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Recent reviews by SixKeys

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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
9.1 hrs on record (8.0 hrs at review time)
It was wonderful seeing familiar Nordic creatures and setting in a video game. While there are intense moments and terrifying enemies, the game is only nominally horror-flavored. It could perhaps be compared to a Brothers Grimm story where a seemingly innocent story is laden with disturbing details, not so much heart-pounding anxiety.

The environments are absolutely beautiful and the gameplay straightforward enough that the game is easy for casual players to pick up. However, there are some difficulty spikes which may get in the way of the enjoyment of those players who went in expecting a leisurely stroll through an interactive storybook. One of my frustrations with the demo was that it wasn't always clear what you were supposed to do and the same applies to the full game.

Aside from a few frustrating bits I enjoyed Bramble a lot. Perfect if you're looking for a game you can finish in a weekend, with many memorable encounters and an immersive atmosphere.
Posted August 19, 2023.
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3 people found this review helpful
80.2 hrs on record (78.9 hrs at review time)
Roots of Pacha is a game that will inevitably draw comparisons to Stardew Valley and many other farming games. However, Pacha has plenty of unique ideas that keeps it from being a clone and might inspire a few imitators of its own.

Roots of Pacha is highly community-oriented, both in its story and its gameplay. Instead of building and upgrading things to become the most prosperous individual in town, you're doing those things to help your entire village. The more you help out, the more your fellow villagers will pitch in, too: as you explore, discover and gain friendship, the other clan members will come up with their own ideas that will in turn aid you. One clever example is that at the beginning, you can only rely on the sun's position in the sky to keep track of time. Once your villagers invent the calendar, you gain access to an in-game clock. You will not be able to do and invent everything on your own, you need your clan members. This allows Pacha to maintain a sense of discovery into late-game.
(Speaking of time; the default day length is a little on the short side. I found myself enjoying the game more after increasing day length in settings to max.)

The game is more pacifist than Stardew: there is no combat, but the game replaces this with clever and charming puzzles. You'll still be mining for minerals, but you'll also gain animal powers that help you progress in the caves.

Another fun interactive element is the ability to customize the furniture you "buy" from villagers. The game allows you to make each pot, vase and jug unique by painting anything you like on them. You can also hang your little drawings on the walls of your home.

The festivals are varied and unique, again focusing mainly on community. No trying to win the title of Farmer of the Year here - instead you'll be joining snowball fights, playing in a band, tug of war with your teammates, and more.

The game has a few rhythm- and music-based features, including taming animals with your flute. The taming itself is fun, but gets grindy if you try to catalogue every single variant and breed legendary animals.

The control scheme is a little unintuitive. Instead of having one inventory for everything, you have three separate ones: a seedbag for seeds, a toolbag for tools and a "general" inventory for everything else. Sometimes you have to manually assign seeds in order to have them show up in the inventory wheel, which gets unwieldy considering each season has a slew of different crops.

Roots of Pacha is still a developing game with many more features planned. It's already well worth its price at this stage, having plenty of content to keep you busy. I'm pleasantly surprised to have found a game that sets itself apart from many other farming sims out there, and looking forward to future updates.
Posted May 31, 2023.
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1 person found this review helpful
25.7 hrs on record
(NO SPOILERS)

Beautifully stylized, thoughtful and enjoyable role-playing game, in the old-fashioned sense of the word. You won't find skill trees, levels or loot here, but you will find a story with well-written dialogue and choices with real weight.

The game doesn't outright tell you whether your choices were right or wrong, good or bad. You just get to live with the consequences and watch as the world keeps on turning. It's one of those games that makes you think about how history is written, by whom and for what reasons.

As someone who doesn't play many detective games it took me some time to figure out that I had to use my time wisely as it's limited to specific times of day. You will have to choose carefully who to talk to at noon, supper or evening, and to be thorough with exploration and investigation. Sometimes vital clues may present themselves at the eleventh hour if you make sure to talk to everybody. Sometimes you will curse yourself after having chosen to spend time with the wrong people as you are left with little more than idle gossip when you hoped to discover crucial information. But what's done is done, no save-scumming here. The game offers great replayability as you will no doubt be left wondering how things might have turned out had you made different choices.

