Recent reviews by StackzGaming

We gave it a sporting chance. After at least 4 start-stops, this was hopefully the one. But it was not to be.

The game is low budget and it shows. On four separate occasions the character fell out-of-bounds, falling into endless nothingness.

This wouldn't be so bad were it not for the complete lack of autosave and the fact that every dungeon is an absolute slog that isn't fun to navigate.

There are segments that are straight copies of other games; for example, a "trial" that's almost 100% a copy of the same trial that happens in Chrono Trigger, right down to the lying witnesses.

Battling, at least for what we did play, is tedious and unfun, mostly because of floaty-feeling controls, underpowered weapons and a lack of good evasion.

It frankly feels like the game that I Am Setsuna wished it was - just buggier.

Once we were able to acquire the game at its "fair" price (which is in the $40s at most) it was time to give it a try given good feedback at points.

It feels half-baked. Like it wants to tell a decently good story - but rushed due to how long it took to do the graphics.

Without spoiling: your team is exploring a station that is basically playing (insert deity here), creating life from inorganic matter that can essentially create homunculi - artificial beings that behave like humans. Upon arrival you're beset upon by walking automatons and a computerized voice ordering your destruction. Two of your crew are "removed from the premises" in a very tropey way, like a B-tier movie. The other - straight out of a bad horror flick - ends up separated from you, then you hear their blood-curdling scream as the voice has ordered their annihilation.

You see what was written there? Chances are you've seen some unscary film from the 90s that played out very similar. That's what you have here: a script that plays out like one of those terrible cult films, all the way to the "normal" ending.

To say more would effectively spoil a lot; suffice to say, your enjoyment of the game circles around whether you can suspend your belief at what's going on long enough to learn what happened. It's a tragic tale for sure, but a lot goes unexplained (in the cutscenes. There may have been some random reading somewhere that explained it - but we expect the game to explain it in the cutscenes).

During the learning of events you'll walk through various tunnels that follow a very cut-and-paste sequence: you open a door, there's some enemies that attack you, you go through another door, there's something that blocks you, you go through another door, you see something behind some glass that you have to then walk the long way around to find, etc etc. It got old. This segment felt very close to Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, where as you navigate a path you just hit these clearances where you know there'll be a fight.

Much was made of the hacking in order to deal larger damage than what is normally available. While creative, it also got old, and we weren't fans of the two situations where you're forced to do it. It makes sense in the context of the characters, but it felt needlessly burdensome; somewhat similar to Forspoken's final sequences.

One area is a badly generated downtown cityscape that looked quite nice; but was limited in its exploration. Graphics are almost never an issue in the game; it's a nice-looking game, certainly. Music was also decent (though repetitive).

So the story was decent, the graphics were good, the music was decent and the battle engine was decent.

Why then do we not recommend it?

Because there simply isn't enough here to justify anything more than $40 at a stretch. Even with all of the various items to find, even with the training stuff, even with learning about the world, it's just not "enough" of a game. Not when Clair Obscur which is arguably 4-5 times as long with a stronger story debuted at less than $50. We didn't really like Obscur that much, but we recognize it's superior to this in almost every way except graphics.

Took over a decade; but finally, the game is beaten. It only took getting some QoL fixes to get past some of the nonsense efficiently.


Clear memories of the first time playing Bravely Default. It was highly recommended. And in truth, there were a few fun things about it (Holly Whyte, for example). But it was and is a slog to play.

Bravely Second, for all of the unfair flack that it got, was a vastly superior experience all around. It streamlined a lot of the nonsense and better focused on what it was trying to do at the expense of not being quite as good of a story.

Bravely Default II is an abomination of a game, at least the version that was released. The demo was decently good; but the developer (who mostly specializes in mobile games) seemed to lose the plot in terms of the experience; things like removing maps inside of dungeons and what clearly was a touchscreen-intended navigation. It was also significantly easier to "break" Bravely Default II compared to the predecessors. Default II had arguably worse character development, step-back battle engine, and clunky UI in exchange for a better overall "world" than the other two.

Back to Default 1. If you can't be arsed to slog through, here's the bottom line, otherwise keep scrolling.

The "friends' you connect with are intended to be representations of their parties as they play the game; meaning their four characters are traversing worlds as they help you. The end sequence has the "big bad" destroying all of the worlds down to these remaining four, whose parties then help you fight back to beat the dude. The "unlocking" of the Crystals is basically linking these worlds in a way that empowers both the big boss and "Lying Airy" to make them immortal. For illogical reasons the only way to stop this immortal is with another immortal, who helps you weaken the guy enough to defeat him. The "angel" (Agnes) is never visibly revealed, but is presumed to basically be a version of Agnes that had died from one of the worlds that was previously destroyed.

