Recent reviews by Peyote

Really good. Not 100% with some of the new voice acting, but aside from that and some UI issues (not as stylized as I'd like) it's fantastic. Genuinely amazing ground-up remake, and they really listened during the beta and stress test period.

Really fun game. I think they did a better job with the new tower system compared to KRV. I think they also did a pretty good job on variety in tower type aesthetically and playstyle-wise, since the towers can be in the same 'grouping' (melee, archer, mage, artillery) but approach the standard role very differently and be better in different scenarios or stages.

I like the cartoony aesthetic and I feel like they've really nailed the style on this one. They had a couple games to play around with the designs of the 'newer' look (KRV, LoKR) and they've done a great job here. The sound and level design are fun as always, and make the rounds very satisfying.

I still kind of miss the older tower system (KR1, KRF, KRO) compared to the newer one (KRV, KRA), with a set 'loadout' of 5 towers, but I think the work they've done with it's pretty great. There's a lot of fun to be had mixing and matching towers to find either the best solution for the map at hand, the one you feel the most comfortable with, or the one you find the most enjoyable.

I'm surprised by how well the two hero units control- you can hit spacebar to cycle between them, and the 4 and 5 keys can be used to pick one specifically. You can drag to move them if you prefer, which also applies to reinforcements and barracks soldiers. Being able to move reinforcements is fantastic for being able to catch out a straggler about to pass the defense point, then repositioning them to actually help fight.

Probably the best QOL change is how when clicking on an enemy troop to look at their statistics, you can click on their portrait to view their encyclopedia page. Great to get little reminders on what a unit does!

Overall it's been a really great game so far, I like what they've done a whole lot and I'm looking forward to the content updates. You'll see people comment that the game's campaign is 'too short', but I don't really see it- it's about the same length (16) as the other entries (KRF/KRO: 15, KRV: 17), which are all longer than KR1 (12). Of course it doesn't have as much content as other games in the series that have been out for years and years, but that's how they all are when they're released.

Game's probably the best game of the year, I don't see anything else coming close. MTX are annoying but really easily ignorable- Capcom does what Capcom does.

Combat's amazing, and while the classes have less skills total than the prior game- four equippable vs six, unless you were Warrior. Props to them for giving Warrior four skills! The core skills feel stronger and more in-depth, and four generally feels like plenty of skills- especially since each class focuses on one weapon instead of two or more. Some might see the classes being cut down to one weapon each as 'being stripped back', but each class focusing on a singular weapon (Aside from Warfarer, of course) means that each one feels more thought-out and interesting. Thief and Archer do amazing as their own classes, compared to Strider/Ranger from before.

Equipment's fun, and looks great. So many sets can be equipped by a variety of classes so there's always something that looks great, and every class gets sets or pieces unique to them for signature flair! Four varieties of equipment enhancement is amazing, too- it allows you to specialize in what you want to do better.

The world is phenomenal- expansive and very dense, every trip allows you to find a new spot. Fast travel exists in a couple of limited forms that make you explore the world more than you might in other games, while still allowing you to skip out on the back and forth when you'd rather not. There's a whole bunch of great quests that you can stumble across, and great locations to look through to find fun challenges or nice loot.

The game looks great too. It definitely has some performance issues, but even running on a very outdated graphics card I still have a pretty darn solid-looking game, and performance dips aren't particularly common. I know it's an issue for some, but there's no other way to say it than "It runs on my machine".

All in all, phenomenal experience. Story's pretty neat, graphics are great, combat and exploration are phenomenal, and the world feels much more lively and interesting than DD1's. Looking forward to something akin to Bitterblack Isle for the game in an expansion!

Edit: Looks like we probably won't be getting a BBI- It's still a super amazing game as-is.

If you could skip act one and do some sort of storybook opening that gives you all the options it wouldn't be as torturous to play more than once.
Game's fun, but it's got a lot of bad level/encounter design that exists soley because this game was intended to be RtwP, for some reason. Also has bugs that exist because of that. Turn-Based is available but is obviously an afterthought and has annoying bugs like "your character's actions are eaten because you're in turn-based mode and it processed them wrong. Couple it with approximately two, maybe three of the companions not being incredibly annoying, and it being tied to Pathfinder First Edition, and you've kind of got a recipe for a game that's worth playing for a while but quickly grows too tedious to enjoy. Also annoyingly enough two of the interesting companions (Arueshalae, Regill) aren't in act one.

Really nice if you get cold feet about builds or just want to try something new. It includes Mythic levels, a respec and merc creator, and a shop that more or less sells anything you need. Probably a good idea to start with a companion, but they give you the money for a companion and gear for yourself.
Companion creator is a nice way to test compositions too- the mercs are 25pb so they're not limited like in the main game.
Not very far into it but I've been enjoying the very combat and exploration-focused, rogue-lite sort of gameplay it offers. If you get tired of the playthrough or feel satisfied with the character, you can restart by talking to the Helmsman.

Pretty fun, worth the price. XCOM2 and WOTC are both on sale cheap, so I'd recommend picking them both up. Ignore Alien Hunters, the Tactical Legacy Pack is kinda okay, Anarchy's Children is awful. Shen's Last Gift is pretty worth it.

Really genuinely good. Each faction's got a bunch of ways to play it, and no units feel so bad you can't make use of them. It's fun to abuse, and it feels like the game wants to you exploit it. Music, aesthetic, artstyle, and graphics are all fantastic- the spritework has a lot of love put into it.
Worth it even if it's EA, I'm excited to see what it ends up being like.

Mostly bought it because I like supporting Ironhide. I'm not a huge fan of RTS games, and compared to ones I've played units feel rather sluggish and slow to respond. It's got the polish you'd expect from an Ironhide game as well as the charming graphics and voicing, so pick it up if you either like RTSs or you wanna go out on a limb and try one.

There's some good concepts with the Chinese but they're really low quality. God portraits have a different feel/artstyle, the color choice and models for the chinese give them a kinda muddy, ehhh look to their buildings regardless of age, and they re-used a lot of assets. The units look pretty bad too, if I'm going to be honest.
The campaign isn't worth loading up- it's not just not up to the level of the other campaigns, it's just bad in general. It's got buggy cutscenes, uninspired levels, bad voice acting, and really feels all over the place. Even on sale, this is just money you can spend to make the game markedly worse.

Really imbalanced, it feels like it kind of lacks any real amount of direction or feedback. Nothing pops, so I always feel confused when I'm winning or losing. Picking a bad culture early on just feels pretty bad.
Don't really bother buying this- it lacks a lot of personality and character in my opinion, and while some of the mechanics are neat the bad balancing and lack of feedback just makes it a slog. On top of that, the culture changes really feel wonky and break immersion. I know that, for instance, the (Eastern) Romans became the Byzantines. That's not the same as "The Harappans are now the Mayans".

Oh also I absolutely detest the narrator. None of the comments are funny or interesting, and everything he says feels like the most aggravating kind of 'witty' there is.