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Rebel Galaxy - OUTLAW

Enjoyed Rebel Galaxy? Play as Juno in this (prequel?) game. Juno's husband was killed by Ruth/Ruthless, and it's her story of tracking him down for revenge.

Note: only played a few hours, so this is early impressions.

Graphics: You can tell it has more work put into it. I mean the original was good, but there's plenty more polishing in this game. Including a hand-drawn intro sequence of a fight scene in a bar. Overall it has a similar look to the original game as well.

Music/Sound/VO: I can recognize some of the original tracks, along with plenty of new ones. A little less 'lone space cowboy' and... i don't know... more pool hustler?

The sound effects are very much the same from the first game, so they are fine.

Voice acting, sounds good, well put, much better than dubbed anime.

Mechanics: A lot like the first game, you can do trading (space in your hull) dog fighting missions, etc. If you are very low on cash like at the beginning you can do local deliveries, which i've seen having zero threat, although you only get maybe 1,400 credits on average.

GJ / Gigajoules: The ship runs on creating a steady supply of power along with storage. So you may generate say 4GJ a second, and have a storage of 30. So you can shoot all hog you want, but once power goes out, you're going to let it recharge. This sorta replaces the weapon heating in the first game. Though many components use from your power supply.

Fuel: You can't just jump from gate to gate anymore, you need fuel. The initial tank i was getting 4-5 jumps before you have to refuel. You also refuel every time you drop in at a station, which is fine.

6 degrees of motion: The first game was a 2D plane in 3D space, this is 3D space entirely. So six degrees of movement.

First person view: You can choose to sit in the cockpit or 3d person outside. Cockpit is much more constrained, so i don't recommend it.

Autopilot: Instead of going to your destination and ramming engines full hog til you get there, if you can go full speed you autopilot to your destination (unless you get interrupted by a distress signal, another ship nearby, get ambushed, etc)

Gambling: I've seen you can play 8-Ball (pool) and Dice games in the bar. How those exactly work i'm not sure as i never got around to trying them.

Story: Unsure, didn't get far enough before i got fed up with the game. It's probably a decent story though.

Annoyance: They added TONS of extra animations. Sure this is nice, if you can disable them. Every time you go in to land it's 'You're clearing to land in this automatic landing zone' and then the animation of the ship going to the station/landing bay. And when taking off lots more of the same in reverse.

6 degrees of movement. This just makes it annoying to move around and target (even with target lock) and losing my bearings. Maybe this is a perk for some, but not for me.

The interface has enough changes from the first game i'm totally lost on using the radar, finding what i'm suppose to pick up, how far away it is, you're practically blind.

The menu system is annoying. It's not brief, it's 3 levels deep where things are more out of the way rather than being easy to navigate, plus being at the bottom going left/right instead of up down, and changing of graphics when you enter the bar or you go to the equipment bay or you go to select missions. It forcibly slows me down and just wastes my time.

Graphics: 4/5
Music/Sound/VO: 4/5
Mechanics: 3/4
Story: N/A
Annoyances: -1.3
Total: 9.7/14, 6.9/10, 3.45/5
Post edited October 13, 2020 by rtcvb32
Long Live the Queen

Mother died, and you are going to become queen. Survive until that happens!

Graphics: Nice hand painted graphics, though otherwise simple and usable

Music: Piano and otherwise midi music. Nothing special.

Mechanics: This is a Visual novel, using the RenPY as the engine, though i hadn't realized it before.

You basically follow a fixed plot 3 sentences at a time, which could be people flirting with you, attempts at assassinating you, or other odd events. Regardless, when outside of the fixed timeline you have

Classes: Morning and evening classes. Every category of skills has 3 parts to it, so Combat would have weapons, Animal training 3 types of animals, etc. You will raise your skill depending on your mood (as a multiplier).

Evening activities: which could be going to the treasury, meeting with someone visiting, or going to play with your dolls. These mostly adjust your mood or open options up like if you wanted to be a magic user (Lumen)

Otherwise, events will happen all the time, be it history and recalling important details of events, avoiding falling, noticing supernatural hints, or using your own weapons against enemies.

You will have some options to make some choices like investing in a printing press or not for example, but most likely these will only show up in the epilogue.

Story: While interesting as a story goes, it's mostly mediocre.

Annoyances: A huge annoyance is your skills raise so very slowly, and without a NG+ option to resume at your current levels, you basically need to follow a fixed guide map in order to beat the game without dying all the time randomly. Though maybe you want to die to get an extra achievement, but that isn't important.

I actually had to cheat giving myself 100 to all skills in order to beat it without getting more annoyed, as a few years ago i tried playing it and did 5-6 play-through dying. Don't have the patience for that anymore.

Graphics: 3/5
Music: 2/5
Mechanics: 2/5
Story: 2/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 8/20, 4/10, 2/5
Post edited October 13, 2020 by rtcvb32
Drox Operative

As a Drox operative your job is to look favorable in getting our reputation out there, helping races in different sectors. We will send you missions from time to time, but otherwise how you win the sector, is up to you.

Graphics: 3D ships, something like 10 ships per species and 10 something species, yeah lots of ships. Like most space games the background is beautiful. The foreground is a little more tame, looks like a mobile game (models/3D but not so much with the reflections/lighting); Not to say it doesn't look nice. But the game looks/feels like it was made late 90's, and would have inspired other games.

Species/relations looks a lot like a 90's Masters Of Orion game, same with icons. But it is it's own style.

Sound: Explosions, notifications, level up... it's functional.

Music: Exploration and ambiant music and sounds, it's functional.

Mechanics: First this is obviously a reused engine from Curse of Din (Sources have a lot of leftovers, plus drop animations hint it). While workable, there's certain aspects of it that don't fit as well.

New sector
Creating a new sector is easy enough, you specify how many races, how big the area is, the shape of the sector (pathways) and how much you want Drox to send you missions/requirements. Tiny will result in fast games, while anything else may take you hours to complete, if nothing else than finding them.

State of development determines how well established they are in the sector. (Brand new, home planet only, to having several planets apiece)

Starting
You start with a ship, you have heavy medium and light components, heavy usually being engines/armor/weapons, medium being light weapons/shields/others, and light being crew/and boosters for other components. You also have up to 4 race specific components (specialized spots, may be engine only, or may be Human crew, etc).

Basics
Point & Click direction to move (WASD works but isn't as easy), number 1-9 for activating abilties you've tied to them. If something breaks you can get it repaired at a occupied planet. Otherwise drop in a component if you want it. If you pick up something you can identify it (right click) or have another race identify for you to make it faster.
Anything that's an upgrade gets a green + on the icon, and a red X if you don't qualify (either stats or ship specific)

You'll start with a few slots of heavy/medium/light, and upgrading your ship/hull the ship will increase in size as well as slots. However be warned, it may make your ship a LOT slower. You may be crawling your way around for a while.

