Recent reviews by Orez

(How weird! To be noticed, and known!)

They say a video game needs to be at least one of fun or interesting.

This no joke might be most interesting game I have ever played.

You gotta check this one out.

I had cautiously-optimistic expectations for Phoenotopia: Awakening, and it blew those expectations out of the water. I don't understand how I haven't heard more about this game. It's a really fun, engaging, and challenging Zelda-inspired adventure with a TON to do. The playtime estimates in the official description are accurate: my first completion-ish playthrough took me 35 hours, and full completion took me a total of 55 hours.

I really enjoyed it!

- The game has a bunch of varied challenges, and they're all pretty great. Besides combat it's got logic puzzle challenges, observation challenges, jumping challenges, timing challenges. A few puzzles required me to take notes, but no puzzle was a complete stumper.

- I really enjoyed the combat, both against normal enemies and bosses. Your movement feels good to play, you get a bunch of fun tools and items, and the types of enemies you encounter are varied. I know there's plenty of folks out there who really dislike an aggressive stamina system, but I really appreciate how the stamina system makes you consider when to strike and when to back off and rest (and there does exist an accessibility setting to let you attack without using stamina, if you truly hate it). In all, the combat comes together in a super enjoyable way.

- The bosses were intimidating and challenging in a way I really enjoyed. More than once I'd fight a boss and get destroyed, and wonder how the heck I'd ever possibly be able to defeat them, only to learn their moves over another three or four attempts, and beat them without much frustration.

- The platforming's great. Running around as Gail is fun, many of your tools have traversal applications as well as combat applications. There's even a small Breath-of-the-Wild-ish aspect, where I was able to figure out how to combine my tools in interesting, probably-not-intended ways to sequence break a little, but in a way that felt like the game was rewarding me more than it felt like I was breaking the game.

- The level design is fantastic, and really elevates both the platforming and exploration. In particular the towns: every town is fairly large, but every town past the first one is dense and layered and just, very fun to run around in and search for secrets.

- There's a ton to explore. In addition to zones being dense, there's hundreds of upgrades to find, with unique quests and requirements for finding them. I was playing pretty completionist, and I only found around 2/3s of the upgrades without the use of the in-game hint system.

- The plot is on-par with a Zelda: every beat has good stakes, with plenty to keep me engaged.

- The setting and worldbuilding are very cool and deep without being overbearing.

- The characters are all fun, and the game knows when to be a little serious and when to be a little silly with them (and importantly is able to pull off both effectively).

- The pixel art is quite nice: simple and clear but intricate enough to hide cool secrets in. And the animation is very strong: it's all totally expressive, and every so often it flexes with something super impressive.

- There's a bunch of different minigames, and they're all very cute, and just the right amount of challenging and engaging. Mostly I just want to call out the cooking minigame, which you'll probably end up doing a lot. It's the perfect amount of engaging, with real risks (burning your healing items) and real rewards (better healing items), while being short enough that it's a nice brief bit of downtime between fights and exploring, instead of being a huge chore.

It's good! Again, I don't know how this one flew under my radar for so long! If you like the idea of a Zelda-adjacent sidescroller adventure, Phoenotopia: Awakening is better than any I've seen. Big recommend.

Perfectly realized little puzzle game. Great core concept. Approachable difficulty curve: each world does a good job of introducing and teaching a new idea, then providing a handful of trickier optional levels using those mechanics. Some of the last few puzzles are very challenging, which I enjoyed. My single complaint is the lack of an undo button. Most actions are reversible, but a few worlds feature mechanics which are not. Definitely recommend to fans of puzzle games.

The only negative thing I can say about this game is Steam wont let me buy 10 copies at once to give away.

I don't care what you're doing right now, stop doing it and buy this game.

Solid gameplay, needs more levels.

Overrated but still quality. Music is superb, puzzles are tough and unique, but half of your time is spent actually trying to execute the pixelperfect solutions.

It's like Risk but without the functionality to throw the game board.

If you liked Tron but hate aiming up and down, have I got some good news for you.