HIGH The art style has its moments.

LOW The gamefeel, the puzzles, the teeth-grittingly slow pace…

WTF The two Andy Warhols in Artia (which is two too many)

The Plucky Squire has indie smash hit swagger. The concept? Main character Jot is a Link-like storybook hero who can alter his book’s world and even venture into the ‘real world’ outside of its pages. It immediately looks like a winner thanks to a charming art style, and the mechanical ideas shown from the earliest trailers pricked up the ears of huge swathes of the market.

Sadly – and it brings me no pleasure to say this – The Plucky Squire is bad. So bad, in fact, that I’m in the ludicrous position of admitting that this bright, cheery title was the worst thing I’ve played this year, and that I gave up before I finished it.

I sensed trouble within minutes of starting — or, I should say, within minutes of being given some meaningful control, because The Plucky Squire is obsessively chatty from the start, and it remains so throughout. Everything about the way Jot controls, both in the Zelda-esque 2D, top-down world of the storybook and the Mario-ish 3D real world, feels wrong. His sword swing is sluggish, he moves slowly, and his roll has a noticeably staccato rhythm to it. Playing Squire at anything less than 60fps further compounds these issues.

Zelda is not strictly about combat, but even in the ‘86 original Zelda, Link’s sword thrust was well-tuned and intuitive. Jot’s is not, and because many screens involve killing enemies, it’s not possible to ignore how skewed the gamefeel is. Enemy HP is too high as well, and everything takes too long to kill. There’s a half-baked upgrade system, but I felt forced to beeline for the damage upgrades to help speed things up. It’s just not good.

The other half of the Zelda equation is made up of puzzles, and Plucky Squire infuses its brainteasers with a text-based word-swapping element. Because Jot lives in a storybook, his adventures appear on the page as sentences. Certain words in these sentences can be picked up and shuffled around, and these changes alter the storybook page to suit the new sentence. The book may describe a lily pad as “small,” and it is indeed unable to hold his weight, but if Jot finds the word “big” somewhere else, he can pop it into that sentence to make the pad big enough to jump to.

Nice concept, flavorless execution. I don’t expect or want the puzzles in Plucky Squire to be brain-burning monstrosities, but what’s on offer in Squire will drop someone’s cranial temperature to absolute zero. It’s evident within seconds what’s required, there’s no room for unforeseen solutions, and it’s always just a matter of executing the sequence – and a sequence is often hampered by stodgy combat and incessant, play-stopping quips from the characters.

It also bothers me in particular that slotting in the wrong word doesn’t cause its own changes. Every valid sentence construction should enact its rule, with no exceptions. With the lily pad, if I put the word “stone” in instead of “big,” it should rightfully turn to stone. Instead, the sentence simply rejects it rather than altering the scene accordingly.

Then there are the 3D sections. While Jot’s moveset is unchanged, there’s more of an emphasis on platforming — platforming which is mediocre at best, stultifying at its (frequent) worst. The one-off concepts continue in 3D too, and I can’t help but kvetch about the fact that the first “out of the book” sequence has an instant fail stealth section that would’ve been tacky and outdated 15 years ago.

All of Squire’s good ideas stop at the flash of concept, and never generate the warmth that comes from meaningful mechanical exploration. Look at the slew of minigames it offers – these are meant to be cute riffs and homages to other games, but they’re flawed.

For example, the Punch-Out-style boxing episode for the first boss is terrible. Like all of his other actions, Jot’s punches and dodges just aren’t up to the standards of Little Mac’s. Furthermore, Plucky Squire is too anxious that players might not catch on to this simple fight and explains exactly how to beat it before it starts. Another early sequence that switches to a turn-based JRPG battle drags on well after the joke has been appreciated, forcing the player to sink into its fundamental mediocrity. Fortunately, the minigames can be skipped – I just wish other elements could be passed over as well…

It’s not even a matter of style over substance in Plucky Squire, because the art style, while striking and technically competent, is hollow and derivative — it lands somewhere between a twee Adventure Time with the numbers filed off and the DIY art label on a middling craft farmhouse ale. It’s sort of unique for a game to look like this, but so much art elsewhere looks exactly like this. There’s no surprising fire, no distinguishing eccentricity… no sense of character that wasn’t spooned out of a can.

The story of this storybook also grates. One the characters is a wizard named Moonbeard who wears cool shades and is also a DJ. There’s a mountain with a candy-colored heavy metal theme called Trarrg, and a swamp full of actor-snails that speak in bad couplets. It’s all so cringe-inducing, and frankly, trying way too hard. 

Cheeriness laid on thick can work, but Plucky Squire is so flat in its optimism that it comes across as dopey. There’s nary a shade of melancholy or maturity here, which is essential to great children’s stories. However, even if I liked the story – which I didn’t – it incessantly interrupts the gameplay.

One mandatory quest involves bringing pigs — sorry, I mean “Rubboinks” — back to their pen. After each one is dropped off, the jovial farmer stops Jot to let him know that, hey, he just dropped off a Rubboink! When dealing with the aforementioned snails, Jot must gather two different volumes of a book, one on each side of the screen, all with running commentary from the surrounding snails. When the sequence is over there’s an unskippable, joyless “skit” scene where the snail actors do their little play.

