u/Blurzerker

RELEASE: 2025

TIME PLAYED: 7 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Gorgeous art and environmental design with a unique stop motion animation style

+Hazel is a fantastic lead, with a likeable personality and fitting flaws for a teenager

+The story attempts an ambitious look at the trauma and mythology of the Southern US, an underserved setting

+Cinematic and visually arresting boss fights

-Combat is awkward, poorly paced, and overly basic

-Writing is clumsy and important themes are frequently rushed through and not given the nuance they deserve

-Many of the story's crucial elements are wielded as a blunt instrument

I so desperately wish I loved South of Midnight as much as I love what it's trying to do.

Born and raised in Gulf Coast Texas, I'm well-acquainted with the stereotypes - some founded in fact, others not - about the deep south. I've joined neighbors who refused to evacuate from deadly hurricanes at their pre-storm barbeques, had two-faced family members put on the perfect face of southern hospitality while espousing the most rancid beliefs possible in private, and been taught that the Civil War was about 'States' Rights' from a middle school teacher who wore confederate flags whenever possible. I'm well-acquainted with the ugliness and the beauty alike, from a queer cousin who adopted racist views to fit in to a grandfather who spent his retirement doing free carpentry work across town because that was what it meant to be a good Christian. All of this is to say that South of Midnight's spotlighting of southern culture and mythology immediately appealed to me, and was a big part of why I purchased the game. An underserved setting in media, the deep south is host to rich stories and terrible trauma, and Compulsion Games' action-adventure makes a sincere effort to dive deep into both. Unfortunately, it's beset by so many problems in the process that I was never able to quite click with it.

The premise is compelling enough: when a devastating flood sweeps away her home with her mother still inside, protagonist Hazel desperately attempts to chase her down, only to be confronted with a strange corruption, manifesting as twisted strands, that is slowly consuming her entire town. Discovering a set of enchanted tools in her estranged grandmother's house after the latter tries to restrain her, Hazel finds out - from a giant talking catfish, obviously - that she's a Weaver, someone who can see the Tapestry that binds creation. With her newfound powers, she sets out to not only rescue her mother, but battle the Haint spirits that are spreading and find the source of the corruption.

Between the strong opening sequence and the graphics, my first impression of the game was very positive. South of Midnight is utterly GORGEOUS, with both gameplay and cutscenes boasting a stop-motion inspired animation style that works especially well for supernatural beings like the aforementioned giant catfish. It's a joy to look at and I don't have a single complaint about the aesthetic or visuals from start to finish. The creative talent is on display from both developers and cast, with the voice actors doing stellar work to bring their characters to life. The soundtrack is vibrant and fitting, blending orchestral work with banjos, flutes, and southern choirs for a very authentic sound.

Unfortunately, the fantastic presentation wound up setting me up for serious disappointment. My earliest point of unpleasant friction was with the gameplay. I was halfway through the combat tutorial when I realized that attacking enemies as Hazel simply felt terrible. Despite exaggerated animations, there was no sense of impact to my blows, and enemies were difficult to read due to their often inhuman shape. Hazel does get some activated abilities to propel herself around and crowd control foes, but it's seasoning on a combat system that just doesn't feel good. The game itself isn't too challenging, and various difficulty options - including one to remove combat entirely - ensure the experience is customizable, but while I appreciate the option, there's something to be said for the fact it even had to be presented - and that it was tempting enough that I considered enabling it before long. Still, I'm one of the biggest suckers for narrative-based games in the world; some of my favorite games of all time - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, and more - have middling combat or worse, and that didn't stop me from loving them. But as much as I tried to meet South of Midnight on its own terms, I wound up no happier with the writing than I was with the gameplay.

It took me a little while to piece together exactly why I bounced so hard off South of Midnight's storytelling, but by the end of the game, I had figured it out: there's simply too many plot threads, and the narrative suffers immensely for it. See, while the framing of the story is Hazel trying to find her mother, she actually spends most of her time addressing smaller mysteries - mysteries often rooted in the generational trauma of the deep south. Part of being a Weaver is guiding the spirits of the lost and troubled to rest, and Hazel wastes little time in doing her duty, both because that's simply the kind of person she is and because these spirits often hold clues to her mother's location.

There's an admirable effort to weave (heh) the primary narrative together with these side stories, but South of Midnight simply rushes through them so quickly and approaches them so bluntly that I never found myself able to get attached. For example, early in the game, that catfish I mentioned earlier is being held in the air by an enormous tree possessed by the spirit of a young man who suffered a betrayal I won't spoil here. The tale of what happened to him, discovered through a blues song that adds more lyrics as the player progresses and ghostly images of the past, is undeniably tragic...but it wound up simply not hitting for me due to a combination of the song lyrics being almost comically blunt about what had occurred and there only being a handful of flashbacks before Hazel resolved his issue. After I had freed his spirit, I felt like I'd been rushed through a rollercoaster version of a Grimm Brothers story. From start to finish the entire sequence was maybe twenty minutes - most of that spent climbing and fighting - and this just kept happening. I'd enter a new area, find out about some horrible past trauma that left a troubled spirit behind, then fix it so quickly that I had barely processed what had happened. If these were the side quests in an RPG, I'd consider them shallow but interesting, but they're effectively what strings the main plot along in South of Midnight, and the substance just isn't there.

This isn't to say that South of Midnight's story is entirely bad - it has a strong final couple of chapters and some downright wonderful set pieces including a battle against a gigantic eldritch owl and a musical dance number in the underworld - but it's just too diluted and unfocused for how short the game is, trying to tell a half-dozen meaningful stories in as many hours (and that's if you don't skip the padded combat encounters). As much as I wanted to love it, I walked away dissatisfied, like I'd sampled a variety platter without ever actually having a meal to fill me up. Constantly gorgeous and occasionally brilliant, South of Midnight is a wonderful attempt at an artistic endeavor in an underserved setting, but as both a game and a story, it unfortunately disappointed me.

