Bastion

I played it after Transistor, so the way of telling the story didn't surprise me and I cared little about it. Thankfully the pace is very good and the story sections aren't very intrusive.

The game plays like an old school action rpg, where the character levels up and can improve it's equipment, actually for me the fun was about increasing the difficulty and trying different equipment setups to overcome the challenge.

Bastion isn't very long and it includes a few interesting challenges and extra modes. I did 100% in two days which I guess it's okay for the price. The music is very nice and visually is very well detailed, though in some ocassions is too bright for my eyes.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want a light oldschool arpg

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.

The Wolf Among Us

I started this game after falling in love with Life Is Strange, so I was looking for more of this kind:

It's dialog heavy game with interesting characters and stories in a very extravagant world. I really loved the setup.

The main story is very interesting though there are some usual cheap-telltale moments just for the drama. And I'm not happy with the ending at all.

There also is some exploration to do very similar to the "point & click" adventures but there are no part of puzzles, it's only for the immersion.

And then there are the QTE events, no thanks, Life is Strange demonstrated that this is not needed.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want to hear a story

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Mega Man I, II & X

This was my first mega man game, I was 7 years old when I got it and it wasn't until 3 years later that I got my first boss down after understanding how to play it.

I understood that this wasn't Sonic or Super Mario World, here I had to advance very slowly, thinking where and how to move on each screen to avoid getting killed by random enemies.

Then when I reached a boss I had to watch and learn his movement and attack patterns plus try different weapons to find a weak point or a shot behavior that kept me out of danger.

After understanding all of this I found an amazingly fun game, challenging and that could be played in many different ways.

Did I like it? It took me my time... but in the end yes I did.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 7.0 out of 10.

I started this one 15 years later after beating MM2, I enjoyed both equaly but I think the ending stages are a little too hard.

Did I like it? Yes but I had problems with the last stages.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

I started this one right after MM1, I appreciate the new looks and gameplay like the charged shot. I noticed that I advanced through the stages way fast, I'm not sure if it's because X is faster paced or I'm just more experienced.

I found that the bosses were way harder than the original Mega Man, It didn't help that I managed to start the stages in the worst possible order. On the other hand I found the last stages and final boss more balanced (or less hard).

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Demon Gaze

This is a 1st person dungeon crawler, the way it works really reminds to Etrian Odissey: 5 character party with front/back lines and similar classes.

The combat is turn based, where enemies and allies attack in the same turn with the order defined by their speed. The random encounters frequency starts very low and it increases with every dungeon, it never got overwhelming.

The game also introduces some kind of "demon companions", which offers some passive and active skills and also help through the battles, those are very important in boss battles which are very challenging and usually requires to try different demon setups. There's also an original loot system, the monsters usually drop items that are used in circles that you find in the dungeson which lets you choose the type, quality and quantity of the items you want to receive after defeating the monsters in the circle.

I enjoyed the Dungeons because they are not very hardcore, the puzzles are easy and the exploration is usually fun, it reminds me a little to SMT: Strange Journey or even Persona 1.

Visually the 2D drawing looks beautiful thanks to the Vita screen, the 3D enviroments not so much but it doesn't hurt. The music is very nice, I liked the battle theme (keep in mind that I also like the Persona 1 PSP battle themes).

About the story... it seemed interesting for the first 5 minutes but I started to skip all the text once boobs and underwear little girls showed up. No regrets.

This is one of the few games that I've bothered to get the Platinum trophy. I had more fun than in any Etrian game I've played, probably because it's more forgiving and the difficulty curve increases on a pace that fits me perfectly all the way through the end and post-game.

Did I like it? Yep, I had a lot of fun.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate light dungeon crawlers
- Enjoy modern japanese plots or don't mind skipping the story.

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Citizens of Earth

A jrpg-like that tries to be inovative with very nice ideas:

- A crazy story: We're the President of Earth and have to deal with the daily citizen problems in form of quests.

- Turn-based combat with a "combo point" system with abilities that generate points and other abilities that spend them.

