Recent reviews by Schrödinger's Cat

It is a shame that a game with such potential was not only released prematurely, but is now seemingly shelved by its creators. The game presents a lot of very interesting concepts, both thematically and in terms of gameplay, however it tries to integrate certain elements into the game - to the detriment of the development to other more fundamental ones - that ultimately provide no value to the overall gameplay. Still the game plays nice for the most part and provided an enjoyable experience overall.

The narrative is adequate, however it fails to provide sufficient exposition to certain concepts unique to the world of Moonscars, such as the terms "Clayborn", "Cleft", "Gland", and also reasons for why people are consuming Bone Powder. The sound design is okay with the exception of sound ques of certain things, and the music - contrary to popular opinion - was very good in my opinion (with one or two exceptions) and very befitting of the tone. The art and animations were phenomenal - truly a highlight in the overall experience. Thematically and tonally, this game ticks just about all of the boxes. The game is very depressing - and intentionally so - with a semi-monochrome color palette and a very gothic aesthetic. In terms of the plot, the game is very philosophical as opposed to focusing on character development (although it tries and fails unfortunately...). The dialogue is better than most games out there I would say.

As for the gameplay, it is a mixed bag. The game is not a true soulslike, but it tries very hard to be one to its own detriment. There is no stamina mechanic in the game, there is however Parry and Healing (but healing is very sustainable). The game can be quite challenging - especially if you (like me) are completely insane and play the game in Moonhunger mode (more on this later) all the way through, but anyway I digress... I think mechanically speaking the enemy and level designs are very good. They provide a nice challenge while not being unfair in and of themselves. The problem arises in the balancing of all this: The game is very broken difficulty-wise due to things like enemy placement resorting to gank tactics to artificially increase the difficulty and also turning enemies into damage sponges (sounds very familiar does it not Bearer of the Curse?). But without a doubt the worst thing about this game is the input registry errors. I cannot tell you how frustrating it is when a game does not register your inputs, and it happens A LOT here: Framerate will very briefly fall on its face followed by an unresponsive character. Speaking of unresponsive, the movement in general is very clunky and aerial combat is an absolute nightmare.

The game also features the Spite system, which in essence is bar that fills up and grants you up to 5 random volatile buffs that do not add much in terms of gameplay especially given that you will rarely get all the buffs you want. When you have 5 (or so) buffs active, you "Attract the Moonhunger", which is just a more difficult mode of the game in which more elite enemies spawn and enemies are generally tougher to kill - the tradeoff being that you can see secret things that aren't visible during normal mode such as the collectible earrings.

All that being said, the game is no Blasphemous, but it still managed to keep me entertained and enjoying the journey for the most part. It has some good bones, and just needs some fine tuning and a bit of further development and balancing. Unfortunately the game has neither enjoyed market success nor has it been updated in over 2 years so I doubt the developers are still giving it the light of day - which is truly a shame as there aren't many game like this out there. I hope to see this game updated in the near future or dare I say even see a sequel some day.

Lust for Darkness is a first person horror game which draws a lot of inspiration from Amnesia the Dark Descent. In fact, it plays almost exactly the same: Insanity management (to a degree), dragging your mouse to open doors and drawers, picking up items and inspecting them for clues, etc.

Where the game stands out though, is in its theme: Lovecraftian Eroticism. Now let's just get this out of the way: the game has some HEAVY adult themes of gore and sex, and is also quite explicit - and I promise I'm not trying to elevate a porn game here. A central theme of the game's plot is carnal pleasure, and that manifests in the characters enacting their desires and living out their fantasies - with a lovecraftian twist of course. I feel I cannot say a lot more without spoiling the plot, so I will leave it at that.

My journey with Lust for Darkness, albeit quite a short one, was very pleasant. The dialogue is better than most games out there I would say, but it still has a few hiccups here and there. The way the game blended the grotesque and macabre with the unseen and incomprehensible was seamless. I honestly just wish that there was more of it to experience - thankfully there is a sequel and I am excited to play it!

