Recent reviews by Download Everything

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second live for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☑ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☑ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs

Ys X Nordics, the latest installment of the Ys series where our protagonist, Adol the Red, sets out on another adventure and again, getting caught in the crossfire of whatever is happening there. In this case, he's trapped in a land run by Normans, a viking-like pirates, and demonic beings known as Griegr, while trying to uncover the truth behind their appearance. I'll try to keep it simple and highlight the main features. Battle mechanics will be divided into land and sea (ship).

Battle (land): By far this has THE BEST Ys party-based battle mechanics. There are only 2 party members and Ys X softly highlights the role of each member. The fight features fast-paced hack and slash, and now some enemies have "shield" bar on top of health bar where you have to deplete the shield bar first to damage the enemy. The 2 members' role is softly divided into "main damager" and "shield breaker" where the latter has better skillset for breaking the shield bar. Unlike previous Ys series, the block and evade mechanics are now revamped. They no longer slows time but other than their general uses, enemies will have unique attack patterns where you need to utilize both block/parry and evade to counter-attack.

Battle (Sea): You don't like Assassin's Creed because it's too slow, but you like fighting with a pirate ship? Ys X has that, and it is splendidly simple, allowing you to maneuver around with a pirate ship, and using various weapon loadouts, battling against other pirate ships. Love it.

RPG element: Party leveling is simplified to 1 level for both characters, so no matter who you use, they will level up together so there's no stress of leveling each and every one of them. Skills are learned through level and skill masteries, and there are TONS of skills to use. Stats development are comprised of a mechanic similar to Final Fantasy X's sphere grid, where every 10 level you will open a few orb nodes and insert orbs with various parameter (ATK, BRK for Breaking shield, etc). Put the same type of orbs together and you'll have additional effects, and none are too game-breaking. You can also upgrade your ship's parameters to make it stronger.

Graphics: It looks...dated. Compared to Ys VIII and Ys IX, Ys X looks straight out of a handheld console, suffers the same fate with how Monster Hunter Rise is treated as a port from Switch. BUT for me it is still lovely and the game's only 6GB in size. Although, for a game that is released on 2024 (2023?), I was expecting an upgrade from Ys IX.

Story: Oh man, the story is full of twists and turns, the main characters aren't cliche, and side characters offer a lot of depth to how everything runs in the world of Ys X Nordics and there are no corny ones. I keep forgetting how Nihon Falcom always has beautiful world-building. Dialogue feels impactful, and for me who always uses english dub for Ys X, I can honestly say Ys X has one of the best dubs, everything feels very emotional.

Final Ratings: 8.9/10, I'd put this below Ys VIII storywise, but by no means is Ys X a letdown. Now I'm left with nothing again after I 100%'ed this game..

Gameplay wise it's decent, performance wise it's kinda bad as it still has lots of frame drop issues.
There aren't too many contents as of now if we compare to other bullet hell roguelites but it's good enough if you want mecha-based with great graphics.

Pretty good Metroidvania, dare I say a classic that doesn't give you too many flash mechanics but still has lots to give.
+Solid gameplay, no unnecessary mechanics
+Great bosses, at least after they kicked your face 100 times and raging and going to reddit to whine
+The story is...unique? Text heavy and lore heavy given from NPCs that you thought is useless, but everything comes together.
+Traversing, backtracking is a pain in the first hours but afterwards it's decent enough.

-No customization aside from charms, no visual appearance changes and all that stuff
-Lack of skills and magics, you're stuck with only a few of them.

Overall, close to a masterpiece. It's overwhelmingly positive for a reason.

I'll be using a template and try to highlight separately from both the main game and the DLC.

ASTLIBRA Revision is a side-scrolling game that revolves around a young man looking for his friend after his hometown was attacked by demons. The gameplay is simple yet complex, the RPG elements are very thought of, everything was superb.

ASTLIBRA Revision (Gaiden: Cave of Phantom Mist) is a separate DLC with the same gameplay mechanics but with an added feature of roguelite elements, the story tells of a baker's daughter and takes place in parallel with the main game, so it's best to completely finish the main game first.
Strongly Recommended - ✔✔

Gameplay Experience (24/25)

Intuitive Controls - Easy to use.
☐ Very Difficult
☐ Difficult
☐ Moderate
☐ Easy
☑ Very Easy
For both the MG (Main game) and DLC, the controls are pretty much the same. I didn't do too many changes but the controls feels very fluid.

Balanced Gameplay - Fair and equal.
☐ Poorly Balanced
☐ Somewhat Balanced
☐ Moderately Balanced
☐ Well Balanced
☑ Perfectly Balanced
Difficulty in this game actually affects the mechanics of the game, where for the 2 hardest difficulties, the game won't pause when you are casting magic and using item from the quick slot. I'd say these changes are what makes the game veerryy smooth in terms of gameplay.
I did a blind Hell (2nd hardest) difficulty playthrough for the MG, and Impossible (Hardest) for the DLC. The difficulty spikes are well balanced as long as you properly equip yourself. Increase in difficulty typically just raises the enemy's damage and health points, the AI itself doesn't seem to change. I rarely encounter a case of damage sponge bosses. The attack patterns of the enemies are beautifully telegraphed and designed, especially the bosses and they are enough to keep you on your toes but still mesmerized by the effects!

Player Engagement - Involving and captivating.
☐ Not at all
☐ Slightly
☐ Moderately
☐ Very
☑ Extremely
I got 100 hours in just a week with a 100% achievement. Need I say more?
Jokes aside, I never feel bored even when grinding, everything feels very rewarding. The game also has SKIP feature so it doesn't make repeating story tedious after you die, or when you want to try another choice regarding the story.

