Recent reviews by Verrix

An incredible tale of loyalty, betrayal, friendship, and deciding what is the “right” choice to make. TRIANGLE STRATEGY delivers a beautiful narrative with amazing characters, coupled with fun combat, fulfilling growth, and a seamless, bug-free, experience. An absolute must-play in my book, and a purchase you won’t regret.

- Story: The story is honestly really incredible, while overall your choices don’t affect the story in the sense that at certain points all routes converge into one point again, each one will give you different insight onto what happened at a certain time, who did what, and how something could have happened were you there. Honestly the story is just plain incredible, nothing more to say there, it has such great momentum and keeps it up as you follow the tale of these three countries.
- Characters: The characters assist the story just so incredibly well. All the playable and non-playable characters contribute in their own ways, and it feels like no one is really just shown once to never be seen again (though they may be route-specific, so it may feel that way depending on how you do your first playthrough). Not to mention there’s also all the side characters that are introduced to you via ‘character stories’. While they don’t directly contribute to the main story (because there’s no guarantee on who you’ve gotten), they each have their own small plots and backstory as well as unique combat capabilities.
- Combat: Besides the classic tactics game combat (skill point management, weaknesses, range/positioning, etc.), I felt that each character had their own potential along with strengths & weaknesses. You’ve also got the ‘Quietus’ commands which you can use at the start of any of your character’s turns, which is essentially just a limited buff system, which can help you out in a pinch (and if you think it’s overpowered or something, you can just not use it). The characters grow in excellent ways, which ends up with each character filling their own unique archetype through skills (and a weapon skill), class upgrades, and weapon upgrades. One of the highlights of the game.
- Graphics: Square Enix’s ‘HD-2D’ works surprisingly well. Sure it would have been nice to have realistic graphics, it feels great to have that classic rpg pixel art style while also having a modern feel. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it when I first bought the game but it fits in quite nicely.
- Difficulty: Four difficulty options, ranging from Very Easy to Hard, and all the other systems such as items, Quietus, and exp grinding in Mock Battles, can be used how you see fit to increase or decrease the difficulty for a personal challenge.
- Price: While a ‘complete’ playthrough of the game will make it very well-worth your money, coming in at around 100 hours to see all endings (and read the dialogue), only a single one will be about 30-40 hours, which is still pretty good for a $60 game. Combined with the fact that the game goes on sale down to $30, the price is pretty good overall.
- New Game +: Normally, I leave NG+ to the Extras section because it’s not really a focal point, but in this game you are highly encouraged to use NG+ instead of save-scumming the endings. I also encourage this, because not only are certain things route-exclusive, using NG+ will allow you to further develop your characters to unlock new abilities, keep better track of things (like how Conviction values are revealed), and overall just try something new.

- Completion Experience: Not exactly the easiest 100%, will take at absolute minimum 4 playthroughs, can go to about 4.5 to reach 5000 in all Convictions, and possibly a lot more if you mess something up or miss something. The problem of sheer length is one of the major issues, as there were definitely several points where I felt burnt out and didn’t want to play that day. If you’re aiming for all achievements, I highly recommend looking up a guide somewhere in order to make sure you get all the information & notes, which can be annoying. There’s also going to be quite a bit of grind to get enough Kudos (a currency) to purchase all the Quietus as well as tier 3 weapon upgrade materials. Overall, it felt like a good completion, but was very long and has a lot of ‘missable-until-NG+’ items that you need.

- Early Game Content: The beginning portion of the game is really slow, which is what turns a lot of people off of the game (if you browse the negative reviews). There’s a bunch of exposition to get you introduced to the world as well as a few major characters, which could definitely be condensed a little, but it is necessary to follow the story without them doing introductions two-thirds through. I would say about a third of the way through the story (20 chapters a playthrough), there is essentially one fight at the end of each chapter. I know it’s annoying to say, but it does get better after the first 5-10 hours, but the good thing is that by then you’ll have experienced a decent bit of combat so you should be able to decide on a refund or not by then.

