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Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol 1 is a fantastic selection of games, even if it does tilt a little heavy towards the fighting side of things. Given that the title has ‘Vol 1’ in there, I wonder if we’ll see one or two more of these collections (the Pocket Color had 31 games released for it). Assuming you haven’t already picked up all of the previously released fighting games, this is a very worthwhile collection for old school gaming enthusiasts.
Overall Samurai Shodown for the Xbox Series X is a pretty good 1v1 versus fighter. While I may not be able to compare it to the previous generation, it does a fairly good job at what it sets out to do whether you're planning for a night in for some couch versus or if you're feeling confident enough to take your skills online.
Black Legend’s combat is solid if unspectacular, and the setting is unique and atmospheric. The character progression is more interesting than the characters themselves, and the story fails to match the intrigue created by the overall visual style due to average writing. Across the board, Black Legend is a decent game with some good ideas but technical issues hold it back.
Anodyne 2: Return to Dust is a good example of taking chances with blending in several styles in order to tell a story. While the concept itself is nothing new, often it’s taken too far and too many styles are attempted and the whole experience just either comes apart or is a mess to play. Thankfully, that is definitely not the case here and I both look forward to both the developer’s next project and to finally sitting down to the original Anodyne.
Overall, Root Film is a great mystery style Visual Novel with some Phoenix Wright style interrogations, just with only words instead of evidence. The characters are all quirky and entertaining, the mysteries are usually quite reasonable to figure out, and if not the interrogation is a little easier on subjects that may be unknown. There are some localization issues, but those can be fairly easily overlooked for the story. Could Root Film have been better? Yes, there's room for improvement, perhaps making the animations a little more dynamic, or adding a little more player interaction to keep the viewer entertained, but Root Film certainly does provide a mystery tale worth exploring.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town – Switch Review Overall though, Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a great addition to the series and will easily appeal to longtime fans as well as newcomers. With plenty of options of how you want to go about your days, you’ll easily see the real world clock jump hours ahead of the last time you saw it and even debate playing for “one more day” before calling your own day quits to get some sleep for your own next morning. ----- Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town Review (PS4) Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a fantastic experience. Whether you are looking for something to casually hold your attention in a soft roll of days forward or have grander ambitions in mind with wanting to grow all of the crops or raise all of the adorable livestock and be outstanding in your field, this is for you. Score: 9 / 10
Saviors of Sapphire Wings Even if I felt like it took me a while longer to get into the swing of things compared to their previous work, Saviors of Sapphire Wings is a decent dungeon crawler. Do I wish they did more in regards to the visual presentation to make it unique and not simply a reuse of previous work? Yes. Can I live with it? I can and with the value of Stranger of Sword City – Revisited it’s even easier to do so even if I kept finding myself comparing one to the other. Stranger of Sword City – Revisited All in all, adventurers both new and old should find plenty of hardcore dungeon crawling action to love within Stranger of Sword City – Revisited. Even if it’s a lot tougher than most in its genre because of its permadeath, that’s simply part of the charm and frustration to this challenge!
So, how does Taxi Chaos stack up? Well, it's definitely not going to make you go praise it out on the streets. It was certainly fun for a period of time, that period being about an hour, after which it loses its novelty. I never really played Crazy Taxi as kid, but Taxi Chaos doesn't really instill in me a desire to play Crazy Taxi. Taxi Chaos isn't very chaotic, but there are taxis. There is a bit of personality in the interactions your chosen cabbie has with the passengers, but these get reused so quick you'll know them by heart after about twenty minutes. There isn't nearly enough draw for the game to really warrant much attention. Yeah, I might have had fun with it for about 15 to 20 minutes, but it isn't something I would suggest for anyone looking to really invest themselves in.
Loop Hero may be rather basic in its appearance, but you will soon find yourself rooted in the simplistic gameplay. There's planning, strategy, and enough luck to make you want to kick yourself some runs. The graphics certainly aren't anything special, and the music is only really catching when the boss appears, but you get rather invested in creating your own unique layout. While it can be frustrating in a game to have to repeat the same thing over and over, Loop Hero thrives in this environment. While there may be some frustrating moments when the RNG doesn't go your way, it's really rewarding to see the hero survive through your fabricated gauntlet.
So overall, even if the roguelike or roguelite genres are normally not your cup of tea, if you’re up for a good challenge and love the action adventure styles of adventuring, I would wholeheartedly recommend Curse of the Dead Gods. Fans of roguelikes and roguelites? If you haven’t already, what are you waiting for!?
Monster Truck Championship is pretty easy to pick up, despite its vehicles being quite different from most traditional racing games. The events and options are fun enough, and I thoroughly enjoyed the career mode as it provided me an opportunity to unlock more content. That being said, the production values are simply good, not great and the pacing of the larger trucks and slower events may not appeal to all fans of racing games, as some people simply want to go as fast as possible and not worry about things like tricks or damage bonuses. Monster Truck Championship is not going to be for every racing gamer out there, but I came away having enjoyed my time with it.