Decision Relevance - Meaningful choices.
☐ Meaningless
☐ Not Meaningful
☐ Somewhat Meaningful
☑ Quite Meaningful
☐ Highly Meaningful
After a certain chapter, you will encounter some cases of Choices Matter that affects endings and how the rest of the chapter plays. So it's best to have multiple saves. The aftermath itself isn't too game-breaking accept for one, I'll let you figure that out yourself!

Rewarding Progression - Satisfying advancement.
☐ Very Unsatisfying
☐ Unsatisfying
☐ Neutral
☐ Satisfying
☑ Very Satisfying
Grinding feels very rewarding where each and every weapons, shield, armor you unlock have a Mastery gauge where once maxed will give you a reward. Exploring the map, finding out hidden treasures and bosses, grinding for materials, all of them will reward you and it doesn't feel like looking for every detail is useless. Post-game also has mechanics where you will be able to crank up early game gears and make it viable for end-game dungeons and FASHION.

Presentation & Immersion (23/25)

Compelling Storyline - Engaging narrative.
☐ Not Interesting
☐ Slightly Interesting
☐ Moderately Interesting
☐ Very Interesting
☑ Extremely Interesting

Oh boy.
Main game story, as I said, revolves around a boy looking for his friend after his hometown was attacked by demons. Story was really captivating and beautiful, no cliches no niches, LOTS of plot twists and things that will leave your mouth hanging and wanting for more. The story involves eradicating demons and time traveling, with every side characters perfectly impacting the story. Keizo did a very amazing job for this.
DLC story takes place at least after the 2nd chapter of the main game (I think?), with more plot twists. It's shorter than the main game but it has the perfect length for the DLC, the narration itself is still beautiful.

Immersive Atmosphere - Captivating environment.
☐ Not Immersive
☐ Slightly Immersive
☐ Moderately Immersive
☐ Very Immersive
☑ Completely Immersive
The world building is beautiful, the backdrop for most areas gave me a wide-eye as I am awed by the design. It may not use unreal engine and all that stuff but, man, even my girlfriend was captivated when she watched me play this game.

Visual Aesthetics - Stunning graphics.
☐ Not Appealing
☐ Slightly Appealing
☐ Moderately Appealing
☐ Very Appealing
☑ Extremely Appealing
Sometimes you'll feel familiar with the visuals. Some will make you feel nostalgic, stunned, and wondering...
"Have I seen something like this before?"
Well it's none other than SHIGATAKE from VanillaWare! Beautiful character designs, character portraits, everything feels like it's from Odin's Sphere. The particle effects of magic, weapon swing animation, skills, they feel very impactful added with a really good SFX.

Polished HUD - Clean and functional interface.
☐ Very Unfriendly
☐ Unfriendly
☐ Neutral
☑ Friendly
☐ Very Friendly
Pretty easy to navigate, inventory sorts by itself and cannot be sorted manually. Most of the time I feel like it should have been able to be manually sorted by quantity, type or weight.

Design & Technical Aspects (20/25)

Game Design - Well-crafted mechanics.
☐ Poorly Designed
☐ Somewhat Designed
☐ Moderately Designed
☐ Well Designed
☑ Excellently Designed
Battle mechanics wise, from normal attacks, skills, magic and item usage, you'll feel like everything will come together smoothly especially with Hell / Impossible difficulty where the game doesn't pause when you're doing magic or using item.
RPG elements of this game are one of the best I have ever seen. You have stat points (or in this case it's called Magic Stones) that you can allocate to your desired stat. The MG will acquire 5 Magic Stones every level up, but DLC will require you to find or farm the Magic Stones since it's roguelite elements will reset you to level 1 everytime you quit the the dungeon.
Some of the unique stats are AGI (this gives you combo bonuses and weight reduction of your weapon and shield, which in turn will give you more attack speed) Luck and Adaptability (ADA). now ADA is a unique stat where I most of the time...don't care. It will increase the time you can stay underwater and reduce movement speed obstruction debuffs from water and snow.
Aside from the magic stones, you will have Force, a currency to use on skill trees that unlocks magic and stat boosts and a unique scale system where you put items on the scale, try to balance it and the more balanced it is, the better the stats given by the items.

Content Quality - Rich and diverse.
☐ Poor Content
☐ Limited Content
☐ Moderate Content
☑ Extensive Content
☐ Abundant Content
You have main story, hidden dungeons and an arena. It's simple but it works wonders to boost my gameplay hours.

Final Considerations (24/25)

Overall Satisfaction - General enjoyment level.
☐ Very Dissatisfied
☐ Dissatisfied
☐ Neutral
☐ Satisfied
☑ Very Satisfied

Recommendation.
☐ No
☑ Yes

Buy the game, it's OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE for a reason.

Capcom woke up and chose peace.
Or maybe they lost a bet with Inafune, who knows.

+ NO GACHA
+ You farm what you want, no need to wait for events and all that crap.
+ No energy, no limitation.

- Doesn't include all of the released character from the online ver (i.e. Monster Hunter crossovers).

Highly recommended for all hardcore Megaman fans, now you can use Bass EXE to decimate enemies instead of him destroying your hopes and dreams, including your panels.

Souls-like with parry as the core mechanics, but Koei Tecmo got confused with the balancing on whether to make this game hard or easy.

Easily inferior to both Nioh 1 and 2 in terms of character progression and story telling. Feels like the game already expect us to know who's who. If you've played Dynasty Warriors then you're safe-ish, but it's still bland, indirect and weirdly paced.

Dumbass horse AI
10/10

Nice bullet hell, not too easy and not too hard, although some weapons are VERY weak compared to others even on maxed evolution. Good variety of characters which is what I really want from this kind of game.

Even more plus with regular updates!

I played only to play Infinite Justice.

Simpler Black Desert with an annoying open area PvP like in the olden RF times.