Recent reviews by morelmorrow

really enjoyed this game and in the middle of my second run!! I enjoyed red strings club and adjacent games (strange horticulture, coffee talk, etc) quite a lot and thus had high hopes that were not dashed. I loved the concept and was very interested in the premise of the game despite a personal dislike for irl tarot lol. I ended up being very satisfied by the story and characters! being able to pick different interpretations for the same situation with different cards and just different readings themselves lends a lot of replayability, as well as there being choices. I would have liked if some choices were less 'locked-in', for instance the romance partner options and some dialogue options meaning something very different than intended, but overall very fun. a lot of twists I did not see coming and was pleasantly surprised. I do agree that the last third of the game is quite different and becomes very political, but to me, the essence of the game was not at all compromised considering you have abundant opportunities to still chat with characters, conduct readings, make choices, etc. excited to see how my different deck and choices change my ending! if the concept of immortal space witches and playing with fate like a puppeteer intrigues you i'd say for sure give it a shot :)

i disagree with other reviews that suggest MEA is a standalone game, i think the original trilogy is vital to adding substance to something that in general is quite starving for it. i was pretty disappointed by this game in the wake of the trilogy. i get that there weren't 3 games to build strong characters, storylines, and relationships, but even the first ME game was better at establishing things and characters than MEA. in short, i think that this game adds nothing to the trilogy and really isn't worth the time unless you've got nothing else to play :(

the good: i LOVED the angara, a really interesting species (and jaal omg, beloved) with some cool lore. i also liked the jump-jet and increased mobility. the worlds were okay, i guess. some cool armor you could craft. also, it was nice that companions had a lot of quests, i just sadly didn't care for them too much as people :/

the bad: firstly, the decisions in this game very much lacked impact for me, and the importance felt forced when the choice was obvious. there was only one that gave me pause towards the end of the game, and even then it was just...meh. also, holy repetition. the process of going to every single planet and doing the same thing for a...mysterious outcome/purpose other than being able to say that you did (?) got old really fast. it was also super annoying that some quests require you to drop in on a planet for 5 seconds and then go to another one, then another one, etc. this was made all the more annoying by the blasted animations EVERY TIME you take off, land, go to a new system, omg. i was tearing my hair out, it takes so long for no reason. also, SAM's little weather comments every five seconds along with being bombarded by 'xyz wants to speak to you' every time you place a toe on the ship was super annoying. i think the email system was helpful for letting you know about new quests but imo the original trilogy not hand-holding you so much and letting you go talk to your companions when you actually wanted to lol was better. also, i really didn't care for any of the companions or crew except for jaal, who was arguably most important to the entire game's story (which i also wasn't very impressed with). my major gripes about the story is they were clearly trying to do something different by not continuing shep's story, but yet several concepts were repeated??? without spoiling anything, this genuinely felt like a reskin of some parts of the trilogy lol. same stuff, different galaxy apparently, which didn't come across as interesting to me, more like poor effort was applied in thinking of something unique. also, final thing - taking a massive speed reduction when you switch to 4WD in the nomad was ungodly annoying. i hated driving that thing around anytime i had to go up a hill or slight incline.

i wanted to complete it to see the story end, but ... yeah. not a fan and i just don't recommend it, but especially not if you haven't played the trilogy. there are several spoiler related bits and pieces that would make me argue this is not a good choice for a first play instead of the trilogy lol

one of my favorite and most memorable games of all time. the soundtrack, the story, it's all so unique and hits on every point. hard as hell at times, especially if you take a break and come back to it and forget who got skewered by who. but it feels really satisfying to figure things out! absolutely recommend!

overall, i'm sorry to say i don't recommend this game. it looked really interesting and cool, but to me it was a big letdown.

the positives: it's a gorgeous game. the setting is novel and interesting, and very pretty to look at. i think the voice acting is good as well.

the negatives: without spoiling anything, this game has a twist that i tend to generally dearly dislike in games, as 99% of the time it's done poorly and lacks emotional weight. when i started to pick up on the hints that's where this game was going, i lost a lot of interest - as i was way more invested in what i thought was the main story, but that quickly became more of a background story. i hoped that it would all come together and each story/revelation would have its appropriate weight and importance...and nope lol, it didn't. the story of the townsfolk was way more interesting to me, and while i thought it was interesting that you can choose your own interpretation of what happened, there were several things that were never explained or suggested and it just made the story seem weak to me (like the place, the incident that started all of this?! what ever happened there?? what happened to the wife??) and just slapping a 'who knows!' explanation on everything instead of just one or two things is a bit reminiscent of lazy storytelling to me. the MC's whole journey didn't draw me in at all, it just felt very lackluster. so not for me, i guess. i really don't have a problem with walking simulators in general, didn't have an issue with the lack of unique gameplay and fully went in happy with what it was supposed to be. but there are just a lot of games like this out there with a much better story imo, that feel more rewarding to finish

an absolute gem of an rpg, backed on kickstarter since day 1 and was not disappointed one bit. i will forever champion this series, it's so good and underrated, and MTAS was a really well executed sequel! over 100 hours of main story alone, continued hilarious dialogue, AMAZING voice acting(logan/fang please come to my house irl) & romance quests, MTAS knocked it out of the park. i really appreciated the incorporation of my time at portia's plot, and they really leaned into the overall world plot while very much leaning into the desert theme. it was very lovely to beautify and improve sandrock and see it change around you! i loved all the cute art you could find for your house, the building mechanics for the house, and the plot of the game itself. definitely had a lot of twists and turns i was not expecting!

