Every Reviewed Game

There's beauty in this game's simplicity. You can see all the possible outcomes before every step, making it easy to understand the ramifications. I also liked that enemies' health is also their attack damage, making offense a viable approach for defense. There are a lot character and abilities combinations, so there are plenty of ways to approach runs. But ultimately, there weren't enough items to really draw me in; I saw a lot of the same options in every run which made it more repetitive than I would have hoped. But it would make a good game to play in short, occasional bursts.

It's Tony Hawk meets John Wick, which works better than it has any right to. The motion is fluid and the gunplay is just as simple as it needs to be. It got a little harder than I was interested in, but the game let me tweak the difficulty exactly how I wanted (infinite ammo, damage taken reduction). Zipping around and blast things with occasional tricks was a blast and half. Being able to turn the game into the exact experience I wanted was a pleasant surprise.

Absolutely spectacular art direction. The 2D sections are straight out of Hilda and the 3D made great use of lighting to make the cartoon elements really pop. Story was surprisingly meta and fun. Music was top-tier. Really the only thing lacking was the gameplay itself. It started basic and never really went anywhere from there. You get a couple of moves, but you fight the same standard enemies the whole game and nothing puts up a fight. The puzzles range from "too simple" to "decent", but never higher. There's also a ton of (blessedly skippable) minigames that get old eventually. I think it's great for what it is, you just need to set expectations around challenge level and simplicity going in. I enjoyed my time with it overall.

Great platforming and traversal abilities. Story was good and explored themes (death, grief, family) that are less common in games. The setting felt unique as well. Loved the vibrant color scheme- felt very PS2 era in that regard. Decent, if repetitive combat. Low enemy variety and fights get a little too hectic late. Is technically a metroidvania, but the map isn't super compelling and there's not much backtracking. I wish we got more time with each ability, cause there are some fun ones.

Takes the great formula from the first game and improves on it. I liked the increased scope and level of detail that we got from being able to see the characters in so many situations over their years. Increased puzzle variety was welcome (not just putting names to faces, but assigning people to houses, building timelines, etc). Some genuinely tricky puzzles, too. There are more missions so the story feels a little more padded than before, but not so much that it's not enjoyable. I especially liked piecing together the larger narrative across an achronological story. A fitting follow-up to one of the great detective games.

A tightly paced blend of action platformer and turn-based RPG. The powers, abilities, and equipment are varied and fun. The writing is goofy but not obnoxious. Characters are memorable. It rewards backtracking while not requiring it, which is a rarity in RPGs. High-interactivity turn-based battles never felt stale.

Some good puzzle concepts. Lots of solutions require careful timing and precision, which are more frustrating than fun. Controls are ok but the UI is cumbersome to navigate. Virtual assistant is very weird.

Had a lot of potential but didn't come together. Its gorgeous, hand-drawn art and murderer's row of voice talent were great. But, for a game all about music, none of the songs felt melodic or especially pleasant to listen to. I liked the dialogue writing and some heavy topics were handled with care. The story itself was ok and there are a lot of potential branches (and romance options), but the core mystery was quite underwhelming.

A top-tier cyberpunk narrative wrapped in just enough interactivity. I loved the depth to the characters and the complex motivation behind everything they did. Actual gameplay is light - mostly reading. But you get a certain number of actions each day and what you roll affects what you can do and how fast things progress. It evoked the "choose your own adventure" vibe of tabletop RPGs in that regard. Everything gets too easy in the late game and I would have liked a little more variety in the way you used actions. Nevertheless, this definitely feels like a hidden gem.

A fun take on a change-the-past puzzles. Individual puzzles were decent too, but not outstanding. A decent story with clumsy (translated?) writing. First half of the game was stronger than the second, though I did like seeing the cumulative effect of my changes on the villiage.

A straightforward but fun platinum trophy. Good mix of easter eggs, challenges, collectables, and fun things.

Extremely charming concept, a small world of friends to explore, and some surprisingly compelling platforming and traversal mechanics make this way more fun than expected. It's nothing like Breath of the Wild in complexity, but it copies a lot of the other core bits to great effect.

The art & gameplay are both great. It does a great job encouraging active positioning and strategic planning. UI is a little rough, but not enough to stop me enjoying my time with it.

Fun concept (build your own luck) but the gameplay just felt bland. Chancing into the perfect set of jokers between rounds is fun, but the actual gameplay is a mix of "Play", "Discard", and a bunch of luck. Other deckbuilders have more interactivity where you get to choose targets and ordering, but making poker hands (even if some of them are super high scoring) got old fast. I had a couple of super long runs where everything came into place, but I also had a bunch of duds where I didn't get anywhere. I feel like the "bad" runs in other roguelikes are still fun, but the ones in Balatro were just drags.

Gameplay was much improved over the first one, mostly due to improved enemy AI and level design. Everything flows cinematically and fluidly, which is nothing short of a technical marvel. Every melee attack has a contextual animation and the world reacts to your actions. The PS5 version's graphics are also probably the peak of the generation. The story is top-notch, as expected. Naughty Dog continues to push the boundaries of what possible in a narrative. At times, I did feel like playing the "novelization" of a TV show, so I'm excited to see what this looks like in the actual show. Overall it was probably too long and had some pacing inconsistencies, but I felt like it largely surpassed the original (despite my fondness for that first story).

Has dialogue and emotional beats that punches way above its weight. Characters + art are cute and the story is decent if predictable. The gameplay is _only_ nonogram puzzles, which are fun but very one-note. I could have used... anything else. But I had a good time with it. It also had a great hint system which keeps you moving through the puzzles, which I appreciated.

Combines great writing, a decent story, and open ended tactical puzzles into an absolute banger. Good ability variety and the ability to push characters (enemy and ally alike) leads to a ton of interesting approaches to completing objectives. Infinite rewinds encourage lots of experimentation making it extremely fun to play around with.

This DLC adds an exciting depth to an already strong base game. By exchanging power for additional challenge, the game becomes harder on lower difficulty levels, which I appreciated. Combining units adds great strategic depth, altering what cards I was willing to pick up. I didn’t care much for the added clan and I still think the game pushes you too hard into pre-determined archetypes, but I had a good time revisiting the Train anyway.

The best part was the combat (eventually) and the worst part was everything else. Once you get a few abilities under your belt the combat really starts to click, but by then you're halfway through the game. Everything else the adventure felt underbaked. The world was large, empty, and lifeless. The equipment system was an afterthought, removing any interesting decision making from everything but the ability loadout. Characters are fine if forgettable, but the whole plot is joyless and overwrought. The marquee boss fights are certainly unique, but they're overly long and are more spectacle than substance. For a mainline FF title, it has remarkably little going for it.

Game that tries hard to be cute and mostly nails it. Takes a lot of care to let you really _be_ a cat, doing as much or a little as you want. Gameplay mechanics are simplistic and there are more than a few bugs, but its charming supporting cast and cozy neighborhood make for a good time.

Some interesting tactical gameplay buried under an abysmal Switch port. I liked that there were different factions and the campaign runs built up an army over time, but the fact that you could recruit from any pool meant you just had less synergy than if you were constrained to the one you picked. I liked the hex grid and each character having abilities, which helped keep battles fairly fresh. I have a feeling this would have eked out a 3 stars if I had played on Steam w/ a mouse, but I just couldn't keep playing using the controller interface.

Stuffed to the gills with mechanics and mini-games, it's really hampered by its lack of focus. The core diving / selling / exploring / grinding gameplay is compelling, but gets bogged down by everything else that demands your attention. The art and music are good, the story meh, and the experience decent overall.

Probably my favorite shovel knight campaign. Movement felt great and the heirlooms were each interesting. I also loved that the levels were so much shorter - it allowed them to try more things in a more focused space. The Joustus card game was a good addition, though its actual gameplay didn't grab me like I expected it to. Even so, roaming around and building a better deck to challenge people with was satisfying. Whole thing was a blast!

Sort of an interesting little physics sim, but the physics are all floaty and gummy. Has sort of a goose game / katamari chaos charm, but lacks enough cohesion to make it particularly worthwhile. Some funny interactions, but not something I needed to spend more time with.

