Recent reviews by blake++

• Voice acting is still amazing
  
• CG art is improved and anatomy isn't off most of the time
  
• Fancier menu than the last game, effort was put in there
  
• Best intro by far
  
• Some killer social commentary and the comedy can be really good
  
• The mystery plotline is a lot of fun until the end
  
• The Nicole suicide route is actually really good and one of the best routes of the series, albeit insanely depressing

• $15 dollar pricetag for the same amount of content as the original?? The original was never worth $15 and this isn't either. Took 3.4 hours to 100%, and I was kinda slow.
  
• Nicole is just totally evil now; in the previous games at least she gave a little bit of ♥♥♥♥ about Jecka but now it's all just gone. She seems mischaracterized
  
• Katz is just wasted as a character. SBN took the most boring option possible with him
  
• The message from SBN3 at the end of the game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane. "Everyone who criticizes the game is a pedophile." WTF? It's fine to make jokes about it in private, but putting it in the actual game is too far.
  
• The joke about the Palestinian slave trade is just not it right now
  
• The feet plotline is just absolutely insane. In, like, not a good way. At the time it was like "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ haha this is insane" but now I realize that half of the time was just spent on it. Is there seriously no better plotline we can do here? I don't think I would note this if the game was longer and had more endings, but with what we have, the fact that an hour and a half was spent on THIS? Just feels totally wasted.
  
• Barely any choices at all. To get 100% you only need to use TWO save slots. Like, wow.
  
• Some REALLY weird angles for a lot of the CG. I excused it last time but this time it seems more intentional.
  
• Counselor changed VAs
  
• Same UI as usual

The game isn't bad, but compared to the others it's definitely a miss. Entire routes feel weird and characters are like Katz and Nicole feel completely changed just to make Jecka's life worse. I would be lying if I said I didn't find many aspects of it funny, but there's too much off-color ♥♥♥♥ to where I can't help but leave The Flip Side with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe buy if it drops to, like, $7. You should probably just invest in The Re-Up and the original though. As a huge fan of the series, I'm sad.

EDIT: SBN3 is so obsessed with money that he just outright tells his fans that he "didn't put a lot of effort in". https://i.imgur.com/TxBhHyD.png
I wish I was making this up. Wait for reviews until you buy future stuff from this guy.

EDIT2: I refunded this game after 3.4 hours. Others have reported success with similar playtimes. Mention how the game wasn't like it was marketed and some of the more dark content and that seems to work for most.

• Changed max FPS to 180
  
• Changed gamma to 30%

• Movement is overall really solid, flowy, and floaty. Feels sorta like Titanfall 2? I think?
  
• Lots of smart mechanics and features that make the climbing feel freeform but you never feel truly lost
  
• Optional collectibles are preceded by challenges that require genuine thought most of the time
  
• Base game keeps a decent skill progression (until the very end) to where you never feel like you're truly out of your league
  
• The fall system is good; you can't fall too fast or you'll instantly restart unless you have tools to cancel out your momentum. It stops catastrophic falls from happening but still allows you to lose a decent amount of progress, resulting in a good challenge. Most of the time the system works well, but sometimes it doesn't.
  
• Integrated buttons to disable UI features on the fly to better soak up the environment
  
• Chapter 3 is the best chapter in the game. Each chapter is great and has its own feel and challenges, but chapter 3 totally shook up the game for me in very many interesting ways. It's simultaneously open-ended and totally claustrophic, and I love it.
  
• Sometimes you are required to go back to places you've been before, but the game makes this easier by introducing lifts to save you the trouble of going back manually.
  
• Each chapter introduces new things that kept gameplay feeling fresh (except the final chapter).
  
• Dev is very open to feedback and is actively working to address issues post-launch

• The last chapter sucks hard due to issues with unclear design and introducing a new mechanic at the last minute without giving the player enough challenges beforehand, while being extraordinarily difficult and time based. It'll take you way more time than it should to clear it. The dev is aware and is looking to change it.
  
• Cutscenes are amateurish. Both the camerawork and animations are severely lacking and could use some work. It can take you out of the immersion.
  
• I have zero clue what the ♥♥♥♥ this game is trying to say. Zero idea.
  
• You can abuse the hell out of a dash mechanic. Going UP slopes regains your stamina so you can just forever dash into an upward slope and infinitely gain height. I could only majorly abuse this a couple of times, but each time it felt dumb.
  
