Recent reviews by Zarathushtra

I'm done, and while this is interesting like a lot of these mosaic games, and I can appreciate that this is free, after playing almost half a dozen I am kind of tired of them to be honest. This will probably be my last one.

Its a good game and I'll still recommend it, but I agree with the sentiment expressed by most people - it was better when it was one big mosaic rather than splitting things up so much, and while I did enjoy the story aspects I am strongly inclined to say that this is the weakest game in the series overall.

Another excellent game by Kazutaka Kodaka. Art direction and OST is absolute peak, some of the most interesting and vivid stuff I've seen in a while.

If you are concerned about the current negative reviews: they are due to price changes in Chinese region. Really bad idea to raise prices in China by 50% after the first hour, Spike Chunsoft.

When people called this, "Assassins Creed Japan," I had no idea how literal they were being. This is very much a classical AC game (think pre-Origins) but set in Japan.

It is also very much an open world checklist game, where you can do any non-main quest in almost any order. I (usually) tend not to like those types of games very much because, IMHO, they make for intrinsically boring narratives as there is very little build up for anything. I honestly think the narrative is one of the weakest parts of Ghost of Tsushima, and I think I would actually enjoy the game a lot more if I could just skip all cutscenes. This is an extremely rare opinion for me to have as I am usually much more interested in a games narrative than its combat, but in this case my preference is very strongly reversed. I did not enjoy the games combat enough to recommend it though (ultimately playing more of this game was not worth having to watch the cutscenes).

One thing that also really makes Ghost of Tsushima feel unique is its art and UI direction. The UI direction is very good, its very minimalist and I can appreciate that, its more immersive and puts more emphasis on world design.

Overall I do not enjoy this game and I do not recommend it.

Rare for me to dislike something like this, but I did not like the twist (kind of boring tbh) and felt it was definitely on the less interesting side, and its kind of hard for the first 4/5ths of the game to stand on its own. I also feel like it would be more interesting to just talk to a friend about this topic (existential nihilism).

Not recommended.

What an excellent indie game about being a kid and playing around with your friends outside. Ending nearly brought me to tears, which is very rare and completely surprised me with a game like this. Quite possibly the best relaxing/cute/wholesome platforming game I've ever played.

Absolutely worth it!

Game doesn't recognize my XBox controller. This would not in itself result in an instantly negative review, but also the keyboard controls are bad. Game doesn't even have mouse support. I cannot believe a developer considered it acceptable to release the game in this state in 2022.

Finally, the game advertises its store page in its main menu, which is pretty tacky. No in game ads please, you aren't Ubisoft.

Paint the Town Red is a cathartic and amusing game about using improvised weaponry to defeat dozens of enemies in brutal, bloody brawls. The combat isn't exactly complicated, but there is something satisfying, especially in light of the fact that, in traditional PTTR levels, there is no healing, thus creating an emphasis on risk minimization and kiting. A further consequence of this limitation is that you are forced to learn and exploit aspects of each map to give you an edge in combat.

In addition to the 5 base levels, wave based arena mode, and roguelike Beneath mode (imho, probably the weakest part of the game). The real meat of the game is the literally thousands of fan made maps in the workshop, many of which are excellent (the best are even better than the base game maps, IMHO).

I will say, it feels like the sort of game where the novelty is going to wear off for some people pretty quickly (although the workshop should help with that), and I do recommend buying it on sale rather than at full price. But it really is a good way to relax and unwind after work.

Refunded.

Very cool concept, but the game still feels extremely feature light for $30. I'd recommend checking out some YouTube videos first before you make a purchase, but I will be keeping my eye out for updates for this game.

I actually enjoyed this more than the main Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun game. Wasn't as repetitive and didn't overstay its welcome.