Recent reviews by TaffyThree

Pragmata is a breath of fresh air that reminds you that there are still game developers out there even in the corporate scene that are capable of creating a masterpiece.

Obviously the most standout point of the game are the main characters, Hugh and Diana. I don't want to spoil too much but the duo were very well-written and life-like, making them very likeable. As a side note, it's also very refreshing having a companion character attached to your hip (or back, in Hugh's case) that isn't annoying or holds your hand through the game, telling you where to go or how to solve puzzles or the like.

The graphics are incredible, but even more incredible is how well the game runs while looking as good as it does. With my specs I averaged 120 frames per second with the game at the maximum possible settings for visual quality, with the exception of ray tracing/path tracing (no Nvidia Frame Generation used either).

The gameplay is fun and engaging. The weapons you have access to look, feel and sound as powerful as they should, making it feel satisfying to put them to use finishing a fight- or starting one. The hacking feature is also an (obvious) standout due to how it is incorporated in combat, making Hugh and Diana feel all the more like a dynamic duo.

The only thing I would say that I find lacking is that at the start you only have access to the Casual and Standard difficulties. Lunatic difficulty is unlocked only after completing the game at least once. For players experienced with action games, Standard difficulty may feel a little bit too easy at times- especially once you've gotten the hang of the game's mechanics and especially once you've mastered them.

The game is not so easy that I would dock points for it, however, as there are moments where you can get caught off-guard and if you make the wrong split-second decision you might end up with your health bar hitting zero. I saw my first death screen in the final level of the game on my first playthrough because an enemy caught me off-guard with an attack I didn't know it had while I was retreating to heal, resulting in my defeat.

All in all I think that Capcom made a fantastic game, and I hope to see them make more good games like this in the future.

It's fun and it's free, what more could you ask for?

Mankind is dead.
Blood is fuel.
Hell is full.

It's time to get motivated.

The story at times feels like your typical 13-episode seasonal anime (go figure it has a 13-episode anime season coming out alongside the game's release) and as a result has some honestly predictable moments, but it's by no means disappointing. Getting a unique perspective of the story (and effectively only half of the story) is a rather interesting design choice in my opinion, but the gameplay is fun enough for me to consider investing the time on a second playthrough of the game.

Speaking of gameplay, the combat is quite fun and manages not to get too stale- though some of the optional side quests that require killing specific enemies with specific attacks gave me more trouble than they were worth. For an action RPG, the RPG elements take a bit of a back seat to the action given how extremely linear progression is- leveling up increases all your stats and gives you points to spend on a tree to unlock new skills and abilities, and you upgrade your weapon by simply replacing it with a new one that is a little bit stronger than the last. The only thing that's missing is a style meter and the background music ramping up when you're doing good.

The difficulty setting doesn't matter since there's nothing extra gained for playing through a route on any difficulty, so it's just a matter of finding what you yourself think is a good balance as difficulty pretty much only affects how much health the enemies have. I started playing on Hard difficulty and found that it's in a perfectly decent spot for giving me a challenge without making enemies feel like brick walls that absorb damage like it's nothing. I shudder to think at the possibility that there's a game journalist out there that wrote that the game is too hard on easy difficulty.

The game's soundtrack is fantastic, especially the background music for the hub areas. Initially I was a little worried that the game would lean too much into heavier electronic music but was proven wrong and I'm glad that I was- I even got the deluxe edition just for the soundtrack.

Average videogame enjoyer opionion: Scarlet Nexus is at least 8/10 pretty good.

[At the time of writing this I have beaten Yuito's route with about 38 hours of playtime (Hard difficulty) and have reached Phase 2 of Kasane's route]

Honestly it's pretty good as far as eroge goes, and it's even uncensored to boot.

Gameplay is rather fun, but it gets repetitive if you're on your third+ playthrough (if you're the type to achievement hunt even in eroge).

Has a very small few spelling errors, unclear translations and missing translations, but it's so minor that it doesn't really take away from the experience.

9.6 hours to 100% clear it (I forgot to savescum), if Steam shows more hours there's only one reason that'd be the case :^)

OPTIMIZE

Edited 9/15/21

A lot has happened in the past month and frankly NGS's future ain't looking too bright. The content dripfeed seems to be getting worse due in part to the fact that the seasonal events so far have just featured "new" enemies that just consist of the same enemies we've already been fighting every day, but with a fancy emblem floating over their heads. Actual content updates are few and far in between, with the next real major update that's supposed to be adding re-release of a PSO2 class and a new playable area slated for December. Not to mention the goings on with the dubious bans for alleged misconduct. There are some other people who have already covered that discussion in their reviews far more than I even know about the whole deal.

The in-game player economy in NGS is completely unsustainable without spending real money on AC due to the fact that NGS lacks all the means of making money that PSO2 Classic did. Cosmetic items from AC scratches are priced so high that a F2Player can barely afford maybe an outfit or two- God forbid you want a new hairstyle, that'll cost you at least a month of completing dailies/weeklies every day to save up for a single one. It also doesn't help that the game is rampant with money-selling bots as well as users botting to make exorbitant amounts of money.

Again, PSO2 NGS isn't in a good place right now. I really hope that Sega gets it together and fixes a lot of the issues that they can, because watching a PSO2 crash and burn before even half a year of NGS' release goes by is something I don't want to witness (due in no small part to the fact that I've spent a sizable amount of money on it as well).

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New Genesis stands out from classic PSO2 very much with its improved graphics. It's still a very fun game but what's currently dragging it down now is a severe lack of content compared to classic PSO2- much like the early years of the original Japanese release of PSO2 back in 2012. However, since NGS was released as an addition to classic PSO2 one can easily switch back and forth between both games as if transferring between rooms.

NGS's release also came with a graphical update for classic PSO2- mostly improving on the original game's lighting and shaders. I haven't really played much of classic after NGS released since I finished pretty much everything there is to do in classic aside from Challenge Mode, so I can't speak for how much better the graphical update actually made classic PSO2.

I still personally recommend giving PSO2 a try, but if you're the type to blitz through a game's content as fast as possible to catch up then you're better off waiting till SEGA releases more content for the game.

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Pretty fun gameplay loop and honestly a lot easier to reach endgame tier than I originally expected.

The only caveat in my opinion is that you shouldn't come in expecting a well-written story. Every major story arc was written and directed by different teams- at least to my knowledge- and the jumps (and falls) in writing quality show. It's like watching a show not because it's good but because it's bad enough to be enjoyable despite its faults- and probably because you were bored out of your mind and had nothing better to do.

I've got at least 600 hours extra play time on record from when the game was on the Microsoft Store and before it came to Steam. It'll be hilarious if I end up surpassing my hours on FFXIV. That already happened lol.

is bes gaem

Titanfall 2's one of the best first-person shooters in the past decade hands down, and now it's finally on Steam (but linked through Origin, unfortunately).

I've never bought a game I already owned before, but this is Titanfall we're talking about so it's well worth it (231 hours logged on Origin at the time of this review).

Now only if they would make a third title instead of working on >battle royale games.

Aliens Soon™

It's got basic, yet pretty fun JRPG elements. Though I'm sure that's not why anyone is getting this for.