Recent reviews by Velvetta

so to those worried that this would end up similar to the FF7 remake
where the story gets changed simply for the sake of change

fret not, this is the same game as was on the PSP but cleaned up to a modern standard, unhindered by the limited power of the playstation portable

overall graphics are tuned up much nicer overall
(i will say the reflections on clean metal surfaces goes alittle overboard)

the voice acting is as many people have said and heard, not the same
i will say it is very much noticable, however i felt apart from the occasional odd delivery from zack everyone overall did a great job

gameplay wise, good god are there some quality of life upgrades where it counts
the DTW gauge is an archaic system almost by design but small changes such as
- not activating limit breaks the absolute second they trigger on the DTW and instead allowing you to prompt the activation when you need it
- if you finish a battle before the reels have landed on a result, the game will automatically give you the benefits of whatever the reel *would* have landed on next (eg. if you win before the reel *would* have landed 777, you will simply just level up anyways as the fight ends

these 2 changes alone fix a TON of issues from the original game that started off as nagging annoyances, but would grow into frustrating tedium as you went on towards the end of the game

overall an excellent modernisation of an interestingly experimental at the time final fantasy game
now one can only hope that we can get a remaster of Dissidia Final fantasy 012 so that we can get modern ports of all 3 of the SE games that made the PSP the unsung hero of the portable generation

congrats on 1.0 release

you deserve all the praise you get
including this praise
10/10 roguelike power-fantasy experience
especially for its price point

great if you are used to versing eldlich, zoo/lira-brigade or full power fairy drytrons over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

wait for payday 3
the developers are neat and the games technically good
but this heavily modded racing game barely functioned when it launched and its preformance and stability have only gotten worse

If a murder boner induced by playing this game lasts longer than wanted or becomes uncomfortable/painful
seek medical attention... or dont cause that would mean you stop playing the game.

So il be honest i came into this game not expecting much, i was originally slightly turned away by its artstyle, but mostly the gameplay elements seeming so similar to slay the spire to such an extent that i originally thought it was just another one of those "game ♥♥♥♥ out onto steam to piggyback off the success of another game.

but hell after only my second run through the game i realised "oh crap this game is actually amazing." but i will be now making a boatload of comparisons to slay the spire due to their extremely similar feel

it is still very true that this games card battle mechanics are almost identical to slay the spire,
where you have relics that buff particular mechanics,
you have a set resource (starts at 3) that can be manipulated by relics or card effects,
when you draw from an empty deck you reshuffle your discard pile into your deck,
when you pass your turn you empty your hand
some cards exhaust etc. etc
however this game does enough unique things with relic and card effects to not feel like youre just playing a heavily modded game of STS

a feature unique to griftlands is decision making and character relationships, rather than having a map with a webway of paths upwards to a boss, griftlands has you roaming a map taking on and completing missions and random events, most if not all events generally have some kind of impact on your relationships with NPC's in the game, and based on decisions made can make the game easier or more difficult for you.

an example is you can take a bounty where you have to shakedown a character for overdue payments, convincing him may not make him dislike you, but attacking him will definately make him dislike you, and it would certainly be a shame if you later discovered that THAT particular NPC is the bodyguard of another NPC in a later bounty, and he makes everything alot harder cause he hates your guts.

the game also features a system in combat where most enemies have a "panic" or "surrender" state
sometimes the answer to the problem isnt just killing your way to the end and it creates tense moments of whether you should leave people alive if they might be an issue in the future.

now i should talk about "negotiation"
yeah the major difference between STS and griftlands is that in griftlands you actually have 2 different decks
one for combat
and one for negotiation
negotiation is basically griftlands version of "roll for persuasion" and plays slightly differently than combat does
i found these negotiation battles just as fun and actually even more tense than the actual combat with multiple clutch moments and found myself trying my hardest to take full advantage of negotiation whenever i could

all in all if you really like deckbuilding games, or really enjoy slay the spire, (you probably allready own griftlands and writing this many words was bloody pointless) i recommend this game alot.

final note: il miss you buttercup you were a good pup and i couldnt get the random event to appear to find you again im sorry q-q

the game is making slow but eventual strides to improving

this game still has a very poor new player experience but if youre willing to push past it and do frequent wiki checks and research you can have alot of content to chew through

this game... is sublime... is gooooooooooooooooooooood.

(This is about as big of a review i can right and i honestly have more to say that steam reviews wont allow me to fit if you would like me to try and make a video that is pretty much a audible version of what you see here and where i can give some more detail, comment on the review and if enough people say so i might)

I've been playing this game since before it was officially released
years later i still play it and im yet to be bored of it


we'll start with some of its its negative points first:

-the game can be somewhat hostile to new players, as the passive tree can be quite overwhelming with all the statistics and numbers that dont make much sense at the very beginning

-there is no direct ingame auction system, and trades are done either by a overflowing "trade chat" or by a 3rd party item indexer


now lets look at some of the positive ends:

-despite being a free to play game, with a micro-transaction store, the closest thing that you can come to calling pay to win would be the "additional stash tabs"
but in reality if youve played long enough to fill the 4 tabs that you get for free to the brim, you must like the game enough to spend the like 10 bucks it costs to get some more

but other than that the rest of the things puchasable in the store are purely cosmetic and provide zero actual benefit to your character, despite the player made myths that some pets increase your luck
but people like purely cosmetic stuff to make their characters look pretty (i mean just look at CS:GO players)


-orbs in the game are items that can change modifiers on gear or add new ones introducing a crafting system that is very diverse, but orbs also play the role of being the currency that both players and NPC's trade in.

-this games community is massive, and each of them friendly and usually willing to help.

-trading in the game despite not having an inbuilt auction house has been made very easy by the community made item indexer (poe.trade)

-theres a vast selection of different attacks and spells in the game with all kinds of different interactions and ways to be built, along with many different options for staying alive

-gear and currency is diverse and plentiful enough to leave you satisfied when farming for that perfect set of gloves but rare enough that youre super happy when they finally drop or you have enough currency to buy those perfect gloves

-the lore is alot bigger than it looks,
because the game doesnt really pull you into the lore of the land like other games might, you have to look for it, but there is plenty to look at.

plus this game even had a comic book made about its lore, how cool is that!


-plenty of challenge and plenty of replayability
what you will find is that generally after following a few build guides that youve gotten off of youtubers, you will try making a build yourself... thats when you get hooked



in the end, this game can appeal to a lot of people
i can also understand that it can not appeal to some people
i will say its worth giving a pretty good try
who knows maybe you will love it and end up with as many hours as i do :P