Kyle Bradford
Dissidia NT successfully builds upon what came before to make its resurfacing as a competitive focused fighter a deeply satisfying one.
I love Tokyo RPG Factory's admiration of the past, but Lost Sphear offers little for both longtime fans of the genre and casual passersby. If a taste of the past is all you need, however, then it will surely be your companion on that trip down memory road. Just don't be looking for anything more than that here.
InnerSpace is, without a doubt, an interesting experience. Despite its annoying inconveniences, it is a relaxing experience from start to finish.
While there can be quite a bit of hand-holding, which may turn off more hardcore fans of the genre, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ offers a great respite from other, bigger holiday releases. If you've got some time this holiday to sit down with a meaty JRPG, this one might just be the one for you.
While strategy RPGs may be harder to come by these days, Summon Night 6 is a thirst quenching oasis for any genre-loving desert travellers.
While technically the game may not be as impressive as others, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is special.
For fans of otome games, Bad Apple Wars may feel like a love-it-or-hate-it experience that will mostly depend on how much you're able to put up with. If you're able to find aspects of the characters you like, its romance subplots will probably pay off.
It's not that Drive Girls is simply repetitive, it's just somehow boring. And that's not something I thought I'd say about a game where women transform into cars, fight bug-robots and lose their clothes.
While it may superficially retread a similarly desensitised violence found in the original film, little else could be compared from one to the other. In fact, Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days is better an example of Lionsgate's misuse of the original property, shelling it out every so often for some quick cash here-and-there.
The Caligula Effect is a difficult game to review, mainly because of how contradictory it can be at times. Its writing can make it seem leagues above most other JRPGs despite its low production value, yet many of its systems are too complicated to recommend, despite however deep they may be.
While there are hints of fun to be had if you search hard enough, I don't think Strafe ever makes the small moments in between worth scavenging.
Akiba Beat's biggest failure is, undoubtedly, its disconnect with what makes Akihabara so enticing. It is missing the heart of what you'd expect a game of its kind to have.
Persona 5 is good. It's very, very good. It's the sort of game that only comes around once every few years. It's a game that is so unique in every aspect that it'd be impossible to mistake a single moment of it for anything else. It's also a game about real life, despite the wacky hijinks you'll often find yourself in. It's about the moments you have with your friends, laughing around a hot pot as you make jokes only those there would understand. It's within those moments that Persona 5 enters a league of its own, untouched by its contemporaries in every respect.
Not since Mark of the Ninja have I played a stealth game that felt so impactful, lingering in my thoughts long after I put the controller down.
Ultimately, Genso Wanderer is a unique and intimidating game… It may lack Touhou’s epic music or its frantic bullet-hell difficulty, but it brings out what’s always been enticing about these games and, more specifically, its community’s ability to create.
Halo Wars may not be as strong as some other legitimate classics of the genre, or even the franchise it is associated with. However, what it is, undoubtedly, is an underrated game that deserves more attention.
Despite its difficulty, Flywrench never lets up. While it’s not casting a particularly wide net, for those that fell in love with the games of its kind it is without a doubt one of the best in its class.
Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book isn’t anything groundbreaking, but any fan of the series can attest the Atelier games never set out to be – and it doesn’t matter.
Planet 2000 is the sort of rare failure that makes you look out in awe in its magnificence, knowing you yourself will never reach such an absolute. It is the worst video game I have ever played, period.
It won't cause as many laughs as it did in Early Access, but also won't give you as many thrills as the originals. Roller Coaster Tycoon World is a fumbled hodgepodge of ideas that are emotionally detached from what makes a Tycoon game great.