Recent reviews by SPHTC

This game will have the greatest impact if you're the kind of person who really gets into the story, and if you're the kind of person who's played a few RPGs (whether you like them or not - Undertale is not like most other RPGs).

Some people won't have the patience to deal with the more annoying characters, but the game is fresh enough and good enough as a game in its own right that it's worth sticking it out for the music, the subversion of RPG standards and, of course, the story climax that will have most players tearing up at least a little.

Striking and stunningly beautiful, Expand packs both slow exploration gameplay and fast dodging gameplay into a cohesive experience.

If you just want to know whether you should buy this game, all you need to read is the next sentence:

If you're up for a relatively light-hearted and "cute" fantasy hack-and-slash, BUY THIS GAME. BUY THIS, BUY THIS, BUY THIS.

If you're not convinced and need details, well, okay. I avoided buying this game for a long time because it's definitely not the kind of game I usually go for, but I kept hearing about how good it is - in really nonspecific terms. So I bought it in the most recent summer sale and it's blown me away. Dust: An Elysian Tail is really good, but the thing is, it's really good because of reasons that are difficult to put into words. Now I know why everybody was so vague about why it's good.

The closest I think I can say is "Every individual part of the game - the sound design, the art, the combat mechanics, and so on - are 'okay' to 'very good,' but they work together so well that the game taken as a whole is more than the sum of its parts."

That's not to say it's perfect. The voice acting in particular keeps getting my attention, and not in a positive way. Meanwhile, the dodging and parrying combat mechanics are slightly clunky - or at least, poorly explained. But seriously, the rest of the game more than makes up for these faults. The story, the art and sound, and, yes, even the "furry" character designs pull me into the earnest and innocent fantasy world that serves as a refreshing counterpoint to the "big-headed child loses their innocence in a big, dark world" indie RPG/adventure games that are so common these days.

My brother got me this game as a gift months ago, but the absolutely atrocious keyboard and mouse controls made it completely unplayable.

Fast forward to today. I got home from the store with a new gamepad, and let me tell you, I did not expect to play through it in one sitting. Yet here I am. WOW!

Transistor plays with some really unique gameplay elements that I thought would get stale, but stayed interesting. If anything, I'm just annoyed I didn't get to play it sooner. Seriously, give this a pass if you don't have a gamepad, but if you do, you owe it to yourself to try it out.