Recent reviews by Ryuuga Hideki

I've barely scratched the surface and this already feels like a perfect melding of classic card games and video games. Everything on display could *technically* be reproduced with physical cards and dice (and likely a calculator), but the logistical nightmare of such an idea - never mind the creativity on full display - is realistically only possible because of the technology.

Every round scratches that one-more-turn itch. You will quickly find powerful synergies to feel all-powerful, only to be humbled and fail shortly after. Most importantly, every lost run has just enough info among the randomness to help you learn where you possibly could have done better.

This is certainly going to be a game that I come back to repeatedly for the foreseeable future.

It's a short but solid 7/10 game. Kept me chuckling throughout - somehow the main joke of Turnip Boy ripping every document you give him never got old for me - and it doesn't overstay its welcome; if anything I wish there was more of the game. The music is also fun, the story is genuinely good despite its rushed 3-hour pace, and the story has a surprisingly dark edge to it.

But good lord the Mutated Human Liz boss is some unfair BS. It just doesn't quite work within the limitations of the game and is much harder than the final boss because of it.

Also - full disclosure - I first played it on Game Pass (that I almost entirely get for free via Microsoft Rewards) and then I bought it for Steam for $1 as a part of a bundle. I'm not quite sure it would be worth the normal $15 price tag considering my background with the game, and that one boss fight does drag down the overall experience.

That said, even with my complaints it is still worth playing.

I've not played much yet, but this easily feels like the best "survivor-like" outside of Vampire Survivors that I've tried. Easy to just jump into for a few quick rounds, though I'm not sure yet how much I'd want to play for long (2+ hour) stretches at a time.

Is this a low-effort port/remaster of a PSP game? Yes.

Is Persona 3 a mechanically inferior game to 4 and 5? Yes.

Am I having a great time and loving playing this game for the 4th time now on PC/Steam Deck? Also yes.

And yes, the soundtrack still slaps.

P3P was my introduction to the series so I have some nostalgia goggles here. However, this is absolutely still a very solid game. As much as the series has improved, they still had a fantastic foundation to build on from this game that can hold its own.

While I wish that this included the FES content and cutscenes, I'd still rather play this version to keep the control over my party members and the alternate female main character story route. It's a shame that P3 is separated into two very different versions like this, but at least the package as-is is still great and is - IMO - the overall superior version. Well over a decade later and I still love this game.

Also, for the Steam Deck users out there, you can easily turn the TDP down to 5 to boost the battery life to 5+ hours with no further modifications or impact on performance.

As a big fan of the Jackbox Party Pack games, this is a great alternative if you have some funny friends. Some of the presentation is slightly under-polished, such as the repetition of re-watching the clip that you're riffing on with 4+ total players, but it's still a great experience.

Generally speaking, you're presented with some (in)famous clips of cinema's b-grade-at-best history and are tasked with making a joke based on what you just watched, then the rest of your group will pick their favorites. Competitive, but in a lighthearted and fun way. Continuing the Jackbox comparison, it's like a more visual Quiplash. Complete with gameplay options to either pick from premade riffs or write your own.

The premade riff options are quite good, though purely from a gameplay perspective it's slightly disappointing that they're voiced by the Rifftrax crew we know and love vs the automated voice the game uses in the free-write gameplay mode. Because it's obvious that someone didn't write their own riff - and despite how good it may be - the person playing might still lose (depending on the audience) simply for not having enough creativity in the moment.

Is that fair? Perhaps. But it also pulls back the curtain in a way that might ruin some peoples' enjoyment compared to how the Jackbox games handle similar "play for me" elements.

Overall, at only $10 with continued support and added free content from the developer, this is an easy recommendation for someone looking for a good time with friends if you're all aware of the general Rifftrax/MST3K conceit.

This game is genuinely good.

While obviously a farcical parody of The Witness, it still manages to be fun and engaging in its own rights and is well worth playing for free. That it has another level to potentially be even better for people who either love The Witness or hate its immense pretentiousness elevates it to a prime spot.

Where satire can and often seemingly is easily used to excuse poor execution of an idea, The Looker sticks the landing near-flawlessly. Regardless of whether you loved or hated The Witness - as there seems to be no in-between among critics and players - you will probably enjoy The Looker enough to at least see it through to its end. (And honestly, the level of polish put into this game makes me think it was much more likely to have been made by someone who loves The Witness over someone who hates it.)

Less than 15 minutes for me to complete everything, but it was all executed with a good amount of mechanical polish for the free price and time investment. Definitely a solid indie project and worth playing. Just turn off of the bloom in settings; it initially felt like my astigmatism had evolved into its final form.

In the immortal words of Sheev Palpatine, we will watch your career with great interest.

This is a very good game... that I have some mixed feelings about. To get the most from the game it is definitely best to go in as blind as possible, so as long as my review is I don't really recommend to read it unless you really want a lot more detail about what you're getting in to. But to summarize in advance - if you are looking for a pure card game, this may not do it for you. But if you want an overall gaming experience using card battling as a conceit, then this could well be a truly top notch game for you. (And I say that with all sincerity, not as a pejorative in either direction.)

Starting out positive, the card systems are sublime. There's obviously a random element in playing a card game and I had more than a few rounds that I lost and had to replay before I got through it. However, despite the random aspects, I don't think that I ever felt that a loss was truly beyond my control. In hindsight there was always a better move that I could have made within the past few turns, especially since you are given your opponent's next move in advance to try and plan around. Their cards and tactics don't change from one match to the next other which gives you some planning ability.

