Recent reviews by NeoSoper

This is more of the same fun and inspired design that made the original Q such a memorable experience.
This time in form of a Vtuber themed spin-off. There are probably a lot of Vtuber references and inside jokes that went straight over my head, but I had a great time anyway.

They added several free updates and it has now about twice the amount of content than when it first released.

A really fun game.
Deciding which path to climb, when to commit or backtrack, which item to take and when to use it, are some of my favourite parts. Playing with friends makes it a lot more chaotic and even better.
Peak is just all around a great experience.

I just keep coming back to this game.

Once in a while I get an itch to play this game. Just one round I tell myself. Then I go again and again until I've spend, yet again, a few hours trying to get the final evolution of those spheres (which I haven't achieved once).
Trying to come up with a strategy to get the score as high as possible, by combining as many spheres as possible, is extremely satisfying. All the while listening to some great BGM.

The physics behave sometimes a bit unpredictable, but, for me, that adds to the game's charm. Makes it a bit more replayable.

I enjoyed every game that was made by FromSoftware. They are all so inspired, imaginative, and interesting that it's been hard for me not to get pulled into them each and every time. I wondered if Elden Ring could give me an equal sense of wonder and excitement for its world.
It for sure did, and much more.
I do not exaggerate when I say this game, measured from how much content it holds, would not be equal to any of the three Dark Souls games, but all three of them combined. It is not just quantity either, all of it is full of the quality we have come to expect from FromSoftware.

So if you enjoyed any of the previous games, this would be probably right up your alley as well.
If you've never played any Souls-like, this might be the most welcoming game for your first experience. It is open world, so if a challenge is to hard you can come back later to it. The amount of items and mechanics that help you succeed is the highest it's ever been here as well.

One of my favorite rhythm games on steam.
For the price, there is a great amount of songs in the base game, which is more than doubled by the DLC Forever Friends, which receives continuous updates as well.

Every song has 2 modes 4keys and 6keys and each mode has several difficulties, easy hard and hellmode. The easy difficulties are very beginner friendly and are great starting points for inexperienced players while the hard difficulties offer more challenging patterns.

Overall, I enjoyed listening and playing through every song. There is a great amount of quality all across the board. If you enjoyed the music in the trailers, I doubt you could go wrong by buying this game, especially for that price.

I had a great time with Valkyria Chronicles.
if you are uncertain whether you should purchase this game, I hope my review can help you decide.

The story is set in a Sci-Fi-Fantasy infused version of WW2 from the perspective of a small country the major powers want for their resources and strategical advantageous position.
You get drafted after the destruction of your hometown and get the responsibility of leading your own squad in the Militia of Gallia.
Although the story starts with themes of heroism, you feel progressively how meaningless and pointless war is. That there is no glory to be found in the death of a friend, comrade or even the enemy.

Every turn you get a certain amount of Command Points (CP). You can use those to command a soldier, which will move you from the tactical map overview, into 3rd person perspective of the soldier you picked. Now you can move around the battlefield based on the amount of stamina your soldier has, and perform a single action e.g. shoot your gun. You can use the soldier how ever many times you like, though it costs you every time 1 CP and gives the soldier a stamina penalty with every consecutive use per turn. If your CP reach 0 or you end your turn, the enemy's turn starts. Unused CP get added to your next turn.
This gives the game a satisfying flow with a broad range of possibilities and strategies to use, adding quite a lot to replayability.
In the last third, when the enemy has so much CP and camps to spam reinforcements from, the difficulty ramps up quite a bit. Not in an unnatural way though. Everything you learned throughout the game comes to use and makes you think quite a bit before your next action.

Graphic, Sound, Translation
The visuals are gorgeous. Everything looks hand drawn with soft, dreamy colors. Which fits quite well, since the story gets told through a book. This in connection with the amazing orchestral soundtrack makes for quite the impressive combination.
As for the translation, I played in Japanese DUB with English SUB.
For some reason in the subtitles were regularly things added the characters never said (or even spoke of), which was quite bizarre.
For example: Alicia says: Welkin... (just the main characters name);
Subtitles show: Rest in piece
The only reason I can up with why the SUB often deviates from what is spoken, is that it's a transcript from the English dialogue, not a translation from the Japanese. If that is the case, why is there so transcript from the Japanese?
Anyway, if you plan on using the English DUB this shouldn't be a problem.

