Recent reviews by TE

My experience was pretty rough, I played with some fools like myself, so I missed a lot of the plot points. However, I still had a lot of fun and excitement. This game is truly enjoyable and engaging, whether you play alone or with friends.

First of all, Baldur's Gate 3 is an RPG and quite possibly the most RPGest I've ever played. And it's inspired by the D&D (some sh1t for weebs) universe and mechanics. The influence of D&D can be found in every aspect of the game, from gameplay mechanics to lore, stories, characters, and beyond.

An example of this could be that every decision you make is determined by a roll of the dice. Winning dice rolls usually gets you what you want, but losing can lead to another unique situation. The chances of winning depend on various skills, traits, items, your mom (sorry), effects on the character, etc. It's a fairly complex mechanic that has a big impact on the gameplay, and every mechanic in the game is so complex, but they can all be described as "easy to learn, hard to master."

Storyline

No, I don't want to describe this whole piece of cheese here, but I can say that it is quite large (66.5 hours, according to some fools on the Internet), complex and interesting. The story structure is very similar to the studio's previous game, Divinity: Original Sin 2. You gather various companions with their own stories related to the main plot, and at the end you fight (or you join) some b1tches who want to conquer the world. It's a simple yet effective structure. It's quite interesting to watch the heroes develop as they move towards their goal.

Gameplay

If simple, it's a turn-based strategy with a top-down view and a variety of skills/items. Of course, turn-based strategy is only in combat; outside combat is optional.

The skills in this game are a whole topic on their own. You can freeze, burn, enlarge, shrink, poison, throw, summon a black hole, 4ucking strike with lightning, turn into gas, transform into another character, finally deliver F-16s to Ukraine, summon elementals, summon a goblin, explode, blow up someone else, teleport, fly, throw a fireball, summon a fireball, suck, explode, summon a goblin, blow up someone else, teleport, fly, throw a fireball, summon a fireball and much more. And you can also use skills/items outside of combat. :D-:

Dialogue is also an important aspect of the gameplay. You can bypass many difficult battles with yo charisma. And not only in battles, but also in quests, your charisma can be invaluable. Choosing the right dialogue options can earn you more gold or provide hints. Different choices can also influence the story and outcomes of quests. The game offers great diversity in this aspect (unless you resort to abusing quick saves and realize that many dialogue branches lead to the same outcome).

Conclusion

This game exemplifies the classic RPGs from an era when developers truly strived for excellence. Significant effort went into crafting the main story, side missions, characters, skills, items, and lore. Naturally, with a game of this scale, there are numerous bugs and glitches. While these don't render the game unplayable, it does require several years of fine-tuning to reach its full potential. For me, it was an exciting experience that I didn't have much time for.

Score: SS of Bear 4uckers

This is a 2D soulslike metroidvania developed by a small indie studio. And we know that there are not so many good 2D soulslike games, and at least this game can be put into the group of not bad ones.

Storyline

The adventure begins when the protagonist finds himself aboard a ship carrying a princess of an unknown kingdom. She must marry the monarch of a rival state in order to prevent an impending war. As fate would have it, the ship is ambushed by a gang of raiders, who ruthlessly massacre the crew. In the next instant, the protagonist is confronted by a colossal sea creature known as the Kraekan. Regardless of the outcome of the fight against these enemies and the mighty Kraekan, a tragic end awaits the ship, and the protagonist ends up on a mysterious island.

You can forget about the princess, you will never find her, only her clothes. The island, "filled" with different worlds/ages, has mysteriously entrapped a lot of creatures and places. And now it's up to you alone to find out why and who did it. You will explore different locations, you will meet many enemies and friendly creatures, sometimes they have their own story to tell or some goals they want to achieve with or without your help.

