Recent reviews by Firel

Help me

The tutorial ended in about 20 minutes.
Within about 3 hours, I worked out a build where my pyromancer repeatedly blew themselves up to the benefit of the banshee possessing them. The banshee was, in fact, another party member. Watching the pyromancer blow themselves up repeatedly made the banshee so upset, they started screaming even louder than they already were. Everyone else just plugged their ears and ignored them while heavy metal was playing over the amp. The blacksmith, ever the enabler, just put the pyromancer *more* on fire, while the knight and the priestess where flustering over eachother.

Yeah. Play it.

Octopath Traveler II is a wonderful lesson in making JRPGs for everyone, not only in terms of their battle system and evenly metered out challenge, but in how to make a story such that it can be followed in snippets without demanding the player sit through every hour of cutscenes to understand it.

Starting with the gameplay:
It's a weakness-break system where enemies will often have a wide collection of damage types that are effective against them. For your part, you get BP almost every turn, which can be used to empower your attacks and spells, or raise the number of strikes. BP can be used regularly to keep buffs going and keep pumping effects, or saved for a devastating blow for after you break the enemy and do massive amounts of crunchy damage at once. I'm not actually the biggest fan of weakness-break systems, with a single notable exception of CrossCode, which this game hits all the same tingly patterns of in a turn-based format. Rather than being some slog grindfest to break an enemy like Final Fantasy XIII, however, with proper planning and strategy you can break an enemy in as little as one turn- or if you're particularly clever, just one action.

Effects in this game appear relatively tame in a vacuum- however, as mechanics collect and collide, it quickly becomes apparent that a lot of characters' effects synergize with this game's mechanics in such a way where every character is, individually, very valuable to have. With 12 Jobs to choose from, characters can take a wide variety of roles. Add this to the fact that each character can in fact have two jobs- though, some forbid overlap- and you already get a bubbling cauldron. Add to that, each characters' ultimate abilities will often change the effects of attacks. Get cooking, and before long, your Cleric becomes an instant breaker, or waves upon waves of enemies break upon your Dancer's stride. Relegating your typical supportive characters to support here as intuition might guide isn't so much a mistake as it is a poor decision- you'll do fine without theorizing, but the game very clearly intends for you to plan and put together mechanics in this way.

How about the story?
The story is... Well, mostly forgettable. What I will say is, while the stories themselves aren't terribly significant, the characters are wonderfully written and characterized, even when separate from their own stories. All eight paths entwine as one- you may believe you've seen a majority of what the game has to offer by the time you start finishing the content of the primary stories, but by finishing every story on the map, new content unlocks- so don't let perceived scarcity dissuade you. On that note, the story itself is rather... Flat. It's a stereotypical tale of a band of adventurers chosen by the Gods to save the day, which is nothing special on the wider scale- but each characters' individual journeys are full of their own charm, save a select couple that I have some problems with, such as failing to actually have the character grow very much from the beginning of their journey to having a couple of moments that feel like a rug pull for rug pulling's sake. Does that reduce my opinion of the game? No, not at all, as I don't believe an experience needs to be perfect to be good. A great majority of the characters have wonderful stories, meaningful development, and truly heartfelt and heart-wrenching moments to be had.

Alright, then, the nitty-gritty: Who likes this game? What kind of mutant?
I'll admit that, at first, while I enjoyed the game it hadn't really clicked with me until about 2 1/2 stories in, when I found a niche of the game I fully invested to, to the point that it shaped the rest of my entire playthrough right up to the final boss. That's where this game lies. For the lovers of synergy, masters of strategy, and the kind of player that enjoys turning a battle into a puzzle, this game is absolutely for you. The game is paced such that grinding is a non-issue, as if you're feeling a little underpowered you can hop over to another character's story at a point where gathering XP is reasonable again. This can result in your last few characters being relatively underleveled by the time their stories are done, but there's more content to round out that problem without issue for the conscious player. Even so, strategy and good equipment will get you leagues further than any amount of grinding will in this game, which I firmly endorse. You will have to actually get good at this game and its systems to beat it, and I'm very happy to say this full-chestedly.