I played every ending and did everything there is to do, and I had a lot of fun with it. I'll explain what stood out most to me so you can decide if you want to play this game.
Since a lot of people already compare Sekiro to previous From Software games, I'll try to avoid that.

Sekiro's combat is fluid and fast paced but still has weight behind it, which feels great. The focus of which lies in Posture and Deathblows. Every enemy has a Posture Bar that fills up when you successfully parry or hit them. When it's full, you can Deathblow them. The mastering of this allows you to breeze through the game without problem, which feels incredibly satisfying and rewarding.
Another mechanic is the Resurrection which you can activate after dying, allowing you to get right back into the fight. You can activate it once, next time you die you're dead for good and respawn at a Sculptor's Idol.
These things encourage and reward an aggressive playstyle which will keep you on your toes.

Most of the bosses were memorable and interesting. I had a lot of fun fighting them, getting stomped, figuring out a strategy, beating them and destroying them on consecutive playthroughs.
Some bosses are exclusive to certain endings, which adds to replayability and lets choices have a greater impact.
Mini-bosses are your main source for Prayer Beads, which upgrade your posture and vitality. While they offer a challenge in between bosses, they won't give you as much trouble.

The story is intriguing and interesting, infused with a mystical Japanese lore that immerses you right away. At first quite cryptic, it starts to reveal itself more and more with every boss you beat, item you get and ending you achieve.

First hour spoilers
You are the shinobi of the divine heir, you're in a miserable state without recent memories. As you rescue your master and are about to flee, you are confronted by Genichiro Ashina and lose your arm. You wake up and find out you were rescued and patched up by the Sculptor, who also gave you the Shinobi Prosthetic. A contraption that includes a grappling hook and other useful tools you'll find throughout the game.
Now you start making your way through the war torn, beautiful Ashina to rescue your master once again.

The sceneries of Sekiro are quite diverse despite its location in japan, with mountain ranges, forests, canyons, forts, castles and a poison swamp. Though they are all connected in a way that feels natural and adds a sense of scale to the world. Your grappling hook gives you the ability to traverse these terrains fitting to your playstyle. For example, you can take all enemies head on or grapple your way around them to attack from behind or ignore them altogether.

Sekiro certainly is a great game I enjoyed a lot. I can wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone who is in search of a challenge, enjoys a Japanese setting or tight gameplay.
I hope I was able to help you with this review.

I had a great time with Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, so I want so sum up the things that stood out the most to me. When you are uncertain if you should purchase this game, I hope my review can help you decide.

The combat is probably the greatest thing about this game. It feels great unleashing combos onto your enemies and maybe even building a Sword Skill Connect for maximizing the damage of your ultimate. In addition you have the choice of 9 different weapon types that have all a fairly unique playstyle and skill-set.
The world is quite massive and diverse in terrain. On every map in every zone there are a few chests and things to do, besides the enormous amount of fetch and kill quests.
There is also a dating-sim mini-game that has a few fun conversations with the main heroines, they repeat themselves quite quickly though.

A enemy can be twice your level but you won't have any difficulty taking him down whatsoever. The "fierce" raid bosses are down in little time and do hardly any damage. Every other enemy is dead with one single skill.
I can see that bosses and especially raid bosses have some really interesting looking mechanics, sadly they don't matter at all.

The Story revolves around the new VR-MMORPG Sword art: Origin. As far as I can tell it happens in between ALO and GGO but the timeline is weird and doesn't align with the anime so I could be wrong.
The main story is interesting but it's quite sparse and stops as soon as it gets going.
The side story is told in a VN style with no choices. They mostly joke around, cook, do some side quest or talk about past events that happened in other games (or in the anime). So there is no character development and it doesn't connect to the main story in any way.
If you like fan service or really strong Slice of Life you might enjoy this though.

