ghorahn

This game's mechanics basically fall into two categories: (1) Dialogue tree interaction, which is used to push the story along various paths, and (2) going to 'classes' (and doing other similar activities) to develop your character's magical (and some non-magical) skills, which you use a handful of times over the course of the school year to do short dungeons, each of which is an 'exam' for school. After the first play-through (which just took a few hours), I wasn't too excited about playing through it again. But then I looked at the achievements and saw that the variety of things you can do in the game is actually quite a bit wider than I thought. So, since then, I've played through it a bunch of times and just recently finishes all the steam achievements. Mind you, I like the anime style, I'm quite happy to play a female character (despite not being female myself), although this may explain why I kept romantically pursuing my cute-but-dowdy roommate Ellen on most every playthrough. I kinda wish the game offered a far broader variety of possible in-game events and that there weren't always the same core group of characters that the story revolves around (your two roommates and a part-demon boy who's assigned as your Sempai during initiation), but I still got a fair amount of mileage out of the game. I can't promise that you'll like it, but I did.

I made the mistake, when I first started playing this game, of doing every single quest in an area before I moved on. Before I knew it, I'd massively out-leveled the game and every fight except golems and boss fights were one-AoE fights. And after I leave the Sidhe area, I stopped finding the quests nearly as **** before long, I was basically checking my watch with every quest to see how much longer I had to do this. So I started to get back on track of just doing the main quests. Now I'm just trying to force myself to the end so I feel like I got my money's worth. The game is well made, sure, but it's just not that interesting or fun. And inventory management...that's never some I enjoy in a game.

After stumbling across Jolly Rover then enjoying the heck out of it, I was excited to see what Brawsome would come out with next. So I picked this up as soon as it was out, a bit leery because of the apparently puzzle nature but slightly reassured by the web site's promises of an 'adventure mode.' Turns out, 'adventure mode' apparently means having a quest log that tells you what little cinematic you'll get after finishing some more puzzles. As a puzzle game....I don't care for it. I really don't like the default controls, but haven't messed around with them enough to see if I can find a setup that I prefer. The mechanics of the game got tired quickly, for me. (Go to light, switch form, push box, go back to light, switch form, use button, go back to light, etc.) My advice: Save your $4. And remind me to stop buying games when I haven't played a demo. (Seriously.) :(

So, the game mechanic that distinguishes this game from (some) other platformers is that you can hit a buttons to make certain blocks, platforms and 'squares that launch you in a certain direction' switch on and off, so to speak. (When it's 'off,' the item is faded and transparent and you can run/fall right through it.) This made for some fun platforming for the first handful of levels. But, before long, the designers apparently ran out of 'fun' things to do with that mechanic, and the game gets tedious and, at times, difficult. There's no story at **** fact, the only thing tying the levels together is a 'pick a stage' screen, which tells me that the designers didn't even bother trying to make a coherent experience out of these disjoint levels. And most of the characters you see in the game are just young blond females in little outfits, voiced in a girlish way....which ultimately just shows another of the ways in which this game is lazy. Lazy design, lazy characterization, all-around uninspired and lazy. This game strikes me as the teenage male equivalent of cheap romance ****'s there to provide the baseline experience that you'd expect from the genre and to offer some easy titillation. I wouldn't recommend this game unless you're out of other things to play and you don't have too much self-respect to keep you away from this thing. Upsides are that the graphics look nice, with very smooth animation, and the controls are sufficiently responsive, given that you'll need to do some finely-timed moves.

I've had many, many hours of fun with this thing. Gameplay consists of pushing and pulling platforms in an effort to create a path for yourself to get to the top (typically) of a structure. That description might not make anyone jones to try the game, but I assure you, it winds up being pretty dang fun. Some later puzzles get a bit aggravating, especially when you get to the point where your only option is to reset the level and try again. All in all, lots of hours of puzzle-platform'y fun.