RELEASE: 2022

TIME PLAYED: 20 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE TL;DR BREAKDOWN

+Stellar graphical and art design make for a memorable, spirit-infested vision of Tokyo

+Combat has some novel ideas, like using expendable talismans for crowd control and charging elemental castings

+There's shades of an interesting story in deuteragonist KK and his old squad's history

-Protagonist Akito is a lame duck, with little personality and shallow motivations

-The story goes pretty much nowhere and spins its wheels for 90% of its duration

-Open world padding dilutes the game's best qualities into a series of fetch quests

I went into Ghostwire: Tokyo about as blind as one possibly could; I had never seen any trailers, wasn't familiar with its premise, and hadn't even purchased it considering I think I got it as a free giveaway on the Epic Store. With little preconception about what I was getting into, I felt delightfully open-minded about the game to come, and for what it's worth, I think that helped me appreciate some of what Ghostwire does well. Unfortunately, this ghost story's got not lack of flaws haunting the experience, and I walked away from it feeling much more mixed than I would have liked.

The opening cutscene sets things up pretty nicely, following a young man named Akito as he barrels through Tokyo on a motorcycle, only to fatally crash just as a mystical fog rolls through the town and rips people's spirits out of their bodies. Before death can fully take, he's possessed by the wraith of a dead ghost hunter named KK, who wants to use his body to stop the one behind this - a mysterious man in a Hannya mask - but Akito stubbornly clings to life. As a result, they're forced to share his earthly vessel, with Akito able to access KK's supernatural abilities but also dependent on his possession to not die from his injuries. Thankfully, it turns out their goals are aligned; Akito desperately wishes to see his sister, and due to being in a coma and thus also 'between life and death', she also so happens to be the primary target for the Hannya masked man to complete the ritual he's attempting to perform.

Once they've paused their bickering long enough to work out their dynamic Akito and KK give pursuit, and it's here that the game begins in proper. The early pacing is actually quite good about introducing new mechanics; it turns out that Ghostwire: Tokyo is closer to a magical FPS than anything, with combat involving 'Visitors' - various spirits based on a wide variety of Japanese myths - either approaching in melee or firing off bullet hell-style projectiles while Akito casts hand-signs reminiscent of Naruto to fight back with wind (weak but fast), water (powerful but short-range), and fire (extremely strong but slow and low-ammo) spells. Fundamentally, it all works quite well; skill points and story progress allow Akito to charge his magic to turn his wind bolts into a rapid-fire finger-gun or his water blades into a frost aura, and he gains supplementary tools like disposable crowd-control talismans and a powerful compound bow with enchanted arrows.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the game to start spinning its wheels and getting bogged down. After the reasonably fast-paced prologue, a deluge of optional activities open up for the player. By itself, this isn't offensive, but what quickly became evident to me is that most of it is just...clutter. As its world opens up, Ghostwire: Tokyo assaults the screen with food pickups, destructible objects to collect 'ammo' for spells and currency for buying from shops. Floating cat spirits called Nekomata ask Akito to find treasures. A tanuki wants its disguised companions to come home. Floating spirits - two hundred thousand of them - litter the air, collected in paper tags one to five hundred at a time. Once it starts it never stops, and much of it is punishing to ignore entirely. Sure, I could get by without the money from finding the treasure, but those two hundred thousand spirits? A single cluster of them provides more experience than a fight that takes twice as long; skip out on that and you're underleveled and under-skilled.

The argument can be made (and often is) that since these activities are fundamentally optional, I can simply 'skip' them, but I don't find that convincing. Even disregarding my personal belief that optional elements should still be scrutinized in a review to be thorough, attempting to disengage from the content can vary based on the game. Ignoring this content doesn't make it go away. It doesn't change the visual noise of the map, which filters are only partially effective at managing. It doesn't change the conscious design choice by the developer to make primary missions and combat give little gold and experience, meaning I'm incentivized to grind with this repetitive stuff. And most of all, it doesn't stop the constant tutorials about these mechanics from sabotaging the pacing of the story and hiding important details - details that could have been fascinating if delivered with more effort - behind what I can no longer restrain myself from calling slop. Despite an interesting mystery at its core, Ghostwire: Tokyo does effectively nothing with its story. Hours of main missions can ultimately be summarized as "Akito and KK corner the villain, he repeats his monologue from the start of the game, and then escapes while making them fight one of his minions." This happens four times, and if that doesn't sound like a lot, bear in mind that these are pretty much the only scenes the villain has. Anything remotely resembling a personality beyond his laughably generic motive is hidden away in codexes and journals.

Look, I don't like being mean. I write these reviews for fun and I don't get any enjoyment out of tearing a game to shreds. I go into every game hoping to like it, because it's my time and money on the line. But the thing that's so frustrating is that in a lot of ways, Ghostwire: Tokyo isn't bad. It really isn't. The art and graphics team did an amazing job; the game is gorgeous, even if the rain filter could stand to be a bit less oppressive, and the designs of the mythical spirits and yokai are awesome and novel. The setting leans into Japanese mythology more whole-heartedly than anything I've played except maybe Nioh 2, and it's a great palate cleanser in a glut of modern realism and western fantasy. The combat works on a fundamental level, and dashing around dodging a pair of scissors the size of my entire body while charging up an ice nova to shatter a dozen spirits is dope. KK, too, is an interesting character. As the player, we briefly interact with members of his old squad and get hints as to how things fell apart, but again, the most interesting aspects of this are relegated to text.

I wanted to like Ghostwire: Tokyo for its cool setting and 'mystical FPS' combat, but there's just no end to the self-sabotage. Fighting is entertaining, but simply not deep enough for how frequently the player gets jumped by enemies that give little experience or money when going from point A to point B. The setting is cool, but the plot is constantly interrupted by tutorials for different open world tasks and Akito never comes even close to developing a real personality. With plenty of style but questionable substance, I just can't recommend the game in good faith, even if I can tell that it'll very much scratch an itch for those who can overlook - or even enjoy - the constant obstacles it places in their path.

