Recent reviews by Ricee

Writing this review just after completing my first playthrough (I picked Yuito first), and all I have to say is WOW. I didn't expect to be hooked on this game like how I was, I couldn't put this game down. The gameplay itself seems pretty basic ARPG, but once the game really gets going, it feels VERY satisfying to play. I have a few gripes about the camera sometimes (honestly a recurring theme with any ARPG in general) but nothing serious that ever made me want to quit the game. I also wish there was some form of dash cancel for some of the really long attack animations, but the game still feels quite fast-paced despite the lack of it.

The characters are somewhat stereotypical JRPG school-life, but I find them to be very well-rounded and well written, especially in a game that's fairly dialogue heavy.

The music is great, not amazing or anything you'll be obsessing over, but good enough to keep your attention and mood right.

The story itself honestly impressed me the most, while I don't find it necessarily breaks any barriers, I think it was done well enough to keep you drawn to the progression of the story. I find it odd that the game splits the 2 main characters' stories as 2 different playthroughs when I imagine they could have been merged (I imagined something close to Yakuza 0's Kiryu/Majima flips). That said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad decision overall.

Overall, this game was probably one of the best ARPGs I've played in years, and I'll be doing a 2nd playthrough as Kasane very soon. My final score: 9.5/10. The only thing this game is missing is a real dash cancel for all your attacks, but perhaps the main characters would be WAY too powerful with it, so it's more of just a personal gripe. DEFINITELY pick this game up if you're a fan of ARPGs.

What a game. For $30 I had quite the experience playing this one. The game looks great and performs with very little hiccups if any at all. There are a few clipping issues sometimes, so the polishing isn't quite AAA quality, but it's VERY close. The gameplay/combat is stellar, and when it gets going, it's a very satisfying experience. It really feels like a first person version of Hotline Miami with added powers that each feel very satisfying/extremely powerful to use. I really enjoy the cyberpunk atmosphere a lot, and the game does a great job establishing the tone and setting. While I don't think this game particularly innovates or breaks any barriers, almost everything that the game attempts to do, it does impressively well. I clocked just under 6 hours to complete my first playthrough, and some portions are quite difficult. For $30, I completely recommend this to anyone who is even thinking about purchasing this game, it was a great experience from start to finish, but I imagine some people may find the content to be a tad lacking for its price tag. In that case, it might be worth waiting for a sale. I will also note that the story is decidedly unimpressive in terms of content, it's a pretty predictable/cliche story, again it's not exactly innovative in that aspect, but I can forgive the lack of story for the overall gameplay/tone it conveys. It does leave me wanting a bit more though, I would be extremely interested in a game mode that allowed a map builder/custom encounters or even a challenge mode/time trial. A New Game Plus mode would also be greatly appreciated, to spice up the gameplay a bit more and give it that extra replayability it needs.

I will note, at the time of review (1 day after official release), there is no fullscreen available. Despite this, I was able to run borderless windowed mode at 80+ FPS on 1440p/medium settings with a GTX 970 and i7 6700K, so the optimization is pretty great for how the game looks. There are a few awkward clipping/interaction issues on some levels, but I don't think it detracts much from the experience. That might be an issue for people looking to 0-hit/0-death/speedrun this game. Also, for a first person game designed with movement in mind, it seems like a massive oversight to not allow binding jump to mousescroll up or down. Hopefully the developers can work on fixing these minor QoL/polishing issues in the near future, but as of now, this is still a very quality product that exceeded my expectations even after playing through the demo.

don't bother getting this for anything more than $10, this game feels like it's still in early access/beta phase.

I have very little time on the game itself, so I imagine there's way more mechanics to introduce. The problem? Literally EVERY SINGLE mechanic that has been introduced in the first hour and a half falls flat and I do not have high hopes going forward. Even the simplest of mechanics are horribly unpolished and every single menu has been a pain to navigate. Here's the breakdown:

Game runs slightly worse than alright. There's no way that I get more FPS on games like MGS:V or DMC:V than this game on 1440p. Somehow the optimization isn't all there, and I turned down graphic options considerably just to get it somewhat decent (60FPS). Even then, there's still AWFUL input delay and that includes simply moving the cursor. It just feels sluggish and heavy to run for no reason.

