Recent reviews by Kriptini

A classic and nostalgic adventure, but fails to learn from the past's mistakes.

The End of Dyeus is a fantasy open world action adventure game reminiscent of classic titles from the NES and SNES era, but in a 3D environment. Players explore a world filled with a variety of enemies, treasures, and secrets in their quest to find the mysterious Dyeus.

The world design of Dyeus is quite strong. Immediately upon entering the game, the player has complete freedom to choose where they want to go, and there are plenty of incentives to stray from the main paths and explore. Almost no second of exploration is wasted as the world is jam-packed with various enemy camps or interesting geographical features that contain treasures or secret tidbits of lore. Many areas contain enemies that will be too difficult for the player to defeat at the start of the game, but as the player obtains better equipment, those areas become more manageable, offering a sense of progression in an otherwise completely open world.

Combat in Dyeus is extremely simple. In addition to basic movement, the player can attack or block... and that's it. There are a variety of weapons and accessories in the game that slightly change the player's approach to combat or give advantages against certain enemy types, but nothing that significantly shakes up the combat formula throughout the game. Even so, combat is fast and snappy enough to never feel too repetitive or tiresome, though it can make some enemies feel unfair due to fast attack patterns that are unblockable and don't have clear telegraphs.

Towards the last two-thirds of the game, Dyeus begins to suffer from two major flaws. The first is progression-related. Enemies start become so tough that only a specific shield can be used to block their attacks, and this shield is hidden in a red chest somewhere in the game world. Red chests contain powerful items in them, but require red keys to open them, which are also scattered around the world. It is entirely possible to open up the wrong red chests with the keys you find and be unable to progress in the game until you find another red key to open the specific red chest with the specific item you need inside. This system does not synergize with the openness of the world and leads to a frustrating feeling of being "stuck" in a game that otherwise gives the player a lot of freedom.

The second major flaw is that the last two bosses of the game are incredibly difficult and frustrating in ways that equipment upgrades don't really solve. One of these bosses is a flying enemy whose attack patterns become faster and leave the player less time to retaliate as its health decreases. Its AI also doesn't safeguard against starting these attacks in areas where the player has no time to dodge them, leading to frustrating experiences where the player is doomed to die no matter how well they've been fighting up to that point. There is a particular weapon that can be used to greatly help in this fight, but again, it is locked behind a red chest and very difficult to find, and it doesn't guarantee that the boss will play fair and not use its undodgeable attack patterns. The other boss has similarly frustrating attack patterns but is even faster, and the player's equipment selection is even more limited, requiring them to either abuse the world's geography in order to "cheese" the boss fight or simply get lucky that the boss doesn't use certain attacks.

A third, albeit more minor flaw, is that there are a lot of unexplained mechanics in The End of Dyeus. When acquiring a new piece of equipment, only an attack or defense value is shown to the player, but all of these pieces of equipment have hidden properties. A few of these properties are referenced by obscure hints in notes scattered around the world, but many of them are completely invisible. For example, there is a particular weapon that allows the player to damage the second boss through their thick armor, but this feature is unintuitive and not hinted at by any in-game means (that I could find, anyways).

The graphics and music are serviceable, and manage to create a variety of unique locations and moments. There is no dialogue, very little monologue, and no friendly NPCs (outside of silent shopkeepers), so narrative is extremely light, but this isn't particularly important for a game focused on exploration, which is what the game does best.

Although there's a lot to be enjoyed with The End of Dyeus, there are enough points of frustration that make it tough for me to recommend for most players. Still, old school gamers with a lot of resiliency for being lost (or who don't mind using walkthroughs to make sure they obtain the necessary progression items) will probably enjoy this game.

Deep, immersive, and extremely satisfying.

The interactive fiction genre, despite being one of the oldest genres of PC games, has always been a niche subgenre, but that's no reason to give Roadwarden a miss; it deserves a place in the mainstream. By combining RPG and survival mechanics, a vast and detailed world to explore, and an engaging open-ended narrative, Roadwarden solidifies itself as a gem of not just an often overlooked subgenre, but an incredible title in its own right.

The player controls a titular roadwarden - a half-adventurer, half-pathfinder tasked with securing the dangerous roadways of the northern peninsula, establishing alliances with the locals for your powerful merchant benefactors, and uncovering the land's painful and guarded history - all within a time limit before summer ends. Your character's background is customizable, including their motivations for becoming a roadwarden and the skills they learned from their previous endeavors, all of which has an impact on the way your character interacts with the world. As you journey through the peninsula, you'll have to make choices between acquiring resources for your own survival, helping the various tribes, and fulfilling your obligations to your bosses back in the city, and all of these choices affect the narrative in a significant way.

