Niche Gamer
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Corsair Cove nevertheless remains a very good city-builder and an easy recommendation for fans of management games. Its vertical settlements are distinctive, its pirate atmosphere is excellent and its opening hours are among the most immediately enjoyable I have experienced in the genre.
With a fanbase as niche as Culdcept‘s, Begins‘ lack of a target audience is its biggest misstep, and one that leaves it aimless despite being designed as a crowd-pleasing renaissance.
DragonSword: Awakening lands at a strange moment for the hobby, between console makers acting like the villain of the story and physical media getting phased out one release at a time. It’s genuinely nice to see something take a normally predatory genre, strip out the predatory part, and sell the rest for thirty dollars. It’s not without its seams.
Ultimately, Blue Reflection Quartet isn’t something I’d recommend to most RPG fans. It’s more for those seeking a light, character-focused visual novel about heroines balancing high school life with a looming world-ending crisis, leaning far more into the former.
At the end of the day, Palworld is messy, ambitious and incredibly addictive.
Splatoon Raiders is a real tonal shift for the series, and it works far more often than it falters. Splatoon Raiders holds its own alongside the grind-heavy RPGs it draws from, but there are still a few blank spots to fill before it can claim a spot at the very top.
007 First Light is a thrilling adventure from start to finish that is a bit too heavy-handed with its stealth and fetch gameplay elements. While the game is arguably the best 007 game in the last twenty years, it does feel like it could be better.
Disgaea Mayhem isn’t broken, and it’s fine for short play sessions. But it plays it incredibly safe, borrowing the series’ style and humor while stripping away most of what made the main games unique.
Endless Ragnarok doesn’t reinvent Granblue Fantasy: Relink. It’s the same core game, just with some extra content tacked on to keep veteran endgame players grinding for a few more weeks.
Voidling Bound cleverly reinvents the creature-collector formula in combat, but is hampered by a limited species count and a difficulty system that demands nothing from you while offering little reward for pushing yourself.
When it comes to gameplay, there has never been a title quite like Denshattack. Fusing parkour, speed, and a complicated tricktionary make for an experience wholly its own. And that experience is pure adrenaline, packed with heart-pumping stunts, gorgeous and varied settings, and an unscratchable itch to dive back in for just one more try at that elusive gold medal.
Dialoop is not a lost cause, but with a core gameplay loop that’s no better than average and holds little variety, the subpar presentation and abhorrent visuals make this title a forgettable one.
Rhythm Heaven Groove is a triumphant return from a decade-and-a-half hibernation. While it struggles to abandon some of the archaic visual design the series has grown attached to, the juiced-up soundtrack, consistently strong rhythm games, and wonderfully intriguing Beatspell RPG have me believing that this series has the legs to carry the music into the modern age.
Whether this game is our appetizer before a brand-new Star Fox adventure, or simply a one-off tribute to the iconic series, it’s the best Star Fox ever, and I say that with no reservations.
Dark Scrolls is retro for all the right reasons, and very few of the wrong ones, and you’ll get plenty of substance considering its budget price point.
The Adventures of Elliot comes close to nailing it when it lets you loose and explore a world across eras at your own pace. There’s a lot to like; it looks great, exploring is fun, and it feels good to play. It falls short when it comes to likeable characters and having a story to care about.
Minor flaws aside, LumenTale: Memories of Trey is very fun and feels like the real deal.
If you love painstakingly planning and constructing the ultimate team base, maximizing the energy output of your technology to make beautifully automated machines, or simply basking in the atmosphere of a quiet, peaceful world, you’ll feel right at home with Solarpunk and its rewarding gameplay loop.
The story is short — you should have no problem finishing the entire game in a single sitting — and by design, there are no filler moments, save for the intermissions between chapters. Bending the boundaries of visual novel conventions, and Roger shares a poignant, beautiful story that’s best experienced first-hand.
There’s a lot to like about Rise of the Tomb Raider if you ignore the rehashed story and average gunplay.