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This review contains no major spoilers for Psychonauts 2 (PN2).

This game can be enjoyed without playing Psychonauts 1. However, I highly recommend playing 1 and watching a playthrough of the VR in-between game for the most amount of context.

Psychonauts 2 is a fantastic follow-up to the cult classic original. The best way I can describe the game is an interactive Pixar film. I was glued to the game from start to finish, although there were some bumpy patches along the way.



Premise
Raz finally arrives at Psychonauts HQ, the Motherlobe, after his misadventures at Whispering Rock and the Rhombus of Ruin. However, he quickly finds that his promotion to Psychonaut isn’t official and is demoted to an intern. Now he has to climb back up the ranks, all while dealing with a whole new work environment, the other interns, his estranged family, and a new psychic conspiracy that threatens to drown both the Psychonauts and the world. In a world of psychic espionage, there are some secrets best left buried…


Execution
The story was pretty great. There were multiple twists and reveals that had me eager to see what the next bend had in store. While nothing terribly new or innovative was used in the story, the execution was exquisite and I rarely felt bored. PN2 has a huge cast of new characters and continues the witty writing from PN1. However, I feel that some of them could’ve used more time in the spotlight as they quickly became background characters. Nonetheless, I really liked everyone and they all contributed something to the journey.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586192425

This time around, a greater emphasis is placed on mental damage and how Psychonauts can help heal people. While specific disorders and diseases aren’t directly mentioned, their inclusion helped make their owners feel like more realistic and relatable characters. Healing, growth, and connections are central themes, and PN2 does a nice job exploring them all.




Leaps and Bounds Above the First
PN2 is a massive glow-up from 1. Essentially, every area has been refined and polished, making PN2 a blast to play. To start, platforming is much more engaging and challenging, mostly due to great environmental design. Often times, navigating the terrain is a puzzle in of itself. For example, trying to navigate a cave network via wall ivy, stone platforms, mine rails, and more. As a result, each new real-world zone was thrilling, with different terrain challenges and nooks and crannies to explore. Thus, you're always on an adventure, even when just wandering around the real world. I’ve spent a lot of time just wandering around the real world, scraping around for collectables and enjoying the views.

In order to compliment the platforming, Raz’s powers have been refined and the game truly feels built around them. You can find challenging far jumps requiring skilled Levitation jumps and tight hovers, or use Pyrokinesis to clear areas or even create new pathways. As a result, you'll be tested on how well you can use your powers, and some interesting puzzles are made around them. Additionally, every power has combat applications to make your toolset more versatile.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586213472
Fight Those Urges!
On that note, combat is very engaging and involved. Encounters are pretty frequent, each containing multiple enemies, and most enemies take some time to put down. While they all have pretty straight-forward tactics, getting swarmed and having to counter all their strategies at once is an exhilarating feeling. Since all your powers are usable in combat, you’re free to create your own strategies for victory. Raz’s powers operate on a cooldown system, so knowing the proper time to use a power always feels rewarding.

I'm pretty conflicted about most boss battles. On the one hand, their presentation and thematic mechanics are excellent. The sheer scale of the fights is amazing, and each boss feels truly personalized to the person they torment. On the other, the rule of three is heavily used, so encounters feel very scripted and rigid. Certain gimmicks are also really annoying to deal with. For example, digging specific items up to use against a boss as they attack you. All in all, I think the style outweighs the substance.



The Mental List Needs Some Cleaning Up...
Collectathon elements felt like they could’ve used some work. There are 5 types of collectables and their main purpose is to allow Raz to level up. However, keeping track of them all can be a hassle. The completion page bundles all the areas of a level into one page, making tracking down missing items downright painful and annoying. Likewise, since the scope of each level has been immensely increased, finding those very last collectables can easily get tedious and frustrating. For a casual playthrough, this is a minor inconvenience. For completeionism, this is a nightmare.

I did a lot of collecting and exploring, so I finished in around 18-ish hours. 100% completion took around 25 hours. While the game is of moderate length, I feel the ride was enough to justify the price. There's also a proper free-roam mode after completing the story, which is a very welcome addition.



I absolutely love PN2’s visual design. Modern graphics elevate the eccentric design of the series to a new height. Mental worlds are the clear winners here, each being whimsical yet profoundly telling of their owners. While I described PN1’s worlds as “unique amusement parks”, PN2’s all feel like different planets due to their wildly different themes, scales, gimmicks, and more. The visual design is marvelously done and I found myself enraptured in quite a few.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2586234920

Character designs for the series are rather unique, taking a 3D approach to cartoony designs. Admittedly, some designs look a bit strange, but the sheer diversity helps create memorable characters. Overall animation quality is pretty good, aside from clipping and lip synch issues distracting during certain cutscenes and talking segments.



The soundtrack really hits all the right notes while playing. From nostalgic remixes of PN1 tracks to new and emotional ones, I always had a smile on my face when taking in the music. Many original voice actors also reprise their roles, which is phenomenal. Newer voices were also great as well, although some lines felt weird from a directing or quality standpoint. Sound effects were pretty solid across the board.

Intel i9-10850K - RTX 3080 - 32GB RAM - SATA SSD - 1440p@144Hz

Overall, the Steam version ran pretty smoothly. There were some stuttering problems, but they seemed to smooth out after a while. I also experienced one "Fatal Error" crash. However, people have been reporting various other issues, so your experience may vary.

A nice amount of graphical and audio options are available for tweaking. You're also offered an impressive amount of accessibility options to make the game more approachable, such as larger fonts and colorblind filters.

I played with a Xbox controller and everything functioned well. You are able to rebind both controller and KBM controls.



I am in love with what PN2 has achieved. The 16-year wait was well worth it and the product is something I feel anyone can enjoy. Practically everything is an amazing step up from the first game, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey as a result. Replayability is a bit limited due to its linear nature, but collection completion will take a lot of time and effort in the meantime.

This review contains no major spoilers.

Psychonauts (PN) is a game I remember fondly from my childhood. With the second installment coming soon, I decided to revisit where it all began. Now that I’m older, I definitely see some faults in an otherwise fun and interesting cult classic. However, I still stepped away feeling satisfied after the credits rolled. Strap on your goggles, because we’re going to war on the mental frontier!



Premise
PN is framed as a summer camp adventure for gifted children. You take control of Raz as he trains at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a Psychonaut, a psychic secret agent. The events of the game cover Raz's basic training, as well as his attempts to stop a psychic conspiracy lurking in the background.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561481957

Execution
I found the story still held up after all these years. Playing the game really feels like being in a Saturday morning cartoon due to its energetic and cheeky tone guiding you through Raz's journey. The writing is pretty great and some jokes still got a chuckle out of me. Despite being full of tropes and cliches, PN's execution of them all creates a really unique experience.

My only real complaints are that the villain's motivations could've been more explicit. Their reasons are only really told via optional collectables, which is frustrating. Nonetheless, the journey to the end was quite enjoyable and the biggest reason why I recommend PN.



I felt that the overall mediocre gameplay failed to meet the high expectations the story set. Nevertheless, I still had fun. I finished with 100% completion in around ten hours. A casual playthrough probably would’ve taken around seven hours.


