Trails through Daybreak is the most accessible entry in the Legends of Heroes series and shows that it doesn't have to hide behind genre peers. Fun and varied battles, a well-developed story with an incredibly detailed world and charming characters will not let you go so quickly. If you haven't played Trails before, you should pick it up and not be put off by the many text boxes, the somewhat confusing quartz systems and the somewhat outdated graphics. Off to Calvard!
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V Rising focuses on building and maintaining your own vampire stronghold, which works really well and is fun with sufficient resources. On the way there, however, there are annoying skill restrictions, even more annoying running around the world and generally a rather average action RPG that can't stand out from the crowd enough with good approaches and should definitely be played with others.
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Phantom Fury unfortunately doesn't work as it should. The levels are unimpressive, confusing and packed with an inflationary number of enemies. The weapons are really fun and there are lots of nice little gimmicks and attempts to add some variety to the game, but it remains an average shooter that falls well short of its potential.
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Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER is an atmospheric and graphically great ride of a visual novel, which is peppered with lots of cool characters and great music. But even if games can be short, the adventure ended quite abruptly here and it almost only felt like a big prologue.
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Indika is a brutal comedy, arthouse cinema in an alternative Russia and a dark look at religion and what it demands. As a game, it combines adventure, walking simulator and puzzle elements to create a unique gameplay cocktail that is often bizarre. If you want to test the limits of the video game medium, this game is definitely one of them, even if some of the platforming sequences are really annoying.
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Stellar Blade is a great action title that offers plenty of content as well as incredibly motivating battles and evolving skills. It looks great, sounds like a cousin of the Nier soundtrack and is also a lot of fun thanks to the constant variety. The only thing you shouldn't expect is a well-developed story with good characters, and the many unlockable outfits are probably intended to distract from that.
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Sand Land offers a nicely told story and, with its vehicles and many customization options, a special feature within the anime/manga adaptations. The visuals and Toriyama's charm are evident throughout the game and warm the heart. Unfortunately, the entire background music lags far behind, the battles outside the vehicles are not convincing and some dungeons drag on quite a bit.
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Harold Halibut is a special video game. Not only the incredibly elaborate style and how it was realized contribute to this, but also the fresh setting filled with lots of love and crazy nonsense. The basic gameplay does lag behind quite a bit, but for an adventure game you can easily cope with that.
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Rise of the Ronin is little new and yet a lot of fun. The battle system from Nioh and Wo Long meets a classic open world, adds a story full of decisions for the duo protagonists and makes it more beginner-friendly overall. If you like the setting and don't expect any major innovations, you'll have an entertaining adventure on the island nation.
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Dragon's Dogma 2 is an unparalleled adventure that emphasizes exploration and immersive combat. The many classes keep the battles fresh and the world always offers something new to discover without becoming boring. Nevertheless, the game is very peculiar, has strange design decisions, performance problems and can be very frustrating at times. But if you can cope with this or are a fan of the first part, you will get one of the best open-world experiences in a long time.
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Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection brings two great games back into the modern era. Packed full of content, all the DLC, online modes and a polished look, there should be little to go wrong here. But Aspyr messed things up with a disastrous online launch with too few servers, spongy controls and a lack of options from the original. Patch it Chewie!
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As Dusk Falls impresses with a very unique style and uses this paired with very good acting performances from the characters. Apart from QTEs and decisions, there is no real gameplay, but this is not a real problem due to the suspenseful narrative. Unfortunately, it gets a little rough in the second half and the finale is too abrupt and open-ended, but fans of the genre will definitely be very well entertained.
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Unicorn Overlord takes classic-looking tactical RPGs to a new level. It looks fantastic, has an addictive gameplay principle and offers an extensive pool of interesting characters with new abilities for battle. If that is enough for you and you aren't expecting a surprising story that's far removed from genre clichés, you'll have a really great time here.
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ABRISS: build to destroy is an enormously beautiful looking puzzler full of destruction and particle effects. The large arsenal of building options leaves little to be desired when it comes to demolishing the levels and the campaign constantly adds new features. Unfortunately, the controls on the console are far too inaccurate and are also still annoying in the final levels, even if every error can be corrected immediately.
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WWE 2K24 improves in every nook and cranny. Every mode has been skillfully polished, only this year's showcase mode unfortunately falls a little short. However, the graphics, gameplay, variation and attention to detail come into their own almost everywhere. If you have even the slightest interest in wrestling, this will be your game.
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Pacific Drive is made for fans of survival games and sci-fi adventures. With its captivating anomalies and subtle horror, the hugely important and extensive maintenance of the station wagon and the somewhat frustrating ruthlessness. Pacific Drive offers a unique experience with a charming flair and is a great debut from Ironwood Studios.
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The Inquisitor is actually often like a car crash that you simply can't look away from. But as you look further, there is always a real sense of wonder at the twists and turns in the story, a fresh setting and fun ideas. The battles are as bumpy as Mordimer is grumpy and the Unworld is full of frustration and yet you still want to keep going. If you are not opposed to the bizarre, you should definitely give the title a chance. Otherwise, let the vengeful Jesus come for you!
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Skull and Bones feels like an online mode from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but in a bad way. The sea battles are really fun at first and look really great, but unfortunately it remains a monotonous and dull grind. There's not much to do, there's no gameplay away from the ship and everything else just plods along. There is definitely potential somewhere, but there are plenty of more fun alternatives in the pirate genre.
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a journey into a wonderfully dark, serious and sometimes harsh world. You can expect many tough decisions, great characters and interesting twists, especially in the so-called "Haunting Case" side missions. Apart from that, the combat is unfortunately disappointing, remaining far too repetitive and clunky, and there is too much aimless wandering in the search for mission objectives. However, fans of the occult and the supernatural à la The Witcher or detective stories should definitely pick it up.
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Helldivers 2 is great co-op fun for fans of action and alien bugs. It's mindless fun in its purest form and a credit to the developers for refining the basics of the gameplay so well. However, when it comes to the content, the game stops surprising pretty quickly and becomes a marathon of killing thousands of enemies and repeating familiar missions. But there is plenty of potential for surprises and innovations in the future, especially after the difficult server launch.
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