Bangledeschler's Completion Addiction Bangledeschler’s profile
My master list and stats of game progress across all platforms HERE
Twitch: ! Screen Thieves
XBOX
PSN
Oct 2026
Well one way to pretend to make progress is to get a bundle of indie horror games and beat/complete a bunch of them but actually only end up increasing your unfinished deficit… Well at the very least there were some pretty fun surprises. Also for any of them marked as red/won’t play I didn’t realize they were those co-op friend games that I just have no actual interest in. I’ll probably remove them at a later date. Well, outside of cleaning up a few started games I am largely going to focus on FFXI as I have learned my lesson for the last time that putting that game down is a mistake. It takes me several hours to just figure out where I am and how to play again, not to mention needing guides.
Planned Games
-FFXI
-Control Resonant
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
-Megaman Zero 1
A rough start to a new series as it tries to cement what this should be. Though it follows Zero, I was surprised it actually branches off from some of the X games which only makes the new design of Zero all the more surprising. To get his own series I would have assumed he would be more armored and spiky and instead he is far more slender and… almost looks like he is wearing a diaper with his lower “armor”. Honestly I would have preferred the lower armor to be missing entirely and just have it look like he is wearing black leggings compared to what we got. Luckily it’s pretty ignorable during the actual gameplay.
The gameplay is a bit odd. Levels are microscopically short, there is almost no platforming, and it constantly oscillates between being the easiest Megaman game I’ve played to some of the more difficult-ish ones often due to design choices more than actual challenge. This challenge largely is due to the life system in this game and Zero’s limited health. The collection features a checkpoint save system that I do highly recommend. Due to originating from a handheld, your buttons are pretty limited. That means trying to use a sub weapon will require a shoulder button along with the attack button which feels kinda awkward especially on top of doing actions like dashing. Zoro does retain his ability to access multiple weapon types though they all have to be leveled which can take some time and a lot of grinding. Some of which require specific actions which are never detailed outside of POSSIBLY a manual. This grinding feels kind of against the new ranking system which will score your time, damage dealt/received, and possibly other hidden criteria though luckily the rank doesn’t mean much… yet. We also lose the quite so open level picking system. From time to time there will be options to choose which mission first but all you get is a line of dialogue instead of seeing the boss and it’s limited to a few at a time at most. Bosses are pretty simple as far as their move diversity. Finally, the newest change is the cyber elf system which is both a major plot device as well as an item system. Collect cyber elves around the levels and enemies, some requiring resources to even use. You CAN use them but apparently they die after use and you get penalized for using them at all which feels really weird especially since some can be things like health tanks and what not. Like, it REALLY doesn’t want you to use mechanics introduced in this game.
In short, it has yet to figure out what this new series wants to be and largely feels kinda awkward but overall is decent enough. This isn’t new for IPs moving to handhelds but a lot of that clumsiness happened on the original Gameboy when it had far more limited capabilities and less so with the GB Advance.
5/10
-Megaman Zero 2
Some refinement and new ideas but still doesn’t quite hit the mark for me. Levels are larger, boss choices are revealed for each level, both new and returning bosses have far more diversity in their challenge, new weapons, and a bit more interesting story. There’s one new weapon I want to make specific mention of as it is not only for battle but utility and that is the chain rod. This is effectively a whip used to navigate some areas. Luckily it’s not NEARLY as required as it could have been since it is a pain to try and use. A lot of actions will prevent it from actually gripping surfaces and trying to both attach the rod to a surface and jump off of it (either just making the landing in general or not getting hit) is incredibly frustrating. It does have some neat boss interactions at times but again is far more limited. Weapons once again need to be leveled though it is far easier this time. Ranking does matter as beating a boss while at a high rank (rank is cumulative by the way) earns you a special ability similar to how Megaman or X would gain abilities when defeating bosses. However, getting a high rank to get even a single ability felt difficult the first time through and once again feels like the game does not want you to engage in the unique mechanics due to just locking you out. Cyber elves make a return, little has changed though it no longer requires resources to use some of them (I think).
A bit better, bosses are more enjoyable and the story is a bit more engaging but still has a fair bit of issues.
6/10
-Megaman Zero 3
Alright, they finally figured it out. This… THIS is the game. Refined levels, better story, great bosses, more manageable rank system that seems possible to actually earn enemy abilities, no more weapon leveling, AND some cyber elves can actually be used without affecting rank. These cyber elves specifically are called satellite elves and often change how a weapon works or how you interact with the environment. It’s such a nice change and yet they introduce another mechanic that the game does NOT want you to use. Cyber doors. Alternate routes in a level that puts you in a cyberspace version which also activates all of your elves. It could be a unique way to traverse the level BUT it also lowers your rank removing any incentivization for you to ever use one even though I’m pretty sure they allow for unique encounters. Another new mechanic is data chips. Either dropped by an enemy, found in a level, or earned from an NPC they provide (when deciphered) either cyber elves or enemy/lore information. It’s not terribly important but it’s a nice little added side goal to do while traversing the levels.
Aside from the cyberspace doors, this is easily the best one and where the Zero series finally knows what it wants to be. I can only hope that they continue this with the next few games but knowing the MM series as a whole… it’s bound to go downhill and fast.
8.5/10
Russian roulette but with a shotgun. How? Well, instead of relying on a revolver’s revolving bullet cylinder, we instead are shown the number of live and blank rounds being loaded at random. Shooting live rounds will damage the recipient while blank rounds will do nothing unless you use it on yourself which grants you another turn. Items eventually get introduced to both parties to further give advantages such as seeing the current loaded round, expelling that round, skipping the opponent’s turn, etc. Just be warned the opponent also gets items so plan their use accordingly. It’s an interesting decision and numbers game trying to figure out where to aim the barrel but regardless of strategy (and even with the assistance of items) it will eventually boil down to probability. This, for me, isn’t very satisfying. I don’t need complete control but I need to be able to properly engage with the gameplay and the core mechanic being chance just isn’t for me. Items help but it’s also devastating watching the enemy just use all their items and be able to out me before I ever get a proper rebuttal. In short, there are times if you do not finish them on your first turn… they’ll finish you on theirs. Admittedly I was surprised out how anxious pointing a video game shotgun at myself would make me. Like a jumpscare you know is coming… just not sure when.
In short, decent Russian roulette gambling game just overall not my total thing.
-Gifted. Despite my low review score I would still like to thank the person who gifted me this. One way or another, regardless of it’s quality I still wanted to experience the game and I did. So, thank you.
The final(?) game in the first season of the Dark Pictures Anthology (I believe Directive 8020 was advertised as a DPA game but nothing on the Steam page suggests as much) and it could not have gone out in less of a bang. I can’t tell if the devs bit off more than they can chew with the whole anthology initiative or if they ran out of time, money, ideas, or any combination of the above but it just feels like this lacked so much. From beginning to end it had been nothing but a frustrating mess.
General Performance. Boot up all the way through endgame credits. First time booting it… it totally messed up my monitors causing them to go black and no longer display properly until I disconnected one of them and then had to do several troubleshooting steps just to get them to work in general and STILL noticed issues while playing certain games. I’m guessing it automated to some sort of framerate that couldn’t be read between both monitors or something. I played the rest of the anthology on a different monitor so it’s completely possible it’s a compatibility issue with this new one. However, I have played other games on this prior with no issues and for it to cause such severe issues that persisted even outside of the game is ridiculous. MOVING ON. The game itself ran poorly regardless of the graphics quality I set it at. Again could be the newer monitor but was facing consistent lag or choppiness when moving around and delays between some scenes.
The actual game itself. For the most part, it’s a typical Supermassive game. Narrative driven with small segments of gameplay, quick time events, and choices that affect characters and outcomes. An interactive movie. This one is such a slog from the get go. It is so slow with little to no intrigue before anything actually happens and even when they do… it’s underwhelming. I assumed it was just the initial scenario that would have such odd and wooden voice acting but even when introducing our main cast the acting did not get much better. Just generally poor deliveries on top of lackluster writing like people were just trying to get through it to get it done. Speaking of, the characters are just awful. Each and every one. It’s too obviously set up as a self destructive crew that each character is just miserable to interact with. I was tempted to just purposely all send them to their graves just so I can be done with them and get to the credits already. The one upside to them is the inventory system which gives each character an item that diversifies their skill sets and interactions. Unfortunately it isn’t THAT deep as you’ll never run into an object that the current character can’t interact with that would make you think “Hey, maybe this character could do this later/earlier”… and instead is just immediate and done with. There are also far too many points where you’d switch from one character to another for just a few seconds and then switch to yet another. Like, if you were just going to make me watch them go through a door only to switch back to someone else… maybe don’t bother going to that scene at all. Prioritize meaningful scenes over every little detail. There are some neat ideas here and there but nothing ever truly hits or meets the potential. Even with finding most secrets a lot of the mysteries go unanswered or feel unsatisfying all the way through the climax and ending.
I’m starting to think that Supermassive Games is, in fact, not all that and a bag of chips. I still plan to check out Directive 8020 along with the more anticipated The Quarry but feeling really let down by this one.
The anthology as a whole… I only REALLY liked House of Ashes while the rest had some neat moments or ideas… mostly just weren’t that great. Truly only HoA and Until Dawn have actually been solid games. I still think it’s odd that the entire Anthology, although veers on ~sci fi quite a bit, is fairly grounded and semi realistic.~ I just would have thought there would have been more diversity in its types of horror despite their Until Dawn origins.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
0
4
10
14
This was a pretty anticipated game for me. Though a little concerned that the Dead Cells devs were taking a stab at the series (despite how well they handled the crossover DLC) I had a bit of hope and faith due to the visual and combat shown in trailers. Admittedly the faith wavered at the beginning as it felt unusually slow and limited. However, once Act 2 starts it really opens up with exploration, combat, and general mechanics. It only gets better from there. It does get a bit mechanically complex as you will have to use just about every button on the controller during battles and exploration occasionally causing me to mix up the action I meant to do. Rose is a fantastic new member in the Belmont bloodline and appreciates both her innocence as a newer vampire hunter as well as the hope and burdens she carries. The tarot system is also great which allows more gameplay variety as well as interesting dialogue. Brandish your weapons and spells and prepare to hunt the night!
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival
0
3
9
27
The Good
Gotta say it’s kind of impressive just how well the devs understand the source material and did not hold back in the sexual themes, excessive gore, and twisted body horror that fit the IP so well. Right of the bat you are getting a full on sex scene that quickly devolves into consensual torture. Pleasure and pain indivisible, a motto of the cenobites for anyone who dares open the box. No censorship even a little bit. Full on genitalia of both sexes and the meatiest of viscera all around. It doesn’t stop there, filled with bondaged NPCs, foul mouthed enemies, and metal infused living abominations. The visuals, atmosphere, and even music are all very fitting and well done. Getting to explore the labyrinth is a treat and not only a rare moment but incorporates several ideas from across several films. The cenobites are also fairly well portrayed as they aren’t directly evil, they simply abide by the rules and are mostly a third party with a haunting (and sometimes tempting) presence. The story is pretty solid with some very strong underlying themes seen throughout the entirety of its game. I actually really love hostile and more so the friendly NPCs you encounter and their stories as they perfectly supplement just exactly what the game is trying to convey and are often pretty genuine (given the circumstances). There could be some better motivations in some places but overall good to great.
The Bad
…It’s only a shame that the devs just didn’t know what they wanted to do with the gameplay. This game has combat, stealth, chase segments, and puzzles… and it does none of them particularly well. Combat is by far the better aspect but often with terrible arenas, lacking a block button that could make up for only being able to dodge (which can easily end you up stuck in a corner), and it de-incentivizes you to fight due to its survival horror mechanics (limited supplies, inventory, and durability based melee weapons). Yet, despite the survival horror mechanic you are easily swarmed by many enemies in less than forgiving situations. Hell, it even forces you with combat arenas and just never feels THAT good. Also, if you are going to give the idea that the puzzle box can be used as a weapon, please give it way more creative and different abilities instead of just the two most basic ideas that have existed in gaming for over 20 years. Like, genuinely the puzzle box feels as usable as if it came straight out of a PS2 game and so easily interruptible.
So, why not just use stealth? Well, stealth sucks due to wonky stealth physics. There is no peak function, so if you poke your body around the corner to check for enemies… well if you can see them they can see you unless you are in one of the limited dark areas. If even one enemy suspects you or finds a body, they are all on high alert with some TERRIBLE pathing that has led to multiple of them just all twitching against the same door (naturally the one you need to go by or through). Once you are found, you are again swarmed and with the limited combat it can easily be game over. Even engaging with the sound and throwing items mechanic for distractions, enemies tended to just look towards me rather than the item I threw.