For history lovers this is a must. Not only is the art style a beautiful homage to the time period the story is set in but there is also a vast glossary of historical terms, places and people, handily embedded within the dialogue in the form of clickable words that act as footnotes. (I especially appreciated the repeated links to people you've met in the game as the cast of character is huge and it can be easy to forget who is who.)
You almost feel tricked into learning things as you play, but it never feels like a lecture. The game was clearly made by people with a genuine love of history and I can't help but feel it would be an excellent educational tool, presenting the study of history in a manner that is gripping, immersive and easy to digest.

The stylized art also extends to the dialogue which is presented in a variety of medieval fonts, depending on the speaker. These can be a little hard on the eyes but thankfully there are some nice accessibility options that allow you to turn off the stylized fonts or turn text-to-speech.

Towards the end I did begin to feel the story stretched a bit long, especially as the "thread-puller" was not particularly hard to guess, but your mileage may vary.

All in all, very enjoyable and especially a treat if you're a history fan. If you're not, this game may well turn you into one.
Posted January 6, 2023.
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18 people found this review helpful
35.8 hrs on record
I'm going to recommend the game with a big caveat: the game is worth your time *IF* you're excited about Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and want to get to know the world and characters a bit more. I doubt there is much of interest here to anyone else.

You might be looking for a casual, straightforward and easy game to play just to ward off boredom and sure, this game checks all those boxes. However, be warned that there is a lot—and I do mean a *LOT*—of fetch questing and backtracking. Even if you're used to this in other JRPGs, this game is really all about busywork. You'll be sent to fetch the same materials and trudge through the same handful of areas over and over and over again, and the majority of townspeople quests are literally just "Go talk to this person on another street, then run back to first area to report to questgiver". Best played in short bursts, like a mobile game.

Positive aspects: the graphics are charming (especially the backgrounds), the music is nice, and there is a lot of heart in the characters and dialogue. One nice little detail is being allowed to name a few things like our weapons. It would be great if those names carried over into Hundred Heroes.

I was initially excited when I heard this small side game was much longer than I anticipated. However, in this case less is more. The game could have easily cut -50% of its content and not been any worse for it. Fans of Suikoden may enjoy glimpses into the shared DNA found in Eiyuden's world and characters. If that's what you're looking for, it's a cute and harmless time-waster. Just be sure to keep your expectations in check.
Posted July 6, 2022.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
38.0 hrs on record (4.5 hrs at review time)
Early Access Review
For such a low price this game is an absolute steal. Addictive and a lot of fun, perfect busywork while listening to podcasts. Having several characters and many different upgrades keeps the experience refreshing. The idea of a reverse bullet hell is fantastic. Controls are so simple that anyone can easily pick up the game while mastery is appropriately challenging.

Only two minor complaints at the moment:
1) Menu buttons should be animated so you can tell when you've pressed select. Right now it takes several button presses to confirm because you're not always sure if the game has responded to your input.
2) There should be a skip/fast-forward option in the treasure chest cut scenes. It takes too long for the animation to finish before you can continue.

Those are minor problems though. Will be keeping an eye on the devs' future work for sure.
Posted February 3, 2022.
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6 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
15.0 hrs on record (14.6 hrs at review time)
You can play as a baby duckling. 10/10

On a more serious note, this is an impressive debut game from a small team of developers. Featuring gorgeous imagery, lots of cute animals, a lovely soundtrack and an emotional story. I was a backer in the Kickstarter campaign, spent years waiting for the game and the final result did not disappoint.

You play - mostly - as a wolf who is called upon by a mysterious spirit. Your task is to find out what happened in your past. As the game is fairly short, to say any more than that would be getting into spoilers.
Suffice to say that along the way you will need to "possess" many different kinds of animals to navigate the obstacles in your path. Dig into underground tunnels as a mole, soar into the skies as a hummingbird or parrot, swim upstream as a fish, climb mountains as a goat and much more. While I was aware of many animals that were going to be featured in the game (many of them stretch goals during the campaign), the amount of variety in the final game still managed to impress.

