Recent reviews by punchy

This game is a really fun crossover between Final Fantasy and Wizardry. The original was styled after NES era Final Fantasies, and this one has been modeled after SNES era visuals, sound quality, and gameplay mechanics. The original was already fun, but this one managed to be a stunning evolution.

The dungeons are fun to explore, returning to town to become stronger so you can go deeper inside. Slowly conquering these satisfying and always rewarding. Character progression is quick and you always feel like you're progressing. The combat provides a nice challenge that always feels fair. I specifically want to praise the music, too. It feels incredibly inspired by Final Fantasy VI in particular and it sounds amazing! The dungeon, battle, and boss themes feel very immersive.

This game would be worth it at $20, and it's only $9! It's an absolute gem for anyone who's a fan of the SNES era Final Fantasy games.

This game is fantastic, it's incredible that it's a faithful remaster of a game originally released in 1993. The non-linear structure creates a world that's constantly filled with side quests to discover, characters to unlock, and treasure to be plundered. This is amplified by the fact that the choices you make actually do impact your personal playthrough, creating plenty of replayability. The combat is fantastic, so many options are given for party composition, skills to use, abilities to slot into your characters. and formations to utilize. The presentation itself has been dramatically increased, with a fantastic orchestral soundtrack alongside a significant yet faithful 3d reinterpretation of the original.

This is the game that got me into the SaGa franchise. If it seems interesting to you, it's absolutely worth your time getting into one of the most unique and fun JRPG franchises. There's truly nothing like these games.

The gameplay is addictive, glimmering techniques is incredibly satisfying and the combat balances difficulty and creativity incredibly well. Party building creates so much freedom. The world is vast with tons of loot to obtain, characters to recruit, dungeons to raid and secrets to be uncovered. It's a SaGa game through and through. The series isn't for everybody, it can be incredibly unwieldy at times. But it's an experience worth seeing through to the end and overcoming its obstacles.

Marvelous spin-off in the Octopath Traveler series. Has amazing visual style, gameplay, and music as usual.

It's quite amazing how they turned many people's least favorite Dragon Quest, into one that sits among their favorites. I myself am part of this crowd. The style is gorgeous, the music is a treat to listen to, and the gameplay is as engaging as ever. Plus, it feels incredibly rare to get pixel-art style games with not only voice acting, but also voiced interactions between party members. It's an adventure that's almost 40 years old, that feels like it could have come out today.

A fantastic game that immediately made me buy part 2 the moment I saw the end credits.

I recently completed the original FFVII and loved it, so I checked this one out. It absolutely does the original justice while also adding onto the original plot with boss fights and additional story beats. This both gives me the joy of seeing my favorite moments in that game remade in a modern style, while also changing just enough to keep me very engaged with the new take on the plot I already experienced, all without losing out on experiencing those original parts.

At worst, I had myself thinking "I kind of liked how the original did this part better". Mostly due to insubstantial small things, like not using the track I wanted during a certain sequence. At best, the game has my eyes glued to the screen, and volume to the max for climactic battles with its fantastic combat system, hilarious scenes that made me adore certain characters I previously glossed over, and emotional, engaging writing that made me fall in love with the story all over again.

The game is short, but has a good amount of replay value. It combines NES-era Final Fantasy combat with dungeon crawler progression, alongside a really catchy soundtrack. It's well worth the price if you enjoy these elements like I do.

One of the most tightly designed JRPGs of all time from a gameplay perspective. The combat, class system, world and things to discover in said world surpass almost any other game I've played.

That being said, this game is still for a specific demographic of JRPG fans, that being those of us who genuinely play JRPGs for the mechanics as opposed to focusing on the story. Don't go in expecting a heavy narrative. There is a loose story, but it's in the background and told through optional NPC interactions as opposed to the traditional bombastic cutscene. Still, if you know you can get past that, you're in for a fantastic time well worth your money.

Side note: this game has a modding community that's honestly fantastic, with mods easily accessible from the Steam workshop. The dev (singular) is an awesome guy who has consistently been supporting the community with tools to create their own adventures and content for the game. His efforts have resulted in one of the single most replayable JRPGs I've ever seen.

I had a really obscure bug that I spent hours trying to fix my own. Ended up asking the developer for help and he was polite and incredibly helpful - fixed my save in 2 minutes.

The game is a fantastic RPG, one which was clearly made by people passionate not only about the genre's history, but also with a deep respect for its fans as well. This alone makes it well-worth the asking price for me.

Amazing and adorable little game with a great story and some clever gameplay