Vampire: the Masquerade - Swansong

( PC – Adventure, RPG– 2023 ) + TRAILER

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Playing Vampire: the Masquerade – Swansong felt like a very familiar journey. Why? Because it's based so heavily on studio's previous game, The Council, and a more cynical person might call it precisely that game with the addition of RNG to simulate dice rolls. What put me off from playing Swansong initially was the fact it was confined to Epic Game Store for a good while. Here we are at long last and I have to ask myself... was it worth the wait?

As Camarilla Kindred of Boston are preparing to attend a party meant to announce the alliance between the Prince and another Kindred group, that being Tremere with their Chantry, disaster strikes as Code Red is activated indicating something has gone horribly wrong at the party and early attendees from both parties. It seems to have been a massacre. With Prince Hazel being in the dark she summons her three agents; Ventrue Galeb, Toreador Emem and Malkavian Leysha, to accept their tasks and go figure out just what happened. Needless to say this being Vampire: the Masquerade there's a lot more going under the surface internally and externally. Since game is based on the latest edition of the tabletop roleplaying game there's a new top dog in town who just might throw a wrench as far as vampire politicking goes...

In case you're not familiar with the property at hand and above makes little sense to you there's nothing to worry about. Swansong assumes as much as it drowns you in pages of supplementary lore and backstory.

Game is structured in scenes as it takes place over multiple nights and each of our three characters gets to shine. They're not created equally, however. Needless to say this is entirely subjective but if you ask me this could've been entirely Leysha's story, and I'm not saying that simply because she's a Malkavian who have an additional hook of their own. Game will actually pull a fast one with that just as you think you've figured the character out and you were oh-so-smarter than the writers thought you were. Then there's Galeb who happens to be an Elder with his own baggage and angles. For all intents and purposes he is the protagonist who gets to do the heavy lifting as far as the main story goes even as all three perspectives intertwine in the last third or so. Which lastly leaves us with Emem as she's stuck with odd jobs. One of her scenes can be rendered completely moot as player can decide “nah, I'll do it alone” making you wonder why you've just wasted an hour trying to convince multiple parties to help you on direct instructions. She does get to make a doozy of a story reveal, though.

Speaking of story.

My final impression is it's as flawed as approach to game's characters is. There are definitely few high points, mainly dramatic choices you get to make as games does feature those and I will get into them later, but uneven three-way storytelling has a toll that must be paid. Some scenes are simply more interesting, some drag on for far too long, and towards the end they become so brief as to distract. Keep in mind this IS the kind of game that expects of you to pay attention to documents you come across if you want more than just the bare minimum game will feed you to keep its wonky pacing on schedule. This is at odds with how Swansong approaches investigations and puzzles, something I'll get into as well. Ending especially did not land for me with how it turns out a half-way measure between epilogue text and character resolutions.

You can get decent mileage out of something like Auspex as alternate means to discover clues and information.

On top of your attributes and Disciplines there's inventory with scarce curatives I very rarely used. Stat boosting “gear” even less.

Always time for a classy selfie. Swansong gets to show off neat lighting when it feels like it.

Interactive hot-spots are conveyed clearly to the player thus sidestepping the age old adventure game issue of pixel hunting.

Confrontations are very much the dramatic highlights of the game with no immediately obvious I-WIN buttons.

Game's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness – it is both an adventure game and RPG. I've often lamented how there are very few /true examples of this genre fusion out there and perhaps it's for the better. Which is also weird since I liked The Council and that game did the exact same thing. What's the major difference? Well, you have THREE characters in Swansong. Their Clans are fixed, but this doesn't define them nearly as much as you'd think. Only your Disciplines are fixed and everything else is up to you. When you get experience points to spend, based on what you've managed to do on per-scene basis, your hands are completely free even if you go with one of the starting archetypes since those just determine initial spread. Even with scenes aka levels tailor made for that particular character developers still had to build in redundancies. What if you made Galeb go full Intimidation + Dominate, for example? You won't get stuck since there's a basic progression thread always there no matter what “build” you went with, but it makes the game lend itself to this uncomfortable sensation where you always get the feeling you've built your characters... wrong?

What I mean is you're constantly seeing grayed out options unavailable to you so you KNOW you're missing out on alternate routes or extra experience. Or you're out of Willpower chips, fuel you use to activate skills in conversations or in the field, as well as sporting high Hunger as you try to rely on magical disciplines to force solutions. Even on the best of days if you have a good spread of skills you may find yourself wasting precious resources on a progression route in the scene that leads to the same outcome, but one that simply drains your resources more. Did I forget to mention you only have autosave available and restarting the level is the only way to undo mistakes? Well, I have now. In essence, Swansong ends up being very anxiety-inducing where the RPG half interferes with the adventure game half resulting in missing out on options rather than opening new ones for the player. You have two choices to make: either embrace [hehe] what the game is and go with your gut, or you'll need to have a guide on the side to stray sane. Choice is entirely up to you.

It occurs to me I forgot to mention at all about what the game is actually like to play. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a casual Telltale experience. Yes, it's a seemingly familiar third person adventure with interactive hotspots to alter the world, doing away with pixel hunting of yore, where some have accompanying skill checks. This ties into how you've built your character, see. These same skills are usable in dialog as well. You will spend a decent chunk of Swansong in conversations. To game's credit simply using options tagged with your highest ranked skill or Discipline is not a way to automatically resolve conversation when it matters. Game calls those Confrontations and you have a limited number of misses lest you fail to convince the other party. They're reserved for pivotal moments and sometimes it's not mandatory for you to WIN to progress. Swansong sometimes allows for story to continue from what is seemingly a failure state. Another thing I've noticed is game being pretty heavy on moral decisions you get to make. It will never outright tell you which is the correct one, or even judge you, but I've noticed being shortsighted is not necessarily always in your best interest. One of those calls resulted in the worst level for poor poor Leysha, for example.

Production values diagnosis? Typical case of jank all-around. Can't say I experienced any major issues besides the game freezing in dialog couple of times. Overall level of polish leaves much to be desired and definitely reveals smaller budget. This is fine by me, though.

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

( PS2 – JRPG– 2004 ) + TRAILER

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Years ago I considered myself an avid aficionado of JRPGs, but even then there were series I never got around to. Some simply had the misfortune of non-existent localization and it seems Atelier is one of those despite growing ever prominent since those days. Which makes me jumping into it with Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana quite amusing since it's one of those entry that don't exactly represent the franchise at large.

Our story opens in media res with a brief glimpse of pivotal characters and seemingly our two main characters – Klein and Lita – as they discuss “this was where everything began”. Looking back on it that statement is kinda overblown, but we also get to see their initial meeting in a forest where Lita assumes Klein needs saving from a falcon. Little does she realize he's an Alchemist capable of governing Spirits to do his bidding, and not long after they come across each other again later as she more-or-less ropes him into joining the Galgazits. They're kind of adventurers for hire who take jobs at the local tavern. And with hints of mysterious monsters called Growloons appearing around the region our little adventure is afoot with both Klein and Lita having mysteries to unfold.

Above is a rather weak summary, but that's the best I can do since this is one familiar story if you're experienced with the genre. At the end of the day it's about a villain who has a misguided notion of “saving the world” in his own way. It concerns elusive Alchemists and nature of Mana Spirits in the world... somehow making the matter even worse because what he's attempting has already been tried and it didn't pan out. Our characters also don't really break the mold and what you see is what you get. Klein is that good-meaning, but somewhat dense protagonist who finds his determination, Lita is a hot-blooded brawler with an obvious crush on our main dude, Delsius is a swashbuckling lover with a dark past, etc. Few exceptions notwithstanding, when you delve into those backstories, characters are very straightforward. Playing on archetypes does make this a more lighthearted and adventurous game than one might expect. Sure, there's gravity to events, but threat is never looming over everyone and wacky characters have that localized way of putting a smile on your face.

I'll get into it more later down the road as it pertains to mechanics as well, but I was surprised how much completely skippable sidequests add to the game in terms of character development and fleshing out the world. Oddest thing? It's not about the main cast, but rather store owners you interact with in the game. Blair and Veola respectively stand out with so much to them I was surprised they didn't have a bigger role to play. Seeing their arcs through by putting in effort towards crafting was well worth it. There's also a handful of longer sidequests like ghost Pamela on a quest to find her body or fellow Alchemist Rurona who embarks on multiple quests as you stumble across her.

Something that struck me as strange about Eternal Mana's setup is how it almost gives you this impression it's a directionless, or more open if you will, JRPG. While there are hints of that in some sidequests sprouting up along the way this is still a fairly conventional affair. Game simply happens to have elements you don't exactly expect like bigger focus on crafting as well as Klein's Mana Synthesis which is its own separate thing.

