Recent reviews by KoolRanch

Re-writing my review to get straight to the point. The game is good - excels in some areas and then lacks in others. What issues I have really don't occur until a second playthrough.

Needless to say, the visuals are top-notch - Lizardcube blew Streets of Rage 4 away in this department. Moving around Musashi in of itself is a joy and is (minus one instance) very reliable. The combat is great and feels very satisfying regardless of your skill level. The rift challenges are some of my personal favorite parts of the game as it fully explores specific tools in your kit, mostly the platforming-focused ones. Backtracking isn't annoying in the slightest as you can warp to any active checkpoint in a stage upon revisit. And some of the soundtrack did grow on me - The Lantern Festival and Neo City to list examples from the top of my head.

Really, my biggest gripe with the game is that while the combat is great, I don't think that aspect of the game was fully explored. The game was too easy for someone like myself, and there are no harder difficulties or new game plus or even something like a "bloody palace" mode. There is an arcade mode, which allows you to replay stages from the beginning as if you are playing them for the first time with a score/rank system. A lot of these stages aren't really suited for this style of play and it feels like a last second addition. The only issue you may notice on your playthrough is the secret bunker on the last stage, which is the only platforming section I didn't like. I also think there were one too many glider sections at the end of the game.

Lastly, and this isn't really a negative, something subjective. I would've preferred if they kept the level structure more akin to previous games. I think there are too many metroidvanias on the market these days. Although Shinobi AoV is more closer to Mega Man X/Cave Story then Super Metroid/Hollow Knight. I was hoping for something more like an expanded Shinobi 3 or Legions with this new combat system.

I still recommend the game regardless. Going from point A to point B, the only notable issue you might have with the game is the secret bunker, and that is entirely optional. If you master the combat after finishing the game and want something more, you might be disappointed.

Pseudoregalia takes an early, open-ended 3D platformer, such as Super Mario 64, and spins it into a metroidvania. I'm not completely sure if this has been done before or not, but it's the first I've heard of the idea.

The main selling point of this title, in my opinion, is Sybil's kit. Her moveset is coherent, multi-purpose, and - most importantly - fun to use. When you have the respective upgrades in your possession, Sybil can perform a sliding long jump and extend the distance with a wall kick. If she just comes up just short of the edge, she will kick off the wall and will be facing the opposite direction. She then can use her "plunge" attack and then jump cancel the start-up into a backflip to recover and land on top the platform she just kicked off of. If this sounds to complicated for you, don't worry as there are other upgrades can that help and you just need to have a basic understanding the the abilities you find to finish the game. However, mastering your kit and discovering new ways to get around is where the game is most enjoyable I find.

Your first playthrough will not be good as your second playthrough and so on, for better and for worse. You might get stuck because of the simplistic, dream-like level design (which is very clever given the art direction and setting) as it might not be clear what powers you'd need at a given moment. I got stuck in the Twilight Theatre on my first time cause I didn't have the cling gem, but pressed on since I had no knowledge of it. Also, there are so few noteworthy landmarks - many rooms don't really pop from each other. There is a map system, but I feel as if it could've been improved. The combat kinda stinks as well. Fortunately, you rarely have to engage with enemies since Sybil can maneuver around them easily. There are only a few moments where you are locked in an area with enemies and have to defeat them to progress. One of which is at the start of the game, not only is it kind of a difficulty spike, but it might set you up to prepare for more of those in the future.

If you are a fan of 3D platformers like this, definitely pick it up even at full price. Sybil's toolkit is too fun to pass up and lends itself well to sequence breaking. Your first playthrough is likely where the game's problems show the most, but upon a replay, it gets a lot more fun. Oh, and you can give Sybil pants in the options/costume menu if that's a concern.

During Capcom's dark age that lasted between 2012 and 2017, this reboot of Strider was probably the best title to come from the, at the time, struggling company.

