Welcome to Thunderdome

This will win GOY and it's pissing off the major studios. It's selling better than all of the AAA studio titles and garnering love from every corner of the gaming world. Made by a 30 person studio.

But is the hype equal to the product?

Yes.

I've been in Act 3 for a week now and instead of just ending the story, I'm just traveling the world finding bosses I have yet to beat. The fighting is that much fun.

It's a turn based RPG like the JRPGs of old, except there's an action element in the battles. You need to dodge, parry, and counter attacks, and it can be brutal. I'm playing the regular difficulty, and have a work friend who has reduced the difficulty to easy. Oh, your timing can also affect the effectiveness of attacks.

It's gorgeous, charming as hell, funny, sad, and there's not a hint of woke anywhere. The characters are actually attractive people.

The story is good enough that there's reaction videos all over YouTube, so be careful to avoid spoilers. Even guides might give something big away, so if you go that route, try to find spoiler free ones.

One of the coolest new features they created here are pictos and lumina. They're basically ways to improve (and hinder) your abilities, but you need to find them, train them, and then assign them. They can dramatically change your gameplay.

Easily one of the top 5 games I've ever played.

100% completion.

An absolutely amazing game.

Two endings, and it will do a convenient save for you, so seeing both doesn't take much time. You can quickly jump back in to the final moment. Or if you didn't go the completionist route, you could do that in a NG+ playthrough (selected in game at a save point, not the main menu).

Side note: You can also substantially amp up the challenge at these points too with settings that go beyond Easy, Medium, Hard.

I will warn you that while there is obviously fantasy in this story, it's also grounded in tragedy that might hit home for some. One could also say there are religious concepts (no specific religion) at play, but that would be speculative.

I'll also hear arguments that the endings betray the overall story or even the player. However, I believe it all works and the reaction videos of people blubbering would support that.

Found out that Gollum and Daredevil both did major voicework in the game. Other voices were done by industry vets and those who played Baldur's Gate III might recognize a few.

When's the last time you saw a game, an RPG at that, where the least completed achievement was still 8.4%. That's actually pretty high. Ditto for the achievement you receive for beating the game, which is at 31.5% currently. Again, much higher than normal. A testament to the quality of the game when most people aren't just walking away. They're completing it.

It's the perfect length. It doesn't drag unless you want it to, which is usually because you're tracking down achievements or just exploring the world. The world really isn't that big either. It's paced perfectly with the story to slowly open as your ability to move shifts.

This one will stick with me for a long time.

I'm still watching reaction videos and whatnot to this game well after 100%ing it.

Absolute masterpiece.

Where did you buy it? I ask as it does not seem to be on Steam.

Lol, turns out I had "violent games" filtered out on Steam (wtf?) so it wouldn't show up.

I wouldn't call it violent, but there are adult themes and blood.

Leisher wrote: ↑Fri Jul 11, 2025 8:25 pm I wouldn't call it violent, but there are adult themes and blood.

Well, my Steam filters did. Only the "excessive violence" filter was still there.