Phew, that's a tough one to review. I liked a lot about the game, the graphics, mood and general vibes were very good and very Shemue. The way you slowly build up the relationship with Shenua and how she changes her behavior towards Ryo was very sweet. I also liked the city of Niaowu, a beautiful place with some nice quests.

However, the game has glaring weaknesses. The stamina system is a real pain. Who thought it was a good idea to use up stamina for every action (even just running), which is then no longer available in battles, in a game that actually invites you to explore? What a stupid idea! The fighting itself was also not as well implemented as in the predecessors, the Virtua Fighter license was unfortunately not available here.

Story-wise, almost nothing of relevance happens in this part. It's a mystery to me that they didn't take the opportunity to advance the story after such a long time. The ending is also totally sudden and Landi's appearance seems totally random and out of place, much like the Kickstarter fighters in the last section of the game. Overall, I had fun with the game, but came away from the experience somewhat disappointed.

I had originally played the Witcher 3 on PS4 when it was free with PS+. Had you asked me my opinion on the game back then, I would've told you I had no clue what all the hype was about. The movement was clunky, I had no backstory or knowledge of the events that took place in prior games, and it was not at all what I was expecting (i.e. comparing it to the likes of most Bethesda games at the time). I had abandoned the game after only a few hours of playing it.

Fast forward nearly 8 years later, and the game is still hailed as one of the greatest RPG's of all time. So I figured, why not give it another go? I purchased the game for $10.00 on Steam and began playing the freshly polished "next gen" version of the game, and I can honestly say that I am so glad I gave this game a second chance. Having recently completed the base game and both DLC's with over 200+ hours of game time, it is clear to me now why the game is so highly regarded.

The longer you play the Witcher 3, the more you realize how much time and effort was put into making this game, and it just keeps getting better the more invested you become. I was even lucky enough to experience what years of updates, patches, graphical changes, and content has added to this game during my first playthrough (sort of). The Witcher 3 has a level of detail unlike no other, and it is worth experiencing to the fullest. The base game is nothing short of fantastic, but the DLC's are truly special. I would almost say it is worth playing through the main story, even if you're not vibing with it completely, just to experience the Blood and Wine DLC first-hand.

Sure, The Witcher 3 still has it's faults, and I don't regard it as the best game I have ever played. However, if RPG's are your jam, then it will likely be one of the best RPG's you have ever played. You just have to be willing to give it a chance.

Astonishing atmosphere and simple, yet challenging addictive gameplay. Ultra violent and over-the-top, the game uses its violence as a way to critique the medium itself which is done very well. Probably one of the best aesthetics any game in the 2010’s; the 80s vibe and story is crazy and the visuals are as vibrant as they are overwhelming. The score may just be one of the greatest ever in a video game, the EDM / Lo-fi mix gets your blood pumping level after level and builds in energy as the deceptively simple story reaches its climax.

This is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played.

When I heard there was a retro turn-based RPG where everyone was wrestlers, I was so excited. But, I somehow missed that they were also toys, a whole aesthetic that really just didn't hit with me. But, that would have been fine if the game was fun to play. And, it's not. It's so meandering, it introduces so many strange controls and elements just for one mission, and it's just frustrating. Not to mention that it's buggy as hell and crashes all the damn time. It's like they had a million ideas, and stuck them all in this game as some sort of grand statement, instead of actually making a game that's fun. I should have loved this, by the end I have a rag-tag group of heroes flying around on an airship, giving me big Final Fantasy 6 vibes, but it was just a joyless slog that I was thrilled to be over with.

The use of licensed music was stellar and the song selection itself was perfect and whenever a song came on in game, it hyped me up so much! The gameplay is super fun even if towards the end of the game it got very simple (as there are only a couple upgrades per character), however, the story, writing, acting and presentation were far beyond anything I was expecting; hilarious while simultaneously being emotionally mature and enriching. The banter between the crew was hilarious and we really see the crew develop and grow as a team over the course of the story, and the themes of trauma and grief were exceptionally well done. For sure a more story based game, but it was super fun and I’m glad to have experienced it :)

Never seen a game sabotage itself so hard. For every good idea, there are three bad ones. Gave up on the 18th floor where everything is pitch black, and I was being stun locked by the increased enemy count. The lack of shortcuts from the 14th floor to the 18th was the tipping point for me.

