Recent reviews by Mirukahia

Dear lord... where I do begin with this?
This game is bad, like really bad BUT for some reason, it has its charm and I didn't stop until complete it.

So, if you want a jank DS2 experience barebones while drunk af get it, otherwise, buy it with low expectations.
Map design is horrid, landmarks are zero, it just goes from big open areas without nothing, unfinished / unpolished to closed corridors with foes that block your way. Won't deny that at start, the game can provide you the feel of being lost, with vast exploration but the more you advance, the more you will hate the moment you hit the play button since the game tries to mock you that you're doing progress to then, make it -harder- "because you were exploring and touched some thing"

Hitboxes, hit detection and iframes are a total jankfest. I found the difficulty stupid, nor easy, nor hard, is just "hit while walking in circles around your foe without targeting" and that was it. (Except for like two bosses and some monsters that require a mechanic that, for a moment, reminded me of Dragon's Dogma where you climb large monsters but terribly implemented)

It has something that attach, but I just can't quite say what it is, because even the story is plain uninteresting, forgettable NPCs, etc. Lots of weapons and armor sets that at the end of the day, are almost left behind since this game has some "passive skills" that, once you unlock vampiric and +1 belt item or Main stats boost (because the other 20 suck!) you'll break the game.

Oh and let's not get into visuals, there's this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Chromatic Aberration that even if you disable it, IT JUST WONT GO AWAY! , I may sound harsh but as a souls / souls like player, I like this crap in a certain way, but my logical part tells me that I should warn souls like newcomers who are not familiar to the genre because this game will drive you nuts by the time you enter the main area or defeat the third boss.

If you're an achievement hunter, you'll be in for a real ruckus, since if you don't use guides from the start, it's not just that you have to do NG+ as is the usual rule, you'll have to defeat bosses in specific and ridiculous ways that can make you repeat a poorly designed mechanic way too much.

This game is a blast!

It is not your ordinary FPS per se, if you are familiar with Neon White, it does kinda the opposite... the game screenshots can fool you that there are cards but no, it is just a timer, you only have 10 seconds per round, kiling (fashion killing) provides you seconds to live, but these will not be above 10 seconds. It's very fast action paced, you have your typical fancy weapons which can roll per round to suit your style, frenetic at is best!

The presentation is top of the line, the art has this 80s anime style along with Synthwave + Citypop funky music which makes the whole experience even better. Although the main campaing is short, there are few modes to keep you playing endlessly.

This is a totally must have if you like FPS, Boomershooters, hard challenges.

Just when I thought no other game was going to keep me up all night like Vampire Survivors did, this thing comes along and hits me hard.

Totally recommend it if you are into this kind of vice. The Win98 theme, sounds, midi, desktop presentation is very well made.

You know Eve is hot AF, you know it!! (She's hotter in game!)
You know the music is amazing, because you've heard it.
You know the game has a good story and gameplay mechanics hack n slash thing, it is well done!
You know the enviroment, sidequests are fun, exploration is good
You know it runs like butter, and it is not UE5 bs.
You know that there are mods to make the game even better, Eve way hotter, you know them.
You know you have the game on your wishlist...

STOP OVERTHINKING!...WHY ARE YOU HOLDING UP? Because some Concordchick in X said "You'll be a gooner?"
C'mon, you're better than that. Just add it to your library sit and enjoy.

-Hello!
-What do you want Breton trash?
-Farewell!

:')

The Surge 2 turned out to be an amazing souls like slasher game. At first, I was struggling a lot with the mechanics, the directional parry system (KMB user) and once I got to the second boss of the game which is like the "skill check" it blew my mind how hard and confused I was. But after a few practices, after understanding it; the game felt sooooooo damn cool to play. Slicing, chopping, combos, parry (yes, you NEED to parry a lot here, and it is timing + directional attack you are facing) it is so good that I forgot how BAD the story is hahaha, because yeah! after the end I was like "Oh wow, these characters suck HAHAHA" (Few memorable tho)

Devs do not Lie when they say that the game is hardcore combat, because of all souls / souls-like i've played so far, this one takes the cake with the tactical. One boss took me so much time because I was not paying attention to what to hit, instead i was like "durr durr me bong durr durr".

What I hate about this game is that I like it. It is Dark Souls II 1.0 but even way more jank. If you are a souls-like masochist that likes the dreed feel of "Oh man this thing is so bad" , you will at some point like it or attach to the game. Because even the UI sucks. As a KBM user, It was rough at the beggining since it does not show you which keybinds have you put and you can't run + dodge (usually shift key) at the same time. Don't know what to do with your life and want a hideous souls like? Get it.

A friend gave me this one cuz I didn't know about it and... Without any doubt has become one of the funniest games i've played recently.

- Good map design
- Incredible enemy variation
- Stupid but well made story / dialogues, full of memes
- Good music
- Fast action pacing at higher difficulties, turning almost into a: two mistakes and you're done.
- Good Boss battles
- You can calm the heck down of Karens

I waited for so long for an "anime themed souls like" that could be good after having a bitter taste experience with Code Vein and Ai Limit does exceed the expectations. It has its cons but still, I totally recommend it. Let me first adress some of the bad stuff I found in my journey. Then I'll inform you on WHY you should get it.

TL:DR Chill anime themed souls like better than Code Vein. Good Action, good story, good combat.

--- THE VISUALS ---
Since the game it's not an AAA or something like that, it does not feature a huge showcase of "next gen" graphics, I've encountered lots of textures on low res, jagging, the fog works more as a sprite than a volumetric fog, some use on normal maps on certain walls / floors / ceilings do not feel right making the enviroments feel "cubic" but those are quite picky by me, however there are two visual sections that almost broke the experience:

- 1 Shadows: Shadows in this game are bad, and in the first section of the game / demo you saw it too, the shadow cast from lighting is very well presented, it remind me of the first time you go to Majula in DS2 and once you go downstairs the obelisk, your shadow would cast with the sun, an amazing effect. Here it happens the same, but suddently, once you finish your first area, for some reason, shadows are totally forgotten and on many areas, the character does not even have. What happened?

