Kasur Games Culture is all about the emotions of games. Here you will find in-depth reviews, game design analysis, columns and essays on all kinds of games.
After enjoying Mina the Hollower, I was in the mood for another indie "Zelda-like" game. So I decided to finally give Tunic a try. What I found was an unforgettable experience that comes close to some of the all-time greats in many ways.
Back to being a Kid again
It must have been 1995. I was five or six years old and got my Game Boy together with Zelda: Link's Awakening. Instantly I was enchanted by this game, exploring this open world that felt endless and so mysterious to me as a child. Part of this mystery also came from the fact that I couldn't read at the time.
So for many hours I just stumbled around this world and checked out the booklet that came with it. Sometimes my mum would read parts of the booklet or the game for me, and so I slowly but steadily made progress and played through my first ever Zelda game.
Tunic emulates this exact feeling. The game has zero handholding. When you start the game there are no tutorials or explanations — you wake up on the shore of this beautiful world and start exploring on your own. When you encounter NPCs or other kinds of text, like in your inventory, you aren't able to read it. Most of it is written in its own mystical language. Only some words or numbers stand out for you to read.
So if you for example find a new item or trinket, you have to mostly figure out on your own what it does or how it works. Now I say mostly because one of Tunic's core mechanics is its own in-game booklet. During your playthrough you will find pages of this booklet, which is heavily inspired by old game booklets.
As with the rest of the game, you can't read most of it. However the booklet is filled with small hints — like someone brought a used copy of a game and the previous owner wrote down some notes in the booklet. Finding more of those pages is one of the biggest rewards Tunic offers for exploration, and completing the booklet also ties into the biggest and best secret Tunic has to offer.
How does Tunic play?
Tunic plays like a mix between classic 2D Zelda and Dark Souls. You lock on to an enemy, dodge or parry their attacks and strike back. Similar to Dark Souls you can die quite fast. Also like in Dark Souls you can level up your attributes and use potions to heal, refilling them at shrines.
The bosses especially can be really challenging and in terms of scale reminded me a lot of Dark Souls. However, sadly, this is where Tunic has its biggest weak point. Combat is just not as precise as it needs to be for such a punishing gameplay loop. Often you feel like you hit the enemy but you didn't, or you get hit even though you shouldn't have. This can lead to some frustrating moments.
The game does give you more and more tools like ranged weapons or bombs to deal with enemies, which can be very helpful. However, I must admit that compared to games like Mina the Hollower or Silksong, Tunic's combat just feels poor.
Other than combat, Tunic's focus is on exploration, and it's here where it shines the most for me. The world is filled with secrets and a sense of wonder. The game cleverly plays with its camera, zooming out or changing angles when needed to give you an amazing sense of scale. It was a joy to get lost in this world.
What also helps is that the world feels believable and offers many surprising moments. Elements you've seen for hours without knowing what they do suddenly get a purpose because you found the right page of your booklet explaining how to interact with them. It's here where Tunic really made me feel like a kid again.
Unveiling the Layers
Before I started playing Tunic I often read about how complex and hidden this game's puzzles are supposed to be. It is often compared to games like Blue Prince or Outer Wilds. If you don't know those games, their puzzles are very complex and layered — often only revealing their deeper meaning after hours and hours of playing.
Tunic has those elements as well, especially when it comes to the booklet. There is one end-game puzzle involving the booklet that I found breathtaking. However, I still felt a little let down after discovering how some other end-game puzzles work. Without spoiling anything, many of those secret puzzles felt more like busy work to me.
The same goes for the last 15% of the game. After reaching the end you are pretty much sent back out into the world to revisit all the places you've been before in order to unlock what's needed to defeat the final boss. Tunic's pacing had been amazing up until this point, but here it lost a lot of steam and dragged on a bit.
A masterpiece lost in time
Tunic came out in 2022 and I only played it now, four years later. I can totally see why so many people loved Tunic back then and called it a masterpiece. Exploring the world made me feel like a kid again, and the booklet is such a charming and clever idea. There is a lot to love here.
However, I do feel like playing this game four years later harmed my experience a little. A game like Mina the Hollower outshines Tunic in almost every aspect, and going in with such high expectations didn't help either. I doubt I would have felt let down by the end-game secrets if I hadn't expected something like Blue Prince.
Still, all in all, I had a great time with Tunic. If you like Zelda or Dark Souls, this feels like a must-play title. It's not without its flaws, but it has a sense of wonder and magic that many modern titles lack, and for that I'm grateful to have experienced it.
I always loved Star Fox 64! As a child this game made me feel like I'm inside a Star Wars movie. It was epic, intense and action packed. But this was 29 years ago. Can a game this old really hold up today?
A new step for Nintendo
We are approaching Venom. Peppy can't join us this time — the attack on Area 6 left his ship too damaged to continue. Falco's and Slippy's ships aren't in good shape either, but we are too close to stop now.
As we are finally approaching Andross's base we get into a trap. The Star Wolf Team approaches us from behind and they have new upgraded ships! It's not looking good as I have two of them on my tail.
The fight goes on for what feels like an eternity. My shields are down, the ship is damaged. By now Falco and Slippy are out as well. All that is left is a one on one between me and Wolf. With some sharp turns and barrel rolls I finally manage to get behind him, my palms are sweaty. This is the moment of truth, if I don't get him now he will shoot me down.
I take my aim, try to keep the joystick steady, predicting where he will be moving, and shoot my lasers right in front of him. YES! I got him and he goes down and explodes on the planet's surface, but the fight is not over yet. Andross is still awaiting me.
This was a small scene from my first playthrough of Star Fox on the Switch 2. I hope I can get across how intense it can feel at times. It's the same as back in 1997, but this time with visuals to match.
When it comes to visuals and presentation it feels like a new step for Nintendo. Star Fox looks breathtaking, from the variety of the different planets, to the effects during the fights and of course the cutscenes. Now granted Star Fox doesn't have an incredibly deep story, but with great voice acting and well done cutscenes they still manage to flesh out this universe a lot more.
Together with one of the best soundtracks in gaming, Star Fox really makes you feel like you're in an action blockbuster movie. But all of this would be worth nothing if the gameplay doesn't hold up. So how does it feel to play after 29 years?
Arcade Gameplay that feels fresh in 2026
Star Fox on Switch 2 is pretty much a one to one remake of the 1997 original when it comes to its gameplay. This version seems to be based on the 3DS remake from 2011, so enemy placements, level design and so on, everything is exactly the same as back then.
This means you can finish one playthrough of Star Fox easily in 30 to 40 minutes if you don't die. But most levels offer two ways of completing them, which then leads to different routes you can take through the system. Each level itself hardly takes more than five minutes.
All of this sounds very old but honestly it feels refreshing to play in 2026. In a way it could be compared to runs in a roguelike game but without any meta progression and without any randomized elements.
This leads to you really learning the ins and outs of each stage, which is necessary if you want to earn medals in each world. Those medals you usually get for reaching a certain score, which is very hard! If you do however, you can unlock the expert mode this way.
The core of it all is still the moment to moment gameplay and it's here where Star Fox shines the most. Controlling your ship just feels amazing and the game also includes other options like mouse mode. Everything feels snappy and precise and if you fail, you know it has been your own fault.
Now could any of this have been improved even further? Honestly I personally think not really, without changing the game too much. One criticism of many players is for example that your teammates are mostly useless.
They do add a great atmosphere but gameplay wise they are mostly in the way, and more than once they need to be saved by you. However in my eyes this is part of the challenge and the core gameplay. If they were to all of a sudden play smart it would result in the game being much easier.
What should a remake be?
As you can see the game is mostly the same as in 1997 but there are a few nice additions. For one there is a new online multiplayer mode with a few different maps. It's fast paced fun and if you play with friends you can even use the new camera feature. This lets you change your face into a member of the Star Fox team which is great fun.
The core singleplayer also got some nice additions. The biggest one is surely the challenge mode which gives you a list of different achievements for each level. It's nothing groundbreaking but it does add even more to a great game.
Still, I keep on reading online from players that 5-10 hours of content isn't enough and that this remake should be more. For me personally I'm honestly torn on this. New levels would have been great fun for example, but I can't help myself and admire how pure this remake is.
Star Fox 64 was one of my favorite games of my childhood and to be able to play the same game now with new visuals and so many small but nice additions just simply feels magical to me. If they had reworked the levels and added new ones it could have harmed this effect.
Sure I still hope that this is only the beginning for Star Fox and that we will get a fully new game down the road. But I do think it's great that some of those true classic games get a chance to be played on a modern system with modern graphics.
A true blast from the past
All in all I'm just super happy with Star Fox on Switch 2. This will be the version of one of my favorite games of all time that I will play over and over again for the next 30 years to come.
There is nothing here that isn't done well. Only the fact that it is the same game as back then could be an issue for some modern players. But for that you can try the demo yourself and find out if this blast from the past is for you.
One Evening with: The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales
I'm a big fan of HD-2D Games and Team Asano especially. Octopath Traveler 2 I consider one of the best JRPGs of all time, so I was very curious about The Adventures of Elliot. This time instead of a JRPG, Team Asano tries to make an Action RPG that reminds me a lot of 2D Zelda or Secret of Mana.
The definition of charming
If I could use only one word to describe The Adventures of Elliot it would be charming. Visually the game is very pleasing. The HD-2D style just never gets old! This time Team Asano also added beautiful big portraits of every character when they speak. This honestly adds a lot to the game and makes everything feel even more alive.
The English voice acting is again on point and delivers a lot of emotion. This goes hand in hand with the characters. In my 5 hours of playtime so far no character had a lot of depth, but they all felt charming and it was simply joyful to watch their interactions. Elliot is a simple hero. He always wants to do the right thing, no matter the cost, and everyone simply loves him.
