Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 PS5 Review

 

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a Turn-Based RPG game was released in 2025 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC. 

It was developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive.

Before I begin reviewing the game, I wanted to talk about how much I love spending my time of playing the video games.

I got into with the platforming, fighting, racing, beat-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, hack n slash, FPS, and list of the genres goes on, but there's one of the genre which really changes the video game entirely that are felt different but giving us a new kinds of gaming experience to play, so that is an RPGs.

It's stands for Role-Playing Game where the titles are much heavily focused on story-based adventures with fully-designed open-world exploration, choice of character's classes for weapons and armors, in-game dialogue texts, inventories for maps and items, and of course going on the big adventure filled with many goal quests to complete and battling with the foes using turn-based or real-time combat to progress through the whole campaign is something that kept me interested to play the RPGs games.

It had the list of sub-genres starting from Turn-Based to Tactical-RPGs to Action-RPGs which each of these had different playstyle of RPGs system that kept the genre quite unique for video games.

I had a blast of playing the amazing titles starting from my gaming nostalgia to more recently played like The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Fire Emblem, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, Valkyria Chronicles, Nier Automata, Persona 5, and Elden Ring.  

These are the things that got me into playing an RPGs stuffs in which I love spending time of doing exploration for discoveries, leveling up the class's skills after battle, farming more currencies to shop for items and weapons, collecting materials for upgrades, and of course completing all list of quests to progress the long-lengthy story campaign is how much I love playing these kinds of genre that are story-based adventures.

Going back to this review, there's one of the game that had many people talked quite a lot since the game was first revealed back in 2024, which I believe they are a passionate fan of the RPGs in general are so much looking forward to playing the modern indie title that are inspired by JRPGs series like Final Fantasy and Persona in terms of open-world design and turn-based battle system, so that is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

It's a 2025's Turn-Based RPGs game had became quite popular among with RPGs fans which manages sold over 8 million units after the launch, as well as recieved numerous of gaming awards including game of the year 2025 and topped various publications lists of best games of 2025 by many gaming medias. 

It was being hailed for its narrative and themes, art direction, game direction, original soundtrack, gameplay, and performances had recieved universally acclaimed reception at the release.

So after I discovered the game's trailer, read the game's review, and watched the game awards show 2025 last year, I was fascinated to see how much indie game studio had to put-up their effort of creating a high-quality single-player based game are the biggest selling point for the modern gaming, which most of the AAA studios of western gaming publishers nowadays had failed to deliver the promise they originally intended, which is why the indie game studio are really good at making the original gaming projects that puts western gaming publishers and their AAA studios to its wall of shame. 

I decided to pick this copy up for my PS5 to see how this game really goes in terms of story narration, visual presentation, turn-based battle, and exploration, so could this game be a 9th-gen's turn-based RPGs masterpiece? lets find out and discover all the things on the review today.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

       

Presentation

The game set in a Belle Epoque-inspired world called Lumiere, a place where many people lived in the city which unfortunately their lifecycle won't last very long when the gommage hits the countdown to its new yearly number causing their existance instantly vanishes.

After the dark day of the gommage's new cycle, the group of Expedition 33 are set out their quest is to travel across a dangerous continent and preventing the mysterious entity known as the paintress from creating a new decending number of yearly execution cycle.

I say the opening story started out as heartbreaking tradgedy where all the people in the Lumiere spending their final moments before the new yearly cycle hits the countdown is where the entire popularion started to fade away from their existince, so I kinda liked the powerful opening scene is off with the great start to know exactly what was going on in the game's story, and then you have a team of party had agreed to go together for the journey on the mission is to not only just about destroying the paintress, but it's the yearly cycle that causes many existing people getting dissapeared in every 365 days which is why they go out on their adventure to fight for their life before the countdown hits the deadline. 

Aside with the openings, the rest of the story throughout the campaign is incredible because it is a well-written narrative that keeps you going in every chapters of story campaign, so I liked the balance of story-pacing that doesn't drag down the playthrough and it is not ridiculously long cutscenes to watch just got the pacing of the story campaign right which I enjoyed many parts of game's plot that are felt incredibly amazing.

I also liked the deeper bond between the members of the team had delivered really interesting conversation dialogue together during the night of the camp just adds up the character's development with early backstories and building-up friendship.

I say it had many great cast of characters in the game that are likable and recognisable throughout the story campaign, such as you have Gustave the engineer with a mechanical arm, his foster sister Maelle the youngest member of the group, Lune the scholar and mage, Sciel the farmer and teacher, and of course the other threes in later part of the chapter such as Verso the stranger, his hairy-white gestral friend Monoco, and Esquie the mythical creature who serves as their transportation across the mainland.

The game does have a villain such as Renoir the white-haired old man trying to prevent the teams of Expedition from being able to reach at the monolith where the paintress took place in.

The game's presentation is looking gorgeous for its themes and settings in the dark fantasy style of fictional France which I really liked the sceneries, the design, the landmarks, and the environmental features that are simular to the golden age era of French cultral history.

You have the locations such as Lumiere which is a fictional city concists of residential and commerical buildings, public squares and monumental structures featuring decorated facades, balconies and ornamental ironwork, bakeries, taverns, hotels, and market stalls.

The spring meadows is a calming area filled with rocky hills, sunlit greenery, and hidden shadows. 

The flying waters is a mystical underwater region where you can walk around freely like if they were on land and the whole atmosphere is akin to water including fish swimming around, air bubbles and jets, and number of aquatic plants.

The ancient sanctuary is a large maze-like place characterised by striking red tress, glowing blue lanterns, and a melancholic aesthetic.

The gestral village is a place filled with the bazaar, fighting arena, the performing stage, the unfinished casino area, and of course the chief's house.

The stone wave cliffs is a coastral region featuring towering weathered coastal cliffs, jagged rock formations, cliffside trails, tide caverns, and flooded buildings.

The forgotten battlefield is a spawling fort-like area littered with trench lines, old military weaponary, massive stone fortifications, and shipwrecks near a quarry.

The Monoco's station is a snowy vintage-inspired mountain train station featuring old rail tracks, vintage station infrastructure, and a train departing through snow and ice.

Overall, it has incredible story, likable characters, and gorgeous presentation themes.

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of the members of the Expedition 33 in 3rd-person perspective in both open-world exploration and turn-based battle, as your main goal is to being able to reach at the monolith to face the paintress, so in order to do that your party members requires to level it up their skills and abilities before you're fully prepared to face against the high-class enemies and bosses to able progress through the journey.

For general and exploration controls, push the left-stick control is to move character, where as the right-stick control is to rotate the camera, but you can also re-centre the camera position by pressing the right-thumbstick button.

You can able to toggle walk by pressing the left shoulder button to make the character move slowly, but pressing it again switches back to jogging, but holding the right-trigger button makes the character run faster.

You can switch your character by pressing the left thumbstick button to toggle any party members you want to play as during the exploration.

Press the cross button is to jump which are used for jumping on some platforms, and you can press the square button to interact things like obtain items or objects, opening door, activating stuff, and of course talking to NPCs for dialogue conversation.

Press the right shoulder button is to strike on enemies in close range which I will explain it for details later on the review.

You can access to expedition status menu by pressing the triangle button which displays character's health, small compass, and objectives on screen. 

You can also access to character's menu by pressing the option button to open up expedition menu, so this will allow you to check character status and level, manage inventory and equipment (such as weapons, armor and usable items), swap or remove members from your active party, check journal and lore for notes and collected logs, and view your current reserves of chroma elixirs.

You can view your map inventory by pressing the d-pad up button to display the map screen which tells you where you at and where you're heading to, so it also had red marker which displays main objective location.

You can take the break by pressing the d-pad down button to open up the camp which are used as resting place which I will explain it for details later on the review.   

For turn-based combat, you will have 4 party members on the screen to fight against the foes, so what the turn-based system actually works is that you and the opponents will have to take turns meaning that once your whole members of the party had finished their turns by using the action then it will switches to the opponents taking over their turns until they all finished which switches back to your whole party members. 

Each of the party members has health points displayed on the character's icons which indicating how much remaining health you had left and then it also has active points which requires to use actions such as skill attack and firing shot.  

The active points can be replensishes by gaining one each per-turns or performing multiple parrying on each enemy's melee or projectiles. 

In battle controls, you can select targets on enemies by pressing the left and right of left-stick control might help you to choose which types of enemies you wanted to fight on.   

The UI displays on the screen which gives you an option to select any of these commands such as cross button is to use melee attack which acts as an regular damage attack on the enemies as well as using it as the QTE action in which you will see the QTE command display on the screen meaning that you must complete the QTE sequence by pressing the button in the right time to gain a perfect damage attack on enemies. 

The square button is to use skills attack which requires the AP points meaning that your skills attack will consume your AP points, but it also allows your character to perform various of skill moves and magics. 

The triangle button is to access your items such as the red tint is to heal your health points, the green tint is to revive your fallen party members, and of course the blue tint is to grant 3 AP points to a target character, but use it wisely is because these have limited supply during the combat, so the only way to replensish these is to head over at the checkpoint flag to restore it. 