Good sides

The gameplay is superb. Firstly, it's a souls-like game, and it keeps the quality, the fights feel good, you have all the mechanics from souls (parry, dodge, block, spells, checkpoints, blood stains, etc.) and they are done perfectly. All the effects, impacts are very nice, the character moves the way you want it to without any problems. Also, it's a 2D platformer, and all the necessary mechanics are done well. The character can save your ass by climbing onto a platform if you miss, but close enough. As already mentioned, the movement is excellent, moving in all directions is comfortable. For 2D this is one of the important aspects, and here it is done perfectly.

Another plus is the amount of everything. During the game you will encounter a lot of things: spells, enemies, locations, weapons, armor, bosses, consumables. There is plenty of content in the game.

Bad sides

It's cool in the beginning, it gives some pleasure when you start your journey. The first locations are made in the style of the opening locations of the first dark souls, it's very attractive: forgotten buildings, blood-soaked dungeons, etc. But the more you play, the more you notice that the game is very repetitive.

All enemies/bosses always have 3–4 attacks, and sometimes that's okay for a regular enemy, but when you encounter a boss that has a lot of health and does the same moves throughout the fight, it gets boring. And as time goes by, the bosses start to meet more and more often. In the last locations the bosses meet every 10–15 minutes, because of this the feeling of fighting something great is lost. The atmosphere of the first locations is also lost the more you play. The locations become more and more the same, only with different textures and enemies, but the core of the locations is always the same, without any new "challenges" to beat (with some exceptions).

New enemies and bosses have different animations and appearance, but they behave the same. For example, similar boss attacks: when the boss simply rams the entire arena (running left or right, dealing damage on impact) or when he throws homing projectiles at you, sets fire to some part of the arena, etc.

The game becomes very repetitive and boring, and eventually you want to finish it as fast as possible.

Conclusion

Eventually, it's a good game, and someone will like it. Especially those who like soulslike, metroidvania and platformers. The game has a good setting and nice quality of mechanics, but the quality of enemies and locations (not the visual part) is not so good, quality > quantity. I enjoyed the beginning part of the game, and the others are just really boring to me.

Score: Unique C

This game is one of the old-school slashers and the best slasher I've played. Unfortunately, of the entire series of games, only this one, the first part, has been ported to PC. But at least we can get a taste of this little piece.

Storyline

You play as Bayonetta, 20 years after her awakening from a 500-year sleep. She is a witch, like all characters, has dementia (or amnesia, whichever you prefer) and Bayonetta also has a large piece of jewelry that holds a small red gemstone, and she believes that this gemstone is the "Left Eye of the World". She arrives in Vigrid (the main city of the game) when Enzo (her informant) informs her of rumors that another half exists.

Then she meets another witch named Jeanne, who sides with the angels, and later a young journalist named Luca; the first one is revealed to be connected to Bayonetta's past, and the second one blames Bayonetta for the death of his father. Eventually, after going part of the way in search of answers, she...blah blah, I told you about the beginning, if you want to read the whole history of this game, check out Wikipedia.

In my opinion, it's a wonderful story with an interesting style and twists and turns.

Gameplay

So, what this game is good for. Firstly, it's a very well animated and stylish slasher with a lot of epic moments, and even the appearance of ordinary enemies looks somehow unusual and mesmerizing. Lots of different finishing animations, well-designed weapons (not very many types though), great combo design, good bosses and regular enemies, motorcycle segments and the game can give you a good challenge

I could say a lot more about this game, but like I said, for me, it's the best slasher I've played. I highly recommend playing this game.

Style

As I said before, it's a very stylish game, with some moments similar to DMC, but the overall picture is a bit different. The game has funny and serious moments that always alternate. It's a unique cartoonish yet serious style and I love it.

The characters are also original, from the satanic shopkeeper to the lecherous Bayonetta. It feels like they have their own lives and personality that they sometimes show.

Conclusion

This is a very colorful slasher with a brilliant style (for adults, of course). Nice music, well-designed gameplay, a good plot and a sexy heroine - what else do you need? The best slasher for me, at least at the moment.


