The game is a top down 3D shooter with rogue lite elements where you control one of the 3 characters to fight the evil guys and save your planet. I wasn’t sure about getting the game at first but it still had something that made me interested enough to give it a try. And boy, am I glad I went for it! It always felt great playing the game and making progress with your upgrades. You level up and earn various enhancements such as badges and the ability to buy new weapons & skills. Badges are permanent upgrades you equip before starting your run. Weapons and skills make a huge difference and you often feel their impact when you find them. The controls are perfect. You move and shoot but there is also a dedicated dodge button, a special move, reload, quick change and manually changing weapons. You can equip up to 5 weapons. Dodging makes you invincible when it’s active but you need to wait until it charges again before you can use it. There are abilities that make dodging far more powerful. Specials can slow enemies down, make your hits critical etc. Each of the 3 characters have unique dodge and specials. They have different default weapons and different stats. I’ve tried all of them and like the female character the most with her Nightbane weapon. Her health is very low though. The devs succeeded at making the play styles distinct and worth trying out. There are 8 levels with each level having a shop, an upgrade room and a weapon room. With the last 2 you’ll need keys that are either bought at the shop or dropped by the enemies. I’ve tried a few rogue lites (Crypt of the Necrodancer and Spelunky) and while I enjoy those games, I don’t like the part where they’re too challenging and there are no options to fine tune how you want to play them. TombStar was no different until the devs patched the game to offer easy mode and the ability to save before continuing with the next level. This makes a world of difference. Easy did not feel easy, it still felt challenging and I had to pay attention to survive. I only managed to complete the game on my 13th run. To me it feels like the perfect difficulty. The ability to save also helped me to get invested and get better at it. You can increase the difficulty or equip special badges that can make your runs a living hell but I love that other players are not forgotten. And once those players are ready for more challenge, they can get it. If I have to think of flaws then I can think of those 3: the levels might look a bit repetitive and samey, the load times might be a bit longer than I’d like and the story is just there. About the first flaw, it’s the most apparent one but it didn’t bother me. I rarely thought of it. The load times might differ depending on your pc. And the story is mostly presented through text that you download in the shop (it’s random whether it’s there but it’s saved when you find those story pieces), one intro cutscene and one short cutscene near the end. The story is generic but you obviously don’t play this game for that. It’s just there to give you a reason to fight and that’s totally fine! I love what the developers did with TombStar. They know how to make a fun game that feels very balanced, challenging but still fair. It’s definitely the kind of game I’d want to return to all the time if I didn’t have a huge backlog. When you just want time to unwind, stop thinking about things and just want to jump straight to the gameplay, then this game is perfect for that.

This game is mostly talking with others to gather evidence. So you need to be in the mood for reading. There are very few puzzles or gameplay sections. And what’s there is also on the easy side. So they’re there for the game’s pacing. Luckily the dialogue is engaging and you want to know more about the main characters. The case is solved but it seems they left some things out for a potential sequel. Some flaws would be the lack of customisation options in terms of hints and holding your hands. I got a bit annoyed when Pikachu wouldn’t shut up whilst I was still talking with others or trying to examine an item/document. Also the game is one of the few pretty 3DS games. It’s a shame there’s no 3D at all. It feels like it could have suited it. Overall I enjoyed the game. It’s worth playing if you’re a Pokémon fan who wouldn’t mind reading and is doing it mostly for the Pokémon part and less for the gameplay/seeking challenge part.

This game has a sense of premium to it with its graphics and music. It feels very professional and beautiful. It makes sense that the game took me an hour and 25 minutes to complete. It’s short but what you get is high quality. The game is all about telling a story (through showing) and inviting you to its world. The gameplay is very simple and mostly there to make you live the story. Chapter 4 (out of 6) is the only exception where it suddenly turns into a point and click adventure with puzzles that ask more of you which was nice. I found the way it came together was very clever. You’re going to need to pay attention to the care that was put into the details. Although I tried the demo on PC, I ended up completing it on my iPad Pro 2020. The game is very decent on PC but the touch screen felt more suitable to the gameplay and its theme. Both versions are more than fine though. You know if the game is for you or not. It succeeds what it sets out to do but you’re obviously going to hate it if you bought it with the idea that you’re going to get a deep gameplay experience. Are you here for the short experience and story? Then please come through. You’re more than welcome.

