Gunvolt Chronicles: Luminous Avenger iX

Only after starting to play this, did I realize that Luminous Avenger iX belongs to a pretty sizable series of Gunvolt games, which I assume play at least somewhat similarly. Perhaps the existance of this series is also part of the reason for its rather positive review score. At least, I did notice a lot of people referencing the other games in the reviews section. Not me though, as I haven't played any other Gunvolt games, and after this one, I probably don't want to either.

Luminous Avenger iX is an action platformer where you clear a bunch of levels, beating up small enemies on your way to the bossfight at the end of each level. Your character has the usual jump and ranged attack, but also a long dash and one of a variety of special attacks. Dashing into an enemy locks onto them, enhanching your attacks and forcing them to target that enemy. Aside from manually dodging the enemy, the game also has a rather unique system where you automatically evade an enemy's attack as long as you have a special resource, which can be reloaded basically at any point, rendering you near-invulnerable.
The game isn't very lengthy, nor is it difficult if you play it safe. It is a score attack game, meaning you're rewarded for disposing of enemies quickly, and swiftly maneuvering through the level. You're probably expected to play through each stage multiple times, gunning for a high score.

As usual, my first and biggest problem was that this game was clearly made for consoles, not PC. The default keybindings were terrible, and even after rebinding them, the character felt awkward and imprecise to control on a keyboard. I think mouse support could have made a massive difference. This is a pretty big problem in a fast-paced action game that rewards precision.
The other problem was that the game just felt kind of bland. There was some level up system, but it didn't have much of an impact. The enemies weren't anything special, mostly just fodder, and the few unique mechanics the game had didn't really set apart the gameplay, at least not in a positive direction.

Overall, I don't see anything noteworthy in Luminous Avenger iX. It played like an average, perhaps even sub-par action platformer without much polish. I can't speak for how it compares to other titles in the series, but even without considering my dislike for score attack games, I can't find any reason to recommend it, especially not on PC.

Wargroove

Let's just jump right into this Wargroove review.
Wargroove is a turn-based strategy, or more precisely, a turn-based tactics game. You play on relatively small maps, conquering buildings to either produce income, or produce units using your previously produced income. While there exist over a dozen playable commanders with different abilities, all players (AI included) otherwise play by the same rules and have the same units. Instead of playing to your race / faction's strengths, more emphasis is put on outplaying your opponent by careful positioning, and choosing the right units for the right battles. See, each unit has units they're strong against, and units they're weak against, as well as a specific circumstance which lets them deal a critical hit. Additionally, while enemies attack back, all damage is multiplied by the attacking unit's health, so being the first to strike is a huge advantage. The first person to defeat the other team's commander (or a stationary building deep on their side of the map) wins.

Sounds simple enough, and it is. Wargroove initially gave me a very positive impression, because it's quite polished, the art looks very nice, and there's even partial voice acting. But the more I played, the more I realized the problem that lies in that relative simplicity. Wargroove is too simple to be a full-fledged 4X game - the maps are too small, the mechanics are too simple, the games are too quick. However it also feels quite heavy and slow for a turn-based tactics game, while lacking a fine tactical element.
My experience is mostly limited to the campaign and co-op campaign, though I do know it also has arcade mode and PvP. For the campaigns, it is quite easy to beat the levels in a slow, methodical, 4X fashion. However, this is kind of boring due to being slow and monotone, and the game itself incentivizes to play more aggressively by giving a suggested turn count for beating the level. Trying to achieve that, however, falls on the other half of being boring. It requires you to really consider the enemy unit composition, think turns in advance, plan stuff out. This makes you spend too much time thinking, not playing, especially considering both armies easily go into double digits of units, unlike most other tactics games, which just have you controlling a smaller, more powerful squad.

There's also other issues like your commander being the most powerful unit that also automatically regenerates, so you want to keep them on the front line to hit those turn goals. However, with how fragile units are in general, it is far from impossible for your commander to get killed in a single turn, instantly ending the level. Loading a save you've played past also incurs a score penalty, which forces you to start over for a good score. On multiple occasions, I got very close to quitting after an accidental commander death on the last few turns. In the end, I stopped playing for the other reasons listed above.