Superb naval combat coupled to kludgy controls and a scattered story. I really loved sailing around with my buds and improving my ship. Assassinations were also a good time and there was decent mission variety. The stealth and combat mechanics were largely frustrating and the open world formula was tired. It could have used a little focus- there are a lot of competing systems. Exploration was fun but usually done without a satisfying payoff.

Good music, decent writing, and a fun presentation unfortunately fail to prop up a lackluster combat system. it's neat in theory, but is too easy until it becomes crushingly hard (unless you do a lot of grinding). A lot of these concepts were probably revolutionary in 1994, but many don't translate well into the modern day. I ended up setting for a bad ending after an excruciatingly slow final boss that was more a waste of time than a challenge.

Extremely intricate puzzles layered onto a world busting with explorable areas made this a most engaging adventure. Learning new mechanics kept the world from feeling too small and the odd atmosphere kept us engaged throughout. Ended up getting the platinum trophy (and the true ending) because we were having so much fun.

A pretty tough game, but fair about its difficulty. Good boss variety and equipment options. It would get frustrating when I made dumb mistakes over and over. But, the feeling of finally beating a boss I had run up against many times was exhilarating. Death Count: 507 total: 101 deaths first island, 191 deaths second island, 111 deaths third island, 30 deaths against penultimate boss, 74 against final boss.

I liked the concept and art style a lot, but it didn't land for me. I liked the way that characters aged and changed over time, which felt novel. Building their stories over time also felt good. Combat was mostly good, but each campaign started pretty slowly until you got abilities for your characters. The overworld ate up a lot of time without being especially compelling. The dialogue was inconsistent at best and was noticeably procedurally generated; that made it occasionally charming, but stilted more often than not. End-campaign combat was the highlight and there was decent depth, but it took a while to get there. There are only three classes which I think limits the diversity of the gameplay. It felt like we saw most of the possible archetypes in our time with the game. Note: I played the whole thing in 4 player multiplayer, had some rough edges. We played a couple campaigns, enough to feel like we had seen most of what the game had to offer.

Had an interesting premise (tactics + tower defense) but fell short for me. Towers felt underpowered and unrewarding to use. Hero upgrades were ok, but the pool is pretty small so it all felt repetitive after a few runs. Metaprogression was also fairly uninteresting. Cool idea that didn't stick the landing.

Charming concept. Decent if simple puzzles. Tacked on combat, but didn't really get in the way. They could have streamlined it a bit, but I liked the story a lot.

A neat concept (audio-only game), but doesn't quite stick the landing. Combat is repetitive and audio design is surprisingly spartan for game that's literally only audio.

Very cool presentation & tech. Creepy story that doesn't really resolve much, but is pretty gripping throughout.

Extremely cool concept. There aren't many games that have real time command-typing as their core gameplay (and when they do, it's usually not under time pressure). I definitely felt like a hacker as I rushed to rotate the cameras, disable the lasers, and distract the guards. Story was good too- it did a lot with a little. Though I would have liked music/sound effects and some slight QoL improvements, this was awesome for what it was.

This stretches the definition of "game"- it's more of a guided meditation with dialogue choices. Unfortunately, not something I'm looking for...

Clever little puzzle game. No art, music, or story to speak of, but the puzzles are good and there's some neat space explored. Not a bad way to spend 2 hours.

Some of the best turn based combat I've played in a while. I love the deckbuilding mechanics. The story and writing were fine, but they paved the way for some genuinely heartfelt character moments. Design wise, it's overstuffed - there are too many generic missions and too many resources / collectibles. The dressup aspect is fun though and like I said, the core gameplay awesome. They teased a sequel and I'm here for it.

Cute art and music coupled to an ok story and lacking gameplay. Bits of it were certainly charming and it captured summer well, but didn't do it for me overall.

A strong entrant in the monster collecting genre. Story was decent, if tropey. Gameplay was more modular than most Pokemon-like games, leading to a lot of deep strategy if you want to go looking for it. The fusion system is great and the fact that every combination exists is pretty mind blowing. The type chart is fairly advanced compared to Pokemon, requiring me to keep a reference open most of the time. The ragdoll physics are an interesting twist on its pixel art style. Decent exploration and menus that are less ergonomic than they should be. But, a fun play that kept me engaged throughout.

Great tower variety and a system that really rewards and encourages experimentation (by being able to respec at any time for free). Your power level really ramps up as you get more skills and items. Enemy variety is generally interesting and forces you to think on your feet a bit rather than doing the same things every time. Great on iPad.

Great art style, some decent platforming, pretty good exploration. Combat was mostly fun and abilities combined in interesting ways, but there was also plenty of frustrating moments where controls weren't as responsive as expected. Nevertheless, had a good time with it.

Extremely cool concept. It plays out like a heist, where everything is planned, cased, and adjusted. The different time slots do a good job making each of the 4 levels feel distinct and each is built with the signature level of Arkane detail. There's not a ton of gear or weapons, but it leaves space to experiment without penalty. The characters and story are good. While one could argue it holds your hand too much, I think too little direction would also be frustrating. So at least this way, you have the opportunity to see all they've built. They also knocked it out of the park with the visual and architectural style, so I'm glad I was able to spend more time with it.

Charming and surprisingly intricate little exploration game where you steal your way across the country. The writing carries a decent story and the 90s vibe grounds the world nicely.

Pleasant little puzzle game. Fun to explore the manor and piece together the clues about how each plant is grown. On the simpler side, but generally enjoyable for its short runtime.

I was slow to warm up to it, but I absolutely adored the dang thing. It's maybe the perfect podcasting game to play and zone out too. I used to think that was bad, but being able to have just enough gameplay to be engaging while not needing to worry about dying or any stats was sort of great. Some levels were more frustrating than others, but I generally enjoyed the variety.

(this is specifically for the 1-player campaign, World of Light) Bits of this are very neat - there's a fair amount of customization you can do with your chosen character and leveling up the spirits is sort of fun. Unfortunately, a lot of the abilities are pretty underwhelming and a few spirits outclass the rest. Plus, the gameplay is just a lot of Smash. That's what you're here for, but the variation in rules between matches doesn't ultimately change up that much; you're just trying to knock them off the platform. Also, the story (such that it is) feels pretty lazy- there are about 3 unvoiced cutscenes and that's it. I get that most people aren't here to play this and the overall game itself is extremely polished, but the campaign felt underbaked. I got the true ending, which gets props for an extra cool couple of fights at the end. The bosses throughout were actually pretty unique, so props for that.

Loved the art direction and tolerated the gameplay. There were some puzzles, but mostly simple running and jumping. There's some implied story, but it didn't do much for me. The art and music are great though, taking much inspiration from INSIDE and Journey. It's relaxing enough, but not altogether unique.

An enthralling tale of a man's place in a small town and the murders that happen there. But it's not about the mystery, really. More about the people and their lives. It's great to learn about everyone and see how your choices impact the story of this village. It's a bit slow at times, but it's cool to see the scope of it all.

An interesting concept whose execution screams "budgetary problems". The story is paced terribly with no sense of direction and hardly any arc. The characters are all joyless and mostly generic. Gameplay is interesting at first, but never goes anywhere; there aren't enough abilities to keep things fresh. It's also the same few enemies and environments the whole game, which gets pretty stale.

The Left Behind DLC distills the main game's gameplay into a tight 1.5 hour package. The story greatness is still there and its reduced padding and smaller environment make for a satisfying stay.

While the environments look ok, the fox doesn't control well and the dialogue is pretty poorly written. It attempts to pull at heartstrings, but is more frustrating than compelling.

Short but sweet walking simulator. Exploring the house is cool and it's neat how the story unfolds at your own pace. There's not really much gameplay, but it's a contained enough game that it didn't bother me.

DK Adventure DLC. Great example of a DLC that does more with less. The lack of character choices streamlined everything without getting bogged down. Puzzles were neat and battles were varied. Great extension of a proven formula.

Fun game, if a little repetitive. Getting deep into number-go-up systems isn't usually what I go for, so I liked its simplified approach (it's usually easy to see how goods flow and what workers are doing). Meeting objectives was satisfying and the high-tension moments were engaging. But, the upgrades are mostly about tweaking production numbers, so they didn't feel super noticeable or rewarding. There's also no story/campaign. So while it's infinitely replayable, I feel like I had my fun with it and don't need to keep going (despite how many metagame upgrades I left unlocked).

