Recent reviews by Legolas_Katarn

If Freedom Planet was like a better 16-bit version of classic Genesis titles like Sonic, Rocket Knight, and Ristar then Freedom Planet 2 is like an even better version of the 32-bit Saturn games they never had.

The three main playable characters from the first game return along with a fourth protagonist playable for the first time. Lilac having hair whip attacks a long ranged dodge move and a special attack that can either launch her forward or forward and up or down while bouncing off any surface she comes into contact with. Carol has fast attacks, can wall jump, has the Sonic styles rolling attack, a throwable disk weapon that she can teleport to, and the ability to find her motorcycle that she can either ride or store to access later. Milla has slower physical attacks but has a shield that can deflect enemy projectiles that also allow for a ranged attack, a jump you can hold that has her slowly gaining more height, and can call in blocks that follow her that can be shot for a powerful piercing ranged attack or fired quickly behind or below her for some added speed or height on a jump. Neera has a slower but longer ranged spear attack that can also fire ranged strikes when stationary, a dodge that also activates a focus mode that makes her attack faster, her spear thrusts can add to her forward momentum and launch her forward in mid air, and her special ability gives her various ice powered moves like freezing a hit target or making a whirlpool around her to hit near or aerial targets. Despite their differences in playstyle, each of the four playable characters can build up a fast speed that remains controllable thanks to the combination of view space, tight controls, the dodge move that gives brief invulnerability frames, and a lack of instant kill traps and death pits that you would constantly find in the Sonic games. You have to choose a character at the start of the game and play through entirely as them, you can make 10 different save files but this was still disappointing as you would need to acquire any items or side content again for each playthrough. Each character does get some unique cutscenes or lines when they run into some stage bosses and conversations inside of a stage might change as well depending on who you are controlling.

The stages themselves offer a lot of variety with many having their own kind of unique elements to them being the enemy types, unique objects to interact with, or even moments where you briefly control a giant robot or where the game becomes a shoot em up as you take control of a ship. Before going into a level you can equip up to two items and create a potion bottle by filling it five times with the same or different potion types to increase different passive effects, many of these will make you stronger in different ways while equipping nothing or items with penalties can improve your score. The items bring a bit more possible variety on top of what the different characters already add to the game.

The graphics have been improved and the character animations and stage backgrounds have a lot of detail and personality, even for more minor animations like hitting a bumper at a fast speed and having a short period where your character might be running backwards with a unique animation before turning around or Carol still managing to climb on ropes while on her motorcycle but now clearly straining from the effort.

On the normal difficult I found the game to be pretty easy, I never lost all my life stock in a stage forcing me to restart it. When you die you can use one of your lives to either start at your last checkpoint or to respawn in the same spot with only one of your seven life points intact. I played on normal, setting it to hard or equipping no items or items with penalties to get a higher stage ranking would make the game more difficult for people looking for a challenge, and for people looking for even less of a challenge there is an easy mode and a variety of assist options that can be turned on.

With the large number and wide variety of stages with both good level design and detailed environments, responsive controls, a decent story, and variety with the four playable characters and equipable items and potions this is easily one of the better action platformers I've played and the best that has a focus on speed and/or perfecting stage speed runs. The first game was good enough that no one should have cared about getting a new 2D Sonic game with Freedom Planet out and this sequel improves on the first in every way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn0eMMu4vEw
Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lfu6ipbnus23

An excellent 2D sidescroller merging elements of classic 16-bit titles like Sonic, Rocket Knight, and Ristar depending on which character you play as, typically doing everything better than those games. Great sprite art and environments with a decent story and voice acting.

A government agency seeks out the retired and broken Alphonse Harding in the forests where he has become a hermit. General Burkin offers another one last job, Harding's refusal leads to three hours of fast paced precision and blood filled FPS speedrunning and a mixture of comedic and humanizing narrative moments

Your move set includes punches, the ability to crouch and a slide that can knock down enemies, jumping, you can climb up trees and along branches, instant kill enemies when you drop on them, you can kick and jump kick enemies over and stomp on them on the ground to kill them, and you can take any weapons that enemies are holding, often needing to catch them as they fly through the air after you kill their former wielder. Pistols, shotguns, rifles, and sniper rifles have a limited amount of ammo and once used can be thrown at an enemy to knock them down, you can find melee weapons like branches and knives that down an enemy in one hit but break after three uses.

