The marketing material summed it up best when they described Etrian Odyssey Nexus as ‘a love letter to Etrian’. Not only have the longtime series character designers and composers come back to produce a great send off for the 3DS, it’s also a great sendoff for the Etrian Odyssey series if it has no plans to move to Nintendo Switch and this is in fact the final entry in the franchise.
God Eater 3 provides a fun and addicting action RPG set in a post apocalyptic world with a constant looming threat. I enjoyed constantly tweaking my character and crafting bigger and better gear to take out the next Aragami boss. While I do wish the game was more consistent visually and did find the core structure of the game becoming quite repetitive as I went on, the character driven story was interesting and drove me to continue pushing through missions. If you’re a fan of the monster hunting genre and are looking to jump into a game that is fun even with some flaws I think you’ll enjoy God Eater 3.
Resident Evil 2 is a fantastic survival horror experience that has a brilliant world and puzzle design and even found new ways to scare me. There is a lot to experience in the game and will be fun to replay for years to come. This is how all video game remakes should be treated. It stays true to what made the original so great but wasn’t afraid to change aspects of the game to keep things fresh for veteran players and bring the game into the modern age and a real contender for one of the best games this year.
Catherine Classic is a great port that treats the core game with respect while also implementing some optimisation features to get the most out of it’s target platform. It doesn’t bring anything new to the game, content wise but we still have Catherine: Full Body to look forward to for that later this year.
Bendy and the Ink Machine is a great horror/thriller game that is now available on home consoles. It will have you trying to piece together the inner workings of Joey Drew Studios to solve it’s mysteries and uncover it’s true story. While the home console ports have had some slight graphical tweaks all of the content from the complete edition of the PC version is present and ready to play here. If you’re looking for a short but interesting thriller title that will have you on the edge of your seat at times you should definitely check it out.
Chimparty is a welcome addition into the PlayLink library of games. There’s some real fun to be had when playing through the board game with a bunch of friends. But if you’d prefer to play alone the option for solo mode is there for you as well. It’s one button design choice is both it’s blessing and it’s curse. It’s simplicity opens the game up to a wider audience but also makes some of the mini games hard to control and follow. For it’s price point though it’s a worthwhile title to jump into if you want to have an entertaining night with a bunch of friends.
The Knowledge is Power series continue to be my favourite in the PlayLink library of games and if you enjoyed Knowledge is Power then you’re going to have a great time here with Decades. It expands upon the systems introduced in the first game with new mini games and Power Plays but stays quite safe with the overall framework of the game. If you’re having friends over and want to play a really enjoyable quiz game you can’t look past Knowledge is Power: Decades.
The music in the Persona series has always been one of the highlights of the franchise so I’m so glad it’s been given it’s time to shine via the now 3 released Persona Dancing titles. The dancing gameplay is easy to pick up and is extremely fun and addicting. When not playing it I wanted to get back to it to try and better my scores for the tracks I hadn’t earned a ‘Brilliant’ rating on yet.
When not playing it I wanted to get back to it to try and better my scores for the tracks I hadn’t earned a ‘Brilliant’ rating on yet. And possibly best of all I got to spend more time with Makoto and the other members of SEES, seeing the characters develop more via the game’s many social scenes. If you’re not a fan of rhythm games or the Persona series this game definitely isn’t for you as it’s a niche genre spin off of an already niche franchise. But if you are a Persona fan there’s a lot here for you to love.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Pokemon: Let’s Go! Eevee and thought it was a great way to take players back to the Kanto region and experience a re-imagining of one of my favourite Pokemon games of the past. Even though at it’s core it is a remake, it still brings plenty of fresh ideas and new gameplay mechanics with it’s new capture system and the ability to interact with the Pokemon directly on the map. I still can’t believe how visually great the game looks and it still wows me every time I turn it on to play. As a first entry made solely for the Nintendo Switch it has me really excited to see what Game Freak are cooking up for next year’s core Pokemon title.
While Fallout 76 has had a bit of a rough launch and certainly has some glaring issues, I have enjoyed my time with the game. There is the framework here for something really solid. Many of the game’s issues can be addressed and patched, with Bethesda already starting to do so. The core game underneath here is really fun so hopefully Bethesda keep working on it and continue to evolve what Fallout 76 is so that it can eventually become the online Fallout experience everyone wanted.
While this was disappointing to see it’s hard to be too critical on the collection for this based on how well the games themselves perform (which is really what we’re playing it for at the end of the day) and it’s really reasonable price point. If you’ve played these games before there isn’t anything new here besides being on a new system for the first time with enabled trophy support. But for those that haven’t, do yourselves a favour and spend the $24.95 and pick this collection up.
Ubisoft Quebec should be really proud of this one. They’ve taken the fun mechanics from previous Assassin’s Creed titles and evolved them and brought them all together in a world that is as beautiful as it is massive. If you were a fan of last years’ Origins you should definitely check this out. Even with it’s pacing issues and scattered bugs, when everything comes together it feels like this could easily be the best Assassin’s Creed title to date.
Overall My Hero One’s Justice is a good first video game entry for the My Hero Academia franchise. While it does require some knowledge of the series to fully enjoy, has a story mode that doesn’t present the same magic as the anime and carries a fairly limited character roster it is fun to play and captures the fast paced chaotic battles of the source material.
The World Ends With You: Final Remix is a great port for the most part and allows a brand new audience the chance to experience this quirky, super stylish JRPG if they didn’t get the chance 11 years ago. It does have some prominent control issues that will take some getting used to if playing in docked mode but the handheld option provides what I consider to be the definitive The World Ends With You experience.
Black Clover: Quartet Knights is in a bit of a tough spot. Black Clover fans are the most likely ones that would go out and pick up the game but they’re also likely the group that will be most disappointing in the game in it’s current form due to it’s short story mode, multiplayer issues and the growing difficulty of finding a full online match.
If you love the classic mega man games there’s a lot for you to love here in Mega Man 11. It retains much of what made the earlier Mega Man games so great while also providing something fresh to move the series forward with it’s visual upgrade and introduction of the Double Gear system. If you’re a fan of challenging platformers I’d highly recommend giving it a try.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Transference, uncovering the mysteries that have taken place in the Hayes household. It’s immersiveness when playing in VR scared me in clever ways and it’s graphical fidelity made me believe I was really walking through a real apartment. While the asking price may be a bit steep for some, I would definitely recommend keeping this game on your radar if you like psychological thrillers and own a VR headset.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a fantastic return to form and delivers on everything Valkyria Chronicles fans have wanted for years. The game also offers a lot of value, taking around 35-45 hours just to beat the main story then still having plenty more to do afterwards. While the game hasn’t pushed the boundaries of the earlier titles too far it is still a solid strategy RPG with a great cast of well developed characters. If you like strategy RPG’s and games that carry an anime aesthetic I highly recommend you check this out, even if it’s your first Valkyria Chronicles game.
Whether you’re a newcomer to the Dragon Quest series or a series veteran, as long as you like classic JRPG’s there is a lot to love about Dragon Quest XI. You can’t deny the amount of gameplay value on offer here, taking over 100 hours to see everything the game has in store. And after spending time in it’s world and colourful characters, you’ll feel like you want to willingly complete all of the side quests.