The circle button is to dodge many enemy's incoming attacks, so be sure to do it in the right timing as your enemy's projectiles or melee will get close to you.

Speaking of evading enemy's attacks, it is the first turn-based games to include the parrying system which allowing you to deflect various of enemy's incoming attacks. It can be used by pressing the right shoulder button to use parry when the enemy's melee or projectiles get closer to your range, so be sure to do it on right timing as soon as you hit the right shoulder button.

Having the multiple parrying is the quickest way to increase your AP points meaning that you don't have to stand there and wait for the turns to finish to gain 1 AP per-turns, so using the parrying will give you 2 or 3 more AP points to gain enough.

I also wanted to mention that after successfully parrying the enemy's melee or projectiles combos will allow you or your party members to perform the counterattack on enemies resulting a servere damage attack on these guys.

You can also perform gradiant counters when the enemies perform their own gradiant melee or projectiles, so the gradiant counters can be done by pressing the right trigger to use gradiant parrying when the gold icon displayed on screen during the slow-motion effect, so do it on the right timing as soon as you hit the right trigger will successfully performing a massive damage counter attack on enemies. 

You will also have a extra bar on the bottom of the screen which indicates an gradiant ability meaning that this will act as an ultimate attack, so you can charge them up during the combat through your party's actions, and they do not consume a normal turn when cast.

When the gradiant bar is fully filled up to 1 to 3 gradiant points, you can use these by pressing the right trigger then select any of gradiant attacks to use it will allow them to perform a strong special moves on enemies delivering a massive damage hit.

I also forgot to mention another control layout which is the aiming and shooting at the enemy's weak spots or shields, so you hold the left-trigger to ready aim while pushing the right-stick control is to freely aim around, then you just shoot it by pressing the right-trigger.

What it does is that when the enemy's shields are increases up to 8 or 10 shield icons, you can able to fire at them till the enemy's shields are all empty but remember firing your shot are consumed with AP points to keep you in mind otherwise you won't able to save all your AP points for your skill moves, so use it when its necessary to use it during the combat.

It can also work on enemy's weak spots which you will see an obivious shapes on them, so firing their weak spots delivers a big-firing damage hit.    

I say the controls system and turn-based combat are pretty outstanding is because it plays very simular to the classic-style JRPGs in terms of game design and battle system.

The UI layouts on combat battle are easier to navigate things which you just simply press any of the single buttons to access the skill moves or basic attack moves just makes the commands quite straight-forward.

I also wanted to praise the use of parrying and dodging system is because instead of your party members randomly doing automatically like from any of the earlier turn-based RPGs games, you just manually press the button to use parry and dodge which makes it a lot easier to not only just to deflect enemy's melee or projectiles but it also engages your counter attacks after successfully performing parrying as well as avoid taking damage when successfully dodging the enemy's incoming attacks.

It also gains more AP points per-parrying which also works really well in order to keep your party members more active with the skill moves frequently, so this is what I liked about having the manual button for parrying and dodging in turn-based RPGs title just really helps me to keep up with the battle.

I say they did a great job with the damage system depending on how effective your basic attack and skill moves are actually capable of delivering amount of damage hit points, so your basic attack does a decent amount of damage hit points where as your skill moves or gradiant attack does deliver a significent numbers of damage hit points if you successfully completing the QTE sequence perfectly without missing out all single button combination displayed on screen.

The enemy's A.I does a remarkable job with their attacking patterns which starts from their basic attack to their skill moves which I got to say is that these guys are not stupidly overspamming meaning that some of these enemy will use any kinds of attacks and skills differently which makes the battle feel more engaging to play.

What I liked about the gameplay design is the leveling up attributes, upgradable weapons, unlocking skill moves, and increasing enhancements.

Just like every of the turn-based RPGs games, it requires you to collect many of materials for weapons and enhancements as well as building up your character's level stats for attributes and skill moves.

The material items can be found on any locations in which you can obtain it from the trader who sells the various of items or something that been left on the ground somewhere, so once you have obtained it then you can head over to the camp to meet a faceless soul that grants you a two options such as upgrading your weapons and increase your enhancement points.

Having to upgrade your weapons increases your attack power meaning that once its been upgraded then your attack power will make your attacking system much stronger and severe, where as increasing your enhancements points will allow you or party members to equip more pictos meaning you will have more passive abilites to perform such as first-hit damage increase as an example.

Your character's stats can be leveled up by defeating many enemies and bosses, so once your stats is leveled up you can able head over to the checkpoint flag giving you a two options such as leveling up attributes and unlocking skill moves.

The attributes on each party member's stats will consist of strength, speed, health, defense, and luck, but it requires numerous of attribute points in order to increase their stats, so the more you add-up their stats then the stronger they become meaning that they are capable enough to go fight against the high-class enemies or bosses that are tough as f**k.

The skill tree has various of skill moves which requires a skill points to unlock these, so having to unlock those skill moves will allow you or party members to perform a new skill attacks or magics such as very high damage attack, mid-healing, cure status effects, using magical fire or ice elements, and etc.

I say I really loved the variarition of the skills and enhancements system which really helps the gameplay battle system keeps it going further and more when battling with the fully skilled enemies and bosses.                   

While the turn-based combat and leveling-up system are surely outstanding, I say I really liked the exploration in the single-player playthrough is because it had a overworld map is where you'll be exploring around to do a new discoveries where not only you can do a main story quest, but it also has various of side-quests given by NPCs and Gestrals across the world, so you will have requests missions and mini-game activities to participate which having to complete these task will reward you with the bonus items such as weapons, cosmetics, outfits, and others.

Then in the camp, you began to make relationship with your party members in dialogue conversation between them which are also rewards you with unlockable bonus such as leveled-up gradiant attacks, unique items, music records, and world exploration tools such as Equie's underwater diving ability. 

I also love spending time of encountering on enemies which motivates me to keep fighting with them till I gained enough levels, so that I can able to keep building up my character's stats to get stronger is something that I can enjoy playing the turn-based RPGs games.

The best part of the game is has to be a boss battles which I got to say it's f***ing amazing...no pun intended is because it had a various of epic bosses to fight against such as you have Eveque, Goblu, Sakapatate, Francois, Lampmaster, Dualiste, Stalact, Visages, Mask Keeper, Glissando, Sirene, Renoir, and of course the Printress.

These bosses are insanely does lot of madness stuff by throwing many projectiles at your face, swings lot of melees across at you, and of course spreading the deadly status effects that made you feel valunerable to fight is the reason why I had to rely on the parrying and dodging in the right timing is the only way to keep my party members staying alive as possible just adds-up the significent overall challenge.

While it's has a positive side which is splendid, but I wanted to share a one minor things that really missing in the game is mostly the map inventory for the location's standard level, so unlike the overworld-map exploration where it had a map inventory screen which tells you where you were and where you heading at which unfortunately you don't get to see it on the standard level of location meaning you had to start wondering around the areas to find a new place, so this adds up a bit confusion is because you didn't want to keep backtracking at the same area you been before which is why it's better to include the map inventory, so you don't keep end-up backtracking at the same place again.

So far, the whole single-player campaign goes really well which I am satisfied with the results doing such a fabulous job.

Overall, it has outstanding turn-based combat, fantastic story-quests, and epic boss battles.   

Graphics

The game's visual is stunningly pleasing for the 9th-gen machine thanks to unreal engine 5 had delivered a spectcular graphical features that made the whole game look visually beautiful.

The environmental settings has well-builted structures with many landmarks and buildings around are perfectly detailed that made these locations look stunningly appealing.

It had clean textures on surfaces with no rough edging around, the draw-distance is vastly detailed on the landscape side, it has nice color filtering around the scenery that adds-up a rich-vibes feel to it, there are some of the rendering objects has really nice reflection and glossiness, and of course the lighting and shadowing effects on many areas are perfectly intact.

I also wanted to praise the design of the overworld map that are totally zoomed-out on screen with top-down perspective simular to the classic turn-based RPGs games giving a dynamic view of exploration which I fully approved the design choice that made the open-world area look pretty amazing to see around. 

The character's animation are surely well captured throughout the cinematic scenes with great facial figures during the dialogue conversation and the movement feels less clunky and more responsive which they did a wonderful job of keeping these characters feel realistic throughout the story quest.

   

The base PS5 and XSX/S (X model) has two graphical options such as the performance mode and quality mode.

The performance mode runs on 1080p caps with 60fps may not have a sharp looking image, but resulted a much smoother pacing during the combat and exploration, where as the quality mode runs on 1440p and locks on 30fps which makes the image appeared to look less foggy and more sharper on the details, but it has few of the frame-stuttering during the heavy combat animation and some cinematic cutscenes.

The PS5 Pro on the other side has more advantages over the base PS5 with the better image clarity on the performance mode, as well as the better overall quality mode which runs on 4K upscaled at 30fps with improved ray-tracing enhancements such as shadow maps and sharper image clarity.

The XSX/S (S model) on other hand are slight downgrade limited to 1080p upscaled at 30fps with no 60fps performance mode available resulting a softer image quality overall and slower pacing combat.