- KBM vs. Controller: Recommend playing with a controller. It’s not like the keyboard controls are unusable, it’s just that it’s a little awkward. Keyboard combat plays mostly fine (as long as you’re okay with pressing enter for confirmation), but management of KBM controls during dialogue is pretty bad.

Continuing the story of Atelier Ryza three years after the events of the first game, Ryza 2 hits very hard with lots of comfy and cozy vibes combined with a large and varied crafting system. It’s more of the first game but with just plain more. New systems, new story, new items, and new game.

- Alchemy: Not only is the pretty in-depth Synthesis system still the star of the show, you’ve also got the returning fan-favorites, item rebuilding, equipment reinforcement, and item duplication, all which are greatly enhanced by the new systems. The most major new alchemy system added is Essence, meta-items crafted using materials obtained via gem reduction and spending gems, which are used to alter and enhance the material loops in synthesis, which allows you to get even more powerful effects on the majority of items.There’s also the new Evolution Link, which allows you to not only add special effects onto items, but also reveal entirely new items in certain cases, which will unlock new loops to fill in item rebuilding. All in all, alchemy and synthesis is greatly improved upon in this installment of the Atelier Secret series.
- Combat: The combat was also greatly improved in this game. There’s still the regular RPG elements, involving stats, limited-slot parties, and skills with skill cost, but there’s also the Ryza twist with it being real-time turn-based combat. Now that we’ve established all the first game’s elements are still here, it’s time to talk about the incredible new combat features that make everything about combat shine. The most prominent feature is the Support system, which allows you to essentially just bring a fourth party member into combat, with the caveat that you can still only have 3 on-field at a time, and that you just switch members out between your 3 on-field and the one support. Additionally, the Core Crystal system has been massively overhauled. In the original game, you had a limited number of CC that only regenerated upon sacrificing items mid-battle or returning to your Atelier, but in this version, you start out each battle at 0 CC, and can gain more throughout battle by using your skills. And even then, you can also upgrade the initial and max values of each character’s core crystal as well as give elemental bonuses. Not to mention there’s also the powerful Core Crystal versions of Fatal Drives, Core Drives, which are special attacks you can activate upon using specific items at once in battle. All the new features combined with the Ryza 1 combat make this one of the best aspects of the game.
- Exploration: The segmented open world returns from Ryza 1, and it still works excellently, save for a few detriments. For example, if you want to find a certain item, all the in-game guide will tell you is what area it’s in and with what tool. Nothing else. And the fact that in this game there’s a bunch of different types of harvestable things in every area, you’ll essentially either force yourself into memorizing all the important items or just using an online list. My favorite part about exploration though, is that in Ryza 2, the effect of the Mirage Loupe from Ryza 1 is permanently engraved upon your soul. And by that I mean that you always are able to see what materials harvesting something will get you, and it updates according to the quality of your gathering tool. Unlike the first game though, you don’t ever really find yourself going back to old areas (except for the grasslands areas which have several common items)
- Graphics: The already pretty good-looking graphics from Ryza 1 have been updated to be more high quality, and all the areas have been upgraded as well, making for a nice new anime-styled aesthetic.
- Difficulty: Once again, you’ve got the 3 standard difficulty options upon starting the game, Easy, Medium, and Hard, but upon first clear of the game, you unlock 3 higher difficulty options, which considering how broken and overpowered you can make your gear, are a welcome challenge.
- Completion Experience: The achievement grind is a lot more forgiving in Ryza 2. The achievements with the most grind should honestly not be too much of a challenge unless you manage to screw something up terribly. Examples:
Alchemy Compilation - Unlocked all alchemy skills in the Skill Tree: This sounds demanding, but the amount of SP you get throughout the game is super high, and if you somewhat regularly complete requests, quests, and synthesize, you’ll get it in no time. I think I ended the game with like 50K SP extra.
New Super Move - Activated all Core Drives: Despite the achievement description, you only need to activate the core drives ‘Four-Star Aurora’ and the ones you unlock from the skill tree, not all the ones available.
Other than that, no missable or difficulty-related achievements, just more of the ‘complete essentially everything.’

