Recent reviews by Embryon

The Zelda equivalent of bowling with bumpers.

Gosh, I was so excited for this one. The storybook art direction is wonderfully whimsical and you can feel the passion that went into making this game. I think it'd be more enjoyable as a literal storybook or an animated feature. Unfortunately, it's just...not fun. I expected something a bit more "all-ages," but instead it feels infantile. I absolutely love cute characters and stories, so it's not that I wanted something mature and edgy here. It Baby's First Zelda—as if Fi from Skyward Sword is hovering over you, asking repeatedly if you need help or if you understand what you're doing when all you've been asked to do is walk up to a sign and press Y to read it. There are two separate characters that exist specifically to give hints, some of which are forced upon you before you even attempt to proceed. The game doesn't seem to trust the player to simply digest it at their own pace. It takes no time at all for it to start feeling like a chore to complete.

I don't intend to refund this because I want to support the idea behind it. The creativity on display in the game's visual presentation is notably absent in its level, combat, and puzzle design. The writing is tougher to deem objectively bad; it's simply twee. I found it hard to endure, personally.

It's a shame that actually playing The Plucky Squire is much less exciting than imagining the adventure it could've been.

A blitzkrieg ballet. This game came (seemingly) outta nowhere and blew me away. An homage to my favorite era of shmups. Less complicated than Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, but similarly evocative aesthetics. It's beautifully lean and streamlined, with crazy depth if you want; either way, the effects and patterns feel SO good to dodge and weave around as you make fireworks of your foes. Blood-pumping tunes, too. This game rips.

"We're out of Castlevania. Is Diet Castlevania OK?"

I dunno about this one! The game presents well to start and has a solid soundtrack, but it feels hollow. It rings of ambitious plans that never came to fruition.

Looking at the store page, I thought the shadow system was going to be a major gameplay component, but it's barely there. There are only two shadows. You need to use each one a few times to progress through stages, and...that's it. They're too weak to be of much use in boss encounters, and most enemies die with a single slash, so I rarely bothered with them. The upgrades you earn from bosses also don't feel like much--one simply makes you do more damage; another raises your sub-weapon stock. Nothing save the double jump fundamentally changes how you approach the game. The level design is *just* on this side of boring and only the human-sized bosses present much of a challenge. The visual aesthetic does a lot of lifting throughout.

Lords of Exile is...fine. The trouble is that the game lacks a unique identity. The 8-bit Bloodstained games and Odallus: The Dark Call are more wholly realized experiences. Play those first. Then, if you're still hurting for yet another classic Castlevania-like, grab this.

A hearty "meh." It's about as barebones as a rhythm game can get. The main menu and UI feel underbaked; the track list is paltry but has some fun tunes. What brings this into the "do not recommend" zone for me are the rotating orange line notes, which have an unpleasantly slippery, imprecise feel paired with all the other notes.

It's possible to get 100% achievements in roughly an hour, and three of them amount to "fail a song sung by a specific character." The scoring feels overly generous and there's little incentive to continue playing or practicing once you've heard every song once. What's more, the Anthem mechanic—a cute callback to the Gunvolt series thematically—trivializes difficulty by allowing you to continue any song in the event of a fail. There simply doesn't seem to be a lot of care put into this release, and I can't say the strategy of padding out its meager track list via DLC appeals to me when the core package is so mediocre.

A beautiful window into the vast world of Granblue Fantasy. The production values here are staggering, with boss encounters and cinematic clashes on par with its highest-budget contemporaries. What I love most about Granblue is how its skies truly feel endless—like there's an infinite number of charismatic people and rich, textured locales waiting out beyond the horizon. Few games are imbued this potently with adventure's spirit.

A sublime mélange of rhythm and wit. The game oozes style, with a vibrant palette and characters you can't help but immediately love—even when they're dorks, or abrasive, or villainous.

Rolled credits after roughly 11 hours. This game's earned its accolades and then some. It's just...good. So many moments had my skin tingling with excitement, and while I'm OK with this game being a one-off experience, I'd just as soon welcome an expanded revisit of this world with a Hi-Fi Rush 2.

An improvement in every way over vanilla Granblue Versus. The lobbies and netcode are much improved, core battle systems have received tweaks that make matches more intense and exciting, and there are tons of ways to customize your play experience and presentation. Losing the lackluster RPG mode is a worthwhile tradeoff for the many nuanced options for profile, avatar, and UI customization, which all feel carefully engineered to draw you deeper into the expansive world of Granblue Fantasy.

Incredibly lush and polished pixel art aesthetics meet classic SotN-style 'vania charm. Totally worth devoting a weekend to.

Awe-inspiring. Every single line is razor-sharp and beautifully framed. The pacing is pitch-perfect; the script says so much but leaves breadcrumbs for the imagination to seize and ruminate over. And the MUSIC is just... <333 They rarely make 'em this good.

Unlike nearly any VN out there. Melancholy, somber, reflective--every beat delivered in eloquent prose. One of the best translations I've seen in the space.