Recent reviews by That weeb

This game feels like it's an identity crisis. On one hand, it wants to be an h-game with corruption elements, while the flip side wants to be series with a fleshed out world, characters and story. Some games blend the two very well, but this game is not one of those. Neither aspect of the game is particularly good. The easier of the two to address is the story. It's exceptionally tropey, and doesn't leave any lasting impressions. The supporting cast is dull, and doesn't get introduced until much later in the game. Even when you get to have their one on one conversations, they come off as a last minute addition. The h-scene problem is a bit more nuanced; initially the game plays itself as a run around town and corrupt the heroine but instead drops the entire act once you are past the first third. What you are then left with is a few loss scenes, and a one off scene about half way through.

Overall the game feels like it appeals to no one. The story is bland, and they drop a(n awful) sequel bait at the end despite the story all but concluding. I still recommend this game, with the caution that this is just a mediocre title. I would personally look elsewhere before picking this title up.

Awesome game. Highly recommend. Full review at the bottom.

At a glance:

• Excellent rougelite design. While there are permanent upgrades, they do not feel overpowered.
  
• Low but engaging complexity.
  
• Art style is distinct. Everything made me feel a bit uneasy.
  
• Sound work is great.
  
• Quite a few secrets to figure out, as long as you are paying attention.

NO-SKIN is a short rougelite with a horror style. It took me roughly 8 hours to finish the game, with exception of the character memories, higher difficulties, and playthroughs on the additional characters. I found all aspects of the game to be above expectations. Beyond the gameplay being great, the visuals and sound work were great despite how simple they apear to be. While I was initially slightly concerned about some of the mechanics in the game, all of them felt justified by the end. There was only one particular part which I felt could be adjusted; the method to get to "Her?" requires a fair bit of good luck to my knowledge. The character memories that I did complete were all interesting in their own respect. They are short challenges that usually have very different gameplay to the main game. I liked them even though some felt too simple. Finally, I think the overall story was a bit too abstract for me to understand. While I think part of that might be that I didn't finish all of the character memories, I also think that a lot of details are left out intentionally. I still think I got the message, but I personally need a bit more handholding to get the full picture.
10/10. I think the price point is underselling this game.

Reverse Collapse is hands down the best turn based strategy RPG I have played full stop. No game in the genre even comes close to the level of care for complexity and story narrative. The game is hard, but I never experienced a losing situation that was not entirely preventable had I thought more carefully about my moves. Items feel like they are scarce within missions, yet never to the point that you feel discouraged to use them. Early on this usually means biting the bullet in case you need that item down the road, but eventually you will have many items at your disposal, allowing you to use other items as a substitute in many situations. All of the playable characters are unique in their own way, and the character availability changes from map to map. While you aren't afforded the same amount of customization as a modern Fire emblem, you are still given variety in how you can use each character.

As mentioned previously, the story is leagues ahead of most other games. While it could be argued that the story gets in the way of the gameplay and vice versa, I personally found that the balance between the two was good overall. There is one notable exception close to the end of the game, however the game gives a fair warning about the 1.5-2 hour lore dump before the start of the last chapter. One other critique is that the story can sometimes be confusing if you haven't play some of MICA's other games. While the keyword glossary exists to mitigate this, there is still some large context that is missing if you want to fully understand the overarching lore. If you don't care about the Reverse collapse's implication for the other titles, then this is a non issue.

To tie it all up, this game is amazing. It takes about 80-100 hours long to complete the main story. I would recommend it to almost everyone.

It's a nice little game that you can complete in a single sitting (5 hours or so). Very aesthetically pleasing. My only complaint is that the game feels all over the place, as if the developer had made a lot of different games and hodgepogded it together into one continuous experience. Further to that end, it would be a great benefit if the game had more focus one what made it unique rather than stringing together what has been done before.

Generally, TEVI is an enjoyable metroidvania with ~25-35hrs worth of main story content depending on difficulty. The combat flows well, the bosses are unique, and the sigils allow for varied playstyles. Combos feel natural, especially during break. From a pure combat standpoint the game is phenomenal. It is what carries the game, as it is fun to apply what you've unlocked leading up to a boss in a fight and learning a different way to approach dealing damage.

Unfortunately the other aspects of the game can feel unintuitive or lacking.
To begin with, the story feels all over the place and very inconsequential until the absolute end of the game. Rabi-ribi sidestepped this issue by making the story optional in a sense; It never presented itself as a grand or mysterious story, just go find people to help find Miru. TEVI tries to make it's story interesting and relevant throughout the entire game, but fails to deliver on any real payoff. There is too many side stories that feel forced to explain why you should be exploring a given area. They are dull, and have zero bearing on the actual story of the game leaving the characters involved easily forgotten.

This wouldn't be a huge issue if it wasn't blended with the fact that the game is on rails after Chapter 3. There is nothing to do but explore to get powerups or progress with the story. You are heavily incentivized to progress with the story as all mobility/exploration items are locked behind it. Rabi-ribi does this as well, but doesn't put a core mobility item exceptionally late into the game -- TEVI has Wall jump not only locked behind story, but close to the end of the game. Suffice to say that you are supposed to engage with the story as any real progress is gated behind it.

