Recent reviews by Toastywafflz

I may update this when I have more time in the game or if some new crazy insane MTX item hits the store like "B.O.W. H.U.N.K. Turbo Mercenary Shapeshifter Vocation". For now:

1. The MTX items are in game earnable. Do not buy them. I do not think they should exist, but there is nothing that you cannot earn in game by simply playing. Yes, that includes the character customization item and portcrystals, which were an item in the first game. I don't like MTX nonsense in singleplayer games but every single thing you can buy can be earned in game and there's a lot of people acting like they're gating items behind MTX when they are not.

2. The game does have optimization/performance issues. I have an RTX 2070, an i7-8750H CPU at 2.20 GHz, and around 16GB of RAM. It's a gaming laptop that has had issues lately with running other things. That being said, the game has crashed a few times (it was every few minutes in the character creation demo thing). It has only been a couple times so far in the main game, but I have also had issues with framerates, even on the lowest settings. I'll have to play around with that more and see if I can find something that works better for me, but hopefully they'll address these things with patches, because a lot of people are citing issues with performance.

3. I played Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Unfortunately, I have yet to finish it-I need to at some point-but I loved that game. I think the fact that the track End of the Struggle has come back for the second installment sort of says everything about how I feel about the game itself. You get your own boss music when you're about to take a baddie down. That's awesome, and the game wants you to feel awesome. Lots of fun, lots of polish in the mechanics in terms of how smooth it feels compared to the first one, it feels simultaneously like more of what made the first one great but mixed up and updated enough to feel fresh. That's my first impression. Exploration is fun. I've wanted a gritty high fantasy experience and it's a perfect fit.

I do recommend this game, with recognition for its flaws on release. Performance concerns are genuine so make sure it runs well enough for your standards if you pick it up. I can only imagine they'll try to patch things up but I'm not an oracle. MTX are dumb, so voice your displeasure and don't spend money on it, and hopefully someone will get the message. Read both positive and negative reviews and weigh everything by your tolerance levels and your wallet before you buy.

If you do get it, go climb that cyclops and stab it in its big stupid eye with your arrow because even though you picked archer you saw a giant monster and realized nothing was going to stop you from engaging with the climbing mechanics.

I'm tired so I'm keeping this short and sweet for now.

This is one of my favorite games. I loved the first one and the second one delivers on all of the good vibes and fun I felt from playing the first one while adding more things to do or different ways to do the old things, as well as a plethora of storylines with varying outcomes based on your class and lineage. I enjoy the turn based gameplay, the different party configurations that one can toy with by combining the various classes, and the way one can use different minigames, events, and social engagement to break up the dungeon crawling.

While I enjoy the crawling through the dungeon, the social aspect is definitely my favorite part, especially given that it provides meaning and context to the dungeon. The characters are all so delightful, and as a person who thoroughly enjoys character driven narratives and gameplay, I love being able to develop romantic or platonic relationships with such a wide variety of people in a way that feels integrated with everything else that's going on. I mean, your parents are the protagonist and one of the love interests from the first game. That already set my expectations pretty high in that regard, and I've been having a blast so far. Whether it's pursuing romance with one character or befriending another, or perhaps even vexing a third that you might not like so much, it's a good time.

I thoroughly love this developer's work and I can't wait to see what lies in store for this game as it gets its official release and beyond. I will gobble up whatever comes next from this team. You guys are the best. Thank you for your hard work.

I got excited thinking about the game so it ended up not being...really short. But at least it's not an essay. Anyway if you pick it up, enjoy.

Also Musa is the best. That is all.

I got into the series at 4; I was younger and less aware, and so it was the only Armored Core game I truly got into when I still possessed consoles. I've waited over a decade for an experience that hearkened back to the mix of high speed action and tactical forethought that marries the depthful customization options of building an Armored Core with the incredible intensity of piloting it. Mechs are a relatively niche genre, and no other game has felt like Armored Core. For over a decade I have waited to capture the same thrill and joy that I felt piloting a NEXT as Anatolia's Mercenary.

It's a special game to me. I even did an assignment on it in high school. There are some pretty interesting and potent themes explored through the gameplay and the player character's interactions with other mercenaries, other corporations. Joshua O'Brien is never far from my mind when I think of Armored Core. Him and Berlioz.

So a few hours after release, I boot up the game. I see the familiar fonts. Hear myself dubbed Raven as I go from briefing to launch, to mech boots on the ground. Armored Core has returned, and I'm playing it on my PC. Woah.

I am grateful, too, that FromSoftware's tremendous success with Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, etc. has created a new opportunity for their wider audience to give Armored Core a try. We need more Ravens on the battlefield.

Also if you're like me you're going to get into Fashion Core and spend like an hour or two of your life just messing around with emblems before you get on with the first post-intro mission. I dunno, I'm just throwing that out there.

The game itself, well, it feels pretty much like what I wanted it to. I'm not really going to get into the nitty gritty, partially because I'm exhausted as I write this. But I loved 4, and I'm loving this. The game is still mission based, the narrative is delivered almost entirely through dialogue and mission context, and the focus beyond that is dynamic battlefields with varied objectives and enemies. And I'm loving the different play-styles they're enabling with the different body parts and weapons. Every part makes a difference. You can theory craft your dream machine, optimized for a particular approach to combat scenarios, or hodgepodge an abomination made of mismatched parts in garish colors and cover it in rusty polka dots and laugh as you literally clown on people. Enjoy it all your way, and don't be afraid to experiment with your build or change up your tactical approach if you're struggling. Sometimes, all you have to do is quick boost a little more or squeeze some more EN out of your generator. Hook up a faster FCS. Or throw on four bazookas and pray.

