Dragon Ruins

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Not much to spoil.
• Time Played: 2-3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine for what it is.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: There sure are sounds in this game - I wouldn't exactly say they're memorable, but they're serviceable.
• Why I played: I wanted something to play I could zone out a bit more while playing and didn't have to think too hard or read much while playing.
• Jank: Not really much jank to speak of.
• Difficulty: Not too difficult.
• Something I liked: The art is really cool.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased enough. I'm not disappointed, it filled a gap where I needed it to.
• Recommend to others: Probably not. Not that it's bad, it's just a very specific thing I'm not going to go out of my way to tell people they should play. People are into this kind of nonsense already know they want to play this.
  

I played this on Switch and don't recall if this shop description matches, but on it's little blub under it's title banner on Steam, it simply reads "A dungeon crawling microgame for tired people." and I couldn't possibly describe it more accurately.

It's a dungeon crawling game. I was tired when I started playing it, and all I had to do was move around and stuff would happen. It's somewhere between an auto-battler/idle game, and one of those games with bump combat where, in some cases, the combat is more of a puzzle than an action challenge. Ys, Hydlide, Fairune all come to mind.

In fact, it would seem that the developer made a game almost exactly like those, another game I played; Ringlorn Saga, so I would say it's probably the intent to a degree. You just walk around, automatically fighting enemies until you need to heal/level up, return to level up and such, and go walk around some more. There are just many different paths and what you may be able to fight at any given time may be too strong until you level up some more. You pretty much just walk around until you win and that's the whole game.

I'm sure it could be a better game if it had more stuff involved, but I guess there are already tons of dungeon crawlers that have more stuff and are they better games? I don't know if they all are - they're certainly different, but that also means that this was different from all those others ones, and hey that's something.

Puppergeist

• Genre: Music/Rhythm
• Spoiler Free Review: Mostly, not much to spoil.
• Time Played: ~2 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: I audibly bawled within the first half hour, to a point where Naga was concerned, got up from her place in the corner and laid next to me, causing me to bawl even harder.
• Soundtrack: For a music game it's uh... not the best. It's not "bad" by any means, it's music, there are rhythms. But they're more just like little jingles for you to play to for the most part.
• Why I played: I wanted to play something thematic as we approached the Halloween season and it looked cute.
• Jank: I would say there is jank in how it handles/responds, but really that's the only thing I can call out and I'm not positive it's not the way it is by design and I'm just bad at it.
• Difficulty: While it's certainly not the hardest game, it did frustrate me at certain points.
• Something I liked: The art was very cute, it was overall just a little sweet game.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It's fine, it met expectations.
• Recommend to others: Not exactly. Unless you look at it and like me, immediately think you have to get it, regardless of it's actual contents, then sure. If you wanna cry about dogs, sure.
  

Puppergeist is a harsh reminder how bad I am at rhythm games. Even the ones I enjoy most I'm not particularly good at. "Real" music games that have like a 1-10 skill rating, or 3-5, whether it's numbers, score, stated difficulty, are not games I generally am able to play on the higher difficulties, like at all. I understand the skill ceiling is ridiculous. People play music games like people play games for competitive tournaments, sinking hundreds, if not thousands of hours into individual music games.

I avoided earlier music games partially because I didn't find earlier music games to have very engaging mechanics and I was also just not super into music until I was well into my teens anyway. When I got my first car, I owned 3 CDs - in a time where those were the dominate technology for over a decade. (Fun stats: ~95% of the market share a the time, more than digital music media has today at around 85%, that's including both purchase and streaming revenue)

Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles

• Genre: Strategy
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 100+ Hours
• Too Short/Long: It honestly didn't really feel too long, but there are things I did and some choices I made that I would have done differently to cut that playtime down a bit.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's okay. Sometimes even pretty good, but due to the nature of the game, there are some tracks you will just hear far more than others and it feels a bit repetitive.
• Why I played: Final Fantasy Tactics miiight have been the first Final Fantasy game I actually played. At least it's the first one I remember playing. I never finished it though, and The Ivalice Chronicles gave me a good reason to revisit it.
• Jank: It's mostly polished, as they've "cleaned up" the game in certain aspects. I think a little bit of jank remains in game design that shows it's age, but it mostly holds up well so it's not very distracting.
• Difficulty: There are times when this game is damn difficult. It keeps things balanced pretty well and does a good job of making everything a challenge. Making it feel... tactical. You can't just steamroll the entire battlefield and call it a day. You can't just go back to old levels and grind with your eyes closed - and grinding doesn't really make your character more powerful necessarily, it just gives them more options(which in turn can make your build stronger, but a character rarely outclasses enemies, generally speaking)
• Something I liked: I kind of already address it just above - but I really appreciate the effort that went into keeping the game balanced. While at times frustrating, it is also probably what kept me engaged.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. It definitely remains one of the best Final Fantasy spin-offs, and I can see why some people say it's their favorite of all. It kind of makes me want to play other games that take place in Ivalice.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend it. Sooner to strategy fans than Final Fantasy. While it does have a number of the Final Fantasy mainstays, it's generally pretty different in feel. Sure there are chocobos, you can summon shiva and ifrit, class changes and a story about gathering crystals, but the tone and style are very different from most Final Fantasy games. Except maybe 16, and probably 12 considering the setting - but 12 is the one I've played the least of(only about an hour).

As I mentioned Final Fantasy Tactics is likely the first Final Fantasy I played, probably not long after it's release considering I know I also played and finished FF7 in 1998. Though, I was borrowing it from a friend and didn't get it myself until after playing several more Final Fantasy games and just didn't get super far into it. Maybe I finished Chapter 1 previously, but as soon as I hit Chapter 2 this playthrough, I started seeing things that seemed wholly unfamiliar.

I got a lot of strategy games back in the day, but honestly I don't know if I beat very many at all. I think I just liked the plethora of characters they would have - especially if they let you use monsters on your team. Nothing has changed in that respect, I've always wanted to have or be the monsters.