Meanwhile, the game suffers from "Kingdom Hearts Syndrome" in that nobody really dies. Which is also infuriating.

Saying "No" to the recommendation isn't because it's a "bad" game. It's because when you get to Chapter 4-ish, the remainder of the game is an exercise in tedium unless you really, REALLY like boss rushes in games. It's obvious why they did it the way they did, but it went on way too long. It actually reminded of the Star Trek: Next Generation episode where the ship gets stuck in a temporal anomaly that causes a loop, and keeps exploding because they keep following bad advice.

This final sequence is arguably worse than Final Fantasy XV's infamous Chapter 13 (especially post patch) because at least there, two or three of the Chapters were clearly UNFINISHED to the point of being pointless such that the slog was really only one chapter long. Default 1's sequence made sense but overstayed its welcome, in other words.

If you played it before, know that it's CENSORED, as well. There are obvious available patches to rectify that, just forewarning.

Again, if you like boss rushes the game is perfectly fine. And it's a decent story. It's just that you need to understand that the last third of the game is a complete and utter slog.

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Given the price when this was purchased, it didn't come across as a game that we'd enjoy. And we never played XCOM - the game this is mostly compared against. But we're not new to tactical RPGs, which is basically what this is.

The first game that comes to mind with this is Metal Gear AcId, minus the card-based engine. Everything else is very similar in how the game plays. Persona 5 Tactica and Mario vs. Rabbids are other games that have similar types of fighting engines.

The world is a post-apocalyptic United States of America. The map sees you travel from the West Coast all the way to Las Vegas (the traveling isn't tedious). Miasma has started to well up places, and your protag is left with a bionic arm and mysteries to seek out his mother. All he has to do is get strong enough to clear the miasma.

One thing that marks a good story, is when you understand basically what your purpose is within the first hour or so. That's achieved nicely here; while it does take a bit longer to flesh out characters, the story doesn't drag.

Voice acting is plentiful and decently well done - rare in games, much less ones at this price. Do be advised that there's a bit of cussing at points.

Graphics are really well done. Walking into a rundown airport, it's obvious that's what it is. This is different than other games where you're supposed to figure out what something is but the detail doesn't do a good job of presenting it well. That's absolutely not an issue here.

When you learn what happened to "The Originals" (basically, you and I and everyone else of the current era), visiting the place called Dying Place is almost creepy. Even better, you hear an audio recording about "Patient Zero" - and if you're an exploring type, you'll find that person. That's continuity and it's done amazingly well. And while yes, there's a bit of Horizon Zero Dawn with this part of the game (let's be honest), it's not as absurd as what happened in that game.

Character development isn't the greatest. The clear focus is Elvis; the other characters are presented but not really fleshed out. Some of the sidequests help a bit with this, but Diggs for example goes almost completely unexplained. Jade, on the other hand, presents like she gets feelings for Elvis at a point, then randomly tosses a line about him being her brother. It's strange and odd.

The vast majority of the game is spent backtracking. There's a warp mechanic, but only to the major destination, not "inner" places like a specific person's residence or store. The explanation for sidequests is also a bit wonky; you'll get told you need to go to a place, but no further hint around it. Keypads sometimes have hints and sometimes don't.

If we didn't know better, it almost seems like the sidequests were an afterthought and not really well developed. After a bit of this we just ended up skipping the majority.

The weapon shops are far and few in between, and the weapons you find in the field are mostly subpar, but they're fine as long as you do your augments properly. By mid-game, if you've done things right, range won't be an issue at all.

Your primary weapon is either a rifle, a shotgun or a sniper rifle. You can equip two weapons, to have different styles and handle different ranges. You also have Miasma techniques, which frankly are overpowered to a degree; for example, being able to spawn a barrel near a group of enemies and one-shot them with a powered up sniper rifle, or blow an enemy directly into some exploding barrels.

Tactics like suppressing file for rushing enemies is fun to watch. In one stage you'll run a gauntlet of fights, which might sound like a pain, but in one of the waves, Jade pretty much picked off 90% of the rushers in one turn simply with the one suppressing move using the sniper rifle. Fun, but grossly overpowered.

The cover system is a bit flawed; the enemy can almost always hit you regardless of cover, but you'll frequently find your shots being blocked or missing. Fortunately, it's easy to knock enemies out of cover first. From there, the sniper rifle properly equipped will make short work of most everything. Near end game, the majority of enemies are machines, which means EMP-based attacks make them not even worth mentioning.

The way he came across reminded of an 80's Lex Luthor. It was refreshing to have a character that wasn't completely absurd as the ones in "Tales of Aionios" (aka Xenoblade Chronicles 3") were, or just bland and uninteresting like most modern games. That said, the fight itself was uninspiring - take out some cronies, then one-shot the boss and that's it.