Worth the money?
In my opinion? Yes. I'd jump right on it if it goes on sale, but even at full price, the experience is worth every dollar. Especially in this market...
There were few moments in this game where I felt bored and couldn't do anything about it. Every cutscene can be skipped if you're losing interest in that character, and every fight has a myriad of solutions so you can find one that works for you. Having beaten the game once already, I plan another two, maybe even three playthroughs just because it appears that endings and interactions vary on what character you choose to engage with first. If I have any criticism, it's the lack of a NG+, so far as I can tell- but if I'm just dense or jumping the gun on that discernment, please feel free to correct me in the comments. Get this game. It's amazing. From someone very mechanically minded, consider this a high praise.

If I allowed myself to play more of this game, I would never play anything else.

Bullet Heavens have a bit of a stigma of having shallow, empty gameplay loops.

Many, many of these BHs leave out what makes Vampire Survivors so great:
It's not so much about the 'survivors' part after a while, here. There are many easter eggs, many secrets
to find and uncover, mechanics to understand and exploit.

I've played quite a lot of BHs at this point, and none of them compare to the sheer depth of Vampire Survivors. And for that price, how could you not try the original article?

Caves of Qud is evocative of the RPGs of old, such as Wasteland, Ultima, and others that spearheaded and popularized the concept of a tile-based RPG world. What the classics lack in lore, interaction, and mechanics, Caves of Qud provides tenfold as you explore its salt flats, jungles, and ancient ruins for the lost technology of the Eaters as you try to find your place in the world, with the Spindle looming in the sky...

GAMEPLAY:

Caves of Qud is, primarily a classic roguelike and provides no permanent progression besides your own, personal learning moments. There is, however, "Classic" mode, which lets you save at towns as checkpoints, creating a state you return to upon death, allowing you to treat it like a more traditional RPG. I'd reccomend it for starting out, because Caves of Qud has very little in the way of any tutorial, and you will die. A lot. It's considered part of the experience for new players. Thankfully, starting a new run is usually quick and painless.


Caves of Qud features two primary races, Mutants and True Kin, which radically change how you play the game and interact with the world. Mutants can obtain unique Mutations that can grant them either physical prowess in the form of many limbs, accessory organs, and metallic claws, or mental mastery with psionic powers so potent, ancient beings take notice. True Kin cannot mutate, but have access to cybernetic augmentations, like replacing their legs with tank treads, metal woven with their skin, and having a ground-penetrating radar from which nothing can hide. Mutants and True Kin are natively at odds, with Mutants having to deal with the Putus Templar, an elite order of True Kin knights who stop at nothing to 'cleanse the world'.


Caves of Qud's gameplay takes place in a tile-based grid made of many "Parasangs", which is a tile-length on the world map. The number pad gives you 8-directional movement, but the arrow keys may also be used with a modification key to go diagonal. The main gameplay loop has you exploring the world and conquering "Historical Sites", ancient ruins left behind by "The Sultanate", a civilization from long past, while trying to survive Qud's native dangers, like hyena-men, flying snakes, goatmen, killer robots, and powerful mutants and psychics. Each Historical Site plays host to a Relic, a piece of equipment which grants unique benefits no artisan of the post-apocalyptic age can produce, ranging from simple stat ups to armor ignoring and even turning those struck into valuable gems. Historical Sites are randomly generated, and must be discovered by questioning people for secrets, reading ancient engravings, and filtering through the rubbish of the past to find clues to their location.


Caves of Qud's controls can be difficult to learn, at first. The game is played primarily with both hands on the keyboard, the left hand occupying the space nearest WASD and the shift, alt, and control keys, and your right hand either on the num pad or arrow keys. There are many, many ways to interact with the environment, and this is only expanded upon further by the many abilities you can acquire as either a Mutant or True Kin. To supplement this, abilities may be given a keybind at your discretion, and can take modifier keys, from Shift, Alt, and Control. This means a wide array of controls are possible, and it may be overwhelming at first. This is mostly mitigated by the slow acquisition of new abilities and the fact you bind them yourself, but there are still many other functions, such as (C)hatting, (T)hrowing, and (F)iring your weapon which are never really explained and require you to review the keybind menu to find.

All in all, this results in Qud being a very tedious and even sometimes frustrating game to learn, but after 5 or 6 hours things become much, much more fluid, and you can display mastery over the entire keyboard as your character is at your command.


