Recent reviews by Yoori

Shantae and the Seven Sirens is the 5th game in the series and I think it plays about as strong as Pirate's Curse did. It fixed a lot of issues I personally had with Half-Genie Hero and I'm glad they were able to touch on that and not make it feel like they barely made any changes. I had high expectations for this game since Half-Genie Hero felt a little on the weaker side, and they met my expectations with this game and beyond actually.


This is one of the things I loved about Half-Genie Hero is the art style fits this game so well. Seven Sirens returns with the same art style, but is an overall upgrade. It's the same idea of art, but there is a very clear difference in colour contrast and overall vibrancy from Half-Genie Hero. There is also more fluid art/animations in terms of enemies and NPCs from the previous game, which is always a plus. The biggest thing graphically wise is fully animated cutscenes that really give it an anime type style and it works out perfectly. I loved the style they did for the teaser/trailer that was shown and was a really not getting my hopes up that we would see anything past that, maybe the ending scene but nope, every boss encounter and every important story element had cutscenes that were fully animated. It's very obvious that a good amount of the budget for the game went into the animated cutscenes and I can't express how much I appreciate that choice because they nailed the style to reflect for this game. Background for the zones is fantastic, sunken city, wrecked ship, underwater laboratory, lush jungles/overgrowth, underwater volcano, they nailed it and that's just something Shantae games have always nailed I feel, which goes even further this art style they've used for the past two games.


Soundtrack I enjoyed most of the music but I feel the other Shantae games nailed the music better. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the music in this game, just previous titles I had a way wider amount of soundtracks within the game that I did enjoy. What I did love, is the remixes in here and how some of them actually seem to take cues from other songs and somewhat mimic them. One of the towns you come across later on sounds like a "Burning Town" remix that fits this game's overall sound design (I could be wrong if it's actually a remix or not, but since there is no official Burning Town soundtrack in this game that I can think of, this sounds the closest to it.) Another one that is strong and I think a lot of people would easily pick up on it once they hear it is Sunken Shipyard. Within the first 10 seconds I thought I had YouTube opened with an EDM version of Rasputin. This soundtrack sounds like it took cues from Rasputin, Moskau and Kirby, threw it together, added their own remix and came out with such a great sounding masterpiece. I hope that was intentional because it was instantaneously that I thought of those 3 when I heard it.


Here we go, right what I was waiting for. So as I mentioned, Seven Sirens improved a lot on where I feel Half-Genie Hero fell short on. Half-Genie Hero felt too linear, like a platformer game with no real exploration outside of just to collect items but the maps just felt like you could only go on a one straight path and that was it. Shantae, Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse all had some sort of exploration to them where you had some freedom of where you wanted to go, Half Genie just felt like go to this area on this set path and be done with it unless you were going for 100%. Seven Sirens fixed this and returned back to the roots of Shantae. The whole world is connected together through multiple passageways/tunnels and each dedicated area is either a town or it's own labyrinth for a boss fight. I felt I got what I paid for in terms of story and exploration because it didn't feel like it was just a one way linear path that you run through. No, the game isn't like Super Metroid where you can take whatever path you want by sequence breaking (really hoping that comes in future titles) but it felt like there was an actual emphasis on exploration this time around.

Another gameplay aspect I love that they added in was the Monster Cards. They are tedious trying to get them all, RNG based, some have a 1% drop, but they actually change your gameplay through faster crawl speed, more damage on a skill, eating food giving more health and so on. I seriously hope this is something they continue to use going forward as it lets you try out new things for speed runners and adds a nice little collecting feature on top of going for a 100% game. Shantae games have always been good at making bosses that have their own little quirks and requirements on how to beat them, which they once again nailed in here. The only "boss" you're able to really just button spam are the sub/mini bosses of Risky battles as you can just use your skill and spam attack with them, other bosses, you really can't do that as you need to moving around to engage the setups needed to start attacking.

Transformations return once again with new transformations that share either the same function or very similar functions. We get a newt instead of a monkey for example that can be used to scale walls and dash between surfaces. I did like two of the new transformations over the originals but other than that, I love the original transformations more than what they were replaced with in here (rip Harpy transformation.) They also added in Fusion Dances which give you a special ability that is used for uncovering paths/items needed in the overworld, healing yourself or attacking enemies. There are warp zones in the game, which I'm glad is in because there is a lot of traveling between zones and the map is a pretty good size.


Nothing really wrong with the game at all, was overall a serious improvement over the last one. Only thing I can say is:

- If you're going for a 100% game, be prepared to be grinding some areas for Monster Card drops as they are RNG based and as I mentioned, some of them are a 1% drop, on top of some Monsters needing multiple cards to collect a set.


- Gorgeous visuals and a fantastic animation job for the cutscenes. You can tell a good amount of the budget went into the animation and art style of the whole game and it's a very appreciated job.

- Returning back to their roots of emphasis on exploration without the feel of dragging on for the sake of dragging on.

- Controls that are very fluid and responsive, this is something I've always loved with WayForward games.

- If you're a fan of Cristina Vee's voice acting, she got to voice Shantae a lot more than in previous games. Not fully voiced, but enough to really let her talent shine. Personal favourite voice actress of mine from her roll as Velvet Crowe in Tales of Berseria, so it's nice to see her nail another part and be able to shine with it.


If you are a little weary due to how Half-Genie Hero played out, this game really does return Shantae back to it's roots in terms of how map and gameplay design should work. This is a huge improvement over the previous game and I would highly recommend giving the series another try. If this is your first Shantae game, I think this would a perfect place to start. You don't need to play the other games to follow the story at all, the stories don't really connect, they may make references to previous games but nothing is a direct sequel that will make you feel off. The fluid controls, vibrant art all around and the emphasis on exploration in this game would make for a perfect first time entry into this series or even into the MetroidVania genre.

This game was an easy 10/10 for me, simply because I already had high expectations for the game and they crushed and surpassed each one, really turned around with how I felt where the series was going from their previous game.

Indivisible is a game that actually played out way better than I thought. It had some rough moments in terms of the story starting off with bad pacing and no tutorial for a few of the combat mechanics (combos and breaking enemy guard) but the art style, platform/over world mechanics and the unique battle system was more than enough to make up for me.


