Recent reviews by FleetingMoments

Aragami: Nightfall is an expansion for Aragami with an entire prequel story following the events leading up to Aragami's main story. It follows Hyo and Shinobu as they try to bring back a long lost companion. The expansion is split into 4 chapters with very expansive levels. Now while the expansive levels seem like a good idea on paper, the execution is very mixed as most levels just feel bloated with enemies which makes getting the "Killed all enemies" achievement a hassle to get. On the other hand, doing the "No enemies killed" achievement is so amazing to get cause the bloated levels have multiple paths to get through to one objective making you feel really sneaky (like a ninja, who would have guessed?). The duo also have 4 abilities, 2 old abilities and 2 new abilities. The Exploding Kunai is extremely useful in luring and taking out roaming patrols. Twin Shadows is a neat ability as it essentially just lets you take out any target of your choosing for free(or in COOP, it allows you to teleport to the other character). The issue is that the ragdoll physics screw you over hard if you're trying to go for a "no detection run" as corpses just flop down if your other character kills them from high places so no using this ability on archers which is what this ability would be most useful on since they are everywhere. Nightfall is kinda short or average length depending on whether or not you enjoy seeking all the collectables and completing the levels multiple times for the achievement. The expansion was made for CO-OP in mind so you'll get more mileage out of it if you play with someone else. However if you don't have anyone else to play with, I recommend you get this DLC when it is on sale as 10$ is a bit too much for what you're getting.

Pros:
-Great for COOP
-Amazing if you only care about playing stealthy
-Prequel with new story

Cons
-Bloated level design
-Hassle to play if you're going for 100%
-Buggy physics
-Short

Buy on sale
7/10

Last night, I finished one of my all-time favorite mystery games, Return of The Obra Dinn. A game from 2014 created by Lucas Pope (Developer of Papers Please), it's a detective mystery game where you are tasked with finding out the fates of the passengers on the Obra Dinn. You play as an insurance agent, who is sent onto the Obra Dinn to inspect it. You are equipped with two things, a book that progressively fills out as you uncover the fates of the crew members, and a magical pocketwatch that when used near a corpse, it'll allow you to relive a "snapshot" of how the victim died, voice dialogue included. This is how RotOD differs from other mystery games, you witness the crime itself happening in front of you. Now finding out how they died is relatively easy enough (I can only remember twice in the game where the answer isn't obvious), the fun and hard part is finding out who the victim is and if killed by a person, who did it? You see cause you weren't a passenger on the Obra Dinn, you have no clue who any of these people are so you have to make guesses on who they are based on information you find in other memories, the crew listing on the OD, and logical reasoning. *SPOILERS FOR ONE OF THE FATES* Example: Lars Linde is killed by a man. Their dialogue states that John killed the man's brother. If you check the crew listing, there are only 2 males with the same last name, so it is to be assumed that they're brothers. So the man that killed Lars was either Nathan Peters or Samuel Peters. *END OF SPOILERS*
The game is filled with interesting logic puzzles like these that make finding the solution so rewarding. The game never holds your hand, it assumes you're capable enough to find all the fates. The game's only help is when it confirms three correct fates that you've input, nothing more. Return of the Obra Dinn is also visually striking, especially in the death scenes. It has this Gameboy/Macintosh-like asthetic that while it might be too much for some, it is indeed beautiful. The game even lets you change the color palette of the game if the green is too much for you. Only gripes with it is that some fates are kind of leaps in logic and not being able to instanly relive death scenes through the book. Return of the Obra Dinn is an excellent game that I highly recommend you play if you're a mystery game fan. However, be prepared cause this game will test you.

Now let me get something straight, the game is not horrible. It's suffering a lot from Ubisoft's grummy little business practices. The game feels unfinished almost like it had content stripped from it in some areas. The battle system is super basic with some depth at the beginning but it gets super repetitive as the game goes on. Battles sometimes drag on but it's not very often since the game constantly throws new things at you which helps the repetitiveness of the battle system. The class system is a cool concept but the balance gets completely destroyed due to later events where it's basically pointless in choosing a class. The saving grace of this game is South Park's trademark humor and the absurd plot of the game.

