Recent reviews by Ralathar44

I was originally an anime watcher, who was surprised this stupid dumb horse girl anime made me cry...many times over the 3 seasons. (Can't believe they made me cry with TWIN TURBO of all characters.)

Tried this gacha game. Pleased to say that its made with love and they retain the heavy character focus of the show. Every character has a ton of scenes and their own individual story career. Each character is unique and while often written around a gimmick almost of of them are heavily 3 dimensional. I was gonna "save" the main characters of the show for later so I chose a 1 star named Agnes Tachyon to start not expecting to care about her. I got invested. It's not Oscar worthy, but yeah...that's solid writing.

As far as the game itself, its kinda of a horse racing story career roguelite. You take trainee cards you draw through their career as far as you can via training decisions similar to Fire Emblem Three houses with the help of your "support deck" which features various support character cards you level up. Each turn must be carefully spent training or resting or etc. As turns pass character interactions happen based on your trainee and your support deck which give you bonuses, so the right support deck for the right trainee will help you focus on the right stats/skills. Each trainee has their own career with different races that have differing amounts of turns between them. Time management is big.

Starting out you're going to fail to complete the careers and your trainee will complete their career and become a veteran. At this point you can at them to your veteran team which has an entire meta game built around it including your quick dailies and PVP (thankfully PVP is very low stress and no losses or anything, quick and easy and a little bonus resources)

5 star are better than 1 star but since its heavily story based on top of the gacha you still want to experience the story of 1 stars so im happy to say that 1 stars are completely worth it to play through. The character interactions are well done and entertaining and often let you choose how to respond.

They do a really really REALLY good job of making you feel like an actual trainer and mentor to these hrose girls, trying to guide them to success based on their individual traits and personalities and at times learning from the characters around you and growing as a trainer yourself. As well as communicating pretty clearly why you as a trainer chose them, and, as the career progresses the writing shows clearly your trainer getting more invested. Whether that's because your trainer understands them better, helps them overcome personal trauma and baggage they clearly get drawn into caring about, or simply get sucked up by the character's quirk and get a bit carried away by them. Over the career the trainer becomes the trainee's biggest fan and the trainee also becomes invested in their trainer.

Again, the solid writing is on full display here. I'm quite impressed. Better writing than 95% of video games.

It's ok, not bad but a decent amusing little diversion.

A good start for a fun game. The shooting mechanics are super solid, the ability kits for the characters are good, and the running on all fours as a limited "super sprint" that also lowers your profile is honestly an amazing edition to the shooter formula no joke.

There seems to be alot of misinformation going on about monetization atm, but it's just a $15 game with stuff you unlock via play. 4 characters currently you need to unlock and it doesn't take very long to unlock a character, maybe 1-2 hours. Battlepass has 1 character on level 8 on the FREE track, which is maybe 4-8 hours of play, Nothing gameplay related is paywalled. The only thing behind $$ of any sort (outside ofc of buying he game at $15) is cosmetics.

Anyone saying gameplay, characters, weapons, or attachments are locked behind a paywall are directly lying.

Somehow buggier than the original game. Looks prettier, but that's about it. Game is an OG of the survival genre and has an impressive amount of dinos but even in this "updated" version shows its age in both design and limitations.

- Starting areas still get roamed regularly by enemies stronger than a T-Rex that are aggressive to you.
- Predators that don't even know you're there intentionally wander towards you. You can be 100 ft up on a cliff and one will across 150 ft of water to start circling under you swimming...all while never having seen you. There is a little randomness to their wandering but they definitely still home in on you.
- Noted numerous bugs already, including disappearing items from death bags, hit detection issues,
- Lacks almost all modern quality of life in modern survival games. Mods are very limited still.
- Interface is cumbersome.
- Campfire is sufficient for very early game but the cooking pot is useless until much MUCH later. This leaves cooking food to be an annoyance. You're stuck with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ food and inventory/fuel micromanagement forever because the game does not have any recipe between early game and end game.
- Multiplayer with a friend has a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ tether system and you can't open drops more than 200 ft away from host either. Only option to avoid this is a dedicated server.

IMO there are much better survival games out there. Ark, even in its updated version really shows its age with how player unfriendly so many things are. It's also buggy and has paid DLC while still being an early access game with all the stuff you can't use clearly visible in the game.

Top tier turn based RPG. Honestly feels like an evolution of existing formulas that has impressed me enough that I want to call it revolutionary. It really nails alot of what it does. I've not had this much fun PLAYING a turn based RPG like, ever. And I LIKE turn based RPGs. My impressions so far are positively glowing.

10/10 Presentation
10/10 Music
10/10 Gameplay that adds new inventive twists to RPG overworld and turn based combat.

