Recent reviews by CobaltStar_

This game is much more challenging than its predecessor Hollow Knight. I think it takes a while for the game to sink in, but once it does it's far more engaging. Hornet is very fun to play (ballerina on crack + batman's entire gadget arsenal), and the exploration and enemy design is top notch.

[Will update review once game is completed]

This review is very long, but I really wanted to articulate my thoughts on it. I have played a wide variety of rpgs, but I think this is probably one of the best, and I still can’t believe that this is not only an indie game, but for many devs their first game they’ve ever made. This game was a love letter to not only final fantasy games, but RPGs in general.

I will try to keep this review a spoiler free as possible.

Honestly, the music iis what hooked me at first to try out the game, after hearing some of the soundtrack. I had not heard about the game until it was about to release, but I was recommended to hear some of the tracks on youtube, and I was hooked. When I opened the game, I couldn't even leave the main menu for 5 minutes because I wanted to listen to the theme (Alicia).

They also got Victor Borba (you may know him from DMC 5 soundtrack), so I was already sold lol.

While the graphics are impressive, the game is definitely carried by its art direction. Every scene looks like a painting (for obvious reasons). Each biome or zone you visit has its own symbolic theme and color pallets. Sometimes I just walked around taking in the scenery.

I've praised this game a lot already, but I think it really excels in the story department. I have always been a sucker for a good story in a game, and often RPGs deliver for that. However, often they have severe pacing issues, especially near the middle or end of the game. Not every game needs to be 60, 80, 120 hours long; I think the base game of Witcher 3, Baldur's Gate 3, and Xenoblade games really suffer from this, no matter how much I enjoyed them.

Expedition 33, in contrast, is perfectly paced. The main story is around 30 hours. The game is divided into 3 acts + prologue, and each act fulfills a narrative purpose without overstaying its welcome. The story has many twists and turns, especially during the end of each act. It was definitely a page turner, and I had to resist just blasting through the main story to know what happens next.

While I say there's no filler, that does not mean the game does not take its time to slow down and cherish the quiet moments between characters. The game has conversations between different characters, just like social links in Atlus games. Since the main cast is pretty small, the amount of social links are also pretty small and therefore pretty unique; I would recommend doing all of them if you want a complete understanding of the story. I will point out that if you don’t do them immediately, you will have a backlog of them, and it might be a bit tedious to get through all of them, since you will basically be just sitting in your camp talking to your party members. The game also doesn’t really notify you that they have something to share, so when you might have to click through your party member’s dialogue just to learn they have nothing new to share. I do think the “dating/romance” elements also feel pretty half baked in. While actual plot relevant romance in the plot is very good, the dating sim aspect felt more like an afterthought, and almost felt a bit tactless once you understood the whole story.

I did enjoy that for a JRPG, we finally got an adult cast. There aren’t any “cringe anime tropes” that often plague other JRPGs.

The game also does stick the landing for the ending, which I was honestly pretty impressed by. I think the main “antagonist” was great. E33 is one of those games that make you think about how it ends several days after you finish it.

Honestly, I’m not sure how this new studio got these A-list voice actors. They got Charlie Cox, Jennifer English (I cannot unhear shadowheart lol), and Benn Starr. Andy Serkis also absolutely killed his role too; might be my favorite character in the game.

Yes, the game is primarily turn based. Before you click off, I think even if you don’t typically like turn based games, you should give this game a chance. Normally, people typically dislike turn-based games for a few reasons
- It is too slow and methodical
- It is too simple and requires the same strategy over and over, making each battle become stale
- They hate getting destroyed on the enemy turn or, the other extreme of not having any chance of dying on their turn
- They don’t feel a rush like they do when playing an action game

The E33 dev’s try to remediate these issues by its unique dodge/parry system. You can negate all incoming damage if you anticipate and learn their attack patterns; conversely, damage is scaled up so not attempting to dodge/parry will lead to an early death.

The devs give you two options for defense:
Dodges are spammable and have much larger evasion windows, making it great to learn enemy patterns.
Parries are significantly more rewarding, giving resources on each parry and also allowing for a devastating counter attack if all hits are parried, but is far more committal and riskier.

Due to these mechanics, even trash mob fights are engaging, since they reward memorizing the attacks you saw in a previous encounter. Boss fights will make you learn more complex movesets; but they will usually build upon what you’ve already seen.

The difficulty throughout Acts 1 and 2 scale very well with the power level of your own party. However, after Act 2 ends, the balance completely breaks and you’re at risk of becoming extremely overpowered for your own good. I would highly recommend finishing Act 3 immediately after finishing Act 2, and not doing any of the side content before hand if you don’t want to immediately oneshot all of Act 3.

Honestly, the Act 3 power spike is too strong even for post game content. I feel like the dance between you and the enemies completely disappears as even a casual build can easily oneshot every enemy encounter before it even starts. The rest of the game basically becomes trivial in act 3. The flipside is that the theory crafting for creating the most hilariously broken builds can be fun; some of the folks on reddit have done over 3 billion damage in a single hit.

it's so unapologetically french. All the names are very french, they all swear in french, they wear french things (the baguette outfits are hilarious), you beat up french mimes sometimes, the music is stereotypically french, there’s a whole ass Eiffel tower in one part of the map ☠️. Even the French president Emmanuel Macron praised the game for promoting French creativity.

If it wasn’t abundantly clear already, I absolutely adored this game. It feels like the final fantasy game that never was. It has replaced Persona 5 as my recommendation for someone’s first jrpg, and if you want to play an rpg that has a linear story without many branching storylines, this would be my top pick.

"Elden Ring's gameplay loop is to put a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ boss in front of you and say 'Ok, go and explore the world to find something to chop its head off'" -Dunkey

This game is just enormous, maybe too big since they started copy pasting some bosses in the last few areas. Even with its flaws, its still a generational masterpiece.

I am burned out of open world games, but Lands Between are carefully crafted and awe-inspiring; I loved exploring it. There are so many secret areas, and it's possible you might never even run into them in your first playthrough. Each area connects to the deep and expansive lore of the game.

The endgame bosses are truly challenging and memorable, definitely some of FromSoftware's best. They are definitely the most replayable part.

There's also a ridiculous amount of combat implements: 308 weapons, 70 sorceries, and 101 incantations in the base game alone. You'll definitely find something that fits your desired playstyle. If you're into a more casual experience, you can also use Spirit Summons, which aid you in combat and significantly reduce the difficulty; I'd still recommend not using them for the full experience, but there's no shame in using them.

Overall, excellent game. I hope other game publishers look at the success of Elden Ring and take notes on what made this game so great when making their own games.

Phenomenal story (particularly the third semester), seamless menu-ing and combat, gorgeous presentation, with well written characters you'll fall in love with. Persona 5 Royal is truly the gold standard of JRPGs.

Great game: review under construction

Poo your pants sim

Azazel best girl

What an [E]xtraordinary game.

The main game is good, the dlc is even better, and gwent is the best

Taught me how to tap in CSGO

CSGO/10 would warm-up again