Recent reviews by kubev

Stray is an odd game, as I think games going forward could learn a lot from it, but I think Stray could stand to learn a lot from games that came before it. Ironically, I think things that maybe didn't work for other games would work better in Stray.

To start, Stray places you in the role of an ordinary stray cat, having fun with your cat buddies until you're separated and find yourself in some slums populated by robots. Stray's game play largely consists of navigating environments of varying sizes and solving puzzles, and there's a problem with that, as these two game play elements feel oddly separate from one another far too much of the time.

In some ways, Stray reminds me of INSIDE. You're a cat who's trying to get outside for so much of the game, though it's odd when you consider that the cat STARTS OUTSIDE, which I find to be a limiting factor when you consider how open I think the developers wanted the ending to seem. Stray also shares some similarities with INSIDE with regard to controls and how the game manages how you interact with different objects.

Navigation generally feels great to me in Stray, which I find interesting, because navigation works very similarly to how it works in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a game I specifically don't like due to its navigation controls. I absolutely HATED how your character was "stuck" within the confines of a platform until you pressed a button to reach the next platform in Enslaved, but it makes sense for a game in which you play as a cat, since cats tend to navigate areas far differently from humans and follow certain paths laid out by the environment more closely.

In addition to nailing the navigation style of cats, the devs made the manner in which you interact with characters and items in Stray very faithful to the cat experience. Unfortunately, too many of these interactions ultimately just connect fetch quests together, rather than putting the navigation in a more central role and adding some much-needed stakes to it to add tension.

When I think about what I want out of a puzzle in Stray, I want something similar to the sorts of environmental puzzles you'd find in a Tomb Raider game. I don't mind "easy" puzzles with obvious solutions, but the introduction of more environmental hazards and maybe some timing elements would really go a long way in making the puzzles in Stray more interesting.

Overall, I think the devs of Stray did an excellent job when it comes to letting you control the cat, but I think too many other elements of the game are a mismatch for a game in which you play as a cat. I do recommend playing Stray, but that's more so due to how well the cat controls and less for the overall experience the game offers.

I first purchased and played Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth shortly after its initial release onto Early Access. Based on what little I played back then (a single chapter), I already knew this game was something special. Having just finished it with 100% map completion for the first time, I wanted to share my updated thoughts.

At a glance, you'd think this was a rip-off of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but RoLW:DiWL does enough to stand out that I'd argue that a lot of other games could stand to borrow some elements from it. In fact, I could say that it plays a bit like Ikaruga, though that'd also be selling the game short. This game doesn't mess around in handing out new abilities right from the start, as you'll receive a limited but versatile hover ability, a bow for firing arrows, and wind and fire elements to toggle between within the first ten minutes. What the game does with the abilities you receive is what makes it feel so unique.

There's a lot going on, and you'll need to mix things up a lot, especially during your first attempt at playing through the game. Don't cheat yourself by grinding for money and stocking up on healing items. Instead, gain an understanding of the wind and fire elements, using them to skillfully absorb various attacks while replenishing your health and magic gauges, turning the tables during a battle that you maybe didn't start quite so strongly.

Combat feels incredible in this game, especially during boss battles, and I have to attribute that to Deedlit's varied movement options and the fact that - unlike nearly every other player character I can think of in a game of this style - Deedlit doesn't stop in her tracks when you attack without jumping. She instead trudges forward at a reduced speed, and her attack animation changes to exhibit the strain and weight of her attacks.

You might think it best to avoid this movement penalty by jumping around like an idiot as you might in other games of this style, but no, you really don't have much incentive to. It's actually really refreshing, as I found myself playing so much more smoothly and not having to fight against the game mechanics as I would in some of my favorite games within the genre. You feel like a force to be reckoned with when controlling Deedlit, as her abilities are generally a simple button press (or hold) away, and there's little need to even dig around in menus.

Sure, it'll seem overwhelming at first, but you'll eventually find yourself switching between elements to raise each element's level or to restore health based on the situation, all while steadily walking forward and poking holes in whatever's in your path. Maybe you need the increased air control that wind provides you with during jumps. Maybe you need the invincibility frames of the slide provided by fire.

