Recent reviews by Aulayna

Friendship simulator for people like myself who have no friends.

Also has a solid murder mystery and RPG system tacked on top of it.

TL;DR: Tales of Arise is fairly captivating JRPG juxtaposing complex topics such as fascism onto the forming of individual bonds against the odds. Carried by a visually spectacular combat system, there's a lot to dig into if you don't mind the occasional over-the-top anime-ness of it all.

---------------------

While the storyline is largely predictable for the most part (barring a few late-game revelations) due to being quite heavy on anime-tropes, it's enticing enough to make you want to keep going from area to area. The individual parts of the story and side-stories do feel rather disjointed though, depending on when in the game you experience certain skits or complete certain subquests - the character interactions will be jarringly different to how they are at that point in the story. For subquests this is kind of understandable, but for skits - especially when camping - it's just downright immersion breaking at times. Thankfully, in the parts where the narrative does begin to lose steam, the deceptively simple yet addictive combat system will carry the weight.

Each character has its own distinctive playstyle though it is a shame that the game tries to force you into playing Alphen (the protagonist) for much of its early hours, but once you've got some new Artes (abilities) under your belt and the game opens up - switching between characters can breathe a real breath of fresh air into the combat and open up new synergies and strategies that the AI never really utilises very well (especially compared to previous Tales games) when left to its own devices.

That being said, the game does suffer from a lack of enemy types. Each new zone will basically see you fighting re-colours of the same monsters that will just have more HP, hit slightly harder, and have some new gimmick that you have to use your newest party member to counter. The exceptions to this rule are bosses and optional bosses, which can be both a joy and an absolute frustration to do battle with. In larger boss fights especially, the camera can have a very hard time keeping up with what's going on and AI controlled party members just chump everything. This latter point is one of the weaker parts of the combat system, that switching between party members on the fly really is cumbersome - especially if you haven't altered their loads-out in a while too.

For all its faults though, combat is a visual spectacle of glorious looking spell-effects and chaining them together and hitting weak spots for massive damage generally feels satisfying.

As with most Tales games, the soundtrack is serviceable with a handful of memorable themes here and there but for the most part is largely forgettable or at times, frankly, overbearing. It is a bit jarring that early in the game you're exploring a barren desert yet the music is a vocal choir belting it out as if you're fighting a dragon in Skyrim, when all you're doing is picking flowers. Likewise during some cutscenes the voice acting is drowned out by excessively dramatic music. However, on the few occasions when the soundtrack does hit the right notes - the music can be utterly sublime.

Overall Tales of Arise is a game that should satisfy any JRPG fan. While there's little that it really smashes out of the ballpark, the majority of it is a slick and polished package that will give you at least 40 hours of fun. It's a solid foundation for the next 25 years of Tales titles, and if the next game fixes the few flaws that Arise has, it will be a banger. That's not to devalue Arise in the slightest though, it's definitely a title that's worth a look.

Bad when it came out. Still bad now.

Saying a mod makes it better doesn't change the fact that the base game is bad.

The one good thing I can say about this game is that it's the game that got me to stop pre-ordering games.

I have low play-time on the Steam version as it was an account I created to Recruit-A-Friend myself and level with some friends. On my main account I have over 1 year in /playtime.

FFXIV is an MMORPG that has a fantastic storyline rivalling (and even surpassing) many of the single-player Final Fantasy games, however it is also a story that demands investment from the player to get the most out of it. Even the seemingly most benign of NPCs you meet in A Realm Reborn can become a major player further down the road. It's a heck of a ride, with in-game cutscenes that really put WoW's to shame.

Combat is fairly bread and butter MMORPG, if you're looking for a more action-style combat MMORPG then this probably won't float your boat (outside of maybe the Monk or Ninja jobs). Rotations start off fairly simple but as you gain more abilities off the Global Cooldown there is a lot of room for fine tuning that, while it still doesn't have as high a skill-ceiling as some classes in WoW, still has enough room for personal skill to shine through.

Most of all this is an MMORPG that respects player time investment. There are rarely obnoxious time-gating mechanisms or RNG progression paths to squeeze more engagement out of the player. The devs openly say that they'd rather people go and enjoy other games during content lulls, and then come back when there's a patch, rather than put in progression that everyone hates for the sake of keeping metrics up. You can do everything on the one character which is quite refreshing, although levelling additional jobs can become tedious once you've exhausted the faster methods - but still, it's not an outright grind.

Unfortunately if you are an MMORPG veteran you may find it frustrating how hand-holdy the game is at the beginning, and how much content is gated behind the Main Scenario or side-quests rather than just being able to dive into it immediately. However, the flipside of this is that it helps with world-building a lot and keeps old content relevant for much longer.

Most of all, if you're the type who (like myself 8 years ago) came over from WoW - be prepared for a far more chill experience and less of the go-go-go only max level matters experience that permeated WoW.

Give it a go, who knows, maybe you'll love it as much as I do!

