Recent reviews by Ryou

What an incredible game. I've been waiting on this to release for years now and I'm so happy with the final product.

Mechanically, you have a game where you spend your daily allotted time to manage your resources, primarily hunger and cash, but alongside that you have a surprisingly gripping narrative and really well written characters. The game doesn't pull any punches however, it's extremely punishing if you don't know what you're doing, however it encourages you to redo your days bit-by-bit via a memory recall feature, which you should probably make use of.

Most of the time is spent walking around and talking to people, figuring out what they like and befriending them so that you can gain access to their unique skills. Every character has one and they'll all be uniquely useful in some capacity, some help you manage daily obstacles, others let you solve puzzles and many will boost your combat prowess. The combat itself is heavily inspired by Punch Club, but the visuals and general vibe of the game share this too.

The game has at least 5 endings that I know of, and all of them are equally cryptic, with some of them being very easy to miss out on accidentally. It's both the strength and the weakness of the game, because uncovering those routes is what makes the game fun, however it's also very frustrating if you locked yourself out of several endings and your only chance is to replay the game.

My first playthrough was kind of a breeze after a week or so, I must've just invested in the right skills and done the right things, but nevertheless I was very satisfied seeing how the game ended. I suspect the majority of people playing this won't even finish a single playthrough, let alone play the secondary campaign the game has to offer, but I honestly think if you're looking at the price of this game, even if you only put in 10 hours instead of what's probably an easy 30 hours of content, you'll get your money's worth. Highly recommend everyone to check this game out.

Great DLC, frogs are a solid albeit slightly more awkward race to work with and the new maps are very unique, the Ashen Thicket in particular is one of my favorites.

Much like everyone else is saying though, the DLC is overpriced. Half the price of the full game for a 4th of the content is not good business. Buy it on a sale.

On paper this seems like an incredible game, but in practice it's incredibly clunky and extremely time-consuming.

Perhaps if this was marked as early access or cost only half as much as it currently does I may be more lenient on it, but what I experienced so far really didn't live up to my expectations. This is clearly a passionate project and I can see that a lot of thought went into many detailed aspects of the game, but there's also a lot about the game that I didn't really sign up for, such as hiring characters, buying and sorting equipment and crafting.

I wanted something like Impossible Creatures but with turn-based combat and more freedom and depth, but this feels like something entirely different, and maybe that's a personal issue.

Head AS Code is a genuinely well-written visual novel with a branching choice path and a satisfying narrative.

Essentially a budget version of the Nonary Games, although this game doesn't actually contain many puzzles (though at some point in development did), so there's a bit of a narrative dissonance when a big popup shows up during the "puzzle room" segments where you actually just click on a bunch of stuff and the protagonist solves the puzzle for you.

The characters seemed decently written, with a few odd exceptions, and one key issue I took with the game was its over-use of sexual innuendo, a lot of the time forced too. Some girl gets knocked unconscious and then there's a one-liner about "checking out her body, but not in that way". Just... unnecessary. It reeks of dialogue that was written by someone a bit younger, but luckily there's only a handful of these moments, and they're largely in the beginning of the story.

Overall I found myself quite invested in the plot, and there's a good hook for the sequel in this which I'm looking forward to play. I do think it was worth the asking price although I grabbed it on sale. If you enjoy games that shoot for multiple endings that all cumulate into one "True End", you'll probably enjoy this game.

Synesthesia is like a budget version of The Nonary Games.

I don't necessarily say this as a negative, the inspiration seems fairly clear and there's a lot of passion that went into the creation of this game. While the sprites and voice acting are clearly low budget, and the writing is a bit stiff, the overall narrative is interesting and keeps you hooked.

I will say that a large chunk of the experience is fluff, there's several scenes that, I presume, are only written to make the characters seem more endearing or fleshed out, but unfortunately those are some of the weaker aspects of the game.

When I said the game has an interesting hook, that's despite the writing and less so because of it, and precisely that makes you less engaged in any of the plotlines that aren't directly relating to the main mystery at hand.
Naturally, there's a lot of suspension of disbelief necessary to excuse the narrative confinement happening. The game makes little effort to excuse the fact that the majority of the plot just so happens to occur in the exact same city.