Score: Nice boobs Awesome S

This is the third part of the Yakuza series (in chronological order), and I think it's the best part for me (at least for now). The most noticeable change is the engine, the new engine gives better graphics, more detailed environments, and new gameplay mechanics (for example, fights feel different now). The story is also quite interesting and engaging, as always, lots of plot twists, tense moments and of course epic boss fights.

(There's a paragraph at the end of the review "In a nutshell" if you don't want to read the whole thing.)

Storyline

So, what is this game about? Our protagonist as always, Kazuma Kiryu, a year after stepping away from the yakuza life, the chairman of the clan is assassinated. He was killed by a rival clan, and now that means war, which Kazuma wants to prevent, and to do that he needs to find the new chairman of the Tojo clan. On his way he meets the villain of the story, Ryuji Goda, the "Dragon Kansai" of the Omi Alliance. He wants to kill Kiryu because there can only be one dragon, and now it's a dragon confrontation.

As I said before, the plot in this part is not bad. But not better than before, for example, in the first part we had two main characters and two big stories that merged at the end. Those stories were pretty epic, in the Kiriya line he wiped out most of the Tojo clan, which was pretty cool. In Kiwami, we were confronted with the changes in 10 years. A lot of people we knew changed, a lot of people died, and the ending was very powerful.

But now the story starts a year later (which isn't a bad thing, though), and not much has changed. We meet new rivals from the clan we met before, but in my opinion they are not as interesting as the previous ones. But that doesn't mean the plot is bad, it's pretty cool, though not as epic as before (but the ending is pretty epic too, nonetheless).

Districts and the Atmosphere

As for the atmosphere, it's the same as in the previous part, so I guess I'll skip that topic and talk about the elaboration of details.

Thanks to the new engine, the graphics are better than before and now there are no loading screens (at least on the streets). You can enter restaurants and entertainment places on your own, now you don't have to press the button and wait for loading. You can also enter unusual places, such as an office or other building, where there is no entertainment. The level of detail of these places is also increased, there are a lot of interior items that are lying around and can be picked up in fights (much more than before).
Although I said the atmosphere remained the same as the previous part, I was meaning the atmosphere of Japan in the 2000s, but with this level of detail, the districts became more alive and interesting to explore.

Additional assignments

This part of the game is most similar to the one that was in the previous game. The quests are very similar in story (in general the plots are different, but on the same level), for example in the previous parts we had a hostess club and this one has one, and they are the same (or almost the same) in mechanics. Quests are not unusual, but they're not bad either, especially with the new graphics that make everything more beautiful.

Gameplay

For me, this is the best change. Foremost, the game got rid of 3 (+1) fighting styles, for some people this might not be very nice, but for me, it's pretty good. I always use one, my favorite style, and don't pay attention to the others. Usually halfway through the game, I upgrade that style to the last one. If I want to improve anything else (in this style), I have to do some secrets or silly quests, but now we only have one style and more upgrades to it (and secrets or silly quests remain). Because of this, you have a lot of upgrades, and you can use them as soon as you want.

Also, skills are now more interesting, or at least make more difference in combat or exploration. For example, you can get a skill that shows you all the side quests on the map, which is pretty handy. The improvements in combat have also gotten interesting, from parrying to cancel actions. Thanks to this, you can actually dodge or parry attacks normally now. In the previous part, fighting multiple enemies was quite difficult and uncomfortable, now it has become much better.

But with weapons and consumables, the game took a step backwards. Now you can have all types of consumables (food, first aid kits, etc.) within 5-10, it makes you invincible (if you can use them). That's pretty casual in my opinion.

Also, weapons are now more consumable than before. You can't even repair it before completing some side quests (now it's not as obvious and not many people can repair weapons like before), I didn't repair any of my weapons because of this. And it's also too powerful, I wouldn't recommend using it on bosses (at least not on bosses without weapons).

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In a nutshell

The plot is not bad, very dramatic and tense, but not as epic as in the previous parts. The game has a new engine, which fixed many problems: battles became more convenient and interesting, much less loading screens, quite beautiful graphics, more detailed locations and characters, more convenient exploration and the map (now it is possible to put marks). Side quests are on the same level, that's not bad. The atmosphere is also unchanged from the previous part.

