Recent reviews by Apkallu

Unironically the best game of 2024!
It's so chill and heartwarming and you can feel the love and passion put into it ♥

Game lags and microstutters all the time in a rig that can tank EVERY modern game + Ray Tracing.
It has gacha for new Gundams and you can't find a match because matchmaking fails all the time!
Its graphics are not good either and the graphics options are way too sub-par for a PC game in 2023. As much as I want to love this game, I just can't. Not at the moment at least...

One of the best isometric RPGs ever!

Started out very promising, turned out o be a shallow, boring, crappy cashgrab

!!!EDIT to cover the new accessory update!!!

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

---{Gameplay}---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It‘s just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Starring at walls is better
☐ Just don‘t

---{Audio}---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ Earrape

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☐ Adults
☑ Human
☐ Lizards

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

---{Difficulity}---
☐ Just press ‚A‘
☐ Easy
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second live for grinding

---{Story}---
☐ Story?
☐ Text or Audio floating around
☑ 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 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

I strongly recommend this game if you are a mecha fan! The sheer amount of mecha customizability is absurd! You can change everything from the type of each part, to the decals and their placement on the 3D model.

On the game's difficulty, I can say that even though it's not THAT hard (I play only on the hardest difficulty as of writing this), you still need to be a bit skilled to stay alive. Experiment with different weapon setups, tune your M.A.S.S. in another way and victory is yours.
Speaking of weapons and tuning, even for Early Access, there are hundreds of different modules you can unlock to tune your M.A.S.S. Some focus on speed, other on defense and others for offense and finding the balance between all 3 is important.
Weapons, on the other hand, are more limited to: melee, bullet shooters (normal ballistic weapons), energy shooters (think of laser and ray guns), launcher weapons (missile launchers on your shoulders with either homing or mortar-like rockets) and some funnel-like weapons (think of Gundam). In those weapons, only the grip (for melee), barrel (for both type of guns) and the missile pod case (for launchers) matter. They change the weapon's functionality completely, altering the gameplay and animations.

-EDIT below-
The new update introduced a new acessory system that nothing short of amazing. Before it, you were confided in the game's predefined armor pieces or weapon parts to mix and match to your liking, but your mecha customizability still remained a bit "limited". Now, with more than 500 accessories to stick to your mecha and weapons, literally wherever you want and however you want, the possibilities are literally endless!! You want to make an Armored Core-like mecha? Now you can! How about the original Gundam? Now you can? Hell, you can even make Nigel Thornberry for crying out loud! (legit, just check community creations! this exists XD)
This update really brought forth the community's creativity and the results are really showing it! I think it also extended the game's lifespan tremendously as well, which is a good thing.
-EDIT end-

As of the story, it's kinda hard to say. On one hand, it is present with many main and support characters and other overarching events that take place in the background and in the Archive section of the game. On the other hand, it lacks that "oomph" I've seen in other mecha games like Hardcore Mecha or Armored Core. Still, it's Early Access, so things might change in the future.

Overall, I enjoy my time in this game a hella lot! It's a fast paced, 3rd person shooter with hack n' slash elements. While I would prefer fighting other mecha, instead of Evangelion-like enemies, killing those things feels so damn satisfying! Can't wait for it's official release!

If you are a lover of Japanese culture and folklore and you like action games, this one is for you!

As of writing this review, I have 30 hours playtime. I love this game despite some of its flaws and the realistic approach they tried is really my cup of team. So far I'm only in Chapter 2, but I can definitely see it evolving in a really gritty story!
The characters themselves have a good chemistry and even though I think Prompto's character would be better if he was a girl, the relationship with the rest of the cast fits his role perfect. The cast feels very believable and realistic and this is even more reinforced with their life skills. Each member's life skill add one more layer of realism to them, resulting to a much more believable character than your cookie-cutter "hero" stereotype.
The world feels also very well made and diverse. The starting area feels like Texas or something, but once you finish the 1st chapter, the next area has that distinct "Final Fantasy-esque" feel to it. Really lush areas with bigger-than-life characteristics (like stone arcs or a glowing crystal in the center) make one to not being bored when going back and forth while traveling!

Now, why don't I recommend the game? Simple: this game is a hot mess, tech-wise. It crashes so often it's infuriating and the framepacing and stuttering is annoying as well! Apparently, the stuttering and FPS issues are mainly a Steam-only problem as owners of the Windows Store and Origin versions say it's fine there. For the rest of us, there are only 2 options:
1) downgrade to a previous version to play without so much stuttering, since patch 1.25 (Ardyn Episode patch) made the game a huge mess
2) continue playing with stutters and horrible frames

If you don't want to deal with this hassle, just buy it on either PS4 or Windows Store/Origin.

---{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

---{Audience}---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☐ Adults
☑ All

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

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

---{Grind}---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isnt necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You‘ll need a second life 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 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

Pros:
Funny narrator and card descriptions
Innovative gameplay
Good visuals
Rewarding game time

Cons:
A little grindy as all card games are
Some matchups are a little bit unbalanced

Reason to buy: ABS!!!!