WOW YOU'RE THE BEEEEEST! WOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! TETRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS! Great post apocalyptic puzzle game where you're an AI trapped in AI hell. Using your robotic wits, you must solve many different puzzles, that give you tetris pieces once solved, which unlock other areas, as well as puzzle solving tools. The ultimate goal is to get all the tetrises, climb the forbidden tower, solve it's shenanigans, and escape AI hell. Some of the puzzle elements are influenced by Portal 1 and 2, minus the portals, although anything Portal-y has been modified to be more of it's own thing. There's also the tetris puzzles, where you must play inventory tetris- I mean, a puzzle block game to correctly fit all the tetris pieces in to unlock whatever door or acquire whichever tool. You also converse with another AI on a funny looking 80s computer every now and then, and explore Serious Sam-esque open area hubs to take a break from the puzzles. Has some similarities to Soma. Both games will mindf*** you. I would rate this game 5 stars, but the game really does faf around towards the end, and there's some visual/inconsistencies with the puzzles, and some other nitpicks. Still a solid 4 out of 5.
If you're a fan of Metroidvania (especially melee focused ones), then I heartily recommend this to you. It is a bit on the simpler side compared to a lot of games in this genre. There is only 1 weapon (Sword) and 3 magic attacks (Faerie Fire, Fire, and Lightning - Lightning is very OP, chaotic, and hilarious, once you get it, you won't go back). However, there is also ARPG elements, you get EXP, level up, and pick whatever stat you want (HP/DEF/ATK/MAG) and your stats can be increased with your usual RPG equipment affair - accessories, armor, and a weapon augment. The melee combat is very fast and fluid, some different combos can be performed, you can air juggle enemies like there's no tomorrow, and fly through the air with an enemy homing tornado blade attack (very fun), you can dodge left and right so hard that Dust's spine dislocates every time he does it, you can block/counter attacks too. Eventually, you can even suplex aircrafts out of the sky (Sabin would be proud) You'll be kicking so much ass, you won't even care that there's only 1 weapon. The visuals are outstanding, very nicely done 2D visuals, with an occasional subtle 3D element thrown in (Bodies of water). The main 2 characters have fully manually animated sprites (which are gorgeous and slick as hell) while everyone else is made from some limb system to save time (This game was the work of mostly one dude, after all). Other character sprites look fine in motion, and well enough standing there, but if you stare at them a bit too long, they look a bit funny and stiff. The full animated character portraits in conversation are nicely done though. I really wish 2D wasn't a dying artform in the AAA industry, as I still really appreciate 2D. Most 2D stuff nowadays is done by indies. The characters are very charming, have fitting voices, and Fidget is a memelord that loves RE4. Music is phenomenal. Great game, one of my favorites. Wish we'd get more Elysian Tails, as opposed to Metal Meme Solid.
Never really grew up with Sonic, played Sonic 1-3 and others years later on the PS2 collection and generally enjoyed them, although I had my problems with them. Freedom Planet is basically my Sonic, so to say, as I feel more connected to FP than Sonic, despite only having 1 (now 2) games. That's how solid Freedom Planet is. The game obviously takes inspiration from Sonic, Gunstar Heroes, and some other games. Played Gunstar a bit later after FP, loved that too. Hands down, one of the best things FP does over Sonic (and just in general compared to a lot of 2D platformers) is that enemies have to actively attack you in order for you to receive damage. Instead of 80% of enemy attacks just being contact damage, and when there is contact damage in FP, there's a good reason for it, like the enemy is spiked, or it's on fire, etc. Also, in FP, you have a life bar, and can take a fair amount of hits, and get health pickups, which is great, because getting one shot in a Sonic game just cause you don't have any rings gets old real fast. The combat's pretty decent (a bit better in the sequel), the music is memorable, the bosses are neato, and the stages are rad. The stages can stretch on for a bit too long at times, someone dubbed it as "Freedom Planet Syndrome" where a level in a platformer stretches on for waaaaaaay too long, which I don't really have a problem with usually, unless it's stupid long. Klonoa 2 did this over a decade earlier, where some levels are like half an hour long, while most levels are like 8-15 min long. I'm sure there's a bunch of other platformers that do something similar. The protagonists are very charming and memorable too, and have fitting voices to go with their personalities. There are 3 different playable protagonists, each with their own playstyle, mostly sharing the same levels, but have some levels unique to each of them. Here's to an eventual release of FP2 on GoG as well, as I'm allergic to Steam, but bought it on there anyway.
