Recent reviews by girl who kisses girls

Ad Infernum is a survival horror game set in a gas station. The progression of the game is very simple, but figuring out puzzles and fighting (or avoiding (keep that option in mind)) the enemies will keep your brain rocking back and forth for a while. It's fairly short; a first playthrough will last you about 12 hours. However, the game is designed to be played multiple times, each time increasing the difficulty as you use your prior knowledge to clear the game faster, using less ammo for stronger enemies, on and on, mastering the game ad infinitum,

No, sorry. Ad Infernum.

The story is one driven primarily by exploration; finding out what the hell happened in this neglected, and then abandoned, gas station. The game'll never give you a straight answer, though; it's more focused on the minute details, like why the station is so neglected, or what happened to the bathroom key and why.

Keep in mind, the start of the game'll be real rough. Some enemies can't be killed. And all enemies will give you trouble if you try to fight them without intel.

Because of that, here's two tips. If you get stuck, 1. try to find a way into the bathroom. And 2. look *up*.

Nice and spooky. Very, very short (my first playthrough lasted 23 minutes after spending a while very confused and while eating soup), but I would've gladly paid around four bucks for this.

this game sucks so much but it has my scrinklos in it so I have to keep playing it. recommended to people who want to be eternally trapped in hell with their favourite scrungy spingos.

Before release, the developers released an april fool's joke of a silly anime catgirl mary sue monster who was purportedly now in the game.

Now, she's actually in the game, and a really important part of a character's story, which actually kind of made me emotional.

That's kinda what this game's about. People are arriving en masse to New Wirral (which I'm 99% sure is meant to sound like "now, we're all") and have been for years on end, and they're doing their best to eke out a good life among the many monsters. Living somewhere new is scary, but you can make a good life anywhere where you have people that support and love you.

It's also a very competent critter-catching RPG, and RPG in general--turning both difficulty sliders to max has given me a satisfying challenge so far. It's a little aimless, since it's open world and the directions are vague, but I feel that's what the game is aiming for.

It's basically like if Pokémon and Persona were good, and then had a child, which is also good.

This is an excellent horror game. It's short (a first playthrough will take you about 15 hours if you go slow and hesitate a lot?), but the length is just right; it constantly introduces new concepts, and then makes sure they don't stick around long enough to get annoying. Hunting for secrets is also incredibly satisfying.

The atmosphere is on point at all times. If the pixelly, heavily filtered aesthetic is making you hesitate, trust me on this: it *adds* to the horror, rather than detracting. Not being able to make certain things out clearly coats the entire game in a heavy, dripping layer of uncanniness and hostility. You feel like a foreign body in a world you don't belong in, and this effect wouldn't be achieved nearly as cleanly without the flawless aesthetic style.

Fighting enemies is a little strange. You have very few weapons to fight with, and it's never really clear how much damage you're dealing or how many hits enemies can take. Hell, I learned that the game even has locational damage (headshots, etc.) in the *literal last area*, by testing. Enemies are also kind of rare, making it even harder to become accustomed to violence. This works too; you're pushing into new areas, aware that brand new, uniquely dangerous enemies are about to show up, and you're *still* not used to using your weapons. You really do feel like a poor schmuck being chased by horrors beyond comprehension.

In case you want to know the story: You're walking your dog, and your dog is washed down a sewer drain during a storm. So you head down to help your dog, and bring it back. Throughout all this, you start to seemingly remember therapy sessions you've had, in particular one where your therapist proposes starting in vivo therapy. In Vivo therapy basically means becoming immersed in the thing that scares you or gives you anxiety, broken up by relaxation exercises; fast track desensitization, basically. But it seems these sessions may have been *group* therapy, as some of the environments and memories don't correspond to the protagonist entirely. I won't spoil anything else, other than to say analyzing the game's symbolism and making sense of the story was very fulfilling.

Anyway, I'm heading into New Game+. I have tapes to collect and endings to hunt. See you In Vivo.

