Recent reviews by Iscarius

>Feel nostalgic for some Street Fighter
>Pick this up on sale
>Turn on game
>Generic intro leads into very basic tutorial
>Figure out how to skip
>Click through literally DOZENS(!) of popups about various updates, privacy agreements, login, etc.
>Finally get into game
>Oh sweet, arcade mode includes all the old games!
>Half of characters for each game behind paywall
>Close game and uninstall

If you're really itching to play some Soul Caliber, pick this up on sale. The single player story modes are underdeveloped and underwhelming.

Libra of Souls: repeated quests that go "find acquaintance 100s of miles away, just in time to save them from bandits." You can upgrade and customize weapons, but the random system gives you almost no good weapons. Final act drags on after the main story climax. Battles mostly easy with a few really hard ones at the end.

Tried the other single player mode. Play through the same story with a few battles for all of the characters. Did Nightmare's, just easy slaughter.

Main fighting mechanics are pretty familiar from older games. New mechanic seems unnecessary, just added for the sake of adding something. Too many abbreviations to keep up with in single player weapons upgrade.

Lots of people seem to like the character creator. It's cool, but I didn't feel like messing with it that much. Got a few days of entertainment for $20. Definitely don't pay $60.

>Tfw you ask your girlfriend a simple question and end up having to relive every detail of the story for 3 hours

This DLC does a great job of realistically portraying life as a woman in the Middle Ages, by being boring, difficult, and tedious.

Unless you really want to play as Lvl 1 Woman, do not ask Theresa how she escaped!

Common case of the 2nd game having not as good of a story but better gameplay than the 1st. It feels much less connected to Tolkien canon, but Arkham Assassin 2: Mordor Boogaloo will keep you entertained for hours with the nemesis system. Send an orc to murder his blood brother and watch him turn on you. Break a stubborn orc's mind and make him serve you. Fly around Mordor on a drake. Who needs a main story anyway?

Well, I'm just here to say I played DOS2 before this and absolutely loved it. Both games have very similar battle mechanics, interface, gameplay in general. As a comparison: DOS and DOS2 are both pretty great, but if you're new to the series, the second game is definitely superior, especially in terms of story and character interactions. Just play it. If you love this type of game and can't get enough, this one is definitely worth playing as well.

The game itself* is quite great overall. (Will elaborate at the end.) Good sequel to AC 3 and 4, if you liked Black Flag, you'll enjoy this one. The setting is back in colonial America, but there's not nearly as much running across open wilderness. Better designed wilderness land levels overall. Hunting is also less tedious, like it was in 4. Fewer annoying follow and eavesdrop missions. Beat-em-up challenges maybe too dumbed down, but who cares. Sailing your ship is smoother than ever. No more underwater challenges. Basically, a smoother, less frustrating experience overall. Story gets pretty interesting after a slow beginning.

I did experience several pure glitches, where your character gets stuck in the level after jumping off something and you have to reload. Didn't have any of those in 3 or 4. Fortunately not enough to be truly game breaking.

And finally, the worst flaw of this game is the metagame crap when you're out of the Animus. It got scaled back drastically after 3, but now it just feels more pointless than ever. Getting taken out of the Animus to slowly wander around and do a random minigame really breaks the immersion and simply isn't fun. It should either be as good as the real game, or just scaled back to cutscenes to fill in the story.

Fun gameplay, good story, but most of the characters are kind cringey.

Only beat this because I'm playing through all the FFs. This was not one I played growing up. Everything about this one is too convoluted to really be an enjoyable game. I appreciate the attempt to get away from pure level grinding, but this didn't make it better. Drawing, junctioning, card modding, etc just gets really tedious.

On the plus side, the characters are memorable and have interesting arcs. The story also gets a bit complex but is enjoyable overall. I definitely recommend a quick play through the main story over trying to be a completionist and do everything.

Instantly addictive. Can be relaxing to play, but also remains a good level of challenge all the way to the very end. Well worth $20. Shut up and buy it.

Like Cones of Dunshire, one could describe this game as "punishingly intricate."