Recent reviews by Fluffy

This is an extremely well put together little horror game. It’s aesthetically gorgeous, with a strong visual identity. The combat is engaging and well designed, focusing on melee and ammo conservation while still feeling more actiony than most traditional survival horror games.

The fixed camera angles are handled perfectly paired with full analog movement. The camera work actually enhances the experience rather than fighting against it. In some areas it even shifts into top-down or side-scrolling perspectives, which reminded me a bit of Nier in how fluidly it plays with perspective. The fixed angles really sell the atmosphere and give each space a strong sense of mood and intention.

Combat has a nice puzzle quality to it while still feeling active and responsive. You’re encouraged to think about positioning, resource management, and timing rather than just reacting. It strikes a really satisfying balance between action and tension.

The world itself is immediately intriguing. The story hooked me right away and continues to open up as you progress. There’s a strong sense of discovery, helped by light RPG elements, NPCs, shops, equipment progression, and a structure that feels very metroidvania, just on the more linear side. It feels like a more action-focused take on something like Crow Country, while also borrowing from classics like Resident Evil and even Zelda.

Overall, I’m really enjoying my time with it so far. It feels polished, confident, and thoughtfully designed. I’ll update this once I finish the game, but so far it absolutely deserves a reccomendation.

There’s something about Final Fantasy XII that just keeps pulling me back. Some esoteric mixture of mechanics, storytelling, and presentation lines up perfectly with my tastes in a way no other entry quite has. It’s my favorite Final Fantasy.

I love many games in the series. VII for its iconic characters. IX for its classic fantasy tone. VI for its incredible cast. Even the original Final Fantasy still has an addictive loop. But XII hits a very specific sweet spot. It feels like a Final Fantasy flavored Dragon Age Origins or Knights of the Old Republic. The combat is essentially real-time with pause, just expressed through Final Fantasy systems and aesthetics. It’s tactical and flexible without being slow or overwhelming.

The storytelling is similarl. It’s big and political, but it’s told through the eyes of grounded characters, focusing on smaller, more personal moments and relationships. Ivalice feels like a real place shaped by history, rather than just a backdrop for the party’s journey. It’s probably the most exploratory game in the series without actually being open world in the modern sense. Instead, it’s a dense network of interconnected zones. Every area feels layered and full of possibility. It's the kind of game that is large enough to feel vast like a real place, but each zone is small enough to develop a sense of mastery over. Just look up some maps of the game to see what I mean. For me it's a perfect middle ground between say "Ocarina of Time" and "Breath of the Wild".

The side content is a huge part of why the game works so well. Hunts are genuinely fun and they encourage you to engage with the combat at a deeper level. The License Board makes character building feel expressive, but I am a little torn on weather I prefer the original PS2 style single board or the Zodiac versions Job boards. I do wish Square had included PS2 Boards and Balance as a base feature. Luckily mods will allow you to tailor the experience and choose the type of board you want to paly with, if you're interested check out "The Struggle For Freedom" or "Classic Mode" mods. The vanilla game still palys great regardless.

The Gambit system removes the need to micromanage every second of combat while still giving you complete control if you want it. The best part is that even when your companions are acting through AI, you programmed that behavior through their Gambits, so everything feels intentional. Characters are never off doing something you didn’t want them to do… unless you set their Gambits up badly yourself. It removes the feeling so many games with AI companions have, that lack of control and “dumb AI,” and instead lets the player define exactly how that AI behaves. On top of that, it still lets you issue direct commands to any party member at any time, and those commands always take precedence. So you get the efficiency of automated behavior without ever losing the ability to step in and make a tactical decision in the moment. It’s brilliant.

XII is incredibly ambitious. To me, it feels like one of the last great single-player Final Fantasy experiences before the series fully pivoted toward modernization. I genuinely wish Square had pushed further in this direction. When XIII released, I remember being deeply disappointed. While there have been good Final Fantasy games since XII, I don’t think any of them have reached the same level. For me, XII feels like the ultimate Final Fantasy experience. Beyond that, it feels like the high point of what the entire JRPG genre was building to up to from the SNES era all the way up to the PS2. After XIII and the PS3 era, the series stopped feeling like Final Fantasy in the way that mattered to me.

