Recent reviews by Nutritious

KR RPGmaker goodness. Looking forward to trying the rest of Gustav's games!

tl;dr - If you're a big fan of AREAZERO's Sky Arena games, you'll definitely like this in lieu of the early access flaws.

The biggest elephant in the room is how this game is in early access-- there's no getting around that fact. At the time of writing this review, what we have are four characters (Reimu, Marisa, Youmu, Patchy) and four interchangeable spells for their movesets. There's only one stage right now that's just recolored to different times of day with no architecture on it other than trees which is a bit disappointing.

Suffice to say, there's not too much content to offer as of yet in terms of characters, stages, spells, modes, etc. which is a little bit of a let down coming off of how huge the Sky Arena games are, but what I can acknowledge is that the core gameplay is very good. In my opinion, it's excellent. I've always found the older Sky Arena games to be a little bit clunky in how they play, but Valkyrie plays so well. The dodging/mobility options are supremely fluid. As a whole, the reason to pick this up at the moment is the GAMEPLAY.

I mentioned there only being four characters and only four possible spells, but even then, the way that they interact with the core gameplay gives a huge amount of mechanical depth already. I'm not going to go into too deep detail about finer mechanics like accel gauge/animation cancels/accel spells etc., but a game with depth is 100% there, even in its current state.

There were some reviews detracting from the gameplay, or making comments that the character movesets felt homogeneous, but I just can't see where they're coming from. It's very well communicated what a character's strengths once you start throwing out their spells. Reimu and Marisa are all-arounders, Youmu wants to play very close to their opponent, Patchouli is nothing but space control. To the people who find the game mechanically lacking or clunky: you're not exercising your options. Boost dodge is the biggest thing to learn because it lets you animation cancel, it lets you graze, it lets you microcorrect your positioning, it lets you string together some very satisfying melee combos (and if you play Youmu you can watch 1/3 of their life bar deplete when you string melee into your spells). Hopefully me divulging that just gives you an idea of what you can expect from the gameplay. 🥴🥴🥴

Netcode is another HUGE positive. It's very, very good, and there were no hitches even when playing with some friends from across the world (NA>EU). It was a blast. I'm actually so surprised it just works so well out of the box, which can't be said for a lot of other doujin games.

My only truly outward negative remarks in regards to the game is the performance and lack of video settings. As it stands right now only resolution is available, and it feels like the game is hard-capped to ~30FPS. Hope that changes because that is a completely valid barrier to entry.

I felt very compelled to write this review considering how a lot of what others are saying in regards to this are quite negative. I get it. Maybe a lot of what the game has to offer isn't well communicated, but there are tutorial and how to play menus right there in the menu. In it's current state, I can only offer a wary recommendation. Typical early access flaws like lack of polish/content are there. But if you find yourself attached to the Sky Arena series and you find yourself on the fence, I want to say that you should definitely give it a shot-- especially if you have a pal or (three, when 2v2 comes out) that you can run some sets with. Can't wait for the 2v2 mode and more characters + options for those characters!

My favorite fighting game (because i'm good at it). Can't really justify buying right now even when it's on sale though with a new version coming up soon-- just wait for UNI[cl-r] and pray steam release follows console releases within the span of a year.

Yet another game that made me wish Steam had a more ambivalent recommendation option.

There are a lot of issues with this game that just compound and bring the whole thing down. There's so much lost potential, and I hate seeing that sort of thing in a game I really want to like. I could make a list of all the individual things I have issues with, but I'll spare going through a huge list- it all just comes down to there being an overall lack of polish.

I'll start with the controls. As far as I know, there was no controller support at all, and I would figure that any sensible platforming action game would have controller support, but that's not the case with this game. You can't remap the controls on the keyboard, either, unless I'm missing something with a config file or something. You swing Sanae's umbrella and dash using the mouse and control with WAD, which works fine, at least.

