Recent reviews by Fateless

I like to think that when the list of things I like about something, is bigger than the list of things I don't like about it, it deserves a recommendation, although only when its on sale.

♥♥♥♥ I like about it:
-the lore is cool, and the post apocalyptic tribalist vibe is something i feel should be done more often
-beautiful visuals
-the machines are always hard when you first fight them, but they always have some weak spots and patterns that make you learn how to fight them in a fun way
-The assassins creed type stealth and traversal (maybe a personal thing though)
-the sheer variety of weapons you get, that make your combat options varied enough that it never gets boring

♥♥♥♥ I don't like about it:
This game can't manage to interest me in its plot and characters. They are all so shallow. It happens a little too often that introduces me to some character(s), and then kills them off 5 minutes later, expecting me to care about them with emotional music and other throwaway side characters crying about it. The main character, Aloy, also has a bad case of know-it-all-ism. You go out to some new town or tribe, find the leader, and then for no reason they obey your commands without question, and listen to everything you say like its the truth, even though (once again) 5 minutes ago they had no idea who you were. You don't need to work for it or prove yourself. She's even a know it all to the player. if you don't figure out a puzzle within 10 seconds, she just tells you what to do.

Another thing I don't really like is how stereotypical so many characters are. Almost all the male characters are either cowards or bullies, and always dumb as rocks, while all the female characters are strong and kind and competent, and make you wonder how they still haven't managed to enter the industrial era. The only exceptions ive found so far were Avad, because I guess he's supposed to be the king of these people, and That war chief lady, who is so insufferable to interact with. I guess also Rost, because he is supposed to be the reason you're so strong and brave, as much as they tried as hard as they could to still make him a coward.

Finally, quest rewards and loot. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ loot boxes? really? Even in the apocalypse I can't escape loot boxes. they make quest rewards seem so irrelevant and impersonal, and half the time its just rocks or sticks I already have too much of. Even the open world collectibles like those animal figurines and metal flowers are only useful to trade in for slightly better loot boxes to randos on the street in Meridian.

But yeah, final verdict: the game is great, as long as you don't mind the narrative choices. I literally just went out and cleaned the map of side quests and collectibles and ♥♥♥♥, before I actually got started on the main story, and now that I am most of the way through with it, I am so annoyed with it.

I found out that crossplay was finally implemented, so I recovered my 4 year old switch account to see why i used to get so hooked on this game

That was about a week ago. now I have 65 hours on this game on steam. More than I play most games total.

this game is scary

This game starts out super simple, and tricks you into thinking its one of those solo-dev first project kinda games. to explore whats possible, while watching a tutorial or something. But then it just keeps going? never losing speed on scale, secrets and world building? The puzzles are straight out of portal (but without portals), and can get annoyingly difficult, giving you the feeling like youre looking for the needle in the haystack. But it usually ends up with just me being impatient, and needing to return to the last thing i did to find the next thing to do. The combat and general gameplay is fpz (first person zelda), first of its kind. challenging in the beginning, but once you start finding all the tools and upgrades, you slowly turn into a killing machine. The secrets are also super useful for once. Not just trinkets or money, but permanent upgrades to your weapons and your health. And not just the "+1,5%" stuff you see in skill trees.

I was honestly just cleaning out my library when i found this game, trying one game after the other, never really sticking around for longer than an hour. Two at most. I am at 12 hours in this game now, and I swear I have reached the endgame, and have found most secrets on the way (usually by accident, thinking ive finally figured out the current puzzle), but the tracker tells me im not even a third of the way through??

I am far from finished, and highly recommend this hidden gem of a game. Every time i think a puzzle cant get much more out of the box, suddenly it does. I have had multiple moments where a puzzle that made so little sense, that I was convinced that I was missing a tool or something, suddenly clicked. Like, when I compared them to portal I was not kidding. it makes you use all your tools (sometimes even twice) on the best ones.

I do have one criticism, but it is only minor compared with how fun this game still is: three out of four weapons are types of guns, the fourth is your starter sword, and after you find enough secrets (did i mention the secrets are actually super useful in this one?) they become so powerful you start forgetting you even have a sword. Although the upside of this is that this game starts playing like open world portal, since all three guns never stop being used in the puzzles (which happens too often in zelda games, stuff like the slingshot and the sand rod is completely useless outside their dedicated dungeon)

I am gonna wrap this up here though. I could go on and on about all the things that make it great but honestly, if i havent convinced you to buy it at this point, its not gonna happen. Support games like these, and not the slop that AAA has been cranking out lately.

