Recent reviews by Doggo

If you are anything like me, you played Pokémon games in your childhood but never tried any other monster collector games. But truth be told, even though Pokémon is so nostalgic to me due to me growing up with it, I must admit that I prefer Nexomon.
How did this happen? How did an indie company beat Game Freak at their own game? Let’s take a look.
(Or you could take a really short peek at the TLDR at the bottom)

The story in this game is very captivating and interesting. Sure, it might start off very generic with you being an orphan that has finally come of age to become a nexomon tamer that can now go to the nearby forest to capture your very first nexomon.
And then something very wacky and uncharacteristic happens but I’ll let you panic over that yourself

But it doesn’t take long before the story pulls you in as you try to climb the ranks of the guild you are in and uncover secrets and lore about the interesting world that you find yourself in. More on that later.
Every major event had me even more excited to see what would happen next, and there were a few twists and turns I could not predict.

The characters also help make the story as memorable and interesting as it is. They just feel so... Alive, I guess? They are actually real characters with personalities, which is something I am not used to from Pokémon games at all.
There are some comedy relief characters as well though, and these are very hit or miss for me. You have a sidekick called Coco that accompanies you through most of your journey and he cracks a joke almost every time he opens his mouth. Some of it is genuinely funny, while most of it is just annoying in my opinion.

All these characters reside in a very beautiful world. There are varying biomes from lush forests, big cities, dry deserts, floating islands, tropical beaches, haunted woods, and even volcanic landscapes for you to explore.
Every zone has its own beautiful soundtrack. Just listen to this music from the Asian-inspired drake isles.

NPCs in towns will often move around, they will throw you out if you enter their house unannounced, they will give you sidequests, they might tell you about their problems if you talk to them, their dialogue might change as you progress through the story, when you move around the world you leave behind little clouds of dust. The world and the people in it just feel so alive, which is once again not something I am used to from Pokémon games where everything feels so robotic in comparison.

Okay so the story is good, there are cool characters and an interesting world. What else is there?
Oh yeah, the nexomon!

There is a crazy amount of nexomon in this game for you to find, fight, capture, and train. 427 of them to be exact. I captured all of them for a steam achievement so please take my word for it when I say there are a lot of them.
They are found in the wild, but only in patches of grass that are moving. So if you don’t want to encounter any wild nexomon, just mind your step when you walk through grass and you won’t have to deal with it.
The only exception to this is when you enter caves, you can be attacked at any time there, but the game gives you an infinite repel you can toggle on and off whenever you want sometime in the middle of the game, so it’s hardly a problem.

Some of the designs for these nexomon are very interesting and instantly made me fall in love with them and use them in my party, while others made me question what the devs were smoking. I’ll show you what I mean.

These are my personal two favorite nexomon designs:
Imbruon[pqube.co.uk]
Volatic[pqube.co.uk]

And here are my personal two least favorite nexomon designs:
Lovidovi[pqube.co.uk]
Caninui[pqube.co.uk]

So, these cool looking (and not so cool looking) nexomon fight each other of course. It wouldn’t be a creature collector game without some dogfighting.

The combat is a lot faster paced than any Pokémon game I have ever played. There are no drawn-out animations that you have to watch every time you make an attack, no sitting around waiting for the HP to slowly tick down, no XP slowly ticking in, and no unnecessary text asking you if you want to switch your nexomon after every nexomon you defeat. These are a few examples of how the combat is sped up. Thank you for not wasting my time, game.

There are only 9 different types of nexomon in the game. Fire, water, grass, normal, ghost, psychic, electric, rock and flying. Some of the strengths and weaknesses are a little weird, such as rock being weak to flying, or psychic being weak to grass, but it just takes a little bit of memorization or a cheat sheet on your other monitor if you are a potato like me and you’ll be fine.

Fighting NPCs in this game is also quite engaging. They will constantly swap their active nexomon to try to get the type-advantage and keep you on your toes. They aren’t just punching bags that pose no threat to you. They will also want a rematch after 20-30 minutes, but only if you walk up and talk to them. A real godsend here is that the type of the nexomon you are up against is always displayed next to their name, so don’t worry about having to remember what typing the 427 nexomon have.

Another thing worth mentioning here is that the game scales to you and the level of your party.
Don’t think for a second that this will let you skip trainer battles. The story related events and boss battles have a set level that will absolutely cave your face in if you are not prepared for them. But due to trainers scaling to whatever level you are and being willing to rematch you, you can level up quite fast.

