{"data":{"items":[{"id":"be1c4343-c63b-4d15-8c53-f990ff3b2222","excerpt":"RE9 and future titles may have a majority of AI assets vs Human-made assets. And we didn't notice or ignored it. — Okay, to say this upfront, I have not discovered this. This was pointed out to me by someone on Discord with unfortunately, a lot of evidence to back this up.\n\nI like RE9 despite its flaws. Do I wish that ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ResidentEvilCapcom/comments/1uhadq5/re9_and_future_titles_may_have_a_majority_of_ai/","role":"pain","weight":1.6407577,"occurredAt":"2026-06-27T18:39:34.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"ResidentEvilCapcom","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.7064716,"sentiment":-0.70149255,"confidence":0.96149135,"matchedPatterns":["wish","i_hate","frustrating","too_expensive","missing_feature"],"statement":"And even then, AI should be used for very minor things, or not at all because each generation keeps raising prices for shit that people can't afford.","title":"RE9 and future titles may have a majority of AI assets vs Human-made assets. And we didn't notice or ignored it.","body":"Okay, to say this upfront, I have not discovered this. This was pointed out to me by someone on Discord with unfortunately, a lot of evidence to back this up.\n\nI like RE9 despite its flaws. Do I wish that Grace and Leon had separate campaigns? Yes. Do I wish Leon's purchases and upgrades carried over to new game plus? Yes. Am I frustrated with certain things related to the story that has plot holes and retcons? Also yes.\n\nBut to put my point across before sharing articles and other stuff, have any of you noticed the constant \"It's not X, but Y\" AI would use in its storytelling the majority of time in RE9's writing?\n\n**Edit**: I know some people are pointing out \"Darth Vader is Luke's father\" examples to counter \"It's not X, but Y\".  But if we can compare that example against the ones I've given, there is waaaayyy too many in the game. Previous RE games don't have all of that more than once or twice. Barely any of them use it. Meanwhile Empire Strikes Back, has only that one revelation. And if we don't count the prequel trilogy of Star Wars: It's something that makes sense. Do we really know that Darth Vader killed Luke's father? No. There's no grave, there's no flashback. All we have is his father's Lightsaber and a story from Obi-Wan. No explanation other than \"Your father was a powerful Jedi... and Vader killed your father, trust.\" Everything in RE9 was established, shown, then changed. Or ignored. That's not how stories work. You don't just throw multiple \"It's not X, but Y\" instances all over the place out of your ass and just skip over it in the same plot. Give me an example anywhere in ONE installment of Star Wars or Resident Evil, or in fiction where we get something like that more than twice.\n\nHere's a list:\n\n\"Elpis wasn't a mind control bioweapon, it was an anti-viral for every Progenitor derived pathogen, the ultimate cure.\"\n\n\"Spencer may have been a monster, but regretted his actions. He decided to build a cure and a huge laboratory under Raccoon City that is somehow not conflicting with NEST to make up for his sins and adopted a child and gave it to the woman that experienced the horrors of Raccoon City and helped bring down his organization. Who of which was able to locate him after disappearing during the Raccoon Trials and requested an interview. The same guy that took years for Wesker himself along with Chris and Jill to find. The same guy who thought of himself as a god and tried to evolve humanity by turning them into monsters without a care in the world.\"\n\n\"Raccoon City wasn't vaporized, there's still buildings standing. Forget OG RE3 showing the blast radius consuming and blasting things apart and Outbreak's ending showing only rubble.\"\n\n\"The zombies in Raccoon City didn't die from the missile, they were smart enough to dig underground and they somehow share the same intelligence from the Zombies with the new t-Virus strain AND share their mutations. Forget them not actually being dead people, just mutants with slow metabolism that should be dead by now. Forget them having brain degradation.\"\n\n\"Zeno is not Albert Wesker, just someone who shares the same abilities as him. No, we won't explain where he came from, who is, or why he has these powers.\"\n\n\"The soldier Leon fought in ARK is not Hunk, he's the Connections commander. He just looks like Hunk, just as skilled as Hunk, and absolutely has no reason to say 'It's good to finally meet you Agent Kennedy'.\"\n\n\"Victor Gideon was a Nemesis the entire time. But not the original T-Type. A new one that kept its human appearance and a mind that never degraded. He had the NE-y instead of the NE-a.\"\n\n\"T-103 returns. Except it isn't. It's the faster, stronger, more durable, more dangerous T-501. Even though there's literally nothing separating the two.\"\n\n\"Grace may have been a clone like Emily is a clone of other little girl clones that turned into bald laughing zombies which killed alot of people in the orphanage. A clone like Marie who turned into a monster that got burned by light. Except she isn't. She's the key, the original, the chosen one.\"\n\n\"Only 10% of people are immune to the t-Virus. But it was dormant inside those who were immune to the virus after being exposed. And years later, it activates to trigger a fatal sickness called Raccoon City Syndrome.\"\n\nIt really is a lot of that in general. But if you notice, you're a hater. It's what you expect, except its not. Subversion!\n\nAnd then the biggest of all: the \"endings\".\n\nThe Destruction ending is the ending the entire story is building towards. Leon is wrong. He's too far gone. He is literally consumed by his obsession that began in Raccoon City. He literally had to die for any of it to make sense. Grace can still save the day at the end of it. But Leon shouldn't survive being as wrong as he was. It feels very clinical, but in a tone deaf sort of way. And like they changed things on the fly. Because how else do you explain a game that builds up to the death of a character and just deciding \"psyche\" at the last second? I don't think a writer worth their weight would do that with intent. Tell me if any of you even chose \"Hope\" first, you can say that the game explicitly tells you what the correct choice is by \"paying attention\". Sure, Alyssa saying \"You are my hope\" and Spencer's interview of him showing remorse are right there in your face. But anyone in-universe who knows who Spencer is, would never trust him or his word. I sure didn't, and then Leon tells us to promise him to destroy Elpis. Because why the fuck not? Nothing in the game explicitly tells you it's a cure, what's in your face throughout the entire gane about it is it being a weapon to control minds.\n\nI do think a machine would go \"you're right. Killing Leon does seem like a massive overstep. Here is the new ending\" And then we get all the happy dappy Hope ending. \"I hear you, and you're right. I am completely missing the exact ending you're going for.\" And then it shits out the bullshit \"Leon missed vital organs\" line. \"This is the ultimate convenient rewrite. It allows a character to take a lethal shot to the chest, satisfies the dramatic shock value for the cutscene, and then instantly walks it back in the ending with a hand-wave so they can keep the character alive for future games and merchandise.\"\n\nAnd don't get me started on Spencer. It would make more sense if he left it up to chance. Not regret. It's up to Grace to prove the value of Humanity. Her decision would be the consequence. Like the apple of temptation and all that. She doesn't have to die, but her being willing to sacrifice herself would prove the worth of humanity against the will of \"God\".\n\nEverything right here shows that Capcom uses AI for game development to \"make it faster\".\n\n[https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/generative-ai-video-games/](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/infrastructure-and-cloud/google-cloud/generative-ai-video-games/)\n\nThey are now lying and saying it's only for QA:\n\n[https://automaton-media.com/en/game-development/capcom-is-experimenting-with-generative-ai-to-help-generate-the-hundreds-of-thousands-of-ideas-needed-for-game-development/](https://automaton-media.com/en/game-development/capcom-is-experimenting-with-generative-ai-to-help-generate-the-hundreds-of-thousands-of-ideas-needed-for-game-development/)\n\nBut they're actually using it for concepts and low level assets. RE9 doesn't mention progenitor and instead only says T Virus. Because it was written by AI. And you can't convince me otherwise.\n\nAnd basically, if an AI did 99% of the work, but a human does 1%, they pretend it's not AI. Capcom was actually Google's go to example. Until the DLSS backlash and the attitudes towards generative AI.\n\nCode Veronica will have AI assets. Unless they suddenly decided to remove it all.\n\n[https://cloud.google.com/blog/ja/topics/customers/capcom-generating-ideas-with-generative-ai?hl=ja](https://cloud.google.com/blog/ja/topics/customers/capcom-generating-ideas-with-generative-ai?hl=ja)\n\n[https://mobilegamer.biz/what-players-dont-realise-is-that-their-favourite-games-right-now-were-already-built-with-ai/](https://mobilegamer.biz/what-players-dont-realise-is-that-their-favourite-games-right-now-were-already-built-with-ai/)\n\nLol. Even Google said Capcom is lying about AI.\n\nDon't get me wrong, AI is a useful tool for certain things... as an assistant to double check shit for errors of what you've done, find recommendations of similar things you like, or specifically do things you can't do yourself or have anyone else do and take whatever it has as a placeholder to use and replace for something man-made later. Not for manual labor replacement. Not for \"adjusting\" it a bit and then claim it's not AI. And even then, AI should be used for very minor things, or not at all because each generation keeps raising prices for shit that people can't afford.\n\nAi isn't going to look up context and plot details of previous Resident Evil games and write a good story. It doesn't have access to the full wiki page. It's only fed and trained on what users give to it. Even having access to the wiki page wouldn't help much because the wiki doesn't have full context for anything on there. It's better to have a human look at previous Resident Evil games, maybe play them themselves, and write a script based on what they observed and understood. I disliked the story for RE9, but I hate it even more now after discovering this.\n\nI don't hate AI. I hate lying to consumers. I hate them taking shortcuts and us getting the short end of the stick. I hate low effort for high prices. It's right there in black and white from the people whose services they're paying for. They're using AI for concepts, low level assets, and idea curation. They tell the AI to do something, then they have the same AI to pick best stuff. And then the art director takes it to the artists, and they tweak it so it's no longer an AI asset.\n\n[https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/capcom-says-not-implement-assets-191633179.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/capcom-says-not-implement-assets-191633179.html)\n\nEven people who don't have a hate boner have come to the same conclusion. And that's that they aren't being entirely forthcoming due to the stigma. Which, again, tracks with what the PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE AI THEY'RE USING said.","offTopic":true},{"id":"e28c3592-89a8-4677-b207-fb52f960e85e","excerpt":"Hypno’s lullaby v3 demo is a delight visually, but a bad fnf mod — Hello everyone.\n\nI’m making this post because I’ve finally played through the new *Hypno's Lullaby Reboot* demo. While I can appreciate the sheer amount of effort that went into it, I ultimately walked away with a really bad, sour taste in my mouth. I w","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/FridayNightFunkin/comments/1vbniab/hypnos_lullaby_v3_demo_is_a_delight_visually_but/","role":"pain","weight":1.395625,"occurredAt":"2026-07-31T10:49:48.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"FridayNightFunkin","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.45,"sentiment":0.046728972,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["terrible","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"**Overly Mean-Spirited Hyper-Gore** Beyond the lack of music, Chimera suffers from gratuitous shock value.","title":"Hypno’s lullaby v3 demo is a delight visually, but a bad fnf mod","body":"Hello everyone.\n\nI’m making this post because I’ve finally played through the new *Hypno's Lullaby Reboot* demo. While I can appreciate the sheer amount of effort that went into it, I ultimately walked away with a really bad, sour taste in my mouth. I wanted to share my honest thoughts and see where the rest of the community stands.  \nTo be fair right off the bat, there are undeniable positives here that deserve praise\n\n**The Voice Acting:** The guy in the cabin—The Collector—is such a cool character, and his voice actor does wonders with him. You feel instantly engaged when interacting with him.\n\n**The Visuals:** Visually, this mod is astounding. The 3D cabin environment, the detailed sprite art, the overall horror ambiance, and the smooth animations are top-tier.  \nHowever, behind all the eye candy, this mod suffers from massive design issues that I genuinely hope the developers address before the full release.\n\n**The Songs Barely Feel Like Songs**\n\nMy biggest disappointment is the soundtrack itself—I genuinely did not enjoy any of the three tracks. As visually cool as it was to see Hypno slowly emerge from the shadows or Gold's body slowly decaying as Unown swarm around him, the actual music fails.\n\n**Safety Lullaby:** Hypno’s vocals feel completely off-beat. He isn't singing to the rhythm grid of the track. You could try to excuse it by saying, *\"Oh, he's a supernatural entity, he doesn't play by the rules of a normal rhythm game,\"* but come on that’s such a stretch. In a rhythm game, off-beat vocals just feel terrible to play. Girlfriend genuinely had to carry the track to keep it solid, but when 1 of the 2 characters of the song is giving a poor performance, it’s complicated to defend.\n\n**Monochrome:** It hurts how much they butchered this song. The narrative focus is eye-catching, but they replaced the iconic, instantly recognizable melody of the original Monochrome with a generic, slow and a basic rhythm. It completely loses the punch and power it used to have.\n\n*(Side note on the gimmick,* I will give credit where it's due—simplifying the Unown typing mechanic was a good change. In the original mod, having to beat Insomnia and then instantly get destroyed by fast typing in *Monochrome* was incredibly frustrating for a lot of people. But reducing the typing difficulty didn't mean they had to gut the entire song's musical identity.)\n\n**Chimera:** Easily the worst offender. I don't even know if I can call this a song. You get about 30 seconds of actual vocals, and then the rest of the track transforms into a horror minigame QTE based. The art contrast using a 3D model for Hex Maniac and 2D art for Serena was a cool horror design choice to show how off tone hex maniac was to the Pokemon world, but as a Friday Night Funkin' track, there is zero rhythm here.\n\n**Overly Mean-Spirited Hyper-Gore**  \nBeyond the lack of music, Chimera suffers from gratuitous shock value.  \nWhat on earth did Serena do to deserve getting gutted like that? Watching an innocent, optimistic character brutally murdered and dissected in such an insanely graphic, visceral way feels completely edgy, out of tone, and unearned.\n\nGood horror mods rely on mystery, eerie legends, and psychological dread to build tension. When a mod relies on extreme, stomach-churning splatter gore just to gross out the viewer, it feels like an old edgy 2010s creepypasta where the writer ran out of ideas and just described a gory scene for shock value. It’s shocking because it’s disgusting, not because it actually built a scary atmosphere.\n\n**The Baby Mode Mockery**\n\nI didn't even realize \"Baby Mode\" was an option until I saw someone else play it, but naming it that feels unnecessarily disrespectful to casual players.  \nThe average FNF player just wants to sit down and play a fun 4-key rhythm game. Not everyone wants to juggle intense secondary engine mechanics while trying to hit notes. Mocking players who want to turn those off by essentially calling them \"babies\" pushes away casual rhythm game fans for no reason.\n\n**Conclusion**\n\nAt the end of the day, Hypno's Lullaby Reboot is a visual masterpiece, but a bad FNF mod. The voice acting, 3D engine work, and art direction are top-tier, but the off beat vocals, ruined iconic tracks, QTE gameplay, and hyper-gore completely drag it down.\n\nThis is still just a demo, so I really hope the developers take community feedback into consideration for future updates. If you're making a mod for the FNF community, it needs to have good rhythm songs at its core. If the goal is just to make an overly graphic, non rhythmic horror game, then release it as a standalone indie horror project don't hide it behind a rhythm game title.\n\nWhat do you all think? Are you enjoying the new direction, or do you miss the rhythm focused style of the original? Remember to keep it civilized on the comments, I’d love to read some of your overall thoughts on this mod.\n\n**Edit**\n\nThe overall debate in this thread has been very interesting and engaging, I appreciate to hear other people’s thoughts maybe seeing something I did not on my first playthrough.\n\nI’ll address the point where I have change most of my mind off. The baby mode.\n\nAs stated above I found this quite disrespectful for the casual rhythm game player, dealing with those gimmicks without them being removable and still call the player a baby for it.\n\nHowever, [this comment in particular.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FridayNightFunkin/s/CU6ccx7J10) Gave me a perspective narratively that actually makes sense and in a quite engaging way too.\n\nNow as an addition, now that I’m here, I’d like to pin point something really important that I have been noticing for the past few days, this point being monochrome.\n\n**Monochrome’s new style**\n\nI have seen many people arguing that monochrome wasn’t “*gutted”* but more like “*rebranded*” which, on paper would make sense. However, there’s a problem with that. This song’s label.\n\nIf they wanted to drop the intense and catchy style from the original one, it’s fine. By all means they can remake it from scratch. But don’t label it as monochrome, because it isn’t the same song, it only leads to the audience looking for the banger of a track than og monochrome was to be pulled away. Although of course, a new audience can be reached, all because of the artstyle.","offTopic":false},{"id":"d8a2ff4d-a181-49dc-a4b5-4f471917543a","excerpt":"I have played this game completely blind for 781 hours. I have gotten every trophy, collectible, and token. This is my first time looking up or engaging with anything about the game online and I wanted to share my experience with anyone that cares. (Spoilers) — I started this game in March of 24'. After the first compl","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/rainworld/comments/1n6ytir/i_have_played_this_game_completely_blind_for_781/","role":"request","weight":1.342341,"occurredAt":"2025-09-02T23:16:46.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"rainworld","intent":"purchase_intent","painScore":0.3627827,"sentiment":0.33962265,"confidence":0.985,"matchedPatterns":["terrible","frustrating","would_pay","missing_feature","still_cannot","manual_process","praise"],"statement":"I thought it was strange that there was no achievement for doing this, I was specifically surprised that I didn't get \"The Friend\" trophy, but I pay no mind.","title":"I have played this game completely blind for 781 hours. I have gotten every trophy, collectible, and token. This is my first time looking up or engaging with anything about the game online and I wanted to share my experience with anyone that cares. (Spoilers)","body":"I started this game in March of 24'. After the first completion I decided to try and get the blind 100%, which is something I will attempt with games if I like them enough. I never could have imaged how much time I would spend in this game, how much it would envelop me, and how difficult the blind 100% would actually be to achieve. It is surreal that after a year and a half I can say I have completed my original goal.\n\nThere is no other piece of media I have simultaneously been so engrossed in while also being unable to appreciate or reflect on with anyone else, both due to the nature of my playthrough and the fact that no one that I know plays this game. It has been a unique experience. Now that it's over, I wanted to share my feelings about the game and the experiences I had with it before I formally end the vacuum. \n\nSome context: Two of the things I have always loved most in games are challenges and what I will refer to as \"content gating\", which to me is more or less the way a game exposes its world and secrets to the player. Most of the games that fit both criteria tend to be soulslikes and metroidvanias, so I play lots of those. I always do my first playthrough of a game completely blind, and as I said before, if I enjoy a game enough I will try my best to get the platinum / 100% completion before I learn anything about it. I've only managed to do this with maybe 7 games before giving up.\n\nSome other context: When I was younger, there was a several year period where a friend and I were both adamantly into urban exploration. I have been in dozens of abandoned buildings and structures, some of which were huge industrial ones. I love anything that can send me back to that time period. I think this is relevant to why I liked the game so much.\n\n**- Chapter 1: Survivor.**\n\nAround March of last year I was about to start my next semester of school, and I wanted a game to play between classwork and my hobbies that was casual and laid back. I browsed the PS+ offerings for that month and there was Rainworld. I love pixelart so I thought it looked very cool, and it was free. I did the single search I have ever done for this game to gauge peoples opinions on it to see if it was worth playing. Player sentiment was surprisingly divided and people seemed to either like or hate this game. However, the most important thing I read was that it was distinctly NOT a metroidvania, which is something I felt I desperately needed a break from. I decided I should just try it since it was free, and started a run with Survivor.\n\nI immediately liked this game a lot. The controls felt a little awkward but in a positive way, the overall mechanics of the game felt very grounded and organic. The atmosphere even without leaving Outskirts was striking. This was a post-apocalyptic / post-society style that is difficult to put my finger on, the tone and presentation of the game is incredibly unique even among other games with similar themes and settings. The art direction and level design created an amazing representation of what actual urban exploration felt like for me. I felt continually driven to explore as many rooms as possible, this drive was always out of pure curiosity to see more and never because I felt like I would miss something game related. On top of all of this, the music was continually fantastic throughout the whole game. \n\nBy the time I made it to the Industrial Zone I felt like I had a decent handle on the game (I did not). I died  a lot in this region, which was fine because I loved exploring it. When it was time to leave however, it was less fine and a little bit stressful. I was aware of the two karma door that led to the Garbage Wastes, but I wanted to go through the five karma door that was being gatekept by humanoids who would immediately kill me because it was \"clearly more special\". I persisted stubbornly until I made it through.\n\nHoly beautiful nightmare. Shaded Citadel was a thing to behold the first time. It was absolutely brimming with the type of dark ambiance I love while also being absolute hell to be in, I was absolutely unqualified to be here. I would pick a different path to go down and just die. I would end up at dead ends, the rabbit lights would go out, I would get swallowed by the darkness. I did not want to go back (I probably couldn't even if I wanted to) so I persisted and followed the overseer until I made it outside again. The outdoor room that leads to the shoreline is among my favorite in the game despite containing nothing of real significance. The music upon emerging from the darkness forms an absolutely perfect atmosphere. I consider this one of the several staple rooms as I would find myself back here often while trying to accomplish various tasks. \n\nI follow the overseer towards the Shoreline and start exploring, trying my best to follow where its taking me. After drowning and being eaten tons of times, I follow the overseer into the ocean and come up against a wall I can't get up (I can get very narrow minded, please remember this and have pity on me because it only gets worse). I go back to the shelter and try again, failing in one way or another until I bring a spear with me and get up. \n\nI was able to tell right away that I was close to where the overseer was leading me, I make my way through the huge room to find the ONLY npc that exists so far in the game. This moment feels so profound, but I am also profoundly confused and don't know what to do. This alien is talking to me and I can't understand it. It took me SO much effort to get here and I don't want to leave without making some progress, clearly I have to DO something here. Maybe I have to interact with the alien, maybe I have to rescue them or take them somewhere. They don't look to be in great shape and maybe thats why I was directed here. I grab the alien and try to take them with me annnnnnnd they're dead. What did I do (I am so sorry Moon). I rest in a shelter, I am horrified at the animated picture I am shown and I receive my first trophy since beginning the game (yes, somehow I got this before the survivor trophy), its one of the only trophies in this entire game I didn't actively seek out. I am feeling like I broke my run in some way I am not yet aware of and I feel like I did something very bad.\n\nThe overseer leads me back towards Shaded Citadel, I begrudgingly leave Shoreline to follow it there because I want to make some actual progress on the game (my sense of progress is now skewed by recent events). Well, I can tell one positive result from what happened, my dude is BRIGHT. Literally glowing. This area is monumentally easier. I make it to the snippers, they are scary but these rooms are really not that hard. I arrive at the Exterior, this area feels important and the music cements that feeling. I make my way climbing through the region until I meet a creature beyond my imagination, this thing sucks. This is a professional killing machine. Its not so bad in a large room, but dear god, that single outdoor vertical room you have to climb with one of them is just awful. I can't tell if it's reacting to me by proximity or by sound at this point, so it kills me many times. Eventually I pass the region.\n\nI arrive at Five Pebbles, and it is clear I am encroaching upon a pivotal moment in the game. The zero G behavior is so brilliant. (I have been too busy recounting my experiences to talk about how absolutely incredible the developers are. Every mechanic from the physics to the animal behavior is so well designed, its so well designed that it feels genuinely realistic.) The stretch from the second shelter in the middle of Five Pebbles, to the room with the spinning gravity chamber, to the long vertical stretch, is absolute hell. This is the hardest stretch I have come upon in the game thus far. I could nearly do this blindfolded now, but back then, this was a tribulation. When I make it past and begin hearing the synthesizers I cannot contain my excitement, every room becomes more intense and abstract than the last and they clearly building towards something wonderful.\n\nI reach the second NPC thus far in the game and I am completely absorbed by the experience. Everything about this encounter highlights what is so great about this game. By now, you have likely spent many hours in this game, and this encounter is unlike anything you have experienced before reaching this point. The otherworldly aura that both Five Pebbles and Moon give off are legitimately earned and any anticipation you have before meeting them is, to me, massively rewarded. After he dispatches me, telling me to \"go west\", I leave through the ceiling towards another of my absolute favorite rooms in the game. The artwork in Five Pebbles' exit chamber, in all of it's esoteric glory, radiates with the presence of a world that existed before you were even a thought. I am captured for a moment in this room before moving on to the next region. By this point I am absolutely in love with the game. \n\nThis part of the exterior is gorgeous, but difficultly-wise, descending the west leg is nothing (certainly nothing like climbing it). I make my way through it with ease (somehow missing the echo). Now at the base of the leg, outside the Chimney Canopy, I meet a roadblock. While the stretch between the Exterior and Sky Islands is paltry when you know where to go, this was hugely difficult for me the first time. I simply could not find the first shelter in Sky Islands and kept dying outside of it, needing to boost my karma over and over. \n\nAfter making my way through Sky Islands and into the Farm Arrays, I reach what is actually my first MAJOR roadblock of the game. I know that I am supposed to go west, but there is simply nothing I can do to pass the volatile grass. I spend an inordinate amount of time here, more time that I have spent trying to clear any singular obstacle thus far. I genuinely cannot figure out what to do, so I begin trying everything in every room. I try flying over with the bugs, I try attacking the deer (sorry), I try flying with bugs onto the deer, nothing is working. What I believe eventually happened is I tried throwing the puff balls at the grass and I heard screams, I figured that must mean something. I did this enough that I eventually figured out the deer want the puff balls. I was very happy (but dear god to this day I can not get these MF to do what I want once I am on them). I make my way west, and when I hear that synth pad OST pop, I am absolutely ecstatic.\n\nI make my way into the Subterranean and immediately find the echo, it is beyond my comprehension and I don't even try to make sense of it (its dialogue is great though). Subterranean whoops me proper but it is not profoundly different than anything I have encountered, it's just harder. I surpass it and make it to the depths. This is it, and it feels like its it. Seeing those octopus like beings is both scary and reassuring. This whole section from beginning to the ending of the game is amazing, and I am sure there is enough said about it that there is nothing of substance I can really add, so I wont add anything. Its perfect. \n\nI decide now that I want to try and get the blind platinum / 100%. I am definitely not going to get the DLC though. Don't have time for that, definitely not doing it. \n\n**- Chapter 2: The Monk, The Hunter, and The Friend.**\n\nBefore doing anything else, I go back into my Survivor run to explore anything I hadn't and to start trying to clear as many trophies as I can. The one knowledge source I will allow myself when doing blind runs is reading the trophy list on PSN, so I at least know what my goals are. I am able to gather that the majority of the trophies are finding the echoes and getting what are likely passages like the Survivor passage.\n\nSo I start clearing the map and farming for the passages. The only region that I hadn't entered at all during the first run was the Drainage area, but there were still lots of unex","offTopic":true},{"id":"f6767210-5ee9-418c-987d-fe5d03fc6493","excerpt":"Nioh 3 Feedback/Criticism after full game completion (SPOILERS) — Finished the game last night having completed all content up until the ending (60-65 hrs total), post-game stuff notwithstanding, and while I enjoyed my time with it overall it was not without it's problems. I had tailored my expectations pre-launch know","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Nioh/comments/1r2by9h/nioh_3_feedbackcriticism_after_full_game/","role":"request","weight":1.3354808,"occurredAt":"2026-02-11T22:34:46.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Nioh","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.38751253,"sentiment":0.08510638,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["wish","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"The lack of stances in ninja is fine, but what isn't fine is that they didn't really bother to implement an alternative way to access all of your cool moves in ninja, even though they very easily could have.","title":"Nioh 3 Feedback/Criticism after full game completion (SPOILERS)","body":"Finished the game last night having completed all content up until the ending (60-65 hrs total), post-game stuff notwithstanding, and while I enjoyed my time with it overall it was not without it's problems. I had tailored my expectations pre-launch knowing full well that I wouldn't necessarily appreciate some of the changes made from Nioh 2, and while I came to terms with those changes accepted them and moved on, there were other issues that I hadn't anticipated and ultimately the experience left me slightly disappointed by the end.\n\nThis isn't a Nioh 2 glaze post or a Nioh 3 hate post, and it also isn't a review, just my thoughts after finishing the third entry of my favorite series. If I were to review it, I'd simply say this: Nioh 3 is a great game, a very fun game worth playing, but it's not quite the slam dunk of a perfect iterative sequel in the same way 2 was to 1. Enough rambling, I'll get into the whining proper. Oh yeah, and expect some amount of spoilers.\n\n**-- Enemy Variety & Pacing --**\n\nNioh as a series has been both rightfully and wrongfully accused of having poor enemy variety. Nioh 1 fell short in this area, whereas Nioh 2 is in my opinion a shining example of excellent enemy variety even before you account for the DLC enemies and later difficult cycles. Aside from a small selection of outliers (Mudman, Amrita Fiend, Sentry) every regular yokai from Nioh 1 was carried over into 2 and updated, and from that solid foundation even more were added to create a roster that constantly expanded with practically every mission.\n\nMy expectation going into 3 was that, like 2, we would see the vast majority of the previous game's enemy roster carried over and slightly tweaked, with maybe one or two dozen new yokai to fill things out. After all, this is an open field game with many places to go, so having many different enemies to fight helps keep things fresh the entire way through, like how in 2 you could expect to encounter at least 1 new (or returning and new in the context of 2's campaign) enemy type in almost every main mission, and even some in side missions.\n\nWell, things didn't quite pan out that way. A fair amount got carried over, including enemies from N2's DLC which is nice to see, but unfortunately many yokai, including mainstays around since N1, did not make the cut. To name a few, Mitsume Yazura, Namahage, Onyudo, Kiryoki, Rokurokubi, Oboruguruma, all of them and a fair few more nowhere to be seen.\n\nSo what right? Not every enemy needs to return to make for a good enemy roster, especially if the new enemies are fantastic additions and they're utilized effectively. Granted, some of the new yokai are great... but then some are mediocre, and some are downright questionable. Kyokotsu, Yagyo Soldier, and Yamainu are all standouts, enemies like Yamabiko and Mikoshi Nyudo are kind of just \"there\", but then we get to some enemies where I have to ask: why?\n\nWhy do we have a reskin of Dweller with an identical moveset minus the pickaxe, and why are they spammed all over every crucible? Why are more or less half of the yokai we encounter throughout the entire runtime of the game just some variation of Jailer Oni? Why are spiders, not Namahage or Onyudo, back for the third time when they're some of the most boring enemies to fight in all three games?\n\nSo that's a lot but I've neglected to really tackle the other side of this problem which I included in the header: Pacing. Specifically the pacing of enemy encounters in the open field. All of the issues I have with the roster itself are minor until compounded by the problems with this aspect of the game.\n\nThere are enough good enemies here that if the developers used them in thoughtful ways, spread evenly across many tense encounters, the game would remain engaging the whole way through and my criticism would be more akin to nitpicking. This did not wind up being the case and by the time I was partway through the final region I felt serious fatigue with the encounters, which did not subside until the final enemy gauntlet.\n\nI'm going to rapid-fire off what let down this part of the game for me:\n\n**--** Occasionally, enemies are introduced and then completely vanish for anywhere between half a dozen hours to the entire rest of the game. Raven Tengu shows up in Mount Kurama for the first time, and I remember being extremely confused when I didn't see another one for over a dozen hours. Same thing with Koroka, you encounter one total koroka in a mission and then don't see another one for between 20-30 hours (I'm not joking). Sentries show up in a handful of encounters in antiquity, then are never seen again. I could go on.\n\n**--** Enemy encounters generally (with a couple exceptions) don't capture the same sense of \"escalation\" as in N2 or even N1. In both previous titles, enemy escalation followed a pattern: Introduce new strong yokai in a 1v1, later pair that yokai with a familiar weaker yokai or incorporate it into a level with a unique twist, and finally include that large yokai in a larger scale fight with many other tough and weak yokai. Most combat encounters only follow the first or if you're very lucky second step of this formula, with even many lesser crucibles and mission areas failing to utilize the stronger foes in a meaningful way. One of the examples that sticks out in my mind is an enemy gauntlet near the end of Heian, the final wave was literally three Crucible Wasp hives and nothing else. Actually made me laugh.\n\n**--** Enemies are oftentimes sectioned off into particular parts of the open world to enhance the feeling of \"cohesion\" and \"immersion\". I can't speak to whether or not it accomplishes that because I don't play Nioh to be immersed, but it is frustrating that outside of certain missions you will rarely see yokai and human occupying the same battle areas like you would in N1 and N2. For me this is the most regrettable consequence of the open world, although I can see what they were going for and why some might like it this way.\n\n**--** Jailer Oni. Jailer Oni everywhere. It's Nioh 1 Yoki spam all over again. Maybe these guys should've fallen victim to my point directly above, because my God they do not need to be everywhere, around every corner, in every fight. You can be in areas of the final region fighting encounters composed entirely of a couple Jailer Oni and Gaki, the same enemies you've been fighting since hour one. Just wild stuff that had me rolling my eyes past a certain point.\n\nUnfortunately, this aspect of the game was the most disappointing for me. My copium is that NG+ will be better, and my hopium is that at the very least the DLC and final two difficulties will definitely improve this greatly. To close out this topic, I wanna say that the final enemy gauntlet when you're VS Death Veil was very good, very refreshing to fight basically every enemy in a big death match, I just wish more of the game was like that.\n\n**-- Bosses (specifically the human ones) --**\n\nI don't have as much to say about bosses critique wise, at least for the yokai. Some are a bit busy for my tastes like Yoshinobu or that wriggly black tentacle guy but they're mostly fine to great. Human bosses on the other hand are a mixed bag, and in retrospect I think I overall did not enjoy the selection of human bosses as much as N2 or maybe even N1.\n\nThe ones that are thoughtfully designed with entirely unique movesets are generally quite good, so like Yamagata, Human Shingen, Okita Soji, etc. are all fine. But for every one of those fights, there are 5+ other human bosses that are just glorified revenants with some very annoying unbalanced properties. Stuff like insane ki recovery or instant superarmor counters like they've been ripped straight out of Birth By Sleep.\n\nThese basic human bosses used to be punching bags in N2, training dummies for you to combo on like they're Hell Caina from DMC. I understand what they were going for with wanting them to be more capable opponents this time around, but I think the way they went about it made these fights go from easy but satisfying combo beatdowns to frustrating, rarely satisfying slogs against a brickwall.\n\nThere's nothing lamer than going all out on a Master, using your guardian spirit skills, arts prof attacks in samurai, switching to ninja and firing off some skills in the air, all this crazy stuff whittling the guy down only for them to inevitably decide to superarmor through one of your actions, dodge backward once, and instantly refill all their ki.\n\nKeeping up pressure against human opponents was a skill that needed to be mastered in N1 and N2, and when you did you were very graciously rewarded. Here, it feels like the game does everything in its power to insure that you no matter how well you play or how many of your options you utilize, human opponents will always find a way to halt your aggression in its tracks and reset the tempo of the fight.\n\nYokai get away with this because of the way their ki functions, but due to the way human's ki replenishes constantly they simply are not fun to fight when you are never allowed to combo them because they forcibly reset you to a neutral, reactive state every 10 seconds. To put it short and simple, compared to Nioh 2 most of this game's human bosses went from proactive bouts of feral aggression to restrictive and reactive back and forths, sort of turn based Simon Says style. Mucho no bueno for me personally.\n\n**-- Questionable Changes & Downgrades --**\n\nI'll try and keep this one short and sweet. Why did Axe get new slots for skills, whereas Odachi had slots removed for no reason? I appreciate the addition, but I can't comprehend the subtraction. This applies to other weapons as well, and the reduction in options is confusing. In that same vein, martial skills generally conflict more than ever, it hasn't been this much of a hassle to just use all of the skills you'd actually like to use at the same time since ye olde Nioh 1 days. This applies to most samurai weapons, and it's really really catastrophic for some of the ninja weapons.\n\nThe lack of stances in ninja is fine, but what isn't fine is that they didn't really bother to implement an alternative way to access all of your cool moves in ninja, even though they very easily could have. Where is XXY or XXXY input? If we had those we could very easily use, for instance, Deadly Mark and Deliverance at the same time on kusarigama, or Shin Crusher and Seesaw Strike at the same time on splitstaff. Same goes for the Y -> X skills. Why not also have YYX so we don't have to be forced to use only one move which is an objective downgrade in options from N2?\n\nWe could still have all these options in ninja without needing stances but they arbitrarily limited them for... reasons I guess. The weapons are overall still good and fun, but I don't understand why they can't be better, or at least up to par with the previous entries.\n\n**-- Soul Cores --**\n\nLook at how they massacred my boy. This might sound harsh, but I really wish they just hadn't included soul cores at all if they're going to function like they currently do. Their original purpose is already functionally replaced by guardian spirit skills in this game anyways.\n\nSoul cores as they were originally were my favorite part of N2 and what made them so engaging was 1) the power fantasy of transforming into a previously defeated enemy, utilizing their abilities to do cool flashy stuff with occasional utility and 2) the randomized stats made getting soul core drops desirable for more than just their ability, so you were happy to receive your 100th enki soul core and it gave a strong incentive and reward for killing everything in your path.\n\nBoth of these engaging facets of soul cores are completely gone. There's no other way to put it, it's just gone like the wind. You don't get to transform into a demon and go sicko mode, you get very little utility out of your cores beyond applying elements, and while I kept waiting to get a sec","offTopic":false},{"id":"c8ca72f3-a984-4417-ae9b-0c2c85251a39","excerpt":"Ranking of the Immersive Sims I played and Short reviews of them — Ok first I want to clarify my immersive sim definition. I think immersive sims are games in which you can achieve goals in different ways-not just through dialogue options like standard rpgs, but by choosing what to do directly within the gameplay mecha","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ImmersiveSim/comments/1v8x30w/ranking_of_the_immersive_sims_i_played_and_short/","role":"request","weight":1.3338977,"occurredAt":"2026-07-28T12:29:42.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"ImmersiveSim","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.3858678,"sentiment":0.40703517,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["i_hate","terrible","missing_feature","praise"],"statement":"But It has something missing that I can't really point out.","title":"Ranking of the Immersive Sims I played and Short reviews of them","body":"Ok first I want to clarify my immersive sim definition. I think immersive sims are games in which you can achieve goals in different ways-not just through dialogue options like standard rpgs, but by choosing what to do directly within the gameplay mechanics. Most of them are in first person but it's not a must. And I also think it needs some weight, story and atmosphere to it. A game just having immersive sim mechanics doesn’t make it a good immsim even tho it can be considered one by definition. And lastly, as  someone who doesn't play the same game over and over again, to me its not really important some things being scripted, its more about how the game makes you feel. I think it's really good design when game pushes one certain solution to you for that specific encounter if it's made in a good way. It's all about balance. \n\n\n\nS Tier\n\nPrey- I think it’s the best immersive sim ever made to this date. Stealth and horror goes really well with these mechanics. It has great level design and manages to keep it at that level for the entire intersected map till the very end. It's just the perfect system shock. I also think it's really good as someone's first immersive sim. Because it's really modern and polished but also has deep mechanics if you want to dive deeper. It's one of the most underrated games ever made\n\nDeus Ex - I really don’t know what to say. I played it 2 years ago and as someone who tries many retro games, most of the time it's really disappointing when an old game Is praised a lot. But it's not the case for deus ex. I think it’s the gold standard immersive sim. Has some flaws, especially the skill and augmentations, like not everything has to be balanced, but everything should be viable if it makes sense. Some upgrades and skills are really useless but it has many great things to compensate these flaws. If a gameplay feels like deus ex, I think it can be considered an immersive sim.\n\nDeus Ex: Mankind Divided - I don't know why this game is underrated but it feels like modern Deus Ex and it's literally what it is. Looks and plays great. Stealth is fun. World design and atmosphere is great. Hub world is really good. I just don't understand what it does worse than og deus ex that everyone ranks this one lower. \n\nHitman World of Assassination - Maybe hitman shouldn't be the 4th game here after 2 deus ex games but yeah I think this is a really good immsim. Its 3 games combined and has like 20 locations with handful of solution for each location. Solutions are mostly scripted like you choose one to follow but you can change it midway as you discover other things. Also it's up to you how you going to achieve that part of the solution.   Like I mentioned I think well-made , polished sequences together are better than a shallow sandbox. \n\nDivinity Original Sin 2 - There are couple of crpgs that you can say have immsim like mechanics but dos2 is for sure the best at all these things. Game has a great physics engine which lets you do different things in both the overworld exploration , and also in turn based combat. You can climb places stacking boxes, cover npcs line of sight, skip entire sections with stealth, teleport npcs and enemies around, put heavy things inside a barrel and one-shot bosses throwing that barrel to them with telekinesis. It has different elements and materials interacting with each other like oil barrels+ flame, water + lightning etc. It definitely feels like what immsim has to feel like by definition.\n\n\n\nA Tier\n\n\n\nSystem Shock 2 - Its really really good but not comparable to deus ex. I think progression problem in deus ex is even more apparent in this. Map design is a bit too complicated. Combat is boring and shallow. But atmosphere and the Shodan herself is superb. Like it's at least a 8/10 game still.\n\nQuadrilateral Cowboy - Really short but an incredible game. I think this one nailed the coding in games. You basically solve puzzles in short levels by scripting your gadgets using your laptop. Like you  \n\nPut a timer for the door to open and set your rifle to shoot to a certain coordinate as door opens so the bullet hits the button behind the door etc. It's not that open since you can't really do things so differently even though you can code the scripts differently but still a great experience.\n\nCtrl Alt Ego - One of the best indie games I've played. You don't really have a physical form and can control every technological thing inside a huge huge huge space station. Game Is unexpectedly long. Has a weird atmosphere and design. But It has something missing that I can't really point out. I think what I don’t love is that it being more of a sandbox. Main mechanic doesn't change and game makes you play around with it.\n\n Bioshock - This is borderline immsim. But gameplay is less complex than all of them since the idea was to make a system shock game for consoles. But atmosphere and feel is unmatched. That feel of you being in a scary place and have to use your resources to get out is like a cheat code for these type of games I think. Combat is fun. Different elements interact with each other, you can upgrade your spells and skills. It's really simple but deserves a spot for being system shock successor and incredible lore + atmosphere.\n\nDishonored 1 and 2  - I really love dishonored. Best games from arkane studios after prey. I think they are missing a lot from better immersive sims - since its just stealth and combat. And you only choose which skills and weapons to use but they are really fun so yeah.\n\n\n\nB Tier\n\n\n\nDeus Ex Human Revolution - This one felt a bit disappointing playing right after the og deus ex, but it gets better after first hours. Level design is no that great and I don’t like the characters. It’s the worst one between the 3, but still worth playing since its another deus ex game.  But be aware definitive edition on pc, is the port of Wii version and runs kinda terrible.\n\nFallen Aces - Visuals are charming but gameplay is really shallow I think. Im not even sure if there are many different ways to complete the levels. When you playing stealth it's probably more open but combat is just choosing which stick on the ground to wield. Still fun but not great.\n\nThief 2 The Metal Age - I don't like pure stealth games that much. And I don't know why they are easily considered immersive sims when everyone is so picky about the definition. But thief 2 is still really good thanks to its level design. Maps are so much bigger than first game and its obviously more polished. But personally I like my stealth to be more \"gamey\". I don't like that I need to wait sneak and wait for a long time. Game has weird enemy ai.\n\nGloomwood - One of the most disappointing ones sadly. It’s a better thief but I don’t like thief games. Ai is similar to thief which is something that I don't like but understandable since it kind of a pure stealth game. But gameplay and levels are shallow. There are not many interactable things, buildings or zones are really small. It has some great ideas like when you first get out , lighthouse having rotating light and you need to take that into count etc. I expected it to be more intense but after first 5 min tension goes away. It has potential, great for people who love thief.\n\nSystem Shock 1 Remake - I played the remake but og seems kinda unplayable tbh. I think everything is worse than the second game but you can see where message logs, map design etc is coming to the design.\n\n\n\nC Tier\n\n\n\nWeird West- My biggest disappointment. I left this game for the last, most recent game I played in this list and I'm so sad. Like the artstyle, setting, sound design, it being isometric etc I was sure that I will like this game but no it lacks so much. Combat is really bad. It makes it seem like there are lots of things to interact with but not really there are things you can throw to make noise, there are doors you can unlock and yeah that’s it. Sad thing is you can see the passion like interactions with npcs etc but its nothing really. It has soooo much potential I think but yeah I couldn't finish the game wasn’t really expecting this.  \n\nThief 1 - Game has great cutscenes and plot. Sound design is superb. But gameplay is really not that fun I think. Its old and stealth mechanics are too punishing for me. It’s \"the\" stealth game.\n\nFilcher - Another modern thief game. Not for me but ones who like thief should play for sure.\n\nShadows of Doubt - This is another disappointing game. Its more of a sandbox tech demo honestly. Idea of it seems nice like there is a random generated city , with random generated people with random crimes being committed. You can get into every building and every room etc. Makes you think how can It be possible and yeah it can only be possible this way. First 2-3 hours of the campaign is great and must play for sure but after that you realize it’s lacking so much. You just do the same thing over and over again and by design it can't get better. Way too ambitious to be really good game I think. A small hand crafted city for couple of hours of gameplay would be great.\n\nCruelty Squad - Most disappointing and overrated game of the list :( It did get lots of attention in general because of the art style etc. but I don’t really understand how its loved so much in this subreddit. Its more of a boomer shooter with different movement options than a immersive sim. Like its more of a doom than a deus ex tbh. I don't think this type of short game design goes well with immersive sim mechanics but game doesn't even have many things to interact with anyways. \n\nSkin Deep - Same dev as quadrilateral cowboy but disappointing. Design is similar to cruelty squad I guess, like some immsim elements and short levels where you speedrun. Same reasons why I don’t like this one neither.\n\nDeathloop - I really hated death loop. Like its not by indie dev, it does nothing new, I hate time loops in games, I hate that its made by arkane and I hate so much when humor is supposed to be one of the redeeming qualities of the game and its not even funny. It just makes it seem even worse. Technically its still not that bad so yeah game is playable and you may even like it but I just don’t.\n\nHigh Entropy Challenges - Not many things to say its an 1-2hour long game anyways and free on steam. But as I said I don’t like having short levels back to back with immersive sim mechanics. I don’t think it suits the genre.\n\nArx fatalis and Ultima Underworld - Old games. Arx fatalis is better for sure and have a really unique magic system. Arkanes first game so you can play it if you want to see how early they managed to start making good immersive sims. Ultima Underworld is the first immersive sim. You can play them if you are curious but they are really old and I don’t think they have any redeeming qualities to recommend them to a regular person.