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I've played a lot of visual novels in my time, and a lot of them are favourite games, but I've got to say, as a student of Japanese history, and a lover of good storytelling, Hakuoki is right up there with my favourite games ever made. Any game that, after finishing, I can put down and say to myself "if that story was presented to me as a novel I would have loved it just as much," is a good game, as far as I'm concerned.
There's value in the art, the style, the writing and the magic when it all comes together. As much as I enjoyed all that, however, I can't say that this is a game which plays well.
For all its wealth of content, Puyo Puyo Tetris does rely on developing and then maintaining a strong online community for truly long-term value. As a local multiplayer game, you'll be glad to have it around for the parties, and it'll help plane trips and other long travels fly by in a snap. Get hooked into the game's steep learning curve online, however, and you'll have a game that you'll be playing for months, if not years, and not once, for even the briefest second, will the game lose its charm.
Dragon Quest Heroes 2 is undeniable proof that the mix between a genuine JRPG and Warriors game works, and now it's time for a Final Fantasy Heroes, methinks.
I am so happy that The Dragon's Trap was rereleased in this way. Its visual style appeals to a whole new generation, and the love and attention given to the game as a whole will make fans of the 1989 original smile from ear to ear. From the hand-drawn visuals to the instrumental soundtrack, everything about The Dragon's Trap remake shows how remakes should be done. This isn't a mere cash-in for nostalgia's sake, this is a remake that has been targeted for all audience, a rare gem for sure.
ArmaGallant is a budget production, and that means that it will likely not sustain the community that a game of its nature needs. I'm already finding myself queuing for ten minutes at time to get a match going, and that's really disappointing, because this is one I could see myself playing for quite a while yet, given half the chance. It also helps that I am, to date, actually undefeated. Bring on a world championships and those eSports sponsorships, please, I want to turn pro at ArmaGallant.
Thankfully for many people, Bulletstorm's re-release is a chance to check out a title that wasn't exactly a hit the first time around. It's a cool little game that pokes fun at a lot of what is wrong with AAA First Person Shooters, and a lot of it is still relevant today.
As Nintendo's second big release on the Switch following on from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I have no trouble believing that this will solidify the console's rapidly-growing reputation of offering far more than people thought it would prior to launch. It might be a flawed experience, but that's almost irrelevant when you consider just how much of it there really is on offer. This is how you do a "HD remaster".
If you missed LEGO City Undercover the first time around and enjoy this unique brand of adventure gaming, know that this release is one of the most entertaining and original LEGO games in quite some time.
There's a lot to like in Vikings, even if the game's never able to effectively articulate how it's different to the genre's greats. It manages - just - to be more than a by-the-numbers Diablo clone thanks to the creative energy that went into its bosses and environment design, but it relies too heavily on that, and the assumption that you'll be playing the game in multiplayer. As a single player experience, the limits on what Vikings can offer become distracting; making it good for a lazy afternoon of grinding fun, but not something that you'll remember over the longer term.
It's a good package of entertaining games, and is presented beautifully, but it's also not essential.
Kona is a trip worth taking. It's a beautiful, moody showcase of the snowy wilds of northern Canada, and a slow-burning mystery steeped in atmosphere. Play it for the journey, not the destination.
Goichi Suda's love letter to Noir is so striking and vivid that it's a game I'll not soon forget. By turns shocking, darkly humorous, confounding, and always creative, this was Suda-san's first game as an independent game developer, and through it we see so much of what would become Suda's trademarks; that same transgressive attitude, the same love for classical film and literature genres, and that same intensity in his storytelling (that will ultimately get overlooked by most critics).
Mervils: A VR Adventure relies too heavily on a gimmick it doesn't even use properly, and that's the very definition of a limited experience.
If you can get a multiplayer game going there's a bit more strategy involved, I guess, but there isn't much of a community wrapped around this one, leaving Korix feeling like a game that had a good idea buried away in there, but fails to give people the VR strategy experience that they'll be looking for.
What Virry really is is a series of micro-documentaries that show you, close up and in VR, a range of different animals as they live in their natural environment. It's the closest you'll get to a zebra, let alone a lion, and while that's going on, a commentator will share some basic facts about the animal and the threats that it's facing.
There might not be much depth here over the long term, but for some short bursts of frenetic action, it absolutely has the lightgun genre nailed.
Fated: The Silent Oath is exactly the kind of game that VR was made for, and it's nice to finally see the technology put to work on small, intimate, emotive character drama. The good news is that this is the first part of what's planned to be a multi-episode game, and I'm really looking forward to spending more time in this world, with these people.
Talk about a piece of media that can capably transport the player directly into the 1990s of ice hockey games, Old Time Hockey does exactly that. From the one-colour loading screens, to the sound effects, right down to the chosen font, Old Time Hockey is a fun yet flawed experience. In a time where many developers are looking back to the 1990s as inspiration for their games, Old Time Hockey stands out as one of the success stories.
Despite its potential and the love poured into it, Eekeemoo: Splinters of the Dark Shard is a broken mess that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.