Recent reviews by Arriator

PLEASE, people, give us an official version of the expansion. I adore and love this game, and Embers of a Forsaken Star deserves to get the same love and attention that this did. This is hands-down my favorite TTS game.

Would I recommend Elden Ring? Now there's a question for the ages.

It's a FromSoftware title. This means, among other things, that many aspects of the game are uncompromising. It is a harsh, brutal experience. Death is punished with the loss of your currency, as it always is in their games. Failure to reclaim them before dying again sees them lost permanently (though you can always acquire more). This will happen, doubtless.

There will doubtless be situations which you will perceive as unfair. Enemies and bosses will often know to punish you for attempting to back away and heal in safety. Some can block you; some can guard-counter; a select few can parry. Some can heal themselves.

It is complex and quite deep - your statistics will be the primary factor when determining how viable a given challenge is, as will careful selection of your equipment. Sticking to a single playstyle simply will not work in this game - an enemy may be too fast to respond to with your current weapon. They might know how to dodge spells; they may even discourage the use of shields, or certain weapon types and status effects altogether. Be flexible, be adaptable.

Above all, this, like other FromSoft games, is a test of adaptability, and of mastery. Just how willing and able will you be to think of a specific plan to your problem? If you face two strong foes at once, how will you handle the situation? Simply take them both head-on, or ease the burden by putting one to sleep, or luring them behind cover? If your foe bleeds you with every strike, what is your response? Weather the storm and heal off the damage, or pursue means of preventing or mitigating the buildup?

Adapt, or die, repeatedly. And sometimes you'll die after you adapt, as well - the game will test you, in many, many ways. Survivability, consistency, planning, execution, preparation.

And that is why recommending this game is so difficult. But if you want my opinion? The Lands Between are ruthless, and so must you be - use every trick in the book if you must. Honor does not serve the dead, now does it?

Test yourself, if you wish. Use this experience, this battle, this WAR, to hone and refine your skills and your senses. And just maybe you will stand before the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord. But it will not be easy.

Frustratingly does NOT include Echoes of the Eye's music, but does have all the base game tracks, which are fantastic anyway.

My opinions on this game are conflicted. I've had it since 2018 but not played it in full until approximately 2 days ago, and I completed it in that time.

Conceptually, the game claims to be an interesting puzzle game about reprogramming the physical world - and in gameplay, it does deliver, at least once you get your hands on a Modifier (or two) which, while there are about a dozen strewn around in the world, the "plot-intended" ones can take a good few hours to get to.

Narratively, the game disappoints somewhat; the plot kicks off when Sebastian develops an impromptu crush on a girl named Pixie, and inadvertently ends up at her workplace (either by coincidence tailing a terrorist or by deliberately stalking her), and from there it becomes a "run a few jobs to get the hang of your Modifier". Unfortunately, there's very few such jobs, the leadup to the finale is questionably related to it all, and the finale itself, while implementing the titular in an intriguing way, lacks a proper climactic finish.

Engaging with the programming aspect of in-universe language SPRAK is fun, and the language is taught and tutorialized incredibly well; the game offers pointers to characters who can teach newbies some intricacies of the language, but also offers a full in-game collectible manual for professionals, and generally leaves it up to the player to either experiment or seek out concrete guidance. Some may find this a negative aspect of the game, but personally I quite enjoyed taking the language and code apart, even as a novice programmer at best.

While music doesn't play in most circumstances in the game, when it does play, it's pretty solid. That's kind of all I can say...

The characters in the game sadly lack much life; their dialogues convey more information than character, and once a character's present dialogue is exhausted, they simply refuse to speak with you until either their pool refreshes due to story progress, or until the end of the game. Subplots are tied to single characters at most, when they are present.

The UI and controls in the game definitely take the most getting used to - Sebastian is controlled in point-and-click adventure game style, while the right mouse button rotates the camera... unless he has a Modifier, in which case attempting to turn the camera while hovering over any interactable object prompts him to attempt to hack it. The game's camera is not capable of handling occlusion, and certain camera angles can obscure the entire room while still having Sebastian attempt to interact "through" the offending blockade. Worse yet, the game keeps no objective list, and certain in-game events are tied to NPC schedules, so if you don't show up to a scheduled event (though you are told beforehand), plot may very well progress without your presence.

