Ys The Oath In Felghana isn't a fun experience, it's an ordeal. You don't play this game to have fun, you play it to prove that you have skill. Every single boss in this game is designed to be as frustrating and annoying as possible. Expect a lot of cheap deaths from bosses who spam nigh unavoidable bullet hell attacks at you that you can handly avoid due to the lack of a dodge button and even when you get something close to a dodge later on in the game you usually end up spamming it madly all the time because you pretty much have to in order to avoid getting hit. Oh and don't take getting hit lightly, there's no healing items in this game, not because the game was designed to be played without them since they were in Ark Of Napishtim, the developers just decided to remove them to alienate people who aren't masochists, so if you get hit too much in the first phase, you are better off suiciding since you will die, there's too much to avoid to not die. It's a matter of how much you can survive before you do die. So have fun trying to kill yourself so that the retry option shows up. Honestly in a game like this I would have like a suicide option so that I can just stab myself and retry immediately because the bosses are HP sponges and have phases that are so mind-numbingly boring that only exist to waste your time. For example, there's a dragon boss later on in the game that just sits there and bits the air in front of him, he doesn't do anything else until you wipe out 1000 or so hp. Only then does the boss actually start using moves. This game loves to throw multiple phases at you to mess you up. The thing is, if you die, you have to sit through the earlier phases again and those phases are so tedious to get through. Don't think the combat is worth the hassle though, you mash the attack button , run and jump, maybe spam a spell, thats it. 1 star for the music, not as good as pc engine version though 2 star for the masochists that will play this game.
YS VI is a very short game but it certainly won't feel short. Expect to spend most of your time grinding in a single location for a considerable amount of time or prepare to get your ass whooped. YS VI has no dodge button like the modern games, you can only jump to avoid attacks and since your jump is more vertical than it is horizontal, this means you can't move around very easily. Also the enemy hitboxes can be massive and since there are no I frames, you have to perfectly time your jumps to avoid many attacks. For this reason, I highly recommend taking your time to grind. Fortunately the game has a pretty good soundtrack so you'll be able to hear some nice tunes as you kill the same enemies over and over again and the music doesn't get old. The story ties things together pretty well from the other YS games and even though it's on the shorter side, it has some pretty cool sections. In a way it kinda plays like an interlude chapter to the YS games as opposed to a huge journey but the feeling of adventure is still there. The game as a whole feels very tight... albeit a bit too tight. Still its short length warrants a try if you don't mind grinding or are willing to suffer a challenging ordeal. Fortunately there are healing items you can use in this game, unlike later games that used the same engine which makes the game a tab more forgiving and more accessible than Oath In Felghana but you will still want to grind if you are used to the more modern games and I mean a lot. Always take some time to gain as much xp as possible the first time you enter an area before fighting a boss (usually indicated via a save statue). If you want an experience that plays a bit more closer to Oath In Felghana then there's catastrophe mode but if you're not experienced with the older YS games it may be quite overwhelming.
The original Diablo pioneered the real time roguelike genre, a genre that has branched out into other games such as Torchlight, Grim Dawn and Victor Vran etc. Does it hold up today? Yes it does but you might want to expect something a little differrent from more modern games in the genre. For starters, I highly recommend picking the Sorcerer class as they have a lot more mana than the other classes, therefore they are able to cast spells more effectively. The Warrior is probably the worst character to play as fighting with melee attacks is pretty bare bones and uninteresting. You just click the enemy over and over again till it is dead, there isn't any flexibility at all in the melee combat. Rogues are long ranged versions of Warriors, same idea, just click to win. Now you're probably thinking that playing these characters is pointless since it's just mouse click mashing, unlike later games however, Diablo 1 allows every single class to learn and use magic so long as their magic level is high enough. This allows for some interesting character builds and due to the randomized nature of the game, no character is every going to be the same. This is the meat of what makes Diablo 1 so fun, no tech trees, just absolute freedom to develop your character how you want, so a warrior is capable of using chain lightning but he won't be as efficient at casting as the sorcerer. Hence why I recommend the Sorcerer as you can gain access to new spells quickly and have a lot more fun with the game due to having more flexibility. Other than that, the game has a fantastic atmosphere and the greatest soundtrack I think an American game has ever had. The story is completely optional but you can find books in the dungeons and talk to the people in the town to learn the game's lore. As for why I said DO NOT BUY!!! This is an Activision owned game for one (means funding that awful company) also the game has compatabiltiy issues as well as the lack of Hellfire.
I think the developers of this game have no idea what a videogame is. It's supposed to be activity someone engages in for amusement, or as I like to say... to have fun. The silly thing is that Mount And Blade Warband does everything this game does without missing the most important thing... "fun". This game just isn't fun to play. Why? Because it throws in needlessly complicated mechanics with terrible tutorials. The combat is needlessly overly complicated... 5 directions to block? Really? Do we really need this? Sure it's realistic and all but it all boils down to luck and reaction timing... oh and high stats because your character is so bad at swordfighting at the start of the game that the combat is literally unplayable. Lockpicking is absolutely ridiculous, the tutorial is dreadful, you use all your lockpicks? Tutorial is over, you failed and you have to pay more money to try again... SMH. OIne of the first quests involves stealing a man's ring. The game heavily implies that you have to steal it... yet I found out that you could just bribe the man to give it to you. As such, the game clearly pushes players to mess around with the crime system which is completely and utterly broken. If you steal something then it automatically becomes branded as a stolen item, everyone and their mother has the ability to detect stolen goods which makes absolutely no freaking sense considering the fact that this is the middle ages and there is nothing whatsoever that shows any sign of an item being stolen so how on earth are they supposed to figure out that it's stolen. Also the crime system is copy/pasted from Elder Scrolls, they weren't even trying, they literally copy/pasted that horrible system. I also hate the fact that there's a hunger meter. What the hell is this? A survival game? Is this freaking minecraft? What? do you want us to take s shit too? Oh of course they do, hence why they have outhouses. Stupid game, don't buy it, it's a buggy mess too.
Yeah you heard me, total garbage. It markets itself as a fast paced FPS but the controls are beyond shitty and the aiming is limited. Plus you're literally on a timer the entire time making things even more frustrating because of the awkward controls. Piece of trash, don't waste even $1.00 on this heap of garbage, it's literally cancer.