Like any Yoko Taro game this NieR Replicant will have you scratching your head, feeling overwhelming feels, and thinking about the nature of humanity all in equal measure. While the narrative and connection between endings definitely isn't as tightly written as it was in Automata, there are still plenty of moments where you'll lean back in your chair and be left pondering for a bit and if you spend time piecing together the parts of the plot that are left inferred, but never outright stated, the overall experience is satisfying enough.

Just be warned, the game is a slow-burner and during the first half of the game (especially if you get distracted by sidequests) you'll feel like nothing is really going on. This is the type of game that, narratively, the longer you put into it, the more you'll get out of it and it won't be dropping bombastic moments from the get go to pull you along.

Gameplay wise the combat definitely doesn't feel as refined and responsive as Automata, but it's plucky enough that it's rarely frustrating or cumbersome. However, the design of the side quests definitely shows the age of the game at this point. The sidequests were considered bland at the time of the original release, and in this day and age they are largely beyond tedious and uninspired. Thankfully very few of them are actually needed to unlock the additional endings, but if you're a completionist like myself you'll likely grow quite tired of the constant "FedEx'ing" long before you hit the 100% mark. There are some cute and touching sidestories tied to some of the side quests, but the majority really are your basic garden variety kill X of Y or deliver A to B.

The genre-boundary breaking shifts between 3D to Diablo-esque isometric and Resident Evil style fixed camera angles at certain sections of the game still remain a highlight, along with a couple of subtle (and not-so-subtle) homages to other popular gaming franchises.

What was previously DLC in the past, is now seamlessly integrated into the core experience, and the new cutscenes added enhance the cult-hit narrative of the original. The brand new Ending E also has very interesting implications for the franchise, and also really strengthens the previously rather cringe character development between the protagonist and Kainé which never really reached the believability that the bond between Kainé and Emil did in the original.

By playing Replicant you can appreciate even more many of the design choices that went into NieR Automata. While overall I think Replicant is a *slightly* weaker game than Automata, the context it provides for the wider exposition at that gets dumped on players toward end of Route C in Automata, really brings together the overall narrative of the franchise.

If you're a fan or Automata, then Replicant is definitely worth checking out. If you haven't played Automata, you should definitely play Replicant first.

Having only really known of the NieR world through the FFXIV cross-over raids, I went into this game with no real idea what to expect.

From what starts out as a seemingly innocuous action RPG, one is whisked away on a journey about the very core of existence. Deeply philosophical but never in a pretentious way, supported by a cast of characters that bring humour and tragedy. Platinum Games signature combat style keeps things flowing smoothly, and there's a surprising amount of depth to be had with weapon, Pod, and chip load-outs (although below Hard difficulty you'll rarely be pressed to really experiment with these). The soundtrack perfectly encapsulates the tonality of each scene, and certain songs will be stuck with you weeks after you last played.

Some of the sub-lore was a bit lost on me having never played NieR:Gestalt/Replicant or the Drakengard series, but knowledge of this isn't really essential to grasp the core story.

After 65 hours and obtaining all the endings, I can safely say I was not expecting to cry as much as I did, nor the amount of times I had to put the controller down to think about the humanistic story the game was weaving. This game has legitimately come out of nowhere and barged into my favourite games of all time list.

The weight of the world is too much for one person to bear alone, but through selfless acts of sacrifice, tog[E]ther we can manage it.

Great remaster of 2 RTS classics, complete with warts and all.

If you loved the originals, you'll love this. If you want to experience the originals for the first time, then like I said be prepared for warts and all with weird unit pathing, sometimes clunky controls, and very circa-1995 AI - but it's what you sign up for with this!

Only negative is the upscaled cutscenes look a bit weird at times, especially the live action ones, but I doubt they could've done much better with 1995 source material.

A great puzzler with a discover as you go story that really gets you thinking about some of the assumptions and things we take for granted when it comes to life, our moral codes etc. Some of the puzzles (particularly with the spheres that blow up if you get too close to them) can be a little tedious, but overall this is a very, very solid game. I picked this up on a whim and subsequently lost a few days of my life to this game.

I've heard some people have issues with motion sickness while playing, I don't suffer from it myself but I noticed there's a lot of adjustments that can be made in the options menu which should help combat it.

Recommend if it's on sale. It's not worth the asking price.

It takes around 90 minutes to finish. Controls are 8-way directional. Not really a lot of depth here. It's a fun little romp with some classic platformer challenges, but nothing really difficult apart from an area on the penultimate level where the 8-way controls are a bit cumbersome.

The 2 characters are generic, and annoying. Plotwise it's very simple.

All in all it's a very generic game with nothing noteworth bar being cute with a cutesy soundtrack. If you can get it for a quid or two, then it's worth it. Anything beyond that, you can get much better for your money.

A friend gifted this to me feeling that I might enjoy it. This is honestly the most fun I've had with a sim-builder in a very long time. As others have noted, the management side of the game is pretty basic - but if you're looking for a fun outlet to get your creative juices flowing, then this will provide room in spades. Some of the community generated content in the workshop is incredible.

Building is easy and intuitive, and if you really want to go "under the hood" the level of detail attainable is astounding once you get over the initial learning curve of making custom designs. I spent the past 3 hours making a fountain, and I had so much fun!

Definite fun for young and old a like!