At the end of the day Moero Crystal H does keep a lot of the same assets as the previous game. The monster designs are basically the same and some of the music is remixed. The game does add some amazing new monster girls and the system changes make everything flow better. It is much less frustrating trying to get good equipment this time around, since it’s not based on potluck. For the $39.99 price tag you get 50 to 60 hours of monster girl goodness. I feel like fans of the previous game should jump on this ASAP. You will find a lot to love here. If you’re a newcomer to series this is the perfect place to give it a try. The game’s systems are more welcoming and you need no knowledge of the previous title to fully enjoy this one.
At the end of the day, your enjoyment of these games will come down to how well you like platforming, and if you’re a Disgaea fan. Fans will find a lot to love at the $19.99 asking price for each title. While these adventures do clock in a bit on the short side at around 8 hours each, you will need multiple playthroughs to unlock all the hidden goodies in each. NIS has also included all the DLC for each title as well, which is a fantastic bonus. While these games certainly are not for everyone, but they will cater to the audience that loves these types of games in grand fashion.
All in all I have to say I had a good time with Nexomon: Extinction. The colorful world and amazing creatures really sucked me into the game. I loved exploring the world and found the lore to be quite interesting as well. I think this one does drag on a bit longer than it should at the end, but I can say that players will certainly get their money’s worth at the $19.99 price tag. I spent about 40 hours with this bad boy and I only caught around 120 of the over 300 Nexomon found in the game. If you like other games in this genre, picking this one up is a no brainer. Fans of older style Pokémon games should be all over this one. If you’re new to these types of game at this price point I still think this is a good one to jump in on.
I have to say Death end re;Quest 2 is one of my favorite releases of the year. It takes everything the first game had to offer and refines it into a more streamlined package. It took me around 20 hours to get the True Ending. There are two other endings here as well, but the requirements here are much more obvious than the way the first game handled the endings. I think folks should definitely play the first game before jumping into this one. I loved all the characters here, the combat is still a ton of fun and soundtrack is one of the best out there. The PC version does have a few bugs that need taken care of, but if you have even a passing interest in this series I think you should take the plunge. If you’re a fan of horror with a little bit a fanservice thrown in, you’ll be glad you did!
While I think I liked Samurai Shodown 2 a bit less than the other two Neo Geo Pocket fighters I’ve looked at, I like there is a wide range of characters with two different styles and collecting the cards adds a good amount of replay value here. I don’t think it controls quite as well as the other title, and the fight against Gandara is just plain annoying. It’s very difficult until you unlock a few cards to get an advantage. There is a rewind feature thankfully and you will be using it a lot here, I assure you. This one will set you back $7.99 as well. While I don’t think this is a bad game, I would have to recommend the other two titles over this one, since it just doesn’t have the polish of those. If you are a hardcore Samurai Shodown fan, you will still find a lot to love here.
Obey Me is a pretty solid overall. The combat is fast and fun, the characters quirky and while it’s a bit on the short side at just 5 hours, the rating system gives it good replay value. The game takes quite a bit of inspiration from the Devil May Cry series and makes it into its own thing, and I think this comes over very well. Performance issues on the PlayStation 4 took away from my experience just a bit, but I think if you can snag this up on PC it would be much better. The game is pretty difficult, but I think it was fair for the most part. The stage hazards are just plain overkill at times, and some of the boss battles were just a bit much. They seem pretty overpowered to me. For the $19.99 price tag if you’re a fan of this genre you’ll find a lot to love here. For everyone else, if you’re interested in trying one of these games for the first time I feel this is a good place to start.
Waifu Uncovered is a fun and simple shooter with a very unique theme. My only real complaint about the game is your hit box is entirely too big for a game of this type. This makes arcade mode basically impossible without some good luck. For the low price of $6.99 there is a lot of fun to be had here, with some replay value if you want to unlock the extra ships and such. Fans of ecchi type content will feel right at home here and should snag this up ASAP. Anyone curious about this title should just not take it too seriously. It certainly doesn’t take itself serious, and there nothing wrong with that. We all need a good laugh these days, for sure.
Fight Crab is pure insanity straight out of the gate. The combat here is very weighted and the controls feel a bit clunky, but this game is just so much fun none of that matters. You tell me another game I can take a giant crab with a battle axe and beat down a foe? Or one I can have a crab throw a Kamihameha! Goku would be proud! In all seriousness, this one may not be for everyone, but if you want something unique that really is a ton of fun to play, you can’t go wrong here at the $19.99 price tag. I spent about 3 hours or so with it and I’ve unlocked a good bit of the crabs and weapons. I’ll dig into this a lot more when the online features go live, since I feel that will give this one a ton of replay value. Though I had a lot of fun just playing the single player stages over and over to see how crazy things could get. While this may not be something we ever thought would exist, I’m certainly glad that it does. We all need something lighthearted for a good laugh right now.
Xenoblade Chronicles is one of my favorite games of all time and Nintendo has made it even better with the release of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. The game looks amazing, the soundtrack is one of the best you will find, and the story is top tier. There really is no other franchise out there like this one, and that’s what makes it so special. While others may copy aspects of it, none can put together the whole package like Xenoblade does. At the $59.99 price tag, if you own a Switch, you should snag up a copy today. This is one journey that should not be missed by anyone!
Disgaea 4 Complete+ is undoubtedly the best way to experience this classic title. Not only is it the best looking version of the game, but it has all of the DLC from previous releases packed in and some important new features as well. If you own the Vita version of this title, while I feel the upgrades here are nice, they are probably not must haves. I would still suggest you pick this on up on sale down the line. If you do not currently own Disgaea 4 this version is worth every bit of the $49.99 price tag. There are hundreds of hours of some of the best Strategy gameplay anywhere here, and one of the best stories in the franchise. Picking this one is a no brainier, now the only real question that remains is – who is cuter? Desco or Fuka?
