Recent reviews by Dollmaker

A really charming and entertaining game.

Cult of the Lamb is a mix between a City Builder and Rogue-Like, and it surprisingly does both sides pretty well, the combat side is fun and highly replayable, it can be challenging even at the lower difficulties, so caution is advised, the city building aspect is what you expect for the most part, you gain followers for your cult and you gotta make sure to meet their needs in order to keep them loyal and happy, which can be harder the larger it is, specially when it comes to keeping them well fed, you can customize your Cult with several buildings, which can help keeping it going or being simple decorations.

As you go through the game, you unlock several things that can affect your run, one being the fleeces which will have a different effect on your Crusade, such as increasing magic dmg at the expense of HP and Melee dmg, or making you run faster and having more HP while being unable to roll.

The other thing is the Doctrines, every time you unlock one you get to choose between two of certain categories, this will affect how your Followers behave and react to things, such has making them accept Sacrifices rather than being afraid of it, or making them Cannibals lmao, later on in the game you get the ability to obtain the ones you missed, so feel free to go with what you wish.

Overall the game is pretty good... sadly, theres one issue i couldnt ignore, bugs, yeah the game bugged for me on several occasions, for the most part it was visual bugs, so it didnt affect me much, but on other times it did cause me to have to reset the game to fix it, and it could be frequent at times, which did got annoying, despite this, the game is still fun and worth to play.

If it wasnt for the bugs i would give it something higher score.

8/10, definitely worth.

So Dragon's Dogma, ill admit, when i first knew of this game i wasnt particularly interested in it, but it went on sale so i decided to buy it and give it a try, man, what ive been missing.

It was better than i though, the world building is great, the fantasy elements are good, the OST is good, the combat system is enjoyable, granted, the game is kinda dated, which is largely noticeable on the Menu and Inventory management.

So lets get to specifics:

Gameplay:
Overall, the gameplay is good, theres several classes to choose from, each with their own flair, which allow you to customize them with different skills to suit your needs, fighting enemies is enjoyable, since each enemy has its own weaknesses and strategies to deal with them, like climbing behind a Cyclops to make him remove his helmet trying to grab you, exposing his eye, travelling can be a bit tedious at the beginning since theres A LOT of walking, but has you progress through the game you can gain Warp Crystals that essentially serve has fast travels you can place pretty much anywhere.

Pawn System:
Probably one of the best if not the best aspects of this game, you can create your own companion in the game, which is called Pawn, this is essentially a second character you can customize to your liking, and you can even hire up to 2 pawns created by other players to help you in your journey, making it a total party of 4, with you the Arisen, the Main (your) Pawn, and two extra Pawns, so you can create your adventure party, with each member filling a role, like a ranged dps, a support, a tank, etc.

This king of thing heavily reminded me of the likes of World of Warcraft, of making a party to tackle dungeons, bosses and such, which was pretty good.

Performance:
Didnt really ran into many issues, there were a few crashes here and there, but nothing else besides that.

The HUD:
Yeah here is where the game really shows its age (besides the graphics), the K&M keybinds for the menu are messy to say the least, and changing equipment feels clunky, and the game could REALLY have used a search bar, since you can acquire a large amount of items, so sometimes it can take a while to find whatever item youre looking for, but like i said, this largely a product of its time, which is likely fixed for the sequel.

The DLC:
Oh god the Bitterblack Isle... yeah i have to voice some issues with this area, its meant to be the endgame zone, so it is meant to be the hardest area in the game, but some of that difficulty just felt frustrating, to begin with if you dont deal enough dmg to bypass the REALLY high defenses of the enemies there, then you literally do no dmg, i learned the hard way, also several enemies can be outright obnoxious, one being the Living Armors which do considerable dmg and need both Physical and Magic dmg to kill, so depending on your class, youre gonna have to depend on the AI of the pawns to deal with the first or second form of these things (first is weak to physical while the second is to magick), its doable, but again, be prepared for it, or youre gonna hate it.

Writing:
I found the overall Lore to be good and interesting, but the plot itself felt weak and had pacing issues, and i felt several characters were underused, Selene being an example.

Conclusion:
The game is good, its aged mostly well, if you want a good Fantasy game, this is it.

Cant wait for the sequel which looks really good.

8.5/10

So Sonic Frontiers, its complicated in this case.