The most frustrating thing is that there's an extremely well realized atmospheric adventure/exploration game here, but it's buried deep beneath a bunch of very (artificially) punishing mechanics that keep poping up at every floor.

Beacon Pines' narrative has an engaging pacing and a is crafted with a finesse I didn't expect to find here.

The story beats are... kinda intense. The always present awesome music is explosive at most times, and the unique art style tirelessly begs you to look at every inch of it. The variety of the narrative tones keep this intensity from feeling bland and turns it, instead, into a way of reinforcing the story being told.

I really enjoyed my time with this game, and for me it almost perfectly shows the ways that short, story focused games can add an unique flair to the narrative that wouldn't be so easily achievable on a game with a larger scope. It feels different, and I love it for that.

The Dreamfall series followed very much the same trajectory as Shenmue. The first two games are masterpieces. The third game that exists mainly through crowdfunding? A damp squib.

I did not have a good time with this at all. It was janky as hell and performed like shit on the PS4. And its lack of budget was very showing. Expect a lot of backtracking, aimless wandering and stilted animation.

Such an unfortunate finale for an otherwise excellent saga.

Finally got around to finishing these.

I had zero exposure to Klonoa before playing these and I was shocked at just how Kirby-coded they are. From enemy to level design, it really feels like the developers wanted to make their own take on that kind of game. And for the most part, it works.

The barebones nature of the first game was way less appealing than the jam packed variety in the second game. It really is a case, in my opinion, where the sequel is just a fully realized version of the first game. Can't see how anyone would prefer the first game tbh.

So yeah, I had fun with these. Much more so with the second game.

[Only Door to Phantomile!]

I actually own the original PS1 Door to Phantomile, but I've never played past the first two visions (what the game calls its stages for some reason), and pure convenience (mainly my PS3 not reading discs particularly well and the controller also not being completely reliable anymore) led me to now play this remake instead.

And, you know, it's a fine remake. It looks a bit cheap and the cutscenes lose a lot of power when using in-game graphics rather than just reusing and upscaling the very charming FMVs of the original game, but at least the absolutely fantastic soundtrack and charming, gibberish voice lines haven't been touched at all. The core gameplay of Door to Phantomile also feels basically just like I remebered it, which is to say that it's good. Nothing remarkable to be honest and the game does play basically the same from the first stage to the last, though the difficulty curve feels does amp up at a good pace and the game's short enough that its fairly few gameplay ideas never really grow stale. The 2.5D also still looks great, which does suddenly make me wonder why basically no platformer released after Klonoa tried a similar approach with it's stages that wrap themselves?

Anyway, it's a fine platformer, though there are certainly better playing ones with more interesting mechanics than just jumping around and throwing inflated enemies. Surprisingly, the biggest strength of Door to Phantomile lies in its writing. It's deceptively simple and starts out like the most generic platformer you could ever imagine, but gets progressively more interesting throughout the game, and manages to have some surprisingly though provoking moments and dialogue that will stick with me for quite som time, plus the unbelievably sad ending that I had somehow not spoiled myself on before playing the game. I didn't cry over it or anything, but it certainly made me feel some type of emotion, and isn't that all we want from our games, truly?

Unfortunately I don't think I'll be finishing this one. It features unique artistic visuals, that's what prompted me to look at the game in the first place. It feels like you're in a Tim Burton stop-motion movie, specifically it feels inspired by Nightmare Before Christmas. But that's really the only good thing I can say about it.

The gameplay was close to being good; the deck and card system is unique and reminds me of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. However, it was not nearly as satisfying, quick, polished, or, quite frankly, fun. The boss fights were systematically uninspired and the regular fights felt repetitive. The idea in concept could be cool. I like the idea of using a deck of cards in 3rd person real-time combat, and even the rolling of the dice could've been neat. It just wasn't seen to its full potential.

