Recent reviews by Veiss Althen

God bless more Sentinel Girls. If you liked the first game, this one is basically the first but with many enhanced QoL updates and a plethora of new goodies to choose from for your runs. The setting is great and the pacing is always a treat when it comes to combining the narrative with the gameplay here. If you're unfamiliar with this series I would recommend the first just for getting to know Marfusha better but you're more than welcome to start with this entry and glean what you can of the pieces you're missing.

Best melee-focused BR. Pretty good melee pvp in general. Has some PvE if that's not your thing and some casual modes for just combat and loadouts instead of the BR aspect if that's more up your alley. Game good. Very very good. Feels a lot like a fighting game despite having a very simple combat / rock-paper-scissors system at its core.

Play Naraka. Now.

Great roguelike game with a surprising amount of content for how short it is. Has a campaign with multiple endings and a lot of unique dialogue and cutscene edits depending on your draft during said campaign. There's also an endless mode which puts more of the roguelike features on full display. Can't wait for the sequel.

Sadly incredibly mediocre. I was pretty hype for this title from FuRyu and while it is one of their most polished games (and pretty amazing visually especially since it was designed for the Switch), it's a pretty bland action title that follows the same formula as their other action games in recent years. The lore is pretty interesting and the character interactions are definitely the highlights by far. The UI is way too busy and the mechanics concerning the depth of the combat are largely useless and unnecessary for engaging with the game in any meaningful way. All encounters can and should be handled the same way with 0 differences besides the only encounter where you're forced into exclusively ranged options.

If you're planning to get this, I would advise against it despite my love for FuRyu. If you're interested in a game with really nice lore and a more fleshed out combat system and beautiful graphics, just play Armored Core VI. It's a better title with better combat and even has co-op. The character interactions won't be in the same ballpark but the characters featured in that title are still plenty interesting in their own right and do still elevate the story to a level that's beyond just mission-to-mission gameplay.

Fun game and is as Cygames advertised, not as curators marketed. It's an action RPG title that plays soundly enough like one. This isn't Genshin Impact with character switching nor is it methodical like Monster Hunter, it's an anime action game that leans closer to titles like Nights of Azure. For all of its polish, it does lack some depth when it comes to upgrading and diversity between builds and weapon variety. Progression is very much linear with alt builds functionally being regulated to counter strategies for endgame grinds or multiplayer speedruns/safety nets exclusively. This isn't God Eater nor Monster Hunter so don't come in with that expectation. Meet the game on its own terms and you'll likely have a good time with it.

The story is fine for what it is and I can't speak for much when it comes to how serviceable the fanservice and content is for a glorified GBF fan as I'm only really familiar with bits and pieces thanks to Shadowverse, Rage of Bahamut, and the anime. You don't need to know much about GBF at all to get into this game and like the characters and honestly it probably encourages you to try the source material if you find any of their stories interesting. At the end of the day however, the story is decently short (which is why it's more of an ARPG than a JRPG) but the majority of your gametime will probably be spent on endgame progression and unlocking difficult challenges to take on.

I'm pretty good at action games so I can't really speak on the difficulty but the general perception tends to be that this game is on the easier side, so it's definitely something you can do with friends for fun or during downtime and not be stressed out about constantly wiping to a wall or learning specific mechanics for several attempts on end like say a Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden title would have you doing. The player is rather powerful in this game and the tools at their disposal definitely makes the majority of encounters laughable when take advantage of so! I strongly recommend that you play as much of this game as you can blind to make sure you're getting enjoyment out of it while it still poses a challenge as eventually it does reach a point where it's a pretty systematic grind. You can do well with the AI companions, as a solo player, or even with self-imposed challenges. Multiplayer does make the game significantly easier with faster encounters just because players tend to be much better at dealing (and taking) damage than CPUs; however, there is no wrong approach to anything in this game. I think from my experiences however, after completing the story I would likely just recommend taking on the newly unlocked difficulty tier(s) with a friend who is at a similar progression point or gear level as you, just so the experiences feel closer to Monster Hunter and God Eater rather than having an incidental teammate 1shotting everything for you on your first encounters- could DEFINITELY ruin some of the more interesting things you'll run into later down the line.

And on the top of grind- that's basically the entire endgame. If you've played MHW, think of Investigation spamming for Decoration farming; however, you'll need to do that for missions without any variation or enhanced drop rates in addition to having to roll on several different F2P (there are no P2W aspects of this game) gacha systems for your best-in-slot or even just passable substats and gearing. There is a substantial amount of content in this game to take on so I'd definitely recommend taking it at a slower pace and not being frustrated with having to catch up on gear progression or anything silly like that. I beat most of the encounters in the game with a Lv 75 weapon until upgrading it to 125 which is 25 levels lower than the maximum- and wasn't even best-in-slot using a team entirely of characters who I just liked having around in the party. You'll be fine to play anything and everything you want and you shouldn't be expected to be punished for it--- barring some flying enemies at times but you know how it is with ARPGs.

