Recent reviews by the ick

It's been a while since I've played a game this perfect and immersive.

Thank you for blending my two favorite genres so well... This is the first time I've ever seen a roguelike city builder ;w;

Grindy.

Overall, a timesink where you have to wait for stuff to get researched, get built, etc. Just waiting. I played at fastest time setting and it wasn't fast enough.

This game should not be tagged as "sim" or "life sim". It's purely a visual novel.

The art is incredible and the best part about the game.

The main theme of the game is about overcoming grief with the support of our loved ones. Also, a reminder that life is short and to live without regrets. The story also brought up some interesting sci-fi predictions for the future of the human race, such as people surrounding themselves purely with AI companions, however, the predictions never went deeper than "wouldn't it be funny if..."

At the end of the day, for me, the execution of the story was bland. Each of the numerous sideplots of the minor characters never had much of a defined arch and felt about as dull as reading about someone's ♥♥♥♥♥♥ situation on /r/advice with no clear conclusion. Overall, story felt half-baked, with little sense of interconnection between all the characters, and it felt as though the game relied on the skin of its art to appeal to the player. The characters were at the mercy of the world around them, and simply came to the bar to complain about it instead of doing anything to change the world outside.

This game was originally released in 2004, so having played it for the first time nearly 20 years later, I'll be focusing on how it's aged.

WORLDBUILDING - excellent
- Tavern's with unique names and cuisine specialties
- Towns and cities of various sizes with unique landmarks and histories
- Foreign characters from two other countries that give context to the outside world and politics
- Unique provinces each with their own subplot that culminates in a political intrigue plot at the capital.

STORY - cliche and juicy
- Having aged 20 years, the story feels like a satire of of most anime plotlines. (Boy with dark past, hot-headed feminist girl who loses her ♥♥♥♥ on anyone being a jerk or idiot.)
- Lot's of feminist jokes about men being pigs that could only have been written in the 90s/00s
- The romance plot kept me curious enough to read the dialogue.
- Ending was a nice twist that set up the plot for the Second Chapter

COMBAT - minimalist and fast-paced
- This game is NOT grindy <3 thank god. So many games in this genre suffer from grindy designs.
- Combat growth is slow. Unlocking new abilities is infrequent compared to modern titles.
- Heavy combat sections of the game are interrupted by long story sections and puzzle sections, which give a sense a relief to the combat's tedium.

OTHER
- You'll need to follow a guide to 100% unlock all achievements. The collectibles are easily missable.

Overall, I recommend this game to those who want to see a game with a highly detailed world. One could easily snatch this place for a homebrew D&D campaign, or take inspiration from it.

This little city builder is a good example of minimalism style in the genre.

It's not meant to be a hardcore balancing game with numerous different resources. It's simple, with only a handful of resources to worry about. The difficulty is incorporated via how efficently placed your buildings are to other buildings that boost them, need each other, and keep them safe.

The endgame involves soldiers and naval ships which are where the game becomes a bit too difficult for my taste. The homefield advantage is quite strong if you plan on invading, or if anyone plans on invading you.

If Alice in Wonderland was rewritten as a cult horror story. Who wouldn't think the story of a little girl in an insane asylum was a good plothook?

I've gotta respect the sheer creativity that went into designing this point & click. There's so much detail and art, and I think only one puzzle did I need to check a guide for. Probably one of the best of the psychological horror point & clicks. (Though, I personally prefer the comedy ones.)

Needs idler game tag. You just stock shelves and wait.

I know a lot of people that like this game, but I just never had fun when I played it.

My impression of playing a lot of multiplayer: Either you go in the same direction as your friends, and who ever is faster gets to kill everything. Or you go in the opposite direction as your friend and basically get a single player experience.

When chests open, they drop one item. Not one for each of you.

You don't really need to think about what you pick up. It's mindless.

Gunfire Reborn is a better co-op roguelike shooter with none of these problems. Enemies are tough enough for everyone to play together fighting the same mobs. Loot is a choice and each player gets something. Bosses drop loads of different guns. Everyone gets their random ability boosts individually.

As for playing Risk of Rain 2 alone, well, the combat is just not that interesting for me to play it alone.

This game got me through a simultaneous infection of strep and mono.

One of the best turn-based RPGs of all time. The single best tv/film-to-video game video game ever.

- Hilarious!?!?!?!?
- Detailed combat system.
- Shout-outs to all the south park characters.
- Jew is a playable class. Never felt more special.

The game looks good, but all the systems, from the farming system to the crafting system to the NPC house building system, are just really convoluted and difficult to understand well enough to execute them. The tutorial was so dry and painfully dull to navigate. Minecraft is so much more intuitive. Stardew has so much more going on for it.