Recent reviews by Escrypha

Pretty fun game so far, and it runs smoothly. There's no character creator, but that probably aids the optimization. I also love it when "modern" games bias towards art style over graphics. For example, BG3 on PS5, even unmodded, can chug under certain circumstances (notoriously in Moonrise). There's also the unnecessary power draw. Seeing games go this route is awesome to see, and they should be praised for it.

However, I think the chest pachinko sucks. I just find my vault runs slowed to a crawl to just to watch balls go down to randomly open chests. Lousy waste of time. Why I chose to write a review at all, out of spite.

I can just feel the eons pass as my soul marches ever closer to my inevitable end, and I could be doing much better than just waiting for some chests to randomly open. Like, I understand the chests and keys that explicitly aren't monetized, since they're instant, but to waste time playing a pachinko skinner box for a measly green weapon (or anything at all) is just bunk. Please, please, please stray away from the pachinko nonsense.

As yet another waste of time, there's an option at base to instantly pull out all the loot gathered, but there isn't yet an option to instantly store them once more. I tried it once, and I was just sat there for minutes holding the grab and throw button, and it stops when items change in-hand, so I couldn't just hold and be done with it. Had to actively clean it up. Misclicked it? Just outta luck. Like, I already have to clean rooms and toilets IRL. Not even for a job; that's just adulting. Don't need to simulate that monotony in games.

Our time on this planet is finite. Games should respect it. On that note, please add flight for faster travel. Perhaps it could take up an accessory slot, so one would still have to sacrifice something to access?

If you can get past the rampant, neglectful, nearly malicious time wasting, the risk and reward system for mana in combat is pretty fun, and I don't think I've seen it in other games. Instant swaps between weapons helps me feel like a real Spellsword, fighting with fists primarily while using swords for follow-up strikes (which the game thankfully encourages through the fists' weakening effect). I haven't tried different classes, and I've yet to group up, so I can't speak to the team experience. A lot of encounters are voice acted, but given that it's both an early access and mid-shelf title, I personally have patience for the parts that aren't and likely won't be. Hope you enjoy the game as much as if not more than I. May change my opinion as the game develops.

買った理由は一つ：漫画の大ファンなんだからさ。うっかり楽しくなってよかった～
（まだ日本語を勉強してるので上手じゃなくて失礼します）

An optional purchase, through and through. These items quickly become useless without a transmog system for weapons. "Optional" doesn't usually mean optional in the games industry, so I'm really surprised when it actually does.

"Cons:"
The story is largely non-existent, just strewn-about lore-pieces that are thankfully voice acted with a down-right kick in the gut for an ending that just sees you effectively "kill" your current character as they gain "freedom" and be forced to start anew. At this point, since I looked it up, I was able to just set my goal to collecting the items for the ending, then watching a YouTube video of it, rather than "enjoying" my character's death for myself.

On the sorcery, it is largely utility, which is mighty unfortunate. It's not at all meant for combat in the base game, and that just sucks, frankly. There should've been a system for offensive magic, especially given the sacrifices you have to make to level it up. Even if it were just a reskinned bow with different bow animations and "arrow" projectiles with certain effects like "sunder" and "poison," with some reduced damage to better balance, I would have been happy.

Getting an Abyssal Bow isn't too bad, especially with its infinite arrows, and on my custom server with boosted durability/time, it basically lasts forever. It just feels like sorcery is under-utilized (ironically, given the bend towards utility?).

On the Bazaar, it feels like a waste of time and largely money to buy things from it, and that's a problem for me, because I am an absolute sucker for cosmetics. Rather than making Yamatai Onsen and Towers entries in a shop with items inaccessible offline, it should just have been a part II, sold separately to the first DLC Yamatai pack. Also, the game is abandoned? Why do you still need rotate the shop for artificial scarcity? Why can't I just look up every item available and be done with it? What a waste of time!! Like, how do I know if I should judge you or not for not having a Yamatai Tanto skin for short swords, if I can't even verify it on the marketplace first?! On that note, you should really have a Tanto skin for short swords, even it it's the literal same skin as the "Assassin's Blade."

"Pros?"
Now, the reason I still recommend it, despite my many, many gripes and foibles is thanks to that nearly endless customizability I had mentioned earlier. For example, there are mods that solve some a' the issues I mentioned above, so thank you and the modding community for making that possible. It's also quite a blessing that I can just make my own server, where I've disabled BattleEye and VAC for my friends to just dupe, exploit, and role play to their hearts' content. I've also disabled PVP and made it so structures and companions don't "decay," making your stuff permanent. I additionally wanted to let my friends fly and teleport without giving them admin access, and there were mods for that, too. Incredible!

