Chris Shive
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is essentially JRPG comfort food.
Monster Hunter Generations is an action RPG that is designed to consume your life.
Crush Your Enemies is a fast-paced RTS that combines a need for strong strategy with pick up and play accessibility.
Daydreamer: Awakened Edition plays like an early 90s platformer but looks like it belongs in this console generation.
Cast of the Seven Godsends Redux could only be more old school if it actually was made in 1991.
Lifeless Planet is all about exploration and atmosphere (groan).
Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force is an enjoyable, though not groundbreaking RPG.
Snow Horse is a mildly amusing concept that could have been decent if it were developed beyond the idea of “let’s put a horse on a snowboard.
A.W.: Phoenix Festa attempts to combine an action RPG with a dating sim and is actually able to pull it off. It is a short game that can be completed in just a few hours, but it has some replay value since getting different partners for the Phoenix Festa or trying to date different women can offer a different experience the second time around. There is not a great deal of challenge to it but it is a cute game that can be casually enjoyed, provided one has thick enough skin to handle repeated rejection from digital young ladies.
Grow Up is a worthy follow up to Grow Home.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is a modern JRPG masterpiece.
Wrath of Loki: VR Adventure is a rather short game that is designed to be completed in twenty to thirty minutes.
MeiQ: Labyrinth of Death is a good though unremarkable game.
60 Seconds! is a blast (groan).
Criminal Girls 2: Party Favors isn’t a groundbreaking RPG, but does offer a decent gaming experience with an interesting story concept.
Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past takes a fragment of gaming’s forgotten past and breathes new life into it. Some of the more hardcore Dragon Quest fans may find the reduction in job grinding time and streamlining the intro a negative change that dumbs down the game, but I would argue that it also makes the title more accessible and more fun. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past is essentially the same game we remember from the PlayStation except it has been updated and improved.
Combining an action RPG with a building game is an unusual combination, but great care was done to ensure that fans of both can be satisfied by this and the freedom to play the game in a way most compatible to the individual player’s preference only makes it better.
Butcher is not an innovative title by any means, but that is also kind of the point.
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky mends Metroidvania style platforming and exploring with a traditional JRPG with turn-based battles to surprisingly good effect.
Atlas Reactor is a fun game for people who love blasting the hell out of their friends.