RELEASE: 2020

TIME PLAYED: 5.5 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★☆☆

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Strong character writing cementing the lead family's bond

+Some interesting pragmatism vs. idealism choices

+Expressive art and animations despite the simplistic graphics

+Short enough for multiple playthroughs to compare choices

-The scripted elements of the plot can feel a little overly railroaded

-Certain choices feel more obtuse than nuanced

In the words of the legendary Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the king." King Eryk of Davern rules a small domain, but at first glance, he seems to have it all: a loving and supportive wife, daughters who, despite their bickering, all adore their doting father, and subjects who by and large adore him. However, it isn't long at all before Yes, Your Grace reveals the cracks in the foundations of his life.

Despite his attempts to rule fairly, problems have piled up: a neighboring nation of wildmen has threatened to invade unless he marries his eldest daughter, Lorsulia, to their chieftain. Lacking the military to fend them off, he instead arranges her marriage to a prince named Ivo closer to her own age from a nearby kingdom strong enough to fend off the invasion. On top of justifiably infuriating Lorsulia, this winds up for naught; Ivo's father is poisoned at the wedding, incurring Ivo's wrath until justice is served.

Now juggling his family's personal conflicts, a pending invasion, the capricious whims of his new ally, and a sinking economy, King Eryk is under more stress than ever. In terms of gameplay, this means managing the kingdom's day-to-day troubles while also preparing for the inevitable upcoming war. Each morning, Eryk heads to the throne room and deals with a line of petitioners. These can range from struggling peasants to shady businessmen promoting their goods to potential allies offering soldiers - but never for free, of course. To keep the kingdom running, Eryk has to balance their needs with his expenses. Giving gold to a farmer who lost their crop is a generous move, but the treasury is already strained; will not being able to pay for mercenaries doom him later?

Thankfully, he's not entirely without help. On top of a bank willing to give loans (just be mindful of that interest), the king can recruit specialists who can set out and handle tasks without him needing to spend his limited coin. His Sergeant can handle matters of policing and encroaching scouting parties, his Herbalist can brew remedies and may even have a mystical gift for taming nature, and so on. Of course, they don't work for free either, so it circles back to managing the economy in the end.

After handling the day's business and planning what's to come, the King spends the evening with his family. Understandably, things are a little strained since Lorsulia left with her new husband, with his other daughters wondering if they'll eventually be used for political alliance and his wife reinforcing the necessity in the wake of a startling reveal. Eryk can smooth things over by promising to do better, but again, his words and his actions may not align, and weighing the needs of his family against those of the kingdom becomes a constant source of tension.

It's all quite rich and textured, which is why it's a shame that so much of it can feel on rails. This isn't to say that the choices don't matter; there are quite a few points that promote replay, and the difference between a masterfully handled kingdom and a poorly managed one is stark. But many of the plot's major events were put into motion before the game even started, and there isn't much the player - or King Eryk - can do to stop them. It's also difficult to not feel shorthanded occasionally, when some of these choices are undercut by consequences that might be impossible to foresee. Sometimes it felt sensible, but others, I couldn't help but sniff a bit of cheap 'balancing' to ensure I didn't get ahead of the game too much. Realistic, perhaps, in the way it shows how our choices can catch up to us years later, but it does undercut a bit of the sensation of having a say in the plot.

Still, despite this, Yes, Your Grace's snappy writing and thoughtful political intrigue make it worth a playthrough or two in my book. The sense of satisfaction upon keeping King Eryk's life together under impossible odds is prominent - I just wish that I had more of a hand in the major events.

I don't wanna do trivial questions but the Werewolf update didn't come with much of a guide and Google's got nothing.

I can see ult, but I'm struggling to find where Fury is. Apologies if it's obvious, I'm extremely colorblind and it makes UIs tough to read.

Also, how do you trigger the Takedowns from Prowl?

Thank you!

RELEASE: 2024

TIME PLAYED: 82 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★☆☆

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Protagonist Kay Vess is a hilariously flawed failgirl

+Supporting cast is mostly strong and interesting, and the story's entertaining if lightweight

+Unique, if slightly undercooked, reputation system

+Fundamentals (shooting, driving, flying) all feel pretty good on mouse/keyboard

+DLCs are substantial and varied

-Permeating sense of jank, with plenty of bugs and glitches

-Many promising mechanics are underdeveloped

-Stealth is basic and unrewarding

-Side activities, while optional, are rarely very interesting

---

The discourse around Star Wars Outlaws at launch was pretty intolerable. Discerning legitimate criticisms - like poor performance, constant crashes, and obnoxious forced stealth sequences - from a much more mean-spirited dialogue in regards to the attractiveness of its female protagonist and whether or not the game was 'woke' - became difficult without exposing yourself to the worst parts of the internet. Already maintaining a stance of 'wait for a sale' with Ubisoft games, I took my time and bought the game more than a year later at a heavy discount, and while I'm glad I waited for some of the more major post-launch patches, I found myself having a lot more fun than I expected to.

Taking place in time between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Outlaws opens with protagonist Kay Vess sick of being poor and in debt and taking on a dangerous heist in order to make something of herself. Predictably, it goes terribly wrong and she only narrowly escapes by stealing the extremely rare, valuable ship of a notorious crime lord - which, of course, pisses him off enough to put an enormous bounty on her head. Lacking allies, she reluctantly accepts the help of a known schemer and his towering bodyguard droid, in exchange for committing an even bigger heist - on the same crime lord. From there, she's got to assemble a team of experts to ensure this goes better than her last attempt, all while evading the pursuit of bounty hunters.

It's a familiar enough plot but it works well for the structure of the game, enabling the globetrotting and open world that one might expect from an Ubisoft title in this day and age. On each planet that Kay lands on, she inevitably winds up embroiled in some form of local drama, often tied to the person she's trying to recruit. The Slicer she wants might be caught up with the Imperials, for example, necessitating breaking into one of their bases in order to free them, but it's never quite that easy. For the most part, the main plot does a pretty good job of staying focused; while I wouldn't call the story itself exceptional, it's carried by strong performances and interesting characters, not the least of which is Kay herself.

