2023
This was a lot more fun than I was expecting! There's a lot more strategy involved in this rather than just a simple game of "point the gun at your face and hope you don't die." If you have good RNG with items and know what you're doing, you can get a lot out of just one turn in this game. It's really replayable and there is a way to get genuinely good at it with practice. The world of Buckshot Roulette is also very intriguing despite it never telling you upfront about anything that's happening. There are a few easter eggs and details though that can fill you in on the world in this game and how it works, since ever modern indie horror game now has to tell its story subtly (not a jab at this game or others, I actually like this trope.) I'd recommend this game, especially for its low price and how you can get a fair bit out of it despite that (even though I got this for free via a friend). Might try and go for 100% on it at some point.
2011
Well. That was one of the worst games I've ever played.
Postal is a series I've always held in high regard, even despite its controversial reputation. But being a relatively new fan of the series, I was always confused on why there was no Postal 3 listed on Steam despite there being a Postal 4. I thought it was some kind of joke, like how Goat Simulator skipped 2 and went straight to Goat Simulator 3. But after getting involved with the Postal community a bit more, I learned that there was indeed a Postal 3... and not a very good one. Skip to October of last year and RWS announces that Postal 3 would make its grand return to Steam with some fixes. So I bought it and eventually played it.
Postal 3 is a complete mess of broken mechanics, terrible writing, mind-numbing gameplay and enough bugs and glitches in it to make you want to punch a hole through your monitor. First, why is this a cover shooter? I get that at this point each Postal game had experimented with a different subgenre of shooter (Postal 1 was a twin-sticks shooter, Postal 2 was an FPS) but if you're going to make a cover shooter at least make the cover mechanic damn work! This thing is completely useless in the game, not only because its much more effective to just get right up in the enemies faces but also because the enemies will just go behind whatever you're covering yourself with and shoot you anyway. On the topic of enemies, the AI in this game are incredibly annoying to deal with. The enemies themselves constantly chase you around whatever map you're on instead of actually moving to spots to try and shoot you, the random NPC civilians constantly get in the way of your gunshots which affects the karma system (which I'll get to because its complete bullshit) and NPCs that you're meant to protect during escort missions will not following you and instead actively try and get into fights with the enemies. The gameplay itself is insanely bad. There is a reason the Source Engine is only really used for FPS games and this game is proof of that. Trying to aim with your gun is like trying to push a boulder with your legs. It is incredibly stiff for no reason, making it somehow more effective to just not aim at enemies and just shoot at them normally. Not that it even matters because there is no gunplay in this game at all. You can very much just beat the entire game with only the AR because of how ridiculously overpowered it is with its rapid fire and that you get crazy amounts of ammo for it throughout the game, rendering all other guns useless.
Now that karma system I mentioned. Why would you add a karma system where you lose good boy points by killing civilians in a POSTAL game?! You know, the game series that built its reputation up by making it so you are neither rewarded or punished for killing innocent NPCs and all comes down to how far you're willing to go? Yeah, lets add a karma system in the next game! I'm sure that doesn't completely go against everything the series is known for! Not to mention this karma system does nothing to affect the actual gameplay and only leads to one of two different endings depending on if you were good or bad. And both of them are shit.
I knew going into this game that it was bad but I'm still shocked at how a game like this can even be released in the state its in. I can see why RWS never licensed the Postal IP out again until Brain Damaged because I wouldn't trust anyone with my property if they made something like this out of it.
Fuck this game. Don't play it.
Postal is a series I've always held in high regard, even despite its controversial reputation. But being a relatively new fan of the series, I was always confused on why there was no Postal 3 listed on Steam despite there being a Postal 4. I thought it was some kind of joke, like how Goat Simulator skipped 2 and went straight to Goat Simulator 3. But after getting involved with the Postal community a bit more, I learned that there was indeed a Postal 3... and not a very good one. Skip to October of last year and RWS announces that Postal 3 would make its grand return to Steam with some fixes. So I bought it and eventually played it.