Sea Fantasy

• Genre: Fishing RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: I did kind of say screw it and have some pretty spoilery screenshots because that's the only way to make this game look cool, but otherwise no real spoilers.
• Time Played: 26 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's pretty solid where it's at.
• Did I cry: Probably a rare RPG where I didn't.
• Soundtrack: It's serviceable, but rathe unmemorable for an RPG. There are maybe a couple standout tracks.
• Why I played: I can't remember exactly what prompted me to get this one. I think I just saw something about it being an underrated hidden gem or something, or maybe I just looked at it and thought it might be worth a shot.
• Jank: There is a little bit of jank. Mostly in translation errors, but there were a couple bugs I encountered that required me to restart the game to reset.
• Difficulty: It has a pretty solid balance of keeping the difficulty/progression. Whatever you encounter that's new offers a little challenge while stuff you've already completed you get to flex on. There a few optional very tough things too for those looking for a good end-game challenge.
• Something I liked: I liked just... how much there was. It was way more than I expected. It never strayed far from fishing but there was always a lot to do and variety in game play.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased with Sea Fantasy. I didn't expect it to be anything more than a little gimmicky distraction, but I was underselling to myself.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would try to, to anyone who might enjoy fishing minigames in rpgs. Unfortunately I doubt I'd have much luck reeling in anyone to play this game, but honestly it's ya'll loss.
  

The humble fishing minigame goes hand-in-hand with rpgs. My favorite long-dead RPG series Breath of Fire pioneering the tradition - though oft credited to another favorite, Link's Awakening. I personally don't consider Zelda games RPGs in the traditional sense. I know the definition of RPG is muddy territory, but I consider them Action Adventure, and any arguments for it being an RPG basically push every game where you play as a character into an RPG, and if everything is an RPG, nothing is an RPG. Anyway - Breath of Fire came out first - by a few months, and considering the scope of the game - probably had a much longer development time too.

These aren't the earliest examples of fishing in games, but the first I'd connect to "RPG minigame", or even "minigame", as I believe most examples of fishing predating that are tied to core gameplay, not quite a "minigame". To get back on track and bring it full circle here... Sea Fantasy is a game wholly centered on it. It's a Fishing RPG, and not fishing first, not rpg second, not the other way around, but in conjunction.

Pinball Spire

• Genre: Pinball
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: I don't know, no time on Switch yet, 3-4 hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It gets the job done.
• Why I played: I like games where balls bounce around.
• Jank: I think the only real jank is in design, just sometimes it feels like things could have gone smoother and been a little more fun.
• Difficulty: It's not entirely difficulty as there isn't really a way to lose, but it is pinball, so it may take a lot of tries. A lot.
• Something I liked: The power-based progression - and because I'm bad at pinball the very fact you cannot lose and just have to try again and again.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased, it wasn't bad.
• Recommend to others: I would probably recommend it to anyone who likes Pinball, but I wouldn't get adventurous outside of that.
  

Whether physical or digital, I am pretty bad at pinball. But I like games where you throw or hit a ball and it goes bouncing around. Marble Blast, Peggle, Breakout, Pong, - I have a entire folder/category on my switch dedicated to such titles that usually catches the interest of anyone browsing my Switch, titled "Ricochet", which sits firmly between the much more traditional genres "Racing" and "Roguelike".

Pinball Spire is certainly that. It's a bit of a pinball adventure game where you progress through one giant pinball table spanning many screens. More like the old NES Pinball Quest. If Yoku's Island Express is a similar game in any way, one that is an adventure that uses pinball as a mechanic, this is a pinball game that uses power ups and mana - it's p. We're not getting too fancy though. Bumping the table to move the ball a little bit at a time. Slow down time and see trajectory, fireball to light lamps, passthrough/destroy multiple enemies and at least one clever "puzzle" use of it, and a dash to suddenly get a burst of speed in your current direction... also to break through special objects.

It does annoy me a little because like Slots & Daggers not really being a roguelike in any real way, this also describes itself as a Pinballvania, which is something I might call Yoku, but definitely not this. This is explicitly linear progression. It has "gating" as the kids like to call it, but the gating is always right before the key. That's just how progression works in... any game? Oh no I have to beat the boss before I can go to the next area. That's "gating", it's a metroidvania, nearly every game is now a metroidvania.

I have a friend who has always hated the terms roguelike and metroidvania, and I'm starting to agree. Anyway, it's a decent game.

Beast of Reincarnation

• Genre: Action
• Spoiler Free Review:  Pretty much.
• Time Played: 32 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It probably would have been perfect had I not done so much backtracking to look for things it turns out you get in abundance.
• Did I cry: Multiple times.
• Soundtrack: Amazing. It's not quite on the level of certain vocal osts of similar ilk, it's a little more repetitive in a way that makes it more atmospheric background music, but it's still really good and I'm comparing it to some of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
• Why I played: Dog. A lot of people make a big deal about this being a non-Pokemon game by Gamefreak, but they've always made non-pokemon games and I've played most of them. This one just got attention because it doesn't look like a silly random indie title.
• Jank: It's kind of... very janky. There are bugs and here and there that are pretty minor - my sword was invisible until the next time I fast traveled. Texture pop-in or... pop-out even? Invisible walls and infinite falling pits galore. To be fair those last two are usually when you're trying to access the more or less obvious out-of-bounds areas of the game, but sometimes the "infinite falling" just happens when a tree branch meets a fence at an angle and you decide to land between them. It only takes a couple seconds to respawn nearby but it happens more than it should.
• Difficulty: It's a bit of a mix. It's pretty difficult early on, but got pretty easy later. Which sure, experience and skill alone could do, but I think I out-leveled the later content. I don't know if the game leaned to in designing for New Game + or what, because there were still so many skill I never got, or fully leveled up. I barely fully leveled up any skills, putting in my points into my best efforts to at least acquire one of each. In theory that would give me plenty to still earn in a New Game +... but I don't think a game should be designed around that. Personally.
• Something I liked: I realized that a lot of my longer reviews end up nitpicking aspects of the game just because I spent more time with it and am "analyzing" the game so to speak. It can make it seem like I didn't like the game. Also I might not get a chance to slip it in naturally. So we'll see if this section fits in moving forward. I liked Koo, obviously. The grappling while only a "partial" grapple mechanic had so many grapple points it still felt pretty good, you could also create grapple points both in and out of combat, even Koo can! The parrying mechanics actually felt really good as enemy attacks were almost always well telegraphed. Once getting enough abilities I liked the combo-into-specials system a lot.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased, despite some sections where I felt it drag, despite some lack luster aspects, despite some jank and lack of polish, I loved the game.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would - especially to those who like the Nier games, or action games that lean heavy into parry-mechanics.
  

