August 2023 results

A breath of fresh air after the entire Cold Steel arc with a narrative structure built around clear, unbreakable patterns. Three storylines that develop in parallel and intersect at certain points; practically absent side quests and other content that distracts from the main story; a good pace, taken from the very beginning - due to all this, an adventure for 40-45 hours rushes in one breath and does not even have time to tire.

All additional material has been moved to a separate dungeon, similar to that of Trails in the Sky 3rd, which can be played both during and after the main campaign. A lot of side content was provided, here are additional stories, and mini-games with varying degrees of interest and duration, and challenges, and clearing the dungeon, which is wrapped up here in a separate small storyline. Both the main campaign and side stories do not play a special role in the big picture of things and serve rather as an epilogue to all previous games and a small bridge to the next arc, introducing new characters. The epilogue, by the way, turned out to be satisfying enough to turn a blind eye to moments that are strange even by the standards of the series - the farewell to the beloved characters turned out to be very pleasant.

Just don’t play Trails into Reverie right after Trails of Cold Steel IV, you’ll be in a lot of pain and discomfort. The control scheme has been changed almost completely compared to CS IV, while reassigning everything as it was is a very dreary and difficult process.

VA-11 Hall-A at home.

Very weak visual novel. The features of the fictional setting are practically not used in the stories of the characters (replace all these fantasy creatures with people, and nothing will change at all, except for a couple of exceptions); the barista lacks his own personality, despite actively participating in conversations; background music is too background. The visual is beautiful, though, and it can be completed quickly, at least. Not my kind of game.

Awesome spectacular beat ‘em up that doesn’t make fun of you, with a well thought out exciting combat system focusing on dodges and parries, with fair difficulty and a great sense of your own progression. I really liked both the main campaign and the arenas (a re-creation of the battle with a bunch of Smith agents from The Matrix Reloaded is just rad). A very satisfying game.

I recommend that you start playing on normal (original) difficulty, regardless of your experience in “hard to master” games, and only if it doesn’t work out at all, switch to easy. The easy mode makes the game VERY easy.

Katana ZERO started out as a good game about planning a spectacularly effective cutting out of opponents, ended up as some unbearable stifling, where crowds of enemies with firearms and shields are stupidly thrown at you. But the first half is good, yes. The visuals, music, and dialogues pull the whole game through.

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that captivates you so much that time flies by, and one hour before going to bed at nine in the evening ends at half past three at night. A great story-driven RPG that I strongly advise all fans of the genre to play, as well as those who miss large-scale and expensive RPGs, and those who just passed by and became interested, but not right now. BG3 still has a lot of small bugs of varying degrees of harmfulness that can spoil the impression of the game; the third act especially badly needs additional polishing. But even now it’s still a great RPG, and games like this are sorely lacking right now. Especially the AAA grade. Oh, if Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous had a Baldur’s Gate 3 budget…