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that there's an unfair amount of scrutiny on lady-led games, especially those from major publishers. Even before launch, there were debates about whether or not Kay was attractive enough, the quality of her animations, whether she'd be 'cringe' - and I have to say that it feels like enormously missing the point (on top of being supremely gross). She's easily the best part of the game, and it's largely because she's such a hilarious, unlucky failgirl, a direct answer to those who complain about 'effortlessly badass' women who never seem to face challenges. From the jump, things never go right for Kay and she usually survives only by the skin of her teeth and with assistance from others - often her adorable pet, Nix, who's a sort of fuzzy land axolotl capable of pickpocketing, assisting with puzzles, and more. Plucky as she is, Kay tends to roll with the punches, but throughout the game, the arc of her maturing and learning to take responsibility is genuinely strong, especially because it's delivered through mounting stress about how much repeated failure is beginning to wear her down.

It works, and it's a highlight even when the gameplay is a little more uneven. On a fundamental level, everything in Star Wars Outlaws works. The shooting is the strongest, with blaster duels promoting scrambling between cover and using the environment in a way that feels improvisational and madcap. Piloting a speeder is chunky and satisfying, with a few upgrades along the way to give it a bit more kick. Flying Kay's ship is serviceable if basic, navigating the space outside the playable planets for side quests and dogfights. Stealth is easily the worst aspect of the game; at launch it was mandatory, and while the developers have cut down the number of times Kay's forced into the quiet approach, she simply doesn't have many tools to make it engaging as an option. She can creep between cover and use Nix for distractions, but it's as basic as it comes and the enemy AI is hardly smart enough to keep it engaging.

There's no lack of open world clutter, either, which varies wildly in quality. Ostensibly, Kay's trying to balance her relationships with multiple criminal cartels through a faction system where high favor affects discounts and what territory you can enter, and low favor can shut off missions and even alter available allies in the plot. It's cool, and even has a couple of unique touches like the way NPCs react as you approach their territory based on their faction, but it's ultimately a little too easy to ignore. There are some real gems stashed away in the mess of available activities, like a shockingly elaborate minigame in which Kay and Nix share a meal at a local food stall, with long, bespoke animations that serve immaculately to show the bond between the two. There's Kessel Sabacc, a charming card game something like a more convoluted blackjack with incentives to cheat. But there's also an endless number of stormtrooper checkpoints to raid, smuggler cargo to steal, outlaw bases to also raid, and so on. If you enjoy the core gameplay enough to not feel satisfied by what's provided by the major quests, it might be a welcome distraction, but I personally found it diluted the experience and took away from the game's strengths.

This openness and sense of scale probably contributes to the persistent jankiness, too. The game is often gorgeous, but character models suffer under unflattering lighting that can make them look a generation behind. Enemies in scripted missions behaved well, but those out in the open world often seemed braindead and barely responsive. Sometimes I'd have to take multiple attempts to interact with an object I was standing right in front of, and others I'd try to summon my speeder only for it to stop stubbornly hundreds of meters away. None of these issues are gamebreaking, but it all adds up to a deep sense of lacking polish.

Ultimately, Outlaws is a flawed game - perhaps deeply so in some places - but when it's firing on all cylinders, it really awakens my dormant inner Star Wars fan. Introduced to the franchise by Knights of the Old Republic as a teenager back in 2004 and only ever tangentially watching the movies and television shows, I wouldn't say I'm the most invested in the franchise, but for all its failings, Outlaws captures the magic of the universe well, and there's something to be said for it being more than the sum of its parts. Being carried by a strong cast and great acting doesn't hurt, either.

RELEASE: 2021 (2022 PC)

TIME PLAYED: 63 Hours (Core Game) + 5 Hours (Kaito Files Expansion)

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★ (Lost Judgment) ★★★★ (Kaito Files Expansion)

Hated It | Disliked It (Lost Judgment) | Liked It | Loved It (Kaito Files) | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded scores are the ones chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

BREAKDOWN/TL;DR:

+Fantastic combat system that has the most fluidity and depth of just about any RGG Game

+Some exciting side stories and minigames such as the boxing gym

+Gorgeous animation work and graphics adding cinematic flair to cutscenes

-The story is massively disappointing, poorly paced, and dependent on the protagonist repeatedly failing to do his job properly
-Constant recapping of every plot beat drags things out even more, with the same reveals being discussed in agonizing detail often four or five times

-Much of the gameplay content feels diluted by poorly designed minigames or overly long, dragged-out gags

-Many major subplots and sidestories are locked behind time-padded minigames that are overly interconnected

---

I'm going to start this review off by saying that Lost Judgment is, by most metrics, a fantastic game with a cinematic story, responsive and exciting combat, and loads of content. With that established, the two-star rating above may seem egregious - but despite these qualities, I simply found myself deeply unhappy with it. Some of the reasons were obvious in the moment; others, I had to sit and consider, but they became undeniable the more I thought about them and I realized that despite the buffet before me, I ultimately spent relatively little of my time playing Lost Judgment actually having fun.

The game starts off strongly and makes a great first impression. With the Yagami Detective Agency in full tilt, Takayuki Yagami has successfully capitalized off the notoriety he got for solving the major case in the previous Judgment game. Soon, however, he's pulled out of series mainstay Kamurocho to investigate a bullying endemic in a private school in Ijincho, the city introduced in 2020's Like A Dragon. While hiring a PI might seem excessive at first, the early reveal of suicidal ideations in the victims effectively casts what could have been a 21 Jump Street-style plot into something darker.

Since there's no way he can pass as a high schooler, Yagami instead is set up as a counselor for after-school activities - which conveniently sets him up for a wide variety of minigames and the game's most major subplot regarding getting to the root of rapidly spreading delinquent activity. It was here I first started to struggle with Lost Judgment. See, this storyline - hunting someone named The Professor who seems to be corrupting the students - is fundamentally interesting, but it requires progressing EVERY school subplot; Dance Club, Motorcycle Club, Robotics, Boxing, so on. So if you happen to like half the minigames but despise the other half? Too bad. I did want to see this storyline through, but the fact that the minigames required varied wildly in quality (compare Boxing, which was so fun it could be its own spinoff to the Robotics Club whose awkward controls and grinding for parts made it utterly intolerable) meant that I spent at least half the time progressing the plot not having any fun at all, and that's not even including the inconsistent writing quality between each of the subplots.