Conclusion

I can say that the game is much more comfortable to play now. I used to get tired of the fights by the end of the game, especially when the game gave a lot of enemies at once (it was quite uncomfortable). But now this has been fixed, and I really enjoyed the fights in this part. The story isn't bad either, the exploration, as I said, is made more interesting by the new engine. All in all, for me, it's a great game with some minor flaws.

Score: 4uсking Awesome S

After completing this part, I can say that this is a unique game, just like the first one.
It's an independent game, so it's not as well polished and has a lot of issues. And I'll talk about the pros and cons in short topics.

Storyline & Lore

Lore is very connected to the first one and has the same world, but our plot is going with different characters and in the other time. We have eight playable characters, with various stories behind them. They come to the same town "Prehevil" with their own purpose, and just like in the first part, something went wrong with the place. Many gods, characters and creatures will stand in the way of you and each of them presents their own threat. For me, this is the best part of this series, a unique dark world with an interesting story and the main plot is also very unusual and unpredictable. You always don't know what you will encounter, which is great, not many projects make you feel the same way.

Gameplay

It's very similar to the first part and other jRPG, you travel around the world with your group and face different enemies in turn-based combat. But there are differences, firstly, hunger is now not as dangerous as before (at least I always had more than enough food), and some items can even be used outside of combat. You can use some shooting weapons to kill enemies even when you are in travel mode, and also you can use traps etc. This part has more armor/weapons/items and has a slightly modified battle system, which is nice.

But with pluses there are always minuses, the save system is very absurd. Firstly, to save you need to clear the area around, as it was before, but now the save also skips time ahead (if you use normal saves). And the time to complete the game is limited, meaning you have a limited number of saves, but ok, we've had experience with this, the most annoying part is when you save, you miss some part of the day (morning, afternoon, evening, night) and some events/characters can only meet at a certain time on a certain day.
Do I need to explain why this is a bad part of the game next? I played on the highest difficulty level that was at the time of the first playthrough and I don’t know if such a system is everywhere or not. But for the first passage, this is not at all suitable, not knowing neither the world nor the threats nor the events that can happen, it simply becomes unpleasant to play with such a system. You're just missing out on a huge amount of content just by not knowing it. Of course, even though it was intended by the author, this does not mean at all that it is very convenient and justifies such a system. And for example, if he (developer) charged you a dollar for every death, would that be okay?

Atmosphere & World

As I said, the world is unique, when you travel through it, you get very unusual emotions. I can compare it to the Dark Souls series, especially the third one, a very dark fantasy (but something younger than fantasy in our case) with threats everywhere. And because of the sounds, the effects, the design of the enemies (and + the lack of saves) you always have a feeling of pressure, and this feeling makes the game stand out.

Technical side

I don't usually talk about bugs, lags, etc. in games, but it's a very big topic right now. Throughout the game, I had a lot of different problems (probably due to the engine), visual bugs, low fps (really) and 4:3 resolution, which of course does not matter much, but I cannot mention it. In the game, you are constantly running away from someone, and at that moment the game always starts to lag, fps drops to ~15. Also, some texture issues in a lot of different places, especially when running. I haven't worked with this engine, and I won't if it's hard to fix, but it's really terrible even for an indie. The lack of budget and people is very noticeable

Conclusion

For me, it's a unique game, but with a lot of problems, it's easy to see that the developers love their games and have created a very interesting product. However, there are many shortcomings that spoil a lot. But those who like jRPG and dark settings will love it.

Score: Unique C

I like the Dishonored series, I went through the first part many times. It is a very good game with a lot of freedom. The second one is not inferior to the previous one, it has even more content. More ways to complete missions, more playable characters, more skills, more equipment, etc. It was a pretty solid game for 2016.

Storyline

I want to start with the most controversial element, the story. In my opinion, the main storyline is less interesting than in the first part. There are no twists and turns, and the main reason for our journey is very similar to the one in the previous part.

