Category: Game reviews

Replikator is the newest title from R_Games that they were kind enough to toss me a review copy of. This game is a small indy top-down roguelike shooter that is quite simple to get into. Just pop it on, run around the station, and shoot the enemies with one of your two weapons. You can choose from multiple characters, my favorite was the one that fires rockets.

Each character has pros and cons, one might be faster than the others or be immune to acid while another simply takes no damage from certain traps. None of them offer a huge advantage over the others to the point I felt that one was better than the others, but they were different enough that I had a preferred character for how I liked to play.

While Replikator is a fun game to mess around with, and at the price they are asking none of my complaints are major I do have a few. For example, the character movements all felt painfully slow to me. It felt like a chore at times to go anywhere if there weren’t enemies to be shooting. The four playable characters also feel quite generic.

The pros however do outweigh these complaints. The amount of different weapons and powerups is insane for an $8 game. I didn’t bother counting them but they are all laid out in a room to see and I still haven’t unlocked them all but there is at least a couple dozen. The game offers a challenge that can be overcome if you learn how to use these, but we aren’t talking about some insane amount of dedicating your life to learning the game either.

All in all, the price point of this game means if you like roguelikes or top-down shooters, Replicator is a great buy. it is a nice 7/10. I enjoyed spending about 20 hours with it so far and I will probably spend a few more with it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always with these things, I would love to thank NIS America For tossing me a copy of Monster Menu. It is always a pleasure to work with these guys.

Like many games, this one sets out to accomplish not only to be an RPG but also a roguelike. You will be fighting monsters, starvation, dehydration, and of course, the inevitable death that restarts you at level one. Each end however will leave you better equipped to get further faster next run.

Unlike most roguelikes however, Monster Menu doesn’t completely toss away your progress, for example, defeating bosses does give you a sort of checkpoint you can jump to, so there is no concern that you will constantly be restarting an entire RPG over again. This however doesn’t mean much since the story is basically non-existent.

There is a pretty good crafting system involved however, you can create different food for both your characters to use in battle and food, which can be fed to your characters for buffs or to enemies for debuffs. In a tactics RPG this can be invaluable, and it is no exception here. The only issue is you pretty much have to find recipes randomly to make anything.

Admittedly my biggest issue with this game is simply how repetitive it is. The battles, each layer all feel the same eventually and the gaming loop eventually feels like you aren’t improving so much as you just treading water at times. The game definitely has its place however and many of you will find hours of enjoyment. If you do not like RPGs and roguelikes this game won’t change your mind. It is a solid 7/10 tho, Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

First,I want to take a second to just say thank you to the people at Idea Factory for tossing me a copy of Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord to review. It’s always appreciated working with someone new.

Usually the Fairy Fencer games are turned based but this one the decision was made to take it into a slightly different direction. Refrain Chord is a turned based Tactical RPG, much like Final fantasy tactics or Tactics Ogre.

The battles take place in the usual grid based alternating people style. There is as usual a bar on top of the screen to show you the upcoming order of the troops.

The battles themselves are pretty standard, if you want a challenge tossing the game on hard will have its moments. Easy is the epitome of just wanting to be able to see the story with very little difficulty,which is truly how it should be.

Speaking of the story I have always felt any RPG that wasn’t based around a solid story was defeating the purpose of even existing. Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord revolves around Fang and his company from past games such as Fairy Fencer F :Advent Dark Force. You don’t need to play the other games to understand it,any back story is explained pretty well or isn’t even necessary to have.

The story for this game revolves around trying to collect Furys before an evil corporation. You want them so you can summon the Goddess for world peace. The corporation wants them to summon the Vile God for unlimited power. The details I will leave for you to discover because getting to know this almost goofy cast of characters through the various interactions at the Inn or during missions is probably the best part of the game itself.

From the very beginning with Fang being busted out of jail because of his dine and dash antics and being caught talking to cockroaches or him and Galdo being obsessed with nudie magazines while the female characters make fun of Fang for being childish there really isn’t a time the characters aren’t interesting to get to know.

