Recent reviews by FayneNL

Pleasantly surprised with the game! Here is a small spoiler free review.

I absolutely adored the game overall, the developer (Matthias Linda) did incredibly well on the game. The overall plot, characters and worlds were all incredibly interesting. I can quite frankly say that pretty much everything is perfect.

Some major things that stood out to me:

#1 the combat is incredibly innovative and interesting. There’s debuffs that empower your elemental attacks (great idea! Although I would’ve liked to see light and darkness debuffs as well, as I feel those elements were inherently weaker because of this).

#2 Art design, the game world looks absolutely stunning. I played it fully on steamdeck and man the visuals are great.

#3 World, I felt the world was very cool. Not to go into detail too much. The “kings” are pretty cool, although I wished to have been able to see more of them. (Even though the game is already jam packed!) actually talking about jam packed, there is SO much to do! Which was a complete surprise to me, there’s many things to explore and unlock.

However, there are a few gripes that I want to go into for the sake of criticism. Which I feel hold the game back from being as good as can be.

#1 firstly the writing, I feel grammatically it’s very weak. On top of that the phrasing isn’t always the best, honestly something that could (should) be patched out. The abstract contents of the dialogue is fine, although a bit on the nose at times. But the phrasing especially takes you out of the flow at certain points, and makes it hard to relate to what’s happening on screen.

#2 the crystal system, I’ve played so many jrpgs and often upgrade systems can be a bit tedious. But this one takes the cake, it’s in every sense of the word, tedious. Especially because you get new weapons so often that your previous upgrades feel kinda worthless. (The dev has confirmed to adjust this though! So that’s awesome).

#3 RNG, some fights are very RNG heavy. As in, enemies can use AoE spells multiple times which your party, no matter the buffs or gear, won’t be able to withstand. This particularly applies to one fight (you’ll know which one I mean after playing) where you can get insta killed. Although I will say that this is a bit unavoidable with the game mechanically. So I don’t mind it as much. I never had to reset too often for these fights and it does add some welcome difficulty. (The game being relatively easy when you take all the abilities and skills into consideration).

To close off, I would love to see a sequel (hopefully many years after the events of chained echoes) to further develop the world. Because that would be so awesome! You can officially count me in as a fan, and even as a jrpg/ rpg veteran this has been a super fun journey for me. Thank you so much Matthias Linda!

I think I can be very short for this review.

I think it's a very fun game that has a lot of good songs in it, I especially like the dlc since it's very good value. I recommend you give it a try even if you don't like games in the genre, it's pretty cheap and you could always refund it. It's an easy way to get into the genre too if you wanted to.

TLDR; Just buy it, for the dlc you can always wait for a sale.

Danganronpa, I got this game from a good friend of mine for my birthday. At first I was skeptical since I didn't really have any interest in the visual novel genre. But this game wasn't boring at all, which I was expecting at first. It actually kept me on my toes every minute the game had to offer. I won't spoil too much since I didn't even know about the detective and mystery parts of the game myself until I played the game. But the game is set in a school called Hope's Peak Academy, a school where only the best of the best in several categories get accepted into, like ultimate programmer, ultimate fashionista, etc. But there is a twist, you basically get stuck in the school and have to kill to escape. And of course there is Monokuma, which is not to be confused with a teddy bear.

So who would I recommend this game to? Honestly I'd recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries, and anyone who wants to get into the visual novel genre. This game along with DDLC are probably the best way to get a small taste of the genre.

Now for how I'd rate everything.
Difficulty, it's not super difficult but finding out what happened and who the killer is can be quite a challenge. Also I would recommend you set the difficulty settings to mean. (8/10)
Story, this is where the games shines the most, there is a lot of gameplay here sure but the story is the most important part of the game After finishing the game, I was actually quiet for a few minutes just trying to process what happened. (10/10)
Visuals, the visuals of the game are quite unique and good looking, but being someone who uses a lot of photoshop to draw and edit, I couldn't help but notice some mistakes in a few areas of the game but that's just me being a little picky if I'm being honest. (9/10)
Graphics, I wouldn't call this the nicest looking game, but the visuals are really good. Hence I gave the visuals a few points higher. (7/10)
Characters, another really nice aspect of the game. The characters are really well written and they all have their unique quirks. Hell when I started I thought I'd hate some characters but I ended up loving them later on in the game. And one particular character I ended up hating instead... (10/10)
Audio/ soundtrack, the main theme is a blast and the game uses the songs really well and it brings across the message really well. Like everytime monokuma pops up, you get this sinister song that’s playing and it gives you this creepy feeling. The soundtrack is also on spotify so I recommend you give that a listen! (9/10)
Gameplay, the gameplay can be divided into investigations and class trials where you have to prove who the killer was. The investigations are pretty fun, looking for clues by using point and click gameplay. Then once a class trial starts, the real fun begins. I think the truth bullet system is great, I do think a few sequences can be a bit confusing because there are things the game doesn't explain but nothing game breaking. And there are two other types of minigames during the trials which are basically a type rhythm game and a word puzzle. I wouldn't call them the best but they're fun additions. (8/10)