An unparalleled story held back by dated and repetitive gameplay. One minute you're exploring love and loss with fully realized characters and the next, you're killing 6 generic dudes in yet another clearing full of chest-high walls. The stealth is clunky, the puzzles are generic, and the story is better told than maybe any other game, ever. It was a great candidate for a TV adaptation because they could focus on what make the game great: the story. The gameplay moments that are directly serving the story bring immersion that only games can provide, and it gets credit for that. Violence hits different when you're enacting it with your own controller, something the show couldn't capture in the same way. It also has great zombies- clickers go down in history as an all-time creepy enemy. But, lackluster collectibles and pacing problems (the first half of the game is _slow_) left me wanting overall. There's this gorgeous, atmospheric world wrapping a lot of generic 3rd person shooting that doesn't do it justice. It's ultimately worth playing, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone for just watching the show instead; it elevates the narrative without any of the filler.

This DLC was a fun way to get more of the same fun I had in the base game, but it doesn't tread any super new ground. A few more of every type of thing (enemy, collectible, etc) but nothing vital.

Great games demand great parody. It's got some fun puzzles in its own right, but manages to be laugh-out-loud hilarious in its own right. Is the perfect length and was a blast top to bottom.

Superb puzzle game. Loved learning languages based on context clues and pictograms. The sections combined and overlapped well. The overall message was good and the story went fun places. Managed to say a lot without any dialogue. Had some unnecessary stealth sections, but they didn't bog it down too much. Deservedly in the conversation w/ Obra Dinn and Golden Idol.

Though hailed as both one of the best modern platformers and a very hard game, I think this lives up to neither title. The platforming wasn't very compelling, the collectibles useless, the difficulty was sporadic (but mostly not bad) and the bosses were miserable. The game feels unfocused and uninspired. I simply don't understand the praise it gets. Each world had ~1 level I thought was neat and fun. The rest were mostly exercises in pointless frustration.

Extremely charming, but with more of a mental health focus than expected. Puzzles were good and coloring the world is a fun mechanic. Controls occasionally frustrating, but a fun outing overall.

Great puzzles and controls. Really fun way to stretch and explore the "split brain" concept. Only a few levels _really_ made use of that, but they were hard and it would have been tiring to do more. Pretty good difficulty overall and a great collection of mechanics.

Cute little game about adapting a battlefield to your needs. Clearly a gamejam-style game and it's not something I'll probably come back to a lot, but it's a cool concept and I enjoyed the time I spent with it.

Played New Game+ for the true ending, which was great. Fun to explore more characters and I was pleasantly surprised at how much variation there was in choices. Battles didn't get old, and while the late-game economy was a little unbalanced, the game remained fun throughout.

Pretty fun! I don't love the amount of micro it requires, but the customizable tower loadouts and upgrades are improved from previous games. Story is cute and there's lots of little easter eggs to find.

Short and sweet game about art and love. It's a little heavier than its art and presentation let on, but it's fun to click around.

I have such conflicted feelings about this one. On the one hand, the graphics and music are nearly peerless. There are some genuinely touching story moments, many good ones, and a few duds. The pixel environments are intricate, there's a lot of enemy variety, and the character design is cool. The basics of combat are good and the Mario RPG-style hit for bonus damage/block keeps me engaged. The lock system adds variety to battles, even if sometimes they don't seem totally possible. BUT. The gameplay part of this game doesn't feel well thought out. I don't mind it being simplified- a more streamlined approach was one of my favorite things about Triangle Strategy. But IMO this game strips out the wrong things. There's an equipment system, but weapons and armor just have numbers that go up. There are rings which provide a little strategic diversity, but there are a few that are strictly better than everything. The only collectables are food (for healing items) and rainbow conch's (which provide some bonuses, mostly for other side quests). It's a shame, since that makes exploration less compelling than it could be. Each gameplay system seems shallow and disparate in a way that's not satisfying. Worst of all, it's a game that doesn't respect your time. Lengthy ability animations aren't skippable, there's a _lot_ of pointless backtracking, and the boss fights are WAY too long (the final boss took me nearly a full hour and it only had 4 different moves). I feel like the developers were inspired by classic JRPGs, but learned all the wrong lessons from them. The overall package is decent but definitely tries your patience.

Played both DLC packs and they were good fun. Hard riddles, but fair. Good story color to the original game.

Best one yet. Gameplay feels fluid, powerups are fun and offer a lot of customizability. Levels are still tough, but it finally feels like we have enough tools to really tackle them well. It also has the best story of any of them so far, building effective backstory to the rest of the games.

Puzzles are very hit-or-miss, but the art, story, and music are fun. All things told, it's aged surprisingly well.

Fun, plant-based puzzle game. There's a branching story that's surprisingly engaging. Plant identification gets a little repetitive after a while, but there's enough different identification angles and other puzzles that it stays fun.

This is a very faithful remake of a classic 2D game I've never played. Though the graphics are nice, the game suffers from an aged simplicity. Not that every game needs to have all the bells and whistles of a modern RPG, but this one felt a little _too_ stripped down. I liked that gear choices were straightforward and abilities were interesting enough. But, the game got off to an _incredibly_ slow start - the first 5 hours, depending on your character selection, you have no abilities at all; just light attack and heavy attack. It's great if you want to mindlessly wander around and whack things, but left something to be desired. The game opens up after the first class change and brings a little more strategic depth. Mostly it was just fun to turn my brain off during a personally busy month, but not something that'll stick with me.

Best described as "4 player Slay the Spire", there was a lot to like about Across the Obelisk. The 4 character classes and variety of perks and skills mean there's a lot of customization and replayability. Building a deck is always fun and there's a lot of card variety. Multiplayer works well and the tiebreaker mechanic on split votes was a ton of fun. But, for a game we played as much as we did, there wasn't as much variety as I would have liked. The maps always have the same layout (though the events on each node are random) and the end-map bosses are always identical. I would have liked to see more variety in regular enemies, too. The UI is decent but the descriptions on effects was sometimes lacking, making it hard to understand exactly what was going to happen (tough for a card game). Ultimately it was a great choice for my gaming group and I'm glad we played it.

Climbing as a core mechanic felt quite good. It was fun looking for handholds and swinging to reach something new. The story being all text as fine and the collectibles left something to be desired. Also, for being a platformer, there was remarkably little ability to fall off things. It's pretty and zen though, which is a nice change of pace. Great sense of scale, too.

Fun little puzzle game. Ultimately felt pretty hard for the amount of enjoyment it brought. Haptics and design were great, as was the concept. Just didn't love it

Neat little game. I liked the idea of combining exploration and inventory into one system. Plus, being able to cache and improve recipes was fun. The controller support was pretty good, but the game got pretty repetitive and tedious. Fun idea, but I didn't want to play much more of it.

On paper, I should have loved this game. It's routinely hailed as one of the best games in my favorite genre and it's a remaster with a bunch of QoL features. But dang it if it wasn't a total slog! There's a huge amount of backtracking in the levels (there are 50+ story battles but only ~20 maps). You can't mix and match skills between classes, so there's not a lot of theory crafting - it's mostly "pick the best 4 skills for a given class". There's also a distinct difference between unique units and generics (the former are much stronger). You get so many generics that it's never really worth training anyone else. And, there are still some glaring QoL misses, despite the progress there. There's a ton of characters and classes to find, but much of it is locked away behind long, grindy sidequests. I'm sure that's fun for some people, but I wasn't into it. The story is long, but not especially impactful. While there are lots of branches in the narrative, I don't feel like all the branches add much; they just dilute what little story there is. At its core, the gameplay is pretty fun, if a little slow to start. Rewinding time is a great feature that I wish more SRPGs had. But, the games that learned from it and came after it are much better.

A lovely end to an extremely cute trilogy. Tied it up perfectly, no notes.

Similarly charming with marginally more gameplay this time around (but not really). Still a fun world and story though.

What it lacks it gameplay, it makes up for in charm!

Ethereal little puzzle game. I loved the seamlessness and otherworldliness of the environment. Was also nice to have a game from this dev that wasn't so gross or death-focused. The recursion was a good mechanic and it did a good job respecting your time. Lovely little experience!

