Recent reviews by Razormaid

THANK YOU Paradox for taking my suggestion of hostages/wards! I finally get to have my own pet Theon Greyjoy.

I'm going to give Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising a temporary positive review until "Hundred Heroes" releases and I have a moment to dig into that (the true game) and find out how "Rising" affects it.


So, I'm the type that played through the entire Suikogaiden series (Suikoden), beginning in the mid-1990s with the original title on PS1. I even suffered through Suikoden: Tactics and Suikoden: Tierkreis. Not having enough of the franchise or the formula, I also chewed my way through "Exit Fate" (it's excellent, check it out). So, when I heard of the Kickstarter that was going to be another one "those" spiritual successors with one or some of the original auteurs/leads/staff, I was on board!

"Rising" sort of reminds me of what Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes was pejoratively labeled after it's release: a $40 demo (though Rising is only fifteen bucks). This title feels, looks, and plays like *another* Unity-gussied, quasi-mobile trash port being hawked on every platform. It's essentially one very large drawn-out series of fetch quests to collect stamps and inadvertently complete a town full of motley interlopers.

I give this title a (tentative) positive review because, if you're like myself and have seriously been yearning for more Suikoden due to Konami being utterly worthless, then you can see as you play all of the cameos and potential tangential, self-referential nods to the greater gestalt. You can clearly walk past character sprites that are obviously not Bob or Sally the NPCs, but are (yet) named and portraited characters. *Some* characters obviously do make an appearance to a variety of magnitudes. All of this is tantalizingly agitating because you know it *has to* have some kind of profound tie-in to "Hundred Hearoes."

Nevertheless, we'll see. This could be pure bait 'n' switch pandering for folks like myself. Until Hundred Heroes releases, this review hinges on how Rising alters it. Just saying, it better not be some trivial bullshiite like when porting Suikoden 2 to Suikoden 3 was. Fingers crossed.

There's decent ideas in this DLC, but not enough to justify calling it an expansion or charging $30. As it stands, this feels like a gimmicky $10 add-on.

Also, the BUGS. Jesus, this game plays so unstable now. Not cool to spend twenty minutes completely tweaking you ruler (via ruler designer) and coat of arms, only to have your start completely bug out and have an empty court.

It has trashy Rouge elements, but the pixel art and soundtrack are definitely evocative of ages (and consoles) past.

Once touted as a "$40 demo," Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (MGSV:GZ) is well worth the cash. I *just* achieved 100% and that took 30 hours (according to Steam). Whether or not you are one of those types that fallaciously calculates time spent to completion equaling a specific dollar amount, all can rest at ease because MGSV:GZ has been out for quite some time now and is much cheaper than the original $40 pricetag, not to mention it often goes on sale (I recently picked it up for 90% off).

If you're not going to play MGSV: The Phantom Pain afterwards, I would honestly skip Ground Zeroes all together. However, if you are planning on continuing the (unfortunately unfinished) excellent MGSV saga, I would *highly* recommend picking this up as the save file from Ground Zeroes carries over to The Phantom Pain, giving you a bunch of goodies. It's funny playing Ground Zeroes and then continuing onto The Phantom Pain because you can see how Kojima's team really polished multiple features from the two titles.

Buggy, crashes often (especially in the last game), and the cloud save system caused my several hundred hour campaign to disappear.

Such a wonderful game. It's Metroidvania with a peppering of hardcore platforming. The score is evocative. The palette and sprites are spot-on. The tidbits of lore always have you hungering for more pieces. The biomes are distinct.

The only complaint I have is that I wish there was more (sequel notwithstanding). Hollow Knight is, hands-down, the paramount example of indie Metroidvania. You should buy & play it!

One of the best non-Mount & Blade Mount & Blade games out there.

This is fundamentally the BEST FPS game ever made, hands-down.

Still waiting for Half-Life 3 (or Episode 3) :(

Kickstarter backer here! This game is a joke!

Have you ever watched an episode of the original Japanese "Iron Chef" that was dubbed in American English and noticed how the panache host drew out his catchphrase, "allez cuisine"? Yeah, well, the voice acting in this game sounds just like the dubbing from Japanese Iron Chef, but totally taking itself way too seriously as to stay in character.

Have you ever played a really, REALLY terrible excuse for a tactics-based isometric RPG (i.e. Tactics Ogre/FFT clone) such as Vandal Hearts 3 or any of the Mercenary Wings trash?

Have you ever played something that had such an atrocious English translation, you thought you might have been experiencing Engrish as spoken through a dirty toilet bowl?

Have you ever played a modern PC game port that looks like it was ripped straight from its mobile-version original?

Have you ever read the platitudinous marketing blurb on the back of a bottle of shampoo or toothpaste and thought, "wow, this is inspiring prose"?

If you are a living, breathing, human gamer looking to fill a tactics-RPG fix, make a beerrun first, because this one is a good-bad pooper best enjoyed if you're looking to lampoon it the whole way through. The music perfunctory, the sound effects and animations are cheap and flimsy. The dialog and story are..well, laughable. The entire experience feels like a cynical knockoff of a knockoff, which could've feasibly worked had the overall presentation been better.