Overall: Interesting idea, delivers on the premise - but simply not enough for the price. Not enough stakes, not enough life, not enough time or story, not enough quality of life. Deserves updates or a do-over; then we'll talk.
Putting the Heart into my inventory is a fun pastime, though.

Interesting idea, adorable and nostalgic graphics, but the gameplay leaves much to be desired. The game has practically zero communication with the player - be it a lack of map, direction, objective, or even traversal recommendations, this game tells you nothing. It's entirely possible you'll end up in an area from one end only to discover that in order to traverse it, you need an ability from another area on the other end of the game's world - or, worse, find yourself in another area entirely, solve an entire puzzle involving 12 switches to pull an elevator out of a pit, only to then be told you can't get the thing the puzzle was for after all - because you need that same power.

The wall kicking is a cute idea, but offers, once again, zero guidance on how to actually use it or where you'll end up; after two hours of frustrated platforming, I ended up discovering BY ACCIDENT that the height your wall kick gives you is based on your speed, meaning the only way to actually build any sort of height at all is to pray you have Solar Wind, mash yourself into a wall at a 45° angle, and then hope you don't miss the second wall kick - since missing leaves you unable to try again until you land, typically in a killplane.

Combat is a chore - reflecting projectiles back at ranged enemies doesn't work since the projectile just passes over them, you have no defensive options whatsoever, and the miniboss-type enemies inflict double damage for some arbitrary reason, on top of being able to disarm you which disables healing.

All in all, the vibe the game gives me is "do you WANT me to play you and progress or not?" - neat ideas, but the execution and communication need some work, badly. In its current state, the only real pros I can name are that Sybil is cute, and that the wall kick is an interesting idea with insufficient guidance.

Also, the font choice is atrocious and for some reason most in-game text on the HUD ends up looking like it's been upscaled to hell and back, making area names, key counters, and even interaction prompts nigh-illegible.

The music's nice, though the sound design itself is fairly "flaccid", with most things in the games, including basic attacks, lacking the impact that I feel they should have.

Potential - that currently is not being used very well. Will keep an eye on it, though.

As someone who grew up with Generation IV Pokémon, I've always been looking for a game that recaptures the same excitement I've had when I was small - a new creature around every corner, another new sight here and there, and call me strange, but I quite liked the story of those games as well. Sadly, I was quite late to the party, so I never got to share my findings or opinions with my friends.

Enter Cassette Beasts, a game that drips with that exact same aesthetic, is a very recent release (as of this review), and is unfettered by the whims of a larger franchise or publisher. While its creature catalogue is rather modest compared to its bigger sibling, with 120 creatures to write home about, the primary Fusion mechanic, in which two creatures combine in battle, bumps that up to a whopping 14400 combinations of them - and with Cassette's unique spin on rare creatures, Bootleg Tapes that have nonstandard typing for a species with different move pools, you'll almost certainly have a unique experience when you play.

The gameplay is fairly conventional, though it also puts a new spin on the classic type chart formula with unique interactions: Using a Fire-type attack on a Plastic-type monster (yes, PLASTIC) causes it to burn and release toxic fumes, which temporarily changes its type to Poison. Using a Metal-type attack on an Ice-type monster smashes it, resulting in severe penalties to the victim's defense. Using Lightning on an Air-type? Makes it Conductive, inflicting damage to it whenever ANY combatant uses another Lightning-type attack, regardless of source and target. Its base in chemical reactions means that despite looking intimidating, it's fairly intuitive.
If I have one complaint about the typing system, it feels like Glass type is an unloved "middle child", with very little, if no interactions with other types.