Interesting and dense story, if overly complex. I like the intermingling of the plots, but it does make it a little hard to follow. Combat provides a good respite and is simplistic without being boring. There's great QoL features for the visual novel part and gorgeous art, as always. It's an ambitious game, but it sticks the landing.

Neat concept, but gameplay didn't keep me hooked (pun intended). I liked the progression well enough, but the shooting was tiresome and there wasn't enough variation in the fishing. But, it's a cute concept!

While this game doesn't explain anything more than its predecessor, I liked the setting much more. Instead of being in a black-and-white zone, you're in a series of industrial buildings that really give the game an eerie sense of place. The controls feel better and the puzzles are better balanced (if a bit easier). It also goes places I didn't expect, which feels like a rarity these days. I enjoyed it a lot for what it was.

More style than substance, but nice art and music. There were some minor puzzles and story about mental health that didn't really go anywhere, but it wasn't an unpleasant hour.

Great little platformer with a very distinct art style. There was ostensibly some story happening, but it was the kind where I'll need to search "Limbo story explained" afterwards. Some neat puzzle mechanics. It didn't quite do it for me, but I enjoyed my time with it.

An interesting concept, but the gameplay itself left something to be desired. I liked the vibe of the text-based exploration, but it was more frustrating than fun. The story was interesting enough, and told interestingly, certainly.

A well-made metroidvania. On the whole, the movement felt really good and you could fluidly zoom around the map once you got moving. Combat was pretty fun, if a little simplistic. The EMMI mechanic was fine, but didn't feel like it added a lot. I liked all the powerups, but it almost felt like there were too many relative to the amount of time you got to use them. Also, the story felt shoehorned in. But, I enjoyed coming back to it and exploring, plus it didn't overstay its welcome.

Quite fun and good for short bursts of games. Great controls which make playing on mobile very natural. Difficulty was inconsistent and basically all of the special events are bad, but it makes for a satisfying play (especially once they smooth out the curves)

fascinating game. Fun gameplay, kept it fresh throughout. I'm not totally sure I followed the story, but I loved its layers and my total inability to guess what was coming next. The whole thing came together very well. Extremely unique game.

A bittersweet story about family, food, and culture. Nice little 1-sitting game, and surprisingly touching.

Fun art and stories. But ultimately, the difficulty was inconsistent. Puzzles were either too simple to too hard with little in-between. Fun for a couple of evenings though. Also I'm extremely curious about how the execution engine works behind the scenes.

Odd little story, with nice art and music. Narration was also good (and AI generated!). It's only a part 1, so we're excited to see where the rest of the story goes.

Extremely charming platformer. Plays a lot like Pikmin-lite, but simplified in all the right ways. The animations and sound design are extremely cute and the NPC dialogue is a lot of fun. Each world is great to explore and they pulled the "pea-sized-person in a house" vibe off incredibly well. The only thing that fell flat was the story, which tries to be much deeper and serious than it needs to be. Luckily, it doesn't get it the way of anything and can be safely ignored. What a delightful time!

Very stylistic. Super weird, but the gameplay is engaging. Good music. Sense of scale gets very cool, especially in the late game. Occasional bugginess held it back, but it's a quick fun time.

It's a well-tread concept implemented snappily, but forgettably. There's a lot of named enemies, but they don't seem to be different in significant ways. Gameplay got pretty same-y over time. That said, I liked the writing a lot and there was more level variety than I expected (there's a lot of environments vs things like Hotline Miami which is mostly same-y houses). So there's things there, but I didn't stick with it.

Fun re-tread of the base game. Occasionally frustrating, but it nails the style of those older platformers in a fun and fairly charming way.

The controls are great (especially for a mobile game) and the actual gameplay is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, a lot of progression is balanced around being able to pay to win, so playing it on apple arcade, some things were just prohibitively expensive. Also, the dynamic difficulty, while good, made it less rewarding to have top-tier players (because the defenses got good to match your success). Once I realized that was happening, I had less fun with it. But, I played it a ton and it's a great way to spend 5 minutes.

Great little follow-up to the base game. Fun to explore and do new little quests. Retreads what the original did, but it fit right in.

There's a lot going on here. I can see that it's built on the bones of a great game, but I feel like a lot of that was lost in the remake. There are very lucid sections where everything is great, but they're few and far between with abysmal pacing. The is cool but doesn't make a ton of sense (having limited knowledge of the original). Combat is fun and customizing ability loadouts is good. It just sort of felt all over the place. Graphics and music were top tier though!

Neat puzzle game. I liked the asymmetry, but some puzzles were hard to do on a controller and there were noticeable bugs. But, there were some very neat sections and I'm glad we played.

I liked the idea of mooncrash, but I think it wanted me to have a different kind of fun than I was having. I wanted to see the stories and it wanted to randomzie my runs and make that harder. Plus, the characters didn't feel all that different from each other, so it mostly felt repetitive and frustrating. Definitely an interesting idea though, and I'm curious what they do with Deathloop.

A little janky, but very fun. Good puzzles, charming enough story (such that it is). Did the DLC too, which were fun but not necessary.

I enjoyed the concept and the UI is pretty good, but it wasn't quite engaging enough to hold my attention. Finished 2/4 worlds (and no bonus puzzles)

Very charming puzzle game. Definitely mind bending, especially towards the end. Completed 161/364 puzzles, which is impressive. Game felt smooth and engaging throughout, and introduced new mechanics well.

Great combat and team building. Exploration was decent. It was a little overwhelming having full skill trees for everyone, but certainly lead to a lot of depth and ability to customize. Story was decent. I liked that there's advanced game modes too.

Cute little game. Some obtuse puzzles, but it's a charming presentation.

Really great on paper. Pretty good on execution. Ended up being a bit simplistic, and wasn't always clear with what would happen. But it was nice having a proper deckbuilder and there were pretty decent upgrade paths and power curves.

Stellar writing, gameplay, animation, and of course, music. Just the complete package. Doesn't overstay its welcome, but uses its time well. I love the attention to detail and amount of care put into this game.

Cute take on a reverse city builder. Was surprisingly pleasant and definitely a good spin on how we're treating our nature. A few papercuts and lack of clarity, but I liked that there was always a mission to be working towards.

I have some complicated feelings about this one. As Pokemon games go, it's certainly novel. It tries a lot of new things and some of them are good! It's a little grindy and there are too many papercuts, but there's a lot of serious QoL. The core gameplay is still great, and while a lot of systems have been simplified, I think they made good choices. On paper, this would be the Pokemon game fans have been dreaming about for years and years. But, it dramatically falls short of its potential. The graphics are dreadful (and you can't _just_ blame the hardware; there are good looking Switch games) and the movement itself feels bad. There's boss battles are mostly button mashing and dodging, which is a weird way to climax a battling/catching game. The story is basically non-existent and all the side quests are just fetch quests. If this weren't a Pokemon game, it would be a bargain bin 5/10. It just hurts because there's _so_ much opportunity here, and this is what they came up with. I'm glad they're trying new things, but would really appreciate a higher quality bar.

Somber, slow, contemplative game. A story about loss and regret, told interestingly.

Some nice art, but bad puzzles, platforming, and no story. I think pretending there's a story is worse than not having one. They're clearly inspired by Journey, but captured none of what made it enjoyable.

Doesn't shy from the political, but presents it in a fun, light way. Great theming, varied gameplay, good music, and doesn't overstay its welcome. The complete package.

Touching, small story. Nice art, chill vibe. Great dialogue and writing. No real gameplay, but the walking around and choosing who says the next line made it much more dynamic, somehow, than a movie.

Fun concept, nice (if simple) art, great writing. Actual deductions were a little frustrating, but I ultimately did like the open-endedness of solving the murders- actually had to do some thinking.

A hint of a story, boring combat, nice enough, if bland, environments. Cool glowing deer. But, really not much there.

Neat concept, but heavy handed with its politics. Also, waters down some of the decisonmaking in a way that's not realistic or helpful.

Tiemframe _really_ stretches the "games as art" and "how much gameplay does a walking simulator need to be considered a game". There are a small number of text logs that let you piece together a bit of "story", but there's not enough there to be compelling. It also doesn't really use its "slow motion" theme in any meaningful way. Overall, just a miss.