For finding items there's Hidden Junk yards (Pocket dimension with multiple pieces of storage pods or lost ships), Storage pods randomly placed, and occasionally you'll get something from an anomalies, unexplored planets or space junk.

Storage
You start out with very little space. You can find additional Cargo Bays, ranging from 4 to 16, these are rare, if you don't need it for your ship you can put them in your ship/shared stash to store things.

Progressing
You need to gain reputation or push towards one of the 5 ways of winning a sector. So there's

Economic: Make X credits, usually trading or selling items.
Fear: Destroying Races or ships
Military: One race left and you are allied with them
Diplomatic: Allied with everyone
Legend: Destroying monsters? Mostly taking out Elite/Veteran monsters in the sectors.

You can raise your reputation with a species by selling them stuff, protecting a planet, or completing missions, usually 'bringing X to planet Y'. Though sometimes research or scouting will be options too. You'll probably be doing 2-3 missions for one race at a time.

Lowering reputation may include dealing with a race they don't like. If you turn in 8 missions at once, you may find someone that really liked you suddenly going to war with you instantly.

Other activities you can do is Espionage, rumors, or just outright destroying ships or planets.

Combat: Pressing 1-9 on specific abilities (lasers, missiles, etc) will shoot until they are out of range or they are dead or you run out of energy; If you beat an enemy you won't automatically switch to the next enemy, so you'll have to press the fire buttons anew.

Some weapons require manual aiming (always shoots from the nose of the ship in the direction you're facing).

Some weapons include mines, and even computer viruses, or a small fleet of ships. Missiles pack the most punch, but can get stuck trying to go after an enemy. Laser/Viruses instantly hit or miss.

You'll need a balance of weapons, armor and shields. Shields regen over time. Armor and hull, not unless you have a component giving it, and even then it will be slow.

Gameplay loop: This is a similar loop to Diablo, or other games. Fight, trade, get loot, identify, equip, sell, repeat. Though with limited space you will often be selling everything you don't need.

Annoyances:
The game is a bit of a grind (without modding it)
Limited inventory space (to start or even much later)
Limited slots

Conclusion: The game is more suited for someone who wants to play on the cheap, and has a lot of time on their hands, much like Rogue-likes. So it's better as a gift for Timmy's first RPG or grind game which he can sink dozens or hundreds of hours into. Otherwise getting some mods that modify (but don't fix every issues) can speed it up so it's more action oriented and less a grind for the normal player.

Graphics: 2/5
Sound/Music: 5/10
Gameplay: 3/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 9/20, 4.5/10, 2.25/5
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

A game i love, a game i beat multiple times on PC and even on Playstation. But that was ages ago. Starting up the game again not only does it obviously not age very well, but certain controls mostly in the camera control management are severely lacking, and it's hard on the eyes, even with mods to enhance the textures it's till too hard on the eyes.

Graphics: PS1 era, low resolution textures, low resolution polygons. While passable with very low resolution at the time (320x240 to 640x480) higher resolutions only make the flaws sharper. Also since it was never intended to be run in higher resolution a number of issues crop up, layout of the soul/energy circle, how the tiles are laid out, the jerkiness of the movements that should be smooth, etc. The videos look far better.

Music/Sound: Sounds audibly muffled and low resolution overall. I recognize the music but it's a little too low quality for me today.

VO: By far the best thing of the game so far, awesome writing and well done voice acting...

Gameplay:
For the PC version there's effectively 6 buttons (other than Dpad movement). Attack/action, face, sneak, jump, devour, and aim/throw.

Lacking a camera control method makes it hard to look in any direction at all, and is my biggest objection to this game.

Anyways, you can grab large boxes and drag them or rotate them, as will be required in various puzzles.

You can use weapons to bash enemies, slash them, and impale them. Lacking those, there's usually some method to kill them, either throwing them against a spike in the wall or into a beam of sunlight.

Devour souls to regain health, and to move to the material plane. If you dissolve your body time stops and you can move from one spot on the map to another portal to re-materialize yourself (this was shown in the demo as one o the puzzles as i recall)

A few additional powers present themselves, generally as weak versions of what you got from the bosses, the ability to climb, survive water, shoot elemental bullets, phase through gates, etc.

Story: A vampire killed by his master and going back for vengeance, only to find things aren't all what they seem. An excellent story expertly crafted and carried over multiple games.

Annoyances: Mentioned earlier, camera control is an issue, and it's so low polygon and texture it's hard on the eyes. Unfortunately it's bad enough i have to quit at this point.

Also some video is far lower resolution, not really a surprise.

Curiously the Playstation port while a little slower FPS wise, makes for a slightly better game and a little more polished.

Final thoughts: If anything i would wish the game was moved to a slightly newer engine, enhance the graphics to the ones used later in the game series. Maybe re-render the sequences to get a higher resolution video for those sequences, but i'm sure most of those files were lost long ago.

In the end an excellent story in a graphically inferior product. And if i rated this back when i was a teen when i finished it, I'd have given it a solid 4/5, at 1024x768x16 resolution.

Graphics: 2/5
Music/Sound: 2.5/5
VO: 5/5
Mechanics/Controls: 2/5
Story: 5/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 15.5/25, 6.2/10, 3.1/5
Post edited October 29, 2020 by rtcvb32
Infinifactory

You get captured by an alien race to build things for them...

Zachtronics in my experience is all puzzle games, and they are often good ones. This one is closer to SpaceChem where you need to move around in a space to build it, however you're in 3D space instead of 2D manipulating atoms and particles.

Graphics: Nice overall, You'll be inside some buildings and outside in others, or even on asteroids. But as this is just fluff it has little effect on your solutions.

Audio: Kinda minimal. You'll get familiar with what the sounds of attaching pieces, grinding, and the 'bleep' of success or blaring failure as it shows where your output wasn't matching the expected input (even just not being rotated right...)

Music: Functional, Zachtronics always has decent music to listen to. But probably not enough unique tracks.

Gameplay: You can't die, and you have a jetpack to make you float if you want. You have infinite number of whatever parts you've unlocked. At first it will be simple blocks as filler and some conveyer belts and joiners, but later it will be rotaters, drills, pushers, blockers, sensors and other things.

The game is very physics based, so something will fall unless attached to something, and pushing on something pushes everything after it unless there's a wall or something blocking it. This does mean in some solutions you can have freely moving parts that you can push forward a block to trim sections out; which is forced in a few select puzzles.