My overall rating is a 9/10 for what the game has to offer in this genre, I look forward to playing the next games in the series which I will of course write a review for as well once I'm done with those.

Well that about covers my review of the game, I hope I helped you out and if you have any more questions then feel free send me a dm! Also I want to thank my friend for getting this game, hope you see this!

Ni no Kuni II, this game is a sequel to Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, but it's nothing like the previous game except for the genre and art style. Most people prefer the previous game in the series but I think this one has a lot more going for it. The individual story arcs don't feel childish to me at all, there are some mature themes here which was way less in the previous game. Also the combat in this one is superb, it's a bit on the easy side but it feels super smooth and you have a lot of control.

I'd recommend this to anyone who likes JRPGS, since this is probably one of the better ones on steam. But I really should warn anyone who played the previous game, that these games are nothing alike. So don't go expecting the same game or a continuation because these games have almost no references to each other. Also if you want to get into the series, then either game is a fine starting point in my opinion. This is also a more child friendly game than some other RPGS like Nier, so this might be a fun game for a child. Though don't get me wrong, this game is also fun for adults.

Now I'll rate some aspects of the game.
Graphics, the graphics are pretty good and look really smooth, some textures look a bit off but nothing game breaking. (8/10)
Visuals, I like most of the visual style of the game, I just dislike how the characters look in the overworld which in my opinion looks a bit ugly compared to how the characters look in dungeons and towns. (8/10)
Gameplay, like I said, this is a pretty smooth action game, the castle building aspect is a little bit boring sometimes but I wouldn't call it gamebreaking. (8/10)
Story, the story isn't the most memorable but it's pretty decent if you ask me. (7/10)
Areas, the towns and locations all look great, they're all pretty different too which made it fun to explore everything. (9/10)
Music, the music is great, it's not as good as the last game but it's really good. (9/10)

Overall this game gets a 8/10 from me, it's a pretty good JRPG especially on steam. The artstyle is a big selling point and the game is pretty cheap on sale.

I hope this review helped you out, if you have any questions or want to share your thoughts then feel free to dm me!

Final Fantasy XIV is the first MMORPG I really enjoyed. I bought it during my summer vacation and played it for about 2 months. This game is similar in style and visuals to other Final Fantasy games but the gameplay is quite different, there are several dlc for this game that I do recommend you get, because the main game is a bit boring story wise and gameplay wise. Each dlc improves on the game drastically in my opinion. So I recommend you rush through the first part of the game if you're not that intrested in the story so you can start playing the better parts of the game. The story isn't bad, but the dlc is just so much better.

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes MMORPGS, if you haven't played any games in the genre then this game is a good start, but I'd start with the base game first in that case to see if you like it. Because MMORPGS can be quite different from your standard single player RPGS. Also anyone who likes FF games, will probably like this game for it's theme alone.

Some good and bad points about the game,
Graphics, these look fine but on my really high-end pc it's a bit of a let down, the bosses look pretty good but some textures are horrible. (7/10)
Gameplay, the gameplay is basically stand still except for boss battles and spam abilities. Which on it's own is pretty boring, but what makes the gameplay really good is being able to switch classes just by equiping different weapons. (8/10)
Story, the story is fine in the base game but after the base game you have some really interesting story elements, which makes the grind all worth it. Some dialogue between characters can be a bit boring to read though. (8/10)
The characters, this is one thing I really liked about the game, the more important characters are made and written rather well but some of the less important characters can be brought up as quickly as they're dropped throughout the story. (7/10)
Areas, the areas are pretty fun to explore, you can fly in some areas in the dlc which is really cool and I think the dungeons are mostly really well designed are there are a lot of dungeons too. (9/10)
Music, the music is really good, like any FF game. (10/10)

Overall I would give this game a 8/10. Do make sure that you don't mind the MMO part in MMORPG, because MMO's change a lot of the aspects of normal RPGS. Normally things like story just get a little bit worse in MMO games.

