I can proudly say that I've been a huge fan of Hazelight Entertainment since day one. I’ve been following this studio ever since the beloved yet zany director, Josef Fares, shifted to making videogames full time and formed the studio back in 2014. I mean, it was a no-brainer for the guy given the success of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and how it’s regarded to be one of the best games of 2010s that helped push the narrative of videogame as an artform to the mainstream. It did take them a while to cook their first baby, the cult classic prison- breaking action adventure game, A Way Out, which Josef dragged his brother (Fares Fares) to star in as well. With its 80s B movie inspired plot, the huge push for couch co-op games at the time, and the never ending word of mouth, A Way Out became a commercial success despite its lukewarm critical reception due to a few technical issues that held it back from being perfect.

However, what really brought the studio on the map aside from the man himself giving Hollywood the middle finger at The Game Awards, is the award winning It Takes Two. Not only did it come out at the perfect time (which was during the height of the 18 months long lockdown), but the refined game mechanics, relatable and heartwarming family oriented story and the comedic route the game took really took the world by storm. With level designs that are a league above A Way Out and technical issues that are resolved from that game, it’s no surprise that It Takes Two wasn’t only a commercially successful game, but a critically acclaimed one as well. Not a lot of people were shocked when the 2021 TGA and DICE awards gave it the Game of the Year spot as there was nothing else as deserving that year.

With all this said, it should not be a surprise that I was incredibly excited and was looking forward to finally getting my hands on the studio’s third game, Split Fiction. I’ve been hyping this up to my partner for months up to its launch. It didn’t take a lot to convince them (I mean they love me loads after all) as the game was speaking for itself through the trailers and gameplay previews that perfectly blend the element of sci-fi and fantasy perfectly, showcasing some crazy game mechanics and technological advancement that leave you feeling intrigued in what the game has to offer. So what’s this game exactly? Is it a twin-stick shooter? A side scroller? A puzzle platformer? Third person shooter!? Welp, we don’t know either! Let’s break it down together shall we?

Split Fiction’s plot itself is not very complicated. You could say it does feel like a PG-rated, family friendly narrative in a sense. It’s a story about two broke-ass fictional authors, Zoe and Mio, who were invited by a huge publishing company called Rader. The two and other aspiring authors were promised to get publishing deals if they participate in a scientific experiment with “The Machine” (what a name, huh?) that would transport them into the stories they’ve written. However, it’s a big ruse as Rader, the egoistic owner of the publishing company (I mean bro literally named the company after himself), is using The Machine to steal the ideas of everyone participating in the experiment, inherently taking all the stories they’ve written their entire lives and storing them for his own gain.

Yeah the game takes a huge piss on AI bros in general.

However, everything goes to poop as Mio, the cool and reserved author who has special interest in the sci-fi genre, saw through the bs and refused to get into the machine. Chaos ensued, however, and Mio fell into the same pod as the optimistic and cheerful Zoe, invading her fantasy story and causing glitches in the system. Stuck together, the unlikely duo must find a way out of The Machine and stop Rader from stealing their work, forging an unforgettable friendship along the way.

I think the strength of this game is the straightforward, family friendly nature of the narrative. Hazelight already had experience with this kind of story telling with It Takes Two, which really allows them to add a lot of jokes that feel very well timed. I also love the contrast between the two main characters. Unlikely besties is a trope that’s been done a million times before, but I do think that it’s done well with this game and the trope really helps explore the difference between the two characters. The narrative delves into their interests, their struggles, and obviously their interest in sci-fi and fantasy settings which is a huge part of this game.

Since the game’s timeline is based on real life, there are so many references to real life media to be found in the game that really add so much personality to the campaign. From Metal Gear Solid sections to Sailor Moon transformations, there are multiple easter eggs to be found while playing the game. These references are also used to expand the duos’ character, with the implications on how they grew up and what their personal interests are and it’s cleverly conveyed through the gameplay too.

Another thing I really think Hazelight Studio really nailed down is the organic friendship between Zoe and Mio. Yeah, they were stuck there for a day max, but the game’s narrative really helps convey that they will become besties for lives. There’s a lot of truth to how sometimes it’s easier to open up about something private to strangers, and the game really takes this idea and helps both characters grow. The way the bond between these two grows really helps push the last 3 hours of the game, as by then you will be fully onboard with their friendship and root for the two of them to face their inner demons. I don’t want to explain too much, but the game really tackles some heavy topics while keeping it light really well.

However, I do believe that the game sadly struggles to find a convincing antagonist. I mean, I love dunking on AI bros, but Rader isn’t that great of an antagonist. The guy has nothing going for him and falls flat for me, leading to an ending that, while I’m happy for the besties, can feel a bit underwhelming. Thankfully, the strong narrative and gameplay really carry the weak ending, so it isn’t a huge con in my opinion.