The main story fits right into this. It's a story about lost magic and time travel. So far there isn't really much more to it though. It's a simple and predictable plot. I don't expect many surprises from this, but for me personally this still works. The game just feels cozy in every single aspect.
Gameplay with enough depth
The gameplay is rather simple at its core. You can equip two different weapons or tools at the same time. This can be a sword, boomerang, spear, bomb and many more options. All of this gets a bit spiced up by a gem system.
Each weapon or tool can be upgraded with gems that can alter their effect in many ways. Some gems simply add more damage or faster attacks, but others introduce different elements like ice that can freeze enemies. Even this early on it's already fun to play around with this system and create your own mini builds. You can freely swap those gems in and out so there is no punishment for experimenting.
You also usually have access to one spell that your fairy companion can cast. So far my fairy only has one spell to create fire, which you can use to attack enemies and solve puzzles. However it's already clear that there will be many more options during the game.
The combat encounters themselves are fairly simple so far. There seems to be enough variety when it comes to enemies but none of them have any complex strategies. A true highlight however are the bosses. They each come with their own encounter design, are well made, and remind me a lot of 2D Zelda bosses.
Exploring the world and the dungeons develops a nice flow. There are enough secrets to find for the game to stay interesting. I could also already experience the time travel mechanic a bit. It's kind of how you would imagine it — you can explore the same map and sometimes the same dungeons during different time periods. It's rather simple but effective so far.
When it comes to puzzles however I want to make clear that this isn't Zelda. The Adventures of Elliot has some simple puzzles, but so far there has been nothing remotely challenging in that regard.
The Adventures of Elliot, the coziest Action RPG of the Year
All in all, The Adventures of Elliot simply works. Nothing about this game is outstanding, but at the same time there is nothing bad. It's cozy and fun to play. However, Elliot's biggest issue might be that it comes out only weeks after Mina the Hollower — a game that has many similar elements but pushes them all to a much higher level.
In the end, that is the main reason why I decided to go with this impression instead of a full review. The Adventures of Elliot is fun and I'm sure I will play it more. However, since nothing is outstanding here, I doubt I would ever really finish this game. There is simply too much competition in 2026 for it. Still, if you're looking for a cozy Action RPG after a long day of work, The Adventures of Elliot is a great choice and a good time.
I've been a gamer my whole life. Gaming has always been my biggest hobby and passion. But how did I become a gamer? Which games had the biggest impact on me? All of this and other things I want to talk about here.
1989 - 1996 How I became a Gamer
I still remember the moment vividly when I played my first Video Game. This might be the earliest memory of my life that I can remember. We were out with some friends of my parents. I must have been 3 or 4 years old. Those friends also had children, but they were mostly teenagers and they had a Game Gear with Sonic.
I had never seen a video game before, ofc with memories that long ago it gets a bit blurry from here on, but I remember them letting me play it for a bit. It felt like magic and ofc I was obsessed with Sonic from that point on.
This day really influenced my early gaming years. My parents got me a Game Gear and a Master System shortly after. I think Game Gear was first, but I'm not sure anymore. Sonic became my favorite Franchise back then. I played every single Sonic game that came out on the Game Gear and Master System. Back then, my Mum got into gaming too and also played Sonic and other games.
I will never forget how nervous we both got when she reached the last Level in one of the Sonic games. Something I never achieved back in the days. It all felt so exciting. I played a lot of different games back then, but another one I remember well is Bomberman. I freaking loved Bomberman!
Once in Kindergarten, I got asked what I like to do in my free time. Innocent me explained, “I like to play Bomberman!” Then the teacher asked me what that was. So I explained, “A game where you place bombs and destroy stuff”. Well, on that afternoon, my mum had to come to the Kindergarten and explain why her son plays a game about “bombs”.
As someone who loved Sonic and Sega, I was very Anti-Nintendo as a child. Which is kinda ironic looking back now that I'm a huge Nintendo Fan. When my Friends spoke about how cool the Game Boy and the Super Nintendo are, I laughed it off. Sega had the better graphics! And the Game Boy was in green, while the Game Gear had games with color!
Well, this changed one evening. I don't remember exactly where, but a friend lent me his Game Boy. I think we were on a trip and I had no console with me, so I played with his. On it, I played the Game Boy port of Kid Icarus. I don't remember much about the game, but after this, I wanted a Game Boy. So I must have really liked it because this evening led me on the Path of Nintendo.
1997 - 2001 A Love for a Lifetime
I think somewhere in 1996, I got my first Game Boy. Tetris was, of course, a huge hit for my parents and me, but it was also the first time I played Zelda. Link's Awakening was a game that fascinated me back then. I couldn't read at this time, so my mum had to read the text for me. With her help and a lot of trial and error, I came far in the game. Even though I wouldn't beat it till years later.
Around this time, all the different things I loved became a bit of a blur, so I won't try to keep this in chronological order. Let's start with Pokemon. Pokemon was my life as a child! I don't even know how it was advertised, but I remember watching the Anime from Day One and also having both games, Red and Blue, from Day One.
I studied all the names of the Pokemon, I had a guidebook for the games and completed both games alone. At this point, I had two Game Boys. The very old Game Boy and a Game Boy Color. So I could easily trade Pokemon with myself. I also had a Game Boy Printer and Game Boy Camera. With this, you could print yourself a document showing that you caught all 150 Pokemon! Damn, I was so proud. I remember the last Pokemon missing was Tauros.
But I wasn't just crazy about Pokemon. Back then, one of my favorite things to do was going to the flea markets with my parents. It was so easy to find cool Game Boy Games for a low price there. So I collected a lot of them and still own them all.
I also got a Super Nintendo for a short period of time. We bought a used one with a few games. I didn't keep it for long though, as something came up. I can't remember the full situation, but we got a chance to get a Nintendo 64. For that, I had to sell my Super Nintendo, which I did straight away ofc.
Playing N64 for the first time was again pure magic. I loved Mario 64, Mario Kart, Bomberman 64, Star Fox, Pokemon Stadium, Banjo-Kazooie and so on. However, all of this pales in comparison to my favorite game of all time, The Legend of - Zelda Ocarina of Time.
This was my Christmas gift in 1997. But I knew I would get it, so my mum allowed me to play it already before Christmas. However, I wasn't allowed to save the game, so my father wouldn't be able to find out. I played the beginning of the game multiple times. Zelda OoT was the first time in my life that gaming felt like a big and grand adventure to me.
This game was so filled with lore and secrets. I honestly feel playing Zelda back then had the biggest impact on my gaming taste. Till this day, the games I love the most are usually games about exploration, with a big world and lots of things to find.
Through my love for OoT, I became a big Zelda expert back then. I remember how my friends after school would call me and ask me to help them with certain dungeons or puzzles. Zelda was everything to me back then. No matter if it was OoT and Majora's Mask on the N64, or Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages and Season on the Gameboy. I loved it!
2001 - 2004 Becoming a modern Gamer
In some ways, 2001 to 2004 felt a little bit like gaming feels to me nowadays as well. I got the Gameboy Advance and the Gamecube Day One. Both I loved and till this day, they are some of my favorite consoles of all time.
The Game Boy Advance has a very special place in my heart. It helped me to get to know many of the classics from the Super Nintendo. I fully played games like Super Mario World or Zelda: A Link to the Past for the first time on the Game Boy Advance.
But there were also many other games I fell in love with on this Handheld. Golden Sun was probably my first real JRPG and Advance Wars was my first Turn Based Tactics game. It was also the first time in my life that I was really up to date with gaming. I always bought gaming magazines back then and if possible, I got every major release on day one.
This was also the time I used the Internet for the first time, which will become a topic later. However, with the Game Boy Advance, I was very active in a Forum at the time. This made me really feel like it is today, that I could share my excitement about a new game with many other like minded people.
The GameCube had a similar vibe for me. I loved it from the start. Luigi's Mansion, Zelda Wind Waker, Star Wars Squadron, Splinter Cell, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Monkey Ball, Fifa and so much more! The N64 and Gameboy kindled my love for Nintendo, but the Gameboy and Gameboy Advance set it in stone for Life.
But being a Nintendo Fan back then wasn't always easy. Many of my friends in school switched to PlayStation. Mostly because you could buy games very cheaply as they were easy to copy illegally. In some ways, it was weird as it did make me feel like I'm missing out at times. However, I also think it shaped me in a way. I stood by what I love and didn't give in to the pressure of the masses. Looking back, I'm kinda proud of myself for that.
Another first around this time was also getting a Computer. I did play a lot of different games on the PC back then, like Anno 1503 or Rainbow Six. However, the biggest memory back then was using the internet for the first time and finding some gaming friends to play online with.
2004 - 2014 The Internet Age
The next 10 Years I would describe as the Internet Age. It all started with my gaming buddy, whom I got to know online. We played a few games online, but the first that really got us was Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow. We loved the multiplayer of that game.
It was the first time I dipped into E-Sports and it also led to more online friends. Over time, we moved on to Warcraft 3 Funmaps. We played a ton of different ones back then. This became a time that I would get home from school, get onto our Teamspeak server and spend my whole day there with my buddies.
There was pretty much always someone on the server, so we talked all the time. Either gaming, watching something together, or simply hanging out. But the probably biggest game of the time became World of Warcraft.
Looking back, I must admit I don't feel like the game had as much influence on me as you might think. I mean, I spend years playing it! But I kinda feel it was mostly the social aspect of it all. Being in a Guild, doing PvP together, or Raiding. All of this was my form of going out and partying.
I also got to know a lot of people in the game and often became some sort of social support for them and my first time falling in love ofc also happened in the game. Still, I don't have the same warm feeling toward World of Warcraft that I have towards Nintendo, for example. It's really more about the time and people than about the game. We also played many other games, like Battlefield 2, for example. But it was always the same core group of people.