... it's crazy stupid fun, but one tends to build up a tolerance if the game is played for hours on end. But if you are anything like me, that won't stop you...

Dead Cells is an Action Roguelike with beautiful pixel art, tons of crossovers and references, decent music, and some of the most addictively fun gameplay I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. However, it does suffer from a somewhat bloated difficulty curve as you progress past your first run, capping out at difficulty level +5 (which is necessary to fight the True Final Boss of the game...) . Also, there is an overabundance of content making the game VERY grindy if you plan on unlocking everything - which leads me to the next point: given the game is heavily RNG based, the more things you unlock, the larger the weapon pool, the slimmer your chances of getting a weapon you want.

All in all, Dead Cells is perhaps one of the best roguelikes I have ever played - and I don't like roguelikes so... good job!

To think that a game based on such a mundane concept as the assembly of a mosaic clockface puzzle, could be so soothing, entertaining and satisfying at the same time... The feeling you get when 2 or more distinct and often wonderfully weird shapes click into each other, the hidden patterns and beautiful colours, once unseen, now being revealed to you is simply sublime. All while the twinkling bell chimes, the low hum of the cello and the calming flute all ferry you to a place of serenity - no worries, no rush, no timer or toxic rants from other players: just you, the puzzle and the music. Finally, as you slot in the last few fragments, the puzzle climaxes in the revelation of the finished image, each of them beautiful in their own right. All this comes together to create what is perhaps one of the most unique experiences I have ever had with a puzzle game.

I don't usually play games like these, but this one just looked too good to pass up, and I am glad I didn't. This game also made appreciate the beauty of glass art a bit more (albeit digital art). My only nitpick for this game is that the soundtrack, albeit very beautiful and befitting of the tone, was very limited. There are 50 puzzles to assemble (including DLC's) and there are only 8 tracks in the entire soundtrack, which I think is a bit limited. All that being said, a very solid niche puzzle game with plenty to offer, and 2 sequels spawned which I will definitely be playing!

Well kind of... Vigil: The Longest Night is Soulslike Metroidvania game with a Salt & Sanctuary-esque design, and tones heavily inspired by Bloodborne (and Castlevania: SotN apparently). The game features some amazing gameplay with a lot of customisability, playstyles, and some very fleshed out upgrade trees. There is also a very expansive map (albeit a bit badly designed interface-wise) with some very detailed and diverse scenery, filled to the brim with all kinds of secrets to discover. The story is good, however the dialogue can feel a bit off sometimes and there is no voice acting - you will have to do a lot of reading to truly gain an understanding of what is going on in the world.



1) Know that this game has points of no return, and once you pass those points, all of the quests which are "timed" for that particular point of no return - and the rewards that go along with those quests - will be forfeit! And your first point of no return comes VERY soon in your playthrough. Once you miss your window, you will have to wait for NG+ to do them again or start a new playthrough. So if you are a completionist (like me), before killing a boss, giving an npc an item, or using a certain musical instrument (Ocarinas) , I would recommend finishing all the quests you can before progressing, or if you don't care about spoilers just follow a guide.
2) You are able to choose a difficulty before you start your playthrough - IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH DIFFICULTY YOU CHOOSE. You can get all of the achievements and experience everything the game has to offer on easy mode, AND you can change the difficulty anytime you want in the options menu. All that being said, I would recommend Hard overall, as that feels the best in my opinion.
3) You will almost certainly want to rebind your controls as the default controls are VERY strange and will break the flow of combat. I would highly recommend rebinding the following:
* Use Items to R2
* Roll/Dodge to B/circle
* Switch Between Quick Items to Right on d-pad
* Dash (once you obtain it) to R1
* Use Healing Potion to Down on d-pad



Vigil: The Longest Night is everything that Salt and Sanctuary 2 should have been and perhaps one of the most fun Soulslike Metroidvania games I have played in a long while. And while not perfect by any means, it managed to glue me to my seat and make me lose track of time on a daily basis - and I enjoyed every minute of it!


