Recent reviews by blue

i love this game. the gameplay is great. i love having anime girls scream in my ear every 3 seconds. overstimulation nightmare. i cannot recommend it enough. thank you inti create.

lost eidolons is, at its core, what i affectionately think of as a "b-tier" rpg. in the past, this would've been considered a big release considering the production on display, but in modern times, it inserts itself comfortably in that sort of in between.

the game is a strategy rpg that mostly plays by the rulebook - class progression, a story that serves as a way to introduce more maps & characters, character bonds, etc. it also plays by the rulebook relatively well. i guess if i had to criticize it, it's that the map are somewhat dull, being all variations of medieval battlefield. not a problem for me personally, but something i can easily see people getting bothered by.

topping it off is a pretty decent voice acting cast - essentially b-tier fire emblem three houses - that made me actually sit through cutscenes and wait for the performances. i usually read faster than voices and just kinda glance over voice acting, but i think it's pulled off well here and it definitely grabbed my attention.

as a whole? a pretty decent package. i like it a lot. i think there's a lot to enjoy here. i don't think it's perfectly - definitely some seams that show cracks, being this studio's first game. which i think is fine, i like jank and light ambition in my video games.

if you are looking for a massive production, this isn't it. if you arent a fan of strategy games, this also is not for you. if you're looking for a game that has heart and clear direction, this is it.

battle chasers is a good game.

at its core, it's pure turn-based fun. there's not a lot to hold you back here - characters function a specific way, interact with each others nicely, and combat is pretty satisfactory. layer on top of that a not too bad world (map/dungeons) and you have a pretty decent package.

dungeons are decently paced, and having pre-set encounters (you can avoid) is a good addition. none of them feels like they overstay their welcome, but encourage revisiting them on higher difficulties for better loot. which is topped by having some collectibles merchants to take some stuff off your hands or let you craft stuff.

aesthetically and visually, the game hits all the right notes as well - pretty to look at and enjoy. a good way to complement the gameplay.

battle chasers is also a slow game.

now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but at its core the game is also slow - animations are drawn out, battles take a bit to start up, walking is not the fastest and there's no run button. on all those points, the game feels more methodical. is that good? is that bad? it feels like it makes the game last longer than it actually is. which i guess is bad. but at the same time it lets you take in how pretty the game is. which is good i think. eventually it does start to wear thin because you start fighting similar enemies/archetypes. which is bad. especially when every. special. attack. always plays in full.

i'm not going to pretend this is a bad game - it's good. but it's also drawn out a moderate bit by the speed of the game. i think that part specifically will annoy a lot of people. maybe not enough to turn them off the game. but i still think there's something decent on offer here.

it took me a while to figure out why i initially put down dungeon drafters, picked it back up, then put it back down again.

at its core, i don't think it's a bad game. there's a decent amount of ideas - supplementing grid-based movement with insanely customizable abilities? that's really cool!

unfortunately that's not why i play mystery dungeon games. i play those games to have an *actual* dungeon crawling experience. that includes getting screwed over by traps, wandering floors to find the exit, proper item and loadout management, and so on. to an extent, dungeon drafters does feature some of that - the deckbuilding, trinkets and runes - but any and all crawling is non-existent.

dungeons exist, you do "explore" them, but you go from box to box. you know what is ahead. you will have a vague idea of what the game is on the brink of throwing at you. and that's not, personally, what i want out of a dungeon "crawler". you could effectively replace the room-by-room navigation with a simple slay the spire progress path and it would not change how you approach the game.

there's also a lack of direction. another thing i like about dungeon crawlers. let's try progressing a floor! maybe try a new dungeon. dungeon drafters just throws you 5 dungeons and expects you to maybe figure it out. which you will probably end up doing after trial and error i guess? not my favorite way of designing a game but shrug i can chalk that up to personal preference.

somewhat more nitpicky but the cardbuilding UI isn't fun to use with a controller. i could think of several ways to make it better but as it stands it's kind of tricky and unpleasant to use.

i suppose this isn't "this game is bad" thumbs down but "the game tries to punch above what it actually is and doesn't succeed". there is something to like here. the game is insanely charming, pleasant aesthetically, it has good ideas, it just fails to merge its ideas together satisfyingly, and ultimately just is not for me.

outstanding in every single way.