- Price: The price of $60 is just a little bit too high for me. Personally, I got it on sale for $30 (plus about ~$10 for several DLC) and it was well worth it, I would honestly probably buy it for around $45, luckily enough, as of when this review was posted, the game is on sale for half off.
- Story/Lore: In Ryza 2, the story and lore are very separate things. The story consists of (light spoilers) traversing ancient ruins to help a fairy friend survive, and defeating more philuscha once you learn the ruins’ purposes. The lore however, is given to the player almost entirely through the ruin investigation system. You can collect fragments of the past and piece together information to essentially be given a block of text on the history of that ruin and how it connects to the overarching story. Personally, I think it’s nice as it doesn’t intrude on the main story and is right in front of you if you want to read it.

No major downsides, minor ones were covered in their category.

- PSA: I recommend playing this game with a controller as it’s a JRPG. I can’t speak directly to the keyboard controls since I played it entirely with a controller, but just a warning.
- New Game +: Once you beat the story you can either continue your existing save to better your gear and challenge some post-game content, or convert it to a NG+ game, both options of which unlock 3 new higher levels of difficulty for a higher challenge.
- Gathering Item Slots: In the first game, you only had 5 total slots for your gathering tools, but way more than 5 tools, so you had to deal with this annoying system of combining them to be able to fit it all. This issue is fixed in this game by not only providing all slots necessary to equip all tools, but there’s also more slots for the new tools for new ways of traversal. This is a positive, but it didn’t fit in any of the other categories and I didn’t want to make an entire one just for this.

Going in knowing nothing about Fate, this was a fantastic game that is now one of my all-time favorites. Incredible in all aspects, well worth the price, and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Having completed the DLC season pass a year later (and getting the achievements), I’ve updated this review with thoughts about that from my initial review, noted where needed.

I’ll rate Fate/Samurai Remnant a 9.1/10

- Story/Lore: Definitely the highlight of the game. An incredible story about the Waxing Moon ritual, bringing together people from across Edo and even some from other countries. I honestly can’t stress enough how much of a great story this game has, there were several points throughout where I just didn’t want to stop playing to see what would happen next. All the plot points tie together well, you get completely blindsided at times, and each of the endings has their own lead-ups and executions which are all incredible and have their own conclusions.
- Combat: Combat is pretty fleshed out, despite being built on only a few fundamental mechanics. You’ve got your sword stances, which each have their own playstyle as well as pros and cons, You’ve got the Magecraft spells which allow for healing, buffs, and even powerful attacks, and lastly there’s the Servants and the systems tied to them, affinity techniques (special attacks), link strikes with Saber (event attacks), and even temporarily switching to them to use their attacks or Noble Phantasm (ultimate ability). There’s a bit more you can do such as “Riposte” on perfect dodges, but it’s mostly minor. Overall it feels smooth in all aspects.
- Exploration: Despite the game being segmented open-world, it’s quite nice as there’s not much to collect in each area. Despite all locations in the game being in Edo, each location manages to have its own theme among them all, so it’s not just copy-pasted towns everywhere. If I had to complain about something it’s the fact that sometimes certain areas will be blocked due to story reasons and aren’t unblocked until much later in the story or sometimes even NG+ entirely.
- Graphics: Looks great in all aspects. The artwork present in the character dialogue bubbles and CGs. All characters have really beautiful, intricate designs (mostly) that really help them stand out from the crowd. The special effects in combat are great, and the cutscenes look beautiful. Impressive for the game only being about 20gb (25 with DLC).
- Difficulty: You’ve got your standard difficulty options (although renamed): Easy, Medium, and Hard, and then you unlock the ‘Ultra Hard’ upon starting NG+. Can be changed at any time throughout the game, so you’re free to play however you want. (Update: iirc, there’s also been one more difficulty added to both the bottom and top ends of the difficulty options, so more there)
- Price: In my opinion, the $60 for the game is very much worth it for something of this quality, duration, and experience, but I know that it’s a pretty high price to pay for some people, so if you’re debating on getting it based on the price, if it’s not on sale on Steam you could always check isthereanydeal for a discount[isthereanydeal.com].
- DLC: Quite decent, I recommend getting it. Not only are the DLC servants quite good and useful to have while playing through the game, the stories themselves are decently interesting. It’s honestly more of the same from the base game, just with a little break from the main story of the Waxing Moon Ritual. If for some reason you want to just get individual stories instead of the season pass, I’d rate them 3 > 1 > 2.
- Completion Experience (DLC): The DLC achievements are vastly more easy in comparison to the base game, as it’s either a few hour playthrough of a new story or (in the first DLC,) seven quick playthroughs of a tournament (it sounds like a lot, it’s not really that bad), followed by some quick battle and workshop achievements relating to the new servants or mechanics.