• You can hide the UI, but the UI is essential for the game. A more subtle UI option would be beneficial to allow one to still play the game but to not have the huge crosshair on their screen at all times.
  
• You can change the gamma, but there's no reference image to tell you what the game should look like. I have no clue if the gamma I played at was the look intended by the developer.
  
• 100%ing this game with all the collectibles, optional dialogue, and 30 minute deathless runs of each chapter genuinely seems like a nightmare. Would take you hundreds of hours probably.
  
• Chapter 4 overstays its welcome and drags on for too long.
  
• Low replayability. A lot of each chapter is walking and slower paced exploration, so I don't see myself really replaying this like I would Celeste. A game doesn't NEED to be super replayable and I don't think this one needs to be, but some people really care about that.
  
• There's a bug in one cutscene where it just loops and loops. I think it's an intentional design choice but the way it's done is so unclear as to it's purpose.
  
• Doing precise falls can be awkward.

I only completed the base game and mainly went for story completion; I occasionally got collectibles if I could figure out a solution, but it wasn't something I focused on.

Lorn's Lure is an extremely well built 3D platformer with a lot of cool exploration. Besides some missteps that'll likely be fixed soon (and some that won't), I can safely say to pick this one up and you'll have a lot of fun exploring and doing cool stuff. You should definitely look out for this developer's future titles. Was genuinely a lot of fun and very impressive for their third title..

Issun, your sidekick, ruins anything good about this game.

Issun is introduced as a cocky and perverted bug, who quite literally pops out of the top of the Wood Sprite Sakuya's kimono during the insanely long introduction cutscene. He's meant as a comic relief character while also being informative, but isn't funny and overexplains everything.

The writers of this game think that you're genuinely an idiot (I guess this game was marketed towards kids upon release?) so Issun goes to the trouble of laboriously explaining things to you several times in the most annoying Banjo-Kazooie-esque voice possible. Any subtlety of moments or possibility for accomplishing tasks via exploration is instantly removed with a long drawn-out explanation that MUST state the obvious and MUST put a big arrow on the screen showing exactly where you should go. I had moments where I wanted to revel in the silence and explore the beautiful environments myself, but my immersion was destroyed each time.

Within the hour that I played of this game, I experienced around 6-7 moments where I had to put the controller down because I found Issun so insufferable; both because of his perversion and tendency to obliterate any peaceful moments.

If there was a mod to remove Issun entirely from the game and replace him with something more subtle, I'd be willing to try this game again. Given that that's probably not a thing, it looks like this is where my journey ends with Okami.

EDIT: Since it wasn't clear, the main thing that bothers me in this game is Issun's regular creepy and disgusting comments/actions towards women. Constantly sexualizing them and being gross completely shattered the experience for me, to the point where I felt I could not play anymore because I was so put off by his degeneracy.

Received for free as a gift from a friend.

A collection of utterly phenomenal tracks given in lossless quality. It's perfect.

Do it yourself, with your left thumb.

The game lets you increment the counter by holding left mouse button or holding spacebar. Use the spacebar. And don't hold it down.

Every. Single. Click. All ten thousand of them. Feel it yourself.

Let yourself become one with the protagonist. Feel every click as the proboscis monkey watches you. How its heaving chest somehow both struggles and thrives with each breath. How its eyes watch you but don't. Feel how it feels to exist in that moment with it.

Do every single click yourself while he watches you. Do it in the hallway. The bathroom. Turn the TV on. Feel the static wash over you. Turn it off. Keep clicking. Stay close to him. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

CLICKOLDING is a game about incrementing a counter. About satisfying an urge. About being a ♥♥♥♥♥. It's a short experience and for the price, I'd say it's a pretty good deal. I enjoyed it. I think you should do it too.

And if you leave? Don't come back. Seeing that counter reset, for you and I, is a once in a lifetime experience. Enjoy it while it lasts, and when it's over carry that moment with you. Let it fade and decay over time. Click.

Foreword
I got 100%
Before I played this, I had already seen clips of gameplay on YouTube.
After I got most endings, I used a guide to make sure I experienced every line of dialogue.

The Good
The Re-Up is thoroughly hilarious; characters from the original Class of '09 have their personalities cranked to 11, making for absolutely hilarious and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane interactions with every character. This is enhanced by the god-tier voice acting which flows wonderfully and make the game worthwhile.

