Bangledeschler's Completion Addiction Bangledeschler’s profile
My master list and stats of game progress across all platforms HERE
Twitch: ! Screen Thieves
XBOX
PSN
June 2026
Actually managed to post semi on time. Of course despite that victory I have fallen to the ways of the Summer Sale (and still have a chance to do even more damage). Well, like the nihilist said on their death bed, “Here goes nothing.”
Bionic Commando Rearmed
A classic game remade with fresh 3D graphics. Had a bit of trouble reading my gamepad and some of the interfacing feels weird. Controls are extra weird and had to acclimate to the button layout each time I booted it up (sometimes even between missions). I actually really REALLY dislike the controls. Moving while swinging or hanging from your arm automatically makes you jump (rather than a direction and input like other games). Cycling through weapons is a pain not to mention I only found a use for a few.
It is a classic game so it does come with classic difficulty. I.e. you die quickly, jumps need to be pretty accurate, limited lives, and pits mean death. The hacking game was actually pretty fun although feels limited in it’s variety. Bosses are gimmicky which is fun but then you realize there’s only a few types of bosses and they reuse them with only slightly different variations. Final boss was a bit of a letdown and lacked challenge or uniqueness.
At it’s base it is a third person RPG that feels a bit like the Witcher or an early Bioware game in how it allows multiple combat options instead of being restricted to a single class, companion choices, and moral choices that effect your path and end. HOWEVER, it doesn’t move much past the base and feels more like a structure that was meant to be built on much more.
Graphics are pretty poor given it’s release time and lacks any sense of style. Most scenery and creature/person designs are flat and bland. Combat is clunky while animations and dialogue are a slog. Skill trees lack diversity or interesting/good skills. Armor is a letdown as it does very little relying more on dodging and parrying. You get a wide array of fire based spells but again it seemed like only a few were worth investment. Side quests are not only basic but easily missable as the game almost expects you to frequently talk to NPCs hoping they spring a quest on. Is it too much to ask for proper quest indicators? It’s laughable how there are only about 3 “main” hub areas with smaller surrounding dungeon-ish areas for you to actually fight monsters and do quests. The final area feeling particularly small as you reach an end to your abrupt journey. Companions lack much to say despite the game suggesting you talk with them frequently to increase companionship and often have the depth or interest of a piece of blank paper.
Ultimately, this game needs much more work and time to make an interesting game out of. As it is, it’s a short bland journey with little going for it. For it’s price, particularly discounted I suppose it’s not terrible but definitely worth spending several dollars more for a better game in the genre.
Nice little island adventure filled with boss fights. More of the same but you do get the chance to play as Ms. Chalice. Unfortunately to do so you do need to use up an equipment slot, but given her abilities it’s a bit of a fair trade. Not sure it’s entirely worth it’s full price.
For the most part it is more classic KoF but one thing really irks me about this… WHERE IS THE MUSIC?!! Most stages and fights have no music and rely on sort of ambient sound and does it make you realize fighting games NEED some sort of consistent OST. As always, great pixel work. This copy allows for online fights and gallery view but sadly does not have an actual practice mode. Though the gameplay is solid, there is technically better games in the series around this time particularly that with actual music but if you are sweeping up the series not too terrible to add. A semi-reluctant positive review. Last few achievements require online play, so unless I rig it with another person… it's not happening.
Preferred Fighters/Team: Terry Bogard, Blue Marry, Mai, Benimaru
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
1
1
4
56
Given this was a more character action focused game I was expecting to like this game a lot more than I did. Don’t get me wrong I LIKED it but it doesn’t stand out nearly as much as it should have given it’s premise. For starters this is the first Majima-only game. Additionally, we are also pirates. It should be mentioned now but this game reuses A LOT of assets from Like A Dragon 8, so be prepared to encounter a lot of the same enemies, characters, mechanics (not including turn based combat), and mini-games.
That’s right we get to go wild with the Mad Dog himself and with him we get far more combat options, a new style, and aerial combat. This does break away from the mostly straight forward beat-em-up style combat from most of the other series. Unfortunately, the combat still feels limited and most of all… clunky. This is partly due to the fact that the jump, run, and use button are all bound to the x/cross often creating awkward moments as you are trying to do any one of these things. There also felt to be considerable delay when trying to do any action making interactions feel awkward. Despite all of this newness, the heat actions also feel particularly stifled with extremely area specific uses, one of which requires an item you will almost never run into. The new pirate style is fun especially once you start getting more skills and abilities, many of which inherit aspects from Ichiban’s journey.
The story is fine as it ultimately does not go nearly as crazy as it’s concept would imply. After all we are supposed to be freaking pirates, this should be an especially grand adventure. Unfortunately it is fairly stifled as it runs a lot of the same Crime Drama beats as any other Yakuza. Even somewhat more stifling is that this isn’t really Majima’s journey but more him assisting Noah, a child that helps him when he first washes ashore, to have a chance to explore and get away from his poor island. Some familiar faces with a lot of newer forgettable ones. A lot of this game is extremely small dungeon islands, a revisit to LaD’s Honolulu area, and a couple other smaller hub islands in which to engage in story, battles, and mini-games.
Ships and mini-games. Mini-games, again, are largely reused from the previous title(s) with some added flair and objectives. The more new mini-games include Goro Goro Kitchen which have you do a few repeat tasks to make food for yourself and/or others. It gets a bit repetitive especially with how annoying it is to gather ingredients and for the most part you don’t really need to cook with how easy it is to get items. The other is Bang Bang batting which basically serves as a replacement to the batting center. Ship battles are pretty decent once you get the hang of the drifting and how battles work with the right equipment but does lose it’s appeal pretty fast. This is largely due to how frequent you can run into encounters and how absolutely sluggish the sailing actually feels. I mean it just feels so SLOW trying to get between islands and it certainly doesn’t look like you have any speed. Luckily you can unlock fast travel points but that does feel like it defeats a bit of the purpose for the sailing journey, ya know?
Ultimately it’s still an enjoyable game but fails to improve on any previous games failings or allow itself to go truly crazy. Like, why are so many interactions piece meal? Why do I have to craft items individually instead of being able to craft multiple copies at once? Why is gathering items just the absolute worse??? Also, though I did platinum the game, there are still some in game challenges I want to finish out for the hard clear.
Nioh DLC
1
2
10
58
I dropped the base game for years until I finally took it upon myself to finish and complete the base content. Having generally enjoyed my journey I then waited years for the DLC to go on sale so I can fully complete the first game in it’s entirety. Boy oh boy is that going to be at task because the DLC is just stuck at max difficulty. Each DLC has 2-3 story missions with some side missions, new weapon types, and new spirit guardians. These stories link together so you should play them in order.
Dragon of the North - Feels more of the same of the base game. A lot of levels feel pretty generic and enemy diversity is pretty low. Odachi is a powerful but slow new weapon type that likes to switch between high and low stance. Bosses are incredibly rude with small spaces. One of the last bosses was pretty fun though and reminded me a lot of a Soul Calibur type character.
Defiant Honour - Much more interesting DLC as we get fun trench based levels amidst an ongoing battlefield. Though the environmentals can be a bit annoying it is such a breath of fresh air compared to Dragon of the North. Tonfa are pretty fun as they are fast and seem to excel in breaking guard while still maintaining some power. Bosses feel a little more balanced though this is in part due to the fact that the arenas allow you a little more cheese potential but at least is unique in it’s design.
Bloodshed’s End - This reminded me a LOT of the endgame of the base story (I think it literally takes place in the same castle). For the most part is good and even allows you to fight alongside notable NPC companions. However, the final boss is mad easy meanwhile the side content is some of the hardest challenges you’ll face without properly grinding. The finale does make me wish more was fleshed out in this DLC trilogy considering it is meant to be the final chapter and last we’ll see of most if not all characters.
I’m currently settling for just beating them once through but once I get the spirit back up I’ll go back for the grind that is required to get everything done.
Other Games
Lucy Got Problems - Beaten -> Completed
Steam Review
May 2026
After posting my Steam reviews it made me realize how much I need a sideways thumb recommendation. It could have saved at least half of these from being recommended against instead of giving them all a thumbs down. So, for overall games Goat Simulator 3 happens to be my most recommended game this month which is something I could not have predicted.
Note: This review is for someone just entering the game for the first time. This was played primarily on Intense due to need of an actual challenge.
At its most ideal, this is a fun challenging experience. Due to the dwindling and unreliable player base… you’ll barely get that experience and the AI companions are NOT a suitable replacement. The classes, customizable skills, and weapons create a fun replayable experience in the Aliens universe. However, due to the reliance on co-op and multiplayer it is a much hindered experience as time goes on.
These days when you get a lobby, IF you get a lobby, you’ll more than likely end up with over leveled players who will either leave right away because your setup, challenge level, or otherwise is not to their preference OR they will steamroll the entire level while you wonder if you are able to contribute anything at all. If you are lucky enough to pair with those at your level and experience, you still have to worry about potential ping issues as well as variable levels of co-operation to get through the much preferred hard mode. Why am I choosing hard mode over normal? Well for 90% of the campaign, the game is just a cake walk. Hard mode however provides a fun challenging experience, but DEMANDS co operation and competency.
You may then decide instead of rolling the dice on potential player lobbies, you’ll just go with AI teammates. You’ll be in for a rude awakening as not only can the teammates classes NOT be changed (they default to Gunner) but they absolutely INSIST on being the greatest hindrance. When they are not shooting you in the back they are purposely jumping and staying in your line of sight as you shoot ahead. They have no tactical abilities whatsoever and will often stand in the open and prioritize pickups over their own safety… often failing at both. It honestly would be better to just not have the AI option at all to at least wash away the illusion of them actually being viable.
I’d love to recommend this game and have had great moments with other players… but it’s too much of a gamble to give a genuine recommendation. Fingers crossed the sequel can at least provide genuine competent AI teammate options to increase the longevity of the game.
After being accidentally riddled with a plethora of cupid arrows, you find yourself loved by every woman in your vicinity. The problem is after the end of the day you’ll never be loved again unless you can secure the heart of your preferred love interest… who happens to not love you nearly as much (guess you still gotta work for it). With the help of the cupid who made this mistake, you will use arrows to send the onslaught of women into temporary euphoria as you try to woo your potential betrothed.
This game is awkward, and not just in the context of the story but in the gameplay itself. It’s a light gun game which I can appreciate but feels odd using a controller instead of… well a light gun. Since you are using a controller you will often have trouble getting all your shots in at the short windows you have to actually hit some of these speeding targets or your characters need to dart their eyes to other areas… let alone at the weak spots which aren’t well defined other than if you hover over it it gives a bit of text. Part of the gimmick is not only to ward off the wave after wave of recurring girls but to increase your own stats by going into a special mode that requires you to use a special gauge to pick a person in particular and build a staring gauge before piercing their metaphorical heart. This will have you zoom in on various body parts for extended periods of time before taking your shots. I get the fan service part of it, but even if I was into it… it gets old fast with how long it takes and becomes an incredible annoyance despite the benefits it brings which includes stats, character file notes, point to rank increase, but also a love bomb that takes out all nearby enemies. Which, by the way since they are all just women… they don’t have many identifiable ways to classify which stats they do give you so I’m often left guessing if I’m choosing right and I certainly am not remembering them by name. Some of the mini games you do during your love interest meet ups have some enjoyable bits though they aren’t always well explained.
In short, even understanding the fan service behind all of it.. The game is just tiring and it really expects you to replay it with the various file unlocks, endings, costumes, and character pairings. Maybe it’s because it’s the first that it is just so clunky and monotonous but I sincerely hope the other games get better as I couldn’t otherwise understand how this series could have continued on fan service alone.
First thing gotta mention is this game does not run (as in actually run) out of the gate. If you try to run it for the first time it will most likely immediately crash. This is due to the fact the installer does not include the necessary vcredist package. You’ll have to manually track down and install the correct version on your own. I ended up mass installing and then trying so I can’t even verify which version was actually correct. You may have to run even more fixes past that regarding windowed and such. So, the game DOES run… it just requires a bit of extra leg work on your end.
Gotta say, this is one of the UGLIEST big name semi-modern fighting game out there. Which is a shame considering KoF 93 had some incredibly slick pixel art that contended with the best of ‘em. It lacks any heart or style. Though there is a story mode… it really doesn’t do much of anything. A few rendered cutscenes all of which play no role when delivering the final boss who just sort of appears. There are some endings so long as you pick the pre-designed teams but again have no real play in the mentioned narrative. You MAY get some character interaction in fights depending on your team and who you match up with.
The actual gameplay is okay but felt like most actions had weird delays and with no way of customizing inputs such as negative edge or held it made it pretty hard to play to my preferred ability. This is maybe an issue with the convenience that comes with the customization of more recent modern games but I also never had so much of an issue with other fighting games around this time. By no means would this be bad (excluding the technical issues) it just doesn’t compare to other fighting games, let alone in the series.
Preferred characters: K’, Blue Mary, Kula(?)
Played using a leverless controller.
