NintendoWorldReport
HomepageNintendoWorldReport's Reviews
The two localizers of Otomate adventures are teaming up to test my speed-reading skills this month; another Aksys one (that mixes in rhythm game elements?) will be out by the time this review is live and Idea Factory International is dropping one at the end of the month. Maybe that's why Winter's Wish didn't exactly break the strings of my heart.
The developers have promised a day one patch to address these issues, and judging by the updates the game received on PC, I'm inclined to trust them. However, at this moment I still recommend Stay Out of the House, but only the tried-and-true original PC version.
The stories can be gruesome and horrific at times, but that also makes them intriguing puzzleboxes to sit down and solve. At times while playing I looked up at the clock and realized I had been squinting at the screen and was lost in thought solving a puzzle for nearly an hour. The year of narrative bangers just keeps on rolling and if you are even remotely interested in solving a good mystery, The Case of the Golden Idol should be at the top of your list!.
The cast of characters is fun and varied, from the anxious Sayoko to the bubbly and optimistic Yoru, and all of them etch themselves into your memory immediately. Ghostpia never fully throws out an explanation for many of its mysteries, but with a season 2 apparently already planned it fits to leave some questions unanswered. Those looking for a purely narrative experience that may take you back to those late nights watching Inuyasha will find that weirdly precise desire in this town full of ghosts, and I have a feeling you won't regret your visit.
This is made a bit worse by the fact that the game hits the point where most stories of this type usually end, and then keeps going for upwards of an hour, doggedly refusing to roll credits in favor of a drawn out series of epilogue scenes. I really wanted to like Decarnation–it was near the top of my list in terms of most anticipated indie titles for the year–but sadly it just did not deliver the experience I had hoped. It is not what I would necessarily call a bad game, but it is one held back by its multiple missteps along the way.
Super Mega Baseball 4, like its predecessors, has become the new standard for arcade sports games upon its release. Metalhead Software has refined near perfection over the past few years and I'm in love with the lineup of MLB Legends and the new addition of Shuffle Draft.
With the focus on game preservation that we've seen in recent years, I never imagined that the Etrian Odyssey series would be preserved anywhere close to its original form. The fact that they thought it worth bringing to Switch is amazing, and though it didn't come over entirely clean, it's still worth bringing back Fight, Heal, and the rest of the crew for one more dungeon dive.
I'm thrilled that Etrian Odyssey exists beyond the DS and 3DS, but what we got doesn't hit the highs of the series. Atlus admirably tried to make it work on Switch, but the controls for drawing your map aren't as natural as they were on DS and 3DS. Etrian Odyssey II is still a great video game, with a really good progression through each stratum and a lot of depth and synergies between the classes and abilities. My hope is that if Etrian Odyssey survives beyond this dungeon crawl, the next release will be more future-focused than porting over the past.
While all three titles are a welcome addition to the Switch's growing stable of turn-based affairs, they don't feel quite as at home as they did on two-screens. Mapping out your way through the 20-plus floors of EO3 was just better with a stylus in hand and a single screen dedicated to map-making; the HD shine of this re-release on Switch doesn't quite do enough to push this third game into must-play territory. That said, if you're already an Etrian fan and never played EO3 (especially since it didn't get a 3DS Untold release like the first two titles), then the multiple endings, varied character classes, and nautical theming are more than enough to warrant a look.
This is a game that shows the value of a game being given time to cook and of a studio that has supported a consistent group of developers working on the same series for decades. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is not a game anyone else could make. This is why you bought your Switch, even if you didn't know it at the time.
I truly believe it stands tall among the best of the entire Final Fantasy series, carving its own distinct path with the refined job system. The Pixel Remaster is as close to a definitive release as we've had of Final Fantasy V in the west so far. I do wish I didn't have to offer a handful of caveats, but this is still a good version of an all-time great.
Farming Simulator 23 is not a game for newcomers. My time playing was largely filled with confusion, and the in-game tutorials and guides do very little to point a new player in the right direction. It may appeal to core fans of the franchise since it is at least a portable version of the game, but the scaled-back features are likely to be what those players care about the most, and anyway the price tag of $45 is frankly a joke compared to the $8 this same version of the game costs on Android and iOS. Perhaps I'm wrong and there's some X factor a hardcore Farming Simulator fan can tell I'm missing, but Farming Simulator 23 is a clear non-starter for newcomers that clearly lacks plenty of content that longtime fans have come to enjoy on more powerful hardware.
The variety of levels and mechanics make each stage feel like its own puzzle, and the unlockable EX stages offer a stout challenge for those so inclined. The amount of content within the story mode in particular and the way EveryBubble scales based on the number of players lead me to give it a hearty recommendation. It could use a few more options in VS mode and extras in the main menu, but overall this is a puzzler well worth busting a move to.
Said spells still "missed". Thankfully, this didn't happen late enough to be a hard stop on my enjoyment of the game. If you are going to go on the Final Fantasy vision quest, definitely make sure you use the Pixel Remaster to play FFII. If thou must.
I also wrote about how I felt uncomfortable playing Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp in the face of the actual Ukraine war happening in Europe. If you're curious about that, you can read that article here.
Its simplicity is its strength, focusing on the action first and foremost and using those limited toolsets to approach each flame. An impressive approach to difficulty and an appropriate amount of mystery puts this game into a neat package that is approachable and as challenging as you'd prefer. Nuclear Blaze is short, sweet, and definitely worth a look.
At the end of the day, FF3 does more interesting things with its run-time than does the original Final Fantasy, and I might even recommend it over that one. Taking full advantage of the quality-of-life features built into the Pixel Remaster series is a great way to enjoy one of the lesser played entries in this storied Square Enix franchise. While it shouldn't be the only or the first Final Fantasy you play, it's still worth a look for any RPG enthusiast.
In Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and The Secret Key, there's plenty of systems to min/max to your heart's content, and fans will enjoy getting to hang out with the cast one final time. While I wish things were perhaps a bit more compact, most will enjoy the expansive world and plethora of experiences to have, even if the text is more than a little hard to read. This finale to Ryza's summer adventures is nonetheless a worthwhile journey for fans to embark on.
The journey has just begun, and we've got a lot of Dokapon Kingdom ahead of us, but I'm incredibly excited to continue this adventure. Check back with us as Dokapon Kingdom (Kind Of) Monthly progresses to see more of our impressions on this legendary party board game.
I love the music and the style. If you've never played the original Final Fantasy before, the experience and money boosts make it easy to experience without the grind. This is a good enough release of Final Fantasy and for that I recommend it, but I wish this could have been the slam-dunk definitive version.