The storybook conceit itself also intrudes. Every time Jot leaves a screen, the book has to zoom out, flip the page, and zoom back in before he can move again — and some of these screens consist of a path with nothing on it that takes two seconds to traverse. Even outside of the storybook there are many long pans over the level, including ones that zoom in on keys, just in case anyone was worried about having to find it themselves. My enthusiasm was already sputtering out, but the fact that I couldn’t even move through Squire’s world at anything but a glacial pace is what ultimately killed it for me. Goodbye, Moonbeard. Don’t let the hard drive hit you on the way out.

I wish All Possible Futures luck in their future ventures, but here, in today’s hyper-crowded indie scene, there are dozens and dozens of games that deserve to be plucked up ahead of this Squire.

4.5 out of 10

— Ben Schwartz

Disclosures: This game is developed by All Possible Futures and published by Devolver Digital. It is available on PC, PS5, XBO/X/S and Switch. This copy of the game was obtainedvia publisher. Approximately 8 hours of play were devoted to the game, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Fantasy Violence. The ESRB rating summary is as follows: This is an action-adventure game in which players follow the story of a squire who explores 2D and 3D realms while trying to save his friends. Players traverse platform environments, solve puzzles, and fight whimsical enemies (e.g., goblins, birds, badgers). Players use a small sword to strike cartoony enemies that disappear into puffs of smoke when defeated. One mini-game depicts an exaggerated boxing match, with characters punching and dodging to defeat each other; action is highlighted by impact sounds, brief cries of pain, and screen-shaking effects.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes present.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered or resized. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay. This title is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post The Plucky Squire Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Stepping into [redacted location] for the first time.

LOW A pretty obnoxious summoner boss in one of the sub-dungeons.

WTF Count Ymir’s whole deal.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This review covers the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC only. For a more complete description of Elden Ring systems and general information, please see our main review.

*

We have officially reached the point where mainstream videogames are so massive in scale that their DLC is the size of an ideal standalone release. Featuring an entirely new open-world map that’s maybe a third the size of the main campaign, and hosting a self-contained story quest that took me over 30 hours to complete, Shadow of the Erdtree — the first and only expansion for Elden Ring — feels unusually ceremonious, even by FromSoft standards. That it improves an already fantastic experience should come as no surprise given the developer’s track record with DLC, but what’s most impressive is that it feels almost like a miniature Elden Ring in and of itself.

The expansion (accessed from Mohg’s boss arena after defeating both he and Starscourge Radahn) concerns Miquella, one of the most enigmatic figures from the main quest. Supposedly one of the more benevolent of Marika’s children, all we know going into SotE is that he has discarded his corporeal flesh and retreated to another realm called the Land of Shadow. Much like the Lands Between, it resides under a massive tree and has already been ravaged by war before we arrive. We don’t immediately know where Miquella is, but others have come seeking him as well. Naturally, their stories often unfold whether we’re around to experience them or not.

SotE is large enough that it requires its own difficulty curve, and immediately there’s a problem. This is explicitly endgame content, meaning that by the time players are even able to access this expansion, they’re likely at the point where their build is beginning to plateau and leveling up has less impact. To counteract this, the devs added collectible items that can be used to boost player stats, but they’re only effective in the Land of Shadow. They’re typically found near major landmarks and after defeating bosses, so the player’s power level in SotE will depend in part on how thorough they are. It feels less organic than earning experience and fine-tuning a build, though I’m hard-pressed to think of a better way to do it.

There are all manner of new weapons and spells to play around with, but SotE feels mostly familiar, perhaps overly so at first. One of the most common complaints I’ve seen about the base game is that it felt emptier than previous FromSoft releases — that the open world added dead space between places of interest. Those folks will likely feel the same way about SotE, and I’ll admit that for the opening hours, I worried that the spell was breaking for me. I was seeing plenty of the usual suspects — oh look, another Ulcerated Tree Spirit — and the rewards for careful exploration were often crafting materials, smithing stones, or nothing at all. Even some of the early dungeons read like Elden Ring leftovers, such as a small castle on the initial horizon that feels a bit like a warmed-over Caria Manor.

As I delved deeper into the Land of Shadow, however, I came to realize that FromSoft had found new ways of hiding their light under a bushel. They can no longer surprise us with scale — not after the core campaign disguised the size of its map and hit us with a Z-axis expansion — so instead they rely upon our existing understanding of Elden Ring to wow us with some of their wildest, most colorful and varied landscapes yet, and with them some extraordinary additions to the mythos. Miquella may be the focus of the expansion, but other factions that were previously under-represented are elaborated upon here.

FromSoft is often criticized for a relatively hands-off storytelling approach that relegates most of the relevant details to item descriptions, but I see it from a different angle. The lore enriches the experience for those with the drive to seek it out, but FromSoft stories tend to be simple in nature and more about the personal journey. The unique amount of information that each player absorbs is part of that. We’ve been wanting to know more about Miquella for more than two years, and now that I’ve played SotE, I believe I have a decent understanding of him. However, that’s only based on the incomplete picture that I have, drawn using whatever details I happened to pick up. I have zero doubt that my understanding will continue to evolve when the community gets its hands on the expansion.

There are few things I value more in videogames than a sense of discovery, and FromSoft can scratch that itch better than nearly anyone. They know how to tempt us with a tantalizing silhouette on the horizon. My character’s voyage through the Land of Shadow was dictated almost entirely by me seeing something cool in the distance, wondering how to get to it, figuring it out, and being rewarded. Sometimes that reward was just a gorgeous view, but that can be enough. Anyone able to even reach this DLC certainly understands by now the value of slowly opening a massive door to reveal a beautiful vista on the other side.