Puzzles. Puzzles can be alright at times but considering it’s from an IP that has a PUZZLE BOX… you’d think they’d lean into it a bit more. THe puzzles involving the box itself are really slow, usually manipulating an item which feels like you are pulling everything in molasses only for some false sense of suspense. We also do very little actual solving of the box itself, something I feel like even the movies often glossed over save for the latest reboot. Many extra puzzle solutions have a video game sensibility in mind, often leaving codes at times literally painted around on walls and perspective based views instead of more immersive hidden methods. Lockpicking is also literally just Skyrim lockpicking and it really does not fit the feel of the game. Lastly the chase sequences are just overdone, repetitive, and not very diverse given how frequent you have to deal with them. It also has a Resident Evil 4 inventory management system (both your pockets and storage box) but doesn’t include an option to swap object places like… why? It only serves to make possible adjustments impossible because you can’t replace two items and it is already a very limiting area.
Bosses are kinda mixed. Despite the gruesome designs of the world around you, most fail to meet any interesting visual expectations and, at best, okay actual combat. The last boss in particular is as boring visually as it is to fight. It’s just really disappointing. This kinda goes with a lot of enemies too, in fact there are some creatures we see but never actually get to face, largely due to the labyrinth have a weird no violence quota on your part (stripping you of your gear every time you enter)
This really should have been better since they totally understood what a Hellraiser game should be as a presentation but failed to do the actual execution. I would have loved a more polished, action focused, and entirely indulgent game. It is my fear that even if we get another more polished game, the next team won’t do the source justice and be heavily censored. Like, this could have easily been just another horror IP turned asymmetric multiplayer game and it is a mostly functional single player experience.
Also the game shills out achievements like nothing. Taking three steps I had earned 4 for basically nothing other than for them to make references.
KOTAMON: My Sis Found A Super-Rare Card In Her Cereal Box, So I Became A Garbage Man To Find The Entire Collection And Earn $1,000,000
A decent clean ‘em up and card collector game that has a lot of potential but is currently a bit too monotonous at its current state. Vacuum up garbage indiscriminately into a garbage bag as you collect card parts, dirty cards, and other collectibles. You then sell your filled trash bags for money which can be used for upgrades to increase efficiency. The slight variety this game does add is that you piece together and clean cards to build your collection and trade in lower quality cards for higher for more value. It’s not much more but better than nothing I suppose. You can sell cards but there’s very little point in the early game since you’ll want to trade up to have at least one foil each.The garbage lot, a circular fenced off area with a small house, is the only venue so you’ll be repeatedly cleaning up the same zone over and over. Again, monotonous even with the slight changes from seasonal updates. The cards are the real heroes of this game as they offer a great variety of raunchy catgirl and , usually, beer themed art often based on pre-existing video game and anime characters (yes, genderbend galore). Many artists have and continue to contribute so there are quite a few styles and they are even credited and offer links on the card details page which is actually really neat both for those discovering new artists and the artists themselves to get their art out. It honestly makes me want to begin the practice as there are still so many ideas that I wish to see come to fruition (in the meantime I leave it to the professionals, of course). All of the references are really great and appreciate both the creativity and humor that comes with it.
Ideas and Room for Improvement?
At the moment, the game doesn’t offer much in gameplay variety to warrant the abhorrent drop rates and time it takes to sink in getting these cards. My current 50 hours and I can clear out the lot three times over and expending all my resources and still not get even the lowest rarity of any card I am hunting. So, how do we improve this?
Ideas for variety and content:
-Recycable, break down boxes, collect coupons to trade for cards, and basically anything that can offer spice than just vacuuming everything up. By no means would any of this need to be mandatory but could be incentivized by more money, cards, or inventory.
-More levels. The circle gets boring and has little exploration. I would love to have places I can go like a hoarder’s house/storage, trashed convention hall, abandoned card shop, etc to offer more visual and explorative variety.
-Allow us to see the lady of the trash lot while we move around and wear the clothes we provide. It’s vital :) (Other NPCs that change what they are doing isn’t a bad either, maybe even a temporary helper?)
-And of course, more cards (though it is likely already in place and a given since they encourage people to submit arts to include in the game)
-Allow playlists of the songs you find. You can manually enter the song to play but then it automatically plays the next. I only really liked a couple of the tracks and there are a few I’d rather not play at all.
Ideas for QoL:
-The ability to trade multiple stacks of a card. At present you can only trade three cards of a rarity for a higher one at a time. In my current late game I could easily have 60 cards each that I would love to be able to trade quickly instead of having to click and sit through animations. As well, being able to sell by quantity instead of individually.
-Remove the sell button from everywhere. Anytime you collect a card (through any means) the sell button is available and dangerously so if you are quickly going through a bunch at once making it likely to sell a card you did not mean to.
-Temporary buffs to specific card drops. I have spent hours, cleared the area multiple times, and still not received even one card I want of the lowest variety. Allow us in an endgame to buy buffs at a high price for a temporary increase to the card drops, even if you are only guaranteed the lower quality it is by far better than the nothing I have been getting.
I like the game, it’s good, but it could be great or even fantastic with even just a few of the changes listed above. Also, I tried, I really tried to go for the last achievement before posting this but I just couldn't bare it any longer. Not without some QoL to ease the journey.
This game has been critically praised to hell and back and while my appreciation of it has grown over time after beating it (even as I write this my personal score has raised by an entire point), I don’t quite hold it to quite the same high regard. I can understand why people love it so much though. It’s PS1 era graphics, well crafted characters, and a well done almost Memento-like non-chonological order of storytelling that informs the character while keeping the greater mystery hidden in their peripherals. They know something is there but they can never quite see it fully. There is plenty of dialogue and interactions but the game does not outright explain everything. It allows the player to piece together the greater picture on their own while providing context clues to nudge them along. I think this is in part why my enjoyment was not quite as high as I did not understand all the set pieces or more importantly some of the relationships the characters had. This did require some lookup on forums though due to the nature of the game it’s largely conjecture and using evidence to support theoretical facts. So, other than the greater mystery some things are left to each individual’s experience. The game doesn’t require much outside of some light exploration, puzzle solving, interactions, and encounters. While unnerving, what the game does best is keeping intrigue in the mystery while it strings the player along and how it develops its characters through what limited time and information it gives you. A good use of music, visuals, and setup create a pretty great atmosphere and interactive horror experience.
Oh… oh no… I like this… a lot. My playtime is from a single session and could have easily extended far beyond what it was had it not been for my grasping of willpower. It’s a horror job sim that has you recover items from a spooky warehouse to ship out as needed and meet your daily quota. Not everything is lethal but will try to jump-scare you from your objective. Print order slips, memorize the location and unlock code for the container and return. It’s as simple as that but so very addicting. Your cat is your timer as any time spent away ticks down the amount of happiness your cat has. If that reaches 0… game over, so be quick to return to your feline friend. You won’t have much to help you until you start investing in more items such as flashlights, scanners, more levels, etc. Even items for your cat to increase their happiness (and yes you can pet the cat). You won’t even have a proper map which I thought would be a problem but exploring and memorizing the layout was actually pretty great. It does have some jank (items disappearing, interactions becoming a bit wonky, tedious enemies) with some ideas left unfinished (either cut content or potential updates, I could not say) alongside the repetitiveness might not be for everyone. I do also hate the “post-game” randomizing the orders you get. Meaning you could be unlucky and get a bunch of low value orders making it eventually impossible to meet your quota. Allowing me to choose the risk/reward level for at least half my tickets or having an extra goal to further give rewards would be nice.
Just being able to plan out your routes in your head, learning navigation routes, and knowing how to avoid dangers is pretty satisfying. It’s simple, it’s repetitive, it’s a job sim horror, and it was my hyper-fixation for over 4 hours. I don’t get it… why I like these kinds of games but running to grab orders in the darkness and among monsters… I liked it there. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was right where I was supposed to be.
Silent Hill: Townfall
0
1
3
15
Konami continues passing out their IPs to various developers like throwing darts on a dart board. There’s been mixed results but I think so far it’s been pretty positive. So, with all these new hands on the IP we should establish one thing. What makes a Silent Hil game a Silent Hill game? The location is probably an easy answer but pretty limiting. After all, why can’t what happened in that town happen in other places with different or similar results? For me, it’s body horror, sound design, mystery, obtuse puzzles, and atmosphere. These traits are what make SH stand out from it’s contemporaries in the Survival Horror genre. Townfall, I believe, does that pretty well. Technically it’s not the first SH to go First Person, though it is the first one to be an actual full fledged game. It handles it pretty well and is helped by just how crazy good the game looks. Like, it’s been a while since I marveled at how crazy good high def a game looked. It really is beautiful and the European coast town inspired location feels quite fresh and charming (y’know outside of the “SH” aspect of it). Sound design is fantastic and vital both as a way to immerse into the environment as well as track the happenings around you.
Silent Hill, much like most Survival Horror, promotes a fight or flight idea. This one more specifically promotes more stealth as a primary and fighting second due to the limited resources and durability of melee weapons. Peaking, crouching, throwing objects for sound, hiding and closets as well as using the CRTV as your main tools for facing enemies. The CRTV effectively acts similarly as the radio does in the other games. It can be used to track enemies as well as a narrative progression tool. You’ll have to tune it for each and every enemy or narrative point which is kinda neat giving you a little bit of an edge but something you have to manage. Though, whoever designed the controls clearly has not held a controller before. Trying to tune the device while moving or even just standing still feels awkward due to requiring use of the triggers, bumpers, and even sometimes the gyroscope of the controller itself. Combat itself is mostly expected but can be a bit awkward especially against certain enemies.
The story tackles a lot and keeps plenty of secrets along the way while it kept me wondering just where exactly it planned to go. At times it felt like it does try a bit too hard to keep things vague, a mystery, or particularly deep I can appreciate the story they try to tell. It also makes me wonder why we haven’t seen more job sim horror games surrounding hospital work. Something detailed and along the lines of Mortuary Assistant could be great. Puzzles are solid and rarely feel like an overwhelming challenge.
All in all, Konami’s trust in AnnaPurna and ScreenBurn paid off. Though it may not appease those loyal to the original games it does a great job of exploring the world of this universe and those open to it can appreciate everything it offers.
A decent little game that requires you to keep up a few simple tasks while unraveling the mysteries of your work area. With limited air you must blow a whistle to keep a train on pace. Using air vials you can restore your air but you must find or trade tickets for them by doing menial work. The secrets and progression are not necessarily obvious, even when you have found them it still requires some experimenting with actions to get progress to move forward so you can continue your investigations. The constant dealing with air keep up and work is a bit annoying but I did enjoy discovering the various clues and ways to progress since ideally you can get an idea of what to look for from the start and figure out how or when you get there. I didn’t completely understand everything and the story/lore didn’t grip me quite so much but some of the outcomes were interesting and I was able to find some enjoyment on my journey through this.
Alan Wake 2
1
0
3
85
This has been a long time coming. Initially I waited because it was only on Epic store for PC and digital only for consoles. It did eventually get it’s console release but was holding out in the event I ended up playing for an audience. Well, that time has passed and I was finally ready to take on the sequel to a favorite game of mine. Though I wish I had gotten to it sooner, it was well worth the wait. Remedy once again shows they are fantastic at writing and world building while revamping the combat system and feel from the first. Previously, though horror themed, the first was far more of an action thriller. This adopts a full on survival horror experience with darker settings, enclosed pathing, up and close combat, and limited supplies/inventory. Saga Anderson is a welcome new protagonist who offers a unique perspective to this dark story. Her “mind place” allows the player to organize clues to the various cases and profiling ability is almost psychic like giving her the ability to get into the minds of potential suspects. Not terribly unlike Will Graham from Red Dragon/Manhunter. Though, I do wish there was some more freedom when placing clues as Saga will tell you outright that it’s wrong instead of really letting you figure it out and make mistakes. The dual narrative really works for this game and probably is the best I’ve seen something done like this. Allowing you to switch between or proceed until absolutely needed to go to the other. Each one complimenting each other while still standing on their own. Combat feels good, a lot of similar aspects of flashlight, dodge, and shoot. Though the dodge feels a bit finicky and some attacks seem to have persisting hit boxes that seem near impossible to dodge. Tons of secrets and puzzles that endorse taking time to explore. Specifically how the writer shapes the world is a fantastic new mechanic that makes a lot of sense given everything the previous games have been leading up to. There is a New Game Plus that supposedly offers a little bit of new content but in my brief run of it I hadn’t found anything yet.