The base PS5, PS5 Pro, and XSX/S (X model) is the recommended platform to play this title which unfortunately for those who owns the XSX/S (S model) may not going to enjoy the campaign with washed out resolution and lack of 60fps performance option.

Out of these two graphical options, the quality mode has beautiful image quality and detailed environments which is looking great on the 4K screen, where as the performance mode is actually plays better for the smoother combat gameplay.       

Overall, it has beautiful visual design, amazing open-world area, and well-captured animation. 

Music and Sounds

What I love about the turn-based RPGs as an genre are widely being the best known for having an excellent original soundtrack ranging from the likes of Final Fantasy 7, Chrono Trigger, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, and Persona 5 are the prime examples of how to create a memorable soundtrack that fits the cinematic feel of the game's story, battles, and settings. 

This game's soundtrack could be another level of masterclass which I adored the French-cultured orchestrated music just fits the style of the game's presentation really well filled with many excellent numbers of vocal songs and battle themes.

I concider these epic soundtrack of turn-based battle as my favourite part of the game such as  "In Lumiere's Name", "Sepenphare", "Gestral Merchant", "Dualliste", "Numbers the Hours", "Reverence", and "Rouge d'Iris", where as it shares with many great vocal songs such as "Alicia (Main Theme)", "Lumiere", "The Departure", and "Dechire la Toile" had capturing an emotional in-depth of game's cinematic moments that fits the scene perfectly well.

It was composed by Lorien Testard and sung by Alice Duport-Percier did such an fabulous job on the game's original score which I concidered it as the work of masterpiece.

The game does a spectcular job for its sound design filed with many atmospheric effects and background noises just surrounded everywhere in the areas, and I also liked the sharper noise of collision sounds especially using the parrying system just worked really effectively during the battles.

I say the game has brilliant cast of voice actors such as you have Charlie Cox as Gustave, Jennifer English as Maelle, Ben Starr as Verso, and Andy Serkis as Renoir did their role a job well done.

    

Overall, it has excellent soundtrack, spectcular sound design, and brilliant voice cast.

Special Features

The game has various of collectables such as journals, music records, haircuts, and costumes, and it also includes the new game plus for replayability.

Overall, a very good content. 

Advantages

Incredible story and likable characters

Gorgeous presentation themes

Outstanding turn-based combat

Fantastic story-quests

Epic boss battles

Beautiful visuals

Excellent soundtrack

Brilliant voice cast

Disadvantages

Lack of standard level's map causes some backtracking

Has frame-stuttering during heavy combat and some cutscenes

Final Verdict

Presentation 10/10 - incredible story, likable characters, and gorgeous presentation themes.

Gameplay 9.5/10 - outstanding turn-based combat, fantastic story-quests, and epic boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - beautiful visual design, amazing open-world area, and well-captured animation.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - excellent soundtrack, spectcular sound design, and brilliant voice cast.

Special Features 8/10 - various of collectables and includes new game plus.

Overall 9.5/10 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an outstanding indie title that deserves the same recognisation as the past turn-based RPGs games that we all know and love.

This could be another masterpiece in all thanks to the story and characters are all well-written and perfectly developed, it surely has a well-designed visuals, top-notch soundtrack, brilliantly performed voice acting, and of course the single-player quests and turn-based combat battle are quite entertaining to play is the reason to own this title that are done incredibly beautiful by the French game's developer.

I am really glad that the game had already won the awards from last year which is quite an achieving results for very passionate game development team that did their job pretty amazing, so this really proves that the indie gaming in general can able to make a better AAA single-player games than most of the western-published AAA studios cannot able to do their job right.  

This is a kind of the game that I do not regret playing it is because I described this game as the turn-based RPGs adventure has done the job right that are properly developed and fully well-executed delivers a full quality experience that I can easily recommend it to you all.   

The physical copy for PS5 are ranges £30 and more, where as the XSX/S are about £45 and more. The digital release for PS Store, Xbox Store, and Steam are cost around nearly £45.

Is the game highly recommended to play? the answer is absoultely 100% correct, this is the kind of turn-based RPGs game that the fans of the genre should must play this masterpiece and I can guarantee that you going to love this game. 

I was hoping that the development team should concider bringing this game to the Switch 2 in the near future, so that will be a lovely idea to have it playable on the portable system if they have a plenty time to work on the future console port.   

So thats being said, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a stunningly beautiful RPGs game out there and it is definite worth to pick this up and play it on your gaming platform.

 

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Top 5 Another Underrated Horror Games

 

I did covered my previous 5 list of underrated horror games that I've made it back last year, so if you haven't seen my last year blogpost of my 5 forgotten horror games then please check it out by clicking the link down below before proceeding to my next 5 horror hidden gems:

https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/top-5-underrated-horror-games.html 

Okay let's get going shall we? there are so many of obscure horror titles that not many mass audience had talked about it is due to lack of their interest or had not gained mainstream appeal which leaving these titles staying behind close doors.

As a fan of horror for video games, I just love discovering a niche titles that caught me an interest me to try these spooky and terrifying style of horror game that are actually decent to play but also harder to attract many mainstream gaming audience...well unless if you're one of those serious horror gaming fans are into with the small obscure titles.

So please switch out the night lights, then sit back, and now relax is because I'm going to begin my another list of 5 horror titles that could have given a enough credit it deserves and why is it worth checking it out as a today.

  

So without go further do, here is my another top 5 underrated horror games.

5 - Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel (PS5)

If you're familar with the survival-horror FPS like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard as an best example for delivering a spectcular horrorfest of scare factor level, non-stop terrifying villains, and trying to survive through the horrific places filled with biohazarous creature is something to appericate the modern horror gaming.

There's one of the indie game originated from Brazil that I would be really interested in playing any of horror game that was created by an international game developers, so that is Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel.

It is a 2022's indie survival-horror FPS game developed by Pulsatrix Studios was released for platforms such as PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, and PC.

The game takes place in Brazil, as you take control of journalist named Roberto Leite Lopes went on to investigating a series of mysterious disapperarences and rumored paranormal activities tied to the St Dinfna Hotel.

The game plays just like any of the survival-horror FPS using an assortment of tools and weapons to progress through the campaign, solving puzzles and defeating the various supernatrual monsters which infest the hotel.

What made the game quite unique to play is giving an ability to use a special camera which allows him to discover through time and parallel dimensions, so this lens reveals hidden objects, past events, and secret pathways.

Even though the game had suffered with the stiff looking visuals and has confusing backtracking design may put-off many players, but I don't think it's gonna ruin your experience is because this game has its own charm for its classic feel of survival horror style such as engaging head-scratching puzzles, non-linear exploration, strong atmosphere design, and of course pretty slick-trick camera mechanic is something to adore this title that are actually decent.

I say the game's story is actually not bad but not quite the top-notch level, so I'm pretty sure you guys may going to like the mix of supense and terror plot throughout the single-player playthrough, and I also adored the presentation design choice of dark environmental settings and atmospheres are quite acceptable to fit the style for the small indie horror title.  

Despite the average reception from the gaming media which is why it felt more like a low-budget indie horror title, but I think this game is still worth checking it out is because Fobia: St Dinfna Hotel is a niche horror game has its own right.

4 - Signalis (PS4) 

   

As the fan of the classic horror games starting from the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the major examples of defining the survival horror genre that helped the series popularity throughout the decade.

The success of these landmark franchise had inspired many AAA and indie developers to create their own title in a style of classic horror games and it also motivates many gaming fans to be interested in collecting horror games to play on their system. 

As I loved playing horror games, I've spend time browsing through online stores and local shops in a search for a titles that would attract me to play it on my gaming system up until I found Signalis.

It's a 2022's indie survival horror game developed by rose-engine was released for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC.

The game set in the retrofuturist world where you take control of ship technician unit named Elster awakens in the wreck of her crashed scout shuttle, as she went out searching for her lost partner in a surreal dystopian future.

Like any of classic horror games, I like roaming around the corridors, rooms, and floors where I need to find a way out of these nightmarish places that filled with numerous of encounters nearby and I also liked solving the puzzles in many areas to obtain key items that leads to new path is what made me kept playing.

I wanted to praise the great balance of survival and combat system which gives you a choice whether if you want to skip through the areas without fighting the enemies back just for saving up some ammunition and health packs or fight them if you think its necessary to do it with no choice whatsoever which could lead you wasting all your two important things, so this is how much I love playing a horror game with small limited items.

The presentation design itself has the darker tone of settings are heavily inspired by the likes of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch horror films in terms of psychological themes that gathers around between the narrative and sequences which depicts many weird illusion and dark atmospheres. 

The art visuals has the mix of anime-drawn technique and old-school pixeled-style design felt like it really close to the PS1 era in terms of heavy and rough environmental areas with few numbers of lighting and shades effects are just really adds the game's darker atmosphere, and I also liked the way the enemy's design tends to be a blocky figure just like you normally see it from the PS1 horror games where all the character's animation are all in flat-shaded which in fact this adds up a creepiness when they walk slowly or run towards at you really proves that the game are in fact terrifying.

I say Signalis is a remarkable indie-horror title that are just as good as the other classic survival-horror inspired titles, so it should not be ignored which is why you must concider checking this hidden gem out if you love playing this type of horror game. 