I genuinely think it’s still very underrated, even with the cult following it's built. Whether you’ve played every Final Fantasy or none at all, XII is an incredible entry. To me, it represents the series at its most ambitious, a Final Fantasy you can really sink you teeth into that rewards you in spades for doing so.

Absolum is the first beat ’em up that’s finally clicked for me.
After decades of trying to get into the genre, from classics like Chronicles of Mystara, Golden Axe, Knights of the Round, to more modern takes like Dragon’s Crown, I could never fully see the appeal. Every one of them started strong… then the grind hit, and the repetition killed it for me. Even Dragon’s Crown, with all its RPG systems, still felt like running the same levels over and over with only minor variation.

Absolum takes that structure and actually makes it work.
Traditionally, beat ’em ups are about quality over quantity. Deep, fighting-game-like movesets, unique levels, interesting enemy types… and then you replay those same zones endlessly because that’s just the genre. Absolum somehow makes all of that make sense, but also gives you way more content than I’ve ever seen in a beat ’em up before by a long shot.

Each run feels like an actual exploration of the world. The map opens up gradually. New areas branch off from familiar paths. Events unlock and create fresh routes. Your options evolve. It’s honestly fantastic the way the game slowly reveals new paths, even new continents through what is technically the same run, so every attempt feels like discovery instead of repetition. The amount of content is staggering, easily on par with somthing like Blasphemous or HollowKnight but just presented in a different layout.

In terms of the roguelite elements, the balance between long-term progression and per-run powers feels perfect. I really love Galandra, the blue necromancer, and for a long time I honestly thought she was the only character I’d ever want to play. But once I started investing points into the others and really giving them a shot, I ended up falling in love with all four. It’s genuinely hard to decide who to pick each run, so I usually just rotate between them. I still find myself maining Galandra somtimes, but she’s just ridiculously fun.

Her strong attack has the best cadence for me, and the fact that strong attacks can parry (clash) even boss attacks if timed correctly is such a great choice. Opening enemies up for a punish never gets old. Between dodging, blocking, clash, arcana, ultimates, and the per-run abilities that radically change how each character plays, the combat stays incredibly fresh and unbelievably satisfying when everything clicks.

The combat is seriously second to none in the genre from what I’ve played, it's on a whole other level. It’s basically perfection for my tastes. There’s a ton of technical depth, but it’s also easy to pick up right from the start. The difficulty curve is especially impressive. I’ve put around 19 hours into the game and still haven’t completed a full run or reached the final boss, yet it never feels frustrating. Each area branches out and fully unlocks as I build the skill needed to beat that area's boss, so I’m constantly seeing new content as I improve. By the time I've seen all an area has to offer, I've developed my skills enough to beat the boss and move on to the next continent. I'm sure not everyone will feel the same on this point but, for me It’s a near perfect sense of progression.

I feel like I’ve been searching for a game like Absolum for years. I’ve always loved the deep fighting-game style characters of beat em ups, but I wanted that experience in a single-player, exploration-driven structure that felt lacking in everything else I've tried… and I finally found it with Absolum. I finally get it. And I’m having a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ blast.

This game just isn’t for me. I’m sure there’s a crowd who will enjoy it, it isn’t poorly made, it runs well, and the art is serviceable, it’s just not what I was expecting. It's presented like a beatemup but it plays like a spammy action RPG.

After playing other new rouge-like titles like Absolum, this one falls short in a lot of areas. It drops you into the game unceremoniously with basically no tutorialization, and it shows pretty much everything the game has to offer right away. There are several unique weapons so there is at least some variety to unlock, but the core gameplay is made up of small battle arenas that you move between, where you hold the attack button the entire time because there’s no reason to ever let go. You press a few skill buttons when their cooldown finishes, and you hit dodge whenever red warning zones appear. There's really no weight or timing to your attacks at all. On my first run I fought two bosses in two visually distinct areas. I ran into a lot of different enemy types, but they all feel almost identical, and the bosses feel the same too. It doesn’t really matter what they do, you just spam attacks and dodge. It ends up feeling like I’m not really doing anything. This is the same issue I have with a lot of top down action RPGs that boil down to running into a room, AOEing everything, and grabbing loot.

