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This user has reviewed 154 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon

One of the greatest JRPGs of all time

Sufficiently challenging, sufficient power-up opportunities. Really good graphics, supreme game play, good variety of jobs to switch to with meaningful choices. GREAT top-shelf story. Love how the in-world explanation for "fantasy" is. Most mini-games are optional (and most that aren't can be "use a guide" to get any exclusives they do have)... And unlike most JRPG mini games, many of these ones aren't awful. ONLY DOWNSIDE: As of the time of writing, Sega has decided to return to "screw GOG" and not give us its sequels.

Frontier Hunter: Erza’s Wheel of Fortune

Fun game worth playing despite some jank

Others have called this "We Have Bloodstained At Home" that's not exactly wrong. But while they typically use it derogatorily, I would say it's a compliment. This game is a solid Metroidvania (GOG has it labeled JRPG, it's not) in the Igavania style (so, yes, like Bloodstained). It's not top shelf. It has a little jank. But it's good and plays well. It has good play style/build diversity. Its early and even mid-game is a touch too easy, but late game bosses eventually require you to be "on". You can outgear/outlevel most things eventually though. There's not a ton of backgtracking, but there is. The economy is weird... Early game you're scrounging for every penny, then mid-late game you're drowning in money with little to spend it on (new gear comes in faster than it's worth modifying), then end-game/post-game you're again starved for cash since everything needs so much... but by then you don't really need it. There is a little bit of a post game with some harder versions of monsters/bosses and one new boss. And each boss (but the post-game one) is in the arena that unlocks about half way through the game, and each has 6 stages to do for fun and resources. Graphics are "Unreal Engine 4" (just liked Bloodstained), and work fine. A few foes even fun, though a few (you'll see one as soon as you enter the Frozen area...) that are "WTF? Why?" bad. Sound again is serviceable... music works, some good, but none terribly ear-worming or the best. SFX communicates what's going on in the game the game well. Certain monsters will have "I'm on this screen somewhere!" ambient noise you'll hear as a warning. Some sounds (e.g., the gatling gun) are balanced a bit louder than they should be, so you might want to turn it down.) Story is purely functional. Nothing new, nothing bad. It propels the exploration. There are a few "can't go here until you report in!" moments I wish weren't there, but I can't begrudge them much. The in-engine cutscenes are usually fun... though some veer into anime-style "there was no consent!" boob jokes that are a little off-putting. The game play itself is rather fun. You can build/play as melee, ranged, caster, faster, slower, high defense, etc. There are lots of choices on how you want to go: Which weapon/skill set? Which armor type? What accessories? And which passive "cores" (which drop from monsters) on each? And which set of spells? There's a built in swap to have 3 ready-made builds for each character for easy swapping of gear, but swapping cores in equipment is always a chore. Fortunately, most cores, you can easily farm more of. A few you can't, or can't until you can do them in boss rush. The DLCs aren't worth it, except maybe on a big discount. Most are just costume cosmetics, you get what you see. One is a little bit of an early-game cheat. And the other is a single extra post-game superboss fight with an extra piece of gear (that you don't need by the time you can get it). There's not a lot of online reference to find for the game, but it comes with an "ebook" (.CHM file, unzip and view in browser if you don't have an application for it) that's a full map, including reference for breakable walls and where to find everything. There are a few things it doesn't cover, but you can find reference for those. BUT! Overall the game doesn't *need* these references/searches except for maybe one or two things depending on the type of gamer you are.