A small trio of puzzles. 2/3 great and 1/3 a miss, which is a decent ratio. Neat presentation and good sound design. Definitely new, and there's something to be said for that!

Absolutely superb. Follows in the footsteps of great JRPGs before it, modernizing and generally improving their gameplay. It's good a pretty decent story, great world to explore, cool abilities, great secrets, the works. I finished the main quest, every side quest, and a bunch of extra bits in 33 hours, which is amazing for a game like this. Usually it's dragged out much longer. It's a very focused game; there aren't that many locations, but there's a lot to explore. Doesn't hold your hand, but doesn't let you get too lost either. Very well constructed. I can't say enough good things about it.

Took everything about the first game and improved it. Bigger world, better stories, more varied machines, better weapons, more interesting exploration, the works. The story was a little weaker, but set up some very interesting things. Plus, there's a lot of bits to find. And the stash system! What an improvement. Kudos all around.

Some good puzzles coupled with a too-serious theme. It's interesting, but a little intense for what the rest of the game is. I did like the framing and exploration though.

Super interesting game. I like the open-ended exploration and the fact that it was sort of a secret platformer. There's a lot of overlapping storylines, and I liked how well they executed on the V I B E. The biggest knock was that you're not really _solving_ the case so much as you can talk to everyone as much as you want and explore. There's not much logic to it. But, it was good for what it was.

Great in co-op. Puzzles were good and combat was satisfying. Good upgrade system too. And a story! Really has it all- just don't play it solo.

Great little game. Loved the style and the setting. Puzzles were generally good, but the difficulty curve was all over the place. Some of them were super hard and required _many_ complex positions, while others were more straightofward. I liked the simpler ones, but it's nice that there's stuff there for everyone. Cool settings, good puzzle mechanics, great vibes.

Definitely an interesting game. Ultimately, the battle, equipment, and leveling system are awesome. They still feel fresh and they solve a lot of problems that RPGs have. Unfortunately, the story and characters leave much to be desired. Most of the dialogue is just _bad_. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the first game, or I was a dumb teen when I played it, but this is rough today. Also, the story pacing is dreadful. For a game that doesn't have random encounters, it sure doesn't let you walk 15 feet without a cutscene and a forced battle. Honestly I think this is a place where the postgame will really shine, since I can do exactly what I want, when I want to do it. Also, the story doesn't really stand on its own because it's so tied to the first one. Fun enough (and I stuck with it), but definitely flawed.

Did a lot right - engaging gameplay, good RTS implementation, decent puzzles, achievements, fun to explore. There's a ton of content here and yet it didn't overstay its welcome. The boss fights were _fine_, but that my only, very minor, complaint.

Great little spin on survivalist. I liked the card stacking and the vibe. I also loved that there were quests, which gave direction to the game (too easy to wander, otherwise). It could have used some QoL and automation into the late game, but largely I had a great time with it. Would love to see more in this series/genre.

Cute little game. Fun to explore the world, and it's ineresting being so short. The gameplay was light and there wasn't much gameplay in hunting for animals, but it's fun to stumble across them. Story was decent though, and the music was nice.

Largely charming. Graphics were great, story was cute. A few puzzles overstayed their welcome and controls were bad on PC (likely fine on touch devices). Overall very pleasant though.

Definitely had "the room" vibes. Enjoyed bits of it, but a lot of the puzzles were more obtuse than I'd like and the controls weren't as polished as they should have been. Also, some levels felt very scattered, moving around to lots of puzzle elements intead of increasingly complex single boxes. Just didn't quite click for me

Cute game, one I have a lot of nostalgia for. Played on freeplay and needed 26 "quarters" to beat it. I definitely had never gotten that far in the arcade. Gameplay is simplistic and clearly designed to take your money, but I liked the art style and sound effects.

Certainly an interesting game. I liked the combination of the RTS and RPG genres, but I don't feel like it quite clicked. The RTS was ok, but big battles felt a little random. I liked the territory setup and worker mechanics. I didn't love that RPG elements happened during RTS battles. Also, the equipment system never quite panned out. Definitely a cool concept though, but it didn't quite stick the landing.

Didn't expect to like it, but I did! Small, cute puzzles. Not hard, but entertaining. Extremely short.

Great puzzles, good art style. Liked the overarching plot and the approachability of it all. I could have used 20% more difficulty, but it was a superp addition to the detective/logic genre.

Sort of odd little puzzle experience. Sort of like a more abstract Blackbox, if that's a thing. Short ans sweet, with a bit of story. Odd, but enjoyable.

Woof. The actual battles - incredibly fun. Good strategic decisions, rewarding combat, tense at the appropriate times. But, there's a lot of other things in the game that aren't combat. I was playing new game plus, so the beginning was faster - that was nice. It was pretty slow last time. The idea of the monastery and class assignments is very fun, but it feels... padded? Like actions take too much time relative to how much you have to do them. Also, you _really_ run out of useful things to do in the last quarter of the game. It's like they planned 12 missions worth of monastery activities, but have 20 missions in the game. The (character) classes themselves are decent and ability mixing is cool, but there's really only a few paths for each character through the tree. And, most of the top-tier classes are mounted. So if you max out say, an assassin, they have nothing left to grow into. Just like last time, I enjoyed the first half more than the second (which dragged). There's a lot of content there, but i'm not positive that's a great thing. Future me: probably don't play the third route; just watch the cutscenes. It's too much time for what you get. Played Blue Lion route on Hard/Casual (no permadeath).

Very charming game. Puzzles were fine and controls were a little finnicky, but it's easy and fun and we had a nice time. Music is great, cutscenes were hysterical. There's a million little things to find.

Better story than I remembered. Good investigation. Goofy cast, as always.

Great adaptation of a complex board game. Missions were cool and varied with only a couple of very frustrating ones. Would have been nice to be able to roll back individual actions, but being able to restart rounds was easy enough. Had a ton of fun playing with friends and exploring the world.

Cinematically superb. Good characters and storytelling. Combat felt great and the weapons were distinct and fun. Biggest downside was the bloat- they could drop half the sidequests and 3/4 of the equipement and not lose a thing. There was more enemy diversity this time around and the abilities were more varied. Definitely a worthy successor.

Had some great ideas. They wear their Mario 64 inspiration on their sleeve, but don't feel chained to it. None of the levels blew me away, but each felt unique in its own way. Movement was decent, felt pretty fluid. Collectibles never felt worth it- I think doing something closer to Mario (no rewards for accumulation) would have been better. Liked that there was a bit of a story on each level that you could play through. Pretty good supporting cast. Forgettable plot overall, unfortunately. Did a lot right, but fell short in some key areas.

Great follow-up. Looks as good as I remember. New endings are great and the bucket adds a lot of depth to the original game. Still a stone-cold classic.

Generally fun, but felt samey along with the other games.

Nice art and presentation, ok execution. Losing units feels really bad and there's not quite enough micro control to be able to feel like you can save them effectively.

Neat idea, interesting execution. To their credit, they picked an art style and ran with it. Interesting "game within a game" approach that was a little abstract, but a nice enough way to set it all up. Certainly an interesting premise, though I do wish time was _frozen_ frozen when you were stationary. It's just "nearly paused" instead.

Good story and refreshing approach to character customization (that is, there's not much of it). Wish the ability trees were a little longer (I maxed out a number of characters, ability wise) but enjoyed the ride. Liked the exploration. Performance was fine, but certainly nice to have it on the go. Story was pretty good, and choices actually mattering was done well.

Great atmosphere and characters, but the gameplay felt especially dated. I can see why it's a cult classic, but the puzzles would have been _really_ frustrating to do without a guide.

Good expansion of the first game. Pretty interesting towers. Persistent heroes were cool too, though it was a little more static for the way I was playing the game. Didn't beat the last level because the boss started destroying my towers and that's just a dumb mechanic.

Neat little game. Simplistic, but fun. Meta upgrades are a nice touch, and there's a decent tower variety.

Superb collection of puzzles. Feels more like a NYT Puzzle Section than a single puzzle game, which is great. It sort of follows Elden Ring in that if you get stuck you can go try something else. I loved the little stories about game development and the varied themes of each game. What a swan song.