Strider 2014 was created from the combination of the arcade classic, Strider 2, and the NA-only released Strider for the NES. Strider 2014 retains the same idea from it's arcade predecessors for it's gameplay: the game is simple to play and can be very satisfying especially when mastered. Returning from the NES title are the "search-action" elements, Upgrades you will find aside from the basic stuff are the repurposed options from the original Strider and new ciphers, which are used to not only progress in the game, but to add more possible strategies for the combat. One thing that is completely new is this temporary double-damage state that Hiryu can achieve if you max out the meter next to your HP. As you inflict damage, the meter increases; however, getting hit lowers it and will entirely empty if you take too long to add damage. I wanted to spotlight this mechanic as well as the slight HP and energy gain per kill because the game is encouraging and rewarding aggressive, but not quite reckless play. I think it works well - even with the bosses.

I also want to compliment the game's art direction. It gives me kinda this American comic book vibe, similar to that of Sucker Punch's InFamous or the 2007 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film though these are from my own experience. It is different from what came before, but I do think it fits given the events on paper, and the existing characters made the transition perfectly fine unlike Bionic Commando or DMC: Devil May Cry. It also helps that Strider never really settled on a single style with each title bringing something new. The only major gripe I have with this game visually is that it sometimes zooms in on character models for some of the cutscenes. It can remind you that this was a budget game that was made over a decade ago now.

The only other major gripe I have with the game is the map. While the game does have a waypoint to your main objective, this only appears if you are in the area or an adjacent area, Beyond that, nothing. You also can't mark points-of-interest, exits/entrances to areas aren't labeled, and not every area has a shortcut or fast travel of some kind. My first playthrough probably took an hour or two more than it should've due to this. I also wonder if not having iframes for a game like this did more harm than good in some instances.

Definitely pick this up on a sale. The gameplay and design are both a proper evolution to the series. I have seen arguments made against this title, stuff like it's "outdated" or "there have been better since," but I find this feels better to play than most of the modern metroidvanias.

From my perspective as someone who didn't back the game and got this for like $1 USD, it's not bad at all. It doesn't outright beat Mega Man, which is still easily available on Steam and other platforms though there are Mega Man games that are definitely worse if you are as familiar with the series as I am. Regardless, it's a good thing this game exists cause Capcom studied it for sure for Mega Man 11. Yes, the Kickstarter was a mess, and it's kinda become a textbook example of mismanagement, but I will not go into that here.

As a game, it's basically a classic Mega Man and Mega Man X hybrid that focuses on the score attack aspect. There is some satisfaction to be had replaying stages to build up higher chains as fast as possible for a high score and rank. Mega Man never really focused on that - the very first title did have a score system, but it was inconsequential and poorly implemented anyway. Level design is overall fine and I do like how depending on your order of how you tackle stages, a mighty number from another stage will come and help you in another. The last couple stages also require you to utilize a few of your weapons to progress, which I kinda like too minus how treacherous they can be. The weapons themselves are okay with a few good ones that I found myself liking. Not too big on how mighty numbers have access to instant kill attacks - especially Cryo's.

Visually, the game is okay. Looks better in motion. During cutscenes, you see the almost static, lifeless models up close and it's not really appealing to look at. If they wanted to save money/get it done fast, they should've just used character art portraits like a visual novel. However, I do like the character designs and the overall art direction. You don't necessarily play these kinds of games for the visuals, but people do forget that the old Mega Man games were not only impressive (Including the PS1-era games despite what critics said) for their time, but also still manage to be visually appealing overall even when they downgraded for 9 and 10 for instance.

To sum up these paragraphs with a weird metaphor, this game is like a $5 Little Ceasars pizza: it's cheap, it's fast, and you can do much worse actually. If you are in a mood for it, it will hit different though. For around $3 or less, I do recommend you give it a try especially if you like Mega Man.

Game is a meme. Balance wasn't much of a thought - you have characters with quick access to instant kills and infinites, and then you have poor Potemkin. Axl Low was quite literally unfinished boasting invincibility at very specific frames of a couple of his moves as those hit/hurt boxes weren't drawn. That being said, I still recommend the game as it still manages to be fun to play.

The game surprisingly feels pretty good to play: controls are responsive, there is clear feedback if an attack hit or was blocked, and even something simple as c.S, f.S, f.h combo (or your several different infinites) feel satisfying to land. CPU can be dumb/cheat, but you do have the tools to make easy work of them. Music, of course, is great here - Dr. Baldhead, who is now known as Faust, has my personal favorite theme.

