Recent reviews by Huxley

Frog Detective is the role model we should all strive to become.
Be better.
Be more like Frog Detective.
(be less like Lobster Cop)

One of the best indie metroidvania i've played in a while. Smooth movement, solid enough combat, plenty of "weapon" options and a lot of good basic quality of life elements that often are absent from similar games. Some of the animations are a bit janky but it's never a serious issue, the visuals are detailed and very clean, music is very chill and pleasent to listen to. Clearly designed by people who've played a lot of other exploration platformers. I 100%'d the game on normal difficulty in under 20 hours, so it doesn't outstay its welcome either. Strong recommendation.

This is a soft recommendation. This game has a lot of issues but it's functional and still provided some fun. It's a light metroidvania, the world isn't all interconnected, it's split in multiple distinct levels and you have some limited amount of freedom in how you can do some actual progress. The movement upgrades you find aren't particularly fun and really only serve to get around obstacles. There's a fair amount of hidden areas and exploration to be done, but the backtracking gets a bit tedious.

The combat is fine, the game doesn't use stamina but does have a souls-esque parry mechanic that is absolutely not worth using, not worth the risk. You have two set of equipments you can quick swap. Each set is built of one weapon, one spell and one ranged weapon. The diversity in both weapons is relatively limited, a lot less than the game makes you believe. The great axe behaves exactly the same as a great sword for instance.

Your movesets are very limited. The spells are pretty fun to use though and the quick swap still allows for some fun customization. The combat is fast paced and generally works well, even if there's not that much to it. Lots of hitbox issues on enemies and bosses though. I've seen some people complain about difficulty but I personally didn't think it was that bad.

Story is pretty throwaway and the graphics are very simple, but again, functional. The animations are bit stiff, reminds me a lot of 20XX, a bit too much tweening, but I can excuse that for a tiny indie team.

I did encounter a couple weird glitches, including one that forced me to exit the game and redo a boss fight, and several other minor ones.

I finished the game in roughly 13 hours and I don't see much replay value in it. I had fun with it, clearly this is an effort by a tiny two man team, so I respect that and would say it's worth playing. The devs have also taken the time to take some player feedback into account and make some improvements to the game.

This game is really, really good. But here's what this game isn't : Final Fantasy Tactics. If that's you're expectation, you might be in the wrong place.
There are many ways to make a good jrpg-styled strategy RPG and this is one of them. Music is top notch, pixel art and animations are excellent. Portraits could use diversity but that's the smallest of gripes.

The gameplay is very straightforward and somewhat open ended as the game allows you to play some mission in the order you want. Your success revolves around planning fights properly using the right party. The game has a pretty complex setup of elemental strengths and weaknesses that takes a bit of learning and your units have a ton of different passive abilities that influence they ability to function properly. The game could definitely give the player better access to information about what some stats do; that would be my biggest issue with the core gameplay aspects. Everything else is really solid. The pace is fast, the story is interesting even if the writing is a tad sloppy at times. I'm really enjoying my time with Fae Tactics and would recommend it to anyone who likes Japanese JRPGs that aren't just FFT.

So the controls are a tad clunky, but everything else was lovely. The game is visually stunning; the main character's animations are fantastic, the background art is great and full of small details. The music has been very solid as well, the voice acting isn't top notch but it's serviceable and the most important characters are the better voiced ones.

But most of all, the story is quite a ride. While not entirely unpredictable, it's still worth seeing it unfold under your eyes. It's a pretty short romp, 6-7 hours, I almost cleared it all in one sitting. Would recommend to anyone.

This game tackles certain subjects in an extremely clever and respectful way. it's very well written and makes you care for its characters despite the short amount of time you spend with them. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. The game does have some stability issues, but nothing to really hinder from the overall experience; any lost progress is regained in a matter of minutes.

play it if only to give your money to swery

Probably one of the most overlooked games of 2018. Visually stunning and unique, great atmospheric soundtrack, fairly solid but simple gameplay with quite a lot of customization and a very bizarre but interesting story. I love it.

Very bizarre game, unique aesthetics and visuals. With a few quality of life improvements and a bit more responsive controls this would be a real trip. Still quite a bit of fun, very curious to see where it leads and what the "endings" look like.

One of the better indie releases this year, for sure. It's an action platformer with unique controls and combat mechanics. The controls do take a bit of time to get used to, they could be a bit more precise and responsive, but once you get the hang of it the platforming shouldn't be any problem and the combat will become really fun. Especially during boss fights, which are really well thought out. The combat basically involves swiging your weapon and blocking with your shield at the right time and switching between your melee and ranged weapons when needed. Enemies are fairly competent too, so it keeps you on your toes and encourages you to try out all the special weapons the game gives you.

It's not quite metroidvania style as in you don't really gain additional mobility from killing bosses, but the game has two main hubs connected to several other areas you can complete in more or less any order you want. Areas will offer a lot of different challenges, the game never outlasts its welcome that way. The visual style is just plain amazing and the soundtrack is also very fitting, offering brilliant orchestral arrangements.

All in all an extremely good game. The only gripe I have with it is the fact that the controls aren't as finely tuned as they could be and the game, at least on my machine, suffers from performance issues on higher settings, while it really shouldn't.

Aarklash: Legacy is a fairly simple strategy RPG, but with no pretension to greatness, it offers a very satisfying, fast paced experience. The story, setting and characters aren't developed extremely well, but it's still interesting, despite the many typos, translation mistakes and predictability. The game offers you a good choice of character to use, and the battle system is centered around the 4 skills each characters can use. The key to mastering the battle system lies in the synergy between characters, your ability to time your skill usage properly and controlling the battlefield. It's fast paced, the challenge is generally high but fair and the game has no downtime. It's not fantastic, it doesn't offer a huge amount of depth, but it's still a really enjoyable game that is worth playing. Hopefully the devs come up with more and refine the formula.