It is very much 3D space oriented. Nearing the end of the game i didn't see anything logic based other than sensors and counters (so no 'if X type of block then send signal' type of stuff). This means you'll probably put spacers, join and then push things along when you get parts big enough, and only add a few timer spots if you have to; otherwise it's better if it just matches up at the right space at the right time to join.

Also like most Zachtronics games, you are judged based on three criteria. Speed, footprint (area it takes to do it?) and number of parts you used. But honestly just getting the puzzles to work is a pain enough of itself.

Story: The story like a number of their games are very minimal and bland. But that doesn't mean it makes for a terrible game. A number of games do one thing and do that thing well. In this case it's the physics puzzle. Everything else is secondary.

Half of the 'story' is contained in logs left behind by other humans (or other species) that died (including a Doberman?). A few comedic tidbits but a reminder you're all by yourself.

Annoyances: When coming to new conveyers or rotators, it's inconsistant on if it happens as soon as it touches it, or if it's when it's the last thing it can touch. Adding blocking parts or fewer conveyer pieces can force the result you want, but it's a minor pain.

Some of the later puzzles you're in space and over an infinite drop with lava. Having a fear of heights and using a big monitor this actually scares me... So getting anxious fearful or suddenly when lowering myself i have a panic attack.

Many of the puzzles are too similar. Merge 4x of piece A and then stack part B on it, merge it and then move to the end, etc. The areas seem vast until you see how much you have to spread parts apart making for bulky and inelegant solutions.

You're given 9-10 slots for your 'favorite' needed pieces. This seems like it isn't enough and having to swap and reset these often enough makes where 7 is a power/logic pipe suddenly is something else gets annoying. Lots of 'hints' tell you like C can be used to swap between 2 slightly different parts (sensor side, sensor bottom, etc). Technically this works but is annoying.

Final Thoughts: If you love physical 3D physics puzzles, then this may be for you. It's less logic and more 'make plenty of room and put things together', doesn't make me feel nearly as intelligent or as clever as i can be in other more logic based games. Often i may come up with a solution hours later and then just be happy to get the levels over with. Personally it's more work than it's worth. Probably on par with QUBE. Personally Infinifactory and SpaceChem are my least liked games from Zachtronics.

note: I hadn't noticed i already had a review of this up. But i've gotten much further this time around... Decide on the one you prefer, they aren't much different.

Graphics: 3/5
Audio/Music: 6/10
Gameplay: 2/5
Story: 2/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 12/25, 4.8/10, 2.4/5
Attachments:
Post edited June 29, 2021 by rtcvb32
Total War Warhammer 1 & 2 specifically Mortal Empires the campaign accessible when owning both games

For those unacquainted with the total war franchise follows a short explanation.

Total War titles offer empire building on a large scale and usually involves conquest as the primary means of building your empire. The game is played out on a world map where you can order armies around, order the construction of new buildings in the settlements you own, conduct diplomacy and send out special units such as diplomats or priests that can engage in special actions affecting cities, armies or even gain favors with gods. Gameplay is done in a turn based manner usually involving 4 turns a year and easily spanning periods of multiple hundreds of years. Games can easily last as much as 40 hours though there is always a shorter option available. The game also offers a well designed real time part where, if you choose so, you can opt to play out battles your self when armies meet. With a maximum of 80 units facing off against each other and with the option of reinforcements battles can grow quite dense but can also be opted to be played as a real time tactics game, meaning : you can pause the game and order your units around. battles are usually done in about 10 mins when you choose not to pause but can turn into very lengthy affairs when you decide you want to control each and every part of the unfolding battle.

Total War Warhammer is the merger of Total War's style of play and the Warhammer fantasy universe. A part of the story is followed and played out in the games. The Mortal Empires campaign is a merger of both the story part of the first and the second game resulting in this huge map where you can try and see if your chosen faction is truly the strongest of all.

Gameplay: Mortal Empires expects of its players to show prowess in battle and wisdom on the world map. Limited resources or difficult starting positions provide puzzles for the player to be solved. Furthermore the game knows a ramping challenge that certainly on higher difficulties is not easily overcome. Expect to be challenged and to overcome impossible odds. The huge scope of the game ensures a variety in gameplay, owning both games gives access to 8 different races and about 3 different lords per race which number can be increased with both FLC and a numerous amount of DLC.

On the world map there are a lot of choices to be made and this might be a bit overwhelming for newcomers. Total War games know a certain approach and can feel a bit scripted or even unfair but once you discover the secrets to economy and diplomacy ( either by persistency or youtube ) 200 turns without to much of a loss lies within range.

The real time battles should be familiar to anyone who's dabbled with any kind of rts. Basically horsies run over men, monsters run over horsies, heroes smash everyone, magicians do it from afar, as do bowmen either equipped with stealth, poison, fire or magical arrow points

Graphics : Graphics range from spectacular to right what you would expect. Even lower tier cards ( such as a 1050Ti but now lower ( on 1080p 60 fps ) ) will allow settings that while a bit hazy still are quite extraordinary. The game offers a wide variety of parameters that can be adjusted to suit almost any users need. Unit models are quite well defined and now some subtle touches that both manage to create a certain uniqueness while not forgetting that it is still supposed to be a wargame ( grog united :p )

Sound : While generally regarded as one of the weaker games from the Total War series regarding sound both soundtrack as sound effects are well defined. Each race knows its own effects and sometimes defined soundtrack. Zoom in on a unit and you can hear their general ' mood ' voiced by the different elements. Expect them to cry to unknown gods when facing a stronger army or hear them make fun of the enemy when nearing the end of a battle almost won.

Story: With this being a grand strategy title, and this also being the Mortal Empires campaign, a story is virtually nonexistent. Each lord, about 3 lords per race and 8 races in total, knows its own set of objectives which can be followed and provide some background to your actions on the worldmap. There are events that you will have to occasionally endure, from cities loosing people to cousins visiting. These events offer a choice of a message that will affect your economy for a certain amount of turns. Personally i enjoy the way how the story points are implemented in the game, the events can sometimes be a bit encumbering but will offer a nice break from the usual play and certainly have their effect when the game is enjoyed with some moderation.

Conclusion while not available as a DRM free product i would certainly recommend anyone with and interest for not to heavy minded strategy in a fantasy setting and the right gear to take a look when the games are for sale

Score :

Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 7/10
Story: 7/10
Last Evil

A deck building rouge-like card game where you go to awaken the archdemon to help demon-kind from being annihilated and forgotten. The game itself is pretty much in the Adult's Only category, regardless the basic mechanics isn't too far from MTG or other card games.

