Recent reviews by DaBa

I am a bit conflicted on this game. On one hand, I enjoyed my 40 hours spend with it and I definitely got my money's worth. So it's hard for me not to recommend it on just that basis. But at the same time I see tons of wasted potential with weird design choices and ultimately not that much to actually do, culminating in a game that fundamentally is very solid, but is deeply flawed. And because of this I don't see myself ever coming back to it to grind for the rest of the achievements or to 100% all of it's "content". And I am sure there are some people out there who would not like this game because of those things, so let me talk about them in this review so you can make up your minds.

The first big problem this game has is that it pretends (purposefully or not) to have way, and I mean WAY more things to do than it actually does. The game assaults you with lots of characters, stages, multiple game modes, and a massive list of unlockable things and progression systems. But in reality it is all VERY inflated by re-using content over and over. Some examples:

-Different stages have next to no differences between one another and no relevant gimmicks to make them stand out or play different
- Differences between characters are largely just based on different stats and a couple character specific skills, even the character specific mechanics you unlock as you level them up are the same thing across all character (just repackaged with different visuals and stat variations). But every character plays 99% the same way.
- Same skills are repeated multiple times with just their elements or other arbitrary characteristics altered. So the hundreds of skill this game has practically boild down to a few dozen distinctly feeling ones
-Different enemies are just reskins that use the same few attack types. If it was just stage enemies I would not even list it as an issue... but it goes for bosses too.

You get it, this is the patter through the whole game. Everything is stretched so thin, one unique thing is split into a couple more things that are almost the same, just to make the game feel larger than it is. The first time you open this game you might be overwhelmed by just how much stuff there is in front of you, but as you play it is starts feeling very, very small. Ultimately this isn't really a deal breaker, because the amount of unique things here is... alright, it's not too much but not too little. It just feels cheap and lame, the game would've been much better if it had 25% of the "content", but it all felt more unique. And while this is definitely this game's biggest weakness, it ultimately would not detract from it's replayability if it pulled off it's own satisfying gameplay loop.

... Which is where we arrive at the game's the second big problem: balance. The problem here is twofold, and it compounds on itself:

1. The way this game does it's damage formula is just... bad. The way they made the math work forces you into the exact same build path if you ever want to make a good build, and it's not the first game that made this mistake either. This game has both additive and multiplicative damage multipliers. Meaning, a 50% damage boost can either be a 50% increase to all the damage that you do, or just a +50% bonus added to all the other bonuses you already have. On it's own that is not a problem, many games do this and it works well if it's done properly and the devs make both play nice together. Here unfortunately the developers completely dropped the ball. Long story short: the game features many debuffs that stack multiplicatively with your total damage dealt. That alone is immensely powerful, but then they also made those debuffs multiply on top of EACH OTHER. That's right, we are no longer just multiplying things, we are doing FACTORIALS now!! And the worst part of all of this, this is THE ONLY way to increase your damage like this. There is no other way in the game to scale your damage in such an absurd way, which means that if you ever wish to get a "god run", you need these debuffs, and you need to be able to stack them as best as you can.

2. There is an archetype of damage skill that is just... superior. It's the skills that multiply their damage based on either the number of debuff/status stacks on the enemy, or ones that consume said stacks and multiply their damage. Basically: the skills taht scale their damage based on debuff number one way or another. It's not even funny how much better these skills are than all the others. And it's sad to see, because there are other skills in the game that clearly try to be good damage skills too, scaling of different things or having other gimmicks to raise their damage. But the difference in strength between the good ones and the bad ones are so massive, we are talking multiple zeroes at the end of the number differences, you HAVE to use these skills if you want the best results.

And if you add those two problems together, you end up with a game that puts extreme emphasis on skills that either directly apply the debuffs I mentioned earlier or are good at applying them in other ways once you get supporting skills, and then it makes you take the scaling damage skills that scale off either the 3 DOT effects, or the status effects, of which there aren't that many. Suddenly, the hundreds of skills this game has boil down to MAYBE a few dozen actually good ones. And since every character is basically the same and can use the same things, you will end up making the variation of the same build every single time... the only way to enjoy some variety here is to unfortunately play on lower difficulties and intentionally ignore the objectively correct way to build your character. Basically: playing the weak, off-meta build in a hack and slash game. And let's be honest, almost nobody enjoys intentionally gimping themselves in a game like this.