Subpar RTS. By no means am I particularly immaculate at any strategy game, but I can usually limp across the finish line at most at the bare minimum. This game, at least story wise, is so incredibly unfair in its design that it punishes you most steps of the way. Want to route a destination for your units? Watch as they fumble through in the most un-optimal pathing often veering off of it to who-knows-where. Do you want your units to just sit tight? You’ll be damned sure they will follow an enemy unit who so much as grazes their vision to the ends of the planet. Maybe you just need a bit of extra time to set up before you can launch a proper offense/defense… well the enemy just somehow had pristine control and amassed 3x the forces you ever could. This doesn’t even regard the forced mini-games in some sections that require you to build a turret defense against waves of enemies with limited and hardly recoverable resources, or sneak through an enemy base with a unit that does not want to follow the most simple pathing you set. Eventually I had to give up as the frustrations were not worth whatever uninspired story the game was trying to tell.
At best the game does okay in any one category but fails in most others, but I’m just a casual at RTS so I may not be the expert here.
Goat Simulator 3
0
2
0
14
What was originally just meant to be a quick session, to help ease the frustrations with some of the more challenging games I had been playing back to back, quickly ended up with me playing the entire base game in one day. This is due to a couple of key features. First and foremost it is a dumb little fun adventure with all sorts of stupid little jokes and enjoyable references. The next is that it is so easy to make progress on various challenges that interconnect that it had me thinking “well I finished this mini quest but also ended up making progress on this one as well” or “I’m in this area, so I may as well do this, this, and this” then end up in another area to repeat ad nauseam. Unlike the previous Goat Sim, there is a progress-able “story” (at least I don’t remember the first having much other than just being sand box). See, completing challenges and quests give you various items and reward points. These points will increase your home base’s level, unlocking new areas and eventually.. The final boss. Though you are free to continue after as such, it is a nice way to give a sense of progress and finality to the game without losing it’s sandbox-y nature. Also, the seamless moving between areas that were once gated by loading screens is such an incredible feeling and fast traveling reduces frustrations when going back and forth for challenges or secrets. Unfortunately some of the insanity can get too crazy and can even impede progress in other areas or causing issues with game performance.
Recommend? It is just nice to not have to worry about challenge or the pressure of deadlines sometimes and pick a game like this up. Will I invest into the DLC? Maybe the next time I need to relieve some built up backlog stress.
Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2004 
After taking some time to repair and refurbish some old consoles, I thought I’d give them a test run. One being the gamecube with a GBA adapter. Finally, after all these years I could figure out how to actually unlock more characters and proceed with this game both with more time and internet knowledge. It takes a lot of victories per character, having certain cards in or out of your deck, and a lot LOT of battles, but progress can be made. The AI may cheat (i.e. knowing exactly when to NOT attack a face down card or having cards they shouldn’t realistically have given the character) but you can get through it. Unfortunately, after several sessions I booted up the game again… this time all my progress was lost and the game only allowed for a new save file. The battery in the cartridge must have died and so did my will to ever give this game another minute of my time ever again.
Though I remember enjoying this game as a child (granted there were few I didn’t enjoy, especially with YGO!) I do see the considerable flaws of this title including unfair AI, very grindy unlock system, heavily RNG dependent and unsatisfactory card reward system, and very slow gameplay.
Other Completed Games:
Sex and the Furry Titty 2
Rating: 7.5/10 Steam Review
April 2026
Awkward April
Ongoing
FFXIV
Guilty Gear Isuka
The black sheep of the series and only now do I understand why. Not only does it not want to run well out of a fresh install… but it plays terribly too. Trying to change window sizes, resolutions, and trying to get a controller or leverless to work were all battles each on their own. Even when I got my leverless to work… I found I could not switch directions without throwing or being thrown. Of course once I got everything mostly functioning I felt that the game was more of a beat ‘em up than a fighting game… Imagine my surprise when there is a mode just like that and plays wayyyyyy better than the story/arcade. The arcade mode is absurdity incarnate. You don’t go up a bracket but instead get to the next fighter by leveling up during your fights. After so many levels you start to fight increasingly difficult opponents and even multiple at a time. It gets chaotic to say the least and whatever was meant to be the health bar… well it was lost to me. If you manage to get through the onslaught of chaotic battle all the way to level 100… you face the boss. Dear lord does this boss suck as it’s only damagable part is at jumping attack height and it has many attacks to push you back and/or ignore yours. I’ll give the boss credit, it’s definitely a unique design.
Frankly, after the arcade mode I was only willing to give the beat ‘em up mode a bit of my time before shelving the game for good. The experience was just that awful. It was only during the beat ‘em up mode that I realized there was a button specifically for switching direction… though I don’t think it ever worked on my actual arcade run anyways.
Recommend? No… just no.
Fighter of Choice: Bridget
Smash bros like but with a fairly limited roster of characters that you’ll unlock in the story and even a few guest characters as well. Despite supposedly supporting it, the game does not like controller much at all. Menus often go through multiple selections at a single press of a direction. Not sure if it was because of the controller but characters controlled sluggishly and the combat felt very limited. I also had trouble parsing how some characters could possibly be viable. The upside of bad controls is that the enemy AI is pretty dumb often falling into the same loop or outright eliminating themselves. Bosses don’t have that luxury but they have a decent enough game plan that makes them fair. Story is fine if not mostly silly while the scenes are well animated with some decent voice work. Not a great amount of variety and pretty disappointed the guest characters don’t get any scenes.
Recommend? A bit more midground but overall subpar. Definitely not a Smash Bros replacement. Scenes were nice though.
Dino Crisis 3 
DC1 was a Survival Horror game that leaned heavily into puzzles. DC2 was a very fun arcade shooter. DC3 continued the arcade shooter aspect but merged it with some survival horror aspects of the first and it ended up being a horrible abomination.
What were these aspects? Well, for one limiting just about everything. Inventory space (items starting out at a limit of 1 each), shop items, the amount of upgrades you can get at each save station (usually 1 upgradable gauge across all options and a few upgradable inventory slots), and even capping the amount of kills you can earn points from… which doesn’t make any sense in an arcade shooter. The only benefit that the kill gauge cap gives you is that it gives a bonus depending on how full it is when you turn it in which only incentivizes you to kill and combo the easy and small enemies rather than dealing with the bigger targets. Dino god forbid you slip into a boss battle with a full kill gauge bar. Speaking of disincentivize dealing with bigger dinos not only do they hurt a whole lot at all stages of the game but every medium to boss enemy are just the spongiest of bullet sponges there ever were. The base gun is infinite but does low damage but the other two weapons with limited ammo? Well, those don’t do much either with probably one of the worst shotguns in a game I have ever played and the laser gun does okay with such a slow fire rate. You do get these sort of drone alternate weapons that do good but since they are also used to unlock doors you are trained to basically never use them unless you wish to grind and buy more. Bosses aren’t very engaging as they often have big area of attacks and will take forever to whittle down often requiring the same strategy of strafing while shooting.
With the new space setting it feels a lot like Metroid and Mega Man X. You have your dash boosts that you can use to hover, speed, and jump higher. Charge shots that will destroy certain objects and maybe even hit an enemy if you have the time and aiming ability, as awkward as it can be. The ship itself is modular so it changes shape depending on terminal commands making exploration that of a metroidvania. Unfortunately utilizing the map is a confusing mess that makes a point to constantly beep with your desired location. A lot of the areas are pretty confusing with annoying platform sections. The camera does no favor as it has near-fixed camera angles that always manage to switch at awkward times both in traversal and in combat. The “space dinos” all look weird and have odd abilities, especially considering we kind of just get introduced to them out of nowhere. Despite having two characters, one is so underutilized you’ll forget you even get to play them.
Though DC hasn’t had a particularly great story history, DC3 takes the cake as far as being the worst. First and foremost, suddenly breaking off from the previous two stories into this futuristic space adventure is a whiplash into itself. We also just get thrust into things pretty quickly with little explanation (assuming I didn’t accidentally skip a huge cutscene or maybe it was in a manual?). The story progression is about as abysmal as the gameplay progression often hanging on by a thread of purpose and even worse character interactions.The ending is pretty lackluster which is only followed by a tolerable but more of the same bonus mode.
Recommend? I’m glad I got to play it and see exactly what happened to the Dino Crisis series… but I can not in ANY way recommend this. Not even to my worst enemies. There’s probably issues I haven’t even touched upon or details I’ve omitted.
NOTE: Even when I was trying to look up details on this game it was difficult to find almost as if the collective human race chose to forget about this game.
Project Lunky
Developed by Lixian, Markipliers editor, is a game based on a piece of Markiplier history and lore. I’ve played a game of his before and you can usually expect a short horror game. What I did not expect was a roguelite. Granted it’s very basic and some upgrades are NEEDED to actually progress as combat is largely attack and block (attacks are largely unavoidable). Still, given the right upgrade path you can find a pretty quick way to get everything and have a breeze of a time. There is little attack variation and only one kind of enemy. Upgrades you get our nice and it’s a decent little cycle. The axe being far superior to anything the gun really offers, you’ll find the melee route is the best.
Recommend? It’s fun, neat, and free (though you are more than welcome to donate any amount you wish.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Remake)
0
1
11
23
Watched someone play Ready or Not and felt the urge to play an FPS… but better. Adhering to my youthful days of MW2 I thought I’d try the remake of the original MW. Very quickly I was back in the saddle and thanks to the continued snap shooting system I was able to easily play on veteran with nearly no issue. Unfortunately there are a few missions (often involving vehicle sections) where this difficulty became a problem but few and far between. I don’t really remember it happening much in the originals but I often found myself getting block or trapped by my AI teammates as I tried to join the line, enter doorways, or even just general traversal. Story was solid enough though I can’t really compare as I never played the original Modern Warfare
Recommend? Story wise it felt pretty solid and a nice nostalgic trip down a CoD memory lane. Guns were responsive and battles felt mostly rewarding.
Feb 2026
Lots of Buildup and Anticipation Towards RE9
In Progress:
FFXIV
FFXI
Benefitship
Very short VN involving newly acquainted roommates that quickly engage in romance through accidental encounters and unexpected anatomy. The characters and interactions are actually pretty believable with great voice acting. Some of the progression though is a bit abrupt as after the end of an incident it will immediately cut to a time skip. Scenes are solid and help fill the demand for this niche fetish.
If you're into this sort of thing, definitely recommend as it's cheap and pretty good for what there is.
Space Comedy AVN with surprisingly tame scenes but some genuine writing. The humor is can be borderline juvenile at times but that doesn't mean it didn't still make me laugh here and there. There's also some genuinely great interactions and writing when growing with your teammates and learning about their own struggles/dreams. Unfortunately the better writing can easily be missed when choosing the more renegade options as they often just outright skip dialogue with little to no repercussions other than maybe missed scenes. In fact, the whole stat system (choosing kindness, witty, or rude) doesn't seem to pay off from memory. No real lockouts or changes in story other than the immediate conversation. A wide variety of death scenes in case you choose really poorly which are often more of a funny moment than a bad end especially since you can quickly return to the question before your demise.
Despite being particularly vanilla, scenes are still animated well and offer a decent variety of partners to engage with. Of course, if you are not interested in seeing the scenes at all you are more than able to refuse them and continue the story without issue. Still I am pretty remiss that the scenes were as basic as they are considering you are working through quite a bit of story between them.
All in all, a fairly decent reading experience with just enough rewarding scenes to get you through. Humor can be excessive and low bar, but not necessarily bad. The overall story progression can be a bit of a slow burn at the beginning and feels a bit of an abrupt end. Definitely going to be checking out Season 2 with some hopes of spicier scenes and expanding upon the solid character developments they have set up.
In anticipation for RE9, I thought I’d go back to a RE game and play through it once more. Since I’ve only ever done the base platinum for RE7 on the PS4, now was an opportunity to go through it on Steam and do the update content as well. Boy oh boy was that a challenge. The base games hardest difficulty, Madhouse, is fairly challenging but not too bad outside of key parts (or specific enemies I should say). The update hardest difficulties (Not a Hero: Professional and End of Zoe: Joe Must Die) are pretty diabolical. More enemies, crazy trap placements, and just about anything will kill you (with the added difficulty of limited saves). EoZ being the worst due to the swamps, plethora of traps, and just the nature of the content. It also renewed my disgust towards the smaller faster molded that seem to take a magnum shot even on the easiest difficulty and still walk away despite the supposed lower health pool. Then there’s the ultimate challenge… Ethan Must Die. A specially rigged mode that has you make it through the house to unlock and fight Marguerite with nothing but a knife and randomized item drops. It is brutal and takes a lot of attempts just to learn each step forward before actually getting to the end zone. Luckily your dead body will leave behind a randomized item from your last run… but it won’t always be enough to save you. Even on my successful run I had nothing but a knife to my name and a dream in the final moments.
