Recent reviews by Kismukii

I think this game is really fun, but I can't recommend it right now. I have a PC that meets all the specs, I had no issues with the first day or two the game was live, and then after the first patch update the game keeps crashing. I have tried every fix in the books and nothing seems to fix it. A lot of other players have gotten this happening to them after the servers went down for 6 hours a couple days ago, with the devs seemingly not caring. Give it a try, but don't be surprised if you can't play it after a couple of days.

:3

I would not recommend, in short it's a buggy mess. I was not able to join servers, and when it finally let me into one it kicked me halfway through playing. You cannot adjust the graphics settings, even with my 3080ti I was running some pretty rough frames. It just feels really unpolished and not tactical enough to be a full game, especially for $30. There is no single player PvE missions or anything. I would wait on this before sinking that much money into it, because right now you're getting a buggy mess of a tech demo.

Cats Hidden in Italy is a game unlike any other, standing on the shoulders of its predecessor: Cats Hidden in Paris. Refined. Raw. Cats. Meow. Its got it all. In all seriousness its a great game and if you like hunting for tiny little cats hidden in little cities this game is for you :D.

I used to play around with FaceRig and was an early supporter, and Animaze feels like an update to FaceRig. For a game that had no major updates for years before Animaze, it feels like Animaze was supposed to be an update to the original, but the devs wanted to hide it behind a subscription-based wall and in-game currency. Yeah, you could use it for free, but all of the features like importing a model are locked behind this wall. You want the models in game too? You have to buy them with in-game currency and micro-transactions. It just feels like FaceRig with a brand new coat of paint to capitalize on not only the sales of FaceRig but the subscription based service. It feels like a dirty low blow to the supporters and to the community, and it's a shame the developers went this direction instead of updating FaceRig, which has felt and looked unfinished since it's release 5 years ago.

I didn't think I would come back to this review, but I've been playing around in the software since it's release and things have gotten worse. The first time I tried Animaze I could connect my iPhone X camera through the Animaze app to my computer to use the 3-d tracking rather than a webcam. Today when I entered the app and tried to do this it was hidden behind a paywall. This is sad, because it means that the developers are trying their hardest to take the most-used options that were originally free and to use it to incentivize people into using the subscription-based service. It's a scummy practice that is not working in their favor, and if I could change from a "not recommended" to "don't even give it your time to glance at it", I would.

Where do I begin with this game?

A quick disclosure, I got this game on sale, now into the review! I love the art style, I love the story building, which is kind of like a basic version of "Return of the Obra Din". I don't love how the gameplay to me feels like a watered down version of "Celeste". This game just reminds me of games that do what this tries to do but better and definitely more rewarding. Let me go over my main problems with the game and also my favorite points of this game.

Story
The first 2 chapters were beautiful and immersive, I really enjoyed them! After chapter 3 however, I just wanted the game to be over. The story took a dip in pacing and just really started to get stretched thin at parts (I'm looking at you mech). The art and story was definitely my favorite part though. The ending was certainly not the worst but it was kind of cliche as one might expect but it wrapped up nicely and set the scene for possibly a sequel. You can tell this game was a labor of love that just didn't reach the main gameplay. It's almost like a visual novel with a boring minigame inbetween the story, It's a very uninteresting game to play. If you can get this game on sale it might be worth checking out the first 3 chapters but afterwards it's just kind of the same recycled mechanics.

Boss Battles
Every boss fight is the same in the way that every one of their own stages are the same. Same mechanics, same way to take out the one specific boss. It's the same boring formula that you used in the first stage as in the last stage of the boss fight. In my honest opinion the "Final Fight" was lackluster and after the second stage, when I thought it was over, to my dismay it was not yet over and had to do another stage of the same boring rinse repeat way to defeat the boss. Nothing in this game is satisfying on a gameplay level and I dislike when people compare the game to "Ori and the Blind Forest" or "Hollow Knight" two popular labor of love platform puzzle adventures, because they have such a charming story, visuals, AND challenging, engaging gameplay to boot.

Difficulty
I put MO:Astray on the hardest setting and it's still way to easy of a game. I honestly don't know what would change because even in "Adventure", the hardest game setting, MO's health doesn't matter, you still get insta-killed by pitfalls and spikes so personally I don't see an incentive to explore the map to collect the little health things to increase my health when it really never matters. The most difficult part of the game is dying can erase minutes of progress just with a simple misplaced hop, which is more tedious.

Physics
The physics and hitboxes can be a bit wonky; sometimes when you use dash you will bounce back towards the way you initially hit the surface at, other times you will bounce at the respective "normal" angle you would expect to bounce off of a wall at; sometimes you will die from a spiky plant that you don't touch as you aren't on that side of the wall or you will slide off a platform that was made to keep you there. Now that I remember there were these really annoying times where I could no longer jump a certain direction, be it up right or left, and that was especially infuriating in the fast-paced sections (at least compared to the games' normal pace).

Conclusion
I am not trying to hate on or attack the game or it's fans in any way, shape, or form, I'm just disappointed in the game and having my expectations flattened for it's gameplay. If you see the game for a really cheap price get it, but don't expect a very invigorating game gameplay-wise. I personally liked the story and having to piece it together was a truly enjoyable experience, however, the rest of the game is anything but enjoyable. The physics are wonky at times, the boss fights are a joke, sometimes there is a really cliche developement in the storyline (kind of like in "Celeste" where she falls into the caves), and overall it's just plain boring. I don't write reviews often or even at all, but I truly felt a need to put this out there to warn buyers who are expecting a high-octane adventure like "Celeste", "Ori", "Hollow Knight" or anything alike; it's not any of that.