Recent reviews by Chloe Wolf

I know Steam shows I've only played this game for 6 hours, and much of that was waiting for geese to fly by for an achievement, but I had hundreds of hours of enjoyment from this title on PS2 and Switch so I thought I ought to recommend it here.

This game is so short and sweet, it's great to play when you have 40-80 minutes and you just want to smash something for a bit. Survival horror meets hack-n-slash with light RPG elements for a really fun little game. It's challenging yet forgiving enough for any level of play: you can button mash to beat things to death, cheat a little bit with magic if you aren't feeling confident against an opponent, or master the intensely satisfying Issen counterattack system for instant kills and bonus rewards! I loved Onimusha as a kid and I really hope they remaster the rest of the series. These games (excluding the fighting game) are still all worth buying if they'd just release them again.

This is the most perfect version of Resident Evil, and I hope Capcom makes more games like it in the future. I grew up playing games like the old Resident Evil 2, but thought Resident Evil 4 brought the series to a new and completely new level. Marrying the survival/puzzle elements of RE2 to the action/skill-based elements of RE4 makes for a wonderful experience, nostalgic and challenging but also more engaging and fun than the original. If you like the newer action titles in the series or if you were a fan of the older style, this game is absolutely worth a buy!

As someone who grew up playing Double Dragon on NES but completely unaware there were other versions outside of that context, I have to say I'm happy to see the original(?) game, but Jesus Christ did it age poorly. I'm going to be honest, these games suck. I think the Switch has DD 1 and 2 on the NES emulator, which was a fun throwback to my kindergarten years, but the horrid animations and lacking movesets make this far more difficult for all the wrong reasons.

That said, DD3 had me in tears the first time I saw how smoothly they could animate walking while scrolling to a new screen, yet how awful it looked when moving in combat. This collection is like a budget horror film, it's so absolutely awful it's pretty hilarious. I'm going to recommend this game not because of its revolutionary story or creative mechanics, but because it's only 6 USD at full price and good for an hour or two of stupid fun. Just don't take it too seriously.

Two things I want to stress before my review: I have never paid a dime for this game, and I have never been pressured to do so. Too many apps now have a free model with microtransactions that then harass the player with constant pop-ups or ludicrous scaling, but this is everything you could want from a cozy, relaxing game. It controls well, has small quality of life adjustments like hiding non-border pieces or highlighting loose pieces, and it just lets you enjoy it for what it is. If you really like it, and you're a fan of anything from Miyazaki films to trains or pets, there is probably a DLC pack or two for that. I recommend this game to every gaming group I join because there's a huge amount of free content, and unironically "something for everyone."

10/10 I hope they keep making more updates for a long time to come.

Palia fights with the player at every turn to make sure every menu is a monumental task to navigate.

From the title screen, You cannot use a controller to link an account or email. You NEED a mouse, so I'm mystified how Switch players pass this hurdle.

In the character creation, the left stick chooses options while the right stick scrolls the list and spins a preview of your character. This probably doesn't sound strange, but it feels awful, as every time you want to look at hair from another angle (or whatever) the list scrolls around. That's not awful though is it? Well, if you try to spin the character but do not have TAS-like precision to angle the stick perfectly left or right with a error of less than 5 degrees up or down, the character freezes all movement and the list scrolls instead. The mouse has the opposite problem, far too sensitive to be useful.

At the start of the game, Dialog is progressed by using (Dualshock) X, yet you can't finish a conversation by progressing past the last line with X. Once the end of a conversation is reached, Circle closes the dialog box instead. The two conversations I made it through both felt pretty inoffensive until I just couldn't leave the NPC, but they were seemingly out of things to say.

After struggling through some dialog, I chopped some trees using the idiotic default keybinding, a matter of opinion I guess, before getting a pop-up that demanded I refer friends to the game. It said "Circle to Dismiss" on the bottom, so I hit it, and nothing happened. It timed out and disappeared on its own, but then reappeared every time it left. Seeing no way out of this menu, I just hit Alt F4 and decided to uninstall.

As a sidenote, this is an MMO. I genuinely hope that the vitriol observed on the Steam forums by the community playing this game is not reflected in the behavior of these players while in-game. I didn't interact with anyone to find out, but I fear for the state of the multiplayer interaction here.

Often when a game is free, the worst I can do is give my own opinions, but it's not going to cost the readers anything to try for themselves, so I give a warning to keep expectations low or something. This experience has been garbage from start to finish. Just don't put yourself through it, even if it is free.

Fair warning if you're reading this, this is a recommendation to play the demo specifically, not the full game. After my experience with the demo, I will not be buying the full game, and therefore not reviewing it. However, I think it's worth recommending the demo on the grounds that there are a lot of things that bother me about the game that may be patched later or may not bother other people, and I think it's absolutely worth trying the demo to see if you think the full game is worth it to you.