So, what did this completion mean for me? Well, RE7 is definitely a welcome return to survival horror and a great game… but the flaws have only become more apparent. Enemy variety and balancing sucks. Both visually and gameplay. The first person is neat but the running speed feels really SLOW. Almost no skippable cutscenes. The flashlight usage is determined by the character, not you.
SPOILERS: I’d also like to take the time to note that the complaints that RE8 advertised with Lady D despite only being only the first quarter(ish) of the game… but the same can be said for Jack. They both serve a pursuer role and are dealt with in a very early stage of the game (with a slight but minimal exception with a later RE7 segment). Mostly just saying this because it seems like a very common complaint but RE7 would have a similar issue but isn’t held to the same standard.
Decided to take my chance on the PC version in anticipation for RE9. Quite happy this managed to run on my system. Looking as good as it does it still manages to run well on a 1070 GPU. In no way does this replace the original but it absolutely creates a fun new way to re-experience with fast pace action, satisfying parry system, and a wonderfully chosen cast of actors. Despite choosing a darker and debatable more serious tone, the game is surprisingly faithful to most of it's set pieces and the changes that are made were fairly welcome. I do think we don't get enough interactions with the major villains and miss the back and forth from the original. New weapons can be hit or miss. Bolt thrower (essentially the mine thrower) is nearly an essential piece in a run while others can feel under performing or useless. Though very few and far in between I have died due to falling through the map or a boss triggering phase causing me to get killed off screen.
Genuinely an amazing game and the PC version is not only efficient in terms of hardware requirements but has great potential for continued support from fans.
Fairly standard match-3 with a furry focus. I was fairly surprised to find that it is not one greater story but a collection of smaller stories that imitate very stereotypical scenes. You'll read through a section which is followed by a match 3 segment where you must meet certain requirements to continue the story (clear x types of tiles, exceed a score, etc.) Once a criteria is met you can then choose to go down that story path or try for an alternate one. Unfortunately, once all criteria are met you are forced to pick even if you have extra moves to use. Some of the criteria are pretty hard to get and almost demand you use your limited power ups which can only be bought through the shop with earned money. The scenes themselves are mostly solid with decent animations and limited voice work. A couple of scenes have some wonky perspectives and art but overall do well.
Pleasantly surprised, though I wish the match 3 felt more engaging and rewarding instead of relying on what feels like luck of the drop. Otherwise a pretty okay game.
March 2026
RE9, FFXIV, and That Was Pretty Much It
From a very casual standpoint this is very similar to Guilty Gear X2 #Reload in that it has a similar story mode, arcade mode, and cast of characters. This seemingly has a few more characters added that even get their own selectable (albeit shorter) story chapters. I could not say if the story sections are particularly different as I ended up playing different characters and the final boss was the same for arcade though I did try to play all the bonus characters and as many side characters as I felt comfortable with. I will note that the sound design wasn’t particularly great. Cutscene audio was crunchy and some move sounds sounded like a jet flying overhead.
Recommend? Yes, As far as I can tell, this is the definitive way to play the XX series of GG.
Fighter of Choice: I-No
Resident Evil Requiem
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When I first saw details of the game I thought it was simply a combination of the classic RE games with the more action focus it took on post RE4. However, this game is so much more and is best described as “The Greatest Hits of Resident Evil”. It takes so much from the entire series including many of the non-numbered and spin offs. Truly, it is a game for the fans despite some having very strong preferences though it is not without issue.
Bad news first, always. Much like most of the RE series, the story can be a little ridiculous. So much so that some of it is tied together by a single or few threads barely keeping it together so long as you don’t think about it too much. Though I didn’t nearly have as much of a problem with the ending or reasoning behind it, I can at least admit that there is quite a bit of happenstance that drives the plot. Though I do think there was room for one more boss fight at the end (if you know, you know). Despite being the length of a RE game, it does FEEL short. This is largely because the game is split between to gameplay styles. Grace’s classic Survival Horror RE gameplay and Leon’s action-focused “modern” RE gameplay. This leaves each only getting half of a game’s worth of each type of play and leaves us wanting more… So much so that I almost think to scratch that itch the game would have to be nearly double a normal RE game’s playtime just to feel satisfied with the time spent with both types. In a way it’s not a bad thing to want more since the game clearly does both well but even just a bit more could have gone a long way. The UI is not great, often using very similar colors in maps and inventory giving a very muddled look. Inventory also has some misleading item notifications, questionable item stacks, and lacks a long time feature of being able to combine/use while grabbing an item. My greater and later critique is with Leon’s section. Specifically, not only can weapons not be stored in a box for later playthroughs (or even a current one) but upgrades also feel greatly limited. Doubly so for any bonus weapons as they have no upgrades at all. I enjoy seeing how a weapon performs as you go on, so getting a bonus weapon only for it to not evolve in any way feels… dissatisfying.
The GOOD. Well, like I said it is the greatest hits and boy do they hit. First off, I love having new protags (and antags/characters in general) in Survival Horror games so much that I’d argue that a survival horror series almost needs to be somewhat of an anthology of characters in that world. Grace Ashcroft has very quickly become one of my favorite RE characters. Her fear is so real and her struggling to get through this nightmare is quite immersive, yet her perseverance and quick thinking fits her character so well with her background. She probably has some of the most genuine dialogue (in general and with other characters) I have ever heard in the series and the voice actress deserves every commendation for her performance. Grace’s survival horror experience is such a nice return to form and I loved exploring her areas trying to figure out the best way to manage everything with interesting and diverse enemies that all have unique little quirks.
When Grace’s struggle for survival chapters end you get a palate cleansing moment to kick ass as Leon S. Kennedy. He retains a lot of his capabilities from 4 Remake but is enhanced as you can parry so much and durability is mitigated through on the spot (free) repairs to your axe. You get the greater inventory space, over the top melee, and diverse weapons to slay through your enemies. Admittedly it sometimes feels like Leon doesn’t get the same diversity in enemies; it is easily dismissable due to the diverse over the top situations Leon gets into. Leon’s story still has plenty of weight and you can feel his development stemming from RE2 to now as he carries his past with him. Victor proves to be a competent villain who not only stands on his own but shows interesting goals.
Recommend? Abso-abso-absolutely! Even with the issues it is an absolutely fantastic game made for the fans of RE. I only hope that the expansion content continues to do it justice and gives us the “more” that we’ve/I’ve been craving.
Starting by using Valentine’s Day to replay this I took a huge detour until March to finally reclear this game that is locked to the 360/PS3 consoles of gaming. Having replayed it… I realize why there is little attempt to bring it forward. Though I do appreciate the comic getting an adaptation with neat powers and genuine moments (like the apartment scene with Jenny), the game is really rough and aged poorly.
The rough parts are real rough. For starters the graphics are pretty generic and Jackie looks a bit like a dope but it’s not a total deal breaker either. The gameplay is a bit wonky with targeting often needing heavy aim assist and powers often having some level of inaccuracy or awkward controls. Navigation is by far the worst as there is little reason to let you free roam when really it mostly entails you triggering several loading screens just to confusingly ride/navigate the subway. It doesn’t help that the game gives you little direction as is and objectives aren’t always clearly labeled. Your minions have pretty terrible AI and often fail to do the task assigned to them outside of more scripted sections. You get a multitude of side quests that seemingly yield no rewards and only further waste time as you must travel the subway and smaller areas much much more. The collectibles and rewards you do get are mostly just numbers with weird little conversations followed by concept art unlocks.
Recommend? As much appreciation as I had for the game… it is a hard game to recommend, especially when the sequel does so much more and better.
January 2026
In Progress:
FFXI
FFXIV (DT Updates)
Dropped:
Darkest Dungeon DLCs
If Super Mario World was turned into a time trial racing game (not like Mario Kart). Each stage you platform across and finish laps before other delivery workers while avoiding various hazards and collecting powerups. There are multiple “endings” with only one ending being available at the start before allowing you to branch off to other stages.
I say “endings” but they really aren’t much of anything other than the true end. Also, this game is brutal. It’s timer is very unforgiving and many maps will have exceedingly difficult setups including dead ends you wouldn’t know about until you get there. You can’t go backwards really because it’s autoscrolling and though you do have a dash power to go through some objects it does need to charge up so you can easily become in a bad spot in a bad way. This is not to mention that some have ridiculous challenges that require you to collect all the gems which can easily be lost with damage and thus making the run of that stage an easy fail. Some of your contenders will have crazy advantages too including just being much faster and you gotta rely on their poor pathing to stand a chance. Since multiple endings have you go through some of the same stages, you’ll be replaying them a lot including if you need the true ending which requires, the later unlocked, collectibles.
I originally became so frustrated that I was gonna get the first ending and call it, but I for whatever masochistic reason decided to press on and eventually got the true ending… though I dare not even try to get the completion as it will require multiple players.
Recommend? Not in the slightest. It’s difficulty alone and wonky setups is agitating to say the least.
Beyond Divinity
Captured by a Demon Lord, you are bound to a Death Knight who you must work with to escape their clutches. This is to say you no longer control just the single character like in Divine Divinity, but both yourself and the Death Knight. This is a bit challenging at first, especially since you start out in a very long dungeon with no genuine shops or ways to farm. Instead you are pitted against unseemly traps and hordes of monsters. If you do somehow manage to get through enough you’ll unlock the Battlefield which will act as sort of a leveling and shop hub. These Battlefields reset every chapter and must find keys to unlock. The combat is a standard CRPG and you can invest skill points to add skills and stats to your class. However, not all skills are readily available and either must be found or bought. At the very least if you did invest in a skill that doesn’t turn out to be what you need or no longer need, you can reset the points… at a cost of gold depending on your level. Though you would have two inventories, the Death Knight requires very little equipment as their death armor is permanently bound.
Story wise, the game is… okay. It tries to incorporate some of the humor from the first but often returns to the same jokes (if I have to hear another moment about the Death Knight and rats…). The twists and progressions also aren’t very interesting and trying to progress quests is a pain since there are no markers and identifying different NPCs can be difficult. I found the maps to often be way to big as you’ll navigate quite a bit and find very little other than enemies. Performance wise, the game can be a bit buggy. Loading screens have color issues, alt tabbing can cause the game to shrink and maybe even crash. Even with certain afflictions cast upon you, the game could crash. This happened to me when trying to level for the final battle so much that I had to ignore the remaining Battlefield dungeon areas. This sucked because the final battle is absolutely brutal.
Recommend? It just feels kinda like a mess and though I’m not a huge CRPG player… this definitely is one of the less interesting ones.
Body Pay "OMG! The girl with the big titties is too hitting on me!"
New characters, similar situation. You work a store that allows the use of a body pay app. Though this game tries to create a more cohesive overall story (rather than the individual scenarios of the first), it is definitely an after thought as characters have very little relevance considering the situations they find themselves in. The scenes themselves are a bit awkward too as a lot of the actions were either not my thing or roughly animated. Despite the streamlined progression, it felt like there were far less scenes at that.
Puzzles are no longer the rhythm like game from last, but instead a match-2 where each girl will have a unique ability to help you win. Often stressful as you must careful remove the remaining tiles without putting yourself in a spot where you can no longer proceed. So, more difficult but far less enjoyable. In the main story the match-2 allows you to rotate and let the pieces fall into place better. These can very much feel impossible to predict as planning for multiple columns and rows can be a bit much. This is especially true for the puzzle mode which has you go through the same 20 puzzles with one of the 3 girls as a partner. These puzzles not only do not allow rotation, but get incredibly difficult for literally no reward despite the stage selection having color coded tiles that would make you think otherwise.
Recommend? This lacks the endorphin pumping puzzle action of the first game while providing less enjoyable scenes and a pointless puzzle mode that only makes you suffer the feeling of defusing a bomb.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
Though in a lot of ways it’s just more of the first game (well that can be a problem in it’s own ways) it often fails to capture the same magic. No real improvements gameplay wise. Some nice variety in level aesthetics but some get to be really short and often don’t feel different in terms of approach. AI can get pretty weird and will go out of their ways to find a body that they should have no clue about. As for plot I wasn’t nearly as engaged or interested and a lot of dialogue isn’t nearly as entertaining. Sadly still no real controller support (though that appears to be with this series of ports). The second to last mission is far more interesting than the actual final.
Recommend? It’s alright but easily the weakest. Especially at the time, games need to improve upon the last and this was more of the same.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
So, this is the MGS3 (both in number and quality). Massive improvements to stealth, gameplay, and mechanics. A gripping story with a great blend of seriousness and humor. Fantastic level designs, interesting mission objectives, and it even has bonus objectives (though that only appears to affect ranking which offers little else than to stroke your ego). We also get loadout options (though it’s mostly assault vs stealth) to give a greater variety to playstyles. There are more than a few times I had to question how the game expected me to proceed with me and some wonky alarm triggers. You will also have to do a lot of patching to get the game to run well on modern setups and the NVG always bugs out until you alt tab a few times (at least until the next mission or opening the game again).
Recommend? Very much so, I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t get better than this for the Splinter Cell series.
