fastnoid
2023
I'm just a bug man, pondering my orbs.
I'm not sure how to sum up my experience with this game. It's a short and sweet puzzle game with inventive mechanics and a wonderful aesthetic.
The puzzles are clever and fun which isn't surprising considering the game's pedigree includes the lead designer from Limbo and Inside. Diving in and out of the various orb worlds, how you nest them within each other, and finding unique ways to traverse obstacles starts simply enough but gets totally mind-bendy by the end.
The aesthetics in this game are top notch. The worlds are mechanical yet biological, barren yet full of strange life. The art brings to mind the retro-futuristic sci-fi art of the 60s or 70s and it is coupled with a fantastic soundtrack full of atmospheric, moody synth pieces. It all lends to a sense of mystery that you want to uncover despite not having a single piece of dialogue or text.
Now while I said the puzzles were fun I don't think they were particularly challenging. Up until the very end I found most of the solutions to be almost immediately obvious and it was more a matter of execution than anything else. This is made worse by the fact that the game basically railroads you into solutions by being extremely linear, to the point that there's almost nothing you can do besides interact with whatever is right in front of you. Platforms and doors consistently lock behind you so there is no backtracking or free-roaming exploration of any kind.
When you have all the orbs it gets a little more trippy as you find ways for them all to interact, but again it's more a matter of execution since there are so few things you can interact with in each orb.
Without trying to sound overly harsh I think this is a fun yet trivial puzzle game carried by its stellar atmosphere and aesthetic. The mechanics are very cool but aren't utilized to their full potential except at the very end. It's not going to require the level of problem solving and note taking of a game like Tunic, but that's okay. I'd recommend if you are looking for a puzzle game that engages without being too challenging.
I'm not sure how to sum up my experience with this game. It's a short and sweet puzzle game with inventive mechanics and a wonderful aesthetic.
The puzzles are clever and fun which isn't surprising considering the game's pedigree includes the lead designer from Limbo and Inside. Diving in and out of the various orb worlds, how you nest them within each other, and finding unique ways to traverse obstacles starts simply enough but gets totally mind-bendy by the end.
The aesthetics in this game are top notch. The worlds are mechanical yet biological, barren yet full of strange life. The art brings to mind the retro-futuristic sci-fi art of the 60s or 70s and it is coupled with a fantastic soundtrack full of atmospheric, moody synth pieces. It all lends to a sense of mystery that you want to uncover despite not having a single piece of dialogue or text.
Now while I said the puzzles were fun I don't think they were particularly challenging. Up until the very end I found most of the solutions to be almost immediately obvious and it was more a matter of execution than anything else. This is made worse by the fact that the game basically railroads you into solutions by being extremely linear, to the point that there's almost nothing you can do besides interact with whatever is right in front of you. Platforms and doors consistently lock behind you so there is no backtracking or free-roaming exploration of any kind.
When you have all the orbs it gets a little more trippy as you find ways for them all to interact, but again it's more a matter of execution since there are so few things you can interact with in each orb.
Without trying to sound overly harsh I think this is a fun yet trivial puzzle game carried by its stellar atmosphere and aesthetic. The mechanics are very cool but aren't utilized to their full potential except at the very end. It's not going to require the level of problem solving and note taking of a game like Tunic, but that's okay. I'd recommend if you are looking for a puzzle game that engages without being too challenging.
2023
Jusant is a game that caught me completely by surprise. I hadn't even heard of this game until I was browsing game pass and decided to try it on a whim, and I'm very glad that I did.
Being a fan of Don't Nod's Life is Strange, I kind of expected this game to be another narrative adventure title, but Jusant is something very different. The best comparison I could draw is maybe Journey. The game is a beautiful and mysterious journey through a strange, broken world.
