Recent reviews by Duskylyon

It's fun and has the genuinely best community I've experienced.

I was really looking forward to RCG2. I played the first one together with my husband, and we had a great time. But RCG 2 just fell flat for me. The dialogue was annoying and unfunny, with characters acting unlike themselves. Fights were... really unbalanced? In an easy way? For example during the final boss, we only got hit once, and the damage was really minimal. It felt like a fake out or joke. Combat-wise there are improvements to the mechanics, but a lot of it ends up being the same as the first game; I was really hoping for an overhaul or redesign of Kyoko's and Misako's move sets. It just kind of felt like you were always waiting for the game to take off, and it never got there.

Music still slaps though.

Since there’s a lot of negative reviews involving Seal the Deal, I’d like to share my experience with it. If you are unaware, Seal the Deal is broken into two parts. Arctic Cruise, and Death Wish. Right off the bat I’m going to say this DLC is worth the purchase for Arctic Cruise alone, regardless of how you feel about Death Wish. Allow me to elaborate. (This review will contain spoilers, so read ahead with caution)

Arctic Cruise is the bonus chapter as part of the Seal the Deal pack, and it is PACKED with content. The level itself is fairly huge. Here’s the locations of Act 1 and 2, to give you a rough idea of the level size. There’s the ship dockyard, deck, guest cabins, kitchen, laundry room, port side, engine room, casino, lobby, child daycare room, dining area, bathroom, upper deck lounge, control room, and various hallways and corridors. Act 3 is a bit different. Act 3 has you playing through a sinking ship, with surrounding platforming icebergs. All of these areas of FILLED with stuff. Rift tokens, relics, various interactable npcs, etc. And on the note of npcs, Arctic Cruise brings back a lot of old favorites. Off the top of my head, The Conductor, Snatcher, Owls, Penguins, Travelers, Mafia, and Cooking Cat return. All of the Acts are a lot of fun and take advantage of each segment of the ship so no area is left unexplored. There’s also a good added level of challenge for this chapter compared to the base game.
Now, along with the base chapter, Arctic Cruise also adds three extra Time Rifts which are HUGE. (I’ve heard there was 7 added for Seal the Deal, but I’ve only found 3 through Arctic Cruice) And challenging. But in a good way.
Overall I was left feeling satisfied. The Arctic Cruise is fun and exciting, and the Rifts are challenging but enjoyable. Based on that note alone, I really think Seal the Deal is worth is JUST for the Arctic Cruise alone. Death Wish is an added bonus that you could chose to ignore. For me, it was a plus. But for some people, it’s a minus.

Death Wish is a bittersweet experience for me. It adds a lot of cosmetic content, which is great! And some of the Challenges are genuinely interesting and fun, like the ones that add things to a pre-existing level. And.. some of them are not.
My gripe with Death Wish is the artificial difficulty. Challenges that are not hard because the platforming is difficult, but because an external force is applied. Allow me to elaborate.
Firstly, what I consider to be good difficulty is something like the Finale, Alpine Skyline, or the Arctic Cruise Storybook Rift. I’m going to focus on the Arctic Storybook specifically, because it did a lot of things I liked. The Arctic Storybook was the most challenging Timerift I have ever done. Why was that? It was because it utilized various platforms, hat abilities, and mechanics to create a very difficult (but not unreasonable) experience. For example, there’s a section where you must jump from a solid platform, to a wire, to a moving platform. It requires some precise movement, but it’s fun and not unrealistic. Another segment I really enjoyed was a wall jumping section involving the Dweller Mask. The Rift properly utilized the Hat and Wall Jumping mechanics to create a challenging experience.
This is my problem with Death Wish. Most of Death Wishes “Difficulty” or “Challenges” are things like, “Get this timepiece the same way you did before, but in 10 seconds” or, “Do the level without jumping”. Ultimately, things that I don’t feel are necessarily as “hard” as they are meticulous. And annoying. Personally, timed things often feel like work, and stress me out. I don’t really enjoy timed challenges. And a lot of Death Wish is that, timed challenges.
On the flip side, the redesigned levels like She Came From Outer Space, and the Charged Up Bosses, are a lot of fun. The Collapsing Rifts, despite being a timed challenge, were also very enjoyable. On a more personal note, I actually did enjoy the “no jump challenge” as well, but I can see where challenges like that would be undesirable for others.

So final verdict. This DLC, for $4.99, is definitely worth it for just Arctic Cruise. I can’t promise you’ll enjoy Death Wish, but you don’t have to ever play it. You can just enjoy Arctic Cruise. It adds plenty of content that is well worth your money.

