Awanka

Grimdark Skyrim with inspired writing. Same weaknesses as the Elder Scrolls. Combat is as simple as skyrim. Enemies actually have attack patterns. But it still quickly becomes trivial. It's a little too wordy. Almost all the NPCs have a life story to share that isn't that interesting. But when the story gets going, it's pretty great and compelling. It's essentially medieval W40k.

Game-breaking bugs kept me from finishing it right before the last boss. Save states become irretrievably buggy in the last stage. This paired with terrible environmental puzzle design can make it so you get stuck in an unwinnable state. If it weren't for the bugs, I would give about a 3. It's a short low-effort blobber without much to recommend it.

This is the most simplistic low-effort blobber I've ever played. Dungeon Master which came out in the 1980s had far more fun and complex gameplay than this lazy auto-combat progression-quest garbage. This could have been vibe-coded with AI.

Who wrote this wannabe Game of Thrones garbage? I was ready to quit after the first couple of chapters of endless overindulgent dialog and cutscenes. It tries to be grimdark and edgy, but just comes off as melodramatic and trying too hard. This is terrible writing, capped off with a horrible fight between eikons(summon transformations) at the start of the game. It gets a bit better once you're past the awful writing and tedious prologue. The actual combat gameplay is an engaging mix of FF15-like combat and classic Final Fantasy dungeon-crawling. You just have to click through endless ChatGPT-level writing and cutscenes to get to it. The worst part about the gameplay are the eikon battles where your characters turn into Kaijus essentially, and mostly involve timing dodges and completing quicktime events. Speaking of quicktime events, these wonderful throwbacks make a grand appearance in every major boss battle, spoiling the flow of the fight, and putting you to sleep with forced scripted sequences. They also added timed trials and dps checks for the boss fights. Joy. The main problem with FF16 are the writers. This could have been a fun Final Fantasy game if they stuck to the basics, but the writers have to force themselves into the gameplay at every turn, yammering endlessly about political intrigue and troop movements, and filling every cutscene with mawkish drivel. After sitting through the video game crime of a 3 part final boss with full health bars, I want to tell the Square developers that less is more. Less is more! I also want to tell the developers after having to sit through a brutal unskippable ending credits sequence that it's not about you. I don't care who made the game. ****! I would give the overall gameplay a 7, but everything surrounding is so terrible that it drags it down to a 5.

Now I know why people don't talk about this game. Following a legendary RPG like Cronotrigger is all but impossible, but they bungled this hard. The developers should have followed the mantra of less is more and concentrated on a smaller game that focused on quality. It tries to one up everything in the original, but ends up failing at every level, and making a mess that is too complicated, has too many characters, is too long, and has too many cute alternative timeline shenanigans. The story is awful; it's convoluted, mawkish, and the amount of endless JRPG dialog that one must click through is ponderous. The instantly forgetable characters in Cronocross are emblematic of why they failed. The original had 7-8 interesting chracter that I remember to this day. Cronocross has 40+! slop characters that could have been created by a 5-year old. They tried to make something that shares the same general beats as the original, but they didn't have the talent, and clearly didn't understand what made the original great. The end credits are the only part of the game that is worthy of the original, with a banger soundtrack.

Innovative swordfighting game with great intuitive gameplay. If it didn't become repetitive because of lack of enemy variety, I would give it a 9.

I hate this game. It's conceptually clever, but it has all the elements that I loathe in gaming. I don't like timers, and many of the planets here have a time limit. I generally dislike games with timeloop features, finding them dull, repetitive, and not as clever as think they are. The best of these is probably DeathLoop, and it still is awful. This game is pretty much a series of obnoxious puzzles where the information you need to solve the puzzle is somewhere else. A good puzzle game aka Portal has all the elements you need to solve the puzzle known to you or is intuitive. A puzzle where you are lacking information, or it's hidden in some corner, is a bad puzzle. There's another layer of bad here because you don't know if you're missing some key equipment that you need to progress like the old Metroidvanias. Since everything is on a timer, when you you run out of time solving one of the dumb puzzles(which you will many times without a guide), you have to navigate your way all the way back from the start which is worse than the worst run back to a Dark Souls boss. Outer Wilds combines the worst aspects of Metroidvanias, Souls-likes, rogue-lites, puzzle games, and platformers. I appreciate the originality, but I hate this game. The funny thing is within the first 10 minutes I already knew I didn't like it, and I couldn't place my finger on why as I wandered around talking to people. After playing games for 44 years, I suppose I just have a very attuned sense for these things. The gameplay wasn't appealing. Flying around in zero G with an oxygen timer is awful. The dialog was mediocre sci-fi slop that could have been written by ChatGPT. I bounced off of it once but came back because everyone was raving about it. After getting near the end in Dark Bramble, I can definitively say this game is tedious trash.