Postal 3 is a complete mess of broken mechanics, terrible writing, mind-numbing gameplay and enough bugs and glitches in it to make you want to punch a hole through your monitor. First, why is this a cover shooter? I get that at this point each Postal game had experimented with a different subgenre of shooter (Postal 1 was a twin-sticks shooter, Postal 2 was an FPS) but if you're going to make a cover shooter at least make the cover mechanic damn work! This thing is completely useless in the game, not only because its much more effective to just get right up in the enemies faces but also because the enemies will just go behind whatever you're covering yourself with and shoot you anyway. On the topic of enemies, the AI in this game are incredibly annoying to deal with. The enemies themselves constantly chase you around whatever map you're on instead of actually moving to spots to try and shoot you, the random NPC civilians constantly get in the way of your gunshots which affects the karma system (which I'll get to because its complete bullshit) and NPCs that you're meant to protect during escort missions will not following you and instead actively try and get into fights with the enemies. The gameplay itself is insanely bad. There is a reason the Source Engine is only really used for FPS games and this game is proof of that. Trying to aim with your gun is like trying to push a boulder with your legs. It is incredibly stiff for no reason, making it somehow more effective to just not aim at enemies and just shoot at them normally. Not that it even matters because there is no gunplay in this game at all. You can very much just beat the entire game with only the AR because of how ridiculously overpowered it is with its rapid fire and that you get crazy amounts of ammo for it throughout the game, rendering all other guns useless.
Now that karma system I mentioned. Why would you add a karma system where you lose good boy points by killing civilians in a POSTAL game?! You know, the game series that built its reputation up by making it so you are neither rewarded or punished for killing innocent NPCs and all comes down to how far you're willing to go? Yeah, lets add a karma system in the next game! I'm sure that doesn't completely go against everything the series is known for! Not to mention this karma system does nothing to affect the actual gameplay and only leads to one of two different endings depending on if you were good or bad. And both of them are shit.
I knew going into this game that it was bad but I'm still shocked at how a game like this can even be released in the state its in. I can see why RWS never licensed the Postal IP out again until Brain Damaged because I wouldn't trust anyone with my property if they made something like this out of it.
Fuck this game. Don't play it.
2022
Yeah, this game is hella fun.
Gigabash is an arena fighting game where you play as different giant monsters based off classic kaiju media fighting in fully destructible environments like cities, military camps, research facilities, etc.
One of the best things about this game to me is how simple the controls are yet you can still pull off impressive moves or combos with them. It’s very much an easy to play, hard to master type game which is a genre of games I love because of how many hours you can sink into them. This also makes the game ideal for multiplayer as it makes explaining the controls to others a non-issue. The different characters you can select from are all fun to play as and do a really good job at being a homage to what they’re based on (my current main in the game is Kongkrete). My only main issue with this game is the lack of substantial content. There is a story mode which follows 4 of the characters in the roster but they’re extremely bare bones and are just a series of minigames or fights. Other than that there’s an arcade mode, an endless waves mode and a minigame mode but all of them kind of run their course after a couple of plays. The gameplay more than makes up for this lack of content but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed by it. Overall, it’s an extremely fun fighting game that you can have a ton of fun with.
Gigabash is an arena fighting game where you play as different giant monsters based off classic kaiju media fighting in fully destructible environments like cities, military camps, research facilities, etc.
One of the best things about this game to me is how simple the controls are yet you can still pull off impressive moves or combos with them. It’s very much an easy to play, hard to master type game which is a genre of games I love because of how many hours you can sink into them. This also makes the game ideal for multiplayer as it makes explaining the controls to others a non-issue. The different characters you can select from are all fun to play as and do a really good job at being a homage to what they’re based on (my current main in the game is Kongkrete). My only main issue with this game is the lack of substantial content. There is a story mode which follows 4 of the characters in the roster but they’re extremely bare bones and are just a series of minigames or fights. Other than that there’s an arcade mode, an endless waves mode and a minigame mode but all of them kind of run their course after a couple of plays. The gameplay more than makes up for this lack of content but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed by it. Overall, it’s an extremely fun fighting game that you can have a ton of fun with.
Just.... eh. It's a fine enough rhythm game but it never really goes anything beyond that. The gameplay is fine though I feel at times the visuals in the background can be really distracting, especially in the songs with special music videos. The dances themselves are cool to look at and can be funny at times depending on what your character is wearing. The rewards for doing well in a song aren't great though. You'll either get new clothes for your character for get these little social events with a specific character that are pretty uninteresting. They just don't feel like good rewards and don't really encourage to continue to try and do better on the songs. The list of songs here is fine. The remixes are alright but there's nothing really that stands out or is better than the original. It's a fine spin-off I guess but the most enjoyment I got out of it was just from seeing the P3 characters happy and not having to worry about anything for once.
