Recent reviews by Truner

I finished the tutorial and died on what I assume is the first stage because there's practically no damage response. No visual indicator, besides the HP bar in the top left corner slowly going down in silence. Either that, or the music is too loud and it masks the hit sounds.

Other than that, the combat system feels extremely floaty, the full screen text bits do not feel satisfying at all (this has to be one of the least satisfying counters I've ever had the honor of experiencing in a game). Dunno when the story's about to kick in because after about 7 minutes, I turned it off and asked for a refund.

The game looks, feels and plays like an alpha version. There are barely any settings, what is there doesn't seem to work. I change the graphical settings by incrementing the numbers, sometimes it saves when I go back to the menu, sometimes it doesn't. There appears to be no visual change either.

No control settings either. Camera sensitivity on a controller is too high, with no option to reduce it seemingly?

Overall, it's a mess of a release and I'm tempted to stop following the project completely. A release this shoddy disrespects the target audience and while I'm sure the game can and will be improved, I didn't sign up for an early access game that is sold as the full, final thing.

Just play Kamen Rider on the Super Famicom instead.

I paid a single euro for this (and gifted away two copies) and it very much seems like the developer's using this as a learning opportunity, but wow, this game is rough!

The level layout makes no sense at all, it seems like you are entering a big building, only for it to be some sort of sprawling bizarro maze with no roof and some solid non-sense of a level layout.

Combat feels dreadful, to the point where running past enemies is infinitely more reasonable than engaging with the combat mechanics. Zero weight to it all. There are two types of normal enemies, one can be pushed against objects and walls and offers zero resistance, the other hits like a truck. The combat is less about careful positioning, dodging well and blocking and more about taking two steps back after every attack to avoid taking damage.

The grappling mechanic is extremely limited. There are about 4 fixed points where using it is even allowed. It basically acts as a prompt for moving forward and adds absolutely nothing to the game. Certainly not enough to be named after it.

There's a final boss at the end and beating it requires heavy bruteforcing. Shield up, dodge right, attack, move back every now and then to heal up. Magic is essentially useless.

After all of that, the game gives some sort of metacommentary about doing the hard thing just for recognition. It's kinda fun, because it fundamentally understands how Souls players disregard all the signs From Software leaves around for optimal play. Most players bruteforce every encounter just to say "I beat it" to the point we are getting two games in a row from them that say "hey you idiots, you are supposed to play together".

That and the dance at the end are fun. The rest isn't. I'm also unsure what freak of nature of a game engine this uses, because it should not be pushing any PCs from the past 10 years nearly as hard as it does. There's also no graphical settings, or any sort of settings either. The game either runs decently enough, or you are better off refunding it.

I really can't recommend this game, no matter how hard I try. Get it for the funnies if you must, but don't expect anything remotely resembling quality.

I have some minor gripes about the game, but overall, this is a much better Souls experience than it has any right to be. I know 9 years is a long time, but the 2014 original is such a kusoge-territory game that for a game under the same title to be a better sequel to Dark Souls and Dark Souls II than Dark Souls III is absolute insanity.

The exploration is 🔥, there's a metric ton of paths to uncover everywhere. The Umbral exploration makes it almost Zelda-like in nature, there's decent enemy variety, the bosses are all either similar in nature to what DaS already offers, or novel enough with their gimmicks that they feel worthwhile. There's no showstopper duo fight tho.

There's a lot of settings and options in the game to help novice players, tho I ended up playing on the original difficulty with the original enemy layout, which ended up becoming one of the larger gripes I have with the game: the enemy placements can be real ass. Too many after each other, some dreadful combinations especially in the latter half of the game. No wonder they reduced it later on in a patch.

The combat ends up being a bit too much like FromSoft's offerings, down to the way endgame is handled. I find this to be a massive bonus, because it's exactly what I wanted: more Souls. This could also be a huge negative to some, as it really doesn't do a whole lot to deviate itself from the games it pays homage to.

One other aspect where I think the game sort of fumbles is the music. Very few of the tracks are memorable and not just "dark fantasy filler music". I'll have to give the OST a clean listen tho, it's entirely possible that I missed something. But during gameplay, none of it really stands out.

What I found really interesting is how the terrain and general art and graphical design clashes with stuff like facial models, animations and the voice acting that comes with these. The game is almost always drop-down gorgeous in a sort of Doom Eternal-ish "always a detailed painting" sort of way. But then there's a character talking and the face looks like something straight out of the X360 era.

Anyway, cool game, absolutely recommended for Souls gameplay fans, with that being its largest con as well: the reason I keep talking about Dark Souls when talking about this game is because it really, truly feels like they just took what they liked, added some of their own and deviated only when truly needed. This also means that a large chunk of the game is built upon the ideas of another studio, but it is done so absurdly well, that I'd actually recommend this as the next logical step for someone to play, over something like Lies of P (also a great game, do look it up!)

Sapo 3D is a sort of neat, charming 3D platformer and for the most part, that's all it is. It's straightforward, focuses on the "platform" part of platformers and doesn't do anything interesting with its concept for its normal stages.

