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Depending on how you play the story, you'll solve Verity's dilemma in a few hours. I had moments where I thought I had everything figured out and just needed to trigger the right dialogue options, but even still I wound up getting surprised more often than not. Expelled is a tightly wound narrative puzzle game that makes me excited that it's labeled "An Overboard Game" because hopefully that means Inkle makes a game like this every few years to wrinkle my time-loop-loving brain and completely delight me.
I enjoyed my brief time with Ninja Five-O. If you're feeling nostalgic for the heyday of the GBA, this is a great way to experience an apparently rare entry in its library.
If you've never played Suikoden II and consider yourself a lover of Japanese-made RPGs, you should already have this game pre-ordered. This is a game that belongs on the podium near the '90s classics from Square Enix. I'm not nearly as hot on Suikoden I, but the first game is more like the NES Final Fantasy entries to Suikoden II's SNES Final Fantasy entries. It's cool to see the evolution, but we all know what game has ascended to all-timer status.
There's a bit of repetition built into seeing every single thing under the hood, but repetition is no real issue when it's so darn groovy. While I may have completely forgotten that this sequel was announced in 2023, I'll make no such mistake if developer Foreign Gnomes deigns to go for a three-peat. It's undoubtedly a beautiful day in this neighborhood.
While progression can stutter somewhat along the way if you can't quite figure out exactly what it is the game wants you to do, the vast majority of your adventure is fun and endearing. While combat lets down the experience somewhat it can generally be powered through with efficient use of your bonsai tree. The rest of Omega 6 The Triangle Stars is a wonderfully stylized adventure that is certainly worth taking.
It could've been fun to explore this with a friend, but as only one game would support online play I'd find it hard to recommend to even the most dedicated of Yu-Gi-Oh! players. But lowering your expectations and going in blind, especially for some of the more unusual titles in the collection, could still be fun. Just know that there is a high likelihood that by the end you'll be happy that you've moved past those early days.
River City Saga: Three Kingdoms Next starts with the baseline understanding of what makes a River City game, then plays experimental jazz with the rest, to varying levels of success. There's a lot of good in its presentation and core combat elements, but the dings of bland music and the slog of traversing the world are glaring and kneecap the experience. There's still plenty of fun to be had for fans of a good beat-em-up, but expect to be playing this more as a curiosity than your next favorite game.
Space Colony Studios did a fine job with their first effort in the Stories from Sol series. It definitely isn't going to appeal to everyone - players who haven't enjoyed adventure games won't likely be won over here, but if you're like me and felt some real nostalgia looking at the game's screenshots and trailer, I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time. Now I guess I'll have to wait for the next entry in the series.
From the characters' squawking voices to their amusing dialogue, Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip is a joyful vacation to a nonsensical playground where its small world is your oyster. The Switch performance isn't perfect, but for a game with a fair bit of jank built in, it didn't detract from the experience. At a time when the desire for escapism is at its highest, I'll gladly recommend a trip to Sprankelwater for the best medicine that money can buy.
Whether it's just listening to your friends vent frustrations or finding common ground with someone new, there's something special about what these games bring to the table. I for one recommend everyone pull up a stool and listen for a while. You may find a new best friend.
If any bit of what I've said so far is compelling, please stop reading any content about Urban Myth Dissolution Center and go buy and play this game. It's one of my favorite games of its type, maybe ever, and I am really dying for similar games from this developer. This is a unique, incredibly well made experience that came out of nowhere for me - that might be an urban myth of its own.
Gone are the cross-country tours of Cold Steel 1, and in their place are an overuse of familiar surroundings and lackluster bonding events. Van is a memorable protagonist, but he doesn't have the poignant character moments he did in the first game. It may be that these Trails have simply run out of road, which is sad to say given the RPG heights the series has achieved.
Moons of Darsalon has some rough edges, but its charm and level design is usually enough to shine through. This is a game that builds upon a lot of old ideas, but manages to make them feel incredibly fresh. While it can trip over itself now and then, the end result is a memorable and fun puzzle experience that feels truly out of time.
But an oftentimes inscrutable, poorly told story is unlikely to win over any new fans. I'll also note that in Japan, all content that featured the cast of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross was contained to a separate DLC. Currently that DLC is not available in this release, and seems unlikely to become so in the future, due to licensing issues. Still I'll take what I can get, and it is great to see this series making an appearance at all.
Hell, I'm excited to log back in to do my dailies! I always kind of understood the Animal Crossing series, but Hello Kitty Island Adventure is what I've always wanted them to be. At this rate, I better start shopping at the local Too Cool store for Badtz-Maru merch. That character just gets me.
Ultimately, for having so many mechanics, all of them ended up feeling half-baked. Farmagia in a lot of ways feels like a first draft, and I'd love to see these mechanics pared down and refined in a future game. Farmagia needed a little bit longer to grow, and I hope another game can pay attention to this in the future.
Symphonia represents a welcome starting point for players who want to cut their teeth on a more approachable precision platformer. Its difficulty curve is a gentle one, so those looking for something a bit more fiendish may want to skip this concert. The softlocking was frustrating but I enjoyed my time with the fairly brisk campaign.
Achilles: Legends Untold is a functional isometric souls-like that plays well enough and has plenty of territory to explore but falls short in its Switch port. It isn't completely unenjoyable by any means and mechanically it is quite solid. But ultimately through the combination of a rough Switch port, poor voice acting, and a general struggle to do anything that stands out, it winds up being a forgettable journey.
It is definitely at its best the more human players you have, as empty slots ultimately just become extra characters for your party to manage in addition to their own. The UI is a little clunky and can take some getting used to. But Worlds of Aria is ultimately a charming adventure that bridges the gap excellently between tabletop RPG and party game.
All told, Tales of Graces f Remastered is an impressive game, with some of my favorite game characters and gameplay in some time. It looks and runs like a dream on the Switch, too, which made for a wonderful visual experience. Reportedly Bandai Namco is looking to remaster more of the Tales series, and after Graces f Remastered, I hope we'll see those sooner rather than later.