Recent reviews by Debatra

Idiot devs bent the knee and *removed global chat* because a few people complained about being offended. As expected, their concession still wasn't enough to satisfy the idiots whining about it. Because nothing ever is.

Yeah, their moderation team sucked. No getting around that. But instead of fixing the problem they decided they would rather just nuke it from orbit.

Global chat was at least entertaining to watch more often that not.

I can only assume I got this thing during some free event, because I have no idea when or how it appeared in my Library and I definitely wouldn't have bought it. When the Spring Cleaning 2020 event came along, it was the smallest file size of the games Steam wanted me to play, so I picked it. I'd intended to just Alt+F4 immediately like I did with everything else, but I liked the music and didn't have anything better to do.

The real question is: Why did I then spend a solid fourteen hours playing this game with no breaks? No, seriously. I'm stumped. The core gameplay isn't particularly fun, let alone addictive. The plot is barely there. There are some translation issues (or at least I hope its translation and not just poor writing) that can actually get in the way of things as opposed to just being annoying. (For example: flower seeds have different names in the planting interface for some reason.)

The inventory is a cluttered mess with no apparent way to sort items other than "whatever you picked up last is at the bottom if you didn't already have one". The one upside to that is carrots (the single item you will use most of) will be in the first inventory slot unless you've royally screwed up. And that two-button combo of "open inventory, eat carrot" will be second-nature to you by the end of the first hour of play. There are plenty of other foods, but carrots are the always-available "boring but practical" option, as the fancier things are rarely worth the investment of time and ingredients. If all you're concerned with is raw efficiency, then all you really need are carrots, cotton, and health potions; and the health potions are really just "oops, I screwed up" insurance, because the combat is a tedious joke. Everything else is either just gravy or occasionally needed for a quest.

Intelligence is your One Stat to Rule Them All. Increase it at every opportunity. It increases you magic (which you might use if bored), your energy (which you need to do anything of value aside from crafting and eating), and the prices you get from selling items. If you sell an item to someone who is particularly interested in it (marked by a little star in the sell screen), they'll pay top dollar for it. With high enough Int, you can actually sell stuff for more than that same person will charge you for it. You probably won't make a ton of profit this way though, except maybe the most expensive items. Selling an item doesn't actually add it to the merchant's sales inventory, and they won't sell you more than five on an item at a time, so you can't infinite loop it. Not that you'd really need to with this game's economy.

With all that said, you may fairly wonder why this review is marked as positive when I've spent the last few paragraphs tearing it to shreds. Well, it's the same reason I spent fourteen solid hours playing it until I started falling asleep at my keyboard. It's the same reason I'm probably going to play it even more later.

...I honestly have no idea. I don't like this game. It's not particularly fun, let alone addictive. It has some major issues that would make me give up on a game much faster than this. This isn't a joke setup. I'm genuinely clueless here.

Never spend money on this game, but if it happens to mysteriously appear in your library, maybe give it a shot.

Also, don't waste valuable time and energy chopping down trees manually. Pick a place for your wood farm, plant ten or so close together, then walk into them with a lit torch when you're ready to harvest. The logs won't burn, so you lose nothing except what despawns before you can grab it.

EDIT: And then the ending, or rather the abrupt lack of one, comes right the ♥♥♥♥ out of nowhere while resolving absolutely nothing.

Minute-121: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33092202-Minute-121/

Obviously GRIS is a beautiful game. You didn't need me to tell you that. While being so captivated by the visuals that I could only repeat generic words like "beautiful" or "interesting" may not make for an entertaining review, it's definitely a big mark in the game's favor. I also wasn't expecting the platforming to be quite so good, with some segments that actually managed to make me think about how to proceed.

Overall, I have only two major complaints about GRIS. The first is that it's not always clear which direction you're supposed to go. If this game gives you a choice of paths, there usually won't be any indication of which one will advance and which will lead to a collectible. This is especially grating for someone like me who prefers to explore and collect everything. The second is that the options menu can only be accessed in-game. There is absolutely no excuse for it to not be available in the main menu. This is basic. But still, these points aren't nearly enough to advise against buying it. Definitely keep this piece of art Beyond Minute-121.

While it's not a bad game per-se, it's not worth the price of admission. Only consider this game if it's massively-discounted, and don't bother with the overpriced DLCs even if they are.

Also, you see where it claims to require 85GB? Yeah, that's a lie. The game requires over a hundred GB at time of writing, and that's only going to increase as time goes on.

Full Disclosure: I backed this game on Kickstarter. I'm not sponsored or anything, but I do have an oh-so-snazzy statue.

Minute-121: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33092202-Minute-121/

So far, Legend of Cenama is a pretty good game, though it isn't without its flaws. Not being able to re-enter the Catatonia Cavern was annoying, and a misaligned sign in the cave was just egregious. I also think the item drop rates are a little too generous, though that might just be good luck on my part. The Ring of Life seems a bit overpowered, and the fact that you can get two of them so quickly either doesn't bode well or is a signal that it's only a really good item in the early game. That the game just drops you into the forest with little context of what's going on is a big knock against it, as first impressions are everything. And will someone please tell me why the King of Cenama wants to talk to you, personally? Actually, don't. Maybe it's a spoiler. Fullscreen would also be nice.

JRPGs seem to be one of the "love them or hate them" genres, and while I tend to love them, I know full-well that isn't universal. If you're on my side of that fence, and you don't necessarily need a huge challenge, you'll definitely want to at least give Legend of Cenama a try. Give it a shot, and feel free to go Beyond Minute-121.

"What if Darkest Dungeon was a JRPG?"

A lot of people are making that comparison, and it's pretty accurate. I'm usually a fan of the latter, and I certainly don't dislike the former. It's not my cup of tea though. I don't "regret" buying this game or giving it my time, though I don't expect I'll be playing it much more than I already have.

What's being said in so many of the reviews, "VtMB meets Diablo", is inaccurate. It's really more "Diablo with a vampire character".

But it's still a good game. Definitely worth trying out.

This game recently saw its thirteenth birthday. While the original devs have long since given up on it, the community is still bringing out amazing patches and mods.

I will freely admit this is borderline-unplayable without one of the bigger unnoficial patches. Which you use is your decision, but be sure to grab one.

As for the game? It's a classic, and for good reason. Perhaps even a timeless one. Buy it. It's fine to wait until its on sale (it frequently is), but buy it.

Highly addicting, unlimitted characters/profile, high level cap, completely free to play, simple enough to get into.

Pretty much everything I'll ever want in an MMORPG.