Recent reviews by Orion

This game's clean and rather utilitarian presentation hides an insidious secret; LocalThunk has actually managed to synthesize crack-cocaine in the form of a digital card game. You WILL lose countless hours to it without even noticing the passage of time. It's that good.

This game could have been so much more. It *should* have been so much more. But it is woefully incomplete even with the 1.0 update. The dev basically took the money and ran.

This is a game, or really, a tool I never knew I needed. It's therapeutic, watching a world come alive and develop before your eyes. Fantasy Map Sim is in a very early state, though, so there's not too much depth to it yet. HOWEVER, the roadmap is very promising. I'm especially looking forward to custom races, world start states and initial expansion, and I hope to see features like the simulation of significant cultural events that can greatly alter a nation's course, as well as leaders! Not just political leaders, but cultural, criminal, spiritual and economic leaders. Characters can really make world feel more grounded and alive. If they could be done and interact with both the world and each other in dynamic ways, that would make this game a hell of a lot more interesting.

But even in its early state, I'd say Fantasy Map Sim is worth the cheap price, not just for watching the sim, but for making maps and developing history for original settings that you can use for yourself!

I really want to love Tekken 8. I do. And I don't regret the time I spent with it, there's a good game in there. But the game's emphasis on aggression over defense actually makes it harder and more stressful to get into. Too many ways to skip neutral, too many ways to force opponents into high-octane 50/50s where a wrong choice means half your health is just straight up gone.

But those are nothing compared to the ♥♥♥♥ Bandai Namco has been pulling *outside* of the mechanics. The surprise drop of a battle pass system after release, the glacial pace of updates and character additions, and balance being completely out of whack. There were like 7 Dragunovs in the top 10 bracket at EVO, and only a handful of the cast seen anywhere else. That is a pretty damning showcase of poor game balance. This is plain to see even in casual play as well. Quite a few characters like Leo, Asuka and Master Raven simply lack the tools they desperately need to keep up with the high rollers in the cast.

But the absolute worse thing to happen was actually at EVO this year, when they made a 40-50 minute presentation of their collaboration with Nike. That's right. They spent about an hour of time promoting nike shoes as customization options, ads on in-game stages as well as real world shoes made in collaboration with them. Never mind the fact that Nike is a company with a *horrendous* history of human rights violations that continue TO THIS DAY. I just can't believe they would throw their lot in with people like that. It's revolting.

The sheer emphasis they placed on this collaboration really shows what Harada, Michael Murray and the Bandai Namco brass' priorities are. And I've had enough of it. Don't support Tekken, period. It would take a massive shakeup in the team and the shedding of their ad partnerships for them to have even a chance of reentering my good graces, at least. I would very much recommend the same approach for you.

I'm sad about this one. Nebulous does a lot of interesting things with its tactical gameplay that other games haven't, which is cool. The problem is that in order to play this game effectively without a pause function (which you obviously won't have in multiplayer), you need to be a micro *machine.* Couple that with having to keep up and pull your weight for a team of real players and that's a recipe for serious stress among those who struggle with micro. While that's good for a certain type of player, it isn't personally for me.

But that's not what really bothers me about Nebulous. Just recently, the devs announced the cancellation of the game's Conquest mode development. They say they're taking a step back and looking at other options for SP, and it's obvious that they really didn't want to do this, but regardless, this is a massive blow to the game's lifespan. It's clear that the devs misstepped and prioritized the wrong fundamental building blocks of the game, even before release. Conquest should have been *the* focus from the start, *not* the multiplayer skirmishes. Even if it would've extended development time... it would've had more staying power. But now, there's no reason for people to invest in this game outside of doing basic skirmish battles with other people, over and over again.

Hate to say it, but Eridanus messed up. :(

The game's had a rough launch, with a lot of disconnects when trying to join a game, but that can be fixed. The game is also not particularly polished; there's a lot of misspellings in the UI, there's no weapon select when you start around (random only), and voice chat is very quiet for some reason. Also, movement feels a bit janky because of the camera shaking, but you can lower it in the options. Under all of that, however, is a stunningly good-looking game with seriously intense and impactful gunplay. I hope this game sees plenty more development, as well as the smoothing out of rough edges, because the fundamental base of the game is rock-solid.

