Recent reviews by Red

The Legacy of Kain series is one I've been wanting to explore for quite some time, and this was an excellent opportunity to do so. From what I've played and seen of these remasters so far, this is pretty good work and I'm leaning towards a recommendation... However, there are still a few problems to address before this can be considered the definitive (and future-proof) release of these two games. As you can guess this is my first time playing through them, and I've mostly been playing with classic graphics, but I've done my homework and extensively checked footage from the original PS1/PC/DC and PS2/PC versions for SR1 and SR2 respectively.

The version of Soul Reaver 1 in this collection seems to be sitting somewhere between the original PS1 version and the old PC port: most of the visuals seem to more closely match the PS1 release, but fog/draw distance looks like it may have been inherited from the PC one. Unfortunately, that also means we're missing out on some reworked effects from the Dreamcast version (such as blue gates barring progress early in the game) with no way to choose; not a big deal but some of them may have looked better on high definition displays.
The intro was noticeably re-rendered, although there are a few differences with the original: it's been cropped (which I can understand, there are often things you aren't really meant to see outside of the original area such as characters not moving or no proper background), it runs at 60 fps (compared to 15 fps on PS1 and 30 fps on PC and DC), but then some new issues slipped in like different textures on Raziel's wings or the bones being clean. Funnily enough they also fixed a shadow disappearing due to a character going out of the screen and popping out of existence, but now it jitters every second or so instead of being a still shadow. It's also "only" 1080p even though this remaster is targeting PC and current gen consoles capable of 4K output, but maybe this was done for parity with the SR2 intro... More on that later.
I have now encountered the same issue as basically everyone else and the "night" part of the day/night cycle (after the first boss fight) is way too dark in most places. It seems to change back to "daytime" the more you play, but it should really be tweaked and be made optional. Speaking of options, there's almost nothing to really tweak even though this is a PC release: volume sliders, and that's it. No resolution (which by the way is extra crunchy in classic mode, with again no way to choose), no anti-aliasing, no texture filtering... It's really barebones.
It would also be nice to have an option to use the smooth camera movement from the remastered graphics even in classic graphics, but I'm guessing that might require more work than other changes depending on how it was implemented.
A quick note on different aspect ratios: the shift to 16:9 seems to have been done by expanding the game horizontally rather than cropping it (unlike the introduction cutscene), which I can get behind. However there are some issues on Steam Deck when playing with its native resolution (which is 16:10), namely the sides of the screen get cropped and this is especially bad on the map screen. I have no idea how other aspect ratios fare (not even 4:3), but I hope this will be fixed through a patch.
Another bug I've noticed was with chunk streaming/loading: under some circumstances, you can end up briefly walking in a black void before the area is properly loaded in and rendered. Nothing too problematic, but this seems reasonably easy to fix and especially on modern hardware assuming that's the issue.

Moving on to Soul Reaver 2 now; I have yet to play it, but going by missing or changed graphical effects, it seems to be using the PC version as its foundation. This includes missing/altered lens flares and transparency effects on a certain staff visible early in the game, but most notably the complete absence of accumulation blur, which simply looks off in many cases including in cutscenes. There also seem to be a few issues with fog distance or some other setting once you go outside since the Southern Lake cutscene isn't 1:1 when looking at the skybox (and I'd trust there are more subtle differences throughout the game). Once again I hope this can all be fixed in a later update, possibly by adding options to toggle these settings.
While the topic is still cutscenes, the intro was AI upscaled in both resolution and framerate, from the PS2 version's file by the looks of it. How am I so sure about this? The PC version has horrible macroblocking and colourbanding artefacts plus somewhat washed out colours (all of which I'd blame on Bink Video), while the PS2 one has noticeable aliasing and weird horizontal line-like artefacts (which don't seem to be present in the old PC port, but it's too much of a garbled mess on most shots to tell for sure). The result doesn't look exactly great in motion or even in still shots, as expected: the artefacts are only exacerbated in the upscaled version, and interpolated animations don't look very natural. In that sense, it's only natural that it was upscaled to 1080p instead of 4K as the source was either 360p or 480p. I wish they had retrieved a higher quality master for this or re-rendered the whole cutscene like they did for SR1, but I understand that it can be difficult to track down the proper assets and have the appropriate tooling functioning as intended so many years after the game shipped. Still, if possible at all, this should be fixed via a patch since it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Another slight concern is that SR2 seems cropped vertically instead of expanded horizontally. Once again, hopefully this can be tweaked and provided as an option via a patch (and possibly more if necessary, such as the camera's point of origin, distance, field of view...). Same thing as for SR1 regarding graphics settings (or lackthereof).
There's also an issue with the health indicator being stretched in SR2 but not SR1, oddly enough; this should also be fixable in a patch since the compass does not have this problem.

