Recent reviews by ＮＩＣＣ

pinnacle of JRPGs; grounded story with real threats, mature plotline, likable characters, system mechanics are pristine and keep you active despite the stigma surrounding turn-based games. no need to go in depth just play it!!!

i love this video game with all my heart and soul.

i lost to a donut craving.

this game is HARD! the combat is a blast with mastering strict parry timings that reward you greatly with a stance break mechanic, a wide variety of different (prosthetic? does this term even apply to a puppet?) arms on Mr. P to take advantage of an enemy's weakness or shortcomings, or even overload the stats it ramps off of to make the arm a complement to fit in-between attacks or stance break windows, and tons of weapon combinations (while not all of them useful, they can be hilariously dumb looking). the weapons are satisfying to their niche. like, the much larger weapons have an insane weight to them but, boast a much higher damage reduction on your blocks. like you would expect. The damage is also very high per hit, making it a game of finding ways to land your large heavy swings.

while on the inverse, the lighter weapons will benefit from a much smaller weight, and tanking more damage with your standard block, making dodging a way better option in most cases. The attacks are fast and can keep your reactions ready for the next nuke coming your way as you spam away.

this souls-like game has given me more trouble than any of the official Fromsoft titles, while simultaneously keeping my interest in the story; a beautifully grim retelling of the fairy tale classic, Pinnochio.

the game maintains a fleshed out story while also leaving behind secrets through notes and other objects you can go out of your way to interact with, like their inspiration.

my only gripes so far, some of the enemies have way too much health even on a no vitality build going purely for damage. I mean, the difference between a random enemy on every street corner and lets say; a larger enemy they might put one or two of in the area is astronomical. abusing the elemental weaknesses have been the only way I make runs through the larger enemies bearable.

the game's areas are a little too linear for my liking for my souls-like preferences, while they are beautifully designed.
not too much of the bad, eh?

in closing, it is a unique experience from the souls-like genre while still being so much closer to the inspiration with the general vibe and polish than any other game trying the same spin. the story is fluid, and the combat is so much fun, the customization has depth with the p-organ system and many weapons and arms to bring to the table. the bosses have complex attack chains which will have you gritting your teeth to hit the perfect parries or find ways to sneak hits in the next time until you finally do and get the DUB.

well worth the money i paid.

cool game, dude.

cool game. felt very easy, even on hard.
characters were very charming, side quests were funny/visually impressive/interesting as hell.
overall i had a blast finishing about 99% of what the game had to offer in a little over 20 hours.
combat is insanely satisfying in motion. the story was a little anime cliché if you like that kinda thing.

a few gripes i had:
-really wish there was at least one more element, having three felt so wrong.
-combat was very simple, maybe some more movement mechanics to give you more options other than block-shoot element-sprint away (something with the wire in combat would be cool)
-map was a little cluttered, this is fixed with filtering thankfully. not the most intuitive system.
-i never felt a reason to use the melee attack.

4/5 not the greatest game, but well worth the $60 price tag.

decent game, bad creators.

happy chaos happy chaos happy chaos