Recent reviews by SMNFXCN

9 ish month late update:
the game is in a lot better of a state, with the release of the third palace. the cringe awful writing of the first and second palace is largely gone and the story is *actually* interesting to me.

global seems to be a lot better now as we've gotten specific compensation that only now CN is getting or still hasn't. i do feel like the events are sort of rushed still, but my interest in endgame and keeping up is starting to wane a lot. there's not a lot left to do and im tired of player retention mechanics.

6 month standard unit jail is a thing still but we have the 110 guaranteed banner with better rates than CN. CN only now is getting the first couple of 1.x-2.x units in the cognitite shard selector.

the animations are a lot better and ui transitions are too but 1.x characters stick out a lot. controller support is still buggy on mobile. the pc version has weird random stutters in the newest event pages that dont happen anywhere else and makes it harder to appreciate the smooth animations the event pages often have.

astrolabe still ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks tho. imaginarium theater ass mode. i think they are bullying us for having 1 year of foresight.

i still cannot recommend this game on the premise that "its gets better after 50-100 hours(?)" because the third palace is good. but if you are willing to get past that, then sure.

you can tell people wanted to hate this game so quickly that as soon as the subway slammer memes died down nobody talked about the 2nd palace also being equally bad.

we will soon be hitting 4.x with p3 reload and the 4th palace at the time of this updated review (mar 31) and even then we will still be close to a year behind CN's updates (they just got koromaru and aigis is soon).

original review below: (1.x thoughts)
♥♥♥♥♥♥ up in the crib playing personality 5
obligatory reviewbomb:
- they hear the backlash but refuse to actually address a lot of the criticisms
- small amounts of gems when it comes to apologising to the global userbase
- reduced rewards compared to other servers
- crunch/faster paced release schedule to catch up with CN but rewards aren't adjusted to account for it but are worse
- really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ atrocious controller support that borders on being clunky or non functional
- janky/cheesy animation quality and lack of responsiveness and polish of the source material (even the spinoffs do better)
- copying hoyoverse's homework in terms of endgame/daily grind
- intentionally not putting characters on standard to induce FOMO

cool premise but sega fumbled so hard
reviewed from the perspective of a mobile player since sega doesn't want to officially support linux/steamos for this game.

EDIT: controller support is much better on PC than mobile but it's still not really great. it is at least functional and you can get used to it overtime. it runs on Linux/SteamOS too out of the box although requires some tweaking between updates (check out my protondb review on the p5x page for this)

the complaints about it being a program to play the soundtrack are true
even though it looks nice, it's impractical...
not only that, ripping the audio files reveal that they are ogg files, which are lossy
we have to wait until APRIL to get the lossless versions (cd and streaming)
this would have been better as a steam soundtrack so that you could listen to it within steam or big picture mode, and you'd have access to the files to copy to your phone or ipod or smth
certified atlus moment

It's okay. Neutral rating, if I could.
Aside from the invisible boat and the last stage. Those two were absolutely miserable stages.
Too many weird angles, and objects in your way make a few stages infuriating.
It's also priced a bit too much.
It might be a bit less annoying in multiplayer, but as everyone needs to own the DLC it makes that option less accessible.

One of the best games I've played in a while. Everything from the artstyle, design, soundtrack, and experience is well done.

This is rare of me to say, but I think the slightly high difficulty actually increased the overall exploration. The game doesn't have grind, where you can overcome a boss easily by wasting a few hours. It lets you try and figure out something that works. The reward for overcoming a boss is gratification, something that many games abuse a lot, to their detriment.

The idea of not telling the player where to go and what to do actually works here, despite it being a problem for me in older games. Although I did look up a guide from time to time, I think for the most part you'll be able to find your way around without getting stuck too many times. I loved the idea of the in-game manual, because it's not a cheatsheet, it's more like pages of hints. The language is hard to decipher, but you can try what you can and figure out what the pictures mean. Personally that part was fun, surprisingly. Loved how the manual has it's own texture, as if you could feel it.

Exploring is enjoyable too, getting new items, solving puzzles etc. Some are easy, well-hidden, or are absolutely insane which I only found after beating the game. The art style of the game makes each different area stand out. and you can see this in areas where the camera shows you this. This with the accompanying soundtrack really makes you feel the tone of each area, even the music is stuck in my head from time to time.