Pretty cool season. Wasn't able to play as much as I would've wanted to because of studying for exams and binge playing the Persona series but from what I played it was really fun. The new mythic weapons were cool to play around with (I loved the Chain of Hades), while I didn't finish the Battlepass the skins I did get are pretty cool and the new POIs were nice and fun to explore. The Avatar event was cool to see, even if it did get rid of half of the new items in the game for a bit. I hope we see more collabs with other animated stuff that isn't just anime in the future.
2019
God, what an experience.
I’ve been wanting to play Persona 5 for a LONG time now. I first became interested in the game from Joker being added to Smash Ultimate and being mesmerised by the game’s artstyle and music. Only problem was that P5 was a Playstation exclusive and I only had a Switch back then. Few years later, it’s announced that the modern Persona trilogy would be re-releasing on all modern platforms. I went ahead and wishlisted all the games on Steam as I thought that if I enjoyed P5, I would probably play the other games to. And that leads us to today, after I played Persona 3 and 4 earlier this year and finally played Persona 5 Royal after waiting all these years. And it was incredible.
First, I would like to go through all of my negatives with this game as I’d rather end this review on a positive note than a negative one. First issue I have is the cast of characters. This is by far the weakest cast of any of the Persona games I’ve played. This isn’t me saying they’re bad characters but they feel a lot more one-note than previous casts and they don’t really bounce off with each other like previous casts as well. It feels less like a friend group and more a group of people who happen to know each other through the MC. My other negative is that, just like Persona 4 Golden, it is painfully obvious when the original game was supposed to end and where the new content was added. I would’ve much preferred if the new content was more smoothly transitioned to from the main game.
And thats it. Those are pretty much all my negatives for this game. Onto the positives.
The story this game presents you with is incredible. There’s so many twists and turns and, despite having probably one of the biggest cast of main characters in a Persona game, each one get their own time to shine and go through their own arcs. The gameplay is the smoothest and cleanest the series has ever been, bringing back the series’s staple mechanics like the One More system and weaknesses to adding in completely new mechanics that add more strategy to the gameplay like Baton Passes, Negotiations, Gun damage, etc. This is also by far the most stylish Persona game with it’s UI. Everything pops with the game’s gorgeous artstyle with loads of detail being put into every part of the UI that makes the game a joy to look at. I also love the addition of the Phantom Thieves suits/costumes, it helps make each character that more unique and really helps exemplify their personalities. Another great thing about this game is the personalised dungeons (now named Palaces) return from Persona 4 but are even better now with them being fully designed dungeons that you actually can truly explore instead of randomly generated rooms each floor. The Palaces themselves are a treat to explore (except Okumura’s), with each having vivid imagery that gives you a great look into a character’s personality.
Persona 5 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I would highly recommend it to anyone that is even the slightest bit interested as it is one of the best gaming experiences you can ever have.
I’ve been wanting to play Persona 5 for a LONG time now. I first became interested in the game from Joker being added to Smash Ultimate and being mesmerised by the game’s artstyle and music. Only problem was that P5 was a Playstation exclusive and I only had a Switch back then. Few years later, it’s announced that the modern Persona trilogy would be re-releasing on all modern platforms. I went ahead and wishlisted all the games on Steam as I thought that if I enjoyed P5, I would probably play the other games to. And that leads us to today, after I played Persona 3 and 4 earlier this year and finally played Persona 5 Royal after waiting all these years. And it was incredible.
First, I would like to go through all of my negatives with this game as I’d rather end this review on a positive note than a negative one. First issue I have is the cast of characters. This is by far the weakest cast of any of the Persona games I’ve played. This isn’t me saying they’re bad characters but they feel a lot more one-note than previous casts and they don’t really bounce off with each other like previous casts as well. It feels less like a friend group and more a group of people who happen to know each other through the MC. My other negative is that, just like Persona 4 Golden, it is painfully obvious when the original game was supposed to end and where the new content was added. I would’ve much preferred if the new content was more smoothly transitioned to from the main game.
