Recent reviews by Mr. Yes

All I can say about Elden Ring is that it's a fantastic game and FromSoftware won't dissapoint you.

While I was not expecting to buy Elden Ring, I was convinced when friends and family praised it so much even when they haven't played a "Souls" games before. As someone who has recently gotten into the "Souls" series (DS3 being my first) I was delighted to hear non-souls like players enjoying a "Souls" game. Even though Elden ring is a fanatastic game but there are some personal conflicts I experienced throughout my playthrough:

1. Pacing/Difficulty: While this isn't a big issue I felt like some areas felt off, especially when I went to explore unknown areas rather than progressing the main questline. I would come back to old areas only to 1-shot most enemies and even side-bosses. Then enter a new area to suddenly be 1-shot by an enemy... I'm looking at you Miquella's Haligtree. While this system does encourage you to leave the area and come back stronger, coming from DS3's linear system it felt weird.

2. Enemy Uniqueness: Because this game is open-world there's bound to be copy-paste enemies and I don't really mind that but it does get boring really quickly. My main conflict is the main bosses, I felt like a lot of the main bosses just felt like an upgraded side-boss I fought in a dungeon. The few exceptions are Rykard, Lord of Blasphemy // Starscourge Radahn // Margit The Fell Omen // Mohg, Lord of Blood // Malenia Blade of Miquella. Also some boss fights felt like a light show, there was just so many spells and attacks being flung all over the place, it felt a bit nauseating. That's why I loved Margit The Fell Omen's fight so much even if he was a pain in the ass. Otherwise most bosses in the game didn't stand out as much, as I felt with DS3's bosses.

Is the Elden ring here? Am I close yet?

But in all seriousness, Dark Souls 3 is an amazing game! As it's my first "Souls" game I'm a little bias in saying that it's my favourite game. Although I have played and finished Elden ring I found Dark Souls 3 to be more enjoyable and rewarding.

At first I was very intimated in even trying any "Souls" games as the mentality of "it's very hard" kept me away from trying it. But as soon as I got over that mentality the euphoric sensation of beating bosses in these types of games always felt rewarding (even if it meant cheesing...). Now I am on journey to play all "Souls" like game, mainly one's that developed by FromSoftware.

(2022-03-01)
Don't get me wrong this game is fun but there's two problems that saddens me to give this game a negative review:

1. The battles: There's too little land battles in the game. By land battles I mean there's little to no open field battles. The majority of your battles will be settlement sieges which are very tedious and boring. The AI will abuse the "tower defense" feature and pathing inside the settlement is brutal. There are times where my units would just stand still and do nothing.

2. Lack of sandbox: The campaign aspect for this game is very limiting. Expanding beyond your races limits will punish you as the void rifts will literally break your campaign experience. This is very apparent when you play the chaos factions. I found playing the human factions more enjoyable as their roster felt more intriguing. The fact that certain chaos factions have little to no missile units is brutal.

Conclusion: Don't buy this game at the moment. (for those who own the previous games: WAIT FOR MORTAL EMPIRES).

This review will be broken down into 4 sections: gameplay/music & story/characters/player (only played Yuito's route so read this review with a grain of salt)

Gameplay (9/10)
- The gameplay is very addicting, way too addicting than I should admit. The feeling of pulling of an multi-combo feels fantastic and killing enemies restores you gauges so you can keep pulling of combos until it completely breaks or you stop.

Music (9/10)
- The music complements the combat a lot and certain boss fights have this really intense music playing in the background that really inspires you to keep going. There's also points where the music becomes so empowering and overpowering that sends shivers down you spine, making you feel either terrified or ecstatic.

Story (6/10)
- Probably my biggest gripe in the game. For a JRPG the story is mediocre in comparison to either JRPGs out there. The story feels lackluster and is missing certain components (not the lack of story telling but something else that I can't describe) to drive home a narrative to the player (at least for me). Additionally I feel like the story holds your hand, they explain many of the mysteries to you without leaving any questions for you to think about. Also it's more of an anime rather than a game so the pacing had to balance between story and combat and sometimes it felt very awkward.

Characters/ThePlayer (7.5/10)
- The characters are interesting when you get to know them but many of the times I feel like they are just there and feel oddly placed in the stories. It's like "Hey my affection is up it's time for some character development" kind of shenanigan, but not all of them are like that just certain ones. Next is the player a.k.a YOU. The games doesn't feel like it's addressing you but rather the in-game character almost to the point where you don't exist and feels like your just watching an anime. To me that's very off putting when I'm trying to immerse myself in the story.

Conclusion (TL:DR)
- For a 80$ CDN I don't think it's worth the price so I'd wait for a sale
- Gameplay & music will definitely keep you hyped and entertained
- Story & Characters are mediocre but can still keep you invested in the story
-(Forgot to mention) The visuals are stunning and animations are smooth

What a fantastic game! After 100% the game I feel like it's time to review it. (Experienced the non-patched version of this game, non-patched version of this game with FAR and the patched version of this game)

Is the game play fun? Yes!
Did they fix the game? I would say so. When I started my second playthrough with the new Steam patch, I used no mods (Special K/FAR) and didn't run into any issues. Maybe the few 1-2 fps drop during cutscenes but that's about it. Also this game runs only at 60 fps anything higher may cause major issues so uncapping the fps with a mod is at your discretion.
Are the visuals good? Yes!
Is the music good? Absolutely
Is the story good? Well, that depends.

I find that this game is heavily themed rather than story focused. It implements many philosophical notions/motifs that builds throughout the game. And that may deter your experience if you don't understand these little hints it throws at you. But that shouldn't stop you from trying this beautiful game. If you take the time to engage in this beautiful game you may just discover something you haven't before.

Is it a boy or a girl?
-Undertale in a nutshell!

But seriously Undertale is an outstanding game and has an amazing soundtrack. If you haven't played it yet. What are you doing?

DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A BAD TIME!