Even peaceful areas are filled with respawning items. Something to keep in mind when you have all the tools and get to explore them fully.

Mana Synthesis is what Alchemists do and Klein can Synthesize in as well as out of combat.

Rather familiar combat setup with the freedom to switch out your characters since you'll have more than three total.

It's staggering how much is packed in sidestories, specifically concerning couple of storekeepers/crafters you can actually ignore for the most part.

While disassembling items for Mana is an option you'll mostly be whacking objects out in the world to procure some for free.

So how does Eternal Mana actually play? Well, Klein travels across cities and dungeons whacking objects that seem suspicious in order to gather Mana from them. Remember, he IS an alchemist and short of directly extracting Mana from items in your inventory this is the go-to method. Different kinds of objects will give you different kinds of mana, color coded for your convenience. Dissolving an icey rock, for example, will net you blue and brown Mana. You then use those resources in this game's standout feature – Mana Synthesis. Separate from crafting it lets you, well, synthesize items in and out of combat. You discover specific formulas over the course of the game, but fill in the gaps between simple healing jar, damage causing comet and shields meant to absorb 50% of incoming damage. You can stock up on the synthesized items beforehand so you can just use them in combat rather than synthesize them on the spot? If Mana cost is the same, what's the difference? Well, now we're getting into combat.

Hate to sing the old tune yet again, but combat also airs on the familiar side. Noticing a pattern yet? You'll have more than three characters throughout the game, but that remains the number of active combatants. You can rotate them in and out with the backup crew although being in the back row does not have any curative effects. And this isn't the kind of game where you're soft-forced into using certain characters for certain enemies. Only Klein has his Synthesis command while everyone uses the good old Attack, Skills, Items, Defend, etc. There are no combined attacks or even outright spells in this turn-based JRPG since characters are driven entirely by skills as far as unique characteristics go. Whenever you level up you get points to assign to said skills eventually leveling THEM up as well. There's a matter of assigning Mana spirits to characters for additional stat/skill growth as well. If you want to min-max your characters you can do it here + three equipment slots they get, but Eternal Mana is on the easy side making it redundant.

It feels jarring to bring up game's Mana Synthesis in a brief synopsis like I did above, but that's because the mechanic itself is very simple. Find artifact blueprints, get enough Mana to synthesize and do so. Where game truly shines is with conventional crafting you have to get couple of storekeepers to do for you. Some items are fixed recipe, some have ingredients you can switch out and others will forever remain a mystery unless you try out combinations on your own. Bomb recipes, for example, will never go beyond basic level unless you play with usable ingredients. This systems is directly fed by all the items you find from enemy drops and out in the world making a great little ecosystem. Crafters involved will gradually reveal more and more recipes as story progresses, their store rank goes and as you craft more items from the available ones. There's a massive blunder with the system, however – Eternal Mana never actually requires from the player to get involved with it. Sure, there are some instances where you have to craft to progress, but this are very obvious items that will be spelled out for you, but choosing not to will feel like you're missing out on a huge feature. Even more so because the game is so easy you'll practically never end up using crafted items and just save them for future crafting. Doubly so because Mana Synthesis will cover all your needs be it healing or damage. Maybe this design decision was driven by accessibility?

In terms of production values one has to keep in mind this came out in 2004 on PS2 when further 3D visuals were becoming all the rage compared to PS1 jumbled polygons. And yet I'll say something perhaps controversial as these visuals were and still are perfectly fine. Pure 2D with higher fidelity better hardware would allow. You can tell no bank was broken, but the aesthetic completely itself. I would raise objection to character artwork as it clearly dates the game more than anything else. Soundtrack. Well, any game that has multiple overworld tracks depending on the region gets my voter. Now that I think on there's unique tracks for every location and I can hear some as I'm typing this out.

Hank: Straightjacket ( PC (Steam) – Adventure – 2023 ) + TRAILER

There really isn't much to say about Hank Straightjacket beyond the fact it's a single-scene P&C adventure you'll finish in couple of minutes. Needless to say it's free and somewhat of a tease for another game, but I don't think I've played anything more straightforward almost making this "review" unnecessary.

You're Hank, having done away with your superhero name, and now a villain from your past has you suspended above some shadow snakes that await you should you fall. Provided he doesn't shoot you first after he's done with his monologue and teasing. Probably the single standout here is the way game handles dialog as it lets you seamlessly inspect objects while the the only other person in the room is going on and on. You can interrupt his train of thoughts to ask about things strung about. Ultimately there's two actions you to complete to finish the game, and that's that. Rewinding is also an option although I'd be hard pressed as to explain why. If anything game needed a fast FORWARD feature to get through the slow, typewriter dialog presentation.

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Draugen ( PC (Steam) – Adventure – 2019 ) + TRAILER

Draugen has me stepping back into the walking sims territory. Hit or miss as far as those go. Does this short 1920s mystery in Norway hold up, though?

Stepping into the shoes of Edward Harden we disembark in a small coastal village of Graavik searching for his missing sister. However, he's something of a stick-in-the-mud kind of character far more interested in his own quest than anything else and Draugen balances that out with his companion Alice, or Lissie which she seems to prefer, as polar opposite to Edward with an extremely bubbly personality. Two complement each other like a glove, but soon find not everything is as it seems in Graavik. In fact, no one appears to be there and our dynamic American pair soon find themselves tackling that particular mystery as well...

Some walking sims attempt to flesh out the world with myriad of items to [pointlessly] examine, some go for rudimentary "puzzles" to solve, and yet all seem to thrive on building up atmosphere. Draugen definitely falls in that third as this Norwegian village in the middle of nowhere has immense atmosphere through sheer desolate landscapes. Howling wind is ever-present and fixed weather effects as well as time of day are at narrative convenience of the story. In fact, only familial aspect is your chatty companion Lisse with even a dedicated button to call out to her. She becomes your link to reality in this harsh place that never really takes any threatening action against the protagonist. Thing is, that's a double-edged sword as Lisse may quickly wear out her welcome provided she doesn't click with you from the beginning with her mannerisms. I expected a twist with this kind of setup, especially as you come across more and more clues as to what happened to both your sister and local bigwig family in who's mansion you take shelter for the visiting week, but when said twist hits it still managed to surprise me. Not that it covers up for what is essentially a very weak and understated story. There's open endings and then there's giving your players blue balls.

Would I recommend Draugen? There's nothing OFFENSIVELY wrong with the game, but almost everything except for the visuals and sound design - landscapes primarily since character models could've been better - seems to falter to some degree. There's little to really DO except walk forward and read some cryptic notes, story does not end in satisfactory fashion for my taste, and I'm not the sure I approve of the state Edward finds himself at the end. Then again going by that teaser in the credits there may be more coming which would flesh out our boy and Lisse further for possible improvements.

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Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two ( PC (Steam) – Adventure – 2017 ) + TRAILER

Released as second to last proper in-house developed Telltale title Minecraft Story Mode - Season Two left me mixed with opinions. Or rather, not with as favorable impression the way the first season did. Why? Mainly because they decided to focus on some questionable aspects I didn't like even back then.

It's some time after the first game and Jesse is in charge of Beacontown as its mayor. What opens as warm reminiscing with your friends, who are now off doing their own thing, leads to some drama as yet others worry your friendship is going to end and eventually leads to Jesse and Petra making a discovery that puts them in contact with what is effectively an omnipotent creator of the Minecraft world they live in - the Admin. Sadly, he takes interest in Jesse and so begin his trials and tribulations to not only protect the people he cares about, but also to re-affirm old friendships and forge new ones.

Provided you know the Telltale formula there isn't much to talk about here. This is technically an adventure game without anything I'd classify as a real puzzle as your solution is never further away than a crafting table at best. Actual meat and potatoes of the game is the dialog system where you make your choices to various illusionary degrees of importance. This is also where I think Season Two has a lot of cameos and callbacks I didn't exactly get seeing as I'm unfamiliar with Minecraft in general. Some VA performances and designs definitely stood out as beyond "regular", though. Other two elements you get to do more of are actually BUILDING things, kind of a big deal in Minecraft itself, and combat of all things. I complained about the lack of former in the last game, but simplistic combat is something I could've done without even though it results in a boss fight or two. You won't really be breaking a sweat here and QTEs are still your primary interaction with anything more involved than initiating a conversation or examining a hotspot in the world.

Story and characters are in-line with what you've come to expect from Telltale. First game, too. I won't go into spoilers, but expect a light drama about friendship, misunderstood antagonist(s) game expects you to start caring about. Season Two is certainly nowhere near as dark as the The Walking Dead, for example, since this is based on Minecraft. While absolutely bearing that signature "we're winging it from episode to episode" Telltale writing I can't help but think the out there nature of the property and generally zanier story/characters help it get away with more. In one episode you're going through the Ice Citadel challenge while in another you're in a maximum security slammer below bedrock where you have to escape from. Episodes were not created equal either as some, second in particular, have a cutscene-heavy approach where I could've sworn entire chapters passed with me barely pressing a button or two.

