Strong 6. A solid enough, if unremarkable, side scrolling action platformer with light metroidvania elements. Combat is fine if a bit basic, powers are pretty cool, and the art style is awesome. I also like how both characters have their own unique campaigns. The tutorials leave a bit to be desired as the poor localization makes some of them unclear. I strongly dislike how you have to manually dispel enemies after killing them, it just makes combat more annoying than it needs to be. I also found the difficulty to be inconsistent. The first chapter of Lus story is significantly harder than the rest and the Blood Demon and second Chaos fight in Xues story are insanely hard and IMO poorly designed. The story is alright and has some interesting moments, particularly with the origins of the demons coming from wronged people and their resentment.

Solid 8. A great little gem of an RPG/adventure game. It starts out pretty hard as youre starting as a nobody refugee fighting to survive with literally nothing to your name, but as the game progresses and you gain your footing it becomes a delightful and oddly touching cyberpunk slice of life game. Its almost entirely dictated by dice rolls but it provides you with ways to game the dice as you progress, so there is a constant sense of control that I really like. It can be a little verbose but the game is very well written, has great worldbuilding, and does a fantastic job depicting normal people just trying to get by on a bleak cyberpunk spacestation. I had some issues with objectives in the net not spawning on certain days when I was doing Fengs quests and there was a bug where controls locked up that went away upon restarting. I also thought the game kind of did away with choice and consequence as it went on, which was a little disappointing. The characters are great and I found the melancholy internal thoughts of the Sleeper and their struggles with their identity compared to people relatable in a few ways. Due to the simplicity of the game mechanics, the writing, characters, and soundtrack do a lot of heavy lifting. The free DLC is also very well done.

Solid 5. Wasnt a fan. I dont even know why I felt compelled to play this because I dont usually like puzzle games. I didnt like how you couldnt view information about clues in the notebook so you had to keep going back to view them. Since I have short term memory issues this was kind of a deal breaker. I also felt like some of the clues were very well hidden, though many others seem to have thought the game was too simple so I may just have been dumb. Art direction and vibes are immaculate though.

Solid 4. Less interesting than the first game with no improvements and a focus on action in spite of the shitty controls. Setting is kind of cool.

Solid 2. Its bad. Its really, really bad. Everything from the gunplay, to the movement, to the controls, to the level design (ESPECIALLY the level design) is awful. You never feel like youre in total control of what Drake is doing and he always does some weird Matrix shit when you dont want him to. The one thing this game has going for it is how funny the cutscenes are. Theyre ridiculous and over the top with super campy dialogue and hilariously bad voice acting. Apparently the Xbox version is even worse because the controls are borderline unusable.

Solid 5. This is just Dark Messiah but without all of the things that make Dark Messiah interesting. The core combat is fine, but lacks any real depth. If the kick werent in the game it would likely be subpar. The game has level design thats bland at best and really annoying at worst. This is especially apparent at the end of chapter 1 with those obnoxious instakill traps that you can barely see and in chapter 2 with the stupid bridge/key stuff that made me quit. The progression is super barebones as you can only unlock a select few abilities with only a couple of them being particularly interesting. I also feel like there was no reason to make this a soulslike. Considering how many traps there can be it just makes the game more frustrating. The boss fight at the end of chapter 1 was pretty bad.

Strong 4. Somehow worse than the original in every single way. The gunplay is mediocre at best, the writing and characters are obnoxious, the story is barely explained, the level design is annoying and confusing, the vehicle sections are incredibly boring, and that grenade throwing arc: Jesus Christ. Its like they looked at the shitty later part of Red Faction and decided that was the way to go moving forward. The destruction is still cool and the fact that Jason Statham is in this game for some reason is very funny. I stopped playing after I planted a bomb and a squad mate stood in front of a door not moving so I couldnt escape in time to avoid the blast.

Strong 4. I played this game for the last week of its runtime while being showered with currency to make the most OP party imaginable. It was definitely an experience. The presentation and music are excellent and the overarching narrative is interesting (and very abstract, even by Yoko Taro standards), but the connective tissue just amounts to auto battler gacha gameplay and unrelated short stories. Some of the short stories are actually pretty good, but it doesnt feel like there is any point to them and theyre only there to pad time to make up for the fact that the gameplay is pretty much nonexistent. Having to drag your finger constantly during the glorified cutscenes that are the stories just makes it worse. That coupled with the usual mobile game gatcha bullshit just makes it something better experienced on YouTube.

