Recent reviews by Froggy The Rock

This was a game I was extremely excited for. I LOVED Fallen Order, it was legitimately a game I played once a year around Thanksgiving as a tradition since release. But as we all know, this game had a rough launch. The game was rushed, and was said so by devs and staff. So I waited a decent amount of time after release to play this game. If you want a TLDR, skip to the end.

As a sequel, it's pretty great. There are less worlds, but now each world is vast and has so much to explore and fight. Survivor dives head first and commits to the exploration aspect of Fallen Order, and makes you feel like space Indiana Jones. And the new stance system is a great. You can choose to commit to 2, or you can be expressive and mix and match. Each stance roughly has the same amount of depth, with the single blade and double sided being the ones arguably lacking.
Both get advanced abilities from Fallen Order as base abilities, such as lightsaber throws or spinning the double sides saber around you, but you also do have to relearn some abilities. Meanwhile, the arguable GOAT stance, dual sabers, gets so much needed depth added. Each stance has their strengths and weaknesses, so I feel like it was intended for the player to swap around depending on the enemies or boss.
A new addition was the crossguard. It does a bit more damage and breaks poise far easier, but the wind up for attacks leaves you vulnerable, and even if you do attack, you cannot instantly parry until the animation is done unlike other stances. The crossguard is arguably a glass canon stance.
Basically, the dual sabers are just better. They're faster, so you can do more damage through consecutive quick attacks AND have instant parry available mid attack. AND arguably poise break faster with how quick you attack. The downside being you'll be poise broken easier too.
The blaster stance, another addition, is also arguably pretty strong, especially when you get special bullet types. But the blaster stance just didn't suit me well and I found the pistol being only accessible via a stance extremely disappointing. I feel like it should have been more like a tool in the same vein as the tools BD gets. Maybe also somehow make it a weapon that can be used with any stance

The story overall is pretty predictable through and through. It has its bright moments, but overall feels pretty weak. Especially the villains. The crew you're introduced to at the beginning are a bunch of randoms that you're expected to care and feel for, but they all die just as fast as you meet them. And they're brought up over and over through the rest of the game. I don't know how anyone is supposed to miss these characters when they were one dimensional. They really should've been given time for players to become attached. Even Bode, the only member to survive, who is the "new guy", doesn't get much characterization beyond "I'm a charismatic father, and like a brother to you", despite just meeting you. He does have his moments where he shines, butit is so obvious that he would betray you. I was surprised about him being a jedi turned sith tho! His boss fight was cool, but his 3rd phase was BS. He gets these recycled shockwave attacks that Dagan has, but Bode's attacks either one or two shot you.
Rayvis, one of the villains, was underwhelming as a character. His boss fight was arguably one of, if not, the best boss fights this game has to offer. Insanely fun. But his whole motive for being a villain is just "I'm a warrior who craves a warriors death, and Dagan Gera is the only one to best me in combat. So I serve him." It's not even done in a cool way. As soon as you beat him, he begs to be killed cause he's immortal but not invulnerable, and he's been alive for 400 years.
Dagan Gera, was also generally a pretty lame villain. He's introduced only to introduce Tanalorr and create a reason for Cal to actively pursue it and reach out to the main cast of Fallen Order. His motives are super generic, especially for a sith. That being his obsession with Tanalorr and hatred for the council cause they refused to help him protect it, and his mentor for not backing him up. The only cool thing about him is that the second time you fight him, he forms a force arm to fight with, then the 3rd time you fight him, he gets shock wave abilities and illusionary magic. But overall, his fights are insanely easy and boring. Very disappointing considering how hyped up he was as THEE antagonist by both the narrative and characters.
Vader also makes an appearance in this game. It's cool at first, but his boss fight makes him far less intimidating. It's implied that Cere could have or would have beat him if he didn't have plot armor. Which like, that's not Vader. I understand making him a real boss fight this time is fan service, but he was set ablaze, still on fire, and stumbling away after winning. I feel like a good way to have at least convey Cere grew stronger and was formidable is by showing Vader take her serious and maybe just make his armor singed. Vader fights with one hand when he doesn't take an opponent serious, he only uses both when he does. And his force attacks could have been ramped up too in his second phase. Making him a force of nature. But Vader was a SUPER EASY boss fight. He was slow and methodical, but predictable. He did not have a sense of overwhelming presence at all like he did in Fallen Order.
The ending is alright, but its predictable even super early on. But the ending is sequel bait and considering recent events at Respawn, we are either never seeing a sequel or not getting one until like 2035. Especially considering how poorly this game did on launch.

