Recent reviews by Rubyko

RE4 is a good game, this upgrades most things (sound design, animations, atmosphere), changes some for the better (Ashley's personality, Luis' seciton, knights and reanimators, shooting gallery) while some other changes feel like they're just to keep the game fresh or pace it better (small changes to layouts and sections). I think it's fair to say that anyone who liked the original and doesn't just want to replay the original with visual upgrades will really like this game.

The downsides, and these aren't deal breakers but I just feel like complaining, are that Ada's VA is complete garbage, sounds disinterested and bored at all times, like some woman in her 50s that doesn't even like video games or knows why she's in the recording studio. The game also removed a couple of sections that I quite like, like the truck section, I overall liked the pacing of this game more than the original but sections like this being missing kinda hurts the game.

Highly educational, I now know exactly how many spiders there are inside a 2 billion dollar trombone.

Tldr; It's a good shooter, it's a fun shooter even if you're not into "boomer shooters", AI has some flaws, but the game really ramps up in quality as you progress through it.

I'm a fan of "Boomer Shooters" but I find most of them to be pretty stale or boring as they rarely try to do anything that improves upon the Boomer Shooter™ approved formula, CULTIC however, leans pretty hard on trying to provide the player with a fresh and interesting experience.

The movement and shooting feel responsive and meaty, navigating the maps feels good and every gun packs a punch in its own way. The guns themselves are also pretty good, with a really good selection of weapons, and there's very little redundancy between them, the balance with ammo availability is well done as there was just enough ammo for me per map as long as I put some thought into managing how I'd spend it.

The music is good, sometimes really good, in the sense that the tracks were really fun to listen to and they made every scene better by having their respective tracks, however the later portion of the game contains a lot of really long sections where the music loops non-stop until you leave them, these sections are worsened by this since the tracks have somewhat repetitive rhythms and dynamic changes that make the looping and the repetition of the rhythm stick out really hard.

Enemies are also hit or miss in a similar way, every design is fun and "charming", in a weird satanist cult sort of way. It's very easy to read each enemy sprite despite the game's colour scheme, they fit in nicely with the theme of the game and are used well in each level they're in, and ranged enemies are projectile-based rather than hitscanners like in BLOOD, so your dynamite can be used in more elegant ways than just for cheesing around every single corner a level features. However the AI on certain locations acts irrationally by charging you when it would have the advantage holding its ground to be able to shoot you, larger enemies can be easily cheesed because they don't back away when you go inside a crawl space or a room they can't get through, and even though there's an achievement to kill an enemy while it is holding an explosive barrel, I only saw said enemy ever grab an object and throw it at me twice in a playthrough, and it missed both times while I was walking at a normal pace. There is a single instance of what I'd call "reskinning" enemies, and even though usually this is seen as a bad thing, I thought it was pretty fun due to the context of the level.

Now where the game truly shines is its level design and pacing. The game starts in a pretty simplistic manner, just about what you'd expect from this sort of game. But over time it really picks up, each level feels pretty unique and sticks out in its own way, the action in each level was well paced out and I never really felt like encounters were repetitive. What surprised me in a good way, was finding myself in really tense situations, CULTIC has genuine horror segments at time and that's pretty great, they serve to slow down the pace of the level at the right time, and are the proof that the game's atmosphere is executed excellently.

Overall I feel like CULTIC's an excellent game, it's a really fun shooter that I think even people who aren't into "boomer shooters" would enjoy if they're up for some horror-themed action. It's definitely worth playing if you want a game that actually does something with the "boomer shooter" trend rather than just going with the flow, it's also better than BLOOD :)

Builds up itself pretty well, good ambience soundtrack, the visuals really help set the mood during night and blue hours, and you can slam the scientist's head into the ground whenever he's talking too much by tilting the sled. I liked the story, which has a Lovecraftian tone to it without relying on throwing Elder Things at your face to let you know there's an eldritch theme going on OR IS THERE? , however if you're the type that needs an ending with a clear closure this might not be for you.

Total Playtime is for 100%, a single run for the story could go for about 50 minutes.

A nice game that, despite its noteworthy flaws, is still better than the sum of its parts. It's certainly the best thing Fate has had recently.

The Gameplay is a few steps above what you'd find in a Musou game. Very simple "combos", wide windows of time for dodges+ripostes, instant healing, and a lot of harmless enemies. That being said there's still some pretty fun fights, in 1v1 or 2v2 fights using spells and abilities becomes becomes a bit more tactical and therefore rewarding when done correctly. The Stances are also interesting, they're a cool way of executing character progression and they compliment each other well as far as combat goes.

