Born of Bread succeeds because it balances nostalgia with genuine innovation. It refuses to rely solely on the reflected glory of the titles that inspired it. By pairing an incredibly polished, cartoon-come-to-life presentation with deeply engaging, rhythm-infused turn-based combat, WildArts has created an indie darling that stands firmly on its own two feet. It honours the past, refines the present, and serves up a heartwarming, mechanically sound adventure that proves there is still plenty of life left in the 2.5D RPG formula.
Restless Soul is a cautionary tale of creative overcompensation. By pushing too hard for laughs while ignoring the basics of engaging gameplay and lasting art design, the game ends up doing the opposite of what it intends. Rather than making a lively, memorable impact, it quickly fades into a dull, forgettable haze, remembered only for its uncanny knack for putting players to sleep.
Stupid Never Dies doesn't quite live up to the pedigree of its legendary staff, but that doesn't mean it's not a hell of a ride. Many of the design choices seem questionable or disappointing at first, but after some time and playing Stupid Never Dies on its own terms, it all makes sense and is quite fun. It’s not exactly an “action RPG,” but more of an arcade-style action game with a few RPG elements that make it last much longer than the typical action game. By the end, it proves to be a lot more deliberate than it initially seemed.
Tormented Souls II is a sure thing for classic survival horror fans. It's a kind of game made for a very specific audience who's been starving ever since the sixth console generation. The puzzles have been ramped up and so has the survival gameplay, aiming to cater to players with experience in the genre. It may not be a true classic, but there's no going wrong with Tormented Souls II during the Halloween season.
Tenebris Somnia doubles as a great game for survival horror fans and film heads. It's wholly original and doesn't lean on its influences obnoxiously. Using filmmaking as a storytelling element while having beautifully shot FMVs is a stroke of genius. The intentionally minimalistic survival horror gameplay isn’t so simple that it loses its appeal, but rather, it emphasises the elements that made it great from the start.
Lunarium is an excellent game that comes very close to being an all-time classic. There needed to be less repetitive and tedious dialogue so as to let the visuals tell the story. The visuals are so impressive that developers should trust them and the players to connect the dots. If it had to rely on dialogue, some voice acting would have been appreciated. If it had a more rousing soundtrack and a hard difficulty mode, Lunarium would have been a masterclass action-adventure game.
Halloween: The Game could've been awesome. It's too bad it's grossly unpolished, and its story mode is a lazily constructed, half-hearted attempt. The core game will probably get better with patches and updates, but it’s still doomed to face the inevitable service shutdown that tends to hit these kinds of games a year or two after release. If it had a substantial offline single-player mode, that would have saved it. Maybe this Halloween it’s better to spend it with Pinhead rather than Michael.
Toy Story 3 Complete Edition is a sure-fire hit for any kid and maybe even a few grown-ups who are in touch with their inner child. While ideal for children, older audiences and seasoned gamers may find the core campaign and Toy Box quests to be boring. Aside from hunting down hidden collectibles, the game offers little gameplay depth or difficulty curve. It looks and sounds like Toy Story 3, even if the music is sleep-inducing, but this is still one of the better movie-to-game adaptations from the 2010s. Come for the story, but stay for the Toy Box mode.
Silver Pines stands as a hauntingly beautiful, if flawed, love letter to the golden era of survival horror. While its central identity twist leans perhaps a bit too heavily on the well-worn tropes of Silent Hill 2, Memento, and Twin Peaks, the journey through this storm-ravaged mountain town is an absolute triumph of atmosphere. It suffers from some noticeable technical bugs and optimisation stutters, but the sheer mechanical tension of its clunky combat and punishing payphone save system keeps you entirely glued to the screen.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a pretty good fantasy RPG that excels through pure mechanical ambition. Capcom successfully delivers an unparalleled open-world sandbox defined by a spectacular, emergent and brilliant, highly interactive AI Pawn system that turns every journey into an unforgettable, unscripted adventure. It's fun as hell to scale massive mythical beasts in any game, but it falls just short of greatness due to lingering technical jank and an undercooked main narrative and quests that fail to live up to the spectacular gameplay.
Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen refreshes the gameplay by removing most of the old frustrating elements. The update expands active class skills from four to six, improving combat flexibility and enabling powerful new "Grand" ability combos. The wealth of new dungeons and the Norgan region is enough content for an entire game. Quality-of-life improvements, such as multiple save slots, an optimised hard mode, and the Eternal Ferrystone for fast travel, reduce backtracking while maintaining the best feature of the core game: exploration and adventuring. Overall, Dark Arisen balances accessibility with challenging gameplay, delivering a content-rich experience for both veterans and newcomers.
Spy Drops Gaiden is a competent and well made retro stealth action game. It's a bit of a lightweight compared to something like Ghost Babel, which was stuffed to the brim with content and interesting challenges, but it's also priced accordingly. The whole thing is over in a couple of hours and ends when things get interesting. With a solid foundation in place, adding more areas and puzzle-like environments could unlock great potential for similar games.
In isolation, Resident Evil 3 is a decent third-person action game with some monsters and excellent audio-visual design. However, Resident Evil 3 stands on the shoulders of a giant and fails to live up to its flawed but deserved legacy. It’s too short and speeds through parts that spark the imagination, often coming across more like it should have been a DLC scenario for the Resident Evil 2 remake. This should have been a great, unrelenting thrill ride. Instead, it’s merely an adequate distraction to complement the other RE Engine Resident Evil titles on the Nintendo Switch 2. A pointless side quest that lacks the gravitas of the original and mistakenly strips away its soul.
Hellraiser: Revival is one of the better movie tie-in games, almost on par with greats like Terminator: Resistance and RoboCop: Rogue City. Fans of Outlast and Resident Evil 7 will get their kicks with this one, but the Nintendo Switch 2 version is held back by egregious input delay. Revival stands out as the best Hellraiser media since the original movie, though as a game it has a few minor drawbacks: its overly linear, stop-and-go pacing. The rich world-building is engaging enough to entice newcomers to check out the first couple of films, adding depth that elevates the otherwise standard first-person gameplay.
Artis Impact is so close to being great. It's a compelling blend of melancholy and humour that surprises with bouts of awesome action. With a bit of fine-tuning to rebalance the difficulty, fix some bugs and smooth out the frame rate, this could reach indie classic status. It offers something for everyone, from JRPG gameplay and immersive life-sim experiences to bleak existentialism and silly slapstick comedy.
Control Resonant has a lot going for it. It's a technical and artistic achievement, with amazing visuals, memorable characters, and a lot of platforming... but it fumbles with the combat. Sadly, fighting is incredibly boring and repetitive, and fighting is something Dylan does a lot. The most frustrating and disappointing aspect of Resonant is that it's a brilliant idea that's executed so utterly flatly.
While there are some gaping holes in its story, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy tells a fun, swashbuckling story that stuns with amazing visuals and performances. The puzzles are excellent, but the same can't be said for the basic swordplay that runs thin or the chokingly linear exploration.
Permadeath rogues and randomised Mystery Dungeons are an acquired taste as is, let alone being a Dragon Quest IV spinoff. However, despite it being one of the first of its kind, Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko's Mystery Dungeon Classic HD still manages to be engrossing and stimulating. It probably didn't even need the visual overhaul, but it's an appreciated bonus that breathes a bit of life into this belated release.
Beast of Reincarnation might be Game Freak's first AAA game, but it still feels like an AA game in the best way possible. The narrative and its execution won't deliver on its full potential, but the exploration and action are top-notch. The final stretch is where everything comes together and shines its brightest, leaving a powerful lasting impression for those who stick with it.
Most Western RPGs have been overshadowed this year by an incredible run of JRPGs, both those already released and several more looming on the horizon in the coming months. Against that backdrop, The Blood of Dawnwalker might genuinely be one of the best games 2026 has to offer. It has it all and then some, constantly surprising with consummate professionalism and polish.