Recent reviews by 8Z

Fun tactics game with a tight campaign and lovable ragtag crew. Late game scaling feels a bit off, but didn't hurt much. Play well on the Deck but cursor controls are awkward.

Pretty neat shooter. Campaign is well paced and has a lot of secrets to hunt, combat is tense and requires some presence of mind to pull through.

yep it's bite-sized ff14 raiding. it's surprisingly fun when you don't have to pentameld your gear just to get to try.

Survivalcraft game that's also kind of a traditional FPS singleplayer campaign a-la Half-Life. Progression is tied both to your resources and equipment, and to your location within the facility. Definitely an interesting gimmick and worth a try.

[THIS COMMENT UNDER REVIEW BY THE DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH]

goldsrc is truly one of the engines of all time

Pier of the Unknown isn't the kind of DLC that changes your mind about the game. If you are enjoying the base game, you'll like it; but if you are not, this won't be worth buying.

At 7 dollars it's a bit of a premium price for about 1-2 hours worth of content, even though the content itself is good and on par with the base game quality-wise. Despite the cost, I'm super happy to pay simply because I enjoyed the game that much and the DLC offers some more monster variety, exploration areas, and teambuilding options.

Cool little monster collection game that can probably scratch your itch for a certain monster collecting franchise.

The gist of the game is you run around an island, collecting monsters and moves, exploring and battling monsters and bosses. Exploration was engaging but not too rewarding - it's an open level with metroid-like blockers that require new movement tools, and you can find mini-puzzles that unlock chests. Quests have grid markers that point you in the general direction, guiding you through the intended path but are very open-ended.

(Worth noting, you can go straight to the final boss but going through the story makes the final fight easier, a-la BOTW. Cool!)

As you see more of the island and defeat bosses, the plot unfolds. The setting is interesting and had me engaged at the end, and is a whole lot better than every pokemon story, but it's also a slow burn. Companions are likable, but you don't get too many interactions with them. The overall tone of the game is hopeful, earnest and endearingly cringe, and had a real charm for me, but YMMV.

The big draw of the game to me is how different mechanics wise it is to pokemon, and how easy it is to change your builds. Double battle is the default, which I really like. Type advantages provide buffs/debuffs instead of a damage multiplier, and type manipulation is common with moves and Bootlegs (type-specific shiny mon). Your level is independent from your monsters, and moves can be freely added and removed.

All of this makes for a great teambuilding and battling experience. I loved making crazy builds that can win battles before it starts, max out AP in a single turn, or abuse type interactions for massive advantages. Unfortunately the early game is a bit of a slow burn, since you don't have access to all the tools and the combat system doesn't really open up. The fusion system is also gimmicky, kind of like the generational gimmicks pokemon has.

In my opinion this is a worthwhile purchase at full price if you like monster collection games. This can take up days of your life if you're not careful.

As a final note, the only reason I bought it is because someone called it "liberal pokemon". I can, in fact, confirm this game is exactly liberal pokemon.

she baldur on my gate til i three

I really tried to give this game a chance. It has a promising style and a determination to not guide the player in any way possible. This can work, but can also fail horribly; for me the experience is the latter.

For the first hour or so Dyeus is very enjoyable. I stumbled upon some areas too challenging for me, but could gear up and eventually overcome them. But soon after, a difficulty spike hit me hard. I explored most of the map and know where to go - but the enemies there are simply too strong, and since the game refuses to tell me anything, I have no idea how I can get stronger to match them.

I don't know where to find better gear - they're scattered randomly in places where these strong enemies are. Exploration itself is made difficult by the fact you can't carry a map even though they can be found around the world, and a compass that takes up your accessory slot (why is this tradeoff necessary???).
I can't grind weaker enemies to become stronger - the only thing I can get from enemies is gold and occasionally arrows, and no shop had anything better than my current gear.
I can't even simply get better at the game. Since blocking is central to the combat mechanics and a weak shield can't prevent all damage, avoiding damage entirely is nearly impossible against certain enemies, who have strong and fast projectiles that damage me through my shield and also come in packs of up to 3.
There's no lower difficulty or accessibility options either. I try not to use these in any game unless I'm frustrated to the point of dropping the game entirely, but here it's not even a choice I have.

I really appreciate what has been put into the game. The music is uniquely stylish. The combat system, when the enemies aren't overwhelmingly powerful, is tense and rewards careful play. The world is densely packed with points of interest and bits of lore that I wish I were able to fully explore. I really think this game can click for many people, I just can't say it's for me. I know this is not what the developer intended, but the impression I got was that the game does not want me to beat it.