3 - Tormented Souls (PS4)

Speaking of classic horror-style genre, remember how terrifying those games in the 90s really are that delivers the nightmarish of horror atmospheres which shook the gaming worlds with the gruesome gory effects, multiples of death sequences, fighting for the survival, unexpected jumpscares, and uncovering the dark secrets is what made it quite popular back in the old-days of 90s gaming era.

Going forward to the modern-day era of gaming, there are many indie gaming developers wanting to create their own title was inspired by the likes of classic-horror games, so it was design to appeal for those who grew up playing the old-school horror title from the past that really haunts their childhood which is why it got me really interested to play the indie horror game, so that is Tormented Souls.

It's a 2021's survival horror game developed by Dual Effect & Abstract Digital was released for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC.

The game starts out with the young woman named Caroline Walker had discovered the unknown letter from the Wildberger Hospital, which has the photo of the two mysterious twin girls are likely being missing in the mansion. She then headed to the mansion to investigate the situation and find the two girls that are missing in the mansion. 

They did a good job of re-creating the classic horror elements into a horrifying experiences where it had the intensity level of scare factor aspects in the game. 

Stuff like you'll be walking into the dark areas where the monsters giving you an unexpecting surprise and they'll move violently towards you with a severe damaging attack, so you'll be needing to use your weapons in order to fight them back or using the lighter to prevent getting caught slaughtered in dark areas, but be careful these enemy's A.Is are aggressively smart enough to catch you if you get really close to them or they'll see you in mid-range distance.

I also liked the concept design of the enemy monsters are kinda gives me a H.P Lovecraft's aesthetics to it starting from a creature sat on the wheelchair armed with claws to the legless deformed crawlers, then the tall-hulking walker with rusted blades attached to their arms to the big husky robot with hazmat suit armed with giant hammers are outright f***ing terrifying on their design. 

The graphics in the entire game are looking spectacular for the modern gaming platform because I really liked the way they improved upon with the lighting settings and environmental design which is so much cleaner and detailed which quite came close to games like Capcom's Resident Evil 2002's remake.

The game shares with really good puzzle solving just like you're expected from the classic-horror games from the past that keeps you focused on puzzle parts in each rooms which rewards you with the key items or objects that can leads you to next area.

Even though the fixed-camera perspective with tank-controls movement wasn't really designed for modern players may find the game quite fraustrating, but thankfully it had an option to use a modernised control scheme which I find the 360s degree movement on the left stick control tends to be quite easier to control may able to help them to play the game without the hassle. 

Tormented Souls is a good game described as a true love letter to 90's classic survival horror genres that we all know and love, so the fans of the horror will not miss this gem out.  

2. Dino Crisis (Dreamcast)

We all know Capcom's flagship franchise like Resident Evil is one major example of how to create a survival horror experience into a masterpiece art, so starting from the first debut title of RE1 was commerically and critically successful at the launch release that led to the creation of the series and then the second installiment title of RE2 are also critically and commerically praised which improves upon the predecessor and widely listed as one of the greatest game ever made.

Due to success of first two Resident Evil games that helped popularising the genre of horror in video games, a creator behind the successful series went on creating a new IP of horror game that are different from the previous work, so that is Dino Crisis.

It's a 1999's survival-horror game developed by Capcom was released for PS1, Dreamcast, and PC. It was described as when Resident Evil meets Jurassic Park, as the game set in the Ibis lsland where the research facility took place.    

It follows a special operations agent named Regina and her team as they infiltrate a remote facility to capture a scientist is only to find the complex overrun by prehistoric dinosaurs.

The game plays just like you're expecting from the Capcom's previous horror series with same tank-controls, similar inventory screen, and of course the fixed-camera angle.

The puzzle systems are also similar, but rather than finding the key to unlock the doors, there are bunch of security doors blocked by the security locking system which means that you must rely on combining code discs and input discs to decipher and hack digital disk key security doors, so this makes the game quite unique which I liked the idea of using the code discs to type the correct passcode to validate the security door system just makes the puzzle elements quite fascinating to play.  

What made the game quite different from the Capcom's flagship horror series is that they wanted to create a fearsome terror that was designed to have more consistant fright with the dinosaurs being more intelligent and quick making them able to chase the player room to room, so this adds-up a high level of scare factor that you'll be chased-off by a primal beast that are aggressive and imitating throughout the areas just makes it really frightening your ass off.

The game also made improvements on graphic technologies using the 3D engine with real-time environments, as opposed to the Resident Evil's pre-rendered backgrounds, which enables a better cinematic action and more dramatic character depictions, as well as adding a detailed environments to make the game's visuals look appealing and realistic.

 

While the game are also had solid reception and decent commerical sale along with the 2001's sequel like Dino Crisis 2 for PS1 had similar praises as the predecessor, it was being overshadowed by the Capcom's Resident Evil series still remains more popular and had a massive fan community which left Dino Crisis series not being attacted enough to it's new audience.

It was also completely destroyed by third installiment like Dino Crisis 3 for Xbox Original didn't deliver anything justice which led the discontinuation of the series that are once good but went fell apart at the end meaning we never get to see the 4th title a light of the day.

It's a shame is because I love Dino Crisis which is criminally underrated as a today standards, so I was hoping that this series should deserve a second chance if Capcom were concidering to be interested to revive the long-gone series in near future.

1. Deep Fear (Saturn)

 

Due to popularity of Capcom's Resident Evil had inspired many game developers went to create their own horror games, so that's why we had SEGA creating a successful light-gun shooter like The House of the Dead where you had a light-gun controller as a weapon to shoot down a horde of zombies on the screen which was a bloody-fun horror shooter back in the 90s.

There's one of the game that I didn't really know SEGA had already made a survival-horror title for SEGA Saturn, so that is Deep Fear.

It's a 1998's survival-horror game developed by System Sacom was released exclusivity for SEGA Saturn.      

The game set on the underwater big table research facility in the pacific ocean, as the game begins the submarine delivers a capsule to the base which recently fell out from space, but unfortnately the submarine crashes into the facility causing the capsule that carries a virus or parasite cell to break off spreading across the station infecting many human crew members and animals transformed into a dangerous creatures.

You take control of John Mayor, an ex-navy seal and rescue worker, must explore the base, fix critical systems, and rescue survivors.

I believe the game took inspiration from the likes of 1982's sci-fi horror films like John Capenter's The Thing in terms of narration and monster design which I adored these concepts that focuses on not only just fighting for the survival but also creating a large terrifying creatures that are mencing and deadly.

What made the game quite interesting is the game's design and mechanics which has oxygen level system that you'll be needing these to keep you protected from unsafe areas such as the room filled with underwater or carbon dioxide that depletes faster, so this really adds the fear and tensivity in a searching for the room-oxygen/respirator system.

I say the presentation design is pretty decent for its atmospheric settings of underwater facility that are incredibly self-isolated in many areas and being in the 300 meters underwater which creating claustrophobic and tense vibe to prove that what is like to be stuck inside the underwater facility for the rest of the life is genunely quite scary to deal with fighting creatures and finding way of escaping from the horrific place, and I also find the transformation of human being formed into a monster are also quite disturbing to watch especially being on SEGA 32-bit machine.

The game's story is actually not bad well even though the voice acting has pretty awkward dialogue, I say I like the plot of the accidential outbreak had occured in the underwater facility and uses the pre-rendered CGI cutscenes just adds-up a game's charm.    

The gameplay is quite enjoyable filled with many fun puzzles to solve, has many rooms to uncover the mysteries behind the outbreak, and of course the great segments throughout the areas is something to adore this game.

Sadly the game is remain forgotten is due to being released in the same year as the Saturn's lifespan had ended the production as in 1998 making it the final game ever released in Europe and also leaving the US version been unreleased is the reason why it suffered with the poor commerical sales that leaves the game closed behind doors. 

It also gained cult-following among with SEGA Saturn's fans had enjoyed the niche horror title that are actually pretty good, so it may be difficult to search for european copy which is downright expensive is due to rarity of item unless you may want to go for a cheaper option like the Japanese import copy which are also English friendly for spoken dialogue and menus & UI.

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Tekken 8 PS5 Review

 

Tekken 8 is a 3D Fighting Game which was released in 2024 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC. It was developed and published by Bandai Namco and it is also a 8th main installment in the series.

Before I begin reviewing this game, I wanted to talk about my previous experience on earlier Tekken titles starting with the series first debut game such as Tekken.

It is a 1994's 3D Fighting Game originally for Arcade and later ported to PS1 in 1995, and it was designed by a creator who previously worked at SEGA as a game's designer for 1993's 3D Fighting Game title such as Virtua fighter.

As the game finally launched on home console system in 1995, it gained popularity and eventually became a PS1's best-seller list based on copies sold, even quickly supassing its two fighting game rivals such as SEGA's Virtua Fighter and Tamsoft's Battle Arena Toshinden.

As the game was well-recieved by gaming critics, my thoughts on first debut title were rather mixed by modern standard for its clunky movement feel heavy and slow to control and has severely dated visuals that do not match the 3D arenas, but on other hand you had to give the game a credit for introducing a 4-button fighting system, smooth performance, and has great numbers of rosters to play which became a thing for earlier 3D fighting game back then.