Revisit
Happened upon this game so long ago by recommendation of a video rental place after it’s release. This would be my first Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture game and it is simply to say… I loved it. It’s a lot of dumb fun with pop and zombie references galore. The main character is similar to that of Legally Blonde, seemingly ditzy and questionable focus but instead of progressing towards becoming a well-achieved Law School graduate, she instead is a kickass Zombie Hunter (among other things) and cheerleader.
This game is chock full of charm that the remake misses out a bit on. It’s chock full of colorful and creative visuals, an absolutely loaded soundtrack, great character themes, and a pretty decent hack-slash combat game. The combat can be a bit clunky and trying to get multiple decapitations (incentivized by the fact that this is how you get the better currency) is often difficult due to a lack of health bars and the inability to space well. Bosses are generally well designed with interesting arenas and mechanics and generally work well with the overall theme. There’s quite a few unique mini-games, and though not always well implemented they can be a nice change of pace. Tip: Turn off the auto aim (it absolutely works against you). The game also features unlockable skills, costumes, a customizable playlist, and allows you to submit your scores for ranking.
Recommend? Gonna be really hard to find and frankly I can’t speak for the remake (it ran poorly on my PC and GM is not known for good ports and is definitely missing a lot of the soundtrack and collabs). HOWEVER, this game is an actual gem and I’ll never let it escape my clutches again. Play it anyway you can.
Silent Hill F
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Preface: I played this on hard combat and hard puzzle, so this may affect my review of the game and you may not have the same experience.
Background and Visuals Many were quick to criticize this game due to it’s change of locale. A change very much welcomed considering how many times we have dredged over the same town and really this wouldn’t be the first game to go outside of the town of Silent Hill anyways. What matters to me is that it has the general atmosphere, feel, and story elements that any great Silent Hill has. For the most part, it does lean in that direction… but it does have issues. The general premise is that you are a high school student in the 1960s that is suddenly overrun by monsters. Between surviving and shifting between worlds, you’ll need to do your best to figure out exactly what is going on. The general atmosphere is great, It’s still very much a fog filled town colored washed in despair. Though there will be a bit of grey, a recurring red color will really help abstract from an otherwise washed out world. The otherworld is a bit darker but at least does feature prominent Japanese mythology and cultural foundations to give a lot of character to your exploration. Though I have yet to play with a headset, I do find the audio design doesn’t quite compete with that of the SH2 Remake or the older Silent Hills in general.
Story: Story and combat is where the fundamentals begin to shake a bit. Admittedly the story is very much the abstract experience you can get from other SH games like SH2. You’ll often be wondering up till the very end (and even after) what is really going on and what do various things mean. The game does give you a lot of clues and you can get some sort of idea on the various themes and happenings. HOWEVER, the full story is hidden by multiple endings, which requires multiple playthroughs, and then you can get the true ending… similar to that of Nier (more like original/Replicant than Automata as the future playthroughs will have very little difference in the actual progression for most). This is a bit annoying as this effectively means you are a bit locked and will have to do a lot of replaying to get the full picture. For some games, this might not be so bad… but the combat in this game is a mixed bag.
Combat: First and foremost, combat is entirely melee. Not a terrible thing, we’ve seen this in games like SH: Origins and quite a few more incentivize melee… but the system in place is very rough. First, enemies won’t stagger unless you counter specifically counterable moves (shown by a certain effect). In fact, this is a primary way to deal reliable damager without trading. The problem with this is that some enemies have only one, if two, counterable moves while the non counterables could be fast attacks you won’t have much time to react to if you are looking for that one counter. Second, is that MELEE WEAPONS DEGRADE and you can only carry 3 at a time. Oddly enough it never became a huge issue as I was always willing to trade out weapons when needed or had repair kits but it’s always a frustrating experience. Third, is that enemy grabs must only be dodged (despite most areas being fairly combined) but they can not be resisted or reduced in damage… and believe me… they do a lot of damage. Fourth, is that your attacks will sometimes home in while other times you’ll just be smacking the ground… even after well timed dodges or blocks. Fifth, a lot of enemies just suck to deal with and often feel like they lack the intended engagement. The final issue is the inventory. SH has never been known for a strict inventory system like Resident Evil. This however is EXTREMELY limited which sucks due to the different number of items you can pick up and health is an extremely necessary resource.
Puzzles: Puzzles are fairly complex and often require some knowledge of Japanese mythology and old customs to excel (particularly with later difficulties). There is one particular puzzle in the field that I did not enjoy though this is more due to the punishment you get for failing rather than the puzzle itself… though the ability to misinterpret could have a bit of a marginal error.
Recommend? It’s tough, I do enjoy the new scenery and think there’s a lot of potential here. We get a very Silent Hill like story, great characters, genuine themes, good bosses, and some enjoyable encounters. However, the enemy design feels bad, the combat is inconsistent, and the required multiple playthroughs (especially due to the game progression not changing in between) the game is a bit grating.
I’m hoping my future playthroughs on easier difficulties (though I still have to do the hardest at some point) will make a much more enjoyable experience but combat wise I doubt it’ll change much.
December 2025
You’re a store clerk who has to scan enough items from their ludicrous shopping habits so that they can only pay using an app called Body Pay. Admittedly… the gameplay is a little more addicting than I’d like to admit. Just press the corresponding key for the item that comes your way but being able to do so in rapid succession almost puts you in a flow state and I found myself trying to get to ever higher combos and scores. After a few levels you get a story scene. They are fine, but sometimes lack adequate context or translation. The real bummer is that the final scene is just an image… all that build up and you don’t get a real final payoff which sucks because they often offer decent ideas just don’t allow you to follow through.
Recommend? Pretty cheap and embarrassingly addicting. Has some decent animations for what is available. Has questionable tastes and the MC is kind of rude.
Busty Idol Manor
Your husband has been brought back to life thanks to a wish, but now you have to run a brothel to complete your end of the bargain. Decent scenes but there’s just not much to the game. You pick the girl who’s working for the day and then choose the client for a specific scene. No scenes have any particular progression for choosing them again and the lewd meter/meetings do almost nothing. This sucks because in order to get endings you will have to repeat a lot of scenes to meet the quota and it is just… the same. The characters have some alright differences but not everyone gets the same amount of content which is a shame considering I was looking forward to one in particular.Also great googly moogly are those some massive mammaries… a bit too massive personally.
Recommend? Not really, scenes are alright but there just isn’t much to the game. Apparently this is a spin-off of an actual series, but I’ve never heard of it before. Devil Carnival. Has a cheating focus.
You loathe your boss and her acts of belittlement towards you. Yet, while trying a silly little spell at night you accidentally summon a succubus that looks JUST like her, and now are in a pact. Going forward you must house, feed, and grow affection for your new demonic housemate. This game is very similar to the Kaiju Princess games. In those you spend stamina daily to either grow your army, make money, conquer cities, or grow affection. It’s a balancing act, but in this it lacks the balance as you ONLY spend stamina to grow affection. This gameplay and lack of consistent variety makes this game VERY repetitive. As nice as the woman looks and with decent animation, it’s just too much of the same most of the time and you run out of reasons to spend money quite fast. Still, there is quality and some of the best moments aren’t of the lewd variety but wholesome when you grow enough affection and she does cute things for you. There is also a surprising bit of story put into this though it only really is present at the very end.
Recommend? Generally yes but be prepared for a slog in between clothing/scene unlocks.
Trying to get out of the ninja business you are tasked with going undercover to stop a drug ring in a nearby village. Unfortunately the path forward is wrought with deception and depravity that you’ll subject yourself to in order to get there. Outside of more scenes, the game doesn’t utilize any of the stats you gain other than lewdness and that barely affects the ending. As enjoyable as the scenes can be, it really lacks direction or fulfillment as far as progression. Mostly you are just looking for the heart signs in hope you reduce the amount of aimless wandering.
Recommend? It’s enjoyable enough but feels like a lot of ideas were cut even to the point of a missing scene entirely. Definitely get it on sale if you do decide to show interest.
Innocent Grape
Your character is doing everything they can to experience it rough but often ends up in “humorous” situations often not getting what she wants. The main girl is pretty cute and I like her design. Though I wished some scenes were more expanded they all animate pretty well and as stupid as they can be some of the situations were kinda funny. Though it does have a rough fetish focus the game does give advice to avoid such things in real life, albeit relatively generic advice. It’s a bit shorter than I would like, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
With the release of the movie so close I thought I’d finally check this out. You are a convict who will gain redemption after you pilot a fully sealed submarine and take pictures of key points in a blood ocean. Since you are fully sealed, you will need to utilize a map, coordinates, and a photograph camera to navigate the trenches. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest horror indie of all time, but it does really well in the atmosphere department. The uneasy claustrophobic feeling from the small submarine, the uneasiness as you must navigate without sight, and the mysterious sounds and vibrations that occur during your travel. It just really builds up the tension in such a nice way that it is better than any jumpscare out there.
Recommend? Absolutely and can only hope the movie is able to do it justice.
Battlestations: Midway
Command a variety of sea based vehicles in World War II combat. Though you’ll always be piloting a boat, submarine, or plane/jet your real friend will be the map as you can command each squadron to tasks. Let me tell you that this IS necessary as otherwise you will have drawn out encounters if not flat out losing. Unfortunately if you don’t do the hefty amount of tutorial levels (like I did) you’ll miss out on how to play and brute forcing it is not advised. More or less the game is FINE but the AI can be more than aggravating and I don’t really like how it handles some encounters. Luckily most levels are short and with the correct know how, you can finish them pretty easily… at least on Rookie/Easy.
Recommend? Not really. The sheer amount you have to learn is a bit egregious and the gameplay can often be flat out frustrating even with some knowledge.
Metroidvania with a medieval religious focus. I’ll be honest I didn’t fully understand the story and it talks in a very medieval fashion so I understood even less than I would normally. Basically everyone is big time sin and your path is meant to sort of pay off(?) the sin. The game was more fun than I expected though it has some issues in the controls department. Basically if you try to swing up while near a ladder you’ll climb the ladder instead. Similarly the down attack ability requires a normal attack first causing a pretty massive delay for an attack that barely has use as is. Lots of great bosses and the sort of rotoscope-looking art looks good. There are side quests but some have weird triggers and can be easily missed for doing what you should be doing in a metroidvania… and exploring/fighting bosses. Luckily most things aren’t missable but it’s still annoying when you are going for a 100% playthrough and it doesn’t explain well why it happened. Some bosses can also get pretty annoying with limited attack windows or mechanics but overall are fairly easy.
Recommend? Yes, I definitely enjoyed my time, the collabs, and the free DLC updates.
Bite sized metroidvania that has a lot of charm. Unfortunately that wears off as later end game progression will have some easily missable actions that don’t make a lot of sense in a modern mind set. The finale is also brutal with having a super meat boy styled series of levels and back to back bosses without a checkpoint.
Recommend? I’m a bit salty so I’ll probably say no, but there are other people that will definitely vouch for this.
I want to start out by saying the play time is a bit bloated due to me not understanding that you can use items on chests/curios to get better/consistent results. This game is brutal, it even gives you a message saying as much when you start the game. Recruit and ship out a group of 4 to various dungeons to find treasure and complete tasks in turn based combat dungeon exploration. However, the enemies often have a huge advantage and there are many mechanics that work against you including disease, lighting, insanity, and more. What little achievement you feel from conquering a dungeon is very quickly lost when you even lose a SINGLE party member as they are not only lost for good but you’ll have to retrain a whole new recruit if/when they appear. This isn’t too bad early to mid game, but late game when the dungeons get particularly cruel… it’s just completely disheartening and a slog since it takes time and gold that you will gain very little of.
Still working through the DLC and though I enjoy their themes… they also get a bit sluggish. Otherwise it’s decent enough if you don’t get too unlucky… but you will get unlucky VERY unlucky. A bit of a reluctant recommendation but a recommendation no less.
Great comic book-style aesthetic. Solid fighting mechanics though I found it pretty hard to master (I also just suck). Getting free DLC characters is also a huge plus. There is a story mode that has you level up a fighter of your choice as you fight across the city with varying difficulty of opponents all while being voiced and even has an arcade mode for even more character stories. Customizable colors for costumes, plenty of music, and even some mini-games. Only real downside is that Ronaldo is in the game.
Fighter of Choice: Preecha
Half-Life: Source
It’s half-life, I’m not sure what the difference between this and the other version is though it did seem more unstable as I ran into far more graphical glitches. Final battle aside, I did find my enjoyment of the game a bit more than last time. Definitely get the other version though as the issues seem far more common here.
If Devil May Cry had a rhythm focus you would get this. Every aspect of this game has charm. The vibrant cell shaded art style, how the entire world around you moves to the beat of the music, the quirky yet lovable characters, the music itself, great rhythm based combat, millions of references both from studio as well as pop culture, fantastic boss battles… it just all oozes charm and quality (which is why it’s crazy it got treated the way it did by the original publisher). Even if you are not good at rhythm games, you can still brute force your way through pretty easily but it does have a lot of tools to help you sync up if you want to maximize your gameplay. Unfortunately it does have it’s issues. Using the controller some inputs get easily bugged, though you can alt tab back and forth to fix it usually. Some characters do get some sudden developments but it’s relatively a minor issue.
