Recent reviews by Xeconis

A pretty solid foundation is here for something quite special. I'm looking forward to seeing how Pepperlog explores the potential that they've got here. Was a little surprised that the default keybind for swap was Tab when buttons like E and F were not being used, but that's a bit of a nitpick.

A few of the memories aren't completely clear on what exactly it is that they do when you read them in-game. There is certainly a screen space real estate factor to consider, but I do think that some sort of compendium being added later down the line in development to look at everything you've selected before as well as more details. The main example I wanted to know was how long the Invincibility lasted on the memory that grants Invincibility after a dash.

The gameplay itself right now is strong enough to hold interest even with as little as the earliest stage of the demo currently contains for those interested in the game. Given the fundamentals of the way things are designed, there is a bright prospect for the future when there is more to see. I think what will make it hold up in longevity other than bosses/weapons/characters in the full game, is if after see see later stages in the game, the pace of combat ramps up beyond enemies simply moving at a faster constant rate.

I'm excited to see where this game's future lies and I sincerely hope Pepperlog continues to give it the love and passion it needs to shine.

I don't think I'll look at the world the same way after playing this game. I definitely won't look at fiction the same way. I believe in the existence of you and me.

Let me put this out there at the start of this review:

If you are not an avid fan of the exploration part of the metroidvania genre or are not comfortable with being given minimal direction on how to progress the main story of the game until you start finding the pieces of the puzzle, this game is NOT for you. This includes the concept of backtracking, if you're not very thorough or don't enjoy going back and finding new things you missed the first time, you won't enjoy this game in the long run.

If you are okay with that and like getting lost in a large world that tells its story through the way its been left and the sparse people around dealing with the aftermath of things you uncover as you adventure and as well as getting lost in another way because you're left to figure out where to go and how to get there with only some broad pointers here and there without lines connecting the dots, then you'll enjoy this game.

The demographic filter aside, let's talk about the game more.

Afterimage is a lovely game, it hooks you in with its incredibly beautiful presentation and then leads you forward with an opening sequence that effectively gets you all the information you need to set out on your off-rails journey through the vast lands of Engardin.

The writing is more than sufficient, and while it may not reach the same emotional heights that some other titles have, it does weave a tale that intrigues the reader enough to keep searching for answers. Should you uncover enough information by the time you reach the game's endings, some of them may leave an impact. The world of Engardin has a storied past that slowly unravels to you over time as you've given answers to questions you didn't know you even had, letting you connect some of the dots as you go. There's a lot to unravel, and spread sparsely across however long it takes you to reach can leave you with gaps in your memory.

The meat of the game lies in the gameplay. Combat is enjoyable, with 6 weapon types, a bunch of obtainable input moves for each, and various weapons that have special properties, there is a very large array of options for you to pick from, especially when you can have 2 weapons equipped and weave their attacks together without any drawbacks like needing to swap between them. You get a lot of freedom to experiment with the way that you want to approach encounters and the spread of weapons makes it so that you rarely find one weapon type lacking in power compared to others when you get in the flow. I stuck with the Dual-Blades & Katana combo because I enjoyed the high mobility and fast strikes, but there were fights where I found more success trying out other things, like Dual-Blades & Greatsword or Scythe & Whip. Those weren't the only combos that I used, though. Each area of the world is distinct and has clear connections to other areas as well as their own pasts, and it makes everything feel fresh when you find your next destination.

The difficulty of this game is relatively low. There are certainly some boss fights that might give you a struggle even if you fight them on-level (Personally, those were Valo, Brandr, and Reaping Scythe, so sue me) but the difficulty of the game tends to be inversely proportional to how much you explore and how well you pick the map clean of its secrets. The more you uncover, the easier things will be. I personally avoided using potions since they made the game feel too easy, and that was a choice that I made for myself.

After completing all the achievements and the game in general to its fullest completion (except for the Trial of Soul, which is the boss fight gallery that many games in the genre have, as it's not my cup of tea nor do you need to do it for an ending of the game, one of my personal gripes with a certain very popular title that has yet to get its sequel 6 years after it was announced in 2019) I can safely say that they took care in the way that they placed everything around the map, and in the single hour that it took to do NG+ (do not treat it like a typical NG+ it is a separate story that runs parallel to the main one with Renee) so many things started to click. Even things as simple as the locations of a few seemingly unimportant items started to make sense and then going into the true ending everything was wrapped up and came together at the end.

