Recent reviews by Inkaflare

This game is a work of art.

Pros:
+Cute as heck protagonist
+extremely tight and satisfying controls
+worlds are each very unique and sport many different locations
+adequate difficulty
+very fun boss fights that encourage you to learn boss mechanics to perfect dodging
+lots of stuff to collect
+great attention to detail
+decent voice acting
+great humour
+mod support for when you're done with the base game

Cons:
-a bit short
-some of the platforming sections are a bit wonky

Overall I can only recommend this game, especially if you're a fan of the old school 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, Super Mario 64 or Psychonauts. On sale it's an absolute steal for what you get.

Pretty good game I guess, if you look at the time I spent on it.
Huge free content updates every 3 months: check. Endless customization possibilities to make a unique and whacky build with whatever the ♥♥♥♥ you want: check. An engaging endgame system that cleverly recycles content while making it seem so new you don't even realize and just keep playing basically forever: check. Nice visuals and superb voice acting with a deep lore hidden beneath the surface of exploding monsters all day: check. 100% free to play and the only thing you can spend actual money on are fancy cosmetics and convenience features like more stash space and character slots: check.
This game just does everything right to have me excited like a kid for christmas on every new update announcement and I will probably still be playing this in three years.

There has been quite the controversy around this game. Many people are disappointed because it doesn't quite live up to the greatness of the original Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, to which it's supposed to be a spiritual successor. While I agree with this, it's still a very fun game and it certainly scratches that itch for a collectathon 3D platformer. I don't regret backing this on Kickstarter at all two years ago.
The gameplay is immediately familiar if you've played the N64 games, the characters fit the same archetypes and the worlds are filled to the brim with stuff to do.
Unfortunately, the game as a whole is simply not as memorable due to some issues. There are only five worlds, so there is somewhat of a lack of variety because you spend a lot of time in the same places.
Also, while getting around is a challenge at the beginnign as it should be in this kind of game, some of the moves you get as you progress through the game just completely break this aspect and make going back to earlier worlds to get what you missed or skipped feel stupid, because the new moves trivialize the challenge you would have had if you had tried to do it in the "proper" way the first time. This makes it seem rather pointless to stay in a world once you have collected just enough pagies to move on the next one - which is not a lot.
Additionally, it's somewhat annoying that there is a severe lack of variety in enemies and world-inhabting NPCs - you basically run into the same ones in every world, and they don't fit the overall theme of the world either because of this. This is a severe setback from the N64 Banjo games.
The soundtrack is a mixed bag - some of the tracks are really great and memorable, while others are bland and repetitive.
These negative âspects don't stop the game from being enjoyable at all though. There is a lot of stuff to do in the worlds, the various new moves you unlock give you that "ah-ha!" moment when you remember a spot you couldn't get past earlier and are now able to thanks to that new ability, and the dialogues, animations and character sounds are as quirky and fun as ever in the Banjo games. Playtonic definitely managed to capture the atmosphere of them, so hats off for that.

Overall, if you are a fan of the N64 Banjo games, I recommend this - it does have its flaws, but Playtonic delivered on what they promised.

Ah, Valkyria Chronicles. I had heard the name a few times but I had no idea what this game was about until it got ported to Steam. It seemed fairly interesting to me, so I bought in on sale.
I was surprised how great it is.

A mixture between real-time and round-based strategy, you and the opponent take turns moving your units over the battlefield. Doing so switches from an overview map to third-person perspective of the unit you're moving so you can aim and shoot at your enemies yourself. While you're moving, the enemy units can counterfire, so you need to carefully move to a spot where you're not instant cannon fodder.
The different unit classes are all unique, with their own strengths and weaknesses and the various battlefield hazards make every battle different.
You can choose the soldiers in your army yourself, and they all have their own "potentials", perks that randomly activate and can have positive or negative effects. This gives the characters shape and makes them more than just foot soldiers; for example, you shouldn't bring a unit with Desert allergy into a dune skirmish, and Lone Wolfs work best when shooting the enemy from their own little corner.

Aside from these fairly complex mechanics, the game offers a very well-developed story set in a World War scenario, with supernatural elements mixed in (in form of the name-giving Valkyrias). There are so many cutscenes between the battles that it sometimes feels like playing a visual novel. This can be a pro or a con, depending on your personal preference.
There is an option to use the original japanese audio instead of english. I recommend the japanese audio because the english voice actors seem to kind of exaggerate their pronounciation (even on characters like Largo who always talk in slang), but thats my personal preference.

The graphics in the game look outdated (the game is 6 years old by now!) and the anime style may not appeal to everyone. It still looks fairly good, though.

All things considered, Valkyria Chronicles is a great game and well worth its full price on Steam, despite being a PS3 port. The mixture of interesting story and engaging gameplay make for a very good package.