What about the actual remastering effort though? Well, it's clear more work was put into SR1 which needed it the most while SR2 gets a less substantial upgrade. You get character model consistency between both games, which in my book is a good thing to better tie them together. SR1 gets upgraded models and textures (not sure if they were redrawn or AI-upscaled, but it's rather faithful either way), and some lighting upgrades like proper character shadows. You even get updated fog/rendering distance in some areas and see them like never before, and this change carries over to classic graphics (ideally I'd also like options again, but I'm fine with this really since it's not like in the GTA III "Definitive Edition" where the draw distance was pushed way too far and problems were noticeable). All in all, it looks like a proper upgrade to bring it a bit closer graphically to its younger sibling without looking "overdone". On the other hand, SR2 looks pretty similar between classic and remastered graphics, and most of the changes are cleaned up or reworked textures (some of which seem to have been AI-upscaled going by visual artefacts) and some remade models. I have absolutely no idea how the audio fares for both games compared to previous releases however, but I'd expect them to be using either the original high-quality assets (unlikely) or the highest available from retail versions (most likely).


TL;DR: Pretty good remasters that make these games more accessible on modern hardware while still being rather faithful to the original releases, but there are still a few problems to address to match the original console releases and this collection really needs to include options for graphics settings and specific features.

I can't say I've played nearly enough to tell for sure whether this game is good or bad, but for now I can't recommend it for a bunch of reasons.

Let's start with what Alien: Rogue Incursion (Part 1) does right: art direction and sound design. Right from the start, it just looks and sounds like a proper Alien game, as it should. And that's about where my praise ends since I don't have enough experience with VR games to judge how good or bad it is relative to other games made in the past few years.

Neither good or bad now: several elements seem to have inertia applied to them, such as the pulse rifle and the flashlight. Your mileage may vary, from the little I've played it wasn't too distracting but it might be a dealbreaker if you're used to snappy movement in VR.

Moving on to the bad:

• Performance doesn't seem great even by playing on settings close to the lowest on my PC (Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB RAM, GeForce RTX 3060 12 GB, Quest 2). Note: the game defaulted to the lowest settings with 0.7 pixel density with TAA, if I remember correctly I upgraded to 0.8 and Epic quality textures with TSR (also bumped one or several settings to Medium, probably lighting quality or something).
  
• At 0.8 pixel density the datapad was pretty much unreadable unless I sticked it close to my face since text is very small.
  
• Subtitles are displayed way too low in my opinion. I get that they're not supposed to get in the way of gameplay but even then they're pretty much off-screen.
  
• Physics are wonky, the very first time I tried to grab the first valve in the game my hands just went rogue and it clipped through the floor (thankfully I was able to pick it up).
  
• Locomotion cannot be done via teleportation between waypoints, so I first had to sit down and then stop the game even though I don't remember having this issue in other games I tried before. Although I can understand that design choice to some extent, this is pretty bad for people with motion sickness when coupled to the potentially subpar framerate (which I'll be honest I haven't actually measured).
  
• The patching/packaging strategy is awful: ARI requires me to have as much free disk space as the entire game to update it, and the first two "hotfixes" were respectively around 1 GB and 6 GB (which is enormous for hotfixes, and my Internet connection isn't exactly the best right now). How come I get by just fine with 15 GB of free disk space with Tekken 8, another UE5 game, despite it being over 110 GB and major updates being at least 8 GB? Hint: it uses several PAK files instead of having 99.9% of the game's weight in a single one (I wish that were an exaggeration but it's not).
  
• The game crashes on exit, don't ask me how it does that.

Overall it looks like a game that's ranging from "just okay" to "good", but despite that there's clearly a few bugs to iron out and some really weird choices from the publisher that make me somewhat wary:

• The game was advertised as a standalone experience, but just before launch the store page and a bunch of assets were updated to include "Part 1". They've even admitted it ends on a cliffhanger too, so it's not a "The Last of Us" kind of deal where "Part 1" was originally made as its own complete game and "Part 2" was made way later.
  
• Its price was raised by about 10€ alongside that reveal.
  
• Pre-order bonuses (a classic), except they're somehow not even a DLC and it doesn't sound like they'll be made available to more people at a later date.

