thedjbest
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TLDR: Stardew valley is one of the most famous indie games for a reason, it is an indie darling that deserves all the praise it gets 10/10
Stardew Valley burst into the scene in 2016 to critical praise, The game was made by a Solo Dev ConcernedApe. It is a farming sim game primarily inspired by the harvest moon franchise and as harvest moon defined farming sims in the 90s Stardew Valley defines farming sims in the modern era.
The game's visuals might not seem groundbreaking but there is a charm to it and you will grow to love it the more you experience, Stardew just has so much love and passion put into it and it reflects as you play.
Gameplay wise Stardew is the quintessential farming and life sim game, you can farm crops to earn money or raise animals or go fishing or even delve into a mine and kill monsters, there are so many ways to play the game and this doesn't even include the interpersonal relationships with the characters you can build because as much of a farming sim this game is also a life sim.
Soundtrack and music wise I really love the music in Stardew Valley, there are 4 seasons in the game and each season has multiple tracks for each season and for locations, there is a reason I was heavily considering buying the cassette for the game's soundtrack.
Stardew Valley is a cozy relaxing game it is the perfect game to play and unwind after a long day at work which fits with the themes of the game of small town folks and community as apposed to dull corporatization. The game is also multiplayer up to 4 players and at the time of writing (12/03/24) Update 1.6 is set to release with more content for the game as well as support for up to 8 players multiplayer. The game also features wonderful mod support with there being a mod for almost anything and some completely overhauling the game and others just to change slight things like character portraits.
It was a bit difficult to write this review because I could not actually think of any negatives to Stardew Valley, I even asked some friends and we couldn't come up with anything. Stardew Valley is genuinely a game I would recommend to anyone. The gameplay is sweet and simple, the soundtrack is wonderful to listen to as you play and the game's price on steam and other platforms is genuinely undervalued with how much I love the game and how many hours I have spent in this game I would gladly have paid more, Overall Stardew Valley is a game you can honestly get lost into and spend hours of the day playing without even noticing 10/10
Stardew Valley burst into the scene in 2016 to critical praise, The game was made by a Solo Dev ConcernedApe. It is a farming sim game primarily inspired by the harvest moon franchise and as harvest moon defined farming sims in the 90s Stardew Valley defines farming sims in the modern era.
The game's visuals might not seem groundbreaking but there is a charm to it and you will grow to love it the more you experience, Stardew just has so much love and passion put into it and it reflects as you play.
Gameplay wise Stardew is the quintessential farming and life sim game, you can farm crops to earn money or raise animals or go fishing or even delve into a mine and kill monsters, there are so many ways to play the game and this doesn't even include the interpersonal relationships with the characters you can build because as much of a farming sim this game is also a life sim.
Soundtrack and music wise I really love the music in Stardew Valley, there are 4 seasons in the game and each season has multiple tracks for each season and for locations, there is a reason I was heavily considering buying the cassette for the game's soundtrack.
Stardew Valley is a cozy relaxing game it is the perfect game to play and unwind after a long day at work which fits with the themes of the game of small town folks and community as apposed to dull corporatization. The game is also multiplayer up to 4 players and at the time of writing (12/03/24) Update 1.6 is set to release with more content for the game as well as support for up to 8 players multiplayer. The game also features wonderful mod support with there being a mod for almost anything and some completely overhauling the game and others just to change slight things like character portraits.
It was a bit difficult to write this review because I could not actually think of any negatives to Stardew Valley, I even asked some friends and we couldn't come up with anything. Stardew Valley is genuinely a game I would recommend to anyone. The gameplay is sweet and simple, the soundtrack is wonderful to listen to as you play and the game's price on steam and other platforms is genuinely undervalued with how much I love the game and how many hours I have spent in this game I would gladly have paid more, Overall Stardew Valley is a game you can honestly get lost into and spend hours of the day playing without even noticing 10/10
TLDR: A fun replayable but smaller metroidvania with a really nice artstyle and theme and multiple endings 7/10
(This review is relatively spoiler free, I will only discuss things that are on the game's steam page or are in the first hour of the gameplay)
Sundered was the second major release by indie game studio Thunder Lotus Games, releasing in 2017 it is a Metroidvania game that has its basis in lovecraftian horror and creatures from that mythos. At the time of review I have completed the game around 3 times due to the multiple endings of the game having achieved everything in the game.
