Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

Seriously, why is this not popular. It has great animations, great tools, incredibly little bugs and VERY great balancing. I kid you not when I say that this mod can synergize with a bunch of other random things you seriously wouldn't expect it synergizing with. The combat is only slightly different with a whole shield breaker mechanic where you have to not hold out your shield, but it does this in a way that feels very well choreographed because you can see the animation actively tell you to do so by a purple flash (which is inspired by ultrakill) If you like minecraft mods where the mod combat isnt completely mindless (whether PvE or PvP), this is an incredibly good pick. You can basically beat a good majority of the mods threats with just a shield and an iron sword if you have good timing, which feels INCREDIBLY rewarding for those who actually bothered to not just get the max armor and who want an actual challenge that depends on skill. You can also pull off some great strategies by using the weapons and tools this mod provides, which work together incredibly well almost always. I recommend this. This should be more popular.

This mod excels in everything it says it will be: a gruesome and perfectly detailed endgame dimension entirely built to maximize your anxiety (or in some peoples cases, spite), whether its because you're in the wastelands and constantly being threatened by the stalker or within the flesh biomes and constantly having to look at the ground for traps, this mod basically does EVERY horror aspect INCREDIBLY WELL while still keeping a sort of style that fits in with the likes of the warden and the deep dark. I wont spoil everything, but all you need to know is that if you add this mod you will DEFINITELY revolve around it and have to play a LONG while to be able to understand everything. Do note you should have at LEAST enchanted diamond armor if you are a casual player who isn't exactly perfectly built for a mod where the pressure is on you 24/7 (however for all the try-hards out there, i recommend iron armor), and that there are a LOT of different armor sets with their own little niches and quirks, along with weapons of a similar degree. So far this is one of the most creative and best stylized mods i've seen, purely because it pulls off that merciless desolation feel best, along with all the unpleasant surprises you might come across. The only spot where it falls off slightly is optimization, but that's only because of MCreators nature and the fact its such a massive mod.

Don't trust the version of the mod which is precised for this review as I am using the last version, available only on planet Minecraft at https://www.planetminecraft.com/mod/172164-dynamic-sword-skills/ ; The last version of the sword skills API can oddly be found on curseforge with an unofficial fork under the name "Dynamic Sword Skills 6.2.1" as it is the version of the mod this API is meant for (the mod's API is also more officially available on planet Minecraft at https://www.planetminecraft.com/mod/sword-skills-api/ under the right name this time)

What is it ?

A mod which adds Zelda-inspired custom melee Combat Skills , alongside a Z-Targeting system to lock on enemies (this auto-target is even required for some of the skills to be used);

What does it offer ?

Special abilities for melee weapons and swords, which can be found randomly by killing mobs or looting vanilla structures, and can have special effects which increase in strenght after each level gained.
The Basic Technique is the base skill required for a couple of others, it allows you to Z-Target enemies to keep them locked on while you can still see them (there's a specific keybind set for that, as well as a second one to switch from target to another target near); Any solid block in the way will prevent the player from locking onto entities , but I find it a bit annoying that even transparent ones such as glass stop the targeting move.

Here is a full list of the other skills available (SPOILER) :

For Melee Weapons in general :

-The Armor Break
This attack is automatically performed after holding the attack button after attacking (attacking but keep the button held will perform this move), the second hit will pierce the armor, dealing heavy damage even to protected foes
-The Ending Blow
Requiring Z-Targeting, this move allows to deal more damage to an enemy by pushing forward with another hit after attacking at least twice, even granting bonus experience if it ends up killing the foe; it can be exausting, so be wary of using it on enemies which may outlive it
-The Parry
Not this is not the 1.7.10 parry mechanic but a different one requiring more skill, as you have to step back twice before blocking perfectly while the enemy attacks you with a melee weapon/item for the defense to actually register and negate all damage you should take, and when it does it even has a chance to disarm the opponent
-The Spin Attack
Already present in older Zelda games such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and quite famous (probably the most well-known skill from the game series in that whole list), you have to press both the key to move left and right, the first one pressed will determine the spin's direction; this attack is especially useful when standing in the middle of hordes of weak enemies like silverfishs as it allows you to spin around twice to kill them all
-The Super Spin Attack
Primarly found in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, this skills works on top of another skill to allow you to maintain the spinning move by pressing attack again and again (just kind of spam the attack button it usually works)
Requires the Spin Attack skill in order to work.
-The Sword Break
A special form of parrying, which will damage the weapon an enemy is attacking you with if you move step forward twice before blocking perfectly as the attack would normally hit you; instead, the attack gets blocked and the enemy's weapon starts breaking (repeat a couple of times to end up with a weaponless foe)
This skill is definitely much easier to perform that the Parry but a bit less rewarding.

