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It’s amazing that a visual novel of the prestige and impact of Fate/Stay Night would be released almost without fanfare, but that’s what’s happened with this. I’m not sure we were even made aware of its impending release until a day or two before it landed. It’s the latest chapter in a game that has a long history of being a massively influential success despite the best efforts of everyone managing it. And I would argue that this tells you more about its raw quality than anything else.
I don’t have much else to say about Hakuoki on the Switch that I didn’t say in my review of the game all the way back on the PlayStation 3. It was wonderful then, it remains wonderful now, and thanks to the quality of the OLED screen the all-important art feels like it’s getting better with age. Hakuoki is like a fine wine and will forever remain worthwhile, no matter how many times it gets bundled up for a re-release.
Niche sports are difficult. Sports are always complex, demanding things to code, and everyone expects their favourite sport to get the FIFA treatment. That level of experience is just not possible with an audience as limited as Pickleball is. However, it’s not unreasonable to expect the game to at least try to look and feel like the real sport. PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 doesn’t even come close.
It’s impossible to experience everything that Natsu-Mon has to offer in a single play-through – much like how it’s impossible to get everything done that you want to over a summer. They’re always over too quickly. But then the very best way to play is to put Natsu-Mon down for quite some time afterward and let that one run through the game be your memory of it. This is something to be experienced, not played, and as far as emergent narratives are concerned, this is the best example of that I’ve seen in many, many years.
The New Denpa Men is a throwaway free-to-play game, but it’s not a bad time by any means and you’ll have a smile on your face while you play. Do I wish that Genius Sonority went the other way with Denpa Men and gunned for something of the scope of Dragon Quest proper? Yes, absolutely, and I think the inherent quirkiness of the series could work at full scale. But do I regret playing this? Not at all.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a SHMUP with some seriously high production values behind it. For a genre that is usually quite niche, seeing something that pitches higher like this is impressive. It’s not always perfect – the budget spent on the cut scenes was a noble idea that ultimately misfired – but once you’re into the thick of the swirling maelstrom of activity, it’s hard to be disappointed with what the developers have achieved.
There is a new Tokyo Xanadu on the way, ten years after this first one was released. Whether you’re playing this for the first time, or taking the opportunity to refresh yourself before enjoying the new one, you won’t regret spending time with this new localisation.
Still, Earth Defence Force 6 is pure fun distilled into a video game and it is impossible to put down. It’s based on B-grade sci-fi, and is B-grade in every way itself, and I would take that over over-produced, self-important, vapid blockbuster nonsense any time.
It’s a little annoying that so many people will play Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and not then take it upon themselves to learn something about where the game comes from. To suggest it’s an “action tower defence” game is doing it a disservice. No. Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess uses the action tower defence mechanical framework to share something an authentic and meaningful interpretation of Kagura through the video game medium. Capcom previously did something similar with Okami, only to have people limit it to a “Zelda clone.” But just as Okami had something sincere to say about Japanese spirituality, so too does this game. Hopefully, at least some players are inspired to learn where this game comes from.
Consequently, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition feels like a release schedule filler. While the multiplayer features are robust, they’re hardly innovative, and really it’s just a package of sliced-up classic games with a timer attached to them. I’d never call a game development project “lazy,” because they’re not, but the minimum work has gone into this, and while it will become a competitive obsession for a small minority, there could have been so much more done to draw in a much broader audience and really celebrate the deep heritage of these games (as well as Nintendo in facilitating competitive play).
It’s incredibly frustrating to review a game like Tsukihime, because there is just so much to dig into with its narrative and thematic depth. I want to pull this thing apart piece by piece and examine the characters, dynamics, and brilliant use of language, that the need to avoid spoilers means that I can’t really talk about it. All I can say is that there is so much depth and intensity to the narrative that it works as a piece of literature, and for this remake that’s backed with utterly gorgeous art and presentation that pushes to the very boundaries of the visual novel format. It is such a good thing that we finally have this masterpiece on our Switches, easily accessible and wonderfully translated.
That single decision, which is non-optional and you can’t turn it off, turns the exceptionally balanced and fine-tuned Machi Koro into something more akin to a party game. It’s still a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong. I’ll be playing this with my brother for our weekend gaming catch-ups for quite some time, there are already lengthy periods where there is not a single online game of Machi Koro With Everyone available, and you can be sitting in a lobby that you’ve created for 10 minutes just to get a group to join randomly (in a game that is less than a week old). Given that, it’s unfortunate that the party game flavour makes it less viable as a long-term single-player experience. I love it, but at the same time, Machi Koro With Everyone is an almost excellent adaptation of a brilliant board game that made one very big, unforgivable mistake.
Trails Through Daybreak is a new starting point for a new, epic arc (with the second chapter already out in Japan). By the end of it, I was not only invested in the new characters and contribution to the Legend Of Heroes history that was being created through their actions, but I wanted to go back and replay all the rest of the games in this series all over again. More than a single game, The Legend of Heroes is an expansive project, and it’s inspiring every time I get to play one.
Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is a delightfully charming, remarkably in-depth eco-management sim. I figured it would be a pretty chill game with some intense parts of difficulty for me because that’s where I’m at these days. What I got was better than anything I expected. It’s not confusing, there is very little stress involved, and it is easy to get lost spending hours at a time meeting new frog friends and saving the wetlands. The expansive help section is especially appreciated. The game goes at the pace you choose. It was actually so overwhelmingly chill it was a bit easier to overlook some of the parts I did struggle with.
Battle Cats has endured, successfully, for many years now for a very good reason. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you play it on different platforms, either. You pick up a “new” version of it, such as with Battle Cats Unite here, and you get lost in it all over again. If that’s not classic, then nothing is, and now it has multiplayer!
However, if you take Radiant Tale – Fanfare! as professional-grade fanservice to simply have fun with, it’s difficult to be disappointed with it. After all, as I noted with Radiant Tale, this is one of Idea Factory’s more charming and enjoyable visual novels in recent years, and as the saying goes “a little is good, and more is better!”
For a series that has struggled to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of that first title from a few decades ago, it’s great to see that with Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble the developers have landed on what might be a strong future direction for the series. Banana Rumble in itself is a little undercooked overall, but it’s still pristine Monkey Ball action, backed by manic good fun multiplayer, and hopefully will be backed up with a second game that more completely executes on the potential.
I can only hope that my own visual novel, which will also be a first-time commercial product by someone that looking to contribute something different to the wonderful genre, will be as fundamentally enjoyable to read as Love & Country. What I do know is that it doesn’t matter how poor the next press release is, I won’t have any concerns over the quality when I load up the next Guhuhu Games title.
Thistlemire is a weird, strange, and beautiful little thing. It serves a niche within a niche within a niche, but if you are curious to see how an RPG combat system could be alchemised into an unforgiving yet rewarding puzzle game, then this is going to intrigue and fascinate, and you may even fall totally in love with it.
Aside from that, Republic of Pirates is an enjoyable, if generally uninspired city builder and light-touch RTS. It’s pretty to look at, has a comfortable, laid-back vibe, and aside from wrestling with the controls, is an easy-playing experience that you can tune out to. It ticks all the boxes and leaves you wanting nothing, even if, after a few weeks of solid play, it will then be buried in the Steam list to gather virtual dust.