Miguel Moran Avatar Image

Miguel Moran

New York, New York
NinjaMonkey1028
Draginite
Draginite

Favorite Games:

295 games reviewed
72.3 average score
80 median score
65.6% of games recommended

Miguel Moran's Reviews

Voice Actor, writer, and 3D artist. I've been doing games journalism since the beginning of highschool, and started pursuing voice acting soon after. Hoping to do both professionally in bigger and better ways and places, and getting to dabble in 3D modeling/animation along the way will be a nice bonus.
8 / 10 - Not a Hero
May 15, 2015

Not A Hero is another great title from Roll7, and another must play title for fans of games that make you pull out your hair with their difficulty, but give you the best feeling imaginable when you clear a level. The writing certainly gets a little too flavourful for its own good, but it still does a great job of connecting the experience and making you want to play the next level right away. It's a short experience, but a memorable one, although if you go for all of the bonus challenges, it'll be anything but a short experience.

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Despite my gripes with the game and the struggle to make it through achingly slow opening chapter, the care and detail that went into the game is clear to see, and I know there are JRPG fans that live to appreciate the kind of meticulous detail that this game contains. Trails of Cold Steel wants you to strap in for the long haul, and as the first of three chapters it’s not afraid to take its time. If you want a JRPG that isn’t afraid to soak you in story until you’re nothing but wrinkles, this is absolutely the game for you.

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Nitroplus Blasterz will no doubt fly under the radar of many, and that's a huge disappointment. With strong gameplay and a healthy amount of unique characters, it's a game that lives up to the pedigree of its developer. In a lot of ways, it even outdoes their previous titles. Casual and experienced fighting game players alike will find something to enjoy in this package, and fans of anime and Japanese media might even walk away with a few new titles to check out.

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Apr 11, 2016

Stranger of Sword City excels at one thing, and really flounders at the others. It’s a rewarding experience if you’re a fan of challenging RPGs and gameplay depth. If you’re a fan of well-written dialogue, engaging music or proper difficulty curves though…well….there are a lot of other video games out there that may suit you better.

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Apr 19, 2016

The Banner Saga 2 doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, it just makes the wheel bigger and keeps on rolling. Even with minor stumbles in the form of slow combat animation and initially overwhelming combat mechanics, it's a game that excels at what it aims to accomplish. Fans of the first game will love it, and entirely new players will come to love it. If you need a new tactical RPG in your life, make it The Banner Saga 2.

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Atelier Sophie is a wonderful change of pace from every other JRPG I've played. The simple, homegrown story is a breath of fresh air, and the unique focus on alchemy and item gathering over combat and grinding helps it stand out even more. Most surprising of all, though, is that a game all about picking up items, navigating menus and walking around the same town for hours and hours kept me more engaged than almost any other JRPG I've played. Atelier Sophie is a wonderful game, and if you're a new player like me, it's a great way to get yourself hooked on the rest of the franchise.

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8 / 10 - Grand Kingdom
Jun 17, 2016

Grand Kingdom is one of the most interesting things I've ever had on my Vita, combining so many ideas together and somehow making them all work. Like a weird looking dish at a foreign restaurant your cousin recommended, you might doubt it can be anything other than a huge mess, but once you get a taste of it, you'll realize just how wrong you were.

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Melty Blood maintains all of the charm and polish that made it so popular in the fighting game community all those years ago. Long-time fans finally have an official way to enjoy this cult classic, and it’s an almost museum-like look into an iconic chapter of fighting games. Despite a lackluster package surrounding the awe-inspiring gameplay, it’s a game that has stood the test of time and people who are passionate about fighting games owe it to themselves to pay it a visit.

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7 / 10 - Duelyst
Jul 6, 2016

Duelyst had me hooked, as I put hours and hours into it almost every day. If I had written my review for it at that point, it would have done incredibly well in my books, with it's fascinating tactical RPG twist on the familiar card game play. But after playing with friends, I struggle to go back to playing against anonymous opponents in ranked play, and I just don't know how much more time I see myself putting into this game.