Mind Your Step
The main draw of the game is infiltrating someone’s mind and exploring their psyche. I absolutely love the unique theming and mechanics each one presents. Some gimmicks are annoying, but fit their associated person well. The cast is already pretty eclectic, but seeing the world through their eyes is a real trip. The sense of adventure PN instills is marvelous and I was always excited to see what would happen next.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2541460257


Mental Gymnastics Made Easy!
As a platformer, things were pretty average. Raz has all the right moves needed to get around- jumping, double jumping, gliding, etc. Movement felt pretty tight, although Raz moves a bit too slowly on foot. Platforming puzzles are rather basic, typically ranging from timed jumps to reaching a faraway ledge.

Aside from the cool theming, PN doesn't explore any new concepts in its platforming segments. As someone who doesn't dabble in the genre often, I found these sections rather easy and generic. While navigating a level never truly wowed me, the context of it all was really enthralling. As a result, each level was both a battlefield and a playground to explore.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2561607045

Pain is All in the Mind
Combat feels rather lackluster as well, being very simple and not terribly satisfying. Raz’s arsenal consists of a few offensive powers, such as psychic blasts and pyrokenesis, and a three-hit melee attack. Typical combat amounts to just attacking until the enemy dies. A few special enemies require specific strategies, but none are terribly difficult. Bosses are a nice change of pace, but also have relatively easy to beat. Regardless, fighting a person's inner demons is really interesting and helps break up platforming.

The only real difficulty comes from late-game enemies doing more damage and health pickups recovering a low and set amount of health. However, this is mitigated by consumable health items, enemies occasionally dropping health pickups on death, and an upgrade that slowly regens health. All in all, combat feels half-baked but serviceable.



Climbing the Ranks
As a Psychonaut in training, Raz will learn a pretty sizable number of psychic powers to play with. Granted, some powers are definitely more useful than others and may find permanent residence in one of your three active power slots. For example, I never got rid of Levitation due to how much it enhances Raz's mobility.

Raz will have to cultivate his psychic potential in order to learn new abilities and enhance his current ones. PN has collectathon elements that allow him to level up. Granted, it also became really annoying at times. Certain collectables were needles in a haystack- frustrating and tiring to track down. Their placements can be needlessly esoteric or annoying to reach.

Similarly, tracking your completion is needlessly convoluted. You don't have the ability to freely check your completion for each area in your journal. While you can view your current area's progress, you must physically travel back to other areas to see what you're missing. Since each level has multiple areas, backtracking to double-check stats got grating quickly. While there is a fast travel system, it does nothing to mitigate all this clunkiness.

Regardless, in a casual playthrough, you only need enough levels to get certain powers and most upgrades are just nice to have. I highly recommend just playing for fun and not stressing over going for completion on your first run.



PN has a very cartoony art style that I found to be charming. The colors used also pop and make things feel alive. Conversely, the lack of colors can really drive up the creep factor in certain areas. Level designs are fantastic as well, each feeling like its own self-contained theme park full of attractions. Nonetheless, prerendered cutscenes didn’t age well and are incredibly blurry. Similarly, certain textures are still blurry/low-res at higher resolutions. Animations are pretty good all-round.



The soundtrack is excellent. I was really shocked at how many genres were actually used in this game and how good they all were. The musical themes for each level are my favorites, each summarizing their associated person well. Sound effects are cartoony and fun. Despite some kid voices feeling off, the overall voice acting is fantastic.

Intel i9-10850K - RTX 3080 - 32GB RAM - SATA SSD - 1080p

Unfortunately, the port really dropped the ball here. Apparently, due to the game’s age, the code has issues running on modern rigs. I experienced several crashes when first playing, and another issue of triggers breaking due to high FPS. It took nearly half an hour of poking around with the settings to finally be able to play. I had to settle for playing in a 1920x1080 window and using compatibility mode for Windows 8. Nonetheless, the framerate was well above 60 while playing and FPS bugs were fixed.

Graphical options are bare-bones and only cover the most important features like V-sync, shadows and VFXs. KBM controls can be rebound, but I played with a controller and had no issues.

The game retains all the various quirks that the original console version had. For example, sounds cutting off or stacking, models clipping, etc. Subtitles are too big and opaque, covering up most of the screen during cutscenes.



While not a perfect game, PN still remains one of my favorites. The atmosphere it delivers is truly magnificent and the cartoonish nature of everything compliments the whimsical nature of the human mind. Gameplay lets you experience Raz’s bizarre summer camp experience, but is rather underwhelming. However, it still manages to still be fun and engaging throughout its playtime.

This review contains no major spoilers.

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin (WoR) was a fantastic surprise for me as a new-ish Monster Hunter fan. A monster-collector game based on a series with cool and varied creatures? Sign me up! I honestly didn’t expect to get so wrapped up in this entry, but WoR has a certain magic to it that compelled me to keep playing. While not a perfect game by any means, I can definitely say I'm hooked on what it offers.



Premise
You are the child of destiny, called to action when mysterious phenomena occurred during one of your tribe’s celebrations. The ocean and sky turned red as a swarm of Rathalos, great red wyverns, flew overhead. In the distance, a mysterious girl meets with an aged Rathalos in the jungle and is entrusted with an egg. Set upon by Hunters, the Rathalos defeats them before flying into the crimson night, and the girl flees into the vegetation. It is up to you to figure out how everything ties together and eventually save the world from ruin.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549100750

Execution
WoR presents a pretty entertaining story. It is a typical hero’s journey that will bring you across the world as you search for answers. While nothing wowed me greatly, the overall execution was well-done and I found myself invested in where the plot was going. This was due to how the game focuses on Riders, people who tame and cooperate with monsters. In contrast, the main series focuses around Hunters, people tasked with investigating and slaying monsters. Seeing how Riders form bonds of Kinship with their monsters, whom they call “Monsties,” in a Hunter’s world is really endearing and a prime source of conflict in WoR.

My biggest gripe is that the story is a bit too predictable. I was able to guess a few twists accurately and felt disappointed when they came to fruition. Likewise, there are some cutscenes where your character forgets they have multiple Monstie companions, making certain tense situations feel cheap. Where are your five other Monsties when the sixth gets attacked? I understand it's for drama and narrative purposes, but it gets pretty silly after a while.



As a monster-collector, be prepared to scour the world for various Monsties to befriend. As of writing, there are 128 fight-able and 87 collectable monsters. The core gameplay is like other monster-collectors with sprinkles of the main series and other elements. Expect to do some grinding, however.



My Buddy and Me
Collecting Monsties is pretty simple. Monsties are gained by hatching monster eggs which are found in nests. Said nests are found inside Monster Dens, dungeons of varying sizes and rarity/difficulty. Entering a new zone and dungeon delving to see what kinds of friends await you is quite addicting.

You can ride your Monstie around non-town areas and each has up to two exploration-aiding abilities, ranging from pinging certain resources to being able to climb up ivy or swim. While this definitely gives each Monstie a reason to stay in a party, having to go back to base and swap them out just to clear a specific obstacle can get frustrating. Likewise, a Monstie's assigned abilities can be strange at times. For example, a very nimble Monstie may not be able to jump across gaps, and airborne ones cannot ferry you across either. This system is nice on paper but can get tedious in practice.



