Digitally Downloaded
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I wouldn’t recommend this to someone as their first-ever Warriors title, but if you came to the series later and have enjoyed anything from, say, Dynasty Warriors 8 through Origins, here’s a perfect opportunity to go back and see what the oldest fans have been enjoying for more than 25 years now.
So if we consider that the last couple of years has given us an informal Silent Hill “trilogy” with the remake of 2, Silent Hill f, and now Silent Hill: Townfall, it’s fair to say that in some ways Townfall is the most limited of the three. But you could argue that in other, important ways it’s the most well-produced and experimental, too.
It can certainly be challenging, but it is also clearly aware that, with its production values, it may well be the first dogfighting simulation for many players, and it does a brilliant job of giving them a game they can love.
The team goes truly above and beyond to make its adaptations beautiful, character-filled, and warm to play, and Flamecraft delivers this in spades. It’s going to be part of my multiplayer roster for some time to come.
So insofar as I’m ever going to spend time playing survival games, Dune: Awakening will be my go-to.
Sniper Dan is a time-filler rather than something you’ll dwell on after you put it down, but then again that’s true of the Where’s Wally books too.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a massively intelligent experience, with deep and rich themes, characters, and gameplay systems.
Brigandine Abyss lost some of the series identity in exchange for its efforts to try and find a broader audience.
You’ve got to have a real love for the very deepest niches of JRPG fandom to enjoy Exstetra, but if that describes you, this is a treat. It’s such a product of its time that developers really don’t make these kinds of things any longer, and it has finally landed in English after 13 years. If you are the audience for it, don’t let yourself overlook Exstetra.
Personally, when I look at Serious Sam: Shatterverse as a piece of pure entertainment, the only thing that really let me down is that it just doesn’t have the frequency of true bedlam moments that I like in my Serious Sam titles.
Yes, there’s been the staples with Resident Evil, Street Fighter and Monster Hunter, but Dragon’s Dogma, Pragmata, Kunitsu-Gami and now Onimusha: Way of the Sword show that Capcom’s serious about finding new ideas, too. That they are all landing so well speaks to a developer/publisher riding one of the best waves it has in its entire history.
The narrative might be subservient to the mechanics, and not as thematically evocative as I might like, but excellent writing does combine with quality, well-executed mechanics to give us the equivalent of a pulp fantasy page-turner, and like the stories of dark pulp fantasy writer, Robert E. Howard, it’s really (really) difficult to put down.
Star Wars Zero Company really is great, and after a long absence from the forefront, it’s good to see the XCOM formula make a return. I don’t think it adds anything particularly valuable to the Star Wars franchise, and indeed seems to struggle to properly understand the qualities of Star Wars at times… but then again, Disney itself has been doing that to the films for years now, so it seems silly to be precious about purity when the property owners clearly no longer care about that. Ultimately, it is nice to have a blockbuster game that respects the player’s intelligence, and if nothing else, that is what Zero Company does.
But also, in acknowledging that the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring isn’t quite up to the standard of the game playing on the PlayStation 5, this review sounds more negative than it should. The differences are a rounding error, and what is important is that this masterpiece runs perfectly well on a very portable console.
There is a lot that can be done with Defender of the Crown, so while I’m very happy to have the original game playable on my Switch, practically speaking, this game is like buying a retro game, I can’t help but feel that this was a wasted opportunity, overall.
Whatever the reason, Re:Boot is the definitive edition of a true giant of the visual novel genre. As long as you can get along with the tweaked art direction, I doubt you’re going to have any complaints with Re:Boot.
Overall, the changes made to the four stories in this Blue Reflection collection don’t compromise the central thesis of the series (even with Sun and that pesky male character): These are truly, almost painfully ethereally beautiful magical girl JRPGs with a relentlessly wholesome message behind them.
DDNet is here to celebrate good art, and FFX and X-2 are both genuine masterpieces, and this is technically the best version of both games you can get.
Fans will find the story elements fun, and the narrative carries the same attitude as the previous Splatoon titles, but there’s still so little of substance there.
Blissfully microtransaction-free (it would have been very easy to make Culdcept very expensive), Culdcept Begins is everything a good digital board game should be.