My only real problem with the controls are that the skill bar is only clickable even though the keys 1-9 have no other purpose besides together with >X< to command your AI companions.
The other controls are a nightmare too (e.g. jumping >O<) but are all changeable.

This game might has some flaws, though it certainly can be a bunch of lighthearted fun. It is also able to scratch that MMO-itch you might have with its overall MMO-ish structure.

Nioh has a lot of great elements I try to point out without any spoilers. If I spoil, I will keep it to the content within the first hour of playtime.
I had a great time playing and I hope I can help you decide whether you want to purchase this game.

Nioh has a lot of intertwined systems that make the game really complex but still intuitive.
For example, there are 10 different weapon types (If you count ranged weapons) that have all very distinctive playstyles. Additionally you have 3 different stances (fast, balanced and heavy attack) and every stance has in addition a normal and a strong attack. Now you can also, by unlocking different skills, combine normal and strong attacks to even further customize your playstyle.
Later a lot more will add to that, Magic, Ninjutsu, set bonuses, buffs, debuffs etc..
But all those will be introduced step by step so that it feels natural, instead of just throwing everything at you.

Graphic, Sound, Level Design
They've managed incredibly well to design this dark, relentless world that blends real historical events with fantasy inspired by japanese mythology. Together with the impressive graphic, layered sound design and amazing soundtrack, you just want to explore and see everything Nioh has to offer.
Levels have this great sense of connection by looping around and opening shortcuts to your "safe point". Though in a way that doesn't feel artificial or like backtracking.

The first mission starts in a prison in england you try to break out of. While you try to break out your guardian spirit gets captured and stolen. The one who stole it is headed for japan, so you head there too to get your guardian spirit back.
The story is interesting to follow and an exciting reward for completing missions you can look forward to.

Nioh has more you can choose to do after you finish the main story.

• The "Complete Edition" has the 3 DLCs included that expand on the events that happen after the main story.
  
• You can go into NG+, keep your equipment and fight stronger enemies that give mightier rewards. While still being able to return to the normal difficulty if you want to continue there first.
  
• You can enter "the Abyss"

I enjoyed my time with Tales of Zestiria a lot. Even though it has its flaws, there is much fun to be had.
When you are uncertain if you should purchase this game, I hope my review can help you decide.

Tales of Zestiria tells its story with 3 different types of visuals: 3D rendered ingame cutscenes, animated cutscenes and Visual Novel type dialogues with 2D sprites and a text box at the bottom of the screen.
All of which are fully voiced and feel polished.
While cities and ruins look nice and detailed, open territory like forests and grasslands look quite flat.

The Story was my main motivation to continue playing. It's quite nicely paced, doesn't drag on with fetch quests etc. and comes often after a boss fight to keep you engaged.

Combat
You have 2 different main types of attacks, Hidden Artes and Martial Artes.
For which you'll get many new abilities over the course of the game.
Sadly I only once felt the need to customize those since challenging enemies are rare. If you meet enemies that are hard, it's most of the time because your are 10 levels below them. If you are around the same level, you shouldn't have any problems.
Since there isn't a need to switch your attack pattern, you'll find yourself mostly repeating the same, most effective, combo over and over again, which makes combat quite repetitive.

Equipment
You have 5 equipment slots, one piece of equipment can have up to 4 bonuses, like "Arte Attack +4%". I liked this mechanic a lot, because with it changing your equipment isn't as easy as "compare 2 numbers and choose the bigger one". It also would give you a lot of freedom in how you want to play your character.
Sadly it boiled down to "choosing the bigger number" because of the same problem I mentioned above. For one fight in the entire game this mechanic was useful, the same one as above.
I enjoyed that fight the most, since it was the only fight that used all mechanics of the game. The last boss fight

The mechanics and their depth are great and really shine in fights who are build around them, sadly they are underutilized and feel forgotten for a large section of the game.