All in all, a fantastic continuation of a much enjoyed series. So many great and surprising moments along with consistently engaging gameplay. I can only wonder if and where the story could go and how long I’ll have to wait. Very much recommended.
DLC
Night Springs DLC
I won’t go into specifics, but each DLC focuses on a different character both from the game and from the general “Remedy-verse”. They’ll be introduced as you progress through the story but you can play them anytime from the menu. They play pretty similarly but have a far greater focus on combat allowing a nice break from the barely getting by feel of the main game.
The Lakehouse DLC
Focuses more on how Control connects to everything that happens in Bright Falls and it REALLY feels like Control outside of the actual combat. It’s a total shit in feel but makes a lot of sense. It also gave me a lot of appreciation for the protag of this DLC and can only make me wonder why I haven’t heard more about them from others.
Not sure I would consider this a horror game, but it is definitely a future dystopia and quite ridiculous at that. The game is simple. Cook for others by moving your pan to heat the ingredients, flip items to cook both sides, and try to avoid losing any of the ingredients in the process. Each “ingredient” has their own mechanic and each mechanic will often affect the other items on the pan. It should be one of those frustrating games due to the likeliness of failure but honestly it is just too satisfying. Mastering the craft feels good and even when you fail, the ridiculousness of the situation is too humorous to be mad at. Your interactions with the inhabitants will even further cement the ridiculousness of the dish you’re making and even have, sometimes nauseating, camera changes to further exemplify the absurdity. Though there are some context clues, the game won’t explain everything and you’ll often either have to put the pieces together, headcannon, or just accept that things are the way they are as you encounter odd yet seemingly normalized aspects in these limited areas. Once you beat the game you do gain access to a sandbox mode which lets you customize and play various cooking scenarios to your liking.
Unexpectedly a fun game that probably has just the perfect length of content without overstaying itself.
Once again going down memory lane and using the Terminal Cut as an excuse to do so. I’ve always felt this sequel had cleaner combat due to the smoother animations and encounters as well as more sensible learning system. Both the gun system as well as the chain harpoon getting serious updates for the better. Instead of picking up and tossing randomly found guns you now have a dedicated blood gun. Using both the blood from your enemies (or yourself) you will now always have something to shoot with and doing reliably more damage. However they need to be leveled up and it can take a while. Far longer than it should be given when you unlock certain modes for the weapon. The chain harpoon no longer brings you to an enemy but instead allows you to ragdoll them into environmental hazards, in which there are plenty. In fact, it becomes a problem as the majority of the fights will REQUIRE you to utilize this mechanic far too much to the point where you’ll rarely get a chance to properly engage in what should be the regular combat. It’s cool throwing a mook into a spike or exploding barrel from time to time… it’s exhausting when you have to do it as much as you do and that’s on top of the slow-mo effect that happens every time in a required section. I also forgot just how stupidly difficult bosses often were. They take very little damage and do A LOT of damage in return often requiring you to play cat and mouse while using your rage meter. This problem is only slightly bettered by the fact that the devs NEEDED to throw in respawnable henchmen for you to refill your health, rage, and gun meters. Which, as much as I loved the unique boss designs that only further expanded the lore of the Bloodrayne world… vampire only enemies really felt monotonous. Most of the enemy fodder are humanoid vampires wearing different clothes. Also, what is with the henchmen wearing rhino masks? I get the leather bound and gothic fits that come from the 2000’s vampire culture but the rhino masks? It feels like they slipped off a comic supervillain henchmen assembly line and ended up in the wrong game.
Though I still very much appreciate this game, I mean Rayne and the artwork of her have never looked better (not to mention another great performance by Laura Bailey), but it only cements my love of the original and the feeling it had.
A survive-the-night game that requires you to learn the mechanics of each character if you want to make it through each hour before your escape. I had this in my wishlist for a while, not sure what to expect and maybe had I played this years ago I might have felt different but it is really rough. For starters it’s not actually clear when the gameplay starts. There’s also some sort of active issue where encountering a character in the start of the game causes the game to crash consistently. You don’t have to trigger them then but it is a problem nonetheless. You wander around a bunch looking for clues figuring out where to start but it’s unknowingly a matter of waiting. In fact, a lot of this game is waiting. Not in the, survive sort of way but even waiting for a character to do something waiting. Like, the hours feel so long and you have to do so little in them especially once you know each character's trick. There were times that even when adhering to the rules of each character a glitch or something would cause them to break that rule and kill you anyways. Rare, but it happened more than once with varying characters. Otherwise it’s super easy… until you get to the final hour in which the game can block you out of winning. By this I mean that depending on spawns and combinations, characters can stop you from finishing an objective in time (even at times physically blocking you). So, there’s a bit of RNG involved especially when I have had a character spawn on top of me. Luckily, you get checkpoints every hour even if you die so you don’t have to suffer through the time it takes to get to that point.
I’m usually a sucker for these sort of job sim horror games but this one does miss the mark a bit. You are the new cook at an over-the-counter restaurant. Serve food while customers and notes will give you clues to the happenings in the area. You may only have a limited view from your serving window, but their words are the window into the world around you. Suffice to say, you gotta cook their food and serve them. The mechanics to serve the food are just too… wacky for me to get behind. For the most part, you have to throw items to use. Them. For doing things like throwing meat on the grill, toppings onto a bun, etc. which is not a big deal… but you have to throw your knife to cut things which also causes the item to explode everywhere (ground included) and you can never truly stock anything due to this either as you’ll rarely have a great way to do so (the fridge doesn’t even allow you to store items properly). You can drop items but it is so near to your character that it often misses the table. It’s just kinda frustrating and despite the horror premise I’d still like to run a semi functional restaurant. Also, customers rarely tell you specifics from their order and you learn to use the whiteboard which gives you the actual details of their items which lacks a little immersion for me since you are the one taking the order, they should specify their items. Either that or have them ring themselves up. Finally, there is the cookbook. This explains how to make each item which can be necessary since the actual preparation can be specific. Why… Why does it have it in .gif format?! I just want to read or see pictures so I can quickly ascertain the steps instead of having to sit and wait for a repeating video to go through! Oh right, there’s also the horror side of things. Largely it is cartoonish jumpscares, which admittedly got me more than I’d like to admit, but feel pretty cheap overall.
I learned to enjoy the process but overall the narrative and gameplay loop don’t satisfy the itch.
I’m upset. I’m upset because it took me so long to discover this game and I’m even MORE upset that it introduces some of my favorite character designs only for me to have to watch them all die. DAMN YOU SKIN STAPLER! (Seriously we need more alt male/female/etc. Characters to play or even interact with in video games). It’s a narrative driven indie horror game with light exploration, puzzles, job sim aspects, and interactions. Visually it adopts the modernized PS1 graphics that have become ever so popular for indie horrors but it makes me nostalgic so I guess it works. Plus this one looks REALLY good. Like the character models, environments, general assets are all well detailed and the movement feels seamless especially when it even allows for usable mirrors. Hell, even the dynamic camera work gives it an extra edge to bolstering it’s presence among the other indie horror games alongside it. The game is as unnerving as it is comical. It’s unnerving in both expected and unexpected ways as it will often rely on weird innuendo, weird randomness, and sometimes toilet humor. Expected ways often from encounters with and the aftermath from the sinister villain, the Skin Stapler. The unexpected ways often come from the crazed people you will meet during the job sim sections that help establish just how down the toilet this city is. And you know what? I enjoyed it. The cheap humor may not be high brow and sometimes a tad repetitive but I appreciate the laughs it gave me and the hard boiled protag was a nice foil to it all. Speaking of the voice acting was well done and reeks of both a stereotypical noir movie alongside classic B rated horror movies which fits the storytelling just as well. My only serious gripe is that there are no instructions for your job sim mini games which most of the challenge was figuring out what exactly you were supposed to do. Also, no continue button and instead requires you to do chapter select to continue your progress. Each chapter is short, so no big deal, but it’s kind of a common courtesy at this point, ya know?
Seriously though, I only wish I learned of this game sooner and glad I took a chance upon it. Also, I really cannot stress how much I love the look of the characters in this game. Might have to look to see if they have any merch…
Sucker for Love
Charming, relatively short, and very funny interactive VN that pits you with one goal and one goal only. Summon a cosmic horror entity… and smooch them. That’s right your insatiable character has a thing for 4th dimensional entities and he is willing to risk life and sanity for that chance. Carry out rituals and do your best to survive all the while romancing a cosmic god. You only have a few rooms to move between but the game shows just how creative it can be with the limited space and interactivity. The first chapter is pretty simple but as they progress they open quite a bit and even can get surprisingly challenging. In fact, despite not having my favorite entity, the third chapter was a masterpiece in challenge and engagement. Voice acting is fantastic and really cannot give the VAs enough love for nailing their characters. Even I was completely smitten during the second chapter, just that incandescent poetry, line deliveries, and designs! The characters themselves have great and interesting interpretations from their cosmic horror origins to a more “waifu” style while still giving a sense that there is far more than meets the eye. Also, love the 90s anime feel of the intros, chapter select, and opening. Plenty of secrets and additional dialogue and just about every line was golden humor in my eyes. Suffice to say the game doesn’t take itself seriously and I love it for that. Each and every ending was interesting though I do wish bad ends and deaths had more unique visuals as most just show the insanity of your character.
Like, I knew I would enjoy this but it far exceeded my expectations
Best Girl(?) The King in Yellow (they are all great though)
I appreciate the ambition and interesting takes, but I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as the first. It sacrifices the ridiculous situation and humor of the first and although still fairly light hearted as a much more somber and terrifying tone. I suppose we wouldn’t want to get too one note by just repeating similar premises, but oh well. Specifically, the interactions and relationship between an eldritch god and cult members was an interesting focus that I enjoyed quite a bit.
The game now is much more of an adventure as there are several rooms and even another floor to explore along with new mechanics involving encounters and opening doors. It’s very bold but I feel that choice caused them to also make the game much easier. The rituals are painfully simple and as soon as you start one the map notifies you exactly where to go instead of allowing you to search around. I’m also a bit confused as far as exactly where our protag stands. Their whole ability to resist the eldritch horror is because they have 0 lust… but somehow they can still feel attracted to others I guess? I just don’t think it is particularly presented well. That and the progression with your love interest does not progress in a satisfying way, often relying on off screen implications rather than more genuine moments that we are present for. The game does feel like a bit of a slog, in part due to the off screen implications, though I do appreciate the build up of some newer characters.
Quick note on performance. I’m not sure if it is due to how much bigger the game tries to be but I had frequent issues with the game reducing it’s window size while full screen and making it impossible to navigate without a controller. Occasionally it even crashed. It became rare in later moments but definitely a bit more frequent in the beginning.
YET! The final chapter does a lot of redeeming and fixes a lot of issues I had with the game up until that point. Challenge, story, love progression, HUMOR… it is all so well done in the end that I can forgive the sluggish lead up until this point. There is a sweet and endearing finality to it all. That being said, the ending ending does feel a bit abrupt and would have liked a more detailed send off. I appreciate everything this game was going for and hope they can refine and even return to form a bit in the next game.
Sucker for Love: Prelude
More of a previous version of Sucker for Love than an actual lead up to it story wise. You’ll play through the first chapter of the first game in all of it’s jank and glory. Pretty same dialogue and writing but everything looks slightly different and it all takes place in one room. I also had a recurring issue with coloring and flashing menus. Not sure if compatibility issues or this version is just that unstable. It’s fun, free, and almost acts as a demo but you are better off just going for the main game. Check it out if you really want to see what would eventually become the masterpiece that is Sucker for Love.
FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS
The Headliners
Sept 2026
Well, I was making surprisingly good progress (all things considered considering several games were within a collection)… and then the Autumn Sale dropped with some decently discounted games… and October has a bunch of new releases… Backlog despair grows With the finishing of the Castlevania collection and Mega Man X Collection 2 I am ready for both of the new games releasing soon here. I was completely blindsided by how much Dawn of War hooked me. I was expecting to just throw up the base game to diversify my played games and next thing I know I’m chain playing each of the expansions back to back. I was forced to take two weeks of PTO this upcoming month so hopefully I can make some considerable progress though I planned to put in as much time into FFXI to hopefully finish that out so I imagine I’ll need all that time for that. I’m also thinking of becoming better on reviews. I often wait til the end of the month to write them all in one go and the earlier games tend to get a little foggy by that point. Plus I tend to get long winded in my reviews so… something to work on. Anyways, excited for spooky month. May the horror games, movies, and chilly weather commence!!!
