Always felt just a liiiiitle jank, more puzzle than action overall. Mostly great presentation, gameplay experience was a bit all over the place. All in all still fun, doubt I'll go back and try the super hard shit.

As usual the story fumbles a lot, but the gameplay is great here and all the character work is fantastic - loved Kiryu's whole arc. Might go back and touch the side stuff I ignored like sujimon and dondoko but aside from that it's def one of the best just to hang out in.

great atmosphere and cool ideas, love the dracula's castle. platforming and pretty much all the bosses (minus Nelo Angelo kinda) are doggy dog. ranking system is a total bait. painful to play in a lot of parts but still compelling, excited to see where it goes from here.

Great victory lap for the beat-em-ups, great teasers for Infinite Wealth, side stuff was funny but a bit long-winded. Gave me the shirt rips I craved right at the end so it's all good in the hood.

Really good; plays like a more polished Kiryu minus dragon style. Story was short and sweet with no real fluff (except the fucking tailing again). Otherwise a great addition N1 RGG, gotta go back and finish the Majima one now...

Great - could be burnout setting in but then again I always tap out around this point, we're here for main story baby. Could've used like 1 more set piece (didn't top Kuroiwa fight) and tailing is still fucking awful. Combat def up there for best in the franchise so far. N1 RGG

Inverse of Ep 1; this was more of the good levels from HL2 and very story heavy. Can see now how fans got blueballed for 15 years. Still just not jiving with Gordon; callbacks and references bothered me for whatever reason. Still super solid, maybe better than the base game? Unsure for now.

Fine; basically a continuation of all the missions I didn't like much in HL2. Still plays good.

Less scuffed than 1; didn't really care for the story and really don't jive with Gordon as a character, esp. with them doubling down on the "iconic" stuff from the first game. Mostly flows really well but some bits are a bit jank/slow/hard to navigate. Overall still good good.

Barely qualifies to me as an RTS; campaign was mindnumbingly fun but in retrospect a bit of a slog, the usual riding the 40k cool factor to victory. Dropped single player vs AI after 5mins once it was clear it's just throwing bodies at capture points. Not bad but no desire to revisit or check out DLC.

Novel and unique ideas, like Subnautica if pushed father in the direction of xenobiology over jumpscares. Story was engaging but nosedives a bit near the end once the personal stakes take a back seat (why was Minae written out entirely? Maybe should have had her be involved directly rather than her mother). The clunky movement and using samples to interact with the environment was cool and interesting but wore a little thin after a while, felt like the experience hit a sweet spot where the game either needed to be longer and more mechanically fleshed out or a couple hours shorter to keep up the momentum. All in all a (coining) tarnished banger. Soundtrack/art design in particular were great.

Just got the whole block wiped again. Great game, surprised I liked the stealth tactics as much as I did (reminded me a lot of Hitman, if a little less sandboxy. Fun to plan out the squad to bring though it felt like basically every character was generically good enough that any combo could do anything aside from some super specific badge objectives. Also surprised by how much fully voiced content there was, excited for future updates.

Another certified G.O.G. Bit slow during the military bit (minefield etc.) and Xen (end already), also annoying to reset after boss AI breaks for the Nth time (thanks golgonda(?)). Not as good as SS2 but still a fun one>>>

Old game jank aside this was a lot of fun. Writing was great throughout, super funny dialogue. Somniums were for the most part really creative and distinct, with clever enough micro puzzles that didn't feel as braindead as they could've. Hotswapping powers and items was clunky as hell, the combat kinda sucked ass, the platforming was rough and the collectathon loop seemed disconnected especially near the end (seriously expecting the player to backtrack from the final tower to turn in cards??). Still an easy recommend.

See manifesto in Notes app.

Does work as a chill-out snap-type game in a funky cool setting, too bad it's just a timed scavenger hunt; maybe if there was more movement it'd feel more engaging. Liked the soundtrack a lot and at the very least it seems like the most well-tuned snap-type out there.

Writing is that annoying "all characters are deadpan and say lmao" style. Cute and easy with minimal puzzle elements, ultimately just alright.

Definitely unique. Looked/sounded great, super solid metroidvania formula, just a little bit jank to play at times; jumping between platforms on controller was kinda aggravating at times and later-game enemy/proj spam made some areas a nightmare. Shoutout to the true final boss for having a zillion hp!! Think if it found a better balance between hard locking where the player can move while fine-tuning the precision platforming it could be really great.

