Cubed3's Reviews
God Wars: Future Past is a very traditional TRPG, and as such, it is built upon a solid foundation, and fans of the genre are going to like it. It does, however, do very little to stand out. It could also be helped a bit by balancing the jobs more. Some jobs just feel extremely underwhelming compared to others. The story and the gameplay in general are going to deliver what fans expect and desire, though: nothing less, and sadly, nothing more.
A worthy debut for not only the series but also the genre on Nintendo Switch, Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star combines a solid foundation of enemy wave eliminations and territory domination with a surprisingly developed and engaging narrative, despite the various camera issues and regular jargon blockage. It is definitely a slow burner that fits well into a mindless brawler or an intriguing fable on demand.
A long-forgotten joy that deserves to stand side by side with the best of the franchise. There are so many great elements that all combine for such a special experience. The soundtrack from Hitoshi Sakimoto is filled with such a wide variety of tracks, ranging from grand orchestral themes, like the self-titled "Final Fantasy" to the light cheerful tones played throughout towns and some fantastic battle music. All of these sound even better here, reworked with 7.1 surround sound. The models and designs look stunning. The story falters, but still tells a gripping tale. Most importantly, however, the gameplay is ridiculously addictive, with the quality of life enhancements addressing most of the problems with the original. A must-buy for both those who played the PS2 version and those who missed it. Fantastic.
Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two fails to capture both the creative freedom of Minecraft, and the meaningful storytelling of a Telltale Games series. While there's definitely some niche appeal for those who are extremely invested in the world and lore of Minecraft, the story and characters don't stand out enough to make this a super compelling title. If Minecraft is something people love playing, they're better off just sticking to it.
Overall, the design gymnastics Immortal Redneck puts itself through to blend free-form run and gun gameplay with unforgiving roguelike mechanics can be readily apparent sometimes. More often than not, though, it manages to stand up on its core combat loop. It's fun, it's fast - and that's kind of the only string to Immortal Redneck's banjo, for better or worse.
There is a slither of something within Get Even to enjoy. An intriguing story, narrative beats that hit hard, and a sound design that brings out the terror and peril of exploration. However, only those with the most patience will uncover these treats, as it all remains buried amongst basic puzzles, bad plotting, terrible combat, and awkward dialogue. What Get Even attempts to do is bring together several elements of game design to try and lift the walking simulator genre forward; however, it's a game that seems ashamed of its own inspiration.
Overall, Splatoon 2 is a brilliant and refreshing competitive multiplayer experience, both online and offline, which really fills a void in that regard for the system.
Children of Zodiarcs does so much with so little that its only flaw seems to be that it's not as close to perfection as it could be. Nevertheless, fans of the genre are highly advised to try it out, as the inclusion of card-based skills and specialised dices manage to offer a fine example of an SRPG that's original, challenging, and all around fun.
Due to some rather questionable gameplay decisions and a lack of variety in content, Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles ends up being a disproportionately beautiful slog to nowhere. The tank controls are outdated without any of the design elements necessary to make them engaging, while the story tries to be an intimate journey of self-discovery without anything to discover. Gemea's lush and vibrant landscape is the one saving grace, and peacefully walking through colourful forests and past bustling rivers almost makes the whole shipwreck worth it - but the world's lack of complete identity, both in gameplay and how it presents itself, is too glaring to ignore. The shame of it all is that Yonder isn't held back by time constraints or a tight budget; it's held back by design.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls jumps oddly between different genres, which fits in an otherwise enjoyable story. A vast majority involves simply clicking through the story, which per the series in general is largely pretty good. The convoluted plot, and heavy 'anime moments' make it tough to recommend to non-fans of previous releases, but those who enjoy the first or second title will have a great time here as most of the feel still remains, despite the very odd genre change.
There is obviously an enormously high bar for the LucasArts adventure game catalogue, and Full Throttled Remastered doesn't quite hit that standard.
Mighty Gunvolt Burst combines the better aspects of Beck's disastrous first outing and wraps them up in a compact retro-styled package, with a Gunvolt ribbon tied around for good measure. A solid run-and-gun 2D platformer that adds flair and function to the wheel rather than reinventing it completely, but often hits the road bumps named accessibility and hardware adaptiveness.
While very niche, Alchemic Dungeons offers quite the fun and intrinsically addictive little experience. Sadly, though, it's also a fundamentally flawed title thanks to the regular poor design decisions that litter the entire experience. A little extra effort put into this port with more unlockables, some way to carry things over to subsequent play-throughs and ideally more difficulty options would have made this really stand out.
Bulb Boy certainly has an intriguing visual concept, but lays it on a bit thick with the weird and wacky side of things later on without really explaining why, or even bothering to draw everything together into a cohesive package. Rather than being an extremely smart point-and-click adventure with mind-bending puzzles and a clever-but-creepy storyline, it instead strings together a handful of simple scenarios that do not hold the attention for long, and barely offer any challenge - unless awkward controls and long re-loads count. To top it off, there is barely any story to tickle gamers' imaginations, and then it finishes in about an hour, which for its price makes it hard to recommend.
Levels+: Addictive Puzzle Game gets straight to the point with its title and the gameplay itself. As with the classics from this genre, this little minx lures you in and refuses to let go. It has deceptive simplicity and hidden depth that will keep players hooked for far longer than they might expect. The addition of some online elements would have been beneficial, but this is still ideal for all levels of Nintendo Switch-owning puzzle fans.
All told, Valkyria Revolution isn't a complete disaster. Every now and then, it manages to hoist itself out of the loathsome depths, and deliver an adequate strategy RPG. The ragnites and other abilities are fun to play around with. There is also a small level of satisfaction in crushing hapless soldiers. Still, outside of very specific circumstances, this title demands absolutely nothing from its players, so it's unlikely to hold their attention for long. The intriguing plot is completely wasted by a combination of bad storytelling, laughable cut-scenes, and exorbitant loading screens. All in all, it's a shameful affair.
If you can overlook the repetition and poor optimisation in favour of mowing down countless soldiers in increasingly spectacular fashion, you'll find one of the more entertaining history lessons in recent times.
The Long Journey Home is a painful war of attrition. It feels at odds with itself: it wants to incorporate randomization to encourage replayability, yet that randomization makes the critical resource-management components even more frustrating. It could have seriously benefitted from some restraint on the part of the developers; if fewer systems were left up to pure chance, this could have been an expansive, exciting new exploration game. Instead, it's an overpriced curiosity that buries some great ideas under a planet-sized mound of bad decisions.
Dungeon Defenders II is the epitome of… nice. It doesn't do anything wrong in particular, but it sure isn't anything exciting, either. It's a somewhat pleasant combination of pure action and tower defence, but it's a combination that not many will choose over the chance to play something less repetitive, less grindy, and more complete.
Death Squared is a cocktail of two things that, theoretically, could never become a successful mix. Having said that, and although combining couch gaming and puzzles is a concept that doesn't work as well as intended, SMG Studio handles its unique idea quite alright. As a result, those who'll look past its few flaws will surely have a blast here.