When I started to play this game I heard "Do you REALLY want to beat it?". Turned out this game was crappy and buggy port when it was released. To the point it was unplayable.

But it turned out that it's perfectly playable. And sadly it's only good thing I can say about this game. Plot is standard - "go and avenge your friends". Enemies are utterly stupid (to the point that they can STAND ON their dead comrade and not raise alarm. As someone I killed near entrance of building is "outside" their patrol zone). Save system is disastrous - they thought that it's good idea to limit ability to save game anytime (you can do this 2 times on a map + there are few checkpoints along the way), as it will make game more "challenging". But ofc it doesn't work like this, and only force you to repeat the same boring sequence over and over again if you want to play stealthily.

Game gets a little better near the end, after unlocking most of useful abilities that allow you to move more freely around the map and kill enemies more quickly. Tho I wouldn't be surprised if people wouldn't have patience to stick playing long enough to see slightly better side of this production.

I was really looking forward to play this game, but got disappointed in the end. It starts nicely. You are lump of mold and you have to get to the other side of the map. There is no tutorial that'd hold you by hand, so you discover game mechanic more or less on your own. And it's really nice, you have to understand where and when divide your "body" to get to the other part of the map, use gravitation and so on. You collect DNA pieces along the way, but it turns out that they're pure collectibles, you don't get any bonus in-game by doing so. Which is disappointing.

Sounds nice, so why I'm not enthusiastic about it? Around middle of the game it lost it's "logical" aspect and turns into more or less pure action game. You don't have to think what you're supposed to do, you have to time it well. And as this mold lump likes to grow in weird directions I ended up frustrated and rage-quitting. Like you're put in miner cart that does rollercoaster in the mine, and have to stay inside it as tracks will scorch you. Congrats! You're gonna to repeat this boring and annoying sequence from beginning as you fell out of it again. Muahaha. Ugh.

So you may like it if you're into time-sensitive games. But not if you want to focus on logical parts of the game.

2nd part of The Journey Down series. Here you have to escape from city in which you crashed your plane previously. Game is short and easy, you don't have to think much what to do next, as it's clearly visible. Even puzzles in 2nd part of the game are super easy. Main characters are still enjoyable, but background characters are inarticulate. Although story looks promising, and devs will release Chapter 3 with series ending. Will play it at some point when it's gonna end up in bundle of some sort :D

Remake of old Sega Genesis game. Simple and short platformer with good graphic and responsive controls. But I don't see anything that would be worth 4 stars. Levels are short. You pick up stars and gems along the way to unlock next map, and can look for short optional platformer sequences (one per level). Boss fights are short and easy. Same as last boss fight. Story is simple - go and save Minnie from evil witch. But It's perfect game for kids, so if it'd be present for them I'd give it 4 stars. But not for more "experienced" players that like games like Ori and Blind Forest.

I've left biggest game I won at the very ending of this post. I will start from bad things to move on to say why it's 4-star game for me.

I't so terribly grindy. I've tried to run around every corner looking for chests, monoliths and so on. And was only able to obtain achievement for picking up 100 herbs. I'm at 150 / 250 necessary skits and 35 / 40 normins (I lacked only one, but game crashed. And as there is no auto-save I gave up and dump this achievement). Only enemies that give you normal amount of exp are mini-bosses and bosses, as enemies from random encounters gives you at best 80 - 100 exp which is ridiculous low. I wanted to get achievement for leveling up one shop to max level, but still lacked one level albeit selling all my junk from 30h playthrough to only one shop. Not to mention amount of grind you'd have to make to level up one Land Lord to 20th lvl (I've read you need 30k grade to max one Land Lord, and in 1st walkthrough it's good when you will get 20 grade from boss fight. Normal fights gives you ~1 grade. So you'd need to play NG+ with bonuses to be able to max even one Land Lord).

Whole combat system is IMO terrible and I had to force myself to play for >10h to be able to understand it's basics and not get killed at every step by more powerful enemies. There is no normal tutorial, you get all combat-related infos from monoliths and skits. And it's really complex, so game throw walls of text at you. And even I've already beat game I still don't know how to stack certain abilities. Or how to use some combos. It's basically turn-based hack&slash (don't know if it's proper way of naming it, but I can't think of better description). It's based on spamming LMB to attack and holding space to block. Why turn based? Because it's not fluid and it's easy to feel that "my turn ended, it's time for enemy to attack me / interrupt my next attack". It's a little better at the beginning when you don't have team mates and attack on your own. But when you fight in 4-character team against few enemies it's one big mess. Everyone throw flashy spells everywhere and it's hard to see what's going on. There were whole fights where I was just spamming LMB / hold space to renew my power in order to win (there were also fights where enemies weren't hard to kill, but had ridiculous amount of health. So I was eating with one hand and clicking LMB with other. Lol). It's neither tactical or "slashing". But something in between. Plus camera work is bad. In open spaces it's ok, as it can move freely around battlefield and stick behind your back all the time. But in narrow, corridor spaces it's getting stuck and you can see wall for some time instead of your character. So you don't see what you're doing.

For good stuff. Story is interesting even thought it's standard "you're the chosen one, you have to safe world" kind of deal from very beginning. Whole world is complex and it's enjoyable to learn it's history. Your companions are really well written and I got attached to them. They have their personalities, argue or laugh through skits between each other, and have their own stories to share. Another positive thing is that... you can outrun enemies. Even tho game says that it's impossible, and normally I'd be forced to fight all those boring fights (and believe me, enemies are so common as mosquitoes in the summer). I was getting really annoyed by those fights, which drove me as far as not playing for few days. But by some accident I realized that character run slightly faster while moving diagonally. And it's possible to run through whole map avoiding enemies. I think that's reason why I was able to beat it in 30h instead of 50h (average playtime from How Long To Beat). So you have at least 10h "saved" by avoiding fights that aren't giving you normal amount of exp or usable objects.

TL:DR Really nice story with enjoyable characters, bad combat system and camera work. Plus IMO too grindy, but I'm not into grindy games in general

Edit: I forgot to mention that K+M controls are bad. Friend who already beat game with gamepad said that he didn't have so much problems with combat and moving through game menu. And using K+M is far from perfect. I also found name of the combat system => LMBS which translate nicely into Left Mouse Button Spam :D (In reality it's Linear Motion Battle System with modifications unique for Zestiria game)