Recent reviews by Rafalo15

An interactive presentation for true big brain "geniuses" who hate them smart folk scientists, and wish to prove that the Earth is indeed flat.
Despite all the immeasurable evidence that contrasts this.
This game is either for a sane person to laugh at and enjoy the surprisingly well narrated pieces of "truth" or for an actual blithering idiot to stroke their ego to.
For achievement hunters, 9/10 of the achievements can be collected within 20 minutes, all you need do is click on each waypoint and listen. However the last achievement requires you to watch the opening presentation a whopping 42 times.
If anyone wants to read this inane nonsense that claims to be the truth that many times because haha funny Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference, go for it.
I sure hope this is just one elaborate joke, because if so, well done.

I give this 0 flat Earths out of 0 flat Earths.

So far it has a decent amount of content in it, with a whole host of minigames and challenge modes to try out too.
The combat's pretty damn solid and offers a good variety of weapons and combos to fight with.
Also the English translations aren't fully complete as of yet so I had times where I had no idea what was happening, but that did not avail from me playing.

Really looking forward to how this game turns out when it leaves early access.

A short but sweet point and click game, filled with vivid imagery that is as insane as our own dreamscapes can be.

Please note this is an early access game still in development.

Next Up Hero is a 2D top-down twin stick shooter game with RPG elements. Players choose from a roster of heroes who they then fight their way through “ventures” with.

These ventures are essentially dungeons that the player must survive as long as they can in. With each level they ascend to the rewards increase, with the final level consisting of a boss. However, smaller bosses can be encountered at random too or you can pay a small amount for one to spawn.

Ventures can also be customized to your liking too, giving you the option of the length, location etc and can be played by other players too. You can also play other people’s levels too, and should you come upon them, summon their “echo” to help in combat, a must on later levels so you have some form of bait. Your own echo can be summoned by other players too if they attempt your own ventures.

Surprisingly the game is quite challenging, in the time I have put in thus far I have yet to see any way to regenerate health between levels. Later levels, specifically the 5 star ones, can be brutal. There was one enemy in particular that would stunlock the hell out of me and kill me with ease, killing a run quicker than the mainstream media kills a good meme. One boss was so big and slow that every encounter with them consisted of me running around and smacking them, taking no damage at all.

Next Up Hero does have a story but its really only told via cut scenes that activate each time you level up, within an hour I was at 25% story completion according to the statistics. So, clearly the story is not really the main focus here, given how spaced out it is and that its simple text-filled cutscenes, but at least there’s a story.

Combat wise, the game has some light RPG elements, like the ability to summon ancients for temporary buffs, different characters with different classes to try, and abilities you unlock by defeating a certain amount of the enemies that use them, with several levels for each one.

A few things to point out before I wrap this up:

The good:

Game runs in border-less from the get go, how is it not every game does this?
Much more challenging than I expected going in
Love the bright and vibrant colours as well as the art style, but not a fan of the chibi look the characters have
The music is rather nice too

The bad:

Summoned echoes can get stuck in an animation loop until you enter combat again
Fair bit of stutter in certain areas
If you do click out of the game and back in again, the menu selection freaks out and will not show you what you are currently selecting, however this is easily fixed by backing out
The game seemed to think I was on keyboard despite being controller, and so would constantly switch between which prompt layout to display

Overall though, Next Up Hero is a pretty decent game that’s rather fun in short bursts and well worth buying and the issues I’ve had with the game will likely be fixed throughout development.

You can currently buy Next Up Hero from the Humble Store for 15% off for £14.44 (€16,99 / $16.99).
Please note the key for this game was provided via the Humble Affiliate Program.

Review originally posted at: https://gamefold.co.uk/next-up-hero-review/

(Some light spoilers ahead but I really only "spoil" the early hours of the game)

"Like Alan Wake and Silent Hill had a baby with Resident Evil as the surrogate" - thats how I described The Evil Within 2 to a friend when asked for a brief summary. And after beating the game, I still stand by that description.

The first entry in The Evil Within series was ambitious and a pretty decent game, but it had its problems. The sequel fixes most of these problems but it still has a handful that can really hamper your experience.