Graphics: Environments are excellently done; Monsters look unique enough and play smoothly. The CG scenes are squarely in the 'meh' category, not very compelling to watch (yet you still want to collect them all).

Music: To note, no voice acting. The music actually is pretty good, and isn't annoying; though it's the same 3-4 tracks over and over again.

Gameplay: Draw 6 cards (unless an artifact says otherwise). As long as you have Mana or Lust you can play as many cards as you want. Drag the card and release on target (if needed) to activate. Enemies will have a hint of their action above their head (defend, buff, debuff, attack, bind); Attacks will have a number of damage, so if it's 7 you will take 7 damage. Shields reduce the damage by that much. So best to balance attack and defense.

Map movement: Every tile you travel through is one time. If you don't use the alchemist table for example, you can't go back and use it later. They will be marked with ?, a chest, a green/yellow goblin, the store (tome), and resting areas (furs). Suggested you save the good ones for later, and get chests and ? as fast as possible.

Cards: There's quite a few cards, and varying qualities. If you were to build your own deck you'd do a mere 6-8 cards and never get anything else; However you start with a default deck of about 14 cards. Some really good cards, and moderate cards. After each battle you can choose a card (if you want) to add to the deck. The more cards the longer it takes to cycle through it.

Some cards are just better than others (example, a mana shield gives 5 shield, but haste does 6 damage AND lets you draw a card...). As such if you get a better card you may get rid of mediocre cards to balance it out.

The types of decks you can build are actually quite varied, from fast decks with 0 cost attacks, high defense building, bleeder decks, or ones that focus on lust.

Upgrading: Cards can also be upgraded at resting areas, or with a special artifact (overpowered wand, every card you don't take instead upgrades a card at random).

Additional Cards/types: Along with positive cards there's negative cards, which are forcibly entered into your deck. Vs a werewolf you'd get filler cards that limit how many useful cards you have but go away when you finish your turn. Some cards are curses you pay or else suffer consequences, and some you just have to accept you take damage no matter what if you don't finish the opponent in this turn.

Removing Cards: You can forget cards, at the shop you can buy up to 9 cards if you have any currency, and forget 1 card. You can also forget cards at the resting areas, but you need a special artifact to do that, otherwise you can only upgrade or recover HP.

Meanings: A number of cards will have special meanings if you use/don't use cards.
Bleed - enemies take this damage at the start of their turn
Defensive: - Adds this to every shield bonus spell you use (inverse of power)
Extinct - Use it and it's removed from play (for this turn)
Focusing - Adds 50% extra damage
Frail - Shield accumulation reduced 25%
Immortal - Allows an Extinct card to be used 1 more time
Morale - Temporary bonus to power
Power - How much more potent attacks are
Purity - cancels 1 debuff
Violate - if not used removed from deck (many negative cards are given this)
Weaken - Damage does 25% less

Many of these statuses remove 1 per turn, so putting weaken on an enemy doesn't stack in effect, just time.

Artifacts: You will get artifacts while going down, and you need them too. Some give you shield, some let you draw more cards, some just give you a few bits of currency, all are positive.

Restraints: Each time you submit (but don't declare losing) 1 of 5 different disadvantages will be placed on you, like ever 5 turns you lose a Mana at the start of your turn, etc. Even with all 5 you can play, but they do make it harder. They may also prevent you from doing actions.

The store: One shop keeper will crop up, you can spend currency to upgrade your relationship and get better prices, better chance of rare cards, etc; Can only go to level 5. You can buy as many cards as you want (up to one per shown) and forget 1 card per visit (each time you do the price goes up)

Currency: The currency is ..... and you get it at the end of a battle, or during using a card you start with. Although if you are after only specific cards rather than buying everything, you'll probably have no issues getting plenty. Best to max it before going to the store though.

Talents: You gain talents by getting XP through your playthrough, at the end of each game you may get a Talent point. These points will make the game easier, from your discarded cards becoming shield points, to getting more currency after each fight, to getting more rare cards or selection after each one. The best one is 1 more Mana per turn (3->4). You can reset the talents and respend them at the beginning of a game, which may alter how the game is played.

Story: Story is pretty simple, other than interactions in the sewers/dungeon to help or not help a few individuals the story is in the intro and when encountering the arch demon. Pretty bare bones, as the AO and card game is the main focus.

Scenes: There are AO optional scenes, either beating them, or submitting. SOME scenes you don't have a choice on as random ? tiles, and you just pick one. If you turn off the AO scenes they won't come up again unless they are new or certain forced ones on you. Some scenes are only available if you submit. So there's quite a few paths.

The Gallery will let you see most scenes you've gotten via decisions or through success/failure.

Annoyances: The game is a good framework, but is honestly too short.
There's no NG+ or after encountering the Arch Demon (only a slightly harder mode to start new on), so building a super duper deck is pointless after a certain point.
Upgrading cards goes up a bit but would be better if it had more levels. So Mana shield goes from 5 to 8, but nothing else. Some upgrades decrease the cost, or change from Extinct to non-Extinct, etc.
Also some mechanics aren't told what order they go in, this will trip you up your first few times, especially vs the veteran goblin.

Final Thoughts: The gameplay is very compelling, but probably don't play with company around.

Graphics: 4/5
Audio: 3/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Story: 2/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 12.5/20, 6.25/10, 3.15/5
Attachments:
map.jpg (231 Kb)
cards.jpg (403 Kb)
Post edited July 25, 2021 by rtcvb32
Grid Defense - The Awakening

A tower defense game vs aliens...

Graphics: Looks like starcraft monsters, somehow not very appealing

Music/SE: Forgettable

VO: Perhaps the only part of the game that's really enjoyable, hearing the AI talking about the good old days and how he would buy you a beer if he could. Though the 'he's got one of the cores!' gets annoying.

Gameplay: Tower Defense. There's fixed places to put items, which have a radius of range. In the event there is no obvious path they will take the shortest route. In maps that include you to build your own route it's more platforms and you can partially redirect them rather than making a maze.

Standard fare, put tower, upgrade, sell, etc.

Perhaps the only unique part is instead of just a destination, they need to grab cores and then go down to the exit (which can be the same as the entrance)

Story: Apparently aliens have returned after 1,100 years or something. They want your cores for something, and you gotta stop them, or something.

Final Thoughts: Only played this a few hours. This doesn't feel like a very interesting game, not very compelling, the story is slow starting; The controls are a little confusing especially how the 'default' mouse location when you click to buy/upgrade which can throw you off or make you accidentally sell something instead of upgrading, etc. But mostly it's slow and not a lot of creativity to play. More simple tower defense games letting you make a full maze may be more interesting than this.

