Raxyz
2022
Great game marred by an underwhelming ending. It's not Backbone levels of bad where it'll make you hate every minute you spent playing it, but it's nowhere near the same level of quality as the rest of the game is. Fun narrative game. Could've been among the best, but falls short of meeting expectations.
The game also fails to use non-linear narrative to its fullest. You're actually railroaded into certain events and it's not like 999 where the true ending is locked behind seeing another bad ending. There's only 1 time throughout the entire game where you actually get to choose between branching path A or B. Most of the times, you only got 1 choice.
Is it a good game? ...no. It clearly isn't.
Is it a fun one? Fuck yes.
Is it a fun one? Fuck yes.
I can complain about some of the level design, the OST isn't that great, story can be downright gibberish at times, but if anything, this game proves that having a good gameplay loop can be an immense boon. It's not really a Megaman X game, but it's certainly fanservice-y enough for fans to be happy for seeing all the characters from different subseries playable at once. And it's a power fantasy on its own right to play a gacha and be able to just buy whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you want without having to spend real cash for it. Speaking of cash, I would only say that this game is slightly overpriced, but it's definitely worth it on sale at least.
And I hope this becomes a trend. Un-gacha-fy some of these games and release them as an offline package. Games as a service will always eventually die, but this way you can at least preserve some of these for posterity. It was fun playing as Vampire Zero even if it's not something you'd expect to see in a Megaman game. Or maybe precisely because of it.
I have a love/hate relationship with both Fuga games so far. They're great, have undeniable passion put in making it, and can be a masterclass in artistic flair and writing when it want to... It also has an gameplay that overstays its welcome (it's not bad, just a tad unbalanced), can be quite trope-y at times and has some plot twists that actively make the story worse than not having them at all...
Other games I have similar pet peeves with (no pun intended) usually fall into the "underwhelming" category at best, but for some reason I can't outright say the game about Fuga. For me those are great games, even if they don't fully live to their potential.
It's an excellent game, but not without its fair share of caveats. It's a prime example of everything japanese narrative gets right and wrong at the same time. I like at how they used rather heavy themes without being an outright tear-jerker and with an positive message overall. It also completely lacks subtlety in anything it does. Characters are sometimes trope-y to the extreme. Certain twists are very predictable. Sometimes it feels like the stakes aren't as high as it should be.
Gameplay-wise it also does the best and worst of the genre. Its tactical options are great in offering more than just raw DPS to roflstomp everything on your path. But the combat also overstays its welcome at times. Technically it has no "flaws" in the combat, but it still gets tiring.
And more importantly: WHY THE FUCK IS THERE AN SWIMSUIT DLC FOR THIS GAME? For crying out loud man...
2023
One of, if not the, best movement I've ever seen in a 3D platformer. Game has slight issues with combat and doesn't have much of a story, but the gameplay is just that good that carries the entire experience. A masterclass in OG game design. You don't need a lot of buttons or a lot of mechanics, you just need a system with high enough skill ceiling and a great level design to put it to test.
2023
Solid survival horror title. I miss the kind of psychological horror they achieved with Dark Descent, but sometimes you have to try new things and let old formulas rest. This is basically a classic RE formula on a Frictional spin, it's very fun to play, and VERY replayable.
2019
Quite honestly, it's a downgrade compared to the base game. The content isn't just irrelevant and completely superfluous to the themes of the game, they actively make it worse which is baffling to me. Gameplay improvements and a few touch ups keep you excited for what's to come, but the final stretch makes you regret not just keeping your memories of vanilla... Although maybe that's the real message of Royal: If you support needless extensions or DLC, you're gonna get screwed in the end.
Excellent in its simplicity. Haven't enjoyed a turn-based RPG like that for quite a while. Good pacing balance between gameplay and story. The gameplay starts off slow, but has an decent depth with its mana system later on. The story is outright great. Even if it seems a bit generic at first, it subverts quite a lot of clichés and delivers a great balance of charismatic characters, political conflicts and overall world building.
2022
Decent enough visual novel, but sadly still bound by certain constraints of illusion of choice. Reading a murder mystery is fun because you can guess at the culprit and just enjoy the ride. A game could very well allow you to solve it, but instead Pentiment requires you to hit certain beats and doesn't always account for the players choices going forward. Good game, but not groundbreaking.
It's a slight improvement gameplay-wise, but a massive "been there, done that" in everything else. The story threads similar themes, character motivations and twists that the first one already made. The gameplay is still the same linear-as-hell style that stifles any and all player creativity (and stealth is broken this time around). And it's riddled with bugs on top of all that.
But I think the "defining" feature of the game is consistently and constantly having people be the absolute worst scumbags possible and having every single misery possible thrown at the protagonists only to then try and pull a moment of "but the world is good isn't it?". That's not to say you can't have this dichotomy of dark fantasy and hope, hell I absolutely can't claim that in a world where Berserk exists. But Requiem absolutely does not pull it off gracefully. It's like someone bringing a sledgehammer to your leg only to point out "but hey, medicine has gotten really far and you can get that fixed right?" while you're still writhing in pain. It's a stark contrast that requires you to shut off your brain and not think too much about it to enjoy.
2018
A decent-ish story and good art direction can't entirely overcome the shortcomings of poor mobility, bad boss design, and overall bland gameplay. It's as average as an average metroidvania gets. Not too horrible that you'll drop in boredom yet no great reward for sticking with it through the end either.
2022
Solid game. Doesn't fully utilizes the potential of a cat's mobility as a game mechanic, but has a good enough plot and narrative to carry the experience. Also not enough cat puns 7.8/10.
In all seriousness though, it does what's expected of it. If you weren't convinced by the trailers and promotional material, the game won't change your mind. But if you're interested in the premise at all then I think it at least matches your expectation.
2022
So long, and thanks for all the puzzles.
Still not as flawless as the original, but kudos for the team for preserving the game's art direction far better than the Wii version. A decent way to replay these classics easily in the modern age.
2021
When a game goes under a "revamping" it's usually bad news, but they actually delivered on this one. Nobunaga is now finally his own character instead of discount Cao-Cao. No more open world shenanigans, but a few lessons learned with newer games. They tried a new more dramatic approach to storytelling which I'm not exactly thrilled by, but I can appreciate the variety. The most common criticisms levied at this game such as "not having enough content" is cherry picking what's not there instead of all the new things they tried. It's honestly a good musou game, haven't had so much fun with one since the PS2 ones.