Recent reviews by Pyetech

Axiom Verge can be thought of as sort of a Bizarro World Super Metroid, because while it's obviously directly inspired by Super Metroid, it goes out of its way to be as different as possible. It continually subverses your expectations, in story but even more notably in upgrade design. The array of unique upgrades distinguishes Axiom Verge in a genre that struggles to move forward. In fact, so many ways are provided to approach obstacles, that I found myself occasionally missing solutions at first.

The graphics could stand to have their resolution doubled, but I understand Axiom Verge was (very impressively) created by a single person. The game boasts a large compliment of weapons to use, and while most of them have their niche, I could rarely be bothered switching between them. The system would have made more sense in a more tactical, slow-moving game.

The story is interesting and unobtrusive, but somewhat opaque. The save points are generous, which is a good design decision. I can't comment too much on the difficulty because I got stuck during the second half of the game, and ended up somewhat exhaustively finding health/power upgrade secrets while trying to figure out how to progress.

Gorgeous visuals and versatile movement mechanics help Ori and the Blind Forest stand out from the pack, but otherwise, it's standard Metroidvania fare. "Dungeons" and an NPC companion give it a dash of Zelda, and the periodic escape sequences are reminiscent of Rayman Origins/Legends.

Secrets are dense and rewarding, at least until lategame, but (with one exception in the Definitive Edition) don't expect to uncover whole secret areas. At times, the game can feel a bit linear for a Metroidvania, possibly so it can accommodate story elements (which are decent). Giving the player a helpful NPC companion prevents the feelings of isolation and disorientation common in the genre, which is fine, but if it decides to go that route, it should also populate its world with more NPCs to engage with.

The combat is nothing spectacular, since aiming is automatic, but the game understands this and makes up for it with heavy platforming. Still, there's a conspicuous lack of large bosses to fight, which seems like a strange design decision.

Ori and the Blind Forest felt short with only three dungeons (with Mount Horu having the best design, in my opinion), but it also seems like it'd be a fun game to speedrun because there is a lot of freedom of movement.

The Metroidvania genre has plateaued a bit since Super Metroid defined it all the way back in 1994. Ori and the Blind Forest adds a couple new (and fun) movement mechanics, but it lacks an experimental hook. I would recommend Hollow Knight over this game, even though Hollow Knight is less technically proficient.

I'm going to have to write this review with the assumption that you know this game was the subject of an ARG and contains Frog Fractions 2. If you stumbled upon this game in the Steam discovery queue and think you might want to play through it blind, read no further. I give it a weak thumbs up, but try to get it on sale.

Ok, now that that's out of the way...Frog Fractions 2 is delightfully weird, but the inclusion of an overworld means it's less focused than its predecessor (which is more accessible for people unfamiliar with the series).

Glittermitten Grove begins with a fairy-themed building simulator of sorts, which is mildly amusing but without any sort of endgame. Not to worry, though, because after an hour or two, you'll find yourself transported into "TXT World", never to return. TXT World--really, Frog Fractions 2--is an adventure/puzzler created using ASCII art, and serves as a hub for a handful of bizarre minigames.

Most of the minigames aren't really fun in a traditional sense, but they are interesting and experimental, which I appreciate. Usually you'll play a round or two of them and then you're thrown back into TXT World. The minigames in Frog Fractions 1 generally dealt with the same topic (frogs, dragons, and I guess fractions), but the ones in this game are disparate.

TXT World itself does a couple of interesting and humorous things, but it overstays its welcome and becomes tedious if you get stuck. The exploration shares minor similarities with Anodyne, but Anodyne handles it far better.

tl;dr: it's ok as an experience, but play the Frog Fractions 1 for free online first if you haven't already.

Salt and Sanctuary is a Dark Souls knockoff, and I'd only really recommend it to fans who have consumed everything else. But it's also very clearly a labor of love.

For some perspective, I have beaten Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1-3, and think they are all phenomenal.

I almost quit Salt and Sanctuary halfway through, when I was stuck on a boss that seemed unfair. My impression up until that point was that the game was more frustrating than Dark Souls. I looked online for some tips, and learned about offerings...being able to warp around was nice, but transmuting my first boss weapon changed everything. Those weapons are leaps and bounds better than anything I had come across up to that point, and I never truly got stuck on a boss after that (most became downright easy). I played through the game two-handing my weapons and wearing light armor.