For Swords specifically :

-The Back Slice
Present in at least The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and used notably to remove the armor of Darnuts from the strings which tie them from the back, it relies on Z-Targeting and is probably the most satisfying to use when it does work, as after holding left or right then moving before double tapping the forward key you will run around the enemy, and if hit right, will deal more damage with a chance of removing their chestplate (unfortunately if your default speed is altered you might end up too far away from the enemy you were meant to hit after using this move)
-The Leaping Blow
It's basically a stronger critical hit, needing you to hold block before jumping and attacking, which when performed deals damage in a small area around you (which will damage creatures standing near)
-The Mortal Draw
Needing Z-Targetting in order to be used properly, this samurai-like move works by keeping a hidden sword in your hotbar while being empty-handed and holding the block key -> when the enemy does attack, attack at the same time, effectively cancelling their attack while automatically drawing your sword to deal twice the amount of damage
-The Rising Cut
This acts as a sort of reverse critical hit, being a move which requires you to sneak before jumping and attacking afterwards (before falling down, not while falling); this lifts you up and the enemy into the air, which lets you attack once more or let it take fall damage
-The Sword Beam
Clearly inspired by Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, it consists of throwing a projectile when attacking while sneaking; the more hp you have and focus on one target, the more damage you will deal with this ranged attack

The mod also adds weapons already holding specific skills in the wild such as wooden or iron swords in simple vanilla dungeons for examples (like the sticks available in the creative menu).

I would have to share however that some of sword skills might not work nearly as well if not properly taken care of in packs (for example the Parry allows you to disarm an opponent , which can cause issues with many other mods which add creatures which are not meant to be empty-handed, or can look weird if the enemy is just holding a weapon as part of their custom model)
I have not experienced any major performance issue while playing with the mod's latest version, that said due to this mod exploiting vanilla Minecraft's combat as a base, any mod susceptible to tweak the way attack cooldowns work or switch up the combat system entirely will most likely be incompatible with this mod (looking at you Immersive Combat ).
Another note is that aesthetically-speaking there isn't much to talk about, since the moves mostly involve first-person actions without custom animations involved at any part of the process.
(This means I won't really take the Aesthetics into account for the overall rating)

In conclusion

This is a really really nice mod which some flaws which will probably last as the mod seems no longer updated even on Planet Minecraft;
Speaking of planet Minecraft, there's a crazy amount of datapacks on there, even more than on curseforge or modrinth, which means that just looking at those platforms alone will make you miss on some interesting concepts especially in the wide realm of structure enhancements and reworks.
Anyways, it is of note that technically-speaking, dynamic sword skills is an official fork of Zelda Sword Skills , an older 1.7.10 mod by the same author (which has itself a continuation in the same version called Zelda Sword Skills Continuation by the way) which also contains various features and mobs outside of the sole combat system.

It is lightweight
It doesn't give any pressure on server
Doesn't requires any direction
works Great
Coalition with other mods is rarely seen
Re adds the old function that is great

This mod is a godsend for most servers. It makes it way easier to chop down tress, so it prevents floating trees and makes the dealing with mods that add huge tress better (looking at you Biomes o Plenty).

In my experience. ive had some compatibility issues where the mod doesnt recognize this pile of logs as a tree, or recognizes a part of a structure as a tree

I freaking love this mod. Forgery (or Fabrication on the titular modloader) adds an enormous amount of configurable tweaks without any new blocks or items, ranging from super useful to interesting design changes to straight-up joke features. It provides a clear and aesthetically pleasing in-game configuration menu which allows you to easily pick and choose what you want to enable. I miss a lot of the changes this mod makes when playing without it.
BUT.
Forgery takes an eternity to configure. It adds so much that it can be downright overwhelming to adjust to your liking, let alone the fact that it is difficult to know which changes are Forgery's doing due to the fact that it's more about mechanical tweaks. The CurseForge page lists an ostensible "261 features and counting," and you will have to go through all 261 of those features to decide whether you want them enabled or not. It's a lot. But if you have the patience for it, or sit down and make a config file you can copy to other modded instances, Forgery adds a lot of fun tweaks and little rebalances which can make the game smoother and more interesting.