I'll give the developers props for trying something new in the RTS genre, but it wasn't exactly executed all that well. You have a hero (think Age of Empires III, where the hero is autorevived a short while after dying), but it can't attack, period. Just issue orders, it is essentially the cusor, meaning you can't scroll the screen anywhere like in just about every other RTS, but you have to move your character to the general location of where you want to attack, while using your hero to scout, aggressively, frequent, and early I might add. Your hero only has a few commands outside of placing buildings, etc. Attack with all units, attack with selected unit type, focus attack, and retreat, and a instant retreat/fast travel for the hero themself. Your units only have their standard attack, no special abilities. I've heard that the levels were randomly generated, or at least to some extent. I really didn't notice much of that, probably cause I was focusing on all the other nonsense. So I played about 2 or 3 levels on normal, then the next level the difficulty spike was like a 90 degree angle wall compared to the previous ones. So I lower the difficulty to braindead levels (20%) and even then, some levels were still stubborn, probably due to some infuriating objective type, or some bs unfair advantage the enemy had, whether it was random or not. You know somethings f***ed if you can't even beat something on what's basically casual difficulty. The full portrait character artwork is probably the best thing about this game. I've always had a fondness for pseudo-realisticly proportioned anthros, reminds me of Redwall. You also have a hub in the campaign where you select levels by talking to people, which is cool and immersive, there's even optional dialogue with random characters sprinkled throughout the hubs. Although I would like an option for a level select screen, as it takes a while to get around the hub, and there isn't exactly a sprint feature.
Other than some occasional depth perception problems, an abrupt ending, lack of upgrades, and being a bit short if you ignore the optional levels, etc. Trine 3 is still a mostly good Trine game.
Spiritfarer is a fairly original game, it's a resource management/farming/mining/cooking/etc game, and an exploration platforming game, then you have spirits you bring aboard, which have requests to fulfill, and stories to tell, as well as the fuzzy wuzzy hugs to share. It's like someone took some Harvest Moon, added a helping of Wind Waker's (or more specifically, Phantom Hourglass's) sailing and island exploration, and then a dash of Metroidvania platforming and powerup fetching. The powers are almost entirely movement based, and there isn't combat in this game, unless you count wrestling with OP tuna. Also maybe a sprig of Pyre in a way. The art and animation are fantastic, buttery smooth. Very vibrant and pretty, speaking of... One time, the cat helper, Daffodil, was in a glitch singularity, her animation was stiff, 1 frame of animation depending on which way she was facing, then her, and also a few spirits at times would get stuck in a navigation error loop, where they would rapidly dart left/right or up/down a ladder. Then there would be 2 Daffodils during certain animations, like sleeping. I then exorcised the glitch demon out of Daffodil by hugging her, and... no joke, that fixed it when nothing else would, even saving/quitting. It's a feature. My few gripes with the game are, other than the occasional tedium these types of games have at times, are that the game tends to give you station upgrades waaaaaay past the point of you even needing them anymore. Then again, that could just be depending on your route, I at least got the foundry upgrade early on, which was very useful. Another thing is, that Bruce and Mickey tend to just randomly move when you're talking to them, happened way too many times and gave me S.T.A.L.K.E.R. flashbacks of the same thing happening with random NPCs when you try to talk to them. Do yourself a favor, and let these two starve if this happens and annoys you even a little. They're jerks anyway. Neato game overall.