We Fight as One!
Combat is based on a rock-paper-scissors system and each monster is given a default category. Riders and Monsties choose their attacks and opponents. If two participants target each other directly, a Head-to-Head battle is triggered. The winner of the type match-up takes less damage, deals more damage, and negates the opponent's attack. Ties result in both attacks going through normally. Although learning a new monster’s patterns is always engaging, the system can be annoying due to some dumb Monstie and partner AI.

You also participate as a Rider, using traditional Hunter weapons to help fight against enemies. There are six types to choose from, each with clear uses. Large monsters have targetable body parts with varying resistances to your weapons. Breaking these parts gives you bonus rewards and may affect the monster’s combat potential.

Attacking successfully generates Kinship between you and your Monstie. Kinship can be spent in two ways: issuing direct orders to your Monstie or mounting your Monstie if maxed out. Mounting recovers both of your health and removes any status ailments. You have direct control over your Monstie and can choose to use your Kinship attack.

Kinship Moves are super attacks that have initiative priority and cancel your opponent’s attacks as well. The accompanying animations are all excellent, showcasing each Monstie’s personality well. Monster Hunter is a series that isn’t afraid to get silly and some moves are real gems.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549192153
There’s also online content, although very few people have been participating since launch. You can do 1v1 or 2v2 tournament matches and go on co-op expeditions to get eggs and fight monsters. Unfortunately, online functions are unlocked pretty far into the second area of the game.



My Best-est Best Friend
Similarly, Monstie customization is also unlocked in the second area of the game. However, once you unlock gene (skill) customization, a whole new layer of strategy is available.

Each Monstie has a unique set of Genes, all randomly placed on a small grid. These genes can be customized to your liking, enabling you to make your favorite Monsties even stronger. However, you must sacrifice the donor when transferring skills. Gene customization makes the combat system much deeper and engaging as a result.



WoR has a really nice art style. Characters and monsters are done in a really beautiful cell-shaded style. Environments are created in a style more in-line with the main series but are all gorgeous. There was an endless sense of wonder for me when I explored a new area and hatched new friends. Nonetheless, the limited and fixed draw distance detracted from how much enjoyment I had just wandering around the maps and taking everything in.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2549098573
Animations are pretty good overall, and monsters moves are accurate to their mainline counterparts. Lip sync is tuned to the Japanese dub, but wasn’t terribly distracting.



Monster Hunter games have very solid orchestral tracks and WoR didn’t disappoint. From relaxing zone tunes to more dreary and tense boss themes, I had a great time listening to the music. Sound effects were great as well, anything monster-related being the clear winner. I played using the English dub, which I found to be okay. Some voices were a bit grating, but I really liked others.

Intel i9-10850K - RTX 3080 - 32GB RAM - SATA SSD - 1440p

I had no issue with the game at all, and it ran at a consistent 144 FPS. The number of overall options is pretty good, but graphical options are pathetic. Only Anti-Aliasing, LOD, texture detail and shadow quality are options. The game supports KBM and controllers, and all controls are customizable.




Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a game that, despite investing nearly ninety hours into, still leaves me with much to explore and do. I enjoyed the story for what it is, but the gameplay is what keeps me coming back for more. Regardless of its issues, I am having a lot of fun collecting all the Monsties available and building up my team. With planned free updates in the future, WoR is an excellent purchase now or further down the line.

Until We Die (UWD) is a game that I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, the graphics, atmosphere, and premise are very good. On the other hand, the gameplay has various issues that makes playing it annoying at times. While I had fun, there was an equal amount of frustration.

Humanity still remembers that day; the skies pounded the earth, mutated horrors rose from the debris, and they fled to the safety of the Metro tunnels. There, in the darkness, they found refuge. Now they will stand their ground to preserve their future until they die.

This is what UWD’s open cinematic presents, and it really drew me in with the mystery surrounding that day. Unfortunately, as of writing, the intro cinematic is only used to frame gameplay elements. Only one scenario is currently available to play, and it forgoes any additional narrative. Similarly, playing the same scenario over and over again got boring after repeated deaths.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507625597


Overall, I found the gameplay to be fun but flawed in many areas. UWD begins with you choosing your Commander from either Ivan or Anna. I prefer using Anna due to her shotgun being more powerful and reliable than Ivan’s peashooter of an assault rifle. Both also have unique, albeit underwhelming, perks. Ivan’s “increases” his damage every fifth shot, and Anna regains stamina upon picking up food.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507629796
UWD is self-described as a "side-scrolling strategy game" which revolves around effectively leading your followers. You have to give them a job and assignment to start working. However, the sheer amount of micromanaging you have to do with them definitely became grating. Units will idle if left unattended, and growing your base means leading more and more units to their jobs with each passing day. While being a good leader does feel satisfying, running from one end of the base to the other to get your units to do their job is just tedious.

Adding onto the back-and-forth issue is the stamina system, which makes UWD feel much more restrictive, rather than tense and tactical. You have a finite amount to sprint around with. Stamina recovers VERY slowly, but can be sped up by waiting near barrel braziers you light up with food. The end result is having to run between barrels and wait to recover fully due to how spaced out everything is. This makes running around at night to help your units defend barricades, which are at the extreme ends of your base, a slog. Since UWD revolves around a day/night cycle, you’re likely to burn through it all just trying to grow your base during the day.

The base-building itself is fairly typical. Aside from assigning workers, it’s up to you to explore the borders of your base for essential materials. Scrap can build/upgrade structures, food pays for services to get new units, and vials are used to research upgrades. The mutant territory is perilous and cleaning it up to expand is your short-term goal. Erecting defensive barricades helps hold off nightly attacks, but their basic form is painfully brittle, so getting them to level two via research is paramount. If enemies destroy barricades, they will close in on your power generator and sunder EVERYTHING in between. If the generator is destroyed, it's game over.

My chief complaint about the base-building is UWD’s overreliance on the Digger class to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Diggers are essential, as they can do the important tasks of digging for loot and food, clearing blockages for expansion, and being able to attack very specific yet dangerous enemies. However, they are terrible at defending your base due to their low damage and range. While they do get stronger with experience, it takes a significant amount of days for that to happen. The end result is having many weak yet essential units defending your barricades, which are likely to crumble without support from other classes or larger numbers of Diggers per barricade.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507667688
Lastly, the overall difficulty is quite high. Getting acclimated to everything took me several in-game days before things started clicking. Be prepared to die and fail a lot at first. Likewise, it is quite easy to get stuck in a regression loop if you lose too many structures/units and can’t venture out to get more resources to expand and grow. Since UWD’s difficulty scales linearly with time, you may end up burning more resources than you can find by exploring in mid- to late-game. Dealing with enemies on Normal was okay, but they felt too spongy on Seasoned difficulty.

Regardless of my griping, UWD is honestly pretty fun. There is a real sense of accomplishment in building a good base with strong walls, getting better, and surviving until I die. However, these negatives stick out and were hard to ignore. It appears more content will be added later on, and I’m definitely interested to see what else UWD can offer.



I have to commend the environmental artist for their work. Despite the pixel graphics, an immense amount of detail and care went into the environmental design. Delving deeper into the Metro felt fantastic with the mix of a realistic post-apocalyptic setting and the alien-mutated growth spreading around. Characters and enemies are more basic, but are all nice. The animations were really smooth but were limited, and nothing really stood out.