- Lots of recruitable characters with unique skills in combat and also out of combat perks like the "breadman" that will sell you... bread of course.

But everything falls appart because of how the game is designed, it is not fun to progress through the game and I think it is because it has a bad pace and poor level design. In the end it becomes the typical game plenty of delivery quests in a plain scenario like many modern rpgs.

Graphics are 2D and I have no complains here, same with music and sound.

Did I like it? Got bored after 2 hours, and after 6 hours I hated it.
I think you will like it if you:
- Haven't played many rpgs

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Grand Theft Auto 5

I definitelly don't like the Grand Theft Auto saga anymore.

I started with IV and I'm feeling the same way with V, the world is awesome and Rockstar puts a lot of attention on all the details, I even have a cinema to watch original (short) movies!

The characters are very unique and well developed too, but the big bad thing for me is the progression through the story because I found most of the missions very boring, I was driving for most of the mission length where nothing exciting happened, this kills the pace for me. The only missions I really loved where the heists and there are very few of them and I still hated the preparation missions (more driving...)

So no more GTA for me, I have more fun playing Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row games.

For the trolls: I did finish the game and all the optional events/missions (took me 10 hours per character).

Did I like it? I liked some characters and exploring the world, but not the "main game".
I think you will like it if you:
- Aren't tired of the GTA formula.

I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Atelier Shallie

And another cute Atelier game!

As Escha&Logy, this game has 2 protagonists to choose from with very different personality. I choose Shallotte and I had a lot of fun, the other Shallie seems more of the "innocent" kind, I didn't try it for enough time.

It has been a long time since the last time I played an Atelier game and I noticed that alchemy has really evolved a lot, there are a lot of variables to play with that makes the item creation very entertaining.

I started playing this game because they removed the time limit factor, now I can choose when to advance into the next chapter giving infinite time to explore everything I want to. Of course some players may prefer the time limit setting and I think it should have stayed that way because we already have lots of games without time limit ;)

The combat system is turn-based with an use of turns similar to FFX and Lost Oddyssey where the order depends on the skill used and can also be pushed/canceled with the right skills. Also the game has an original way to use the party members on the reserve that makes the battles very dynamic and fun. A game with this battle system, the right budget and thematic, would be a masterpiece (I mean, an Atelier game is not very commercial).

Graphically looks okay and has a few technical issues but nothing unplayable. The music is very good, a few songs have entered into my favorites list ;), the voices are okay too.

The story is good enough though the chapters pacing is a bit weird, some chapters are very long and others extremelly short or irrelevant.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate "light" jrpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a new game made by From Software based on "Dark Souls gameplay", with a few tweaks. Here is my review whining.

The combat is faster and more hectic, forcing you to be more agressive and dodging instead of blocking. I always played the Souls games with a medium shield but it didn't take me much to get used to dodge, it feels pretty natural. I had more problems with being agressive and taking the iniciative, but It stopped when I learned my weapon's swings and how the "stuns" worked.

The weapons now transform and it's pretty cool but it is not much different from the switching from 1 hand to 2 hand in Dark Souls. Also there aren't many weapons, so the progression isn't made like the usual rpgs where you find a more powerful weapon every few hours, instead they offer really different play styles and it's up to the player to become accustomed to one and stick with it.

The difficulty, I've come to the conclusion that it isn't very balanced, because:

- On my first playthrough, I played at my normal pace and I found that the game was a bit easy. Only blood-starved beast gave problems, I killed the rest of bosses on first try. Then I started NG+ which I beaten quickly and without problems. Now I'm on NG++ and don't have many problems either. I'm sure it was not due the AI bug because I kept moving the PS4 from one room to another, shutting the power in the process.

- Then I've started a new game from scratch, I played at a higher pace and I had a lot of trouble beating any boss, they kept one-shotting me all the time and I wasn't really that underleveled plus I went straight to find and upgrade my favorite weapon and leveling the correct stats and my insight was always low. I couldn't believe that I was having a harder time than playing NG+ and NG++... maybe it's a bug.