The visuals of the game are phenomenal as expected of a hand drawn game, some of the backgrounds for the game are gorgeous to look at with enemy design also being nice especially for the bosses. The visuals are quintessential to the lovecraftian experience and I like how the devs very much focused on that aspect.
Story- Story wise I can't really discuss much as this is a spoiler free review, I will say that the multiple endings for the game do allow for your actions to form their own story and you can form your own backstory for the protagonist and their actions
Gameplay wise Sundered is simple, you have a jump, normal attack, upward attack, downward attack and a dodge, as you go along you unlock abilities in a classic metroidvania fashion that modify gameplay but your core will always be these mechanics, the abilities you can unlock are used to solve puzzles that were previously inaccessible. The game also does have a souls-like levelling system with enemies killed dropping a currency used to level up from a levelling tree and perks can be found across the game to slightly alter certain parts of gameplay. The levels in the game have certain rooms that are immutable and won't change even if you die but a majority of the game is a procedurally generated dungeon so after each death you have to navigate your way back to where you were and is an interesting way to make sure gameplay isn't too 'samey'. This does fall flat after a while as you view the game less as an ever changing labyrinth trying to kill you and more of detours and yellow tape that prevent you from getting to the area you want. Another mechanic that does this is the horde mechanic where a small tide of enemies will spawn and you have to either deal with them or run which is a valid option, these hordes go from a dangerous instance to more of an annoyance later on and become a good grinding opportunity near the end. The game does features some bosses and minibosses, without spoiling things I would say I liked each of the boss fights but the minibosses were a bit hit or miss with me.
Price wise I would say this game is a nice fit in the $20 range, it does have some replayability and I feel that my money was well spent. To beat the game it will take around 12 hours and 20 to 100% the game (according to how long to beat), the game does also have 4 player local co-op which I have not tried out but it can be remote played with friends so I would say check it out.
Overall its a decent buy at its base price and I would definitely recommend checking it out during a steam sale, gameplay wise it does get a bit stale after a while but the artstyle is fun throughout and along with boss fights keep you continuing 7/10
(This review is relatively spoiler free, I will only discuss things that are on the game's steam page or are in the first hour of the gameplay)
Sundered was the second major release by indie game studio Thunder Lotus Games, releasing in 2017 it is a Metroidvania game that has its basis in lovecraftian horror and creatures from that mythos. At the time of review I have completed the game around 3 times due to the multiple endings of the game having achieved everything in the game.
The visuals of the game are phenomenal as expected of a hand drawn game, some of the backgrounds for the game are gorgeous to look at with enemy design also being nice especially for the bosses. The visuals are quintessential to the lovecraftian experience and I like how the devs very much focused on that aspect.
Story- Story wise I can't really discuss much as this is a spoiler free review, I will say that the multiple endings for the game do allow for your actions to form their own story and you can form your own backstory for the protagonist and their actions
Gameplay wise Sundered is simple, you have a jump, normal attack, upward attack, downward attack and a dodge, as you go along you unlock abilities in a classic metroidvania fashion that modify gameplay but your core will always be these mechanics, the abilities you can unlock are used to solve puzzles that were previously inaccessible. The game also does have a souls-like levelling system with enemies killed dropping a currency used to level up from a levelling tree and perks can be found across the game to slightly alter certain parts of gameplay. The levels in the game have certain rooms that are immutable and won't change even if you die but a majority of the game is a procedurally generated dungeon so after each death you have to navigate your way back to where you were and is an interesting way to make sure gameplay isn't too 'samey'. This does fall flat after a while as you view the game less as an ever changing labyrinth trying to kill you and more of detours and yellow tape that prevent you from getting to the area you want. Another mechanic that does this is the horde mechanic where a small tide of enemies will spawn and you have to either deal with them or run which is a valid option, these hordes go from a dangerous instance to more of an annoyance later on and become a good grinding opportunity near the end. The game does features some bosses and minibosses, without spoiling things I would say I liked each of the boss fights but the minibosses were a bit hit or miss with me.
Price wise I would say this game is a nice fit in the $20 range, it does have some replayability and I feel that my money was well spent. To beat the game it will take around 12 hours and 20 to 100% the game (according to how long to beat), the game does also have 4 player local co-op which I have not tried out but it can be remote played with friends so I would say check it out.
