Josh Tolentino's Reviews
I thought I had seen everything Axiom Verge 2 when I could jump to my maximum height while underwater, thus becoming able to reach all manner of places I couldn’t before. Then I learned to climb the walls, and the world expanded greatly. The game got even bigger when I gained the ability to turn my hand into a tiny spider drone, opening up still more possibilities. And then came the Breach.
Glitch Pitch's Idol Manager is an engrossing industry angle on the Japanese idol scene, but stumbles a bit in the spotlight.
Either of these two games, weighing in at several dozen hours each, would be worth the price of admission alone, but to see Saviors of Sapphire Wings and Stranger of Sword City Revisited packaged together raises the value proposition considerably.
Uppers may be a wish come true for some longtime Vita or Senran Kagura holdouts, but outside of that odd legacy, it can’t really compete with its contemporaries.
A Total War Saga: Troy plays it safe in some slightly disappointing ways, but brings enough new to the table that I would appreciate seeing its ideas make their way over to the next mainline Total War game.
Ultimately, remaking old games can be tough, but at a base level, the goal is pretty simple: To bring the best bits of an old game to life in a way that a new audience can appreciate. Trials of Mana accomplishes this goal handily.
Ultimately, though, what stings the most about seeing My Hero One's Justice 2 is how much hasn't changed since the first game. It's still very much a reasonably well-made and pretty anime arena fighter, but it's nothing more than that. Even the considerably messier One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows at least had the ambition to try to capture the source material's spirit through its main single-player mode. My Hero Academia fans looking for exactly that will be satisfied, but once again it seems Bandai Namco have opted to coast rather than adopt U.A.'s "Plus Ultra" philosophy.
To that end, it's more charitable to see One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows as more of a Hero Association RPG than a fully qualified fighting game. You won't be seeing it on the main stage at EVO anytime soon, but you can at least have a fun few hours raising your own hero.
In the end, that's the real draw of Azur Lane: Crosswave, rather than its gameplay, which is more of a formality. As such, your reaction to it will likely depend on your on how receptive you are to Azur Lane itself. Existing fans and open-minded lovers of cute anime girls gabbing will find much to dive deep into, but everyone else is probably better off taking some shore leave.
Ironically for a game about undead vampires, there's a strong pulse and beating heart at Code Vein's core.