A quick recap first though. Three years after the events of the first game, Sebastian is tracked down by his former partner who has been working for the secret organisation Mobius all along. He is told his daughter is actually alive and has been with them inside one of their STEM machines all this time, and they need him to go in and retrieve her.

Not long after setting foot inside the virtual world he encounters the villain of the game, Stefano Valentini, a photographer obsessed with killing people in the name of art, and thus the game sets you free to explore its new partially open world. The open world is somewhat reminiscent of Silent Hill, letting you explore and find various secrets and optional items/areas. Hell, one of the best and scariest encounter I had was entirely optional but the payoff was well worth it.

Before I move on to the issues of the game, I should mention that the PC port is not perfect. Stutters and frame drops galore, I ran it on ultra and while it mostly ran at a smooth 60, some areas would plummet to 30 or below, which was frustrating especially during combat. Despite this though the game looks phenomenal when maxed out and the cutscenes are also much improved, albeit some lip sync issues in one midway through the story.

Considering its a survival horror game where stealth is key to conserving ammo and making it out alive, the stealth in this is truly atrocious at times. You would think that a stealth kill on any enemy (bar bosses of course) would kill them in one hit but no! The masked ones take two stealth kills to be killed and a certain mini-boss towards the end of the game takes three, so what should be a reward for successfully sneaking up on them instead turns into a game of cat and mouse consisting of you doing the stealth attack (that is if they don't magically spot you), then retreating and hiding until they reset to their original path, repeating until they die.

Sure you have the bottles to distract them with and lure into an isolated spot but half the time they don't notice or seem to see you throw it and head towards you. And the crossbow being a silent weapon should kill instantly if you land a headshot, but again it doesn't. It needs to be upgraded to a certain point for that, and thats if the buggers can stop moving around constantly.

Bar the issues with the crossbow that I had, the weapons are overall great, you can feel the power behind them. The pistol is weak at first but can become a powerhouse and is best used for headshots, the shotgun is phenomenal for crowd control, the sniper is great for....well, sniping of course, the assault rifle is perfect for dealing quick amounts of low damage to stagger enemies and the flamethrower is a flamethrower, nothing much to say about it.

Just like the first game, the bosses in this are incredible and pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrifying, especially the first one. Briefly appearing in a mirror as a woman in a red dress, she then appears in the mirror as a multiple headed woman who then smashes through it revealing her grotesque body made of mannequins and then proceeds to stalk you relentlessly. She shows up at certain points outside but these are optional.

In the actual fight with her I downed her in roughly two minutes with my shotgun, only to find out that the arena was packed with traps to use against the monster, which opens up a whole new tactic to fight her for my next playthrough.

The rest of the bosses are best left to be experienced yourself.

A feature that surprised me was the addition of a shooting range just like in my beloved Resident Evil 4. Where that game gave you bottlecaps for getting certain scores on each stage, Evil Within 2 offers different prizes. I highly recommend doing it early on for the extra resources to give you the upper hand.

Whether the game gets DLC at some point in the future or the devs have a third entry planned, all I know is I need more of this series.

With development on it starting way back in 2010, StudioMDHR's Cuphead is finally here. Officially announced in 2014, its been a hotly anticipated game for me and boy did it deliver.

Punishingly hard at times but incredibly satisfying once you master the many bosses and levels it has to offer, Cuphead will both frustrate and please you. Thankfully, the game offers unlimited lives and you don't lose upgrades or coins upon death.

The story is pretty simple, seeing as its inspired by 30's cartoons. Cuphead and his pal Mugman go to play dice but ultimately lose to the Devil and thus are forced to collect souls for him in the hopes of him sparing their soul. Given powers via a magical potion gifted by their friend, they set off to save their very souls.

Cuphead, apart from playing at 60fps, genuinely feels like you are playing a cartoon from the 1930's. Full of vibrant colours, fast-paced and hectic music, and some truly imaginative enemy design, the game is bloody gorgeous. I felt like I was playing out a classic Max Fleischer or Disney cartoon, waiting for Betty Boop, Popeye, or Mickey & friends to pop out at any minute.

With animations and colouring done completely by hand, its not hard to see why Cuphead took so long in development. Every single boss feels unique and has their own pattern to learn, with multiple phases to work through, getting intense the closer you get to the climax.