Talking about gameplay, this game is essentially a technical marvel. Aside from being incredibly optimised, the game design itself is nothing short of superb. The gameplay never gets boring, as the game’s genre would change every five minutes, keeping you guessing on what’s next on the menu. You could say this is like eating an omakase meal where the chef (Josef) decides the entire menu for you. Like, bro I trust you, feed me whatever man I’ll eat it up with how fun the game is.

You got it all. Dragon riding? Check. Solving reCaptcha on a motorbike? We got that. Playing as pigs that get turned into sausages? Of course that’s also in this game!!! There are sections where the game goes from action platformer to metroidvania within 3 minutes, just to become something else entirely in 10 is its biggest strength. You won’t be bored by any gameplay loop as there’s no loop but only ever evolving mechanics. Impressing me and my partner at every turn.

On top of that Hazelight did an incredible job building multiple fantasy and sci-fi settings that feel unique among themselves (the sci-fi maps blend a bit, but they’re still rather distinct), which also showcase both Zoe and Mio skills as authors and help push the narrative through level design. The aforementioned easter eggs that are scattered throughout the game never feel out of place or break immersion and feel very relatable as someone who’s around the same age as the protagonists.

Throughout the campaign, you will see “Side Stories” which are self-contained levels based on short stories or scrapped stories by the protagonists. This is where the developers really showcase their creativity as they get free reign to do whatever the hell they want. Be it the side scroller “comic” section that shifts the artstyle completely, or playing as birthday snacks doing a Fall Guy level, they are interwoven into the story and gameplay without feeling forced at all.

The game has all of this without visible load time as they’re cleverly hidden behind cutscene and insane optimisation. There was no moment where we had to wait for the game to load. The netcode of the game is also very well written. Aside from a day where I had an internet shortage, the game feels smooth even at roughly 200 ping. Hazelight seriously is ahead of the curve with their optimisation and their network tricks. It’d also be a disservice to not mention the last chapter of this game where the narrative gets really crazy. Without delving into the spoiler too much, all I got to say is Hazelight accomplished a near impossible task of rendering completely different textures at the same time whilst not tanking the performance.

The Long Lasting Friendship (and Relationship)

This isn’t really about the game, but more about my partner. LOL

Yeah I’m flexing that I’m not single.

A great game like this requires a great partner in crime to play with. Split Fiction is a perfect game to spend your time with alongside anyone you love and care about in all honesty. Being able to fail miserably together and laughing about it was rather magical. I don’t think anything beats bonding with someone through appreciating the media together, and this game is perfect for it. I’m glad I have my partner as my partner. Shoutout to my baboo Pengu.

This game doesn’t have to be played with a romantic partner either. The accessibility options and the theme of the story is perfect to be played with anyone.

Split Fiction is another must play this year. Even though the ending is a bit eh to me, the 14 hours I spent with my partner audibly going “wow” every few minutes is an incredible experience. It’s hands down Hazelight’s best work yet, even though I can see It Takes Two’s story being more relatable to some, but it’s really on another level when it comes to the gameplay aspect of it all.

It’s easily a must play, and it’s also available on multiple platforms. You only need one copy to play with anyone you know.

Done With #15: Split Fiction

I feel like there's not a lot of games out there that can be captured in one simple yet underlying quote said by a character. But what's even more surprising to me is the fact that this game is written by a Redditor looking for a job in the VA market that was found by a bored Ubisoft software developer turned director Guillaume Broche. And the soundtrack to this game that accompanies its depressing story is essentially led by a composer on SoundCloud with little to no following. Sandfall Interactive is seriously some kind of Suicide Squad, filled with multiple junior developers with no experience but big dreams to make up the 30 main team. With the assistance of roughly 500 people around the globe, the incredible ambitious Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is born. And it's one hell of a love letter to the JRPG genre.

And it being a love letter is why I see this game as the derivative of all JRPGs in a sense. You can see and feel the influences on the sleeves and take quite a good guess on what Sandfall developers grew up playing. As someone who has played and finished multiple JRPGs, it's pretty fun to deduce which bit of Expedition 33 is from which game. There's a bit of the grand narrative with complex twists from Chrono Triggers and Dragon Quest VIII and XI. The gameplay has rhythm-like mechanics to it like Stick of Truth, Lost Odyssey and the classic Paper Mario mixed with dodging and parrying to add even more dynamic. Or the awesome Pictos mechanic that draws huge inspiration and builds upon the Ability system of FFIX mixed with Junction from VIII. And with all this, Expedition 33 becomes its own game with its own identity built by all the predecessors, making the “For Those Who Comes After” motto resonates with its design too.