Gameplay is stiff and VERY CLEARLY unpolished. Enemies are way too fast at reacting on normal difficulty, you can throw a knife at an enemy and his buddy will IMMEDIATELY return fire regardless if he recognizes your location or not. This happened literally multiple times and I was able to recreate it: my characters are behind cover AND HIDDEN, throw a knife at an enemy. Now, after throwing the knife, obviously it's a silent kill right? No way the enemy should know where it could be coming from, especially with one of my characters hidden in a bush. Enemy drops dead, his buddy next to him IMMEDIATELY fires into the bushes and kills one-shots my character from full health. Huh? It wasn't even the same character that threw the knife, how is that even possible?

Accessing context menus or clicking interaction prompts just feels inconsistent. Even the most basic actions like picking up a body or opening doors is inconsistent. On top of that, controls in every single menu is GARBAGE. There's no situation in any game ever where I thought "Hey, if I right-click, I want to close all the windows I have open." The menus need a massive QoL overhaul, it's actually unbearable for me to even try anymore.

The voice acting is actually extremely unimpressive and very immersion-breaking. I understand it's hard to find good voice talent, but at least TRY to get an accent going for these Soviet soldiers. It makes no sense that I'm hearing a VERY non-Russian accent in the Soviet countryside.

There's an inventory management system. You can't rotate items. It's 2020, while this is a (somewhat) minor point, I find it hard to believe no one addressed this extremely inconvenient point.

Every context menu, every interaction, all of it feels unintuitive and inconsistent across the board. I'm actually having a hard time finding something that I appreciate in this game when this game can't even get the most basic things right.

I had a lot of fun with this, seriously the best Star Wars game they've had in years. While I don't think it's a perfect game by any means, it's a gigantic leap into the right direction and I hope they either continue this title or make a separate game that plays just as well. 9/10, an amazing experience from start to finish. The combat is clean and fluid, the game does a GREAT job at making the character feel like they get stronger with every ability. I played on Jedi Master difficulty and combat was very enjoyable with some difficulty. The puzzles are interesting and even quite difficult at times and exploration feels very satisfying. If there was ever a time to make a Star Wars RPG, I think this game proves it CAN and SHOULD be done now.

I don't usually write reviews for games, but I had to make an exception for this game. I'll admit I didn't go into this game with very high expectations, but Devolver Digital continues to add another gem to their very stacked mostly-indie repertoire.

This game by Askiisoft manages to hit every requirement for a quality indie game:

• Incredible atmosphere and world building
  
• Interesting story that is concise but has depth
  
• Cool art that is quirky and stylish
  
• Great soundtrack
  
• Great gameplay that feels tight and well-tuned
  
• Some replayability added along with the new Hard mode and Speedrun modes
  
  Overall this game is well worth the money; I would have easily paid $20 for this. If this game is on sale, do not hesitate to pick it up. It is short, yet memorable and will no doubt impress anyone looking for a great indie game.

Despite your exasperated sighs and woeful facepalms, you will continue to try your luck to reach the Darkest Dungeon. Your persistence will only turn into arrogance, as you soon watch your favorite characters slowly slip into despair and insanity and eventually die. However, despite all of this, you will come back. Darkest Dungeon is an amazing turn-based roguelike dungeon crawler with some very unique mechanics to help spice up the genre. With a great art style, simple story, difficult gameplay, and frustrating RNG, it has everything that you could possibly want from a game of this genre. I look forward to playing up to the Darkest Dungeon... If I ever get there...

A game that meshes everything great from the NES classics Castlevania III, DuckTales, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Mega Man, with some modern influences from Dark Souls, this game creates one of the greatest sidescrolling platformers of this generation. Everything is great about this game, from its difficulty, its art style, its music (by the awesome Jake Kaufman and legendary Manami Matsumae), and the characters. This game is great, I would wholly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the genre, and especially to those who aren't.