One special and very nerdy memory is New Years Eve nights. On those, we would play games like Civilization 4, for example, all night long. I also remember my first night alone at home, where I could spend playing Warcraft 3 all night long with friends.
But I didn't just play Multiplayer back then. Some of my very special memories of the time had to do with BioWare. Mass Effect 1-3 or Dragon Age 1 and 2 are still to this day some of my favorite games of all time.
I also bought a Wii and a Nintendo DS. But at this time, I lost the spark for Nintendo a bit. I think it had to do with the shift Nintendo made to be more casual and at the same time, I was in the Age where Nintendo simply didn't feel cool enough anymore. Honestly, around that time, I thought I might never return to Nintendo. Boy, I was so so wrong.
2014 - The Flame burns again
I think this section has to start with Dark Souls. I did try Dark Souls 1 when the PC Port came out and hated it. To me, it felt clunky, difficult for no reason and simply bad. Honestly, I didn't understand how somebody could like this game.
When Dark Souls 2 came out, some of my favorite content creators back in the day started a lets play for it. They explained why they loved Dark Souls one and were so excited to play Dark Souls 2. Watching the beginning of it made me want to try it again. In the end, I played through Dark Souls 2 while watching them. I would always play a section and then go back and watch how they played it.
This made me fall in love with Dark Souls 2. I understood the appeal and understood why hard games are so rewarding. Something that has a big impact on my gaming taste to this day. I then went back and played Dark Souls 1 the same way and what can I say? It's now easily in the Top 3 of my favorite games of all time! I love every new From Software game and the Souls games are definitely a genre that defines my gaming taste.
2015 was my return to Nintendo, but for a different reason than you might think. I did play Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii with a friend and liked it. With my new love for harder games, I got very excited for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate on the 3DS.
Now I didn't own a 3DS, so it was the first Nintendo Hardware I had skipped at its release. But my excitement made me go and get a New 3DS XL with Monster Hunter Stories 4 when it came out. I have such warm memories of this time in many ways.At the time, I fell in love with a wonderful woman who is now my wife and at the same time, I fell back in love with Nintendo. Because after playing Monster Hunter, I went to check what else I could play on the New 3DS.
As I had missed out on so many games, 2015 became my year of catching up. Back then, 3DS games were very cheap to buy, especially used copies. I got games like Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Mario 3d Land, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Luigi's Mansion 2 and many more. Honestly, it made me fall in love again with Nintendo and showed me something I was missing all these years, the Nintendo magic.
I also got the 3DS port of Xenoblade Chronicles, but I didnt finish it on the 3DS. But more on Xenoblade later. Now, as you could already tell, Handhelds always had a special place in my heart, so when Nintendo announced that their next console would be a Handheld, I got beyond excited.
When the Switch 1 came out, I didn't have much money and hunting one down was hard. But seeing what the console would be, I knew I had to get one.
The days before the release were horrible. I bought it at a German retailer and it went from “no worries, you will get yours” to “sorry, we are out of stock”. It was a back and forth all this time. Even on the day of the delivery, it didn't even show me if it got sent or not.
In the end, the deliveryman arrived at 10 pm. I never got a package this late before, but I was so happy. Playing Zelda Breath of the Wild on the Switch was one of the most magical gaming experiences Ive ever had. The switch itself felt awesome and the game was a true revolution.
Later that year, it was followed by Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Till this day, maybe the best gaming year of all time when we speak about pure quality.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 became another magical memory for me. I honestly wasn't excited for this game. It looked too Anime. The first game looked more serious and the only reason I bought it was that I really liked Xenoblade 1.
Well, what can I say? Xenoblade Chronicles 2 became my most emotional gaming experience ever. I fell in love with the characters. I loved and cried with them. I kept on listening to the soundtrack after I was done. Even till this day, I sometimes watch some of the cutscenes on YouTube and cry every single time I see the ending.
This game made me a Xenoblade Fan. Since then, I have played and finished Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 3. Both had a similar effect on me. Xenoblade also made me into an Anime fan again. I always liked anime, but I never watched it that much. Now I have an anime night with my wife every week and watching anime is one of my favourite hobbies.
Xenoblade also made me into a bigger JRPG fan. Since then, I have played tons of Team Asano games like Octopath Traveler 2 and indie gems like Chained Echoes. Currently, I'm also playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and loving it. It's safe to say my love for Japan blossomed with Nintendo and Xenoblade.
Now ofc since then I played and experienced many more games. Elden Ring was outstanding to me, but I also played and enjoyed many indie games in the past years. I even started to get into gamedev.
It's safe to say that my journey as a gamer isn't over and that there will be more games in the future that will shape me. Looking back, it almost feels like, around every 10 years, there has been this big, impactful moment. From Zelda Ocarina of Time, which transformed me into a lifelong Nintendo fan and woke my interest in exploration in gaming, to Dark Souls, which taught me how rewarding it feels to overcome challenges in games, up to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which opened my eyes even more to anime, JRPGs, and emotional stories in games.
It's been a fun journey and I can't wait to see what will be the next big game that impacts me and maybe changes my way of thinking in the future.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Switch 2 Review: Great Characters buried in a mid game
When reviewing Final Fantasy VII Remakes there would be tons of things we could talk about. Like the great combat system that gets dragged down but too less enemy variety, or the promising main story that ends in a confusing mess, or all those moments where the game clearly got stretched just to reach a certain amount of playtime.
However, if I'm being honest with you, there is only one thing I truly want to talk about. Final Fantasy VIIs characters.
The art of slowing down
Final Fantasy VII Remake starts with Cloud, an almost emotionless mercenary who supports a rebel group. Of course just for the money so he says. In the first few hours of the game Cloud likes to act like he doesn't care about anything or anyone. A Ex-Soldier who is haunted by its past and deeply scared from it.
However even in those early Hours FF7 Remake shows with Cloud something you rarely see in Videogames. A certain kind of subtly. He says he doesn't care but thanks to the well written dialogue, good voice acting and facial expressions we know it's not true. He just doesn't want to show any emotions or admit them.
This behavior continues even after the first mission. There is a great moment with Tifa, his old Childhood friend and the girl who even got him on the mission as a mercenary. She surely has her way of talking to Cloud and even teasing him. It's charming and cute to watch. But Cloud isn't an easy nut to crack.
In between we get glimpses in the backstory of Tifa and Cloud. We see how Cloud back then promised Tifa to become a strong Soldier and how he would protect her if needed. Seeing how they both were back then and how they are now surely shows that they went through a lot, but we wont see the details of this in FF7 Remake
In the first few hours there is a scene where the whole group celebrates their first victory in the bar “Seventh Heaven”. Cloud, stubborn as he is, shows that he is not part of the group and gets kindly asked to leave the bar. It's here where Final Fantasy 7 Remake shows its strength. Walking slowly out of the bar while a great soundtrack is playing feels emotional.
You can feel that deep down Cloud would want to be a part of this, but at the same time he would never want to admit it, at least not yet. Seeing how Cloud develops from this stubborn and scared character, into a hero who cares about his team is one of the appealing qualities of FF7 Remake.
A limited world full of details
By today's standards the world of Final Fantasy VII Remake feels small. Most of the time you work through straight corridors and even the few more open parts are fairly limited. However the world is full of details to admire if you look for them.
One of the most memorable parts for me is the second time you meet Aerith. We get to know Aerith as the flower girl. She seems in touch with nature and in many ways does not fit into this world. FF7 Remake only plays in Midgar, a city that is pretty much only steel and stone without any green or nature.
This fits together with the main plot of FF7 Remake. Shinra, the company that owns Midgar, is pretty much an evil company who drains the planet's energy to use it for their own goods. A parallel that greatly fits in our modern world are big AI companies and in general our modern way of life drains the world of its resources.
But let's get back to Aerith. Her positive character stands out in this dark world. At first Cloud doesn't really know how to deal with her, he feels clearly uncomfortable in dealing with such a positive character. But similar to Tifa, Aerith does find a way to crack his hard shell slowly over time.
One of the chapters focuses on us escorting her back to her home. This is again a moment where FF7 Remake slows down in a good way. Through greatly written dialogue we slowly get to know her and the people she lives with. Because it's all happening at such a slow pace the development feels natural. One of the standout moments is where she makes Cloud pick out flowers for an orphanage in town.
Cloud is awkward and clearly shows it, however if you listen closely you can see how those moments slowly make him open up. All of this is always accompanied by a great soundtrack and really beautiful visuals. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is at times the most beautiful game I have seen on my Switch 2.
The start to something great?
As I said in the intro Final Fantasy VII Remake has many flaws and issues. But the one thing it pulls off great is creating a group of characters you want to get to know more and spend time with. By the end they all experienced loss and destruction, but at the same time also hope, hope they found in each other. Will all of this be worth it in the end?
The answer to this I might be able to give after playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. However I surely experienced moments I won't forget here. Even if I got dragged through many hours of bad game design and pointless filler content to get here.
Mina the Hollower Switch 2 Review: Zelda + Elden Ring = A damn good time
In 2014 a small Indie Team with the Name Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight. A classic Action Platformer that took over the Indie world by storm. Now they are back again with their new game, Mina the Hollower, a mix between 2d Zelda and Elden Ring. Just like with Shovel Knight they again created one of the best games in the genre.
Mina offers a twist on a classic formula
Mina looks like an old Game Boy Color game and feels a lot like old 2d Zelda games like Links Awakening. After the first hour of gameplay the world opens up far and wide. Like you would in Zelda games you have multiple dungeons you have to explore. But Mina the Hollower gives you the Freedom to explore most of them in any order you want.
However unlike Zelda Mina the Hollower doesn't have many puzzles to solve. Instead the game focuses on Combat and a surprisingly big part of the game is a platformer. For me the hardest moments in the game weren't bossfights, but long jumping sections where the game demands a lot of timing and precision from you.
