Recent reviews by Meow

I got in just before the full release in 2019 iirc, so there was quite some advantage by joining earlier - and then I stopped playing around early 2022 - as I so fed up with the matchmaking and shuffler mechanism they have.

Came back for FF set and thought just in time for some fun - and I did have some fun. Despite I haven't played for so long, most of my most played decks are still viable (and of course I did some update/upgrade for them).

I won't recommend the game for sure unless you really liked MTG then MTG Arena is an acceptable online version (I have never played MTGO so I cannot comment).

Pros:
1) User friendly interface, easy click and match making other players to play some MTG

2) 'Nice to have' stuff for MTG fans - easy browsing of the cards from the available sets (but barely any improvement since 2019...), you can basically have a library of digital cards (nice for some who doesn't like cardboards as they are extortion really).

Cons:
1) Frustrating matchmaking (just like any other competitive multiplayer games anyway) but coupled with the horrendous shuffler system (have a look at google you will see it is confirmed by WotC that they admit their shuffler is broken; but yet they don't bother to fix it).
-Bronze to Plat: whatever deck will work, if you played well.
-Diamond to Mystic+: your deck needs to win by or at Turn4 if you would like to climb the ladder efficiently. It took me average at 2 hours on week days for about a month to get to Mystic from Bronze (I am rusty sure but still I already have a nice library of cards).
-LImited probably gives you less frustration but I am not sure how much one would need to win (need very high winrate) to be able to enjoy it (without spending real cash).

2) Have no doubt that WotC keeps Arena running at the bare minimum maintenance work behind, and everything is designed to keep you spending your time and money to play the game.
-The bottomline is that I don't think it is possible for a brand new player to join the game today and enjoy playing it without spending any money at all (once you get out of the newbie practice/tutorials). I think you will need to spend near at least $100-200 to craft some viable decks, it would cost a fortune to craft some good dual lands already).

3) Money grabbing ♥♥♥♥: Many professional players/Ytbers talked about the in-time economy alot back in the day and I see of course WotC never bother to improve it at all. Seriously why it is so hard to reward the players better by simply playing the game? The Mastery is torturous as you will need to spend so much time to grind it to make it worthwhile - which is rather hard for someone who works and have a family for sure - and the rewards are so so bad...

4) Still ♥♥♥♥♥♥ multiplayer support same as 2019. Maybe it works fine but it is just so ancient and you can tell they didn't try to improve it at all.

Verdict: WotC never even try to be nice to the players at all (offline or online), the entire business is solely based on the fans (or scalpers lol) who basically enjoy being treated badly by the company. I enjoy Arena once in awhile but ya I won't recommend it if you are not a fan already (which is a shame as being a gamer, it should be nice to see more people get into a game that is enjoyable but yeah no for Arena).

Absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cinema.

My god, I haven't been happy playing a JRPG since FF12 and Lost odyssey (I like Last story too, but it just lacks something magical <3 Sakaguchi). Some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ French team nailed it hard. So hard. It is stylish and fun, story and emotions driving - I cannot strongly recommend it enough for fellow (J)RPG lovers - this merde is my title of JRPG of the decade.

And putain, what a putain absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cinema!

Good game so far, I had fun playing this TD+RTS ish new game that it is surprising to keep me occupied for 6 hours ha. Definitely release it when you guys are ready - I expect there would be at least 20+ 'zones' before this game is ready. Lots of improvement are needed - units are hard to distinguish between each other, would be nice to get the enemy units info, and most importantly, I am not sure if the controls are intended for gamepad, please make sure to optimize the controls in the final game (like, is there even a need for a Run button?) - you should be able to select the units with ease (literally just need to click and select with mouse like RTS games 30 years ago?). Keep up the good work guys!

Game of the decade for me. I really don't think how much more i could compliment this game.

Best RPG of the decade. Best open world game since Zelda BotW - mature tone and souls of course. Haven't had this much fun on RPG since 2006 (Twillight Princess / FF12). I cannot recommend this enough - everyone should just get a copy purely for the contentssssssss they put into the game - the game keeps going and going aha - this is how you do things right as a 'sandbox' / open world game.