As I mentioned, the story does start off with some bad pacing. Stuff that is important at that moment, feels like it becomes an after thought usually within minutes. A lot gets thrown at you that you question if it's going to be important and then some stuff you can't even bother with until later in the game. The middle and ending of the game is where it picks up and quickly goes into a very bittersweet story that keeps the pace going. The characters are the true driving force for the overall story, Ajna being one of the biggest turn arounds for character development in a game that I have personally seen -- and that's a good thing. She starts off being bi-polar, bratty, childish and temper tantrums, then has revenge on her mind for her father who was killed, then turns very egotistical when it comes to learning she needs to save the world, to the point she starts becoming selfish at others request for help if it's not aligned with her own goals, screwing things up and causing way more harm than good. Something happens (don't want to spoil what it is) that causes her to doubt in her actions and her previous mindset, and actually has her do a complete 180 in her personality where she listens and tries to help, instead of just beating up everything and worrying about it after. All the characters have a very diverse personality that is there from recruiting them or meeting them, that really amplifies at the ending. Going back to the characters, when you first start the game, if you look at your party, you assume there's only going to be about 6-7 playable characters, of which you get most of those slots filled in within the first hour or two, but actually there is over 20 you can unlock, with DLC coming down the road adding in new characters, like Shovel Knight and Shantae. The story length is on the shorter side, you can probably knock the game out in about 20 hours. There's not a lot of side quests, most of them are for optional characters or different colour palettes for characters, but other than that, the story shouldn't take a person too long to finish.


The graphics are phenomenal, reminded me a lot of Shantae Half Genie Hero and I believe that was the main reason I bought it when it originally came out. Very vibrant environments, even places like caves and town areas look gorgeous in their background detail. The in-game art for cutscenes and the few fully animated cutscenes in here are very well done, you can tell a good budget went into those, which gives a nice crisp and beautiful art style for the whole game.


Soundtrack was a little 60/40 for me. There was plenty of music within the game that I liked, but there also were a few that become background/white noise, either because I was way more interested in the combat that was happening or because I happen to just tone out noises when I get into reading.


Boom here we go, gameplay, man, fantastic. So, as I mentioned, art style reminds me of Shantae, gameplay originally reminded me of that too. It looks like a Metroidvania where you just go and kill enemies by hitting them a few times in the overworld; HOWEVER, the combat is actually that of an RPG/JRPG. Attacking an enemy will initiate a battle that becomes move based, where there are 3 combos per character, Up and their attack button, Down and their attack button and then just their attack button. That is then managed by a move gauge per character that refills when no moves from your party are active, so it's entirely possible to kill an enemy before they can even attack you if you manage that gauge as certain moves will refill the gauge quicker than other moves. You can kill them in the overworld if you're able to combo them, easiest way is an arrow, followed by chains of down attacks and up attacks, which you can chain them in for kills without starting a battle (not sure if this gives any EXP or not.) This combat is a unique aspect that I personally have not seen before in a Metroidvania and it worked out so well, thrown in with the visuals, wonderful. Sadly there is no sequence breaking at this current state, but there is going to be a New Game+ patch coming out soon, where you keep your abilities you've gained from the main story, so I'm 100% sure that is going to allow sequence breaking. The overworld is pretty linear. The last 3 areas of the game are where they actually become somewhat puzzles as you'll have to utilise all the abilities you've learned to get by and messing it up is not forgiving at all in some parts. I didn't mind the more linear overworld as not everything has to be too complex, but I did appreciate the difficulty spike in maneuvering around the map during the last few areas.


- Combat controls. So, you get a tutorial on how to block, parry and how to use your attacks. However, I can not recall being told how to break an enemy guarding or even that every character has 3 types of attacks. If you don't break an enemy's guard, you will do 1 damage which will drag out fights or downright make them impossible. To break guard, just mix up attacks, if you do an up attack, follow up with a down attack. Breaks guard on second hit.

- Story starts off a little weak due to bad pacing at the start. Literally Ajna's father dies within minutes, her killer is first party member, Ajna seems more annoyed with him than anything and a few minutes later, you recruit someone else and her father's death and his killer become like an after thought as Ajna is joking around with the new character. They also kind of drop the ball on a major plot point near the end, basically seems like the main changing pace from the middle to the end, was basically forgotten about.

- No true fast travel, this is somewhat tedious as if you're trying to finish up the character side missions, you're going to be doing a lot of running around as the fast travel locations only drop you off to a certain area, there are no multiple fast travels in any area.


- Gorgeous visuals, seriously, the art in general for the game is easily in the top percent for games I have played of this caliber.

- Unique and fluid combat system that was different, but something I feel fit the pace way better instead of just overworld attacking and moving on.

- A short story of 20-ish hours with a not too difficult world to navigate, something you can just kick back, relax and enjoy a game.

- Very strong character development for the main character that is a quick pace after certain events and the cast of characters all have their little interesting stories about them, that is further showed during the ending sequence of the game when speaking with Ajna.


Indivisible is a game that first caught my attention due to the art of it but getting to play it, I stayed due to the unique combat system with exploration that I haven't seen paired together like this for a Metroidvania game. The story is a little weak and rough at the start, if you've played around with a lot of RPG games, the story isn't that hard to guess where it's going, there's no real big twists to it (maybe one -- the turning point,) but I don't think that's what they were aiming to do and I didn't expect anything of the sort. Instead, the story shines more with the characters in it and the main development of Ajna from how she was at the start to the end of the game. If you've played games like Shantae, Ori, and maybe Hollow Knight and Bloodstained Ritual of the Night -- no doubt you'll enjoy this game.

I'll give the rating a 8/10!

Tales of Berseria is one of my favourite games and a prime example of how story structure and character development should be. If you've played Tales of Zestiria, Berseria fixes a lot wrong with Zestiria's story and let's you understand the recurring characters and their backstories.


As I mentioned above, the story fills in a lot of gaps and does a better explanation of how the world works. Berseria takes place 1000 years before Zestiria does. The story kind of starts off a little slow, there is a known curse that happens, protagonist loses someone close they care about and that causes events to unfold. The story after that is mostly about the main character - Velvet - coming to terms with herself, getting her emotions back and caring about others again instead of being purely hate and rage filled on a blind suicide mission. Character development in this game is very strong and actually gets rather depressing at times, but it is done very well and has become one of my favourite games and stories. The game also takes a different spin as you're not playing as the hero, you're playing as the villains, who become the heros briefly due to a bigger threat, but in doing so, you singlehandedly keep the curse upon the world and further delve it into chaos. Everything that happens after this game (all the way to Zestiria) is simply because of Velvet and her party.

