Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok reimagines the game’s endgame with a roguelike mode, six excellent new characters, deeper progression, and challenging encounters that reward strategy over raw damage. Its grind-heavy structure, visual clutter, and modest story hold it back, but mechanically it’s an exceptional expansion for dedicated players.
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is a wonderful action-adventure that successfully evolves beyond its Zelda inspirations through rewarding exploration, smart customization, and memorable puzzle design. Its pacing and underused time-travel mechanics hold it back from becoming a true classic, but the sense of discovery and emotional impact it provides make it an easy recommendation for players who crave a slice of the good past.
Saros is a tactical roguelike shooter that emphasizes aggressive, skill-based combat and satisfying DualSense feedback. Its bullet-drain mechanics and flexible progression systems create an engaging run-to-run variety. The narrative and character scenes feel uneven and sometimes stiff, but the moment-to-moment gameplay remains highly immersive, rewarding, and instinctively enjoyable throughout
Pragmata blends inventive hack-and-shoot combat with a reflective story about humanity and purpose. The dynamic gameplay and Diana’s curiosity leave a lasting impression. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but its confidence and emotional resonance make it a memorable and worthwhile sci-fi experience.
Code Vein II offers polished combat and deep characters, but drowns its potential in a dull, repetitive open world. Despite Go Shiina’s stellar music and a strong finale, the scripted story, tired anime tropes, and recycled enemy variety make this sequel feel more like a boring chore than a breakthrough.
Silent Hill f isn’t the most terrifying or iconic entry in the series, but it’s one of the most introspective. Its story, atmosphere, and character-driven design make it a fascinating study in psychological horror, just one that’s occasionally weighed down by pacing issues toward the end and some technical difficulties here and there.
Lost Soul Aside has flashes of spectacle and ambition but fails to deliver on its inspirations. It borrows style without soul, offering only momentary highs in a sea of monotony. Fans of the genre will quickly notice its lack of substance, and newcomers may enjoy it briefly before realizing far better alternatives exist.
The Chinese souls-like Wuchang: Fallen Feathers delivers fast and fluid combat as well as a deep customization system. Its inventive mechanics and boss variety shine, but the game stumbles in narrative, exploration, and polish. It’s promising entry in the Souls-like genre, but not what I would put on the top of anyone’s priority list at the moment.
Came for the action. Stayed for the kicks.
Even before playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the game sparked conversations and excitement reminiscent of a golden age in JRPGs. Through nostalgic atmosphere, soulful writing, dynamic combat, and daring originality, it delivers an experience that both honours and reinvents the genre. From optional bonfire scenes filled with genuine acting to a combat loop that rewards mastery, every moment feels handcrafted and purposeful. Even before playing, the experience begins—and long after finishing, it lingers.
Aesthetically rich but mechanically tired, Assassin’s Creed Shadows offers fleeting sparks of brilliance buried under Ubisoft’s same old template. A missed opportunity to evolve the series meaningfully with a setting so beloved worldwide and depicted much much better in various games of the same quality and caliber.
Atelier Yumia aims for a bold, open-world take on the franchise but falters with shallow difficulty, repetitive exploration, and an underwhelming story. Crafting and combat have depth but the accessibility options make them trivial. It simply lacks the challenge and uniqueness expected from a “dark” modern JRPG.
MLB The Show 2025 blew me away with its depth, customization, and immersive gameplay. It’s packed with content, from career mode to historical moments. The microtransactions are not my favourite design choice in any game, but you can ignore that part and enjoy the free content without feeling any frustration.
Stories From Sol: The Gun-Dog is an immersive visual novel with a bold visual style, meaningful choices, and a handcrafted world that pulls you in. Its fragmented design keeps every scene engaging, and makes exploration and replayability rewarding. While some technical hiccups can get in the way, the game’s depth and storytelling make it well worth the ride.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins offers challenging gameplay that requires strategic thinking instead of button mashing like most Musou games. Engaging mechanics, combat depth and replayability adds new life into a long running series.
The journey of this free-to-play action-adventure RPG mirrors the rocky yet triumphant trajectory of games like Final Fantasy XIV—starting with a messy launch but eventually evolving into something worth celebrating. However, unlike FFXIV, which took years to refine itself, Wuthering Waves has undergone a dramatic transformation in a much shorter span and became something worthy of attention and a space on your hard drive.
A beautiful homage to the JRPG genre that still manages to stand on its own, while taking care to let go of all the annoying gimmicks that plagued JRPGs in the past.
An action-packed and emotionally-charged adventure through a breathtaking period in Japanese history.
Fire Emblem Engage is mostly a streamlined experience that gives you a taste of what the series has to offer, but doesn’t showcase its true potential as a strategy game. It lacks genuine innovation, and doesn’t quite meet the standards set by previous entries or establish a challenging and balanced system that reflects Fire Emblem's core identity.
If you fall in love with the main loop and the freedom to design and interact with your followers, then you can expect to take at least 30 fun hours out of it, but don’t go in there expecting anything innovative in either the rouge-like or management-sim departments.