I wrote in my initial impressions of Elden Ring that its free-roaming nature and almost total plotlessness made it feel closer in spirit to early Zelda than nearly any other modern title. That’s doubly true for SotE, partly because it’s more compact, and partly because FromSoft hasn’t leaned this hard into abstract space in a while. SotE‘s centerpiece legacy dungeon, for example, never once feels like a practical dwelling, but its gimmick is something we never saw in the main content — it’s a castle with numerous entrances and exits that requires multiple passes to complete and acts as a conduit between other parts of the map. That’s worth the trade-off, and it’s part of what makes SotE unique from even the base game, where the regions were largely arranged in a line.

Of course SotE isn’t a metroidvania, but it shares some common DNA in how vertically aligned it is and how often it dips, overlaps and doubles back on itself. While it’s not as impressive a feat as the original Dark Souls perfectly positioning its levels and skyboxes in such a way as to create the illusion of an open world, it’s not far behind. There’s something satisfying about skipping a seemingly non-optional dungeon by finding an obscure side route that spits me out at the back end.

The new bosses (of which there are many) are also almost uniformly great, which should come as good news to those who found Elden Ring‘s original rogues’ gallery a bit lacking. I can’t elaborate much, but there are delightfully few gimmicks to be found here — these are simply well-tuned battles in visually stunning arenas. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a higher number of great boss fights in SotE than in the entire base game.

There’s a caveat, though. A new FromSoft release always comes with the advent of a new Ultimate Opponent, and SotE‘s main quest culminates in a final boss that I suspect will break a lot of people. I haven’t decided whether it’s tougher than Malenia, but the fact that I’m even considering the possibility should be all the information that anyone needs. The encounter itself is an awe-inspiring story moment, so to a degree it’s earned — this isn’t so much a criticism as me issuing a “buyer beware.” Miyazaki’s stated goal with Elden Ring was to make it their most accessible game ever, and I do wonder if their ongoing quest to find every player’s pain threshold is at odds with that.

FromSoft frequently quotes its own work, and in the spirit of Elden Ring being something of a victory lap for them, SotE unambiguously references pretty much all of their recent output. Even fans of Bloodborne and Sekiro will spot some familiar imagery, all remixed to feel fresh and of a piece with the universe of Elden Ring. It’s a nice way to cap off a tremendous winning streak and reaffirms that the modern FromSoft catalogue is something we still so rarely see in this medium — an actual body of work defined by a unifying vision.

Given that Shadow of the Erdtree is roughly the size of what a standalone FromSoft game used to be — it took me longer to finish this than, say, Bloodborne or Dark Souls III — I imagine that it will be received like one. While it took some time to find its footing, it emerged not just as a great expansion, but as a great entry in the studio’s catalogue, period. It’s a shame that the barrier for entry is so high, because I’m already looking forward to revisiting it.

8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. It is currently available on XBO/X/S, PS4/5 and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 35 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. The entirety of play was spent with multiplayer features enabled.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes and Violence. There are a couple of suggestive character designs throughout and a bit of mild profanity, but the violence is where Elden Ring earns its rating. This is arguably FromSoft’s most gruesome game to date, with severed parts and mutilated corpses littering the landscape. While it’s fitting with the tone of the world and tastefully portrayed, it’s not for children.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Audio cues are frequently used to notify players of either points of interest or approaching enemies, and the game doesn’t offer any sort of visual representation of these cues. The lack of visual cues renders an already-obtuse game even more difficult, and forces players to be even more alert. As such, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Gorgeous visuals. Likable characters.

LOW Buggy and glitchy. Inadequate save system. Too much backtracking.

WTF How did I fall through the map more than once?

I was trying to come up with a clever, catchy introduction to discuss my feelings about Xel from Tiny Roar, and I was really struggling.  It took me a while to realize why, and then I understood — I realized that I feel kind of like a parent. I’m not angry at Xel, just disappointed because it could be so much better if it had applied itself. 

Xel tells the story of an enigmatic stranger crash-landing on the eponymous space station hurtling through the cosmos.  Upon extracting herself  from her wrecked ship, the stranger (eventually accepting the name Reid) attempts to discover the secrets Xel  has to offer, including her identity and past. Reid is quirky and likable, full of pluck and determination, and quick with a quip.  The people she meets along the way are guardedly welcoming, but not everything in this space station is what it seems, and glitches in its systems mean the end could come sooner than anyone is ready for.

Players control Reid from an isometric perspective, with the camera at (about) a 45 degree angle.  Like many other action-RPGs, players guide Reid through a series of environmental puzzles, light platforming (jumping is automatic when Reid approaches a gap so long as she’s properly lined up with her landing point) and quick, realtime combat involving slashing lots of robots with a sword. 

As Reid progresses, she’s able to find additional gear and weaponry including a cool web-shooter-like device for traversing gaps, remote ECM mines to disable enemies, and a flamethrower to melt ice (and enemies).  The hack-and-slash combat is fast and contains a bit of strategy when players need to work out enemy weaknesses and patterns.

So far, all of this is right in my wheelhouse.  I love traversing beautiful open-world maps, finding stuff to do, and smashing lots of baddies.  Unfortunately, Xel suffers from many glitches that constantly destroy the experience.

Xel‘s station is huge, and there’s a lot to do.  However, item markers are broken, meaning they don’t consistently register that a loot chest has been opened. That means a lot of backtracking to locations only to find that I’ve already claimed the goodies before. 