The main gameplay loop revolves around mountain climbing up this massive tower. Along the way you find letters, journal entries and other items that tell a story of a long gone civilization dealing with a slow motion catastrophe. The climbing itself is very satisfying, bringing to mind Grow Home. You control the grips of each hand individually and have to manage your stamina and pitons as you make it from one safe space to the next. The climbing is engaging as you try to find a path up, utilizing the various environmental abilities and effects. You're never just pressing up and moving with no challenge. Assassins Creed climbing this is not.
The writing is entirely contained in the journal entries that you find. The writing itself is good despite this style of storytelling being nothing new.
Visually I found the game quite stunning -- the big chunky textures and fantastic lighting hit a very nice balance between realism and a more stylized presentation. Each new 'biome' had something to marvel at, like the sun-baked landscape of the desert biome or the soft glow mushrooms and plants deep within the tower.
I did run into some technical hiccups while playing. Occasionally my character would briefly become unresponsive, and I had some issues with getting stuck on the geometry. But considering the complex way you traverse the environment I think it's understandable.
Jusant is a fantastic game that I'd highly recommend. The beautiful, relaxed gameplay kept me entertained throughout, and much like Journey I know it's something I will come back to multiple times when I want a chill, low stakes experience.
Being a fan of Don't Nod's Life is Strange, I kind of expected this game to be another narrative adventure title, but Jusant is something very different. The best comparison I could draw is maybe Journey. The game is a beautiful and mysterious journey through a strange, broken world.
The main gameplay loop revolves around mountain climbing up this massive tower. Along the way you find letters, journal entries and other items that tell a story of a long gone civilization dealing with a slow motion catastrophe. The climbing itself is very satisfying, bringing to mind Grow Home. You control the grips of each hand individually and have to manage your stamina and pitons as you make it from one safe space to the next. The climbing is engaging as you try to find a path up, utilizing the various environmental abilities and effects. You're never just pressing up and moving with no challenge. Assassins Creed climbing this is not.
The writing is entirely contained in the journal entries that you find. The writing itself is good despite this style of storytelling being nothing new.
Visually I found the game quite stunning -- the big chunky textures and fantastic lighting hit a very nice balance between realism and a more stylized presentation. Each new 'biome' had something to marvel at, like the sun-baked landscape of the desert biome or the soft glow mushrooms and plants deep within the tower.
I did run into some technical hiccups while playing. Occasionally my character would briefly become unresponsive, and I had some issues with getting stuck on the geometry. But considering the complex way you traverse the environment I think it's understandable.
Jusant is a fantastic game that I'd highly recommend. The beautiful, relaxed gameplay kept me entertained throughout, and much like Journey I know it's something I will come back to multiple times when I want a chill, low stakes experience.
2023
This game has no right being this fun for a free game!
Bloody Hell is essentially a top down twin stick shooter with metroidvania-esque exploration. Anyone who has played something like Enter The Gungeon should feel right at home, minus the roguelike elements. The gameplay feels good -- it's a surprisingly polished experience with good shooting and an interesting upgrade system. Enemies and especially bosses shoot a lot of bullets at you with fun, complex patterns, making your mobility and dodging abilities important as well. I hate to use the term bullet hell for non-shmups but it's not a bad comparison.
The upgrade system is fun -- you get these vials in various shapes and you can activate as many as you can fit in your inventory/upgrade grid. Throughout the game you get additional squares that you can add to the grid to fit more vials which will modify your shots and things like that. This allows for some unique builds based on which vials you choose and where you add your upgrade squares.
The game has a well realized style both in terms of visuals and music. Some of the animations are pretty simple but again, this game is entirely free. If I could offer any criticism it would be that the game doesn't have very much enemy variety, but again, free.
This is easily one of the best free games I've ever seen on Steam and i'd highly recommend it. I came across it on the /r/shmups subreddit after the creator made a post about it, and I'm glad they did. It's only about 3-4 hours long if you explore everything and I think well worth your time.