The formulas in place and current roadmap for the game at the time of writing this does have me more interested in what may come in the future with updates, especially when compared to how I felt about MH Rise so while you're still on the fence about picking this title up, just know that Cy doesn't plan on dropping it at least for a good chunk of time. It's a complete package + more to come.

As of the December 2023 EA build during the Seamless Open World era, this is one of the better bad games I've ever played. It's hella jank but has that sorta "zen" state that sandbox survival games have. A lot of things aren't balanced, even when played at the max difficulty, but for what is there it's clear that there's a lot of passion (even if the scope is WAAAAYYY too big for what's feasible for any sensible release in which all mechanics are explored and fleshed out properly).

Pick it up when it's on sale and wait for the full 1.0 release (not in EA). Needs a lot of polish and I'm sure that for as long as this game has been in development that it should deliver at least some level of satisfaction that far exceeds whatever price you bought it for when it was on sale.

Really awesome time of a game if you're a fan of action games or beat 'em ups. This is virtually nothing like Yakuza nor Persona and I don't know why so many comments would suggest as much. This is very much in the vein of a standard action RPG or Beat 'em Up with more focus directed at combo systems and strings as opposed to just outside resources and tools like Double Dragon for example. The combat system gets very in-depth and can feel rewarding, but once you reach a certain point, you start to optimize a lot and cut down on the excess moves. It does reward mastery for flashy combos but since this game features the stagger system as opposed to allowing pseudo-infinite juggling, you start to note which strings are the safest and yield the most returns rather than the one that converts the coolest and makes use of all your tools.

The campaign is super short and concise and the story is fine for what it is. It really just plays second fiddle to the combat system and the core gameplay loop is very much akin to that of a KR MMORPG (so much so that it reminds me a lot of Closers, Dungeon and Fighter, and Elsword when it comes to the late game grinding for mats, rewards, and whatnot). There are some sidequests but they aren't very long and while the characters aren't very deep or anything, they're all pretty solid for what they are, NPC storylines included.

The worst part of the games mostly appear with respect to the grind to 100% completing it in the forms of the lottery RNG filling out and/or the insane spongey-ness of the enemy health pools so much that you'll find yourself repeating the most effective tactics you know rather than the ones you might've been learning along the way there.

There's a lot of variety when it comes to level design and you can honestly tell the devs had fun exploring some aspects of things. The color-coded barriers is a bit of a miss in terms of mechanics that enhance things but it's honestly whatever as it does actually pose trade-offs early game.

All-in-all a hidden gem. Easy recommend to anyone.

This game expands significantly on the systems introduced in the first game so much so that it's functionally a direct upgrade in every aspect besides things like the comedy, characterization, and/or themes as that's subjective. I don't feel like the new AI companion gets enough time to shine as I found myself growing more fond of the other new characters introduced in this story but it's not really to a fault, the side characters in this game (much like the previous title) are just that compelling.

The story touches on a lot more interesting topics with the narrative presenting some really neat questions to the player without giving them a clear side as to which part of the debate is the "correct" answer which is really cool to see in a modern VN. The Somniums are also just significantly improved over the previous title where they were more so random with hardly any puzzles to speak of. This game's got puzzles all over the place and it actually feels like it's possible to fail on certain Somniums even when playing on Standard. The types of puzzles is also quite varied and doesn't get old at all.

Lots of QoL improvements across the board to certain systems and introducing the customization feature isn't a bad thing even if I didn't really engage with it until I started my 100% quest. The optional content in the game is pretty doable for anyone and easy to look for without a guide; though, a few of those achievements were a bit out there but not terribly convoluted.

Can't say much more without spoiling the story and optional content but it's a wild wide and I can definitely see why Uchikoshi has been putting so much time into the current duology of this series. I strongly recommend picking it up if you enjoyed the first game or have previously played the Nonary Games series!

Solid enough game. You don't need to have played the first to understand anything taking place here and honestly if you had then one of the plot points kinda got spoiled before even beginning this title, which is a little odd. I honestly prefer the cast and party system featured in Overdose in addition to the general story but mechanically speaking, this game is better on all fronts and probably a great way to get into Caligula.

The OST is incredible and probably the best part about the entire experience. I'm not too big on χ's covers but they aren't terrible by any means. The DLC also does DLC things when it comes to RPGs but once you reach a certain point you will have outscaled the DLC boosts anyway.

Combat system is super interesting and pretty innovative but rather jank and a bit boring once you stat-check everything typical RPG style. Fortunately there is an autobattle for the grindier sections later but up until you reach that point, finding creative uses and timing for combinations does feel really rewarding.

The main cast has some hit or miss characters but overall, I liked them all and it's a bit clear who gets the most development and screentime by the later stages, but ultimately enough is there to supplement anything you'd desire to know/see concerning them.