Every ending is thoroughly entertaining to get to, to the the point where I find myself replaying different parts of the game (because it's just that good). The Re-Up finally utilizes its underused side characters from the previous game, giving them much more personality and screen time, resulting in both hilarious and simultaneously sad endings. Each route is the length of a movie too, resulting in about 6-7 hours of insane yet comedic content.

In terms of story, I think this video by Author Function does a much better job analyzing the actual writing of this game than I ever could, but I'll say this: The Re-Up is a fantastic companion piece to the original Class of '09. Both show how Nicoleism, a fictional movement where women remove all emotional attachment from anyone (coined by and after the games' main character), can affect others in both hilarious and morbid ways. While it is a primarily comedic game, the characters have real depth to them and there are distinct and complex motivations that drive every character to act the way they do. It's really satisfying to look into and it adds another layer to the game beyond just comedy.

The Bad
In terms of QoL, there are mild improvements with the UI. There are still issues with the Steam overlay being super laggy. The issue where ambient noise during scenes noticeably loops still hasn't been fixed, and there are some improperly subtitled scenes (whether it be the wrong words or spelling errors), but this is an improvement over the previous entry. Any bugs that exist in the original Class of '09 are still here pretty much, but it's nothing major enough to ruin the experience.

Like I said in my Class of '09 review, the game could benefit from more poses for characters to let users more easily picture how a scene is playing out. The save system should allow you to delete saves. There should be a decision tree so you can see what paths you haven't taken.

Notes

• First ending I got was bullying Ari into being straight
  
• Second ending was Ari's house burning down
  
• This game is probably more like 6 hours; I took my time replaying with friends and letting them pick because it's super fun

Class of '09: The Re-Up is absolutely worth your time and money. It's a great piece of comedy with enough depth to it that rewards those who decide to look deeper with a rich cast of characters with complex motivations. Minor bugs and issues aside, you'll have a lot of fun with this regardless.

• Effortlessly stylish (as usual for Blendo Games)
  
• Hacking is fun, dynamic, and active, surprisingly so
  
• Many little details that really help flesh out the world
  
• Cool new gadgets and mechanics make heists incredibly interesting
  
• Open source!

• WAY TOO BRIEF: There's not enough time spent fleshing out the world and characters. I wanted more of an experience like Gravity Bone and Thirty Flights of Loving, games that really immerse you in their worlds and spend time showing you what it's like to exist in Nuevos Aires. In contrast, Quadrilateral Cowboy does not spend ANY time with its two other main characters & does not let you immerse in the world.
  
  • While the game does give you snapshots of the characters' lives through pictures in their homes, their strong friendship depicted ultimately falls flat when the actual game does nothing to support it. There is zero dialogue between any characters, which some reviews view favorably, but ultimately the lack of dialogue feels like it was not included just to not include it.
    
  • As for the world, I was really hoping for sections where I spend some time just walking and taking in the environment. Instead, most of the time outside of missions is spent in tiny rooms or areas that give you glimpses of the greater world, but it's not enough to feel like a true picture of it.
• The mechanics of QC are given their time to shine, but we really could've used some more puzzles near the end to fully test mastery of the gadgets and systems the game has to offer.
  
• Casing mechanic features minor bugs and some odd choices (you can die while casing)

Quadrilateral Cowboy is a fun, stylish puzzler that gives a decent challenge while constantly introducing new dynamic mechanics and interesting missions. This is undercut by its extreme briefness, leaving you wishing there was more of everything QC has to offer. Buy it on sale.

I have 350 hours in Celeste, completing all challenges except Farewell Golden (including all Full Clear Goldens), 350 hours in N++, and 16 hours in Dustforce. I have only played Smash Ultimate casually and have no experience in Melee. Where I decided to quit was in one of the early Air levels where the game asked me to utilize momentum conservation mechanics I did not understand and it did not teach me.

Default controls (keyboard), fullscreen, screen-shake OFF.

My main issues with ENTROPOLY lie in its lack of tutorials. While the game does a decent job of easing you into the basics via the levels, the game does not really explain the full scope of how your movement works, or why you have a dodge, or why you have 4 directional attacks, or that you can pull back on your dashes, or that pressing the dash button without a movement key makes you stay in place, or...you get the picture. This gave me the vibe that this game is meant for Melee players exclusively. I think this could be resolved by giving in-depth tutorials that the player can read and watch. With the game already having a "ghost" playback feature of your best run, this could be transformed into a Modded-Celeste-style gym which allows you to tackle the finer details of the movement system at your own pace with ghosts showing you how to move.