Either way, you'll eventually find yourself switching back and forth to exploit enemies' weaknesses with ease, thanks to plenty of surface-level HUD information and well-designed controls. Again, no need to dig through menus. No managing equipment load-outs in menus. No wasting time collecting items that make the game less of a chore to play. Heck, there's even a mini-map that'll help to reduce how often you need to view the full map.

The soundtrack warrants some mention, as well. The music really drives you forward, and I love the fact that it manages to be really intense while also sounding really elegant at times. It's an interesting mix, to say the least.

Is RoLW:DiWL perfect? Certainly not. There's definitely some great level design in spots, but the game does suffer in plenty of other areas in this regard. It'd probably make more sense to allow for right-stick aiming with the bow. The story isn't particularly interesting. The game relies a bit too much on locked doors (though the game at least doesn't insist on stuffing keys into your inventory at every turn). Still, this game does so much right that it's hard not to want to sing its praises. I may not play through this game 100+ times like I did with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but I hope it manages to influence future games in the genre.

Let's face it: Sega's never fixing this collection. The emulator is trash. The simple launcher is a train wreck, and the fancy launcher makes the emulator performance even worse. That said, kudos to Sega for including an "uncompressed roms" folder in the collection's installation folder, as doing so allows players to use their purchased roms elsewhere. Whether you want to load them up in an external emulator, load them onto a clone system or even load them onto an SD card for use with a Mega Everdrive for use on official Genesis hardware (or a Mega Sg), I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wants to reward Sega for this flexibility.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (SotN) is my all-time favorite video game. Given how much SotN clearly inspired elements of Chasm, I can't help but feel disappointed at some of the flaws in Chasm that come as a result of the developer having missed the point of what makes SotN's formula work as well as it does. It's a shame, too, because there're some very good aspects of Chasm that end up suffering due to the game's flaws.

Chasm's protagonist controls quite well at the start of the game, and anyone familiar with SotN will notice an immediate similarity between SotN's controls and Chasm's controls, right down to the default assignments of the face buttons. Alas, while Chasm does allow you to equip two different weapons at a time, one of these weapons takes the form of a spell. These "spells" are little more than Castlevania-style sub-weapons, however. While this seems like a logical approach to take to ensure some variety in combat abilities, I found myself not using spells very often and wishing that I could simply equip a different normal weapon that had better reach than one of my faster weapons.

Now, while the controls are generally fine at first, you start to run into some problems as you accumulate new abilities in the form of artifacts. You eventually get a glove that allows you to hang from ledges, thus allowing you to scale walls that have ledges scattered up and down them. You later get climbing gear that allows you to wall jump, also granting you a Mega Man X-style ability to slowly slide down walls, which in turn makes using the aforementioned glove far more touchy and tedious. Furthermore, you'd expect having these two items to open up a lot more areas to you, but the developer only allowed them to "work" together in the strictest possible sense, resulting in blown expectations when you take the time to return to a previously impassable area and find that it's...still impassable because the developer had no imagination in realizing how well these two items *should* work together.

Getting back to the wall jump...and Mega Man X, for that matter, the wall jump in Chasm feels TERRIBLE. In addition to it feeling downright unintuitive to use in general, you'll find that very few areas that require the wall jump are laid out in a way that makes it comfortable or satisfying to use. Too often, you'll find that platforms are spaced in such a way that you still need to grab ledges, which - as I mentioned before - gets really tedious once you have the wall jump (due to the aforementioned slide).

That's okay, though, because you'll eventually get a double jump. Problem is, the double jump just makes it all the more apparent how bad the wall jump is. Functionally, you end up with something akin to the Mega Man X wall jump once you have the wall jump and double jump in Chasm, only it's far more awkward to use because the protagonist is trying to get away from the wall with each wall jump, only to double jump back toward the wall while gaining less height than you'd actually want due to your character jumping back and forth like an idiot.