Then they later made a follow-up title with Tekken 2 was released in 1995 for Arcade and later ported to PS1 in 1996, which features more massive roster, robust game modes, and improved gameplay mechanics like back-rolls, side-tumbles, unique throw counters, and distinct mid-level attacks.

The game is also commerically and critical praise which vastly improved upon the predecessor which I can agree with the things that got it right, but it does had the few issues like unbalanced roster possess overpowered moves and combo that can make competitive play fraustrating and the AI system on arcade mode can be aggressive and brutal especially during the final battle, but atleast its an improvement over the original.

Then they later bought another installiment with Tekken 3 was released in 1997 for Arcade and later ported to PS1 in 1998, which end-up became an instant hit at launch release selling over 8.36 million copies worldwide making it the PS1's 5th best-selling title and has been citied as one of the greatest fighting game of all-time list, as the game was critically praised for its fluid movement with easy to pull-off combo system, has iconic roster to choose, high-quality visuals, and of course the overall package of content and modes which really supasses the previous twos entries, so If I wanted to play a 3D Fighting Game for PS1 that are aged better and has tons of replayabilities then the answer is definitely Tekken 3 all the way.

After I had played the first threes in the series, I never had a chance to play the later installiment such as Tekken 4 and 5 for PS2, Tekken 6 for PS3 and X360, and of course Tekken 7 for PS4 and XBONE which I haven't payed much attention to these games yet, but I did also hear a positive things from the fighting game communities which many fans had said that the Tekken 5 on PS2 is their favourite game on the series in regards of return to form for the franchise fixing many divisive elements introduced in Tekken 4 and also been citied as the best PS2 fighting game on the libaries, where as the Tekken 7 became popular in the competitive scene and also supassing the predecessor such as Tekken 6 in terms of new fighting system elements and has better competitive battles which is why it sold over 12 million copies worldwide making it a highest selling title on the series.   

There are another quite interesting spin-offs titles which I also played these like Tekken Tag Tournament for PS2 was released in 2000, which introduces a 2 on 2 tag-team battle mechanic allowing players to switch fighters during the battle, so the game is also well-recieved at the release which I really liked the idea of having a 2's against 2's on the fighting arena just works really well for the fighting game genre, where as the 2011's follow-up title like Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for PS3, X360, and Wii U were also has similar praises for deep mechanics, stable online play, and great presentation, but sadly it suffered with the low sales in comparsion with the predecessor, so to be honest I kinda much perfered this game over the 2000's original game which it might be sounded like my unpopular opinion to you guys is because I actually enjoyed TTT2 better for its deeper fighting controls, has bigger roster, and more core match setup.  

Then I finally had a chance to going back to this fighting game series once again with the 8th installiment title such as Tekken 8 for PS5.

I heard many of fighting game fans have said that this could be another top-tier entry next to games like Tekken 3, 5, and 7 in terms of content quality, refined mechanics, and competitive matches which is the reason why I decided to pick this copy up to see if it's anything good, but the answer is can it be another best fighting game in series entry? let's find out how Tekken 8 really delivers.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The story takes place 6 months after the events of Tekken 7, as it follows Jin Kazama returns to put an end to his father Kazuya Mishima's reign of terror on the planet.

After he suffers a heavy defeat and his loss of devil gene ability, he then continues to go on his journey by taking part in the 8th King of Iron Fist Tournament with the help of his allies including his love interest Ling Xiaoyu, his cousin Asuka Kazama, and his uncle Lars Alexandersson joins him on the mission, while also returning to his childhood home in which he was formerly raised by his mother Jun Kazama to unlock the hidden secrets of the Kazama bloodline.

I heard many of you may find the story either enjoyable or nonsensical depending on whether you liked or not on how the story writing and pacing really goes, so to me I had no issues with the whole campaign story is because I really liked the story involving the confrontation between Jin and Kazuya are off to good start with the epic fight sequence at the start of the prologue as well as the mid-chapters part with different characters to play in some sections which keeps the game's story going.   

The game has great numbers of base character rosters such as Jin Kazama, Kazuya Mishima, Jun Kazama, Asuka Kazama, Ling Xiaoyu, Hworang, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, Marshall Law, Leroy Smith, Leo, Reina, Steve Fox, Shaheen, Zafina, Yoshimitsu, Azucena Ortiz, King, Kuma, Panda, and many more playable fighters that are actually decent numbers to play.

The game also has a DLCs rosters like Heihachi Mishima, Miary Zo, Anna Williams, Lidia Sobieska, Eddy Gordo, Bob, and of course the 3rd-party guest that I did not expect to be in the fighting game like Clive Rosfield from Square Enix's Final Fantasy 16 seems to be an interesting choice as Tekken's guest fighter.   

We needed to talk about how was the game's presentation really looked in terms of menu screen design and stage arena settings.

Remember back then how the menu screen really looked in previous entry like Tekken 3, 5, T.T 1 and T.T 2 has flashy logo, big large fonts, nice UI navigation, and cool background that made the whole thing really appealing to look at the screen, but going back to this which is not as quite cool which I find these tiny fonts are pretty small and thin in comparsion and then you have a UI icons on bottom of the screen which are also quite small too which really made me miss the old-school menus screen from the past Tekken games, so I wish they could have given an option to change the size and fonts of the whole screen to make it look better.

To be fair, I really liked having the fighter appeared on the background menu screen staring directly at you with their serious expression on their face is the only thing that I finding it quite badass, so you can also change the background menu screen of the characters that you like the most from the option menu to suit your menu screen preference.

I wanted to praise the character selection screen which has the animated poses of character appeared on left or right-side screen and of course these character selection boxes on the middle of the screen are also looked quite good.                

Heading to the stage arena settings are actually pretty looked amazing in many playable stages which they really nailed the feel of the series vibes including blue-caged tournament arena with bright stadium lights, the hot-tropical beach side, the deck of a large luxury boat with full of pool and lounge, the massive gladiatorial arena of roman coliseum, the posh looking palace with set of lavish room, the mount temple has mysterious vibes of settings, the extraordinary set of farm with incredible landscapes, the enormous hangar filled with aircraft base and control centers, the large city square with tall buildings area, and of course the mountainous forrests with shallow pool of water and has gigantic tree trunk. 

Overall, it has decent main story, great cast of characters, and has amazing stage presentation.

Gameplay

The game has several of game modes to play which includes the story mode, arcade mode, versus mode, training mode, and of course the Tekken Ball mode.

The game has 2 seperate story modes such as main story titled the dark awakens and the side story titled unforgettable echoes, and of course 2 arcade modes such as character episodes and arcade quests.

The main story focusing on the epic conflict between Jin Kazama and his father Kazuya Mishima, where as the side story explains Heihachi Mishima's survival.

The arcade modes has character episodes which is basically an ladder of arcade matches, where as the arcade quests is a offline side story mode where you take control of your customed avatars and entering the gaming tournaments in aiming to become Tekken's best player.

The versus mode is a 1 on 1 match which includes both offline and online battle where the player and the opponent must fight each other at the best of rounds.

The training mode is a learning sparring practice where you must learn all the basic and advanced fighting moves to improve your fighting playability.

Finally the game has the mini game called Tekken Ball mode where the player and the opponent must fight each other by using the beach ball as a fighting weapon. 

On the 1 on 1 battle, the player and the opponent must fight each other at the best of rounds which means that one of them must win the match in each rounds, so the higher the rounds they got will declare their victory.

On fighting gameplay screen, you'll see the health bar and gauge meter on top of the screen which indicates how much player remaining health they have left and how much their gauge meter are filled up which I will explain these for later on the review, so lets start with the basic controls.

You move the character with the d-pad button or left-stick control, so moving forward or back with the left and right of the left-stick control or d-pad button, then you can dash forward or backward by tapping the left or right twice of left-stick control or d-pad button.

You can crouch by holding down of the left-stick control or d-pad button, as well as do sidestep by tapping up or down of the left-stick control or d-pad button.

Then you'll have 4-button controls where each button corresponds to a specific limb of your character such as square button for left punch, triangle button for right punch, cross button for left kick, and of course circle button for right kick.

You can block the opponent attacks by holding back the left-stick control or d-pad button, and you can also use grab and throw by pressing both square and cross button or triangle and circle button together to perform a throwing attack on your opponent. 

You can also open up the special style menus by pressing the left shoulder button which displays a simplified multi-button combination allowing your character to perform simple combo attacks.

When the gauge meter is fully filled up, then use the heat burst with the right shoulder button allowing your character to perform a striking attack.

When your health bar goes low, it will unlock rage arts which allowing your character to perform a severe special attack by pressing the right trigger.

I say the fighting control system is pretty solid which they really nailed the faithfulness of the well-known fighting system that the series was being famous for its button-mashing combo and stylish technique moves that are easier to pull-off many punches, kickes, and of course grab & throws.

The best thing about the fighting control system is the use of special style which is the simplified multi-button combination where you can able to pull-off a complex combo moves easily with a single-button inputs such as your speciality move, air combos, power crush, and low attacks/throws which is perfect for the beginners who prefered the simple fighting system.