Bloody Hell is essentially a top down twin stick shooter with metroidvania-esque exploration. Anyone who has played something like Enter The Gungeon should feel right at home, minus the roguelike elements. The gameplay feels good -- it's a surprisingly polished experience with good shooting and an interesting upgrade system. Enemies and especially bosses shoot a lot of bullets at you with fun, complex patterns, making your mobility and dodging abilities important as well. I hate to use the term bullet hell for non-shmups but it's not a bad comparison.
The upgrade system is fun -- you get these vials in various shapes and you can activate as many as you can fit in your inventory/upgrade grid. Throughout the game you get additional squares that you can add to the grid to fit more vials which will modify your shots and things like that. This allows for some unique builds based on which vials you choose and where you add your upgrade squares.
The game has a well realized style both in terms of visuals and music. Some of the animations are pretty simple but again, this game is entirely free. If I could offer any criticism it would be that the game doesn't have very much enemy variety, but again, free.
This is easily one of the best free games I've ever seen on Steam and i'd highly recommend it. I came across it on the /r/shmups subreddit after the creator made a post about it, and I'm glad they did. It's only about 3-4 hours long if you explore everything and I think well worth your time.
2021
I really wanted to like this game. It's beautiful with a very cool faux retro tron presentation that looks SO cool.
Sadly I can't say the same about the rest of it. Despite the short runtime I felt ready to be done with this game fairly quickly. Every area/level boils down to you running around and talking to NPCs who spout a ton of nonsense to you before doing the same boring combat over and over. The combat feels weirdly stiff and your pool of abilities is small. You've basically seen it all fairly early on and there's no good hook to keep you interested.
The game suggests the world is open for exploration but this is definitely not a metroidvania. I got locked out of certain collectibles and the 'good' ending without realizing it because I had the wrong expectations about the game and couldn't return to previous zones.
While the visual and audio presentation is absolutely gorgeous, it does not make up for the ultimate video game problem: it's just boring to play.
Sadly I can't say the same about the rest of it. Despite the short runtime I felt ready to be done with this game fairly quickly. Every area/level boils down to you running around and talking to NPCs who spout a ton of nonsense to you before doing the same boring combat over and over. The combat feels weirdly stiff and your pool of abilities is small. You've basically seen it all fairly early on and there's no good hook to keep you interested.
The game suggests the world is open for exploration but this is definitely not a metroidvania. I got locked out of certain collectibles and the 'good' ending without realizing it because I had the wrong expectations about the game and couldn't return to previous zones.
While the visual and audio presentation is absolutely gorgeous, it does not make up for the ultimate video game problem: it's just boring to play.
A cute and fairly simple roguelite from cygames.
I played Dragalia Lost basically from the day it started to the day it shut down. I was a big fan. I saw this game on sale on Steam and was curious because some of the character and monster designs reminded me a lot of Dragalia, so I went ahead and picked it up.
Despite not playing anything like Dragalia I had a lot of fun with this game. The combat and platforming are tight and it feels really good to execute combos, especially once you get some of the mobility and special attack unlocks. Your attacks center around creatures you collect called lilliputs which are completely random each run. I found it very fun to find a good combo string out of the various creatures in my 'deck' each run. The game is completely random and the variety of creatures and accessories you can get increases as you interact with the meta progression systems, so there's a lot of variety.
The game is fairly easy on normal and I was able to finish it in about 7 hours. Each run takes about an hour or so if you completely clear every room on each floor. There's only a limited number of bosses so once you learn their patterns it's a fairly easy game to complete, although I don't necessarily consider that a problem. It's a nice change of pace from the pain of grinding out high BC runs in Dead Cells or something.
My only real complaint would be the lack of variety in the levels themselves -- every run consists of the same number of levels and the same small-ish pool of bosses and challenge rooms. It would have been cool to see more branching paths or more special rooms / events. The story is also fairly basic but that shouldn't be why you play this game so it doesn't really matter to me.
