This is a post Relics of the Old Faith DLC Review.

This game is just barely not perfect in my opinion. There's so many amazing things with the colony sim, character interactions, interesting story, and super fun gameplay, but I felt like it started to taper off near the end. There's just little aspects here and there that, upon review, I can tell I wish were improved.

Before the end of the main story, I felt like I hit the devotion cap kinda fast. Having all of the upgrades to my base made me a little sad as I continued to progress through the rest of the game without really having a reason to change it up or add new structures. It just made me little sad to see my cult all grown up and handling life mostly on their own.

Another banger published by Devolver Digital, this game quickly shot up to be one of my favorites. Most of the progression and building is perfect, the combat is fun and different every time, and the out of combat simulation and minigames are perfect for when I need a break from killing bishops and heretics.

(9-year-old's review, typed by his dad)

(adopts old-sounding voice) My son recently began— Dad, type it.

My son recently began his wonderful journey into his nice, wonderful, bean-covered world, and also there's purple stuff underground, don't go in there. And in the sky, baby islands. Nonononono I said "they be islands".

(Drops fancy voice) And also there's this weird goat, who's name is ROAR-oo. And also there's a boat in the sky. You have to hop on rocks. Bye.

[Dad's Note: When he said "Rauru", he didn't say the word "ROAR", he roared as loud as he could, and then said "oooo".]

Started playing this and have less time in it than I would normally like for a review on this site, but I really was impressed by the launch! I am slightly biased, because I came from MHY's sister game Genshin Impact already a fan of their games, but I also tried Honkai Impact 3rd a while ago because of Genshin and wasn't impressed.

This game is the culmination of what I think both Honkai and Genshin do well, but with the apparentness that Honkai is the series MHY loves the most. They definitely leaned harder into the time sink/grind aspect of Genshin that isn't my favorite, but because the game is so new I'm not sure if it will end up much worse of any better. In HI3, the game was more of a beat 'em up style game with, what felt like to me, very little emphasis on strategy. The story was very good, and the characters had so much love in them. In genshin, there is a lot more emphasis on strategy and team building, and I really like the blend of the two in this turn-based RPGish style. While I will always have a gripe with gacha systems in games, I am trying to refrain from passing judgement since it's so early in the game's life cycle, but it seems to be leaning heavily to the genshin style which... I don't feel positive about at all. Though I don't really have much experience with HI3 like I said before.

Anyways, just kinda dumping my thoughts after getting past all the tutorials and completing some of their dungeons & my fair few of fights. Really love the character design and the humor is actually funny. When I saw the Honkai Star Rail booth at anime expo last year, I didn't expect to ever play it or even enjoy it, so hopefully I will continue to enjoy my experience with it in the future!

my favorite game is Oblivion. I've played AAA games on an office laptop. what i'm trying to say is i don't give a shit about bugs, game performance or graphics. I heard terrible stuff about this game but still decided to give it a try and boy am I glad I did! it was hard getting used to the cringe from johnny silverhand but once i did i enjoyed the game so much i did every single quest there is. loved the scenery and just about everything. just wish you could customize vehicles, missed the hot pink bike fantasy that could have been <3

A very solid adventure. While not as remarkable as the truly great ones, this really shows how you can avoid the easy mistakes that make it fun to play - maybe that's remarkable after all.

Visually, it makes use of semi-realistic, dreamy environments but tweaks it to a pleasant overall look (which in contrast to other games, doesn't scream 'I was made with UE4 defaults' e.g.). Generally, the variety of visuals is remarkable.

As adventures should, it has a variety of different puzzles that also interact with the environment, which is great. Even better, it fits the overall theme of the surroundings and never feels repetitive.

The story portions are not the strongest part, which is expected of games that do not want to have narratives pushed through written or voiced means and instead opt for the more classic way of people communicating with neatly drawn images depicting the story.

Overall, a pleasant surprise and an actually rare example of a good adventure that's mainly based on puzzles.

One of the first games that made me acquainted with this type of adventure and I remember it fondly. The narrative aspect might be the weakest, it's your average indie game that's a metaphor for something tragic. The connection to the actual thalamus is there, but much less overt than in Figment, which has a similar idea. I think the good thing about this game is how consequential it is with using the same features throughout consistently - the blue strands forming balls or bridges that can light up in the night, the day and night or rain and sunny switches, the fog... the environments are varied too, and there's always a good idea to be found, especially considering its age and how even today's games often fail to learn from this.

probably one of the most iconic games of the 2010s in how it blends the most prevalent and compelling gameplay loops of its time ('climb tower, expand map, go to marker, hit bad guys!') into its mystical, ghibli-invoking mythos. you have your cake and eat it, you can play far cry 3 while sort of convincing yourself its high art because its got clouds and rolling hills and torii gates.

its great! there aren't many games that have grabbed me like breath of the wild did, for someone who hops around games and completes very few of them this one had me playing it nonstop for the 50 hours it took for me to complete it. first and foremost it feels great to play, combat is just the right level of difficulty, gliding and climbing is extremely satisfying, and the sense of exploration - that is encouraged very early on through the captured memories quest, and indeed the excellent great plateau area of the game - is one of the game's biggest joys. it understands that the journey you forge for yourself is the most meaningful and enduring aspect for the player, and it's world matches the scale that such a memorable journey needs.

the more i played breath of the wild the less convinced i became this was going to mean anything special to me, though. for all its ghibli aesthetic, the story and general tone lacks the pathos of those films or anything to latch onto emotionally, which great games with much less scale or budget or influence have managed. there's nothing here that i can feel in my core, that sits in my throat or simmers in my brain. the writing is uninspired, the voice acting is dull, and as breath of the wild continues on and the gameplay loop keeps... looping (all these shrines and beasts look awfully similar!) the less often and less strongly i feel those feelings of wonder and excitement that the early game does so well to nourish. i could talk more about my annoyances, like the constant pauses in-game as you pick up items, interact with npcs who talk to slowly etc., but i could forgive things like this 100 times over if it found ways to speak to me emotionally.

i want to demand more of it because idk, i'm entitled and greedy and maybe we should ask more from our art and our media. but ultimately its pretty great. good stuff. i had an awesome time playing assasin's creed: hyrule, most polished game in the series.