+ Jojo Stand" class swapping mechanics have been refined/streamlined from the persona series.
+ Swapping "classes" on the fly mid dungeon for enemy counters and keeping an arsenal of gear is interesting and keeps you from pigeon holing yourself too much. So far there is no dead class or class you can just stay on and steamroll. All are useful, all are needed. The right tools for the right jobs.
+Streamlined "dungeoning" experience with checkpoints and no real need for grinding. (and if you do grind its very fast). Linear enough not to get lost, enough nuggets tucked away to reward exploration. Good balance.
+Evolution of the persona formula with streamlined daily activities. So far its been interesting and far less "work" and time needed than other games like Persona or Fire Emblem.
+Genuinely interesting story about a political power struggle in a gritty setting
+ Isn't a freakin high school with more high school drama. Love persona style/gameplay. So burned out on the high school setting/young person drama.


So far my only "criticism" of the game is that the characters are solid, but they are no Final Fantasy 6 characters. They are merely average so far and prolly the most interesting one I've had in my party so far had to leave for story reasons. Hopefully the characters become more fleshed out and I get more interesting party members as the game goes on.

EDIT: 2nd Criticism. After the first major dungeon there is a MAJOR cutscene/narrative dump that goes on for must be like an hour, perhaps more. I liked the story and the content, but it was a bit much at once. But then it gets back to business. Still a fantastic game, I'm still invested, but oof it was just a bit much.

Still, even with criticisms its prolly my 2nd favorite traditional turn based RPG of all time, just behind Final Fantasy 6.

A good start for a chill relatively hands off city/colony builder. I like the ideas it has and am excited to see it reach its final form. Will update my review accordingly but what is here right now is already quite solid.

One of the best open world building/automation/survival games ever made. It takes that "gotta collect them all" style appeal and fleshes it out to make not only the things you are collecting matter more mechanically but to be far more endearing to you personally. The pals matter, they have personality, they have good uses, and they have really good visuals and a wide variety of combat mechanics. All put in a world that feels fairly lived in and authentic to the lore.

Lots of smart design, quality of life editions, little innovations, and carefully polished and refined gameplay lops.

This is not a copy of anything Pokemon. Pokemon is a very very narrow experience that has alot of issues they've never fixed and has gotten more stale over time. Palworld takes alot of the spirit Pokemon has as jut one of the many ingredients of the game and world it makes. Pokemon honestly wishes it could be as good and fully realized at doing the very different kind of games they do. I WISH Pokemon put this much love and care and polish into its games. They'd be so much better at the different experience they offer.

Seeing Nintendo, a company I've greatly supported for 2+ decades, go after Palworld so hard rather than simply make their own product proper quality honestly saddens me. It's against everything Nintendo is supposed to be and stand for. They used to be the company with THE seal of quality. The Nintendo Seal of Quality. They pushed innovation consistently across generations when other consoles just concentrated mainly on better graphics. They stayed committed to fun and being player first creating games like Smash Brothers because fighting games were miserable for non-fighting game people so they made a fighting game everyone could love. THAT was the Nintendo I loved. They've been slowly transitioning into an arrogant bully though. And I think its high time they got reminded that Nintendo isn't in its own bubble anymore. This is free market competition.

The Switch released between console generations with zero competition for the portable experience it offered and it took them two generations to get that right. The Wii U was a miserable failure and their handhelds kept them afloat through that failure. Today is not the same. The Switch 2 is not gonna have the same advantages. Nintendos name is marred compared to the Switches launch from many things. I think Nintendo might just learn hard lessons this next generation.

I for one will be doing my part. The lawsuit vs PocketPair was the last straw for me. Nintendo burned too many bridges. I will not purchase another Nintendo product until they change their ways. They have the talent for games still. But I'm willing to miss good games to hold them accountable for their anti-consumer behavior, their legal bullying, and all the failings we've given them a pass for like terrible online experiences and hardware defects like joycon drift.

A great game, alot better than PoE 1 IMO but still has ALOT of rough edges. The foundation is hella strong though so with time, love, patches and development its really gonna be something special. Probably.


EDIT: They took the solid foundation of the game that needed work and then set it on fire, peed on it, and gave it back. My optimism was not rewarded, instead it was used/abused/disrespected.

A cute and atmospheric little romp. Decent action combat, great visuals and sense of humor, nice little city builder. It's a bit short at about 15ish hours for a single playthrough, but if you catch it on sale then the price is quite appropriate. Would feed my followers poop soup again.

OutPost: Infinity Siege is a fantastic first try at a new idea. The core is great, but there are rough edges all over the place. Its my hope that a sequel will refine the game and deliver that shining diamond within. This is a game of huge ups and huge downs.



- The first half of the progression curve is very satisfying.

- The Modular weapon "Xen" system gives alot of customization and freedom of different gun styles.

- The wave defenses with your fortress, the core of the game, feel fantastic and really reward every scrap of progression you make.

- The resource balance between building resources and power in combat with kills bringing in resources you need to build more things and pay for ammo while power is being used for on the battlefield upgrades and powers (healing grenades, missile launches, etc) and etc is quite nice.

