Recent reviews by RENDERVOX

Reluctantly, I think I'm going to have to give this game a negative review until FULL CONTROLLER SUPPORT is added. I have a few disabilities that mean that I just can't play games for any length of time on mouse and keyboard. So sadly, I won't be playing this much more until then, because this is a very promising game! (I know there are steam community configs, that emulate k&m on a controller, but they're just not the same as native support)
If this changes in the future then I'll change my review to be positive.

UPDATE:
The game is finally playable without constant crashes, so I've updated my review to be positive.

Read below for my awful experience with the first 20 hours or so of the game, though.

ORIGINAL:
I really don't want to leave a negative review, because there's so much to love here... but the game just won't let me see it. In its current state, I get random crashes every 20-40 mins. Sometimes even more frequent than that. I've played for 20 hours, but barely advanced because I'm so afraid of trying to make any meaningful progress, like fighting a boss, because the game could crash at any minute.

This isn't a hardware issue. I have a Ryzen 5, a 2060 Super, and 32 GB of ram. Until the game get fixed, I really can't rec commend it... or I would recommend that you try it, and ask for a refund if you experience any major performance issues in the first two hours.

I sincerely regret preordering this game (against my own better judgement).

If the game improves then I'll adjust my review to match actual experience with the content on offer. But I think it's important to document that *on release* this games performance was abysmal.

EDIT:
25 hours in, I got banned from playing online for 'too many irregular disconnections'. Hey FROMSOFT, that's NOT MY FAULT! Your game keeps crashing! Now I either have to play 10 hours offline, or wait 7 days to get reinstated.

Very cute and cozy. I played it with my bf overseas using steamlink, which worked great.

Unfortunately, the game ends just as the puzzles were starting to get interesting, so I'd love to see more content added at some point, but this is a free game so it's hard to really complain.

Also the ending is tragic: After all their adventures and tribulations, our protags are locked in boxes away from each other in the credits scene D':

Maybe just an oversight on how that last stage is laid out, or maybe intentional design, I'm not sure...

Have you ever watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, or any other Kaiju-fighting show, and wondered what happens to the citizens of the cities that are destroyed by the collateral damage? When the giant mech shoots it's 1400 mm calibre rounds at the monster, the cartidges have got to land somewhere right? Wouldn't they destroy buildings and cars? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to actually live in a worn-torn cyberpunk city, like Tokyo-3? Do you really think that if an alien invasion ever happened, for real, or any other apocalypse for that matter, that our governments would handle the situation appropriately? If the sea turned to blood, how would you survive, let alone the economy? Umurangi Generation explores those questions, and more, through the medium of photography, exploration, and quiet contemplation.

You play as a young photographer, vibing with your friends and making art, in the last days of earth's existence. Because what else are you gunna do? What else *can* you do?

This game was made initially after the 2019 fires in Australia destroyed so much life, after the direct results of climate change were laid bare for all to see, and no-one seemed to care. Since then, we've seen a similarly tepid response to the Covid pandemic, and I think the DLC (Macro) explores those aspects of generational frustration more than the original game did.

If you're worried about there being 'lame social commentary', or if you think the game might be 'too preachy', then I'd say you can lay those fears to rest -- mostly. The game doesn't have any explicit message, it's objectives simply ask you to look at the environment, and to see the implicit damage for yourself. There's no dialogue even, just diagetic storytelling, through the art direction, clothing, graffiti, music, billboards, and stray newspapers.

Ultimately, this is a game about finding meaning in the end times. Something I'm struggling with a lot at the moment. If you are too, then this is an easy recommendation. The 'red sky generation' are the last people who'll ever live. I'm not sure if *we* are that generation, you and I, that is, but it sure feels like it sometimes...

I also think it's neat that the game saves every photo you take to your harddrive and opens that folder for you when you quit the game. It means that you can literally take something away from the game, as well as metaphorically. In some ways it's also an educational game about photography, and may be a gateway to making art by yourself.

It's art. In every sense of the word.

Oh, and the soundtrack kicks ass too!

This game is great, one of my all time favourite Final Fantasy games. As far as the PC port goes though, I'd highly recommend installing the Moguri Mod. It does several things:
- First and foremost it uses AI-upscaling to give high resolution versions of the pre-rendered backgrounds, for widescreen and HD monitors, which basically makes the game 'look like how I remember it'. This is a weird thing, because the fuzzyness of old CRT televisions forced our brains to do a lot more of the imaginative heavy lifting to fill in the blanks.
- Secondly, it offers some quality of life changes and options, including a toggleable 'sped up' mode, and the ability to just auto win every fight if you want to. (If you only care about seeing the story, for example).
- The only drawback of the mod is that the high resolution art assets take up a helluva lot more space. It takes FF9 from being a couple of gigabytes in file-size to being about 20 GB.

Without the mod, this is a lot harder to recommend... If you want a more authentic 'original experience' then you're probably better off looking up an emulator like Duckstation, and figuring out the rest from there. It's a shame that Square don't give more attention to their PC ports, but there aren't many other legal alternatives these days. I wish they'd do what Sega does, and just sell the roms / isos directly.

I played the heck out of this game on launch, back on the Xbox 360. I also beat it again on Wii U a few years later. It's great, still a 10/10, and one of my favourite games of the 2010s. The PC port is solid too, though I'd highly recommend using a controller.

I wish they'd bring Bayo 2 to PC too, but that's under Nintendo's domain now...

It's monster hunter. It's good!

It's like the spiritual successor to early builds of both minecraft and terraria. If you have fond memories of playing alpha or beta versions of minecraft and just trying to survive the night, and building things with a few friends, and just chilling out, then this is a good game for that.

Although I usually avoid early access open world survival crafting games like the plague, this one seems to have taken all the lessons from previous attempts at the format, and just done a really competent job.

Also good for listening to a podcast while grinding resources.

Though I've only played 7 hours at time of writing, I suspect I will have played much more in a few months.

My only complaint so far is that the build menu doesn't seem to work properly on a PS4 controller.

I bought this for $3 on sale, and I'd say that it's definately worth it for that price. The art is beautiful, I love the style, and all the character designs are amazing. The story and music are nice and simple, but nothing to write home about. I beat it on easy in about 4 hours. There's some replay value though with higher difficulties and a boss rush mode. The gameplay isn't super complex beyond some basic combos and timings, so maybe not a top pick for hardcore gamers, but definitely enjoyable.

The biggest problem I have with it is it's invasive telemetry and system monitoring consent forms you have to sign before you can play. This is typical of most Chinese games, however, and I don't think there's much that can really be done to avoid it; short of playing the game on a virtual machine. It's a shame that this factor alone will be enough to make some people not want to buy or play this game, but that's understandable.

Super intense rhythm game!

I love the psychodelic visuals. But I'm a little disappointed that the boss enemy of each level is just a 'spooky face'. It's jarring and slightly immersion breaking to see so much abstract weirdness get suddenly thrown out for a clearly humanoid face as a boss enemy. And it's annoying that it's basically the same 'face head' thing as the final boss for every level...

The gameplay is fun though, and the music is awesome.

This is a game that wants to be played on LOUD volume!