Recent reviews by Data's Cat

Great Riichi Mahjong client! The login and gatcha systems feel questionably secure, but also feel way less dark pattern-y than Riichi City. But I prefer it over RC because it feels a bit less like they're hiding their bad design behind a sUpEr-CoOl and sLeAk UI. Though, both suffer from weird UI decisions.

My only complaint is about the menus. Dorm and Items shouldn't be separate, especially when one can navigate to the other, but not the other way around. And you can change your character and outfit multiple ways, but one it a quick swap (no previews other than portraits), one you can see all characters and outfits, and then in the Dorm you can navigate an oddly designed UI to navigate to either the View, then a t-shirt button on the left side of the screen to change outfits.. or one menu up there is also a t-shirt icon in the in the top-left (about 25% the way down the screen).

Edit: Would also be cool if they translated their achievements to Steam achievements, but that's just me being addicted to the dopamine

Edit edit: -2 for SOA colab

Balatro-Peglin Mahjong! What's not to like... unless you don't like those games. But if that is the case, why are you here?

Even based on the early access version of the game, this is a really fun game. Not quite Noita-levels of customization, but you can get that similar spell-chaining feel in a much more relaxed game! Not to say that the game can't be challenging, but when you get the spells you like and you're in the groove of things, it just a great game!

Pros:
- I am having a lot of fun with the combat. And once I get more characters and classes unlocked, I can see the potential for a lot of replay value.
- I started out on Normal and I have a character die here and there, but the so far the game isn't too difficult. I might play for a while longer before upping the difficulty.
- The intro sequence doesn't feel like it would be too much of a slog to get through once you know the controls (even on my first time I was through it in about an hour), so new files wont feel like there is a bunch you need to get through before you get into the game.

Neutral feelings:
- Free respecs! You can reallocate all of your points. So you can experiment with all of the spells, passives, and stats. It's nice because it protects you from having a bad spec, but I can't help by feel like it lessens the impact of the choices.
- Not sure if this is going to persist into other areas, but the first city has some quick-travel node that are placed in such a way that it would be faster to walk from one node to the other than it would to use the node and click on the small icon on the map (plus side: no load screen from any of the travel nodes because you have the whole area loaded into memory).

Cons / Nits:
The game has some issues that I'm sure will get ironed out soon enough-- though I think some are things that should have been caught immediately since that is when I found them.
- I changed some of the controls to be more like BG3 and had to restart the game to even control my character
- If there are tutorials on the screen still when you enter a cut scene and try to click them away, they advance the dialog as if you are trying to skip voiced lines.
- The voice acting isn't terrible, but could definitely be better. The audio quality isn't great
- After playing through BG3, I'm a little spoiled by mouth flaps that look like they are trying to match what is being said. In Dark Envoy, the mouths have a little bit of variation in their movement, but aren't much better than jaws that just move up and down.
- There is one spot where you might be able to soft-lock yourself when you get to the first town. Make sure to follow the quest prompt after your parents give you some money before going too crazy. I had to sell some crafting mats to be able to afford crafting mats to progress the quest...
- When you hit M to open the map, I don't think you can zoom in and out to get a better idea of where you are and orient yourself how you might like.

Some of the puzzles have a finicky feel to them, but in general all of the puzzles are very doable and relaxing

I've been loving hours of this game. Super cool music. None of the bridges have felt unattainable and if I'm in the mood to be a try-hard, I can be!

Great variety of towers and ways to combine them! You also can't just favor one kind of tower, all of the time, because each map only allows you to use certain towers; making you learn how to you use all of them.

There is progression system and ways to make the game more difficult. The game rewards you for making levels more difficult with modifiers. Tons of replayability. I can't wait to get far enough in this where I feel the need to move onto this game's sequel!

A lot of running across the map to search through N number of chests or kill N number of zombies. Nothing other MMOs haven't already done. I got to level 30 and lost all interest in the game.

While there are creatures that want to kill you (that shark, boars, etc.), it is generally and very peaceful game where your main concerns are to find enough food and water to survive while you make things easier on yourself.

I have a lot more of the game to play and I am definitely going to keep playing!

If you're a fan of the older Civilization games, you will always find way to like an older one over the newer ones. With that said, I have to say I really like Civilization VI. It keeps enough of the game that I love intact while including new mechanics to keep the game feeling fresh. I strikes a good balance between simplifying and restricting mechanics (look up an explanation about Wonders and Districts) and creating complexity so that the game doesn't feel like a version of an older game with training wheels.