Recent reviews by The nameless Commander

First thing first, I adored 20XX and decided to partake in this game's early access. I saw it grow, I became fond of it... but eventually, it became straight up abusive. Which is a damn shame. The looks, the soundtrack, the game feel... they're all incredibly good. So, what isn't and why the thumbs down? The obnoxious difficulty, ESPECIALLY the bosses of stage 9 and 10. The stage 9 boss will hit you with a plethora of attacks from the 8 previous stages' bosses, which is pretty much the same as in 20XX, but this time her loadout isn't always the same. On top of being an awful damage sponge, she often spawns maneuvering space restricting attacks which REMAIN on stage, and if you get unlucky, she can leave you barely any space to maneuver. And she hits hard. And then come the bosses of stage 10. The mid-boss is another annoyingly spongy one with screen-filling attacks. The final boss is actually THREE bosses, a duo and then another boss. All three do heavy damage and have high health pools. On top of that, during the first fight, one boss can REVIVE the other at around 25% damage. The final boss fights are not fun, but player attrition.

Maybe I am no longer the target audience for this game. Maybe the developers want to target a demographic of the most dedicated and hardcore roguelite players. I am not one of them. It was fun while it lasted, the early access journey and the first few patches after 1.0 were fun. But not any more.

Final verdict: 5/10

8 Years of waiting and a lot of promise and potential... but ultimately not worth it.
I allowed myself to have high expectations from this game, especially with how much I liked what I played in the demos for both level 1 and level 3 before that. I had EVERY reason to look forward to this game.
But at the end, it doesn't deliver enough . I'll get the point about the lewd content out of the way first, since it's one of the main selling points of the game: It's... alright. But just that. Despite most of it being not entirely consensual, Talia seems lustful enough for it not to feel appalling like in your average X-rated JRPG. But there's not a wide range of fetishes, just a bit of more or less classic in-out 'till they reach the peak.

The combat is pretty standard for a metroidvania with the main character at least having range advantage. No complains there. Unless it's a boss fight, if you lose, you lose either on purpose or due to recklessness/impatience. The boss design, at least the first three I've seen, is actually good.

The puzzles are also interesting and well designed, at least in the first three levels. I'm not really the most avid puzzle-head but I had fun solving them. Yes, even that brain-busting laser puzzle in the second area.

So... why am I talking mostly about levels 1 to 3? Because the FOURTH is a massive change of pace. The platforming and puzzles now require HIGH precision platforming skills in terms of spacing and reaction timing. The first three levels were puzzles which require THINKING. The fourth suddenly requires the reaction times completely mismatched with what came before. Know your audience, FF-team. Do you want to cater to puzzle-heads or to precision platformer players? You CAN'T please both. Specifically the Fragment puzzle in level 4 broke my patience. Heavily time-sensitive precision platforming was NOT why I bought this game. And it wasn't there in EITHER version of the demo. Not in the one showcasing level 3, not in the one showcasing level 1.

I dislike writing negative reviews. And this is no exception. But much as I WANTED to like this game, I just can't endorse such erratic design.
The Verdict: 4.9/10.

"Muramasa - the demon blade" meets roguelite. "Helvetii" is wearing the inspiration on its sleeve but that's hardly a bad thing. The lovely hand-drawn style hooked me in but I stayed for the gameplay. While most roguelites are already heavily combat-focused, Helvetii stands out by actually rewarding long combo streaks and more stylish play. With three distinct and unique characters, it's all the more fun.

The difficulty never felt punishing though it had a bit of an odd curve. Maybe it's just me, but the second stage main boss feels a bit harder than the third stage boss (especially with the Druid who has a hard time keeping up with the mobility of the boss). Other than that, the gameplay loop is rather fun, especially with the variety of stage elements.

The permanent upgrade progression feels a little slow but fortunately the game rewards skill very generously, so normal mode can be cleared without a long grind. The upgrades during runs can make a big difference without having to actually consider a build, which I will ENDORSE, since most roguelites emphasize builds, some of them a little too much. "Helvetii" is an experience where each run's success mostly depends on the player's skill.

The amusing dialogue between the characters and Shopkeeper Bob's lines are a nice touch too.