The goal is often to reach an escape area where you are scored on your final time, killing enemies gives you a better final time depending on how you kill enemies. A normal kill removes .3 seconds, while headshots and one hit kills with a shotgun or sniper rifle remove .5, throwing a knife removes .6, stomping on downed enemies removes a good amount of time but slows you down but doing a jump kick just to quickly knock an enemy down allows you to keep your speed and can do an instant kill if it was from behind to remove a full second. You primarily want to prioritize quick headshots or one shot kills and knife throws while looking for environmental kills that remove larger amounts of time from shooting things like explosive barrels or hornets nest. Some missions give different main objectives like killing all enemies, surviving waves of enemies, using laptops, or destroy satellites but your playstyle will often remain the same. Each stage has two side objects that you can unlock after completing the stage and the challenge before that can include things like getting a certain number of kills, not picking up health, not killing any enemies, etc. The game allows you to play in a slower way, you can make more use of cover and aim your guns for a bit of slower zoomed in view and you might want to do this if you are trying to learn a stage before going for S rankings but the game is made for and feels its best when you are quickly running through enemies and rapidly chaining kills.

Between every one or two stages there is a brief audio segment where Harding talks to himself, the general, or his new and only friend to continue the narrative before dropping you into the next quick set piece encounter.

Outside of the stages in the main campaign are a variety of challenge missions that can be unlocked by getting S ranks and completing side objectives in the main missions. There are also nine bonus missions added after release with their own story segments where the few surviving soldiers hold a therapy session where they tell their stories about their encounters with Harding. These new missions often being more challenging than most of the main levels and involving more of a certain mechanic like one being full of trip mine traps and claymores and another filled with bee hives you can drop onto your enemies.

In the options menus I recommend turning continuous spring on so you don't even have to hold the button and removing any aim assist as it can pull your shots away from the headshot and explosive barrel shots that you are likely to be going for.

Well made fast paced action game with good short story moments that humanize the player character that you never see. Those who plan to practice the stages to get the highest rankings on each one will get the most out of it but the base gameplay is good enough even for those less concerned about speed running and trying for the perfect runs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GSPOlw28pk
Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lfjdaw7um22a

A first person point and click horror title with an uninteresting story to uncover but an atmospheric visual style that's like a shifting monochromatic old computer look and sound design to it that does a lot with a little.

You are a reporter investigating a house where the family disappeared years ago. Once you find a way in you discover a note on a body by the front door and four candles each guarded by a figure or body that must be blown out to disrupt a ritual. You need to find the items that each of the guards react to in order to safely interact with the candle. You move around with the mouse or keyboard in up, left, right, or down directions where the color of the game goes from green to red when you are about to be in danger. Eventually a woman with a knife will attack you and you need to avoid her by either waiting in a room or hiding in a dresser or trunk where you can check to see if the woman is near and close your eyes temporarily to try to get her to leave.

For the low price it works as a short horror game, mostly thanks to the art style and not mechanically overstaying its welcome. The writing has some errors and is never a particularly strong point so most of the descriptive text of the variety of non essential things you can inspect in the environment don't add much to the setting. There are some good atmospheric design choices like the way you search dark areas by only highlighting a small portion of them with the flashlight or finding what can seem like potential threats as you explore as bodies or strange objects move or appear in the shadows or a bookshelf leaves a message for you with the book titles, though this is hurt by you never actually being in danger in these situations or doing anything mechanically interesting with these moments. The threat of the game is minimized by the save points in each corner of the house and the woman tending to be very easy to avoid or nearly impossible which will likely just cause you to reload your last save, you can also take two hits from her and can find multiple healing items in the house.

Worth a look if the visual style interests you at such a low price, and would be a very engaging style of horror game if a better writer was involved and if the mechanics were just slightly expanded on.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lfemqwtuqs2u

Beautiful and charming magical realism adventure about traversing the highlands of Scotland to reach your uncle's lighthouse while meeting strange folk and learning tales of the land and your past along the way, also potentially infuriating.