Strong 9. One of the best games ever made disguised as gooner weeb shit. Yoko Taro finally works with a developer who actually know what theyre doing and the result is one hell of a game. In addition to the fantastic combat, gameplay variety, themes, and story (eventually), the music is incredible and the game improves on pretty much every shortcoming Nier had. There are less invisible walls so navigation is better, there is actually useful fast travel, and a lot of side quests are actually worth doing. I would go as far to say that the worst side quests in Automata are roughly as good as the best ones in Nier. The routing is also improved from the previous Nier and Drakengard titles as you dont have to play the game like 5 times to get to the real end, though I am probably just desensitized to Yoko Taros bullshit so the structure may be worse for others. I have to give them credit for sticking with this risky method of storytelling though because it really came together in the end. Something else I really appreciate about this game is even though some of the story beats were pretty predictable, the way many of them were executed surprised me. I never got past the first playthrough in any other YT game but for Automata not only did I get the true ending, I spent probably 10 hours doing random bullshit because the game was just that fun. I do have a few minor criticisms. The biggest one is that route B is easily the weakest part of the game. It kind of sucks that you have to play through most of the first part of the game again as a character who isnt as fun as the first one (even if it does make sense in the context of the story/lore), but its still enjoyable and far from bad. I also had minor technical issues like with animations desyncing during finishers in melee and that annoying screen tearing thing that carried over to the Replicant rerelease. Other than that there are a couple bad side quests and some annoying grinds for upgrade materials that feel really unnecessary. I did also feel like the dialogue wasnt amazing but never to the point where I felt it drastically hurt the experience. I understand people being frustrated with the story since it doesnt really get going until route C, but it didnt bother me too much because of how interesting the setting was. Lastly, I was personally offended by that part where you have to run to the shopping mall while your body is spasming out of control. Enemies were able to fuck me up and I couldnt fight back without the seizing happening every few seconds. Brilliant game that comes very close to near perfection. DLC isnt on here but its a solid 6. The two challenge arenas that arent the robot remote control one are fun enough, but the way they try to make them fit with the themes of the game come across as kind of hamfisted and forced. Still, the unlockable costumes and stuff are cool. I appreciate what they were going for with Plato 1728s story, especially since I can relate to a lot of it as a disabled person, but that doesnt change that fact that playing through it is thoroughly unpleasant. On a final note, fighting the SE and PG CEOs was an absolute riot.

Solid 6. Not a great game and honestly a pretty mediocre FPS objectively but it got a good laugh out of me and is probably the best montage parody Ive seen.

Solid 4. Did not enjoy this at all. There are elements that I like such as the art style, the idea behind traversal/movement, and the ability to throw random things at enemies with your tail but I cant say much else positive about the game. The controls are very awkward. You have to continuously press the jump button to climb scalable surfaces instead of just holding W or something, which makes it likely you can accidentally jump off or jump the wrong way. This makes traversal very annoying. The game makes you hold C to crouch without any toggle option, so sneaking is more tedious than it should be. The game is primarily stealth driven, but some of the rooms dont feel like they were designed for a stealth game due to enemy placement and size. Even the rooms that do feel appropriate sometimes function more like puzzle rooms with one viable stealth solution. As this is intended to be a stealth game, the combat is less than great. The inventory system is HORRIBLE. You can only carry 2 weapons or tools in addition to your default knife and aside from that, you are limited to 10 more items, 9 stored plus one grabbed by your tail, but these 10 items include things like healing items, vendor loot, ammo, and keys. And there are a lot of fucking keys in this game. It seems like a core component of the gameplay is running around until you find a locked door and then running around looking for the key to unlock it. Its also never obvious if youll need the key again, so you feel compelled to hold it in your inventory and take up a valuable slot. The game also does a pretty poor job of explaining what some of its items do and how certain mechanics work. The fact that the font choice renders some text very hard to read doesnt help. At the games shop, there is no are you sure prompt before buying items so I accidentally bought the same thing twice when I just wanted more information on what it was. There is no free saving either, which I understand, but it made losing progress all the more frustrating. Its very obvious the solo dev behind this game is very talented, especially considering how the level design (aside from all the keys and locked doors) is actually pretty good, but this just wasnt it. And apparently, act 1 (which I never got past) is considered the best part of the game and it turns into some kind of randomly generated puzzle game afterwards.

Strong 7. Really neat game with a cool gimmick that doesnt overstay its welcome. Makes nice use of the vita features. Gameplay is fun and the core mechanic of gravity shifting makes navigation a breeze. There are times where it is a tad repetitive and the controls are a bit cumbersome. The side content is pretty meh and there are some missions that are just plain bad. Kat is a likeable protagonist and the story is okay, though it throws a ton of weird shit at you while barely explaining it and it feels like half of the concepts dont matter to the narrative.