- Completion Experience: Mostly a very nice and easy 100% completion, unfortunately there are quite a few missable things that you likely won’t know about or find until looking it up, not to mention purchasing every workshop upgrade will require at least an hour or two of grinding materials, and even then there’s a monster that only spawns in story encounters so if you don’t get enough from them you have to replay the game again. Getting the 100% can take anywhere between 2-4 playthroughs, which sounds like a lot, but after you gain the ability to start in Ch. 2 and fast forward and/or skip through already-read dialogue, you can cut down the time each takes. For reference, my first playthrough took about 25 hours iirc, but when I had to do a third for some last things, I ran through it all in about one 4-hour sitting.

No major downsides, minor ones were covered in their category.

- New Game +: Once beating the story and getting any ending, you can carry over your progress and start the game again in Chapter 2. I highly recommend doing this as not only are there NG+ exclusive digressions (side quests) that further enhance the story experience and you can go for the other endings which are all good in my opinion.
- Completion Help: If you’re planning to buy the game and play it like a normal person, you don’t need to interact with anything online and can just enjoy the story, but if you’re cursed to want to 100% your games, I HIGHLY recommend using these guides (100% Achievement Guide - Fate/Samurai Remnant By Jedo & Fate/Samurai Remnant by VertVentus[docs.google.com]) to help you as it will greatly cut down the amount of time you spend not only playing the game but also just wandering around aimlessly wondering why the Logbook achievement hasn’t popped up yet.
- Controls: Play with a controller if you can, it’s better, trust me.

Honestly had a lot more fun than I was expecting to have. Had the game on my wishlist for a while and eventually just said '♥♥♥♥ it we ball' and ended up having a great ~35 hours. If it's your first atelier game, also a pretty good purchase, as it was mine and I went in knowing almost nothing and still had fun.
Read PSA in Extras, it's very important.

- Alchemy/Synthesis: While it may look boring, it's actually very in-depth. All the items you find have different elements, values, effects, and traits, which can you use to selectively make some really good items. At the start it may feel like you're struggling with the limited amount of times you can slot items in, but later on you'll unlock the ability to upgrade further, enhance, and even duplicate items. There's honestly a lot of possibilites for what gear you can make and while the endgame is essentially just character's best weapon + same armor and same 2 accessories, the way there is a lot more fun as you can mix-and-match with all the items you unlock.
- Combat: You've got the classic RPG combat elements with a limited amount of active party slots, all the standard stats, and skills, and yet instead of combat being turn-based, it's in real time. It may sound weird, but you'll adjust to it quickly, as it's not that complicated to understand if you have experience with RPGs in general, and the tutorials do a sufficient enough job of explaining.
- Exploration: The segmented open world works really well for this kind of game, as if you need a specific thing, you can just look at your material guide and go 'Oh it's in the Forest which I can fast travel right to'. Additionally, there's not an overabundance of areas, which allows them to make it so as you unlock new recipes and tools, you end up going back to areas from before and finding new materials from them.
- Graphics: It's no hyper realistic life sim, but it definitely has that 'anime RPG' style which fits well. Sometimes it can be a bit bland in a small area, but overall it's good.
- Difficulty: From the start you get a decent range of difficulty settings, which can be switched between at literally any point in the game, but you also unlock 2 higher difficulties upon first clear of the game. Gear can have incredible scaling if you do it correctly, making tough bosses easy, with only a little bit of planning. So really you can play the game however you want, whether it's scale up to max and rush through, or take it back and casually stroll by with the minimum needed.