The levels are visually stunning buta bit confusing, it took me 2 playthroughs to get used to some levels. I find it hard to orientate when parts/decoration of the level look very similar, I had the same problem with Lords of the Fallen.

And my last complain is that the game is a bit short, my first play took 17 hours where I only left one boss to kill, my second playthrough took me 12 hours, where I killed everything and got the Platinum Trophy. For comparison's sake: DeS took me 24h+15h, DaS 34h+29h, DaS2 36h+42h (first play without the dlc, second play with all the dlc)

I complain a lot but the game still is very fun to play, I prefer Bloodborne over any other modern game.

Did I like it? Yes, but in some aspects less than other Souls games
I think you will like it if you:
- Like challenges

I rate my experience with an 8 out of 10

Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

Surprise of the Year! I wasn't attracted at all by this game, but I gave it a try and it is really fun and looks better than what static images show.

This game is made by the Fire Emblem developers and the structure is similar: Dialog -> Preparation -> Battle -> Dialog, it is also focused on strategy and has the same turn system where each player has it's turn to move all his soldiers, but it plays different.

The movement is also grid based but moving consumes steam, this same steam is required to attack and the amount of steam consumed depends on the weapon.

The combat is based on ranged weapons like shotguns, rifles, rockets, grenades, sniper, and the characters are controlled similar to a 3rd person shooter, where you need to aim and shoot. Of course it is not a shooter because it's your turn and the enemy is static so it is just to allow the player to aim to different parts of the monster in search of his weak points.

One thing that reminds me a lot to XCOM are the "counter attacks": a unit can stay in "guard" position which will allow it to attack an enemy unit that moves inside his sight during the opponent turn. Guard position requires a weapon that is able to counterattack and enough steam to shoot.

I call this an srpg though it doesn't have any level/stats progression (some people needs to see numbers to call it an rpg). The progression is made by finding "cogs" that are spread though the scenarios which rewards new weapons, and money that is earned by killing enemies, inside boxes around the scenario and you get more money for completing the misison, extra if you complete it witouth deaths and few turns. With money you get new "steam bags" that gives the soldier different effects: like more starting steam, more capacity, healing, etc.

The game is challenging, I loved the difficulty and balance of the enemies and scenarios from the start to the end. Also there's no global map/view so you don't know what's behind every corner until you come close to it, so you need to be prepared for everything!

The story is fine and there's not much dialog, but even so, I liked the characters a lot as they have a strong presence. I find videogame stories more enjoyable with images rather than text. Music has some good tunes and graphically looks better than I've seen on the internet.


Did I like it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like srpg
- Are looking for a challenge

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Terra Battle

This probably the only android game I've played for more than 5 minutes.

The gameplay of this game is original though is a bit hard to explain, basically it's a turn based game where you have a limited amount of time each turn to move your allies trying to surround the enemies, which will cause the allies to attack. You can surround lines of enemies and also in different directions creating chains of attacks which enables the use of different skills like powerful attacks or healing.

The rest of the game is kinda poor, the story is told with text on a static background, I had no interest at all. Graphically is very simple too, the designs are nicely done but everything is very static. I can't give any opinion about the music or sound because I always have my cellphone muted.

As most mobile games, the core is about a simple but entertaining gameplay that progresses through short stages. This is fine for a few chapters but then it starts to become really repetitive because it hasn't anything else to offer.

The player can also recruit different characters, level them up and promote their class. I never dedicated time to that I just went with the flow and my starting characters were powerful enough for most of the game.

This game also have the usual "energy" that if it depletes you need to wait or buy more with real money. I never bothered about it either.

Did I like it? I got bored.
I think you will like it if you:
- Play it once in a week or so

I rate my experience with a 4 out of 10.

Driveclub

This is one of the best arcade racing games I've ever played.

The controls may be a bit tight at first, but the learning curve is excellent, giving an strong sense of progression through the events. And even that the controls are very arcade, the game has a penalty system which makes you try to drive correctly by penalizing tricks like car raming or hitting walls at high speed to reposition the car through a curve.