This isn't to say that Miasma Chronicles is some amazing game. Clair Obscur wasn't amazing either despite what people say.

We look at the price compared to what was provided. For the price, Miasma Chronicles was a great experience that was well worth it even if parts of it became a slog. It didn't overstay its welcome, and it felt paced generally well, all things considered.

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You must understand: the modern gamer apparently doesn't care about story; doesn't care about character development; doesn't care about plot; wants open world, wants a character creator with nonbinary options, etc. (which is why they get bored with games so fast).

If that's you, you will HATE this game. Because its weak point is arguably the battle engine simply because it's not overcomplicated nor does it try to do more than the basic needed.

Liking this game requires that you appreciate the entire experience, including cutscenes. If you don't, skip it, because it will just annoy you.

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Silent Hope is one of those games where if you can't invest in the story, the game won't appeal. And the story is spread out over the entirety of the game - so if you're not into dungeon crawlers, this won't keep your attention, because that's 95% of the game.

Put simply: this is actually a very dark story. Without spoiling things: a tragedy befalls a kingdom, resulting in its princess being trapped in a crystal made of her own tears. The king has flung himself into the Abyss, and seven warriors are brought together, tasked with locating him. The problem is, none of them can speak (thus the name "Silent" Hope).

A lot has been made of the fact the Princess is so chatty. That was clearly done on purpose; the Princess is reminiscing while overseeing the warriors, and they might want to respond but cannot. If you were there, it's likely what would happen.

Once you reach the first "ending", you get a basic idea of what happened to the kingdom. Each level is basically a memory of various events that happened, and the Princess recalls each, telling her version of events. The monster encyclopedia essentially spoils what happened if you take the time to look (many don't).

There's another ending after this one. We just couldn't bring ourselves to go through it. The dungeon parts are a slog primarily because of false paths HP sponge enemies. The game wants you to constantly swap out heroes, which gives a boost each time, but we prefer to settle on a single play style for our fun. So for us this brought things down a notch.

It's really difficult to recommend this game UNLESS you're a kind of gamer who (A) really enjoys dungeon crawlers and/or (B) really enjoys a good story and are willing to suffer through a generic (sometimes mobile-feeling) game to get it. Because it really is a good story, buried under a game that really isn't all that fun.

Took a while. A lot of false starts and stops over the years.

Opinion has not changed. Zestiria is blatantly overhated, and unreasonably so. This is where we explain.

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1. Cutscenes/graphics
   
2. Gameplay/Combat/Controls
   
3. Story/Plot/Characters

Players of this game have chosen one of these, and disregarded the others. That's because for whatever reason, we got to a point where people stopped caring about good stories and characters and only care about fighting. Which then causes them to get bored easily and complain about the games being too short/easy/etc. Which then causes the game shops to pay less attention to quality in games, because of catering to the ADHD of it all. Which then causes them to shut down when they don't make as much money.

Games must have ALL THREE of the attributes mentioned. But a game that has a "meh" battle engine is still workable if it's got endearing characters, a compelling story, a well-built world, great graphics, great music, etc. Case-in-point: Arc Rise Fantasia.

Those that claim Zestiria is the "worst" Tales game, only care about the second bullet up there. Frankly, Vesperia is nowhere near as fluid as this one in that regard yet people think it's the greatest (it really isn't). Besides, everyone knows the worst tales game is Symphonia, and it's not close.

If we had to list a negative, it's simply that it feels disconnected from Berseria, the canon prequel to the events here. It feels like there's a game missing in the middle of these two, and as a result, it's slightly difficult to connect the dots up. Very similar feeling to "Tales of Aionios" (aka Xenoblade Chronicles 3's base game) where the only real connection is by way of observed landmarks, rather than direct callbacks, because so much time passed in between. Eizen (from Berseria) has a whole experience that you never see, not even in flashbacks. It's annoying.

Much was said about the abruptness with how Alisha was treated. It's abrupt, but it's clear they were trying to write her a specific way that just came off awkward. The DLC (which we missed the free of, and thus can't justify the paid version of) was an attempt to placate, but ended up pissing people off even more. We liked Alisha, but it's true that she felt out-of-place as a main character.

But when you get to the almost-final boss and he flashes a bit of a "whoa" moment, that was excellently done. Haven't felt that sort of impact in a game's story in a very long time.

Is it the "best" Tales game? Absolutely not. That honor still remains with Tales of the Abyss. But it's better than Vesperia, Berseria, Legendia, Symphonia and definitely Arise by a WIDE margin. Again, as an overall story and experience, NOT just the battle engine.

Beat the game on Switch so we could take advantage of the (very valuable) QoL fixes of the Memoire version. The PC version doesn't have these.

