Recent reviews by Jacquest

I do have a couple (pretty minor) issues with this game post-Breach update, but my nitpicks don't warrant a negative review as a whole.

The game feels fantastic. The combat (with small weapons, at least) is very fluid and rewarding. I see a lot of people in the reviews for this game complaining that they can't endlessly combo enemies into oblivion. Yeah, duh. That's how the game is designed. You dodge an attack, poke, dodge an attack, poke, repeat. Once you learn an enemy's moveset, you can be more risky and go in for combos, and those combos are really satisfying and you won't get punished if you play it right, but you need to get used to the combat first.

Large weapons on the other hand are, in my opinion, not viable for starter builds. The swing speed of the larger weapons are extremely slow, and it is very easy for an enemy to get 1-2 hits on you while you wind your swing. On top of that, you get locked into your swing animation and can't cancel to dodge, but you don't realize that your swing animation has started until it's too late. The large weapons in this game simply aren't responsive, and because of that, it is difficult to want to play with them.

When the update dropped, I did notice an increase in enemy health and small decrease in my damage dealt. After the first hotfix, the combat feels to be much better balanced and I haven't had an issue since.

The crafting grind I personally don't see as too big of an issue. Before The Breach Update, I found myself constantly making new realms so I could go grind that last bit of copper. I haven't needed to do so in this playthrough for two reasons:
1. I understand the level design, and how the devs want you to explore every nook and cranny of an area before moving on. Doing this, I was able to get around 80% of the materials needed for all of the level 1 upgrades before I had even reached Sacrament.
2. The respawn time for areas seems to have been significantly improved. I remember waiting hours in the old version for The Shallows to respawn its' nodes so I could get more materials, leading me to creating new realms just for material gathering. In The Breach, I haven't needed to wait for materials to respawn at all. I was a little miffed about the lack of spruce trees in Nameless Pass, until I reached the end and discovered the absolute TROVE of spruce trees just after the mines.

Does the game still need work around the edges? Yes, absolutely. It's early access. The animations and hitboxes need tightening up, though they have been much improved from the previous version. I think the crafting grind could greatly benefit from increasing the minimum node drop rate from 1 to 2. The large weapons need to be reworked a bit, either for faster, more responsive animations, or a bigger hit to at least compensate for the slowness. Other than that? The game feels really good. Moon Studios' level design is on point as per usual, Some people complain about the lack of complete fast travel, but I disagree. Everything is interconnected, and the levels are designed around opening shortcuts that lead from the end of one level to the beginning of another, making traversing the world very quick. It probably takes about 15-20 seconds to walk from Sacrament to The Shallows. The only gripe that I do have with the fast travel is the need to constantly walk out of Sacrament's gates. I feel that, if any fast travel should be introduced other than to your previous whisper, it should be to the first whisper of an area such as the Orban Glades or Nameless Pass whispers just outside of Sacrament.

All in all, the game absolutely does not deserve the amount of negative reviews that its gotten since the update dropped. Every private nitpick that I held during the previous update has been completely solved. Food is better (if you don't have enough food materials to craft food, then you simply aren't playing the game right. Food is literally everywhere) and doesn't have the long cooldown from before. Instead, it uses a soulslike charge system that limits the amount of food you can eat in combat, which I haven't been limited by nearly as much as the old cooldown.

I really like the enchantment system as well, though I wish that the negative enchantments required by higher grade levels didn't have as big of an impact on gameplay as they do now. The one that I have (lose 12 focus on damage taken) gets in the way quite a bit of me being able to use my focus skills as an example. I however do not wish for the negative enchantments to disappear entirely. I like the idea of having 4 really good positive enchants, and having one negative one to balance it out.

It seems to me that people leaving negative reviews simply want to go play Elden Ring, and don't actually want to adapt to the designs of a different game of a different genre from a different studio. Keep up the great work, Moon.

Masochism Simulator 2022 is one of the games of all time.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a fantastic continuation of the first game. All of the new mechanics, as well as the old ones that were brought back were all carefully planned and thought out to fit in with the level design. Once you have been given the main quest of finding the wisps, you have pretty much all of the materials needed to go anywhere in the world you need to go.
When playing, I constantly found myself saying "Woah, that's awesome!" It's like the developers took everything that made the first game great, and expanded on every aspect they could, without compromising difficulty. All of the moves that you preform make you feel like a ninja, especially in the escape sequences where you're tested on all of the mechanics that the game has thrown at you up until that point. The new boss fights were a great addition that I thought that the first game needed, and Moon Studios delivered. The bosses are tough, but a ton of fun to fight.

10/10. Another masterpiece from Moon Studios.

I have a crippling addiction
I can't stop playing the game
I need help

's pretty gud