Mighty Nein:

Everything I was hoping for and then some. I've been looking forward to this from the second it was announced and by god did it deliver, the pacing is way faster than the actual play (for good reason) which was surprising to me but it makes perfect sense, a must-watch for sure

Hypnospace Outlaw:

The execution of its premise is so great I felt nostalgia for a time of the internet I wasn't around for. The investigation mechanics are excellent and the small storylines were great, I did unfortunately kinda get overwhelmed, especially near the end. The plot was very resonant

En Garde!:

Incredibly whimsical & fun, the presentation was so on point and the environmental interactions are endlessly entertaining, I COULD say the mechanical depth is a bit lacking but it's exactly enough for its runtime imo, the arena's buffs were cool but certain combinations were very busted

ikrr, someone dropped a firework they were setting off near me last year and it snaked around on the ground, I barely managed to jump over it thank GOD, like 10 minutes later someone got hit in the head with a firework and an ambulance got called, it's such a hazard to literally everybody involved

in general I think I'm more cautiously optimistic than anything else, I already can see countless ways of things going wrong (I really feel like they'll attempt to replicate 3h's success as closely as possible which kinda scares me). I think it'll either be really good or really bad, a full 50/50 rn

the ashy gray skin on Theodora is not a good look in terms of how they handle more middle eastern inspirations in the setting, but I'll remain hopeful in that regard

as far as the aesthetics go I'm not too hopeful ngl, this definitely feels like a step back from engage, mainly because it's a Koei Tecmo game once again, so I'm gonna be realistic and expect the story to be delivered the way it was in 3h (kinda poorly)

also AGARTHANS MADE GUNS IG. COOL. AWESOME

I am VERY concerned about them going route split, and it's looking really likely with the faction banners on each unit shown and their ability to access convoy, but hope for a radiant dawn style game exists yet, in other news Dietrich is a level 37 myrmidon? ALSO 50 CRIT ON BRONZE SPEAR WHAT????

rn by far the most interesting thing to me is the curse mechanic, weapons also have a UI element titled "curse" listed and using blaze arts increments the unit's gauge, and it's split into like two sections? either way +1 for a 3-range teleport that doesn't take up a turn seems super cheap ngl

so does theodora apparently, I could also see this being a "play every faction and then in the final tournament arc decide which faction wins and that decides the plot" kinda situation *hopefully*, but it's not lookin too good

Koei Tecmo jumpscare :(