Nexomon: Extinction really pulls through as a great monster collector game.

Even through all the years and games of Pokémon I’ve played, I never actually completed the Pokédex. The largest reason for this is that I always felt like the game actively sabotaged me.
Want another starter than the one you picked? Too bad, you can only get one per save file.
Want these two specific Pokémon? Too bad, they are only in the other version of the game.
Want the evolved version of this one? Are you dumb or something? It only evolves when you trade it!
Come to think of it, many things are like that in those games.
Like HMs, learning an old move, changing nickname of a Pokémon, getting running shoes, etc.

Nexomon just gives you a quality gaming experience with none of that garbage.
Want to change your character’s name whenever you want? Sure, go ahead.
Want to change how your character looks and even your gender whenever you want? Why shouldn’t you?
Changing the names of your nexomons? Whenever you want from the menu.
Running shoes? From the moment you start the game.
HM abilities to make you progress through the story? Not something you have to teach your nexomon.
Forced to have a flying type in your party so you can fly between places? Nope, teleporters.

The game is good.
If you have ever played a Pokémon game and enjoyed that, you will probably enjoy this as well.
If you have never played a Pokémon game before but are interested, test the waters with this game.
Just play the game. Play it right the frick now. Or else, I will make you spill your juice and you will end up looking like this.[imgur.com]
Consider this a warning and a threat.

I lost hours of sleep because of this game.
All I wanted was a short little werewolf game where I could earn all the achievements within half an hour or so.
But I was deceived.

I’ve punched a guy so hard he flew to the other side of the supermarket, landed on his feet, and then instantly shot me dead.
I’ve learned the hard way that the salad bar does not provide you cover from shotguns.
I’ve clawed a guy ten times straight in the stomach without him dying.
I’ve studied the patterns and behaviors of these hunters for hours.
I’ve punched people to death through walls.
And then I finally beat the game after three and a half hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

Jokes aside, the game is pretty fun, and that is not just the Stockholm syndrome talking.
Me and three friends were all playing it at the same time and had an internal competition to see who could beat it first.
It was a fun experience to have us all trying different tactics and looking for exploits and ways to cheese it.
It was also very comforting to have them as moral support when the game decided to screw me over.
It’s a game I will remember fondly, and that is something I sadly cannot say about most other games that came out this year.

I was so excited for this game to be released. Finally, I would be able to play my favorite childhood game on steam. Even with improved graphics!
When I then also found out the game would have achievements, I was sold.

Then on the day of the release, I saw the price tag. 400 NOK (about 45 dollars).
“Ouch. That’s a big price for re-releasing a game that came out in 2000. But then again, it is such an amazing game, and they have upgraded the graphics as well. So, I’m sure the price is justifiable. And it launched on steam with a 10% discount. I’m sure it will be worth it” I thought.

I was so, so wrong.

Let me start off by giving credit where credit is due. The game does actually get a minority of things right.
The letter sorting minigame is completely unchanged. This is a huge win!
The 3D models look fine.
It has a lot of the iconic old music that the original had.
And lastly, its greatest achievement: It serves as a perfect and shining example of how to NOT remake an old game. If nothing else, I hope other developers can learn from this trainwreck.

Before I get into the many gripes I have with this game, let me address the elephant in the room.
I already know what several people are thinking.
“This is a children’s game. It is not targeted at you, so of course you are not going to enjoy it as much as you did as a child.”
Okay, fair point. But I have some counter arguments.
First off, in the trailer, they clearly state that this game is “super fun for the WHOLE family”. Which would indicate that it is meant to be enjoyed by people of all ages.
Secondly, the old 2000 game actually was enjoyed by kids and adults alike. I still have memories of seeing my dad in his office playing some of the minigames from time to time.

So, what is the issue with this game?
The issue is how much content from the original that they didn’t add.
The old game flourished due to its big variety of minigames that you could get lost in. There was really something for everyone there, which is why the game was such a hit.

There is a whopping 18 minigames that have been completely left out this game.
What we are left with is 9 minigames and a very short story that you can beat within 30 minutes.
But let’s take a closer look at some of these minigames.

