Recent reviews by WillMAW2

Coming to this game from Stick of Truth, both the familiarities and the deviations are quite obvious. This game takes much more of a slow burn approach. This is reflected in an enlarged plot, a shift in combat systems and the eventual development of the player as a hero of South Park.

When playing on the highest difficulty level, the combat is a bit boring to start, due to very basic quick-time actions, low health & damage numbers (especially versus Stick of Truth,), and lack of options; But as the game progresses, all those issues become replaced with high damage numbers that reward the good synergies that can be formed with a larger selection of moves, allies and gear.

Like Stick of Truth, Fractured But Whole also brings a plot that works to gradually absurdify what begun as a (relatively) innocent game between the kids. As the plot unravels, the player is exposed to more and more extreme battles - from Randy's drunk rampage to racist & mutant demon spawns - which serve the escalate the stakes of the overall story and train the player in developing a superhero mindset to brave South Park's dangers.

It goes without saying that the game features South Park's comedy as much as it embodies everything else. But this also bleeds into the game's character customisation, which is incredibly robust with its selection of discoverable costumes, by the way. Much of the game's character customisation is parody; from the very first time that you select a "difficulty", to the filling out of your Hero Sheet as you must go on several convoluted missions to fill each part of the sheet. Wonderfully, the Hero Sheet also functions as a window for players' self expression, with items to fulfill including items like gender & sexuality, krytonite, race & ethnicity, and religion. Even social class is determined by a spinner minigame that has you gamble money to rise to the elites of the banking world. The player is free to fill out the sheet as they choose, whether it be to invent who the New Kid is, or to reflect another person or themselves in the New Kid. Of course, there's always those troublesome rednecks that initiate combat when you update some parts of the Hero Sheet, which parody the ongoing issue of people quite literally being beaten up for who they are. So, to see this level of open character customisability - in the world of South Park, of all places - is quite a surprising, but welcome comfort.

All in all, this game is quite the impressive expansion of Stick of Truth. With its slow burn as the game slowly wraps the player into its increasingly absurd dilemmas and high strategy gameplay, this game works at its best by granting some patience in the game's first few hours. The gameplay starts just okay; but as the story, gear and moves develop, the true breadth of Fractured But Whole's dangers and combat make the second half so much worth the initial training.

The first time I played this game ended with only one achievement missing: The Token Experience. It is a good thing that there is still something left to achieve, because I am tempted to play a second time and re-experience its sheer ridiculousness.

this game is why i call everyone 'dude'

nice

btd6 deluxe edition when

Has a fun, totally crass campaign that lets you feel like you're in a South Park episode. While I found it a bit difficult to keep up with the ridiculous twists and turns that the story goes down, it is saved by simple, yet satisfying combat. Being able to pull off sick attacks and master the art of blocking is made engaging by reaction/timing-based button combos and mashes that let you feel involved in every single move. A fun and engaging experience overall.

When originally picking this game up, I tried to complete this game on the "Easy" difficulty. There must have been a mistake, because the game is quite obviously not easy on that difficulty - at least for a first-time play.

After a few failed attempts, I decided to switch into "Too Easy" difficulty. And wouldn't you know, I was able to make it through to the end, without any further resets. That run wasn't much easier, of course, this game is designed to be difficult. If I hadn't had some prior fails, that "Too Easy" run would have likely been just as much of a failure.

Allegedly, the only available difficulties are "Easy" and "Too Easy". It should go without saying that that is an absolute joke when it comes to difficulty selections. And I am personally quite picky over a game's wording, so I admit to being quite insulted by such a design choice. Reading further into other reviews, this may be purposed to taunt the player's skill by saying that "the game is easy, you just suck". However, I'm afraid that is also a contributor to the warding off of some players, myself included.

Poor communication of game mechanics was also a common mention among negative reviews. I was able to figure out the game mechanics by learning through play, but this issue may be another symptom of poor consideration for the new player. Being a difficult game should not excuse an underdeveloped learning curve.

On the bright side, there is some charm to the game once you can get past those initial hurdles. The tower defence component encourages intelligent resource management; to afford enough defences, protect research bays, split up your team and light up just the right areas, to farm enemies without dying in the process.

The story beats are also a nice way to break up the action between each floor - especially during extended play sessions - with myself discovering a not-so-helpful special interaction between Sara and Butcher. Spoiler:I was pretty amazed to see Sara follow through on killing Butcher after tensions rose past the limit, only for me to lose Sara in a moment of weakness, mid-battle. I had to risk several floors without a fourth party member, which of course makes it that much more difficult to survive the dungeon. Ultimately, it was quite poetic for the two of them to die as the rest of the team would escape in my "Too Easy" run.Mind you, these are starter characters, so having potential access to that interaction from the beginning is pretty cool.