- Completion Experience: Most of the achievements you'll naturally unlock from beating the game, but the last part is to essentially complete everything in the game. Reach Battle Lv. 50, Max Alchemy Level, Unlock All Recipes, Complete all Side Quests, etc. I wouldn't say it's an mindless grind, but if you don't want to put in 2 hours just making bulk amounts of one item for the last few Alchemy levels, it might not be for you.
- Price: If you're just playing through the story with minimal gear and nothing else, the $60 base price is too much, but if you spend your time exploring, gathering, synthesizing, and all that, it's worth it. If you're still aprehensive about the price though, it does go on semifrequent sales[steamdb.info].
- Story/Lore: The story is very self-contained. Essentially every question asked from the very beginning is answered by the end. I wouldn't say it was also a top-tier, 10/10 story, but it wasn't bad either. The reason this is in the person-dependent category is because some people may like to theorize untold parts of a game's story, which again, doesn't have much of a place here.

- Alchemy/Synthesis (SOMETIMES): The major focal point of the game, alchemy, can be a bit annoying at times. First off, the auto-add is essentially useless. I won't elaborate on that since it'll make this section the longest, but both the low and high quality options have cons. The other annoying part is that sometimes the game will tell you that you're able to make an item (it's name won't be red), but in actuality, you have enough materials to put the minimum amount into the first loop (item slot) and synthesize with literally no effects.

- PSA: Please DO NOT play this with keyboard and mouse, get a controller, even if you have to borrow one. The keyboard optimization is terrible. For reference the default equivalent of right bumper (the 'run' button) is E.
- New Game +: Once you beat the story you can either continue your existing save to better your gear and challenge some post-game content, or convert it to a NG+ game, both options of which unlock 2 new higher levels of difficulty for a higher challenge.

O!

Overall a fun game with nice combat, but a few crucial things bring it down to 'good but not great'. Would recommend for anyone looking for a bit of mindless fun, but not anyone looking for the next big story game.

- Combat: Honestly, the combat is probably the best part of the game. It's already pretty fluid on it's own with the 3 different weapons, parry system, momentum gauge (as it builds, you deal more and take more damage), and varying types of monsters. But then you add just an incredible amount of 'essence stones' into the mix that you can mix-and-match between a bunch of slots, slowly unlocking the benefits of in battle as you build up your gauge. Of course there's the basic ones like 'more damage from X' and 'more defense when Y', but there's also stuff like an auto-parry (with a cooldown), crystallization (stun) when breaking parts, and a lot more. There's also your 'idol', which is what you use to heal in-battle, and even in that you can select between a bunch of different types of idols that all have different benefits and types of healing.
- Exploration: Really good exploration. The world isn't overly large, there aren't collectibles spammed everywhere, and most puzzles are pretty short (I hate Sealing Totems). You also are only required to do a few of them for story progression, and a few others for achievements, making for a nice and relaxing time in the game's world.
- Graphics: While it's not anything overwhelming, I would say the world is definitely beautiful for the game only being 30 GB. While there isn't a ton of variation, it's passable considering you can only make so many types of places in the world if the entire world is supposed to be covered in sand, which in my opinion Deck13 did very well.
- Difficulty: Lots of options for difficulty, as there's 3 varying difficulties (that are essentially easy, normal, and hard), with nothing locked behind picking a certain one, allowing you to play at whatever you feel like.

