This game has been on my “GOAT” list for almost two decades, and revisiting it in 2021 hasn’t changed a thing.
You don’t “Git Gud” at Ghosts ‘n Goblins. You suffer. You persevere until you make it to the other side. But Resurrection is the first one that doesn't hate you for trying.
Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends and the Secret Fairy is an excellent sequel to an already great game, and the two together really feel like a flashpoint for the series. These games have always been curious to outsiders, but hard to get into, even if you love JRPGs. But what we have here is the result of decades of iteration, and a breakthrough that gives Ryza 2 healthy audience-expanding potential.
Gley Lancer may be one of the best examples of official emulation, like, ever made.
If I could describe the latest MegaTen joint with one phrase, it would have to be “a lot.” This game is a lot.
Little Noah is a blast, thanks to its depth, variety, and dangerously wholesome vibes.
Live A Live is easily an instant classic for me, a JRPG experience that will remain memorable for a long time.
For such a small-looking game, Monster Sanctuary is bursting with content and reasons to touch all of it. From the enticing loop of running around an ever-growing map to finding and evolving new monsters, I found myself losing hours at a time to this little gem.
Save the World never felt “wrong” or “off-model” or anything, but the remastered elements here feel like missing pieces we never knew about.
There’s a particular value in this work, a source of optimism, humor and joy emerging from a non-Nintendo developer at a time when it might be needed most. The world is an ugly place, but Immortals wants to remind us there are good parts, too.
While it noticeably stumbles in various spots, Like a Dragon is an obvious experiment that’s as close to a slam dunk as it was ever probably going to get. I hope we see more of this, and that the Yakuza team continues exploring this setting beyond the mafia drama.
Like any other game in this series, SaGa can be a lot to get used to at first. You have to figure out if things like random skill activations and stat bumps (instead of EXP), enemy power scaling, obtuse event flags and generally having no obvious clues as to what the hell to do can work for you. But if you can settle into the vibe and just go with the flow, Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song Remastered is a tremendous adventure that only gets better over time.
At is cheap price point, with lenient difficulty, solid teaching tools, and accessible mechanics, I think Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai could be a great way for people who slip into the anime fan/fighting game novice venn diagram to get their feet wet in the genre without having to dive in too deep. As most of the game is about landing single, solid hits (although there are some linkable moves), players can focus on learning the basics, then on learning the very user-friendly Hougeki system to get a feel for things like juggling and wall-bouncing. From there, they can graduate to things like more complicated super motions, cancelling, and all the extra fun stuff that seasoned fighters get into, and Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai also supports to a degree. Koihime Enbu RyoRaiRai is not a game that will be challenging Dragon Ball FighterZ or Street Fighter V for top spots at EVO any time soon, but it is a smaller, simpler, and cheaper title that fighting game upstarts and fans can use to effectively spread the good word of the quarter-circle.
Beyond those couple of snags, and really, those snags just remind us designing puzzles is a human effort, The Gardens Between stands out among its physics/puzzle/metaphor-driven peers. It's beautiful to look at and listen to, gratifying to solve (most of the time), and in the the end tells a simple story that's just bittersweet enough to sting your brain into thinking about your life a little.
All those years of effort paid off in the creation of an excellent entry in the metroidvania canon, and I hope it pays off in the form of a successful game as well. Timespinner exudes an aura of, "so much effort went into this, dang!" And making my way through it was a joy, both in terms of the look and feel of the world, the inherent appeal of filling in that map, and of course the smoothness and responsiveness of the combat.
Omen of Sorrow is a solid game fueled by hardcore knowledge, a cool roster, and fascinating mechanics. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for its future.
There's only so much to say about Vane, an exploratory experience one can get through in a single sitting, without veering into spoiler territory. Vane is a game that feels like it wears its thematic elements on its sleeve, all without a single spoken or written word. Those themes include “instinct” and “exploration” at the ground level, and from there are likely up to how the individual player perceives the story as it develops. In its refusal to hold your hand or even guide you a little, Vane feels like it stands out among its peers as a vehicle to deliver narrative agency for players, not because they have a list of choices to sift through, but because they are presented with an environment and scenario that is so freely open to interpretation. With Vane, you get out what you put in, and while you may not come back to it multiple times, that first one is a doozy.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove feels like the sequel the creators of the original game always wanted to make. It's a follow-up to the original concept, which ended up lost in the weeds for every previous sequel attempt. It's a roguelike sort of game, but one that wants you to laugh and have fun instead of constantly dread what's around each corner. That remains distinct, even after all these years. This isn't the most elaborate or intense game in its space, but it's the happiest to be there.
Overall, despite the occasional combat snag or nagging disappointment I couldn’t play as Franky, One Piece: World Seeker absolutely shocked me with how good it is.
Fate/Extella Link is proof that an idea can succeed over time, even if it doesn’t exactly catch on at first. It’s totally okay to jump in and have fun here with all the interesting characters, but it’s also a heck of a ride to try and take in all the context.