aesthetically, it nails the look it's trying to go for - early 2000s handled game. it gets it so perfectly it's hard to properly put it into words. the soundtrack compliments the looks of the game perfectly.

artistically, the game is no slouch either. the colors are fantastic and complement the (excellent!) designs. everything is a treat to look at in this game.

of course, all of those don't mean too much to me personally if the game isn't backed up by solid gameplay. and thankfully, the game is - the yoyo feels good to use and everything is centered around it. a lot of games will go off on tangents and provide tons of upgrades that don't feel terrible but feel there to match some arbitrary requirements, but everything is SO well integrated in the yoyo, from the combat to the puzzles to the movement.

this game is a total homerun and i cannot wait to see more from this team - i HOPE we get more from this team!!!

i usually try to be charitable to games. see the positives.

this game is dull, boring and uninspired.

where to i even start? let's talk navigation first. please go to the world map so you can go to a dungeon then go to a sub dungeon then go to a battle. why do we need 5 levels of stuff like this? is this game a dungeon crawler or a card battler? i wouldn't mind if it was a dungeon crawler! but honestly the UI is not fun to navigate (quite the contrary) so any sort of extra navigation is just not particularly fun. i will admit that i am, once again, being uncharitable. it's not always like this, you can navigate *some* on the world map and do stuff there, but eventually you are forced to go dungeon diving. and it isn't great to navigate.

which leads me to the ui : haha, god it's miserable. navigating the game is not enjoyable in any capacity. i have to be honest and say i played with a controller, then with mouse and keyboard - it was moderately less bad with the latter, but just not a fun time to deal with all of it, man. which is pretty pivotal in a game that's based on menuing.

and ultimately what did me in is the character progression. yes there's "depth". you can pick what the character does and build around that. but i don't play card battlers to have modular skill trees. on top of that, you can eventually pick more "skills" (cards) to add to your deck, but the decks just do not mesh with one another. the unique mechanics are neat, but i could clearly see very fast that the decks just... don't combine with each other. the specialisation ideas is cool - a character can be more healing focused, or field focused, but any and all extra customisation past that is just not good. you are very much funnelled into going deeper off the spec you picked. i will admit that i am not being very fair having only played a handful of hours, but i cannot imagine spending 10+ with this. it just feels like shallow customisation.

also the campaign was terribly dull. unbelievably so. there should be a hook in a game if you bother to put in a campaign. i found none here.

does not work out of the box on modern hardware. requires modding.

a better, and more fun, game than 1. i normally like to talk more about my thoughts on games i played, but i tapped out and don't really ever intend on finishing it, mostly played it as a curiosity after playing older ubisoft games.

mostly writing a review to point out that the game still is tied to ubisoft's ecosystem and might require some messing around to get it to launch. buyer's beware? but any and all issues encountered is with their (garbage) ecosystem and not the game itself, it still runs fine to this day.

you have completed a uplay action for reading this review.

don't think the game held up very well

also seems to freeze regularly. online reports kinda point to the game seeking to connect to an online server and being unable to. there are apparently work arounds online but also i would just rather play other video games.

for nearly 30 years i've modelled my entire being around this stupid gecko, and now he's here in a whole trilogy

i don't think it's perfect, so let's talk couple issues :

- save function decoupled from the game's original save systems. i don't hate it, but i know a lot of people will
- it's the US voice actor. i don't care but once again a lot of people will (edit: fixed in an update shortly after launch!)
- no real wide-screen support for gex 1. just the good ole stretch-ish thing. wish it got real upscaled resolution support
- the price. i'm a sucker for gex but 30 usd kinda be a lot for gex
- no way to remap controls. gex 1 will let you if you use the debug to go to the option menu, but what you see is what you get. especially bad for keyboards. (fixed in an update!)

the good :

- rewind function. it functions differently than just rewinding (letting you pick a moment from the past x amount of time) but it's fine.
- widescreen support for gex 2 & 3. a blessing
- similary, analogue camera controls for those games. you don't have to know the pain of remapping controls on something like the vita!
- bunch of extra stuff including dana gould interview. it's there i guess
- i no longer have to care for LRG as a company. they are bad, i hate them, i gave them my money, and now i can go back to pretending they don't exist anymore.

finally i can log in 100s of hours playing these damn games on steam... lock n load little lizard it's tail time..........