Recent reviews by duckfist

Metalslugtroidvania. Honestly controls a bit closer to Mega Man with a bit tighter platforming and controllable jump height. Leans towards the Metroid end of the MV spectrum, no "RPG" element, collectible health/ammo pickups and tons of movement upgrades. Lots of weapons but only a handful of them stand out as in Axiom Verge. I couldn't find much sequence breaking, but it's got a great map, much larger and longer than I was expecting. Easier than the average modern MV but very fun. A bit button-mashy which might turn off modern gamers but works great for my old Mega Man thumbs.

I personally loved the progression - the first half was somewhat linear, then it opened up rather suddenly and does not hold your hand. I much prefer it this way as it really feels like Metroid, but I can see modern MV fans not really feeling this especially with the backtracking it requires.

My only real complaint is that there's not enough map pins. Just let me place hundreds of pins. It's capped at like 10 and there's no good reason for this.

This probably would make an awesome speedrun, but it looks incredibly taxing and has this super high skill-ceiling right off the bat since screens are absolutely packed with enemies, you move rather quickly, and there is hardly any downtime at all - so, sadly I might pass on it. But I loved the playthrough.

Also, fantastic artwork and soundtrack. Blasting through hordes of enemies and destructible environments never got old. Give me more please.

This feels more like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night than most things. Soundtrack is bangin'. Absurdly good pixel art with impressively detailed sprite animations, especially the boss fights which are an absolute spectacle - the art might be the game's biggest selling point. The backgrounds are equally impressive and ridiculously detailed. I can't stress it enough, the game is beautiful to look at.

2D platforming controls and mechanics are what they should be - tight and responsive. There's a small learning curve in using Lux, your sword companion, effectively. But it feels rewarding, and the wall jumping that it lets you perform is malleable enough to go off the beaten path for some light sequence breaking, skipping some puzzles and setting up speedrun tech without making it too obvious or necessary. There is a slight issue with the direction that you roll when you cancel out of a melee attack - I hope this gets fixed.

I was pretty shocked to find an interestingly crafted story, characters and lore that brought me in, which is something that games like this tend to gloss over. I generally prefer the visual storytelling of something like Super Metroid for 2D exploration games, but Blade Chimera manages its dialog and characters tastefully and it doesn't feel like it bogs down the game much (except not being able to teleport out of town).

The map is fairly well designed. It's not very complex and is rather easy to keep track of with the minimap, markers, generally clearly delineated areas, and of course the striking visuals. I find myself constantly looking at the backgrounds spotting easter eggs and crazy details all over the place. This probably enhances the worldbuilding that's laid out with the lore and characters that I mentioned before - which probably heightened my expectations, leading to my only real criticism.

The game isn't long enough. Don't get me wrong, the length alone here is fine for your average metroidvania. But it should be twice as long to do justice for everything that it sets up. Blade Chimera has interesting systems, decent lore and characters, amazingly detailed sprites and animations, and it just doesn't capitalize on it enough. The game's smooth as butter and is not lacking polish at all, but it still feels incomplete. I wish there was an inverted castle like in SotN, or a New Game+ with cranked up enemies and more items. It feels like the devs bit off more than they could chew, hastily wrapping everything up in the back third of the game.

Still worth it for metroidvania fans, it oozes with that quality SotN aesthetic.

Another interesting little incremental game, while only about 2-3 hours long, is worth the price if you like the genre. No idling here, but very casually active, basic gameplay you can do with something playing in the background. The gameplay loop is pretty original with the mining and excavating mechanics, which interesting enough to hook you in and finish the game in one sitting. Again it would be cool if it were made longer by additional prestige layers, skill trees, maps, or other systems - although the developer managed to balance what is present here quite nicely.

Seems like we're getting more of these original incremenetals without the F2P cash grabs. Keep em coming. I dig it.

Shockingly good incremental. The gameplay is rather original and addictive and has a pleasing design aesthetic. You can't fully idle it, as it plays actively but with minimal input such as what you'd find in a Vampire Survivors-like. What's nice here versus all those survivors clones is that you don't have to wait a full fixed 20 or 30 minutes to complete a loop - instead it's around 1 to 5 minutes, which can be partially idled with the right build.

Somehow, the skill tree is quite well done and one the best I've ever seen in an incremental. The choices seem to actually matter, and you can sort of plan out a "build" throughout the first half of the game. Although, it then converges into having to unlock everything to eventually beat the game. But just as it's about to get stale, you reach the end, so it doesn't overstay it's welcome. Although, it would certainly have been nice if it were longer by introducing a new game mode, additional skill trees and/or additional prestige layers that games like Antimatter Dimensions, NGU Idle, Realm Grinder, Perfect Tower 2, etc. manage to pull off.

That said, it's definitely solid and worth the money if you like incremental/idle/clicker games. I couldn't put it down until I beat it (5-6 hours). Dev, please expand this or make more games, you're onto something!

