Miguel Moran's Reviews
Despite rocky presentation and a ho-hum story, Warriors Orochi 4 has been some of the dumbest fun I've had with a video game all year. There's always been something magical about sending dozens of foes flying with giant swords and massive spears, but to up the ante with cross-character combos and absurd magic attacks makes the whole thing even more fun. While the lacklustre story mode didn't provide a strong hook for me to keep playing, I was driven by the swath of new characters I'd unlock with each mission and the new tools and tricks I had at my disposal when I went into the next battle with these additional soldiers. Warriors Orochi 4 doesn't get everything right, but I'd argue it gets the most important thing spot on.
Despite the subtitle Final Remix, it's hard to call this version of the game definitive.
Hyper Light Drifter is a jaw-dropping experience no matter the platform you play it on. What started as an engaging masterpiece in 2016 continues to be just as rewarding and worthwhile of a video game in 2018. With the Nintendo Switch you get the valuable bonus of being able to take this journey with you anywhere you want and believe me when I say this is a journey you will not want to step away from once you start it.
Azure Reflections has got to be one of the most pleasant surprises I've had all year. After being burned by a number of Touhou Project spinoff games, I was prepared for just as much disappointment with this one. Instead, I was met with a fan-game that remained faithful to the original series, while introducing concepts and systems that elevated that experience to an entirely different level. The sparse amount of content and shoddy visuals hamper the experience slightly, but regardless, Touhou fans and bullet hell buffs are sure to have a great time with this one.
While the Senran Kagura series has always been rife with fanservice and hyper-sexualization, these moments were at the tail-end of addictive action gameplay, funny character interactions, and classic anime cheesiness. These things are what make up the heart and soul of Senran Kagura, and by removing those and placing full focus on the T&A virgin wish-fulfillment, Senran Kagura Reflexions is just a lifeless alternative to an afternoon with your Chrome Incognito tabs.
When the original Valkyria Chronicles dropped for the PS3 in 2008, it came about during a dearth of quality Japanese video games in the west and took peoples hearts with its unique visuals. Sega failed for years to properly build upon the success of that original game, and now, ten years later, a lot of what made Valkyria Chronicles unique is all too familiar to many people. Despite that, though, Sega has managed to craft an incredible entry in the long-suffering franchise that is fun, fully-featured, and gorgeous. In a time for the industry where a game like Valkyria Chronicles should struggle to find footing, Sega has proved that this dark horse has many bright years ahead of it.
It's almost heartbreaking how much fun SNK Heroines is, because all of that fun is wrapped up in a fetishistic presentation that didn't need to be there in the first place. By putting out a cool, casual-friendly fighting game that happened to only have a roster of female characters, SNK could have reached a wider audience of people and rekindled some of the magic they made 18 years ago with Gals' Fighters. Instead, though, SNK put Mai Shiranui in a cowprint bikini and gave Terry Bogard breasts, alienating a massive amount of people in the process. SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy is one of the funnest new fighting games I've played this year, but I can only hope that a future installment trades the fanservice for familiarity, and gives us the Gals' Fighters sequel the world deserves.
I often feel like video game adaptations of anime are great entry points for people unfamiliar with the source material. Punch Line, however, is hard for me to recommend to anyone but the most hardcore fans of the original anime. While this game has interesting ideas that approach the same genre as cult-classic Ghost Trick, the sloppy presentation and pacing make it more of a chore than a pleasure to play through. A lot of the appeal of the original anime has also been lost in the switch of mediums. Fans of the anime will likely get enjoyment out of the new stories and beautiful character models. Anyone else is better off starting with the original television series or simply avoiding Punch Line altogether.
There's still plenty of potential left in the rogue-lite and I doubt these kinds of games will be going away anytime soon. As video games grow and evolve, we'll come to remember the select few roguelikes that truly shook up the genre and presented a polished, ultra-satisfying product. Hypergun will not be one of those games.
Since the release of Yakuza Kiwami, I've been dreaming of a remaster of Yakuza 2 to give what is easily my favourite game in the franchise the same level of modern day polish. Sega has delivered on that dream with Yakuza Kiwami 2, creating an incredible package that takes the best game in an incredible series, and makes it even better. You were already doing a disservice to yourself before by not playing Yakuza 2, but now there are no excuses. This is a must play.
Okami HD is a classic video game, and this Nintendo Switch port could be seen as the best way to experience it.
The Banner Saga 3 closes the book on an incredible saga of turn-based action and dark, haunting storytelling. It's hard to make player choices and branching narratives successfully payoff over the course of three games, but Stoic Studios have done just that. It's a shame that they never tried to revamp or update the sluggish combat speed along the way, but that's a small price to pay for a once in a lifetime narrative experience like this.
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.