Afterimage is a game that isn't for everyone, and that's fine. Afterimage is a game that was made for people that play a lot of metroidvania games and what it does, it delivers on incredibly well. It's an experience that avid members of the metroidvania community will find a lot of enjoyment from, and that's what this game set out to do from the start. Incredible experience, I highly suggest it if you've played a lot of similar games or if the game that I have described in my review appeals to you.

This is peak witch life here. Never steal a witch's spellbooks, you'll WISH you got off with just a minor hex and the lingering scent of fish oil and owl eyes. In MY coven, the best we give those FROGSKINS dumb enough to get on a witch's bad side is a missing limb and a debilitation hex. Wizards will respond without conflict. Druids, Warlocks, and Sorcerers? They don't give a rat's ASS about this since they don't keep any spellbooks. Lead is potent reagent but if you think we only use it for brewing then you're sorely mistaken. We don't need potions to fill you up with lead.

This is for the witches ONLY,. The rest of you can go back to town. We are taking Salem back after the trials with this one. You won't even SEE the eaves if you ♥♥♥♥ with us. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some fey to summon.

This game is beautiful. It doesn't overstay its welcome, the story is short and sweet, and the mystery you unravel as you play is really engaging.

As a free-to-play game that should take roughly an hour (I went afk for a bit and also narrowly missed an achievement on the first run and went back to get it) to complete, I cannot recommend this game more. It's a short experience, but a fantastic one nonetheless.

It's not often that a game can get a few tears in my eyes with an hour of gameplay, even if it wasn't much, it was enough to pull on the strings just enough for a few seconds of light tearing up.

I would play a follow up game to this. Yummi (Or Yummy, in the post-game room, I suppose) should be proud of putting thiis splendid little bundle of a game together within a month.

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights is more than just a game. It's a work of art. A masterfully crafted experience that brings you alongside it every step of the way. The world is rich with lore, easy to grasp and available at any time once you grab the pieces of writing left behind by the people that were once here. It grips you with its world building and reels you into the bleak skies of this kingdom already past a point of collapse. If a picture says a thousand words, ENDER LILIES turns a scene into ten thousand words. The scenery is stunning, and perfectly captures the ambiance of each location and accurately portrays what specific kind of tragedy may have befallen the area. This is an impressive display of show don't tell, and tying it in even more is the absolute top quality OST that Mili composed, and the sound design team expertly using all their tools.

Silence can say more than words.

Most games you play, you finish, and you say "Neat" then move on. Some games stick with you after you complete them. You put down the controller and you just sit there and think about what you just went through. You ponder the themes of the game and you mind lingers on what just happened. Sometimes it's a hard hitting line of dialogue you cling to, other times it's a powerful scene that you can't stop seeing in your mind.

But sometimes, it's just a melody. Even just a single motif played at the pivotal moment.

Sometimes that motif and what it means is enough to make you cry during the final battle with everything on the line.

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights is more than just a game. It's a piece of art, and it deserves to be admired.

If Xiao has a million fans, then I am one of them.
If Xiao has ten fans, then I am one of them.
If Xiao has two fans, then I am one of them.
If Xiao has only one fan, that means either Lowell or I are no longer in the city.
If Xiao has no fans, then that means both Lowell and I are no longer in the city.
If Xiao burns those who care for her, then I will be incinerated.
If the world is against Xiao, then I am against the world.


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The gacha game that is so bad at being a gacha and good at being a game that you can forget about the gacha at least 85% of the time and just carry on with your day. It has a battle pass that is actually a good implementation of a battle pass because anything gameplay is obtainable later, and the cosmetics for a game like this don't do much, as the traditional "skins" are now a gameplay feature called "identities" and that's what you gacha for (or don't gacha for, there is a generous exchange system).

