Recent reviews by Jedo

I adore the setting and the cinematic aesthetic quality that this game has. Unfortunately, it falls short in many areas that are very important for Turn-Based Tactics games. Too many in fact that it's impossible to ignore. I've never played XCOM so I can't make that kind of apples-to-apples comparison, but I can at least make some observations based on the few tactics games that I've played.

First off, panning to the edges of your screen to scout out the map feels clunky. Even on recon mode, you hit these walls that are meant to tell you that an area is non-traversable, but it feels like the game wants you to blindly feel your way around the invisible walls of the map when all you really want is to get a lay of the land. Imagine trying to get a bird's eye view of a labyrinth but only being able to observe 1 hallway at a time and hitting a wall when you try to scan surrounding areas. It makes me wonder why panning/free cam is even a thing if it doesn't feel free at all. I would have thought the fog of war was enough to bring balance to that feature but they really added a layer of annoyance on top of what was already appropriate.

Speaking of Recon Mode, it's a pain in the ass to observe certain objects. As far as I can tell, investigation points aren't easy to spot unless you hover very close to them. Lore books and enemies are okay, but I don't want to scan every inch of a map just for a small bit of context that may or may not contribute anything to the overall lore. A better indicator similar to the way lore books shine would have been a good way to point those in recon mode to fun flavor text. As far as I'm concerned, if something is inconsequential (lore-wise) and too annoying to find, then it's not worth looking for it.

The Motion Blur is horrible. I typically play through my games with Motion Blur and DOF, but those games also have more precise setting controls for camera movement. I could not find a way to just have a birds-eye view of the enemy units performing their attacks without the camera shaking violently and blurring like there's no tomorrow moving from 1 unit that's on one end of the screen to the other. This is even worse with Action Cam turned on (even only some of the time) so I had to disable that feature completely. As previously mentioned, a static bird's-eye view to observe all pieces as they move would have fixed this. Some games have fixed this issue by allowing moves to auto-complete.

To a lesser extent, there are some small bugs/issues here and there that I encountered. Sometimes the enemy's action would not complete. Incapacitated enemies also seem to get thrown around like a ragdoll when hitting a completely unrelated unit. The achievement for defeating Lady Nicastro in the tutorial mission is also not working completely as intended (there's a Reddit thread on it).

Lastly, I don't know how they picked out which character to turn into DLC. I totally think that Nocturne belongs to the Base Agent cast just as much as anyone not named Eddie, Ingrid, and Lateef. It seems like such a roll-the-dice decision that it wouldn't have mattered which one of them became DLC. As far as I'm concerned, she contributes just as much to the lore as every other expedition recruit. I don't believe any of these characters should be locked behind DLC and that was an unsavory move that seems to only subtract from the base game.

I really wanted to love this game. I completed everything it had to offer after putting roughly 55 hours in. Unfortunately, it did not live up to the hype and the price tag. I hope another game with this aesthetic comes along because the proof of concept is definitely there. It's just that the game did not have enough polish that you'd expect from a game backed by this publisher.

Wonderful character, but I don't think it's right to separate her from the base game as paid DLC. It's very easy to appreciate how her weirdness enhances the character interactions when you check out the available dialogue after each mission. I honestly feel like she fits right in with the gang which is why I have to downvote this DLC despite finding her such an interesting character.

ARMORED CORE™ VI FIRES OF RUBICON™ was a beautiful and immersive experience from start to finish. While I can't lay claim to having an easy time with the game, evident from the numerous times Balteus decapitated my AC and all the bullet holes Ibis engraved into my frame, I can confidently say that this game put me on a grand quest to evolve and gradually grow into a better pilot.

