Recent reviews by esh

If you're an avid bullet heaven enjoyer then Jotunnslayer is worth your time, especially on sale. It has many mechanics that make it feel unique compared to others in the genre, namely its map and boss designs, and there's enough to grind and do to keep you occupied for a couple dozen hours. If not more should you be an absolute achievement gobbling gremlin, which I occasionally am; just not fully for this game. The grind itself is somewhat tedious, but for any bullet heaven veteran out there it's pretty simple to complete every map on all their difficulties up to Insane with little effort if you know how to maximize your meta currency gains per run.

Its main shortcomings for me are a fundamental imbalance of certain abilities and characters, as many are complete wastes of space compared to others that do consistently bonkers damage. That alongside its Revive system, a commonplace feature amidst all bullet heavens, that punishes you by negatively impacting your currency multipliers each time you use it. It's an asinine limitation, to the point where there may as well not be revives in the game at all because there's little sense in slashing your gains when you'd probably just leave with more if you accept your death on the spot.

I would've also put in at least another handful of hours if its Endless mode didn't feature an entirely new ruleset that feels like it's in place for no other reason than sheer spite against your ability to farm efficiently. But overall I would say I had more fun than I didn't. A decently far cry from the greats such as Soulstone Survivors, DRG, or Halls of Torment, but definitely one worth checking out if you've burned through enough of the rest and want something new to chew on.

Very fine bullet heaven that excels in visuals and variety, with plenty of different maps to roam and characters to unlock. The grind and presentation in general is similar to Soulstone Survivors, with each Tem having its own personal meta progression tree as opposed to the universal sort you'd see in most other survivorslikes. I would like to see rerolls/bans/locks be added as part of a universal tree, if anything, as it feels silly to have to unlock such a necessity in every respective tree. And that's where my main gripes with the game lie in general because the initial grind for each character is an exercise in madness.

Certain nodes are locked behind the need to do X amount of damage with Y character, or to do 50 total runs, or by unlocking every ability of a certain type, or whatever. These requirements aren't necessarily hard to do, but having to navigate through a Tem's Path of Exile-esque tree to look at a locked node that requires the use of another Tem, back out, then go to that Tem's tree to find they also have a locked node that requires usage of ANOTHER Tem is borderline maddening. It's just Tems all the way down, and while it's satisfying to finally push through all those requirements it does take a certain degree of patience to get there since each run is 20 minutes until you unlock Hasty Mode which cuts it in half. But that mode isn't remotely surmountable until you unlock 50% or more of a Tem's upgrades, so. I dunno. Grind.

Skills are also similar to Soulstone Survivors in that there's a metric assload of them, which is rad in concept but I was quickly reminded as to why Soulstone allows you to have nigh infinite bans/rerolls throughout a given run. Because the more you unlock in this game, the less possible it is to make a cohesive build as you're only allotted 5 rerolls/bans, with the very occasional drop of another during a run. This isn't nearly enough as I often start my endgame runs burning through every single one on my first level up until I either get lucky or settle on something even remotely usable for my chosen Tem's build. Fortunately you can replace any abilities/passives you get throughout a run once you reach max build, as anything you don't ban will still show up in the shop, so with enough luck you can optimize any run. But it would be nice to simply have more resources to cut down the pool and avoid having to deal with dead rolls where absolutely no choice is beneficial.

Anyway, to summarily blitz the rest of the game's features: skills all have evolutions akin to Vampire Survivors, Tems can be prestiged once you fully unlock their skill trees, each map has a Hades-style heat system of difficulty modifiers, and said modifiers increase the amount of meta currency you receive throughout a run. There is a lot to do, even more to grind, and it is a fine smorgasbord of survivorslike fare of which anyone who enjoys this genre would be remiss to not shove their face in and pig out. 8/10, with the possibility of a 9 if further updates address some of the game's more tedious shortcomings.

A flawed but ultimately fun survivorslike. Four characters to choose from, each with their own unique passive ability that casts after a cooldown, alongside an impressive variety of guns that all drop with Diablo-esque affixes and upgradable stats. Powers you earn throughout a run let you pull off some wacky builds even in lower difficulties, and the game's sparse meta progression tree doesn't require itself to be maxed out to clear any and all content up until the endgame. Said tree is mostly made redundant by shrines that appear on each map that give you a certain percentage of any given stat, and they spawn constantly enough that you can end any run literally stuffed full of bonuses that scale far past the limits of diminished returns.