The music in the game is phenomenal, with the game heavily utilizing modern music genres for its music - many cutscenes have variations on existing tracks in them, for instance.
Special mention goes to all SIX of the combat themes, which have dynamic layering for vocals that kick in when a Fusion occurs in the battle, to prevent them from getting stale. Might just be me, but I've had some of those tracks stuck in my head for ages now.
A complaint I have about the sound design, if a very minor one, is the footstep sounds can be a little grating, but they could be far worse. The game also tries to be a little overly generous with its usage of directional audio, which can be jarring in certain cutscenes.

Story- and art style-wise, this game is nothing like its competitor, and instead leans more into its more distant cousins of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, heavily exploring its own setting of New Wirral and how it works (or doesn't) via its characters. Building relationships and completing the partner characters' questlines is encouraged as this allows and strengthens Fusion with these characters (romantic relationships are available, but provide NO additional gameplay benefit), and also paints a larger picture. The game feels quite nonlinear - you're tasked with locating 8 beings known as Archangels to find a gateway, and completely separately from that you may also prove yourself by defeating the 12 Ranger Captains stationed around the island, but the order you do either of these things in is entirely up to the player, with a rumor system directing any lost players towards potential goals.
Without spoiling too much, suffice it to say that this game's indie status gives it free reign that its larger sibling would never have, discussing and handling unique themes and doing its own things with its setting and story. Archangel encounters in particular feel quite interesting and unique, with their battle gimmicks chosen very carefully - same for the Ranger Captains. Every single story battle gave me some sort of Eureka moment, which I've found very delightful.
On the other hand, I'm a little sad to see some questlines in the game conclude so early or abruptly (How Does It Feel comes to mind), and once story dialogue is exhausted, camping with your favorite character has a very small and limited pool of options, which can be somewhat of a dampener in the extensive postgame.

The UI is very sleek and modern-designed; navigating menus is not the fastest with a lack of shortcut buttons, but most of the time things are not buried too deep in the menus. This can actually work to the game's detriment on occasion; putting a tape in storage has no confirmation prompt, and pulling them out is only possible at campsites in the world, which can be a minor inconvenience. As of an update that released a little while ago, the Sticker section of the inventory, which stores all attacks and moves which are freely exchangeable between creatures, now has filter options, sorting, and a "mass delete" button, on top of being paginated and having a search bar! This makes finding moves much faster. Additionally, when editing one of your creatures, Stickers that it can equip are bumped to the top of the list temporarily, to save time.

The battle UI is quick, concise, and to the point; battles flow rather briskly, with few pauses or breaks except to explain new status effects (and even that can be disabled or limited in the settings).

Ultimately, it's largely polished, but a few patches wouldn't be unwelcome either - this is absolutely a gem of a game in my humble opinion, and with some extra love and attention this has the potential to become another of 2023's major milestones.

My thanks to the team at Bytten Studio for giving me a free RPG with my music album.

Oh, right, we're getting Online Multiplayer. I guess that's kind of big.

Devil May Cry as a rhythm game with the art style of Borderlands, immaculately wonderful vibes and some voice actors from Persona 5. Absolutely incredible. Buttery-smooth combat, fantastic music, and the pains the animators have gone through to sync up every single cutscene in the game to its soundtrack? These people are underselling.

Fun, beautiful, minimalistic, and the music incorporation into the stage hazards is done interestingly. What bugs me a little is that despite the musical premise, most of the time you will have to ACT off-rhythm to catch the mechanics in time - something that is exploited to merry hell and back in the fourth level. Afraid I have to dock some points for that one.

After completing the game's original three levels, you unlock mirror versions of the levels that task you with completing them in one try. Frankly, pass. I never found such challenges fun in most contexts, but I do appreciate their existence for those that revel in such things.

Kind of sad the game's so short but hey, there's only so much you can do without becoming stale, so I'd rather the game keep its novelty rather than run it into the ground. Not something I can see myself going back to, though. Maybe once in a while just to hear the music.

Gentlemen, welcome to Dubai.

What the ♥♥♥♥ even did I just play?
This game defies explanation. Just go play it already.
Be warned, though, that it might induce sensory overload in some people (like myself). Take breaks if you must! And remember: Fear is the mind-killer.