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Fitness Boxing 3's weak voice work and shoddy motion detection somehow do little to keep you coming back for more. By gamifying the exercise, it keeps you engaged and motivated, and you'll quickly find yourself surprised at how tired you become from these exercises.
Caves of Qud is a game that will reward you more and more for putting in the time and effort to learn about it. Even just from scratching the surface, however, I am absolutely entranced by the worlds the game can create.
The My Sims Cozy Bundle will give you a nice hit of nostalgia and charm, but not much beyond that. MySims and MySims Kingdom are pretty simple and repetitive games, what you see is what you get. While you can make your own fun, it's only within the limitations of each title.
Overall, Tales of Graces f Remastered is the same enjoyable experience from over a decade ago brought back in a clean package that runs well with some decent quality of life additions like the markers and toggles. Bandai Namco and the developers nailed it this time, no strings attached with this remaster. As for Tales of Graces itself, it stands out in the series with its sillier cast, striking art style, fast paced combat, and easy-to-understand and fun to master Title system. While I think this is the Tales Of game that benefits from co-op the most, you're getting a fun RPG with a lot of "power of friendship" speeches so if that appeals to you, you're in for a great time.
Party Versus is creative, engaging, and beginner-friendly. It's a fantastic immersive party game. The only downside I saw to it is the fact that it's quite difficult to play seated, which can be a turn-off for some players who must or who chose to play seated.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins represents a commendable yet contradictory effort to rejuvenate the series. In balancing familiar elements with new features to create a refreshing experience, it loses sight of what made the originals fun and fails to improve on what made them monotonous.
Cave Hikers is clearly intended for younger audiences, and while quite simple, it still manages to be a cute and charming bed-time story adventure. It's a point-and-click "mockumentary" that can make for a fun evening, but there's little else beyond the simplicity save for the amusing artstyle and great narrator.
The Oath in Felghana stands strong as one the best Ys entries to date. Its sharp and compact game design makes just as strong of an impression with this Memoire release as it did when I first played it over a decade ago. Unfortunately, this rerelease does not bring much more to the table than a great game to new consoles. Its priorities when it comes to updating the game's visuals are questionable at best, but thankfully far from fatal.
Mindcop is an innovative detective experience with a killer style and well thought-out mystery. It blends non-linear gameplay with real-time puzzles and detective game aspects that fit pretty well together. This is due in part to time being at the forefront of every little action you make, from checking what's in a bin to uncovering someone's secrets, every minute counts which creates a tantalizing mystery to sink your teeth into. The game is gorgeous and quirky in its unique style and boasts a cast of fun yet troubled characters. However, Mindcop stumbles in how overwhelming it can be at times, penalising your mistakes and lacking just enough direction so you're often running around like a headless chicken.
On Your Tail has a lot of heart, but that's sadly not enough to support a mystery that is constantly falling flat on its face. Its puzzles are infuriating rather than fun, with no real clues to follow and determine the culprit ahead of time. The characters are incredibly charming, Borgo Marina is gorgeous, and the life sim elements are fun, but the core of this taste of Italy is incredibly bitter.
The Case of the Golden shook up the detective point and click genre, and rightfully so. You can tell a lot of love and passion has been put into every element of this game, from its narrative that weaves through the scenarios and the perfect way it allows the player to unfold the mystery for themselves through their game mechanics. It can get a tad overwhelming at times with some grand schemes to unfold, but if you play it at your own pace, you'll constantly be rewarded for figuring out how the game works and who has poisoned who this time.
Romancing Saga 2 - Revenge of the Seven is a brilliant culmination of many of my favorite aspects of JRPGs. While I have some complaints about technical issues and details about implementation, the quality of mechanics and exploration easily blow past them. Fans of the genre will not be disappointed with this sprawling narrative full of secrets and challenges.
Overall, I would say Fantasian is good. But there's a certain something lacking and while I'm reminded of the nostalgic past, it makes me miss how revolutionary Fantasian's inspirations were. From the character writing of Final Fantasy VI, the 3D revolution of Final Fantasy VII, one of the first RPGs with near full voice acting in Final Fantasy X, or creating a connected world two years before World of Warcraft with Final Fantasy XI on PlayStation 2. Fantasian isn't changing anyone's feelings on RPGs. It's pretty, silly, and cozy with some genuine heart. But it's like a beautiful cake. It doesn't feel like a full meal but it's tasty and I love looking at it. Fantasian is new-ish, but it's not Neo.
Poor UI and equally poor communication lead to a frustrating early game experience that diminishes the value of an RPG with otherwise truly interesting gameplay mechanics. While Caves of Lore is a diamond in the rough, it's a diamond nonetheless.
Antonblast is chaotic to a fault. Its explosive personality makes for an entertaining spectacle, but it left me wanting for a more controlled detonation.
Death of the Reprobate is a delightfully devilish narrative experience that has you gasping with laughter at every interaction. The game forgoes challenge in order to provide the player with a seamless experience which is to its merit, but could do with a little less hand holding. Despite this, you really do want to stop and smell the roses when you play this game as its artstyle is a wonder to behold, and a bit yucky in other places. Its quirky characters and its use of the renaissance is unique and accessible to any player that doesn't have a degree in art as it prizes itself in how fun of a time you'll have with it.
Fairy Tail 2 arrives at the finale of our favorite wizards' adventure with highlights and shortcomings alike. I recommend it to dedicated fans of the manga and anime, but this simply isn't a welcoming entry for potential new fans.
While its gacha mechanics feel predatory, Infinity Nikki is a blast in most other aspects. Finding and dressing up in various outfits is fun, and the open world has a ton of variety. The story is surprisingly interesting too, even if it has a few too many lulls. Infinity Nikki feels like the ultimate dress up game, and it's only going to get bigger from here.
With a handful of bugs to iron out, Alien: Rogue Incursion isn't quite a "perfect organism", but it is a creepy good time with compelling performances and a great use of virtual reality.
The move to a cloud-focused game has caused some turbulence on takeoff, and it would be good to be able to decouple from that decision with an "install-all" option, but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 elevates the game in just about every other way. It'd just be nice if it did it more cleanly. That said, if you have even a passing interest in flight, this simulator is still the best out there.