Moira receives a letter from her Uncle Hamish requesting her to show up at his lighthouse by Beltane. She leaves her house and mother and travels over the hills to reach the lighthouse and the sea she has never been to before. You run, jump, and climb across the highlands finding maps, notes, runes, caves, and sketches that give you alternate routes to reach your destination, using the high points of areas to examine and mark spots on maps as well as attempting to correctly name the overlook spots to guide your current and future routes. As you travel you can run into other strange, mythical, or imagined characters to speak to and find items that can be used with certain objects for new paths, to see more story details, or to leave behind on overlooks in order to bless them. You lose stamina and have to stop to rest as you run or climb and falling or behind stuck in the rain or cold without shelter can reduce your health and max health until you rest. "Dying" takes you to a nearby area but will lose you time from your seven day goal. Finding certain birds in each area, sleeping, and blessing overlooks can give you additional narration through a story being told and of past talks between a couple with a child. Through normal progression you hear narration from your uncle talking about the area and old stories and legends and Moira talks about her home life and stories her uncle has told her in letters.

The game is classified as an adventure and rhythm game, rhythm due to the moments when you get to a longer flatter stretch of land where you run through the environment while an instrumental track plays that has you hitting two different buttons to jump in highlighted areas that match the beat of the music. These moments are so short and simple and such a minor part of what you will be spending your time doing that I would not base your decision to try this game at all on whether you like or dislike music rhythm QTE style sections in games. It's more of just a quick travel from two points as you listen to the game's good soundtrack that would otherwise have you more slowly while just holding a direction button.

The environment and art style, acting, music, stories and hidden elements to discover are the high points as is often the case with Inkle's work. The act of just getting from point A to B with the platforming is a bit more generic. Your first time through the game might also lead to frustration like mine did. On replays you can keep items that you still have in your inventory, have the overlooks you have reached marked and still named, map points you have discovered are still marked and maps you have collected but have not discovered the location they point to will still be in your inventory. This makes future playthrough likely more enjoyable as you can take new paths and enjoy the setting. When I had my first playthrough a spent a large amount of time seemingly stuck in caves with multiple routes I could not access because I had no sharp item to cut a rope on one path or remove rust on an object for another, and after running back and forth for some time only succeeded in finding fast travel like hidden cave routes that only took me back to a path I couldn't access. Finally finding a way out of that area I reached a dam that has a spot I marked that would lead to another area, upon reaching the spot she wouldn't interact with it but I assumed that it was due to the water coming down and I saw a lever on top of the dam. Climbing up it I was finally happy to have an item that let me interact with the lever that left to opening exposed. Going back down to it, I ran into the only time Moira just says she doesn't want to enter it with seemingly no options to get through that way. After I found another way to go I soon found three sharp objects in a row that would have let me interact with the two points stopping me before. It was a series of events that started to greatly lower my opinion of the game that eventually started to go away and was less of an issue in my next playthrough, though I have seen similar thoughts shared by people who also seem to be typically lost in caves or that are running back and forth trying to find a path forward.

A good and quick experience that also promotes replays with excellent art, narration, and music and mechanics that are fine but where you will likely be playing more to learn more about the environment, lore, and characters.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lf52tvgxec2k

A short turn based RPG set in 15th century Hungary where a heartbroken knight who has taken to drink battles invading Hussites and begins to uncover the schemes of a supernatural cult his wife is involved with. Striking art and music, multiple ways for some events and character fates to play out, simple but charming looking battles, mixes heartfelt and comedic moments to good effect.

As he drinks in his room, Pavol witness the burning of an old fort in the distance and is sent by the local lord along with the priest Matej, who initially seems highly devout but has moments of flexibility as the game goes on, to find out what they can about the fire. There becomes an almost buddy cop movie feeling between the two as they start at odds but warm to one another's personality traits. As events play out you can have different guest characters in your party, some as side comedic characters who quickly leave and some with a story role to play. You might discover more information or side events that allow you to handle situations in different ways or discover information that might save or kill one of the game's characters. Characters have their comedic moments and personalities but also their serious moments, such as your lord constantly importing board games and seeking people to play with him even those you bring back to his keep for safe refuge or as prisoners but who also is willing to join you in battle or lead his forces to protect the land from the threats you uncover.

