Recent reviews by Index

7/10 (B-tier)
I'm not the type of person who usually plays games like this one so I don't have a lot of playtime in it but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Dicey Dungeons has great music, nice artwork and a very interesting gameplay loop: You fight turn-based battles that are all about using dice to activate various abilities. Every round of every battle is like a new tiny puzzle where you try to get the most out of your randomly rolled dice.
This together with the deck-building mechanics and loads of different challenging characters as well as game modifiers makes it extremely fun to play. It also seems like a great game for mobile or Switch since it only needs a mouse to control. I personally really hope it will be on one of these platforms as well.

Some might say that the game could use more enemy and equipment variety and while that claim may have a point I think that the variety of gamemodes (which the game calls "episodes") makes up for this.
So definitely a recommendation from me.

8/10 (A-tier)
A unique 2D-platformer with a lot of polish and exciting gameplay.

Katana Zero was a very enjoyable experience for me.
It has:
- Great music and sound design
- Good pixel art (good enough that it made me get myself some desktop backgrounds from it)
- Cool story with a fitting atmosphere
- Simple and effective controls

And the gameplay works like this: You have a small area with enemies and traps in front of you which you need to get through (by most of the time killing everyone). The combat makes you feel very cool, especially reflecting bullets and slowing down time are very fun mechanics. Inbetween the enemy slaughter you get story sections and dialogue that's also fun to read.
This kind of game comes with a lot of trial and error but the main game isn't all that difficult so it's not on a frustrating level, I'd say.
There is also a well-designed hardmode if you're into that (it has new kinds of enemies, new boss AI and the levels are filled with more traps as well as enemies)
It also seems like a really good game for speedrunning, very fast-paced and full of skill-based trickery.
You should give it a try.

9/10 (S-tier)
A very unique and interesting puzzle game without any major flaws.

Baba is You is probably my favorite puzzle game of all time. It's extremely intuitive and solving the levels makes you feel like a genius. The basic concept is very simple but the game keeps expanding on it in interesting ways. The graphics, music and atmosphere in general are perfect for the kind of game it is and they allow you to concentrate on the logics behind a level.
And that's definitely important, because Baba is You quickly gets very challenging. There is a huge amount of levels so you can get a lot of value for your money here but the difficulty really ramps up at some point.
This is the only downside of the game in my opinion. It's easy to get stuck on a level if you don't understand what to do. I've spent minutes upon minutes in certain levels and to no avail. Be prepared to grind your brain gears at full speed. And remember to take breaks to cool it down every now and then.

I'm pretty much stuck on all the levels I currently have access to but I still find myself returning to the game again and again. And when a level you've been stuck on finally clicks in your head, the feeling is great.

Game is recommended
is
great

(Also there is a level editor and you can play levels made by other people so that's sweet!)

8/10 (A-tier)
This game offers satisfying combat against cool monsters with modern graphics and fitting atmosphere. The issues it has don't have an extreme effect on the enjoyability.

It looks really good if your rig is good enough to back it up. Some of the armor sets look cool but sadly the most efficient way of playing usually clashes with the most fashionable.

I'm a big fan of the music, it can make a fight feel really intense. The sound design is also cool.

On mouse and keyboard the controls are alright. My main complaint here is about the radial menu that can be a bit of a pain to navigate. I've heard that it's unintuitive on controller as well. But the most important thing, the movement controls and weapon combos, feel good in my opinion. They just take some time to learn.

It's acceptable. Not a game you're gonna want to play for the story though. I have to say that the Handler really grinds my gears, she's incredibly annoying. Luckily, once you're done with the story she doesn't do much anymore. There's not much to say about the remaining characters.

Just a quick overview of the gameplay loop first off: You hunt a monster, gather materials, occasionally explore a new map, farm some materials and so on.

The start of the game may feel a bit overwhelming because it throws a lot of tutorials at your face and it's a lot to take in at once. It'll take a bit for you to get used to everything but there's nothing that's exceptionally difficult to understand or anything so there's no need to worry.

The best part of the game is the combat. Fights can take a while but they don't get boring unless you have to farm a single monster's materials for a very long time, which is rare. It almost feels like every fight in this game is a bossfight, except that it's generally not super difficult. The final boss in particular isn't very challenging but some of the monsters can give you trouble if you're not used to them. The game also picks up in difficulty once you're done with the story, though some of the difficulty just comes from the enemies having more HP and doing more damage.