For the most part I enjoyed those sections but sometimes I felt like the last bit of polish is missing. Some jumping segments just have one evil surprise too much. It's never to the point of feeling frustrating but it can feel a bit unfair at times.
Same goes for the combat itself. At the beginning you can choose between one of Five Weapons that all play a little bit different. As said earlier it plays like a 2d Zelda game with the one big difference that Mina can dig underground. This digging is used for many movement parts but also for combat to dodge enemy attacks or dig under them to attack from behind. Mina wants to be a Soulslike in the combat department but similar to my jumping criticism I sometimes feel a little lack of control.
It still plays amazing overall but I just never felt so much in control as I would in a game like Hollow Knight Silksong. There is just often this moment of like “What this attack hit me?” or “How should I have dodged that?”. Thankfully Mina the Hollower almost never demands this kind of precision from you because of its great progression system.
Mina the Hollower Progression feels rewarding
In Mina the Hollower you collect Bones as your progression currency. Those you can get for defeating enemies or exploring the world. With those Bones you have tons of options. In the Town, some shops sell you permanent upgrades like more health, but there are also weapon upgrades and the best of all, there are Trinkets.
These Trinkets offer you a wide array of options, from jumping further, to gaining a parry ability, to options like becoming invincible for a second. There are tons of different Trinkets to find, either through exploration or through the Shops. In my eyes, those really helped to eliminate the small weaknesses that Mina sometimes had in its combat or jumping parts. As there really is a trinket for any situation you can imagine.
With the bones, you can also level up and boost your stats or build out your homebase to gain more quality of life features. As you can see, Bones can be used for a lot of things and Trinkets do feel really strong. All of this leads to my favorite part of the game. Its Exploration and World Design.
Mina offers a world worth exploring
The World and Level Design is where Mina the Hollower really shines. First, it offers you a lot of freedom. As mentioned in the Intro, a huge chunk of the game you can play in any order you like. Secondly, there are secrets everywhere!
Some are simply hidden walls, others are mini puzzles and some are just hidden behind little questlines or jumping parts. What makes those so rewarding to explore is that you will find cool upgrades, trinkets, or simply tons of bones that you need to progress much more easily.
I rarely felt this engaged when I was exploring a world. But it's not just the secrets that make Mina shine. Each section of the world has its own gimmicks and ideas. The outstanding part here is how smartly those levels are designed. Yacht Club Games never hold your hand or explain to you, “In this area you can do XYZ”. Instead, they design the level in such a clever way that you will find out for yourself how they work.
I'm sorry for being a bit vague here, but for me, finding out how all the different levels work was the most fun I had in Mina the Hollower and I don't want to spoil any of the fun and magic moments in that regard. So please just trust me when I say, they nailed it!
The same goes for the dungeons themself, each has its own twist and ideas and none of them feel the same. Some even don't feel like dungeons at all. To top all of this, the world is really smartly connected. In many ways, the way you unlock shortcuts or hidden paths reminded me of Dark Souls.
The best part of this is that none of these ideas overstay their welcome. It almost felt like every few hours, I kinda played a different and new game. All of this is followed by a very memorable soundtrack. Each zone has its own wipe and many of the songs are already stuck in my head for good.
Mina the Hollower is close to perfection
In many ways, I want to compare Mina the Hollower to my Game of the Year of 2025, Hollow Knight Silksong. From the smart level design, great world building and creative ideas. Most of this is here. However, the moment I compare the two, the small cracks do start to show.
As mentioned earlier, combat just isn't as much on point. With the progression system, you can eliminate most points, but because it's a big, imprecise it just never feels as rewarding. The same goes for the Platforming. Silksong is a masterpiece in this regard and Mina is often close but just has a few too many unfair moments.
The worst part however, is the balancing itself. Both games offer a lot of freedom, but Silksong manages to always stay just right on the difficulty curve. Mina on the other hand, is a bit all over the place. In the first few hours, Mina felt really difficult. Then there was a huge chunk of the game where I had great Trinkets and upgrades and I felt overpowered. I could just facetank enemies and spam my attack to win.
By the end however, a big difficulty spike occurred that honestly rattled me for a moment. Here it just simply shows that the core gameplay from Mina the Hollower is fun and well made, but it just doesn't reach the perfection of Hollow Knight Silksong. The same applies also to the visuals. I overall love this Game Boy Advance look, but there are just a few moments where the game felt harder to read than it should be.
Lastly, the story itself. It is fine and especially some of the side quests and characters have a lot of charm. There are some twists, but it's not a story that could ever touch my emotions like Pragmata lately, for example.
Mina the Hollower Verdict - a flawed Masterpiece
Now granted, maybe it is unfair to compare Mina with those games. But this should also show how damn good Mina the Hollower is. Its very damn close to Masterpieces like Elden Ring, Zelda BotW, or Silksong. It took inspiration from all these games and managed to make something unique out of it.
Especially the Level Design itself and the great progression system make Mina the Hollower a game I will never forget. To me, this is an instant classic, a game I will surely play again in the future and honestly, so far the best game I played this year.
April and May have been weird months for me. Before the release of Mina the Hollower there have been many games that peeked my interest but none of them I played to a level that I would want to make a full review on them. So I decided to give them all a small Spotlight in this new Format.
Puzzles Games become a genre I love
I always loved Puzzles but usually it was more in the form of classic Zelda Dungeon. But over the past few years I developed more of an interest in games like Picross for example. Games where I can wind down and focus on one Puzzle at a time without a bigger narrative around it. The Artisan of Glimmith is exactly such a game. Artistically it's beautiful and its music is simply enchanting. Gameplay wise it reminds me a lot of Picross.
You have to solve puzzles that are built around logic and never try and error. If you have enough patience you will always find the one solution that would work. What makes this game stand out however is its variety. This game offers plenty of different puzzles with different rulesets. All of them tickle the same part of your brain. Later on they get even combined from time to time. It's truly a hidden gem of an indie game.
Not so hidden but still a gem is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. I was really on the fence if I wanted to buy this one as it seemed like a simple child's game. However it's definitely not. It almost feels like a new genre. You play Yoshi in a game that at first seems like a 2d Platformer. However it's more of a puzzle exploration game.
Each stage has different creatures and you have to find out how these creatures work and how they interact with you and their environment. It's a very clever game and really joyful. It also looks stunning. I'm still early on but it's one of those games I would love to still play more of this year.
The month of big AAA Games
Let's start with the game I had the most fun with and was the most excited about, Forza Horizon 6. It's the ultimate chill game after work. It feels similar in that regard to last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows. Exploring Japan is simply fun and a good time. The game looks stunning and plays great. But it could have needed some more tweaks on its UI. For everything you want to do you need to click too much or encounter one to many loading screens.
Even the weekly challenges have been fun so far. It's hardly a revolution of the genre, but the setting alone together with the amazing soundtrack make it worth playing. This is definitely another game that I will keep on playing for the next year or so.
A game I however didn't expect to play this month was Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, but the reviews got me interested. It's a really solid game. It mixes old school Batman Arkham Action with the Lego Games. It also includes a really good looking open world.
I only played for around 4 hours, but I enjoyed my time so far. The humor worked, gameplay was solid and the presentation was outstanding. However, to be honest, looking back, I feel like waiting for a discount or the planned Switch 2 release would have been the better call for me.
I have similar feelings about 007 First Light. The newest James Bond game turned out to be an interesting genre mix between action, stealth and the typical Hitman gameplay. Again, with most games on this list, I'm still early on. In the first few hours, I enjoyed the story and presentation of the game. However, the gameplay didn't always feel great for me.Looking at all the releases we will still get this year, I honestly feel like I won't return to this game anytime soon. It's a solid 8/10 but not the revolutionary game I hoped for.
My biggest Surprises in April and May
Now we come to my two big surprises in the past months. We begin with Farever. It's an early access MMO-Light game. So far, I'm honestly very impressed by it. The combat reminds me a bit of Guild Wars 2. It's a more active combat playstyle and depending on which weapon you equip, you get access to different skills. But there are also classes to choose from.
Furthermore, the game already includes a full job system and dungeons. There is a heavy focus on exploration and little handholding so far. The game is divided into small servers. So you will always just see a few people around you. Still, at launch, I really got this classic World of Warcraft feeling. The dungeons also felt really fun so far and offer the typical MMO style boss design. Overall, it's a very promising game with tons of updates on the horizon. I'm really excited to see where this leads.
Lastly, I want to say a few words about eFootball Kick Off Honestly, before this game was released, I never heard of it. eFootball Kick Off is pretty much a new mini PES Game exclusive for the Switch 2. It's still very light on features and in many ways it feels like an early access game. But it's cheap and the gameplay feels great and is fun. I hope Konami will work more on this.
And this is it! My small games round up. Honestly, it's been a great month for games, but I do look forward to the next few months with more heavy hitters.
Nowadays in gaming social media there is an obsession with backlogs. Many try to give themselves rules like “you have to first finish game A to then play game B”. Youtube is full of guides on how you should play. People really tend to overthink their hobbies. The past 3 months I played a bigger variation of games than ever before and I'm here to say “stop applying rules to your hobby, simply have fun!”.
Why Backlogs are wrong
Not so long ago I heard an interesting thought in the Dual Comm Podcast about backlogs. They pretty much said that the word backlogs applies pressure to your hobby “I still HAVE to play xyz” which honestly isn't fun. Life is already full of stress and things you have to do. Why should your hobby be as well?
Instead they suggested a better name for it. Your Games Library. This word alone already takes a lot of the negativity out of it. A Games Library is simply your collection of games that you could play if you want to.
In my eyes this mindset change is healthy and simply more fun. Knowing you still have the game xyz in your library that you could play if you want to just feels way better than thinking “I still have to play game xyz”.
