In Ruffy And The Riverside, the special FLIP mechanic stands out, allowing players to reshape the game world however they want. Set in a compelling story with entertaining humor and peppered with varied, motivating puzzles and creative platforming sections, the game time flies by quickly. The charming, colorful comic book look, the cute characters, and especially the lively music create a cheerful atmosphere. Optional collection tasks provide additional long-term motivation. Only a few minor weaknesses detract somewhat from the gameplay. For example, there are occasional incorrect collision queries, which cause Ruffy to have heavy legs, especially when climbing stairs, and isolated bugs. Furthermore, loading stutters during some area transitions in the Riverside environment and, in some cases, long walking distances in the main quests without an extensive fast travel system slow down the flow of the game a bit. All in all, however, the positive aspects outweigh the negative ones. I surprisingly enjoyed my trip with the cheerful bear Luffy. I would therefore say that the goal has been achieved: Luffy And The Riverside can compete with well-known classics such as Crash Bandicoot, Klonoa, and Paper Mario, and makes its own unique contribution with FLIP.
Review in German | Read full review
Fairy Tail 2 once again provides a beautiful stage for the mage guild known from the manga and anime original. Although the starting point is rather devastating with a war that has begun, the basic mood of the game remains cheerful and upbeat as usual. This is ensured by the familiar groovy soundtrack, the colorful game world and the shrill and wonderfully exaggerated events. The presentation of the characters with their typical idiosyncrasies and friendly banter with each other also provide great entertainment. A lot of effort has also been put into the reworking. The level of detail in the textures and the animation of the movements show the leap to the new console generation. The terrain, which was rather tubular in its predecessor, is now more expansive and can be explored almost freely. It is also nice that we can change the selected character at any time during exploration and combat. The combat system itself is the one with the most new features, which now consists of a mixture of turn-based and real-time battles in which beautiful, magical storms of effects can occur. Although the combat system of the predecessor is also successful and, in my opinion, the spells of the individual characters are a little less effective due to the turn-based process, as they are cast one after the other, the new design is an absolutely successful and fun upgrade that is one of the flagship features. Nevertheless, the game does have a few weaknesses. For example, members from other guilds that you could actively control in the prequel are now only available as support characters. There are also occasional reloading backgrounds, clipping errors and slight image flickering. While this makes sense due to the story, the game world sometimes feels a little empty and lifeless as there are only a few side characters to be found. This also makes it more noticeable that clones have crept into both the NPCs and the vegetable stall. Furthermore, the side quests are rather pale and have a smaller scope than in the predecessor. Personally, I found the first part a little stronger and more rounded. Nevertheless, I also like Fairy Tail 2 very much.
Review in German | Read full review