Overall, "Helvetii" managed to stand out to me in a year PACKED with roguelites and deserves a genuine recommendation. 8.5/10

One hell of an addition to the roguelite genre!
It's mostly what you see on the tin. Frantic melee combat with a large variety of weapons, a character you can upgrade both between runs and in them, a whole lot of enemies to turn to scrap... and some incredibly designed bosses! Tough as nails, yet ultimately fair. They are the highlight of this game along with the varied upgrades.
So, what are things to like about this game? First, the upgrade system, especially the one during runs. Defeated enemies drop Nanite, used to evolve your character with a variety of active and passive abilities. More variants open up as you defeat bosses and find hidden DNA veils. The Evolution system MIGHT look overwhelming but is quite comprehensive and it doesn't take long to figure out how to make highly efficient builds. Worth noting is that you can use some Nanite to reroll the upgrade choices if you don't like any of the offered ones. Be advised not to hoard Nanite!
Between runs, you can use the Pure Nanite, also dropped by enemies, to purchase permanent stat boosts and passive perks for your character.
And you'll need those upgrades, because the bosses are no pushovers and will REALLY test your skill. Worth noting is that most of their attacks, while telegraphed, come out notably faster than in similar games. Dodge or counter on STARTUP, not on contact, you WILL be late if you try the latter. There's also the Bullet Hell type bosses, which will fill the screen with projectiles. For them: time your dodges, as they don't have a 1-frame start-up. Again, don't try to dodge on contact.

What, you're still reading and not smashing robots? Get started already! They won't just keel over by themselves!

I've played the demo when it was available and liked what I saw. The gameplay, the music, the art. Then I got to play the main game after a bit of a wait and I wanted to like it. And in fact, I did... but with a bit of a caveat. The last two boss fights are a REAL challenge out of which one caused a temporary burnout. However... onto the actual review.

First of all, the visual presentation is pretty and eye-catching. The art of the game is lovely and vibrant, matching the tone and mood of the scene it portrays. The designs of the characters is appealing and the enemy design is rather creative.
The music is pretty good, although it doesn't always stand out.
Gameplay-wise, the game is pretty fun. Out of combat it's a mix of simplified point&click and visual novel with actually meaningful choices. In combat it plays out with an ATB system based on the speed stat with everyone getting one action per turn except bosses. There is a bit of a twist, as you decide your party's actions before the turn begins, rather when their time to act comes. This means the player has to plan their actions accordingly. Overall it's a refreshing change from the usual.
The story is pretty well written and paced. Despite having played many fantasy similar fantasy games, this one caught me off-guard with its twists. Also, I would like to commend the character writing and development. The characters have grown onto me very quickly.

After getting some helpful advice, I changed my review to positive and am going to leave a tip for a boss fight in chapter 13. Keep. Christoph. ALIVE AND IMMUNE TO DEBUFFS. His omniheal/revive skill is the key to winning the fight of attrition. Also, assign all damage-dealing Adjutants to speed up your victory.

Feel free to try it in your own way though, but bear in mind that it's a LONG boss fight with 7 waves of enemies before it. You've been warned.

The verdict: 8.7/10

A cute but surprisingly dangerous trip to Wonderland!

As a metroidvania enthusiast and someone who loves cute things, I couldn't resist this entry.
Performance-wise, there are no issues even on my quite old PC. Stable frame-rate, haven't run into bugs or glitches, game randomly crashed once and that's it. Ticks the checkbox of a finely working game.
Visually, the game is gorgeous, especially if you love vibrant, colourful and cute design. It also manages to retain the wacky and quirky vibe of its inspiration source.
The music is lovely. It helps setting the ambient and mood greatly and is generally pleasant to listen to. Coupled with the cute sound effects, it rounds up the experience nicely.
The story is at times funny, at times weird. Just like the source material the game took inspiration from.
Edited part:
After getting all the endings, I can only say that I have my gripes with some major difficulty spikes. And that's after clearing Bombservice games ("Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight" and "Minoria")
Overall: I somewhat cautiously recommend this game. If you are not a metroidvania veteran, you might have a hard time with some instances even on the lowest difficulty.
Final verdict: 7.7/10

An exciting adventure in a new frontier!

Picking up after Tower Hunter and departing from the grind-heavy rogue-lite formula, we have here a lovely and promising entry. It gives a strong vibe of being inspired by the "Trine" series and the critically acclaimed "Bloodstained - Ritual of the night" but adds its own flavor mostly with combat much better than not only in its sources of inspiration but worthy of an action game. The variety of weapons and techniques is an improvement over "Tower Hunter". What I personally particularly liked about it is that both enemies and the player character actually react to being hit. Enemies (bosses included) don't just act like brick walls when being hit, the impression that they are taking damage isn't just represented by their HP bar decreasing, the heavy hits make even the toughest enemies reel. Huge as some of them are, taking a missile hit should look like it hurt and in this game it DOES.