I wouldn't recommend this over something like Guilty Gear XX Accent Core +R if you are looking for some retro Guilty Gear, as that game offers more content/characters, better overall balance, and an online mode with solid rollback netcode. Though for as cheap as this game can go on sale for, it's worth looking into as well if you just want to press buttons against a CPU or an IRL friend or gain perspective of the series. Lastly, make sure your monitors refresh rate is capped at 60hz or the game is capped at 60 fps in your GPU's control panel, whatever is easier. And the game doesn't seem to work with DualShock 4's, but it does work with the DualSense for some reason.

The price, the amount of content, and the overall quality of the package quite literally makes this one of the best adult games you can buy on Steam, and content in the game aside, it's a well-made deck builder.

The game did start off on the wrong foot with me - it felt a bit juvenile compared to the melancholic title screen, player character was not someone I could relate to, and I think the tutorials could've been better. Once the game started, it was uphill as it does have appealing visuals and good music (reminds me of Granblue Fantasy kinda, but that might've been my recent addiction). Around part 3 was where the narrative gets interesting, and the relationship between Una and the player character felt more compelling along with many great interactions between all the characters. Una herself was always pretty likable though - a cute personality that fits her design. The overall story isn't perfect, but for a title like this, it's nice to see there was effort here.

I'm not too well-versed with deck builders, but the gameplay was still enjoyable. The new idea here is that once all your cards are used up, you discard a card in your deck before getting them all back next turn. If you end up exhausting all cards in your deck before defeating all enemies, you lose (Una getting KO'd as well of course). Ideally, you build a deck around preparing for one or two moves with as much help for Una as possible, and if you need to discard a card cause you couldn't clear the combat encounter in one go, you discard a card that is both the least important and grants benefits of some kind upon being removed from your hand. In between dungeon runs, you can tackle side dungeons for additional resources that can help get new cards or buff current ones.

As for the adult content, there is, uh, let's say an award scene and a defeat scene for every boss on each floor. Defeat scenes are not exactly as bad as you might expect - Una and your player character escape before trying again. At worse, Una's pretty angry though that doesn't deter her in any way. Plus, a majority of the defeat scenes involve your character and not Una. Regardless, I'm pretty sure you can skip those scenes, and there is even a "good kids mode" in the settings. There are additional scenes/CGs you can find in random events in runs.

Oh, and lastly, while refreshing my memory for this review, I reinstalled the game. Upon booting it, it was in Chinese. If this happens to you as well, the settings is the second-to-last option on the title screen. I'm sure you'll spot the option for English upon selecting it pretty quickly.

If you really want to play this on PC without emulating hardware, get it on GOG. Even with all the mods/patches/settings, I can't get passed the intro mission on this version. Then I tried GOG with the same patches/mods and, hey, what do you know? It works. Still has the occasional crash, but I can live with that.

Fun fighting game that is easy to pick up and play without changing too much from it's predecessors along with a fantastic art direction. Depressing that poor SNK marketing decisions, bad netcode initially, and a certain issue (that I stress is an easy fix) that may cause the game to refuse to boot kinda killed it off. There is fun in playing the story mode, learning who the characters are and their motivations, and playing an endless amount of ghosts despite them being stupid; however, a majority of fighting game players would argue that playing with others is where a game truly shines, and your only options would be to either have friends who can play or joining a Discord. The game was retrofitted with rollback netcode, meaning you can play people from farther away with a better connection, though it currently does present new issues. If you can live with that or you play fighting games by yourself then I highly recommend the game. Fingers crossed that the PS4 version getting rollback brings in more players.

I'm not sure how well the game did for SNK, but I really hope the series doesn't end here. What little I played of this game was fantastic and they've made a new fan. I would've loved to play this from the beginning. Sadly, I couldn't. I stopped console gaming the same year it released and SNK delayed the PC port for a Stadia release, and then chose Epic timed exclusivity. When it finally dropped here in 2021, the game was done with updates and a majority of players moved on. Just appeared on the Steam store with no fanfare. I hope SNK gets the proper message from this release, learns from their mistakes, and try again.

If you're looking for a place to start for the official Touhou games, this is it. While I'd say 7 and 8 are better choices (8 also being probably one of the best STG games I've played, period), they are not available on Steam and there's a good chance they may never be. Keep in mind that this game doesn't officially support English, you'll need to patch it to be able to read the dialogue if you don't understand Japanese. Most menus are in English and the gameplay is easy to understand so the only real issue playing an unpatched game is that the configurations upon booting the game display question marks if you aren't playing with Japanese locale.