First off, there is Ludvig’s labyrinth. The original version was basically just Pac-man. Collect all the items on the map without any of the bee swarms touching you. Simple.
In this new version, the maps are HUGE with a lot more items around the map for you to pick up, but only one bee swarm instead of the two or three in the original. But it also adds in new mechanics like a diving suit so you can move through water, sliding walls that you must navigate through, minecarts that drive you to new parts of the map, and teleporters. The bees have also been done really dirty here. They pose no threat to you at all, and the real challenge is no longer to figure out how to navigate around the angry bees, but just how to navigate around the giant mess of a labyrinth. When I reached map 7 or 8, I decided to end the run because of frustration, so I had to be the one hunting the bees. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

The apple harvest minigame is mostly the same, with a few changes. An actual good change here is that Ludvig will replace the basket a lot faster than in the original. The questionable change is the introduction of golden apples that can magically teleport falling apples to the basket. In my opinion this was an implementation that doesn’t really add anything to the game, so I’m curious why they thought this was worth their time.

Solans bike minigame is still here, but it doesn’t really translate very well in a 3D format. The camera angle is awkward, and it is often hard to see what’s ahead of you and what lanes have hazards in them. The 2D version of this minigame wasn’t exactly perfect either, but I think they should have improved on the original 2D instead of changing the formula completely.

Solan’s balloon hunt has carried over as well, and this is baffling to me.
They had all these amazing minigames in the old version, and they make the decision to only carry over 9 of them to this new version, and the freaking balloon hunt is one of them? Who on earth thought this was a good idea? This is the most boring waste of time in the history of anything ever. After about 5 minutes of this god forsaken minigame, you will have experienced all it has to offer and start to question why you paid 45 dollars for this game.

But hey, we were promised new content too. Let’s look at that.
The new content they added was a racetrack you can do as Ludvig on a tricycle and some new racing modes. That’s pretty much it.

18 minigames were sacrificed so that we could have some more race modes. Was it worth it?
Well, no. Because this isn’t done particularly well either. The handling is awful, and the cars feel very static to drive. It is a clear visual improvement from the original game, but the gameplay aspect of it has been degraded just like everything else.

And don’t even get me started on the voice acting. Some performances are better than others, but it’s generally just awful to listen to anything the characters have to say. Me bothering to write this sentence in this review is more effort than they put into the actual voice acting.

I have a theory of what happened. What we are looking at here is a very small team of developers that has never played the original game, had tight deadlines and a small budget. This does not excuse the unfinished mess of a product that they gave us, but at least it might explain things.

I have seen some theories about how they are going to add the missing minigames as DLC later, or just patch them in over time. Here is what I think is going to happen.
Nothing.
There will be no patches, no DLC, no golden version of the game, no nothing. This is the best they could give their loyal fanbase after many years of anticipation and waiting for a new game.
And honestly, I think that is the best outcome we could hope for at this point.
If they try to sell us a golden version of the game in a few years with a new 45 dollar price tag on it that contains all of the content that they purposely removed, that would be far worse than just giving us a bad product.

I am an achievement hunter. This game would be no exception to that. I set out with a goal to 100% this game, and I did. This means that I have played through, experienced, and beaten all the content that the game has to offer. And how long did it take me? 12.3 hours. But truth be told, at least 2, possibly 3 hours can be subtracted from that due to me being AFK.

Okay so look. This is very important. I have two closing remarks I want to make before I leave this games store page for the last time and pray that I forget it ever happened.

Firstly, I have a wish. Some people wish for wealth, for attractiveness, for meaning, or for success. I do not wish for any of those things. My only wish right now is for you to NOT buy this game. And if you have bought it, request a refund as soon as possible. Please do not give these people your money. There are so many better ways you could spend 45 dollars that would be more meaningful and fun.

And secondly, did you enjoy my review? Did it make you chuckle? Or even just pull slightly on your smiling muscles?
If yes, then congratulations! This review has probably brought you more enjoyment than this game ever could.
If no, then I’m sorry. I’ll try to do a better job next time. Funny enough, that exact sentence is something the developers should say as well.

PSA: If you got this game from your subscription to humble choice, you got a downgraded version of the game that ONLY has the base game and neither of the DLCs. The DLCs are no longer for sale on steam either, so the only way to buy them individually is by purchasing them on the humble store. What a strange coincidence am I right?

With that out of the way, let me try to put my thoughts down. There will be some small spoilers here, but nothing too major.

