Recent reviews by Xinffert

This game is a piece of art and an absolute passion project from the devs. I would like to compare it to Baldur's Gate 3 in that regard and if it wasn't for that game I would easily call it my game of the decade so far...
...which I will call it anyway, just not as easily ;). I just love the combat here way more and the story more unique.

It does have it's flaws in terms of pacing near the end, but that is fine and kinda feels likeable/authentic for the experience to me.

The soundtrack is simply a milestone and a masterpiece.

Awesome graphic style, great level design (backtracking is suprisingly low for a Metroidvania which is awesome! The game does a great jo at leading you to the areas you can explore further after getting new skills).
I am about 85% through but until now the difficulty is very forgiving thanks to the healing mechanic. You can artificially make it much much harder by not using it, but it feels good for me as it is.

This is the first RPG on PC that truly feels like a roleplaying game. If it continues like this (still in Act 1) this might be the game of the decade or more.

It wants too much.
Scratches multiple interesting topics / story branches without ever fully exploring them but putting fancy sounding text snippets all around them.
Minigames are meh.

It had it's moments but overall it seemed highly overrated to me. More of a 60/100.

This feels just like trial & error to find out where you can even click way too often. The results are then extremely superficial / oversimplified. Felt like a timewaste to me.

So here is a little review of my #1 game of the year and probably #3 of the decade, right behind Witcher 3 and Life Is Strange:
If someome happened to reimagine some SNES classics like Secret of Mana, Terranigma and the likes of these combined with the experience developers have made in the past decades then this might be the result.
In short: It is awesome.
To me personally as someone who has been gaming for >32 years the story feels pretty fresh. Big parts of it can be found here and there in several Anime/Manga, but in games the setting is definitely still rare.
The main character is very likeable, partly because of surprisingly well done facial expressions in the dialogues.

But to the gameplay just focusing on the points that matter the most to me as everyone can watch a trailer:
It's a great mix of puzzles and fighting. Fights which are often enough not a no-brainer and puzzles for which the same can be said. I feel taken seriously as a player who has played the classics. I understand some parts can be frustrating but as you can adjust the difficulty for both fights and puzzles this is not a problem anymore. In addition we have internet, not like back in the times of SNES - but you should not get stuck like ever with a bit out-of-the-box thinking.

Graphics wise it is full of details and very atmospheric (also due to the music or it's absence at the right time!).

One other thing, but an important one to me: The learning curve feels as perfect as possible compared to any other game I have played. Period.
Mechanics are introduced well and the puzzles/fights both get gradually harder just in the right speed. At the same time it does not feel to me like there is an unnecessary repetition of the same use of abilities. I only missed an explanation of lv2/3 combat techniques, but that could be my fault overreading something. I don't know.

As a last thing I want to say that only comparing it to the SNES classics is not exactly right. Combat is more fast paced and both the RPG and exploration parts are way bigger. Perhaps it is a Witcher 3 in a smaller 16 bit world put in a blender with those SNES classics.

But if you have any love for these mentioned other games: Go for it!

Edit: I am now just pretty much finished and still motivated to get 100% everywhere for some reason. Did not have this feeling since SNES times when I did this simply because games 'had' to last. Awesome game :3

Definitely the best free game out there.
A dating sim. Which is not a dating sim at all.
While it appears to be one for quite some time the real fun begins in the later stages.

A pretty awesome game. Any more details would be spoilers.

So looking forward to further games from the developer.

If you liked Unepic it is very likely that you will like this gem as well.
It starts off not really special but very soon gets that Unepic feel once you get your first items/skills.

I had this on my wishlist forever because I never tried a "visual novel" and the story sounded appealing. I did not expect much gameplay wise, but that part turned out ok. Actually more than that as it made the game far more than a read-through.
Why I highly recommend the game: The story with its twists is extremely well written. Going into detail would lead to spoilers so I'll just stick with that. The story is awesome and I immediately got the sequel after finishing this one.

On my list of "Must Play" games from 2015 this is clearly #2 behind Witcher 3 and ahead of Her Story and Ori.
You get a highly athmospheric, calmly told adventure with a great view on timetravel and butterfly effect stuff.
Headphones recommended.