Even that's ultimately part of the charm of Elex II though, because it was a game made by RPG enthusiasts for RPG enthusiasts, and min-maxing is, ultimately, a big part of this community. Though the game comes across as an impenetrable club members-only experience at times, the creativity and energy behind it is impossible to deny. Frankly, I would rather play something like this, bugs and all, than something overproduced and so safe that it puts me to sleep.
Atelier remains the comfort food of video games, and Atelier Sophie 2 is one of the more comforting snacks. With so many dense and complex games releasing around one another at the moment, having something that is light, warm, and good-natured is a nice release. I don't know if launching immediately after Elden Ring and Horizon, and immediately before Triangle Strategy works in Sophie's favour, but if you can resist making those comparisons, what you'll see here is one of the most refined and beautiful entries in this long-running and utterly wonderful JRPG mainstay. The game deserves better than to be compared like-for-like with these other titles, as it no doubt will be.
With Elden Ring, we're in masterpiece territory.
Puzzle & Dragons on console could be and should be so much more than this. The base game - the puzzling action itself - is so good, and we've already seen the proof that it works in a more expanded, ambitious project. Dumping the mobile game on Nintendo Switch, meanwhile, seems odd and pointless. I can't even play the mobile game here in Australia and I was still left wondering why anyone would think something this shallow and featureless would work on console.
I do admire the developer's desire to maintain the arcade fighter tone and aesthetic in King of Fighters, and I'll forever be a fan of this series as long as they keep dropping Athena into it. The team at SNK are no doubt working on more limited budgets than the big guns, and with the absolute focus on esports in the fighting game space it's no surprise that they've made that a near-perfect experience, even as they've stripped almost everything else out of the game to make that happen. However, there's no way to paper over this; people who do like fighting games in single player or local multiplayer are going to be left feeling very cold, though. Colder than Kula, even. And that's disappointing.
The Forsaken Maiden is not really a sequel or successor to the first Voice of Cards. There's no effort to build on the previous game. Instead, The Forsaken Maiden exists in parallel to the first Voice of Cards, as another module to sit on the virtual bookshelf of adventures. I only hope that Square Enix is being rewarded for these and the plan is to fill many shelves with many more parallel modules like this. I will forever find the time to more Voice of Cards if it's going to keep being like this.
Monark is a smart game. It knows it, and it wants you to know it too. Some may well find that it's even pretentious. But it’s also in so many ways a boundary-pushing and innovative experience, and one that I imagine will be unique for a very long time to come. Putting aside the disappointment that comes from realising that it could have attacked with its themes more, I don’t think there is any other way that the creative team could have delivered on a more coherent and compelling vision and, really, it is experiences like Monark that keep me interested in this medium. Don’t let this one pass you by, folks.
Challenging, rewarding, gorgeous and culturally authentic, GetsuFumaDen is one of the most enjoyable roguelikes I’ve played. Mechanically it doesn’t do much to challenge or reinvent the formula, but it streamlines it beautifully. Meanwhile, it offers a vivid and detailed, classical take on Japanese art styles and the Hyakki Yagyō storytelling tradition. As a starting point for learning more about both these things, you couldn’t ask for something more inspired.
I'm not the world's biggest fan of platformers, but I very much warmed to Grapple Dog. The thought and passion that went into every element of the experience is explicit, and it's hard not to fall for its wiles and charms. I do think the developers lost sight a little of how they wanted people to play this game, as the speedrunning quality of the movement system does feel at odds with the way the game also asks you to carefully explore levels, but that's really splitting hairs here. Grapple Dog is a bold, confident, and often inspired take on a genre that is as oversaturated as they come.
Slightly more cerebral while also filled with the fast action that the series is known for, Dynasty Warriors 9 Empires sits neatly as a midway point between the action of the "proper" Dynasty Warriors and the strategy of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. There probably isn't all that much of an audience for this, but for fans that were disappointed with the open world experiment of Dynasty Warriors 9, Empires here will be redemption, and for those who have never let their enthusiasm for the series be dampened, this is an excellent opportunity to marry Sun Shangxiang and make many beautiful babies... or perhaps to unite China. Whatever your preference is, really.
It builds on the success of the first game in a way that I am quite certain that those who loved Aloy and her first quest will find even more to love about this one.
I just did not care enough about anything that I was seeing or doing to enjoy Edge of Eternity. The narrative lacks thought and insight, the characters are bland, and each new location simply means more fetch quests and slightly higher level enemies to go through the motions to fight. Edge of Eternity is undoubtedly beautiful and the art team deserves kudos, but it is a hollow, empty, and shallow kind of beauty, and with no intelligence nor soul to back it up, the talents of the artists are largely wasted on this one.
The Hundred Year Kingdom is the most rare and precious of things: it's a smart, engaging, and thoughtful game, but also one that is highly accessible, playable, and respects the player's time. It is clearly a solo project, but it's also weird how a solo developer has managed to figure out how to do that when so many developers 1,000x their size remain committed to wasting our lives on their content.
There’s a place for this kind of game, though, and thanks to the great sense of humour, Maglam Lord remains a delight from start right through to its end. It’s a kind of comfort food that operates within the expectations of the genre, and so, while someone who is not familiar with JRPGs will find it all confounding, if you do appreciate the nuances and of the genre it’s going to entertain you a great deal.
Historical fiction is a quick way to my heart, and while, if I were inclined to make a historical fiction game set in ancient Rome myself, I would probably go with some kind of retelling of Caligula’s story (note: I swear it’s so much more interesting than the popular stories would have you believe), I found this to be interesting and engaging experience on every level. The tactical action is challenging and deep, the management side of things is robust, and the story that it weaves will keep you invested, even 40 or more hours into it. This is an early game of the year contender.
Every time I think I'm losing interest in Pokémon, Game Freak does something to reinvigorate me. The Pokémon Pearl and Diamond remakes last year were fine, though I ended up spending more time just playing the original Pokémon Pearl again. I needed something like Arceus, I think, to get me to once again drop dozens of hours into a single game. This is a brave, bold game into new frontiers for Game Freak, and it confidently promises a new and revitalised future for the series.
I'm sadly torn on Gomoku. I love that we have a serious take on a great game on Nintendo Switch, but the lack of online play defies all logic. If you've been dying to learn Gomoku, then this will get you going (aside from the missing application of a critical rule). Otherwise, though, anyone interested enough in Gomoku to consider a video game adaptation surely has a board of their own for local play, and the game's utility as a training tool is hindered by how few opportunities most of us will ever have to want to play the game seriously enough to train. The application itself is presented lovingly, but I just don't see the audience here.
There might not be much of Hatsune Miku herself in Connecting Puzzle Tamagotori, but I can't see how a Miku fan would be disappointed by this game. It's warm, creative, bright and charming. It might not be the most challenging puzzle game you've ever played, but I doubt you've played a happier one.
The adventure does ultimately end up being a worthwhile one, with interesting characters, an incredible art style, and great music. But if there were more to the gameplay, the game – and its world – could have offered so much more.
If 2022 is going to be the year where I end up slamming dozens of games for being written like amateurish fan fiction, so be it. YA-style writing might sell well, but to be perfectly blunt about this it's good writing in only the most exceedingly rare cases. For narrative-heavy genres, like RPGs, the tonal dissonance that YA writing forces into to work to make it read and sound "modern" even if it's set in a world of swords and sorcery, is unacceptable. I could have and should have liked Reverie Tactics. In practice, I found it infuriating. Developers: please stop pitching your work at this level.