Speaking of the monsters, there's a lot of variety, excluding the few subspecies, and there is a good amount of monsters. Though they're not that many compared to other monster hunter games I personally still feel that there are enough in MHW.

What's cool about the monsters is that they feel like they actually belong in the game's world. They have territories, they get tired, get hungry, they sleep and they interact with each other. Most of the realism is lost in favor of better gameplay however, so don't expect the monster AI to be *too* complex.
Often times, while you're fighting, another monster might show up and also get into the fray, spicing things up a bit. The environment also plays a role in combat because of height advantages and hazards you can use to help you in your hunt or get caught up in yourself. The world feels rather "purposeful".

The large selection of weapon types provides a lot of variety because they make for totally new ways of playing. Some of them are easier to learn than others, but they all have a use and there's something for everybody.
There are also tons of different individual weapons and armors you can craft. Unfortunately, few of them are unique enough or strong enough to be relevant in the meta once you reach the endgame. The same goes for all the skills in the game. There are so many of them but 90% of them are totally useless and the rest are extremely strong in comparison.

Some items have ridiculously low drop rates which means that you'll have to spend a looong time farming if you're a completionist. This is one of my biggest issues with the game.
The best examples of this are Kulve Taroth weapons and decorations.

Disclaimer: The following paragraph may no longer be up to date as the Kulve weapons have been largely overshadowed by other additions. But I still think that it's worth keeping the text here
Kulve is a raid monster that can drop many otherwise unobtainable unique weapons (literally hundreds of them) and for a lot of weapon types the best one in the game is dropped by this monster which makes farming it very important if you want to make fully optimized sets. This is just terrible. It's like the devs wanted to make getting the best weapons as monotonous as possible to keep people playing for longer. Keep repeating this one single quest and then hope you get the weapon you're looking for. Oh you didn't get it? That's too bad, time to go again...
Kulve is probably my least favorite part of the whole game because of this, even though the fight itself is actually pretty good (the first dozen times you do it).

Decorations are just as bad, maybe even worse than that. You can get them from many different quests which is good but the problem is that the drop rates of the most powerful jewels can be abysmal. I've seen people who, after playing for more than a thousand hours, still don't have all of them that they need.

Fortunately there are mods out there that let you avoid the heavy grind, if that's something you're willing to get into.

The multiplayer is mostly fun, especially with friends, but playing with random people can sometimes end in frustration since the limited lives in a quest are shared between players. And it's a bit depressing to have one person mess up and cause everyone else to lose, whether that's you or someone else. So I advise on only playing with random people if you're not super-serious about a quest. Only use the SOS system for fun.
There is some beauty in playing with randoms too. Sometimes when I meet someone who uses the same weapon as me and I see them pull off a nice combo or have it interrupted I feel some kind of special bond between us because I understand exactly what it feels like when that happens. Or when you meet someone who makes room for you when the monster is knocked out so you don't interrupt each other. Very nice moments to be had every now and then.

I personally haven't noticed any noteable bugs at all yet, I think the game is pretty polished. It also runs well enough.

Overall, you can get a ton of playtime out of this game and even if it does get repetitive at some point, you can switch to a new weapon to change things up again.

6/10 (B-tier)
A simple yet neat game with some issues holding it back a bit. It's also not unique enough to make me give it a higher score.

I'm not sure how I feel about the electronic parts of the soundtrack but they're not common and don't feel too out of place. Otherwise it fits the game's atmosphere perfectly. The sounds are good.

I like the art style and the way the game looks in general but I'm not a fan of the character animations in cutscenes. It feels kind of clunky.

You only have one button so it's as simple as it gets.

Starts off very abruptly and then you get almost no story until you reach the final boss. And even then there isn't much that's happening. This is definitely not a selling point of the game.

One of the most important things I want to mention is that this game feels very slow. It's more a puzzle game rather than a platformer. Of course that's not necessarily a bad thing but if you're looking for a fast-paced platformer, this is not for you. It's very calm and slow (except for the bosses) and it's very atmospheric. The boss fights are more hectic which is why I enjoy them a bit more personally.

I've only seen a couple bugs so far. The game feels quite polished overall.

