Recent reviews by TamTu

Full disclosure, I was part of the studio's Partner program and got to play the game early, and played it in full after release. Platinumed it on the Playstation 5 version.

TLDR
+ Stylized fantasy aesthetic is a nice chance from all the realistic grit and pixels.
+ Beautiful soundtrack by Austin Wintory
+ Colossal bosses to climb on!
+ Respects your time and what you're in the mood for in a gamesession
- Gravity effects can make movement feel too floaty at times

🟨 OVERALL
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The campaign can be cleared in roughly 20-25 hours depending on the difficulty, for completionist you can stack up another 10-15 hours on that. Eternal Strands is a complete package where you can decide your own plan when you venture out into the world of the Enclave. The story does a solid job of setting up the stakes with a action-packed intro that explains how the thermodynamics factor into the rather straight-foward combat. I enjoy it when the combat remains simple as to not distract from the ongoing events as much, but the simplicity is deceptive as the challenge does ramp up if you do not familiarize yourself with the magic & combat system (but more on that later).

🟨 GRAPHICS
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The stylized visual direction works well to help enhance the storybook adventure feeling I get from playing Eternal Strands. There's a intended choice in presentation at times; there are 3D cinematics, hand drawn 2D animations and visual novel style full body portraits for conversations between the characters. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, I personally appreciated it to allow for different disciplines in the studio's art department to shine. Eternal Strands is a beautiful painting to play and a fresh look from the many realistic gritty titles or pixelated chaos out there.

🟨 GAMEPLAY
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Eternal Strands isn't just an action RPG, it lets you slow down as well and respects your mood. If you want to chase towering monsters and challenge yourself in taking them faster than last time, you can. If you want to run around and gather materials for your next crafts, you can. If you want to explore and find secrets or fill out your codex, you can. And there's plenty inbetween as well, with no major penalty if you're finding yourself in a pickle and are defeated either by a big ark or by gravity. The traversal across the biomes is only enhanced further by the kinetic magic you unlock as your progress. It doesn't over-deliver or over-promise in what you can do, but you can do a lot with the tools you're given and that's wonderful.

🟨 COMBAT
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The combat consist of two elements: weapon-based combat and Magic abilities. The weapons available to Brynn are the sword & shield, a two-hander greatsword, and a bow. Each of these also have elemental variations of them, adding magical skills to each, further expanding what you can already do using your Ice, Fire and Kinetic spells. The elemental rock-paper-scissors format exists, but it goes further than just "ice enemy weak against fire", the environment affects the effectiveness of these elements as well. The thermodynamics system is what makes this work: Freezing or burning the ground immediately affects the enemies and sets them up for your advantage. Beyond affecting it yourself, the biomes are also affected by different kinds of weather that also immediately impact the effectiveness of your magic.

The world is your weapon, it's up to you how much of a weapon you turn it into. The game gives you tools to deal with every situation, the only limit is that you cannot swap elemental weapon affinity after you leave for an expedition.

🟨 CHALLENGE
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The game offers multiple difficulties, but even at the easiest level, it's still up to you how to tackle the bosses and that's where your own mastery of the skills comes in. Someone that doesn't know how to drive won't bring out the potential of a racecar after all. The different large bosses rotate through the different biomes, making the environment they appear in also become an important factor to how difficult the encounter will be.

🟨 EXPLORATION
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Your main goal for exploring the biomes is for the collectibes; these range from journal entries to blueprints for new armor and weapons. Brynn is able to climb any surface and her weapon/magic skillset allows her to utilize them for expanded traversal (my favorite was to use the kinetic Two-Hander's charged ability to give me an additional vertical boost, mid-air!). There's a lot to uncover in the game, but once you've ticked off all the boxes, that sense of completion hits well. Non-codex related, there are optional hidden yellow bricks in the world that are a nod to the development team, appearing as marks in the game's credits.

🟨 SOUNDTRACK
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Austin Wintory delivers a beautiful soundtrack, capturing the sense of adventure and mystery. It's different from what I've heard in other fantasy-focused games, giving Eternal Strands a very distinct musical identity. Gorgeous.

