Battle Chasers: Nightwar is more than a "western JRPG", it manages to reinvent and bring new elements to the genre in many unique ways.
Nex Machina feels like a living retro experience in which the player gets trapped inside an arcade machine. The only way out is to get better, and destroy machines in the most stylish way you can possibly think.
Huntdown is a throwback run and gun shooter that cares about style and rewards precision.
Ion Fury mixes old and new in a throwback FPS that deftly builds its own enduring identity.
It's fitting, then, that the championship's final subverts the expectation of the long, silent stroll through the hall by kicking the music in as soon as you start moving forward. This time the nerves are left in the dressing room. She's revisited her footsteps time and time again until she's ready for the grand finale. After tonight, everyone in the crowd is going to remember Kara Hassan's name.
Failbetter Games have brought upon themselves a trademark capable of enduring over time, born with Fallen London back in the day and now present in both Sunless Sea and the upcoming Sunless Skies. This is by far the best way to experience the studio's vision and their unique take in narrative driven games.
Children of the Sun is a prime example of an experience born from a straightforward premise and then iterated for the right amount of time before it loses its charm. On occasion, the central mechanic can't keep up with itself – I missed more than a few finicky shots that should have landed, forcing a retry. But once you successfully execute a strategy and finish a level, the satisfaction is unmatched. You then seek to replicate the feeling during subsequent hunts, completely alienated from the messiness of your actions as you chase a higher score.