When I first launched the game, it felt weird to play. I felt like I was way too zoomed in on my character in third person, so I looked for a way to move the camera further away but could not find it. I got used to it after a while, and I guess the game is based around having that camera angle, so I guess it is alright that you cannot change it.
I also quickly noticed how weird the protagonist looks. All the characters just look slightly “off”. Be it in the way their faces look, mouths move, or eyes are placed, I thought it was quite hard to not get distracted by it.

The game starts with the protagonist having a monologue about a locked room, a poster on the wall, tearing down the poster and be terrified of what she saw, and ever since then trying to tear it back down. That is really all the information you are given when you start.
And in my opinion, that is the greatest part of this game.

For the first half or maybe two thirds of the game, the story is just hinted and not told, and you are presented with a bunch of loosely connected dots, and it is up to you to try to make sense of all the pieces you are presented with.
One moment you hear about how rooms inside the building you are in will sometimes randomly start shifting, and these shifts are responsible for a bunch of casualties within the building, then you meet the janitor who asks you if you have piss in your sock as he gives you a cassette player, then you find an old recording of someone interrogating a rubber duck, then you stumble upon a TV that’s playing a puppet show where the episode start off with one of the puppets crying and weeping because she got a letter saying her mother has died. And before you know it, you have become the director of a huge bureau.
It is very abstract and weird. Sort of like a fever dream.

Things eventually start to make more sense though, and some exposition gets force-fed to you at the end, which I personally did not enjoy, but it might be good for people who wants a definitive answer instead of being forced to figure things out for themselves.

There are tons of documents, files, cases, recordings, and other multimedia that you can find scattered all over this game that will build and expand upon the lore and what you know. But it requires you to be willing to sit back and enjoy those things. If you do not have the patience to watch the footage you find, read some of the notes, listen to the recordings and so on, you are only left with the core gameplay.

It is an action game, so there is lots of combat here. You quickly get a hold of a gun, and this gun can be changed into several different forms. A normal pistol, a sawed-off shotgun, a sniper, a rocket launcher, an assault rifle, one of the DLCs also let you make it into a gun that shoots cluster bombs.
Each different type can be upgraded three times, and you can put up to three mods on it, such as making it more accurate, doing more damage, giving you increased zoom etc.

To compliment your firearm, you also have powers to spice things up, such as telekinesis so you can lift and throw objects, a shield you can summon around yourself for protection, and levitation.
The game does an incredibly good job at not overwhelming you with it all though. It starts off simple enough and then it slowly builds and expands on it. As soon as I felt like I had started to get the hang of what they gave me, I got the next thing.

The zones and areas you visit are all quite unique and flavorful. From abandoned offices to a giant quarry. Each zone is filled with secrets and chests containing materials and mods, so you feel very rewarded for exploring. As you progress and get a higher clearance level as well as more abilities, revisiting old areas reveal lots of new secrets that you could not get earlier.
There are also several side missions you can do if you wish, which will often give great rewards.

And while it may seem pointless to talk about DLCs due to the game only being sold on steam as the ultimate edition, some people such as myself only got the base version from humble choice. So is it worth to buy them separately?
There are two DLCs for this game. Foundation and AWE.

AWE is some sort of Alan Wake crossover. I have personally never played an Alan Wake game before, but if those games are anything like this DLC then I do not think I have missed out on much.
It is very dark, and I do not mean in tone, I mean that it is literally dark and most of the gameplay revolves around trying to turn the lights back on.
They even completely butchered the personality of one of my favorite characters from the base game. Before, he was one of the most “human” people you met, but in this DLC he acts like a complete moron.

Foundation is easily the better DLC of the two, with a big new area to explore and the story is at least linked to the base game. It is quite short though, and the gameplay loop can get a little repetitive.
It might also just be me, but it feels like the difficulty is a little higher here. Probably due to the new enemy type that it brings, which are really annoying to deal with.

If it were not for the fact that I am an achievement hunter that likes to 100% the games that I enjoy playing, I probably would not have gotten the DLC, and honestly, I would not have missed out on too much. They are okay, but not worth the price I paid to get them on the humble store.

+Pros+
+Fantastic abstract story.
+Great voice acting.
+A progression system that feels rewarding.
+Great characters.
+Good variety in areas you visit.
+Hours of side quests.
+Several weapon types so you can find which you like most.
+Several weapon mods for customization.
+Several personal mods for customization.
+Skill points to boost your passive strengths.
+Runs very smoothly.
+You can really feel the passion that was put into making this game.

