marshallu2018

Where do I begin with this one? I was hoping for something to scratch the itch I've been having for Vampire Survivors, but this comes up short by a long shot. For starters, the mechs move at a snail's pace, which makes things difficult because the enemies generally move at the same speed or even faster in some cases. Combine this with the low damage you deal until you've had the chance to update a number of your skills, and you end up just running for your life from an endless hoard of enemies who either steadily gain on you or keep up the same pace and don't give you a chance to catch your breath. The enemies also don't give out exp very often, which is baffling. In Vampire Survivors, I know that enemies don't always give exp, but in that game they seem to give it at least 80% of the time. Meanwhile in Remedium: Sentinels, it seems like you only get exp 25% of the time, maybe 35% if you're lucky. Most of the enemies are also very tanky, so spending a lot of time attacking them to end up with absolutely nothing for your trouble is frustrating, especially when the exp is key to being able to level up your damage to take out the enemies faster. It really seems like they took Vampire Survivors and asked themselves what they can do to make it as frustrating as possible, then implemented it. I'm sure there are other things I could complain about, like the lack of variety in builds and attacks, but I'll leave it at that. I don't recommend this game unless you enjoy being frustrated.

Where do I begin with this one? I was hoping for something to scratch the itch I've been having for Vampire Survivors, but this comes up short by a long shot. For starters, the mechs move at a snail's pace, which makes things difficult because the enemies generally move at the same speed or even faster in some cases. Combine this with the low damage you deal until you've had the chance to update a number of your skills, and you end up just running for your life from an endless hoard of enemies who either steadily gain on you or keep up the same pace and don't give you a chance to catch your breath. The enemies also don't give out exp very often, which is baffling. In Vampire Survivors, I know that enemies don't always give exp, but in that game they seem to give it at least 80% of the time. Meanwhile in Remedium: Sentinels, it seems like you only get exp 25% of the time, maybe 35% if you're lucky. Most of the enemies are also very tanky, so spending a lot of time attacking them to end up with absolutely nothing for your trouble is frustrating, especially when the exp is key to being able to level up your damage to take out the enemies faster. It really seems like they took Vampire Survivors and asked themselves what they can do to make it as frustrating as possible, then implemented it. I'm sure there are other things I could complain about, like the lack of variety in builds and attacks, but I'll leave it at that. I don't recommend this game unless you enjoy being frustrated.

I was so excited for this remastered trilogy, and I even pre-ordered it. I rarely pre-order games, and it turns out that games like this are why I never preorder. I have a sour taste in my mouth after seeing the plethora of glitches that were carried over from the mobile releases of these games, and the character models are constantly looking like some kind of deformed beast from a horror game. The environments look decent, but you better pray it never rains in any of the games because the rain looks more like milk, and it falls in a very visible grid-like pattern. The white rain makes it difficult to see where you're going as well. I truly expected better from Rockstar games, the same people who brought masterpieces such as GTA IV, GTA V, and both Red Dead Redemption games. I know Rockstar didn't personally work on this remaster, but they had to have overseen and/or greenlit the project for final release, so they're just as complacent in this as Grove Street Games.