As of writing this, the game has only been out for a couple of days and there are still quite a few bugs to be ironed out. Fell through the map a few times and occasionally got stuck in the landscape, forcing me to restart from a checkpoint. Thankfully, checkpoints are ample and usually only a minute or two of progress was lost.

Highly recommended if you love relaxing games and/or cute, cuddly animals.
Posted November 26, 2019.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
2,230.2 hrs on record (435.5 hrs at review time)
I'm constantly amazed that a game with such depth, detail and dedication could be created almost entirely by one person (Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe). Stardew Valley is clearly a labour of love, and it wants players to feel the same love and passion that inspired it. Even after hundreds of hours I'm still discovering new things. It's my go-to game whenever I want to relax and need a boost of positivity.

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into SDV as it really doesn't explain itself very much. The game seems to assume you have some experience with Harvest Moon (which I don't). Everything from how to make the most out of your tools to villager relationships to optimizing your daily routine to efficiently running your farm took some getting used to. But stick with it and you will be rewarded with a most charming (and addictive!) experience.
Posted June 30, 2019.
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3 people found this review helpful
6.0 hrs on record (6.0 hrs at review time)
Charming little game, reasonably challenging. You pick up a cursed sword which starts a race against the clock. You only have 60 seconds to make progress in each area before you die and respawn. Certain items and events create checkpoints, so you won't have to do absolutely everything all over again.

I was intrigued by the concept and it did not disappoint. I will admit to getting stuck in a few places, but for the most part the puzzles are easy enough to figure out. The game rewards curiosity, exploration and observation. It is fairly short (2-3 hours on average) but this didn't bother me at all as I enjoy short games that offer a satisfying experience. If you're left craving for more after finishing your first run, there are plenty of secrets to discover and two New Game+ modes to unlock.
Posted July 31, 2018.
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8 people found this review helpful
119.7 hrs on record (68.4 hrs at review time)
While the Android version of Fallout Shelter was fun, the biggest problem was the lack of "end game" content (I use the term loosely, since there is technically no end). You eventually ran out of things to buy or upgrade and couldn't figure out what to do with your 200 dwellers.

The Steam version plays mostly the same, but with some simple yet crucial additions that make the game more satisfying. You can now do more with your dwellers than just move them from room to room. There are quests, random encounters in the wasteland, crafting, customization and more enemy types. On the mobile version I always ended up with too much Radaway since there was barely any need for them. In this version your base can be attacked by Radscorpions and radioactive Ghouls which you can encounter on quests, too. Now it's always necessary to keep up the production of both Stimpaks and Radaways. It's also possible to customize your dwellers' appearance in the Barbershop and collect themed interior designs.

While microtransactions exist (you can buy Nuka-Cola bottles to speed things up), it's very easy to earn what you need by completing quests, without too much grinding.

A couple of annoyances include pixel-hunting when you want to move a particular dweller hiding behind several others and end up clicking a dozen wrong things, and the frequency of attacks on your base. I've barely had time to nurse everyone back to health from the last Deathclaw rampage when another one is already starting.

Apart from these quibbles, the game remains an addictive little time-waster.
Posted July 15, 2017.
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2 people found this review helpful
5.2 hrs on record (2.4 hrs at review time)
Surprisingly effective point-and-click horror. I was genuinely surprised how much I got into the atmosphere at times despite (or perhaps because of?) the simplistic graphics. There are many secrets and references to Victorian horror classics, but the game stands on its own as an intriguing mystery. Unlike many point-and-click puzzle games of olden days, the puzzles in The Last Door rarely get frustratingly obscure, allowing you to focus on the story and atmosphere. The melancholy, elegant and suspenseful music truly elevates the game beyond its pixelated trappings. The episodes are short, about an hour each, which I found the perfect length for such a simple game. I was so pleased with season 1 that upon finishing it, I immediately bought season 2.
Posted December 26, 2016.
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Showing 1-10 of 12 entries