Would I recommend the game? Personally the genuinely high threat story presents doesn't gel with the source material they're working with. Everyone's also a bit too upbeat considering. Then again that lighthearted approach, funny writing that got a chuckle from me here and there just might be what you're looking for. That's where the game delivers in spades as did the original.

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Stillwater ( PC (Steam) – Visual Novel – 2022 ) + TRAILER

Stillwater is a short Visual Novel about a private investigator Hugo Laurent and his two assistants who find themselves embroiled in a particular case when a panicked young woman enters their office begging for help. You see, it concerns her grandfather who may be in danger having received letters with the latest one containing a VERY threatening sentence. While this story is about our intrepid protagonist(s) accepting to help it's their interactions, Hugo's somber personality and nature of the secret itself that equally vie for the spotlight. Entire affair is strictly on-rails except for one choice you get to make, though. Following is rather subjective, but I think the art style did its job especially with character portraits as no expense was spared on them having myriad of expressions to convey emotions.

You can't beat free and I'd recommend you give this one a try to see if VNs might be your thing. This is certainly the equivalent of dipping your toes.

Assassin's Creed Origins

( PC (Ubisoft Connect) – Action, Adventure – 2017 ) + TRAILER

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It's hard to deny that 2017 was a notable year as it marked a major retooling for the franchise and Assassin's Creed Origins was the outcome. If you ask me I'd say the results were mixed, but I'll get into it proper with my ramblings below based on exactly 80 hours played total.

Breaking the series' convention, Origins goes back in time to Ancient Egypt as we follow Bayek of Siwa and his journey of revenge after a massacre took place in his village, resulted in his son getting killed and certain faction revealed itself just enough for Bayek to follow their trail. He's not in this alone as his wife Aya is pursuing the same goal off-screen, albeit more enveloped in higher level players that can affect all of Egypt and beyond. I'll get to Aya in due time, though. Needless to say this group of proto-Templars is up to no good and it falls on proto-Assassins to take them out with some nuance to who's right and who's wrong. Possibly because neither is really the modern equivalent familiar to us from franchise at large and, as you may have guessed by now, this IS an origin story.

Now we get to my problem with story – I lean more towards not liking it when observed as a whole. Bayek is no big damn hero you might expect from other Assassin's Creed titles. He's a Medjay, protector of the people in service of the true Pharaoh, which goes hand-in-hand with constant pleas for help you'll be getting from people as sidequests. Also has a very clear goal of avenging his son and clearing immediate corruption in the process, but doesn't see the big picture. That's where Aya steps in as game wrestles control away from you and forces her as a playable character for milestone moments which end up being more spectacular and engaging than the mundane “track the target, do some side missions, kill the target” routine. Problem? I don't care for Aya as the protagonist nor can you alter her equipment from a mechanical standpoint. Not to mention you can clearly tell she's getting in just a bit over her head without realizing it. Which left me conflicted because I liked seeing her story beats and even gameplay, reminiscent of the old ways franchise did things with more handcrafted parkour or stealth sections, but she never earned any of it and just ended up disrupting my time with Bayek where I wish some of it went to instead.

Since I'm on narrative and storytelling I might as well cover the characters. Bayek himself fits into this “living mythology” world where Gods have many facets and their praise is in the open wherever you look. As a Medjay he's almost akin to a handyman albeit one where martial prowess and skills of deduction are most valued. Personality-wise our protagonist definitely has layers. Sorrow over his son, at times barely contained rage and sense of humor are all mixed together for a believable character. Which is good since most others aren't that fleshed out or get lost in the shuffle. Historical figures like Cleopatra, Caesar and lesser known ones notwithstanding. Aya comes across as, ironically, more suited to being the protagonist if only she had the screen time. A domineering personality with a long-term plan and clearly pushing Bayek's button to prod him along. I was slightly amused when 60+ hours towards the finale game gets some key people together and expects me to remember who they are when I maybe had twenty minutes tops with them. Less said about intrusive modern day segments and Layla as the new POV the better.

Before I get into gameplay and other subjects I'd like to point absence of traditional Database included in every other game. I suppose it makes sense considering we're working with ancient history and Ubisoft most likely took some liberties, but to offset this they introduced historical tours and readable notes aplenty you come across in the game. I quickly lost interest in both.

Game is a looker both outdoors and indoors.

Inventory paper doll captures Bayek in the exact moment you accessed inventory. Can result in silliness.

I had no idea how much I missed ship combat from the last few games, and sadly it's barely used in Origins.

Cinematics in general, but especially execution ones, have never looked better.

Your eagle Senu takes center stage over the old Eagle Vision even as latter is more useful for finding all those containers.

If I had to easily summarize changes in design of Assassin's Creed Origins compared to earlier entries it would be sacrificing parts of its identity to become a more familiar action RPG. Said genre re-alignment comes from Ubisoft's self-proclamation. However, this also means one thing – Origins has stepped into the arena with acclaimed action RPGs the likes of The Witcher 3, etc. all the while coming across as unprepared.

I suppose the biggest change is a structural one as Origins feels like this “evolved” version of franchise's take on open world where you have greater freedom when it comes to the order in which you tackle assassination targets. Sure, there are level recommendations, but since you have side chores activities and side quests to tackle along the way I was never lagging behind. Now that I think about it I'd regularly over-level every piece of content in the game simply by playing all the stuff leading to it. I'd loudly argue Origins has too many zones for its rate of progression and had I not intentionally wanted to complete everything I could've easily skipped about half of them. Which is a big problem since that loop of clearing out maps is the bulk of what you'll be doing. Essentially, the more you build your game around the idea of only following the critical path the more redundant everything else begins to feel, doubly so when your game is too big for its own good, TRIPLE so when you have a trusty eagle that can just scout everything for you pinpointing it on the compass. Just keep in mind you're still unlocking chests and climbing towers to uncover the map no matter how much they've tried to cover it up. Not to mention game runs headlong into dumbing down its signature parkour system and then further aggravates the matter by mostly taking place in deserts, swamps and shanty villages. Occasionally sliding down a pyramid doesn't redeem general absence of places to clamber across.

Chief reason Ubisoft likely branded the game as an action RPG is because it goes well beyond what series did when it came to power progression. Not only is there an extensive gear system included, but Bayek's advancement also comes in the form of unlockable abilities to choose from as you level up. Better invest in automatic looting whenever you kill enemies or you'll be pressing that loot button a whole lot since there's absolute loot bonanza going on. You know the drill – various weapon types with all the usual rarity color coding to go along. With seven weapon types, ranging from fast dual swords to heavy maces, you get some genuine variety to work with. Add to that four bow types with their own gimmick, on top of a shield you always carry, and there's a decent selection to mix and match from. Much to my surprise Origins doesn't go too heavy on stats and is more about getting those perks included on specific gear pieces. As there is no way to reclaim sold or salvaged equipment I'd suggest keeping all legendary stuff as you can upgrade it and potentially see it as more useful later down the road. Alas, armor itself is solely cosmetic as it brings no bonuses to the table. As is your trusty steed, be it camel or horse. Although...

What do you actually use all that for? Why, for combat, of course.

Combat is the second major system that got overhauled for Origins. Now you have two bows/weapons equipped and can switch between them freely, plus the addition of a ranged tool on top of it. Developers have decided to go with rather popular Souls-like system by binding offensive/defensive functionality to trigger buttons, but retaining lack of challenge at its core. You'll learn to be vary of enemies based on their level more than anything else since that little number is the biggest factor in whether you can instantly stealth kill them or if you have to go through the rigors of dull combat. Enemies can charge their attacks, but so can you now to break through their defensive posture. It's a decent change to an old system that really needed more dangerous and engaging enemies to shine. Sadly, aside from the occasional aggressive dual wielder easily handled with a smoke bomb you won't find any of it here. Besides elephant bosses.

Duat is one of the Afterlife realms you get to visit in the DLC for a change of locale.

What else can I talk about.... ah yes, the DLC. There are two worthwhile ones and I did get 15-ish hours out of them. I'll start with The Hidden Ones as it picks up some time following the end of the main story and the Roman threat has not gone away. In fact their power endures in Sinai where the eponymous group now operates in secret by aiding the local resistance leader. Sadly, not everything is as clear cut as Bayek embraces his new role. The Hidden Ones is largely more of the same. If you liked taking out underling targets so far think of this as couple of small zones providing what you want. Second notable DLC is also far grander in both execution and design as The Curse of the Pharaohs takes Bayek to Thebes at an even later date. I think this is either some serious hallucination material or just non-canonical, but it involves rising mummies, visiting Egyptian afterlives and chasing down a familiar artifact to all the fans of the first game. This is the REALLY chunky addition to the game as it not only adds way more areas to explore, but also raises the level cap and allows further equipment upgrades via new supernatural material. Out of the two I would heavily recommend the latter although it will heavily depend on your tolerance for the base formula. Personal advice is to do the story and explore along the way organically so as to avoid retreading the same areas.