Strong 3. Unquestionably the worst Fallout game. Its not even a poor mans Diablo, its a poor mans Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance. The combat is awful (both ranged and melee), the game looks ugly, it has obnoxious level design, the controls are weird, and the quest design is mind numbing. It doesnt even get the lore right because you can somehow play as a Ghoul and be a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Ghouls also arent immune to radiation. So it seems that there is no functional difference between the selectable characters so what is the point? The only good thing I will say about this game is that it has a Killswitch Engage song on its soundtrack.

Strong 5. This is tough because the idea of a Fallout game in the vein of XCOM or Jagged Alliance is awesome, but Tactics just isnt very well executed. The controls are cumbersome, the pathfinding is terrible, the level design is bland, half of the skills are useless, there is zero environmental interactivity so you cant even climb over short ledges, the game is buggy, characters dont do what I ask half the time, the economy is fucked, and the map has the most obnoxious random encounter rate I may have ever seen. In fact, I hate the random encounter rate so much I might have given this game a 6 otherwise. Maybe. The combat is improved, killing enemies is satisfying, and creating your own squad of initiates is awesome, but that isnt enough. Im already picky when it comes to RTT games and the issues are too much for me. The shell of a good game is here, it just doesnt come together. I imagine it was decent for its time but nowadays not so much. At least the story is kind of interesting. Also, the pathfinding for vehicles in particular is fucking abysmal.

Strong 6. This is the closest Drakengard came to having a legitimately good game. The on ground combat has been drastically improved to the point where its fine rather than insufferable and there isnt a shit ton of replaying to get all the endings, but I still only got the first ending and watched the rest online. Unfortunately, the dragon gameplay is somehow worse and one of the few redeeming qualities of the gameplay of previous titles, stages where you can switch between ground and air at will, are completely absent. The side content, or requests, are terrible with some of them having absolutely unforgiving time limits. The boss fights arent great and the unresponsive dragon controls make them worse. The game also runs horribly and should have been a PS4 game. I love the return to taboo and fucked up themes from the first game and it seems like the localization team took the poor reception to Drakengard 1s translation to heart because the taboo shit is there in all its glory. The characters are all delightfully broken and messed up in their own unique way. The humor is very hit or miss but when it hits it can actually be pretty funny (4 and 5s DLC chapters especially can be really damn funny and without a lot of the more grating parts of the writing). It doesnt change the fact that some of it is cringe inducing and some of the characters can get a little annoying at times. The story, like in every Yoko Taro game, is delightfully batshit and most of the voice acting is very good. It is also in the running for the horniest game Ive ever played. In true Drakengard fashion, its still kind of a bad game, but the things it does well make it worth experiencing in some form.

Strong 7. Campaign is good, but I liked it less than Halo 2s. Probably because it just feels like Halo 2 again and mission 8 is terrible. It also doesnt have the funny dialogue that the first two Halo games had and instead a lot of the dialogue is actually pretty bad. Still cant ADS on weapons other than snipers (and the zoom still bugs out half of the time) or sprint. Story is good. Multiplayer is basically a slightly better version of Halo 2s.

Solid 6. The physics system and visuals are cool, but the game is horrible at explaining how it works. I couldnt even figure out how to mitigate recoil on cannons without having part of my machine fall apart. Became too frustrating for me. The controls suck too.

Solid 5. This one was a heartbreaker because I love the concept but the game just isnt executed very well. While the mechanic with the sliding tetris blocks is awesome, the combat is sluggish and awkward. The bad, unresponsive controls dont help (in fact, I quit the game after multiple instances of pressing the heal button at low health and seeing nothing happen) and neither does the visual confusion that occurs when fighting enemies. The camera also just bugs out sometimes and the right stick is used to move the blocks, so there isnt any way to fix it.

Strong 7. A rough gem from Arkane with an awesome combat system. I really liked the combat and how many interactive items there were for you to use against enemies and there are plenty of cool weapons and spells to use. The game is held back by a lack of polish as well as a number of technical issues. There were also sections of the game that I thought were just plain bad (looking at you chapter 6). The worst parts of the game are easily the ones where you have to fight the annoying spider or undead enemies that poison you very easily. I also found both companions to be underwhelming and unnecessary (Xana ended up being so annoying I chose to purge her just so I didnt have to listen to her for the last section of the game). I really wish some spells could be cast without having to equip them or that there was a more fluid way to switch between them. I also wish I didnt have to reequip my shield almost every time I switched my equipped ability. The level design is just okay and nothing compared to what Arkane would go on to do, but there are areas that stand above the rest.

