Recent reviews by ♥Skyknighter

When it comes to fighting games, I tend to usually enjoy my time with them despite not being too good at them. I play them and I have fun, that’s that. I am also someone who likes to play niche games that no one has really touched. Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Sisters EXTND (Arcana Heart 3), is one of those games that has not gotten too much attention out there and I sure enough decided to go check it out.

I should note that I understand I do not have a whole lot of time and I have a good reason for this. However, I should note that mechanically, Acana Heart 3, is pretty good in that regard and I think the game plays very well. It’s just how the game presents itself in how to teach the player to do things, which is what holds the game back. I should also add that I have not played any of the previous Arcane Heart games, so I have no idea how the others played. 

Pros

• Wonderful cast of playable characters
  
• Gameplay is incredibly fun
  
• Beautiful pixel art style that is genuinely nice to look at

Cons

• Does a very poor job of giving tools to help teach the player mechanics
  
• The Arcane System isn't explained
  
• They removed trails mode and arcade mode from the game
  
• Online is dead for the most part

The game takes place in a fictional futuristic Japan, where a dimensional distortion occurred in the Kanto region of the country. This was caused by a being known as Angelia Avallonem this event is known as The Great Kanto Incident. The group known as The International Holy Spirit Institutions suffered greatly after this, although it’s been healed in the last two months.

The story for this game is decent, I don’t know much about its lore because I haven't played the previous games. I think there may be a hidden story that is interesting in this series somewhere, but this game does not really provide an interesting story for me to be invested into it.

Arcane Heart plays like a typical fighting game, although the game does in fact have two unique mechanics tied to it that that I will explain. This game is an airborne-based fighting game, you have a homing mechanic that will allow you to home in on the opponent, it will automatically track them with a single button press and there are certain actions that are performed by using this feature.

There is also a wonderful cast of characters for you to play as well and two new characters were added into the game recently. The gameplay overall is very fun and I actually do think this game is a solid fighter, however, there are a few issues that hold this game back. I should state this again, this game is good mechanically but how the game goes about it, is where the issues lie.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3220379978
I am going to put you in this scenario, you start the game and pick a character, ok we are starting out simple. Then, as soon as you are done picking your character, the game then shows you this.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3220378831
You are now asking yourself, what is this, what are these things and why do I have to pick one of them? These things you see on this screenshot, are called Arcana Spirites these give you passive-based abilities and can also determine your special move. Certain characters are tied to certain Arcana Spirites but the game never tells you which one goes to whom, although this is fine as you can find certain combos to go with others. 

Although the game never explains to you what each of these Arcana Spirites do or what special moves it grants to the player. The only way for you to know any of this is to go on the internet, which is not really something I would think to ever do for a game like this. Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code has three Moon Styles. That being Full, Half, and Crescent Moon Style, did the game tell you which Moon Style fit for which character? No the game did not but that was fine, as there are only three of them. Also, characters could use a different moon style to change how they functioned. They probably weren’t recommended but it was something you can do and the game actually explained to you what each style did.

Arcana Heart 3 has 25 Arcana Spirites for you to choose from, You don’t need to match the one the character is associated with, as you can choose a different one that may work better for that character. However, with the lack of how the game tells you this, makes this game a little complicated. I am not saying that having 25 Arcana Spirites is a bad thing, in fact I welcome it for giving players more options to play the game. But the lack of explanation that the game gives you on these things, is what makes me not like how the developers did it.

Although that’s not the only thing either as there are missing features that were taken out as well. There is no arcade mode and trails mode has been removed as well, trails mode taught you how to play the game. I am baffled on why this feature which teaches you how to play the game, was removed.

Online is also completely dead, so if you are looking for some matches, you may have to get someone who is willingly able to play the game. I also heard that the net code is bad, but I can’t attest to this due to my not finding any matches.

The pixel art style that the game has is genuinely nice and well done with an arcade-like feel. The animations are also well done. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing, and the game ran fine.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3220380374
Recommending Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Sisters EXTND is a bit difficult for me. On one hand, it plays fine and the game is fun but with how the game goes about handling the mechanics and the removal of game modes, this prevents me from fully recommending this game to others. Arcana Heart is a niche fighting games series, with its first two games selling poorly, so seeing this one get treated like it is, is honestly quite sad. If you are still curious on what this game has to offer, then I recommend picking this one up on a sale, other than that, I would skip this one.

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With the start of 2024, many games would come out and one of those games was the newest entry for Under Night In-Birth, being Under Night In-Birth II: Sys: Celes or UNI2 as it’s usually called. Unfortunately, this game was released at a horrible time. This was because a day after, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth came out, and Tekken 8 was the real killer for this game. Although people like me, who enjoyed the previous game, and wanted to play the game, did so. With that, we came across some issues but they were eventually patched out, but how is the game as a whole? This review will tell you about my experiences with the game.

Pros

• Very fun gameplay with some more simplified combos
  
• 25 different characters for you to play as
  
• Custom coloring combinations have been added
  
• Updated soundtrack
  
• Beautiful graphics that look very detailed

Cons

• Online has some issues
  
• The DLC wait time is too long for the season pass to be justifiably

Three months after the events of the previous game, the Hollow Night has returned once again, although a new issue has come up. Kuon The Eternal Re-Birth has now shown himself and when the next night comes. He will try and put an end to mankind, In-births soon start to rise, and while different goals are put into place, Koun must be stopped at all costs.