\n\n\n\nF Tier \n\n\n\n E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy - Like I don't wanna be mean but I think this one has nothing going on for it. I don't know why it has a cult following like what this offers that you can't even get closer to having in other games. Shooting feels great I will give it that since its made in source engine but everything else… I don't think it has any redeeming quality and I don’t care how weird the text that you read in those weird text boxes. Even text boxes are not polished in the game like idk what to say.\n\n\n\nOther games and notes about them\n\n\n\nCyberpunk 2077 - I think its really important to have cyberpunk here to show where I draw the line for immersive sims. I really really like cyberpunk and at first glance it seems similar to deus ex but most majority of the decisions you make are dialogue based so its actually a really good fps rpg.\n\nSplinter Cell chaos theory - I have splinter cell chaos theory here, I just don’t understand what its not mentioned as much as thief games. It’s a really good pure stealth game with maybe even lighting-darkness mechanics. Is it because you don’t stack boxes to reach somewhere idk. R","offTopic":true},{"id":"57f7cb73-51aa-4a5b-9a1d-767c2db48726","excerpt":"Azur Promilia JP CBT Play Impressions — # TL;DR\n\n**Score:** 7.5/10\n\n**Pros:** Beautiful world, excellent BGM, surprisingly approachable story, satisfying combat with parry/evasion, fun Kibo collecting, and generous fan service.\n\n**Cons:** Too few fast travel points, Kibo automation feels ineffective, progression can be","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/AzurPromilia/comments/1utqi3k/azur_promilia_jp_cbt_play_impressions/","role":"demand","weight":1.3310028,"occurredAt":"2026-07-11T17:41:15.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"AzurPromilia","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.37638772,"sentiment":0.044176705,"confidence":0.96702605,"matchedPatterns":["wish","cant_find","terrible","frustrating","too_expensive","missing_feature"],"statement":"Also, I searched through the settings menu but couldn't find any option for controller (gamepad) support.","title":"Azur Promilia JP CBT Play Impressions","body":"# TL;DR\n\n**Score:** 7.5/10\n\n**Pros:** Beautiful world, excellent BGM, surprisingly approachable story, satisfying combat with parry/evasion, fun Kibo collecting, and generous fan service.\n\n**Cons:** Too few fast travel points, Kibo automation feels ineffective, progression can become grindy, and many mini-games feel underdeveloped.\n\n*Note: I am not a native English speaker, so I used an AI (Gemini) for this translation. Apologies for any unnatural phrasing.*\n\nSince I was lucky enough to win a slot in the CBT, here are my impressions and thoughts after playing for the past week. I’ve also included a link to a Google Photos album containing my gameplay videos below for reference. There's quite a lot since it covers a whole week (lol). I compressed the videos because uploading the original quality would have taken forever. The actual in-game graphics and FPS are much better than what's shown.\n\n[https://photos.app.goo.gl/NxGBknRP6FNkHRnr9](https://photos.app.goo.gl/NxGBknRP6FNkHRnr9)\n\nThis is my first time playing a 3D open-world game, and I'm not used to writing reviews, so please keep that in mind.\n\nAlso, the opinions stated here are based entirely on my personal experience during the test period. Please take this as a casual player's first impressions rather than a comprehensive review.\n\n# Test Environment\n\n**Smartphone**\n\nOPPO Find X9 (Dimensity9500, 16GB, 512GB) / Storage: 21.1GB\n\n**Windows PC**\n\nRyzen7 9700X, RTX 5070Ti, 32GB, 2TB / Storage: 44.2GB\n\nAll graphics settings set to Maximum (Highest Quality)\n\nDuring installation, my phone got quite hot—probably around 43°C. It stuttered significantly during shader compilation, so a cooling fan might be necessary if you plan to play for long periods on a smartphone.\n\nThat said, my main platform was PC. The boot time for both was around 25 seconds. There were quite a few moments of stuttering during gameplay, so there is definitely still room for optimization.\n\nMy playtime was just under 60 hours over the course of a week. I reached Astral Weave Level (Player Level) 40. I was playing somewhat casually, so this feels about right.\n\nThe game had so much content that it was difficult to clear absolutely everything, but I think I managed to experience most of it.\n\n# Overall Impression: 7.5/10\n\nThe overall quality is quite high. The graphics are beautiful, the story is solid and interesting without breaking down, and there is more than enough content. However, since the current gaming market is flooded with 3D open-world gacha games, it feels like distinguishing itself from competitors will be tough. If the release is delayed much further, it will be hard to steal users from existing rival titles, so I really hope they manage to release it within 2026.\n\n# Worldview / Setting: 9/10\n\nTo give a quick summary, you form a party of 3 characters + 3 \"Kibos\" to explore the world, defeat wild Kibos, capture them using \"Starlink,\" solve mini-games, and complete quests.\n\nIn addition to the high-fantasy \"Sharuru Village,\" the lush \"Valley of Sprouted Buds\" and the city-state \"Phris\" were available. The map design and environments are incredibly detailed, making it easy to get immersed in the world.\n\nThere is also a home-base feature called the \"Farm,\" where you can put Kibos to work to earn rewards or craft weapons and tools. The concept feels close to *Palworld* or *Animal Crossing*. Therefore, the total number of maps implemented this time was four: Sharuru Village, Valley of Sprouted Buds, Phris, and the Farm.\n\n# Story: 8/10\n\nAt first, I was confused by the flood of proper nouns (technical terms) typical of Chinese-style fantasy games. However, since the story progression is very deliberate and careful, I was able to understand it well enough within the week. Rest assured, it doesn't bombard you with proper nouns mercilessly right from the start like Manjuu’s previous game, *Azur Lane*.\n\nAside from the main story, there are sub-quests where character-specific dialogue unfolds. These often tie deeply into the main plot, so you can't afford to skip them. The approach of building one massive narrative by weaving main and sub-quests together is excellent.\n\nThe story quality is high, grounded, and rarely confusing. This might also be thanks to Yostar's excellent localization.\n\nTo be honest, my expectations were low because I dropped *Azur Lane* early on due to its overly complex lore, and I was bracing myself for the usual convoluted settings of Chinese fantasy. I was pleasantly surprised. The gradual expansion of the world—from Sharuru Village, to the outskirts (like Howling Highlands), and then to the Valley of Sprouted Buds (like the Winged Clan's Village)—was beautifully and carefully depicted, leaving a great impression.\n\nHowever, because it is *so* deliberate, there were moments where the pacing felt a bit slow. Additionally, the direction of cutscenes (camera work, etc.) felt a bit weak overall. There are many close-up shots of characters, which made the visuals feel monotonous and a bit easy to get tired of.\n\nThe main story features several combat encounters and quests in between, and they are surprisingly difficult. For instance, you might have to defeat a level 60-class boss just to progress the story. The enemies were so strong that I actually gave up on finishing the main story... Since it's the main storyline, I wish they would lower the difficulty a bit.\n\n# Characters: 9/10\n\nIn this CBT, 19 characters were playable: Starfarer (Protagonist, male/female choice), Symphoria, Abby, Terara, Luluca, Phalanta, Mity, Nono, Catal, Mezza, Rubina, Tushan Xiaoyu, Sharl, Moren, Han Youyou, Pengpeng, Lily, Casbel, and Anis.\n\nThey are all unique characters and very fun to control. I mainly used the \"Chen Dynasty\" trio—Tushan Xiaoyu, Han Youyou, and Pengpeng—as well as Moren. Han Youyou is my absolute favorite! The strategy of chipping away at enemy HP with her bombs while maintaining a safe distance was highly entertaining.\n\nOne minor disappointment was that \"Minamoto Chiyo\" did not appear in this CBT. Since she has a Japanese-themed motif, I hoped she would be playable in the JP CBT, but she was held back. She is one of my favorite characters, so I'm looking forward to her future implementation.\n\nAlthough there are rarities like SSR and SR, I didn’t notice a massive gap in strength when actually using them. Unlike other games, it feels like rarity alone doesn't create extreme disparities. It’s a great system that lets you use your favorite characters on the front lines.\n\nMore important than rarity is the combination of the 5 roles (Burst, Break, Onslaught, Amplify, Support). Characters with Burst, Break, or Onslaught are purely strong as attackers, while those with Amplify or Support can be rotated in for utility.\n\nThere is also an affection system. Giving gifts or using characters in battle raises their affection, unlocking individual stories and new voice lines.\n\nAside from the main cast, the NPCs (mob characters) in towns caught my attention. Perhaps because resources were focused on the main characters and the marketable Kibos, the mob facial graphics felt heavily phoned in, with obvious reuses that felt like you've seen them somewhere before.\n\nAlso, while the male Starfarer looks cool, his voice actor’s performance is quite disappointing. It stands out even worse because the female Starfarer's voice acting is so good.\n\n# Combat: 8/10\n\nEven as someone new to 3D open-world action games, I was able to play without any trouble. The core loop is very satisfying: you just spam normal attacks while timing your parries (Right Click), dodging with dashes, and unleashing skills (E button) or Ultimates (R button).\n\nThe combat effects and visual presentation are spectacular. The animations for both characters and enemies are flashy and beautiful to watch, without being so overwhelming that the screen becomes unreadable.\n\nLanding a well-timed parry or dodge feels incredibly satisfying, making the combat experience excellent. As you progress, enemy attacks become fierce, making parries and dodges mandatory. However, the timing windows aren't overly strict; you can succeed just by reacting to the enemy's telegraphs.\n\nMy biggest grievance, however, was \"flying enemies.\" They are hard to hit, yet they bombard you with long-range attacks one-sidedly, which frustrated me multiple times (lol).\n\nAdditionally, stacking attacks while accompanied by a Kibo allows you to press the F button to put enemies into a \"BREAK\" state. When broken, even bosses get knocked down and left completely defenseless, creating a massive opening for concentrated fire.\n\nIn this game's combat, what feels even more important than combos or normal Kibo attacks are the \"Entrance Skills\" triggered during character swaps. Swapping characters mid-attack activates a special skill that deals massive damage. Furthermore, since the new character spawns slightly offset from the previous one's position, you can pull off maneuvers where you evade an enemy attack while delivering a counter.\n\nFor context, character skills (E) and Kibo skills (Q) are managed by cooldowns, while Ultimates (R) charge based on the number of attack hits. This allows for a small trick where you can whack nearby trees or rocks right before a boss fight to fully charge your Ultimate gauge in advance.\n\nOne minor control issue was that sprinting (Shift + W) didn't always trigger smoothly. Pressing just the Shift key executes a \"dodge.\" It seems the input window for \"pressing Shift after (or simultaneously with) W\" is quite strict. During combat, when I tried to sprint away to gain distance, I accidentally triggered a regular dodge instead, causing me to take enemy hits a few times.\n\nOnce you completely clear a map, you can apparently raise the area's difficulty (similar to a World Level). In the \"Valley of Sprouted Buds,\" Level 1 spawned Kibos from Lv10–40, but raising it to Level 2 brought out Lv40–70 Kibos. Being able to choose a challenging difficulty is a welcome feature.\n\nBy the way, the third map, the city-state \"Phris,\" is set to Level 2 right from the start, and I was completely overwhelmed by the level difference when I first encountered enemies there. Leveling up and upgrading your characters is absolutely crucial.\n\nWhile the game features elemental affinities (Water, Fire, Thunder, etc.) and 5 character roles, honestly, there were too many elements for me to keep track of during actual combat. Apparently, elemental matchups are crucial in the \"Kibo Fight\" mini-game mentioned later, but there were too many types for me to memorize.\n\n# Quests: 6/10\n\nThere are things called \"Area Quests,\" where you gather character upgrade materials and coins. They are divided into detailed difficulty tiers and offer a decent challenge. I raised characters to the CBT cap of level 80, but I still hit walls in the later quests, meaning the difficulty is quite high. There are also co-op boss raid quests, and you can occasionally see matchmaking recruitment dialogs floating in the chat log.\n\nHowever, I have some complaints regarding material gathering efficiency. Upgrading characters requires a massive amount of resources. Since the Area Quests themselves are highly difficult, I worry that the official release might trap players in a vicious cycle where they are forced to repeatedly grind low-difficulty stages, stagnating their progression.\n\n(Though there is a time-saving feature that lets you consume more stamina to receive up to 3x rewards).\n\n# Kibo System: 5/10\n\nThis is the biggest differentiator for this title. If you watch the tutorial, it's blatantly obvious that they drew inspiration from *Pokémon* and *Palworld* (lol). Early in the game, there is a scene where you choose one out of three Kibos—just like starters—and you can take your chosen Kibo along on your adventure.\n\nIn this CBT, I collected probably around 50 to nearly 100 types of Kibos. To capture a Kibo, you lower its HP to about 20–30% and perform a \"Starlink\" to capture it","offTopic":false},{"id":"e78419fe-770c-4c5b-85af-b2aeb412815a","excerpt":"40 game I played in 2025 about Romance, Space and Vampire — 40 game I played in 2025 about Romance, Space and Vampire\n\nAt the beginning of the year, I wrote 3 new years gaming resolution of setting I wanted to try in 2025. I wanted to play **Vampires** game, **Romance** focused game and **Space** themed games.  \nI’ll p","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1q19nyk/40_game_i_played_in_2025_about_romance_space_and/","role":"pain","weight":1.328264,"occurredAt":"2026-01-01T17:30:33.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.41284466,"sentiment":0.15536106,"confidence":0.94013447,"matchedPatterns":["wish","terrible","frustrating","keeps_failing","missing_feature","manual_process"],"statement":"The main thing I wish we had is a way to pin things on the map we want to come back later.","title":"40 game I played in 2025 about Romance, Space and Vampire","body":"40 game I played in 2025 about Romance, Space and Vampire\n\nAt the beginning of the year, I wrote 3 new years gaming resolution of setting I wanted to try in 2025. I wanted to play **Vampires** game, **Romance** focused game and **Space** themed games.  \nI’ll put a V, R or SF if I consider a game to answer one of my new year wishes, and put in a separate comment the 26 games that didn’t enter into any of those themes. \n\nI rate the game on the following scale, and tell in the review if I dropped them : \nOkay, you enter into my favorite\nWas great. \nGood- Average - or flaw and quality balance each other (which means I still liked game in this tier) \nDisappointing \nI actually thought it was bad\nGame that I hated, just their mention make my blood boils (none this year).  \n\n**Okay, you enter into my favorite** ______________________________________________\n\n**Infinite Space** (2009) [SF]\nA DS game and one of the rare space jrpg. It features an interesting but somewhat awkward combat system between ships. The game has a lot of systems that it only explains in a very dry “help” feature and is therefore rather obtuse. Once you have learned it though it becomes quite addictive. \nThis game has a very unique atmosphere. Going around recruiting people and gaining ship parts to form your own fleet lets the game have a lot of little secrets, or branching paths. Did I roll my eyes at the anime incest trope nonsense ? Yes. Do I love space opera politics, with an empire conquering the galaxies and becoming a pirate to fight against it with the help of some space magic ? Also yes. \n\n**Was great** ______________________________________________\n\n**Haven** (2020) [SF] [R]\nA game that has science fiction, sky island on another planet and romance ? I couldn’t miss it. With the unique setting of two people being alone on a planet, the game had no other choice than to tell a lot of the characters and their backstory. That said, I loved the banter between the two lovebirds and it's the principal reason to play the game. I also liked hovering above ground and it feels satisfying. The combat begins pretty simply, as is intended to be played by 2 people, but some thin layers of complexity are added as time goes. \nDespite being impressed by the variety of this small scope game, the rhythm that stays good even after the halfway point, I’m still a bit hungry for a tiny little more biome variety (without making the game bigger, the pace is perfect).\n\n**Signalis** (2022) [SF] [R]\nI acknowledge considering the game as Romance and Space may feel kind of a stretch, but those themes are relevant enough toward the end that I think it qualifies if barely. \nThe first survival horror that I played. Despite the pretty bad french translation, and a crash during the end cutscene, I quite liked it. It has a pretty unique atmosphere, even if you don't understand all that happens. If it didn’t have gory elements at the end, it may have entered my favorite games. \nI’m someone that regrets that Jrpg dungeons don’t have many puzzles anymore so I was quite happy to have a game centered around them. Playing it on the switch with screenshots as a notebook was also very comfortable, and all was doable without a guide.\n\n**Super Mario Galaxy** (2007) [SF]\nI only played Mario 64 as a previous 3D mario game. I think they have pretty different philosophies. It is less open ended than Mario 64, the changing gravity gimmick is really interesting and exploits 3D very well, but the camera and the changing control are sometimes really awkward. As a platformer noob, game difficulty was pretty good. I didn’t do all stars. I'm sure there are more difficult ones to do for people that like it, and I found a hidden one that hints to challenge levels to unlock. \nThe little fable presenting Rosalina story is really touching. Not groundbreaking and pretty disconnected to the rest of the game but a neat story about loneliness and found family. \n\n**Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium** (1993) [SF]\nA big step up from the previous entries just in terms of QoL features. The story are being told in a much nicer manner with comic panels, your party members have more presence and personality than any other game on the quadrilogy, and the game features a big variety of decor and environment. \nBut I feel a little frustrated at the end. The big stain on the game is how uninteresting is Dark Force as a villain. And you already beat him in the previous entries so he isn’t intimidating anymore. I would have loved the final reveal of PSII to have an impact somehow but apparently not.   \n\n**The Invincible** (2023) [SF]\nIt is a narrative driven walking sim taking place in a desert planet. First I want to point out I appreciate the effort put into describing scientific research as a joint effort, it is not always the case in media.  Then I must say that I liked the atmosphere and the storyline very much. I looked at different endings and some choices you make earlier in the game influence what you’ll be able to do or not. As an adaptation of a 1964 novel, the game designers decided to keep a retrofuturist aesthetic that is really charming. I suspect that it comes from the book, but some concepts may not be presented in the same manner today, but it manages to talk about subjects that are universal enough that they stay relevant.\n\n**Endless space 2** (2017) [SF]\nI love how different the factions are asymmetric and some truly different (despite how bad I’m at playing some of them). Each have their own inner struggle that manifest in a quest that unlock some perk. \n Some factions could be seen as evil menacing aliens not because they are evil per say but because of how their species work. One of the faction, the rifborn prosper in sterile worlds, so unlike other species of the galaxy you’ll search and later create desolate worlds, destroying their vegetation for your own need.\nWhile the story and lore are pretty generic once put into perspective, its presentation  is what makes it interesting. You won’t discover things in order, you’ll have to piece out yourself, ancient history of the universe if you wish, giving it an impression of mysticism. Or you could write your own story of struggle in this galactic fight for dominance, making alliances, and ultimately deciding the fate of the galaxy. \n\n**Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride DS** (2008) [R]\nPretty strong introduction. I loved how whimsical the childhood part began, and the beginning of the teen part was great as well. The romance is pretty barebone, and only Bianca feel like an established character as you pass more time with her. The time you are searching the world with your child was also very good with a lot of flavor text and reaction from your party to NPC and world place. The taming monster aspect is a little frustrating, requiring luck or grind, but it offers good replayability if you just play what you get. \nWhile I love the scope of telling the story of a character throughout their whole life, I was frustrated by some parts being underdeveloped. \n\n**Astral Guard - Table Talk** (2022) [SF]\nIt is a rather short visual novel game. Basically you’re on a table observing a map and the characters, members of a space faring hero team, are discussing where they are going next before they can eat cookies. I wasn’t expecting it from a game this short but each character has a rather unique personality and their banter is actually pretty entertaining. If you like slice of life, cartoon-like writing and science fiction, I would warmly recommend taking a look.\n\n**Average** ______________________________________________\n\n**Xenosaga Episode III : Also Sprach Zarathustra** (2006) [SF]\nWhile the game is objectively the better game of the trilogy, like Shin Megami Tensei VV it suffers from the shaky foundation it was built on. The characters and their development is the strength of the game. Shion as a protagonist is both incredibly frustrating and human, and we are at the pinnacle of her trauma and development. Sadly the world felt rather small for a space opera and the ending felt a little forced out as they didn’t have time to properly set up all the things they wanted to cover. \n\n**Stellaris** (2016) [SF]\nI only played 1 game because I’m a recovering Civ V/Endless Space 2 addict. It is a game that shines by magnificently creating emerging narrative. While it is not the most beginner friendly 4X I tried (but it also isn’t the most obscure), a lot of automation in some aspects let it be more manageable at low difficulty. Sadly once I destroyed the brunt of the endgame crisis force, I had to painstakingly destroy all infected worlds, which was time consuming, not fun and made more difficult by those worlds not being shown or being under another empire control which prevented me from cleansing them. Stellaris is a really good brew for 4X but some awkward decisions make it needlessly cumbersome.  \n\n**Metroid Prime Remastered** (2023) [SF]\nIt is a good 3D metroidvania with a lock that let FPS noob play it, letting you concentrate on what matters most in this genre of game, the environment. While perfectible, the idea to not just shoot but scan objects and observe your environment is very compatible with the genre, and the ambiance works very well. That said, the different visors are a bit gimmicky and the xray one is a little bullshit. Enemies change when you go back and some stronger enemies appear, with the narration justifying it with the space pirate trying, in real time, to develop  new weapons to stop you. \nThe main thing I wish we had is a way to pin things on the map we want to come back later. Being a FPS, the game also sadly triggered my motion sickness which prevented me from playing it in long sessions, but the save points are spaced at intervals that let me regularly take a needed pause. \n\n**Sakura Wars** (1996) [R]\nI played and disliked Sakura wars ps4 last year, but I heard the original was better. \nThe game feels really ahead of its time with its rpg dating sim blend. Each individual part is rather average but the game punches above its weight. The game is set in steampunk early XXe Japan and like other games of this team, the setting is rather refreshing in the jrpg landscape. \nThe tactical part is rather simplistic, but the map design is interesting enough. I think one best point of the game is its graphics. They have a charming 90's anime aesthetic, full of life with sprite animated mouth movement (sometimes with voiced lines too !) \nEach character had their own personalities and were interesting. Sumire and Kohran in particular stand out the most to me. The child was awful though, in the first chapter she tells you they’ll let you become their boyfriend. Oh, and there are “voyeur scenes\" where you can intrude on a girl showering. (apparently for the 10 year old too wtf ?) \n\n**Mario Kart 8 Deluxe** (2017) [SF]\nI hesitated to include it but I included games where you saw less space elements than this, so be it. Mario Kart is among the most popular series out there and a game I still play often with my brother that otherwise only play casual games. It play well, can be enjoyed in local multiplayer which should be a no trainer for a racing game (yeah I think about you realistic racing game without this basic feature). The rainbow road are space tracks and an apotheosis, always spectacular, despite me often ending up outside the road. \n\n**Team Innocent: the Point of No-Return** (1994) [SF]\nAn obscure jp exclusive fan translated survival-horror from before Resident evil. I found it while searching for games like Signalis without the horror element. Game features gorgeous sprite work, a sci-fi story centered around genetic modification and some puzzle to resolve like other games in the genre. The game have a lot of game over screen, with artwork that encourage you to discover the different method you can fuck up. It was less polished than Signalis, but has an unique, 90’s scifi anime charm to ","offTopic":true},{"id":"3c8d4205-9124-444a-871d-bb6177a56d2a","excerpt":"Finished Prime 4 100%, Thoughts from a person who's favorite Prime is Corruption (Spoilers, Duh) — Heya! I just finished Prime 4, 100% Items and Scans (The second Metroid I’ve ever 100%d, after Prime 3), and wanted to share my thoughts because I’ve seen the thread titles, I know this game is divisive. First, though, a ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/1piwkk3/finished_prime_4_100_thoughts_from_a_person_whos/","role":"pain","weight":1.3028357,"occurredAt":"2025-12-10T07:31:23.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Metroid","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.4138409,"sentiment":0.45299146,"confidence":0.9214868,"matchedPatterns":["wish","i_hate","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"Between the emptiness, the baffling lack of music, the same annoying enemies, and the endgame crystal hunt, a hunt SO miserable I actually started laughing at the ridiculousness of what the game was making me do… Well pretty sure enough ha…","title":"Finished Prime 4 100%, Thoughts from a person who's favorite Prime is Corruption (Spoilers, Duh)","body":"Heya! I just finished Prime 4, 100% Items and Scans (The second Metroid I’ve ever 100%d, after Prime 3), and wanted to share my thoughts because I’ve seen the thread titles, I know this game is divisive. First, though, a TLDR.\n\nThis is not a perfect game, and after 8 long years of waiting (Or, in a way, 17), it is bound to have disappointed in some ways. But it is not, to me, a bad game either. I enjoyed playing it, and I will play it again eventually on Hard. It’s probably a 7/10 for me, gun to my head. Corruption is still my favorite prime entry, but this game WAS a fun time, and I’m happy to have gotten it. But it’s a game full of compromises that often feels like something rushed, with cut content and filler. Something seemingly impossible given the long dev cycle. Anyways, section by section, let’s talk about the…\n\n**Presentation** \n\nThe easy one first. This game is gorgeous. No, it’s not the prettiest game ever made. When I see that, I do somewhat roll my eyes. But it looks fantastic, and runs buttery smooth. The Music is pretty varied, with some great tracks but nothing that, on first listen at least, would crack a “top 10 Prime ost” list of mine. I think Volt Forge and Fury Green are probably the leaders for me. Now, SOUND design, however, is stellar. And I want to give particular attention to the work of the new VA for Samus. I do kinda wish she got some speaking lines, for reasons to be mentioned later, but her vocalizations are REALLY well done. This game, when it’s firing on all cylinders, can really get you pulled “behind the visor”; Her VA work really shines in the fast paced fighting in the enclosed spaces of Ice Belt and the Mines. There are sequences where you have enemies coming at you from all sides, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. When the enemies are on top of you, and you hear samus cry out while you fire like your life depends on it, it really sells just how smooth the combat in prime 4 is. Speaking of….\n\n**Gameplay**\n\nKeeping this one short, Gameplay is really solid here. I’m a die-hard wii controls defender, but this game just makes twin-stick a breeze. I played on pro controller mostly, and it was really comfortable. Remaps are a great accessibility feature, though I never stopped accidentally morphing rather than swapping visor, even at the final boss, somehow haha. Combat is fast and fun, though very repetitive thanks to this game’s REALLY low enemy variety. The scan visor needed to be a bit faster, and I loathe the decision to make GREEN the ”not yet scanned” color. The color coded polygons of primes 2 and 3 were way better. Movement feels great, especially the new dash. The use of HD Rumble feels great, and so on. The game, for all its flaws, just feels comfortable to play. It makes it the easiest prime to date to just kinda sit down and experience, and that says a lot. Controls are pretty well thought out, but I do wish they pushed it a bit more because there are not many new…\n\n**Upgrades**\n\nPutting aside my general dislike of just stapling the word “Psychic” in front of everything, this is arguably one of the weakest parts of Prime 4. There is Very little new here, compared to past primes… and what IS new is largely underutilized. Psychic bombs could be a really great puzzle tool if they came up more than like 4 times. It’s telling that, when they DO come up, the game prompts you if you don’t realize immediately, in case you forgot. Psychic Boost Rails I actively dislike, as they turn one of prime’s best puzzle mechanics, Morph Ball movement sections, into a “press button to zip around the map at random and end up next to a power up”. The Psychic Spider “slingshots” are neat I guess. The only other new thing are the shots, which I mostly like. The electric shot is the standout to me. I do think the game probably wanted me to lean more on the “shots”. I didn’t find the upgraded versions until my lategame item cleanup, so I only had the electric “super” for the last boss. Considering how late they give you super missiles and I spent almost the entire game using, predominantly, my power beam which made a lot of combat soggy. Definitely would prioritize the shots a bit more on a replay. Anyways, on to the…\n\n**Areas**\n\nGF Base and Fury Green: Pretty standard Metroid fare here, honestly if these two maps are all you played, you’d think this was like any other prime game. The biggest issue that Fury Green has is that they don’t  put enough here to make trekking all the way back to base camp with the damn chips feel worth it. I’ve said more about the structure later, but considering how often you have to revisit, you’d think they’d hide more than a dozen items around this map. Still, the two maps come together to present a good looking combined tutorial zone that will introduce the new controls, some new mechanics, and the first of five NPCs. The bosses of both areas are sorta re-skins of bosses from Primes 1 and 3, a trend that will continue as this game has a LOT of re-hashed boss designs, something I consider a weak point. Ironically, Fury Green has arguably THE most diverse set of flora and fauna in the game, and this translates into enemy selection.\n\nVolt Forge: Volt Forge is kinda a microcosm of the whole game tbh. High Highs, and Low Lows. The area is VERY linear, with almost no deviation from the path at any point, even on the THREE revisits. The area’s atmosphere does save it, however. The whole bike assembly process, waking the dead factory, is a fun theme that plays out as you explore. I do prefer sanctuary Fortress and Skytown, but Volt Forge is a decent, if a bit tiresome experience.\n\nIce Belt: I don’t think I’m alone in saying this is the best area in the game. This and Fury Green really are THE most traditionally Metroid levels, and I really enjoyed the exploration. Seeing the tragedy of the Lamorn play out in the logs, with the big twist on the way out, really was something. This is the level that showed that somebody at retro still remembers how to do environmental storytelling right. There are some neat traversal puzzles, lots of lore to scan (far too many non-lore scans tho), ect. Tokabi is my least favorite of the troopers, but he’s chill. Nice ambiance too.  Shame to have another “turn on the power” quest I GUESS, but it still feels solid.\n\nFlare Pool: This, meanwhile, is the worst of the main areas. Shame, because it introduces my two favorite troopers. The Aesthetic is solid, but the actual map design is bland, the enemies on offer are all repeats… there just isn’t much of interest here. Weak boss, weak levels, hell not even much in the way of upgrades. I don’t have much else to say about it tbh, it’s just not a good map. 4 little scans too.\n\nThe Mines: I honestly REALLY liked this area. It is, in my opinion, a better implementation of what the Phazon Mines were in prime 1. A tough, mostly linear gauntlet. It clearly takes more than a few cues from the PM too. It’s got neat set pieces, and a unique gimmick. The idea of missiles drawing in mobs is something I’m somewhat surprised we haven’t seen before, and I think it makes for some interesting gameplay. I wish they’d pushed it even farther, to be honest. Make it so there are optional, harder to find, ways around missile blocks. The tight caverns and hoards of Greavers really exemplify the point I made above about how it can become genuinely overwhelming in a way only the prime take on Metroid can, And to top it all off, we have the best boss outside of, arguably, the final one, IMO. This fight is fast paced, high stakes, and one of the few that had me on the edge of my seat.\n\n It’s not perfect though. A lot of the tension is undercut by the decision to have FOUR different fake-out deaths. The first time, I actually thought they MIGHT be serious. The second time I was pretty sure they weren’t. The third time, I KNEW nobody was dead, and the fourth time I just rolled my eyes. I Like the troopers more than most, I’d wager… but they started to feel silly here. The area also feels like a WEIRD place to introduce super missiles. Normally, you get a new toy and want to use it. Putting it in an area that incentives NOT to use missiles is certainly a choice. Then they add the power bomb too? It’s not the first time I’ve felt like the game is missing areas… It feels like they’re just handing us the rest of our toys to unlock upgrades, now that we’ve gotten all 5 of the all-important plot keys. It feels weird. Also, it’s very unusual that the mines aren’t mentioned at ALL, yet after you grab the spider ball Miles calls and says “we’re all waiting for you at the mines” as if that was some pre-determined plan? I really think this area might have worked better if they had us go here alone first, get stuck, and have to rally the team. Maybe they didn’t want to add yet MORE in-and-out. Because this game has a LOT of it, and it’s almost all down to…\n\nSol Valley: Alright. It’s time to talk about the Desert. This area was panned on reveal, and for good reason. It’s not exactly a scalding take to say it’s BAD. Sometimes unforgivably so. Between the emptiness, the baffling lack of music, the same annoying enemies, and the endgame crystal hunt, a hunt SO miserable I actually started laughing at the ridiculousness of what the game was making me do… Well pretty sure enough has been said about all that. This area alone drags the game down a point, maybe even point and a half, and I don’t need to say more directly.\n\nInstead, I want to bring up the impact it has on area design. Because I feel like a lot of the games issues are really rooted in Sol Valley’s existence. I’ve seen people call the game’s levels smaller and linear. And they ARE, but not as much as one might think from all the threads. I actually went back and looked at all the area maps from primes 1-3 to compare and the other games had plenty similar. Yes, they tended to have more branches, but they also had a lot of very straight shot levels. Magmoor caverns is every bit as linear as Flare Pool, for example. But the actual big change is in how you GET to each zone in prior games.\n\nSee, in Primes 1 and 2, when you hit a roadblock that would require backtracking, there is ALMOST always a map connection nearby that guides you back out towards the right area, and then the new tool unlocks a way to quickly get back to where you were. Those linear-ish maps didn’t seem to be as straight, because you weren’t always entering and exiting through the same exact place (Usually). Often, those areas would have split branches that connect back up, so that when you enter from a different place it feels like a whole new set of rooms. Prime 3 didn’t do this as well, but DID use landing zones to try and replicate that effect. However because it couldn’t just nudge you towards the right place, they needed to have the Aurora Unit call you to say “Hey, you should pop on back to Skytown now”. Prime 4 manages to make this even worse. This is WHY Miles needs to exist, because every time you finish an area, you are just sent back to the desert, but there is always a correct next place to go. Compounding that, because the zones are kept distinct, and are so far apart, you always enter them from the front door (except, ironically, fury green…. The smallest area in the game). This means EVERY trip into Volt Forge means going through the same 4 rooms first. EVERY trip into Ice Belt means crossing the same field, taking the same lifts, seeing the same loading screens…. Both in AND out. They must have realized this was annoying on some level, because it’s telling that every trip back to Volt Forge is constrained to Tower 1. They didn’t want you to have to plunge even FURTHER into the same line of rooms both ways. This is the real flaw with the desert, that it makes every other level more linear just by virtue of forcing them to have just one entrance. Prime 2’s areas are much more isolated than Prime 1s, but they ALL have a connection to not just the temple grounds,","offTopic":true},{"id":"c421957b-e0e0-428e-8c2f-febb0ff5aaa9","excerpt":"30 Hour Unbiased Review — # Update because redditors have 0 reading comprehension:\n\n**DISCLAIMER: This review is supposed to be an “HONEST” review, NOT an “UNBIASED” one I simply titled this post wrong and that's mb**\n\nThis review has been edited to more accurately represent this game and my experience with it.\n\nI've p","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimsonDesert/comments/1s0m9dx/30_hour_unbiased_review/","role":"demand","weight":1.2972,"occurredAt":"2026-03-22T13:55:26.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"CrimsonDesert","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.38,"sentiment":0.2347826,"confidence":0.94,"matchedPatterns":["looking_for","i_hate","frustrating"],"statement":"don't get me wrong I hate AI as much as the next guy, but it's really not worth getting worked up over a couple set piece paintings whose only purpose is to be stolen and sold for minimal money.","title":"30 Hour Unbiased Review","body":"# Update because redditors have 0 reading comprehension:\n\n**DISCLAIMER: This review is supposed to be an “HONEST” review, NOT an “UNBIASED” one I simply titled this post wrong and that's mb**\n\nThis review has been edited to more accurately represent this game and my experience with it.\n\nI've played for about 30 hours now: here's my honest experience\n\n# Story:\n\nisn't amazing and isnt terrible, its serviceable and that's fine considering the focus of the game is exploration and adventure over story anyway. But if you're looking for a narrative masterpiece and engaging storytelling look elsewhere, this game is made for people who like adventure and exploration.\n\n# Exploration\n\nis amazing, the world despite its massive size is filled to the brim with secrets and areas and content, to the point that you're constantly getting side tracked and it can almost become a little overwhelming; but in a good way\n\n# Music\n\nis pretty phenomenal, every soundtrack helps to immerse you in the fantasy setting of this world and yet all of the soundtracks are so different that you're basically guaranteed to find one you fw. (looking at you fast travel ost)\n\n# Controls\n\nseem to be the biggest contention point and why the game is reviewed as mixed, and while yes, the controls can feel clunky at times and hard to understand at first, this is a classic case of people just not wanting to learn before shitting all over something, once you learn the controls they flow together pretty well and aren't really a big deal. (the devs are also addressing this issue in an upcoming patch as they've been looking at peoples criticisms so big W) I can absolutely recognize though that these controls aren't every ones cup of tea and not everyone will like them, they absolutely could've done the controls better.\n\n# Optimization and Graphics\n\nare also amazing, you can tell that they specifically designed this engine to be able to optimize massive open worlds well. Some people have apparently been having graphical bugs and errors such as popping and noise but it seems to be pretty subjective person to person. my\n\npersonal experience was awesome though.\n\n# Progression / Quests\n\nis fine, despite what many trolls will tell you.\n\n**and when I say trolls I mean the idiots who've barely played or interacted with the experience this game is trying to give but are still hating just to hate.**\n\nI keep seeing people say that quests are unfun or boring or that the first couple hours of the game is mediocre, and while I don't disagree with the latter, as you have to play through a couple hours of the main story to unlock all the proper systems that you'll want for exploration, its also not nearly as boring as people would have you believe, it's not completely action packed, but you don't need to constantly be fighting to have fun in a game, the first couple chapters are very clearly to introduce and immerse you into this world, which people are seeming to have a hard time understanding. personally, I like that not every quest is “go here, kill group, come back, here money”, but maybe I'm just a moron. Either way, could be done better, but not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be\n\n# UI\n\nis kinda teetering on the edge of bad and mediocre for me to be honest. I don't like that there's no dedicated map button because everytime I open the menu, I'll have to scroll over to the map section which doesn't seem like a big deal but gets kind of annoying after a while, and yes, the menu opens onto whichever menu u were on last, but you'll be spending 80% of your menu time in your inventory so, point still stands. the rest of the UI is just eh, the inventory is mediocre-bad, journal is fine, map is okay.\n\n# The AI Allegations\n\nare just honestly plain stupid, and by that I don't mean that I'm not acknowledging that they used ai for some of the art pieces, I'm saying that among that massive fucking world and amazing game that we’ve gotten, THIS is what people choose to focus on. don't get me wrong I hate AI as much as the next guy, but it's really not worth getting worked up over a couple set piece paintings whose only purpose is to be stolen and sold for minimal money. But yes, I agree they should've removed these ai pieces from the game even if they were just placeholders at some point, it's still dumb as shit to let that alone ruin the game for me though so I won't.\n\n**NOTE:** after further research, the devs literally confirmed that the art was left in unintentionally from early stages of the games concept world building, the AI criticism is completely moot\n\n[https://www.thegamer.com/crimson-desert-pearl-abyss-responds-ai-allegations/](https://www.thegamer.com/crimson-desert-pearl-abyss-responds-ai-allegations/)\n\n# Side Note:\n\nstorage is also being added soon, the devs are actively listening which is genuinely generational for modern day gaming\n\nanyway that should cover the bulk of the experience, if I missed anything lmk and I'll add it","offTopic":true},{"id":"1040e8e2-ed6c-444c-8c60-3f6976e567a4","excerpt":"Sword of Justice is the BEST MMO you'll NEVER play (100+hr review) — UPDATE: after 300+ hrs some of my opinions have changed. Combat has gotten better and a few other things which I’ll update in the review\n\nJust hear me out because I also almost uninstalled this game with a declaration of mobile slop after my first few","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comments/1ozvz1j/sword_of_justice_is_the_best_mmo_youll_never_play/","role":"demand","weight":1.2907467,"occurredAt":"2025-11-17T23:26:30.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"MMORPG","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.37313482,"sentiment":0.2293578,"confidence":0.94,"matchedPatterns":["cant_find","looking_for","i_hate","terrible","frustrating","missing_feature","manual_process"],"statement":"# Full review below but first TL;DR: **Pros** * Incredibly immersive world that doesn't feel empty or copy-pasted * Exploration and open world puzzles are fun * Story/side stories and engaging and choices matter * Tons of things to do outs…","title":"Sword of Justice is the BEST MMO you'll NEVER play (100+hr review)","body":"UPDATE: after 300+ hrs some of my opinions have changed. Combat has gotten better and a few other things which I’ll update in the review\n\nJust hear me out because I also almost uninstalled this game with a declaration of mobile slop after my first few hours. I'm not a dev or a shill, just someone who's been searching for the same MMO high I had as a child and have finally found it. After spending 100+ hours exclusively on PC since global launch for Sword of Justice, not only do I think it is isn't slop, I genuinely believe this is the best MMO title to release ON PC in the past decade. And trust, I've played almost ALL of them.\n\n# Full review below but first TL;DR:\n\n**Pros**\n\n* Incredibly immersive world that doesn't feel empty or copy-pasted\n* Exploration and open world puzzles are fun\n* Story/side stories and engaging and choices matter\n* Tons of things to do outside of combat that are fairly fleshed out\n* Guaranteed content updates due to game already been out for a decade in China\n* Very f2p friendly\n* Performance optimized well and beautiful graphics that don't feel dated\n* Easiest dailies I've ever experienced\n* Lots of co-op oriented gameplay\n* A decent amount of optional PvP gameplay\n* More challenging late game combat content\n\n**Cons**\n\n* Clearly mobile UI (fully customizable to make it like PC but gl finding that menu)\n* Menus on menus\n* Early game combat is way too easy \n* Late game raids are main PvE content and have frustrating pub mechanics (team wipes)\n* Game fools people to gear score chase when it doesn’t matter \n* immersion breaking cash shop cosmetics\n* Puzzles could be more challenging\n\n**This game is for you if:**\n\n* You want to be immersed in a Wuxia world\n* You prefer more traditional MMO combat systems\n* you enjoy complex build systems and gearing (tons of ways to optimize power)\n* You are a quester/story driven player\n* You are an exploration driven player\n* You are a fashion driven player\n* You are a life skill focused player\n* You are a builder\n* You are a social player\n* You have a partner you want to play with (surprising amount of couple focused content including a whole sect and progression devoted to it)\n* You are looking for a chill game with slower pacing\n\n**This game is not for you if:**\n\n* You dislike the Wuxia theme\n* You are looking for more involved action combat and less rotations based (with some dodging but not as focus)\n* You are looking for a simpler game with less features\n* You are looking for slower paced combat\n\n\n# FULL REVIEW\n\nI will periodically update this review and my ratings as I continue to play since many people may read this in the future to decide if this game is for them.\n\n# WORLD AND EXPLORATION (9/10)\n\nThe world in this game is incredibly immersive. For a decade old game, it looks incredible and better than many modern titles. The movement and sort of jump glide has a learning curve but once you figure it out it's quite enjoyable and doesn't take away from the beauty of the world in the way I think alot of flying mounts do in games. Each area/city's architecture feels unique and they are quite sizable. I've explored maybe half of the major areas now despite playing so much. The game definitely shines here.\n\nWithin each area there's also lots of puzzles to do and things to collect. I found the puzzles to be mostly fun but a little on the easy side and sometimes annoying because they require uses of skills which you then have to reslot for.\n\nPlenty of hidden treasure and areas within maps too if you explore.\n\n[Excuse the camera UI, one of the first pics I took in game before I realized I could press the capture button.](https://preview.redd.it/f7u25odjdw1g1.png?width=1740&format=png&auto=webp&s=864de27b42a04d8e264e506affc5ae8a80c5c287)\n\n# STORY/QUESTING (9/10)\n\nQuests in this game are sort of tragic romance. There aren't any meaningless fetch quests from what I've seen.\n\nI enjoy that they touch on some darker themes and the storytelling is done pretty decently. Something really cool is that your dialogue options change based on not just what you choose to answer but even things like hearing a rumor in the street or losing/winning a seemingly scripted fight. That dynamic storytelling is really interesting, reminds me of baldur's gate. I heard there are multiple endings too. That said, I think it's a little hard to keep track of characters sometimes as many sound the same, have similar sounding names in English, and look somewhat the same (beautiful, long flowing robes) minus professor X. Also I HATE quick time events but at least they make it meaningful where if you fail them it alters your storyline. That said, I'm not that deep in the story because there is just so much to do.\n\nI actually enjoy the side quests quite a bit, they are more than just fetch quests and have interesting dialogue. Some are even found from exploring or just listening to NPCs talk or finding items.\n\nOnly negative is they can get kind of overwhelming with how many you get if you aren't an avid quester.\n\nAlso there is AI NPCs which you can talk to. It's kind of weird and janky but you can get some rewards and achievements for doing so. Uh and if you don't want people reading what you type you might wanna turn on your private mode. I watched a guy flirt with an NPC and... yeah.\n\n# COMBAT (PvE and PvP) (7/10)\n\nEDIT: Since writing this post, a ton of combat related content released that really changes the dynamics of the game. RAID and boss gauntlet content specifically has been challenging and requires team coordination or risk team wipes. You’re still fairly limited in runs in these to two per week for each though but they do take a while. A good bit of the battle like most RPGs is done in menus with gear and skill prep. Skill rotations especially for dps have become more important. GvG continues to be extremely fun and the highlight of the week.\n\nThe combat in this game is a mix of action combat and tab target where you can tab between targets to lock on but you still have the i-frame dodging, movement mechanics, and ability to miss attacks by not being in range. The very, very large amount of skills in the game outside of just your class skills is great. It allows for a lot of skill expression in theory but like many games, there is definitely more meta skills. The game also has light and heavy attacks that can be combined like a fighting game to juggle enemies. On top of that you can do elemental combinations by using different types of skills to have some pretty cool effects. Most of the time though it’s just spam skill rotation off cooldown. Except in PvP where you need to be more intentional. Combat is fast and flashy with a bit too much chaotic screen clutter when lots of people are fighting but the effects are definitely aesthetically pleasing. You can disable other people’s effects too.\n\nInstanced PvE content is not too time intense in this game and something that is likely targeted towards to weekend runs with your party/guild gameplay given the limited number of rewards that can be claimed.\n\nDungeons are the typical uninspired repetitive kill mobs then kill mini boss. Yes they have unique quirks but it still gets old fast. Rewards aren’t great either and its seen as more of an optional thing to boost your power if your a combat player and you won’t really be much behind if you don’t do them. Of the PvE content this is the most disappointing.\n\nThe standalone boss battle gauntlet mode features 4 different bosses. These bosses have interesting designs and are actually quite fun to fight as they require dodging and light mechanics. Not to the level of mechanics as raid though, this is more about personal dodging skill. You can fight these solo/duo/party with difficulty and rewards scaling. You are limited in the amount of times per week to challenge though (I think twice per boss)\n\nRaids are actually pretty challenging and employ some interesting mechanics (that require coordination) and can offer a challenge. There are currently 2 seperate 3 boss raids in the game. Similarly I think it’s twice per week per raid. The hard mode requires lots of team coordination or risks team wipes.\n\nPvP 1v1 duels don't feel too unbalanced from what I've experienced as you can bait attacks and get out of CC locks. Instanced 3v3 PvP is mostly bots until higher ranks, pretty annoying. Weekly Guild vs Guild is very fun and is a whole tournament system that requires coordination. I haven’t done too much open world PvP but it has felt fun to me so far, unfortunately it is very optional and most people avoid. What is fun is you can get bounties which people with the cop life skill can hunt, force into a duel, and take to prison. You can even assign bounties on others. \n\n# PROGRESSION (9/10)\n\nCombat: Level progression is the typical meaningless MMO leveling of do some story missions and you’re at level cap so now you’re end game ready.\n\nStrength measurement is confusing in this game because of gear ratings and character score. These are for the most part meaningless and misleading to players.\n\nGear progression surprisingly isn't that grindy since all enhancements and gems carryover to new equipment. It is very rng based week to week given drops from content. There is a lot of progression though between gear pieces as some offer skills and can have different reusable gems socketed on them. There is some level of freedom too with the willpowers which are basically extra gear with passives you equip that have elements which give more passive bonuses once enough are equipped.