Deceive Inc.

I'm not into shooters generally. They don't give me the good brain chemicals like other genres do. However, Deceive is an extremely fun time though and a blast with friends.

Acting inconspicuous, weighing risks/rewards when it comes to breaking cover, your positioning in the end game state, etc. all come together real well. Much like with Splatoon, where I find myself saying "just one more game" like ten games in a row, Deceive is also easy to get lost in. The rounds go quick enough that I always want to go back in for another one. The gameplay loop is as simple as going around collecting power-ups and activating certain objectives in order to trigger the end game state, grabbing a briefcase in a vault, then extracting out of there. And throughout the whole thing you're watching NPCs, wondering if they're a player. And if you're sure they are, do you engage or do you leave? Do you know where their teammates are? Do you have the health and ammo to comfortably eliminate them now? Is your team close enough to help out? Again, risks and rewards: the video game.

I've played this one with a bunch of different friends and groups and it's always a blast. There's a synchronization period of a few rounds and then you're just about wordlessly working together doing cool spy stuff. It's all vibes and those vibes are good and comfy.

Fire Emblem Engage

Engage is almost a return to form for Fire Emblem. The map design is great after several weak entries. The difficulty curve is scales nicely. The new unique mechanics to this entry are neat. The weapon triangle returns, but using the correct weapon inflicts a status on an enemy that makes them unable to counter attack for the rest of the turn. That's a rad way to have weaker units help out and gain experience. The Engage mechanic seems overpowered at first, but knowing the right time to use it later on becomes critical. Having the stat buffs that the engaged state gives you at the right time, knowing when to use certain engage attacks, and which other characters need to be nearby for certain special actions is critical. The latter is a great way to introduce another element to unit positioning. I was taking bigger risks to get units equipped with Byleth and Edelgard closer together so that I could use their enhanced skills.

The major complaint people had was the story is extremely weak, but more importantly it's wicked fun. It seems the lesson they learned from the Three Houses was everyone loved the goofy character interactions, so they just made everyone a bit character in Engage and the story was as bare bones as possible. And that's actually fine. I would not like it to continue this way, but for a Fire Emblem fan service game? Where I can have Lyn Fire Emblem and Ike Fire Emblem fight side by side? Totally fine and acceptable. And I'm sure that decision is what allowed them to make everything else good. The game is wicked fun and I'll take that over story.

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key

This Atelier game pretty good. It had to follow up on Sophie 2's great turn-based combat system. And it did so with some improvements to Ryza's real-time queuing combat system which... were fine? While not as strong in the combat department comparatively, in everything else, it excelled.

Atelier always has that satisfying gameplay loop of exploring new areas to get new materials so that you can go back and do a bunch of new alchemy to make stronger gear, items, and weapons with those materials. Usually toward the end of Atelier games this loop breaks down. You start getting like a lot of story that is meandering around way more slowly than it should and you're just grinding away at doing alchemy with no new exploration as you gear up for the final area and boss. But Ryza 3 kept me in until the very end, it solved that problem. They did it, kept me fully engaged the whole time!

This was the first Atelier game that hard large seamless maps instead of areas connected via loading zones. This game also took the training wheels off. It assumed you played the first two Ryza entries and just expected you to do alchemy immediately. It had seamless material harvesting, no more being stuck in an animation whenever you pick stuff up. It really tied up each character's stories well. This was the first time they did a trilogy focused on one set of characters and they nailed it. The core cast's growth from late-teens/young adults to mid-20s captures their coming-of-age stories, struggles in their early career years, and finally their fumbling about with deciding on their future. It's all really good and resonated with me.

This game will be seen as a turning point for the Atelier series. It just makes me really excited for the future of Atelier. I want to see what they do with all this groundwork now completed. Ryza is my daughter and I care about her very much. Please be kind to her, thank you.

Paranormasight

This VN? Too good. It presents its mystery well. You get hooked in immediately with the story mechanics and premise. The first half of it has you feeling tense, every new character I ran into had me genuinely worried about what they may be capable of. For example, a woman started just counting at me while I was trying to figure out a way out of the conversation and I got so anxious wondering what will happen at the end of her counting. It puts you in a mood and you just gotta ride that to the end. There are many notes I took while putting things together; a thinker for sure.

If you're a mystery sicko who doesn't mind some horror, this is all you.

Future Redeemed

XENOBLADE.
Excellent expansion and streamlining of the Xenoblade 3 combat systems. While technically a prequel, it also serves very well to tie up the Xenoblade trilogy. Like the other Xenoblade expansions, this is a full game on its own. I love the characters, the gameplay, the story. This series means a lot to me and Future Redeemed is possibly the largest piece of feeling.

I am not going to really go into this one. If you're a Xeno-series fan, you've probably already played this or plan to. For those that haven't, I'm writing up a whole thing on the Xenoblade series to try and convince you to jump in. Future Redeemed is just full on fan-service for all games and expansions while also standing out as its own thing.

This will likely change as time passes, but if I can't talk Xenoblade with ya, do not slide into my DMs. That is my review, thank you.

Void Stranger

So many friends, and others I value the opinions of, really praise this game. And none of them have spoiled anything or told me anything. Just "You have to play this." So I am expecting a great time. I do not know anything else.

Editor's note from 3 weeks after I made this draft: started playing this. it is a great game so far.

Pikmin 4

It's not often that I play a game and think about potentially speedrunning it while I play. Pikmin 4 added a lot of alternative ways to unlock and get certain pikmin resulting in being able to get some really early if you're sick with it and have some prior knowledge. The core game is solid. A lot of of the optional content is for sickos and I'm sicko. I cannot wait to play this game again.

It's a cute strategy game that will get you thinking. It's Pikmin! It's all about managing your resources (little guys) and time management. The game loop is balanced around kind of lightly using your brain, solving simpler puzzle/combat scenarios to bring things back to your ship which always releases those good, good brain chemicals, and occasionally dipping into big puzzle solving/strategy. It does a real good job of keeping you engaged with the loop. And replayability is great! Loaded up with prior knowledge, you can really do things more efficiently and quickly with each play-through. If that's your idea of fun, then get it. Play it. Enjoy it. 100% it, multiple times, get better each time. That is also dandori.