Recent reviews by CID

A Myst-like you should not pass on if you enjoy the Myst series. The price well matches the content you get.

My most returned to modern release Metroidvania. There is just always more to find and more to improve at. I can't recommend this game enough for long time MV fans.

Sadly, as much as I want to recommend this game, I can't in it's current state. The controls seem odd, but I figured I'd just adjust them. However there is no customize option. So I used the steam overlay to reassign them. Once I got everything working I progressed forward. Cut-scenes seem forced as I couldn't find a way to skip them, something I always do when testing out functionality. (I go back as rewatch them after about 15 to 20 of minutes of play). I made it to the part where it says it is a month later and that's when I lost all view movement. The mouse, track-pad, nor the joystick on a controller would offer any movement to pan my view, despite it working fine in the starting area just moments ago. I tried reassigning it in the steam overlay but nothing would fix it. I figured I'd just reload. However there is only an auto-save system, no manual save slots. So when I clicked play again from the main menu, to my surprised the game started over again at the beginning, which means waiting through the cut-scenes again.

Once through my second attempt, view movement continued to function this time. However my character movement would often, seemingly randomly, become painfully slow, like I was moving through molasses. The run speed isn't so bad but I wish that speed was the walk speed and run was faster. Run doesn't help though when general movement get really slow. And that's not a frame-rate issue or processor slowdown, I checked. Oh and view movement is really fast, that was another thing I had to slow way down in the Steam overlay, something I wish was an option in the control settings.

Collision is very odd. lots of invisible boundaries when one would not expect them. Often times wall collision doesn't match up with what you see, especially on rocky alcoves and cliff edges. This can result in clipping issues. Stairs have a slow automated ascension but you can still move on them, often sliding off to the side if you don't let go

Y-axis inversion is another thing sorely misses. No option for this either so again I used the Steam overlay to solve this. The downside is that now all mouse movement is inverted in the menus and when using the cursor to select/take items. So I have to use a separate setting for the track-pad to not be inverted and switch over to that for cursor movement. Something that would easily be solved with just a standard y-axis view movement inversion option.

I'd also like to have the button that opens the pause menu also close it so that I don't have to switch to the track-pad to select "back to game" every-time. I also couldn't get the "Press 'Q' to activate" message to go away once I passed through a door the second time that I had recently opened.

The visuals are excellent as are the sound effects. I do believe this will be a great game once fully customize control options are added as some further QA testing is done. I'll revisit this review at that time to update it..

Update the Steam version with the currently console exclusive features. I want my 0.25x EXP for a low level run.

This game is incredibly good. It runs very smoothly on my Steam Deck with no issues. The visuals are absolutely stunning. The environment based puzzles are quite enjoyable. I assumed this would be good given that's coming from Cyan, but they knocked it out of the park with this one.

Buy it, it's good. I'm really enjoying both the exploration and enemy combat. The aerial combat is some of the best I've seen since Dust, and I love that it's actually intentionally used as a platforming ability for exploration. Great 5th gen styled graphics. I love the zone travel via an airship in a 3d environment. Puzzle platforming is good without getting too into the realm of precision platforming. The mobility upgrades are nice and come quickly. I really enjoy the "memory" system for customizing your character for combat. Lots of good, creative stuff to be found here. Well worth the price of entry.

A return back to the days of the Castlevania Metroidvanias. Classic style gameplay, with a nice assortments of equipment. In a sea of Souls-like MVs, this was a welcomed, refreshing addition to the genre. I had lots of fun with this. If you’re a fan of a more old school style of Metroidvania, you’ll want to check this out.

This game is excellent and really embodies what one looks for in the classic Metroidvania formula. I love that they continue to work on this this and offered up the NES "8-bit" version. Nominated for the 2022's Labor of Love award.

Well, I put in my 2 hours. I was almost certain I was going refund it as I already own the SNES and GBA versions. But I wanted to try it and experiences the changes. However, this has exceeded my expectations. The music alone is really making me consider that the fourteen some odd dollars I sent was worth it.

The game looks pretty similar to the original so far. Which is a good thing as the old Steam version made me want to bleach my eyes. The controls and added functionality are nice. The menu it a little more pleasant to navigate and I appreciate the quick and auto saving.

The font isn’t great, but it’s not as off-putting this time around as it was when I was playing FF3, the other PR release I bought. It is however easy to patch to a more retro font. There was some v-sync issues and there isn’t an in-game setting for this. Easily solved though from through the NVIDIA control panel. The only other issue was on the character naming screen the controls change to keyboard, which it odd. There should be a virtual keyboard for use with a controller. But that simply meant I had to reach a foot over to grab my wireless keyboard laying next to me on the couch and click enter for the default name.

I’m going to think on it, but I might actually keep this. The music so far is really the stand out feature here. Oh, and there’s an art gallery filled with Amano’s work.

This is a great game that does indeed have excellent combat, smooth, tight controls, at some great platforming and exploration. Well worth the price.