The game even shows you how close you are to the end of a fight, as if to taunt you for getting so close (or nowhere at all). The screen can get incredibly busy at times with all the enemies and projectiles flying at you, causing you to die if you lose focus for even a second.

Its not all bosses though, there are a handful of run and gun levels, featuring classic platformer elements. These are optional but by doing these you can collect gold coins to then purchase different weapons (especially Chaser, that upgrade will make your experience easier, trust me) and charms, such as one that auto-parries when you jump or briefly makes you invincible upon dashing.

Super arts can also be acquired, requiring all 5 special meters to be charged, these vary in effect going from a ton of damage or brief invincibility.

You also have flying sections where you control a plane that can shrink in size to dodge more easily but deal less damage, and later on, you can use bombs to deal more damage but have to be much closer to do so. These flying sections in particular were the hardest fights for me, having to dodge in all directions while having flying projectiles to deal with is really not my forte, but I eventually managed.

The music, both in terms of theme and the actual sound quality of it, could be placed over one of the classic cartoons and it would not sound out of place. Particularly the King Dice song that plays between islands, I loved that damn piece.

There are three islands that you'll be working your way through, but to move on to the next one you have to beat all the bosses, either in the simple mode or the regular mode, but to fight the final boss you do have to beat them on regular. So keep that salt handy, because it will flow.

Initially, you have a mere three hit points with no means of restoring health during levels. You can get an upgrade that bumps it up to four but as you can only equip one charm at a time, its up to you whether you want that one extra hit point or something like brief invincibility.

Co-op is local only, which is unfortunate. Keep in mind though that this makes bosses even more frantic as both of you have to dodge attacks, and, while you can revive each other, you still have to manage to stay alive to do so and reach their ghost in time.

I should note that when it comes to platformers, I am pretty bad for the most part. This took me much longer than I expected to actually beat but once I did, I felt like a great weight had been taken off me, Cuphead lured me in with its gorgeous art style and music, then kicked my ass until I finally beat it.

Both a work of art and a phenomenal game, Cuphead has already secured its place in my top 10 this year.

(Key provided by Digerati Distribution)

The Coma: Recut was initially released as The Coma: Cutting Class back in 2015. Since then, it has undergone an overhaul, smoothing out the numerous issues that the original had and upgrading the art, controls etc, clearly the devs Devespresso Games, have a lot of for love for this game and want it to succeed.

And it is a rather fun game, if you love horror games where you run and hide from a monster. The first comparison that came to mind playing this was the Outlast games, but at least in this you can roll through attacks and the enemy can't see through walls.

A key thing to remember is that you have limited stamina which is used up as you run, evade attacks, or hold your breath. Stamina management is vital to surviving in this, you run out and have no items to restock it or slow down usage? You're dead.

While the villain is creepy, the game gives her away when she arrives and she almost immediately gives up when you hide, you can even turn your flashlight off and just hold your breath when she is literally right next to, its odd but it does test your reflexes, if you're quick enough to put your flashlight away the moment she appears and have enough stamina, then lucky you, you get to live.

As for the monster, the spawns seem to be randomised, meaning don't expect to walk along a corridor confident she won't appear, because she will. Despite this though, its not as scary as it could be, because the music suddenly ramps up when she appears, giving her away instantly. Having the music die down or stay the same would have been better, having to instead rely on your hearing and narrow light range to spot her.

Apart from the killer, there are other obstacles that can hamper your progress. Bodies can fall from the ceiling, others can claw at you from the ground and cause you to bleed, and there are poisonous nodes that well....they poison, obviously.

The Coma: Recut is a decent enough game, particularly if you love Asian-based horror. But the game for the most part boils down to the same routine: walk around, hide from the monster, find items and other characters, repeat. Mercifully it is a rather short game, clocking in at a cozy 4+ hours depending on your playstyle, so repetition won't drive you too crazy.

Review can also be found at: https://gamefold.co.uk/the-coma-recut-review/

Picking up not long after the first game, Image and Form's SteamWorld Dig 2 sees you playing as Dorothy, who appeared in the original as a merchant.

On the trail of Rusty, the original game's protagonist, Dorothy ends up falling into an ancient mine, where she finds mysterious technology that upgrades her and ultimately defeats the first boss, Fen, who ends up joining you in your quest, albeit somewhat reluctantly and sarcastically.

