Recent reviews by Fission_Mailed

Roughly at 90-ish hours with this review. Made it to HR 100 in about a week, so would say I'm probably not a "casual enjoyer" of the series.

Overall as a series veteran I enjoyed it and a lot of newer players I played and talked with enjoyed it. I'm pretty biased with the series getting into it young (PSP - MH Freedom) and dropped it since it was so confusing, and then revisiting when I was older (3DS - MH4U) to properly learn and try the series. In terms as a sequel from World; Couple steps forward, a few steps backs in some regards.

Good:
- Easier transition/introduction to "gameplay loop" for newcomers. Low Rank acting as the tutorial is appropriate. For veterans it'll be a bit painful "slow burn" as you quickly rush to HR, but it's not as long comparing to World IMHO.
- Maps are an evolution of World's environments. You can literally travel from one map to the next.
- All Weapons have received great changes that make them a "fresh" experience for all players. So even veterans will need to be aware of the changes and adjust accordingly. Even allowing you to bring a second weapon with you VIA your mount.
- Plenty of new monsters introduced to the series. As well as a good amount of returning monsters with more coming in future title updates

Bad:
- Co-op is somehow even more confusing coming from World/Rise.
- Performance definitely needs work. (If you can't wait and have a PS5 or Series X, may want to consider it on there instead if benchmark tool gives you bad estimates. Some friends opted for that and have been playing with them just fine VIA cross play. However don't believe cross-save will be a thing. If performance improves or you get a PC that can run it you'd need to start all over most likely.)

I have other thoughts, but more debatable point as a veteran looking at the game comparing to previous titles instead of by itself.

Nothing better than a hard days work to go and get morkite for management with my fellow dwarf brothers. Rock and Stone. Don't forget to tip Lloyd.

In all seriousness it does a PvE co-op game right. Multiple Season passes, weapon mods, class cosmetics and more this is easy to come back to after a long hiatus.

The camaraderie of D.R.G., except the whole team is expendable and command doesn't even acknowledge your existence.

Although you have the monotonous task of finding scraps to make the quota, the encounters will make it memorable. Whether you manage to escape or scream like a scared toddler trapped in a closet in the dark.

Pushing to Objective and get downed
Me: "Help me brother!!!" *Southern Accent*
Me: "He's right around the corner."
Enemy: "Shut up, no I'm not!!!"

5/7

Re-reviewed after cooling off and retrying after the promised "Performance Patch".

Unfortunately still not worth the full price, either do the EA subscription or wait until the game goes on sale. MHW had some launch issues but still ran better than the PS4 and X1 versions that launched before it and that was in August 2018. It's Feb 2023 and Koei/EA launched this when it wasn't ready performance wise. The opposite is the case here where PS5 - Performance Mode looks to run smoother watching streamers play it.

The promised performance patch to PC for the CPU bottleneck didn't help much. A lot of people notice worse performance post-patch and high CPU usage, myself included. Makes playing a timing weapon like the 'Maul' (Hammer) have a huge handicap and frustrating where the gimmick of the weapon is timing and your inputs are dropping cause the random dips messing with the timing you practice in the village. Being forced to switch to a different weapon because of it adds more frustration.

The game offers to be a nice competitor to the MH genre with the mechanics it introduces with the karakuri in and out of combat and map exploration, traversal and being a tool in your hunts.

There's still the "carrot on a stick" most series vet know of getting parts to make better gear to tackle harder monsters and continue the loop.

Difficulty can arguably be for either (Easier if you use the karakuri system, harder if you decide not to) with how monsters appear to be designed and you need to use the karakuri defensively as well as offensively. Building can be a bit clunky needing specific arrangements mid fight. It's not hard to pick up, but like the wirebugs in MHR it takes time to use.

There's goods and potential here, but the performance for an action game is not ideal and really hinders the game. Playable, but when comparing to MHW and MHR there's a lot left to be desired in terms of performance and optimization.

Hope more performance fixes come or I can see myself dropping this sooner than I would a monster hunter-esque game .

Same gameplay as Vermintide 2, but now with more guns for everyone!

Load times are a bit much (Even with the game on an NVMe) and only have had a few crashes mid-match. But game has a decent reconnect and fun loop.

Hopefully gets the optimization to resolve these Beta/Launch issues.

Gameplay Loop of Vampire Survivor with the "Carrot Stick chase" of unlockables similar to Hades and Rogue : Genesia.

For an Early Access title it already has a lot going for it with "progression" to upgrade your characters (Flat increase to stats/passives to new weapons and different characters + skills to try out).

If Slay the Spire and Borderlands did the fusion dance, this would be it.

I got this early when there was just 2 hero's (Prince (Cat) + Ao Bai (Dog)).

Since all upgrades are randomly given, so it never really gets stale playing. Sometimes you get lucky with skill choices that lean toward a certain playstyle. Other times you find a weapon roll that works well with your character.

Easily one of my favorite games to just "pick-up and play".

UPDATE: 11/27/21
Game is officially launched and now has 6 different characters. More boss variety, additional weapons and an additional stage.

Easily worth it full price with how many hours you can get out of the game. Once you're capped out the "End" difficulty tier uses the former currency you used to level up skills as currency for new vendors that add extra variety (New/Exclusive passives, rarer unique weapon rolls and scrolls, etc.)

There's still the jump puzzle vaults which can be frustrating for newer players; but might just be me, I've noticed I encounter those less compared to Fight/Mini-Boss Vaults. But that could just be my RNG.

Grew up play these on OG Xbox and the 360. Now I can boot these 5 titles on PC and play online with all my friends from back in the day to relive memories. Might be the "nostalgia glasses", but I still enjoy them when I want to shoot some covies.

You into trading card games like Magic The Gathering or deckbuilder like Ascension? This game takes those game concepts and adds a "rogue-like" layer and theme on top of it (Choose your path of progression and random events/encounters).

You choose from 3 different characters (4 if you opt into the PC Beta or mods) that each have their own unique pool of cards and playstyles/strategies. You progress up the tower and doing an encounter each level (Event, Battle, Shop, etc). You start off with a 10 card deck and after every battle (Also sometimes from events) you get to select a card from 3 random ones in the characters pool, similar to a draft in MTG.

There are ways to remove and upgrade cards like from the shop or events. However like in a MTG draft or a deckbuilder you need to be able to plan out a deck strategy on the fly. Possibly adjusting or modifying it if you get a relic or good card to consider.

Great to play with friends in a "co-op" way too if your into that (Trade off between battles or stream it with friend and conquer the spire together).

Love the game so much I bought it on my Switch too to have it on the go. No synced progress though, but I don't mind.