Recommend? Absolutely, this game deserves every praise it gets and more.
Following a new protagonist, you get a probably more realistic scenario of mafia activities and crime. I.e. you won’t be wearing the pinstripes suits with the movie-like stereotypical mafia you get in the movies and a bit closer to that of the Sopranos. To be honest, the main character just wasn’t doing it for me and I miss the classic feel of the first game. If you are into GTA/GTA-like games this is probably more up your alley as it features more mechanics such as garages and more free roam aspects than the first. This also did NOT receive the same glow up as the first remake as it both does not look nearly as good nor does it perform particularly well. I’ve had this game crash repeatedly and when it’s not crashing there are some major graphical glitches that happen that literally shrink a part of the character’s head in cutscenes or stretch out faces to the extreme. Admittedly the banter between you and your friend Joe are really solid but the story otherwise is uninspiring. My biggest praise will be that the cars feel much better in this game and allow you to actually drift consistently. There are three expansions in this game and they all suck. The first two are just busy work score attack missions with almost no story. All of which aren’t made particularly well as they’ll give you ridiculous objectives while punishing you for nearly impossible criteria like citizen/police casualties.
It’s decent enough but the performance issues are just too much for what feels like an inferior game to the original.
Monica's Newlywed Life
Monica and her party were on their way to defeat the demon lord when they suddenly hear he was defeated. Marrying a party member, Monica now attempts to settle with them in an overcrowded town but needs a million gold to stay there. Taking on various jobs she risks corruption in the pursuit of money and a new home.
Frankly, this is more or less the same as any other game with a similar premise. The perks are as follows: Other party members are now available for more scenes, generally a greater variety in scenes, it allows the male character some redemption/payback (though still at his expense), and the ability to change bust size at will.
All in all enjoyable content but don’t expect leaps and bounds in difference between games with a similar premise (i.e. Leanne’s Slice of Life)
You are a voidling that successfully escapes the void into the real world. Now with all these new experiences at your feet, you run for your freedom from the ever encroaching void. An alright little puzzle platformer that has a nice puzzle mechanic to it. The puzzle mechanic is that you gain colors to use on the world around you augmenting movement or abilities. This includes things like faster movement, slower movement, bouncing, etc. You’ll use these colors to traverse the world while avoiding both the void and the creatures it summons. Another interesting thing is that the narrator is constantly questioning your right to existence in a way that is similar to how one might feel empty and self doubt. It’s more than relatable and sort of a good message to conquer these thoughts for those who play. Some puzzles are a bit wonky, it felt, and enemy hitboxes are just far too big. Still, fun enough with decent progression though I hear the hard mode is far too brutal.
Side scrolling beat ‘em up featuring cute girls with big weapons.The game has a surprising level of depth with lots of different movesets, skills, great pixel animations, and even foreground to background transitions. Story is there and it's fine but I didn't really pick up on everything and not sure if different characters get different stories. Some battles are a bit rough and maybe they are balances for co-op but as a single play through you can very easily get stuck in a stun lock. Also, moves/abilities aren’t particularly explained so you’ll have to do a lot of testing to see what works.
Revisit (originally played on console). My feelings towards this game pretty much the same as the last time I played it though now I did get the co-op experience. Overall, still too grindy and the mini-arenas are too repetitive. The create-a-character and malleable classes are neat but offer little for gameplay. Will warn you in advance, outside of the new class in one of the DLC… do not get them.
Continuing from the true ending of the last game, Caroline now attempts to get help for her sister only to end up in another messed up situation. It continues it’s survival horror genre while adding new things like fully animated faces, better voice acting, and upgradeable weapons. Combat is more or less the same but with a greater variety of both enemies and weapons. Puzzles are all generally solid, often giving you the tools you need within the game, but there are two (from memory) that still puzzle me to the intended solution or that may require additional knowledge not given in game (religious based reference). Bosses are much improved as they often have some mechanic that involves more than just running in a circle and shooting. Oh and you can move and shoot/reload too. Enjoyed the mystery of the story though some plots felt sidelined. It might have been that it’s a newer game and I haven’t upgraded my PC in a while but the game was pretty buggy. Anytime I launch the game or go into a completely new area it takes a WHILE to load and even then sometimes lighting will not load in right away either. Sometimes enemies and/or myself can get stuck on geometry and anytime I go in and out of my inventory my character would stutter trying to move until I gave it some extra time. There’s also a later area that I loath due to infinitely spawning enemies which in a resource dependent game… not great.
Really enjoyed my experience overall but the game needs some serious fixes.
Kind of an odd entry. Instead of following John Turok (I don’t know the actual name) you get to choose between either a female or male character to play through this micro-sized game. Each character has their own traversal mechanic and weapons though they’ll be mostly traversing the same levels. This is probably why the game is so short as they likely expected you to play both characters… but the game is still insanely short. Only a small number of chapters each with the smallest of levels… and I mean small. Some levels are as short as a couple of hallways and need to load each one separately. That being said, the final chapter is absurdly long and feels really padded in an annoying way. Enemy AI, though hard hitting, often feel dumb as they will shoot a few inaccurate shots before running forward and repeating. It’s kind of a shame because I wanted to like this more as the gun play feels decent and the new characters are a neat idea. Not to mention the music is not nearly as oppressive in this as the last one was.
Pokemon: Black 
I originally skipped this as I was moving away from Pokemon games at the time and (admittedly) the garbage and ice cream pokemon didn’t do any favors for my interest. Now, after all these years, I have finally played the one pokemon generation I missed… and I feel totally validated for judging this game as I did. Though it has neat things like a modular first gym, I found my experience with the game grating. There was just an unusual amount of RNG working against me where enemy pokemon would critical hit me… A LOT. Literally, a level 10 rock pokemon hit three crits in a row, I couldn’t believe it. Also, the electric gym sucks every step of the way including the absurdly difficult gym boss it has where the pokemon will do massive damage even against types it shouldn’t be effective to. I have eased up on my problem with the ice cream pokemon but honestly I didn’t care for about 90% of the pokemon introduced in this game and that’s not just the literal garbage pokemon either. The pokemon I did like I often found were weak and/or always had common type disadvantages (also why does every pokemon know a dark move except for the dark cat pokemon… it also sucks to be a fan of ghost pokemon in this gen…). I didn’t care much for the villains of this game though it did have a more unique ending. What really amazes me is what the game does with it’s visuals. It totally takes advantage of the DS and offers great ways to be 3D moreso than the 3DS (and onward) Pokemon games ever did. I can’t comment on the music as I usually play these games on mute.
Team: Serperior, Glavantula, Krokorok, Chandelure, Venipede, Gothitelle (how is this not a Dark Pokemon)
Resident Evil: Gaiden
When I first tried this I ended up softlocking myself. Thanks to a recent event I found myself giving this another chance and finally was able to beat yet another Resident Evil Game with only RE Outbreak left on my list. Conceptually this game is kind of neat. First off, a Resident Evil game on the Gameboy is odd but we also get a Barry and Leon protagonist double whammy on top of a unique battle system. Encountering a zombie puts you in a battle mode where you go first person and they approach you layer by layer. A bar appears with a constantly moving tile that when pressed attempts an attack. Basically line that tile with the enemies hitbox and you’ll get a hit and their hitbox gets bigger as they get closer but you also run the risk of getting hit. Each party member can be swapped mid battle and attack with an equipped weapon. The problem is that enemies can respawn but you still have limited resources meaning you can actually soft lock yourself especially since the knife can’t reach past the immediate layer and some enemies will attack from afar (or need to be pushed all the way back). Items also do not appear on screen but instead getting near an item will trigger an exclamation where you can then pick it up… so you’ll easily wander places not knowing if anything is there at all and potentially wasting resources on… nothing. The story isn’t particularly remarkable though we do feature a new sort of bioweapon and feels kinda similar to the overall B.O.W. of RE4. The music is also SUPER basic and honestly considered muting it during the more stressful moments. The difference between the style used for Barry's portrait and Leon's is kinda bizarre. It almost looks like they were made separately into two different games and then never coalesced the style.
Recommend? It’s an interesting experience but not executed very well. If by some crazy how you do run into this game, you can probably just ignore it unless you really want to experience everything in the series.
High on Life
0
3
6
16
I kind of know what to expect by now from these devs and the humor they strive for but man oh man was I just bored the entire time. If you aren’t familiar the devs brandish the Justin Roiland style of humor where someone just rambles incessantly (with maybe a 50 percent swear rate) for a very extended period of time in a way to feel like every line of dialogue is off the cuff rather than pre-written. That plus the “oh so random and shock factor” ideas. Though I enjoyed early Rick and Morty I just found this humor to be tiring over time. The gameplay itself isn’t nearly as creative as it makes itself seem. Sure, you’re guns are sentient and talk but the gun play is just so slow and most of the guns didn’t feel particularly good to shoot. Level designs are mostly fine but they are just a tad too big where even in hub areas it feels like it takes forever to get around. Bosses feel a bit jank and even have weird hit boxes though I’m pretty sure your character is far wider than they look.
Recommend? I think you’ll already know if it’s for you, but it’s definitely not for me.
November 2025
What some might dismiss as only a lewd Yuri VN are missing out on what I consider an incredibly enjoyable and well-written story. In fact, it may be placed among my favorites thus far (others including Analogue: A Hate Story and the Fault series, for reference). It's character and world building are simply fantastic. As expected, the growth of the main characters do a lot and the relationship form feels genuine and endearing. However, the side characters are just as well written and really give the world life. They are well defined without becoming generic tropes. Characters like Effie are lovable and make me laugh, yet there are just as great antagonists that you love to hate, and characters that are somewhere in between.
The art is beautiful and befitting of the Victorian setting. Many backgrounds are given very distinct and almost noble looks while characters have a softer style yet with distinct coloring. Hearing the piano played in a classical style while reading in the befitting terminology of Victorian England did wonders to immersion. Though there are a few scenes where the author did mix some modern terminology as apparently the more accurate terms could be a bit… silly in comparison. So though they do stand out, it is understandable and very few at that. That being said, the writing is still amazing and does well with descriptions and dialogue in a digestible manner. This is to say the VN allows the reader to immerse themselves while still leaving room to read between the lines and even some mystery.
What have those particularly raunchy scenes themselves? Honestly they feel far less lewd in comparison and feel more in tune with the feelings of the characters. Though certainly spicy, they work far more as an amplification to the relationship/story rather than an out of place reward for the reader.
Recommend? Very much so. I cannot stress on how great the writing is. Dialogue, exposition, world/character building. It is all just so good. So much so that I kind of wish I knew what happened with some other characters/plot lines but maybe that mystery is part of the appeal as well.
Pros:
+Genuine Dialogue
+Great Writing Overall
+Fantastic and Distinct Art
+Music and terminology suits the Victorian England Aesthetic
+Main and side characters feel well developed and unique.
Cons:
-A few modern words were thrown in (though it is understandable and very rare)
-The fates of some characters remain a mystery
-No male PNGs (for those that may want this)
Though this game will release more content, I did finally manage to overcome a long standing achievement regarding one of the oldest challenge towers. Should be smooth sailing from here.
A kind of plain platformer but really shines due to the cultural focus it has on native tribes of Alaska. The platforming is mostly alright and, unless you have a co-op partner, has you controlling two characters. Though the AI will take control of one to follow you, you must switch between the two to overcome obstacles. The AI does it’s best but there are moments it kind of freaks out and can even cause the character to die due to poor pathing. Which leads to the sincerely awful noises the surviving character makes when the human character dies. It’s just a bit too high pitched and whiney. Though the gameplay is nothing special, the focus on the native tribes’ mythology for the story and the rewards of documentary videos really gives the game it’s charm. Despite the game using subtitles for the narrator, it really needs it for the actual documentaries as I often had trouble hearing the people talk.
Recommend? Generally yes, simply for the fact that it shines a light on an otherwise unknown tribe. Might be a good simple co-op game for those non-game adept.
Though not quite return to form, I did enjoy this much more than SW2 despite all the issues. We get a less confident Wang this time around as he recently suffered a major loss. However, back on his path for redemption we get more fast paced gameplay with a modern boomer shooter makeover. We now get grappling hooks, wall running, and a variety of weapons to cycle through. Similar to the newer DOOMs we get a glory kill mechanic. However, it’s not simply killing your enemies in style but also provides unique tools to use against your enemies. It’s my favorite part of the game and a good way to set itself apart especially since the original had an array of tools/items for you to use. Unfortunately not all tools are equal and some feel downright useless.
Enemies and arenas can be pretty hit or miss. While you get your pretty standard mobs, you can adversely get some very annoying and pace breaking adversaries that take the fun right out as you have to sit and wait for an opening. Arenas often feel too enclosed or just poorly set up. There are a fair share of bugs. The one I specifically kept running into is reloads and weapon swapping causing weapons to not fire for longer than usual. This would often get me killed and far more annoying than it has any right to be. There were also moments where enemies would stop spawning but not let me progress. I did not particularly care for a lot of the characters in the game and everything often felt kind of mushed together. It really just needed to focus on the combat and not worry about every little gimmick it has in store.
