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Reverie is a game with Kiwi heart and soul, it is a love letter to New Zealand, to classic adventure puzzle games, and to childhood summers spent daydreaming being an explorer and hero.
I enjoyed the combat system enough that I was able to push past the nonsense. I finished it, which is more than I can say about a lot of other games that try to be funny and land on the wrong side of my funny bone. On that basis I've got to say that Regalia does work as a homage to the genre and something to play on a lazy weekend. Sadly, that's hardly an inspiring way to describe a game, and that is Regalia in a nutshell. Anything but inspiring.
It's not high-octane or revolutionary fare by any means, but Swim Out has a quiet beauty that gives it more in common with chess than Tetris, and that sort of thing is hard to come by nowadays.
Even if you don't care about the poor storytelling and juvenile understanding of the noir genre, Metropolis is still a supremely bland and uninteresting match-3 game; one that doesn't integrate the gameplay and narrative together in a particularly interesting way and yet somehow also wants people to play it four times to experience all the endings.
Tesla vs Lovecraft is a fun twin-stick shooter, made even better by being technically on-point and very clean to play.
Don't come into Opus: Rocket of Whispers expecting some sort of hardcore survival simulation or captivating pushing-buttons experience, or you'll probably wind up disappointed. No, Rocket of Whispers is something much better: a game that uses its simple game loop, repetitiveness and all, to tell a familiar but sincere story about loneliness and coping with grief.
The only reason that you'd want to play this is to see your apartment slowly but steadily grow bigger, but aside from the momentary thrill of finally convincing a powerful type of monster to take up residency, this game shows all its trick and limited appeals within the first half hour of play. [Matt Sainsbury separately reviewed the Switch (2 stars) and 3DS (3 stars) versions. Their scores have been averaged.]
Minit itself is a huge achievement, something that comes across as so basic but manages to hide many intricate details including a narrative that is discovered as the game progresses.
The Charming Empire does a great job of introducing players to the Taishō period; a period that we rarely learn much about in the west. As a period piece it does a decent enough job, but there are so many gorgeous visual novels out there now that the pedestrian presentation really hurts the romance and storytelling of it all.
Warp Shift is a puzzle game that is joyful in its accessibility and expansive in its complexity. It's a whimsical experience for players who might only be able to muster one star on its levels, but also provides the depth needed for hardcore fans.
It's a relaxing, joyful, clever and witty little game that really makes the most of its oddball concept. Most importantly of all, it's memorable. You're not going to forget your time with Detective Pikachu in a hurry, and those memories are going to be all very positive.
I love the art. I love the combat. I found the sharp challenge and simple, clean mechanics to all be very enjoyable. But I just couldn't get past how shallow it really was in the end, and how the game failed to live up to the tantalising promises made in its lede.
The Alliance Alive invokes the finest elements of the JRPG genre, modernizes them, and innovates where necessary.
Go into this game with an open mind, and allow the game's pleasant charm, sweet characters and storytelling, and light, graceful approach to JRPG action to wash over you, and you may just find yourself as in love with the utterly refreshing and pure experience that Atelier Lydie & Suelle has to offer you.
It's by no means memorable, but WorldNeverland is enjoyable enough as a life sim. The grindy nature of the game's systems seem to be a consequence of its mobile roots, but if you play this as intended, for short bursts of a time, that grind won't wear you down. Do that, and you'll probably find yourself playing this on high rotation for longer than you might expect to on initial impressions.
It never really realises the absurdity of the story that its telling even as it leans into absurd humour in plenty of other areas in the game.
Nippon Ichi has clearly dedicated the bulk of the development resources this time around to providing a cleaner and more comprehensible system to draw players in further and minimise frustration. On that level, The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a success. I just wish the storytellers on the team were able to really cut loose and pull hard at the strings that, currently, they're only tugging lightly at.
Castle of Heart simply has nothing of substance to offer. It's a ridiculously difficult game without the reward.
The Station is a wonderful example of how a game's atmosphere can impact and influence the narrative. The space station felt believable, although the few characters that lived aboard fell a bit flat for me. As a sci-fi walking sim, The Station is more than successful enough.
I left the game feeling frustrated more than anything else. With arbitrary, esoteric puzzles and a wildly inconsistent tone exacerbated by technical issues, I found it hard to get sucked into the game's atmosphere.