To actually be serious among the meme-y reviews, this game is absolutely outstanding. The puzzles are incredibly well crafted and the sense of discovery is second-to-none. And the *visuals*, holy CRAP, is this game beautiful. All-in-all, Animal Well is a masterpiece among Metroidvanias.

Initially, I thought Dragon's Dogma 2 was a triumph. However, after several hours spent playing it, I feel that I have a much greater understanding of this game... and I'm conflicted, to say the least.

It feels like there's a great game in Dragon's Dogma 2. The massive and beautiful world, the combat and the pawn system are absolutely brilliant, just top-notch presentation with impressively emergent patches of gameplay. But I don't think it's enough to save it, not at this point. I'm not even talking about the optimization issues, which were quite severe indeed, but that, I can tolerate. No, what really got me was how the game's fundamental structure is marred by *MAJOR* problems brought about by, quite frankly, baffling development decisions.

The story has an interesting setup and the world seems well-realized... but the plot goes nowhere. It feels incomplete, impersonal and bland. The pawns, while they're very fun to use and travel with, still have the issue of talking way too much about nothing. They never shut up. Ever. It's just as bad as DD1. The inventory system also feels really clunky and there's almost no way to interact with NPCs outside of scripted conversations and, well, attacking them. There's no life to them.

These are not deal breaking issues, though. Dragon's Dogma has always thrived on its gameplay, which IS fantastic at its peaks, mind you. Combat is thrilling, dynamic and often unpredictable due to the physics system affecting how you and monsters are knocked back by attacks, the environment and spells. It feels much improved over Dragon's Dogma 1 for sure.

But there is one specific thing that has left a sour taste in my mouth after over 20 hours of play: the enemy variety, or rather, the lack of it. There really aren't that many kinds of enemies in the game, and you are going to end up fighting them over and over and OVER throughout your playthrough. Encounters are quite frequent on the road as well. Eventually, this will grate on you. And there are so few kinds of "big" boss enemies to be found as well. I've lost count of all the ogres, minotaurs and cyclopes I've carved through, regardless of the biome.

This game is easily around the size of Elden Ring with like a fifth of the enemy types. Maybe even less than that. I hate comparing it to that, and I know it's been over a decade since Dragon's Dogma 1 came out, but I mean... how am I supposed to retain my interest with such repetitive gameplay? Especially in a game that demands so much attention to detail and time, with *no fast travel* outside of expensive and rare ferrystones and highly limited oxcarts, so you have no choice but to face this onslaught of generic fights basically all the time, padding out your playtime by HOURS. It just boggles my mind.

I don't regret the time I spent with DD2. I loved it for what it was, but I can't bring myself to finish it until we get more monster variety and a complete story. It just doesn't feel good to play anymore and that saddens me. Here's hoping future updates will rectify that. It really hurts to not recommend this game at this time... it could've been so much more. It's like Itsuno learned next to nothing from the first entry.

A fantastic adaptation of Pathfinder 2e's combat rules into a digital format. The game's not a true CRPG, not really; it's a bunch of combat scenarios connected by a plot with planning in between. The story really isn't anything to write home about either, and the voice acting... well, it isn't great. Apologies to the voice actors though, I'm sure they had a lot of fun!

No, the game purely shines through its mechanics, and is an excellent showcase of just how brilliant Pathfinder 2e's combat system really is. Each scenario is a unique tactical challenge requiring solid positioning and planning, and make no mistake, it can be surprisingly easy to lose if you don't pay attention despite the light-hearted presentation. The three action system is simple yet elegant, offering plenty of significant tactical options while forcing you to take their costs into consideration. Even the smallest five-foot step can make a difference when you're engaged with an opponent in melee, as it forces them to take an action to catch back up to you. Every decision counts, especially on the higher difficulties.

All in all, it's Pathfinder, nothing more, nothing less. I hope we see a lot more of it in the future.

Once again, RE4 has become the pinnacle of the Resident Evil franchise. The game is a staggeringly fun and fully complete experience from beginning to end.