Travis Bruno
Dragon Ball: The Breakers' poor camera and controls limit what enjoyment can be had in this interesting take on asymmetrical multiplayer that is already hindered by other design choices.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero proves it is just as impressive as recent entries in the franchise and gives longtime fans and even newcomers an amazing RPG that was worth the wait.
It may feel lackluster but once players enter the fray Valkyrie Elysium’s exceptionally designed combat mechanics make for a fun action RPG that doesn’t quite live up to its franchise’s legacy.
Strange choices hide what is a challenging but flawed survival RPG with Made in Abyss: Binary Star Falling into Darkness being the type of game only a fan would enjoy.
A unique approach to tactical RPG combat makes The DioField Chronicle a solid offering that lacks a worthwhile story and cast of characters to make the most of the game’s strengths.
With the inclusion of a new difficulty option, F.I.S.T. Forged in Shadow Torch brings challenging combat and atmospheric world to more players resulting in an amazing example of the genre.
With more single-player content than ever before and the best on-the-court basketball around, NBA 2K23 is a strong offering that is plagued by some of the worst pay-to-win elements possible.
There is plenty of untapped potential in Dusk Diver 2 but poor gameplay choices and badly paced overarching story limit what the improved combat and charming cast have to offer.
Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory / Fallen Legion Revenants offers solid combat and nice presentation but lack of a well told story holds this collection back from being great RPGs.
Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed has been improved upon and offers some great comedic writing for its characters and some solid action but is limited by its 2007 origins.
The Last of Us Part I is still an emotional tale with amazing gameplay but signs of age, lack of new story content, or even new bonuses make this amazing title a hard sell for longtime fans.
Soul Hackers 2 comes in as a satisfying enough RPG that doesn't really push the series forward in any way outside of giving its protagonist a great personality.
Digimon Survive comes as a surprise in many ways and delivers an incredibly enjoyable Digimon storyline told in visual novel style with serviceable SRPG combat.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is perhaps the most impressive and entertaining RPG on the Switch with an engrossing narrative and deep but accessible combat with only some minor issues here and there.
Sword and Fairy: Together Forever has plenty of charm and enjoyable combat but mixed presentation, poor translation, and far simply being too easy hampers the experience.
MultiVersus may lack stage variety and some have rough monetization but incredibly solid combat featuring characters from numerous beloved franchises gives this brawler one tons of potential.
Spidersaurs may be short and lack content outside of story mode but its colorful cartoon stylings and solid run and gun gameplay make it a great twist on the classic genre.
Disgaea 6 Complete’s performance improvements are significant alongside including all previous DLC but changes little from the original’s various flaws.
Fobia – St. Dinfna Hotel offers a solid blend of challenging retro puzzles and some modern horror elements but lacks any enjoyable combat as well as a poor English dub.
My Time at Sandrock capitalizes on its status as a sequel by making numerous quality of life improvements to a familiar formula that are already evident despite the game still being in early access. While numerous elements are still in development, the groundwork that has already been laid is showing great promise for a release window of sometime in 2023 if Pathea Games holds true to their development window.