The game also looks nice and has a style that will feel familiar to players of Dragalia, or perhaps something like Bravely Default even. Noah is a cute protagonist and I had a lot of fun with the game overall. Nice and breezy. I will probably keep playing on the harder end game modes for a bit before retiring this one. I'd recommend this one to anybody looking for a light, casual roguelite.
I played Dragalia Lost basically from the day it started to the day it shut down. I was a big fan. I saw this game on sale on Steam and was curious because some of the character and monster designs reminded me a lot of Dragalia, so I went ahead and picked it up.
Despite not playing anything like Dragalia I had a lot of fun with this game. The combat and platforming are tight and it feels really good to execute combos, especially once you get some of the mobility and special attack unlocks. Your attacks center around creatures you collect called lilliputs which are completely random each run. I found it very fun to find a good combo string out of the various creatures in my 'deck' each run. The game is completely random and the variety of creatures and accessories you can get increases as you interact with the meta progression systems, so there's a lot of variety.
The game is fairly easy on normal and I was able to finish it in about 7 hours. Each run takes about an hour or so if you completely clear every room on each floor. There's only a limited number of bosses so once you learn their patterns it's a fairly easy game to complete, although I don't necessarily consider that a problem. It's a nice change of pace from the pain of grinding out high BC runs in Dead Cells or something.
My only real complaint would be the lack of variety in the levels themselves -- every run consists of the same number of levels and the same small-ish pool of bosses and challenge rooms. It would have been cool to see more branching paths or more special rooms / events. The story is also fairly basic but that shouldn't be why you play this game so it doesn't really matter to me.
The game also looks nice and has a style that will feel familiar to players of Dragalia, or perhaps something like Bravely Default even. Noah is a cute protagonist and I had a lot of fun with the game overall. Nice and breezy. I will probably keep playing on the harder end game modes for a bit before retiring this one. I'd recommend this one to anybody looking for a light, casual roguelite.
2014
Freedom Planet is a fun game with a few issues that were hard for me to overlook.
It is a fun and very competent platformer. If you like classic Sonic games you will feel right at home here. The pixel art is crisp and vibrant with great animations. The overall visual presentation is just fantastic, it really looks like a classic Sega game. Likewise the soundtrack is great.
Mechanically it feels like Sonic but with tighter controls. You have better control over your characters than some of those classic games and movement feels good even when going pretty fast. Each character has unique mechanics that incentivize replaying the game with each of them. I think the developers did a good job of coming up with interesting ways to use your abilities as well.
The combat while fun suffers from multiple issues. There's often way too much enemy spam. Combine that with the laughably short iframes when you get hit and it's almost impossible not to take damage. Some enemies basically just rush straight towards you and there's no way to avoid them. I often felt like I had no choice but to damage boost through areas, and it was often easier just to run past enemies. Bosses also felt inconsistent. Their attack patterns are not well telegraphed, and I felt like I just had to keep dying until I could memorize the patterns.
The story is pretty cliche with mid to bad presentation. The voice acting and writing is very amateurish but you can tell a lot of heart went into making the game. Story is definitely not the draw of this game.
The game is probably not for everyone but even with its issues I enjoyed myself and would be interested in playing the sequel. Despite its flaws it's definitely worth a play if you enjoy 2d platformers and/or Sonic games.
It is a fun and very competent platformer. If you like classic Sonic games you will feel right at home here. The pixel art is crisp and vibrant with great animations. The overall visual presentation is just fantastic, it really looks like a classic Sega game. Likewise the soundtrack is great.
Mechanically it feels like Sonic but with tighter controls. You have better control over your characters than some of those classic games and movement feels good even when going pretty fast. Each character has unique mechanics that incentivize replaying the game with each of them. I think the developers did a good job of coming up with interesting ways to use your abilities as well.
