Arco

This game got a glowing review from LocalThunk of Balatro fame, but unfortunately Is a big letdown in my book. The non-combat sections are reminiscent of old style point and click games to an extent, which is cool. The dialogue in conversation seems to be fairly minimal, much like an old Western movie. The aesthetics are great, and I love the pixel art. The real sticking point though is the combat. The combat plays out like a turn-based strategy game of sorts, where you and the enemy move at the same time. However you deal almost no damage, and the only strategy is running away and taking pot shots to whittle away the health of the enemies. Making matters worse is the guilt mechanic, which causes ghosts to materialize which attack you in real time (in other words, they are not frozen like conventional enemies and will keep coming). This is just another layer of tedium that is completely at odds with the strategy gameplay, albeit narratively fitting but mechanically infuriating. What's worse is that the enemies scale quickly, with you going from fighting animals and bugs to bandits with guns and explosives that can finish you in a hit or two. Worth noting that there's two tweaks you can enable, one which disables the guilt and the other that gives you infinite dynamite to make quick work of enemies, but it doesn't make it feel any better. I just can't with this combat.