Updated review - The Sinking City – PS5 Review https://chalgyr.com/2021/03/review-ps5-thesinkingcity.html So overall, The Sinking City's revamp on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X is worthwhile if you've been thinking of giving this lovecraftian tale another go or had missed out on it the first time. With several upgrades and a new smoothness to the gameplay, going back for seconds alongside the added DLC was not a bad way to spend a few dozen hours. ---- Previous review - The Sinking City – PS4 Review https://chalgyr.com/2019/07/Review-PS4-TheSinkingCity.html So on a whole, while The Sinking City makes some great strides for investigative puzzlers, the open world that it tried to live in doesn’t really work. If you can get past the empty enough world and the clunky mechanics however, and there’s a gem underneath that is just begging to be explored and it’s worth the exploration.
Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition was put together by a relatively small studio, and that makes what they were able to do here even more impressive. It sprinkles in enough unique mechanics to make it more than a simple Souls clone, but should still scratch that itch for fans of the genre. There are some rough edges here and there, with a few design choices that I was not in love with, but the overall presentation and gameplay are satisfyingly well done.
Ultimately, Virtual Stars is a really timely take on the current state of social media and gaming, and just how digital interactions work nowadays. Very relevant given what has recently happened with some JP Vtubers, it's great to see some of this talent reaching Western audiences, even if only as a few snippets. There's even a TV in the main hub that plays Vtuber clips you can watch. If you enjoy the Neptunia franchise, Vtubers, or just looking for an anime inspired shooter/hack and slasher, I really do implore you to check out Neptunia Virtual Stars.
Natsuki Chronicles is a smooth, polished shooter that has some great, modern RPG-lite features that make it accessible despite the shoot-‘em-up genre being one traditionally known for being brutally challenging. A bit more effort in localizing the audio would have gone a ways for making the in-stage narrative easier to soak in, but that is a pretty minor complaint about an otherwise very entertaining game.
Overall Undermine is a really good roguelike with a lot of well implemented mechanics. Is it breaking any molds? Not really, but the implementation was well done. The environments are large enough that you don't feel guided, but stages are small enough that you don't start getting frustrated being in the same location. There are plenty of randomized power boosts, and the upgrade system is pretty fair about when you need upgrades vs. How much they cost. While my luck may have screwed me over, there wasn't a design choice that did. I was really pleased with Undermine as a roguelike, and with the shorter nature of the stages, it lends itself really well to the Switch and its portable nature.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV: Diplomacy & Strategy Pack is a worthy addition to an already excellent strategy game. It was enough to get me to sink in dozens more hours into a title that I had not played in several months, reminding me how much I enjoyed the fourteenth installment of the franchise. That being said, if you played the core game in the past and found it not to your liking, I doubt that the additional depth or even the addition of Chronicles mode will convince you to give it another go – the core content and pacing had not changed all that dramatically. If like me however, you enjoyed what the base game had to offer, the additional depth and options hold plenty of appeal.
Overall I found that Kowloon High School is a great combination of genres rolled up in a nostalgic Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style package. Yes it might be a little dated looking, and it may be a little clunky and awkward here and there, but it has a real charm that just can't be denied. Everything from combat, to ruin exploration, to puzzle solving has that right feeling to it that kept me coming back for more. I seriously suggest picking this up if you are any sort of fan of dungeon crawlers or puzzle solving games with combat mechanics, because this was a really great adventure that felt exactly like that: an adventure.
Overall, Nioh 2: The Complete Edition for the PC was an amazing port from the Sony PlayStation 4 once you get the settings right. At this current point, I’ve played through the main campaign coming in just under fifty hours but as of yet I cannot comment on the three DLCs of The Tengu's Disciple, Darkness in the Capital, and The First Samurai. So because of this, I’ll be back shortly with another article covering the other three additions as they were originally extras to the main title and have their own sets of modifications and obviously twists and turns.
Overall, Fallen Legion Revenants provides a bit of a mixed bag. Sure it has some improvements over the past titles, but it also feels like it took some steps backwards. The battle system has some nice dynamic movement added and the guard/parry mechanic isn't infuriating, but the system can get extremely overwhelming, especially for new players to the series. The story is told partially in loading screen info which is a little annoying, and the storyline felt a little awkwardly told, as you aren't really getting the whole picture in the beginning, but was still rather engaging. The adjustments that have been made to the Exemplars and how they work are really nice to see, and I was happy to note the old art style was kept. In the end, Fallen Legion Revenants feels like a bit of a missed chance. The story is too interspersed between occasionally drawn-out battles that the pacing gets messed up a bit, and the action wheel graphics felt like a weird and awkward contrast to the rest of the art style. As a whole, Fallen Legion Revenants didn't really do anything wrong, but given how long it's been since the previous titles, I can't say I'm not a little bit disappointed. Is ti worth the price? If you enjoy engaging battles filled with strategy and tactics, yes, I'd say so, but there is definitely room for improvements.