The argument could easily be made that this is entirely optional content, and it's not wrong; but again, I DID like half of it, which made the fact that I couldn't engage with that half without having to put up with the other half that I grew to loathe all the more irritating. Interconnecting such a wide variety of minigames and substories into one greater plotline is conceptually interesting, but it's a gamble dependent on the quality being consistent - which it simply wasn't for me.

What isn't optional content is the main story, however, and if anything I had an even worse time with that. It starts off well enough, a pretty classic RGG Studios tale of layering conspiracy and fakeouts, but whereas in the last game, Yagami felt like a capable if idealistic detective, in this one he repeatedly gets blindsided by the most obvious plot points and consistently fails to do any actual investigative work. Every lead is dropped into his lap, and he's led by the nose into every major revelation. An inflated cast doesn't help, either; while Yagami's supporting crew remain a highlight, an influx of new villains who step in and out of the plot almost at random alongside a number of frienemy-type situations just dilutes what little screentime some of the better characters already get.

Thankfully, where the game is strong is the core gameplay. Like the previous Judgment spinoff and the Yakuza games it originates from, Lost Judgment employs a real-time arcade brawling system that is increasingly unique. More arcadey than the cinematic action combat of many modern games, but not quite as elaborately combo-focused as character action titles, the RGG games have always existed in an enjoyable middle ground, and Lost Judgment's fighting is more polished than ever. In addition to the powerful single-target focused Tiger Style and sweeping Crane Style from the previous game, Yagami also has a new Snake Style, focused on elaborate takedowns and intimidation, and Boxer Style - a simple, brutally effective beatdown based on timed dodges and counters. Snake Style is a little bit overtuned - despite being introduced as Yagami's way of 'going easy' on high-schoolers, it has some absolutely brutal takedowns and is easily able to handle every fight in the game on its own - but every style does its job well, and flipping between them rapidly in combat is a pleasure thanks to an entertaining time-slow that allows for some truly aggressive juggles. Boss fights are a highlight as well; bosses are aggressive enough to be difficult to stunt on TOO much, but they're not immune to every trick which makes it feel all the more rewarding to combo a full lifebar off them.

Unfortunate, then, that it's so often interrupted by gimmicks that aren't half as fun. Look, I get it; Lost Judgment is a LONG game. Maybe too long, and it could have been cut! But as it is, there was probably a desire to add variety, and I'm sympathetic to that. But like the previous Judgment, the 'detective' side of this detective action adventure just doesn't hold up. The minigame of following people for up to ten minutes is thankfully reduced in frequency (though, irritatingly, not gone entirely) but a new stealth sequence involving creeping around and flipping coins out to distract enemies is as dull as it gets - and frequently used in both in the main story and side quests. While there's still plenty of fighting to be had, between these and the side story in the school, even those who aren't completionists and just want to complete major narrative arcs have to invest hours upon hours into some truly awful gameplay.

I wish I wasn't so down on Lost Judgment, because I do see the vision. Nothing exemplifies this better than the Kaito Files, a brisk 5-ish hour expansion following Yagami's partner and heavy hitter, Kaito, as a lost love from his past resurfaces. Despite Kaito's combat not quite being as fun as Yagami's - he's mostly reusing Kiryu's Brawler and Beast Styles from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami with a few extra moves - its tighter pacing and smaller cast are to its benefit. Considering how much the core game suffers from its glacially paced plot and enormously inflated cast, I wish it had gotten a second pass and taken some of the same lessons away.

Judging by the general reception to the game, I think I'm in the minority when it comes to just how hard I bounced off of Lost Judgment, and I don't take any joy in that. Knowing that there likely won't be a third game due to logistics issues, I really hoped to bid Yagami and company a fond farewell in this outing, but a strong expansion pack and enjoyable combat unfortunately just didn't manage to distract me from how much I was dreading each poorly-written plot twist, repetitive fight against a barely-memorable villain, or poorly balanced minigame. I wanted to love Lost Judgment, I really did; instead, it wound up as perhaps my least favorite game I've ever played from RGG Studios.

RELEASE: 2022

TIME PLAYED: 52 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★☆ (Co-Op) ★★★☆☆ (Solo)

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It (Solo) | Loved It (Co-Op) | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded scores are the ones chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Colorful art and animation work is vibrant and fun to watch in action

+Flexible upgrade paths and designs smooth out a lot of survival grind

+Combat is much more satisfying and physical than most games in the genre

+Story is lightweight but more involved than one might expect, providing guidance on what to do next

-Some enemy balancing feels off for smaller groups or solo play

-Base-building is mostly academic and generally feels unnecessary

It's kind of crazy it took so long to get a proper, polished, 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids'-inspired Survival game. There were a few kicking around in Early Access for awhile, but Grounded came out swinging so hard that it immediately means that this extremely niche field now has some serious competition.

As the inspiration might suggest, Grounded sees the player - or players, as it supports up to four player co-op - taking the role of a schoolchild who's been shrunk down to a miniscule height in the backyard of the scientist who invented the technology, tasking them with surviving long enough to discover how this happened, why their memories are gone, and how to undo it. Solving the shrinkage mystery is secondary to that first objective, however; compared to the player, ants are the size of mastiffs and spiders tower like many-legged houses (there's an arachnophobia slider if you need it).