Personally i wouldn't pay for this, if you get it for free you might give it a try, but don't get your hopes up.

Graphics: 2/5
Music/SE: 2/5
VO: 3/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Story: 2/5
Total: 11/25, 4.4/10, 2.2/5
Attachments:
dg_map.jpg (207 Kb)
Post edited July 27, 2021 by rtcvb32
WitchSpring 3 - Re:Fine; The Story of Eirudy

Ever miss the days of really simple straightforward PS1/PS2 RPG games? Well pine no further. Follow the adventure of a witch who protects her forest and makes dolls (but she can make them alive!). Go from a reclusive girl to getting thrown into human politics to uncover and overthrow a Tyrant who claims to be a dragon slayer in order to extort taxes and control nearby towns.

Graphics: Low polygon, if it wasn't a Unity game the lower textures would fit right in. It has a very simple and cute feel; though the hand drawn and beautiful cutscenes are a cut above average for the otherwise simple productions. For the most part everything is easy to identify, and easy on the eyes.

Music: MIDI-sounding Orchestral tracks, a number of beautiful lullaby and other soundtracks that fit quite well with everything.

VO: It's not fully voice acted, more a lot of main scenes are but others are just plain text, especially from unnamed characters. Also only have voice acting of Japanese and Korean.

Gameplay: The gameplay is split among several parts.

Dolls: There's a number of dolls pre-made (I haven't seen where you can make your own...) where you basically have a soul crystal and you give them vitality. Each time costs more, but they get a lot stronger going up a level. Max level 7. In combat you can summon up to 3 dolls, who will fight or heal or cheer/support. A fairly simple system. A few of the dolls you can also ride.

Crafting: You'll have to make magic circles (boosting your magic) Tools (key items) and consumables (restore or max raise of stats). You'll probably need a lot of raw materials to do so.

Training: You'll get 'training' points. Each point represents 5 days of training, though each 'day' is a set type of activity to boost stats. If your stats reach certain thresholds you will gain a level in Swordsmanship, Defense, Combat, Crafting, and Sword Shaping. Raises are based on %, so it will say like 1% MP 2% MAG, when you're under 100 it will basically be 1 per, however say you had 400HP and running to get 3% can get you 12HP per day (and will increase to 13 when it exceeds 434HP)

Note: The max you can raise any stat is 50 per day; So if you get to 5000 in a stat doing a 2-3% raise won't help you much. Also only 1 training can raise DEF.

Combat: Turn based, choose your action. There's a wait/action meter to tell you how fast before the enemy acts. Otherwise you can summon 1 Doll per turn (up to 3) enhance your blade, use an item, attack, use magic, run away, etc. It uses a circular style you'd recognize more from Secret of Mana. Also you'll be going solo 90% of the game.

Exploration: The world is set more in a MMO-style where except for events, monsters respawn very quickly and regularly (though you may have to leave and return). Large circles will say where the 'threat' area for most enemies are (except a handful that are basically the whole room). Also there's random critters you can get items from. (Mushrooms, nuts, tails, etc).

Story: The story is very simple. You'll get a diary entry of the next step in the main story. 'Go to the forest after the boar, visit grandma, get stones to upgrade your soul gem' etc. Not doing them merely keeps the story on hold until you are ready. Other than a handful of conversions where the story progresses i would have pushed for an entirely different conversation. But from the point of a lonesome girl who has nearly no emotions and gets gratitude for her saving them, only to get betrayed (under duress) her growth as a character opening up and getting stronger is interesting and fun enough to follow.

SideQuests: There appears to be several side quests. Get material to finish sword, get material to trade for armor. etc. Nothing too big to write home about.

PostGame: There are 3 endings in the game. Light/Dark path and True ending. When you get the true ending, there's post game content to find. Mostly going to major sites and getting a few weapons/upgrades, as well as outfits. HOWEVER with only 1-2 major fights added, if you had high stats you probably don't need to further train.

Final thoughts: Everything about the game screams it should have been a PS1/PS2 game. And I'd have loved it if it were so. Not that it changes much playing in HD using a 360 controller. Regardless this is a game I'd let anyone 13+ to play.

Annoyances: There's a couple bugs I've noticed. After checking out a equipped item and leaving the game locks up, until you go to the map and return. Second if the effects don't load and you enter a combat, you might fight in the combat but the game hangs and you will lose all progress since you last saved. (Happened twice). Just save often.

Graphics: 4/5 - cute and charming
Music: 4/5 - good
VO: 3/5 - wish it was in English
Gameplay: 3.5 - simple but gets a little grindy.
Story: 4.5 - good story overall.
Annoyance: -1
Total: 18/25, 7.2/10, 3.6/5
Attachments:
intro.jpg (242 Kb)
dolls.jpg (419 Kb)
boyfriend.jpg (446 Kb)
combat.jpg (439 Kb)
Post edited November 12, 2021 by rtcvb32
Dungeon Siege 1

Heavy dungeon delving, RPG lite. RPG to the same level as Diablo 1/2...

Graphics: Old... but we expected this. Low poly, low texture, needs to be set simple to play decently

Audio: Simple and works...

VO: While it works it sounds cheap, tones and people that don't match the characters as well as they should.

Gameplay: There's 3 stats, Strength, Dex and Intelligence. Using different weapons will raise each stat, along with the skills including Melee, Ranged, Nature and Combat magic.

Everyone can use magic at the get go (give them a spellbook) but the limited and very difficult setup of spells makes it hard to decide from the plethora of spells to generally going with an attack and support or something else.

Combat is simple, click to attack or have them auto-attack within range. If they run out of mana use the 1-4 to change between Melee, ranged, Magic1, Magic2.

You can change how the group arranges itself, but i don't see much of an advantage from any of it.

You can have up to 8 characters. Donkeys are also 'characters' but by default can carry like 3x-4x the stuff. A bit of a pain to move around with them.

Story: You are a farmer, but you will change the destiny of the world or something. It's very basic...

Annoyances: Doesn't include the expansion. No easy way to upgrade characters without going through everything (an easy 'optimize' button where they grab better items swapping items would have been nice). When you have enough inventories of characers open it shrinks with no way to expand one or more of them (even with plenty of resolution). Hotkeys don't tell you which buttons are especially useful and you have to look into the manual.

Overall: Sacred seems more fun and with more options. There's plenty of dungeon to crawl here, but i just got bored after several hours. If you want a slow grind of a game, this might be for you. Otherwise i'd say pass it up.

