Recent reviews by Smegmagician

Phenomenal remaster of both original games, and I deeply appreciate the inclusion of all of the artbooks, behind-the-scenes videos, timelines and lore, as well as the inclusion of portions of levels that were cut, along with a summary of what they would have entailed.

Definitely feels like the natural progression from PoE 1. Can't wait for the rest of the skill and classes to arrive after the devs have the full release. Glad to see the direction they're going in, and obligatory "better than Diablo 4"

Very common to have it compared to being a mix of:
1. Tarkov - looting, extraction, base upgrading, trader questlines, etc.
2. Stalker - setting and anomalies
3. Project Zomboid/Enter the Gungeon - only because it's a top-down 2D lol

and all of that is mostly accurate, but it still feels like a unique experience in its own right.

It has difficulty options, as well as player/enemy health/damage sliders, exp/trade value/trader money multipliers - all of which create greater accessibility to a broader audience of players. There is also an in-raid map for each of the locations, and it directly marks where you're supposed to go for nearly all of the quests. Each of the 6 maps are procedurally generated to varying degrees, as well.

It has me hyperfixated right now, and has been taking up all of my free time for the last few days. Definitely recommend the experience, but there is a bit of a learning curve.

It's the Dragon Ball game I've wanted since Tenkaichi 3. Raging Blast 2 came close, but this just does it right. I would love some more of the combo menu button information like in those previous games, but it's not really a hindrance.

An absolute joy to play for any fans of traditional JRPGs, and definite upgrade from the first in terms of quality of life improvements to streamline gameplay.

Honestly this game is just incredible. It's everything I've wanted out of a COD Zombies style wave-based shooter. It has perks available at stations around each map, mystery weapons, upgrading guns, but it also adds a miracle system of passive perks that you can build each run in a rouge-like style that work in synergy with each other; as well as the ability to upgrade your guns multiple times, not just once. But that only begins to brush the surface of the overall progression system that you have for completing each map- which yes, you can complete because it has actual quests with puzzles that you do during the game. 4 Maps currently, all with unique quests that end in a boss fight (but does it really end the first time you kill the boss?)

I think this game is fantastic, and a few of my friends and I were fully convinced to buy the game just after the first few rounds of playing the demo. You can certainly rest assured with your purchase of Sker Ritual, I cannot sing its praises enough.

rotten pp fun with mods

I'm a huge fan of the classic games, played through all of them on the PS1 growing up. They did a fantastic job giving it a modern face lift. A nice addition is the expansions to each of the games that the PS1 versions never had, being included in this bundle. You have each of the 3 games in one place, where you just arrow up or down to switch between them - featuring their original menus as well, now with the aforementioned face lift applied.

All of the in-game cutscenes are also given remastered versions, running in-engine as well.

You can seamlessly transition between the classic and modern graphical settings, as well as choosing the classic tank controls and a more modern style of movement controls. I personally prefer the tank controls, because they just make sense with how the game was originally designed, especially in terms of like backflips and whatnot.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who is an OG fan or anyone who has ever been curious about what the games were like. It also takes next to nothing to run, so on any modern system it will run at your maximum frames lol

I genuinely hope they continue this trend and remaster Last Revelation and Chronicles (4 & 5) as either DLC or an additional release later.

I def recommend it to anyone that enjoys the older 16-bit style jrpgs (in the vein of Chrono Trigger), it's super charming and has great depth.

Bruh it's unanimously game of the year for 2023, and honestly would be hard to beat by any game released in the last decade or more.