You can't play everything!
If you are a gamer like me who has interest in a wide range of genres you will quickly notice that you simply can't play everything you're interested in. Let's just have a look at May 2026 and the games I'm interested in.
Farever, Forza Horizon 6, Lego Batman, Yoshi & the mysterious book, Sol Cesto, Spark in the Dark, 007 First Light and Mina the Hollower. Those are just the Titles that come to my mind right now. If I wanted to play all those games from start to finish I would probably have to quit my job and do nothing else in my life anymore.
Now you have two options to face this “problem”. Your first option would be the old Backlog method. You pick one game and play it from start to finish. No matter if you lose interest in between or not. In my eyes, depending on the game, this results in you simply having less fun but maybe having a greater feeling of achievement in the end. You will also simply experience less games overall.
Now your second option would be to pick a game and play as long as you enjoy it and move on. I personally played Farever for a few hours, had tons of fun and now pause it till it gets further into early access. Then i jumped into Forza Horizon 6 which I played for around 15 Hours so far. I had a blast with the game the first weekend, and right now it's a game that I can return to anytime and just simply have fun in short bursts. A few days ago, I gave Yoshi a first look and simply loved it! Next week I'm planning to play 007 First Light and Mina the Hollower.
I honestly had so much fun this month with gaming this way! With the backlog method, I would have probably only played Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which has been in my “backlog” for a while, and I did try to play it again a few days ago. I know it is supposed to have an amazing story, and I do want to experience it fully at one point. But to be honest, when I played it the last time, I simply had no fun.
There are no right or wrong ways to play
Now, after saying all of this, is there a correct way to play games? Honestly, in my eyes, no. What matters is that you enjoy your time with the hobby. If you take a lot of joy out of completing your games one after another and even sticking through the dry parts, then go for it! It can be rewarding as well. Last year I didn't enjoy a large part of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but the end made up for it and felt memorable.
Still, I feel like I, for myself, at my current point in life, enjoy gaming more with a lot of variety. I have a full time job, a wonderful wife and puppy, I currently try to learn Polish, and I started my journey to become a gamedev. So when I sit down and play video games, I want to have fun and make the most out of it. And for this, taking away the “backlog” and turning it into my own personal library of fun is the right way to go.
Pragmata Switch 2 Review: A Deeply Emotional Adventure
Capcom is known for taking good care of their Franchises. Monster Hunter, Resident Evil and Street Fighter all get very good games very often. However lately Capcom also dares to give new IPs a try. Pragmata is such a try and after years of development it's finally here and it might just be Capcom's best game yet.
Lost in Space
It was supposed to be a routine Mission. We lost contact with our Moon base, but no one expected anything serious. We were so naive. Not even an hour after our revival all of my crew members were dead and I would be too, if I wouldn't have found Diana.
Diana looks like a girl and talks like one. When I'm with her it's so easy to forget that she isn't a human. She is a Pragmata, some sort of super advanced robot? I'm not sure to be honest, the longer I'm with her the more I question myself what it actually means to be human.
She asks me about earth, and is curious to find out more about me and how the world works. She is caring and loving. It's kinda magical to see the world through her eyes. The glow of happiness when she for the first time used a slide, I surely will never forget. No matter if she's human or not. I know one thing for sure, I care about her a lot and I will bring her to earth and show her what it's like to be alive.
In order to do that we have to leave this god forsaken Moonbase. Easier said than done. IDUS the main computer of the base has taken over. She 3D prints Robots that have only one goal, to kill us.
Me alone are hopeless against those machines. Thankfully Diana isn't. She is able to hack them with her powers. I don't understand how she does it, but after she hacks them, they expose their weak spots. Which gives me an opening to shoot them. We really are a great team.
It's not all bad here though. I'm quite impressed with what humanity has built here. Some parts of this Moonstation look exactly like New York! Others like a beautiful beach or a wonderful forest. It's sometimes hard to accept that this isn't real. It does surely look like it.
Anyways, I need to get back to work. We are running out of time. I don't know how I will do this but I want Diana to see and feel how the real earth looks like. I want her to see the busy streets of New York and for her to feel real sand on her feet. In the end I don't care if she's human or not, I care about her and that's what matters.
Gameplay to match
As you might have been able to tell from the text above. A major focus point of Pragmata is the relationship between Hugh, our main character and Diana. But Pragmata isn't really a game that focuses super heavily on its story only.
The biggest part of Pragmata is its gameplay. You explore different parts of the Moon Base that offer a real variety of scenarios. The game also loves to hide secrets everywhere. Exploring every nook and cranny is really rewarding. One reason why this feels rewarding is that Pragmata isn't an easy game to begin with.
The core combat combines distinct gameplay aspects. While aiming at an enemy, you get some sort of small puzzle on the right side of the screen. This is Diana's hacking part. At the same time, you still have to control Hugh's movement, dodge attacks and then shoot once the Hacking is successful.
What really makes this combat system great though, is that it slowly builds layers upon layers. For example, Diana's hacking becomes more complicated over time. In the beginning, you mostly simply move a box from point A to point B. Later on, there are many obstacles on your way and decisions to be made. You can unlock many different hacking nodes, which grant you different kinds of skills.Some might freeze the enemy, others will turn enemies against each other or simply will make the enemy take more damage from Hughes shots. The same goes for Hughes gunplay. You unlock many different weapons over time. Some you have to charge up to make more damage, with others you can throw a grenade for great AOE damage or another one simply will create a barrier for you to hide in.
During your explorations, you will often return to your Homebase. A safe place where you can upgrade your skills and weapons. Pragmata offers a great variety of options and decision making for the Player. And that's still not all! You also unlock Mods, which you can change every time you leave the Homebase.
As you can imagine, those Mods also come with many different benefits. Some for example, make you do more hacking damage, others give you more HP or let you do more damage to enemies if you attack from behind. If you combine all those options, you can really decide how you want to play Pragmata.
Inside the Homebase, you will also unlock optional challenges that can become quite difficult but also grant you great rewards. The best part of returning to your Homebase however, isn't any of this, it's Diana herself.
What makes Pragmata special
Each time you return, you can talk to Diana. She will react to whatever happened in the story just moments before and also ask you deep questions about life on earth and what it means to be a human. You can also find many optional items for Diana that you can use in this Homebase. Like you can find a slide as described above and Diana will then use it and play with it.
One of the biggest Achievements Capcom did with Pragmata is to create a believable and incredible loveable child-like character. Diana is the true Highlight of this game! It's impossible not to love her and want to protect her. Sure, not every dialogue is perfectly written and sometimes it almost gets too deep, but in the end, Diana nails her role.
She is curious, naive and doesn't hold back when speaking the truth. If AI will ever be this way, we humans are seriously in trouble.
Another standout are the visuals of Pragmata. I played the whole game in docked mode on the Switch 2 and this is seriously the most impressive Switch 2 game I have seen yet on a technical level. The game runs smoothly and simply looks breathtaking at times. The great art direction and creative ideas when it comes to the level design make this Pragmata shine.
The game also offers tons of postgame content and unlockables. The Maingame is only around 10 Hours which is perfect for me, but I'm happy that there is still so much more to see and explore for people who want to spend more time with it.
No game is perfect
As you can tell from this review, I really loved my time with Pragmata, but you might ask, are there any flaws? To be perfectly honest, only a few minor ones. Sometimes it's really hard to keep track of everything that is happening on the screen.
The combat itself forces you to multitask, which is fun, but especially when there are many enemies at once, I sometimes felt like I got hit out of nowhere. Maybe the game's camera could have needed some more work in those sections.
Another small gripe I had with Pragmata is that it's a bit too much combat focused during the last 30% of the game. I feel like some small puzzle sections could have helped here. The last smaller flaw is Hugh himself.
Don't get me wrong, the narrative works overall, but Hugh himself as a character stays a little bit bland. Sometimes his writing can feel a little bit off. On one side, he feels like a little big simple minded friendly giant, but then in some talks with Diana, he talks like he is a professor of philosophy. This just makes him overall a little bit unbelievable as a character.
A game I won't forget
I will not say much about the last few Hours of Pragmata, but it deeply hit me and my wife, who was watching. We both cried! It's an emotional ride and truly epic at its ending. But what's so fascinating about Pragmata's narrative is that even though it gets grand at scale it always stays very small and personal. In the end the narrative only evolves around 4 characters.
Pragmata is a game about love, loss and what it means to be human. Capcom manages to combine all this with a never seen before style of gameplay, motivation progression and great customization options. Pragmata and especially Diana surely got a place in my heart and I really hope we will see more of this in the future.
Diablo IV Lord of Hatred Review: Blizzard best Story since The Frozen Throne
Earlier this year I played Diablo 4 and its expansion Vessel of Hatred for the first time and it left me confused and conflicted. A setup with so much potential and yet it was so poorly executed. But I'm happy to report that Lord of Hatred learns from those mistakes and delivers the best Blizzard Product of the last twenty years.
A Campaign worth experiencing
Without spoiling too much the core setup of Diablo IV Lord of Hatred is really interesting. We are sent to the island of Skorvos, the place humanity was born. We are on the hunt for a weapon that could destroy Mephisto the Lord of Hatred who is currently disguised as Akarakt. Akarakt is pretty much a Jesus like figure who manipulates people into believing he is good.
This core setup is great but sadly our heroes as characters are not. Neyrell and Lorath, our 2 main companions during the base game and its first expansion, sadly stay quite flat and boring. This hurts the game as some emotional parts just don't hit as much.
What does work however are the demons. Mephisto and his amazing voice actor keep on being a highlight of Diablo 4 and in order to get to him we need to team up with Liltih. Her character finally becomes what it should have been in the base game.
