Recent reviews by RAMEN

2025 Game of the Year; It may have once entered into early access years ago, but its release was this year.

I've been doing on paper work and infrastructure diagrams in order to plan and build more efficiently.
I didn't even do that with Factorio, and I love Factorio.

This game is incredible. I'll probably be a few hundred more hours before too long.

The Factory must grow.

This is an absolute gem of a roguelike.
Brilliantly fun, tons of unlocks and variety, lots of interesting scenarios, some good resource management combat, and the vibes are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ perfect. I only have 2 major complaints; The gampad layout could use an update, as there is no way to swap units to a blank space with controller alone, and the music and soundtrack is FANTASTIC, but needs more songs added in.

See ya Space Cowboys...

I have already beaten, 100� this game on Playstation. I have already given over 300 hours to this game.

Time to do it again, and then some more.

Excellent. An extremely hard to put down, and a very fun deckbuilding rogue-like.

Excellent. Wears its inspirations out on the forefront and creates a phenomenal deckbuilding, strategy combat experience.
If you enjoy Slay the Spire, FTL, and/or Into the Breach, you will strongly enjoy the combat and gameflow of Alina of the Arena.

and its got a dodge roll so its kinda like a soulslike.

I wish there was a third/neutral option to give for review.
I do recommend trying this game out if you enjoy rouguelike fps games, doom clones, or survivor style games, but due to the unfinished state of the game while in Early Access (As of 12/01/2023) and the default template menus used for the UI, and the inconsistent menu functions while using a controller, I would wait to pick this up if you are interested. Its fun, but at the cost of jank.

Some good game play is buried under the very rough and unfinished edges of this product, but I think if the devs truly throw the effort into polishing this experience, this can be a great game.

This is a temporary review;

This is excellent so far, I'm only a small ways in, and i can tell immediately, this is a good game, with a great sense of souls like design. i plan to make a full review later, upon completion of the game.

Pros: I think that tts is a good way to play some board games long distance with friends.

Cons: the global chat is unmoderated to instances of hate, slurs, and general nastiness, but the ♥♥♥♥ that will get you banned is being publicly gay, trans, or anywhere else on the LGBTQ spectrum. If you hate that gay people exist, this games global chat is for you. The developer use not only aware of this, but has publicly said they will not fix it, and they consider taking about any trans or LGBTQ topics is taking"politically" and is not appropriate. ♥♥♥♥ you berserk games, I'm uninstalling, and will not load it up again. Tabletopia I've actually had a better experience with as well for putting a game together quickly. I wish I never gave this product so many hours, so that I can get a refund

Gonna write a full review later, in brief:
This is a game from the creator of Pony Island.
Nothing is presented in a straight forward manner.
This is a NOT a rougue-like game, despite how it may appear.
This is a card based, story driven game.
The Store page only represents part of the game.

This game has defied my expectations, and elevated them for whatever Daniel Mullins does next.

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[Very Minor Spoilers]
In under 15 hours, I have 100� this game, and despite the short play time, this was one of the best experiences that I've had this year in gaming.

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Tails of Iron is beautiful game about a young Rat King restoring his kingdom and seeking justice for its destruction, full of excellent direct and environmental storytelling, fun map exploration and progression, with difficult and satisfying to master combat.
As the game starts, with your character, Prince Redji, preparing to take the crown of the rat kingdom from his father and become king himself, yet a dropkick comes down flying in as the coronation happens, as the Vile Frogs come crashing in like a storm and ransacking the kingdom. Within this moment the game grinds you down to zero, spikes the difficulty, and with the destruction of the Rat kingdom with literal burning, murdering and pillaging by the Frogs.
After this passes, You have to build yourself back up, thru mastering the combat and exploring every nook and cranny of the world for the best gear, and undertake quests and jobs, so that thru your efforts, you restore the Kingdom back to full power and prosperity, and seek justice for your fellow ratkin.
The gameplay, exploration, and storytelling are all harmonious, with every action and quest you take, feeling like the next part of the tale is being told, which, literally narrated by the magnificent Doug Cockle, voice of Geralt of Rivia (from the Witcher Series). The narrator thruout the entire game, keeps us tied to the challenges we and Redji faces, ever present in a style the reminds me of Supergiant's Bastion and Hades.
IMO, souls-like is an incorrect tag for this game, although, please don't be fooled by first impressions. Admittedly, the combat in this game many of the souls game tropes, stamina based combat, blocking, shield parrys, dodging, one handed and two handed weapons, an estus flask, grim-dark fantasy environments, brutal violence, and tons of swordplay. HOWEVER, the combat flow has more in line of the Batman: Arkham series and that combat system. Enemy design is excellent, with clear and reliable telegraphing in the animations and design, as well as on screen UI element that displays if the attack can be parried, blocked, or must be avoided.
Every single combat encounter is GOOD, and builds upon the last, but the initial combat sequences deceptively show how simple the system is, hiding the complexity of it, as the entirety of the rest of the game will quickly show. I cannot remember the last game that made me so engaged with almost every single combat encounter, having to think strategically and reflexively about each fight. I genuinely came to really love this combat system, but I did struggle with it in the beginning hours.

A few gripes: The combat has a great difficulty curve, until you hit the plateau near the end of the game, which is partly due to the enemy variety starting to slightly stagnate, and is partly due to my second gripe; A "Secret" 1-handed weapon, that completely negates every other option for the 1 handed items, unfortunately making every 1 handed item from that point feel like I was only finding all the weapons from that point just to finish the Achievement requiring them; The flute noise for the Rats is cute, and very close the squeaks rats actually make, but they hurt my ears, and unfortunately cause ear ringing for me (A patch for the game, allows for the NPC flute noises to be disabled); the checkpoint benches do not restore health when used, which is a bold choice that I fully respect, but I am still annoyed by. while this is mitigated by many benches having a keg to refill your flask nearby, not all of them do, espicially when you would want them to; Some mild story gate keeping with artificial thresholds for a quest reward item, that require basically doing every side-quest available in an area in order to progress the story more; The weight system is neat, very much a souls-like idea. but it overall makes very little difference, at least as far as i could tell, so its more of just what clothes you want to wear for the journey. Particular resistances did help with certain fights, but whether it was heavy, medium, or light armor, it never made a difference.
The artwork is beautiful, the world feels vibrant and full, and is a joy to explore. The procedural restoration of your kingdom from the destruction it suffered, seeing the ruined and burning castle and village brought back, rebuilt and once more, full of denizens, the underground areas are full of dark and creepy caves and strange sewers, murky crypts, and some of the best Moles depicted in fiction outside of Redwall. The sound design is excellent and well thought out, and the score ranges from feeling minimalist at times, to making itself a cornerstone of many boss fights.

The pacing is excellent, and despite my own play time being less then 15 hours, I never felt as though the game was rushed, or unwanted in pushing me forward. At the conclusion of the story I was satisfied, and cleaning up for completion only took a few more hours beside that.

I fully recommend to anyone to play Tails of Iron. It is challenging, rewarding, gripping, and so satisfying to play, and it never outstays any welcome, if anything, its a fantastic tale of adventure and peril, with Geralt of Rivia as our storyteller, and I wish it didn't end so soon.

(EDIT 11/27/21 :FREE DLC DROP AND WE GET THE FINAL SECRET WITH THE LOCKED DOOR?!?!? LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

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