I played on whatever the hardest difficult is called. I've completed Fallen order on the hardest difficulty many times too. Survivor is far more difficult than Fallen Order in the worst way possible.
A lot of enemies and bosses kill you in one or two shots. It's not fun getting instakilled frequently. This is showcased the strongest through the new "Force Tears" (like tear a book in half), which are essentially just challenge levels. These challenges actually make me want to KMS. The challenges are genuinely on Dark Souls 2 timing FR. Stuff like "1v2 rancors", "1v2 bogdos", "1v3 various mini boss fauna", "1v150 droids", or "4 rounds of 1v9 raiders/stormtroopers/fauna that gets progressively more difficult each round until it ends with a (mini boss)boss mixed with a bunch of fodder". And these challenges restrict you to certain stances, or take away certain abilities, general limiters. The stances I get, but things that would help make it easier in reasonable ways like certain force abilities you upgraded or earned through the story is ridiculous.
Even worse, hitboxes in this game are just absolutely jank. A lot of enemies that have grab attacks, which likely instakill you too and have long animations, have bugged hitboxes, or your hitbox is bugged, where you can clearly not be touching the enemy and you will teleport into their hands or mouth. On some Dark Souls 2 timing FR. Again.
Last topic I'll touch on is performance. Performance is still awful. I have a R7 7700X, 4070S, 32gbram, with the game downloaded on a SSD. I have WELL above the recommended specs to run this and I was averaging 80FPS. And the amount of consistent glitches I ran into is genuinely unacceptable. The most common ones being loading issues, the whole world disappearing if I paused then unpaused too fast, things like BD's head or body disappearing, and really bad ghosting.

As it stands now, despite enjoying the game enough to 100% it, I don't recommend it. A lot of its issues are genuinely unacceptable or angering, and I only put up with it cause I had a Star Wars itch and severely enjoyed Fallen Order. Any other scenario, I wouldn't have given it the time of day. Do not buy.

I've never understood what it means to be addicted to gambling until this game. This is the type of game parents should be afraid of. If I were a dumb child, I would probably try to recreate this IRL.

The singleplayer was already super fun, but the multiplayer update made this game a MUST BUY. Especially with its price tag. Buy the game and SHOOT YOURSELF NOW!!!

Endless Monday is an amazing game by an amazing artist (hcnone)! To be expected, the art is amazing and stands out as one of the best aspects of the game!
The humor is also considerably a strong suit, with so many small and funny consistent jokes that aren't necessarily complex, but make use of gaming as a medium in fun and interesting ways, and keeps their stay without being obnoxious whatsoever. Some of the jokes/dialogue being great enough to even be quoted frequently, at least to me. hcnone also included jokes and references to things they personally joke about in other online spaces.
The characters are also very fun and fleshed out. The world they inhabit can be wacky, and so its inhabitants reflect that. All the characters play into a personality trope and they're all done incredibly well, with Penny having the most relatable being a "chronic procrastinator". Miss Whiskey and Skye are my personal favorite characters. Skye especially considering how accurate she portrays the NEET/girl failure life. But I also have been a long time Skye fan.
Despite how wacky the world of Endless Monday can be, it has something to tell and share, and its simple yet relatable feelings everyone feels in their adult life. Primarily the feelings of being a cog in the machine, or feeling unsure what you want to pursue in your life, how heavy expectations can weigh down on someone. The simple joys and beauty of life. It really resonated with me, and I think it can with others. The game also makes an effort to make small commentary on the replacement of artists via AI, but its not terribly deep of a commentary. Just simply, "soulless machines can make nothing but soulless "art" made using stolen art".