You will not see any character development or disputes in the group. Your hub (ship) is very empty, with literally only two allies on it. If you compare this to the first Dishonored, when you had a lot of talkative people reacting to your actions, it's a step backwards.

But it's not all bad, perhaps the reason for the journey is very similar, but that doesn't mean it's not interesting. The new villains are very interesting with their skeletons in the closet. There is a lot of readable material in each area that explains each enemy's story and why they do it. Many optional dialogues between npc also contain useful information.

In brief, the main plot and main characters are not very interesting. The lack of character development and the emptiness of the allied forces make me feel sad. But the villains are more interesting than even in the first part, many of them have their own reasons and their own style, which makes them unforgettable.

Gameplay

As I said, you have more stuff now than you had in the first part. First, there are two playable characters, Corvo and Emily. Character selection affects some of the dialogue and cutscenes, but the overall effect in the storyline is minor. However in the gameplay, you have a bunch of different skills for each character, which makes your playthrough varied.

The next big gameplay update is the variety of everything in the levels. There was a lot of variety in the first part, but now it's just crazy. There are a lot of ways to complete quests: you can just go through all enemies with a fair fight (1 vs n → inf), you can stealthily kill all enemies or just walk by, you can help some npc with their quests, and they will help you in return, you can just stop time and also walk by, etc. And such variety in everything. For example, all the black markets can be robbed, of course, if you find a way how, and each shop has its own methods of robbery. The levels are just interesting to explore.

The enemy AI is also very good (for a video game), they communicate with each other, have different levels of alertness, and hostile factions fight each other. They can react to certain player actions, such as opening doors, turning off electricity, etc. This makes the stealth gameplay unique.

The game contains a "Chaos Level", it is determined by your actions, if you create a lot of noise, kill a lot of people, the level will increase. As a result, the locations will change, there will be more common enemies and bloodflies, more empty buildings, and it will affect the game's ending.

Environment

Very great attention to detail. Each level has many details that describe the lore, the plot of the game. You can get information from books/notes, listening to npc, looking around. Even when you need, for example, the code for the safe, it turns into a mini-game where you read all the notes, look at every picture, and press all the buttons. But it doesn't get boring, the environments are really well-designed and original.

There are many secrets that are hidden in different parts of the map. They can captivate you for more than one hour. The game also generously rewards you for finding secrets.

Conclusion

I really like this game, I’ve passed it 3 times and never got bored. The great variation in the game makes me try something new every time. I recommend playing this game at least twice for each character, and playing the first time in stealth mode, trying to make as little noise and killing as possible. And in the new game+ try playing as a slayer machine. Such a contrast will evoke pleasant emotions.

Score: 4uсking S

And I've completed another part of the Yakuza series. I can say it was a very interesting journey. This is the next part after Yakuza 0, it was developed in one year and was released in 2016.

So what's new about this game? For me it is very similar to the previous one, but it has some differences. About them below.

(There's a paragraph at the end of the review "In a nutshell" if you don't want to read the whole thing.)

Storyline

The story continues a few years after Yakuza 0, we see familiar characters leading ordinary lives (at least for them) and celebrating Yumi's birthday. But this timeline is not very long, after a few moments and for some reason (because of Yumi), Kiryu's sworn brother, Nishikiyama, kills Sohei Dojima. And Kiryu takes the blame and goes to jail for ten years.

After his release, he discovers that many things have changed. Nishikiyama has become a powerful yakuza and is not very friendly now. The former chairman of the clan was murdered. Yumi has disappeared after stealing ten billion yakuza money. And there is a young child, Haruka, who wants to find her mother, and she has a very important clue - the pendant. And we have to find out who killed the former chairman, where Yumi, the money and Haruka's mother are.

Intriguing, right? Like the previous part, this one also contains a very interesting and good story, lots of plot twists and plenty of fascinating characters. To me, this is the best aspect of the Yakuza games (at least for now), and it's worth playing these games at least for that.

