I don't really like the direction of development there. At first, this game was arcade football game, with simple, but nice graphics (something between low poly 3D and vector graphics if it makes sense). And it was set in the realistic setting. Basically, modern SWOS. And it was really good at this. But then, the developers took a break, and after they resumed development, the direction of the game changed a lot. Now it has pixel graphics and weird power ups. There is a couple of similar games already, and I feel it missed the chance to fill the niche for modern SWOS game.
I had a lot of fun playing Yakuza Like A Dragon. However, for every big plus there is a "but" - hence 4 stars and not 5. I really liked the story, but didn't really care about the characters. Not that they were not likeable, because they were. But I did not really feel connection with them. It was like... like hearing an interesting story about you distant cousin. Not sure what's the cause I liked the game mechanics, including combat system and jobs switching, but for my taste, this game is simply too long for JRPG. At some point, if you took care about the team synergy, you can spam powerful moves without thinking about strategy, and after a while combat becomes a boring interlude between story missions. You can turn on autocombat feature, but in my opinion this game would be better if it would be shorter. I guess that 12 chapters instead of 15 would be sweet spot.
Successor to classic dungeon crawlers. Enjoyable one, indeed. Graphics is clear and nice, combat system is rather simple but scratches the itch, exploration part of the game is not bad either... Almost all fundamental systems are good. The main problem of The Quest is, well, questing. Often there is only one way to complete the quest, and the success often depends solely on on the Player Character attributes. You either has that "15" in Charisma to persuade NPC or not.
Dead Cells may be the best roguelite I played ever. Or rather, it could be, but it has one fatal flaw. The balance. Disclaimer: I'm a, let's say, semi-casual gamer. I still play a lot, but I'm not that *invested* in games as I used to be. The best part of this game is the beginning. I had great fun learning this game, unlocking new weapons, branches, mutations, etc. Soon after my first win, I stopped playing. Why? Dead Cells is challenging from the start, but you can learn the patterns quickly. After some time, reaching the final boss is not a problem. But the transition between the first and second difficulty level is brutal, because the game not only buffs old mobs, not only introduces new ones, but removes few healing fountains (fountains placed between stages are main source of healing) - and it's kind of deal breaker for me. Stages are more difficult - and that's fair and expected. But the problem is that game makes it much harder to *recover from mistakes* at the same time. Dead Cells has a lot of difficulty levels (*cells* to unlock) - certainly enough to make transition a bit more smooth. Now, new difficulty level is too hard for me, but the previous one is not challenging at all nowadays. Good game with great mechanics, but the balance issues ruined it for me. Still, worth buying even at full price.
While it is not obvious at the beginning, the Larian account is entirely optional. You need to click the "getting started button", then you can check "do not ask next time" option and click "skip" button. Regarding the game itself, I have very mixed feeling. It is obviously a labor of love and passion. Maybe a little bit rough on the edges. And it is great, epic cRPG. Tons of NPCs, each with unique dialogue. Large, living locations. But it just does not work for me. When each NPC has a name and their own dialogue line, you do not really know if this NPC is important or not. It is indeed immersive. But not wanting to miss something important, I need to talk to every NPC in the location. And this feels like chore. I mean, it could work for me if the locations would be smaller. The starting island is very fun for me – it has the righ scope for that kind of gameplay. But later it is very easy to simply get lost. I was playing Divinity Original Sin 2 twice or thrice already, and always got tired (mind, tired – not bored) around 1/3 of the second act. I am going to give it another chance; in fact, I did install Divinity again yesterday. Recently I finished Pillars of Eternity II. I feel that while Divinity Original Sin 2 is better cRPG, PoE 2 is just more fun to play... I love old school isometric RPGs, but I wonder if this type of world building would be more fun to play if the game would be in 3rd or 1st person.
This game got a lot of criticism at the start. I'm not gonna write it was undeserved - but personally, I got exactly that kind of game I was waiting for. It was rough around the edges but a lot of the issues were addressed in the free updates that were introducing new stuff as well. And now, it is my problem. For me, NMS was game about (potentially) never ending journey. I wasn't big fan of building bases but it worked rather well with new portals system. The *Atlas Rises* update was the last I truly enjoyed. Now, the game is much more stationary, focused on base building and complex crafting mechanics with refinering, etc. It isn't game about journey and exploration. It's overly complex for my taste. Playing old versions (I'm glad I made backup of old installers) I miss a lot of quality-of-life changes. I even tried to play new updates in similar way I play the old ones, but it doesn't really work...