- Story/Lore: The story I feel needed more time. It felt like I was spending too little time on each part of the story despite taking my time and completing side quests and looking for loot. Besides it needing more time, it's definitely more of a story where half of it is you learning what happened to the world, and the other half you trying to change the future, as opposed to you being the sole protagonist. Most of the NPCs are forgettable, but there are a few major characters, which coincidentally are also labeled as main characters if you look at their position on the map. Honestly, the story is hit-or-miss, but I don't think it'll hinder your enjoyment of the game.
- Completion Experience: Not too bad. Most of the achievements will be obtained naturally as you play, with another large chunk being for collectibles. There's only a few achievements that are truly 'miscellaneous', and luckily none of the achievements are missable. There are a few things that are better done when you can, such as completing Airborne with a Heavenly Shrine instead of a regular enemy, but besides that the only real complaint is that Wildlife Habitats can take a bit too long to trigger, and you also have to collect all shards, which there is an excess of, for another achievement, but it's also the only collectible that you can't track.

- Price: The game costing $50 is a little high for the amount of time you'll likely spend in the game, but I wouldn't say it's too outlandish given the quality of the game, however short. Maybe pick it up on sale for $30-40.

- Bugs: I did crash a total of 2 times, but not really sure what happened since there was no lag or issues right before the crash, but either way I just loaded the game back up (which was very quick), and loaded back into an auto save from a few seconds prior. Other than that no major stuttering or lag to note.

Honestly I think this might be my favorite of the 'trilogy'. More of a return of the style of the first game, but with a new added mechanic, being the monster catching for skills, to keep things fresh. (Parts of this review have been copy-pasted from my reviews for the other two games)

I feel like this deserves it's own section to be talked about in the review as I would say it falls into all categories. Basically, after every battle, there's a chance where you can get treasure. Except in this game, either one or two (when there's three) or both (when there's two) will be monster cards of a monster that you fought in that battle. These monster cards entirely replace the skills from the first two games, and also have their own tiered versions, with the quality getting better whether it's through the gem cost, damage modifier, or base damage. The positives of this system is that since every character can use every monster, no character is locked to a specific archetype. You can't entirely escape the class system though as it's visible what each of them is meant to be played as through their exclusive gear and stat growth. The negatives of this is that essentially all of your non basic attacks are tied to RNG, because you not only have to get the chance for a chest to be rewarded, but you also have to pick the correct one. Overall I would say the monster catching aspect of this game doesn't exactly fit into place into a card-viewed RPG, but it certainly is built well enough to not feel awkward.

- Gameplay: This kind of falls into the monster-catching part, as beyond the regular RPG aspects, that's the thing that most stands out. I will say though, almost the entire later half of the game is just a stat check in every fight.
- Graphics (Artwork): While there's still reused designs for the general NPCs, the art on the more major characters is just incredible, leaps and bounds better than the characters from Forgotten Maiden.
- Lore: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, the lore on this version is just great. Not only is there almost a plot twist every chapter, the pacing and progression is just perfect, and there's incredible lore bombs dropped every so often. It really gives you insight into the whole Voice of Cards world.
- Completion Experience: Honestly, wasn't too bad. You may think it would suck because of having to get all the RNG monster drops, but a majority of them you can just straight up purchase with Gold, and another bunch you'll get from just naturally playing through. I think I only had to grind for about 4 of them. Unlike Forsaken Maiden, the post-game boss in this game was actually good. Had interesting mechanics, wasn't too bad especially considering how boosted the stats of everyone are. I personally also never found money to be an issue, and even had maxed out my wallet before heading off to the post-game boss.

- Difficulty: In terms of difficulty, it's essentially on par with Isle Dragon Roars, except every stat is multiplied by 2. For reference, It was lucky to have someone near 40 max HP in Isle Dragon Roars, but in this game, all 4 of my party members hovered around 70 max HP. Honestly, if you get some of the better healing skills (ex. First-Rate Healing, Vigor Spore), and a half-decent attack spell (Anything that's low cost and "Deal ATK + X"), you'll be pretty set for a while. So if you liked the difficulty in Isle Dragon Roars, you'll probably like it here, and vice versa.

