Recent reviews by Finraziel

This game is loads of fun. Combat is smooth and rewarding, not too complicated but it's not just buttonmashing either. The platforming is done very well, challenging but not frustrating. Bosses are awesome (as far as I've gotten).
Only ♥♥♥♥♥♥ (ugh, really steam? I'm saying n.i.g.g.l.e) is if you're really having trouble with a boss, it may be you're just underleveled. The game doesn't really emphasize your level so it's easy to miss, but I found that after going back and gaining 4 levels, the boss that was seriously kicking my behind, was suddenly pretty easy (although you'll still need to learn each boss' attackpatterns). Luckily though, grinding those 4 levels was very quick, probably no more than half an hour or so, and didn't feel like traditional grinding (aka boring) at all.
One comment though, everyone's saying how tough the game is... Well, it's not easy, but you might think it's a frustrating experience. As far as I'm concerned it's not. It offers a challenge, but it never feels unfair and to me personally on normal mode I find it's just right (and I'm not normally a glutton for punishment, still havent dared to start up dark soulds ;-))
I haven't gotten anywhere near completing this game yet, but just wanted to share this quick review because the game is still on sale for another 21 hours or so. So what are you waiting for? Go buy it!

God... That was painful...

I did one playthrough, it took me about an hour and twenty minutes, but I'm glad it's over. The writing is terrible, the average fanfic is better written. The characters are introduced with just a few lines of text leaving no time to get to know them (or even just keep their names apart). I toughed it out because everyone says there's these dark themes and all coming later, well, they didn't. I got threatened by a couple of pigeons (why on earth the protagonist didn't just kick them I don't know, who's scared of three pigeons??) and some other bird kicked the ♥♥♥♥ out of them, a couple of birds were screaming at eachother and then proposed/accepted mariage... and the bird I had been in most contact with, well, the 'twist' was visible from a mile away.

All the choices you have to make seem completely arbitrary as well. Obviously they will decide which story path you choose, but the choices are do I go to gym or music? Do I get a job or not? There's no deep dialogue where your answers actually matter...

So, it's a gag game right? Well all the reviews say that's what it portrays itself as but there were supposed to be way deeper issues. As I said I didn't find any, but honestly it's not funny either. Jokes don't go deeper than the fact that 'everybody' becomes 'everybirdy' (shoot me now). The story can't be taken seriously either because immersion is constantly broken by things that don't make sense (silly things like a bird having a book under their arm? what arm?)

To clarify, I'm not very experienced with visual novels, but I did play katawa shoujo before this and I should just say, if you're curious about the genre... go download that (it's free, google it). That game has awesome writing and deep emotional storytelling. This reads like a not particularly talented 14 year old girl came up with it. For the life of me I can't imagine why this game gets so many positive reviews.

edit: Just as an addendum... Apparently, this dark sinister plot doesn't actually show itself until you have completed certain story arcs, at which point you get a choice right at the start of the game and you get this 'real' story. The problem I have with that is, if you know exactly what to do, I believe you still have to play the game at least 5 times before you get this story. Considering the fact that I didn't even find the first playthrough enjoyable, are we really expected to subject us to this torture 5 times before it supposedly gets good? No, I'm pretty sure I can say that this game is crap without putting myself through that.
Also, if you do choose to go through it multiple times, keep in mind that the interface is actually kind of crap as well. There is no way to go back to skipped conversation and there is no way to autoskip what you've already read before. From other reviews I see that a scene may start out the same and then veer off halfway through, making it all but impossible to quickly skip through known content without missing anything.

This game is really more of an animated star wars movie where you control all the (lengthy) fight scenes. As long as you don't expect it to last too much longer than a movie, you wont be disappointed. What it (still) does really well is make you feel very powerful. You're a true master of the force having awesome powers, and it feels great.
Seeing as you can complete it so quickly, I'd get it in a sale or something. It was pretty much a rip off at the launch price, but now for 5 bucks or so, it's good for a few evenings of good fun.

A cheesy story, awkward fight mechanics, the always loved quicktime events, unexplained glove powers, unresponsive convoluted menus that emphasize form over function, unclear control hints because ubi insists on showing the controls for keyboard mouse and gamepad all at the same time and using unclear colors for the buttons... what's not to like? Oh yeah, EVERYTHING... Don't buy this piece of dren.

Wow I really don't get the naysayers... maybe some people have sync issues? It seems perfectly synced to me, once I got into it I got lots of perfects. Yes, it's not all on the beat but it even tells you this during the tutorial/training, it's not exclusively using the drumbeats, it's more about the feel of the song I'd say.
I got it in the humble bundle as well and didn't expect too much of it, but I have to say it's really fun. It seems really hard at first, but I got the hang of it in my first hour of playing and it feels awesome when you do get it and start pummeling strings of baddies in a row.
I can't play it too long at once though, playing on a keyboard works fine but after a little over an hour my hand starts aching. It's a great game for a few quick rounds though, and the advantage over something like guitar hero seems to be that the action continues very quickly, 10 seconds or so after a song ends a new one can be starting if you want.