I also wanted to praise the use of the heat burst and rage arts which delivers an epic sequence of deadly moves deals a spectcular damage attacks on the opponent is also quite satisfying to perform.

I also liked practicing a various of basics and advanced fighting moves throughout the training sessions  and challenge which I really enjoyed learning all straight-forward and complex combo hits, so these are the kinds of things that the players will spend time of practicing all the moves and combos in order to become an experienced Tekken player.

That being said, it feels fast-paced, responsive, and easy to pull-off many combos and special moves proving this title has done the fighting game everything right.      

The game has the excellent selection of game modes to play such as the story mode which I had a blast of playing these 2 seperate story campaign that do not dissapoint me is because it has really good pace of story cutscenes and in-game story matches that doesn't feel drag down the experience which I'm glad they done the game quite justice.

I also enjoyed 2 of the arcade modes like character modes which is just like every fighting games single-player mode with the 8 opponents to fight against and then you have arcade quests which is a offline single-player hub-world that acts as an interactive tutorial teaching beginners game mechanics and arcade culture though a custom avatar which I really spend time of visiting different local arcades and ranking up levels in order to enter the gaming tournaments.    

The game has 1 on 1 versus mode which is perfect for the local play if you have your friends or family joining in for couch competitive match, where as the online play lets you battle against the ranked players throughout the online matches.

I got to say I do really enjoy Tekken Ball match fooling around with the beach ball which is a pretty fun game to play.   

Overall, it has solid fighting controls system and excellent game modes.

Graphics

The game's visuals are looking so spectcular utilzing with Unreal Engine 5 showcasing the 9th-gen powerhouse which delivers an amazing graphical details in many areas of stages with crispy textures on wall and surfaces, fluid water reflections, bloomy lighting and shady shadow effects, and of course the falling particles.

I also liked the detail on draw-distance displaying a nice landscape view with in-depth environments and settings are looking quite outstanding and the foreground arena stage has the great use of camera-rotation system which circulating around the stage itself.

I say the character's animation is damn near impressive with every details on facial and body movement just appears to be look quite remarkable in many ways, so their lip-syncing dialogue is dead-on intact during cutscenes, their body figure feels responsive for their fighting style, and their overall character's design is absoultely appealing that their appearence is just as recogniable as we all remembered them from the previous entries of the series.

I got to say that I really liked the stylish effects of the collision hit detection during the combos and moves which made this fighting game appears to be fast and flashy throughout the battles.

The game's performance on all platforms had ran smoothly with full 60fps of 1440p resolution just delivers an magnificent result which I am happy to say that the Tekken 8 is got to be the smoothest fighting game for the 9th-gen machine.

While both of PS5 and XSX/S (X model) has significent visual overall, the XSX/S (S model) however uses a much lower dynamic resolution of 1080p and had missing few of the graphical details which made the visuals feel softer and lighter in comparsion, but thankfully it ran a consistant 60fps with no signs of dropdowns whatsoever which seems to be a good news for those who had XSX/S (S model) may able to enjoy the fast-paced fighting game.

     

Overall, it has spectcular graphical environments, remarkable character's animation, and smooth performance.

Music and Sounds

The game has wicked numbers of original soundtrack that made the players feel pumped up for brawling action, so it has the varieties of electronic and rock music that really fits the style of fighting game such as "The Decisive Battle", "Neo City", "Yakushima", "Fallen Destiny", and "Midnight Siege" are the perfect choices for the fighting stage arena. 

It was composed by mifumei and the rest of the Bandai Namco's sound team did a splendid job on their original score, where as the song such as "My Last Stand" was sang by Robbie Wyckoff and "Mastery" was performed by The Last Rockstars are also quite decent to listen.

The sound effects in this game are sure fantastic for its stage environmental sounds with great use of background noises and atmospheric effects, and I got to love the collision noises of combo hits in every punches and kickes are well intacted.

The character's voice acting in this game are very good with the mix of English and International speaking dialogue throughout the cutscenes.    

Overall, it has wicked soundtrack, fantastic sound design, and very good voice acting.

Special Features

The game has in-game unlockable cutscenes and illustrations on gallery, as well as the items such as alternative character outfits, titles, and profile customisation panels.

It also has season pass which lets you unlock paid DLCs content such as more playable rosters and stages, but unfortnately the each of the season pass is stupidly over priced which is cost around between £25 or £33 so having to pay all 3 season passes together which is nearly £95 just sounded quite total kill.

I also hated the idea of having the microtransaction in video games where you had to pay the money to add more Tekken coins are used for buying custom costumes, avatar items, and other cosmetic add-ons from the in-game shop. 

Overall, it does have a good content but not a good idea to add the shady additional monetisation.

 

Advantages

Decent main story

Great fighting rosters

Amazing stage presentation

Solid fighting controls system

Excellent game modes

Cool customisation 

Smooth visual performance

Wicked soundtrack

Disadvantages

Bland main menu's U.I Icon and Fonts

Awful post-Launch's microtransaction 

Near expensive season pass

 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent main story, great cast of characters, and has amazing stage presentation.

Gameplay 9/10 - solid fighting controls system and excellent game modes.

Graphics 9/10 - spectcular graphical environments, remarkable character's animation, and smooth performance.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - wicked soundtrack, fantastic sound design, and very good voice acting.

Special Features 6.5/10 - unlockable gallery and paid DLCs.

Overall 9/10 - Tekken 8 is clearly being another top-tier title for the Tekken franchise which I am incredibly pleased to see this title had made a significent result for delivering an refinement fighting mechanics, lot of game modes to play including both arcade and versus, the story mode just done the job right, smooth game performance, and it was perfect for competitive online matches is something that I'm embracing the Bandai Namco's biggest fighting game series that deserves to be praised. 

Even though I concidered Tekken 3 as being my number 1 favourite on the series which helped the franchise's popularity, but this game could be on my another list of best Tekken games which I'm proudly to say this game really delivers the level of quality for 9th-gen's fighting game libaries that I never felt regret playing it whatsoever, so you can't go wrong with this recent Tekken game that are actually outstanding to play.      

The physical copies for both PS5 and XSX/S are cost around between £20 and £25, where as the digital releases for PS Store, Xbox Store, and Steam are cost about £35.

Is this game are highly recommended to all fighting game fans? absoultely you should go play this game is because this is clearly the best fighting game for the 9th-gen platforms that you do not want to miss it.

  

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God of War: Ragnarok PS5 Review

 

God of War: Ragnarok is a Action-Adventure game was released in 2022 for PS5 and PS4, and it was later ported to PC in 2024.

It was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by SONY Interactive Entertainment, and it is a sequel to 2018's original game titled as God of War.

Before I begin reviewing this game, I wanted to discuss my past experience and nostalgia on how I got started to get into with the SONY's landmark franchise.

At the beginning of summer 2011 when I had the PS3 as my very first SONY's gaming console on my birthday along with the bunch of PS3 games to play that will be my first time to experience the HD gaming.

After owning my PS3 and the games that I've obtained, I also continued to search for more libaries of PS3 games that I'm interested to buy it one from online store, so I've found God of War HD Collection which is a video game compliation packed with two titles such as God of War (2005) and God of War 2 (2007) as a HD remastered of these PS2 classics featuring fully-HD graphics with 720p resolution and 60 FPS, and of course the GOW 2's bonus materials previously featured on PS2's 2-disc release are now included in this HD collection.

I've been playing those games for a whole 2 weeks to see how it really goes and oh boy...I am incredibly satisfied with the results turned out to be such a masterpiece.

The game set in ancient greek mythology, the brutal battles takes place in ancient city of Athens, and of course you have a badass warrior went on hunting down many Olympian gods for bloody vengence is something that I've appericated the most thanks to epic storyline, unstoppable protagonist, button-mashing combat, has QTE and puzzles going on, appealing visuals and sound design, and of course the solid replayability that made these games quite memorable especially on HD collection are also welcoming for the series newcomers.

I also enjoyed the third and also the final title of the ancient greek era with the God of War 3 which I've descibed it as another fantastic sequel had give the series a justice in terms of story, visuals, and gameplay action makes it a worthy play. 

Then moving to the Norse mythology era with the 2018's PS4 masterpiece titled as God of War which completely taking into the new direction of game's presentation settings, storylines, characters, and of course the gameplay design and environmental visuals are completely giving a newer approach that are different from the series previous installiment.

I say it's another best title in the series, next to 2005-07's first twos original games, thanks to powerful storyline between father and son, well-builted gameplay design with solid combat system and many quests to explore, quality looking visuals showcasing PS4's powerhouse are strikingly beautiful, and has stronger casting roles delivering an amazing performance throughout the story campaign is something that made me appreciate the series even more.

Then finally the 2022's sequel for the PS5 console which is God of War: Ragnarok, a game that I'm ready to look forward playing another epic adventures of Kratos and BOY!!!! I mean his son Atreus you know I'm saying. 

As I previously enjoyed the 2018's original game which I concidered it as outstanding, you might be thinking this 2022's sequel may be just as good, right? well...almost but not quite on the same level as the predecessor which is why I am here to review this title to explain how was the story campaign going and does the combat and exploration doing the game's justice.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game set in the events after the 2018's original game, as it follows the journey of Kratos and his son Atreus went on their quest is to prevent a prophecy of their deaths and the end of the world, leading to a massive war against the Norse gods.