Districts and the Atmosphere

Goodbye Osaka, we only have one neighborhood left - Kamurocho (Tokyo). This area has some differences from the one in Yakuza 0 (of course it does, because more than 10 years have passed), but overall it's pretty similar. Many of the stores and other entertainment places are the same, but there are new ones, and the biggest difference for me was that you can't just go and fix (but you can buy) your weapons anywhere, you have to find out where you can do it by buying information from informants. There are many secrets in this city right now, and you can buy information about those to uncover them.

The immersion and atmosphere here is also good, but the late 90's is not very distant and doesn't evoke the same emotions as the 80's, but it's done well.

Additional assignments

I thought they were made more interesting, with more out-of-the-box situations and lots of twists and turns. I went through a lot less side quests in this part, but the ones I did were very exciting, even more so than in the previous part. But because of my lack of experience I can't say for sure.

Gameplay

A lot has changed, first of all, we have all 3 main fighting styles from the beginning and plus one more style. It's the dragon style, and to me, it's completely useless. To explain it, I have to say that now we upgrade our character for experience, not for money like in Yakuza 0. It's a better system because before I was too OP, earning money was very easy (usually because of Mr. Shakedown). I got billions in the previous part, and all my skill trees were fully completed. Even the styles I didn't use.

Now experience and money are harder to come by (at least in the beginning). I just can't fully improve every style as much as I want, I need to think about the skills I get. Also, I don't have a lot of money like I used to, and I need to think about the weapons/equipment I want to use.

Though these are good improvements , to improve the dragon style you need to fight Majima many times and learn new skills from the trainer. And it's not very powerful, or you need to grind Majima to improve it well, otherwise it would be crap. But it does contain some very useful skills for some other styles. And also the trainer just glitches and refuses to teach me, just always says "I'm still preparing, come back later.", I don't know maybe I need to do something, but I think it's a bug.

Also about the bosses, a lot of them fight you with a bunch of other guys, that's fine, but these guys and bosses like to use different stun weapons or tricks. And they use it as often as possible and you're always stunned, your fights turn into "hit and stun" fights where you just attack one guy once and then lay on the ground after that. Bosses are usually immune to your stun, and it's just 4uсking hell when you're fighting multiple bosses. Weapons are also not very useful, they do little damage to bosses and break after a few hits, and the repair bill is very high for a good weapon. Because of this, fighting two or more bosses (or a boss with a lot of guys), especially if they have guns, is annoying as f4ck.

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In a nutshell

This is a great game with a good plot that continues the plot of the previous part. The side missions are more interesting and engaging, the characters in the main and side missions are also very engaging. There are some new improvements in the game, especially in the money system, now it is better than it was. The city and atmosphere is still here, albeit in a different decade. Battles are harder than they were, usually because of the stun and the camera. But the game is very exciting and unusual.

Conclusion

This is a great continuation of the previous part. If you liked the story of the last part and want more, try this one. I think it has some problems, but it also fixed the problems that were there, and a lot of good things that were also just carried over here.

Score: 4uсking S

This game is another representative of the recently popular genre of retro shooters. But it has its own features. As a lover of the genre, I decided to play it and was SPOILER satisfied. In a nutshell, about everything.

Story and lore

Sorry, but I don't give a s4it about the plot in these games. Yes, of course, it has some story & lore things, but who cares. If you want a good story, go and play a different game. I can tell you that it has as good a story as any other game of this genre.

Gameplay

And that's the most important part of the game. So, I can say that it's good, not great, but enough. The movement is very responsive and feels pretty good, in other words, your character is not a cow on ice. The same goes for shooting, the main difference from other games is that you shoot magic weapons, not guns ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That's if Harry Potter or Gandalf were crossed with Painkiller. Also, there are many types of weapons (well, 7) they are enough, but not particularly original (I mean the mechanics, about the appearance will be below). In fact, they are just shooting sticks, which are no different from our usual weapons. (like pistol, machine gun, shotgun, etc.)