While only a modest way in, this is a wonderful open world-slash-metroidvania (depending on how you look at it) turn-based JRPG that encourages you to strategize and build an effective team, hiding very little information if any at all to facilitate that. Before even taking your first turn against a boss, you can press left twice to check the boss' *entire moveset*. There is a Blue Mage-esque class that learns spells from enemies, and those spells have a special icon that lets you know you can learn them. It has an aggro system that lets you control which enemy attacks who, and allows you to manipulate it and know which enemy is aiming at who. The basic Cleric class has powerful nonelemental magic that can let it become a powerful attacker. MP restoratives are *plentiful and cheap*, however, items cannot be used in battle, making your party's moveset much more important: you cannot replace a healer with a bag of potions. But you don't need a dedicated healer, as many classes have varied healing abilities that can bridge the gap. The Red Mage equivalent is *good*.

Exploration is rewarded well, too. Items have a very limited quantity that you can carry, but you can find pouches for them that expand how many you can carry. Unique equipment can be found in certain places, some maps are easy to get and some require brief side-quests or venturing deep into the area, and certain dungeons and/or arenas will reward you with Crystals, which will unlock new jobs. Exploration itself is also augmented with a jump button that is satisfying and intuitive to use. That may sound like a basic thing and not a front-of-the-box feature, but trust me, the jumping puzzles do a *lot* to fill your head with exploration brainworms and vary the action outside of battle.

This is a JRPG that respects JRPGs and wants to see them grow and flourish, instead of watching them slowly become beat 'em ups, hack n' slashers and VNs.

I like my RPGs like I like my coffee. Nice and deep, complex, with many different options with which to slay my enemies in any singular class, wait, what was I talking about again?

Tales of Maj'Eyal encompasses everything I love about roguelikes, everything I like about MMOs, and everything I LOVE about RPGs.

It has the typical roguelike grid-locked movement and combat system, plus projectiles have a fly speed, which means that you can dodge projectiles by sidestepping if they're slow enough that you can catch them midair. Every being has a global speed rating, too, so a slow mage with 75% global speed will often be double-turn-ed on by enemies often and won't be able to dodge many projectiles, whereas a rogue with 127% global speed will often be able to act twice in a "turn" and sidestep most projectiles! The speed system really does make such a big difference. Additionally, just like in roguelikes, if your character bites the dust they're gone... However unlike roguelikes you have three difficulty settings: Roguelike, Adventure and ...Endless, I believe? Whatever, the point is... Roguelike is roguelike: If your character dies, they kick the bucket for good. In Endless, you get to ressurrect every single time. However, Adventure is interesting. In Adventure, you work through lives--as you level and achieve things, you gain extra lives... but they're finite. So once you kick the bucket, the nameless cosmic tentacle-entity that keeps reviving you like a dunce for somehow loses interest and lets you fall into the void.

It borrows a few cool mechanics from MMOs too, namely the randomized loot system and many skill trees. Unlike MMOs, however, it ops for having many, MANY skill trees that are 100% linear with four steps, divided into two categories: Class trees, and Generic trees. Class trees are native to your class--a Rogue gets Trapitude, an Alchemist gets Golemancy, so on, so forth. Generic trees, on the other hand, you qualify for; being a Cunning-based class with high Cunning gives you access to the Survival tree; being a Wilder grants you access to the Wild Gift tree, so on so forth. On levelups you gain a Class point and a Generic point, as well as several Stat Points and, on particular levels, Category points. A Category point lets you unlock locked skill trees, or upgrade the potency of one you already had! Like I said: Deep and complex. Like coffee, I suppose?

And of course, from RPGs, it borrows the everything else. A vast world rich in story, with cool sidequests and enemy design and... this isn't RPG-native. what am i... i need to go sit down.

yes cool story, cool sidequests, cool enemies, someone pass me the coffee, wait i dont even drink coffee

(also, I recommend you grab the workshop addon Remove Class/Race Locks, which allows you to play as classes you've not unlocked yet... because the unlock restrictions are, quite frankly, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obtuse, and you get a piddly pool of races and classes to pick from otherwise)