Miguel Moran's Reviews
Shining Resonance Refrain is a triumphant return overseas for an iconic JRPG series. It has solid foundations in the usual JRPG business of fantasy kingdoms and amnesiac warrior boys, but it builds off of that foundation with charming characters and gorgeous art to create a pretty unique identity for itself. While some aspects of the game are a little unpolished, it's still a standout JRPG worth standing alongside any of the other big players in that genre, and worth checking out by anyone who calls themselves a JRPG fan.
It's clear how much of a labour of love Rainbow Skies was. The game is packed to the brim with mechanics and ideas that call back to a dozen different classic RPGs and strategy games. For all the love that went into the game though, there's a frustratingly low amount of polish and quality design, especially when it comes to the visuals and writing. Rainbow Skies is a love letter to classic RPGs hastily written in crayon on notebook paper.
I'm truly sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I am. I had wished and wished for years that Bandai Namco would give Gundam fans outside Japan a proper way to experience some of the amazing games they've developed in the series. Today, this wish has come true, but like a cursed monkey's paw, it has come with a terrible price. New Gundam Breaker is available in Europe and America, yes, but it is also terrible. It is not fun to play, look at, or think about.
The Lost Child is a dull, uninspired dungeon crawler. On paper, a Lovecraft dungeon crawler with a Japanese flair could be something truly iconic and memorable. Instead of realizing that ideal, The Lost Child apes existing dungeon crawlers and throws a dozen ideas at the wall, with none of them managing to stick. Combat can be fun and the El Shaddai nods are cute, but it isn't enough to make this cosmic terror worth losing your sanity over.
There is an incredible core set of mechanics and gameplay at the heart of Cross Tag Battle. It is fun as hell to play, and addictive and rewarding to try and master. Unfortunately, the package that this gameplay ships in is embarrassingly sparse, especially by Arcsys standards. Offline modes and unlockables are kept to a bare minimum, and the big story mode fails to fully embrace the magic of this bizarre crossover. Worst of all is the shallow and incredibly lopsided character roster. Arcsys has made a habit of releasing updated, 2.0 expansions of every fighting game they make, expanding the selection of modes and characters. In the case of Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, this is a game that feels like it desperately needs one.
Aragami: Nightfall adds a wealth of new missions and stories to Aragami that are worth checking out if you missed the game the first time around, and doubly worth checking out if you never picked it up at all.
If you called Owlboy a piece of art, I would nod my head and agree wholeheartedly. This game, in visuals alone, is a masterful achievement. For those breath-taking visuals to be matched by equally beautiful characters and unique gameplay moments just elevates it even further. The beginning of the game is a bit too slow, and sometimes the gameplay was merely okay, but those are minor blemishes on a video game experience that is absolutely worth your time, and definitely worth the decade that it took to bring it to life.
Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time is heartbreaking. I'm a huge fan of the original anime, and this game does a tremendous job of capturing the heart and personality of that world. Characters look and sound incredible, and getting to explore their school and experience new adventures with them is a blessing. Unfortunately, obtaining that blessing requires a two-mile crawl on your knees through the jagged glass and thorny ivy that is the busted, broken, and simply not fun gameplay of Chamber of Time. Battles are aggravating and exploration is mind-numbing. For as brilliant as the narrative and artistic achievements of Chamber of Time are, it's weighed down by unpolished game design choices that simply make it no fun to actually play at all.
Omensight scratches so many itches for me. I love murder mystery games and branching, time-manipulated narratives so much.
Regalia has some interesting things going for it. I was blown away by the gorgeous character designs and illustrated portraits and the tactical combat also impressed me with unique systems that made it a bit more than just a cookie cutter tactical RPG. Unfortunately, for as much as I loved those aspects, hamfisted humor and clunky menu navigation on console dampened what could have otherwise been a magical experience. It's hard to get past those issues, but if you're able to, there some truly special stuff here in Regalia.
Yakuza 6 is a beast of a game, and it sends Kiryu off in style.