Beast of Reincarnation is what I would call a Near-Nier. The third of it's ilk after Stellar Blade and Ultra Age. There could be more I supposed, but I would hope to know about them. I keep up with a lot of games, but obviously I can't play them all and I could have seen something that didn't look like a Near-Nier, but feels like a Near-Nier.

I'm sure there are a lot of frenetic action games that could potentially feel like Nier, but not really feel like Nier - if you know what I mean. Regardless, it's possibly my favorite genre. The Nier games are pretty high up in my list of favorite games of all time, and these games fill a void for me. I wouldn't want Nier games just pumped out without care every couple years, but a game that is Nier-like, a "we changed it up a bit", something that captures the mood and atmosphere, recognizing some of the good aspects and makes an attempt to appeal to that - that's what fills the void.

Slots & Daggers

• Genre: Strategy... roguelike?
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes. 
• Time Played: I have no idea to be honest but I'll guess 4-5 hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's fine.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's more about the sound effects than the music.
• Why I played: I just happened to see it on some indie showcase video and thought it looked interesting enough to give a shot. Saw a few people say it's better on mobile(and also half the price) so I grabbed it on the phone, but it's on PC and consoles. It's not a service game.
• Jank: I think there are so typos or something in some of shop upgrades. Certain items don't reflect their bonuses properly in the upgrade text, but that's about it.
• Difficulty: It's not really difficult at all. It's not really "roguelike" but other people classify it as such. Progression is strictly limited. The only "roguelike" elements, are what appears in the shop/when, and there isn't exactly enough variety that you won't happen upon such items. I wouldn't call a randomly generated shop to be a roguelike when nothing else is random about it... except the fact that the main mechanic is a slot machine.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It was fun for a little while, I'm pleased for what it was.
• Recommend to others: I might recommend it to someone who likes say, Balatro, just because of the similar theming. They're not really similar from a gameplay perspective except for the game being about manipulating a gambling mechanic in a not traditional way.
  

Slots & Daggers was a fun little distraction for a little while. It's kind of a small game that I feel could be explored much further. There is just enough variety in abilities to keep it entertaining for it's runtime. I did what I thought seemed like the best way to approach the game, tried the opposite, and then did something completely different and won.

I'd personally sooner compare it to an incremental game than a roguelike, as your on-going upgrades increase your power on an incremental level from run to run. It's surely impossible to win the game without any upgrades at all considering enemies would straight up do more damage than you have HP in a single attacks later on, and you can only do a fraction of theirs in the meantime. However, strategies where you don't solely rely on the randomness of the slots and purposefully utilize your items are valid, so it's not quite on the level of an incremental game as a "clicker" either. Somewhere between I guess. Though I still say it's almost not "roguelike" at all, but I guess I don't get to decide that.

Revolgear Zero

• Genre: Shmup
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 2 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: It's normal.
• Did I cry: No
• Soundtrack: Excellent.
• Why I played: No particular reason, was just trying a few Shmups I had.
• Jank: It's pretty polished, no real jank I can recall.
• Difficulty: It's actually kind of easy, I was able to beat it on my second or third try.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm pleased, it's a good enough shmup with cute art.
• Recommend to others: To shmup fans, sure.
  

Unfortunately as of writing this I think I beat this nearly a week ago? I think I forgot to get any screenshots and then I just didn't feel like writing anything until now and because it's a rather short game I have gaps in my memory of the experience already. It is a little on the easier end for a shmup. It's not like, too easy, but it's not too hard either. Of course - I could always try harder difficulties if I was just looking for more of a challenge. I'm just speaking on - as I usually do, the default difficulty.

It doesn't do anything entirely unique on it's own, but it does borrow several elements from other series, specifically R-Type and Gradius. It does a pretty solid job at combining them, has missions, training, a bonus mini games and pretty much all the standard extras you could ask for and overall I'd say it's a rather good shmup and since it has so many unlockable and modes I'll probably give it some additional runs down the line.

Chronicles of the Wolf

• Genre: Action Platformer (Metroidvania... emphasis on the vania.)
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much.
• Time Played: 12 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It was pretty solid, actually a bit longer than I expected but didn't really wear out it's welcome.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: Way better than I expected it to be, the music went pretty hard.
• Why I played: It looked like they were really going for that classic Castlevania-style gameplay, but more wolf-centric, what else did I need?
• Jank: There are some aspects about the platforming I could nit-pick a little. Some things I think I could do before I was meant to do, and times where the controls feel a little finnicky - not as responsive as they should be, such as when trying to climb a rope, but for the most part it's not really a problem.
• Difficulty: It's not too difficult overall, but there are some ridiculous difficulty spikes and upgrades that level things out passed those progression barriers - I usually reexplored areas enough to always be the most upgraded I could be at whatever point of the game I was in, but there were a couple bosses that were pretty tough.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. Overall, I think the game was very well thought out and while very traditional and not really modernized in any ways - did an excellent job of recapturing that classic Castlevania feel.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. This goes toward the top of games for people who "wish there were more Castlevania games". I mean thankfully we're getting at least one pretty soon, but it's been a bit of a dry spell for some years. This definitely fills the void in the way games like the Bloodstained series do.
  

Chronicles of the Wolf surprised me a few ways. I didn't expect it to have voice acting at all, and most story dialog is voiced. Most of the music is pretty solid, but some tracks are especially good. There is a day/night cycle, which does have an effect at least on a few situations in the earlier part of the game. The puzzles, riddles, etc. are generally well thought out, a couple maybe ruined by them more or less telling you, but it really fleshed out the environment to have so many little things going on. Speaking of which, I thought the game was maybe going to be a few hours, based on how much of the map there was, then when getting to a specific section, I thought "oh this will be the same size as the others", only to really learn that I hadn't even explored half the game and it truly was a Castlevania game in all but name.

Pretty much just full of pleasant surprises. I do wish that the pacing was a little better as far as upgrades. Some of the "upgrades" barely feel like anything because they're only used to access one or two little areas and are used for nothing else, and that kind of takes the spot of more useful upgrades you get late game. By late game I had everything I expected, but there was a long time I felt like "I must have missed something" and kept retreading all the prior locations hoping to find a secret I missed. I didn't miss many secrets throughout my playthrough, the upgrade progression is just tilted a little bit in the wrong direction.

