Each level is significantly more difficult than the last, and you’ll find you need to replay old levels over and over again to earn stars to upgrade towers to give you a fighting chance at the next level. Eventually you unlock the ability to upgrade the towers to offer additional effects; the water tower can freeze enemies, the fire tower can burn them, but it’s too little, too late. All of this would be almost okay if 4 Elements also wasn’t one of the most unrelentingly plain-looking games, with terrible sprites representing enemies, and bland level design to back it up.
There are dozens and dozens of different elemental monsters to discover, and that’s half the joy of the game. The other half is the bright charm and personality of Alchemic Jousts. It’s not the deepest strategy game you’ll ever play, but it’s one of the most charming that you’ll see for some time to come.
This kind of game flies by okay as a little mobile time waster, but a PlayStation 4 experience needs to offer much more than this.
I’ll be throwing a fair amount of money at Let It Die because I believe the game deserves a premium price, and Goichi Suda is a visionary game maker who has never failed to surprise and delight.
The game is deep, meaningful, and powerful. It's reflective, different, and beautiful. It may well end up being more divisive than Ueda's previous masterpieces, but that doesn't mean it's not a masterpiece, from one of the industry's true auteurs. Play this game. Even if you hate it, it's going to broaden your horizons around what games are truly capable of.
This game alone catapults Square Enix's most important franchise right back into the circle of most elite properties in gaming, proves that AAA games can be intelligent and meaningful, and deserves every plaudit and accolade out there.
I know I'm often critical of big budget blockbusters, but the Assassin's Creed series has always been one I've enjoyed because of that historical context. This specific package of games has clearly been designed to fill a gap in Ubisoft's schedule for the series. It shows that none of the main Assassin's Creed games are going to age particularly well, but it also does a good job of highlighting - when freed of the expectations that come with being a blockbuster - that the real strengths of the series are far more subtle than the graphics or size of the cities that it renders.
The most creative that Game Freak has been with the franchise in quite some time, and players who had grown tired of the iterative approach the developer had been taking may well find this one a Renaissance for the series.
Steins;Gate already demonstrated just how far the visual novel could be pushed towards an experience with genuine literary merit, and the sequel pushes things even further. This is a highly relevant game to some very real discussions that ethicists and moral philosophers will be pondering in the years ahead, and at the same time it tells a ripping, entertaining story. A real masterpiece on every level, and one of the best games I've played all year.
Last year I was willing to give the franchise a chance, hoping against hope that, it being the first game, future editions would be better. I am under no such illusions this time around.
Farming Simulator 17 is the best kind of game; it’s a game that offers more than just entertainment.
And BlazBlue really is gorgeous. Every character is animated in such a way that every movement they make reinforces their personalities. Every environment is a living, breathing thing that sets a meaningful scene and helps build the world around the characters. Because everything is 2D and quite flat, it’s easy to wish that all that storytelling and character building was funnelled into a more natural fit, but then again, with BlazBlue being such a successful franchise for so long now, it’s hard to argue that the developers and producers are making a mistake.
It’s rare that we have a game that genuinely deserves to be called “elegant”, but Root Letter is that game. It takes a romantic, nostalgic idea, wraps it up in a mystery that is fun to piece together, and does all of that within the context of one of the most beautiful examples of anime art you’ll ever see.
I certainly didn’t come away from this game with any lost affection for dolls, and my Miku continues to own the living room. More seriously, though, Weeping Doll had a lot of potential, and it’s genuinely disappointing that it wasn’t able to follow through with it. This one you can’t chalk up as developer teething pains with VR; this game would be every bit as flawed, regardless of the platform it was on.
It can be completely disorientating to be playing a monster game without direct control over your creatures, I appreciate that. But Yo-Kai Watch 2 is a game that asks for your patience. After an initiation period the cultural context of the game will grow on anyone who has ever had an interest in Japan, and that charm, humour and raw personality of the game carries it through. I’m still surprised that Nintendo ever thought that there would be an audience for Yo-Kai Watch 2 in the west, but boy am I glad that they did.
Necropolis is best taken as a satire. It’s not perfect in that role, but it’s good fun nonetheless, and a healthy foil to the kind of experiences that have become so in-demand with the success of the Souls games. If you’re able to get the full complement of four players together, you’re in for some classically entertaining and self-aware dungeon crawling fun.
Due to the simplicity of the gameplay, the small number of buildings, and the general ease of play, Tethered is rather limited in its replay value, and the presence of leaderboards isn’t enough to compensate for this.
Horror is a very natural fit for [VR technology], but some awkward juxtapositions between Here They Lie’s art direction and theming, and the critical lack of physical feedback after providing such a sensory overload in other ways, is perhaps an argument that the best horror experiences we’ll see on VR will be the “walking simulators” that focus on psychological fear rather than physical threats.
The game is simply too limited, too clunky, too ugly, and too underdeveloped for its own good. Especially when Blast ‘em Bunnies does the same thing, only much better. The extra VR effect in Ace Banana just isn’t worth the trade-off in every other way.
As someone who has been a lifelong fan of Final Fantasy, World of Final Fantasy was specifically designed for people like me, and I love Square Enix for it. Respectful of its heritage, but creative with how it presents it, this game has had a far more meaningful impact on me than almost any other game I’ve played this year. So, thank you, Square Enix. It feels like a gift.