I'm gonna write an actual review for this one. Monumentally weird and a watershed moment for open world games in a way that I feel will be more significant than BOTW - in that it shows just how much shit you can pack into a game and still make it work cohesively. This game is just hilariously dense. A first playthrough is unlikely to go below 60 hours.

The Rule of Cool from end-to-end. As janky as all beat-em-ups are, but who cares about that? Go beat the shit out of some criminals.

The game is actually not the main course. Absolute headache inducing artstyle churning under five thousand filters. It's incredible. Sonoshee is one to keep a close eye on.

5 or unrateable. Attempts at capturing the sensation of dreaming are always inconsistent; this is as close as one can reasonably get. Abuses the layer of abstraction granted by such a dated and lo-fi engine to create a sense of relatable otherworldliness. Understands the dissociation of space and relationships that is foundational to most dreams better than almost anything else I've ever played, read or watched.

IMO the best thing the RPGmaker weirdcore wave ever yielded. Gameplay is boring but the aesthetic and story are singular. It's free. Most everyone should play it.

The game's normal route is a great example of thematic cohesion and a focused premise in pursuit of a single, significant story beat. It's brilliant even if a little shallow, and the writing is always likable enough to endear you to pretty much every character - making the final choice as hard as it should be. The Solstice route is absolute, irredeemable garbage in that respect - it plainly ruins the main game's ending in pursuit of lowbrow emotional catharsis. If I could jump to a universe where that update was never applied, I would.

There was no reason for this game to be good. It just was, for some reason. Reeks of the shovelware era of Wii games, but something about it really works. The combination of the generally appealing aesthetic of a ski resort, weird secrets and a great use of motion controls makes this game waaay better than anyone could have expected.

Always let these games settle. This one seems to be a keeper, but it also seems to have made a uniquely weird misstep. Terrific presentation, and Mullins has finally seemed to figure out how to tell an actual story instead of just meta waffling. The conceptual framework (spoiler) of a game's characters vying for control of it is fun, and the fact that we are forced to continue an existing save in a situation where one already prevailed makes it far cooler, as we have to work our way back - it makes the game feel huge once you realize the actual scope of what's going on, even if that potential isn't fully explored. There's something ridiculous going on under it all, involving a persistent encrypted code that seems to enliven games in terrible ways, but it is left so vague that it is more of a mood-setter (which is a brilliant play), leaving the game feeling dark and unresolved in the best way. The ending is a total downer which is appropriate for the forbidden-knowledge thing it was going for, and the scrybes are uniquely flawed and a lot more fascinating than I ever expected them to be. (double spoiler) The final moments with Leshy might really be the most impactful experience I've had with a game this year. Most unfortunate is that the card games in here were clearly designed as a vehicle for the story - they're broken and exploitable and not terribly extendable in any real sense - but the system is so elegant and entertaining that it totally overshadows everything else. Combine that with how ridiculously well-considered the first segment's presentation is and you accidentally ruin the remainder of a quite nice little story game. Ironic, because the immaculate presentation of chapter 1 is a plot beat - Leshy is the scribe most fixated on thematics even at the expense of gameplay, which is also why his bosses are so exploitable. Absolutely worth a buy and honestly another gold standard for what solo-to-small dev can accomplish, but expectations may utterly ruin your experience.

The primary feeling is just kinda moderate cringe. Some cool ideas - the Luciferan computer-hacking framework is cute and could be more interesting if done differently, but here it feels like a flaccid bit of "This is a video game! Haha!" meta fingerpointing that doesn't really self-justify because it never lands a reason to get invested, and most of the writing is frustratingly cheesy. Meta is an excuse to avoid real content because it is overwhelmingly easy to do and reaps great rewards. I hate it. I hope Mullins doesn't waste his clear development talent on something as shallow next time.

