Recent reviews by TripleAces

I was unprepared for how many hours I was liable to drop on a return to Cyrodiil.

This game is a pleasant way to spend some time doing a little bit of everything. You can collect some monsters like Pokemon, play around with some cards like... cards, explore islands, build a home, and just, like, vibe man.

Plus, the devs like to post cat pictures in their patch notes so even if you're not playing it, you can still get something out of it. Pretty sweet honestly.

If you played Risk of Rain and you liked it - then you should just pull the trigger on this and go for it. It's everything you loved about it, but more betterer.

If you played Risk of Rain 2 and you liked it - you'll probably like this as well, but it's 2D so be wary you don't use an entire dimension.

To be more specific: Risk of Rain Returns is effectively a complete rework of the original Risk of Rain. It refined the gameplay to be more satisfying; characters have much more interesting and enjoyable skill loadouts, alternate skins, and challenges specific to them. Not only that, but there are new characters, as well as an entirely new mode: a "mission" based mode where you must complete a certain task with a specific character and/or loadout to test your skills and unlock new items or abilities.

I highly recommend you give this a playthrough if you liked the first Risk of Rain, there is more to it than simply updating a couple graphics.

I feel like there's probably not enough room to explain in depth why I love and hate this game.

This game from its beginning to its end, from every pore, oozes polish. The story was careful and captivating, the characters are unique and charismatic, the substories, the music, the gameplay, the mechanics - it all just feels refreshingly wholesome.

The story starts off with an exceptional hook, and if you aren't as interested in the main story, the ensemble's stories will likely captivate you. These are characters with flaws, hopes, and dreams - you feel as though you can connect with them on a deeper level in a meaningful sense.

Persona's various systems ensure that no matter what action you take, there is reward. You're limited in the amount of time you have to complete certain actions in game, but that really just means that you feel like everything you do has to have some meaning. Fortunately, your character finds growth in almost every activity he does - whether it's just reading a book, or if it's going out with your friends. You can spend some time grinding up you and your party's levels, or you can spend time falling in love with any of a cast of charming interests.

The battle system is fairly standard for a JRPG with the usual Shin Megami Tensei / Persona twist that certain personas give you different stats and moves to use in combat. This adds so much depth, as you're not only building out your party (which do not have the benefit of swapping personas) but also your character's own skills. You can fuse and create new personas, which means you have so many potential avenues for developing your character beyond just leveling up that any playthrough can be unique to you. While the story will follow the same beats - your experience going through that story will be something YOU crafted.

Just to tick off the usual boxes - the style of the game is phenomenal, I love the theming and general settings you play through. The music is perfect in every situation, it perfectly accents and amplifies your experience the whole way through. Performance is very steady, and I didn't encounter any noticeable bugs while playing through. The DLC that comes bundled in is certainly interesting, as it does impact the primary story and also adds a fair bit of gameplay.

Overall, I was enamored with my time in Persona 5 Royal, and if you're even remotely interested in JRPGs, then you owe it to yourself to pick it up and probably never put it back down.

I've spent just under 40 minutes clearing all the way through the first dungeon - I'm pretty sure I did everything you can realistically accomplish up through that point.

I'll put this simply: it's not as good as any of your beloved N64 games.

I'll also say this: it's not terrible.

I had tempered my expectations going into this game, knowing that it couldn't be as well made as the games I grew up playing, and I was definitely correct. I do think this failed to meet my lowered expectations, but I'm not horribly offended by that, given that this does seem to be a small team effort, if not just a single developer. And I definitely understand how hard it is to make a game at all, let alone a 3D adventure game inspired by some of the most beloved games in memory - N64 titles.

That being said, Valkie 64 feels like a hollow version of any N64 game, the combat feels really floaty, inconsistent, and kind of boring. The first boss fight is literally just a tanky enemy that deals higher damage so you actually have to dodge for once - which is not an endorsement of the boss fight by any means. I had 6 hearts going into the first boss and was perfectly fine to just dodge a few attacks and hope that my attacks landed because I was never confident that my dodges or my attacks would work correctly.

On that note, controller support exists, but definitely is not explained to you very well. It's not really complicated if you've played N64 games, but definitely do realize that you're not getting some grandiose tutorial on combat or anything associated therein. Expect some trial and error in timing your attacks and dodges.

I have no idea what's going on with the story, and to be frank, I don't really care. It's a generic "4 elements" collection it looks like though, and that's usually fine enough to serve as a motivator. While the writing isn't superb, the side quests that I've encountered actually have some intrigue and more variety, but they're SUPER not complex, just basic quests to get you to do more than the bare minimum and give you some additional reward, in my experience thus far, heart pieces.