The game also has no story outside a few one sentence data logs that barely connect to anything going on. There are no cutscenes, no dialogue. You start in your room, pick a weapon, and fight until you die. The areas I visited looked different, but they played exactly the same.

The upgrade system is fine enough, but it’s mostly incremental stat bumps. Nothing really feels like I unlocked a cool new move. After playing Absolum where every upgrade feels huge, or even something like Binding of Isaac, the upgrades here just feel flat. Sometimes you get a few extra fireballs or little electricity orbs floating around you, but everything happens passively as you attack.

It just isn’t my kind of game. It’s gameplay only, and it almost feels like an idle game where your job is to hit buttons at the right moments while holding down attack.

There are also a few odd art inconsistencies. The character art looks great, but then the environments and the shopkeeper NPC are low poly. Maybe those assets were purchased, I’m not sure, but it clashes. It feels like some assets were made in-house and others were pulled from the asset store without trying to match the style.

Anyway, it isn’t a bad game. I’m sure it’ll have its fans. It’s just really not my type of game or my type of roguelike. Leaving this review for anyone with similar tastes who might be on the fence.

Demon School is absolute peak for my tastes.. it's basically an alternate-timeline Persona 3 in spirit, but it never feels derivative of persona the way you might expect... The combat, writing, music, and visuals all meld into something special. I can't imagine it's for everyone, but it checks all the boxes for me personally.

The story and characters are incredibly well executed, especially for an indie game. It's well written, and the way Faye bounces off each of her friends gives the whole cast a charm and sense of personality that’s really fun to engage with. Faye actually makes for a perfect lead. She feels like the player… she takes everything in stride, buys into every conspiracy and ghost story, and just accepts the world for what it is under the surface. Most games would make the player-character the skeptic, but the opposite works beautifully here. It mirrors the player’s expectations. The game leans into that, and it’s clever. Having Namako as Faye's skeptical foil is perfect, and the rest of the cast supports that dynamic really well. The Narrative really opens up a few weeks into the game with new additions to the cast of characters rolling in constantly.

The music is incredible. There isn’t a single track that isn’t dripping with mysterious retro vibes. Every piece nails the mood. It’s funky, retro, spooky, and ridiculously catchy. Each day of the week even has its own musical theme, and I find myself getting excited every time they're about to roll around again.

Combat is a lot of fun. It reminds me of Into the Breach, but I like it more. Planning your entire turn, sharing action points between the whole party, then watching the whole plan unfold… it’s a super satisfying loop. The shared AP turns every turn into a little puzzle. Characters like Namako, who can shove enemies around and apply weakness states, make the player feel like a genius when used well. Understanding your party, their moves, and how to set up combos allows for expressive play that feels great. It feels more like a turn based dance, it's a lot of fun. Researching upgrades that substantially augment the way your characters function as well allows for a lot of variation despite there being no traditional xp based levelups.

And the visuals… The pixel textures, the lighting, the color work… it’s dreamy, foreboding, nostalgic, and gorgeous. Every area in the game is densely packed with environmental detail and storytelling. There's day/evening/night lighting and color profiles for each area that change their mood substantially. It’s absolutely dripping with style and personality, a perfect reflection of the game’s whole vibe.

Demon School really does feel like a refined retro Persona visually, it has all teh Saturn/PSX era charm with modern post and lighting. It's beautiful. At the same time, it's not just an "indie Persona" it's quite unique and has it's own great mechanical ideas that set it apart.

It absolutely hooked me. It’s one of those once-in-a-while gems that hits out of nowhere and suddenly I'm completely invested. It gets me with that feeling of 'I need to keep playing this', and suddenly hours are gone. It’s fun, stylish, strange and oddly personal in a way I didn’t expect.
I love it!

Another review that really needs a mid response. Thumbs up for the effort and artistic presentation, thumbs down for mechanical execution for me.