What truly makes this campaign amazing though is its pacing. During the 10 hours of playtime we are constantly switching between interesting environments. Visually the game looks stunning and action packed. Another true highlight is the music. At one point you defend a town who gets stormed by demons during a heavy rainfall. Those visuals in combination with an epic soundtrack gave me true Lord of the Rings vibes.
What also helps with this is the difficulty curve is finally working. As a reminder one of my biggest complaints of the base game was that everything just dies in the later parts of the story no matter what difficulty setting you select.
In Lord of Hatred however the game stays somewhat challenging. Especially some of the bosses are true highlights in this regard. They have real mechanics that reminded me of MMORPGs and in some of them I died multiple times.
The two new classes, the warlock and paladin, are also greatly designed and fun to play. I honestly felt addicted during the story and always wanted to see what's next. The new talented tree also helped in this regard as you get to make many meaningful choices early on that can change your playstyle a lot. The end then was a true highlight and left me quite satisfied with what I experienced.
Diablo IV is finally out of the beta
My main take away from my Diablo IV Review: A Game that lost its Vision was that you could clearly see that the developers wanted to create a very different game but for whatever reason shifted it last minute and created a weird abomination of a game.
Now granted some of the skeletons of the original Diablo 4 are still there, however they are less noticeable now. Diablo 4 now finally feels like a game that makes sense. They added tons of crafting options with the horadric cube. Now a yellow item could become your best in slot. Playing around with all the craftings options is really fun and rewarding.
The War Plans as a new endgame activity also works great. Essentially you can select a few different activities you want to do in a row and at the end you get rewarded by great loot. Each of those activities also comes with their own talent tree now. It's a great system. Simple at its core but still with enough depth to be fun.
It's not all perfect though. The item system itself still feels a bit flat. It's enough to be fun for sometime but a bit more depth and more complex choices to make could really help here.
Diablo 4 is fun now
All in all I must say I had a great time with Diablo IV and I see myself checking it out again and again with the new season updates. Something that wasn't the case before Lord of Hatred.
I really hope Blizzard takes this great foundation now and keeps on building on it. There is a lot of potential here! However many big content creators already speculate that this might have been Diablo 4's last expansion. In my eyes that would be a big mistake, then if history teaches us one thing, it's that Blizzards always makes the base Diablo bad.
As it stands right now Diablo IV Lord of Hatred is fast paced fun, with snappy gameplay, enough depth in its systems and great class design. If your looking for a fun ARPG to play after a long day at work Diablo 4 is a great choice right now.
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Review: Love at third sight
I must admit when I first saw Tomodachi life on the 3ds I had zero interest in the game. When the successor for the switch showed up at a Nintendo Direct I laughed at it and thought “who's gonna play this?” well turns out I'm the one who's playing and loving it. So sit back, relax and find out why I fell in love with Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.
A very normal week on Stardust Island
I'm beyond excited, finally Himmel and Frieren fell in Love! One step closer to making this dream couple become reality. But both are still acting shy around each other.
After some long talks with each of them, Frieren surprised me. She asked me if she should ask Himmel to be her boyfriend.
Of course I'm all supportive. All power to you Frieren! She asked me what to wear, say and where she should confess her love.
We both decided inviting Himmel to her home is the right call. Then finally the big moment. Frieren takes a deep breath, stumbles a bit over her words and finally confesses to Himmel “I love you, let's be together”.
But before Himmel can answer, the door opens. Fern, Frierens daughter of all people! Comes into the room and yells “No Himmel I love you more be with me”. I stare at my screen with a mix of shock and laughter.
The camera zooms on Himmel. I hope and pray he does the right call and yes… Thankfully he picks Frieren. So all is good now?
Well not really… The next day Frieren welcomes Hinata to the island. A young innocent boy who feels a bit lost in his new home. Well Himmel sees them both talk and gets filled with a jealous anger.
He complains to Frieren how she can dare to talk to another man like this in public. Frieren is confused and sad about this encounter and the young love seems to crumble.
Even though she did nothing wrong Frieren decided to apologise to Himmel but what does he say? “Apologies refused!”. At this point I feel like I'm in a Spanish Telenovela.
Thankfully the next day Himmel came back to his senses and apologised to Frieren, who accepted his apologies. After that Himmel finally realises how much he loves Frieren and asks her to marry him.
They both marry and move in together. In the same house that also Fern lives in. So what could go wrong?
The next day, it is evening and I'm tired from work. I only want to take a small peak at my peaceful island and relax. But then…
Fern and Himmel are standing in the kitchen, yelling and screaming at it each while throwing kitchen appliances through the room. Frieren manages to calm the situation down.
Both refuse to tell me what happened or why they fought. After a moment Himmel apologizes to Fern but what does she say? Right.. “Apologies refused!” followed by a “I never want to see Himmel again”. Well that's gonna be hard living in the same house.
All of this we're just a few interactions on maybe 5 real life days between 3 characters on my island. Currently I have 21 living on Stardust Island and you can have up to 75. This should give you a rough idea of what you can experience in Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.
Tomodachi is made for creative People
Now that I showed you how a typical day in Tomodachi Life Living the Dream feels, let's talk about how it plays. The easiest western comparison would be the Sims. You create your own Miis with their looks and characteristics.
Then you let them move on your island. You can build and decorate their homes as well as the whole island. The main gameplay loop is checking on your Miis daily, making them interact with each other and help them to navigate their lives.
The focus is clearly on the social interactions between the Miis. They don't go to work or have as many needs as Sims do. It's more about seeing them interact with each other and see the love and drama that can unfold.
The game has many unique cutscenes for this that are so over the top that they only can be described as pure Anime.
One aspect that really shines here is that your Miis speak. They use a somewhat creepy computer voice that will grow on you over time and you can make each Mii sound different. They will often ask you about which topic they should talk about and there aren't any filters.
This can lead to hilarious dialogues and situations and when two of your Miis bound over their daily pooping routines. This all leads to the very specific humour that Tomodachi life makes so special.
But Tomodachi life is clearly a game that stands and falls with your own creativity. You have a lot of creative freedom but you have to use it in order to have fun.
The way you create your Miis, how you mix them together, how you make them look and sound, which catch phrases or behaviors you teach them. All of those things will determine how much Tomodachi Life is to you.
In a way it almost feels like a hollow shell that you have to fill with your own ideas. This also extends to the things you can create. Clothes, buildings, objects, pets, games. Almost every element your Miis can interact with can also be created by you.
Of course there are also a lot of presets for all of this that you can buy and use. But the level of creative freedom Tomodachi Life offers is astonishing.
But this freedom comes with a price. Tomodachi Life has no filters, like really none! However because of this Nintendo decided to get rid of all online functions. In past titles you could for example share your Miis online with others.
Now sharing Miis or creations is only possible locally which is a shame. But in a way I can understand this decision. An Online function would elevate Tomodachi to another level but I guess then they would have to implement filters which also would be a shame on its own.
The funniest Game of the Year
Nintendo really has an amazing year for cozy games so far. First the excellent Pokopia hooked me for weeks and now Tomodachi Life might really be a game that I will play every day for 10-15 minutes for the rest of the year.
It's such a charming and funny mix and I simply can't wait to see what my Miis will do next. It's in fact so much fun that I truly hope Nintendo will keep on adding more content to it.
More seasonal decorations, more character quirks, more events. Tomodachi Life Living the Dream is a game with infinite potential and honestly one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. Oh and speaking of surprises, after writing this Review Frieren and Himmel had another surprise for me. They got a baby and proudly named it Evie! I already wonder what Fern will have to say about that.
Nowadays most games are made to be long and most of them really overstay their welcome. Öoo is a short and sweet puzzle Metroidbrainia that has simple mechanics and evolves a whole game around it in a masterful way.
Inspiring Gamedesign
It's really hard to talk about Öoo without spoiling its magic, that's why this review will be very short and vague. Öoo is a 2-3 Hours long puzzle game with a Metroidvania like map. You play a little cute blob who learns the ability to place a little bomb. If you for example stand on this bomb while it explodes you fly into the air, if you stand next to it you get pushed and so on.
During your playtime you won't get any new abilities and yet it still feels like a metroidvania, but why is that? Well because Öoo is what people call a Metroidbrainia. You don't learn new skills but the game smartly and without any dialogue teaches you its ruleset. What starts as a very simple game fast becomes more and more complex.
Now this is the part where it becomes very hard to talk about the game without spoiling it. Let's just take the mechanics I already told you about as an example. When you start the game no one explains to you that a bomb pushes you in one direction if you stand in front of it. But you quickly get into a puzzle room that you can only solve if you do this.
As the game doesn't have many mechanics you will quickly figure out what to do and you will feel smart about the fact that you came up with this yourself. There are many of those aspects to the game. Some have to do with your skillset, others are more about the rules of the world itself, like how certain blocks react to your bomb and so on.
It's honestly an inspiring game design and works in a way classic Nintendo games did. It's a show don't tell approach. The game never felt impossible but it does have some tricky puzzles during its playtime.
Öoo deserves your time
I never heard about Öoo until a few days ago when I saw one of my favorite German content creators Hooked playing it. If you are someone who loves gaming as much as I do you should honestly give this game a try. It reminded me again that games don't need insane production values or length to be amazing. It doesn't have the emotional impact of a game like Neva did, but its gameplay often gave me those “Wow this is possible?!?” moments. It's a short game that knows exactly what it wants to be and nails every single aspect of it.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder Switch 2 Review: The most magical Mario Game of all Time
I love Mario games and have played almost every mainline title. All of them are excellent but only a few reach the level that Wonders does. I would even go so far and say, if you take off your nostalgia glasses, then Super Mario Bros. Wonder might be the best 2d Platformer of all time.
A Familiar feeling with a twist
At first glance Super Mario Bros. Wonder feels like every Mario game you remember. Controls feel tight and responsive, the world is colorful and charming. You can straight away feel the typical Nintendo polish and love.
