Pierre-Yves Lanthier's Reviews
So other than the various technical issues that Sword and Fairy 6 has, it’s a good title. With customizable battle styles and a good battle system alongside good storytelling, there’s plenty to love if you can get past the awful load times and the choppy performance.
Silence: The Whispered World 2 is an excellent sequel to the first. With new and returning characters, smooth controls, gorgeous graphics and excellent sound, there’s plenty to love whether you’ve been to Silence in the past or are here for the first time.
Yet Another Zombie Defense HD is a great addition to the Switch and for people who are looking for a break from their xth rounds of Mario Kart or Smash Brothers. With several game modes and study controls, there’s enough going on with the ever increasing difficulty to keep you and your team going for a while!
Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain is the perfect addition to the series.
FatBot Games’ Vaporum is still, to quote myself, a Dungeon Crawling experience that fans will find plenty to love with the mix of the old schooled and new ideas alike. With solid gameplay mechanics and good shreds of information to keep you guessing as to what’s happened, the dive back into this tower was made even better with the fact that you can take it on the go with the Switch’s portability!
Blaster Master Zero 2 was loads of fun. Coming out of nowhere for fans of the first and for me, I have zero regrets and will now head out in order to play the first to see just how the two compare to one another. With more or less three varied modes of gameplay, slick controls and plenty of new abilities to pick up and use against standard and boss mutants alike, there’s plenty to enjoy for both fans of metroidvanias and platformers!
Overall, One Piece: World Seeker has some great ideas - and the premise of an open world tie-in for One Piece is brilliant, but in execution the game falls short of being a great experience
So while a lot of the elements were there in order to create a stellar throwback RPG with nods to some rather great titles for their time, Eternity: The Last Unicorn missed that mark due to some of those design choices and the performance issues. With a bit more work and balancing though, as it’s never too late, Void Studios still have a chance to fix a good chunk of these issues and I would be more than glad to revisit this title once they do.
Honestly? As excited as I was to get my hands on Fimbul as Norse mythology is a great one, and pretty hot right now between the Thor movies, The Iron Druid novels and the newest God of War, Fimbul, the winter before Ragnarok, will not be making its way to the halls of Valhalla. It really should have gone through much more testing and refinement because it has the elements to be a great title, but the execution and the approach taken is just not there.
Overall Hell Warders has some good ideas and visually looks great but the mechanics are just not there. Also plagued by performance issues and horrible load times, I’m looking forward to future versions which could solve some of the above to make it a bit smoother as I would honestly love to see it succeed as the ideas behind it were good ones.
DMC 5 is a fine way to bring the series roaring back after a decade in limbo.
So was seven years worth waiting for a new entry to Dead or Alive? Yes. Alongside the like of the newest Soul Calibur and the upcoming Mortal Kombat, this is a good time to be a fan of these titles. With both a new story to follow and plenty of other modes to keep yourself and others occupied as you go head to head, Dead or Alive 6 is a great new entry into the series and worth picking up.
Overall, Tale of Enki: Pilgrimage is a solid title. With a great 16-bit era design, combat system and sarcastically written dialog, it’s an indie RPG worth visiting!
All in all, X-Morph Defense is a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to the European Assault being added over to the Nintendo Switch. With great Twin-Stick Shooter elements alongside a very robust Tower Defense formula, there’s something here for fans of either side for both some solo or coop gameplay.
Far Cry New Dawn while being a great experience feels more like an expansion to Far Cry 5 than it does its own stand alone title. This is not a bad thing, but if it had to be compared? It would be like saying New Dawn is equivalent to The Witcher 3’s Blood & Wine which was a great addition to the main title.
Overall Tangledeep was a lot of fun and short of the movement scheme, very well designed. Adding in a bit of accessibility into something as unforgiving as a Roguelike made for a familiar yet new experience that takes some of the stress away from the front end of the experience while in another way never removing it at all as the sharp fangs are simply better hidden.
While there are a lot of standard features for its genre, God Eater 3 is far from standard. Where once this was one of the genre's pretenders, sitting quietly on handheld consoles and developing a small, but dedicated audience, it now looks like Bandai Namco has a series that belongs with Toukiden and Monster Hunter at the very front of the stage.
On an overall, Valthirian Arc: A High School Story will probably remain a hidden treasure to a lot of people because of its pacing. While I wish there was more depth to the simulations as there really isn’t much else to do but place a building and upgrade it once it’s time, it’s a light feature that compliments the Quests and Errands as each building grants boosts from attack, defense to experience or item gains.
Overall, Dynasty Warriors 8: Extreme Legends Definitive Edition is a great addition to the Nintendo Switch and a great place to start with the series if you've never touched a Musou before. The only real complaint that I have is because all of the other series have spoiled me at this point in which when you fail, you still get experience points instead of being booted back out to the main menu. That's the only real complain to an overall great re-re-release of the 8th entry. With how well this transitioned to the Switch, I do hope to see Dynasty Warriors 9 in the near future!
EDF5 shows that this style of series can continue to thrive with some minor modifications to the experience. It's still fun to play years down the line, the premise is an easy one to follow and the gameplay is easy enough for anyone to slide into as the difficulty curve is a smooth one. Earth Defense Force 5 is a lot of fun alone but often you'll want someone beside you for your shenanigans or someone else from online.