#eddyreviews

[csquarededdy]

Subnautica: Below Zero

Been wanting to play this for a good while now ever since I beat the original about a year ago. Honestly for a follow up to the main game I actually thought it was pretty good. I was rather shocked to find out that a lot of people did not like this one and it was a very mixed and controversial entry. I didn't really see it as bad though, it just felt like more of the original which was already fantastic, just scaled down quite significantly, which is fine honestly.

The world is once again very diverse, lots of cool shit to find both deep underwater and on the surface, and this time there's a lot more surface exploration which I actually thought was pretty cool. The added feature of hypothermia also adds to the constant survival where you can't really chill almost anywhere now because of temperature but as the game went on, I found it was easier to mitigate that and it became a non-issue by the end of it tbh. The new set of creatures and plants were cool to explore around, and I like the little secrets all over the planet too.

The story is where things are rather interesting, and perhaps I understand why some liked it and some didn't. It's definitely a lot more talkative this time with the main character, Robin, and other companions you find unlike the first game where it was just you, the PDA saying stuff and maybe one or two radio communications until the sea emperor leviathan until the very end, so it was certainly different. This time though, Robin lands on this part of the planet to try and understand what happened to her sister. As you explore around, you find the signal of a lone architect (AL-AN) in its network that inhabits your body for a bit and instructs you to find parts to create a new body so it can leave and return to its people.

I quite like the conversations between AL-AN and Robin tbh, I found it interesting to learn how different intelligent species interact with each other like that and I think the game did it well imo. The search quest to get some structures and then make the parts was neat, sometimes a little bit boring, but ultimately led to some really cool areas that I actually found myself getting hooked to the game so much just to find them all. The other characters introduced were all fine although Margureit is cool as fuck.

If there was anything I wanted more of, it would perhaps be more stuff to make, or more complicated recipe trees to make lategame stuff, since you find yourself with an overabundance of shit that just never gets used (like kyanite which is practically useless in this game except for maybe 2 upgrades and that's it). I also kinda wanted more story stuff with Margureit since I felt she kinda just appeared, did one mission for her and then fucked off to do nothing and idk it would've been cool to have more interactions with her or find out more about what she's been doing. The backstory behind her was awesome tho, and I didn't even realise she was in the first game through logs only (I honestly forgot), so that carryover was really nice. I also wish we could've had the penglings walk around the base, or have the baby snow stalkers as pets :( Those guys are super cute and it's a crime we couldn't interact much with them like the cuddlefish from the first game.

Either way though, really nice spinoff game. I enjoyed a lot of it and some things were a little bit lackluster sure but I had a blast and it's gotten me prepared for the sequel which I know has just come out within the last few days. One day I'll get to it, trust...

[csquarededdy]

NO-SKIN

This is a very deceptively simple game, I got one of the endings within 2 days but it took me almost 2 weeks to fully finish it. It's a very fascinating and surreal game though, exactly the kind of game I like. It's basically a roguelike game where the only type of main gameplay you have are RPG battles decided by random chances when selecting areas. The gameplay loop is extremely simple and easy to get into, and it stays consistent throughout the game. As you progress, the settings slowly get more fucked up and you unlock more things to interact with enemies, like talking and trading with them, which I felt was quite cool.

What is REALLY cool though is everything else outside this core loop, which is when you start unlocking the dream diaries. They're all different minigames or variations of the main game where you can learn more about the characters in the game (even if a lot of it is very cryptic). This then leads to different characters you can play as, and allows for different endings, most of which goes beyond the main goal of reaching 100% progress to find the "skin" for the No-Skin Man, sometimes you gotta go beyond 100 and other times under 0.

The story itself is a bit unusual and took me a bit to piece together (and ngl there's still a lot that confuses me) but I kinda got the main gist of it I think, and it's fascinating. The rng in this game is actually quite forgiving and the game never really felt difficult, even with the superboss it took me maybe 3 attempts to get so tbh not bad at all. Last thing to say is there's a ton of hidden shit in this game, every time you think you're done there's something new that pops up or you discover a new menu option and it's like god damn they crammed this game with so much. It ends up making the game way longer than you'd expect

So yea, really good game, I highly recommend. I also fw the pixel artstyle so much

[csquarededdy]

Deltarune: Chapter 5

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 5!!!

IT'S FINALLY HEREEE!! This was such a cool chapter, just as high quality as all the others, but now exploring more on Asgore and the festival at Hometown. I thought it was pretty solid actually, the new gimmicks and ideas introduced to this chapter are really fucking cool. Like the switch between top down and sidescrolling is something I've wanted to play with for a long time and seeing a game actually do this is great. It makes for some fantastic puzzles and very fun challenges. I'm a big fan of how some bits actually made me feel like I was playing Hollow Knight with the fact that you have to keep hopping on flowers lmao.

But either way I really like all the new characters introduced to this chapter, getting to see each of Asgore's flowers and their personalities was awesome and how they just want to care for Asgore was cute. I think Green is my favourite of all the flowers, they're just really awesome and I fw their cooking skills. I especially love the Susie/Noelle interactions in this chapter too, those two are so madly in love with each other it's so adorable and I'm really curious to see how this evolves when Chapter 6 comes along.

