Pierre-Yves Lanthier's Reviews
Overall while short, Effie is a cute little throwback adventure that’s easy enough to pass through in an afternoon. With some fun puzzles, easy combat and interesting boss fights, I just hope that the Switch version is patched to offer the same smooth experience that was showcased in the opening trailers.
So overall, Gleamlight is a good testing ground for a different kind of adventure but unfortunately some of its more unique ideas are what does it in. Gorgeous to look at, there’s simply no challenge to the combat and the platforming never really becomes complex enough to “make you sweat”. Adding in that the puzzle solving is extremely basic and I’m glad that it only took a few hours to go through because it all started to feel rather repetitive. That said, I’m hoping to see more in the vein of Gleamlight down the line with perhaps more refined features and a harder difficulty such as two hits and you’re out which would increase the stress of your decisions and the difficulty dramatically.
So all in all, Element Space has some great ideas, great combat, decent storytelling which is sometimes blended into the combat sequences, but is a bit rough around the edges. Given some time and some patches though, this should be a much smoother and accessible title especially on the consoles.
The Keeper of the 4 Elements isn’t a bad title by any means but it doesn’t bring anything new to the field. Stages are over too quickly with the above described tactic changing what looked like it could have been a challenging experience by having to strategically use all four elements into essentially stoning the enemies to death with very large boulders.
With their own stars dying, the Dwarves set out in order to find a new source of energy to live by. Because there would be no adventure without something going wrong, their ship gets caught in an energy current that throws them off of their original course and destroys their ship. The survivors must now find each other and survive the hostile environment that they find themselves in.
Overall, at least on the Switch, I could not get into Wasteland 2. Clunky controls combined with performance issues kept holding me back from even getting pasts the oddness that ranged combat could often have. I hope to revisit this soon upon a PC, but in the meantime, I'm feeling disappointed because it has been a title that I've been looking forward to for a long while and after reading Nick and especially Robert's reviews, I had expected to be blown away.
While NeocoreGames have moved on from the crazy world of Borgovia to the stars of Warhammer 40,000 with Inquisitor, this final chapter is a reminder that, with any luck, the developer will again its hand at something with a fantasy bent at some stage.
LEGO DC Super Villains is another example of how TT Games haven’t just sat back on its LEGO titles to simply release “just another game” with a reskin. It doesn't always work, but the developer has tried to do something new while also keeping elements of previous titles that worked. Add in the iconic slapstick humour and you're in for a reliably good time.
Is it worth picking up? Yes. The dad jokes and the gameplay are great for hours on end, and now we're starting to see the vision for Knack starting to come together.
Overall Cryptark is a great, albeit limited, fast paced experience. While it could have benefited from having a greater narrative scope and dialog between the characters, the action and replayability will be more than enough to keep you going for a long time.
Pixel Heroes is some good old classic dungeon crawling action. The lack of narrative context makes it a tough, but not necessarily rewarding game, but putting that aside, the endless gameplay loop is simple and clean, and there's a fun combat system to make it all worth at least a little of your time.
Overall Senran Kagura Bon Appetit! is fun, as the rhythm portions and the soundtracks that they use mesh well together. But let's not pull punches about this; this is a game that is going to be exclusively of interest to existing fans of Senran Kagura, and who are also fans of rhythm games. It's not going to convert anyone to the franchise, and unlike the likes of Persona 4 Dancing All Night, it's also not meaty enough as a rhythm game to appeal to people who aren't already deeply involved in the genre. It's pure fanservice.
While offering a solid gameplay experience, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme VS-Force lacks that extra bit of detail that could have come from all of the characters and lore that it sits upon. There’s too much assumed knowledge, and this lets down the missions and the variety of units available. It’s a good game if you’re fully caught up with Gundam lore, but even casual fans might struggle to get along with this one.
Dead Rising 4 takes a few steps forward in terms of the gameplay mechanics, but also takes a giant zombie-infected shamble backwards in regards to the narrative elements. Taking away the ticking clock, making the maniacs nothing more than a mere annoyance instead of the stuff of nightmares, and having civilians easily rescued really pulled away from what I liked in the previous games. Dead Rising 4 is fun, but it’s also a little hollow and it’s lost a significant chunk of the series’ soul.
It's not the longest game, and doesn't offer anything that will be remembered as a classic game by any means, but the tense atmosphere, striking art style, and challenge, will surely help this game find itself a niche.
Overall Daymare 1998 isn’t a bad zombie title, but it isn’t a great one either. Sitting somewhere in the middle, there are both classic and newer elements that blend together nicely but when added with the visual issues and the more mechanical ones like zombies not dying, there’s a bit of work to be done in order to make this the amazing title that it should be.
Red Faction Guerrilla Re-mars-tered isn’t a bad title but certain aspects show their age and the lack of refinement from the original release. That’s not to say that it’s not a hell of a lot of fun to take on the EDF in any way you see fit, it’s just that the controls can often get in the way of a really enjoyable time.
So overall, In Nightmare does a lot of things right and never overcomplicates its mechanics while helping Billy escape this world of nightmares. On the other hand, the puzzles are often simply too complicated and when combined with chapters that can take hours to complete, the flow of the adventure is just not there causing more frustration than enjoyment.
Overall though, Eternal Radiance was enjoyable. Being able to take the Switch from its dock and read through the visual novel portions before settling back into the TV for the action adventure RPG segments to have more visual real-estate, it was fun even if it wasn’t perfect. While still having some room for improvement from the hands-on gameplay side, I’m looking forward to sitting down to Visualnoveler’s previous Visual Novel work as both their visual art style and their writing for Eternal Radiance was easy to sit down and I enjoyed the time spent with Celeste on her journey of knighthood.
So overall, while Golden Force does have some shiny moments, a lot of the adventure falls flat which is unfortunate as it has multiple elements that could have made for a stellar retro inspired adventure.