Recent reviews by Saki

I am now depressed, thanks

Playing this feels like a Doom mod that never knew when to actually stop. Guns? What about a black hole launcher that oops actually shoots exploding barrels that catapult you to the stratosphere? What about an orbital laser with 83% size and sound effects that SCALE with size? Start waving goodbye to your ears.

Only truly terrible thing about this is the level design. The game has a massive hard on for fetch quests that break the pacing of the game completely and force you to walk aimlessly for 25-30% of each stage, which gets very annoying, very fast.

Still a great game though

It really pains me to do this, but Sky 3 is the worst of the saga by a decent margin. It is by no means a bad videogame, but the faults really outstay their welcome and overshadow the few shining lights provided in its runtime.

Let’s begin with some positive aspects. The music continues its long standing tradition of being outstanding to a level only matched by the likes of Final Fantasy. This entry has an all new soundtrack PLUS remixes of old tracks in key story moments. Some unbearable dungeons are made tolerable by their incredible music, and at the same time its such a waste to hear such phenomenal pieces on trash maps like this.

Which brings us to the first big criticism against Sky 3. Worldbuilding, lore, character interactions, political intrigue and emotional development are core pillars of the saga, and most are completely absent from this game.

The world. There is none. All the game takes place in an alternate dimension. A lore heavy explanation is given, but it is clearly contrived and twisted just to fit the game. Chapter bosses are usually throwouts that literally don’t matter at all, or even worse, old characters brought back for a fight, for again no reason. It is an insult to the previous entries’s efforts to build Liberl and Erebonia as conflicting nations held together by the most tenuous of peaces.

I cannot stress how much of a terrible decision this is. Dungeons are either colored hallways on empty space (yes, for real), or reused assets. This pattern follows until the last chapter. There are, essentially, no new and exciting areas in the entirety of this game.

Fortunately, even though the areas themselves are a disgrace, the combat in them is not. Combat in Sky was never…good, per se. It was easy, simple, and a means to an end (even Nightmare relies on cheese). Combat in Sky 3 is a definite improvement, no longer relying completely on Time Arts spam and Schera’s AT crafts. Tita is actually useful now, unbelievable. There are several different characters with their own unique strengths and build diversity was never higher.

And that’s all the good I have to say about Sky 3. The pacing is atrociously bad. Dungeons are 95% irrelevant, until the last fight of each place. So, story only takes place at those moments and in the main hub, at the beginning of each chapter. The rest of the story is comprised of side characters. This is a great opportunity to flesh out other members of the cast and its used well. I grew fond of people I barely got to know in previous entries. I cannot give specific character names for spoiler reasons.

HOWEVER, the way these side stories are explored would make you think it was designed by an intern whose first side job was making this game. Throughout the game there are dungeons. Dungeons are all combat. In the dungeons are doors, which are all story. So the game revolves around endless combat encounters through these copy paste hallways or reused maps, only to throw you a sometimes 45 MINUTE CUTSCENE behind one of these doors.

Let me make this more clear. Side stories are not explored throughout the game. They don’t flesh out in different chapters, bit by bit, as you get to know the characters. They just..dump a 45 minute cutscene out of nowhere behind a door, after 30 minutes of combat. What follows that? Yep, another 30 to 45 minutes of combat. Have fun.

Chapter 6 is the embodiment of all that is wrong with this game. By far the longest chapter, it is almost all filler, save for around 3 to 5 minutes of dialogue. It 's all reused asset maps as well. At the end, you egt a big cutscene in a new place, with a new music theme, regarding Kevin and Ries's backstory, which is absolutely phenomenal. It makes you think what the game could have been if it all the fat had been cut from it.

The main character of the game is Kevin by the way, and he is good. I ended up liking him as much as Estelle and Joshua. It makes me extremely sad to see his potential squandered by this game.

Let me emphasize the fact that I love the trails saga to death. This is not a bad videogame. It runs properly, with good framerates, no crashes. I enjoyed many parts of this, especially some doors (don’t skip them!). But, even though the first two entries are essentially rpg gems, this one falls short on so many levels it makes you wonder if they should have made a Sky 3 Movie instead of this.

I don’t recommend Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3. Go watch a recap on YouTube and move straight to Zero.

I recommend Synthetik.



