Recent reviews by Gamestuck

This is my first Supergiant game, but Hades is a great time. I feel like this is both a great gateway into the roguelite genre and a great game on its own. It heavily relies on meta-progression and runs can feel static at times, but the game has sheer quality in its writing, gameplay, and mechanics to help remedy many potential issues. Additionally, the meta-progression isn't something that carries you to the finish line. It helps greatly. However, both player skill and meta-progression need to climb at a parallel rate to actually beat a run. If the player makes too many mistakes, you won't be given many handouts to carry you across the finish line. Also, if the game is overall too easy for roguelite experienced players, the heat system provides many varied challenges to add back any missed sense of challenge

On top of the great gameplay, Hades is one of the few roguelites with compelling writing and characters. Its setting and established rules provide an almost perfect avenue to explore what the underworld is like and how it affects the immortal characters within. There are so many interactions that queue themselves up after failed or beaten runs. The amount of dialogue written AND fully voiced is staggering. If you love the gameplay and writing, you can spend nearly 100+ hours until you've seen almost everything

Most importantly, the story of Hades is a very sweet and down-to-earth tale of fostering and maintaining relationships in an unfortunate situation. Zagrius is the perfect main character for a story like this, and when you have friends and family like he does, maybe hell isn't so bad after all...

Undertale is by no means a perfect or phenomenal game. It's simply a game with a singular vision that is executed well. In fact, so much so that its popularity exploded online

What I personally enjoy about Undertale is its reactive and layered design and storytelling. The entire story is woven into the entire game. You can't just watch a cutscene movie online and understand the full picture. This is a GAME, from beginning to end. It shows how you can take narrative in a video game beyond just multiple endings or lore notes scattered across the world. It's in every corner and even the game's code. And most importantly, that story it's telling is heartfelt and genuine

The game wears its love of RPGs on its sleeve, and it loves to play with your expectations. A bit, a character, and a plot point can go far beyond what you initially think. Toby Fox wants you to keep on thinking, to keep on discovering, and to keep on imagining what else could happen. In a way, the game aims to fulfill that endless wonder you had when playing games as a kid. And despite the blatant inspirations and nods to other games, it manages to create an identity so unique that it inspired a generation of fans and creators

All of this, and even more, is what I believe makes Undertale truly special and a game that will stand the test of time

Fun little indie game with super unique and fast paced movement! I haven't played a 2D platformer with movement akin to a 3D platformer, but it's really cool to see. The game has a high skill ceiling for those interested in mastery, but a fair skill floor for those that want to take it slower. The music is nice, the pixel art is beautiful, and the characters are all cute!

The only major concern I have is with the way the camera scrolling works. It switches positions depending on if you're moving left or right, similar to the 2D classic Sonic games. However, the movement of your character alongside the camera often left me a little disoriented. For that, I have to warn anyone who's prone to motion sickness or dizziness while playing games

A super cute and charming GameMaker game that feels reminiscent of many RPGmaker games I grew up playing and watching. The biggest draws are the art, music, and writing. All of which give off a fun, personal, and jokey tone that you'll probably mesh with if the game looks interesting to you. If you like absurdist and internet-focused humor, you'll probably feel right at home. Additionally, it's really simple and should be accessible enough for everyone to finish!

But there's also a super secret reason you should give this game a shot. It's for hidden eyes only tho...
It's got cats (even a dog, if you could believe it), it's got girls, and the main character...is both...

Although there isn't any single player or dedicated matchmaking, it's an incredibly fun time if you have a friend to play with. Turning chess into an RTS keeps the game simple to understand but very in-depth when it comes to potential strategies and plays. You can go several matches with no game looking the same. My friends and I have had a really good time and lots of laughs just going for dumb plays that surprisingly worked out. The game is super cheap, has a cute low-poly aesthetic, and hosts strategic, yet simple, gameplay. Absolutely give it a shot if it seems like a game you and a friend could enjoy together!

I didn't expect very much going in, other than it would be a very short experience, but I ended up really enjoying Dreams of Aether! I thought this might be a Lovers of Aether situation where the "April Fools" aspect would be on display (aka being made just for the concept being funny). However, the game is very solid and well designed all around. I genuinely liked everything on display and can see why the team made this a paid release after the initial 24h

As someone that's a fan of WarioWare, I thought that the microgames were very solid, easy to understand, and nicely stylized. The team reuses assets from the other Aether games in a smart way to fit the tone of WarioWare that compliments the fast and frantic nature of microgame gameplay. However, the original art and music they created is amazing. It's all so charming, cute, and silly. It also brings these existing characters to life in a way the fighting games cannot

The little guided story on offer was a cute ride, and the post-game features give you everything you'd expect from microgames (scenario, individual microgame, and increased difficulty endless modes). Dreams also adds in something I haven't seen any other microgame-styled game do with a dual microgame mechanic. It's a natural fit, and it can give even experienced WarioWare players a bit of difficulty

Overall, I'm super impressed with the game and I'd definitely recommend it to any Rivals of Aether fan or anyone interested in more microgame styled experiences. Keep in mind that this is a very short game, but also very quality!

