Thomas Knight's Reviews
The Persistence has some very real design and technical issues. Despite this, I found it worth dealing with them because it also has an addictive gameplay loop, a fun challenge, and a brilliant atmosphere when playing in VR. I certainly recommend it, but feel it could be much better than it is.
Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne HD Remaster is quite a difficult game to rate. It’s incredibly frustrating in many ways. As the other side to that, the deep combat systems encourage experimentation and discovery. The lore is very interesting, but the story starts in a very slow manner. It’s not really impressive as a remaster graphically, but the additional voice acting is brilliant. If nothing else, I suggest you don’t purely go off the rating here and read carefully through the review. This won’t be for everyone. Things that I felt were good, I could easily see being hated by some. Fans of Persona should keep in mind that many of the systems are similar, but it is still a very different game.
Judgment is a great crime thriller and Kamurocho an amazing place for it to take place in. I enjoyed the story, but I had even more fun just going off and spending time with the wide variety of interesting characters and solving side cases. While there are parts that could be improved, overall I had a great time and feel that most people would.
Journey of the Gods had some very enjoyable moments. Taking a ride on the back of a flying golem, hatching an item bird and some of the boss fights were particularly enjoyable. The constant upgrades and gains in ability were praiseworthy too. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite make up for the poor combat, minimal story, and occasional technical issues. There’s certainly fun to be had with this virtual reality game, but it’s not a must-buy.
he Climb 2 is as much of a challenge as you want it to be, which I appreciated a lot. Whether playing around in casual mode or going for achievements on professional mode, I had a good time. While there were some issues and I’d like to see more content, it kept me playing until I got tired and then I dove back in for more. I especially liked the variety in each level.
Eiyu*Senki Gold doesn’t have an amazing plot, but it has a huge variety of great characters. The time that you spend with them is the attraction here I feel, which is only helped by the wonderful artwork representing them. I do wish I could’ve spent more time with favorites, but the idea that quantity has a quality of its own certainly prevails here. The SRPG portions of the game are fun if not standout, but there are some serious issues that I’ve gone over in the full review. These really bring the game down, making it a worse experience than it could have been. Some might be overcome by referring to the Wiki, but this isn’t really an appropriate solution.
While Phantom: Covert Ops only contains several hours of content and the guards may need training, I enjoyed replaying missions and completing the short challenges. The rowing felt great and trying to completely avoid detection and figure out the best routes kept me interested in the campaign, along with the active world. This is no Splinter Cell or Metal Gear Solid, but it is a unique virtual reality experience.
I had a lot of fun with Persona 5 Strikers. I was a little surprised at how much of it was like a JRPG as the trailers and discussion online seemed only focused on the combat aspect. How easy it was to get into for someone who hadn’t played the previous game was also impressive. The quality was high despite a few issues and I felt like the combat was done particularly well. The progress through the story is what kept me wanting to play through, along with the deep RPG mechanics. I felt like they mixed really well with the hack and slash aspect.
I really enjoyed Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. It felt more of a solid adventure story than some other Atelier games but kept the strong focus on the characters and it had plenty of scenes to get to know them. The gameplay is one of the best I’ve experienced in a JRPG too, through the various traversal options, a wide variety of systems, and genuinely fun battles.
Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne has a rather interesting mystery and makes use of the looping mechanic to unveil it in a unique way. The characters are great and it works well as an extra arc for those who have watched the anime or read the light novel. I also liked that the gameplay didn’t take the expected route of direct fighting, but had a more roundabout way of dealing with problems. While I did have a few complaints, these were fairly minor in the scope of things and overall I really enjoyed this visual novel.
Taking about twenty-five hours to complete, Immortals Fenyx Rising was a fun experience with some enjoyable combat, great humor, and some interesting puzzles. While I do wish it was a little less heavy on the puzzle side of things, it is refreshing to see compared to the standard combat-heavy games of this type. I had a great time with this. I do think that the humor will make or break it for some people, but as long as no-one goes into this expecting something similar to one of Ubisoft’s more serious titles, I doubt they’ll be disappointed.
Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! is a fun title with great characters, a lot of comedy, and a huge amount of content. It’s very character-focused, but it never feels like this is an issue. While there are some issues around the graphics and sound, the writing is enough to propel it to become one of my favorite visual novels and number 2 on our Top Visual Novels of 2020 list.
I’ve played every game in this series now and Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition has been the best so far. The variety of gameplay, the over the top stylish action, the amount of customization, and the just sheer fun of how it plays. I had a really good time with the game. That’s before even considering the graphical improvements. I would have liked to see more unique content in the Vergil playthrough, but that’s a minor gripe and his addition to the roster was very welcome.
Altdeus: Beyond Chronos has it’s ups and downs. It has some particularly interesting characters, a story that has a slow start but becomes more interesting as it goes on and some issues with voicing and limitations elsewhere. I can say that I enjoyed it overall, but I still find it difficult to give it an outright recommendation. It’s still worth playing, but perhaps not a priority – and this is coming from one of the few people who is both enthusiastic about visual novels and about virtual reality.
In Death: Unchained is one of those addictive games that I keep coming back to. It begs you to try once more to get that little bit further. It keeps things fresh constantly by changing elements. The combat isn’t innovative as several other games have done similar, but it is one of the best implementations of this type of system I’ve seen. There isn’t much I can fault about it.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is only a few hours long, but for a Star Wars fan it could be worth it to experience that galaxy, far, far away. It does a lot right in that aspect. That said, considering the price for such a short game and the issues with the gameplay, I would be more cautious if I were a more casual fan or just enjoyed these types of games. It immerses you in that universe, but it doesn’t keep you in it.
I would recommend Aokana – Extra1 if you completed Aokana, liked Mashiro, and enjoy the light comedy style the story is told with. It’s short, lighthearted, and sweet while keeping the humor up almost constantly. Despite the lack of a strong plot, if you want to see more of Mashiro after you won her over in Aokana, this is where you can find it. It’s not as engaging as the original Aokana, but it is in the end a short fandisc – additional content aimed directly at the fans. And that’s fine.
Crash Bandicoot 4 is a great challenge and I couldn’t stop playing. It has a ton of variety over quite a lot of levels and the gameplay is genuinely fun. The production values are high and there’s always something to do. It’s a definite improvement on the previous games in the series, despite keeping the same feel. Despite being one of the best games I’ve played recently, I do have one big concern. I could see a lot of people giving up and coming away from this game with a bad impression because of the difficulty. While you can keep trying and trying, many areas are just incredibly difficult and some people won’t be able to pass them. This is not going to be a game for everyone and that's not a bad thing.
Spelunky 2 takes what made the first game so good and adds to it. It’s a challenge that never seems to get old and it’s easy to find yourself losing track of time, as you have just one more go. There’s a lot to learn about the mines and if you like rogue-lites, you may just find yourself addicted to this one.
Overall I think this is quite a fun game and would be enjoyed by fans of the series and people who are just interested in the broomstick flight aspect. The actual flying is great and I like the customization. I do wish the difficulty was a little higher, but it’s still fun to navigate the courses at high speed. There’s also that it’s fairly short on content, but that’s about standard for most virtual reality games.