A metroidvania game set in a steampunk world mixed with the Wild West, the game blends these three genres perfectly, the music and world design in particular standing out.

The main map, which is an enormous cave set below the city of El Machino, is packed with loot to smash your way to, varying from simple gems, junk, and rare loot. But keep in mind that the rarer loot, while much more valuable than the generic loot, takes up significantly more space. You'll also find yet more upgrade stations, giving you various abilites, including the ability to run and shoot explosive blobs fueled by water.

Inside the main cave are even more caves that are optional for you to explore, the end result usually being finding one of the many secret room or the rarer loot, vital if you are aiming for 100% and to have every single upgrade unlocked.

Being a metroidvania game, SteamWorld Dig 2 has a huge map that will have you backtracking fairly often upon acquiring the necessary upgrades. Like in Hollow Knight, it updates as you progress through the game but unlike that game, you don't have to track down the mapmaster to fully unlock the map for that particular area, instead it is unlocked from the start, making traversing throughout the game simple. It also shows you exactly how much of the map has been unlocked, incredibly useful if you are intent on fully exploring.

Combat is rather simple, which is just fine. You can't jump on enemies as that hurts you (even cacti hurt you, despite being a robot), but you can use the basic attack or if you want to be more tactical, lure them under a heavy block, weaken the dirt under it and watch as they get crushed. Or you can go for a more ranged strategy: drop down so they are at the same level, hit them with an explosive blob and let them die a fiery death, or... you can just run them past them if you really don't want to fight.

In summary, SteamWorld Dig 2 is a better version of the original, while being its own game at the same time. If you love your metroidvania games and don't mind doing a hefty amount of digging, then I highly recommend this game.

Review can also be found at: https://gamefold.co.uk/steamworld-dig-2-review/

To prepare for the Western release of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, I have spent the last week (82 hours!) playing both Dangaronpa 1 and 2 back to back, there is also the spin-off Ultra Despair Girls, which I aim to get round to at some point. A friend insisted that I play the games, so when I saw the bundle on the Steam summer sale, I figured why not?

Now, I am quite fond of visual novels but I did not expect the games to be so long. But is it oh so worth it, the Danganronpa games are among some of the best visual novels that I have ever played. Danganronpa is not your usual fare of just talking to people and making different choices/using different items to affect and potentially change the branching storyline(s).

There is no branching storyline in these games, it is always the same result: the same people are murdered, the same people are the murderers and the executions are the same. Considering the length of these games though, thats a good thing.

Somewhat akin to the Persona games, you can hang out with your friends and bond with them, learning more of their backstory and gaining abilities from them, sadly there is no proper romance option, even if characters flirt with you. Its easy enough to bond with them, wait until you have free time, then track them down, occasionally answer a question from them and then give an item they like. Don't go expecting to max everyone's bonds in one run though, its impossible and thats what the post-game School mode is for.

Each classmate has their own unique personality and backstory that is fleshed out more with each conversation. Some are sad, some mysterious, and some are humorous, these changing how you view them. Sakura for example initially comes off as intimidating due to her size and how ripped she is, but as you get to know her she turns out to be a gentle soul who only wants the best for everyone.

The premise of Danganronpa is as follows: you play Makoto Naegi, a simple and average student who was chosen at random in a lottery for a place at Hope's Peak Academy, a school for the elite of the elite. Home to students who are the "ultimates" in their particular field, Makoto is known as the Ultimate Lucky Student and is thus looked on down initially by his fellow students.

Makoto meets up with the 14 other students that round out the cast, such as the Ultimate Martial Artist, Sakura Ogami, Leon Kowata, the Ultimate Baseball Star, and Chihiro Fujisaki, the Ultimate Programmer. However, shortly after meeting them, everything goes to hell, the school is sealed in, you are told to go to the gym and there.... you meet Monokuma, the villain of the game. Did I mention that he happens to be a robot bear?

