Recent reviews by Xaelon

A great retro-styled dungeon crawler with robust SMT-style unit customization and combat. Just try the demo. It includes the entire first major dungeon and will give you an excellent idea of what kind of game this is.

If you're not familiar with SMT it works like this: you can recruit the monsters you fight, fuse them together to make new monsters or give their attacks to other party members. There aren't a lot of restrictions with what you can do with your units in this game and catching sleepers is simple enough. If you run into an encounter you don't have the tools to deal with all you have to do is head to the nearest terminal and find the right sleeper for the job.

All of the sleepers I have encountered so far have been nicely balanced with each area providing a steady influx of new units and new abilities.

It's got big dungeons each with a little gimmick to make them feel distinct, and lots of different units to collect and tinker with. Well worth the $10 if that sounds interesting to you. No need to take my word for it though. Try the demo instead.

If you enjoyed the base game this DLC is more of the same.

The new class is a lot of fun if you like inflicting status effects and a lot of the new equipment added synergizes heavily with status effects and applying them. The new shotgun is a real treat.

The devs did a considerate thing by making your first run-through of the DLC a "one shot" which is a curated map that has most of the new content in the DLC (including the class and the shotgun). There are still more new accessories to find beyond what's present in the one shot though so if you've been meaning to replay the campaign there's new loot to hunt.

The launch has been a little rocky so you may wish to give the devs more time to iron things out. Outside of a few crashes in one specific place due to the new class's perk destroying too many objects at once the game has been running great for me at 1080p/60FPS.

I haven't beaten the game yet but I feel like I've played enough to render a verdict. If something happens later in the game that radically changes my opinion my review will be updated accordingly.

If you haven't played the demo yet I suggest you do that before reading any reviews. It's about an hour long and does a great job showing off what kind of a game Sea of Stars is.

Anyway...

This game is what it appears to be: a JRPG made in image of classic JRPGs from the SNES (Super Nintendo) era. It borrows the graphical style from Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG's battle mechanics where you can time button presses to do more damage or take less.

Sea of Stars doesn't just copy SMRPG's battle system though. Instead of just managing HP you can now interrupt or weaken powerful enemy attacks by breaking the "locks" shown above enemies. Every lock corresponds to one type of damage. This turns battles into a bit of a puzzle because you can rob a boss of it's own turn by figuring out what actions will break all of it's locks before the attack goes off.

You also generate combo points and "live mana" during battles. Combo points are spent to perform powerful team-up attacks ala Chrono Trigger. Live Mana can be spent to boost the damage of attacks but it also gives them an element too which gives you an additional way to break enemy locks. All of these mechanics feed into each other in an intuitive way making battles rather fun and engaging.

On top of having interesting and engaging battle mechanics the art and music are absolutely beautiful. The amazing 2D pixel art with dynamic lighting is just magical. If you like pixel art at all you owe it to yourself to at least try the demo and look around. This game is a true feast for your eyes.

Your ears won't be left out either because the team behind the Messenger's amazing soundtrack has returned for this game as well. If you're not familiar with Sabotage's previous game you can give a listen to some sample tracks here: https://audio.seaofstarsgame.co/ . Every track I've heard in this game has been incredible though. They even went so far as to record an alternate version of every song in a different musical style that also sounds great.

I don't have anything else to say. This game is the full package. Sea of Stars is a great re-imagining of classic 16bit JRPGs that adds it's own worthy additions to the formula.

Returnal is a roguelite third person shooter.

When you die the game sends you back to start and you lose everything you picked up with the exception of certain special upgrades. Once you're able to defeat the big boss of an area you unlock a shortcut that allows you to more quickly access the next zone.

That's the gist of the gameplay loop: get as far as you can, die, repeat.

There is no loot to grind and you won't unlock anything that will make you permanently stronger. You can unlock more items to find during a run and perks for the different guns that may or may not appear during runs.

I think Returnal is one of the best third person shooters in years. I bought it for like $45 and I loved every hour I spent with it.

It's shame this game doesn't have a demo because how it feels to play would be enough to sell it to anyone assuming the difficulty doesn't scare them off. There is a level of precision and responsiveness in the controls that is hard to describe. Movement just has the perfect balance of weight and speed to it. This game also has some of the sickest boss fights I've ever seen. All of them are intense cinematic "bullet hell-esque" spectacles. The story's pretty good too as long you enjoy wierd surreal science fiction where everything isn't clearly explained and the pieces are yours to interpret.

Returnal knows exactly what kind of game it wants to be and executes everything it does flawlessly.

Mecha action games are few and far between these days. Thankfully this one is pretty good. The performance is stellar. I have not seen a single crash or stutter in the 40 or so hours I've spent. Graphics and sound are also amazing too. The weapon sound effects in particular deserve a special mention though. Everything has a kind of weight and "crunch" to it befitting of stuff mounted on a giant walking tank. The thing that surprised me the most about this game was the story. I ended up caring more about the characters than I ever expected. The deeper you get into the story the harder it gets to choose sides.

I wouldn't recommend this game to everyone though. The movement and controls felt overwhelming to me as someone new to the series but once you get a handle on everything the game feels really precise and responsive. The bosses are also tough. Thankfully the game has checkpoints right before every difficult encounter. When you die you can either tweak your mech's loadout or you can just go straight back into the fight.

One of the things I really like about this game is that it doesn't waste your time at all. There is no filler in this game anywhere. If you want more parts to play with at checkpoints you have the option to grind extra cash replaying missions but most missions can be beaten in 5 minutes or less if you know what you're doing. You can also get a full refund on any parts you don't like by selling them back to the shop.

My one complaint is that weapon balance could use some adjusting. The game revolves around staggering bosses which unfortunately makes any weapon with low impact a less viable option. Energy weapons in particular could use some buffs.