The only thing you can do with the character is to jump (you can't even control the height of the jump, at least not by much as far as I can tell) and you can only change the direction you're going in by jumping off a wall. This helps the game in the sense of being a puzzle game but it makes the platforming less fun. When I play a platformer I want a lot of control over my character. Again, another reason why Koloro should be seen more as a puzzle game.

The gimmicks of the levels are interesting and easy to understand.

Koloro is a pretty long game. It has a lot of content, even a good chunk just for co-op mode. There are heaps of achievements to collect too.
The normal mode is relatively easy for most of it. Towards the end it becomes a little harder and the bosses are also challenging. The time challenges are pretty fun and partially also a bit more difficult.

The hard mode seems good mostly, it increases the difficulty appropriately. Although it does feel a bit less creative because it's just a harder version of normal mode. And I don't like the hardmode boss fights because they weren't changed in any interesting ways. For example, the first boss just takes longer to kill and the second boss has no checkpoints.

I have one other minor issue with the gameplay: Some enemy hitboxes feel too big. But this issue doesn't come up very often, only in a few levels.

Overall Koloro is a well-made and creative game.
If you're looking for an interesting puzzle game with nice visuals and a lot of stuff to do, try this one.

9/10 (S-tier)
Short and sweet, VVVVVV is all about fun gameplay and it's executed very well. It has a cool retro feel to it.

Music: Absolutely great
Visuals: Ok
Controls: Simple and good
Gameplay: Fun and challenging
Story: Charming/cute but simple

The game starts off pretty easy and gets harder as you progress. Though the main story isn't all that hard to complete, collecting the trinkets provides a good amount of extra difficulty. The other optional challenges and achievements are extremely hard. VVVVVV offers something for pros and less experienced players alike which is nice (There even are some ingame options for making the game easier).
There are also user-made levels you can download for some extra gameplay!

Completing the story doesn't take very long but it's still worth the money even if you don't want to 100% the game.

8/10 (A-tier)
A game with many simple but effective mechanics combined to form almost addicting gameplay. It mostly relies on user-created content to stay fresh and interesting but the community for it is certainly there and has been creating years worth of quality stuff, even if many of the players are children.

- Simple controls (one button for everything)
- Many many unlocks
- Challenging
- Tons of great levels
- Nice visuals (in the newer levels)
- Level editor
- Good music (of course this is subjective but it's certainly well-made and fits the game)
- Fire in the hole

- Frustrating
- Menus are maze-like (but you get used to it)
- Levels that hurt your eyes (avoidable)
- Bugs (for example losing your progress or the game not starting)

Played this a lot on mobile over the last few years. Really fun and challenging game but the mobile version has the drawback of lag in some community levels. The PC version is for you if you want to get rid of most of the lag (because apparently some levels can still cause issues) and it makes building custom levels less tedious. Of course you also have a bigger screen.
But if you don't care that much about these things then I would suggest just getting the mobile version. The game is perfect for playing on the go. Even if you do want to get it on PC, get the free-to-play demo on mobile first so you can see for yourself whether you like the game.

9/10 (S-tier)
A truly outstanding indie title. The attention and praise it has received is justified!

The game mixes pixel art gameplay with a 3D map menu and comic-style UI elements. That may sound weird but it works very well in practice. All of it looks nice and manages to fit together.

The music is simply amazing and I would really suggest buying the soundtrack on bandcamp. The sounds are satisfying and never get annoying. I also love the voices of the characters.

It's interesting, emotional and integrated perfectly into the gameplay. The characters are likeable and they all feel natural.

Tight and responsive. Very simple yet effective. Haven't had any problems with them myself, no death felt like the controls were at fault. I've been playing with keyboard. I did rebind almost all the buttons immediately because the default layout seemed weird to me.

The levels are very fun and well-designed. They can get pretty challenging later on but they are always fair. The different gimmicks of every area are creative and interesting.
The difficulty of the late-game content is very high but there is an assist mode for players who want to have it easier.
About the length of the game: There are 8 chapters and it should take the average player about 8 hours to complete these (the main storyline - I'm excluding Chapter 9 because of how difficult it is). However, every chapter also has about 20-40 collectible strawberries and each one offers a small extra challenge or puzzle to complete. There is also something called a "B-Side" for every chapter. An unlockable set of more difficult levels that usually takes quite a bit longer to complete than the A-Side. There are some other extra challenges and collectibles as well (I won't spoil them) which probably brings the overall time you can get out of this game to 18+ hours (not including the ridiculously hard to get golden strawberries). I myself acquired all the achievements (not including Chapter 9 stuff that was added later) within 22 hours.

