Dog

#9 SEPTEMBER 2024

So, since it’s been two months since I don’t feel like writing any kind of review and there’s no sign my mood will change anytime soon, I decided to apply a simple color code to the thumbnail background just to indicate if I liked a game or not. (btw I have retroactively applied it to all my posts)

  • Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

    18.7 hours playtime

    49 of 59 achievements

  • Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles

    11.4 hours playtime

    31 of 80 achievements

  • Sifu

    12.5 hours playtime

    33 of 61 achievements

  • Blacktail

    14.6 hours playtime

    15 of 32 achievements

Edit:
it seems like a bad mood and some free time work like a charm for writing. I managed to catch up with the reviews of these last two months. I edited the posts and moved the color legend aforementioned in my profile description.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
I really liked the storytelling and how they explored the characters. I knew them only from what you can see in the movies, so it felt quite refreshing to experience a different take on them. I liked Draxx the most, especially his backstory. I felt that in this game he was a lot more profound as a character and could be put on the same level as the others instead of being just some side comic relief like in the movies. The dialogues are well written and there was a nice balance between the omnipresent humor and the most tense moments of the story.
The weak part of the game is the combat. Dodging feels awkward and the auto-lock can be a hindrance while shooting. Looking at your companions during fights can be a bit disheartening, since at times you can see them standing there and doing nothing, and that’s because if they’d do actual damage on their own the fights would end in two seconds. The crowd control skills aren’t as effective as you’d expect, to the point of being useless, and some boss fights (one in particular) are chaotic, without a proper indicator of what you’re supposed to do.
Oh, I had a recurring little bug. I didn’t see many people complaining about it, though. Sometimes the voice of a specific character cuts off during dialogues for just a line or two. I could see them talking and I had onscreen subtitles of what they were supposed to be saying, but the voice would just disappear, as if it hadn’t loaded for some reason. It did happen like 20 times during the whole playthrough (it’s not much considering how extensive the dialogues are) but it was there and it annoyed me when it happened.
Putting everything on a scale, though, I can still recommend it. The story and the characters’ charm by themselves are more than enough.

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles
The game is graphically pleasant. Gameplay-wise it doesn’t pose a particular challenge and it can feel repetitive quite fast. In my entire playthrough, I think I failed my run only one time out of ten. It has some quite overcomplicated mechanics for each of the characters, which must have required a good deal of balancing from the devs, and that’s commendable, but the base game can be beaten without taking advantage of any of them. I think they’re mostly for those who look for a challenge and are planning to replay the game at harder difficulties or with bigger handicaps (there’s an incremental difficulty system similar to Slay the Spire). I personally didn’t meddle with those and I was happy with just unlocking the way to the final boss and beating it once, so I found it quite a relaxing experience.

Sifu
I think it’s a solid game. It has a really linear vengeance story and a well-built combat system. That is if you understand the game properly and learn that you have to parry/dodge and counterattack in order to proceed smoothly. The game, for some reason, doesn’t put any effort in teaching you the way to play it (despite it having a tutorial). You might end up just smashing the attack button and inevitably find yourself mopping the floor against bosses if you don’t know any better. I heard many people quit the game or found it unplayable for that reason.
I liked the graphics and character design too.
It has a bit of replayability too, since you can decide to replay the game sparing the bosses instead of killing them. However, I must say, it doesn’t make any sense story-wise. I mean: I invade your turf, I kill everyone in my way and then I decide to spare you at the end of the level. And I don’t do it just once, but 5 times, once for each boss. Kinda nonsense if I think about it.
I overall enjoyed it, though.

Blacktail
Gameplay-wise is a bit of a drag. I didn’t particularly like neither the combat and the shooting feeling nor the whole setting. I found the NCP mushrooms hard to look at and listen to. I didn’t feel involved with their stories or quests at all. The main plot is all over the place, too. I get why the protagonist is searching for her sister, but why does she mind about those other so-called “friends”? I mean, one guy thinks he owns her, the other one tries to kill her and his girlfriend treats her like shit. Just… why? And I have to forgive them too if I want to be morally just? For real?! Nah, it doesn’t work for me. I feel like the whole premise doesn’t stand and lacks proper foundations. I liked the relationship with the Voice, instead (I love their voice actress─Megaera from Hades btw), but it ends without really explaining anything. It’s a bit too open to interpretation for my taste. All in all, I can’t recommend it.

Kyrrelin

Oh my, Guardians took me almost double your time (33.5h)… XD
Do you plan on playing through it on NewGame+?

Dog

Nah, I’m satisfied with the choices I made. I don’t feel it has much replayability in that sense. Furthermore it’s not like I found the gameplay that fun even if I overall liked the game.
Btw I didn’t skip dialogues or anything. Well, I ignored collectibles and focused mostly on the main story, that’s true. Probably that’s the difference ;P

Kyrrelin

I wanna try to sell Groot and see how will throwing Rocket around look like. xD

Yeah, I searched every crook and cranny, can’t help it. ^^ Also, I always stopped to listen to all of their talks, so I have maybe spent more time standing than moving. 😂

stef

The color code is a good idea! I 100% understand not wanting to write reviews sometimes. I’m glad you liked Guardians of the Galaxy. Astrea and Sifu look like nice games as well