So, all of that sounds pretty bad, right? And yeah, it is. And that's why I will probably never come back to it. But that doesn't change the fact that before I arrived at this point, I got 40 hours of good fun out of it and finished the game, and for those 40 hours the problems I mentioned didn't really surface and were not that big of a part of the game. It was really only after I beat the game's final boss for the first time that I started to think "yeah, I think I'm done, there isn't that much here to enjoy afterwards". So, a careful recommendation for people who enjoy this genre of video games.

Absolute masterclass in 2D platforming/metroidvania. I could go on and praise every little bit about it, but it would literally not fit in this review. I can't think of a single aspect of this game that I would consider weak, everything is either really good or simply phenomenal. And I am not being hyperbolic, Team Cherry took an absurdly long time making this game and I was utterly convinced before it released that something went terribly wrong and the game will not live up to the expectations. But I was wrong, all that time went into painstaking attention to detail, polishing just about everything, and it all results in a video game that is as close to being "perfect" as I think you can realistically get.

Was all of that perfection chasing needed? Probably not, the game would've been nearly as amazing without spending so much time on detail. And realistically Team Cherry could've spent all this time more productively, working on a brand new project. But I am glad they didn't, it fills me with great joy knowing there are still talented and passionate game developers out there who are willing to do something as absurd as spending years perfecting a project, knowing full well it's not an efficient way to use their time but still choosing to do it because they can and they WANT to.

Come to think of it, the only bad thing about Silksong is that it sets the bar ABSURDLY HIGH for TC's next project. So... good luck guys!

The good:

- Weapon movesets are jam packed and really fun to use
- Monster designs (both visual and mechanical) are probably the best they have ever been, there is tons of variety and new things we've never seen before. Even good old Rathalos got a decent upgrade
- Maps are more intricate and interesting than ever
- I do like the more organic and seamless approach to fighting monsters and exploration
- Art direction overall is better than World, more colour and whimsy, as it should be with Monster Hunter.
- Olivia

The bad:

- Obnoxiously slow and on rails story mode that holds both your hands tightly the first 15 or so hours.
- Non-existing endgame, where you have literally ONE monster that you have to keep fighting if you want to farm the pinnacle, end game gear. Alternatively you can fight weaker monsters for lesser rewards, which is not a fair exchange. Imagine all we could fight in end game World was Tempered Nergigante and that was it, no other Elders. You thought 5 end game monsters was repetitive? Yeah...
- Non-existing challenge outside of that one monster at the end, which probably stops being a challenge too once you get everything upgraded. Monsters aren't nearly powerful enough to stand up to the new weapons and how powerful they all are.
- Rather small roster, we are two games after World, we should be getting more and more monsters not the exact same amount every time...
- The worst running video game I've ever seen, that doesn't look nearly as good as it should given this level of performance
- I am not paying to edit my character's appearance, eff off Capcom you greedy bastards. Also thank you modders for doing god's work.


I would give it a 6/10 if it didn't have the atrocious performance issues. As it stands it's a 4/10, and only because I have an overpowered PC that can brute force a playable state. I don't care that much about the story and characters in a MH game. But the lack of any challenge and basically no end game is inexcusable. Even base World had more to offer, which is a sad state of affairs. Weapons might be really fun to use, but what does that even matter if there is nothing to use them on that can stand up to them and not die in 5 minutes, while getting consistently staggered and not able to fight back half the time? The weakest MH entry I've played for sure. If this is the direction the series is going then it's looking grim.

Yeah, it's another one of those bullet-hell-rogue-lite kind of games, I don't think we have a genre name for them yet. But if you've seen or played Vampire Survivors you know what I'm talking about.

And honestly there isn't much else to say about it. It plays exactly like you imagine it does. It's a competent game with a good amount of content, 30 hours of good fun and I could probably squeeze out twice as much if I wanted to go for 100% completion.

So is there something about this game that makes it stand apart? Yes, and for me it absolutely makes it. They have managed to perfectly evoke not only the visual style, but the whole vibe of the isometric RPGs/H&S games of the late 90s. Specially I am talking about the first 2 games of the Diablo franchise. The moment I have launched the game it was like I stepped in a time machine, the nostalgia hit me like a bus. It felt like I was playing a genuine old school video game, but one I have never played before. They emulated it PERFECTLY. And for that alone I would recommend it, if you've loved these games back then you're going to have a hell of a time!

I have bought this game to play it on Steam, not Playstation. I do not need a PSN account to do that. So forcing me to make one and link it to the game AFTER I bought it and owned it too long to refund it is scum behavior.

