Recent reviews by Chess Master

TL;DR review: It's a solid sequel with some improvements to the original and a new perspective (it's now third person). If you liked the first one, you'll enjoy this one as well.

The not-TL;DR version is that took note of the whole scanning thing and realized it should be incorporated with an actual game mechanic. So, now your upgrades are directly linked to creatures you scan (and later capture and analyze), this improvement alone makes the game a lot more fun. In terms of pure content it probably has "slightly less" than the first game, but realistically speaking, the content here felt less repetitive so I'd say it's done better.

The only downside to this new approach is that the idea of using seeds of different kinds to solve stuff around the game became less of a focus compared to just scanning and progressing the story. The idea of things being progression locked is more prevalent here than the first game because in the first game you had a lot more stuff to "solve" like putting bouncing seeds on the ground and have creatures jump into those spinning mouths to open doors etc... Here it's mostly "if you have ability X you can access Y" with only a few exceptions.

Conclusion: It's definitely an overall improvement on the first game with a slightly step-back in terms of puzzles. But it's a solid game overall. Story was never the focus of either games, so I am not gonna comment on it, but both games share a mostly forgettable, albeit funny, story.

To this day, this is the first game ever where I booted up a second run the moment I finished it. Excellent cast, solid writing, great story, if you ever liked The Walking Dead or any of the choices-matter games by Telltale, this is essentially that next step up from that.

You can definitely feel the dead cells DNA here (no surprise, this studio worked on Dead Cells), but the new approach to traversal is great.

Just the parkour approach to combat is worth getting the game for, it's unique and a lot of fun.

The health bar and other major bugs have been fixed so you don't need to worry about that. However, I do agree with a lot of people that the game needs more content (I beat the entire game's story line in ~15h or so) and the game is also relatively easy (in 15h I only had like 2 failed runs where I didn't reach and kill the final boss).

Basically it's a good rogue like, great new idea on how to move around the map, solid gameplay, just needs more content and some balancing/redesign to some bosses.

Overall, it's definitely worth recommending. Hopefully they follow the same route Dead Cells did and keep adding content.

Although an unpopular opinion, Dark Souls is not a well designed game whatsoever. It's not a BAD game by any means, however it's also nowhere near the "GOAT" status fans keep giving it (be it this game or the franchise as a whole).

Map design is the only thing objectively super polished about this game.

Story is horrible: if you need a 2h video on youtube to explain the core concept of wtf you're doing then it's a badly design story, offloading the entire burden of understanding the story on the player is simply lazy writing and there's no excuse for it. Yet people praise it as if it's the norm... Imagine every single game you like did the same, you'd not have the same reaction but somehow Dark Souls gets a pass.

Bosses although "cool looking" are super jank and are arbitrarily difficult by modifying the hit detection of different move sets without having the correct animations and effects to follow. It's just overall pure jank town. And before you go and say "git gut" I already beat the game, as well as DS2 and DS3 (not on this account, I don't even have DS3 here), and there's enough content out there (frame data analysis etc...) that proves this point without a shadow of a doubt.

Dark Souls is essentially a boss rush game with small sections in between, and if your bosses are mostly jank, your story is downright horrible and the only thing you have going for you is your world design and map design... That's not a "great game" as people would like you to believe.

Is this an unpopular opinion? Yes, but can be easily argued and proven with factual data and comparisons.
Does this mean you won't enjoy the game? Depends on whether or not you're picky about the quality of your games.
Is this a horrible game? No, far from it, but it's also not a great game, it barely passes the "it's an OK game" bar (at least for me personally). And "OK" is simply not good enough when you have so many glaring issues.

World, writing, characters, combat, aesthetic, music, overall design... There's very little (essentially nothing) I would change about this game, it's the closest a game has ever gotten to being a TRUE 10/10 masterpiece to me personally.

If you enjoy turn based games, this is probably already in your library. If it's not, just buy it, we want more games like this... THIS is what gaming should be, this is the quality we want and deserve, and we should reward passionate devs for their amazing work rather than putting down our money on stupid micro-transactions and feeding the giants that want to milk us for every penny while providing nothing in return.

The last good Assassin's Creed game, the new games aren't even an AC game anymore.

If you're into games like this, you already own the game. But if you're new to the hack and slash genre and devil may cry style games. Then this is one hell of way to hit it off. it's worth its asking price, but it also goes on sale quite often.

Lets be honest, this is the best RPG experience you can have at the moment. Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous is essentially the only other game with any similar depth but lacking the polish this game has.

There's a reason why it won GOTY and will probably not get dethroned as the best CRPG anytime soon.

