Recent reviews by Odelithe

Very good souls clone.

Very promising Souls-like. There is a lot to like about the progression system and combat. I really like the build-a-body system that changes your stat limits, and the ability to change your stats at any "bonfire".

However...
There are some very clear issues with the fundamental mechanics of the games that can't be fixed with a simple balance change.

There is no dedicated "heal flask" and all healing is through items you can pick-up/buy using the lesser heal items. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if you could equip and use multiple items, but you only get one. This creates a problem where you have to choose between being able to heal or use any other item available. You could argue this is a design choice for balancing, but the heal items not only give an initial heal but also give several healing pulses after so it will most likely beat out any other buff item in terms of usefulness, and I haven't seen any other type of usable in the demo. Fromsoft phased out life gems for good reason. The game's difficulty becomes about how many healing items you have stocked up, rather than your actual skill.

There is also a heal AOE ability or "spell", which could function as a flask, but then you also have to choose between using something actually fun or making the game vastly easier. Unlike items, you can get a second ability slot with the right build, but again the usefulness of other abilities comes into question, especially when you can use the heal on your friends and friendly fire is a possibility. This also affects the difficulty of the game as a whole, where the game isn't going to be hard unless you're dying instantly or getting hit so frequently you have no chance to heal. This will lower how enjoyable the game is in the long run, I suggest either having a dedicated heal button/slot that recharges like every other souls-like in existence. I would then replace the healing items' effects with something else. Could just be a max HP buff instead.

The inventory is, frankly, horrible. I'm not talking about the limited space, although that does become a problem when there is limited item storage access, and there is no accessing this from bonfires. Both with a controller and mouse/keyboard it is a pain to manage inventory. It's honestly a bit easier with a controller, as different buttons can quickly equip/drop/decompose items, but the controller still feels like an afterthought as you have to use a psuedo-mouse cursor to select items. I hope this is simply because the game is in early access and will be improved later.

Furthermore, after playing past the stopping point for the demo, I've noticed more glaring issues.

Hit detection is pretty bad for both player and enemies. Especially with spears/glaives. One of the mini-bosses and the boss of the demo was practically unable to damage me due to poor hit detection when you're right up in their face. Additionally, it has become apparent with some of the later enemies that the player can only hit one enemy at a time with melee swings. This vastly cuts the usability of large melee weapons with wide and slow swings, as you will swing at one enemy, only to hit another that swoops in, effectively nullifying your swing and allowing the main threat to quickly deal a large amount of damage.

Another glaring issue, is ranged enemies. Their aim is VERY good, and projectiles move very quickly. This is pretty balanced at long range, but the issue is when you get up in their face. They will almost always hit you, with very little warning of when exactly they will fire because they will either fire immediately when you come into view, or wait a few seconds while perfectly tracking you. In Dark Souls, ranged enemies generally swap to melee or have poor aim in close quarters. However, in Mycorelic this is not the case, so instead you get point blank blasted when you turn a corner with a ranged enemy behind it, which for some enemies is effectively an instant kill even with high HP and armor.

ADDITIONALLY, with ranged enemies, hitting those with "crossbows" while they are in a reload animation DOES NOT interrupt their reload, instead just instantly filling their ammo so they will IMMEDIATELY fire at you. I cannot stress how horrible this is for game-play, when nearly all of these enemies do high damage and are positioned in places that make dodging difficult and create the situation where you will get shot mid-jump trying to get to them, causing you to get flung backwards into an abyss or otherwise deadly fall.

I may eventually have to rescind my recommendation if the game just gets more frustrating rather than difficult as I progress further. Initially I liked the build-a-body system, but I've found that it is simply too restrictive in its current state, and with no way to store spores once they are "soft" or out of the "hard" moldmetal form, you'll find yourself with a large amount piling up with no way to spend them until you find better body parts. Which again causes problems with the inventory system as this creates an incentive to keep ever increasing stacks of moldmetal rather than spores. The currency for most shop items is also the hard moldmetal as well, so there is no use for spores other than leveling that I have encountered.

I strongly suggest the devs re-evaluate some of their design choices and do not try to reinvent the wheel. These problems I've mentioned make this game feel like indie Dark Souls but several steps behind in QoL and design. Though this is just the demo, it is entirely possible that the issues I've mentioned (other than the clunky ui) are addressed further into the game with obtainable upgrades like in the original Dark Souls. However, again, there is a reason why Fromsoft stopped doing that.

A lot of people are review bombing this game because of performance problems. I haven't had any issues running this game, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

Genuinely the worst Monster Hunter in the series in terms of content. Small roster of monsters, and half of them are just recolored variants. Over half a year after release and barely anything has been added. World was so great in both level design and monster design, this game is an insult. There's some QoL improvements and combat mechanics added, but it hardly makes up for how soulless the rest of the game feels. Seikrets are cool, but they also make map traversal trivial and pretty boring, essentially killing the tightly woven map design that made World's maps great. Or if it is still there, you're not really going to notice since you're just going to auto-path everywhere anyway.