The combat while fun suffers from multiple issues. There's often way too much enemy spam. Combine that with the laughably short iframes when you get hit and it's almost impossible not to take damage. Some enemies basically just rush straight towards you and there's no way to avoid them. I often felt like I had no choice but to damage boost through areas, and it was often easier just to run past enemies. Bosses also felt inconsistent. Their attack patterns are not well telegraphed, and I felt like I just had to keep dying until I could memorize the patterns.
The story is pretty cliche with mid to bad presentation. The voice acting and writing is very amateurish but you can tell a lot of heart went into making the game. Story is definitely not the draw of this game.
The game is probably not for everyone but even with its issues I enjoyed myself and would be interested in playing the sequel. Despite its flaws it's definitely worth a play if you enjoy 2d platformers and/or Sonic games.
Future Redeemed is an incredibly satisfying conclusion for Xenoblade 3, and a powerful and astounding culmination of Takahashi's Xeno work over the past decades.
The new affinity/collection stuff initially worried me but unlike Torna you aren't gated out of story progress by ignoring it, and the rewards are so good that you actually want to explore anyways. I wish this stuff was in the base game. The combat is snappy and much more fast paced. I missed interlinking but the new combo system allowed for a lot of experimentation that I found very satisfying.
The game itself introduces a fully new cast with some familiar faces that I really enjoyed spending time with. The story much like Torna recontextualizes events, characters, and villains in a way that makes me want to replay the base game again. I loved Matthew and A's relationship as well as the rest of the party, and honestly wasn't ready to say goodbye at the end.
And that ending. I'm not sure I can put into words how it made me feel. I saw someone else say 'It's like half a lifetime of patience and curiosity finally being rewarded' and I don't think I could summarize it better. As a long time Xeno fan this bordered on peak fiction and it's not something I've ever experienced in a game before.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the base game, and I'd call it a must play for anyone who is an enjoyer of Blade and Saga in general.
The new affinity/collection stuff initially worried me but unlike Torna you aren't gated out of story progress by ignoring it, and the rewards are so good that you actually want to explore anyways. I wish this stuff was in the base game. The combat is snappy and much more fast paced. I missed interlinking but the new combo system allowed for a lot of experimentation that I found very satisfying.
The game itself introduces a fully new cast with some familiar faces that I really enjoyed spending time with. The story much like Torna recontextualizes events, characters, and villains in a way that makes me want to replay the base game again. I loved Matthew and A's relationship as well as the rest of the party, and honestly wasn't ready to say goodbye at the end.
And that ending. I'm not sure I can put into words how it made me feel. I saw someone else say 'It's like half a lifetime of patience and curiosity finally being rewarded' and I don't think I could summarize it better. As a long time Xeno fan this bordered on peak fiction and it's not something I've ever experienced in a game before.
I'd highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the base game, and I'd call it a must play for anyone who is an enjoyer of Blade and Saga in general.
An amazing achievement by Monolith Soft. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 feels like the achieved potential of every Xenoblade game that’s come before. More technically accessible and streamlined while still containing deep and complex systems. A more mature and well written storyline that avoids some of the somewhat embarrassing fanservice jokes in XBC2, and a cast of characters that are well written and fully realized with emotion and depth. I found the sidequests in this game to be very meaningful with a lot of narrative depth. The core party is fantastic and you really feel their bonds grow through the adventure. The 20+ heroes that join your party are all fully voiced with extended questlines to recruit and then later ascension / loyalty quests. These quest lines while not required to finish the game were one of the highlights for me. They add so much to the world, its characters and how the party interacts with them. Beyond a compelling main quest and side quests, there is a ton of post-game content to enjoy with super bosses and all the usual Xenoblade fare. While I still think the first game has the best story, I think this one is more fun to play overall.
A true achievement for the switch, and the JRPG genre as a whole. In my opinion XBC3 deserved to be placed among the greats of the genre, and I'm sure this will one day be considered a classic.
A true achievement for the switch, and the JRPG genre as a whole. In my opinion XBC3 deserved to be placed among the greats of the genre, and I'm sure this will one day be considered a classic.