\n\nSkills can also be progressed through means of proficiency (i.e. just using them).  You can also discover more skills through different means in the game which is great as many people will be running different skills outside of their class skills.\n\nExploration: Exploration progression gives fashion rewards, skills, and premium currency.\n\nLife-skills: These also have their own leveling system with different skills and rewards.\n\nLove: there is a whole questline and progression systems with dailies and rewards related to doing activities as a couple.\n\nTons of achievements and leaderboards for just about everything. Overall I think progression is  very thorough but convoluted. I always feel that sense that I’m aiming to do something and getting something for it.\n\n# CONTENT (10/10)\n\nThis is where I got overwhelmed. There’s a ton of things to do and they are mostly fleshed out. I really get a sense of freedom that I can do my own thing and the game sort of supports this with its multi path progression system and leaderboards for everything.\n\nI’m gonna list a bunch of things you can do:\n\nCombat\n\n* Dungeons\n* Roguelike mode\n* Boss fight gauntlet\n* Raids\n* World bosses and minibosses\n* 1v1 PvP duels\n* 3v3 mode\n* 12v12 mode\n* Guild vs Guild battle (60v60)\n* Open world PvP\n* Bounty system (cops and criminals)\n* battle royale\n\nExploration\n\n* Main story\n* Side quests\n* NPC relationships\n* Exploration puzzles\n* Gathering\n* Sect progression\n* Skill hunting\n* Fashion hunting\n* AI NPC conversations\n\nOther\n\n* Housing (amazing btw)\n* Fishing lifeskilll (one of the better fishing minigames)\n* Dancing lifeskill (tap-tap minigame)\n* Performance lifeskill (guitar hero minigame)\n* Case solving lifeskill (ace attorney minigame)\n* Other lifeskills (unsure if come with minigames, haven't tried them)\n* Bitlife-like life simulator\n* Card game(s) (more teased in future)\n* Fashion customization\n* Dance choreography (tiktok-like app using ingame models)\n* In-game dating app\n* prop hunt\n\n# CUSTOMIZATION (9/10)\n\nMy goodness. You can customize everything in this game and there are sliders for everything. Characters, outfits, accessories, dyes, mounts, pets, abilities, profile, even running and jumping have different options. My armor top alone has 10-15 different spots that I can dye using a color wheel. Did I mention you can mix and match different parts of your weapon? For my spear, I’m using the tip of one spear, the sha","offTopic":false},{"id":"9ec58dca-6776-4913-af3f-2838c0976b1a","excerpt":"I'm back with 47 more ratings + mini-reviews of games I've finished — **Skip below for the reviews grouped by game lenght**\n\nHey, everyone. First of all I just want to say thanks again for the incredibly positive and cool reception I had [last time](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1tnwdpt/heres_my_rating_mini_","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1u67jpi/im_back_with_47_more_ratings_minireviews_of_games/","role":"demand","weight":1.2588594,"occurredAt":"2026-06-15T05:32:04.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"gaming","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.3392121,"sentiment":0.55487806,"confidence":0.94,"matchedPatterns":["looking_for","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"Where it suffers is in lack of content.","title":"I'm back with 47 more ratings + mini-reviews of games I've finished","body":"**Skip below for the reviews grouped by game lenght**\n\nHey, everyone. First of all I just want to say thanks again for the incredibly positive and cool reception I had [last time](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1tnwdpt/heres_my_rating_mini_review_for_56_games_that_are/) I did this. Since so many people seemed to like it I decided to do it again. And no, I didn't play almost 50 games in around a month haha. The reason is I had excluded a bunch of games from the previous list since it was originally meant for r/patientgamers but it got rejected and a mod explained they don't accept this format outside of the year end retrospectives. \n\nSo I wrote reviews for all the games I had excluded originally and other games I had played recently. I also organized them in 4 lenght based categories, with a GOAT for each (I'll add it soon, promise). Based on feedback, for easier perusal. Here's the original text which still stands.\n\n>\"Let me just preface by saying that the ratings are NOT in any way an attempt at a professional or “objective” evaluation. They’re just basically how much *I* enjoyed the game. Furthermore, I usually rate games based on “how fun was it” and “how well did it do what I expected/wanted it to do”. As in: a visual novel with a good story and art is awesome and gets a high score while for something like vampire survivors, lore, narrative and etc would mostly be irrelevant to me.\n\n>Finally, I am more than willing to hear anybody’s thoughts on any of these games as long as they’re civil. I (obviously) love gaming and love talking about it and all of our different experiences are always a positive thing about the media to me. It’s a lot of info and I wrote it all in one go, so please forgive me if it’s not perfect. \"\n\n**(1) Bite-Sized Games (Under 5 Hours)**\n\n* **Sword of the Sea (2025)** – 5/5 (3h) 👑 🐐 \n   * Flow state artsy exploration game. What a fantastic experience. This is one of those games like Journey where it’s all about the vibes and flow. However, while I was totally in love with Journey, Flower and others, this one solves what they lacked (in my eyes) by having outstanding flow and a very fun gameplay. It doesn’t hurt that the devs utilized the Dualsense expertly and made the whole surfing around a super fun tactile experience. If you’re interested those beautiful “artsy” games but could never get into them because the gameplay didn’t grab you, this game might break that rule.\n* **Venba (2023)** – 5/5 (1h)\n   * Visual novel with a cooking mini game telling the story of an immigrant family. A simple but beautiful short experience. I’m an immigrant myself rn (and will probably be for the foreseeable future) so the themes resonated well with me. But even if you don’t have any personal connection to the theme, I’d say Venba manages to approach the themes of culture, identity and the struggle for a better life in a very tactful way through its cooking minigames and dialogue while keeping its runtime short enough that it doesn’t feel padded.\n* **Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping (2024)** – 4.5/5 (2.5h)\n   * Parody detective game with puzzles in the same style as Golden Idol. What can I say? My new favorite detective is back, and he’ll leave no feather unturned until this mystery’s solved. These devs’ sense of humor is just my cup of tea and this feels like the perfect game to play with an SO on a weekend night while laughing at all the silliness.\n* **Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (2021)** – 3/5 (3h)\n   * Comedy-focused Zelda style aventure game. The gameplay is just competent enough that it’s not annoying, but the humor is where it shines. Turnip boy is just a rebel and I’m here for it. This little Zelda-esque game is especially good in between heavier/longer games when u just want to play something light hearted to cleanse the proverbial palate.\n* **Crow Country (2024)** – 3.5/5 (5h)\n   * A pretty fun low-poly old RE style survival horror game. I think the game does a good job with the puzzles, story and atmosphere. I just think the moment-to-moment ended up being a tiny bit too stiff for me. I usually have pretty mixed feelings with games that also take the “bad parts” of old games to make the package more “authentic” and I think this game does a bit of that. But overall, it’s a solid package. Like I explained in the beginning, my ratings are about my persona fun. I think this game will probably do better with lots of people.\n* **Cat Quest (2017)** – 3/5 (5h)\n   * Cute and fun action game that feels like a flash game in all the best ways.  Another solid palate cleanser. This game is all about the cat puns and the action gameplay is responsive and fun, if incredibly simplistic. I just think traversal is very bad, especially closer to the end of the game before u unlock the fastest way of moving around. This game would have greatly benefitted from a fast-travel system. Also, there is a bit of an excess of quests, which wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t so so so repetitive. Even a simple short game can feel like a slog if it’s doing basically the same thing after 3-5h. Overall a fun worthwhile little treat and ideal to play in short sessions or one long weekend gaming sesh.\n* **Bramble: The Mountain King (2023)** – 3/5 (5h)\n   * This is like Little Nightmares but in a 3D environment. It felt very fresh since I’m not really well-versed in Scandinavian folklore. It also deals with some pretty heavy themes without feeling like it’s trying to be edgy. On the other hand, it is as simple in gameplay as it can be and I swear to God I will find whoever made the gnomes crying sound and lock them in a room with that thing playing on repeat and see how they like it.\n\n**(2) Short Games (5–15 Hours)**\n\n* **The Rogue Prince of Persia (2025)** – 3.5/5 (14h)\n   * PoP roguelike by the Dead Cells devs. This game excels in art style, movement and combat feel. Everything is extremely responsive and it is just fun to play. Where it suffers is in lack of content. I got the true ending in those 14h and by then I had already unlocked everything (except all costumes). There’s also a pretty poor level of variation run to run. I can’t remember a single run that was “that run”. If you can look at it more like a cool action game, I think it might be especially enjoyable.\n* **Onimusha 2 Remastered (2025)** – 2.5/5 (14h)\n   * PS2 samurai action game by Capcom. This is one of those case where my nostalgia was definitely blinding me. I played every one of these in the PS2 and had nothing but silly fun memories. Replaying 2 now it just feels weird af. It has some weird almost dating sim mechanics and some branching paths but all poorly explained if at all. While the core combat is basically the same (and a little improved even), this feels like if u gave the IP to a team of competent but drunk new devs. I also played the remaster of the first game and loved it so it’s not the PS2 or nostalgia factor only.\n* **Bayonetta 2 (2018)** – 3.5/5 (14h)\n   * Devil May Cry but with a hot naked witch. This is honestly an excellent action game. I like how silly it is, I like the “bad” story (as in crazy). The only reason for the 3.5 is bc I think overall this game is wasted on me. I feel like with games character-action games. The most fun is dedicating dozens of hours to just going insane with combos and clearing the harder difficulties but to me if the gameplay isn’t out of this world phenomenal I end up losing steam after the first clear. I think fans of the genre would give this a 4.5 on average.\n* **Bowser's Fury (2021)** – 4/5 (7h)\n   * 3D Mario sandbox “open world”. A very fun short \"side game\" for Mario. If you consider it a \"proof of concept\" for an open world Mario game it works fantastically. Some of the challenges get a little repetitive by the end, especially if you're doing 100%, but with a little more variety and polish in how you interact with the world this style could be the foundation for another all-timer in Mario's history.\n* **Lost Records: Bloom and Rage (2025)** – 2/5 (6h)\n   * Narrative story a la telltale and life is strange. I know these phrases get overused, but I do think this is very much a “game for a particular audience.” I’m not a woman, from the US or gay, and while I grew up in the 90s, it was in a big city. Normally I don’t need to relate to characters to enjoy a game (I’m not a samurai or a bounty hunter and enjoy *Ghost of Tsushima* and *Metroid* just fine, for example) but *Lost Records* is mainly about the everyday lives of four teenage girls, with only a very minor and underdeveloped supernatural element. As a result, most of the game is just long stretches of fairly normal teenage conversations/experiences, which I found hard to engage with as a 38-year-old man, both in terms of relatability and sometimes even comfort. Compared to *LiS*, it also feels like a step back, since it lacks a strong mystery, meaningful supernatural hook, or any real gameplay depth, leaving little more than passive storytelling. I don’t think it’s a bad game—it’s well-made and the writing/voice acting are believable—but it’s also quite unambitious and ended up feeling boring to me overall. At least it was “free”.\n* **Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (2020)** – 4/5 (7h)\n   * 3D platformer. This could have been the ultimate Crash Bandicoot game. And for some people it still might be. The gameplays is fun, the alternative characters are fun. Controls are incredibly responsive and I like every gimmick they introduced like the masks. The problem here is difficulty. Istg these devs were just abandoned by their wives who left for Mexico with their doorman who loved 100%ing games or something. Because it almost feels sadistic. I have 100% in all games in the original trilogy both on PS1 and remakes. I have finished most souls games. These games are just too much for me. Even just finishing the main campaign gets pretty challenging by the end. If you like very hard challenges, give it a shot. If not, do yourself a favor and just play through the main campaign and leave while you’re still happy.\n* **Chicken Police: Into the Hive! (2024)** – 4/5 (8h)\n   * Noir movie style VN. They’re clucking back. I think the devs really struck gold with the world they built. I’d say this game, being the sequel, is a little less tight than the first one. The latter half in particular feels pretty rushed to the point it was a little jarring. That being said, the voice acting, writing and atmosphere are off the charts authentic to the point you’d think they hired some old movie writer to do the script and directing. If you’re a sucker for a good detective story, do yourself a favor and give this game a try.\n* **Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe (2023)** – 4/5 (13.5h)\n   * Kirby 2d platformer. Kirby is just fun. This is a very by the numbers Kirby game that takes almost no risks, but honestly it doesn’t need to. Platforming is solid, powers are fun and graphics are cute and nice to look at. The new added side story with some light RPG elements was also surprisingly super fun (I might have liked it more than the main campaign).  \n* **New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (2019)** – 2/5 (14h)\n   * This was actually a huge disappointment. The levels are SO uninspired. After a while it all just blends together and this game made me especially glad they dropped the “new” style (at least for a while). Wonder was amazing and quick and snappy fun with creative twists. This is just repetitive, samey and, worst of all, so annoying to try to complete stages that I gave up. Not because of difficulty, but because the game kicks you out of the stage every single time u die. So u missed that hard jump for that collectible? Have fun losing a life, getting kicked out of the stage, clicking back in, trying again and repeating it all over if u fail, with load screens at every turn. I usually love 100%ing platformers, but for this one I just beat the main stage list and called it quits (didn’t even unlock the bons world s","offTopic":true},{"id":"f2c23683-fd0b-4e86-8116-5621f4132538","excerpt":"My experience and ranking of all demos I played this Next Fest [February 26] — This is the 7th event in a row I've done this, you already know the drill, gang. Previous Next Fest reviews:\n\n* [October 25](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1o9y42u/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/) | [June 25]","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1rh8fpb/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/","role":"demand","weight":1.2420765,"occurredAt":"2026-02-28T17:27:02.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"metroidvania","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.33688647,"sentiment":0.49882904,"confidence":0.92908156,"matchedPatterns":["wish","cant_find","doesnt_work","missing_feature","urgent"],"statement":"* I couldn't find a map.","title":"My experience and ranking of all demos I played this Next Fest [February 26]","body":"This is the 7th event in a row I've done this, you already know the drill, gang. Previous Next Fest reviews:\n\n* [October 25](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1o9y42u/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/) | [June 25](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1lal93g/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/) | [March 25](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1j2ktyn/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/)\n* [October 24](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1g61tkq/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/) | [June 24](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1df6shw/my_experience_and_ranking_of_all_demos_i_played/) | [February 24](https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1amytsa/looks_like_were_sharing_our_feedback_from_the/)\n\nAnd of course you know the usual disclaimers - NOT a definitive ranking of demos, my PERSONAL experience only, YMMV, etc. Enough chit-chat, time for some reviews!\n\n# Very Positive\n\n* [LUCID](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1717730/LUCID/)\n   * Solid graphics and very catchy soundtrack.\n   * Smooth as butter control.\n      * Platforming relies on keeping your momentum and restoring your jumps in various ways.\n   * Map available from start!\n      * There's also a mini map.\n      * There are custom map pins too!! (Fuck yeah, developer!)\n   * Interesting charm system and crystal arts to tailor the game to your preferred playstyle.\n   * Fought a cool and easy first boss, did some tricky platforming.\n   * Overall, very interesting and fluid game, it's obvious that the dev's got a clear vision for the project and it's definitely working out.\n* [The Eternal Life of Goldman](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2254950/The_Eternal_Life_of_Goldman/)\n   * Easily one of the most gorgeous games I've ever seen - graphics and animations are off the charts.\n   * So let's address the elephant in the room: is this a MV? Yes, I believe it is.\n      * It has a large overworld map and a selections of islands that you can visit.\n      * So it's similar in this way to games like [Metroid Dread](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/metroid-dread-switch/), [Shantae & PC](https://store.steampowered.com/app/345820/Shantae_and_the_Pirates_Curse/), [Dust](https://store.steampowered.com/app/236090/Dust_An_Elysian_Tail/), [MindSeize](https://store.steampowered.com/app/851280/MindSeize/) or [Xeodrifter](https://store.steampowered.com/app/319140/Xeodrifter/).\n   * You can find new parts for your cane that allow you to jump higher or to use hooks.\n      * Control is actually fantastic and it's easy to pull off tricky platforming.\n   * You can attack only via pogos (like in [Duck Tales](https://store.steampowered.com/app/237630/DuckTales_Remastered/)) and it's always satisfying to do so.\n   * Some hidden secrets in all islands that you can find if you're paying attention to the environment.\n   * You can store a few healing potions or other items in your bag.\n   * The game features quite an emotional theme.\n      * On the surface it looks like a cute adventure game but it is actually a tale that a mother is reading to her sick child.\n   * Fought three very cool bosses where you have to dodge their attacks and wait for an opportunity to strike.\n   * Three very small things that I'd like to see in the full game:\n      * A dialogue skip button for those who aren't much into it.\n      * A camera panning button - holding up/down to pan the camera up/down.\n      * At one point in the demo you have to play some small games on a computer and everything is moving exceptionally slowly, I really wish I could fast-forward the screens.\n   * You can pet the dog. 10/10.\n* [Nocturnal 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2847780/Nocturnal_2/)\n   * Really good graphics and fluid animations.\n   * Great control that allows you to stay in the air longer.\n   * Intuitive combat with lots of opportunities to hit enemies in the air and combo them.\n   * Fantastic map with custom map pins.\n   * The game's got a fire aesthetic going with you lighting torches and burning everything with your fire sword.\n      * Lighting torches is tied to certain gates as well as character upgrades.\n      * All torches are clearly marked on the map.\n   * You can equip and enhance relics with money (as long as you have lighted enough torches).\n   * Overall fantastic experience.\n* [Cathedral: Crow's Curse](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2471330/Cathedral_Crows_Curse/)\n   * Good graphics and solid control.\n   * Saving at rest points takes a bit longer than expected but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.\n      * Save points also act as travel points.\n   * Map available from the start but I couldn't find map pins.\n   * Combat has sneak attacks and semi-optional parries.\n      * Most basic enemies die in two hits but some require a more lengthy duel with dodging or parrying.\n   * Dying loses 10% of your coins.\n   * Lots of artifacts and there's no limit to the amount of artifacts that you can equip.\n      * Each artifact can be enhanced with coins using a small individual skill tree.\n   * Lots of secret breakable walls.\n   * Demo ended right before the first boss fight.\n      * Before that I got double jump, dash, wall jump and a bow.\n   * I had fun with that one, easy recommendation.\n* [Clockwork Ambrosia](https://store.steampowered.com/app/896010/Clockwork_Ambrosia/)\n   * Nice pixel art-style and good control.\n   * Ranged combat system - you have a variety of different guns and each of them has specific mods.\n      * You can equip mods on four separate properties for each gun to create game-breaking combos (like in [Xanthiom Zero](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2324610/Xanthiom_Zero/)).\n   * Lots of secrets in the walls.\n   * Map available very shortly after starting the demo.\n      * No custom map pins tho.\n   * Some light puzzles that were executed nicely.\n   * You've got one free respawn in the same room if you die, which is awesome!\n      * After that you respawn at the last save point.\n   * You can find and craft different equipment and enhance them with materials that you find while exploring and defeating enemies.\n   * Fought two bosses, both were great.\n   * One small note: the screen resolution has some bug when playing on fullscreen mode.\n      * The bottom part of the screen doesn't render at all and other applications that pop up get stuck in it. \\[[Screenshot here.](https://i.ibb.co/Nn6TvSRD/20260227192024-1.jpg)\\]\n      * I'm playing on 2560x1600 resolution which might have something to do with it.\n   * Still a fantastic demo, I was impressed!\n* [Kloa - Child of the Forest](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1905580/Kloa__Child_of_the_Forest/)\n   * Very nice cozy graphics.\n   * This MV features a top-down perspective (like [Crypt Custodian](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2394650/Crypt_Custodian/)).\n   * Map present from the start.\n      * No map pins tho.\n   * Simple level up system for your 5 main abilities: HP, mana, defense, attack, magic attack.\n   * Nicely placed secrets similar to [Minishoot Adventures](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1634860/Minishoot_Adventures/) where you have to pay attention to the surrounding areas and dive under the trees to discover hidden paths.\n   * There are run-backs after you die but save points are well placed so it never takes more than 15-30 seconds.\n      * Save points act as teleports.\n   * Fought 2 bosses - or rather one boss that came back with an improved version.\n   * The game is simplistic but fun, I really enjoyed my time with it.\n\n# Positive\n\n* [Akatori](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1442520/Akatori/)\n   * Good graphics and animations.\n   * Control is decent.\n      * Jump feels a bit floaty but not that bad.\n   * No map was present in the demo but there was a space dedicated for it in the menu.\n   * The demo was more like a linear platformer where you try different levels with an arena fight + boss at the end.\n      * I suspect that is to showcase more of the game rather than only its first area.\n      * Rooms were quite large but that may also be just for the demo.\n   * There was an escape sequence featuring some underwater platforming.\n   * I found some merchants that sell healing and rage potions.\n   * Demo didn't really blow me away but it was decent.\n\n# Mixed\n\n* [Solateria](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2947280/Solateria/)\n   * Great graphics and animations.\n   * Map present from start.\n      * Custom map pins!\n      * Area completion percentage!!\n   * Looking at the map doesn't pause the game for some reason.\n   * The main focus is on the combat - dodging, parrying, etc.\n   * There's a charm system to enhance all parts of combat - attacking/healing...\n   * If you are a fan of games like [Nine Sols](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1809540/Nine_Sols/), [Blasphemous](https://store.steampowered.com/app/774361/Blasphemous/) or [Grime](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1123050/GRIME/) with a heavy emphasis on the combat, make absolutely sure to try this demo, it should be right up your alley!\n      * However, this really isn't my cup of tea. (Which is fine - I'm obviously not the target audience for the game.)\n      * Also, I'd like to note that there are multiple difficulty settings to adjust that, if you aren't into combat-oriented games but still want to give Solateria a shot.\n* [Planet Chyton](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3644140/Planet_Chyton/)\n   * Really cool graphics and animations.\n   * KBM control only, using controller absolutely SUCKS.\n      * There's no key rebinding and the whole button scheme is so awkward and clunky - basically either use KBM or don't bother at all.\n   * Map available from start but:\n      * The WHOLE map is visible, you don't discover it area by area as you explore. (Maybe that's just for the demo?)\n      * There are no custom map pins.\n   * Overall, very charming game and I really do like the aesthetics a lot but the control is killing the fun for me.\n      * It desperately needs proper controller support and an option to rebind controls.\n      * (Or just play with KBM.)\n* [CHASM SHIFT](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4302110/CHASM_SHIFT/)\n   * This is a no-combat precision platformer with some puzzle elements.\n   * Graphics are simple but decent.\n   * Control is really good.\n   * There is no map, instead you can zoom out the screen to check out the surrounding ones.\n   * You respawn in the same room right where you died.\n   * Actually a very competent game, it's just that I'm not huge on this type of games personally.\n      * Definitely do check it out if you're into precision platformers with no combat tho!\n\n# Not Great\n\n* [Axel Quest](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3824740/Axel_Quest/)\n   * A cozy-looking retro platformer.\n   * Played for half an hour, it was perfectly linear.\n      * No clue whether it ever turns into a MV at some point.\n   * Typical retro-inspired game - dying loses all of your progress.\n   * Plenty of insta-kill pits, which is an insta-turn-off for me.\n   * Control is fine with the exception of the pogo.\n      * You pogo by holding B while falling...?! (My brain honestly can't process the need for the change.)\n   * Fought one simple boss, bought a ranged weapon and a better sword.\n   * Unlocked traveling between save points.\n   * Got tired of the insta-kills and dropped the game before figuring out if it's anything more than a linear platformer.\n* [Mona: The Endless Journey](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3866890/Mona_The_Endless_Journey/)\n   * Graphics are great, control is decent albeit a bit slow,\n   * The map is extremely weird - navigation is not like anything I've ever seen in the genre.\n      * It's like the whole map is 3D but you're only moving in 2D and changing lanes to get to new places.\n      * It's so difficult to get your bearings even with a map.\n   * You summon some ghost girl to attack for you (like in [Ender Lilies](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369630/EN","offTopic":true},{"id":"f13ada70-64d1-4734-ae06-38e33d5d8202","excerpt":"No, we are not talking about men too much, it is not oversaturating the subreddit, and game discussion is not being stifled. — Okay, I'll bite: I spent a little over an hour doing an experiment by seeing how much this subreddit creates topics for the explicit purpose of complaining about men by using the past seven day","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/GirlGamers/comments/1u32xq9/no_we_are_not_talking_about_men_too_much_it_is/","role":"demand","weight":1.1987422,"occurredAt":"2026-06-11T15:52:57.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"GirlGamers","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.24544643,"sentiment":0.71428573,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["i_need","looking_for","how_can_i","doesnt_work"],"statement":"And I need a new rpg to play - Idk how I feel about paralives - Which feminine game villain(s) you fell into?","title":"No, we are not talking about men too much, it is not oversaturating the subreddit, and game discussion is not being stifled.","body":"Okay, I'll bite: I spent a little over an hour doing an experiment by seeing how much this subreddit creates topics for the explicit purpose of complaining about men by using the past seven days of topics created as a sample - I have the day off, after all, so I have the time and the interest. It's not a super-scientific experiment, the critera is simply, \"Does this topic involve simply complaining about men?\" because I don't count a topic of game discussion that includes how men react to it because that is just a portion of the topic's discussion. So what were the results?\n\n===========================\nMale-related Bash/Rant/Vent\n===========================\n\n- Pretty sure my gaming friend is misogynist, but the discord is acting like I’m crazy????\n- [TW: HOMOPHOBIA], TRANSPHOBIA] Video: The transphobia debuff in gaming\n- In game partner got TOO attached, what do I do?\n- Absolute fed up with literally everything being called \"woke\" now.\n- Yes we do though?\n- God of War Laufey is getting a huge backlash for making the character intentionally less appealing than the actress, Deborah Ann Woll\n- Had to quit one of my fav childhood mmos because of toxic people (vent/rant)\n- Can’t even play games in peace anymore (TW Homophobia)\n- i don’t feel like a good enough gamer for my bf\n- (mild rant) Has anyone else experienced this with a streamer's community?\n- GOW Laufey discourse\n- I’m so tired of comments like these\n- Anyone else feel like guys are way more likely to engage in stuff like platform wars?\n- Steam's stance on discourse currently is Alt-Right\n- Can someone explain to me gamergate and Anita Sarkeesian controversy?\n- Sometimes I forget how male-leaning Reddit as a whole is until I get reality checked on it\n- Totally not weird interaction I had today:\n- Tired of always feeling like the token woman\n- Gothic Remake\n- So tired of men invading our spaces\n\n\n=================================================\nMale-unrelated Advice/Gaming/Gaming Culture Topic\n=================================================\n\n- [Rimworld] Cozy futuristic diner build\n- Someone recommend me a game before I lose my mind\n- How do you play hollow knight silk song?\n- Mobile games?\n- Apps for rating video games??\n- Hoping someone can help\n- Any clue why my x button doesnt work !!! It works in the menu settings but once i go inside the games or any apps like netflix it doesnt work at all ?anyone facing the same issues ?\n- Haven't played in a while! And I need a new rpg to play\n- Idk how I feel about paralives\n- Which feminine game villain(s) you fell into?\n- Hey there, Is the Witcher series okay?\n- I got an Elden Ring tattoo\n- Any point-and-click fans in this group?\n- What should I play next?\n- Heartopia vs Stardew Valley: which one is actually better for someone who just wants to turn their brain off?\n- For the Dave the Diver and Lovecraft fans around\n- God of War: What should I play before Laufey?\n- what do you all do in minecraft?\n- The change I'm how we view exclusives (and other ranty points)\n- I just found out about Laufey. I'm so excited ...\n- I always feel way more immersed in horror games with female protagonists.\n- A message to those who actively support game exclusivity to a specific platform\n- Looking for a Visual Novel Rec\n- Just a quick painting of my cat watching the loading screen of Halcyon Days at Taoyuan\n- God of War Laufey has me in a CHOKEHOLD\n- I want to say thank you.\n- Mobile Games to Check Every Once in a While?\n- Summer Game Fest airs Women Led Games Showcase today at 4pm PST\n- Choices Matter & ~5gb or less\n- My summer game fest mention predictions\n- Lol I helped a little bit 😂\n- There's a game called Hyke: Northern Lights...\n- Any Final Fantasy fans? Anyone excited for FF7 Part 3?\n- My honest criticism of God of War Laufey , from someone who played and loved the last two God of War games .\n- Gaming helped me get through a really ugly chapter of my life\n- Mourning for Ghost of Yotei\n- Games that you love but have lost hope on a sequel or successor.\n- Anyone who plays GTA, can you tell me what winning a plushie from this machine does?\n- Use of AI in new Tomb Raider reboot id disappointing, but not surprising\n- I can't believe we're getting a Wolverine game before we're (ever?) getting a Wonder Woman game\n- We are a small team creating a cozy horror game called Vale's Echo. It's inspired by one of my favorite games - Fran Bow\n- Finally, a game where my MC is allowed to be messy and sarcastic\n- Guild Wars 3 hype!!!\n- Stellar Blade: BLOOD RAIN | Official Reveal Trailer\n- Has anyone played Buried Stars or Paradise Killer?\n- WELCOME BACK CLAIRE REDFIELD!!! ❤️\n- So excited for this!\n- help me pick Aesthetics for my PC setup! Hyte Y70 (pics for inspo of what I find cute)\n- So hyped for 1666: Amsterdam!\n- Zen Word search games\n- Claire looks AMAZING!!!!\n- Opinion on every games shown at SGF 2026\n- RDR2 - What's your fave female character?\n- My pc doesn’t let me play Roblox\n- ps5 game recommendations?\n- How to get better at decoration games?\n- Do I need to play God of War?\n- What do you think about games with over the shoulder cinematic camera?\n- I’m so excited for Dressmaker!\n- Legends ZA has flaws, but I'm really loving the game. Wanted to share my outfits throughout the game, from start to now! 💕\n- In dire need of weirdly specific lets plays from woman! Part 2!!\n- Anyone else play Skyrim?\n- Ever wanted to love a game that is really clunky? That's my situation now with Dungeons of Hinterberg.\n- what a game you like but don’t understand why?\n- Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee: Remastered Official Announce Trailer - IGN Live 2026\n- Can you think of any male protagonists that were scrutinized for their appearance?\n- New Star Trek game starring Ro Laren!\n- Should you play God of War games before Laufey? My opinion.\n- im playing deltarune and i can feel my antisocial era happening lamaoo! this game is so fun!\n- Best (cheapest) laptop for Minecraft?\n- Looking for 2D horror game recommendations\n- Which is better for streaming and gaming, Ryzen 9 9900X or 7 9800X3D? (with the ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070 XT GPU)\n- I have no idea what I’m doing but the scenery is nice 🙂\n- A little pink and white 🩷🤍\n- How has your year been going when it comes to gaming? Did you achieve any goals, discovered a new genre or something else?\n- Did anyone else used to play MovieStarPlanet?\n- Does anyone know sweet, girly games for mobile?\n- I tried to play Stellar Blade. Is that it?\n- I made my dream come true and wrote a game. It's called Fortune Fragments!\n- Who's excited for Persona 4 Revival? (XBOX Game Showcase)\n- A collection of 16 classic Barbie games is coming out on November 16, 2026\n- Nee Hellblade Game Announced\n- Vivarium - Official Announce Trailer\n- For Pride Month! We have Tomb Raider Yuri by azurajae! \"Sorry, boys, I'm taken~\" SamLara\n- An Exodus Review by Kala\n- Valheim Has A Release Date ! September 9th !\n- That was a great Xbox showcase today\n- Magical Girl/Magical Girl esque game recs?\n- Which Resident Evil games to play\n- What are some good Youtube channel recs that deep dive into a game's development or gameplay?\n- Need Sapphic Game Recs (Switch 2)\n- I just learn that 1666 Amsterdam used AI “art” on their promo cover. One less game to be excited about\n- Returned my Elgato Facecam 4K because my iPhone 17 Pro is better 😭 anyone else just using their phone?\n- Cozy games are a blessing in these times\n- Ahhh so many things being announced in such a short time span!\n- Really enjoying Stellar Blade despite the (very well deserved) criticism. Whats a game that you enjoy even though you agree it’s not the best or fully deserves the criticism it gets?\n- I have an extremely long-running Morrowind character 🦎\n- Either she blocks the view or she blocks my keys.\n- Downloaded emulators just to feel something\n- good female protag games\n- Finally back into gaming after years\n- Castlevania Belmonts Curse!\n- TOE 3 ACCOUNT LOST\n- I dread sprinting and crouching in every game\n- The Steam Summer Sale is coming up: What are your favorite hidden gems that more people should know about?\n- Spirit Crossing playtest\n- Finally played resident evil 9 requiem ..\n- RuneScape got an Avatar Rework, Sharing Some Outfits!\n- LGBT videogames for Pride Month! Timespinner is not a masterpiece, but its been a metroidvania I've come to love.\n- Truly feels impossible to come up with a game tag\n- Dark Witchy Game! YESSS\n- How do I enjoy games I’m no good at?\n- Too many games = I play none of them\n- Can someone help me find this cute pink controller which i saw on amazon but now its out of stock and i really liked it soo much 😪\n- Good chair recommendations?\n- I didn't like this eyeliner, but I found another use for it\n- Seeking opinions on the game Cyberpunk 2077\n- Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Release Date Trailer | Nintendo Direct June 2026\n- Curious about Xenoblade\n- I'm hyped beyond belief!\n- THIS DIRECT WAS SO GOOD\n- Dragons Dogma 2 DLC!\n- Xenoblade Genesis\n- If i am sharing a switch 2 with my partner - does it still allow you to share physical games?\n- Eyes Up Guardian\n- External Hard Drive\n- Everyones’ thoughts on Class of 09?\n- What are some good gaming earbuds?\n- Psst, how are my JRPG gals doin'?\n- As a Catgirl Enthusiast, Court Queen Erisa Summer Casual is my new main 😻🎾 Anyone else obsessed with her?\n- Rant: Fortune's Weave Character Outfits\n- Replaying Ragnarök and this moment will forever live rent free in my head\n- Has anyone seen the new op in Overwatch? If so thoughts?👀\n- Help deciding on replacing my portable monitor?\n- Racing games on the PS4?\n- OW2 comp no voice chat? Advice needed!🥹\n- Just being a noob!\n- How do you choose what to play from your backlog?\n- Old animal sim mobile games ((mostly cheetah)) Please help me find the games!\n- What games are using Gen AI?\n- Does anyone else feel like modern RPG character creators are getting way too restrictive?\n- Is the new fable using gen Ai?\n- Gaming in the same room as my partner\n- do you guys ever feel bad about ‘replacing’ your favorite game?\n- REPO is so awesome, what other games have great communities for women\n- Cual computadora gamer recomiendan ?\n- Nerdy book recommendations!\n- I LOVE ELDEN RING 𐔌՞ ܸ.ˬ.ܸ՞𐦯\n- I finally hit 100,00 kils in The Strongest Battlegrounds after 3 and half years!\n- Gamer pets\n- Questions for Girl Game Devs!\n- Spider-Man for the PS1 should be given the same amount of respect as Metal Gear or Tomb Raider and I'm not even joking\n- Made with passion versus made out of pure obligation\n- Do miniature war games belong on this sub? Check out my Artillery Witch I painted\n- It makes me a better Spider-Man\n- Do we have any fans of Dark Pictures Anthology here?\n- Gaming laptop suggestion\n- A question about RPGs vs. Visual Novels\n- You are allowed to post about games :-)\n\n================\nMeta-Complaining\n================\n\n- Can we get a megathread for complaining about misogynists/creepy men?\n- Can we stop talking about men?\n\n=========\nMegathreading\n=========\n\n- Looking for Discord Thursdays\n- Find a Friend Friday - June 05, 2026\n- Self-Promotion Tuesday - June 09, 2026\n- What're You Playing Wednesday?\n- Looking for Discord Thursdays\n\nThat is 196 total topics, of which those made for the explicit purpose of complaining about men in gaming culture and our spaces compromises a total of **20**. That makes up **barely over 10%** of total topics of discussion. So to be honest, I find the notion pretty disgusting that we should megathread-stifle our experiences with men in gaming spaces in a subreddit that is tailored towards *being a safe space for discussion among women*. If you find the amount of complaining about men on this sub too unbearable, that's probably a you problem. Change the algorithm you use and lurk more.\n\n[EDIT] This, as it has been brought to my attention, does of course not include any topics that were deleted by mods for being unfit topics of discussion. This list was tallied between 10-11AM of June 11th, so if there have been plenty of delet","offTopic":true},{"id":"0dff92ef-7a54-4ea3-8c8c-0d76c5f4e184","excerpt":"FINALLY...Closure After 21 Years!! — **DUNGEON SIEGE 2 (PC) — A Throwback Kind of Game Review**\n\nDo you have a childhood game that you are desperately seeking closure for? A game of pure nostalgia you remember losing hours to while you ate your favorite snacks and sipped on a ridiculously sugary beverage (Doritos and M","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/ItsAllAboutGames/comments/1v953za/finallyclosure_after_21_years/","role":"demand","weight":1.1950045,"occurredAt":"2026-07-28T17:27:12.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"ItsAllAboutGames","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.335,"sentiment":0.20354964,"confidence":0.89513445,"matchedPatterns":["looking_for","terrible","frustrating","currently_i_use","missing_feature","manual_process"],"statement":"================================================== **ACHIEVEMENTS & THE 100% GRIND - (7/10)** Coming out originally on physical discs in 2005 means that Dungeon Siege 2 sadly lacks any formal modern achievement systems.","title":"FINALLY...Closure After 21 Years!!","body":"**DUNGEON SIEGE 2 (PC) — A Throwback Kind of Game Review**\n\nDo you have a childhood game that you are desperately seeking closure for? A game of pure nostalgia you remember losing hours to while you ate your favorite snacks and sipped on a ridiculously sugary beverage (Doritos and Mountain Dew were always my go-to)?\n\nDungeon Siege 2 is one of those few core-memory games that take me right back to my childhood. But as a kid, I never actually took the time to complete it. This was mostly because the way I was introduced to Dungeon Siege 2 was by pure accident. My Auntie and Uncle’s neighbor was the one who showed me this gem. Whenever there was a sports game on, my Aunt and Uncle would head over to their neighbor's garage to watch it. Unless it was hockey, I really had no interest, so I would usually sit there bored out of my mind. To keep me entertained, the neighbor asked if I liked computer games, to which I responded with a big “YES!!”. \n\nHe mentioned the game he was playing, Dungeon Siege 2, and it immediately drew my interest. A dungeon-crawling, hack-and-slash, party-management game was right up my alley. He booted up his computer (a massive block running Windows 2000) and placed a physical disc into his PC… geez, I sure am dating myself here. When I saw the cinematic intro cutscene, I was hooked. His one single condition was that I could do whatever I wanted—treat it like a sandbox—just as long as I didn’t hit SAVE. That was the one binding rule. It was a fair rule, and a lot of trust to place in a kid, given the fact that I had no idea how powerful hitting save on someone else’s playthrough actually was. I like to think I held up my side of the bargain fairly well, only hitting save once by accident after completing a side quest. The neighbor didn’t seem mad when I told him. I’d like to think I did him a favor by saving him time and letting him reap the rewards of my efforts, but deep down, I know it was because he could just pull his old save file back.\n\nBeing a foolish kid, when my parents were kind enough to gift me my own copy of Dungeon Siege 2 (which took ages to find used at EB Games for a reasonable price), I accidentally carried that \"no saving\" rule into my own playthrough. I failed to see the value in saving a game… I know… DUMB, but hey, I was just a kid. Because of this failure to properly save, I never truly completed the game. For years, I would just mindlessly dungeon crawl the first area over and over again until I grew bored and shelved it. It wouldn’t be until I bought my first gaming PC as an adult many, many years later that I would revisit it. In fact, it was one of the first games I bought on Steam as part of the Dungeon Siege Collection for the low price of $7.89 CAD. \n\nI dabbled in the original Dungeon Siege 1 during COVID, but that flame quickly went out when Warzone dropped and my friends and I needed a way to stay connected. Now here we sit in 2026, 21 years after I first found myself wanting to dive into a dungeon crawler, knowing I had to finally seek closure by beating the franchise. So obviously, I played… Dungeon Siege 3… yes, that's right, hold the judgement. It was the only installment I hadn’t played, and it was the newest jump in the franchise, so I figured what the heck. I played for less than an hour before I screamed, “THIS IS NOT DUNGEON SIEGE!” and abandoned that mess (we will talk about that in a separate review).And thus, it brought me full circle to opting to play Dungeon Siege 2, and I am sure glad I got a chance to revisit it. \n\nEven at over 20 years old, this game is still one of the best dungeon crawlers I’ve ever played. After logging over 70+ hours in my first proper playthrough, I think I at least owe this game a grand review. After all, it did win “Best Roleplaying Game 2005” from PC Gamer US and was nominated for “Roleplaying Game of the Year” during the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. \n\nSo let's sit back, relax, and review: Dungeon Siege 2.\n\n==================================================\n\n**STORYLINE - (8/10)**  \nOur story begins like all great roleplaying games: with us creating our own character. You can pick between human, half-giant, elf, or dryad. Being the hypocrite that I am—usually giving players a hard time whenever they pick a boring human in a fantasy setting—means I had to go ahead and choose a human to begin with. I gave him an epic name (Tyolon), toggled between a few of the optional cosmetic settings (there’s not much there, truth be told), and began our adventure.\n\nOnce you create your character, you're thrown into a great little cinematic and immediately thrust onto the front lines of an invasion. The world is at war and you, alongside your best friend Drevin, are mercenaries for Valdis. Valdis is the equivalent of our dear Sauron—a mighty warlord who wields an all-powerful blade (The Sword of Zaramoth) and needs to acquire the Shield of Azunai. His goal is to bring these two mighty items together to cause the Great Cataclysm and end the second age (aka, end the world). Why? We don’t know, and we don’t care. We’re mercenaries, and as long as we're paid and on the winning team, life is good. Or at least it is until Valdis succeeds, but hey, then everyone’s dead anyway, so again—not our problem. And so, we crash the gates of a dryad temple that holds a piece of the Shield of Azunai, the Aegis of Life. \n\nAs we get closer to the temple, Drevin keeps telling us that his medallion is acting strange and feels like something is off. Being the best friend we can possibly be, we essentially tell him to shut up and keep moving. Well, lo and behold, Drevin was right. Valdis immediately turns on his own mercenary army the minute he retrieves the Aegis of Life. Before he can strike us with a killing blow, Drevin heroically throws himself in front of the blade. We see him get struck down before we black out, later awakening in a dryad prison camp.\n\nThis begins a massive narrative spanning 3 Acts and 27 primary quests on our pursuit of revenge to avenge Drevin and defeat Valdis. Along the way, we try to make amends for past decisions that ultimately led to some pretty catastrophic events that shaped the very realm. We encounter other recruitable NPCs who want to follow our cause, and thus, our party slowly grows. You go from being a mere prisoner to a reputable hero known across the lands—the realm's only fighting chance. You also have the option to further your heroic deeds by taking on 41 additional secondary quests. \n\nThis includes one of the best secret quests in gaming history that pays homage to both the developers and the player, known simply as the “Mysterious Quest.” I truly think this game shines brightest in its side content, and I strongly encourage you to take some time to explore Aranna. Some of the greatest characters, hilarious dialogue, and pure trolling you will encounter make it well worth the extra hours. Should you follow your quest through to the end, you will encounter a multitude of monsters and travel through 34 different fast-travel teleport regions, featuring 3 fully fleshed-out major cities acting as your hubs. Honestly, all joking aside, the story is really good. \n\nI constantly found myself wanting to jump back in just to see how the plot would unfold. The unfortunate thing is, when it did end, I was left a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, there were some wild reveals that had me saying “DAMN!”, but ultimately, when the dust settled, you're left kind of wondering, “What now?”\n\nI believe this cliffhanger gets addressed in the Broken World expansion pack. Unfortunately, at the time of this review, Broken World is not natively available on Steam. There is a community-built save file patch that allows you to play it, and I might dabble in that later to see if the expansion offers a more satisfying conclusion than the base game. But for now, until that official content is available on the Steam store, I am ranking this purely on the base experience. So, with that in mind, my final verdict for the storyline is a solid 8/10.\n\n==================================================\n\n**GAMEPLAY & COMBAT (7/10)**  \nAt its core, Dungeon Siege 2 is a classic Action RPG, and you feel that design instantly. The best way I can describe the combat is that it feels like playing a single-player campaign of Dungeons & Dragons with your own customized party, but rather than relying on tactical dice rolls, you are instead clicking frantically with your mouse. Admittedly, it can feel a bit repetitive. You do a massive amount of clicking to toggle your cursor over waves of targets and order your party to attack. At times, the standard mob clearing got a little dull. However, there are absolute diamonds in the rough when it comes to the mini-bosses and chapter-ending boss fights. These encounters demand far more tactical party placement, precise ultimate power timing, and strict resource management regarding health and mana potions. The massive variety of enemy types you encounter across Aranna keeps the overall loop refreshing and challenging.\n\n**LEVELING & PARTY MANAGEMENT (7/10)**  \nProgression feels fair, though I did find that some of the specific perks inside the four primary skill trees (Melee, Ranged, Combat Magic, and Nature Magic) feel a bit lackluster. You have to invest a heavy amount of skill points to unlock noticeable stat boosts. This can trigger a bit of a grind, as leveling up sometimes rewards you with a single skill point that offers a meager 1% stat increase. On the bright side, this format forces your hand to specialize, a design choice I highly respect. It means you have to deliberately weigh what path you want to take. The game explicitly hints during its opening tutorial to focus on only one or two skill trees per character so you don't spread yourself too thin and miss out on powerful endgame abilities. This specialization model plays directly into party composition. Your active squad needs a specialist in all four trees to remain balanced. The nice thing about having a party though is that you aren’t stuck playing a single class through the entirety of the campaign. The game forces you to cycle through your roster (especially if the party member you’re currently using dies) which keeps the game play from becoming extremely stagnant.\n\nThis does present a bit of a drawback on your first playthrough on Mercenary difficulty though, where your party size is strictly limited to four members. Because of this artificial ceiling, you can't really explore multi-classing or trial different companions. While you can swap members at any town Inn, the four-slot limit acts as a roadblock. I would have loved to explore the dedicated pet system or run an extra front-line fighter, but the initial playthrough essentially forces you to stick with the exact same party configuration. \n\nPlaying through the campaign again on Veteran or Elite difficulties expands your maximum party sizes to five and six slots respectively, which likely opens up theory-crafting. You can also expand on your skills (as the carry over in a new game+) allowing you to better max out skills within the various trees. Even so, the default Mercenary difficulty remains challenging enough without stalling your progression. It is always clear when you are wandering into an area above your level, as the monsters' names dynamically color-code from green, to blue, to yellow, to orange, and finally a deadly red (which means RUN!!). The primary quests keep you moving at a steady pace, while the secondary quests expand the lore and add genuine life to the world.\n\n**DEATH & LOOTING MECHANICS - (9/10)**  \nI am a massive fan of games with meaningful character deaths, and Dungeon Siege 2 handles this beautifully. If your companions take too much damage, they fall unconscious. Heal them, and they are right back in the fight. However, if they take massive overkill damage, or if enemies attack their unconscious bodies on the ","offTopic":true},{"id":"1a244591-91eb-4426-b033-a4c4e7fc93be","excerpt":"[Steam Golden Week Big Sale 2026] List/Guide of Recommendations For Great JRPGs and Hidden Gems. — [**Steam Golden Week Sale**](https://preview.redd.it/fm7p8u7tzdxg1.png?width=1163&format=png&auto=webp&s=29e365ecb2285119274d9b86305b322602647d1c) is here again. It will end on **May 7**.\n\nSo in order to make sure there a","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1svlb5j/steam_golden_week_big_sale_2026_listguide_of/","role":"demand","weight":1.1948991,"occurredAt":"2026-04-25T19:23:21.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"JRPG","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.24145368,"sentiment":0.7904762,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["wish","looking_for","switching_from","missing_feature"],"statement":"With multiple difficulties from the get go, and more unlocked once you finish the game, a full playthrough (not 100%) just through the story missions, is easily 100+ hours, but since the game is built on a missions based system, where you…","title":"[Steam Golden Week Big Sale 2026] List/Guide of Recommendations For Great JRPGs and Hidden Gems.","body":"[**Steam Golden Week Sale**](https://preview.redd.it/fm7p8u7tzdxg1.png?width=1163&format=png&auto=webp&s=29e365ecb2285119274d9b86305b322602647d1c) is here again. It will end on **May 7**.\n\nSo in order to make sure there are no regrets, and you don't miss any great deals, this guide will be divided into more digestible sections. But before we start, **for those who have the time and want to explore the sale themselves, here is a direct link to all the JRPGs on sale right now on steam**:\n\n~ [**Link to the JRPG Page of the Sale**](https://store.steampowered.com/search/?tags=4434&untags=5577%2C9130&category1=998&specials=1) ~\n\n---\n**Important Notes:**\n\n---\n\n1- Even if the link is to a Bundle deal, **you can still buy the games in that bundle individually**.