It has the fishing mini game, therefore it is unpossible to be bad 👍

but seriously. It has a slow start, but once the plot gets going, it really gives that 2d zelda feel (you even stop seeing the jank after about an hour of playing). One might even say the slow start finishes the 2d zelda feel.

I just wish my guy would move a lil faster. And the fish in front of the door of the final boss wasn't harder than the actual final boss

I got two teachers arrested for pedophilia and a jock to ruin is career and future in one day

being a hot girl rules

Hi, this review is mainly directed at the game devs. As such, it is going to be nothing but spoilers from start to finish. Therefore I recommend you first play this game yourself before reading, as it is genuinely a gem among gems, but I have a few criticisms. I will format this so they take turns with praise :).


Criticism 1. I am going to start off with Tarock.

I already made a community post about it, so I will keep this brief
- Acquiring strong and rare cards is way too easy, to the point where I went from using level 2 cards to using level 8 cards, jumping over all the rest. It also seems like a pointless thing to gather since the enemy will always have the same level of cards as you (so even if you have all cards, if you play with only level 1 cards, so will they, no matter who they are)(only exception is their hero card they give you when you win)
- The randomness factor of the coin toss throws all skill and tactics out the window (along with the coin), as a few bad coin tosses in a row can ruin even a 8-1 winning game
- continuing on this, restarting games takes too long, you need to exit out of the whole conversation, select all your cards again (i really wish there was a deck system) and retry that way.


Praise 1. It absolutely nails the Zelda Aesthetic.

I see everyone compare this to breath of the wild, but i have to disagree with that one (despite the technological enemies). It feels a lot more like Skyward sword, with temple/dungeon design, wind waker, with traversal, twilight princess, with tone (especially in the final level, its boss, and the final boss), spirit tracks, with how princess zelda actually joins you, etc. Theres also a triforce, zora, rito, master sword, lack of a blood-family, silent protagonist and not to forget the heavy use of items:
- bombs
- ranged weapon used for puzzles
- THE GRAPPLING HOOK (turning into spiderman in the white city is something the zelda series could actually learn from). After getting this, traversal becomes a lot more fast and fluid, and its very clear a lot of attention went into designing it.
- Diving helm
- Cards (you can challenge anyone you want)
- Fire arrows, ice arrows, lightning arrows (also used for puzzles)


criticism 2, the extremely limited overworld

I know i cant genuinely compare this indie game made by a few friends in their spare time to the polished quality of triple A, but I can't help but feel like more was planned for it. The starting village doesn't even connect to the overworld, and the only way to reach it is by train, boat, plane, or fast travel ("only"). When I see the terrain from the plane, I can see clear points where it could have been connected after certain story elements have passed, even if its only through a tunnel and a loading screen. The game does encourage exploration, especially after the owl temple, by removing the possibility of boat travel, forcing you to go by foot, but i still reached the city in around 10 minutes (or I would have if i ignored the miniboss). Speaking of which, while the sidequests present are stellar (hats off to the court of monsters), there is also a distinct lack of them. There's not even a quest log, because it is simply not necessary. A navigable overworld map would also have significantly shortened my time pointlessly looking around for missing chests and bloodstones (but maybe you dont want less playtime)


Praise 2: the artstyle

I already made a point of this, but I wanted to talk about the non-zelda features. The world is truly bright and vibrant, and a breath of fresh air from the drab brown and gray games that seem to be popular nowadays. The enemies are also still charming, though not too much, opening the market to younger children. A few great locations that stood out to me were the ghost town, with the statues being poised like they could come back to life at any moment, and the soft sound of the heartbeat in the background, implying that the people were still alive, but trapped, in limbo. The final level, the dark lords castle, especially with the being struck down and stripped of all your gear, recovering them one by one, and finding your way through the halls and hallways, until you encounter the final boss, who despite appearances, was not really evil, but had righteous intentions (although the means did not justify them).


criticism 3: there were some really unpolished parts to it

For instance, the default robot voice you can find yourself, used for when the guards talked when trin is imprisoned, despite them having plenty of voicelines with an original VA, or when oceanhorn talks during cutscenes. The airplane animations, especially when it lands, need some serious reviewing, since it just looks like the way a child puts down a toy airplane. The diving, I thought would open up specific maps to more exploration, but even the parts you can see, are ugly and brown, and when you press the re-emerge button, you just appear back on the surface (as long as nothing is above you) no matter how deep you were. You also swim very slowly with no speed boosts available. Think of skyrim swimming.