Caravan SandWitch is… fine. It’s another one of those quiet exploration/story games without combat, where most of your time is spent climbing, driving your van, and gathering components to craft whatever you need to reach the next area.

I genuinely admire the art direction, if nothing else. The flat-shaded aesthetic is gorgeous... clean, colorful, and full of character. The environments are packed with visual charm, and the character designs are cute, particularly the player character. It’s a beautiful world to look at and one that clearly had care put into its presentation.

Unfortunately, that beauty only carries it so far. At its core, this is a Journey-style experience... a minimalist exploration game with a few added systems.. but without Journey’s grace or flow. The problem isn’t that it’s simple... Journey was simple too. The problem is that the one thing Caravan SandWitch focuses on: locomotion.. just doesn’t feel good.

Climbing is especially rough. It’s janky and repetitive, locking you into the same grab animation over and over, with little sense of fluidity. It’s responsive enough to work, but never satisfying. For a game that revolves around movement, that’s a serious issue. When traversal isn’t enjoyable, the whole experience starts to fall apart.

The movement system is so basic, there’s no real room to grow or express yourself as a player. You can’t get better at it because there’s no nuance or mechanical depth to master. It becomes a game of “I see thing, I run and jump to thing.” There’s never that spark of curiosity or risk, that moment of “can I make that jump if I sprint and angle it just right?”... the kind of moment to moment gameplay that keeps traversal-driven games like Journey alive and engaging is just missing entirely. Without that, it all just flattens out into a walking sim with sparse, if at least interesting, story content.

In the end, Caravan SandWitch is easy to appreciate but hard to love. It’s visually stunning and clearly made with passion, but its mechanical ambition doesn’t quite match its artistic one. There’s a lot to admire, but not much to sink you teeth into and actually play. It’s the kind of game that wants to feel cozy and meditative but ends up just feeling slow and tedious.

Four games and a movie later, Borderlands 2 is still easily the peak of the series. One of the best looter shooters ever made, endlessly fun whether you’re playing solo or co-op. The story and world-building make it especially enjoyable for solo players like me.

If you really want to get the full experience, play through Borderlands 1 first. The story in BL2 hits so much harder when you already know the characters, especially since you played as some of them. It’s such a fantastic hand off to a new team of Vault Hunters while giving the BL1 crew a proper spotlight as major NPCs. I played Lilith in BL1, and that made BL2 feel incredibly personal.

BL2 also has that indie energy despite not being indie. You can feel the passion from the team in every detail. The care that went into refining the formula of the first game, addressing player feedback, expanding Pandora with real biomes, and putting a stronger focus on story, makes it so satisfying. They improved everything: gunplay, weapon variety, storytelling, music, environments, voice acting, world and level design.

Borderlands 2 feels like a team punching way above their weight and actually landing the hit. Pushing their craft as far as they could go and somehow catching near perfection instead of collapsign under all that ambition and overscope. The kind of game that only happens when a studio is on fire with ideas and love for what they're creating. You can feel every ounce of effort, passion, risk, and joy that went into making it. That is why it still comes off as timeless IMO.

Runic Games’s incredible swan song, Hob, is nothing short of a masterpiece. You can feel the love and craft poured into every detail of this passion project. Hob has some of the absolute best world design I’ve ever seen in any game.. impressive and awe-inspiring at every turn. It’s the kind of experience that has to be played to be believed. I’ve truly never seen anything quite like it.

The world is breathtaking, with its clockwork moving pieces constantly shifting and revealing new paths. The atmosphere is pure mystery and discovery, no dialogue, just mood, tone, and exploration. It’s a world you see and feel. The art direction is second to none. Every frame dazzles the eyes, flowing seamlessly from biome to dungeon to newly unearthed landscapes. The size of the world as well is impressive, this game must have cost Runic a small fortune to develop. All that Torchlight 2 money is right there in the screen.

Traversal is one of Hob’s strongest aspects. Unlike most top-down Zelda-likes, it plays like a 3D platformer. The level design is chefs kiss everywhere, half the time it feels like the designers are just flexing. Incredible verticality and Metroidvania-style movement unlocks like the grapple. It’s clear they really took their time weaving together all the interconnected pieces.