And thats it. Those are pretty much all my negatives for this game. Onto the positives.
The story this game presents you with is incredible. There’s so many twists and turns and, despite having probably one of the biggest cast of main characters in a Persona game, each one get their own time to shine and go through their own arcs. The gameplay is the smoothest and cleanest the series has ever been, bringing back the series’s staple mechanics like the One More system and weaknesses to adding in completely new mechanics that add more strategy to the gameplay like Baton Passes, Negotiations, Gun damage, etc. This is also by far the most stylish Persona game with it’s UI. Everything pops with the game’s gorgeous artstyle with loads of detail being put into every part of the UI that makes the game a joy to look at. I also love the addition of the Phantom Thieves suits/costumes, it helps make each character that more unique and really helps exemplify their personalities. Another great thing about this game is the personalised dungeons (now named Palaces) return from Persona 4 but are even better now with them being fully designed dungeons that you actually can truly explore instead of randomly generated rooms each floor. The Palaces themselves are a treat to explore (except Okumura’s), with each having vivid imagery that gives you a great look into a character’s personality.
Persona 5 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I would highly recommend it to anyone that is even the slightest bit interested as it is one of the best gaming experiences you can ever have.
2020
(This is a review of the new Weekend 1 update that came out recently)
I’ve been sort of neglecting my connection to FNF the past few months due to being embarrassed to have liked it so much despite it’s negative perception in online spaces. I stopped listening to the soundtrack, stopped playing mods as much as I used to and barely kept up with a community I had spent nearly 4 years interacting with.
Then a new update to the base game came out and I rediscovered why I fell in love with this game years ago. There’s something about this game’s charm and aesthetic that I’ve never seen in any other game before. The artstyle is gorgeous, the songs are catchy despite having gibberish for lyrics, it’s respect towards Newgrounds and it’s history as a massive website for artists and creatives, etc. Its honestly inspiring how much passion was put into a game like this.
But anyways, onto the update itself. The new Week (or really Weekend I should be saying) is great and really showcases what the devs have been up to in the time between this and the Week 7 update. A whole engine rework, better input system, new shaders, fully hand animated cutscenes that are amazing to watch and some great new music. I really like the idea of having epilogues to weeks in the form of Weekends levels where we play as a different character, with this Weekend being an epilogue to Week 3 and sort of Week 7 as well where we see what happened to Pico. It helps with the world building of the game, that not everything is happening to our main characters. This update also added in new Erect remixes, basically harder versions of already existing songs in the game. They’re all great to listen to and the guest musicians they got on these songs were cool to see, going from some pretty renowned musicians in the mod community to even the composer who worked on the Tekken series, Kohta Takahashi.
Overall, an amazing update to the game. Can’t wait to see what the devs come up with for the next one.
I’ve been sort of neglecting my connection to FNF the past few months due to being embarrassed to have liked it so much despite it’s negative perception in online spaces. I stopped listening to the soundtrack, stopped playing mods as much as I used to and barely kept up with a community I had spent nearly 4 years interacting with.
Then a new update to the base game came out and I rediscovered why I fell in love with this game years ago. There’s something about this game’s charm and aesthetic that I’ve never seen in any other game before. The artstyle is gorgeous, the songs are catchy despite having gibberish for lyrics, it’s respect towards Newgrounds and it’s history as a massive website for artists and creatives, etc. Its honestly inspiring how much passion was put into a game like this.
But anyways, onto the update itself. The new Week (or really Weekend I should be saying) is great and really showcases what the devs have been up to in the time between this and the Week 7 update. A whole engine rework, better input system, new shaders, fully hand animated cutscenes that are amazing to watch and some great new music. I really like the idea of having epilogues to weeks in the form of Weekends levels where we play as a different character, with this Weekend being an epilogue to Week 3 and sort of Week 7 as well where we see what happened to Pico. It helps with the world building of the game, that not everything is happening to our main characters. This update also added in new Erect remixes, basically harder versions of already existing songs in the game. They’re all great to listen to and the guest musicians they got on these songs were cool to see, going from some pretty renowned musicians in the mod community to even the composer who worked on the Tekken series, Kohta Takahashi.