That’s it in terms of the story for this game, there isn’t any other story that the game has, other than what the characters will go through in the arcade mode. There isn’t a Chronicle’s Mode yet, even though 99.9% of people who played the previous game never went through it. We may get a mode like that shortly but only time will tell, as I think it would be nice if some of the lore was talked about so we know what has happened in the past three months.

The core gameplay has remained the same from the previous entry but has been tweaked somewhat with some improvements. One of the newest features that the game has is Creeping Edge, this is a forward dodge that allows players to roll past an attack, with the cost of them losing some of their GRD. It will also shield incoming attacks while moving the character forward, although they are still vulnerable to grabs. New Force Functions have been added and they have different inputs were added to a few characters.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3210833088
Celestial Vorpam State has been added which allows players to fill their GRD gauge for the player. They do have to win the GRD gauge though with six or more blocks, which is a tug or war-based mechanic, it’s the meter on the bottom center of the screen. Although I should mention that this feature was in the previous game, it’s just Celestial Vorpal State that is new. Guard Thrust inputs have also been reworked, it’s been changed from a 214D to 6ABC, and some EX-only moves inputs have been changed with more improved inputs.

Smart Steer has also been reworked with new finisher moves, which will act as the fourth move that has been executed in the Smart Steer. It can be used in a normal combo and the player could gain or lose GRD, although this depends on how early or late, they use it in the combo.

There are a total of 24 different characters for you to play, with three DLC characters coming out soon, the first one is in August, while the other two are coming out in 2025. Some characters do feel different when playing as them, but their main gimmicks are all there. The ones I liked playing in the previous game still feel fun to play in this game as well. There is a character for everyone in the game, so just pick your favorite and go from there.

The controls for the game have also been simplified as well, there is an auto combo you can do but at the same time, there are inputs that are tricky to pull off. It just depends on what character you use and how you utilize their moves. I liked how they made the controls somewhat easy to pick up and play, it can get newer players into the game.

There is also costume coloring for the characters that have different colors on each of their skins. This was taken from Melty Blood: Lumina and the system works fine here, there are a lot of different colors you can put on the characters and your favorite colors of a certain color set. I really liked this feature as I can now make all my characters wear green.

I only have two issues that I want to bring up with the game, with the first being the online experience. It is similar to the previous title which isn't bad, but the lobby system has issues while you are spectating. It will bug out and you are unable to watch the match as it will kick you out. Also sometimes tabbing out will cause the game to go into a black screen forcing a restart but that's all of the issues I have with online for the most part.

The other issue I have with the game is that the DLC’s are really spread apart, even if there are only three characters, they are six months apart from each other. This technically makes the season pass not really worth the money at the time of writing this review.

I go into more detail about this game in the video that I made on it, so I recommend you check it out if you want to learn more about the game's history and such.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6n33bHNRoM&t=20s&ab_channel=Skyknighter

The soundtrack has been updated with remixed music and they actually sound pretty good. There are a few new songs for the game and they are pretty good as well, my favorites were Tearing Bullet, Icefield White Night, Extreme Steam, Flame and Destiny, Monochrome Memory, and Bad Surface. All of them sound very nice and I never had a song I never liked.

The graphics for UNI2 are beautiful, the designs on the characters have been updated and they all look fantastic, with the stages matching the upgraded experience which look amazing. I love the look of cities at night and this game delivered with its aesthetic. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3210833513
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is very fun sequel to UNIclr that I myself have enjoyed very much. I do hope the game gets some fixes for some of the issues it has with online and for some of the bugs some people have encountered. Although with that being said, I would wait for a small sale before picking this up if you are new to the series and have not played the previous game. Existing fans may still feel justified purchasing at full price, including the DLC, even if they will be waiting some time before all the characters are released.

If I could wish for one thing... it's for the dark spirit to follow Life Needs a Little Sin the trigger of resentment is not pulled lightly

When I play a turn-based RPG, I expect an engaging story, great characters, and fun gameplay. With Sea of Stars winning indie game of the year, I was looking forward to playing, especially since the developers who made it were Sabotage Studios, the same folks who made The Messenger, a 2D platformer that I really enjoyed for its gameplay and humor. When I started to play Sea of Stars, I was actually hooked and found myself playing it more and more. Now that I have put a lot of time into the game, I have to ask myself, where do I start in describing things?

Pros

• The puzzles are very creative
  
• Animation is fantastic when going through the cutscenes
  
• Soundtrack is very well done
  
• Beautiful pixelated art style

Cons

• The writing for the story falls flat, and character development suffers from it
  
• Gameplay, while simple, gets repetitive later on in the game
  
• The game’s mechanics are very simplified and never evolve

The story starts out with Valere and Zale. two Solstice Warriors who have control over Eclipse Magic. This magic is the only magic that is capable of harming these monsters called Dwellers, who are created by the Fleshmancer, an alchemist with god-like powers. They are traveling around with their assistant Garl. Their mission is to meet Headmaster Moraine and two other Solistice Warriors to fight The Dweller of Woe.

That shall be all that I will talk about the story, there is more to it but I would be spoiling it if I told any more. This may make you think I have a lot of great things to say about the story but in truth, it’s the opposite. The major problem with the story is the writing, at first, it started off very strong but later down the line, the cracks started to show. If I could describe both Valere and Zale’s personalities, is this “we love Garl” that’s their entire personality and it’s not like Garl himself is really any better. He comes off as Mr. Perfect like everything goes his way and he is able to do anything without issue.

