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You do have to reward creativity, and Legal Dungeon is genuinely creative. This is not a job or process that you would have ever imagined could be gamified, but there you have it. It tells a fascinating story, especially as an outsider to the Korean legal system, and while it's not a particularly comfortable experience on the Nintendo Switch, and perhaps a little imprecise for a puzzle game, it is very difficult to put down.
Littlewood is charming and bright, and wears its “indie spirit” on its sleeve. The developer has created something highly playable that also acts as a lovely homage to the Harvest Moon tradition. By all accounts, Littlewood has been a commercial success, too, on its prior release on PC. That success is deservedly so, but hopefully the developer can invest some of that into some refinements for whatever their next project is, but there’s more ambition in Littlewood than the scope of the budget allowed.
Maquette - and the development team - deserve better. There's some real talent evident in the unique, interesting, contemplative and rewarding puzzle design here, and that kind of quality occurs less and less frequently in this vapid and action-obsessed industry. The development team also know how to write interesting and emotionally engaging narratives - we don't see stories about love told with this kind of sincerity anywhere near often enough. Unfortunately, the one and only problem that the game has is also the thing that almost breaks it; the two elements that the entire experience relies on are at near-complete odds with one another.
You know what? I was going to give this game the respect of a full review. It's unmitigated trash, but I firmly believe that everyone's creative ideas deserve the respect of full and proper criticism. But then I kept playing and this game became too insulting to my intelligence to entertain the idea of giving it any respect in return.
Neptunia Virtual Stars is an intelligent, relevant, topical and timely satire. It does represent a new direction for the series, and is clearly an effort to find a way to stay relevant now that the jokes that previously provided the foundation for the series have lost their relevance. In doing so Idea Factory decided to experiment with the gameplay, and while that wasn't executed to a particularly fine degree, the heavier focus on narrative and the sheer energy of the whole package means that I found it impossible to remain disappointed by the game's rough edges. The rest of it was too much of a laugh-out-loud delight.
In many ways, it's a highly metafictional thesis that explores what people love about JRPGs, and what is genuinely important to the genre. In doing so the game has become this wonderfully nuanced, beautiful, entertaining and emotive experience, and in my book, that makes it a masterpiece.
Room to Grow is a game that asks to be played on its own terms. And while it’s unlikely that every player will enjoy staring at the same grid-screen as the minutes turn to hours, carefully checking every permutation of movements to finally find the one golden solution, when the game finds its intended audience, the design here really sings.
Really, though, Curse of the Dead God's biggest problem is simply that it exists in a ridiculously over-saturated space, and doesn't do anything meaningful to help it stand out. In a world post-Hades, it's hard to see where this one fits into the library of any but the most over-committed roguelike fan. That's not a fault of the game in itself. Once you understand how to play it and have learned its rhythms and studied its enemies, it's perfectly competent at what it's doing. It's just lacking a bit of verve and panache, so it will never have the same appeal as its already-storied peer.
So there are some very clear positives and very clear negatives to Little Nightmares II. The narrative is quite good, solid with lots of meaning flowing beneath the surface. The gameplay is mostly simple enough, the settings are ugly-pretty, the music enhances everything. Basically, it does wrap into a neat little package that can be unwrapped in layers. I can't ignore the issues, though, mainly with the lack of options and repetitiveness that can happen with failure. Still, Little Nightmares II does in fact feel like a conclusion to the first game in the series, yet still manages to turn it into a never-ending story so that someone else would be able to continue with the world. In that sense, it's actually quite clever.
If you've ever enjoyed a Metroidvania before, then you'll probably enjoy Cathedral. The fewer of the genre that you've played the better, however, as the lack of original creativity will wash over you easier with less experience and fewer points of comparison among Cathedral's peers. Otherwise, it's a perfectly competent example of the genre. It's just a pity that the Metroidvania genre, in particular, is so over-saturated that we just didn't need more of it.
