5
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Recent reviews by Knice

Showing 1-5 of 5 entries
2 people found this review helpful
4.6 hrs on record
Death Trick: Double Blind does so many incredible things to make it such a compelling mystery visual novel.

All the strange inconsistencies, intertwined interrogation topics, and a dynamic exploration system culminate in a very rewarding experience for very observant players as well as a smooth experience for more passive readers.

The amount of unique dialogue from presenting each unique item/topic/person to each crew member is also such an astounding feat and the developers/writers deserve so much praise for going this far. The incredible interrogation system really lets the player delve deep into not only solving the mystery, but understanding the crew members on a deeper level.

As it goes with mystery games, it is difficult to pinpoint my favorite elements of this game without spoiling the surprise and suspense that comes with obtaining all these clues. I really wish I could go deep on the brilliant writing and narrative choices of this game, but I want to preserve this experience for future players. If you are still unconvinced, they literally list Game Maker's Toolkit as one of their references/inspirations in the credits. That alone should be reason enough to pique your interest.

Overall, I highly recommend this game, there is so much depth that is rewarding both to the avid mystery fan and newcomer alike.
Posted 13 October.
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5 people found this review helpful
12.3 hrs on record
I will not be comparing this game to Portal. It has not only been years since I've played that game, but many other reviews have already gone into depth with their comparisons between Relicta and Portal. I also believe it's better to judge a game focusing more on its individual qualities.
I have also not completed this game for reasons I will specify in this review.

tldr: Buy it only for the gameplay. The first 10 hours are excellent. If you get any more mileage out this game, I commend you.

Story
You control a scientist who loves spouting witty dialogue, whether it be to her daughter, her ex-husband, her colleagues, or the AI controlling the station. The voice acting is pretty good and it was interesting to hear english-speaking Indian voice actors. The plot itself is alright, but there's a pretty weak justification for the player to be doing all of these puzzles. You wouldn't want to play this game for the story.

Gameplay
Solving puzzles with gravitation and magnetic powers sounded daunting at first, but the first few hours did a really good job teaching the player how to use both of these mechanics.

Over the course of the game, you are also introduced to new obstacles that you must learn to circumvent. These range from color-coded barriers that prevent the player and/or blocks from passing through, switches that are powered from manual activation or pressure plates, and platforms with their own magnetism or movement properties.

One irritating note is that the game tries really hard to make sure that the puzzles are done in the most linear way possible. On every level, there are invisible ceilings and invisible walls. If you jump while sprinting, your jump will only go a fraction as high. You can only pick up blocks while you are on the ground. Ironically, I found completing the puzzles in unintended ways to be a much more fun approach, especially in mid-late game levels where numerous obstacles are stacked on top of each other and can take quite a long time to complete in the intended way. It was at this point in the game that I stopped having fun and I felt like I was doing work to complete each level. I no longer felt joy from thinking about what was coming next and instead every level was just one step closer to finishing the game. As such, I have yet to finish the game and I do not feel any motivation to continue.

Visuals
Relicta takes place over many different locations but absolutely none of them have any discernible effect on the puzzles. You also cannot interact with the environments in any way. The game runs at high graphics settings on my GTX 1650 at a solid 60 fps, but my GPU reaches temperatures around 75-78 Fahrenheit. This is surprising, considering that I am able to run games I would expect to be more graphically intensive at similar frame rate but much lower temperatures. I believe this game is not particularly well-optimized, but it's not a huge issue if you settle for medium/low graphics.

So why am I still recommending this game?
Because I can tell that the developers put a lot of work into the quality of this game. It has several shortcomings, but I am not in the slightest disappointed with the first 10 hours of my experience with the game. I believe if you get this on sale or in a bundle, it's worth playing to see if you might enjoy playing this game after the 10 hour mark.
Posted 25 June, 2021. Last edited 25 June, 2021.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1.6 hrs on record (1.6 hrs at review time)
The campaign is pretty short at the time of writing, but the core mechanics of this game are really solid. You have three abilities that relate to time manipulation and an ultimate that basically just kills everything on screen. Each of the abilities has a good balance with how powerful it is and its cooldown. The only weapon you are able to use can best be described as a rifle with a underbarrel shotgun. They both share the same magazine but you want to use them in different situations. Fortunately, the process of switching between them is as simple as holding (rfile) or releasing (shotgun) right click. The rifle's shots go much further and are more accurate, while the shotgun is able to fire much faster.