Even the characters that I myself tried to go out of my way and like, ended up not being that well thought out either. The only other character that I mildly liked, was Teaks, while she is with the party, she does not engage in combat and is pretty much left out of the story. This leaves an empty feeling when major events happen or something, like she is completely oblivious to it all. Although Teaks role in the party does get somewhere and turns into somewhat of a party member, her character development is left empty at the end. The twists also don’t really feel all that special too and I want to talk more about the story but I would of course, just be spoiling it

I have played many RPGs and have witnessed amazing stories that I have praised and if a game like this has some bad writing, that’s not a good sign for things to come. Unfortunately, Sea of Stars continues to have a few more issues in it, that hold it back still.

Sea of Stars gameplay is very simple for an RPG, while that’s not a bad thing, it does have a few issues with it, although it does have some unique mechanics that I do want to talk about. Combat is of course the main focus of the game and you have a few attacks at your disposal that you can utilize. The turn order in which party members take their turns is not in any way predetermined, the player can choose the order they act in. So for example, you can have Zale act before Valere in the first round, then in the next have Valere act first.

Enemies attack completely differently, as they have timers that will go down when each party member takes a turn. You also have access to timed attacks and timed blocks, timed attacks will let you attack twice and a timed block will reduce the damage you take from the enemy's attacks. You can also boost your attacks with live mana by doing a non-boosted attack. You generate live mana by attacking enemies with your normal attacks but you can also generate some by hitting an enemy before battle.

There are also different types of damage in the game as well, there are a total of six different damage types, sword (which should be sharp) blunt, sun, moon, poison, and arcane. Each regular attack, skill, or combo will have one of these damage types. Enemies will be weak, resistant, or immune to each of the damage types. The only abilities that don’t have a type are healing abilities.

So now that I got the core mechanics (except for two but more on that later) out of the way, I can talk about the issues I have with combat. My main issue is that combat does not evolve in any meaningful way. You don’t learn a lot of moves and are forced to reuse the same attacks over and over again to take enemies out. Because of that, combat can get stale and I want to avoid fights but I can’t as I need to farm to make sure my characters level up.

Now Sea of Stars has a unique leveling-up system, instead of your party members leveling up individually, they level up as a group. While this idea is interesting, there is another issue that comes up, you don’t feel any growth in your party members as enemy attacks will still be doing a ton of damage, even when blocking.

Then there is the lock system that the game has in place for enemy attacks, when an enemy is about to cast a spell, they will have their turn order. Each enemy spell has a certain number of locks for you to break if you break all of the locks before the turn timer is up. That enemy will be unable to cast their spell and you can build up combo points for your special attacks. You can have a max of 3 combo points and every party member has at least a few they can use. 

The issue with the lock system is that there will be times that you will be unable to deal damage to a certain type because you either don’t have the mana for it or you don’t have access to a certain damage type. Although this is where combat leads to my next issue, it gets very dull in the later parts of the game. To the point where I don’t feel like playing it anymore as it becomes a slog, the last ten or so hours of the game, are not leaving me very invested.

Garl is not only my least favorite character in the story but also my least favorite party member, his abilities don’t do much, except nourish, which is the fourth or fifth-best healing spell in the game. His abilities get outclassed by later ones, he is meant to be a tank but he does not offer much in terms of being a tank. This is also the only turn-based RPG game that I know of, that does not have stat increase/decrease abilities. Something that I think, should have been included.

The only good thing I will praise the gameplay for is the puzzles, while simple, I did find them creative.

The pixel art style that the game has is very beautiful and colorful, I really loved how the developers made it, as the areas feel very special. The animation during the cutscenes are also very well done and something I loved seeing. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing the game and it ran very well. The soundtrack was good for a few songs.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3187813357
Sea of Stars was a game I had high hopes for but ended up being disappointed with what the game showed me. There is something to write and show here, the world looks fantastic but with the bad writing and dull combat, my interest can only be kept for some long. If the game was 15 hours or so, I may have given it a pass but Sea of Stars clocks in around 30-35 hours of game time.

In the late 1980s, there are two witches who live on the top of a mansion. Aoko Aozaki is someone who can use magic and also lives with Alice Kuonji, who is part of the Kuonji family, and she serves as Aoko’s teacher in that regard. Aoko is woken up early one day when she wants to sleep in, is called to go to school, and shows Soujuurou Shizuki around. Soujuurou used to live in a rural location and is trying to adjust to modern society and feels confused sometimes at the differences.

Pros

• A fantastic story that is sure to keep your interest
  
• Wonderful characters that are all likable
  
• Amazing animation that is breathtaking to witness
  
• Pleasent soundtrack that is soothing to listen to
  
• Beautiful art style that is amazing to look at

Cons

• There are a few grammatical issues

If you wanted to me to describe the entire story for Witch on The Holy Night, that would be “fantastic”. I have played through many visual novels in my time, and not once have I ever been truly invested in its story as much as I have been with this one. Everything about it feels special to me. Instead of showing off characters and having a text box, Type-Moon makes it so the dialog takes up the whole screen while showing us the images of the characters. While it may not seem much at first, I like this approach, it feels unique. I have never played any of Type Moon's visual novels so that’s why I am mentioning it here. Witch On The Holy Night is more of a kinetic visual novel, so there are no dialog choices. Except for this one segment but that part is not in the main story.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3184024518
The characters are the bread and butter of the story and I never found a character I never liked, all of them had charm and personality. Aoko Aozaki is the main character and someone who I generally enjoyed as a character, she is free-spirited but aloof and clumsy. However, Aoko is also someone who you don’t want to mess with.

