Chalgyr's Game Room
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There is a lot to like about Tethered. I have played a handful of strategy games in virtual reality now, and most have multiple hits and misses. Tethered is almost all hit, with fun gameplay and an adorable visual aesthetic. Best of all? It is a full and proper game and not a lightweight proof of concept like so many other VR titles.
Cursed with immortality in the form of a thorny rose on her back, one girl will need to find her way through a broken castle that she used to call home. She will not do so all alone however, with a giant at her side. Only by working together can these two make it from one location to the next, as each will have need of one another's abilities to make it through the trials ahead.
Persona 5 pulled me in immediately, with stylish visuals and music, some fresh ideas on gameplay and of course what always carries this series: characters I truly grow to care for. I struggled to put down the controller for any length of time and I frequently found myself asking 'what if I had chosen to do this instead?'. All clear signs that I was invested in this RPG masterpiece.
With their own stars dying, the Dwarves set out in order to find a new source of energy to live by. Because there would be no adventure without something going wrong, their ship gets caught in an energy current that throws them off of their original course and destroys their ship. The survivors must now find each other and survive the hostile environment that they find themselves in.
Chaos Code: New Sign of Catastrophe is something of a throwback fighting game. While Ark System Works is well-known for their fast, slick, polished fighting games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, this is a simpler title made by FK Digital. It is a solid enough outing, with gameplay that is easy to pick up, but if you were hoping for the level of polish found in the aforementioned Ark System Works series, you will likely be disappointed.
Operation Abyss is a dungeon crawler that released on the PS Vita in North America in 2015 and has just recently released for PC. Join the ranks of the CPA in order to discover the truth behind mysterious kidnappings plaguing Tokyo.
The original Toukiden took the Monster Hunter idea and put a classic feudal Japanese spin on it. Having originally released for the Vita it wasn't long before it saw both PS4 and the PC releases after having found success as a "Monster Hunter Clone". That simple status however is now no longer valid, as Toukiden 2 just set a new bar for the series with an open world that fans of the genre have only dreamed of.
Touhou Genso Wanderer is a rogue-like spin-off of the Touhou series. With fancy opening cinematics, tsukkomi humour, and enough characters to populate a small village, Genso Wanderer definitely paints a colorful world for the female dominant cast. Genso Wanderer has you guide the a lazy shrine maiden, Reimu, through a mysterious(ish) tower that has appeared because a local shop owner, Rinnoske, discovered an evil artifact that possessed him. Now it is up to Reimu to solve the incident, which is apparently in her job description.
Everyone has that one friend who regardless of what you tell them not to do, well they've already done it. This is exactly how Touhou Double Focus starts as Aya opens a book that she should not have dragging in those standing around as well as many others into that very book. Those now stuck in the book have a plan for getting out however finding what they need is going to take them on one crazy trip from medieval castles to smoldering deserts and fairy worlds.
Monster Monpiece is an interesting spin on the trading card game style that has been quite popular over the last few years. A well thought-out blend of collection and strategy, with card art created by more than 5fifty different artists and a plethora of re-imagined mythological creatures, now available for your "viewing pleasure" on PC.
When taking just a look at Loot Rascals, it may come across as familiar to some and simply intriguing to others. Some will recognize the art style from Adventure Time while others, like me, will appreciate the combination of colors as they explore the randomness of the hexagonal moon that they find themselves on. Why is your character on some random moon? Because it apparently got in the way of a new resort / camp that a robot was sent to go set up. This results in your goal to get the "Liquid Anything" that it was transporting back to finish construction.
Blaster Master Zero hearkens back to a much older age in video gaming, but it does so with a certain loving care that does more than just rely on nostalgia. In truth, the original Blaster Master on the NES always felt somewhat ahead of its time when I played it, mixing genres a little and providing some outstanding platforming and action thrills. Blaster Master Zero is a really strong release title for the Switch and should readily appeal to fans of the older games.
Blue Rider is a wonderful bout of nostalgia that recalls a time when arcade machines where still relevant and quarters took up more space in your pockets than wallets and credit cards. Blue Rider is a sort-of top down shooter like Raiden, 1942, or Touhou - except with a lot less bullets and a lot more freedom of motion.
Halo Wars is a comfortable and appropriate evolution of the original and is a glowing successor to the original's daring attempt at creating a real-time strategy game for consoles. A new threat, an old friend, Halo Wars 2 fits into the entire Halo franchise quite well. The biggest complaint that I have with Halo Wars 2 is less about the game and more about the franchise. Time and time again it feels that 343 Industries has strung out the franchise with a carrot-on-a-stick, and that carrot is always "another splinter faction of the Covenant is haywire, go kill them all." While fun it has gotten old, quickly, and I would love to see something truly new come out of the franchise, but until that happens, Halo Wars 2 is an excellent spinoff series for Halo fans.
Despite being "horror-themed", I was honestly laughing way more than anything during the game. The fish-head villain isn't particularly scary, just kinda dumb looking, the characters and their motivations are either shallow or unexplained, the interface was occasionally extremely aggravating, and some of the puzzles can be extremely unintuitive, given a certain mindset. Honestly, I've seen better "escape" style games for free on my phone, and even the paid ones are better and cheaper. I really can't recommend this game unless you're in dire need of an escape game that isn't for your phone.
Like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess before it, Breath of the Wild almost didn't release on the console that it was originally intended for. Unlike Twilight Princess, Breath of the Wild actually released side by side with the newest console and its version of the title. Was it worth it to do both hardware generations? I would say so.
The very first feeling I got from Breath of the Wild was this in a nutshell. Wow! Starting off with \\\"Hey Link, glad you're alive, now GO!\\\" pretty much made it the greatest intro that I could of asked for from someone who absolutely hates tutorials. Sure they give you little hints here and there, a few popups indicating which buttons do what, how to attack and block, but this game gives you nothing to work off of, and it's amazing.
DYSTORIA was a lot of fun and visually made me think of older games back on Windows 95/98. Invoking a good retro feel and having smooth controls with a wild idea of hovering across giant space objects while shooting enemies and dodging their fire was a blast and well worth getting lost and trying to find my way around.
Shovel Knight has proven to be one of those games that really just doesn't age. It's hard to believe that the title's been out for a few years now, but the retro visuals, outstanding music and challenging yet addictive gameplay allows it to hold up as time passes. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is the definitive version of this title to date as it pulls the first three games into a single package for the newly released Nintendo Switch, and the end result is as much fun as ever.
Brut@l has a striking aesthetic that tries to brush up on the ASCII dungeon roguelikes of old and modernize the formula some in the process. In the end, Stormcloud Games gets more right than wrong, though a few frustrating quirks turn the title into a niche title that will not appeal to everyone.