Roadwarden's writing is excellent. Descriptions of environments, characters, and situations are detailed without being monotonous or redundant, character dialogue overflows with personality, and exposition is kept to palatable amounts without being overwhelming. All characters feel individually distinct from each other while still sharing similar characteristics, such as their tribes or motivations. Conversations feel realistic and most characters react to information in a realistic way (unless they're hiding a secret that you don't know about yet).

Pixel art graphics teeter between the border of serviceable and fantastic. Environments and landscapes are beautifully detailed, but there is almost no character artwork, and the few times humans or animals do show up in the artwork, they look significantly less detailed and out of place. Maps of labyrinthine areas are both functional and artistic, as well as a clever lighting system that helps you keep track of your position while exploring. The sound work is phenomenal - almost every location has a unique music track accompanying it that helps differentiate one area from another, and atmospheric sound effects do an impressive job of intensifying the immersive feeling, regardless of what kind of environment you're in.

Where Roadwarden shines most of all is in the amount of agency the player has over the narrative. After a brief introduction scene, the player has full control over where they go and what they'd like to do. There is no "right order" to do things, and players will enjoy finding ways to efficiently explore or complete quests as they race against a time limit. There's also a moderate amount of enjoyment to be have in replaying the game; although major events don't change between playthroughs, different choices can be made during these events that can significantly affect the narrative, and it's possible to ally with different villages or make others your enemy to experience different perspectives of the story entirely.

Ultimately, Roadwarden confidently meets every expectation anyone could expect for an interactive fiction/RPG hybrid. I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys text-based adventures, and even people who normally don't, especially if they're looking for a world full of depth and player agency.

Simplistic nostalgia wrapped in a unique, stimulating world.

Reminiscent of the classic era of JRPGs, Franzen is a short narrative adventure featuring turn-based combat, a larger-than-life plot, and a dark, bizarre fantasy world featuring the signature strokes of the creative auteur Scumhead. While hardly groundbreaking, Franzen delivers an entertaining and immersive experience at a great pace.

The game tells the story of Franz and Lefsa, a married pair of technomancers studying the energy coming off a dark phenomenon known as the Scream. In classic JRPG fashion, a journey that starts with a simple errand soon expands into a globe-trotting adventure featuring powerful foes, unexplored locations, and volatile politics. The plot of the game is largely unremarkable, but the world-building and character interactions are detailed and realistic; character dialogues are kept brief but are overflowing with personality. The game is paced extremely well - although the entire game can be completed in 3 to 4 hours, each scene and level is packed with enough narrative depth to make a completely satisfying story.

Combat mechanics are extremely simple. Characters take turns in combat, and can take actions to attack, perform skills, use items, defend, or change their position on the battlefield, which causes them to deal/take more/less damage. Skills can be used to deal damage, heal damage, raise allied stats, inflict status effects, or remove status effects. As for customization, each character can be equipped with five pieces of equipment, all with very simple effects. There is also an elemental affinity system, but there are only a few elements with basic affinity interactions. There is no level up system, but items can be used to permanently raise the stats of your party. Despite this simplicity, it doesn't hinder the Franzen experience, but engages the player between story scenes.

The artwork in the world of Franzen is metallic, bleak, and in many cases, unnervingly creepy, but that's what's so charming about it. The Gigeresque monsters and allies encountered throughout the game are striking and solidify the unique feeling of the world. The soundtrack evokes nostalgic feelings of classic JRPG titles while still feeling fresh and inspired. The harmony between the character designs, environment art, and soundtrack create a feeling of immersion that can comfortably stand alongside JRPG masterpieces.

Overall, Franzen excels at its mission to provide a quick. unique, and entertaining adventure, though RPG veterans may be disappointed by the lack of depth in its combat system and character customization. I recommend Franzen to anyone who enjoys narrative RPGs and truly unique worlds.

Deep customization and fulfilling tactical battles overshadow a lacking narrative.

Symphony of War: the Nephilim Saga is a high fantasy turn-based tactical RPG in which the player controls an army of units as part of a military campaign. Each scenario in the campaign features different objectives for your squad to accomplish, which will require varied tactics and squad compositions, especially for players who are interested in completing optional challenges. In between scenarios, players can customize their squads by recruiting units, equipping them with artifacts, changing their classes, and investing in upgrades through a tech tree.