Extraordinary. Extremely charming, straightforward but not too simple. Fun to explore and build a little vacation album (captures some of the magic of FFXV in that way). Great level design. Fun taking pictures of hard-to-find things and wear funny clothes. Just a delight, top to bottom.

Very intriguing controls. Small, but tight levels. Lots to explore. No real story, but it's a vibe. Very novel.

Incredibly atmospheric. Great gameplay and exploration. Spooky enemy design. I think what I missed the most was being able to experiment with guns. Because runs are so long, it feels like you have to optimize for "absolute best" rather than other games, like Hades, where you can play more. Good gun diversity and I liked the powerups, but I didn't feel like I saw enough of them. Weirdly I don't know how well it was served by being a rogue like. Picking up guns and mods and playing more like a linear adventure game would have gotten a similar experience, but without some of the repetition. But, the story was presented interestingly and there's a lot to do, so I enjoyed it overall.

Very interesting. An FMV game, told totally non-linearly. An ok story overall, but it _was_ interesting digging into the lives of these people over time. I sort of liked the core match/cut mechanic, but it felt to random to be satisfying. We weren't so much discovering how to excel at the game as much as clicking through interesting looking things constantly. Glad to have played it and was engaged enough to stick with it, but definitely dragged. Pretty good UI though.

As a measure of how well the game plays, I don't think it holds up. The controls are tough and the constant mindless chatter of friends gets grating quickly. There are cool secrets to find to help replayability, but it's pretty thin otherwise.

Fun to jump back into a classic, but I feel like there's not enough there in the gameplay to keep me interested. Exploring the levels is cool, but the goals are a little thin for a gameplay loop. It's no SSX, but I'm glad it got made.

Really interesting game. Vibe was great. Story was good, but complex. Combat was weak and repetitive, but mostly flowed well and didn't get in the way. The world was great, huge and engaging to explore. Lots of filler sidequests, but some actual good ones hidden in there. Certainly lots to do. The level ups weren't very satisfying and I didn't engage with much of the loot and gem crafting, which was a big point of the game. Definitely polarizing between what it did great and poorly. But, I found myself coming back to it and that's certainly worth something.

There's a lot to like here- building is smooth, exploration is sort of interesting, and there's a good variety of weapons and buildings. I think they simplified the right things re: materials and power, and I liked the "build micro bases around the planet". I didn't love how resources kept running out, especially when you were elsewhere. But, the tower defense was pretty decent and lead to some good real-time action. Story was also ok, and _almost_ had some interesting introspection around the ethics of space colonization. Overall, does much more right than wrong, even if I had my quibbles.

DLC was ok- not as engaging as the base game (just a couple of puzzles, just a couple of new 'snax), but nice to revisit the world and explore a little more. Can't beat free!

Very interesting. Neat skill system. Quests were pretty good and the depth of characters and voice acting was great. It was a little heady with the political alignment stuff, and there's a _lot_ of text. The actual plot was... ok? It sort of set the backdrop for everything else, but it would have been more satisfying to actually have been able to solve anything. Controls were ok. Interesting enough to explore and the art was nice, but, it was sort of an odd duck overall.

Great vibe, decent story, ok interactivity. Glad we played it, but there was inconsistent quality between the episodes.

The combat was slick and the concept was cool. Story was fine, but the world and the investigations were neat change of pace. The combat got a _little_ samey after a while, but I enjoyed playing and the different legions felt interesting and distinct. The skill trees were fine wish there was more there. Pretty cool world to explore. I liked the two-brain-ness of the combat, but it definitely lead to some frustrating camera moments.

Nice art, interesting time-travel-based battle system, but pretty slow otherwise. Story seemed ok, but trope-y. PC port wasn't great.

Great concept. Satisfying to peel apart ships. I didn't love the timer- felt like it detracted from what I was there for - puzzling apart things. Zero-G was good, as was the presentation and story. But, it's repetitive and simplistic enough that it's not something I'll be able to sit down and play many many more hours of. But, I enjoyed what I got from it.

Very interesting. Great worldbuilding and setting. Gameplay was pretty good, if a little imbalanced. I liked the open aspect of it, but not as much as their more tightly-designed and smaller levels in dishonored. I thought that some of the systems worked against each other- namely careful exploration and the nightmare. But, there was a lot to do an find, but not in an overwhelming way. That part felt impeccably well-designed.

Absolutely superb. Captures a lot of the appeal of FFTA, with their own spin on the combat and leveling system. There's a good set of jobs and maps are cool. My only big complaint is that it's hard to use the jobs you've maxed out because you don't want to be wasting experience. But, then you're on weird power curves because you keep resetting your learned abilities. But, I still enjoyed the heck out of it and will likely play it again eventually w/ DLC. Wild that I'm not even over it. Plot was good too! Decent characters and driving action. Occasional lack of clarity with some of the 3D layouts and I wish there was a quest log for side quests, but I still loved it top to bottom.

Fun, if simplistic. There's a lot to dive in and find, but I felt like I had covered most of what there was. Because you get such a big percentage of the weapons each run, it feels a little same-y after a while. Also the moment-to-moment gameplay isn't super engaging. I like the concept though!

Cute, stylized, a little silly. Very simple game, but charming in its own way. Short and sweet, with a little bit of gameplay and a little bit of puzzles. Story is ok too!

Very interesting. Certainly lots of potential, but extremely dated. The combat is pretty bad- there's a weird hybrid of turn based and live, but it feels like you don't have enough fine-grained control to do what the game asks of you. The writing is pretty good and there's certainly a lot of cool quests. But, there are too many party members and the leveling is super obtuse. I'd be curious to see what they'll do with a more modern approach.

I liked the premise, but didn't love the execution. There's a lot of information visually, and the upgrades aren't really compelling enough to give it a lot of replay value. It's also not clear how the damage profile changes in a response to killing a unit, which makes it hard to effectively plan attacks. Neat concept though!

Decent writing, but very slow gameplay. Didn't feel like it respected our time. Also, no real ending? It just stops without resolution. Mystery without resolution is just pointless.

I think I just have to come to terms with the fact that this genre of game just isn't for me. I don't feel like I have enough direction over what needs to be done. Then, I'll do something and a bunch of things will catch fire and there's too much information. The UI is good and there _is_ a lot of info to be had, I just didn't enjoy my short time here. Maybe worth revisiting sometime.

Sort of interesting premise, but the time limit, dialogue, and vague puzzles don't really gel w/ me. It's mostly a worse "Papers, Please". Too bad, because I liked the UI.

Really incredible sense of scale and momentum. Didn't _really_ have a story, so the bits that snuck in were mostly distraction. Exploration was interesting and I liked the self-guided and stripped down nature of it. Serene and surreal.

What it aimed to do, it did very well. There's a super-explorable overworld, great animation, superb sense of wonder and adventure. Unfortunately, some of the other systems don't support that well. The combat is fine, if basic. The targeting is frustrating and inconsistent. The bosses are pretty challenging for no real reason and don't mesh well with the rest of the game. There's a lot to like here, though!

Good interface, puzzles, and vibe. Got a little creepy/nonsensical for me, but I enjoyed the ride well enough. Writing was good and minigames were generally enjoyable.

Really interesting concept. Cool art style. I liked the self-directedness of it. Unfortunately, it was pretty rough around the edges bug wise; enough that eventually, it discouraged me from climbing/exploring more. But, the climbing + navigating was cool and the music was atmospheric. Writing was good too, I liked the concept a lot. So, there's a lot there, but it needs some polish and refinement.

Very pretty. Not much plot, but there was a bit of narrative. Not an overwhelming amount of gameplay, but the vibe was cool. Mostly just go play Journey, but there was a lot of cool oceanic life in here.

Really just not for me. There's not a lot of in-game info, no story, and the guns don't feel _that_ varied. There's also not really any progression. Controls felt tight and graphics were well done, but it's not something I vibed with.

Interesting background story, but I didn't find solving the puzzles as satisfying. Because of the internal bond logic, it makes it a little less straightforward to improve solutions- swapping steps doesn't always result in the same output. I also didn't love the way rotation and spawning worked in combination with line of sight manipulation. I can see myself coming back to it if I really wanted to sink some time into it little optimizations, but it was a bit of miss for me compared to Opus Magnum.