This should make the game eligible for a refund immediately as it is no longer the product I paid for originally, it is now objectively worse and the customers were never told this was going to happen.

The game is good so far. It's more Dragon's Dogma, which is exactly what what we wanted. So why am I not recommending the game? Because in it's current state the game's optimization is in shambles.

Let me set the stage: I have a 4090, literally the BEST gaming GPU available right now. It's overpriced, overpowered, and the only reason you buy it is because you don't want to compromise between image quality and the framerate. It's a GPU that should run every single modern game at 4k 120fps.

Meanwhile in Dragon's Dogma 2 you can't even maintain a stable 60fps WITH DLSS ON! Yep you heard that right, the game dips below 60fps in busy areas or when it's dark and there's a lot of lighting (ex: in big caves). Which isn't an insignificant portion of the game. The game should be able to pull off 4k120fps WITHOUT DLSS, but it can't even do 4k60fps with it turned on. It's so bad... They even sneakily start the game off with the option for interpolated rendering just to pretend it runs better than it actually does, which is something you don't even want to use because it creates a lot of ghosting issues and makes motion look horrible. It's like a bad joke.

So, unless you have a 4090 or a similar setup that has plenty of spare power to run this unoptimized piece of sh*t yourself, I seriously do not recommend this game to anybody, you won't enjoy it because it will run like absolute crap. I didn't even talk about how a game that cost more than 60$ still has micro transactions in it, but the performance issues are so bad they completely eclipse even that. Seriously, stay away from it unless you are absolutely sure your setup can handle it.

This game would've been fine if it was made a decade ago. But the gaming landscape has greatly changed ever since. Independent developers have made amazing strides and keep making great video games left and right. And I'm afraid in modern day a game such as this doesn't make the cut anymore, especially considering how long it took to make.

If Secrets of Grindea has been fully released in it's current state when it first entered early access it would've been considered a good video game. Not amazing, not great, but definitely good. But now? In 2024? It is well below par in every aspect:

- Game design is basic and feels extremely old, flash game level of old. 2010 is calling guys! We've had infinitely superior top down RPG/Adventure games since. Well, from any genre really. This game feels like a museum exhibit.

- Considering how long the game has been in development and how long the devs had people who supported them wait for the full release, it has very little content.

- Production values are no longer impressive, they are barely passable. A game that looks and sounds like this would've been nice back when it first went int early access maybe, but nowadays you have competition that makes this look like some kind of old school PS1/2 era game. Even your average, run of the mill indie devs can nowadays do better in this regard.

- And on the technical level the game is a travesty. Guys, this is 2024, how does your game not support resolutions higher than 1080p? Heck, you don't even have any proper scaling for your pixel art so it can look sharp at higher resolutions. You know, BASIC stuff that is an absolute standard for a game like this in modern day? Instead, the whole game is a blurry mess, like I travelled 20 years back in time to watch a 480p Youtube Let's Play. This doesn't even qualify as an issue, this is quite simply not acceptable anymore. I want to remind you this is a product that costs money, not some freeware student project. And I don't even want to start pointing out what kind of games you can buy for 10$ instead and how they stack up to this one because I would be here literally the whole day...

Here's who I recommend this game to: people who are feeling nostalgic for simple games from the past, who have literally nothing better to play and have somehow exhausted all the other better options, of which there are hundreds upon hundreds in the RPG genre alone. To anybody else: it's not worth your money. I will commend the devs for including the demo, which I recommend you try out before you buy the game, it will give you an accurate representation of what you're getting into.

I had high hopes for this game when I first saw it a long, long time ago. But if this is what 9 years of development have amounted to, then I cannot call this anything else but an utter failure.

A bunch of upstarts have made a video game Game Freak should've made ages ago. No idea why they didn't but hey, their loss.

Moreover, it's a pokemon game on PC. Something else Nintendo should've done ages ago to tap into this market and reap the massive profits. They never did and now somebody else decided to fill that void, and in the process became millionaires practically overnight.

Who would've thought? Definitely not Nintendo or Game Freak, that's for sure. Too bad! Seems indie devs are still way smarter than huge corpos.

I recommend this game if you like good platformers and metroidvanias with engaging boss fights. Or if you're into anime bunny girls.

This is everything I hoped a remaster of the original game would be. Plus a solid amount of extra on top that makes the game bigger than it was before. If you liked the original, you will like this one even more.