Props to the dev team for this little gem. I'd love to see a sequel of some kind if they're willing to revisit the concept

I was originally looking forward to seeing what P3R's devs would do to transform Episode Aigis into a much more fulfilling and engaging gameplay experience. Unfortunately, it ended up being a disappointing take on an already divisive epilogue

The gameplay is easier and more accessible for people of all skill levels, but the overall experience is worse compared to the original's heavy tactics focus (especially when it came to boss design). It also barely implements anything new that would compliment this new direction. Instead, the devs did the bare minimum by adding P3R's unique mechanics and nothing else

The story is mostly the same, which is what I expected since this is a canon epilogue already set in stone. However, the cheaper cutscene presentation and new social events clashing with the original's tone makes the already flawed story of Episode Aigis slightly worse

Overall, I just didn't have a very good time with Episode Aigis. I really loved revisiting P3 with P3R, but Episode Aigis feels like it just doesn't have the same amount of time and care put into it as the base game. It feels like Atlus (or more likely Sega) wanted to milk more money out of P3R's major success and decided on an expansion pass with Episode Aigis as the final wave. It feels cheap and done out of obligation rather than a desire to remake P3's epilogue to complete its story. And worst of all, they priced this at $35 which is just insulting

My recommendation of what to do is to either experience the original Episode Aigis/The Answer with P3 FES if you're looking for a challenging version of P3's tactical combat, or you can watch the cutscenes on youtube to see the completed P3 story. It'll save you $35 (assuming there's no sale), and you can put that money towards better things. Hell, that's half the price of Metaphor: ReFantazio (assuming there's no sale), a much better and worthwhile experience that tons of Persona fans will also enjoy

Hands down one of the best platform fighters ever made. Platform fighters in general are a genre that's far under-explored. Outside of Smash and PM/P+, the genre is barren. There have been licensed games and one or two indies here and there, but they either fall short mechanically or with their appeal (either visually, with character variety, or with mechanical depth)

Rivals of Aether, however, delivers on all fronts. Beautiful pixel art, readable animation, a diverse cast, unique mechanical identity (especially compared to Smash), and tons of mechanical depth. It manages to both be inviting to long-time Smash fans and uniquely stand apart from the series through its own changes and innovations. Taking from Melee, PM/P+, and even traditional fighters to make a game that's always a great time and will remain evergreen

Top that off with great QoL features (easy wavedashes, removal of L canceling + mashing, and more plentiful spike tech opportunities) plus even better features that the genre needs more of (rollback netcode, workshop support, and excellent lobby/matchmaking), and it's no wonder why Rivals is able to stand toe-to-toe with Smash of all series for so many people

If you enjoy Smash for its mechanics + gameplay, and not just for its general appeal through characters or mainstream popularity, then you should absolutely play this game. Casual and hardcore players alike will find so much to enjoy about the game

Sonic Frontiers is a game that took me a while to fully wrap my thoughts around. While it was a pretty fun time and offered something that seemed better than previous Sonic games released at this time (not including Mania), the final product is a very mixed package that feels more hollow over time

A good example is in what the game offers and what you can get elsewhere, for an even better experience at that. Do you like well-designed, open exploration with interesting mechanics? There's Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Do you like 3D collect-a-thon gameplay with an emphasis on movement? There are 3D Mario games and indie games on Steam itself. Do you like high speed, boost styled gameplay offered in the cyberspace levels? There are Sonic games this game rips its level design from and, again, indie games on Steam itself. Do you like fun action-combat with enemies of different difficulties? There's Devil May Cry and Platinum's games. Do you like insane spectacle with bosses that have cool designs? There's Metal Gear Rising and Bayonetta. Do you like high intensity vocal tracks? Listen to the titan music online and check out other action games that do the same. Do you like good stories? You won't find one here. Do you like good Sonic stories? Play almost any other Sonic game with a story people remember fondly

Frontiers is a game that apes a lot from other games with its one and only unique quality being Sonic's speed itself. Even then, you can find that in Sonic inspired indie games. I'd say the one thing this game does well is making Sonic easier and more fluid to control compared to boost styled Sonic games. But that was just laying the foundation for better games in the future, like Shadow Generations. With lackluster level design and still using heavy amounts of automation present in Forces, Frontiers just isn't a game with much to offer. If I had to pick three mainline Sonic games after Sonic Generations that will be overlooked in the future for not providing fulfilling experiences, I would pick Sonic Lost World, Sonic Forces, and now Sonic Frontiers. It may be the better game compared to those two, but it's still a weak Sonic game in his full library of games

https://i.imgur.com/NYT746J.png