praise 3: The gameplay is a lot of fun

- The leveling system is entirely optional, but challenges you to go out of your way to explore, complete challenges, and even be addressed by certain NPCs according to your rank in it (each level is titled).
- Combat offers options, you can pull yourself towards enemies with the grappling hook, parry attacks with your shield, shoot them in/between the eyes to stun them, just place down a bomb (they are infinite but on a cooldown, which can be decreased using power gems), but you still need a certain degree of skill. The shield only blocks forward attacks, and you cant block when shooting or grappling (obviously).
- You can easily cycle through items and ranged spells using the arrow keys, so you dont need to enter the menu every time (although I wish the game had told me that, and i didnt need to find out by accident)
- Command companions to hold down buttons for puzzles or hit switches you cant reach with their boomerang (because honestly, zelda boomerangs are a drag and are shelved forever once you get the bow, which you get at the beginning here. In this game, your companion can boomerang without you needing to switch to it)


and now some random smaller praises and criticisms, unrelated to any large topic
+ the dungeon design is always unique, and features simple but clever puzzles
- nobody ever addresses you by name, even though you are given one in a cutscene: Theo. instead you are known simply as "hero"
+ the companion banter is fun, and rare enough to not be obnoxious
- Some Tarock card descriptions feature serious spoilers for the story (gen for instance)
+ The mystery and the plot twists are well done
- The ending, though understandable why, leaves a lot to be desired. What was it all for then? I thought it would go the Dragon Quest XI route, seeing how much it borrows from that game as well.
+ The voice acting is well done, and the voices always fit the characters
- The bosses are aesthetically well designed, but they all feature the same boils that spawn infinitely until the health bar is depleted


I don't want to give it a rating, because I know im too old to be playing it anyways, but I know child-me would have absolutely loved this game. A lot more than he would enjoy playing ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ starfield or whatever the newest FPS is. This game still has the magic that I thought games didn't have anymore.

If you are still reading and you are not the dev. PLAY THIS DAMN GAME!! SUPPORT THE CREATION OF MORE GAMES LIKE THIS!!! STOP BUYING 70$ SLOP!!!!

storys fun but every time i lose a battle they secretly lower the difficulty, and as such i start losing more and more battles because the game doesnt let me git gud >:(

"Games can't be art" MFers when they break down crying to this masterpiece in visual storytelling

Have you ever been so bored on public transport that you actually try to solve the sudoku on the back of a newspaper? That's this game. In a good way. What's fun about sudokus (for me) is that it starts as a simple puzzle, but the puzzle keeps changing as you slowly solve it, without leaving the 81 squares you start out with. you fill in numbers, that clue you to the possible solution of other numbers.

This game is about you trying to figure out who everyone is, and how they died, based on clues given to you throughout the memories of death, of the dead. At first you have to work with the information the game gives you, names you hear, and fatal inflictions you can clearly see happen before your eyes, but after that, you have to work with your own notes, and as you deduce one identity from his uniform, or from what people call them (be it name, title or personal connection), the pool of possibilities slowly closes, allowing you to make more deductions, like the three russians playing cards, but there is only one you haven't identified, so you look up the name of the remaining russian sailor. Or how one man talks about the death of his brother, so you look up which two men have the same last name

unlike sudoku though, you do get told when youre right every three filled in profiles, which is nice

I feel kinda bad to give this a negative review, since its obvious its from a small studio who put a lot of heart and soul into it, making an interesting world(s), characters, and premise, as well as a twinge of mystery. but at the end its still a video game, and its most important aspect is the gameplay.

its just a top down run and gun, with every objective being "go here, talk to them, go there kill the enemies, go back, talk some more, oop, enemies show up, kill them, talk again." thats it. thats this whole game, and thats such a shame. I wish they would have made a film or a series out of this instead, or at least not made it top down?

yes there are choices, and yes they change the course of the game...until you get to the next area and you never see any of the established characters again. and yes theres the sun mode and moon mode, which are basically sword mode and gun mode. but theyre only effective against enemies of their own colour. yes there are cool combos to pull off, but theyre more likely to drain your own hp while your character is winding up its punches, than just mashing default attack and dodging. maybe im doing something wrong though, always possible.