Recent reviews by Luminous

For the most part I think Downpour has been a great addition to the base game. I've had a ton of fun sinking an additional 100 hours (with more to go) into what was already one of my favorite games. I'd highly recommend to anybody who enjoyed the base game and isn't put off by a little extra challenge.
With the exception of gourmand, I thoroughly enjoyed all of the newly added slugcats with their gimmicks and the various alterations to the world that come with their campaigns. Gourmand is good for a laugh or two, but all in all his frequent fatigue from performing basic actions requiring you to stop moving and catch your breath I found far more tedious and annoying than fun and his positive points couldn't outweigh that. The other slugcats have their own obstacles that provide challenge but in a way that more often amplifies the fun factor rather than detracting from it. I'd actually be kind of hard-pressed to pick a favorite from the other four, they were all really quite fun in their own ways.
The challenge mode was nice, a good change of pace from the regular game. Expedition mode is a little more of a mixed bag for me though, I think. The idea of having some set goals of varying types with the threat of permadeath is a good one, but because you can freely re-roll those goals and freely select perks and burdens I naturally just end up rolling for challenges to attempt to clear the 75 quests for the related achievement more efficiently. The achievement itself is a bit much, since this requires you to spend hours doing tens of expedition runs. The pre-made expedition missions for each slugcat are more cool because you can't alter them much. I'd rather have seen, for example, the expedition mode center around some more of such missions, with an option to fully random generate an expedition, perks/burdens and all, while removing or simplifying the quests and relevant achievement.

Great looking game, love the aesthetic. Fun to play for your first couple loops when you're just making choices as you would. Once you start grinding to get all the endings, however, it does get fairly tedious as it's just a bunch of trial and error (or guide referencing) with what numbers you raise and decrease, but it's still always interesting to see where Ame ends up. Personally I wouldn't pay full price for the game, but on sale I think it's worthwhile.

The game is pretty cool regardless of whether you wind up being one of the types that sinks 30 hours into it or 500+ hours. Definitely expect to use guides for trying to do most anything other than a fairly basic run. In my 50 or so hours I've only beaten the game a couple times and started trying to explore the world more thoroughly. The game is complex, very open, and very punishing. A very appealing part of the game for many. Personally I would have preferred a little more direction and maybe some options to ease difficulty for some more casual runs. The permadeath is pretty heavy given how quickly some things can kill you and how long runs can last. Honestly, even with a guide some of the things to do seemed like they're a bit too involved for me to even give it an attempt. Nevertheless, I did have a blast playing the game, and maybe someday I'll come back to it and experience a little more of the breadth the game has to offer.

Reminiscent of flash games from the times of yore. It takes some inspiration from classic video games, a simple concept, and makes for a fun way to waste anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours.

While there are a few things that could certainly have been done better, I believe the game does much more right than it does wrong. I'd be happy to recommend it to just about any action game fan or fellow degenerate. Thoroughly exploring the game on advanced, I think a first playthrough ran me about 16-17 hours while a NG+ run to finish out the achievements only added another 2 hours or so to my play time. I would have been perfectly content to have paid full price, but it's possible some people disinterested in exploration and item collection or some more skilled players might not be fully satisfied with the price to time ratio they might get.
Combat is quite good, pretty well thought out. The mesh of ranged and close combat works well. You've got four base types of magic; your ranged attacks, all of which are very usable throughout the game for different ranges/purposes. For each type of magic you also have a chant/charge attack which takes some time and mana to ready. In addition to the charge attack itself there are some different effects you can gain just by holding that charge before using the attack or letting the meter run out, such as strengthening your melee attack, for example. What really elevates the combat is that you can fill your mana or otherwise that chant meter by either closely dodging enemy attacks, parrying enemy attacks, or through physically attacking an enemy with your staff. This creates some really satisfying combat cycles of chanting then dodging, parrying, and/or melee attacking to build charge while taking pot-shots with magic in-between charge shots. If you get good you can speedily max your charge repeatedly and totally ruin enemies which is just really quite fun.
The primary downside to the game has probably got to be the somewhat lacking common enemy variety and boring designs. The majority of the enemies more or less just look like some shadowy figures. There's four different varieties of these basic enemies, each of which has a couple palette-swapped versions. These alternative versions usually are different enough attack-wise I guess but nevertheless it is kind of lame they couldn't get a few more unique enemy designs instead, especially given just how basic they are. There is another I believe 7 basic enemy types which have better designs, 2 of which also get a palette swap.
I found the story enjoyable, although I'm not really a fan of the method by which much of it is told. Although the basic story of Nobeta is told normally via events throughout the game there's much more to be found surrounding her story as well as the world, and the boss character's stories both through items found in game whose only purpose is to provide lore, and through some extra manga which can be unlocked. Although the manga is unquestionably well made, experiencing the full story through the game itself would obviously have been much more preferable. But then there's the issue that this manga is also heavily censored in the game (there are official uncensored versions uploaded) for whatever reason, which leaves me a somewhat conflicted since although it's not ideal, I'm still glad they were able to provide a full version of the story one way or another.

