Recent reviews by nevius6251

Worst action game I have ever played.

One of the best jrpg in recent years, Chained Echoes is an ambitious game heavily influenced by timeless classics such as Chrono Trigger and Xenogears that surprisingly manages to really capture and recreate what made those games so great.

While the presentation is top notch and the adventure is compelling and fast paced right from the beginning, I think Chained Echoes' biggest achievement is the ability to surprise the player at every turn, revealing an ever bigger world to explore and a story with a much wider scope that one could imagine. Much like the story, the exploration slowly builds up to create a vast world which is very well put together with lots of interesting ideas. The novelty never wears off because each location might lead to both a new place or an old one in surprising ways; most of the engagement comes from the relevance of what you're discovering and how it contributes to create an interconnected and belivable world.

The joy of exploration is also heightened by the way the rest of the gameplay is structured: no random battles, no annoying enemy respawns, no grinding, Chained Echoes doesn't waste your time and actually wants you to engage with the world it presents, rather than keeping the player on repetition. The combat ranges from fine to good, featuring "tag team" mechanics that allows party members to switch on the fly, expanding tactical options. Each character has his own skillset and fills a unique niche in combat. The only shortcomings I feel like pointing out are the rather limited pool of abilities, which hinders the sense of progression, and the unexciting loot; both these complaints affect the combat on sky armors (mechas) as well, although the fights themselves are not bad at all.

It's not hard to see why Chained Echoes provides such an enjoyable experience: it doesn't strive to tick all possible boxes or to keep the player on the threadmill just for the sake of it, but sticks with its premise of delivering an adventure: it has a story to tell and a world to show, and it does so by raising the stakes in surprising and ambitious twists. While the otherwise excellent presentation might fall a bit short, in specific moments, of the greatness of some of the ideas shown, a few cliffhangers are masterfully executed and probably even measure up to the classics.

Want to go on an adventure? How about exploring a seemingly traditional and gamey world just to discover that there's much more underneath the surface.

Don't be fooled by the cover: while clearly being presented as an action-adventure title, the core of the experience is much closer to a puzzle game. Not just because of the puzzles themselves, but because the player is asked to understand rules, uncover truths, figure out how the world works realizing that most of what the player sees actually hides a secret.
This is done beautifully with close to no written text, just by virtue of observation and experimentation, with the aid of a "game manual" that ties in a whole new meta dimension into the game. The game manual itself is a brilliant addition that's extremely well executed, managing to drive the player to the next discovery without robbing him of the challenge and joy of actually grasping it.
On top of it all, the presentation is top notch featuring one of the best soundtrack in years and great direction at every turn.

Tunic is without a doubt a masterpiece: it provides a unique, engaging experience with fresh ideas, both well thought out and well executed, balancing freedom of exploration with a tight and exciting sense of progression.
I'd also like to talk about how great, thoughtful and meaningful the story and inspiration behind the game are, and how great of a message it conveys, but that's something I'll have to discover on your own.

An unfortunate case of style over substance. The beautifully animated pixel art and brilliant soundtrack cannot make up for subpar gameplay which offer very little in terms of fun and engagement.
Exploration is very barebones, upgrades are too straightforward and combat feels either too easy or too messy with no middle ground. Even the most interesting mechanics, such as the ability to absorb elemental attacks for various benefits, end up being a detriment to the game: case in point, most enemy attacks are designed to cover lots of space (to encourage absorbing them rather than dodging them), but this leads to a cluttered screen where it's difficult to track your own character and impossible to read what the enemy's doing. Having beaten most bosses through sheer muscle memory due to very repetitive patterns (easy to memorize, hard to react to) I can't really speak highly of either the AI or the encounter design.
In short, for me the game couldn't follow the captivating beginning and the promise of a good metroidvania. There's a lot of polish and care for sure, but not in the most essential areas in my opinion.

Partial review based on a few days of play: after 15 hours the game is still putting out new mechanics, new ways of tackling battles and setting up your team, while constantly expanding on the map, sidequests and general content.

What might initially seem a very limited gameplay system gradually opens up in meaningful and engaging ways: customization starts with basic stats allocation and ends up with altering passive traits, attacks modes, reaction skills and many more; the combat itself evolves by introducing new resources and providing multiple ways to expend them, such as costly all-out attacks or less expensive single-use augmentations.
Elemental affinities, barriers and the way they affect buffs and debuffs seems interesting at first and soon proves itself to be a system very well put together, adding layers of depth to an already engaging core gameplay. Lastly, while "fast" is not a term that usually pairs well with tactics, in my opinion it doesn't feel like a slow game at all: battles do last a while, mainly due to low movement distance (which is required for balance), but the action itself feels quick thanks in particular to snappy animations,

While the gameplay is clearly the focus here, I'm also finding some enjoyment in the story, with likable characters (a bit gimmicky in personality, but it's fun to see their interactions) and an adventure unfolding gradually in many directions while the player explores a menu-based map and discovers new subplots, leading to events, battles and rewards.