Solid 4. Was expecting a goofy and dumb rail shooter but this is just a bad Resident Evil game with light gun shooting. Its short, has terrible presentation, has a story that forgets to tell you what its about, and is overall just unfun. The boss fights are awful, espeically the second Morpheus fight where you can just get stunlocked for the whole thing. I really dont think the controls work for what they were going for here as maneuvering and shooting was even worse than normal RE games. The only saving graces this game has are a solid soundtrack and the fact that the voice acting, dialogue, and overall sound quality are so bad it ends up being pretty funny. The same goes for the characters, who barely interact yet grow attached for some reason, and the extent to which the subtitles do not match what is being said.

Solid 7. Finally played this nearly a decade after buying it. Its basically more Company of Heroes. The gameplay is literally almost identical to the first game except with a slight pivot to RTT, which I liked honestly. They do have a couple of improvements such as units coming from outside the map instead of rolling out of buildings and (hot take incoming) streamlined base building and resource collecting so you can focus more on strategy, but they didnt refine the core of the game, like at all. Its very janky and buggy as units will often not follow the orders I want from them or do something unexpected (especially snipers), hit boxes are inconsistent, and the pathfinding is absolutely abysmal. I was not a fan of them removing defensive structures like pillboxes. The campaign is solid, albeit with a few shitty missions. There were actually a couple I was really into like the one where you have to hunt a tiger tank using just infantry in a village. Im a bit torn on the narrative. I respect that Relic tried to do a serious story about the savagery of war, but I dont think portraying every Soviet CO as a sociopath was a great idea, let alone historically accurate. Overall still a good game, it just left me disappointed and frustrated with the minutiae.

Solid 6. Holy hell this game is a mixed bag. Gunplay is mostly solid and it has a really cool environmental destruction system that unfortunately isnt always consistent. For the first hour or two its comes across as a really good Half-Life clone with a unique and engaging premise, but after that its gets...weird. There are suddenly these awkward cutscenes with goofy dialogue, horrific stealth sections, mustache twirly villains, terrible boss fights, and the level design gets more inconsistent. Later on they start giving bullet sponge enemies weapons that kill you in one hit as well. As a final insult, the last sequence of the game is a gauntlet of enemies without any health packs,a final boss, and to top it all off you have to guess a randomly generated bomb code through trial and error. The core of the game is good, but it just kind of falls apart.

Solid 4. Talk about fumbling the bag with a sequel, dear God. First of all, they managed to find a way to make the gameplay worse by not improving the mechanics, controls, or repetitive nature of the combat while also adding puzzles, traps, and platforming that are incredibly annoying. The combat itself is also worse in some ways due to some enemy types stun locking you easily and being tedious to fight. The dialogue is awful, the voice acting is subpar, and the character models are hideous. While there are plot elements that I like, Im honestly not a fan of the narrative. There are way too many contrivances and characters making questionable decisions for me to take it seriously. Also, despite half of the dialogue being exposition dumps, the game does a horrible job of explaining why things are happening and why characters are acting the way they are, especially when considering how returning characters were in the first game. I think the best way to explain it is the story itself isnt bad but the storytelling is absolutely abysmal. It also doesnt feel right because its such a drastic thematic departure from the original.

Strong 7. Combat wise, I take it this is what they were going for when they made Drakengard. The story, characters, combat, and variety in gameplay are all great and the soundtrack is absolutely phenomenal, but the game is dragged down by horrendous side quests, insane/unreliable grinds for weapon upgrades, and an obnoxious amount of backtracking. I thought it was a travesty that blocking and dodging take up two of your four ability slots so you have to trade them to equip more of the cool powers. They also keep the stupid ending stuff where you have to replay the game like 4 times to get the full story which I am not a fan of, especially since some characters and plot points really come into their own with the material presented on subsequent playthroughs. I should also mention that the game barely explains any of its systems and mechanics, leaving you to either figure things out on your own or read tutorials that you seemingly randomly stumble upon during gameplay. Some parts of the game were just bad like the puzzle rooms that take away abilities and just have cryptic hints for what you arent allowed to do and the fact that the game makes you repeat some dungeons like 3 or 4 times. There are also a few technical aspects that really bother me like how there doesnt seem to be any VSync on the PC version and there is constant partial screen tearing as a result. The semi-opaque letterboxing during the cutscenes is also weird and distracting. Lasty, as good as the story is, I still think ending E is dumb.

