Recent reviews by chiffon cake

I really enjoyed this game

It's got all the bones of the soulslike formula, coupled with some nice metroidvania abilities that unlock side areas, all wrapped in Aggro Crab's wonderful style.

There's so much to love here:
- The world was exciting to explore, with upgrades and items hidden in every nook and cranny. There's even a few optional bosses that you have pretty substantial rewards.
- The bosses were fun and interesting to learn, often times having mechanics that could be overcome with specific shells/abilities.
- The shell mechanic is incredibly well done, and you can really feel the Going Under DNA in it. It feels like a great iteration of the hectic weapon grabbing, and while I was unsure if I'd enjoy it at first I ended up loving it.

The part I like least is the parry mechanic: I normally focus on parries in these types of games, but having the parry timing be based on releasing block instead of pressing block really just did not click with me. Aside from that, there's a couple of areas that I didn't like, some encounter designs that I thought were questionable, and a few too many traps/1 shot mechanics... But none of those things took away from my overall experience. I still absolutely loved my time with it.

This is another great example of a game with lots of heart and care put in to it, and alongside Going Under has cemented Aggro Crab as one of my favorite studios.

A wonderful little game. The mechanics are solid and unique compared to similar deckbuilding roguelikes, the atmosphere is incredible, the characters are lovable, and the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic.

There's so much variety potential between runs with the way the various crew member decks interact with each other, on top of being able to pilot 5 different ships. I constantly found combos that I thought were my favorite until I'd try something else... it really encourages you to mix and match and just have fun.

The most surprising part for me was the story. I don't really expect roguelikes to have a story, or if they do it's very basic and more of an afterthought. Cobalt Core is different, and the story and characters ended up being my favorite part. Seeing the crew interact with each other, meeting the various NPCs on the star map, unlocking memories to piece together what happened... it's all done with so much love and care here.

I knew I would like this game, but I didn't expect it to become one of my favorites I've played in years.

This game blew me away in so many aspects.

Mechanically it feels like an evolution on the pokemon formula in every way:
- Type interactions are interesting and offer much more depth to the combat than simple +/- damage
- The ability to collect and swap moves out on all of your mons lets you customize them in very unique ways
- Companions not only add depth to the combat by making you use a team of 2 mons, but also connect the out of combat progression back to the combat in a very clean way
- The open world is neatly designed, and exploration provides a very meaningful axis of progress in multiple ways
- Shinies can be seen in the open world, and each mon has 13(?!) shiny variants that actually provide gameplay differences
- There's a decent amount of post game content, as well as "custom game options" that allow you to create challenge runs on subsequent playthroughs

On top of all of this, the OST is something else entirely. I think the songs themselves are wonderful, but also the audio design and implementation really helps them shine. Each song has an instrumental version and a version with lyrics that seamlessly transition between each other depending on certain conditions. For example: in town, the background track is instrumental when outdoors, and transitions to the lyrical version when you enter a building. It's a little touch that I think adds so much to the character of this game, and it's a great example of how much thought and care went in to the whole package.

I could go on but honestly if you have any interest in pokemon style games you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot. It's rare to find a game with so much heart put in to it.

This game reignited the joyful and creative spark in me.

It's wholesome, cute, and genuinely fun to play... but what I was really surprised about is just how much emotion it was able to evoke from me. It unlocked memories of my childhood, memories I'll forever cherish, growing up and playing with my older sister.

Games like these remind me why I love video games in the first place. It's easy to get sad and depressed in modern times, but games are a gift that can make everything feel ok.

This is a very interesting game. The environments are stunning, it does an incredible job creating a dim and creepy atmosphere that makes you want to explore, most of the animations are very visceral and feel chunky... There's a lot of good stuff here to enjoy.

The gameplay is more of a mixed bag; character progression is mostly placebo, there isn't really anything interesting to find while exploring the open world, and the world itself is very formulaic and "safe" in its design. There aren't really any gameplay systems here that you haven't seen in every other open world game that's released. That being said, it provides a great set of interesting collectibles to find, and I'm a very big fan of checklists to tick off so I was engaged looking for all the little knickknacks.