Now I don't know if this was always their plan or if the game was split in half and rushed for a Holiday 2024 release, but they had several other options such as being upfront about the split release or episodic format, or announcing earlier that a sequel is already being worked on, or making this a complete story and reveal after launch that they're working on a sequel... And yet they still chose the shadiest, namely "say nothing, stealthdrop the Part 1 branding, but increase the price anyway". At this point I can only wonder what happened behind the scenes, but since I'm not a die-hard Alien fan I'll be refunding this even though I originally wanted to support a full VR Alien game.

I love this game because there's a lot of good things in it and it could be so great, yet it's broken in so many ways that I cannot recommend it right now.

GBVSR looks and sounds great, and it has lots of content. So what went wrong? Well, my main issues with it come from the overall balancing and the new universal mechanics that feel downright cheap despite their potential for being decent.

Balance is a mess and you have really strong characters with tonnes of options and damage on the one hand, and the rest of the cast on the other plus a few dying in the gutter. And to add salt to the injury barely anything has been done since launch to effectively even the playing field out. To give a few examples: Siegfried is still the tournament character, Nier is still very powerful despite requiring to work for her damage more now that she can't have Death at almost all times, Beatrix is still a powerhouse even after being nerfed several times... Then you have Ferry, who was nerfed (and arguably considerably changed) despite already being at the bottom of the barrel and requiring to work for her damage on top of being one of the hardest characters to play efficiently, with very committal buttons to boot. I understand that Cygames and ArcSys might not have wanted a repeat of GBVS where she was broken at launch, and I'm definitely biased as a Ferry main (although I'm aware I'm not doing great with her and I need to work on options I'm not using), but you can't seriously tell me she was the biggest threat here when Nier got away with murder for literal months and is still viable.

Universal mechanics introduced in GBVSR are a mixed bag, in that they're technically kind of good ideas in theory but overtuned or unbalanced in practice.

• Despite being a fun idea on paper, dash attacks are still too strong and especially 66L: it's fast, it moves you forward, and you get some knockback on block but if you hit you're pretty much guaranteed a combo that still deals a decent amount of damage by barely taking any risk. And so people spam it whenever they get a chance with most characters.
  
• Bravery Points are perhaps even clunkier and whoever loses them first can pretty much get obliterated since you take more damage in that state. Raging Strike and Raging Chain are comparable to a guard break that's also a combo extender (which is fine I guess), and there's the Brave Counter that is an insanely powerful guard cancel that allows whoever used it to resume acting directly (and as it implies, unlike burst you can only use it while blocking). So you can both be denied an attempt to get in and bite the dust in one fell swoop. There are ways to beat it but it's still VERY powerful.
  
• Ultimate skills... Let's just say I barely use them, but some characters have very powerful ones with fast, far-reaching or damaging attacks, and they get half of the meter they've just spent on hit alongside a potential combo. (But seriously though, why does it give a partial meter refund?!)
  
• This list wouldn't feel complete to me without mentioning changes to the Skill button compared to GBVS. Now you barely have any incentive to use technical inputs for a measly 10% extra damage on raw hit, cooldown differences are gone. The only exception is when the opponent has no BP left where the damage increase cumulates, but it's rather situational and still only applies to naked hits. So the shortcut is both faster and more reliable to input, with the only drawback being that slight change in damage on a raw hit. I assume this was done to make the game more beginner-friendly by removing execution barriers, but it actually affects execution at every level of play, and I do think better execution should be a part of higher-level play since you're supposed to have a better grasp on the game, your execution, and your character.

I kind of wish they'd add an extra game mode that plays closer to GBVS (though not with Overdrive, apparently that was busted too; possibly without Rush mechanics that were added through the same update as well), something cleaner to play that doesn't feel dragged down by actively detrimental mechanics. But I doubt they'll do that anytime soon if ever, doubly so if they need to balance it separately.

Finally: mandatory rant on bonus codes still not being available on PC while still paying as much as console players. It was an issue in the original GBVS, it's still a problem here, and PC players are still treated as second-class citizens in that regard.
Mandatory rant on the game's English localisation as well, some lines are translated properly and some others just don't match the original anymore in both intent and content (yes it can get that bad). Notably, character quirks and memes are cranked up. I'm not expecting a literal translation (that would be just as bad) and in some cases I understand why they tried mixing things up, but it's very uneven to the point I'd suspect one of ArcSys's usual business partners if Cygames didn't have their own localisation staff.


TL;DR: balance is complete wack and the new universal mechanics hurt the game's flow and balance even further.