This game is awesome, but if you hear me playing you may well think it's terrible because it sure makes me hurl a lot of abuse at the screen! Make no mistake, this game is HARD!! You can choose your difficulty for every race, but you need stars to unlock things. I have had no problems unlocking things, but I start out on medium and then try for hard (I think I cleared about 2/3 on hard and left the rest on medium so far). If you're more of an easy-maybe-trying-for-medium kind of player, you may end up stuck or frustrated that you can't unlock additional characters.

If you do decide to take the plunge, be sure to visit the steam forum page for this game and take a look at the top pinned topic for some awesome tips. You really need to learn how to boost-start and drift to start getting anywhere in the game for instance.

The weapons are imaginative and they're not TOO disruptive (there are no "I win" weapons), but they're definitely not useless as I saw one reviewer state. The thing is you need to learn to use them, as everything in this game. The game is really designed to be a challenge in every way.

There are definitely things to complain about, drifting feels a bit counterintuitive and I have to repress some automatic behaviours from more realistic games, flying is hard to get used to as well and although the weapons are not too bad you can still be 1st for 2 rounds only to then be hit by 5 weapons in a row and end dead last (although I guess this is sort of inherent to the kart racer genre), just to name a few... but what it comes down to is that I keep coming back, it's very addictive.

Unfortunately one big drawback is one that Sega can't help much, and that's that the online multiplayer community just isn't very big (at least not anymore now). I've only tried a few times* but once I got to play a couple rounds before a couple players left and there was just me and 2 seasoned pros that I stood absolutely no chance against, the other time there was no ongoing game at all and after waiting around to see if anyone would join me for 10 minutes or so only one person had and they left again. A big plus though is that there is local multiplayer, so if you have the gamepads or someone doesn't mind using the keyboard you can have a sonic racing party in your livingroom. You may have to dial back your own built up skills though if they havent played before or they wont enjoy your company for long ;-) (since the game really does require some practice).

* I feel I should mention, I just tried looking for a matchmaking game again tonight and actually ended up in a nearly full game with people near to my rating, so it might just be a matter of playing at the right times.

The game looks great, it's funny, plays well as long as you use an xbox controller and I'm sure that for many people it's a truly great game. I however am giving up on it after a little over two hours. The problem is that it's just not the game I was expecting, it has the tags action and adventure, but I'd make that a big adventure and a small action.
This game frustrated me for the same reason that old school adventures do. I get stuck somewhere and although I eventually get past it, I feel like I just end up cycling through my available characters and run all over the place smashing everything and seeing if a trigger pops up. Also silly things like get stuck for ages knowing what I have to do but it seems like the last piece I need is nowhere to be found... only to find that I accidentally already picked it up with one of my characters and it was in their inventory. I don't think it's necessarily a fault in the game, it's just not my cup of tea.

So, while it's a good game, I'm just leaving my negative review to warn other players like me. If you're the type to easily get frustrated because you get stuck and you don't care as much for exploration and collecting every small thing in an area as you would for some proper action, you might want to give this a miss.

Oh yeah, one other thing... other reviewers say it's a must for die hard LotR fans? Make that die hard LotR MOVIE fans as the game follows the movie more than the book (even if they are reasonably close together for a movie adaptation).

I just played this game for 2 to 3 hours... finished it... and I don't think I'll play it again. So, it's short and not worth getting? Oh no it's absolutely worth getting!
This game was one of the most impressive experiences I've had in a game ever. The graphics and music are superb, the gameplay is fun (it takes a little bit to get the hang of controlling the two brothers at the same time but it's surprisingly intuitive), but what really gets you is the story which is odd for a game that essentially has no dialogue (or at least not in an existing language). It's incredibly touching and beautiful and managed to instill a sense of brotherly love (or I think so, being an only child).
I should warn you though, this game will leave a scar on your soul. If you're not afraid of some feelings and not too closed up to not allow yourself to feel anything over a game, then buy it, strap in and enjoy this exhilerating ride for as long as it lasts. Right now in the sale it's only 3 euros and that's an absolute steal I'd say, the game itself may not have taken too long to complete, but it will be a long time before I forget about it.

It's kind of fun to create your own species, but the actual gameplay just boils down to a bunch of badly executed minigames, mostly marred by a horrific user interface that changes the controls around every stage. By the time I got to the tribal stage it turned into such a confusing mess with every damn creature needing to be told what to do... I just gave up, time for a game that is fun all the time, not just while creating your creature.