Do not buy this game at full price, wait for a sale,or even better, get Stick of Truth since that's half the price and twice as good. Technically, you can get Stick of Truth for free if you get this game but you still shouldn't buy it at full price.

Stardew Valley is a sandbox-farming RPG, similar to Harvest Moon, that was released in Febuary 2017. It was created by one man going by the name of ConcernedApe. Stardew Valley was an Indie success, managing to get on Steam's top titles list. I've only played 1 Harvest Moon title beforehand when I was a kid and it was for hours before eventually losing it. So how does it stack up in quality?
Gameplay:
Stardew Valley's gameplay is split into three sections: Farming, Simulation, and Dungeon-crawling.
The farming section is done in your very own farm where you grow crops and later, farm animal products. You get to design your own farm, and house. Crop seeds can be bought at the store in town which can then be growned in your farm. Once they've grown, you can either keep the food to use in cooking or sell them for money which can then be used to buy more seeds, upgrade equipment or upgrade your house. You have to plan out your farm in order to grow crops and add other amenities. You can also fish which also gives you money if you sell it. The simulation elements involve interacting with villagers and getting to know them. Each of the townspeople have their own Heart-to-Hearts which unlock once you reach certain friendship levels. You can also date and marry certain villagers which in turn will also allow you to have children. However, I wish the game would let you befriend suitors and acheive level 10 of friendship without having to romance them, as you have to romance them in order to acess some cutscenes. Of course, I wish they'd create another set of cutscenes if you choose to not date them but increase the friendship level. The dungeon-crawling elements are introduced in the mine. You can go inside and dungeon crawl your way to level 100. You are only limited by your HP and the time of day as you fall asleep at 3 AM. You can equip a lot of weapons and items. Besides those three, there is also the goal of restoring the community center using items you can find in the game. However, there is no incentive to do anything after restoring it. Even the new wizard items introduced in the update are grindy and aren't that fullfilling to complete. Overall, the gameplay is really fun and varied.
Story:
Stardew Valley doesn't have a real story. You arrive at Pelican Town to inherit your grandpa's manor and live your life there. Not much here but the focus isn't really in the story. All of the characters feel developed greatly and are all charming in their own ways.

Presentation:
Stardew Valley's presentation is very appealing to look at. it has releatively great pixel art. However, the character sprites look a bit off. The character sprites don't look that good which can be ignored. All the other sprites look charming and cute.

Nitpicks:
-I wish days lasted longer than normal because it's really tedious advancing a few levels in the mine and having to go back.
-I wish cooking recipes were tyed to days because it takes humongous amount of time just to clear a year
-Winter

Tips and Tricks:
-Get the glasshouse before Winter so you can grow crops during it.
-Play until the end of the third year before deciding to finish the game.
-Certain characters have tastes in gifts.
-Stamina fruits are everywhere.
-There are legendary fishes everywhere
Verdict:

+Charming characters
+Charming setting
+Fun gameplay
+Cozy graphics

-Grindy endgame
-Uneven character portraits

9/10

Price Drop or Sale?
I suggest you buy it. It is well worth the price of admission and it's really content heavy for 15$ compared to other games that are pricier.

Dark Souls 3 is the 4th game in the SoulsBorne series. Released in 2016, it was critically acclaimed for all of it new inovations to the series and for it's overall gamplay. Fans were ecstatic to see what DS3 had to offer after the critically aclaimed Bloodborne. I bought one of the games over a sale after hearing my friends praise it to high heaven. I am a complete noob to the series and never played a SoulsBorne game ever. One thing DS is known for is its difficulty, and I knew this from the start, but I didn't care. So with that said, how does DS3 stack up from a newcomer's perspective?