Planned games to finish in Oct:
Alan Wake II + DLC
Silent Hill Townfall
Hellraiser: Revival
DPA: Devil in Me
Guilty Gear xrd Rev 2
BloodRayne 2: Terminal
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
Castlevania: Belmont’s Revenge
The Long Dark Episode 5
FFXI
August Progress
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge RTS guy, despite owning quite a few games. I played Supreme Commander with friends which convinced me I was, and I had a lot of fun with that, but so many have just been tests against my skill with little satisfaction. This… this is different. I couldn’t believe how drawn in I was and even played each expansion right after another. It being more than just a realistic military game that enacts past or theoretical battles certainly helps but it is also just well designed and has an active and forefront story through out giving you character interactions, animations, and even sometimes a cinematic or two. A lot of the maps and factions are well designed, fun lore, and battles aren’t overly difficult. I wasn’t too familiar with 40k so I don’t know the whole picture of the lore and faction history, but this provides you just enough through it’s narrative to let you understand the general situation and the idea behind each faction. Factions are a bit limited to just the 4. Space Marines, Orks, Chaos, and Eldar, but later expansions will include more. Tragically, the story only has you play as the Space Marines so outside of facing them, you won’t have a good idea of how to actually play the other factions. Still, the story does benefit from the focus on a singular factions and there is some pretty solid voicework to really drive it home. ||”Sindri!!” “WHAT!? …my lord”||
Honestly, just a great introduction for the game series and potentially a gateway drug for the IP as a whole. I never plan on playing the tabletop but this series so far has gotten me to look at the mini figures.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault
Single Player Playthrough
First Expansion that introduces the Imperials.
A much more developed story mode as each mission had you with a very specific setup and objectives rather than the general gameplay of the first. These restrictions made you feel like you playing a narrative rather than a regular match with some story added. It even allows you to play as multiple races which is PERFECT for letting you try each race before taking them online… something I think EVERY RTS should do it. A story mode can be both an introduction to factions AND serve as an engaging gameplay narrative. You’ll first pick the story path of either Order or Chaos. Order giving you access to the newly introduced Imperial faction and the returning Eldar faction. In opposition the chaos has you play the Orks and Chaos Marines. You’ll switch off between the two factions of your story path until the very end where you’ll take your chosen team to the final battle. Generally the missions feel great, it still incorporates an active narrative, and provides a clear understanding of how each faction functions. Though the game is harder as a whole, a specific mission for both story paths is incredibly difficult to the point where I’d say it is poorly designed. Regardless of the faction it is a VERY time restricted match with overwhelming odds. Even with figuring out a strategy it felt like I was still relying on RNG to get me through.
All in all, I do favor this a bit more than the base game.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Dark Crusade
Single Player Playthrough
Second Expansion that adds the TAU and Necron factions.
This ditches any sort of actual story mode and instead replaces it with something akin to a fighting game’s arcade mode. In fact, the game doesn’t have much to do with the previous two other than the concept of the Necros being introduced in Winter Assault. Effectively, you all are trying to conquer a planet and fight each other for survival and the right to do whatever it is your faction wills. You pick a faction and then get put on a skirmish match where you attack opposing areas to conquer them and eventually the “capital” of the enemy faction before taking each one out. Most of the non-essential maps are just a standard, get out there and conquer. No special objectives or lore. Maybe it was because of my faction but it often felt like the strategy was just rush down the enemy base rather than building up, economy, or defensive. If you did try the latter you would often find yourself quickly overrun. The nice thing though is that most territories give you a bonus either in a boon or bonuses that you can apply to a future fight (at the cost of some points). These points are generated by meeting milestones and these mile stones can even give you upgrade points for your hero/leader. By the way, this game seems to have a lot more focus on your leader giving them several more abilities and customization. Again, could have just been my faction.
You will get lore when you challenge and win against a capitol territory against a faction. It starts with a general background for that faction, followed by the setup for the battle, and with a victory you get a special text wall that entails your faction’s victory over the other. The real nice thing about these capitol battles is that these actually have special objectives and a specifically designed setup for the opposing faction. It actually begins to feel like a story mode in these moments. The opposing faction has plenty of advantage and unique mechanics but it CAN be fun overcoming them (aside from the TAU…) though it can take A LOT of time. 15 hours just for one skirmish match, with some personal skill issues. Once you do manage to overcome all the factions, you win, get a brief cinematic and another text wall detailing the spoils and outcome from your grand victory.
I’m a little mixed. One one hand, I REALLY enjoyed my time with the Necrons. Both with their playstyle and they had some of the best lines I have heard in the series so far. On the other… well the story mode just isn’t very exciting as I much preferred each match be tailored to a specific setup with a strong narrative that the previous two provided. A lot of maps felt tedious to conquer and at times downright like you had some incredible difference in disadvantages or advantages. I get that’s how strategy games can work but even with my win streak some were just unwinnable even with bonuses applied. Meanwhile the enemy I’m facing seemed to conquer or earn very little before that battle.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm
Single Player Playthrough
Note: Requires mods and fixes to run properly.
Third Expansion that adds Dark Eldaar and Sisters of Battle
Final expansion, more factions, you’d think it would be a better experience even if there were questionable balance changes… that is not the case. Story Mode wise it does a skirmish mode like Dark Crusade but in an attempt to make the stakes grander it gives us the worst skirmish design ever. DC had us just fight over one planet, SS moves it to multiple (moons included). This isn’t bad in theory but the player model is now replace with a faction icon, the land pieces are sooooo small as the planets collectively take up a quarter/thirdish of the screen while the rest is literally just… space. Empty space being taken up by mostly nothing other than maybe a couple of teleportation lines needed to get between planets/moons. It just looks awful and confusing. The generic battles are incredibly easy now as you can often steam roll the enemy save for the very rare honor guard reinforcements. Unfortunately, we also lose the ability to keep structures on a conquered tile as well meaning you always start from scratch in any defense battle so it never benefits to over build. The stronghold battles are the stronger points once again given a specifically designed battle and map for each faction you face. Though these feel much less thought out than the previous expansion. Save for the absolute mismatch of the first opponent I had (which felt like I had picked Charmandar to face Brock (Fire vs Rock type disadvantage in Pokemon)) a lot of them ended rather quickly and won before I realized it. On that note, Sisters of Battle felt very underwhelming compared to how cool they seemed. Ultimately they are a less powerful Space Marines in my experience. I still prefer the SoB over SM but man oh man does every battle with them feel uphill.
Everything before this, though had it’s criticisms, is fairly fine if not a bit of a letdown. The real problems are here and that is general performance. The game struggles to run. Even when testing the graphics it would freeze and crash. If you skip it and go straight into the game it seems to be fine but almost every time you are about to win a match… it crashes again. Not every time but nearly where you would have to save right before you think you’ll win lest you chance to lose much progress. This crash specifically is due to a limited memory cache the game has meaning it can’t handle it’s own memory size. The camera is also GOD AWFUL. It’s so zoomed in that a building could easily take up most of it with almost no zoom out. It’s almost required to play this game with the Dawn of War Mod Manager that increases the amount of memory the game can sustain, allows you to zoom out further, and seemed to completely eliminate (or at least reduce) any crashes. I’d also like to note the number of times I have had units completely block each other from moving forward where I’d have to individually move them from each other so they could join the rest of their units.
Ultimately this should be a decent expansion but ultimately brought down by it’s performance issues and overall lackluster execution. It’s a shame because this has an incredibly sick title and box art which should’ve been a nice last hit before moving onto the next game.
A simple point-and-click adventure that looks like (and probably was) made in MS Paint. Like most in this genre it has unorthodox solutions to its puzzles. Some of which are a bit more than frustrating as even the progression of it makes no sense. I.e. Someone is trapped behind a door but you need to put an object to keep it that way. If you walk to the next room over… they are already there. I genuinely though the game was glitched more than that I hadn’t actually solved the puzzle. Simply put, unorthodox solutions can be frustrating enough even more so when you don’t realize you didn’t solve them and/or just not enjoying the game. This lack of enjoyment really goes into full speed during the second act/chapter where your areas REALLY open up and so do the amount of items you procure, many of which STAY in your inventory even after they have met their full use which ends up being a tiring game of cycling through the pile of items you’ve collected never really sure what still need or can be used/combined. The story didn’t really feel all the special and though it had some decent jokes here and there I mostly found myself skimming through the dialogue.
Halloween: The Game
0
0
2
10
I only played a few hours on the Early Access period a few days before it’s full release, so the player base was a lot lower and this is before any patches. This early access was gifted to those that bought the Deluxe Edition which doesn’t seem to make much sense for a multiplayer game.
Though I only played a few hours I managed to play the entire story and a few online matches. Story largely serves as a tutorial for Michael Myers (the killer). Going through an abridged story of the original you will learn how to stalk, injure, kill, and use his various abilities. It can be kinda slow and confusing at times, but overall playing Michael makes sense so long as you have patience and understand this is more than just a cat and mouse game. Take time to study your target, build bloodlust, take out things like lights and communications, hide bodies (or display them). You must take your time but not so much that allows them to escape. I’m not sure if I didn’t understand the mechanics right but I found any civ running the streets hard to keep up with even with my abilities. Any cars around were too distant to appear behind to surprise them and more than not they could just turn the other way leaving me behind to have to reapply my ability to try a next area. To further note this was the last person so I couldn’t even break chase to go after someone else and they certainly weren’t going to stop running. Maybe an ability that slows civs down or something would be nice.
Now for the survivor/civilian side… I really wish there was a tutorial for this. I really didn’t know what I was doing half the time and even I had a better idea than most of the players I either worked with or faced. You see, the goal isn’t simply to escape but to help the NPCs escape as well. You’ll need to convince them of the ensuing danger and find tools to open the various exits (which apparently do cap). So many of my teammates and more so my opposing civilians would just leave before evacuating anyone. Leaving me to just clean up NPCs and secure a rather boring victory. It reminds me a bit of the Assassins Creed 2: Brotherhood multiplayer. While cool in concept, most players would just run around and slash at each other rather than try to sneak undetected. In some fairness it isn’t even clear what all the escape functions are. I accidentally drove a car into the border which caused me and a fellow survivor to escape early (this is partially due to the clunky matchbox car controls the car had). Of course, if you’re worried about dying, death isn’t the end, you can come back as a cop or even a legendary civ like Loomis to track and/or kill Michael.
Onto the bugs (before patch). The biggest and most obvious bug is the odd behaviors of the NPCs who often would stutter, glitch around, and do weird things like casually jumping out of closed windows. There is also some wacky field of vision for NPCs that can have them see you in the most hidden areas while also having trouble when you are in plain sight. There may be other issues but those were the most notable. Maybe less of a glitch and more a design choice, but lobbies have to be filled and if you decide to play again you’ll be matched with the same lobby. It feels a bit weird for a case like is there a benefit playing against the same team, wouldn’t they just know your strategy and clear you out? It’s more a personal thing but also feels like a worse option rather than random matchmaking. Most times people would just leave right after a match but again that could be the limited playerbase.
I had been meaning to return to the game, I still do, but it feels a bit much. Like a dinner you have to buy ingredients for, prepare, cook, and then finally enjoy with all the setup the mechanics have. Sometimes (most of the time) you want something quick, easy, and get over it quickly. So, as much hate as Dead by Daylight can get I often prefer that fast food choice with quick matches over some of the more lengthy matches of this. By no means do these games have to compete with each other just an analogy for my preference. Maybe I’ll come back and love it alongside, but my time is spread thin as it is with all the new releases and personal life.
I had started and dropped this game on and off for years being unable to play it for long or having much desire to finish. What I will say about this is that the art, both background and character, looks great along with pretty solid writing for a free to play visual novel. Don’t get me wrong, the characters can be very frustrating (especially you and your closest friend) but at least acknowledge that good writing often involves very flawed characters. Your main character is an aloof teen who believes he isn’t special and doesn’t know why anyone wants or cares about him which should give you a good idea of what kind of journey you are in for. So, despite these pretty decent praises I do not vibe with the game. Frankly, it’s just not for me. The initial premise is cool… but it takes so damn long to actually get back to it when you are mostly just stuck with high school days and drama for probably about 8.5 hours of the 11 hours it took to finish. I’ll reserve my complaints for some of the drama as it seemed… really stupid given that some of it happened when they were actual children with no control over certain events but overall it was really tiring. It does try to insert a small bit of the actual murder mystery premise back into the game on occasion but they will often go by in a flash and just as easily forget they were there as you are back with your aloof main character just trudging through friend hang outs. When we do finally get to the climax it does get to be a fair bit more interesting, if not a tad limited. Admittedly there was a final moment I was not expecting for a relatively altogether predictable story so far. It does appear there is meant to be a sort of continuation of this game but I have not seen it appear as of yet. There was some after story… but it is mostly extra stuff and I just couldn’t bring myself to go through anymore.