Overall a very minor complaint. It's a great game, a great classic-style Castlevania. No stamina bar, no parries, technical combat, no secondary equipment systems and crafting, no gem slotting, no farming materials(maybe just a little gold to buy all the shop items), no ridiculously low item drops requiring farming enemies to get special abilities. Just a straight forward game that is fun to play and has a lot of neat little environmental puzzles and riddles.

Dragon Loop

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Pretty much, normal allusions to progression.
• Time Played: ~24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It may run just a touch too long, but that could have been my fault for being obstinate about trying to get stuff and apparently pseudo-sequence breaking rather than wait for the easier methods to do things.
• Did I cry: Almost got me.
• Soundtrack: This is actually the weakest part of the game, to it's detriment just a little. It's not that the music is bad, but the... loops are a little short and it gets to feel a bit repetitive, for a game of this length.
• Why I played: I just thought it looked really cute. I think I added it to my Steam wishlist before it even had an english version and had just been kind of following it for a bit. It was released on Switch so I grabbed it immediately.
• Jank: Not gonna lie, this is a janky ass game. If there is a type of bug, this game has it. Times where I couldn't use certain moves, times where I can't access the menu. Weird stuck collision with game objects. Lines missed in localization. There are times when you can't actually navigate the menus you bring up. Most of the time going to a checkpoint will resolve these issues(except for the neglected translations), but there are a couple areas this seems to be consistent issue with. Maybe it's not as bad on the Steam version, but that's not what I played. It just came out on Switch so hopefully they release a patch.
• Difficulty: It's pretty much just right, with a caveat. There are times where things seem to hard, times where they seem to easy, overall it's well balances enough. There is a problem with it's attempt at balancing the game I guess to prevent it from getting boring, and that's basically done by tying how much damage you take to your overall progression. This means even weak early game enemies can take a good quarter of your health away late game - even after you have 15 upgrades to your HP! It can be a bit frustrating that basically you always have to focus a certain amount of upgrades on your HP or else you'll be one shot by even early game enemies. It kind of makes sense why they did it this way because of how you can progress in the game, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite the jank and the weird choice for game balance, I actually loved this game. I wasn't so sure in the beginning and thought I may just play a little to try it out and move on, but it ending up grabbing me not too long. I just wish I didn't replay the first hour thinking "I skipped stuff", whoops.
• Recommend to others: It's a tough recommend because it's so janky, but it's very clever, has a lot of cool abilities that are utilized in interesting ways, and how it handles navigation is unique - seems tedious at first, but I actually found it pretty clever as I moved on and learns how to navigate better. I want to recommend it, but you have to be tolerant of issues. Maybe it has less of them on Steam? That might be the way to go.
  

For awhile I was on a bit of a roll with metroidvania-style games and could confidently say I played more than most people, but I feel like in the past couple years I've fallen behind a little. A lot of games that have come to be some peoples favorites are ones I haven't even touched - or barely have, if I started it.

Something about 2024, I guess. It looks like I played no Metroidvania's that year. I guess I got burnt out. 2024 was also a record low in game completion numbers in recent years as well. To be fair - I finished a lot of RPGs that year. 3 full Final Fantasy games, a Xenoblade game, Metaphor, Fantasian, and a number of others. Several of which I know were at least 100+ hour games.

Anyway, so I've fallen off of what at some point I may have said was my favorite genre. It's still very up there for me, but I guess they've become a pretty popular genre for indie devs, and modern games I didn't entirely love like Hollow Knight have been a big influence on that market. That along with them trying to stick souls-like or rogue-lite into as many games as possible. I just felt tired of the formula. It was feeling repetitive, or at least not what I like out of the genre. A lot of them really want to be combat focused but neither Metroid or Castlevania really are outside the boss battles. You shoot or stab something once or twice, it's gone you move on. You're just trying to get from point a to be as quick and efficiently as possible.

I understand "metroidvania" is far removed from either of those games at this point. I constantly see social media threads from the youngins, mentioning how so many of them have never actually played a Metroid or Castlevania. Heck, a recent interview with a producer of the upcoming Castlevania: Belmont's Curse was cited saying he wanted to develop the game for this exact reason.

Earthion

• Genre: Shmup
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 2-3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine. Standard shmup length, especially considering it was made to play on Genesis.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Great high-octane classic 16-bit ost.
• Why I played: After playing Geppy-X, which I loved don't get me wrong, I wanted to play a shmup that actually felt good to play.
• Jank: None encountered, it's pretty polished.
• Difficulty: Pretty much just right, took me a few tries to get through a run. I only realized after that it has a "continue with all your upgrades" feature. Whoops.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased. Some games made to run on old hardware show obvious signs of restrictions in design. You can't even tell with Earthion.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would recommend it to a shmup fan.
  

Earthion is a fantastic example of how to make a game that can run on old hardware without it feeling like they limited themselves. I've played plenty of games like this, but it always felt like it could have been a better game if they didn't self-impose that restriction. Earthion really shows how good you could make a Sega Genesis game with modern design knowledge/skill.

It feels fast paced, the music is great, the controls are tight, the gimmick is interesting. I don't know what else you could want out of a shmup, really.

70s-style Robot Anime Geppy-X

• Genre: Shmup
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~13 hours
• Too Short/Long: No complaints either way.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Amazing, absolutely amazing.
• Why I played: A shmup with 90's mecha anime art(even if it attempts to be 70's style), how could I not?
• Jank: It's definitely a bit janky in how it handles. I play a lot of shmups, and sure, maybe one from the 90's may not be as refined as modern shmups... is something you could almost say if some of the best shmups to this day weren't also released in the 90s. Granted, if it were one of the best, it would be much more well know.
• Difficulty: It's damn hard. I attribute a good portion to the jank. Unclear hitboxes for any of the mechs you pilot, and for the shots hitting you. I played the repeated pause game to be sure of it, but things absolutely contact when they shouldn't. It even says in the manual how Geppy's chest is the only part you will take damage from getting hit. Absolutely not true... or maybe it is and all the shots just have wider margins than their visuals. Not only that, but a lot of the patterns provide inconsistent openings. After playing through the entire campaign several times, I did learn some placement for cheesing certain attacks, but I'm not sure if that's by design and if so, I still don't like it.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very pleased at the overall package. Even if it's unfairly difficult and a mediocre shmup, the whole experience is very enjoyable.
• Recommend to others: I would probably only recommend it to those with a strong interest in the Super Robot genre, specifically that of the 70s-style Robot Anime. Who also at least kind of like shmups.
  