This standalone expansion to the Robocop game is pretty good. It improves upon the original by offering a tighter action experience that takes place entirely in a single large building similar to movies like "The Raid" and "Dredd," which it is based on. It also leans into the corporate dystopian satire with some clever writing.

For the first 5 hours I was ready to give this game a higher score, as I was charmed by this engaging mix of FPS rampaging and hub-based missions. It is then that the issues started arising. This game is quite buggy over 2 years after it has been released, and I had to reload an earlier save 3 times to fix different game-breaking bugs. The developers are also quite poor at designing boss fights, and the first ED-209 and final Boss are complete BS. I've played almost every FromSoft game, and am no stranger to difficult bosses, so I know when a boss is poorly tuned. The game also goes on a little too long and I found the final sections to be a repetitive slog.

I was stunned by the incredible visuals and compelling story for this FPS. It's like Returnal crossed with the Manga "Blame!," which are two of my favorite things. The real star here is the setting, which is a seemingly endless monolithic industrial cityscape out of a nightmare. The game looks great, and the fast-paced traversal mechanisms do great work to showcase the bleak artistry on display here. The only knock I have is that some of the platforming and combat gets repetitive towards the end, but I much prefer that to obnoxiously frustrating like many other games *cough*Silksong. I also love that "Luna Abyss" doesn't wear out its welcome, and doesn't bore you with endless dialog. I'm a big fan of minimalist design philosophy and believe less is more.

This 30 year-old RPG is an odd duck, even for an old-school CRPG, and definitely not for the Fortnite and Helldivers 2 crowd. It is very quirky, especially the user interface, which requires you to map out each of your character's moves during turn-based combat, and controlling your party through dungeons with a kludgy DOOM-like interface will be game-endingly frustrating for some. The constant switching between 2D isometric and 3D first-person is disconcerting at first. The storyline is fairly standard retro sci-fi with a planet inhabited by sentient catpeople. The Na'vi, I mean Iskai inhabitants, possess a lower level of technology than the human colonists, who want to destroy the planet with mining, which triggers conflict, and causes the human which you play, Tom Driscoll, to go native. The gameplay is a mix of open-worldish 2D overhead across a variety of island maps, and the aforementioned 3D dungeons, some of which are a delightful elaborate mix of puzzle-solving and tactical combat. The main knock I have against the game is that like many old CRPGs, it's often hard to know what you're supposed to be doing next, and easy to get stuck. Quest advancement often happens by talking to people, so there's a lot of random waffling about in the game wondering if you've talked to everyone, and visited everything to trigger the next story progression phase. I recommend using a guide, as there is no moral victory to be had here. Took 120 hours to finish.

Very inventive game that is marred by frustrating gameplay. Some of the puzzles and bossfights are very tedious especially the final one. The core mechanic of spinning and sliding concentric rings to line up enemies is not fun, and can actually pretty difficult. It's like having to solve a Rubik's cube. The dialog and story are meritricious trash, but that is the norm for Mario games. The final straw was the endless ending cutscenes and long unskippable credits.

Does the minimum to qualify as a blobber. Nothing really interesting here. Combat is dull because the enemies all act the same, just with more hit points and damage. Unsatisfying ending. 8 hours to complete.

What a glowup. So I loathed the first KCD1, and thought it was horribly over-rated. I found it to be endlessly tedious, with terrible directional combat, and it seemed like doing anything in the game required completing an awful minigame. The writing was also on the level of a ChatGPT bot, and way too wordy, with endless lines of badly written dialog to skip through, and overindulgent pointless cutscenes that would make a JRPG developer blush. They must have hired some competent writers, because KCD2 actually has genuinely good writing. The characters are interesting, witty, and often quite funny. I especially liked the band of incorrigibles in the Devil's Den who quite grew on me. Imagine if you could team up with the criminals in Breaking Bad. Of course this game has flaws, and there are many times I was sleep-walking through another repetitive scenario, or swearing at a frustrating stealth section, or spending entirely too much time playing merchant by trying to find someone to sell loot to. The biggest downside is that the game actually has too much to do. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is if a lot of that content is repetitive or tedious. In the end though, these complaints are outweighed by the epic scope of this game. I love when companies swing for the fences, and although not perfect, KCD2 is a great game. 149 hours to complete the base game and all 3 DLC.