All in all, I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would love this game. Again, great visuals, solid writing, and even some great characters… it’s just not for me. So, if you are like me and so far past dumb high school drama, definitely avoid.
Collection as a whole:
I’ll be honest, this is a hard sell for most people other than those who are invested into the series (and even then…). This collection holds probably the worst games of the X series, with 2 of them being fairly terrible, one being subpar, and the last being somewhere above alright. We’re talking about poor level designs, questionable changes to game mechanics, poor writing and voice acting, missable items, etc. At the very least some of these games will really make you appreciate how Zero plays and just how great the original 4 (ish) are. X8 is easily the best, with some considerable space below that being X5, a bit below that is X6, and way wayyyyy below that is X7. Again, really only for those who really want to play the entire series is who I recommend this for.
5/10
-MMX6
Similarish to X5, we continue the story with X who is now not only using the Buster Shot but brandishing Zero’s Z-Saber and face a new reploid threat seemingly being lead or a part of a evil/virus version of his lost friend. The story is definitely at it’s worse as a lot of the interactions don’t seem to make sense. X makes such a huge fit over people hunting for Evil Zero saying that original Zero is not evil. Like… yeah they already acknowledge he is gone so why would it matter if they are tracking down this virus version? Well, this still leads X to do his own investigation now needing to save reploids through each level lest they die or become infected… There are a limited amount of these reploids, some of which grant you bonuses for saving them. If they are lost… they are lost for good and so is that prize. It’s a frustrating way to go about upgrades and will often have you suicide diving for every one of them because even if you die at least they aren’t forever lost. Each level has you face a boss, but unlike the corrupted reploids of past games you are instead fighting… investigators who are trying to track down Evil Zero. Like… they are just police doing their job and both you and them really just want to fight for little reason presented. The bosses are the easiest they have been with almost no requirement of their weakness needed.
As for the saved reploids, some appear to have some foresight to save so you are very likely to miss a good number. This is also the first game in the MM franchise where you can easily soft lock yourself as some areas require certain gear… but they are also past the point of no returns (in that level) so you either have to die repeatedly or restart your game. In fact, some levels entirely require a certain gear set which is also not something the rest of the series has really done. It feels very off brand and frustrating considering I prefer to play without any gear/armor at all for each level if available. On a good note, Alia’s navigator instructions are no longer required nor do they interrupt your gameplay. Instead an icon pops up every time she wants to talk and you can very easily just pretend she doesn’t exist. If you do choose to listen in… it’s almost never important or even helpful.
Ultimately it is slightly better than X5 but the permanently missable upgrades is mind numbing alongside a very non engaging story.
4/10
-MMX7
Okay… people warned me about this but surely it can’t be that ba… OH GOD IT’S 3D!!! That’s right, Mega Man no longer stuck as a 2D sidescroller but shifts between both dimensions in what feels like the worst platforming I have ever felt in the series. Even when riding a lift down your character will lose footing. It’s like they fired everyone that worked on all the other games and had a new team on this. It controls very slowly and clunky as well… Okay moving on. Wait.. where’s X? Who’s Axl? Well, Axle is one of our new protags who uses guns, has an auto target ability (probably needed for the god awful 3D sections), and a fairly underwhelming ability to turn into enemies. He’s an up start who is full of himself so you can expect him to be everything you hate. His one interesting aspect is meant to be the ability to transform into other enemies but it is EXTREMELY limited to a select few who often can’t fight and are meant for optional and rare environment traversal. The powers you get do you little better as most of them feel useless at the best of times. Don’t worry though, you actually get to active switch between him and Zero who is the far more interesting way to play. In fact, I’ll give this and X8 credit for letting me see the enjoyment in playing Zero as I had never done so before (successfully). Each have their own health bar, but as soon as one is out… it’s game over. Meaning I get to let Axl face tank everything while I actually fight and play with Zero. We once again have saveable reploids that give upgrades and they are once again missable if they are destroyed. I also think that if you die while saving them they don’t get saved this time as well… Upgrades now follow a upgrade tree rather than being a specific part, so you don’t have to worry about missing a specific move rather than allocate the upgrade points.
In short, MMX7 is a terrible experiment just to see how poorly Mega Man translates into the 3D era and only makes it worse by making more changes including a new protag, locking X from being immediately playable, poor voice acting, and savable reploids being once again easily lost. I didn’t know where to fit this but the voice acting is pretty terrible as well. Plus note, this makes me want to go back to the previous games and play as Zero.
2/10
-MMX8
Alright, we came to a compromise after X7. Sure, we keep Axl, but we got rid of the 3D movement and are back on track with now a 2D side scroller with 3D models. Auto Aim is gone, Axl’s moveset feels a lot better, Zero is still just as cool to play, active character switching is back, and generally everything feels a LOT better. This time, when one character dies, they are just knocked out and you switch to the other character, no more game over. Not only can you switch between characters but now you can activate dual ultimate that uses both.Upgrades are now a mix of finding chips and then spending currency on the chips to actually get them. This becomes a problem as currency grinding is slow and the fact that not only are some of these chips hard to obtain but then cost a lot too. Levels are pretty hit or miss, some involving some incredibly frustrating gimmicks (training stage or the gravity switch stage for two). Bosses I remember being mostly fine and the average ability or weapon swaps felt mostly useful. You also get to switch between navigators, one of three who each have their own unique focus (items, bosses, and balanced) though to be honest… I think it’s meant to just appeal to more who you visually and audibly prefer. On that note, voice work is much improved.
Maybe it’s coming off X7 or I just went full circle but I ended up genuinely enjoying this game. It felt fairly smooth, a lot better platforming and gameplay, and just a decently okay story.
6.5/10
Castlevania Dominus Collection
I want to start out by saying I played the games in the order they appeared on screen (Top to Bottom: Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin, Dawn of Sorrows) and I was perplexed that each consecutive game would lose more and more quality of life mechanics or details. Things like info such as drop rates, monster details, items, and even the ability to view a full sized map. I was baffled that instead of improving details of a game they were getting worse. So, I had to double check something and looked on the internet and found… I played them in reverse order of release date. Obviously this does little for the narrative as most Castlevania games are relatively self contained as some take place decades apart in different eras but usually a game improves in some manner… at least in quality of life aspects. So, just note that my reviews might seem a bit weird at times as the criticisms will often be me comparing how it fairs from the one I played right before it. I also was not planning to complete this game but it was surprisingly easy and I can be kind of an insomniac. Though the series often gives you percentages for map completion, item discovery, bestiary, etc. (Not to mention bonus modes like boss rush). It only requires you to defeat most/all bosses and then do another run with the bonus characters. 2/3rds of the bonus characters are incredibly fun as they play exactly like classic characters and their abilities often let you explore the maps in any order you please. Save for the final boss, you can fight any of them in any order and quickly at that.
-Portrait of Ruin
Back in Dracula’s Castle we are introduced to two characters you will be playing more or less simultaneously. One plays like a traditional Castlevania character with a whip or other melee weapon and sub weapons. The other has a lower selection of main weapons (largely books) but deals in a wide array of spells. Though I’d say the magic user is far more useful, most of the spells weren’t particularly great especially when compared to how frequently the other character gets weapons comparatively. The bonus to this is the ultimate moves. Each character gets a single ultimate they can equip as well as a dual ultimate requiring both characters actions. Dual ultimates often look really cool though I only ended up using a couple. The really unique aspect of having both characters is that not only can you switch between them at will but even fight side by side. Though the AI isn’t very smart. Even more rarely will a puzzle or platforming section actually require you to use this.
Though the castle is more or less a standard map for the series the new mechanic offers portraits which lead to entirely different areas with their own little map and boss. This helps break away from the typical scenery of the castle with a variety of new and unique locations. The bosses can vary in quality, often not being very engaging, and one classic boss in particular had my least favorite design.
This game has an issue with bloat in that it wants you to waste your time. First, you have a mini hub area where you can shop and receive/fulfill side quests. The side quests can vary and often aren’t explained very well. Especially when the location or enemy spawn trigger is vague often leaving you to wander around with very little clue of what is actually needed. The second time waster is the sub weapon mastery system. Killing an enemy that has been injured by a subweapon provides varying sub points for that weapon. Most enemies give between 2-6 points… the average sub weapon requires at least 1,000… With so many sub weapons why make the point requirement so high? It almost feels like you’re not supposed to interact with it at all. In addition, the drop rates for even most basic items are criminally low. Even with all the luck up abilities I could get throughout the entire story I probably didn’t get more than 30% before grinding. Other than some side quests, it isn’t necessary, but again these are weapons, spells, equipment, items, we are talking about. By the time you do grind some of this stuff out it is long since worthless.
Overall, still a solid entry but boy oh boy does it try to waste your time. Also the lack of some enemy information on screen was annoying coming off of Order of Ecclesia. Requires almost no touch screen adaptation as the only touch screen aspect I could figure was when it asks you to create your save file crest… which was awful to draw with using a joystick.
7.5/10
-Dawn of Sorrows
Frankly, a little surprised to see the return of Soma though his enemy learn ability is neat and offers a reason why he would lose all of his previous abilities. Frankly, it feels like an immediate sequel to GBA game not just in story but graphics and mechanics but still looks solid. This game introduces some new concepts like infusing the enemy souls into weapons to evolve them. A fun way to increase your arsenal at the cost of an enemy ability What baffles me is how insanely low the drop rate for dominating souls is. It’s the whole mechanic for the game. You kill enemy, you learn ability, you use ability. I think I barely got more than a few souls towards the end, even fewer of which I was actually able to use to fuse with weapons. This drop rate actively removes your ability to engage with core mechanics the game tells you to use. Even the most basic of enemies just do not drop their souls at anywhere near a consistent rate if seemingly at all. This is especially bad if any puzzle or pathway requires a specific enemy soul. What the game does well is interesting puzzles. Various room puzzles are often thought provoking with unique mechanics. It is only a problem when you come by a room that looks like a puzzle room… and is just a dumb mechanic for you to fool around with.
Still great. Lacks almost any enemy information on the secondary screen and doesn’t even let you view the map in full screen. The time consumption from trying to get item or soul drops is a torment in itself. There is actually quite a bit of touch screen interactions that had to get adapted. First my hate for signing things digitally occurs as it asks you to draw your signature (or picture) for your save. It probably took me an hour to sign the name I wanted. The other aspects are with specific abilities which at times need to happen during action. Definitely recommending turning the cursor speed up for that.
7/10
An almost slice of life romance Visual Novel as you are prompted that you are working off a debt buuuuuut unlike most of the genre you don’t actually have any time restrictions. Just make sure you cook, clean, and use any other time to improve yourself or romance one of the four love interests. To start out this game is VERY quality. Art and animations are well detailed with smooth and diverse options. Saying the voice work is fantastic could be an understatement. The VAs felt like they put in a lot of effort to convey the various emotions and excitement of the character and situation which is even further helped by how well each character is written. They aren’t just some basic trope that you follow a dialogue path with, they are all interesting in their own way with their own issues and interests. When it came to deciding between which one I found myself deciding between 3 of the 4 interests as they all were great. I do want to stress that this isn’t a super deep game despite how my praises make it sound, you aren’t uncovering the truths of the world, but you are developing a relatively warm relationship with each woman even with the very lewdness aside. Believe me there is quite a bit of ridiculousness (the whole premise of why the main character can’t keep regular jobs is because his package is too big), humor, and lewdness but still manages to feel genuine outside of that. The middle does get a little stagnant as it felt like I was keeping all the meters up but no real progression happening for a while especially when it felt like some events could have happened earlier to even out this pacing.
It’s funny, cute, wholesome, and lewd all in one incredibly great looking and well voiced big package without the stress of a time limit. One of the better of it's genre and worth the price point.
Marvel’s Wolverine
1
4
9
28
This was played on the second hardest difficulty.
Hooo boy, what a divisive and controversial release that was probably incited by a lot of decisions outside of the game by it’s publisher, Sony, and probably some unrealistic expectations of how it should play. All my opinions and views will be solely about this game and my personal experience and views. Though there’s a lot of valid criticisms, the most popular content people show is altered to show incorrect or exaggerated examples. Similar to how people will complain about how a game looks and you find out they had the settings on the lowest possible setting in a corner with the worst lighting with an active glitch in place. End of content warning. (Quick Summary at end)
Wolverine takes place in a whole separate canon than any X-Men or Wolverine/Story is based on. In fact, in this universe (at least from the opening) there are no X-Men, Magneto or Xavier, and the general public don’t know about mutants or the X-Gene. Wolverine is recruited alongside notable characters like Sabretooth and Mystique who are tasked on missions to help and defend mutants. Unlike Insomniac’s Spider-Man the game is a more linear narrative driven action game. To be fair, what would an open world Logan game really look like without the traversal Spider Man has?