- Price: The $30 price tag is a little steep for the amount of time you get out of the game, I'd recommend either waiting for a sale or buying the Trilogy (which effectively cuts the price of each game in half), or both if you want.
- Side Activity: There's a side activity in every town called the Game Parlor, and beyond the first game mode (Simple), all the other ones are entirely RNG-dependent, and the NPCs don't even try to hide that they're hardcoded to target you except for if another NPC is winning by a large margin. And wouldn't you guess, there's an achievement for winning a game in each of these modes.

- New Game +: There is in fact a NG+ mode unlocked when you beat the story, but there's really no reason to play it besides unlocking the exclusive NG+ ring for starting it, as besides seeing the outcomes of a few different stories, which usually have no larger impact, nothing is really changed.

Honestly, it's just more of Insomniac's Spider-Man, what's not to love? Despite essentially being a side game, it's still got a decent enough length for the average person. All in all, it's essentially just Spider-Man PS4, but with less collectibles and content because again, it's a side game. Nixxes has done great with the port as well.

- Gameplay: Very fluid and fun combat system, with Miles's Venom Powers and Camouflage also providing an extra layer to the regular system of finishers, gadgets, and beat-'em-up. Speaking of finishers, they've changed from sharing energy with healing (which is now shared with Venom) to a combo-based system, which I think works excellently.
- Graphics: Game's very pretty. Like what I had to learn from the original, the trade off between lower graphics and faster loading honestly isn't too bad. I usually had my graphics set around medium and it still looked great.
- Story: Honestly a pretty good story. While most of the major story elements can be guessed pretty easily, it's still pleasant enough to play through, however accurate your personal predictions may be. The FNSM app requests as the replacement for side quests also really shine as showing how Miles builds connections with the people in his community in comparison to Peter just fulfilling random citizen's requests.
- Difficulty: Very customizable difficulty options, ranging from a significant challenge to being unable to die, literally.
- Stealth: The stealth sections of the game are significantly improved on in this game. Not only are there no MJ Stealth Sections, the addition of camouflage on top of the already pretty decent stealth system involving scans, distraction, and field of vision.
- Port Experience: Nixxes has once again ported the game over to PC excellently, copying over the main controls of course, but even the new stuff, primarily the Venom abilities, are also transferred nicely and each of them make sense, ex. the Mega Venom Blast is activated by the 'Venom Button' and the 'Finisher Button'.

- Price: While this is a 'AAA' title, the $50 price tag is a little much for a game where you can really only get 25 hours max of gameplay before you resort to just swinging around for fun. Although I would say it's justified for the quality of the game.
- Completion Experience: Significantly less collectible/completable content in comparison to the original, which can either be a pro or con depending on just how much more Spider-Man you want.
- New Game +: Most would assume the NG+ is just for replaying the story and getting that NG+ completion achievement, in the game there's actually a suit, mods, skills, and gadget upgrades, that are physically locked until you start NG+. Personally, I didn't mind it too much since the story can be completed in around 8-10 hours if you rush it, and now you get to mess around with all of the abilities through it.

Honestly, there's really no major negatives I can think of for the game. Most of the negative aspects and complaints from the Remastered version were fixed or changed in this. The most negative thing I can think of really is how there's only 4 gadgets and a good portion of the suits didn't really have any appeal to me, but everyone's got different tastes.

N/A

Pretty good game for the casual player (hence why my review is still positive), but horrendous for completionists. The art style still holds up in my opinion but overall I prefer the first game. Parts of this review will be copy-pasted from my review of the first game.

- Gameplay: Still a classic turn-based RPG, but with the increased difficulty in this title, you really have to factor in buffing, debuffing, and applying status effects instead of just attack and heal like from the first game.
- Graphics (Artwork): While most of the NPC cards are reused assets from the first game, it's passable considering this one came out very shortly after the first one. As for the named characters though, the art remains incredible and beautiful, although in my opinion are a little worse than the first one.
- Lore: Definitely an interesting plot going on here, as while it's easy to see what's going on in the world, it's a little ruined by how little time you spend in each area with each maiden and attendant pair. There were a few interesting plot twists near the end too though which were a pleasant surprise based on the direction I thought the game was going towards.
- Difficulty: The difficulty ramps up a little bit from the first game, which I enjoy. The overworld encounters are still fairly easy, but the boss fights do pose enough of a challenge where you need to at least prepare a little bit instead of just rushing through and overpowering them. The post-game boss in this game is just extremely stupid though, has 1000 HP total (500 HP * 2 Cards) and can easily deal over half your character's health in one hit.