Vapid, mediocre, pointless game. Makes me concerned about the $15 I pledged for Wasteland 2 on **** these people consider this Bard's Tale game to be a game worth playing, who knows how they'll butcher Wasteland. Here's my guess: Dull, pointless combat. (Face your target, click him. Rinse, repeat.) The lowest common denominator of character development. Uninspired, sometimes-obnoxious voice acting that plays right to tired gaming stereotypes. And an obsession with polygonal bosoms that only happens when you're a porn-obsessed teenager or a desparately lonely old man. What an embarassing piece of junk this game is. Glad I only spent $5 on it on Steam.

Loved this game. It stuck with me so strongly, rainy days make me want to play it again. I also wish it had been longer, but that's my only complaint.

I sensed a lot of novelty from this game. I haven't played many games from this genre, so it seemed quite unique at first. But before long, it started to feel much less 'game' and much more 'sandbox.' I started rolling my eyes when it felt like I was seeing the same cinematic between each level. Then I reached a point where the game said 'build a wall,' so I built a **** the game just said 'c'mon, build a wall.' I thought 'I just did.' Long story short, that's as far as I went with From Dust. I wouldn't recommend it, and I kinda wish I hadn't spend money on it.

I liked the novel feeling that I got from this game. But, and maybe I'm just old, it wasn't long before I wasn't enjoying the endless deaths while I tried to do some of the puzzles. So I reduced the speed. And some of the rooms were still infuriating. So then I reduced the speed all the way. And now I'm still stuck in some room. Now I haven't played the game in a couple weeks and kinda wish I'd just saved my $6 or whatever it was.

From the first seconds of the opening cinematic, you can tell that the voice acting is going to be bad. And it is. The main character's voice doesn't even fit the character, if you ask me. Puzzles devolved into pixel hunting (after no item from my inventory was getting me anywhere), and that's just plain poor design. To top off the ****, I didn't much like the interface and the game wasn't funny. At all. I'll give the game a 1 because it runs. If you're jonesing for something Monkey Island-esque, try Jolly Rover. That one was actually well-made and fun.

When all is said and done with the Final Fantasy franchise, I won't be surprised if VII and XII still stand out to me as the games that completely consumed me while I was playing them. Granted, it took me a couple tries to establish any momentum with this game (but that's fairly common for me). Once I did, I fell in love with the gambit system. It has become the measuring stick by which I judge every combat mechanic in a game that goes beyond needing a single player and single character to accomplish everything. I wish ever MMO I played let me set up a FF12-like gambit system for as many characters as I need to fill out a party or raid. Any game that does....just reminds me how much I loved FF12. I finished all but the last hunt (as I could only stomach one four-hour attempt, only to have it end when a rez didn't happen quickly enough while the guy was one-shotting the group), which is more effort I've put into a non-MMO since FF7. Near perfection, this game's only shortcoming, from my perspective, is the vacuous story that was heavy on pageantry and light on having a point.

For me, this is the pinnacle of the Prince of Persia series. Loved playing it. Rarely frustrating, always fun. I don't really remember thinking it was 'too easy,' with the exception of the last guy. It's been a couple years since I last played through this game, but I remember thinking he was too easy. Anyhow, that's not the worst thing in the world.

A bit easier to play than the first (or, at least, it's harder to be bad at this one than the first). But by the time I was done, I was so unbelievable sick and tired of the game, of the combat, of the side quests, of everything. (I have since played through the first one again and enjoyed it more than this one.)

I enjoyed this one all the way through. I don't play a lot of this type of game, so I spent a while playing the game but not really doing combat effectively. But once I stopped ignoring chains and all that (like a dope), encounters became a lot more fun. I enjoyed the stories and the characters. I really liked the art style and the overall presentation. I still don't consider myself a big fan of turn-based combat games (though I've been enjoying the Fire Emblem games and, given what a Final Fantasy fanboy I am, I'm surprised I haven't played more of the Final Fantasy Tactics games), but I'd sure like to see more games like Clash of Heroes. Now, if only the game would have told me earlier on that I was playing like such a dunce, maybe I would have enjoyed my time with this game even more. C'est la vie, I guess.

I like a good puzzle-adventure game, and I'd played through the first Puzzle Agent just before I picked up Professor Layton and the Curious Village. Before long, I was missing the charm of Puzzle Agent; I don't find stuffy brit characters particularly interesting, and the story was too slow and predictable (though it did liven up before the end) to be a big motivator to keep playing. And while many of the puzzles were fun (and plenty were familiar), some were...well, annoying. Or tedious. Or, in a few cases, frustrating. In a game like this, where I expect each puzzle to shine, those are big strikes against the game.

