Recent reviews by 龍 Chi Xu

This game is really good but it's not the best game ever, so zero out of 10

You'd think the series known for its blend of oddball charm and high-stakes drama couldn't get any weirder, but clearly that's not what Majima's funny little pirate spin-off thinks, because this game is just pure absurdity from start to finish. The game is pure ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ camp, even at its most intense, which I can't emphasize enough is *very* strange for a series that tends to keep that in check normally. That's fine though - the game's a really fun romp and it's nice to actually run around in Hawaii with real-time action combat. Ended up enjoying the story by the end too - cheese and all.

Could do without that ship combat though, to be honest. Never been a fan of that style of gameplay and it is the thing they put a lot of their resources into outside of the main scenario, so if it's not your bag either, you'll find yourself pretty disappointed by the lack of no new minigames or real differentiating elements from other games apart from this pretty weak and slow aspect of the game.

But hey that's just me. The game is insanely dumb and I thought worth my time either way. It'd be nice if they slowed down to deliver another true heavy hitter in the series but I definitely didn't mind playing this at all.

cute! i think while some aspects of it aren't what I prefer out of rhythm games, I really appreciated a lot of the later-game charts on hard difficulty. story mode felt like it introduced new styles of notes at a good pace, which is great because the game has a HUGE ton of them, a near unprecedented amount for a recent rhythm game. those later charts really nailed the flow and potential this game could have, and made for a very impressive set of levels at the end. neat challenge with a cute vibe and super sick music overall!

I'm a massive KH freak and I think if you're gonna play through the series, you probably should play both Dream Drop Distance and 0.2. But consider this a trepidatious recommendation:

One, these are very bad games to start with. Literally just play in release order, as these games presume you've played every game prior and are hard to follow otherwise. But also, honestly, the package consists of some of my least favorite games in the series. Dream Drop Distance's game balance is poor and the Dream Eater pets adds unnecessary grinding to deal with so many of its awful encounters, and I'm always back and forth on it due to a lot of the things it does in both gameplay and narrative that I like and extremely dislike. 0.2 -a fragmentary passage- meanwhile is an okay 2 hours of pre-KH3 to experience, but can run a pretty negative impression due to how much worse it feels and looks to the final game. X Back Cover also sucks ass and hardly worth talking about - it's really bizarre seeing them making a original movie yet it still feels like watching a bunch of disjointed cutscenes with missing context in-between.

I'm just excited to get on with KH3 for my replay now, lol. If you're playing for the first time, you should probably play all the games, including the ones here. They are pretty necessary parts of the game's canon, especially leading up to KH3. And also, they're fun enough games on their own right, even if I have a lot of frustrations with them. Goes to show that the series at some of its lower points is still worth going through.

NOTE: I played KH3D on Critical w/ a mod that force unlocks it, and 0.2 on Proud. The fact Critical Mode is locked behind beating the games sucks serious ass, but also goes to show how not balanced they are overall as Critical experiences.

The Citizen Sleeper series has thematically focused a lot on carving out optimistic futures as someone with a doomed hand, something that's communicated (mostly) well with both its mechanics and its writing. This sequel is a fantastic follow-up to those ideas, but scopes larger on everything in that big bad sequel sort of way. There's a lot at play that really communicate your failing health and the game rewards an empathetic, self-sacrificing player who embodies the game's core virtues of compassion and being active in the fight to protect and care for your community. Powerful stuff.

DO NOT PURSUE LU BU

This is a genuinely interesting game with cool ideas and a fun structure that could be a blast with multiplayer, but right now it's not there. As of writing, this game is just broken in both a technical sense and a design sense, and when its not broken, it is super light in actual, full substance outside of the main loop structure. There's so many little things that really add up ignoring all the bigger issues at play too. I'm sure this could be a good game, right now it's sadly not. Hoping for the best to this team because I would really love to see this pull through.

A once-in-a-generation follow-up to one of the most acclaimed classics of the PSX era, except in this one you can double jump. What else could you want, really? Charming from top to bottom, this is a seminal experience for anyone who remembers that childhood breeze you feel when you're let loose into the outdoors with no one telling you what to do or where to go.

For $6 you get one level, and by one level I mean, one *single* act and two simple challenge levels afterwards, and that's literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it. It's a cool level, don't get me wrong, but when half of it is just flashy cutscene transitions and is very easy to S-rank / get all collectibles (which look very bad btw) in one go, you'd hope for like...a little more??? I can't imagine I'd really replay this level anytime soon either. In another world, this was a cool little free update to tease the upcoming movie. In this world, it's a $6 DLC. We live in a horrible world.

it's not even fully finished and it has the makings of being one of the best monster catcher games to ever exist. it is everything i've wanted from a pokemon-like in forever - something that's focused on narrative, has systems that really sell the unification between your critters and the trainer (you), and something snappy and fast in terms of exploration and battles. absolutely do not sleep on this