Recent reviews by Akasen

So I have sunk in about eight hours of time into this game and it's a pretty solid experience.

The long story short of this game is it's a mystery where you have to precisely deduce three things about everyone on the family tree, that being face, name, and occupation along with where they are on the family true. All the while using various (in-game) webtools to search for books, newspapers, and the internet using keywords to find relevant information.

As far as a story goes, it's okay. The eventual twist ending I had signaled fairly early on and was pleasantly rewarded with it being correct.

There were some frustrations here and there that ultimately just came from me (admittedly) not fully working through a process of elimination (you're given a list of names at the beginning and I never kept it handy to mark off), there are other moments where my ability to recognize faces completely screwed me over so I'd be playing a game of "Whose face is this supposed to even be?" with a fair number of photos.

But I beat the first game in less than eight hours and at the full 20 bucks I don't regret it.

I will make the comparison to "Return of the Obra Dinn" and say that if you're expecting a game on that level, Your Mileage May Vary.

There's an extra "Roottreemania" in this I have yet to sink into and will update my review on that. Suffice to say though, I think this is definitely a mystery and puzzle game worth your evening.
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Having finished Roottreemania, this game could well be finished in under 14 hours. I will admit, towards the end of the "The Roottrees are Dead" I ended up using the Rubber ducky a lot for hints as i ended up at my wits end here and there trying to pin together threads.

There is also this also a massive list of personal failings I'll admit here where I'll be reading something, completely miss or disregard a whole passage of text, and somehow never revisit it again. There is another moment where in some cases I kept coming to something of the right conclusion but just mislabeled people in my head.

There is a lot about this game that is going to sit with me for the rest of my life. There is a part of me that wishes I could erase my memory of the game and do the sleuthing again, but this time play the game at a much slower pace and also use Obsidian for my note taking instead of the in-game notes. Also take better notes.

I'm not too happy with the state of this release. This should have been a slam dunk, easy as pie release, and currently it's a mess of a game.

I'm currently suffering from the issue where if I load in to a family, I lose a family member. Still haven't pinned down a cause or anything yet. But this is just horrible. It is horrifying that EA would go through all this fanfare just to then have the game they are celebrating come out worse than it would have been if they just released it as a blob of the original EP's and SP's without any further tweaks

EDIT: There has been a patch, but I have yet to check and see if they actually did anything. I am absolutely keeping an eye on the state of the game.

EDIT 2025-02-14: We're still dealing with annoying bugs here. The only reason I've reached over 40 hours here is because this game is absolutely one of my favorites and my foolishness will push through the pain for it.

EDIT 2025-03-01: There's a lot that has been fixed with the game so far, however there's still various other issues at large that makes it difficult to recommend. A major one is just random crashes to desktop (CTD) that will happen out of nowhere, though feel more prominent if you've gone to a community lot.

I personally like this software. It definitely has helped me adjust my sensitivity, along with just comfortably assessing things like posture and way my arm is positioned.

At ten bucks, it's definitely a good deal if you're trying to up your aiming. When on sale, must get.

Can not make comparison to Aim Lab at all.

• Buy this game on sale for when it's less than 30 dollars, or even 20. It is not worth a 60 dollar price tag
  
• Raise digimon as virtual pets, taking care of needs like hunger and bathroom use, while training them to get stronger and digivolve in specific forms
  
• Digimon battles are a bit of a hands off approach, with your partners fighting on their own accord with you occaisionally being able to shout commandss
  
• Has a barren plot that's generic, forgettable, and is just weak fanservice that does little with the characters it brings
  
• Loss of atmosphere and the feeling of a larger world you're exploring that the 1999 original has

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If you're like me and have been on a weird itch to play a game like the original Digimon World from 1999, then you might find something here. It still plays like the original, but with a lot more improvements in conveying information to you and making Digivolution less of a mystery. In my time playing, I don't think I ever had a digimon pass away before hitting ultimate. However, unlike the original game, I don't think it presents its world and setting as well as the 1999 Digimon World.