An enjoyable game which has a number of faults that do bring it down a bit and keep it from being truly great, but I'd still highly recommend it nevertheless. At present I've beaten the game with the true ending, having played through most of the DLC missions, save for Expert Level Skirmishes & the (assuming) second half of the A Captainless Squad DLC and a couple hours of my playtime would have been time spent AFK. It's been 10+ years since I played the first of the series, and I only played the second game a little bit, so I can't reliably make any comparisons to other games in the series, but I didn't find myself disappointed compared to those somewhat vague memories. The game doesn't really require any knowledge from the previous games to enjoy anyhow.
One of the primary flaws of the game would have to be training and weapons development aspects of the game. It's simply just much too tedious and time-consuming with the loading going between sections. Spending time to equip characters with different variations of gear only to have sometimes that gear unequipped when you develop other gear, usually only to realize mid-mission when trying to mortar a tank and being SOL because you have anti-personnel weaponry equipped. Worst of all the constant character interactions each time you do any sort of training or development, sapping away precious minutes of your life. A few hours of my playtime were unnecessarily spent in menus when they should have simplified things and/or somehow made it more interesting and satisfying.
The first few missions are far too easy, but once you break into the game a bit gameplay does get fun. Enemy AI tends to be fairly stupid throughout the game, which I don't necessarily think is an especially bad thing, really. It's definitely less about actions the enemy takes and more about breaking through enemy positioning on the map where they typically have some advantage of terrain and how you position yourself as you do so. If the enemy had the capacity to come at you with some degree of strategy, the game would likely become overly frustrating to play, I think. The ranking system for how well you completed a mission is pretty lame as it's all about how many turns you complete the mission in. It should be an important factor, but there should be more components that affect it. As it is, you're effectively encouraged to cheese to win; just rush past enemies, ignore entire sections of maps, only taking out the bare minimum of them to make it the objective point, which isn't as fun as totally dominating the enemy.
The story was alright, I thought. I played the game in Japanese and have no opinions on the game's translation at this point in time. Some up and down points for sure but all in all I enjoyed it. Honestly, I didn't find our protagonist to be especially likable, but for the most part the rest of the cast was pretty decent. I'm not a fan of how story is typically presented; still backgrounds with character windows with a few set poses/expressions popping up for dialogue. You do get a mostly still scene with posed character models some of the times which are preferable, and I'm not sure why they didn't do this more often, although it's still not the best. Then for some more important scenes you get a full on cut-scene. This part of the game feels low-budget, no question.

Top of the line rhythm game which I would highly recommend checking out. It takes a little bit to get used to the somewhat atypical style wherein the notes scroll toward spots which appear across the screen as opposed to straight to a fixed spot, but once you get a handle on it, it's a blast. The way they utilize a regular game controller: having your symbol/letter buttons for the four primary notes (as well as left/right "slide" notes with the triggers) but also letting you hit those notes with the corresponding direction on the D-pad is great. You can furthermore custom map buttons (limit of 2 mappings per) to notes or even note combinations to your liking if there's anything you don't like about that default setup or to assist with note combinations you struggle with. Not overly complicated while also allowing for more than adequately intricate song maps to play that I'm sure even a seasoned rhythm game player could have a good time with. For some additional spice there's also some extra modes for fast scrolling notes, suddenly appearing notes, and disappearing notes if you like even more challenge. You can even install various mods which encourage one-handed play.
Personally, I think I've hardly had any issues running the game. For reference I have a Ryzen 5 2600, Rx 570, run the game on max settings, and should probably also note I'm using the DivaNoSpy mod. I've experienced a fraction of a second pause or two on some of the fancier videos some of the times I played them. Even when running a stream or video on my second monitor while casually padding my FC clears a bit on easy mode the game ran fine. Song loading times can be a little lengthy at times, however. Occasionally there are times where I'll get an early/late press and drop a combo when I really don't believe I should have, and others where I thought for sure I did press early/late but still hit the note but I'm really not sure if I should attribute this to my controller, my PC, video/audio sync, overly precise window on notes, or just my eyes/ears or imagination. The first or last are probably most likely, but I can't totally write anything off for certain.
My primary complaint is simply that some of my favorite Vocaloid producers didn't manage to get any songs in the game, but I also picked up a new favorite or two along the way, so I can't be too upset.