Combat
Since Wolvie doesn’t have the gadgets or abilities Spidey has he ultimately relies on slashing his targets and his own healing factor to keep him up. A lot of the combat involves lunging, basic attacks, and occasionally special abilities that you unlock. This is probably by far my biggest criticism. I don’t mind the generally more basic action sequences as the ripping and tearing are pretty satisfactory and getting into the flow state really makes the impact of Wolverine feel great. HOWEVER, the special abilities which really vary up your combat are on SUPER long cooldowns. Before upgrades you’d be able to use each special once during a battle because it just takes that long to recharge. Various upgrades later do assist with the cool down but it is just wayyyy too long considering these are needed to make the gameplay more varied. The game also incentivizes environmental kills including pushing/throwing enemies into various environmental hazards, activating weapons, or even sometimes something that will power up Wolvie himself. On top of that you’ll occasionally have a partner that will fight alongside you and allow assisted combos. The environmentals aren’t always super easy to setup as getting an enemy to work with you can be problematic. Defensively, aside from your healing factor, you will have parries. Parries are decent but there are quite a few times where multiple enemies will attack you in quick succession (including ranged) where parry becomes less viable, doubly true for any mounted attacks as they leave you open to interruption for similar reasons. Instead of well orchestrated fights, even if these sometimes make you question why an enemy waits for you to finish a finisher, this instead is far more scrappy but when the flow is there… it’s way satisfying. Bosses are a whole separate story. A lot of them are pretty solid all though far fewer fights than I’d like with the last few feeling standout great. There is one in particular that is so bad though that I would lower the score a whole point just for it. It is so poorly designed due to it’s lack of engagement as you have very few instances to attack and it drags on for soooo long. It’s an understatement to say that they just did not know what they were doing when they designed this fight and should’ve been tested, critiqued, and completely overhauled before release. I did enjoy the combat, though I know some were expecting it to be a Platinum Games level of combat (Metal Gear Revengeance, Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, etc.) but honestly we were never shown anything like that. As stated before, the combat does feel good when it flows well, the final sequences really emphasized it, but the AI is far too frantic to allow you to enjoy. Stealth returns though it is incredibly mismanaged and you’ll end up in active combat even with the best of intentions. It feels like they just had the system from the Spidey games and just threw it in. It’s just so easy to be caught and that’s not even considering the wonky vision the AI has.
Story and Character Designs
This game has a strong narrative presence, similar to Spider-Man, which can irk people who are just in it for gameplay. Understandably this does reduce the replay value as having to skip cutscenes and going through the narrative sequences can be a slog. For the story it is trying to tell I appreciate what it tries to tackle and I think that’s why they gave him such a soft face compared to his other iterations as it does focus on emotion… not that I think it was a good choice (face wise) given that Logan has always been perceived as a ruthless beast who is actually quite noble and goes through a fair bit of trauma. I DO think however that Insomniac doesn’t really know how to write women. Well, more precisely they don’t know how to write a proper moral dilemma and always have the female character be on the opposing end of it which then makes that character feel lesser for it. This happened much the same in the Spider-Man games as it has here. I do like their character a fair bit more than I did Mary Jane but it is a really irksome turmoil that does a disservice to otherwise great characters. Character designs were pretty hit or miss, I think a few adjustments to characters designs could do a lot of work and just let Logan look a little fiercer.
Difficulty
This gets it’s own section due to the discourse surrounding the game. Yes, the game is far easier than maybe the average game. I needed to play on the second hardest difficulty to have a challenging playthrough. Now there is A LOT of content to suggest handholding, which there is, but a lot of that is defaulted to off in the settings… meaning the people ragging on the game have to activate it to show it happening. Others can be reduced though not as completely as I or many others would like. Specifically the scent trails and overwhelming visual pings for side content. The scent trails don’t appear all that often and are mostly tied to collectibles. You do however get something that is I think a Sony initiative in all their published games and that is vocal reminders of your actions or objectives i.e. your character or another telling you to do an objective or a solution repeatedly. Since this was an issue in games like God of War Ragnarok I only assume it’s something Sony is pushing on devs as a means of accessibility. It’s great if it were an option you can turn off, I don’t really care if another person can easily clear a game with all that on or not, but I would like to be able to turn that off so I can determine my own paths, pacing, and figure out a solution. I’m okay with being stuck on a solution, I know I’m dumb, I won’t walk away Sony. There is also two other notable aspects of difficulty. Quick Time Events and the On Rails sections. QTEs are already poorly done in this since they are eyesores visually and they slow down when they are required which really messes up the flow of the scene. What’s more, for the actual few times I have actually failed to do a QTE, there was no consequence. Game moved forward and no punishment was received via health or otherwise. I would have much preferred it just be a fast paced seamless QTE that reduces my health or fails the scene if I can’t complete it. On Rail segments, notably the bike sequences, are also not what people say they are.. Completely. Yes, the first bike sequence can NOT be failed regardless of what you do or don’t do. Later bike sequences CAN be failed if you don’t do anything or even perform poorly. I do think these segments just don’t feel very good as a whole. Often being too simple or just kinda messy design wise. First, I wouldn’t even consider trying to do poor so I didn’t even noticed that flaw of the first segment and they are very short and very few so although still a valid criticism… it’s a drop in the bucket compared to any actual issues presented thus far.
Side Content and Extras
Side content is limited due to it’s linear progression but you do get collectibles, challenge missions, character building lore, and costumes. As diverse as the costumes are there is no actually gameplay difference between them other than that your health increases as you craft more. Even if it was just limited to after New Game Plus, costumes affecting gameplay like altering or adding new abilities could have done a lot for the gameplay and would preserve the initial story the base game is trying to tell on a first playthrough. I’d also like to note a little bit of a disappointment that you aren’t in the Wolvie costume NEARLY as much as I would have preferred in the game which I can only assume is so you can see the face more.
In Summary
I’m sure I missed some things, this was written out over several periods of time and I often lose my focus. In the end, I did enjoy this game. When the combat is good it feels great, but so much can be easily lost and so much holds you back due to cooldowns and just limited or scrappy situations. Story is okay enough though I understand a lot just aren’t into it especially since I don’t think Insomniac has written a good story in quite some time. In fact, there is A LOT of formula here that is being reused from Spider-Man 1 (spoilers) ||The game has you face an asian crime organization that imbues enemies wearing masks with newly superpowered abilities. There is a poorly constructed moral dilemma with the red-headed love interest. It also features a hero down on his luck where his mentor inevitably betrays him and ends up being the final villain.|| The difficulty is definitely lower than it should be but the accessibility options are far more optional than people lead on… but still should have the ability to turn and reduce more of it down. I’ll be shocked if there is a sequel due to all the infamy around it.. Then again sometimes infamy is just as good press than good reception. I also wasn’t terribly impressed with their Spider-Man games so I’m just not sure I’m all that into the last couple decades of Insomniac’s works.
August 2026
Well, I was a bit more hopeful on my progress this month and forgot that both the latest FFXIV patch and Tokon were releasing… so they took a lot of time. FFXIV is finally out of the way until the next expansion next year so I’ll have more time on my hands again, maybe even finally get back to work on FFXI. Tokon on the other hand will probably continue being an on/off thing until I finally get completion anxiety and drop it so I can continue making more progress on the backlog as a whole. Still, September is slated with a lot of new releases several of which I plan on getting at some point and even more later this year… it’s gonna be rough. Good, but rough. Here’s to hoping I can finally hunker down and focus out some titles this month.
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft
Played on Steam Deck
More about the remastered aspect than the game itself as I have both played and reviewed other versions of this game already. From first glance, a pretty solid port/remaster/Remake. Overall plays much like the original but with a removable coat of paint on top. By this I mean you can turn on and off the remastered graphics as you play (similar to that of the first Halo Combat Evolved Remaster/Remake). Though the platforms are still blocks (because duh they have to) everything is given a much more immersive and realistic touch. This can be a boon and a bane as the realistic lighting can make it a tad more difficult to find the objective as opposed to the original’s incandescent lighting and unique coloring over every surface. Another change is the camera. It is still third person but they put the camera just a tad further behind for you to take in the surroundings. This is also a bit of a drawback as jumps in tight areas will cause the camera to face your front making you effectively jump blind.
Notes on the game itself. I kind of forgot how slow the first game can be without all the QoL additions added in the immediate sequels. Blocks are pushed slowly and one square at a time, no crawling, and Lara’s House has very little to do. Still, in retrospect I’m just as amazed at all of the interactions you can do considering when it came out. Magnetize pick ups, walk, jump and shoot, flip, hidden special interactions. It’s all kind of impressive with just how clean the animations can be. Also, pretty annoying that it defaults to the load tab instead of save. Too many times I have loaded a previous save rather than actually saving over it.
Steam Deck ran this without any known issues and allowed the fans to run at low quiet speeds.
Though I did prefer playing in the original graphics (simply put I’m very nostalgic for one of the first series I’ve ever played), the new coat of paint is fairly pleasing and the ability to swap at any moment is much appreciated. If you haven’t seen/played this before, it’s an iconic PS1 platforming game that combines loose archeology, history, and mythology come to life.
Castlevania Dominus Collection
Played on Steam Deck
On one hand, quite glad to have another prominent female protagonist take the lead in a Castlevania game the likes of which we have not seen since the Gameboy game, Castlevania Legends (starring Sonia Belmont). On the other hand… man this game was difficult, particularly early on. We’re talking about studying patterns with multiple attempts and even only a few pixel leeway of pixel mistake accuracy. Fun, but challenging.
Though not a Belmont, Shanoa is an excellent new addition bringing with her a new mechanic mostly unique to her game. Instead of the usual physical weapons, Shanoa instead uses glyphs to summon weapons, spells, familiars as well as other abilities. One per arm and a special set for enhancing abilities. These glyphs can be found around, dropped by enemies, and even sometimes stolen from them. Special attacks can be used by using both glyphs at the same time which is useful but there isn’t nearly as much variety as I would have thought giving very little discovery in that avenue. Otherwise for the most part, it plays like Castlevania. Pick a destination, explore the metroidvania like areas and use your abilities to fight and traverse. You do get a hub town, talk to townsfolk, get side quests, and do shopping. Side quests being the more interesting aspect as the villagers provide unusual stories and questionable rewards but gives you reason to revisit old locations. Puzzles are a nice change of pace but some felt a bit finicky though this may be due to the original release having the DS touch screen for more accurate aiming.
Steam Deck review: Plays perfectly. No notes.
By no means my favorite, it is still a great entry that holds it’s own with some of the best and I’m always welcoming of more capable female leads. Certainly looking forward to the newest one coming out. Rose Belmont’s VA is killing it from what I’ve heard so far.
I realized I forgot to add this so I'mma keep it short. Not a great start for the second collection. MMX5 really irked me out of the gate with it's most obvious issue is that it puts a timer/attempt counter on you. Mega Man is all about challenging levels, bosses, and figuring out the best weapons to face against them (or brute forcing it with what you have). So, if you are struggling with a level, you go back to Stage Select and try another so you can come back later. However, selecting a stage reduces your available hours by 1 adding an extra layer of unneeded punishment. Though it seems like it may only affect endings it still feels really bad. Luckily as long as you continue a stage instead of going back to stage select, you can repeat as many times without any real penalties. Levels are poorly designed either being annoyingly difficult, boring, or some combination of both. Even when you do get into the flow of a stage you are often stopped and interrupted by your comms assistant Alia who usually gives you pertinent information that you likely already figured out (and already used). Bosses are laughably easy often barely needing their weakness used against them (though I almost appreciated it allowing me to get through this quicker. On the other hand, we get a return of two notorious bosses both of which are probably at their most difficult across the franchise. Story is fine, but it isn't anything that gauges much interest. Music… I really don't remember it which is odd considering Mega Man is often known for great and stand out tracks but maybe I was too busy being annoyed by everything else.
What concerns me the most is not the whiplash from X4 to X5 but that apparently the next two games only get worse. I'll keep my judgement open but I'm no confident.