- 2 Water: The Water effect in this game is horrible, it is the most basic texture and the game is FULL of it. There are no concurrent waves when walking / running on it, the sound when you also walk / run on it , is the same sound you do by walking on ground.

Since Ai Limit takes time in a post apocalitptic scenery, there would be a lot of Sewers, your typical 4 streets hood that has been doomed, your souls like swamp / poison area and some others that, altough these are made on a average, without any nunance or storytelling in between, just "the next zone". I know some people will have trouble with these kind of "enclosed" enviroments with nothing to display besides walls, enemies, more walls, shortcut, walls.

--- THE COMBAT---
I have only one complaint here, a huge flaw on design that it made me die more than I would like to (Melee player tho). You see, there are a lot of holes in this game and many enemies are placed on corners, when you attack them, your hits do not, DO NOT stop at the edge of the hole, you will fall if the hit animation is at least one feet on the hole. DS2, DS3, ER, LoP, Thymesia, many souls like fixed this forcing the animation to attack on edges without falling, here, as I said earlier, there are a LOT of enemies on corners and you'll be constantly loosing your experience a lot due this.

--- THE UI---
Oh man, the item sorting of this game really needs a revamp. Searching your weapons, armor, feels more than a chore than something easy to find, there is no sorting either by type / attribute.

- CHARACTER -
We play the role of Arissa, a cute waifu but, that's it. There's absolute ZERO customization on her, there's nothing special on her, personality or whatsoever. Altough you can gather some armors which look great on her, helmets as well, some of these do replace her hairstyle, otherwise, other helmets will use her default hair. There's NO customization and it is by far, the only , the only thing where I believe Code Vein wins over Ai Limit.

Now, that I have taken of that of my chest.

- THE STORY -
It ain't cliche, I wont spoil nothing, Arissa's story starts as your typical "I don't remember nothing / where I come from, what am I?" thing but overtime the game turns more into a Evangelion / Lain script which I liked and impressed me.

- THE COMBAT -
All I can say is that, I love doing parry in souls games and here it feels damn good, combat is quick, feels more hack n slashier, instead of roll you have sidestep / dashes (ala Bloodborne) , no stamina bar and it has a new mechanic that I found original and great. Thing is, Ai limit has a line on how your damage output works, if you play good, you'll do more damage, if you get hit or if you spam / use way too much skills, your damage will fall, but doing normal hits without getting hit , is rewarding, beautiful implemented. The game, on my perspective, does not feel hard, there are some enemies that can give you some headache but nothing injust or broke, each of them, their movesets, your movesets, the hitboxes, casting calls, quick avoid aoes , everything is well designed. All bosses i've found so far took me between 1 to 3 tries, except the one before the last boss. That was the only boss I struggle and found a peak in the difficulty, but that does not mean that the fight was awesome, I relieved and felt those Nameless King vibes, it makes you to study and learn the patterns very well.

- MUSIC -
I really like it, it is symphonic / cyber / synthwave fusions, intense on combats. It is that, very good.

- EXPLORATION -
Enviroments as I said earlier, are not the best, they do just feel generic. However, the feel of exploration, the map layout, the geometry it is good, there is a LOT that you can miss if you do not look well, there are tons of hidden areas, shortcuts, and that makes the traveling experience rewarding each time you see a forkroad or a hidden leap to another part of the zone.

- WEAPONS / SPELLS -
There are a TON and each feel very well designed, Arissa does not feel slow, stupid at fighting, she's a powerhouse and you know about your mistakes. There's no stamina consumtion / weight so you can have two weapons and even combo them in between to do large ammounts of damage / cleaning mobs.

- ENEMIES / BOSSES -
In a scale of souls / souls likes, the AI Limit difficulty stands the bar low, that does not mean that you will encounter few challenges there and there, but combat feels good, some bosses are more fun this way than a "chore of rather playing a rythm game". Some may find this bad as they want a challenge, I know, I wanted that too, but I never felt hand taken by the game or nearly as felt broken. I just was having fun doing parry and charging skills everytime I could. Enemy placement is also well designed, each foe is placed for you to plan your strategy, pacing and some you wouldn't notice until you see your death. Bosses are, easy but they have tons of animations, tons of movesets. There were a few that I was like "Geesh how many Scheiße does this thing have?!" while learning patterns, and I do like that.

I really really enjoyed it way, further more than Code Vein as it is the most close game i've played that follows this style. For the price, I can't argue against it, it does provide you each penny and Im glad I knew about this game one day before its release since for some reason, Khazan has this "idk thingy" that I do not like at all. For all this reasons, I recommend this game, as the optimization is also well done, never had framedrops, never had a single crash, never encountered a single bug or rare glitch besides some textures clipping between them.

If you look at the trailer n' screenshots from the Store and the first thing that comes into your mind is "Oh wow, Unreal tournament 99 / 2004 - Quake 3 Arena!!" Leave it!, it ain't like that, not even close. Can be fun? Yes, however for me, it just doesn't have the core, nor the essence of those games. It tries, but it keeps chaning, the combat... it ain't right, dunno. I can't say that it feels "sluggish" because it doesn't, but at the same time, it does not feel good at all, like, only by playing you'll feel the "ummmm, this is odd".

You want something to be "retro", shoot, don't have nothing to do, for the lulz? Get it. You want an UT experience? I reiterate, pass on this.