Recent reviews by GaseousCrushEsq

Everything positive that can be said about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has already been said. This is an incredible RPG that simultaneously wears its influences on its sleeve while confidently doing its own thing, especially the breathtaking art direction and visual style. The story and narrative are also captivating. There is a real mystery here and information is revealed without relying too heavily on exposition. I really appreciate how charming and likable all the characters are.

My only minor gripe with the game is that the attribute point system is somewhat useless and unbalanced.

Reignbreaker is a very stylish action rogue-like with an edgy, graffiti-clad art direction that blends medieval and industrial imagery. Like many action rogue-likes in a post-Hades world, Reignbreaker wears its inspirations on its sleeve. Unfortunately, this invites comparison and Reignbreaker runs into a bit of a style over substance problem.

Here, the offering is much lighter than many of its peers. The combat is very simple and a bit one note since there is really only one weapon available to you with some customizability coming from modifiers that change DPS, AoE, and sometimes status effects. The limited options can make player expression pretty limited, but combat is serviceable. I still enjoyed discovering new javelins (the main weapon in the game) and experimenting with the different modifiers. Perhaps my biggest gripe with the gameplay is the poor hit feedback. It just doesn’t feel very good to hit enemies and it isn’t always obvious when you are dealing damage. I would just wail on bosses or spongier enemies and wouldn’t really know when they were defeated until the execution prompt popped up. It’s somewhat unsatisfying.

With respect to story and narrative, Reignbreaker is really light on that front. Dying during a run does not play into the narrative structure or lead to new revelations. The writing and voice acting are decent, though a bit spotty at times. Given that the game is working with a pretty stripped-down story, I did appreciate that it mostly opted for lighter dialogue. A larger world and its history are alluded to, but the game does not bog you down with unnecessary exposition. Enemy design is also interesting and sufficiently varied given the smaller scope of this game. However, environments are very samey both visually and in terms of layout.

Fortunately, Reignbreaker is a quick and breezy game. I completed my first run, defeating the final boss, at about the 10-hour mark and came across others who got there much sooner. Each run is quite short, taking roughly 20 minutes. All in all, Reignbreaker is reasonably priced for what it is. For $9.99, you get an action rogue-like with a lot of style and serviceable gameplay. Sure, Reingbreaker doesn’t do much to shake up the action rogue-like genre, but it is priced to reflect what it is: a lean yet fun experience.

Minishoot’ Adventures is a blast. The two-person studio behind it brilliantly marries old-school Legend of Zelda exploration with twin stick shooter gameplay—and it works exceedingly well. I’m not sure what sorcery they used here to pull off relaxing exploration with intense bullet hell.

Minishoot’ Adventures’ gameplay is fluid and its controls are very responsive. Each ability unlocked is meaningful but the game remains consistently challenging and rewarding, particularly the boss encounters. It doesn’t hurt that the game has a pleasant and dreamlike visual style. The sound design may be overlooked but deserves a lot of praise. I’m having a difficult time describing it but it’s charming and scratches an itch in my brain.

I highly recommend Minishoot’ Adventures and hope it inspires copycats.

[REDACTED] is a refreshing take on the action roguelike genre. The rival system encourages players to move through levels quickly, rewarding a snappy and more high-risk play style. I can see that alienating some players, but I liked that the game put pressure on me and forced me to rush at times. Although each rival has their own personality, I found that I didn’t have to change up my strategy when dealing with them.

The gameplay itself is a bit like a Hades-lite. [REDACTED] presents itself with a similar isometric view as Hades, but generally expects less precision from players. The enemies in [REDACTED] are also slower and easier to manage (at least in my opinion). The enemy variety is nice, though, and each of the biomes presents their own enemy types. I recommend playing this one with a controller.

I appreciate roguelikes with lower runtimes. Runs in [REDACTED] take roughly 30 to 35 minutes, but as you become more familiar with enemy behavior and unlock better skills, runs can easily take 20 to 25 minutes. In fact, after I cleared a run or two, and especially after I unlocked some of the higher impact skills, the game felt a bit too easy, even when I bumped up the difficulty.

Overall, [REDACTED] is stylish and refreshing. It offers enough variety and doesn’t overstay its welcome. I recommend checking it out, especially given its reasonable price.

Battle Shapers is a fun but imperfect game. It’s Doom with a Mega Man paintjob, delivered in a roguelite package. The gameplay is snappy and responsive; the pulsing soundtrack pushes you to play aggressively; and I liked the stylized, cartoonish design of the characters and environments.

Where the game falls short is the lack of variety. While enemy variety is passable, I do wish there were more unique enemies for each of the different areas. Every combat encounter takes place in an arena, but there are not enough room layouts in the rotation to encourage the player to adopt new strategies. There are also only four bosses. Taken together, each run more or less plays out the same way. Although Battle Shapers offers players many different weapons, upgrades, and skills, once you find the most efficient build—high rate of fire with stacking elemental effects—there is little incentive to experiment.

To top that all off, a single run can easily take over an hour. At higher difficulties, they can take even longer. I put in about 35 hours to get all 51 of the currently available achievements and the last 5 to 8 hours were no longer very enjoyable. If you are just looking to complete Battle Shaper’s story (as in get the “true” ending), you could probably do that in about 20 to 25 hours.

At this point, you’re probably checking again to see if this is really a “recommended” review. I do recommend this Battle Shapers despite its shortcomings. I bought it when it was on sale for $17.49. I do think it is still a good value at its full price of $25.00. However, Battle Shapers is also competing with the likes of Roboquest and Deadlink. Both play pretty similarly and have their own unique visual style but provide significantly more variety. Battle Shapers is worth checking out, but you will likely enjoy other first-person roguelites more.