This game also makes for a decent aim trainer since every enemy can be 1-shot in the head and they approach from varying distances and heights.

Overall, I had fun with completing the campaign in about an hour and a half. I died many times, but it helped me figure out what I needed to do different the next time and only increased the sense of accomplishment I felt at every step
Posted 3 June, 2021. Last edited 3 June, 2021.
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1 person found this review helpful
0.7 hrs on record (0.5 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
At its current state, it's very difficult for me to recommend or even enjoy this game.

Pros -
Club controls feel good
Solid diversity of maps and courses
Runs well on my non-gaming laptop (medium settings)


Cons -
Lack of tutorial
"Bugged" fullscreen mode: alt-tabbing or exiting the game messes with your other applications
Awful UI: The main menu has an "Options" button that leads to a second "Options" button. The "how to play section" is also in the options for some reason.
Awful UI 2: The "exit" button is also where the "back" back button is, so you can easily accidentally exit the game when navigating the options.
Awful Ui 3: The fact that the options menu has a transition by sliding in from the right is just unnecessary.
Small playerbase: It could be that I played when it wasn't busy, but I only had two lobbies to choose from

This game has been in Early Access for over 4 years and I am very disappointed by its current state. I understand that many things will be ironed out before the full release, but I can not recommend purchasing the game at this time.

If significant improvements are made to this game, I will update my review accordingly.
Posted 9 May, 2021.
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2 people found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
0.3 hrs on record
I am writing this review as someone who has poured hundreds of hours into the mobile version of this game. I have played since mid-2019 and experienced the game's highs and lows. Another Eden is a singleplayer gacha JRPG and it feels cheaply produced compared to JRPGs that are more polished and are more ethically monetized.

The PC Version
The PC/steam port of this game runs perfectly fine, but lacks customization found in other JRPGS. A lot of menus require dragging your mouse pointer around and the game does not even give you the option to navigate with key presses. The PC version does not allow you to change keybinds period. This is especially annoying when fighting enemies since the same key that selects the unit is also the same key that selects the move they use ('1' is first party member as well as first move). Overall, I think if you wanted to play this game on a PC, you should definitely play on an emulator. Not only can you customize your keybinds to your heart's content, you can set up macros that automatically use AOE attacks for instance.

Gacha
For those who do not know, "gacha" is basically the anime version of "loot boxes" or "card packs". You spend some of the premium currency the game gives you for a randomized chance of getting certain characters. You will find that many people argue that it is not necessary for players to use the gacha because the game gives you really good free characters. While this is true, this issue stills lies that a vast majority of new characters being released are much better than the free characters and that they are ONLY available through the gacha system. Each character summoned through the gacha has a rarity of 3, 4, or 5 stars. The level cap for a character is tied to their current rarity and only a select few of the characters from the pool of 3 or 4 star characters can be promoted to 5-stars. Very irritatingly, this means that a majority of a the characters you summon are negligible since they can not be promoted and as such can not reach the maximum level (80).

The distribution rates for each rarity in the gacha system are also very miserable. Each summon nets you a a 2% chance for a 5-star, 40% chance for a 4-star and 57.6% chance for a 3-star. I personally dislike gacha monetization and as such have never spent a cent throughout the many gacha games I have played, this one being no exception. This game does alright with giving players the premium currency for free, but only through the use of ads (which are not part of the PC release).

One more note: to promote a character from 4 stars to 5 stars, it requires 5 "chant scripts". The only renewable way to obtain these scripts is through Another Dungeons, which I will cover in the "grind" section of my review.