🟨 CONCLUSION
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Having released very early in the year, I still think incredibly fondly of my experience with Eternal Strands. I've called it my comfort game, a world to jump into and just enjoy the views and environment while climbing around and doing whatever magic Yellow Brick conjured up with this title. Even towards the end of the year having played other titles, this one is still one of my most favorite experiences of 2025. A solid debut title where the team made what they wanted to make, while positioning themselves as a studio that knows (and enjoys) what they're doing. For its price, it's a wonderful package that gives you a fun, magical action sandbox to play with. The collaboration DLC content with Square Enix and Grasshopper were a delightful excuse to go back to the Enclave. Looking forward to what's next from Yellow Brick Games.

The continuously updated demo for 13Z shows dedication from Mixed Realms to deliver a fun, fast-paced gameplay loop. It also shows incredible promise for the game to be something special. The systems are very easy to pick up on, but true mastery will come from finding the builds that work for you and, as with most roguelikes, navigating the right choices presented to you and making it work for you.

The challenge is definitely there, and I'm excited to discover additional characters to play with and more skills and abilities to mess around with. It's already incredibly polished and I find myself going into the demo regularly just for "one more run."

I got a chance to try it out at Gamescom 2022 and it left a strong impression. Fast foward to launch day, and Go Fight Fantastic oozes with charm and personality. As a hack & slash co-op game does exactly what it promises, with the four characters that each clearly have a role to play. (NPCs are a hoot and add the extra character and charm as well).

While the classes are balanced enough, the meteorite system for upgrades lets you play around with preferred playstyles quite well. The story campaign teaches you enough of the mechanics and what to focus your upgrades on, where the true challenge certainly lies in surviving the Horde Mode for as long as you can.

My favorite part of the game, however, is the absolute banging soundtrack. It recalls vibes of Megaman X and Sonic Adventure, never getting repetitive.

So much love and care went into this title and I have no doubt that the game will improve upon its known issues. I finished the game solo, which brought plenty of challenge and taught me patience in utilizing the characters' strengths properly. Multiplayer was a bit rough, but give it some time and patches, and I'm certain Dinomite Studios will smooth out those edges into a timeless little gem.

The art is very cozy, and the characters are very lovable in a way I would absolutely recommend this game to gamer parents to play this with their kids. I recommend this game on the assumption and good faith that the multiplayer issues get resolved sooner than later. Dinomite Studios is incredibly passionate and talented, and are very much deserving of a chance.

Snippet: I know a lot of people were initially turned off by the idea of the combat being turn-based, but the way NoName Studios tackles the pacing makes it feel incredibly dynamic and constantly keeps you on guard, more so that an active combat system would.

I absolutely love this game, allow me to gush over this.

TLDR:
+ One of the most creative and dynamic takes on turn-based combat, never feels slow, always tactical.
+ Stunning aesthetic vibes and art direction
+ Beautiful soundtrack
+ No enemy is the same, they all have their own flavor and level of challenge.
+ Fun collect-a-thon element for lore/worldbuilding
+ Secrets Challenges!!
- All biomes are connected, but I would've liked to fast travel to nodes if already unlocked. Mini-map showing your location is very minimal.

OVERALL
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An absolutely beautiful aesthetic paired with a dynamic turn-based combat system that never slows down and keeps you on your toes. I have nowhere near mastered the game yet for the secret challenges, but I enjoyed every minute of Worldless. Whether I was fighting and figuring out enemy attack patterns, or running and swinging around the map, I was in awe with how polished the game was at launch.

GRAPHICS
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The art direction for this game is absolutely gorgeous. Discovering how the character's actual form was hidden in the ability/combat animation VFX was a delight, and always made me look forward to be actively use the skills to see her. In a way, the game presents itself as minimalistic, but there is so much depth in the shape language presented to the player.