Short and charming sequel to the first game that improves on the gameplay by adding a deckbuilding element to the turn-based combat. There are a variety of storylines and characters the player cycles throug before the decks can become overpowered and stale. The storyline is still the same incomprehensible mishmash of random settings and pop culture references.

A fairly hardcore blobber that gets a lot of the basics right, but then gets bogged down with obnoxious puzzles, and timed sequences where you die if you hesitate for a moment. It's just quite often a drag entering another room filled with boxes and mirrors that you know you will have to move around like some Rubik's cube.

Melodramatic walking simulator brimming with grrl power. I'm definitely not the target audience, and listening to a bunch of teenage girls is like fingernails on chalkboard. That being said, I appreciate some of the narrative conceits here, and thought they worked well with the flashbacks, by jumping back and forth in time from focusing on objects. If DONT NOD could dial the woke setting down from 11 just a touch they might have a decent game.

This game is seriously charming with good gameplay and a quirky wholesome sense of humor. It's like a cozy Hyperlight Drifter crossed with Hollow Knight. The only knock I have is that it's a bit too casual, although that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not everything needs to be hardcore.

Mildly endearing game about kids growing up in the 90s. Part walking-simulator interspersed with segments of gameplay where you engage in activities like hit baseballs or skateboard down a hill. The game it most reminds me of "What Remains of Edith Finch," but the narrative is not nearly as engaging. The characters are somewhat melodramatic and pretentious, breaking the fourth wall to present their music tracks, and engaging in overemotional teenage drama. The most interesting part of the story is the streak of magical realism running throughout the game, as the kids fly about and conduct fireworks, but it works for the most part. The people saying this is not a game are being silly. It has more gameplay elements than walking simulators such as "Dear Esther," and even more than "What Remains of Edith Finch," and few people who say those aren't games.

Now here's a JRPG. I can't believe they skipped this Final Fantasy in the initial release and went from 4 to 6. This game is an instant classic, with some great iconic FF moments(Hello Gilgamesh). What sets FF5 apart from FF4 and FF6 is the well-designed difficulty, with some truly challenging optional bosses. I normally dislike the job system, as I believe it facilitates boring grinding, but the implementation isn't too bad here, as it's not really necessary to succeed. My main issue with FF5 is that it's a bit too many anime and cutesy. The story is nothing special with an overlong fruity ending. 36 hours to complete 100%.

A PSA larping as a Silent Hill game. This is essentially a great-looking walking simulator. It makes me wonder what they could have done if they had put in actual story and gameplay.

I'm beginning to believe the developers at DONTNOD do not actually play video games outside of very casual ones. Aphelion displays such a poor understanding of basic gameplay concepts and what makes a game fun; it is a lazy and badly designed mish-mash of awful gameplay meshed with a middling sci-fi story. Half of the game is climbing sections similar to Tomb Raider or Uncharted, but done poorly. The other half are the worst stealth sections I can recall in a game, and I've experienced quite a few. Add to this the poor controls and having to replay sections from the beginning, and you have a recipe for frustration.

A kludgy, artsy, first-person puzzle game that I'm sure is better experienced in VR. The gameplay is a bit like Layers of Fear or Soul Axiom, but slower-paced, and uncompelling. The central storyline is a bit dark, and should be more interesting, but the execution is on the level of indie slop. You can finish the game in an hour if you're good at puzzles.

So this is the Final Fantasy you can blame for the hateful jobs system that has plagued the series with endless grinding. Other than that, it's ok I guess. It doesn't really stand out other than being ambitiously large for its time. I probably would have liked it better if I had played it when it was released.

A decent cyberpunk 2D action adventure with RPG elements that reminded me of Deadlight a bit. It has a good helping of bugs at this time, and the last level had some tedious combat and puzzle sections.

The prologue of this game had me concerned that it was more indie slop, but this turned out be a good RPG with an interesting story, and where your choices matter. Similar to the Witcher series, there was a streak of unfamiliar slavic mythology and grey morality which I found interesting. The weakest part was actually the combat which is repetitive and became face-roll easy after the first third of the game. Gameplay largely consist of wandering around clicking on clues similar to the Sherlock games.