- Artorius starts out as someone just trying to keep his family and village safe from the Hellions, albeit through some rather extreme measures, who eventually turns into someone who wants to rid the world of emotion so no more Hellions can spawn and gets a god complex in thinking he's the only one that can be the people's hope and even attempts to control a god.

- Velvet starts out as a laid back girl just looking out for her sick brother, after his death who she blames Artorius for, she becomes consumed by hate and revenge and will willingly sacrifice herself if it means Artorius's death. As time goes on she begins to get her emotions back and begins to care about others again, coming to terms with what happened and coming to terms with herself, while still keeping the goal she made.

- Eizen starts as just the sarcastic know it all, who pretty much retains that, but also begins showing more character as someone that wants to protect and help others. He's looking for his pirate crew's captain even after suspicion of his death, just so there is closure. Mentions multiple times he's trying to stay away from his sister because he knows he'll turn into a dragon and will cause harm to her, which he goes out of his way to enlist help from others to keep her safe and even helps another character, Zaveid come to terms with his denial over a loved one.

- Zavied starts as a very cocky and plays a lot with the more carefree personality and not taking much serious. Zavied is very against killing, which eventually comes to light because his lover had turned into a dragon from malevolence corruption and he's in denial that she can't be reverted, thinking that everyone can be saved. Eizen is the one that shows him this is false and he needs to accept the fact that sometimes saving someone is killing them. They fight against Zavied's lover and Zavied comes to her defense multiple times, where he finally sees that she's gone and never coming back. Eizen has the chance to kill her and take her heart to reverse his own curse, but instead doesn't, in order to set her free in death, which Zavied makes a promise that he'll return the favour once Eizen turns and that he'll protect Eizen's sister. This is extreme foreshadowing and actually changes Zavied's outlook in Zestiria.

There is much more character development from others, but I don't want to spoil everything.


The graphics for the most part are pretty good. There is some slight AA issues on higher resolutions sometimes and some background environments may look a little plain, but the effects of moves, cutscenes be it the animated style or the actual game cutscenes are very nice. There are some gorgeous overworld areas as well with enough life given to them, just some dungeons and caves look a little too plain.


This is one where I'll say Zestiria beats out Berseria. Berseria by no means has a bad soundtrack, it has a great soundtrack, but it didn't match the feel I got from Zestiria's OST. With that said, music for Berseria that is done by the Tales of Orchestra is very strong and eclipses past Zestiria in my opinion.


Gameplay is very fast paced in combat, which I like. The fast paced, combo/button spam free fight fits this game's narrative and pacing way better than turn based. Movement within the overworld is a little slow at first, but as you beat bosses and mini bosses, you'll get passive items that increase your speed. You'll be reading a lot of dialouge at times, through skits, chatter whilst moving around and cutscenes, which may get annoying for some, but something I personally didn't mind. Grinding levels in this game isn't that bad, most characters have some sort of "spammy" attack that should get you through if you pay attention to enemy weaknesses. Post game is an okay size, you have the Zavied and Dragon arch, an EX Dungeon and I think a few little side quests here and there.


There isn't really much I can think of, as they're really going to be based on a person's preference. I'll name a few and the bolded one is an actual con.

- Combos are very easy and honestly, there is plenty of moves that you can just spam over and over again no problem to just speed through enemies.

- Long story that some might be turned away from. You will probably sink about 40 hours into the main game and maybe close to 60 if you do post game. This is "exacerbated" by a lot of dialog and skits that pop up.

- PlayStation controller is not supported under normal circumstances. A few of my friends who played this with a PS controller, had issues. They had to use an external program to get it to work, which it did, however; it kept the button layout on screen as an Xbox controller instead of reflecting the PS layout.


- Fantastic story that that has amazing character development and gets depressing by putting moral questions within yourself trying to determine if Artorius is correct or if Velvet is correct.

- Sound track that for the most part is very good and has plenty of memorable scores, but does fall a little short to Zestiria.

- Fast combat gameplay that fits the pace of the game and keeps things moving.

- Plenty of dialog if you're interested learning about the characters and the world.

- A very good amount of gameplay to be had through enemies, exploration, bosses and post game.

- Velvet is best character, like ever.


Tales of Berseria is seriously a game people need to try out. I won't make the argument that it's the best Tales game, as others have their own preferences, but it's my favourite Tales and one of my favourite games in general. The story is the main driving force for this game and everything else with it is just an added bonus to me. Legit, they could have turned this into an anime or even a movie and I would have been more than happy, but getting to play alongside it was fantastic. As I mentioned at the top, if you played Zestiria and was underwhelmed or felt like it was an uphill battle or had too many inconsistencies and/or poor explication, give Berseria a try. It seriously fixes so much that Zestiria did wrong and really puts the story for this universe together. It also sets up the plot for a third story, which I hope they go back to explore eventually since Tales of Arise is confirmed not to be apart of this universe. If this is your first Tales game or consideration, I can not recommend this game more than I already have.

10/10 game!

This was a game where the criticism almost pushed me away from the game at launch, but I'm glad I stuck it out as this has become one of, if not my favourite Metroidvania type game.

The story isn't too deep, some twists and turns pop up and is pretty simple to follow; however, it's in no means a bad story. I just don't feel that's exactly the focus of the game as it's not some RPG that is story based where you can log upwards of 40 hours from dialogue alone. Instead I feel the game shines the most in it's mechanics, OST, and nostalgia, be it you played the original Bloodstained or if you make a comparison to the Castlevania series.



The controls were absolutely fluid for me in a lot of ways and I was able to even abuse the way the mechanics work to get faster movement before you get any real movement speed increases. I didn't really have any problem with jumping between platforms, attacking whilst jumping or quickly attacking in a different direction. I did have trouble with some combos, but I also struggle with getting corner inputs on any controller that's not a GameCube controller (smash life...)


Hands down one of the absolute most appealing Metroidvania titles out there. The different scenery throughout the castle and the little details in certain areas like the library for example are perfect. Character models are also pleasing to the eye. Effects in the game at times can become a lot depending on what you're doing with attacks, shards and what the enemy is doing but it's handled well enough where it's not overbearing. I can't tell if the graphics are hand drawn or not, it's kind of in that mixed area of look for me. Colours that are supposed to be vibrant are vibrant for the most part and colours that are supposed to be dark, gritty, match up pretty well.


Fantastic soundtrack, seriously. The first area of the game kicks you off with a banger. I know the dev(?) doesn't like being compared to Castlevania too much but I heard plenty of scores that reminded me of Castlevania music and that made it so much better to me. The title theme even has it's own little easter egg music later in the game that is all piano and can be piano with lyrics which is a solid piece of music.