Now, before anything, this game is easily the best that has come out from Modern Sonic in like a decade, since Generations, specially after the disaster that Forces was.

Lets start with the negatives:
1.- Optimization isnt the greatest, i often experienced Frame Drops and even had a few crashes, but those were far and few in between.

2.- The popping is awful, this is the most glaring issue in the game, structures will keep appearing out of thin air, which can be distracting, you get used to it, but the issue is really noticeable, the other problem with this, it that i can make traveling confusing, since you might not know how to reach certain areas cause the structures leading to it arent loading due to you being too far, as you get used to it, you can play around it, but i feel this is something that shouldnt have made it into live

3.- The animations and "dialogue" cutscenes could have been polished/improved more, the combat animations often look unfinished, this is specially noticeable with certain attacks, and the dialogue cutscenes can look lifeless due to the characters moving almost in a robotic manner, granted, this is issue is fairly minor and can be overlook.

4.- The traditional Sonic Stages are really disappointing, i feel they're even worse than the ones in Forces which were largely automatic, the reason is that the physics just feel wrong, you lose essentially all momentum from jumping, which thankfully later they added an option to alter these kinds of stuff, but that doesnt change that the stages are lackluster, specially the 2D sections that feel incredibly slow and stiff, luckily these stages are short lived, lasting between 30secs to 2 mins.

5.- (This is exclusive to this one character) The writing of the antagonist of the game was seriously lackluster, which is tragic since the monologue they give is actually pretty good and chilling, the antagonist feels just as tryhard as Infinite from Forces and he was downright pathetic, this also extends to its Base Game Boss fight, being easily the most disappointing thing in the game, which is sad considering that this game arguably offers the best boss fights in any Sonic game to date, the 3 main bosses before it are just amazing, so for the final one to fall behind like this is tragic.

6.- I feel the game was longer than needed, theres a total of 5 Zones, while i think the first 2 are fine, the third one was a bit too much of a hassle to traverse (plus it has really annoying minigames), the 4th one is short lived and largely used for a platforming section that goes on for quite a bit, the last island isnt bad, but at that point, i felt the game should have been over.

7.- This is largely a warning, if you do buy the game, SAVE, this game does NOT create a save file when starting a new game, relaying exclusively on Auto Saves, so unless you want to accidentally lose your progress, make sure to SAVE to create a proper File, and save regularly as well.

Well that was long, now the fun part, the positives:

1.- Now like its typical of Sonic games, the OST does not disappoint, if anything it goes all out, having some of the best tracks in the franchise, with the boss themes being on par with something like Metal Gear Rising of all things.

2.- By FAR the biggest Pro of this game, its the writing, good god the writing, this is the best we have seen since probably Adventure or Black Knight, leaving the antagonist, all characters were written perfectly, they felt real and like their former selves before Colors started the trend of character assassination, their iterations with each other also felt natural and you can really tell that theres history behind them, that they're friends or enemies.

This game also acknowledges past events and games, unlike past titles that felt more standalone and largely used previous games and characters for fan-service (looking at you Forces...), which is good, we needed this back, since it was largely abandoned post Adventure, with 06 being the last of it i believe, it allows to really see the characters grown and see how events affect the future, something i really wanna see past this game.

So in conclusion, keep hiring this writer, cause he knows what hes doing.

3.- The bosses like mentioned before are among the best we have seen in any Sonic game to date, their OST is just fire, unlike previous titles that largely make the bosses a gimmick with Super Sonic, this game instead keeps the normal combat and enhances it, so everything you've learned can be used here to its full potential.

4.- While the animations could have used more work, the combat itself is pretty fun for the most part, some enemies can be annoying, but learning and comboing the several attacks you learn is a trill, specially during the bosses.

5.- Navigating the Islands with Boost is quite a thrill and responsive for the most part, once you get the Super Boost from maxing on Rings, you can go all out and really feel that speed, which can be further upgraded as well.

6.- Despite its flaws, unlike previous games, i see a proper foundation here, i can see a future for this style of Sonic gameplay, while maybe not open-world, i want SEGA to embrace this formula and polish it, one of the main problems from Modern Sonic was the constant change in formula, almost never perfecting any of them, now's the time for Modern Sonic to find its niche, and Frontiers might have finally found that diamond in rough.