I'm glad that they DO give you some additional reward as well, however, I wish it was a little more restrained - this goes back to the lack of refinement of N64 titles as well. Your heart pieces are 1/2 of a total container for a new heart. That's kind of disappointing, as it means that by the time I'm facing off against literally MY FIRST BOSS, I've already goes 6 hearts. I shouldn't be at that point, and if it's a measure to give players more health to deal with the combat, then I'm sorry, but you need to just redesign your combat.

Making a game super isn't easy though, and I can appreciate the attempt to make this into a nostalgic trip through a fun little adventure - and for the price it isn't offensive. I wish there was a neutral option, as I hate to not recommend this, but I can't endorse it either as you're unlikely to find much satisfaction out of it if you're looking for something truly substantial here. Know that while I will not be recommending this game, I do think that it isn't a waste of money, just that you should have extremely tempered expectations going into the experience.

And if by some chance, the developer reads this review - keep it up. This has charm and heart, and I can see sincere effort. I don't think it's a bad game, but it's also just a difficult game to recommend when you could find means of playing the classics people are nostalgic for.

Chained Echoes is a modern take on the Golden Age of RPGs that we fans can't seem to stop talking about. Remember Chrono Trigger? Yeah me too, that game was great. Well Chained Echoes certainly does its best to bring you back to that wonderful style of gameplay - but the question is, does it succeed?

The answer? Pretty much yeah, some caveats to that statement, but overall it's pretty damn good. That's your TL;DR.

Now for the long bit.

Chained Echoes does a lot to modernize and still emulate classic 16-bit JRPGs like Chrono Trigger. It has a turn based combat system, an ensemble cast that have unique and varied personalities, a lite job system that can help change your gameplay - pretty much everything you need to have a great gameplay experience.

To start, the combat is definitely a highlight *when it works.* The system is fairly simple at first blush, namely that it is your traditional turn based combat, though enemies can have specific weaknesses that you can target to deal additional damage. Of exception though, is the Overdrive gauge. As you take damage or attack, a gauge at the top left of your screen begins to move right. When it remains in a particular area, you deal extra damage, take less damage, and your skills are at a reduced TP cost. If you go too far right, you're overheated and take massively more damage as a toll. You can reduce the gauge's fill by using a particular type of skill that is randomly assigned every 4 turns, swapping out your party for reserve members (an action you can do with no cost to your turn), or defending. This system encourages strategic thinking and is overall a great boon. That isn't the only huge benefit to the game either, readily available fast travel, saving anywhere, simple but effective party management, it's all there. Plus, the story is pretty comprehensive and actually well written - characters have depth and are incredibly unique from one another.

That being said - I do have some issues. Namely that Overdrive feature I mentioned previously. Teased early on is the mech battles with so called "Sky Armors." These actually have a separate mechanic in battle where instead of shifting party members, you shift gears, which changes the damage you do and how much abilities cost. This change is also reflected in the gauge, where now you don't have any Overdrive, but you have to balance between an Overheat on the right and left sides, the gear determining which direction your gauge moves. My complaint is largely that this system doesn't feel as rewarding as the Overdrive system, and you're absolutely required to use it for several boss battles and strongly recommended for general map encounters (enemies intended to be fought in armor are massively difficult out of it).

However, progression feels good, it feels rewarding to experiment with your party and try new tactics, the world is well thought out and absolutely stuffed with secrets. You're rewarded equally for exploration and progression - you only level up when you beat bosses, but you can gain "levels" through completing side missions that come up, and making your way through a rewards board that has you do everything from find buried treasure to defeating unique enemies. You're never forced into a particular path when it comes to your team building (sans early on when you're first obtaining your crew).

Overall the game is a treat, and if my hours can attest to it well, you'll have plenty of time to spend with the game. It isn't perfect, but it's a damn sight for sore eyes if you've been waiting for a real spiritual revival of the genre.

Dinkum is a charming little adventure that reminds one of Animal Crossing in 'Stralia. Make friends and memories here in Dinkum.

I'm just going to parrot what other reviews have mentioned: this is not worth money. It was a free addition for purchasing the game shortly after launch on Steam and it's hardly even worth that. It is not a full cosmetic armor set, rather it is a set of colors you can dye your pre-selected armor.