Simultaneously pretty fun/compelling and a total shitshow. Often feels super clunky, cheap enemy placement, generally like the art design but some areas are so hard to look at/blend together, obtuse mechanics (covenants, difficulty scaling); really does feel like a crystallized "wanted to make metroidvania dark souls without any big shifts". AND YET I still keep crawling back for some reason. Maybe cause it's the closest I've seen anything get to nailing the copy formula in spite of all its problems. Tricky one to rate. Edit now that I finished that run: was on the new Enhanced Mode (didn't feel any different, guess it was just some number changes). Game seems to simultaneously improve and get worse past the halfway point. The airdash makes getting around feel way better but it comes so so late, plus no i-frames means it doesn't do anything in bossfights outside of some rare projectile dodging. Definitely feels like the bosses as a whole were gimped a lot by how basic the player moveset is and the soulslike mainstays; 2d plane, need to be slow enough to let player stamina regen, damage numbers pumped to keep up the YOU DIED loop, basic dodgeroll. Reading some reviews it seems like the sequel leans more into the precision platforming, could be interesting if they tighten up the movement; probably the part of metroidvanias I lean towards over endless combat arenas (eg. Hollow Knight). Bottom line, S&S is a smooth enough experience that's just scuffed enough to make me annoyed it's not as good as I wanna say it could be.

Follows thru on the missing link vibe of Zero; master quartz plus all the story links to cold steel (plus a handful of cameo characters) were great. If nothing else another fun comfy series entry, see why people rate it up there with the best ones. Setting does as always have its fair share of clownery and the power scaling will never make sense but I guess I don't really care. Keep em coming.

So so good; looks great plays great sounds great; all the jokes land and its clear they had such a completely visualized idea of the whole experience executed perfectly. Might bump up to a 5 if I end up going back to try and P rank... (edit a few weeks later; adrenaline wore off, still great but doesn't feel quite right calling it incredible)

Answer arcs. Not gonna bother sifting through each chapter for reviews, whole thing gets a 4. Definitely lost a little steam once the mystery was unveiled (unavoidable), but Hanyuu was a great addition and the connecting fragments in 8 was a cool idea. Did wish the ending was a little more grounded instead of action movie but I guess the gang earned it after playing by the rules in 7. Music throughout was fantastic, love the OG sprites, impeccable spooky summer vibe. Gonna remember this one.

Question arcs. Really nailed the horror, was instantly engaged in the mystery too. Liked most of the characters and had a great time trying to work out the "solution" - as usual, "a little bit of everything plus some other bullshit" wins in the end. Still a great start! Did feel a little sluggish in parts (repetition before player understands the mechanics of the timeloop often had me thinking "how the hell are there 8 of these") and the usual anime bullshit creeps in throughout. Guess my tolerance is scary high at this point.

Came for Dagoth Ur, stayed for the rest (also Dagoth Ur). Can't wait to try a magic build at some point. Bimmy definitely on to something when he said it nails "stranger in a strange land" narrative.

Logging now after a handful of Cov25 Divine wins; love this game. Presentation and polish are fantastic, gameplay is super deep and varied between the clans, still the definite deckbuilder for me.

Extreme fun - do wish the ace medals weren't always free if you take the shortcut but wcyd, banger. (Post-Pizza Tower edit: -0.5 by extension)

Absolute banger. Little scuffed ofc but really gets into a groove and makes all spiritual successors feel like sloppy knockoffs. Final boss was hilarious +1.

Definitely the missing link between Third and CS1, feels good man. Excited for Azure.

Better main story than most, dragon engine jank, no karaoke, no interest in side stuff

Yeah it's goofy yeah the eroge stuff is cracked yeah the infodumps are laughable and yeah it doesn't quite stick the landings, but damn did I have a good time. Will probably stick with me for a while.

Late log - very simple but decently fun and creative. Liked the presentation a lot ("...the soul of the rat...") and they really nailed the storybook vibe.

Late log - was alright, nothing super surprising or unique as far as time loop game go, and the ticking clock/limited options/very simple solutions to each "puzzle" left me wanting.

Late log - will revise after playing bonus stuff.

Late log - pretty cute game, def had a clear vision that they managed to hit home. Surprise Terry Gilliam at the end was funny.

Late log - frustrating, went in wanting to like it but couldn't see it as much more than a tech demo. Didn't run great on current PC, open world was interesting at first but mostly used for boring objectives or backtracking, story/characters were forgettable. Calling poor people the outCaste is an all-timer in videogame writing.

Very late log - looks pretty good plays pretty good sounds pretty good, story is take-it-or-leave-it, all shooting sections are pure ass. Good enough to make me play the sequel.