Now lets jump into the DLC:
The first 2 DLCs, largely added some more side objectives and moves, like time challenges spread around the Islands, or the Boss Rush mode, that has you fight every single enemy in the game with bosses included in a row, ranking you on how fast you defeat them.

But the real deal is the third and final update (At least i believe its the last), without going into much detail, it puts you into a Parallel Story of the last island, a "what-if" scenario essentially, which brings back the possibility of playing multiple characters, those being Amy, Knuckles and Tails, something that hasnt happened in ages.

Each one controls and plays differently, and are fun to mess around with, my personal favorite was probably Amy, and i would say Tails was the most broken of the 3 once upgraded, this opens the possibility of going back to having several stories, each one being played by a different character, like the Adventure era, once again, when they polish them more as well as this formula.

One particular con of this Third DLC, the difficulty... is a bit much, the game doesnt really have a fully polished combat system, and this is displayed in full by the Parry, normally the Parry is just a glorified Block that you can just hold with no timing involved, one particular mandatory trial changes the parry to actually require timing, but since the game didnt built upon this idea, it can be incredibly difficult to get the timing correctly due to the animations of the enemies not being telegraphed properly, and the timing can be incredibly strict above easy difficulty.

And sadly, this DLC also didnt fix the antagonist's writing, BUT it does fix its Boss Fight, being considerably better than the original from the base game, and now being on par with the other bosses.

Overall the DLC was enjoyable despite the difficulty.

"Conclusion"
While a bit of a mixedbag, i firmly believe Frontiers its the best we have gotten for Modern Sonic in a decade, its flawed and could have maybe use one more year in the oven, but i can see future for the franchise with this game, something i just didnt saw with the likes of Lost World or Forces, so i hope SEGA manages to improve upon what they made here.

7/10

A surprisingly good Souls-like game, easily among the best ive seen.

The story is intriguing, the atmosphere is also really good, pretty reminiscent of the likes of Bloodborne, the OST is good, you can even get records ingame to listen to while messing around in the hub area.

What everyone is here for, the gameplay:

The game is pretty much linear, theres hardly any alternate routing, unlike Dark Souls for example that had them, the game is fairly long, but doesnt overstay its welcome, took me 20+ to complete, probably some of those hours being tied to boss fights tbf.

The Weapon Assemble system is easily the best part of the combat, you can change the handle or blade of weapons, which will alter how the weapon works, from its scaling, to its moveset, weapon arts and type of dmg, so theres plenty to explore there and have fun with.

The second tool is your Legion Arm, which acts like a side weapon of sorts, each arm has different uses, such as a grappling hook, a cannon, or a flamethrower, they can be surprisingly fun, specially once upgraded

Regarding combat itself, its... complicated, while fun to play, it can be frustrating due to the heavy reliance on Perfect Parries, now this itself isnt the problem, as seen with Sekiro as the more close example, the problem is that some enemies, usually bigger ones and bosses, can have incredibly fast attacks that arent that well telegraphed, which pushes the game more to knowledge than reaction, this is made harder by the strict timing of the parry, which can lead to frustration, thankfully the death run (going back to boss rooms after a failed attempt) are pretty short and forgiving, some even being right next to the entrance of the boss room.

Another thing, the game has the P-Organ system, which is essentially a skill tree, personally i feel some of these abilities should have been available from the start, like rolling off the ground.

Regardless of this, the game is still fun, and i honestly hope the devs manage to iron out and perfect the combat on their next entry, cause they nearly got it perfectly on their first attempt at this formula.

Do i recommend it? definitely, like i said earlier, its one of the best souls-like ive seen, while adding its own flair to the mix, such has the Weapon Assembles.

I give it an 8.5/10

(Also take note Fromsoft, these guys actually made daggers a viable weapon, it was my main weapon and i enjoyed it)

A game with lots of charm and fun absurdity, heavily inspired by the old Warioland games.

The artstyle is really catching and the OST was ridiculously good, likely the reason you even considered buying this game.

The game is fluid and works well overall, completing the game isnt hard, but 100% WILL require you put some real effort, since it essentially requires you to flawless it, learning all the moves of your arsenal, every secret, every enemy position, etc, and with bosses learning how to defeat them without taking dmg.

And regarding bosses, they're good, each one brings their own flare and are fun to face, and like mentioned before, the ost is awesome for these guys.