There's still plenty of things that seem unexplained like what happened to Rudy, what's Carol been up to and if Noelle is fine after the Dark World was made, but I'm sure this will be seen in the next chapter anyway, especially since Susie is preparing for her arrival now. I'm super curious to know what happens to Asgore and what they're gonna do with Kris, since they still have the whole soul vs body thing going on rn, so I'm very excited to see if that sort of issue gets explored more again like in Chapter 4. The secret boss was fun too, really unique fight and interesting to know about what happens to objects in the dark world, even if I did think the fight was certainly on the easy side of things.

I think overall it was a pretty sweet chapter, for some reason I was expecting more and was kinda sad when it just abruptly ended but what we got was great fun. I hope it won't be too long to wait for chapter 6 now because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. God I love Deltarune so much..

[csquarededdy]

Hades II

I've been really excited to play this game for a long time since early access and now I had the time to play it I can say it was so worth the wait. It very much builds off the original Hades with its gameplay loop of going through many runs to learn the game and get better with fighting bosses and tough enemies and such, all while slowly improving your weapons and abilities that carry over each run.

It's crazy how similar yet different this game is because unlike the first game you now have a magick system to add to your weapons along with a whole new set of boons for them and new attack styles that use magick. It's a very simple addition but changes the entire landscape of the game.

The characters are very well written, a lot of them seem pretty accurate to Greek mythology and it's nice to see old characters make a return with new ones seamlessly being integrated into the world. The main story is fairly simple, death to Chronos, but the way it unfolds is fantastic. Every run you get new dialogue, unlock new side stories and see interactions between characters when you least expect it. The specific character quests are really awesome and I got so hooked to finishing them all that it took me forever to actually finish this game lmao.

Another amazing thing is how this time you actually have TWO paths to take, compared to before where you only have to ascend to the surface to see Persephone. Now you start in the middle and either descend back to Tartarus, or (when you can) ascend up to Olympus. Both routes are very unique and have some really cool progression that changes up the game a lot.

I can keep going forever about the things I love but this will be too long so I'm gonna quickly talk about the one thing I wasn't too big of a fan of, and it's the true ending. Some people didn't like the regular ending but tbh I didn't mind it at all, it fit with everything quite nicely and I kinda fw reformed Chronos. The true ending tho kinda sucks imo, they make you go through so many hoops to find the three fates and interact with so many people across so many nights to then finally get to them and it's like... "Nah, we don't really feel like weaving anymore so we just hid ourselves" and then they fuck off and send you back. Like they're a bit humourous sure but idk it felt so anticlimactic and really lame for an ending like that after so much build up to then have everything going on as normal and ultimately nothing rewarding coming out of it. Not really a fan tbh

Besides that gripe I have with the game though, everything else is near flawless and I had such a blast playing this game to the point where I kinda didn't want to stop lol. HIGHLY recommend this game, it's one of the best roguelike games I've ever played and I barely like those in general, so this one is REALLY good. PLEASE play it if you loved the original Hades!!! Or even better, if you haven't played this series at all, play BOTH games!

[csquarededdy]

Wandersong

This was a fairly short but really cute game with a unique style of gameplay that worked well all the way through. I admittedly wasn't really into it at the start, and when I got to maybe act 3 things started to pick up quite a bit. When I got to the end, I was loving it a lot.

It's a fairly simple premise, the world is ending according to a dream you had, you explore around, see some ghosts haunting your town. You use music to solve problems you come across and eventually work your way up to saving the world and making some wonderful friends along the way. Everything in this game has so much charm to it, from the cute artstyle to the soundtrack to the world building and character design, like everything is crafted beautifully.

The progression of the game reminds me so much of the early Paper Mario games with how the game makes throwbacks to characters you met before and just the general vibe and variety of the areas you visit. The gameplay is really clever, using music to solve puzzles and get around places and even just fighting enemies and helping others. It's rather incredible how much content you can make from having 8 notes on a wheel and tbh they did it really well.

I also loved the character development throughout the game, with how the Bard and Miriam are complete opposites but have a lot more in common than they thought. Like the Bard is always happy, positive and simple minded but even he has his flaws and worries, and Miriam is very pessimistic and hostile but is secretly loving and sweet, and man they go together so well. Like I got the feels by the end of the game when they hugged :((

The other characters you find are also really fun, like the hometown with your mum, and the two kingdoms at war, and I'm a big fan of the pirate crew especially. It was all really great and it's a fun game to play and relax to. I think my favourite act is act 5, with act 3 just behind it. Some of the platforming was a tad wonky for me in some parts, and a few segments here and there felt a little unrefined with the Bard not being positioned correctly on the ground (this happened a lot), but generally it was whatever in the grand scheme of things lol

Fantastic game overall tho, very cute one to play and it's one I certainly won't forget.

