Recent reviews by anti-magic

As every other review has said, the grappling is pretty solid and feels great when you get into the groove; the only real issue is that each section where a new mechanic is introduced (or combined with an older one) lasts like a screen or two too long so it can get a little repetitive and irritating.

Unfortunately those platforming sections are bookended by some of the most godawful, 2000's anime style dialogue that lasts far, far too long. There is the seed of an interesting story buried underneath it all but the characters seem to do everything in their power to un-endear themselves to you. And then the twist(s) just make you even less invested in them.

Bit of a bummer considering how nice the platforming mostly feels, hopefully they find a better story to go with it next time.

250+ ping due to a complete lack of OCE / SEA servers makes this virtually unplayable.

The overall idea and base gameplay is pretty fun; aim guns, bounce bullets, get loot.

Everything else manages to fiercely bog this down and make it an unfun mess from top to bottom. Aiming assumes that the robots breathe and becomes a tedious minigame unto itself, further made obnoxious because the only guns worth attempting bullet bounces with have laser sights.

A lot of the missions are fine and enjoyable but every single gimmick mission is never fun: solo missions (aka always take the bot with the kill shot ability), survival/ambush!, level filled with explosive/goo barrels! Rather than interesting level design, it's all about what stupid garbage they can shove in your face and make the entire thing a slog.

Also the plot/dialogue is somewhat endearing but utterly pointless.

Valhalla is a visual novel where no one actually talks like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ human being. A normal human to be specific; the majority of dialogue is entirely interchangeable between the characters because they all speak like a person trying far too hard to be wacky, zany and/or quirky. They use childish insults like jerkwad, giggle incessantly at lame sexual innuendos that they repeat ad nauseum and then talk loudly about actual sexual acts to get attention. They are the people in every university anime club that has and ever will exist.

I never went back after the first meeting. Perhaps I should thank them for being so obnoxious.

I am getting off topic, the dialogue is legitimately awful for most of the game and outside of a couple of bad stereotypes that have zero depth, each character has roughly the same voice. The underage sex bot is pretty gross too and extremely unfunny and unsympathetic. Bad shock value I guess? She does have one chunk of dialogue which is vaguely insightful but it's completely undercut by everything she says and does up to that point, a complete 180 on her atrocious character design.

All of the aforementioned is unfortunate because the main thrust of the story, that of the main character Jill is actually solid and relatable. It's handled decently, although it does get a touch melodramatic and the dialogue veers off into just awful territory undercutting the emotional significance and gravitas, but it still works because it is not an issue bound to its setting.

The rest of the side stories were honestly forgettable; some had run of the mill problems and others were stupidly outlandish and a bit too anime. Again, the dialogue makes everyone unsympathetic and it's hard to give a ♥♥♥♥.

The actual gameplay is really fun though with the drink mixing mini-game essentially acting as a dialogue choice in a way of speaking; the right drinks keep things going and improve relationships, certain drinks at certain times can unlock unique dialogue as can getting the patron extremely drunk. It's fantastic and innovative but kind of wasted on the cast.

If you're interested in trying a unique visual novel it is worth a shot, but if the dialogue starts to grate on you just quit because it does not get any better.

I think nearly everyone has come to same conclusion: fun for the first hour or two, then you realise everything is an obnoxious bullet sponge and oath/weapon/item/miracle upgrade progression is locked behind an insane amount of grinding.

At it's simplest the gameplay boils down to holding down fire while dodging: it feels genuinely smooth and fun while looking great. Things do get appropriately more difficult at a reasonable clip but once enemies start casting their own spells and flinging homing or lock on attacks, it starts to get tiresome and frustrating. The line between challenging and "I think this enemy is casting spells on top/under me but can't tell, oh god I am already dead" is very fine indeed.

Even if the gameplay wasn't quite so frustrating, the humungous grind for minimal benefits (the incremental differences between levels in oathss is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ miniscule: ~1-2% for a significant resource investment) makes you wonder about the point of replaying Seraph.

Really disappointing game overall and I cannot recommend this to anyone instead of a good metroidvania (Strider, Axiom Verge), or if they want replayability a decent roguelike (Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain).

Lords of Xulima is banking heavily on a demographic who are nostalgic for the games it pays homage to and does so at the exclusion of any one else. Without nitpicking about the lack of interesting abilities at your disposal, and in the case of melee fighters the lack of power points to actually employ them, the game is a frustrating slog for far longer than it has any right to be.

You will be mashing the quick load/save buttons constantly in both dungeons and those areas in the overworld that are rife with random encounters.

Perhaps I was at the precipice that the game finally starts to grant you some decent AoE offensive/healing abilities to make combat less tedious but I wasn't in the mood to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ about by the RNG for another million rounds.

A little hamfisted in it's execution and dialogue but overall it is an extremely compelling, well presented game. Plus it's like an hour long so there's nothing to really lose.

Having thrown myself against this game twice now I think it's safe to say it is not my cup of tea and while it is incredibly gauche to make comparisons, the most glaring flaw is that Pillars of Eternity isn't Baldur's Gate. Or even Neverwinter Nights for that matter.

The "D&D but not" RPG system just feels so incredibly awkward in every single facet: the attributes are all jumbled up and different, there are a plethora of status effects that overlap but are often ineffectual and the spells/abilities are familiar but slightly shifted in some manner. The endurance/health system is garbage and seems to exist solely to justify enemies doing absurd damage because technically you have health that you can heal into. Just let them have 400 health and having healing act normally, there's nothing unique or useful about the endurance system.

It's unfortunate that the gameplay and combat are so god awful because the worldbuilding and side characters are at least intriguing. The story isn't anything new but it's serviceable and works for the intention of establishing a new IP.

If they didn't try so hard to make an alternate gaming system this could have been a decent game.

What starts as a fun, shooty ships game with only one collectible to worry about, quickly degenerates once the game introducing the telepod and you end up with sprawling levels, back tracking to hit switches in the correct order and get all the collectibles or just be able to finish the level.

Also there is a point system (given based on how well you accomplish three parameters: time, score and survivors collected) that will gate you off from later levels. I never ran into problems with this but I can see it potentially being a hassle later on.

The controls are tight, fun and intuitive at least so if you have the patience to grind this one out it isn't entirely terrible.

Unfortunately Rollers of the Realm is hoisted by it's own gimmick: the idea that you have a variety of ball types (based on RPG classes) with their own stats and abilities for dealing with enemies, obstacles or terrain is cute but very quickly gets tiring once the appropriately gimmick based "tables" come into play. Bosses are guilty of this, particularly the last one because it is an extremely long level with some awful design decisions.

Honestly if you have it and want to give it a good go, put it on casual because then at least you won't have to worry about grinding up to a decent level and to buy equipment. Also it becomes a lot shorter and more tolerable. There is an arena mode but after the story mode it just seems pointless.