Very interesting premise, so-so execution. Interesting to investigate, solve puzzles, and fail some situations. But, the story sort of goes off the rails, and the branching narrative means there are lots of loose ends. Some of the puzzles are sort of duds, too. Neat idea, glad I played it in the end.

Characters were standout good. Writing high overall, as were the environments, humor, and scenarios. Great, if underused, licensed soundtrack. It had the same problem Uncharted did- combat feels really same-y and just distracts from the main interest in the game- everything else. So, way too much combat. Upgrades were blah and collectibles didn't motivate exploration much. Puzzles were also fairly weak. But, there's a good core there.

Not really a story, even though there pretends to be one. But, the trippy visuals and mind-bending puzzles were pretty neat. Short and sweet.

Very cool! Nailed the retro vibe with combat and platforming. Occasionally frustrating when it demanded pixel-perfect accuracy around spikes, but I enjoyed my time with it. Died 156 times total.

Incredibly stylish, but lacking anything remotely complex in terms of gameplay. Sort of a cool ride through a music video, but not unenjoyable. Charming, in its way. Doesn't overstay itself (too much) either.

Charming in many ways, but also failed to be greater than the sum of its parts. There's platforming, story, and combat, but they all felt separate and not in service to each other (especially the combat). But, the only thing you get for exploring and platforming is resources to get better at combat, which is limited and boring, so it all feels a little wasted in the end. Story is good, cast is ok, worldbuilding and tone/vibe are great. Pacing was rough- _lots_ of cutscenes. Level design had a couple of good ones, but nothing that eclipses the first game. Definitely an interesting one.

Definitely a clever design. I didn't love most of the puzzles- felt like too much trial an error and not enough actual solving. But, it's certainly and interesting one!

Nice DLC. They didn't quite figure out their late game econ, or maybe I was over-leveled from the base game. But, the bones were there and the world was great.

10 year anniversary! Played through once, and got all the symbols for my white robe.

Backgrounds are nice, but navigating the world is very tedious. Story (what I saw of it) was engaging enough, but a little hammy. Combat was interesting and generally well-suited for touch controls, but had a little too much micro movement necessary.

Neat concept, but with shortcomings. I liked the timer system more than I expected, but it felt sort of shallow and repetitive. Its dealing with loss angle was interesting (and the futility of extending that), but none of the characters quite developed enough to feel interesting. Exploration was pretty good, but had the same problem crosscode did where platforming in isomorphic maps was tricky. Combat was good, as was music. --- * Regular difficulty * 83/143 chests * 88.69% map completion * 17 deaths

Very gorgeous game. Haptics are really well done. Graphics are stunning. Story is ok, doesn't quite live up to its promise. But, it's fun exploring the world. Definitely felt like it was on the easy/formulaic side at this point, but you know what you're getting into when you play it. Certainly glad I did.

Very cool exploration and mystery. I really liked how the storylines fit together. City was fun to poke around and the premise was interesting. Cool mix of history, too. I could have used more of it, but it was pretty tightly told.

Cool idea, good story execution, but lackluster combat and non-existent tech tree. Battles were too chaotic for me to micro well. Controlling groups around cover was really tough. Squad setup was interesting, but I didn't love it. Controls felt kludgy. Story was surprising good though (what little I saw of it, anyway)! And the destructible environments were very cool for an RTS.

Basically only wanted to play the murder mystery level. It was fun! This is definitely a style of game. I enjoyed the idea of having a very self-directed investigation, which some good twists and all. Glad I played the mission.

Very atmospheric. Decent puzzles, pretty tight combat, great soundtrack, nice writing. Cool level design too! I haven't played any soulsbourne games, but this seems like a fitting version of a "lite" one. Very fun! I didn't feel compelled to go explore and get the bonus ending, but it was neat that that sort of thing existed.

Neat idea, but gameplay feels repetitive and fetch-questy. Neat way to do a very 3D experience though, and I liked the shark week crib.

Definitely a great RPG. Probably too long, but largely paced well. Characters were good and not too trope-y. Gameplay flowed well and had interesting mechanics. Creepy monster designs, but fun breeding and evolving them. Great gameplay for a dungeon crawler- felt much more dynamic than the dungeons of yore. Great style and soundtrack (though more battle songs would be great). Overall, loved it; wished it was a little shorter, but dang.

Definitely a neat concept, but truly brutal learning curve. Battles are fast, but there's too much to watch on the screen and too many status conditions to reason about in real time for me to enjoy it. Definitly a neat premise, but not something I'd enjoy playing a lot in practice.

Pleasant, devilishly clever, and beautifully presented.

Very interesting game. Definitely a modernized Pokemon. Made a ton of QoL improvements, had an acutal story, gave much more info about the systems to the player. All good changes. The moves were weird (I felt like I learned them out of order) and the character designs were fine (hard to compete with childhood pokemon), but battles were fun nonetheless. Very cool save file customizations (first party nuzlocke, etc). Now I basically want a Pokemon game that cribs from this.

Very pleasant game! Interesting to example the story of a life via the ownership of things. Gameplay was light, but fun. Enjoyed seeing the subtle story unfold.

Generally fun. Platforming and combat were too simple, but the bosses were varied nicely. Good writing, music, and art direction. Didn't love the aimless wandering; didn't feel like there was enough there worth exploring. But, it certainly kept me engaged.

Cute game. Surprisingly deep gameplay, but I didn't love the number of collectibles and lack of meaningful progression. Core gameplay is interesting though!

Wonderful! Delightful, tacticle little game. Cute story with heart. Nice music and sound design too.

An interesting concept bogged down by a nonsense story without a conclusion (or really any resolution at all). There's not really any gameplay and it felt like a weird modern-art theater piece that doesn't make any sense at the end. To bill this as a "mystery game" is criminal.

Neat little game. Cool time mechanics (actions cost time), but doesn't explain quite enough about how the keywords work. I also didn't feel like managing a bunch of decks right now.

Cute little base building RTS. I like that they streamlined and simplified it, but the lack of control was frustrating at times. Trying to tell people not to eat a certain food i'm stockpiling, for instance. Cute little game, but not one I need to spend a ton of time with.

Superb gameplay. Always new environments and styles to keep things fresh. Story was decent, but a little hamfisted. Presentation overall was great though, espeically puzzles and level designs. There's one really traumatic scene that Player 2 hated, but she had no other complaints. A good game for getting better at 3D platforming.

Neat little puzzle game. A little hard to get started on, but it did some hand holding. Was unclear when I found the thing I was looking for, but I got there. Very cool vibe controls. I bet it's great in VR.

Enjoyed it. Tighter and more focused than original Spider Man. I liked the explorables and the smaller story. Characters were good, missions were decent.

Very neat game. Can't die, so you just explore, solve puzzles, and do boss fights. Felt like a disitllation of BoTW. It wasn't perfect (scripted monster attacks didn't add much), there wasn't too much incentive to explore), but the world was cool and the music was great. Interesting spin on an open world.

Simplistic puzzle game. Nice graphics, though there wasn't any real story to them. Just nice. Slightly more story than something like the witness, but really not much. Some interesting puzzle mechanics. I like that they kept expanding the bits. Neat, but nothing showstopping.

Cute, but lacks depth. The mysteries are small and unimpactful. It's clearly aimed at a younger audience. Puzzles are ok, but too many trick questions and there's not enough happening in the game to make it worth finishing.

Cute game, simple enough to get into, but I think not complex enough to hold my attention for too long. Upgrading wasn't satisfying enough to give a meaningful sense of progression vs games like StS or Monster Train. Cute enough to revist occasionally, but not something I need to spend a ton of time with.

Fun to run around and do co-op space adventures. Light game, but enjoyable in groups. Cool power-ups, too.

I liked the idea of this a lot, but it failed to come together for me. The story was decent and suitably grim/bleak, but the gameplay was clunky. As a tactics game, it's missing lots of QoL that other similar games have (especially FE), such as camera rotation, undo move, and attack range filters. Character upgrading is neat, but it's super stingy with poitns. Also, chracters can die/lieave at any time, which feels extra bad when you just dumped a ton of resources into them. The mechanics around the "oregon trail" part where you build strength in your crew is fine, but isn't well explained/super relevant. Some good ideas, but didn't land.

Very interesting game. Light on gameplay, but the writing and story cycled between "interesting" and "good". Odd plot, but the whole thing was poignant in a way that earns it its 3.

