Rhythm Heaven Groove is a great entry in the series, featuring a ton of catchy tunes and fun scenarios. It’s a welcome return to one of my favorite series and an easy game to recommend to just about anyone, regardless of their familiarity or skills with the genre.
Ariana and the Elder Codex is a decent metroidvania and one fans of the genre who are desperate for another game to play might enjoy.
Directive 8020’s over reliance on stealth segments, cheap jump scares and jarring story transitions prevents it from being one of the best in the series.
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Octopath Traveler 0 is a curious game- as a sequel to Octopath 2, it’s more steps down than it is up but considering its origins as a mobile game, I’m very glad they decided to give it the single player game reimagining as the story is one well worth experiencing and the system of fielding all eight characters at once is something I’d like to see explored further in the true sequel.
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Shuten Order is a game of great ambition, unfortunately lacking in execution and polish to properly shoulder the weight of said ambition. While there is a good story to experience and some great moments sprinkled throughout the adventure, the issues with its storytelling and half-baked gameplay elements makes it come far short of its lofty ambitions.
While Iwakura Aria isn’t Mages Inc’s best work, the mystery of the Iwakura family was one well worth uncovering, featuring a great sense of suspense and foreboding dread that kept me reading well past my bedtime.
Even though it is much shorter and less ambitious than the other titles in the series, “No Sleep for Kaname Date” is a good time, albeit with the stipulation that it should not be the introduction to the series for anyone and strictly for the fans of special agent Date and his misadventures.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is a fitting swan song for the Switch as its last major exclusive release and showcases just what it takes for a game to truly earn the title of “Definitive Edition”.
While Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves doesn’t do much to set itself apart from other quality fighters on the market today, it’s a solid new entry in an iconic series that shows that SNK is still a worthy contender amongst the legends of the genre.
Despite the dumb downed Alchemy and some technical issues, Atelier Yumia marks a great first step towards a new future for this long running series with its fun and rewarding exploration and enjoyable fast paced combat.
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While Trails Through Daybreak II’s story doesn’t reach the heights of the previous entries, the expanded combat, re-introduction of side activities and a fun playground to test the might of the best teams I could muster made for a very enjoyable time all the same.
Given a choice, I’m sure I would pick a different game from NISA’s illustrious PS2 JRPG lineup that I would rather have a sequel of, but all things said, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero is a great sequel that improves on the original in almost every way, providing a fun, tactically satisfying RPG that I’m very glad made a return.
The fun, fast paced combat, complimented by the wonderful chemistry between the two leads and an intriguing story that culminates in a final boss that is my favorite of the entire franchise thus far, Ys X: Nordics is easily one of the best entries in the long running series and an easy recommendation to anyone that enjoys ARPGs.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a fantastical adventure, brought to life in expert fashion by a team with all the experience and talent they needed to achieve a vision which truly feels like a culmination of the many lessons learned throughout their storied legacy.
With an interesting premise and a solid combat engine, Reynatis has the foundations of a good game. However, the myriad of questionable game design choices, ugly visuals and an uninteresting story makes for a hard sell for anyone but the most enthusiastic action RPG fan.