Recent reviews by Alzaraf

Monster Hunter Rise is a game I have mixed opinions of. While I generally enjoyed my time with game, a few key issues find me walking away from Rise unsatisfied.

Rise is a fun game, moving around in game is enjoyable, fast and fluid. The new wirebug mechanic allows for a new range of freedom in movement and verticality, wall running has been added to compliment the wirebugs and let clear any gap or any ascent, and the new palumutes allow for faster traversal across the map. I can't speak for all weapons, but for the ones I have, mostly insect glaive, the new interpretation of these weapons are enjoyable. Overall the control of your character feels incredibly solid and just plain fun. During my early time with the game, I got a lot of fun out of learning these new controls and mechanics.

However, for however good the player control is designed, it matters not if it doesn't fit the game it's in. This is Rise's fatal flaw. Rise simply isn't designed for it's system mechanics. Rise is a very easy game, the game largely favours the player, giving them far more options than the monsters. The issue is multilayered, the monsters themselves are weaker, they're slower and hit softer, even into the end game. The player themselves are more agile and have new options to help them fight the monster. The monsters simply don't have new tools to match the hunters new tools. The most egregious example of this is wirefall. Wirefall is one of rise's new wire-bug related mechanics, which consumes one wirebug, and will immediately recover you from most knockdowns while sending you flying in your direction of choice. This is incredibly good, overpowered I'd argue, and is almost always the correct choice, to the point where it's not an interesting decision, and an almost instinctual input. Wirefalling, especially away from the monster, immediately gets you out of any harms way, and the monsters dont have the speed or attacks to chase you. Nor is the damage high enough to make any single attack threatening, and positioning is never an issue thanks to wirefall. Wirebugs recharge too fast to make the management of their availability a meaningful decision. I saw brief flashes of brilliance when some monsters would have ways to counter this wirefall abuse. Some examples include two-part attacks, where if you got hit by the first, and attempted to wirefall, you would get hit by the second hit, pushing you to delay your wirefall, or the ice status effect which increases the wirebug recharge time. Ultimately, these options are too weak, too scarce, or both. I hoped these ideas would get developed as the game progressed into the end game, this never happened, and remained non-threats.

Some smaller issues include poor balancing, meta options are almost glaring obvious. An example of such; Narga weapons are very powerful and very easy to build around thanks to their sharpness, affinity, respectable base damage, and 2-slot. The networking is unreliable and will boot players from lobbies far more often than it should. The monster list is short, making for a shorter game, but also reducing the number of options for set building, both skills, and layered cosmetics. That said, the new layered system allows for much easier crafting of layered sets, and giving every armour two coloured elements is a very welcome addition. Gathering has been streamlined, with all gathering resources being collected in one animation. Rise has a few Quality of Life improvements, though it's missing some from its predecessor.

Monster Hunter Rise is a game full of mechanics like wirefall, and the monsters never manage to catch up, resulting in an incredibly easy game. That said the freedom offered by these mechanics, as overpowered as they may be, is a fun sandbox to play around in for a while, and make for an enjoyable, if not empty, romp through the game's quests. I hope Sunbreak is able to offer a challenge, and turn great mechanics into a great game.

TL;DR: Monster Hunter Rise is a fun, but incredibly easy game

♥♥♥♥ game

Great Game. Great Netcode. Great Community.

Excellent Fighting Game, easy to hop in with a low immediate execution barrier, but with more than enough depth and difficulty once you sink your teeth. I cannot recommend this game enough, to both beginners and long time fighting game fans alike.

If you think you might be interested in this game, please buy it, you won't regret it.

Guilty Gear. Rollback. Guilty Gear with Rollback.

I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate this game with a burning passion.
I've played this good amount and got competent at the game, picking up at least 30 wins. But this game has been completely mishandled, a combination of invasive network issues that the developers seem to not care about, instead focusing on a handful of new minigames and cosmetics. Not to mention the addition of random elements to what was perfectly fine consistent modes previously. And dont give me that "indie" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, mediatonic has over 200 employees, and has clearly made millions off of this game, there is no reason for these issues to still exist. ♥♥♥♥ this game

It's cheap, it has wallpapers, just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ buy it.

A hat in time is my favourite 3d platformer to date, and a strong contender for one of my favourite games period.
And that doesn't come without stiff competition, Hat in Time stands among the very games it is harkening back to, with it's most blatant inspirations being mario 64 and sunshine. I dare say hat in time improves on these games, applying modern design concepts, better accessibility options, and a sleeker visual style, in part to it simply being newer (who would have guessed). Despite all of the elements A Hat in Time is cribbing from its classic inspirations, it stands out on its own as more than just a clone.