Recommend? Honestly it’s kind of fun when it lets it be and definitely think we are going in the right direction if there were to be anymore. The bugs are the straws that really move this past the non-recommended line unfortunately.
A sort of upgraded/remade version of Boris and the Dark Survival. Those not familiar with BatDS, it is a spin-off isometric procedurally generated fetch quest game. The original did not have much focus. You would go to a floor, collect the necessary items, maybe get a collectible, escape. It’s really simple, kind of unfair, and very boring. This upgrade now gives more of a progression system, some new minigames, and actual stand-alone level areas. What makes the previous iteration and this unfair is that you are constantly being hunted by the invincible ink demon (or relating boss). There are two things to note, one the layout of any level is randomly generated so you can very easily get stuck in a long hallway with a dead end and no where to hide. The second is that the moment you grab the last necessary item, you WILL be chased. Meaning, yet again, you can very easily be cornered with very little response to do. To add to the nuisance your sprint, blocks, and attacks all use an ink gauge that runs out with use. So general navigation can easily be cumbersome particularly with the random/limited ink refill stations. I’d also like to note it’s incredibly stupid you have to worry about your ink gauge when you are in your hub area. Enemies have inconsistent stun phases and fighting more than one can lead to wonky encounters. Collectibles being a random drop added to the fact that the containers they are found in are also randomly generated is just… so awful. All bosses that you can fight are the same and there is no depth to engagement.
Recommend? The Bendy series has been one disappointment after another and this is no exception.
An interesting little point-and-click adventure that has you control a bulb boy in an increasingly horrifying world. You’ll utilize your unique physiology as well as the world around you to get around, solve puzzles, and defend yourself. Most puzzles are pretty straight forward and even if they aren’t, the game makes any interactable items easily distinguishable (outside of a few exceptions). The most impressive bit about this game is how clean both the art and animations are for this game. They look really great though often it is stuck in a green scale. Note deaths can be pretty gruesome.
Recommend? A fairly enjoyable, if not quick, adventure with a simply odd game.
Remade and modernized open world game that has you experience a very classic version of the Mafia in the 1930s. First thing is first, this game looks stunning and performs just as well. Water, environment, characters, all of it looks simply fantastic. Despite being open world, the story mode is actually very to the point. Chapter starts and so does the mission. No driving around between different characters to get missions to drive all the way across the map to drive back, etc. In fact, any non-essential driving can be skipped with special options.Finish the mission, get cutscene, chapter ends, repeat. It’s great. There is an open world option after finishing the first chapter, though I don’t know if you can do any story within that mode. Characters are great, the story feels very focused, and plenty of “greatest hits” when it comes to Mafia content. Classic mode is fun with a healthy amount of challenges. Even past the great graphics, the world feels very immersive. Guns and combat feel consistently good, though melee is a bit basic.
The driving is a bit rough, which makes sense considering cars of that time probably didn’t handle well. However, this can be a problem in missions that require precise driving and your opponents get to drive perfectly. The pacing at the end does fall apart a bit as a lot of stuff just starts to happen one after another while some characters really just kind of feel underutilized.
Recommend? Yes, I haven’t played the original but there is a clear effort put into this game that just made it far better than I could have imagined. So much so that it puts later remakes to shame.
Mine, shoot, sell, get better guns/upgrades, and venture further to get the parts required to fix your ship. It’s incredibly simple and can be weirdly enjoyable at times when you're able to just speed through areas, collecting what you need and teleporting out. A lot of the good gear is drop dependent and you’ll often hit progression walls where enemies will just delete you. The overall premise is not really my thing however and the sort of endless and repeating architecture/enemies gets old and the final areas can feel insurmountable.
Recommend? Honestly, as much as it’s not my thing. It’s definitely worth the price.
Boomer Shooter turned Looter Shooter. Though my choice in difficulty likely made things unnecessarily spongy, I really just had a not very good time. There were times where even with supposedly good gear I was throwing my dead bodies at a wall until it breaks. The constant loot management was exhausting. There was just so much for every little thing. You had weapons, weapon augments, skill augments, co-op augments, etc. Just way too much for being such a sudden shift to the genre.The fast paced gameplay was nice, especially with the newly implemented dash. Instead of our demonic friend from the first, we get a new female friend stuck in our head. There is some constant back and forth that goes between the two but I found it kind of weird they made her so “catty”. With this new hub system you can now accept side missions to get rewards, money, and exp. However, you can only accept one at a time which is really annoying. Skills are often underwhelming so most skill points feel worthless. Story is a bit everywhere.
Recommend? It’s not bad for what it is and it’s probably better at a lower difficulty and with friends. The complexity of the drops and skills was just too much for me though.
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage
A mixed review that leans positive. This is for the 30th Anniversary Edition
It's a great functioning fighter with grounded combat and a wide range of characters. The three button scheme is simple yet leaves room for incredible technicality and depth. This version includes MOST of the past costume DLCs, functional online, classic arcade, and a new World Tour mode. World Tour is a great offline mode that simulates Ranked with titles, promotion matches, and even costume unlocks. Plenty of nice extras including the ability to change music. Visually great with some blockiness.
The bad? Well, let's be real.. this is nearly a 20 year old game that, although appreciated has received updates. Unfotunately it does not include DLCs such as the Tekken costume set, nor the 30th anniversary DLCs such as Dural. World Stage can be a bit grindy. Not just to rank up but the challenges often include doing some moves over 500 times let alone the hours and and amount of characters it expects you to play.
Recommend? All in all, a solid entry in an often overlooked fighting series. Let's hope the revitalization from this game contributes to the upcoming sequel for the better
Character of choice: Brad Burns
It’s more of the same from the first one, but with new levels, challenges, and characters/outfits to play. Any other changes than that I could not say, just more of your irresponsible father having you roll up objects and make new stars/planets. There are some co-op exclusive missions which is annoying for me, but probably good for those with another set of hands.
Recommend? It’s funny, cute, and most definitely odd.
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
It’s a multiplayer only game though I couldn’t tell you how it relates to Wolfenstein. I tried joining a few servers but they were either these hacked xp grind fests and/or had extremely high ping and lag.
Recommend? No.
Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
Yet another way to play the original RE game but with some new twists. Still rocking the polygon graphics, the game now features a “Rebirth Mode” which is similar to the “Arranged Mode” from the Director’s Cut where it changes up enemy and item spawns but now includes unique puzzles that utilize the DS distinct features. This includes using both the touch screen and the microphone. We even get more voice lines to accommodate the new interactions. Even combat is slightly changed with the knife now being a button press rather than an inventory slot. A change largely made for both convenience and the new first person knife minigame that can trigger when entering some doors and even some bosses. Also, new costumes! Outside of the Remake, it’s probably my favorite way to experience the original game.
Unfortunately, the flaws are with the tech of the time. Some touch screen puzzles that involve going in circles aren’t always read really well (especially if your screen is scratched) and can just be kind of clumsy in general. POV knife minigame can take some time to get used to, can be repetitive when triggered frequently, and IS required to progress. There are also no noticeable upgrades to the visuals and performance meaning the water area still struggles a bit frame wise.
RE:commend? Absolutely, though finding both the system and the game these days are probably pretty rare.
October 2025
A sort of analog horror where you watch a kids tv show to uncover horrifying secrets. The interaction between watching the tapes and being able to interact with them and the world around you is pretty neat. There is unfortunately not much backtracking as moving onto the next tape will remove previous tapes and bar your way for past puzzles, but it’s sort of the idea to start a new game with the knowledge you have from a previous run. Scares are decent enough and the uncanny and analog horror to build suspense.
Recommend? Yes, a decent and short game with reasonable enough puzzles… though some secrets may require a guide as there is some out of the box thinking.
Captain Firehawk and the Laser Love Situation
Another Deep Space waifu-like, another disappointment. I saw the reviews for this but was still drawn in by the 90’s anime style. That’s all it really has going for it though as the game really fails on all parts. Levels feel repetitive, all bosses recycle the same attacks, no particularly engaging music, boring animation, and awful writing. The writing in particular is bad as it will often have characters repeat almost entirely what the other person said feeling a bit like AI scripts and even then the actual exchanges are boring immature exchanges. Also, unlike DSW you HAVE to destroy all of the clothes before defeating the boss or you just lose. It’s really annoying as you are just casually buying time until the camera brings you to the spots you missed.
Recommend? 90’s anime aesthetic aside, the game is just bad.
Well… this game took me over completely… With the release of Hades II I thought I would give the first game a try. After all, SuperGiant Games always did solid work with amazing art. Though the rogue-like aspect always threw me off until now. Man, this was addictive. Engaging gameplay with a multitude of weapons and abilities at your disposal. The various boons you could get from the gods helped vary the gameplay, though some did feel mismanaged. Even with the limited number of bosses I couldn’t stop myself from immediately starting another run, just one more room, just gotta see what I can get, what dialogue I can trigger, quests complete, and what modifiers I can overcome with which weapons. Though this is rogue-like/llte it is very much on the “lite” side as you carry over a lot of progress and bare minimum can advances quests without even finishing a run. Speaking of dialogue… there is SO MUCH. Like a lot a lot for every character, for ways you do runs, weapons, boons, etc. All voice acted brilliantly, mind you. Each character is stylishly designed and matches their voices well.
Recommend? Despite the low boss variety and occasional confusing quest progression, it is a crazy addictive game that will have you invested in both it’s gameplay and characters.
10/10 Would go to the Underworld again. Need Nyx, Meg, Alecto, and/or Than in my life (or most of the cast really).
Clock Tower: Rewind
0
4
7
5
Classic Point and Click horror adventure that has you running from a scissor man in an unknown building. The sprite work is pretty smooth and surprisingly effective in the horror sense. It’s pretty easy to get softlocked, particularly on the first time through where you run into a dead end. This is where the “Rewind” feature comes into play but I often found that by the time I’m at a dead end… the rewind just doesn’t go far back enough to save me. Luckily the game is pretty easy to run back and the use of saves will help you mitigate this. Like any point and click, the game has some pretty obtuse solutions and some interactions aren’t always clear. Add the fact that you can easily transition into different ending paths that moderately change how you progress without much clue as to how. Still, it’s an interesting and relatively short adventure. The enhanced port does have an amazing animated intro along with some great music.
Recommend? Generally, yes. Though I preferred Clock Tower 3, this is a fun little adventure that more or less holds up all things considered.
Parasite Eve
Replayed
Coming back to this reminds me of just how unique it was for the time in terms of combining horror and RPG. It also makes me realize how messy the game is. Dungeons and maps that get closed off when finished, limited inventory of a survivor horror in a item drop heavy RPG, enemy encounters being location based instead of random, a lack of direction in the overworld, and more. Still, I can’t help but love it (likely some nostalgia bias there) and I’m excited to finally play the sequels in the coming October.
Recommend? Kinda. Gotta love Active Time Battle RPG’s and wacky horror games.
Silent Hill 2 Remake
0
0
2
25
Pleasantly surprised despite Konami’s and Bloober’s history. A fairly faithful near 1:1 recreation of one of the most influential survival horror games in history now with modern graphics. What the game does best, which is arguably the most important, is sound design. It’s what Silent Hill does best and really immerses and disturbs you as you play. I remember just simply admiring the opening sequence of the game with all of the little sounds you could hear in the fields and town, and that was just the opening. The game is also visually stunning though in some areas the darkness may obscure that. The combat is also more focused which maybe a problem for some classic fans and makes the one combat trailer make more sense. We now get dodges and accurate aiming. With this improvement, enemies are now far more deadly as their attacks now track. It almost seems impossible to do a combatless run because of this.
Though it remains fairly faithful, there are some changes outside of graphics. Some puzzles and battles have been changed to fit the more modern control scheme while some story elements are a bit more straight forward as to maybe alleviate some confusion for newer players. For anything that has been changed, the game lets you know as there are interactables that callback to previous puzzles and encounters. The characters are pretty true to the original. Some are as prominent as they used to be while others are far more disgusting. One of the other big new changes are there are new endings to get, though you’ll have to go through the game at least one time before getting them.
Recommend? Yes, a wonderful comeback that gives hope for the future of the Silent Hill series and the rest of Konami’s IPs alike. Though it’s a shame it takes a remake to do it. In no way does it replace the original but it is a nice new way to re-experience a classic.
Sept. 2025
So, I obviously meant to type this out earlier but then I started Hades and it completely consumed me for two weeks straight. More on that next month. So, while I am currently engaging in all things spooky, I did manage to finally catch up. Excuse any typos, my keyboard is acting up. Without further ado.
As a junior sleuth in training you are put on a top secret case, find out what happened to the stolen royal dragon eggs.