This is one unique and weird game. It's also the reason it kept me so engaged. It's a mix of action adventure with light puzzling, a huge focus on exploration and lots of optional collectibles. It's still a linear game for the most part, but the exploration is there if you're trying to find all the collectibles, do the optional mini side quests and rescue characters. There are also driving sections or other minor gameplay experiences to change the pace. It's a bit of everything and it's the reason why I love it. However, the controls needed some getting used to and I would have liked the ability to teleport to previous areas with a check list showing what I'm missing. It would have suited the game a lot. I like that you can save anywhere and there are many load options even if you didn't save. Worth experiencing if you're looking for that unique game that might not be cohesive/perfect but it will leave a lasting impression.

If you play an Artifax Mundi game, then you pretty much know what to expect. I enjoyed my time with this one, but it being a bit older, it lacks some of QoL options. By that I mean teleportation and having more customisation options for the game’s challenge. Some of the hidden objects were a bit cheap but that’s to be expected. You luckily have hints if you don’t feel like dealing with it. Same with puzzles. This game continues with at least 2 sequels. So I’m looking forward to knowing more about the story.

The game is a runner with 45 levels. The levels themselves are usually short but it takes a while to earn 3 stars in terms of speed, death and collection. You manipulate the character through 4 power ups that you unlock gradually. Because of this it feels as if you can completely control your gnome even though you can’t stop running. It’s a very challenging game that demands trial and error but it’s not an irritating experience. The levels have checkpoints (except for the last 5), continuing takes less than a second and the controls are very precise. It’s a rewarding experience that kept increasing in challenge. The last 5 levels are a culmination of everything that you learned. It all felt right and perfectly balanced. The game also has some humour and the 3D is done well on the 3DS. I did not expect to like the game this much. It’s simple but it does things so right. Get it if you’re not afraid of challenge and are patient with progress.

3 Heroes is a puzzle game where you control 1 of the 3 characters on a grid based field. You get objectives to defeat x amount of enemies. You sort of have a timer because every movement costs energy and you have to attack enemies and pick chests to fill your energy. There are 4 enemy types with different colours. Defeating 1 of them fills one of your skills which is based on 1 of the 4 colours. I very much like the gameplay but it is a Circle Entertainment game. This basically means (to me) that their games often have good ideas but they don’t get the budget to fully realise them and the game’s challenge is not well balanced after a certain point. The latter is probably to extend the game’s length. In the case of 3 Heroes, it happened with the last level. So it’s not as bad as their other games. You’re not going to miss out on much if you don’t play this. It’s a curiosity for me since I enjoy CE games despite their flaws. They have a certain charm.

So I was so excited to play this after playing part 1 (Dust). I got addicted with this too. I completed it in 3 hours and 20 minutes, in one sitting! Buuuut, I’m also a bit disappointed. It has some improvements but there are some new problems and there are problems that weren’t fixed from Dust. Let’s start with the positives. The game seems to explain more. There are more in-game hints and tutorials. There are some new traps, some weapons have new skills that cost AP, you can also do side quests and you can enter caves where the timer doesn’t go past 2 hours. With the latter, you don’t have to worry about returning to your base as much, you can explore and grind for a bit. Unfortunately, the tutorials still feel lacking. The manual explains what some traps do but not all. There is a flashlight that I forgot about using except for around camp. The dungeons where too dark. It annoyed me but looking back on it, I wonder if the flashlights would have helped. I’ve done a few days and I didn’t know I had to hit submit in the quests menu to get my rewards. I thought you get them automatically. The game has some weird and annoying bugs where your character can get stuck and doesn’t move, the same enemy that you kill easily suddenly hardly gets damaged and it ends up killing you, when you want to run away and your character keeps attacking and therefore not listening to your commands, the repair option doesn’t always seem to work etc. I don’t remember if Dust had this or as bad, but it’s apparent here. This game too ends after 7 days (like Dust) and it felt like it ended too quickly. You know, I would have liked not having such a strict timer. I would have liked being able to explore more, upgrade things fully, do all the side quests etc. With the side quests, if a day passes and you didn’t complete some, then they’re gone and new side quests are added. I would have liked keeping my progress for them and unlocking new ones after being done with the current ones. At the end of the day, it’s a decent enough game. It just feels like there’s potential for soooo much more that we’re not going to experience unfortunately.