\n\n2- All games and sales are based on the **US store.**\n\n&#x200B;\n\n---\n**Steam Deck Icons (As explained by Steam itself):**\n\n🟦 **Verified**: Means that the game is **fully compatible and works with built-in controls and display**.\n\n🟧 **Playable**: Means the game is **Functional, but requires extra effort to interact with and configure** .\n\n\"**?**\" **Unknown**: Basically unconfirmed  or still under-review.\n\n---\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\n#⭐ Classic Series On Sale ⭐\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\n(Each title links to series Steam page sale)\n\n🟢 All [**SaGa** games individually are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34457012-SaGa-Project/list/101015/)  for **-50% to -70%**.\n\n🟢 All [**Persona** games individually are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/ATLUS/list/127121/)  for **-50% to -80%**.\n\n🟢 All [**Atelier** games individually are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/KOEITECMO/list/76630/)  for **-25% to -75%**.\n\n🟢 All [**Mana** games individually are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34457031-Mana-Series/list/126133/)  for **-50% to -70%**.\n\n🟢 Some of [**The Trails** games are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=%22The+Legend+of+Heroes%22&tags=122%2C4434&category1=998&supportedlang=english&specials=1&ndl=1)  for **-20% to -60%**.\n\n🟢 All [**Final Fantasy** games are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34459938-FINAL-FANTASY/list/44202/) for **-30% to -70%**. \n\n🟢 All [**Disgaea** games are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/disgaea) for **-25% to -80%**. \n\n🟢 All [**Etrian Odyssey HD** trilogy is on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=%22Etrian+Odyssey%22&tags=122%2C4434&category1=998&supportedlang=english&specials=1&ndl=1) each for **$11 to $16**.\n\n🟢 All [**Yakuza** titles are on sale](https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/RyuGaGotokuStudio/list/124766/)  for **-30% to -80%**.\n\n&#x200B;\n\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\n#⭐ Classic Turn-Based ⭐\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\n\n\nName|Price|Tags|Steam Deck\n---|---|----|----\n[**Beloved Rapture**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2017620/Beloved_Rapture/) | (**$13.39** at -33%) | Medieval fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Retro |🟧\n[**Bravely Default II**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1446650/BRAVELY_DEFAULT_II/) | **$23.99** at -60% | Fantasy setting/Class changing system|🟧\n[**Cassette Beasts**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1321440/Cassette_Beasts/)|(**$7.99** at -60%)|Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Monster collector/Open world|🟦\n[**Conception PLUS: Maidens of the Twelve Stars**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/906510/Conception_PLUS_Maidens_of_the_Twelve_Stars/) | **$11.99** at -80% | Fantasy setting/Dating-sim/Fan-service/Harem/Dungeon Crawler|?\n[**Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/458730/Conception_II_Children_of_the_Seven_Stars/) | **$$3.99** at -80% | Fantasy setting/Dating-sim/Fan-service/Harem/Dungeon Crawler|?\n[**Chrono Trigger**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/613830/CHRONO_TRIGGER/)|(**$7.49** at -50%)|Pixel Graphics/Time-Travel/Fantasy Adventure/Great Soundtrack/All time Classic/Multiple Endings|🟧\n[**Chrono Cross**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1133760/CHRONO_CROSS_THE_RADICAL_DREAMERS_EDITION/)|(**$7.99** at -60%)|Sci-fi fantasy setting/Alternate Dimension/Fantasy Adventure/Great Soundtrack/Multiple Endings/2 games in 1 bundle|🟦\n[**Clair Obscur: Expedition 33**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903340/Clair_Obscur_Expedition_33/)|(**$39.99** at -20%) (Not Part of the Golden Week Sale|Fantasy setting/Dark story/Character Relationship system/Deep Character Customization/Timed Button Presses combat/Great Soundtrack|🟦\n[**Death end re;Quest**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/990050/Death_end_reQuest/)|(**$9.98** at -69%)|Cyber world setting/Female Protagonist/Dark Fantasy/Gore/Fan-service|🟦\n[**Death end re;Quest 2**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1266220/Death_end_reQuest_2/)|(**$7.99** at -80%)|Cyber world setting/Female Protagonist/Dark Fantasy/Gore/Fan-service|🟦\n[**Dragon Star Varnir**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1062040/Dragon_Star_Varnir/)|(**$7.99** at -80%)|Dark Fantasy setting/Dragons/Fan-service/Mystery|🟦\n[**Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/524580/Fairy_Fencer_F_Advent_Dark_Force/)|(**$6.99** at -65%)|Fantasy setting/Power Rangers Transformation/Comedy heavy/Fan-service/Dating Sim/Grind Heavy|?\n[**Grandia HD Remaster**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1034860/GRANDIA_HD_Remaster/)|(**$9.99** at -50%)|Fantasy setting/Adventure/Beautifully Animated spells/Classic|?\n[**Grandia 2 HD Remaster**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/330390/GRANDIA_II_HD_Remaster/)|(**$9.99** at -50%)|Fantasy setting/Adventure/Beautifully Animated spells/Classic|?\n[**Hero Must Die. Again**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1054050/Hero_must_die_again/)|(**$9.99** at -75%) |Medieval Fantasy setting/choices Matter/Open world/Multiple routes/Short playthroughs|🟦 \n[**Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/566540/Labyrinth_of_Refrain_Coven_of_Dusk/?curator_clanid=43139428)|(**$9.99** at -80%) |Dark Fantasy setting/Comedy/Deep character customization/Deep character customization/First-person Dungeon crawling/Tiered loot|🟧\n[**Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1998340/Labyrinth_of_Galleria_The_Moon_Society/)|(**$29.99** at -40%) |Dark Fantasy setting/Comedy/Deep character customization/First-person Dungeon crawling/Tiered loot|🟦 \n[**Mary Skelter Finale**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2357400/Mary_Skelter_Finale/)|(**$11.99** at -75%)|First-Person Dungeon Crawler/Character customization/Female Protagonist/Multiple Endings/Horror|🟦\n[**Metaphor: ReFantazio**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2679460/Metaphor_ReFantazio/) | (**$34.99** at -50%) | Fantasy setting/Dark Fantasy/Monster collector/Demons/Dungeon Crawler/Character Relationship system|🟧\n[**Monster Sanctuary**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/814370/Monster_Sanctuary/) | (**$7.49** at -75%) | Fantasy setting/Monster Collector/Metroidvania/Pixel Graphics|🟦\n[**Octopath Traveler**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/921570/OCTOPATH_TRAVELER/) | (**$17.99** at -70%) | Fantasy setting/Multiple Protagonists to choose as your main character/Pixel Graphics/HD-2D|🟧\n[**Octopath Traveler II**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1971650/OCTOPATH_TRAVELER_II/) | (**$23.99** at -60%) | Fantasy setting/Multiple Protagonists to choose as your main character/Pixel Graphics/HD-2D|🟦\n[**Octopath Traveler 0**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/3014320/OCTOPATH_TRAVELER_0/) | (**$34.99** at -30%) | Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/HD-2D/Base Building/Open World|🟦\n[**Path of the Midnight Sun**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1969060/Path_of_the_Midnight_Sun/)|(**$7.79** at -61%)|Medieval Fantasy setting/Hand-drawn/Choices Matter/Dating sim|?\n[**RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2288350/RAIDOU_Remastered_The_Mystery_of_the_Soulless_Army/)|(**$34.99** at -30%)|Alternate history Tokyo setting/Monster Collector/Remaster/Dark story|?\n[**Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1866430/Rhapsody_A_Musical_Adventure/)|(**$11.99** at -40%)|Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Comedy/Cute/Musical|🟦\n[**Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2002870/Rhapsody_II_Ballad_of_the_Little_Princess/)|(**$14.99** at -40%)|Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Comedy/Cute/Musical|🟦\n[**Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2002880/Rhapsody_III_Memories_of_Marl_Kingdom/) |(**$14.99** at -40%)|Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Comedy/Cute/Musical|🟦\n[**The Alliance Alive HD Remastered**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1027250/The_Alliance_Alive_HD_Remastered/)|(**$7.99** at -80%)|Fantasy setting/Expansive Skill Tree/Character customization/NPC collector/SaGa-like|🟦\n[**Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2178480/Shiren_the_Wanderer_The_Mystery_Dungeon_of_Serpentcoil_Island/) |(**$19.99** at -50%)|Fantasy setting/Roguelike/Pixel Graphics/Mysterious Dungeon genre |🟦\n[**Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1178790/Shiren_the_Wanderer_The_Tower_of_Fortune_and_the_Dice_of_Fate/) |(**$3.99** at -80%)|Fantasy setting/Roguelike/Pixel Graphics/Mysterious Dungeon genre |🟧\n[**Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413480/Shin_Megami_Tensei_III_Nocturne_HD_Remaster/) |(**$14.99** at -70%)|Alternate history Tokyo setting/Dark Fantasy/Monster collector/Demons/Dungeon Crawler|🟦\n[**Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1875830/Shin_Megami_Tensei_V_Vengeance/) |(**$20.99** at -65%)|Alternate history Tokyo setting/Dark Fantasy/Monster collector/Demons/Dungeon Crawler|🟦\n[**Terra Memoria**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1912750/Terra_Memoria/)|(**$6.99** at -65%)|Fantasy setting/Pixel Graphics/Exploration/Bulding & Crafting|🟦\n[**Virgo Versus The Zodiac**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/920320/Virgo_Versus_The_Zodiac/)|(**$4.99** at -75%)|Fantasy setting/Female Protagonist/Pixel Graphics/LGBTQ+/Choices Matter |🟦\n[**Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1890740/Voice_of_Cards_The_Beasts_of_Burden/)|(**$11.99** at -60%)|Medieval Fantasy setting/Tabletop visual style/Card based gameplay/Dark story/Hand-drawn/Deck builder|🟧\n[**Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maide**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1748660/Voice_of_Cards_The_Forsaken_Maiden/)|(**$11.99** at -60%)|Medieval Fantasy setting/Tabletop visual style/Card based gameplay/Dark story/Hand-drawn/Deck builder|🟧\n[**Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1113570/Voice_of_Cards_The_Isle_Dragon_Roars/)|(**$11.99** at -60%)|Medieval Fantasy setting/Tabletop visual style/Card based gameplay/Dark story/Hand-drawn/Deck builder|🟧\n[**FANTASIAN Neo Dimension**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2844850/FANTASIAN_Neo_Dimension/) | (**$24.99** at -50%) | Sci-fi fantasy setting/Amnesia |🟦\n[**Maliki : Poison Of The Past**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2893260/Maliki__Poison_Of_The_Past/)|(**$14.99** at -50%)|Fantasy setting/LGBTQ+/Time travel/Turn bar manipulation/Farming and resource gathering|🟦\n\n&#x200B;\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\n#⭐ Tactical Turn-Based ⭐\n\n🔷➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖🔷\n\nName|Price|Tags|Steam Deck\n---|---|----|----\n[**Digimon Survive**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/871980/Digimon_Survive/) | (**$9.59** at -84%) | Modern Japan setting/Dark Story/Monster Collector/Mostly VN/Multiple Routes & Endings/Anime style/Social Link system|🟧\n[**Hero's Adventure: Road to Passion**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1948980/Heros_Adventure_Road_to_Passion/) | (**$8.99** at -50%) |Chinese Martial arts fantasy setting/Wuxia/Open-world/Resource gathering & crafting/Relationship system/Pixel Graphics/Multiple endings|🟦\n[**Langrisser I & II**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1060220/Langrisser_I__II/)|(**$14.99** at -70%)|Remake/Fire Emblem-li","offTopic":true},{"id":"f7a254b4-9c11-4f36-9f8d-95c5c61ba730","excerpt":"Outer Wilds review: Maybe recommending a niche puzzle game to literally everyone is a bad idea — On a technical level Outer Wilds is incredibly impressive. Simulating an entire solar system (even in miniature) with realistic gravity models is no small feat, and the fact that just about every planet has \"living\" element","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1rga2th/outer_wilds_review_maybe_recommending_a_niche/","role":"request","weight":1.1938,"occurredAt":"2026-02-27T15:42:31.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.27,"sentiment":0.23076923,"confidence":0.94,"matchedPatterns":["waste_of_time","manual_process","praise"],"statement":"Things like, why do I even have to put on the suit manually every loop when there's no reason to ever not be wearing it?","title":"Outer Wilds review: Maybe recommending a niche puzzle game to literally everyone is a bad idea","body":"On a technical level Outer Wilds is incredibly impressive. Simulating an entire solar system (even in miniature) with realistic gravity models is no small feat, and the fact that just about every planet has \"living\" elements which change their geography and appearance and whatnot in real time even when you're nowhere near them is super cool. The graphical style is also pleasant, and I appreciate that none of the characters are humans. This is a space game in a unique solar system, and having even the player character and their town be funny aliens does a lot to sell that premise. I also found the controls pretty serviceable in contrast to some negative reviews I've seen; they're a little bit to wrap your head around but once you start thinking in terms of zero-grav physics it's all fairly intuitive (if not always easy to control).\n\nUnfortunately that's kind of the extent of the good things I can say about my experience. This game obviously resonated with a lot of people very deeply, so I'm not going to say it's a *bad* game, but I really don't think it's for me.\n\nI think the biggest problem this game has right now is actually the way that it's usually talked about, and the expectations set by that rhetoric. The fandom has become somewhat infamous for refusing to tell potential players *anything* at all about the game for fear of \"spoilers\", even hiding basic details like the game's premise or what genre it even is and instead just insisting that it's a masterpiece and everyone should play it. I think this hurts more than it helps -- not only because people aren't likely to pick up a game they can't even get an elevator pitch for, but also because this is actually a really particular and niche game that absolutely will not appeal to everyone.\n\nHere's a short description I would give to someone who asked what the game is like, which doesn't spoil anything you aren't likely to figure out yourself within the first 30 minutes of gameplay: Outer Wilds is a freeform exploration/puzzle game about exploring a miniature solar system that is stuck in a time loop. You can find the ruins and writings of an ancient advanced civilization, and use that information to gradually figure out the source of the time loop, as well as the origins and nature of the planets and the various structures on them. The game is extremely non-linear, and requires you to absorb and process the information you're given in order to follow breadcrumb trails and figure out puzzles organically.\n\nNow just by that description, you can probably see the issue with blanket-recommending the game to anyone and everyone. If you don't like freeform self-directed games, you'll probably struggle to enjoy Outer Wilds. If you don't like figuring out opaque puzzles with very little explanation of what you're even looking at, you'll probably struggle to enjoy Outer Wilds. If you don't like reading tons of scattered pieces of text and slowly piecing together the story on your own, or you get stressed out the presence of time limits in games, or you have little patience for being asked to repeat gameplay segments multiple times, you'll probably struggle to enjoy Outer Wilds. The target audience here is people who really like freeform exploration, non-telegraphed puzzle solving, or scattershot storytelling, and also don't mind the other two. That's a relatively small niche, all things considered.\n\nSpeaking personally, I am not the biggest fan of any of these things. I like some puzzle games but typically only when the mechanics and objectives are clearly conveyed, I struggle to maintain interest in games that don't provide any clear sense of direction or progression, and I've never been able to get invested in any story that uses the Dark Souls Item Descriptions School of storytelling. If I had *known* that this was a freeform exploration game with opaque puzzles and a story told entirely through disconnected logs I probably wouldn't have even played it. But instead it was exclusively pitched as \"it's the best but I can't tell you anything without spoiling, just play it dude trust me bro\", so I ended up buying and playing a game that I could've easily told you was far outside my strike zone. The only other thing you're likely to get out of a fan is that it \"made them cry\" or \"changed their perspective on life\" or something else that might trick you into thinking this is a game with a front-facing story, when it really isn't.\n\nAnd knowing that a game is widely considered a \"masterpiece\" comes with its own baggage. When you're expecting a game to be a flawless masterpiece, every single little thing that annoys you or puts you off feels way more significant. Things that could've been brushed off as minor nitpicks instead get latched onto subconsciously as ways that the game doesn't live up to the hype. Things like, why do I even have to put on the suit manually every loop when there's no reason to ever not be wearing it? All it does is make me occasionally forget about it and die stupidly, wasting my time. Or the way Autopilot will sometimes crash your ship or launch you into the sun. Or the way that I managed to seemingly hit flags for \"discovering\" something that I did not actually notice or figure out multiple times, leading to confusing dialogue options. None of these things are really a big deal, but when you're expecting a flawless game minor issues tend to stick in your mind and sour the experience.\n\nOn top of not really being the target audience here, a lot of aspects of the game design also just felt at odds with each other. I'm not as bothered by the \"time limit\" of the time loop as some people seem to be, but I did find myself asking... why is this even a time loop game, exactly? What does it add to the experience to be thrown out of whatever you're doing and forced to leave from the starting planet every 20 minutes? I'm sure it's critical to the resolution of the story or whatever, but in my 5-6 hours of playing I never found anything that seemed to justify its presence. Sure there's a handful of things that seem to progress over the course of the loop and that plays into the exploration, but I those aspects seems like they could've just as easily just oscillated back and forth between the two states (i.e. >!sand moving between two planets back and forth!<). You don't need a time loop to have \"time matters\" mechanics. For that matter, does it really need to be so easy to die or pseudo-softlock yourself? If the game is trying to be about open-ended exploration then it feels like it might be better if the player could more freely explore without worrying about being abruptly sent back to their home planet by stupid things like fall damage or running out of fuel.\n\nOn that note, I found it pretty hard to actually buy in to the universe presented by the game; my suspension of disbelief was hard to maintain. This is supposed to be a solar system that's existed for a long time and has ruins of a long-lost ancient civilization, so why does it feel like everything was in complete stasis until the instant the game started? If the >!planet with a black hole in it can be completely destroyed!< in 20 minutes, how has it lasted until now >!without being destroyed already!<? If the >!sand planet can have all the sand drained from it by its neighbor!< in 20 minutes, why is it >!completely 100% covered in sand!< at the start? If the ancient civilization left or died off a long time ago, why is almost everything in the same state as they describe it being in their texts? It's possible there's some answer to this at the end (like, idk, the solar system was actually created at the instant the game started and all the memories people have of earlier times are fabricated or something (not spoilers, I didn't finish the game I'm just making stuff up)), but I feel like even if there was an answer like that it would feel like a convenient excuse for decisions that were actually made purely for gameplay reasons.\n\nEven beyond the time issues, I find it pretty hard to believe that the characters in this game are real people with any personality or interiority. The writing is... not very engaging, frankly. I couldn't tell you any differences between most of the Hearthian characters, and even the ones that do have some personality elements (the other spacefarers) are pretty shallow -- this guy is scared and bad at exploring, that guy's chill and >!knows about the time loops!<, etc. The problem here is that there's no real depth to them beyond those few-word descriptions. I've seen a few people mention that you can talk to them more as you find more stuff, but nothing about them interested me or made them feel like real people so I never felt any real compulsion to do so. And the ancients that you spend most of the game reading the writings of are no better in this regard; they all speak in an extremely utilitarian and matter-of-fact way, often just dryly explaining the building you're standing in or whatever concept is relevant to that area. You'll read text in a space station and it'll read something like \"This is the space station. >!This is where we launch orbital probes. There was a room for monitoring the probes but it got destroyed. It got destroyed because we turned the power up too high.!< Ha ha.\" It's just not engaging and doesn't give me any reason to care about the people who wrote these things, and I'm assuming that caring about the people in this world and what's going on is going to be a prerequisite for actually getting anything out of the supposedly \"life-changing\" ending.\n\nAs an aside, the way that the ancients wrote these notes seems insanely impractical and nonsensical if their goal was anything other than \"leave a bunch of information for future travelers to find, under the restrictions of an adventure video game that needs to convey important information in small chunks\". Like, their main method of writing was to write stuff in big spiral shapes on the walls in a way that wastes 80% of the available space? And they used these wall writings to communicate directly with other people as if it's an instant messenger or email system? Did they seriously not have any kind of long-distance or synchronous communication? It's really hard for me to imagine a society where this system makes any kind of sense at all. This is a nitpick but it is another thing that made it hard for me to buy in.\n\nReally the bulk of the gameplay here is launching into space, finagling your ship onto whatever planet, and then wandering around reading snippets of bland text until you find one that tells you to look for more info on another planet. And then you go to the next planet and repeat, until you eventually find an area you can't easily access. And then... you bash your head into the wall until you stumble upon the answer? Honestly I never really figured out any of the puzzles in this game. Since nothing is explained or telegraphed it's hard to even tell sometimes if what you're looking at even *is* a puzzle, or if you've just missed some entrance or switch somewhere. I've seen this described as a \"metroidbrainia\" (terrible genre name) but even ignoring the fact that nothing about this game is remotely \"metroid\" or \"vania\", the conceit of that genre is that you find information which allows you to solve new problems using the tools you already have, and I never felt that happen in 5-6 hours of playtime. I found >!a teleporter (that's way too out-of-the-way and finicky to be practically useful most of the time)!<, but it's not like there was any secret tech with the scout cannon or jetpack that I learned which would help me access new areas. When I hear \"metroidbrainia\" I think of something like Ooo, where you're constantly being guided towards learning new techniques that are clearly useful, and Outer Wilds is not like this at all in my experience. Every time I found a closed-off area my experience was that of wandering around looking for any kind of entr","offTopic":true},{"id":"d8410f16-8b45-4dcd-90cf-8224cdb1d181","excerpt":"Sacred Stones - Fire Emblem at its Coziest and the Variable Difficulty still Hidden Within — (As goes the tradition, the attached units are the MVPs of my final successful Ironman run. Nothing exciting in the slightest this time, Seth is obviously just that guy)\n\nHello my fellow Fire Emblemians. I like Fire Emblem (sho","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1vtwziq/sacred_stones_fire_emblem_at_its_coziest_and_the/","role":"pain","weight":1.1884011,"occurredAt":"2026-08-20T21:42:24.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"fireemblem","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.4331084,"sentiment":0.36666667,"confidence":0.8292472,"matchedPatterns":["terrible","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"While I still prefer the games in the franchise that adhere a bit more to the \"puzzle strategy\" like aspect of the franchise where every unit has a distinct, jigsaw puzzle-like role to play and EXP distribution and careful resource managem…","title":"Sacred Stones - Fire Emblem at its Coziest and the Variable Difficulty still Hidden Within","body":"(As goes the tradition, the attached units are the MVPs of my final successful Ironman run. Nothing exciting in the slightest this time, Seth is obviously just that guy)\n\nHello my fellow Fire Emblemians. I like Fire Emblem (shocking) and have been on a journey to stop being a fraud and finally play through every game of the series, most of which I had only ever touched a single chapter of at most when I was much younger. I really enjoy spilling my thoughts about this journey thus far and how my relationship with this series continues change as I develop a deeper appre, and have done so thus far with [Path of Radiance](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1qsm0dq/path_of_radiance_wow_just_wow/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=post_embed&utm_term=1&utm_content=1), [Radiant Dawn](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1rb604j/radiant_dawn_has_ruined_fire_emblem_for_me/), and [Fire Emblem 7](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/s/YskUbmBGis), and [Fire Emblem 6](https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/1uvpcia/fire_emblem_6_made_me_a_better_fire_emblem_player/). Next on the agenda was Sacred Stones, which is one of those aforementioned games I played a few chapters of when I was much younger (and promptly and swiftly dropped due to my undeveloped brain not being able to comprehend what was going on). After adoring FE6 and FE7, my hopes and expectations for FE8 were quite high and those expectations were (mostly) not misplaced. \n\nI want to talk about the presentation of this game a little bit. Something about that GBA/DS era spritework still resonates with me in such a special way. The best way I can think to describe the feeling it stirs up in me is being wrapped up in a warm blanket next to a crackling fireplace on a cold Winter's night. Battle animations, the critical animations, the vibrant colors on the map, the little details of your wyvern moving and your horse trotting, etc. Everything is conveyed so well in this style, which is something FE8 shares with FE6 and 7 which did a similarly excellent job. Shadows of Valentia and Radiant Dawn, especially, have my favorite artistic depictions of the world of Fire Emblem but I have no doubts or reservations in saying that the GBA era of Fire Emblem is the best overall presentation in the franchise, a sentiment which I know is far from an unpopular take. GBA Fire Emblem, if nothing else, is crisp and snappy, which makes the idea of replaying these games much more appealing. This is particularly relevant in Sacred Stones with the route split whispering in your ear to play through the game twice.\n\nAnd play through the game twice I did. And many more times, actually. I've always heard Sacred Stones being described as \"the easiest game in the franchise for blindfolded babies\" and as someone who has played through games like Conquest on Lunatic, Engage on Maddening, etc. I didn't really think this game would pose any challenge whatsoever to a so called veteran of the series, but as someone relatively new to the world of Ironmanning, this is the GBA game that gave me my most difficult struggle in doing so. Granted, I imposed my own set of rules I was strict on following, which included never taking any opportunity to grind in Skirmishes or the Tower and having to move directly to the next story chapter, but I was still surprised at how much certain maps tripped me up. My first run of the game ended in Chapter 6, Victims of War, the first Fog of War chapter in the game. Being completely blind I was trying to play the map pretty carefully, which led to my Eirika being pretty unceremoniously killed by the Cavalier reinforcements at the start of the map. My next run ended at one of the scariest Chapters in the game, Chapter 11B The Phantom Ship. Doing this Chapter in a Blind Ironman is brutal, there's so many enemies coming from every angle covered in a thick layer of fog. I came to realize, eventually, that the strategy on this map is either to be extremely aggressive with your best two units or to just straight up not deploy a lot of units at all, but for the unprepared this Chapter is a nightmare and, even on my eventual successful run, I still had to make a weird adaptive play and leave Natasha as bait to die. Then, we have the devil incarnate Chapter itself. The most evil and scheming chapter of them all - Chapter 14B - Father and Son. This Chapter frustrated me to no end, and ended three separate runs by itself and I maintain that its still the most difficult chapter in the game, but only if you try to 'properly' engage with Sacred Stones' artificial time limit with recruiting Rennac. You have to move through this map pretty damn quickly in order to cut him off, and with the mandatory Ephraim or L'Arachel, you're putting at least someone in danger of the thousands of mage reinforcements and, much more dangerously, the Berserk staff. I \\*loathe\\* the Berserk staff in these GBA games, man. Even with Pure Water and Barrier shenanigans, they still have the possibility of completely ruining any carefully laid out plans you've made and it feels like they're so few counter plays. You have to make sure your Restore staff user(s) are just barely out of range because they will always be targeted but still close enough that they can move in for the Restore. Trying to bait tank the uses of them out is wasting valuable turns you need to cut Rennac off, and I'm sorry but I still maintain that you should be able to attack units that have been Berserked. As executive tactician of my army I should be allowed to make the difficult decision to impale my Joshua who is about to end my run by decapitating the Lord he should be serving. All of this challenge comes from wanting to fulfill the map objectives and recruit everyone, though, and would this map have been nearly as difficult if I just decided to play Turtle Emblem? Probably not.\n\nThat's sort of the secret with Sacred Stones (and this is sort of the case with every game in the series to an extent, just even moreso with Sacred Stones). Sacred Stones has a pretty wide spectrum of variability depending on how much you try to engage with the game on its level or, ironically, how much you're not engaging with the game on its level (by, say, not using the Tower of Valni) and in how quickly you decide to take the SethBron James pill. Early on, I was still pretty fixated on the mindset of distributing my EXP as deliberately as possible without letting someone like a Seth soak it all up, but eventually you realize - Seth is Seth. Seth is the answer to every problem in this game. If you need to choke a point, throw SethBron James there. If you need to kill a boss, throw SethBron James at it. If you need to visit a village really far away, SethBron James is the guy for the job. Need to tank staff uses of a Bolting tome? Its fine just throw SethBron James over there he'll be okay. Much like how all LeBron needed was a ball, all Seth needs is a Javelin. The more you fight that idea, the harder the game becomes. I think all of this is sort of the biggest strength and weakness of Sacred Stones. When you have an absurdly overtuned unit to the extent of Seth with no drawbacks whatsoever (seriously, why did they build this man like that) the game's strategical problems and roadblocks all shift around that unit. If one key opens every lock, why bother having a key ring with multiple keys in the first place? This can feel invalidating to your other units to an extent, the game becomes a fun toybox of sorts with all of your own self-imposed challenges to craft your own perfect Fire Emblem difficulty experience; its a difficulty tailor made to your own whims, and it all feels very natural to the structure of the game itself. \n\nWhy should I continue to pour resources into trainee unit Ross? Because I like him and it would be fun. Why should I make Amelia a walking death machine instead of just moving Seth to handle it? Because I want to. While I still prefer the games in the franchise that adhere a bit more to the \"puzzle strategy\" like aspect of the franchise where every unit has a distinct, jigsaw puzzle-like role to play and EXP distribution and careful resource management are tantamount to your success, the Sacred Stones approach, while lacking a lot of that friction, is still enjoyable in its own right and I had a ton of fun with the game and it brought so many good ideas to the table. I love the branching class promotions, they should have continued refining this idea rather than the eventual 'anyone can reclass to anything' idea we'd later end up with. Skills return, albeit in a very limited and kinda gutted capacity because you can't see what the skills actually do when you're on the class promotion screen, but I still love the idea of \"this class gets this skill\" and the idea absolutely should have been fleshed out more. \n\nThe story of Sacred Stones is, at the very least, the most enjoyable of the GBA games to me. The heart of the story being centered around Eirika and Ephraim's relationship with Lyon, a great antagonist for FE standards btw, gave a lot of much needed weight to their journeys that I feel Eliwood and Roy, especially, was lacking in FE6/7 who at times almost feel like they're kinda just going through the motions. the surrounding cast all have their own fun little quirks to offer as per usual, and I was particularly impressed with how much depth characters like Marisa were hiding in their Supports this time around. Sacred Stones' world and story is pretty simple a la FE6, but in a way that's constantly pushing the narrative forward and giving you more opportunities to...actually play the game, which is all I really want out of these games. Super fun game, and likely the last FE game I'm going to play before Fortune's Weave itself descends in less than a month's time. Very excited for that game, but not totally sure if I'm ready to go back to the more story-centric hub-world style of Fire Emblem, but I digress. \n\n  \nTL;DR - Sacred Stones is a fun game, and I like Fire Emblem. The game gives you lots of tools to craft your own difficulty with, and I think that's cool. Why is Seth built like that, who did that?","offTopic":true},{"id":"934aded0-2ab9-4153-a098-2cd0e51aa2c1","excerpt":"Four Flavors of Adventure: Cat Quest, Ogu and the Secret Forest, Cassette Beasts, and TUNIC — **Preamble:** Today I want to take a look at four adventure games that I went into with little knowledge or forethought and cover my (limited) expectations, how those played out, and what surprised me. \n\nNo great unifying them","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1u1h67q/four_flavors_of_adventure_cat_quest_ogu_and_the/","role":"pain","weight":1.1840001,"occurredAt":"2026-06-09T20:41:01.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.43019474,"sentiment":0.26931566,"confidence":0.8278594,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"Honestly not bad at times, but the character models lack a bit of...","title":"Four Flavors of Adventure: Cat Quest, Ogu and the Secret Forest, Cassette Beasts, and TUNIC","body":"**Preamble:** Today I want to take a look at four adventure games that I went into with little knowledge or forethought and cover my (limited) expectations, how those played out, and what surprised me. \n\nNo great unifying theme here, I just played these all around the same time and felt enough similarities that I tend to group them together in my head, even if they are very different games in a lot of ways. Cassette Beasts especially seems like the odd one out, but it shared enough aspects with the others that I still think of it as \"adventure\" even if other categorizations might fall higher on the list.\n\n**Approach to Rating:** In an effort to be more thoughtful, intentional, and reflective about the games I play, I've been rating them on a ten category, 100 point rubric for the past couple of years. I give each game a gut score out of 100 right after I finish it, then a second rubric-based score out of 100, then average the two. Incidentally, most of these titles highlight the flaws in applying a uniform rubric to every game I play.\n\n# 1. Cat Quest - Rubric: 59 / Gut: 65 / Average: 62\n\n* **Time:** Completed in 4 hours over 2 days on PC\n* **Photosensitivity Notes?:** Not too bad. A few fades-to-white, but not in a harsh way, and combat effects were mild.\n* **Worth it?:** No. Although I found the first hour or so fun, it felt like the next three dragged as it became clear just how thin the game design really was. Every quest is a fetch quest or a kill quest, every dialogue bubble is irrelevant, the story is nothing, the combat is all the same by the 10th fight. It has a little bit of charm, but rapidly loses it.\n\n**Initial Expectations:** Honestly, I didn't expect much. I'd gotten it free, knew it was short and simple, and wanted a sort of palate cleanser after two very long experiences in playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and the Banner Saga trilogy. Having seen it had reviews in the high 70s, and fully acknowledging that it *looks* like Cat Quest is designed for children, I was hoping for cute, clever, and fun enough for a couple of evenings.\n\n**Summary:** This is an odd one, because I played about an hour one night and was enjoying the fast pace and somewhat-mindless nature of the combat, quests, and exploration, then came back the next night for the remaining 3 hours and felt like it dragged horrendously. Not enough interesting stuff here to justify even 4 hours of gameplay, which reflects pretty poorly on the experience as a whole. Disappointing enough that despite having gotten Cat Quest II for free as well, I don't plan to play it.\n\n**Visuals:** **8/10**. One of the higher points. The world map was quaint, the character models were okay, combat effects were fine.\n\n**Audio:** **6/10**. Standard music that had almost no variety.\n\n**Control & Interface:** **9/10.** Another positive. Combat controls felt smooth, menus were easy to navigate for upgrades and equipment.\n\n**Gameplay & Mechanics:** **5/10.** Fun for a bit, then stale. Spell upgrades were nice, but too costly. Gear upgrades were initially interesting, then too random to be useful. Weapon rewards from quests were always weaker than random gear. New traversal options didn't open up any meaningful new areas. Overall a bunch of paint-by-numbers systems that were okay, but not good.\n\n**Accessibility & Learning Curve:** **8/10.** To its credit, extremely easy to learn.\n\n**Difficulty & Advancement:** **6/10.** Wildly varied difficulty in regions that were only a 10 second walk apart.\n\n**Agency & Variety: 4/10.** A little bit of variety in that you could lean more into spells or melee, but not much beyond that. All quests were extremely linear, as in \"follow these exact footsteps to the end.\"\n\n**Pacing & Replayability:** **3/10.** \"Boring and plodding\" for a 4 hour game is an impressive feat.\n\n**Story & Atmosphere:** **4/10.** Atmosphere was *fine*, I guess? Story is very dull, offering mystery with no answers. The world is like a stock fantasy world.\n\n**Defining Moments & Staying Power: 6/10.** Landing max-power fire DOTs was nice at times. That's about it. Some of the cat puns were funny. Otherwise a forgettable game.\n\n# 2. Ogu and the Secret Forest - Rubric: 66 / Gut: 79 / Average: 72.5\n\n* **Time:** Completed in 15.3 hours over 3 days on PC\n* **Photosensitivity Notes?:** Not a lot of issues over 15\\~ hours, but the pop-up whenever acquiring new or valuable items wasn't great, nor was the gem tools minigame, nor were various lightning effects.\n* **Worth it?:** Yes, despite all the issues outlined below. I think it's got a lot of good stuff, and particularly if someone is a completionist, I think they'd get a lot out of this. I think the core is good, it's just not executed all that well in some areas.\n\n**Initial Expectations:** Another game gotten free, I knew almost nothing going in except that the art style seemed kid-friendly and I thought it'd be a sort of bug-catching creature collector with some environmental puzzles.\n\n**Summary:** This feels like one of the more challenging reviews to write, because this game has so many swings, in multiple senses. It swings big in a lot of ways, and succeeds at times. And it also swings between different styles, difficulties, and more. It's good in a lot of ways, bad in a lot of ways, meets its potential or even exceeds it at times, while falling very far short at other times. It's also a rare case where I think it starts very weak, gets a lot better, then has some super frustrating stuff near the end that kills the pacing. \n\nLanding on a gut rating here is tough in that way, because at first I was so bored and disenchanted that I almost quit within the first hour, then I was engaged for most of the next 11-12 hours, and then considered quitting a few times in the last stretch. The story clearly has thought behind it but the writing can't meet the ideas. The combat and progression is all over the place. The puzzles are sometimes insultingly easy, sometimes very clever, sometimes contingent on noticing one obscure detail at one point, and others are seemingly unsolvable, with clearly-interesting rooms discovered at the end of long exploration that offer no indication of how to interact with them, or areas with a \"System Message\" telling you it's too dangerous to proceed, but giving no indication about what criteria you need to meet. \n\nIt's also clearly drawing inspiration from recent successes, but in a sort of token way (the \"Silk Moth Hero\" is from Hollow Knight, the game's title may as well just say \"*Not* Ori and the Blind Forest\" (and Ogu may as well be Ori), and there are various other references, but they're not really easter eggs, and they don't borrow the best ideas from those games, unfortunately. Still, I don't think most people would be mad if they played through it, just disappointed that the execution didn't meet the ambition.\n\n**Visuals:** **8/10**. Honestly not bad at times, but the character models lack a bit of... crispness to them? The area backdrops are good though, the drawings are good, the cutscenes are good as well. Overall a positive, but lacking in some areas.\n\n**Audio:** **7/10**. Good background music and combat effects, but also some annoying, repetitive sound effects. A bit surprising in that I tend to think of this style of game as usually delivering on the soundtrack to convey meaning that maybe the writing can't quite do, but it doesn't really happen here.\n\n**Control & Interface:** **8/10.** Combat controls are good, with a little bit of room for improvement. Menus could've used some tightening, as it often felt like the intuitive buttons didn't do what I wanted them to, sorting equipment wasn't streamlined, selling items and identifying what was useful was difficult, especially early on. While exploring the world and in combat, I felt like the controls were working with me, while menus felt like they were working against me.\n\n**Gameplay & Mechanics:** **7/10.** So... is it fun? Combat is fun. Exploration is okay. Puzzles are okay. Navigating the world is frustrating, as it's often unclear whether you really have the freedom to explore in multiple directions, or if there will be some unclear blocker ahead that wastes your time as you look for ways around it. \n\nThere are a bunch of extra systems here too that seem largely irrelevant, like fishing, farming, pottery, bug-catching, etc. I think it's hard in the first couple of hours to tell what this game really is... is it a collection game? No, not really, but it sort of presents itself as one before dropping some moderately-challenging boss fights on you. \n\nIt feels like if you paired a cozy bug-catching, fishing, and farming game with souls-like dungeon mechanics and bosses, but semi-incoherently. It's not bad, it just isn't clear in its focus, and it suffers a bit for that. It's also not really original, instead feeling like a mashing together of systems that are done better in other games.\n\n**Accessibility & Learning Curve:** **4/10.** Both easy and hard to learn. Extremely easy to get into, so much so that I almost quit because I thought it was like a \"baby's first video game\" in terms of how simple the puzzles were and how easy the combat was, and how frequently the game interrupted progress with more tutorials. Then it opens up a bit, and swings hard the other way, where now it's unclear which order you're supposed to explore the world in (and yes, there are wrong answers with obstacles that you don't have the abilities to bypass yet). \n\nThen you start to pick up a few of those unblocking abilities (swimming, lifting rocks, etc.) and feel like you're finally able to take on the world on your own terms — and this lasts a long time, maybe 60% of the overall playtime — only to hit a hard, irrelevant DPS test required to beat the game, completely changing the approach to how you can progress though in a really bad way; seriously, this added like 2 hours for me to go farm the necessary items and equipment upgrades — none of which I needed to defeat any boss — in order to pass an arbitrary trial to obtain the last key quest item. It sucked, and really soured my experience with the end of the game.\n\n**Difficulty & Advancement:** **5/10.** Difficulty is all over the place. Some bosses and common enemies are mindless. Others are quite challenging. And the narrative around them doesn't always sync up, with creatures built up as dangerous often being very easy, and sometimes vice versa. I do think, on the whole, that progression was largely skill-based in combat, often luck-based in terms of exploration (did you happen to go to the place that gave you the clue to the puzzle you're at, even though it seemed far away and unrelated?). \n\nPuzzles also often seemed to be giving hints with what was actually just artistic window-dressing, with irrelevant symbols placed around a puzzle that seemed accidentally misleading. And although I already dropped points from the previous category for this, the DPS test near the end was very difficult and very luck-based, relying on hitting enough crits to pass within the time frame. Truly a terrible choice that sucked the fun out of the final act.\n\n**Agency & Variety: 6/10.** There is a ton to do, but it doesn't all feel well-developed. There's combat, exploration, puzzles, main and side quests, fishing, farming, bug-catching, cooking, pottery, hidden quests, hidden bosses, extra riddles, and so on. The problem is that it's never entirely clear which parts are core and which are optional. \n\nIt's easy to go to, say, the earth area and get the earth symbol and meet the earth master and also meet the earth priest and think you're done, but then you need to meet the earth god and get the earth mask, and then find where the earth god is at and answer his puzzle with a clue you got 2 hours ago, then hope you think to use the right input at the right part of the earth god's island so you can progress the main quest. It's all so fragmented, with some of those fragments ","offTopic":true},{"id":"2a2c5cac-9123-4722-b7be-e886e4f4389e","excerpt":"A Review: First time player buying the F/A-18 and Raven One Campaign in 2026 — Hello everyone! A little bit ago I set out on what might be the most 'normal popular stuff' thing you can do, which is buying the most popular module and most popular/recommended campaign while they were on sale with incredibly little knowle","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/hoggit/comments/1t21sz1/a_review_first_time_player_buying_the_fa18_and/","role":"pain","weight":1.1688555,"occurredAt":"2026-05-02T21:05:57.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"hoggit","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.45695785,"sentiment":-0.06690778,"confidence":0.8022576,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"About 80 or so hours in I bought a Thrustmaster TWCS throttle to go along with the Extreme 3D, which I felt was limiting me due to the lack of controls/buttons at this point.","title":"A Review: First time player buying the F/A-18 and Raven One Campaign in 2026","body":"Hello everyone! A little bit ago I set out on what might be the most 'normal popular stuff' thing you can do, which is buying the most popular module and most popular/recommended campaign while they were on sale with incredibly little knowledge about either except a desire to get into DCS and flight sims generally. Since over the course of this journey all of the information I tended to run into was 4+ years old, I wanted to walk through how this went for anyone who's inevitably curious about these modules coming to DCS very late to the game, like me.\n\nI had these simple goals going into DCS: Learn a fun plane and complete one of the well reviewed campaigns.\n\n**My Background / Experience going in:**\n\nI am generally curious about flight sims. I maybe have 30 hours messing around in Microsoft Flight Sim because it's been free on game pass. I flew some helicopters frequently in Arma 2 like 15 years ago. That to say: I was basically a complete beginner going into this.\n\n**Picking the F/A-18 and Raven One Campaign:**\n\nI did not have an attachment to a specific plane going into DCS. I picked the F/A-18 because it was described as the most versatile plane and I wanted a fairly modern airframe. The Raven One campaign (and everything by Baltic Dragon) are frequently described as the most immersive and technically challenging things you can do in single player, so that seemed like a great first goal. Added them all to my wishlist (including Supercarrier and the Persian Gulf), and they went on a sale about a month later.\n\n**My Equipment (HOTAS):**\n\nOver my time doing this, i progressed through the following hotas setup:\n\n1. I started with only Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, using it's small paddle for thrust and the twist for rudder. This was perfect for starting out and learning the basics of the plane, no notes.\n2. About 80 or so hours in I bought a Thrustmaster TWCS throttle to go along with the Extreme 3D, which I felt was limiting me due to the lack of controls/buttons at this point. This was a great addition, and at this point I felt i had enough controls to smoothly operate the plane for most circumstances.\n3. About 1/2 of the way through Raven One i purchased a WINCTRL Orion 2 Throttle, Orion 2 Carrier Ace Joystick, and the take-off panel. The jump in quality from the Logi and Thrust was incredible and I'm very happy with all of these purchases, but I don't think this was strictly necessary if you didn't want to drop that cash. (It did make A/A refueling noticeably easier though).\n\nAdditionally I got a track-ir headset about 1.5 weeks in. This made such a huge difference that I consider it basically required to get a good experience out of the game (Track ir or equivalent head tracking software. I went straight to track IR so have no insight to alternatives.)\n\n**Learning the F/A-18**\n\nI enjoyed the F/A-18 and the experience of learning it, and felt that it nailed a good balance of technically challenging without being frustrating or un-intuitive. The F/A-18 has a wealth of resources available (I'm assuming due to its popularity). Youtubers, PDFs, actual military manuals, reddit guides, and all sorts of custom training missions. Additionally flying a modern airframe gives you many upgrades in user interface and design compared to older models, making information easier to parse.\n\nAll the buttons, switches, and displays are just cool. I was worried it might end up feeling shallow once I got used to it and it absolutely does not. 10/10.\n\nMy goal was to learn enough about the plane to feel comfortable with the Raven One campaign which was universally reviewed online as very difficult technically. Here's what I did to get there, roughly in order I did them.\n\n1. Played every training mission included with the F-18 module. These were universally terrible and mostly useless or broken, and I VERY STRONGLY encourage you to skip them. It honestly made me incredibly frustrated how terrible these are for such an expensive and otherwise excellent module.\n2. RTFM - Read The Fucking Manual - Just opening up the included early access guide or the popular user created \"Chuck's Guide\" available online was clear enough to load up a basic mission and practice getting a targeting pod on target or missile launched.\n3. Youtube - I didn't have any particular youtuber that I gravitated towards, just searched what I needed to know and watched the first result, though I found u/SpudSpike's videos the most helpful (which made him being a voice actor in the campaign super cool).\n4. Custom Training Missions: I downloaded Bankler's Case 1 Recovery Trainer and just ran through recoveries over and and over. Probably hundreds. This one was super great especially since it only really takes like 5min for an attempt, making it something you can just knock out a few reps of before bed. Did the same for air to air refueling (which i'm still mediocre at, but I can pull off eventually).\n\nTimeline: From first downloading to feeling comfortable enough to start the campaign was about 6 weeks. This was with me having usually 1-2 weekdays where I could spending a few hours in the evening, and most weekends I'd have a day I could basically spend the entire day flying. Overall probably 50 or so hours of actual 'flying' time to get a basic comfort level.\n\n**Review: The Raven One Campaign**\n\nI started the Raven One campaign at around 6 weeks of playing. Throughout the campaign the only thing that felt 'difficult' compared to what I had prepared was just general situational awareness, because there's a lot of things going on around you to keep up with. From a technical 'flying and using the plane' perspective I only found it moderately difficult. I definitely felt prepared after the above mentioned trainings.\n\nTurn off easy comms because it messes up the radio functions in the campaign.\n\nSo the entire reason I was doing all of this was to get a fun immersive fighter pilot experience, did I manage to achieve that? Well:\n\n**6.8/10** \\- Mostly\n\nOverall being a complete outsider to DCS and sims generally, I expected a slightly more polished and complete experience out of the campaigns associated with it. For something that (all modules included) retails at 183$, the entire experience is absolutely a lot of fun and super cool when it has it's moments, but it's so incredibly unpolished and rough around the technical edges that it's hard to really say that I ever got lost in the immersion moments like I wanted to. I don't think this is the fault of the campaign or its creators... but it's not really what I expected. Maybe that's a me problem though.\n\nA good example is there's multiple times in the game where flight deck personnel or other pilots in cockpits make gestures to you... none of these are animated. They are all communicated to you through a text box that says \"The flight chief waves his hands and gives a thumbs up\". Again I'm a total newbie, but I'd expect (very simple) stuff like that to at least have some sort of animation... But maybe that's an expectations problem.