Also, many items in the world require pixel-perfect positioning to successfully operate.  I’ve spent several minutes trying to lower a ladder or activate a switch because either the ‘activate’ icon won’t appear, or I’m not in the perfect position for the game to recognize that I’ve done it. 

This same finicky quality applies to enemy hitboxes as well.  With certain items it’s easy to miss an attack despite being certain I was lined up properly, and the lock-on feature didn’t seem to help. 

Furthermore, while Reid is able to dodge attacks and carries a handy shield to deflect ranged shots, she’s unable to dodge many boss attacks and shield capacity is connected to her stamina bar, limiting its usefulness.  In the beginning of Xel this is mitigated by plentiful health replenishing items, but as time goes on, Reid is left to craft her own medicine at poorly-spaced campsites. 

The camera is also too zoomed out and at a terrible fixed angle.  It’s easy to lose sight of items (and opponents) behind corners of buildings, trees, or other pieces of scenery, making combat more difficult, and item collection damn near impossible at times. 

The save system is troublesome.  It relies on a series of manually-activated checkpoints which are scattered about the map.  During the tutorial these are regular, but as Xel goes on and the map opens up, they become few and far between.  It’s quite possible to meet an untimely end and be forced to replay 30-60 minutes to regain lost progress — an unacceptable situation which happened to me more than once.

Then, there are the game-breaking bugs. 

After the tutorial, I met a friendly soul who offered to take me to a place of sanctuary.  Sadly, he disappeared along the way, although his dialogue played without missing a beat.  Later, after fighting a series of difficult enemies and solving a tricky water level/time travel puzzle, I somehow clipped through the game world and fell into an infinite void.  I couldn’t move, couldn’t reload a save and couldn’t even exit the game. This was at least an hour of lost progress, and it wasn’t the only time.

Xel tries to tell a compelling story about time travel, loss, anger, and consequences, but the game just isn’t in great shape. I want to see what Tiny Roar can achieve after they patch the daylights out of Xel, or perhaps what they do in their next project.  As it stands, though, Xel needs to think about what it’s done and learn from tis mistakes before it’s not grounded anymore.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Tiny Roar and published by Assemble Entertainment.  It is currently available on Switch and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 12 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was not completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated T and contains Fantasy Violence  and Language. This game features combat against robotic enemies, both fantastical and humanoid.  One of the enemies is an enormous spider-robot, which may be frightening.  The game depicts a violent suicide, which may be a trigger for some, despite the lack of gore.  The main character, Reid, frequently uses profanity, mostly involving some form of s##t.   This game is not recommended for children, despite the cartoonish characters and vibrancy of the colors.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. Dialogue is subtitled, although there are a few ambient moments of dialogue not fully conveyed by the subtitles.  All audio cues have a visual component, but there are several occasions where an enemy is effectively invisible due to the fixed nature of the camera.  These enemies attack without being seen, although the audio cue still plays.  Therefore, this game is not fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Xel Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

If Elden Ring were the size of a normal From Software game, I’d have finished it by now. I’m 30 hours in — longer than my entire first run of Bloodborne — yet I’d be surprised if I were more than a third of the way through.

Every time I begin to feel as though I’m getting a sense of Elden Ring‘s scope, it continues to expand. Tiny blips on the map can encompass an entire Boletarian Palace’s worth of dungeon-crawling. New maximum altitudes are discovered at an alarming rate. There creeps a slow awareness that every single patch of land that can be seen on screen is a location that can be visited — and as the sheer size of the thing unravels, it gives me chills.

So, unfortunately, our full Elden Ring review will have to wait, as I still have a long way to go, and our editor wants me to make sure the final boss doesn’t pull a Sekiro before I hand out a perfect ten.

Elden Ring is very possibly my new favorite game of all time, and I don’t say that lightly. It presents what feels like the best possible version of what my previous favorite, Dark Souls, established. It takes the mechanics that influenced a decade’s worth of action RPGs and presents them on a scale to rival Breath of the Wild. Every second of it feels perfect, nothing is redundant, and there is so much of it. I can’t remember ever playing a game that felt so tuned to my specific tastes.

And believe me when I say that I’m not falling victim to hype here. Despite my status as a longtime FromSoft fan, I followed none of the pre-release coverage outside of the initial trailers because discovering a FromSoft game is part of the appeal to me. After the network tests a while back, I’d heard it described as Dark Souls 4, which is both accurate and misleading. That makes it sound like it’s in line with the previous two installments, when it instead restores a sense of wonder to a now very familiar formula.

Get used to the “Dark Souls meets Breath of the Wild” comparisons, because that’s exactly what Elden Ring is. Games are so big these days that it’s not worth comparing hard numbers. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey may very well have the greater square mileage, but few points are given for that when it’s the same handful of activities duplicated ad nauseum. The thing about Elden Ring is that regardless of how many virtual acres it contains, it feels as big as anything I’ve ever played because all of its spaces matter. It never stops being interesting.

I will add that the atmosphere rivals that of a Team Ico project — beautiful, mysterious, dead, and overwhelmingly massive. There are times when Elden Ring’s sense of scale legitimately made my stomach drop, and it’s partly because I know that none of it is set dressing. If I see a massive structure casting shadows over mountains in the distance, it’s not just there to look cool. I’m going to be exploring that entire thing at some point in the future.

