Recent reviews by Mißgunst

Sans banged my mom 0/10
(Absolute cinema)

Hors

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Not only are Mouthwashing's surreal sequences extremely effective at many types of horror, but its short story also demonstrates that games can masterfully handle politics by naturally, and more often than not, being a hands-on experience; When it is thoughtful, solid and willing to tackle serious topics without padding.
A great, disturbing tale about power and abuse, both interpersonal and corporative.

Personal GOTY of 2024.
Nine Sols' gameplay is without a doubt extremely polished, fun and manages an equilibrium of delivering an intended experience while still offering many choices of playstyle. It seldom offers something tremendously innovative, but what it does achieve is honor its clear inspirations: Its interconnected, metroidvania-like world hides many collectibles and optional upgrades that reward exploration but are hardly mandatory (Although, the rewards are not only gameplay related too, you'll be glad to find!); Its combat encourages learning your enemies until you achieve a state of flow that aligns with Yi's Tai-chi, likely inspired by other asian themed action adventures like Ninja Gaiden or Sekiro. While it's obvious that this is what Nine Sols is most known for, I firmly believe people don't pay enough attention to its art below the surface and its story.

Eastern themes lean towards slightly uncommon in the scene already, and RedCandle's "Taopunk" is something I'd dare to call completely unseen, ever, and it's more than an aesthetic for the game to feast your eyes, but a congregation of themes that offer a critique to transhumanism and the regression of values from unchecked development, like many Cyberpunk stories do. Both its art and narrative present a perspective that, while based on eastern mythology and thus is presented through the lens of Taoism, may resonate even with people who consider themselves plenty secular, as instead of preaching thoughts of divinity Nine Sols instead presents the idea that, just maybe, pure stoicism and adjacent currents that find disdain in emotions may well be a blockade to their own goal of a well-lived life.

Alongside your upgrades, collectibles can be handed over to Shuanshuan and your other companions for dialogue, and this game is not afraid to give you a full conversation to explore further caracterization or tell you more about Solarian history. It may not be of everyone's taste, but I'd recommend playing close attention at least a couple times, as the writing is not only genunely good but you may find that talking with your allies is genuinely endearing, and talking to your opponents oten evokes some emotion. Similarly, Yi is not a vessel for the player or a figure whose story is completely dropped upon you in the first hour, but instead a character that you'll actively learn about through his conversations. Completely extracting what every Sol and what notable characters represent both on their own and in relation to one another would ruin a bit of the magic though, and while some of the overall story is flawed no doubt, it decides to play to its thematic strengths over diluting itself with putting bandaids on the few and small discrepancies.

Whether you want to get it just for the gameplay or some of the insight I've given on story interest you, you will likely not forget it.

Pretty mediocre DLC.
What could've been a fun bit with the moderately interesting premise of "Someone is trying to clone Handsome Jack" is a very short campaign with side quests that boil down to killing a type of monster, the which all ends with a terrible boss that, worse than heavily handicapping you for you not using a slim set of tools (*cough cough* Slag *cough cough*), is borderline undoable without and feels like it ignores the existence of one character and at least 1/3rd of the set of many others.
The Fall of Nakayama is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hilarious, don't get me wrong, but a 20 seconds bit and a chuckle is all it's got going.

Very varied new locations, great bosses and enemy variety and the cults all offer gear that is interesting at the very least and you can grind them out all at the same time! The tomb of the Heretic is also easily one of the coolest looking dungeons in the game. Fantastic ♥♥♥♥

It was cool

It was funny as ♥♥♥♥
10/10

Open apology letter to the Undertale fanbase:
After playing Undertale I can understand the weapons-grade autism that's so widespread and known. It is evident to me know why you want to marry each and every last character that I happened upon in the game, and why I couldn't bear to stay in the genocide route, and then when coming back for pacifist, realized I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up

A small but fun Metroidvania about unleashing chaos as The Thing and further evolving into an unstoppable threat. There's little to be said: Great audio, nice environments (although they do tend to be quite labyrinthine) and very detailed gory pixel art. While the game is quite easy two thirds of its runtime, the last third will give you some more challenging situations with a handful of solutions, so you can truly feel like a monster, whether clever and devious or brutally violent.
It's unfortunately rather short and maybe not worth its full price, but with mod support it will offer more if you're still hungry for more. All in all, still worth playing
7/10