Inestimate's Reviews

  Console:  Switch , PC, XB1, Mobile Developer: Sectordub Release Date:  January 24, 2019 Pikuniku  is a simple adventure game with puzzle-platformer mechanics that focuses primarily on absurdity and dealing with somewhat goofy physics. Made by Sectordub, a small French-British team, I'd heard of  Pikuniku  without really knowing what it was. Following the announcement of  Pikuniku 2,  I noticed the first game was over 80% off, so I decided to play it on the spot! 

Console: PS4, PS5 , Switch, PC, XB1, XSX Developer: Sonic Team Release Date:  November 8th, 2022 Sonic Frontiers  is an open world action platformer centered around exploration, collectibles and combat. As a bold new entry in the  Sonic the Hedgehog  series,  Frontiers  is the first time the series earnestly tries to be an open world game, and according to the director, is meant to be the model for future games, similar to how  Sonic Adventure  was when the series first transitioned to 3D. 

Console: PS5, Switch , PC Developer: Experience Release Date:  February 15th 2024 Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II  is a horror visual novel game with mystery and adventure mechanics that centers around exploration, puzzle-solving and its narrative. The third game in the  Spirit Hunter  franchise,  Death Mark II  is the most recent entry in the series and is actually a crowdfunded game. The game takes place four months after  Death Mark , and is thus technically a midquel due to taking place a few years before  NG . It is also a direct sequel to  Death Mark , featuring most of the characters from the game and putting the player in Kazuo Yashiki's shoes once again.

  Console: PSVita, PS4, Switch , PC Developer: Experience Release Date:  October 10th 2019 Spirit Hunter: NG  is a horror visual novel and adventure game with a focus on life and death choices, puzzle-solving, and ghost hunting. The second game in the  Spirit Hunter  series,  NG  is a standalone sequel to  Death Mark  that takes place around 5 years later, but it freely references it.  NG  came out about a year after  Death Mark , and unlike  Death Mark  it has no additional content of any kind, but is a little longer overall. Though it's a standalone game in essence, I'll be referencing  Death Mark  during the review, so if you want, you can  go back to my Death Mark review if you're curious . Naturally, I won't spoil anything important.

  Console: PSVita, PS4, Switch , PC, XB1 Developer: Experience Release Date:  October 31st 2018 Spirit Hunter: Death Mark  is a horror visual novel and adventure game with a focus on life and death choices, puzzle-solving, and ghost hunting. The first in the  Spirit Hunter  series,  Death Mark  is a game I've long been curious about and I'm glad to have played. I didn't even know the premise of the game outside of the fact it's a sort of ghost hunting detective game, and obviously since it's so narratively driven, I won't spoil anything important.  Death Mark  itself is a fairly interesting game in terms of its release, since the Switch version includes Chapter 6, which used to be DLC on other platforms, and also is the only version where the DLC Chapter 7 is available... which was released in April this year. It's a very strange thing to see, but I thankfully have the Switch version, so I had access to this DLC chapter.

  Console: Gamecube, Wii, PS3, PS4 , PC, Xbox 360, XB1, Switch Developer: Capcom Release Date:  April 30, 2002 (Gamecube), January 20, 2015 (PS4) Resident Evil (2002)  is a survival horror remake of the 1996 game of the same name. It's centered around inventory management, threat management and puzzle solving. To be quite honest, I've never been a survival horror person; I'm much more into horror adventure, action, or visual novel games and games that lean more into spooky than scary. However, I love watching people play games like  Resident Evil  and  Silent Hill , and as a way to step out of my comfort zone, I decided to tackle this game. 