First off, here's something that was positive: the staff as a weapon and a utility item is a very good idea. It's fun to toss it around and see where you can bounce to, or you can use it as a method of dodging an attack while also picking it back up for use in combat. The game includes a map and an inventory screen so you can review what abilities you've found in case you ever need to check. The backgrounds are pretty, but a bit distracting sometimes. Maybe it's a skill issue, but I frequently thought objects in the background were either interactable or hostile when they weren't. Side note about writing this review, it took a while to think back on things that I could list as positive.

As for things I think I can complain about, I have lots of nitpicks and a few things that I would need to see change drastically if I were to ever consider purchasing this game. Minor issues include things like the text moving every time it has to wrap; the lack of any meaningful story as well as the inability to talk to NPCs twice (in case you hit X to force the painfully slow text to finish faster but as luck would have it, the line was almost finished so it just skips to the next message); counterattacks are harder to perform than they should be when backstep and attack are on non-adjacent buttons; there's a lot of red, like A LOT of red, and I know some people who get headaches from seeing nothing but red environments for hours on end; you can move with the D-pad or the left stick, but you can only use up on the D-pad to interact with objects, making exploration with the left stick really janky; and there is no music in the game in combat, while exploring, or on the title screen, and if I'm wrong and there is, it was not memorable in the slightest.

That's a lot of words up there, and that's things that I think are just me being particular in how I like to see things presented. None of that should prevent anyone from buying the game, I just think it would feel like more care was put in the game if some of that stuff changed. Moving on, there are a few massive problems that I couldn't ignore, and I would stop playing a longer version of this game if I had to deal with them.

The right joystick is not used for anything in this game (that I know of) and yet, every time you want to descend, you are faced with either taking a chance off falling into a hazard or stopping, waiting, and holding down to look down first. I'm not complaining that care should be given and there's hazards everywhere; I'm complaining that you have to stop everything you're doing, you can't move or act, and you are forced to wait, and it's constant. Easy fix: right stick moves camera.

The staff utility and combat is a great idea, but unfortunately, it's very frustrating to actually use. There is a long delay when retrieving it, so if you throw it someplace to get some good kicks in, then want to pull it back for bigger hits again, there is a moment between pressing triangle and your attacks reflecting the change. It's a short delay but it's long enough that several times after calling the staff I'd attack a few times, think it never registered, hit triangle again, and toss the staff away the instant it hit my hand. Similarly, I hate rolling. Once I had control of my character, I tried, jumping, kicking, rolling, or whatever else I could think to try so I could get a feel for animations, abilities, and limitations. I noticed very quickly that if I tried pressing circle while moving, I'd roll, but while standing still, I didn't. That alone isn't a big deal, but when I tried fighting, there is once again a delay between the moment I press a direction to roll and the time I am allowed to do it. I have no idea why there is a delay there, but it made the combat feel really unresponsive.

On the topic of rolling, enemy tracking and baiting attacks feels really odd. While rolling, you get I-frames, which is nice. Not all games give you that. But while attacking, enemies are not locked in their animation, and will adjust to hit you behind them if that's where you're going. On more than one occasion I waited for an enemy to attack, specifically to set it in that particular spot doing that particular thing, so I could pretend to skillfully evade and counter. To my surprise he just decided it wasn't prudent to keep doing what he was doing and turned around and hit me anyway. Once, during the boss at the end of the demo, I intended to move through him to dodge an attack and he went the opposite direction of where I was before I made it to the other side, like hitting the roll button somehow commanded him to go away from me. And sometimes, dumb shield boss is just dumb shield boss, and allows you to roll and counter as expected. It's not my worst complaint about the game, but the enemy behaviors are definitely odd, and if any fights later in the game have many more mechanics than the one major boss we've been given so far, I could see where it could quickly move beyond "challenging" and into "frustrating and unfair".

To sum everything up, I want to reiterate that I think the demo is definitely worth a shot. I don't think this game is going to be a game that I will enjoy, but some of my ♥♥♥♥ might not bother other people as much. It's free; go play it and decide for yourself.

If it looks interesting, just try it. It's free. Don't spend any money on it until you know if it's something you want to invest some time in.

Atelier Ryza 3 (Something Something Key) is the third game in a trilogy, and I want to start by saying that I highly recommend playing all three games. The Ryza trilogy is also part of a much larger franchise, yet its gameplay is a pretty drastic departure from the rest of the series. This is both a blessing and a curse, however, as it means that anyone familiar with other Atelier games will probably want to do some research into some streams or something to see if this looks like it's worth a try, but if you're like me and don't know or don't like most of the rest of the series, the accessible easy-to-learn crafting and the fast-paced real time battles might make this one of the best in the series.