If you skip the story, you'll realise just how much there is in the game. Everything you do that isn't exploring has a lengthy description as to why you are doing it. Of course the obvious nothing will make sense will apply, but the amount of dialogue you will need to skip over is somewhat absurd. Enter a new area? Gotta make a comment about that. Going to fight a boss? There has to be some preamble followed by an often redundant arena fight, followed by another comment. Sure, it makes the main cast seem more alive, but it also shows the how meaningless everyone else is. Even the (non main cast) main story relevant characters feel half baked. In particular: Vassago and Amarylis are both "Wicked powerful constructs", only to be a one off fight that you lose and then get sent elsewhere. Vassago literally never appears after his fight, and Amarylis is demoted to being a lore dump near the end of the game. Tahlia just feels like a stand in final antagonist that doesn't have any real character. Similar to BG3, she just pops in and says "SURPRISE! I was the villain all along!" and then proceeds to be story relevant for a grand total of less than one chapter. The remainder of the characters (i.e. Zemi, Cyril, Charon, Jeroth) basically get their "One moment", before dying or being forgotten about.

And with the story out of the way, it paves way to the actual game issues. In no particular order:
- Map design is just weird.
-- Too many rooms feel like they should have a secret or at least something, but end up empty.
-- Way too many "Connector" rooms (i.e rooms like above)
-- Way too many one way exits. You often will go in one direction, only to realise it was the "wrong way" and have to play through the same screens just to pick the right way
-- The forest maze. Have fun trying to find everything there

- Large bosses feel awkward to fight. This is primarily because the fights feel gimmicky in nature.
-- Of the large bosses, the mech and memloch feel the worst to fight. The former feels like it tested properly, while the latter is just not a fun fight by nature.

- Spanner attacks feel underwhelming and unnecessary
-- Mana pillar has crazy hit lag, and isn't worth using till the endgame
-- Spanner bash requires being aerial and makes you grounded, meaning it's not good for either aerial or grounded fights
-- Tornado whirl animation locks you for an excessive amount of time for little damage without sigils. You want to use it during break, but usually there are better combo lines for damage

- Backflip feels like it's just there to be cool. It's only truly relevant while you have nothing else that can proc dodge, and seemingly gets in the way more times than not.
-- The sigils related to backflip sound nice on paper, but in practice trying to use them is hell.

- Secrets are either shoved in your face or hidden randomly
-- This is not helped by the fact that the item which tells you if you're close to a secret isn't available until after you finish the game

- Town passes feel like a remnant of another system. They exist as a backup to not finding a teleporter in a city, but they are not hard to find.
-- To double down, you can warp from the train station to the shop, but not to/from the city teleporter.

- Some areas you can get to early are blocked by dialogue saying you can't go in. Some areas are blocked by physical walls that can't be removed. Pick one not both.
-- This is especially frustrating when you explore an area, thinking there was a secret there only to be told to go back to the area because there was a(n undistinguishable) wall stopping you.

- Consumables feel annoying. They are very relevant in bossfights, but are a chore to make until later on when you get and item that helps you.
-- Bosses feel very challenging without them, and "difficult" at best with them.
-- This is doubled down with the fact that you get to carry a lot more as you progress the game.

- It feels like half the secrets/collectables are zennies. There is a lot more zennies in the game than needed to buy out the shops.

- Too many sigils with varied effects. Customisation is good, but there is too many to remember and an endgame loadout can have 40-50.

- Too many i-frames by the endgame.
-- Dodge is good, but trying to use it when you aren't mashing your faces against a boss is tricky.
-- Soul burst feels forgettable since you unlock it later, and being able to hold more than one stack is gated by story progression.
-- Core expansion can last for a hilariously long amount of time, and you get is back relatively easy.
-- Mana pillar becomes just a better core expansion when you get the sigils for it.

I finished this game on expert for my first playthrough. I can appreciate that the game can be difficult for others on this mode, but it felt like after the midgame bosses became easy to just faceroll. While I will come back to finish the game on infernal, I believe that there is some needed patches to the game. By the end, I was aggressively trying to just push through the rest of the game to say that I was done. It felt like the game was falling apart, as the story was just getting worse as I progressed.

I have hope that the game will receive some additional content and overall improvements. I'm not expecting Rabi-ribi levels of DLC or changes, but at least something extra. We are already confirmed to be getting a boss rush, and mid playthrough I noticed some changes to the map that were much appreciated. It is clear that (at least at time of writing) there is intention to making the game better, and potentially additional story/dlc content.

Hell yeah!

Crappy controls is all you need to know

Pay to play for days. Don't be a pleb and play this (let alone get a membership).

Look, this game might be free, but the 'Pay to Win' aspect is over used. It's fun for about 5-6 hrs, after that it is all grind. 90% of updates just add to th pay to win. 3/10, don't waste your time.

This game is so good, I have to review it. If you liked the original Don't Starve, this is a perfect game. Out of my game play (Dedicated to friends) I only encountered one bug that was easy to fix. 16.99CAD is pretty good for (Currently) two copies of the game. Even if it is quite expensive now, I would recommend to buy it later.
(For those who don't know, great modding community)