Recent reviews by Maven

Outstanding writing from someone that intimately knows the LGBT+ experience, combat that is tight yet allows for creativity, adorable designs all over, and music I can jam to. This is the pinnacle of all RPG Maker games I've encountered, and I can't wait for the next project from these folks. <3

Patrick's Parabox is excellently paced and designed, teaching you each element and its varied applications one at a time before asking you to begin piecing them all together. Having 100% the main game, I can confidently say it has plenty of challenges to try your mind at with ever-increasing difficulty. Sometimes, it's even just fun to see what sort of paradoxes you can create!

And...wow, that's a lot of post-game puzzles. I've a long way to go even still.

Deep Rock Glactic is a game I've heard about but never looked into. Then, my friends started playing, and I saw it on sale, and...oh wow was I missing out. It's crazy addictive!

The guns (once you've unlocked them all) are varied and feel good to use, the monsters constantly keep you on your toes, the mining is satisfying to work around and watch those valuables vanish into your pockets, and each character invites a different mindset that greatly alters how you view and navigate the terrain. Your improvisation and teamwork is always put to the test. Random events and warnings keep even the same missions fresh. I'm a particularly big fan of the On-Site Refining mission type; the rails are fun to build and the logistics can be quite challenging.

My only complaint is that people dissatisfied with early weaponry may find it difficult to find the time to unlock all the weapons. There's some glorious stuff out there that takes a whole lot of leveling and missions to find. But it really rewards you for time and effort invested.

I don't regret buying this one bit <3

Ikenfell is a tidy tactics RPG with timing mechanics. I was heartened to see accessibility options for removing them, though, as they are absolutely required. Still, I enjoyed getting used to the various abilities and learning enemy patterns. And boy does every battle tend to test you. You really have to learn how to adapt, how to utilize each character to the best of your ability, and how to build in ways conducive to their skills.

The story is heartwarming, the characters engaging, and the lessons on point. I enjoyed the writing greatly and honestly could not find an excuse to put the game down lest I delay finding out more. The game is genuinely unsettling when it wants to be, mysterious at other times, and warm and bright in others.

There is one legitimate criticism and one utterly absurd criticism. The legitimate criticism is that the game can get slow. Enemies are not chumps to defeat unless you've outleveled the area greatly, and your item management and care well be put to the test. Even with optimal play, encounters can take a while, and bosses are true feats of endurance on occasion. I don't personally see this as a bad thing, as the gameplay was fun for me throughout.

The illegitimate criticism is that this game is "too Tumblr". By which I presume to mean "ew, diverse cast and non-binary pronouns". This is far more a plus, and they handle the inclusion tastefully and without going hamfisted. Quite honestly, every person complaining about this is giving a positive review of the game and a negative review for themselves.

The only negative I truly found in this game...was that I genuinely hated one song. I ADORE the soundtrack for every single other track; the music is wonderfully evocative and catchy. But...geez, that one song is painful. Still, I'd gladly play through this game again even if I had to hear it five times as much as I did.

Absolutely worth your time and money to experience. <3

Return of the Obra Dinn is masterful in its execution of a puzzle game, solving the question of each person's death in specific detail by glimpsing the barest moments of each (accessible) body's dying breath. In almost all cases, these are tricky yet solvable questions answered by piecing clues between multiple memories and using the in-game book to keep meticulous notes and compare with provided evidence.

Having beaten the game and looked up answers on how to fully and *properly* answer each and every question, I can say that the game is decently fair in its provided evidence; no guesswork is *required*. ...but boy does it make a lot of things easier, especially given two or three very, very, very particular details you will need to rely on for a good number of folk. This is a game about meticulous analysis of every possible hint, even down to the minutae.

My main complaint of the game is how it wastes your time by not making memories accessible via the book, allowing any form of fast travel, and gatekeeping certain memories behind other memories, even long after you've unlocked them. Much of your late game detective time will be spent walking back and forth, linking between memories, and trying to find exits. These are incredibly minor harassments, but they build up when you're scavenging ten or twenty memories for one single hint regarding a group of otherwise indistinguishable crewpeople.

The rest is well-told, even if I wished much more were explained, even if it were explained far afterwards in bonus materials or otherwise. The voice acting is stellar, and the graphical style stands out even if it actively interferes with some attention to detail. Overall, this is well worth your time and money.