GAMEPLAY
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Controls are intuitive and skills come at a natural and logical pace as you discover more biomes. It was very easy to pick up, and gradually teaches you to incorporate more abilities to be more effective. By the end of the game, you'll definitely have some mastery of the gameplay. Because there's a purpose to each skill, and the way the turn-based combat activates different mindsets per phase, everything gets compartmentalized and sooner than later, it becomes clear when you should use a certain task.

The Absorption mechanic adds a layer of challenge in the sense that while yes, you can just beat certain enemies into submission and continue exploring, but some enemies do not allow for that and force the player to understand the importance of the mechanic. I sometimes found it hard to effectively fill the gauge fully and more often than not just hoped to randomly guess the button-inputs correct rather than maxing out the gauge on purpose.

COMBAT
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I know a lot of people were initially turned off by the idea of the combat being turn-based, but the way NoName Studios tackles the pacing makes it feel incredibly dynamic and constantly keeps you on guard, more so that an active combat system would. It's instinctive and clearly defines the mindset you need to be in, and the more you do it the more fluid the whole thing comes together. There is a beauty and satisfaction in mastering the combat system in both the attack and enemy phases. Parrying is a delight and learning the patterns of the enemies is no slouch either.

CHALLENGE
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As mentioned in the combat, mastering the combat system is and getting the space to retry as often as you want at no major penalty makes it very accessibly for people new to the genre to really learn and become more dexterous and reactive. This kind of intrinsic training will carry over to other games for sure. The build up in difficulty never plateaus; once you overcome enemies you were struggling with before, you are rewarded with new tools to approach encounters with, but it is completely up to you whether you utilize the tools or not, allowing you to set up your own level of challenge. All encounters are carefully designed to teach and test you.

EXPLORATION
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The contrast in exploration and combat is a very welcome one. As there are no roaming enemies in the map, it can feel empty but that is exactly the point. As you unlock more exploration abilities, zooming through the different biomes is almost meditative and calming. I had some minor gripes with the way the the minimap was very minimal (only showing the "room" nodes and not really indicating how big or small the areas were, or where my relative position was, leading to some minor frustrating backtracking. In early-game with fewer exploration options this sometimes felt very time-consuming and counter productive.

SOUNDTRACK
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B A N G E R S. The contrast in exploration and combat is enhanced by the intensity of each activity in the game, Sometimes maybe overwhelmingly so, but it only lets you know you're at a very big encounter, vs a regular enemy. I would've loved to have heard a medium-intense track for the non-boss enemies during exploration, simply to enhance the activity mindset. The sound design is beautiful, no effects were jarring at all.


CONCLUSION
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Worldless is expertly crafted, with fun mechanics and the most fun I've had in a metroidvania. It was a beautiful journey in the genre where the emphasis feels more about learning everything (both gameplay and the narrative) at a steady and controlled pace, while maintaining the freedom of exploration. All of the devs in each discipline should consider this a crowning achievement and a beautiful highlight in their career. I HIGHLY recommend Worldless.

A wonderful VN that captures the essence of connecting in online gaming communities 20-so years ago, especially for Miiverse notes (I'm from the vBulletin/phpBB days 😂)

Much like One Night Stand, it's a beautiful tale about connecting and I'm going for a second playthrough NOW. Needless to say, this one hit very close to home, just when I needed it. Thanks for another gem, Kinmoku~

Gameplay: Addictive and refreshing, changing up between planning the material gathering, relationship building, haggling and store managing kept me hooked.

Story: Cute and straightforward, it's the conversations moving forward deepening the characters you interact with that makes this fun. Sylvia is funny and expressive, as are the other characters.

Graphics: the animations stand out being incredibly expressive. I didn't miss any voice acting and enjoyed reading everything for context of the scenes. The different art styles in various elements made it clear what aspect of the gameplay you were in.

Sound: The soundtrack is very pleasant!

Eager to go after the remaining 10 achievements that I have left. Kudos to the team at Voracious, I had a blast.

The attention to detail and environmental storytelling is an absolute delight and I loved every second of this. It was a good lesson in empathizing with others as the different situations you end up in bring some pretty poignant "a-ha!" moments.

Stellar little puzzler with a lot of love. Highly recommend it.