Console: PC, Switch, XB1, PS4 Developer: Team Cherry Release Date:  February 24, 2017 (Voidheart Edition: September 25, 2018) Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition  is a complete version of  Hollow Knight  including its DLC  The Grimm Troupe  and three free content packs  Lifeblood ,  Hidden Dreams , and  Godmaster .  Hollow Knight  is a 2D metroidvania with a strong emphasis on boss battles, gameplay customization, and exploration with a moody, dreary atmosphere. An indie darling from the first day its Kickstarter campaign went life (if not before),  Hollow Knight  is almost universally beloved and widely considered as one of the greatest indie games ever, if not greatest games ever full-stop. I had only tried it once years ago and bounced off of it, not being in the mood for it, and I came back to play it, as many did, since its extremely anticipated sequel,  Silksong , is finally coming out.

  Console: PC , Switch Developer: Giraffe Cat Release Date: October 26, 2023 The Sirena Expedition  is a short and sweet atmospheric horror-themed puzzle platformer that takes place fully underwater and can be finished in about an hour. Made almost completely by David Thatcher, with Amy Greir contributing to the soundtrack and voicing the main character,  The Sirena Expedition  was borne from a Game Jam and made over two years following it.

  Console: PC , Switch, PS4, PS5, XB1, XSX Developer: Not A Sailor Studios Release Date: February 18, 2021 Buddy Simulator 1984  is a narrative game whose genre evolves over time, based around the relationship between the player and the eponymous Buddy, a computer program who is designed to emulate the feeling of playing games with a "best friend". Not A Sailor Studios is a team of four, and made  Buddy Simulator 1984  with some additional help from about four more people. I'd consider the game to be split into four major parts, and I'll tackle them all without spoiling as much as I can. 

      Console: Switch, PS4 , PC Developer: CAVYHOUSE Release Date:  October 3, 2018 The Midnight Sanctuary  is a 3D visual novel with heavy religious and occult themes. Developed by CAVYHOUSE, a Japanese indie two-person studio, The Midnight Sanctuary  is a visual novel with no real gameplay; instead, the player merely chooses which area to go and then proceeds to watch a cutscene. There are no missable cutscenes, and the entire thing will last around 4-5 hours.

Console: PSVita, PS4, PC , Switch, XB1 Developer: Digital Reality/Grasshopper Manufacture Release Date:  August 8, 2017 ( November 9, 2012 for the original) Sine Mora EX is a bullet hell shoot 'em up with a dieselpunk aesthetic focused on a time travelling narrative. Developed mostly by Digital Reality, with Grasshopper Manufacture only handling art direction and sound design, Sine Mora EX  is an extended version of the original Sine Mora , with some added features like co-op, some quality of life changes, and a few new options. This is one of the first shmup games I've ever really clicked with, so I was pretty excited to play it again through this EX  version.

  Console: PSVita, PS4 , PC, Switch Developer: Arc System Works/APLUS Release Date:  March 24, 2015 ( May 31, 2017 for HD Edition) Damascus Gear: Operation Tokyo  is an isometric action RPG with a focus on combat and a mission-based structure. Developed by Arc System Works, most well-known for their fighting games, Damascus Gear  is one of the many non-fighting games the company has made, a couple of years before the final Blazblue  game or their first 3D Guilty Gear  game. At this point, people only really knew them for their fighting games and a few other projects, like the Contra spin-off  Hard Corps: Uprising  or   the Xblaze  visual novels. And I'm being generous. It's worth noting that this game is technically made by APLUS which, from what I can tell, is a subsidiary of Arcsys and has also developed Kill la Kill: if . 

Console: Switch Developer: HAL Laboratory Release Date: March 25, 2022 Kirby and the Forgotten Land  is a 3D platformer with a focus on finding collectibles, exploration, and fighting enemies. The 13th main game in the Kirby  franchise, Forgotten Land  is immediately a breath of fresh air for the series, shifting the main gameplay to 3D for the first time. I've essentially been a Kirby fan all my life, and I can't think of a main Kirby game I haven't enjoyed, so I was truly pumped to finally get to play this, especially after seeing rave reviews from both Kirby fans and non-Kirby fans. Naturally, since this is a Kirby game and I always do this, I fully completed the game before writing this review. 

