Recent reviews by Legoguy9875

17 hours in, so far I'm liking this.

Similar to how Hollow Knight rewards offensive play with the ability to cast high-DPS spells, Nine Sols instead rewards defensive play by charging up Talismans. Well timed parries cause enemies and bosses to gain bleed damage, and upon placing a Talisman onto the target and detonating it, it deals damage equivalent to how much bleed the target has. I was worried that a more defense-oriented combat system would get stale quickly, but even 17 hours in, the game introduces new ways to keep you on your toes, as well as new abilities that make a well timed parry oh-so satisfying.

That's not to say your offensive options are limited. You do start off with a basic three-hit combat, but as you unlock more skills, you become capable of chaining several hits in rapid succession. My favorite move to do is start a ground combat, jump, air attack, then follow that up with a downward slash to keep the chain going. Hard to master, but it's very satisfying to pull off.

I haven't completed the game yet, but I can recommend it for those that want something akin to Hollow Knight, but with the more parry-heavy combat of Sekiro.

A great mod with equally great puzzles, along with mechanics never seen in any other Portal game or mod afaik. My only real negatives are that the unique puzzle mechanics don't really get enough time to shine (apart from the shower walls, which are a great alternative to the base game's water gel, as well as the use of power switches to turn off certain mechanisms), and that the ending feels a bit rushed - the final boss is a series of short puzzles that build upon each other to eventually create one massive puzzle, which is a cool structure for a Portal boss, but it doesn't utilize any of the unique mechanics that previous chapters introduced, so there's some serious missed potential there. On top of that, the ending is extremely abrupt, cutting to the credits seconds after you push the final button. There is a short post-credits scene, but other than that you don't get a whole lot. Not that I expected too much considering it's a free community mod, but it felt lacking even when compared to other mods I've played.

Assuming the mod creators are doing more based on what is implied in the ending, I do hope that they expand more on the unique ideas introduced here (especially the laser warp cubes, which were my absolute favorite mechanic out of all of the new stuff - no joke, I legit thought that the game was glitching out when I first used them, and was blown away at the realization of how they worked).

Something to keep in mind going in is that the game is very story heavy. It's not Metal Gear levels of story imbalance where there's only ten minutes of gameplay followed by five hours of story, but be prepared for some lengthy bouts between gameplay. You can skip cutscenes if you really want to, but it is strongly recommended that you pay attention to the story to get the most out of the experience.

Doesn't change my opinion of the game personally, as I found both the gameplay and the story to be phenomenal from start to finish (to the point that I ended up playing for three hours longer than I intended to on my last session because I was so invested in the story and I wanted to see how it all ended)

While I still believe Risk of Rain 2 has a better overall gameplay loop just for how much the jump to 3D adds to the already great formula, Risk of Rain Returns is the definitive way to play the game that started it all. Improved visuals, improved controls, and plenty of quality of life changes that put this version on a much higher pedestal than the original, and in some ways makes it feel like a RoR2 demake in a great way. Hell, there are mechanics EXCLUSIVE to this version of the game that even RoR2 doesn't have, such as temporary items and drone scrapping machines. Temp items act the same as normal items you can find, but each stack of a temp item only lasts for a short time, so you have to act quickly if you want to make the most of the effect.

The game also introduces unlockable skills from 2, with all characters having their own selection of different alternate abilities. These new abilities can be unlocked either by playing the standard game with those characters, or by completing this game's brand new mode, the Providence Trials. These trials act as character-specific challenges that either act as a tutorial for a brand new skill, or as a test of your knowledge of the game's existing mechanics. When I first saw these, I fully expected them to just be slight modifications to the standard gameplay loop, but I was quite surprised to see fully fleshed out missions, with a lot of them even featuring custom level layouts and item gimmicks. If you've ever seen the Adventure or Event modes from Smash Melee and Brawl, the Providence Trials play a bit similarly to those. They are challenging, especially for getting the Crown ranks, but they are a fun way to pass the time if you want a break from the standard formula.

My only real complaint with the game is that item spawns feel less frequent than the original, at least on base settings without Artifacts turned on. This could very well just be my memories of both the original and 2 getting mixed up, or I just straight up misremembered since I haven't played the OG version in years, but I've been lucky enough to get maybe 3-5 items at best by the end of the first level, which isn't very much given that a run typically only goes for 6 levels without looping. Thankfully, there are ways to circumvent this, either by enabling the Sacrifice artifact that makes enemies drop items, or by playing as the brand new Drifter character, who's special ability drops temporary items that can give you a short-term edge while you look for permanent items.

Overall, I'm very happy with how this remake came out. It's an amazing new way to go back to a classic.

Now that 1.0 has come out, I want to update my overall thoughts on the game. In short, it's still a great roguelike, and the 1.0 update has not only fixed the issues I initially had, but also overhauled how the game works in great ways.

Entropy Effect is a roguelike with a heavy focus on platform-fighter style combo-heavy combat. Upgrades are geared toward giving you new moves and passive abilities that increase your combo and damage potential. It's a fun way of turning a fighting game IP into an action platformer with roguelike elements.

During early access, progressing in runs would reward you with AP points, which you then spend on a selection of upgrades that increase your overall versatility for future runs. 1.0 maintains a similar structure, but now, instead of purchasing flat upgrades, you spend those points to level up your overall level, which increases your health, gives you special benefits, and unlocks slots for a new "Implant" system. Every time you defeat a boss during a run, you gain a crystal, and when you gain five of these, you can combine them to unlock a perk of your choice. There's a healthy variety of these perks, ranging from revives that allow you to avoid death, increased damage and resistance, and more. You can equip up to 6 of these perks once you level your character up high enough. These perks can also be ascended up to two times to further increase their effectiveness. While this system does decrease your overall effectiveness compared to EA, since you no longer have all of these upgrades applied at once like you did before, it offers far more customization to how you choose to approach your playstyle, and offers an incentive to continue grinding runs for AP so that you can further upgrade your implants.