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Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force improves on the previous game, but that still doesn’t make it a perfect experience.

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Aug 8, 2016

Truthfully, I went into Gal*Gun Double Peace with below zero expectations. I figured it would be a cheap, dated game that only had its obvious “fan service” going for it. It’s clearly aimed at that niche audience, but Gal Gun is fun, funny, and easy to pick up and play for countless quick sessions. The poor visuals and complicated story requirements are a shame, but they never truly soured my time with the title and as soon as I finish this review, I plan to play more.

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4 / 10 - Heart&Slash
Aug 10, 2016

Hearth&Slash has a lot of great ideas. On paper, a Devil May Cry roguelike is probably one of the most amazing ideas ever. Unfortunately, the reality of that idea never lives up to that promise. The roguelike features were relatively basic compared to games like Rogue Legacy.  The action gameplay was nowhere near as satisfying as Metal Gear Rising. In the end, Heart & Slash just made me wish I was playing one of those games instead of this one.

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Aug 26, 2016

Project Diva X is by far the best game in the series so far. It improves the visuals, customisation, music selection and even the performances. It’s hard to recommend previous games over this one, but it’s not perfect, and the weak story mode that’s been added is hard to ignore. If you do manage to overlook it, you’re in for an addictive and endlessly replayable rhythm game that hits a high note for the Project Diva series.

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Trails Of Cold Steel II feels less like a sequel, and more like the second half of an incredibly rich JRPG experience. There’s a lot to take in between both these titles, and it can feel like a slog at times, especially with the first game. Cold Steel II does a great job of making that slog worth it, and delivers with an action packed story and a consistently challenging gameplay experience.

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It’s a real shame that the first Touhou game to officially come out overseas is Touhou Genso Rondo. It really doesn’t capture the appeal or the magic of the mainline Touhou series, and there are plenty of other fan-games in vastly different genres that are at least much more mechanically polished than this one. Touhou Genso Rondo is a mild disappointment for fans of the series, but despite the broad marketing efforts of NIS America, it should simply be absolutely avoided by newcomers.

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Whether you’ve been a fan of Psycho-Pass for years, or you hadn’t even heard of the series until you saw this review, Mandatory Happiness is well worth checking out. Though you can play it as a newcomer, it’s a far more rewarding experience if you’ve watched the anime.

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Sep 30, 2016

Touhou: Scarlet Curiosity grabbed me and never let go. It’s a fun game with great characters and combat, and it all comes together in a package that kept me glued to my PS4. It’s a shame that mainline Touhou games haven’t seen English localisations, but the series’ unique charm has been wonderfully captured by this game. Newcomers to the series will have a great time dipping their toes into the universe with this title, and existing fans have absolutely nothing to lose with it either.

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6 / 10 - Aragami
Oct 4, 2016

You can see the passion and care put into Aragami from a mile away. Everything about the game shows a love for the stealth genre and the games that made the genre so great. Unfortunately, it isn’t until you get up close and start to play the game that you also see all the cracks. Aragami has a lot going for it, but it also has a lot going against it, and those issues keep a good game from being a great game.

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Oct 20, 2016

Valkyrie Drive is an incredibly fun and addictive game. While it doesn’t have the same crazy narrative or visual flair as a Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, it certainly shares their vibrant and satisfying combat. Valkyrie Drive is also a game very focused on fan service, and overt sexual themes. For some people, that will be a deal breaker, but if that’s right up your alley and you’re looking for the next great touchscreen supporting Vita classic, then look no further than Valkyrie Drive.

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Oct 25, 2016

If you’re a fan of games that mix visual novel narrative with light gameplay elements like Zero Escape or Ace Attorney, and you’re itching for something like that that falls into the horror genre, you absolutely need to try out Corpse Party.

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