As for the rest, the game does not let the quality bar of such games fall. The design of the levels is good and their variety, as well as the opponents. That is, you have a choice of 6 locations where 3 levels + boss, all of these locations are different opponents and styles. During the course of the game, I did not get tired of it.

Graphics

It's very great, really. All the weapons and enemy, items sprites/models were done very well. The animations and the appearance of the weapons are very original and interesting. The graphics here remind me of the 80s TV series. (At least the dark 80s fantasy series from AI).

Flaws and my opinion

The game is not without flaws. Some problems on my opinion:

-Bosses, there are enough of them in the game, but their quality is simply disgusting, only one I liked.

-The first 2 levels are disgusting. They are very boring, have bad opponents and bosses.

-Lack of kick, because there are a lot of different enemies who want to get close to you. But there is no kick in the game.

-Also few different interesting boosts, or that I have not found, because the only thing I saw is invisibility, a large soul (needed to fill the rage scale) and a bonus to refill ammunition, this is not enough.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to say that the game is great, but not better than others in the genre. That is, there is nothing special about it, in general, for fans of this genre I can recommend this game, but for beginners it is better to try more proven games like Ultrakill.

Score: Good, but common B

Because playing for each character is different, and I've only played the game for one of the many characters, so my opinion may be inaccurate and incomplete. I also 4uсking hate platformers :).

Storyline & Lore

It's different for different characters, but the point is always the same, we need to get from point A to point B, along the way dying countless times. In general, the plot is not particularly important in these games, so here it is acceptable. But the lore in the game is really interesting, a lot of different unexplained phenomena (like rain), creatures, etc. And to learn more about it you need to read the dialogues and bring special pearls to the iterators.

Gameplay

The most important aspect of platformers here is perfectly executed. Although the jumps themselves annoyed me, the character is constantly can not jump, can not grasp the ledge, etc. (Perhaps this is just me really bad at these types of games) However, the game is striking for its artificial intelligence, it recreated not just opponents, but a whole ecosystem. There are predators, herbivores, neutral and hostile creatures, all of them interact with each other and with the player, which creates a sense of liveliness of the world. In short, it is pleasant to be in the game and watch the creatures (although sometimes they can just freeze and stand in one place for a whole cycle).

Graphics

Not a particularly important aspect of pixel platformers. But the graphics in this game are really awesome. The huge number of backdrops, as well as the animations, effects and designs of the different creatures, create a truly unique atmosphere.
All of the creatures do not move smoothly, as animals from our world, but as if they were ragdolls on legs (which in fact they are), it does not disgust, but rather interesting.

Possible flaws

I can't say that these are downsides, but there are some things that can alienate most players. For example, unfairness, the game is really unfair. You can get killed by a predator that just happens to fall out of the sky, or you can get stuck on a cycle because the same predator doesn't want to leave the pass where you need to go. Or you might get killed by allied scavengers because they don't like something, or you might fall into a million ecosystem traps, like live grass. In short, the game doesn't spare you and forces you to constantly go through difficulties.

Also an uncertain point can be the rain and the gates. That is, the mechanics themselves are separately cool, but together they are really painful. You just can't go to another location, you usually have to cross the gate. They only open during a certain cycle, to get this cycle you have to sleep in the shelter a certain number of times without dying. But to sleep in the shelter and go to the next cycle you need food and this implies that you have to frequently and slowly farm food in order to get to the next location. Is that interesting? No, but it would be okay if there was no second ambiguity - rain. That is, you have a certain amount of time to cycle, after that the deadly rain will start and if you don't make it to the shelter in time your cat will die. These two mechanics create a very big pain when you're trying to move to the next location and at the same time do not create anything interesting, usually it all ends in farming food.

Conclusion

In conclusion I want to say that even though the game has some problems, it really is unique in its kind (at least I don't know similar games), so the game is for you if you're a fan of platformers or if you like games with lively ecosystem, or at least want to try something new and unusual. Personally, I liked the game, even though it blew my ass up.