But Mario Wonders isn't just your typical 2d Mario Game. Within the first minute of gameplay you will encounter your first wonder seed. After you pick it up the world starts to go crazy. You see colorful colors everywhere, the typical green pipes you know from every Mario game start to move around and you suddenly feel like you entered a different dimension.
All this lasts only for a short moment but those wonder seeds become one of the reasons why Mario Wonder is such a special game. Almost each level has such a wonder seed and they all have different effects. One time the game becomes a musical, another time you float through space, the next time you have to solve a little quiz.
The constant sense of surprise is one of the strong points of Mario Wonders. The wonder seeds allow Nintendo to unleash all their creativity and none of these wonder effects ever felt dull. In some way this level of creativity reminded me of my Mario Galaxy 2 review. But in my eyes Wonder does an even better job with it.
It's not just the Wonder seeds that are full of creativity, the levels themself match this as well. No level looks the same and there is a constant flow of new ideas introduced all the time. This makes Super Mario Bros. Wonder, really hard to put down. The game also offers a Badge system.
These Badges often grant you a special ability like getting a second wall jump. But sometimes those Badges are just passive or simply a playful addition to the game. They are never boring and also help to keep the game fresh at all times.
A Technical Masterclass
Another reason why Wonder is such a fun game is its presentation. Visually the game is simply stunning. But it's not just how the game looks, it's also its animations. Mario, his friends and his enemies are animated with such love and care that it's hard to not simply feel happy while playing.
The same goes for the audio design. There are so many cheerful and simply beautiful tracks to listen to. Another fun aspect are the wonder flowers. Those little guys are talking flowers who speak to you while you play. Now this could easily be annoying but Nintendo struck such a fine balance with this.
They sometimes hint you to some secrets but most times they are straight up funny and fit wonderfully into the game. One aspect I didn't expect to love as much as I did was the online part of the game.
When you play while you're online you can see other players who play the same level at the same time as you do. You can interact with these players with emotes, but you're not really sharing the same level. So they can't help you with defeating enemies, but if you or the other player dies you can fly with your ghost into them to pretty much respawn.
You can also put down a standee which other players can use to respawn as well. Now this feature does destroy the balancing of the levels at times. But for me personally this was a trade off I gladly took. I had so many fun interactions with random players like I never had in another game in such a short period of time.
Without any kind of chat I managed to interact with others and help each other on many occasions. It simply felt rewarding and fun to reach the goal with another player and see them posting a smile emote as a thank you for your help.
In a way this system also feels like a very smart difficulty option. Mario Wonders is mostly not a hard game but specially some of the extra content and hidden levels can be very challenging. By including this online option you get a fun way of making those levels a little bit easier.Another way to balance the game are the different characters you can choose to play as. I personally always played as Mario but there are many easier options like yoshi you can pretty much fly for a short period of time. This ensures that Mario Wonders always stays a game for everyone without dumbing it down.
A package full of fun
The base game also offers the option to play each level with up to 4 players. The Switch 2 Upgrade with the incredible name Super Mario Bros. Wonder + Meetup in Bellabel Park adds even more fun to the game. Aside from a 4k graphics boost this update also adds a few really fun singleplayer challenges and a lot of multiplayer minigames.
In the past year I played a lot of 2d and 3d Platformers. I started with Donkey Kong Bananza and also finally played Mario Galaxy 1 and 2. All of these games are great but still Super Mario Bros. Wonder is special. I don't think I ever experienced a game in which every single level feels creative, well designed and always full of new ideas. Mario Wonders doesn't just reach the levels of the All time greats like Mario Bros 3 or Super Mario World in my eyes it even exceeds it.
When Pokopia was first shown it looked like a cute and fun spinoff. Knowing that the game was made from the people behind Dragon Quest Builders did got me excited, however I never in a million years expected that Pokopia would become a GotY contender and possibly my favorite Switch 2 game as of yet.
A cute start to an epic Journey
Pokopia starts very calm and cute. We play as a Ditto who transforms into the look of his former trainer. In the world of Pokopia humans are gone. Where did they go? What happened to them? The answers to these questions are the center point of the surprising emotional story of Pokopia.
Our first steps into the world as Ditto show a very dry and destroyed world. No flowers are blooming, trees are dead and no Pokemons are around. We then slowly start to meet our first Pokemon friends who teach us skills like watering the ground or creating bushes. It's already in the first minutes that Pokopia managed to surprise me.
Every Pokemon we meet is written brilliantly. Each of them has their own personality that really shines through in their writing. The same goes for facial expressions. It's simply a joy to see them interact with each other or watch how they react to your actions. If you for example take away a bed you made for them, the shocked face I saw on my charmander was heartbreaking and priceless at the same time.
This shows one of the strengths of Pokopia, you can see in every second you play that this game is crafted with attention to detail and love. The world feels like a living, breathing world. But what do you actually do in Pokopia?
Surprisingly complex gameplay
The core gameplay of Pokopia starts rather simple. Certain combinations of environments create habitats for Pokemon. If you for example create bushes next to a tree you created a new habitat. In those habitats a Pokemon will appear after some time.
One of your goals in Pokopia is to create many different habitats and that way find more and more Pokemon. Another part of it is creating real homes for your Pokemon and making them feel good by decorating their homes with furniture, toys and other cool items they interact with.When it comes to homes Pokopia gives you many options. You can either use a preset of houses or fully create your own homes. The game really allows for amazing creative freedom and it's insane to see what people have already created online.
The Pokemon themself also help you. They all have different talents and skillsets. Some will help you to create certain items. Like fire Pokemon can for example turn clay into bricks. Other Pokemon help you build houses faster and so on.
During the story some pokemon will also teach you new skills. Those are mostly tight to the story progression and you really get some wild abilities that I don't want to spoil here. All of this is just a small part of the gameplay though.
The game has surprisingly many systems in place that get slowly introduced over the course of the campaign. First of all, like in Minecraft you can pretty much destroy every block and create your own world, but over time you even unlock features like electricity which open up a whole new world of options.
A beautiful World to Explore
Another big aspect of Pokopia is Exploration. During the game you will explore a few very different zones each with their own types of Pokemon. What's really special about the world is the sense of exploration and eye for detail. Everywhere you can find small secrets or little hints about the past.
Pokopia also offers a great environmental story telling. The world you explore is a world in ruin. You will find destroyed human cities and many hints in them explaining you what happened and even connecting to old Pokemon titles. This is not a random world, this is a Pokemon world you will know if you're a fan of the franchise.
In some way Pokopia also reminded me of games like Power Wash Simulator. When you enter a city in ruins it's fun to slowly clean the dirt and slowly start to rebuild the city. I love that especially in the first 3 areas there is enough left for you to kinda know how this city must have looked before.
Because of that I often felt motivated to slowly rebuild what was there before. Of course if you do this it's up to you. You can also tear everything down and create your own ideas. While doing all of this Pokopia always has a great progression system.
Each Zone you enter offers its own Level up system and story. You level up by finding more pokemon and making them happy. This way you unlock new items and recipes. As I said before Pokopia is really complex and offers a great level of depth but it's all induced at such a perfect pace that you will never feel lost.
Is Pokopia perfect?
Honestly there isn't much to criticize with Pokopia. One thing I didn't mention so far is that the game also looks really beautiful and its music and sound design is just on point. There are just a few minor things that could have been better.
For one the controls. I think they are mostly fine but it did happen more than once that i wanted to destroy one certain block but the game selected three at the same time. Another smaller issue is the inventory system.
I did create a great storage solution for myself by now, but in the later parts of the story you often have to switch from one area to another and it can easily happen that you're missing a resource you have in area A but you need it in area B. It's not a big deal but porting back and forth can become a little bit annoying. I really wish we could have unlocked something like a cloud storage system at one point.
The last smaller issue I have is the progression of the areas. I don't want to spoil how many there are but for me personally the first area I found after the tutorial was the most exciting one for me and everything after that slowly became worse. None of the areas are actively bad but I do feel like some of the later areas could have been a bit more exciting as they were.
The best cozy game
I can truly say that Pokopia has been a magical journey for me. It took me around 30 hours to finish the game's main story which made me teary at the end. I was surprised by the emotional story, the deep gameplay systems and the charming Pokemon personalities.
Now I am someone who likes to play cozy games from time to time but honestly they rarely can hold my attention for too long. Pokopia on the other hand is still on my mind even after rolling credits. There is still so much I want to build, explore and discover.
There is still plenty of pokemon left to be found and secrets to be solved. This game in my eyes is truly the best game I played on my Switch 2 so far and even better than the amazing Donkey Kong Bananza. If you have a Switch 2 you owe it to yourself to experience this masterpiece.
I went with a lot of excitement into Crimson Desert. I expected a beautiful open world game that I could get lost in and in some ways that is exactly what Crimson Desert is, but it still doesn't connect with me.
Crimson Desert a game without character
After starting Crimson Desert we get straight away thrown into a story. A war between two factions. Who are those factions? What are they about? I honestly have no clue. The game doesn't explain anything to you. This honestly wouldn't be an issue for me, if the characters would be great.
But sadly so far after playing three hours every dialogue I encountered was badly voiced and without any kind of charm. The worst of all is our Main Character Kliff. I still don't know anything about him or his personality other than that he likes to help people. Within the first two hours Kliff gets killed, resurrected, talks to people who magically disappear, gets teleported above the clouds, learns magical abilities and his reaction to all of this is… “Oh well another normal Friday I guess”.
He simply has absolutely no character. The world itself feels so far very similar to this. It's just a messy mix of many different concepts. Same goes for the Quest System. So far i never know why i do a quest. I simply get a main quest that says “Go to point A”. Nobody gave me this quest and there is no reason or explanation behind it. It simply appears in my Quest log and that's it. So far everything I do simply feels soulless.