Overall I enjoyed the experience and there's a lot of handwaving you can do considering the fact that it's an indie production, although the price point of the game is perhaps slightly above what I'd normally recommend, I'd perhaps wait on a sale to pick this up if you have any interest in it at all.

It pains be a bit to have to give this game a negative review, because it's insanely high quality in many ways. It's got incredible design, nice music, great stages, fantastic cards, good balance... but it also falls into the same pitfalls that every single one of these mobile games does.

I have a few hundred hours in the original Shadowverse, it was definitely one of the best TCGs at the time and it still holds up well, so I had generally high hopes for this title, however my immediate disappointment wasn't far. The original game had probably around 100 leaders, and maybe 30 of those were canon. You needed to be lucky to draw one and it felt great to play with them. The fact that they couldn't port them over is understandable. In fact, I'd have understood if they didn't port any of them over. What I find more egregious, however, is that they did port the OG leaders from the first game, but DIDN'T hand those out to people who played a lot in the original game. No, instead they're trying to re-sell the same damn leaders. Just upsetting, really.

Next, you've heard this echoed from many people in other reviews, but the game changed its crafting system to be frankly terrible. Pricing increases for boosters aside, you can't disenchant as easily and you definitely cannot craft as well as you used to be. This was completely unnecessary to change, and really only serves to alienate their entire playerbase. This is the primary reason why I'm not recommending this game.

Here's hoping that with enough negative feedback, Cygames will feel pressured to change their approach.

Withering Rooms is a phenomenal take on a well-known formula, a metroidvania that heavily borrows both from Soulsborne games and dips into the roguelite genre. By far it turned into one of my favorite games of its kind, and I very heavily recommend it to anyone to whom it looks even remotely interesting.

There's not a game that has given me the same kind of feeling I've had back when I played Dark Souls for the first time. That feeling of unease & uncertainty as you're faced with making tough decisions in order to navigate blindly into a world that's as fair as it is unforgiving. If you crave that sort of "Blighttown" feeling, then this is the game for you. Much like Dark Souls, it is clunky in its execution, but execellent in its mechanics. The game oozes with atmosphere in a way not many games manage to, the characters are charming and the world feels genuinely tangible and believable, within minutes of playing the game I was under its spell and fully immersed.

There's parts of the game that are rough that will make you question why specific parts are the way they are, there's a death mechanic that can be quite frustrating and sometimes you will spend a good chunk of time walking, but even this is very familiar to you if you've played any Soulsborne game really. The massive difference here of course is that the game is not a Soulslike, but a metroidvania that is packed with secrets and alternative nooks and crannies. It's also more linear than the average game of its kind, given that its based on chapters instead of one interconnected world.

The game is essentially split into two phases, Chapter 1 & 2 and Chapter 3 & 4, both of which play in a technically separate world but you'll see how it connects when you get there. Even still the game goes to great lengths to make sure that you cannot actually miss out on any goodies or unlockables, although you will miss out on some fights or challenges by rushing the main story.

I can't recommend this game enough. Every hour of my 14 hour playthrough I was absorbed and thoroughly enjoying the experience. I am beyond delighted to know the developer is making a sequel to this game, and I cannot wait to play that too.

Drop Duchy is a phenomenal game with a few caveats that make it mildly frustrating. The gameplay loop is solid, it's obviously inspired by Tetris but with the added challenge of actually figuring out where to place what in what order. The stash is a brilliant way to facilitate that by allowing the player to momentarily store a piece and place it later, and it's well executed in the sense that sometimes you may have to decide between good placement, or additional enemy numbers that may cost you some health.

It's very visually satisfying seeing blocks attach to each other, particularly the way that rivers morph into each other into lakes was quite impressive to me. The variety in different buildings is quite vast to the point where I keep being impressed just how much content they squeezed into the game. The music is nice, although nothing that stands out particularly. My biggest problem with the game is the absence of an undo button, something that's pretty commonly included in most roguelites these days for obvious reasons; misinputs do happen and nothing is more annoying than having to restart the map because of one (at least you have that option).

Ultimately the game is great though, and I'd argue that even with only 33% of its current content it'd be worth the asking price, but because the dev actually genuinelly crammed a lot of replayability into this game I vehemently recommend it. It's a great base that I hope will see some extra updates in the form of either free or paid DLC, more terrain types, more units, and perhaps even more factions. Looking forward to it.