Lastly I get to wax poetic about the production values because they really are up there. An open world game from 2017 should not look this good, but I believe Ubisoft had already shown off their capabilities with Unity... so much so that game required extensive support to run decently. Visuals were always there and they remain there. With Origins we've shifted from dense urban locales to sweeping desert dunes, colossal temples and murky swamps festering with crocodiles. Let's not even talk about Greek and Egyptian cultural differences present everywhere as they blend together. Soundtrack might not be everyone's cup of tea, though. Not to say it doesn't have memorable or bombastic tracks because it dies, but where it truly shines are subdued environmental pieces building atmosphere as you trek in the shadow of the pyramid and see something shimmering in the distance...

PIGBLUE ( PC (Steam) – Adventure – 2023 ) + TRAILER

Text-based adventures tend to not invest heavily in visuals which makes Pigblue stand out as it uses both written word and pixel art in tandem to carry its story. Developer does put a disclaimer in the opening, but be forewarned this takes an extremely dark turn.

Our protagonist seems to be dazed as he drives aimlessly in the middle of the night. He's struggling to piece together who he is when voice on the radio seems to speak to him directly with a vengeance. That is, until his car runs out of gas and, well, stops dead smack in the forest. Half-remembering it's been a while since he last saw a gas station he has no idea what to do next, but walk until coming across a boy in the middle of the road. Not long after silhouette of a motel appears and he stops for the night...

Like I said in the opening accompanying pixel art does wonders for already evocative writing, some misspellings aside as it acts as bread and butter of the experience, with both working tirelessly to establish a sinister outlandish atmosphere. Story intentionally presents the protagonist's struggle as one between reality and delusions where the player is constantly left wondering precisely what is going on. Nightmares seem to creep into memories. Subjective narrative aspects aside I was honestly surprised there WERE actual puzzles in a short game like Pigblue since modern adventures/VNs/etc tend to forsake those as relics of the past. I even got stuck on one for good fifteen minutes because I'm a dumb-dumb who can't read or recognize musical notes. Don't expect the age old "use cat to get a mustache" variety here so much as inferring information by carefully reading couple of notes and paying attention to your surroundings.

This is pretty heavy psychological experience and sudden ending revelation might be too much if you're squeamish. Game does give you recourse to answer in kind, though. Major compliments for what is a free, one-man project.

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Regenesis ( PC (Steam) – TRPG – 2023 ) + TRAILER

Before judging it too harshly one should keep in mind Regenesis is not only free, but also a student affair. I think both are on display with potential for improvement in future projects.

Earth has fallen on hard times with apocalyptic ecological event driving humanity underground to survive the onslaught of mutated plant life, and other dangers. Our party of three survivors makes subway their home base with support team in tow backing their missions through freshly crafted weapons and bought supplies. I've told you the story in about as many words as the game does and you can forget lore tidbits or fancy descriptions to glean meaning from. Narrative isn't really Regenesis' strong suit, but nor is it a requirement regardless.

What is on display is a rather basic SRPG backed by the closest equivalent to a system seen in Grandia aka there's a timeline at the bottom where both your characters' as well as enemies' activity is shown on. When icons move from left to their rightmost mark characters input and activate their commands. Unlike in the aforementioned JRPG there's no actively delaying enemies by attacking them. What you see is what you get, and without stats or anything that would let you see why someone is acting faster than everyone else you're left to experiment. Which wouldn't be a problem if all combat scenarios weren't boss battles that get tweaked a bit for later levels past the first two. What I'm not-so-subtly saying here is you'll see everything Regenesis has to offer in under an hour and you'll wonder why it even has a crafting system before realizing character abilities are tied to their weapon as each subsequent upgrade switches out one of the four available ones. This leaves your characters with options to move, use ability, use item and, well, wait as you tick down available number of points they get to spend per-turn. Circumventing numerical advantage you have on bosses by giving them cheap movement so they can get to you from anywhere on the map was not my idea of fun, though. Game does have some neat features like Events happening during battles that can change the tide, like wind blowing and sliding everyone by a single tile. Which can potentially knock characters into obstacles and stun them for a while.

What do you have at the end of the day? A very short game that can be completed in under an hour if you just want 100% achievements, but under the hood it's an SRPG that needs way more meat on its bones compared to what it has. If you want difficulty I'd say Regenesis airs on the easy side.

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Green Reaper ( PC (Steam) – Action, Platformer – 2023 ) + TRAILER

Having played Green Reaper impression I was left with was one of textbook action platformer, and subsequently discovering it's a student project went hand-in-hand with that newfound knowledge. Not to say that's a slight against the game, though.

As we're slowly drip fed while playing the greenhouse is danger and Goddess invokes Rubin's help to save them all. Needless to say, that's our literal rose-haired protagonist's cue to take the fight to evil purple fungoids investing the place. As you vanquish them you turn twisted landscape into peaceful greens yet again.

What I said in the opening holds true - you have your somewhat floaty movement with basic light + special attack combat, accompanied by customary dodge roll. It's all well-trodden and instantly familiar with any tacked on "progression" systems games are so fond of including these days. There's really no need to pad out a fifteen minute game with such contrivances. What you see is what you get. Only three enemy types are fitting inclusion as well with standout being they'll telegraph every attack they make which took me a second to get accustomed. As a result you're paying less attention to wind up animations, big guys at the end notwithstanding, and more at exclamation marks popping over their head. I'd say simple combat stakes claim to about 3/4 quarters of Green Reaper with the remaining quarter belonging to rudimentary platforming. Landing on rose flows to propel yourself up high is about as complex as it gets. Sadly, there's no narrative big bead to handle at the finale, but rather a gauntlet of enemies to slash through with your scythe.

All of the above might come across as somewhat negatively tinted and yet that's not my intention. This is simply a case of "what you see is what you get" at its most distilled. Game did get my GPU fans spinning something fierce beyond what these visuals should be capable of which might be attributed to Unity engine powering it as I have experienced it before.

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Out for Blood ( PC (Steam) – CYOA – 2021 ) + TRAILER

I haven't played many CYOAs as far as video games go, but I am familiar with the concept from various books tackling the very thing over the decades. Backed by Vampire: the Masquerade's license, which seems to have thrived insofar as CYOA titles go, Out for Blood has to be intentionally miscategorized. This is no Vampire game, but rather a Hunter one. Something to keep in mind if you're going into this with certain power fantasies... which may yet be realized.

Our story takes place in Jericho Heights, town with under 20 000 residents as our [INSERT NAME HERE] protagonist returns having received the news that his grandfather had died, and left you a store as inheritance. Cutting a long story short you'll rekindle old friendships, discover that something has subtly gone wrong in this quaint town, and depending on what kind of a character you build will have impact on HOW you go about it. Since this is exclusively a text-centric affair, baring some pieces of art for characters and chapter titles, it means author's imagination and responsiveness to your choices are only limited by the word count. And yes, there are certainly limits here as you're not working within a sandbox scenario aka there's a fixed mystery to unravel, but what tidbits you discover will depend on your choices/type of character. To put things into perspective - there are TWELVE endings to a game that lacks manual saving and only one autosave slot. Expect replays aplenty if you want to discover all the hidden angles or hunt for achievements. Twice was enough for me and even then some parts I didn't even get a whiff of with my second character.

Something I was extremely pleased to see was implementation of a proper tabletop character sheet you not only get to make full use of during character creation, but also add to as you accumulate experience. Needless to say you will be using said Attributes, Skills and Backgrounds while playing the game although I wish it was more transparent in how exactly they're being employed. You see what's used in a specific action, such as STR + Combat, but you have no idea what chance you actually have at succeeding as you cannot see what you're rolling against. In essence you'll want to keep an eye on your character sheet and concept you're going with in mind before committing to choices. There's also a matter of ever-fluctuating relationship points you have with characters, both allies and antagonists, which come into play at certain points. As well as Paths your character can adhere to. And no, for Vampire: the Masquerade aficionados out there these are not the Paths you're thinking about. Out for Blood is hellbent on being a foremost narrative experience so you have to enable the Storyteller Mode just to see actual numerical values shift or you'd have no way to know that, for example, bringing up a certain topic increases Salem's stress. Not showing the player how it all works under the hood probably culminates in endings themselves. Some obvious factors like deaths or major choices aside, they end up being a combination of exactly those things game has decided to keep hidden from you.