Very promising Souls-like. There is a lot to like about the progression system and combat. I really like the build-a-body system that changes your stat limits, and the ability to change your stats at any "bonfire".

However...
There are some very clear issues with the fundamental mechanics of the games that can't be fixed with a simple balance change.

There is no dedicated "heal flask" and all healing is through items you can pick-up/buy using the lesser heal items. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if you could equip and use multiple items, but you only get one. This creates a problem where you have to choose between being able to heal or use any other item available. You could argue this is a design choice for balancing, but the heal items not only give an initial heal but also give several healing pulses after so it will most likely beat out any other buff item in terms of usefulness, and I haven't seen any other type of usable in the demo. Fromsoft phased out life gems for good reason. The game's difficulty becomes about how many healing items you have stocked up, rather than your actual skill.

There is also a heal AOE ability or "spell", which could function as a flask, but then you also have to choose between using something actually fun or making the game vastly easier. Unlike items, you can get a second ability slot with the right build, but again the usefulness of other abilities comes into question, especially when you can use the heal on your friends and friendly fire is a possibility. This also affects the difficulty of the game as a whole, where the game isn't going to be hard unless you're dying instantly or getting hit so frequently you have no chance to heal. This will lower how enjoyable the game is in the long run, I suggest either having a dedicated heal button/slot that recharges like every other souls-like in existence. I would then replace the healing items' effects with something else. Could just be a max HP buff instead.

The inventory is, frankly, horrible. I'm not talking about the limited space, although that does become a problem when there is limited item storage access, and there is no accessing this from bonfires. Both with a controller and mouse/keyboard it is a pain to manage inventory. It's honestly a bit easier with a controller, as different buttons can quickly equip/drop/decompose items, but the controller still feels like an afterthought as you have to use a psuedo-mouse cursor to select items. I hope this is simply because the game is in early access and will be improved later.

I suggest the devs re-evaluate some of their design choices and do not try to reinvent the wheel. These problems I've mentioned make this game feel like indie Dark Souls but several steps behind in QoL. Though this is just the demo, it is entirely possible that the issues I've mentioned (other than the clunky ui) are addressed further into the game with obtainable upgrades like in the original Dark Souls. However, again, there is a reason why Fromsoft stopped doing that.

A wonderfully designed MMO-like action RPG. Don't let the cutesy/gooner aesthetic fool you, this game has fast-paced combat that WILL punish you for mindlessly spamming.

Democracy.

After the initial hype has worn off, I can not recommend Nightreign as it is right now, not at full price.
There is very little content to keep the game interesting beyond your first play through, which is very surprising as this is an asset flip game. There are also a multitude of design choices that make the game exceptionally frustrating at times, outside of your control or decisions.

My biggest gripe is the remembrance quest system. I very much enjoy the atmosphere, characters, and storytelling of Nightreign, however the implementation is currently detrimental to the game experience with few exceptions.
Remembrance quests often task you with a side-objective during an expedition that are usually pretty straight forward. Go to a location, generally kill a boss, then interact with an object. This will reward you with a character specific relic (stat/gameplay modifying equipment) which will offer unique and powerful effects.
The problem lies in the conscious decision to place these objectives in the far reaches of the map, out in areas that are quick to be swallowed up by the night, with strong enough enemies to make the objective difficult to accomplish on the first day. This makes them absolutely obnoxious to do in solo play, and generally a problem for multiplayer expeditions as players will waste large amounts of time trying to focus these objectives, wasting precious time in a timed environment for meager reward for the rest of the expedition.

This is creating situations where the run is pretty much doomed from the start, as one of the three members will either waste the time of the whole group, causing everyone to be under-prepared for the bosses, lone wolf the objective themselves and miss out on rewards and be completely unprepared for the rest of the run, becoming a hindrance as they simply cannot survive. Oftentimes as a result, they frustrate themselves or someone else into leaving because the group's interests do not align, further cementing the failure of the expedition.

Additionally, these problems are intensified by very specific remembrances which change parts of the map. This would be a very cool addition, however these map sections are the absolute worst places in the entire game to navigate quickly, creating the situation where you rush the objective, run out of time, then die in the rain as you struggle to escape quickly as you are guaranteed to be situated at the edge of the map.

This is all very frustrating to both attempt to accomplish yourself, or be subjected to when queuing up without a full party. The only other way to avoid them completely is to have your own remembrance quest up with no intention to complete it, however this will also cause matchmaking to take significantly longer as they do not allow people with active remembrances to match together.

One final note: ♥♥♥♥ Darkdrift Knight. horribly designed boss. All the other ones are fun and cool to fight.

Awful story. Awful enemy design. You'll fight the same 5 enemies throughout the whole game, and it will get tiring after the first time. The levels are uninspired and, just like the enemies, are reused assets for a majority of the game. Just play Elden Ring or any of the Dark Souls games.

Very fun, passionate game. Highly recommend if you think you'd like a first person dark souls.

Very detailed and well thought out game. The survival mechanics don't feel like a huge chore and the combat is just a better version of the combat in Half-Life, which plenty of people have pointed out that this game is very heavily inspired by.