In fact, I would actually say that Elden Ring feels closer in spirit to a modern rendition of the original Legend of Zelda from 1986 than anything else, even including Breath of the Wild — partly because it invites exploration by being so seamless and unsegmented, and partly because it’s the uncommon triple-A game with the guts to go (more or less) completely plot-free. Previous FromSoft titles have had branching paths, but they’ve remained linear enough to funnel players past some semblance of a story. In Elden Ring, we’re set loose to absorb any flavor of the world, in any corner we choose. It’s pure adventure.

Speaking of which, players really can go anywhere right from the start, and I’m stunned by the level of trust that FromSoft places in the player to follow, ignore or miss cues. I skipped over a building at the beginning because a particularly nasty enemy was patrolling near it, and wound up going 25 hours without knowing how to craft as a result. A bit farther down the road, I missed a turn and wound up bypassing the Lothric Castle-sized dungeon that was obviously meant to serve as the proper opening level. Instead, I landed in a tougher area first, resulting in a greater sense of satisfaction when I got through it anyway.

While we’re on the topic of difficulty, FromSoft has been slowly narrowing its audience by ramping the challenge of their titles higher and higher, while making it the point. As an example, I’ve abandoned multiple late-game replay saves in Sekiro — a game I otherwise love — because I decided it wasn’t worth forcing myself through those irritating final bosses again.

However, I’m pleased to say that they’ve eased off the gas significantly for this installment. In fact, it’s a little shocking just how smooth and frictionless Elden Ring is. It’s appropriately brutal, of course, and full of the evil pranks we’ve come to expect from this team, but the sheer openness of it means there’s no wall to run up against. If something’s too difficult at the moment, there are a million other options.

Besides the flexible difficulty curve, FromSoft has made changes in other related aspects. For example, there’s zero item degradation that I can detect — meaning no risk of a my favorite weapon breaking. Sekiro skeptics will be glad to hear that Elden Ring has the world’s easiest parrying system. Players will slide into a groove with remarkable ease, and once we’re on our way, it doesn’t try to impress us with big-name actors and exquisitely mocapped performances because it knows that an adventure this rich makes for a good story in and of itself.

Speaking of story, I’m not sure why George R. R. Martin was involved during Elden Ring‘s creation process. As far as I can tell, Hidetaka Miyazaki hired him to write material that feels like it could have come from Miyazaki himself. It’s a bit like when Ennio Morricone was asked to score The Thing, and it sounded exactly like something that John Carpenter would have come up with on his own. That’s not to say that Elden Ring’s lore isn’t fascinating — it is — but it’s interesting in ways that don’t feel notably different from previous FromSoft titles.

There’s so much more that I want to say about Elden Ring, but for now I leave its prospective players to discover it for themselves. The full review will come when I’ve rolled credits, but I hope I’ve made clear that this is the dream game of any FromSoft fan. And to those who’ve felt that the recent Souls games and soulslikes have clung too hard to the git gud angle, my guess is that that they’ll be surprised by how flexible Elden Ring is. It’s an incredibly generous experience, and I have yet to find a single thing that I don’t love about it.

Assuming FromSoft doesn’t completely blow it a little further down the line, this may be their crowning achievement. And considering the developer’s resume, that is frankly staggering.

The post Elden Ring Review-In-Progress appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The subject of this installment: Kitaria Fables available on PS4, PS5, XBO/X/S, Switch, and PC, developed by Twin Hearts and published by PQube.

There’s been an influx of farming sims lately, each with a different twist on the genre. Some are 16-bit love letters to the past, while others combine elements of 2D platformers and monster collecting. Overall, this variety of takes on the same theme ensures that the genre will never truly get stale even after so many entries. Kitaria Fables is another solid and charming farming sim-slash-RPG hybrid to add to the list. 

In Kitaria, players control a young cat tasked with saving a village (and the fate of the world) from ancient darkness that’s plaguing the land. 

Gameplay revolves around exploring diverse regions while fighting enemies, collecting resources, and, of course, farming. Played from an isometric camera angle, players hack and slash their way through different environments and even the occasional dungeon.

Enemies will sometimes pose a threat, though very few fights feel risky, as they’re generally over quickly. I did enjoy hunting for different resources but those looking for anything like a Zelda or any other more substantial action RPGs are out of luck. However, where Kitaria Fables shines is in its farming.

I don’t often play a lot of simulation titles, but relaxing in this cute village was great. I loved building my own farm and helping villagers — doing the occasional favor and going on some fetch quest allowed my bond with villagers to grow. Kitaria Fables is a perfectly fine entry into the farm sim genre that I would love to sink more time into, though the overall experience has an ‘early access’ feel to it thanks to things like the too-basic leveling system and an odd couch co-op mode that feels tacked-on –bit of it seem like works in progress. That said, I’m interested to see what the state of the game is in a few months. It’s cute and serviceable, but there’s plenty of potential for it to blossom into something special.

The post This Is Not A Review: Kitaria Fables appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Gorgeous visuals.

LOW Obscurity in its puzzles and navigation. 

WTF Sony, let this team make a new Jak & Daxter. 

I love and respect many of the major, cinematic triple-A games that have come out in the last few years. As someone who recently bought a 4K TV and has been replaying 2018’s God of War, I’m still enamored with the detail and presentation that modern showstoppers manage to throw at the player. However, no amount of bells and whistles will make me forget that I miss stylized action-platformers starring colorful mascots. The PS2 era had many of them, balancing simple, entertaining stories with a wide variety in gameplay.