So, would I recommend this one? CYOA holds limited appeal considering games are a visual medium, but I enjoyed the writing quite a bit. I was honestly surprised how much unique content my smooth talking faith-based character had. In comparison my second run with a pugilist marksman landed me a more straightforward deal, although I also fared better in situations I had to carefully tread in diplomatically before. There's a beautiful pin drop moment when realization hits the group and protagonist goes something along the lines of "they all have to die", and I was inclined to agree. Your mileage may vary.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

( Nintendo Switch – JRPG – 2020 ) + TRAILER

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Before I tackle Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition proper I should point out this is a remaster, albeit one that remains faithful to the original game. Despite some character art being debated fiercely in the community regarding which style reigns supreme. I've played some of the original all the way back when player outcry got it translated via Operation Rainfall initiative, but this got me finishing it at long last.

In ancient times two titans fought – Bionis and Mechonis – until they came to a standstill after wounding each other and just stopped surrounded by endless sea. Over the course of ages life sprang and evolved all over these colossal beings where parts of their bodies form ecosystem and regions unto themselves. Sadly, it seems animosities of founding fathers carried onto their descendants as biological and mechanical life respectively continued the conflict. A year ago hero Dunban and his company stopped the final Mechon assault in Sword Valley, but paid a heavy price for that seemingly shaky stalemate. While he's recuperating under his sister's care in far removed Colony 9, counted among the few Homs bastions still left, our protagonist Shulk gets caught up in the mystery of the sword Monado that allowed Dunban to become the hero, and it also seems Mechons have further designs of their own. Perhaps even to nullify their weakness to Monado itself...

I generally hold the opinion that JRPGs tend to not have very thought out or engaging stories as much as they have emotionally packed moments and sympathetic characters easy to be entertained by, but with Xenoblade Chronicles I'd say it's more about the scale of the story itself. On top of the positives I've touched upon, that is. This is very much your friendship saving the day and fighting God setup where both cornerstones are well executed. It also has the added benefit of a fresh setting where you don't know what to expect around the corner even accounting for “kitchen sink fantasy” genre is known for. I would still argue game would've benefited had it stuck to straightforward revenge angle it held onto for a while before stakes went up exponentially. Xenoblade Chronicles would've worked just fine even if it was entirely a Homs-centric story and Shulk's visions paving the way.

Characters tend to wear personality and agendas on their sleeves. Shulk may be somewhat atypical because he fancies himself a researcher of Monado and scientist, but when push comes to shove he's your fiery protagonist, while his best buddy and walking meme extraordinaire Reyn is blunt a protector always there for his friends both mechanically and narratively. There are more who join your party like Dunban and his sister Fiora, sniper/healer Sharla, etc. but I'm saddened to report the non-Homs characters end up being little more than archetypes game forgets about the moment it becomes convenient. For example, Melia is an overly mature and reserved type pivotal to gaining High Entia support and even throws more than few hints she has feelings for Shulk, but both end up swept under the rug. Which is still better than Heropon Riki who joins the party to flee from debts in his village only to become no more than comedic relief. These points will be (overly)corrected in the DLC I'll talk about later, though. If anything it's the spoilerific antagonists who end being the mysterious ones you're constantly second guessing, but if you ask me game takes too long to reach the point when all the cards are on the table. Good thing is key characters have existing ties from before events of the game start so you never get the impression it's a pack of strangers herded together by plot convenience. They HAVE a very valid reason to do what they're doing, and defined characters are instrumental in carrying that notion across which they absolutely succeed at.

Something irregular about Xenoblade Chronicles is the manner in which I found it to be rather fresh when it comes to game design. Familiar while also taking some modern gaming lessons to heart with Qualify of Life features and few decisions purposefully going against established JRPG norms. Essentially, there's more to talk about here than you'd think at a glance.

Audio cues from characters and smart UI guidance make the combat setup work better than you'd think.

Unnecessary in the grand scheme of things, completing area collectibles can net decent rewards if you ignore gem crafting.

When you get tired of expansive landscapes dotted with side quests game throws you a curve-ball.

Until actually playing the DE I underestimated just how important it is to have cosmetic slots overriding actual gear.

And so the very first case for psychotherapy was made on Bionis.

Biggest departure is how the game handles zones. Not adhering to worn out and frankly annoying modern notion of “open world” Xenoblade Chronicles opts instead for straight up massive areas that perplexed everyone how the damn thing even ran back on the old Wii. Less impressive today, but still noteworthy due to how impressive they are visually and custom-made for taking vista screenshots. Locales vary dramatically with each being carefully handcrafted and ranging from vast plains to neon foundries. Peppered with landmarks you can fast travel to, secret locations to discover, and extremely handy map as well as mini-map ensure you'll never feel lost or inconvenienced after you've explored it already. Alas, there is no faster form of travel to acquire besides a faster movement gem you can equip so you better get used to jogging around. You'll need it to avoid the insanely high level enemies game likes to sprinkle here and there either to make certain parts of lower level zones remain off limits, targets for future quests or just to keep you on your toes. And speaking of which...

Combat is something of an odd, cooldown-based take on real-time eschewing notions of separate battle screens. There's auto attack system for regular attacks which characters perform as long as they're within range of the enemy, but actual bread and butter are their Battle Arts which you also get to upgrade and assign to a limited number of “hotbar” slots. Only Shulk has enough slots for all the Arts which means you'll be picking and choosing what everyone else has access to in a fight. While characters broadly fit into that familiar trinity role as long as you have healing and reliable way to induce Break → Topple → Daze upon enemies you'll be fine. There's no resource management here other than cooldown time and characters automatically heal between battles. Additional mechanics come into play like Tension affecting overall performance in battle, Party Gauge which lets you string up Chain Attacks, and Talent Bar for each character's unique gimmick. Moving parts aplenty when you read about them like so, but Xenoblade Chronicles actually not only has effective pop-up tutorials you can always reference, but will also gradually introduce new features to the player. Major props.

While I'm on the subject of putting a spin on something familiar there's the matter of Shulk's visions. They're not just a plot device in the background, but rather an active element of the game. Enemy is about to use a powerful attack? Shulk gets a combat vision and timer starts that lets you counter said move. You come across unrelated collectibles in the world? Shulk gets a vision that someone in near future might require precisely that for their quest and you now know not to trade it. Naturally, it plays a major role in the story on top of that. Since equipment actually shows up on characters, another uncommon feature for JRPGs, developers also kept that in mind as flashbacks remember what characters wore at the time.

Finally we reach that truly divisive feature of Xenoblade Chronicles you'll love or hate – quests. Gorgeous zones require content and fighting enemies/collecting materials is what you'll be doing with missions giving you context. Due to the Affinity system in the game you have to work through annoying chores and talk to NPCs with their own time-dependent schedules to build the relationship network, raise your rating for that particular social circle and unlock more missions as you go along. There are tidbits of story here and even some ongoing arcs, but for the most part they're easy experience as just killing enemies under your level has diminishing returns. You may be tempted to skip seemingly ENDLESS number of these whenever you reach new areas, some clearly just there as padding, and it would seem natural because you will end up over-leveled for the main story on top of gear rewards being something you'll naturally come across anyway. However. There is a drop-off point towards the end where you lose easy sources of experience unless you fancy grinding, which game expects you to do to some degree as there are quests with higher levels involved than even the final boss. There is payoff to doing quests if you intend to complete the game through and through as much as they might tempt you to quit the game altogether.

Even if you're returning to a game you already finished all those years ago there's Future Connected aka epilogue story included in Definitive Edition. It took me under ten hours to finish and your mileage will most definitely vary. My biggest problem with it, other than reworking and reusing existing material, is how unstable tonally it comes across. You have somber Melia dealing with her people losing their capital with a new danger driving them out... and then that's contrasted with two Nopon siblings, Nene and Kino, who just cannot stop quipping and acting cutesy. If you liked Nopon to begin with this is amazing, but mechanically they're just differently flavored Reyn and Sharla. Chain Attacks are also gone replaced with even more Nopons in the form of prospector brigade lending you their aid after you've found them all. It's a lightweight story overall providing closure to the High Entia arc if you really wanted one, and giving Melia some attention after being sidelined. I do wish other characters were featured as well.

Kino feeling it too!

As I'm usually want to I left the production aspect for last.

Putting some model debates aside I think it's impossible to deny that Definitive Edition looks incredible as so many assets were reworked while retaining the original appeal. Let's be honest, character faces taking the anime route seems to be a big point of contention while for me it was more about different level of expressiveness. It's different, but just as good. Voice acting is another high point of contention even more so than your customary English dub vs Japanese original. This time we have the Brits voicing characters and it ends up being one of those aspects that define the entire experience, let alone all the meme community got out of it. Plenty of voice acting to go around in the game as well, too.