Never heard of this series? Then none of that context will help. Atelier Ryza is a game that focuses on storytelling in typical JRPG fashion; fight bad guys and get stronger to progress, but unlike Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, your equipment is never found or earned, but always crafted. Story progress unlocks new areas, new areas have better stuff to craft with, better ingredients make better pizza.

The first two Ryza games are quite a bit better than the third in terms of gameplay and engagement. Ryza 3 does a nice job tying up the end of the story and is still absolutely worth playing if you liked the others. It has a much more open world, more "fluid" gathering animations, and about twice as many playable characters as the previous games. The problem with the larger scale, though, is that you have a huge open world, four times larger than Ryza 1's map, yet only as much content and story as the other games, so it just feels excessive and empty. The additional characters are another example of excess in design. You have more than enough characters to hypothetically form two whole parties with bodies to spare, yet you'll only ever need enough for one. Is it worth it to spend extra time and resources developing all the characters fully? Probably not.

I have a lot of minor complaints about Ryza 3 when comparing it side-by-side with the Ryza 2, but with over 100 hours spent on just one playthrough, they clearly did something right. Play it for the story!

I loved this game back when it was still relatively new, but quit when I realized that no matter how long you diligently play as f2p, you will never conquer the highest levels of dungeons/bosses. That's content reserved exclusively for whales.

When I saw it released on Steam, I figured what the hell, why not, I can run it in the background while I do something more important and engaging. Turns out a lot can change in a few years, and not only was I completely lost and overwhelmed by the massive shift in gameplay, I also can't even navigate the app to explore any of the new systems because every time I click on literally anything, I ♥♥♥♥ you not, I have to close 4-5 pop-up ads nagging me to spend cash. And they're always the same pop-up ads. I don't know, Plarium, if I didn't want your gem pack the first 12 times you asked why the hell would I opt in now?

It went from being a decently fun time-waster that never missed a chance to remind me that they want my money to a confusing mess that constantly harasses the customer and actively disrupts your experience hoping you'll cave.

There's lots of other f2p games on phone or Steam that are better made and managed. Go play those instead.

I came into this game blind, never heard of it in development, never watch for Pokemon-style creature collectors. Super blind. I saw someone else playing it, asked what it was, and decided it could be worth checking out "Pokemon Fortnite" so I bought it.

And ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, nothing could have prepared me for this amazing mess.

During the gameplay I saw, the streamer said it reminded her of a mix of elements or influence from Cult of the Lamb, Minecraft, Ark, and only slightly Pokemon. Since i've picked it up I'd add that various aspects of the game remind me personally of Fallout 4 (buildings/towns, third-person shooter, open world), Horizon ZD (open world, strange animals, rolling/bow combat) and Pokemon Arceus (open world, creature collecting, gathering /crafting). Also the default character has Aloy vibes and there is a bunny that is the spitting image of Sylveon. When it comes to creativity there's a bit to be desired, but to be honest, no one can talk about any game nowadays without naming a ton of other titles anyway. The source material for ideas will always be apparent, but in this case it just happens to be shamelessly transparent.

With all of that said, this game is ridiculously fun and engaging, way more than an early access title should be. If it was fully released as it is now, I'd be grumpy, but it would match the level of effort of most AAA games. There are a few bizarre glitches like animals stacking up on top of food bins, the grapple working a little unreliably or getting the player wedged between things, the enemy raids approaching the camp then getting bored halfway and turning around, capturing bosses with the game's analog of a Pokeball, gym leader and big chungus alike. It's not perfect, but it is hilarious. The fact that the software and the experience work so well and this is only an early build is insane to me. It's like everything I've loved about so many other games, along with everything I hoped certain Scarlet- and Grape- colored games would have, all slammed together into a weird mess that somehow works really well.

I don't want to spoil the magical moment when you are blown away by just how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up this game can really be, but to give some idea why I can't put this down, You can arm your critters with AK-47s, rocket launchers, and miniguns, and if they lack the appropriate appendages to use a firearm, sometimes you can stick your hand in their ass and use them like a flamethrower. There's a guy named Depresso (with the most Meirl expression) who has a skill where he gets caffeinated and it just makes all his animations faster, so he attacks faster and walks faster but it's also really awkward and stupid looking. I have to pet every pal and get all their unique skills whenever I find a new guy because it's a never-ending source of laughing fits. But even when it's not being silly, it's just a genuinely fun crafting and survival game.

I really want to see this game succeed, because I want the developer to clean up the rough parts and expand on what's already here. if possible I'd love to see more games by these people. Go buy it, give them a little bit of cash. It's half the price of any AAA game that's a fifth as fun as this is.