Note: I haven't played with the Seekers of the Storm DLC, so this review will not take it into account. From what I've seen it's great in the art direction, lore and level design departments, but much clunkier when it comes to new characters, items and enemies... Thankfully the (new) devs are working to fix that, so all hope is not lost.


One of the best and most addictive games I've played in quite some time, and probably even one of my favourite games ever now. Legends say I played something like 27 hours over the week I really started to play it... Another one says a friend of mine still doesn't know what the game looks or plays like through only the funky item names and descriptions.

The gameplay loop is pretty simple but effective: explore level, kill things, get money, unlock items, find teleporter, defeat boss, rinse and repeat. What makes it addictive is the twitch-reaction gameplay and continuous improvement required to keep getting better at the game, plus the fact difficulty keeps rising so you have to manage risk and reward, but also that almost every item is a bonus (except Lunar or Void ones, but I'll get back to these later).

If you're like me and don't usually like worrying about synergies or balancing pros and cons, here you barely have any of that, and it feels awesome. The only exceptions are Lunar items, which are double-edged swords that offer very powerful items with massive tradeoffs, and Void items (from the Survivors of the Void DLC), which corrupt and replace the base version of regular items with different effects as a twist from the original ones. You're still constrained by RNG of course, but it's possible to have a strong build without having to bring up a spreadsheet or a wiki. If you're a newcomer, you might still want to start without DLC for at least a few games to get a grasp on the base game and its items and stages before moving on, then discover how new elements seamlessly integrate into the game (as it should be). Oh and you can have drones and turrets on top of items to cover your rear, too.

Characters all feel distinct from one another and fit different playstyles (logically aiming for different builds), so you're bound to find one you like even though you'll have to unlock quite a few. This is especially great in multiplayer where some roles are complimentary like buffed Engineer with shrooms for Planetarium run. And all characters have alternative abilities you can unlock by fulfilling specific conditions... This can be pretty challenging, but it's usually fun and worth it (except mastery skins, they're just for flexing; still fun to do though).

I could spend hours singing praises about how great the gameplay feels (now that they've fixed most of the bugs introduced with the SotS update) and why it gets my brain juices flowing, but this game also has a really solid art direction, excellent music, and even lore if you're into that. I don't know how I've slept on this game for years; I guess the original RoR didn't quite catch my attention and the Early Access of RoR2 didn't appeal to me, but when I rediscovered the game through streams a few months back, I knew I was going to like it.

A final note on the latest updates: a huge update broke a ton of things for everyone when SotS dropped. Now the devs have fixed the biggest sore points and it's at playable again with also signs of improvements for the latest DLC, though as far as I know not everything might be 1:1 with the pre-update version. I've barely played the pre-SotS version and held off until the first batch of fixes was rolled out so I can't really tell either way, but if you're not planning on playing with the SotS DLC and don't mind missing out on a few quality of life upgrades, you might be better off with the old version (that you can still grab via the Steam console).


TL;DR: Brilliant game, go play it either alone or with friends. If you like what you see, chances are you'll love it.

Shader compilation stutters, framerate drops even when the CPU, GPU, RAM and disk aren't being hammered, poor video compression to the point YouTube does better, impossible to replay the tutorial (although there are others), no good scaling options (no DLSS, FSR or XeSS, really?)... Let's just say that first impressions aren't great. That's not even mentioning some other pain points that I haven't encountered: 60fps lock (I was aiming for that anyway), no ultrawide support, only one barebones stage in local play, and other bugs and shortcomings that don't really fit the premium price tag...

To add salt to the wound the "anime music packs" aren't even included in the most expensive edition when it would likely have been possible. And they've just made an announcement regarding upcoming DLC but without saying anything about actual game updates, so this isn't looking great...

After a rocky launch for the demo, the most egregious and game-breaking issues seem to have been fixed and I have finally been able to complete the tutorial. I'll have to try it out more extensively but so far it looks like a pretty good blend of several fighting games in one. And it has mechs, which is a rare sight in fighting games.

Well worth the 5€ requested for the "Digital Deluxe" upgrade.

The only downsides are that the MP3 version is not in 320 kbits/s, and both the MP3 and WAV versions lack proper metadata. It means that you'll have to manually go through the files to fix the metadata (track names, artist, album name, cover art, and release year if that matters to you), but also re-encode the MP3 version if you want something cleaner (granted it's not horrible in its current state and should even sound virtually identical for most people, but I still prefer having MP3 320).

In case anyone is wondering because of another review: no, this version of the OST isn't missing two tracks compared to the physical release. Rather, they fused two tracks together, namely "Astebreed" and "The Void", both for the regular and chiptune versions. This effectively provides a seamless mix between both tracks as intended.

