Recent reviews by Prepotente

More frustrating than fun, with mediocre writing stuck down your throat, without voice acting way too frequently.

It’s just especially buggy and has disastrous performance on Steam Deck. It should NOT be Verified.
It crashes often, frequently crashing the OS and causing the whole Deck to reboot.
Constant menu bugs, Talos help you if you want to craft spells (half the reason I bought the game).
I’m just incredibly disappointed.

Abhorrent performance with almost no graphic options to improve it. I can’t make the required split-second reactions at 10FPS. I can’t even tell you whether the game is any good because it’s unplayable as is.

I’m not in the habit of leaving a review before 10 hours play time, but VOIN is very cool.
The movement system feels fantastic, combat is really snappy and responsive.
There are a decent amount of secrets hidden around which encourages exploration.
The level design is pretty solid as well, I am bad at navigation usually but the layouts are easy to follow without being overly linear.
It runs okay on steam deck, but not great. Relatively consistent 30fps but it does often drop when I’m whirlwinding through packs of enemies with an electrified, psychic-bell summoning hammer. It is totally playable and enjoyable on deck.

I am looking forward to more developments in powers and enemy variety

Steam Deck Verified is a lie.
The game will freeze, the game will crash, and something about the first area is visually distorted and extremely grainy. I think it’s the rain, and no adjustments of settings fixed it.
Characters all talk the same, and it’s purely to dump exposition on you.

This is my first Atlus game and will not be my last.
First I’ll say this game runs perfectly well on Steam Deck. Very rarely do I drop below 30FPS, default graphics. It honestly should be Verified. All 70 hours at the time of review are on Deck.
I am really bad at finishing games, especially JRPGs. What sets this apart from others I have played (namely Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem) is that I’m invested in the characters and story, and it didn’t take very long either.
Quick points:
Story: 8/10. It’s a story with some weight and real moral lessons.
Gameplay: 9/10 enjoyable combat, tons of variations in classes, you can really tweak characters to operate how you want them to operate.
Characters: 8/10, I have 4/5 party members and each of them are fleshed out, interesting people with backstories that are relevant to their mindsets and worldviews, and you get to watch those change as your bonds deepen
Exploration: 4/10 the map designs are uninspired. This is the major weakness of the game.
Overall, I give it a 8/10, with the potential to be 9/10 if they stick the landing.
I’m eager to explore what else Atlus has to offer.

Overall: 7/10
Combat feels good, most of the time.
Most weapons are good and fun.
I would like returning to the hub to feel more engaging. I hope they add much more to do and NPCs with storylines.
20 hours in, all solo, it is beginning to feel repetitive.
I wish for more variety in upgrades, ways to make a weapon feel different run to run.
I have had no problems on steam deck, docked and handheld.
For early access, a reasonable amount of content, I look forward to seeing more.

Played only an hour so take all this with a grain of salt.

I couldn’t find a way to attack in place. That’s like day 1, ARPG 101. When I press the attack button, they should attack, not try to walk up to the foe. It makes controlling your character wonky at times, I noticed it several times in just an hour.
The graphics and art are fine, but the voice acting is painful and story is cliche.
The User Interface is the worst. It’s actually the worst I’ve ever seen. The Tab map disables movement. Giant tutorial text boxes cover the screen and force you to click specific buttons. You can’t open one interface while another is open like hitting K to check your skills while having your bag open.
The skill system is okay, maybe. It’s not clear how to increase links on them early on. The Inventory of skills was full of garbage irrelevant to my character, so I had to sort through handfuls of support skills to pick a new main damage skill. The skill names in said inventory were cut-off so you can’t see most of the skill name.

Gameplay just felt a little clunky. I didn’t like fighting enemies very much. It was harder to exactly control my character than in similar games, which I’m very experienced with. Then my character would shout some annoying garbage every few minutes and I’d cringe.

After an hour I asked myself if I’m having as much fun as I would be as a new player to PoE or Last Epoch or Grim Dawn, and the answer was no. I intended to play more and I’m aware an hour is not much time for a fair evaluation but I really felt zero desire to play another second.

For a game still in beta, it is doing some things really well and better than other large names of the genre. it is not perfect, but it it very good

I am enjoying this game quite a bit. I got it for $60 and I do not regret it. However I understand that some players feel underwhelmed considering the price-tag, so if you are unsure about buying it then I suggest waiting for a sale. It IS fun. There are some rough edges to it but not enough for me to consider leaving a negative review.
One rough edge is the narrative. However, to that I ask, what were you expecting? This is a game with furry animals speaking a whimsical nonsense language, and doing kung-fu in a post-apocalyptic world. If you are a player who is drawn to story-heavy games with well developed narratives, this may not be your game.