Recent reviews by Elizabeth

Wandering Sword is an absolute hidden gem that JRPG/CRPG lovers absolutely should not pass on. If I were to use the quickest terms to summarize, this is the perfect blend of Octopath Traveler (visually) with a Chinese classic that many may know, but is also a crazy good game by the name of Heroes of Jin Yong. You have the gorgeous pixel art of Octopath and the near complete freedom of the open world at your fingertips from Heroes of Jin Yong. Needless to say, I was immediately hooked into the game and will certainly continue to enjoy it all the way through.

The biggest highlight for me personally is the near 100% full freedom that you're given almost right off the bat. You are required to join the Wudang Sect but you basically can do whatever you want after this point, which is very early in the game but you are already able to traverse quite a large area and gather your party members. You can grind as much as you like, or as little as you like by avoiding enemies since they are spawned onto the screen and there are no random encounters. It just feels like that the game developers really respect your time and let you play however you feel like at any given moment. You are not really locked down by main story quests, of course you need to progress that but so far nearly all of my playtime has been dedicated to exploration and side quests, I think I've only done like 2 or 3 main scenario quests and I absolutely love that there is still so much more side content and open exploration to do at this point.

Speaking of side content, they don't feel like filler at all in Wandering Sword. You have quite a large cast that you can invite into your party, and through raising your friendship with them you unlock more of their story. Side quests typically do reward you with meaningful rewards and new moves, so it is actually quite worthwhile to do them and just to gather up more people in your party. Some of the seemingly good ones even turn on you and the writing feels pretty good to follow, the characters don't feel like they were placed there just to give you something to do to pad out your gameplay hours, and although you can speedrun the game if you'd like, exploring the world definitely makes you stronger and rewards you with plenty goodies and hidden branches of story.

The art direction is very similar to Octopath Traveler, you get that iconic and gorgeous pixel art that doesn't need a crazy high-end PC to run well while still offering excellent visuals. I do also love that there is auto combat (the computer is not good at combat, but for grinding it's amazing) and 2x speed up available right away. The combat system can be switched between turn-based or real-time on-demand and if you have played Heroes of Jin Yong, it will be extremely similar minus the real-time version where enemies don't wait for you, this is more similar to Chrono Trigger but without the element of movement on a linear grid.

I think the only nitpicky "downside" of this game is the soundtrack, and even then it's not really something I can complain about. Only that it can get repetitive pretty darn quick, and having it constantly cut in when you're grinding just doesn't feel that great to me, but this really is a nitpick and I guess I'm just listing it for the sake of having something constructive to say, because I personally love every other aspect of the game and struggle to come up with anything to criticize. I think it's worth the money even when not on sale.

It's a game, everybody and their grandma loves it, I think it's alright, you could do worse with your money but it wasn't groundbreaking or anything the masses makes it out to be in my opinion. Still, amongst the modern day AAA releases this one runs well, largely works (multiplayer issues made it impossible to play with some friends) and as sad as it is to say, that in of itself is already a good thing in 2025. I have no hate in particular towards BG3 or Larian, and although I don't feel it's overhyped, perhaps the fatigue of hearing "OOomMMmMmgGG BBBrbRrOOOOoThHHHeRRR BBALLLLdUUUURRSs gAAEttTEE SsiiIXIXI SEVveevNNNN xdDXXddD" just like Expedition 33 is getting old.

Balatro is really something else. I've never really been a fan of Poker, nor have I been a fan of card games in general, but this one managed to pull me in the moment I tried it and it's been an incredible time.

There's not really much to say in terms of graphics, but the soundtrack is just perfect for keeping you mesmerized in the game. Perhaps the best thing that I personally found with the game is that for any given run up to Ante 8, really any hand or strategy is viable and plans can change at any given moment based on the jokers, spectrals and tarot cards that you manage to hit. You really can win with anything, and the freedom to manipulate your deck to however you like really keeps it fresh and enjoyable each time.

However, the strongest point of the game I think also sort of applies inversely. Ante 11 becomes a rigid checkpoint where it's basically a question of "Do you have Baron & Mime with a lot of red seal Steel Kings or not" and if yes, you can continue on and hopefully hit the coveted NaNinf score or end your run to an unfortunate boss blind. Due to the way scaling works in the game, and especially so on higher stakes, it seems at least for now that the only viable strategy to score absurd amounts and hit the super high antes is to play the high card Baron build. If you only play for completion and up to 8 antes, this is not really a problem.

The game is truly a gem and well worth the full asking price and I guess here I go chasing after all gold stakes...Anything but the Black Deck though, ugh...

Really fun game and a great continuation of the old Warcraft III custom map, love the new additions and maze mode. Great replayability solo or with friends, and will make you think to get some of the challenges and four stars. If you never played the classic version back in the day, this is a great option to try if you're into Tower Defense as a genre.

this game buses mates

I've been a longtime fan of the Sword and Fairy franchise, going back to the first game that started it all on DOS. I wouldn't call myself a diehard fan or anything like that, but I've kept my interest in the franchise going over the years as games and dramas come out one after another.

Let's get the good out of the way. The series in terms of graphical presentation has come a long way. This game is absolutely gorgeous in every area with RTX enabled and DLSS does maintain the framerate quite well. The soundtrack, while a bit light on tracks is decent. Instrumentation is excellent and the music does add to the overall presentation and give you a sense of belonging. Character models are very well animated and the in-game cutscenes are also well made.

And...here comes the not-so-good. The game is 100% linear, you don't have any influence on anything and invisible walls are present everywhere. The plot is very, very cliche and you pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen the first few hours into the game. It is also quite short, I've done all but one sidequest and only clocked in less than 30 hours. There is virtually no customization, equipment progression is very clear and you don't really have to put in any thought as it's more or less just hit them and dodge their attacks, and the AI isn't really that difficult in combat to go against.

The puzzles are pretty well designed, there is one mini (card) game that you can play and it just feels like Sword & Fairy 7 basically took AAA graphical quality and mashed other proven JRPG ideas together into a very short, cliche and crunched game. Performance can be absolutely awful with RTX enabled in parts, you experience massive drops and every now and then unforgiveable bugs happen, like the boss won't die after fully depleting its HP, hitting Quit instead saves and so on. Texture pop-in is a massive issue and really detracts from the immersion and overall experience, I am running this on a RTX 3080 Ti and R9 5900X and basically getting 100+ fps solid, I don't understand how the frame times are so bad and textures pop in endlessly. It just doesn't feel like this game really has any polish, even though it's not bad and had potential to be great. I guess from a studio the size of Softstar, it's really not a bad job by any means but when really the only good things going for the game are graphics and music, as an RPG I can't really recommend it. There has to be an intriguing story to back it all up and make the experience worthwhile.

You also play for maybe 5-10 minutes at a time only to be forced to watch cutscenes for 15+ minutes at a time. They're pretty and the voice acting is good, but I mean...come on. The game is only ~20-30 hours if you do the sidequests as is, 55-60% of that is cutscenes. As a whole experience, the game fell quite short of its graphical presentation, it's just a pretty-looking shell of something that could've been awesome.

To this day I would continue to say Amnesia: The Dark Descent is one of the best horror games to play. Parts of the game still haunts every now and then. The approach taken where you have no way to fight back but hide is perhaps the scariest thing about the game. FEAR, DOOM, Resident Evil and allll you could shoot back at your enemies, but what do you do when all you have is a lamp?