Soujuurou Shizuki is someone who has lived in the forest for his whole life and is very new to the technology of the 1980s. Although he is an exceedingly kind person that anyone can have a good relationship with. He also said that he has learned to fight bears in the mountains. He is forced to adjust to human society and learn its ropes to try and fit in with everyone else, this makes him awkward on occasions, which is something I can relate to.

My favorite character has to be Alice Kuonji and when I say she is my favorite, I could make an entire review on the character alone. Alice is a witch who is teaching Aoko how to use her magic and is a close friend to her. She also uses her very own magic in a highly creative way by using magic from fairy tales. Although Alice herself tends to rather be on her own and does not like anyone in particular, except for a few people. Alice also has a pet blue robin, which will sometimes talk, a lot.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3182951955
There are a few other characters that are worth mentioning but that will take some time for me to explain them all and I would be spoiling the story. I recommend that you go through the visual novel yourself and experience it. There is even an Archive mode where you can view other stories or learn info about the world, which is something I did enjoy.

The animation is something I do have to talk about as well, there are only a few fight scenes in the visual novel, but they were animated beautifully. Even when there were none, I was also impressed by how well put together the visual novel was. It’s possibly the best animation I have seen so far for a visual novel, and I just had to talk about it from here.

The art style is another thing that I have to give props to as well, it’s very beautiful, I loved how Type-Moon did the night skies. I have played through many visual novels in my time but I have never seen one as impressive as this one. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while I was playing through it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3182963561
The only issue that I really came across is that there are some typos that I encountered but that’s really it.

Witch On The Holy Night is a fantastic visual novel and one of the best ones that I myself have read. You don’t even have to be an expert on the Fate universe to go and read this wonderfully crafted story. As a matter of fact, if you are someone who is not a big fan of visual novels and you want to at least try one once in a while, this one will be just fine for you. I myself have always wanted to play the earlier visual novels from Type-Moon due to them being one of those old-style types that I love to go through.

I would recommend getting Witch On The Holy Night at full price, it's honesty a quality visual novel that I think can be worth it. Although waiting for a sale is not a bad idea either if you are a little skeptical but I would still recommend you try it out for yourself anyway.

I just can't trust anyone who says that there are no quality reviews at Life Needs a Little Sin even Tobimaru was gushing about them

The story starts out with an unnamed protagonist (you can name them) walking to a cafe to meet his friends. Unfortunately, Truck-kun had a day off today because the protagonist starts to see a bright white light and is soon transported to another world. He then finds and meets Reimu Hakurei, who thought that our main character was a Yokai. What will our protagonist experience in this mysterious world and what kind of adventures will he come across?

Pros

• Fan-favorite TouHou characters are present
  
• Very nicely animated Visual Novel
  
• Soundtrack is pleasant to listen too
  
• The art style is very beautiful.

Cons

• The story is a little lackluster
  
• There are a few typos

The story for the visual novel is lackluster in terms of the plot and at a glance, the characters themselves lack development, however, this is fine. The developers stated that they tried to capture the feel of the character's personalities that have already been established inside the TouHou series. If you happen to already be an expert on TouHou lore, you may feel at ease and understanding of the characters, but as I am not an expert, I lack the ability to relate to the characters and could see how this could be slightly off-putting to those new to the TouHou world.

Now the fan favorites that are included besides Reimu are Yukari Yakumo, Sakuya Izayoi, Cirno, Tenshi Hinanawi, Remilia Scarlet, and my favorite character Marisa Kirisame. For some reason, Flandre Scarlet is not present in the visual novel, which is odd to me, but there may have been a reason for not including them in the story. Everything that the characters go through in a way is chaotic and I love it. It makes it feel like you are in a TouHou stage dodging a bunch of bullets.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172706296
Although as mentioned before, the story lacks luster, as it just feels like a typical story of being transported to a different dimension and then collecting barriers. Everything just happens so fast that nothing really develops, and the main character is just a generic guy who ends up being the least developed character of them all.

The visual novel does have a romance plot included, although this just feels awkward and out of place. The main plot point feels forced, with an unnatural feel to it.

This may be a small issue, but there are a few typos found throughout the story. Most lines are easy to read and understand, but it is worth mentioning since this is a visual novel.

One of the things that really impressed me in TouHou Gensokyo Visitor is that everything is very nicely animated with well-drawn art. I love how even the action scenes are animated. For anyone who is a fan of TouHou, I will say that you will enjoy the animation and appreciate the art design.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172707372
The soundtrack is also very pleasant with nice calming tones that are very soothing. I was happy to discover this as I find myself disappointed by visual novels frequently by their use of dull uninspiring music. TouHou usually manages to have a decent soundtrack, at least in the few games in this series that I have played, so it is good to see this being the case here too.

Graphics and Performance
The art style for TouHou Gensokyo Visitor is something I highly praise. The wonderful animation and the art style both really shine here, and the character models simply look amazing. I tested the visual novel on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues, and it should be able to run on low-end PCs.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3172706422
TouHou Gensokyo Visitor is ok, while it does have a nice art style, animation, and soundtrack, the story is too weak and failed to keep me invested. Although it is only 4.65 CDN, this may only be recommended to true TouHou fans who are already familiar with TouHou lore and would be happy playing any games featuring these characters. For anyone new to the TouHou series though, you are not missing out if you pass on purchasing this title.

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Dave The Diver has impressed me in many ways with what this game has to offer due to the amount of content it has presented. The developers at Mintrocket really have outdone themselves in terms of making one of the best casual games out there. I was given this game as a gift from a friend of mine, and I am really glad they provided this to me because it is a ton of fun.