Then out of nowhere, a boss fight comes with some double jump shenanigans that are harder to time than anything prior. Weird, but OK.

After that, 4 hard stages are unlocked that are the real head scratchers. Suddenly, the game starts expecting barely conveyed gameplay mechanics like jumping away from the road to avoid projectiles and some sort of weird ledge jump mechanic, requiring the player to time their jumps slightly after walking off a ledge to gain speed and distance. This is extremely inconsistent and even after beating all of the stages, I still can't figure out exactly how to do it.

Then there are the weird things:
- The menu only has icons, no text. There's an option in there that I couldn't figure out the function of
- Constantly moving objects do not reset after death. Either try again with a different layout or wait until things line up again.
- No resetting mid-stage. Fell off a platform in space? Go make a coffee, maybe you'll be able to play after its finished.

All in all, this is a hard game to recommend. Half the playtime is spent on non-intrusive, mind numbingly easy stages doing basic platforming, the other half on frustrating endurance in tedium.

For the price, it's absolutely worth checking out, but there's no denying that there are better deals on the platform.

Arabel is a sort of experimental game, running for about an hour, wearing its inspirations on its sleeve rather proudly.

There's very minimal story to it, said story is also pretty much inconsequential to everything going on. The highlight of the game is most probably its extremely atmospheric world design complemented with a wonderful soundtrack.

Tha said, the movement also deserves some recognition, jank aside, the lost knight controls fairly well. The rail grinding, floating and air dashing go a long way ensuring the game feels smooth.

The combat on the other hand is a bit messy. There's a shooting element that provides enemy downtime to go in and do some damage, but the actual combat feels a bit too floaty and weighted at the same time. Boss fights (or at least the few that are in the game) boil down to getting the enemy to go down and hoping that the player is positioned properly for the special attack to actually hit.

There doesn't seem to be a penalty for dying either, so the combat is more of a showpiece than anything.

The biggest issue the game has is its iffy controller support. There is some and it feels great to play with, but the camera sensitivity is so high that it makes the game near impossible to enjoy. I imagine external fixes could solve this issue, but I opted to just go with KBM.

So then what? The game is almost always on sale and for the price it goes for, you really cannot go wrong. Short as it is, it's very ambitious and the love and care put into the game shows brightly throughout its Drakengard 3/NieR Automata inspired jank.

Super Mario 64 featuring Siegmeyer of Catarina from the Dark Souls™ Series.

A very fun and very challenging "single stage" romp very much inspired by Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Dark Souls. The graphics are very accurate to the time, to the point where the game not only looks excellent with its low poly and CRT shader settings, hooking it up to an actual CRT presents a perfectly playable experience.

There are secrets to uncover, unlockables that make a playthrough different, the works. The trailer actually shows off perfectly what the game is about.

There is a mode that lets the player stop and return to each segment reached, so it's not impossible to beat the game. After that, the other difficulties become significantly easier (I finished both Knight and Arch Knight modes in 25 tries total).

There are a couple sections in the game that feel a bit too much. Most of them are in the beginning sections, the game eases up a lot during the second half.

If you like what you see in the trailer, just know that you get 2-4 hours of it to some very chill classic songs... that you can just replace with midi files of Sonic & Knuckles' "The Doomsday Zone" or Undertale's "Megalovania" to get that extra boost of adrenaline.

You could get it during a sale, but I'd say I wouldn't have been disappointed if I bought it at full price either.

The best way I could describe this is "PlatinumGames' Dark Souls".

Yes, it does indeed have elements from Soulslikes, but its combat is so hyperfocused on rewarding the player with bonuses for performing well, that it puts it straight into PG territory. That's not a bad thing, but players should not go into this game expecting to have their teeth kicked in. With several fighting styles being available and swapping between them being completely free, the game's a lot less limiting at the beginning than the usual Soulslike.

That aside, the game is stunningly gorgeous, respects the history it is based on, comes with fantastic Chinese voice acting, has an incredible soundtrack that's hard not to think about constantly and gives me hope that games based on Chinese mythology have a chance to be explored properly now, more than ever before.

This game is fantastic and absolutely deserves its asking price. Just don't expect Dark Souls, because this is not it.

Seems like it could be a decent slow-paced Souls-y thing, but the constant camera wobble absolutely kills and it makes it extremely annoying to play. Running shakes the camera, fighting shakes the camera, finishing a fight shakes the camera. There's no option to turn it off.

Other than that, the only thing that bothered me during the beginning is the fatroll.

Do you like The Legend of Zelda? Specifically, do you like the first game?

If so, this short, 3 dungeon romp is going sit right with you. It's full of head-scratchers and the vibes are immaculate. There's 360° movement, which makes the gameplay a lot smoother, but not necessarily better. The music is great.

Overall, this short and extremely cheap adventure captures the dungeon part of the original Zelda really well. About the only thing I can bring up as a negative is the length. I definitely would've paid more to play more. But for a 3-week project, this is still mighty impressive and a fantastic deal.

The mixed reviews are a warning, not an indicator of a hidden gem.