Recent reviews by Raskolnikov

This game is endearing. Great music, cute sprites, and a very basic premise. While it can be annoying the way the thieving monsters can cause a snowballing effect when paired when that admittedly dumb to the point of funny NPC's, you learn to plan around it. Some of the randomness can suck, but all in all an excellently well designed game to pass a slow day.

Starting off with a positive to say that I love the novelty of crossing tactics-style gameplay with a VN. I does often struggle on leaning into too much of one or the other at different points, meaning sometimes there's too much talking, but sometimes it's too much combat. The inconsistencies with the characters at points can also be annoying, but I realize that's at least partially due to different branching paths and conversations being forced to meld at points. On my only playthrough (so far), I nonetheless had a good time, any point with Shuuji notwithstanding. I rather appreciate the combat being dumbed down at points, even if scaling on the maps can be rough. I really am playing for the story, and as much as I love games like XCOM, I am genuinely terrible at that genre of game. All said and done I would have to give this game a 6.5/10, with that half point coming from the fact that the game takes some risks and experimentation that makes it worth the playthrough.

I'll open this up with my bias towards the Ice Ages and the place of Humanity within it. There's basically just this and Far Cry Primal and I'll take what I can get.
This was honestly fun for one playthrough, especially considering the price-point.
Is the game a bit jank and awkward in areas? Yeah.
Is the AI awkward to the point where I often wished for a little more micromanagement? Also yeah.
Still, I got to hunt mammoths and the music and sound effects were satisfying. If I ever get the chance at another staycation, I'll probably plop down and pull another all-nighter on what is a genuinely enjoyable time.

Honestly there's a lot to love with this game: the story, the animations, Wayne June's amazing VA work as always.
But trying to manage relationships is difficult in a game that makes it far easier to lose points than gain them, sometimes screwed over by a couple of characters refusing to agree on resting at an oases, or a dude at half health seething because you didn't heal him and instead focused on the person bleeding-out on deaths door.
The bosses can be really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, too. I loved the puzzle-like nature of bosses in DD1 (of which I have over 400 hours in), but this one really encourages you to have a perfectly kitted out and prepared team just to fight some lair bosses. Light help you if you're doing everything right and the Sleeping General gets two lucky crits in a turn.
Maybe wait till some balance patches come out or consider a mod that eases up on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I know others have beaten this game, but as of this point I may need to put this game down for a while.
Edited after 40+ hours: After some balance patches and unlocking a ♥♥♥♥ TON of items, the gameplay experience is much improved. My complaints are still there with the relationships being too harsh, RNG ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you on recovery and stress-heal items on some runs, as well as the bosses being TOO MUCH of puzzle bosses and hampering more fluid approaches, but this game is worth the money and time, even if it doesn't have the replayability of the first game.

This may be one of the only times a fighting game broke up its characters into season passes and the like and I didn't feel cheated. The theme songs, the fun animations, and great VA work in both JA and ENG have me tickled pink. As someone who's been a fan of GG since the 2000s, I absolutely will vouch for the game.
PS, if you're a Slayer or Jam main, Gio can scratch that itch.

I learned of this game via Ross Scott of Accursed Farms. I got it on the cheap and have already gotten my money's worth. The looks about as rough as a Diablo I era game, with some solid 90s fantasy dungeon synth going on in the background. The controls are rough and maybe some more time could have been spent on ironing some balance out, but I honestly love this town mangement-sim/diabloclone. Wish there were more games like it.

This game is pretty straightforward and a nice fix for someone who used to play Lucio but just doesn't have the energy to play Overwatch without getting toxic. I got this game at a sale price, but either way I got my money's worth pretty fast. Not sure if I'll ever beat the game as some later levels get intense (think the floor is lava, but so are the walls and ceiling), but I'm enjoying so far the 13 hours I've put in.

This might be the best Lovecraftian inspired game I've played, and this is coming from a diehard Amnesia fan. It has all the RNG shenanigans of XCOM, but a lot more moments for you to become invested in the characters.

The story is solid, the music score is amazing, and the mini quests are great.

Do not buy this game. It has very intrinsic flaws such as controls that need tinkering from the start and the while the story is an interesting idea, it gets boring rather fast. It's no that this game was in anyway a bad concept, but the game itself is rather half-finished and droll. It's definitely too expensive for what it's worth.