This game is a monster raising game where you have to take care of and raise the stats of a virtual pet. Unlike a certain other franchise, your monster does not have just one strict path of evolution, but multiple paths which depends on how you raise and train your Digimon. Furthermore, on the day to day you also need to tend to your Digimon's hunger and bathroom needs as well.

You will also travel various areas in the game world, along with finding numerous NPC Digimon to recruit to bring back to the city of Floatia where they will take on jobs and services that can help you through the course of the game.

I must stress above all else here, however, I do think you really have to love the idea of playing a game where the core loop is mainly about raising monsters, evolving them, and making them stronger. Because if you're looking for a deep and engaging story, you may want to look elsewhere.

I have to stress this a lot because what story there is is extremely short, and acts as an awkward roadblock recruitment more than anything. So you really have to be sold on the monster raising experience as something to sink hours of gameplay into.

The main loops of the game will find you in the day to day feeding your digimon, taking it to the bathroom, and training your digimon to fight other stronger digimon.

In battles, you do not directly control the Digimon. Your digimon fight of their own accord, however you are able to issue orders which your Digimon can enact. Pressing the L1 or R1 button on your controller will bring up a radial menu for either of your digimon, which in turn gives you commands that can be activated with Order Points. From this menu, you can either directly tell your digimon to use one of its attacks now, or if you have enough Order Points accumulated you can use their special ability.

A caveat I will give is that while there is a gym you can take your Digimon to train at, this really isn't the most optimal way to train. Your best means of training your partners stats actually comes from battles (especially when they are still Rookies), and because a battle doesn't progress time at all, it is extremely optimal to find a spot, do battle, leave the screen, and come back again until your gains depreciate. There are a number of guides online about where you should go and what to fight, and at what stat ranges, and I stress this knowledge greatly.

I do wish in that way that way this game struck a far better balance in how to train, because it does feel like they were aware of combat EXP being as effective as it was and chose to purposely limit it.

The story of this game is extremely disappointing. You should not be coming into this game expecting an especially good story, and honestly you should feel insulted for the weak fanservice they attempt to do with the story.

It's a real shame, because they are clearly trying to pull on something with some things they pull from the 1999 game, but they really do amount to "blink and you miss it" cameos (especially in one instance at the end of the game).

It is disheartening to listen to a review shrug and say "It's bad, but you weren't really here for the plot, were you?", because I think it misses something.

Touching on the original game, a lot of the backstory could actually be missed even by the time you beat the games final boss. The game let you recruit all sorts of Digimon at your own pace, and none of the content was gated off by plot, just by recruitment alone. I think that worked a lot better, especially for the kind of person who is just here for progression and monster raising.

There's also a loss of atmosphere between these two games. Words I'd use to describe the original would be things like "Lonely", "Dingy", "Rebellious", "Grimy", "Mysterious", and more. The original game certainly had an atmosphere that has greatly struck a chord with me for over twenty years now, along with the feeling of exploring a large and mysterious world.

In a way then, I lament the loss of a feeling of "Exploration" the previous game did well that this game just does not do whatsoever.

I wouldn't mind them acting like this game never happened and just focusing on making another game that attempts to capture Digimon World 1 and improving upon it.

Alot of the original tracks aren't all too memorable or just feel really out of place. The song that plays in the first area you can explore, "Blue Sky Big Step", sounds like something from some sort of Sonic game for example. It's not bad, but it does feel out of place. It's not tonally dissonant with what's on screen, but I think that just brings to mind a critique of aesthetics.