I thought the audio was fine, but I honestly paid attention to it the least due to the frenetic gameplay. Music is mostly there in the background to build atmosphere, and the sound effects were okay, nothing really standing out. I did enjoy the trolley man getting his own song if you are close enough to him.

Intel Core i7-8700K - GTX 1080 Ti - 16 GB RAM

UWD ran fine for me, but others have reported various black screens occurring.

The amount of in-game options is quite small, but didn’t bother me greatly. It ran at consistent 60 FPS without any freezing, hitching, etc. However, not being able to rebind controls annoyed me. Only your left hand is required to play UWD with a keyboard, but I started to cramp after long sessions. Controllers are supported as well, but the mappings felt weird to me, so I didn't make it terribly far.

AS OF WRITING, the game currently lacks any form of saving due to a “critical save system issue" that was found before release. Unfortunately, the developers have not gone into further detail on the matter. The end result is having to marathon each run, which gets exhausting given how time-sensitive gameplay is.

Likewise, there are some bugs present that made playing more frustrating than it should be. I have encountered a merchant spawning irregularly, getting teleported out of a room upon being hit, and achievements not unlocking. For the most part, these are all moderately annoying at best, but others have had other issues I haven’t been able to reproduce.


While I enjoyed my time playing, I can't deny that I also groaned and sighed at things. Ultimately, I can't recommend this game because of a lack of content, tedium being closely behind the fun I had, the lack of a save/quit function, and other bugs. Hopefully the issues I listed get addressed/patched because I honestly wouldn't mind revisiting UWD in the future.

For an indie team's first project, I am definitely impressed. They also seem active in trying to better their game, which is fantastic. Here's hoping they continue to grow from here.

If you enjoy the idea of creating a colony of Metro-dwelling survivors in a mutant-saturated post-apocalypse, please only consider purchasing once save/quitting gets put back in.

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... (or NR henceforth) is an excellent game that I loved playing through despite some issues. The best way to experience it would be to go in as uninformed on the story as possible and to temper your expectations, as this is a weird mix of both remaster and remake. Some things have been changed whereas others feel straight out of the 2010 original.



I’ll be vague here due to the various reveals in the game. In a nutshell, you must protect your ailing sister who has a mysterious disease. Humanity has encountered a catastrophic event, and now the world is starting over in a recovering post-apocalyptic setting. With a mysterious race of creatures called “Shades” terrorize humanity, you must step up to save everyone. Despite being a rather cliché premise, the fantastic execution made me eager to see what else the world had to offer. The new world is a rough place and the story points definitely reflect the fact.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2476723727
The game is split into two distinct parts and initially seems like a fairly standard hero's journey and coming-of-age story. However, the game's interpretation of both is really stand-out and the revelations are fantastically surprising. The main cast is great and they all feel like believable characters. Although you are the protagonist, their struggles and backstories help build and contextualize the world you explore in your journey. However, to get the full picture of the story you’ll have to complete the game several times as each path shows something new.



NR is a fairly typical third-person hack-n-slasher with adventure elements. You’ll be tasked with exploring the world and helping people in order to become strong enough to save your sister. Since the experience is highly linear, the adventure aspect is very limited, but the story portions help keep things interesting and rewarding. Nonetheless, there are many times where you must backtrack to a location to get new information in order to progress. There are ways of traveling around quickly, but the constant back and forth wore me down.

I wasn't particularly impressed with melee combat, which felt like any other hack-n-slasher. You eventually get three types of weapons to choose from, each having their own movesets and specialties. You can also block/parry and evade to keep yourself safe and mobile. There is a nice variety of enemies, but the overall difficulty is pretty moderate (at least on normal) so encounters typically end quickly. Eventually, armored enemies get introduced but they are more annoying than difficult as you have to break their armor and guard before doing major damage.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2476747088
Combat is supplemented by a magic system that is pretty fun. Magic is hybridized with some light bullet hell mechanics. Some enemies can cast magic in the form of ball-shaped bullets. Certain bullets can be destroyed by your own spells, or by hitting them with a melee attack to regain MP, and even absorbed by one of your spells and turned into an attack. You get a pretty decent selection of spells and all are useful. Some bosses also require heavy magic usage to hit out-of-reach weak points. Combining these two systems makes combat pretty fun.

Smatterings of other genres help keeps things weird yet engaging. For example, there is a lengthy text-adventure segment, an on-rails shooter and even a Resident Evil-esque mansion to explore. These are all mostly short-lived but their presence helps differentiate each level and makes them feel more immersive or unique.

A large blemish for gameplay is the sheer amount of grinding/ farming needed to complete side quests and weapon upgrades. The problem is that most side quests are fetch quests which require rare materials. The end result is having to run around the same areas again and again to get lucky with RNG and snag the required item, either through searching, or killing Shades. The same process must be done for upgrading weapons as well. The game can be finished with basic weapons but is significantly harder. Side quests are there mostly to give money but some are mandatory for getting items required to unlocking certain endings.



https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2476725646
I really enjoyed the art direction of the game. There is a lot of beauty in seeing nature reclaim the world and the various human settlements trying to thrive. The environmental designers really delivered some beautiful scenes despite the game being set in a post-apocalypse. NR features updated graphics and character models which look great. However, some textures can still look low-res and characters can look a bit same-y with their doll-like faces.

Overall animations were pretty good but having to wait for NPCs to turn to you before talking is annoying. Combat animations for the protagonist, Shades, and your followers are great. I really loved the overall character design as well, and weapons are all distinct and beautiful. However, pre-rendered scenes appear to be at a lower framerate and lip-sync is tuned for the Japanese dub.



The game features some fantastic songs and music. The orchestral tracks really encapsulate the perfect emotion to feel for a zone and also deliver memorable tracks to boot. The lyrical songs are really powerful and add a nice layer of depth to the music. I spent a lot of time just idling about taking in the music because I really love it.

I played with the English dub, and everyone did a stellar job. Having played Gestalt, hearing the returning voices made me smile. NPCs are also fully voice acted and they all sound pretty good. Overall SFXs are good, nothing noteworthy either way.

Intel Core i7-8700K - GTX 1080 Ti - 16 GB RAM

I have experienced practically all the common complaints others have mentioned in reviews and forum posts. This includes:

• stuttering/ freezing
  
• game capping at 48 FPS on launch
  
• random crashes

HOWEVER, none of my friends have experienced any major issues. Please take this as a sign that your experience WILL vary. The only way I got the game to run consistently was by using third-party programs and manually tweaking the game. If you do decide to get the game, please do your research on the various issues you MAY face.



With ver.1.22474487139... we get some additional goodies: a new boss fight, the Recycled World DLC and Ending E. The new boss is definitely a great set-piece battle and fits with the story. The Recycled World lets you play as father-Nier from Nier Gestalt but is just a series of combat challenge rooms which is disappointing. Its main purpose is for farming money and rare materials and obtaining three weapons as a completion reward. Ending E helps bridge the gap between the ending of Nier Replicant/Gestalt and Nier Automata.



Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... is an excellent game despite its flaws. I feel that anyone can appreciate the story it tells, provided they have the stamina to get at least two endings. Gameplay is pretty mixed, but I had fun playing overall given practically everything else on offer.

While not a perfect game, it is definitely one I keep fondly in my memories.

GAME- 8/10
SOLID RECOMMENDATION


PORT- 4/10
EXPERIENCE WILL VARY

What’s in a Yakuza game? Please click here to learn more.

Yakuza 6 marks the end of Kiryu’s journey as the protagonist of the series. This is the finale of nearly 30 years of game events, Kiryu’s sendoff party, as well as the first steps of the new Dragon Engine. Although there are definitely some missteps in this elaborate dance, the underlying song that guides the game is very bittersweet yet enthralling.



This entry’s story is centered around the aftermath of Haruka’s actions at the end of Yakuza 5 and the appearance of a mysterious baby. Yakuza 6 is a much more personal story revolving around Kiryu and the ones he loves. It’s up to him to solve the mystery, traveling to Onomichi, Hiroshima to track down the baby’s family and getting caught up in Tojo Clan drama all over again in the process. The baby’s origin is inexorably linked to multiple crime syndicates; dredging for the truth further fans the flames of war between them.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2439738701
Overall, I liked the story, but felt that the truth bomb of the baby’s origin and some other plot points were confusing or weird. The new characters as a whole were pretty good although some could have been fleshed out a bit more aside from being “stone-cold boss” or “suddenly the smart one.” The pacing was okay overall, moving at a fairly consistent rate so you don’t get bogged down too often while playing. The only real exception is the late-game exposition dumps to fill in the gaps the mystery left behind.

As the subtitle implies, the game’s main themes are of:

• life- its preservation, creation, and termination of. Also, the decisions one makes and how it affects themselves and others.
  
  
• family- what ties people together, being supportive, and being willing to sacrifice for them (or not)

With this in mind, a baby is the perfect symbol. Kiryu makes sacrifices to ensure the baby is safe and can grow up normally, his struggles are what make the story really engaging.

I do think that the story is good but not as good as the previous games.



Yakuza 6 makes various tweaks to the formula but not all are for the better. One of the biggest changes is how combat plays out.

Kiryu has some new moves but has also been stripped of some. He can now parry attacks, then do a counter Heat action. However, he lacks Heat actions against grounded enemies, a series staple. Other Heat moves were also removed and input windows are a bit finicky. Similarly, new move Revelations and any trainers (such as the beloved Komaki) are notably absent. Nonetheless, Extreme Heat mode, a temporary powered-up state, gives access to some exclusive Heat moves if you have them unlocked. EH mode also has new QTE attacks if you hit an enemy enough, dealing good damage but reducing the gauge significantly.

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2440266244
The XP system has been completely redone. There are now 5 different types of experience, each corresponding to a color. You now have more freedom in choosing upgrades (including baseline stats) but need the associated amount of each type of XP to purchase it. However, XP distribution is very uneven. The first 3 types are overly abundant, whereas the last 2 require quite a bit of intentional grinding to get. This got annoying in the late game where upgrade costs skyrocketed.

Actual combat was surprisingly consistent due to the enemy AI being pretty competent. They dodge and block frequently which prevents you from spamming attacks brainlessly. Their ability to swarm and overwhelm you is also dangerous as you can get stunlocked fairly easily. The average enemy count is also higher overall, basic street fights usually having 5 or so enemies at once even in early game. Story encounters can also have at least 10 or so in a given encounter room. Nonetheless, having basic enemies consistently stop your combos with blocking and having to face multiple at once definitely gets annoying. However, since enemies have only one health bar, encounters can also be ended quickly. This is especially so if you max out attack and stack attack-boosting equipment.

In terms of other gameplay elements, I felt the game was a bit lacking. Portable weapons and crafting are gone. Gear has been nerfed a bit; you only get two slots instead of three, but can stack armor-type gear. Some minigames were removed, reportedly due to engine problems (e.g. bowling). Likewise, some staples, such as the coliseum and western gambling, are absent for some reason. There are fewer substories (sidequests) overall but most were good. The RTS-lite Clan Creator, baseball sim, bar chats and other new minigames were okay but don't fill the hole enough.

I finished the story around 27-ish hours, including grinding and most substories, so the game is a bit short. Granted, going for 100% will likely take significantly longer. Overall, you’ll definitely get the Yakuza experience, but Six fails to live up to the rather high standards Zero sets.



https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2439742260
One thing the Dragon Engine does fantastically is the visuals. The overall quality is superb and truly feels like a step-up like for the series in almost all areas, especially Zero which came out before this one. Kamurocho and Onomichi look breathtaking in the pre-rendered scenes as well as when walking about. Pre-rendered faces are absolutely insane in terms of detail; it is really close to photo-realism at times, and the facial animations are great. In-engine cutscenes are a bit iffy, however. Mouth movement/ lip sync can be laughably bad and having characters with almost perfectly still faces and default breathing animations talk to each other is disappointing. Overall animations and VFX were really good though.



The series retains its strong sound design here as well. The voice acting is superb for the main characters and really helped sell them. There is also considerably more voice acting available, which is a big step for the series and made the world feel more alive. Child VA in some substories was a bit dodgy, as they sounded older than the models looked. Overall SFX were great - combat felt weighty and cities felt alive. The music was also very strong with a pretty nice selection of genres and instruments. Boss themes definitely stood out, giving each encounter some great depth.



Intel Core i7-8700K - GTX 1080 Ti - 16 GB RAM DDR4

I had some weirdness with the Discord overlay and launching initially, but no other issues afterwards. The game also features a nice variety of graphical options to tweak things to your liking. I averaged 60 FPS or above consistently.



Despite hearing that 6 was the worst in the series, I was surprised at how good it actually was. All the hallmarks of a Yakuza game are present: gritty crime-drama story, wacky and light-hearted substories, and fun overall gameplay. However, the overall package lacked impact due to the aforementioned issues; writing issues, removed content, and altered combat were my biggest gripes. Nonetheless, the overall game was a fun ride.

While not the ideal conclusion to the Kiryu saga, it was gratifying to see him off from the series and get closure on his story.

This review will be shorter due to various IRL circumstances preventing me from dedicating more time to playing. I apologize if this review is lacking compared to what I usually put out.

Valheim is a PVE survival-adventure game that can be played solo or with up to 10 players. It has been likened to Minecraft and Rust but offers a pretty unique experience amidst the rather saturated genre. It honestly surprised me with how much fun I had despite being in Early Access and not being terribly interested in survival games. There is quite a lot to do with more things being added with regular updates so you’re bound to have a blast whenever you decide to give it a go.


There isn’t a concrete narrative but the lore is that Odin defeated and trapped his foes in prisons that were sent adrift from the World Tree. Centuries pass and eventually Odin’s enemies are amassing power. He sends his Valkyries to find a champion to stop them and that lucky person is you. Beating all 5 of the bosses allows you to ascend into the tenth Norse world of Valheim.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2435786001
Aside from other lore snippets found from dedicated lore stones, you are free to explore the world, gather resources and prepare for the 5 bosses the game currently offers.