There is one thing to note with this game, you need a Square Enix account to play it and it can be a bit frustrating to set that up. If you're having trouble with it then I recommend you ask customer support since I had a few issues getting into the game myself as well.

I hope this review helped you out, and if you have any more questions or like to share your thoughts with me then I'd love to hear them!

Dragon Quest XI. This series is basically my childhood, the first game in the series I ever played was Dragon Quest IX on the DS. Later I played the VII and VIII remakes on the 3DS. And now I'm all grown up and I have a good pc to call my own, I decided to play Dragon Quest XI. This series is really nostalgic to me so I might be a bit biased, but I must say, this game is my favourite game in the series, hell my favourite game of all time. It's truly a master piece, the developers thought of everything, the music, the story, the locations, the graphics, the characters, literally everything. There are few games that make me feel so connected and involved with the characters as this one, it made me cry several times. Personal things aside though, to who would I recommend this game and how do I rate it?

This is a game that sticks to it's roots in a time where most RPGS (and JRPGS) try something different, like action based combat. (Looking at you FF.) So this is quite different from most modern RPGS/ JRPGS you might have played. So I do think you shouldn't go into this expecting an action game. But if you're a fan of RPGS and/ or JRPGS then this game is a must have. I also recommend it to people who want to try getting into the genre or this series. The Dragon Quest games are all stand alone adventures (except 1-3) and this is probably the easiest to start with from the bunch. Though, if you have a switch then I would strongly recommend you get Dragon Quest XI on that console. Because you're getting a bit of extra content in that version, however it's not worth picking up a switch for instead of getting it on pc.

Now I'll rate some aspects of the game;
*The game takes about 100-120 hours to fully complete the story. (10/10)
*The graphics are crisp and the textures are great too, just look at a few screenshots online. (10/10)
*The story is quite good but if you look at it on paper, it might seem a bit generic to you. But the smaller story arcs is where this game shines, between the characters and in the towns. (10/10)
*The content, there is a ton you can explore, characters to speak to which tell you different things each time you progress through the story, (which also makes the story better in my opinion.) and things you can collect. (10/10)
*The Characters, they're fledged out so well, beyond the main cast of characters you'll meet way more characters that are important to the story and that have a whole background to explore.
*The gameplay, this is probably the most important part for most players. It's turn-based, so not really an action game like I mentioned before. But the turn-based you're getting here is probably the best out there, like other Dragon Quest games, you can select from different commands like attack, spells, defend, etc. Which requires you to think sometimes. (10/10)
*The music, normally the music is really, like REALLY good in Dragon Quest games. But sadly in this version of the game (not on the switch luckily) the music isn't orchestrated. It didn't bother me as much because when I played this version, I didn't know of this fact. The music itself is still great but it not being orchestrated like on the switch is a bit of a let down. Which does affect my rating for the steam version. (8/10)
*The difficulty, I won't give the difficulty a rating since it's balanced pretty well. But I do think it's pretty easy if you've played turn-based games before. If you have then you should try the draconian difficulty setting which you can select at the start of the game, this way the game will be way more challenging! There are a few difficulty spikes if you skip too many battles, so in that case you'll have to grind a little. But that's not really something I ran into myself since I made sure to not skip every enemy I see.


All-around rating, well for me it's an easy 10/10.
This game just means so much to me and it offers so much to the player, there is no way I can't recommend it. If this review helped you and you liked the game, I'd love to hear from you personally what you thought in my dms! But I will list a few of the differences between this version and the switch version below since I've played and finished both.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SWITCH AND PC (some are marked in spoiler tags, open at own risk)
*The music on the switch can be set to orchestrated. (I think it is also set to that by default)
*You have a camera mode where you can take some nice in-game pictures.
*You have a few extra story chapters -> Basically, after a certain event in the story, all the characters get seperated.And the switch version adds how all your party members deal with that situation. (not just the hero like in the steam version.)
*There is a feature called tockle town, this lets you go back to certain events which took place in other games in the series. And if you clear tockle town then -> You'll unlock like 3 sets super bosses? Which then unlock another grand super boss which is really hard to beat.
*You can ride more creatures in game.
*There are new costumes for your characters.
*And finally, you're able to play the whole game in 2D.
EDIT (forgot a few new features)
*you can craft anywhere
*you can call your horse anywhere
*you can change the battle speed
*and the game is portable of course!
So yeah, it's for sure the better version.

