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Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & The White Guardian marks a return to the series' roots, abandoning recent experiments in favor of a more traditional, alchemy-focused approach. With a solid and relaxing crafting system, a charming cast of familiar faces, and a light yet engaging story, it delivers a comforting and enjoyable experience for long-time fans. However, a very low difficulty level, outdated exploration design, and uninspired dungeon layouts keep it from standing out, making this a solid but non-essential entry in Gust's beloved franchise.
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We're looking at a solid and engaging sequel that expands on the Hades universe without any major revolutions. A conservative second installment, therefore, that builds on the successful formula of its predecessor without overhauling it. Supergiant changes the protagonist, introduces new biomes, deities, and supporting mechanics, but remains faithful to the action roguelite gameplay that was already highly appreciated in 2020. Despite its lack of flaws, however, Hades II fails to shake off the feeling of being "just" a major expansion, rather than a truly new video game.
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Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is a fun and light-hearted action platformer full of little surprises and mini-challenges that will delight fans of Namco's popular mascot. The excessive ease and speed with which the main adventure concludes are its most notable flaws, which could deter players looking for a real challenge.
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Digimon Story Time Stranger is finally a great Digimon-themed JRPG. While it looks a generation older, it makes up for it with a really well-crafted battle and evolution system and a huge catalog of Digimon.
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Super Mario Galaxy and Galaxy 2 are coming to Switch (and Switch 2) without major extra content compared to the originals, but with graphical improvements above expectations.
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Deep Rock Galactic Survivor is easily one of the best game in the bullet heaven genre, thanks to an impressive amount of content, to the quality of its presentation, and to the fact that blowing up bugs never stops being fun. A bit of a shame that there's no coop, though.
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Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a faithful and polished re-release of the classic tactical RPG, combining deep, strategic combat with modern quality-of-life improvements like faster load times and AI-controlled units. The high-definition visuals enhance the original pixel art, and the re-recorded English and Japanese voice casts bring its mature, politically charged story to life. While some PSP-exclusive jobs are missing and the English localization can feel archaic, the game remains highly accessible and engaging, offering a rich experience for both longtime fans and newcomers.
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We had high expectations for this new instalment in the Konami series, and for once we can say that they were not disappointed. Silent Hill f is one of the best "classic" horror titles ever made. It manages to revamp the original formula by enriching gameplay that has very few flaws and delivering a deep, multifaceted, painful, unfiltered story that is worth experiencing more than once.
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Dying Light: The Beast isn't perfect, but it's a dark, brutal first-person survival horror game that's refreshingly consistent in its push for the series into both familiar and uncharted territory.
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EA SPORTS FC 26 marks a step forward from its predecessor. Balanced in gameplay dynamics and built around a fluid structure that's genuinely fun, it also brings several changes to the Ultimate Team and Career modes (both Player and Manager), consistently hitting the mark. The hope is that this holds true throughout the year-fingers crossed that any future patches won't bring the kind of disruptive changes we've seen in the past.
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Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree is an isometric hack-and-slash roguelite that combines frenetic combat with strategic party management. The nine selectable characters have different styles that recall RPG archetypes such as tanks, rangers, or AoE mages, although the latter have a decided advantage.
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Katanaut is an action roguelite that relies heavily on the katana: rapid, brutal slashes deliver a powerful impact, with the ability to reload only by hitting in melee, creating an aggressive and satisfying gameplay loop.
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While it isn't perfect, with optimization especially leaving something to be desired, Borderlands 4 is a very clear improvement over its predecessor, with a far better paced story, a convincing set of characters, and a gameplay that benefited greatly from the newly added movement mechanics.
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NHL 26 is a game of ups and downs. It has its moments and can rely on a certain charm derived from a good pace and a fair amount of spectacle, but it continues to suffer from a whole series of more or less marked flaws that, especially for those who plan to play hundreds of games between skates and sticks, can become quite annoying in the long run.
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Hollow Knight: Silksong elevates the Metroidvania experience with a vast and intricate world, filled with unique biomes, hidden secrets, and clever backtracking that turns every step into discovery.
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Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is particularly impressive when it comes to gameplay: the combat system is varied and creative, the exoskeleton customization is extensive, and the boss fights, when they work, provide spectacular moments. Multiplayer is also solid, thanks to cross-play that expands the possibilities for cooperation.
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Super Robot Wars Y is an ode to nostalgia and a passion for Japanese robots: every animated sequence, every opening credit, every battle is a small celebration of the cartoons that shaped our childhoods.
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