P.S.

...the puppet moves...

Ah Slime Rancher. Also known as Slime Poop Hustler, Plop Plort Profiteer, and Slimy Sucky Simulator - and if you think I just pulled all of that out my arse, you'd be right! Slime Rancher is a first person creature collector game - though not in the traditional pokemon sense - with somewhat dated mechanics and graphics, which are greatly compensated for with the fun sense of herding all different kinds of slimes - each with their own unique traits and quirks - "cross breeding" them, and selling their poop on the galactic market for newbucks to the highest bidder!

I must admit, at first I was very sceptical about the Overwhelmingly Positive overall review score given what I had seen in the trailers. It simply looked like a childrens game made with rudimentary mechanics and depth. However, as I began getting into it, I quickly found myself enjoying the experience. Finding new slimes and discovering all the cool things you can build in the lab to automate processes and the like, really had me having a blast. And although I wouldn't say that this game is one of the greatest of all time, it certainly is not easy to hate it in my opinion. There is a story in there somewhere, but you have to do a lot of reading to get into it, and I just couldn't be bothered. One thing that did tick me off a bit was the atrociously slow rate at which your stamina recharges and the delay before it even starts recharging. It tends to break the flow quite a bit. And perhaps the MOST annoying aspect of the game is the fact that you only have 4 slots for inventory at any given time and at no point can it be upgraded. Given the nature of the game having only 4 slots is seriously ridiculous... but I'm nitpicking at this point.

Notably, this game is one of the most relaxing games to play once you know all of the mechanics and where to find everything you need. And for those of you who like a bit of urgency in your gameplay, the game's got you covered with the rush mode in which you are working against the clock to make as many newbucks as possible.

Overall, Slime Rancher was a very pleasant journey and I look forward to playing the sequel! - as soon as it officially releases anyway.

Code Vein is an anime style Hack-and-Slash game with some Soulslike elements and a focus on co-op combat. The plot and characters are of typical anime variety - If you like anime hack-and-slash games with a bit of a challenge, this is pretty much a must play. As for the non-weebs, you can just skip the cut scenes if it gets too much, but I encourage you to stick with it, as it does get better towards the end, and the endings are pretty cool.



BEFORE YOU PLAY THIS GAME:
1) THIS IS NOT A TRUE SOULSLIKE. This game plays more like a DMC-like with high risk engagements. Those looking for a Dark Souls experience will be VERY disappointed.
2) DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME SOLO: The game was not designed to be played solo - it IS possible to beat the game solo, however you will save yourself a few years of your life if you just take an AI companion with you. Hell, some of the abilities in the game REQUIRE a companion to used.
3) THIS GAME IS VERY ANIME: Big booba waifus "dressed" in EXTRA revealing rags (like a $lut) in the middle of an apocalypse despite having access to proper clothing and everybody be acting like it's normal; The best friend "tough guy" punching you in the shoulder telling you to do your best and also making onigiri for his neko girlfriend who wants head pats ; Teenage vampires slinging angsty Nietzsche quotes left and right like they've got it all figured out; Everyone dressed stylish AF while killing beasts with their oversized weapons; The on-the-nose style of storytelling lacking much if any organic exposition; The power of friendship conquering all... you get the idea - Love it, hate it, whatever you do it's there and it's a core theme. This will obviously be a turn-off for some people (like me), while adding to the experience for others.
4) THE ONLINE CO-OP IS NON-EXISTENT: Despite the tag, this game has massive issues with multiplayer. I bent over backwards to partner up with a buddy to farm Marks of Honor (the equivalent of Sun Medals) to absolutely no avail. You will probably not be able to connect to other players at all by the looks of things. Apparently this has been a problem for the longest time now if you look at the forums.

With all that out of the way, let's get into it.

