Recent reviews by Ganjalf the Green

Silksong is a difficult game to review and recommend. In some ways, it is the best game I've ever played and in others it feels like it's been designed by someone whos whole goal is for you to have the least possible amount of fun with a game.

There are sections in this game that are ridiculously hard in a way that lacks any sense of accomplishement when you beat them, just relief - if even that. Bosses very rarely give any rewards, so beating a hard on is kind of a constipated fart - just good it's over with.

The main offenders are boss runbacks and trash mob arena fights (one of them is *11* waves with 1+2 minibosses). Sometimes these elements are put together to create what I'd like to call "anti-fun". On top of that, the game has a habit of severly punishing players. There are 2 types of currency in the game - one is needed to buy (YES, BUY) benches and the other is needed to build tools. You either are good at the game or you spend a not insignificant amount of the time farming.

Silksong does not respect the players time. What meaningful difficulty is added by these things? The only word for this is *TEDIUM*.

The bosses themselves are hard, but very doable. Some of the best 2d bossfights ever created. Platforming is mostly fun (except for one god-awful area) and the movement abilities you get string together very smoothly. The exploration is cool, you really have to run around like old doom games, slapping every wall and ceiling to make sure you don't miss an area.

The game is beautiful both visually and in terms of music. Absolute treat to watch and listen.

All in all, Silksong is 90% amazing and 10% the most anti-fun game I've ever played. And I'm not sure if the 90% actually wins out in this case.

However, I recognize that the game is well made, absolutely beautiful and an incredible achievement in general.

The highs can be high, but the lows are frequent and some of the worst in recent memory.

I would recommend this game only to those who are ridiculously good at Metroidvanias and/or have the time and energy to practice sections for hours on end.

Otherwise just pass this one by - not worth the headache

Dirt 5 is a racing game with an identity crisis the driving is too arcade-y to appeal to Dirt Rally fans and too involved to appeal to a more casual arcade racing fan.

The game puts you on uneven tracks that throw your vehicle around with 10-15 other cars which essentially ends up with you getting to restart a track because an opponent slammed into you during a jump in just the right way to send you careening into a tree.

Honestly, this feels more like a Burnout game without all the fun car destruction.

I'd avoid this one if you're looking for either a good racing sim or a fun arcade racer.

Tails of Iron Ii: Whiskers of Winter is an excellent action adventure game with light rpg elements and a superb successor to the first game.

The combat is heavy, blows need to be measured out and greed will kill you fast. You're equipped with a light, heavy and ranged weapon, which together with charged attacks and 4 magic spells keep the combat varied enough for the 12 or so hour playthrough (steam didn't count the hours I played offline).

The art style is amazing and the decision to go with narration instead of any direct dialogue is an inspired one - it really gives the whole game a storybook feeling. The story itself is nice enough, it keeps the dark(ish) fantasy feeling the whole way through, but doesn't really do anything too out there or interesting. However, the world that this game (and the previous one) has built is very intriguing - it feels like the world is actually alive and things happen when you aren't around.

I found the game exteremly fun - bite-sized, brutal, but not grueling and with an absolutely gorgeous art style. Funnily enough, due to the way the story is structured, you don't actually have to play the first game - it will give some context, but is not necessary.

Highly recommended!

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a pretty classic JRPG. You got skill trees, you got upgradeable equipment, you got a magic buff system that you only start to understand 10 hours in and you've even got unlockable bathing suit costumes (both men and women). The sidequest as such are basic, and uninvolved. Everything in the world that is optional is truly optional and up to you to discover.

The main thing that Expedition 33 does differently from most other JRPGs is an active parry/dodge system, where you have to learn enemy moves to time your counter - parry window is rather small, but dodging is more forgiving. A successful parry triggers a counterattack which can make or break some encounters. While not strictly necessary, learning to parry is highly encouraged for later bossfights.

The setting is absolutely beautiful. Sad, melancholic, dream-like and picturesque. Talking about the story can easily veer into spoiler territory, so all I'll say is that the story takes a quite unexpected turn and the ending is both beautiful and heart wrenching at the same time.