Gameplay is kind of a mix with things. There are definitely some cons, some of which I know got patched out, but I'll be leaving those for the cons section coming up. Before that, the gameplay was solid for 9/10 times, minus a few things here and there. Exploration was great and I only had one instance of where I got lost. The map is a great size for people who like to explore and there's plenty of enemies to get new shards. There is a plentiful amount of weapons, with some being overshadowed by others, but nonetheless, there is a lot of variety to it.


- Shards. There are a fair amount of shards in this game which act as your magic/spells and others are passive abilities to help you get further such as double jumping, while others give an effect for say more defense. The problem is/was, some shards are simply pointless in most ways or get completely overshadowed by other shards. There were shards that would let you run through the game without having to worry about managing your health or playing on the defense. This might not be a problem to some people, but to others it may take the fun out of the game when you're rewarded for using those and either punished or dragging out boss fights for using other shards.

- Weapons. As I said earlier, some weapons are simply outclassed by others and this couldn't be more truthful. For a Metroidvania type game, you would expect to be able to run around and dish out consistent damage without feeling so sluggish right? That's true for some weapons; however, others put you at a clear disadvantage against some enemies. Some weapons are just so slow that you need to have near it's maximum range spacing just so you have time to start the attack animation, hit, then run away and repeat, where as others you can run in and get multiple hits in and either kill the enemy or space yourself out of their attack range to run back in.

- Combos for the most part don't feel worth the risk. They use up MP, are for the most part slow and don't deal nearly as much damage as you would hope. I did find myself rather just spamming the attack button for physical moves instead of really going for combos.

- Aegis Plate. Okay, this one made me feel so damn stupid. This is a piece of armour that lets you traverse traps without taking damage and is needed to get to a new area. The problem is, you can't obtain it until getting a certain power and even then, it's not mentioned where to go for this and it's in a rather odd spot that you really wouldn't check. This is what was preventing me from moving forward and I ended up buying a bunch of potions and food and running through the spike trap and just tanking what I could to cut through. I am not the only one who had this issue and it made me feel a little less stupid that I wasn't the only one with this issue.

- A bug that can get you stuck in water. This might have been me just breaking the game with my movement speed "glitch" I was doing, but multiple times when I went into water doing it or at times attacking before I had a Shard to let you float down, I would get "stuck" in the water. I was able to move around, but I couldn't jump or attack. If there was a slope/hill I could just walk onto, I would be fine; however, if there wasn't one, I was virtually stuck there and had to use a Waystone to get back to the home base. If I didn't have a Waystone, I would have been stuck there and had to lose my save area. I'm hoping this has been patched, but again, it simply could have just been me abusing a movement increase I found out myself from and caused the issue.


- Fantastic OST and one of the better soundtracks I've heard in not only Metroidvania type games, but games in general

- Very fluid controls. Responsive, easy to manage and easy to manipulate, for better or worse

- A great amount of items, weapons, shards, demons and map size to discover and collect. Made the game live on a little longer which is very appreciated.

- Beautiful graphics that are somewhat rarer on the Metroidvania side of games. Really hoping this slowly becomes a trend as I believe a lot of Metroidvania games with going for a more detailed graphic perspective may add to the immersion of the game.

-Miriam is bae


Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a game I was excited for, heard very mixed reviews which almost put me off the game. The game has had it's problems, I won't deny that, but some of the problems are really up to the player if they wish to see it as problems. One person may not care that some shards are borderline useless while someone else may take offense to it. Some people may not care that the Great Sword weapons are super slow because they're running around with Katana weapons only, whereas someone else may feel their options are limited now so the game doesn't punish them with slower attack speed. With that said, it's still a fantastic games despite the flaws it had. I enjoyed the game very much. It wasn't stressful where I was getting enraged at some cheap death, but it wasn't something that was so easy that I got bored with it. The whole time playing I was just looking forward to getting to new areas to see new enemies, see the layout and get to hear what soundtrack would be associated with it. Bosses were also pretty cool and another element I was looking forward to seeing. All in all, it was well worth my purchase and a game I seriously enjoyed and didn't want it to really end just yet. Really looking forward to what the devs do next with this game and any future projects down the road.

10/10 game, worth every cent, highly recommend you give it a try!

Catmaze is a game I had purchased a few months after it's release and a game I have just now gotten around to playing and finishing, due to a massive backlog of games and I feel like it's honestly a game that has kind of gone under the radar for the most part.


The story of Catmaze isn't really too hard to follow at all, some things may not be explained well enough at the start, but it's still a fairly easy story to follow and for a Metroidvania type game, I feel does a rather good job at pacing itself with the story. There's not really too many long gaps where nothing is happening and you're just exploring to get the to next area like a lot of Metroidvania games tend to do -- instead there is usually very constant information being given out about the world and story be it from the main line or side missions.


For me, I love pixel type Metroidvania games. Yes there are some games in this genre that use more intense graphics but starting my platformer/adventure games literally on Super Metroid, I tend to have more of a liking with pixel type Metroidvania games. It's not just stagnant pixels either, there is life to them, such as wind, grass moving, falling leaves, moving water and just character idle animations. The background scenery of the game are definitely a very strong point of interest and bring the world alive a little more to me, simply because there is proper shading and again, the ambiance of the background is very much alive, it's not just walking through a cave that has some rocks and that's all, you're going to see crystals, see water dripping, maybe waterfalls, maybe under ground nature and a plenty of other environments and ecosystems. I may be feigning my own ignorance, but I am unsure if this is considered 8-bit,16-bit or maybe even 24-bit, but regardless, the choice design worked out very well and even did wonders with what was chosen as the art direction.


Soundtrack was absolutely a great one. I don't believe I had any complaints for over world/area themes, boss fights, hell, even the game over sound track was pretty good. I don't know the name off the soundtracks off the top of my head, but I know once you get to the village in the skies, that's easily my favourite one. The soundtrack fit the mood of the area you're in quite nicely actually and I would say the OST was more on a relaxing/calmer side of things, for a game that you may get frustrated with at times.