Valheim doesn’t offer anything particularly new or innovative, but its core gameplay is quite polished and the basic gameplay loop is fun and rewarding. You start out essentially naked and have to start doing your survival game staples: chop trees for wood, collect stones for a fire, find food, etc. All these steps remain relevant throughout the game so they all feel like proper mechanics rather than gimmicks. I somehow found myself enjoying doing these menial chores because the game is quite relaxing (when you aren’t in combat of course).

As a survival game, you have your bog-standard health and stamina gauges. To increase them temporarily, you simply have to find food and consume it. Rarer/ more complex foods grant you larger bonuses. I was pleasantly surprised at how abundant various foods are when the genre is all about subsistence. Berries and mushrooms spawn in clusters and huntable animals are pretty common too. The only real downside to food is how short their effect timer is but it’s a fair trade-off. Certain foods like alcohol also confer small bonuses like resistance to cold weather.

Combat in Valheim is admittedly rather clunky and punishing. You have a standard, heavy and a block with most weapons. You have a basic 3-hit combo with melee weapons and can draw and hold an arrow fully to increase damage and distance. Shields are also available to keep on the defensive and protect yourself from danger- time things right and you can parry melee attacks, leaving your enemy stunned momentarily! Carefully managing stamina is tantamount as it dictates if you can attack, sprint, roll and more. Health slowly regens if you have eaten, making encounters tense as enemies can easily tear you to pieces even with late-game gear.

Fighting feels rather stiff with you having to commit to attacking and not being able to turn around mid-swing. You an also get stunlocked rather easily which is annoying if you get mobbed or choose to wear light armors. There is a pretty nice variety of enemies available currently but you will get tired of seeing them since there are typically only 3-4 unique ones per biome. The game scales linearly as you progress but each enemy requires some degree of tactics to get out unscathed. The game has a skill system that improves your attributes as you use them. Thus, you are passively rewarded by just playing the game. The downside is that it takes quite a bit to get a skill up intentionally and late-game enemies are quite tanky.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2435786977
Crafting and base-building are a big point in the game. The sheer number of collectable items and craftables is quite impressive. It was always fun killing a new enemy or getting a new resource and seeing what I could possibly do with it. I commend the game for setting crafting requirements fairly. You will definitely have to commit time to getting resources for some but you can definitely get it done in a session provided you know where to look and get lucky with RNG sometimes for dungeon-specific drops. Base building is fun but a bit clunky when it comes to placing/ snapping items. While not a deal breaker, it did make building my late-game bases a slog at times. Oh, and you also get unlimited repairs at your workbenches!

There are currently 5 bosses to fight. While they can be done solo, they really feel balanced for MP due to their high health pools and super dangerous attacks. The aforementioned combat clunkiness made the fights feel a bit cheap at times but coming out victorious was a glorious feeling as a result. Otherwise, I had a blast playing solo and the game felt like a complete experience (no comment on MP due to not having time to commit to a session). Wandering the globe was a blast although getting the boss-marker tablets was a pain at times.



Valheim goes for a low-poly aesthetic but the art direction is just BEAUTIFUL. I was simply amazed by how gorgeous some scenes were at sunrise and stopped to take in the world several times. All the biome felt really nice and distinct which made adventuring feel really exciting. Characters look okay and weapons/ gear are good as well. Even with very low graphical settings, this game is a real looker. I commend Iron Gate AB on a very solid delivery.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2435785169


Valheim goes for a very atmospheric approach to sound design. Music is mostly there in the background when exploring, making it a very chill and relaxing experience. The sound of you chopping wood, clanking around in armor and hearing the wind blow is all super immersive. Combat is much more tense as enemies surround you or close in. This is another area I feel the game excels in although more variation in available tracks would be welcome.



I had no issue running the game. There is also a pretty good selection in graphical options to tune the game to your liking.




I am definitely very happy with the time I spent with the game. It makes the trip from essentially naked newb to grizzled survivor really fun. Valheim definitely doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it presents it in a a very fresh and entertaining way. Getting a base started and making my way through the bosses was a lot of fun. Combing the land for new enemies, loot and other fun stuff was fun. The stellar low-poly but well-directed artstyle is easily my favorite part of the game. Couple that with a nice OST and adventuring is your middle name. The only real complaints I have are combat feeling rather clunky, slow skill leveling at later levels and perhaps a lack of new systems to really make the game pop.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re curious about the hype or are a fan of survival games.

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I played the demo for this game a while ago and was quite pleased with the experience. With the game being fully released now, I can say that it feels like a nice continuation of what was offered so please read my preliminary review. Most still holds up in the final release.

However, there were some cracks I did not initially notice which did dampen the experience but the game is still pretty fun.

We now are able to follow Brante’s story up until the end of The Revolt when he is 30 years old over 5 total arcs. The Childhood and Adolescent arcs are identical to how they were in the demo so I skim read them as I rebuilt my Brante. The Youth arc is when you actually get to choose your path in life and steer your Brante down it in adulthood/ Peace Time. There are 3 major paths with a few branches: Noble, Priest and the Lotless. The overall stories told are pretty good with some good dilemmas. I was really interested in all the new events.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2416513440
Nonetheless, there is definitely some illusion of choice. You will be funneled into some common events that’re slightly modified to fit your path like a duel gone wrong being either about religion or Lot. Likewise, some events play the same regardless of your reputation with a person or choice. At most there is some very minor dialogue differences. This creates some tonal dissonance as roleplay is being disregarded in these segments. For example, you will ALWAYS become friends with Tommas no matter what you pick.

I did 3 major playthroughs, one for each path with several other failed/ experimental games:

• Judge for the people (lived past The Revolt)
  
• Inquisitor’s thrall (true death in Peace Time)
  
• Lotless rebel (died supporting The Revolt)

Overall, I think the narrative is good and entertaining, a nice trip for fans of choose-your-own-adventure games. I expected a bit more polish in the finished product but being able to steer Brante in the direction you want is still really fun. There are a lot of interesting characters to meet and they all really help set the stage for your path. Choices can still be pretty brutal in terms of outcomes and moral choices and I found myself deliberating some for a few minutes.



Gameplay is exactly the same as the demo. You mostly read and make choices for Brante on how to deal with a given situation. Each decision has multiple answers, each raising or lowering a different stat. You need high stats in order to pass more difficult skill checks in lategame. After playing several runs, I feel that stats are weird in that they are both super important and not important at all.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2416592353
Dedicated roleplaying is punished to some degree. Following a clear but narrow path leads to many complications such as tanking your family or career status or causing you to build a Brante ill-equipped to meet skill checks. Skill checks are entirely pass/fail with no consideration for your proficiency. For example, I maxed out Valor (combat prowess) but still ended up dying in a choice involving fighting and requiring high Valor. What is the point of maxing out a stat if you are not rewarded for it?

