Pierre-Yves Lanthier's Reviews
The Surge 2 is a refined, challenging, and rewarding Soulsborne that has its own identity and value beyond the alternative setting. It won't have the industry-wide reverberations that a FromSoftware title does, but for fans within the genre, this is next one they should play.
To be honest, I racked my brain to TRY and find something positive to say about this game. I can’t begin to imagine how much work goes into creating and executing a video game, and I don’t WANT to shit all over someone’s art. However, I also just can’t bring myself to promote something that is so irresponsible. What Happened had the potential to be an important commentary on mental illness, personal struggle, and hopelessness. Instead, it was a hopeless mess.
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.
Empyre: Lords of the Sea Gates has a lot of potential but unfortunately it's made so clumsily that it is just painful to actually play.
While I appreciate the idea behind making a Power Rangers game that taps into nostalgia, I can't help but feel that the Power Rangers property can - and should - do far better with the brawler genre.
So overall, I would have a hard time recommending The Skylia Prophecy to anyone who's not seriously up for a major and almost hardcore challenge. The core mechanics are stiff, certain ways forward can take you to your grave in literally one shot if you're not lucky when doing what you need to, and the ways forward are often blocked off due to a lack of mana giving you no other option than reloading and doing it over again as there's no way back. It's really unfortunate because I had high hopes for this retro Castlevania inspired title.
So unfortunately, there is a lot here that can't be overlooked. Even with version 1.02 having fixed some issues that were much more prominent in version 1.00, between some of the design decisions and just the sheer amount of crashes that I've had post launch date on two separate XB1 units... I really wanted to love Tears of Avia being a huge SRPG fan, but unfortunately between the issues and just the overall drop after the introduction, I unfortunately couldn't.
Elex is a fascinating attempt to blend the likes of an open world RPG with the ideas that so brilliantly make the Soul’s series combat what it is. Shot down from the sky by one of his own, Jax sets out for revenge with nothing more than a bent pipe in the post meteor struck world of Magalan.
I really wanted to enjoy my time with Warhammer 40K Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition but some of the design choices just made it seem long and drawn out. Adding in killer load times, and sometimes it wasn’t worth reloading from a previous save but instead starting the mission over because you didn’t get out of the way of a missile turret fast enough.
With a planet in danger as an evil tyrant invades with his army at the press of a button, a duo from the Zheros squad is dispatched to protect it. Taking out the initial invading forces in the span of time equal to that of writing a Twitter post, it doesn't take long for even more of the invaders to be sent off in order to finish both the job and the duo that stands between liberation and subjugation.
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
One Piece: Unlimited World Red Deluxe Edition is the definitive edition of the game.
Neither accessible, nor enough of a Gundam tribute for this community to remain large for any significant period of time, I fear.
On the whole, Nitroplus Blasterz Heroines Infinite Duel is a quality 2D fighter, even if it lacks the narrative in needed and the characterisation that would have made it more effective as fanservice. All I can recommend is that you give the game a chance until you've managed to topple the boss, because from that point on you'll probably find yourself with a game that has a combat system you'll quite enjoy.
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.
So while there are some good ideas behind Aluna: Sentinel of the Shards, I found that the console port may need a bit more work in order to better shine. With a comic book storytelling approach and a decent skill system for character customization, there’s plenty here that works well, but unfortunately the current visual presentation elements hold it back.
So overall, Hellpoint has some good ideas and it has a great framework in place. Unfortunately, even with the good ideas and the framework it feels a bit bland as even with the inclusion of being able to jump and it being part of the exploration, the areas held no mystery of threats of death by those that live within them like Bloodborne, Demons or Dark Souls or the The Surge. That said, the devs are still working on this and I’m hopeful that some of these issues get addressed and I would be glad to try it again down the line and also hope for a sequel or new project with the ideas that they’ve put in place here.
Devil’s Hunt feels dated and it probably could have done with a bit more polish to add in what this style of title needs the most. Oomph. You need to be able to feel the power behind your hits. The story is cheesy and that would have been fine as I love a good dose of cheese, but without a system to back it up and actually make it fun going between those doses of cheesiness? It gets really hard to want to continue as it just becomes a mindless and un-entertaining trek forward.
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.
So overall, Akiba's Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is going to most likely find itself as more of a novelty experience than one that draws new fans to the series being the precursor to Akiba's Trip: Undead and Undressed. It's not a bad brawler or beat 'em up, but it does show its age in its mechanics especially when compared to its sequel that we've had our hands on for much longer.