* This game's difficulty is very broken. Enemies are ridiculously aggressive, swarm you frequently, and it gets 10x worse during an invasion event - which is a once-off, retriggerable event that spawns waves of enemies to swarm and attack you, and there is no way to know when you will run into one.
* Backstab is weird. Sure it's easy to get behind enemies, but the almost pixel precision in positioning (which often don't even make sense visually) needed to pull off a backstab attack is insane. Still given the damage you deal, it's worth it.
* Homing attacks. This game has homing attacks and there is no way to disable it. For those not in the know, Homing Attack essentially means that when you attack with melee and there is an enemy close to you, your character will automatically and involuntarily direct that attack in the direction of the closest enemy. This was one of the most annoying features of the combat system without a doubt.
* The lock-on sucks (at least a bit). When you lock-on, the game will sometimes ignore enemies that are well on screen and sometimes directly next to you, in favor of an enemy that is more in front of you, but FAR away. Call me nitpicky, but any lock-on should always target the enemy closest to your character that is on screen.
* The gameplay lacks "weight". A cute petite anime waifu swinging around a sword 3x her weight like a tennis racket doesn't exactly scream weighty combat. The sound design was also a bit disappointing. Your character feels weightless, barely making any footstep sounds. Every move you make feels cheap - like you are not committing much to it. You can remove the stamina bar from this game all together and nobody will be the wiser. You can use your heaviest attack, and if it whiffs no big deal, you'll be able to dodge anything that comes your way in a fraction of a second. It all adds up. But hey, maybe I'm being too harsh, because as I said this game is not a true soulslike.

* The level design is good, albeit a bit monotonous and empty at times. I personally loved the interconnectedness of the maps. The shortcuts and "Bonfires" felt just right.
* There are a lot of possibilities for all kinds of different builds. There are a ton of active and passive abilities to choose from, as well as an array of weapons and blood veils (which is what gives you flashy special moves~).
* The music is pretty nice, albeit a bit over the top at times. Some of these tracks will leave you just standing there and just taking it all in. One of my farvorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSDTWqW_prY&ab_channel=CODEVEINSoundTeam-Topic
* Gameplay is fun even with all its quirks. Combat feels very rewarding when you've mastered it. The parries/repostes, backstabs and drain attacks, when executed, feel very satisfying. Combat also feels very responsive.
* Very stylistic - if you're not against anime visuals. The character creator is honestly one of the best I've seen in a game like this. The backstab and reposte animations are very flashy and probably a bit much, but I enjoyed them.
* The Story, while very hit or miss (again due to the anime overtone), when it hits it hits hard. There are 3 endings (4 technically, but one is just a VERY small permutation of the true ending) and they are all pretty cool. For all of the crap I've given this game, I have to admit the endings had me pretty worked up. Story is actually a very big part of this game, and I would recommend doing all of the Vestige Repairs (except when going for a certain ending), which are essentially memories of various characters in the game that you walk through to the end - like a virtual storybook almost.



All-in-all, a very solid game. I had a lot of fun playing it and hope to even see a sequel one day with working multiplayer in the not-too-distant future.

This is probably the most difficult review I've written in my life. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Dark Souls 2 SotFS edition. It's the worst version of the worst From Software game out there (major titles anyway). However, I am glad DS2 happened. DS2 was the sacrificial lamb that gave us precious titles like DS3 and Bloodborne. Also, the circumstances of the game's development contributed heavily to many of its less enjoyable elements, so you cannot judge it too harshly. However, this is a From Software game, and the successor to the legendary Dark Souls, and will thus be judged as such.

I'm not going to dive into the specifics of why this game feels bad, because the reasons for that are very technical and will take up a huge chunk of this review. However there are some really talented youtubers out the who have done a wonderful job at analysing the game's flaws. Youtubers like MauLer, Ch0pper and hbomberguy are great if you want to watch some videos on the subject.