The story also involves Atreus seeking for his answers to find out his true identity as well as finding his way to stop Ragnarok from the apocalypse despite Kratos trying to protect his son from putting in dangerous risk, then you have Freya goes on battle for her revenge against them, then you have Odin and Thor arrive to threaten Kratos if the deal are rejected, and then finally traveling across all 9 realms to find recruiting alies like Tyr hoping he can help them way to lead the army against the Odin.

The story in the game is somewhat decent depending on what story chapters whether you like it or not, so I say the journey between father and son relationship are remained strong that keeps the story narrative going forward and I also liked the concept of having to go on their quest to find the way of saving the world from the creation of mass destruction like Ragnarok is something that I'm more interested on these storylines, where as I finding the paceing on Atreus's story quest are kinda mixed bag despite being a fine secondary protagonist which I had no problem, but on his story quest it's not simply quite the best is because I find the segments like Angraboda section and his quest in Asgard are kinda felt rushed out and scripted as opposed to Kratos story quest are slightly has the better segments in comparsion, so I wish they could have made Atreus's story quest done the job properly rather than falling flat.

The game has few of good characters which is mostly Kratos as an primary protagonist in the whole game which he still remains as an unstoppable fighter while he cares about his son safety to made sure to keep Atreus out of trouble.

Then you have everyone favourite BOY!!!! well I mean't Atreus which is now grown up as a teenage young lad who became a secondary character in the game, so even though he is portrayed as a douchebag throughout the story segment but he will eventually reduce his stubborness in later part is because what do you know it's Atreus being an Atreus which is a whole point of the game, so cut him some slack guys.    

The game also shares with some of the supporting cast of characters that are half good and some others are kinda forgetable, so you have the returning casts such as Freya the witch goddess, twin brothers Brok and Sindri, and talking headless Mimir are the only good ones that are remained likable in the game's story, where as the new character cast such as Angraboda and Thrud are kinda lackluster in comparsion is because I don't find them interesting throughout the story section which I described them as bland and also boring, and then you have Tyr is just basically a generic looking tall-giant dude which is nothing special about the character.

Lastly you have cast of villains that are incredibly decent like Odin the All-Father is absolute menacing antagonist with his act of being manipulative and charismatic mob-boss, then you have big fat Thor made his habit of being an alcoholic...yeah you could tell he had a huge gallon of beer pouring down on his big fat belly...enough said, and of course Heimdall the asshat with punchable face and insufferable personality that makes everyone loved to hate him making his eventual showdown quite entertaining fights in the game.

The game's presentation design are astoundingly solid for its cinematic aesthetics in terms of in-game cutscenes and sequences are quite look pleasing on the screen just feels really good to watch, so I highly recommend to set the graphic options to visual mode which I think having a 30fps is suitable for cinematic design wise.

I also liked the settings of the Norse mythologies themes which I find the cultrial of scandinavian history quite appealing in this game, so there are numerous of locations to discover such as you have Midgard which is a harsh and frozen wasteland with heavily iced-over lake of 9 navigable by wolf-drawn sled and scattered with deep snow drifts, looming realm towers, and stark Norse ruins.

Svartalfheim is a vibrant dwarven realm featuring a steaming wetlands, geysers, and lush green shores with heavy industrial elements like massive pitmines, canals, and the busting city of Nidavellir. 

Alfheim is a striking desert realm featuring sweeping sand dunes, massive canyons, and towering elven architecture. 

Vanaheim is a vast and lush realm which has dense jungles, vibrant red-leafed canopy trees, winding river deltas, and the open expanse of the crater.

Muspelheim is a fiery volcanic realm filled with glowing lava rivers, charred rock formations, and ashen cliffs. 

Nifheim is a frigid primordial landscape defined by towering ice formations, stark frozen fields, and sweeping mist.

Helheim is a frezzing realm which has bitter windswept icy landscape, towering dark stone architecture, and an oppressive somber atmosphere with giant spectral eagle Hraesvelgr and tear-ridden green mists. 

Asgard is a rugged fortified Nordic village surrounded by massive defensive walls, towering scaffoldings, and steep rocky terrain rather than overt pomp and splendor. 

Lastly the Jotunheim is a lush and warm landscape filled with coral reef-like plant life, stone trees, rivers, and glowing twlight skies.     

These 9 realms are filled with many manmade landmarks, village homes, caves, camping site, and many environmental structures and landscapes going on. 

Overall, it has decent story, good returning characters, and solid presentation design.

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of Kratos or Atreus (depending on story progression) in 3rd-person perspective of open-world environment, as your main goal is to complete all mission task being listed on the map and inventory menu.  

Push the left stick control is to move the character where as pressing the left-thumbstick button is to sprint, and pushing the right stick control is to rotate the camera which not only is to move camera around but also used for targeting cursor.

You can interact the stuff by pressing the circle button which are used for picking up items or objects, hitting the lever, and talking to NPCs for dialogue.

You can access to character and map menu by pressing the left or right touchpad button which you will see the character's status, weapons, and armours as well as displaying the map inventory screen which helps you navigate through the pinpoint and whereabouts.

For combat, press the right-shoulder button is to use light attack which deals a small melee damage where as the right-trigger button used as heavy attack which deals a strong melee damage.

You can also perform throwing attack by holding with the left-trigger button then press the right-shoulder or right-trigger button which uses for long-range attack, but you can also retrieve your axe-welding melee weapon by pressing the triangle button which returns back to your hand.

The left-shoulder button uses for not only just blocking the enemy's melee projectiles, but also uses for parrying system which allows you to deflect the enemy's incoming melee attack if you see the yellow-circle being highlighted on enemy, so be sure you press it on the right timing as they get close to your range.

You can also do dodge roll the enemy's incoming attack by tapping the cross button while holding the left or right of the left-stick control is to perform evade.

You will have Atreus aiding with you to fight against the enemies or destroying objects that required specific arrow type, so you will have to command him to shoot with his arrow by pressing the square button.

You can cycle the weapon by pressing the d-pad button allowing you to switch your weapons, as well as the Atreus's arrow types.

When your rage meter is fully filled-up on the left-side bottom of the screen, this will allow you to temporarily activate the spartian rage mode by pressing both left and right thumbstick button, so this will make your melee damage attack much stronger and severe on enemies which can only last until it ran out of your rage meter bar. 

So far, the default control scheme plays it brilliant which I had no issues with controlling these layouts for its movement and combat, so you can also reconfigure your gameplay and controls through the option menu which gives you a choice to remap your button layouts, change gameplay style, and other accessibilites to suit your playstyle.

We are now going to talk about the combat gameplay is because the franchise was best known for its mass-killing combos, deadly weapons, and tons of upgradable skills and abilities to learn is something that I'd like about God of War as a whole, so does this game managed to do a good job? absoultely which I'm gonna discuss my thoughts on the combat system and skills.

You have the axe act as an primary weapon where as the later twos like twin-blades and spear which you will eventually obtain it for later part of the game.

You'll start with the leviathan axe which is slow and strong weapon great for the ice element which can be thrown and recalled from any distance and it can also freezes enemies.

Then you have blade of chaos which is fast and wide-ranging weapon perfect for the fire element which excels at hitting hordes of enemies and it is also applies burning status effects and utilizes flame whiplash.

Lastly the draupir spear which is agile and ranged pressure weapon good for the wind element which can rapidly impales enemies with projectiles that can be detonated and it is also siphon enemy elemental magic to unleash amplified attacks.

What I liked about the combat system is the upgrade and skills for your weapons and armours, so each of them will have many attributes to improve on such as strength, defense, relics, cooldown, and luck which you will need to have these leveled up, so that you can able to fight against the high-class enemies that are tougher to fight during the battle.  

So in order to do that, you will need a certain requirements such as looting many required materials, gaining many XPs after defeating enemies and bosses or completing numerious of quests, and collecting all currencies.   

Once you gain all the stuffs that you need, you can head over to inventory screen which you will see the list of weapons and armours that the stuff you have equipped and others are not equipped, so these weapons can be upgraded if you have one of the required material which can be found on any area of each locations, so you can upgrade them through the blacksmith shop which Brok or Sindri will help you smithing your weapons which levels up your player's weapons will not only it increases your strengths for your attack power but also allows you to access your new fighting skills to unlock.

The fighting skills menu can be accessed to the inventory screen which gives you an option to choose which fighting moves you want to unlock, so it will also require XPs to unlock these skills.

This will make your fighting ability a lot easier to perform more combos and technique attacks delivering a solid damage on enemies and bosses.

Then you will have various of armours to select such as chest, wrists, and amulet which can be also upgraded through blacksmith shop which improves upon your defensive system reducing damage taken from the enemy melee or projectiles. 

You will also have the 4 of the enhancements stuff such as the enchantments are the boosters which grant you an specific bonuses such as your strength, defense, relics, cooldown, and luck.

The attachments allowing you to customise gear by adding distinct perks, special abilities, and stat boosts to your weapons and shields.  

