Recent reviews by Cyber Akuma

Feels like a 3D Metroidvania I would have played on my N64 back in the 90s, although the low-fi visuals and framerate can be disabled for those who would prefer the game to feel a bit more modern. Far more movement/parkor based than your usual Metroidvania but it starts to make you feel like Neo when you start comboing all over the area. Great price as well.

It's neat

A great throback to the days of classic TMNT beat-em-ups. If you loved Turtles in Time on the SNES or Hyperstone Heist on Genesis this will feel like a never-released sequel from that era. A great love letter to fans of the classic 80s TMNT filled with references and easter eggs from the original airing of the show.

A surprisingly expanded experience from the original silly little free game jam game from years ago. This one went places I was not expecting, and I kept playing more when I thought I was going to end for the day. It was quite the fun experience.

Great continuation for one of the most waited sequels in nearly two decades. While I will not lie, the game is by no means perfect and has a few hiccups and low points (Many of the new characters felt like a miss), it's overall one amazingly fun return to the Psychonauts world and finally a continuation of what happened after the events of 2 as well as addressing Raz's past, not to mention some amazingly crazy new mental worlds to explore.

I was looking forward to this for years, and hopped on it within hours of it being available for sale, it was a very rocky ride at launch, but the game is vastly improved from it's launch state and the developer has been quite active in updating and improving it.

Pros:
-Huge visual upgrade from the original.
One only needs to look at the trailers to see what I mean.

-Using it’s own engine in Unity now instead of RPG Maker.
The original was great, but very limited by it’s engine. As also obvious by the trailers, it's not using RPG Maker anymore so pretty much all of those limits no longer exist as the game is made in unity now, elements like the airship and the minigames would have been near-impossible to make in RPG Maker with any level of quality.

-Multiple styles of games on top of it’s main JRPG style.
Not much more needs to be said about that. Even the main overworld is more active and psudo-platformer now.

-Don’t need to die (sorta) to fast-travel anymore
One slight annoyance in the original was that you could only fast travel when you died, you can fast travel from any of the fast travel locations now… but it also has it’s issues (covered in the cons)

-Active updates
Developer has been active and quick in updating and game and listening to consumer complaints and criticisms to improve the game. I was surprised how quickly they were able to fix the biggest issue I and many others had with the collision detection. Movement is now much smoother and easier, and I am no longer getting stuck on every small gap and pixel nor are jumps a pain to make anymore. In addition to this, more resolution options were added and a marker to help you land after a jump/glide.

At this point, I can definitely recommend the game now. It's not perfect (but that game is?) but now with what I consider some of the biggest problems fixes, I feel like the cons are now just tiny annoyances that don't detract from enjoying the game anymore.

Cons:

-Controls
VASTLY improved movement now as mentioned, just a few minor annoyances that are apparently also being worked on. The main con are the default keyboard bindings cramp your hands a little.

I definitely recommend using a gamepad/controller over keyboard if you have one. Fixes pretty much all of these controller issues.

-Resuming from a death is now slower and more annoying to do
The original game’s death-loop was that every time you die, you end up in the “afterlife”. Pretty much immediately from where you spawn in the afterlife there is a selection of fast-travel points you have unlocked you can choose to warp back to in order to continue your game, the machine to grind meat into HP upgrades was right there as well. In Hylics 2, when you go to the afterlife you have to climb a winding staircase, go through two floors of a house (with said meat grinder being on the second floor… also slight annoyance, the healing pool is on the 1st floor. So if you grind meat to increase your max HP, you then have to go back to heal up), and THEN when you leave the 2nd floor of the house you reach the fast-travel selection area. (there is also a trampoline, but that's actually slower to do). Makes the whole cycle much slower while also still making you run into the collision issue every time you try to revive.

-Loading is a bit too frequent and slow
Yes, of course, all games need to load. Thing is, this game seems to need to load with the same frequency of PS1 JRPGs. Get into a battle, load. End a battle, load. Go into an area, load. Die, load. The main loading annoyance is battles, it takes a while to load the game after a battle, which is annoying when you get into many fights.

-2D Segment still has some issues
The update to the collision vastly improved the 2D segments as well, but there are still a few annoyances there. On top of how there can be situations where there is just projectile/enemy spam everywhere or enemies can literally respawn faster than you can kill them, my main issues were that certain moving platforms (generally larger ones) seemed to block almost all of your movement when you are on them. You can barely move at all and can't jump for some reason. Also not a fan of how there are many times you can't see where you are jumping and can land in instant death.

-Run-Toggle seems to reset often
VERY minor, the run toggle seems to reset often, this isn't even an issue if you are using a gamepad with an analog stick as the analog movement lets you walk or run far easier.

-Maze section "map" clears after fights
I am not sure if this was intentional or not, if it is then nevermind. If it wasn't then it is q bit of an annoyance. There is a section in this game where you go through a blind maze that reveals itself as you go through it. Issue is any fight you get into clears this screen. The hitboxes for just where the enemy has to touch you to start a fight are very unclear too.

At this point, I can definitely recommend this game. The initial issues with collision and controls are almost entirely gone and what is left are just minor nit-picks that no longer detract from the game. I am quite pleased how well and quickly the developer has been improving the game from it's launch. Just.... it might be best to use a Xbox controller or something similar for now instead of a keyboard.

Creative puzzle game with some clever mechanics not often seen, keeps adding new elements as you go through the game. A little short, but at least it doesn't drag on and wear out it's welcome like some others do.

This is exactly the game SOTN fans and fans of the GBA and DS Iegavanias have been waiting for. For people who love these games, you know exactly what you are in for. The shard system is basically the soul system from GBA's Aria of Sorrow and DS's Dawn of Sorrow, if you loved those games or the other Igavanias, you will love this, as it's basically the sequel fans of those games always wanted but Konami refused to greenlight.

Basically the closest you will get to an indie Mario 64 on your PC, this is just a lovely classic-era 3D platformer while not being so out-of-date nostalgic that it's not keeping up to date with modern game design and mechanics. The upcoming free DLC worlds, co-op, and mod support are just the 64-bit icing on not-Peach's cake.

Playing this is like if Neo had the power to control time in The Matrix on top of being The One..... while being watched by Big Brother.