A lot of people I know were (rightfully) worried AC6 would lose its identity and turn into a Soulslike, but I believe FromSoft successfully kept a large portion of what makes Armored Core great. The path to victory never truly only boiled down to "get good". It was in large part a combination of getting better paired with understanding the parts at your disposal. Do you want to turn your mech into a battering ram? Do you want to shoot as many missiles as Balteus? Do you want to quick boost from New York all the way to Sacramento? All of these things become possible as you unlock more possibilities and push through 3 playthroughs of this game—each more beautiful than the last. I think FromSoft did a great job in implementing NG+/++. On top of that mysteriously good story in the NG++ run, it never felt like a chore replaying through certain missions a 2nd or 3rd time. It was a reward in itself to beat your personal best and go beyond the limits of your own S-Rank. Playing a certain way in this game is not mandatory, and that's the beauty of AC6. The path to success can manifest in the form of being adaptable like water (queue Bruce Lee quote). Despite this, the game provides plenty of challenge and entertainment if you choose to implement your preferred style as a sort of self-imposed challenge. Words can't describe how much I enjoyed watching amazing players like ONGBAL demolish bosses with a weapon that's the equivalent of flipflops.

With that said, I think there's minor room for improvement to make this wonderful game even better. I believe that more transparency in the scoring/ranking system will alleviate a lot of the complaints some people have in their pursuit of all S-Ranks. That's all I can really critique about my experience in AC6. It was fun even when I kept running head-first into destruction. Before I realized it, nearly 90 hours had passed!! I'm excited for future Armored Core games, and I hope others feel the same after completing everything AC6 has to offer.

Sea of Stars is Canadian game dev's beautiful rendition of a JRPG. It's inspired by the classics, but not a direct lift. Sabotage Studio did a great job of simply presenting nostalgic elements here and there to great effect without overly relying on them to deliver an experience that is uniquely theirs to express. There were a few key elements that propelled this title near the top of my list, and some smaller things here and there that were only okay. All in all, thanks to Sea of Stars, I'm confident in the future of JRPG-esque games as we get deeper into the 2020's.

The most strikingly beautiful feature of this game is how the pixel world is presented (expertly) in an isometric fashion. Maybe it's because some of my most played games of all time during the 90's were presented that way (Ragnarok Online for one), but out of everything I've played since the day I was born, Sea of Stars has done the best job of presenting a gorgeous isometric world.

Second to the beautiful pixel world is my absolute love for this game's soundtrack! The turning point for me was when I stepped into a factory-type place. It really opened my eyes to the way this game uses one of the tracks in many different mind-blowing ways. The soundtrack in the aforementioned area really gave me a 70's vibe (or what I think a 70's vibe would sound like) similar to when I listened to David Hasselhoff's True Survivor (from "Kung Fury"). It was awesome and unexpected in a good way!!!

Admittedly, the main characters are a bit bland in my opinion. I think this may have been done on purpose for self-insert purposes and because I think the main characters are not truly the main star of this Sea of Stars (if you catch my drift). I found myself way more enamored by the supporting cast... and I seriously believe the game would just be as good even if G was made the focal point of the entire story.

While the combat was not my favorite thing in this game, I enjoyed the planning involved in breaking the more complex locks for certain boss fights. I think the game would have benefited more in a tactical sense if 3-way combo skills and lock breaking were a consideration. There's definitely room to make this more exciting. I'm also 50-50 on how I feel about the button timing concept when it comes to less important battles, but it didn't really affect my experience in a negative way. I believe that out of all the elements in this game, the combat has the most potential left to reach. Just as Zale and Valere keep on doing their push-ups and sit-ups, I hope future Sea of Stars DLC can somehow innovate the combat mechanics further.

Roughly 47 hours deep and after obtaining the 100%, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. Sea of Stars is my first Sabotage Studio game and I look forward to trying The Messenger at some point. Good job to these Canadian game devs for a job well done!! 8 Garls out of 10.

Excellent version of FFV with considerably more content compared to the Pixel Remaster. It features vibrant sprites that I sometimes prefer (over the PR), but that's mostly on a case by case basis. The only thing I dislike about this port are some minor compatibility issues that were present in 2015 and have persisted as the years went by. Overall, it's a great game game that does FFV justice. Unfortunately, it's no longer available officially through Steam. I wish I played it to completion when it first got ported. 5/7 Chocobos.

