RPGamer's Reviews
Doloc Town is another strong energy in a sub-genre that is currently in rude health, with its side-on view and pixel art style helping the game to stand out. While the gameplay systems may not ultimately deviate greatly from established formula, it nonetheless provides a charming experience with enough depth and farm customisation options to keep players engaged for a significant amount of time.
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok is an entertaining twenty-five to forty-hour expansion that stretches the complete package out to over a hundred hours. The new bosses are worth the trek to get there, but the repeated fights needed make taking breaks preferable to a marathon.
There is a lot to like about Montabi, as it does a great job of pulling the player in and hooking them into the game’s very addictive game loop. It’s just a shame that this creature-collector roguelite has such a bare-bones story and performance issues on the Nintendo Switch that prevent it from true greatness.
Its combination of atmosphere and discovery, even at the expense of a little jank, ultimately gives Beast of Reincarnation a distinct experience that more polished games lack. There is plenty of room for refinement, but Game Freak has nevertheless delivered a solid action RPG.
Kingdom of Night [is] a game that manages to feel both intriguing and grindy in turns, with a sweeping scope and ambitious storytelling that are undercut by copy-and-paste combat and vague sign-posting.
As an avid fan of the written word, it was an enjoyable experience for me, but it does require a different mindset from the usual JRPG grind.
Battles are fun to blast through, and power-leveling a character before cranking up the difficulty can be a blast. Like the main series, it’s not something that everyone will enjoy, but fans of Disgaea will find it an enjoyable spin-off that stays true to the series’ fundamentals. It may not ultimately be as delicious as the dessert it revolves around, but it is a tasty experience while it lasts.
Culdcept Begins is a competent, if slightly dated, strategy experience; it serves as a functional return for the franchise, though one that occasionally relies too heavily on the simplicity of its past.
While it looks and sounds just about identical to its predecessor, it takes a few steps away from the standard turn-based combat system, instead presenting players with a deck-building card battler of sorts. Some will undoubtedly prefer the first game in the series, but the difficulty curve is gentle enough and there’s enough overlap between the games to make it absolutely worthwhile to still give this one a go.
Its yokai-themed setting, alongside its heartwarming and welcoming nature, goes a long way to giving it its own character, even if much of the gameplay fundamentals do little to stand out from the rest of the genre.
It may be severely lacking in replayability, and its roguelike nature means with the right luck some runs will simply become trivial, but it still serves up a very fun and stylish package for sports and RPG fans alike.
On one hand, the game has some exceptional presentational qualities, a heartwarming narrative, and interesting combat ideas within the tactical genre. On the other hand, the narrative is a bit unfocused at times and a finicky UI along with some questionable design choices turn what could have been a fun system into a chore.
For players who are fascinated by the human condition or poignant stories, Schrödinger’s Call is an easy recommendation. Acrobatic Chirimenjako has made all the right calls in this compelling debut, and players are sure to hold the line for future games.
Based on the popular tabletop game Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Terrinoth: Heroes of Descent manages to capture the mechanical pacing of a physical session. It stands as a technically sound, faithful translation of its roots, but the final product is bogged down by a generic story, wooden voice acting, and flat characters.
Some puzzles can be difficult, but there’s a rhythm to them that keeps the main focus on the social commentary of remakes. The precise combat can be frustrating to get used to, but the way the presentation blurs reality with pixelated visuals is something that sticks the landing wonderfully.
This leaves Cassette Boy as a brilliant concept held in a flawed shell. The perspective-based puzzle mechanics are clever and well-explored, providing a real sense of satisfaction when those solutions click and the full potential of snapping objects out of existence is realized.
For the most part, it delivered on what it promised: a Batman game that takes the character seriously without losing the humor, with an open world worth actually spending time in. There are a few areas where it falls short, but more often than not, it exceeds expectations.
Its engaging combat, rewarding exploration, clever customization systems, and gorgeous visual presentation combine to create one of Square Enix’s strongest action-adventure games in recent years. The story may be predictable, and the enemy variety is rather lacking, but neither issue detracts from an experience that consistently rewards exploration.
There is little else in the way of RPG elements, but Clockwork Ambrosia doesn’t need them. It’s a solid action platformer with all the exploration and weapon modding needed to satisfy a modern adventurer.
Quartet is a phenomenal example of staying true to classic roots while also modernizing other aspects. There is a joy in spending time with all eight characters, and each is well fleshed out and memorable.