Gameplay:
The gameplay of DS3 revolves around 1v1 battles using dodges and blocks to try to kill the enemy. You have a HP bar, a Mana Bar and a Stamina Bar. All of them are kind of obvious, HP is how many points of health you have before you die, Mana is what activates magic and your weapon arts, Stamina is used to control your physical skills. The battles revolve around careful positioning, and stamina management to try to kill your enemies. One of the defining features of the Souls franchise is its death mechanic. Once you die, you lose all your souls. Souls are used to level up your character's stats, shop, or upgrade and refine weapons. Once you revive at a bonfire after dying, you have one chance to get them back. If you die, they are gone forever. This mechanic has made several of my playthroughs very interesting and epic as i'm struggling to get to my souls. From what i've seen, DS3 incorporates faster paced action as seen in Bloodborne. This makes the combat way faster paced and very enjoyable. Another aspect of DS is it's exploration. You explore through the areas to progress and defeat the Lords of Cinder. The exploration was my favorite part in DS3 as the worlds were absolutely amazing. However, I feel like some of the areas look recycled. Heck, they even copypaste a past area into the game, and reuse assests for a late game area. I feel like only 4 out of the 9-ish worlds were unique and memorable.

Now that i've gotten the positives out of the way, let's talk about the negatives. First, I get that DS is known for not telling the player some of it's mechanics but seriously? I didn't know about weapon arts until I got halfway into the game, and even then I had to have a friend tell me what it was. Now this may just me being stupid but why doesn't the game teach you about this? I went through the entire tutorial area without knowing this. A *HUGE* complaint I have is the class balancing. For my first playthrough, I decided to go as a Sorcerer since I love mages. BOY WAS I GOING TO HAVE THE TIME OF MY LIFE. Apparently, Sorcerer is one of the harder classes to play if you're a newbie. I didn't know this and I almost dropped the game because of this. The game is either outright broken or outright unfair if you're playing Sorcerer. You can BREEZE through some of the harder bosses if you're a sorcerer. I finished Dancer of the Boreal Valley, and Soul of Cinder IN 1 TRY because of how much you can abuse the range for casting spells. I DEFEATED NAMELESS KING ON MY 1ST TRY, ONE OF THE HARDEST BOSESS IN THE GAM BECAUSE I ABUSED THE MAGIC RANGE(Speaking of which I stand it to be one of the best fights in the game due to how well telegraphed all of his attacks are). I could get loot I wanted by abusing the range. But then you get completely screwed over by Magic Resistant foes and fast enemy encounters. I died 57 times to Crystal Sage, considered to be one of the easiest bosses in the game (That could just be me being really bad at the early game but whatever). Because of the unfair disadvantage mages have against close quarter bosses, you're basically forced to be a Mage-Melee hybrid instead of being a pure mage. If you're dedicated you could make a pure mage throughout the game. Point is the game heavily favors the Knight class as they can be easily molded into a mage-melee fighter, and can tank more hits than a wizard.

Story:
The story in DS3 is very vague and mysterious. Another of the defining features of DS3 is it's vague storytelling. The game will tell you what you need to know but if you want more on the story, you'll have to do research. I adore this style of storytelling. It gives the player a lot of intrigue to find out what happend to Lothric and it's inhabitants. I feel the game should do a little more explaining instead of JUST seeing. There are some lords of cinder that don't feel like they have a legacy behind them. A perfect way of doing a Show, don't tell is with Lorian and Lothric. I felt that fight really established what they are and their story somewhat. I wanted to see more of this in the bosses. The only one that came close was Abyss Watchers but i'd still like a tiny bit more info on them in their bossfight. Maybe animate the fight scene a little bit more or give more body language?

Presentation:
DS3 looks absolutely gorgeous. It is one of the best looking games i've played and it's gothic architecture was amazing. However, I feel like the color palette is a bit dull. It really doesn't make any of the areas stand out(unless you're the secret area in the lategame). I wish there was more color in the world but enough to still keep the gloomy atmosphere.

Nitpicks:
-Why don't elevators go back to their original positions once you die?(I'm looking at you Lothric Castle)
-How are you supposed to know how to get to the secret area? There is actually no indication you'd have to do this.
- WHY IS A KEY AREA HIDDEN BEHIND AN INVISIBLE WALL, HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THERE WAS A HIDDEN PATH
-I wish the game would warn you about killing NPCs, not like "HEY DON'T KILL NPCS!" but at least have the characters warn you after you hit them.
-It's kind of tedious to walk ALL the way back to a boss after dying.