- Stealth: Yes, there is in fact a stealth section in this card-styled RPG. While it's stupid enough to exist, I feel the fact that how this game is presented makes it bearable, as you can easily just look up a guide on how to exactly solve it, which is easily re-creatable. As for a short tip, you can make the guards pass by you by re-clicking on the card you are on, which is never mentioned anywhere, and if you really have trouble, here's a guide.
- Completion Experience: This game takes about twice as long as the first one to complete, mainly because of the difficulty and money. The optional boss fights such as the one in the arena and the post-game boss are very difficult unless you really prepare for them. And while in a normal playthrough, unless you're excessively spending, you'll have excess amounts of money, but when you take into account the incredible amount of items and equipment you need to buy and how expensive they are, completionists will either have to micro-manage their bank account or grind it out in the last area.

- Price: The $30 price tag is a little steep for the amount of time you get out of the game, I'd recommend either waiting for a sale or buying the Trilogy (which effectively cuts the price of each game in half), or both if you want.
- Side Activity: There's a side activity in every town called the Game Parlor, and beyond the first game mode (Simple), all the other ones are entirely RNG-dependent, and the NPCs don't even try to hide that they're hardcoded to target you except for if another NPC is winning by a large margin. And wouldn't you guess, there's an achievement for winning a game in each of these modes.
- Party Customization: Unlike the first game where you could freely switch between 3 of 5 party members and all their gear, in this game. You only have full control over the protagonist's gear. As the story goes on, instead of you maybe trying out different characters, the game essentially just says "Ok you're partying with these guys now" and then you don't see them again until the end of the game. Even in these characters though, the only thing you can customize is their accessory, their weapon and armor is locked permanently.

- New Game +: There is in fact a NG+ mode unlocked when you beat the story, but there's really no reason to play it besides unlocking the exclusive NG+ ring for starting it.

Very classic Turn-based RPG, but with the unique spin of presenting the entire game through cards. Pretty fun overall, but has a few flaws. Will see if the format holds up over the next two games.

- Gameplay: Like I said in the beginning, it's a very classic turn-based RPG. It's got all the standard things - stronger and stronger gear that upgrades your stats, elemental weaknesses and resistances, status effects, and energy-requiring skills.
- Graphics (Artwork): While the card aesthetic of the game effectively rules out rating the game on a traditional 'graphics' sense (although the card parts of the game are very clean), all the artwork presented is just incredible. Every named character has an incredibly unique design and looks great, and there's even a decent amount of detail put into the standard townspeople and shopkeepers.
- Lore: On the surface, you're just dropped into the beginning of this classic 'Hero slays the Dragon' plot, but as the story continues, more truths about the world you've been put into are revealed, and there's a decent amount of plot twists, however unimpactful they may be to the individual's experience.

- Difficulty: Most of the game is quite easy, save for a few minibosses and the final and post-game boss.

- Price: The $30 price tag is a little steep for the amount of time you get out of the game, I'd reccommend either waiting for a sale or buying the Trilogy (which effectively cuts the price of each game in half), or both if you want.
- Side Activity: There's a side activity in every town called the Game Parlor, and beyond the first game mode (Simple), all the other ones are entirely RNG-dependant, and the NPCs don't even try to hide that they're hardcoded to target you except for if another NPC is winning by a large margin. And wouldn't you guess, there's an achievement for winning a game in each of these modes.

- New Game +: There is in fact a NG+ mode unlocked when you beat the story, but there's really no reason to play it besides unlocking the exclusive NG+ ring for starting it, as besides seeing the outcomes of a few different stories, which usually have no larger impact, nothing is really changed.