There was also something weird with the camera. It's hard to explain but it felt janky. I would develop a headache after playing this game for a bit and I think it was in large part due to awkward camera movements.

The story was a bit simple and generic; your sister is mysteriously in danger far away and needs help. Good enough. But Even, the main protagonist, was a bit odd. She was supposed to be around 10 years old but I had a hard time believing that, mainly because she talked and sounded like an adult.

I wish I could've liked this game, but a generic story and unrealized combat was not quite enough to make up for the excellent visuals.

Firegirl is one of those games I saw a trailer for about a year ago and was sold on it right away. The presentation and graphics were really good and something you don't see too often. The 2D sprites and backgrounds warped with 3D objects and the foreground gives it a really cool vibe. I really dig the visuals here. That and the fact I thought the idea behind the gameplay was rather unique. Playing as a fire fighter using your hose to spray out living fires and using the water to platform and jump around while rescuing hostages in a ever changing level sounded really fun.

Unfortuately Firegirl failed to live up to expectations. The game does have a lot of glaring problems that honestly it should not get away with. For one there is only 4-5 stages themes in the game and they repeat on random. The quality of the stages themselves are so far apart in quality it's kinda head scratching. The burning apartment and hotel levels are pretty good and lead to more exploration and go well with what the game is trying to be good at but the forrest is so plain and straight forward it's actually a drag to get through as it's so plain and requires little to no exploration. The train stage is just so badly designed I don't know what they were thinking. It sounds cool as a concept but there are so many cheap deaths in it and bugged locations. It's far to easy to get hit by something and the push back sends you flying into a death pit. So many places to get stuck or bugged in the geomotry of the stage as well. It's by far the shortest stage and all the people you have to rescue, if any, are all at the end of the stage. With just one or two water jump ugrades you can just fly to the end of the level without even doing anything and win. It's broken.

The way you earn money and ugrades is really kinda wack too. At first it seems like you will never have enough money to buy everything and recurit every person in the firehouse but once you figure out how it's supposed to work you can earn money real fast. That's another thing with this game. It doesn't explain itself rather well at all. From certain mechanics, how to earn money, or even how levels are supposed to work. I would have liked to have known that saving animals does not count as a rescue despite the game saying it everytime I saved one. Only people count. ANIMAL LIVES MATTER DAMN IT!

The biggest issue though is the game gets stale really fast. The repititve nature of the game does not work in it's favor. Pretty soon you realize once you get a few water upgrades and health uprades is that there is no reason to even fight the fires at all and just bum rush to the next person and quickly just pass over everything. There's no penalty at all. No danger. It's flawed. After beating the game there is no reason to keep playing.

It's such a shame as I had mild expectations for this game and I was kinda let down. I didn't hate my time with it and I still really like the visuals but objectivily I can't ignore the glaring flaws this game has. I still feel like with a TOTAL rebalance, improvments and bigger scope this could be a winning formula for a good game. I'll look back on it decently as it was a short experiance. Alas Firegirl: Hack 'n Splash Rescue remains a dud though.

Platinum #162

There were two things I knew about Ori and the Blind Forest when I booted the game up for the first time: (1) it had been compared to Hollow Knight despite the fact that it was released two years prior and (2) the main character was a white rabbit-esque creature named Ori. Everything else about the game - the mechanics, the story, the lore, the crushing difficulty - I learned during this first playthrough, and I was completely unprepared.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a Metroidvania released in 2015 for Windows and Xbox One and later in 2019 for the Nintendo Switch. Developed by Moon Studios, the game tells the story of the titular character Ori, a guardian spirit of the Nibel forest, who fell from the Spirit Tree during a terrible storm as a newborn. Ori is fortunately adopted by a creature named Naru, who raises the spirit as her own. A cataclysmic event, however, soon causes Nibel to wither and die, leaving Ori to save it from impending doom by recovering the light of three main elements: Waters, Winds, and Warmth. To complete this task the player takes control of Ori and must jump, climb, bounce, bolt, and dash their way around the game's treacherous and unforgiving world avoiding boiling acid, incendiary lava, falling debris, crumbling bridges, sharp spikes, and other deadly hazards. To combat enemies, break obstacles, discover secrets, and fully explore the forest of Nibel, player’s must find, unlock, and master an assortment of abilities like the Spirit Flame, Charge Flame, Bash, Stomp, and Light Burst. Along the way, the player can also discover health cells and energy cells to upgrade Ori’s health and abilities to make this difficult game less of a challenge.

