RPGamer's Reviews
Emily is Away <3 is a great addition to this series and its fusing of nostalgia and teen angst is both masterful and emotionally exhausting.
This story of not just Ichiban, but also his allies both former and new, is a tour de force that sucks players in completely. It’s a roller-coaster taking players through the full gamut of emotions and an easy, if slightly caveated, recommendation even to newcomers.
An abundance of weapons, abilities, and playstyles combine with a dazzling audio and visual presentation, producing a challenging, fair, yet brief experience that is sure to please both Record of Lodoss War and Metroidvania fans alike.
Monster Hunter Rise is an epic experience that no Switch owner should be without. It manages to reach the vast majority of high expectations of both long-time fans and newcomers alike, and even pushes those boundaries with the exceptionally fun Wirebug mechanic and a superb cast of old and new monsters.
Poison Control is one of these games, as the anime-inspired story and musical accompaniment are well worth being held in high regard. Those can only take a game so far, however, and are brought down by the clunky gameplay and copy-and-paste visuals accompanying them.
For those looking for a throwback JRPG with heart and an addictive combat system with the ability to blend together job combinations, there’s nowhere else to turn.
With SaGa Frontier Remastered, Square Enix has demonstrated a skilled grasp at modernizing a gaming experience while preserving the foundation and integrity of the original. The improvements to graphics, gameplay, and story arguably make SaGa Frontier Remastered the most accessible entry-point for series newcomers while offering plenty to entice returning SaGa Frontier fans as well.
There is absolutely good game hidden within it and damn does it have a lot of heart, but at this time the game misses it’s mark on the technical side, which makes it tough to fully recommend.
Pioneers of Olive Town is a good game, but it is hard to recommend when Stardew Valley continues to dominate the farming sim genre.
Saviors of Sapphire Wings is an accessible foray into dungeon-crawling that emphasizes gameplay over stat or party management while mostly avoiding the usual pitfalls of difficulty spikes.
With no payoff to the game-hopping the release feels longer and is just a detriment to two otherwise average games. If neither game has been played before this is a handy collector’s pack but there is no real need to delve too deeply for returning players unless a collect everything attitude is undertaken.
In the end, it’s absolutely an enjoyable experience thanks to the way the character interactions work with its setting and themes, but doesn’t have enough to stand out from its niche.
Even though Black Legend uses a lot of common features, they are blended in an original way. With the addition of alchemy, battling never gets boring, even when it takes hours of gameplay to be proficient in it.
Those looking to spend more time with the goddesses will at least enjoy more of their humour, and VTuber fans will likely get a kick out of their cameos. However, gameplay is very much lacking, with everything being done considerably better elsewhere, and ultimately, as an overall experience, Neptunia Virtual Stars remains a disappointment.
The game begins with its best foot forward, an under-explained puzzle that’s fun to parse out. But once the puzzle pieces fall into place, the drive to see it to the end starts to fall away too.
Everhood manages to not only distinguish itself from its influences, but also to turn the expectations that come with them upside-down, all to provide an experience that can’t be found anywhere else. Whether or not the game will achieve a cult status remains to be seen, but players itching for something out of the ordinary better not let Everhood slip under their radar.
Reinventing a series can be a difficult task, one which the first installment did with great success. However, Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy is a great example of fixing something that was never broken to begin with.
Dragon Quest XI S is not only a great JRPG, but is the perfect entry point for hesitant veteran RPGamers and newcomers alike.
It’s nice to see a game trying new things, and Fallen Legion Revenants certainly does that, but the game’s actively hostile balancing takes away all of that goodwill.
Kowloon High-School Chronicle, a story about hunting for lost relics, is a relic in its own right. The comparisons to both older and modern Persona games are inevitable, but there is much more here under the surface. Kowloon High-School Chronicle is certainly a historical oddity, but its zany storytelling and confluence of disparate genres makes this trip back to high school worth it.