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.