The Rise of the Golden Idol wonderfully evolves on the original with some truly devious cases that empower you to feel like a genius as you piece everything together and read between the lines. Loads of details make this best played with a notebook to hand, each case stretching you to think in genuinely fresh directions.
"At its best, Great God Grove is about untangling a web of everyone's desires to ultimately make their realm a better place."
Nailing its low-poly aesthetic, smart visual and audio choices combine to create luxurious moments of tension. While a lack of friction makes action a bit straightforward, the well-crafted vibes make for an experience you won't forget anytime soon.
Despite it all, Haroona's journey still charmed me.
Technically impressive but just not as fun or innovative as its predecessor.
Tekken 8 has a depth to it that can feel overwhelming. But it's also a game that doesn't force you to take it all in at once.
Not just great for a free-to-play game, Honkai: Star Rail is a genuinely fantastic RPG with slick combat and an engaging story loaded with content. The biggest caveat is, while generous, its gacha system may tempt some players into unwise purchases.
A cute My First Metroidvania with charming characters, wrapped up in some fairly basic and uninspired platforming levels. It's not Illusion at its best, but should entertain kids.
Sonic Frontiers features the kind of lightweight yet engaging storytelling that should easily enrapture fans young and old – though I'd hate to be a child forced to play through some of the abysmal platforming featured throughout. Was taking Sonic open world an ambitious endeavor? Yes. Did it pay off? Absolutely not.
When taking charge of the action, Bayonetta is more fun to rip and tear with here than ever before, with some smart evolutions in how her role as a summoner can add to her combat without taking anything meaningful away. But some of the same issues that plagued its predecessors are just as present here as well, if not more-so
Endlessly slick, the battles and story are a joy to play through. No turn-based JRPG feels as good as this.
A terrific return to form for singleplayer Final Fantasy that makes the series' future exciting, in a barebones (though functional) PC package.
A great but sometimes messy send-off for a decade-long story.
Crash 4 is the kind of retro throwback that actually earns its spot as a successor to the original trilogy. There's the occasional bandicoot stumble, but it's a responsive, precise platformer that looks as good as it plays.
Raising the genre's high bar, Nioh 2 runs and plays beautifully. But perhaps you can have too much of a good thing.
Capcom has done it again, re-energising a classic series like never before, and pushing the genre forward in a fresh way. It looks better than ever, plays better than ever. It's Devil May Cry better than ever.
Edo Blossoms feels like the weaker of the two halves, which isn't always the best position for a conclusion to be.
While The 25th Ward is still a great, gripping sci-fi crime story, it's really only going to appeal to big fans of the first game
There's a serious wealth of content in Kikuya.
When more exciting retro-styled throwbacks like Project Octopath Traveler are on the horizon, Tokyo RPG Factory really need to take a look at what they're going to do with their next game to make it stand out from the crowd.