K I have some actual mini reviews about games I've completed recently:
I finished Torment: Tides of Numenara recently, and overall I enjoyed it. The game has pretty good writing, and if you're looking for a Planescape successor that ticks the box of being able to run through the game fairly combat free this will do it for you (I might've been in like 8 battles the whole game). However the game definitely has some issues. For one, there are very little actual locations in the game where you spend a fair amount of time. There are two large cities that eat up like 8-12 hour chunks each, a smaller area in between these that will take around 5-7 hours, and the rest of the time is spent in a location that is present throughout the game and is relatively small and visually bland. There just isn't much variety. Compare this with Planescape, which felt like it had a much greater variety of areas in a game of similar length.
Another issue is the companions...for a game that's supposed to focus on writing there was next to nothing to explore with any of the characters. They have pretty brief companion quests, but there's next to no dialogue with most of them. Another issue is I did feel like some story elements were fairly obvious (there is a character in the game that I think is supposed to be somewhat of a twist when you find out who they are at the end, but I thought it was fairly evident what their identity was pretty early in the game), and on top of that there are two characters I think I would describe as main antagonists, neither are very well developed; as a result the plot itself isn't really enthralling. Still, the game had me pretty hooked, the world itself is very interesting, there hasn't been an rpg this focused on dialogue since Planescape, and the quality of the writing that feeds into the world is good enough to make you want to play. Overall I'd probably give it like an 8/10.
Owlboy - It's kind of like a 2d Zelda/light Metroidvania where you can fly. It starts out really great, but once you get through the first two dungeons it goes downhill. The first dungeon is really well done, and the second, while not as good, is still decent. Then there's an extended forced stealth section, back to back dungeons where you can't go back to the overworld that are both significantly worse than the first two dungeons, another extended forced stealth section (the main story is around 9 hours or so, and of those 9 hours around 2 of them are spent on long, forced stealth dungeons/areas...nobody wants that), and then the last area. It's a shame because the presentation is obviously great and it does start out great, but after the beginning, the rest of the game is nowhere near as good. It honestly blows my mind the game has an 88 or whatever on Metacritic, I have no idea what critics are looking at to rate it that highly. It's still worth playing, but I'd say it's like a 6/10 or so.
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