Hawke64

God Eater Resurrection. I don't quite get the sense of humor of the writers. Dyaus Pita. It was rather random. The character on the right acted like the avatar replied, but it was silent and there were no dialogue options available. Somehow immersion-breaking.

God Eater Resurrection. The 10th story arc/difficulty/rank consisted mostly of 2vs1 battles. It was refreshing, because I had to learn aragami's movesets, time my attacks and manage the stamina. The Corrosive Hannibal (#1) took 3-4 attempts, the rest, including the second battle against the Corrosive Hannibal, required only one. These missions reminded me of that one time in GE2, when I was with an underlevelled NPC companion, who got KO'ed quickly, and I had to solo the boss. I know that there are 3 more ranks to go, but I am quite satisfied with ending the game at this point. It was less enjoyable than GE3, but not too terrible.

God Eater Resurrection. I acquired more equipment and grew accustomed to the difference in controls between GE3 and GER. So far, I've been focused on the story missions and successfully reached Rank/Difficulty 6 (not sure how many are there). It is noticeable that GER was developed for handheld consoles (mostly, GUI and animations), but it is ported quite well to PC. The things that bother me are the plot presentation (worse than GE3), characters (too anime) and the default operator, Hibari. Unlike Amy (GE3), she almost screams during missions and her lines are too long (e.g. the target's status changes while she's still talking), thus I've disabled VA for missions, though I like to know if the aragami is retreating or just preparing for another attack (sometimes I can't see it). It should be possible to switch to another support NPC after completing the main story. At least, it was in GE2RB. Edit. I cleared Difficulty/Rank 6 and (I think) the base game (the pre-Resurrection part). The plot did not improve, but the difficulty increased, so it somehow worked out. The final (?) boss, Arda Nova, still took only one attempt.

God Eater 3, v.2.30. Melammu Marduk might be a reskin of the normal Marduk, but it had several (2?) new abilities.

Disco Elysium. I successfully discovered the corpse and vomited twice in front of it. I think, it would go better, if I was able to skip or at least speed up animations. God Eater: Resurrection. The controls feel off - like the avatar is weightless - after GE3, but I appreciate the lore. This time it's in cut-scenes, instead of the in-game encyclopedia. The story progresses slowly, I hope it'll pick up the pace soon.

I've got Steam keys for: Niche MagiCat Evergarden

God Eater 3. There was an update/free DLC with post-game content (3-4 missions for one of the companions, 1 "new"* aragami). So far so good, though I detest the character's VA - it is truly horrible and, probably, meant to be this way (the character is a child). *it looks like a reskin of an existing aragami. Tried Disco Elysium. I failed to find where to rebind the controls or to toggle highlight for interactive objects, thus played with the Tab key pressed. It is not what I had hoped for, but maybe the game will get better - it is praised for its writing, not mechanics. Though RNG in non-combat skill checks is an odd choice that inspires heavy usage of the F5/F9 keys.

I backed PoEII (as the badge confirms) and it turned out great. Also there were Read Only Memories (an adventure game in cyberpunk setting), Black The Fall (a platformer in dystopian setting), Red Goddess (a platformer, I tried it, but did not finish), Prey for Gods (in development, an action-adventure). Agreed.

Ashen: Nightstorm Isle. [Bug] 2 Batarans.

Ashen: Nightstorm Isle. The DLC is a large linear dungeon. There are several checkpoints, a boss, some weapons and armor sets. It was pretty similar to the main game, except occasionally screaming new insect-like enemies, while they were a part of the environment (i.e. invincible; to make the area more atmospheric). The boss took 3 attempts, 2 with the AI and 1 solo. It was possible to do alone, but relatively easier with the AI. There were some issues with the controls (might be just my hardware/reaction time), but nothing critical. I suppose, my main issues with the game are it being linear, from story to character builds, and the checkpoint system. Everything else is either good (rebindable controls, visual style, bosses, climbing) or serviceable (enemy variety, dodge and sidestep bound to the same key, lore). Edit. And because the NPC companion could be a player it was impossible to turn in their quests outside the main hub, so I had to fast-travel back after completing each objective. It was somehow immersion-breaking and irritating.

I do like Kickstarter (and Fig), but considering that PF:KM was a buggy mess on release and the developers did not warn the players/customers about it, I have no intention to back PF2 or purchase it for full price/on release.

Ashen. The final boss and the ending.

Ashen. I successfully reached the palace of Lathyrus and defeated the boss, the Shadow of the Ashen, thus retrieving the Human Heart. The palace itself was rather hard to navigate, just as the previous dungeon, but it also had some sort of sentries that would block the door until all enemies in the room are dead, in some cases it was possible to find another way. Fortunately, there was a checkpoint before the boss room. Though, I defeated the boss on the first attempt and proceeded to the final area (according to the map). It was dark, filled with water (like the Shrine of Amana in DS2) and those leaping homing things (no idea how they are called). I mostly ran and ignored them. There was no boss at the end of the area, but the Twin Hearts of Lathyrus (the things dropped by Amiren and the Shadow of the Ashen) were restored and the location of the Ashen was uncovered. With my weapon fully upgraded (Ash Infused +7), all town folks' journeys complete I attempted the final boss. The arena was in the cave I had found at the beginning of the game and assumed that it was either optional or meant to return later. The boss itself was much faster than Amiren or the Shadow and my companion often fell to his death during or after the first phase. I have not yet defeated the boss. Edit. Defeated the final boss. The key was a two-handed weapon (the Rotten Axe, in my case) and switching the boss' aggro between the companion and me, especially during the second phase.