Likewise, I wanted to roleplay a righteous judge but the best outcome for a dilemma required leveling Manipulation, a stat labeled for the Lotless job. I wasn’t able to increase it reliably since the Judge focuses on Diplomacy and Valor. The result of my low skill was that I had to let a friend die, much to my chagrin. Despite having almost maxed out my Diplomacy I could NOT use it in any capacity to aid my friend. In this regard, blind playthroughs are a bit annoying since your build may end up short of doing the actual things you want.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2416610195
There is also the issue of getting railroaded into a no-win situation if you lack the correct stats. Without spoiling too much, the Judge has to get a prominent person removed from their military position. You MUST have high job stats in order to pass. I had moderate and even job stats because getting one too low gives a rather punitive event setting you back quite a bit. If you don’t have the stats you MUST pick the True Death/ game over option. The end result is you having to rewind the story to get the appropriate stats or try your luck with other routes/ jobs. I was definitely bummed out when this happened since it felt like metagaming for stats was more important than being immersed in the story and roleplaying.

The aforementioned illusion of choice didn’t help either. Some events resolve the same way in the end with minor differences. This makes decisions have considerably less weight, causing the overall experience to feel way more scripted/ linear. In a game entirely about making choices, I wish scenarios were more varied to directly reference Brante’s actions and make you feel the true weight of your actions, both good and bad.

Willpower got a slight modification in the final game. Now you will sometimes gain a stat increase alongside Willpower. You still get back-to-back Willpower options but it is slightly easier to keep it high in the full release. Keeping your family happy is very difficult and unless you min-max everything someone is always going to end up sad or your family stats will tank. Becoming disgraced has some pretty nasty debuffs so be wary of how you treat your family. The game has a map tab to summarize key locations but still lacks an encyclopedia tab. The sheer amount of people and events is mind boggling and I struggled to remember everything and everyone, especially in my Inquisitor run with all the different schools of thought and lore.

In summation, gameplay is overall good but there isn’t nearly as much freedom as the game says it gives you.



The game retains is beautiful monochromatic ink drawings. There are now cutscenes but they have rather limited/ stilted movement with characters and objects just sliding across the screen. The journal aesthetic is still very strong and thematically appropriate. Character portraits are all great. Not much else to say as the game is very narrative focused.



The music and sound effects are still great overall. I was always in the right mood thanks to the music. The orchestral sounds really sell the “classic” aesthetic the game is going for. Sound effects add a layer of immersion I really appreciated even if they do get recycled a little bit much. I liked Brante’s VO overall.



The game ran well overall. However, it locked up once after mashing through dialogue following the Sacrament scene. Cutscenes lack any form of subtitles which is a very weird decision in a text-based game. Options are rather sparse but the game isn’t terribly taxing and should run on most computers.



I feel like I can recommend the game but it honestly fell short of what I was hoping for. The narrative and intertwined gameplay definitely felt clunky since roleplaying and metagaming were at odds with one another. Trying to be in character may require stats you didn’t earn yet, resulting in only bad choices being offered. The railroading and common events also stripped some fun away from each path. However, all the fun and enjoyable stuff I mentioned in my demo review still stands true for the most part.

While Brante's destiny is to suffer, it is unclear if this is due to the Twin Gods’ will or simply because of the game design.

7/ 10
WORTH A LOOK

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River City Girls is a 2D beat-em-up RPG. Overall, I had fun but definitely felt that this was a rough experience. My initial experience wasn't that great so I had to force myself to keep going. Once I passed some humps things got better but some underlying issues still annoyed me.



The story is simple: 2 girls are on a mission to rescue their boyfriends, fighting anyone who gets in their way in the name of love. You can play as either Kyoko (ponytail) or Misako (bob cut) in this adventure. Neither one has unique lines and the story assumes both are actually on screen at all times. The story starts in detention in River City High when Kyoko gets an image text showing her boyfriend Riki and Misako’s Kunio being kidnapped by some mysterious person. The two girls immediately spring into action and the adventure begins.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415035182
The plot is very B-tier action movie in terms of structure and writing. Without spoiling too much, you’ll get strung along by different people in your quest and have to fight powerful opponents to squeeze info out of them. The writing is okay overall but some lines got a chuckle out of me. As a River City newb, there seemed to be a lot of references and returning characters which will likely make vets smile. The game mostly focuses on gameplay, the story being used as a framing device and excuse to travel across the city. Overall, I didn’t particularly care about anyone once I reached both endings.

There is a normal ending, reached by simply playing the game normally, and a true ending, gained on a NG+ cycle and getting all of a particular type of collectable. The normal ending was pretty bad as all your actions were for naught essentially. The true ending is more storybook but the new final boss was really weird and underexplained.



Overall, this game is not very beginner friendly. Gameplay starts out rather difficult as you are very weak at level 1 with low stats, have few moves and no portable healing items. After I got to zone 3, things started to click but until then I struggled a lot.

Enemies all have rather large health pools so earlygame felt like chopping down trees with a plastic knife at times. Likewise, they all attack rather quickly and their instant wake-up attacks definitely annoyed me a lot. Since I wanted to learn their moves and my own, I took a few hits trying to figure everything out. However, this is discouraged in the tutorial area as you have a finite amount of healing items and many enemies to deal with. Dying also causes you to lose 1/4 of your current money. The end result was me feeling really frustrated and annoyed as I tried my best to learn.

Bosses are legitimate bosses- they can take a lot of punishment and deal just as much if you are caught unaware or get sloppy. There are only 6 in the main game, the last one being swapped out if you meet the criteria for the true ending. Some have gimmicks that annoyed me like having to line up a projectile to reflect back at the boss. However, these are definitely pretty fun after fighting the same few enemies again and again in a level. Dying to a boss means you HAVE to skip all their expository scenes before you are allowed to fight again. This is just plain annoying.

Defeating a boss gives you with an accessory, a piece of equipment that grants a VERY minor boost to a certain parameter; you can equip up to 2. There are also a few side quests in the game that also give you an accessory as well as some clothing shops to buy some at. Aside from the 2 secret ones, they all felt rather underpowered.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415034723
Once you beat the first boss, the game opens up a lot. Now you can go into town spend your money on healing items and new moves. Unfortunately, the economy in the game is ridiculous. Enemies drop pretty small amounts of money even in lategame. To compensate, you fight multiple per screen and they respawn if you enter a new screen. The end result is a pretty repetitious and tediously grindy game where you HAVE to farm pretty spongey enemies for money. Food is priced somewhat reasonably but moves and some accessories cost hundreds of dollars. I am unaware of how other River City games handle their economies but here it just felt artificially limiting and unfun.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2415042142
I was honestly considering giving up around boss 2 but I decided to keep playing. Honestly, the game got better as I got stronger and got more money. Just being able to take another hit is a huge upgrade and getting more moves to combo into feels really great (unfortunately you unlock all moves around level 12). I chose to play as Kiyoko and I liked her kick-based moveset and ease of comboing. Mitsuko plays completely differently, focusing on punches, and the secret characters are also interesting move-wise. I played solo, but I can imagine the local only co-op being really fun with a buddy. There are also various enemies to recruit and use as helpful summons to help combos going, better ones being locked later into the game.

I finished the story in just under 6 hours. Completing the game gives the option to NG+ or freeroam with your finished save. One big negative is that there is no confirmation screen for NG+ and I accidentally started a new cycle upon loading my file post final boss.



Overall, I really like the visuals and art direction. The intro cutscene is a page from a manga which is a really nice way to make things pop. This is used a few more times for some key scenes. The overall art style is in pixel graphics but with a pretty astonishing amount of detail. I particularly like the environments which range from a ramshackle school to a clean shopping mall to a really pretty beach. Character sprites are all pretty good and reflect their character portraits/ busts well. Animations were good and ran smoothly at 60 FPS.



