Recent reviews by Realmwalker

They added a bunch of new boss fights that are all truly miserable experiences. You're better off just playing an older version of the game, especially since those won't cost $80 CAD.

I'd refund this in a heartbeat if I could, but too many hours played. Don't make my mistake.

The game can be a little buggy, and I'm not just talking about the giant spiders. That said, you can solve a lot of your problems by just pushing them off of cliffs, so who can say if it's good or bad?

I wish I could say Yes and No for recommending this game.

The core gameplay mechanics are fun. I enjoy tactical RPGs, and those elements in this game are fleshed-out and engaging.

That said, I've been playing the campaign and I haven't been enjoying it. The writing and characters are engaging, and I want to see where this story goes. But the campaign-specific mechanics can be really tedious. Even early on, and on lowered difficulty settings, the missions you undertake are less of a test of your skills as a player and more just a circus of random and expensive penalties.

I would object to this less if these penalties were consistently a result of player error. Some of them are, but many (most, even) of them are just sheer bad luck. It's frustrating to have an otherwise good mission end in weeks of downtime because enemy 'mechs just get one or two lucky shots in and take your 'mechs or pilots (or both!) out of commission. This is compounded by the way missions routinely have you outnumbered 1.5:1 or 2:1. Just by sheer volume of fire, the enemy AI is given ample chance to get those lucky shots and impose those penalties.

This extends to 'mech loadouts as well. While undeniably realistic, the significant delays of refitting a mech's weapons and equipment, especially in the early game when you only have the capacity to refit one mech at a time, means that any experimentation with different loadouts is locked behind costly time and CBill delays.

None of this is to say the game is strictly bad. All of the above choices are deliberate, none of it is the result of what feels like unfinished, broken or buggy game design. There are folks who are going to play this game and engage with these mechanics and have a lot of fun with them, and I wish them nothing but a good time. But for my own sake, I find the systems of the campaign mode to be incredibly tedious, and the more I play the more frustrated I become with them.

Game's too big.

It's a fun 2D Castlevania-style game. Not the longest or the most challenging of those types of games, but it plays well. The controls are tight and it's got a few fun gameplay hooks that help it stand out from others in the genre, giving this game its own identity.

The storyline is alright, provided you're already a big Record of Lodoss War fan. If you're not already familiar with the setting, story and characters, that part might fall a bit flat for you.

The spritework and animations are absolutely gorgeous. The music, while nothing immediately grabbed my attention, was appropriately atmospheric and never felt repetitive.

It's tough to describe exactly what I enjoy about this game. It's not perfect - there's occasional performance issues, there's no way to communicate in-game with your squad mates, mechanical and/or graphical errors at times, and I get paired up with a lot of AI bots when queuing for the matchmaker.

That said, I love the series and the setting, both of which the game presents very well. The gameplay, while not a stellar example of third-person shooting, is functional and responsive and consistent. There's a variety of different weapon options, both in terms of category and options within those categories, and most of them feel good to point and click at space bugs. The different "classes" each compliment a preferred play-style and have their own appeals and limitations, so there's an argument to make for all of them as part of a squad rather than just having one or two that are mandatory for every mission.

Speaking of the missions, I don't want to give away all of the twists in the campaign mode but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety in terms of locales the stages take place in and the variety of enemy types. While not radically different in each chapter, the visual variety of the environments and the different gameplay challenges of the enemies encounters was something a game like this could have easily skimped on, but Cold Iron Studios put in the extra work and it's a better game for it.

Speaking of going the extra mile and making a better game as a result, lets talk micro-transactions. There aren't any. There is a BUNCH of appearance customization options and mechanical upgrade perks that can be unlocked, but all of them are either found in the Hidden Caches in the stages or purchased from the "store" in the hub. A lot of other games would gate these unlocks behind micro-transactions, Aliens: Fireteam Elite doesn't and is much better for it.

tl;dr it's an above-average but not phenomenal third-person shooter. It might be a harder sell if you're not big into the Aliens series, but it does a lot of things right.

It's a pretty faithful remaster of FFIV. Looks great, sounds great, plays... well not exactly like you remember. Tough to pin down exactly which version of the game this is based on, but seems like combination of different tweaks and changes from the multitude of versions over the years.

A LOT easier than I remember. Of note: Arrows are no longer consumables, making bows far more useful weapons. You just need to equip one arrow to the other hand.

Anyways it's pretty good.

The game is the foundation to so much of what came after it in later Final Fantasys. It's a shame this one isn't very good.

Like Final Fantasy II, this game's pretty experimental in its systems and, thankfully, it generally executes on its mechanics better than FFII. However, this game has a very weak plot, annoyingly high random encounter rate and a Point of No Return towards the end of the game that is, at best, tedious.

It's great to have the game available in its more-or-less original format, but this one's probably only of interest for hardcore fans of the series for its historic significance.

Anyone not looking to experience this one in its original form would be better served by checking out the 3D Remake also available on Steam. It fleshes out the characters significantly, if nothing else.

Well, the game really feels its age in parts. The first half in particular can be more fussy than fun. Really steps up in the back half though - encounters feel less tedious and more rewarding.

Cutting all the bonus content from the WSC/PSX/GBA/etc. releases is a weird choice though.

That said, it's still a fun bit of nostalgia, and it's interesting seeing where so much of the games get their inspiration.

Excellent music, atmosphere and aesthetic. Really easy to just sort of get into and chill.

Ran into some issues with checkpoints. It seems that, because the courses are randomly generated, sometimes the checkpoints just straight-up won't load on a track. A bit of a bummer.

Otherwise pretty good. Could use a settings menu in-game.