Score: Awesome A

I finally made it to the "legendary Japanese game series" and after one eternity I finally made it through one of them. In my opinion the game is really legendary, although it is long, especially if you pass it 100%.

(There's a paragraph at the end of the review "In a nutshell" if you don't want to read the whole thing.)

Storyline

Well, let's start with the best part. I haven't played any of the games in this series before, so I started with this one because it comes first in chronological order. Respectively, I did not know what awaits me, but I was pleasantly surprised. Retell the whole story, I will not, if interested play yourself or read Wikipedia or aother website with infromation.

The game takes place in Japan in the 80's. The game has two protagonists: Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, both associated with the Tojo clan, one of the largest yakuza clans in Japan. The game begins as Kiryu, an ordinary petty yakuza, who has always been busy doing the things befitting his status, i.e. collecting debts. After he finished with his "work", he decided to rest with his friend at a karaoke, where he learned that the man he "worked off" today is dead. Obviously, he was set up, how and why we are going to find out.

The second character, on the other hand, is a former clan member who is currently being kicked out and kept "locked up" in a district of Osaka (Sotenbori). He is a former member of the Sotenbori district of Osaka who is imprisoned and wants to return to the clan, so he works as a manager of a cabaret that has become one of the most famous in the city thanks to his efforts. He works there to pay a large sum of money to get back into the clan. He even earned the name "King of the Night" through his efforts, but it doesn't help him to return to the clan. But one day he receives a request to kill a certain Makimura Makoto, in exchange for this killing he will be forgiven for his sins and returned to his family.

The plot contains many different characters, story twists and Chekhov's guns. The game's script is excellent, engaging well and keeps you in suspense until the credits roll. For me, this was the best part of the game, as it probably was for most other players.

Districts and the Atmosphere

Districts of cities such as Kamurocho (Tokyo) and Sotenbori (Osaka) are very detailed and resemble their real-life originals as much as possible. The developers really tried and were able to convey the essence of densely populated areas in which different events are constantly taking place. There is a lot of different stores, restaurants, entertainment centers, made pretty well and interesting, perfectly feels the culture of Japan with its ramen, street stores with takoyaki, baseball centers, etc. The immersion in the atmosphere of Japan in the 80's in the game is excellent.

Additional assignments

There are a huge number of them in the game and in general they are interesting, but to the level of quests from the third Witcher they are still very far away. The staging, the dialogues are much worse than in the main story, and there is no voice acting at all, but that's why they are optional quests. Still, the stories that appear in them are quite unusual and can be fascinating, although they are often quite naive and banal. However, they have many different twists and gags, in a word, anyone who likes leisurely reading dialogues will be fine.

Gameplay

In general, there is nothing new here today, a good beat-em-up with a lot of different animations of finishing. The characters have 3 styles of combat + the ability to use weapons. These styles can generally be divided into: light, medium and heavy. All as elsewhere, light is fast but weak, heavy is slow but strong, and medium is just average. Styles can be pumped in a kind of skill tree, but still the game does not offer anything new, and if you pass the game at 100%, you can get tired of combat.

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In a nutshell

There is a lot more in the game and what I have not mentioned, but this review is already two pages long, so I will summarize some of the above for those who are too lazy to read it all. The story is interesting and keeps you in tension until the very end, and the staging of a lot of cutscenes gives you goosebumps. The game perfectly conveys the atmosphere of Japan in the late 80's, with the design of the main locations, sound, as well as a lot of small details (such as working out the interiors of various restaurants). Gameplay is the standard beat-em-up with pumping, but the animations are really cool. Additional quests will be interesting to those who like to read and do not mind a simple, but good stories. The mini-games are also top, I personally liked the dancing and karaoke, the music in them is wonderful. The game is really big and full of content, I for my almost 40 hours, saw a maximum of ¼ of all the content, so who likes big and leisurely games this will definitely like it.

Conclusion

For me, the game was a revelation and pleasantly surprised me. If every game in the series is like this, no wonder why it has so many fans. Well developed and interesting with a unique atmosphere and story.

Score: 4uсking S