I guess I missed the part where there was just a 'hunt for objects on the screen' game before I bought it on Steam. If that's the kind of game you're into, this is...well, such a game. I was hoping it would be more of an adventure (in the Lucasarts vein, ideally) when I bought **** not all uninformed purchases can magically pan out well, I suppose. The rendered scenes looked good, the hint system got me through the game without much frustration and the story was amusing enough to keep me awake. Those up-sides, however, can only take you so far when you come from the genre that might be called 'the bane of gaming.' Tip: Buy it for a grandparent and confirm their notions that these newfangled computer games are all a stupid waste of time.

I'm apparently one of the minority that found the narrator's voice immensely grating. I was just a few minutes into the game before I looked for a way to turn off his voice, but there wasn't one. (And so I wept.) And since I wasn't particularly enjoying the combat or anything else about that game, I felt no reason to keep playing after that first sitting with the game. Upsides: The game worked fine and it looked nice.

I bought this off the DS store, hoping it would be akin the Pipe Dream (which I haven't played in **** would probably be playing as regularly as I play the various iterations of Tetris, were newer versions of Pipe Dream available). It's really not akin to Pipe Dream, aside from the rough description of 'laying out a path.' But this particular game....really not very fun. I find the controls more awkward than fun. Now I kinda wish I could have my $4 **** whatever. No refunds from the DS store, no matter what kind of drek they get you to buy. (Which reminds **** about some trial versions, nintendo? It's part of the reason I don't have any spite for buying games off xbox **** really, when Microsoft is more 'customer friendly' than you, you're doing something wrong.)

So **** so much more linear than the other games of this style that I've been enjoying since Super Metroid and Castlevania:SotN. But a bit of linearity isn't necessarily an awful **** certainly help you avoid those huge blocks of time spent lost and wondering what you were supposed to get to next. But in my latest play-through of this game (after it was released as part of the 3DS ambassador program), I played through the game in a little over three hours. That's not a lot of gameplay...though I'm sure part of the problem was that I'd played through the game 4-5 times before (although I don't think the last time was within the past five years or so). Anyhow, I love this game style, I enjoyed the game, I want more metroid/castlevania games like this. C'mon developers, hook us up.

Let me summarize my first (and, truth be told, only) hour with this game: I started the game and tried the direction pad-based controls and found them unresponsive and difficult to line up with objects or npcs. So, I tried touch-screen navigation, which worked better, but requires having the stylus in hand (which I didn't care for, come combat time). I got the little introduction to combat, and through that the chain and blocking mechanisms sounded promising. I did the little tutorial fight where you capture your second monster, although I was concerned that my a-button tapping (which, I admit, wasn't at all fast) got me a not-whopping 39% chance of capturing the creature (which I did). So, the next time I found myself wanting to catch something, I beat it down, used an essence core, then tapped my little heart **** didn't catch it. And the essence core was gone from my inventory. Gah....apparently not tapping fast enough was going to use up the item I needed to catch something. And I supposed I'd have to buy new ones. Before long, I had no more essence cores and hadn't caught a third monster. Then I got to the first 'boss' fight....I level 10 monster against my L2 and L3 monsters. They were trounced. Clearly I would have to grind levels to get anywhere. But wait....(1) making grinding a necessity, (2) game mechanics that simply aren't going to work well for some players, and (3) losing inventory items when they're not successfully used...that's gotta be some kind of holy triumvirate of awful design choices. Nope, not playing that game any more. And I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Upsides: It looks alright. I'm sure there's an audience for the game, made of people that aren't too jaded to grind levels or buy more essence cores when you didn't manage to catch something. However, that audience does not include me.