Essentially one of the best metroidvanias ever made. I personally rank it only under Hollow Knight, both in terms of fun and music (the music is an absolute BANGER).

I finished the main game but not the picnic panic DLC, have a big backlog so just went on to the next game. But this game is worth its asking price, and if you find it on sale it's blasphemy not to buy it.

Do you like old style dungeon crawlers? Because if you do, you don't need to read this review, just go buy it. This is an excellent game (not perfect, but then again, no game is).

This review contains no spoilers, so feel free to read on.


The main quest of the game is what you'd expect, a party of heroes out to save the world. The main story won't be something you will remember a year or two down the line, but there are definitely some really good and memorable quests (some are extremely hilarious too).

Most of the fun you're going to have with the story will come from side quests, be it a damsel in distress who'd rather marry a fisherman than a prince or mage, or a knight who's looking for his proposal ring. There are a few quite memorable side quests that will put a smile on your face (and some that will make you say wtf too lol).


The game's aesthetic is obviously made to resemble old style games, and it fits it pretty well. The UI/HUD has been improved compared to the titles of old which makes it easier to navigate and do what you want. The game also has keyboard shortcuts for most actions so you don't really need your mouse most of the time. I do however have one tiny complaint about the UI/HUD, it would have been better to have the quests tab immediately accessable from the outside rather than having to go into a character's sheet and then click on the quest icon. It's a minor complaint and definitely doesn't take away from the experience, plus if that's the only real complaint I have about the UI/HUD it gives you a general idea on how well it was made.

The monster designs don't disappoint, there is quite a bit of variety in models, so even though at the end of the day they all just attack and cast a spell or a skill, it doesn't feel repetitive as the models are distinct and belong to different races with their own unique set of strengths and weaknesses.

The map design is also extremely well done, I can easily argue it's even the best thing about the game. Each is unique (f*** the desert lol) and houses its own list of monsters and dungeons to explore. The dungeons could have used a bit more variety in terms of textures but, it's not that bad.


For reference, I finished the game on the normal difficulty which (as the game's description points out) is how it was meant to be played.

The game's progression is done extremely well. Monsters do not respawn, so each area will give you an exact amount of XP required for your party to level up at the nearest inn. Your progress will never be halted due to lack of XP as the game's progression is not based on grinding but exploration, and the game definitely rewards exploration (many dungeons are optional but hold valuable items and XP).

In order to test out the game's ability to do "quick start" where it automatically created a party for you, I've started a few games just to see how well it chooses the party for you (even though most people playing this game will opt to create their own party from scratch). To my surprise it did relatively well, it chose the correct classes for your front line and backline but, the races are randomized. You might get a half elf for a front line which has the party healing ability, but the unit's class is a warrior so he/she doesn't have enough mana to use it, and it doesn't heal enough. So for the best possible experience, create your own party (these kinds of games are built so you can make your own party anyways). Each class also has its own unique ability, some more useful than others (I am looking at you Bard).

The good news is, I am pretty sure you can beat the game with any party composition. I had 2 Knights and 1 Warrior for my frontline, a bard, rogue, wizard and a healer for my backline.

The above party composition might seem normal or OK to you, but this is where the game's first major flaw lies and is the only real complaint I have about this game. The wizard and magic damaging classes in the game are downright ♥♥♥♥, not because they are useless, quite the contrary, they are extremely useful! So, Why are they ♥♥♥♥!? Because the game has no drops for mages, I have been to every dungeon, cleared every side quest and there wasn't a single wand or staff for my wizard or my healer. I literally finished the game with the starting equipment of the wizard and healer. This unfortunately (to some degree) includes armor, 99% of all armor and weapon drops in general are for melee classes not ranged.

With that aside, how does the game actually fare in terms of being enjoyable? Extremely well actually! There is definitely some planning to be had when you fight monsters. And you can definitely beat monsters that are a lot stronger than you to some degree if you plan your moves well enough. Most monsters are weak to some element (hence why the wizard is useful) and the game gives a lot of hints as to what these weaknesses are as well as what element you should build resistances for (and trust me, you'll need to).

Overall, I was never really bored with game from start to finish. At some point you will be strong enough that you can just melee your way through some of the places you forgot to explore, but that's the nature of every CRPG and is not a negative point, it is simply how progression works.


Buy the game, it will take you anywhere from 13-20h to finish (depending on how fast or slow you play) and if you're one of the people who consider games based on a "dollar per hour" approach, the game costs just under 17$ and that is imo a very fair price for what you're getting. An enjoyable experience, solidly built with no bugs to mention and overall a joy to play. I hope to see more from this developer in the future!