Then there's the story and setting. Spoiler time for after roughly the first 1/3 of the game - I truly appreciate the efforts that Daniel Mullins put into this game, but storywise it largely feels like a retread of Pony Island, especially in the final segment; more on this in the next spoiler segment. It may be reductive, but having played Pony Island so shortly before this game it essentially felt like the same story told using different gameplay mechanics. There's a bit of added mystery around the "meta" story in the guy discovering and playing the game, but I don't personally think it wrapped up in a satisfying way.

However, that's a relatively minor complaint for me. I came in here for a good deck-building game with roguelike and escape room elements and that's largely what I got. In fact, with the above shift in story there's a massive explosion in tactics and strategies that are suddenly available to learn.

Cards have separate attack and health amounts, and your goal is ultimately to deal 5+ damage cumulatively directly to your opponent vs their damage to you. So say you play your cards right and are able to deal 5 damage on your first turn, it's an instant win for you. Or they initially hit you for 3 and you manage to deal 8+ damage the next turn, you win. And myriad back-and-forth bouts of damage iterating on that; whomever exceeds more than 5 damage dealt relative to what the other person deals first wins. This goal and mechanic is pretty concrete and stays mostly constant through the game. Any overkill is converted into coins you can use for purchasing various boons.

Initially you play cards based on a sacrifice system - generally speaking, to play your most powerful cards you will need to sacrifice (per match, not absolute) up to 3 other cards that are currently in play. Considering you can only have up to 4 active cards, that can make for a lot of strategic planning on which cards to remove and when. On top of that truly clever system, you also get bones for your cards that have been removed, including those that you sacrifice, which you can then use to summon a different type of card.

Then there are different sigils that cards can be imbued with a variety of different effects; you gain a shield, your opponent takes damage when attacking you, your attack is an instant-kill, your attack goes over the enemy's card and attacks them directly (with a direct counter to that), and many more. Each one feels like it has a place and can be smartly used to great effect, and it is especially in this aspect that explodes in potential after that first 1/3 of the game.

So that keeps up for another ~1/3 of the game until it shifts yet again. After the middle section of the game - which largely plays like the Pokemon TCG GameBoy game if anyone reading this has ever played that - the final 1/3 of the game lands somewhere between the first two. Storywise up to this point you have removed the control of Leshy, one of the sentient AI in the game, and restored the game to its initial balance as intended by the developers. However, via your actions, a different AI takes over the game when you "win" and effectively holds the same position Leshy initially held, once again with you as prisoner. Gameplay is further tweaked as well, adding an additional lane for cards to be played as well as focusing primarily on an energy system to play your cards instead of direct sacrifices. To balance the tactical removal of sacrifices you can now remove your own cards at-will by simply smashing them with a hammer, albeit without direct benefit to yourself.

Rather than playing a deckbuilding roguelike a la Slay the Spire, you are also now playing a sort of tabletop RPG. This adds a lot more predictability to your encounters and how you proceed. Eventually you win again against your new captor and ultimately solve the issues with this game's existence by deleting the entire game, which of course you play through the game's deletion, not unlike Pony Island's finale with different gameplay mechanics.

Now, I just want to clarify - the story in the game is good. It makes sense and works well within its established boundaries. However, it just ends up clashing with what I wanted in the game, especially with just how good the card game mechanics are. As an overall experience this game is better than the sum of its parts... but man do I want a fleshed-out "pure" card game of what Daniel Mullins has created here. Perhaps just a simple progression of escape-room scenarios vs. each boss as presented in the first and final 3rds, with the tweaked mechanics for each one to fit their cards and story. And perhaps an endless mode on top, which is what I understand the currently-beta (so I haven't tried it) Kaycee's Mod to be.

Overall I do recommend the game and I highly enjoyed my time with it, but from a purely gameplay perspective I think that this could have been even better if the intent was shifted just a bit.

Played this for a good few hours via Xbox Game Pass, and for under $4 on sale it was a no-brainer to pick up and own for if/when it's ever delisted from that service.

Absolutely infectious music and incredibly satisfying strategy that allows you to try and make the best of RNG. You may still get screwed over - as is the nature of RNG - but the strategic layer of if/how/when to use your dice gives you more of an edge than you might expect from a game that relies so heavily on random chance. Not to mention that each character plays almost bewilderingly differently, and as the levels progress there are gameplay curves thrown in that can be punishingly tough, but oh-so-satisfying to overcome. The amount of variety that Terry Cavanagh squeezed out of rolling virtual dice with these items and character classes is nothing short of impressive.

Easy recommendation for fans of rogue-lites and RNG-heavy deckbuilder type games. And even if this doesn't seem like the sort of game you'd enjoy, you should still at least look up the soundtrack on your music streaming platform of choice; the soundtrack simply slaps.

A stripped-down and super-fun top-down battle royale with super-cute animal characters weilding AK47s trying to avoid skunk gas.

Matches are very fast-paced compared to the norm for BR games which is enjoyable. Not to mention that it plays well on both K/M and controller, and microtransactions aren't pay-to-win.

I'm a bit worried about the possible longevity of this game since it is a bit on the simple side, but for a free download it is a blast to play and well worth trying, even if you're only remotely interested. Or if you've been burned out on the genre's typically long per-match runtime and are looking for something similar but a bit quicker and lighter, this could well fill that niche for you without the potential time commitment for each match.