\n\nSome notes, in no particular order:\n\nThe lingo is incredibly 'immersive' (i spent a lot of time googling brevity codes i didn't understand)\n\nA distressing amount of your brain power will be dedicated to making sure you perform the correct 'triggers' to move the game along to the next beat, and these triggers are not always very clear.\n\nSome of the voice actors are great, but some sound like unenthused teenagers, and audio-quality was mixed. Generally the acting was \"community theater performance\" grade.\n\nI had 3 missions (out of 14) fail due to a glitch on the first run through, all of these were at the +40min point which was.... frustrating. Two apparently are the fault of the base DCS engine, one was a scripting failure in the mission.\n\nThe mission briefings being written in the style of a book chapter was cool..... but it was incredibly annoying going back through later and trying to parse out the actually relevant details out of the dramatic dialogue. Just give me a summary at the end please.\n\nI listened the companion audiobook (the novel) that the campaign is based off of. It's fun to have some background 'lore' on everything but the book is incredibly average outside of being some good ole classic military competency porn. 5/10 book.\n\nI do have to emphasize, the missions that just went well and had clear instructions without needing to worry to much about missing a cue or trigger were **A LOT OF FUN**. It's just that those moments didn't occur as often as I was hoping.\n\nThe campaign is an incredibly slow burn (which I enjoy). It is awhile before you really \"do\" anything, and \"doing\" something is usually dropping like 2 bombs after flying for 30min.\n\nCase 3 recovery in bad weather was fucking sick, loved it.\n\n**Summary**\n\nI have had a lot of fun with DCS and the campaign, even if Raven One felt more \"really high quality mod\" than it did \"finished studio project\". Overall I do intend to proceed with u/baltic_dragon's other campaigns, and to other F/A-18 campaigns. I think that speaks enough that I'm having fun and want more experience.\n\nIf you're reading this and thinking: Should I get into DCS and nerd out with a hotas setup playing single player content and never touching multiplayer? As a brand new newbie turned medium-skill enjoyer I would say: **Yes**","offTopic":true},{"id":"456286ab-1a0f-4d17-bdd8-7c1970cd49a7","excerpt":"Expedition 33 is a game that not only I didn't like, but a game I don't understand as to why people love it. — Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (going to be referred to as E33 for the rest of the review) is the new darling game of the internet. I heard nothing but overwhelming praise for this game, and even now checking on s","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1vd66eb/expedition_33_is_a_game_that_not_only_i_didnt/","role":"request","weight":1.1537338,"occurredAt":"2026-08-02T02:44:18.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.22737639,"sentiment":0.3968254,"confidence":0.94,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature","praise"],"statement":"This also means you can spam your best attacks in every fight which makes it so a lot of encounters lack any intrigue if you get advantage since there’s no consideration to what attacks you use once you find a strategy that works.","title":"Expedition 33 is a game that not only I didn't like, but a game I don't understand as to why people love it.","body":"Clair Obscur Expedition 33 (going to be referred to as E33 for the rest of the review) is the new darling game of the internet. I heard nothing but overwhelming praise for this game, and even now checking on sites like Metacritic and Backloggd, it’s almost nothing but 10/10’s for recent reviews and them describing one of the best gaming experiences that they’ve ever had. I had the highest expectation in the world for this game. I hoped it would enter my top 10 games of all time (breaking the awkward deadlock between Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy 6 at number 10), but I was trying to temper my expectations somewhat. Not a 10/10 game that resonated with me to my very core, but a 9/10 is surely achievable with this game.  \n\nAnd I can confidently say that it blew every expectation I had out of the water, that it not only lived up to the hype but surpassed it. It had some of the most engaging combat of not just any JRPG I've played, but games in general. The story was phenomenal too, with me getting choked up at so many different points, resulting in an experience I’ll never forget, entering my top 5 favorite games of all time… is what I so desperately wanted to be able to say.\n\nI think it’s important to note I did not go into this game as a hater. I was a little annoyed that Metaphor seemed to get overshadowed in the discussions, but people who said both had said (usually) E33 was better, which got me excited. I was not a Turn Based combat hater either, Persona and Pokemon are two of my favorite game series of all time, and I love the gameplay of titles like Dragon Quest 3 and Final Fantasy 7. I wanted nothing more to love this game, even more than the usual excitement of me playing any critically acclaimed title. This game looked like it was going to be right up my alley. Not only did I not get that, I got a game that has me baffled as to how both the review scores and audience scores are so high for a game in a way I have not felt ever.\n\n# Premise:\n\nFor the Past 67 years an entity known as the Paintress has on one day of the year counted down starting from the number 100 and killed every person at or above that age known as The Gommage. To counteract this the people of Lumiere, the last surviving group of humans, sends out an expedition that is about to be Gommaged. You play as Expedition 33 as it embarks on a journey with the new lumina converter to try and stop the reign of terror of the Paintress once and for all.\n\n# Gameplay:\n\nExpedition 33 is set up, on the surface,  in a very typical turn-based style. The Battle starts and characters go in order depending on their agility. If a character has sufficient agility compared to another character they have a chance to go twice before the character with lesser agility. \n\nBut right away there’s some major differences with classic RPGs. Instead of a mana bar that drains every time you use magic and needs to be healed with limited use, there’s an AP gauge that refills at the start of every fight. This means you can spam your best attacks in every fight which is fun and good. \n\nThis also means you can spam your best attacks in every fight which makes it so a lot of encounters lack any intrigue if you get advantage since there’s no consideration to what attacks you use once you find a strategy that works. I find it to overall be a net neutral. \n\nThe real thing this affects however is the way items are used. For dungeons like these populated with random enemies you’d ideally like there to still be some resource for the players to manage and this is where the item system comes into play. As opposed to managing your mana, you manage your items. This system works great for boss fights as you can’t just bulk buy potions and slowly stall out to victory, you have to consider carefully when you want to use your potions and the like. \n\nBut it doesn’t work for the actual dungeon crawling because you refill your potions and checkpoints left by past expeditions, which are everywhere. This results in me just always having full potions and never going “Hmm should I use it here when I don’t need to”.\n\nThis itself isn’t a problem if it weren’t for the way dungeons were designed. They are somehow both too linear with not enough interesting or rewarding exploration, yet they’re also far too labyrinth-like for their own good resulting in me just wandering around like headless chicken desperately looking for the light that would guide my path. Having at least a system where you have to more effectively conserve your resources would add more deliberation in exploring. Instead we get a system that manages to accomplish nothing fulfilling outside of occasionally looking cool when you use a grappling hook. \n\nThe Pictos/Lumina system allows you to equip special abilities that take advantage of the quirks of the combat system. They were fun to use and customize my build for the characters, especially towards the end. I had a fun build for Maelle that involved taking advantage of her ability to go down to 1 HP but making out her attack by giving her an ability that gives her another turn upon going to critical HP. It isn’t quite as in-depth in terms of customization as say Metaphor but it was nice to be able to experiment with builds and the like.\n\nI did have a problem actually using them and swapping them around. In hindsight I should’ve made better use of the filter system which is actually more in depth than I realized (I specifically went back to check and make sure that I was being an idiot here), but I still think the game could’ve done with the ability to be able to sort that was a bit more intuitive so it would be easier to sort out Lumias based off abilities, but I will give credit to the game and say I was being an idiot and not using it properly.\n\nWhich brings us at long last to the defining trait of this game, that separates it from your classic Dragon Quest and old-school Final Fantasy, the dodge and parry system. All of the RPG elements I mentioned earlier about character building, stat allocation, even resource management, they’re dwarfed in importance by how critical it is to be able to dodge and parry effectively. If you cannot succeed at these mechanics, it doesn’t matter if you’ve built everything else up, you’re going to lose. \n\nYes you can build a pure tank build that can handle hits more effectively but it results in incredibly tedious battles of turtling with attack phases from enemies that last eons compared to most JRPG’s I’ve played that have the decency to make the attacks feel faster than this game.\nIf you are good at parrying? Now you don’t have to engage with those RPG mechanics at all. Because a successful parry not only blocks all damage it also gives you action points for every successful parry. Especially towards the end of act II enemies have such long attack patterns it results in most of the time investing in AP boosting items outside of turn 1 to be pointless if you can just parry it all away. The turn based strategy side is being actively hindered by the real time elements.\n\nIn a Mario RPG the real time elements which are the games E33’s combat is most often compared to aren’t nearly as crucial and mostly serve to increase your offensive output, but there are still ways a low skill player can mitigate long action command chains while still being successful in a fun way. E33 on the other heavily encourages glass cannon builds, and if you’re not good at real time elements for whatever reason it can be a total slog. \n\nThat’s not to say there’s no fun to be had learning the attack patterns but it felt like any time I was focusing on that it made my preparation feel comparatively irrelevant. (Also as an aside I’m aware other games have these action command elements like Lost Odyssey but I haven’t played those so I cannot compare it to this game sadly)\n\nI know I’m bad, I’m painfully aware I’m bad but the damage still felt overwhelming considering the moves the enemies throw at you. I did try specing more in bulk but I found it simply wasn’t enough. The attack patterns are too long and there’s too many hits for the average player to be able to face-tank effectively. I’m aware it’s possible but I would hardly call it feasible. Even if it was, it runs into all of the problems traditional turn based games run into with overly long over the top animations, but with shallower mechanics when it comes to prebuilding. \n\nNow I’m sure an E33 defender has very reasonably pointed out that dodging could address my problems. It did help a little to try dodging more compared to parrying, but I found it also screwed with my timing depending on the attack. The window also was sadly still too tight for me. I’m aware a lot of this is a skill issue, but wheneverI was able to lock in, I still didn’t feel satisfaction hitting the parry. I just felt relieved that the boss fight was over, which isn’t usually the feeling I get out of hard bosses in these games.\n\nThis improves in Act III with the damage cap being removed and as such making it so you don’t have to be so perfect with the parry by emphasizing building broken builds which was actually fun for me. But by then the game had burned me and I had no interest in grinding out the side content of Act 3. By that point I just wanted the experience to be finished which, while not uncommon for this to happen, was severely disappointing considering how hyped the combat was for a game that was considered a spiritual successor of classic Final Fantasy and Persona, it had almost none of the gameplay elements that made me enjoy those combat systems. Or at least them being well balanced.\n\nDespite all I said about the combat system, the parrying part can be fun at times and while an overall frustrating experience and a disappointment that is overall not fun to engage with, it’s serviceable at the end of the day and not actively detrimental for the most part. As long as a game with this sort of combat has the killer story that I was promised I would be able to forgive the gameplay being just okay.\n\n# Story:\n\n>!The first disconnect comes in that opening scene. While that scene was tragic and well executed, it didn't emotionally affect me to my core like it did for other people. Same goes with the Expedition being massacred at the beach, or Gustave attempting to commit suicide.I wondered why these moments didn’t resonate for me. The emotional and relatable characters that people talked about just didn’t work for me. I found them flat and kinda empty, lacking real proper introductions and well done moments of characterization.!<\n\n>!Now in fairness to Expedition 33 it does do it to some capacity, and some I missed. I totally missed Lune’s introduction in the intro for example. However for the most part I took my time to try and squeeze every character moment I could out of this game, but I still couldn’t connect with the majority of the characters. It happens sometimes for games that I adore. For example, despite being well written, Cyan from Final Fantasy 6 didn’t resonate with me at all. The difference was Final Fantasy 6 had other characters like Locke, Celes, and especially Terra that I emotionally connected with and Cyan at least had good interactions with the rest of the party (at least in the world of balance).!<\n\n>!Expedition 33 on the other hand is far too quick with its pacing for my own tastes. What other people saw as efficiency, I saw as it being sloppy, doing the bare minimum and hoping for me to emotionally connect. Sciel in particular felt oddly casual about being reunited with 3 people who she thought were dead, a feeling which persisted through the whole game. The intergroup dynamics felt weak, but even with my criticisms Act 1 held up pretty well overall because the group had rock solid chemistry with Gustave, Maelle in particular. But once Gustave dies and is replaced by Verso it all just falls apart.!<\n\n>!I understand that Verso should be awkward with the Expedition as he does intend to","offTopic":false},{"id":"42411deb-40cb-4222-a647-d3577b363a1a","excerpt":"Let's discover Ecsaform, Bandai Visual's PS1 ode to overreach — Having previously discussed [Arcturus](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/97hnbi/arcturus_the_curse_and_loss_of_divinity_is/), [G.O.D.](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/9jvndl/lets_talk_about_god_growth_or_devolution/), [Growlanser I](https://www","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1o4nrdd/lets_discover_ecsaform_bandai_visuals_ps1_ode_to/","role":"pain","weight":1.1425333,"occurredAt":"2025-10-12T12:27:03.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"JRPG","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.52,"sentiment":-0.1,"confidence":0.75166667,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating"],"statement":"While the next two towns end up being much smaller and have the party stay there only for a short while, which is a bit of a shame considering how one of them is the moving city of Meldegori, which could have been quite memorable if handle…","title":"Let's discover Ecsaform, Bandai Visual's PS1 ode to overreach","body":"Having previously discussed [Arcturus](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/97hnbi/arcturus_the_curse_and_loss_of_divinity_is/), [G.O.D.](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/9jvndl/lets_talk_about_god_growth_or_devolution/), [Growlanser I](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/9m4n25/lets_talk_about_growlanser_i_career_softs_unsung/), [Legend of Kartia](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1ga8yrr/lets_talk_about_legend_of_kartia_atlus_and_amanos/), [Crimson Shroud](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1gk89nh/lets_talk_about_crimson_shroud_matsunos_bitesized/), [Princess Crown](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1jothtg/lets_talk_about_princess_crown_kamitanis/), [Ax Battler](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1kg0qqt/lets_discover_ax_battler_when_hasegawa_tried/), [the rise of Japanese-inspired French RPGs](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1lj7l54/before_clair_obscur_the_history_of_french_rpgs/), [Front Mission](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1m0e3im/lets_discover_front_mission_a_tale_of_war_wanzers/) and [the history of Carpe Fulgur](https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1nskyb8/carpe_fulgur_or_how_dice_and_lightwilliams/), today I would like to talk about Ecsaform, an unique 1999 PS1 tactical JRPG by Bandai Visual mixing a sci-fi setting with a number of fantasy and industrial elements with a very peculiar combat system making action economy much more relevant than usual, all the while having to cope with the distance between its very ambitious world building effort and the noticeably smaller resources the developers could actually use to shape it into a proper game.\n\n*(If you're interested to read more articles like those,* [*please consider subscribing to my Substack*](https://magnvsrpgjourney.substack.com/)*)*\n\n>**Developer: Bandai Visual**  \n**Publisher: Bandai**  \n**Director: Kei Nakajima, Keisuke Yasaka**  \n**Character designer: Seiji Tanda**  \n**Composer: Keiichi Yamamoto**  \n**Genre: Tactical JRPG**  \n**Progression: completely linear, aside from some rather aimless wandering between battles**  \n**Country: Japan**  \n**Platform: PS1**  \n**Release date: 28\\\\1\\\\1999 (Japan-only), June 2023 (English fantranslation**  \n**Status: completed on 9\\\\9\\\\2025**\n\nI freely admit I have a fascination with extensive world building efforts in RPGs, not just when they’re warranted, building up a major epic or offering glimpses of a wider world while developing a smaller-scale narrative, but also when they seem governed by their own anarchic force, completely disregarding the games they should be trying to flesh out and complement and how their own scenarios can cope with an extravagant amount of unneccessary lore and ambitions.\n\nWhile a bloated world building can often be the byproduct of faulty planning and overreach, there are instances where it can also be a window to the overflowing fantasy of its creators, unable or unwilling to rein in their creativity in order to submit to such trifle issues as budget, scope or pacing, a sort of authenticity I find endearing regardless of the issues it may end up causing.\n\n**-NAKAJIMA'S VISION, TANDA'S ART**\n\nEcsaform, a Japanese tactical RPG released on PS1 in 1999 by Bandai Visual, is a good example of the latter situation. Despite not being a proper cross-media project, with its videogame outing as the lone effort in this IP, Ecsaform was blatantly born as a setting first, game second in the mind of Kei Nakajima, its creator, director and scenario writer, assisted in this endeavor by other key figures like co-director Keisuke Yasaka and character designer and art director Seiji Tanda, whose fascinating character portraits and concept artworks ended up being an outsized contribution to the game’s appeal and uniqueness.\n\nWhile Yasaka had previously worked as an Image Works hired hand on Quintet’s beloved Terranigma while also having an unspecified minor role, likely as QC tester, for Toshiro Tsuchida’s Arc the Lad games, Nakajima and Tanda were still green in videogame development, which could explain how, once their pitch was approved by Bandai, they went all-in in fleshing out Ecsaform’s setting, without much regards for technicalities such as their game’s allotted budget and development time.\n\nAs we will see, the whole idea of allowing direct explorations between the game’s tactical battles, a bit like the Shining Force series, Treasure Hunter G, [Energy Breaker](https://magnvsrpgjourney.substack.com/p/energy-breaker-lufias-forgotten-tactical?utm_source=publication-search) or the Arc the Lad games themselves, ended up feeling like an attempt to make their world more relevant instead of having it relegated as a backdrop, even if the game’s own contents weren’t actually built to reward said explorations in any shape or form.\n\nEcsaform built its aesthetic and narrative identity by liberally mixing sci-fi, fantasy and industrial elements in a way that is heavily reminiscent of a number of manga and animes from the early ‘90s, with Tanda’s artworks often reminding the viewer of Yukito Kishiro’s Battle Angel Alita or Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun, with a sprinkle of Jean “Moebius” Giraud as one of Tanda’s non-Japanese influences, while the nearest videogame-related comparison, as imperfect as it is, may be with Sega’s Panzer Dragoon series, whose iconic art direction, with its bizarre dragons and organic-looking steampunk machines, often came up to my memory while playing Bandai Visual’s effort.\n\n**-POST-APOCALYPTIC BUGS**\n\nThe world created by Nakajima and Bandai Visual experienced a major crisis roughly one hundred years before Ecsaform’s beginning, leaving civilization in shambles until cities gradually began recovering and new alliances were built through wars and treaties, with the Solpaganian Empire and Mellier Federation as the two main power blocs. While the old world’ s technology disappeared, watching over the new civilization as ominous ruins scattered all over the wastelands, the survivors built their new society on Bugs, bizarre creatures coming in a variety of shapes and forms (from small critters to a colossus with a city on its back) that humans use in many ways, with the elusive Bug Whisperers, which implanted themselves with a larva at an early age through a risky procedure, able to mind control them to do their bidding.\n\nThen again, as it often happens, there are those willing to bring about the past’s dark phantoms, like the Solpaganian Ratio Motus research facility, where the aloof chief scientist Dew experiments on young candidates by implanting them with Nodes in order to amplify their mental powers, giving way to abilities resembling magic. After discovering the HARM Frame, an ancient humanoid artifact which could revolutionize their researches, Dew and his followers decide to scrap one of their less successful Noders, a young girl named Suseri, which will have no choice but to escape the facility, helped by the HARM Frame himself, the stoic and silent warrior the girl named Bead, and by Hublot, a helpful guard which may hide quite a number of secrets.\n\nWhile the game starts off very strong, the issues with its plot and pacing become very apparent soon after, with Suseri and Bead being rescued by a ship traveling to the city of Volor, where our dynamic duo will end up working as mercenaries under the watchful eyes of local hired hand Param, acting as a big sister of sorts to Suseri.\n\n**-VOLOR, CITY OF EMPTINESS**\n\nThe time spent in Volor, which is almost a third of the whole game, unfortunately feels more than a bit meandering, not just because of the story taking quite a while to go somewhere, but also quite literally, since the city itself, which as mentioned you can explore between battles, is so huge it requires multiple maps to outline its various districts, with many unique buildings you can actually access sporting a variety of different interiors, and yet it feels almost like a forgotten test map with how bereft of actual interaction it is, almost as if Bandai Visuals built it with grand ideas about NPCs, side quests and major story beats they later had to cut rather dramatically.\n\nDespite its size, for instance, Volor barely has any NPC traveling its roads, with just a small number of buildings playing a role in the game’s scenario while far too many end up not being used at all despite having unique roles. A Voloran stable, where people talk about how convenient horses are without any horses actually being there, likely because they didn’t have time to develop their sprites, ends up being one of the most poignant examples of the way Ecsaform tries to build interesting cities without actually committing to using them, but one could also mention Volor’s huge Merchants’ Guild, which ends up being completely neglected by the game, or the bizarre care devoted by Bandai Visual to design a variety of different toilets in dedicated rooms that serve absolutely no purpose, to the point that it apparently became a running joke within Ecsaform’s admittedly tiny Japanese fanbase.\n\nWhile the next two towns end up being much smaller and have the party stay there only for a short while, which is a bit of a shame considering how one of them is the moving city of Meldegori, which could have been quite memorable if handled differently, the issue actually returns in the story’s last stretch, where what should be a small agricultural village acting as the hub during that chapter is actually conveyed in-game as a gigantic, multi-map city with a huge number of buildings that are never used, which makes progression even more frustrating considering how the points you actually have to visit are placed far from each other and can easily be missed due to the village’s size and its samey architectural style.\n\n**-SOLPAGANIAN LORE**\n\nEven if the pacing does substantiantly improve after Suseri and Bead leave Volor, overall it’s hard to ignore how the game seems built with a scope, including but not limited to its own assets’ scale, that is far grander and more ambitious than what is actually able to deliver, which helps to explain why its second CD, rather than being devoted to continue the story, as it happened with plenty of JRPGs back in the PS1 days, like Xenogears, Valkyrie Profile, Growlanser, Chrono Cross, the Final Fantasy games and many others, is actually a completely independent encyclopedia you can freely consult to expand your knowledge about the world and its inner workings, including a sizeable amount of references and potential plot hooks that ended up being left unused and also plenty of spoilers for those that the game did include, since you can go ahead and look at the events of the last chapters regardless of where you are in the main game.\n\nConsidering how extensive the lore Bandai Visual developed ended up being, one feels the actual game only ended up using a small part of it, for instance skipping almost completely all the politics involved in Ecsaform’s world, which made some parts of the story feel less impactful than they could’ve been if they had been properly foreshadowed, not to mention how genuinely intriguing some of it feels, like with the Solpaganian Empire actually being a unique mix of techno-barbarian tribes, knightly orders, cyberpunk researchers and semi-independent City-States which could have made for an almost Dune-like array of different tones if its society had been properly outlined in-game.\n\nIn turn, Ecsaform does try to prolong its rather short runtime by including plenty of mandatory smaller skirmishes with mook enemies before reaching a major story event and, while the game does have explorable dungeons, same as its cities they end up extremely undercooked, being nothing more than linear hallways you have to traverse to reach the next battles, with no treasures, optional encounters or even interactions, aside from the lone merchants assisting you with items and equipments since you can’t even backtrack to town.\n\nStill, while Ecsaform’s story ends up being a l","offTopic":true},{"id":"8158d6d8-7fab-451d-b175-de1b0ebb36c5","excerpt":"My thoughts after completing Killzone 2 — What a solid game! Completed it 2 times on normal and hard difficulty, so not a total tourist I’d say, here is few things I’d like to say about this game. Starting from downsides:\n\n**The Bad:**\n\n1. It’s a first person shooter on console, on a 720p and 30fps settings, granted I ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/killzone/comments/1vvetrt/my_thoughts_after_completing_killzone_2/","role":"pain","weight":1.1415693,"occurredAt":"2026-08-22T15:06:35.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"killzone","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.41,"sentiment":0.23809524,"confidence":0.8096236,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature","workaround"],"statement":"Few missions/cutscenes feel like there is missing parts between them, buggy ride is most noticeable one I’d say.","title":"My thoughts after completing Killzone 2","body":"What a solid game! Completed it 2 times on normal and hard difficulty, so not a total tourist I’d say, here is few things I’d like to say about this game. Starting from downsides:\n\n**The Bad:**\n\n1. It’s a first person shooter on console, on a 720p and 30fps settings, granted I played it through emulation with improved FOV and mostly 60fps, but still I don’t think FPS is comfortable on gamepad if compared to mouse+keyboard, and Killzone’s heavy/floaty aiming didn’t really do any favors, and its not my 1^(st), 2^(nd) or even 3^(rd) FPS shooter on console. For third person shooter I think you can make a case, FPS not so much.\n2. Simplification of weapons? Compared to 1^(st) game, both faction’s main rifles were stripped of alternative fire (under barrel grenade launcher for ISA and under barrel shotgun for Helgast), now you can carry only one main rifle and secondary gun (out of 2 total) and there is barely any chance that you’ll be forced to swap weapons like in 1^(st) game, almost on every level there is a ammo cache|supplies stand for weapon you’re running with. Also one of the worst grenade launcher sights I’ve ever seen, counter-intuitive at every possible idea of using it, just dump it at enemies direction and swap to something else.\n3. PS move parts, yeah, one of few “great additions” were forced parts where you had to use Sonys niche addition to ps3 controlers scheme. For few years this was bottleneck for playing KZ2, but now there is a workaround for it.\n\n**The Questionable:**\n\n1. Hit registration, not asking for every weapon to be a laser-precise for every shot, but there were quite a few times when I did land headshot or body shot but enemies just brushed it off or it completely unphased them.\n2. Cover mechanics, sticking to cover is a console classic, but first time I’ve seen it for a FPS, maybe not my cup of tea, or maybe its more useful in multiplayer, but most times it killed me instead of helping, due to wrong angle or side it took. Only useful moment was in Radec fight on hard difficulty, 2^(nd) floor pillars – there it really clicked for me and I used it to my advantage.\n3. Cut content? Few missions/cutscenes feel like there is missing parts between them, buggy ride is most noticeable one I’d say.\n4. Coop mode? Same case, first game had 4 playable character, here we only get to control one, but both campaigns feel like they would benefit from an optional split-screen couch or online coop feature, because 95% of both games we’re accompanied by at least 1 friendly character. Maybe it was once considered an option that was cut due to console/budget limitations? I know Killzone 3 has coop, but I’ve yet to plat it.\n\n**The Good:**\n\n1. Stylization, 17 year later, this game still stands out due to a design and art choices that were done while creating it, this may not be a most realistic or have ultra-high fidelity experience by todays standards, but I’ll take this red/orange/brown/blue/navy stylization over clean realistic cookie cut Nth iteration from some shooter franchises, maybe because there isn’t nearly enough examples in this category in modern scene, or maybe because Killzone 2 still looks great and close to cinematic with its lighting and colors (especially that opening scene and some laters scenes on train/refinery levels). From clearly Kowloon inspired streets of Helgan, to cloudy weather with lightnings, to industrial refinery and brutalist architecture, all parts of design just work together to bring memorable atmosphere, first game may have been a bit less saturated color-vise, but you can see what Killzone 2 clearly improved upon.\n2. Surprisingly no drag at all? For a 2009 game, you’d think a forced turret or an escort section would be given as road-block to change pace, but no particular escort missions (maybe that mecha section, but I never failed it because NPCs, only due to myself getting eliminated), and turret sections are breathe to go through. Every mission has a nice flow to it, there is fewer missions overall but about half of them is longer than what was given in 1^(st) game.\n3. New weapons, nail gun, tesla-canon, probably best flamethrower in any shooter I’ve played, and StA-3 still the king, was my favorit gun in 1^(st) game, still great in 2^(nd), ISA counter-part, m249 inspired LMG felt weaker in comparison. Almost ever gun in game has ADS option, which is great improvement compared to 1^(st) game, and few pieces got cut from 1^(st) game, but I guess that’s a trade.\n4. Useful NPCs, they do get eliminations alongside player, and they get injured, requiring assistance from player, which adds to interactions, love when games make side characters impactful, and not just dummies to make noise in the background for you to feel like Rambo.\n\n \n\nNow, that was a lot of yapping from me, but main point is I did enjoy this game immensely for 15 hours that I spent in it, even if there were few frustrating moments (opening bridge section, AA gun under bridge section), overall it does stand up to a cult classic reputation, given that it came out in period of HALO3 : ODST / Reach, Medal of Honor reboot, CoD: Modern Warfire 2 / Black Ops. Of course being a console exclusive made it available for smaller audience, but nonetheless, great game and hopefully in future it’ll get remastered at least, and remade as part of collection for PC release at best.","offTopic":false},{"id":"33f17780-8ca4-4aa3-908f-0520ca825f60","excerpt":"My scorecard looking back at games I played in 2025 (that didn't come out in 2025) — 2025 was probably one of my least patient years for gaming - upgrading to a 30-series card meant I could actually try newer games - but the Backlog beckons, and there is no shortage of great games from years past. What an insane year o","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1pzefx1/my_scorecard_looking_back_at_games_i_played_in/","role":"request","weight":1.1282067,"occurredAt":"2025-12-30T10:09:34.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.35340968,"sentiment":0.13548388,"confidence":0.83360326,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","praise","named:PlayStation"],"statement":"##Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition (2022/2023) **Developer**: Guerrilla Games **Publisher**: PlayStation Studios **Gameplay genre**: Ubisoft open world, but it's good I pro- **Narrative genre**: Post-post-post-apocalyptic drama I lo…","title":"My scorecard looking back at games I played in 2025 (that didn't come out in 2025)","body":"2025 was probably one of my least patient years for gaming - upgrading to a 30-series card meant I could actually try newer games - but the Backlog beckons, and there is no shortage of great games from years past. What an insane year overall - it just feels like I went from banger to banger. I really enjoyed making my list last year, so here's another scorecard for 2025!\n\n#Games completed (or played to satisfaction) this year:\n\n##Silent Hill 2 (2024)\n\n**Developer**: Bloober Team\n\n**Publisher**: Konami\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Survival horror third-person shooter.\n\n**Narrative genre**: Psychological horror\n\nThis was my first time playing Silent Hill 2 in any form, and I... \"enjoyed\" isn't perhaps the right word, but it is very good. The performances are stellar, the game looks great, the atmosphere is really well done (i legit felt suffocated sometimes), and the story is truly excellent, even (perhaps especially) knowing the Big Twist going in -- I am about the age where I was too young to play SH2 but old enough that its twist was spoiled freely online. The gameplay is...decent - it simultaneously feels too smooth and not smooth enough (though maybe that’s the point?) -- the game overall feels a bit too long (18 hours is too long in this genre IMO, though I can't think of a particular extraneous section) and I still had random framerate drops and a few tiny but noticeable freezes. Overall, a great experience. S (9/10)\n\n##1000xRESIST (2024)\n\n**Developer**: sunset visitor 斜陽過客\n\n**Publisher**: Fellow Traveller\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Narrative adventure.\n\n**Narrative genre**: Good question.\n\nI have rarely played a non-puzzle game that has made me feel stupid, but 1000xRESIST did it – and I mean this as a compliment. Never has a video game story legit required brain power for me to process, especially given how many narrative and thematic balls it is juggling and mostly keeping afloat. It's the kind of story that I still don't think I have understood completely, but every strand I did understand is tied so meticulously that I am charitable towards what I didn't – surely there's a one-hour YouTube analysis up by now? My biggest complaint is that there's too much stuffed into a 10 hour story - some sections feel very confusing, and rapid-cut montages are cool but not always appropriate. Gameplay can also get somewhat tedious, to the point I sometimes wondered if this would have been better off as a performance art or theatre piece (though I imagine some of the visual spectacle would be impossible to pull off IRL) -- that said, it goes for some \"storytelling through gameplay\" bits that I don't think work perfectly, but I appreciate the effort. Hekki ALLMO. A (8/10)\n\n##Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (2023) \n**Developer**: Team Ninja\n\n**Publisher**: Koei Tecmo\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Soulslike action game.\n\n**Narrative genre**: Fantasy wuxia...war drama?\n\nIt's rare to feel legitimately overpowered in a Soulslike while it still feels like one, but Wo Long manages that incredible feat over (most of) an entire game while remaining fun and decently challenging - it's a great palate cleanser from the genre's more punishing examples. I fully admit that the Nioh games are probably better in terms of systems and such (the loot system in particular feels almost pointless here), but I have had so much fun playing Wo Long that I legit like it more - parrying everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is never not awesome. I believe the game had technical issues at launch, but I didn't face any, so chalk another one up for patient gaming. I didn't understand most of the story (having never read/watched/played anything related to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, so this is mostly a me thing), the music is quite forgettable, and I don't really like how the game looks, both in terms of graphics (Nioh 2, 3 years older, looks better at points) and art direction (too many black tendrils everywhere, though it has its good points, especially in character and boss design), but the game is such a joy to play that it is easy to overlook. There's a free demo (about 2 hours, covering the first two bosses), which is what got me interested, and the game is on Gamepass, so I do recommend giving it a shot. DLCs are not that great though – the difficulty spike is kinda insane, and the “faster = harder” idea means that some bosses feel basically impossible without a cheese strat (looking at you, >!Taishi Ci 2!<), and the levels aren’t really significant improvements either – also the technical issues really show up here, particularly when you’re retrying bosses and the game takes 15 seconds to load the boss arena. A (8.5/10)\n\n##Leap of Faith (2020-22) [18+]\n**Developer and Publisher**: DriftyGames\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Dating sim visual novel.\n\n**Narrative genre**: Romantic dramedy\n\nA good story, though it does stall for a bit around Chapter 4 (of 8 including epilogue); replays actually help skip a lot of filler. All routes are well written, though there's very clearly a dev's favourite (or more accurately, the Intended Love Interest). Visuals are okay, though it is obviously an amateur effort - a debut at that. Those content warnings are NOT for show, though - the late-game twist genuinely whacks you in the face; the writing is so gutwrenching and the following chapter hits so hard that you *know* this is someone speaking from terrible personal experience. Also, an extremely satisfying ending. A- (8.5/10)\n\n##Aurelia (2024) [18+]\n**Developer**: MirthalGames\n\n**Publisher**: Critical Bliss\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Dating sim with RPG elements.\n\n**Narrative genre**: Fantasy slice-of-life\n\nGenuinely, truly gorgeous pixel-art style. The story is...there, I suppose, and the gameplay structure borrows pretty heavily from other adult Persona knockoffs, which I don't really like. There's a shockingly okay turn-based combat roguelite embedded in here, too, for some reason. I do like that it's probably the most wholesome 18+ game I have played - everyone is just having a good time. B- (7/10)\n\n##[Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut (2020/2021)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1p02luh/ghost_of_tsushima_is_a_really_good_game_its_just/)\n**Developer**: Sucker Punch\n\n**Publisher**: PlayStation Studios\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Ubisoft open world, but it's good I promise\n\n**Narrative genre**: Kurosawa film\n\nA superlative game only slightly let down by there being too much side content - there should have been about half as many fox dens, and overall I would have enjoyed this more if there had been about 20-30% less game. The world is absolutely gorgeous – the game might look slightly older than its age, but that art direction and the way the world designers and cutscene cinematographers worked to make every scene and landscape explode in colour and flying leaves/petals/snow is jaw-dropping. The gameplay is a lot of fun (played on Hard, though I wonder if playing on Lethal would change anything) and the story, side missions, and performances are excellent. I do have one major complaint, though this might not be an issue for most people: there is an outright lie on the Steam page when it says that the Japanese voice acting has lip sync - it does not. I don't know if there was a setting I missed, but when I see the opening cutscene with Japanese audio, the models' mouths keep moving with the English dialogue. In general, Ghost of Tsushima has made me appreciate open world games, even if I do find myself losing patience even with the best of them. Iki island is good, particularly in the story, sidequest, and exploration department, but the additions to the combat I am more skeptical on – a lot of it feels harder than the base game out of a sense of obligation rather than it feeling appropriate. S- (9/10)\n\n##[Dead Space 2 (2011)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lj1uqq/dead_space_2_is_a_worse_horror_game_than_the/)\n**Developer:** Visceral Games\n\n**Publisher:** Electronic Arts\n\n**Gameplay genre:** Survival horror third-person shooter\n\n**Narrative genre:** Cosmic horror\n\nAmong the best openings to a video game I have ever experienced. Talk about cutting to the chase - barely two minutes of \"being dismissed as insane after recapping the first game\" before a guy is necro'd inches from Isaac's face and you have to sprint through a rapidly necromorphing space station. It's not as much Aliens to Dead Space's Alien as it is a game that randomly switches between two games: \"Dead Space but faster\" and \"action game with scary enemies and jump scares every 20 minutes\". That's not a complaint, exactly - I had a ton of fun - but it is different from the original, and that’s something you have to be okay with. God, I wish this had gotten the remake treatment - it very much looks its age (even if that's not wholly a bad thing, the DS1 remake really made me appreciate how much updated visuals can aid immersion and horror), and KBM controls continue to feel somewhat awkward even with the fan fix - somehow simultaneously too sensitive and not sensitive enough. A (8.5/10)\n\n##Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly (2023)\n**Developer and Publisher**: Toge Productions\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Drink-making...visual novel?\n\n**Narrative genre**: Fantasy slice-of-life comedy\n\nIt's more Coffee Talk, which is a good thing. This is very much an iterative release, as shown by the title: it adds two new types of drinks and three new characters to the mix. Unfortunately, the new drink types aren't very exciting (unless you're super into teas, ig) and the new characters aren't as interesting as the old crew. Thankfully, said old crew is as cool as ever, and is mostly present and still written well. This could have been DLC, but I am just glad to see these guys again. B (7.5/10)\n\n##Balatro (2024)\n**Developer**: LocalThunk\n\n**Publisher**: Playstack\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Poker-based deckbuilder roguelike\n\n**Narrative genre**: NA\n\nReally speaks to the power of pure game design that a game that has essentially nothing outside a core gameplay loop is so playable. I almost feel it is wrong to have made a mobile version of this game (I only own the PC version, thank god) - a gameplay loop this addictive should NOT be accessible on the toilet. It's simultaneously easy to pick up - you figure you'll just do a run - and hard to put down - that New Run button is so tempting. A true testament to the power of fundamental game design. Also, I really suck at this game - 20 hours and not one time I've completed a run successfully. S (9/10)\n\n##[The Last of Us Part II Remastered (2020/2024)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1m6arr7/i_dont_think_i_will_ever_play_a_game_like_the/)\n**Developer**: Naughty Dog\n\n**Publisher**: PlayStation Studios\n\n**Gameplay genre**: Survival horror third-person shooter\n\n**Narrative genre**: Horror drama\n\nOne of the best games I have played this year, and frankly any year; it's a game I still think about from time to time, particularly in how it uses its structure to create an emotional arc that is essentially walking a tightrope at the top of the Petronas Towers and despite a few stumbles managing to succeed and nail the landing. Superlative performances, superlative gameplay, and just overall a memorable experience. S+ (10/10)\n\n##420BLAZEIT2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition (2024)\n**Developer and Publisher**: Normal Wholesome Games\n\n**Gameplay genre**: FPS\n\n**Narrative genre**: lmao xd\n\nIf flashing lights or cringe memes are to any degree harmful to you, I implore you to not play this game. If not, this is a shockingly enjoyable shooter with good-feeling gunplay and great gameplay gimmicks that also insists on flashing 50 memes from 2014 on the screen whenever you do anything. You can have a decent time with it...you just might not want to advertise that you're playing it. B- (7/10)\n\n##[The Shivah: Kosher Edition (2006/2013)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lr8d2i/th","offTopic":true},{"id":"b6b7f6ef-df58-49b8-b3a0-f8a0e583808d","excerpt":"Endfield 1.0's story and why it sucks from a writer's perspective. — **Disclosure:** I have been playing Arknights since May 2021. I've played some other gachas as well, all of which I've dropped. I participated in Endfield's Tech Test in Jan. 2024, but otherwise didn't play until launch. I've read through all of the m","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/1r47aja/endfield_10s_story_and_why_it_sucks_from_a/","role":"pain","weight":1.1229167,"occurredAt":"2026-02-14T01:26:22.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"gachagaming","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.54,"sentiment":-0.45,"confidence":0.7291667,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"There is a crippling lack of meaningful stakes.","title":"Endfield 1.0's story and why it sucks from a writer's perspective.","body":"**Disclosure:** I have been playing Arknights since May 2021. I've played some other gachas as well, all of which I've dropped. I participated in Endfield's Tech Test in Jan. 2024, but otherwise didn't play until launch. I've read through all of the main story, and completed every mission and quest. Beyond that, I wasted 5 years on my Creative Writing degree. Naturally, it hasn't paid off. Discussion ends with a bit of a rant.\n\n# Why does Endfield's story suck?\n\nWe can boil this down into three issues, the first two funneling into the third.\n\n1. The game's characters and themes are too shallow.\n2. There is a crippling lack of meaningful stakes.\n3. HG is afraid to take risks.\n\nYou'll notice you recognize all of these. Yes, the common complaints are correct. However, regarding tutorial pacing: while it's true it sucked in Valley IV, the problem was reduced in Wuling and will likely be mitigated further. Here I'm focusing on long-term concerns which, if continued, will doom the story.\n\n# 'The game's characters and themes are too shallow.'\n\nLike a Saturday morning cartoon.\n\nPutting aside the incessant glazing of the Endministrator (who ironically should talk more), the issue is painted in black and white. Endfield Industries can do no wrong. We use a weakened, but still cancerous rock to reclaim the Frontiers for the willing, all while making them reliant on our systems. Do we want to worry about that? Nah, the Bonekrushers are clearly the threat. These illiterate, pipefaced Mad Max junkies know a grand total of twenty words: 'pillage', 'gud', 'smash' etc. They're strung along by an as-yet characterless boss, who in turn answers to a mysterious twink. No clear explanations or nuance, only the barest hints of depth. Meanwhile, Wuling's factions can't get along and see each other as spineless nerds or meatheaded brutes. Cool. Where have I seen that before? The problem is how superficial the dive into both sides feels, whether in Valley IV or Wuling. If you, as a writer, want to get players invested, you have to be more creative and honest in how you present factions upfront.\n\nWhat about character side quests? Sadly, they were better in the beta. Compare [Wulfgard's CBT quest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRYx_yWzkRo) to [how it released](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGsu23zewio&pp=ygUOd3VsZmdhcmQgcXVlc3Q%3D) and you'll observe the toonification in effect. Less violence, less nuanced characters, less Endmin voiced presence. The first point might seem like a strange complaint, but Arknights' main story has always been dark. Some side events might shift away from it, but Terra's a crappy place for a reason. Why should Talos-II be any different? They're just as desperate for survival, to the point of joining the deluded Bonekrushers to begin with. Why sugarcoat so much conflict when that smothers a core theme?\n\nNow let's look at a good example. [Laevatein's quest](https://youtu.be/m0UfziCzjWI?si=o9E1pbBctfNipGbD), while being a beat-for-beat rehash of Surtr's IS stories, nails everything to a T. Sets stakes, utilizes a common connection (memory issues) between Laev and the Endmin to further their relationship, and allows the character to come full-circle while acknowledging their unique suffering. Endmin gets plenty of voice too, allowing them to feel more like a person. Admittedly, it helps that the plot didn't have to be violent, which probably saved it from being cleansed.\n\nYvonne and Gilberta's quests are nothing. They waste 3/4ths of their run doing random shit, and the final 1/4th isn't about them so much as it is someone else. Gilberta's spouts broadly applicable Reconvener philosophy while using a faceless NPC's experience to try and build a more meaningful conclusion...only it doesn't delve into Gilberta herself. She's slandered as a generic love interest for the Endmin, down to handholding at the end. The fact HG decided to prioritize this over addressing the one NPC who needed closure (which then could have lead into something more for Gilberta) is embarrassing on their part. Worst story by them I've ever read.\n\nSo, there is no nuance to be had. 'Problematic' depth has been removed or suppressed, and generic / romantic scenes have been added instead. It's definitely not too late to fix, but the precedent it lays is grave.\n\n# 'There is a crippling lack of meaningful stakes.'\n\nMost gacha games bear this issue, but Endfield is no exception. What's truly disappointing about this is again, the comparison to the original Arknights. Plenty of people die in AK. Most of them are faceless Operators or random NPCs, but at least they were clearly dying back then. Here it's once in a blue moon, and there's never any visibility to it. All you see is the aftermath: a generic, unbloodied corpse. Worse, there's no focus on the tragedy of it. FrostNova, Mandragora etc. had long scenes depicting their demise and/or the way characters reacted in response. There are hints of this in Endfield, but again, they are carefully obscured. God forbid someone>!organic!<die on screen.\n\nThen there's the handling of Originium in general.\n\nOn Terra, Originium was a serious threat. Catastrophes, rampant discrimination, the works. On Talos-II, it's an aesthetic setpiece. Treatments exist for Oripathy, the conditions for Catastrophes don't exist, and the Infected aren't hated anymore. On one hand this means Rhodes Island succeeded. On the other...what else is left? The Blight and Æther's effects on people are poorly visualized and barely explored. Pools of Blight look messed up, but where are the people who have survived it? Where is my modern equivalent of the Possessed? The Hazefyre? Don't compare [a little scarring](https://endfield.wiki.gg/wiki/Hazefyre_Claw#/media/File:Hazefyre_Claw_sprite.png) to [jagged spears sticking out of your organs. ](https://arknights.wiki.gg/images/All_Hell_Breaks_Loose.png)Point is, the portrayal falls flat. If you're going to hype up a new threat, you need to show how it devastates people. There's potential here in the Blight tides found in Wuling, but again, the impacts of those have only been implied. Show players some actual chaos.\n\nFinally, there's stakes for characters. Endmin is pressured into fitting their old role, but what about everyone else? We hardly learn anything about Perlica. Anything regarding Chen's past is breezed past in Wuling's story. Others like Yvonne have no real punishment for failing, or are too talented (Wulfgard) to be in serious danger. Even in the Outpost stories, there's little meaningful character growth. Everything which could be interesting gets sidelined, magically fixed, or is pointless and goes back to square one. All those errands and names for nothing.\n\nThis is where I'd write an addendum on political stakes, but so far those stakes don't exist! The main factions all get along, and there are no disputes whatsoever. Total 180 from Terra's circus, even if said circus could feel bloated.\n\n# 'HG is afraid to take risks.'\n\nHere we reach the bottom line. Whether it's harming characters, adding depth to the opposition, or even adding a touch of blood, HG would rather play a physician and constantly wash their hands. AK is not supposed to be light. It is supposed to rival Limbus in tone, albeit with a more optimistic outlook. Endfield touches on this, but nothing more. It is less flawed than it is soulless, robbed of acting on its worldbuilding's depth. We went from dealing with ever-adapting ocean terrors and encroaching eldritch horrors to the north to drugged-up bandits and some aggressive constructs. For a first impression, this stinks.