I have an immense amount of respect for this developer after watching him actively engage his community on discord daily to address their concerns and squash bugs on the regular. Cornucopia is a 2.5D farming sim with a boatload of personable NPCs, lots of fun mini-games, and combat to boot! I think that out of the 10 or so Early Access games I've tried out this year, this is the one I have the most confidence in since the dev has really shown through consistency what it means to really take full ownership of a project. Even if you are on the fence about purchasing it right now, check back on Cornucopia as the weeks go by so you too can realize how hard the dev is working.

Every time they update the game, all the scenes level up!!! Hnnnnggg!!!!

Gorgeous fighting game based on the TYPE-MOON VNs and other media. I'm actually so happy I caught it during the free weekend!! It's an accessible game, even for someone who hasn't picked up any other fighting games in the last few years, so I definitely recommend it if you can catch it at a good discount. It's easy to get into the thick of things because the game features fast, flowing (yet simple) combos. Not much else to say since I only played it while it was free, but it was a seriously fun weekend of mashing buttons with Mash!

P.S. Noel has the best grapple move. Hhhhhnnnnnngg!!!! https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3012457864

Arcadian Atlas is a Tactics RPG that is strong in the storytelling department without trying to say too much. There were a few speed bumps as I played the game throughout the night, but it ultimately didn't stop me from seeing it to the end. If you value story in your tactics RPGs, in the same way that I did for a title such a story-driven game like TS, then this game can be a good fit.

In the $20-30+ (Canadian) price range, a lot of tactics RPGs lean heavily towards combat and designing a re-playable experience in the form of NG+ runs with minor variations. Arcadian Atlas is the opposite of that in that it tries harder to tell a story using the many creative elements at its disposal. Right off the bat, the music stands out as a great mood setter for both comedic and dark moments in the game. Additionally, the game oozes out strong visual appeal in the beautiful character sprite work. As far as aesthetics go, everything was great.

Admittedly, the experience was not perfect. There's definite room for improvement in the QoL department when it comes to menu navigation, map-making, and other tactics RPG must-haves (in-battle saving, showing cell depth, auto-targeting adjacent enemies, etc). I understand that by design, having fully 2D maps makes camera rotation less feasible. Unfortunately, I think that greater considerations could have been made to consider how this limitation adversely affects players when it comes to navigating between overlapping cells of varying depths. I had to put in noticeable effort to target enemies in those situations. I think the auto-targeting I mentioned above would have solved this issue (pressing bumpers/triggers to automatically scroll between enemies within your attack range). Ultimately, this resulted in a slower than desirable experience both in and out of combat.

To summarize, the game is good and carries great potential for delivering a story-driven tactics RPG. The Combat and UI issues could have benefited from some playtesting or EA, but honestly, for this price point, there aren't a whole lot of choices that deliver this level of storytelling within the (Tactics RPG) genre. After almost 13 hours, I finished everything I could in this game (95% completion at the moment but I trust that will be fixed soon after the bug reports). Looking forward to returning to grab the 100%!

Dragon Quest Treasures is to the Dragon Quest™ franchise what I hoped WoFF would have been for Final Fantasy. There's so much love and care that went into this awe-inspiring map that lends to an insane amount of fun just collecting a boatload of treasure paired together with your standard JRPG experience. What you are getting is essentially a Hidden Object JRPG with a solid amount of questing involved (about 30-40h), a ton of collectibles, charming (sometimes annoying) monster companions, and a huge map that speaks to the love and care that went along with this game. The process of collecting all 777 is slowly driving me to madness, but I was already halfway there in deciding to 100% this game. Give DQ Treasures a good look! It's a heartwarming game fit for all ages.

P.S. I love Pierre despite his incessant trolling. https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3008941135