- The overall resource balancing for building your stronghold and the need to balance between exploration/looting and direct combat keeps the building process a constant engaging balancing act. Fantastic.

- Being able to grab your turret's weapon and use it as a heavy weapon is downright inspired. As is being able to copy a xen gun's build for use for a base defense turret.

- Being able to configure your turrets with ranges and target priority with such a wide range of turret types as well as artillary and active use items is super satisfying.

- Dispatch missions and Base positions you recruit people for and train/gear them up is satisfying meta progression that also helps make you feel like you're not in this alone.

- The research tree and progress I feel is quite well balanced. While it starts to slow down you can definitely choose to focus specific maps to grab specific loot items to massively speed up progress if its a concern and the balance between tech points and research speed is good.




Even if you can clear the previous area with max difficulty max duration recovery day you can easily get crushed at the start of the new area even bringing home small amounts on recovery day. It's a brick wall of a difficulty increase and requires much grinding to bypass. Which quickly becomes unfun.

- Because of the difficulty spike and the relative rarity of the key items you need not only will you need to spam missions in the previous zone for lower rarity resources but you'll need to spam missions in the City carefully taking only what you need. Drones help this alot, but do not eliminate the problem.

- This is prolly the single biggest flaw of the game and I'll break it down by tech:
- Manual ammo loading of turrets at the start is totally fine but ammo creation tech and loading tech should happen way earlier in the progression curve. Autoloaders should unlock at the end of the 2nd Region (Border Woodlands) and Advanced Autoloaders should unlock at the end of the 3rd Region (Snow Ruins) with appropriate building resources for those regions.

- Similarly Advanced Ammo makers and conveyors should unlock at the end of the Border Woodlands with appropriate building resources. Ammo loading simulator is a great place to start to feel great progression. But right now it's 90% of the game. 100% for those who never make it past the difficulty spike of city ruins. These are QoL features and should not be end game tech. And TBH end game tech should combine autoloader and auto ammo making functionality directly into your Outpost. IE any turret that is powered should tap into a global ammo supply and you instead build upgrades to capacity and ammo manufacturing rate/efficiency. As well as an "ammo transport drone" building that shares a limited throughput to your forward bases. This would be the final end game progression ammo management and be a step above even advanced ammo loaders and

- Drones are acquired far too late. They should have been acquired in the snow ruins and require region appropriate resources.

- Battery Pack and Material Storage. These should be obtained late Snow Ruins. Right now a player will end up doing stuff like making a base with 500 pillars.

- No Small Generator upgrade. IMO there should be a large generator focused on increasing core power. Putting hundreds of small generators on pillars should not be an end game activity lol.

- The assembler, dismantler, and Mateiral Converer are core QoL items and should be unlocked and buildable by end of the border woodlands. I would even say they should be unlocked as part of the main quest. These are nuts and bolts foundational items that let you focus on progression.



- Xen Turrets are neat and fun toys to play with. But are acquired too late in terms of research and especially resource acquisition allowing you to actually build them. I was in the city before I finally got enough resources to build my first one. Its a loss to the game to have them arrive that late and since Xen morphs scale by area with the weaker and/or simpler ones happening early and the more powerful and/or complex ones happening later I see no reason for them to be acquired so late in the game.

A building should be unlockable that has a high power and resource draw but constantly regenerates the base HP. This regen should be far too low to save you from your defenses failing but should slowly repair incidental or AOE damage. Make any part that has been damaged in the last 10 get a buff that disables the regen. So if you take a few rockets to your base, but then fend things off...it heals up. Healing guardians, healing turrets, healing drones, etc. So long as the cost is appropriate and healing throughput is limited they'll stay QoL instead of overpowered.

I don't think exploring the is an issue or the puzzles or enemies. But the backpack limits and retrieval and scanning needs some work as this results in alot of tediousness in the search as well as alot of back and forth. As does some of the "open 50 lockers to individually loot 50 things) IMO solve this with the Mule. Give a line of tech upgrades focused on the mule. A story awarded one in Border Woodlands gives you 1 free mule at the start of every expedition and while it is automatically rebuilt for free if destroyed you can only have 1 mule. Give later techs that make the mule better. Faster move speed, the ability to ping an area like a detector, bigger inventory, the ability to vaccum all nearby items in like a 10 ft radius to it periodically, etc. Give a dedicated button to summon it to a nearby location you mark while in first person mode.

Right now after you finish recovery day you have crap laying around everywhere you have to manually go collect by hand. Just let us auto recover all items on the map if we hold out and defeat all enemies. And instead of making us case the POIs on the recovery day map as well for bonus returns, just give us bonus loot for finishing the recovery on top of that. Streamline it. I don't wanna spend 5 minutes picking up loot after a recovery day every recovery day because you do ALOT of them. I've already done like 5-10 exploration days doing that.

Right now recovery day basically boils down to you spamming building things because its more important to your survival than anything else you can do until you are way more powerful than the zone.