-Cons-
-I experienced one freeze.
-I experienced one bug.
-The checkpoint system is kind of lame. You might have to replay quite a bit if you die.
-Character models look very “off” to me, but this could be a personal thing.
-You might need some patience to get the full enjoyment out of the game.
-I personally did not enjoy how the story suddenly becomes very simplified in the last act.
-One of the guns is way too powerful, so playing with another one almost feels punishing.
-The AWE DLC is a massive let-down.

All in all, a great game that I am incredibly happy that I decided to give a try. While the DLCs are underwhelming, the base game more than makes up for it. Try it out if you want to see and experience some weird stuff.

I will leave you with a quote from my favorite recording that I found in the game. I found it in a totally optional area while I was doing a side quest.

Woman: The Furnace.. Can speak! It has been talking to me for some time now. Listen.
[Complete silence]
Woman: Did you hear that? It is a sentient force, capable of communicating! I checked, and there is no record of ever installing this furnace. I believe that-
[She pauses, and again there is just silence]
Woman: Uh, oh sorry, what?
[Silence]
Woman: Yes, I can feed you. Uh, what do you eat?
[More silence]
Woman: I see. I will try to find some volunteers.

I wasn't expecting to make a review of this game, but I do actually have a few things to say.

First of all, this game is intended for children, and anyone above the age of 8 won't be very interested in the characters or story. In short, it's about a girl that finds out shes a witch, and she learns alot of spells.
So remove the story element and you are left with a match-3 game. So does that hold up?
Yes and no.

The game has some fun mechaincs like imps that multiply, blocks of stone you need to break and spiders that will web tiles.
There are 3 powerups you get for making matches with 4 or 5 instead of 3, and you have 6 abilities you can activate to help you.
The game does a good job at explaining the different obsicles, but there are a few things it never explains.
For example, you can move a powerup to a different tile to use it more strategic, but this does NOT cost a turn for some reason.

There is an amazing total of 100 levels to beat, and you can get up to 3 stars on each level, but the way the game gives out stars is ridiculous.
When you have completed you goal for the map, each turn you have left becomes a powerup that goes somewhere randomly on the field. Then all of the powerups gets used at the same time and you get a decent amount of points for that, which is fine, however..
The problem is that if you play really strategic and beat the map really fast with alot of turns left, you won't have gotten enough points during play to reach 3 stars. So what you have to do is to spend every single turn to get as many points as you can before you beat it.
This is a backwards system that would be fixed by instead giving the player points for each unspent turn at the end.

With that rant out the way, let's just do a TLDR pros and cons.

+PROS+
+100 levels.
+Looks alright visually.
+Charming.
+Very child-friendly.
+Music is nice.
+All achievements are easily obtainable.
+Fun game mechanics.

-CONS-
-Backwards point system.
-Uninteresting story and characters.
-Some mechanics are never explained.
-Coins serve no purpose after you buy all your upgrades.
-It can be way too easy at times.
-Probably not worth full price.

If you are too pure for Huniepop (which sits at the same price as this game btw), I guess this is a great option.

Telltale and I have a strange relationship. I know they have the talent to make great games with compelling stories and loveable characters, but somewhere along the line, I think they lost touch with what it means to make a great game. But what about this one?

I’ll look at the story, characters, game mechanics, graphics, bugs, achievements and end it with a short summary for those of you that doesn’t want to read my essay.
Jump to whichever part interests you.

The game takes place in the universe of the Fables comic book series, where fairy tale creatures, myths and legends live in our world in Manhattan They refer to themselves as fables, and normal people like you and me as mundies. However, you don’t need to have read any of the comic books to enjoy the game.
The story is about trying to solve a murder case while trying to balance between being feared and being liked by the community you serve.
You play as the big bad wolf, or Bigby for short. While violence might be tempting in many situations, it might not be in your best interest.
You go from place to place trying to get information and clues that will get you closer to understanding who is responsible for the murders in town. However, your poor people-skills and a lack of cooperation from pretty much everyone will make you always be one step behind in the investigation.
You will meet many interesting characters along the way which will always complicate things further. You might get attached to some of them which will make it hard for you to make choices later.
The story will to a small degree shape itself to the choices you make, but nothing major will change. It’s the illusion of choice that telltale excels at.