It's a great undertaking to attempt making and fleshing out Gensokyo as a game world in a side scrolling adventure, but that's really not where the game's strengths lie at all. The most fun I had with the game was with the boss fights, not traversing through somewhat uninspired enviroments fighting nonsensical enemies (the bland caves you go through come to mind, especially the ones with the gorillas (???) in them, and golems with really lazy shading for their sprites). Doing unimaginative fetch quests for no-name NPCs that amount to nothing but an achievement wasn't much fun, either, so I gave up on that really quick too. Some of these areas just feel cobbled together to pad things out between boss fights, rather than having thought put into them in regards to your mobility moveset, which comes down to just a double jump and a dash. There are exceptions, of course- The area where you fight Tenshi is the only place where I feel like your mobility was put to good use, and of course it's an optional area and boss fight, which were fun to find, I'll admit. That doesn't really make up for the rest of it, though. I found myself just running past enemies because trying to fight them, unless they were blocking your way, was just pointless. There were several areas where you can get stuck, too- I got stuck under an elevator and fell off the map in the Kappa valley.

Some of the boss fights, notably Aya's and Kanako's, are frustrating for all the wrong reasons. They decided on having the platforms you have to jump on completely randomized, and though it's a nice idea that makes the fights a bit more dynamic, you can end up getting hit because of shoddy platform placement or just end up falling because for some reason the game just decides the platform you're trying to jump on doesn't exist. These two bosses are in the air most of the time, too, and they have a hurtbox as well as a hitbox. This means you have to jump constantly to be able to hit them, but if you accidently end up touching them, you'll get damaged. It's hard to avoid this when your jump height isn't particularly precise and your main method of attack is a melee weapon. It's a lot of unneeded frustration.

The music is one of the saving graces of this game, and I feel like I should mention that, but even so, there's a lot of forgettable tracks. The main menu theme and the first track you hear once you start the game in Gensokyo proper are really not that good. It gets a lot better as the game goes on, and the arranges of the already existing character themes are really great. Hina's, Nitori's, and Aya's stood out to me the most. The game comes with a jukebox, but even that feature is not exempt from the overall lack of polish- Nitori's theme is repeated twice in the jukebox.

Lastly, there are ♥♥♥♥♥♥ memes shoehorned into the game, too, and that's one way for me to take your game less seriously.

I know I'm being really scathing- after all, it's just an Indie game endeavour. I don't know much about this game dev studio, how much people were working on it, how long it took to create, but at the end of the day what you'll be getting out of this game is not worth the price asking point at all. I will say the art style of the game and boss art was very distinct, and I really did want to see the areas and characters of Mountain of Faith recreated, seeing as it's my favorite Touhou game. I really just wish this game was a more straightforward boss rush, because I'd be damned if I were to say that finally beating them after learning their patterns wasn't satisfying at all. If you're absolutely deadset on getting anything and everything Touhou related on Steam, this might be worth a purchase. I can't really recommend it myself.

This is a game that really makes me wish there was an ambivalent recommendation option, rather than just a straight out "yes" or "no".

Pimiko Plus is a simple part market sim part RPG game. It's the kind of game that lends itself to short, 15-ish minute sessions of play. The problems surrounding the game, though, arise from the simplicity of its core gameplay.

The market sim aspect is very barebones. It's what you'd expect- buy low, sell high- but there's not much more to it than that. The game flow is nothing more than just buying whatever's for cheap, and bumbling around any of the 8 locations in total to see where the price has skyrocketed to an absurd level so you can sell your goods. In only a few turns you might already see yourself with the best equipment and hauling around the more expensive goods.

I'm not sure if I'm asking too much, but the game is just so painfully simple. I know that's part of the point of the game, but there's so much potential for something more. You follow the prices from whatever location you're in, it's rigid and there's no room for things like haggling; you just buy and sell. There's no rammification from what goods you decide to deal in, either- it's all basically random when it comes to the prices of items in any particular location no matter how much you buy or sell (though this is to be remedied in a new "realism" mode the developer is planning to put in). All of the locations are pretty much- no, rather- completely the same, with the equipment shops all dealing the same weapons and combat items, and there's no difference in what events or encounters that will occur no matter how far apart they are from another when you choose to travel from one place to another. There is a message at the end of your 30 turn session which discerns the implications of your (probably illicit) trading activities on the quality of life of the people in the game world, but that's about the extent of it, and I have never managed to get anything more than "nothing changed but at least you're richer".