Sea of Stars: Sunset Edition

Solid game, one major flaw

This is a solid game with a fun story, amazing music, and a fun twist of a combat system where you use abilities with certain traits to try to break and stop opponents rather than just maximizing damage. There's the one major flaw though: The combat is constant QTEs: time button presses to attack, time button presses to dodge, and the majority of your skills are useless without doing a mini-game attached to them. These really detract from the game a ton. They turn the game from strategic to a stressful/lucky. And it's absolutely mandatory unless you turn on a bunch of the game's "make the game easier" options. Not too long into the game (an hour or two), you are able to buy an accessibility option that semi-automates the basic timing for attacks and blocks -- which makes the game *possible*. But all your skills still require the interactions, and the blocking one is only 35%. (These should've been available immediately from the start.) Various "make the game easier/harder" relics are available to purchase or find in chests throughout the game. It's a good system, that one starter set aside. Some of the boss battles, especially late game, are really interesting and really require you to use a lot of the options the game gives you to get through them strategically. Most characters are not deeply developed, but that's OK. Those that are get good screen time and only a few are by-the-book stock characters. The game is mostly linear with occasional backtracking, but that's OK. I'd have found "able to go outside your current comfort zone" frustrating in this game unlike most, because of the timed input requirements -- there'd be no easy way to know if it's your strategy or your reflexes causing you to die. The game supposedly crosses over with The Messenger (a Ninja Gaiden style game from the same developer), and aside a few tidbits here and there, it's not much. I certainly don't see the "you must know The Messenger to make any sense of the story" complaints I've seen. A few of the music tracks are reminiscent of (or maybe even directl imported from?) The Messenger. The music! It's great! Most musics in the game have variants that play depending on what time of day it is or other traits. (If you know Super Mario World, it's similar to being on/off Yoshi adding/removing a drum track.) And much of the music has a 3rd version that plays in the game's inns that's a "bardcore instrumental" version of it... including morphing the music a bit when you talk one of those band members and they aren't playing their instrument. The graphics, you can easily judge yourself from the game card. I find them above average with a lot of creative enemy design and the animated cut scenes are high-quality and always at big story beats. I didn't try couch co-op. A handful of the game's achievements (which are tracked in-game with a reference NPC you unlock about 1/3 of the way in) require it. The mini-game (wheels) is fun, not frustrating, and doesn't overstay its welcome. Fishing is fortunately quite minimized and you need not do it except to catch one of each fish, which the game clearly and directly informs you of their locations. Minimal to no grind, especially once you find the XP Boost relic. Any such grind is usually farming maps for cooking ingredients to cook to sell. Money is tight in this game! Great game. I'd give it a 5 if it weren't for the timing inputs/QTEs in combat. About the DLC: It's not so hot. The art/music/etc maintains the same to better quality, but the gameplay leans HEAVILY in to constant mini-games, both in- and out- of combat and the difficulty is turned way up. And currency is replaced by "do all the minigames" tokens.

5 gamers found this review helpful
Sophia the Traveler

It's fine. Weak port.

No keyboard scroll; only mouse drag. This seriously gets in the way of being able to hunt for things. Especially since scenes are HUGE. This is at least a whole star itself. Many of the hints (about half) are nonsensical and don't give any useful information to help narrow down the hunt. e.g., "Sophia eats fruit when traveling". Well, no. There's no fruit stand in the scene. She's just randomly standing there in an eating animation. Art is nice, animations are fun. Neat objects abound in scenes. Sound is fine (though the the checkbox to turn off the sound upon finding... only changes it from a loud obnoxious sound to a less loud less obnoxious one).

8 gamers found this review helpful
Adventure of Samsara

Fun right-sized Metroidvania

The beginning of the game does feel a bit "slow" and "clunky". It does take some time getting used to controls and it picks up a lot once you get some upgrades. The game arc kind of snowballs, leading to a really good feeling by the end. A reasonably observant player can 100% it without external reference. Sadly overlooked by coming out the same day as Silksong and being in the same genre. Also, earlier reviews might not reflect the current state of the game since it had a major improvement update/rework since them. Top complaint might be "weak soundtrack", which is kind of a compliment. (I know nothing of the purported original game it's supposedly inspired by.)

2 gamers found this review helpful
Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition

Great game hurt by ridiculous last boss

5/5 game. EXCEPT With a full star subtracted because the last boss (eyeball monster) is absolutely absurdly ridiculous and is fifty times harder than anything else in the game. It turns every possible difficulty up to max all at once. No other challenges in the game come even remotely close to even half the difficulty of this one. So don't bother starting. You won't get to see the ending. I am so absolutely sick of games pulling bait-and-switches with their last bosses completely being unlike the rest of the game, so far out of the curve. This difficulty would maybe make sense if you went to it right away as soon as you can. But no, getting to it with a full clear, max level, have everything, fully-powered character... it shouldn't be like this. It's a giant failing of the game that completely ruins the experience. And controls: The primary attack is only a charge. It should have an auto-fire option (to shoot once charged), but, alas, it does not. So it hurts the fingers during play and it really interferes with the ability to "get into it" sometimes.