If you've played either of the two previous Choices That Matter titles, then you know right now whether And Their Heroes Were Lost is for you. If you're not sure about which to try first, go by genre; And The Sun Went Out is a crime thriller with a dash of Lovecraftian tone, And Their Souls Were Eaten is a steampunk story, and And Their Heroes Were Lost is a thing for people who enjoy narratives like Total Recall. They're all brilliant examples of interactive narratives in their own way, and while the Nintendo Switch now has ports of all the currently available ones, I can only hope that this isn't the end of of this little project (this is also the point where I make my pitch and beg: can I please write one, nice developer, Tin Man Games?)
Ginga Force is one of the better shoot ‘em ups I’ve played. As someone who traditionally is not a fan of the genre, this game absolutely gave me reason enough to play each of the levels. It is a shame that the narrative is too difficult to follow as it happens alongside the action. The ability to upgrade weapons and purchase bonus items, even after failing a level, is a welcome ingredient to allow people who only casually play within the shoot ‘em up genre the ability to enjoy the game enough to get through to the end, but the fact that a lot of the good stuff is locked behind "for genre veterans only" difficulty settings does whittle down the game's potential audience a little.
teamcoil’s PUSS! is memorable for its visual style and bizarre aesthetics, but the gameplay sadly doesn’t match the creativity of its graphics. For any player excited by the surreal dialogue and fearsome bosses, there will be another player who won’t be engaged in navigating simple mazes. I anticipate the difficulty will also be prohibitive for some players, and it does feel like the challenge and repetition are the only things stopping the game from being overly short (and there’s only so much that can be done to spice up this style of gameplay, too.) I love that the Switch’s eShop is a home for strange games like this one, and I appreciate the nod to Newgrounds culture, but this one left me wanting a lot more.
With a second season pass to come, RoTK XIV is a significant investment, but it's one of those games that becomes a hobby all by itself. The portable platform suits it, as the clean aesthetics and design look resplendent on the Switch screen, and while it's not exactly a pick-up-an-play experience, it's also the kind of strategy game where you can get a lot done when you've got an hour's spare over lunch or before bed. This is going to be on heavy rotation for a long time to come.
An exceptional first release for Nintendo in 2021
Grey Skies: A War of the Worlds Story is one of the strongest arguments that copyright should remain on literature into perpetuity. I don't really believe that, of course, but when any hack can take a classic novel of such gravitas as War of the Worlds, and turn it into a delivery mechanism for a form of propaganda that the author stood diametrically opposed to, there's a problem. Not only has this developer completely insulted the author's memory and undermined the integrity of his work, but they've willfully delivered a game that completely misinterprets everything about the source material... and as a fan of Wells, good literature, and good video games that's just an insult to the intelligence.
Koei Tecmo has somehow crafted not only a genuine sequel to Persona 5, the JRPG, but the team has managed to equal it. Or – if action combat is your thing – perhaps even exceed it. That is no mean feat.
If you hadn't played the Nioh games previously - perhaps concerned over their difficulty - then don't let it miss you the second time. They are difficult, but that was essential in setting the desperate, nightmare tone and atmosphere. One other key takeaway that I've had from replaying both games for the remaster is this: what nearly made me quit the first time around has become comfortable now. The learning curve is glacially slow, but you do actually "learn" how to play these games, and there's a real sense of reward that comes from pushing through. Now, if you have played these title already, the upgrade isn't anything to write home about but, then again, perhaps you just want two brilliant games on your PlayStation 5. It's not like either Nioh is going to age poorly; you're going to want to revisit them at some point. You may as well play the best version.
If you’re going into Gal*Gun looking for some voyeurism, then you’re playing it wrong. At the same time, if you go in without a strong stomach for fan service then it’s going to throw you out too. Gal*Gun is for people who enjoy a kind of hyperbolic satire that borders on the transgressive and enjoy light gun shooters. It’s almost a dead genre these days, but Gal*Gun Returns is, all things considered, an example of it at its best.
Where Ys VIII took the series so close to becoming something that I could love, Ys IX gets it there. It tells a strong story with vibrant characters, has a great setting, gorgeous aesthetics, and slick combat, and most importantly, it balances all of that out in a way that is nuanced and engaging. I have reviewed three top-flight JRPGs in just the last week alone, and with a pile more to come in the coming weeks, 2021 is off to an incredible start for the best genre of them all.