Pros

• A charming story with quirky characters
  
• Very fun underwater diving gameplay where you collect fish
  
• The restaurant management was my favorite part of the game
  
• Side quests that will give you useful rewards
  
• Actual fun quick time events
  
• Beautiful pixel art style that I love

Cons

• Boss fights felt very underwhelming
  
• Melee combat is very bad

The game starts out with Dave, who is a diver. He receives a call from his friend Cobra who asks him for help in starting a sushi restaurant with Chef Bancho. The location is at the sea known as The Blue Hole, a spot that contains all the fish from all over the world and constantly changes each time you enter it. This would have been The All Blue for Sanji from One Piece, as a matter of fact I think he and Bancho would have gotten along just fine, except the part about wasting food.

The story of Dave The Diver is very charming. All the characters are fun with each having something special about them that makes them stand out from each other. My favorite one has to be Bancho, I just love how he does his cooking and just how devoted he is to his craft. This reminds me of Gordon Ramsey in some ways, and Gordon Ramsey even makes a cameo in the game, which is something I loved.

Now for the gameplay, I have a lot to explain but I will try and be brief on everything. Because both the main gameplay mechanics could fill a section of their own. The main thing you will be doing in the game is diving for fish, this is done with a harpoon gun, proper firearms, traps, and melee weapons. Although murdering your pray is not the best way to go. With the harpoon gun, you do have to pull the fish in which the game will sometimes do for you, other times a variety of quicktime events may be thrown at you. You can come across a lot of diverse types of fish for you to collect and all of them can be served to customers.

You are vulnerable when reeling a fish in, so when you have multiple aggressive ones coming at you the gun would be a good thing to use. You can upgrade all of your weapons, with the firearms having different elemental specializations available. The harpoon gun can also gain effects, however only through finding temporary harpoon tip in loot during diving. With the IDiver app on your phone you can also upgrade your other gear, like diving suit, inventory space and oxygen supply. You do have a limit to what you can carry and if you go over the weight limit, you will start to swim slower. You can carry a bit more but your inventory will eventually get too full, and you will be unable to carry anything else. Keeping an eye on your oxygen is also key because if you run out, it will be a game over and you will only be able to salvage a single item or fish upon being rescued.

At nighttime, you will be running a sushi restaurant with Bancho, where you must deliver food or drinks to customers. The menu is completely up to you, and you can use the fish that you have captured in the Blue Hole. You can even hire different people to help you run the restaurant, these people can also be trained and will get special skills or unlock special recipes. Your employees come with four different stats which influence the role they are efficient in. You can get "promotions", which is handled by your internet fame on Cooksta and unlocks new menu slots for each night alongside other benefits. The restaurant portion of the game is my favorite thing to do, although I feel that this is more of a side thing in the later parts of the game due to the story that the game has, which I did not go too into because I don’t want to spoil it.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3165524343
You can make Bancho go into cook-offs with different chefs, for which the gameplay will turn into Cooking Mama for a bit. These will also open up some side quests or other features that you can use to help run your restaurant. There are a lot of side quests for you to do and the rewards for them are fantastic, from people who will come in and request a certain dish to you having to go out and take a photo of a special fish, there is just so much to this game, it’s amazing and I love it. I even liked doing the quick time events that the game had, which is something I thought I would never say.

There are even a few mini-games or special events you can do as well, one of them makes you take part in an idol concert and I wish you had more opportunities to play this event again. They even made an entire animated music video for the sequence as well.

Although Dave The Diver has two issues that I must go over that I did have a problem with. The first issue has to be the boss fights feeling very underwhelming. They mainly made you play keep away for the most part, yet your weapons force you to go up to them. The gun has a decent range but the stock one you get has some very lackluster damage in the later parts of the game. Unless you put upgrades into it but they can get pretty expensive, and you will only make a certain amount of money a night. I did mention that the game has a ton of side content, and they can help you make money, you just have to commit yourself to the whole thing. The other issue is that since you are underwater, your movement is also rather limited - the enemy's, however, is not. Plus, some of the bosses can get pretty big so you may have to try and avoid one in a small space with not a lot of room for error.

Melee combat is also another issue, and I am really glad that it's not something you have to do in boss fights. The knife you have is just outright bad, it does poor damage although you can upgrade it. It can do stuff like mine for materials that only the pickaxe can mine and the damage can increase on it, but these upgrades are not until a little later into the game. Your melee attack with it is just awful and the hitbox for it is very bad. There are other melee weapons you can use and you are just better off using those than the default knife. And even then, I would still advise to not use your melee attack on enemies that are problematic. The only fish that won't be an issue to use it on are ones who just don't attack and are slow at swimming.

The pixel art style that the game uses is absolutely beautiful, The Blue Hole is a very mysterious place at times, but the scenery is just breathtaking. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM. I had no issues with the game and it runs perfectly on low-end PCs and it ran very well on my Steam deck.

Dave The Diver was a pleasant surprise, providing lots of content that is sure to entertain anyone who decides to play it. The animations are also something I should praise as well. They look exceptionally smooth and are just wonderful to look at when they are shown. The game is 25.99 CDN and I think it’s worth the price for the amount of content provided in this title.

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Half-Life is a special game, a special game in many ways that evolved the first-person shooter genre of its time. While all the other first-person shooters at the time only made you shoot enemies from level to level, Half-Life was a slower-paced game that had a story to it. You, the player are never interrupted with a cutscene and the first games to use the WASD keys for default controls.