Before I digress too much from that battle pass, it's also got such a long duration for how fast you complete it that you never really feel like you have to play the game constantly like other games that include a battle pass. Instead of making you feel like you need to put in a part time job of gaming to complete the pass and get your money's worth or forever miss the rewards, Limbus only asks you to play for 5-10 minutes a day and a single 2-3 hour mirror dungeon every week (or 3 different roughly 1 hour at most dungeons) that can be paused at any time. And to complete the pass you only need maybe a month and a half's worth of that when the duration of the battle pass is around 4 months. Overflow is good but nor required, and if you do miss out on something, you can obtain it later if it's actually relevant (non cosmetics/resource).

There's no new characters, only identities, because Project Moon cares most about their writing, themes, and continuity and there are only 12 sinners, so you only collect those 12. No new characters that will entice you for liking them, just the 12 and you can make your opinions early and stick with them. Or they can change after a certain story segment (I'm looking at you, Yi Sang) gives them the spotlight.

Story is broken up into cantos, each main canto focuses on one of the 12 sinners, and there are intermission stories between cantos (except 1 & 2) that do directly relate to the main story no matter how goofy they are on the surface at times.

The story is the single biggest reason to go down the Project Moon rabbit hole, the writers are fantastic. They never skip a beat and they hit just the right spots every time, not to mention leaving many things for fans to pick up on in terms of design and connections in the small details.

Music is great, too. Project Moon does a great job at capturing the moment with their OST, focusing on the emotion of the situation more than anything and rolling with it all the way. They got Mili back after Library of Ruina to come out with more lyrical tracks for key moments. For Limbus, we have gotten music from Mili for the main theme, as well as the climactic fights in each canto. There's really no other group that could compose such for important moments to match the way that Project Moon writes other than Mili.

All in all, Limbus Company is a game worth trying, even if you dislike passes and gachas, because it's so inoffensive that you can enjoy the rest of what the game has to offer.

Or you can come back in a few years and play through the story all at once even though the difficulty will scale over time and you likely will not be able to just roll through the story on a whim without taking time between to gather some resources.

Ishmael is my goat.

Things I hate after playing this game:
- Babies
- Trains
- Magical Girls
- Religion
- Trees
- Slime
- Birds
- Red Buttons

Things I love after playing this game:
- Illegible Research Papers
- Disembodied Hearts
- Magical Girls
- Mercenaries
- Clocks

I wish I could transfer my play time for TmodLoader from before it was here on Steam. (Similar to how much mobile Terraria I played before moving to Steam) I played the hell out of TmodLoader in the days where you have to create a backup of the vanilla game and then apply the modded client and then you would have to swap the files out to swap, and in those days I could see avoiding it simply out of fear of messing up the files (even though it was simple, just a tad tedious), but now with it being completely independent clients on Steam (although you do need to own vanilla for this) there is no reason for anyone that loves this Terraria enough to put 200+ hours into it, to NOT pick up and try TmodLoader. Even though Tmod is in 1.3, there are QoL mods that can replicate 1.4 additions like Smart Doors, and then there are QoL mods for things not even in 1.4 like having all your items in one storage system with Magic Storage or all the time saving recipes added in imkSushi's Old Recipe version. Once Tmod updates to 1.4 there will be little reason NOT to shift over to Tmod. Even in Tmod 1.3 the content mods with QoL mods truly make the game a different experience. For anyone reading this, some content mods to look into include Calamity, Thorium, Spirit, Redemption, and Shadows of Abbadon (previoulsy SacredTools). QoL mods I suggest include AlchemistNPC, Smart Doors, WMITF, imkSushi's mod (I prefer the Old Recipes variant but the newer one is fine), Magic Storage, and Vein Miner. Give it a shot, I'm sure you'll love it.

One other mod suggestion isn't a major content mod or QoL mod per se but it does add additional mechanics and features as well as a few more bosses, and that would be The Stars Abound. It's a relatively new mod to the scene so it's still getting a lot of updates (not to say that the others aren't) but it's showing a lot of good things and has much promise on its own. Right now I wouldn't use it without a major content mod, but it's something to look out for.

For any fellow music nerds out there, these content mods also have custom music for their bosses, and some of them even add music to vanilla things that didn't have their own track, or even replace vanilla tracks. Some content mods have it integrated into the main mod, and others (like Calamity) have it in a separate mod (or two for Calamity). The main mod will state that it has no music if this is the case.