Lastly, the endgame is fine enough. No spoilers on it, but there is a postgame with difficult content to complete and 100%-ing the game does require 2 playthroughs if that's what you're looking for. The game isn't terribly long if you just do the core story, but it has enough immersive elements to make you want to pursue the side content to a degree.... though finding every freaking NPC AND doing all relevant sidequests associated with them got really old REALLY fast.

Overall 7/10, can recommend. Lacks polish but is innovative enough and does not mince words nor discussion about real topics.

I am conflicted about this game. Is it worth your money? Absolutely.

I came into this game avoiding as many spoilers as I could from the Switch release, but honestly, all information was withheld pretty poorly by the community; though, it doesn't really matter in any capacity. After playing the unstable demo for a while and learning the Magnamalo fight in addition to how silly some of the new mechanics were with combat and navigation, my expectations were set much lower for this game.

The build we got on release was within the 3.0 Era, so we had access to a longer postgame, Apexes, and more fancy battles out of the gate without having to wait for content updates. Even with that said, the game honestly felt like for all the content that was there, I was constantly wanting more to break away from the missions. While the hunts are fine with some capture missions sprinkled here and there and the "dreaded delivery missions" are few and far between, nothing in this game really stuck out to me mission-wise. There is a severe lack in variety and a lot of it is samey. There isn't much of an endgame to speak about and while MHW, GU, and M4U set that expectation for me, it's honestly fine. I was way too harsh on the game for expecting a demanding endgame but it REALLY upsets me to see the dumbing down of hunts to facerolling monsters... and while I'm on that topic...

The Kamura Hunter is one of the strongest if not the stronger hunter the series has ever seen. Ignoring the impact of the wirebug techniques during gameplay, monster AI just favors them to the point where they do everything they can to avoid each other or only show up JUST TO BE WYVERN RIDDEN FOR BENEFIT OF THE HUNTER. Dung felt utterly useless and most of my time in the game had me facerolling the monsters and not bothering to learn their moveset strictly because of how the wirefall technique broke the flow of combat from other titles. You just keep running in and attacking and anytime you would get hit, you could instantly sheath your weapon and heal at the same time, far from the monster, or just oingo boingo back in with a wirebug and make openings that otherwise wouldn't exist. Bonus points if you trip or get a KO with that same attack. Combat has a lot of depth and feels rewarding when handled right, but there isn't much of a reason for any player to learn the monsters' movesets for the entirety of the campaign and a good chunk of the Apexes. The game favors you so much and any sort of difficulty often just comes from a lack of any real defense.

I will say that I did appreciate Capcom dialing back down the abilities bloat from MHW and MHW:IB. The amount of skills you could have at the same time were utterly ridiculous, especially late game. Rise is much more modest with the ability spread, and while you can just default to the typical AB, CE, CB, and WEX builds, you won't have another 3-4 skills or additional pages of skills in addition to that.

The new decorations grinding system is fine. I'm personally not a fan of it because I finished all the decorations I ever needed in a couple hours of grinding, but that was mostly just a byproduct of preparation for hunts being non-existent really. Had the content been more challenging, then maybe I would have liked the decoration changes more. Charms are honestly whatever, the rebalancing of slots and armor skills made it tolerable. You also don't need anything optimal to clear the game, so it's mostly just for min-maxing purposes. I'd recommend just getting a charm with 2 level 2 slots, or a level 3 and a level 2 slot and you're basically set forever.

All of these negative things said; however, I cannot shy away from the fact that there were enjoyable moments I had with this game. Once I dropped my Palamute for the Palico, taking advantage of routing for Spiribirds (which weren't ever required for hunts and honestly I would prefer how Max Potions worked before than this iteration where they're just full heals) made things feel faster and obviously like I was webslinging all over the place. The dango system is fine, but I prefer my Palico chefs. Nothing personal, Yomogi. While I am the most upset about the lack of a proper endgame loop and a lot of mechanical changes (like the Hunting Horn can of worms), this game is honestly worth it at full price if you are just looking for an accessible Monster Hunter title. It isn't anything difficult and doesn't demand too much of the hunter; however, Hub Quests when played with friends can definitely make the experience a lot more fun, and that's ultimately where the game likely shines best. It's honestly fun and does not deserve to be directly compared to MHW in every regard. It's its own game in the franchise and should be viewed as such, not as a sequel to MHW. I hope Sunbreak and Rise Ultimate makes this one of the better games in the franchise. The potential is there, even if the base game was pretty weak for me personally, but with the weapon skills returning from GU and all of the quality of life changes, I REALLY hope that Capcom and the portable team see that the game is too easy, both for newer players and veterans of the series and give us something difficult that we have to study and prep for. Or just nerf wirefall...

I still prefer MHW:IB to this game though, even with the cheese that is Clutch-Claw Wallbangs. At least the monsters tried to kill me in that game. lol