Magpie Gamer

The story is a simple black-and-white tale of a righteous prince using his magical ring to defeat an evil overlord. The exiled prince Alain will lead his Liberation Army in a campaign across the the five realms of Fevrith, freeing captured towns to gain access to shops, taverns, and unit upgrades. The massive cast of characters all have distinct personalities and managed to stand apart visually from one another. There are a number of slice-of-life support conversations that open up by having units fight together on the battlefield or dine together at a tavern. These character stories were compelling enough, but none stood out as particularly surprising or unexpected. The ones I remember the best are Amalia's (demonic?) possession and Auch's desire for approval from his late mother. At various points you can choose to execute or recruit a former enemy, but as far as I can tell there is no reason not to recruit every single time, as there are no negative consequences for it an...

The Monster Hunter franchise alternates between mainline releases with big budgets and more experimental spin-off titles such as Rise. And a lot has changed. Farming has been meshed with the Argosy (trading ship), Tailraider Safaris are now the Mewcenaries, and the lizard mounts have been replaced by a palamute (dog) that the player can customize and ride. This makes getting around Rise's surprisingly vertical maps a breeze. The downside is that there isn't much of a reason to move vertically because most of the fights happen at ground level. A new 'wirebug' mechanic can be used to zip through the air and to take direct control of weakened monsters in order to puppet them into fights with other monsters. For some reason players now start every mission with a chunk of their health and stamina bar locked out. The only way to access this missing section is to collect glowing spirit-birds in the environment, which isn't so bad at first but becomes tedious over time, e...

Review based on patch 1.02. Gameplay: The gameplay is real-time strategy with pause (RTwP), although you only really 'pause' when selecting unit paths or rolling back an action. The deployable unit size is abnormally small at just four main units, each with its own backup member that can be swapped out a set number of times per battle. This limits what you can do strategically, and besides deciding what order to target enemies in and sometimes what direction to approach them from, there isn't any real tactical depth. There are no terrain hindrances or elevation to consider, no shortcuts to open up. Every mission has optional goals that are almost always to keep every unit alive and to finish in 6 or 8 minutes. The actual main mission goals are equally static, being to kill all enemies or on rare occasions to guard a barricade or protect a wagon. On the battlefield units auto-attack and will do additional 'ambush' damage when positioned behind an enemy, but...

This is an annual list of my personal disappointing games of the year. To clarify, these are not the "worst" games of the year. They are titles I was let-down by based on my own preferences and expectations. Most of the titles on this list are not even what I would consider to be bad games. They just weren't for me, or were not what I was expecting. All the games on this list are the launch version or later, and I have either played them to completion or abandoned them. The list is ordered based on my overall enjoyment (one being the best) of games I played in 2025. Most of the games listed here will not be brand new 2025 releases. They are games I played in 2025 that were new to me.

This is a silly little project that I put together on a whim. It is similar to those playlists that some people create for fictional characters; the music lists that reflect the character's personality, motivations, and emotional journey. They are typically put together for fun or as a way to test how well you understand the character. Except this one is with minerals and the spiritual meaning often ascribed to them.

Story: Arise takes place in a setting divided between the medieval world of Dahna and the technologically advanced world of Rena . Three centuries ago the Renans invaded and conquered Dahna, enslaving the population and dividing the land into five isolated realms. Each realm is ruled over by a Renan Lord. Periodically, the "Crown Contest" - a competition between Lords - is held to determine which of the five Lords will become the next Renan sovereign. A masked Dahnan slave with no memories of his past, nicknamed "Iron Mask" (real name Alphen), gets himself involved with a rebel group called the "Crimson Crows" when they rescue a Renan girl called Shionne. Shionne is afflicted with a curse that hurts anyone who touches her. Unable to feel pain, Iron Mask is the only one who can touch Shionne and use a special blazing sword in her possession. Together they form an alliance to take down the five Lords. The premise is simple but strong. You start ou...