Recent reviews by Seeks

I have a love-hate relationship with "blobbers", as this type of game is described. Sir-Tech may be dearly departed, living on in the hearts of Japanese devs and spiritual successors... but as my first and most beloved entry to the series, Wiz8 went out not with a whimper, but with a bang.

A low-poly, science-fantasy world (that doesn't always take itself seriously) welcomes you as you leave the opening dungeon and step out into Dominus. There's plenty of choices to make for your six-person expedition -- various races, classes, stats and skills alike form plenty of party combinations. There is no shame in using a guide to help you get your footing, let alone figuring out some of the more obscure solutions to puzzles. In due time, you may be like me and find that even the commonly-suggested builds can be nothing more than mere suggestions.

While the game is technically open-world, it's more linear compared to an Elder Scrolls game. Fights are turn-based and roll dice behind the scenes, and require more strategy than "cast screen wipe spell to vaporize everything in a mile radius from you". Positioning on the 3D environment around you, marching order of your team, careful use of support spells and more will aid your survival early on. If you're still having trouble, there's also no shame in the Novice difficulty -- especially as some earlier fights can be just plain harrowing!

I can't necessarily recommend this game to everyone. If you're a fan of D&D up to 3rd edition, it'll help you ease into the challenges ahead. If you know other JRPG blobbers like Etrian Odyssey, they're a good gateway drug to this entry. I totally recommend reading the manual or hell, watching the infamous Sseth's review of the game on YouTube first. This game can be old-school in both the best and worst ways; again, there is no shame in using a walkthrough. Some of the stuff is just plain obscure, and other bits just require you to gain over time. Classic CRPGs almost require restarting with more wisdom of building good characters.

And while the game's stats and combat can be crunchy in a very D&D 3e fashion? Hey, at least not it ain't as convoluted and esoteric as its spiritual successor, Grimoire (sorry not sorry).

All in all? If a triumphant finale for a classic CRPG series inspired by AD&D -- with all associated design choices and aesthetic in mind -- interests you, muster the courage and take the space fare to Dominus. If the gonzo setting, occasional cruelty of the dice gods, and obscure solutions to puzzles is daunting, give the trip to Dominus some thought or research first. But should you have the courage to venture forth, may your skills ascend and the fun of your journey be out of this world!

Easily the best game in the series thus far! InXile tightened up the experience from Wasteland 2, already a good game if you ask me. If you'd ever wanted an experience like the Black Isle Fallout titles, but with some modern design nuances, this is probably as close as you can get.

Antiquated and sometimes unfair design from WL2 have been smoothed out in WL3. Solutions to most challenges in the game are easier to grok, and are handled in a Fallout: New Vegas "binary" fashion -- you either have the skill rank needed to do a specific solution, or you don't. And there's multiple ways to handle a few different scenarios. In the meantime, the nuclear winter of Colorado is a great contrast to the usual desert wastelands of your typical apocalypse, with all kinds of gonzo factions to meet along the way!

Getting the "golden ending" is definitely something best saved for a second run through, fitting the dreary genre. The game is full of moral and ethical dilemmas, forcing you to pick a side. As was the case in WL2, you'll have to work hard to get the arguably-happiest ending... but don't let that stop you from following your heart and/or your logic, or a lack thereof!

Perks are refined so most have an impact. Skills aren't as specific as they were in WL2, but adjacent ones are fused together; Small Arms covers pistols and shotguns, and Automatic Weapons handles SMGs and assault rifles, for instance, when WL2 would have separate skills for each. If you're like me and wanted to like energy weapons in WL2, but found them underwhelming half of the time, then prepare to praise sweet SCIENCE(!) for the new Weird Science skill! If sneaking around is your thing, there's a skill for that. If you wanna use skills to affect the flow of battle, such as interacting with objects for an advantage, there's skills to do that too.

Character and environment models are gorgeous. For better or worse, WL3 feels closer to a AAA title than an indie. This sadly did come with the cost of the game being buggy as all get out at release. By now though, the PC version is the most stable IIRC. The dev team was devoted to fixing things up, let alone adding more features, leading up to the release of its final DLC. The respec feature was conveniently placed when I needed it most -- to prep for my first run of the endgame -- for instance.

I can't speak for the DLC adventures' quality, sadly. I've yet to play them. From what I understand, they're apparently more combat-focused and force you to think outside the box from the vanilla game's XCOM-adjacent bouts. With the base game alone however, you've got a ~40 hour adventure that rarely, if ever, feels like it overstays its welcome. When all was said and done for my first playthrough, I still couldn't believe it was over, despite the many hours I'd plugged into it.

TL;DR -- The best entry to the Wasteland series to date, maybe InXile's best game thus far. Freshened things up and tightened up mechanics, while still staying true to the wackiness and grittiness alike of its genre. If you desire a truly old-school spiritual successor to classic Fallout -- which was itself a successor to the original Wasteland, mind -- you owe it to yourself to bundle up, polish your Ranger badge, and step into the Patriarch's snowbound wasteland.

Easily the definitive version of Final Fantasy 3 for me. I am skeptical of a lot of the Pixel Remasters and their balancing from afar -- especially FF1 -- but FF3 PR plays like the Wonderswan port that never was. Seriously, there was gonna be one but it got canceled.

The biggest changes I noticed were some meager classes getting a small boost, like the Scholar and Bard. Some bits and bobs were also borrowed from the Nintendo DS remake. For example? Rangers having a "Barrage" attack, Dark Knights having a free AoE, and both of those jobs missing their vestigial magic. That said, you're probably still gonna use a Ninja by the endgame as the penultimate physical character.

The difficulty seems about the same as the original, and you can speed up battles to make grinding easier. The final dungeon is still a gauntlet with a point of no return, but I felt the quicksave function made it bearable this time. They didn't include the extra features from the DS remake but honestly, I couldn't care less. I hated the bonus dungeons from FF1: Dawn of Souls for instance, as they made an already dumbed-down game even easier. No need to fix what ain't broke, and trust me, they've made FF3's shortcomings an easier pill to swallow.

FF3 Pixel Remaster stands on its own, the less-fun parts of the original have been smoothed out, while remaining true to its origins. Easily the saving grace for the NES-era Pixel Remasters.

Oh, and the music is beautiful. I really hope the musicians got a raise. ♪