Aegis Defenders

I briefly tried Aegis Defenders. It describes itself as an action-platformer with tower defense combat, but in reality, it's just a side-view action tower defense game. Calling it a platformer would be doing any decent platformers a disservice.
Generally the game centers around defending a... thing from enemies that swarm you from the edges of the map. Standard tower defense stuff. The catch is that you actually control a group of characters, each of whom has their own towers or tower-like things. Run around, whack resources to gather them and then... build with them. Standard stuff, I said. Different characters also have different attacks and you can only control one at a time. Not controlling a character leaves them to do their default thing, such as repairing turrets, standing still where they were. Different characters (and their buildings) are also effective against different enemies, and there's some shop system between levels.

While the characters and platforming were probably supposed to make it unique, I actually disliked the game more than a run-on-the-mill tower defense. This kind of switching characters, fighting on my own, gathering resources... it detracted from the main experience, which was supposed to be a tower defense. Another game falling for the common blunder of trying to do too many things without even getting one of them right. Even if it was just the tower defense bit, it still wasn't very inspired or interesting.
The only moderate saving grace might have been the split-screen co-op, but I didn't have anyone to play with at the moment. More players means less time managing characters, more playing, and of course the standard "everything's better with a friend", but even then I have my doubts it would have had enough of an impact on this game. It just wasn't that good.

In brief: A rather boring tower defense further hindered by other, even less interesting, aspects of gameplay. If you got a friend in the same room to play with, then maybe it's enjoyable for a few hours, but I wouldn't recommend it alone.

Ash of Gods: Redemption

I played a little bit of Ash of Gods despite its not-so-great reviews. A lot of people described it as a worse version of The Banner Saga, which I also played some time ago, but didn't quite find to my liking. They're both these grid-and-turn-based RPGs with a rather heavy focus on story.

So apparently the Reaper has come to kill everyone, and has the power to just make people drop dead in a 10 mile radius or something. However, he doesn't kill some people for some reason and instead lets lots of criminals live and mind-controls them to kill these people for him. Didn't make much sense to me. Might be the writing quality, which is... Well, let's just say the writing feels more like a river of cobblestones than water.

From the gameplay side, things aren't looking much brighter. I found the character upgrade and item system quite terrible.
Abilities are also often borderline bad. "Do you wish to deal 250% damage to your health and 100% damage to your energy in return for 250% damage to the enemy?" "Uh, no thanks, I'll just block until the enemy kills themselves with their abilities that cost more than they deal damage."
There are also cards (single use per combat spells), which are often weaker than a character's action, but still cost a turn. Oh, and speaking of turns, someone decided that if you're outnumbered, you can act more. You can't act again with a character until you've acted with everyone in your party. So while 5 weak vs 1 strong should intuitively feel kind of fair, you'll actually get slaughtered as your units scramble to get in range, while the strong guy hammers down your units one-by-one while they can't do anything cause they already acted. Throw in the fact that less units go through rounds faster, which gives you access to stronger spells and... I'm rambling, but you can see I'm not exactly a fan.

So there's not much to say. Only positive thing is that the premise of the story seemed interesting, and the art's not bad, but the story itself, and most importantly the gameplay, are just shit. Don't play it, I don't recommend it. Go find another grid-based RPG if you wish, there's surely better ones out there.

Iconoclasts

Back with another Metroidvania by the name of Iconoclasts. It's not a secret I've a bit of a soft spot for these kinds of games but regardless, I think it held up very well.

Iconoclasts is pretty standard. You run around the world, progress the story, do some platforming, do some combat, upgrade your abilities and weapons in smaller and larger ways...
Your main tool is a wrench, which is the central unique item in this game. It can be used to operate various doors, sliding and spinning platforms, but also as a movement tool, letting you swing on hanging nuts, or ride electric lines (don't try these at home). It also acts as a melee weapon alongside the three guns you unlock as you play.
There's a nice variety of enemies, but they're nothing fancy. It's usually more of a puzzle-thing, figuring out how to beat an enemy, than one of skill. This goes double for bosses, which are, in contrast, definitely very fancy and make up a sizable portion of the game. The puzzle theme is permeating, and environment/platforming puzzles make up another sizable portion. Overall, maybe Iconoclasts is even a bit more of a puzzle platformer than a Metroidvania. While there is backtracking, a lot of it is optional or devoid of much action, and the level structure is quite linear.
Upgrades are mostly the mandatory wrench and gun upgrades you need to progress, but also some mostly inconsequential "Tweaks" you can craft from resources you find. (Oh, but do get the one that lets you spin your wrench longer, you'll thank me later.)

The bosses and puzzles were of a nice difficulty. On one hand, nothing special, on the other, I rarely got any averse feelings towards them - they were well made, and progressed at a steady pace. One of the most enjoyable things about the gameplay was how, when you went back to content you had already completed, going through it was a breeze. I could really look back on my journey and feel how it was not just my character who had progressed, but I as well.
From other aspects - music was pleasant, pixel art was really good, and the story was genuinely interesting. The ending was a bit anticlimactic, maybe rushed? It definitely left many questions in the air, but didn't really hurt the overall story.

Overall, definitely recommended and it earned a high place on my list. Superb job for a mostly solo project. Play it for the puzzles and a feeling of mastery. Play it for the lovely atmosphere, characters, and story.

Status Report

Long time no write again. Figured I owed a quick insight into what's happening.
On a positive note, I started my first "real" job 3 weeks ago, which has been the main factor keeping me busy. The first week was rough, as with all new things, but by the end of the second week, I figured I had accustomed enough to start my routine activities, such as playing new games, up again, but I fell ill. Despite the free time one acquires when sick, it's really not any productive. Not much you can do with a headache discouraging any thorough thought. A week later, I'm feeling better now though, so hopefully I can continue where I left off.
I have a finished game sitting in memory, waiting to be written into a review, so expect that real soon.

As for the future, I'm planning to move closer to the city center as soon as I pick out a suitable apartment, which would be in the next couple of weeks to months. That will of course also cause at least a week's worth of disruption, but should free up a significant amount of time each week from not having to sit in commute to work or wherever for as long.

The usual note on how many games I have in my backlog? I don't even want to think about it. I've been picky lately, but with how slowly I'm playing through them, no amount added is too low to not increase the backlog size.