Work is da poop! As they say!
The game is frequently on sale, and if you're interested, you can buy it at a discount and enjoy yourself a nice afternoon. :)
I recommend it!

For the longest time, I felt like I would LOVE this game, but avoided it out of fear that I would HATE this game and regret even believing I still enjoy gaming. I am very happy to say this is easily one of my favorite games of all time.

I have a horrible tendency to try to min-max games, especially ones like this, resulting in playing these games like a second job. If I had to describe Stardew Valley's design philosophy, it would have to be "take your time". For the most part, the game doesn't have strong expectations of you, whether it be deadlines or "engaging with it wrong". Importantly, it also doesn't typically punish you for failing as well. As overwhelming as a lot of gameplay elements might seem, you won't be punished for simply failing to make money, talking to characters, completing events successfully, or even interacting with entire segments of the game. You aren't rushed to participate in any parts of the game you don't want to or aren't ready for. Of course, interacting with these parts of the game yields more content, but even still you're not punished for interacting with it "wrongly" outside of certain segments. This game sincerely wants you take time to enjoy yourself. Play the way you want to play. It's your farm after all. If you want to spend your days away fishing instead of in the mines, go on right ahead. HAVE FUN!
Sure, there are portions of the game that have problems and some that DO punish you, and I could go on and on about what could have been done to alleviate those problems, but if you find yourself enjoying the game's early content, you will probably enjoy the late game as well, despite the difficulty. Games like this don't come by often, and I was stupid to be so afraid of not liking it. It is worth your time and money, and I recommend giving it a try if you even have an inkling of interest.

Just remember to take your time :) You aren't here to please anyone. You're just here to farm and have fun. Deadlines and expectations is for jobs! Not games!

An amazing game in the mecha game genre, a genre in need of good games! A real video game game!

Despite being the most recent entry in the long running Armored Core series, it is welcoming to new players! You don't need to play previous titles to understand and enjoy the story, and the controls have been updated to be beginner friendly. Although difficult, Fromsoft didn't isolate and alienate old fans. Old fans will find all the new changes to be for the better, especially the controls.
There is not much I can say about the story without potentially spoiling story beats, but it was incredibly engaging and at the forefront, not common for Fromsoft games. Even better, something I enjoyed was how you experience the full story. AC6 does what the NIER series does in that after completing a run, you have to replay the game multiple times to get different endings until you land on the true ending. Each play through will have enough differences, whether it be story beats, items, and sorties, to warrant each sequential play through.

The only problem AC6 has worth noting is that if you cannot play the entire game with one single mech. Personally, I don't mind it, but many people are wrongly assuming this is how the Armored Core series works without knowing how previous titles did; something they cannot be blamed for. You won't have a consistent mech build until at least midgame, and even still, you will be changing some parts here and there. If you go in expecting to finish the game with with the same robot you started with, you are mistaken. The game wants you to constantly change your mech and load out to adapt to certain environments and enemy types, especially so for bosses.
If physical customization is your thing and this disappoints you, I would still recommend it on the basis that the game has a surprising level of paint job and emblem customization; far more than anyone would expect a game like this to have.

Overall, Armored Core 6 is easily worth buying and playing through. Another common Fromsoft W. Although it is arguably easier and bears little resemblance to their recent soulsborne ring dies twice games, any Fromsoft fan is sure to enjoy it, as well as those not fond of the soulsborne ring dies twice games. It is very nice to see Fromsoft flex their muscles and go back to previous IPs and show they still have it in them. The only thing a Fromsoft fan could hope for is a King's Field remake.