i do have a few criticisms, as i hope that the devs will take into account player feedback for a hopeful third installment as they did for the sequel :) i experienced some balancing issues with leveling, i saw this mentioned in other reviews as well. got a lot of lvl 45-50 gear and ended the game at lvl 43, so was struggling a bit at the end unable to use proper weapons and gear etc. i also felt like certain mechanics became a bit obsolete compared to portia, like animal husbandry...only built the stable, had no need ever for anything else. i guess it's nice to have for players that want to build those things, but it would've been nice if it was more necessary. otherwise, i really recommend MTAS for anyone looking for a really good rpg with romance, and i'll be crossing my fingers for a third 'my time' game in a few years! had a blast :)

very adorable and atmospheric little game, i can't believe it's free! fun experience, cat part was a little janky but nothing unmanageable!

I'm playing my way through all of the ND games, and I suspect most people reading this review are too, regardless of reviews! But here are my thoughts anyway.

i had really high expectations for this one after glancing at the reviews, and i wasn't disappointed! really, really enjoyable installment :) the setting was wonderful, i loved all the different locations you could visit and the intricacies of the heerlijkheid. there was a great mix of historical vs new drama, and pretty good characters (though i have Thoughts on the villain choice/motivations). my one gripe is i do feel that there were a lot of math/numbers/sudoku-type puzzles in this one, just a lot of the same type of thing and i kept noticing that? but overall, really good, and going to a high spot on my list of ND titles!

I'm playing my way through all of the ND games, and I suspect most people reading this review are too, regardless of reviews! But here are my thoughts anyway.

I had saved this one for second-to-last on my list, as the book version is probably the one I remember the best out of all titles! I was really enjoying it up until the end, where there were some tedious puzzles that somewhat tainted the experience for me (looking at you, maze and magnet puzzles). however, the thematic setting is really good, and I enjoyed the characters/puzzles and research to do beforehand! it's definitely heavy on the back-and-forthing, and having to prepare the horse every time you want to leave/return gets reaaallly tedious after a while. I think the game would've been just fine with removing some of the repetitive chores you need to do, but alas. anyways, it's still definitely worth playing, and enjoyable overall!

I'm playing my way through all of the ND games, and I suspect most people reading this review are too, regardless of reviews! But here are my thoughts anyway.

labyrinth of lies is definitely going in my top 3 ND titles of all time! I really enjoyed it, and it probably had one of my favorite settings of all the titles I've played (though i'm very excited for SOD!) the underworld set was just so cool, and for the most part i really enjoyed the puzzles. there were some unexpectedly tough ones towards the end, but it was really fun! i enjoyed the characters and the plot, and don't really have any major criticisms.

I'm playing my way through all of the ND games, and I suspect most people reading this review are too, regardless of reviews! But here are my thoughts anyway.

well, I will say that I didn't find it as bad as I thought I would after reading numerous reviews, but it still wasn't anything to write home about. i'm not sure why the VA for nancy was changed, but it was an odd choice for me (both the switch and the particular choice of the new VA) also, nancy's personality just seemed very different?? and the wedge-driving between nancy and ned was bizarre and unappreciated. also, holy cutscene simulator. i love a good cutscene in ND games but i was seriously tapping my foot throughout most of the game waiting for the blathering to be over. i appreciated that you could skip dialogue in parts, but it was still very tedious. there was a lot of...tell, whereas other titles are really excellent at actually showing you what's going on and letting you (or nancy, in her vague way) coming to the conclusions yourself. speaking of conclusions, there were so few puzzles? it was a short game, but it's genuinely mostly cutscenes, which is so anti what ND games are.
the one major thing I didn't actually mind was the 3d/2d blend...there are titles i've played that have worse clunkiness/particularity with where you need to click to move around, i didn't think MIS was that bad in that aspect. i rfeally enjoyed the setting/environment design, the return of several reoccurring characters (except for how ned was treated!!!) and the new ones, albeit with predictable motive. i can really see a new era of ND games in this style, even though that's likely not happening.
definitely a pass for me in the hall of all-time greats, but that's ok. i think it would make a good beginner game as it's definitely on the simpler side.