This is what really carries this game for me. Expedition 33’s story is probably one of the coolest narratives in gaming in the past 10 years, matching the energy of modern classics such as Nier: Automata. And all this from some random Redditor lady? Make it make sense.

Overall, the story of Expedition 33 follows a group of expedition team from Lumiere. A cruel world where the remaining inhabitants must venture yearly to stop The Paintres, an entity of sort that shortens the populace lifespan by a year everytime she paints a new number on The Monolith in an event called the Gommage (which literally translates to “complete erasure”). As the name suggests, this is the expedition for people 32 as people at the age of 33 have been wiped out.

Gustave: a hot headed but kind engineer with a hell of a mustache

Maelle: Gustave’s 16 years old foster sister who’s accompanying him to look for something more substantial in life

Lune: a scholar and a mage whose family line is made up of researchers

Sciel: a warrior who uses the power of Sun and Moon Arcane to fight (and a real badass)

During this adventure, the party and the player will be introduced to Verso and Renoir, two mysterious men who would change the party’s fate and the game’s story permanently. There’s a lot of surprises, twists and turns that are incredibly fun to predict along with each story beats, keeping me as a player on edge all the time.

The peeps at Sandfall seriously did an amazing job conveying us the theme of depression and loss through smartly utilising each characters’ personalities to explore how different people grieve. Some grieve with anger and others with acceptance, the game does not really subscribe to the five stages but rather allow each person to really go through what they have to to deal with it all. But it’s not all about losing someone or dealing with a loss, but also dealing with one’s own death and the legacy that one will be passing on to the next generation. After all, death can be sudden and there’s no time to prepare for when it happens.

Another impressive thing about this game is its incredibly flowing dialogues. I can’t think of many games where characters talk over each others without it being an error on the game’s audio queuing, but actually was done on purpose to emulate people speaking. From arguing to agreeing with each other, allowing the amazing voice actors to really showcase their skills by letting them bounce off of each other as if they’re really speaking was a great choice and really adds to how “real” these conversations feel.

And these characters are very well written, despite a couple not really taking the center stage of the story. On top of amazing voice casting, the Belle Epoque inspired designs really give these characters such a strong flair to their outfit. Personality wise, each character get to showcase both their lighthearted side, and a more selfish (not so sinister) side, making them rather grey in general (fitting for the Clair Obscur title which means light and dark). While I don’t agree with all the decisions these characters make, I still can sympathise with all of them and the credit really does go through the writing team that make them so believable.

But that’s not all, the way they Sandfall coordinated with the motion capture team on the eye and facial expression. From Act 2 onward, the team utilises a lot of these subtle expressions and characters’ eyes to tell us what they really feel deep inside. Be it giving us hints of secrecy, their sadness or even to express how happy they’re feeling, I think this game really pushed this boundary. The focus on putting resources into character models seriously pay off while utilising post processing to cover up the smudgeness of the textures elsewhere.

I won’t pretend that I know a lot of French culture because… I simply don’t. However, I’ve heard a lot of nice things from YouTube and Twitter regarding a lot of naming and references in this game to French culture and media that also add to the narrative. Check them out at your own discretion as they may contain spoilers.

Unlike many reviewers and people who are glossing over this game, I seriously don’t think this game’s combat is anything that special. But for context, I have finished multiple JRPG throughout the past ten years and I have seen a lot of innovation in the genre. I don’t think that the “traditional” gameplay loop of JRPG is boring at all, as I think some of the most fun I’ve had is to react to what the enemies inflict the team with. One great recent example is last year’s Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, where you seriously needs to adapt to the situation depending on how wrong it is going as one mistake or one miss can derail the entire gameplan.

And while the dodge and parry system is something very refreshing as the last time there’s something like this that’s mainstream was Stick of Truth from a decade ago, I can’t help but get bored with roughly 15 hours into the game as it becomes a bit tedious to perform. I end up trying to end the fight as soon as I can so I don’t have to engage with this system, especially when the dodging and parrying window don’t match the multiple delayed animations of this game. It sorta becomes a rhythm game a bit later as you really start relying on the sound cue instead of visual queue. It’s also a misopportunity for many in-game spells as in theory you don’t need a handful of them if you’re going to dodge everything.

One could argue that there are builds that you want to get hit my the monsters on purpose, and a lot of funny builds really rely on low HP gimmick, but a lot of these builds really come online at 70-90+ or in NG+, which doesn’t really impress me because I’d need to spend another 10-15 hours grinding this out.

But what really made the combat still pretty interesting is its Pictos and Weapons Abilities system. It allows the player to experiment and find the style that really fits them.

