Recent reviews by kkcwkoh

Been a fan of Dynasty Warrior since DW4, and Origins is everything I have wanted from a Musou game in terms of its gameplay. Fierce and Proactive Enemy AI, Large Armies clashing, tactics to gain advantage, and fun combat system.

Having recently obtained a 100% achievement, here's my 2-cents on Origins.

Pros:
- Fun combat system. There's a limited amount of weapons compared to other DW titles, however the gameplay style differs from each other. There are familiar playstyle like the sword giving the classic DW moveset, and the spear giving DW6's Renbu moveset, however there are also other weapons like the Chakram being a timing weapon or the Podao being a charge-focused weapon. Each of them offers a different approach on how you deal with fighting officers.
- Enemy AI's are fierce and proactive, especially on the highest difficulty. When fighting against 2 or more officers, they tend to attack in tandem and sometimes attack in a way that covers each others back.
- Large armies system. On the battlefield, there are officers that congregate into a large army. During key moments in battle, your own army starts to congregate into a large army as well and will await for your signal to charge. With the signal, the two large armies charge forth and clashes with one another. The feeling of charging together with your allies never gets old and its one of the strongest part that Origin gets right. I hope to see Koei makes use of this system in future Warrior titles.
- Morale system has an actual effect on the battlefield. Admittedly, I often ignore the morale gauge in recent Warrior games. However in Origin, the morale system effects both allies and enemy significantly. For example, Enemy with high morale attacks are much more fierce and vice versa.
- Amazing music soundtrack. There's a great amount of remix of old tracks which was done wonderfully.
- Beautiful overworld map.
- A good story retelling the events before the establishment of the Three Kingdom era. I especially like that the Yellow Turbans and Dong Zhuo's tyranny is told further.

Neutral:
- Some officers no longer have their unique weapon (Tonfa, Twin Claw/Rod, etc). Though, despite being given a shared weapon, I notice they seem to have their own way of attacking and battle art preference. For example, Zhang He and Zhao Yun may both use a spear, but my encounter for both has been different due to the difference of their attack style.
- Decent English voice acting, though I would mark the pronunciation of officers name as a con.
- Bond conversations with officers are pretty nice. Though, it could certainly be better when it comes to interacting with your MC.

Cons:
- Pronunciation for some of the officers name is quite off. For example, Lu Bu being pronounced as Looey Boo. It feels like DW4's pronunciation for "Cow Cow" but worse.
- Story checkpoints are very limited. if you want to retread to a certain part of the story, you'd have to replay convo/battles to reach to the section you wanted.
- Main Character is kind of a blank slate. Personally, the story surrounding your MC is a weak point of the game.
- Dynasty Warrior is also about playing as your favorite historical figure, unfortunately you only get to do it briefly for a time and only in certain stages.

Overall, I find this to be a fantastic entry to the Warrior franchise. It is enjoyable for veteran Musou players, but also newcomer friendly with its story and combat system. I hope Koei makes use of the Enemy AI and Large Army system for their future Warrior titles moving forward.

After going through 2 full playthrough session (Hard & Nightmare), safe to say that Ys X is my utmost favorite Ys title to date alongside with Ys VIII.

The character dynamic between Adol and Karja is fantastic, the exploration at sea feels great, and the overall combat mechanic feels very fresh, yet familiar. In prior Ys titles, flash dodge tend to be my go-to when avoiding attacks. However, Ys X focuses more on perfect guarding and parrying attacks. The duo mechanic truly makes you feel like you are fighting as a team together. As such, the combat here feels very exhilarating especially on higher difficulties. Bosses provides a great challenge as well.

Ys X is a bit more heavy on the story side, but overall it gives me a great satisfaction equivalent to that of Ys VIII. Overall, a fantastic Ys title and one that I would highly recommend.

If this goes on sale and you're looking for a warrior title, grab it.
Samurai Warrior 4 DX is a welcome surprise. The overall warrior experience is pretty smooth, and the characters and music are great as well. While SW4-II tells its story from character's perspective, SW4 tells its story by clan (Oda, Tokugawa, Mori, etc).

