Recent reviews by shaijis

It's been quite a while since I played Life is Strange, and mostly just remember the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ it pulled in the very end. I loved the game until that; so, looking at this title, hearing the complaints about "LiS1 decisions not mattering", I figured: hey, I hated both of the endings anyway. Good if it's ignored and I can just move forward instead of looking backward, even though I liked Chloe.

The story had some interesting bits on it. It didn't flow flawlessly, and some of the moments either lacked build up or followthrough, but... to me, the characters felt real enough, and the plot didn't get too nonsensical. It even made sense most of the time and I appreciate being able to confront some of the past trauma with Max despite of what I originally thought-- because, well, what can I say. It felt good to move on by staying behind. To look backwards, then forwards without dragging ghosts of the past in from the porch.

And the future? Sign me up, with or without Max.

About the characters:

I liked Safi well enough (smash), and Moses was sweet (smash). Amanda was super cute (smash). Gwen was badass (SMASH, with emphasis). Lucas was... suitably insufferable (pass). ♥♥♥♥ Yasmin (pass).

A specific moment with Vinh was a riot (but pass).

Is "cat" a game genre now? Because it certainly should be.

Little Kitty, Big City captures the essence of being a cat -- being a total nuisance, that is, while simultaneously charming the heck out of the humans both in the game and in real life. The risk-free exploration and cat-friendly city made gameplay chill and relaxing, and it's a perfect follow-up game for Stray after all of its stressful moments... and look, I love Stray. Stray is easily in the top half of my "best games ever top 10" list. But it tied my stomach into knots and made me ugly cry, and after finishing it the first time, I was literally shaking and sobbing.

But this? This is just pure bliss. No danger. No risk. Just cat doing cat things, messing with the city and its people, meeting adorable silly critters of all kinds. This game is soothing balm for the frayed nerves.

🐾 Do you love cats? If yes, the game is well worth the full price despite its short playtime.

Otherwise, I would consider:
+ game is very cute!
+ gameplay is fun!
+ no collectable or achievement is too frustrating to get
- wish the city was larger and there were more things to do and to collect

I finished all the jobs in HF2, and figured I'd go back to 1 for some of the jobs and houses I hadn't finished yet while waiting for updates. And... well. It was... rough.

I can, genuinely, without a doubt, say I prefer 2 over 1 in every way. Sure, it doesn't have some (dlc) gameplay elements and it's missing some very important items that I agree should've been there in the launch, like curtains and a stepladder (although those should be coming in just a couple of days now), but the gameplay is just very clearly better. The quality of life updates are crazy, and I personally really struggle going back to 1 and play without them. Being able to change the look of items with the flipping tool, after buying? That should've been a thing in the first place. Being able to duplicate items? Hell yeah. And being able to actually mix-n-match different set pieces together by choosing the same material, pattern and color and details is just... so good. No more buying, selling, rebuying in slightly different shade, selling everything in frustration and picking another set of kitchen drawers just because the set I picked didn't happen to have the right size of a middle piece, and the other set item that does didn't come in spruce.

Sure, HF1 is more simulator-y and realistic. You actually have to think where to put the toilet for example, because it needs expensive plumbing. Didn't account to how much space a sink would take in the bathroom? There's only so much leeway. You also had to do some assembly while decorating, which.... I just never really enjoyed either. While realistic, it was just disruptive to the decoration process,

I am also very fond of 2's painting and paneling systems. I can actually panel half a wall and paint the other half! And by half I mean halved horizontally -- something that's absolutely essential to me. In 1, I had to place individual small board pieces against the wall to achieve the same look, and then I couldn't hang things lower on the wall or put anything against it without leaving a gap. It was cumbersome and frustrating. In 2, I can just do it, just like that.

That said, I clearly do use House Flipper more like a creative outlet than a renovation simulator. I feel 1 shackles me with inconveniences and busywork, and mods and existing dlcs are not enough to save it in my eyes now that 2 is out and makes everything just more fun. You might disagree if you didn't find HF1 features annoying to work with or enjoy a tad more realistic approach to decorating, and if you don't own either and are trying to decide, you should probably consider that HF1 definitely has more meat around its bones at this point. But, for me, it's pretty much the only thing it has on 2.

TL;DR:

* Less stuff (overall) than in HF1, but lets you focus more on the actual interior design over endlessly struggling just getting the bed to match with the dresser next to it.
* Flipping tool!!!! Sandbox mode!!!!!

Bought Steam Deck just so I could play modded Stardew Valley on a hand-held device. A few months later, still worth it. No regrets.