Very enjoyable game that harkens back to the platformers of the past with a bit of a twist. The feeling of speed mixed with platforming can feel so good at times. The soundtrack is very catchy and the controls are great. The game is not without its faults. Mainly the camera movement. This has been pretty much fixed with the updates released. Also while the extra stuff you get after completing the game is very nice, one did annoy me for being a huge area and it wasting lots of time if you're trying to get an S and you mess up once, having to try again. Still though, get the game if you're a fan of platformers.

I finally got to finish this great game. It's one of those where you can see the quality and prestige behind it if that makes sense. The levels are so polished, have little touches and sometimes different routes to get things done. The gameplay is very precise and can make you lose track of time. I liked the banter and delivery of the lines even though the plot is pretty cliche and done that. It does have some faults though. The PC version needs a bit of work/mod to make it prettier and run better. There are moments where it feels pretty cheap, like hoping that luck is on your side. I usally love doggos but not in this game! I'm not sure if it's my lack of skills or just the game but it requires some patience and trial and error in certain spots. Despite that, it's a great start for a franchise. I can see how Microsoft was trying to sell their Xbox by hyping this game at the time.

EDIT:

I got a new PC which is a huge upgrade compared to my laptop where I played the game previously. The laptop is a GTX 770m and i7 4000 in terms of specs. This computer is an RTX 4070 ti with i5 13400f. I started a new game and many of the issues I had are gone. The screen tearing is gone, load times are shorter (making them less annoying after fights) and the framerate, while still changing all the time, is above 100 (around 120-300 on a 165hz monitor) and I don't notice the drops during the game anymore.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

This game is tough to review. I had a good time playing this and the way language learning is combined with an RPG absolutely works. But the game is a bit of a missed potential for not being polished, the engine or the way the game is designed is not proper, and few improvements could have made the game way better. Read the rest to find out more.

The game is your typical RPG. You go through areas, talk to NPC, do some side quests and battle enemies. The language learning part comes from being able to click on almost any object where you get to see what it is called in the selected language, hear the pronounciation and add it to your list where you get to access it through a computer. Computers can be found in many places where you get to practice the words and also the dialogues that you've had to advance the story. Language is also needed to solve certain puzzles, open chests and even unlock the full potential of your ultimate move during battles. The way language learning is included in the gameplay is absolutely brilliant. It's no longer knowing the words by heart because they're part of a list that you have, but they appear randomly where you have to remember the words themselves. The battle system is the best part about the game imo. It's a turn based active time battle system similar to Final Fantasy games. However once it's your turn, time stops and you get to carefully think about the moves you need. The focus lies heavily on stopping the enemies from attacking if you get to attack them before they do. All moves fall in a certain speed category where 5 is the max speed. You can also see what move an enemy is about to use, giving you more information to make the right decision. The reason why this works is because the game has mana points and lingua points. Every move costs something, you can't just pick whatever you want. This part might be easier if you learn more words but I did not go over 90. The amount of words determines how many points you have that you can use. Obviously you are encouraged to learn many words. In my case, that's different because I have already been studying Japanese for a long time. I mostly picked the words that I want to remember better or the ones I'm not as familiar with. The soundtrack is also pretty catchy. I like the style of the world and the fact that you can wonder around through a town, school in 3D etc.

Let's talk about the engine and the way the game is designed. There are long loading times and there are even loading times after battles. The game has screentearing and there is no vsync option in the game. Nvidia control panel's vsync doesn't seem to work either. The game hardly has graphics options, there is low, medium, high, turn the grass options off, ambient occlusion on or off and the same with a certain reflection. The game also doesn't seem to remember the settings you chose, as they seem to reset every time you continue. In terms of framerate, it seems to be changing quickly and is all over the place. There are times it's sub 30 or sub 90. The are also enough bugs and glitches that were not game breaking, but they give the impression that the game is not polished. For instance, you can't open certain doors even though all the doors are the same, I cleared a side quest and the new quest bar on top of a character's head still shows that the quest is not complete. There were two instances where I could not move the character anymore, being forced to load my save again. Luckily my progress is saved because the game seems to auto save a lot, I only had to walk a certain distance.