Hat in Time controls incredibly tight, Hat Kid accelerates, turns and jumps near immediately, lending to an overall responsive experience. In terms of basic movement Hat Kid has access to a jump, double jump, dive, and dive recover and dive recover bounce. This is further expanded on with a few hats and badges, some of which expand hat kid's platforming abilities, while others are used for puzzle platforming elements. A Hat in Time is both satisfying to play from minute one while also feeling incredible after mastering the controls.

I know this is plastered all over the advertising, but this is more than skin deep. Hat Kid herself has so many small details, that nobody would notice if they were missing, but all feed into the charm because they are there. The emotes and dances are superfluous, idle animations that help flesh out her albeit basic but fitting personality, and this is all on top of custom animations used during cutscenes. Hell, she even has a custom walk cycle that is used for a single level. Everything helps to define her silly, childish personality. Is it a deep character, no, does it need to be, also no, Hat Kid works perfectly in the world of A Hat in Time. That same love and care that is put into a single character resonates throughout the whole game. A Hat in Time is certain to put a big stupid smile on the face of all but the grumpiest of people.

A Hat in Time has (as of the time of writing this review) 2 DLC packs which are as follows

Seal the Deal
Seal the Deal was the first DLC which consists of 2 major elements. A new chapter, "The Arctic Cruise" which consists of 2 acts and a finale. I believe Arctic Cruise on it's own is incredibly weak, while the level, that being a cruise ship, is interesting in and of itself, the objectives of the 2 acts are incredibly basic and amount to little more than fetch quests, and the finale, while more interesting than 2 acts, is still rather shallow. If Arctic Cruise was DLC on its own, I would consider Seal the Deal not worthwhile. However, Seal the Deal's other offering is "Death Wish". In Death Wish, levels and bosses has been rehashed for offer challenge to more experienced players. While the base game is fairly forgiving and with frequent checkpoints, death wish is the opposite, death wish is difficult, not just relative to the base game, death wish is just plain difficult. Death Wish is punishing, In Death Wish, dying means a restart. Every Death Wish, on top of its main objective offers 2 bonuses for each level, which all add an additional level of difficulty. If difficulty is not your thing, I may recommend passing on Seal the Deal as it's friendlier offerings are limited, however if you want a challenge the base game failed to offer you, buckle in. (The release of this DLC also came alongside the release of a free local Co-Op option, separate from the DLC, do not, Death Wish is not available with Co-Op Enabled)

Nyakuza Metro + Online Party
The second DLC to hit A Hat in Time was the Nyakuza Metro, a gang of felines in a metro station, name is pretty straightforward here. The level however, is not so straightforward, Nyakuza Metro is a freeroam chapter which is significantly more substantial than the arctic cruise and I can wholly recommend the DLC for that alone. The other addition this DLC offers is the Online Party mode which can support up to 50 players, when in a party you can interact with other players using a simple emote system, but you can also jump on, hit, and throw potions at other players, yes this is as hectic as it sounds with 50 people, and offers quite the chuckle on its own. Alternatively, you can make a smaller party with a few friends and just enjoying going through the game together.

Mods
On top of official DLC, Hat in Time comes packed with modding tools and workshop compatibility allowing the community to continuing expanding on the game, and allowing players to customize their experience, everything from simple QoL changes, to new mod levels, badges that make the game easier, harder, or sometimes just different. Or, you know, just a mod that makes hat kid swear when she takes damage or bonks.

A Hat in Time knew exactly what it wanted to do and succeed every step of the way. I can not possibly recommend this game enough. I can see myself loving this game for years to come. Thank you Gears For Breakfast for this excellent game, I'm excited to see where you go next.

I recieved this game as a gift from a friend. The game can be completed 100% with all achievements in little over 1/2 hour, and honestly the game isn't for everyone. If you dont like short games, or are looking for something with a lot of depth, Refunct probably isn't for you.

However, you may have noticed I have 10 hours in this game as of writing this review, and this is where the game truely shines in my opinion. The simplicity and shortness of this game allows for such easy replayability, I'll do a quick run of Refunct before jumping to a bigger game, or play Refunct after to relax.

TL;DR The game is short and simple, if that isn't your thing you probably wont enjoy Refunct. If you want a replayable, beautiful game, Refucnt is for you.

I finally got around to playing it and am throughly addicted. Send Help!

But honestly, Undertale made me feel in a way I never knew a game could. Without the needlessly extended the game, or ever forcing you to play the game, Undertale has enticed me to play it. Every character is exactly that, a character. A living breathing character. And somehow, despite the radical differences they have, they are all interconnected in a reasonable way.

For a reasonable comparison, think of your first experiences with, lets say, pokemon, this game managed to ignite that same excitment and interest in me.

In the end, if you havent yet and are considering doing so, do yourself a favour and pick it up, its $11.