\n\nSpeaking of first impressions: herein lays my pet peeve. As a writer, one of the first things you're taught is that a good opening chapter is everything. That brief, initial experience either sells the reader on your book, or causes them to put it back on the shelf. Now consider Valley IV, bogged by all the issues above as well as its hideous onslaught of tutorials. Sure manged to sell there! Boy, I sure wonder if players knew about this problem years in advance and tried to warn HG before it was too late. [Surely players were oblivious, right?](https://www.reddit.com/r/gachagaming/comments/197fq10/arknights_endfield_alpha_review/)\n\nThere's a movie scene I like to reference which will serve as decent capstone here. In the first act of Cars (2006), Lightning McQueen ignores his crew and continues the race without fresh tires. \"No tires, just gas.\" He then proceeds to blow out, causing his pit crew to lose their shit. This is how it feels to read Endfield 1.0, not just as a long-time Arknights player, but as a writer who actually studied this shit. Endfield 1.0 is bad because because it takes no risks and sets terrible expectations, so for all of the experience they've had with Arknights proper, Hypergryph should have known better.\n\nThanks for reading. Here's hoping for improvement.","offTopic":true},{"id":"2e624575-9d72-4004-80eb-3607025ad659","excerpt":"Finishing a game a week, a successful story of 55 games finished this year. 2025 in review. — When 2025 started I found myself playing Shadow the Hedgehog, both to finally finish it after putting it off for 20 years and to get \"up to date\" for Sonic 3 which I was going to watch at the end of the week. When I did finish","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1qce0op/finishing_a_game_a_week_a_successful_story_of_55/","role":"pain","weight":1.0839334,"occurredAt":"2026-01-14T04:40:56.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.42,"sentiment":0.9444444,"confidence":0.7633333,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","urgent"],"statement":"**11th Jan** \\- **26th Jan** \\- games released last year (I was cleaning up some stuff I had started last year) **2nd Feb** \\- Ghostrunner 2 (7.5/10) A good game, though frustrating.","title":"Finishing a game a week, a successful story of 55 games finished this year. 2025 in review.","body":"When 2025 started I found myself playing Shadow the Hedgehog, both to finally finish it after putting it off for 20 years and to get \"up to date\" for Sonic 3 which I was going to watch at the end of the week. When I did finish it in time I had a strange idea to finish a game every week and here we are\n\nI wanted to review every game I played at a decent length but I sadly wrote over 90k characters and couldn’t cut it all down to fit into the post as I didn’t want to miss the deadline for reviews. So I cut down A LOT here, but kept the longer ones ones (or a link to existing reviews)\n\n**5th Jan** \\- Shadow the Hedgehog (6.5/10)\n\n[I had discussed the game once before on a thread here a year ago. ](https://old.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1hv2bwb/biweekly_thread_for_general_gaming_discussion/m5ttxit/)\n\n**11th Jan** \\- **26th Jan** \\- games released last year (I was cleaning up some stuff I had started last year)\n\n**2nd Feb** \\- Ghostrunner 2 (7.5/10)\n\nA good game, though frustrating. The bosses are great, the story was cyberpunk dystopia stuff, but it has fun characters and writing. The music is also alright. Overall it’s a solid game in the gameplay department\n\n**9th Feb** \\- Banjo Kazooie (8/10):\n\nIncredibly fun game with a lot of soul, fantastic music, detailed environments, cool levels and brilliant writing. I can easily see how this game became so loved. The only parts that annoyed me were near the end (Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood) and how your notes would reset on death. The final boss was also incredibly hard. Regardless, fantastic game and I've yet to play the sequel despite it being on the list\n\n**11th Feb** \\- Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (9/10)\n\nA superb sequel, Understanding the world and how the systems worked made such a huge difference to my enjoyment, plus the rollover text helped me understand more of the world instead of having to read a novel every time someone spoke like in 1.\n\nI loved that this was basically a pirate CRPG (despite Sawyer hating that) exploring islands, finding caves, picking up quests and unique items, and travelling with a full party of companions was great (I liked Serafen and Maia the most) It’s just a shame ship combat was boring and boarding was always faster. The music was fantastic, especially [Queen’s Berth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnZwSn5Odps&list=PL_W1RHJiZlE_Z_59pRHUK_IsptrUb0F0K&index=11) (still think about that piano drop) and the [boarding theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWESVuhUmi8&list=PL_W1RHJiZlE_Z_59pRHUK_IsptrUb0F0K&index=33) never got old for me. I enjoyed the story and how it tied into the world, and even if it’s not as strong as the first game, the ideas it plays with are interesting\n\nI also liked the New Vegas style faction setup with companions tied to different groups and made choices feel a bit more personal. In the end I >!went independent so I could keep everyone and because none of the factions convinced me of their cause for Ukaizo.!< I really hope we get Pillars 3\n\n**17th Feb** \\- The Outer Worlds (2/10)\n\nI went in expecting “not New Vegas” and somehow got something worse. I couldn’t pin down what I disliked because it was honestly…everything? The gameplay was boring, the guns all felt awful, nothing was satisfying to shoot, weapon/item variety was horrible, the story and writing were terrible. I couldn’t tell if it wanted to be serious or a joke and I didn’t care for the dystopian capitalism angle. The only thing I did like were the companions, Parvarti's quest was actually written well imo. Overall it’s just terrible\n\n**18th Feb** \\- Devil May Cry 2 (3/10):\n\nIt was not good, but at least I've finished the whole series now (yes I liked it more than Outer Worlds)\n\n**2nd Mar** \\- A Short Hike (6/10):\n\nI was running out of games to finish that week and needed something quick and a Google search led me to this and glad I did it was pretty decent. It’s a cute little game about running around a small island helping people for feathers. There are tons of small things to do, and exploring feels rewarding and the variety keeps it fun. The world is surprisingly open too. I loved the Animal Crossing-like aesthetic. If it were longer with more to do I’d rate it higher\n\n**3rd Mar** \\- Zone of the Enders (7/10):\n\nI actually really enjoyed it. The concept of a kid being forced into a dangerous situation that could get him killed is a trope I always liked, and pairing him with an emotionless AI was a fun contrast. I honestly liked the story a lot. The gameplay was good, though I wish the controls were a bit different. Having the right stick slowly move Jehuty instead of turning quickly was annoying. The whole control scheme oddly felt like a Dreamcast game to me.\n\nThere were plenty of moments where I didn’t know where to go or forgot I could change areas after killing everything. The Park fight was especially annoying since you needed the >!Decoy, and Decoy being a weapon instead of a simple powerup meant grinding ammo,!< but once I figured it out it wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed the 1‑on‑1s, though I wish the combat was more nuanced since you could just slash endlessly to win\n\nThe SOS missions were horrible to 100% because of all the mindless destruction. Even if you tried your hardest not to damage buildings, they all had 1 HP so any stray attack ruined them. I spent ten minutes clearing one mission slowly only for a Halberd stuck on a bridge to fire at me and blow up several buildings, dropping my score to 83%. Those missions were very frustrating to me.\n\n**10th Mar** \\- A game released this year\n\n**21st Mar** \\- Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (6/10)\n\nI was a little disappointed with the sequel, mostly because I wanted to play as Leo again but ended up with someone completely different. I didn’t care much for the characters and kept wishing I was playing as Leo again, since a naive kid in a heartless mecha is way more interesting than Dingo’s whole deal. The game was also surprisingly difficult. The >!Vic Viper!< fight took me ages because it felt like you’d die instantly if you slipped up, and a lot of the combat was like a timing puzzle than an action game.\n\n**30th Mar** \\- No More Heroes (9/10):\n\nDidn't expect to like this as much as I did. The gameplay is simple and fun (though has some dodge move I could never do and rolled everywhere). The bosses were half puzzles which was a shame but I’ll never forget spending two hours on Shinobu learning normal swings didn’t work and the whole fight felt like a samurai duel. Still the hardest fight in the series for me\n\nThe story was entertaining with great characters and writing. Travis standouts, but Shinobu, Sylvia, Henry, Destroyman and Holly were all memorable. At first I took the story at face value and didn’t question the absurdity of “Otaku wants to be number one assassin to have sex”. It wasn’t until reading online that I saw how it was really >!a critique of power fantasies and hero complexes, and how Travis (and the player) uses games/anime as escapism while being losers in reality. The boring jobs were a great contrast too, showing exactly what he’s running from even though that’s what he should actually be focusing on!<\n\nThe music was incredible and I loved Santa Destroy as a location and riding the Motorcycle.\n\n**6th Apr** \\- A game released this year\n\n**13th Apr** \\- No More Heroes 2 (7/10)\n\nHonestly, disappointed. The gameplay didn’t feel like an improvement and I couldn’t figure out why. Enemies have too much health, there are way too many gimmicks, and some bosses are just awful to fight. The parking lot fight especially is a complete slog\n\nThe story felt less interesting with most bosses being forgettable outside of Margaret and Alice. The >!Shinobu sections were cool but dragged because of fights like Destroyman, and having to clear every enemy before moving on got tedious.!< It still has the No More Heroes vibe but I wish it stuck closer to the original. Helping Jeane lose weight was at least fun\n\n**16th Apr** \\- Link's Awakening DX HD (9/10)\n\nThe game was fantastic. The world is fun to explore, getting new items to open new areas is fun as hell, and the story has an uneasy feeling to it. Some dungeon ideas are genuinely brilliant too, like >!destroying the pillars in Eagle Tower so you can reach the top!< is such a cool concept for a game this early in the series. The music is great, hearing [Tal Tal Heights](https://youtu.be/vtvtZT-PXGk?list=RDvtvtZT-PXGk) again reminded me why I fell in love with Zelda in the first place and the dungeon themes getting darker as the game goes on really adds to the atmosphere\n\nThe whole game is just beautiful in a melancholy way. >!When Link plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish and the island disappears at the end it hit me surprisingly hard!<\n\nExcellent game, I really wish Nintendo would drop the BOTW formula...\n\n**27th Apr** \\- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (7/10)\n\nA fun puzzle game though annoying to perfect, it's rewarding and genuinely fun when it all comes together tho. I was annoyed at how some Mudokons are hidden in places you would never check, like>!the very first screen hiding two below you!<but at least the game does not force you to save all of them. Abe is a cool character and I liked his voice in the cut scenes. The music and atmosphere are great, and some powers are fun too, like controlling slogs to kill other slogs. Cool game\n\n**4th May** \\- Donkey Kong Country (8/10)\n\nIf you had asked me what I thought of this game while I was playing it, I would've hated it. I sucked at it so badly and doing it in one sitting didn’t help. What made me appreciate it was playing DKC2 a week later and suddenly understanding how these games actually work\n\nIt's a brilliant and difficult platformer that rewards skill and adapting to whatever it throws at you. It looks stunning for a SNES game and the OST is incredible. There are issues though. The save system is annoying, lives are limited, and some of the BS enemy placement is…well BS. Still, great game\n\n**10th May** \\- Gunpoint (6/10)\n\nSurprisingly decent stealth puzzle game that kinda feels like Splinter Cell but 2D. The story is nothing special, but the gameplay is good. For one dev, it's impressive. If it were longer or had more going on I would rate it higher\n\n**13th May** \\- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (9/10)\n\nIt takes everything the first game did well and expands on it tenfold. The stages are so varied compared to the first and almost all of them have some interesting gimmick to keep things fresh. Even when they’re annoying I loved the variety. The OST is fantastic again, but I liked this one even more. I still listen to the final boss theme sometimes because it’s just that good. The bosses were great too. The first game’s bosses felt frustrating, but here (aside from King Zing Sting) they were fun and fair. K Rool’s final fight took me 42 attempts, but beating him was so satisfying\n\nDKC2 was funny for me because I kept finding little tricks to bypass stuff, and even used a speedrunner tech to skip the bird race. Dixie makes a lot of the game a cakewalk and I’m glad they added her. I do wish there was a ranged option that let you throw your partner at enemies, though. \n\n**23rd May** \\- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! (6/10)\n\nI was disappointed in this game but couldn’t really put my finger on why. It was really easy, which felt like a letdown. A lot of the gimmick stages were way more annoying this time around. Music wasn’t as great as before. Disappointing but still DKC\n\n**1st June** \\- Earthworm Jim (2/10)\n\nHated this game so much. I hate the whip and how it is used for platforming. The gun was horrible as you cannot use it while jumping, so every fight turns into mashing the dpad and hoping Jim hits something. The races between levels are tedious, and Jim’s propeller makes no sense. The level design is all over the place and it is often impossible to tell where to go without taking a hit. Most puzzle","offTopic":true},{"id":"4b450af9-6cdb-42a9-9e40-11a38a1f0bd6","excerpt":"Metroid Prime 4 was way better than Metroid Prime Remaster — Take a deep breath, and read my review. \\*\\*Spoiler warning\\*\\*\n\nI never had a gamecube or wii. I went from N64>Xbox>360>PC>WiiU>Switch>Switch2. With that in mind I missed all of the Metroid games while I was playing Halo.\n\nSo when Nintendo released Metroid P","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/1vjy3v8/metroid_prime_4_was_way_better_than_metroid_prime/","role":"pain","weight":1.0332947,"occurredAt":"2026-08-09T18:58:09.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Metroid","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.51,"sentiment":0.2,"confidence":0.68430114,"matchedPatterns":["terrible"],"statement":"\\*\\*Gameplay and power ups\\*\\* The Xray and thermal visors are horrible.","title":"Metroid Prime 4 was way better than Metroid Prime Remaster","body":"Take a deep breath, and read my review. \\*\\*Spoiler warning\\*\\*\n\nI never had a gamecube or wii. I went from N64>Xbox>360>PC>WiiU>Switch>Switch2. With that in mind I missed all of the Metroid games while I was playing Halo.\n\nSo when Nintendo released Metroid Prime 4 last year, I thought it looked incredible graphics and gameplay wise. So I pulled the day one purchase and went through it. I completed the game and thought it was incredible.\n\nThen I read the reviews and was surprised by the intense negativity, so two weeks ago I bought a copy of Metroid Prime Remaster and have been playing through it. As I'm 99% of the way done, I thought I would go ahead and release a comparison review.  \n  \n\\*\\*World Design\\*\\*  \n  \nMetroid Prime 4 wins this by a mile. I've read reviews wishing for more interconnected levels like Prime 1. If someone made me go back through the back tracking in Metroid Prime 1, I might have to burn the cartridge. There is nothing enjoyable about having to run through 3 different levels to get back to the one level you need to get too. I hated having to search through the map to find each and every entry point just to find out you took the wrong entrance.  \n  \nMetroid Prime 4 is so much more streamlined with the ocraina of time style central area. You can easily hit every entrance and backtrack without pulling your hair out. I understand that Metroid Prime 1 needed to do this because of technical limitations and to artificially lengthen game length, not for me though, it feels completely dated.\n\n\\*\\*Gameplay and power ups\\*\\*\n\nThe Xray and thermal visors are horrible. I love pressing 30 buttons to try and beat a boss because I need to switch back and forth between these visual spectrum's, sure there were low stress times where it was neat finding powerups, but if I have to keep going through blackout level I will lose my mind.\n\nBoss design was bland and took way longer than Metroid Prime 4. Riley was chore, Super Space Pirate made me lose my mind, and Now I'm stuck fighting a super Metroid flipping my visior back and forth. I'm done, I turned off my game and decided to write the review. It's not fun, it's miserable. (The only boss I did not like in metroid 4 was the first part of the final boss with the whole reviving mechanic)\n\nWhere as Prime 4 added the psychic stuff, and the controllable shot added a ton of depth to the gameplay. I'm def not a fan of the elemental shots in both games(barring hidden power ups), I don't think they add a whole lot. But the weird Lasso ball in Prime 4 was fun and added depths to the puzzles. I also really liked the motorcycle, I thought it was fun. Either way the combat was way more snappy and streamlined in Prime 4.\n\nSylux first boss battle was incredible, second wasn't that great, but the third part was fun through the rift. \n\n\\*\\*Story\\*\\*\n\nPrime 1 had no story, you fought a metal dinosaur on a space station, then dealt with Chozo ghosts and artifacts. There are also \"Metroids\", which honestly I know it's in the name of the franchise, are not interesting in any way. The scannable story elements are written for a 5th grader, \"stop the hunter at all costs\" and the like. I guess you were stopping phozon energy or whatever that hit the planet. (Haven't finished the second part of the super metroid boss, don't think I will tbh) So I assume you stop the energy idk.  \n  \nPrime 4 had a well crafted story and being pulled onto a lost planet with other crew members was extremely interesting. (although the payoff wasn't worth it with leaving them behind and the mech parts were kinda meh) The main antagonist, Sylux was incredible, through flashbacks and dialogue you got the feeling your were dealing with a real threat. The former Viewros were interesting and their plight was sad as they were reverting back evolutionary. I like the dialogue with the marines, although the robot was my favorite. \n\nI also understand it's a product of it's time. Although Halo came out at the same time and was much better story wise.\n\n\\*\\*Music and sound design\\*\\*\n\nNot a contest, the score in Metroid 4 is BEYOND the janky electronic tunes in Prime 1. I saw complaints on this subreddit, and can only assume it's nostalgia talking. Prime 4 has an incredible score and sound design that Metroid Prime Remastered could only dream of.\n\n\\*\\*Graphics\\*\\*\n\nNot a contest, Metroid Prime 4 is incredible. (Esp with HDR TV)\n\n\\*\\*Conclusion\\*\\*\n\nIf you haven't played any Metroid Prime game, start with Metroid Prime 4, it's so much better it's laughable after being torn apart by this community. Don't listen to grifters on youtube, negativity sells. \n\nI can only assume that Nostalgia is the PRIME factor in this mindset. They must have built Prime 4 up in their mind to be the monumental game after 20 years that they can't see the forrest for the trees.\n\n\n\n","offTopic":true},{"id":"e8436cb5-50af-4d65-ad73-1e580f2cc884","excerpt":"Character writing in Trails of Cold Steel - an exercise in excess — Hello chaps,\n\n\n\nIt’s difficult to discuss a series as massive as Trails. Not only are the individual games often way longer than they need to be, they’re also categorized into their own subseries that are part of a greater, continuous whole with a ton ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/1rbos3l/character_writing_in_trails_of_cold_steel_an/","role":"request","weight":1.0222666,"occurredAt":"2026-02-22T15:33:24.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"JRPG","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.5089286,"confidence":0.75166667,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"Trails of Cold Steel began after Trails in the Sky (consisting of three games) and the Crossbell duology, so unless I’m missing something important, the first CS game was the sixth entry in the series, and while it was the first in 3D, it’…","title":"Character writing in Trails of Cold Steel - an exercise in excess","body":"Hello chaps,\n\n\n\nIt’s difficult to discuss a series as massive as Trails. Not only are the individual games often way longer than they need to be, they’re also categorized into their own subseries that are part of a greater, continuous whole with a ton of recurring cast members and plot points.\n\n\n\nAmbition might be the word that’d come to mind upon hearing this, and indeed that is undeniably at least partially true, but I feel as though the sheer quantity and overwhelming size of Trails often derail any discussion of it. This has contributed to the series getting an almost mystical reputation, where its fans are some of the most devoted out of any fandom I’ve ever seen and people who don’t feel like diving into a dozen, meaty games costing well over 200 dollars in total are left only hearing about the epic scale.\n\n\n\nThat’s why I wanted to jot down a few thoughts I have about the series, to try and shed some light what kind games they are and hopefully invite some fun discussion. That said, like I’ve already mentioned, it’s difficult to even know where to begin because the series is long-running and many entries suffer from brutal padding that artificially inflate their length.\n\n\n\nI decided to focus on a topic I find particularly interesting: the cast of Trails of Cold Steel, a tetralogy in the series (sort of; you could argue it’s 4.5 games. Confusing, I know). I wrote about it many years ago, and I like to imagine I can express myself better now. Even then, covering the cast of four games in a way that’s easy and engaging to read is no small feat. As such, some details might have to be left out and major plot points will only be mentioned briefly to facilitate a focus on the character writing.\n\n\n\nTrails of Cold Steel began after Trails in the Sky (consisting of three games) and the Crossbell duology, so unless I’m missing something important, the first CS game was the sixth entry in the series, and while it was the first in 3D, it’s fair to say the developers over at Falcom had had plenty of time to get accustomed to the series and figured out where they wanted things to go.\n\n\n\nPerhaps you’ve heard the argument that something is “too anime”. Well, no matter how unfair or nonsensical you find such an opinion, it’s hard to argue that there’s not some merit to it when applied to Trails of Cold Steel. The game starts with the protagonist, Rean Schwarzer, arriving to a quaint town where a prestigious military academy, Thors, is located. Rean is a black-haired, kind-to-a-fault, katana-wielding, adopted, very handsome young man with a mysterious background and even more mysterious powers. The journey begins with him being sorted into a super special, experimental class at Thors and, of course, by having a classmate fall on top of his face breasts first, leading to her getting incredibly angry at him.\n\n[When asked about how many old tropes they wanted in the series, Falcom replied \\\\\"yes\\\\\".](https://preview.redd.it/ixg946vfc2lg1.jpg?width=530&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=093f6eea007813e83c58cb69fce3ac5db57d5649)\n\n\n\nTropes are merely tools. However, Trails of Cold Steel uses incredibly old and stale anime tropes as a crutch without really doing anything with them. This is just the beginning, and basically, if you can think of a typical anime trope, chances are good they’re in the tetralogy in one way or another.\n\n\n\nThat said, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the premise itself. The first game uses the worldbuilding established by previous entries to create a sense of familiarity and continuation. The Empire of Erebonia, where Trails of Cold Steel mostly takes place, has a rigid class system, and Rean’s class, Class VII, consisting of nine students including Rean, is the crown prince’s attempt at mixing people from very different backgrounds, both commoners and nobles, to bring change and renewal to the Empire, at least in part.\n\n\n\nThis allows the game to include, well, a very diverse set of characters, so even if it’s not unique, it gets the job done on paper. In the first game, Falcom at least tries to have the class members argue and interact with each other from time to time. However, already in the first game, some of the tetralogy’s major issues (of which there are many) become apparent very early. For now, I want to focus on one of these recurring problems in particular: the series is brutally formulaic.\n\n\n\nThe vast majority of the first Trails of Cold Steel game is spent on doing “field studies”. Basically, Class VII is sent to various regions in the Empire at least one student has a connection to, helping out with various problems and dealing with bad guys as the larger plot unfolds. While, again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, and this may be more subjective than the rest of the post, it adds a sense of predictability as the game goes on and on. When I played through the game, I remember thinking that, surely, the game must be over soon when there were two of these field studies left, and they last for several hours each.\n\n\n\nThe formulaic nature of the game goes further than that, however. Class VII is split up during these field studies and, at least twice (it might have happened three times but if so I genuinely don’t remember), the group Rean isn’t with performs poorly due to two characters fighting, meaning they get paired with him next so that their differences can be set aside. These conflicts are not anything special, but worse than that, since it’s so obvious when and how they’ll be resolved, they feel immensely artificial.\n\n\n\nI should point out that the game has its strong points too. Trails in the Sky are the best localized games I know of, and I believe it’s the same team that handled the first Trails of Cold Steel games, so the casual dialogue flows naturally and the humor is often on point. When talking to characters back at Thors, the game at minimum pays lip service to the different class members having their own relationships with each other, such as one of the two “smart ones” (both wear glasses, obviously; this series likes playing its tropes straight and predictable) having a one-sided rivalry with the other, who also takes it up on herself to mentor one of the less academically inclined students.\n\n[The localization of the first two Trails of Cold Steel games is sublime, and the same goes for all of Trails in the Sky.](https://preview.redd.it/jkripb6uc2lg1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=93ad972869745871ffa61cc45319d21934c493ff)\n\n\n\nI bring this up, as you might have guessed, because this does not last throughout the entire tetralogy. Quantity very quickly becomes a substitute for quality, and informed attributes replace any sort of nuance, but I’m getting ahead of myself.\n\n\n\nYou might wonder what the support cast is like, and, uh, I think the easiest way of explaining that is “mixed”. On the one hand, you have a politically savvy crown prince, a favorite from earlier entries who’s charming, fun and generally interesting (even if that is lessened as the tetralogy continues), while on the other, you have Rean’s younger stepsister whose defining character trait is that she’s in love with him. That last part might make some of you raise an eyebrow, but that’s not the weirdest part: The true eyebrow-raiser is that basically all of Class VII can instantly tell and basically...support her endeavors? They tease Rean being dense for not being able to tell his sister is in love with him and pity her because of Rean’s lack of reaction and for no other reason. Not a single person thinks it’s weird.\n\n\n\n[What, you didn't think there wouldn't be hot springs scenes in this game, did you? And yes, that's his sister.](https://preview.redd.it/ah9788rbd2lg1.jpg?width=314&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0464234ffd8ca32dccf6fd6ffce0a0b6688bc03)\n\nThat segues nicely into the romance system, which on a basic level can be compared to Persona, though you can’t choose more than one partner. The astute among you might have already spotted a problem: Trails is a continuous series. Not only does the massive roster of attractive and eligible anime women mean romance boils down to a handful of extra lines, mostly at the very end, but the status quo must always be reset with every game, and after leaving Cold Steel, any and all references to romantic partners must be kept vague so as to not go against any player’s choice, yet the player worship and fan service must remain, so the women remain single and interested.\n\n[Don't worry, this is not Rean's sister. It's just his student. Wait...](https://preview.redd.it/dw08zvukd2lg1.jpg?width=656&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b99ba8c22b1ea3124fb4bacc7ba8bb34f592c9dd)\n\nI should point out this began with the previous duology of games, but the length and roster size of Trails of Cold Steel exacerbates the problem. Not only that, but as the CS tetralogy progresses, you can tell that Falcom becomes more and more afraid of showing the romanceable female characters spending any time with male characters that aren’t their family members, save for a major exception or two. They’re pigeon-holed into a specific role, their character interactions limited for the sake of the player, and cast chemistry suffers as a result, as this group that is portrayed as super best friends feel more like colleagues with very little in terms of unique dynamics binding them together. The male classmates towards the end of the tetralogy all either show interest in or are shown interest by minor support characters of the opposite sex, as if to conveniently further remove them as potential threats. Maybe I’m reading too much into things, but I must stress how heavily the developers lean into portraying Trails of Cold Steel as some kind of ultimate power fantasy. Rean may have his own name and you can’t customize his face or body, but his inoffensive personality has carefully sandpapered any and all edges from him, making him a stand-in for the player all the same.\n\n\n\nFalcom was so afraid of a single non bad guy not liking Rean that, when he fought for the Empire as part of an occupying force in another country, they made sure to point out that he never killed a single person, going so far as to cut open tanks and aircraft and took people out of them, and that the people of the occupied country know that and don’t blame Rean for what happened. It gets even worse than that, but I only have so much time and space to write this post. Sufficed to say, this is Corrin from Fire Emblem: Fates levels of karma Houdini.\n\n\n\nThe inoffensive personalities extend to the rest of the good guys throughout the tetralogy as well. Any cast needs varied dynamics to remain interesting. Conflicts, arguments, differences in opinion, varied suggestions for how to proceed in the story, and so on. This is, essentially, entirely gone by the second game.\n\n\n\nIn the second game, there’s a civil war in Erebonia. Haughty anime nobles who have a the early advantage vs. reformers led by a big bad. Gee, who do you think will win? Snark aside, Class VII are given an airship to help out where needed. Help out which side? Well, according to them, they choose a “third path”, though conveniently, they essentially only fight against the nobles, but even that is not the main issue. The problem, as I’m sure you’ve already figured out, is that they’re always on the same page. They all have the same opinion on the conflict, they all agree on the next step to take, and there are no arguments to be had anymore. In every scene, all characters seem obliged to utter at least a single line, even if it’s just “I agree” or something similar, meaning that character individuality has been quashed in order to make it easier to progress the main plot.\n\n\n\nThe idea behind Class VII was to take very different people from all over the Empire and put them in a single class. However, from a narrative standpoint, how interesting is it to see these supposedly very different people of very different backgrounds act and speak like a mo","offTopic":true},{"id":"e9a9b78e-0b3c-4304-973f-2acd2999bf86","excerpt":"Star Wars: Outlaws Review - Some top-tier Star Wars moments diluted by unnecessary filler. — RELEASE: 2024\n\nTIME PLAYED: 82 Hours\n\nPLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)\n\nSCORE: ★★★☆☆\n\nHated It | Disliked It | **Liked It** | Loved It | All-Time Favorite\n\n(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1tylt4v/star_wars_outlaws_review_some_toptier_star_wars/","role":"pain","weight":1.0073212,"occurredAt":"2026-06-06T16:29:19.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.42545456,"sentiment":-0.16363636,"confidence":0.70666665,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"Lacking allies, she reluctantly accepts the help of a known schemer and his towering bodyguard droid, in exchange for committing an even bigger heist - on the same crime lord.","title":"Star Wars: Outlaws Review - Some top-tier Star Wars moments diluted by unnecessary filler.","body":"RELEASE: 2024\n\nTIME PLAYED: 82 Hours\n\nPLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)\n\nSCORE: ★★★☆☆\n\nHated It | Disliked It | **Liked It** | Loved It | All-Time Favorite\n\n(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)\n\n**THE BREAKDOWN**\n\n\\+Protagonist Kay Vess is a hilariously flawed failgirl\n\n\\+Supporting cast is mostly strong and interesting, and the story's entertaining if lightweight\n\n\\+Unique, if slightly undercooked, reputation system\n\n\\+Fundamentals (shooting, driving, flying) all feel pretty good on mouse/keyboard\n\n\\+DLCs are substantial and varied\n\n\\-Permeating sense of jank, with plenty of bugs and glitches\n\n\\-Many promising mechanics are underdeveloped\n\n\\-Stealth is basic and unrewarding\n\n\\-Side activities, while optional, are rarely very interesting\n\n\\---\n\nThe discourse around Star Wars Outlaws at launch was pretty intolerable. Discerning legitimate criticisms - like poor performance, constant crashes, and obnoxious forced stealth sequences - from a much more mean-spirited dialogue in regards to the attractiveness of its female protagonist and whether or not the game was 'woke'  - became difficult without exposing yourself to the worst parts of the internet. Already maintaining a stance of 'wait for a sale' with Ubisoft games, I took my time and bought the game more than a year later at a heavy discount, and while I'm glad I waited for some of the more major post-launch patches, I found myself having a lot more fun than I expected to.\n\nTaking place in time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Outlaws opens with protagonist Kay Vess sick of being poor and in debt and taking on a dangerous heist in order to make something of herself. Predictably, it goes terribly wrong and she only narrowly escapes by stealing the extremely rare, valuable ship of a notorious crime lord - which, of course, pisses him off enough to put an enormous bounty on her head. Lacking allies, she reluctantly accepts the help of a known schemer and his towering bodyguard droid, in exchange for committing an even bigger heist - on the same crime lord. From there, she's got to assemble a team of experts to ensure this goes better than her last attempt, all while evading the pursuit of bounty hunters.\n\nIt's a familiar enough plot but it works well for the structure of the game, enabling the globetrotting and open world that one might expect from an Ubisoft title in this day and age. On each planet that Kay lands on, she inevitably winds up embroiled in some form of local drama, often tied to the person she's trying to recruit. The Slicer she wants might be caught up with the Imperials, for example, necessitating breaking into one of their bases in order to free them, but it's never quite that easy. For the most part, the main plot does a pretty good job of staying focused; while I wouldn't call the story itself exceptional, it's carried by strong performances and interesting characters, not the least of which is Kay herself.\n\nI don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there's an unfair amount of scrutiny on lady-led games, especially those from major publishers. Even before launch, there were debates about whether or not Kay was attractive enough, the quality of her animations, whether she'd be 'cringe' - and I have to say that it feels like enormously missing the point (on top of being supremely gross). She's easily the best part of the game, and it's largely because she's such a hilarious, unlucky failgirl, a direct answer to those who complain about 'effortlessly badass' women who never seem to face challenges. From the jump, things never go right for Kay and she usually survives only by the skin of her teeth and with assistance from others - often her adorable pet, Nix, who's a sort of fuzzy land axolotl capable of pickpocketing, assisting with puzzles, and more. Plucky as she is, Kay tends to roll with the punches, but throughout the game, the arc of her maturing and learning to take responsibility is genuinely strong, especially because it's delivered through mounting stress about how much repeated failure is beginning to wear her down.\n\nIt works, and it's a highlight even when the gameplay is a little more uneven. On a fundamental level, everything in Star Wars Outlaws works. The shooting is the strongest, with blaster duels promoting scrambling between cover and using the environment in a way that feels improvisational and madcap. Piloting a speeder is chunky and satisfying, with a few upgrades along the way to give it a bit more kick. Flying Kay's ship is serviceable if basic, navigating the space outside the playable planets for side quests and dogfights. Stealth is easily the worst aspect of the game; at launch it was mandatory, and while the developers have cut down the number of times Kay's forced into the quiet approach, she simply doesn't have many tools to make it engaging as an option. She can creep between cover and use Nix for distractions, but it's as basic as it comes and the enemy AI is hardly smart enough to keep it engaging.\n\nThere's no lack of open world clutter, either, which varies wildly in quality. Ostensibly, Kay's trying to balance her relationships with multiple criminal cartels through a faction system where high favor affects discounts and what territory you can enter, and low favor can shut off missions and even alter available allies in the plot. It's cool, and even has a couple of unique touches like the way NPCs react as you approach their territory based on their faction, but it's ultimately a little too easy to ignore. There are some real gems stashed away in the mess of available activities, like a shockingly elaborate minigame in which Kay and Nix share a meal at a local food stall, with long, bespoke animations that serve immaculately to show the bond between the two. There's Kessel Sabacc, a charming card game something like a more convoluted blackjack with incentives to cheat. But there's also an endless number of stormtrooper checkpoints to raid, smuggler cargo to steal, outlaw bases to also raid, and so on. If you enjoy the core gameplay enough to not feel satisfied by what's provided by the major quests, it might be a welcome distraction, but I personally found it diluted the experience and took away from the game's strengths.\n\nThis openness and sense of scale probably contributes to the persistent jankiness, too. The game is often gorgeous, but character models suffer under unflattering lighting that can make them look a generation behind. Enemies in scripted missions behaved well, but those out in the open world often seemed braindead and barely responsive. Sometimes I'd have to take multiple attempts to interact with an object I was standing right in front of, and others I'd try to summon my speeder only for it to stop stubbornly hundreds of meters away. None of these issues are gamebreaking, but it all adds up to a deep sense of lacking polish.\n\nUltimately, Outlaws is a flawed game - perhaps deeply so in some places - but when it's firing on all cylinders, it really awakens my dormant inner Star Wars fan. Introduced to the franchise by Knights of the Old Republic as a teenager back in 2004 and only ever tangentially watching the movies and television shows, I wouldn't say I'm the most invested in the franchise, but for all its failings, Outlaws captures the magic of the universe well, and there's something to be said for it being more than the sum of its parts. Being carried by a strong cast and great acting doesn't hurt, either.","offTopic":false},{"id":"97833dac-a879-4328-9274-5fc3ff85adc6","excerpt":"Tomb Raider (1996) PC Review (patched with Automated Fix) — Disclaimer: This review was originally written for r/patientgamers but unfortunately, I can't post it there due to their rule 3 and their saying of \"20\\~ish good comments\" is a bit worrisome when you are not ultra active on Reddit. I didn't want this review to","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/gamereviews/comments/1v8tgbw/tomb_raider_1996_pc_review_patched_with_automated/","role":"pain","weight":1.0047135,"occurredAt":"2026-07-28T09:39:41.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"gamereviews","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.40429622,"sentiment":0.09803922,"confidence":0.71545696,"matchedPatterns":["terrible","missing_feature"],"statement":"The only real issue is lack of subtitle support.","title":"Tomb Raider (1996) PC Review (patched with Automated Fix)","body":"Disclaimer: This review was originally written for r/patientgamers but unfortunately, I can't post it there due to their rule 3 and their saying of \"20\\~ish good comments\" is a bit worrisome when you are not ultra active on Reddit. I didn't want this review to go to waste so I searched alternative places to post it on Reddit and found here. I am not really experienced in writing reviews so... this may not be good but everyone has their start. I don't plan on writing reviews in a professional sense but may occasionally post reviews on Reddit.\n\nNote: I haven't finished Unfinished Business yet. Its review will either be another post or an edit update to this post. This post will review the main game patched with Automated Fix.\n\nOpening Paragraphs:\n\nAh, Lara Croft. The gal I met when I was 7 years old at my friend's PS2 (Angel of Darkness). The gal that is the reason my friend asked me for help but I was unable to help since I didn't even had time to learn the game and lacked english at the time.\n\nTime has passed and somehow I learned more about Tomb Raider series, eventually buying the, then, entire series on Steam via Eidos Anthology bundle back in 2018. I kept saying that I will play the classic TR games since 2018... but never allocated the time for it. During this time, Eidos Anthology bundle got removed on Steam as it got old enough to cause licence issues (classic TR games are still available)... during this time, not only 1-3 got remastered but 4-6 got remastered as well. Heck, a second remake for TR1 was announced during this time. And finally, I played Tomb Raider (1996) in 2026.\n\nStorytelling:\n\nLet's start with storytelling though I will not talk about the story itself as I believe you should see it for yourself. Storytelling isn't mindblowing or anything really special even if the underlying story is quite special. The usual reflex is to believe that this is caused by technical limitations of 1996 but I suspect that the fact there were no \"guide\" for how to tell a story like this also played a role. It is mostly told through FMVs since video game graphics aren't cinematic as they are today but, surprisingly, there are also some cutscenes that are rendered real-time though their scope is limited due to technical reasons of the time.\n\nThe existence of cutscenes gives a storytelling that we are somewhat familiar today but they don't appear as much as they do in modern games. While the dialogue is cheesy, I am not gonna complain about it because it gives a certain flavour to this game. The only real issue is lack of subtitle support. This is perfectly understandable though, since availability in video games is mostly a 21st century concept that became more and more important during 2010s even though some games did supported subtitles. So, storytelling is not necessarily bad but it is not good either. It is just there to forward the story. This is fine since gameplay is quite solid.\n\nGameplay:\n\nI loved the gameplay and think that they are quite solid... except combat but more on that later. I believe most issues people have with tank controls is either due to not playing Lara's home level, which acts as a tutorial, or not bothering to stop and just think for a moment. Some people just not bother experimenting with controls correctly. That being said, even after understanding controls and even playing Lara's home, it is ok to have trouble with controls until the sixth level. Beginning with sixth level, game treats you more seriously too with platforming getting riskier, secrets are being more secret and enemies are more dangerous. But no worries, difficulty curve is natural.\n\nTank controls are very precise and the game is mostly grid based, not just in tech but in gameplay as well due to tank controls. This means that if you know how to play this game, you cannot miss a jump. If you miss a jump, you either don't know the controls or know the controls but haven't quite mastered them yet. So, failed jumps are entirely player's fault. I cannot possibly overstate how precise tank controls are. They may feel clanky but they are extremely functional and since levels are designed around tank controls, they are the ultimate way to play this game. Lara's home doesn't teach you how to \"sidestep\" so don't forget to learn/discover how to do it. And also... just f\\*\\*\\*ing experiment, ok? You see a climbable surface? Try to climb it. You may be surprised to find possible shortcuts or... secrects that you may find.\n\nNow, \"shortcuts\" are definitely not intended... at least I don't think they are. But they can save you from a lot of trouble. I am not gonna reveal my discoveries, besides community seems to have already discovered them ages ago before I had a chance to play the games, find them yourself if you are not worried about skipping certain parts of the game. Secrets, on the other hand, are something you should strive to find as they provide useful items for your tomb raiding. It seems people are allergic to discover so they often just don't pay attention to areas that doesn't lead you forward in your journey. Pay attention to levels. You will be rewarded adequately. But don't be like me either... for I found every secret in fourth level, only to miss a weapon obtain... ugh. Weapons are more important and, this will be my only hint, the weapon you find in fourth level isn't in one of the secrets... don't miss it. Just don't. I learned its existence when I checked which weapon we should obtain in which level. Had to replay it (but apparently game provides you other opportunities for missed weapons later on).\n\nSpeaking of discoveries, you can save as much as you want in PC version counting overwrites and you have multiple slots. Use them because sometimes your discoveries may lead you to a \"softlock\". Oh and, for the love of Isaac Newton, just be careful whether you are at \"load\" page or \"save page\" before contiuning. This is different from console releases since they used a \"save crystal\" system.\n\nNow, let's talk about combat. It is god awful. It is the only aspect of the game that is objectively horrible. But why? Well... because despite the developer's desire to provide action sequences to gamers, TR1's tech is just isn't suitable. It is not fluid enough and tank controls backfires in this case. Almost every enemy is faster than Lara and most attacks works by touching the Lara, with accompanying animations for most enemy attacks, which the enemy AI will use while constantly circling you. This \"circle\" behaviour makes things ridicilously easy if you manage to find a high ground but when that's not possible, it just means that you will be constantly attacked by an enemy you can't keep up with. Not because you are a bad gamer but because the controls are clunky. This is bad game design cause by the technical limitations of its time.\n\nThankfully, combat isn't the core focus of TR1 experience despite the design of certain levels so this doesn't hurt the overall experience too much.\n\nGraphics:\n\nThey look beautiful. They are old... but in the most nicest way possible. I loved them. There is no need to elaborate.\n\nOther Stuff:\n\nNow, PC version has some issues. It cannot run natively on Windows since it was originally developed for MS-DOS. Naturally, the game runs via DOSBOX and as such, sound is horrible based on what I have seen online. Now, you might say \"didn't you played this game? What do you mean \"seen online\"?\"\n\nWell, I played after patching with Automated Fix which translates the game into a proper Windows game that doesn't need DOSBOX. It should be noted that this is not a mod, you are still playing the game as god intended as this just frees it from DOSBOX. This is not a visual mod, but getting rid of MS-DOS means you can know play at higher resolutions. This is not an auditory mod, but getting rid of MS-DOS means sound quality is waaaay better now. Also, music was actually missing from the MS-DOS version due to technical limitations... playing the music would mean stopping the game program. There were still some ambient sounds but the music was missing. Since Automated Fix makes this a native Windows program, it also takes incentive by adding missing music to PC version. You also have option to \"upgrade\" FMVs with either with upscaled versions (they look identical to the ones in 1-3 remaster... did Saber just re-used this fan upscaled ones?) or PS1 versions... if you are not interested, you can keep FMVs as is. I chose to upgrade with PS1 versions as they were apparently superior in quality compared to MS-DOS ones and avoided \"upscaled\" one like a plague... if I wanna see that I would play the remasters rather than the original. You can also change PC water into PS1 water if you have any nostalgia.\n\nOh, and the game apparently works with X-Input controllers... at least digital store versions seems to have been patched at some point.\n\nVerdict:\n\nWhile this game clearly shows its age, it still looks beautiful and if you have the patience... it plays beautifully as well. The only issue is combat. It is not fluid but for some reason game expects you to be fluid which is quite literally impossible. Why the hell enemies are faster than us when we are stuck with these tank controls? The answer is... oddities of 90s. Aside from combat, this game is pure gold standard of quality.\n\nDefinitely play this one. Aged like a fine wine except its combat.\n\nScore: 8.5/10","offTopic":true},{"id":"f50d4718-5df8-4188-b9c6-c576860dab7b","excerpt":"So What is Wrong with Endfield's Writing? — 1200 words, \\~5 minute read. TLDR at the end, in **bold.**\n\n\\--------------------\n\nThe community keeps returning to this topic. Things used to be pretty rough, especially 1.1 - 1.3, Gilberta's quest, and Rossi's wasn't much better. Then in 1.4 it improved, not to “fantastic l","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Endfield/comments/1vl23jz/so_what_is_wrong_with_endfields_writing/","role":"request","weight":0.97294915,"occurredAt":"2026-08-11T00:19:59.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Endfield","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.33333334,"confidence":0.7154038,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"**TLDR:** **Endfield's storytelling problems seem to boil down to:** **- Misuse of AI in the writing process (or so I suspect),** **- Lack of real-life experience among the writers,** **- Rushed schedule** **and insufficient quality contro…","title":"So What is Wrong with Endfield's Writing?","body":"1200 words, \\~5 minute read. TLDR at the end, in **bold.**\n\n\\--------------------\n\nThe community keeps returning to this topic. Things used to be pretty rough, especially 1.1 - 1.3, Gilberta's quest, and Rossi's wasn't much better. Then in 1.4 it improved, not to “fantastic levels,” more like to a “solid middle ground.” Then came Liino's quest, and as I've seen lately, it left many people mildly disappointed again.\n\nThere's clearly a problem here, not just fans being picky. But what's causing it? I've been thinking about this, going through Endfield's plots and characters, and I want to share my take.\n\nEverything here is *purely subjective.* \n\n**Blandness**\n\nNot all, but a lot of playable characters are walking tropes. Take Camille as a recent example. I like him, he’s in my main roster, but as a character he's as generic a moody Byronic edgelord as it gets. His lines aren't even 2d, they're one-dimensional, all about blood and the hunt.\n\nAlesh has exactly one shtick: fishing. That's basically his entire personality. Sure, you can find something interesting about his backstory, but only in his profile files.\n\nLiino is a cute idol with the maximum standard idol motivation. Sure, she has a bit of a dark side, but even this is tropey. Every line she speaks when on-field could be written by someone who knows nothing about her beyond this two-line summary.\n\n \n\nNPCs make it even more obvious. Take kids, like Carla and Angie (Engie? I play not in EN) from the latest event. They are *so* generic children with generic hobbies that theey don't actually exist in real life. It's how 18th-century moralizing books used to portray children, written by authors who clearly never spent time around an actual kid. Only without moralizing, that is.\n\nNPC conversations and conflicts feel naive and shallow, circling around everyday bureaucratic hassles.\n\nSome might ask: isn't that just how life is?\n\nNot quite. In real life, and in good fiction, there's always some *flourish*, something unique to each person and situation. There's always a small quirk, a hitch, some hook into something at least a bit deeper. \n\n**Inconsistency**\n\nI've mentioned before in comments how odd Liino’s combat kit seems to me, because it’s unclear what tone it implies for the whole story. We are up against a mysterious ancient marble warrior, and meanwhile at the back there’s an idol doing dance moves? An idol is beating up Landbreakers by drawing hearts in the air?\n\nIf the story is meant to be serious and we’re fighting for our lives, this is bizarre. If the story is lighthearted and we're just KO-ing enemies, then we should forget any possibility of dramatic tension.\n\nThis was especially noticeable in Rossi's quest. If neither the Macguffin nor the Landbreakers were actually dangerous, then Endmin's behavior made sense - why not let the kids play around?\n\nBut if there was a genuine threat to their lives, then the whole quest looks insane. We’re off searching for a cardboard sword while the children could be killed at any moment. As a responsible adult, Endmin should have *at least* called in a squad of operatives to watch over the kids while tackling their tasks.\n\nOver and over, it feels like Endfield doesn't quite know what kind of story it wants to tell. It is trying to sit on two chairs at once, and in doing so, ends up falling.\n\n**The tells**\n\nAnyone who follows recent trends in writing will say: hold on, these are the telltale signs of AI.