I am a big fan of Suikoden 3 and 5, those being the only I have played, so I was excited for this and the 1 and 2 remaster. After having played 12 hours of the game I can say that it is pretty good. But ultimately I decided not to continue. Here are my thoughts and reasons.
Starting with the graphics, which is something I don't typically mention in reviews, the art seems all over the place. Some things are pixelized and some are not and that looks very out of place to me. The voice acting isn't as anime as some jrpgs (I'm looking at you xenoblade) but it's not great either. Some of the dialogue and certain voice actors are good and got me to laugh.

The combat is...well, there is an auto-battle button and it does a lot of heavy lifting. In an area, once you get appropriately leveled and know what to expect from certain enemies you just turn that bad boy on. There are random encounters, which in some complicated maps makes exploring feel more punishing than rewarding. For example there is a puzzle trial area that is pretty big and there still random encounters. Resources can be VERY precious because of this. The combat is very basic though. What I really dislike is that you need to choose everybody's action before any actions can take place. This causes some irritating situations like, one character misses an attack, but your follow up character is attacking another enemy cuz you expected the previous enemy to already be dead. Or, you want to resurrect a character and then heal that character however you literally cannot do that because you cannot select to heal a member that is KOd.

Some boss fights have gimmicks. They are called gimmicks... The game calls them gimmicks. You select an action prompt that says "gimmick"... I am not shitting you. Idk how interesting they get later in the game but the two that I did were just ok. For instance, there is a lever and if the lever ends on your side of the battlefield rocks will drop on you.
Another annoyance I had with the gameplay is that there is a turn order outline at the top of the screen (I like that) but the order in which you select actions is based on the order of your party. What often happened to me was my big bruiser was in the front line so I picked his action 2nd but in the actual turn order his action goes last. There is no way to get around this. This is just an artificial "complexity" of the battle system. In most fights this doesn't matter so it is a trivial matter.

NOW. Let's get to my favorite part about games. Story, World, and characters. The story theoretically is something I should enjoy. Nations, politics, war, backstabbing. There are a few reasons I don't enjoy it. First, it's the typical trope that everybody for some reason is appointing you- an early twenties newbie- with all the responsibilities of the world. Everybody says your capable and you've got talent but... based on what? What did my character do to give you this impression. Second, why is everybody so god dam lighthearted? We are at war people! Villages have burned, cities taken over. Presumably many people have died. Yet, here we are as jolly as can be. It seems very low stakes for a story about a war to maintain your freedom against an empire. Third, there is no story character I really like besides Ymir but he is not a driver of story. Just a guy who will be around to snark. Also, the reason I like him is because he patronizes me for being "the wonder boy" or something like that.

So I decided to drop it. Kinda bummed, but hey. Now I can spend time doing something else.

The gameplay is fun enough. My minor gripe is that it borders on TRPG with the aoe and character positioning however because it’s not precise enough (characters idly walk around) it doesn’t reach TRPG status. Still fun and I’ve never seen anybody else share my gripe so I guess it’s specific to me.

Leveling jobs is well incentivized because it allows you to also level base stats and you can mix and match skills to truly deck out your dudes and dudettes. Speaking of decking out… the outfits for the ladies are… well I’ve never been one for fan service but this shit got me blushing.

World. Great. I am from Hawaii and it’s a close enough approximation that it made me a wee bit homesick. I commend the attempt for the VAs to do a pidgin accent but I can tell they are not actually from Hawaii. The the guy on the radio show may actually be from Hawaii.

The story is where the big fault lies with me. It’s not so engaging. You have to find your mom but you don’t think of her as your mom. And maybe she is your mom? You’re not sure. And you jump through a lot of hoops. And the resolution is dud. The background conspiracy is ok but ultimately just ok. I LOVED chatting with my friends and building relationships. I did not love how thick they lay it on. It is, after all, an anime at heart. You ever heard of show don’t tell? Well they show and then they tell the fuck out of you. The “power of friendship” stuff is a bit cringe/corny to me. Your mileage may vary.

In conclusion good game but dragged down by the story and even the length. Don’t get me started on the ending.

This is an indie gem that flew under the radar of nearly everybody. I listen to quite a few gaming podcasts. Too many. I wanna cut back actually. But the point I am trying to make is that none of them talked about Sanabi. The traversal is fun as heck. Do you like grappling hooks? This whole game is about using your hook and momentum to get around and fight enemies. It's also a story heavy game, which for me, is a big check. Daddy needs his story drip. Speaking of "daddy" this is a sad dad game through and through. I shit on many tropes but I do like a good sad dad trope. Only negatives is that fighting enemies is just grapple hooking them and that's it. Though, it doesn't actually bother me. Some cool boss fights but nothing spectacular. And various art styles that don't mesh well. The base art style is lovely (though admittedly one note) but there are these anime/clay talking head cutscenes that are... very strange. Oh, and I have to admit that it's pretty cool to see Korean in cyberpunk instead of japanese/chinese

Great premise. You push your husband overboard on a boat (murder) and then you have the rest of the day to set up events so not only will you be found innocent but also it will be considered a murder. The reason? Sweet sweet life insurance checks.
You will have to play many loops to find stuff out about passengers, their schedules, and how to manipulate things. However the ending felt pretty unsatisfactory for me. Why? I guess because I didn't really plan it to happen it just sort of happened during the investigation. It felt like, "oh, this is what the game wants." Cool idea. You can get it for cheap on steam sales nowadays, still worth checking out if it floats your boat.