The greatest strength of Symphony of War comes from how deep its customization is. Instead of controlling individual units on the battlefield, Symphony of War puts the player in charge of several squads which are each composed of individual units. Squads will have different strengths and weaknesses depending on the type of units they contain. For example, a squad could be composed entirely of mages in order to shred through highly-armored opposing squads, agile light infantry in order to ambush foes in rough terrain, or a balance of different unit types to allow a squad to be capable in all situations. With over 15 different unit classes and a variety of way to further customize squads through artifacts which improve stats and bestow special effects, there are tons of ways to build squads and customize one's army. The only limitations are one's creativity and tactical prowess.

Overall, scenarios are not tactically difficult, but optional objectives and challenges allow players to customize the difficulty of their game. There's also extra settings that can adjust the difficulty of the game, such as permadeath for any of your units that should fall in battle. This makes Symphony of War a great game for both tactical veterans and casual players looking to try out the genre in a stress-free way. The enemy AI is very predictable, which is both a pro and a con; it allows the player to make better tactically-informed decisions by anticipating what opposing forces will do, but it also makes some scenarios stale, especially in the latter half of the game, where enemies play extremely defensively.

Narrative is Symphony of War's weakest point. Characters are relatively shallow, as are their relationships. A shoehorned romance system and optional unit conversations add little depth to gameplay and even less to the characters themselves. The plot is generic JRPG-like fare in which a chosen group of heroes must defeat a powerful evil force, and while there are some mildly interesting twists along the way, the cutscenes are overall nuisances that feel like extended loading screens before the next scenario. The artwork, music, and sound design are serviceable, but nothing special.

From a gameplay perspective, Symphony of War is a breakthrough in the fantasy turn-based tactical RPG genre and a must-play for any fans of similar games. Its customization options are unrivaled and I had so much fun spending hours in the army management menus customizing my perfect squads, and would highly recommend this to anyone who fantasizes about builds for characters in their RPGs or people who love watching their carefully-designed tactics execute on the battlefield.

Engaging narrative and character customization options held back by clunky combat and awful level design.

CODE VEIN is an action RPG where the player takes control of a custom-created Revenant - an undead human who needs to feed on living human blood in order to survive. The game boasts a wide variety of features, such as a fully voice-acted narrative, high-octane real-time combat, multitudes of options for customizing your character, and a wide variety of environments to explore, but only about half of these meet an acceptable standard of quality, making for a clunky and inconsistent experience.

Starting with the things the game does well, it must be noted that the character customization options in this game are phenomenal. An extremely detailed character creator allows players to design almost any type of human they can think of, and a plethora of costumes and accessories allow them to give their characters a unique sense of style. Throughout the game, players will acquire "blood codes" - combat archetypes through which new skills can be unlocked. By obtaining many blood codes, players can obtain a multitude of skills that result in thousands upon thousands of different ways to build their character's combat prowess, and the game makes it easy to change skills and stats at any time, encouraging experimentation.

Additionally, the game's narrative is interesting and manages to stay engaging throughout its ~25-hour main story, in spite of having a silent protagonist. The supporting characters are well-developed and have relatable struggles that they learn to overcome. The blocking and direction of the cutscenes are cinematic, and the voice actors' performances range from great to serviceable. Tons of lines of dialogue were recorded for the player's companions, who appropriately react to the player's actions during gameplay, deepening immersive feeling.

Although it's incredibly satisfying to experiment with different combat loadouts, the actual combat of CODE VEIN is pretty hit-or-miss. Players obtain "ichor" by landing basic attacks on enemies that they can later spend to unleash their powerful skills, which keep battles more interesting than they would be if players could spam their strongest skills all the time. However, enemies deal high damage, move quickly, and many of their attacks launch with breakneck speed and little wind-up, requiring the player to sometimes predict when to dodge in advance of an attack instead of reacting to an wind-up with a dodge, which creates a frustrating experience. Furthermore, many skills and actions the player can take during combat have significant animation locks, easily punished by the quick attacks from enemies, which can discourage the use of many interesting combat options the players have. With practice, players can circumvent these issues, but they create a steep learning curve that feels more irritating to climb than it does satisfying. The game is difficult in ways that aren't intuitive, and learning how to account for this is a long part of the process to "get good" at it.

The design of CODE VEIN's levels are, unfortunately, inexcusably terrible. Aesthetically speaking, most areas in CODE VEIN look aesthetically identical, save for some slight changes to the color palette between ruined cities or monochrome cathedrals. Many levels are very confusing to navigate; although there is a map that tracks the player's movement through a level to help them see where they've been and where they have yet to go, the map does a poor job at communicating vertical differences and there are often very few environmental details for players to use as landmarks as they navigate identical looking empty hallways and corridors. Enemy and trap placement are interesting at first, but quickly become repetitive and predictable due to how little differences there are between one level and the next (with a few exceptions).