I'd still recommend checking it out, maybe when it's on sale. Some of the hand crafted story missions are extremely cool with their presentation in a way that's going to live in my brain for quite some time. There's also a ton of interesting information about classic Japanese mythology and folklore to read and find.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this game the exact right amount; I didn't feel like it overstayed its welcome, but I also don't really want to play any more.

Wonderful JRPG with a battle and progression system akin to the classic Final Fantasy titles, especially FFV. If you're a fan of job systems that allow for customization and experimentation than you would absolutely love this game. The story is essentially non-existent though, so if you play these types of games to get engrossed in the world or the characters this one's probably not for you. It's very much a systems and battle focused experience.


The job system is a lot of fun and allows you to create a ton of different character archetypes. Each job has an inherit passive that's only active while it's your main job, but you gain access to all of that job's active abilities when it's set to your subjob. You can then equip passives that you've learned from any other jobs up to a certain cap. The Jobs themselves are super diverse and varied, allowing for some real crazy combinations. I had a lot of fun changing my party around trying out different builds! For instance: you can make a Tank that's a Beatmaster(bard)/Ninja. Ninjas have abilities that let them evade all attacks, while Beatmasters have abilities that let them hit all enemies with a physical attack each turn while generating extra aggro. You can fill that character up with passives that you gained from the Assassin class that cause bleed, poison, fatigue, and daze when you hit creatures with physical attacks. This means every turn your tank is generating aggro by attacking all enemies and applying 4 debuffs to them, while completely safe from taking damage. It's really cool!

The one negative I can say is that I found the open world aspect of it detrimental. Exploration was fun at first, and there's a lot of cool items to find, but eventually the jump puzzles and elevation gimmicks wear thin and become tedious. It wasn't enough to keep me from enjoying the overall experience, but I think I would have had more fun if those things weren't included. I also did like the progression of getting different mounts to reach different locations, so this was more of a mixed back than a negative.

Overall this game was a wonderful surprise for me, and it was way bigger than I expected. I went in thinking it would be a quick ~20 hour experience with a handful of jobs, but what I got was a systems wonderland full of things to have fun with.

This is a delightful and relaxing little game. It's pretty short and the mechanics don't get very deep, but there's a great feeling of progress both through meeting charming new characters and getting access to more advanced "buildings". All that's wrapped up in an incredibly cute package with adorable pixel art and wholesome friends to meet along the way.

I enjoyed my time with this game very much and would recommend it in a heartbeat!

This is a very fun roguelite. I honestly just can't stop playing.

It has one of the most satisfying progression systems I've ever experienced, where you permanently learn skills that you find on equipment. You can focus on a select set of skills (or even just 1 skill) to form a build, or just learn everything to become a sort of well rounded monster. It's really satisfying.

Dying is cool too; you don't just start a new run like you normally do in games like this. You respawn back at the start with the same character, with all of the skills you've learned still in tact. You also lose a few levels, but you only lose 75% of the stats you gained from those levels. So every time you die you start from the beginning of the dungeon but you're stronger than you were previously. You can even send equipment down the dungeon for your next run, if you're unsure about succeeding in your current run. There's a permadeath option for those who want the true roguelite experience as well, so if you really want to start from scratch every time you die, you can!

I can't get over how incredible this game is. Just, amazing fun for a super fair price.

This game is great!

I backed this on kickstarter hoping it would hit my Mega Man Battle Network nostalgia, but gosh it's so much more than that. The deckbuilding aspect is much deeper than I expected with tons of archetypes and synergies to build towards, a large number of passive upgrades to augment different card types and decks, and 9 different characters that all feel completely different to play.

On top of that, the UI is very clean and polished, the characters have a lot of detail and love put in to them, and everything just feels really responsive and nice.

I'm seriously blown away by how great this game is and can't recommend it enough!

A delightful little game. Everything is so charming, and the systems are surprisingly deep for combat that's 100% controlled via typing. Some of the end game fights get surprisingly tough, and it was really fun swapping between all of the different elements to overcome them.

Overall I really enjoyed it!