Recent reviews by Aleph

it's peak I'm afraid.

as a coda to crossbell and erebonia, it works really well. it's cold steel V in all but name.
this time they even acknowledge the flanderization of every character and work to undo it somewhat!

it's peak I'm afraid.

if you haven't played any (all!) of the prior trails games, you shouldn't start here! go play those!
if you have, you know what you're in for. you're either committed to see it through or you aren't.

we got:
* more characters than war and peace (they are all flanderized)
* reused dungeons from cold steel 3 to pad the runtime
* more resurrections than a standard d&d campaign
* power of friendship

the story is one thing but the gameplay is the best it's ever been to this point. you know for yourself if that matters much.

it's peak I'm afraid

it's silksong! silksong!

and it's really, really good

I dunno man, this ain't it.
It's very short, but it has really annoying puzzles and the absolute thinnest veneer of a story that you could possibly imagine. There isn't even a villain or any reason to be really doing any of the things you do!
For the price, it's not a good use of your money.

ryukishi cooked folks. gonna be thinking about this one for a long time. haters stay mad

The ending of Cold Steel II, the first one at least, made me feel like I was having a stroke. Then, the game kept going for a dozen hours during which time I may have completely dissociated from my corporeal being. By the fourth ending I am pretty sure I ascended to a higher state of being. I have no words. I am forever changed by what was done to me. I must go now to the grey havens.

you may not like it but this is what peak gaming looks like

and you thought kojima was uniquely capable of predicting the future

The great tragedy of this game is that it isn't a movie. It has to be a game, which is unfortunate because all the fun bits are the parts where it is a really good Indiana Jones film and the bad parts are where it's explicitly trying to be game-y. Cut this story down to 2 hours and put it to film, even CGI, and it'd kill at the box office.