Recent reviews by EldoradoNights

Fun game, I'd say about a 8/10. Visually interesting and neat puzzles, though something I wish it had was a sprint button! At least as a post game unlock. Either way, though, the game is only about 90 minutes and maybe up to two hours if you use a guide for the final chunk of collectables. The slow move speed didn't really entice me to replay to find the ones I missed.
Worth a first playthrough, though I'd recommend a sale seeing as the game length isn't particularly meaty nor the gameplay replayable.

As a Skyrim mod, this is a 10/10.

As a timeloop game, 7.5/10, very very good game. Only two real nitpicks, which is for a timeloop game, it felt like there weren't enough knowledge gates to really feel like I'm making continuous progress. The time is really generous per loop, so really you can get quite a lot done per loop. Additionally, something something one element of the ending was not my cup of tea, not bad but a trope I don't find super interesting. The actual end of the ending is phenomenal though, for what it's worth.

I would list the positives here, but a lot of them are nice QoLs to timeloop games that I really appreciated so I'll let you find those. But basically, it has things you wish every loop game had, and you'll miss in the next one you play.
Additionally, the story and characters are intriguing, and I do love the worldbuilding a lot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised walking into this blind, but I do think you'll wish it had a bit more to figure out and took more effort to do so, but nonetheless enjoy the story it lays out for you. Highly recommend to any fans of loop games, and also recommend to anyone who likes Classical History.

I played a lot of Overwatch years ago. I gave Overwatch 2 a try.

It wasn't worth it in any way except for closure. I'd been watching as Blizzard broke promise after promise about the game's PVE. That's all I saw. But I loved Overwatch 1 so much, I took the chance to play during the Anniversary event and Halloween event.

And I was crushed. 5v5 was incredibly steamrolly, and the speed of objective captures and cart movement and time to kill was all too fast. No time to enjoy the drama of a back and forth, just a quick and dirty carwash of a game that didn't feel like a battle of like-skilled players.

Y'know, nothing like the charm of Overwatch 1.

I played the Anniversary game modes, and none of them felt good. Even the old modes had lost their charm. Then the Halloween modes. And to be fair, I liked Trials of Sanctuary. I liked the skill upgrades and customizable of team comps in that one. Y'know. Like the promised features of the PVE mode.

Lastly, Junkenstein felt much much harder with the champion adjustments. It didn't feel like the game kept up with itself. Even the Bride of Junkenstein felt far too punishing, and that's pretty new. With only four playable characters, the replay value felt nil. The aesthetics and bosses SEEMED fun, but the time to kill for you and the bosses felt too quick. Either you or them evaporated, often you, and if you sucked at all four heroes the game mode was just inaccessible as even the lowest difficulty was punishing. Where's the cathartic fun of Retribution?

Summary, 2/10, the gameplay is butchered on a casual level and doesn't let you appreciate the intricacies of a team game, and the bonus modes are either boring or unbalanced. I don't want bite sized 8 minute steamrolls. I want meaty, rich, longer experiences that have drama and stakes. Also the lack of a second tank means your formation is either unbreakable or perma-FUBAR. Finally, the class passives are lame and should just not be there.

Don't play this if you played Overwatch 1. You'll just be heartbroken and disappointed that one of the iconic games of the 2010s was gutted and replaced with a cash grabbing flash clone. Heard the cutscenes are good in the PVE, though, so at least Youtube compilations will be nice.

First things first: If you liked Danganronpa, this is reverse Danganronpa, and a good way Reverse Danganronpa. If you love or hate that game, this game's for you.

To get into the nitty gritty, Paradise Killer has stellar, interesting characters with wonderful citypop dystopic designs, and the UI is as flashy and weird as that description sounds. The worldbuilding might be a bit intimidating at first, but once you're past the opening it does a great job of enveloping you in the great details in the lore.

For gameplay, it might feel a bit clunky at first. The jumps have this committal lack of air mobility like old Mario or Mega Man, but once you get more movement options it feels very good to nail movement. Also I think wavedashing might be pretty fast if not visually massacring you. Gathering evidence and testimonies is the gameplay, and the focus there is strong. You piece together what happened and how things tie together on your own, with the result being more of a focus on finding puzzle pieces rather than being handed everything and being told to assemble.

Exploration is very much rewarded, with some nice fun dialogue and worldbuilding waiting for you if you search. The ending, too, is also rewarded by how much exploration you did. Check your notes tab!