Story
The initial story is well written and produced, as you would expect from Masato Kato who has previously worked on Chrono Trigger. Unfortunately I think that the story past chapter 26 is sub-par compared to what came before. You also rarely get free characters from the main campaign after this point in the story. The side quests are fun ways to get to know the towns you're visiting or the characters in your party, but it's really unfortunate that every single character side quest boils down to the same exact formula. You start the quest -> Dialogue -> Go somewhere else -> Fight a monster -> Go somewhere else -> End

Also an important QoL feature that is missing is the ability to skip cutscenes. You have to keep clicking in order to progress through dialogue.

Purely looking at this from a design perspective, these quests are utterly monotonous. At least the writing for these quests is usually good. You find out something new about the character and might explain some of their personality or odd behavior.

There are also various entire "side stories" which are entire mini-campaigns that take place in locations separate from the main story. The stories here are typically well-written but are unfortunately plagued by a grind requirement in order to progress through them. For most of these stories, you have to grind a certain amount of their respective key item in order to access the next chapter. And just to nudge you into using the gacha system more, having specific gacha characters will increase the rate at which you collect these key items.

Combat
In regards to party customization, Another Eden does a phenomenal job. You can have 6 members in a party and 4 will fight while 2 stay in the backline. When you switch a frontline unit for someone in the back, they will perform a "valor chant", which can be a party/individual buff, an enemy debuff, or even an AOE attack. Another Force is also a cool mechanic but more often than not just boils down to button mashing.

However it should be noted that your party customization is tied to how lucky/how much you spend on the gacha system to get new characters. Units obtained through gacha are also often much better than free characters that accomplish similar roles.

Grind
The gameplay loop is absolutely horrible. You get 4 green keys and 4 red keys every day (you can only hold up to 9 and 5 respectively). These are used for accessing Another Dungeons which are just mini-dungeons of areas you have already explored. Unfortunately, every single dungeon run is the exact same experience. The same starting locations, the same path to the end, the same enemies, and it becomes tiring really quickly. The real kicker is that you have to make the most of these keys because you need the promotion items as well as materials to craft weapons that the dungeon drops.

There is also the light and shadow system which is just extra BS that I won't get into. Just know that it only benefits players who summon duplicates of the same hero (usually paying users) or people that grind dungeons every day for months.

I covered the grind from side-stories in my "story" section and how it creates a problem for the game to sell you a solution.

Soundtrack and Voice Acting
The music is excellent. It's very recognizable and I love listening to it outside of playing the game. You will be hard pressed to find pieces of soundtrack on youtube that aren't enjoyable.

The voice acting on the other hand is where WFS really skimped out. Very few portions of the game are actually voiced, almost all dialogue in the game just has music playing with the occasional sound effect. The only times you hear voice acting is when you summon a character and once every turn of combat. It's really quite disappointing if you compare it to JRPGs like P5, Tales, and Octopath Traveler.

They have hired many unproven english voice actors to do the english dub of this game. This is further supported by the fact that they did not get the english voice acting done for the P5 or Tales collaboration characters. That being said, the people who say that the english dub is horrible or garbage are completely exaggerating. The quality is not up to something you would expect from something like Funimation or Crunchyroll, but it is certainly not bad enough that it's "unplayable".

Another thing that these dub haters like to ignore is that there are NO SUBTITLES for the Japanese voices. So whenever you do hear these JP voices (keep in mind it's literally one line per turn of combat), you won't even know what they are saying. The steam version does lack the JP voice lines, but I assume this was because WFS saw a vast majority of players keeping the English voices turned on and so they didn't bother adding the JP voices.

Conclusion
Another Eden is a story-rich and incredibly fun JRPG a for the first few hours and features a large cast of characters that make the combat incredibly diverse. Unfortunately it comes with many caveats including the horrible monetization through gacha and extensive grind to really progress efficiently.
Posted 31 March, 2021. Last edited 31 March, 2021.
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Showing 1-5 of 5 entries