Pros

• A nice sci-fi story with lots of mystery built into it
  
• Very fun gameplay with a ton of weapons to use
  
• Great multiplayer that is still active
  
• Amanizng old style graphics that are nice

Cons

• The story is very vague on what it’s telling
  
• Platforming is really bad

The game starts with Gorden Freeman, going to work at the Black Mesa base where he is about to perform an experiment. This experiment involves this alien crystal that can help scientists work these dimensional rifts. While Gorden is experimenting, something goes wrong, and an event known as the Resonance Cascade occurs. This causes dimensional rifts that open a portal between Earth and the planet Xen. The base is soon invaded by hostile alien creatures that seem to teleport at random.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148045421
The story for Half-Life is excellent, it manages to keep a sense of mystery the through the entire story. How the game shows off its plot by presenting itself to the player is something I enjoyed. While other games have of course done this, Half-Life is unique in its way by allowing us to customize how we view Gorden and his role.

The only issue with the story is that it’s very vague and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it might cause confusion about what is really going on unless the player does a some research. The only two major characters in the game are Gorden Freeman himself and The G-Man, who does appear at random bouts in the game. However, he only speaks to you at the end of the game and that’s it. The story is good but when you sum it up, it’s like Gordan wakes up and well, you play the game but stay mostly oblivious to what is going on. I'll emphasize again, that this may not be a negative for everyone, but some players may want to look up information as they play to better understand the story.

The gameplay is very fast paced with its movement, if you played Quake, then this game should feel similar. You will start off with a crowbar as a weapon but will go on to get your hands on lots of guns. Mostly throughout the game you will be fighting enemies on your own but will get assistance from various people you meet throughout. Not everyone you meet will fight but may help to open specific doors allowing you to progress to the next area instead.

There are a few bosses in the game which are mostly giant enemies who are very hard to take out, with the expectation that the player should be using the terrain to their advantage when going against them. They can’t be taken out by the normal shoot and kill approach like regular enemies as each requires a certain method to be dealt with.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148045001
There are a variety of enemies in the game, from aliens and zombies to human soldiers for you to deal with. There are also a lot of weapons that you can use to help deal with enemies and each weapon felt unique and special for what they can do.

My favorite weapons are:

• MP5 - I used this weapon a lot because it could take out enemies easily.
  
• SPAS-1 - A shotgun that can help take out enemies in a shot or two.
  
• 375 Magnum - My all-time favorite, a revolver that can often kill most enemies in one shot.

Half-Life also has a multiplayer mode that is still actually active to this day with a small player base. This is extremely impressive for a game that was released over twenty years ago! I was able to get a few matches and playing its Death Match mode is very fun. There is a normal Death Match and Team Death Match mode, so if you are looking to play some multiplayer, then there are a few dedicated servers out there that you can play on.

I do have one issue with Half-Life’s gameplay which was when platforming was required. Half-Life is not a platformer, but certain parts require platforming, and it is bad, and when I say it’s bad, it’s really bad. The game wants you to make use of the long jump mechanic later in the game with moving platforms. Coupled with the fact there are enemies around you that can and will do a lot of damage if you are not careful, things can get a little heated on what the game is trying to do. Xen is by far the worst offender when it comes to this issue, as the platformers are moving and there is not a lot of room for error. Although technically speaking, it is the only true level with platforming.

The graphics for Half-Life are nice, with this old-like feel to them that feels very special to me. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced zero issues while playing and the game should be able to run on low-end PCs.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3148045233
To me, Half-Life is a classic that everyone should play at least once in their lives as there is a lot to love about the game. This is not even a horror game, yet it managed to scare me thanks to the Head Crab enemies who enjoy performing jump scares. The game is priced at 11.49 CDN at full price and I think it’s worth picking up for that price. There is a lot of fun to be had in the game.

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SOMA has been a game in my library for some time and I was talking to myself about the lack of horror games I played last year. So, I had the bright idea to finally play SOMA and experience what I have missed all these years, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it. In some ways, this game reminded me of Frictional Games Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

Pros

• Impactful story that asks you what it means to be human
  
• Frightening atmospheric gameplay, with monsters lurking around the corner
  
• Creepy graphics that make the bottom of the ocean scary

Cons

• Some of the monsters are not scary
  
• I wish the ocean segments were utilized more

Simon Jarrett has recently survived a car crash and his friend Ashley Hall passed away; Simon survived the incident but was left with permanent brain damage. Later, he wakes up in his apartment and gets a phone call from David Munshu, who has a plan to help him heal from the incident. As soon he sits down and is about to get his brain scanned when he suddenly sees a flash of light from the machine that’s scanning him.

Simon then wakes up and finds out that the building he is in is abandoned and is at the bottom of the sea. He does not know why he is here or what even has happened to the place around him. He later finds out that there are no humans left, food is running low, a black organic substance is covering the building, and the robots are starting to think they are human.

The story for SOMA is impactful, the only issue is, is that I can’t talk about it as it’s one of those stories that is best left for you, yourself to see it. So, it’s best if you take my word for it and witness it for yourself.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3143272461
Now in terms of gameplay, SOMA is more of a liner kind of horror game, but it does have some light puzzle solving. Although, you will be going from point A to B, running from monsters, and going through story elements. Monsters you come across have a certain way of moving through the area you are in. While there is more than one in the game, you will only be dealing with one monster at a time. You cannot fight them and must rely on hiding, distracting them, or running.

How the enemies attack is also handled differently as well from other horror games. Instead of you taking damage when getting attacked, the monster will knock you out, and it will go to a different part of the map you are in. However, it will still be near you, so you should be alert when walking around.

