Recent reviews by Grumpy

🗡️ Expectation: A beautiful, JRPG-inspired game with an interesting turn-based combat system.
👀 Reality: An emotional journey with a gorgeous art style, where every choice feels like it has weight, and the combat system is more like a rhythm game mixed with a puzzle.
🎭 First Impression: "Wow, the art is incredible!" A character dies in the opening cinematic. "Oh. Okay, this is serious and I cannot parry for the life of me!"
⏳ 3 Hours Later: The emotional weight of the journey is really starting to hit. I’m completely invested in these characters and have so many unanswered questions.
🖼️ The Canvas: Watching as a player on the outside, every action is a brushstroke painting my emotional state onto a beautiful, tragic canvas. Not realising that was the reality of this world...
📖 Final Verdict: "An unforgettable adventure. Clair Obscur is an absolute masterpiece of storytelling, art, and game design. The turn-based combat is innovative, engaging, and rewards strategic thinking. The world is rich with history and lore, and the characters feel incredibly real. This game will stick with you long after the credits roll, and I would not be surprised if it wins game of the year. A must-play for any RPG fan. 10/10 would cry again."

⚔️ Expectation: Classic JRPG vibes — play the hero, save the world, killing monsters is fun!
😬 Reality: Slowly realises the reality of the situation.
🎭 First Impression: "Wow, these shades are kinda creepy." 10 hours later "…oh no."
⏳ 3 Hours Later: Spamming dodge rolls while Kainé roasts me mid-battle.
🎶 Music: Ethereal, haunting, and beautiful — somehow makes existential dread sound like a lullaby.
💔 Ending: "Wait… What?" Stares at screen in horrified silence - proceeds to watch 2 hours of YouTube videos clarifying all the lore to this world.
📖 Final Verdict: "Came for the sword combat, stayed for the emotional trauma. 10/10, would question every RPG's morals again."

🤖 Expectation: Cool androids fighting robots in a post-apocalyptic world.
💔 Reality: Existential crisis, emotional devastation, and questioning the meaning of life… but with stylish combat.
🎶 First Impression: "Wow, this music is incredible!" 5 minutes later "Why am I crying to a choir singing in a made-up language?"
⏳ 3 Hours Later: Starts playing for the action—stays for the heartbreak and philosophy lectures.
🔄 Playthrough 2, 3, 4, 5: "Oh, you thought you were done? Cute."
📖 Final Verdict: "A masterpiece in storytelling, combat, and music. 10/10, would suffer beautifully again."

🗡️ Expectation: More stealth, more powers, more revenge.
👀 Reality: Blinks across rooftops, stops time, Dominoes four guards together, and yeets one off a balcony just to see what happens.
🎭 First Impression: "Karnaca is breathtaking!" Immediately gets spotted and panic-blinks into a wall.
⏳ 3 Hours Later: "I’ll be completely stealthy this time!" Accidentally triggers a domino effect of chaos and accepts my new High Chaos fate.
🔄 Playthrough 2: "I’ll try Emily’s powers this time." Accidentally teleports into a guard's face and immediately regrets everything.
📖 Final Verdict: "Incredible world, S-tier gameplay, and endless ways to break both the game and my moral compass. 10/10, would Domino an entire room of enemies again."

🗡️ Expectation: A stealthy revenge story with cool powers.
👀 Reality: Blinks across rooftops, possesses a fish, and rewrites history like an overpowered ghost.
🎭 First Impression: "This world is GORGEOUS!" Immediately contracts the plague from a rat.
⏳ 3 Hours Later: Starts with full stealth intentions—ends up stopping time and throwing guards into each other for science.
🔄 Playthrough 2: "This time, I’ll be completely non-lethal!" 5 minutes later "Well… one or two accidents won’t hurt…"
📖 Final Verdict: "An RPG masterpiece. The world, the lore, the powers—perfection. Played it a dozen times (before bought on Steam), still finding new ways to break the game. 10/10 would Blink behind a guard again."

🔫 Expectation: A gripping thriller about a doomsday cult.
🎵 Reality: Now casually singing "Oh the Bliss" in the shower like I'm in a propaganda ad.
😎 First Impression: "Wow, Sunnies Guy has some serious charisma!" …Wait a minute…
⏳ 3 Hours Later: Saw the giant "YES" sign, realised I could actually go there, and forgot about the cult because Montana is just that pretty.
🐶 Outpost Liberated: Heroically saves a town, immediately adopts a dog, proceeds to let the dog do all the work.
🍃 Final Verdict: "Played it multiple times, still not over it. Between the beautiful open world, the ridiculous NPCs, and the sheer joy of causing mayhem with my animal army, this game is pure chaotic bliss."

🐉 Expectation: Just another medieval fantasy RPG.
🏹 Reality: A never-ending adventure where I steal cheese, shout people off cliffs, and adopt children.
🚪 Opening Scene: "Hey, you. You're finally awake." – And now I have trust issues with carts...
⏳ 3 Hours Later: Accidentally Fus Ro Dah’d a chicken. Entire town now wants me dead.
🛠️ I Thought This Was About Dragons: Spends most of the game smithing daggers and getting lost in caves with robots chasing me.
🎻 Final Verdict: "Bought it for the adventure, stayed for the side quests, got distracted by installing hundreds of GBs of mods, and now I’m the leader of every guild and a travelling bard playing music in taverns. 10/10, would take another arrow to the knee."

🧟 Expectation: Just a zombie survival game.
🥲 Reality: A beautiful story about fatherly love.
😭 Opening Scene: Was not ready for that...
⏳ 3 Hours Later: "I am hooked by this story. I cannot find enough scrap metal..."
🔫I Thought this was a Zombie Game: Spends most of the game sneaking around humans and shooting at humans and running away from humans.
💀 Final Verdict: "Picked up this game finally, after it was put on PC (and had some time over the holidays) and played it within a week. On Steam, people talk about how it was a poor port and complained about a lot of issues - I had none of that. Game worked smoothly, looked beautiful, and the story was captivating and I am very keen for Part 2 to arrive in April."