I'll be the first to admit, this game can be unforgiving at times if you're not careful. During the first boss fight, I was getting hammered hard because originally I was using an amulet that buffs defense and attack, which wasn't enough for me. Once I put on an amulet the greatly increased your attack, that was a little bit easier. There still are times where you may call something unfair or you get hit off a platform into water (happened to me quite a bit and I was getting rather frustrated with myself.) That's okay though, I would rather a game that has some challenge to it, rather than a game that is so casual and subpar you can tank and one hit everything. Your gameplay is going to revolve around most of the time with your familiars for getting to new areas, such as hitting a button long rage, activation a switch that is too low for you to get from and so forth. I would argue proper spacing when attacking enemies is very crucial. For the most part, you can't just rush in attacking most enemies after the first few areas you start out with. Your HP is too low and your attack is too low for a full rush down. Endgame, sure, no problem, but getting there, spacing in this game is extremely crucial, I would argue it's about as crucial if you're playing certain characters on a fighting game.


Onto the cons which I know can either break a deal for people but I want to be fair with this review.

- The first one I'll mention because I was having some serious issues with. Later on in the game, very near the end of the game, you're going to get put into a different realm/world of the past. You'll have to do some puzzles with moving platforms, switches, mushrooms and barrels. The problems comes with one area in particular. It's not really noted on how things are supposed to be done so you may be hitting things at random hoping you'll get it right. The problem doesn't really sit there, but instead lies within the RNG behind it. Yes, RNG. Based off what others had mentioned in the discussions and from my own experience, there is RNG to it that almost made me put the game down. You need to get a barrel and mushroom on the same platform, easy enough, move it across, then there are 4 barrels that will drop near the mushroom, should be easy, no, sometimes only 2 drop down, while most of the time only 3 drop down. The ones that don't drop down end up clipping into the roof/wall. Then you need to hit the mushroom on top of the barrels that are below and get it on top of them. The barrels don't land in a straight line and sometimes the mushroom will bounce back to you or clip through them and end up at the bottom, which makes it useless. Then you need to go back and reset the room and hope RNGJesus is in your favour.

- This might just be my controller, but I noticed when using melee familiars that have a directional input, sometimes they wouldn't go in that direction when jumping and trying to attack.

- This personally isn't a con for me, but I know it will be a con to others. There is some backtracking that people may find annoying. The devs were generous enough to label items on the map that you'll need as a "?" these can be found from following a cat and not being able to get to said area yet or someone tells you about an item or a location, which you'll come across eventually and it still shows up on the map as "?" I like that, I like not having to remember every little spot that has an item I may need like 20 minutes later. But like I had said, there is some backtracking that people may not like, simply because the question marks may appear from talking to someone and you think you can get the item or visit that location but it's meant for a later point in the game. There also really isn't a huge sense of direction at times, you'll get a general idea of where to go but you for the most part won't be told if you can even access that area yet and instead need to backtrack to a said "?"


- Great little story that brings light to Slavic myths/cryptids. This was a huge selling point for me because most games that deal with cryptids or local myths/legends are usually Western/Native American such as Big Foot, Skinwalkers, Wendigo. Where as here we get Mara (assuming it's a similarity to Croatian Mara), Kikimora, Liho/Likho and a few others.

- Music that fits the tone of the gameplay and is on the calmer side of things, which I feel matched up well with the overall gameplay.

- Fantastic pixel/sprite work graphics that also bring some liveliness to the world through ambiance or simply from the background


Catmaze is a game that needs a little more attention because it's one of the better Metroidvania games I've played. Yes, there are frustrating parts and yes that RNG part really hit my limit at times, but those get outweighed by the overall enjoyment I had with the game. The game isn't too long, you can probably knock it out within 9-10 hours if you're not getting stuck for too long. The map is a fairly decent size to uncover which I personally like (not the biggest map for a Metroidvania but a fairly decent size.) Overall, I definitely recommend this game, whether you're looking for a light game that has some challenge to it or if you're interested in learning more about Slavic mythology (doesn't go into their lore too much, but gives you names to look up and research.)

Looking forward to the next game the developers release!

Wow, I honestly don't even know where to start with this review. I have not been blown away by a game on this level in such a long time and I feel somewhere in my heart I won't find another game to match this feeling at all. I had high expectations for NieR:Autotmata but it surpassed it in every single way. The story was told beautifully and was very complex and deep. The music for the game was absolutely stunning and easily one of the best OST I have heard in a game. I don't believe there was a single piece of music from this game that I didn't like. I'm going to try and keep this review fair with my pros and cons with it, as well as avoid any major spoilers as much as possible.


I can't delve too far into the story without spoiling anything but I can give a little insight on it. NieR:Automata is a sequel from the Original NieR game, but it's not connected where you have to play the original NieR to understand this game. From what I've read as I did not play the original NieR, this game takes place thousands of years after the original. There are a few tidbits that will make reference to the original and a few characters from the original do make a return but nothing that will hamper you from playing the game. The story starts off about a war between androids and machines who were created by aliens. Humanity had to escape to the moon in order to survive and sent androids to rid the machines and aliens so life on earth can resume once again. As you progress through the game, you will see how deep it really begins to hit, how little things that seemed insignificant at first actually play a deeper role in the meaning of the story. Taro Yoko did a fantastic job at a story that really toys with the "what does it mean to be human" aspect and that made the story that much stronger and hold a bigger connection with it.


The graphics for this game were absolutely beautiful. From the crisp feel of the grassland, to how clear the water looks, excellent lens flair from the sun and overall textures of your surroundings. I will admit (which I will touch more in the cons) there are some areas that look lackluster graphic wise, however the overall world of NieR has beautiful graphics that really set the mood for what is happening at that moment.


This soundtrack was phenomenal. As I said before, I can't think of a single piece of music from this game that I didn't like. I am honestly one of the people who hate vocals in game music, except for maybe credits or a cutscene, but then I played this game and the vocals with the music blew me away. I really love the idea they did with the music where it will change based on the mood of the game, whether it's a scripted event or just completing a quest. A quest or scripted event will change based on the mood of that moment. It's fantastic and it makes the game have a stronger connection as during those moments you see how music can quickly change your overall mood within the game and what's going to happen next.


Very interesting with how this game has played out. It's a hack and slash game, but also carries aspects of Bullet Hell, Open World exploration and of course an RPG/JRPG. A few of my friends have compared aspects with the game having a feel of Dark Souls and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance which I won't argue their points with that.

One thing I really liked is the Network System that was added in. Basically if you choose to connect to that, any player who has died in a certain spot in the world, you will find their body which you can choose to retrieve and in turn will give you a certain amount of Gold and a temporary boost to 3 stats. You can also choose to revive them and have them as a temporary ally to help you fight until they either die or blow up from being alive for too long or you leaving them behind by dashing faster than they can hope to keep up with you.