Soundtrack hits all the familiar notes you'd expect, but even more so than epic orchestrations or fist pumping action it's the atmospheric zone tracks that left the biggest impression on me. Given there's a day cycle in the game each zone has a respective daytime and nighttime track which accompanies changing of enemies and mission availability. If you actually listen to game audio it becomes second nature to know where you are simply by audio.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising

( PC – Action, Adventure – 2022 ) + TRAILER

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A companion piece for the upcoming Hundred Heroes, Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is a spin-off title meant to wet the appetite for the setting and characters more than anything mechanical. I hesitate to call it a Metroidvania because it doesn't exactly delve deeply into “use your abilities to access previously locked areas” as fundamental building block. Is the Giant Lens worth looking for, though?

We step into the shoes of the intrepid Scavenger CJ embarking on a quest from her home town with a simple goal in mind – don't return until you've found a treasure more impressive than the one your father brought home. So CJ comes to New Nevaeh, village with a peculiar situation where locals are allowing adventurers, mercenaries, and the like to take their chances with dangerous nearby locales like the Great Forest... as long as they pay for the license and taxes, as enforced by Acting Major Isha. It doesn't take long for our heroine to realize she doesn't have the money to outright buy the license so she settles for a stamp system where every assistance to locals means she's one step closer to getting approved. Along the way she comes across beastfolk called Garoo as they go after mysterious rumors of a Giant Lens, more potent version of a device letting people cast magic. Perhaps there is more to discover in this waylaid village, though.

I'll cut the usual preamble short and outright tell you story isn't Rising's strong suit. Yes, it eventually goes beyond just a treasure hunt as personal stakes get involved, certain developments hint at a bigger picture involving the League of Nations and their rival Galdean Empire, but I think where the most personality stems from are characters. It's kinda jarring to see couple of definitive sideshows or glorified shopkeeps get a dedicated “whoa, this character matters” info screen, but you have to keep in mind this is laying down the groundwork for the upcoming Hundred Heroes set to be a JRPG taking after its spiritual predecessor – Suikoden.

Even though you don't unlock all three characters at once I'd say it's not really a spoiler since they're plastered over promo art. CJ is your GOTTA GO FAST Scavenger with an easy going personality primarily driven by need to find treasure and willingness to help with people's small problems out of pure goodness. In comparison our mercenary Garoo is probably the most complex one as he slowly reveals there's more to him than “gruff merc barely tolerating everyone's nonsense” given it's him of all people who diffuses tense situations. And lastly, Isha. Acting Major of the village capable of casting magic without a Lens, making her an oddity, she goes from being an aloof bureaucratic obstacle to discovering her own past and working for the benefit of New Nevaeh even as it sometimes puts her at odds with village elders.

Beyond those three playable characters there's also named villagers, some with portraits marking them as important, who bring their own antics to play as you interact with their missions. I'll get into those below, but as far as fluff goes it was nice to see most of these background characters get some semblance of personality and even tiny stories of their own. Like the on-going gambling matter between two characters, or an old geezer constantly challenging CJ to see who can catch higher quality fish, etc. It's the small touches that make the game come to life provided you care about such things.

Adventurer problems 101.

In case having portraits was not enough important characters also get some additional info.

Combat scenarios gradually introduce complexity with bosses taking the spotlight.

Like I hinted at in the opening this is an action adventure game with some rudimentary platforming. There are no special abilities to buy in traditional sense, though. Our trio's advancement primarily comes from upgrading gear, conferring both statistical upgrades and few ability-equivalents like longer float time, double jump, improved dashing, etc. Why I'd say there's only traces of Metroidvania design here is because those abilities aren't really vital for progression. In fact, your way is barred only by obstacles in the form of elemental pillars cordoning sections of levels until you've found the appropriate Rune and slotted it to proceed forward. Naturally, this is mandated by the plot as you trek to five distinct locales in linear fashion. And believe me, you will be revisiting them often from the central hub of New Nevaeh.

CJ, Garoo and Isha each bring their own style of gameplay; fast-attacker, heavy tank and spellcaster, thus covering all the archetype bases. In practice you only need Garoo to bust some rock walls... and parry.. and deflect projectiles back at enemies. I'm sure you'll find your own favorite, but CJ's mad criticals as she hits enemies with her pickaxes are hard to dislike. Isha is your ranged attacker with charged ability AND projectiles changing type depending on slotted Rune. Rising adheres to an interesting control scheme where each character is keyed to one button effectively making switching between a breeze. On the flipside there's little nuance here to speak of beyond switching characters mid-attack for a combo chain. DMC this is not.

And now for the negatives because they could impact your reception of the game since they're so instrumental to its structure.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is Chores: the Game. I refuse to call them quests or missions because, in the attempt to get those aforementioned stamps, villagers will send you on your merry way to do their bidding. In most cases this means revising the same locations over and over and over again to gather resources or kill something. Just to give you context for my complaining: keeping in mind some main scenario objectives will also net you a stamp, there's a total of 160 stamps to get your hands on. Let me just say you'll be praying for the uninspired “character X wants you to talk to character Y” because at least that won't take you to the Great Forest for the hundredth time. I'm not even taking into account all the post-game chores game showers you with because you clearly wanted more recycled content.

In essence the real issue is that Rising is simply too long for how little [unique] content it has to offer. Looking at my total playtime having finished the game, completed the adventurer's card with all the stamps, and beaten the bosses on hard mode, I'd say probably good five hours could be shaved off if devs chose depth over breadth. However, they couldn't because there's a village development aspect at work aka various shopkeepers open up stores and have missions taking you out into the world to expand those stores, hence offering improved stock. It's a cycle that makes sense in a vacuum, but not in an inherently short title like Rising should be. Did we really need a dedicated store to get new mining/fishing/hunting tools, or a store that just sells better backpacks to increase your carry capacity when dungeon delving, or an Inn that lets you take a bath for stat bonuses? That's really up to you, but I have a feeling this was also a test run for Hundred Heroes like some other features in the game.

Lets end this with a production overview. Which is good because we're looking at another 2D HD project subscribing to an art style that's become all the rage recently. Combining 2D character sprites with 3D levels. I don't mind it as Rising doesn't revel in its pixels, but rather has pretty spruced up sprites and background assets edging more into PS2 era of geometry. If you ask me it looks better in motion with snow levels in particular being standouts. Due to how the game re-uses areas you'll sadly be subjected to same few tracks constantly further hampering an already limited soundtrack. Notable tunes end up being used almost too sparingly for my taste.

Blacksad

( PC – Adventure – 2019 ) + TRAILER

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I have prior familiarity with Blacksad graphic novels, and game generally work just fine on its own. It is considered non-canonical even though it takes place between Volume 2 and 3, seeing the way Blacksad reminisces about a certain actress, for example. That's besides the point as we have a somewhat troubled P&C adventure game to review here so let's get to it.

Taken at face value Blacksad is precisely what it appears to be – a detective story featuring a world set during the 1950's very much like own, except populated by anthropomorphic animals of all varieties where humans would normally be. Our titular character is as black cat and fits that Noir private investigator presentation as accurately as they come. After dealing with the fallout of an adultery gone awry, Blacksad's case proper begins as he's asked by one Sonia Dunn to investigate why her uncle, owner of a local gym, would commit suicide.... if it even was suicide. Needless to say this premise is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg that goes far deeper than first appears as New York City's more undesirable elements may be involved as well.

Knowing me this is where I would wax poetic about the world and its lore, but Blacksad does this thing where a clearly unreal world of canine police officers, very serious matters of racism between Black and White animals, as well as historical events mimicking our own with more fur or scales involved somehow all come off as perfectly grounded and believable. Game doesn't present any of this as magical, like The Wolf Among Us or Discworld Noir would considering they're both in familiar investigative territory, but rather it's the mundanity of it all that becomes the defining feature. Story also adheres to this principle albeit if you're familiar with mystery stories at large you know very well they thrive on narrative complications and curve balls. Hell, Blacksad himself occasionally ponders on how proper Noir protagonists or stories would turn out in his situation.

Characters themselves are rather important here which makes me all the more confused why game feels like not even putting that much of a spotlight on regulars let alone the side characters. John Blacksad himself is our protagonist and a WW2 veteran which, surprisingly, actually comes up as the war was still fresh on everyone's mind as former soldiers have to get acclimated for better or worse. Blacksad is almost a textbook Noir protagonist with sharp wit, plenty of know-how and number of connections, but at the core you get to decide how much of a heart of gold he has. Both of his regular collaborators, detective Smirnov and report Weekly are present but don't get that much attention which, if there's a single other character I'd shine a spotlight on would have to be Sonia Dunn as she's torn between honoring her father's legacy with the gym, uncovering what happened to him or just giving up altogether. Not really a femme fatale character I expected there to be. Others range from your criminal figures like bookies and enforcers, doctors with shady pasts and plain flawed people trying to make a living while sticking to principles or dealing with mistakes. It's certainly both familiar and varied cast.