Combat animations are pretty janky, and even moreso than in Dark Souls, you're looking at slow windups and near-instant attacks. Because it's a 2D game, bosses will flip the direction they're facing instantly, so your positioning relative to the boss is less important.

Being in 2D also means that you can't rotate the camera to view something outside your immediate vicinity. In Dark Souls, this makes up for the lack of a map, but not here. It doesn't help that many environments in Salt and Sanctuary are similar-looking (and the art style is not great in general). While the map is large and very interconnected, there's no hub, and there's rarely a reason to go back to a place you've already explored.

I know unexplained statistics are a hallmark of the Dark Souls games, but it would be nice to not have to read a wiki to determine how to light my torch, or what equipment weight I should be using.

I went back and forth on it, but I decided I'm going to give Salt and Sanctuary a thumbs up.

Does a 2D Dark Souls Super Metroid sound good to you? Enter Hollow Knight.

The game is close to perfect. The mysterious atmosphere is there, the combat is pretty tight, and there are secrets all over the place. The amount of content in Hollow Knight is impressive, and due to the map mechanics, the sense of exploration when discovering that content is very real.

I feel like I should comment on the difficulty, because it seemed somewhat inconsistent. I should note that I'm a completionist and that I missed a crucial ability (picking it up way later than intended), so maybe that colored my experience. But I found some of the main quest bosses to be on the easy side, where I'd show up and tank my way through them on the first try. The optional bosses, as well as the lategame bosses, were more difficult, and a couple gave me that gamer's high after I beat them, as if I had finally downed a difficult Dark Souls boss. I never unintentionally lost my souls by dying before I could collect my shade...I guess that's a consequence of the rather forgiving healing system.

The free DLC has not been anything that exceptional, but I don't care because the base game has so much optional content already in it.

I'm not singing Hollow Knight's praises enough. Seriously, is it the best game ever to come out of a Kickstarter? I wish I could go back in time and help fund it.

What is this doing on Steam? Even if you think nonlinear storytelling is the greatest thing in the world, be aware that it'll take you 15 minutes to finish and there's no real gameplay.

Mildly interesting, but you might as well just watch somebody else play through it. The game is structured such that it restarts until you've exhaustively explored the outcomes of all possible choices in the game, so there's really not much actual choice to be had outside of your first or second playthrough (and that will take half an hour at most).

Good, but not great. The movement is an absolute pleasure, and there is a lot to like about the varied level design and memorable scenarios. I would say the difficulty is about right, especially because there are obvious ways for speedrunners to challenge themselves.

Two design decisions stood out to me as a step backwards, however:

• The game's currency ("Pons") are unlimited and respawn, diminishing their value as collectables. I think most people would agree that collecting music notes in Banjo-Kazooie is far more satisfying than collecting coins or star bits in a Mario game.
  
  
• Like in the 3D Mario games, most worlds are divided into missions, and some collectables are only reachable in certain missions. I much prefer the more open-world design of Banjo-Kazooie or Yooka-Laylee levels.

One of the later hats trivializes boss fights. What were they thinking when they created that?

A Hat in Time felt short to me with its four worlds, even though I collected all 40 Time Pieces. Apparently two more worlds will be added as DLC, and the planned modding support has huge potential.

Emotionally charged games usually fail to grip me, but the writing in To the Moon is too poignant to brush off, particularly when paired with the memorable but bittersweet soundtrack.

RPG Maker should not be the engine of choice for any game nowadays, but here it's serviceable. To the Moon is very linear and dialogue-heavy, but segments of gameplay appear often enough that it still feels like a game.

This game's central theme is regret, but I don't regret playing it.

Be aware what you're getting into. Some people would say this barely qualifies as a game.

TIS-100 is a series of programming challenges using a deliberately limited interface and assembly language. You will find yourself wishing for the ability to declare another variable or write a simple for loop.

Story elements are minimal--a short, unrelated diary entry is present in each puzzle, and that's it. Don't expect to uncover a mystery naturally.

People unfamiliar with programming will likely have an extremely difficult time. People familiar with programming have more productive things they could be doing in languages that don't go out of their way to be as user-unfriendly as possible.