Recent reviews by omed_86

Maya <3

This is extremely repetitive even by Warriors games standards.
They've also added this armor system which makes everyone a brick wall.
Cutscenes are cool, but everything else feels like they went "Eh whatever..."

The game also looks nothing like in the screenshots even at max settings. And it runs bad on my PC despite having hardware way above recommended,

I bought this cuz I enjoyed the 3rd one, and cuz it looked nice in screenshots. But the more I play it, the more I dislike it.

Here have a thumbsdown from me ^_^
For the tiny tiny difficult to read fonts and millions of pages of dialogue.
Nevermind the rest of the visual oddities.

Rest of the game is ok, when it is not interrupting you every two minutes to read more things written in tiny font.

Nice! Thank you!

I always cut indie devs some slack, but this is just not fun.
2 hours in and I have to get any of the "cool" skills.
Do the guns at least feel good to shoot? Sorry no.
Movement feels floaty.
Maybe it gets better later on, but I am already bored.

Graphics are nice though.

Thank you Devs!
Not every action game needs to be souls-like, Rouge-like!
Don't get me wrong, these can be fun too, but it's been a while since we got one of these more DMC-like games!
** Scroll down to the bottom for a note about older Polaris AMD cards performance.

This game will take you back to the good old PS2/PS3 days, with some quality of life additions.
So, classic level to level progress, stylish combat, ridiculous* slow mo cutscenes, bosses that talk too much and fixed camera angles!
*Not as ridiculous as DMC and DmC, but still ridiculous enough.

The combat execution itself isn't that complex, but it offers more and more layers and options as you progress, acquire new weapons and encounter new enemies. It is a bit like Ninja Theory's DmC with it's Blue and Red thing.
In general it feels really good when you get the hang of it.

One of the biggest criticism this game gets is the fixed camera angles, and how it likes to pull all the way back during exploration. For me, it certainly felt pretty jarring as I started off, even though I've played games like this in the past.
And I think it is that this game does it a lot more often, and the levels themselves have pretty big spaces.
Although later on it didn't bother me as much.
As for combat, they give you camera controls, as well as the options to adjust both camera distance and field of view (which you'll need to max out for some optional challenges).

The level design while I liked the design itself, visually, they could have used more variety. Like most of the game is just gray, same castle environment. And I get it is the color palette they choose to set the mood, but in 25 hours I finished the game, it got a bit repetitive seeing the same visuals, same lighting.

I played on normal and the difficulty felt fair, only one boss in particular annoyed me quite a bit. But there are many difficulty levels, and even easier ones with assist should you wish.
Sometimes the combat can become a bit overwhelming, with the number of enemy types and stuff on screen, and I think some enemies could use a bit of balance. Some are way too tanky imo.

There is level replay, and hidden challenges to clear, so there a lot to replay and enjoy this game.
You get ranks for combat and level clear, but no immediate ranking like DMC (A, B, C....). Instead you get Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. The better your rank, the more points you earn to spend on upgrades.

Anyway for a small indie team, and for a new IP, this is really really good! I had a great time playing this and looking forward to more!
I paid full price for this and I'd say it is 100% worth it!

**Note: If you have one of the older AMD cards, like my RX480, expect to encounter a glitch in one of the levels. Due to a certain particle effect, the game locks itself to 15 FPS in a certain portion of the level. It is apparently not something present in Nvidia cards, and probably not newer AMD ones.
I've contacted the devs about the issue and they said they could not reproduce the glitch, but they'll do their best to optimize the particles.
The game otherwise runs fine.
I'll update this review if there is improvement concerning this issue.

Alright! Let's follow Layzarin Shtoutto on another grand adventure!

In my review I assume you've played the first game, and I'd like to sum it up with: More of the same of what you liked in the first game, but bigger, and also some annoyances.
If you're new, then I recommend you play Ryza 1 first, cuz the story is a huge part of the game! And also it is still pretty good. And imo had better flow and pacing.

I started playing the first Ryza 1 not too long ago, I loved it! And I wrote in my review there is a lot of room for improvements, and hoped they have learned from their experience for Ryza 2. But Did they?
Weeeelllll no, in my opinion.
I have the same complains and then some lol
They don't ruin the game, but they can get really annoying.
Such as:
- Constantly getting interrupted by side-story events playing automatically.
- Levels are overflowed with monsters/enemies, making exploring and collecting material and clues tedious. That until you get over leveled and they starting scurrying away and it looks hilarious!
- Looking for a certain item during synthesizing is still tedious, and could use better sorting, and preferably a search function or an alphabetical order.