From here, the core of the game is set out. Monokuma sets up a motive to get the students killing each other, which they then have to investigate and deduce the correct killer through debate and clues, but if they get it wrong then he executes all of them instead. But Monokuma doesn't want a straight up bloodbath where just one person murders a bunch of people, he has rules in place to make things more interesting, at least for him. The killer (s) can only kill a max of two students, accomplices will not "graduate" if the killer is not identified, these are just some of the rules he has in place, adding more as the game progresses.

Class trials are divided into a variety of mini-games. For the most part you will be using "truth bullets" which are made from the clues you gathered during the investigation phase, and are used to shoot down others statements to prove them wrong and advance the trial. You can also absorb statements for a new truth bullet unique to that particular debate.

At certain points you will have to battle someone in a rhythm based section where you have to time a button press to the beat to shoot their statements down to the point that they agree with you. Later trials up the difficulty by throwing in white lines, which cover up statements and can be shot down for bonus time, but are removed on the lower difficulty.

Upon voting for the killer, and assuming you were correct, you are treated to a cutscene in which Monokuma executes them, gloriously themed to match the killer's talent.

After each class trial and the subsequent execution of the blackened (what the killer is referred to in this), another floor of the school is unlocked for you to explore and find clues about the whole situation. I liked this way of unlocking the map as it rewarded you for successfully beating a class trial by giving you more lore and items to unlock.

Musically, Danganronpa is brilliant, Monokuma's theme in particular is great. The voice acting is excellent too, with the option to have Japanese audio with English subtitles if thats what you prefer.

Danganronpa was initially released for the PSP way back in 2010 and got a PC release last year. Which means that the graphics obviously aren't cutting edge but it does the job. What really shines in Danganronpa though is the writing.

For the first time in what seems like forever, we have a genuinely amazing Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Considering that the last decade has seen some truly horrid entries into the series, particularly Sonic '06 and..... Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. My god those games were bad. There were a few decent gems like Sonic Generations and the Sonic Rivals games on PSP (yes I liked those games, okay?), the Mario and Sonic Olympic games weren't all that bad either, come to think of it. The rest of the games in that period were serviceable but nothing compared to the golden age of Sonic, I mean how many people talk about Shadow the Hedgehog nowadays? It wasn't that bad of a game but its not particularly remembered fondly in regards to the place it holds in the series.

Honestly, those games are just a mere dip into the swamp of Sonic games released since the original, I admit I had to google for a list of the games. I had no idea there was this many games. Sonic somehow got worse over time, with the various ways the game industry changed, which in turn affected how games are made and played.The fans of old games grew up to become developers of the newer games.

Which is how we end up with Sonic Mania, a faithul recreation, update, and tribute to how great Sonic used to be, redesigning classic levels like the iconic Green Hill Zone as well as introducing us to new levels like Studiopolis. The new levels fit perfectly with the classic ones, almost as if they had been there all along. Thats just how great Mania is.

A true love letter from fans of the series, Mania nails the very essence of old school Sonic, back when he was chubbier and was all about speed, not the slimmer, edgier version we have now. Still, no one is as edgy as Shadow, but thats a whole other story. The devs behind this gem definitely poured their heart and soul into this game and it shows.

Admittedly, it took me some time to grow accustomed to how Sonic handles, after all it has been a while since I played a Sonic game. I forgot that you can't climb in this, there are no guns, no swords, just running, jumping and slamming. The traditional platforming events, if you will.

For the most part I took my time through the majority of the zones, looking for secrets and hidden areas, my score suffered for this though. After scouring every nook and cranny, I would either finally make it to a boss and die or simply restart and rush through, in true Sonic style.

The bosses were a mixed bag for me, not in terms of how they act etc, but how much I died to them. It made me realise that damn, I am dreadful at platformers at times, that boss fights are all about finding a weakness and exploiting it, I can't run around hoping to accidentally beat them. But hey, at least the bosses are varied and force you to come up with a different tactic for each one, the first one was a simple dodge and hit them when they stop moving, for example, with a later one forcing you to dodge missiles and throw a certain one at them until they are defeated.

Its about damn time that Sega have finally provided us with an amazing Sonic game, even if they forced DRM onto the steam version, which caused it to be delayed by two weeks and rightfully pissing off many fans, as the devs themselves requested they complain about it.

Despite this though, Sonic Mania has cemented itself as one of the greats.

Review originally posted on: https://gamefold.co.uk/sonic-mania-review/