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Clash: Artifacts of Chaos is an idiosyncratic adventure, managing to be jaw-droppingly beautiful, fun and often mesmerising while hanging on to some of the Souls-like genre's most frustrating elements.
Helvetti has buckets of charm, offering delightful 2D visuals that will impress any player with ease. Unfortunately, the feathery, button-mashing combat is less appealing, whilst the uninspired rogue-like mechanics never really click.
Every Atelier Ryza entry has been the best Atelier game yet, and Atelier Ryza 3 is no exception. It's the perfect final chapter for fans of Ryza and her story, but it's also the most polished and expansive exploration of the core ideals of the franchise we've seen yet – alchemy feels natural, exploration feels natural, and combat is a delightful adrenaline rush. It's sad to see my favourite tomboy alchemist go away, but if this game is any indication, the Atelier series will only get even better from here.
Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is a game like no other. The art is incredible, and the gameplay perfectly blends simple combat with exhaustive customization. Above all else, the story is an unforgettable and unmatched journey that absolutely blew me away. This is one of NIS America's best games, and probably the best dungeon crawling RPG you'll ever play.
Tchia is clearly a labour of love as Awaceb try to bring their culture to the rest of the world and show off what it has to offer. I absolutely love that tone and feel, but the way Tchia is packaged and paced means that it is ultimately feels like less than the sum of its parts.
Trails to Azure is The Legend of Heroes at its best. With some of the most enjoyable characters, jaw-dropping events and immersive world-building of the entire franchise, it's clear why this Crossbell duology has been held in such high acclaim by fans for so long. If you've struggled for ages to find the right time to get into Legend of Heroes, your wait is over - start here with Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure.
Resident Evil 4 Remake is a more mature and darker take on Leon's Euro Trip that constantly plays with your expectations and prior knowledge. The core narrative stays true to the original, but it's not afraid to make some significant changes, while the new gameplay flow lends itself brilliantly for repeated runs for specific challenges that I'm already planning. I'm eagerly awaiting the Mercenaries mode as the hard hitting combat should be perfect for high score chasing, but in the meantime Leon is about to have a bad day all over again.
DC Justice League Cosmic Chaos is a light hearted and comedic super hero game, with gameplay that is approachable for all. While the battling can get a bit repetitive at times the story and the charm of Happy Harbor will keep you going through to the end.
Figment 2 is a good sequel but lacks the novelty of the original. Many of the story beats and mechanics feel familiar from the original and the lower stakes take awaay some of the emotional impact. That said, I do appreciate a more down to earth piece of storytelling and think there is plenty of room in gaming for more of this. It's a perfectly pleasant game, but it also won't stick in the memory as well as the original.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is a really solid PSVR 2 shooter with some fun uses of the headset's eye tracking and haptics, though it is sadly let down by some annoying technical hitches.
Destiny 2 is still one of the best feeling games to play, but compared to the inventive, personal story told in The Witch Queen, Lightfall is dull and totally inconsequential. What a disappointment.
I was genuinely surprised to find myself enjoying Cereza and the Lost Demon even more than I did Bayonetta 3. The laid-back exploration, the beautiful visuals, the unique control and combat scheme, and the fact that this is a fresh take on the franchise make it an altogether different experience, and one that furthers the series' lore while ensuring it opens itself up to an all-new audience.
Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is an immaculate love letter to one of its inspirations, but it still retains so much of its own identity and humour as you explore Dracula's castle as The Beheaded.
Playing Before Your Eyes in VR brings your even closer to embodying the life and times of Benjamin Brynn. There's some quibbles from the jump to VR, but Benny's tale remains a beautiful told story that's well worth experiencing.
With a solid and dependable blaster-led Star Wars adventure as its basis, there's more to Tales from the Galaxy's Edge than initially meets the eye, with the most fun to be had in the side tales picked up in Seezelslak's bar. This has had a big glow up since its original Meta Quest release, but left me wanting something more consistently inventive and truly built for PSVR 2 and higher powered systems. Hopefully we'll get to see that in future.
If you like a very slow, difficult romp through a Hell-a-la-tattoo-parlour, Nadir's roguelike deckbuilding may be the game for you. But if you want something genuinely fun and interesting to play, you won't find it here.
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse doesn't set out to reinvent the franchise or radicalize what it means to be a Fatal Frame game, but with updated visuals and modernised controls, it does a great job of making an entry in the series from 2008 effortlessly feel like a modern, current-gen debut. The slow and sometimes repetitive pacing of the game will not be for everyone, and some long-winded animations and awkward loading-waits only serve to make that pacing even more of a slog, but if you have the patience for that, you're in for a solid Japanese horror experience that will keep you guessing until the credits roll.
Tales of Symphonia Remastered isn't going to win any awards. It's a soulless cash grab that has come with as little effort by Bandai Namco as possible. If you're a die-hard fan, there may be something here for you, but really you're just paying for the nostalgia hit. Those who didn't play the original and are looking to pick up and enjoy a slice of video game history should let this one go past - there will hopefully be another iteration of this in a few years' time and maybe they'll put more effort into that one.
Little Witch Nobeta makes for a fun old-school action shooter. It's just a shame that this particular witches' brew is filled with so much unnecessary and bland garnish that serves only to dilute the taste.
Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is nearly always a rush to play, and even when you're getting pummelled, it still feels as though you could overcome the fight if you just learned the attack patterns a little better, or maybe just summoned some more help.