Digitally Downloaded
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Without a doubt getting the most out of RPG Maker WITH requires a substantial time commitment, and there’s no point to buying the software just to play other people’s games – you can download the demo for that. If, however, you’ve ever had the creative itch to play with this wonderful genre, then the tools couldn’t be easier and you don’t need to know a line of code. Get out there and get creating!
If you’re looking to scratch that EDF itch, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a decent enough way to do it – but EDF 6 is considerably better and more engaging, and that does make it a harder game to recommend. It’s still fun, for sure, because EDF mostly has that pizza-like quality that even when it’s slightly bland and predictable it’s still quite good – but I can’t help but feel that a fully-fledged World Brothers sequel should perhaps have taken its LEGO-like destruction mechanic a little further, or leaned more into the abject silliness of some of your comrades.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is gorgeous, looking every bit as great as Persona 5, with the same ultra-slick presentational and a cracking good score. And, just like Persona 5 you’re also looking at a truly lengthy experience – anyone who finishes it with their play clock in two digits has played through it quickly.
Boiled down, there’s almost none of Bloober Team that is actually in this game, and yet Bloober Team’s poured everything they had into it. That is nothing short of total reverence to a masterpiece.
In just about every way, Reynatis is a game that tries to reach well beyond what the team was perhaps capable of achieving. Which raises an interesting question: What to score it? I, personally would rather play something like this than the 99 per cent of games out there that copy off the “best practices” template of what has come before. Of course they’re more refined then Reynatis! But they’re just iterating on what already worked. Reynatis is a wild, chaotic mess that frequently loses sight of itself, but that’s the consequence of reaching for something different. Sometimes when people try this the ideas just don’t pan out as hoped. Reynatis is still very playable and the core gameplay is genuinely enjoyable. It might consistently fail to meet its lofty ambitions, but at least it tries, and as a work of art there is value in exploring what it does try to do.
The long and short of it is that Worms Armageddon is a classic, both within the Worms series and multiplayer gaming in general. While today it might seem a little barebones in terms of content, and the online multiplayer features are far too limited for a game that relies entirely on the multiplayer experience, as far as the playability goes it’s still off the charts, and one of the best games you can treat yourself to.
That said, The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance is a game I would recommend any ADV fan to try out, but even with the Yuji Horii pedigree, it needed more TLC on the localisation and marketing for it to truly make waves outside of Japan.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the perfect Legend of Zelda game. Where Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom took the series in new directions, to the point that they’re barely related to what came before them, Zelda’s first outing as a protagonist feels like it fits seamlessly in with the traditions of Ocarina of Time, Link’s Awaking and Link to the Past. Not only that, but Nintendo has built a gameplay system that is more whimsical and creative than any of those previous titles, making this a more complete and fully realised vision of what the series has always wanted to be. I desperately hope that this wasn’t just a one-off experiment, and The Legend of Link is here to stay.
It’s a quite charming and lovely game, and I did enjoy my time flipping between its in-game pages and some of the more subtle gaming jokes within it. You really can tell how much creative thought and polish was put into it, but it does mean that there are points where I felt like I was simply being guided through obvious sections, rather than enjoying the discovery of them.
I cannot say enough good things about Caravan SandWitch. It is a top-tier chill game. You can tell the instant Sauge steps foot on Cigalo: it’s especially calm for a post-apocalyptic planet, save for a massive storm brewing far out. The very few elements that didn’t work in my favour aren’t enough to even consider lowering my score for the game. That yellow van is instantly iconic the second you lay eyes on any visual of it. Caravan SandWitch has simple controls, colourful graphics, and oddly enough no sense of pending doom (despite Cigalo being on the edge of extinction.)
Antstream has won awards like “Heritage in Games” at the TIGA awards, and that best describes the quality of this platform. It’s a preservation library that gives players to play things that they would simply never come across, much less find a way to play. It might not be the “greatest hits” platform, yes, but if spending an afternoon wading through a library of obscure titles and trying things that alternate between happy discovery and dismal waste of time sounds like fun, then Antstream is probably something you’ll enjoy.
Tsunako’s art is, as always, gorgeous. The game’s a joy to play and hard to put down. It introduces some new (great) characters to the fiction while also giving me more time with Tohka.
What is undeniable is that Astro Bot is worth every second you put into it.
Castlevania Dominus Collection may well represent the last hurrah for a once powerful name in video games, but at least it reminds us of just how good this series could be.
Space Marine 2 is a game that will appeal to just about anyone who likes action games. This thing is fast, very furious, and intense. It doesn’t give you long to breathe between throwing more hordes at you, and thanks to that single-minded ferocity, in both single-player and multiplayer it’s a hoot. I don’t think it does a particularly great job of capturing the spirit and intent of the tabletop game and lore, but then again, whenever I was playing I was also having too much fun to care.
Visually, the pixel art style works well enough, and it helps on the Switch not being that complex a title so load times are minimal. Because your foes only respond after your attacks, there’s always time to stop and plan out shots around how each orb’s power works – once you wrap your head around that – and so it’s a pretty easy drop-in-drop out kind of game. Not everything needs to be a 100+ hour epic, you know?
The problem with Kairosoft games is that they’re inevitably good fun and even compulsive for a while. Once you sit down to one fresh you’re inevitably going to get hooked for a while, be that a few days or a few weeks. But soon after you’ll put it down and completely forget about it. You’ll come across it at random a few years later and then get very briefly hooked again, but again you’ll soon get tired of it. Kairosoft games are pure consumption, no meat, and while they’re fun – and this game is fun too (I hate coming across as overly critical of Kairosoft!) they are junk, and Doraemon deserved better.
As far as independent visual novels go, Celestia: Chain of Fate lands in that growing middle tier of visual novel. Sure it might not have the production values of an Otomate production, or even last week’s Famicom Detective Club by Nintendo. As with all genre’s there’s an A-tier, and Celestia isn’t quite there. Yet it punches far above the typical “indie” visual novel, too, thanks to its absolutely gorgeous art, the complexity of the branching narrative, and… well, the kind of writing that does make you want to see the inevitable CG when the very pretty girl and very, very pretty boys start smooshing lips and bodies together. Celestia is a very believable bit of fantasy romance, which is the point, and it’s one VN fans shouldn’t overlook, despite 2024 being quite a year for the genre.
It’s a bigger game than I was expecting. At around 50-60 hours at a reasonable pace, working through everything, it’s by far the largest Mana game ever produced. The fact that it doesn’t stop being a highly playable joy from the start right through to the end should be a good indication of just how beloved this one is set to become – it may even just unseat Secret of Mana itself. Visions of Mana might not be quite so genre-refining as that classic, but otherwise, this is the perfect representation of what Mana has always meant to represent.
To say anything else about Emio would be doing you all a disservice, as it’s a winding, twisting mystery that is best enjoyed unspoiled. If you did play the remakes of the first two Famicom Detective Club titles then you’ll get more of the same here, just with modern standards of writing. That alone makes it a much stronger experience, because the narrative in this thing is incredible.