Anyway, great soundtrack for a very good game.

Love the game, hate the port. I know I'm late to the party but I'm back on a DRPG spree so I have to scream at the void about this one.

There was a perfect opportunity to make a proper definitive version on PC, using the original PS4 version's code and polishing the translation up. Instead, we got a port of the downgraded Switch version (with broken lighting and all), except somehow buggier and prone to crashes. Barely anything was fixed since launch; last I checked the game still crashed at random, and even the text was still riddled with typos and mistranslations. Mary Skelter Finale is on the same boat even though the PS4 version was released in the West.

I'm genuinely beyond disappointed and downright angry regarding this situation, especially knowing that we'll probably never get good native (and future-proof) versions of these games on PC. Idea Factory and Ghostlight had two absolutely brilliant games then proceeded to make quick and dirty ports and leave them to rot.

It pains me to say it, but unless you know Japanese or really don't care about the broken graphics, you're better off skipping the entire series at this point. Mary Skelter 2 is cursed with a broken and censored PS4 SEA release, a downgraded English Switch version (compared to the original PS4 one), and a broken and downgraded English PC port. And it's supposed to be the best entry point. Same story on Switch and PC for Finale, but at least it's available in English on PS4, albeit with a dubious localisation from what I've heard. Only the PC port of the original Mary Skelter: Nightmares is apparently decent, somehow.

TL;DR: The game is excellent, but for your own sake don't buy this port.

From what I've played so far, Witch & Lilies lacks a lot of polish in its current state for me to fully recommend it... But it still has a lot of potential to be a good game given the proper fixes, and I don't think it deserves the rating it currently has.

If you've played through Etrian Odyssey games (and more particularly the very first one), lots of things should feel familiar. It's a good thing in a way since it provides a solid foundation in terms of gameplay, but at the same time I get why it might be a bit disappointing since it doesn't feel as fresh as it could be. Plus it's lacking in the QoL department (no bulk sell, no "2x back" in town to leave for the dungeon, the UI cursor isn't repositioned where it last was, no "tips" for button prompts...), and balance doesn't seem too great from what I've played and read. The only real novelty element is the yuri relationships between your party members, but even that feels a bit half-baked at the moment with too sudden developments, repetitive scenes, and apparently even nonsensical situations later on.

The English translation, as far as I can tell, ranges from "pretty good" to "obviously machine translated". Some bits seem to have been properly translated by an actual human being (though I haven't cross-checked with the Japanese version), while others are much more stilted or sometimes just painful to read. There's also a few bugs related to the English script like broken UI elements (guild, skill tree), untranslated text (in the options, in scenes after getting back in town...) and even missing text (looking at you, "job.change")... And that's not even talking about typos and other "typical" errors. Overall, playing it in English is not a smooth experience at the moment.

There's also quite a number of glitches that are visibly independent from the English version, like the UI coming back up too early in town, the UI confusing an enemy for a dead one, some obvious light leak on the very first floor, long loading times (granted I installed this on my HDD but come on, this is a DRPG, not the latest AAA game)... These are minor issues mind you, but they add up to contribute to the feeling that this still lacks polish.

Another problem is that graphical options are lacklustre. Resolution maxes out at 1080p, there's only a v-sync toggle and off you go. It sucks because the game's art is actually one of its strongest points, but it's stuck at 1080p. And I'm not asking for anything really fancy but things like anti-aliasing, texture filtering and arbitrary resolutions based on the monitor's are definitely feasible.

As said above the game's art direction is pretty good and seems to indicate that it has some production value, actual love, or both put into it. Character designs are good and colourful for the most part (though I have to wonder why they all seem to have yellow-ish scleras?), backgrounds are absolutely stunning, and monsters are uncanny. On that note, the art style for enemies clashes with the characters'; it may be intentional for all I know, but it's a bit jarring. The UI however needs some extra polish: some parts feel a bit bloated, some are not displaying properly in English, there's a lack of consistency in how text is handled, and things sometimes lack readability (especially during fights: no background for party status, elements getting in the way of seeing enemies). Last but not least: the music is pretty good for the most part. My first impressions are that the soundtrack is not as great as I hoped it would be when I heard the main theme, but it still gets the job done.

All in all, I still feel like there's a genuinely good game deep down, but it's definitely rough in its current state and I wouldn't recommend it unless you really want to play a brand new Etrian Odyssey-inspired DRPG. Otherwise, just stick to more popular DRPGs.