So, I mentioned before how the game continually blows your expectations. You know, this wouldn't be so bad if Chasm wasn't laden with backtracking. Look, I'm a huge fan of games like this, but the distribution of save rooms and teleporter/cave rooms in Chasm is HORRENDOUS. Yeah, I understand that Chasm's dungeons are procedurally-arranged, but it seems as though the algorithm doing this just intentionally lays rooms out in the least-convenient means possible. This wouldn't be so bad if you had an indication as to WHY you couldn't proceed past certain points in the dungeons, but Chasm lacks any means of marking multiple map squares with symbols to remind yourself what you might need to get further in those areas.

Speaking of progression, Chasm even fails to generate much in the way of excitement when it comes to building up the protagonist. Gaining levels doesn't have the impact that it should on its own, and you'll likely find one or two weapons for sale in town that're "good enough" and settle for those for 3/4 of the game, because anything dropped in the dungeon just feels inferior to anything you can more easily get your hands on. Furthermore, there seems to be too much of a focus on swords, with there being very little reason to use other types of weapons unless you just want to be different and underpowered. Even worse, the drop rates from enemies are ridiculously low, and Chasm seems to take inspiration from some of the worst Metroidvania-style games in existence by making many of the drops consist of crafting items that have very limited use. (And the stuff that you can craft is pretty much trash. Yay!)

Now, it probably sounds as though I'm really down on Chasm. When it isn't seriously disappointing me, though, I do find myself enjoying the combat on some level, and I have the enemy designs to thank for that. The enemy designs in Chasm are quite good, and you'll find yourself gradually having to change your tactics as you become more powerful, making your newfound strength (usually from equipment, not levels, sadly) feel all the more substantial. At first, you'll find yourself having to let enemies attack so you can exploit their recovery time, often having to do this several times in an effort to avoid damage. If you rush things, then you'll take a lot of damage at first. Once you get better equipment, though, you'll find that being more aggressive will make combat pass more quickly, but you'll still need to be careful and precise with your attacks.

Overall, I'd still recommend Chasm, as long as you go in with the right expectations. It's got some serious issues, but it's also very satisfying if you have the patience to tackle combat properly. Just be prepared to be disappointed. A lot.

As someone who helped test ODW prior to its release, I've played a ton of this game. It's challenging and full of great humor. The difficulty from play-through to play-through can really vary a lot, as there seems to be a lot of variance in how the game spawns enemies during each play-through. It's very rewarding to get through a tight spot, though. Highly recommended, despite the rabbits in ODW being complete jerks.

Subject matter aside, this game offers an interesting change of pace for people who enjoy RPGs. There's no combat. Yes, it's basically just a series of fetch quests, but I do feel that the game is solid, albeit far too short. Honestly, aside from the story, the only thing I'd really change about this game is the movement, as I wish it was grid-based to account for the somewhat unpredictable collision on trees and whatnot. Highly recommended if you like point-and-click adventures and wouldn't mind having direct control over your character.

I'm generally not a fan of visual novels, but I highly recommend that you play this game, even if you're not into visual novels. Very interesting take on the genre.

I love how many of the negative reviews are griping about the DRM, as opposed to the bad level design. I'm still processing everything that's happened up to this point, but I went from legitimately enjoying Green Hill Zone to wondering why people think that Sonic 1 is so slow when Chemical Plant Zone (from Sonic 2) seems to be so intent on slowing you down with those stupid blue blobs and what seem like dead ends until you finally manage to figure out which random chunk of ceiling some spring is supposed to knock you through. The next two zones are just a complete dumpster fire of flying around at mach speed while random crap happens. I probably won't refund this game, but man...I don't know what happened here.

Part Hearthstone, part Magic: The Gathering, Eternal's definitely worth checking out if you're into CCGs. I wish the decks were smaller, though, and some of the starter decks earned from the campaign are TERRIBLE. That said, I do think that this game shows a lot of promise, and it's obviously free to get started, so it's worth trying, either way.

I wanted to revisit Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers for NES, so I picked this up on sale. I refunded it after roughly half an hour of playing it, however, because of several technical glitches, some of which I later realized were present in the original NES release. That said, this collection does seem to introduce an issue in which your character can fall through floors while throwing items (and some enemies fall through floors, as well). I still can't (yet) fully recommend this release.