Originally known as "Wanderers from Ys III" when released in the US, Felghana was the first Ys game we got to play. It's actually - chronologically - the sixth game in the series. Adol has journeyed back to Felghana after leaving Celceta, and in the process, ends up with arguably one of the more compelling stories of the series.

Couldn't stand Wanderers from Ys III - even maxed out, it was just an unbalanced mess.

This game, even as a remake, is a product of the time - the dungeons aren't egregiously long (except the Clock Tower...ugh) and there's a strong focus on the story. There are sidequests, but they aren't excessively tedious as found with modern games that use them to pad the length. Here, you can completely skip all sidequests if you want. It just means that you won't receive items designed to make your journey and battles easier.

While the difficulty has been substantially rebalanced for the most part, some fights are still silly. The final boss, for example, isn't anywhere near as difficult as he was in 2D on the SNES; but the boss immediately before him has cheese moves that make him unnecessarily strong even on the lowest difficulty. Another boss, roughly 2/3rds through and a regular mortal to boot was wiping the floor with Adol due to being too fast and powerful. Having two mid-bosses be 5x stronger than the final boss is not good balancing.

Battle is fun though: with the exception of the occasional times when Adol turns the wrong direction, you feel in complete control of battle way more than other Ys games with more modern battle engines. It's hard to explain, but the reaction time is tight and generally well thought out. Even Ys VIII's battle engine doesn't feel nearly as fluid. Celceta's is a close second.

Much has been made of the voice acting. There's the right amount of it here. Adol's is relegated to brief snippets, but it's more immersive than the English narrator (you have to disable the narrator in settings), and feels more like natural speech between characters. Because of the refined experience, the voice acting actually adds quite a bit to the feeling of a town and its people dealing with a crisis, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Given how short the game actually is - arguably less than 30 hours all told - it hearkens back to when games were more about a focused, memorable experience and character development. Nothing feels like a waste of time, in other words. You're enriched by every minute of exploration, and everything you do actually matters in the grand scheme.

While we don't recommend the version that's on Steam - not that it's a bad game, simply that the QoL fixes really do make the game stand out that much more - We do recommend playing through the game if you're one who feels like every modern game is generic trash that doesn't tell a good story.

The "No" is for two simple reasons.

First, for what little could be played, it wasn't very interesting. Games that just toss you in the middle with little build are not fun.

But that could have been forgiven, were it not for - #2 - it randomly crashed for no good reason, plus takes 5-10 minutes to launch. The game was apparently never configured to properly work with the newest Intel processors, specifically hyperthreading ones.


So...no, the game can't be recommended, because if you're a person who isn't still running a PC from early 2000's, its possible the game is a buggy nightmare.

Setting aside for a moment the loss of so much content (frankly, the game was a slog. It's no longer a slog, which is a very good thing).

Setting aside the censorship.

Setting aside that Keifer looks terrible.


We were absolutely willing to give the game a chance at least since we got it on the steep cheap.

Then, at the Pit of Silence Upper Level (the mirror puzzle), passed that with flying colors, got to the next boss, then the game crashed when landing the last hit. An Unreal Engine related crash. The autosave was before the puzzle, not after, like most common sense developers do.

Here's the thing. Despite it being a fairly simple puzzle, we are NOT doing that again.

We'll wait some time. Maybe they'll deploy some patches for stability. Then during boredom periods we'll give it another go. But there's simply no way we're wasting time on a buggy experience that's also censored.

Unlike quite a few of the others here...this "Don't Recommend" is not because of the dub (it's perfectly fine) or the editing from the original (not major stuff).

No...the problem with this game, just like with the original (apparently...didn't play it due to the lack of English dub) is that it's just too darn long and padded.

There are SEVENTEEN (basically) chapters in the game. The story being told could have been told with half the chapters. Majima's segment feels entirely tacked on even though it's more interesting than Kiryu's side.

But worse than that: there's just too much that drags the game down. Leading around a blind girl through stealth segments, slow-walking to follow behind someone to the next cutscene, walking around town to burn time until you get paged (and frankly, the pager is underutilized in the game), etc. It's difficult to focus on the parts that matter given so much fluff.

Also, pointlessly, story cutscenes are skippable, but sidequest silliness cutscenes are not. Basically them wanting to force you to engage with the nonsense that adds zero value to the game, such as a guy in a diaper that was dancing in a club.

Kuze overstayed his welcome after the third time fighting him.

Kiryu - just like Ichiban ("Like a Dragon") is too forgiving, letting antagonist after antagonist off the hook with empty threats that never get closure.

From a pacing and length perspective, "The Man Who Erased His Name" was perfect. This was a slog. Not a bad story...just a padded one.