Tony Hawk's Moving Castle 最近的评测

*** Most of the negative reviews here were (rightfully) written when the promised future installments of this series seemed abandoned, BUT after 10 years we finally got an episode 2 under Alice's Lullaby, which thankfully was not a thoughtless cash grab in itself. Both of the current episodes are great and have a unique kind of demented, eerie atmosphere that's worth checking out.

Not recommended, but could change with a few patches

The general aspects of this game are exactly my kind of thing. I'm a fan of Blame!, love heavily atmospheric games, and had fun with old mods like Kreedz Climbing. The level design here is, frankly, a bit sloppy. In chapter 3 I got stumped trying to make a jump, only to find out on the forums that it is misleadingly impossible and I needed to climb all the way back out of that cave and go another way. In chapter 4 I'm figuring out how to scale around this big symmetrical pillar, finding I don't have enough stamina to make it all the way across, only to eventually find the other side of the pillar has a tiny, out of place looking platform giving you enough room to make it. There's a number of platforming solutions like these that feel like they were added as an afterthought as opposed to a believable part of the environment.

The levels do have a huge sense of scale, but they often suffer from a lack of detail. This leads to some awkward vistas where you can see the entire level play out blatantly in front of you because the other 80% of the environment contains no elements of the same scale. Compare this to another megastructure-vibe game like NaissanceE, where there's tons of little distant, unreachable pathways and buildings that makes the intended path feel like it's actually just a small part of this overwhelming structure. The levels in Lorn's Lure are incredibly long, like twice as long as you think they're going to last, though it does fit with the vibe and theme.

The way fall damage is implemented Not Fun. Too often there's a jump that looks fine but the distance threshold is just enough to kill you and send you back to the last checkpoint. I will say the checkpoints are generous, pretty much sending you back to the last flat surface you were on, but the constant restarting you'll be forced into seriously disrupts what could be a fun flow state. The climbing and movement system actually feels great to use otherwise. An option to turn off fall damage or increase the threshold would be a gamechanger.

Overall this game has a lot of promise, I just think it needs more polish in order to maintain the vibe it's going for.

I never played the FF Legend games that this is based on, but I have a lot of nostalgia for Dragon Quest/Warrior 3 on the Game Boy and this game really evoked that feeling in terms of wandering the overworld, figuring out on your own where to go next, and exploring dungeons looking for hidden passages. There was a lot more content to explore here than I thought, but in a good way. This game likes to tack on zones on top of zones on top of zones. If you explore enough, by the end of the game you've amassed an inventory of badass weaponry and genuinely useful artifacts. And for an indie retro game the story actually holds its own.

Lots of QoL features here as well like being able to choose wandering enemy sprites if you don't like random encounters. It would be cool to see more UI options like different color palettes. The side HUD can be buggy sometimes in not displaying the right health totals or party members, but it can be toggled off/on, and besides that I didn't encounter and gameplay related bugs.

A visual horror novel with light puzzle elements, like Heavy Rain if that game had artistic integrity. Interesting, well told story, great music (the few Akira Yamaoka tracks are sick) and beautiful pixel art. Definitely worth it if you're into games for the narrative experience.

Slay the Spire crossed with Into The Breach. S'good

This game was weirdly engrossing. God of War / Dark Souls in a neolithic acid trip world full of deranged creatures (watch out for the lion with Nigel Thornberry's face). Combat is methodical but not slow. It can be challenging, especially starting out with a limited moveset, but I found it much more forgiving than a souls game. Whenever you fight a sentient opponent you have the option to invoke The Ritual, which is a little dice game where the winner gains the effect of whatever artifact they played (opponent gets stung by bees when standing still, winner gets a free first blow, etc). I mostly skipped these because the benefits don't outweigh the risks, except for the Pact/Summon artifact which lets you summon a previous opponent as an ally and is genuinely useful to take aggro in big fights.

My biggest con with this game is the level design. Visually the zones are beautiful, and the flow of them is not bad per se (sometimes they're actually fun to traverse with DS style looping shortcuts) but the starting zone especially is plagued by a number of unclear invisible barriers and visual elements. I've heard complaints of people getting lost, and while I didn't have much of a problem with it I can see why. There's so many knee-high rocks, mushrooms, fences that look like you could easily jump but are supposed to be boundaries instead. It's not that you don't where to go, it's more so that you can't really tell where the game is going to allow you to go. That plus a number of awkwardly placed level transitions detract from the semi-open world feel this game is trying to go for.

Overall though this was a really fun and charming game. The original Zeno Clash was one of the first ever non-Valve games I owned on Steam and ACE Team has been making interesting underrated games for a while now.

Great atmosphere. As the name implies, you'll mainly be walking the forest, but each area is mapped with lots of unique natural details that shine in comparison to the so-so cut and paste design other games might rely on for outdoor environments. The sound design is equally atmospheric, with lots of creaks and rustling audio cues to keep you on edge in between jump scares.

While it's mainly a jump scare game, the spooks are decent and well paced (at least if you're into Ring-like horror). There are some sections where you can be killed instantly, but checkpoints are well placed to keep it from getting frustrating.

The story is okay. Some of the notes were translated awkwardly, but overall it gets the job done.

Definitely worth the $10 if you're looking to spend more time on spoop games.

Gameplay is just slightly too tedious and frustrating to balance out the amazing art and interesting writing.

The writing, audio, and gameplay each add their own part to what is a charming and surreal game. It's an expansion on the original Anodyne did in every way, and ends up experimenting with several different graphic styles and themes before it's over. The writing keeps the same feel as the first game, going between humor, existentialism and poetry. The worlds-inside-worlds are all nicely crafted with their own soundtracks and art palettes, and there's a ton of extra "meta" content (including out of bounds areas the dev encourages you to glitch your way into) if you want to look for it. This game is basically in tune with all the things I happen to like about video games.

Visuals, sound, controls, and level design all nail the feel of classics like Heretic, Hexen and Quake. Interesting and fun level design, with lots of secrets to explore, paths that wind back on themselves through clever shortcuts, and plenty of open space to explore as you "hut hut hut" around arenas trying to slay everything without dying.