This game came with my copy of Hammerwatch 2 but I haven't gotten to that game yet because the three campaigns in this game have taken me much longer to beat than I expected. The new Shaftlocke Tower campaign in particular is impressively long and has taken longer to beat than the other two campaigns put together.

I was not a fan of the original version of Hammerwatch. The aiming in that game felt akward and I never got a handle on it. So I played for a few hours and quit. This version on the other hand has mouse aim which feels SO much better. I ended up enjoying it so much I decided to beat all three campaigns when I originally expected to spend a few hours and move on to Hammerwatch 2.

This game is a top down dungeon crawler that controls like a twin-stick shooter. It's like a bigger, better version of Gauntlet or Gauntlet Legends without having your HP constantly drain. You blast, slash or smash your way through hordes of monsters while traversing the maze-like floors of a dungeon until you find the boss and move on to the next area. I found it to be a tight, enjoyable gameplay loop. With it's extra lives and power-ups this game reminds me of old school arcade games if they didn't need to be beaten in a single play session.

The level design is great. Each floor is a fiendish puzzle of deadly traps, monsters, locked doors and secrets. This game LOVES to tease you with power-ups that are just out of reach so if you enjoy hunting for false walls or hidden switches to open secret areas you'll probably like this game.

I enjoyed the first two campaigns but the star of this version is Shaftlocke Tower. If Hammerwatch was Metroid then Shaftlock is Super Metroid. That is to say it keeps the foundation that made the first game good, but refines it and expands it. It's a really good campaign that not only has more floors but they're also bigger, more complex and more interesting to explore. Shaftlocke is honestly worth the $20 by itself.

All and all Hammerwatch: AE has been a very pleasant surprise.

Soul Stalkers is a new take on the Bullet Heaven genre. It kinda feels like a cross between Brotato and Vampire Survivors. The gameplay loop is simple: clear a 50 second stage and visit a shop to buy powerups and more weapons. Repeat until you die or clear both acts. The game has an ascension system like "Slay the Spire" that adds replayability after you've unlocked all the different characters.

At the start of early access (August 2023) there is currently no meta progression outside of unlocking more characters but the developer is currently asking for feedback regarding meta progression so I expect this will change in the future. I have run into some minor bugs but the game hasn't crashed or otherwise prevented me from completing a run. The game has a good core right now but it needs polish and more content.

One thing this game does well is that the characters, weapons and trinkets already interact in interesting ways. I'm looking forward to seeing how the developer expands the item pool because you can already do some neat stuff like making self-propagating explosions.

This game is a 10/10 mix of story, exploration and action. Normally I roll my eyes when I see the whole "critically acclaimed masterpiece" line but I honestly think it's warranted here. Will of the Wisps has wonderful graphics, amazing gameplay, a compelling story AND It's also precisely the right length. This game is the total package. It excels in EVERY area.

I went back and replayed the original game before starting this one and Will of the Wisps is a huge improvement in all areas. The developers clearly learned a lot making that game and you can really see that in how much BETTER this game is.

I'm really looking forward to whatever Moon Studios makes next after playing this.

If you liked Remnant: FTA just buy the game. This one is an improvement in all areas. More loot, cooler loot, MUCH bigger maps, cooler encounters (with TONS of secrets), more engaging enemies and better bosses. It's honestly everything that made the first game good, polished and cranked to 11.

Of all the amazing changes they made I think the one I like the most is probably the updated archetype system. Having actual classes and two more active skills adds SO much to the game. The abilities for the classes I've tried are amazing. The archetypes are pretty varied in function too. Regardless of what your playstyle is in a game like this you can probably find two archetypes to support it. The other fun thing the classes add is a whole LOT of synergy to build around. Gunfire I gotta say you guys did an amazing job building the system and tying all the different pieces of equipment into it.

If you haven't played Remnant: FTA and you're wondering what this game is it's a souls-like third person shooter. This game is difficult, has bonfire-style checkpoints, normal enemies respawn when you die and you heal using a rechargeable "relic" that's like an estus flask. They did add a twist to the relic this time around: you can find different relics that do more than just heal.

The beautiful thing about this game is that it has more stats to crunch than what you typically see in shooters and everything is highly customizable. The weapon 'mods' in the game are a good example of what I mean. Some of them do simple stuff like changing your gun's element and boosting it's stats for a short period of time others do stuff like shoot fire tornados or make an energy wall that blocks enemy projectiles. I've seen enough different mods in this game that If you want to know if you can find a mod that does XYZ the answer is probably 'yes'.

The other neat thing this game does (like in the first game) is that the areas are procedurally generated. Even first area you get sent to this time around is random. Meaning if you choose to replay the campaign (which I haven't finished yet) you'll end up with different map layout with new events and new loot to collect. It makes the game very replayable.

Wrapping all these parts together is the excellent combat which feels great. Like the first game the feedback the game gives you when you shoot something is great.

I would like to include complaints but I really don't have any for the moment. The player character's combat lines were too frequent but Gunfire already fixed that in a patch. I had trouble a few times trying to join my friends in coop but returning to character select or restarting the game fixed it. Performance has also been rock solid too.

This game is great. It's a tough but fair shooter with cool buildcrafting, great loot and large levels with tons of secrets. Gunfire has out done themselves with this game. Remnant 2 is absolutely brilliant.

Short, sweet and well executed with zero filler.

As the game's name suggests you swap things. Specifically yourself, between clones. The catch is that you need line of sight to switch bodies and certain colors of light block the ability to make clones and/or move between them.

Thanks to the excellent level design "ah hah!" moments abound and solving each room is satisfying. The story was pretty interesting too.

100% worth grabbing if you're in the market for something different and enjoy problem solving.