Onto the cons which I know can either break a deal for people but I want to be fair with this review.

- The game had a bumpy launch, I won't even try to deny that. It was bumpy as it there were some users who couldn't play the game on a 960m, 960, 970, RX 480 and even the Pascal GPUs. People were mentioning either really low FPS, white screens or flat out crashes. This had me worried as I was planning to play the game on 4k, while most of these people were on 1080p and having these issues. Thankfully this was not an issue for me and 4k ran without any issues. Some people in the community have made their own little fixes for now that can help you play the game or get the desired FPS if you're playing on a lower-end system. The devs are working on their own patches on this game to get everything up and running for everyone.

- Cut scenes are capped to 30 FPS. Capped FPS is a word that will turn a lot of people off and I don't blame you. The cut scenes would look absolutely stellar if they were uncapped, even with the cap I love how the graphics look for cut scenes. I can only wait until they're uncapped. Some users have mentioned the audio isn't fully correct in the cut scenes and that FPS can also tank; I have not had any of those happen to me but I want to mention it just as a small heads up.

- Apparently the game was locked at 900 resolution for users, even if you had a monitor with a much higher resolution. This wasn't the case for me, but others have to use 3rd party programs such as Borderless Window in order to have the max resolution of their monitor.

- Earlier I mentioned there were some parts of the game that had poor graphic spots. Most of the time I noticed this by windows where the sun was showing in, where the glare from the sun would look a little blurry and/or pixelated. The Castle in the Forest is the best example I can think of with this issue. Other than that, I've only really seen it a few times when near water and at a weird camera angle.

- This personally isn't a con for me, but I know it will be a con to others. This game can be tedious at the start. You will be doing a lot of back tracking until you progress far enough into the story where you can freely transport between places you have discovered. Quests will have you running back and forth. Item collection will require you to grind enemies to further increase your level and give you items to survive at the later levels. If you're someone who enjoys this stuff, it won't be a con at all for you, but I know some people prefer to play games as quickly as possible without having to grind or backtrack a lot.


- Fantastic story that has a deep meaning behind it and really sucks you into the world of NieR. A very serious, touching and at times has it's funny moments.

- Music that keeps the mood and setting of the game which further delivers the experience to you and makes the moment feel more alive that it would be without the music.

- Beautiful graphics that really shine no matter where you're at in the world, giving you a whole new outlook on what is around you at those times and scenery you won't forget.

- Gameplay was a perfect mix of adventure, attacking and of course story telling. Enemies scale with your level and the world around you changes as time goes on.

- 2B's thighs tho


NieR was the perfect game for me. Honestly it messed me up after finishing what routes I've finished already because I feel in my heart I won't find a game to match this story. I have never felt connected to a story at all, especially on an emotional level, but NieR honestly went above and beyond my exceptions with everything that came with it. It has easily become one of, if not my favourite game. It's a game I will always cherish to own and be a part of. The story, gameplay, music. 10/10.

I honestly cannot recommend a game more than Nier;Automata and I hope Taro Yoko gets the recognition he deserves from this masterpiece!

This is my first review on the Neptunia series as the past games I felt were covered enough by the reviews, however this game I was just blown away with and I wanted to voice my input on it.


The game continues from where Re;Birth 3 left off and is followed by 3 stories in one game, all 3 stories are within their own dimensions. Zero Dimension, Hyperdimension and Heart Dimension. Each story/dimension had it's own feel which made it feel like 3 different games, however keeping true to the Neptunia series. Zero Dimension was in my opinion one of the better stories solely off of how it was told. It was a lot more serious, has a more darker story behind it and you actually worry about the survival of the characters during this story, that is how well it was written. Hyperdimension wasn't as serious as Zero Dimension, Hyperdimension kept more of the aspect of keeping the randomness, the jokes, the 4th wall breaking that is a staple of the Neptunia series. Heart Dimension was a pretty good closer as well. The story felt mixed with Zero Dimension and Hyperdimension but there was a lot more twists in Heart Dimension. I always thought Re;Birth 2 had the more serious story but Megadimension took that over easily. I would go as far to say that this has so far been the best story out of the series and I truthfully enjoyed Re;Birth's 3 story more than any of the previous games as I felt it covered a lot more, but once against Megadimension toppled that.


Upon starting the game, you will notice quite an upgrade in graphics. Movies look a lot more smoother and stable, the menu and UI look a lot more sleeker, the artwork and text box in the visual novel parts of the game look a lot more crisper and higher quality and the actual gameplay looks and feels a lot better. Animation looping is also a lot more smoother than previous games. The CG in this game also got quite an increase in quality and detail, some of which look stunning.


This soundtrack was phenomenal. OST in games is always something that is a huge importance to me and the Neptunia series has always had a good amount OST that I enjoyed listening to while playing the game. Megadimension has a new OST while keeping previous music from other games. The new OST I feel they went above and really did a fantastic job on it. Every dimension has their own version of music, be that the over-world, in the dungeon(s) or enemy battles and they did a great job of getting those soundtracks to match the feel of that dimension.


Some new things have been added to gameplay.

- The Guard Break from previous games is now changed to Part Break in which certain areas of an enemy are guarded that need to be broken to deal more damage, such as their head, behind them, their sides. There is no longer a Break attack, it is just a Standard attack. Attacking an enemy with Parts on it will be be broken overtime regardless of the moves used against them.

- The over-world has changed completely. You no longer freely pick where you want to go, instead it's mapped out and you travel to the places (best compared to like Super Mario 3 over-world.) Upon traveling to a place in the over-world you have a chance to encounter a battle. This is completely random as you can encounter enemies every 2 steps or you can run the whole map and not fight a single enemy. This can become repetitive as the enemies become weak as you level up, their EXP and credit drop stops being worth it and you may just want to get to somewhere quicker. After you beat the game and start NG+, you get an item that lets you disable or enable random encounters in the over-world.

- Scouts make a return again but this time a little different, however a lot better in my opinion. The new scouting system works similar to the Fury system in Fairy Fencer F. You select a scout or scouts and send them to a dungeon or split them up into multiple dungeons. Each scout has a dungeon effect be that a positive or negative effect. Such as +10% credits and -5% EXP. The scouts run on a timer to complete a dungeon and when they return they will bring you items from the enemies there, credits, a chance at a new dungeon for you the explore, a chance for a new scout or scouts to join, a hidden treasure hint and will find 2 new enemies for you to battle, which are bosses. The hidden treasure hint is how to get a hidden treasure for that dungeon only. There are certain steps you have to do in order to complete that one hit such as win 5 battles without healing, win against 5 dogoos in a row, ect. One thing you will find from a good portion of hidden treasures is an item called Energy Mate, which is used to level up your scouts. The higher level your scouts are, the more items and credits they will find, as well as the chances for scouts to join.