There could be a fantastic game somewhere within CODE VEIN's programming, but unfortunately it's muddled by its desire to copycat the industry leader in the ARPG genre instead of standing on its own original ideas and mechanics. Overall, I enjoyed my time with CODE VEIN, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to most players; only to people who have a passion for dark, punishing ARPGs that allows them to look past the inconsistent combat and poor level design.

Entertaining, but lacking in detail.

Harvestella is an ARPG/farming simulation combo that sounds bizarre, but works out fairly well. Players take on the role of an amnesiac traveler who is thrust into a new life of managing a farm, slaying monsters, and uncovering their lost memories.

Harvestella's farming mechanics are decent. There are four major seasons, a variety of crops that can be grown, and a few different environments that further add to farming variety. Animal husbandry features are minimal, but a vast number of cooking and crafting recipes encourage growing as many different types as possible, rewarding players with new discoveries, although a lack of winter crop variety slows down the game considerably during that season.

Your character can learn a variety of combat jobs and equip up to three at a time while exploring dungeons. Each job comes with unique movesets and passive abilities to customize your playstyle the way you want. An elemental weakness/resistance system further encourages you to experiment with class combinations, rewarding you with special moves from your comrades if you manage to target bosses' weaknesses enough. ARPG fans may be displeased to hear that the player cannot block or dodge attacks in Harvestella; spacing yourself from an enemy's swing or telegraph can sometimes allow you to avoid a hit, but many attacks are completely undodgeable, requiring players to eat food and drink that they've prepared in advanced to heal during battles. Additionally, some jobs don't explain their attacks with much detail, and other jobs are downright underpowered, which creates an overall clunky combat experience.

The narrative starts out extremely slow with a run-of-the-mill amnesiac JRPG plot, though there are some plot twists later in the story that keep things interesting and somewhat unique. The major characters of the story aren't particularly interesting, however; although each character has their own extensive sidequest chain dedicated to their own development, these quests are usually little more than sophomoric monologues that force character development rather than letting the characters grow organically.

But perhaps the biggest issue with Harvestella is that there is a lack of fine details that are so important to making RPG experiences immersive. In cutscenes, characters regularly handle objects that are invisible. Dialogue choices exist, but they have no impact on anything and most of the time, the choices are two different ways of phrasing the exact same thing. All cutscenes are unskippable, which can make the banal writing of the sidequests become too tiresome to bother with after only a few hours of this 50 hour RPG. Translation errors abound, including both improper word choice and spelling/grammar mistakes. The culmination of all of these forgotten details create an experience that feels phoned-in.

I did enjoy my time with Harvestella, but I acknowledge that it has numerous issues that might turn off many fans of ARPGs or farming simulators. That being said, it has a bit more crunch to it than your average casual game, and its mechanics are fairly simplistic at their core, so I would recommend this game for both casual gamers and kids.

An explosive and essential contemporary take on a retro shooter.

As a new school "boomer shooter," Proteus does an excellent job of capturing the nostalgia of late 90's first person shooters and combining it with modern mechanics for a unique and captivating experience. In Prodeus, you'll shoot your way through expertly crafted levels on a futuristic asteroid caught between two warring alien forces with one goal: destroy them all.

Prodeus deserves praise for its incredible level design. Enemy placement and encounters are carefully crafted with peaks and valleys of difficulty; some sequences are meant to challenge the player while others are meant to allow them to go nuts with powerful weapons on unfortunate enemies. Levels are relatively linear, but each boasts plenty of secrets to uncover for the curious player, allowing them to acquire rewards that can be used to upgrade their arsenal or even find new guns before they are "intended" to come up through the campaign. Each level in the campaign clocks in at about 10-15 minutes, and they feel packed to the brim with action without ever becoming annoying.

All of the gameplay mechanics are incredible as well - guns have a significant amount of oomph to them, movement controls feel tight, and there's lots of variety in enemy designs. The sound effects are incredible; I probably spent two minutes just shooting and reloading the shotgun over and over again after acquiring it because the sound effects were so satisfying. Music is your typical "doom metal" you'd expect to hear in these games, which intensifies in the midst of combat and settles down in between encounters for an immersive aural experience.

Graphically, the game gorgeously combines retro character sprites with contemporary lighting techniques. Just look at the screenshots and videos - they're incredible.

Prodeus falls short in the narrative department, but that doesn't matter. You're here to splatter alien invaders and obtain high scores, and after you finish the campaign, there's plenty of community-made levels and campaigns to download (including an intuitive level editor for making your own) as well as multiplayer co-op and PvP modes.