The visuals are rad, the soundtrack makes you feel right at home with its clear homages to DOOM, and the enemy count is as satisfying as any other bullet heaven as you cleave through armies of demons and ghouls by the thousands.

There are smaller issues like a lack of map variety, as the "three" maps are all just recolors of one another with differing enemy/boss spawns. My main issue with two of these maps is that enemies simply stop spawning after bosses arrive, which means you can have literally a full minute where there's nothing on screen. I assumed this was a bug, but the first map doesn't have this issue so I can only assume it was a conscious choice to make boss spawns less stressful? Or something? It's a baffling decision regardless and something I found incredibly annoying anytime I had to visit those maps for an achievement.

Infinite runs are bogged down by the fact that you can't dilute the upgrade pool, as you're presented with any and all upgrades even if you've gotten them before. This is especially bothersome due to upgrades all being a part of their own trees of four choices, which means you can get any of those four upgrades over and over again. With some choices this can lead to truly ludicrous builds, but most of the time I found myself dumping all my rerolls trying to find one specific upgrade I wanted and then never seeing it pop up once for an entire 40 minute run. This could be easily solved by adding in bans in addition to rerolls, which I assume will be implemented in a patch at some point as it's been a pretty standard mechanic in this genre since the very beginning.

The most fun you can have is experienced via runes, passive bonuses you can equip before any run, but many of them are locked behind incredibly (yet fittingly, going by the title) grindy achievements. So grindy that by the time you get some there really isn't much else to do unless you're interested in getting a spot on the leaderboard (god help you) or fully 100%ing the game. The latter goal of which is also made frustrating by circumstantial requirements, namely killing certain enemies in very specific ways.

I'd almost recommend just waiting till the game gets further updates to really take it for a spin, as it could truly benefit from a glut of QoL changes. With more foresight I would've done that very thing, but if you're hankering for something new right now then by all means. I would say at best it's a passable addition to the genre with some fun builds/cool visuals, but a lack of substance to its systems and a general layer of frustration that left me scratching my head more often than I would've liked. 7/10.

As someone who couldn't quite get into the Nioh series, Khazan came along to assuage that disappointment in a whirlwind of fast paced, bloody action and sharp anime visuals. They feature similar mission structures and loot mechanics, with Khazan's enemy placement and aggro being largely more forgiving than Nioh by comparison. You can easily run past most any mob in Khazan on your way to scouting out checkpoints or simply reaching a boss, which I feel is a sort of "mechanic" that's almost mandatory in any modern soulslike. Especially in this where plenty of enemies can present an almost annoying amount of challenge whenever you are made to actually engage them.

The combat shines nonetheless, with its crown jewel of mechanics being the Brink Guard system; a sort of mini-parry you can perform by timing your guard with the impact of an enemy's attack. This generally neutralizes their damage, incrementally depletes their stamina bar, and allows you to counterattack more quickly as opposed to the delay that comes with dodging attacks. Bosses are relentless in nature, often overwhelming you with seemingly uncounterable assaults and flashy moves, but most everything can be dealt with via this mechanic. I would say it's more challenging early on with limited stamina and combination moves, but as you level up and learn patterns your windows of opportunity to unleash your own maelstroms of pain only become larger and more brutal.

A major flaw, however, comes in the form of the devs' insistence to cram status effects into nigh every encounter in the game. From bosses to mobs, most everything will put some godforsaken DoT effect on you, deplete your stamina, halve your HP, or literally reverse your controls. This is where Brink Guarding loses its luster, as enemies imbued with such effects will inflict you with their stank even through perfect guards. It's remedied somewhat by certain gear having specific resistances to this or that, but having to deal with so many debuffs so often is nothing short of an annoyance more than it is a genuine challenge. Most every boss presents itself as a wall upon which you will bash your face against for hours, and they would remain as such even without being given the ability to constantly shove debuffs up your ass.

Regardless, I was readily prepared to give Khazan a glowing 9/10 before a small section at the very end of the game reared its head and whispered directly into my ear, "Hey. Eat ♥♥♥♥." It is a series of platforming feats akin to the ill-suited jumping puzzles in Devil May Cry games of yore, punctuated by a single, tiny bit of space occupied by one of the most annoying enemies in the game. This one frustration alone drops my score to an 8, which is obviously still respectable and pretty much identical to a 9, whatever. But I cannot get over something that was so plainly and disrespectfully crammed in by a dev out of sheer, trollish spite directly before the game's absolute climax.