My one criticism, besides early game vocabulary chunks and clunky initial movement, is that there are some terminals that are locked across the game. If you find them when you don't have the right key item to unlock them, there's no way to mark the map to come back later, which I feel is a missed opportunity. In the end game, I spent some time wondering how to crack some of my notes only to have to look it up. Turns out I forgot to go back to a terminal in a subzone that I didn't have the code for when I initially found it! So, if that never gets added, I'd just say make a list of all terminals you find that you don't have the code for, and come back once you get it.

Overall, 9/10 game. Quirky, stylish, character driven, and visually unique backed up by excellent gameplay that takes 10-15 minutes to really get to the game's overall level of excellence.

Great game, I love the fluidity of the movement in all three of the gameplay modes, though this is definitely for fans of both spectacle action games and bullet hell lovers. I found the responsiveness and precision in the twin stick sections to be top of the line, and the spectacle action was punchy and every hit had impact. Can get a little bit of finger fatigue on controller with the POD fire in longer fights though.

As far as the narrative, I would say to come at this from the angle of art and philosophy rather than your standard story, as the layers of backstory and new information that comes across as you progress will be more satisfying that way. I would say this isn't necessarily a story about characters and arcs, and more about ideals and finding meaning. Not a dealbreaker if you don't see it through that lens, but you may get a little weary as the game goes on if you're expecting standard writing.

Finally, thank the developers for the achievement shop. Some of the achievements are the result of grinding for drops/levels/etc, and the non story achievements are available for purchase with ingame currency in the postgame. I don't have the patience for grinding to max level on character or weapon sides, so this was really nice to skip past all of that and just call the game done. I would recommend going for an all endings run, buying the achievement if you don't want to go to max level. Some of the endings are quite funny, but remember to save or have chapter select available before doing them.

Tldr; 8/10 game, I love the gameplay, world, and story, I just personally wanted some more deeply explored character arc resolutions at the end and an easier grind to max level for the last bit of content I didn't experience due to the 35 level gap between my final level and the level of the last teensy bit of content.

Nice, gorgeous puzzle game with solid themes and music throughout. Some of the visual transitions are simply stunning, and quite a few of the puzzles make you feel smart.Some of them are a bit too precise for my liking for a perspective puzzle game, though, as some times I immediately got the solution, only for the perspective snapping to not kick in and make me think that wasn't the correct answer. Thankfully, the hint system is nice and even shows video of the solution if you get to those moments, but I would prefer the snapping to be a bit more generous in some of the puzzles (Lighthouse : [ ).In general, a high recommend if you can get it between 7 to 12 bucks, as completing all the achievements took me about three hours, and if you like games like this I would recommend Gorogoa as well, which also is about connecting perspectives, albeit in a much less finicky fashion since it is a 2D game.

Overall: 4/10, mostly from the milquetoast story and the frequent yanking of the controls for lame slow pan cutscenes.

First of all, wonderful concept. Shame that the story is so bland. Like chicken seasoned with water. The perspective of the storytelling feels like the standard fare of sad guy who has a bunch of red flag behavior and eventually has his relationship deteriorate for... people growing apart? Frankly, a lot of what Michael says early on in the relationship is like a big cry for help to go to therapy, and since the perspective is solely his we only see his flaws. Which makes me wonder what the hell their chemistry is supposed to be. Seriously, he downplays her constantly and basically isolates her with his anxiety.

Okay but enough about the story and how it feels like a 1st year college student journal, let's talk about the game. The game has...some great puzzles. Key word, some. What holds back a majority of the puzzles is the god awful move speed, which is only slightly noticeable in normal sized sections but horrendously slow when you are smaller than the environment. There are some hidden, inconsistent speed boost pads beneath the floor in some places, but frankly its not enough to make a failed puzzle solution feel any less punishing to trudge back through. Additionally, the environmental indicators are dodgy, leading to some stumped moments because the cues are not there to get you to pay attention to the right spot. Finally, there are sooo many opportunities to soft lock yourself, despite the game trying its best to not let you drop something in a location you can't retrieve it. Lookin' at you, gear and red orb section.

Frankly, the thing I can absolutely recommend about this game are the visuals. Absolutely stunning imagery throughout, only marred by frequent interrupting cutscenes that yank your ability to appreciate the moving parts and changing environments, often heavy handedly pointing you to an important thing rather than letting environmental cues guide you there.