As mentioned previously, interacting the world is very verbose. Almost every type of object has unique methods of interaction, from descending stairs and climbing ladders to stopping to smell the (probably explosive) roses and pet a friendly cat. This verbose interaction system is further complicated by both ambient and personal temperatures for the area and every tile (and its occupants) in the map. Sufficient heat will turn slate walls into magma, and you can freeze pools of liquid salt for makeshift walls.

This system is incredibly rewarding to learn and master, but can be frustrating when encountering unforeseen circumstances, such as walls containing lava and wires, water boiling under your feet such that you die to the heat of its steam, and explosions knocking you into a wall, stunlocking you. The world is as strong as you are, and it's very unforgiving.


Personally, I think this game is a blast. Being raised around classic RPGs, I was able to quickly adjust and appreciate the extended mechanics of the game, and even still I have so many new builds, discoveries, and moments of sublime comedy. The game's characters, while not emphasized in this review, are all unique and interesting, with their own relations, and quirks, and ALL of them, with exceptions to automata, may be recruited to your cause. I've spent about 850 hours at the time of this review and it looks like I may be ready to spend 850 more. On top of that, this game's extensive modding community expands and aids the game, even providing things like a real, comprehensive tutorial to the game's many mechanics.

This is a solid 8/10 to me, before release. The new player experience can be confusing and frustrating, and "Just spend more time playing" isn't a defense for a game. If you can't make the experience enjoyable (Or, in this case, even comprehensible) in the first two hours, you're wasting players' time. Would these tutorial issues be resolved by Freehold this game would be a very easy 10/10, and the crown jewel of my games collection.

I've played many, many roguelites, and this game is the grindiest of them all. So grindy it is, I'd hesitate to call it a rogue-anything. It certainly has a randomly-generated layout of a few rooms each floor, sure, but getting past the second stage, even after several hours of play, is just statistically ridiculous. I managed to beat the first boss on my very first run after a 10-minute long battle, and immediately died when I finally reached the second area. I've been able to consistently beat this boss, but just don't do the damage to reliably clear rooms on the next floor, and I don't feel like I can be bothered to grind to see what's up next because the combat has near-zero skill expression, with only a jump, a melee attack, and a basic throw, which can sometimes be modified by relics you find along the way, but never (in my experience) in a way that improves skill expression, and usually just straight stat upgrades.

If you enjoy roguelites like Hades or Dead Cells, this game isn't for you.

When I first saw this game, I was very skeptical. I'd seen a lot of things inspired by SNES titles like the SNES Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger, and most of them fell flat on their face. As a result, I basically ignored this game for a very long time- But, one day, I saw it on sale for cheap. So of course, I gave it a shot.

Now, I regret buying it on sale; almost feels like I stole right from the developers. This game is so, so much better than I thought it would be.

This game has impeccable writing, amazing (and accessible!) gameplay, and I cannot overstate, one of the best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stories for the genre I've seen written in a very, very long time. I am the kind of player that actively seeks deep, enriching, and difficult mechanics in a game- think the likes of Noita, The Binding of Isaac, and so forth- while rarely giving consideration to the story, as I've never really enjoyed them much, not since I was a child.
This game. Brought me to tears.

No number scale can rate this game, and no esoteric scale can measure it. The gameplay is fun and fast-paced, the story is one of the best I've seen out of generations of both indie and triple-A development, and the mechanics are so incredibly deep that even the speedrunning glitches are reminiscent of SNES titles.

You can pet the dog symbol.

After swimming for 20 minutes, standing in front of 3 goblins with a shield out for so long their weapons broke, causing a rave in a rat-infested dungeon for the sake of training my magic, and making so many bear traps that the sound of them all snapping at once becomes white noise, I can safely say I enjoy this game.

Don't play this game if you aren't ready for a frustrating experience to begin with. *Everything* has an indicator and a way to handle it, but it'll take you time to figure that out. There's a reason so many people complain about the boulders.

Also, your first few runs of this game may take over two, sometimes even three or four hours if you're not familiar with how the game's systems work. Make use of the save and quit function and take breaks if you start getting weary of the dungeon- a fresh mind is key!