Recent reviews by adolson

Disclaimer: I've only played about 5 hours at this point, and mostly on Easy, and some on Medium, and no co-op yet.

I only got this game a day or two ago, but already put 5 hours into it. That's a lot, for me, these days. Especially for a game this intense, visually, as my eyes are getting old and don't like the craziness too much. But for some reason, this game isn't a problem for me, in that regard. I find myself longing to play another round when I'm not playing, which is a really good sign.

My love of shmups goes back to TurboGrafx-16, especially Blazing Lazers. I'd love for a modern reboot of that, but Cygni reminds me of it in some ways. Maybe because I'm just picky about my shmups, and these are two of the few that I have fallen in love with over the years. So many exist, yet so many just don't get things right - the ship is too fast, the ship is too slow, the levels are too long, the enemies are too hard, there is no progression, etc. The few that do it right for me, do it really right, and Cygni is nearly perfect in that regard. Even the lauded Ikaruga, which I still own the GameCube disc of, didn't really do much for me, though I would name it as one of the better vertical shmups I've played.

The mechanics used in the game are interesting, as they keep you on your toes and give you interesting choices. Do you move your energy into your weapons to make them stronger and risk your shields? Do you keep your shields maxed at all times and collect upgrade points? Do you fire missiles which uses up a weapon energy point? What fire patterns do you want to use? How will you spend your upgrade points? And so on. It's just exactly the kind of stuff that I love. I do think the game's tutorial didn't communicate certain things to me very effectively, and in the heat of the moment, it can be hard to tell what's going on - specifically I'm thinking of how long it took me to realize that picking up energy points would never fill into the weapon side automatically, and that they would convert to currency to spend on upgrades only if my shield was full. But once I figured that out, it added that extra level of choices to my runs.

At the end of the day, this is a refreshing game. It's been a long time since I have found a vertical-scrolling shmup that has had this level of polish and care put into it, AND embraces the widescreen format. So many shmups resort to blocking off two-thirds of the screen or are designed as a horizontal-scrolling shmup, and both of those things annoy me. This game is beautiful, and goes right to the edge of my screen. And, it's fun. It's challenging at the higher difficulties. It's go co-op, which I haven't tried yet. It's got upgrades and customization. It's great. Well-deserving of my money!

I don't know why I like these kinds of clicker games, but I do. This is actually one of the better ones I've played, too. It's satire, yes (or at least mockery), but it's actually well done, has more to it than most similar idle games tend to, and it's actually made me chuckle a few times so far. The fact that this was made with Godot Engine warms my heart.

Can I recommend this game to everyone? No. But people who found themselves enjoying an idle clicker game in the past? Sure. It's for a good cause, too.

Regardless of what Unity does from here, I hope all devs move on to other engines, especially Godot Engine, because it's licensed in such a way that you'll never have to worry about your livelihood being threatened. Check it out.

I wanted to like this game, but I'm too dumb to figure it out. Even a couple hours on YouTube couldn't help me. It felt like a sports version of Crusader Kings (another game I can't figure out). I'm still gonna recommend it, though, because it seems overwhelmingly comprehensive and for baseball fanatics, this is probably an amazing time!

At first, this game seems like it's going to be good. Then you die, over and over and over and over and over. This game sucks! But I guess I'll try again...
30 hours later, I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I'm mostly recommending because of the music. This is a band that continually impresses me with their simultaneous consistency and evolution. They shot up into my top 3 favourite bands of all time very quickly, and their collaboration with Julie Christmas is my favourite single musical release of all time, and Cygnus is my favourite song of all time (I made a lyric video for it, check YouTube for it).

The game itself is, well, fine. It's short; you only play through one song and that's the end. It would have been better had it released before the album, perhaps as the very first thing to promote the album. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Anyhow, it's free, so why not give it a shot?

Now what?

I don't know why I like this kind of game, but I do. This one is pretty good, but I felt it was way too short, and the text was too small and went by too quickly. I know I missed a lot of the story because of that. But I don't regret buying it (was on sale, anyhow). I'd like to see another game like this by Jake Hollands that is longer, but still with an ending.

Wow. A friend casually recommended this to me, and I am glad I jumped on it immediately. This is one of the best story-driven games I've played. There is so much polish, right down to the portraits on the credits. The voice acting is so good. The story and main time loop mechanic were done really, really well. There were a couple parts that were actually genuinely creepy, where I had goosebumps the entire time (this doesn't generally happen to me, not even in actual horror games where it should). I played through it in around 11 hours, and loved every second of it. During the hours I wasn't playing, the game was never far from my thoughts, and I think it may stick with me a while, yet. I didn't complete all of the quests, but still managed to get the canon ending on my first try. I am interested in going back to finish the quests and see if I can get the other endings. Oh, and speaking of game endings, I thought the way the ending was done in this was so good; I love that it - and how it - gives proper closure, and doesn't just gloss over everything in a 10-second wrap up. I really am hopeful that Modern Storyteller will come up with another game in the not-too-distant future, though it may be hard to rival this one... I hope they come close.