Sure, we still get the occasional Ratchet and Clank here and there, but why aren’t there more?

Ember Lab, a development studio with experience creating animated short films and commercials, plans to recapture the spirit of the action-platformer heyday with their debut, Kena: Bridge of Spirits. This adventure sees players controlling a girl named Kena as she searches for the sacred Mountain Shrine. In her world, those who die can still inhabit the physical world before moving on if they have unfinished business. Kena acts as a spirit guide, using her talents to help spirits leave the physical world in peace. 

Played from a third-person perspective, gameplay revolves around combat and puzzle-solving. Skirmishes are simple (but still enjoyable) thanks to the versatility of her staff. Instead of equipping different weapons, the staff acts as a Swiss army knife of sorts, letting Kena do things like grapple to different spots around the map, light-up magic crystals to open doors, and it can even convert itself into a bow for long-ranged attacks. Kena can also learn different light and heavy attacks thanks to a skill tree. 

Aiding her in combat and exploration are adorable small creatures known collectively as Rot. These dark, big-eyed creatures look like stuffed animals, smiling as they crowd around Kena. At the press of a button, they can be used to attack enemies or pick up objects to help solve puzzles. The light strategy and variety involved in their use help keep the action from getting stale.

While the combat isn’t the deepest around, the enemies do pose a healthy challenge from time to time. However, what really stumped me weren’t the enemy encounters — it was the puzzles.

I admit that I’m generally pretty bad at puzzles in games of this sort so this didn’t surprise me, but I did find myself relying on the built-in hint guides available via the PS5’s dashboard. For those who don’t know, the PlayStation 5 launched with a nifty hint feature, called Game Help, that works with most PS exclusives.

Pressing the PS button on the controller brings it up while playing, and it will guide players through the current sections they’re in. It helped me more than once with the lack of a mini-map or any markers on the HUD. Also, being provided solutions to puzzles and challenges was great.

The puzzles themselves either involve using the Rot to move statues to a specific spot, shooting targets in a specific order, or killing a set number of enemies within a certain time limit. Some are easier than others, but at times, I felt like they were a bit obscure. I appreciate that my PS5 had my back, but those without Playstation Plus and the Game Help feature are out of luck since it’s exclusive to subscribers. That said, I think the overall experience would have been improved with a better hint system baked into the game itself, or at least a minimap.

Even with occasional combat difficulty and some obscure puzzles, Kena is is an absolutely gorgeous adventure. Ember’s origins as an animation studio dating back to the release of an impressive Zelda fan short, (which is appropriate given the influence the series has clearly had on Kena) are on full display thanks to gorgeous vistas and beautifully animated cutscenes. Kena is expressive every time she attacks, runs, swims, and climbs, and I found myself pausing to get a closer look at her model in the photo mode. Her facial expressions change with different actions, so seeing her raw fury as she unleashed a heavy attack was great. It’s easily one of the most impressive-looking games of the year and sports strong style.

Kena fills the void left by a now-scarce genre that used to be far more common than it is today. It’s a simple story of love and loss with gorgeous visuals and a play loop ripped straight from the PS2 era. I would have liked a few more concessions to help players navigate the world and its challenges, but I still enjoyed my time here — it doesn’t reinvent the action-adventure platformer wheel, but it managed to put a nostalgic smile on my face.

Disclosures: This game is published by and developed by Ember Lab. It is available on PS4, PS5, and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 10 hours were spent in the single-player and the game was completed. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB this game is rated T for Fantasy Violence. While the game isn’t too violent for young kids, a lot of the game’s narrative deals with death, tragic loss, and the unwillingness to let go. I think most parents would be better off letting only older kids play this one.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: Subtitles and on-screen instructions cannot be adjusted but the audio is not needed to enjoy this game, thanks to the abundance of visual cues. This game is fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: Yes the controls are remappable.

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The subject of this installment: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, developed by Snoozy Kazoo and published by Graffiti Games.

Has it ever struck you as particularly weird that in Zelda games, Link is constantly barging into other people’s houses, breaking their pots and making off with their money, and he never seems to face consequences for it? The developers of Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion have certainly picked up on it, and they’ve fashioned an entire adventure around a character whose sole purpose in life is to create problems for anyone in his path.

Set in a universe inhabited by sentient food products, the titular character — who has an evil smile perpetually plastered onto his face, and whose “dialogue” consists almost entirely of ellipses — has already committed tax evasion before the game has even begun. The mayor gives Turnip Boy some chores to make up for the money he owes, and the joke is that while he consistently completes his tasks, he indiscriminately steals, vandalizes and kills in the process, leaving his town in a greater state of disarray than when he started.

For a comedy title, Turnip Boy is a reasonably funny one. It’s short enough that its primary joke never gets old — I particularly liked the running gag where Turnip Boy responds to any document he’s given by immediately ripping it in half — and nearly every NPC exists to drop non sequiturs that all sound like the stuff I used to text people late at night while high on ambien. An encounter with a needlessly-aggressive macaroni noodle got an audible chuckle out of me.

As an homage to Zelda, however, Turnip Boy just doesn’t have the girth or intricacy of Nintendo’s flagship franchise. One of the reasons I’ve stood by the Zelda series, even through its worst days, is because there’s nothing else quite like it in the industry. Its particular dungeon/overworld/dungeon rhythm is rarely imitated, and even when unrelated developers attempt to recreate the formula, the puzzles and bosses are rarely up to par.