Pixel adventure game that has a variety of mini games as you sleuth around. Minigames are decent enough though lack replay value (not that the game gives you much opportunity for most) and can feel kinda clumsy. Dialogue and writing is decent where most characters do feel more or less genuine. Though the trailers show a lot of voice acting, it is far more limited than you might think. Still plenty and the voicework that is there is appreciated. What really drives this game is the pixel work and variety of scenes. That being said, one thing that Critical Bliss always seems to miss is just the perfect execution and often (maybe non-purposefully) teases ideas which never get expanded on and leave you wanting more without the follow through.
Recommend? Overall a decent adventure filled with niches that might briefly scratch a seldom touched upon itch.
Dungeon Siege 2
First take the total playtime of this game and double it… that’s how long it felt like it took to beat this game.
The game is fine in theory. The more focused party system allows more control and even some nice interactions. Party members no longer having a chance to die with every knock out is nice so you no longer have to worry about needing as many resurrection scrolls or the loot explosion you have to pick up and reorganize. Game over feels more intimate and interactive without needing complete micromanagement though it can still be a bit awkward.
That being said, your party chooses to interject when your'e surrounded by enemies which is… really not the time to be doing so thus missing on dialogue and taking free damage. The constant loop of taking a few steps to face 20 enemies gets old fast and makes the game slog. The drop system also DOES NOT make sense. I'll face the most current boss and get items worth half my level and unless they are legendary with nice perks… are completely worthless. I felt like I went an Act and a half before getting better gear. Though you do have a mini-map, not having a local map is absolute suffering especially if you are returning to an area from much earlier in the game for a quest.
Important Notes: This game does not run well out of the box. You'll have to do some configuration and patches to even get it passable. Things like getting fullscreen to work, proper mouse control, and reduce potential black screen or boot up issues that may occur. On top of that, the expansion "Broken World" is not available which does continue this game's story. You'll likely need further patches for that, and early on if you don't want to risk having to create a new save.
Recommend? Despite being a general improvement over the first game, it still has a fair share of gameplay and performance issues that just doesn't feel worth the trouble in the end. At best this is a sideways thumb recommendation.
If you didn’t like Dungeon Siege 1 or 2… or traditional CRPGs for that matter… you’ll probably like this. This game has been incredibly streamlined and “modernized” compared to it’s predecessors. You now only control one of four pre-classed characters while the others are recruitable and act on their own. Combat is super basic now giving you full control of abilities, dodging, and blocking. Though the increased and focused control over one character should make it easier (which in a way it kinda is) the game is very punishing with damage. Even with high end gear you will find enemies can melt you down if you aren’t careful. Story is fine though I often found myself just kind of flipping through the dialogue. What is most painful is the UI/UX. Each equipment slot is in it’s own tab making inventory management more of a nightmare. This is doubly true when dealing with companions as you’ll have to add them to the active party before you can look at their gear or level them up. Since there is a trust system on top of that, you’ll basically never want to switch party members ever. My final complaint is all of the different terms used for stats such as Doom, Retribution, Stagger, and Warding. Some are more obvious than others but without a guide you may be left bewildered.
Recommend? Decent enough and doesn’t require much in-depth RPG knowledge or micromanagement.
In all the ways it matters, this is just more Hollow Knight… and that’s good. Same metroidvania game with beautiful art, engaging combat, loveable characters, and lore. Everything felt improved upon. Environments felt more varied and immersive, story was far more present and engaging (especially with your character actually conversing), and Hornet’s combat felt unique in comparison. Utilizing both tools and crests not only varied the gameplay but allowed for fun creativity. Some may disagree, but I did find most of the game to be a mite easier than the first. That being said there are still several parts that are definitely far more difficult with the rest being just as challenging throughout. No matter how diligent I was with secrets and combing through areas, I was consistently surprised with just how much more of the game there really was. Each time louder and louder I would exclaim, “and there’s more?!” It is to say there is probably just as much content, if not more, than the fully updated version of the first game.
Recommend? Yes. I did have a few cases where things didn't appear to work as normal, like one instance where an enemy spawned weird and got stuck or another enemy that kept pushing itself out of the area. They were pretty rare and with a game that is filled with bugs… it rarely was an issue.
The horror cinematic anthology continues with Little Hope. It’s the usual Supermassive Games MO. Interactive movie gameplay, story changing choices, and well-known actors. This one in particular I can see being particularly controversial with it’s mysterious premise. You’ll either love it or hate it, no in between. Depending on what you take away from the story, it does feel like some plots/details get dropped or just don’t really make sense. In fact, if you go with the games pushed narrative… a lot of it may not seem all that impactful… but for the benefit of the game’s image and my own enjoyment… I went with my own interpretation.
Recommend? Kinda. Again either gonna love it or hate it and it will depend entirely on you. Get it on sale either way.
Story Warning: This covers story information up to episode 490-ish.
A pretty slow feeling 3D anime tag fighter. To my great surprise it only covers one arc and one of the shortest at that. There’s still a healthy amount of fighters available though. This however does not bode well for the story mode as each chapter will retread the same story beats fighting a lot of the same fights with very small changes. It only makes matters worse when the first of the four chapters is just a drip fed tutorial. At the very least the story is an easy way to unlock a lot of characters. Again movement feels really awkward and slow with no great way to close the gap making interactions and combo potential really low. A lot of specials feel kind of awkward and the disparity between good and bad characters is massive. Otherwise I guess it’s fine considering it’s the first in it’s series, but definitely needs some serious improvements. What I will give it's greatest accolade is the 3D graphics with the line shading actually looks really great.
Recommend? Not really. Great visuals but slow paced gameplay and kinda weird feeling gameplay.
Story Warning: This game takes place from the very beginning into the show all the way through about… episode 750. Yes, I binge watched One Piece throughout the year just to play the games I had in my library.
Think this is my second Musou type game and this feels more traditional than the last one I played. That being said… man is it basic and clunky. The former is to be expected as that is kind of the Musou genre, but this game was not ported/coded very well. First and foremost it has no real controller implementation. It will do it’s best to read controls but they are only assigned in mouse and keyboard controls and you’ll want to utilize the Steam Input configs submitted by other users for optimal play. I found most characters to be a bit awkward and not really getting tot live a power fantasy that these sorts of games should offer. Saves can be corrupted easily and cutscenes will often not load, requiring you to skip them as soon as the screen get stuck on a dark screen.
Recommend? It’s a bit basic and is not ported particularly well. It should be noted you can very easily lose your save so you may need to back that up. I’d probably avoid it unless you’re a big fan of the show and genre.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon 
A rather cute game that tells the story of a much younger and inexperienced Bayonetta/Cereza. It uses a sort of cell shaded story book art style that is very charming. The art style pairs extremely well with the storybook-like narrative (even including a narrator that uses different voices for most characters). It’s highly suggested to play with a friend, family member, partner, etc. as each joycon controls a separate character. One for Cereza who has more of a support role and the other of the demon who primarily takes care of combat. It’s perfectly possible to play solo, as I did, but may be a little difficult the less ambidextrous you are. The simplified gameplay mirrors Cereza’s lack of experience and makes it super fun to see how she slowly adapts mechanics that we see in the rest of the series. There are also great uses of puzzles and platforming with controlling separate characters in fun sequences.
Due to the storybook like nature the game, especially the beginning, can be a bit of a slog before you start unlocking mechanics and abilities. As interesting and beautiful as the scenery can get, maps can get extremely confusing to navigate, particularly when it comes to finding collectibles. The map does little help as it shows general paths but not elevations. Due to it’s simplified combat, fights can start to feel pretty similar even with varied enemies.
Recommend? Yes, this is probably the best way to create a family friendly Bayo game without much issue to the current character or series as a whole.
Resident Evil: Survivor
Light gun resident evil game. It’s interesting to say the least. On one hand it expands upon critical lore from the first few games and offers an (at the time) unique experience for the series. On the other hand it is kind of an awkward experience between both it’s story and gameplay. The story isn’t particularly special though it does have that classic Resident Evil bad voice acting and the characters are very forgettable. Unlike the rest of the series, this game doesn’t really do exploration. You pick a route, this gives you access to a couple of rooms to find a key, some items, then move into the next hub to pick the next route. There is no going back after picking a route meaning your path is set and whatever story or items you get is what decides your experience/ending. It’s super basic, but decent considering the light gun implementation.
Recommend? Kinda. It’s an interesting experience and there is some fun. Though I was shocked at the crucial series info the game drops in random memos… it’s stuff you either already know or can look up.
Resident Evil: Survivor 2 - Code Veronica
I didn’t expect much and I was still disappointed. Continuing the light gun genre this now takes place over a very lazily adapted Code Veronica setting. Super basic and few cutscenes, no voice acting, while the actual gameplay is just… so awful. Instead of going through even an abridged version of Code Veronica (similar to what Darkside Chronicles will later do), this is essentially an arcade watered down time attack mode. Each stage you must quickly run through the area to get the key and get out before NEMESIS shows up (Yes, the RE3 boss). At this point you just have to accept the game doesn’t matter, but it gets worse. Despite being accompanied by an AI companion… they will almost never do anything. You can level up the AI but only once you’ve beaten the game… and even then you only unlock a few levels at a time. Gunplay and movement both feel super awful and, in my experience, had weird delays. The temporary gun pickups often feel useless and far too limited. Bosses are often bullet spongey and most enemies track damage far too well despite your limitations.
Recommend? No. No. God No. This is easily the worst Resident Evil hands down and that’s saying something.
August 2025
Well, I meant to get far more done this month but then I got distracted by several beaten games that I pushed myself to go back to complete. Dead by Daylight being one that is not listed below as it is still releasing content and frankly… it’s just not in a very good state right now. Gonna try to see what I can accomplish for the remainder of the year, but hoping by the start of next year I can really start hammering these out.
Once a major demon player in the demonic war, you have now settled down with your two companions to maintain a bar. Serve drinks and talk with your various patrons in this bar sim. You start your day by going to the market to either by affection growth items for your companions or scents to lure specific monster girls. You’ll then pick the piano music you want to play for that session and take orders from various beings. They’ll either tell you a flavor, a “type” (manly, girly, etc.), or some other identifier that you’ll have to use to identify and mix their drink. Of course you’ll then need to select the correct mixture of various liquors and shake it right or you’ll have to start the drink over. The gameplay loop is a little too simple yet your main character feels the need to guide your hand for every single drink you make despite how far along you are. Paging through the menu is a bit annoying especially when they could have at least had just a list of all the drinks before you sort it by the various types. Successfully giving out drinks nets you money and in some cases romance progression. Every few days a new chapter will auto trigger that brings in characters and lore drops. The story is fine but not particularly engaging.
The scenes you do get are pretty basic and alternate between 2 or 3 pictures, though it is all voiced. As diverse as the potential partners can be, the scenes just aren’t engaging enough to have consistently caught my appeal. You can unlock account rewards that carry over saves… but this comes with a danger. If you use those and don’t save… they are gone forever (or until you unlock them again). Even if you load a save before using them, they are used up and you’d have to re-earn them though I don’t know if that is possible. Going through the game again is a slog if you missed any content and the chapter select only shows you that specific story instead of continuing from that general time frame.
Recommend? Not particularly. The diverse selection of monster girls is nice with decent voices, but the gameplay loop is pretty bare bones and lacks engagement.
You play a recent amnesiac. You are not only trying to attend his first year of college but also find out information about not only his past… but what happened to his missing father. Along your journey you encounter various women that become involved in your life that you can romance. Maybe it’s the college setting, but this game reminded me a lot of a less in-depth and shorter “Becoming a DIK”. It shares quite a few tropes (Crazy best friend, missing/lost parent, surviving your first year of college, etc.) with a focus on a serious story. Though it does not reach the same quality as DIK, it does have a few things going for it. Most notably, most characters are voice acted and have fairly good performances considering this game’s genre. There aren’t any minigames and there’s almost no exploration so most of the game is the typical VN choose your choice. Choices almost always felt pretty obvious what the “correct” choice was so you’ll rarely have to worry about romancing any and/or all of the female cast and some choices will feel less like… well choices as some outcomes appear to be pre-determined (though that is just how it goes sometimes).
The story actually isn’t too bad and the interactions between characters feel more or less genuine if not a little tropey at times. There are a plethora of animated scenes, all very well done with excellent looping and the voice acting really selling each scene. Though it’s probably setting up for the next “season”/DLC there are a few notable characters that kind of just feel under utilized, thrown in, or have fairly unresolved encounters. It’s nothing crazy major but it does leave you to wonder if we’ll touch back on a subject or if the character may be dropped altogether. I’m also not quite a fan of the main character’s look. Though not as wimpy as some of the other protags of games like these, he could still use some touch ups.
Recommend? Honestly, yeah. It does lack the crazy amount of diverse content and quality as DIK but it’s fairly priced and there’s still a lot of great work within this game much to my surprise.