Like many others, I was a huge fan of Fantasy Life and although I knew that this was more similar to Diablo than Fantasy Life, I expected better. It's not that the game is bad, necessarily, it's just... not fun. Probably the worst part of the game is the loot system and over reliance on RNG. I know a lot of people play these loot based games solely for the loot and maybe it's because I'm not used to games like this, but I don't find it fun in the slightest to play through a level, make it to the end, and realize I didn't get any good items or a single weapon as a reward. For each quest, they show you a weapon, which they call the ultimate prize or whatever, but you're not guaranteed to get it when you finish the mission. The game gives you a certain amount of treasure chests depending on the number of static objectives you met during that quest, with each chest containing a random item. More often than not, the chests don't contain the ultimate prize. I can understand that - it's called the ultimate prize, after all. However, if you don't get the ultimate prize for that quest at the end, you don't get any weapons at all. Basically, that's the only weapon you can get from that quest, and you could potentially play the quest 10+ times and not get the weapon if you're especially unlucky with the RNG. I haven't played much Diablo, but from what I remember, I was at least getting a few weapons each time I cleared a dungeon. They might not have been super powerful, but I at least felt like I was progressing and being rewarded. To further slap the face of the player, this game is insanely miserly when it comes to giving out currency rewards for quests. Granted, I have only played about 7 hours and I just reached rank 3, so I'm not sure if the rewards get better as the game goes on. So far, the currency rewards are pathetic. I just completed a main story quest and I was given a whole 5.00 gravies (the game's version of dollars). This might not seem bad, but keep in mind that weapons generally cost 80.00+ gravies. So you rarely get weapons from quests and you don't get enough currency to be able to buy weapons frequently from the shop. What exactly are you supposed to do?! I guess on the bright side, as far as I know, there's no way to buy in-game currency with real money. Keep in mind, weapons aren't the only thing you can spend your gravies on, so it's even worse than it seems. You're expected to regularly upgrade your loot as well as your armor and accessories, but the game doles out gravies like there's a gravy shortage. I'm sure this system was designed to make you grind dungeons ad nauseam, but the combat isn't nearly good enough to justify that system. This leads me to my next point. The combat is not the greatest. It's passable, but it feels sluggish. Actually, other things outside of combat have some sluggishness as well. I think the sluggishness comes from input delay. It seems like I press the attack button, the character doesn't respond to it right away. Each time you press the attack button, it locks the character into that attack as well. Combine this with the input delay, and there are times where I've pressed the attack button a few times but decided I want to dodge mid-combo. The game doesn't allow you to dodge in the middle of a combo, so you have to wait until the combo is done and more often than not you just take a hit instead of being able to effectively dodge it. Again, this input delay is also present in other areas of the game, such as trudging through menus. Interestingly, I didn't experience any input delay while moving the character or holding the B button to run. I've even tried other controllers and the game behaves consistently for me, so I don't think it's a controller issue. Despite my criticisms, it's not all bad. The game has a few moments where the comedy really shines and I especially appreciate the pop culture references and character names. For example, there's a snack (basically this game's version of Pokemon) with a rock and roll aesthetic that's called Nikki Styx, which is a reference to both Nikki Sixx from the band Mötley Crüe and the band Styx. I also like the stylized, cartoon-esque art style. Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl Gold isn't a horrible game, but it feels half-baked. Comparing it to other Level5 games, like Fantasy Life and Ni no Kuni makes it feel especially lackluster. 4/10

This was my first game in the Yakuza series and I now know what I've been missing. This game is a ton of fun and I'm glad I got it. The combat is satisfying and I like that you can switch between four different combat styles to mix it up a bit. There's the brawler style, which is a mix of fast and powerful attacks. Then there's the slow and powerful beast style. Next up is my personal favorite, the rush style, that is great for quick punches and still packs a powerful punch. Lastly, there's the dragon style; dragon style is similar to brawler, but it's more powerful and a little slower, but not quite as slow as beast. The mini games in Yakuza Kiwami are arguably its strongest (and, at times, quirkiest) feature. The mini games are a blast to play and there is a great variety, from bowling and billiards to more obscure things like pocket car racing with little kids and rock paper scissors in the form of bikini clad women dressed as bugs. No matter what you like, Yakuza Kiwami probably has a mini game that suits you. Great features aside, Yakuza Kiwami isn't perfect. First, there's the Majima Everywhere system; at first it's kind of fun and it's quirky enough to give the game some extra life, but after a while it gets annoying having to fight Majima, your rival, so often. Another weak point of this game is the way that most missions and sub stories end up feeling like fetch quests, where you find yourself running all over the map from point A to point B and back to point A again. The in-game city of Kamurocho isn't all that big when you compare it to other games such as Grand Theft Auto V's Los Santos, but it can take a while to get from one end of the map to the other. Overall, I highly recommend this game. While it isn't perfect, it brings some charm to the table and has an interesting story that's rifled with betrayal and plot twists. The mini games can keep you busy for hours if you get interested in them and they offer a fun, light hearted escape from the serious story.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]