Regarding how the levels work, you essentially play it has a platformer where you wanna keep your combo going, the bigger the combo the more points you get, which will earn you a rank at the end of the level, but before that, once you reach the end of the level, you gotta do "It's Pizza Time" which requires you to run all the way back to the start of the level on a timer, and once you complete it, you unlock the second lap, which requires you to do the runback a second time with the remaining time in order to earn the max rank.

Overall, it was a fun game that i definitely recommend, but like mentioned early, for those looking for completion, youre in for a world of pain.

9/10

A good sequel to the first game

The game is smoother overall, and the combat options were expanded by now having 3 different weapons, each with their own set of skills:

You can pick the Sword, which is the closest you'll get to the first game's combat, resembling the old Mea Culpa.

The double Rapiers (my pick), which are really fast weapons but lack dmg, making them good if you wanna stay on your target as much as possible due to the fast recovery, and after a few upgrades you'll get rewarded if you manage to remain untouched.

Or the Flail, that lacks the ability to block and its slow but heavy hitting weapon, with the most range, good for dealing with groups of enemies and dealing heavy hits.

I found the bosses to be an improvement over the first game, but the first couple of bosses can be a bit too easy, which is something i gotta talk about.

I found this game easier than the first one, and for a good reason, like mentioned before, it isnt until the second half that bosses do become a challenge, before that you can likely kill them on the first try, platforming was also nerfed significantly, one thing the first game was know for was for how punishing it was to screw up a jump, since it meant death, but here, falling on spikes or the abyss isnt an insta kill anymore, you simply loss HP and spawn back on the platform.

The items remain largely the same, you can equip Beads to boost your defenses or get other buffs to gaining currency, and the new Statues which can give you a variety of effects, like more dmg, or better dodging and blocking.

Ost is has good as the first one, the gore is still there, but could be better, specially the executions which i found kinda lacking.

One thing that was kinda of a letdown was the world map, in the first game youre very likely to remember each area, since it left an impression on you, thats how well made they were, but in this game it felt more... generic, i hardly even remember some of the areas.

Worth mentioning how this game was also less... "dark", its not the same tone the first one had, and could also mention far less punishing when it came to the quests, the first game had that "Souls" feel when it came to NPCs and quests, where you could miss an NPC completely or screw up a quest, which could also mean losing the reward, here, even if you miss out on something (and im pretty sure theres only one quest you can screw up) they added a vendor that will sell whatever items you missed.

Regardless, it was an enjoyable experience, but i would consider the first game the better one, but, the first one had plenty of changes including DLC that expanded and improve the experience, guess we'll see if history repeats itself.

8/10

While it shows its age, RE1make is still a solid game to this day.

Its a good survival horror, they used the fixed camera angles smartly by hiding threats outside of view, making you have to be wary of danger, be prepared for ambushes, cause the monsters arent always making noise.

Every shot counts, just like old RE, ammo isnt abundant, so you gotta play smart by choosing your battles, and which is better to just run away.

Inventory is severely limited as well, with Chris only being able to carry 6 items at a time and Jill being 8, and trust me, you really feel those 2 extra slots has Jill, so you also gotta be smart about what you choose to pick up stuff and when, since you cant get rid of it without the item boxes, this was painful has Chris before i knew better.

While mostly not a problem, the fixed camera angles can be annoying at times, mainly when you need to move quickly, since the camera can change abruptly, which changes the direction of your movement, and if you cant adept quickly, you might end up running in circles.

What really will get repetitive and annoying quickly is the doors, yeah, every time you go through a door or climb a ladder, you gotta sit through a fairly long animation for it, every SINGLE TIME, while theres a mod to fix this, i feel the HD remaster of the game made over a decade after the original should have fixed it on its own.

After finishing the game with both characters you will unlock some extra modes, one being a considerably harder version of the game, and the other being Invisible enemies, yes its exactly what it says, good luck, you will also unlock an extra enemy called "One dangerous zombie" and you better take that name seriously, cause otherwise, you will die.

The story is... meh, i wasnt really invested on it, granted the backstory of one of the creatures was pretty disturbing and interesting, but in general, the plot was pretty boring, and at times seriously nonsensical, specially in Jill's scenario.

Overall, its a good old game, it has good horror ambiance, puzzles are simple and aged well, but you do gotta expect that old vibe, so it might feel somewhat clunky, similar to the tank controls of RE4.

I give it a 8/10

Its a good metrovania game.

