Recent reviews by MapostropheEdic

This is the kind of game that makes me want to make art.

Kim Hyung Tae and his team were inspired by Nier: Automata, and wanted to make something just as beautiful. I believe they achieved that.

The graphics are colorful and stylized. The gameplay is a satisfying, unique take on souls-lite combat that can be as easy or as challenging as you want thanks to the adjustable difficulty settings. The storyline, while derivative of Nier: Automata, is still quite engaging. I loved the main characters and much of the supporting characters, and the lore of the world triggers my autistic desire to note down every conceivable detail about a world and infodump it to someone who'd actually kinda care.

And this game runs well on my Ryzen 5 7600 + GTX 1070 at mostly high settings, native 1080p with FSR3 native antialiasing. I managed to get around 60fps for most of the game, thought the Great Desert was a more demanding area that made my FPS go to around 40fps. It can run well on the Steam Deck at a locked 30fps, but even when applying the "SteamDeck=0 %command%" to raise at least the texture quality settings (I found very high character textures and medium environment textures to be doable), the visuals won't be as good as what you could get on even a PC with mid-range specs, so I do prefer playing on there. The visuals are a big selling point of this game, after all.

I did three playthroughs of this game to get all of it's endings and achievements. I still haven't collected all the outfits, but I do not mind doing more playthroughs in the name of collecting them all.

Aside from Hi-Fi Rush 2, I'm not sure if I'm actually looking forward to any more video games beyond Stellar Blade 2. Thank you, Kim Hyung Tae and ShiftUp, for developing and releasing Stellar Blade on PC.

The perfect kind of game for something like the Steam Deck! Can be played in short bursts, can comfortably run at a consistent 60 fps at the lowest TDP and clock speeds on Steam Deck OLED, and is a fun minigame collection that feels best on handheld. I got this when they were giving this away for free, but $3 is a fair price for what this is.

I grinded this demo for 37.6 hours, fully unlocking the Beta skill tree, Attack skill tree, and as much of the Survival skill tree as I could, and I still want more. June 11th cannot come fast enough.

I'll also add this game is well-optimized, in spite of using Denuvo. With my Ryzen 5 7600 + GTX 1070, I was able to get around 50-60 fps (depending on the area) with most of the settings set to high or very high, shadows on medium, screen space reflections and volumetric fog set to low (the game still looked gorgeous for the most part).

I'm pretty sure I almost developed carpal tunnel syndrome from the grind, but it was worth it.

How the hell does this game have less than 1,000 reviews?

This is probably the most creative game Platinum has ever developed, taking clear influence from their previous works (both at Platinum and Clover Studios), along with some Pikmin influence, yet making something one-of-a-kind out of the elements it combines. The combat is interesting, encouraging the player to chain as many Unite Morph attacks in as little time as possible without getting hit in each encounter. It takes the spectacle fighter formula Platinum has perfected, and makes a gameplay loop that, while proudly wears it's influences on it's sleeve, I cannot directly compare to any other game out there. All of this is thanks to the game's Unite Morph concept and the unique control scheme that compliments the system well.

The art direction is beautiful and captivating. It's a really colorful game with playful, toy-like setpieces that are a joy to journey through and do some light exploration in. These setpieces have exhilarating spectacle going on, from giant robots collapsing city streets and skyscrapers, to trekking through crumbling ancient ruins. The game has a wide variety of setpieces to play through, and it keeps things interesting through the game's runtime!

The storyline is there. It is not exactly an amazing story, being a really simple good vs. evil story between a group of superheroes and alien invaders. With that being said, it is still entertaining throughout the cutscenes and dialogue, with funny comedy playing throughout that pays homage to the sentai shows that influenced it. The QTE fails in particular are amazing and some of the best QTEs ever made because of that. The story does drop from simply written to lazily written by the third act, but that does not bother me thanks to the comedic writing staying cosistantly strong throughout.

It's not a perfect experience. I do feel the controls can be janky at times, with some Unite Morphs being a bit harder to do properly than others. This especially applies to certain Unite Morphs you get if you apply certain cheat codes into the game, where you need to be more precise to avoid the system confusing certain unite morphs with others. There is also keyboard and mouse support, but the game is best played on a controller due to how poor the mouse support is. That is a shame, since I was hoping drawing shapes with the mouse would be a good experience. But at least the right analog stick isn't too bad for what the game wants you to draw.

Ultimately, I recommend The Wonderful 101. It is an incredibly unique game that is worth at least one playthrough, even if it is not as good as some of Platinum's other titles, such as Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising. This game is underrated, and I wish more people into spectacle fighters tried out this game.

This game deserved more love for much longer. I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm still able to find some matches, even if the lobbies are with bots.

If you need a game on Steam you can play with your friends, this is arguably the best game for that. Good amount of enemy variety, fun weapons to play with, thrilling campaigns, and the most flexible and amazing modding/Workshop support I seen out of perhaps any game ever. Especially for a game that had PvE game modes in mind before being a sandbox-type of an experience!

If you like Left 4 Dead, you will like this game!

If you like COD Zombies, you will like this game!

If you like games with a diverse and numerous array of weapons, you will like this game!

If you like visceral action and dismember-able enemy models, you will like this game!

If you don't mind a fun grind and repetitive gameplay loop, you will like this game!

One of my all-time favorite video games, and a game that definitely helped me recognize what I value in the games I play. A beautiful setting realized brilliantly by it's gorgeous art direction, some of the most polished and smooth platforming I've ever played, amazing setpieces, lovable characters, and a moving soundtrack all combine to make an experience that is worth the $20 asking price. Pick up and play this game if you have the chance!

This was a good game. Shame it got delisted from Steam. Kinda the reason why I started the Delisted Games Watch, along with all the other delistings of 2024. At least it's still available on GOG! Go get that version if you're interested in this game!

Sexy, stylish, and campy in all the best ways imaginable! Bayonetta is a top-notch spectacle fighter that definitely helped solidify PlatinumGames's reputation for developing high-quality action games. It's easy to see why after playing this. Responsive controls, hilariously over-the-top setpieces, empowering mechanics, and a healthy dose of sex appeal all come together to make an awesome game! Pick this one up, especially if you like spectacle fighters and other stylish action games!

(...Although if you do like spectacle fighters and other stylish action games, you probably played this one, right? If not, absolutely get around to it!)