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Port Royale 4 is a wonderful game, and the compromises that were made to bring it to Nintendo Switch are minor and easy to overlook. This is the kind of simulator that you can end up spending hundreds of hours with, and as one of the rare genres that aren't over-represented on the console, this is an excellent first port of call for genre fans looking for some on-the-go thinkies.
There's not really much else I can add to those two reviews for this Nintendo Switch release, but Goichi Suda and NISA bringing these two visual novel classics together to the Nintendo Switch is a good thing. Both are magnificent examples of what can be done to give games a literary quality, and going forward, no study of crime fiction or noir could be complete without considering The Silver Case up there with the likes of The Big Sleep or Chinatown. Japan actually has a very deep tradition in noir storytelling, and this is an excellent introduction to it.
Overall, I had a great time with Boomerang X. The action is tight and it always feels like an expression of skill whenever a level is successfully beaten. The surreal fantasy setting also matches the game’s tone perfectly, providing moments of surprise and wonder with each new level. The simplicity in DANG!’s design really works in their favour – it provides an excellent degree of challenge with unique, memorable mechanics and no wasted time. It’s a masterclass in fast-paced, precision-based 3D action.
In fact, I went into this expecting little more than a second-tier spinoff from the “real” Monster Hunter, and I’ve walked away with it being one of my favourite JRPGs of the year, in a year that has included Bravely Default 2, NieR, Atelier Ryza 2, and Scarlet Nexus. That is some incredible company to be in.
Heart of the Woods is a beautiful and romantic visual novel, with a wonderfully winding plot and brilliant set of characters. Without giving anything away, the first hour or two isn't indicative of the rest of the game, and once you push through that slow, senseless start, something beautiful, sweet, and, yes, a little sexy shines through the paranormal, gothic and mystery elements.
In the end, Doki Doki Literature Club (and this Plus version) is both a homage and a challenge. It’s a homage in the way it delightfully plays with the dating visual novel genre – sure, it ends up subverting that to horrific effect, but there’s such glee in how it does that that hugely entertaining. On the other hand, it’s also a challenge – a suggestion that the genre can be a bit more reflective, look for ways to approach things differently, and that there is a lot that this genre can do with characterisation and relationship dynamics. The director has been outspoken that the initial seed of Doki Doki Literature Club from his “love/hate” relationship with anime and VNs. There’s much more of the love in there, I think, but developers making games in this genre should certainly play this game to encourage them to think about the structure of their own work from a different angle.
I'm glad that, on a whim, I purchased and gave it a go on Nintendo Switch, because once you give it a go, it rewards the risk you took on playing it. Cross The Moon has a lot going on and all of it is quite brilliant.
I'm very torn on Mario Golf: Super Rush. On the one hand, the aesthetics are gorgeous, the charm is there, and the basic golf mechanics are wonderfully accessible and yet have enough given that there is room to master them. Putting aside the silly "manually chase the ball" nonsense in the story mode, the rest of it feels like a homage back to the original GBC Mario Golf, too, and that's really nice. I even give a pass to the Battle Golf mode. It may have sucked up development resources and time but... it is great, highly repeatable multiplayer fun.
In effect, Legend of Mana is less interested in being a JRPG as it is a story of immersion. You’re given these truly beautiful, art gallery-worthy environments to explore, these eclectic, memorable characters to interact with, and a narrative that is broken up into a series of vignettes that keeps the overall game feeling vibrant and energetic. Perhaps the best comparison I can draw with Legend of Mana is to that of the most beautiful picture book version of Aesop’s Fables you could imagine. Without being religiously heavy-handed, this game has a way of sharing wonderful little stories of morality and humour, and it’s certainly going to be rolling around in my head for some time to come entirely because of the quality of those stories.
I just didn’t expect it could be this bad. Dark Alliance is a functionally broken product. When enemies simply ignore you as you carve their health down to zero, when there’s so little to the game that that’s all you’re doing, and when the multiplayer experience is only superior because it’s a chance to share the misery with someone else, some passable graphics and one neat checkpointing system aren't anywhere near enough to redeem this game. This is the poorest handling of a license since Superman 64.