Most of the characters are enjoyable to have on screen, while others are rather annoying.
Characters like Toad, TJ, Beauty, Johan and Jack just aren’t very interesting or fun to have around.
You could argue that Jack is supposed to be annoying and that’s his character, and I guess I can agree with that to some extent, but he is in far too many scenes to get a pass.
Most other characters are fun to have on screen and very enjoyable to learn about.
As mentioned in the story section, you will most likely get attached to some characters, and making choices that might affect them in a bad way, might be hard for you.
The voice acting is great! Especially for the main characters. Bigby got a great voice that symbolizes dominance, power and authority.
It’s worth mentioning that whenever you meet a new fable, you get a little information box about them which you can read if you want to.

The game pretty much plays itself. You will not be tested in any way whatsoever.
In the first episode of the game, you can pick up items and add them to your inventory, but this feature seems to get forgotten very early and never touched again. All items you picked up in episode 1 are gone in episode 2 and there is now nothing more to pick up unless it’s crucial for a puzzle.
I personally enjoy having an inventory full of stuff and try to make it useful in certain situations, but there is no such luck here.
There are many quick time events, but they are pretty easy and give you a lot of time to react.
You are always pushed down the linear path and the game will hold your hand the whole way until you are in the credits.

The graphics are alright. It runs smoothly with no real performance issues.
As in every telltale game, the lip-syncing is sometimes very off, and the characters constantly make strange movements and facial expressions.
Nothing is game breaking or horrible. Just a little clumsy.

I experienced a few bugs unfortunately.
The game “froze” a few times, where all characters would just stand around and look at each other during a cutscene without being able to trigger it to continue. The only fix I could find was to go to the main menu and restart from last checkpoint. Luckily, the game constantly autosaves.
I also experienced a bug where whenever I could choose what my character would say, all the options were blank. Again, I just had to reload to last save to fix it.

From an achievement standpoint, this game is different from many other telltale games.
With most telltale games, you will have all the achievements once you have beaten the game, but in The Wolf Among Us, this is not the case.
You have your typical telltale achievements that you get just from completing chapters, but there are five achievements that you only get by unlocking all the fable entries in the chapters. This will sometimes require you to replay parts of a chapter but doesn’t take long to do.
I found it very refreshing that they added those few extra achievements that you can hunt if you are interested.

The Wolf Among Us is one of telltales’ best games.
The story keeps you interested, and every answer only leads to more questions. The lack of cooperation from everyone around you will really make you feel the frustration of the main character.
The characters are for the most part interesting and fun to be around.
It has that spicy telltale style with strange movements and facial expressions.
You might run into a few bugs, but nothing of big consequence.
If you have played a telltale game before, you know what you are getting yourself into.

Crimson Gray was part of a bundle I bought a while ago, and I most likely wouldn’t have purchased the bundle if this game wasn’t part of it.
I’ve always enjoyed psychological horror/thrillers, and I had recently played through Doki Doki Literature Club and wanted something similar.
While this isn’t much of a horror game except some creepy dialogue and visuals, it most definitely delivered on the psychological part.

This will not be a pros and cons review, and nor is it a meme review where I say I like anime tiddies.
This will just be me writing about my thoughts on the game and how it handled mental illness.
This review will contain some spoilers.

First of all, the title of the game itself is great and extremely fitting. ‘’Crimson Gray’’
You play as a young man called John. John has clinical depression which often cripples him in his everyday life. He has regular sessions with a psychiatrist and is on some pretty heavy anti-depressant.
While the medicine he takes does relieve him ever so slightly of his depression, a side effect is that he is so indifferent to everything happening around him, that he actually stops seeing colors. All he sees is covered in a layer of gray.
As someone who actively uses anti-depressant, I can relate very much with this. While it does make you feel less crappy, it can also make you feel less of everything. Much less of everything, actually.

Seeing the world in gray color really puts you in the head of someone as depressed as John, and it gets easier to relate to and understand him.
The only colors he actually sees are the pink leaves of the school’s love-tree, the intense color of fire, and the colors of Lizzie and his psychiatrist. The psychiatrist wears clothes which consists of only two colors, crimson and gray. Which is a really cool touch.
It is not my intention to say anything negative about the creator, Sierra Lee when I say this, but I get the feeling that she or someone close to her have struggled with depression to get such an amazing insight.