Samurai Shodown is a fantastic addition to the franchise. The robust combat and amazing style make it one of the best fighters out there. The PC port itself is really solid and I had zero issues booting it up and jumping right into the game. The game only supports resolutions up to 1080p which is not an issue for me but some may be turned off by it. The only other issue I ran into was that online matches will have some lag issues. I think a better netcode would probably help out here. The game has tremendous replay value and is well worth the $49.99 price tag. If you’ve been holding out for the PC port of Samurai Shodown or haven’t picked it up yet, there is not better time than the present.
SEGA AGES Thunder Force AC is a ton of fun for hardcore players and causal fans alike. Each stage provides a good amount of variety and challenge. This will make you want to play them over and over to get a better score for the online rankings. The game looks great on the TV or in handheld mode and you can even listen to the fantastic soundtrack in the options menu. I feel like this title is well worth the $7.99 for folks that enjoy Shmups. If you’re not a fan of the genre there is nothing here that will change your mind, but for old school fans it doesn’t get much better than this.
Despite nitpicks with tracklist choice, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix is a great way to kick off the franchise on the Switch. The game runs smooth in handheld mode, which has always been my preferred way to play, and looks fantastic. There are plenty of Modules to unlock and lots of tracks to master on the various difficulties. If you’re a fan of the franchise and have been looking for a solid handheld offering, jump on this right away. If this is your first foray into the Project Diva franchise I can think of no better place to start than here. Just don’t blame me when you when you seek out Vocaloid music for the next 100 years!
At the $7.99 price tag G-LOC: Air Battle is pretty easy to recommend to anyone that loves arcade shooters. The action here is as fast paced as it every was, and this is an amazing port from top to bottom. The extra bells and whistles like Cockpit mode and the scanned manual are just icing on the cake. Now I must crank up “Danger Zone” as loudly as I can and shoot down many more bogeys!
SNK GALS’ FIGHTERS does a lot of things right. It’s a solid and fun fighter that is easy to pick up and play, but has enough depth to keep you entertained for a while. The extras SNK included here are multiple borders, scanline filter and a zoom feature that lets you customize the look of this anyway you wish. The game looks great on a normal TV docked as well. The scanned manual they included was great and I felt that was a nice touch to cap off this great package. For the price of $7.99 I feel like fans of SNK will have a good time with this one and folks looking for a cheap fighter that packs a lot of punch should snag this one up as well.
A few other bells and whistles have been added her as well. Such as the ability to swap sacred treasures between characters and some UI improvements. If you have the original game I have a hard time recommending Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate as an upgrade at the $39.99 price tag. Just seems a bit steep to me for what’s here. If you haven’t picked the game up yet in its original form and want a robust Musou game with over 170 characters to choose from, then this would likely be your cup of tea. It will set you back the full price of $59.99, but with the new features this version offers I feel like this is a much more compelling package.
Overall I have to say I really enjoyed my time with Hero must die. again. The gameplay here is really unique and really made me want to play the game multiple times just see what would happen. I feel like getting the True Ending on this one would require a good walkthrough, but part of the fun of this is to see how things turn out if you just wing it. I spent about 13 hours on two playthroughs and each one was very different. While the game could’ve benefited from more enemy models, this is still a really solid title. I would go so far as to say this is a very underrated gem. Personally I feel the replay value make the game well worth the $39.99 price tag. If you’re a fan of classic RPGs and enjoy a good gameplay twist you should probably snag this up ASAP. You will be glad you did so.
While Touhou Mechanical Scrollery is certainly not a perfect game, it shows a lot of promise. The team has optimized the game somewhat, already fixing some of the controller issues and full screen framerate issues. There are still some occasional dips, but with my Ryzen 2600 and RTX 2060KO I didn’t have too much trouble running this all the way up to 1440p. If they get the code running a little better I could probably go up to 4K, but right now it dips just a little too much for my liking. These issues aside, the game looks amazing, and is actually really fun to play. Some may find it a bit repetitive, but I had a lot of fun gathering the materials and upgrading the various weapons. For its asking price of $19.99, if you’re a Touhou fan you should probably jump on this one. You get 8 hours or more of gameplay here, and while the game certainly has some issues, I still think good outweighs the bad. If the team here does further fixes down the line I will likely raise this score, and honestly seeing how far they’ve already come, I think they will.
When SEGA first announced they were doing a soft reboot of the Sakura Wars franchise I was shocked. I had many questions on how they would handle it and if they would devote enough resources to make it something that truly stood out, and they did exactly that. The amount of love SEGA has put into this title shows with every aspect of it. From the amazing soundtrack to the character designs, they made the game feel very nostalgic for older fans while making it completely accessible to new players. This is not an easy feat to pull off and others should really look to this for an example of how this is done well. I put well over 30 hours in this and completed a couple of playthroughs. The $60 price tag is a very fair price for a title with this level of quality. I hope this spurs them to do more with this amazing franchise going forward. Sakura Wars is one of those rare titles that does everything right and is just a pure joy from start to finish.
At the end of the day I feel like Sisters Royale: Five Sisters Under Fire is well worth your coin. It’s a fun and customizable Shmup that anyone can pick and play and that vets will be able to challenge themselves with as well. The story is pretty insane at times, but I had a blast with it. The music is really good and there were no technical problems here that I could find. If you’ve ever had a passing interest in this genre, do yourself a favor and pick up this gem.