\n\nLLMs are notorious for producing cliched characters. They will dutifully flesh out the content of the prompt, but they can't (at least, not yet) add all these small, unexpected details that make characters feel alive. Only a human mind can do that when being creative, pulling in a web of associations from every corner of memory.\n\nThe same goes for LLM-written plots: smooth, but with oddities that become obvious once you dig deeper.\n\nI suspect this is the first reason behind Endfield's narrative problems: the writers are using AI, and using it incorrectly. AI can check a finished draft, brainstorm some rough first ideas, or proofread a text.\n\nBut IMO, a writer shouldn't let it near the actual process of creation.\n\n\n\nBut that's not all. To write compelling stories, a person needs some amount of real-life experience. In the end, you can only write about what you know.\n\nThat doesn't mean that only someone who's lived through a war can write about war. We can creatively rework experience gained in all kinds of areas, but that experience has to exist, and ideally it should be diverse.\n\nWhen I look at the conversations between NPCs in Endfield, which revolve almost entirely around paperwork and research difficulties, I keep getting the impression that it was written by yesterday's graduates who haven't experienced much in life beyond school, university, and then corporate IT.\n\nIt would be interesting to know the average age of the writing team, but I doubt we'll find out. \n\n**The gacha factor**\n\nOn top of that, there are the usual constraints of gacha games. The latest story arc has to sell the newest character, playable characters can't have major flaws or sharply contradictory traits, and so on. In the end, the product must bring profit.\n\nThere's a reasonable suspicion that Endfield was released a bit early, somewhat unfinished. That's probably why Gilberta's questline felt so disconnected — it was a leftover from some previous version where it made more sense.\n\nIf the writers had more time, these obvious flaws could have been fixed.\n\nIt's also pretty clear that many plot points simply lacked basic proofreading. See again Rossi's quest: at the time when it was freshly releasead, Redditors came up with a whole bunch of fixes for the logic gaps there, things that would've taken five minutes to patch.\n\n**What can Hypergryph do about it?**\n\nThe obvious move: assign two or three more senior, experienced writers from the OG Arknights team, people who genuinely care about the lore, to **closely** supervise the current writing team.\n\nTeach them when to use AI and when to stay away.\n\nWill they actually do that? I'm not sure. In that sense, Endfield has, unfortunately, become a sign of the times, until the writing side of humanity learns to use its new tools properly. \n\n**What can** ***we*** **do?**\n\nWrite it in the surveys. Don't spend money on the most blatantly generic characters. There's a precedent: in Genshin, storytelling problems in Inazuma were so glaring that the backlash forced the developers to get their act together, reshuffle the writing team, and deliver Sumeru, which a lot of people still consider the peak of Genshin in terms of story and characters.\n\nWe can also hope that Endfield's storytelling will gradually improve over time, since the writers' skill will naturally grow, and the lore packed into the narrative will keep unfolding bit by bit.\n\nThe worldbuilding in this game is strong, that we don't need to worry about.\n\n\\-------------- \n\nThanks for reading. Once again, this is *my own opinion*, inevitably subjective. Also I apologize for possible mistakes – I am fairly fluent in English but not a native speaker.\n\n \n\n**TLDR:**\n\n**Endfield's storytelling problems seem to boil down to:**\n\n**- Misuse of AI in the writing process (or so I suspect),**\n\n**- Lack of real-life experience among the writers,**\n\n**- Rushed schedule** **and insufficient quality control.**","offTopic":false},{"id":"1bee2bf8-c307-42b7-8c1e-f964f6078af2","excerpt":"Every game I played (and abandoned) in 2025 — forgot to tag some spoilers whoops~\n\n(some context) Save for miles morales & GoT, every game here I tried earlier, then fell off/ abandoned for one reason or another, then got back into it. I went through pretty heavy burnout in 2024, so this year was my attempt at getting ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1q15dr3/every_game_i_played_and_abandoned_in_2025/","role":"request","weight":0.97242296,"occurredAt":"2026-01-01T14:26:41.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.38541806,"sentiment":-0.06354515,"confidence":0.7018986,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"Looked online and unlike the previous glitch, there were no support for the bug I was encountering, and effectively no way to progress.","title":"Every game I played (and abandoned) in 2025","body":"forgot to tag some spoilers whoops~\n\n(some context) Save for miles morales & GoT, every game here I tried earlier, then fell off/ abandoned for one reason or another, then got back into it. I went through pretty heavy burnout in 2024, so this year was my attempt at getting back at the games i skipped. I feel like when going back into your backlog, you find out really quickly the games that you couldn't get into because of various life factors (burnout, depression, time constraints, etc) vs the games that are just not your thing lol.\n\n#Sonic Mania (Platformer)\n\nI thought this one was decent, as someone whos been a pretty firm mario stan for my whole life. I wanted to go into this game to hate it because of that ngl but they just cooked too hard. It also helps that im not a mario stan anymore lol. Absolutely loved the color palate & the music. The whole game feels like you're at a casino. It did take some time to get used to lives actually mattering in this game. When you die, you go back allll the way to the beginning of the level. This especially sucks when you are facing a boss at the very end 🙃. But when you get used to the rhythm of the game, it becomes a very enjoyable title, even if its one that I wont necessarily want to play again, I didn't finish it like “damn, I could have done anything else”. \n\n**7/10**\n\n#Death’s Door (Isometric)\n\nSlightly overhyped. Like did this really deserve a 9/10 from IGN? I really enjoyed the story, and how it was this tale about how some people can/can’t cope with the inevitability of death. The story is actually very, very funny too. Like I can confidently say this game has a lot of charm, which is honestly what kept me going. But the gameplay & combat… is just average? Hitting an enemy just does not feel satisfying at all, it feels floaty instead, even when you unlock the hammer weapon. The level design & music was very uninspired too. I kinda felt like every level was just the same with a different color. One thing I absolutely hated was the yeti boss, and how big of a difficulty spike it was in comparison to the rest of the level & to be honest the whole game. Buuut what I absolutely loved was the final boss fight. >!Its this flashback of all the levels you played, and the Lord of Doors takes you through them all. It has my all time favorite trope too, you hear the main theme of the game in the final boss in a crazier, orchestric rendition! So peak.!< That moment brought it up from a 5 to a 6 to me, what a way to end a game. I defiantly don't hate the game, the story kept me going enough, but its not a “must play” imo. \n\n**6/10**\n\n#God of War 2018 (Action RPG)\n\nI feel like with video games, the two main elements are the story & gameplay. A good game has a decent story, and good gameplay. A mediocre game has a good story, and decent gameplay.  A great game nails both, like what happened with God of War. ( now if a game has great music, level design, & art direction then its an all -timer but thats a topic for another day). I absolutely loved the interactions that Kratos has with his son. We see Atreus make his mistakes, get a >!big head (wtf was the deal with that arc??)!< and shit even see him grow& mature for a 12 year old. 10/10 character arc. Also shoutout to santa monica for actually giving Atreus apart of the gameplay instead of just the “companion quest you gotta carry around”, like he very much has came in clutch in boss fights.\n\nThere are so many “hell yeah” moments in this game its unreal. >!When Kratos gets his blades again, when him & Atreus fight a dragon, when Kratos & Baldur fight on top of a dragon, when they fight again and that big ass snake & giant is helping too (forgot both they names sorry lol) shit is peak!!< But I will say.. and I can say this for a lot of Sony exclusives.. is that as far as the negatives in this game goes… is that its very safe? Like this is a good game. I recognize that this is a good game. It deserved it’s GOTY win(I personally think it should have been celeste but hey). The way how this game is basically shot like one long take is incredible. But even at its worst, deaths door surprised me. Okami surprised me. The whole game is fire… but i just kind of feel like the story is very safe? Idk how to explain. Like I would liken this game to something like the first transformers movie, or the avengers movies. Great pieces of media, but very safe & made by big budget companies.\n\n**7/10**\n\n>!Also fuck the revenants.!<\n\n#Ghost of Tsushima (Action RPG)\n\nYeah I was not feeling this one lmao. Lemme explain: Ive been a gamer for my entire life, right? Ive been a mostly singleplayer gamer too. I couldnt tell you how many games ive played, that’s a historical fiction/ light fantasy game, in which you got a sword and some kind of horse, and have to regain your honor/get revenge/ free your people/stop the big bad. The entire time I was playing GoT the only thing running through my mind was that one Squid Game [clip](https://tenor.com/view/i-have-played-these-games-before-seong-gi-hun-squid-game-i've-played-these-games-already-netflix-gif-16480153790313233198). My thing is with open world games, unless im going back in time to play a game from the 7th or 6th gen that I missed, you gotta do *something* derivative or original in this space for me to keep playing. As someone who was brought up on Assassins creed, the witcher 3, skyrim, and probably others i’m forgetting, I have played quite literally a million games like GoT which is why I dropped it after like 6-7 hours. \n\nWhat kills me is that this came from fucking Sucker Punch man!!!! Sly Cooper is a fucking banger! Infamous Second Son is to this day my favorite game ive played on the Playstation (ive only ever had a ps5)! How you go from a game as inventive, colorful & fun as that to a game that we already have a million of?? And from what ive heard, they have no plans to work on either again. You mean to tell me your two best franchises died for this?? We get games like Ghost every single year! We almost never get games like Sly Cooper anymore save for like Astro Bot, and we never get games like infamous anymore. We really could have had it all man. \n\n**Abandoned/10**\n\n#Prey 2018 (Immersive FPS Sim)\n\nAnother game I dropped, sorry 😭. I just cant do it with boring games man. This one just felt like a slog man… I think what did it for me is when I was >!halfway though the level where you gotta rescue that guy from the Shadow Monsters?!< & it took me like 30 mins just to get to him. I think for me why i personally dropped the game is that i’m not really interested in the setting of space. Hated the outer wilds, hated star wars, hated mass effect, hated guardians of the galaxy. Space (in my opinion) is just a boring setting to me, idk what it is. And when I think about this game, is that it expects you to already like the setting when you come in, so the slow parts dont feel slow, they feel “immersive” or whatever. But to me every time the game got slow like that for me to “take in the world”, I just wanted to turn the game off. So that’s what I did🤷🏿‍♂️ sorry\n\n**Abandoned/10**\n\n#Doom 2016 (Action FPS)\n\nThis game is a fucking heater man omg. I started Doom right after I played Prey for the last time and was shocked at how much I’ve been sleeping on this game. Long, drawn out cutscenes in the beginning of the game? Nah bro, here's a gun and a demon. You know what time it is. Taking potentially 3 hours to ‘click’? Hell nah. It’s go time from as soon as you hop off the elevator. Immediately, this game sets the tone and its what I love about it. You buy a game that says ‘Doom’ with a bunch of demons on the cover, the player should know what they’re getting into. And from the elevator the game just builds and builds from that point onwards which I fucking love. You get the chainsaw early on which is your ‘give me ammo now’ card for when you get low, or need to kill a harder enemy instantly you don't want to sink a whole clip into. Then you get some semi auto’s so you can finally hit enemies from the midrange. Then you get the rocket launcher for the huge enemies & summoner that appear. The game constantly adds new ideas & gameplay elements in each level like the upgrade system, so it constantly gave me a reason to keep playing. I also really loved the challenge levels too!\n\nI think what really set this game apart though, from most other fps’s that ive played, is that it forces you to play it it’s way. If you try to play this game like its half life or battlefield where you gotta take cover, peer from corners and play smart you will get eaten. You're fighting demons, they don't care about none of that. You gotta be in the mix. No slowing down. All offense. Glory kills literally give you health, so you gotta stay in the pocket. My only real complaint is that the ending was kinda wack. >!A spider monster? That doesnt even have a second phase like the cyberdemon? What happened to the “demonic voice?” I wanted to fight him!!<\n\n**8/10**, shit felt like playing a prodigy music video.\n\n#Robo Quest (FPS Roguelike)\n\nI’ve always said that roguelikes live & die by the gameplay. You get a roguelike with bad gameplay and the result is something like dead cells, risk of rain 2, binding of Isaac. But a roguelike with amazing gameplay would be games like wizard of legend, games like hades, games like Robo Quest. Each run doesnt feel like a slog to get through because the gunplay is so tight, every gun is fun to use, and it doesnt take until the 3rd level for the game to pick up/to feel powerful. Yeah I have my favorites, but I dont think there was a weapon in this game where I said “Absolutely not.”. Then you add in the classes you can unlock, the secrets to add to your home base.. you get to the point where you feel like you have to keep playing to unlock everything! You get a grapple hook, a secondary shotgun, a katana, a javelin, you never have that phase in games where you feel completely underpowered and I love that. The final boss however… was very difficult though. I had to unlock all the crystals to make that level easier and it still killed me at least twice.  But overall a fun banger.\n\n**7/10**\n\n#Quake (Classic FPS)\n\nI feel so bad for putting this on here because I know this is a classic and did so much for the industry but this game is just not fun to play in the modern day 😭. One could only play the same, derelict levels of  various shades of brown with weapons that shoot like paperweights with essentially no context before they say to myself “man what am I playing.” \n\n**Abandoned/10** \n\n#Spiderman 2018 (Open World Action)\n\nThe most fun I have ever had traversing in an open world game, and its honestly not even close. This is what I mean when I say if you make an open world game you gotta do something transformative in the genre. Yeah there have been Spiderman games in the past, but the swinging has never felt this fun, fluid, and smooth like in this game. Shit had me literally giggling with joy whenever I would jump off a tall building, dive until the very last moment, and start swinging and have all that momentum.  And what a game this is man. I remember playing it and thinking “Eh, by the numbers open world, nothing special.” But i feel that as I write this review, the reason why I had that thought initially is because the game is very easy lol. I played it on spectacular and died maybe twice? Which leads me to my second point. In Doom right? You get weapons to better assist you for the increased variety in enemies. In this game, you just get new webbing styles for the sake of progression! Like I never really felt the need to use anything else than the Impact, bomb, or standard web until you meet the >!sable guys at the end of the game. !<\n\nBut like I was saying, this game is a heater. Even though (imo) the combat has a hard time progressing, its still amazing (no pun intended). The hand to hand combat is great, you get to slide under enemies, dropkick them while ","offTopic":true},{"id":"63e486e1-7e00-453a-a515-f7ff259ec830","excerpt":"I feel like Side B won't have consequences in the way that Undertale did. — There's something interesting that happens in Chapter 3 that no one talks about. Once you beat the Sword route, Susie approaches and asks if you like playing this kind of game. Most focus on the fact that you can attack her with the Mini-Kris, ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Deltarune/comments/1uxkz26/i_feel_like_side_b_wont_have_consequences_in_the/","role":"request","weight":0.96106666,"occurredAt":"2026-07-15T22:44:00.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Deltarune","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0,"confidence":0.70666665,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"# Freedom of choice (or the lack of it) Most people at this point know what a \"B-Side\" is, to quote wikipedia: This means that Deltarune's main route is the \"SIDE A\", the main bread and butter, the initial focus, the thing you should be fo…","title":"I feel like Side B won't have consequences in the way that Undertale did.","body":"There's something interesting that happens in Chapter 3 that no one talks about. Once you beat the Sword route, Susie approaches and asks if you like playing this kind of game. Most focus on the fact that you can attack her with the Mini-Kris, which of course is a cool secret, but I feel like what she actually **says** to us not having fun while playing the Sword Route is the important part.\n\n# \"Don't play it.\"\n\nUndertale's message was pretty explicit: *Don't kill, and don't be killed*.\n\nIt very much discouraged and made going through a Genocide run miserable, as it should, given you're essentially punching the game into the most bare-bones RPG grind you can imagine, as Undertale is all about the characters themselves.\n\n*Deltarune, isn't about that life, and consistently proves time and time again that it's messages are not the same as Undertales.*\n\n[As stated in the official gameplay cheatsheet:](https://deltarune.com/cheatsheet/)\n\n>Some bosses may not be able to be defeated with violence. Likewise, some bosses may not be able to be defeated nonviolently. When it seems like you need to fight, please do so with conviction.\n\nThis is especially interesting when you consider the cheatsheet explicitly saying to \"do so with conviction\", its asking you to commit to your choice. Undertale is all about giving you the chance to undo mistakes, such as killing Toriel.\n\nBut in Deltarune, there's plenty of examples where fighting really is the better option here, even moreso that ***killing*** is the better option, as Titan Spawn being slain does not invalidate the pacifist run, as purifying them is just killing them through the \"ACT\" menu.\n\nSo then, if pure pacifism isnt the way in Deltarune, what does that say about you going down the forbidden path?\n\n# Freedom of choice (or the lack of it)\n\nMost people at this point know what a \"B-Side\" is, to quote wikipedia:\n\n>The A-side of a [single](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_(music)) usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company **intends to be the initial focus of promotional efforts and radio airplay, with the aim of it becoming a** [**hit record**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit_record). The B-side (or \"flip-side\") is a secondary recording that typically receives less attention.\n\nThis means that Deltarune's main route is the \"SIDE A\", the main bread and butter, the initial focus, the thing you should be focused on. Side B then, would be its supplementary piece, something that isn't required, for those who want it, its there.\n\nThing is, Undertale exploded into the mainstream very fast. This resulted in a vast majority of people wanting others to do a pacifist run, in a very specific way, with no capacity to decide for themselves.\n\nIn a way, you couldn't make the mistake of killing someone in Undertale and learning that this was a mistake in the way the game intended you to; the second you made it known to anyone that you've gone off the beaten path, **you'd be criticised for it from everyone outside of the game**.\n\nThe game itself forgives you, because inherently you can *undo* that choice, and part of the experience is you being willing to sacrifice progress in the game to be better, and rewarding you through the best ending, even if it does remember that you hurt people through previous resets, unless you go all in on hurting everyone, it will forgive you for hurting a few.\n\nBy other people demanding you stick only to pacifist, doing certain actions, and never going off the beaten path, it effectively ruins the message that Undertale was trying to tell, as now you know by *default* that killing is never the option, instead of *learning it yourself*.\n\nAt the same time too, Undertale feeds into that line of thinking as well; pretty much every other option apart from a true pacifist run ultimately results in the Underground being far worse off than it would've been had you done a true pacifist, even if some of the neutral endings are alright, they still all end up trapping the monsters underground and back to having 0 human souls; they're ultimately doomed to die down there.\n\nUltimately, you need to do pacifist, you need to be a good person to save the underground. It's a good message, but is a bit unfair from a gameplay perspective that you aren't rewarded with cutscenes, or any level of triumph like you are in true pacifist, especially when you factor in the community.\n\nI think this is where Side B is going to come in, unlike Undertale, initiating the route for Side B demands you do *very* specific things in a very specific way, to get a unique outcome, and just like how a physical music track doesn't get upset at you for flipping it over.\n\nDeltarune does get uncomfortable with you doing this, sure, but rather than just opt for Undertale's approach of calling you a horrible person, it merely asks \"Do you like this?\", just like how an B-Side of a cassette is *all about experimental content most people wouldn't like.*\n\nFor example: Fighting.\n\nFighting in Deltarune *does* come with consequences, but its dependant on context; you can wallop the shit out of King in chapter 1 while sparing everyone else, and the ending is unchanged, but beat up a random Rudinn, and the ending for that chapter is a little bit different.\n\nThe main story is inherently preserved, even if the events are slightly less than favorable, its not like Undertale where you lose out on the best ending, as its stated with Deltarune that there is *one* ending, its just a matter of how you get to that ending that matters.\n\n# \"You think you are above consequences\"\n\nGenocide ultimately culminates in the player destroying the world itself, eradicating the game simply because theres nothing left of it, we've done all we have out of curiosity.\n\nAnd as Sans himself states:\n\n>*no matter what, you'll just keep going.*\n\n>*not out of any desire for good or evil...*\n\n>*but just because you think you can.*\n\n>*and because you \"can\"...*\n\n>*... you \"have to.\"*\n\nBut this leaves the game in a permanently cursed state; one where you cant do a pacifist run without it being flawed. Once you \"beat\" Genocide, you've ruined the world forever; your choices ultimately mattered here, and you willingly made the worst ones.\n\nMeanwhile in Deltarune, the player is repeatedly reminded that their attempts to force alternate outcomes fail. You can't beat the Knight in chapter 3, you can't steal the bunker codes in chapter 4, [Kris even mocks your curiosity in chapter 5](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kU_BdMMu4ks?app=desktop), despite you being able to screw with time itself, youre ultimately powerless here.\n\n**Side-B stands out because it gives you agency that you otherwise dont have.**\n\nSure, some aspects of that path is similarly linear, but there are instances where you can make genuine decisions, you can break this world open and see what's really inside while learning more and more about the game and its characters in ways you haven't seen before.\n\nIt's similar to how Genocide reveals character aspects that would be completely unknown to us if the route wasn't available, like how Papyrus always believes in you no matter what, or the true extend of Sans's meta knowledge.\n\nAt the same time though, you feel nasty doing Side B, you have to manipulate Noelle, break Kris mentally, and generally do some heinous shit to see new outcomes.\n\nWhats interesting though, is the game acknowledges this through the Sword route with one of the hidden messages:\n\n>*Having fun?*\n\nIts consequences aren't physical like Undertale's, but rather emotional and narrative ones; the disgust you may feel when drowning Kris and Noelle in the lake is all but entirely avoidable, and you can stop at any time.\n\n# Conclusion\n\nWith all this being said, it's *very* similar to Toby Fox's first major creation, [Earthbound Halloween Hack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPScnLJ-w6k&t=12810s&pp=ygUZZWFydGhib3VuZCBoYWxsb3dlZW4gaGFjaw%3D%3D), where you are given the option to either kill Andonuts once you find him or enter his Magicent by breaking the dialogue prompt to see what happens; that option to flip the \"cassette\" over and experience the more uncomfortable aspects available appears in Deltarune as well.\n\nBut if what you find isn't enjoyable, fun, or leaves you ultimately disgusted due to your own actions? Don't worry, there's no harm and no foul; just take Susie's advice:\n\n**Don't play it.**\n\nEdit: To any and all saying killing the titan spawn prevents Jackenstein from spawning, its a bug.","offTopic":true},{"id":"b83f3cec-2c1f-491f-ad7b-30cc0229f82c","excerpt":"Chronicles of a Prolific Gamer - 2025 Year in Review — Previous Entries: [2024](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1hwkdvh/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2024_year_in_review/) | [2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/192eq98/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2023_year_in_review/) | [2022](http","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1qausgy/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2025_year_in_review/","role":"request","weight":0.96067977,"occurredAt":"2026-01-12T13:24:55.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.3442623,"confidence":0.70638216,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"This was in the Wii era, so they had some years yet to wait, but that small conversation stuck with me; could I have been missing something?","title":"Chronicles of a Prolific Gamer - 2025 Year in Review","body":"Previous Entries: [2024](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1hwkdvh/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2024_year_in_review/) | [2023](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/192eq98/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2023_year_in_review/) | [2022](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/107gs2e/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_2022_year_in_review/) | [2021](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/rwpm86/2021_in_review_year_of_the_backlog/)\n\nI AM CHARTACUS: [2025 by Genre](https://imgur.com/a/year-over-year-genre-metrics-6TlvBXo) | [2025 by Platform](https://imgur.com/a/year-over-year-platform-metrics-SpMeYVy)\n\nOoh and Aah at my Pretty Timeline View: [2025 Gaming Timeline](https://i.imgur.com/WH6HPDG.png)\n\n  \nAll right all right all right, let's get down to business, shall we? So much to cover, so little time. You can find links up above to various visual aids as well as the previous iterations of this annual series, which in turn supplements my monthly review series here on the subreddit. If you've been here before, welcome back! Hopefully you'll find what you're looking for. If it's your first time here, glad to have you! Let's get to know each other a bit. I'll start.\n\nHi, my (screen)name is Chozo and I play a lot of games. You might look at this list and say, \"That's actually too many,\" and you're entitled to that opinion. To forestall incredulous queries, yes, I do have both a job and a family, but I game as my primary hobby, I almost never replay games, and I'm extremely organized with my gaming time. That's how I was able to complete **86 games** in 2025, dropping 6 more and remembering I finished another long ago for a grand total of 93 played.\n\nFor ratings I use a scoring system that takes advantage of the reality that there are in fact ten numbers on a ten point grading scale, so for example my 6 means \"decent\" rather than \"dogwater.\" Games above a 7 are recommended for genre fans, 8 and up for general gaming fans, and 9 or higher is truly special territory. Don't bother looking for 10s: I've only given four out in my lifetime (and I've beaten nearly a thousand games) because 10 for me is defined as \"Permanently transformed the way I think about gaming,\" and that's a mighty high bar to clear.\n\nAnyway, here's the big table of games. You can click any game's title to warp to the post containing its full review, if you'd like some context for the scores. Below the table I'll revisit my 2025 Top Ten and share what made them great.\n\n\n\n|Number|Game|Platform|Completion Date|Score (Out of 10)|\n|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|\n|1|[Mega Man Battle Network](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|GBA|January 9|4.5|\n|2|[Dave the Diver](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|PS5|January 12|6.5|\n|3|[Gris](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|PS5|January 13|5.5|\n|4|[Vampire Survivors](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|PC|January 15|8|\n|5|[Crusader of Centy](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|GEN|January 17|6|\n|6|[Animal Well](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1i5th6l/comment/m8cxlyp)|PS5|January 20|7.5|\n|7|[A Hat in Time](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|PS4|January 26|6|\n|8|[Citizen Sleeper](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1if7bz3/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_january_2025/)|PS5|January 31|8|\n|9|[Evoland 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|PC|February 7|4|\n|10|[Child of Light](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|PS4|February 9|5.5|\n|11|[Mega Man Battle Network 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|GBA|February 11|5|\n|12|[Mystery Tower](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|NES|February 14|6.5|\n|13|[The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|PS5|February 15|7|\n|14|[Owlboy](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|Switch|February 20|4|\n|15|[Evil West](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|PS4|February 22|6|\n|16|[Sifu](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1j10449/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_february_2025/)|PC|February 24|7.5|\n|17|*\\[Redacted\\]*|PS5|March 4|8|\n|18|[LEGO Marvel Super Heroes](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1joujmg/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_march_2025/)|PC|March 7|3.5|\n|19|[Freshly Frosted](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1joujmg/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_march_2025/)|PC|March 13|7|\n|20|[Live A Live (2022)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1joujmg/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_march_2025/)|Switch|March 17|7|\n|21|[Grime](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PC|April 1|7|\n|22|[Mega Man Battle Network 3: Blue Version](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|GBA|April 14|6|\n|23|[Deliver Us Mars](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PC|April 15|6.5|\n|24|[A Valley Without Wind](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PC|April 18|5|\n|25|[Little Nightmares II](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PS5|April 19|7|\n|26|[Anomaly: Korea](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PC|April 22|5|\n|27|[Kirby: Planet Robobot](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|3DS|April 23|8|\n|28|[Spyro the Dragon (2018)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PS4|April 27|8|\n|29|[Costume Quest 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1kc80ww/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_april_2025_ft/)|PC|April 30|5.5|\n|30|[Mario's Picross](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|GB|May 1|3.5|\n|31|[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|GB|May 1|6.5|\n|32|[Strider (2014)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|PS4|May 6|7.5|\n|33|[Pikmin 3 Deluxe](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|Switch|May 10|8.5|\n|34|[Sable](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|PC|May 12|5.5|\n|35|[Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1l0nt0s/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_may_2025_ft_pikmin/)|PC|May 27|5|\n|36|[Mega Man Battle Network 4: Red Sun](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|GBA|June 2|3.5|\n|37|[Spelunky](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|June 3|6|\n|\\-312ish|[FTL: Faster Than Light](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|Fall 2013|7|\n|38|[Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|June 6|7|\n|39|[Sonic Frontiers](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|Switch|June 14|3|\n|40|[Donkey Kong (1994)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|GB|June 17|8.5|\n|41|[Lords of the Fallen (2023)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|June 25|8|\n|42|[Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|3DS|June 26|5.5|\n|X|[Dungeon of the Endless](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|Abandoned|\\-|\n|43|[Monument Valley II](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1lozlr8/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_june_2025_ft_sonic/)|PC|June 30|7.5|\n|44|[Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PC|July 8|7|\n|45|[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|Arcade|July 15|7|\n|46|[Wolfenstein: The Old Blood](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PC|July 17|6.5|\n|47|[DNF Duel](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PC|July 18|6|\n|48|[Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|GBA|July 24|5.5|\n|49|[Guild of Dungeoneering](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PC|July 25|6.5|\n|50|[Samorost 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PC|July 26|6|\n|51|[Final Fantasy VII Rebirth](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|PS5|July 26|9.5|\n|52|[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1meuje5/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_july_2025_ft_final/)|Arcade|July 27|7|\n|53|[Kirby and the Forgotten Land](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|Switch|August 7|7.5|\n|54|[Ghostwire: Tokyo](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|PC|August 20|6.5|\n|55|[LumbearJack](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|PC|August 21|7|\n|56|[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|GB|August 25|5.5|\n|57|[Bionic Commando (2009)](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|PC|August 27|1.5|\n|X|[SpaceChem](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1n5p07f/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_august_2025_ft/)|PC|Abandoned|\\-|\n|58|[Banjo-Tooie](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1nv6rs9/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_september_2025_ft/)|N64|September 4|5|\n|59|[Dishonored 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1nv6rs9/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_september_2025_ft/)|PC|September 18|8|\n|60|[WWE 2K24](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1nv6rs9/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_september_2025_ft/)|PS5|September 21|7.5|\n|61|[Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Director's Cut](https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1nv6rs9/chronicles_of_a_prolific_gamer_september_2025_ft/)|PC|September 2","offTopic":true},{"id":"57c43d50-8755-4efa-a981-3482ebd20282","excerpt":"Watch Dogs: Legion Review - Novelty and variety work hard to compensate for a flimsy narrative. — **RELEASE: 2022**\n\n**TIME PLAYED:  61 Hours**\n\n**PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)**\n\n**SCORE:  ★★★**\n\nHated It | Disliked It | **Liked It** | Loved It | All-Time Favorite\n\n**(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1vvqehg/watch_dogs_legion_review_novelty_and_variety_work/","role":"request","weight":0.9590626,"occurredAt":"2026-08-22T22:51:58.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.32456303,"sentiment":0.25581396,"confidence":0.7240596,"matchedPatterns":["wish","missing_feature"],"statement":"As much as I wish it wasn’t a blatant downgrade to whip out my construction worker or drone pilot, there’s no lack of interesting archetypes to tool around with in the end, so it’s a fairly minor complaint, and the penalty for experimentin…","title":"Watch Dogs: Legion Review - Novelty and variety work hard to compensate for a flimsy narrative.","body":"**RELEASE: 2022**\n\n**TIME PLAYED:  61 Hours**\n\n**PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)**\n\n**SCORE:  ★★★**\n\nHated It | Disliked It | **Liked It** | Loved It | All-Time Favorite\n\n**(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)**\n\n \n\n**THE BREAKDOWN**\n\n**+Novel character-swapping system allows building a varied and often hilarious team of specialists for each task**\n\n**+Impressive graphics for the sheer scale of the game and London feels lovingly realized**\n\n**+Surprising amount of personality in the procedural operatives that helps build attachment**\n\n**+The mix of hacking, melee, and shooting remains pretty unique in gaming**\n\n \n\n**-General Ubisoft open-world clutter is at its worst with endless rote work**\n\n**-Operatives are poorly balanced, with most becoming obsolete once you get your first real pros**\n\n**-The plot peaks at ‘fine’ at its best moments**\n\n \n\nUbisoft games, by and large, occupy a certain ‘popcorn game’ space in my mind. There’s few of them I would say that I love, but they often go on sale for a pretty cheap price and often have as many novel ideas as they do unfortunate nitpicks. Of the previous two Watch Dogs games, I found the first one pretty middling and the second one rather charming. Considering that my favorite part of Watch Dogs 2 was the cast of colorful characters and their investment in the plot, I was worried that Watch Dogs: Legion’s primary premise – the idea of an ‘anyone, anywhere’ recruitment system instead of set protagonists – would make it lose all appeal for me. While the game didn’t manage to entirely conquer these concerns, I did find it to be an admirable example of how much creativity is bursting from the developers at Ubisoft when they get a chance to experiment a little bit. \n\nTaking place after the events of the first two games in the heart of merry old England, Watch Dogs: Legion sees London’s policing and military privatized under a paramilitary corporate force called  Albion. After DedSec – the series’ group of vigilante hackers the player is part of – is framed for a terrorist attack, Albion jumps on public sentiment to crack down on freedoms and implement high-tech surveillance while not-so-secretly working alongside the city’s biggest crime syndicate. After a short prologue where DedSec is nearly wiped out, the player is thrust into the shoes of a freshly minted vigilante and tasked with both rebuilding the collective and finding proof of Albion’s crimes. \n\nThere are major NPCs, such as Sabine, formerly DedSec’s ‘voice on the mic’ and now its informal leader, but most of the plot-relevant dialogue is delivered by Bagley, Sabine’s personalized and upgraded version of the same one in every citizen’s electronic devices. An unshackled Siri by way of a Stephen Merchant impression, Bagley serves as the highly sarcastic mission control and thread that weaves the mostly procedural cast of playable protagonists together. \n\nThese procedural protagonists are the star of the show, and I’m a little surprised to say the concept mostly works. The idea is pretty simple: instead of following a single operative, Legion is about causing a mass uprising in London, and in the spirit of that, the game encourages finding or convincing others to join DedSec. While the story and side missions will do their part to highlight potentially useful operatives, it’s also possible to just walk up to anyone on the street you like the look of and trigger a  random mission to win their loyalty over, with unlockable skills allowing greater insight into their abilities and weaknesses, alongside some pretty interesting and often funny trivia. That elderly woman across the street? She might seem harmless, but she’s actually an experienced paramedic who can not only infiltrate hospitals and summon an ambulance, but shorten the recovery of wounded members of your team and even use defibrillators in combat. Oh, and check out her file – turns out she’s committed assault twice, survived pancreatic cancer, and won a hot dog eating contest once. \n\nIt’s a surprisingly robust system, largely in part thanks to the sheer amount of effort that went into giving each potential freedom fighter a unique-seeming background. A shame, then, that the power creep kicks in almost immediately. Even if one doesn’t count the seemingly standard-these-days ‘Ubisoft DLC power creep’ and ignores the high-powered downloadable operatives (including Aiden Pearce and Wrench from previous Watch Dogs games alongside a story expansion and an actual Assassin from Assassin’s Creed), it isn’t long before elites like former MI6 spies and professional hitmen become available, rendering anyone who doesn’t have a unique niche skill pretty obsolete. This wouldn’t bother me so much if it better reflected a natural growth curve, but it’s far too easy from the jump to basically render the whole system unnecessary just by liberating the first of many London districts. There’s very little sense of progression, especially since each individual is always going to be as the player got them. You can spend an in-game currency from completing missions and finding intel to buy universal gadgets and skills, but there’s really no getting around this egregious gap in capability. \n\nThis imbalance carries over into pretty much every facet of the gameplay, but thankfully there’s enough variety and polish to keep things fun. Combat, driving, and hacking are all fundamentally pretty simple to accommodate the wide variety of characters, but playing specialists is surprisingly fun. Hop into the shoes of that MI6 spy I mentioned and enjoy a cloaking, rocket-equipped sports car; play a boxer and enjoy efficient, hard-hitting melee combos that are incredibly useful both in stealth and direct combat. As much as I wish it wasn’t a blatant downgrade to whip out my construction worker or drone pilot, there’s no lack of interesting archetypes to tool around with in the end, so it’s a fairly minor complaint, and the penalty for experimenting is pretty minor since any arrested or downed DedSec member will return in time, and more quickly if you have a paramedic or barrister to speed things along. \n\nStill, there’s the question of what it’s all for, and I struggled to stay interested in the why of things. Bagley and the rest of the cast of major characters do their best to create investment in the narrative, but the lack of real protagonist is a serious hit, and while it might have been possible to weave a compelling tale without one, the writers don’t quite pull it off here. There were a few individual missions I found that were real highlights – like investigating the abandoned home of a suspicious tech billionaire – so it’s not like Legion is entirely lacking in memorable moments, but they’re too few and far between for how long the game is. As is often the case in Ubisoft games, this is compounded by an enormous amount of open world clutter and insignificant errand work. \n\nAll in all, Watch Dogs: Legion is a solid game with a novel premise that it works pretty hard to take full advantage of. While I walked away only liking it instead of loving it, I felt it was worth my time largely to explore the idea of picking people off the street, recruiting them into my rebel cell, and finding out what their specialty was. As a structured experience, Legion is a bit lacking, but it’s a pretty fascinating playground.","offTopic":false},{"id":"c5c4f543-0e4c-4152-a18b-c51ab6ac514d","excerpt":"After years, I finally finish Chimera Squad (More on bodytext) — **My context on the Franchise, Skipable**\n\nI started playing Xcom 1 and 2 long ago, mainly because I found them after finding out they were related to one of my favorite childhood games \"Rebel Star\" for the Game Boy Advance, I even did multiple play throu","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Xcom/comments/1vtssef/after_years_i_finally_finish_chimera_squad_more/","role":"pain","weight":0.9391343,"occurredAt":"2026-08-20T19:06:22.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Xcom","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.5257143,"sentiment":-0.114285715,"confidence":0.61553746,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating"],"statement":"I got so done with her attitude from the start even if I had some sitcom expectations from her recruit dialogue with Whisper (Never comes up again for what I saw), one of my Units got in very bad shape from a flanking critical and she goes…","title":"After years, I finally finish Chimera Squad (More on bodytext)","body":"**My context on the Franchise, Skipable**\n\nI started playing Xcom 1 and 2 long ago, mainly because I found them after finding out they were related to one of my favorite childhood games \"Rebel Star\" for the Game Boy Advance, I even did multiple play throughs (3 on Xcom 1 and 2 on 2), I never tried Chimera Squad, Not even for spoilers it was just... Not appealing? Going from over 70 GB and a cool as hell Sectoid made of Human Skulls, or the Shadowy Heavy armed military figures of 1 to posing Highschool cosplayers felt off.\n\n**What made me Finally try it, Skipable**\n\nMy brother was teasing me some months ago about how I talk so much about these games when we discuss Square grid based tactic games (He is a massive Fire Emblem nerd, I like Xcom, both deal in war and managing a bunch of human units sometimes with relationship points) but even with all that praise for even a game boy advance game I never tried the last installment so I finally did to a VERY mix opinion.\n\n**Why that meme**\n\nEssentially that is how the game left me once I was done, it was just sudden? Like Atlas came out of nowhere, had little to no build up, and just like the fart on the wind that brought him in, I finished him off without even knowing that was the last mission in the game, I had zero Idea I was on my final mission didn't bring my strongest units and still just finish it, hell Sacred Coil was more of a Final Boss to me than this nobody.\n\n**Game Opinions Positive** \n\nOverall, Gameplay is good I really like the inclusion of Breaching in, order of surprise attacks, and that most of the time you have an option if prepared well to start the fight in a strong footing, unlike the previous games where I would step just in the patrol range on the movement of my very last unit and would eat a whole enemy round before I can take any action, or making missions too slugish on very big maps where i am snailing out to not be overly exposed losing meld spots and so on, I just wish it was a mix of both, not all breach speed and not all slugging into action, loving Rebel Star more character centered stories and units, I kinda liked what Chimera Squad did, the three factions being kind of tag offs from the last game Factions was fun but also made characters very dependant on facing the right enemies to be decent or strong, which would be awesome if it wasn't for....\n\n**Game Opinions Negatives**\n\nThis game's big need to make Units unique makes some straight up useless or too niche to be of particular use outside of it, for example, Patchwork is an absolute beast against Sacred Coil... But what does she even do over other units with half her kit being anti mech against the other factions? My girl Zephyr I love Zephyr, would marry Zephyr but get if enemies have armor or is lategame with her un-upgradeable gauntlets feel bad... And then we have other units who start sooo slow on their niche like Shelter.... This would be a bit better for me if they ditched the Rogue-lite pick three aspect that locks you out of 3 final units, they let you see their whole skill threes as to not pick an option that had a better alternative if you knew what was coming later on like Torque poison healing, speaking of Torque... GOD i know they wanted to move from the more generic soldiers aspect but could they make the \"Quirky\" cast actually likeable? Especially snake woman? I got so done with her attitude from the start even if I had some sitcom expectations from her recruit dialogue with Whisper (Never comes up again for what I saw),  one of my Units got in very bad shape from a flanking critical and she goes \"Eeww don't bleed on me\", or \"Just not miss next time, skill Issue\", hell Probably not many gonna read this far gonna rank their personalities from more to less annoying\n\nInsuferable\n\nShelter - Is as bland as Bread and Water\n\nTorque - Annoying as hell\n\nPatchwork - The most annoying idealistic takes\n\nGodmother - Like Shelter but has some moments\n\nLike them\n\nTerminal - Her only crime is being the only healer.\n\nAxiom - Lips\n\nBlueblood - There was something here but nope\n\nVerge - He is the perfect middle ground.\n\nLove them\n\nZephyr - Almost\n\nCherub - Too pure to be killing people\n\nClaymore - Dad Energy.\n\nNow back to complaining, game has some very serious balance issues... What do you mean if I fight Sacred Coil First I need to face their leader WHILE there is Andromedon and Ronin on the map, there is per round reinforcements that bring even more Andromedons and Chrysalids, to stop it I need to put two units on danger because deactivating only one does not stop nor delay the reinforcement AND SUMMON A GATEKEEPER?!, Sacred coil as Third gives you time to prepare and they space the fight better with the leader on second area and the Gatekeeper on third, I even hate the humor has wasted potential, some of the comercial and audios that play between missions could bring me to a degree of Robocop 1 or Star Ship Troopers levels of Satire comedy that I love but they feel disconnected of the rest of the game too much, some enemies are so bad they are such a low priority that they are not even a threat, and others are just extreme levels of bullshit if high on the rng turn order, even the breaching as some skills do not work on some types of it and you wasted saving them for third zones, so many good ideas wasted, and that is not even going into making things easier, injuries reduced to neglible stat decrease with fixed recovery time, and an unit with infinite single action map wide heal that can take down enemy turns from order and give extra actions? Terminal is absurd.\n\n**Closing thoughts**\n\nAs much as I want an XCOM 3 in a shape or form, after playing this and another cool gameplay aweful written characters game from this devs in Marvel Midnight Suns, I am not sure if I want the legacy disrespected even if the gameplay is still entertaining...\n\nIn other news I am also a Star Wars nerd and that franchise reputation is as stomped as the Marvel CU, bring in the Star Wars Zero Company babyyyy cool gameplay and skip button for dialogue pleaseeee!","offTopic":true},{"id":"eef7e91f-a005-4281-9bb6-0f6a56480574","excerpt":"Translations of video transcripts. — [https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FjCdBwEEF?vd\\_source=4872970d10b2c86c04f620db8707930a&spm\\_id\\_from=333.788.videopod.sections](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FjCdBwEEF?vd_source=4872970d10b2c86c04f620db8707930a&spm_id_from=333.788.videopod.sections)\n\n3.7 is the best patch of A","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/u_AKFrost/comments/1stzlhb/translations_of_video_transcripts/","role":"request","weight":0.9027685,"occurredAt":"2026-04-23T23:56:33.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"u_AKFrost","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.3207547,"confidence":0.66380036,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"Many people would say that my videos feel different from what the writers seem to be saying; this is because there is a lack of understanding of the creative mode these writers are engaged in.","title":"Translations of video transcripts.","body":"[https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FjCdBwEEF?vd\\_source=4872970d10b2c86c04f620db8707930a&spm\\_id\\_from=333.788.videopod.sections](https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FjCdBwEEF?vd_source=4872970d10b2c86c04f620db8707930a&spm_id_from=333.788.videopod.sections)\n\n3.7 is the best patch of Amphoreus because it's the only patch where you can see the writers' hissing fit. I would even say that, given a choice, the writers would never have written this kind of decent ending or this kind of Cyrene. In 3.0, I already said that Amphoreus's bottom-line settings were imbued with too many conflicting things and could not fundamentally be used in the story. This is exactly what ended up happening, and many of the settings they wrote in 3.0 ended up going unused. After 3.4, I said that making the Chrysos heirs simulated beings would make their character stories pointless. Of course, now they are pointless. The writers told us afterward that the prophecies are system directives and the Chrysos Heirs are simply executing them.\n\nMany players would chalk this up to a matter of skill. Even though the writers may be limited in skill, I guarantee that whatever issues the players can see in the text, the writers can see them also—perhaps even more clearly than the players. For instance, on the issue of awkward terminology, 3.7's Herta straight-up said, \"Who cares what it's called? Just call it Herta's hands.\" If the entire Amphoreus text switched the names of the Titans with the descriptors on top of those names, the writing would be at least 30% easier to understand.\n\nMany other players would say the writers are only here for the money. This is not true; the writers are the only department in MiHoYo utterly uninterested in generating revenue. If one plays gacha games long enough, one finds that the company employees who try every way to make players spend aren't the scariest, but rather those who don't care about money. Those types of people can easily sink into their own world for their own \"artistic production,\" as if they're not employed by the company, but rather are employing the company. The players aren't users; they're star-chasing batteries whose only meaning of existence is supporting the writers' artistic production.\n\nUnfortunately, from 3.0 to 3.6, this is exactly what happened. This entire year was when the writers enjoyed the most freedom. After Amphoreus was made into a virtual reality world, the writers took off like a wild ass. Aside from having to write a character's exclusive story in each patch they're introduced in, they had no KPIs. Whatever they wanted to write went into the game. Whatever they wanted to dump, they boxed it up. The writers' heads were so far up in space that they forgot where Earth was.