The only misstep this game makes is giving you a hype pre-rendered cutscene before the final bossfight, only to dump you back into the overworld, give you your final traversal ability and basically tell you "go finish the game if you want".

Overall though, I truly recommend this game! Even if you're hesitant about turn-based gameplay, Expedition 33 might be the best recent title to tip your toes into turn-based combat. You'll come for the combat and the cool looking visuals and stay for the amazing story.

Metal Gear Solid is a true classic of the Stealth-Action genre.

You play the role of Solid Snake, making his way through a secret military base in Alaska to thwart a terrorist cell from launching a nuclear missile. The story takes quite a few twists and turns over the better half of 10 hours, as is customary by now for a Kojima game.

I'm genuienly surprised by how eminently playable this almost 30 year old game still is. There's many quirks that will take some getting used to - aiming in isometric fixed camera angles for example and gimmick boss fights - but overall the gameplay is fun. Figuring out what the game wants from you is rarely frustrating as you can always ask for hints by calling NPCs on the Codec.

All in all, I really reccommend this game!

Lost Judgement is the second entry in the Judgement series that takes place in the same universe as the mainline Yakuza games.

The strength of Judgement was a darker story and insanely acrobatic, fluid combat. Well, in Lost Judgement, RGG Studio has outdone themselves - three fighting styles (4 with DLC) and a story that's clever and dark.

Honestly, the combat might be the best in the series so far.

The side content this time around is fun and mostly concentrated into a large side story/investigation that spans the better part of the whole game and has some surprisingly good storytelling for a side story.

If you are even a cursory fan of Yakuza - get this game!

Flintlock: Siege of Dawn is a 3rd person Soulsesque action game on a budget. And boy, do they manage to stretch that budget for all it's worth.

While there is a hefty dose of jank, the combat feels nice and impactful. There's enough weapon variety to keep you going for the 12ish hours it takes to beat the game. However, around the 9-10h mark you will start noticing that most "new" enemies have the same (or very similar) moveset which is a little bit disappointing.

The traversal mechanics are really cool and give a nice sense of exploration to the game as well as being integrated into combat itself.

Unfortunately, the game is very badly optimized - played it on the Steam Deck at minimum settings and experienced screen tearing and frame stutters. There are more demanding games that have performed significantly better on the SD.

All in all, if you don't mind some jank and have a higher end rig, I highly recommend this game. It's good fun.

Metro: Last Light is the second game in the Metro series. It is an extremely atmospheric first person shooter with a strong story and solid mechanics.

This time around there are more weapons, more customization and a more reliable stealth system.

However, you should only get this game if you are in it for the story and the atmosphere. It's completely linear and there is an annoying amount of having to walk behind NPCs as the monologue at you.

On the whole though, I highly recommend this game, especially since it tends to go on sale often and I thourghouly enjoyed all 8ish hours of the campaign (play time is higher due to coming back to the game years later)

En Garde is a strange combination of Souls-Like parry heavy combat and Dark Messiah style enviornmental interaction with irreverant humour sprinkled on top.

The artstyle is really nice and the animations make fights super satisfying.

Unfortunately, the story part of the game is rather short - around 4.5h with several retrys on bosses. However, there is a robust arena mode which I see eating up some time between more story heavy games.

Overall, I really recommend this one!

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a classic cRPG with somewhat modern sentiments.

It follows the Pathfinder 1e ruleset (mostly) and does a pretty good job translating the ruleset to a video game.

However, the game is massively stilted. All the actual mechanics of the game (hit chances, buff stacking, character conditions, etc.) are obfuscated behind several layers of tool tips and "examine" functions. This leads to either 1) massively slowing down the game or 2) just whack-a-mole with no-one (player or enemy) hitting anything. If anyone has played at a pen-and-paper RPG table like this, then you know how frustrating (not to mention boring) this type of play is.

From the story side, as someone who has played TTRPGs (including Pathfinder) for close to 2 decades, Kingmaker reminds of a table where the DM has put massive effort into world building and forgotten to give the players anything meaningful to actually do. It's a sandbox in the worst possible way.

The ideas are there, but the execution is very VERY clunky and I can only recommend this to the truly hard core fans of Pathfinder.