Absolutely best game of the decade (well ya you know very very few games/studio can compete with this), what an absolute achievement - and I think this is not even the best From could provide. Definitely a great studio worth gamers support!

Absolutely love the game, stunning and yes, THE cyberpunk game (that we may or may not deserve).

The aesthetics, visuals, environment, effects, backdrop, designs of almost everything in this world are mesmerising (and trust me i don't use this word often lol) - the game is absolutely worth the price even if you bought it purely for the cyberpunk world. I repeat, this is THE (best) cyberpunk city that you could get right now in any other media forms (think original+ new Bladerunner and all the aesthetically sophisticated 80/90s sci-fi movies + animes like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Pyscho Pass etc ). The game comes with visions (I'll get to this later...) that i spent the last 3 hours of my (post-game) gameplay walking around different places for doing those side quests aha - I just thought, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this is some impressive ♥♥♥♥ beautiful world. You truly feel like these people live there and having a life - there are ALOT of areas that you cant access but for example you could see some NPCs are sitting outside their balcony having a party and chatting (you could see their chat). I mean, even the dumpster areas can feel so real and cyberpunky - do I need to say more? I cannot compliment enough on the artists/designers/team for the world building of The Ascent!

Graphics: I see a lot of complaints but i run the game on Ultra (minus RT) on all available settings with my Ryzen5 3600 + GTX1650Super at 2k resolution average around 100+fps, indeed my itx heats up like crazy (~80C for cpu/gpu) but i have no crash or graphic glitches etc - game runs smooth no problem but I guess this kind of stuff needs further optimized anyway (I turned down the settings to Medium after 10 hours because I don't really want that high of fps on my 24' screen lol).

Gameplay and Story: There is a lot to love and there are clearly a lot of room for improvement - overall the game is a fun ARPG. Probably the studio could have spent more time for the later levels of the game because it felt rushed and also (just a bit of) repetitive (timer fights) towards the end. Not really a satisfying ending I must say for myself - I understand that this a small studio (almost like a passion project team) so this impressive 1st work should be able to bound you guys off the ground nicely and take it from there - so ya please further improve the game and implement your visions (and I am sure you would like to work on your Story as well). Things that I could remember:
- Crouching/covering - I don't think that this works well because I stopped using any of that after like 2 hours ha.
- Tactical weapons (grenades etc) - I actually didn't realize until near the end of game that I need to charge the bar of the weapon when I hit enemies in order to use the tactical weapon...it makes senses but ya I don't know how I missed that tutorial - but this also says that one doesn't need this mechanism for the game (lol). I know...you even have a side quest designated for this but i didn't bother until late game ha...
- Side quests system - please show/allow for multi quests to show in the maps aha
- Taxi - Either you significantly improve the efficiency for players to fast travel cross Arcologies (floors) or...just let the Taxi takes us to go wherever (may be unlock fast travel later in game).
- Skin/cosmetic - ye is a known issue that we lost them every time we closed the game?
- Post-game content (None) - yes, i am sure that we will wait for DLC and any other kind of post-game system that you will implement?
- Map for some off-map areas - this is an obvious oversight (if this is intended then ye...) that please show map for those areas/rooms not on the (main) map, like not even the Casino (Golden Satori)?

Visions: I can feel that strongly the team/studio put so much passion from all the little touches throughout the game. The NPCs dialogues, side quests (like setting up camera across Arcologies), flying cars that fly around the city (in 'organic' way - nicely done!), and of course overall the world building I have to say you guys are THE BEST for the longest time to create this REAL cyberpunk world. Please expand more on the world and you could hire some writer/juniors to put in more contents to the story. I don't play FPS but hell I would play it if you released a FPS version aha. And again, congratulations on this achievement that you have shown that producing such amazing game is possible with such a small team and you truly put ALOT of AAA studios to shame. I look forward to play The Ascent 2, 3, and however many more you will make with such qualities.

Verdict: Must buy for cyberpunk fans (aesthetically 'real' dirty dystopian world) and for those who would like support and see more passion projects from the (very few) studios/teams with visions nowadays.

You made me wish that I could live long enough to live and see such future world with my own eyes. My thanks again to your team for giving me a wonderful experience.