- Combo Trait is a new feature added to your attacks. Before each attack, you may notice that one or more attacks may be glowing, that is how you start the combo train. When using this, all attacks for that combo will always hit and will always be critical hits.

- The EX Finish is no longer here in the form of a combo like in previous games. Instead there is now Coupling Skills, which when you get the required EXE, in your skill menu you can use the Coupling Skill. There is also now Formation Skills which work by having certain party members in the battle in a certain formation to use a skill. They all have to be in normal or HDD forms for them to work.

Example: Neptune and Nepgear in a battle, both must be in HDD or in their normal forms. One cannot be HDD and normal at the same time for it to work. You can have a 4 person formation attack, however the same applies they must all be in HDD or normal form and you must make the correct form (on the skill page you may have to be in a triangle formation for a 3 person attack, a square for 4 person attack or "sandwich" an enemy for a 2 person attack

- When in the skill menu during a battle, I have noticed that when cycling through the skills quickly, I get some slight frame drops (my hardware is not the issue.)

- Random encounters. As I mentioned above with the over-world, random encounters can become repetitive. I have the item that stops that, however until then, the endgame was getting a little tedious with all the random encounters.




Story: Very well written, serious moments while keeping true to the Neptune series of having funny and random moments.
Graphics: Graphics look a lot cleaner and smoother than the previous games. Looping animation is also a lot smoother than previous games.
Soundtrack: Honestly, one of the better OSTs I've heard in a while, they really stepped it up big.
Gameplay: A lot of new stuff added which adds to the experience of the game.
Neptune: She's the protagonist and will break the 4th wall to tell you multiple times


If you have been a fan of the Neptunia series or you like JRPG's in general, definitely give this game a go. The price might push some away, but it's honestly worth with the amount they included into this game. The story is honestly worth getting into and like I stated above, there's a lot of humour, seriousness and plot twists. They really outdid themselves with this story and I really enjoyed this story and game in general. If you haven't played Re;Birth2 or Re;Birth 3, there will be multiple references you won't get, however that will not make it so you can't play the game at all, you can jump into this game as your first Neptunia game and still play the game no problem, learn slightly about previous games and that always gives you the headroom for going back to play the previous ones. If you get the DLC and don't want to make the game too easy, I would use it after you beat the game once. A lot of the weapons and armour make the game way too easy.

I would highly recommend as a purchase!

Let me start of by saying this game definitely deserves the Overwhelming Positive rating it has. I will be honest, I wasn't expecting too much from it, in my mind I was thinking it was going to be another Metroidvania type game that I would be able to drop after beating it once, but I was completely wrong, this game has a lot to offer than can easily keep me glued for much longer. I will go as far to say this is one of the best Metroidvania games I have played and easily in my top 5 of games I've played on Steam. The developers really went above and beyond with this game and I thoroughly enjoy this game as do others.

- The graphics are simple and clean, which is never bad, not everything has to be "top of the line" especially for a Metroidvania/bullet hell game, and this game matches it perfectly. The artwork added in, whether the sprites, background or CG was done phenomenally. None of the art seems dull at all. I've played a lot of Metroidvania games and there have been a few where the colours just made a certain level, if not the overall game seem dull. Be that the characters or the background. This isn't an issue in Rabi-Ribi. The colours blend perfectly for the characters and the background of levels, and in my opinion, that's what a huge factor that keeps a game alive where you don't start to get bored, which the developers and artists nailed perfectly.

- Smooth controls and mechanics. Definitely one of the better games that have smooth controls and mechanics, in which I had no problem learning what I needed to.

- Music is spectacular and beautiful, there's a lot of music in here which matches the levels, bosses and generally what's going. The composers who worked on this OST know what they're doing and how to truly bring something more alive, solely through music, and that has high respect. There's not too many games out there where I feel that the composer(s) can actually make a game feel more enjoyable and alive, through the music. These composers made that happen and I'm glad a soundtrack was included with the game (quick note, you unlock the soundtrack after beating the game on hard mode.)

- There's a lot of characters to meet, even the regular NPCs that don't really do much except give you tips or just random words. The main characters have their own personality which further adds to the story and character development.

- Easter eggs / references. I noticed quite a few in here, which I always like to find. From Megaman, to Mario, to Nekopara and to Metroid (I think we all remember something like this near the end of Metroid Zero Mission http://i.imgur.com/JiwjFQI.jpg ) I'm sure there's plenty more in here, subtle references I may not have gotten or seen, because it may be from a game/TV show I have never seen.

- There is a lot to do gameplay wise, story wise and achievement wise (you guys keep adding new achievements with updates and I'll forever love you for that.) They honestly went all out for this game. You can follow how to story should go or you can mess the order up of things by utilizing secret abilities and finding hidden areas, which gives you a lot more freedom to the game. The story is great and a little on the long side for your first play through while you're still adventuring and figuring the whole game out. Items are scattered out in obvious and hidden places, just like any true Metroidvania game should be, and there's a lot of items to collect. The Bullet Hell tag might be a little off putting to some people, but please don't jump ahead and think the game is almost all bullet hell. Boss fights are the only place where you will find true bullet hell, and in boss fights is where they go at it with bullet hell, some of which are actually a challenge. This game is pretty casual on the lower settings, however it does offer a challenge. The bosses level up naturally as you get further and by what items you have. I started on the Novice setting and there were a few bosses that actually made me sit and think that I can't just go in attacking and instead have to actually take it slow and worry about dodging instead of attacking all the time. The achievements on here have a nice amount to earn and they are pretty creative in terms of names and how to get them, which is going to personally keep me glued to it longer, and a lot of these, are going to be a challenge, which I'm looking forward to achieving. Speed running, no damage boss fights and other achievements that utilize how you can change the order of the events like mentioned above. One thing that I love, is I have never been so under-prepared for a final boss fight in my life. I went in there with health items to restore health and that was a ride. I'm not going to say too much about it, but I definitely wasn't ready at all, and that made it so much better because of how much I underestimated the final boss would be. Whoever can get the achievement for beating that boss without getting hit 3 times (thank you developers for not making it no damage at all) truly is something else, that just looks like one of the bigger achievement challenges I've seen in a while and it's going to kill me getting that, but one day I will.