So, I knew this was a Bullet Hell Shoot-em-up… but I did not realize it was going to be a Bullet Hell Shoot-em-up FIGHTER. That’s right just you and one boss in a literal ring duking it out until the other expires or time runs out. I’m not exactly the best at these games, I can usually get by, but this just did not click for me. Maybe because I was dead set on using a controller but the button configuration felt off. Often needing to press the square+circle/B+X buttons among other combinations all while constantly dashing, switching between neutral and directional attacks, dodging, trying not to acquire too much heat, etc…. It’s just a lot. I suppose it’s what one must expect from the 100% OJ universe but frankly it’s not for me. Even on Easy I would often struggle with some fights. Several characters have clear advantages over any others. The story is short, kind of like a fighting game’s arcade mode. Pick a character, get your opening dialogue, fight several fights, get the final dialogue along with the main boss. I got through several characters and realized I did not want to put in the energy for this, not to mention not being able to get through normal mode felt bad. There appeared to be some other modes and online (even advertised Tourneys in the Community Hub) but I dare not even try any of those.
All in all, the game isn’t bad and it certainly fills an interesting niche but it just isn’t for me.
I was fortunate enough to find out you can still purchase the DLC for this game and it will download onto the 360 as well. I’ve already touched upon the poor practice in releasing the true ending behind a DLC so I shan’t press upon it further. The DLC is solid as it does, much necessarily, continue and complete the story they were telling. Some of the arena fights felt a little awkward, in one segment in particular, but overall continues to do well with it’s interactive cinematics and use of QTE as a storytelling device.
The Lost DLC is a fun couple of episodes that allow a great crossover between this game and the Street Fighter series. They seemed to have setup for more episodes but it cuts off abruptly and honestly… after the first two fighters it’s hard to imagine where they were going to go from there… though it still would’ve been nice to see. Clearly they had to drop the project due to low sales and possibly some mismanagement here and there. Fights are set into two rounds. First is your 2D fighter setup like you would find in a Street Fighter game while the second carries on as the arena battle much like the rest of Asura’s Wrath has been. It only makes it all that much more of a shame that Asura never officially made it into a game such as Marvel vs Capcom, though the community has seen fit to do it themselves.
Overall, my impression of the game hasn’t changed much. Great story, fun cinematics, decent gameplay, and kinda lame DLC practices.
I’ve played a number of crpgs and enjoy them for what they are. This one… this one is the exceptional outlier. I found myself hooked and having trouble stopping. Just explore a little bit further, get to the next level, try to beat this next challenge. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a modern day crpg with great graphics, a grim (heh) atmosphere, and a fairly easy to follow story. What really sets this one apart for me is that it actually lets you feel powerful. Though I’m sure there’s plenty others that do this, all the ones I have played always made me fear taking more than a few steps before saving, having to crazy micromanage, or just difficulty curve so hard that I can’t imagine honest ways to beat them. This, however, lets you mow down most mobs so long as you are being semi-consistent with your build. You’ll still have to be careful not to be overwhelmed, especially if there are hero variants or bosses so you’ll still have your challenges. That of course doesn’t include the increase in difficulty for going off path or side content/post-game.
The downsides were largely that the game can be a bit overwhelming. There is of course the normal loot management as well as skill point allocation and class selection. What really starts to go off the rails is the constellation point system. An additional point allocation system to further buff your character that has over 105(!!!) constellations each with several upgradeable slots to choose from each with their own benefits and requirements. It’s definitely not going to be the main source of what you do but it still feels like a lot anytime I look at that screen. There was also some questionable loot progression. Frequently I would find myself hanging onto gear for many levels before finding a suitable replacement and even then I found myself far too frequently on the fence. Maybe it was just my luck but this isn’t something unique to this game either.
Overall, a fantastic modern take on the crpg genre and places surprisingly high on my list of enjoyable games. I’ll be looking forward to getting the DLCs when I’m ready to dive back in.
You are Gawr Gura and you must go through time to find your special bread.
Fun little action platformer based on the Hololive vtuber character, your main character among others you meet on your journey. Getting it on a bit of a whim but enjoyed what I played. I felt the influence of games like Mario 64, particularly with the jumping and diving mechanic you’ll need to use. Combat is pretty basic and the super move feels very inconsistent. There were also more than a couple of times I had broken the game a bit which required reloading the checkpoint but nothing crazy serious. That being said, it’s just a fun silly little game. Characters are written pretty closely to their vtuber counterpart, and with some of them having graduated (retired for lack of a better explanation) it is nice to see them live on in other ways. The dialogue and jokes are pretty humorous and I appreciate the references strewn about. Also, you can unlock hats for your character often related to outfits they wore on streams.
I will say for the length and quality, it’s decent but maybe it could be just a few dollars cheaper (thinking around $5ish is a perfectly set value) but really not a bad little purchase and a fun/funny adventure.
While Marvel vs Capcom slept a new age of heroes has awakened thanks to Arc System Works providing a new assist/tag Marvel fighter now being a 4v4 (kinda). It’s been a journey watching this game change from it’s original announcement and betas. It’s gameplay, though driven by autocombos, has evolved into something just a bit more complex. Not to say it isn’t fairly beginner friendly but does offer a much higher roof of skill expression than before. Every characters feels and looks great, though some are substantially better than others, each character feels fairly viable and a treat to try. Don’t let the 4v4 overwhelm you though. With the single health bar system you only really need to learn one character while the others sit as assists. When you are ready to learn more you can and it will only help you diversify your playstyle. Also, I cannot STRESS how great it is to finally get characters like Blade, Carnage, and Green Goblin (among others) finally in a fighting game. Blade in particular has been a missed opportunity for far too long.
The art style and stages are really vibrant, almost every fighter has an excellent theme that matches their character, and customizable languages per character. Given how closely Star Lord sounds like Deadpool… I’d very much recommended messing with the language options. There’s also a plethora of single player content. First and foremost, the story is actually pretty good. Though some team stories feel a bit status quo, others do well with their progressions, setup, and dialogue. The champion is also a much improved version in this with not only a great design but having a refreshing take on what drives him to be the big bad. We also get the usual combo trials, additional combo trials with a creative take, a survival mode, Rumble arena, and minigames within the multiplayer lobby. Rumble arena is… well maybe not well thought out. Run around as a chibi character to collect upgrades and earn points then switch to a fight to use what you’ve gained and do that for a couple of times. Frankly it’s a bit too chaotic and the fights are timed so they often don’t earn many points even though they should be the more critical aspect. Survival though… it’s definitely the star player here. Similar to Xrd’s M.O.M. you must do battle after battle against opponents retaining the health you had from the previous until you fight a boss. You earn technical points each fight and get a randomized set of cards to choose from when you earn enough to enhance your team. It’s incredibly fun, but difficult. All modes, including multiplayer unlock colors for your character, often which reference another character or something related to their various media. Unfortunately there is a limited number of actual costumes but if this game does well… maybe they’ll sell us a few (hopefully reasonably). Of course, if you’re just in it for the multiplayer, that is fine too though it was pretty rocky at the start with connections.
Though a bit of a controversial release I quite enjoyed my time with it and will continue to do so (despite me having commitment anxiety). Hopefully this game recovers a bit more so it can receive quite a bit of support and continued DLC releases for more characters and costumes.
Feeling a bit nostalgic I thought it was finally time to play the Terminal Cut release of Bloodrayne. A game I hold fond memories of and only encouraged my affinity towards vampires and vampire culture of the early ‘90s and early 2000s. As far as the Terminal cut goes vs the original pc port… well I’m not sure there was too much of a difference. It looked much like I remembered (which might be saying something good in itself) and played all the same (the original pc port didn’t have any bugs or problems that I recall). So, for the most part you’re just getting another solid port that is supposedly upscaled.
For the game itself, it is as enjoyable as ever with just a really great vibe that the second never really embraced. I was also welcomingly well reminded just how much variety the game had in terms of enemies. Nothing quite beats getting a list of important Nazis to mark off once you take their heads. Unfortunately the combat is a bit scrappy and your combos, even when upgraded, can be easily attacked through so you’ll depend a lot on your blood sucking to regain health and take down enemies. Also, man oh man are a lot of bosses hitboxes wonky. Guns often feel pretty underpowered and the grappling hook is questionable. Yet, just kind of slashing your way through and using blood rage is still satisfying. Also, Rayne is played by the legendary Laura Bailey who will absolutely make you fall in love with the character with her excellent performance (okay I may be a little bit biased).
Though I’ve always felt that Bloodrayne 2 had a better grasp on it’s gameplay, it’s really hard to beat the feels, setting, and variety of the first. Terminal Cut, though not making major graphical or gameplay changes, does at least well to preserve the original (though I saw reports of some cheats or other missing due to various reason. Not sure if those got added back ever).
July 2026
It’s too dang hot to be playing games. Makes me consider something as pricey as a Steam Machine. Something more compact and less heat producing than my oversized space heater of computer. Managed to get a few of my Steam Summer Sale games out of the way… though I still have far more awaiting and my backlog has more or less stayed the same size, so… hooray to small victories? Well, the latest FFXIV patch just dropped so I’ll be grinding out the latest content and will hopefully get back to finishing FFXI as well as picking up several other games I’ve had to set by the wayside. Though there are many anticipated games around the corner, I’m glad I made the progress I did and looking forward to keeping a rhythm to my momentum. Notable games this month: Retro Rewind, Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign
In truth, I did not realize this was a collection of handheld YGO games, so I can understand many peoples disappointment with this collection. Due to being a kid who always had to travel between parents, a few of these were my lifeblood so I have a touch more forgiveness for this plus it is like… 14 games. Several of which never previously made it out of Japan. Now the handhelds have their limits and issues in terms of what games and devs were capable of. Some notable trends I am seeing as I get through each game. However, I can’t deny the vision and creative liberties it took to get a still developing card game could be on the go with limited space.
-YGO Duel Monsters (Gameboy) 3/5
Like most early gameboy games, devs struggled to realize it’s potential. Games often struggled to fit much in there and were vastly limited in mechanics or even visual capability. This is very true for this entry. Super basic designs, limited card quantity, deck has to be exactly 40 with a tedious add/remove card system. You HAVE to play a card each turn and HAVE to either attack or put in defense. No spells or traps. Only extra cards exist through fusion and it is through trial and error of stacking cards. This means if the fusion fails, your previous monster is discarded and your new monster takes the place. You only draw cards for the amount you have used. Each stage has a few duelists that randomly drop cards from a pool when won with a guaranteed drop every 10 wins. 5 wins of each character moves you to the next stage. If you could get a few decent cards and know some key fusions, you don’t have to grind too much though some legendary cards exist only in the win 100 drop which can take a while. The AI is also pretty dumb as it will always attack left to right on it’s side only if it can destroy the monster (it will NOT risk taking any lifepoint damage) and will replace it’s stronger cards if it is in the left most spot with a filled board.
Of course, if you just want the achievement, you only have to get to like the third stage, no game beaten required.
Should you use cheats? Honestly, as long as you have a fusion guide (great one on Steam btw) you can get by with just playing the game. Maybe a few rewinds but honestly don’t think I need to much.
-YGO Duel Monsters II: Dark Duel Stories (GB) 2/5
More or less an improved version of the previous game, it implements a lot of the same ideas of stages, win 5 times, guaranteed drops, fusion, etc. Now, there are trap cards, though you can only play one and they only stick around for one round (your turn and your opponent’s). Not only do you have a card limit but you also have a duel level and “power” limit which is assigned to each card. So, too many powerful cards when you have a low power limit means you have to take some out and replace with weaker cards. The power system sucks simply because you can get some decent cards early on that you will be nowhere near being able to use even if you somehow managed to get your duel level high enough. It’s just an annoying gatekeep to keep you more restrained especially since you are still stuck at a 40 card limit. Fusions are also far less defined which means more possibilities but often harder to keep track of or predict. However, when you fuse correctly, you do get to play an additional card. This makes it possible to fuse multiple times or to better setup your field with more cards instead of risking it all. This is especially important due to the alignment/type advantage where a card that has type advantage over the other completely destroys that monster even if it is far weaker. Meaning a Kurboh card could kill a Blue-Eyes if the card advantage permits it so. It’s an interesting way to keep the game more exciting. The game also seems to run much slower than previously between turns and just misses out on the simplicity of the first.
The achievement for this not only requires you to beat the game but to fight all of the secret bosses which are SUPPOSED to rotate out after a duel (small chance) but it literally never happened without enhancement usage.
Should you use cheats? Rewind for sure, especially for detrimental fusions/fusion testing (there is just a lack of a fusion guide out in the wild). Unlock all cards is a bit unnecessary due to the amount of grinding you will need for duel and power levels.