Lizzie is a complete opposite of John, although she still has her fair share of problems.
She’s an obsessive stalker who is deeply in love with John and will stop at nothing to get him to love her. The game knows exactly how to balance out when to let her have a sweet and tender moment and when to have her running at you with an axe. Although she’s creepy at times, you can really empathize with Lizzie and feel her pain.

The game is structured a bit different than a normal visual novel. You are given choices as to what to say to characters and what actions you want to take, but ultimately you are changing the mental state of both John and Lizzie with every choice you make, which will change how they interact with each other and others around them.
All your choices lead down different paths which will shape how the story comes to an end.
I believe there are 26 different ways the story can play out in total.

It’s worth mentioning that there is an adult patch for the game you can download to see pornographic pictures of them (if you choose to pick those options) but to be completely honest, I enjoyed the game most before I got the adult patch.

No matter what you pick as dialogue or action choices, someone will die in every single storyline. Blood and the theme of death is very often displayed, which brings me back to my opening statement.

You have Lizzie who is willing to kill and be covered in blood to keep herself and John happy.
And you have John who is so indifferent that everything he sees is gray.
Crimson Gray.

Did you ever play Battleon or Dragonfable as a child? I sadly did, and I absolutely hated how you constantly had to pay with real money for in-game progress. Battle chasers: Nightwar is the answer to that. It offers a very similar combat system and art style, but it’s way better and most likely cheaper.
Although it took me 81 hours to 100% this game, I’d say it was worth it. It could have been less, but I didn't do all the necessary research and preperation before i started.

Battle chasers was originally a comic book series that launched in 1998, and there was released nine issues over a period of four years. The author then left the industry to make video games instead. And thus, he made Battle chasers: Nightwar.
This trivia will seem unnecessary, but it comes into play very shortly.

To make this more structured, I’ll make a pros and cons list.
+PROS+
+ As mentioned, the developer of this game used to make comic books, and a lot of that style carries over to the game. There are beautiful drawings, and animations that are a real joy to look at. Some of the loading screen images are real masterpieces.
+ Constant loot progressing.
+ 6 playable characters that are all viable.
+ 8 unique dungeons.
+ 8 optional hunts for hard enemy bosses that give great rewards.
+ Legendary weapons for all characters if you work hard enough.
+ A survival arena with endless mode.
+ Optional, fun and rewarding fishing.
+ Diverse skill trees to fully customize your characters and how they will act in battle.
+ The voice acting is good.
+ Tactical gameplay, especially in NG+
+ Constant auto-saves. This saved me many times when my computer wasn’t cooperative.

-CONS-
- The biggest problem with this game is its story. You would think a game based on a comic book with 9 issues released would have an amazing story, but it’s actually pretty bland.
- ALUMON. This character was the worst thing that happened to the story. A lot of things on this foreign land is shrouded in mystery and very interesting, but as soon as Alumon is introduced, he will spew out exposition for the rest of the game at every single opportunity.
- Because you can play as a party of whoever three members you want, the story doesn’t really have a main character of any kind. In the start it gives off the impression that Gully is the main character, but she completely fades out of the story halfway in. Maybe it’s the all-knowing Alumon?
- I’d estimate a maximum of 40% of the speech is actually voice-acted. I really wish a lot more was voice-acted to really engage me in the world.
- The combat can feel a bit slow. I personally don’t mind this too much, but I would imagine some people could get sick of it after a while.

The game has a very open ending, and a continuation is implied. So, I’m excited for a new entry in the Battle chasers saga in the future.
Maybe some of my cons with the story and the characters wouldn’t be so much of an issue if I had read the comics. But
since I didn’t, I have to review it as a game, and not as a piece of a comic book.

In conclusion, it’s fun gameplay if you don’t mind it feeling a bit slow. But if you want a deep and engaging story, this probably isn’t for you. I’m not sure if it’s worth full price though. I would wait for at least a 30% sale.

So, Just Cause 2 is a fun game with some problems.

You play as man called Rico. I wish I could tell you anything about him, but playing through the game twice and getting all achievements after 72 hours ingame, I didn't learn anything about anyone. Maybe you learn it all in Just Cause 1, but I haven't played that game.
The storyline however, is that you are on an Asian isle called Panau who is dictated by President Panay.
You go undercover and work for the three local gangs on the isle to make their leaders trust you enough to give you information on Panay that you can use to assassinate him.