A strange mix of cool aesthetic and frustrating gameplay across multiple genres. At heart, "Brutal Legend" is an action-adventure game, but also an RTS, and a bit of a racing sim. The atmosphere around a fully-realized heavy metal world are pretty great. It's unfortunately bogged down by the obnoxious RTS stage battles, car racing, and endless escort/defense missions. The RTS segment is wretched, poorly designed with bad controls, and I'm sure will make many patient gamers quit. Even though I didn't have much fun in my time with this game, I admire the originality and visuals. If they had stuck to an action adventure RPG in a heavy metal world, I would have given it another point. The metal spider queen is one of the best boss fights I've seen from a presentation perspective. On the plus side I was introduced to a lot of cool music.

A puzzle platformer based on the mechanic of turning into a shadow on the wall, similar to Zelda: A Link between Worlds. The concept is interesting, but it's frustratingly imprecise in execution, and some of the puzzles verge on the obnoxious due to the lack of information. The story was interesting enough to keep me engaged in the outcome.

A pretty good survival horror game with an embedded crafting system. The horror elements are well done, with some outstanding moments and great enemy design. The combat is mostly melee based and a bit messy. The game it reminds me the most of is "The Suffering." What holds it back is the tedious level design in the early levels where corridors look the same and loop back on each other, making it very easy to get lost without a map. I was often wandering around trying to find the next section, as it was not intuitive at all. Everything about this game from the graphics to gameplay is kind of clunky and last gen, like a game that came out a decade ago. The emphasis on crafting everything sometimes feels like an odd fit for such a linear game.

Well, I finally did it. After a decade-long struggle marred with false starts, I finished Neverwinter Nights 2. Without the enhanced edition I don't think I could have done it, so I thank Aspyr. I'm no stranger to bugs. One of my favorite pasttimes is playing CRPGs that came out in the 80s through 90s, so I have a high tolerance for them. I've also played everything that Obsidian has released, so I almost find unfinished games endearing, and the cost of experiencing Obsidian's premier storytelling RPGs. NWN2 when it was released was the buggiest pile of crap I've ever played. To call it alpha would be generous. Even a decade later, after many patches, it was still unplayably buggy. It starts with the horrid AI, which will run your characters in all random directions alerting everything in the dungeon, if you enable it. The enhanced edition has finally got the AI to the point where, although still terrible, you can live with it. The trick is to only turn AI on in safe areas, and to turn it off when things get dicey, so you can micromanage your party. Along with that are heaps of quest bugs, poorly designed combat scenarios, and general UI quirkiness, but those things are more or less bearable. Once you get past the bugs, you'll experience a middling to slightly above average DND rpg. This is basically your standard meat and potatoes fantasy campaign, and easily the worst-written Obsidian game I've played. That's not to say that it is bad. Just disapointingly meh. Despite all that, it still manages to be a decent enough CRPG for those with a well of patience. *Edited* After playing through Mask of the Betrayer, I can finally see what the fuss is about. This is an epic story, and the spiritual sequel to Planescape: Torment, which I believe to be the greatest RPG ever made. The engine is still littered with bugs, but I give MoTB 9/10. Storm of Zehir is a demoralizing expansion, especially from Obsidan which usually puts out bangers for DLC. The overworld map is a horrific experience. I give a few points for trying something new with more open world elements via random encounters and a mercantile empire trading system, but it just doesn't work at all. Do yourself a favor and make your main PC a rogue with high hide/move silent or be forced into many unavoidable random encounters because monsters detect you before you can switch characters. 3/10. Mysteries of Westgate was your standard DnD adventure module with a nice mix of random sidequests made by an indie team. I would give it a 5.

A very deep, long, and challenging old-school RPG. This is essentially an isometric blobber with a gameplay-combat loop similar to Might and Magic or Wizardry. The story is serviceable fantasy fare that reminded me a bit of Pillars of Eternity with the gods powered by souls sent to the afterlife in death. The main issue with the game is that the balance is all over the place, and the beginning areas are brutally oppressively difficult.

I played the original about a decade ago, and this is essentially the same game with improved graphics. It is as simple and addictively fun as it was back then.

An excellent card builder with solid gameplay and a wonderfully weird dream-like aesthetic. I would give it a 9 if there weren't so much talking, as characters yap on with melancholy chatGPT-level writing. This game would have been better if they just used images to show the story, which was fairly mundane in my view.

LN2 is a short engaging adventure puzzle game that improves on the first in every way. The gameplay is similar to Limbo/Inside, and has a visually interesting aesthetic, and fairly dark story that I quite liked. It's also pretty creepy. For something that looks like a Tim Burton cartoon, it has some strong horror elements to it. I absolutely love that these games don't have dialog, and respect the player's time.