Also, now, when you discard your weapons, you can punch everything. So maybe there's a fun challenge idea. Or a desperate final measure...

Now get out there, Raven. Boost dance through Rubicon in style. I'm gonna work my way up and see just how many missiles I can squeeze out of a single machine, then we can all dance together :)

A note that as of writing this I have finished the lovely Naruse Saki's route with the happy happy boing patch installed. I may update it once I've finished the rest to reflect my experience with the rest of the work later on, but I have high regard for this VN regardless based on what I have experienced.

I'll keep this short(ish not really). This visual novel spoke to me. It vibes with me; Protag-kun vibes with me as someone who's relatable and genuine and comically perverted without coming off as a creep or a boring stereotypical VN protagonist. All of the character dynamics and dialogues feel organic; reading scene to scene was effortless and fun. The VN's sharp and humorous writing and solid grasp of its characters combined with its propensity for oozing wholesomeness at every corner, even during "boing time", comes together to create a heartwarming, endearing, hilarious experience that has me loving the time I spent and will spend with its characters. Overall, a well balanced romantic comedy experience that will leave you with that bubbly gut feeling when you just want a good time with good characters and cute happy romance shenanigans.

If you're a romantic like me who loves vanilla cuddly stuff always wants to see believable and vivacious characters and their relationships develop over time, beyond their establishment, then I feel this will speak to you and you'll have a good time. Wonderful VN in its own right, and a good contrast/palette cleanser/pick me up if you've just read/played/watched something sad or dire or emotionally draining. This is a celebration of love in all its forms, physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Might just be the "Advanced Orange Juice" of VNs. On a scale of :(, :|, and :), I give it a beaming ;).

Laconic Review? Short, sweet, and savory.

I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of it; if I had to give it any negatives, it would be the fact that a lot of the character development, and indeed, the narrative flow itself, can be a lot of "go" with no "stop", and some of the asides made by the narration of the PC are a little awkwardly anachronistic (A certain chainsaw one had me rather baffled as to the setting) but overall these issues are overshadowed by the strong grip the plot has on the reader as it sinks its talons in from the very beginning, as well as the music and the art, which I rather appreciated on their own, and in concert with the story itself, I really liked it.

Feels were had. I will not deny it.

This game...oh this game. It's adorable, it's fun, it's interesting. Recettear is indeed an Item Shop's tale; you take on the mantle of your father's incredible debt as Recette, an earnest and sincere young girl who's eager to preserve the house in the name of her father and facillitate the alleviation of said debt by turning it into a nifty little item shop at the behest of an authentic loan shark Tear, the fairy representing the people Recette's adventurous father owes all her money to. To do so, she needs to sell items and make weekly payments while balancing other economic decisions, such as buying stock, and time itself is also a commodity. There're truly different faucets of gameplay to this wonderful gem: dungeon crawling and making dough (not literally, she isn't Alicia and thus doesn't work in a bakery. There is another guide for that kinda thing.)

Time is important as it determines what you can do. You only have X amount of time to do things each day, and certain activities, like going to the pub (no the girl won't get drunk, don't even think about it) for some reason or another, or going dungeon crawling, or operating the shop, or going to the park; interactions with other characters will often happen in places that don't serve an obvious purpose. Operating the shop involves managing the general ambience, as well as determining item placement (window shoppers should be taken advantage of folks), and involves attracting customers to investigate your stock and then haggling with them to get a better price. People will come in and ask for things you have set out, as well as things you have in storage. They'll also try to sell things to you, in which case you haggle for a lower price. Don't be like me and confuse the two, resulting in a loss of product or blowing all your money on a soggy loaf of bread. Successfully haggling and other things improves your rank and what not, increasing your access to X benefit and Y item, etc. Haggling in and of itself is mostly intuitive; you'll quickly realize that different people, like in real life, are malleable to different degrees when negotiating price, and they'll let you know if the price you selected bothers them (or walk out flustered. And beware of the little girl, she's stingy). The items themselves come in a wide variety, from food to clothing to weapons and the expensive dish thingy I found that people ignore in favor of chocolate. Why chocolate?. It's a blast to run through a cave picking up all these weird things and assembling your flying circus of a collection at the store to reintroduce them to society via CAPITALISM HO!

To get items, you can buy stock, but it's best to get it through dunegon crawling; over the course of the game, Recette will encounter various characters, many of whom will become available as dungeon buddies who will slaughter hordes of strange bouncing goopballs to get you chocolate (and a plethora of other items; there's some RNG thrown into the whole thing). You crawl the dungeon, hacking and slashing and using special abilities and picking up items and eventually finding doors to let you exit the dungeon, for if you succumb to the horrors within your ability to leave with all the nice loot you got is severely limited. Boss fights are interesting and fun and the integration of action adventure hack and slash combat with the rigors of running the weirdest store ever provide a unique and delightful game play experience that actually, despite being a mashup of entrepreneurship and super spelunking, works quite well and delivers something I haven't really been able to compare to anything else.

TL;DR

Adventure RPG with hack and slash mechanics, as well as business simulation.

Loli kawaii shopkeeper and friends slay baddies to get goodies and sell them for $ to save the world her livelihood. Cute, fun, unique, I totally recommend this, it's a great experience for me, and hopefully it will be for you too ^_^

Is it not appealing to build a house out of waffles that can fly? Or maybe a bathtub car ladden with rocket boosters and turrets? Maybe a pet zombie - oh wait, you can do that anyways.