The artstyle is gorgeous, the world is dark and brutal, seriously, you brutally kill the enemies, OST is perfect as well, it fits the tone, going from calm, to unnerving to epic.

The gameplay is solid, specially the combat, its fair for the most part, you will struggle a lot at the start, but has you acquire more abilities and upgrades, you'll truly see the full potential of the combat system, your main method of dmg is your sword Mea Culpa, which you can upgrade and unlock several abilities for, like plunge or lunge attack or stronger combos, you also obtain Prayers which are essentially spells, and theres a lot of them that can be either offensive or defensive, fitting the situation.

Bosses are well done and balanced, with some really creepy designs as well, they're challenging and you can use your many tools to approach each encounter.

The DLC bosses are far harder than the base ones, so anyone looking for a challenge has that to look for.

Speaking of, once you complete the game youre allowed into NG+, which increases the difficulty, you get to keep your abilities and items, but you lose all your HP and Fervor (magic) upgrades, as well as your healing Flasks, near the start of the run you can also choose a specific challenge, which changes how the run will play, such has halving your melee dmg but increasing your Fervor potential, making you a spellcaster essentially.

General difficulty of the game, not too challenging, its a lot easier than the similar game Hollow Knight, having played both i can say this for sure, buts its not easy by any means, this game will pull no punches for mistakes.

One particular complain i have to mention is that i often ran into bugs that hindered my progress and forced me to reload the game, the most common one was related to an enemy that resembles a naked ghost woman with a rapier bugging out and becoming unkillable, and shes sometimes used in rooms where youre forced to kill all enemies, so you can guess what happens there.

Also yeah, this game has quite a bit of nudity.

Final thoughts, its an excellent game, you can see the devs put a lot of passion into it, specially with the world building which from my understanding was heavily inspired by religions from Spain, i think there was a guide on steam that went into detail in that regard.

Anyway, i give it an 8/10, cant wait for the upcoming sequel in a couple of weeks.

Its good, simple as that.

To elaborate, this game has top notch combat and gameplay, which is the usual Fromsoft's quality, unlike Dark Souls or Bloodborne however, the combat focus heavily on deflecting (parrying) attacks, rather than dodging like in their other games, putting a lot of focus on breaking the enemy's posture to instantly land a killing blow on them.

The game introduces the Shinobi Prosthetic, your secondary weapon, you can customize it with several Shinobi tools, from Shurikens, to a heavy Axe, to Firecrackers, and many more, each one serving their purpose and dealing with specific attacks or opponents, learning this thing in particular is pretty fun and one of the main skill tests of the game.

Now the game is considerably harder than either Dark Souls or Bloodborne, so be prepare to get beat to dead several times, some bosses and even enemies can be brutal to face, specially several enemies, getting outnumbered will quickly end badly, so you gotta play smart, using stealth to thin the enemies, and your many tools to finish off the rest.

The movement is also way higher than other Fromsoft games, being able to jump, wall jump, run really fast, using a grappling hook, etc, allowing you to use youre surroundings to your advantage and get into better positions.

The game is also more straight forward with the storytelling, but you still gotta seek out and explore to get the most of it, which is good, you can get up to 4 different endings, depending on the quest or choices you make.

Now, presentation, the game is gorgeous, it has beautiful scenery, and incredible OST, you really get that feeling of Samurai movies and Japan's culture, so if youre a fan of that, you'll enjoy this.

After finishing the game once and getting into NG+ youre also given the option to make the game harder with an item exclusive to NG+ i did it, and kinda regretted it lol, yeah, thats only for the more hardcore players, enemies are stronger and the biggest downside is that your blocks arent safe anymore, since you take chip dmg unless you perfect parry, and your posture breaks considerably faster, so if you wanna attempt this, you got warned.

Overall, its a masterpiece of a game, easily one of Fromsoft's best.

10/10

Fairly charming puzzle game,

My only real negative about it is that movement can be kinda sluggish, but besides that, the puzzles are largely double to figure out, it isnt hard, but you will have to think every now and then.

Graphics are simple, but pleasant to look, and the music is fitting, mostly being piano notes.

So, you likely already know what this game is about, being the biggest pain in the butt in existence, well the game delivers, you expend the entire game annoying the humans, by ruining their days in multiple ways.

Overall, it was a short fun puzzle game, i give it a 8/10