- The developers honestly seem like they care about their community, which is rather refreshing. They seem active in the discussion forums, so much so to release patches when there's bugs and even go out of their way to help people when they can, when a player is having an issue with the game or playing the game. They're creative with their update titles instead of the generic "update/version 1" like you will normally see.

- Bunny.

Overall, this game is something definitely worth trying. Great gameplay, beautiful soundtrack, outstanding artwork, characters with their own little world of personalities, developers who are active and listen, loads of achievements to work for. I would definitely recommend you give this game a try if you enjoy Metroidvania, platformer, bullet hell, Anime type games or even if it's just something new you want to try out. I'm not disappointed with this game at all, I haven't run into any troubles with and I'm overall impressed with everything about the game. I don't know if DLC is a possibility in the future, but if so, I honestly look forward to it.

Everyone who worked on Rabi-Ribi, great job on creating this masterpiece!

Let me start off by saying, I was very skeptical of purchasing this game at first. The reason? I had played the original Shantae on the Gameboy Color when I was younger and wasn't too big a fan of it, however I pushed on and tried out this game and I honestly have no regrets with my purchase at all. This game felt like an honest masterpiece to me and I enjoyed playing through the game multiple times. It has a great design with the sprites and art work, great music, great storyline and characters. Was just interesting to me overall and felt pretty close to a Metroid type game, which I love seeing as I've been a Metroid nerd ever since I was younger (Metroid Prime 4 and Super Metroid HD pls.) Anyways, besides that, let's get into it!

The developers did a very great job on this game, even consider it one of my favorites. They kept the simple, yet fun of old school platforming games, kept the music pretty close, kept the sprites pretty close and the game in general. They have some interesting wordplay and character development in the story that gives some of the characters their own unique personality as you go along with it. As I stated above and other have stated, keeps a very close resemblance to Metroid, Zelda, Castlevania type games. With there being collectibles and power ups to collect throughout the game, some of which you can get from the start, with the rest being able to collect as you continue on with the game and get more special abilities. Ways to increase life, items to heal health and restore magic and save rooms and certain parts of the world. There is even a different costume when you beat the game, which in a way changes your playstyle as now you take more damage, but use less magic, so where you might be able to sit around and take a few hits, now become a risk, and I love that they made that type of challenge to the game.

Gameplay wise is a little on the short side, about 4, maybe 5 hours worth, however, it's a story that is great, regardless of it's time. You can take it slow or speed run the game, which again, am a great fan of games that offer the option to speed run without affecting the game too much.

The controls are pretty easy to get used to, can even use a controller if you wish to play with that. They didn't feel sluggish, clumpy or anything to me, instead felt pretty smooth after I was use to everything. One quick tip that a lot of people have seemed to ask, if you want this in fullscreen, go to options, set the resolution to your monitor size, then press ALT+Enter to keep it true fullscreen.

One thing I liked in particular was how as you progress through the game, enemies from their "natural area" will start to move more closer to the lands surrounding Scuttle Town, was a pretty neat idea in my opinion, making things have a smaller challenge with their being newer enemies on the paths that you normally would just breeze right past no problem.

The bosses and their dungeons were pretty interesting, with them ranging from time trials, to puzzles to solve, all were very well executed in how they were played out with. The boss fights alone, are pretty good as well. Some of them you have to take somewhat slow so you don't rush head on and risk getting hit, where as some you can just full out attack and dodge when it's needed.

The characters are some of those characters that you "grow" a little with through your adventure, from getting closer to them, to knowing what they're about, some secrets, and a few other things you will see while playing through it.

-Shantae: Can be a little arrogant at times, yet as you continue on with the game, she learns that she will need help down the road and not to push such things away

-Risky Boots: sarcastic, taunting, antagonist who is always causing trouble in the story, still keeps up her taunting even if things don't go her way.

-Sky: At first looks, seems to be a little hard headed alongside Shantae, but then it's noticeable that she's just trying to help out however she can.

-Mimic: (for some reason, he reminded me of Lord Crump from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.) Uncle of Shantae who is a Relic Hunter, who knows a few things which he apparently keeps a secret from you until it's basically forced from him.

-Rottytops: Taunting friend of Shantae who helps you along the way while still seeming like an enemy (I mean, she took a puppy and offered it to you to eat...)

There's more you'll meet along the way as you continue on through the story.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with my purchase, even if I was a little off putting from the start, due to me not being a huge fan of the original Shantae I had played on the Gameboy Color, but I'm glad I went ahead and bought the game. It's a game I very much enjoy and soon a series I think I'll continue to enjoy and stick around with for a while, seeing as there are two new games coming out, one for 3DS and Wii U (hopefully PC down the road) and another one coming out on all systems and PC. I look forward to playing both new games, glad the community is so supporting with the developers making their new games, seeing as they raised a lot with their kickstarter and I truly can't wait to try out their next game, seeing where the story takes off after Risky's Revenge!

10/10 Highly recommend giving it a shot!

I was searching through the Greenlight section for games and this game stuck out to me, decided to buy it and give it a chance and I have no regret on it at all. The game is very good in my opinion and honestly, made me think I was playing a type of Metroid game, has quite a lot of similarities with Metroid, achievements/challenges for beating the game in a certain time with having all items collected, items/health to be found scattered in obvious and secret areas, bosses that are needed to beat to obtain items to open the next path, even a different suit that is purple and makes you stronger and take less damage, just like the Gravity Suit. When I had gone a few rooms to the right, I instanly thought of a similarity to Brinstar on Metroid Zero Mission, Dark King's Lair reminded me of the depths of Norfair from Zero Mission and there is even one dungeon further on in the game that will reminded you of Metroid games and Tourain (you'll know when you get there.) But enough about comparing this to Metroid, this game is hard at times as some of the bosses can be tricky the first time you fight them and you will need some quick reflixes on certain areas of the game. Overall it's not bad at all, didn't think it would be as enjoyable as it is. Controls weren't hard to get used to, lots of items to collect, soundtrack was done pretty good, nice boss battles that can be difficult or easy depending on how you go about the game and what items you have, another character to play as once you beat the game with her own story as well. Achievements in this game are quite the challenge on some of them, but that's what makes the game better, so if you're the type of person who likes challenges or going for harder achievements like me, then this will be perfect for you. I will say though, this game is going to bring back the older days with me, going back to speed runs which I haven't done in a long time. Amazing game, very enjoyable and very satisfied with my purchase.