Miguel Moran's Reviews
Mushihimesama was ahead of the pack when it came out two decades ago, and that hasn't changed at all in 2021. This is still a remarkable shmup and a must-play for hardcore fans, but thanks to the wealth of difficulty options it provides, it's the perfect way for newcomers to dip their feet into the genre too.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The most important thing I can say about this game is that it is fun. Very, very fun. When I open the game, join a match and start playing, I have an amazing time. The raw energy behind the movement, the weight behind the weapons, the satisfaction of landing hits and bouncing off walls. It all comes together to create a unique, memorable FPS experience, and I look forward to seeing what Boss Key Productions does to expand it in the future.
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.
World of Final Fantasy is so much bigger than any other Final Fantasy spinoff I’ve experienced. Out of the gate, it’s an incredibly lengthy JRPG with full voice acting, cutscenes everywhere, hundreds of characters, and more. There’s a fair amount of fluff and filler spread throughout the lengthy RPG, but its tail end features some great nostalgia trips and fun character moments. It’s a great celebration of the legacy of Final Fantasy that’s a blast for fans old and new.
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.
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.
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.
With the release of Yakuza 0, a smash hit franchise in Japan has its biggest chance yet of becoming a smash hit overseas, too. Yakuza 0 is not only an achievement in video game storytelling, but it’s the best this franchise has ever felt, looked, and played.
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.
Central Fiction set out to be the be all and end all BlazBlue package, and it pulls it off marvelously. With the largest cast of characters to date, and a number of extra modes, the amount of gameplay variety is staggering.
Tales of Berseria feels like a Tales game made just for me. There’s so many games in the series now, and I’ll never play them all, but the characters and the narrative and the combat mechanics of Berseria just click with all of my tastes so well. For some, the lack of gameplay innovation might be a turn off, but for me, a classic Tales gameplay system combined with a unique narrative led to a fantastic experience. Fans both new and old would be doing a disservice to themselves if they didn’t check this game out.
Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe thankfully does not live up to its subtitle at all. This re-release of a re-release builds up on everything that came before it, fleshing out the experience into something worthy of your attention, whether you're a hardcore fighter or a casual button-masher. Some wonky writing and poor visuals dampen the experience somewhat, but if you can look past that and fancy some classic KOF style fighting game action, this is the game for you.
As a spiritual successor to Firefly Diary, A Rose in the Twilight excels in nearly every way. The simple art style of the game makes the gruesome events of the game even more striking, and you feel for this mysterious, troubled girl and her equally mysterious golem companion, as they traverse death traps and monster mazes in search of answers. It’s a carefully constructed narrative that never once feels hindered or neutered by the lack of direct dialogue. Despite a few encounters that were too vague for my tastes, the puzzles and challenges you face in the game are satisfying and difficult in just the right way. It all comes together in a wonderful package with a few stray flaws, but they hardly end up detracting from an otherwise beautiful experience.
I honestly feel like an idiot for taking this long to play an Ys game, because so much of it appeals to me directly. The minor combat encounters are engaging but brisk, while the boss battles are urgent, hellishly difficult, and very memorable. Best of all, with such a short runtime for a JRPG, I was done with the game quickly, but never felt rushed or unsatisfied. Ys Seven is like a crackhead on a dirt-bike. It's fast, and loud, and something you'll probably never forget.
Ys VIII is, without a doubt, a huge step for the franchise. In stripping away a lot of the usual narrative tropes the series is usually known for, Nihon Falcom have put a fresh spin on the franchise that puts characters and small moments over grand adventures and vast mysteries. Tied together by a fast-paced combat system and great music, the negatives of Lacrimosa of Dana are far outweighed by the positives, and this is a game that any JRPG fan would be a fool to sleep on.