Good game. I liked it. However I don't have strong feelings . There are a few things I want to clarify about the game. Most of your battles are story-based and as such have a shit ton of dialogue during them. Afterall, these "battles" are representations of arguments. I was fine with it because I like story driven games.

Now, talking about the story... The main character is in her very early 20s (or even 19) and has so much crazy high school relationship baggage. I am in my mid 30s and haven't thought about high school in years. And wow, I have forgotten just how melodramatic teenagers are. So, one aspect of the story is making amends with your exes and the other is investigating a culty skatepark group. The later story... just doesn't get resolved. The former can be hit or miss because it is, at the end of the day, people bitching about their problems the entire game. Some of the exes could have been cut. One in particular, a transexual man, feels a little shoehorned in. Like, the developers wanted to represent more parts of the LGBTQ spectrum. The characters and banter really carry the game.
The family dynamic may actually be my favorite part of the game. You are an Indian/Sri Lankan family. Your character is second-generation, and you argue with your mom a lot. BUT THE DAD. The dad is my favorite, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he is everybody's favorite, even though I've never talked to anybody about the game. He is so chill and sweet and wisely lets the women handle their business, which mostly involves taking jabs at each other. Then you meet the grandma...

Now, gameplay! Turn-based. Yay. Shallow. meh. Serves as a vehicle for verbal sparring. Okkk. People have certain emotional weaknesses than can be targeted by taunts (angry, thirsty, heartbroken, shocking) so you gotta listen to them and guess what taunt will affect them. It's not always super obvious so you have to try to intuit it. When you attack and defend you have to do some timed button presses and there is also an animation that goes along with it. The battle animations are pretty great and give the game so much character. I guess what I dug most about the game was the overall character of it. This game is definitely not for everyone, but it was for me... a straight white man in his mid 30s. Funny.

PS: if you are the type of person who hates representation of non-white/straight people HOLY CRAP you will have a hate boner for this game.

I adore this game. My first impressions were that the tone was cool but the graphics were kiddy groddy. I know not every indie game can look like Sea of Stars, but beyond the level of detail the actual style turned me off. However about 2 hours into the game I did a 180 and ended up being charmed by the art style.
The characters, writing, and story were all great imo. It takes the tropey story of a quest to kill a god and puts a unique spin on it. You are rodents and the "gods" are humans. The rodent society was interesting to learn about, you can tell the writer was interested in political philosophy. At one point I was surprised to find myself in a debate with a fascist about how egalitarianism is equally as fascist as fascism. Needless to say, this game does have some communist/liberal ideology.

If you have a problem with trans people then this is not the game for you. Many characters are gay/nonbinary/what-have-you. In that regard the moral of sexual freedom does seem pretty heavy-handed and forced. But hey, I was down with it. The dialogue is very well written, humorous, charming, etc. Some people may scoff at modern slang being used but I didn't. For example, there is an asshole dictator who is smoking an e-cig and says the word "cringe" and his lackey say "lol." However, you are not supposed to like them. So, mission accomplished.

The tone is so unique. Idk where this takes place exactly but perhaps Wales? The world map looks like a medieval map complete with crests representing places. One of the characters has a pretty thick accent (portrayed by the writing, it is not voiced), I am guessing Scottish.

The gameplay is pretty simplistic and easy. That is my only fault of the game is that a lot of the battles seem pretty trivial. I literally never died, not a single member of my party KOed or even came close to it. You don't level up by experience, you do so by completing story events and a few side quests. So, this could have easily been tuned to be a tad more challenging. I should mention that I actually don't even like difficult games but there still must be some tension in fights. The game is about 9 hours long if you do everything (which I did) and the bosses can be killed quite quickly until 7 hours in but even then it is because they are damage sponges.

I really enjoyed my time with this game. The pacing was great, the length was great, I felt fully satisfied like I had gone on an epic JRPG journey in a fraction of the time. Would highly recommend if this sounds at all interesting to you.

Have you seen the Truman show? Well that is the inspiration for this game. However beyons that basic premise it distinguishes itself enough to not be dubbed a ripoff. I was interested in the game when I first saw the trailer and it had been on my steam wishlist until the day it came out.