There are also a number of tracks are re-arranged versions of songs and tracks from the 1999 game, and I'm not sure how to feel about them. For the most part, something about them just doesn't land too well to my ears, like some tracks have lost a bit of their soul being re-arranged the way they have. They're passable tracks, but I don't really appreciate the File City Day and Night re-arrangements among others. I do appreciate the Entertainment District remix though, somthing about that clicked

There's another neat tidbit with this game where it also uses a lot of sound effects from the 1999 game as well. Things like menu sounds and even the calls and cries of some monsters. Something tickles me about that, and they've been mixed in a way to not feel too out of place in this game. That's one bit of pandering I'll give a thumbs up on, especially with execution.

I really wish I could be more positive about this game, but unfortunately I feel like that bit with the writing is just inexcusable. I don't deny the fact a lot of hard work went into this game, and it's clear to me people who were big fans of the franchise were also working on this game. It's in those little failings that all this hurts a lot more.

I think they got much of the core gameplay right, but I'm also not the kind of person who plays games like these for hours on end trying to get all the Digimon, collect all the things and stuff like that. I'm not a huge achievement hunter, collector in these kinds of games, and so forth. I do like addicting systems though, and I do wish there was something that really clicked that gave me more of an excuse to just go through the cycles of the game, raising digimon, and wanting to keep on going back at it.

In the original game, that was the desire to explore the world. In this, what world is there to explore?

I give the game a thumbs up simply because the gameplay loop fundamentally did scratch an itch for me. Were I able to, I'd gave this a sort of "Eh" hand gesture.

I thought I had made a review of this game ages ago, but it turns out I neglected to. Despite it being a fair while since I played, I still have some strong opinions of this game.

It's not a bad game mind you, it's a solidly made title. It's overall core loop works.

But it really isn't a very engaging game overall. The shopkeep mechanic isn't very interesting. True, setting the price on the items before opening shop and gauging if people will buy the item, if you priced it too high or too low makes sense, but you're mostly then just running around the shop to either ring up customers and stop thieves when that comes to play.

The action game side of things is serviceable, but it became a rote affair after the first or second dungeon.

I was essentially playing on autopilot to whatever degree, mostly just finishing the game cause it was never at all frustrating, but the core mechanics worked well enough to entertain.

It felt hollow though overall though. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of interesting characters to meet. The game is straight as an arrow about it's action game, shopkeeper loop.

It's an okay game, just unsure if I could strongly recommend it.

I did not buy the expansion "Between Dimensions"

I'm gonna make this simple out the gate: solid all round recommendation

Are you an Ace Combat fan already and played multiple previous entries in the series? You're gonna be right at home.

New player who just likes games about fighter jets? Totally up your alley.

I replay this myself from time to time when I have the need to scratch that particular itch for Ace Combat without the need to fuss with PCSX2 or my old consoles to play 04 or Zero.

I haven't finished the game yet, I'm making my way through still, but I'm at least somewhat confident in giving my two cents on this game.

The first major thing to get across is that this game is NOT an RPG at all. If you came in expecting that Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines fix, do not proceed. If you're even expecting an RPG at all, absolutely don't proceed.

This game is ultimately an action game with an unlockable skill tree of powers you use in combat, and a lack of powers you would use in conversation.

The fundamental gameplay of talking to any NPC is a dialogue wheel of conversation topics that give a false sense of choice. Quite honestly, the game could do a number where you talked to a given NPC, exhausted all the dialogue they ever had to say for me, and then continued on and it would have the same effect.

The NPC's are just these generally well written blurbs of character and dialogue that only exist for you to learn about these people while also existing as a means for you to gain EXP faster to get your upgrades. But they aren't themselves obstacles.

You don't have a situation where you might lie to a character about information you learned about another so you can get two NPC's to kill each other. Or vampire mind powers to make two NPC's hate each other.

This an action game with an extremely linear plot on the side. Or it's an extremely linear plot drive game with a frustrating action game tacked on depending on how you look at it.

At time of writing, I'm trying to get through the game without biting into anyone's necks at all because I don't really see a reason to outside of the EXP. Since in this game feeding on any of the NPC's you can talk to kills them, and I don't really see a reason to just randomly kill someone for EXP outside of the random vampire hunters who I am slaughtering for crumbs whenever I can.