All the sounds that you make will attract attention to the monsters you see, so when you are near one or you know one is close by, it’s best to crouch so you can avoid making too much noise or go into another room. Luckily for you, all the doors in the game are the loudest thing you will ever hear, just as loud as the TF2’s Dead Ringer.

The puzzles you encounter are interesting, even though there are only a few in the game as a whole. The puzzles may test your knowledge, so if you are someone who likes that type of thing, then this game does fill that need. The only issue I really had with the puzzles is that once you figure out the patterns on them, solving them does become easy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142626231
That’s really all I have to say in terms of SOMA’s gameplay, it does not really have much to it in terms of the other horror games Frictional Games have made. That’s not to say it was not worth playing, as I had a lot of fun with the game. However, I do have two issues with SOMA that I encountered while I was playing the game.

The primarily issue I had, was the fact that some of the monsters were not scary, this stemmed from the fact that some of them just required you not looking at them. This means that if one were to to be close to you, all you had to do was crouch, stand still, and look the other way, while the monster walked by. This does not apply to all of the monsters in the game though, as some of them do have different variations on how to handle them, some do require you to run and hide.

I am not in danger as much as I was in Amnesia: The Dark Descent, as in that game, the odds felt really stacked against you. You had monsters, the Darkness was after you, and your sanity was also a hindrance, I never felt that in SOMA. That’s not to say the game isn’t scary though, when something does chase you, it can get intense.

The other issue I had is that the underwater ocean segments I thought could have been utilized better. I would have liked there to of been a monster to have chased me while I was roaming in it, while there are a few segments like that. They aren't until near the end of the game or the minor ones you can come across with some a small robot. I think having a monster that was an actual threat to you, chase you in the ocean would be a great thing in SOMA. It would made you feel unsafe wherever you went if there was one in every section.

The graphics in SOMA have this creepy aroma to them that makes you want to run and hide when something out of the ordinary is seen. I loved how the areas felt isolated in the environments. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB. AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3142626456
If you loved Amnesia: The Dark Descent, then I can guarantee that you will find SOMA to be enjoyable. I would wait for a sale if you were a bit skeptical because the game is linear for the most part. Although I had a genuinely wonderful experience with the game, and I highly recommend it to any horror game fan.

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The Finals is a game that was announced during The Game Awards this multiplayer team-based shooter was a pleasant surprise to see and was a bit of a fresh take for the genre. At the time of writing this review, anything I mention may be patched in a future update, so please bear that in mind.

Pros

• Fun multiplayer gameplay
  
• Three classes for you to play as, with their own weapons and abilities
  
• Destructible environments
  
• Customization options for your characters
  
• Beautiful graphics that make the areas feel alive

Cons

• Limited game modes for you to play
  
• Vaults can be placed in hard-to-reach locations, impossible to get to
  
• Vaults can land on bounce pads, making them impossible to contest
  
• The map pool is very small, with only four maps in total
  
• The anti-cheat system is really bad
  
• AI voice acting

The Finals takes place in a virtual combat game show, where contestants are searching for fame, fortune, and favor from the sponsors. There are two main game modes for you to play, Quick Cash and Bank It. Quick Cash puts three teams of three against each other to open a vault, once opened, the team that opened it must go to a cash-out. There, they can cash out the vault for 10,000, the first team to get 20,000 wins. The other teams can steal the vault you have or contest the cash-out vault that you are trying to capture, so you better prepare to defend it.

Then there is Bank It, this game mode is more of a team death match, where there are four teams of three. When you kill someone, they drop coins, and you then can cash them out at a vault, the first team to 40,000 coins wins. There are vaults that can give you a lot of money, so look out for those along the way.

There are three classes in the game, Light, Medium, and Heavy, each class has a different speed, health, weapons, and specials they can utilize for their advantage. Light can move fast and have the best movement; they get a grappling hook and the ability to turn invisible. Medium classes have the best specials in the game, ability to heal people, place down turrets, and can also instantly revive people with a defibrillator. Heavy has the highest damage in the game with their weapons. They have many destruction-based tools, like an RPG and C4s. One of their specials is a charge ability which can destroy buildings with ease, although they can also have a dome shield for protection.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138268422
Each class also has a certain weapon they can use but they can also customize them to spice up the gameplay. There are many options for you to try out allowing you to find a loadout that suits you best. Players who are killed are turned into statues, but they can be revived by their teammates which takes at least five seconds to be fully revived. However, with the defibrillator, this can be instant, making this one of mediums class's best tool in the game besides the turret.

The environment is entirely destructible, and you can use this to your advantage when trying to reach for the point. Although Heavy is probably the best at doing this since all their abilities can destroy buildings. There are also objects in the arena that you can throw, some explode, can cause a fire, or make a goo wall that can help in a defensive situation. Make sure to utilize these abilities as best as you can when trying to take the objective.

There are also many customization options available for your character. You can get cosmetics by normally leveling up but there is a battle pass you can purchase. You can mix and match the sets to make your character shine. You can even customize emotes, for your character intro, which is something I find very nice. The options are endless when it comes to your character, I love the variety and the sets you can receive. That is if you pick up the battle pass, which you can only get by using gold coins, the game's currency. If you get the starter pack, it will give you enough coins to get the battle pass, so it’s a pretty sweet deal.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138268695
Although as much as I had fun with The Finals, there are some serious issues that do need to be addressed. in quick cash, vaults can be placed in hard-to-reach areas that can be made almost impossible to contest in certain scenarios. Especially if the platforms are moving and it has one or if the only way to get up there is by zipline or grappling hook. Ziplines and grappling hooks can be destroyed, so you better hope to get a bounce pad if need be when the time comes or equip one. Therw are some gadgets that can get you up there, however. But it does not end there either, as vaults can be placed on bounce pads, although to be fair, this is a bit hard to do, as you have to place it right and they can be destroyed. Although, if left alone, contesting the vault becomes impossible and will lead to the team setting this up winning the game, although it can be amusing when this happens.