Score: (They would all be 2/5 or slightly less, so...) 4/10, 2/5
Post edited November 18, 2021 by rtcvb32
Dungeon Siege 2

Taking on a bunch of what made the first game good, but expanding on and fixing a bunch of things, including the engine which runs rather smoothly in comparison, this game continues with the legend of a sword and shield that clashed together that changed the very nature of the world. The sword lost for centuries has been recovered by Valdis and he seeks the shield so he can conquor the world.

Graphics: While the first game was clearly PS1 level, this one looks better even exceeding Diablo 2. Though some of the animations close up and the video looks more like PS2 quality, otherwise it's easy to forget. The world also (other than teleporting) seamlessly moves from one section to another.

Audio/VO: Fairly good overall. Most voice acting is also decent given the age, perhaps overacted but that seems to give it some charm too. Though some monsters sound weird.

Gameplay: Taken from the first game, you have Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic and Nature Magic. This time you have several slots in your magic, 4 being active (switch between them) and two automatic cast (cast healing or summon creature, etc. I wish there were more). The remainder just hold spells you can swap later, though i rarely do.

Like the first game, using said skill raises it, which may also raise stats. It's joked that you should specialize or you'll become a 'useless jack of all trades' (Jab at the Bard class?).

Movement is left click and right click is attack (takes a little getting used to). You can also change formations from Mirror (all attack this target, all move here) and Rampage (All act on their own). Also you don't have to fiddle with getting people on lifts now, they will all (try to) get on and then activate the lever/button. This doesn't always work, but it's better than the first game.

As you level up you'll get skill points, which you can put into making your abilities better. Typically you'll only get a couple and you'll want to spend them wisely. The max you can put in any one skill is 20. Many of them are simple. More HP, more Mana, More damage with bows, more damage dual wielding, etc. Early on they show bushes that glow red/blue, basically if you have a skill you can collect Mana/Health potions from bushes. The higher level your skill the better potions you will get (From tiny, to Colossal; several of these sell very well!)

Numerical hotkeys are not which slot all characters use, rather it's a special cooldown skill which references the order of the party is in. From heavy hitting, invulnerability, dodging, etc. These are collected from your specializations.

Quests a plenty, although like most are 'collect this' or 'kill that' as expected. Though you may end up trading items you get along the way too.

Items will range from basic, magical, unique, and set (maybe more). Getting low level items to train someone in later can be a pain to find though as a bow with 'Range 1' is pointless, unless you level them up first and give them that bow and giving a non-requirement bow to someone else if you plan on training.

Enchanting items is possible, regents appear all over specifying their boost.

The map will show items you can interact with (blue) and enemies (red) and NPC's (green). There's a number of hidden areas by interacting with a button or statue from time to time.

Story: The story Valdis got the sword and you are in his army invading the elves temple to get an artifact as a mercenary. You end up losing and get caught as a slave, only to have high regards and given a quest to start purging guard towers before you can get your freedom. It's pretty straight forward and with side quests there's plenty to keep you occupied, though there's an awful lot of running around in areas you've already been through.

Final Thoughts: The game certainly can keep you busy if that's your thing. Enemies won't rush you from just off screen like Diablo 2 might. You do need mods though, ones i got include more skill points, resetting skill points, a stash to save items in, and improved graphics. Without a few of these this game would be a lot more grindy and less enjoyable. Either way though it's slow, you have limited inventory and gets tiring after a while.

Annoyances: The game doesn't have randomly generated levels. This can be good, but mostly i feel like i can't explore anything new, except to look for solutions to certain quests i get or to find hidden areas that i missed before. Entering Diablo/Diablo 2 you never knew what area you might be exploring after deleting the maps or changing difficulty. Still with only 4 spells to choose from and only 2 auto-cast i wish there was a lot more, i don't want to fiddle with spellbooks to get more advantages that i have to reset in 3 minutes and takes a minute to fiddle with, I'd rather be knee-deep and collect tons of loot and auto-sell the useless crap and sift through what may actually be interesting.

Graphics: 3.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Annoyance: -1
Total: 13/20, 6.5/10, 3.25/5
While True: Learn()

A game of sorta programming and sorta problem solving and sorta works. Also there's cats.

Graphics: It's a unity game, but looks/feels like a flash game. Very basic looks and feel, while clean in it's layout it's also feeling like it's for children.

Music: Repetitive Midi/Synth music. While not bad to listen to, quickly gets boring.

Gameplay: If you've ever used Unreal Engine 4, you may have come across the visual programming model they use which more visual people can use to basically program. This takes something similar, basically input/output ticks and linking them together. HOWEVER, it's very imprecise. It's actually expected you'll have mistakes, as unless you use tools that are very precise, you'll have plenty of errors (and only in having those errors could you get the work done before you fail).

90% of the game will be sorting colors, shapes, or shapes and colors it would seem, meanwhile slow and utterly annoying as a handful of C lines of code or a good logic chip would do a much better job. Some of the game involves genetic or machine learning, which just means you have to run simulations until the 'error' level is down and you get somewhat useful results from the outputs.

Story: The story is of a programmer(?) who returns after getting coffee to find his cat has debugged his code. So he wants to make a program/tool so he can understand what his cat is trying to tell him. Some real tidbits of history are dropped in, involving chess, and influential historical achievements from the 50's and up.

Annoyances: Being a programmer this 'visual style' utterly infuriates me. Not only that it's heavily imprecise (as mentioned above). This means I'd have to end up probably throwing in whatever until it works. Also the style suggests it's targeted as kid's first introduction to logical workflows, so you might give this to your 13 yearold to tinker with. Also at no point do you really feel like you're helping solve 'who will win the election' or 'sorting pizzas' or 'working on a self-driving car'. Instead it's the same puzzles, unlike say Shenzen IO or TIS100 which actually has you putting chips in place and debugging the whole thing, working it from scratch, instead you're in the same 'solve these color/shape problems' over and over again.

Graphics: 3/5
Music: 1.5/5
Gameplay: 1/5
Story: 3/5
Annoyances: -1
Total: 7.5/20, 3.75/10, 1.8/5
Attachments:
wtl.jpg (296 Kb)
Post edited December 07, 2021 by rtcvb32
Loop Hero

The world is being devoured, removed, destroyed to nothingness. And yet you survive, no memories, no possessions, nothing. So you travel a path that barely exists, making the area more real with each passing. Can you save the world?

Graphics: It's made in a 8-bit style, very simple, dark in the same way Darkest dungeon may be (but with less STD's and terror). I do wish the resolution was slightly better though.