The plot and characters are pretty good too for the most part, this is a great execution of a Grail War, with the alliances and backstabbing one would come to expect from them. The characters all bounce of each other pretty well, there's plenty of good dynamics and interactions in this game, and the potential of the Master-Servant concept is used pretty well.

However I will note that the ending section of the game is clearly rushed. With some character stories not receiving as much attention as they should, or even a proper conclusion, which obviously doesn't sit well even if they did have some nice scenes. This doesn't really ruin the game but the wasted potential is there.

As far as Turn Based Tactical RPG goes, this is one of the best I played if we're talking exclusively about gameplay. The combat in this game is pretty well executed despite the simple premise, building Brothers is very fun and provides for some interesting decision making, and having to manage a variety of equipment to handle different confrontations leads to meaningful decisions in the overworld map that give the player a real sense of preparing and planning for expeditions/missions etc.

Despite the game having events, that are very well written and are fun to read, the game has no main "plot", but rather a sequence of late game crisis to act as challenges for the player, the music is also limited in quantity and there's a lack of variety in quests. The game is purely about the gameplay, and even though I really like its gameplay, I don't think the game has much to offer if you're expecting an experience that goes beyond that.

One of the best city management/logistics management games ever made.

Great OST, great additions to the classic Anno's gameplay formula, the opponent and neutral NPCs are all extremely charming and have great dialogue, the game's artists and animators went the extra mile to make the cities and its buildings feel lived in, thanks to a ton of unique animations and assets for things the player will rarely look at for more than a few seconds.

Some downsides though, the music might be good but the music player isn't, sticking to repetition of specific tracks despite there being a huge variety of music that only gets unlocked at certain stages for no good reason. The UI could use some work, I don't mind multiplying my Supply and Demand by the Docklands time tables but it's a bit of a time waster that this isn't automated. DLC is generally nice but the Anarchist DLC feels pretty tacked on and is entirely pointless. Opponent NPCs don't have consistent trade offers either, so creating trade routes with them is very unreliable and pointless, making their presence in a sandbox run kinda pointless unless you want to shoot at other ships.

Regarding the Ubisoft launcher, a lot of the negative reviews regarding issues with not being able to play due to permissions are old, and don't impact a new installation. The Ubisoft Launcher does create some waste of time, and is invasive whenever it updates, but it has not stopped me from playing ever.

Pretty fun and addictive score attack game. It's simple enough to just be a casual experience that you can jump into quickly while listening to something in the background to relax. But Making it through the Highschore Mode's islands is a pretty engaging puzzle experience that's rewarding in its own right.

My only major criticism is that the game does not allow you to restart or save and load an island. I understand what the developer's intentions are, but the game is pretty abundant in RNG, so anyone interested in consistently going over 10 islands in Highschore Mode will find themselves moving files around in their Appdata folder in order to save their progress, and load it whenever they get an island that is simply too small for the score requirements past Island a dozen islands or so.

Pretty nice game all around but might be a bit repetitive since it's lacking in some depth to its main component.

I liked the presentation a lot, the gameplay's nice as is if the main thing you want is a fishing mini game and some relaxing navigation, the fishes have nice designs, and the story is a pretty nice execution of Lovecraftian themes.

My main problem however is that it is lacking in some depth, navigating the game world is pretty fun due to all the dangers you might encounter at night, but since the map is one key press away, a lot of the dangers of the game world and any engaging way to find your way are thrown out of the window. The fishing itself might be fun in a simplistic way, but the game wants you to collect over one hundred fish, and finish a bunch of side quests, this can become pretty repetitive after a while since the fishing isn't complex enough to add some variety to this.

It's a fun game and I recommend it overall but I think the game would benefit a lot from a slightly more complex fishing and navigation system.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a direct improvement to its prequel in most departments. The quality of the music is way better, and the dynamic music system in place makes for some nice tonal changes while navigating the map. The story's far more interesting thanks to it having more characters to draw situations and development from, and little animations quirks help give personality to those characters without the game ever having to resort to dialogue.

The gameplay had a sidegrade of sorts by introducing a larger focus on combat, which might sound unappealing to some, but I do believe the change paid off as it makes this game feel just different enough while still keeping Ori's movement system. The combat's ok as far as standard gameplay goes, but ended up really shinning in the final boss fights once Ori has the full repertoire of movement and combat abilities. Also worth noting that the escape sequences, one of my favourite things about Ori, are much better in this game, being far easier to read as they're happening.

The only negative I have to point out is that the central hub for the map felt a bit pointless, as it is possible to brute force all of its upgrades through movement skills, I don't feel like this detracts from the enjoyment of the game in any way, but it feels like a missed opportunity for more interesting design.