As an existing fan of Disgaea, this new one is, despite the incredible focus on big numbers, more of the same, and that is fine by me. The extended level cap is hugely indulgent and entirely unnecessary to the tactics JRPG format, but at the same time it's part of Disgaea's inherent self-awareness and genre-transgressive humour.
Scarlet Nexus is one of the most interesting new JRPGs that we’ve seen in a while from a big publisher. Combining a beautifully elegant, but also visceral combat system with a rich and evocative theme, and hugely entertaining characters, this game is available on the previous generation, I know, but in design and execution, it’s very much the perfect new-generation experience.
Of course, it would be unfair to expect Empire of Angels IV to be an equivalent experience to Disgaea, and I don’t. Empire of Angels’ strengths are its streamlined tactics engine and its fan service, and the game delivers both of those with exceptional proficiency. It’s just a pity that the localisation stops me from enjoying the characters as much as I think I might have otherwise – everything sense I have tells me that in its native language Empire of Angels IV would be quite the out-there good time. As it is, though, the game's just lucky that it's gorgeous enough and plays so nicely that it got its hooks into me anyway.
I could certainly see plenty of others finding it less compelling, however, because beyond the visuals, so very little has changed in 35 years. Yikes. 35 years. Presumably, Prince Alex is now King Alex of Radaxian by now. I'd better get back to my throne.
Arc System Works are masters of the genre, and Guilty Gear Strive is a showcase of that mastery. It might not be the most comprehensive fighting game out there, and I do think the developers have made a mistake in giving up on drawing new players into the franchise with a story mode that assumes you’ve been playing Guilty Gear for years. However, those quibbles melt away the instant you get into the action itself. There’s no other word to describe it: it’s sublime.
As everyone knows, I love Japan. I'm also a die hard fan of the Olympics, and a person that sets up four or five screens as the Olympics runs in order to watch as many different events as possible. I've been looking forward to both Tokyo 2020 Olympics ever since the country won the opportunity to host the event, and this game more than satisfies me as a fan of all of the above. Once again, import it, as it is fully localised in English, and if you ever see a green, twin-tailed girl setting records while looking awesome in a school uniform, be sure to send me a digital wave.
Anyhow, I digress. To come back to where I talk about the grift. The grift here is that each of these titles offer platinum trophies that can be "earned" with no effort required whatsoever. You'll sit through a laboured and completely ineffective 10-20 minute sermon on nonsense, play it through a couple of times to meet all its conditions, and then you'll get your trophy. I don't know if anyone still actually cares about those things, but as pathetic as it is as selling point for a pathetic series of games, it actually works. If these games didn't annoy me so much I'd be making a joke about how Sony's allowing hardcore Christian content onto the same platform where they've turned into puritans over anime boobs.
Farm Frenzy Refreshed is by no means perfect. Indeed, it sits on the wrong side of the "casual gaming" spectrum whereby it becomes a grind for the sake of keeping players playing. And yet... I continue to enjoy Farm Frenzy, have done so for nearly a decade (if not longer now), and Refreshed has given me a rush of that all over again on the PlayStation.
But ultimately, I don’t know if SHING! will find its desired audience. The control scheme and deviations from genre standards leave a sour first impression, and it’s not helped by the vapid quality of the story and writing. The game is filled with schlocky Shadow Warrior style jokes at the expense of the Far East setting (fake-Asian words which sound like English swear words!), and bloody violence despite the immature Saturday-morning-cartoon simplicity. If a game is crass, it needs to have other qualities to redeem it, and SHING! unfortunately fails to justify its shortcomings. I can respect the desire to experiment and to break from tradition, but this game doesn’t do enough to be worth the investment.
My concerns with DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power sit with it as a property. I know this is a wildly controversial thing to say, but I don't really believe that Marvel and DC are appropriate for children. If the hundreds of implied and explicit deaths per movie or show weren't enough to convince you of that, then the inherent moral lessons from these properties should because there's a lot more there to digest, interpret and come to terms with than people generally think about. Making all that baggage cute, as DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power does, might make it palatable to a young audience, but it still needs to be questioned.