Yes. It is a Souls-like, but more co-op focused and less of a Metroidvania (there are almost no shortcuts).

Ashen. Founded the town. The first and so far the only character with facial details. Not a bad thing, but it is an interesting design decision. The second boss defeated, fast travel unlocked. These things can use ladders. Amiren, attempt #1. Amiren, attempt #2. Success.

Ashen, a co-op focused Souls-like (more of an action-adventure, but it was advertised as a mix of Dark Souls and Journey*). After several hours I reached the second boss, Amiren. The dungeon that led to her was a 3D maze. Somehow I found a "short-cut" (it was not short enough and there was a large group of enemies) on my first try, but died before reaching the boss room. So the next 3-4 attempts I tried to reach my (in DS terms) "bloodstain" and recover the not-souls dropped. For some reason (probably, co-op), it was impossible to use a lantern and a shield at the same time and Ashen had quite realistic darkness - I could not see anything without a light source. In the end, I somehow lost my NPC companion (I assumed that he either despawned or fell to his death), but reached the boss. I lost two hits away from victory. And for the next 3 or so hours I tried to get back to the boss with the companion alive. At some point he got stuck somewhere again, but rejoined me when I approached Amiren's room. She had more HP and the battle was more chaotic, but we succeeded. The key to traversing the dungeon was memorizing the path and just running through, ignoring the enemies. *The NPC companions are (figuratively and literally) faceless, so any player can take place of any companion, but ridiculously effective and aggressive. The two direct consequences I see are low variety of builds (there are 2 stats, HP and stamina, and their increase are quest rewards; weapons don't have any stat requirements) and the above-mentioned lack of (combat) personality (also the necessity to warp back to the town and report to the NPC, while they were with you when you completed their quest). I strongly dislike the lack of manual saves and the game's attempts to connect to its servers. Switching Steam to the offline mode helps with the latter, but it is irritating.

Katana ZERO. It was more of a puzzle with action elements, than an action-platformer. It is stunningly beautiful visually (I could not take screenshots with Steam, though), the soundtrack and sound effects are quite good (I turned off the former after one of my unsuccessful attempts to beat a level). The controls felt tight and are rebindable, 5-button mice are not supported. The choices in dialogues and gameplay affect the later chapters. The story is interesting and well presented, using cut-scenes and gameplay sequences. I have not encountered any bugs or crashes. I've successfully reached the ending (there was a cliffhanger) and did not like the game, despite it being objectively good. I suppose, the instant-death combat was more frustrating, than satisfying for me.

I occasionally use Origin (the last time on 01/01/2020). The only technical issue I have is that the launcher does not save my password when starting in offline mode, everything else works fine - it allows to purchase games, to launch them and I disabled the "social" elements that were added few years ago, so it does not bother me. ---- God Eater 3. I've finished the 7th Rank (the story was presented via text-only mission descriptions), extra episodes "Another Devil" and "Traversing the Past" (for 5 companions). It seems that I probably should have waited longer - there is more content to be released that is crucial to the main story. I had hoped to complete the game during the holidays, so it is rather irritating.

God Eater 3. The game told me that I've finished the main story, but there are still more missions. For some reason, the 7th Rank marked as "optional" and the Extra missions as "story" (which is confusing). The ending (Rank 6) was quite emotional, though I would prefer,

I second Dragon Age and would recommend Dungeon Siege III, Shadowrun: Hong Kong and Dragonfall (cyberpunk setting with turn-based combat). Also there are Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, GreedFall and Pyre, though they are third-person (not isometric) action-RPG.

God Eater 3. The story picked up the pace and is moving in the direction I like. It took just 19 hours. My party successfully defeated Anubis, the large aragami from the opening movie, and reached the 6th rank/story arc.

Two more games from 2019 I'd like to mention. Double Cross. It is a really good platformer. There is nothing exceptional, but it was engaging and enjoyable (and one bug I encountered was fixed a week ago). The Outer Worlds. While I do not like first-person view, open-world maps and combat-wise bland companions, TOW is a very good RPG - there are an interesting branching story with different choices, skill checks for non-combat actions, good writing and memorable characters (mostly, Martin the Moon Man Mascot). I have not encountered any bugs and was able to bind actions to the 4th and 5th mouse buttons.

God Eater 3. I reached Rank 4 and unlocked Assault Missions. In the offline mode I got 7 AI companions. They seemed randomized, but fairly capable. We could not defeat the Glacial Ra within 5 minutes, but there were some rewards, the most notable were new Engage (team-action-thing) abilities. The story became even more ridiculous, but I can't start the next mission before talking to key NPCs, who are not shown on the map and can be anywhere at the hub. On the other hand, I finally got reasonably good builds for my companions and bosses became challenging.

Code Vein (Demo)

Completed the demo of Code Vein. It is a decent Souls-like, gameplay-wise, and the controls are excellent (there's even 5-button mouse support). But the combat was disabled when I got to the hub, like in some linear JRPG. The story is very anime-like. Character customization does not include beards for some reason. I died twice during the demo, once to gravity, once to a zombie with a glaive. So now I'm considering purchasing The Surge 2 and waiting for 75%+ discount on Code Vein.