Recent reviews by raixel

TLDR -Great game. Controls are decent with fully mappable controller options. No toggle instead of hold option for selection wheel. Art is good. But although theres an option to play a female char, and theres a female voice and some female hair options there doesnt seem to be an actual female body type, just the male body type with a breastband instead of a naked chest if youre shirtless. So even if you select a female hairstyle, youre gonna look kind of like a guy.

Overall very recommended
+++++++++++++++++

I just started and I'm having an absolute blast. This is like the best version of an isometric action CRPG of the late 90s, but modern with all the modern UI and QoL expectations. Fans of good action isometric CRPGs will love this one. Controls are good (thanks devs for putting in mappable and functional controller options. The game would be unplayable without it for me). Do wish there was a little more accessibility control options, specifically an option to toggle instead of hold the selection wheel. But thats minor and the controls work well.

The pixel art is generally very good, but I have one minor gripe. The female character option looks exactly like the male's, but wearing a breastband if you have no clothes on.

Theres no semblance of female body shape with or without clothing or even shading to give a suggestion of breasts. I'm female. I like playing female chars if the option exists.

I start and Ive got a male body with no hint of shading, form or anything at all saying "this char is female". I actually restarted because I thought I accidentally toggled my character to male body in char creation. Nope. Chicks in this world apparently look like dudes.

Its really incongruous with the rest of the good pixel art. But its minor.

I love this game. But I cant recommend it right now. It used to be a great game. But the devs added content that caused game breaking bugs, as well as extreme imbalances. And then seemingly fell off the face of the earth. Please dont buy it until the devs make an effort to fix it, Its really fun and if they ever fix it Id be happy to recommend it, but I just cant due to the constant save bugs causing loss progress.

This game is bizarre. Its Typing of the Dead crossed with a dungeon crawler with awesome art. But that doesnt really explain it well or do it justice. Its just...fun. And funny.

100%ed all bosses. Solo, no summons.

And I only have one fully working hand.

If you say its too hard, maybe you just need to git gud.

Its definitely the easiest of all of them.

Its a great game. But I prefer DS I/III. I love soulsborne lore and the way From doesnt spoon feed the narrative.

But Dark Souls kind of hit a lot harder in the story and lore department.

(Minor area spoilers ahead)

Elden Rings story is scattered and weird even by From's standards. I just never found any of the character motivations as interesting as any major char in DS or even Aldrich (the Aldrich boss fight in DS 3 going in blind, I died the first time because I was too busy WTFing), Sulyvahn and the rest of the main NPC/bosses of DS3. Rykard and Volcano Manor was pretty awesome though. So was Sellens quest line and Radahn's "festival".
But as far as the demigods, Marika and Radagon for the most part I found them kind of meh. And the cool parts, like Godrick's grafting, werent really touched on a lot. The fact that Rannis ending was so badly translated irks me too. It is *wildly* misinterpreted in English.

Its a very pretty game, full of beautiful vistas in a shattered world, but theres life, wildlife creatures going about their business, soldiers and nobles and others trekking across the wilderness on some kind of mission, or guarding fortifications for a war that shattered reality.

Thats a definite improvement. Sure its a ruined bleak land.
But it feels more like a real world. In the older games it felt like many enemies were just hanging around waiting for you. Elden Ring pulled off making your char feel like one tiny part of a massive world that will exist whether or not your PC is there.

The set pieces are pretty amazing too. The first time you go under the Erdtree and see Godwyns disturbing soulless but living corpse tangled in its roots, its pretty epic. I stood there for about 15 mins using the binoculars to get a good look at him in horrified fascination before continuing the quest line.

Or finding the dead merchants, or the dancing cannibal womens village.

Char and world art direction is amazing, as expected from From. I just wish the character's motivations made more sense.

The controls are much improved and way more fluid, closer to Sekiro than the DSs. Thats a wonderful improvement, being a one handed person I greatly appreciated not having to sprint to jump.
I like how fast and fluid the combat is, although coming from DSes youll have to relearn timing. The weapon upgrade/ash of war mechanics are great too, as well as the spirit summons for those of us who solo. I didnt use them much though. I found the AI didnt really know how to run my build with the mimic tear (quality melee with just enough faith to buff myself- since I cant block easily cuz of my hand, I rely on hitting hard and rolling fast) and would usually get slaughtered.

Its a great game, and the one Id recommend to any newcomer of Soulsbornes to try first.

Its fun. Its minorly buggy. I managed to get myself massively OoB more than once, and have seen some minor graphical glitches. And it has Denuvo. If I had known I wouldnt have bought it. I was wondering why cutscenes ran like crap on High on my beast of a machine. Now I know. ♥♥♥♥ Denuvo.

I'm not into Harry Potter at all, and know very little about it. I saw a couple of the movies like 20 years ago and I read one of the books. Comes off like very English "magical" whimsy. I got it because hey, I'm not into Spider Man either and I 100% it on the PS4 because it was that fun.

I had heard about how beautiful this game was, and I'm not seeing it. My machine can handle it on High. Should be able to handle it on Ultra. But frankly, it doesnt look that good even on High, everyones got kind of a wax doll look to them.

Its still a fun AAA. And it *is* a typical AAA so expect all the handholding. Ive been playing From Software games lately, so going back I was surprised how easy it is and how everythings perfectly laid out for you and leads you by the nose. But I think thats just games in general nowadays.

Still, its cute and fun. Everything is named stuff like Grindleblat and Snorkenplort or weird terms that sound *very* English to a North American. Playing this I can totally see why people got so into the world. Man, if I was 10 years younger I probably would have been into it too when it came out.