I think there's something of a divide between people who use this mod on newer versions and people who prefer the older ones. While I'm not here to start a version war, I do believe Quark is an example of a mod that has only gotten better as time has gone on.
The original versions of Quark had a simple goal of introducing "Vanilla+" content. This was before the explosion of popular and extremely well-made "Vanilla+" mods, and Quark was something of a pioneer in that respect. Newer versions of the mod show this age in how they, compared to older versions, prioritize features and thoughtful integration into the vanilla ecosystem. A post I often come back to is Vazkii's old release notes for the 1.18 version, where he speaks about some of the design decisions in slashing several features from the mod during the updating process.

For quite a while now, one of the most common bits of criticism leveled at Quark was the sheer amount of extraneous and extremely niche content included in it.
While "if you don't like it, don't use it" is a common answer to these bits of critique (especially given Quark's configurability), I think that dismissing them like that is reductive to the problem at hand - the fact that the mod does, in fact, contain a lot of features that would get you laughed out of a Mojang meeting if you tried to suggest them.

Looking through the old 1.12 version set, I'm struck by two observations: the number of features which just exist in Vanilla now to some extent or another, and the degree to which the "extremely niche content" shows up alongside the mod's most useful additions. For example: I literally cannot live without the Reacharound Placing. I forgot hotkeying inventory to offhand was once a modded feature because I use it so much. Meanwhile, the Lit Redstone Lamp is an extremely boring item. (Sorry to any Lit Redstone Lamp stans out there.) Older versions of Quark showcase this type of imbalance more severely, where a lineup of forgettable building blocks is included alongside game-changing quality of life features.
I find that I'm consistently very happy with the direction this mod's development is going in. It adds new features more carefully these days, and older ones are updated to work more seamlessly with new vanilla features. This is why I can strongly recommend the modern versions of Quark, especially those after the aforementioned 1.18 release. The older versions feel more like a relic of a past era, but they were made for a game with less overall polish and a fairly different design system.
All this being said, I have never understood the criticisms of "bloat" when you can configure every feature in the mod. The configuration menu means you can easily click through and remove anything you don't like if you already understand the mod, which you have to in order to know what you want to get rid of. This combined with the trimming of some lesser-quality features makes this mod a perfect addition to pretty much any pack, in my opinion.

What is it ?

Good Night's Sleep is an old mod which adds dreams and nightmares in the form of dimensions to be accessed through magical beds.
Both of these dimensions have their own little content and vibe. This mod is a bit nostalgic to me as its one of the very first dimension mods I got exposed to (another one will get reviewed later).

What does it offer ?

Two new places to go when sleeping, each having a bunch of basic biomes, mobs, exclusive ores and wood types/foods.
The Dream dimension is pretty harmless as no hostile mobs except baby versions of creepers can appear here, there's unicorns, candy threes among other small things.
The Nightmare dimension is filled with oceans of lava, chaotic hills, dead forests and hostile mobs from both the overworld and nether (including a few new ones like the tormentor).
After some time no matter which type of dream you had you will wake up, bringing back stuff you acquired in there with you.

Unfortunately this mod doesn't have a lot to do in it, doesn't have its own music tracks or even global sound ambience for that matter and while visually decent it could have been much better (plus it doesn't look like anything new is planned for this mod as it was already in a similar state back in 1.12).
It can still serve as a dimension for larger packs though as its empty aspect means there's a lot of space for a modpack's custom content while still not starting from nothing.

In conclusion

This mod while pretty barren is still a nice mod to play, but that's not the point of this review.
I have seen one or two more recent mods which have a similar premise, good night's sleep has probably inspired some and that is the main reason I wanted to review this mod;
All mods have to take inspiration from somewhere as ideas do not get summoned out of fin air (even if the action of subconscious processes might make you believe otherwise since you aren't aware of everything your body does and links), this mod itself could also have been inspired itself by even older concepts or direct outside intervention.
What I mean with this review is if you have an idea feel free to try making it a mod yourself, you have probably many sources of inspirations which when combined and adapted to Minecraft can make something no one has witnessed before and hey, people may even enjoy it !

Anyways the review doesn't need to be much longer than that, its a nice gimmick dimension mod but really there's not much more.

great mod for 1.8.9 bedwars, helpful when playing with vpn and need to turn off vpn and quickly rejoin a server.

Its quite an experience, I'm not used to this tipe of modpacks where you don't get items from breaking blocks but it's insanely fun, getting an op weapon on a chest or from looting and then just run around killing everything is SO MUCH fun