Overall, an amazing update to the game. Can’t wait to see what the devs come up with for the next one.
2016
An expanded version of that one Hunger Games simulator that adds real time events, a fleshed out character creator, customizable maps and allows 100+ characters to be in a match. It gets the job done for what it is. A lot of the enjoyment comes from seeing a bunch of your favourite characters get into these situations that are funny to imagine like Invader Zim teaming up with Freddy Fazbear or Scott Pilgrim being drowned in a lake by Shadow the Hedgehog. I'd recommend getting it if you're even a bit interested considering how cheap it is on Steam.
I'm honestly really shocked with how good a fighting game based on a series with turn based combat is. They manage to incorporate elements of typical Persona gameplay like SP and element attacks like Ziodyne in such a smooth way that blends seamlessly with the fighting. The story was also entertaining but suffered a bit from the way it presents itself, especially in the P4A campaign. Events usually get repeated a lot with only miniscule differences in between each character's story which makes it very confusing as to what's actually canon and what isn't. This was fixed in the Ultimax campaign though by just having a semi-straight path you progress through instead of individual character stories. Other than that, the campaigns were cool and it was fun seeing the P3 and P4 cast interact with each other. Makes me excited to see them talk with each other more when I play Persona Q. But now I can finally move on to the game I've been most excited to play next... Persona 5 Royal.
Just a short interactive teaser made to reveal a few new Bendy projects coming down the pipeline with a few fun secrets hidden around for fans. I do hope it comes back and becomes this sort of central hub for upcoming Bendy news as it’s a fun way of announcing stuff for the series.
Might as well give this a review while I’m in the middle of my P4AU playthrough.
Honestly? I do think The Answer is kinda overhated but at the same time I can see why people don’t like it. Personally, I think it’s a nice expansion that helps tie up some loose ends in P3’s main story as well as give us a proper look into the characters after the events of the game. I know a LOT of people really don’t like the way specifically Yukari acts in this. Without going into spoilers, I think she was completely justified in her feelings but I do think she’s goes a bit over the top at certain moments but it’s realistic for someone like her who’s going through that sort of situation to listen to your emotions more than your logic.
Now while I like the story of The Answer, the gameplay is something I’m more mixed about. I would consider myself a pretty big defender of P3FES’s gameplay (I think I’m one of the few people who like the AI party members.) but even I can’t deny that The Answer is a lot more tedious and monotonous with it’s gameplay. The great thing about P3’s gameplay was how you were essentially given breaks in between the dungeon crawling through the normal daytime activities like social links. It gave you something to do other than just grind for levels for the next full moon operation. But since The Answer is meant to just be a short (for a JRGP) expansion, they decided to axe out daytime activities in favour of just dungeon crawling. It just starts to feel tiring after a while and it never picks up.
Overall, I would only really recommend The Answer if you want to find out what happened after P3 and you want more Aigis content (which btw her arc in this is very well done).
Honestly? I do think The Answer is kinda overhated but at the same time I can see why people don’t like it. Personally, I think it’s a nice expansion that helps tie up some loose ends in P3’s main story as well as give us a proper look into the characters after the events of the game. I know a LOT of people really don’t like the way specifically Yukari acts in this. Without going into spoilers, I think she was completely justified in her feelings but I do think she’s goes a bit over the top at certain moments but it’s realistic for someone like her who’s going through that sort of situation to listen to your emotions more than your logic.
Now while I like the story of The Answer, the gameplay is something I’m more mixed about. I would consider myself a pretty big defender of P3FES’s gameplay (I think I’m one of the few people who like the AI party members.) but even I can’t deny that The Answer is a lot more tedious and monotonous with it’s gameplay. The great thing about P3’s gameplay was how you were essentially given breaks in between the dungeon crawling through the normal daytime activities like social links. It gave you something to do other than just grind for levels for the next full moon operation. But since The Answer is meant to just be a short (for a JRGP) expansion, they decided to axe out daytime activities in favour of just dungeon crawling. It just starts to feel tiring after a while and it never picks up.
Overall, I would only really recommend The Answer if you want to find out what happened after P3 and you want more Aigis content (which btw her arc in this is very well done).
