This is an intense, clever, thoughtful and intellectually challenging JRPG that should remind people that when it comes to this genre, visual presentation and even the gameplay itself aren't the drawcard. It's that story that counts, and Radiant Historia manages to achieve something truly remarkable in giving players a time travelling plot that is genuinely interesting and worthwhile.
The game's not going to draw the attention or community of "proper" fighting games, but Slice, Dice & Rice is distinctive, intelligent, rhythmical and, more importantly, intense.
It's never fun to play a game that's so fundamentally uninteresting that you really struggle to even watch the screen as you're playing. Fantasy Hero: Unsigned Legacy is a painfully generic and completely forgettable action JRPG, and there's just so much better stuff out there that deserves a port to this console that I'm almost offended that this one, somehow, was singled out for a release on the Nintendo Switch.
The developers haven't messed with the content. Because almost no one bought the Wii U, few people had the chance to play Bayonetta 2. With Bayonetta 3 on the horizon, giving people a chance to catch up is a really good idea on Nintendo's part. That's why these ports have been released, and they're that good that, even if you were one of the few with a Wii U, you may as well buy them again.
Koei Tecmo has done a remarkable job of telling the many stories of the many people that make Romance of the Three Kingdoms such a compelling book and period of history, and the beautiful cinematic consistency makes it the most perfect realisation of everything Koei Tecmo has been aiming for with this series since way back on the PlayStation 2.
There's so much raw content in this package that, as long as you're a fan of the standard tactics JRPG formula, you won't be able to help but get plenty of value out of this trilogy. And the standard tactics JRPG formula is so damn good that it's timeless. Making Mercenaries Saga itself functionally timeless.
All said, The Seven Deadly Sins is a fun anime franchise, and that sense of fun does translate to the game. It's not a perfect game by any means, and has some genuinely aggravating elements, though, and that means it is going to be one that only fans of the franchise are going to enjoy.
If the developers were to take the tower defence sections and spin that into an entire, dedicated game, Aegis Defenders could be really something worthwhile. That side of the game is truly enjoyable. But it's let down by trying to be something more than that, and the platforming and "exploration" elements just don't gel well with the good stuff to make this game as cohesive as it needed to be.
The Men of Yoshiwara is a really interesting little visual novel about the idea of the "floating worlds" of old Japan's night life, the people that participated in them, and what people got up to there. You may well baulk at first at the idea of a game about "dating male prostitutes," but really, this is a strong bit of storytelling that goes a long way to describe the differing understanding that Japan and the west have about what a sex worker is (or, at least, once was in Japan), and that makes it interesting.
The Longest Five Minutes is a love letter to the genre that wants you to remember that you're meant to enjoy the journey in a JRPG, too, and I certainly walked away from this game with a renewed appreciation for the spirit of adventure in these games itself.
This is, genuinely, the first time I've ever been hooked on an online-orientated competitive game.
There's nothing genuinely like Shadow of the Colossus out there, and hopefully this new, pretty version, as superficial as that prettiness is to what makes the game so important, encourages a new generation of players to try it for themselves.
The game plays beautifully, is perfectly comfortable with a controller, is expansive, and is both enjoyable and illuminating. Everything that a good simulation game should be, really.
Rento Fortune just isn't worth it. There's a good half dozen genuinely good board games available on the PlayStation 4 if you want to play board games on the big TV, including Monopoly itself, and those games have interfaces that don't drive you insane trying to work your way through them, don't have random caricatures of Kim Jong Un popping up for no actual reason, and have some kind of effort put into the production values.
It's a beautiful, emotive game and with it Tokyo RPG Factory has cemented itself as one of my favourite JRPG outfits going around.
That Dragon Ball FighterZ is a great fighter there can be no doubt. It's energetic, exciting, fast, and also highly technical.
If nothing else there is genuinely nothing else quite like Ambition of the Slime, and the concept of actually leading weak, largely defenceless units into battle is such a clever way to flip the tactics RPG on its head that it's well worth looking into for fans of the genre, purely as a curiosity if nothing else.
As a game, Beholder is really well made. It has an interesting aesthetic, clever, challenging mechanics, and plenty of paths through the game. Its real struggle is in getting you to genuinely care about what's going on, and it's hard to get there; the gameplay too often makes it too clear that you need to make decisions that have little to do with your moral core.
The bigger screen and better resolution of the Switch makes Of Mice And Sand the game it wanted to be.
All together, Azkend 2 is a perfectly workable and enjoyable match-3 game. If you've played quite a few of these in the past then you're probably going to question whether you need even more of them, but then again, this is the first match-3 game of its kind on the Switch to date, so perhaps there's an audience for it. It's not going to be your game of the year, but you might just get a lot of play out of it.