SE/BGM: Sound effects sound pretty faithful to the NES system, along with the music. Although it may be more akin to the SNES with samples as there's occasional piano notes, though the music seems to remind me more of Phantasy Star 4 music when fighting bosses more than anything else.

Gameplay: The game is a rouge-lite, regardless there's two parts to the game. The first is the loop. The loop is literally a path the hero travels over and over again. You can see all enemies in your path. More than that you are most likely the one adding obstacles. (default road will spawn slimes like 10% of the time).

As you travel you will fight monsters. Aside from RNG from chests, range of damage and chances to dodge or enemies to dodge it's pretty easy to follow. There's a few classes, which mostly determines which equipment you can equip. Thankfully you will never see equipment you can't equip (unless you start with the warrior set), so it's just a matter of choosing the best stuff.

Equipment: Each class has 3 equipment slots, if you add something, the previous item is lost. You have 12 inventory slots moving in a Z pattern, if you get more than that, what's at the bottom goes first.

Cards: You'll get cards, which can be obstacles, things to help you, or resources of the world like grassland or mountains. Placing them will give you resources, but also get one step closer to the boss visiting.

Camp: The second half of the game is at camp, where you can build a shanty-town like environment of people who barely exist, though as you get resources from your exhibition (because as described they can't use anything there as it has no substance and disappears immediately), you can improve items for the people present, or more likey unlock new cards classes or other.

Story: Having finished it, the game has a simple plot. A warrior refuses to give up, and works to restore the world to some level of existence. You fight 3 different bosses before fighting 'god' who tells a story of having come to the planet to see his creations only for them to see him as an invader and attacked him. So he destroyed the world. It's sufficient for a NES level of gameplay.

Final thoughts: Being a rouge-like/lite it's quite difficult, as everything is you barely get the edge and is balanced to take weeks or months to beat. Thankfully if you edit the 'variables.ini' file you can boots equipment to where it becomes incredibly easy to just enjoy the game and watch getting two dozen items after a fight and grabbing the best items if they are good enough to use. If not for that it would have been much higher on annoyances. Unfortunately notes are in Russian it looks like.

Total: 3/5
Horizon Zero Dawn

An abandoned child is raised as an outcast. Follow her journey to adulthood, being accepted as a brave, and then unraveling a worldwide threat that would kill all humans. Also there's machines you can take down big and small.

Graphics: Stunning to say the least. It would probably look better if i had a stronger GPU. Regardless even at it keeping at 60fps for a smooth gameplay it's very nice overall. Lighting, characters, items, looks very close to photo realistic. A minor issue on certain facial animations but otherwise looks top notch.

Audio: The music is somewhat forgettable, even after playing it... ugg 100 hours?
Sound effects of explosions, gunfire, rain and many other things sounds correct and well done. Probably stabbing into metal isn't accurate but I'd rather not have my ears hurt so it's fine.
Voice acting is good overall. No one really sounds like they are just 'reading their lines', thankfully. Actually a better part is if you enter a quest and they said 'I really need X Y and Z' your character immediately may respond with 'I already have these, here you go'. In the DLC she's asked if she regularly walks around with all these dyes in her pockets, a bit of a nod to 'collect everything'.

Story: There are many spoilers here. At first the story doesn't matter. You're there to take out machines. But as you take on the main quest, you learn of the swarm, the 'peace keepers', and the threat that would have destroyed the world (since they can consume biomass in order to power themselves and replicate weapons). In face of extinction and a dead planet within 15 months (and shutting the machines would take 60 years or something to crack) so all attempts to save themselves went out the window and instead trying to make way for what comes after. Which is where this game's timeline continues at.

What's more curious is the game is VERY tribal, but unlike the native americans who concentrate on buffalo and birds and other things, this world is based around machines. If you look, all armor, most weapons and many other things have bits of machine parts to make them, hold them together. If it weren't for a few animals (boars, birds, rabbits, goats, etc) they wouldn't probably have leather or basic clothing either. There's also many tribes and many more who probably aren't within the area.

They speak of spirits and the 'Blue Light', as well as the 'All Mother'. Vague and dismissable when you understand what they are referring to, mostly being machines created by Gaia to keep the world running. Sufficient to say; Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic - Arthur C. Clarke

Also the game is incomplete; mostly because it left on a certain cliffhanger that has to be handled by the sequel, so much more work to do. As the sequel is out already we'll have to see where it goes.

Sidequests: When talking with someone you can never turn down a quest. But that doesn't mean you have to fulfill them either. These range from 'X city is under attack' to '10 boar skins' to 'deliver these arrows' to investigating what happened to someone's loved ones while they were traveling. There's plenty of side quests to keep you occupied for a while.

Mechanics: During the tutorial (raising of Aloy) most of the basic mechanics are taught to you. These include switching weapons, firing, crafting, distracting, hiding/sneaking, stripping parts. As you level up you can take skill points into anything you have enough for, though the tree is rather flat. Personally going for silent strike is a major help to handle watchers and weaker machines.

Crafting is rather easy, either in the main menu or when switching weapons if you have the ingredients you can craft 10 arrows or whatever it is that you are out of or low of. Max ammunition is rather low unless you upgrade or use a mod.

If you can't craft or buy something you can create a 'job' which will point you to areas that machines have certain parts for, or keep track of a 'needed' tracker of how many rabbit bones/skins you need to upgrade your ammo pouch.

You can purchase special items which I'll call 'clues' since they hint nearby where collectables are. I'll assume others 'scoped' and rumors where they saw something like that and didn't bother to grab it.

The game works on several damage types. Normal, Fire, Freeze, Electric, Corruption, and Disarming.

Normal: Most weapons have this, and will combine another element with it.

Disarming: Does little damage but knocks parts off easier, be it weapons or armor.

Fire: Things burn. Corrupted monsters all burn easier, by far my favorite. If you exceed to full burning they will take damage until the status is gone (and it may just kill them if your output is high enough)

Freeze/Corruption: These aren't well enough explained that i rarely used them. While some machines are weak to them even with a high modifier it seemed to more make them susceptible to knocking other parts off compared to actually dealing damage.

Challenges: This is sorta more a side quest to join the hunter's lodge. There are 15 challenges in the main game and you get metals. All have time limits. These go from 'defeat X with fire' or 'knock off canisters' or 'use x traps to kill x machines' etc. In a way they are more training to master certain things with a number of machines easily on hand. Should you succeed getting all 15 of any metal you can turn it in at the lodge for weapons, which are okay (but less effective than the NG+ gear you can get later)

Loot boxes: You will often get boxes, reward boxes, boxes you can buy, etc. These don't go towards your maximum inventory limits, and opening them you might. There are many times i have had 6 boxes where i can't get rid of it because it has 1 rock in it.