While I could maybe complain that Turnip Boy’s soundtrack dangerously straddles the line between “catchy” and “grating,” or that only being able to equip one item at a time is needlessly finicky given how many of the Switch’s buttons aren’t even used, the game doesn’t have many noteworthy flaws, per se. Instead, it’s all just too simple and too straightforward. The dungeons don’t even have any maps, because they’re too small in scale to need maps. The moment-to-moment enemy encounters are dull, and the bosses don’t rile up enough excitement to make up for it.

After a while, it became evident that the only reason I kept playing Turnip Boy was to drink up more of that amusing dialogue. That’s more of a hook than many games can offer, but it was barely enough to hold my interest for even the couple of hours it took to blaze through the short campaign.

As much as I loved Breath of the Wild, Nintendo’s intention to make the series follow a similar open-world formula from here on out leaves a void that I’d love to see filled by other developers, yet the secret to crafting a classic Zelda adventure remains as elusive as the recipe for Coca-Cola. I appreciate that Turnip Boy managed to make me giggle a few times, but I can’t say it justifies a fifteen-dollar price tag.

The post This Is Not A Review: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The bombastic combat is deliciously satisfying.

LOW The framerate can dip to catastrophically low levels. 

WTF Voice acting for female NPC shop owners is… rather sensual.

Ever since 2017’s Breath of the Wild set a new bar for The Legend of Zelda franchise, fans of the series have been clamoring for a return to Hyrule. Three years later fans finally got what they wanted… kind of.

In September 2020, Nintendo announced Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity would act as the prequel to Breath of the Wild. I was delighted at the opportunity to revisit Hyrule in any capacity, but being unable to embrace the first Hyrule Warriors game for Wii U, my expectations were tempered. Luckily, AoC feels far more like an enrichment of the world BotW created rather than a fanservice spinoff.

Age of Calamity follows the struggles of Link, Zelda and the Champions in their battle against Calamity Gannon 100 years prior to Breath of the Wild. While fans might think they know how this tale ends, there are some interesting variations that will certainly throw them off balance.

Combat is the main course here. As opposed to the stealth and strategy of Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity’s action is fast paced, aggressive, and thoroughly engaging. It’s a third-person actioner in musou style featuring Zelda characters mowing down thousands of enemies while accomplishing various objectives such as defeating bosses, defending bases or other characters, or escaping the battlefield in a limited amount of time.

Throughout the journey, players will have the opportunity to fight as nearly all the characters from the Breath of the Wild universe. As a relative newbie to Dynasty Warrior-style musou games, I did find the combat to be slightly button-mashy at first, but the more time I spent in battle, the more I grew to appreciate the variance of combos that could be pulled off with a deeper understanding of the controls. For example, the attacks and finishers can be equal parts cinematic and powerful, and I found myself experimenting with different characters to see what kind of wild moves awaited me.

While gameplay is based around using weak attacks to transition into strong attack finishers, unique actions are what make characters feel distinct. From Urbosa’s lighting to Mipha’s teleporting waterfalls, these trademark attacks keep combat varied and exciting, rather than endlessly stabbing hundreds of bokoblins with simple swords or spears.

Supporting this variety, the character design and development are top notch. Not only do personalities feel fleshed out and memorable despite how little screen time some have, they also feel unique on the battlefield. There is a plethora of playable characters, starting with the expected in Link, Impa, and the Champions, ranging to some unexpected picks that came as genuine shocks. (And no, I won’t spoil them here.)

However, not all characters are created equally, and some don’t feel as intuitive as others. A few characters felt clunky or too large, and their stature made it difficult to see enemies or squeeze through narrow passageways. Also, major framerate issues plague areas with high levels of enemies, especially noticeable in handheld mode.

While the story is beautifully told for the most part, I found certain cutscenes to end abruptly, or that major story points were communicated hastily through narration on loading screens. Following Breath of the Wild‘s non-linear storytelling and trailers that made AoC seem like more of a cinematic journey, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth. However, in a welcome change of pace, it’s exciting to see Zelda begin the story not as a damsel in distress, but as a child unsure how to lead her people before blossoming into a powerful and inspirational leader.

Putting those rough edges aside, what makes Age of Calamity special is its dedication to honoring the legacy of its predecessor.

On the surface, it’s the same cast of characters, enemies, weapons, and art style, but every design choice Age of Calamity makes draws from the successes of Breath of the Wild and adapts them into a different genre – instead of fighting three enemies at once, Link fights hundreds. However, it feels less like a new battle system, and more like an expanded, higher-octane version of Breath of the Wild’s action. Cooking makes a return as a way to up stats, weapons don’t technically break, but they will be regularly forged into stronger ones. Dodge an attack with perfect timing to perform a flurry rush. The Sheikah Slate allows access to special techniques, and yes, even those pesky Koroks are back.

Breath of the Wild succeeded because it instilled a sense of wonder in the player and inspired them to explore every inch of its landscape. While Age of Calamity doesn’t follow in those same footsteps, that sense of wonder and need to explore is present. This prequel is a love-letter to one of the greatest games of all time, and while it might not have been exactly what fans were expecting, it is a worthy addition to this storied franchise and a must-play for anyone itching to return to Hyrule. 

— Alex Prakken

Disclosures: This game was developed by Omega Force, published by Nintendo and Koei Tecmo, and is available exclusively on Switch. This review copy was obtained by retail purchase. The main campaign takes about 35 hours to complete, and roughly 60 hours to 99% complete (damn those pesky Koroks!) The entirety of the campaign has an option for split screen multiplayer, but I have not personally invested any time into it.

