Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon may be a prequel to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but functions as a worthy homage to the NES Castlevania games.
From Software's maestro Hidetaka Miyazaki takes a break from action-RPGs with the PlayStation VR release Déraciné, a dark fantasy adventure game.
The new PlayStation VR puzzle game Transpose makes great use of Sony's hardware, delivering a challenging experience that never overstays its welcome.
Devolver Digital presents Pikuniku, an endearing and outright hilarious all-ages platforming adventure game, but it's over way too quickly.
Singularity 5 is an eye-catching wave-shooter for VR platforms, offering intense and chaotic firefights in a strangely serene robot paradise.
Koji Igarashi returns on his Kickstarter promise with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a beautiful and feature rich game that is a must-buy.
Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey is a rebellious game about human evolution, replete with challenge and storytelling opportunities of bare survival.
Later Alligator is a lovingly-animated film noir parody that combines mini-games, point-and-click adventuring, and hilarious talking alligators.
Its strong soundtrack and fundamental gameplay makes it an even better fitness option than Beat Saber.
Golem's crunchy combat, strong narrative, and enticing score are some of the best PS VR has to offer, but nausea risks compromising the full package.
We should talk says a lot with a little.
Cyber Shadow brings the nostalgia in bunches.
Narita Boy is a curious and risky 2D adventure that isn’t always what it seems. Issues with some game mechanics shouldn’t deter anyone from playing through the story, and its soundtrack’s passionate synthwave-leaning collection of themes somehow stands out amidst a sea of new titles which share these sonic leanings. Narita Boy will be more impactful and absorbing to those who fully immerse in its narrative, and what may first appear as hastily written nonsense informs a lyrical and consistent fictional universe. Give in to its mysteries and enjoy.
Telling too much of ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos’ story would compromise what it’s really trying to do, but this isn’t to imply that it’s reliant on some sort of obligatory Shyamalan twist. No, like the best visual novels, it remains focused on its character growth, and unveils its secrets and motives with time. For someone with even a light taste for anime who may not normally take to visual novels, ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos should make them a believer.
There are some problems in Eldest Souls, though, including weird pathing to certain bosses that require trap-dodging, which just feel out of place. Additionally, the lack of a true pause means re-speccing may require a return to a previous checkpoint. These are ultimately small gripes for what is a wonderful experience overall, as Eldest Souls is a challenging but fair boss-rush with great pixel art and some smart New Game+ content. The Souls community is sure to enjoy this, but the build experimentation and shard system add an appealing sense of growth that makes Eldest Souls feel like it has even broader appeal than its niche.
On top of all of that, Inscryption’s arrival in mid-October makes for a perfect Halloween game. What seems most vital for the game's success will be to casually get it to people who won’t know what to expect, like fans of deckbuilders just looking for another to add to their pile. Still, even if players go into Inscryption expecting the unexpected, there’s entertaining depth to its mechanics and narrative, a form of storytelling that could only exist in a video game.
There’s a reason the Sands of Salzaar fanbase put in so much unpaid translation modding work prior to this full release: it’s an inspired and engrossing RPG that delivers a fierce value for its modest price. It makes up for an occasional lack of polish with impressive and entertaining depth, and features an excellent soundtrack that somehow doesn’t wear out its welcome 50 hours in. While the game is narrative-complete, Han-Squirrel Studio’s attentive updates thus far means that more content could well be on the horizon, and a spirited mod community will only grow further with this English translation. Anyone wanting to lose themselves in a new sandbox RPG need look no further: Sands of Salzaar is it.
Anyone discouraged from those popular concerns of free-to-play MMOs will find that Lost Ark is gentle in its pay-to-win leanings. There are predictably seductive premium purchases to be had, but most of them revolve around time-savers and special mounts/skins, and hopefully there's some more free Lost Ark content to come. The architecture of the game seems geared towards dutiful endgamers with decent daily rewards that won’t require dozens of hours a week to maintain. Past that, the early stages of its arrival look promising and there’s considerable content to devour at launch, all for free. Lost Ark is easily worth the download and feels remarkably fully-formed, but it should really thrive with new world events and additional endgame content.
It's a one-of-a-kind experience, and an easy recommendation for anyone open to some cheap laughs in a world where the points don’t matter.
Mahokenshi has no “endless” mode or anything of the like, and completing each mission and related side objective grants the game a decided and achievable end-state. One would expect that, with good sales, additional quests and modes (and mods) may eventually be added, all of which would inject some more needed bang for its buck. As it stands, Mahokenshi is still a great, session-based deckbuilder, and worth wading through its few snags.