Recent reviews by JSels

A little more hand-hold-y and linear than the first one, but the combat is more fleshed out, the story is more easily understood (take that as a good or bad thing, I think it's good), the areas are more fun to explore, and the music is all around better. Appeals to a wider audience than the first game.

It was a fun time for a few hours. The base game isn't very long, which I knew going in, thinking "oh, this will be kind of like doom eternal where you play the game through more than once, getting better and better with each run". After my first full playthrough, I can say that I have no interest in chasing that perfection here. The game is too buggy, too inconsistent with its core mechanics, and some of the enemies are too frustrating to dispatch that I cannot confidently recommend this game to anybody. If you happen to find it on sale like I did, give it a go. Like I said, the game is a short but fun time, and maybe you'll see something here that I didn't.

This game, even in its currently unfinished state, could be one of the most complete and well-realized bullet hell video games ever created. There are like 80 different bosses in this game (some of which, admittedly, are slightly altered versions of other bosses), and each of them can appear at different strengths, changing the speed, difficulty, and sometimes the type of their attack patterns. Their attacks are even thematically consistent not only between the levels of each individual boss, but in each type (of which there are 6 or 7) of boss as well. There is a whole host of gameplay modes to choose from, each of which are fun and unique, and 4 different characters to choose from (the difference between these characters is rather small, but important to how you play them).

The star of this show, though, for me is the sense of progression littered throughout the game. No matter which game mode you're playing, you are progressing the game in one way or another, whether it be playing story mode to unlock new upgrades. Achievements can also be earned to unlock new content (new bosses, temporary upgrades that can be found throughout the game, permanent upgrades that can be used for longer-term progression, etc). This, especially, is a brilliant system. Mastery of this game is rewarded, as it should be, in many different ways as the game reveals more of itself gradually. There's also a sense of progression that isn't tangible though, and that's you learning more about how bosses work, and how the game's varied systems interact to give you the freedom to take down the bosses in whichever way you desire.

The story is probably the weakest part for me, as the mental illness allegories can come off as a bit tacky, but this aspect can be very easily overlooked with gameplay that's fun and engaging, beautiful pixel-art visuals, progression that keeps you coming back, and a virtually bug-free experience. If you have enough interest to be reading to the end of this review, buy this game. This is a criminally overlooked champion of the genre, and an absolute must-play for anyone who enjoys bullet hell games. So concludes this love letter.

I feel like I have poured too much time into this game, yet I know I've only scratched the surface of what can be done. A surprisingly simple concept stretched to its limit, this game takes what sounds like a simple idea and elaborates on it so deeply that you'll forget it's even a rhythm game after a while. I have only a couple of complaints: the boss fights are very lame once you learn them except for Death Metal, who stays exciting every time because the extremely fast pace of the song (which is one of the best in the game) keeps the fight intense.

The game really opens up to you when you beat the game with the first two of the four story-based characters. The third of the primary characters is EXTREMELY HARD, so your mind may wander towards the side characters, each of which have meaningfully unique playstyles.

The final thing to mention about this game is that the original soundtrack is remixed by other artists seven times, so if you get tired of one set of tracks, you're free to switch to any of the other ones at any time, even mid-run. Not each of the soundtracks is incredible (no disrespect to any of the artists) but they're all interesting enough twists on the original tracks to be very, very worthwhile additions.

If you haven't tried necrodancer yet, now is the time. They just released their last big DLC for the main game and are working on a sequel, so there's a lot of fresh stuff here and coming.

i think it's okay

why am i able to review this game?

I think what really steals the show for me are the little cutscenes you get when you get certain characters to different heart levels. Though relatively simplistic and short due to being rendered through the game's engine, this game has a lot to say through its genuinely interesting npcs, and getting everyone to max hearts is a supremely rewarding task. If for no other reason than this, stardew valley is well worth its price tag. bonus memes: relaxing gameplay, quality soundtrack, and noticeable rpg-style progression.

An extremely solid metroidvania with pixel art more beautiful than I have ever seen before. The story and music aren't anything worth writing home about, but the fun gameplay and highly customizable combat options carry you through the experience. I bought on sale and I recommend you do the same, but I could see myself buying at full price in another life.

The best way that I can review this game is to give my personal experience with it. Having never played Doom before but having considerable FPS experience, I decided to kick this one up to nightmare difficulty just to see if I could do it. It started out pretty neat -- each fight only took me a couple of tries and I got the hang of the quick movement compared to other shooters. Then, at some point in the third level I hit a wall. My half-decent aim was no longer enough to carry me through these gunfights, and I had to learn how to actually play Doom. Nightmare difficulty kept knocking me on my ass until I finally figured out how the wealth of equipment options given to you work together to achieve success. It was very satisfying to learn, and making noticeable improvements reinforces that feeling.

There are a couple of annoying elements of nightmare difficulty that felt overlooked. The marauder comes to mind. I don't know who in their right mind created that enemy but every death to him feels cheaper than the last. Sometimes he'll shotgun you from a million miles away and other times he'll throw an axe from inches away, dealing over 50 damage with almost no time to react. His unpredictable, janky movement sometimes makes it seem like he's glitching out, and hitting him at the right time will sometimes deal no damage, which sucks because he takes about five hundred super shotgun shots to kill. Please fix this enemy.

Other than those faults, the game is fun as Hell.

I love this game. I love it so much. I only have one suggestion to the developers to add to this game and Silksong, and that's to add the option to remove foreground effects. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than watching the silhouettes of 30 spiders/millipedes run across my screen, and it made me completely dread ever going into Deepnest.
If you have bad arachnophobia, you would either be better off not playing this game or getting a friend to play through Deepnest for you, which is unfortunately largely required for completion.
Other than this slip-up, Hollow Knight is a perfect game for fans of Metroidvania's. I highly recommend it.