Crafting Armor/Weapon Slots: You'll get weaves and mods. These go on weapons or armor, there's a third type for spear only. Basically select the one you want and slip it in. Removing it will destroy the mod (unless you get an upgrade). Armor has 7 different stats it can modify. Melee, ranged, fire, freeze, electric, corruption, and stealth. Without mods you may need several armors to face specific foes or elements, or just get the final armor and ignore it all. All armor/weapons have a max amount they can do, and often they work in percentages, so the same mod on one weapon will work far better on a different one with a higher starting point.

Bandit Camps: Naturally there's bandit camps, about 5-6 of them anyways. These are hostile people who hunt everyone and everything (or so it seems). Clear them out for a reward, and get a fast travel point and fireplace. On top of that it lowers bandit activity in the area.

Random Encounters: Occasionally I've seen characters calling for help and getting attacked by machines. If you save them, they will thank you and may even give you an item in thanks. Otherwise there's hunting parties going after machines, even bandits doing this too. If the machines haven't noticed you but are hostile, you can still silent strike a few of them for instant kills.

Silent Strike: I've mentioned this a few times. Silent strike is an upgraded skill where if you are undetected, you can crit damage an enemy and instantly kill weaker foes (elites you can't unless you upgrade again). You can also get this attack in on stunned foes from electric damage.

Healing: During the tutorial you're shown to have a bag you store herbs in. When injured you can heal from it and you get as much healing as the bag holds up to max. The bag can be upgraded to hold 4x the contents, and if you have the final power armor you might not need much healing, or chieftain's armor from the DLC also does slow regen. Constantly picking plants can really drag later, though there are healing potions you can get as well.

New Game Plus: Lets you start over from the starting of the proving (Aloy grown up). You keep all your weapons, all your mods, all your inventory. Special items, collectables, Vantage points, scanned lore items, recordings, bluegleam, etc all go away. Your achievements at the challenges also goes away. A bit annoying, but you can go through the story again at a harder difficulty or see how easy it would be having things you weren't suppose to have so early in the game.

Annoyances: Game crashes a bit on me. Often this is a memory issue, other times no clue. Had it crash during the last mission more than any other time.
Ammo and inventory limits are annoying, though a few mods fix those.
Some challenges seem impossible, and would be easier if it told you the objectives and time limit before you started as opposed to after you start.
When you reach level 60 you keep gaining skill points but can't use them. I'd have liked to have passive resistances or other skills you can keep bumping up.
Spear mods are hard to find, and weaker than every other mod, but only work on spears. Best i've seen is 26% extra damage (2 of them 52% extra damage when you get the second slot). I've yet to see spear mods do more than that or have more than 1 effect.

Graphics: 4.5/5
Sound: 3/5
Voice: 4/5
Mechanics: 4/5
Story: 4.5/5
Annoyances: -1.5
Total: 18.5/25, 7.4/10, 3.7/5
Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon - Infinite Combat

A tie-in game for the anime series.

Graphics: The graphics suffice. The character models for the VN component are good, but not nearly varied enough. As with other VN's I've seen they move the entire model up/down or left/right to signify usually them agreeing or disagreeing, and moving them close together can signify anywhere from fighting, shielding someone, or hugging. Having more models as well as how they are applied would have gotten closer to the source material and looked better.

As for dungeoneering, it's very cutsie. Being a Unity game, not much to expect on that. There's a handful of images that look ripped from the anime but are likely re-drawn and higher quality but those are once a chapter at best.

Audio: The music suffices. Battle music sounds like decent quality midi synthesized (and almost a remind of FF7), while in towns sounds typical flute/reed instruments in a somewhat pleasing pattern to keep you calm and more a reminder where you're at. The best part is the returning voice actors from the anime. A lot of it is reworked acting and not ripped, though not everything is voiced.

Gameplay: The game is split in two parts, dungeoneering and everything else. You can progress the story by taking story missions, which then plays out a lot like Season 1 of the anime (though if you watched the show Sword Oratoria is mixed in. I'm also not quite sure how far the story goes for the game yet).

Dungeoneering rather sucks. Fighting is hard-coded timing where it may ignore your commands if you don't press at the right time, and the button layout isn't very thrilling either. The dungeons aren't very complicated, and some monsters are more annoying than others. Otherwise you have up to 6 quick attacks, a strong attack, or dodging (which i wish only went back as pressing any direction and dodging makes you push into your opponents rather than back out). You can also have supporters, but they either have a passive buff or once in a while help-out when you activate them. However they are only available during 'Story' missions, and otherwise you're on your own.

In Town you can talk with various people related to location/knowns, though from what i see it doesn't tie in to the anime. Otherwise buy/sell equipment (selling at 50% value). You can also 'enhance' your equipment. This basically means you pay to have it upgraded, but you also have to have monster parts that you choose equaling the required points to qualify. However upgrading quickly gets out of proportion, as each upgrade seems to be 3x the previous. Example, the 'knife' you can start with is 5 to upgrade, then 15, then 45, then 135, after that it is probably 405 & 1215, etc. The amount of boost to armor/weapons seems to be a fixed amount.

Going to the familia you can use skill points you've acquired to boost passives, health boost, defense, basic weapon damage, etc. These progressively get more expensive (150->250->350, etc) and unless there's multiple screens then there's a set number of these upgrades. (I'll update this later if i get further enough to report on it).

Quests seem to be low level affairs, there should be more random things to do, usually there's the default 'Beat the 7-8th floors' which you can grind for points/items, though 'collect the X' and 'Kill N of X' with a handful of different icons other than loot bags brings the quests to the same-old.

Story: A direct tie-in to the anime. So if you've watched the anime there's not a lot to say, as it doesn't really deviate from what I've seen, except some stuff is thrown out since they couldn't be bothered to animate or do certain parts. Regardless, it plays with two parallel stories, First, Bell then Ais's participation or activities at that time.

Annoyances: Certain monsters are especially annoying like the silverback and ants, combat related bugs with supporters. Can't take multiple 'quests' or the like. You only get stat improvements after story events, not every time you are in the dungeon.

Thoughts: The only reason you'd play this game is if you're a fan of the anime. While not a bad tie-in game, the system feels unpolished and unimaginative. Personally Reccetear while more PS2 looking has a far superior dungeon crawling experience.

Total: 8/15, 5.3/10, 2.65/5
Attachments:
vn-like.jpg (143 Kb)
skilltree.jpg (254 Kb)
Post edited September 09, 2022 by rtcvb32