Recent reviews by toyotathon

A puzzle game for adults! Fun game, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Some of the puzzles can be very hard; I had to use the in-game guide for part of conveyor belt world. I play on Steam Deck, and it's mostly flawless, with a few exceptions — some mechanics, like the tile warper you use in the oasis map, aren't announced to you if you're navigating the world with a d-pad. I can't believe this game is free, and I hope the developer considers releasing a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ $10 DLC so I can pay them retroactively.

About 2/3 of the way through the game, Sea of Stars pulls off a certain plot device better than any peer RPG—with a real sense of pathos; entirely earned. Great game.

Cites things like Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire II, which I love, but confidently does its own thing. Outstanding soundtrack and a masterful use of navigating space. Starts a little slow, but the story and combat picked up for me once I got the fourth character in my party.

Complaints about the writing are overblown. One character is written pretty annoyingly and the protagonists are just people who say "Wow!" when things happen to them, but it's not a huge deal.

Great concept for a game and a heck of a lot of fun. Everyone's already described it as "Wizardry but Wordle" or whatever so I won't try to reinvent the wheel. I understand this game is ~15 hours, and I think that's the perfect length for the scope of what's going on here. I'm taking a little break and hoping for a few small issues to get patched — I would love if asking for hints on hard riddles gave me a letter or two instead of solving the thing outright, because I like solving riddles — but I'm looking forward to jumping back into it. What a hoot!

One of the greatest JRPGs of all time, if not the greatest. If you haven't played it—run, don't walk. If you have played it, this appears to be the best way to replay it. FFVI Pixel Remaster is a faithful remaster that cleans up some of the bugs (the Evasion stat is actually used to determine hit% now, instead of defaulting to MagEv like the SNES release), fine-tunes some of the mechanics, and adds *the best soundtrack of 2022*—a fully orchestrated version of Nobuo Uematsu's magnum opus score. Like every other FF remaster, the font is atrocious for some reason, but that's very easily rectified with some light patching.

A little game that tries to be several things but excels at neither—there's just enough citybuilding to scratch the itch but a pretty limited tech/development tree (I maxed everything relevant out before completing the second of four main dungeons), while the combat (slash-and-roll style fighting in Binding of Isaac-esque randomized dungeons) is pleasant but gets repetitive very quickly. The art style and general dark humor is delightful; I just wish there was a bit more substance.

GOTY 2020

it whips ass

A tremendously satisfying narrative, interesting-enough combat, and a rich and thoughtfully designed world. A++.