Tips and Tricks:
-Once you beat a certain boss, you'll obtain an emote. Use that emote in Irithyll Dungeon to access the secret area.
-Most bossess are parryable. Test it out if you want, however note that the start up animation DOES NOT activate the parry, its the middle animation.
-Beat the boss in Undead Settlement to unlock boss weapons.
-If you do manage to kill one of the NPCs at Firelink Shrine, there is a shrine hidden next to the giant's tower(UndeadSettlement) in the chasm behind the NPC sitting, that will allow you to pardon your sins.
-Broadsword is a very balanced weapon. Moonlight Greatsword is good for doing mage builds or any for that matter.
-At the very beginning of Undead Settlement, look for an NPC that is crouching. Recruit him and you can use hollowing, which is basically making your character look ugly for 5 free level ups. You can reverse it later in the game.
-STOCK UP ON EMBERS. Embers will increase your health.
-Embers will restore you to full health on usage, so use that if you're running low on Estus.

Verdict:

+Gorgeuous Graphics
+Great Gameplay
+Fantastic Story
+Fantastic Level Design

-Class Balancing
-Dull Colors
-Uninspired Locations
-Too vague in some areas

8.5/10

DS3 is something that you should play at least once in your lifetime to see what it is offering. The game suffers from a lot problems that hold it back from being awesome. The game does have its fair share of amazing moments, but it suffers a lot in some departments. Overall, It is a worthwhile experience and it inspired me to be hyped for DS1 Remastered.

Price Drop or Sale?

I suggest you buy it at full price to support the devs. However, I also highly suggest that you buy it whenever there's a sale if you're very stingy becuase the game + DLC is about 60-70$.

Cloudbuilt is a fast-paced, action-adventure platformer with a focus on speed and parkour to manuever around the environment. Cloudbuilt is a fresh concept that could expand on the slowly increasing "parkour-platformer" genre. But, does the game hold up in the long run?

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay of this game consists of platforming and using parkour to reach a goal. You use a jetpack that allows you to boost your character and give them momentum. There are also enemies which are in your way which you can defeat using a gun given to you. The controls feel tight and responsive. One of the complaints I have with this game is that the way your character controls feels floaty. It leads to too many deaths due to the controls. Another complaint I have with this game is the enemies. The whole concept of enemies in this game deducts a two points on the review scale. The problem with the enemies is your weapon, a laser gun that you can charge, and the enemy types. The laser gun does too little damage per hit and charging the weapon feels like it does the same damage as not charging it. The enemies consist of a crawling enemy, a turret, a laser beam, a laser turret that shoots 5 flat beams, and an enemy that spawns homing enemies. The turret and crawling enemies feel fair and balanced. All other enemies feel annoying and destroy the fun, especially the laser turret and the exploding enemy spawner. These 2 elements combined destroys the pacing as you constantly need to stop to kill the enemies to peacefully proceed to the next platforming challenge. Another annoying aspect of the enemies is the shield they produce if you are far enough. The problem is that sometimes the game decides to permanently give them a shield, WHICH MAKES IT EVEN HARDER TO PROGRESS. Also, the lives system is also annoying as the game is HARD, like REALLY HARD. Which means that you will be dying a lot. Overall, its gameplay is great but the enemies, character movement, and lives system hold it back from being a great game.

STORY:
Honestly, this game doesn't need one. The story is non-existent and extremely confusing as none of the characters in the game explain what is going on. The game doesn't even give the main characters name from what I heard (although, I could be wrong). The levels also have no plot relevance whatsoever besides the first level. The story tries to present it self through a log that can be accessed from the main hub. Overall, the game is completely fine without a story, but it is nice that the developers decided to include a story in a game that doesn't need one.

GRAPHICS:
The game is great looking, not much to say. The game decides to adopt the borderlands/Telltale game style with cell-shaded graphics that adopt a mature tone. The game runs smoothly with little stutter. Overall, the game has pretty solid graphics.

CONCLUSION:
Cloudbuilt is a good game, not great by any standard but still a decent experience. I suggest you wait for a price drop or sale since the 20$ price tag is not worth the game. Here are the results:

RESULTS
6/10

-Enemies and combat mechanics -2
-Floaty character -1
-Confusing story line -1