I’ve never played games in Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series before. I’m aware of the popularity of Secret of Mana, yet to this day I’ve not checked it out, nor it’s poorly received remake. However, as a fan of certain type of Japanese action RPGs, mainly the Ys series from Falcom, when I’ve first seen the gameplay from the Trials of Mana remake, I got very interested. Now, after playing through the game several times and doing everything I could think of, I gotta say – I’ve had a lot of fun with the game.
Tag: game review
Happy about: The Room 4: Old Sins
Fireproof Games have been doing The Room series of titles with intricate mechanical puzzles and Lovecraftian horror theme for almost a decade now. Always focusing on mobile version first and then rebuilding the title for PCs, with the biggest exception being the VR-only entry A Dark Matter released last year. Old Sins, the fourth entry in the series, is no exception as it has originally been released on iOS and Android devices back in 2018, only now having arrived to PCs. And, as usual, it’s a terrific port for a fantastic puzzle game.
Happy about: Beyond a Steel Sky
Revolution Software might be best known for the Broken Sword series, with the first entry still being considered among the best adventure games of all time. However, their previous title, Beneath a Steel Sky, is liked as much if not more among some. It was their second Virtual Theatre engine game that had lots of innovative concepts not seen in other adventure games at the time, “grounding” every character in the game and giving all of them their own schedules. It was also a relatively short game, yet packed full of memorable scenes, characters and moments and it’s no surprise people wanted to see more of this game world. 16 years since the release of the original and 7 years since said original has been available for free download, Revolution released Beyond a Steel Sky – a full on sequel, exploring the aftermath of the events of the first game. And while it’s not as revolutionary (pardon the pun) as the original game may have been, it’s a really fun modern take on the genre.
Thoughts on: Yakuza: Like a Dragon
As I’m still trying to catch up with the Yakuza series, it has managed to end it’s main storyline and start a new one. Like a Dragon, while technically a “Yakuza 7”, is an attempt at having a fresh start, in more ways than just the story. For one, despite looking and playing mostly like the previous games, its combat has been switched from a beat em up to a full on party turn-based jRPG. And while it sounds pretty wild, the results are a bit tamer than I would’ve hoped.
Happy about: Paradise Killer
When I first saw Paradise Killer, I instantly went “nope” and moved on. I mean, it looked like a weak attempt to mix the currently still popular 80s aesthetic with Suda51 and Danganronpa that had all of the flair, but no substance. Yet, as time went by I’ve heard more and more good things about the title and eventually decided to give it a go myself. While my original assumptions weren’t entirely disproven, Paradise Killer turned out to be a really enjoyable game.
Thoughts on: The Medium
Oh, Bloober Team, will you ever make a good game… This Polish studio has managed to release 5 horror-themed games over the past 5 years. All of their games tend to not be very original, liberally borrowing concepts and ideas from elsewhere. And all of their games have been known to look very good. Often to the detriment, as they tend to be more like collections of visually cool looking scenes that aren’t particularly fun to play through. The Medium is their newest and, perhaps, most coherent attempt so far and they marketed it as their most ambitious project as of yet. Though, I can’t agree on that last bit, as if there was a lot of ambition in this project, it was all spent on the least interesting things.
Thoughts on: The Horror Of Salazar House
It’s always nice to see older almost forgotten genres or subtypes/takes on genres revived. It’s been a while someone attempted to do a “MacVenture-style” point and click adventure, while also removing a lot of the outdated baggage those games had and The Horror Of Salazar House is exactly that. A short, well-made, simple but enjoyable horror themed point and click adventure game with some interesting ideas, some borrowed from the titles of old, some from far more recent games.
Happy about: Undermine
It’s very rare that I play rogue-like or rogue-lite games, simply because I tend to not enjoy the idea of randomly generated infinitely replayable titles, vastly preferring the hand-crafted games with a definitive end to them (that I can simply replay if I liked them a lot). However, there have been a few titles that despite all odds got me invested. And somehow Undermine joined their ranks. I’ll try to understand why.
Happy about: The Henry Stickmin Collection
Ah yes, Flash games. So much was created. So much of it trash. Yet, also so much of it great. Some of the best known games of the last decade started out as projects made on flash, released for free on sites like Newgrounds. Maybe even originally lost among crappy horror themed jump scare fueled point and click adventure games and edgy crap. My personal favorites have always been choose your own adventure toy boxes, where most or even all choices you make lead to fun results. Simple games like Moon Waltz or Caesar’s Day Off.
Somehow, I’ve completely missed the Henry Stickmin games back in those days. And I might’ve never knew about them if not for the fact that the developers of the game decided to not just “remaster” the series, but also create a completely new entry. And also probably because the developers managed to get well known due to their other project – Among Us, – which gained a huge audience during the past year. But whatever the reasons, I’m glad I’ve experienced The Henry Stickmin Collection.
Quick thoughts on: Observer: System Redux
It hasn’t been that long since I’ve decided to play Observer (or as it was stylized >observer_) and I wasn’t considering revisiting the game that soon. It was undoubtedly the best game from Bloober Team, despite still feeling like a visually cool project made by a team of visual designers with little knowledge on how to make games fun to play. And it still was way too copy/paste with its influences, but at least it had a lot of interesting takes on familiar ideas. But, System Redux promised new and improved gameplay apart from updated visuals with ray tracing, so I decided to give it a check.