I hope this review was of any help to you. If you have any more questions then feel free to ask me!

I bought this game at launch, and honestly I’ve been enjoying this game again and again. I play it mainly with my dad or alone and with an active modding community, the game never gets boring. Also the recent dlc have been really good, they each improve the game drastically.

I would personally recommend this game to anyone who likes strategy and 4x games. Though I’d wait for a steam sale so you can get all the dlc with the game for a better price. Since 160 euros is a bit too much for that.

I give the game itself a 9/10 at the time of writing this review.
Graphics: 8/10 (there is a mod for civ V visuals)
Presentation: 9/10
Mechanics: 9/10
Content: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Music: 9/10 (there is a spotify list with all the songs if you want to check that out!)
Bugs: Some crashes if you have a ton of units and cities, but this is only if you run like 40+ civs which is honestly understandable. Other than that it’s bug free.

And some mods I recommend you run;
*Real strategy (AI)
*R. E. D. Modpack
*Steel & Thunder unique units
Note: there is a special RED mod pack for this one.
*Steel & Thunder unit expansion
*Rule with faith
*any leader you think is fun, just scroll through the steam workshop!

I have a ton of respect for the modders in this community and I want to personally try and make some mods myself. There is one more mod I really recommend but I wouldn’t use this in a regular game. The mod is called Anno Domini, it’s an overhaul mod so it changes the whole game and if you want to try a new experience, this is probably the best mod out there for that.

Also for anyone looking to play a fun game of civ with me, just dm me!

I normally make really long reviews but I don't think it's necessary for this one. This game is quite similar to minecraft but in 2D! This is a sandbox adventure game with a ton of bosses. It's a game that simply keeps being really fun, and just get it on sale. It's a steal in my opinion. There is a ton of mod support for the game as well if you end up getting bored.

I hope my review helped you out, if you have any questions or would like to tell me your thoughts about the game then feel free to dm me!

Monster Hunter World, Monster Hunter is a series I recently got into. It's quite an action packed series and this game lives up to it for sure. You can expect big monsters, big weapons and quite the challenge. This game is the newest in the series and is getting a new dlc very soon. This dlc will add a bunch of things to the main game and from what I've seen on ps4, is really darn good. So there will probably a lot of you wondering if you should get into this series. And I'll tell you right away, that if you like action games and monsters. Then this is the game for you, but in world, the developers also added a whole world for you to explore. There are several maps where you can discover different ecosystems, from small creatures to the big ones you're actually fighting. This game keeps you excited throughout the game and made me scream in joy when beating some of the bosses.

I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to get into the series as well, this is probably the easiest game to get into from the series since it's more user friendly than the old games. Now I'll rate some aspects of the game.

Graphics, the graphics in this game are absolutely stunning. (10/10)
Story, I don't think the story is anything to brag about, it could've been a lot better. (7/10)
Gameplay, there are tons of weapons to choose from and monsters to fight. (10/10)
Maps, the maps in this game are quite complex and detailed but don't go expecting too many maps. (9/10)
Music, the music in this game is really good, also the in-game sounds really work well to improve the overall experience of the game. (10/10)
Bugs, haven't had any issues myself except for bad connection with friends a few times.
Duration, the duration of the game really just depends on you. I got about 140 hours out of the base game, but some of my friends got way more (or way less.)

Overall this is an easy 9/10 for me. Especially with the new dlc coming up, this game and the dlc will be 60$ together which is a really good price for what you're getting.

There is one thing you should take note of however. You have to grind a lot, like a lot. These boss fights are really hard for the average person, I managed myself but if you're having trouble you'll have to grind to get new gear. But you shouldn't have to worry about grinding too much in the main story, however post-game you'll have to start doing some grinding.

I hope this review helped you out on your purchase, if you have any questions or want to share with me what you thought about the game, then feel free to dm me about it!