The RPG systems in this game are also very sparse. As I said earlier, you'll find yourself bleeding cash, so in only a few turns you'll already be buying the best equipment. At this point, the random encounters with raiders will be completely inconsequential because you'll be able to deal with a group of three in combat with no problem. It just boils down to clicking the "fire" button because all of the other options in battle, such as throwing items, sweet talking, throwing sand in their eyes, even running away from battle itself are just suboptimal compared to just shooting them. It's nice that different options are there, but they don't hold much of a candle just to mindlessly blasting them until they're dead or flee. The fact that having a weapon weighs you down and that you pretty much want to be overencumbered with trade goods in order to get the most out of the market just exacerbates the idea that you should just be gunning everyone down.

There is also an class system, with the class you pick enhancing a particular style of play, but not by much. You unlock these (as well as skins for Ruho) with tokens you get after a session, depending on how much money you make. The Junker is the best simply because you can save a lot of hassle by letting you see where items are the cheapest, thus netting you more money, which leads to encounters being a complete non-issue. The Raider can punch harder and can negotiate better with enemy raiders and the Doctor can use up a First Aid to get out of a battle for free, but why bother with any of that when you can just shoot everything to death, you know?

All I've been doing so far is harking on the game, so you're probably wondering why I recommend it. It's simple; I'm a sucker for this ♥♥♥♥. Ruho is a super cute "plumpy mama" (game's words, not mine, I SWEAR!) and the doujinsoft style of it just drew me in. The UI is very simple and easy to grasp, and you can move it in the game space however you like, an enhance the overall sim feeling of the game. The pixel art, though not prominent, is really great, which I've come to expect from this developer based on their work on Amihailu. The soundtrack is absolutely killer. The short, coffee break nature of a single session speaks to me because I barely have enough time to sit down and really enjoy a full game of pretty much anything else. Though there's a great lack of variation in encounters and event types, the writing more than makes up for it. I really do like the world that's been put on display, and its a shame that there isn't much in the way of flavour text for the goods you're selling, the locations you're visiting and dialogue/descriptions for the equipment dealers or for Ruho herself, because I'd just eat it all up.

The developer is also actively working to iron out the kinks and plans on making major updates on the game, too. To me, the game was worth the five dollars I spent on it. A lot of it just hits the right strings, at least, for me. If anything sticks out to you about this game, it might be well worth the pick-up for you. I definitely look forward to this game's future.

Catharsis.

Riff Racer is all I could've wanted out of the play-your-own-track subset of the music game genre.

Here are a couple of things that the game pulls off really well:

• You can get plenty of playtime out of it if you have a somewhat sizeable music library sitting in your hard drive. Even if I hadn't picked the game up when it wasn't on sale, I would say it is still very much worth it if you don't want to wait simply for the sheer amount of time you can just spend playing track after track. Useful for people like me who have a good thousand albums sitting around that I haven't gone through, it gives me a bit of motivation to do so, especially considering that the game incentivizes play with in-game currency that you attain from just playing your tracks, used to unlock new cars and paint jobs.
  
• The game isn't particularly mechanically dense, but this really works in the game's favor. It's all score based rather than having you drive a closed circuit racetrack. What this essentailly entails is auto-acceleration being on by default and a big focus on manipulating your boost and doing tricks all the while driving clean to attain the best score multipliers, rather than trying to go as fast as you can as per any orthodox racing game. After all, you finish your "track" as soon as the song ends. There aren't that many tricks, but there is a skill involved in it, gathering boost boxes scattered on the track, knowing when to drift, to roll your car instead of just jumping normally, for example.
  
• The logic for "track" creation is very slick. I've only had a few songs where a blockade obstacle was placed unfairly, like at the start of a loop where I couldn't see it, but for the most part, it's great and really does pick out set-piece moments in your songs. The difficulty also varies from song to song, though sometimes the hardest songs are the ones you wouldn't expect. I've had drone music play at the highest difficulty and some high-tempo noise rock play on the easiest.
  
• The game is simple in its appearance and polygonal car models, but the colorful neon-laden tracks are easy on the eyes and easy to just get lost into a trance to when I try to pull off drift after drift. It's a great visualizer, which is a good thing to have for a game like this. It's never boring to look at, especially since the colors of the tracks vary depending on what genre of music you're playing.

Here are a couple of things that the game could improve on in the future (as it is getting updates here and there).

• The leaderboard and social aspects of the game are just serviceable. You have a player profile page, but there isn't much to see on it. You can see what car you use most, what track you play the most, and that's about it in terms of useful information. Trying to see what tracks a friend has played, for instance, will only yield their most-played track. Along with this, despite using Last.fm as a basis for determining track genres, as far as I know, you don't have the ability to scrobble your tracks. This one's just a minor nitpick of mine, but still, both of these potential features are things Audiosurf had in spades over Riff Racer, and I'd really like to see it worked on.
  