In summary, I would recommend this game on hefty discount, as the sparse, phenomenal puzzles and fantastic visual design are undercut by the lukewarm main character, what the textbooks tell you to avoid story, dodgy guidance, sluggish controls, and mechanics that never really bloom into something interesting. What I can say to really wrap the game up in a neat bow is that everything in the game is simply a set piece, with no depth or stability keeping it interesting or smooth.

And don't get me started on the bugs, glitches, and performance issues. I walked on a pile of wood and it flipped a switch halfway across the map for me.

Wonderful game. I love card games and the way they continued to iterate and evolve a fairly simple game throughout this experience was inspiring. Made me wish there was a bit more time in each section, I really liked my deck in the middle portion.
I also hope for more, as the story was really intriguing throughout the main game.


Also really funny when the AI rages from you having too fast of a start.

Excellent puzzle game that really highlights the wonders of linguistics.
Positives:
-If you like piecing together Ancient in the first half hour, it will likely carry your interest for the rest of the game. Several of the other puzzles are good but not exemplary; however learning how Ancient works and how it's structured is truly a great system that carries the whole game on its back.
-Strong worldbuilding and characters interactions
-Great Soundtrack and Scenery, with a lot of the Nebula looking mystical yet undeniably spacey
-I never picked those optoins, but I appreciated that you can just have Aliya be a real jerk.
-All the major moons have a distinct design and look that really stuck with me throughout the game. I feel a few could've used a different shade of desert sand, but otherwise the locations were all distinct and gorgeous.
-God I wish the Al Bhed Primers in FFX were like this game's main system....

Cons:
-Dear god add a sprint button.
-Have Six ask about hoppering back as a sign that you got everything, or as a button prompt that you can pull up at will, NOT at the junction of every sub area. I had to religiously tell that robot no thank you for the 15 hours of my playthrough because I was never sure if I was actually done. This also plays into why the lack of faster movement in some of the sections was a pain, as going to a far off corner was usually a 50/50 whether or not you got another inscription.
-The level of control on the Nightingale felt a little wonky, as it auto steers around obstacles yet you can miss your path pretty easily if you're trying to speed along. Felt like an interactive loading screen with pretty visuals, but you have to stare at Google Maps every few seconds. Honestly, I would prefer to just look at the Nebula while Six steers, rather than just skipping it. I wanted to just look around without having to worry about navigation.
-I wish I could truly free roam across the Nebula, not sure if something was wrong but I could never return to Renaki after leaving the first time. Even still, I understand why. The game has a non linear story approach that
-Sometimes falls apart due to the many many threads it can take. Sometimes Aliya would know things she hadn't learned yet, or ask the same question 3 times about information she learned several ruins ago.
-Maybe a little indication whether or not you're at a point of no return in the story? I missed one major moon that I didn't realize I locked myself out of until I was too late. Specifically at the last part, maybe a bit of a prompt before you solve the puzzle that says "You're now about to be in the endgame"? Kinda sucked that I had no real choice but to go NG+, and without a promise of better movement I didn't want to bother with it.

Overall, a very fun game. While the timeloop genre lends itself to puzzle games via knowledge checkpoints, I found that this was a very nice entry into the genre if you're more used to action games.
This game blends the knowledge checkpoints of most loop games with actual, real checkpoints via audio locks that your character only knows by finding in game first. So, unlike a lot of loop games, you can't just run to the end from a blank save file, as there's also a lot of guided story in the beginning and towards the end. That said, it was a fun experience, despite playing more airtight loop games already.
The combat is goofily fun a lot of the time, if you approach things that way. Kicking people off cliffs, linking people together for a sneaky combo kill, and doing the more creative Visionary kills are all a blast. What I can say is that the difficulty curve of the enemies seems to spike up very quickly as you get to the later part of the game. No, not health, not their damage. But their vision cones. Just a nitpick, but I don't like how some enemies just see through your invisibility while approaching you're approaching from behind, denying you a sneak kill.
As for the story, I think it told too much for it to tell so little. Maybe there's more in some hidden areas I didn't access. As for completing the main game and some of the side stuff, I definitely felt like there was something bigger going on, but I couldn't be bothered to explore at my heart's content as the enemies ramped up in difficulty. Something nice would be an option to lower the difficulty of the enemies after beating the game to make the fumbling around for documents and codes a little more enjoyable rather than the slog that a single alert can provide.

Overall, I recommend the game as a fun, interesting take on the loop game. Definitely a more guided experience than an open one, but that's to be expected of an assassination focused loop. I feel I got my money's worth for sure, though I will say if you like Dark Souls invasions, you'll probably get more bang for your buck than me, as I didn't even touch the Julianna mode.