Geppy-X plays almost like a bonus shmup mini-game that is added to another game of a different genre. You know the kind(maybe you don't, I don't know your life), it's thrown as a bonus mode, mini-game, boss fight, etc. and feels a little loose, a little unfair, a little chaotic and unbalanced. Well, at least those ones are better than the alternative - which are the too-boring ultra basic, ultra easy shmup mini-games.

Thankfully, it still manages to standout due to it's overall package. Filled with a story line presented like a 70s super robot anime, openings, endings, commercials and all. It's fantastic and super fun. It made it worth me fully replaying and enduring it multiple times just to get little differences in the cutscenes with different characters.

It helps that despite the 70's inspiration, it was very very clearly made in the 90s. The character designs, even many of the mecha designs, are clearly 90s designs with very 90s artwork. I'd say they better nail the 70s-style design with the side-mecha, but to be fair, the titular Geppy-X while drawing obvious inspiration, is a little more original than it's almost carbon-copy secondary mecha.

There is a really solid amount of content in the game, especially for a 90s shmup. Not only does it have multiple, kinda-animated to more-fully animated between each mission, it has a good amount of stage bonuses and little easter-eggs and different cutscenes for finishing off each boss in a specific way, and a bunch of unlockable modes. That's what really sells the game. The gameplay itself could be a lot more polished, but otherwise you can't really ask for more in a shmup.

Look Outside

• Genre: Horror RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: A little. This is arguably one of those games it might be best to experience without having too much information. If you're already planning to play but haven't yet. It's best not to read too far in here.
• Time Played: 35 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Felt pretty good to me. I did the vast majority in a single run, but if I was playing a bit more linear, I could have knocked it out in half the time easy, and it's probably the way it was more designed to be played.
• Did I cry: Nah.
• Soundtrack: It's mostly pretty good, a little repetitive at time, but it has some bangers.
• Why I played: Alice insisted I play it, I kind of jokingly said I would play it after Adventures of Elliot with little intention of finishing Elliot any time soon, or playing something else and then saying "Yeah, and it will still be AFTER Elliot, even if I play 5 more games next", but I wasn't really feeling anything I've been wanting to get into so I just jumped right in.
• Jank: It's one of those games where you can easily click through dialog boxes and you may have to repeatedly read dialog, but that's partially on me for being impatient.
• Difficulty: Early on it's more about survival and using each resource carefully, but later on it's a bit easier - at least playing the way I did, so maybe combat isn't meant to be so easy. But the real difficult lies in the times where you need figure out how to proceed properly. It's a little difficult of a game overall, but nothing crazy.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm very please with this. I'm not sure I expected all too much, and at first I just along for the ride, but eventually it clicked and I was very interested to see how things would turn out... at every turn.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. I think a lot of people would get even more out of it than me. Especially people who don't feel the need to do every little thing and go full-completionist as they play through a game. People who are interested in the game enough to give it a couple playthroughs. There is definitely enough variation in how things turn out to have a couple, if not a few more or less wholly unique playthroughs if you're not trying to do everything. I also especially would recommend it to anyone who likes eldritch/cosmic horror.
  

The first thing I would do upon starting the game is Look Outside. I would find myself at many points in the game wanting to Look Outside. Maybe this is the time there will be an answer when I Look Outside. In a game where you awaken to a mystery of something beyond your comprehension, it's hard to talk about the greater theme of the game without being spoilery, but I feel like I can at least discuss some things I liked/didn't like, etc.

Look Outside has some really fun and clever writing. There are a lot of unique characters to interact with, and even when brief, they can often feel like characters more fleshed out than those that appear in many other pieces of media. It helps their design often strongly leans into their archetype in a unique way. Or perhaps something about them has changed so drastically, just hearing them tell their experience makes them feel more alive than so many others. There is a surprising amount of character dialog - and so much of it is entirely optional, or even missable. Another reason I think the game might serves multiple playthroughs better - as long as you're not trying to mimic your prior playthough, that is. I'm not planning to immediately restart it, but I can even see how I would approach things differently a second time just to experience things differently and likely get a lot of dialog I didn't previously. 

The Adventures of Elliott: The Millennium Tales

• Genre: Action RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Kind of spoiler free up until where I say I'm going to do big spoilers but still round-about spoilers throughout, just trying not to be specific.
• Time Played: 30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's not excessively long game, but the pacing/progression don't do it any favors. It feels way longer than it is because it seems like it's going to wrap up at multiple points and doesn't really offer anything new for a long time.
• Did I cry: It did manage to squeeze a tear or two out of me despite how my recount may sound.
• Soundtrack: It wasn't bad, but overall just a little too general cheery adventure music for me. When they "went hard" it felt forced and not exactly in line with the rest of the tracks. Individually there are no bad tracks, but it didn't have an identity of it's own - it was clearly just taking from what inspired it.
• Why I played: The visuals and the gameplay are both huge draws for me. I love the "H2-2D" look and I also really like Ys games, which this takes most of it's inspiration from.
• Jank: There were a few times I had to restart the game because the ability to use Faie just completely bugged out. Often during the worst possible times, such as doing this challenge gauntlet - which I still managed without the help of Faie mind you, despite some of her later abilities being kind of overpowered.
• Difficulty: Very low. I thought I saw something about there being special scene if you die at certain points and so there were times I purposefully died to see if anything special would happen, but it never did. Other than that I never died - I used potions to prevent death - it's not like I didn't take damage, but at least early on in the game I had the 99 combo going for so long I decided to just take it easier and play a bit more quickly/recklessly, which would actually lose my health, but nothing a potion didn't solve.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm not exactly disappointed with the game as a whole, just exhausted. I guess what I'm most disappointed about is the poor writing and lack of consistency when it comes to continuity and paradox.
• Recommend to others: I probably wouldn't recommend it over what it draws inspiration from. Ys, Mana games, Zelda games a bit, and then the many games that were also inspired them, such as one of my absolute favorites; CrossCode. I just couldn't help but feel like this was less good than so many other games in so many other ways - visuals aside, because those are still very fun, and it does have higher production values in other aspects too, but it just comes up short on how fun or interesting it is.