Synthetik is a great videogame, but definitely not for everyone. Quite difficult. Firefights are over in mere seconds, and any small mistake can end a 45 minute run as quickly as your eyes can blink. You are making decisions, all the time, small, big, non stop. You can get into a rhythm with it, but expect the classic roguelike difficulty wall to be there in the first place. You need to learn the items, weapons and stats before you can succeed.


Where Synthetik truly shines is in its rewarding mastery loop. Every run you get better, you know more weapons and items. You start to make a build for yourself. Eventually, you settle into a set of items, weapons and cores you like. Then, a few hours later, you beat the game. Then? You do it all over again with another class. Each class earns you passive buffs every level they get. And if you beat the game on hard, you get GLOBAL buffs for everyone! There is clear meta progression that rewards you for learning and getting better.


Synthetik is brutal. It offers almost no tutorials. It offers no assistance. You are expected to essentially figure the game out and research for yourself. The state of tension is perpetual. If you like 45 minutes of high octane action, give this game a go. However, if you are looking for a relaxing game and a tough day's work, look elsewhere.

Trails SC is a game around 50-80 hours long. However, it has a 50% fully completion rate according to Steam achievements. That should tell you all you need to know. Starting right where FC ends, the story goes through familiar towns but with the stakes placed much much higher. A lot less time is spent on introductions and plot building, and much more on action and development.

Trails is a series that adamantly refuses to change , for better and worse. This, just like real life, allows you to adopt a "take it or leave it" mentality. Another reviewer called this game "The Best JRPG your friends will never play" and it's spot on. Trails is long, VERY long. It has unnecessary tedious frame shots for every place you visit. There is obvious padding, especially on chapter 8, where you must go through the entire continent ON FOOT for a perfectly reasonable, albeit very annoying story reason. It's a series that refuses to kill almost any character, making it bloat away with every entry.

However, the good far outweighs the bad in the final package. The cast is massive but every person has adequate on screen time to shine and develop. Instead of being invested in the main protagonist, you end up being invested on 15 different main protagonists.

Everyone you meet is at the very least interesting if not mysterious and will be part of a bigger, MORE exciting twist down the line. There are massive political tensions between each nation, internal warfare, terrorism, espionage, all mixed with several, personal story developments going on AT THE SAME TIME. If you don't get emotional at the end of Chapter 6, you have no soul, come on.

The story carries SC through all its problems. And it carries hard, making every moment worth it. Combat starts to break down and loses most of its semblance of balance. Time arts forever and for everyone, always. Sidequests, save some VERY GOOD exceptions, fall into padding territory. Villans always use the trope "I was just testing you, and now I will exit the stage in the most flamboyant of fashions" over and over. But none of that matters. No one cares, because the story is absolutely incredible.

I strongly recommend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC.

The fact that trails 1 has the same completion rate as most 5-8hr shooters, while being 5 times as long, says everything.

As the first entry in the Legend of Heroes games, none of the saga's problems are present here. It's not bloated with hundreds of characters that say the same cheesy lines for 100 hours.

It's a mostly self contained, 30h journey of personal growth and maturity. The pacing starts out very slow and small scale, much like the first season of Game of Thrones. But it ends up setting up all the pieces necessary for a massive politically intriguing plot down the line. It's great if you hate the classic plot of killing god with the power of friendship. The main focus is on worldbuilding and emotional relationships.

Combat is similarly very simple turn based attack magic skills. I don't think this is a bad thing since LoH is mainly a story driven game. The best factor here is that you can speed up battles with the press of a button and the game is paced so you never feel the need to grind, ever.

This game is the beginning of what is the most complex story ever told in the history of videogames. If you like the idea of conspiracies, political betrayals, geopolitical strategy and corruption, coupled with individual character growth and relationships, this is your game. Keep in mind the story lasts for hundreds of hours so the commitment requirement is pretty high.

The only downside I can think of is that the final dungeon of this game takes WAY TOO LONG, like most JRPG's final dungeon. But that's it. This is 95% a flawless game from beginning to end. And it will get you hooked if you give it a chance.

That's why I strongly recommend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.

The farming can get tedious but since you only have to take of 1 crop type, I understand why it is done in so much minute detail. The progression of the rice and your power is actually very satisfying. Not only your character grows in strength but your actual rice farming skill improves. It's a great feeling to see yourself doing better and better after each harvest.

There is also a MASSIVE crafting economy here. You need to craft daily eating menus to have good stat boosts for the next day. You need to craft weapon, several types. Same with armor, headmasks, and so on. All of this is done fairly competently and the next reward is never too far away, making the character progression feel rewarding.