The greatest part of the experience might be the fact that it trusts the player a lot. Even if you check a guide, you will need experience. Even if you can cheese a boss, you still need practice.

Tunic has a lot of love put into it, and more people should get to experience it for themselves. (9/10)

A fun wholesome, relaxing, casual game. The art style and characters are appealing and give it a lot of charm.
There's also some funny dialogue from time to time. The game is just really cute with the character interaction and "quests" that you go on. It brings back memories of my childhood, somewhat.

Unfortunately life gets in the way. It just happens. There isn't much I can say about the game without spoiling it. A few moments made me laugh and cry.
I do take some issues with the game, the lack of a quest log can be annoying if you forget what the objective was. There is a reminder when you go back to the quest's associated area but it briefly stays on screen. Or how looking for the last few objectives can be difficult without a map, it's easy to get lost. Some of my playtime hours were spent looking for them. At times the music can get repetitive, especially with certain tracks. The game is short enough for these problems to not really bring down the experience that much.
(8/10)

Just plain fun, and relaxing.
Like the game, the music is very chill and relaxing. Perfect study music ig.
The art style is pleasant to look at, and will age well. The pause menu and Trashopedia ooze with personality, while the game itself is colorful and appealing.

The game is short but it is a well rounded experience that doesn't get old, it does more with the gimmick of a hole than you'd expect.
After each stage, there's usually an interaction between a few characters. From time to time the dialogue is funny.

Played on Steam Deck, and didn't have any issues.

The raccoons are cute, 8/10.

The only good idle/progression based game.
Music is relaxing, I like the numerous references and funny achievement names.

Only bad thing is that endgame is a slog but I'm looking forward to anything new.
There is not much to do after you get to the end, as progression slows and unlocks become harder to get, but being able to pick the game back up after a content update is what makes this a nice casual game.

At least the game gives me a break from itself.
Love the inclusion of workshop mods, as well as cloud saves, as it makes the game worth buying instead of playing the browser version.

It's an alright game. The music is really good, catchy even, the sprite art done for the game is great. Played mostly on Steam Deck, and I've had no issues running the game on Linux (Native build, instead of running through Proton). I like the gimmick of the game, but at times I find myself stuck because I forget to change seasons. It's a basic concept but done well.

A few complains, though. Some of the achievements will not trigger. Despite trying to force it (using older save backups) the achievements wouldn't pop even though I tried multiple times. Another issue I find with the game is the lack of i-frames between certain animations, or the clunkiness of certain attacks, at times trying to hit an enemy ends up in me getting hit multiple times or missing. Other times, I will get hit during an animation like changing seasons, or how you can't attack and walk at the same time. It has lead to some cheap deaths imo.

Another complaint is the legibility of the text. I don't have bad eyesight but the way the font looks, can make it hard to read text sometimes. The use of one colour, or a different style might have fixed that problem.

I've heard some complain about the length of the game, or the number of stages, and I can't say I agree. I think 2 long stages for each season is enough. Any more and the game would drag on. There's some backtracking involved, but it's not that bad. But the game does want you to repeat levels when you unlock more abilities. You may want to try and collect as much as you can, as unlocking more levels requires a certain amount of seeds to progress.

I don't think the game is that long, but I went for 100% and had the game idling in the background at times, and was trying to force an achievement, the game is definitely not 18 hours long.

7/10

Poor man's Automata.
Jokes aside, a very well made game that has some potential.
Aside from the overwhelming amount of enemies and cheap deaths, the gameplay feels smooth and UI design is appealing.
Would love to see this game go further in development.
Story is definitely not the focus of this game but I don't think it matters.
Really short but fun. (1-2 hours)

I've had a really fun time with this game, difficulty is usually an issue for me but I was able to ignore it for the most part.
I think the numerous adrenaline rushes and looking forward to what happens next kept me interested.

Despite the difficulty part, I don't think a game has really been able to capture me all the way through with trial and error, even getting stuck on objects or walls because of the awkward collision didn't really deter me from continuing.

The sprite art done for the game, and the 8-bit music is a good fit.
All the furs, including Puro look very fluffy and cute. The music in some of the areas is catchy at times or melancholic. They can get a bit repetitive after dying a lot, though. Listening to these tracks gives me strong nostalgia of better days, and from playing this game.

Thanks to DragonSnow for the game and for Puro. (I'm gay for Puro)
8/10