to dice rolls instead of logic made it annoying to finish.
The DLC is only $7, which is pretty cheap considering the entire experience is anywhere between 9-12 hours depending on how much you suck at the combat. Definitely worth picking up if you are just starting out or replaying the entire game, but I don't really think it would be worth it as a standalone experience.
The entire thing is railroaded, which was a good thing, considering I didn't have to deal with the kingdom management; the main game has some really awful narrative pacing because of it, so Varnhold's Lot being a faster paced adventure module was a pretty good break from the slog. Owlcat seems to be good at crafting these smaller adventures (The beginning arc with the Stag Lord is the best part of Kingmaker), and this was made after they developed Kingmaker, so it felt a little more professional and well made.
The dungeon was conceptually cool but it dragged a bit near the ending. I thought the 'every object in this room is a mimic' gimmick was funny at first but then it got old because they reused it like 10 times.
I liked the dynamic between Varn and Cephal, but other than that, the writing was messy. As always with this game, the choices you make during the campaign hardly matter unless you follow a specific order of operations by choosing certain dialogue options for the 'best ending'. The endings themselves were pretty unsatisfying; I get that they wanted to tie it into the main game while not making too much of an impact on the narrative of varnhold's vanishing, but the choice of the MC doesnt really matter outside of whether or not they survive, or where you have to pick them up from later. The few sidequests here were well written but held back by the system; I liked the idea of the mystery quest but the entire investigation process being tied to dice rolls instead of logic made it annoying to finish.
The DLC is only $7, which is pretty cheap considering the entire experience is anywhere between 9-12 hours depending on how much you suck at the combat. Definitely worth picking up if you are just starting out or replaying the entire game, but I don't really think it would be worth it as a standalone experience.