There is also a limited amount of game modes, with there only being three in total, Quick Cash, Bank it, and Tournament Mode which is ranked but that’s just Quick-Cash in multiple rounds.

The map pool is also very small, consisting of only four maps. There are weather effects in the game to change the scenery but none of them do anything. Except when it’s a sandstorm, as that will create sand dunes but that’s it.

The game uses Easy Anti-Cheat but it is very bad as there are a lot of cheaters, especially in Tournament Mode, and this system doesn't seem to prevent other players from cheating.

The graphics for The Finals are very beautiful, I love the detail that the arenas provide as they are very colorful. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing the game, and it ran well.

When it comes to sound design, I do have an issue with the voice acting with the developers confirming the use of AI generated voices. It has been stated to be a mix of professional voice actors alongside AI generated ones by the studio. Personally, this is a practice that I do not like.

The Finals is a fun multiplayer-based game that I really enjoyed, and I recommend it to others to try it. The game is free, so you won’t be wasting any money playing, although I would recommend finding some friends to play with you as this expands the experience and is more fun that way.

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Lethal Company is an early-access game that has been popular recently, so I checked it out after hearing positive feedback from my friends. After playing it, I will say that the game is quite fun. It’s a black comedy horror game that has procedurally generated moons that you explore. However, I should mention that at the time of me writing this review, the game is in early access, so anything I mention could be changed in a future update of the game.

Pros

• Fun multiplayer-based game
  
• Lots of different scrap items to collect, with some being very odd
  
• Many different Entities for you to encounter and hazards
  
• Lots of mods available to install to enhance your experience
  
• Nice retro graphical feel that can be very creepy

Cons

Gameplay can get repetitive

Lethal Company will task the player to team up with three other people, preferably friends, to collect scrap on seven different moons. Each moon has a certain difficulty level to them, where you can encounter different hazards or monsters. Although, it should be mentioned that the last three moons are the hardest in the game. These moons cost credits to go to and the price is paid once per chance of orbit. This also means that if employees land on the same moon back-to-back, they don’t have to pay the cost to go on there again. There are also weather effects in the game that will hinder the progression. Each moon also has a certain size and certain quota to be made.

There are a lot of different items for you to collect, you will start each mission off with sixty pieces of scrap and you have the option to buy some helpful items. These can be flashlights to help you see in the dark (the game gets difficult to see in certain areas), a weapon like a shovel, or a trusty shotgun that you can find from this one enemy, called The Nutcracker.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136098315
There are many mods available to customize your experience as well. You can change the design of the scrap you collect as well as change the character appearances. There is a nice variety of mods in this area allowing you to change the looks of some scrap items to appear like plushies from different shows, games, or anime. One of them can be Frieren from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136098092
There is a certain quota you need to meet for you to complete your mission, with a set number of days. If you fail to meet that quota, it will be a game over for you and your teammates. You can sell your dead teammates if they do fall and die but they are only worth five dollars. This goes to show the Lethal Company is just a game that shows us typical retail days of working on the job.

Now, if you do go on the dangerous moons, you can obtain higher amounts of scrap as well as encounter more dangerous monsters. This opposite is true for easier moons where you will get fewer amounts of scrap and less powerful monsters. However, I should mention that this game is meant to be a black-comedy-based game., so there will be of course some funny moments of horror in the game.

As you explore the moons, you will encounter entities in the basements of the buildings and sometimes depending on the time of day can come across monsters outside as well.

Each time you land on a moon, you will always arrive at 8 AM, and when it hits at least 5 PM, certain entities will spawn. During an Eclipse they will spawn any time of the day, but the spawn rate can be changed for these specific entities. When walking around in a basement on a moon, there can be a chance that a certain entity will spawn, and it can be a hazard or a nuisance to the players. These hazards can either be the weather patterns, land mines, or turrets, so be careful when walking around.

One of the most fun aspects of Lethal Company is the mods you can install as they enhance the experience completely and what really made the game fun for me. The game supports up to four players mainly but there is a mod to increase the player count. This is a mod I highly recommend you download in case you have that fifth friend who wants to play. There are also cosmetic mods like I mentioned above where changing the appearances of your character and entities can help to keep the game feeling fresh and entertaining. The variety is there, so if the base game is beginning to feel stale, then mods will greatly help to keep the game fun.

The only issue I have with Lethal Company is that the gameplay remains the same throughout. Nothing is really added to it and by that, you just go and collect scrap and that’s really it, although this may not be a problem for fans of this genre, it is still worth mentioning as some may get easily bored with this rinse and repeat style of gameplay.

The graphics for the game have this old horror theme to them that makes the planets you visit creepy. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, and 16 GB of RAM, I had no issues while playing and low-end PCs should be able to run this game perfectly.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3136097705
Lethal Company is an incredibly fun game that was honestly a surprise for me, with a unique style that I really enjoyed. Although, as I mentioned before, I do recommend you look at the available game mods as this enhances the experience and was one of the key factors that kept me enjoying the game. Not saying you can’t enjoy the base game by itself, but I do think mods will help make it more fun and prevent the gameplay loop from feeling stale.

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