So, in conclusion, Wargroove is a well-produced turn-based tactics game that is a bit too close to a 4X game. Most battles play out in a similar fashion, and there is a tradeoff between the game being too easy or you thinking for too long. It's most definitely not a bad game, but I would guess most players would rather play something with a deeper combat and management system, or something with fewer units to consider. If you really want a tactics game like what I described, then sure, try Wargroove. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it, as there are almost certainly many better games of this genre.

Minoria

Today's game is Minoria. I was quite excited to play this, as it was from the developers of what could qualify as my favorite Metroidvania, Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. For some reason, Minoria was significantly less popular, and also rated lower, but not so much that I'd consider the review scores to be bad.

Minoria is similarly a Metroidvania, with a similar story of some religion-related females going to rid a place of evil. It has a similar length of about 6 hours, and features combat consisting of running, jumping, dodge rolling, melee attacking, and then using various consumables that refresh at save points. The consumables can heal, serve as ranged attacks, melee charged attacks, and more. While most of the game is spent running through the interconnected rooms and beating up little enemies, there are also quite a few boss fights.
What's interesting is that Minoria has very "high-stakes" gameplay. Many enemies will kill you in 2-3 hits, but you're similarly granted very strong basic attacks, and since your dodge roll has no cooldown, you're almost invulnerable while using it. I feel this was not such a good idea, because it would cause the game to either be trivial if you knew how to avoid an enemy's attacks, or lethal, losing you a reasonable amount of progress, if you did not. I rarely found a moment where I felt appropriately challenged.

Maybe I'm comparing Minoria to Momodora too much in my head, but they are by the same developer and have very many similarities. However, I can't help but notice that Minoria seems worse in pretty much every way. Momodora has a gorgeous 2D pixel art art style, whereas Minoria uses 3D with flat shading. This type of shading is very difficult to pull off well, and Minoria certainly doesn't accomplish that. Regardless of that, the 3D, the animations, the feel of combat and platforming - it just ain't that good. The music and sound effects also feel like they're down a notch.
There are also some really questionable design decisions, like limiting the amount of charged attacks you can do per save point, when they already have the limitation of taking longer to execute. Or the map design, which felt really poor. Backtracking is understandable, but there were around 20 locked doors before I had found even a single key. At least put some areas behind other areas, or diversify the methods of progression, rather than having me try my newlyfound key across the entire map.

Overall, Minoria's not entirely terrible, but I'd still have a really hard time classifying it as a "good" Metroidvania. Especially if you've come from playing Momodora, and expect an experience on a similar level of quality, you are going to be sorely disappointed. Minoria is a downgrade in every aspect from a minor difference in music, to a large difference in how enjoyable the combat and level traversal is, to a massive difference in the art and animations. In general, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you're really itching for another Metroidvania to play, then there are a lot of worse options out there.

Open World Game: the Open World Game

Open World Game: the Open World Game is one of the open world games of all time. It has elements that the best open world games have, like skill trees, skins, encounters, a minimap, a fishing minigame, exp, levels, a seamless world, achievements, hidden areas, a story, and more. You will have an experience playing this game, and it is completely free.

Now, while none of the previous points are false, it might be important to highlight that this game is satirical, and pokes fun of open world games. Completing everything takes about an hour, and the production value is the literal minimum that wouldn't be physically painful to experience. I think the screenshots on the store page explain it well.
There is of course no "real" game here, you just run through the entire map, and input a short sequence of the same movement keys to complete each "encounter". Each encounter also has a corresponding short text entry, and those contain many references, if you care to read them.

Funnily enough, this game is about as enjoyable as some AAA open world games, because it has the same level of difficulty, and the same tedious grind. Except this one is over before the grind can really wear you down. I think that says more about AAA games, or at least my opinion of them, than it does about this game. Of course, I couldn't really recommend you play this, but maybe if you want to feel an internal conflict of whether you actually enjoy these kinds of video games, or if you're just pre-programmed to complete to-do lists and make progress bars go up. At least this takes up only an hour of your life, unlike some games I've been playing for over a thousand hours by now.