Now I knew going into Crimson Desert that its main story wouldn't be anything exciting. I normally don't have an issue with that. Dragon's Dogma 2 was one of my favorite games the past years and its character and main story are also bland. But the World in Dragons Dogma feels real and consistent. The lack of a character creator also hurts Crimson Desert as this would at least give me some way to connect to my character a bit more.
Breath of the Wild on drugs
After this disappointing beginning I thought lets go out and explore the world. Exploration is supposed to be the strong point of Crimson Desert and I'm someone who loves exploration in games. The game design of Crimson Desert is heavily inspired by Zelda Breath of the Wild.
The game gives you a big and beautiful open world to explore. Along the way you can find secret shrines that offer Zelda inspired puzzles, but also more traditional quests like you would know from MMORPGs. Similar to Zelda you can also climb everywhere and the game offers a very physics based game design.
However Crimson Desert lacks the polish and elegant game design Breath of the Wild has. The first big hurtle are the controls. Its simply insane how complex and weird the controls are. Multiple actions that in other games would simply be “Press A” require multiple button inputs in Crimson Desert.
So far also the puzzles I encountered lacked the brilliant and clever design of its inspiration. So far Puzzles felt like clunky busy work and not exciting fun. Honestly I had more fun doing those shrines in Infinity Nikki then I had in Crimson Desert.
The world itself looks beautiful but also bland in a way. I honestly never feel like in Elden Ring where I can't wait to see what's around the next corner and because the game failed to engage me in its lore everything almost feels like I would imagine a world an AI would create.
Is Crimson Desert Bad?
After all I just said you can tell how extremely disappointed I am in Crimson Desert. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece by any means. But at least I was hoping I would have fun exploring this world like I had last year with Assassins Creed Shadows.
Now it's still not all bad. Crimson Desert offers a sandbox with so many systems you rarely see. In some ways this game combines Red Dead Redemption, Zelda, Skyrim and Dragons Dogma into a unique mix. For some people this mix could work and from all the Reviews I saw I'm pretty sure this would have a lot to offer.
However for me personally I simply must admit that in the four hours I played so far I simply had no fun. I wanted to love this game but I don't. Maybe I will revisit Crimson Desert again in a few months or a year. Maybe it will connect more with me then. But as it stands for now its my biggest disappointment of 2026 so far.
Resident Evil Requiem Review Switch 2: Two Games in One
At this point I would call myself a Resident Evil Fan. I enjoyed each of the new entries since the comeback with Resident Evil 7. Each game offered a very different approach from intense slow paced horror to pure action. Resident Evil Requiem now tries to combine both approaches and succeed with it, at least to a certain extent.
Part 1: Grace - A Horror Masterpiece
The story of Resident Evil Requiem revolves around Grace Ashcroft, a shy and socially awkward FBI agent and Resident Evil Legend Leon S. Kenedy. At the beginning of the game we see in a flashback sequence how Grace's mother got brutally killed in front of Grace's eyes. Many years later we are ordered to return to the place of the death to investigate strange murder cases. Without saying anything more about the story, it's simply an entertaining plot full of nonsense that is still fun to experience.
The first half of the game heavily focuses on Grace. As mentioned earlier the game is pretty much divided into two games and graces half is the classic resident evil survival horror part. We end up in a medical facility and have to escape this place. This is easier said than done as the place is filled with strange zombies and other creatures.
Grace is meant to be played from a first person point of view, even if you do get the option to change into 3rd person. In the beginning you are pretty much helpless. You barely have any weapons or ammunition and the same goes for health items. Your focus in the beginning hour is to explore the facility and hide as much as possible from the zombies.
What really helps to make those moments scary is the performance of Grace's voice actor. The way she breaths heavy in stressful moments, cries or stumbles upon her own words is simply outstanding. You really feel for Grace and the horrible situation she got put into.
Another aspect, why this works so well is also the audio and visual design of Resident Evil Requiem. The game looks simply stunning on Switch 2 and is easily the most impressive Switch 2 game to date. Most of the time the game runs at 60fps with small drops from time to time. The audio is also on point. Hearing Zombies talk to themselves or slowly getting closer to you just feels so real, maybe even too real.
Exploring the facility and finding out all its secrets was one of my favorite parts of the game. The place is really well designed and there is so much to find. The progression is also on point. You start out as a helpless Grace but over time you become better equipped and will be able to deal with most of your enemies.
But there are a few stronger enemies. I don't want to spoil anything about those encounters. In between we change our perspective to Leon from time to time. He's the total opposite of Grace. Leon is a true action hero and loaded with weapons and ammunition. During this first act Leon often supports Grace. We also get the change to get our revenge on those stronger enemies with Leon which really feels satisfying.
Part 2: Leon - Resident Evil 4 Knock Off
The second half of Resident Evil Requiem focuses fully on Leon. We arrive in Racoon City and the setup of returning to this place for the first time since Resident Evil 2 Remake sounds really promising at first. Sadly it's here where Requiem disappoints me the most.
Let's first talk about Leon's Gameplay. It's very similar to Resident Evil 4 Remake and the complete contrast to the first half of the game. You shoot your way through hordes of Zombies and fight some ridiculously huge bosses. The progression system also changes. You get points for each enemy you kill, with those points you can buy new weapons or upgrades.
Sadly this progression doesn't feel as earned and satisfying as it did with Grace or in 4 Remake. You unlock everything you want way too fast and the difference between the upgrades and weapons also don't feel as impactful.
The game also loses a lot of its horror during this section. You are in Racoon City in broad daylight and as you are so powerful with leon you rarely feel scared. The pacing itself also feels a bit off, I wouldn't say I felt bored, but a bit more enemy variety could have really helped to keep me more engaged. However, it's not all as bad as it sounds.
Firstly the core gameplay with Leon is still fun. Combat feels good and on point. Capcom also came up with some creative ideas for the different scenarios you get thrown into. One moment you balance over windows on a broken skyscraper, the next you are in a dark basement and in the end you even have a motorbike chase section. But sadly none of the sections gets even close to Resident Evil 4.
In many ways the Leon part feels like a typical Hollywood Action Blockbuster with some funny one liners from Leon and simply filled with action. It's just not as engaging and special as the Grace section was. In my eyes it also really hurts that you never play as Grace in this part. The change of perspective from time to time in Part 1 really made the game feel more dynamic.
Part 3: A Solid Conclusion?
All of this ends in a much shorter 3rd part of the game where you play some Grace and some Leon sections. I don't want to spoil anything about this but Resident Evil Requiem's story left me quite satisfied. It was from start to finish entertaining nonsense.
Now where does this leave me at the end? The first half of Resident Evil Requiem is quite simply a masterpiece in my eyes and the most fun I ever had in a Resident Evil game. The medical facility is cleverly designed, the progression feels satisfying and Grace as a character together with the great voice acting really makes for a memorable experience.
Sadly the second part falls off for me. It's still fun to play as Leon and be a freaking cool action hero. It just doesn't feel as well designed as Resident Evil 4 Remake or the first half of the game. Thankfully in the end it all still comes together and makes for a great Resident Evil game. I enjoyed my 10-15 Hours I spent with Requiem and really look forward to what comes next for the Resident Evil franchise.
Today I didn't feel like playing anything huge or complex and instead wanted a short and cozy experience. After a hint from my wife I picked Neva and expected a relaxing journey through a beautiful world. What I got instead was an emotional rollercoaster that I won't forget anytime soon.
A highly emotional Journey
Neva starts out with an emotional punch to the gut. After a short introduction your beautiful big wolf like companion gets killed by mystical black creators with white masks that look like they come straight out of a Studio Ghibli movie.
After a short timeskip your true adventure starts with your little companion Neva. At the beginning of your adventure Neva is still a puppy and can't fight. As the name of the game already suggests, your little companion is a center piece of the game. With the press of a button you can call and pet Neva.
Shes also beautifully animated and I lost my heart to her from the hello. During your 4 hour long adventure you will go through all 4 seasons of the year. Each time a new season starts Neva will grow and learn new skills. She will develop from a scared little puppy to your strong companion who will help you a lot during combat.
Speaking of combat, this was one of the first big surprises that Neva had in store for me. Combat itself is simple yet elegant. You only have one attack and dodge button at first. During your adventure you will get a few more options but not much. Nomada Studio manages with so few tools to develop engaging and fun combat.
Encounters have a variety of different attack patterns and the game always feels fair and never too easy. In general Neva is brilliantly designed and offers a great mix of puzzles, jump challenges and combat. None of those ever overstay its welcome and the game always comes up with new fun ideas to keep you engaged at all times.
Every Frame a beautiful Painting
One of the stand out elements of Neva is the art and creativity Nomada Studio shows off. Every single moment looks like a beautiful painting. I was constantly pressing the screenshot button and deciding which shots make it into this article was a real challenge.
Like with its gameplay ideas the variation of the environment and arts is truly impressive. From dreamy forest, to ice cold mountains, over to a haunting underworld. Neva's world feels alive and insanely creative. By the end of the game you will feel like you explored a mystical, beautiful and strange world. The art of all of this is one reason why Neva will stick with me forever and why this game feels like a grand adventure even if it only has such a short runtime.
The icing on the top of all of this is the music. The soundtracks offer beautiful melodies and to me the real start goes to environmental sound design. Every creature, animal, environment and especially Neva itself sound simply real and this helps to really pull you into this magical world.
An Unforgatable Adventure
Neva is a game that managed to make me cry more than once. You might have noticed how vague I am about the story or details of the world. That's simply because I feel like Neva is best experienced with knowing as least as possible. Neva is a true piece of Art, a game that exactly knows what it wants to be and a truly unforgettable adventure. Everyone who calls himself a gamer should have played this at least once in their lifetime, I promise you, you won't regret it.