What makes this a good starting point is the fact that the game is pretty vanilla as far as Touhou games go, but also does what it does very well. Though there are some different things here such as the faith meter, the continue system, and how bombing works. In addition, the characters and the events that are in this game are pretty important in the grand scheme of things. The game's difficulty is overall on the easier side of the series if we're talking normal or easy; however, no matter what difficulty you play on, the final boss will hit you like a truck. If you find the difficulty too much, you can cheese the game with Marisa B by using her unfocused shot with your power between 3.00 and 3.95. And, yeah, the music is great of course - I personally really like the themes of both stage 3 and 4.

There's only one issue I have with this game. The new continue system works well on paper - infinite continues, but in exchange, you will restart back at the beginning of the current stage. The issue with this is that you always start with 3 lives. So if you started stage 6 with 7 lives and lost all of them, you start back at the beginning with 3. You might actually be better off restarting the game at that point. Also doesn't help that you need to clear a stage in order to practice it. Another thing I didn't like about it is that you get locked into a bad ending for utilizing it. I sort of understood why that was a thing in previous entries as they placed you right back where you were when you lost your last life upon using a continue. Here, it just feels like an odd decision to me all things considered. I feel that the extra stage is a good enough reward for a normal 1CC.

Anyways, again, probably the best starting point for being a great danmaku game while keeping the gameplay vanilla and being able to be purchased here on Steam.

One of the best Touhou fangames and probably one of the best Metroidvanias you can buy here on Steam. Takes inspiration from the Castlevania side more and the combat system does share a couple similarities with Order of Ecclesia. Overall presentation is fantastic. You also don't need to be familiar with the official games/characters to enjoy the game.

Game controls wonderfully and your abilities will be put to use not only for combat and traversal, but puzzle solving as well. Sakuya has the ability to temporarily stop time around her to graze for resources, dish out damage, and to move to a more desirable location. It's required for some puzzles, but for bosses and other combat scenarios it's entirely optional. For your first playthrough, be sure to utilize it, but after that, use it less and less or even avoid using it all together to challenge yourself if you wish. You won't be having a lesser experience if you rely on time stop as there is a satisfying gameplay loop with it and there is a limit to how much you can use it. The power-ups you can collect are really cool additions to your tool set too with some familiar moves with a new twist, like the double jump that also fires knives underneath you, or something entirely new, such as the ability to use your thrown knives as platforms while time is stopped (which is honestly one of the coolest abilities I've seen in a Metroidvania so far).

The bosses are a highlight for sure. All being faces mostly from Touhou 6: The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil. They are represented really well here through their dialogue, animation, and fights. Quite a few of their attacks are also derived from their fights in the official games, but redesigned to fit the new game genre. Even with the ability to stop and slow down time, they can make short work of you if you aren't careful so you are likely to lose to each of them a couple times before you finally take them down. The true final boss took me multiple attempts to beat, but to be fair to myself, I somehow arrived underleveled so that's on me. If you find yourself struggling too much for your liking, enemies drop gems on death which you can trade for things like full HP/MP restores, time stop upgrades, instant level-ups, etc. Though you are rewarded for hanging on to them as they improve your stats slightly; it won't be much at first, yeah, but it does add up over time.

Last subject I better focus on is the game's shortcomings. While I do enjoy most of the abilities you gain in the game, I wish there were more of them; a good chunk of things you'll find for progression just open new kinds of doors. Backtracking can be a pain if you need to get through a puzzle or platforming challenge you've already done before. And, while this isn't a huge deal for myself, you can finish the game in about 4 hours and I was able to collect all achievements within 10. I think I'd rather have a shorter game with some good ideas rather than a longer game that overstays its welcome. Regardless, I feel I still need to mention this.

tl;dr - Do not need to be familiar with source material to enjoy. Fantastic gameplay and bosses with cool abilities utilized in all sorts of ways (combat, traversal, puzzles, accessibility). Though it's on the shorter side and some instances of backtracking could require redoing platforming challenges/puzzles. Overall phenomenal Metroidvania.