The colors are pretty garish and don't match armor very well, being pretty distracting and cluttered overall. Plus it's a first person game so you don't really see your armor all that often. At $5 you're wasting money on basically nothing. They should've either just dropped it entirely or just included it with the base game anyway.

This game is fantastically designed and built, and every minute you spend feels like a joy.

The combat is well paced and rarely will you encounter challenges you can't overcome.

The exploration is fun, and satisfying with secrets all over the map for you to discover.

The classes are interesting and the combinations you can use are a blast.

There's something delightful about the choices that were made with this game- and the creator deserves a lot of love for all the effort and care that went into it. From things like having a well built and relatively (at least in my experience) bug free game, to crediting the music that's playing as it comes on, this game screams passion.

At $14, you really can't go wrong if you enjoy JRPGs.

I don't want to go on too long of a rant at any point here- but there's definitely a lot I could say about Ruined King.

It is absolutely gripping, interesting, fun, and innovative. It has taken conventional RPG mechanics and and changed them up so you have a new experience in an old genre. The story is great, especially if you're interested in the League of Legends universe and lore- but even if you're not, this is a good enough story to keep you engaged in these characters.

The art-style is fantastic, all the 2D artwork is comic styled for an impactful and pleasant viewing experience, and all the 3D modelling is great. I have seen almost no visual issues in my time with the game so far.

The music is enjoyable- it's definitely of a sort that you can listen to for hours without realizing you've been listening to it for hours, but that's wonderful if you tend to spend your time surveying the world like I do.

The combat is definitely the biggest innovation yet- instead of traditional turn based RPGs or more active battle systems where timing is important, champions have their picture on a graph with lanes dedicated to "speed," "balance," and "power." Standard instant actions like basic attacks or shielding are not placed in these lanes, but lane actions can be moved to speed for faster casting, power for increased effect, or balance for a middle ground. This can determine where you land in the graph, which can put you acting sooner than your enemies or into extra zones that can pop up for buffs or debuffs. The characters all have wildly different styles that can change your combat experience wildly. Illaoi for example, is a tanky healer who can taunt enemies and heal with every bit of damage she deals- while Yasuo is a DPS focusing highly in critical hit chances and increasing his shield and damage with every crit.

Champions are customizable between their equipment and abilities, but further tweakable through runes- which unlock for you to select as you level them. These range from adding 5% base attack damage to increasing the effectiveness of life steal by 30%. The selection of runes that you have are limited both in number, and by how many rune shards you manage to obtain for each character. These can be obtained by purchasing them for a difficult to source currency or by reading lore found throughout the game.

This leads neatly into exploration, which is passable. Each character has unique attributes that contribute to the open-ish world you'll run through. Braum can break down certain walls or let his Poro wander into certain areas. Pyke can dive into grates and, while singling himself out, explore the other side freely. Miss Fortune can detect extra objects nobody else can. Each character has certain areas that only they are useful in- but with your party of 3 you'll have to choose carefully both for combat, but also exploration. This is definitely my biggest issue in the game. While at first glance, this makes sense- the biggest issue comes when you go to explore an optional dungeon, like say, the Buhru well- only to discover that you can't actually fully explore the dungeon because you didn't bring Braum with you. You can only change your party at save points or at inns. Without doubt, this is the biggest frustration, as it can be irritating to have to run all the way back through a dungeon to change a party member, and fight your way back to the same place- especially if you have a team comp that you really like. You are also required to use certain characters in certain areas for story, so don't get too invested in using the same champs through and through. That being said, all champs gain experience even if they are not in the active party (though, the experience you gain in battles is presented as one number, i.e. 3000 but split between all champs, so each champ would receive 1000 at 3 active members or 500 at 6. This can absolutely slow down progression the later you go, so chaining together 5 enemies for a multiwave battle became a habit of mine to maximize my levelling). Otherwise, dungeon design is totally fine, with relatively easy to follow routes and fairly intriguing puzzles so far.

That being said, the champ switching is probably my biggest frustration with the game. Combat isn't especially difficult, but higher difficulties are available if you prefer to have more of a challenge (I have not tried them, so it could be that they tend towards bullet-sponge tanks that rocket you to outer space for all I know). I've only encountered two bugs so far, one of which was an accidental duplication caused by opening a chest at the exact time as combat initiated so it didn't register as opened- the other was a brief moment where the UI hadn't caught up with my inputs and went black until I exited the menu and reopened it.

Overall, I would recommend this game to anybody who enjoys RPGs- the right stuff is there for this to be something you enjoy. I do feel like I've just gotten to where the game starts to open up, so here's hoping that I get far more hours out of this.