There is also something to say about gameplay improvements and the way the achievements are handled. I did not like the fact that you can't go back to your save after completing the game. I thought I could level up some more, do one side quest that I was still missing and practice some more words. Instead, you get to see the same cutscene again and my guess is the credits roll again. Speaking of credits, I could not skip them the first time. The game could have been much better with new game+ where you get to bring over the words you learned, your stats and fight tougher versions of the same enemies. The achievements encourage you to learn multiple languages which is okay if you're a casual language learner who is just curious about a lanugage. If you're serious about learning a language though, it's better to stay focused and pick few languages or better yet, stick with one and be very good at it before moving on. I'm speaking from experience as I speak 4 languages fluently/natively and heavily invested time in 2 other languages. The achievements might have been used better to encourage new game+ runs where each run might have some new words added? Just a suggestion!

This paragraph is about Japanese learning, I'm not sure if this applies to other languages. You can turn romaji off but there is no option to keep furigana. Basically you will have to rely entirely on kanji and hearing things when possible or through hints. I picked the way the game is meant to be played, which means that you also get sentences that you have to produce through a list. This part is absolutely not for beginners. The game doesn't teach you anything about grammar or reading. You can give it a try if you've been studying for while and are pretty comfortable with reading/grammar. That or you'll need to make use of hints a lot which costs lingua points. Points can be recharged by practicing the language on a computer.

You can tell that the game doesn't have a lot of budget behind it. Aside from the performance already mentioned, the game is also not big. There are a few areas, I would have liked more words and the game being longer than what we got. I would have liked leveling up more, improving and learning more skills. You get so much choice but the game is not long enough to let you experiment. That or new game+! That said, I perfectly understand why things are the way they are. The developer is probably not big. But they have a great formula that needs to be expanded. Please, we need a sequel! The idea is so good and I would love to keep learning/playing this way. Whatever happens though, I'm thankful for the devs releasing this game for us to experience. The game is worth checking out if you like RPGs and languages.

This is my first Zeboyd game and it has been a good introduction. I've had a good time thanks to the battle system, good soundtrack and fun characters. The game's battle system forces better resource management since most moves and items have one usage. Moves can be recharged by defending but that takes a precious turn. It doesn't sound like much but even normal fights can be ruthless if you're not planning things properly. I did play on the hardest difficulty though. The soundtrack is truly impressive. There is some singing with some of them. Usually I'm not into that but it's done well here. The story is not really deep or even trying to be serious. The dialogue is entertaining and I enjoyed how the characters interact with each other. There are some minor flaws with the game. They're not game breaking but they would have made the experience better. I would have liked having the % of attacks/ailments mentioned during fights. You get that kind of info when you go to the party menu outside of fights, but it would help with planning during fights. Also there needs to be a better way to check character buffs and unite moves. With the later one, I'm not always certain which character you need for certain moves.

It's definitely a game worth trying if you're into the genre.

Cute game. It took me an hour to complete on normal. I enjoyed the platforming and puzzles. It has some minor flaws here and there but it's silly to expect much for 50 cent. The main flaws are: the controls are not perfect and the UI is a bit clumsy. About the controls, I'm not certain if it's me not playing right but there are times where jumps are suddenly not high or the kicks are not registering. The game doesn't have different jumps as far as I know, so it's surprising when you suddenly get a lower jump. This causes you a life and might have to start from the beginning of a level. Granted the levels are not long and the last ones that are, they have checkpoints. So don't worry about the backtracking too much. About the UI, it's about not being able to press cancel to return for instance. You have to move to the return button and press on it etc. Again, it's not a big deal at the end of the day. If you enjoy platformers and want to play a new one for a short while, then this is a nice bite of snack :P

This is one very unique game due to its controls. You decide an eyeball’s direction with the touch screen but it moves on its own. You can also stop the ball from moving by touching it once but you can’t control the eyeball directly. The levels, enemies and bosses are very well designed. I get strong GBA/Super Nintendo vibes with the soundtrack and graphics. There are many collectibles within the levels and modes such as hard, boss rush etc. However, the game’s controls while very refreshing and interesting, can also be seen as a weakness. The 6 worlds ramp up in challenge and there are times where it can get on my nerves when the controls can cause you to die easily. Still though, definitely give the game a try if you’re open to new gameplay wrapped up in retro style.