Highly recommended, especially for JRPG fans. It helps if you like turn-based combat, anime aesthetic, and fantasy epics. Brilliant soundtrack. I took some issues with the UI. Excellent battle system but with a handful of annoying quirks. Amazing characters and world.

The incredible soundtrack was one of my favorite parts of the experience. Some fans have reacted negatively, as it's a departure from the jazz and vocal styles of the Persona games. It's more of a traditional orchestral score you'd find in older Playstation RPGs, but with plenty of experimental bits. I really felt some Hitoshi Sakimoto influence (Final Fantasy Tactics), so I might be pretty biased here. I'll definitely be picking up the OST box set when it releases in January.

Speaking of Persona, I should mention that I actually have very little experience with that series (TBD), I come from Final Fantasy and other SNES/PS1 era JRPGs.

The world is packed with lore. There are 5 major cities packed with NPCs whose dialog regularly changes throughout the story and between day and night times. There's something like 8 different races with differing presences throughout the cities, with various taboos, social standings, histories, religions, and more. There's a journal you can read that gets updated throughout the game, which has an absolute plethora of text to read covering all of the above as you encounter them.

All NPCs in each town have evolving dialog, it's fun to go back and talk to everyone at different points in the story to see what's changed. In particular, people's perception of the protagonist at various levels of popularity. It does a convincing job of going from a nobody to a widely known hero while following the ups and downs of the plot.

The characters feel like they actually exist in this world. They're hanging around town, around your ship, frequently changing places, dialog, and dialog options. In dungeons, they're following you around in a natural way, spreading out and standing around randomly instead of simply tethering to the main character. Not to mention the in-depth Followers system, which includes several non-party member NPCs, that lets you dive deeper into their backstories and further develop their character, and receive a number of bonuses.

Recognizable unique personalities that do develop. Considering that the game attempts to realistically convey the passage of time, the believibility of the character development is enhanced.

Your followers have nice mini-storylines and great character development themselves as you rank up your relationships. The main character is the least interesting, although he's not a completely silent protagonist he's relatively flat, more of a representation of the player and their decisions.

Eupha is best girl.

Basically the insane worldbuliding enables the story to be pretty engaging. While the plot is fairly predictable, there are a few nice surprises, and the time system naturally creates a huge amount of build up and suspense that I wasn't expecting to feel.

Ultimately, the story, world, and characters harmonize beautifully, building on each other's strengths for a combined immersive, pleasing experience.

This is a job system JRPG, a descendant of Dragon Quest 3/6/7/9, Final Fantasy 1/3/5/Tactics, Octopath, etc.. There are a ton of archetypes, and you can mix and match abilities learned from other jobs to find synergies that can let you take advantage of any situation. Like those other games, this can bring a significant trial-and-error component with it, and the asymmetry between jobs and skills means things can't be perfectly balanced, and some builds are just better than others. For example, a fight can be near-impossible and take forever, then you figure out a few weaknesses, change a few skills around to work off each other, create a perfect setup, and then blow em away the first round no problem.

Although my overall impression is quite positive, there's some frustrating details to nitpick. The punish for misses/blocks/repels is INSANE, with huge turn penalty when it happens - Especially since there is a randomness component to misses. And since striking weaknesses gives you more turns too, 9/10 times you will want to restart the battle when any mistake occurs, since flawless victories give you 50% extra rewards. You will often be pressured to restart-scum the first turn. This begs the question of why have RNG in the first place? Why hide the weaknesses at all if you can just reveal them all by restarting the battle over and over? IMO for such punishing misses, my suggestion is the game should display the actual hit % on the UI when selecting commands (FFT). And most rates ought to be 100%.

In the long run, the systems are amazing, and just like its predecessors it enhances replayibility a ton, and gives different players different experiences.

Anime FMV cutscenes are high quality and thankfully quite frequent. But on the field, you won't exactly find a cutting-edge graphics pipeline in action. While the overall art direction, character, and environment designs are very nice, and the cell-shaded models do work pretty well, the animation of the character models is pretty stiff, restricted, and uninteresting, especially the faces. Thankfully, in battle scenes these shortcomings are less noticeable, as the effects from skills and attacks creates a blend of exciting visuals with the barrage of creative transitions, 2D effects, camera movements.

I must admit that the some of the 2D art style took some getting used to, such as on the user interface with certain things being difficult to read or see due to all the crap on the screen, like contrasting colors, giant paint splotches, random lines and geometric shapes, elements distractingly floating around in random animation, lists skewed at a 30 degree angle... things like that.

An overall positive impression, where I mostly wish that some of the UI was a bit easier to read through the over-stylized elements, and I'd like the character model animations to be more detailed and pleasing during the slower character-moment scenes and conversations.

This is one of the most unique aspects of the game compared to other JRPGs, although persona fans will find it quite familiar. The time system totally helps make the world feel super immersive. You can actually see what characters do on their time off. This is huge, and makes each character feel so much more real, and naturally builds proper suspense and weight for the major plot beats throughout the story.