The events also contribute to the sense of progression, they are really challenging and events that seemed impossible at first, they slowly become doable as you get used to control the cars and learn driving tricks. There are 3 kinds of events: race, timelap and drifting. At first drifting events seemed the hardest ones until I learned how to drift, timelap are definitely the hardest ones now.

Graphically the game is really beautiful, he illumination is really realisting specially while raining and snowing. Music is not very good on menus, and there's no music while racing but I strangely didn't notice until a friend pointed it out.

About the online mode, I've tried a few challenges but I'm an average driver and see to motivation on what the online modes offers me, I prefer to play the offline events because the difficulty is very adjusted to my skills.

This game is extremelly fun, I apreciate it not being "open world" because I don't like roaming around, on an arcade game I just want quick-plays. Also it's a shame that this game released the way it did and gained many negative reviews because it affected a lot to its sales and the possibility of a sequel.

Did I like it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like arcade racers

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Ar Nosurge

I started this because it looks like a nice Sci-Fi turn based jrpg, but I didn't expect this. Maybe I'm getting old, but years ago a jrpg didn't need tons and tons of obnoxious dialogs that don't contribute anything to the game.

I had the same problem that in Tears To Tiara, I didn't research too much about the game and I found that both are like Visual Novels. But at least on Tears To Tiara the combats were entertaining, in ArNosurge the combats are trivial and seem like a mere excuse the extend the game length.

The combat at first is really confusing, for about 8 hours I had no idea what I was doing but I was winning all the battles without problems and once I understood how it worked I became unstoppable, I don't remember using any item or friend skill. Also overleveling is a problem because grinding is easily exploitable.

The game also has a crafting system, it is very simple, the progression is boring, repetitive and it implies going through tons of stupid dialog again (and you can't skip it!).

The story starts good and has potential, but I grew so tired of reading cheap dialog that made me lose interest after the first 10 hours.

I think this game would be more enjoyable if it adopted the form of a pure Visual Novel to stop confusing people like myself :P. AND THERE'S NO SKIP TEXT BUTTON!

Did I enjoy it? No, this is bad.
I think you will like it if you:
- Liked Ciel Nosurge.
- Don't mind visual novels interrupted by boring gameplay

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Persona Q

Although this is suposed to be Persona+Etrian, this seems more like Shin Megami Tensei combats in Etrian Odyssey labyrinths with Persona 3&4 make-up.

The combats are 1st person, turn-based and the main objective is spotting and abusing the enemy weakness, it is actually very fun because the difficulty is very balanced through all the game.  All party members use what they call personas, but these really behave like demons/angels from Shin Megami Tensei as you have to keep finding new powerful demons because they become obsolete very quickly, these can be bought, obtained as a reward or by fusing 2 or more of them. All these facts make it look more like Shin Megami Tensei than Persona.

All the game happens inside of extensive labyrinths, most of these are smartly done and very entertaining to explore, although some puzzles are a bit "japanese" which made me get stuck a few times. The pace is very good, there's a small downturn after the fist half of the game that made me think about quitting, but then it recovers again with a nice dungeon.

Graphically the demons are gorgeus as usual, characters look cute and the labythings look fine, Etrian team has really improves through the years. Music is awesome as always (only if you like Persona 3&4 style).

This game took me around 51 hours to finish, I'm kinda fast completing games so I think it will take around 65 hours for the average player. The story is okay for a crossover game at least which usually is a mere excuse to bring the characters from different together. The bad point is that there are tons of dialogs, I can only guess that this is a bit of fan service as most are just the characters acting very cliché.

Did I enjoy it? Yes!
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Dungeon Crawlers
- Don't hate Persona 3&4 style

I rate my experience with a 8 out of 10.

Destiny

Pew pew pew oh nice view pew pew dance pew pew planets pew palette swap pew pew

pew pew die fallen pew pew die cabal pew pew die vex pew pew die hive pew die reaper?

pew the darkness pew pew the traveler pew pew the happening pew don't care pew pew

pew pew pew pew die guardians pew pew pew pew pew

pew pew I'm not doing anymore of these missions pew

Objective Complete.