Kicks ass. Will probably piss off a subset of both new players and franchise veterans for different reasons - the onboarding is O.K. but this series is - mostly by design - almost impossible to streamline enough to introduce new players. Veterans will be agitated by the continued effort to mitigate the plodding nature of SM's methodical exploration in exchange for a breezier, linear experience masked as if it is a true metroidvania. I do not mind - in fact, I hate backtracking and think it is the biggest thing holding the genre back. The "reward' of backtracking is a falsity - you do not enjoy repeating old content, you enjoy the sensation of mastering a map (or alternatively, the surprise of returning to an area and finding it has changed, forcing you to relearn it in a new light). This can be preserved without forcing hours of non-novel gameplay. Dread does not contain much mandatory backtracking, but there is plenty opportunity to return to old areas and develop your mastery of each location, and the frozen Artaria segment is a good recontextualization of the area, if a bit too linear. Similar to Hollow Knight, this idea remains insufficiently explored due to limited development resources. Dread really does bring into question what we mean when we use certain genre tags and what we really want out of our games. By traditional definition, this is no metroidvania - it's an action platformer that uses the Metroid formula to enhance its core vision rather than fully inform it. By that metric, this game is a masterpiece - no fat, no frills, just consistent moment-to-moment fun with a pleasant sense of explorative joy that, while no priority, remains engaging enough. The bosses are as good as 2D bosses will ever be, the combat feels divine, the abilities are all fun and there are a lot of them, etc... I do not see how you could call this game "bad" unless you were too fixated on how it fits into the Metroid box, which is reductive and dated. Dread did not inherit the SM legacy, and it owes it nothing other than continuing the narrative. To make a game that actually realizes the ambitions of SM would simply require more than any developers have right now, in my opinion.

Considerations of accessibility in the FGC are tougher than usual because it seems to be an either-or situation. Strive does not care for such dichotomies - it pretty handily crushes the mind-melting complexity of earlier games into a drastically smaller package while still leaving more room for skill expression than expected. Definitely teeters on the simpler side, and I think the most apparent flaw is in how short the movelists are, which gimps the novelty of each character a little, but the incredible presentation and pretty silly RC system carry it over the finish line anyways.

For how terrified I was that any bonus content would butcher the delicate toybox universe that the base game had perfected, somehow Echoes of the Eye fits in so seamlessly I wish I could have waited to play the base game until it was out. Mobius have amped up every facet of the base game, including more obtuse logical and environmental puzzles and vastly overclocking the scare factor. The new setting is incredible, the puzzles are supergenius shit and it feels just as miraculous as playing the base game for the first time. The "ending" feels so/so because they can't just end the game there, but I'd still say that's the weakest link. Once you "beat" the DLC, go beat the game again. It's absolutely worth it. I figure this will be even more polarizing than the base game because it exaggerates the elements of the base that were alienating people. The hands-off approach is dialed to 11, with several puzzles requiring quite a bit of outside-the-box thinking. I truly, honestly feel for the folks that have issues with horror games and otherwise love OW because this expansion is shamelessly a horror game and will be much more difficult to get through if you struggle with it. That alone will cause the rating to suffer because a good chunk of potential players are kinda just nullified.

For how stupid and juvenile this game seems at first contact, I actually, unironically really appreciate it for a few reasons. The first is that, despite the specific campy bullshit premise with the "babe at the top", the rest of the game's art is a really specific high-res-bitcrushed dark fantasy aesthetic that I would love to see in more games. The second is that the incredibly simplistic controls and CONSISTENCY of their performance makes this game surprisingly not very bullshit. Sure, the level design is dickish, but of course it is, and it really isn't all that unreasonable - the base game literally gives you a midway checkpoint that's nigh impossible to lose. The fuzziness comes exclusively from how strong your sense of timing is, which is a surprisingly fun muscle to train. I only rarely got frustrated.

The value of a good rage game is hard to nail down, because so many people misunderstand it - particularly developers - and we end up with mountains of unfun, uncalibrated messes. Bennett Foddy makes a rage game as an excuse to talk about rage games and the process of engaging with them, and it's fun because the design of Getting Over It so clearly reflects the efforts of someone who genuinely cares about a genre that will probably always be dismissed as youtube bait. This game will always struggle with the fact that Foddy's accent and the nature of his narration instantly indicates to most people that this game is pretentious and thinks it's better than you, which it doesn't. All in all, a pretty interesting package, and probably by far the best representative of the genre. Coming from someone who has sunk hundreds of hours into zero-sum permadeath challenges across many genres - if you're underrating this game because you think it's bullshit, it might be time to reevaluate how you understand difficulty in relation to the game it is a part of.