1.0 also offers a more robust difficulty system. During EA, you only had access to two preset difficulties, with nothing else allowing for a greater challenge apart from intentionally allowing your Entropy level to rise and give you debuffs. 1.0 takes a page from Hades' difficulty by allowing you to customize the challenge at your leisure - as you complete runs and collect boss crystals, you'll be able to increase a variety of different modifiers, such as enemy/boss damage and health, adding a time limit to encourage fast playthroughs, changing the behavior of bosses, among many others, all with the benefit of earning higher rewards. I'm still fairly early into the game, so I have yet to see the full potential of this system, but it is already a massive improvement from the previous difficulty system, as it allows me to fully control the challenge and let me play at my own pace.

HP Mixtures were greatly improved since EA. My initial complaint was that the input to activate a mixture was so easy to press by complete accident, and the animation for said mixture could not be interrupted, so it was easy to accidentally waste them. They did nullify this problem by later allowing you to interrupt the animation, but it was still an annoyance with the button input. Now in 1.0, while you can no longer cancel the mixture (at least to my knowledge), activating it is done with a combination input, meaning that it's impossible to do so by accident anymore. A far better change imho.

Bosses are also improved. The bosses overall haven't changed from EA, but 1.0 does introduce a brand new boss for world 4, so now all of the worlds have two boss variations each, and the existing bosses have been improved, including certain bosses that I initially had issue with due to a lack of proper cues for attacks.

Character selection is still great, including the brand new characters introduced since the start of EA. They all feel great to play (Taokaka probably being my favorite because of how fast she is). That said, I really hope that more characters are added - the devs have said that they intend to update the game further, and I hope that includes the roster, because there is still a lot of potential on that front.

Overall, I'm very glad I gave this game a chance despite not being into BlazBlue - and thankfully you don't really need to understand the lore of that IP to jump into this game, as you only get that representation in the character roster and not the overall story. If the game looks interesting to you, I would definitely recommend it.

It's Doom Eternal but as a roguelike

That's it, that's all you really need to know.

May 2024 update: Screw you Bethesda and Microsoft for killing off an amazing studio that made an equally amazing game.

Note: The total hours on Steam don't fully represent my overall playtime with the game, as I spent several hours playing the game via Game Pass before purchasing on Steam and transferring my save.

This is exactly the game I've wanted for such a long time - a game with amazing combat, spectacular art direction, a charming and memorable cast of characters, and a great soundtrack that the entire game follows to the beat. Every single visual and gameplay element is timed beat for beat to the music, all the way down to your character's footsteps.

On top of that, it's a content-complete game through and through. A full campaign with lots of replay value, multiple difficulty modes, and a good amount of post-game content that fans of DMC will get a kick out of. It even has cosmetic unlocks that you can get through achievements or the in-game shop (with no in-app purchases, I should add). No real traces of content that should be there but isn't due to rushed development or the need to monetize it. It's essentially DMC5 but with none of the MTX that plagued that otherwise amazing package.

The game is absolutely worth its price tag. $30 is a steal for what you get. I do hope that they do more with this game and its world, either through a sequel or DLC - Extra modes or being able to play as the assist characters would be amazing.

So far, this game is shaping up to be a solid continuation of what Vermintide did right, but now with an added emphasis on long-range combat. As of right now, my main gripes are largely server problems,but I'm willing to forgive them for now, since that is what this beta release is aiming to fix. I'll be singing a different tune if they continue to be an issue up to/past launch.

Don't let this game's small price tag and simple visual design fool you. Vampire Survivors is one of the most deceptively deep games you can find on the market. It's the kind of game that starts simple with an easy gameplay loop, but the more you play it, the more you discover and the more layers get added to make each attempt increasingly fulfilling. It's got the addictive gameplay loop and flashy visuals of an arcade (or a casino slot machine in the case of loot chests) as well as the cryptic secrets of a castlevania or zelda game (which is fitting, because this game wholeheartedly wears its castlevania influences on its sleeve)

If you played Bullets Per Minute and want something like that with a greater emphasis on heavy metal, this is the game for you. I'm not even halfway through the game's campaign, and I already feel like I got my money's worth.

Makes me look forward to that custom song support that they announced right before launch. That's gonna add some serious replay value on top of what's already here.

Edit: Having finished my playthrough, I can still say that it's a phenomenal game that was worth the time and money. It is short, but makes up for that with a good amount of replay value in trying to perfect playing to the beat and getting a better rank. If score improvement isn't your ideal form of replay value, or if you're a one-and-done kind of player, the game can be played through in about 7 hours, and that's if you do all the torment challenges (and on normal difficulty, as that was what I played on), so you might be turned off by the game's length.

I only really have two complaints with the game itself. First is a very minor one, but I found it rather annoying that in Torment challenges, you can run out of time even if you're in the middle of a glory kill (called slaughters in this game, but they are very clearly glory kills) animation. I had a number of moments where I would do a glory kill when there's a second left, only for the challenge to end right as I should've gotten more time. A simple fix for this would be to have the time added when the glory kill starts (you have i-frames during it, so it's not like you could be interrupted), rather than when it ends.

My second complaint, and this one is a bit more major, is the lacking boss design. Every stage ends with a boss fight, and they all look about the same - a floating skull and two large wings. They have subtle visual differences to reflect the level they're in, but they're largely the same otherwise. That's not to say the bosses are repetitive - despite their visual similarities, each fight has a unique gimmick or different attack pattern that changes up how you approach. The final boss is the most unique out of all of them, so it's at least not visually repetitive across the board.