Recent reviews by Soiled Fool

Brain melting, entrancing, infuriating.

This game was just short enough to not wear out its welcome with the minimal gameplay mechanics. The story and music were both top notch.

This game has a lot to offer aesthetically, but otherwise, it is a letdown due to the ridiculous amount of grinding that must be done to accomplish anything. Perhaps if you have nothing going on in your life and you enjoy doing the same thing over and over to unblock your next progression milestone you will enjoy this game, otherwise I would stay away.

Playing this game is like visiting a foreign country. You are lured in with the promise of adventure. You touch down and exit the plane, entering an atmosphere unlike any you have experienced before. Novel sights, sounds, and activities abound. You immerse yourself in the surroundings. It is unlike anything you have experienced before. But then...

The veneer wears off. You begin to realize this place, at its core, is like any other place. The law enforcement is inept. The citizenry, at first fascinating, are no longer distinguishable from the automatons back home. The system is broken and you want out, to return home. You travel to Embers to meet Hanako and be done with your trip. The dialogue is bugged, and you cannot progress. Eventually, you uninstall the game and return to your life. You leave a review of your journey in hopes that other travelers will be able to avoid the pitfalls you could not, but alas, it is too late.

This game is gorgeous and the story was passable, but beyond that, there is not too much to say. The number of bugs, although not game breaking, made me pursue the main story and some of the larger side quests, but dampened my desire to go through some of the more repetitive aspects of the gameplay. The AI, in all regards, was piss-poor. I generated more street cred IRL by persevering though the constant reloads to get quests to properly progress than I did in game. It all came to a head on the final mission, where, confronted by another dialogue I could not progress through, I decided to uninstall the game. I had looked up the endings a little earlier, and decided my head canon would be more than sufficient than what the game had to offer me anyway.

I would say if you are a fan of the genre this game is worth looking into in the future if/when they fix all the bugs. Although I did have some fun with this game, I was ultimately let down by the overall presentation and monotony.

On paper, this game is great, but the execution leaves much to be desired.
* At times, most of the audio would cut out, leaving the only sound to be heard that of my companion grunting every so often.
* I found myself completing quests in the middle of combat, which would be fine, but for some reason, the quest completion dialogue which takes up a quarter of your screen and is not dismissible until you select a reward. Poor user experience when you need to mouse over and select one of many rewards with various stats, all while still being engaged in combat.
* The combat in the game leaves much to be desired. It is ponderously slow, and there is a delay between you pressing an input and it being executed in game. I'm not sure if this is by design, but it makes everything feel very flimsy, and it is frustrating to watch an enemy leap out of your way in between you pressing a button and the attack executing.