For full disclosure I want to point out that in its launch state the game suffers from some bugs, including crashes, but the devs are on the ready fixing them as soon as they are reported, and have already released a few patches in the span of days.

Fae Tactics is a highly recommended game for any fan of the tactics genre and I want to applaud Endlessfluff Games for both innovating many mechanics and delivering a staggering amount of content with an engaging pace that constantly hypes up the excitement and the desire to master the game.

Who's here from the PSP era with Monster Hunter Freedom?
Happy hunting everyone!

You'll be friends with Niko, won't you?

Is it a good idea to mix a metroidvania game with bullet hell elements? Your mileage may vary.

While this inclusion does spice up things a bit, I think there's a fundamental issue in its design. There are bullets of two colors, and in order to avoid damage from them, you have to align yourself with said color. This causes the character to actually become of the same color as the bullets, meaning the already cluttered screen becomes a nightmare in terms of character control and playability. In a way, the unique aesthetics of the game are a detriment to it.

Since the metroidvania elements are otherwise quite uninteresting, with very standard upgrades, minimal sense of exploration, and a very barebones structure of level-key-boss, I don't feel like recommending this game: it surely does have something going for it, such as the fun and challenging final boss, but there's just too much better competition out there, within this same genre.

A very interesting concept bound to a game too small for it to actually shine.
The idea of branching paths, learning possible outcomes and then come back to make different choices is cool, and the presentation is good: it's conveyed through means of a fairy-tale book, having a sole narrator which performs as the various characters.

Unfortunately, fatigue due to repetition kicks in too soon, not only because (although it's to be expected) having to listen to the same narration over and over gets tiring, but also because the game just doesn't have enough content to keep the experience fresh. A handful of setpieces are used as setting for the (few) stages of the game and they get stale fast; the combat, while flashy, is very bare-bones, with basic counter/dash mechanics that lack the necessary polish to properly function, and the enemy variety is just too small.

While it's a short game and it might be worth your time just for the novelty, I'd consider it more of an experiment that would need a much bigger project to realize its full potential.

Are turn-based RPGs still relevant nowadays? Can they still be fun, or is it just nostalgia on our part?
Battle Chasers: Nightwar gives a clear answer to this question. It nails down its turn-based combat so well you'll wish every other RPG would follow in its footsteps.

Aside from the beautiful presentation, with polished, fast paced animations, good special effects and an amazing soundtrack, I think there are three key elements to this achievement:

• Turn order is dynamic: having some abilities being instant and some placing you further into the queue allows for tactical choices during fights.
  
• The Overcharge mechanic: abilities require mana but the resource pool is small and won't last an entire dungeon. Instead, some actions will generate "extra" mana, available only for the current battle, which also empowers other resource-consuming abilities. This creates an engaging flow of building up and spending Overcharge.
  
• Buffs and debuffs are core elements of the fight: they always work, stack up to certain limits, are mostly integrated within offensive actions and have interesting synergies between them; for example, "obliterate" will be more powerful against a bleeding opponent, "rupture" will add a bleed on top of its damage if the enemy is sundered, and "exploit weakness" will have additional effects such as spreading damage or being a critical hit depending on the debuffs already afflicting the enemy.

These three core elements allow for both interesting tactical decisions during fights and deep character/party customization before them. Passive perks are aquired almost every level up and are usually game chainging, and I'd like to point out that the characters themselves, having unique, fixed skills and roles, follow some interesting archetypes, such as the war golem being healing-oriented or the mages becoming incredibly fast and sturdy.

The mechanics, the variety in builds and party composition, the good pacing of battles and the overall aesthetics make Battle Chasers an engaging game from start to finish. While some players might find issue with a bit of grinding, I want to point out that the game was patched in order to offer smoother leveling curves (allowing for low level characters to catch up with the rest of the group in just a handful of battles).
Not tired of the gameplay yet? Tackle "new game +": while in most games reaching max level and access to the best skills & perks means you'll probably just waste them on the final boss only, here you can restart the game with all abilities unlocked. The higher difficulty will allow for further challenge and require use of the characters' full potential, making NG+ a very interesting and satisfying addition.

What you probably won't find in Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a deep narrative. The story is serviceable at best (much of the lore relies on previous knowledge from reading the comic) and characters don't have much development at all, although they are likeable for sure.
That said, the world comes with its own charm, having visually-unique dungeons and many points of interest to be explored. While it's true that most side quests are combat related, revolving around even more fights, they are nontheless satisfying. Ultimate weapons, for example, have their lore about them and need to be hunted down, crafted from ancient artifacts. For a game completely focused on combat, I find this to be a smart addition.


Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a very polished, focused game. It nails down turn-based combat to perfection and it's a must-play for anyone interested in the genre, with engaging fights and deep customization that's (finally!) not wasted on an easy game: the challenge is there and it even lasts during NG+.
If you do like these aspects in your RPG, don't worry about fatigue setting in. While the game might be completed in about 20 hours, I can tell you I still wanted to keep playing after 80.