Parents: This game is rated T by the ESRB for Fantasy Violence. There is obviously a lot of combat here, but it is all tasteful and minimally gory. 

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue is subtitled, but subtitles are not resizable. I don’t believe sound cues are necessary for progression, making it fully accessible. 

Remappable Controls: This game’s controls are not remappable. 

The post Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Tim and Richard are back! For how long? Who knows. For now the captain and first officer chat about games, the Switch, fatherhood, and lots of Star Trek.

The post GameCritics.com Radio: The Bridge Crew Pilot Episode appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Watching the town fill with new folk as I made progress.

LOW Occasionally sticky controls, especially when attacking.

WTF Where are the citizens getting all their money?

When I first discovered Moonlighter, I was immediately taken by its charming retro graphics and gameplay that compared favorably with the best 2D Zelda entries based on early hype. With its dual focus on item shop management and dungeon delving in order to find goodies to sell in said shop, I was excited, but concerned that it might be too similar to Recettear from eight (!) years ago. While it wasn’t quite as polished or as whimsical as that now-legendary title, Moonlighter provided an enjoyable time and plenty of “just one more run” roguelike flavor.

Moonlighter’s merchant/hero protagonist, Will, was easy to control as he was patterned off classic top-down, 2D action heroes of the past. Exploring dungeons quickly became second nature, and while the roguelike maps meant no two delves were ever the same, the small areas meant that each run could be finished (for better or worse) in a matter of minutes — perfect for bite-size gaming sessions. While dying in a dungeon meant losing all the valuable loot I’d been carrying, the fast play and generous drops meant I could rapidly recover and gain new goodies to peddle when I returned to my shop.

It took a little while to get used to moving in any direction while only being able to attack along horizontal and vertical axes. This was never a problem as the arc of Will’s sword swing allowed me to attack diagonally, but I often wished my ranged weapon could fire at an angle as well. That said, the bow was my weapon of choice for all boss battles as it could quickly make mincemeat of my foes, even when they were off-screen — a good thing, because the bosses pack a wallop.

Fortunately, acquiring new and better gear was as simple as collecting raw materials from dungeons and hoarding enough cash from selling everything else to craft weapons, armor, healing potions, and enchantments. A handy wishlist feature provided a visual representation of the items I needed to make new gear, and allowed me to quickly separate the stuff I needed from the stuff I could safely sell.

The only part of adventuring in Moonlighter that annoyed was inventory management. Will has a limited number of slots available in his backpack, so I constantly had to shift things around to carry only the most valuable items back to the shop. Adding to the challenge were cursed items that either had to be placed in specific sections of the bag, or that would destroy other items based on their relative placement. I admired the devs trying something a little different with this puzzle-like challenge, but I spent too much time arranging things in bags overall.

Moonlighter’s shop management portion was, thankfully, much less of a hassle than the backpack management. After I’d tastefully arranged the items I wanted to sell on display tables, I set prices based on what I’d learned about each item’s perceived value and demand. The various items collected were shown on a list ranked from most expensive to least, with maximum and minimum prices laid out so I could make educated guesses on just how much I could fleece the locals fo… I mean, provide for my community.

Once the shop was open, customers would wander around and a cool facial expression icon from them told me if I’d over- or under-charged for my hard-won goods. I liked that I could experiment with pricing by selling only one of each item until I could lock in the best price. The game also thoughtfully remembered that best price and automatically set it every time I sold that same item in the future. As folks browsed, I had to make sure no one waited in line at the register for too long while also keeping an eye out for thieves who would try for five-finger-discounts. Beating them up was always satisfying, and I’ll never forgive the one who got away.

As I gained fame and fortune, I could unlock perks for the shop (more display space and the ability to receive tips, for instance) and the town, such as unlocking blacksmith and witch shops. A shop assistant who was supposed to control the store while I raided dungeons never worked the way it was supposed to, neglecting to give me money for the items I placed in her sale bin. While unfortunate, I was already wealthy enough by that point in the game that it didn’t hurt my progress.

Moonlighter’s story consists of simple, repetitive dialogue and very few true character interactions, but a late game revelation (hinted at via mid-game notes left behind by previous adventurers) completely floored me and made me re-evaluate everything I’d done until that point.

Despite a few rough edges and minor issues, Moonlighter’s satisfying combat and enjoyable shopkeeping made the 15-hour playtime fly by. I wasn’t ready to leave its charming world, so I immediately began planning my next playthrough with different gear and at a higher difficulty level. I don’t use the phrase “delightful romp” very often, but it fits Moonlighter to a T. Rating: 7.5 out of 10

— Jeff Ortloff

Disclosures: This game is developed by Digital Sun and published by 11 bit studios. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated E and contains Fantasy Violence. This is an adventure game in which players assume the role of a young explorer in a small town. Players search a series of dungeons in order to collect items/resources, battle monsters, and eventually sell their items in town. Players use swords or shovels to deplete enemies’ health meters in melee combat. Fantastical enemies (e.g., blobs, troll-like creatures, walking pots of water) are depicted shooting projectiles or streams of water at the player’s character. Battles are highlighted by impact sounds and light effects. Starvation and cannibalism are implied.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All story information in the game is relayed via text. There are no voiceovers. There are no audio cues without accompanying visual components. There are no options to resize text or change font colors.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Moonlighter Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.