The reasons why this game is not liked to the same degree of its brothers can be boiled down to one thing: The developers made the game hard for the sake of being hard, and not to provide a fun challenge for the player to overcome. The difficulty of most things in this game feels artificial: from the almost comical way enemies gank you, to the almost complete lack of windups, parry windows and punish windows for a LOT of enemy encounters. Another big reason for the adversity is the handicapped ("slow") combat. You are weaker in almost EVERY single aspect in the game vs DS1: more stamina consumption, less hp gain per level, less damage, less poise damage, less poise, longer healing animation time (a LOT more), and less i-frames depending on apd stat. Then there's the hitboxes, level design, lack of f@cking i-frames for fog gates and even f@cking reposte animations, the janky lock-on, and just the Adaptability stat as a whole...

In closing, I always laughed at those guys who say that they like a game and then they downvote it, but now I kind of understand where some of them might be coming from. This is a decent game, however, its flaws were simply too great to ignore, and they killed the experience for me to a degree. There was a point in the game where I just felt complete apathy for everything and just sprinted my way to 100%. That's not how a game should ever make you feel. That being said, there are still a LOT of people who enjoy this game, even with all its flaws - for some it is even their favourite title in the trilogy - but I am sadly not one of those people.

Hellpoint is an actual proper Soulslike game in a sci-fi horror setting sporting solid gameplay, gorgeous aesthetics, and some absolutely fascinating lore. The only real drawback - and it is a big one - is the abundance of bugs and glitches. The game is very buggy, from enemy AI that simply stops working, to bosses clipping through the arena boundaries and falling to their deaths, to save files becoming corrupted beyond repair (although this one seems to have been fixed?). There are also some awkward design choices present in the game, such as the Shield Bash ability where you have to sprint towards enemies with your shield raised to break their guard AND it doesn't work most of the time (bug I assume...). Also you can't adjust the graphical settings in-game - not sure if you can do it in steam launcher. To top it off, the developers have not updated the game since August of 2022 so it doesn't look like the remaining bugs in the game are going to be fixed anytime soon if ever. Nevertheless! I quickly found myself hooked and having more fun than what I wanted to admit, and it would be disingenuous to say that I don't recommend it.

Death's Door is a charming isometric action game with metroidvania elements, beautiful visuals, interesting characters, fun little puzzles and an absolutely amazing soundtrack and ambience that might just, every now and again, make you forget how boring your REAL life really is.

The combat is elementary - no flashy combos, parries/repostes, or fancy things you can do with your weapons. Just you, your weapon (choice of 5), 4 basic spells and a dash. That being said, the enemy engagements do keep you on your toes and it is never a dull moment - due to the high risk of not taking engagements seriously, as you can only survive 3-5 hits before you need to heal at a flower (healing station).

The game has a dark but not macabre undertone, which is offset by its humour and just general silliness of some of the things/characters you will encounter (Looking at you Pothead) . The story, while somewhat interesting, is not the strong suit of the game - it is there, and it does its job. There is some lore to collect and a revelation in the postgame, but all of this is secondary to the game's main experience.

The challenge level of this game strikes a nice balance between comfortably easy and annoyingly difficult. It won't drive you into a controller-smashing frenzy, but also won't bore you to tears with how easy it is. Calling this game a "Soulslike" is a bit deceptive - The game has an isometric camera firstly, there is no flask healing in the game (only at healing stations), and there is no weight behind the character's movements (Souls players will understand what I mean). The only things that this game even remotely shares with the Soulborne games is the shortcut checkpoint mechanic, and the roll evasion in combat.

There is a lot of heart and soul in this game, from the signs that show only half the text when you cut it with your sword, to the little flower spirit guys that follow you and blossom when you stand still for long enough. You will see it in all the little things and it is sure to bring a smile to your face.

Death's Door was a fun experience with lots to see and do, and albeit there was nothing groundbreaking here, it is a shining example of what is possible when an old recipe meets brilliant execution and a dash of spice. 8/10