Recent reviews by Syiren

Base game cleared with both endings in about 13 hours. Satisfying gameplay loop. Graphics are easy on the eyes and pleasant to behold. BGM is appropriate and the sound effects are really solid (the sounds of the boat are quite convincing to me at least)

Story is simple, relatively easy to follow. Overall an excellent game.

I have tried several times to get into this game over a very very long period of time, but it just doesn't resonate with me. I can see why it's an incredible game, it just isn't my cup of tea.

The graphics appear blotchy and gives me the impression of nausea, the voice acting is amazing but the music is nearly non-existant. I haven't made it past the initial investigations so the story is a mystery to me.

But the gameplay, almost entirely all dialogue, and almost everything down to dice rolls. As a fan of TTRPGs, I thought this would absolutely be my jam, but I have died several times to seemingly innocuous decisions made and it has been immensely frustrating.

By design, the protagonist you play is also unbearable, and I believe it is our job to develop them in a direction we so choose. But the protagonist, their thoughts and the framing of their thoughts, really just makes me feel sick as well.

Overall this is 100% not my cup of tea but I absolutely get why this would be well-regarded. Give it a try if you like stories and a choose-your-own-adventure type of vibe.

Graphics: Very pretty, but lots and lots of particle effects can make it challenging to see what is happening. If possible, try reducing effects so you can actually tell what is going on.

Audio: Hits sound meaty and soundtrack is incredible.

Story: Confusing at first, in the end it's still not quite clear what the goal is, but it's very similar in vibes to Final Fantasy Mobius.

Gameplay: Hits feel light as there is rarely any stagger from enemies when you hit them, yet every hit by the enemies stagger you. Weapons don't feel like they carry weight, swinging a big weapon still has your protagonist gliding over the floor, for example. Dodges don't feel like they have i-frames, and the timings for blocks feel inconsistent with when the attacks are displayed to hit you. In other words: Offence doesn't feel satisfying, and defence feels like a dice roll. Overall still enjoyable despite these grievances.

Difficulty: Played on Normal before swapping to Casual just to see how it ran. The difficulty drop was very significant. Casual mode is definitely just for finishing the story and seeing what happens. Normal requires some familiarity with the systems, but as you can tell from my grievances above, I couldn't click with it.

Overall: Recommended for fans of Final Fantasy and action games (similar vibes to Nioh)

Similar visual style to Battlechasers Nightwars, which is no surprise since it's the same developers. Gameplay is an action-RPG hybrid with very light mechanics for dodging (no rewards for perfect dodges and absolutely no parries)

Music is non-existent, but the sound design is tight, the effects make sense to the actions being performed on screen.

No microtransactions, which is a banger of a feature. A perfectly serviceable and fun game for the price tag.

Great turn-based RPG. I'm not a fan of this genre, but the graphics, soundtrack, and sound design for the game is incredible. The 2D3D vibe is intriguing throughoug all the time I played the game.

It is a good game, but it isn't for me. Gave it an honest shot playing it for a couple of hours. Indie RPG vibes, the graphics and sound design aren't great. The combat system has interesting ideas, such as having your "companions" function as Pokemon who work alongside you to take out people.

There is a mechanic to reduce focus points and stun your opponents, but it seems to be far more effective to apply the Damage Over Time effects and spam them across all opponents, as a general rule.

The combat is few and far between, as most of your time should be spent on investigations. The problem is that the places you visit have a rather grey colour palette and by the end of an hour of wandering about it was positively depressing. I suppose if you're into the "gothic, war torn, old Europian town in the Victorian era" vibes then it'll still hold your interest, but it just wasn't for me.

Overall it is a good game for a niche audience of gamers: Specifically turn-based RPG enjoyers who want a gothic themed game (Right, Darkest Dungeon. This thing gave me strong "Darkest Dungeon" vibes)

Not a soulslike, more like a character action RPG akin to God of War. The mechanics favour dodges and perfect dodges. It's the kind of game where you could beat it as a Lvl 1 Wretch with a stick, so you can take heart that if there's a problem you just need to improve your skills to overcome it.

Build variety is affected by skills chosen and armor sets, and there is no one "best build" as your playstyle will massively determine the spells chosen and armor used. Although imo pillar stance having no parry option just makes it worse than the others (plenty of other players have shown this to be false, it's just my wrong opinion)

Graphics are phenomenal with minimal drops in framerate for me (4080 super). Audio is fantastic, no noticeable jumps in audio making it a good consistent listen even on speakers. Never crashed on me even during the insanely cinematic secret fights.

10/10 game, GOTY contender for sure.

Steps up gameplay and story from the previous entry. Graphics are excellent but quite demanding, you'll need a really good GPU to experience it all. Hardly any bugs or glitches, a very polished product.

Unable to make it past opening cutscene in spite of numerous fixes attempted on both the Steam and EA Launcher platform. 0/10, even nostalgia can't save this steaming pile.

Marvel's XCOM, if that sounds right up your alley, you're gonna love this