The story falls absolutely flat, as it can’t be carried by core characters that receive little development and secondaries that I couldn’t bring myself to care about. The gameplay is exceedingly dull, somehow finding itself in a horrifying fusion of too vague and too specific. The visuals, despite the entire game taking place in a singular environment, are underbaked and unattractive.
Orangeblood is a game of half measures. It feels like it’s afraid of taking its bold style all the way, and the game suffers for it. While it did catch my attention at PAX West last year, actually sitting down with the full release was a disappointing experience.
Overall, SolSeraph feels like a half-baked attempt at a spiritual successor to ActRaiser. It’s like ACE Team knew what kind of experience they wanted to present to the player, but not quite how to go about making it.
If you’re in for the grind or just enjoy repetitive actions, Niffelheim might be something for you (although I honestly don’t understand why). For someone like me, though, this isn’t a game that I would recommend.
There’s enough cleaned up here for really hardcore JRPG fans to take a look, and I can’t really say that this is a bad game not worth experiencing anymore. If anything, it’s stepped up to “aggressively mediocre.”
While London Detective Mysteria may appeal more to otome fans specifically, for those (such as myself) just looking for a good story, you’ll struggle to find it here.
Overall, Gal*Gun 2 just feels like a step back from its predecessor. Double Peace took the perverted premise of these games and utterly ran with it, creating a hilariously awkward game with some relatively strong shooting mechanics that didn’t overstay their welcome. Gal*Gun 2 feels like it removed the game’s heart in order to replace it with more shooting stages.
Those attempting to play for the first time are going to be dealing with the archaic systems on top of a presentation that feels more like a mobile port than a full-fledged console release. On the other hand, returning players will probably find themselves disappointed with the remixed soundtrack and lack of any work done to polish the rough edges. Nostalgic gamers should just stick to the SNES original, newcomers really don’t even need to bother.
Zwei: The Arges Adventure definitely wears its age on its sleeve, and it isn’t always a good thing. If this game is your first experience with the Zwei series, you may be able to overlook the flaws and have a good time. However, if you’re coming to this after playing last year’s Ilvard Insurrection, you’re in for a bit of a rough experience.
All-Stars is still a competently-made game, and fans of the series and Koei Tecmo’s properties will probably find much to enjoy here. Outside of that demographic, though, this game is blindingly mediocre, and hardly worth your time.
Even for fans of the Senran Kagura, or Kenichirou Takaki’s works in general, Valkyrie Drive is just a massive step back in gameplay. Graphical presentation is really the only thing the title has going for it…and the only thing saving it from getting a lower score.
The things the game does well are worth an experience, but only at a budget price. Until then, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for your JRPG fix, and spare yourself the disappointment.
Despite the randomized traitor system offering some strong replayability, I can’t say that I’m inclined to play through this game again. Lost Dimension would make a good rental for fans of strategy RPGs, but it is hard to recommend for other gamers.
If you’re already a fan of the Warriors series, this game is just more to love, and the strategy game on top of the battle system is a great addition to already solid gameplay. However, if you’re burned out on the series, there isn’t much here to make it worth coming back to.
I was excited for the chance to play this game. However, while not an outright failure, it turned out to be mediocre and a relative disappointment.…but more Chie always helps.
If you can hold off until it goes on sale or discount, or can find it for rental, this game is worth a few days of quick fun. As a new $60 release, though, I would look elsewhere for your next gaming investment.
If you can fumble your way through the gameplay, you’ll find a unique and intriguing story buried beneath it. With everything you have to put up with to get to it, though, I’m not really sure it’s worth the effort.
As the game is now, though, Attack on Titan is just another middling title that fans of the license may enjoy, but others will struggle to complete.
Maybe further down the road, or as part of a sale, it would be worth picking up just to mess around in the world and go crazy…and perhaps by then the technical issues will be fixed.
While you're busy destroying your brain to figure out the game's logic, you will at least have a beautiful environment to look at. Unfortunately, graphics alone do not make a game great.