Hoping to see Samurai Warrior 4 Empires get shadowdrop in the future as well.

A neat adventurous story of an Ice Fairy, fun and challenging Danmaku fights, and all around Amazing tracks, especially the vocal ones. It's certainly a high recommendation, especially if you're a Touhou fan.
I also love the new designs given to the Touhou characters.

Persona 5 Strikers continues its story after Persona 5 Royale, bringing back its lovable original main casts for another tale which takes them across Japan.

Omega-Force (Koei) has a hand in developing this, hence Strikers possesses a mixture of Dynasty Warrior and Persona 5 mechanics. The overall gameplay sets you off in exploring huge areas called Jails, which are the equivalent to Persona 5's Palaces but with its own set of rules. There is more emphasis on counter-dodge, baton passes, and elemental switching in combat. This makes battle exciting and keeps you on your toes, rather than the usual hack-and-slash that are seen in many Koei titles. Essentially, enemies will knock you down hard on mindless button mashing.

Music is a big part of enjoying Persona 5, and Strikers did a great job in not only arranging the base Persona 5 tracks, but also has outstanding original vocal tracks of their own. It very much fits the style of Striker's gameplay and enhances them.

Overall, Persona 5 Striker's is a great spin-off to Persona 5 Royale. There are gripes such as the loss of QoL that are present in Royale, the content outside of battle is minimal, and a lot of menu-ing, but that didn't deter me from enjoying it.

For those who completed Tales of Arise years back, Beyond the Dawn is like a reunion. You get to see what the characters are up to after the events of the main game, revisiting places new and old, and solving the local problems. I do wish there's more scene involving the new character, but alas..

Grab this only if you want more Arise.
I enjoyed my time with it and revisiting Arise again reminds me how I love the combo focused nature this game has with its combat.

Its boundless trails paved with boundless fun and satisfaction.
If you like Ys series (particularly PSP-era Ys), you'll be right at home with its gameplay and bosses. Both satisfying and challenging (if you do a no heal fight).

Falcom jdk also does a great job with the game's music. It's one of Falcom's finest.

Trail into Reverie is an Amazing experience through and through. It follow and wraps up the Crossbell and Cold Steel saga nicely, while also paving the road for Calvard storyline. The side story (Day Dream) segments is a nice homage to Sky the 3rd and are exceedingly well written in following up character's growth and events.

Been playing it exclusively on Steamdeck and the performance have stayed at a consistent 60 fps.

While the game's performance has been a pleasant experience, there are many glaring localization mistakes/errors.
As of version 1.0.5, there are many localization error, such as typos, grammatical error, missing SFX, wrong language VA for Laura's art cast, and incorrect stat display for equipment (e.g: Evergreen EVA stat is 10%, not 5%). Most of these are noticeable near final parts of the game.

Regardless of those issues, I still find my time with Reverie to be very enjoyable. Amazing casts, good music, gripping stories.
Just be aware that these localization issues exists upon diving into this game.

The Crossbell duology has some of the best written characters and overall storytelling in all of the Trails series (or JRPG in general). Trails from Zero has given us a lot of questions left unanswered, which were addressed splendidly in Trail to Azure. The moments to moments storytelling is also greatly heighten by its Amazing soundtracks as well, as they complement the scenarios perfectly.

Trails to Azure serves to be one of the hardest Trails games out there, however the game also provides you with enough tools to break the game if you know where to look. Having just beaten Nightmare mode, the game still provides a decent challenge despite these tools.

Overall, Trails to Azure is best played after Trails from Zero as they tell the complete story of Crossbell. If you have to check out 2 JRPGs this year, Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure would be my high recommendation.

I'm gonna miss the chest messages. It's been fun reading them.

Trails from Zero is definitely one of the best Trails games out there. You can hop into it as your first trails game just fine, however for the best experience, I would put high recommendation to play the Sky series first.

However, do note that as of version 1.3.7, there are several localization issues, such as grammatical error, typo, untranslated text (so far I've only notice 2 text box untranslated).

Aside from those issues, Trails from Zero is a wonderful experience. Lovable characters, great world building, story, and music. If this is your first time experiencing Zero, you are in for a great experience.