Blue Prince is a phenomenal game that's unfortunately held back by the fact that it's trying to be two games at the same time when it would have been both more fun and enjoyable if it had focused on either one of them. Namely:

• An intricate puzzle game that has you solve a mystery of a house with moving rooms and the complicated history of your family, where you need to read a lot and solve puzzles in order to slowly unravel the mystery
  
• A roguelike where you try to reach the end of a map which has randomly generated prefabs you can draft and place on your way there and you unlock new equipment and upgrades for said prefabs after every run

The reason these two concepts just do not work for me is because they are constantly at odds. Solving a puzzle may mean having to forfeit the current run in favor of the solution. And it would be acceptable if this happened only a few time, but the game is shock full of moments that have you go "well, that's kind of annoying". It's a real shame because the game is truly special. If it had focused on either one of its concepts solely I think it would have easily been game of the year on the merits alone.

The gameplay cycle from a roguelike perspective is fun, and the mystery solving from an adventure game perspective are fun, just not both at the same time. The music is also incredible, as are the art assets and general aesthetics of the game. The game has a genuine charm to it and it's clear to me a lot of love and passion went into this. Some may argue that this deserves a positive review by itself, though unfortunately I am inclined to disagree. I'd have loved to rate this "neutral", but alas, no such option is available to me, and I am leaning towards negative simply because of a few key design choices.

By far the most infuriating aspect of the game is its pacing. There is so much done wrong here, and I'm almost certain it's done purposefully so. It starts with the game's speed. It's perfectly adequate for your first few hours, but after some time it becomes agonizing to watch the same damn cutscenes and animations play on repeat. "Return of the Obra Dinn" had similar issues with long, drawn-out cutscenes and fancy animations that added little than to waste your time trying to solve the mystery at hand, and there too it seemed to be on purpose. Perhaps it's a personal gripe of mine, but in a game about replayability and repetition, that's a big faux pas. Although this can be fixed with updates, it unfortunately brings me to my next issue which is less easy to fix.

Footsteps are the bane of my existence. A game about exploration should not discourage exploration by punishing the player with resource drain. It's acceptable that you have footsteps for new rooms, but backtracking costing steps is obscene. This is furthermore insulting that the game has the gall to separate the outside area into multiple zones that each drain steps, to the point where you are expected to waste 5-10 steps at the beginning of a day just to get the run started. I know that once you're 5-10 hours into the game this becomes a non-issue, but that's still 5-10 hours of frustrating gameplay choices that really don't add much. I don't know if this was a choice early on in development that was hard to cut, but it is awful either way. I hated it in "Despot's Game", I hate it here too.

Last but not least, the RNG. What sours the whole experience is that the two core concepts of "exploration and puzzle-solving" meets "replayability and RNG" do not mesh well. Imagine you were playing Legend of Zelda but the whole map gets jumbled every few hours. It would make exploring the map a nightmare because you wouldn't ever know where anything is, yet you knew you had to go to a specific place. This is the same here. It's acceptable to be stuck on a puzzle just because you have bad RNG for a bit and you don't draw the room you need to progress, but what's borderline obscene is having puzzle solutions found in RNG rooms depend on additional RNG rooms of adjacent rooms. And that every hour or so you have exactly one shot at rolling the dice, and if you didn't get lucky, well, maybe in an hour you'll have more luck. It's by far the worst decision the game has made and ultimately why I chose to rate it negatively.

I'll be keeping an eye on the game, and should one or two of my issues be resolved, I'll update the review accordingly. Let it be said that these are personal opinions! It's very possible that you may not mind the points I brought up, and actually enjoy replaying the game for 20 or so hours. I managed to "reach the end" in about 10 hours, but that's because I got very lucky and was using software to increase the game speed, so my real game time may very well be around 20 hours. If the game had been maybe half the price I'd have overlooked it, but from the start it was apparent that the game had very high standards for itself, it certainly had a sizeable marketing budget and is convinced of its own worth. I'd categorize it as a borderline "AA" game rather than indie as such.

Genuinely don't know what people are complaining about, the game has a very fair difficulty curve, people just prioritize production over military it seems and don't know how to play the game.

My only complaint is that reserved cards are always skipped; this seems more like a bug however. It's cool when you reserve an enemy build and don't have to place it, but it also means you may skip out on valuable tiles at the end.

Excited for the full game.