Not recommended – Klardendum

Disapprove: Assassin’s Creed Shadows (with Claws of Awaji)

02/04/2026 02/04/2026

I keep doing it to myself. I keep playing Assassin’s Creed games, long after most of the world dismissed them completely, in hopes that the series will finally find an identity and stick with it, instead of being the epitome of the “Ubisoft game”, as a dismissive description. I’ve played every game that was released on PC so far and the only two I have never finished were one of those uninteresting Chronicles games (I think the final one), and Valhalla, which was so horribly boring, I didn’t get much further than the opening act. Yet, if Valhalla was easily the worst Assassin’s Creed game so far that I didn’t finish, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the one I wish I didn’t finish, instead of wasting almost 60 hours on it.

Baffled by: Resident Evil Requiem

06/03/2026 06/03/2026

If you know me, you know how much of a Resident Evil fan/nerd I am. I fell in love with it since after experiencing the Director’s Cut of the first game back in 1997 or so, but of course it doesn’t mean that I like all of the games in the series. There are games that I like less, games that I like more, game that I have replayed countless times and games that I rarely revisit. Yet in all this time Requiem might be the first time ever that I have finished a Resident Evil game and immediately uninstalled it. And have no desire to play it again.

Laughing at: Dementium: The Ward (now on PC)

12/12/2025 12/12/2025

This one’s a bit of an outlier. You see, I have played Dementium: The Ward back on Nintendo DS. And watched people play it to completion on streams. So I was fully aware of what an absolute garbage this game is. But I wanted to get it out of my system, I guess, and have a playable PC version. And be able to easily install it to listen to some of the worst soundtracks in history of gaming. So, without going any further – you shouldn’t consider this game seriously at all. But, it is very cheap, the PC port is really good, so if you’re in the mood for some astonishing horror themed trash, this can be entertaining.

Disapprove: Cronos: The New Dawn

07/09/2025 07/09/2025

Given Bloober Team’s previous track record and initial showings of Cronos: The New Dawn, I was considering ignoring it entirely as it looked extremely mediocre at best. Yet, at release, the game started getting a lot of positive reviews from everywhere. It can’t be that so many people are praising a poor game, right? Wrong, apparently. Cronos turned out to be not just mediocre in ways that I predicted, but it also somehow managed to do poorly things, that Bloober Team usually does really well.

Disapprove: Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny

25/07/2025 25/07/2025

After hearing a lot of good things about Onimusha series for over a decade, but only having played Onimusha 3 (because it had a PC port), I was extremely happy to have finally played Onimusha: Warlords six years ago. It hasn’t aged as good as I have hoped but was still a very cool action adventure hack and slash title that did feel a bit like “Resident Evil with swords” as it was originally intended to be. I was hoping that Capcom would continue with remasters of these titles and it did happen (plus, we’re getting a completely new entry next year). Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny is now also remastered and available on modern platforms. A game I’ve heard good things about… Turns out it’s hot garbage.

Disapprove: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

07/04/2025 07/04/2025

I absolutely loved Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade. I was never a fan of the original game, heck I have more interest in FF8, despite it being a less fun game to play. But Remake, and the Episode INTERmission? So freaking good! I was excited about Rebirth and couldn’t wait to play it. Yet, as I was playing it I couldn’t wait for it to be finally over… It isn’t a bad game, but if the final part of this remake trilogy follows the same gameplay formula, I’m not buying it. I can have my time wasted for free.

Ugly duckling: The Thing: Remastered

27/01/2025 27/01/2025

The Thing originally came out in 2002 and was one of several odd “games that were kind of official sequels to movies that didn’t get sequels”. It was sometimes done really well, as it happened with TRON 2.0, which is arguably a more interesting sequel than the actual sequel that followed less than a decade later. The Thing was not done well, but then again – neither was the prequel released in 2011. I have played this game on PC back when it just released and while I didn’t find it great, it held huge promise. A lot of its core mechanical ideas could support the paranoia driven action horror gameplay… it’s just that they didn’t in practice. Then I revisited the game about 13 years ago or so and my opinion on it hasn’t changed much. Now with The Thing: Remastered being the best this game ever could be (without being a different game entirely) I can safely say – it’s not a good game and could not be. But that promise I saw years ago is still there.

Disapprove: Final Fantasy XVI (with DLCs)

12/01/2025 12/01/2025

As I was going though Final Fantasy XVI, struggling not to fall asleep, I kept asking myself – how could this happen? How did they manage to make a game that has genuinely good writing and premise, yet such a boring story? How did they finally nail the mix of hack and slash and turn-based combat in Final Fantasy VII Remake only to then go back to the Final Fantasy XV combat and make it even more uninteresting? How did they make a game with so much potential to be fresh and exciting to be so much of a slog to play? Yet I continued my playthrough, as I always do with Final Fantasy games, and wondered if the game will end up being something that can be recommended or not.

Disapprove: Ys X: Nordics

07/12/2024 07/12/2024

Slightly over ten years ago I’ve played Ys Origin – my first experience with Ys franchise or Nihon Falcom games in general. And it completely changed my understanding of what an action RPG can be. Every single entry I’ve played since, as they were gradually released on PC, was a pleasant experience. Even if not every single one of them were as fantastic as Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA, which remains in my eyes the pinnacle of the franchise as of now. So when Ys X was first shown to be a new “phase” in the franchise, where gameplay will be changed and new mechanics and ideas will be introduced, I was beyond excited to see what Nihon Falcom will do next. …Ys X: Nordics turned out to be the most disappointing Ys game in the series I’ve played so far.

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Disapprove: Visions of Mana

05/10/2024 05/10/2024

As someone who didn’t play any Mana/Seiken Densetsu titles until the Trials of Mana remake, that I really enjoyed, I don’t really have any specific expectations from the series. All I want these games to be is fun jRPG/action RPG adventure titles with simple but exciting plots and some curious, if not necessarily revolutionary ideas. And while I didn’t enjoy my time with the Secret of Mana remake (and doubt I would’ve liked the original either), I still admired what it was trying to achieve as a SNES game from 1993. Plus, its story, while basic, was still curious and the world had lots of interesting and unexpected elements to it.

Which isn’t entirely lacking from Visions of Mana either – it does have its moments, its visual style is like concept art come to life and there is an adventurous spark to it. But unfortunately, it is also tedious, way too long for what it actually has to say and the cause for it all might not be some series of bad calls from the development team. No, the real issue here is that Visions of Mana feels like a game made by several teams, none of which knew what they were doing and why.

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