The point-and-click adventure Servant of the Lake captivates players with its macabre humor and increasingly bizarre puzzles. At the same time, the story surrounding the Vanderboom siblings grows increasingly dark.
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Finding Polka is a cute little adventure with a lot to discover. The search for Polka leads through various areas that coherently depict a journey. increasingly surreal scenes unfold, and I was always eager for the next idea.
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The vertical farming sim Doloc Town has successfully exited Early Access. Farming activities involving plants and animals are convincingly rendered in the side-view perspective. While the NPCs rarely initiate dialogue outside of cutscenes, the area outside the city offers plenty to explore and discover. The story now comes to a satisfying conclusion, and the new area has become a real highlight.
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Tales of Arise – Beyond the Dawn Edition is a successful port of the main game and its additional content to the Nintendo Switch 2. Technically, the only noticeable issue is the flickering water; otherwise, the performance is solid even in handheld mode. The storyline revolving around enslaved Dahnans and Renian lords is multifaceted, and amusing moments between the characters lighten the mood time and again. With only a few new elements, Beyond the Dawn is slightly weaker than the main game, but it provides an exciting focal point in the form of Nazamil. For this reason, the RPG is definitely worth checking out on Nintendo Switch 2.
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The strengths of Console Archives Rhapsody: A Musical RPG lie in its fresh concept and excellent vocals. Unfortunately, in terms of gameplay, the battles are so simplistic that most of the mechanics are irrelevant.
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For a typical idle game, there’s perhaps a little too little that can be automated in Petunia’s Purgatory. For a farming game that focuses entirely on field crops, the progression is well done.
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The farming sim Farlands may not reinvent the wheel, but it does combine familiar gameplay with an unusual setting.
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Unfortunately, the first thing that stands out in K-pop Idol Stories: Road to Debut is the large number of bugs and game crashes affecting the Nintendo Switch version. Auto-saves are rarely as important as they are here, even though it’s not always possible to resume playing smoothly even then.
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It's not quite the game I bought back then, but for me the VR rhythm game just got better. Especially thanks to active support with updates and new DLC packs, Synth Riders is for me the best VR rhythm game experience on PSVR2.
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The Merry Fairy offers a relaxed woodland cabin setting for digital scrapbooking. It's a bit of a shame that self-typed texts can only be edited to a limited extent, but that hardly matters in the overall package.
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Rat Protocol is a well-crafted little sliding puzzle game with well-combined mechanics. Additionally, the storytelling through short scenes organically links the levels and new mechanics together.
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Adorable Adventures is a cute adventure revolving around a wild boar in a national park. The tracking of scent trails is not overused within the game framework. Additionally, the game offers some side content. Only Boris's slippery hooves dim the gameplay fun a little bit.
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Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei, the otome visual novel, leads into historical Japanese events and skillfully combines the Genpei War and fiction. Shanao is an entertaining protagonist whose various facets are brought to light.
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Secret Paws - Cozy Apartments, the 3D hidden object game, unfortunately repeats the same weaknesses as Cozy Offices. The controls are imprecise and the hiding spots for the cats offer little variance.
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Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a successful puzzle and exploration game with platforming elements. There is a lot to discover and experiment with, and most of the hints also help in trying out new approaches. The encyclopedia is convincingly implemented both as an incentive for research and as an illustrated book. Unfortunately, some outlines do not look particularly appealing in handheld mode. The discoveries themselves contain a great deal of creativity, and only very few creatures feel somewhat weaker than the others. The level of interactivity and the constant stream of new discoveries make Yoshi and the Mysterious Book a worthwhile title.
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Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen is a competent adventure game that, while clearly aimed at children, does not shy away from offering a modest level of challenge. The levels are varied in design, and recurring puzzles and platforming challenges noticeably increase in complexity over time. The stages themselves are also surprisingly large. The cutscenes between levels are entertaining, and although the physical edition does not include any bonus content, it works perfectly well without requiring additional updates. The only significant drawback is the stuttering that occurs when collecting pearls, which can be somewhat distracting. While Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen is primarily targeted at fans of the series and younger players, those outside its intended audience can still find plenty to enjoy.
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Kioku: Last Summer is a relaxing summer vacation adventure that unfortunately still struggles with a number of technical issues. The in-game week offers plenty of variety through all kinds of holiday activities, and while the overall tone is cheerful and lighthearted, the story also includes a few more serious moments, particularly during interpersonal conflicts. At the same time, however, the adventure is not yet entirely polished on a technical level, and some of the bugs are distracting enough to noticeably affect the experience. As a result, I can currently only recommend the title with some caution.
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The Remake of the End of the Greatest RPG of All Time is a multilayered meta puzzle game in which both the game itself and its meta level are highly compelling. Clues are hidden in a wide variety of ways, and knowledge is frequently recontextualized. Progress is sometimes tied to newly acquired abilities, but even more often to newly gained understanding. The puzzle-based battles are built around an engaging concept and remain fresh through the constant introduction of new ideas and approaches. On top of that, the game features a richly layered meta dimension with developer commentary and more, all of which interlocks remarkably well. Right now, I’m simply happy that I had the chance to experience TRotEotGRPGoAT.
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The parody RPG Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1+ gets a little too lost in repetition. Whether it is the constant jokes about pudding or the endlessly reused dungeon layouts, the game often falls back on the same ideas. Many of its references are entertaining, but the abundance of comedic moments and fourth-wall breaks eventually becomes overwhelming, leaving the dialogue lacking in lasting substance. In fact, their sheer frequency even undermines the worldbuilding. Despite being heavily built around references and satire, the setting contains a number of genuinely interesting concepts that never receive the attention they deserve. As a result, the game ultimately earns only a limited recommendation, primarily for players who already enjoy its particular brand of humor.
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Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation is an entertaining parody of the video game industry, but as a sequel it offers relatively few gameplay improvements. The RPG’s dialogue is somewhat less over-the-top than that of its predecessor, yet it loses none of its fondness for references and industry in-jokes. The dungeons, however, stand out for the wrong reasons. Their repetitive nature becomes even more noticeable over the course of the game, and the highly passive Stella’s Dungeon feature does little to compensate for this shortcoming. Even when played as a standalone title or with a significant gap after Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1+, the humor is not quite enough to fully offset the weaknesses in the gameplay and dungeon design.
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