• The only game mode you have here is the score-based one. There's no other way to play it, but what the game has to offer is still a lot of fun.
  
• Japanese unicode doesn't work and it just comes out as a bunch of question marks :(((

Though flawed in some respects (which are just nitpicks on my part), Riff Racer is still, all-in-all, a really solid game. If I could describe it, I'd call it chill. The sort of chill where you just invite someone over and watch shows or movies in the dark while sipping something. Riff Racer's real chill to hang with. It's definitely worth checking out if you're into this type of game.

Several things to take note of:
The game language is initially set to Japanese. This can be set to English in the options menu.
The devs went out of their way to set initial language to English in an update! How nice.

This game is certainly an anamoly. It's a 3D bullet hell versus game with, uh, crustaceans as the combatants. I'm jumping on reviewing this because I was really pleasantly surprised.

The devs have it down to a point in the description; these are creatures we eat so casually, yet underwater, they are some of the most inclined to fight with one another over mates within their own species, even for food amongst other crustacean species. I mean, look up a crab and lobster fighting. It's some interesting stuff.

And I believe that is perfectly captured in this game. Just with the addition of lasers and bullets being shot out of their eyes and energy claw attacks and what not. I can see that there was love put into this thing; the Snow Crab, for instance, can only move "forward" by turning sideways first.

I really wouldn't dismiss this as one of those one-off funny games just because of that, though, there is some depth and rhyme and reason to it, which I will do my best to describe.

A big part of the game is the fact that a majority of the crustacean fighters can sustain limb damage. Using the example of the Snow Crab once more, for instance, you can lose all of your legs and thus, experience a reduction in speed. The only way to circumvent this is to spend accumulated meter points to shed your skin and gain all your limbs back. During this maneuver, you're very vulnerable upon coming back anew. You can also self-mutilate yourself while you attack, either ranged or melee, to make your hitbox smaller or for some mad hit and run tactics.

Another feature of the game is the weakpoints of each of the fighters. Take the Hermit Crab, for instance. It cannot be damaged at all if hit in the shell they hide in. It can be broken, but you better take care of the thing before it finds another shell (think Cody's knife from Street Fighter). Thus, knowing your crustacean match-ups will lead you to AQUATIC VICTORY.

Each arthopod also possesses a differing movesets, each having unique ranged and melee attacks along with charged attacks that take meter to use. Meter is accumulated by hitting and by getting hit. Careful management of meter is central in this game, I find, as you'll be a sitting duck if you lose your limbs and don't have the meter to regenerate.

After fights you also get aquarium parts, which are not only for asthetic, but can also help you in upcoming fights. Starfish, for instance, spin around like a damn rapid spin Staryu to do some chip damage. Very nice touch, although I never really touched this feature.

The music is also gloriously manic, quite fitting for this game, honestly. You can go from some smooth jazz and traditional Japanese instrumentation as you shoot lobster lazers at barnacles to some Japanese vocal rock when you fight some of the later opponents in the "story mode". It's great.

The game is a bit lacking in giving a tutorial, but with Assassin's Creed-esque button prompts that tell you what each button does when you press it, which can be turned off at any point, it should be more than enough. The controls in of themselves can be a bit finicky at first, too, especially with the crabs in particular that can't conventionally move forwards, but it's something that I got used to, especially after taking note of things such as water current affecting your movement.

I can heartily recommend this game as both a novelty and as something functional and fun. Definitely something to laugh with your friends about. There's online multiplayer too, which I haven't delved into myself. If you're not sold and the mechanics don't interest you, however, I'd say to wait for a bigger price drop, but I'm having a lot of fun with this thing myself, and it should keep you busy for a while with several difficulties, achievements and unlockable... characters.

Takes everything that made the first game so great and pulls it all together with much more visceral gameplay. Playing this after a runthrough of the first game is always a treat.

The sole fact that you can jam to your own music with incredibly accurate mapping should be enough to warrant a purchase of this game. That, along with the fact that there are online leaderboards, will keep you coming back for more and more, especially if you have crazily obsecure music that you can always top the leaderboards for since no one else plays them. Not that I do that, or anything.