There are some games that, when I complete them, leave me with no desire to play other games for some time, as the story and experience just weighs heavily on me. I have a hard time jumping from a game that leaves me in a melancholic state, into anything else right after. NieR (the original game on PS3), my current #1 favourite game of all time, is one that did that very well. This is another. The feeling is one that I for some reason enjoy to sit in. I'm so glad to have played this game, and I enjoyed several lines that really made me ponder life, outside of the game.

This is as close to a perfect game as it could get, with only one minor problem for me: the inability to turn off the dialogue text. This game is entirely voice-acted, so there's no reason to have text on screen. It detracts from immersion, as well as the fact that I always end up reading it ahead of the voices, and that's irritating. I can't seem to stop my eyes from drifting down and reading - it takes real effort - and I hate it. But it's a relatively minor issue, and one that wouldn't stop me from buying, playing, loving, and recommending the game to anyone.

I played through this with Proton, so many thanks to Valve and all the developers over the years who worked on that... Would have never got to play it, otherwise.

Two remakes from Square Enix so far this year, and both happen to be my top two favourite games of all time! NieR and now Actraiser. This makes me incredibly happy, especially since both work on Linux using Proton (would have been nice to have native support, but that is too much to ask). I was shocked - my jaw literally dropped - when this was revealed during the Nintendo Direct. My son, who is only 8, even recognized it and was also surprised about it. First thing he asked me this morning when he woke up was, "is the new Actraiser out?" Yes, it is. And it is glorious.

It's nice that they added some new stuff to it, but I would have been happy with a 1:1 revamp, too. I'm glad to be replaying this, though by modern standards, it probably will fall short for a lot of newcomers. For me, the original game certainly feels dated these days, but was ahead of its time back in the day. This polishes it up enough and makes it a bit more forgiving, that I feel the nostalgia without the frustration. The original was always greater than the sum of its parts, and the sequel demonstrated just how true that was, being comprised solely of mediocre platforming, and none of the great townbuilding stuff. This remake expands the townbuilding, and I welcome it. More of what I loved about that game, while ever so slightly polishing the platforming to make it more tolerable than revisiting the original.

I don't know if I can whole-heartedly recommend this game to newbies, or to fans of the original, for that matter. Just because it is different, and the visual changes aren't amazing (the music is nice, though, and the original music is also an option in the menu). But if you're considering it, what do you have to lose? Literally nothing but an hour or two of your time, because Steam offers refunds. So, give it a go, and see if you like it!

The original NieR for PS3 was a sleeper hit for me, and instantly took the #2 spot in my favourite games of all time. It still sits there to this day, just behind Actraiser, though I'm considering swapping the two given how this one still hits me in all the right spots.

I'm surprised it runs like a dream on Linux via Proton - at least until the mid-way point (or if you idle on the title screen). Cutscenes crash it back to the desktop, unfortunately... I am hopeful I will find a way around it sooner than later, because I didn't intend to stop playing until I finished all the endings again... My momentum has been cut short, though I remain grateful that the game had no actual bugs of its own for me.

I thought NieR was done for once Cavia disbanded, but I'm glad Square Enix kept it alive, and is now breathing life into the one that was unfairly panned by critics and their lackeys back in the day. I'm looking at you, Justin McElroy, guy who doesn't know how to use a mini-map to go to the X before trying to catch a fish.

I love everything about this upgraded version, except a couple things... 1 - the music has been neutered (especially in the percussion department, but some of it just sounds weird compared to the originals burned in my memory 11 years ago), but not as bad as 2 - Kaine's voice acting lacks some of the gruffness and grit (particularly the iconic scene that introduced most of us to her and the game itself) and ends up sounding like someone doing a [very good] impression of Kaine. 3 - brother NieR looks pretty similar to Kaine to the untrained eye (such as my wife), and very generic JRPG-ish. It's all still good, though. I'm just pretty picky. Many people ignored the original, so they're not even going to notice the changes, which is good for them, I guess.

Anyhow, here's hoping I find a way around the cutscene so I can play the back half of the game, and then get around to finally playing Automata...

***UPDATE***
I did find a way around the Proton/cutscene crashing using the GE version, and was able to finish the game. I got all the endings, and most of the achievements. The weapons achievement is still a pain to complete, so I'm taking a bit of a break, but I will get back to it and clean up the last few achievements. I loved the new additions to the game, and this has now overtaken Actraiser as my #1 favourite game!