Luckily, the player is in the shoes of some wildly creative kids. In classic survival game fashion, the core loop is pretty predictable: whack plants and rock to make basic tools to defeat basic enemies to make armor and weapons and slightly better tools to so on and so forth. But as well-trodden as this is, the execution and aesthetic work together to keep it interesting. Instead of trees, you're chopping down blades of grass and sprouting seeds. Need a shield? An acorn shell will work nicely. And what about a weapon? Well, you could wield an antlion leg as a greatsword, or maybe - eugh - fashion a toenail into a scimitar. Whatever your choices, there are plenty of options. I packed myself into armor crafted from insect shells and a ladybug shield, becoming a tank that could withstand the charge of even a rhino beetle. My brother was an archer who fired arrows of different 'elemental' types - in this case meaning arrowheads crafted from spicy, sour, and salty pieces of candy the size of our entire bodies. Between satisfying feedback and a few mechanics like timed parries, we were both impressed by how good it felt to battle.

The narrative isn't terribly deep, mostly following the descent of the inventor into increasing desperation and experimentation as he clashes with the corrupt company who had stolen his technology, but it does a good job of providing guidance and something to focus on when unsure of where to go next. The unique perspective due to the players being shrunken is a great strength of exploration; abandoned doughnuts are sources of endless ingredients, a toppled grill is an enormous field of ash and burning coals, and diving underwater leads to fleeing an absolutely gargantuan koi fish while digging for loot among plastic dinosaurs and horse-sized tadpoles. Personally, my brother and I wound up preferring exploring to base-building, due to both the sheer amount of materials required to build a home and the lack of real need to do so; but this leads into my one big problem with the game.

Fundamentally, Grounded just didn't quite feel balanced around two players, at least on normal difficulty. 'Raids' on our base in revenge for attacking anthills or termite mounds were rarely a threat even among our bare-bones territory and defenseless crafting stations, but boss fights often felt tediously overlong, even when bringing the correct elements and weapons to deal as much damage as possible. While most of Grounded was a smooth experience, there were multiple occasions that we both just felt that with two more players, it would have felt better-balanced.

Still, these minor quibbles don't change the fact that Grounded is one of the most smoothly executed, compelling survival games out there, with satisfying combat and rewarding exploration. While we might have benefitted from an extra pair of tiny hands when it came to base-building and boss-slaying, the rest of the time we marveled at the thrill of hauling oversized candy pieces back home, raiding a tabletop game for plastic memorabilia, and climbing a berry bush like it was the world's largest Redwood. Grounded aims big, even when it's about being small.

RELEASE: 2024

TIME PLAYED: 12 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★★

The Breakdown

+Absolutely masterful writing, with distinct characters, a compelling plot, and gut-busting humor

+Entertainingly tactical but accessible blend of XCOM tactics and puzzle gameplay

+Immaculate pacing that doesn't outstay its welcome with optional challenges for those wanting more difficulty

-Can't think of a single negative on this one, to be quite honest

Tactical Breach Wizards is everything I love about indie gaming: A clever concept immaculately executed that doesn't outstay its welcome or dilute its own charms with feature bloat. In an era of bloated budgets, creeping scope and extraneous features, this turn-based tactics/puzzle hybrid used humor and charm to strike a chord with me and made for one of my favorite games of all time.

As insane as the name 'Tactical Breach Wizards' sounds, it's about as accurate a title as you can get. The story follows Zan, a retired special ops wizard in a mystical modern world where automatic assault staves and traffic control warlocks are very real things; while the ability to use magic is rare, it has shaped the culture and nations of this setting considerably. With the ability to see exactly one second into the future, Zan is a capable specialist - but not as capable as his former partner, Liv, whose mastery over time makes her possibly the strongest woman alive, unstoppable even by entire teams of other sorcerers.

Yeah, she goes rogue. Of course she does.

Desperate to find out what went wrong in the two years since she disappeared but woefully outmatched, Zan recruits luckless storm witch Jen, necro-medic Dessa, and other allies to track Liv down and stop her from committing increasingly alarming and confusing acts of terror. It's a solid plot, but where it really shines is as a vehicle to deliver the characters from setpiece to setpiece both for elaborate tactical puzzles and to display their dazzling chemistry.

Zan is a bit of a sad sack, but beneath that is a well of experience, dry humor, self-awareness, and a desperate need to fix problems. This makes him a perfect mesh with Jen and her happy-go-lucky nature, knack for sniffing out mysteries, and occasional startling observations towards everyone else's inner workings while remaining almost willfully oblivious of her own. Their personalities, and those of the other eventual three playable pary members, not only make for incredible banter - seriously, this game rivals Disco Elysium in having my favorite dialogue ever - but summarize their playstyles as well. Honestly, I could write an entire second review just about the game's character dynamics and writing - they're that good, and despite the cutting throughline of humor, each feels distinct and complex, avoiding the flattening of their depth that often accompanies such a tone.

Each level of Tactical Breach Wizards is effectively a series of rooms full of enemies with either one or multiple breaching points. On first glance, it might seem similar to XCOM: Chimera Squad, the spinoff notable for removing the strategic layer from the long-running franchise and focusing entirely on SWAT Team-style encounters. But while Chimera Squad was still a tactics game at its core, Tactical Breach Wizards hews closer to solving puzzles than anything. You CAN play it like XCOM, and you'll probably get through it fine, but it somewhat begs for taking more liberties than the safest and low-risk shots possible.

For one thing, there's no hit percentages or ambiguity; thanks to Zan's power, you can see exactly how each turn will go before you do it, and even rewind repeatedly to experiment without any risk. Enemy actions are similarly foreshadowed; if a foe is going to target Jen for moving into cover near them, it's made immediately and abundantly clear. As a result, the challenge comes not from beating levels - doing so is honestly pretty easy - but from finding the most efficient and fun ways to do so. Sure, you COULD just take that guy out with a basic attack, but wouldn't it be hilarious to knock him into a generator to weaken him, line him up with his ally, and knock them off the wall until they're unconscious like a pair of bowling pins? Optional challenges direct the player to experiment along these lines, but only reward cosmetics to ensure those not interested don't feel left out, and respeccing each character is free and easy.