Overall I did enjoy it, but I was left exhausted of it by time I was done. I think that's the first misstep - the pacing/world design. On it's own, there is nothing wrong with the world - arguably even a decent - if not extremely generic world. You got your woods, desert, snowfield and volcano, and town all of which are so uninspired the ice land is literally called "White Area", and to the west of that? "West Area", though it's kind of funny having both Nothern West Area and Southern West Area, and Neverwither is a clever name for a forest place.

Regardless, across a millennium, nothing really changes for these environments. Not for the most part. Some bridges move, some ladders move and that's about 90% of it. Fallen trees that block your path somehow remain for a thousand years in some cases, or perhaps a tree falls in the same exact place after a window of it opening. Key locations have a couple switch ups, but for the most part you're exploring the same exact map 4 different times. Every dungeon has a collectable in every time too, it could be a useful life piece, or it could be an item that you already collected via the random gacha system the game has, but don't worry if you collect one you already have then they'll compensate you by offering exactly 1 of the item you need 5 of to perform a gacha draw. Wowie kabowie. You're telling me after I find 5 useless chests along an hour of treasure hunting I can do a SINGLE gacha pull which will likely award me... a duplicate item which will award me exactly 1 of the gacha currency.

Star Fox

• Genre: On-rails shooter
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 5 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It is what it is, it's a remake. The campaign is pretty short but it has replayability with different routes and levels.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Classic Star Fox music, it's a remake and it's iconic but it's nothin new or too special.
• Why I played: I love Star Fox, not that there are entirely too many, but I have finished every Star Fox game.
• Jank: The only jank I'd really say this game has is it's uhh.. choices for multiplayer. Not having any form of split-screen is a big miss. Star Fox's design from it's mechanics to the simplicity/high contrast of the models is built for visibility. There is little to no reason to exclude Split-screen. It can't, or shouldn't be a hardware issue either, considering it's a remake. Because of the point of view, you don't need super highly detailed environments. Also I don't know if this is just "true to the original" but it's annoying that enemies will fly "off-screen" even in all-range mode. I'm not sure if it's because the camera is too restricted or they're just going to high and stuff, but it definitely feels wrong and unfair.
• Difficulty: By default it's not too hard with a couple of exceptions. However the challenges of earning medals has always been quite a requirement. It doesn't make it less playable, and at least there aren't multiplayer options locked behind it this time.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm Pleasappointed. Like it's Star Fox and I'm happy to get more Star Fox even if "more" is the same. There is more characterization, additional scenes, etc. This and that. It's not as much as I would have expected though, and I do feel they didn't fully realize their multiplayer as they should have.
• Recommend to others: I would if you like Star Fox and just want something to play in that regard, but I'm not going out of my way to do so. It's fine and I had fun with it, but it's not wholly something new either.
  

This other than it's more or less the remake it sets out to be. It's Star Fox 64 with just a little more. No reimagining, no changing things, just adding bits here and there. It's neat, it's cute, and I wouldn't have expected anything more when it comes to the campaign. Like they could have kept that 1-1 the same and I'm totally fine with that. They add some quality of life features like replaying a mission immediately if you miss the route you were going for, and a free mission select that gives each it's own challenging, it's nice but an unnecessary addition. What I did hope for was for them to take the opportunity to do something really cool with the multiplayer - which they almost did.

It's 8 player, and it's not just a boring old deathmatch where you just loop around each other constantly(like fighting Wolf on Venom), as you are provided with some cannon-fodder npcs, perimeter turrets, and unique objectives for each stage. I think those are all really cool additions to modernize the dog-fighting of Star Fox 64. I think it absolutely missed the mark by not including ANY kind of split-screen. I think 3 levels just isn't enough variety. Considering how much effort they put into having other little customization for the multiplayer and having avatars and stuff like that - you would have thought they would have actually put more effort and focus into it. Honestly I expected this remake of Star Fox 64 to be more of a multi-player game that happens to have the Star Fox 64 campaign attached as an extra little bonus. I couldn't be more wrong. The multiplayer feels half baked and more like one of those single-player games they tack on multiplayer as an afterthought. Even the co-op feels more like an attempt to promote-force the Switch 2's mouse capabilities. It offers local shared-screen or even game share, but regardless what you do you have to use the Joycon for player one and the mouse-mode joycon for player 2. Makes it a little hard to play the Switch in handheld mode. You could prop it up, sure, but who actually wants to do that? You'd also need a smooth surface to use mouse mode. Why not just allow for uhh regular controls? These even have all the capabilities of normal motion controls so why not also point and shoot as an option? Once again - half-baked multiplayer.

It's unfortunate, and what's more unfortunate is I feel like this game was potentially being used a barometer to gauge peoples interest in the series and maybe we would get some great new Star Fox content in the near future should it perform well, but I fear it just doesn't offer enough to capture a new audience and did too little to impress long-term fans, even those who eat up every crumb.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: ~30 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It feels a little long for what it is. Not that the gimmick grows tired but there is a point where you've more or less done all you can with everything you have. The dungeons are generally pretty short though, so it's either something about the way I did everything, or maybe there are just too many of the rift areas that feel a bit redundant.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: I would say probably the weakest part of this. Zelda soundtracks are usually pretty good, but nothing really stood out, and most tracks sounded like they were just general background noise from a hushed orchestra. Not that nothing was good, it just didn't stand out like Zelda usually does.
• Why I played: Usually I wouldn't feel I need to explain why I played a Zelda game, but it took me a good bit to get to this one. The Link's Awakening Remake just wasn't what I hoped for/imagined and I felt with this being in the same style of that it was going to be a let down as well. I happened to be talking to someone playing this while I was playing Mina the Hollower, talking about puzzles, and they had a pretty positive perspective on Echoes of Wisdom that inspired me to pick it up next.
• Jank: It's not really janky. There is some weird stuff you can force with your summons if you're really trying to brute force things, but generally it's a pretty smooth experience.
• Difficulty: Echoes of Wisdom isn't that difficult overall, it gives you a lot of options. There may be some puzzles those who struggle to think outside the box may struggle with, but I think it's cleverly designed in a way that a lot of things can be approached various ways.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm actually very pleased overall. My hesitations were misguided and this is another great Zelda game. In some ways I think it's the most well designed Zelda game yet.
• Recommend to others: I definitely would. Especially to those who love Zelda and hesitated to play it like I did.

