Tales of Vesperia is a classic JRPG that goes back to the roots of what made the series shine. Despite its flaws when it comes to its setting and style, earnest storytelling, a fantastic combat system, and memorable cast of characters make the game worth that ten year wait.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force presents us with a game that may have once been a stellar JRPG title 20 years ago, but those standards just don't hold up in 2022. When compared to its contemporaries, it's just not on the same level, in any way. It's always been a B-Tier Square Enix franchise, but once upon a time, Star Ocean was an essential title. It's a shame that more effort has not gone into modernizing and revitalizing a beloved franchise.
This game shares a lot of DNA with the Dragonball Xenoverse titles but manages to falter at almost every aspect, with flaws in the mission structure, the combat, the way you attain loot and in the way that you develop your character.
If Tales of Zestiria wants to be the banner for modern Japanese RPGs, then much more effort and work needed to be done for the game to stand up amongst modern classics such as Persona 4 and Xenoblade: Chronicles.
Corpse Party: Blood Drive is the very definition of a mixed bag. Its 3D exploration aspects never quite work and just when you're finally able to settle into playing the game, it suddenly switches back over to another visual novel stretch. Combined with poor pacing in the game's early hours and a lack of any options to help explain the events of the prior games to new players, it feels like Corpse Party: Blood Drive struggles to decide what it wants to be, and despite the occasional show of strength in its writing and characterisation, it ultimately results in a frustrating, inconsistent experience.
Call of Cthulhu manages to deliver a game that's ripe with atmosphere but is built upon tried-and-true tropes of the genre that never really manage to evolve beyond the scope of what's already been seen and heard before. Paired with some technical hiccups, we can say that Call of Cthulhu is only really for truly dedicated fans of Lovecraft; everyone else is advised to look elsewhere for their entertainment.
Yu-No: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World was clearly once an incredibly daring visual novel, but some of that sense of mystery is done a disservice when revisiting the concept via this remake.
Warriors Orochi 4 is not a particularly bad game, but it does feel like it's trying its best to innovate on a tired formula, but those new additions might not be enough. Compounded with finicky menus and performance issues, it leaves the game leaving a little bit more to be desired than what it offers currently. And no, that doesn't mean they should add more characters.
With it's high-octane pace, RGX Showdown is an incredibly promising blueprint for a low-priced arcade racer, but with the untimely demise of its publisher, Telltale, it's hard to tell if the developers, Shortround Games will be able to make a sequel or expand on the premise of the game.
Bandai-Namco's flagship fighting game Tekken is one of the meatiest fighting games around.
The glimpses of brilliance all stay in the early parts of the game, with the latter portions of the main story being incredibly weak, and shows signs that even after years of development, that Final Fantasy XV still wasn't quite finished.
With a length of over 40 hours to get through the main story, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot might linger a bit too long for those looking for a varied experience, as the variety in sidequests is incredibly lacking. While everything looks pretty enough and a healthy dose of fanservice and nostalgia for those who are diehard Dragon Ball Z fans, it often feels like more effort than it’s worth.
With high production values and the quality of writing that you’d see in a mainline Steins;Gate game, this one is definitely for the hardcore fans looking to see their favourite characters again and see them in silly situations.
Doraemon: Story of Seasons is an enchanting, relaxing romp through a world that is so much simpler than ours. With gorgeous visuals and a never-ending list of things to do, it's unlikely that you'll get bored while playing it. While its slow-pace might turn off some, it's incredibly welcome to play a game where the fate of the world isn't at stake, and you can instead just sit down and decide what plants you might want to grow for the upcoming year.
Despite the bumpy setting and plot, Rebel Cops is a great game to take on the go for a little bit of tactical action. It stands up with stalwarts of the genre, and offers enough challenge and replayability to make you come back for more. Where the game falters is in its UI and quality of life options, but some instances of small text and slightly finicky menus do not take away from what is a solid turn-based tactics game.
If you want to get into MHGU then you'll need some external help, but the addition of this title on Switch makes it perfect to take on the go. It complements the preparation and hunt loop upon which the game relies, with minimal performance hitches or issues.
Street Fighter 5 has a great, newbie-friendly fighting system that retains the depth of its classic predecessors for players to master. In many ways it's the best Street Fighter yet, but launching with the netcode in such a state can't go unnoticed, especially when it impacts such an important part of the multiplayer. The core of Street Fighter is still there, and is as good as ever, but unfortunately these problems - plus lacking options in single player - mean there's not a lot else.
Horizon: Call of the Mountain does not move any proverbial mountains, but it remains a strong technical showcase for what the PlayStation VR2 can do. In a world where AAA VR titles don’t appear too often, it’s in an exclusive club of unmissable VR experiences that you should definitely pick up.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure has tonnes of heart, and just has joy bursting from every seam, whether you play alone, or in co-op. The scalable Unreal 4 engine impresses here, as we had the game looking, and running well on two spectacularly different devices. We only wished there was FSR support here, as it's an incredibly odd omission.
While the game is incredibly gripping, be prepared to read through thousands of words to get to the heart of it.