     Console: Switch Developer:  Acquire Release Date: November 7 2024 Mario & Luigi: Brothership  is a turn-based RPG with a focus on timing, pattern recognition, and some light puzzle-solving and platforming. The latest entry in the Mario & Luigi  series and the first game in the series to not be made by Alphadream (though many former devs are now at Acquire), Brothership  is also the first entry in the series to be a console game, as all the other games were on handheld systems. Brothership  is the third RPG in the Mario franchise to be released within a year, with the remake of  Super Mario RPG  releasing in November 2023 and the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door  remake releasing earlier this year. 

    Console: PC , Switch, PS4 Developer:  Deepnight Games Release Date: October 18th 2021 Nuclear Blaze  is a sidescrolling firefighting game with a focus on water management, quick thinking, and risk assessment. Developed by a single developer, the leading designer behind Motion Twin's Dead Cells , Nuclear Blaze  started as a Ludum Dare game jam project. Created in 48 hours, this version is included with the game, at least on Steam.  While this is the fully realized concept of Nuclear Blaze , this is still a short and sweet experience in the 3-4 hour range on a casual playthrough.

  Console: Switch Developer: Grezzo Release Date:  September 20th 2019 The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening  is a top-down action-adventure game that centers around exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat. A remake of the Game Boy original of the same name, Link's Awakening  is a pretty faithful remake, adding quality of life updates but keeping the essence of the original essentially intact. I wasn't too familiar with Link's Awakening ; I am far more familiar with the two Game Boy games of the same vein that came nearly ten years later:  Oracle of Ages  and Oracle of Seasons . In fact, I had never even come close to finishing Link's Awakening , so this was a rare occasion for me to play a Zelda game I had ostensibly never played.

Console: Switch Developer: Nintendo EPD Release Date: May 12th 2023 The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  is an open world action-adventure game with survival and RPG elements that centers around player freedom, creative puzzle-solving, and exploration. The sequel to the universally acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , Tears of the Kingdom  does something heretofore unseen in the Zelda franchise: it is a direct sequel that uses the first game as a base, including its map, mechanics, and narrative. My biggest concern was that it'd just feel like more Breath of the Wild  and not feel different enough, and my fears were abated as the game's marketing carried on. 

  Console: Switch, PC Developer: Simogo Release Date: May 16th 2024 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes  is a puzzle game with strong point-and-click and text adventure leanings that focuses on logic puzzles, a twisted narrative, and art. Developed by stand-out mobile game developer Simogo, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes  is their first console/PC exclusive. Simogo are most known in the console and PC space for Sayonara Wild Hearts , but it feels like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes  is poised to be their first big hit, relatively speaking. It's worth noting that, all things considered, Simogo are essentially a two developer team, and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes  was created in 4 years, according to the credits. It's hard to go in detail in this review, as a lot of the game's intricacies lie in its narrative, which I don't want to spoil, and I obviously can't detail all the puzzles.

Console: Switch Developer: Intelligent Systems Release Date: May 23rd 2024 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door  is a turn-based RPG with a focus on zany scenarios, gameplay customization, and strategy. A remake of the 2004 Gamecube game of the same name, Thousand-Year Door  still stands as perhaps the perfect game to play as your first turn-based RPG, with charm aplenty to keep players of any skill level entertained throughout its entire playtime. 

  Console: PC , PS4, Switch Developer: Migami Games Release Date: February 28th 2020 Wallachia: Reign of Dracula is a run and gun game that is very much a tribute to late 80's to mid 90's arcade games of its genre. Simply put, Wallachia  looks like a Castlevania game, but plays like a Contra game. Developed by Migami Games, a stalwart freeware game developer based in France since the late 90's, Wallachia  appears to be their first game to be released at a price. They are perhaps best known for the Haunted Castle  series and the Castlevania: The Lecarde Chronicle  fangames. To be completely honest, I bought Wallachia  because it looked like an old Castlevania  game, and I was surprised to find that it actually was a run and gun game. Or, more accurately, a run and arrow game.