Overall its a decent buy at its base price and I would definitely recommend checking it out during a steam sale, gameplay wise it does get a bit stale after a while but the artstyle is fun throughout and along with boss fights keep you continuing 7/10
TLDR: Trek to Yomi is an homage to olden samurai films. While it has great visuals and atmosphere the gameplay is a bit lacking. 6.7/10
(This review will be a spoiler free discussion of Trek to Yomi with only the basics of gameplay being discussed and some story elements that are available on the game's steam page)
Trek to Yomi is described as a love letter to classic Japanese cinema with the works of Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi being a particular inspiration.
At the time of review I have just completed my second playthrough with my first being on Normal (Bushido) and my second being on hard (Ronin). The game is made up of chapters which aren't overly long instead are relatively on the shorter side, the game overall will take around 5 hours to complete. The game does have multiple endings so there is some replay value and there are a decent amount of achievements (on steam).
The game's visuals are its strongest selling point and are initially what drew me to the game. The black and white cinematic style of the game is ripe with opportunities for screenshots, I only wish you could unsheathe your sword outside of combat for screenshots.
Story- Due to the spoiler free nature of this review I will not go into the story in depth but my experience with the game's story is that I liked it, I felt connected with Hiroki and at the end I was happy with the ending I had gotten. Alongside the story I will say the voice acting is great. I had played with the japanese voice acting to better immerse myself, there is an option for english voice acting but I cannot comment on it.
Gameplay wise Trek to Yomi is quite simplistic, there are 4 main segments of combat; Blocking, Parrying, Sword strikes and ranged combat. Additional segments are added into these main segments later on but these 4 are the core of the gameplay loop. As you progress through the game you can find and unlock new combos for sword strikes to shake up gameplay. While this is nice the in the latter third of the game the combat gets very repetitive and the story is the main reason you continue forward, even in my second playthrough I was continuing only to get the achievements. Parrying and Blocking are available onset but the further you go the better you are with it. Overall the gameplay while seemingly expansive is repetitive in its latter half and not anything to sing about.
Trek to Yomi is a game you play because of the visual style voice acting and the story, the gameplay is just the means to facilitate those and is a means to an end. While I did like the story and voice acting I cannot give it a 7/10 with how the gameplay is and becomes so I will give the game a 6.7/10.
(This review will be a spoiler free discussion of Trek to Yomi with only the basics of gameplay being discussed and some story elements that are available on the game's steam page)
Trek to Yomi is described as a love letter to classic Japanese cinema with the works of Akira Kurosawa and Masaki Kobayashi being a particular inspiration.
At the time of review I have just completed my second playthrough with my first being on Normal (Bushido) and my second being on hard (Ronin). The game is made up of chapters which aren't overly long instead are relatively on the shorter side, the game overall will take around 5 hours to complete. The game does have multiple endings so there is some replay value and there are a decent amount of achievements (on steam).
The game's visuals are its strongest selling point and are initially what drew me to the game. The black and white cinematic style of the game is ripe with opportunities for screenshots, I only wish you could unsheathe your sword outside of combat for screenshots.
Story- Due to the spoiler free nature of this review I will not go into the story in depth but my experience with the game's story is that I liked it, I felt connected with Hiroki and at the end I was happy with the ending I had gotten. Alongside the story I will say the voice acting is great. I had played with the japanese voice acting to better immerse myself, there is an option for english voice acting but I cannot comment on it.
Gameplay wise Trek to Yomi is quite simplistic, there are 4 main segments of combat; Blocking, Parrying, Sword strikes and ranged combat. Additional segments are added into these main segments later on but these 4 are the core of the gameplay loop. As you progress through the game you can find and unlock new combos for sword strikes to shake up gameplay. While this is nice the in the latter third of the game the combat gets very repetitive and the story is the main reason you continue forward, even in my second playthrough I was continuing only to get the achievements. Parrying and Blocking are available onset but the further you go the better you are with it. Overall the gameplay while seemingly expansive is repetitive in its latter half and not anything to sing about.
Trek to Yomi is a game you play because of the visual style voice acting and the story, the gameplay is just the means to facilitate those and is a means to an end. While I did like the story and voice acting I cannot give it a 7/10 with how the gameplay is and becomes so I will give the game a 6.7/10.