BUT, they've also added a lot of cool stuff! Such as:
- The combat: At first I didn't like it. It was a bit confusing, and depends more on your stats/gear. But in general, you can do a lot more than you could in Ryza 1. A lot more emphasis on mixing and matching.
- You may get some slight Tomb Raider vibes, what with exploring ruins, finding clues, and Ryza squeezing herself through narrow openings in walls lol
Then you get to piece together some story bits via a puzzle minigame. Which was nice at first, but I honestly got bored by the end and started brute forcing it.
- You can finally jump down a higher place instead of going all the way back around. Although you still have to take quite a lot of detours!
- The graphics and lighting are improved! You have different weathers, and if it has been raining the day before, you'll see rain puddles, and honestly it looks pretty nice! The reflections especially.
Character models are also improved. Ryza looks aw so cute ^_^
- Swimming, while very contextual, it just looks nice! Ryza is a very good swimmer!
- Photo Mode makes a come back and this time, with a Depth of Field slider :D If you're a photo mode enthusiast, you'll know how exciting that is XD I have close to 150 photos taken so far.
It is just pretty fun to play around with and make dioramas.
- They've added the feature to customize your Atelier, which is extremely limited! I don't know why they even bothered, but you can get some cute plushies and that made me smile :)
- There is one other thing I am not mentioning, but it was a nice surprise for me, so I leave it a surprise for you!

Took me a bit longer that I was expecting, and started to get a bit tired by the end, but overll, relaxing and wholesome times were had <3 I enjoyed the story and liked the character development.
I look forward to Ryza 3!

This is an action kungfu movie in a video game format!
It is fast! It is crazy! It is beautiful!
Sometimes it is actually too fast and I have no idea what is happening on screen.
The most two glaring problems are the translation, and the UI.
Translation is bad and incomplete, but you'll get the gist of the story. And the UI, while it works, it is just way too basic and at times cumbersome like in the Photo Mode (YES there is a photo mode :D, and it is pretty robust!)

The story is about a guy going to rescue his sister, but the dev has provided skins so you can play as different characters, including a female version of the main character. You'll still be refered to as "brother" but who cares? XD The character have unique walking/running animations and are all voiced pretty well! Notice equipping different armor won't visually show on your female character, but will have effects.

Concerning the tags, which is something I often look at when buying games, and the reason I held off buying this for a while. They say Rouge-like, I am not a big fan of these, but I finished the game and I don't know where the rougelike comes from? Maybe in the extra modes? Anyway don't worry about it. There are checkpoints, and you get two chances to revive at the spot!
Playing on Normal, I never really "Game Over"ed.
They also say Sexual content and Nudity, and there is none of these two. I mean some characters look sexy, if that is what it means. There is one tiny scene which I won't spoil, but there is no sex act.

Once you finish the main game, you can do NG+, idk it said something in Chinese and I said ok, it put me back in start with all my stuff intact. But you can also level select.
There are extra modes, like survival and arena and an online mode... etc. I have't tried all, but they straight up have a Bloody Palace lol and it is called just that!
If you've played Devil May Cry games, you'll know what it is and it is pretty much what you expect.

The boss fights are a bit meh. There are puzzles and environmental hazards. But overall very fast paced and there was only once instance where I was like ughhh moving platforms...

Anyway, I got it on sale for 10$ and it is the best 10$ I've recently spent!
For an indie game, this is really impressive! Especially with all voice acting, I don't understand what they say, but I can feel when they're angry or sad, which are the dominant expressions in this game XD

A'ight! GG

I said No, but it is more of an in-between.
It is just OK. Buy it on sale if you must.

Some things are done really well, like character models, animations, voice acting and music. The music is especially really good!
But then the levels are super bland and with very lackluster enemy variety.
You'd think with assets from both games, it would be bonkers! But no, it is so subtle and empty, and you'd mostly be fighting marshmallows.

What we have here is a base for a good game, but it isn't realized for some reason, probably due to the budget or engine limitations. I hope they improve and build up on it in the future.

The combat while quite basic, feels good! But some mechanics are a bit unfair, like you can be damaged while doing your special moves, so you have no way to react. And getting projectiles thrown at off screen all the time.

The story is uhhhh let's just say it isn't for me. They talk so much without saying anything! If I ever hear "STEEMO LEGYUN!" again it would be too soon!
My concern is they probably blow most of their budget on voice actors to read 5000 pages of dialogue, that is just banter and fluff, and then they don't have enough money to spend on the actual game.

Cute, relaxing and wholesome ^_^
This game isn't without issues, infact there is a lot that can be improved, but they've already made a second game, so hopefully they've learned from this.
Having said that, I still enjoyed it a lot. It is my first game in the Atelier franchise, so I have no reference to the previous titles, but compared to other JRPGs I've played, this one was the least grindy.
You can collect a lot of materials pretty fast and in more than one way.

The combat feels a bit secondary, mostly pretty easy on normal, so I never really had to grind that much for combat either. But it is a bit confusing and takes time to get the hang of. And I played this game after finishing Nioh 2 lol
But when you get the combos going, it is pretty cool!

The UI for the Alchemy part might annoy you, I've had to scroll a lot to find an item I want. They needed some kind of sorting system, at least Alphabetical.

The save system takes a bit to make sense too, so give it some time, you'll get fast travel soon.

Otherwise, it is just pretty chill. You play as an Alchemist, but you do lot more than what counts as "Alchemy" at least in my opinion lol You're a blacksmith and a carpenter and an architect... etc.

Alright I typed enough, I think it is a very pleasant game :) I look forward to play the sequel.
PS. There is a Photo Mode!