Niche Gamer
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Luckily enough, I find that with Akiba's Trip being a slightly watered down Way of the Samurai, it's a lot easier for anyone to get into it. With a direct story and no time limit, the game allows the player to take in the experience of a delightfully weird, quirky, otaku-crazed story coupled with fun, engaging gameplay, in the immersive world of Akihabara.
Suffice to say, this game produces with guns blazing. It's a refreshing take on roguelike games that adds multitude of learning paths and difficulty curves. Crypt of the NecroDancer has rewarding gameplay and amazing, intelligent music-oriented gameplay which makes this game stand out amongst most rogue-likes. The game has a ton of potential to grow, even more of which I am excited to see what Brace Yourself will produce more with this title.
I went into playing Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment with caution as to how the game could possibly recapture the essence of the source material, but it does that admirably – even with something as small as the inability to actually "quit the game", which is something that'll stick with me for a long time, just like the series itself.
Risen 3 is a triumphant return to Piranha Bytes' golden age and a fantastic CRPG in its own right. An open world epic that is guaranteed to get better with each passing hour you put into it and won't let you go until the end. With its long 60+ hour quest, well over 300 side-quests and a very easy to grasp combat system, it's by far and away the most approachable of Piranha Bytes' games – and perhaps its most enjoyable one as well.
I can honestly say there wasn't one moment that I ever thought about skipping the games dialogue scenes. They're just so entertaining, and I can't help but smile when one of the characters makes an awesome reference to a game I haven't played in a while, or maybe have forgotten altogether. I'll go as far as to call this game a must buy, because I know I'll be playing this game for a long time to come.
If you're not a fan of Warriors games, but are curious, give it a go. The game is crazy fun and the amount of content will make your head spin. But if you don't like Warriors games at all, this one is still a DW game – if you don't like the series, you won't like this.
I think they got a great slew of character's that mesh well (maybe not Pippin), on-point music, fun combat, customizable upgrades and with a decent story that doesn't go incredibly outlandish which some of their titles do. The main gripes I have are mostly the zoomed in camera feel from dungeon navigating, frame-rate issues when moving the camera around alongside actions, and lack of world exploring, and lastly – the game can also get easy when going midway on in the game.
As much negativity as Kickstarter has been saddled with over the past year, I feel reassured that good things can come of it thanks to this game here. Though Divinity and Shadowrun were also big successes that were funded through Kickstarter, it almost felt for a while there that Wasteland would get lost in their shadow. That thankfully isn't the case, since in this gamer's opinion, Wasteland 2 is a much bigger and more varied CRPG than either of those two titles. Fargo & Co should be proud of what they have here, and I sincerely hope that the market allows them to make a Wasteland 3.
All told, I wouldn't recommend Battle Grounds as a full-on game, but it is a fun time waster. The battles get boring and repetitive too quickly to entertain you for long, and that in turn ends up meaning your time is better spent elsewhere. While the game looks and runs great, the gameplay just lacks too much.
The battle system is a well-thought-out tactical setup that brings all necessary attributes to a minimal core but, for me, the choppy flow, the time required, and the harshness of the ridiculously skewed battles yielded too little reward to continue progressing enthusiastically.
As much as I love Samurai Warriors, I would suggest either of those games before this one. However, if you have both of those and still want more Musou, Samurai Warriors 4 is still a good entry in the series.
This year has seen a lot of great modern CRPGs impersonating old school titles, and Grimrock 2 is yet another in that long list of spiritual successors to long dead franchises that have been begging to be resurrected. If you want to lose a couple of weeks to a good dungeon crawler with a thriving community and some very un-indie-like bells and whistles, Grimrock 2 is a sure way to scratch that itch.
I must say I loved Hearts R. The game is made with the Vita in mind, and is a great Tales experience. If you’re a fan of the Tales games, I would heavily recommend Hearts R—it’s a fantastic game. If you aren’t so much of a Tales fan, the game is still possibly one of the best (if not the best) JRPGs on Vita we have out here so far … but I may be a bit biased as the Tales series is my favorite JRPG.
If you have a 3DS, and you like RPGs, you should buy Persona Q. If you've played any previous Persona games and liked them, buying Persona Q should be a no-brainer. If you hate RPGs, and by extension fun itself, I'm not sure why you're even reading this.
Those who are used to the slick action RPG combat of Diablo, Titan Quest or Sacred will probably come away with the same assessment I did, while those who are more interested in Planescape-style questing will find the patience necessary to trudge through the combat to get to the game's tasty dialog-saturated center. Since I am firmly in the former of those two categories, I walked away feeling very disappointed with Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms, and wish more than anything that I could be a member of the latter group.
Alien: Isolation is a frightening, atmospheric experience, and a perfect example of how to properly adapt an Alien game. However, it is not without its pitfalls. Abysmal pacing, a thin plot, bugs aplenty, and a frustrating save system are just a few of the many snags in an otherwise faithful representation of the franchise as a whole. Even with those drawbacks, I'd recommend A:I wholeheartedly to fans of horror, or devotees of the series. If you're not either of those things, however, you may find more aggravation than fun in the 15-20 hours of gameplay the game has to offer.
Die-hard platforming fans will feel disappointed, and puzzlers may not feel the game is quite satisfying enough. The overall experience, however, is good enough, just. If you're the curious sort who loves a good yarn, you should give Monochroma a go; but if you find pleasure primarily in the mechanics and control of gaming, you're better off with something else.
The scrolling space shooter genre was due for a revitalization, and REVOLVER360 RE:ACTOR is it. Buy it, mute it, play it.
In spite of these small gripes, Blackguards 2 is a much more complete and better-playing game than its predecessor and will no doubt please all of those who loved the first. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you are a hardcore fan like me), the game has not been streamlined enough to attract casual CRPG fans and will still be far too complex and challenging for those not accustomed to the difficulty of a dyed-in-the-wool European game like Blackguards.
Overall, the game is solid, with a few annoying quirks about it, most notably the controls. Considering that controls are the most integral part of a platformer, Oddworld takes a heavy hit against it for what would otherwise be a rather minor niggle.