Just like I took so long to play it, I took so long to write up my review. I finished early in the week. Sunday? Monday? Here I am finally considering what to say the better part of a week later. It kind of leaves me with not too much to say at first. It was a really solid game. It had surprisingly clever puzzles, many of which can be approached in many ways. It's odd because it leaves you feeling like your broke the game, or did something you weren't supposed to. I've played few games where I wondered "Is this what the devs intended?" as I progressed through the game.

Even after completing it, I think the answer is yes. I think the devs intended for you to "make shortcuts", even when those shortcuts weren't in fact shortcuts. After completing the game and getting everything, and then looking back, some parts you begin to realize there was no other way to proceed, or if there was - what you could have done different ultimately would have left you with the same feeling of "Am I supposed to do it this way?" "Am I allowed to be here - the way I got here?" and for some reason that makes me feel like the game is well designed. It makes you think you're getting one over on it, but you're just playing as intended.

Mina the Hollower

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: No.
• Time Played: 37 Hours
• Too Short/Long: I don't want to say it's too long, and I took my time certainly to 100%, and running back quickly through some areas I suppose they didn't seem too long, but some sections just feel a little too long. Maybe because of how much there is in total, searching every nook and cranny.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's pretty good. Mostly just classic inspired game tunes, solid but nothing groundbreaking.
• Why I played: I loved Shovel Knight and played all the follow ups - I might not have beaten King Knights though, I'll have to check. Mina the Hollower takes inspiration from so many games I love, that I had to play it.
• Jank: There is a lot to the game, and I would say the jank mostly comes in lack of explanation. Not that you can't experiment or look at the In-Game Manual, but there a couple things that could be clearer. There are also a few cases of "not counting for everything" where you can soft-lock or glitch into weird places. I only had to reset to title screen once myself, but I have seen other examples. Thankfully an easy fix and little-to-no lost progress.
• Difficulty: Jesus Christ this game is far harder than it needs to be. I know there are a thousand modifiers to make it an easier experience and MAYBE I should have turned at least a couple of them on, but I wanted to play modifier free, the intended experience, etc. etc. I often feel that kind of stuff is for replays and such. I feel like one of the biggest pain points is how they do the health restoration. It has some very challenging sections, but the fact you are punished in healing for performing poorly is a poor game design decision. I get in some aspects it's to encourage aggressive and skilful game play, but honestly it could encourage more cheesing, or more wasting time by going back and forth, etc. You can get stuck in positions where you have a ton of healing vials, but no enemies, as it's a puzzle or platforming challenge, so you can't actually heal at all. I feel like the game would be far better if the healing functioned like it does in most game - a static amount, or variance as you progress, rather than based off your attacks and not getting hit. The one advantage it has is that 1 vial can potentially be 100% healing even at low health, but that's seldom the situation.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Despite the above complaint about the difficulty, I am pretty pleased. It was a very fun game with a lot of cool stuff.
• Recommend to others: I would, but I would definitely recommend - if you're not achievement hungry (and you shouldn't be), using a modifier that adjusts how potions work, and maybe a few other quality of life-style ones that don't fully change the game but maybe make some of the back and forth and other minor pain-points a bit less stressful.
  

I did really like Mina the Hollower, but damn it was tough. Besides the what I still think is a poorly executed healing system, some parts of the game are just straight up more difficult than they feel they need to be for this type of game. There is a lot of variance and customization you can do to the experience, even before the "modifiers" come into play. There are 5 different weapons and tons of "trinkets" that customize the experience. Even so, if I were changing my equipment to adapt for every situation it would really effect the pacing of what I already thought was a little bit of a long winded game.

That said the areas all feel pretty unique and each have their own cool set pieces, and the use of the "hollowing"(see burrowing) is generally pretty clever and well implemented. It is a really good game, and you can clearly see the amount of care that went into all the little details and fleshing out every bit. I just can't help but feel it would be a slightly better game if the native experience was a bit more approachable. Sure the argument for using modifiers to make it easier is valid, but in that case, using modifiers to make it more difficult is just as valid. Anyway, I'm not that salty about it, but any time anyone asks me what I thought of it, I will definitely say "I really liked it but it's hard as hell" and campaign for playing easier if they had yet to play it.

Hell is Us

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 48
• Too Short/Long: Maybe it's drawn out a little bit, part of that may be by design, but it didn't really grow too tiresome.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It has a dark atmospheric and heavy soundtrack with a lot of loud booms and crashes that enhance the experience for sure. I don't know how great it's to listen on it's own, but I may end up using tracks from it to set the mood for tabletop games.
• Why I played: I'm honestly not sure. I think at some point I just saw a trailer and was like "that looks neat" and decided to go out on whim. It's not the most talked about game and fills a weird niche of not-AAA design(non-derogatory), while kinda being a AAA-esque game.
• Jank: It's mostly jank free. Took me a little longer to get used to the controls than maybe it should, and feels loose at first, but that all goes away with more time in the game. I think it's otherwise pretty polished - no glitches, or weirdness I can recall.
• Difficulty: It seems to have some good options for setting difficulty as you see fit, but it was pretty much where I like it by default. Combat could be challenging at times, and some sections requires me to retry a few times, but nothing crazy. The real difficulty comes from the puzzles, and I guess it's not entirely all that hard in many cases. It just requires a lot of reading and memorization.
• Pleased/Disappointed: I'm extremely pleased with this. I expected more or less another actiony souls-like, and it's more of it's own thing. It's still an action game primarily, and it has some elements typically associated with souls-games. It even has options for souls-like progression(regression?), but it's more of an action game with some pretty in-depth puzzles.
• Recommend to others: I definitely will be mentioning this to other people. I've already started in fact. It's kind of a weird game as it's not exactly like too many other games I've played as a whole, so it fits a neat spot where there's nothing exactly like it I could recommend over it, but also makes it a little hard to know exactly who may want to play a game like this.
  

Hell is Us is a rare kind of a game that looks and feels familiar but is actually pretty unique. It has all the trapping and style of a lot of Souls-esque games. A cryptic world that is more than it a appears when mysterious enemies. A combat system that relies on precise timing with parries, dodge rolls, a stamina bar, etc.