The art style remains unique and striking in the isometric view as you travel around, inside the battles that play out like first person dungeon crawlers where different weapons and items play out detailed animations in front of you, or the in the few cutscenes the game features. The atmosphere further enhanced by the excellent soundtrack from the psychedelic band Marcel Gidote's Holy Crab.

The battle system is the weaker spot of the game. It works well enough and doesn't tend to overstay its welcome with each fight being a unique encounter and the visuals being good. What holds it back is that even when you equip different items that might allow access to new special abilities you are really only doing the same things over and over. Using Pavol's half-sword to break the armor of stronger or more dangerous targets then hitting them until they die and moving to the next, healing with Matej blessing skill when injured and using items when needed or other party members in similar ways. Things likely only slightly changing near the end with some powerful attacks from ranged weapons. Enemies are constantly using stun attacks and if you have bad luck and someone gets focused on and goes down you either have to use an items that might seem rarer at the start of the game or wait for them to kill everyone so you can reload your last save. As the game goes on you will be swimming in money as there is never really any reason to even buy equipment but you can stock up on so many items that battles should never present a challenge.

A short RPG with enough well written personal and comedic moments and a unique art style I always wanted to see more of in and music that perfectly fit the game. The battles themselves might not be that interesting mechanically but they do a good job in not overstaying their welcome while maintaining the strong art style.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lf23qx4lqk25

Low poly PS1 styled horror FPS that has you playing as a murderer with memory loss getting orders to kill different targets from a strange voice on a radio, the detective hunting him, and some of the victims.

Mixes the horror, comedy, and surreal moments with simple but functional and bloody sniping sections and enough environmental detail and notes to piece together more details in the story.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3lew3fy52zk2s

A grindhouse somewhat PS1 visual styled horror title that has some ok moments but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the earlier and similar Bloodwash or the more action focused Night At the Gates of Hell by the same publisher.

You start your night getting called into work at the video store because another employee has called in sick, as you go through your routine you hear more about the missing people from the area and a detective informs you that they all had a membership at your store. It isn't long after that that you are captured by a pig mask wearing man carrying a meat hook and must find a way to escape from his dungeon.

It's a linear and short title that works well enough that I mostly enjoyed what was there but there is a bit less setup and buildup to your encounter like there was in the similar title Bloodwash and once you get to the fourth chapter out of the five the quality and atmosphere goes down. Chapter four has you escaping a sewer as you are chased by the killer while you try to activate five levers to open an exit door. The problem is I don't think I've ever played or seen a game that does boss or unkillable enemies chasing you handled that well (Hellknight probably the closest it gets) and this one falls into having all the issues that come with the mechanic. The killer isn't really in the environment and just kind of goes away after you run for a short time if you do run into an area where he spawns in, he is easy to run from and you can take two hits from him and will heal if hit once after a short time that combined with frequent checkpoints removes any tension making him more of an annoyance as is often the case in these situations. This sewer chapter is where you will spend the most time and, as sewer levels tend to, its not a visually interesting location. The fifth chapter has your encounter with him after you find a gun and this is also a very poor encounter where you can just stand in a corner and shoot as he runs back and forth at you until the fight ends.

Not a bad game but from the other similar games by the publisher I've played, Bloodwash had a better atmosphere and buildup, more character perspectives, a better final encounter with the killer, and no overly long section of running around in circles trying to find levers to pull.

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3leqa4ldsd22d

Improved on the first in every way but combat can still feel a bit stiff and limited as well as overly sanitized and while exploration can be fun the game is filled with uninteresting collectibles.