It's a fun game, though I can't help but feel like it could have been much better with a touch more variety. The description talks about hundreds of text encounters and no two playthroughs being the same, but it does get fairly repetitive. Ultimately, most events just consist of a risky option, an option to avoid the risk, and possibly a good option depending on your crew/systems. You'll either get some goods, take some sort of damage, find yourself in battle, or nothing will happen. It wasn't long before I stopped reading event text and was only looking at the options to make an easy decision. Some more unique outcomes and less obvious choices would have been nice. More than anything though I really would have liked a couple alternative main stories/missions to complete with a couple more bosses. That alone could have made the game ten times better than it already is. Some different starting text, this time you're the pursuant and must catch the enemy ship in time. A non linear, exploratory mission where you can move freely between a few sectors of space, maybe with some time limiting factor to keep players from grinding until they're overpowered. Tons of potential options for scenarios that could have really breathed some more life into the game even without adding a bunch of new little events. Nevertheless, you can get a good few hours of fun from the game. It's well worth the price and a steal at sale prices.

Fairly simple action game that's somewhat on the short side but is bursting with charm. Visuals are top-notch. I especially like the giant monster girl boss art. Gameplay is pretty fun. The story however is predictable and nothing special, but there are giant monster girl bosses. More games should have giant monster girl bosses.
Combat is quite good for how simple it is. Equip weapons and/or spells and press button to use. For the most part (boss mode has some special attacks when jumping) no fancy combos, special attacks when crouching, jumping or dodging, just swing your weapon or cast your spell. There's a fair variety in weapon and spell types with different attack speeds, reach, damage and status effects which when combined with the accessory system that allows you to further affect those offensive as well as your defensive capabilities leaves a plethora of approaches all perfectly viable. Experimenting with different builds throughout the game was pretty fun. Enemy design is done well and encourages that experimentation with various builds; you can't always just run up to all the enemies the same way, attack and back off, a somewhat common fault of more simple action games. The downside to the equipment variety combined with amount of different consumables is that you'll find yourself in the menu longer than you'd like to be. This hassle is somewhat offset by the ability to favorite items bringing them to the top of your list, but still can be an annoyance.

Dark Souls, but with a lot more empty space and corners to check and with more reused assets. There still hasn't been a FromSoft game I've played that I didn't really enjoy, but Elden Ring doesn't fair too well in how I would rank their titles against one another; sitting towards the bottom of that list with Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro vying for the top spot. At the time of review I've beaten the game having explored a good amount, obtained most endings through reloading my pre-ending save, gotten all but two achievements, and have started into new game+.
The open world format doesn't really add much of anything beyond giving you adequate space to run around with the new horse mechanic. Previous games have never left me feeling especially constricted with all the alternate paths you can take both in specific areas and the order in which you can do different areas. In fact, that's more or less how Elden Ring seems as all the areas with actual content themselves generally aren't any more open than usual, but the open world just feels like one huge over-sized hub area connecting those areas to me. Except NPCs are out and about in that giant hub, making some of them easy to overlook.
The horse mechanic itself is okay. It controls a lot better than I had anticipated pre-release. Feels good to control; not clunky at all for the most part. One exception being when trying to grab an item while turning while stationary. Combat while on the horse is nothing special, but it works. The thing I was happiest about with the horse was the fact that you can walk through poison swamps with it unharmed, keeping the cool environment without the annoying, not fun aspects. Unfortunately they still felt the need to force that annoyance on you this time around as well, forcing you off the horse to trudge through multiple swamp areas once again. Still, it's primary purpose seems to be making the walk through the open world to the next area less tedious, leaving me feeling the effort could have been better spent elsewhere.
The biggest fault is without question the degree to which they reuse assets in the game. Variety is heavily lacking given the length of the game. They crossed the level of what's expected, past what's acceptable, and then some. The amount of enemy mobs that were unique to a single area, I could probably count on one hand. The amount of times I seen the same stone coffins filled with runes littered across the open world, I probably couldn't count using all fingers on both hands. Generic soldiers and knights across the entire game that are hardly more than an emblem swap. The same entrance way into mine areas copy-pasted to where I instinctively look left of the elevator entering any mine area. Mobs used as mini-bosses and/or vice-versa. More mini-bosses reused than not, often numerous times over. Even a couple of the big-ticket bosses have weaker mini-boss versions and at least one is just plain re-used. In spite of becoming an open-world game, things never felt more samey.
In spite of being a fan of FromSoft games, I've yet to 100% any of them and have not gotten all the endings in any of them, so I'm unsure if it's typical that endings in FromSoft games are lame carbon copies of others. All but one of the endings I got (and one ending I didn't get, I'm told) was more or less exactly the same. You become Elden Lord, and sit on your throne for a couple seconds with some changes to the environmental atmosphere. It's an extremely unsatisfying reward for the time and effort. It's nothing. Achievement hunting in this game has been a lot less tedious than in other Souls games though which is nice.
When all's said and done, it's a Souls game. If you like 'em, you like 'em. It might not be their best work, but it's been fun to play nevertheless and I'd recommend it to fellow fans while recommending new players give the former FromSoft games a go before this one.