I thought I wasn't awful at video games, but turns out, I absolutely am. I really, really hate this game and all the stupid ass boxes and the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gems, and it's great. lmao

Personally, for me, a lot of the frustration comes from the stages being about 50% too long with how hard they are. I often feel like my poor brain needs a rest mid-stage. Extremely colorful game design doesn't help with that, either; I suppose the game is overstimulating in a lot of ways. Or: I may be getting old.

It is not a relaxing experience by any means, and I don't think completing it is worth it. But it is a good, solid game that just requires quite a lot of patience from the player (unless you are amazing at it, I guess). I can't in good conscience not recommend the game, so here, have a thumbs up. But a potential buyer should prepare for suffering.

Final Fantasy X is an all-around masterpiece, and X-2 is a fun adventure. The games were great on PS2, and they haven't changed, in good and in bad. The aggravating minigames, hilariously cringe worthy dialogue and unskippable cutscenes are still there; having to consult a guide every two steps to reach 100% perfect ending in X-2 is still a thing; but so are amazing soundtrack, beautiful cinematics, decent (passable in X-2's case) plot, and great battle and leveling systems (for both games).

This version of the games come with some built-in convenience cheats (or features) like 2x or 4x animation speed, no/more encounters and autobattle toggles. That's nice, if a little bit cheaty. However, the default keybinds for mouse/kb controls are absolutely abysmal, so a controller is fairly essential unless you adjust them.

By default, the mentioned convenience features aren't accessible on controller, but there are community key layouts that fix this. It's especially nice on Steam Deck.

Speaking of Deck:

X works perfectly except for Lulu's overdrive. I just sat on a full gauge all game long until I taught her Entrust. It's not a big loss, anyway.

X-2, however, crashes a lot for some reason! It wouldn't even start before changing the resolution in the launcher (that only works with mouse/touch screen). I have no idea if there's a fix for it. That's a bummer, but it's still playable since there is autosave. It's just definitely annoying, and might make the game unplayable for you.

Echoing the other reviewers, this recommendation is a "yes, but..." deal. In short: I enjoyed it and don't consider the money ill spent, but I did get this & the sequel bundle for less than 6 euros, so the bar is low. Yay for the holiday sales.

Yes:
+ The atmosphere kicks ass. The art is absolutely beautiful and the music adds to it.
+ While it throws all kinds of Vampire: The Masquerade terminology at you, it also explains the words well enough. I am not previously familiar with the game system, so I really needed the extra information, even if constantly checking every new term was a little bit disruptive to enjoying the story itself.
+ The world building of this game system is, as it says in the product description, genuinely rich, and the VN conveys is well enough.
+ The game does a good job of delivering the severity of the small scale daily decision of feeding vs. not feeding. I felt like I had to think when to do it, because often... it was an unnecessary risk. But at the same time: a necessary one. Mechanically, the hunger is truly interesting to deal with.
+ All the characters differ from each other and I genuinely liked my chosen coterie even though initially, I wasn't excited about any of the options.
+ The story got potential.

But:
- The big one: lack of player agency. There's barely an illusion of choice at best, and although you can somewhat choose how you do things, I don't think your decisions have any kind of true impact. From what I gather, even if you completely mess up making allies, you're still going to end up just fine.
- Relating to the first, I wanted to learn more of some things I never had a chance to learn more about. For example, the sire of the main character or the aspect of having human retainers / ghouls. (Why couldn't I have those?)
- The other big one: story phasing issues. When it gets rolling, it really steamrolls.

Also:
- This is just a personal, silly note, but I would've liked to flirt with some characters, dammit. Vampires are inherently erotic creatures, after all... Nothing wrong with not dipping into dating sim, but hot damn I'd really have liked to sink my fangs into somebody and savor the moment for once. The entire process was reduced to some dirty quickies with random bums or granny dog-walkers in filthy alleys and public parks throughout the entire VN.

It's sudoku, but with cats instead of numbers. Does it make the puzzles needlessly confusing? Why, yes. But are they very cute? Also yes, a thousand times.

Look, it's equivalent to a small cheap sudoku puzzle magazine you pick up from a grocery store next to your grandma's when you desperately need entertainment while visiting. As additional plus, there are pictures of rl cats and tidbits of information as well as some general "how to introduce cats to one another" knowledge. Useful stuff.

Things to do as a cat:

- snuggle with robots
- nap
- scratch carpets
- drop ceramics
- meow

Living the life.

Continued being with Diana, ended up in a polyamorous three-people relationship and everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. A+ I wish more games had polyamory as an option.