The runic attacks is a special weapon skills has 2 slots to equip which allowing you to perform a various of light and heavy special weapon attacks such as winter's bite, mists of helheim, cyclone of chaos, tartarus rage, huldra charge, and the finger of ruin    

The relics uses to amplify or prolong your effects such as granting melee damage bonus, burst of rage, push enemies back with force, and of course creating a shockwave to stun enemies.  

These upgrades, skills, and enhancements that I've mentioned above really adds-up your benefits such as reduces your damage taken from the enemy's melee or projectiles, increased power for stronger damage attack, and also faster cooldown for your runic attack, relics, and companions to recharge. 

I say these combat gameplay plays it really amazing throughout the battle with new skills to learn and more upgrades to improve on is something that I really enjoyed having to leveling up the character's stats just really adds-up a realism of the combat design, so this motivates me to be better fighting against the tough enemies and bosses.

I got to say that I actually liked the combat battle between Kratos and the enemies where you'll spend time to kick their asses by keep throwing the axe directly at them, swinging your blades around them, and thrusting and stabbing them with your spear.

Having to unleash your rage mode giving you ability to instantly knocking them out faster till it ran out your rage meter.

Finally finishing them off with your brutallity moves allowing you to rip and tear their body in pieces displaying the gorefested animated sequence of these enemies getting mauled to death on screen is something to enjoy the game's ultra-violent action-adventure.  

What can I say about the open-world exploration? I say it's fun to explore many places in each 9 realms, so I've spent time of browsing through the areas searching for looting items on chestboxes, fighting hordes of enemies to farm XPs, visiting any undiscovered villages, homes, and fortresses, rowing on the boat, and so on.

The most important thing about the game is the campaign quests as a whole is because there good and bads to talk about regarding on whether the story quest are actually done right and some others might be not as quite good, so starting off with Kratos campaign quest which I personally liked the big adventure of father and son worked together on their journey which I really enjoyed exploring around the areas, doing many puzzle solving, fighting off the enemies, and of course those segments are actually great such as the prologue, search and find Tyr, and solving Groa's secret just off the good start.

There are also a side quests to do which is an optional choice for the players giving you a freedom to do an extra mission outside of the story quest, so having to play the side quests are not only it will expand your campaign's length to keep you busy but also it is a very useful for the beneficial reason to do it for the rewards such as valuable XPs, unique armour sets, crafting resources, and runic items just made the kratos whole adventure quite fun to play.   

Not only you take control of Kratos throughout the playthrough, you also get to play as Atreus which is a secondary playable character that you'll take control of him in later chapter, so is the Atreus campaign any good? well...not quite so much as the Kratos campaign too be frankly honest.

I say he did have a good things for his combat system which he uses the bow as an weapon are perfect for range-shot on long-distance and he uses 2 types of arrow came handy for stuff like destroying blocked objects or puzzle solving related area.

His melee combat are fast and fluid which he can pull off his amount of combo attack and of course his transformation into bear or wolf is incredibly cool which I did apperiecate his combat style just worked really good.

Unfortunately his story quest started out decent at the first start of his independent adventure until the later chapter of his are kinda falls flat which I did mention earlier about the segments on Angraboda section and his quest in Asgard just kinda bores me is because I find these story segment quite uninteresting just made the paceing of the playthrough quite painfully slow and scripted, so I wish they could have made a better segments that has simple and straight-forward dialogue and more balanced paceing could have helped his story campaign much fairer. 

The positive things in the campaign is has to be a boss battle which the game did it right job is because I actually liked having to fight these insane bosses that does quite an intense charge attacks, throwing magics at your face, and showing off their power ability.

You have Bjorn the grizzly bear came charging at you, the big fat Thor welds his heavy thunderous hammer to smash your head off, the big lizard-like dragon Niohogg is rediculously huge creature with impressive strength and immerse durability, the large-giant wolf Garm is quite bloody dangerous being with chained-collar around neck, and of course I find battling with Heimdall is got to be the most entertaining showdown that do not drags everything down, so I'm glad that they made the boss battle quite solid with many fun strategies and epic hand-to-hand combat is something that I can able to enjoy this game.

The game also has a free DLC called Valhalla which is basically an single-player expansion which takes place after the main game featuring roguelite mechanics where each death resets your tempoary stats and runic attacks while keeping the permanent upgrades between runs, so this is actually a tough but also a fun single-player experience that got everything right makes it an outstanding addition to this game are definite worth checking it out.      

         

Overall, it has brilliant combat gameplay, fun exploration, great single-player quests, and entertaining boss battles.

Graphics

The graphics in this game is still stunningly look amazing for its visual quality even through it doesn't support the use of ray-tracing which is suprising that it's was meant to be the AAA title because it uses the simular game's engine and the assets from the predecessor to fit in for the PS4 version which I totally understand the reason, but the key difference is that they have added the improvement for the PS5 version featuring the shaper images, dynamic lighting amd shadows, cleaner environments and textures, and faster-loading times which did really help the game's visually.

As you can see the open-world environments are nicely opened-wide filled with many structures, objects, and landmarks that are perfectly well-designed on many landscapes and areas.

The textures of wall and surfaces are bold and detailed giving a shaper environmental look on many places, and then these lighting and shadow effects are also quite good on some locations depending on which areas has the clear balance of light and dark tone.

The use of HDR support does also improve the aspect of image level such as the color saturation, brightness, and sharpness just adds up the suitable screen filtering.      

The motion capturing of character's animation is still remains intact and perfection throughout the cinematic cutscenes as well as in-game battle and sequences, as you can see their body figure and facial movement are incredibly well-synced and responsive just made the whole game quite realistic that proves how fantastic the visual design looked on modern-gaming platform.

Finally let's not forget the gore system in the game which I really liked the finishing kill animation of the enemies and bosses gets their body tore-up in pieces while the blood spreads everywhere on the ground is something that I adore the series well-known brutality throughout the in-game battle. 

The game's performance on PS5 has four graphical options such as performance mode, quality mode, performance-HFR mode, and quality-HFR mode. 

The performance mode targets with 60fps using dynamic resolution scaling between 1440p and 2160p, where as having the performance-HFR mode turned on unlocks the 60fps and over which is a solid choice for those who perfers a smooth and responsive combat. 

The quality mode locked native 4K resolution with target between 30fps and 40fps, where as having the quality-HFR mode turned on unlocks the 40fps and over offers a sharper details much suitable for a cinematic use.

While the performance mode with both HFR on or off is still runs great, I rather much prefered the quality mode with both HFR on or off is because I find the details looks more bolder and cleaner on draw-distance, foreground, weather effects, and character's outfit just made the game look appealing on the screen.   

Overall, it has amazing visual environment, fantastic animation, and great performance.

Music and Sounds

I say I adored the orchestrated folklore soundtrack that is still incredibly sounds fantastic throughout the whole campaign just adds-up the level of emotional depths between the father and son.

It was composed by Bear McCreary who previously did the score of God of War (2018) has done the job really well again proves that having an epic and powerful sound score in video games is the work of art.

The overall sound design is pretty solid for its environmental backgrounds, atmospheric noises, and surrounding areas just sounded great in many open-world locations.

I say the voice actors such as Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic did such an excellent job for delivering an remarkable performance between the twos just really nails their character role entirely.  

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, solid sound design, and excellent voice cast.

Special Features

The game has unlockable new game plus and of course does feature a free DLC-expansion called Valhalla.

Overall, an outstanding content. 

   

Advantages

Decent story and good returning characters

Solid presentation design

Brilliant combat gameplay and fun exploration

Great single-player quests

Amazing visual design

Fantastic music and sound design

Outstanding free DLC-expansion

Disadvantages

Atreus's story section are not great

New supporting characters are forgetable

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - decent story, good returning characters, and solid presentation design.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - brilliant combat gameplay, fun exploration, great single-player quests, and entertaining boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - amazing visual environment, fantastic animation, and great performance.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, solid sound design, and excellent voice cast.

Special Features 9/10 - new game plus and free DLC-expansion called Valhalla.

Overall 8.5/10 - I say it is a good but not a perfect sequel which didn't quite match-up to the predecessor is because I felt the 2018's original game that was on PS4 console had done flawlessly outstanding job in terms of quality storyline, has better quest mission, and of course the epic battle sequences which is why I liked the original game's charm that made it very interesting to play, where as this does have amazing visuals, brilliant combat, and has great single-player quests which is fine but it falls shortly with the slow-paced Atreus's story section and lackluster new supporting characters wasn't the best part in which they could have done the job better, but that doesn't mean the game is a let down is because at least you'll still may find Kratos story campaign more enjoyable filled with many quests and duties to do and of course the showdown battle with the enemies and bosses is what really matters the most that helps you keep the busy with the game entirely.

That being said, God of War: Ragnarok is a solid action-adventure game which is still worth to play, so the physical copy are cost about £20 or more mostly on local shop or online store, where as the digital release on PS Store are retailed for £70, but you can also access to this game by getting it on the PS Plus subscription under the game catalogue.        

Is it an definite play? I say if you previously liked the original game then you might gonna give this game a worth a shot.

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