The game uses a "hub" system similar to Dustforce where you have to do mini platforming challenges to get to levels, which I found mostly gratifying, except for the fact that it respawns you at the center of the hub. I find this really annoying, and believe the areas should take note of where you were previously and respawn you at the nearest safe point.

As a minor note, I found kill zones on stage hazards to be incredibly weird and much smaller than they should be. I think it's good that the kill zone for these hazards aren't perfectly on model, but it's to the point where I get away with things I absolutely should not.[i.imgur.com]

The visuals and sounds are fantastic. The psychedelic art style fits the game very well and goes well with the upbeat music. The sound design feels good and fits the game well. However, the character feels basic and out-of-place in the game, which seems partially purposeful but also kinda not? Poly also reminds me very much of Celeste's Madeline.

With this being a platformer utilizing melee mechanics, I found the controls to be (expectedly) very alien and confusing. QWER for directional attacks, arrow keys for movement, a double jump, a dash on D, a dodge on S, an attack button on S (different from directional attacks ?), a brake button on A. There's also a buffer, which I don't even understand how that works? Like a buffer for inputs or? IDK, in general the whole system was just very overwhelming and intimidating. I think explanations on the side for some of the options would help players understand what these are used for.

While I do see a lot of potential in ENTROPOLY and a very high skill ceiling, players who are not experienced with Melee or platform fighters with similar mechanics will struggle to comprehend ENTROPOLY's overwhelming complex systems of movement. Unless an update happens that includes learning materials (no, tutorials on YouTube do not count lol), I will have to recommend those unfamiliar to not pick this one up.

I am very happy though to see that there is a game where Melee players who enjoy this style of movement have a more dedicated place to express it.

I spent a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ HOUR doing captchas to try and log in to my freshly made account. I had to get a friend to login to it for me and resend the email verification so then I could log in through the browser. Once I did that I still couldn't log in in-game so I had to add a phone number to my account, solve another captcha that takes 10 minutes, and then FINALLY I could play.

why do my friends have to like this game. i want to die. ♥♥♥♥ you blizzard

Foreword
I got 100%.
I had prior knowledge of some of the stuff that happens thanks to YouTube clips.
After a couple of endings I used a guide to keep better track of what paths I needed to go down and where, since there's no decision tree showing what paths you've taken in the main menu.

• The voice acting is utterly phenomenal and well done. It's done so well that the mediocre visuals just don't matter (mostly)
  
• The dialogue is humorous. I wasn't falling out of my chair laughing or anything, but the game did make me laugh quite often and I had a smile on my face the entire time playing it

• Characters have basically one pose and that's it. I think a few more poses for each character definitely would've enhanced the game. For example, it's hard to tell when someone is sitting or standing, and that changes how you view a scene mentally, so that would've been really nice
  
• Save system doesn't allow you to delete saves; you can't load from the in-game menu either, you have to load from the main menu
  
• In order to get all of the endings, you just have to remember where different paths might be. A decision tree in the menu showing which decisions you have or haven't seen would've been really good.
  
• If you humor one or two men in order to get something, it leads to you somehow being a pushover. It doesn't really make any sense. Context below.

Context:

I decided to humor Crispin at the beginning cuz I figured Nicole might be bored enough to go for that, and then also humored Mr White to get free food. Now all of a sudden Nicole's having to hang out with various guys since she can't bear to tell them to ♥♥♥♥ off. If you also pick the option "Delay an inevitable school shooting" when talking to Jeffery (diff route), this also leads to the same result. This leads to two different endings.

• Steam overlay is really laggy. I played in fullscreen so this could've had an effect on that.
  
• There's noticeable pixellation when the pictures in the intro sequence show up, and then it gets better the longer they're on screen. Not sure what caused this.
  
• Character animations keep going when you pause
  
• Background audio for ambiance noticeably loops
  
• Few spelling issues
  
• Sometimes words are missing from the text but the audio says them

---

• Game's pretty short. I don't mind too much though; you get plenty of character development for all characters by exploring different paths.
  
• First ending I got was McDonalds, second was graduation.
  
• Favorite ending was graduation (including the secret video message you get for getting all the endings)

Overall, I had fun while playing Class of '09, but I think it could've majorly benefited from some polishing. Hoping that The Re-Up is a bit better in this regard.