It's a solid experience. It is overall a narrative driven game, there are lots of story beats, and dialogue but never is it too dense in any given part. You'll find yourself back playing the game in short time.
The gameplay starts with simple move the boxes and climb on said boxes "puzzles." So my first impressions were not so good
But the gameplay is splashed with other sequences. Most notably the chase sequences which just require you to time jumps and occasionally quickly move an obstacle. There are some traditional puzzle puzzles too. And there are first person exploration sequences too. Nothing was amazing but good enough to be engaging and not get stale.

However the game is a little too long for what it is. I think it tool me 6 hours? An hour shorter would have been better. The finale was ok but not as great as I was hoping. As I was approaching the ending I thought, "depending on how they land this my overall opinion could remain the same or be elevated." And my opinion remained the same. Good solid game. If you're interested in it you'll find things to like here. If you have to be sold on the game, you can probably skip it.

Oh, I do have to say that while i overall liked the tone sometimes it got a little too close to cringe.

I was hoping that I'd really love this game but everything about it was offputting. I put 6 hours into it, which I think is a fair shake. Let's start with the story and characters- pretty by the numbers. You have to investigate why a bunch of bad things is happening and animals are becoming monsters. Your two main characters seem to be your typical jrpg protagonists. The writing is pretty weird at times. There were a few instances during my play that I thought aloud "who the f*** wrote this?" For example, my two characters leave a house, say 2 sentences, then the owner of the house comes out and says something "oh, what are you guys still doing here?" I left a second ago! Minor gripe but there were a few other similar things.
The gameplay... was not up my alley. In my withering age (34) maybe AJRPGS just don't suit me. Sometimes your party can get completely buttfed in a matter of seconds. The game knows this and offers you a chance to retry the battle which is nice... but I'd rather not get repeatedly buttfed.

What I did like: the weird amount of customization and skills you can delve into. Random things like writing and art, however I don't fully know what benefits they give. I also liked the "private actions," which are entirely skippable bonding scenes between characters that can affect your ending. And finally the game is pretty.

Just as an FYI, I didnt finish the game but I played it for about 4 hours and given the games length I think that is a reasonable percentage of the game to be able to pass judgement on it.

I feel out of step with consensus when it comes to Nintendo games. While the charm was good and Missile is indeed a good boy, I was unimpressed by the puzzles. It is certainly a novel concept but in practice I didn't find it all that interesting to play. It seemed straightforward from what I experienced. Move your soul to the next available object, if you can interact with it then it is a part of the solution. I imagine if I continued and the design improved the game might top out at a 7 (imo) and I decided against using my time to find out.

It pains me to say this game is very average. I really wanted to like this game as a kind of hidden gem. Aesthetically it is very cool. The world building is also well done. There are reoccurring characters that pop up that really make it feel like an adventure. The story is pretty good too. Some people complain that its too talky but if you like RPGs like then this is no big deal.

Where it falters to me is overall gameplay. While the gliding and shooting feels cool when you get the hang of it the level design, enemy design, and boss design is just average.

Definitely a game that I flip flopped between adoring and thinking it's just pretty good. The game starts off slow, is what most people say, but there are far worse instances of starting slow than this. I never felt bothered by the introduction. Once you get out into the world and engaging with the combat it felt a lot of fun. Especially timing your attacks with a button press was a great way to keep me engaged however I feel like the overall gameplay doesn't evolve that much. Which is fine with me. The way this gameplay gets you to be strategic, even in ordinary encounters, is by giving you a countdown of an enemies powerful move and symbols of what type of damages it will take to cancel the move or weaken the power of the move. Really, those two bits of gameplay carry it through to the end. Also, the bosses are fair and never felt like some bullshit. Though, it must be said that none of the bosses were exceptionally tough. For every boss I felt like I could keep my whole party afloat, manage my MP, and slowly whittle down the bosses health bar while never feeling under threat. I do wish a few of the bosses that are supposed to be big deals in the story would make me feel like I was on a Knife's edge but it is what it is.

STORY. It does enough. It sets up some things very well. There is a really cool dynamic between the villain and another character and I wish that was explored more. Maybe after doing all the side quests and getting the hidden ending I would feel differently. I'll youtube it. I am certainly not walking around collecting all those rainbow shells.

Characters. The two main characters are incredibly bland and devoid of any distinguishing personality. I'm going to bet that all of their lines could be switched and no one would be the wiser. Garl...is a writer's pet, which is a term I learned by reading other people's reviews. And by god that does accurately describe Garl. He is ironically too likable so...I ended up not liking him so much. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate him, but I didn't love him as much as the writers clearly wanted me to. There are a few other characters you get later but I don't want to spoil it. Two of them I liked, one was kind of blah. But...the real test. In two years, will I remember any of these character's names? Maybe? Probably a few but not all. Like the story it was good enough to keep me engaged and motivated to see it through but won't have much lasting impact I suspect.

Overall, this game is breezy and fun and its story elements do enough to keep you moving forward.