\n\nIf we are to explain in a few words what the whole Amphoreus story is, it goes like this: Nous cut a piece of himself off and made a wager with it. Both Nanook and Fuli bought in, and in the end, Fuli won. Simple enough, right? So why, in the last video, did I not talk about it like this? This is because, much like the Xianzhou and IPC content they jammed into 3.7, whether reasonable or not, the relevancy to the overall Amphoreus story is highly questionable. It's like if you tell your boss your pay is too low, and he talks about market conditions and the Sino-American trade war. If 3.7 were like the previous patches, then I wouldn't bother talking about it. This is the exact template that MiHoYo found makes them the most money. After I read 3.7's story, however, I found that no, this is the writers' core sexual fixation. It's not that when a woman is beautiful, strong, and unfortunate, killing her off earns them money. It's purely because the writers just like this kind of trope: succeeding in failure, being clear-minded among foolish ruffians, and being independent in dependence. This very much corresponds to the stereotypical behavior of certain internet groups.\n\nBut of course, this is only talking about it in the abstract, so we will combine this with the story itself. This kind of characterization is most applicable to Phainon. Ignoring the fan-circle narratives surrounding him, and looking just from a pure story perspective, there are at least three possible kinds of character arcs the writers could have been intending with him. The first is what I said in the last video, where you treat the Chrysos Heirs simply as simulation programs. In this case, surviving 30 million cycles would be explained as a logical problem encountered during a rational calculation, which Lygus was intentionally trying to induce. What is the flaw of this interpretation? As I said before, while it makes logical sense, it also means we have to ignore the actual narrative relative to Phainon; if he's a simulation program, then endurance, sacrifice, and salvation are meaningless to such a thing. On top of this, what is the player supposed to be? The audience—a neutral observer.\n\nA second interpretation is only possible after reading the 3.7 story, where we realize that Phainon rejecting the restarting of the simulation is like Sisyphus, recognizing the cruel truth but continuing to hold it on his shoulders. Not only is he holding himself up, but he's holding the entire Amphoreus on his shoulders. The value of this sacrifice isn't for the end result, but for the continuation itself. This way, the Trailblazer is a continuation of Phainon's hopes. The players received the burden of the world from Phainon and continued the journey with his will. I think this is the most classic interpretation, and it would correspond to something a normal writer would produce. The problem is, it's nearly impossible to find actual evidence for this interpretation—even harder than for the first interpretation. We would need to wait until the end of 3.7, reconsider the entire story, and fill in the gaps with our own brains in order to get such an interpretation.\n\nSo what is the actual interpretation the writers are trying to present? It's one where Phainon claims he's holding up the world, but everyone else shies away from him and nobody understands him. He's different from everyone else. He comes with an extraordinary mission. Only he has the truth in his hands. Only he can carry the world. Only he can survive the malice of the creator and slap the creator in the face. Who's being saved in this interpretation? Phainon himself. With his death, Phainon demonstrated a sacrifice in the name of truth, and the players bear witness to it like a co-worker by the water-cooler or a fellow passenger on the subway—as though they're fulfilling someone else's exhibitionist tendency, both inside and outside the game.\n\nWhy does HSR's story feel tiring? This is because the writers don't actually want the players to understand the story. They will use whatever means necessary—including but not limited to coining new terms, black-box redactions, reversing cause and effect, repeating the same things over and over, using parentheticals to pretend an old term is new, suddenly repeating Nietzschean texts, and using classical texts as a shield—to prevent the players from understanding what they're actually trying to say. After the players finish the story and go on Bilibili, etc., to complain that the writing is a pile of shit, the writers feel gratified by the superiority stemming from their alleged intellectual trampling of the poor masses, and they enter a new form of narcissistic self-indulgence.\n\nMany people would say that my videos feel different from what the writers seem to be saying; this is because there is a lack of understanding of the creative mode these writers are engaged in. HSR's writers have next to no originality. When they shape a character, they either take a template from another MiHoYo character and give him or her minor modifications, or they take a character template from a classical work and spray it with 2D paint. This is not the same as Genshin's writers. When Genshin's writers give you a Scaramouche, we won't mistake him for someone else, as we know clearly this is the result of the Genshin writing team's preferences.\n\nHSR is different; their writers feel like fanfiction writers, as they take the basic settings from something else and immediately take off. They don't have the ability to control the character they're shaping. This is something every player has probably experienced: when they take an HSR character and try to deduce further actions using logic and instinct, they will never arrive at what the character actually does in the story. This is why the community is highly fragmented by the story, as only some are able to deduce a \"Deliverer\" Phainon, while everyone else deduces a \"Nietzschean brat\" Phainon.\n\nSo returning to 3.7 with Cyrene, why did I say 3.7 was the best part of the story? This is because the climactic battle in 3.7 feels like the writers are being held in a chokehold, so they are forced to write something that's actually clear. The orders they received were that they must write a character that could be sold for money. The orders they received were that no matter how much a player may dislike the story, they still have to admit that there's nothing unclear about 3.7 before the final battle against Irontomb. The writers thus wrote it while holding their noses. That's why we have scenes where Philia-093 is telling stories to Demiurge. With Demiurge being the Christian god of Amphoreus, this part of the story is the part with the fewest problems.\n\n[HSR story plays, where Demiurge is monologuing how light is good, warm, and happy, and is thus \"love\", and it's love that binds her with Philia-093]\n\nAfter Demiurge says that, we can view Cyrene's characterization as complete. It's enough to understand the final fight against Irontomb. So why did Cyrene afterward start speaking words that are difficult to understand? It's because after they submitted the part up to the fight against Irontomb, the hand gripping their necks loosened, and they immediately went into a hissing fit. I've said it before: the writers are unable to accept any thought outside of Nietzsche.\n\nThe writers are especially allergic to the Christian narrative. What they want to write about is a Cyrene who just talks about unknowable things that make no sense, as though the entire universe owes her, rather than a Cyrene who creates the universe with love and goodness. This is the same writing logic as Phainon's story. What is the story they want Amphoreus to be? It is one where the players are simply the audience watching a male Nietzschean brat and a female Nietzschean brat satisfy themselves in ecstasy on stage. This male Nietzschean brat must be inspired by the female Nietzschean brat to enter the path of self-destruction. Of course, we know that this kind of thing is the result of the authors' own sexual repression, but in their minds, this is inspiration. Afterward, the writer fantasizes that the death of the male Nietzschean brat is the sacrifice that the female Nietzschean brat agrees to, is moved by, and is what finally causes her to also self-destruct in the pursuit of truth. And this is the happy ending they're looking for. Indeed, in the mind of a Nietzschean brat like the writer, they should, like Jesus Christ, sacrifice themselves on the cross in the name of truth. But of course, they won't actually tie themselves to the cross; instead, they'll keep writing these kinds of characters because it satisfies their repressed sexual fetishes.\n\nIn a normal narrative, after the climactic battle, it should be Cyrene who comes out to explain Amphoreus's ending. She would explain that she can't leave this memory bubble and that it will take time for Amphoreus to develop. The Trailblazer, however, would be able to meet Cyrene and the other Chrysos Heirs in a Garden-of-Eden-like place. However, the writers cannot allow the God of a traditional narrative to appear in their own story, which is why they started raging. After they wrote t","offTopic":true},{"id":"a5964691-1101-4c7e-a972-f7b4634fc2a7","excerpt":"Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015) never grabbed me, and I finally understand why — I beat the majority of the Resident Evil mainline games. I played Revelations 1 on PC a decade ago, and I remember it being an okay game, enjoyable enough to beat it. I remember completing the first episode of Revelations 2, but never ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1vtzhvu/resident_evil_revelations_2_2015_never_grabbed_me/","role":"request","weight":0.8527425,"occurredAt":"2026-08-20T23:22:30.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.2,"confidence":0.62701654,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"It's lacking the constant push-and-pull dynamics.","title":"Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (2015) never grabbed me, and I finally understand why","body":"I beat the majority of the Resident Evil mainline games. I played Revelations 1 on PC a decade ago, and I remember it being an okay game, enjoyable enough to beat it. I remember completing the first episode of Revelations 2, but never got beyond that. I didn't touch it for years until just now. \n\nBecause there is a Code Veronica remake coming out. It is funny that Yasuhiro Anpo already made a remake over a decade ago with Revelations 2. Claire wakes up in the prison, and then realizes she is trapped on the island with a younger sidekick who hates their father, so she contacts the others to rescue them, so the male veteran figure is coming over to the island to play through several levels twice. There is also Wesker, and Claire’s love interest turns into a mutant.\n\nHowever, just like the first time, my will to play is entirely deflated because I'm bored. Which is weird because Revelations 2 is, in terms of mechanics, an improved version of Revelations 1 in pretty much every way. In theory, I should enjoy this because it is essentially Capcom's The Last of Us skinjob. It has so many same elements, from the combat, stealth, environments, crafting, mechanics, progression, and puzzles. it even has the near-identical box pushing and the pair opening the steel door. Arguably, The Last of Us starts even slower, but why did I play that game like five times, while this game is boring the shit out of me. I think, ultimately, Revelations 2 mashes TLOU's elements into the modern RE gameplay template (RE4-6), but each element loses its distinct purpose that served RE and TLOU.\n\nFor example, the combat. The appeal of RE4-6 is about the player dropping into a combat arena, where the zombies are overwhelming you. RE4's village segment is the perfect demonstration of how this style of combat worked. Shoot at the limb or head, stagger, get closer and melee, which is crowd control (aggressive), then find your way out (retreat). The map is interconnected enough that there are so many ways in and out.\n\nRevelations 2, however, doesn't really have this strength because it adopts TLOU's enemy positions and placements. The level design is completely different. It's a lot more linear, and the enemies are very scarce. You often fight one or two enemies in a hallway, and you have to trigger the enemy to be active. All this leads each combat encounter to be very passive and simple, as in, it comes across as a corridor shooter. It appears that the game is encouraging a stealth gameplay, but without any of the depth or dynamics of stealth. Not only TLOU has a much more robust stealth sandbox, the infected are lightning fast, and their behaviours in stealth and combat are way more energetic. They group you fast, and you are constantly sprinting all around the level, using all tools in disposal. In addition, the strength of TLOU's combat loop is that there is really no hard division between combat and stealth. And there are human enemies that give some variety to the combat.\n\nSo it's like TLOU's cramped level design and enemy count, designed  to create a frantic tension, meeting RE's floaty combat and slow enemies, designed to create an overwhelming tension, and you end up a gameplay that doesn't take advantage of either strength. It's lacking the constant push-and-pull dynamics.\n\nThat's not all. The level design and progression, for instance, run contrary to each other. It attempts at the open map-based style from the classic RE games. You move around the place, finding a way around and finding something to open something... you know the deal. You also have a limited inventory system. If the game has all these, why is this not working? What made the classic RE's progression fun is that the entire place was a puzzle on its own. You are constantly making small decisions that consolidate into a bigger consequence. Should I pick up this health pickup? What if there is a key item in the next room? Should I take a shotgun, or should I leave it to make more inventory? At no point did I ever think hard about decisions like this in Revelations 2 because there's no point. Health is plentiful, ammo is plentiful, inventory is plentiful... Even though it is technically map-based progression, it doesn't feel like a puzzle. RE4-6 don't have that, but take advantage of the linear progression by focusing more on moment-to-moment set-pieces. Revelations 2 sits in the uncomfortable middle, where neither strength can shine.\n\nThe premise being a homage to Code Veronica is interesting, but one regrettable commonality it shares with CV is that the game looks butt ugly. RE5 came out 6 years before, and that game still looks incredible. Meanwhile, Revelations 2 was competing with Until Dawn, The Order: 1886, and Bloodbourne. In additon, the main characters lack much of the personality and playfulness. They just come off generic. The characters like Claire and Barry no longer stand out; just gruff and lacks expressions in the way their older counterparts did. Even Claire's new voice actor sounds bored most of the time. If I could replace Claire in REV2 with Jill, I wouldn’t notice any change, because her character doesn’t pop.  At least, Steve was memorably shitty, but can you remember a thing about Moira?\n\nI'm not sure if I should keep playing it. I can’t help but feel how failed this Revelations subseries has at accomplishing its main objectives. It was meant to be more survival horror-oriented like the classics, but it doesn’t bring the survival horror gameplay.  They could have married the shoulder-view shooting of the modern RE with the progression and world design of the classic RE. Instead, it is fundamentally just RE4-6 without the fun of the modern RE or tension of the classic RE. If they wanted horror, mission failed because not a single moment was I scared. I remember way more creeped out by some moments in RE4 than anything in this one. Maybe Anpo is just bad at making horror because he consistently fails to capture the vibe of the classics. It’s not that the modern RE doesn’t capture the classic’s vibe; it’s only his games.","offTopic":false},{"id":"4709a299-443f-4a23-858a-3344ce066401","excerpt":"Spoilers: I beat sekiro, my game breakdown and 2 cents and drifting rant — I want to start by acknowledging that Its a heck of a journey and story . It definitely has the souls atmosphere and engine. And it's a ton of fun.\n\n  Expectations: I've played a lot of souls like games , so coming into sekiro I had high standar","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Sekiro/comments/1vtldzn/spoilers_i_beat_sekiro_my_game_breakdown_and_2/","role":"request","weight":0.8312345,"occurredAt":"2026-08-20T14:40:40.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Sekiro","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.18,"sentiment":0.09543569,"confidence":0.704436,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature","praise"],"statement":"I'm feeling that I'm missing something here.","title":"Spoilers: I beat sekiro, my game breakdown and 2 cents and drifting rant","body":"I want to start by acknowledging that Its a heck of a journey and story . It definitely has the souls atmosphere and engine. And it's a ton of fun.\n\n  Expectations: I've played a lot of souls like games , so coming into sekiro I had high standards. Especially after how the community pumps it up. Like ER, the addition of a more solid jump mechanic was very welcomed. \n\n Misconceptions: the parry system. It's a little overhyped and had me worried. I've never been good at parries.  Not in dark souls and certainly not in lies of P. But the sekiro parry window is much bigger than those games. Like a lot bigger. I'm grateful for that.\n\n Reality: outside of the engine , it plays nothing like a standard souls. Atleast not the way I play. I've never been an upper tier player. So I rely heavily on over leveling, summons, status affects,  specific armor and weapons builds that suit the boss. .....ain't non of that shi7 in Sekiro lol. There are no levels, in the traditional sense. Sure you can collect beads and memories.....but these come after the fact. You can't farm for levels to beat this boss....you  have to beat this boss to get the level lol. Summons? Nope. But I actually think summons wouldn't fit the games core dynamic. Wouldn't make sense to have rhythmic strike/blocking and then have someone else blindside the boss. Weapons and armor ? Dream on. You get 1 indestructible sword the whole game and a set of pajamas. Deal with it! But, you do get the prosthetics,  which brings a small rant.\n\n Prosthetics: egh...I mean...if you ask the avg Joe I think the best you can say about the prosthetics is that they're \"ok-ish\". I'm feeling that I'm missing something here. Like this part of the game didn't click with me. Obviously....you're a solo Shinobi , with just your sword and few accessories to enhance your combat, youre ninja tools, your bat belt. Are their purposes hidden in their lore?I  even understand the low emblem capacity,  but could the uses we do get actually be useful? Somebody should come up with a playthrough order that maximizes the prosthetics usefulness as each is only useful in very specific conditions and places. Best prosthetic (as in most useful ) is probably a tie between the axe and the umbrella.  I never really used the umbrella but saw a ton of strategy videos where it was used. I can see it's use. The axe is absolutely #1 at destroying posture. No questions asked. Worst, and most disappointing is a sabimaru.  I wanted to love this but it was just a dud. I got more use out of the whistle. Prosthetics probably got the worst score out of everything else in the game. 3/10. This is the games only short coming. Fortunately,  it really didn't affect the game.  \n\n Story and character: Badass! Classic Japanese folklore with new spins . Engulfing landscape. A cast where every npc was quite unique.  (Am I the only that feels Emma never really like me?). \n\n Controls and feel: Clean. Super impressed. Smooth. I noticed from the very first 2 seconds.\n\n  Boss fights: Very fromsoft feel. Each boss, and mini boss had their own personality.  The game absolutely shined here.  A love/hate copium: owl father (hirata). Most players learn the game at Genichiro but you'll master it at Owl father. This is the fight that took the most tries. I normally don't like to make excuses (I'm totally lying) but this guy's spam on firecrackers is ridiculous.  Absurd. Where the hell is he keeping them all? Why do I only get 20 emblems and hes the 4th of july? I swear one match he used firecrackers like 25 times bro lol. I'm not exaggerating. As stated, I'm not a great player so I usually use buffs. But buffs come from usable items. After x amount of times of flushing these items down the toilet and having to go farm them back I just decided to do my practicing on the boss without them. Impressing even myself,  eventually I got to the point where I was kicking his ass without sugars or confetti or emblems. Just me and my wiener (I had to stand real close to swing). I found this fight to be harder than the demon or sword saint ishin. I didn't really spend nearly as much time on ishin. I discovered early on you can literally just run in circles and punish certain moves. I started this bc I was strafing gunfire 😆. \n\n I got the purification ending. I don't know what that means.\n\n Mvps: I love you double ichimonji and mortal blade, will you marry me?\n\nOverall: I give the game a solid 10/10. It's a definite need to play for any souls fan. I hope there's a part 2. And I can't wait for the anime. Up next,  should I play codevein 1, or mortal shell 2?\n\n  ","offTopic":true},{"id":"f4877017-fcf5-4bc6-826e-4fbb2ce837e2","excerpt":"[Review] Kingdom Hearts is dated but the charm remains (SPOILERS) — #Kingdom Hearts\n\n- **Status** - Completed with heavy side content done. Sora & Co. were in the high 60s to low 70s, 22 items were crafted, and the Hades cup in the Colosseum was completed.\n\n- **Time played**: Approximately 45 hours\n\n- **Difficulty** - ","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/patientgamers/comments/1vui2n7/review_kingdom_hearts_is_dated_but_the_charm/","role":"request","weight":0.82605445,"occurredAt":"2026-08-21T14:34:06.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"patientgamers","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.31914893,"confidence":0.60739297,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"While initially fun, it lacks depth.","title":"[Review] Kingdom Hearts is dated but the charm remains (SPOILERS)","body":"#Kingdom Hearts\n\n- **Status** - Completed with heavy side content done. Sora & Co. were in the high 60s to low 70s, 22 items were crafted, and the Hades cup in the Colosseum was completed.\n\n- **Time played**: Approximately 45 hours\n\n- **Difficulty** - Normal\n\n- **Set-up** - Retroid Pocket 6 with widescreen hacks enabled\n\nWhen Kingdom Hearts was announced, I was already a huge Final Fantasy fan. Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9 and 10, had come out in successive years, and that run of games left a huge imprint on me, shaping my taste in games forever. It was because of this that I was initially apprehensive about Square’s new game that combined Final Fantasy with Disney. It seemed like an absurd premise to the pre-teen version of myself, and I was highly apprehensive. My worries were soon eased after seeing a demo reel at a GameStop store. The clerk assured me that it was going to be fantastic, and I made a pre-order to get it on day 1.\n\nKingdom Hearts immediately hooked me with its memorable intro cutscene, just like the Final Fantasy games had. The high-energy remix of Simple and Clean with the dream-like sequences set a high-bar for my expectations, and the atmospheric “tutorial” felt unreal in the best way. The intro cutscene and tutorial are still effective on the adult version of myself.\n\n#The World\n\nThe world is a lot smaller than it seemed over 20 years ago. There are many unique locations, but they do not occupy significant physical space. Despite the size constraint, the locations are densely packed with vertical spaces to explore and hidden areas to find. As I learned new movement abilities, I found myself re-visiting areas to find more of their secrets.\n\nEach location is themed, with the majority of them being themed after a Disney IP. You will visit locations from Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and many more. When visiting the Disney locations, Sora & Co. will each don an aesthetically appropriate outfit, many of which are iconic to me. Additionally, each location will have memorable areas from the Disney IP, feature familiar songs and characters, and hold at least 1 new keyblade that matches the aesthetic. It’s a wonderful touch that smoothly integrates the Disney aesthetic without feeling out of place.\n\nTraveling to the locations is done via an on-rails shooter akin to Star Fox, and later the ability to warp drive from location to location is locked. Traveling offers an enjoyable mini-game, a creative outlet in building your ship, and insight into the connective tissue of the locations you will travel to. It works within the context of the game.\n\nThe atmosphere of the game can be phenomenal, and SquareEnix did a wonderful job packing hidden areas into these locations,giving me a reason to revisit them later in the game. It was a joy to explore when it was brand new, and 20+ years later it is still fun to explore. Well, except for The Little Mermaid location, water levels remain unfun. \n\n#Gameplay\n\nCombat is a substantial portion of the overall Kingdom Hearts experience, yet controlling Sora during battle feels clumsy in nearly every aspect. \n\nThe system relies on a command action menu structured into four primary top-level commands: Attack, Item, Magic, and a context-sensitive slot at the bottom. Pressing the action button (X) activates the currently selected command, and navigation of this menu is achieved by using the d-pad or the right thumbstick. Selecting either the magic or item option will open a sub-menu, which is likely to have six or more options to choose from by the end of the game. \n\nThe d-pad offers the best accuracy for navigating the command menu, but it was not possible for me to use the d-pad while using the left thumbstick to move. I was able to move Sora while using the right thumbstick to navigate the menu, but I wasn’t consistently accurate in my menu selection while using both thumbsticks at the same time. A shortcut menu is available and is used to assign three magic spells which are easily activated by a combination of holding “L1” and pressing either square, triangle, or X.  This alleviates some menu-diving challenges, but it is limited in what can be assigned to the shortcut, and how many shortcuts are available. Neither items or summons can be bound to these shortcuts, so must navigate the command menu in real-time to use them. Due to the challenges of this menu system, I only used items, and non-shortcut magic and summons out of curiosity, and any reactive or context sensitive abilities were unequipped in-favor of passive options.\n\nThe controls are perfectly fine for exploration and traveling outside of combat. The glide and high-jump ability are excellent movement tools which allow for access to new and hidden rooms, and faster traveling within a location.\n\nLastly, there are some minigames and side-content that I will touch on briefly. \n\n- **Gummi Ship** - An on-rails, Starfox-esque shooter that serves as the mode of transportation between locations. While initially fun, it lacks depth. Thankfully, unlocking warp drive allows you to bypass previously visited locations before the minigame drags on.\n\n- **Gummi Ship Garage** - You can build or customize your gummi ship in the garage. It is clunky to use, but I did find it fun to build a ship. \n\n- **Crafting** - Crafting in Kingdom Hearts leads to powerful accessories, and even Sora’s ultimate weapon. Unfortunately, it requires farming a lot of rare drop materials. I crafted 22 items before calling it quits.\n\n- **Colosseum** - This is a fun challenge, but I do not like that powerful spells are locked behind it.\n\nOverall, the clunky combat system dampers exploration of spells, abilities, and summons. Movement around the locations is fun and the unlocked movement abilities encourage further exploration. Lastly, the side-content can be fun, but it lacks depth that makes it satisfying to explore to its fullest.\n\n#Story\n\nWhile there are standout moments throughout the story, they are primarily within the beginning and closing cutscenes. The song “Simple and Clean” does a lot of heavy lifting in making me feel emotionally connected to the plot. Additionally, although the Disney locations are visually appealing, their stories are uninspiring, and some locations were a chore to get through.\n\n\n#Audio\n\nThe voice acting is solid, especially for this era. Many of the original Disney voice actors are featured, as well as notable actors like Haley Joel Osment, David Gallagher, Mandy Moore, and Hayden Panettiere (RIP). Both the original soundtrack and licensed tracks are great, making for an enjoyable audio experience that kept me tuned in.\n\n\n#Conclusion\n\nI had many complaints about the combat controls, and the story was very uninspiring to me. Why then, did I enjoy my time playing and completing Kingdom Hearts? Nostalgia is certainly a factor, but the vibes of the game are compelling, and the Disney worlds make for a fun setting in an action RPG. I never felt like I had to push through boredom in order to complete the game. Despite my issues with the game, I enjoyed it very much.\n\n**7.5/10** - A flawed but enjoyable experience that doesn’t overstay its welcome.\n","offTopic":true},{"id":"d9a7da66-3743-4aca-aab2-8f7b12d1cb16","excerpt":"Ds3 Reveiw coming from eldenring — Info: First and formost this was almost a blind playthrough but not exactly, i looked up a good beginner weapon since i couldnt find a good alternative to the wreatch club. Also looked up the golded wow buff (dident use it anyways) \n\nThe game took me 21 hours which is from what ive ga","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/souls/comments/1vvt7qp/ds3_reveiw_coming_from_eldenring/","role":"demand","weight":0.81334966,"occurredAt":"2026-08-23T00:59:53.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"souls","intent":"alternative_search","painScore":0.285,"sentiment":0.5714286,"confidence":0.6329569,"matchedPatterns":["cant_find","alternative_to"],"statement":"Info: First and formost this was almost a blind playthrough but not exactly, i looked up a good beginner weapon since i couldnt find a good alternative to the wreatch club.","title":"Ds3 Reveiw coming from eldenring","body":"Info: First and formost this was almost a blind playthrough but not exactly, i looked up a good beginner weapon since i couldnt find a good alternative to the wreatch club. Also looked up the golded wow buff (dident use it anyways) \n\nThe game took me 21 hours which is from what ive gathers a decently fast run, i did all the side bosses and all that stuff but ive not done the dlc as of killing the lord of cinder. Here the build as of killing lord of cinder (weapond maxed) and hours \n\nReview: So as you could see in the title i came from eldenring (\\\\\\~400h) into ds3, my experience with the game was generally good. The more liniar feel to the game resulted in the game being less confusing and less demanding of the player compared to eldenring which is harder on newer players. I do think that the boss quality is good with some outliars. My favorite bosses where lord of cinder and abyss watchers, and least favorite is yorhm, deacons, nameless king first phase and crystal sage since they where  unengading. \n\nThe game suffers from alot of the common fromsoft issues like quests being confusing. Idk how they thought of putting nameless king behind some random ass thing. I also did not like the early game. I think that levels with alments as a theme should be lategame or not there. Another issue i had with the game was that it was to easy? Maybe my weaponds where to strong but i went into all of the bosses feeling underlevels and first trying time like boreal valley dancer and prince took like 3 however this dident take away from my experience. \n\nSoundtrack and atmosphere in this game are honestly really strong, i think ds3 leans alot into being kind of a \"greatest hits\" of the series with areas like irithyll of the boreal valley and anor londo , even not having played ds1 or ds2 i could tell alot of it was fan service but it dident feel empty, it still worked as its own thing. The boss themes especially stood out to me, soul of cinder and nameless king have some of the best music ive heard in a fromsoft game and i think that added alot to why they ended up being my favorite fights.\n\nAs for build variety i mostly stuck with what worked once i found something good, i didnt experiment as much with weapon arts as i probably should have. The system itself seems like a solid addition over just having movesets, but i think i undersold it by not really engaging with it fully, might be something id do differently on a second playthrough.\n\nSimilar to Eldenring the end game was a boss rush, however i think that ds3 does it better than eldenring since there is a break between  second to last major, last major and final boss. I really enjoyed the final boss, he reminded me of godfrey which is my favorite eldenring boss. Here is all my attempts on lord of cinder (\\\\\\~17 min): \\[https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A4H46afLp30yz7gV5AJboo7oZt5vdt9K/view?usp=sharing\\](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A4H46afLp30yz7gV5AJboo7oZt5vdt9K/view?usp=sharing)\n\n    \nIn conclusion i would give the game a 9 / 10. Better early game and bosses might have resulted in 10, ill update after dlc.","offTopic":true},{"id":"a97cfb8a-ecdc-4311-94cb-7b0eca356a96","excerpt":"[BioShock 2 Remastered] Platinum #120 + Protector Trials & Minerva's Den DLCs | No gods or kings. Just a vastly under-appreciated sequel (Review Below) — BioShock 2 Remastered is my 120th platinum trophy. It took me 30 hours to complete. I also got the full 100% by completing the Protector Trials and Minerva's Den DLCs","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/Trophies/comments/1vvn0u7/bioshock_2_remastered_platinum_120_protector/","role":"request","weight":0.8104429,"occurredAt":"2026-08-22T20:27:52.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"Trophies","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0.79591835,"confidence":0.5959139,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"It still lacks the factor that will make it very memorable, but I will still look back it with appreciation.","title":"[BioShock 2 Remastered] Platinum #120 + Protector Trials & Minerva's Den DLCs | No gods or kings. Just a vastly under-appreciated sequel (Review Below)","body":"BioShock 2 Remastered is my 120th platinum trophy. It took me 30 hours to complete. I also got the full 100% by completing the Protector Trials and Minerva's Den DLCs, which took 6 hours and 3 hours respectively, for a total of 39 hours for the full 100% completion.\n\nI played BioShock Remastered earlier in March of this year and loved it. The atmosphere of Rapture and the story of Andrew Ryan was amazing and I held Rapture as being one of the best video game worlds I had ever seen. So when BioShock 2 Remastered was picked randomly for me to play from a wheel of PS Plus games, I was pretty excited. One look at the guide confirmed my worst fear however, that BioShock 2 suffers from the same glaring issue that BioShock Remastered did: Missable Trophies. For context, I gave BioShock Remastered a final rating of 11/15. While that is a good rating all things considered, it could have been so much higher and among the greats of games I played had the trophy list not been plagued with missables. To much disappointment, BioShock 2's trophy list had even more missables than the original, as the game doesn't allow for back-tracking. I had to create a spreadsheet to track my progress, which is not a good way to start a game. Once the spreadsheet was done, it was time to dive in.\n\n**Platinum Review:**\n\nThe BioShock 2 platinum could technically be done in one playthrough, but it is highly advisable to do two playthroughs. One playthrough on easy for enjoying the story and getting all the trophies, and a second playthrough for completing the game on hard. Throughout both of those playthroughs, the difficulty fairness of the game was great. Usually, game's tend to throw absolute bullshit at you on higher difficulties (think crushing in Uncharted). However, BioShock 2's hardest difficulty felt fair and balanced. Fights against the big daddies and big sisters were difficult but fair. Most importantly, the game doesn't reset your progress if you die, because unlike BioShock 1, you are allowed to use vita chambers for this playthrough, which really helped make things more enjoyable. My only complaint with hard mode is that it was a touch too easy in my opinion. I got through the whole game fairly quickly and without much trouble, which was a bit unexpected. Aside from that, the difficulty was fair and balanced both on easy and hard, and it allowed me to enjoy the world of Rapture again and be engaged with the story the game provided. \n\nHowever, describing my playthrough of the game as \"engaged\" would be a lie. This is mainly down to one thing, and that is the game's trophy list. To be brutally honest, the trophy list is really bad here. This is entirely because of the missable trophies. I counted, and over a third of the trophy list was missable. That is just inexcusable. Sure, the game does warn you when you are leaving a level that you can't come back, but that doesn't change much. Having to follow a guide all the time to make sure I find 100 missable collectibles while also checking my spreadsheet every few minutes turned this from a fun hobby into a job. The game failed in its trophy design, which is unfortunate because that is the only aspect of the game I had an issue with. Just like BioShock 1, this game could've been up there with the greats for me, but this trophy list drags it down.\n\nOverall, I had a good time with the platinum experience. I was thrilled to revisit Rapture again, and I found the story to be interesting. Lamb is a great villain in my opinion despite a lot of people feeling otherwise. She is the polar opposite to Andrew Ryan, and thus the game takes on a completely different perspective. Where BioShock 1 was about messing with the mind, BioShock 2 is very much about messing with the heart and creating moral dilemma's within the player. BioShock 1 focused on the individualistic society while BioShock 2 explores the danger of the collectivist hive mind, showing that both extremes drive society to ruin. The game is very thought provoking and the environment and atmosphere of Rapture is phenomenal and the perfect setting to tell such a story. My only gripe with the game is the trophy list, otherwise I did enjoy it. \n\nI got the game for free from PS Plus and completed it in 30 hours. For that reason, I'd say it has a great amount of content for a PS Plus game. The engagement was good throughout the game as I found the story to be interesting, although not as complex as BioShock 1's. However, the engagement could've been better. Again, this ties back to the trophy list. Having to constantly look away at a guide and a spreadsheet really did tank the engagement. Had the world of Rapture not been masterfully built, I would've quickly lost interest. In terms of Replayability, I'd say its pretty good here. You can try beating the game on hard without vita chambers, you can play through it again trying different weapon/plasmid/tonic combinations. You can try finding all the collectibles as only 100 are required for the plat. Alternatively, you could check out the DLCs too, which I will get into later. What I am trying to say is that there are a good number of reasons to return to the game.\n\nBioShock 2 is a unique game in the way it innovates on its predecessor, as well as bringing new ideas to the table. The gameplay of BioShock 2 is better than BioShock 1's. The hacking got improved, you can use plasmids and guns together, etc. There are many quality of life changes that make it different enough than the original. And this is only on the technical side. BioShock 2 is fundamentally different than its predecessor when it comes to the theme. While BioShock 1 explored individualism, BioShock 2 explores collectivism. BioShock 1 explores the illusion of free will while BioShock 2 explores the burden of choice. There is also the deeper parental comparison. In BioShock 1, Andrew Ryan creates his son and abandons him, while in BioShock 2 the plot of the game revolves around the relationship between Subject Delta and Eleanor. There are many contrasts between the games, which goes to show and prove that BioShock 2 is its own unique experience, as opposed to being \"just a sequel\". For all the reasons mentioned in this review, I would say BioShock 2 will be a very memorable game for me, mainly because it made me pause and think a lot, which is rare for a game to do.\n\n**Protector Trials DLC Review:**\n\nThe worst DLC I have ever played in my life was the Challenge Rooms DLC in BioShock Remastered, which received a final rating of 4/15. Reading a bit about the Protector Trials DLC before going in, I was worried it was going to be more of the same. Thankfully, I was wrong about that and I ended up being pleasantly surprised by it.\n\nThe Protector Trials DLC is supposed to test your skill and patience. It is purely a DLC meant to challenge the player by giving them specific loadouts of guns/plasmids/tonics. Some combinations were harder than others, but they were all doable. They all felt fair and even if I didn't know how to do it at first, there was always that \"aha!\" moment when figuring out a good strategy for a specific level. The difficulty balance is great in this DLC, it is just the right amount of challenging. My only complaint with it is that the bonus trials were too easy. This is mainly because you can use the Summon Eleanor plasmid, which trivializes any challenge. However, this is only a minor complaint, and the difficulty is very fair and well balanced here.\n\nThe trophy list was also great. It requires the player to complete all the trials, get an A rank on all of them, and complete all the bonus trials. Basically, play through all the trials and master them and you'll have all the trophies. It is a pretty simplistic trophy list but sometimes that is all you need and this is a great example of that.\n\nOverall, I had a good time with this DLC. I felt challenged and I enjoyed that. My only complaint was that it did get slightly repetitive by the end, but it wasn't too bad. It definitely surpassed my expectations and I'm glad I played it.\n\nThe Protector Trials DLC came included with BioShock: The Collection, and I completed it in 6 hours. For that reason, I'd say it has a good amount of content for a free DLC. Being that it is a challenging DLC, it requires that you stay focused and sharp at all times. This means the player stays engaged with the game on a good level throughout their playthrough. The only time the engagement sort of drops is when you start doing the bonus trials. They are pretty easy and almost require no effort if you know what you're doing. Additionally, this DLC has a good level of replayability. You can try to get A+ ranks on all the trials, which isn't required for the trophies and is pretty hard. You can replay the bonus trials many times trying out different combos and challenges. It isn't a crazy amount of replayability, but its good.\n\nThe way the Protector Trials takes a mechanic from the game, little sister gathers, and turns it into its own side mode is unique and provides a different gameplay loop from the main game. It is different enough where it doesn't feel boring to play after you've already played through the main game. While the base game lets you use whatever weapons and plasmids/tonics you wish, the trials in this DLC force specific combinations on you which forces you to adapt and learn a lot. I found a lot of good combos that I didn't know about thanks to this DLC. Overall, it will be a decently memorable DLC for me. It still lacks the factor that will make it very memorable, but I will still look back it with appreciation.\n\n**Minerva's Den DLC Review:**\n\nBefore even starting Minerva's Den, I already had high hopes. I heard people praise it a lot and call it the best BioShock DLC and from the DLC's I've played so far, I'd have to agree. I even heard some people call it one of the best DLCs in gaming as a whole but I don't know if I would go that far.\n\nMinerva's Den takes us back to the story driven gameplay loop, just like the base game and unlike the Protector Trials DLC. The difficulty is similar to the base game, if not a bit easier thanks to the inclusion of the powerful laser gun. However, just like the base game, the difficulty fairness is great here too. This DLC is looking to tell a story, and so the difficulty is toned down compared to Protector Trials for example. You can always raise the difficulty to hard of course, and its great that there are different difficulty options for different people.\n\nDespite having missable trophies, the trophy list here is actually good and much more forgiving than the base game. There are only 3 missable trophies, and they are very easy to get if you're keeping an eye out for them. The rest of the list are just story related trophies, which is great as it allows the player to have less focus on the trophies and more on the game.\n\nOverall, I had a great time with this DLC. The low number of missable trophies allowed me to enjoy the story more. Speaking of which, the story is great here. I didn't see the twist coming. It was also nice to have a more grounded ending for Tenenbaum's story, as it felt like it abruptly ended in the main game. \n\nMinerva's Den came included with BioShock: The Collection, and I completed it in 3 hours. For that reason, I'd say it has a decent amount of content. Being a short DLC with easy trophies, my engagement with the game was really high as I was able to fully focus on it. It was just short enough to where it maintained that engagement the whole time. It also has decent replayability. Like the base game, you can replay it with a different build of weapons/plasmids/tonics. You can also find all the collectibles, which weren't required for any trophies. It is a pretty linear story though, so that's about as replayable as it gets. It could be argued that the spitfire minigame provides some replayability too, but that's a stretch.\n\nI found this DLC to be fairly unique in the way","offTopic":false},{"id":"f30ffd07-502c-41a9-9d21-5d20a0020165","excerpt":"I need to get this off my mind. — I'm just going to give it to you straight, I'm not enjoying this game as much and I think that this is the worst state the Recode has been in. Most Monster's feel overtuned or certain abilities in they're kits are REALLY annoying to counter-attempt. Vapor's Scorching Grip and Spider-Sk","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/pillarchase2/comments/1vvrtfj/i_need_to_get_this_off_my_mind/","role":"request","weight":0.79170936,"occurredAt":"2026-08-22T23:55:46.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"pillarchase2","intent":"problem_report","painScore":0.2508108,"sentiment":-0.027027028,"confidence":0.6329569,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","praise"],"statement":"Most Monster's feel overtuned or certain abilities in they're kits are REALLY annoying to counter-attempt.","title":"I need to get this off my mind.","body":"I'm just going to give it to you straight, I'm not enjoying this game as much and I think that this is the worst state the Recode has been in. Most Monster's feel overtuned or certain abilities in they're kits are REALLY annoying to counter-attempt. Vapor's Scorching Grip and Spider-Skulls, Valem's movest as a whole, Ao Oni's Mini Oni's, FOGBORN IN HIS CURRENT STATE, some Brutum player's being able to turn really sharp corners and his Brick Wall doing chip damage, and Pal Percy's TamaTerrorz constantly ruining my chances at winning chases. Yet at the same time when I go against Survivors, sometimes it feels genuinely insufferable, either because I'm getting god-looped on Sewers, Pillar Strongholds, and Abyss or RIGHT when you've caught up with someone, they use Usurper as a Getaway tool or use Bloxy Cola and they immediately win the chase. Although I prefer Classes over Perk's, I will admit that they feel a little too simple, barely interactable with Monsters, and a little uninteresting. I dont understand why the game is labled as a \"BETA\", even though there's Major updates being pushed out. SOME balance patches feel absolutely random and out of the loop with the community. It concerns me even more that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of balance team on the Pillar Chase team as well. After Uncle Samsonite is released, i hope that they slow down on major updates for a little while to improve and spice up the gameplay loop, improve Survivor gameplay by POSSIBLY rework Classes to be more fun, unique, and interactive with the monster, and try to make more healthy patches for the game moving forward. Believe it or not, I love this game and I do not hate it. This isn't me trying to slander the game and bastardize the people who work on it. This isn't me saying \"RECODE BAD, PRECODE/LEGACY GOOD\". Both have they're good qualities and flaws. People have they're preferences and that is okay. My intentions behind this rant were to get my truest critique-ful feelings on what I think about Pillar Chase Recode in it's current state with my hundreds of hours on it. I want this game to be as healthy and fun as it can be. I am saying all of this out of love for the game. I am concerned yet very hopeful for the game's future, and I am excited for what else is to come. Okay rant over, I apologize for getting negative but I've built up these thoughts for so long because I felt as if I said anything, people might think as if I'm discouraging anyone from playing Recode or think I'm speaking on it harshly for the sake of Slander Agenda. ","offTopic":false},{"id":"871b6fa1-e480-49ae-8069-415025e62c5e","excerpt":"I Don't Know How to Feel About SH1 — Hi.\n\n  \nTo start, I am a very big RE fan. I've played the original RE2 and all of the other Resident Evil's.\n\n  \nSilent Hill has always been on my bucket list to play, and my friend at work kept talking about SH2, so I figure I give the first game a shot since I had a copy rotting o","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/silenthill/comments/1vv3kos/i_dont_know_how_to_feel_about_sh1/","role":"request","weight":0.7374345,"occurredAt":"2026-08-22T05:26:57.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"silenthill","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.36,"sentiment":0,"confidence":0.54223126,"matchedPatterns":["missing_feature"],"statement":"On one hand, I do enjoy its bizarre puzzles and lack of OST and atmosphere, but I also hate the controls and combat a lot.","title":"I Don't Know How to Feel About SH1","body":"Hi.\n\n  \nTo start, I am a very big RE fan. I've played the original RE2 and all of the other Resident Evil's.\n\n  \nSilent Hill has always been on my bucket list to play, and my friend at work kept talking about SH2, so I figure I give the first game a shot since I had a copy rotting on here. But I don't know why, I just can't click with this game.\n\n  \nAs I mentioned, I'm a big RE fan, and I'm also a fan of PS1 games. I've 100% the original MGS1 and SotN and what not. I'm no stranger to older games and their jank. In fact, I really like the PS1 and PS2 and their respective games. But this game just feels weird.\n\n  \nI just finished the school section and beat that lizard boss and I feel like this game is just boring to me. Especially the school, it had a lot of hallways and classrooms that looked the same. I'd say the alternate version is any better, but it has random gates blocking off your normal path (though it looks a lot scarier and atmospheric in general I'll admit). Harry controls weirdly and I don't like the 3D camera. I think he controls best when the camera is taken away from me, especially because the game has really great cinematography reminiscent of the original few RE games. In fact, I can't help but comparing this game to the original RE trilogy, and those games felt much more natural to me. This game feels weird. On one hand, I do enjoy its bizarre puzzles and lack of OST and atmosphere, but I also hate the controls and combat a lot.\n\n  \nI really, REALLY want to like this game. I am going to try my best on finishing it because I'm already a good chunk into the game. And I really want to like Silent Hill and play its second game (because of my friend kind of but partially my own inspiration). I guess is there some kind of encouragement? From one fan to another? Are these common complaints of the game or am I just being an overly critical d\\*ckhead (which would be fair to say lol)?\n\nI didn't write this post to hate on the game, I guess I just wanted to talk to some fans and see what they are thinking. Feel free to call me wrong and what not, I want to have a motivation to finish this game and continue playing. I'm honestly expecting this to have mainly downvotes lol but idk I'm just yammering ATP.","offTopic":false},{"id":"d00d6660-c5e9-44f7-b7d0-675b79e33639","excerpt":"Voidwrought - my review — Throughout my time with Voidwrought, I had this nagging sensation that there is something that just... does not add up with this game. It took my over half of my play time to figure out what it meant, but the result was quite surpring: it's a rare case of game's mechanics being at odds with it","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/comments/1vtwo1p/voidwrought_my_review/","role":"demand","weight":0.64544505,"occurredAt":"2026-08-20T21:29:36.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"metroidvania","intent":"tool_discovery","painScore":0.12,"sentiment":0.73333335,"confidence":0.57629025,"matchedPatterns":["looking_for"],"statement":"It's not even close to excellent, but if you love metroidvanias and are looking for a chill, but satifying experience it will scratch the itch.","title":"Voidwrought - my review","body":"Throughout my time with Voidwrought, I had this nagging sensation that there is something that just... does not add up with this game. It took my over half of my play time to figure out what it meant, but the result was quite surpring: it's a rare case of game's mechanics being at odds with its presentation. \n\nVoidwrought places the player in a very dark world, full of eldritch horrors and scary cults surrounding them. As a matter of fact, you are a part of such cult and, as far as I could parse it from the cryptic story, you are supposed to bring in an eldritch apocalypse rather than stop it. This is a very interesting change of perspective and actually had me quite invested in the lore.\n\nComing back to the point, all the above elements made me subconciously assume that the game will be vaguely soulslike, with tough-as-nails combat and long sections where you are dreaming of a checkpoint. The reality couldn't be further from the truth - both mechanically and in terms of difficulty, it is one of the most... chill metroidvanias I have played. The closest comparison I can think of is Islets - except it's even easier than that.\n\nSubversed expectations aside, is the game good? Yes, but it's very by-the-book and even then fumbles in a few aspects.\n\nThe combat is clearly inspired by Hollow Knight, with pogo being very powerful and the rest of your toolkit also being similar. You also have a large variety of active \"relics\" (kind of like hunter tools in Silksong), but I barely ever used them since everything was dying quickly just to my regular strikes. Most of the enemies are fun to fight and there is a decent variety of them, but there are some issues with bosses - some of their attacks feel a bit unfair, although that does not matter due to how easy they are to overcome anyway. \n\nExploration is Voidwrought's strongest aspect. Most of it is pretty standard and, again, not really challenging - the game showers you with tons of movement upgrades, meaning that there are usually multiple ways to reach the next goal. What really shines, though, are the secrets - there is A LOT of them, even by metroidvania standards, and they strike a perfect balance of being hard, but not impossible to find. Some of those secrets made me feel really smart for being able to figure them out.\n\n  \nAll in all, would I recommend Voidwrought? It's not even close to excellent, but if you love metroidvanias and are looking for a chill, but satifying experience it will scratch the itch. My rating for the game is **6.5/10**, which for me is a good \"filler\". The game is also not long (took me around 13-14hrs to basically fully explore everything), which in my opinion works in its favour.","offTopic":false}],"breakdown":[{"sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","count":44}],"total":44}}