Small, bite-sized, and knows its target audience of "Those who played The Witness" too well. Play it. XD

Monster Sanctuary is the monster battler game I never knew I wanted. Outside of battles, it plays like a 2d Metroidvania. Inside battles, it's a 3v3 (with an extra 3 in reserve for trainer fights, or 3v1 when against a champion monster) turn-based fight that's all about balancing buffs and debuffs. No monster is unusable, and even the earliest monster you can find can be a powerhouse taking down endgame teams. It's all about using their toolkits to the best of your ability: choosing your skills on their individualized trees well, equipping to support their needs, and ensuring your team has synergy.

There are a lot of features I'm impressed with. The map marking system is something more metroidvanias should use, and the randomizer mode makes the game fresh again. (I should caution, though: do not do randomizer on master difficulty, even with NG+. It is pain.) The endgame is challenging and really puts your knowledge and planning to the test.

I'm a bit sad they give a cliffhanger in the free DLC. I'd have been excited for a second game even without it.x3

Vampire Survivors is a bite-sized time-killer of a game. 30 minute runs (more or less) of trying to build the most broken and chaotic bullet hell of a character amidst masses of enemies. It's not a graphical or animation masterpiece, but it's got its style. The music's not catchy, but it's pleasant and reminiscent of all the right things. There's no real story to be found, but it doesn't pretend to be more than it is.

And what it is is snug, fun, and a spectacle. And well worth the absolutely insanely cheap price it comes at.

My literally only complaint? It's obscenely minor. There's a couple of secrets (not required for 100% currently, just for fun) that you'll almost guaranteed need to look up. But don't...not until you're deep enough to find the hint guide and see the hint or two that are impossible to decipher on their own. 'cuz the rest of the secrets are fun to find and entirely possible to discover once you've that secret little in-game guide. x3

Post 1.0? Still remains absolutely solid as expected. Very deserving of the Best Game on the Go award.

Downfall is everything good about Slay the Spire made more interesting. More options, more flexibility, and more characters.

And I don't just mean the heroes. The bosses are the highlight: playing as each of the "enemy" options is extraordinarily fun, and each one plays in its own creative way. Some are harder to get used to than others, but all of them genuinely surprise with their potential power.

After getting 100% achievements on the base game? This is the only way I play now. Absolutely wonderful fan expansion. (Now if only the Spire with Friends mod team made it a little more compatible with playing in Downfall mode. x3)

Cult of the Lamb is good. But it could be so, so much greater.

The game is a thoroughly pleasant blend between roguelite and sim/farm management. The mood is eerie and yet pleasant, the art is cute and yet terrifying, and the core mechanics promising. Combat is responsive and mostly intuitive, and all of the weapon types are usable in their own ways. So I absolutely recommend it. I had a great time on both medium and extra hard, and I'll probably dabble a bit more too.

The problem is everything sings of just how much *better* it all could be. There are some doctrines, weapons, spells, and rooms that are just flat out better than others, heavily discouraging experimentation at times. The most fun item in the game was also the most powerful, but instead of buffing everything else to encourage experimentation they nerfed the item so far into the ground that it's decidedly unfun to use now. The customization stops just shy of what could've been, leaving awkward edges to even the most fully decorated map and leaving you wishing there were more different options and cosmetics. The follower perks are decidedly lacking, leaving you seeing the same two or three perks over and over and over... The tarot cards are so minor and marginal that none of it feels like you're really building a *build*, per se. The tech tree runs out extremely fast, and you wonder if there couldn't be more there. There could be far more choices in the gameplay; your choices are always "pick one of these two", and that creates an incredibly awkward experience (a problem that hearkens to the great disappointment of Going Under). Twitch integration remains decently unreliable. And, finally, the game is quite buggy. Few of the remaining bugs are experiencing ruining, but you might have to, on occasion, quit the game and reload to get out of a softlock here or there...or rush back to base because a message popped up about an event that never happened.

The fact that it is so fun despite all of the above is a testament to its core...but it's also a caution. Some of this may be improved upon in the future. Much of it may not. They do seem to be paying attention to the forums, at least. So...this isn't a masterpiece yet. But it could be. It so, so easily could be.