Stupid as shit.

Huh???

Failbetter are great writers, but this being a game is more-or-less an excuse for them to try out more methods of achieving nonlinearity in narrative: basically, it isn't a fun game. I still really like it anyways, but YMMV.

Naw I dropped this real fast. JRPG fans just built inhumanly different (that is not a compliment)

The "mechanics" are no more than an excuse so realistically this is just a whole-ass VN with some set dressing, but the polish everything got makes it feel nice enough to work anyways. Really good.

Somehow this has become the face for the whole Bullet Hell genre, and honestly? Not a bad choice. The gimmick is fun and the game is ball-crushingly hard as all these arcade-style bullet hell games are, but it gives you the equipment to slowly acquaint yourself with it and only master it as much as you want to. Not the best in the genre but probably pretty close.

Here's your tagline, Neutral Roguelite #223: I Bought This In A Steam Sale and God Knows I'll Forget It Exists In A Week But Damn It Kinda OK

Interesting, but I was over it pretty quick.

Uhhh... It's fun, but it just doesn't really leave an impression? Good movement but an unimpactful set of systems make this game about as neutral as it gets.

Just like the real thing, but Older and Also Kinda Ass

I played a butchered plugin version of this on a fried chromebook for a while, and it wasn't that fun. Then I played it on an actual piece of hardware, and My God! It's actually one of the best roguelites ever made.

Raw engineering baby! Pretty approachable all things considered. Great for developing your inescapable fear of the infinite cosmic void beyond your vapid insignificant rock-home.

I, a self-admitted Metroidvania addict, cannot stand 2D soulslikes. It is a microgenre that has never worked for me in any way, and this is the root. This game transparently derives its' core systems from the aformentioned series, but the limitations of 2D cannot cope with that systems' strengths and weaknesses, making the whole affair feel awkward. For as great as the environment art is, too, I cannot stand the artstyle used for characters at all, and the story is very transparently/tryhard lore-bait shit that kinda just pisses me off.

A very strange, mostly-successful genre hybrid with a kind-of hypnotic artstyle. Combat is generally satisfying (if a little muted in terms of feedback) and it's no slacker on challenge. Great background art and a well-considered difficulty curve make this worth a buy for most people who enjoy roguelites.

Simplicity breeds excellence. A lost arcade game from an unknown mixed-up era. Juice'd to the max.

As far as survival games go, I really like how stripped down and straightforward this one is. It can feel shallow, but it deserves credit for how elegantly it teaches things without any text at all, really.

I'm not big on party games. It's why I don't get invited to parties.

I played this one on emulator when I was like 13 because I wanted to make a game named "Descent" and found this instead. It was my first acquaintance with sickness-inducing anti-gravity gameplay. The music is ear-grinding and the gameplay is obtuse. It's exactly what you'd expect.

A bit impenetrable, but this series is one of a kind. If you've got good tolerance for older games you owe it to yourself to play this one at the very least. Atmospheric, uneasy, infuriating, strange, kind-of perfect.

Rating it now seems a bit silly, but there isn't any other way to do it here. Chapter 1 was good and gave me a lot of hope - as someone who didn't really resonate with Undertale after the fact for a bunch of vague nonsensical and personal reasons, this seemed to rectify a lot of my issues. I found the characters were much less irritating or shallow when operating in a larger group, the refinements of the combat system were terrific across the board, the increased use of the overworld as an actual gameplay-space was great, and there was an actual skeleton of a narrative that was at the least intriguing - moreso than I could ever say for its predecessor. Chapter 2 has pretty much cemented those feelings for me - it does everything better than before, and rotates the remainder of what made Undertale unique in. This chapter has an alternate route that's a lot more interesting than UT's Genocide, and the meta-obsessed homestuck aftershock "the Player is not the Character, What Is A Game Really???" style Fox went for in the original game has finally gotten some much-needed refinement here. It's still funny as shit, the music is still good, and everything else is just better. This game will wreck Undertale by the time it's finished, easily.