Despite all the hours I'd put in the previous Elder Scrolls games (especially Daggerfall), I'd yet to finish one. I was pleased to see that this game gave me the momentum I needed to see things through. (Really, the main quest chain isn't very long, so if you're motivated to finish it, you can certainly do it.) Now, I still have plenty of side-quests to do, and I hope to finish lots of them. (No promises about finishing everything....I'm not ~that~ motivated.) One thing has stuck out since I started playing the **** was just so dreary for so long. Early on I was missing the option of light-hearted snarkiness that was always available in Dragon Age 2's dialog. But once I found some Daedra quests, I suppose the humor in the game showed up. Still....I feel like the game takes itself awfully seriously. I like the controls. I've been playing as a strict caster for a while now, and dual-casting with the triggers works well. I've had plenty of reason to get used to a wide variety of my spells (as I can still get quickly trounced by a bear if I don't have stoneflesh up). My in-game wife tanks stuff for me....which I enjoy to no end. Since the last patch, the game hasn't frozen my xbox at all, which is nice. And I don't feel I've been hearing the same npc comments every few minutes. One **** character's level is approaching 40 right now, and I don't feel like I've had a particularly difficult fight in a while now. I mostly just die when I can't find the archer that has line of sight on me, and two good shots later (without me bothering to heal), I'm down. I can't say I like the Sierra-style 'you can die a lot, then you get to reload and try again.' (Which I contend is why LucasArts won the battle of adventure games.) But without the peril, there wouldn't be any suspense. So I suppose the occasional seemingly-random death is how you keep a player on his/her toes, when the designers don't have a better way to do it. I dunno, I have mixed feelings about this game. The more I think about it, the less great is seems to me. Yet I'm still putting some time into it each day, working on side quests. I imagine that says something.

When I started the game, I noticed a few things: (1) The voice acting wasn't great. (2) The dialog **** good. Sometimes embarassing. And (3) the puzzles were the 'combine some items' type, which are a good adventure game **** there were about as contrived as 'puzzles' of this type get. Before long, I was sick to death of guessing what inane 'improptu tool' I was supposed to make with the things in my inventory. And the voice acting was, all to often, bordering on abysmal. (To be fair, a few of the actors do a good **** I feel like those were the same voices that seemed familiar from anime dubs.) But between the weird 'never use contractions' thing, the odd phrasing and word choice (that I imagine stems from the US version of the game being translated from a non-English language original), the fourth-wall stuff ("I managed to open the door! Don't you love playing adventure games where the main character addresses the audience?") and the main character's voice acting being all over the place in terms of quality, I was having a hard time bringing myself to slog through this game. So...I looked up a walkthrough. I don't like wasting money by buying a game then just plowing through it, but this game wasn't giving me a reason to play it. So by the time I finished the game, I'd seen the extent of its dull, inane, meandering story; I'd heard plenty more bad voice acting; I'd enjoyed plenty of robotic animation; I'd had to play 'hunt for the pixels that I can click on to find an item that the walkthrough tells me is there' more times than I'd liked; and I'd gone through puzzles that, had I played the game organically, probably would have meant resorting to systematically trying to combine everything in my inventory until I stumbled across the right pairing. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone unless they'd run out of other adventure games to play and needed one that would probably taken them a long time to get through. Upside: the game runs without crashing. That's worth a 2, I suppose.

Tales of Monkey Island set me off on a bender of playing through a bunch of adventure games, this one included. At first it smelled like a goofy MI **** before long, the character were enjoyable (with good voice acting -- always important), the story was sufficiently engaging and the puzzles were downright fun. (Plus, it's hard not to appreciate a hint systems that pretty much guarantees that you'll never get completely stuck). By the time it was over, I wanted a sequel!

I thought it was just about as charming as the first one. I really enjoy the art and the story, although the story gets a bit carried away before it's over. The puzzles all felt familiar, but most were still fun. I have to disagree about puzzle directions being fixed, though; a few puzzles took one attempt (which counts against you) to determine some of the rules or behaviors. (I'm looking at you, electron puzzle and rock-throwing puzzle.) Toward the end of the game, the occasional typo or lack of clarity in puzzle directions and hints left me wondering if some puzzles had gotten the rush job on the editorial process. And at least one puzzle was downright frustrating to me, even after seeing all hints (*cough* racoons *cough*), and that's one too many to unreservedly recommend a puzzle game to friends (or be certain I'd buy another sequel unless the issues are specifically addressed).