Recent reviews by Cicila

Moonlighter has such a simple game loop that kept me hooked throughout the entirety of the game. You run a shop by day, and plunder dungeons by night. It took me about 13 - 14 hours to get through the whole game, but if I were to go for all the achievements, it'd definitely have taken me longer (excluding the one that requires you to beat the game in under 10 hours). You spend most of the game upgrading your equipment and shop while progressing through 4 different dungeons (and a final boss in the 5th), and you keep a catalog of all the products and at what price customers liked buying the item at. I think it's a simple idea, but the team managed to add enough detail to it that it kept me engaged.

I love the art style and the music. I really liked the adaptive music that triggers when you visit different shop keepers.

There's a light story that gives the player a reason for dungeon diving -- there's a 5th door that no one has ever unlocked, and each dungeon gets you closer to figuring out the mystery of the last door. You'll also run across some documents left behind in the dungeon, which gives you a bit more flavor text behind the dungeon. Notes from Crazy Pete help give tips to the player, and I learned some things from those notes I wouldn't have known otherwise (like running across the fountain means you're headed the right way towards the floor's boss).

I liked the little monster companions you'd unlock to help you in battle, but I had no idea what the requirements were for unlocking a new one. I'd just suddenly see that I had new monsters sitting in the pen. I think having that be a bit more clear would have been better. There were also times when I needed certain ingredients to craft a new weapon, but I wanted to be able to wishlist each individual component so that I knew what I was looking for. Instead it seemed like you'd just wishlist the weapon instead, which isn't what I wanted.

I think the only other thing I wasn't very keen on were the quests you could pick up from villagers after you had upgraded your shop a few times. Since dungeons are procedurally generated, there's no guarantee that you'll find the right monsters or items by the deadline of the quest, so I found these quests to be more frustrating than anything else. I turned down a lot of them because they'd have me backtracking into past dungeons that I didn't want to revisit.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend Moonlighter to friends/family who enjoy managing their own shop and farming for their own resources.

I can't stress how great of a series of games the Banner Saga games are. I love just about everything in this game, and it's one that I recommend to people if they're looking for something new to play on Steam. If you like narrative style games similar to 80 Days or Sorcery, then this game is for you. If you like engaging strategy turn-based combat, then this game is for you.

Every decision you make, starting from the first Banner Sage MATTERS, and it's incredible to see how the decisions you made very early in the game impact how the game reaches its final conclusion. Austin Wintory provides an incredible soundtrack for the game, and the artistic style is breathtaking. This is the kind of game that I love to play during the winter because it makes me feel more engrossed in the story and its environment.

Even though I feel like I botched the end, I still felt satisfied with how the story ended. There are numerous games that I play where I'm extremely dissatisfied with the "bad" ending I've received, and I never want to play the game again. However, I feel like I could easily restart from the beginning to make different decisions and try to obtain a different outcome.

If you're on the fence about trying these games out, I urge you to play them! It will 110% be worth it.

I was pleasantly surprised how tight-knit everything is in this little game. This game has three small, concise stories that feature Theo and Efina, the two main characters. You learn about these characters in each episode as they uncover mysteries in three different settings. Each story has multiple endings, and I like that each one isn't so long that I feel unmotivated to go back and see different endings. I also really love the art style for the game, and appreciated being able to see the animations and stills of each "cutscene" at the end of the game in a gallery style room. This game is definitely worth the price, and I would recommend it to those who like mystery-esque narrative games. There is a combat system, though it's fairly simple, and battles aren't too challenging.

This series has me hooked. I almost wish I had waited to play these until the 3rd game was released because having to wait to know the next steps in the story is going to be excruciating. I really think they made a number of improvements to the game. Promoting your characters to higher ranks takes significantly less renown (though I still never had enough renown to fully elevate my characters... had a lot just sitting with a '+' indicating they were ready to be promoted). Clansmen are useful now in that they forage for supplies which is EXTREMELY helpful. I thought it was annoying to constantly use my valuable renown to buy supplies in the first game, so I'm glad they helped alleviate that burden.

I definitely made an end game decision I wasn't intending to make, so now I feel like I have to start all over just to make a decision that satisfies me. This is a good thing for me because I WANT to replay the game using different decision-making. This is sincerely a game I would recommend to my friends.

This game is excellent. Excellent audio and visuals. I found myself sucked into the story, and really loved being able to manage the caravan and see how the decisions I made influenced the story later on. The combat sequences posed enough challenge to keep me on my toes, but not so difficult that I couldn't progress. Definitely going to purchase The Banner Saga 2.