But it also has problem solving, and a lot of it. Something you'd more likely see in a pure old-school adventure game. I'm not gonna say it's as extensive as something like Myst, but... it definitely has some of the most unique and sometimes obtuse puzzles I've seen in a game a in a long time. A lot of them are simple and just require you to pay attention to the environment, or make sure to read your notes and remember which note you need, but some definitely require a bit more than that, some sound reasoning, context clues, etc. There is no map in this game, no waypoints, no quest markers. It leaves a lot of the responsibility on the player to figure things out, and honestly it's pretty refreshing.

Even though it's arguably less of the time you'll spend in the game, it feels like that was actually the primary focus. Not that the combat isn't satisfying, but I managed most of it without using too many spells/special skills outside the first and last couple hours of the game. Considering how long I played, that the vast majority of the time not even fully engaging with it. The enemy diversity isn't it's strongest point, and while there are a few boss battles, it's really only a few. They're great, but arguably too few, and the end kind of just ends when you think maybe you're coming right up to the climax of the game. Turns out that was it.

But the experience as a whole was great and it was an interesting and different kind of setting for this kind of game. A modern game that truly has some more old-school minded design choices, without just relying on pixel art or just fully replicating something like an NES platformer. It's not exactly something I'd put in my "PS2-ass" games list either. It just felt like a different route certain modern games could have taken if being more hand-holdy wasn't so more accessible and arguably more successful. I appreciate it for that because every "win" felt like my own. Even if I did have to read a novel's worth of text. I guess it was classic in that sense too.

Arctic Eggs

• Genre: Cooking Simulation
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 2.3 Hours
• Too Short/Long: It's fine for what it is I guess. There is a sandbox mode where you can make any combo of items presented in the game, so you can squeeze just about all you can out of it.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: Actually surprising good. Nothing too crazy, but it's a vibe.
• Why I played: A friend really liked it and said it was probably her favorite game she played all year.
• Jank: Not really enough to be janky, pretty much everything it does it seems to be with intent. 
• Difficulty: A little tricky, but nothing too crazy.
• Pleased/Disappointed: It was nice, but I'm just disappointed there wasn't much more to it.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not that it's bad. There just isn't much to offer unless you really like games with cooking mechanics.

I thought Arctic Eggs was going to be a lot more than it was. I thought there was going to be this depth that you peel back as you go through. I thought it was going to be a surreal experience that would leave me thinking. But nah, you just cook some eggs and other miscellaneous things with some obstacles or challenges in your way while you do so. It's set in a weird setting to flavor it, but in the end, you're just cooking some fried egg, both sides, as usual.

Crescent Tower

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: There isn't much to spoil, but I do talk about the mechanics of the final boss.
• Time Played: 24 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Too long, considering about half of it is grinding, especially at the end.
• Did I cry: No.
• Soundtrack: It's fine.
• Why I played: It had cute art and I know a friend enjoyed it. They always get me with that classic anime pixel art though.
• Jank: The menus are pretty clumsy. When trying to optimize my class changes I kept having to go back and forth and back and forth. There are tons of times where I opened the wrong menu because it didn't have the correct information. Made worse by all the real estate on screen where they could have had some of the stats. I think maybe they felt it would be silly to have the same information on multiple screens, but having to exit all the way back to another to compare your stats or abilities is not the way to clean things up.
• Difficulty: I'm not sure how much of it is difficulty that required me personally to grind, rather than difficulty of the actual strategy required of the game. I do think there are some interesting things touched on some rpgs ignore, but ultimate the difficulty lies in it being a grindfest.
• Pleased/Disappointed: Overall I enjoyed it, so I'm pleased enough. It just managed to push my patience a few times.
• Recommend to others: Not really. There are overall better little dungeon crawlers than this one, and even though it has a lot of cool stuff, the last section really prevents me from recommending it. Or if you wanna play it, I'd probably recommend doing so on the easier mode.
  

Crescent Tower isn't bringing anything new to the table necessarily, but it's a nostalgic jaunt that brings some interaction, puzzles, character art and class changes. It really drew me in at first, but then I needed a bit of a break when it just started feeling way too grindy in the middle of the game. Sometimes you get a random encounter 1 step after another. It's a little too much. I'd say on average it's like 5-10 steps, which is just too much for a game focuses a little more on an open exploration and figuring out the trick of the area as opposed to something with a linear path. It's not too complicated, but with all the other navigational quirks, it's possible you may just forget what you're doing exactly and get caught in a endless loop of random encounters because they're so frequent.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the way it soft-locks the level cap. It just gets to a point where the next level requires exponentially more experience than the last. This is exacerbated to the nth degree by the final area. I would say my last third of my play time is just spent in the last hallway before the final boss. The final boss has very high defense, immune to all status effects, resistant to all magic, and fully heals every round, so you can definitely be "too weak" to finish it, even with every buff on your own characters in the game. It's arguably not even about strategy at that point. Unless I missed some gimmick that was there and was just unnecessarily brute forcing the game. It's crazy that you can get to the point where it takes you dozens of battles to level up but still not be strong enough to beat the final boss. It can literally, based on the average experience the final enemies dish out, without using "special techniques" take 100+ battles to level up - not even close to a max level, just a level where you are still learning new spell levels.

It's just crazy how much the leveling up comes to a halt at that point despite the fact there are more levels that grant special skills. It's not a level 60-99 grind of your standard rpg where you learn your last skill at 60 or your skills are tied to something else so there is always new stuff to learn. This is like 14-15, 15-16. My highest level character was 16 and some classes learn abilities up til level 21 or so. I think this is where the "modern" mode differs from the classic and maybe it doesn't feel so restricting, and maybe I should have played in that. I started in it, but then I saw there was a little "modern" badge on my screen at all times. This signaled to me this is meant to be "little baby mode" and you are to be chastised for it because we'll put a reminder on screen at all times for it. So I restarted before I really even began to play in the classic mode, maybe that was a mistake, maybe those levels and skills would have been attainable in modern, but the game clearly didn't consider that the "intended experience".

So instead I grinded, class changed to get more abilities and increase stats, rinse, repeat, and eventually knocked it out. To be fair, it's kind of what I was in the mood for - I just thought I was gonna wrap up earlier in the day and move on to something else after, not keep playing for an additional 6-7 hours after I thought I was about done.