Going by the fluff bits above you'd think I rather liked Blacksad even if it does air on the side of genre conventions, and you'd be right. If this wasn't transitioning into gameplay and technical talk which is where we come across some stumbling blocks.

Most dialog sequences are on a timer, and important ones have no returns policy.

This sort of “sense searching” for clues can end without warning if you find the one that advances the case.

Dodgy controls and even dodgier hotspot detection can get in the way, but Blacksad generally nails the atmosphere just right.

Considering game is set in the '50s you do get plenty of comments on various topics. And yes, Hitler was a cat.

For being so easily missaable game makes it a point to say collectible stickers are only visible to the player.

Singular impression I got from the game is how it buckles under the weight of both technical performance and issues. Which is staggering when you realize it's not doing anything extraordinary. Putting aside frequent loading screens, which even with an SSD felt chunky enough, there are some fundamental problems here I have a difficult time excusing given the release date of 2019. What do I mean by that? Game controls like a throwback to those unfortunate yesteryear days when P&C adventures were still figuring out how to work on consoles... which translated to PC in the form of awkward WASD controls while hunting for hotspots you can interact with. This is where Blacksad looks up to Telltale games in a sense it does away with that kind of “pixel hunting”, aside from collectible stickers, while also inheriting other negatives as well I'll get into.

Prior to that it's imperative to point out when controls rear their ugly head they really do it with high scores. I dreaded navigating around levels with these cumbersome controls, and total absence of running to go along with it. Our private detective gets caught up on every piece of geometry and after you add invisible walls whenever there's a semblance of one space I was actually happy when the game shifted gears, did away with exploring already tiny locales and just embraced the full on-rails experience as scene transitions do all the moving. There was a level where you have to not only move around in pitch darkness, but also use your flashlight to light up hotspot. Double the control shenanigans, double the chance to miss collectibles you have to shine the light on first to find. Joy.

Negatives I brought up earlier can be summarized in a single fragment – there are no puzzles in Blacksad. I rather like obtuse “get mustache from a cat” insanity genre was once known for, but here devs chose to eschew inventory puzzles altogether. What you get instead is A) greater focus on a dialog system and B) deductions where you combine clues to get new information. Former leans into “your choices matter” style of narrative with endings being dependent on whether one side character lives or not, and how you handle the very finale. I felt neither of these were explored to their full potential and lack of fast forwarding in dialog made me quickly abandon any notion of replaying the game. Which is, admittedly, facilitated by letting you start from any earlier point versus continuing from your autosave.

I had a personal hangup when it came to presentation which was mainly about how Blacksad looks. It took a while for me to get used to the fact his design is just wonky when adapted into a 3D model. Kinda like a painted smooth doll with glued-on cat ears. It grew on me, though. Game itself looks pretty decent with special attention paid to materials of all things. Those suits everyone wore in the '50s definitely look the part. Characters stick to their graphic novel designs aka men have more animal features while women tend to be racier “attractive models with minor features” kind of deal. Putting my prior level geometry concerns aside I do wish we got to explore more of New York City. Soundtrack? Perfectly appropriate Jazz.

Tales of Graces f

( PS3 – JRPG – 2012 ) + TRAILER

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Time for a return to Tales series with Tales of Graces f which just so happens to be an upgraded port of the original Wii title. Aside from usual technical upgrades given the hardware differences an extensive epilogue was added as well. Is the game itself any good, though?

In what turns out to be a welcome surprise game starts out with a rather chunky prologue set during our characters' childhood. Asbel Lhant is the man out of the hour as he accompanies a visiting prince Richard to a nearby meadow only to come across this mysterious older looking amnesiac girl he dubs Sophie. Little could they know the three of them making a friendship pact under a tree would lead to so many unimaginable things. This childhood period ends with quite the downer as all of their lives are upended, and Asbel becoming estranged from his father on top of forsaking the hereditary position of Lord of Lhant in order to become a knight and protect everyone.

Oddest decision here is just how long it takes for story proper to begin in Tales of Graces. What I mean by that is far more of the narrative is dedicated to character relationships themselves as childhood friends re-unite under different circumstances and baggage of their own before any heavy punches come flying at you. And this works in a game where these ties are the most important devices upon which latter story is built upon. It goes hand-in-hand with one of the characters assuming the role of the antagonist threatening to plunge the world into chaos, and it falls on our party to save the day as well as their old friend. Story manages to both play it really safe given the genre filtered through the usual “power of friendship will save the day” you've come to expect all the while being entirely genuine about it.

Since I've brought them up I really should talk more about the characters because so much hinges on them.

None of them really break the mold in any specific way so you have your eccentric genius pulling double duty as zany comedic relief, more experienced and somewhat world weary knight who ends up being a mentor, stoic and mysterious girl herself who peels off more and more layers as story goes, etc. Easily the most important ones are Asbel, Richard and Sophie as there's a direct link between them without anything contrived such as tacked on romance. In my opinion Sophie takes a bit too long to, well, develop a personality beyond a stoic childlike brawler and Richard is spoilerific so I'll shut up. Asbel, though. He's easily the most fleshed out as a person who develops over 40+ hours you spend with him. At first you get this impression he's just a stubborn protagonist with abundance of confidence and some naivety, but then you see him after the time skip as he becomes a lot more nuanced and thoughtful. Asbel never loses his original makings and naturally grows from there. So much so the ending of the game only works out because he takes a gamble driven entirely by his nature and lessons he's learned.

World of Ephinea game takes place on is sadly a place I wish I could tell you better things about, but it really is your familiar JRPG at its finest. You'll trek across lands of grass, sand and ice in sequential order neatly taking boat rides whenever necessary to tackle matters of Valkines, crystal-like structures emitting Eleth which people of the world use as an energy source. In genre tradition “lore” here is basically whatever someone thought was cool and kitchen sink fantasy approach very much applies. If you thought there are going to be SF elements in this fantasy story... well. You get it by now, brother. I was taken aback by how suddenly some plot twists and developments occur later on and characters, who have lived here their entire lives, just accept it all casually. Oh, and Turtlez, traders extraordinaire wearing turtle costumes, are also in.

Alas, there is no conventional overworld in Tales of Graces f, not even after you unlock the customary end game transportation that lets you get anywhere, anytime. What you do have is a sort of compromise where areas between dungeons, towns, etc serve the same function meaning everything is connected in coherent fashion. I consider it a decent alternative as none of the zones are overly big or just plain fillers. Skits aka brief conversations between characters' 2D portraits, are littered everywhere and entirely up to you to activate or skip them, and random encounters aren't a thing as you can engage roaming enemy representations at your convenience. Since I'm on the matter of areas I have to point out my opinion on game's dungeons shifted dramatically as I approached the finale. Starting off as lightweight and progressing to “this feels just right” last few dungeons + epilogue's own inclusions, made me want to rush through them like a maniac. They simply take way too long and puzzles aren't that compelling so they become busywork instead.

As ever skits continue as a method of fleshing out bots you can't dedicate cutscenes to. Also, comedy.

There's some of that Wii DNA on display when it comes to proportions and scale overall.

With limited control over the camera action can get hectic. More often than not when it zooms out to encompass the entire battlefield.

Standout features for me were basically a take on crafting, abilities and cooking. Dualizing lets you create stuff from ingredients you come across, be it weapons, items you'll use for town request missions or just food outside of combat by mixing two items, and games it thankfully kind enough to indicate possible combinations you have. Eleth Mixer, using Eleth you can re-fill in towns or through other means, is how you create food during combat for healing and additional bonuses. You can also use it to generate practically any ingredient or curative provided you have the Eleth and RNG gods bless you. These two systems are not something I'd avoid as game is built with them in mind.

Titles aka primary means of character progression beyond basic levels, are worth discussing on their own, though. Each character has a veritable library of dozens of unlockable Titles with five ranks each. You acquire them through a variety of means; be it story progression, accumulating enough gold, getting poisoned over and over again, using certain Arts X number of times, etc and upgrade them with SP accumulated from battles. What do these Titles do for your characters? Well, since each character plays in their own particular way, like Malik's long range boomerang/sword/thing or Pascal's focus on chanting Artes, you can get a bunch of things even from shared Titles. Some will straight up unlock new attack abilities, very few grant new costumes, but most some form of stat bonuses. All of these stack. Meaning you want to master as many Titles as you can as quickly as you can to power up your characters on top of regular gear they can equip. What I ended up liking about the system is how straightforward it is and doesn't negate characters' uniqueness. Sure, spellcasters have some spells they share, but considering each character has unique ultimate attacks/weapons/approach to combat, they feel distinct.

