Recent reviews by Swevenfoxドリーミー狐

Refreshing to encounter a game which is not a remake or remaster, from not a big known studio being this good and fun to play. I met no glitches, the game actually is finished not some unfinished mess and it doesn't have any micro-transaction or game-pass (for single-player game yes).
It is fun, great characters with great voice acting behind with amazing art direction perfectly suiting the mood and adds that extra layer to the story experience and adds its own little twist on the 'j-rpg' genre making it both modern and old making the fights keep fun and not feel repetitive to dull down the experience.
Before you would complain parry and dodge is hard and unfair, there is story mode difficulty to play as and since the casual enemies have about 2 moves to learn timing on it is not as hard once you get more into the game but this might not be everyone's cup of tea while others cherish this mechanic.

Rewarding exploration great world building and narration. I love the little hidden eastern eggs and memes with the silly parkour bits between the heavier story dungeons. This is a great example what is a fun game is and it is possible to make a game which people enjoy without stuff it with FOMO triggers and corporation bs.

I am glad the game sold well and Oblivion shadow drop did not hurt the sales for it, that was unfortunate.

If I to bring out flaws it would be more of a 'me' issue then game issue. I miss the option for quest logs, and the lack of minimap in dungeons as I am extraordinary bad in navigation. But alas it is more of a 'me' problem then game problem.
There is plenty of content and all acts are curious with their big spotlight of story highlight wanting to see and learn more.

Did I mention the music?
Because it is absolutely great and suits the mood and the story perfectly gives the chills.

This is a game well done.

This was a fun one with great premise and gameplay loop. Good VAs, good mix of various gameplay elements mixed together for a full experience from familiar games (persona social interactions, fire emblem battle style)
For a demo, it was pretty nice, you literally get the start of the whole game and your save file can transfer to the full release on top of it.

Animations are good, the premise is great as well. Character designs compared to their other games felt a bit shallow and uninteresting but doesn't bother much, the characters are nicely written and their VAs carry them well too.
I def want to pick up the full thing - even if not on release day, April a bit packed with game releases I am interested :)

Unfortunately I can't recommend this game.
Maybe as a standalone IP it would be pretty decent but as an instalment for dragon age it just guts the good of the franchise and turns it into cringe.
My understanding all the old writers of the serie by now quit and a new fresher probably younger and inexperienced writers took over and the dark medieval fantasy setting turned into a power fantasy immature very family friendly narrative. Sure the world's state is mature and dark, but almost every interaction and social aspect feels like written for very young audience with continuously reminding the player about the current plot and goal. After you keep hearing in the first 3 hours the same one sentence over and over it gets exhausting. I get it that this is what happened and need to do something about it but I also have my quest journal to check if I would really need to be reminded.

What made the serie great that I always had my option to play as a great hero or a major pain in the ass with consequences and differences in choices and their outcomes. This was fully stripped from the game, my Rook unable to be in disagreement, I can't make my choices freely I am heavily forced to be supportive in matters which I feel ways too related to irl politics running down instead choices and understanding of Thedas the world I trying to immerse myself with.

I love some good representation in games, I do. This is not the game for that. Moreso it is hurtful and more damaging then ever to the LGBT community, it enforcing one person's ideals and observation on a very sensitive topic (unfortunately the angry teenager who is loud and can't be reasoned with from the tone of the writing) and ignores everyone else. I felt crynge and major discomfort and disgust in many points with this. Specifically want to mention a moment between Taash and their mother who tried to understand and reason to understand her child on a way I know many LGBT person would have loved if their parents would react like that. Instead Taash continuously attack and defy their mother like if two different people wrote the conversation between the characters and neither of them discussed what the other one wrote.

What kept me going was the lore addition. This was my absolute favourite franchise from 2009. I had 100% achievements on all 3 instalments through the years even if my original DAO achis got lost after the phpbb forum turned into origins app. I have lot of lore books on my shelves of Thedas and so, I love the world, I was and is invested in the setting and possible backgrounds, secrets and mysteries. This is not the dragon age I played, this is not that dark fantasy I immersed with and sat hours thinking how I want to approach to solve its world's issues and problems.
This is... ways 'too modern' and 'politically involved and touched' with disrespect towards people its trying to represent.

I don't even want to go into how much known characters feels gutted and twisted and maturely downgraded from older games. That is another can of worms to open.

I only hope somehow they can salvage this. DMC did it, there is enough lore foundation for a better come back, but this in this shape and form is a no from me. The much I would love to 'love' it.