If you're familiar with the window-busting love of defenestration that developer Suspicious Developments has a long-standing obsession with in previous titles Gunpoint and Heat Signature, it's likely little surprise that the emphasis is ultimately on physics and how to exploit it not just offensively but defensively. Even the writing gets in on this, with the characters having spirited discussions about the safest and most non-lethal way to ward the windows to slowfall anyone they chuck out of them. This feedback loop of charming prose, encouraging creativity, and engaging the player is what makes it all click despite the lack of forced challenge, and some later levels throw curveballs that have as much narrative weight as gameplay impact. I can't even playfully accuse Tactical Breach Wizards of leaving me wanting more; the optional content is exactly the right epilogue, letting the player engage with its mechanics even after the well-told story ends.

It's extremely rare that I call a game perfect, but Tactical Breach Wizards is lean and focused in all the right ways to be exactly that, at least for me. Some people might crave a bit more mandatory difficulty in the core path, but it's so fun to replay levels and spice things up with different playstyles that I couldn't complain, and the writing is pitch-perfect. While the gameplay kept me interested, what really won my heart was how much I wound up invested in every single character and how emotional I found certain moments despite the otherwise frequently comedic tone. For these reasons, I put Tactical Breach Wizards very high on my must-play list.

RELEASE: 2018

TIME PLAYED: 5.5 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★☆

Hated It | Disliked It | Liked It | Loved It | All-Time Favorite

(The bolded score is the one chosen for this review; the rest are simply to show what the scale is grading on and what the stars mean to me.)

THE BREAKDOWN

+Unique co-op gameplay that pushes variety to the limits

+Surprisingly strong story despite generic appearances

+Well-paced, with few minigames ever outstaying their welcome

-Artstyle is pretty dull

-Some of the slower scenes don't land due to occasionally awkward writing

-Shooting sequences handle pretty badly

Hazelight Studios has made it pretty big these days thanks to the blockbuster success of It Takes Two and Split Fiction, and creative lead Josef Fares has been making some waves with his co-op oriented games since Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. My own brother and I were looking for something to co-op and decided to dive into A Way Out, Hazelight's first game and Fares' sophomore effort, with mild curiosity - and came away pleasantly surprised, if convinced that what we'd played wouldn't have been half as fun alone.

The setup is simple, and suitably compelling: Leo and Vincent are a pair of imprisoned convicts in 1972 who each have a grudge against Harvey, Leo's former partner and a notable crime boss. Vincent, a new arrival, winds up assisting Leo with his escape plan so that they can both get their revenge on the man who wronged them. The motivations aren't complex and Leo and Vincent's early arguments can occasionally be difficult to take seriously as the protagonists' EXTREMELY Swedish voice actors struggle a bit to sound like hardened American criminals, but we found ourselves wrapped up quickly nonetheless in the plot, if only because it was so well-integrated into the gameplay.

As far as what that gameplay entails, well, that's difficult to summarize succintly. In the most basic sense, A Way Out is made up of a series of minigames, each respresenting the duo's efforts to escape prison and get their revenge. One player might need to sneak through the prison hospital to steal a screwdriver while the other distracts the nurse; later, Vincent has to cover Leo's back in a vicious fight in the cafeteria, the two exchanging blows with a group of fellow convicts trying to run them through with shivs. Much later, they chase an informant through a construction site, alternating paths to box him in and keep him in sight. For the most part, the variety on display is impressive, and the execution is uniquely entertaining to watch. Cinematic camera angles, alternating between split-screen simultaneous play and rapid back-and-forth with the focus on one player at a time, always kept my brother and I guessing, and optional minigames - like comically stopping in the middle of breaking-and-entering a house to hold a spontaneous concert with the person we're robbing's musical instruments - are an opportunity for both co-operation and competition.

That said, there's still a few misses. Inevitably, fistfights and car chases eventually escalated to gunfights, and those handled absolutely terribly. There were also a couple of plot twists that weren't necessarily bad, but more like irrelevant; a betrayal that had no payoff, for example. Still, the game's storyline ends on a high note and an interesting encounter, so it's hard to knock these occasional stumbles too hard.

All in all, A Way Out is such a unique co-op game that it's difficult not to recommend - if you're co-oping it. (Small note, only one copy has to be bought for this! Buying the game gave me a 'friend pass' that let my brother play with me for free). Unless you want to use two controllers or risk unstable mods, it doesn't work as a solo game - but as an experience with a partner, it's unique, matched only by Hazelight's own future games. It's exciting to see what can be done in the medium, especially for more storytelling-oriented games, with an experience built from the ground up for two players.

RELEASE: 2024

TIME PLAYED: 18 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★☆☆

THE BREAKDOWN

+Well-paced and doesn't outstay its welcome, with nice variety in gameplay for its runtime

+Compelling aesthetics, with a good number of unique environments and NPC designs

+A good mix of weapons enabling multiple playstyles

+Interesting and varied boss designs that feel like major battles

+Extremely fun traversal and shortcut mechanics while exploring

-Missing a lot of polish, doesn't look good enough to run this poorly

-Animations are stiff enough that reading enemy attacks can be sometimes awkward

-Characters are fine but mostly uninteresting

I'm in a weird space between really liking Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn and mourning its missed potential. There's nothing particularly wrong with the game - in fact, it's rock-solid in most respects - but while I admire the ambition on display on a middling budget, the magic that really might have elevated it into a special experience isn't quite there, as enjoyable as it was in the moment.

Inspired by the likes of Soulsbornes and the newer God of War games, Flintlock's a 'cinematic third-person action game' that tries to blend the two to uneven effect. There's a lot to like, not least of which is the setting, which I found immediately compelling. In an endless war against the undead, protagonist Nor Vanek serves the human Coalition as a Sapper - a trench warfare expert with skill in black powder firearms, a new technology in the fantastical setting. When her squad's actions inadvertently release ancient gods from the realm beyond, Nor teams up with a fox-like deity named Enki to recapture them and restore balance to the world.

