Piczle Cross Story of Seasons is a simple game, perhapss too simple for some. But if you like Story of Seasons and relaxing puzzle games, it’s absolutely worth giving a try. As a bonus, it’s also under £10 to buy, making it cheaper than the disappointing Pioneers of Olive Town Expansion Pass!
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is another solid entry in the genre, and a decent starting point for newcomers (though I’d argue The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate is better for this due to its cheap price point). It’s not for the faint of heart, but for those that do brave Serpentcoil Island, you’ll find a rewarding roguelike experience to sink your teeth into.
Astlibra Gaiden: The Cave of Phantom Mist can offer a few hours of familiar action combat, with a few tweaks here and there. But the reuse of assets and a randomised dungeon system that offers no variety makes for a rather bland experience over Astlibra Revision. However, if you’re fine with the lack of story content and just want to blast through some monster-filled areas, then The Cave of Phantom Mist is the cheap DLC for you.
Remnant 2 is simply the first game but better. Improved customization, worlds, and combat all make for the perfect sequel.
Hunt the Night wastes its potential with bad combat and a world that isn't fully realized.
Despite the simple combat and some story issues at times, Atelier Ryza 3 offers an engaging gameplay loop that never gets boring.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty differentiates itself from Nioh thanks to a few key mechanics, though the experience can feel a little linear and easy at times. Still a fun game for fans of Team Ninja, and faster Soulslikes in general.
A new setting is not enough to disguise Like a Dragon: Ishin!'s unbalanced combat and middling story.
One Piece Odyssey fails to captilize on a strong IP, telling neither an interesting original story nor adapting the manga into a fun game.
Chained Echoes rises above its SNES-era inspirations, crafting an experience that easily stands out for its own merits.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak won't convert diehard fans of older entries, but it still offers more solid hunting gameplay.
If you’ve not played Mary Skelter 2 or its predecessor, this is still a solid way to experience both titles (a remastered version of the first game is included for free). It has next to no graphics options, but solid support for both keyboard/mouse and controllers, and the actual dungeon crawling gameplay is enjoyable. But if you want 100% of the game to be available on PC, then you’re out of luck.
There’s still a lot to love in Lost Judgment. Nearly everything outside of the main story has been improved since Judgment, and I’m still not tired of scouring the city for new side-content. But it’s hard to ignore how poorly the story often handles one of its main subjects, and the way that certain characters are written. You’ll still get the usual mix of chaotic fights and funny one-liners though, alongside a slew of new side activities and stories, so it’s still easy to recommend Lost Judgment to fans of the franchise.
At the end of the day, Tales of Arise is an incredibly fun game. There are some things that I would have liked done differently, and the battle system is definitely simplistic, though these things likely won’t be much of an issue for most players. Honestly, any game that I can play for 50 hours in under two weeks and still enjoy is a great one in my book. I’m looking forward to seeing what Bandai Namco does with the franchise next — hopefully we wont have to wait until the PS6 for their next Tales project.
It’s hard to really see who Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed is aimed at. People that were put off by some of the issues in Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed aren’t going to play its even jankier predecessor, and £34.99 is a steep asking price even for someone that might be interested in trying this out. If you’re desperate to see the series’ origins, then this might be worthwhile — just go in with appropriately low expectations!
Ultimately, Cris Tales ended up fixing few of the issues that I had with the game’s demo back in 2019, while also adding a few more thanks to the Switch port. I can’t imagine the currently average story getting much better at the end, and most of the ideas and gameplay mechanics presented at the start end up going nowhere. It’s a shame, as there was a lot of potential there — hopefully some of the more glaring technical issues can be fixed in a post-launch patch, at least.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is an odd one. It’s so faithful to the original that those used to newer games will find it too simplistic, but the change in visuals won’t really appeal to fans of the original version either. If you know what you’re getting with Asha in Monster World, then there’s still some fun to be had, though it’s hard to really recommend it over other more interesting platformers.
In its current state, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is hard to recommend. Crafting is tedious because of the clunky way the makers are implemented, and the town is lifeless due to a lack of varied dialogue or meaningful events each season. Patches are supposedly planned to improve these problem areas (along with performance), so the game could be a decent entry in the series after some updates.
Gnosia is a game that’s bound to be incredibly divisive. While I found the main gameplay loop uninteresting, fellow writer Lilia left with a far more positive impression. At the very least, I can appreciate the attempt at creating something fresh, even if I didn’t think it worked in the end. If another game of this style was released with improved gameplay, then I’d still be willing to try it out. It absolutely has potential — potential that I feel Gnosia just couldn’t realise.
While I may have criticized Yakuza: Like a Dragon for a decent chunk of this review, there’s still a lot to love about it. Ichiban is the perfect character to usher in this new era of Yakuza, and the amount of things to do outside of the main story is almost overwhelming. However, Yakuza 8 will need a lot of work put into it to make the RPG elements more balanced and engaging.