This game is just great. I've never played any other Tomb Raider games, but I got interested in this because it was on sale for a stupidly good price and friends recommended it to me.
The story you play through is very thrilling, you are motivated to keep playing to find out what happens to Lara and the other Endurance crew members on the island packed with dangers and bloodthirsty cultists. Lara's evolution from a naive young archeologist to a combat-experienced and deadly heroine is fascinating to watch and experience.
The gameplay is a seamless blend of action-packed gunfights, stealth passages, platforming and puzzles. None of it feels repetitive, I wasn't bored for a minute while playing through the story.
Exploration is greatly rewarded as you can find tons of collectibles, do challenges and upgrade weapons as well as Lara's abilities by going back to previous areas to get the "100 % complete" label on them.

I haven't tried the multiplayer, from what I read it's not worth the time, but the singleplayer is more than worth the money, even at full price.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, this game is hard. So. freaking. hard.
Yet so addictive. I've died around 20 times on my first hour of playing, but I was still motivated to keep going and try one more time. And one more time. And one more time. Unlocking something after every death makes it still feel rewarding, and getting a little further, surviving a little longer every try also motivates you to get better.

The whopping 10 available classes should give everyone something they enjoy playing as most, and even though I've only unlocked half of them, they each feel and play completely different. I assume it is the same for the ones that I haven't unlocked yet.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a real challenge and piling up upgardes to feel super OP and yet get stomped by some random mobs upon reaching the next stage.

Fun and challenging RPG-Action-Platformer ( I believe the correct term is Metroidvania?) game.

Pros:
-The combat system is pretty good and very satisfying, you can feel the impact of your attacks as you shred your enemies. Magic can be fluently integrated in your basic attack combos, which gives the impression of a constant flow in combat.
-The amount of customization the game offers is incredible, there are so many ways to build your character(s), making every playthrough unique. This is the biggest strength of the game.
-The overworld is quite big and contains numerous hidden treasures and areas which you have to come back for later, rewarding exploration.
-People who think newer games are too easy will be satisfied here. Even on Normal difficulty, buttonmashing won't get you anywhere, you have to learn enemy patterns to defeat them. Every boss is unique and a challenge.
-Even though the game is considered complete, the devs keep adding addditional content for free every few months.

However, the game does have its flaws:
-The controls can be a bit wonky, making some of the platforimng puzzles that are already stupidly hard even harder. This frustrated the hell out of me a few times and made me skip some treasures.
-The story is near impossible to understand at the beginning as you are flooded with names, requiring an extensive read of the lore section (which isn't even fully available from the beginning) to understand what's going on. Moreover, it feels like you are tossed right in the middle of a story instead of starting at the beginning, while the ending of the game is far from the end of the story. This makes for a quite unsatisfying story experience, you feel like you are missing out on a huge chunk of lore.
-The directions you are given for your current quest are very vague; I found myself wandering the map for almost an hour before, by luck, finding out where I have to go to continue. This has never happenend to me before on any game I've played.
-A single story playtrhough is quite short (took me about 7 hours on my first run)

I bought the game on sale for 4 €, which it was totally worth. At full price, it's a different story though; you should consider the flaws if you plan to pick it up at full price. You can download a demo at the devs homepage for free to try the game and see if you like it. Generally one of the better games in my steam library. The gameplay is comparable to Dust: An Elysian Tale, if you liked that, you will probably like this too despite its flaws.

Rogue Legacy is hard. Really hard. You will die ridiculously often until you get used to the different character classes and learn how to fight the different enemies, but don't worry too much about it; your time is not wasted because every dead character still brings in some cash to expand your mansion and thus power up future generations; this motivates to play just one more run before you go to bed and then another and so on. Additionally, the bosses stay dead once you've killed them once, making you slowly progress through the castle before reaching the final boss... but thats only half of the game, you can start a new playthrough keeping your mansion upgrades and making enemies much harder than before each time you beat the final boss. Thought the game was challenging enough? Meet New Game+ after vanquishing the entire castle and get squashed like a bug by the first few enemies on the second playthrough.
If you really enjoy a challenge as well as an action-platformer, Rogue Legacy is the game for you.

This game will make you laugh. Rough language, tons of blood and violence (including dismemerbing, beheading and slicing), but it is all presented in a comical way, mostly thanks to the cartoony graphics and the dialogue that will make you roll around laughing. It also has got some decent combat action and occasional "stage battles" where you command troops while flying above the battlefield. The big open world offers side missions that get a bit repetitive but are worth it because of the cool upgrades for your weapons and your car you can purchase from the quest rewards.
The Story is a bit shallow, but aside from that I'd recommend this game because you get a good amount of playtime out of it and it's so cheap right now that it can't be not worth it.