Better than Half-Genie Hero, levels are not stage based, but are more Metroidvania style, like some of the older games, this game has a proper map, and a proper warp system. Heart squids are also back, meaning you no longer get heart holders handed to you like they're candy, and have to actually earn your heart holders. The max HP capacity has also been reduced by 2 I think, but you do start with 3 instead of 2, like you usually do. Enemies seem to hit harder in general, although there is a heal dance, and the usual infirmary in your inventory if you heed well to stock up. This game is certainly harder than the last one, although some of the harder parts are still some platforming hazard areas, although thankfully the game doesn't throw a fairly hard platforming obstacle at you near the end like these games usually do. One of the harder obstacles was actually early on in the 2nd or 3rd dungeon, with the timed spiked blocks and falling platforms. Then you got your new monster card system, which provide passive benefits. You probably want to play on rule breaker mode though, to equip way more than 3 cards, as most of the effects are relatively minor (Hint: One of the best cards is from after defeating the 2nd or 3rd boss, you trade for it at, Tree Town was it? For a magic regen card, very useful.) The dances are used for attacking, healing, revealing invisible objects, and activating certain objects, or opening areas. The actual transformations are not tied to dances like they usually are, but are part of a instantaneous moveset granted by fusion coins. They're used instantly (other than the horizontal turtle attack) and feel kind of like the items from Pirate's Curse. You can dash through projectiles and climb on walls, do a body slam, attack horizontally like a spinning top, going all over the place at high speeds, swim in deep water, and eventually double/triple jump. And Squid Baron is a very silly man, as usual.
Half-Genie hero is good, but not quite as good as the first 3 games. Even as rough as the very first Shantae game was at times, it still had more heart and soul and adventure than this one. The levels are more linear, and more stage based, yet at the same time, this game seems to have the most excessive backtracking in the series. Every world has a few areas, and once you enter the next area in a world, you can't go back (Thief 4, anyone?). You need to go back to the world map and backtrack if you accidentally proceeded forward while looking for stuff, but thankfully there is a warp dance to quickly reach previously accessed segments of a level. Dancing has been dumbed down, you used to have to enter a combination of dance moves to activate a transformation, which was cool, but at the same time it got a bit tedious and time consuming before long. Now you just press the dance button, wait for the appropriate submenu to come up and press that direction. There's now more transformations than ever before, although some of them are borderline useless (I've used the spider like, 3 times. And to add insult to injury, the spider's optional attack powerup is in one of the hardest rooms in the game, and naturally, I never used it.) And I think the blobfish one is literally useless, not sure. Boss fights are fun as usual, they even threw in some Klonoa-esque 2.5D elements to some of the bosses, although you never attack forwards or backwards, just side to side and up and down as usual. While this is generally the most visually impressive game in the series so far, it lacks some of the heart and soul (and less dumbed down levels) of the first 3 games. Still a fun game, though.
More of Puzzle Agent 1, a direct continuation of where the first game left off. If you liked the first game, you'll naturally like this one too.
The puzzle logic seems a bit nonsensical at times, and some of the hints are borderline useless, and there's some mostly minor graphical glitches (and one major one where there was this white box obscuring the hint I was trying to view, the bird pictures), but other than that, it's a good puzzle game with charm and atmosphere. The game can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be with the handy dandy (and kind of disgusting, but what's a gum addict to do?) gum hint system. You have pieces of CHEWED gum, which can be randomly found throughout areas as part of the scenery, you pick one up, you get one hint ammo. You can use up to 3 hints per puzzle, and the third hint more or less gives away the solution usually. Solving a puzzle with no hints used, and getting it right on the first try will give you maximum score for that puzzle. If you haven't already, go watch Grickle on Youtube, dude makes some wacky, bizarre, and charming animations. Think "2D Wallace and Gromit", but even weirder.