The story starts five years after the previous game with the group from the first having split up for various reasons. Cal has continued to take jobs from Saw Gerrera making him a high value target for the Empire. After the prologue on Coruscant leaves his ship damaged and Cal disillusioned by losses suffered and finding that the Empire remains as strong as ever, he looks up his friend Greez to repair the ship on the planet Koboh where he has opened a saloon. Koboh acts as the largest planet with there likely being as much to do there as the entirety of the original game. You find temples to explore, people to help and recruit who become regulars you can learn more about at the saloon, fight local raiders, and discover technology and a hidden planet from the High Republic era that sets off the rest of the plot that sees Cal reuniting with the other characters from the first game. The story was fine, well acted, Cal is a better protagonist this time, you spend more time with Merrin who I'd still rather be the main character, and the supporting cast is typically enjoyable to interact with.

Combat is greatly expanded on but still falls a bit short. In the first game you unlocked a double bladed lightsaber late into the game and could start to chain attacks from one style to the next. Here you lose that chaining ability but basically start the game able to use a single, double bladed, or two lightsabers with a heavy cross guard style found later as well as a style that has more lunging attacks with a single blade in one hand and a blaster in the other. Each style has their own base combos and skills to learn in their skill trees but I was disappointed that you can only equip two styles at once at checkpoints and they lacked any attacks that flowed together between them. Likely because of the spread out skills in five different styles combined with all your other skill trees each style doesn't have very many skills to learn with some upgrades being just enhancements of the previous skill or each one blocking shots in a different way or having a different style of throw attack (with the exception of the blaster style where you just shoot the gun). The combat is better than the first game, not that that is saying too much, and there are some fun moves here but it still tends to feel a bit too slow, limiting in what combos can do, still feels both sanitized and a bit dull with how many hits some enemies can take from a lightsaber and what little visual damage it tends to do to its targets. Combat tends to be the most enjoyable when you fight large groups of weak enemies that you can quickly move between with each being finished with a blow or two and being susceptible to your powers but too often are fights limited to you against one or a small number of tanky, guard heavy, or somehow more maneuverable than you opponents that pose little threat and can start to feel more like a chore to fight where one of the best things to unlock is an upgraded force push that you can use to throw some stronger foes off ledges just to get fights over with.

The environments look great and Koboh and the other larger planet Jedha give you more room to explore and discover hidden secrets, puzzles, lore, and stronger enemies to find all without an overly invasive UI that many games in this style tend to have. The saloon area gives you something to come back to to check in with characters both to learn more about side characters and as a way to hear rumors that give you an area to search in on your map to find old jedi temples, side boss enemies, or locations where you might find new characters to meet. There is a lot less forced backtracking than in the first game, if you do need to go back somewhere fast travel and short cuts you can unlock make getting around easy and while you won't go to that many different planets the different sections of Koboh do a good enough job in changing the environment up enough to keep things interesting. The actual rewards for a lot of the exploration can be fairly disappointing with many being nothing more than dull cosmetics or color options for certain cosmetic or items that you can trade in for cosmetics. You might actually want to follow the main story a bit before doing too much exploration as you will be held back by Cal needing to acquire some abilities that allow for new movement abilities that will be required to progress through many side paths, though if you do explore early the mediation point checkpoints and shortcuts make it easy to get back where you need and the map is helpful in marking sections you have not entered yet or barricades you haven't been able to interact with. Just the way that you move around and abilities you have or learn to traverse the environment do a lot to improve the feel of the game when compared to the original.

A longer and improved version of the first game that this time did enough to make me enjoy playing it (even with a length that is likely nearly doubled if you do side content).

Performance wise it ran fine with everything turned to max and ray tracing on, but did crash three or four times and had issues with some Steam trophies unlocking (fixed by either starting the game from the EA app it loads from when you get it on Steam and once by using load save instead of continue on the main menu).

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3leoai6w4cc26

A 30 minute game with an uncomfortable atmosphere where you follow the commands of a masked man as you click 10,000 times and slowly hear more about the man. The dialogue, rain outside the window, sound effects, shadows, and angles of view and appearance of the man all make for an unsettling environment. Does a lot with the little it uses and the short length.

Gives the ending away and removes some tension with opening content warnings.

(You can hold down mouse or spacebar instead of clicking the mouse for those that don't want to click 10,000 times or would be unable to)

Screenshots: https://bsky.app/profile/kennanw.bsky.social/post/3le5tkfzyz22q