Its worth a look even if youre not into Harry Potter. If you're OK with Denuvo that is. I'm not. Makes me want to sing yo ho ho and a bottle of rum when publishers put that crap on their games. And I am way not down with piracy. But Im also not down with publishers hamstringing their games for legitimate customers.

TLDR: If you are a D&D player - get this game. Its epic. This is like playing 5e, but in a video game.
_____________________
I found this game at PAX 2019 and immediately kickstarted it. ("Edmund Tupps" the random halfling male name is a character I played in D&D for many years). And frankly, this game is awesome. Its the absolute closest Ive ever gotten to playing D&D in a video game. Its on par with the Pathfinder games, but without the (I found personally annoying) need to build your settlement stuff and also true to D&D 5e combat mechanics instead of RTwP.
I cant say enough good about it. For any tabletop RPG player this should be a must-buy. Graphics are good but not great, and the voice acting is serviceable. Its easy to tell whats going, on, and move, spin, or zoom the map very far out or very close up. I have run into a couple bugs, but the devs are very responsive and patch quickly when the bugs are found. If you play D&D 3rd or 5th ed or Pathfinder, you should be able to jump right in with minimal learning curve.
Currently theres 2 dev created campaigns but it also has the ability to have user-generated campaign modules.

I cant say enough good about it, its a great game,

This is one of those "I'm recommending it for fans of text adventures...but..." reviews. Fortunately so far, the worldbuilding and charcters are all interesting and I like the mechanics- they remind me of the Lone Wolf books I read as a kid. My one complaint is the Steam deck support is lacking in the controls section. And if youre reading it, wouldnt it be better to be able to read it on the Steam deck like youre holding a book?

Review-
I'm old enough to remember the days of Infocom and Magnetic Scrolls and all the other graphical and non graphical text adventures out there. Its really is a lost art - text based adventures are impossible to find nowadays as most people just dont seem interested in reading.

And, I'm one of those people who doesnt own a TV or watch movies - I only read and play video games. I love reading, and I read the way people watch media -if I'm relaxing and not gaming I'm reading. I love Roadwarden so far.

The only thing I wish is that the Steam Deck support was better - it works, sort of, as the controls are very finicky using the touch screen and controller mouse. It would work better if the pointer wasnt so slim and the "hitbox" for the text options were better.

I dont want to sit at my gaming PC and read. I want to curl up with my Steam deck like its a book. And I cant. Which is the only thing thats prevented me from playing this game as much as I want to. I either get annoyed sitting in my gaming chair reading on my giant monitor, or I get annoyed at the finicky Steam deck controls and wander off to read an actual book or play different games. So Devs - this is my one complaint. I love text adventures but can you tweak the controls so its easier to use on Steam Deck?

I'm old. I remember when Apple IIe was standard and 386s were primo. And yeah, I love modern AAA games. But I find myself gravitating back towards the games of my youth. It makes me so happy that games like Nox Archaist and Realms of Antiquity exist. Old games with modern QoL stuff. This game is epic for anyone who actually remembers the 80s. You'll love it. It'll make you feel like youre playing Ultima V again.

I really wanted to like it. Rune Factory is one of my favorite game series. And the idea of a multi-generational Rune Factory sounded so appealing. But after playing for about 12 hours I realized its a mile wide and an inch deep and none of the pieces really came together to create a deep engrossing game. Like ok, at first when youre a kid its interesting and you wonder where its going.

But once youre an adult it just falls flat. None of the NPCs seem unique or have any actual personality whatsoever, they are just cookie cuttered. In Rune Factory or Stardew Valley, the NPCs in the town have clear well defined personalities, and you really feel like you get to know them as the game progresses. Kynseed, there isnt much to make an NPC feel like a unique character. They all give the same few randomized quest types and talking to them just results in the same handful of non unique generated lines. The farming is rudimentary at best too, dump seeds in previously generated and unchangable plot, water and then you have a couple items in a few days. Theres a couple fruit trees and herb plants on your too, already generated and you dont need to care for them or move them or add more. They are just there sprouting fruit or whatever every few days.
You dont have to sleep or eat or do any of the stuff traditionally associated with a Story of Seasons/Stardew Valley/Rune Factory game. You can run around nonstop without ever getting tired or hungry. Harvesting animals is weird too. You seem to have to feed them an item, then "pop" them with a slingshot. I dont think you even have to feed your animals, and your cow seems to give unlimited milk. You can also "pop" your neighbors pigs for meat without repercussions, so why would I bother with owning some? You can ride them, sure. But its pointless cuz you can just fast travel. Its just... eh. I wish it had less to do but what it had was deeper and more interesting. Fans of any of the other major farming sims or Rune Factory are going to get bored pretty fast. I know I did,

The only thing I found fun was the Mega Man Battle Networkesque combat and the graphics are epic - lot of interesting (but pointless) maps to wander through. But the rest of it - it was like a bunch of neat ideas that in practice didnt come together to make an actual game. It seems like its still in early access.

TLDR Fun game, constant updates and a great theme and metagame. Worth the price. You like Vampire Survivor, get this game. I personally like it much better.

This game seems simple at first glance. Its basically a tower defense where your character is the mobile tower. You cant attack so you gotta raise minions to defend you against the horde of do gooders coming to take your evil ass out. Seems like a simple blah game at first. Until you get into it, and realize just how *much* is actually there. The meta progression is awesome. A ton of unlockables, class types, different per class skills, and even different bad guys. Theres relics and spells for your guy too. The theme and graphics are really good for the style too, and really set it apart from all the other games in this style. And the best part? Weekly real updates, unlike many other E.A. games. New classes and things are always being added. Whats there already is totally worth it, the constant updates are cake icing.