2020
Incredible. While I still prefer Persona 3 a lot more than this one, I can't deny this was such a fun trip of a game. I love how much more light-hearted it was and how great the characters were (favourites this time were Teddie, Kanji and Naoto). I do think the combat was a hell of a lot easier than P3FES but that could just be because I didn't put up with the AI party members this time. Even then I found myself clearing dungeons out extremely easily. I might try the game on a harder difficulty if I do a new game + run in the future to see if it would improve the combat. The story was incredibly good. Even with the lighter tone, the serious moments still hit hard and the mystery element is really neat idea. I do think the game kinda derails itself with the story with the extra content at the end but it still managed to make itself interesting. Excited to move on to Persona 5 (after I play some of the spin-off games like Arena and stuff first though).
A fun update to one of the best games from last year. The Noise is fun to play as but can be a bit too chaotic with his moveset for my liking which still makes me prefer playing as Peppino (though being more chaotic is very fitting for his character). It was fun going through the game as him and seeing what changes were in each level. I'd recommend playing through this even if you've already beaten Pizza Tower's original campaign as there's enough changes to make it still fun and unique on replay.
2007
It’s going to be a bit hard for me to write about my feelings for this game so please pardon me if I loose a bit of focus in this review.
One of the greatest games I think I’ve ever played. I know the gameplay is a bit controversial with people due to it changing directly commanding party members like a traditional RPG to having them being AI but I think it’s very overhated and adds more to the immersion of the game. Sure, some of the quirks of the AI can be a bit annoying but if you know how to fully take advantage of the tactics menu it’s not a big issue. The story present here is so unexpectedly mature and thoughtful and it’s made better with likeable characters who you grow to care about throughout the game thanks to excellent writing. The day cycle is such a unique gameplay feature that I rarely see other RPGs do. It’s nice to have breaks in between the dungeon crawling and story events by making friends or going shopping. The social links themselves are very good as well (aside from the gourmet king) and a smart way of implementing side characters into the story. The main characters themselves are great too. Some of my favourites were Aigis, Mitsuru and Shinji (Elizabeth too but idk if I would consider her to be a “main” character). The actual gameplay during the Dark Hour is also a lot of fun. Personas are a pretty neat concept and having the ability to essentially have multiple movesets at your disposal adds another layer of strategy to the game that I really enjoy. Tartarus, while it can be tedious sometimes, is a fun area to explore and fight enemies in. I also like how each block changes the visual style to keep things interesting as you progressively make your way up. Overall I greatly enjoyed my time with this game. I would highly recommend playing it, especially if you love character-focused stories in media.
One of the greatest games I think I’ve ever played. I know the gameplay is a bit controversial with people due to it changing directly commanding party members like a traditional RPG to having them being AI but I think it’s very overhated and adds more to the immersion of the game. Sure, some of the quirks of the AI can be a bit annoying but if you know how to fully take advantage of the tactics menu it’s not a big issue. The story present here is so unexpectedly mature and thoughtful and it’s made better with likeable characters who you grow to care about throughout the game thanks to excellent writing. The day cycle is such a unique gameplay feature that I rarely see other RPGs do. It’s nice to have breaks in between the dungeon crawling and story events by making friends or going shopping. The social links themselves are very good as well (aside from the gourmet king) and a smart way of implementing side characters into the story. The main characters themselves are great too. Some of my favourites were Aigis, Mitsuru and Shinji (Elizabeth too but idk if I would consider her to be a “main” character). The actual gameplay during the Dark Hour is also a lot of fun. Personas are a pretty neat concept and having the ability to essentially have multiple movesets at your disposal adds another layer of strategy to the game that I really enjoy. Tartarus, while it can be tedious sometimes, is a fun area to explore and fight enemies in. I also like how each block changes the visual style to keep things interesting as you progressively make your way up. Overall I greatly enjoyed my time with this game. I would highly recommend playing it, especially if you love character-focused stories in media.
Pretty good season. The new map was neat but some of the new locations are a bit uninteresting and forgettable. The new weapon modding system is really cool but I wish the mod benches were more common around the map. The battlepass was really strong, I didn't really dislike any of the skins. Collabs were really good as well, especially the TMNT event and mini-pass. The new gamemodes added are fun and can be a nice break from the main BR mode. Overall, a fun season and a good start to the new chapter.