Omega Force managed to do something incredibly rare and impressive with their Attack on Titan games, they managed to make a totally brand new video game. Some trappings of the Warriors formula remain, but they serve to complement a fresh and unique core gameplay experience. I wish the involvement from my character in the story had been a little more significant, but the opportunities I got to mingle with the cast between missions more than made up for it. Attack on Titan 2 is one of the strongest anime video games I've ever played, not because of a perfect story mode or graphics, but because it creates a unique gameplay experience that could only ever be done with an Attack on Titan game.
It's a sad truth that still puts a put in my stomach, but Kojima and Konami are done. Konami still owns the Metal Gear name though, and they still want to make video games for it. Please let them. A new Hollywood reboot of your favorite franchise does not retroactively ruin the quality of the old movies, and Metal Gear Survive does not suddenly make the Metal Gear Solid series any less brilliant. Metal Gear Survive, instead, stands alongside those as perhaps the strongest spinoff in the franchise to date. Metal Gear Solid as we know it may be finished, but after having so much fun with Survive, I'm excited to see what Metal Gear looks like in the future.
Dandara is a beautiful game with a fresh movement mechanic, but it doesn't come together as well as I had hoped. Leaping across platforms is satisfying when it works, but aggravating when it doesn't, and even when the leaping does what you want it to do, you'll find annoying backtracking or bizarre navigation puzzles to overcome. There are some great moments in Dandara, but the headaches you have to deal with to get to them aren't always worth it.
It's hard to recommend The Seven Deadly Sins: Knights of Britannia to anyone but the most hardcore fans of the original series. Even then, though, I feel like a true fan would end their time with this game wishing they could have bought something better. A truncated story mode makes it impossible for newcomers to engage with any of the plot, and what little content that remains will only infuriate existing fans. It would be nice to be able to jump into Duel Mode and bypass Adventure Mode entirely, but when practically the entire cast needs to be unlocked, that really isn't an option. Long-time fans of Seven Deadly Sins might find some joy in seeing their favourite characters make the jump to a big, 3D action game, but that alone is hardly worth suffering through the rest of what this poor package has to offer.
I tend to be pretty good at fighting games, but it's rare that any of the ones I play truly click with me. Back in 2015, Under Night on PS3 totally clicked with me. The balance between simple character movesets and how system mechanics elevate those moves into an endless suite of juicy combos is something I found myself attracted to like a magnet to an iron bar. Beyond that, though, Under Night sports a dynamic cast of characters and some of the prettiest 2D visuals I've seen in a fighting game. Exe:Late[st] takes the delicious Under Night cake and adds an entire extra layer of your favorite flavor, plus the garnishes and decorative frosting to make it stand out again, 3 years later.
Strikers Edge has a strong and satisfying core, but there just isn't enough surrounding that core experience to keep me engaged for very long. A lack of game mode variety would be excusable if there were some incentive for me to keep playing the one core mode this game has, but that incentive is nowhere to be found. Coupled with the lack of character descriptions or a proper way to practice their abilities, Strikers Edge is a lot like highschool dodgeball; you can only enjoy the same rubber ball hitting you in the teeth for so long before you decide to play something else.
I think it's important to preserve old games for future audiences, or make them available for audiences that never knew they existed. Video games, like any other art form, have a long history behind them, and a longer history ahead of them. Releases like Zwei: The Arges Adventure serve as time-capsules to help keep old pieces of history from disappearing. It's a game very much from its time. While I appreciate the effort put into making the writing stand proudly in a modern day, gameplay flaws and dated design choices make it a chore to truly get a satisfying experience out of the game.
InnerSpace manages to craft a bright, bizarre and beautiful world that is probably the best example of the phrase “eye candy” I can think of. Unfortunately, the act of exploring and navigating that serene, majestic world often times felt like a headache. The poor frame rate on Switch and no clear horizons made flying and swimming in InnerSpace far less enjoyable than the idea of those actions ever was.
I was so ready for an action RPG entry in the Neptunia series to come along and scratch my itch, but instead it puked on my lap and barely touched the itch. I had so much fun with the story and characters, but with better combat and more consistent performance, this game could've been something special.