Really superb! Tons of teeny micro-puzzles. Constantly inventive. Really never knew what was coming next. Total joy. Beat the main story in 2:25 w/ 4322 strokes.

Pretty tight. Good story, definitely kept it moving. Tropy as hell. Some great action. A little repetitive; I feel like the shooting still adds very little. Still though, had a good time. Definite comfort food.

Neat idea with a nothingburger story.

It was very cool! A bit grindy in the middle, but the characters were good and I enjoyed the core gameplay. A little rough around the UI edges, but it mostly got there.

What a neat game. Presentation and world design was superb. Enemies were creepy. Story was fine. Bosses were ok, but honestly sort of a weak point. Exploration was pretty good. Powers were very cool- great power fantasy. Worldbuilding was a standout. Finished the story in ~ 13 hours, kept playing for the plat.

I wanted very badly to like this game. On paper, it's perfect for me. But, in practice, it seemed like the puzzles were both too easy and too complex? They were unnecessarily hard to discover (a lot of wandering), but also too simple once I knew where the pieces were. The cast was interesting and the presentation was good though. Just didn't quite click.

It was cute enough, but I didn't find the gameplay quite engaginging enough to recommend. It was basically just tapping in the right order. I realize this is a stupid reduction (most games are some sort of tapping), but it didn't quite click with me.

Cool puzzles and atmosphere, evocative enough story. Mind bending presentation. Cute little game!

I wanted to like it. Cool graphics and powers, but HDR was real bad it and it felt very dark. Also binary choices in games always feel hollow- you basically have to play one all the way. Then it's just punitive when you accidentally kill someone. Boss fights were slow, characters were largely weird/bland. Open world was pretty, but sort of lifeless. Style and presentation were good though, on the whole.

Very cute/horrifying game. Gameplay is simple, but layered. The characters have a surprising amount of depth to them, which gives the game a lot of legs. Had fun exploring the world; got the plat! --- Finished story in 7h 29m. Caught 52 on that play through on 9/24

Drop-dead gorgeous. Stylistically superb. Gameplay was... fine. Very pretty but without much to back it up. Some intersting segments, but it was mostly a slightly-interactive video.

Cute, compact game. Fun to explore and slowly build the scope of the world. Effective, simple graphics. Good music. Simple, but enjoyable.

Really superb writing. Platforming and powers were decent, it not a little clunky. Story was cool. They did a nice job all around!

The good parts (battle, music, overall vibe) were great! Aged very well. Other parts (the environments, the clunky UI, some animation), not so much. I enjoyed how puzzle-y the battles felt. I also liked the world. But, it felt like it didn't really respect the players time in some ways; no skippable cutscenes, endgame _super_ grindy, etc. Worth a play, but not without its warts.

Really awesome storytelling and integration of gameplay with narritive. Fun to collect and power-up cards. Really liked basically all of it except the final fight, which was punishingly hard. But, good fun overall!

Neat concept. Cool UI. But, the mini map was frustrating and it felt like I couldn’t make informed decisions. Really frustrating to not be able to clearly see what enemy types were coming.

Cute concept, but tedious UI and logic that only sometimes makes sense. Nice way to waste an evening, but not much more.

Neat idea, but I had similar complaints as the first one. I don’t feel like I have the tools to understand how to succeed. I do well enough, but it’s not clear how cities fall apart and what I can do. Cute as a distraction, but not quite there.

Great game. Good story, great presentation / cinematography. Gameplay itself was light, but that was really the style. Didn't bother me at all. Action was engaging and experience was gripping.

Cute, but repetitive. Humor was hit or miss. RTS part felt sluggish. Dungeon making was fun, but there didn't feel like there were a lot of strategic decisions to make. I'm glad it had a campaign though!

Great level design and branching narrative. Decent, if repeticious gameplay. Cool worldbuilding and story. Great many-sided approach to objectives (stealthy, not, etc). Didn't love the bosses, but I was into the game as a whole.

Didn’t love it. The digivolution ways interesting (a big tree instead of a linear thing), but that left individual digimon feeling replaceable. Story was ok, but very slow to start. Dungeons were uninteresting and short. Script was fine, but full of cliche. Battle was either too easy or too hard, no in-between. All the quests are wandering around small levels talking to people or objects. I don’t feel like it excels in any of its focus areas. I also didn’t like how the levels were reset, so it was hard to get a sense of relative power level for your party.

Interesting idea but felt thin. Middling action game. Not enough enemy variety. Basically no story, despite sort of hinting at one? Some cool exploration and alternative endings, but you always had to get on track.

Cute little game. Art was nice, but puzzles were only ok. I think there's maybe some story there if you get bonus puzzle items, but I wasn't enjoying it enough to go for that. Neat concept, but not an interesting enough execution.

Interesting game. Great art style and sound design. Repetitive animations could have gone a little faster. Gameplay was light, but story was compelling and engaging. Enjoyed it, especially its focused length.

Combat felt great, story was decent (except for a weird ending message) and the other weapons were fine. Puzzles were neat, but not hard. Gore was... appropreately gory.

Very neat concept! I liked the idea of the "build your own story", but those I don't find as compelling. It felt very good to run around and smash heads in. Decent variety in mission conditions, but they were a little samey at some point. I liked the vibe and inventory system. The difficulty curve is what turned me off a bit - it was tough to kill or avoid protected dudes. But, I liked a lot of what it did and I imagine I'll revist it at some point.

Not too bad to plat - a little grindy, but neat.

DLC was fun! Story was engaging. New huntables were cool. New thugs and weapons were whatever. Some cool suits though.

Fun game. X-Com light, but well done. Some cool exploration and puzzles. Some decent variation in levels, too. Good animation and vibe on the characters.

Fun. Cool twist on Slay the Spire. I enjoyed having a main champion that I always got to use. I think it suffers from a similar issue where if I want to play a certain archetype, it’s hard to. It’s difficulty is also very differently curved, which I don’t hate. I like being able to combine factions, too.

Harder in interesting ways, easier in others. Better, bigger worlds. I like that it was interconnected. Lots of repeated animations and story/writing was meh.

Cute game. Tech demo, but does it well. Simplistic, but joyous.

The story was decent and the missions got a little samey, but were fun. Some emotional payoff, though probably the least of any of the trilogy. Odd difficulty curve - prologue and epilogue missions were much harder than the campaign itself. Had a decent time though.

There was a lot to like. Great sound design. Some good levels, some frustrating ones. The graphical bump was nice; still feels old without being too bad to look at. Controls were pretty imprecise, which was mostly fine until it wasn't. Collecting and exploring was pretty fun. The levels were smaller than I'd remembered, but they use their space well. I'll be really curious to see where they take the sequel.

Very fun old-school RPG vibes. I wish there were more exploratory quests, but the core gameplay was great. Very detailed golf game, even if I didn't really appreciate some of the details. Great writing, music, and art. Pretty relaxing, all told.

It was fun enough, but I didn't feel like I had a lot of interesting choices to make. There were maybe _too_ many skills and stuff? Also, lots of bum armor. Sort of played by the seat of my pants, so I didn't feel the need to dig in much. Decent enough, but there are better options

Really superb puzzles, but just brutally hard. I like the idea of it more than actually playing it, unfortunately. Great design and ideas though.

Very stylized game. Good, usually fair. Impressive depth. Hard, but usually satisfying bosses. Great multiplayer too. Really the complete package!

Audiovisually superb. Gameplay was decent, if a little repetitive. Didn't always seem totally fair. But, I liked how it expanded on the stylistic approach and had some enemy variety. Pretty short, pretty sweet. Died 83 times total, 56 of which were on the last world. Not a great diffulcuty ramp, all told.

Cute game! The story wasn't really much and the levels got a little samey, but I liked the progression and the the gameplay was good. Not earthshattering, but enjoyable!

Cute idea, but execution falls a little flat. The main gameplay is navigating around a 2d star map, which could be really cool! But I feel like you don't get quite enough of your bearings to feel like you're really excelling. There's a bit of story and a bit of extra exploration, but it's not particularly satisfying. In post-game, there are harder side quests which were a little more interesting? They took a bit of actual logic and hunting to solve. But, there's just not enough there.