Visually, the game is gorgeous. Though sometimes, the background can play tricks on the eyes. More than once did I try to jump on something which LOOKED like a surface to stand on, only to find out it's in the background.
The soundtrack didn't captivate me initially, but after listening to it outside of the game, I found it to be particularly pleasing. It really adds to the atmosphere of the game. The initial tracks are soothing or cheerful, reflecting the initial mood of the game but the music turns gradually more dramatic and foreboding as the scale and nature of the real threat are being unveiled.

Story-wise, it's rather interesting so far, can't give a detailed verdict on that until the whole thing's out. But the most amusing part is definitely the banter between Erza, Ciara and Diablo.
As expected with an early access release, bugs and glitches happen but they are being squashed. Some sooner, others later.
Eagerly anticipating the full release!

A love-letter to the cyberpunk genre.

I won't write the usual kind of review this time. Overall, the gameplay is what you'll find in other similar titles. By the book, but done well. There's a management part, lots of dialog with plenty of options, combat...
What I personally loved about this game was the world-building more than anything. It isn't a big one, but one where the player feels like their choices are a part of shaping it. And it doesn't force the player into a specified role. The situations can all be approached from multiple angles and handled in multiple ways. It's what a role-playing game is SUPPOSED to deliver. The player is a wild card. And thus, there is a reason to play more than once.

So if you, dear reader, are a fan of actual role-playing, I hope you will find at least as much joy in this game as I did. I personally am looking forward to the future of this and hopefully upcoming titles.

I know I shouldn't look a gifted horse in its mouth but... after many hours I have recognized things I am not alright with. Neither with this DLC nor with the way it affects the game.
Story: I won't mince words. It opens a lot more questions than it gives answers. I won't say more to avoid potential spoilers. It ends with a cliffhanger and Alisa and Bianca make NO PROGRESS in their quest whatsoever.
Gameplay: From this DLC on, the game turns completely one-dimensional. Deal absurd damage before the enemy does. Enemy teams come in large numbers and hit hard. We're talking both player and enemy dishing 5-digit damage against an average of 3.000 HP. Why? Why do we need 300% critical hit damage? Not to mention the standardization of a 100% hit chance or higher. Any investment in dodging becomes completely redundant and dodge as a mechanic becomes obsolete, unless we're talking guaranteed evasion from masteries and sets like Cover Move, Lightning Reflexes and Darkness Hunter. From a game with tactical diversity, it devolves into something very similar to Valkyria Chronicles and its exploitation of the Scout class. This is just one man's opinion and unlikely to be welcomed. But I wanted to share it all the same. Thank you for your hard work, Dandylion, but please consider making "Banished children" not being all about obliteration-level damage.

It's been a long wait, especially for someone starved for cyberpunk content. Was it worth it? Ultimately, yes. I won't be writing a rave review I was hoping to write but will not bash the game pointlessly either.

Is it good? It was for me. I really like the game's world-building. The environments give away the typical cyberpunk vibes known from pieces like Armitage III, Bladerunner and Ghost in the Shell while not being too much of any of them. The game's world is small but feels alive. I liked wandering the cities and the environments in general and find them appropriately designed for the genre. Whatever the game has to offer to the senses is doing a rather decent job.

The story: I'll be brief on this part. The game has an open ending and leaves a number of loose ends. The bits shown in Dolly's apartment and on Alan's computer could use some narration though, be it text or voice. It's rather hard to piece together the meaning of those events with visual feed alone. As for the main story, it's one which definitely leaves room for a new arc to tie in. It feels like an introduction to something bigger. Since I personally don't mind open endings, no points deducted here.

The gameplay: The 2D and 3D segments blend into one another pretty well, there are no problems with the transition from one to another. I played the game on keyboard, no problems with the controls. Haven't found any bugs.
After a few updates, the combat feels notably better than it did at the point when this review was first written. Specifically the dodge-canceling and the damage of the heavy swords have been improved. Some might still find room for improvement, but the combat feels fairly good at this point.

The difficulty curve had a few spikes which I found rather annoying: The Mother Grub boss fight in the generator room (babysitting a background object while having to fight is quite a pain, especially as the boss' mobility increases drastically), the chase sequence with the red blob is thankfully short, but the extremely narrow escape window during the climb sequence can be a little too much. And then there's the "immortal lizard" which on itself is manageable but makes the subsequent fights a little anti-climactic.

Conclusion: There are good things to be said about the game, there are things to be criticized and improved about it as well. I would love to see the work on the game and/or the world it is building continued. It's not perfect, but it made a fan of cyberpunk books, comics and games happy.
8/10