It’s not just about unlocking new areas. The world itself reshapes as you progress.. water levels shifting in the overworld, blight dissolving, entire regions transforming like a bunch of clockwork puzzle pieces. Each time, it completely recontextualizes the paths you’ve already taken. From a developer’s perspective, it’s truly awe-inspiring design... intricate, expansive, and brilliantly executed. I'm constantly left wondering what will reshape the world next, and how it will once again change my perspective on the environment.

Combat is the weakest aspect... it's certainly not bad though, it just feels like it got the least polish. Attack windup animations are a tad too long, it makes slashing your sword feel less responsive than other entries in the genre. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's just not as tight as something like Hyperlight or Link Between Worlds.

In the end, Hob is a game about atmosphere, art, and exploration, and in those regards, it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s evocative, endlessly intriguing, and unforgettable... Runic may be gone, but they left behind something timeless.

Coming back to Hollow Knight years later (after first finishing it on Switch) while I wait for Silksong, I’m reminded why this game is still the pinnacle of the genre. Out of all the Metroidvania titles released over the past decade, Hollow Knight stands above the rest.

It completely redefined what a Metroidvania could be, the freedom, the scale, the lore, the atmosphere, nothing else matches it. Team Cherry poured a staggering level of care and ambition into this world, and no game since has captured the same magic. Even incredible titles like Blasphemous 1 & 2, which I absolutely adore for their art style, music, and setting.. still feel like they’re chasing the impossible standard Hollow Knight set. In truth, it’s honestly unfair to judge other Metroidvanias against it, given the scope and development time invested. But regardless, Hollow Knight remains a masterclass in game design that transcends it's genre.

If you somehow haven’t played Hollow Knight yet, fix that mistake immediately. It’s not just a genre masterpiece.. it’s one of the greatest games ever made in any category. Hollow Knight is a labor of love bursting with passion and creativity. A true modern classic the likes of which is rarely seen in any corner of the industry.

AI Limit is a VERY enjoyable mashup and interesting game in it's own right. It's basically a Nier: Automata inspired take on Dark Souls 1. It nails that satisfying, interconnected world design that DS1 did so well (and which I personally felt was lacking in DS2 and DS3). The art style is fun and distinct: chunky, detailed environments mixed with sleek anime-style characters. It’s very Nier-coded, but with (very faithful) Souls-like gameplay at its core.

I think IGN has lost the plot entirely.. 5/10? I'm sorry but that's insulting coming from the company that gives completely broken at launch AAA games like Cyberpunk 9/10 reviews. The whole "not unique enough" criticism feels lazy. Not every game needs to reinvent the wheel, sometimes a well-executed blend of familiar elements is exactly what we want.

AI Limit is well-optimized, polished, and clearly built with care. Plus, this game actually HAS a target audience that isn't just "every gamer on the planet".. what a concept. This is the kind of focused, mid-sized project we should be celebrating, especially with how bloated and risk-averse the currently crashing AAA industry has become. Feels like IGN is just bitter that AA games are outshining the big-budget flops, because they can't get enough money out of the smaller companies for glowing reviews lol.

Thankfully, Steam reviews are setting the record straight on this game, that’s great to see.

More thoughts on the Game Itself
The toolkit here is exceptional, packed with tons of weapons, a deep status system, spells, core abilities like Shield, "Shadowstep", Berserk, and Parry, plus tons of armor, hats, and customizable cores with attachable minicore things that all give bonuses and stats. Oh and many items, nuclei, The amount of things to play around with is actually wild. There's so much player expression and customization, so many ways to play, yet the combat still feels tight, skill-based, and super satisfying.

The world design gradually opens up as you progress, always maintaining a strong sense of linear direction while still feeling exploratory. Bosses are tough, biomes are diverse and engaging, enemy variety is impressive, and the NPCs and questlines are compelling, running naturally alongside your journey.

What more could you ask for? This game is firing on all cylinders, and it looks gorgeous doing it. Worth checking out if you like Soulslikes, Nier, or just well-made, mid budget games.