Solid 8. Campaign: Much better than the last game due to improved level design and gunplay, a good story, and the Arbiter levels making for an interesting change of pace. A lot of my issues still remain though. There is still no map or compass so its hard to tell what direction youre supposed to be going without any objective marker, grenade and blade kills still feel cheap, vehicle handling feels weird, etc. There is also very little feedback on shots that hit you and your health bar is tiny, which made many deaths feel sudden. The checkpoint system actually works like 98% of the time, so thats also a big plus. On the Anniversary version specifically, the new cutscenes go INSANELY hard. Multiplayer: Actually fun this time. Spawn points are no longer fucked and the gunplay feels much better. Really enjoy it even though Halo vets still mop the floor with me.

Strong 6. The first looter shooter. Its clearly unfinished and buggy, but there is a solid foundation. There are a bunch of classes with different playstyles, the setting is interesting, theres room for build experimentation, and there are plenty of skillbar slots. I also found some of the writing (particularly in act 2) to actually be pretty funny. The game is held back by a ton of technical issues and a number of poor design decisions. The game is very buggy and unpolished as hitboxes are messed up, some effects like muzzle flashes just stop working randomly, there are crashes that result in lost progress, some objectives dont spawn properly, and Ive fallen through maps multiple times. Bad game design rears its head in the quest design that involves fiddling around with inventory items, the long distances between fast travel points, the game not explaining the crafting systems, the insistence in including random bullshit (the strategy game part, that horrible Act 4 boss, etc.), it taking a long time to actually get interesting abilities, weird backtracking for side quests, and monotonous/annoying level design. Its a pity because if it was worked on for another year or so, Hellgate could have been an awesome game. Act 4 was so tedious and obnoxious it made me stop playing.

Strong 5. Was not a fan. The campaign is alright during most of the outdoor sections, but whenever you are indoors the level design is terrible. You also fight the same enemies over and over again and they just throw more at you the further you get. Many enemies are bullet sponges that make it feel like you should have some other attack to use so fighting them feels tedious. The game does have impressive AI, the music is great, and the story is alright. I dont really like how some of the guns feel. Some, like the sniper and shotgun, feel fine but the assault rifle feels super clunky and weird due to the high spread and no ironsights. The real nail in the coffin is the fact that the checkpoint system literally does not work properly, with checkpoints not being triggered for random reasons. Aside from all that, the vehicle handling is awkward, there is no grenade indicator or loud distinct noise they make so grenades can kill you frequently, and there are annoying enemy types, particularly one with a ton of health who can just run up to you and insta kill you with a melee attack on normal. Multiplayer was a little better but still not super enjoyable as the maps are small with players often spawning right next to each other and the playerbase has been playing for so long there isnt really much hope for anyone new to enjoy the MP without dumping countless hours into it. Definitely an important game in FPS history, but definitely shows its age and its impact as I feel like Ive played this before despite never touching it.

Solid 7. Really cool blobber that allows for free movement and has an open world. Gameplay is usually fun, there are a large number of tools for the player, build variety is good, and there is a great sense of freedom. I also really like how you can recruit pretty much any NPC and use their skills to buff your party. Held back by awkward controls and pacing that can be addressed with a fan patch, confusing navigation, a terrible transit system, Godawful encounter design with enemies being thrown at you without any thought, cryptic puzzle solutions, cheap ambushes, a journal system with no detailed notes, equipment breaking all the time and the game not telling you when something is broken, a nearly useless alchemy system, and a somewhat unhelpful and undetailed map. Im not a fan of how you have to pay increasing amounts of money just to level up. The game is also way too damn long and repetitive. I stopped playing 35 hours in and wrote a little guide for myself if I go back.

Solid 6. I respect it because of what it did for gaming as a whole as well and especially in terms of the creativity of the level design and insane mechanical depth, but the camera and controls bothered and frustrated me to the point where I couldnt have any fun.

Solid 7. It can be a bit confusing and cheeky with hidden solutions at times, but this is a pretty good time. I love the art style and exploration along with the crazy story. The UI could use a bit of work though.

Solid 6. An interesting tech demo. Style and platforming are cool and the character interactions are interesting, but there isnt that much here.