+PROS+
+The world is COMPLETELY open! There are no limits to where you can go or any invisible walls.
+300 collectibles scattered around the island you can collect for the gangs.
+You are incredibly mobile, with your grappling hook and parachute on your back, there is nowhere you cannot get to.
+Many driving challenges that will test your skills on land, water and in the air.
+Very diverse world. You have tall snowy mountains, a giant desert, forests, a vast ocean, jungles and a huge city.
+A total of 49 missions you can do for the three gangs.
+You can kill enemies in really interesting ways if you use your imagination.
+Variety in areas. You will take over and liberate small villages, cities, military bases, oil rigs, airports and plenty more.
+Alot of vehicles you can use to transport yourself around. The base game has 104 vehicles, but with DLCs there are even more. Everything from small mopeds, monster trucks and tanks to giant jets and attack helicopters.
+EXPLOSIONS

-CONS-
-The main story is super short and it sucks.
-Alot of areas are copied and pasted. As an example, all oil rigs are built the exact same way, all the weak points are on the same places, and all the loot is located in the same places.
-Way too few weapons. I think without DLCs, there are 7 weapons you can choose from, and DLCs adds 5 or 6 more I think.
-I experienced a total of 3 random crashes, and it crashes 90% of the time when you try to exit the game.
-It gets repetitive very fast. When you go to areas who look more or less the same, fight enemies who all look and say the same with the exact same weapons and you destroy the same kind of stuff, you lose motivation fast.
-I really wish you could see some results of all you do. If you liberate enough villages and towns, there could be riots between the police and the civilians. When you take over an airport, there would sometimes be friendly choppers coming to help you. When you kill enough generals, the police would stop chasing you a little earlier than usual. But as it is, you can take over almost every single zone, and the army will have the exact same presence in the streets as they did when you started.

The game will soon be 8 years old. And while it does show its age, it has aged quite well.
If you are looking for a great story, or a story at all, look elsewhere. But if you want to blow up government property and kill their military forces, Panau is the place to go.
I don't think I will come back to this game in the future, but I will definitely get Just Cause 3 at some point to see what crazy new things they added.

It’s been over a week since I completed this game 100%, and I’ve been so torn on whether I should write a review about it or not.
The reason I’ve been so torn is because I have no experience with these types of games, so I have nothing to really compare it to.
It is the first JRPG I’ve ever played. The closest I’ve ever come to the genre is Pokémon games on my old DS.
Please keep this in mind while reading the review.

The game is set in a world where there is a dangerous plague spreading called the daemonblight.
Once you get the daemonblight, you turn into a daemon. A daemon is a sort of monster. You lose parts of yourself and become very dangerous once you turn.
You play as Velvet. A young woman who has turned into a daemon and kept prisoner by the authorities.
She manages to escape, and the incredible journey begins.
The game brings up some pretty heavy and thought-provoking topics.
What is free will, and should we have it?
How do you make a perfect world?
How much is a life worth?
How far should you go to follow orders?

Here are some pros and cons to make things easier to digest.

+PROS+
+Very beautiful and diverse world.
+Great music.
+A lot of cosmetic items you can find or earn. You can put your own personal touch to the characters!
+Several minigames you can play along the way. Character cards are my personal favorite.
+Amazing characters. Even the side characters that you don’t interact with often are amazing.
+Great voice acting in Japanese.
+Amazing story. It is long, funny, sad, cute, deep and bittersweet.
+Several hours of side quests.
+All six of the playable characters have different fighting styles, so you can find the character that best suits your playstyle.
+A lot of OPTIONAL conversations where you can learn things about the world or the characters.
+Great cinematics. There are even some animated scenes, as if you are watching an anime.
+The combat is fun. Buuuut…

-CONS-
-The combat system can be a little complicated. At least it was for me who has little to no experience with these kinds of games. I was still getting tutorials after 15 hours of gameplay! I ended up reading a very in-depth combat guide online. Once I read and understood that, it was incredibly fun!
-The English dubbed version made me physically ill.
-Some achievements are very grindy, and there is one that’s missable.

Although it took me 137 hours to get all achievements, and I’ve now beaten the story twice, I still want to keep playing.
I will return to this game in the future for sure! I want to try out every character completely and beat the game on the highest difficulty.
I hope I made a somewhat reasonable review although I have nothing to compare the game to.
The price of the game is a little high, but I feel like it’s absolutely worth the full price.