As for my time with Ori and the Blind Forest, I couldn’t have been more pleased. The art style of the game is impeccable; the story is tear jerking and beautiful; the gameplay is fluid, intuitive and constantly evolving with each new ability; and the character designs and the forest of Nibel as a whole are unique. While I could spend several more paragraphs gushing over the positives of this game, there are few gripes that keep Ori and the Blind Forest from achieving a perfect 5 out of 5. First, while the game world and backgrounds therein are expertly crafted, they may just be slightly too perfect. What I mean by this is that several times throughout the game it is near impossible to tell what is a platform to land on and what is part of the background. In a game heavily dependent on expert platforming, this small issue can have huge downsides. Second, Ori’s movement is a tad too floaty for my liking. I obviously got over this during my playthrough, but, again, in a platform heavy title it is incredibly important to be able to adequately gauge the length of a character’s jump. When that character’s jump has an unknown weightlessness to it, however, any estimations of where you may land after any given button press is near impossible. Third, while not something I really knock off any points for, it’s important to state just how difficult and unforgiving Ori and the Blind Forest can be. One wrong button press, one slightly off the mark jump, one misjudged landing, or one unavoided enemy attack can immediately lead to a death. While this typically wouldn’t be an issue with modern auto-save features, Ori and the Blind Forest takes a different approach to save mechanics. Where most modern games auto-save a player’s progress at certain checkpoints or after certain actions are taken, Ori demands that the player manually save their game by holding down a button. While this feature does allow a player to save nearly anywhere, it can also inadvertently lead to several minutes lost of game time. This loss of progress is, of course, the player’s fault for failing to save, but in such a fast paced game as Ori and the Blind Forest, stopping mid adventure to save seems nearly counterintuitive. I bring this up alongside the discussion of difficulty and not as its own negative because I believe the difficulty and the saving feature go hand in hand. A difficult section, boss fight, or escape sequence encountered after several minutes of carefree and saveless gameplay can lead to a slew of lost progress. Therefore the difficulty and the save feature inadvertently causes players to lose progress that a modern auto-save feature in the most difficult of games would have saved them.

Despite the negatives listed here, it should go without saying that Ori and the Blind Forest is a fantastic game. I hope these negatives don’t put anyone off from experiencing this game, as it is truly one not to miss. From the adventurous story and beautifully detailed worlds, to the deadly and crushing obstacles, enemies, and overall difficulty, Ori and the Blind Forest is a masterclass in video game storytelling and design. I can’t wait to try the sequel.

Inspector Waffles is point and click detective game with pixelated graphics in the style of The Darkside Detective where you play as an anthropomorphic cat trying to solve a murder.

In terms of gameplay it's pretty standard point and click, with the puzzles definitely on the easy side. There is a hint system where you call your mom who is a retired detective for help that I used a couple times, but the puzzle difficulty level is never illogical.

The strong point of this game is the characters and humor. It's filled with lots of amusing jokes about the nature of dogs and cats and the relationship between Inspector Waffles the cat and the police dog Sparky is really sweet. Even though it's about a murder it's still pretty lighthearted, but it's not completely cartoony since there is some emotional depth to the characters with real issues.

The plot wasn't anything overly spectacular, but the game is worth playing purely on the strength of the characters and that the puzzles are at a good difficulty level. 8/10