[csquarededdy]

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

I was not expecting to play this game for over 2 months but here we are I guess lmao. This game was pretty damn awesome, it was nice to return to Kalos with Mega Evolution having its prime again, which tbh I think is my favourite gimmick battle style. The game itself was great fun, pretty cool and interesting story and actually quite a nice sequel to X/Y if you think about it. Quite a few familiar faces and name drops here and there, all with different purposes or just seeing what happened to them after the original games.

The gameplay loop is pretty similar to Arceus in how you collect Pokemon, although the Pokedex completion is much much simpler to do since it's not ancient Hisui where you gotta complete tasks to finish Pokedex entries and all. The Z-A Royale in particular is a very cool concept and actually works well as a replacement for gyms in the mainline games, with the challenger ticket being used to rank up. I thought that was pretty fun ngl and I didn't necessarily mind grinding out battles for the most part. The battle system as well is really different and threw me off so much lmao, like it's not the usual Pokemon style where you fight in turns between each other with moves using PP and stuff, instead it's like a real time battle system where you got cooldowns for moves instead. The more I got into it, the more I actually enjoyed it, and in the end I actually kinda prefer this over the normal battle approach. In a way it makes for a more strategic approach imo, you gotta actually time your attacks rather than just using type matchups and seeing who has faster speed in battles. It's really damn fun.

For the new characters introduced, I liked them quite a bit. I think my favourite is Taunie tbh, she fucking rules, but the other members of Team MZ are actually quite awesome too. I do like all the characters have their quirks and motivations which surprisingly had a bit of depth going on, especially as you progress along and do side quests in relation to them as well, it really shows their character. The Rogue Mega fights were also pretty fun and definitely reminiscent of the boss battles in Arceus, but with a mix of modern battle systems and Mega Evolution. Makes for some very fun (and sometimes quite tough) fights tbh.

After all that was done with, I decided to go into the DLC to see what that was about, and ngl it was cool, like you access a weird alternate version of Lumiose to get 132 new Pokemon to catch, and the story revolving it was fairly fascinating, but if I have to be honest it was a bit of a drag, especially towards the end. Doing the hyperspace surveys takes a bit of time, early on it was fine since they were small amounts but by the end, especially when trying to get Rayquaza, it got a bit excessive and just generally ended up being a boring repetitive chore. Even getting all the special scans, which is how you get all the rest of the legendaries, was annoying to grind for because you weren't guaranteed you'd have access to them right away and instead you'll get other types of scans, so idk I think that was kinda shitty and not fun at all. I'm glad I finally got it all done with, but like that just felt lazy lol.

I should also add, getting the last main quest and two sidequests for doing the infinite Z-A royale 20 times is also really excessive and I just got really bored by the end of that. It's fine for most of the game, but not this last bit, it just felt like a slog and I don't fw it tbh.

Overall though, I had great fun with most of the game! The main story and the DLC story were fun, I enjoyed the characters, battle system and other elements introduced into the game and some carried over from Arceus, but I think by the end of it I was getting a bit fatigued because of how grindy the last parts were in comparison to most of the game. It would've been better if the game didn't make me grind so much to get the last few Pokemon, but oh well. Game was still pretty good overall and I do hope this sets a precedent for Legends game to be a staple in the series now alongside the regular entries. Personally I would keep playing these instead of the mainline games lol

[csquarededdy]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

This game took me ages to finish but ngl I actually had a really good time with it. I was afraid the story would take a nosedive like Age of Calamity did, but instead they went the other direction with it and kept things in line with the main story of TotK and for that I am very thankful. Everything seems to line up nicely with TotK and the continuity is really good here. All the new characters introduced were super cool, they each have their own stories and quirks which make them stand out quite nicely.

I also love that the sages actually have names to them now and you can really see who they are, rather than hearing them go on about "secret stones? demon king?" over and over. They salvaged tf out of the sages lol, even if I do think TotK's story was fine to begin with. With that said though, I am not too big of a fan with how the game ended. It felt a tad too abrupt for me with the way Ganondorf is sealed away and then it just cuts to credits. They mention the forbidden act of draconification early in the game and then do absolutely nothing with it. You see Zelda as the light dragon for like 2 seconds in the ending scene and then it just ends, and it's like damn they could've extended this a bit more to know how that aspect leads up to TotK but I guess they wanted to show everything until Ganondorf gets sealed and that's it. I suppose it works with the way it's done in the game, but I'm still a bit disappointed that they didn't do more with it.

Regardless though, the game itself was really fun, stages were enjoyable and all the side missions were good. The gameplay is pretty in depth which was quite surprising for it being essentially button mashing, but there's a lot of techniques and abilities you can use in so many different ways, and sync strikes are such a cool addition to the game. I do actually think the game is a bit on the easy side, the only proper challenge I faced were the vicious battles but even then I never died once. I kinda did want a bit more of a challenge but it's fine lol. Calamo is also my goat, he finally found the place to put down his roots, love that for him :))

Anyway tho, yea this is a great game to play in addition with TotK, they work so well together and it's one I certainly recommend. It completely surpassed my expectations lol