Recent reviews by inclinedtoserve

An enjoyable game, able to leverage a familiar theme of poker into a highly varied experience with lots of replay value. Personally don't have much drive to keep playing now that I've gold staked everything, though.

A game with a fantastic story and lovable characters. I always eagerly await the new updates to learn more about the setting and plot. I've only purchased the seasonal battle passes yet have everything in the game as of the time of this review... which I believe, though I'm unfamiliar with Gacha as a whole, means that the game is pretty generous.

To be perfectly clear, the game itself is not bad. Movement is pretty intuitive, with none of the unlockable mobility upgrades feeling hard to use. Combat is satisfying, and offers enough room for personalization that each player can find their own methods. The map could use work, but I appreciate the clarity in communicating which rooms still have secrets to find.

Where Ender Lilies falls flat, in my opinion, is its presentation. People call it a mix of Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, but it felt more like a reheated meatloaf of the two. Tastes good, but lacks memorable charm. Storywise, I was interested at first, before I knew what was going on. But as I discovered the lore, it turned out to be a lot of reused concepts from its main inspirations. They were executed competently enough, but a copy is still a copy. It simply didn't feel as meaningful the second time around.

The bosses, with a few exceptions, are generic knights that fail to leave much of an impression. The flash of red that almost every attack in the game is preceded by hurts their memorability, since you spend less time actually examining foes and learning their animations than you do simply reacting to the color red with a quick dodge or parry.

Despite the plethora of unlockable attack abilities, called spirits, you won't wind up using most of them more than once. Since you need collectable resources to upgrade them, a player will naturally only want to stick to the ones they've upgraded even if they get a cool new one. On top of this, each change in spirit composition necessitates a period of relearning muscle memory. While I appreciate what they were going for with the system, it still ultimately harmed my experience.

The art style and environments look pretty, but in that generic soulslike gothic way that doesn't stand out. Even now, only a day after getting every ending, I wouldn't be able to describe most of the locations in great detail. This is despite combing through the world several times to obtain optional items and scraps of lore.

As for the music... I was disappointed. I like MILI, so I was really looking forward to the OST. But even now, looking at the OST on its own, barely any of it actually stands out. I wouldn't be able to tell you when these songs actually play in the game, and most of the boss music seems to be going for the Dark Souls "Gwyn's Theme" vibe. That would be fine, if it wasn't almost EVERY SINGLE BOSS THEME. When all the music has the exact same feeling to it, no tracks really get a chance to stick in the mind.

Jumping back to the combat, a lot of the basic enemies are very uninspired. Throughout the entire game there are these slime things that just walk at you slowly and periodically leap forwards. Generic zombie archers shoot at you unerringly, only really a threat when one is busy with another enemy. The unique enemies for each area, meanwhile, almost all fall prey to the simple strategy of dodging into their body when red flashes and then hitting them. Repeat until dead. Sometimes you even have to dodge a few times before punishing due to a combo from the foe. As I said earlier, if it weren't for the flashes of red it might be more interesting. But since the actual animations barely matter to learning their moves and timing they all end up feeling the same aside from how tanky and damaging they are.

For someone that wants an easier game in the genre, I would heartily recommend Ender Lilies. In fact, I think it's a great introduction to the genre. But, having played far more interesting titles with far more interesting stories and settings, I can't say I really enjoyed it. Oftentimes I'd find myself wishing I was playing Blasphemous or Hollow Knight instead.

If I were to rate this game more accurately, I would probably call it a 7.5/10. A fun way to spend your time, but not one that you'd keep coming back to.

I just finished Paradise Killer and let me just say this is probably the most accurate portrayal of what detective work is actually like out of any game I've ever played. Seriously, Ace Attorney, Dagonrompa, Deadly Premonition, none of them capture the feel of this game.

Normally detective games are focused on numerous cases that build on top of each other, normally culminating in one final case filled with epic reveals and conspiracies. However, Paradise Killer doesn't do this, instead the game is focused on just one singular crime, and because of its focus on just one crime, it's able to do something special. Unlike the likes of Ace Attorney and Dagonrompa, PK is an open world game where you're free to start the trial before you even so much as set foot in the crime scene. Essentially this means that you aren't forced to do a thorough job, you can be just as meticulous or sloppy as you desire.

However, in order to make the investigation challenging, the island PK takes place on is massive, causing you to have to tediously comb every inch of it for clues. The devs of PK have literally said that they view their game as an open-world Flower Sun and Rain, and the reliance on tedium as the game's main form of challenge makes that this inspiration clear. Fortunately, this game never gets as boring as FSR, due to the fact that there's plenty of optional items you can find that add to the game's (very fascinating) lore, so at the very least there's always something interesting to find wherever you go.

The only downside to PK's unique approach to investigation is the fact that due to the nature of the gameplay, the trial isn't very exciting. However, this isn't really a complaint since this isn't supposed to be like Ace Attorney or Dangonrompa where the trials are the main point of the game, in PK the investigating is the most crucial part of the experience, the trial is merely meant to give you proper pay-off for the amount of time you poured into investigating.

TLDR: Paradise Killer is an incredibly unique take on the detective game genre and you should probably try it out if you've enjoyed Ace Attorney, Dangonrompa, Deadly Premonition or any games similar to them.

If you enjoy turn based tactical combat and self-aware humour, this game is for you.