Yet it is still a finely crafted game despite the sharp pinpricks of its flaws; snappy controls, a wide variety of builds despite its limit of three weapon types, smooth voice acting (the Blade Phantom lovingly reminded me of Celebrimbor from the Shadow of Mordor games which was very nice), fair checkpoints, a story that doesn't waste your time, and several post-game modes in addition to the NG+ mechanic requisite to any soulslike worth their weight in salt and tears. Definitely hoping for DLC or a full sequel as it is fully deserving of such.

8/10, a solid soulslike that's just as skilled at making you feel like a god as it is rubbing your face in the dirt. Many sections of the game are littered with frustrating enemy placements and easily missed traps, to the point where exploration takes the lion's share of the game's difficulty as opposed to its gallery of bosses. But most enemies are easily avoided, allowing you to sprint through most areas on your way to the next checkpoint with minimal faff. And the game's level-up system is generously simple; a Path of Exile-esque web that contains stat boosts entirely in line with your chosen weapon's affinities, making it all but impossible to mess up any potential builds.

Wuchang is also the type of game that gets easier the further you go in, minus traversing the labyrinthine madness that comprises its final two areas. Enemies not only give you experience, they routinely drop consumables that give you even more experience. To the point where you're leveling up two or three times every time you make it back to a checkpoint. You also only lose a percentage of your "souls" on death, allowing you to make use of any that remain before going back to get the ones you lost. In an endgame area I probably leveled up 15~ times without going out of my way to farm, which ended up turning several bosses around that stage into complete jokes as I cleaved them into pieces with my giant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ axe.

As far as death is concerned, there is also an Insanity mechanic that fills both when you kill human enemies and whenever you die, and decreases whenever you kill more monstrous enemies. Upon reaching the maximum, the game informs you of such by completely obscuring your screen with a giant symbol alongside a note saying that you now deal more damage, but take more as well. Having faced nigh every boss with max insanity I can say that the debuff is absolutely negligible, while the buff further trivializes the integrity of every boss' pool noodle of an HP bar. I've seen people complain about this mechanic, and I was ready to as well before coming to the conclusion that it's more psychological than anything. With appropriate armor equipped and knowledge of any boss' moveset one can tackle them fully sane or not, with the only real debuff being the aforementioned symbol that covers the entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ screen every time you respawn.

With some of the most absurdly generous i-frames I've ever witnessed in a dodge mechanic, satisfying and myriad playstyles to choose from its selection of weapons, and a genuinely beautiful world to explore, Wuchang's strengths healthily outweigh its shortcomings. Certain areas will test your patience, and searching Reddit for tips on quests or navigation is basically mandatory, but it is nonetheless a fine addition to the genre alongside the likes of Khazan or Lies of P. Definitely worth the experience.

Pretty much every modern title expects you to have your phone or second monitor available to do any amount of searches when you inevitably encounter a problem with a solution that isn't communicated clearly in the game itself. Asterigos is like that except the expectation takes the form of the torture chair from A Clockwork Orange as you discover countless quests and paths of progression are hidden beneath nonsensical dialogue trees and little to no guidance as to where you need to be or what you need to do. This is especially, headache inducingly evident with the path to the game's true ending which requires you to adhere to seemingly innocuous dialogue choices, fetch quests that are as tedious as they are vague, and leaps of logic that no one would take themselves without a guide open every step of the way.

The rest of the game plays like you'd expect; a AA soulslike with sluggish/spongey enemies, passable combat, lofty yet underwhelming boss fights, and a bare bones leveling/gear system. You are afforded an entire arsenal of weapons from the beginning, which is nice, allowing you to equip two at a time to play as you prefer throughout the entire game. Eventually you'll find yourself spending less time in combat and more time mashing through dialogue trees or backtracking through tedious zones for this or that, to the point where I just started ignoring the story altogether during the game's finale.

The narrative in general is a victim of no one on the production team telling the writers, "No." Every piece of lore, conversation with an NPC, hell just anything that involves text is presented as nothing short of an essay. Imagine if that kid who says "Hi! I like shorts! They're comfy and easy to wear!" in Pokemon instead gave you a five page biography about every pair of shorts he's owned throughout his life, the various trials and tribulations he faced while wearing each one, and that's Asterigos. You are routinely bombarded with excessive lore and worldbuilding and while I can respect the writers' clear passion for the setting they developed, it simply comes off as far too indulgent for an action RPG.