And obviously, it also invites the possibility of permanent missables, which is frustrating for completionist RPG play (me). I found myself hesitating often before committing any action that costed time, and I would comb through every NPC and town available almost every day.

Fortunately, there's enough leeway where you don't have to worry about this much if you plan well, and you can more or less fast travel back to places you've been to previously. It helps to know that you should almost never sleep or wait to pass the time - as long as you're spending time with a party member or some specific activity, it's usually time well spent.

I never know how to end long reviews. I tried to fit my complaints and rants in the middle, since my overall impression was incredibly positive and I look back at my 120 hours playing very favorably. Job system fans, get in. This game was fire.

Wtf, the review character limit is 8000? I wrote 16000 originally. Thanks, Gabe.

Oh man, it's brilliant and what I've been looking for. Imagine Half-Life x Subnautica, open world survival crafting at the Black Mesa Research Facility as a trapped scientist. I was really happy to find this game and got instantly hooked.

The devs are obviously massive Half-Life fans and take its setting and aesthetic seriously. It's immersive and executed wonderfully. As basically the most important part of the game, the GATE Cascade Research Facility itself is super well designed, fun to explore and loot. I love interconnected maps with progressive unlocking, and this is one of those. It also has a real SCP Containment Breach vibe, as a site to contain "anomalies" with measures to prevent "containment breaches", without too much of the horror element (yet?).

The crafting and base building is already fun and decently fleshed out. I love the time of day cycle and getting prepared for night. There's so much more they can tap into with what they have in place in early access (25 hours has flown by and I can see at least 25 more with the current content). There's a multiplayer component I haven't even seen yet, more maps and items and enemies and all of that on the way. I'm excited to see where the game is taken.

Solid horizontal scrolling shmup primarily inspired by Gradius in its weapons, boss, and level designs. The beautiful sprite work and animation in its low resolution 16-bit aesthetic is the best part of this game - it has style, which is for me the most important element of a great shooter.

There is an absorption mechanic that reminds me of Giga Wing or Mars Matrix, which recharges quickly but doesn't apply to wall collisions or red projectiles. There's a bit of a customization and weapon unlocking system that doesn't go too deep but is fun to mess with. It's interesting that you can pause at any time and completely change your weapons with no penalty. The game is fairly easy and short, but the two-loop structure, adequately deep scoring system, and the existence of the "Ridiculous" and "Arcade" game modes should keep veteran shmup players satisfied.

Animal Well is more of a puzzle and exploration-oriented metroidvania than the sort of Action RPG or Roguelite types that are more popular now, and it's quite welcome. It reminds me of some classics like Lyle in Cube Sector, VVVVVV, or Environmental Station Alpha.

This one is a relatively short game that is not too difficult. Although, it has a fair bit of precision platforming, and even has some deeper tech to master if you're the type. There aren't too many upgrades or movement options, and instead the map is filled with blocked passageways and gates that must be opened by solving switch puzzles. But the overall layout and interconnectedness of the map is executed beautifully, and the puzzles are just challenging enough without ever becoming hopelessly frustrating. And in general, the level design and aesthetic stand out above all else. I'm still working out the end game, where there seems to be a good bit of optional content and easter eggs as well.

This is definitely a recommend.

This game has an awesome dark atmosphere and aesthetic. The levels are very nicely designed, with many areas being genuinely creepy, interspersed with bits of sanctuary and intrigue. The world of "the well" is a really great concept, and it's especially cool when you're reminded of your place in the world while exploring particular zones (trying not to spoil anything). The story isn't explained directly, and is more communicated through the environment, journal entries you discover, item descriptions, and a handful of NPCs who are pretty interesting themselves.

As for the gameplay, some stats are pretty imbalanced (not too hard to discover on your own), but it does feel like your character grows, and its fun trying out all of the weapons, spells, and maxing everything out, even if there's some obviously best gear. The game can be tough and unforgiving in the beginning, with scarce save points and lost progress on death. You need to work around that by backtracking and saving often, engaging enemies carefully, and of course leveling up to make things much easier. Mouse and keyboard make things extremely responsive and easier, but there is an option for classic tank-style controls if you really want to suffer.

The real selling point is the exploration. The interconnectedness of the world hits that metroidvania sweet-spot for me just right. Perhaps it could use a built-in mapping system - I recommend making your own maps for the full experience, and then looking up maps when you think you've exhausted everything. Some new areas can be complete dead ends forcing you to backtrack, or require some obscure spell to use on some object to proceed, perhaps with a vague hint somewhere. You might have to look up a solution, but I think that's okay, and fits with the game's cryptic style and old-school exploration game formula. There are definitely some sequence breaking options as well.

I can't wait to forget the game so that I can do another fresh playthrough and rediscover everything again.

It's the best automation game ever made. The hand-crafted open world is a treat to explore. The various progression elements are so well designed to incrementally open up the world, make production easier and more efficient, and deliver perfectly timed dopamine hits.

The team has come a long way, congratulations on the full release.