The game of course isn’t perfect,for example you will spend a lot of time reading because the vocals are only in their native language. Most battles also come down to how much you leveled up,not if you are actually good with any sort of strategy. Most of the Furys you come across are also pointless to have outside of the side quest to stab the ground and discover treasure and hidden locations.

This is one of those games I enjoyed playing,and I actually think fans of strategy RPGs will also enjoy playing. It isn’t the best one on the market, but it is absolutely enjoyable. 7/10, loved my time with it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Japanese developer Dangen Entertainment was nice enough to toss me a copy of Dungeon Drafters to check out,and I am both glad they did and appreciate it.

For those that are unfamiliar with this title you play the part of an adventurous hero that is about to explore one of several locations,one of the first being a sort of forest. The first boss will just absolutely destroy you.

This first area will introduce you to the card system. See in this world cards are magical, and they are essential to the world as a whole. You will make your way to this boss on a grid based system with your 3 action points per turn that you can either move or use cards with. Even in rooms without enemies you move across the grid.

At first the game will feel a bit out of place with it’s rogue-like system and it’s Hub town,but it doesn’t take long before you will feel right at home here talking to everyone, finding new cards gathering info and just all around getting to know the world.

The graphics are beautiful,and really one of the highlights of the game for me. The colorful world is just vibrant and full of life,I never felt like I was just staring at something for the sake of its existence.

Battles themselves are pretty intuitive and simple to figure out, even with the games very well done explanation. Simply use your AP to move around the grid and attack enemies using your cards. Each enemy reacts differently,many of which you can see what types of attacks they have. One early enemy has a single hit point and he explodes when he dies causing damage to everyone around him. Smart players however will simply push him away preferably closer to enemy units.

The game is full of small details like this that make the game amazing. Fans of these types of games will love it,and I can happily give it an 8/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ultra Pixel Survive is another indie title Ratalaika games was nice enough to send me to check out, and I always appreciate that.

This title is a bit different from what they normally send my way, it is a simple side scrolling survival game. At least it seems that way at a glance.

The game features many characters,from simple swords men and lumberjacks to dragon knights (don’t get excited it’s a guy with a spear not a real dragon) and even a plague doctor. The premise is simple, you can chop down trees, but up rocks and various other things to create spike traps, walls or food to protect your house and survive as long as possible. These materials can also be used to build anvils and such so you can upgrade your equipment.

At the start you will notice you only get one character and you will need to unlock the rest with these red gems that are rare to come across during game play. You do have to buy these,but the coins you earn in game is the money you use to buy them, no real money is used to do this. Simply kill monsters, save your money and use that money to either unlock new characters or power up your favorite characters so they start each run stronger and stronger.

I have in essence explained the entire game to you,and truthfully it’s not exactly much harder to master. But damn if this game isn’t addictive. I tossed this title and told hey check it out and toss us a small review. Instead this game quickly sucked up around 30 hours of my life over the course of my daughters spring break and shows no sign of slowing down. I definitely recommend picking this one up when it launches April 14th. It is an easy 9/10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Guise is a new metroidvania game from our friends over at Ratalaika Games and they were nice enough to send me over a copy to review. Now at a very reasonable price point of $6 U.S. dollars, and the company it was coming from I expected exactly what was advertised. A short but solid Metroidvania game that would be fun to play through,get a pretty reasonable Platinum trophy for trophy hunters and be a fun little story.

What I got was a pretty reasonable Platinum trophy for the hunters, a fun dark fairy tale about an orphanage of kids going into a room they shouldn’t have and one of them being trapped in the body of a monster and of course some solid,but not perfect by any means gameplay.

During the boss fights it always seemed like dodging didn’t quite go as consistently as it really should have. This caused a few deaths that were a bit annoying. Nothing that stopped me from enjoying the game of course, far from it. It was easy to adapt to in fact,just be aware of it.

The sound however, chefs kiss. It is the perfect level of sinister for what the game is trying to portray. It was actually my favorite part of the game,aside from playing as a creepy monster that can eventually spit acid on things.

All in all the game is fun, cheap an reasonable Platinum and most importantly it is fun. I can easily recommend this one for fans of metroidvania games, trophy hunters or just someone looking for something new to check out. 8/10, pick it up and may the gaming gods bring you glory.