Recent reviews by 「Ｂｏｋｕ♥」

I was going to finish this game properly, but the more of it I play the more I realise it is simply way, way too big. Every single area is over-inflated in size with platforming and enemy placement that just don't make it nothing but tedious. This is not even including the usual metroidvania foray of searching for secrets and hidden paths.

Afterimage has all the ingredients of a solid game, it just doesn't offer the player any level of convenience or challenge to justify the egregious amount of time required to play it. Add on top an obtusely communicated story with unbeknownst character's names being dropped constantly like we should recognise them, I was constantly asking myself the full suite of who, why, where, what, and when should I have known/care about any of this?

Also, while most of the music in this is rather nice, there are a handful of tracks which emit an extended high-pitched, tinnitus-inducing whistle/whine which does nothing but leave my ears ringing and wanting to leave the area. But, of course, the area takes over an hour to clear so I have to mute the game upon entering certain areas which is really frustrating.

As for why I stopped when I did, I stumbled into a very abrupt ending: I pressed a button and a boss teleported in. I beat the boss on the first try. Then the boss just said actually no, and I lost in a cutscene. Got thrown back to the main menu. Who was that? Why could they just win anyway? What could I have done to avoid it? Where should I have gone instead? I don't know. It doesn't matter now.

Yars Rising is a short(ish), perfectly cromulent metroidvania with an absolute earworm of an OST from start to finish.

It gets a passing grade not because anything is particularly outstanding (OST aside) but nothing drags it completely down. Wayforward obviously have a formula and know how to deliver, it's just that there isn't any element that really leaps out as a selling point.

The character designs, enemies, and bosses (few as they may be) are all charming.
The voice acting quality is extremely okay.
Hacking mini-games add some much needed variety to the "exploration".
Finding and managing upgrades to suit your playstyle is a nice way to spice things up.
Lots of little nods to Atari history throughout.

However,
The lack of variety in enemies and areas makes everything feel repetitive.
Emi will never ever shut up and always has a quip ready to go.
Those same hacking mini-games are everywhere and will grind you down.
Upgrades are mostly "do a bit more X" rather than altering how anything plays out.
Pong. Really??

Is Yars worth playing over many other modern metroidvanias? Not really. I mean, just looking at Wayforward alone I would point to any of the Shantae games over this.
But is Yars a total stinker that doesn't deserve the time of day? Also not really. Just don't pay full price for it.

Oh, and the insect-lookin lady standing behind Emi in the key art? Never appears. Weird!

0. This game is almost certainly designed for party play. If you want to play solo you are in for a miserable time. Don't ask me how I know.

1. Horrible optimisation: barely peaking 60fps in most areas with everything set to medium. Throw on DLSS and I could possibly push 80fps, with dips in combat and busy areas.

2. Dumb story with even dumber, annoying, and derivative characters. You miss out on nothing by skipping it all. If you're expecting to be drawn in to a strange world with mysterious individuals, you won't be.

3. Combat is passable. None of the guns feel one way or the other. Enemies are mostly stupid and exist only to pop up and be shot. Some enemies have more HP and that means they're tougher and not just tedious!

4. Bosses are the worst thing here. Every single one I encountered was a big, stationary bullet sponge that does nothing but spawn ADDs or shoot lasers. Have fun kiting enemies around while you reload and trim 10~20% off the boss HP bar every few minutes.

5. Look forward to using the same gear for hours and hours because you certainly won't find anything but rings to equip. New guns are so expensive to buy that getting one puts you way back on the damage curve since it's better to just upgrade the ones you get given. Hope you picked the right class at the start!

6. Map design is fine. There's a few nooks to explore but there's nothing worthwhile to be found. Only rings that do pointless things like "+5% melee damage while you're bleeding". Very cool, thank you. Some areas seem to repeat previous ones, like they used the same building blocks but couldn't disguise it, which is jarring.

I am sure with 3 other people to play with and after 20 hours of totally engaging story exposition the game and it's mechanics really open up and gets great. Obviously one must suffer a dozen hours before having the first flicker of enjoyment. But I'll survive just not doing that.

Long ago, in ancient times of old, someone once asked: what if we made a shooter without a shotgun? Or better yet, what if we made one with no satisfying weapons at all?

And, for some reason, rather than throw whoever asked those stupid questions out of the nearest window, they instead got to work.

This was their first mistake as unfortunately the stupid questions did not stop.

What if pots could contain ammo and health or instant death for the player?
How much can we ♥♥♥♥ up something simple like an ammo mechanic?
Should we add lioness women with they boobies out?

There were many windows in the building they worked in; gravity yearned to treat this buffoon to a one-way trip to the ground floor.

But, alas, they implemented all of these baffling requests (and more) in giving us PowerSlave.

It could have been prevented.
The signs were there.
Let this be a lesson for us all.

♥♥♥♥ it, we ball

While I'm sure the game itself is as fun as ever, the graphical issues with this version are incredibly frustrating. I thought it was just the camera clipping on walls as I ran around but turns out the game does not like running well.

If you plan to play the game with DLSS at over 60fps and/or in an ultrawide resolution expect constant flickering, camera twitches, and watching the screen squish to a smaller aspect ratio every few seconds of gameplay.

tl;dr; It's far too short, shallow and lacks charm. Wait for a 70%+ discount.

+ It looks great. The RE engine is still really nice.

~ Don't get why they altered her "classic" costume.
~ It's far more action-oriented, but RE3 always was.
~ Mercenaries mode has effectively been replaced by REsistance. Because of this, you have to grind the main game to earn points to buy things from the shop for subsequent playthroughs.

- It's really short. Took me slightly over 4 hours, even while hunting for all the secrets. An achievement expects you to do it in under 2 hours.
- They gutted half the original game. Lots of areas are shrunk or outright removed. Many enemy types and boss fights are gone.
- Nemesis feels hugely scripted, at least when he is around. Mr X in the RE2make was a much better Nemesis.
- No diverging paths or different endings. The original RE3 was short but it had the replayability there.

It's anime Dead Cells. Combat is not quite as fluid and the translation is a bit wonky in places, but the gameplay formula is very similar.

What they said: We will stick close to and respect the original series this game takes from.
What happened: Here are a bunch of fanfic-tier OC characters and generic non-sci-fi guns to use.

What they said: We will not make the game pay2win, the only things sold for real money will be skins so it's up to you.
What happened: Anything you buy from the store is now a roulette. The Makoto skin you want is SSS-rare.

What they said: We want to add lots of cool features in the future like singleplayer/co-op campaigns, tachikoma piloting, customisable skills and more!
What happened: We are in way over our heads please do not expect any of this to happen making good games is so much harder than we thought haha wow is our face red right now.

What they said: Operatives have different skills, but you can pick a gun and tweak them to play them your way.
What happened: Operatives must use certain gun and perk types. Did you spend dozens of hours grinding for a specific gun that now can't be used by your favourite operative? That's a damn shame. No refunds.

What they said: This game will be supported for the foreseeable future since we love the IP and the fanbase!
What happened: We have completely alienated fans of the GitS world, pissed off the majority of our playerbase by completely overhauling core gameplay mechanics a year after release, flooded the game with unbalanced maps and weapons, introduced a throng of terribly uninteresting characters nobody ever wanted, and irreparably damaged our reputation so we'll close the game in a couple of months. Still no refunds. Get out.

Thanks Nexon and Neople.

You tried.

Pretty okay Hearthclone with wonderful art.

However, said art (plus some names) has been censored with the dev promising more in future.

Nope.