Pierre-Yves Lanthier's Reviews
Both Towards the Pantheon: Escaping Eternity and Towards the Pantheon are a must for any RPG fan or lover. The characters, the music, the artstyle, it has it all and it does it very well. The only reason it’s not getting perfect marks is that it froze once or twice in bad spots like me turning the final boss into a cow and because of how many times I died because of being stunned. But that’s it. Watch out for those and everything else is golden!
I've always been a huge fan of .Hack because it let me play an MMO in my solo single player style, offline, and, on my own time. CrossCode I feel has taken this a good notch higher and between the dialog, the dungeons, the exploration, the customizations, the puzzles and the visuals? It knocks it all out of the park for a hell of an experience that shows that the developers truly used their seven years to create something incredible.
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!
Phoenix Point for me was just a blast. Literally and figuratively if you ask my enemies. Amazingly designed for one of the best damned Squad Based Turn Based Tactics that I’ve played in a long time, I fully recommend it to anyone that’s had their eye on it. Going back… two years to a sponsored Facebook post? It’s been worth the wait and even with its very late entry into the year, is hitting my 2019 Games of the Year list. Thank you Snapshot Games!
So overall? Rune Factory 4 Special is basically a must from me and already has a place on my 2020 Games of the Year list. Being made Royalty by proxy has never been this good and while you technically “have” to do the farming and “have” to do exploration, it never feels like you do and the ease of entry just creates a relaxing experience that is fun to play for hours on end as you choose to either befriend or romance the people of the town that you are now in charge of. Don’t want to do either? That’s why there’s exploration and combat for those moments that you just need to get away from it all!
So overall, Thorium’s Undermine is a fantastic Roguelike on both the PC where it has released from Early Access and on the XB1 where players are now playing for the first time. Top down and only designed to keep being entertaining hours down the line as you push further and further into the mine, here is a Roguelike that is both accessible to players new to the style and to long time veterans looking for a new challenge. Check back next week for some Let’s Plays as we were wonderfully treated to both an XB1 and a PC code to cover Undermine!
So if like me you had skipped WRC 9 as you had enjoyed or are still enjoying WRC 8, I would honestly suggest taking a look at WRC 9 on the PS5 if you’ve already made the jump. From the solid off-road driving mechanics to the graphics and the sounds, this is one that I’ll be coming back to often enough if not to get better, then just to have fun.
While I don’t generally sit down to horror, or horror like experiences, the Bloober Team with their atmospheric and psychological horror The Medium had me hooked from start to finish. With a very well paced story and solid mechanics that let you explore the run down resort that Marianne finds herself in, it was really hard to put down the controller as the secrets that often lay right around the corner just begged to be answered.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – Switch Review Overall though, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a great addition to the series and will easily appeal to longtime fans as well as newcomers. With plenty of options of how you want to go about your days, you’ll easily see the real world clock jump hours ahead of the last time you saw it and even debate playing for “one more day” before calling your own day quits to get some sleep for your own next morning. ----- Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Review (PS4) Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a fantastic experience. Whether you are looking for something to casually hold your attention in a soft roll of days forward or have grander ambitions in mind with wanting to grow all of the crops or raise all of the adorable livestock and be outstanding in your field, this is for you. Score: 9 / 10
It's really hard not to recommend ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights. From brilliant level designs over into a properly evolving gameplay and combat systems only ever supported by great musical arrangements, if there's one thing any fan of the style should sit down to this year? It should be this. Not a fan of the style? You should give it a go as even without the Souls-esque and Metroidvania nature's, there's a solid 2D action adventure platformer just waiting to be explored.
Having only gone through one of the possibilities that Where the Heart Leads has to offer I was sold. Over the course of that dozen hours alone, the interactiveness that Whit has with the environment mixed in with the well written characters and the emotions that they bring as you live through this slice of life is both engaging and moving as I found myself happy, heartbroken, and even angry at times with some of the members of Whit’s family and community. Unlike real life though, you can go back and see how differently things could play out and I plan to travel both the higher and lower moral grounds still left untraveled.
Overall though Wildermyth was amazing. The visual presentations mixed in with a procedural storytelling that adapts to your characters choices as well as your newer characters that join up was just brilliant. Add in a very well done combat system and there’s more than enough here to keep anyone occupied for a good long time as no two playthroughs should be the same.
Whether using one headset or another, fans of rhythm simulators and European power metal should definitely check out this Viking visual styled head banger.
"As a final statement, I have to say I’m incredibly pleased with the progress that has been made on the Skelter gameplay since I first picked the first title up on Vita and binged it for 3 days straight. Many a function have been refined, the combat feels smooth, if not a bit unfair at times, the tower exploration is fun, and the characters are all unique and interesting. There’s a reason the Mary Skelter series has cemented its place as my favorite dungeon crawler, and you really don’t want to miss it." – Richard "So overall, between all of the elements new and old, the dungeon crawling between various parties and having to think in more than just what’s in front of you alongside the amazing massive amounts of dialog to tell the story, Mary Skelter Finale closes the book on this amazingly and macabre fairytale series." – Pierre-Yves
In a few short words, Dying Light 2: Stay Human surpassed my expectations. For those that have been on the fence as to whether or not make a return to this world after the first I would highly recommend it. Combining the fast paced parkour features of the first in a world that allows you to take it at your own pace was a great combination that I’ll not soon be leaving as I continue through my version of the journey wrapping up side stories left behind. Follow up article for multiplayer and co-op: Dying Light 2: Stay Human – Better with a Partner? https://chalgyr.com/2022/02/article-betterwithapartner-dyinglight2.html It’s just as easy to recommend Dying Light 2: Stay Human as a multiplayer experience. With plenty of things to see and do, one person’s world could be different than another and while certain objects will only ever unlock “once” such as your injectors for health or stamina upgrades, nothing is stopping you from helping out a partner in order to find theirs and grabbing a ton of loot while you are at it.
So some gushing at the experience aside, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is definitely a love letter to both fans of the series, fans of the classic NES / SNES titles, and the Ninja Turtles themselves. With multiple stages, modes, local or online coop with up to seven playable characters? There’s no reason NOT to dive into Tribute Games and Dotemu’s latest beat ‘em up.
The latest from Dancing Dragon Games, Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga, blew away my expectations. Starting off with a traditional RPG with Steamborn into a more customized turned based RPG with strategy elements in Echoes of Aetheria, the first installment of Symphony of War designed with RPG Maker Ace is a prime example of why RPG Maker Games, and their developers, are worth looking into and The Nephilim Saga is shining proof.
Nihon Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails From Zero was worth the wait and I’m happy that NIS America Inc. have localized both it, and the upcoming Trails to Azure in 2023 for us. Well paced and well written storytelling is only ever elevated by the characters that you’ll get to adventure with as they establish what the Special Support Section is all about as they trek through and around the city of Crossbell solving problems big and small.
ClockStone STUDIO and Thunderful Publishing’s LEGO: Bricktales was a delight to sit down to and enjoy. With a relaxing exploration system that leads into a more complex and hands-on simulation where you get to actually build LEGO as you see fit for the challenge at hand, there’s more than enough here for builders of any caliber to enjoy.
I couldn’t have been happier with my time with Matthias Linda and Deck13’s Chained Echos. It does everything right. Taking retro inspired designs and making it an RPG worthy of today’s standards, the characters, the environments, the music, the gameplay, essentially the works, you have it here. Thank you for this early holiday present!