A short adventure puzzle game with a mild horror aesthetic similar to Tim Burton's movies. The gameplay reminds me of a 3D Limbo/Inside. The puzzles are intuitive, and there is a good amount of artistry here. I love, love, love that there is no dialog. I hope this trend catches on as I can't stand bloated hack writing.

Galactrix brings addictive match 3 Puzzle Quest gameplay to a sci-fi setting. There are serious gameplay flaws here starting with balance issues, and moving on to the the obnoxious leapgate minigames where you have to match many gems on a timer. I like that they tried to do something different conceptually, but much more QA was needed.

This is the worst Final Fantasy I've played. Not to say that it's bad exactly, but I can't recommend it to anyone other than die-hard fans as the gameplay just isn't there. It's very linear with a good number of dungeons that you can only visit once. The game designers also implemented a skill system that improves by repeatedly using it similar to Elder Scrolls. It's very tedious, and although I appreciate them trying out different things, it just does not work at all. On the plus side it's interesting to see the origins of so many Final Fantasy tropes. Even more than the first game, we see so many iconic monsters like the Behemoth and Iron Giant, characters like Cid, and the storyline of rebels fighting a repressive regime feels familiar.

A quirky walking simulator with a couple puzzles thrown in. These games live or die based on the strength of the story, and this one is ok. The setting is original, and takes place in a fantasy version of a soviet state, populated by supersized animals, strange mechanical contraptions, and giant monolithic soviet structures. In this place, a young nun embarks upon a journey, while grappling with her inner demons over theological quandaries. It's a nice character study, and reminds me of some of Dostoevsky's writing about crime and necessity. If this were a novel, I would say it's decent enough. As a game, it falls somewhat short, as it is lacking in the actual gameplay department.

A charming indie cyberpunk action RPG with anime girls that is more fun than it has any right to be. The wordy story and simplistic action combat keep it from being really good. The story is kind of silly and does not justify this amount of dialog. I also encountered a number of severe graphical bugs during my playtime that made the platforming parts very difficult until I reset the game.

So here I am playing this in the Genesis collection on my Xbox in 2026 and having a blast. It starts out pretty rough with your unprepared character being thrown in an unforgiving dungeon to try to **** enough xp and gold to make it to the next section. The game UI is so clunky and gameplay is so archaic that I was tempted to bounce off the game several times. I'm glad I stuck with it though, because this is actually quite a competent blobber, with a challenging difficulty curve, and some novel story-based progression mechanics for its time. I found it compelling how tough and different the enemies were, and how mini-bosses would have an introductory sequence when they made an appearance. I mean, even now I think it's pretty cool. I would have been blown away if I had played it when it came out. Overall I regret missing this game during the Genesis era, because it's one of the best examples of the dungeon crawler I've played. I can only recommend it to enthusiasts however, as it is rough around the edges, and the endless corridors without a minimap will drive you slowly insane. It's like the bridge between the western Wizardry and Might and Magic series of games and more accessible Japanese dungeon crawlers such as Etrian Odyssey.

A bare-bones blobber in the spirit of Might and Magic that handles the important parts competently enough, but does not excel in any area. As the game progresses the combat balance goes out the window, and the last 1/3 of the game feels like a RNG-fest of big numbers.

The Citizen Sleeper franchise reminds me of Disco Elysium in space. Although the writing isn't on the same level, the gameplay beats with dice rolls is similar. CS2 is a good sequel that improves upon the original in every way, especially in terms of RPG mechanics, allowing you to explore a variety of locations across a stretch of space, and recruit a crew of companions you can take on your Firefly-like journey. There's an element of danger now in the form of contracts, which are essentially missions with tight failure conditions. This has changed the atmosphere of the game from being a fairly cozy adventure in the first game to one with a real sense of urgency. Since this is essentially a visual novel, your enjoyment of the game will largely come down to whether you like the writing itself. It has improved, expanding upon the world-building and various sci-fi concepts, although, like CS1, it's a little too wordy and oversentimental for my taste. I wouldn't call it bad though, and it comes down to personal preference.