Originally, I could not recommend this game due to the "Easy" mode being far from such for new players. But since it is at least possible to complete a "Too Easy" run with a few hours of experience, I now give this game a very light recommendation. This game will suck the life out of you when you start out, so get around the poorly designed learning curve by doing some test runs to start - death comes faster on "Easy" mode, if you prefer more frequent resets during your training. At the very least, getting past those initial hurdles will help to reveal a taxing, stressful, intense, challenging dungeon crawling experience. ...Like I said, this game is not "Easy".

i have played this game for 69 minutes
best game i've ever played, 420/420

Epic Battle Fantasy 5 has provided an adequately fun and enjoyable RPG experience. Some story elements felt a bit on the nose - the most notable being the introduction of the fascist organisation - but this didn't impact my gameplay experience too much. The gameplay itself is enjoyable, providing the strategic flair I expect of a good RPG. I particularly enjoyed the puzzles of figuring out the right loadouts and attacks required to take down bosses while at the highest "Epic" difficulty (not an easy task for a first timer).

However, there is one major flaw in this game, which is the reason why I write this review: poor optimisation. I use a fairly low-end PC, which typically does not impact the types of games I play. Some games are a bit more demanding, but proper resource management can usually prevent issues. However, this game would often get unapologetically laggy, which I imagine has dragged on the playtime. Over 15 hours (recorded) I managed to reach Anna's house before ultimately growing tired of the lag and dropping the game. From what I've gathered through discussion pages and personal experience, this lag is the result of a suboptimal animation system? In any case, none of the in-game optimisation options were able to alleviate the issue, which I find inexcusable for a game that - at least in theory - should have no qualms with low-end PCs.

From my perspective as a player with a low-end PC, I cannot recommend this game. If you do not have this hardware plight, however, you may have better luck.

(This review is mainly a criticism of the DLC game modes when compared to the main game mode available in the base game.)

This DLC adds 4 game modes to Party Jousting.
Bagatelle [16 players] - Players drop their animal like a ball, where they bounce through a bunch of pins while collecting as many coins as they can. Players can drop 5 balls, and there are 5 rounds.
Golf [16 players] - Players play as the ball, with everyone scrambling to collect as many coins as possible in a bird's eye view mini golf area. The hole appears wherever the last coin was, and whomever lands in it catches a coin bonus. There are 5 different levels.
Car-Ball [8 players] - A team-based mode where players control a car, accelerating automatically and holding their button to turn left or right. The car turns in the opposite direction each press, and turning also works as the car's brakes. You can ram into the side or back of an enemy car to temporarily knock them out. When the ball falls in a team's goal, the other team scores a point. One player can ride into the side of the goal to become a goalie, sliding up or down like in Blasterball to bounce the ball away. Score 5 goals to win.
Match3 [8 players] - This puzzle game works similar to Puyo Puyo, where the player is given groups of 3 blocks at the top of their board. These blocks shift from left to right to choose where to place them, and you can rotate them as well. Match3 with the same block type either horizontally, vertically or diagonally to clear them from the board. (I think you can also send grey blocks to other players, which encourages fast play). Whomever survives the longest wins.

You may notice that all four of these game modes are very different from the main Joust mode. The Joust mode is quite chaotic in that players can be knocked out at any time during a round, without warning. Arguably, the fact that the animals are so fragile is the most fun part of the game, and once you are out, you are out until the next round. None of the other game modes do this quite the same way. Bagatelle more or less has you in control of how often and when you use your balls, and each round lasts until every ball is used. While Match3 does have a knockout system like Joust, it is much more strategic in gameplay, and the fact that each player has their own field can cause a bit of a disconnect between the players, removing that fragility aspect. In Car-Ball, you respawn shortly after being knocked out, making it more of a hindrance than anything, and in Golf your ball can be stunned, but never destroyed.
The reason why I point out that Joust's quick knockout gameplay is unique to the game mode is that the other game modes feel a little dull in comparison. Playing the other game modes with your friends is tough to do when they are used to the swift deaths and epic plays that happen only in Joust mode.

Personally, I think more game modes should be added that lean into the fast knockout gameplay seen in the Joust mode. The Car-Ball mode could be transformed into an aggressive Demolition Derby type mode, having the same one-hit KO and driving mechanics of Car-Ball, but in a dirty and dangerous arena. Or how about removing the walls from Golf for a game mode where players try to knock each other off of a swiftly shrinking platform? What I think this game needs is more modes like Joust, where players directly attack each other in a battle for the Party Jousting crown.

Currently, I would not recommend this DLC if you are expecting more stuff like the main Joust mode. This DLC includes more strategic modes that are much less deadly, but a lot fairer to less skilled players thanks to allowing them to participate throughout the entire round. As such, if you feel like Jousting is a bit too hardcore or unfair, I would recommend this DLC, particularly for the Bagatelle mode, which is probably the friendliest mode of them all.

Something to note though, one of the Beta game modes is a Super Smash Bros. spoof, where players move left or right automatically and can do jumps and various attacks. The current moveset is really cool to mess around with, and it would be cool to see the game mode developed further, and possibly become more fun than any other mode.