I’d like to use this review to write a quick loveletter to the devs, while informing new players what to anticipate.
I remember hearing about AHiT back around 2013. I was very excited for the platforming genre to make a return, and the Kickstarter looked promising. A couple months later I purchased the Alpha+Beta access, and I was not disappointed. At that point I had thought the game was fantastic; it could have been released like that and I’d have been happy. Boy did Gears prove me wrong.
The final version of AHiT is simply beautiful. Upon starting the game, you’re greeted with a bouncy, adventurous intro that didn’t even exist in the Beta. It starts off strong with incredible music. When starting the game, you notice so many LITTLE things! Hat Kid has a completely different and unique run animation. When she lands from a jump, she does a little skip. She’s now got different textures in her hair, as well as little idle animations. The worlds are BEAUTIFUL, and fully polished. The feel of controlling Hat Kid is phenomenal. Everything is smooth, and the game controls like a dream. And lets talk about our cast of characters, along with the fantastic voice acting!
Gears did a wonderful job giving AHiT a diverse, unique, and fun cast of characters. You’ve got the stubborn but lovable Conductor, the brute yet witty Mafia, the elusive Goat people, and one of my personal favorites are the citizens of Alpine Skyline. Plus much more! I have to give Gear major credit as an indie company with their first game, the voice acting is fantastic. Seriously, I love everything I hear in this game. From Hat Kid’s sound effects to the idle musings of the Subcon people. It makes the world feel real, and fun to explore. Which brings me to gameplay.
I’m going to admit, personally I’m just in love with the aesthetic of AHiT. But, the gameplay is just as good. Gears does a great job of balancing difficulty, level design, and objectives so the game does not feel stale. You will performing different tasks in every act. For example, some Acts will have you fight a mini boss, while another act will have you trying to gain popularity with the locals. And every world is chocked full of goodies. Whether it’s relics, coins, or yarn. You, the player, are presented with dynamic worlds begging to be explored. Honestly I find myself stopping and admiring levels and how they are designed, as I noticed things developers did here and there to encourage a player to do specific action. Which also reminds me about the title itself, the Hat’s. As one of many incentives to explore AHiT’s world, Gear offers the player a variety of Hats. Each Hat has a specialized and unique function—functions that have use sprawled within AHiT’s world. You’ll find yourself looking at a platform or object and wondering, “Hey, I wonder what this does?”. That curiosity fuels the desire to explore the world, searching for the way to interact with said object or platform. It’s really cool! Looking back on the Beta, I am constantly shocked by what the Gear team was able to accomplish in such a short time, with so little crew. Truly A Hat in Time is an amazing game that is definitely worth picking up, whether you are a fan of platformers or new to the genre.

So much fun with friends. Takes some time to learn but well worth it if you're willing to set away 30 minutes.

Please buy this game, it's really good. I didn't grow up with the DD games, so I'm speaking of a point with no nostalgia. I went back and played the old games, definitely prefer this. The combat system is really tight. Includes dodging, kicks, punches, grabs, and a few special moves like the crouch spin kick and the knee drop. There's also a plethora of weapons enemies will drop that are fun to use in combat. It also has an upgrading system where you can control your players stats as well as which super special move you want. The game also features co-op which is super fun to play with a buddy. Story is simple but great, I love Skullmageddon. It's just loaded with 80's goodness and lord, the soundtrack is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great. I love it. I wish there was an option to purchase the soundtrack. If you like beat em ups, the 80's, and cheesy plots you'll love this game. I really hope it gets a sequel.

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse is great. It’s a simple yet addicting game where you play as one of the four main characters and hack and slash through hordes of enemies. Each character is fun and unique to play as, leaving lots of replay value to find your most suited and favorite playstyle. (For example as Ruby, I like to stun enemies with ranged attacks and then go in with a power attack) The locations are varied, beautifully designed, and shaded. Character models do not exactly resemble the show but still look fine. There is an enticing skill system you’ll find yourself coming back to in order to unlock new and powerful abilities. The game also features a funny and interesting dialogue, and you’ll enjoy hearing each and every one of Yang’s puns. In addition to all of this, there is also a ranking system, which allows you to increase your hunter’s rank after you’ve maxed every character’s level and completed select challenges. All in all this leaves for an immeasurable amount of playtime. So why a negative review? Because despite everything, this game is missing key features. Combat itself is okay but nothing notable. Generally speaking enemies are damage sponges. You continue to whack away at them until they die. For example the Beowolves. Although hits from these enemies will take a chunk of your health, it’s fairly easy to just spam the dodge button and escape from them, leaving no sense of actual challenge or skill. For the most part the enemies aren’t even difficult. They often stand around, wait a few seconds, and then execute a fairly easy to dodge attack. (I would add the android/robot type enemies as the sole exception) Therefore there’s no real sense of challenge. Most of the difficulty comes from trying to survive hordes as opposed to an enemy itself. Which is alright but definitely a bit lacking in substance. This game was supposed to release with a horde mode. As mentioned earlier, this would maybe rectify the games lack of challenging AI because most of the difficulty and substance of the game relies on hordes instead of individual enemies. However as of the day this review was posted, there is no horde mode. Furthermore, teamwork is virtually nonexistent. For a game that prides itself on being similar to L4D2, It really falls short. The most teamwork you’ll probably ever get out of this game is if one of your members dies and you’ll need to revive them. Oh, but that’s the thing. If your teammates chooses not to revive you, your character will just revive after a set amount of time. So there’s no actual consequence for not helping each other. Not to mention each character is set up in a way that they can all play independently of each other. So despite having a full team, you’ll find you often don’t need each other and can just go off and fight on your own. It really is disappointing. And finally, there is no Team JNPR. Yes Team RWBY is great, but eventually you’ll tire of the four characters. For a game with only about four hours of campaign, there’s only so much you can get out of a limited cast. Adding another team would definitely increase the value and playability. Supposedly JNPR is planned but is also not part of the game currently. With everything I’ve listed, I’d say this game is definitely not worth $25. It’s very much incomplete. $15 sure; it's simple, it’s fun, and it’s RWBY. But $25? No. The campaign is short, it’s missing a promised feature (horde mode), combat is flawed, and you only get four characters to play as. So my overall verdict is this. If you’re a huge fan of RWBY and don’t care about price, buy this game. You’ll love it. You get the main cast, some fun hack and slash combat, and an interesting side story. But otherwise avoid it until they at least add Horde Mode. Or buy it during a sale.

...I think I just died?

Rode a pig into the sunset by rapidly knifing him.

10/10

I accidentally deflected a flying hatchet with a bullet.

10/10