One aspect I don't like is that using assist mode doesn't disable achievements, though that is just my personal opinion.
It's often hard to tell which path is the correct way and which is a side-path with collectibles. And it's not always possible to go back to an earlier screen if you think you missed something.
Some may not enjoy having to redo chapters or parts of them to collect everything they missed the first time through.
Other than that, there are a few bugs and crashes here and there as with every game but they are minor and very rare.

There's a cool modding community where you can find even more levels to play through or create your own!

9/10 (S-tier)
Perhaps the best metroidvania game I have ever played. Most of its aspects are amazing and while it's easy to find flaws if you look for them, they barely affect the overall experience.

Hollow Knight is one of my absolute favorites. Here is why I think so:

• Responsive controls
  
• Beautiful visuals
  
• Fitting (and very good) music
  
• Great atmosphere
  
• Interesting lore that is told very naturally (though easy to miss)
  
• Huge world with many intersections and fast-travel options, lots to explore
  
• Many challenging and fun boss fights
  
• Good combat system in general
  
• Lots of collectibles
  
• Interesting characters
  
• Multiple endings
  
• Some really difficult optional challenges
  
• Dying has some consequences which makes it more intense
  
• Not having a map of every place right away makes for a better sense of exploration

Now that I have gotten everything I love out of the way, onto the flaws of the game:

• The beginning feels a bit slow. All you can do is attack with your nail, jump and walk. This can make the early game feel like it drags on for a bit, especially when you've already played the game before and are used to all the later movement mechanics. However, this is a necessary evil in my opinion because it allows the player to ease into the game smoothly
  
• With the little amount of direction the game gives you about where to go next, I started feeling a bit lost sometimes since I didn't know where to go to find the next abilities. After a little while I always figured it out though so it wasn't too bad. And I've begun to appreciate the openness of the game world a lot more in my second playthrough
  
• Some people may not like the mechanic of not immediately having a map for an area. I personally enjoy it though
  
• You may stumble upon a bossfight accidentally which can be a bit surprising
  
• A few quests are a bit tedious, collecting flames for the Grimm Troupe for example, (This one is totally worth the time though!) but they are not relevant to game progression
  
• Some may not like the death mechanics: If you die, your soul stays where you died and you respawn at the last bench you rested at. If you die again while your soul is in the world, you lose all of your money. The benches are sometimes quite a ways apart so traveling back to your death location may be tedious to some. There are a few things I have to say about this though. If your soul is stuck in a difficult-to-reach spot, you can talk to a certain unlockable NPC and he will summon it for you. Also, losing money isn't really that big of a deal. You don't ever need to collect money in order to progress and in the late game you will most likely be swimming in it anyway since it is so common. I personally like the death mechanic as it makes dying feel like it has consequences but they are not actually that terrible
  
• In the very late game there is an area that is technically optional but required if you want to get the "good" ending. This area may come unexpected and it is a bit of a spike when it comes to platforming difficulty. Some may find it to be too difficult. I personally really enjoyed it but that's probably because I play a lot of platformers

All in all, you have to decide for yourself if these issues would keep you from enjoying the game. I can say with confidence that they did not affect my experience very negatively at all. I really love this game.

Something that I cannot account for in my review is the overall difficulty of the game. I found it to be exactly right but my ideal difficulty may be too hard or even too easy for you. I do highly suggest playing the game for yourself so can get a feel for it and see whether you enjoy it or not. Thanks for reading.

8/10 (A-tier)
A great and unique game in most ways you can imagine. The main reason why I wouldn't rate it higher is that it's not my favorite style of gameplay.

The visuals are great.
The music is fantastic.
The gameplay is challenging.
The bosses are very interesting and fun.
The platforming levels make the game feel more diverse.
The different powerups and weapons add a layer of strategy.
The story is simple but nice.

There are some bugs here and there, the foreground objects sometimes obstruct your vision, the game isn't terribly long and the feedback you get for dealing damage could be better but these are all minor complaints.

Definitely recommended.