Recent reviews by Anthropodlogist

Memorable and relatable characters that made me cry and introspect upon myself like no other game ever has.

The Return of the Obra Dinn is easily one of the best games that I have ever played with interesting but fair puzzles and a great concept.

The mouse controls are so broken that I cannot even get past the 'type your name' menu because I can't move the cursor to get to it. Instead they remain as if stuck in a small bubble, unable to move.

A high concept game with a great premise, a great art direction, and great music. The game uses a soundtrack hooked up to the events occuring in the manor in a memorable way, with sound cues and crescendoes tied to individual moments. Easily on the best games I have played this year.

The biggest criticism I have is one of expectations, as I expected to find myself with a rubics cube style endgame where I had to save everyone in one go, being forced to completely reinvent strategies from the way you saved them the first time, but instead the game ends after you have saved everyone once. As well, many of the puzzles lack depth and complexity, making few of them mind intensive.

I find that the best definition of a niche game is a game that has features that would normally be considered faults, but to the intended audience they are perks that make the game or games special. For this game those faults are constant backtracking, secrets that no normal person would be expected to find, and parts of the game which require little more than patience and determination to get through.
And I love this game for this. The game rewards exploration, has a host of amazing abilities, catchy music, weird and interesting art, albeit a bit Freudian at times. I only really started playing metroidvania's about september last year, and I wasn't born during the "golden" age or the SNES or Playstation, and that shows how good this game is. I have no nostalgia towards that time, and this game is still very strong in my eye's.

It has some non-niche faults however, I was constantly dying, but I have sub-par reflexes especially with a keyboard so that is probably more my fault than the game's, and the difficulty is rather inconsistent, going from brutal to easy from zone to zone. There was also a part of the game that gave me motion sickness and where it was near impossible to see the enemies I was fighting, one of the few moments where putting my head down and pushing through didn't feel satifying. As well while there are a lot of fun weapons you will usually find yourself only using 2-3 that are really practical, as most are awesome to watch but pale in comparaision to the high-DPS vanilla shot, the wall ignoring electric shotgun, and the delayed detonation explosive ball to deal with powerfull enemies without getting close to them. All three of which you get in the first two hours of the game.

Hong Kong's story was pretty good, while the end game plot twists of dragonfall (there are a lot more than you would think) have made me view it as having the better story, this one's is still very strong.
What I don't really like however, is the changes to gameplay.
Spirits are much, MUCH, weaker than before, and also less common. In dragonfall they could clear out entire rooms if they didn't turn on you first. It does go both ways however, as now enemy spirits are easier to deal with. However I never really had a problem with rival spirits, as I focused fire on the summoner immediatly. I also remember the times my foes spirits turned on them. Good times...
There are also changes to the matrix, the animations have been changed, so now it looks like the animation is frozen, even though it is instead a (rather poor) design decision. There are also stealth sections, but the guards move so quickly that remembering their patterns is next to impossible.
However, this is also the most dialogue heavy of all the games, and I have been able to talk my way through most of the games fights. Due to the well written dialogue and story it is incredibly entertaining, with many great moments. Unfortunatly the heavy reliance on text makes the replay value of this game very low, as replays of levels boil down to simply going through the same motions as the last time. I would honestly say that Dragonfall is a better game. If you want to introduce yourself to the games, get that one. If you enjoy it, try Hong Kong.
Unless you hate reading lots of text, in which case you'll probably not enjoy this game. But I would give it the benefit of the doubt.

The music for this game is uterly amazing, it is without a doubt some of the best video game OST's out there, up with Okami and Castlevania:Symphony of the Night. The pixel art and story are also very good, and the game has made me feel regret and sadness like nothing else I have played.
On the gameplay standpoint however... it's not that strong. The game is brutally hard (at least it was for me) and the bullethell-esq combat gets old fast. However gameplay has always been second compared to heart.
And undertale has a lot of that.

A very, very good RPG.
While the story is a bit weak and has a REALLY rocky start, (worst first level in a game I have played...) it quickly became enjoyable with the well written characters, and subtlely.
The combat system is also very good, with a lot of options for whateve playstyle you wish.
I would honestly say that it is the best game in the franchise,as the story is vastly superior than Returns and the gameplay is better than Hong Kong's.