The Era of Penumbra (The Rise of Penumbra 3) by Yona Katz

A quietly moving story shaped less by violent spectacle than by the deep-seated ache to be understood
The post The Era of Penumbra (The Rise of Penumbra 3) by Yona Katz appeared first on Independent Book Review.
https://independentbookreview.com/2026/06/25/the-era-of-penumbra-the-rise-of-penumbra-3-by-yona-katz/

#bookreview #399orLess #ActionAdventure #Fantasy #indiebookreview

Chapter 7 of Rowley's Ride is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/102509/the-book-of-newts

Thinking to escape into pirate space, Edwina and Sapphire run toward Nuva, the mortuary world, which is the center of the pirate queen's territory. Unfortunately, Matron Talbot is so incensed, Resolute Hex follows them...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #actionadventure #fiction #witches #demons #vampires #webseries

My Thoughts on: Astral Chain; a review

Astral Chain is an exclusive for Nintendo Switch, developed by Platinum Games and published in 2019 by Nintendo.

As a fan of spectacle fighters and Platinum, this game (along with Bayonetta 2&3) was the reason I caved in and bought a Switch.

And let’s be honest, a futuristic policeman (or policewoman) with a stand fighting against demons extradimensional monsters is a pretty neat concept.

To be frank: I’ve played in handheld mode, so keep that in mind.

Aesthetics

First things first, the game is set in a futuristic city, verging on a cyberpunk look. Holographic traffic lights, advertisements and the like. There are also futuristic helicopters and talkative vending machines.

The environments themselves are, obviously, urban. Be it the shopping mall, main streets, back alleys, slums or the sewers. The major exception is the red-and-black Astral Plane, full of rectangular blocks and jagged crystals that we visit pretty regularly.

All of the locations look good, though there wasn’t really anything that made me pause to admire the view, which isn’t a bad thing per se.

But what I really loved though, were the enemy (and Legion) designs. There’s a decent amount of variety in enemy types, and each type has a few variants that have some subtle differences… Even if they tend to be hard to notice at a glance. The monsters have this semi-mythological metallic look to them that i find extremely appealing.

The game has an anime style. Or well, the stylised look of animated movies. That is to say, humans actually have noses and facial features. So I guess it could be described as “realistic-leaning anime artstyle”…

But yeah, I liked the looks of the game… even if half the time I had the actual visuals removed by using the Iris (to look for chests and toilet stalls, but more on that later).

When it comes to music… it’s good. AC has some really nice tracks, nice enough that i looked them up to listen to them outside the game. Take that as you will.

Also, this game has a full on Anime Opening, just so you know.

Story

The game story follows a pair of twins, brother and sister, who work as policemen in humanity’s last bastion: Ark. They police there deal with such things as lost property, petty thieves and rifts in reality opening and turning people into mindless monsters.

During one such outbreak, the twins end up facing invisible enemies. These enemies are, undisclosed to the public, native to the Astral plane, and for some reason drag people through the rifts. The only way to fight them are Legions, controlled by the aforementioned special division: Neuron.

The game is divided into 11 “Files”, with twelfth being essentially post-game content. A good chunk of those could be called slice-of-life, almost episodic in nature. Though from about a third of the game, the main story starts to take hold, and I found it rather engaging.

While the main story is mostly serious, the optional (or well semi-optional) side content brings in enough levity to nicely balance it all out.

Though there’s still some weird and baffling elements, like the collectibles for the toilet fairy. No, I won’t explain more.

Gameplay

The game uses a pretty common structure: it has 11 Files, (plus the post-game one), each having several side objectives aside from the main one. Those side objectives can be separated into three categories: Blue Cases, which are essentially literally side-quests without end-of-case ranks; Red Cases, which are challenges that contribute towards File end rank; and Collectibles, so things like taking photos, finding stray cats, using the toilet and opening resource chests.

The somewhat eclectic mix of activities present in here really reminds me of the design of early 2000s platformers, where they seemingly had to add some racing segment, maybe some snowboarding or something else. I don’t mind such things, hell I’d say I welcome them… but there is that one detail: Red Cases are performance ranked. And, at least to me, getting those high ranks in these types of games are kind of a big thing.

So when there’s a minigame that asks you to use motion controls to balance a stack of boxes and move through a city… that’s a bit much. Or the puzzles… or chasing people doing graffiti. Many of those red cases are, frankly annoying.

As I mentioned, this is a Stylish Action game. And yes, the combat is good and stylish, even if it may appear somewhat bare-bones at the start, since we begin with two modes of the weapon: baton and blaster. Each has just the attack string at the start, but the game keeps expanding the options pretty much throughout the whole playthrough.

First it adds in the Legion and all the common things they do, like throwing it at enemies, puling yourself to it, using it to essentially parry an attack as you summon it, binding enemies and countering charging enemies. On top of that later on Legions get a selection of skills (2 at once per legion) and abilities (one of which adds a parry, like Bayonetta’s Moon of Maha-Kaala, sans bullet time)… and there’s 5 legions to swap between on the fly.

So yes, combat is fun and decently complex. Though you won’t find much of enemy juggling or aerial combos, though people have found a way to stay in the air by switching between weapons.

Oh, also: the game offers a “story” and casual modes, which do not give ranks at all. The former is for those who want to experience the story, and the latter… I’m not sure. I’ve played on Standard, and may or may not end up trying out Ultimate. I guess It’s a nice touch, as well as the fact that completing a FIle on Standard lets you play it on Ultimate, instead of requiring a new playthrough.

… Did I forget anything?
Oh, yeah, there’s character creation and customisation: You can get new colour schemes for your clothes and Legions, as well as some accessories for your character. It isn’t terribly deep, but a nice addition nonetheless

Summa Summarum

Astral Chain has pretty visuals, nice music and a solid story. And most of all, it has pretty fun combat.

But it is marred, in my opinion, by the fact that file ranks include the minigames. They were fine in a singular playthrough… But I don’t feel like trying to get an S+ rank on those. And, for me, that’s a pretty big minus for this kind of game.

Is it worth dropping it an entire grade? As I’m writing this with some distance from the last annoying Red Case… I’m going to say “no”. I’d probably have said differently had I just tried to get an S+ on some odd case.
I will, however, tack on a second minus.

In the end, I’m giving Astral Chain a 5–. With a note that It’s teetering on the verge of 4+; depending on my mood. YMMV.

Destiny esteve quase para ter um simulador de encontros amorosos

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.eurogamer.pt/destiny-esteve-quase-para-ter-um-simulador-de-encontros-amorosos