Since finishing Tokyo Dark and Twin Mirror - both which were good murder-mystery/CYO-adventure games, BTW - I've been messing around with for RPG's both Mato Anomalies and ELEX 2.
Mato Anomalies is basically another Persona 4: Golden type of game (semi-open world/turn-based combat/JRPG-style of game), but gone totally bonkers; bonkers mostly in the good way. The story, characters and writing is really good & way out there (which means there isn't a ton of voice-acting, but it does happen; I'll get to that. Also, besides the story, characters, and writing being really good & also out there - well, so is the interesting dystopian sci-fi futuristic game-world & setting too, for that matter. This game has so much going on here & to keep up with, it's giving me a similar feeling to the underrated Final Fantasy 13, in which you really need to read that Codex to get the lingo & understand what the heck they're even talking about. I ain't even got into the fact that you can hack other people's minds - and that it's done in the form of a fun & interesting card-battling game, too - where you have card decks and everything, as if this was Pokemon, Triple Triad from FF8, and/or something of sort. That's also not even getting into the game's cool art-style here, the cool cut-scenes in the usual type of cut-scenes we get in-game (where there actually might be voice-acting - I kept the game in its original audio language & with English subtitles and it sounds good), some cut-scenes are done in a moving comic-book style, and more. This game's a lot to take in & digest b/c it has so many things going on here - but if you can hack it & tackle it, it certainly early on feels worth checking out. Even at 3 hours in or so, it certainly ain't the best thing ever - but it's so damn cool & unique, I still want it to be. I hope this thing remains really good and doesn't full apart....b/c this game's really interesting, unique, and fascinating to me.
ELEX 2...is more ELEX. Not super far into it - around 2.3 hours, according to Steam - but so far, it's good. Differently recommend playing ELEX 1 first, as the game takes place not super-long after the original ELEX and there's already references & character stuff, which it does expect you to remember from the first game. I loved ELEX 1, so I expect I'll also like ELEX 2, in the long-run...provided it doesn't fall apart and all. I'm using mainly the DX12 build here - b/c my God, even on a SSD, DX11 version takes a while just to load. And it both loads and runs quite a bit better on modern hardware, if you're using DX12. Regardless, if you played ELEX, you know what you're walking into: another Piranha Bytes game with some Eurojank and lots of that 3rd-person BTC (behind the character) type of action-RPG goodness. Also, it's nice that I can put it audio-wise in Non-English and use this game's original language here, which sounds much more emotional & passionate; it just works better w/ the game, IMHO. Enjoying this one so far - but yeah, I've got to give it time and it also ain't easy on Default (Normal) difficulty, like many PB games. Just, also note - there is an Easy and an even lower Story Mode, which might help those who have a tough time w/ any sort of PB games, as even PB seems to getting a bit more accessible with their difficult games by adding modes like these - haven't touched those modes yet, BTW. Early on here, but so far - yep, I'm liking it. Hopefully, like most PB games, it's at least good, by the time it's over and I've finished the campaign.