Despite all this praise, there is one drawback that is so unbelievably massive it basically destroys the entire game. The controls are SO BAD they have to be seen to be believed. At every opportunity, in every keypress, the controls work against you. I had actually forgotten that a game could have controls THIS terrible. Nothing is rebindable by the way, so good luck. This is actually the worst controlling game I have played in the last 10 years.

Everything related to movement and controls is an absolute disaster. Dodging is not fluid and requires 2 keypresses. Parrying does not work 90% of the time. Hitboxes are not a concept that the game manages. Farming movement is done backwards and never straight. Rice hulling will give you carpal tunnel, for real. The scarf that propels you forward has a mind of its own so you end up just flying across the battlefield most of the fight. It is very difficult to put into words how disgustingly terrible the controls are. In every facet of the game, the controls fail miserably.

Like most games with awful controls, eventually you get used to it. But is it really worth it to learn some alien starship controls when you could be playing another game? I will probably finish this since the rest of the package is very compelling and I love farming sims, but for the rest of the world I think you will get frustrated and annoyed after the first 20 minutes.

Unfortunately even though the progression and crafting are great, the controls ruin the entire experience. Therefore, I cannot in good faith recommend Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin.

The game starts out SO great. Chapter 1 is filled with mystery, enemy balance is just right, and levels are short enough that they don't overstay their welcome.

Unfortunately, every chapter after the first one just gets worse. There are more enemies and they have so, so much health. We are talking multiple point blank shotgun blasts to down an enemy here. New enemies are introduced but they are all so..annoying. Every enemy has homing projectiles or is tiny and explodes. And due to the blood animation that plays out when you shoot them, it is difficult to see what the enemy is actually doing to avoid it. Nevermind the fact that each enemy also has 2 or 3 frames of animation at most, they are basically cardboard cutouts.

You also stop gaining levels almost since XP becomes so stingy, thus making the level up rewards almost not matter.

The levels themselves get longer and longer, and at the same time blander and blander. I swear the game never ends. There is a 40 minute section of a dumpster and a sewer..jesus. And the story just...dissapears. There is literally no story. I am on CH4 currently and just forcing myself to finish it.

The game shows incredible promise in the beginning but really falls flat on its face. It is clearly obvious that it was rushed in order to deliver a ""finished"" product. Keep in mind that, even though the game has 86% positive rating, around 5% of the people who bought it have actually finished it. And the game is less than 10 hours long. That should tell you something.

It makes me very sad to say this but at the end of the day, I don't recommend Forgive Me Father.

The amount of content this game has is OUTRAGEOUS. Around 1300 puzzles to complete in total. Each small puzzle is part of a bigger diorama that gets more and more visible the more puzzles you complete. It's a great feeling to the see the whole diorama slowly get filled with all your puzzle completions.

It's also very beginner friendly. I never played picross 3D before and I had no problem starting this game. For the price of 0.5 USD in my country you get dozens of hours of puzzles. Each puzzle is also short so you can play it in 5-15 minute sessions. A great package.

I recommend Voxelgram.

A great hidden jrpg gem but with some glaring problems. It's definitely unique since the story is the opposite of lighthearted and the classic "we have to kill god" trope is missing. The cast is lovely and over the 20ish hours I really grew fond of them. The main story is very gripping save some sections and overall I enjoyed my time with it. This is a game that is unequivocably carried by its narrative and quirky charm ala Earthbound.

As with most indie experiment-game stuff, there are some BIG caveats.

Combat is VERY simplistic and really drags after the first hours. I recommend using some speed up engine to get through them faster. The worst problem by far is pacing. There are vast sections of the game where absolutely nothing of significance happens. The game can be cut by around 30% and nothing of value would be lost. This is a shame because when the story gets going it is REALLY good but waiting for that to happen can feel like it takes forever.

At the end I was glad that I experienced the game and it's refreshing to play an rpg that isn't about saving the world with the power of friendship but instead tackles some real and mature topics. The story feels very personal in a way that cannot be described, it has to be experienced.

When you finish the game, you will wish you could remove the memories of it from your head just to experience it again. As far as stories go, this has to be on the best narratives of all time. Even though the game has MASSIVE problems, the plot is so engrossing and captivating that you keep on playing until the end.

Based on that, I strongly recommend OMORI.