The game’s OST is pretty good. It definitely sounds reminiscent of SNES era games with some modern instruments and vocal tracks thrown in. I was drawn more towards the action on screen but I enjoyed what I heard when I had a chance to catch my breath between fights. Vocal tracks were pretty good but I felt they sounded a bit same-y. SFX were okay. They definitely captured the NES feeling well but nothing really stood out to me. Voice acting was overall okay. The professionals sounded great but for some reason a few youtubers were put in. They sounded pretty good overall although I could tell there was a difference in mic quality while using headphones.



The game ran well with no issue. Some annoyances:

• Can’t view/ edit controller bindings; only KB
  
  
• Sometimes the recruitment and summoning button doesn’t work
  
  
• Too many actions are hard-mapped to light attack and some buttons are unused. I regularly did the wrong action which led to frustration

I honestly feel that I had fun playing but can’t deny that I really felt annoyed and bored at times. Overall, I’d say that the game IS worth playing but to temper your expectations if you are new to the series or genre.

The narrative was just okay and mostly there to frame gameplay. Gameplay was rather muddled for me as I had difficulty acclimating myself to what I needed to do. The tutorial did NOT leave a good impression on me but things did get better once I got to town. Visuals were really nice and were done cleanly. Audio was overall good, capturing the NES days well but also including some modernizations. Game ran well but some QoL stuff would be nice.

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Yomawari: Midnight Shadows is the sequel to Night Alone. Overall, it is more of the same but with a greater emphasis on story. I definitely had fun with this entry as well I was hoping for more improvements/ changes to truly elevate the sequel experience.



The story focuses on the relationship between two elementary school girls, Yui and Haru. They go to see the fireworks together but the mood is dampened by the fact that Haru is moving away soon. It is implied that they are close friends and Haru says that she won’t move in order to stay with Yui forever. Yui seems to know the truth and redirects the conversation back to watching the fireworks instead. They watch until the end and make their journey home from their mountain view. However, Haru hears a strange voice and Yui volunteers to check it out as Haru hides. Yui is taken by some strange spirit and Haru comes out of hiding. This begins your adventure into mystery.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2412144297
The rest of the game is spent trying to find and rescue Yui. You get to play as both girls. Yui usually starts the chapter as a preview of and hint towards the zone she is in. You then switch to Haru to explore town and find Yui. There are significantly more cutscenes and dialogue in this game as it is more story-focused. Overall, it is still quite cliché but I enjoyed the trip. The overall writing is a bit basic but we do play as a child so I am conflicted. I wish that time were spent on fleshing out their relationship so I had more personal investment in this journey. Yui and Haru clearly have a tight bond so I would've loved to actually see it instead of the game saying that they are close.

The overall themes explored are darker than Night Alone’s. Without spoiling too much, it’s mostly about friendship, promises, loss and acceptance. There is also significantly more violent imagery used as well. Horror elements were also more tense/ unnerving but not entirely for good reasons. A good reason is that more levels take place indoors- the claustrophobic encounters and darkness pair well to make you feel tense. A bad reason is that the game unfortunately relies more on jumpscares this time to get you spooked. The very first jumpscare and some RNG scares were well-done but subsequent uses felt rather cheap.



Gameplay is essentially the same as Night Alone's. The only real changes I noticed were:

• new enemies
  
  
• SLIGHTLY remixed consumable items
  
  
• being able to push boxes and pick up certain items
  
  
• more involved boss fights
  
  
• new charm system

https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2412132114
You will still wander around town in an attempt to find the other character. The new map is pretty good but a negative is that there are more road block enemies that persist into postgame. I liked the mix of new and returning spirits. The new ones range from reskins to ones filling new niches. For example, one is non-lethal but actively gets in your way while you are in its area. The consumables are slightly changed. Fireflies replace matches and new additions are paper airplanes to also distract enemies and a trash bag for an emergency hiding spot. I honestly used very few consumables while playing, an issue I also had in the first game. You can still farm items as well for better and for worse.

You are now able to push and pick up certain items in the world. However, your actual usage of these abilities is highly restricted. Boss fights are overall more involved but feel a bit clunky. For the most part, you still just run away from them. Some fights are a bit too long and I found myself dying more this time for some reason but the overall difficulty is okay. However, auto-checkpoints are placed in annoying places that cause you to walk back to the boss each time. You will also have to rewatch the introduction cutscene/ dialogue each time which annoyed me. The insta-kill stance the game takes vexed me greatly in this entry as a result.

The charm system feels underdeveloped. Charms are mostly gained through story progress, 2 being found via sidequests. Each charm has a unique albeit VERY minor effect. For example, you can carry 5 more pebbles or run slightly longer. Very few have a major impact on gameplay and the best ones can only be found in postgame. Midnight Shadows also has quite the number of collectable items. Night Alone had 96 in total whereas Midnight Shadows has a whopping 116. Collectables are still only for achievements and the sheer number made me equal parts bored and annoyed trying to get them all. I honestly wished that there was a more tangible reward for tracking them all down as it honestly just felt like padding.

One weird change is the removal of the “return home” from map button. However, creating a checkpoint at a Jizo statue now also properly creates a resume point in case you have to stop playing.


The art style is largely the same as Night Alone and many assets have been reused. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I loved the art style the series is going for with its realistic yet dark and mysterious towns. The most noticeable differences are with character models and new environments. Haru and Yui have proper shading on their sprites, making their designs really pop in comparison to Night Alone’s unshaded protagonist that looked out of place at times.
https://gtm.you1.cn/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2412145071
Spirit designs were also great. Some still look a bit generic but the weirder ones definitely take the cake. New environments are all really good in execution. They all feel internally consistent and are really pretty to look at. While I don’t have a favorite new addition, it felt good to just run around town and take in the sights (murderous spirits included).



Midnight Shadows also uses sound effects only to maintain its immersive atmosphere. SFXs are good across the board. One change is that the heartbeat sound is more drum-like this time around. New monster SFX were pretty good. I found myself more unnerved in Midnight Shadows which is a great. However, the jumpscares got pretty annoying.



This game has slightly better graphical options than Night Alone, letting you set the window type and resolution. Otherwise, the options are exactly the same as Night Alone’s.

Actual performance was overall good. However, I had 2 random crashes while playing. Fortunately, I saved near each crash but this definitely hampered my enjoyment as I kept spamming saves.



Midnight Shadows honestly felt more like a DLC for Night Alone or Night Alone 1.5 due to its mostly same-y structure. I definitely had fun but ultimately felt that the game didn’t change enough to meet my expectations for a sequel. Regardless, if you are a fan of Night Alone, then I can definitely say you’d likely enjoy Midnight Shadows. The greater emphasis on story is really nice. While I cared for the girls, I felt like more could’ve been done to develop them as characters. Gameplay is largely the same which isn’t too bad. New additions were rather sparse and very minor so I wish more was done to innovate. Visuals and sound design are excellent again, creating a beautifully tense experience together. Performance was a bit marred, but I still had fun.

A good follow-up but not as great as others might say.

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