The first area of Avowed and 20 hours of the game blew me away. If it had kept that momentum it would have been the best RPG I've played in the past few years, even better than Clair Obscur. As it is, it's not quite the Elder Scrolls killer, although objectively better than those game in most ways, especially combat and basic gameplay. The writing is ok. The gameplay is great. The first person combat engine is the best I've ever seen. Better than dishonored. The sense of exploration and wonder is great. It feels like there is something interesting around every corner. Repetitive enemies. Awful equipment upgrade system based on your current equipment levels. 98 hours for non-evil completionist run.

I have an idea. Let's make a generic RPG, but you also have to argue with your girlfriend about stupid crap like you're in a dating sim. The start of this game is auspicious. Good visuals, ok gameplay, and an interesting setting with a novel alternate history about ghost hunters that reminded me a bit of "The Order: 1886." After finishing it I am much less enthused. This game is frickin verbose. There's an investigative element, so you have to go around collecting clues like Alan Wake 2, and it's just as boring as in that game. As I mentioned, you have to argue with your girlfriend a lot, so there's a lot of cringy arguing mixed with lovey-dovey banter. It must be for a different audience because it made me **** combat has some interesting quirks with shifting your character and banishing, but it gets repetitive fast since you run into the same 5 enemies, and they respawn often. Even fights with trash mobs is unavoidable, and you can't leave the area until they're all dead. This makes backtracking, which already ****, a nightmare, and there truly is a lot of it, since the metroidvania unlockables and various side missions require you revisit the same areas again and again. The save system is horrific, and the game will autosave over your manual saves, which I've never seen before. There is so much amateur hour stuff here in terms of gameplay that could have been avoided if someone asked, "Is this fun?" I can't stress enough how wordy this game is with endless chatGPT level dialog and missions that require you to essentially talk it out. The writers are so eager to force you to listen to their banal and overlong story about a witchhunt. I ended up skipping a lot of scenes towards the end. Oh, and the last level is an absolute slog.

Why are Cthulhu games so uninspired when the source material is so good? Alone in the Dark has bad combat, terrible stealth, frustrating level design, and is buggy to boot. Controlling the characters is so clunky, it feels like a PS2 game. The story is serviceable, but not really scary or that interesting. It's fairly short, although you can play through the game with each of the two characters to double the length. There is a different personal quest for each of them that almost makes it worthwhile. I suggest giving it a pass unless you're a diehard Cthulhu fan.

Excellent remake. It doesn't do the bare minimum such as Demon's Souls, and it doesn't retain a lot of the original's irritating features while barely improving on anything other than the graphics such as Resident Evil 2. Instead it expands and improves upon the original immensely, while retaining the essence of what made it great. It's essentially a whole new game. This is what all remakes should aspire to be.

This original and very addictive take on the rogue-lite genre is like a choose your own adventure game using building modules. The closest thing I can think of is Hand of Fate. It's fun and cozy and packed with secrets and puzzles for the player to discover.

A cozy adventure puzzle game with interesting visuals. The standout here is the art design, which is distinctive and creative similar to a Pixar animated movie. Gameplay-wise it reminds me of the PS2 games like Spyro, although there's virtually no combat to speak of. I personally found it too light to be really engaging, but it's good for what it is.

This horror-puzzle game is quite frustrating and clunky gameplay-wise, but grew on me with its horror elements and distinct aesthetic. The decor here is like the sort of retro-futurism the 70s envisioned, with a claustrophobic maze-like brutalism that reminded me of the game "Observer." The enemy encounters are wretched and obnoxious, but also pretty creepy. The overall effect is interesting from a horror perspective. Basic and essential abilities are poorly explained however, so I would recommend using a guide.

Dumb name for a good RPG. The only SMT game I played was Nocturne, and Metaphor has way more RPG elements than that. This is more like Persona 5 crossed with Final Fantasy 15, with all the social links and world dungeons that need to be cleared by a certain date, but also buying equipment and cooking recipes. It actually comes together pretty well for the most part... but similar to the Persona games, there is way too much talking. Sometimes these guys yap on for half an hour, and it's the typical hackneyed JRPG slop. This game is way too wordy, and the writers are too confident with their trite dialog and melodramatic storylines. You have to endlessly click through dialog about racism between elves, and every character has a tragic backstory you have to listen to. It gets tedious halfway through the game, and becomes unbearable towards the end, especially the neverending epilogue. I had to start skipping scenes because they wouldn't get to the point. There have to be 10 chatGPT lines to select a destination on a map when silence would be better. I give it an 8 for gameplay, but the unceasing boring dialog and unskippable credits brings it down to a 7. This is one game where I wish the developers had less confidence, especially in their writing. This took me 115 hours to complete with almost all the achievements.