Recent reviews by Lotus Crane

A cute tower defense game that's easy enough for your casual gamer friend or spouse to do a team map with you, but also deep enough for you to keep thinking up better combos for hard mode. Somehow still has new content being released 6 years later, and you can really unlock everything just by playing; you don't have to pay to win, but if you're impatient or want to support the devs, go ahead and whale.

Decent gameplay, generally a good non-toxic community, some great player-driven roleplaying & emergent storytelling, and of course, the memes. Like Starship Troopers (the movie, not the book), but without having to waste money on IP licensing rights or advertising, so there's more budget for the actual product.

During the 10 years between Armored Core V & VI, I got older & slower, so it's been a lot more of a struggle to get through this game than the previous ones, but it's been worth it. FromSoft made something that's like 70% recognizable from Armored Cores III, IV, & V, but also like 30% a Souls or Souls-like (Sekiro, Elden) game, with the greater emphasis on melee & memorizing how enemy attacks are telegraphed. I just wish I was still the pilot I was during Last Raven & For Answer, but I'm over the hill, so don't expect to see me on any leader boards. :x

ICotFR is probably the most polished idle/clicker-type game out there, with a jukebox full of catchy D&D-inspired songs that's worth downloading the game just to listen to once. If there's one negative about this game, it's that the free-to-play-but-you-really-want-to-burn-money dopamine trigger is all too real here.

I probably spent over 200 hours on the original Persona 4 on PS2, cruising through enough New Game Pluses to end up with every girl a least once (verdict: Naoto is best waifu). Unfortunately, P4G on Steam has extremely unstable performance on my aging Windows 7 desktop, so I haven't made it past the intro yet. But even though it'll be a while before I can meaningfully play the Golden version and romance Marie, I'm still going to give this game a thumbs up. (I will update my review then.)

This game has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, but the recent phone fling updates have really put it over the top. :3

I wanted to like this game, and I really thought I would, based on the fact that it combines tactical RPG with dating sim, 2 genres I normally enjoy. Unfortunately, the combat is pretty clunky, un-intuitive, grindy, and frankly, just boring, to the point where I couldn't put up with it long enough to even make it to the 2nd generation, so I can't tell you if the dating sim side of the game is actually good.

If you want to play a hybrid tactical RPG/dating sim, I instead suggest Sunrider & Sunrider Liberation Day (available on Steam), or if you have access to certain consoles, and/or can understand Japanese, pretty much any Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) game.

The one shining spot for Agarest is the quality (and enduring Steam marketplace value) of its trading cards & profile backgrounds. But that isn't enough for me to recommend Generations of War to anybody.

I'm disappointed this game is being shut down soon; I thought it struck a nicely playable balance between traditional FPSs such as Counterstrike, and MOBAs such as Overwatch. The voice talents of the actually excellent English anime dub were a real treat too. As a final salute, I've nominated this game as a write-in ballot for the 2017 Steam Awards as "Doesn't Deserve To Be Shut Down", and encourage you to do the same. Farewell, GitS: SAC - FAO.

Slime Rancher is a cute, family-friendly game that already has plenty to do, even though it's technically still in early access. I actually did a video review of an earlier build of this game, which you can find at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-T4x022rds&index=57&t=3s&list=PLQobBO1IXIjbdGrbHaKjx15iObG4RqJNx (I apologize for the iffy lighting & sound balance - this was from my first month on YouTube.)

The Secret World is pretty crazy. It has a really high level of story presentation and character personalization, comparable to some offline RPGs. Also, the intro for the Dragon faction totally sucked me in. Maybe it's because I was able to understand the Korean and Japanese NPCs even without the English subtitles, but yeah, it totally felt like I was living through some surreal dreamscape version of my own life, except with a few more Lovecraftian horrors. It IS a freemium game, but it seems that the money extras are largely cosmetic, and not necessary to actually survive.