Strong 5. Gameplay is generally passable (I found it a bit tedious but only played one class so I cant judge all of them) but there are a number of underwhelming elements, bugs, and strange design decisions that make the game tedious and disappointing. Navigation is confusing as the mission markers sometimes wont show up until youre close to where you need to be, the bosses feel like poor MMO bosses, the level design is annoying because of the number of traps, the fort system seems pointless, the weird way you have to hold the mouse down to destroy/sell/sacrifice items and the duration you have to hold changes based on the rarity of the item is very jarring and annoying, there were times where I died without any indication I was taking damage (and even one time where I died somehow without any enemies around or status effects on me), the mana/doubloons system at least for the Cursed Captain makes the class feel awkward due to the lack of offensive attacks, randomly spawning portals will result in entering new areas accidentally when attempting to attack or collect loot, instances will reset randomly with no rhyme or reason, portals will sometimes send me to the wrong area, the game is just a shitshow that feels like it needed more time in the oven. One of the worst sins this game commits is the fact that loot is boring. Pretty much all items that arent legendaries have no interesting effects and items of different rarities often have the same number of affixes. There were very few times I found an item I got excited about. Im sure a few of these issues are from the game switching from an MMO to a traditional singleplayer/co-op game mid-development.

Solid 9. Liked it slightly more than Remake so maybe 9.25. In addition to a number of improvements like the ability to dodge, (mostly) better side quests, an insane amount/variety of content, and dual tecs, the game is gripping, incredibly vibrant, and full of charm, making playing it an absolute joy. It somehow manages to remain incredibly faithful to the original game while still going totally off the rails in a cool way. It still has a number of issues. Navigating the regions save for Nibel is fine at best and incredibly annoying at worst because of how rigid traversal is. The folios are also a huge step backwards from the skill trees in remake because there is less room to make actual unique character builds. Blocking still isnt as responsive as I want it to be and its very easy to get combo locked or stunlocked in combat. Also, while I like most of the changes/additions they made, there were some I wasnt a fan of (Dynes death, Cait Sith revealing he is Shinra right away for some reason, etc). There are also a ton of banger minigames in here and Queens Blood consumed me like no side card game has since Gwent.

Solid 8. Arrowhead fixed many of the issues with the first game and doubled down on the Starship Troopers humor and made a damn great co-op shooter. I still have my issues, like there still being a ton of stratagems with insane friendly fire damage (though it is better than in the first game), a horrid solo experience, being punished for friendlies killing civilians, and the fact that you drown after being in water for 5 seconds, but I love this game. The switch to 3rd person was a great move and makes the experience more responsive and the AI gamemaster thing they have going on with how enemies coordinate attacks based on community activity is brilliant. The sound design and voice acting are also top notch. Cant wait to see how this game grows.

Solid 6. Its definitely more interesting than good, but in spite of the awful controls, horrific combat, and total lack of any sort of guidance, I didnt hate it. I needed maps and save states to get through it but I didnt have a bad time. The game is pretty painful at first but once you acquire more gear and unlock that healing spell, it picks up drastically. Way too cryptic, you will NEED a walkthrough to understand what you need to do. There is also an insane amount of backtracking which is not fun with the slow movement and shitty in game maps. I never went back for most of the items that become obtainable later because I just didnt want to bother. There is also no indication that you need certain stats to properly use some weapons, including the one you need to beat the game. The game has a lot of unlockable spells but you probably wont see most of them on a casual playthrough unfortunately. In spite of all the issues, the game has great atmosphere, music, environments, and level design plus has many elements that would later be refined in the Souls series. Im glad I played it, but Im probably not touching it again.

Strong 5. This is literally almost identical to the first game. There are some slight improvements in level design and neat new additions to power ups, but its the same thing mostly. Also, Gauntlet 4 isnt on this site but again, same shit but with a pseudo story mode and better balancing since it isnt in arcades.

Solid 8. Essentially an expanded and improved version of the formula of Castlevania 3. Thought it was awesome. In addition to the simple but fun gameplay, the great visuals, awesome music, improved controls, and better balancing, the level design is very creative and cool. Still has some awkward platforming that requires arcane ass knowledge of the controls and the boss gauntlet at the end is insane, but I had a great time.

Strong 5. Very barebones game that was great for its time but hasnt aged well. Combat is extremely repetitive, the characters play almost exactly the same, the level design is disorienting (level 8 in particular is one of the most confusing levels Ive experienced in any game), and there is no encounter design, like it doesnt exist. Enemies are just thrown at you because this is an arcade game that needs to be insanely difficult to get money. The enemy types are legitimately petty cool, especially for 1985. Probably more fun with friends considering how hostile the design is.