But here's the real kicker, and I'm mostly making a guess here, but it also really doesn't matter. There are four endings to this game, whether you never nommed on necks, if you nommed on necks sparingly, if you nommed too much, and if you just ate the whole neighborhood. It's not really based on choices you make in the game like if you ally with someone or another, or anything really meaningful. It all comes down to if you decided to bit necks or not with your patients.

This game MIGHT be okay if you just want some experience, or maybe something of a story. But if you're looking for your fix of being a vampire, the personal-horror story of coming to grips with being a vampire while navigating a familiar but darker world, this isn't the game for you.

In short: All around relaxing game with interesting characters to explore. A game about loss, grieving, and reminiscing upon life.

The main draw of this game, so I feel, is in its atmosphere and characters more than anything, along with the slow unveiling of the general world around you.

It's a fairly simple game as it stands, it doesn't reach the depth of say "Stardew Valley" in terms of the upgrading and building of your ship, in fact if there was a way to basically bypass such stuff I would dare say you wouldn't be missing out on much since more of the draw and focus is on progressing character plotlines.

I think anyone just more so looking for an overall relaxing game to play that has no real purposeful or accidental notion of min-maxing stats or income, but is also looking for a game with a lot of heart and character will probably enjoy this game.

So fun disclaimer, I've bought this game twice. That isn't to say "I bought this game on a separate platform and then here", but to say "I refunded this game less than a year ago and then bought it during a summer sale because it was 7 bucks and I had money to blow".

The reason I refunded the game initially was because it felt like this weird, quickly (but competently) slapped together Unity game using cheap assets. I was reminded quickly in of how the game felt and controlled like that of another game on steam called House Flipper.

Maybe they're built from the same foundation though.

So as of this review, I have 16.5 hours in and am giving it a thumbs down, but that's mostly because Steam only gives a binary. I don't think I could recommend this game at the 20 bucks it's listed at. The devs could update this game with new gadgets, now places to explore, and I feel like fundamentally it is far easier to justify this game closer to 5 bucks than 20.

It's really because a large degree of challenge isn't there. there's really nothing too interesting going on with this game in its core loop. You break into a home, avoid tenants if possible, steal valuables, and leave with the goods. The game doesn't change up what homes have, doesn't suddenly put higher priced items in the house, or anything. It's fairly static, and once you figure out everything about a house, you essentially can speedrun a heist with a home.

Further more, there isn't anything you can do to NPC's. You eventually start breaking into places with armed guards with tasers who can bring you down in one shot, but you can't do anything to distract them.

And what I'd often find happening at some point is that the game doesn't super penalize you much for being caught in some cases. If you really know what you're doing, you absolutely can book it, run out of bounds, and still have everything you stole, even things you put in the back of the car or van.

So this game feels cheap, looks cheap, and may as well be bought cheap. However there's a level of competency and thought in the game I didn't give it credit for at first and the fundamental loop does keep me coming back to it, at least for the last week. It would be nice if everything about this game was given far more polish, more thought into it, given more time.

I see the same devs of this game, Noble Muffins, are working on another game though with a far more inspired name, "American Theft 80s", so I can only hope that maybe things will be better. But I'm noticing a pattern in the games the publisher Playway SA puts out, so I get a feeling they aren't interested in asking for above and beyond work there. Just something that could passably sell and entertain so long as it makes money.

And that's really all there is to say about this game, it's a passable game, it has some value of entertainment to it, but don't be coming in here thinking you're gonna scratch a VERY particular itch for breaking into places, planning out a heist, and making off with the goods. It'll attempt to scratch it, do an okay job, but you'll come out wanting a better job done.

Yeah, I pretty much like it. I'm not gonna write a long review of this game because there's FAR too much to cover.

If you've yet to see the MandaloreGaming video on the matter, just check that out. Especially if your a Total War nut.

Tabletop war gamer? You'll probably love these games.