It's just a bit of a shame that anyone could potentially and permanently dismiss my favorite emancipated thrall, so backups are handy once friends start rolling in, and they're only about ~250 mb per server, as I have one for Exiled Lands and Siptah! You only really need the "saved" folder, as the dedicated server files could always just be downloaded from Steam. On that note, I think it's silly that Siptah and Exiled Lands require separate separate saves. Be neat if there were just a boat to access each, that just unloads all the assets from the other while they aren't active. Optionally keeping my same character would've been nice, but what can you do?

Well, that concludes it. It's one of my favorites, and as noted from my ever apparent addictive personality present in my other reviews, I lose sleep and starve myself over this game. It's largely great. If their latest Dune game let me make my own cheat-friendly server, I might get into it, but until then, I'm lovin' my largely casual role-play sandbox here. Cheers!

Great tool for increasing one's fun with the main game infinitely. However, it is fraught with crashes and UI glitches. If a string of code for one's boosts gets too long, even though the game itself can still handle it, the tool crashes. If the tool doesn't launch in focus, and I use the taskbar to bring it into focus, it crashes.

The UI also appears to jerk around when a string of code is longer than its box, which unsurprisingly, happens often, even with base game effects. I'd click on the box above one I'm working on, to be able to use ctrl+shift+s to save, and it jumps to the start of the list, randomly. Haven't found a pattern for this one yet, but for effects, clicking on another box, or summoning its drop-down menu will cause the UI to jump to the beginning of the list, far from the end, where the effects are set. I'm also using a dual-monitor setup, and that same drop-down menu will sometimes find itself on the right edge of my second screen. It can be a somewhat frustrating experience, but to mod, one must already develop a taste for troubleshooting.

The tool is pretty daunting, yet easy to get into. My only "coding" experience is HTML, and I was able to pick up how this game's code works, thanks to seeing the base game's examples. I made a mod without tutorials and improved with each try/update. My advice, though, is to look up tutorials first, because I ended up releasing my first mod without a TreasureTable, which made it so that my users had to deal with the lack of the items for quite some time, 'cause they were only accessible on fresh characters. Still, I also came from modding Skyrim, and this tool shows you more code than Bethesda's modding software, which hid all the actual code behind its own GUI. With theirs, you could generate IFs, ANDs, ORs, and THENs without ever writing.

But with Larian's solution, their UI does process some of the code, so I never had to manually format entries as follow:
new entry "Example_Passive"
type "PassiveData"
data "DisplayName" "LocalizationString;1"
data "Description" "LocalizationString;2"
data "Icon" "PassiveFeature_Generic_Explosion"
data "Properties" "IsToggled"
data "Boosts" "UnlockSpell(Target_Example_Spell)"
data "ToggleOnFunctors" "ApplyStatus(EXAMPLE_STATUS,100,-1)"
data "ToggleOffFunctors" "RemoveStatus(EXAMPLE_STATUS)"

However, the fact that I still had to know the entries, like "IF(HasPassive(Example_Passive) and not Dead()):ApplyStatus(EXAMPLE_STATUS,100,2)" made it admittedly daunting near the beginning. Still, Norbyte's and the community's fantastic work is to be praised. I was able to practice the code syntax through their command console before making my first mod, which certainly made things easier.

The bits of frustration at the start of this review are, again, quite a small price to pay for the myriad ways this tool has increased my fun. So, thanks a ton again, Larian and the community! /gen Easiest recommendation! Love that my work somehow ended up on consoles, too! ='D

Edited: Since the latest update, it jerks around far less often. Although I also appreciate the way the new view box expands when selecting code, it unfortunately doesn't contract to adapt to shorter entries, tightening the usable UI space. This is just for information. I am still smitten with the tool. Many thanks!

Only played this game 'cause a friend who allegedly likes challenges started to, and I've been peer-pressuring him to play a game I like. Plus, I already owned it, courtesy of Humble Bundle.

Though not my cup of tea, the game is pretty challenging as it says on the tin. However, it's unfortunate that the traditional range-vanguard combo just doesn't work for lack of a taunt skill or just that the enemies always prioritize ranged combatants. That's smart for them, but makes for some silly gameplay. We came upon a quite well designed Wendigo out and about, and we challenged it to a fight. I, the archer, attempted to lay some cover fire, while my pal who was our melee would-be tank attempted to fight it.

The plan was set; however, the cursed creature instead booked it towards me, so I sprinted. Thinking quickly, I thought of a way to allow my friend to do damage, while the aggro was on me. So there we were, laughing out tops off, while I was running in circles for him to get some hits in. I could practically hear the Spongebob chase music. We won the fight, and it was "challenging," sure, but ditching the aforementioned tried and true team setup is certainly a choice.