It doesn't take long for these released gods to start seizing power, so Nor has plenty of opposition along her way to stop them. Though enemies are primarily of the undead variety, there are loyalists to this new order that also need to be dealt with. It's fighting these foes that makes up most of the game's runtime, and all in all, the combat system works pretty well. As a Sapper, Nor is skilled in both melee and ranged battle. Landing hits with her melee weapon recharges her pistol (don't ask why), and Enki serves as a helpful companion who can strip defenses, stun, and deal damage with a single button press. As I mentioned before, there's a Souls-lite system here; there's no stamina to limit Nor's offense, but enemies hit hard and viciously punish mistakes, necessitating ample amounts of dodge-rolling on the player's part. Luckily, Nor also gains access to heavy weaponry that can even the odds in tougher fights, like a grenade launcher and flamethrower.

When not battling the armies of the dead and clashing with brainwashed zealots, Nor travels from zone to zone across a handful of semi-open world maps, assisting the oppressed townsfolk by -- well, battling the armies of the dead and clashing with brainwashed zealots, mostly. But while there isn't a ton of variety, I still found a lot to appreciate. Defeating roaming bosses can restore districts, which unlocks the local coffee shop that serves as a side quest hub. As simple as it was, I got some enjoyment out of catching up on the local gossip while being served brew by a gargantuan, inhuman barista (their designs are REALLY cool). In true Soulsborne fashion, exploration is expedited through the use of unlocking shortcuts to make backtracking easier, but in Flintlock's case, they went above and beyond. Instead of unbarring doors or activating elevators, Nor borrows Enki's power to leap through miniature gates of pure energy; while not displaying the impressive map design chops of the genre's titans, I loved hurtling across the map at breakneck speed, enjoying an aerial view of the region below.

There are a couple of other highlights - boss battles are infrequent but enjoyable, with unique designs, and I liked seeing how my build crystallize throughout the game, turning me into a pyromaniac bruiser who dealt exponentially more damage the longer I set my enemies on fire and chopped them with an axe - but all in all, Flintlock is consistently decent, and I say that recognizing how faint its praise is. There are no elements I would say are fundamentally bad, but there's also very little that brushes up against greatness. Nor and Enki are fine protagonists, but not exceptionally memorable; the combat is functional and usually fun but not great; the worldbuilding and lore are interesting, but the story's a little too sparse to really do much with it. Flintlock frequently entertained me and occasionally delighted me, but I was rarely impressed, and Souls-inspired ARPGs are a pretty crowded market. I do still think it's worth playing, especially on a sale - I just hope developer A4's next game is a little bit more inspired.

LIKE A DRAGON: THE MAN WHO ERASED HIS NAME REVIEW

RELEASE: 2023

TIME PLAYED: 28 Hours

PLATFORM PLAYED: PC (STEAM)

SCORE: ★★★★☆

THE BREAKDOWN:

+The most meaningful character development Kiryu's gotten in years

+Responsive and polished combat even compared to other recent Yakuza games

+An interesting cast that's small enough for everyone to get screentime and focus

+Plotline is mostly one of Yakuza's stronger ones

-The Daidoji can be difficult to take seriously as more than a convenient plot device

-The 'agent gadgets' are extremely inconsistent in their usefulness

-Kiryu's English voice actor can be monotone and doesn't nail his performance

---

It's been a long, strange, tragic journey for Kazuma Kiryu. After being forced to abandon everyone he's ever known to protect them from the fallout of his Yakuza lifestyle in 2016's Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Kiryu has gone into hiding with the help of the Daidoji, a powerful Japanese syndicate that controls many government agencies and criminal organizations from the shadows. In return for completely disappearing and faking his death, Kiryu's given protection by the Daidoji, but this comes with strings attached: namely, that he has to perform jobs for them while in disguise. Sunglasses and insisting on being called 'Joryu' count as a disguise, right?

It's a bit of a convoluted setup, but for anyone used to the ups and downs of your average Yakuza game storyline, that's standard fare - and one should probably be used to them before touching Man Who Erased His Name. While there's room to argue about how well many games in the long-running series work as jumping on points, it's hard to think of one that'd be worse than this; much of the plot's gravitas and best moments are dependent on knowing Kiryu's history and having experienced his story up until this point. It's a spinoff in name only - it's best to treat it as a critical chapter in the tale of its protagonist.

For those players, however, it's a top-class experience. When a simple guard job goes wrong - surprise surprise, there's a powerful Yakuza faction who's very much aware Kiryu's still alive and has business with him - the legendary Dragon of Dojima has to step back into the ring while simultaneously minimizing how much of an impact he makes. With the help of his Daidoji handler, Hanawa, and a local fixer named Akame, Kiryu begins investigating the seedy underbelly of Sotenbori. It's difficult to speak much more on the storyline without getting buried in proper nouns related to the prolific franchise, but what I can say is it's one of the series' better tales, carried in large part by its main cast and some twists that feel believable while still having capacity to surprise. Akame is a particular standout; I've long wanted more women to have big roles in the series, and she's both funny and helpful, adding levity while serving a necessary purpose. My only real qualm narratively was with the Daidoji as a whole's role in the plot at times; they conveniently swap between laughably incompetent and ominously omnipresent at the drop of a hat, and didn't feel like they had the same weight as the core characters.

When he's not being embroiled in Yakuza conspiracies - and often while he is - Kiryu spends most of his time, in franchise tradition, beating the hell out of street goons and taking part in frequently absurd side stories. His infamous Dragon of Dojima combat style feels better than ever, and is accompanied by the new Agent style, a technical and finesse-oriented form that implements James Bond-esque gadgets. The gadgets themselves are a bit finicky - while I found the rocket boots and deployable wire invaluable, the summoned drones and cigarette bombs just sucked compared to beating the hell out of people -- but the rest of the style rips, and it's extremely cool to see Kiryu, after decades of brawling, mixing in some skillful martial arts.

Ultimately, Man Who Erased His Name doesn't break any new ground for the franchise, but it's well-executed, consistent, and outside of a few minor quibbles, narratively compelling. While it's extremely dependent on being familiar with at least the events of Yakuza 6 if not the entire series to really shine, it's an exceptional action game and a tale of sacrifice that, in true Yakuza spirit, is a often hilarious as it is heart-rending.