Recent reviews by JotunWarrior

an incredible game (when it isn't crashing)

felt like playing Zelda for the first time

Good game for exploring - combat and character building are pretty minimal, but it was a lot of fun to find little shortcuts and search out new areas. The Middle-Eastern inspired setting was pretty unique for the genre, and there's a lot of secrets hidden around that you'll only find by paying attention to rumors. Keyboard only and with a ~7 hour runtime, this an excellent weekender game.

This is one of the weirdest games I've ever played. The gaming equivalent of an award-winning short film you see one time and never stop thinking about.

Big recommend.

I don't know if it's the best jrpg ever made, but it's definitely my favorite.

well. turns out I love ant

For the first couple hours I was really impressed, but honestly I was struggling to finish it at the end. It's pretty good for a turn-based RPG but by the midpoint the combat tends to become a long, slow crawl that sort of encourages you to abuse one of the more overpowered mechanics over and over.
I really liked the writing and atmosphere though. It's not a strong reccomend, but I do think it's worth checking out.

Legend of Grimrock is a no-nonsense oldschool dungeon crawler, forgoing even the usual conceits of a starting town and NPCs. It has an extremely narrow focus on exploration and combat, which plays out sort of as a dance - weaving away from enemy attacks and back in range in time for your cooldowns to reset. The map is handmade and feels very intentionally designed to push you forward through challenging puzzle rooms, and the hidden secret areas are just secret enough to be rewarding - neither too easy nor difficult to find.

I enjoyed it overall, although I'll admit it lacks in variety. There aren't quite enough character classes, and the environments can get a little repetitive - you'll start to feel like you're in the Windows 98 Maze screensaver about halfway through. But if you push on, the ending boss is bizarre in a very memorable way.

The chaos of toppling buildings is pretty cool for an hour or two, but it gets stale fast due to the extremely limited combat selection and difficulty progression that seems mostly cosmetic.

Story mode has some bizarre, early-2000's-sprite-comic political messaging that boils down to "both sides are either willfully evil or stupid enough to be tricked and everyone sucks except me, the Cool Observer". Endless mode is story-free, but again, the actual gameplay is lacking enough variety to sustain it. Admittedly I'll probably sink a few more hours into it to grab all the achievements, but I can't recommend the game at full price.

It plays about ten times smoother with a gamepad, if you do grab it.

An intensely story-driven game; maybe a little too intensely, as the combat is vestigial and can largely be skipped by just running forwards. But the exploration is a hoot and a half and the story was 3+ hoots. Lots of really wonderful Weird Fantasy lore and detail in the world. A real great time, so long as you aren't expecting a Morrowind clone or a Soulslike challenge.