Overall it's not a bad game. Like I would say any game that can hold my attention enough for me to actually complete it is average at worst because I have a chew toy for a brain. But there are much better choices in this genre out there to play beyond Asterigos, and I'd only recommend it both when it's on sale, and when you truly have exhausted your library. Also do not go for the Glory ending. The achievement is tempting, but the road there is as mind numbingly Sisyphean as it gets.

Frustrating yet simplistic. One of the most consistently surprising things in the game was facing a boss and thinking part way through their fight, "Oh, this is it, huh." They mimic the arenas and grandiosity of proper encounters in Souls games, but movesets that are only somewhat more complex than those of common mobs and are just as easily dispatched. And it's something I feel I could've tackled all the way through on a higher difficulty, but after playing through a decent amount on its penultimate tier of such I found that dealing with the game's jank just wasn't worth the effort. Also be prepared to Google your next steps because the game is incredibly vague about what you need to do, when to do it, and how to get there. Literally the last thing I did before completing everything was going back to realize I didn't beat a boss you were meant to face toward the beginning, all because I didn't notice an obscured hole in the ground. Which made me laugh but I don't even know if I'd be capable of beating this without guidance.

Worth it if you have a fondness for the series and want to be prepared for the upcoming sequel, especially with the steep discount it's granted during sales. But there are much more consistent action games out there these days, and this one, at best, scratches a sort of nostalgic itch for janky PS3 titles of yesteryear. Definitely does not meet the definition of a Soulslike outside of small aspects it mimics like health charges and enemies respawning on death, as the combat is more God of War crossed with Bayonetta than it is any given Souls game.

Stellar Blade is not a game I would immediately recommend to most people, but I can't outright give it a negative review because it kept me interested and entertained enough to actually beat it. Which is a rarity in an age where it's been close to impossible for me to break away from the daily demands of live service titles and actually play single player games through to completion.

All that said, the combat is slick and responsive, but if you're not accustomed to parrying attacks in various action games then you'll likely struggle as much as I did, at least early on. I found enemies' attack patterns to be poorly telegraphed and especially difficult to determine when they would end and I would be given my turn to strike back. As the game progresses, though, you are afforded more tools to basically brute force your way through mobs and bosses alike with minimal use of parries, and that's where things picked up more for me.

There are a few larger zones you're made to run around in, either looking for collectables, doing side quests, or just beelining for the next main objective. Traversing those zones can be tiresome when your sprint is interrupted by an enemy dragging you into combat, but they're full of fast travel points and are compact enough to not be entirely grueling. The side content is also a harmless checklist of simple fetch quests that net you materials, cosmetics, and the occasional, actual upgrade, so tackling it all felt as worthwhile as it was simple to complete.

Narratively it is just Nier Automata At Home. The world they built, namely the ramshackle cityscape that serves as your main hub, is visually impressive and full of old world quirks fused with futuristic tech. But the characters don't do much of anything to keep you invested, and I found myself relating to the main character, Eve, only when post-fight cutscenes took place and she sliced any amount of enemies into chunks and pieces with an inordinately satisfying amount of gore.

A fine game to play if you've gone through the greats of the genre and want something more. Some rad boss fights, a catchy soundtrack, wide variety of enemies, and overall 20-some-odd hours of content, and even more if you get invested enough with the combat or achievement hunting to jump into New Game+.

Solid soulslike with combat akin to DS3 and a clever stamina system. Exploration is very straightforward, with the game making it fairly difficult to miss any loot or otherwise hidden paths if you're accustomed to routinely turning over every stone. But if you're obsessed with the idea of "true" endings then I'd suggest following a guide to make sure you don't miss any requirements for completing certain quests.

It's a bit short as far as these games go, although your mileage may vary depending on how adamant of an achievement hunter you are. I could've eked out another handful of hours by way of facing a couple bosses I missed or meeting the whims of every NPC's questly needs, but I was satisfied enough to leave the game beaten as is. For around twenty-ish bucks on sale it's a fine addition to any soulslike enjoyer's library for whenever that particular itch inevitably needs another scratch.

For my fellow Warframe enthusiasts, this is Mesa Prime Simulator and it is glorious.

For my fellow roguelite bullet heaven enthusiasts, this is Serious Sam except you can wield fourteen miniguns at once with a shoulder mounted lightsaber launcher and a magic frog. Or any other combination of insane weaponry and ordnance. Tons of stuff to unlock, even more levels and achievements to grind, and an absolutely worthy purchase whether it's on sale or not.