Did I enjoy it? I had fun shooting things.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Shooters
- Don't mind paying for content on a (purposely) content-lacking game

I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10.

Dragon Age Inquisition

It felt like Dragon Age 2 all over again:

- Simple combat: spam all the abilities when they're available. On hard mode I just had to hit enemies longer, the AI script remains the same. There's a "pause mode" to establish battle tactics that is told necessary for the hardest difficulty, but I don't think that's needed to outsmart the enemies but to survive longer while the damage sponges are up. An rpg without healers is always suspicious.

- UPS/Fedex quests: check.

- Lot's of characters to intimate with tons of dialog lines. It's always nice to know more about them, seeing two male dwarves having sex not so much but diversity is apreciated.

- Fake choices: You let that guy become the king? Watch him appear, say his line ending with Outcome A. You didn't let him become king? Watch another appear, say his line ending with Outcome A. It didn't matter at all, only words change, same enemies, same objectives, same outcome = linear game with "open world" makeup.

- Character progression: Once you know what you want to be, the progression is very linear. At least the character classes have different playstyles.

The story starts nice but very forcedly tries to put everying from the last two games there, I think it would have been better as a new story in the same world.

What did I like then? Exploring. The beautiful graphics and nice scenario design make a very pleasant experience. I never cared about my characters nor the story, I just wanted to explore everything, collect rare materials, find new animals, dragons, decent puzzles and hidden places.

Did I like it? For some part yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like bioware games
- Like wrpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.

Bayonetta 2

Love: the protagonist, so devastanting and lovely, her new look,

Love: the weapons, some new some not but being able to equip the legs and arms with different weapons lead to a huge amount of different combo attacks and playstyles.

Love: lots of extra content to do, characters, costumes, weapons, power-ups, challenges, getting the best scores...

Hate: ... but it feels short and at the same time it gets a bit tiring, I think it's because of the gameplay formula can be simplyfied to "dodge->combo attack->dodge", I think this needs a revision to make it nearly perfect.

Love: Each battle is very frenetic, there's like no little filler enemies, everying is big and powerful. The difficulty is tight enough to be a fair challenge.

Hate: Load times, it takes a while to load things and can get tiring when you are going for Pure Platinum and need to keep retying the same stage.

Love: Online multiplayer, great addition though I would have prefered a second mode with harder enemies where you don't compete with your partner for the best score but for just defeating them all.

Hate: There's no offline multiplayer. If the gamepad comes with every WiiU, why not?

Love: Music is awesome, though I barely notice it while I'm focused on kicking ass.

Love: The art is very good, impressive scenarios, nasty enemies and everything moves so smooth that it really surpised the first time I took control of Bayonetta.

Hate: The textures and resolution make the game look worse than it should, those times I wish the WiiU was a bit more powerful.

Can't say it enough, each stage of this game is like the best stage from each other hack&slash.

Did I like it? Give me more.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like action games

I rate my experience with a 8.5 out of 10.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The only fun I have in these games is the recollecting part, I like exploring and getting all the "hidden" items, but it's starting to get boring because it's always the same with little reward, and in this case very bland enviroments.

The game itself is super easy, I'm an orc killing machine that dominates climbing, magic, bow, sword and stealth, surrounded by idiotic orcs who forget about me having stabbed them by just jumping a wall or crossing a corner. The new abilities learned through the game only make it easier.

Graphically looks fine, the orc textures are pretty but the enviroments are not very good, the detail is low and not very inspired. Mordor can look better and nasty than that.

The so hyped nemesis system where orcs level up is... bullshit, I kill or let live the orcs that the game tells me to and I can't choose otherwise, what's the orc name and his hobbies barely matters.

I liked one part of the story: the one that doesn't have anything to do with the protagonist and have more to do with the Middle Earth. The game took me 17 hours to 100%.

Did I like it? Only because of the lore and recolleting things like a slave.
I think you will like it if you:
- Like Assassin's Creed or Recollector Simulator
- Like Middle Earth

I rate my experience with a 5 out of 10.