Now, I still recommend it, because that hilarious deviation from its explicit vision gave me a few ideas, but I just left those on the back-burner, until due to its lack of cloud saves, an attempt to back up my saves on Steam Deck accidentally saw me double-clicking my saves and seeing that the code was not encrypted past basic compression. And I think that's wonderful! I was able to just grab recipes from my main save file and pass them on to my effective NG+'s. Plus, I could cheat in items by swapping their codes out with others listed on WIkis. Let's not also overlook its wonderful, easily accessible cheats, making this a beautiful sandbox for whackadoo morons like me who have the most fun being immortal, and I'd say that trudges into the area of accessibility, since it saves me from horrid panic attacks (I know, I know. How dare someone have to live with PTSD. Should just git gud or quit, right?). It also needs saying that I inform all my potential playmates (though only one at the moment) of my use a' these (as though running around at 2x speed doesn't already). Even showed him how to use it.

With all that said, I cannot praise this game enough. I love that they, perhaps by accident, created a beautiful sandbox players can bend to their preferences. And if Outward 2 starts encrypting their files, or ditching those options that give me super speed, among other benefits, then they should at the very least add taunting. Range is typically a glass cannon in RPGs. We rely on our tanks. (Game could also use some transmog.) This game is still a steal at $5 (when this review was written). Buy it for yourself and a friend! Hope you like it, if you're its target audience (meaning you like grueling challenges).

Its writing is stupid in all the best ways, and the game just makes me wish I could customize Aloy's hair in the mainline series. I'm also glad to have an opportunity to share one of my favorite series with the younger members of my family. Love the included invincibility mode for some casual story-focused fun.

I hope they allow one to manually select controller icons in future, 'cause using my DualSense with Steam's robust customizable compatibility layer still produces Xbox icons, which is unfortunate. Great game so far, though. Love the dumb humor, as noted above. I was expecting a light retelling of the original game, but this complete remix is welcome, too. Easy recommendation!

Great stuff! Comes with a mount and base items, but I personally got it for character styles. Love that they're all color-custom. Can't wait for more cosmetics (assuming it provides a sustainable business model for the publisher). Might finally get into Vox Machina, too.

This expansion is a bit unfortunate compared to the shadows of the past.

For example, in Skyrim, you got new powers/shouts with every major expansion. Here, you see new abilities enemies have like phantoms, yet you never gain that teleportation power. It may be unfair to compare it to Skyrim, so on its own, it also under-utilizes the NG+ Foreknowledge mechanic I love so much, in that for a quest, you get to say, "I bet it's in one of your old bases," and yet you don't get to skip unlocking a measly novice lock on some whack-a-doo's computer. I'll be honest, there isn't much to be lost there, so I can't understand why the Foreknowledge mechanic doesn't just bypass it, like it does many beats in the base game. Some Creation Club DLC, like the Vulture do far worse with it, but with DLC like this, one would expect to at least reach the base game in terms of usage.

There are no new ship parts from what I can gather, but it comes with about 3 new weapons, plus 3 based on the Equinox, Orion, and Solstice pistol for ~6. The DLC also comes with about 2 new meshes for outfits and mostly re-skins that might as well just be skins applied at a bench than "unique" items. The shop near the space port only sells science outfits for minimum role-play. Wanna dress like Va'ruun out the gate for your Va'ruun character role-play? Better hope it's your 2nd play-through where you're okay with using console commands to spawn 'em in at the cost of achievements. It also comes with one new spacesuit type with tiers differentiating 'em. Would be neat if the DLC also came with a more organic one (similar to the NG+ armor) for phantoms as drops or if we could equip the gear Redeemer's use, but what can ya do? I do love the heavy Va'ruun assault suit variant. It's great in my opinion and well worth weighing down my pack, even when not in current use. Good stuff!

The voice acting isn't too bad, and some of the choices, particularly with Veth'aal sit well with me. Although I've yet to see if NG+ can let us reveal the mole before-hand, I also like the House Divided side quest which is one of 2 side-quests that evoke tragedy pretty well imho, so it's not all bad. I think the main quest could've been done better, though. One would think a multiversal Starborn with all sorts a' powers would be able to survive being sent into the void on subsequent playthroughs, with that possible teleportation power, but I understand if the budget didn't allow for that. The bubbles of low gravity are also a nice touch, and the planet is pretty atmospheric, although I dislike the lack of beach-front shores, which are my favorite places to setup bases. I also encountered a fair few glitches on my first play-through, which only had outfits (mesh, texture) and UI mods enabled for achievement hunting. Still worth praising Bethesda for allowing those cosmetic mods to work with achievements, especially since that "Dark Mode terminals" mod easily treads into the area of accessibility for these worthless, hypersensitive eyes.

Because I had fun with it for the most part, I recommend it, albeit at a discount. It's just that with Bethesda's dealings of the past, like Skyrim, it does feel a bit under-cooked, and I say that as a huge Starfield simp who bought the Collector's Edition for Xbox after loving the base game on PC. Given that bias, please take my verdict with a grain a' salt. Hope you enjoy it as much as I, if not more, however unlikely. The DLC is average in my book. Hopefully the next one does better. More powers, please! Let us expand further on the Starborn concepts. It's what caused me to replay the game so, so many times!

So glad I never threw that snowball.