-YGO Monster Capsule 1.5/5
Though I didn’t particularly enjoy this one, I will give it credit for trying to be more unique. Not only is it a tactics based game but it creates it’s own story with the characters within the YGO universe. That being said… the gameplay absolutely sucks. Bet a star chip and defeat the enemies monsters. You can only move and attack with one monster per turn, which really loses the strategic side of things. Monsters have different attack spreads and abilities. Different tiles offer different bonuses. If your monster dies, it’s gone for good. You must roll for your attacks, certain numbers allowing you to attack, miss, critical, or damage itself. You can get more monsters by spending a star chip for a gacha roll. If you win, you get a star chip. You need several star chips to proceed and lose them when you do. You might have an idea of the problem here already. It’s the star chip system. It’s so slow to get star chips to not only proceed but then to roll for potentially bad monsters. If you could bet multiple stars or face enemies that have higher bets this may not be so bad, but weak or strong, enemies give you the exact same star chip reward. The slight difference is that stronger enemies TYPICALLY give higher xp bonus though there’s only really a handful of solid experience givers. XP is used to level up your monsters which increase stats and potentially allow for special skill unlocks/evolutions. Though evolutions are laughable as they take so much grinding to get your monster level high enough only for it’s level to reset upon evolution… in which case you gotta hope it doesn’t die in the next encounter(s).
The story has you go through a game tower and defeat several dark masters before the final boss. Each Dark master pits you in a Dungeons and Dragon like mode where you must traverse their one shot story and resolve the issue while engaging in the tactic like gameplay.
Achievement? Beat the game, there is some post game you can do (not needed) but frankly if you are going for EVERYTHING, it’s going to take a long while.
Should you cheat? Rewind is a must with how abysmal dice rolls and gacha rolls can be. The game even cheats it’s own way. When your turn starts, the game pre-determines if you get a regular roll, a critical roll, or a fail roll. The last two meaning, it will only ever cycle between a few numbers that are guaranteed to be bad for you (i.e. the enemy will crit you, or you will damage yourself) no matter how much you rewind that turn. If you rewind before hand, you can potentially cancel it out when it goes to your turn again but it’s super annoying and sometimes gotta fight it. Balance is also kinda crazy dumb and requires A LOT of grinding to get even some of the stronger monsters to move forward without losing them. I’d almost recommend the infinite star chip just so you can roll at your leisure or not worry about having to grind for progression and worry more about levels.
Asura's Wrath 
Picked this up before the 360 store shut down as it was something that I always had my eye on but was never available… that and the questionable implementation of it’s gameplay and DLC. Though this comes of as an action game, which it is, it is far more of an interactive anime than it is anything else. Outside of a few small arena and boss battles, you’ll primarily be engaging in cutscenes with QTEs as Asura exacts his wrath and gets revenge on those that betrayed him. The game has heavy Hindu and Buddhist religious influence as it uses aspects and god figures from both blending it with a bit of sci-fi and cybernetics. CyberConnect, the dev, really show their portfolio with sound design and the QTEs that were frequent in their Naruto Ultimate Ninja series. Honestly, the game is just a power trip that lets you really enjoy the absolute insanity of the battles with each cathartic blow, and I’m all for it. The actual action battles are alright as it’s relatively basic and ends when you fill up your rage bar. The neat part is it uses your health, rage, and special gauges as part of the story telling (i.e. if Asura gets more angry, his rage meter will sometimes build up). The characters are great with a lot of stand out voice actors and takes plenty of surprising twists in this episodic narrative. What REALLY stood out to me were the after episode narrative sneak peaks that made me nostalgic with the similar old 90’s and early 2000’s anime outros they used to do as you waited a week for the next episode.
Replayability can be a bit rough as you literally can’t skip the cutscenes since they ARE the gameplay and you’d have to go through quite a bit. Again the actual ground battles are pretty basic so they don’t offer nearly as much variety as a DMC game might. Though I thought I was thorough, I completely forgot that the final story chapters were actually DLC and never managed to pick those up before the store closed. So, despite completing the “main story” I am still missing a much wanted continuation and finale. Also, you have to unlock the final true scene by replaying the final chapter all over which is pretty annoying.
All in all, I loved the power trip it sends you on, the story of over the top revenge, early anime vibes, characters, and just Cyberconnect doing what the do best… creating insane large scale animated action sequences. Sadly, the game didn’t get ported much and I think is only available as backwards compatibility on XBOX and the game didn’t do particularly well so it’s not likely ever to come back in any legal way.
Though there are updated versions that improve upon the game with more characters, in no way should this be overlooked and not receive it’s praises. Immediately the change from the series’ usual pixelated sprites to cel shaded models is staggering but it looks FANTASTIC and is still used in games like Strive. Detailed, unique, and still carries the unique stylishness of Guilty Gear. Cutscenes are in game so during arcade mode you do get to see your character in your changed color palette. With the inclusion of roman cancels, best state of Instant Kills, blitz shields, and (admittedly underused) clash system incredibly open up the freedom in playstyles and interesting fast action gameplay. Something in particular I enjoyed is how the game penalizes players for playing too safe by reducing their special gauge if they don’t attack frequently enough, encouraging more aggressive tactics.
Story mode is entirely a visual novel which felt a little odd not having some battles in between but if you treat it like an episodic anime you can get through it comfortably. It doesn’t have quite the same complex story of sibling series Blazblue, it instead redirects that insanity into it’s character designs with obtuse weird weapons and JJBA-like styles. Characters have fun and unique mechanics, if not sometimes confusing, but you are likely to find a character you enjoy. This game also includes an English Voice cast …in which I’m a bit mixed about. There are fantastic performances but there are more than a few that the voice didn’t either fit or felt didn’t give the energy I thought the character needed. It only really feels as bad when this is the case for a main character like Sol Badguy. Arcade mode is pretty standard by is used to flesh out the story of story mode. It’s nice, but a bit disappointing as only a few characters really add much to the narrative while others seem to get only a few additional lines. It also means we don’t get particularly unique or “what if” ending scenarios that normal arcade modes often offer. Also, DLC/extra characters get no scenes despite being in the actual story mode. M.O.M. mode actually captured my interest giving a sort of RPG like experience with earnable skills and battles. Couldn’t/Didn’t try any multiplayer though like most it is probably not as much of an active scene these days.
Recommend? If there’s any game that is responsible for making Guilty Gear what it is? It’s probably this. It finds and refines what it wants to be and does it WELL. Strive will later reach wider audiences but this setup a lot of the basework for what makes the series really rock! Certainly worth the buy even if you own the updated versions.
Preferred characters: I-No, Slayer, Ramlethal
Note: TRY THE DEMO FIRST!!!
I was so ready to give this a negative review throughout my entire playthrough but I think at some point I developed stockholm syndrome as here I am giving it a positive review at the very end. Don’t get me wrong, even if it was a negative review I would have many praises to give. Unfortunately, even with it’s high of highs the lows are equally lower. So, let’s start with the praises. Great artstyle that balances cool and cute. Wonderful song selection that varies song styles while still feeling cohesive. Interesting take on the rhythm game genre though this is where it starts to get really divisive and why I can’t stress enough why you should try the demo first. There is a story mode which is alright. Character interactions were fun and having the opposing/friendly character react to how well you are doing is a nice touch. Mini-games help change up the gameplay into a simple, cute, and fun rhythm experience. Harder difficulties if you actually manage to feel the flow of the game and a remix mode that changes the type of enemies for each attempt, modifiers to further challenge yourself. There’s tons of DLC from all sorts of properties and artists, even some unique. Not only do DLCs add songs but include characters or character costumes that stand across from your character giving even more interaction to the great crossovers. Most of the added songs I enjoyed with only a couple packs being a personal miss though varying feelings on the actual design of the levels but mostly positive.
I was damn sure I was going to love this game between the art style and it being a rhythm game. Yet when I started playing it… it just does not click. This is due to how it actually functions as it really isn’t a “normal” rhythm game. Notes are replaced by enemies. Each enemy has a unique mechanic that you’ll have to remember and there is a fair bit of them. Some are more easily recognizable, most can be hard to remember. It is then further complicated by changing what each enemy does depending on what color they are. Each enemy can be further modified by their shadow, which is by far my most hated, which causes them to move off beat at varying speeds depending on the shape of the shadow. Lastly there are environment modifiers that when passed through can cause effects like moving at increased speeds or moving which lane they are in. It’s… a lot to be honest and if you aren’t playing consistently, hell even if you do play a lot, it’s easy to forget what to do for each enemy especially with everything else coming at you. It almost becomes easier to just memorize the song as it will be easier to understand the specific patterns than it would be to remember the actual notes themselves. Unfortunately this just makes it harder to pick up and play any song. In addition, both a plus and a minus, the game will sometimes use the environment effects as visualizers prioritizing flare over functionality which can become quite distracting especially if it causes obstruction of enemies and even cause them to clip inside each other given some circumstances. DLC is a bit confusingly listed in the store and has even showed owned DLC packs as not owned causing me to purchase one of them twice (KDA).
As a more middle of the road aspect the game does reward for being better but the rewards is kinda… eh. You unlock profile glamour for your account which really don’t do anything for me and I wonder how many people are actually looking at another person’s profile for this to be a thing. I suppose you gotta make yourself unique but I think leaderboard status should be sufficient and then give us rewards to outfit and stylize the character, tracks, effects, enemies, etc.
Recommend? Honestly I can’t either way, not truly. Though I’m not amazing, I do enjoy rhythm games and this should have been an incredible hit… but I never found the flow, it simply is not for me. I imagine for those that it does hit for will hit HARD and it’ll probably be your favorite thing in the world (or something like that)
Another copy of a game I have played many times since it’s release and still enjoy it every time. A solid character action/hack and slash game clearly inspired by the likes of Devil May Cry, God of War, and Legend of Zelda set in an abridged version of catholic mythology (focusing on Heaven, Hell, the apocalypse, and the 4 horsemen). This focuses on War, a horseman that is wrongfully accused of starting the apocalypse and must prove his innocence by finding the true culprit. War is a bit clunky but makes sense for a powerhouse brick house of a horseman he is. There is also a lot of noticeable filler content, particularly early on when having to do trials to progress. The Zelda influence really shines in it’s dungeon-like areas that will have you solving puzzles, platforming, and using newfound gear to progress. Boss battles vary in quality but are mostly fine.
This port does have various issues that I do not remember having with the Warmastered edition. This includes potential crashing, troubles getting controllers to map/read, and some freezing. Achievements have crazy imbalance including one that took hours of tedious travelling for hours past the initial completion of story.
Recommend? Well, the Warmastered is easily the improved version but you get this one with the purchase of the Warmastered so… you’ll have it either way.
I’ve never had much interest in the “shop sim” genre of games but this one really stuck out for me. Finally, I am able to relive my nostalgia of growing up with blockbuster. Stocking physical VHS, having trailers and movies play over the TVs, bright and decorative environment, having imaginary conversations about movies and recommendations with the customers, and just the 90’s/early 2000’s nostalgia. Though not terribly different from other shop sims, it does feel like this does get a bit more love. Plenty of unlockables include concessions, movie genres, arcades, etc. Expand your store, buy more movies, scan and rewind videos, serve food, and more. It’s very interactive. All the movies are either a random combination of images that will produce an associated title or for New Releases a parody of hit movies from decades ago. What I’m really excited for and started doing is modding in actual movies to REALLY relive those youthful years and get to stock recognizable and beloved movies truly creating the experience. The modding scene is only growing and I’m hoping the dev continues to update the game as it does eventually plateau but I don’t mind popping back in to check on my store and run a few days.
Characters are a bit more cartoony than I imagined and there are limited channels to flip between (despite there being several folders in the game folder) but I am hopeful and confident these will be later updates.
Absolutely Recommended.
Beat the Steam version as RE9 was releasing and figured I’d go straight into the completion, more specifically the Professional S+ runs. A first run through of the main game was pretty smooth while going for some other achievements along the way. It’s only natural that when I went for the S+ that fate deemed everything should go wrong as much as possible even including Leon falling through a map after a particularly long segment of no saves. Separate Ways DLC, though it had a couple lynch-pin moments, was a one-and-done Pro S+ run due to it’s much shorter run time and more lenient save limit. I still have to check out Mercenaries but I also have a lot more in game content and challenges to unlock so I’ll return eventually and maybe even try a few randomizer mods as well. In no way replaces the original but still a fantastic remake to put alongside it.
Other Games:
Smilers Den Deluxxx
-Rating: 7/10 Steam Review
-Quick Notes: A more genuine FNAF/Backrooms/Observation duty-like than you’d expect. Creature design is far more ridiculous than actually alluring then again…
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
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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
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10
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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
1
3
6
40
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
0
0
0
21
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.
| 1599 | games |
| 22% | never played |
| 6% | unfinished |
| 39% | beaten |
| 29% | completed |
| 3% | won't play |