Rest in peace Tango Gameworks - you knew what it took to make your players happy, unfortunately some others can't value creativity.
You made your legacy, will remember fondly Hi-Fi rush is one amazing game, and I am sad there won't be sequel nor Evil WIthin 3, I hoped for both :<

This was fun 'til dragonsplague happened disrespecting the time and effort I spent with exploring, finding caves and seeker tokens by a whole lot.

Yes I did check videos how to recognise my pawns are infected, guess what all my pawns obeyed me, all lines were the same old, no overconfidence more then I had since early game, no animation clue (holding head, physical pain) and no eye visuals yet it still slaughtered a whole big village.
Yeeted everyone after every dragon encounter as well. I did not do all riddles yet for the only mass resurrection stone and I don't feel like I wanting now as I was keeping so close watch yet still it happened.
Whoever decided this mechanic def not thought about respecting the player's time and progression.

Oh wait I could -buy- resurrection stones for $$$ how thoughtful of you Capcom almost forgot about it -

Yus yus yus can't wait another painting throw knife in my back in the full thing again!
Just perfect to give the right mood I remember from the original, excited to see what the full game will bring! I have high hopes :3

This one is an absolute gem and I wish it would have more recognition.

Sure there are some raw edges here and there - but this be a smaller team they make up perfectly with writing, story, characters, atmosphere and mood setting. The love poured into their world building and to share it with the player is felt all the way down.


Merits

- Great characters, they all are unique and different from each other from different areas with different background yet they manage to work together perfectly without feel any of them would be forced in the team.
- Absolutely great background music, sound designs and voices. They all help a lot to upkeep the gloomy post apocalyptic Noir feeling the game was aiming for.
- Great writing! It is entertaining and the characters all react on one another and comment on each other strength and weaknesses. Also I think this was the first game where a new term surfaced us the player didn't encounter it before but our main character due of his background would be aware of it already. Instead of taking the main character a fool and re-explain the term it was explained to another character who had no idea about it and by no means he could know that either. Small detail but I absolutely loved that.
- Complex and very interesting story to explore and uncover it's secrets.
- The art style is great, it is an interesting mixture between styles but carefully crafted together into a whole. It might be not everyone's cup of tea though.
- Visible love of the developers for their world and building it up you can feel all that care they placed into it.


Flaws

- For the English VA the lip sync often wrong and it can be annoying in cutscenes.
- The story and the game flow slow building takes a bit of time to pick it up but if you bypass the first chapter it becomes more intense after.
- Lack of Intermissions. The story lead doesn't wrap up in a shiny paper it's content so sometimes some path or new characters joining the crew is raw. The story is very straight forward and heavily focusing the actual plot and investigation aspect without introducing arcs and smoother the flow a bit.
- Illusion of a semi open world. It is not and gives no any room for exploring it is clear where you have to go to progress with the story. No on world treasures to find, all loot comes from merchants or dungeons/quest rewards only.
- The card battle aspect might not be everyone's favourite element but the game offers skipping it so you won't stuck on it which is nice.
- The lairs and enemies can feel a bit repetitive and 'boring' they only change with chapters. Though the dungeon's atmosphere with each chapter is amazing in return!



Now my review not fully covering the whole game as I not yet finished it. But I am not disappoint and to me well worth the price and waiting for the actual release. I played the demo I loved the idea and was impatiently waiting for the launch.
This so far absolutely my favourite Indie game of the year.

Fun relaxing game worth waiting on it - best cat simulator 2022!

This is a hidden gem.
I loved the story its pretty unique and interesting it got me sucked in wanting to go on, know more.

Voice Acting is great and on spot. Art design is amazing and soundtrack breath even more life into the experience.
The battle system suiting the world I loved the mix of card and hack and slash but I see this might not be everyone's cup of tea. Not getting a weapon card might be thought. I personally liked it, made me think how to build my deck the way even with the RNG I could be efficient in battles.

Some battles were a bit repetitive with the same annoying enemy types I didn't like fighting against that much but not stopped me from continue for its story and experience!

I loved the lore of the world, it was exactly the way the game looked like, very Tim Burton inspired cute but grim, omnious at some parts with its own humor added to it.

The negative I could bring up that the random villagers were recycled models all over not everyone got their own model types which would not feel that 'bad' if the various cities would have 1-2 new models only can be found in that specific city.
But it still wasn't that bad, it just could have been better with a few more models added.

To summarize if you like Tim Burton this at least for me felt like playing a Tim Burton movie and I loved every bits of it.

Good spooks would recommend