Sometimes you see a game that is so ridiculous and stupid… that you have to try it. Hachishaku involves your main character returning to the village he was sent away from as a child. Traversing the dark streets trying to find the secrets of his past, he finds it abandoned and haunted. This mostly plays like Slender where you must find and relocate Jizo statues (instead of notes) and instead of avoiding a tall thin man you must avoid a tall overly voluptuous spirit. The spirit in question is based off of Japanese yokai (spirit/demon) called Hachishakusama (meaning 8 Feet Tall) which was basically a really tall woman spirit that would abduct children/people. Though this tale once meant to be a story of caution and terror has been much perverted over the years which is what leads us to games like this. We’ve seen other video game characters based on this yokai such as Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil Village) and a spirit labeled “Tall Woman” in Fatal Frame 5: Maiden of Black Water. Both of which share similar physical and clothing characteristics of the Hachishakusama and we all know how the internet felt about Lady D…
If it wasn’t obvious enough already the game is fairly ridiculous in every regard even dismissing the curvy nemesis hunting you down. The notes you find from the various villagers refer to your character as if they are the embodiment of a god walking this Earth, whose name of which I should note is… “Chado” (Yes as in The “Chad” meme). Though you may be tempted to stay and be caught (or even run towards) the tall spirit chasing you, you can sprint, slide, hide, or stay in sanctuaries to evade her. You’ll want to do so if you mean to finish the game as there are no checkpoints and you’ll have to start over. Aside from story notes, statues, and temporary power ups (though they often kill your frame rate and obscure your vision), you can also find clothing for the Hachishaku and money to buy clothing to customize your pursuer in various scantily clad outfits/styles. There are a few other secrets and modes, some of which have yet to be released, and I”ll leave that to the player to find out. The performance can be a bit rough. Some transitions take a while to load, various stuttering, nauseating first person, and wonky hit boxes.
Recommend? Though I’d say it’s currently worth only half the price… it is admittedly a decent and humorous run through that I found oddly wholesome in the end. (Surely this doesn’t reveal or awaken anything within me)
Note: Despite the game’s immediate impression, there is no nudity or explicit scenes.
Beaten to Completion
Hours this month: 2
Long have I awaited for this game to finally stop updating so I can clear it out once and for all. With just two more maps of achievements I was finally able to lay this 100 Gb bloat of space to rest. Substation was pretty meh and easy to get lost in as a lot of it looked the same. While Castle Volter did have a more neat aesthetic but wasn’t anything particularly special. For the most part… it is just more Killing Floor 2. I have no current plans to play KF3 due to it’s current state and lacking gameplay but maybe one day if it is on sale and receives major updates.
Beaten to Completion
Hours this month: 29
After needed to fill a brief streaming time slot and using this, I was surprised to find that there is a (somewhat) active (and fairly gatekeeping) community. So, I decided to do what I had thought previously impossible… grinding to get the completion. If you ever attempt this foolish task, you may be met with long wait times (especially if you are the Master Mind side), cheaters, overleveled players who never stopped playing, and people who will disconnect at the mere sight of a new player. Needless to say it was an arduous journey. What made me originally quit this game? Well, it was a needlessly tacked on Multiplayer stand alone that copied the asymmetric games (like Dead by Daylight) with the slightest veil of what we really wanted… which is to say a RE: Outbreak game. That plus there was horrible balance issues. You’d need to have fairly leveled Masterminds to stand a chance against the most basic and new survivors and it was almost always at least a 30 min. Wait time just for you to lose to said survivors until you got the right gear/cards unlocked and/or brain dead survivors.
As I would bash my head hoping the specific scenarios would come up in my favor requiring specific players to play specific ways I would never recommend anybody attempt this. It only becomes more impossible as time passes, though if you had enough people you could theoretically rig a match for your favors… I couldn’t imagine trying to do the same for Umbrella Corps or any of the now defunct RE multiplayer games/modes.
This one started with promise. You are a shapeshifting detective who must solve a murder. The game randomizes the killer and you shift and shape to get your answers. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is the game is far less deduction with far too much forced encounters. Meaning even if you can deduce some key information, you still will have to exhaust several points of dialogue as/with several different suspects even with how useless it is. Believe me, you go through some redundant and boring information. I also ran into the issue where I had trouble getting the game actually switching the killer when starting a new game.
Recommend?
Not really. The idea is great. The execution, not so much.
Beaten to Hard Completion
Steamdeck
Hours in the last two months: 75
This has been the worst Yakuza game to complete thus far, no doubt. Though it should be noted I went for full completion/hard completion meaning I did not just go for all achievements but also filling out the entire in-game completion list (though the game’s achievements will have you go through most of it anyways) so this will slightly differ from someone going for just the achievements/soft completion. It’s already pretty bad that the combat and flow of this entry is pretty bad, and it has some of the worst iterations of minigames within the series, but man did it feel like I was being ground down trying to do this. I even picked up and dropped it several times over months.Notable Grievances:
The general combat sucks where enemies often block most of your attacks and it feels like most of your moves are useless.
Hostess Maker is at its worst, especially if you are coming to this game after the best Hostess minigames in the Kiwami entries. Effectively you have to dress up, teach, and motivate a hostess to meet the expectations of customers over three periods within a session. When you doll up your hostess it doesn’t tell you what each item, makeup, color does for the style, you only get the results and certain combinations will severely alter these stats. Only for you to slowly waltz around the club to see what people want and go back to the drawing board to figure out what shade of eye color will boost the cuteness with her hairstyle, if at all. It’s so mind-numbingly boring especially with how long it takes. This on top of that every physical item needs to be bought with the club’s money, not your own, in which even on your best nights will net you very little. Tedious… it is just tedious incarnate.
Golf is also kind of just generic and boring though there is a close-to-the-pin minigame which has a bit more appeal. Still getting the -5 point can be a challenge until you get the game down.
Baseball. Baseball is fairly standard, hit the home run target… until you get to Extra Hard. Extra Hard makes the targets smaller, separated, AND TURNS YOUR CURSOR INVISIBLE. I tried to brute force it the best I could until I put a piece of jewelry on my screen to mark where the cursor is supposed to be. Without that I don’t know if I would have ever effectively passed the completion score.
Pool. Also fairly standard, but the AI on harder difficulties can be brutal.
Pro Tip: Turn down the volume and put something on in the background so you can watch a movie or show while the AI scores several turns in a row.
Substories can be easy to lose track of or difficult to figure out the triggers.
I think the last note is just the fact is if you played the game on Normal (which I highly recommend due to the lackluster and tedious combat), you’d have to play the game two more times to get an achievement. One to beat hard so you unlock Legend, and then again on Legend to get the achievement. This isn’t too bad if you get certain items but I find this game’s pacing in story to be god awful where several sections just slow down to a crawl.
Overall the game plays decently on Steamdeck though it does run the fan loudly and your system hot.
Alpha Protocol
A tactical espionage RPG is a great idea… it’s only a shame this game doesn’t perform particularly well. It felt like I was playing a mixture of Mass Effect, Splinter Cell, and a dash of Metal Gear. So, what’s great? The RPG element is great and mostly well implemented with several paths of upgrading skills. When the gameplay works as intended it’s a fun adventure and each level feels well designed. There are different mini-games between lock picks, hacking, etc. Note: You should play with a controller as the lock picking mini-game uses pressure sensitive controls. The characters you meet can be shockingly standout and eccentric compared to some of the more military/secret agent side of things. Though I suppose 007 had his share of unique individuals as well.
So, what’s the issue? Well, the game has several performance and gameplay issues. Stutters, lag, sudden speed ups, visual glitches. Gameplay wise… the stealth focus… well let’s say it is problematic. Sometimes you can stealth around like a mouse. Others an enemy will see you through several walls. Even at times I have been a shootout with an enemy while another enemy is blissfully unaware in another or the same room. It’s just really a mess and a shame it’s unrealistic to have a full stealth playthrough especially considering there is a skill tree associated with it.
Recommend? Overall it is fairly enjoyable when it’s not a mess and I’d almost wish for the impossible sequel just so they can fix all the issues.
Yet another grotesque adventure into the world of Little Nightmares, though we find ourselves as a new protagonist. If you’ve played the first game, you’ll understand the general gameplay loop of this which is very limbo like. However, this does have a few more mechanics including the ability to wield weapons among others which relate to the overall theme. Overall it felt pretty great though it doesn’t quite have the same impact and shock as the first. Some parts don’t feel as smooth and with one section in particular there seemed to be poorly designed rooms (the flashlight, iykyk).
Recommend? If you enjoyed the first, you’ll more than likely enjoy this as well. It brings just as much dark and dreary as the first with the same enjoyable gameplay.
Note: I didn’t math out the overall score of the collection, so just understand I scored it on feeling instead of taking the average.
MMX
8/10
Some consider this the best game of the series, and I can mostly understand why. It was a more serious, darker, and advanced Mega Man. A first of it’s kind. Levels are great, the game is challenging, and the new dash offers greater movement. Secrets were now also all the more coveted as they could apply permanent upgrades to not just health and backup tanks, but also permanent upgrades to your abilities… though some require pixel perfect jumps. However, I was baffled at how much the various bosses almost need to have their weakness weapon used against them. Not only will your other weapons do almost no damage (sometimes just two ticks of health) but their added gimmicks can make it near impossible. This makes the final gauntlet all the more brutal. What really pained me most his defeating the final boss and getting the ending will not net you the beaten achievement… nor does going through the normal credits. Instead you have to wait several seconds after the “Thank you for Playing” screen for a message to appear. So, if you aren’t expecting this and leave the game before that… you’ll have to redo the entire final gauntlet again and wait it out.
MMX2
8.5/10
Much like MM2, this improves on the original greatly and in what way? Well, bosses don’t seem to strictly need their weakness weapon used against them, several of which can be reasonably fought with just the buster weapon if you manage to follow their patterns closely… and I like that. I do remember that some of the levels can be a bit challenging and there is some easily missable content with how the optional bosses work. Yet, it has one of the easiest final bosses I have faced so far.
MMX3
6.5/10
Well, it looks like the game took a little too much recommendations and not only made the bosses nearly a joke, but the levels are now far emptier and easier as well. Using the bosses’ weakness against them will turn them into complete incapable jokes making the final gauntlet the easiest by far. Apparently you could switch characters at any point, but I didn’t realize that until the very last set of missions where I was looking for secrets and had to look it up. Despite how laughably easy this game is, it had a fairly enjoyable and challenging final boss… with a little bit of an annoying post fight encounter.
I was skeptical of the praise this game got. Having played it finally, I get it. The increased pixelation giving us smoother and more detailed sprites. Dedicated stories to both X and Zero who you can pick at the start of the game. Each boss and level feel very unique and have the perfect balance of challenging, though some of their weaknesses still put them in fairly easy loops. Some of the armor upgrades are at their best. We even get anime-like cutscenes and voice acting both in scene and in game. This is a bit of a double edged sword as I disliked X’s wall jump grunts. Though the animated scenes are brutal featuring heavy action and some blood. We also get a great Maverick fight with a character that is effectively just a Street Fighter character. There were some stutters with the more advanced map designs and the vehicle sections can be more than rough. The final fight can be a bit much, but this game does very well at just about everything else. I did genuinely try a Zero run, but found his gameplay against bosses to be ridiculously boring and difficult even against the easier bosses.
Overall a great collection and even the worst game of them is fairly enjoyable.
Despite this being what is likely going to be my favorite game played this year, I had passively avoided this much recommended game for some time. Though many games take inspiration from the classic survival horror genre… this one really gets it. The claustrophobic interior of the building you traverse screams Resident Evil while the grotesque monsters and various transitions give off true Silent Hill vibes. In short, it’s everything I want. You even have the static cameras and option for tank controls. Even with the campy voice acting the game does well with creating a dark atmosphere and eeriness. The main character has a nice original design, though you can swap it for a more generic jeans and jacket if you so chose. Her weapons are just as unique as they consist of tools rather than actual guns. Oh, and the puzzles. Challenging puzzles that will require more than just pulling a lever or leveling water… genuine thought provoking challenging puzzles that remind me of similar games like Silent Hill.
So, one might ask if I have such love for this game… why doesn’t it get a 10/10. Well, for one I probably should just give it the solid 10 regardless, but it does have it’s issues. The biggest of which is jank. Jank in how wonky things work. The main menu can get misaligned especially if you use a controller, a poorly implemented dodge mechanic (granted RE3 had this issue too to some degree), enemies will sometimes have weird hit and hurt boxes, and funky movement glitches that can cause your character to suddenly jump 10 feet in the air when colliding with certain obstacles. There’s also random load times between various transitions. This may contribute to the issue where entering through doors causes your character to pause a moment before movement though a nearby enemy does not have such restrictions. A potentially dangerous problem as this means you can get attacked before you have a chance to move, granted that situation was exceedingly rare.
Recommend? Very much so. The incorporation of interesting ideas using a classic (and beloved) medium makes this an instant favorite of mine. I only hope the soon-to-be-released sequel will fix some of the jank while expanding on everything Tormented Souls had built so far.
| 1562 | games |
| 23% | never played |
| 7% | unfinished |
| 39% | beaten |
| 29% | completed |
| 3% | won't play |