Recent reviews by Vayatir

If you love Among Us/Mafia/Werewolf, you'll love this game.

The gameplay loop is simple but addicting. The story is non-linear but in order to complete the game you'll have to see all of the story events eventually. The order though is going to be different for everybody!

Finding the true ending makes you feel like a genius.

Understand?

Amazing visual novel type game set in early 16th century Germany. The first 30 minutes or so are a bit slow, but it quickly picks up and tells an interesting series of murder mysteries combined with one man's personal struggles to find his way in life. Hooked from the first hour until the end, and can be enjoyed in full in just a few sessions.

This game deserved Game of the Year 2023. An amazing way of translating DnD 5e mechanics into a digestible state and creating a fun gameplay experience. The amount of build diversity alone makes this game a unique experience for most players and creates tons of replay value. The companions are some of the best written in video gaming with unique motivations and fleshed out backstories for you to discover.

If you love immersive role playing experiences, rich lore to discover, tactical combat, or fleshed out party members: you will find something to love about this gem of a game.

Really fun RTS. If you like Halo and have any interest at all in the genre, then you'll love this. Mechanics are simple to get into and it's fun to be able to use the full forces of the UNSC to smash some Covvies.

Still the best city builder on the market.

Let me start with this: THE STORY IS GOOD AND INVOLVES A LOT OF INTERESTING SCI-FI CONCEPTS. But the length and padding of this game makes it very hard for me to recommend it to those who aren't hardcore into Visual Novels.

The padding and length that make this a very difficult game to get through. The game is about 50 hours, with the first route being about 30-35 of those hours. The first route is full of dialogue that could have been cut significantly for brevity. It honestly feels like you're reading the same lines again and again just phrased slightly differently. Similarly there is no flow chart function or way to easily skip between chapters, so when you need to replay the game for the alternative routes, you have to do so from the start. There is a text skip function but it can still be 30-40 minutes of sitting there waiting for the game to progress whilst you do nothing interesting at all.

Character wise this game is a bit of a mixed bag. I did not like Miyashiro as a protagonist at all until the last few hours of the game where I gained a lot of respect for him, but spent a good 30-40 hours beforehand finding him to be insufferable. Supporting cast had some huge highlights (shoutouts to Nono and Hinae for being excellent 3D characters), but the rest ranged from 'ok' to 'annoying' with a lot of irritating character traits on some of the most vocal cast members (looking at you Itou and Serika).

This could have been a 35 hour game tops and been great. As it stands, I feel like a significant portion of my time was lost on needless padding which really hurt my overall enjoyment. It also makes it hard to recommend it to others over shorter VNs that I got similar enjoyment out of from story/characters. By all means, play this game if you are really into visual novels and you probably won't be disappointed with the story. But be aware that it's a HUGE time sink even for a fast reader that skips the voice acting.

MAGIKAZAM

Pinnacle of western RPGs in terms of world building and lore. An alien world you can get lost in and keep coming back to.

THE ENDING OF THESE WORDS IS ALMSIVI.

Never played a Halo game before this or really any FPS games in general.

Halo good. Reach good. Controls very well. Gameplay fun. Even if you don't like shooters you might like this. Co-op is a hell of a good time.

An excellent tactical game that really challenges the player. The barrier to entry can be daunting at first and you will probably fail your first playthrough, but it's a learning experience that only gives you the bare minimum of a helping hand and then leaves you to fight the alien swarms on your own. I will restate that XCOM is quite a punishing experience especially to those unfamiliar with turn based strategy games, but if you can get past the entry you will find a surprisingly in-depth and fun tactical game where every mission will have you on your toes.

Gameplay is the core of the experience here, story and graphics are nothing special. But the gameplay is just so fun and open to the player that it deserves a play just for that alone.