Cubed3's Reviews
While it may be the black sheep of the franchise, Ys Origin is also one of the best entries the series has seen, and one of the best action RPGs period. All three playable characters having their own fleshed out and unique play style makes for an incredibly fresh, blood pumping experience that puts other action oriented games to shame. With an excellently written story, a beautiful soundtrack, and a challenging but always fair difficulty, Ys Origin is everything right with the series whilst maintaining an identity entirely of its own.
Somewhere in Trulon: The Shadow Engine lies what could be a decent little RPG. The use of cards makes for an interesting spin on tradition. The somewhat bland characters and storyline are balanced out by quaint graphics and pleasant music. However, in its current state, this game is broken. It's far too easy to soft-lock it, or even ruin a save. Progress is constantly at the mercy of increasingly slipshod scripts. Attempting to play an RPG where potentially everything can go wrong is nothing more than an exercise in frustration.
Save the Ninja Clan is a solid platformer that might be a bit overzealous in the difficulty department, and may not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen. Still, it's a good way to spend your time, and while it may not feel fresh, it definitely feels complete. While it feels like a fairly typical platforming experience, it's a great experience nonetheless.
Those who run away at the sound of the words "hidden object game" should actually stay put because Hidden Folks is one of the better ones out there, with its tiny-yet-gargantuan worlds and "mouth-sound" audio effects giving it a unique, playful, and almost magical charm, and the gameplay portion seamlessly blends fun, challenge, and some welcome amounts of cooling off.
Do not be fooled by this one. All the Delicate Duplicates merely attempts to disguise a run-of-the-mill storyline by wrapping it up in pretty a first-person exploration dressing that has clearly been designed for future VR support. Sadly, the lack of interaction with the actual surroundings hurts it badly, luring players in with the promise of more to come, only to end succinctly without any effort required on the player's part, and then expecting them to do lots of background reading to get the full picture. On paper, the initial concept may have seemed like an intriguing new way to deliver a story. In reality, though, it proves to be an overly short and mundane chore of an experience that misses so many opportunities to be so much more than it actually is. An experience it may be, but it is an empty and lacklustre one, overall.
A Pixel Story is as close to perfect as a game can get, but it falls a bit short. It highlights a lot of the issues other Metroidvania games have, and can feel like an aimless walk from time to time. Rest assured, though, every annoyance you stumble across will be paid back in kind, and with a game so fun and enticing, you may find yourself lost in the System, as well.
Clever use of traps and abilities, polished and presented well, this is an example of a great budget strategy affair, and, overall, good work from NeocoreGames.
Kill the Bad Guy never succeeds in the task it's setting out to do. Like a botched assassination, it's messy, clumsy, and insensitive. There was an interesting idea here once, yet it feels like a wasted opportunity for some genuine moments of humour and puzzle craft. With muddled controls, and even murkier morals, this game automatically lost any respect people may have had for it the moment it lost respect for its own design and direction.
There are lots of bad things that can be said for Ubisoft's newest idea, with the most annoying one being its poor single-player portion. For those looking for the best medieval-themed PvP melee fighting game, however, it just can't get any better than this. For Honor is not flawless, but it's the current King of the Hill.
A Magical High School Girl is an amusing endeavour with a lot of creativity and charm. The dungeons won't impress, but its inhabitants are handled in a manner that is both clever and challenging. The post-game content also does a good job of forcing veterans to rely solely on their wits and spells for long stretches of time, rather than hoarding and gorging on snacks. If a coming of age story with witches and junk food sounds appealing, then don't hesitate to give this rogue-lite a look.
Bit Dungeon+ is a dungeon crawler playing on nostalgia to a fault. It has completely neglected the modern touches to the genre that gave birth to its renaissance. Each run feels painfully similar, and towards the end it is possible to run several levels without receiving any upgrades at all. Thankfully, it has multiplayer, which can be entertaining in the right company. That is not enough to make it more than just another dungeon crawler, though.
8DAYS tries to replicate the thrill and aggressive nature of a twin-stick shooter and apply it to a mercenary gunning down enemies, but forgets about the part where an endless supply of ammo would've been useful. Having to rely on using stealth to traverse the chapters out of fear of wasting ammo kind of defeats the purpose of calling it a "shooter." While the cheap enemies and finite supply of health packs mixed with the extremely reflexive gameplay further dampens the product, 8DAYS leaves a lot to be desired, as it is a constant reminder of what could've been a really fun game.
Redout could be a far better futuristic racer, with just a liiitle bit better controls, just a liiitle bit of variety, and just a liiitle bit of originality. It presents arms to the genre's big ones in a pretty decent way for an indie production… but it could do more than that.
Where does Root Double -Before Crime * After Days- Xtend Edition sit on the visual novel scale? The answer is: perfectly in the middle. Enjoyable plot? Yes, but nothing to die for. Well-written? Sure, but also way too long. Has an innovative choice mechanic? Yes… but then again, no.
This is very good… when it's not annoying; it has fantastic pacing… when the fun doesn't take a backseat; battles and puzzles are quite enjoyable… when they are not boring. Darksiders: Warmastered Edition is the perfectly average video game. It does so many things great, but, as a whole, it just feels as if there's something missing.
While the opening sequences plays out quite forced, with Max awkwardly needing a reason to begin exploring, the game gets a lot better once it gets going. With no real gameplay required, this is, at the end of the day, a visual novel that works well at times, though some head scratching moments disrupts the flow of the game.
As cute and appealing as Plantera's presentation is, there's very little 'game' here. Instead, this is an idle game, a click game, one meant to be played between other tasks, and therefore one not well suited to the Wii U. There's still fun to be had, but only in short play sessions that will inevitably become shorter and shorter until, very quickly, there's nothing left to entice you back.
Though not without faults and a little too easy, Brut@l is still a fairly amusing game. It's fun exploring the dungeon while crushing its many denizens. The gear system is clever and works quite well. Anyone seeking a greater challenge should probably refrain from exploiting the special attacks and vampire curse potions. This rogue-like arguably won't go down as the classic that it's inspired by, but it isn't a bad way to pass the time.
Cayne is a fairly short adventure. However, it's also completely free, so anyone who can afford to spend the time should give it a look. The puzzles can be overly obtuse and annoying, but the game delivers in most other respects. The art direction is disturbingly good. It's memorable, perhaps a bit too memorable. One might find themselves suffering a sleepless night after witnessing everything that occurs in this game. That's a credit to the art direction. Although, one has to wonder how they came up with some of this stuff. Well… Some questions are probably better left unanswered.
Flywrench may be hard to explain, but it's not hard at all to recommend. The difficulty manages to be mostly fair and wildly satisfying. While it may take some getting used to, it would be a disservice to yourself not to at least try out this indie underground legend, now that it's finally coming to the mainstream.