This game is a must-play for anyone that's a fan of retro shooters, and I would also highly recommend to anyone that likes first-person-shooters in general.

Engaging and innovative, though lacking in narrative.

Crystal Project takes the old-school JRPG formula and enhances it with additional features to create an experience that feels mechanically complete. The player controls a party of four heroes to explore a large fantasy world that includes turn-based combat, over 20 character classes (with dual-classing to create hundreds of possible character combinations), and equipment with interesting effects to further customize your playstyle.

The game excels in three major areas: combat, customization, and exploration. Combat is similar to typical JRPG turn-based combat, but Crystal Project enhances it by including a visible threat meter, visible enemy intentions, and detailed turn tracker, allowing you to know which one of your party members will be attacked, what they will be attacked with, and when it will happen. A plethora of conditions exist that can be used to strengthen your own party members or weaken your enemies, which create meaningful tactical choices and unique encounters throughout the entire game.

With hundreds of class combinations and bespoke pieces of equipment to choose from, Crystal Project doesn't lack in the customization department. Players who love experimenting with different team compositions and tweaking their stats to create the perfect party will find immense fulfillment in Crystal Project - moreso than most JRPGs that have ever been made. (You could compare the levels of customization to those of Bravely Default or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.) A savvy player can use their favorite team composition to complete most of the content in the game, though the optional superbosses may challenge them to experiment with different choices in order to succeed.

Platforming mechanics and a lack of invisible walls add depth to exploration. Crystal Project takes the approach of "if you can see it, you can go there, as long as you can find a way." Many unique treasures and sidequests can be found in areas that other games might section as "off-limits," and clever players can find ways to access lategame areas early. However, it should be noted that the world isn't as cohesive as is typical of JRPGs - it can sometimes be confusing to figure out where to go next due to the world's unintuitive geography.

Narratively speaking, Crystal Project is barebones. Players should not expect a good story (or even much of a story at all) from the game. This is both a pro and a con; while you won't have to be bothered by watching uninteresting unskippable cutscenes, there isn't going to be any intrigue or character development that pulls you into the game's world.

Boasting a mastery of the JRPG mechanics that few other games achieve, Crystal Project is an easy recommendation for anyone that enjoys the genre, though players who prefer story over gameplay may wish to sit this one out. As a bonus, the entire game was made by a solo developer, with the exception of art, music, and SFX, most of which are stock, licensed, or royalty-free.

Conceptually intriguing; shallow execution.

Weird West is a hybrid of the immersive simulator, RPG, and twin-stick shooter genres while thematically being a combination of western, occult, and sci-fi styles. The design proposition is very intriguing while the art, music, SFX, and dialogue styles all contribute to make a wholly unique world.

Gameplay is fun for the first hour or two as you learn how to interact with all of Weird West's systems. Combat is a little awkward at first but becomes satisfying as you learn to utilize the "bullet time" dodges and gain some collectibles to unlock perks and abilities. One of my favorite moments was throwing an unconscious body off a rooftop into a road to alert a bunch of outlaws, then blowing them all up with dynamite in one fell swoop as they gathered around to inspect the body.

While the immersive simulation systems are very impressive from a technical standpoint and no doubt took the developers a lot of time and effort to create, they sadly come across as quite shallow from the player's perspective. The RPG mechanics don't help with this either. As you collect more perks and higher quality guns, it becomes much more efficient and effective to drill a powered-up bullet into an enemy's head than it does to try to sneak around them or kill them with environmental effects.

Furthermore, side quests are very dull, and secrets/easter eggs - while amusing - do not significantly impact the "fun" factor of the game to outweigh its drawbacks. After about two hours into the game, you'll have seen almost everything the game has to offer. Though the main story should take around 15-20 hours to complete, I can't say it's compelling enough to keep someone interested if they're not enjoying the rest of the game.

While I enjoyed Weird West well enough, I don't think I would recommend this game to most players. If you enjoy unique takes on game genres and are curious about how Weird West manages to make it a cohesive (though not very fulfilling) experience, you might consider giving it a shot, but if that nuance means nothing to you, there are more entertaining games in the immersive simulator, RPG, and twin-stick shooter genres.

A very unique type of hybrid puzzle/sandbox resource management game which appears difficult to get into, but if you take the plunge you'll find the learning curve is very reasonable and every new discovery you make is extremely satisfying. There is a ton of content in the form of in-game events, challenges, and mysteries, and the developers have been working hard to make continued improvements to the game, even now almost four years after its initial release. A recent technical update has introduced some new bugs into the game, but Weather Factory's communication has been constant and transparent with the community, with many fixes already implemented and more on the way.