Miguel Moran's Reviews
The Chaos; series has remained one of the most iconic visual novel series for years, and with good reason - despite some dated visuals and slow pacing, both titles offer jaw-dropping stories full of winding twists and incredibly well developed characters. The pacing hiccups, length and obtuse ending requirements won't be for everyone, but if you're trying to explore the history of visual novels and want to play the biggest ones, you owe it to yourself to add this double pack to the list.
The DioField Chronicle delivers a unique real-time spin on the usual tactics RPG experience, but it's marred by a boring story, unlikable characters, and inconsistent presentation. While the one saving grace is the addictive and always rewarding combat, missions fail to deliver the evolution or variety that some might expect. Overall, it's an interesting game, but not an altogether great one.
Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness retains very little of the heart and soul that made the anime and manga it's based on so appealing and engaging. There's a promising survival RPG campaign in the Deep in Abyss mode, hampered by some annoying game design decisions, but the fact that you're forced to trudge through a barebones adaptation of the anime in order to unlock it just makes a bad experience even worse.
Digimon Survive is an exciting alternate take on the tone and style of the Digimon series. It doesn't execute things flawlessly - those opening chapters are a bit of a chore and the tactics gameplay is simple with a capital 'S'. Still, when things kick off and the story starts to come together, it's a suspenseful and gripping journey that I'm glad I got to experience.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R is the Jojo game that the world needs right now. While the online offerings are slim, this is still a love-letter to the original series and is packed head-to-toe with references, callbacks, and unforgettable moments. It's easy to grab a friend and appreciate the additions to the roster and changes to gameplay offline. It's even easier, if you're a Jojo fan, to boot the game up and smile ear-to-ear seeing how much attention to detail has been put into the game. If you're a Jojo fan, you need this video game.
Dusk Diver 2 flies too close to the sun - and it isn't even aiming for the sun in it's own solar system. While the original game was a tight and exciting brawler, this sequel tries to pivot into a more methodical character-action style without the tools that make those games so rewarding. The result is a game with repetitive, sluggish combat dominating the entire experience. Fans might find crumbs of narrative intrigue to explore here, but newcomers have little reason to dive in.
Frogun is old-school bliss. This is a 3D platformer that doesn't just capture the feel of a PS1 classic in one area, it captures the magic in every part of the package. From vivid low-poly art to simple yet satisfying gameplay, it's a must-play for anyone itching to experience another classic 3D adventure.
AI: The Somnium Files - Nirvana Initiative is a gripping blend of murder mystery and goofball antics. The game perfectly blends absurd humor with gripping sci-fi storytelling, and the way it breaks up dialogue-heavy moments with bits of investigative gameplay or exciting fight scenes keeps things fresh right up until the credits roll.
DNF Duel is a ridiculous fighting game in the best way possible. Simple inputs and meaty one-button attacks provide an easy entryway for beginners, but the advanced defensive mechanics and powerful properties of your attacks create fast & frenzied action that I can't get enough of. More importantly, the simplified inputs don't sacrifice the skill-ceiling - this game is full of depth and a ton of fun even at the highest level of play.
Neon White is a love letter to turn-of-the-decade internet weirdos. It's full of rule-of-cool anime nostalgia, ear-shredding electronic music, and dialogue ripped straight out of my group chats. It's a genuine game made for an audience rarely prioritised, but even if you don't fit the archetypical person this game was made for, you're still in for the most stylish and satisfying action-platformer I've ever experienced.
Cotton Fantasy is a beautiful love-letter to the best parts of an iconic, decades-old shoot-em-up franchise. The characters are cuter than ever, the shooting is funner than ever, and the wide variety of play styles and bonus stages to master makes this a game worth returning to plenty of times over.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising has a slow and snore-worthy opening hour, but hiding behind that repetitive introduction is an incredible blend of high-octane 2.5D combat and rewarding resource gathering gameplay. The icing on the cake, though, is the Marvel Cinematic Universe-worthy parade of character cameos and appearances that promise some of the many faces you'll be battling alongside (or maybe even against) once Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes comes out.
Chrono Cross is an incredible game that has been deserving a remaster for far too long. It's a shame that, after all these years, it had to arrive in such a sorry state. The Radical Dreamers Edition does some minor work in improving and upgrading the experience, but with such poor optimisation, it's a headache to enjoy the experience. Longtime fans might be able to forgive the issues and savour the incredible visual novel side-story Radical Dreamers, but a game as iconic as this deserves better.
Phantom Breaker: Omnia has addictive gameplay and a shocking amount of depth. The blend of simple attack inputs and advanced fight systems creates a beautiful blend. Aesthetic issues like inconsistent character art are easy to overlook if you're just here to fight some friends - but controller input issues and a command list buried five menus deep are big blunders that I doubt anyone could easily overlook.
Rune Factory 5 takes a few missteps, for sure - the clunky framerate and a lifeless town being the biggest of them – but it's the kind of fantasy farming experience I've been clamouring for ever since the last game came out. The routine of tending your farm, clobbering some goblins, and giving your spouse a bunch of gifts is as addictive as ever. Even if this isn't the most polished entry in the series, it's absolutely a welcome return for the series that fans will eat up.
GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is a gorgeous game with solid side-scrolling combat, but its genre shift to the roguelike form hasn't paid off. The progression system is slow and the upgrades you obtain are pretty deal, leading to a roguelike experience that doesn't do enough to incentivise sticking with it for very long.
Atelier Sophie 2: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Dream is an absolute gift. Sophie is just as charming and inspiring as ever, and even though the story tacks on more dimensional time-travel drama than I would've cared for, it's just as touching and cozy of an experience as the first Atelier Sophie. Gathering, crafting, and battling are all plenty of fun too, and flooded with enough layers of mechanics that it's easy to pick an area you want to focus on and purely master that one element of the game. By looking to the past, this surprise sequel has delivered a promising vision of the future of the Atelier series.
Ultimately, Windjammers 2 is an ultra-refined version of the original disc-throwing experience, but without any kind of unlockables, progression, or non-competitive reason to return to the game, it may not provide enough for anyone who isn't already a hardcore series fan.
Clockwork Aquario was made for a very specific crowd of people, by an incredibly passionate team. Obviously a short and simple arcade platformer like this isn't going to be a smash hit today, but there are still plenty of people out there who clamor for old-school '90s arcade bliss. If you're one of those people, then Clockwork Aquario is the game for you. It's short and easy, but fun and beautiful. An arcade classic that was almost lost to time, and I'm so happy that it wasn't.
Wolfstride is the rule-of-cool - it's a game all about vibes and style and sick robots, and it never gets old or feels out-of-touch. That hefty amount of style certainly carries the game through it's slower moments, but those are also smartly broken up by some of the most interesting turn-based battles I've seen in an RPG. There are rough spots to Wolfstride, for sure, but it's the coolest game I've played in years, and it absolutely knows it.