The Weapons Abilities seriously solves one of the biggest RPG issues of needing to change weapons simply because it has higher attack numbers. In Expedition 33, Sandfall really thought it through by attaching special abilities that change how a character behaves in combat to the weapon. You may have a weapon that starts one of your characters off in a certain stance, or one that allows you to get more Action Points for everytime you cast something. This means that, depending on how you want to play, you may keep some of the earliest weapons in the game if you really wish to.

As for Pictos, it’s FFIX’s Ability system and FFVIII’s junction on crack. These Pictos act as your characters’ armour, boosting their stats and giving them some spicy gameplay modifier to use such as 25% increased crit chance on burning enemy or regaining AP on a perfect dodge. As you get further into the game, some of these become even crazier, giving a huge advantage to the player. Heck, there’s even one Picto called “Cheater” literally.

The game is graphically impressive. Sandfall utilises a lot of post processing to really cover up the muddy textures on the background and on the floor to not waste too much resources. This computing power then goes to the character's model, allowing them to fully convey their emotion through the animation and facial expression. It’s quite a genius idea really.

The game is also hilarious for what it is. For instance, the game has a tribe called Gestalts which are literally Minions warriors. No one knows how they are still alive as they’re incredibly… stupid. However, they are a great way to not make the story too heavy at points and are utilised well to give players a nice little break emotionally.

Furthermore, there’s a ton to do in the post-game from challenge bosses and a whole tower dungeon with 33 challenges for you to complete. If you love the gameplay, it’s definitely something to try out, but as for me I gotta say bye as I’m horrible at dodging. XD

The game’s World Map is designed really well, even though it’s on the smaller side. Really gives me an idea on how the FFIX remake would look like (Square Enix PLEASE). As for the dungeon zones, the game uses subtle hints with lanterns and light sources to guide us in the right direction. However, you never get “lost” in this game as your exploration really gives you some nice rewards like cool Pictos and upgrade resources for you to play around with.

Collectibles are also scattered throughout the game’s world, with music records and Expedition Logs that I highly recommend you try to collect for additional lore. Some of these are very plot relevant and will give you hints on where the story is heading, whereas others are straight up hilarious jokey Logs. Truly, “For Those Who Comes After”.

While I don’t think this is the most innovative turn-based RPG game people claim it to be, it's probably one of the bravest with its insane narrative and one of the most ambitious when it comes to storytelling. I still do think that a refined combat system would go a long way, be it fixing enemies animation or actually forcing the players to react to getting statuses or getting “hit” with unavoidable damages. And even though this game is going to be rather polarising as more players finish it, I really appreciate it for what it is.

Such a shame people are using this love letter to trash the genre. It’s beyond stupid in my opinion, as the devs are repeatedly shouting out some niche JRPGs left and right for people to check out. Don’t use something you love to put down things you dislike, it’s just not cool.

If you have Xbox Game Pass, this is a must play, but with its rather friendly price on Steam it also wouldn’t hurt to directly support the developers too.

Done With #14: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Finally, a game I fully completed solely on the Steam Deck. I'm somewhat more impressed with the handheld than the game itself (lol). And of course, this is the translation of the first review I wrote in Thai on Twitter. To be completely honest, I haven't really engage with the endgame content. However, It's still a great time with how strong the campaign is.

Playing Granblue Fantasy Relink is like starting a great anime on its sixth season. Is it fun? Hell yeah. But do I understand it fully? Hell no. To be fair to the writing team, the story is written in a standalone format and they did consider players who are new to the franchise quite a bit. While the game itself doesn't really engage with any gran (ha!) theme, it's still a blast to go through.

As for the gameplay itself, it's quite fun. I love the wide array of playale characters (up to 20 with DLCs) that are unique enough to not be clone of each other. I mean, there're still overlapping roles and identical skills like Charlotta and Lancelot. It's quite a grind to unlock them all, but through story mode alone you should have enough tickets to unlock 4. Not sure how this work in the post game, but I hope it is not inconvenient.

Overall, it's definitely an entertaining 22 hours. This is due to how INSANE the campaign gets, especially toward the back half with overexaggerated boss fights. For instance, minor spoiler as it's shown frequently in its promo material, in chapter 6 you will get to fight Titan at home (that's clearly inspired by Final Fantasy XVI it's not even funny XD). These over the top and unexpected fights keep me guessing, and it's hard to put down my Steam Deck as I'm curious to see what the hell they're going to pull off next. 

But before dipping my toes into the post game, I think I'm going to take a break to complete "Sorry We're Closed" first. 

However, if anyone's interested in a silly Monster Hunter-like experience, I reckon Granblue Fantasy Relink would scratch that itch, especially with a campaign this silly.

🌸 Tasha Reviews 🌸

Done With #1: Granblue Fantasy Relink

More Reviews!~

Done With #15: Split Fiction

Done With #14: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33