For reasons only known to myself I always leave combat gameplay for the last, and in this case it's more of that familiar Tales territory of action party combat with four characters engaging in mayhem. Tales of Graces f does away with conventional mana system so next to HP you have Chain Capacity aka CC which is an ever fluctuating pool of points you use to power your A-Artes and B-Artes as primary means of attack. CC starting/maximum values are dependent on level and gear adjustments, and is replenished by guarding or artful dodging. It takes a certain level of acquired skill to stay on the offensive without hugging the guard button, especially as aforementioned two types of attacks can quickly drain your CC reserves given their cost. Taking into account enemies have weaknesses to attack properties these Artes have, be it damage type or status ailment, I'm trying to get across that button mashing with no sense for party cohesion or flow of action will do you little good. Eleth bar exists as well which, once filled, unlocks Eleth Burst mode removing any Artes cost and lets you unleash devastating Mystic Artes. Combat overall feels well put together and fact only boss bottles tend to go over half a minute speaks of its pace the best.

There's also items to use, Strategy menu to give your characters specific direction like focusing on healing or to use only B-Artes, not to mention you can control all the characters and not just Asbel, but combat itself is surprisingly straightforward. Where it somewhat stumbles are loose technical bits. Camera, for example, has trouble keeping the bird's eye view if action is spread out across the entire battlefield. Toward end game effects also become overbearing so you rely more on character audio cues over visuals firing off. Neither of these impacted the game THAT significantly for me, though. What could be a problem if you're coming from latter games where Free Movement became the norm is here you normally run in a straight line to your target while Free Movement is optional and has associated CC cost. I used it precisely twice.

Production would be a good way to end this review since this was originally a Wii title, and PS3 treatment certainly helped even if you can still tell it's a port. Art style itself does a lot of the heavy lifting here and ensures a timeless stylized look. Game also has a handful of fully produced anime scenes selling moments impossible to pull off in-engine. If you were looking to enjoy native Japanese voices that option is sadly absent, but English dub quality is on the level, with usual shenanigans, where even skits are entirely voiced so props for that. Melodrama included.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

( PC (Ubisoft Connect) – Action, Stealth – 2015 ) + TRAILER

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In more than one way Assassin's Creed Syndicate was seemingly an answer to Unity's criticism. With shifted priorities in mind being a final send-off of the established franchise formula that would [supposedly] undergo a retooling for the trilogy that succeeded it. Was the game itself any good, though?

State of things is not good for the Assassin Brotherhood at the tail end of the Industrial Revolution as we step into the shoes of twins Jacob and Evie Frye. London has been purged and Templars are firmly in control lead by Crawford Sterrick with his vision of order over chaos, or rather Templar order because they know best what's in humanity's interest. Faced with such dire circumstances the twins make contact with the only Brotherhood contact left in the capital of the world and set out to liberate it. In Evie's case this also means chasing after artifacts while Jacob is more content building up his own gang called the Rooks in place of Templars' henchmen.

Biggest difference you'll immediately notice is we're working with a deuteragonist setup this time around, meaning both Jacob and Evie are protagonists in their own right. Minute gameplay differences aside, which I'll get into, they have their own approach to things as well as sub-stories to tackle. You want my honest opinion having finished the game as well as the story DLC? Evie should've been the sole protagonist. As opposed to her more intellectual mindset, Jacob is a loud brawler who ends up causing more problems than he actually solves. Narratively they have this friendly sibling rivalry that escalates suddenly towards the very end only to deflate in a disappointing finale. I can only wonder if Ubisoft was afraid what player reaction would've been to a female protagonist, but I think that's entirely unfounded. It does let itself have two actors when there's need for different personalities which is probably preferable to a protagonist that acts however the plot demands, consistency be damned.

Compared to Unity's Paris I found London not much of a character itself. Too gray and grimy, which is period appropriate, with only standout being the Thames as you parkour across moving ships and posts, essentially giving you the first taste of “dynamic landscapes” taking a break from usual buildings. Plenty of mutton chops and mustaches to go around, though. Westminster burrow stands out as being the only noticeable piece of greenery in the city and palace stands apart from the rest of the city. There's a totally-not-secret Rift in Sequence Six that takes you for a brief excursion forward in time, but you don't leave London so much as just man a few AA batteries and call it a day.

I said in the opening Syndicate was an answer to Unity, and narratively I would say it improves upon it in most meaningful ways, but what about gameplay? Well, we're taking a sidestep and some steps back as well in that department. This was the part I was most conflicted over.

Let's just peel the biggest deal breaker off quickly – parkouring has been lobotomized. How you go from what was arguably series' peak to THIS is beyond me. I'm being dishonest because I know how. For all the fans out there, you remember lifts in the series? You run into them and they pretty much momentarily zip you up to the roof they're connected with? Well, Syndicate introduces a zip-line gun not long after the prologue, and that thing is your personal lift albeit with somewhat finicky window of usage. On top of it you can also zip between climb points now. So let me ask you the following: why bother climbing at all when you can just ZIP you're on top of the building followed by another ZIP you're on the adjacent building now? Of course, this addition does not exist in a vacuum as game accounts for it, in fact as much as I was annoyed by its existence the damn thing was just too handy to ignore, but it removes so much of the basic legwork that went into parkour and formed a backbone of franchise' identity. Even what's left has been simplified by losing many animations and reactivity. What would've once been a descent with flourish is now just a sequence of two repeated animations.

Syndicate fancies throwing a boss fight at you to cap off liberating each of the Burrows. They're preceded by a gauntlet of enemies.

DLC pulls back on the scope of things and limited gear choices shows it off the best.

I believe the kids today would say NANI?!?

Vantage points give you a neat list of things to do in the area in text form as well as visual indicators as the camera spins.

Mounts return in Grand Theft Horsey version. Consider their handling as more of a suggestion, though.

Other changes to contend with are more on alteration level rather than fundamental disruptions. For example, gear system still exists, but Ubisoft took a saner approach by removing all extraneous modifiers on equipment and boiled it down to simpler breakdowns. Weapons come in three types + assassin gauntlets and firearms shared by siblings, but their respective armors are unique as Evie has cloaks while Jacob has belts. These DO show on your characters, but it is the outfit of choice that determines your overall look as there are no more individual pants or gloves to mix and match. As was the case the last time economy around gear procurement is tuned for critical path aka if you do any of the side content you'll have stuff that's way beyond what you should have. At the same time some items will remain locked based on how much you engage in particular activities... this time primarily through reputation bars you fill out by doing missions, repeatable or otherwise, for side characters. Fear not because Syndicate will give you enough pity gear through main story progression for this to not be an issue.

Second, and reason why you cannot just buy the best stuff outright if you grind enough Pounds, is the leveling system. Not only does it impact gear and burrow danger level, but acquiring skill points and spending them is the only way to get new skills. Rather than outright locking basic features now you're rather acquiring modifications and improvements, like increasing defense or higher quality resource looting. Jacob and Evie each have few unique skills only one can unlock, former being more combat-centric while latter embraces stealth. Since there is no difficulty choice to speak of and you will eventually get enough points to max out both characters this is difference for flavor's sake.

Taking into account when I'm playing this I was almost unaware just how much DLC was out there. Probably because of main campaign integration which makes me think Syndicate was pretty desolate at launch. The Last Maharaja adds a pretty decent sub-story, The Dreadful Crimes brings back my favorite element from Unity in form of murder mysteries, but it's Jack the Ripper I'll be talking about since it's the beefiest one, and actually a story of its own necessitating separate choice in the menu. Taking place 20 years after the base game, and seeing Evie return to London, right in the middle of Jack murdering prostitutes and taunting the police with his threatening letters all the while Jacob goes missing. Writing quickly blows its load that he has connections with the Assassins while keeping the player in the dark. It takes a series of investigations, going through Jack's informants and even controlling the madman himself before conclusion is reached, and I wish it was better handled. In tangible terms Jack the Ripper re-uses two burrows from the base game, but has its own gear and skills to acquire. Biggest addition would definitely be the Fear system which lets Evie terrify the new gang with fear bomb and spikes. You incapacitate victims and their screams make others run away eliminating them from combat. Odds are technically against the player as enemies out-level you, but you know. I was doing it more for 100% mission synchronization than any real need.

Lastly there's presentation to look at. I already touched upon it when talking about London, but as usual this comes down to how much you enjoy the locale aesthetics. It's a grim city with carriages filling the streets and gaslight illumination by night. I'd say some visual appeal was lost from Unity, but soundtrack was what surprised me having barely noticed it in the game. Then I gave it a listen on its own, and damn if it's not solid.