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Kaze and the Wild Masks is as gorgeous as it is challenging. Smooth controls feel amazing, and the masks you find truly change your entire gaming experience. While I felt there were too many auto-scroller levels and cheap deaths, there are still plenty of great gameplay moments and replayability to be found. If you want a punishing but rewarding platformer, Kaze and the Wild Masks maybe the humbling experience you’re looking for.
What works about successful walking simulators is the vigor and vitality put into both the narrative and the surrounding world. You want to feel engrossed and experience something unique and attention-grabbing. The Fabled Woods had the environments and graphics on point, but everything else, from plot to dialogue to gameplay mechanics, felt lackluster in comparison.
Bladed Fury’s console debut has not gone unnoticed. This is a great game that takes clear inspiration from Vanillaware action games. It’s mindless hack-and-slash with a purpose and is exceptionally fun in short bursts. I ended up playing for the challenge and boss battles alone; the environments and plot were engaging enough to see the adventure through until the end.
Balan Wonderworld contains elements of what could have been a stellar platformer with its compelling ideas of advancement notions. However, its ineptitude with several gameplay design decisions makes it a constant struggle of unfun progression, questionable execution, and ultimately a heap of lost potential.
It Takes Two is a beautiful and exciting co-op experience, that can potentially mean so much more for those who relate to this premise. Working together is not always the issue in a relationship, sometimes you just don’t get along. Across all the jumps, boss battles, and deadly puzzles, we get to witness this couple’s journey. From this, we also learn a few pointers on teamwork and having a ton of fun along the way.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is an amazing Metroidvania. The environments, enemies, and clever use of magic and weapons go beyond influences as the developers truly make this adventure their own. The lack of weapon differentiation is mended by the use of elements and low-impact puzzles, but the short runtime and low difficulty may leave you wanting more.
Mazm: The Phantom Of The Opera is an extremely good adaptation that turns the classic novel into an enjoyable adventure game, and updates it for the modern audience. It faithfully recreates what the original story did well and improves upon what didn’t stick as much. Whether you’ve only heard the name of the story or you’ve seen multiple variations of the tale, you’re sure to get something out of this title, despite the strange lag.
What Comes After doesn’t go much further than “Remember happy memories” and “It’ll get better with time.” I just don’t feel that’s enough to really examine this topic. However, the presentation is charming enough, and the entire experience can be completed in less than an hour, to which it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Perhaps more time would have allowed them to explore the themes they introduced further.
Root Film is an incredibly stylish and beautiful adventure visual novel held down by a few flimsy opening chapters. The pacing takes a dramatic hit due to a lack of direction, which caused me to step away several times. However, the second half is where the stars align and provide a solid and memorable conclusion to those who stick around.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is a must-play for long-time fans wanting to see how Kazuma Kiryu’s story ends. The game was released on more powerful hardware and brought the series up to a new generation’s standards. It does the same with this PC release, but sadly much of what held it back narratively before is still present today.
Dogworld is a charming retro-inspired 2D Metroidvania that provides a unique gameplay experience through its aesthetic, story, and mechanics. However, the game suffers from mirroring its retro-inspirations too closely. Still, my general first impressions didn’t fail me, and I found a lot to love about this quirky adventure.
Paradise Lost relies heavily on exploration and immersion as players make their way through some fantastically designed environments. Sadly, some issues with voice acting and brightness setting can take easily take you out of that experience. Still, I was intrigued to explore this war-torn world, even though some moments of the narrative can come off as overly ambitious.
Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town is a simulation farmer's dream game. It has everything the series is known for with a refined and streamlined system to make gameplay easier and more manageable. The list of materials to gather and things to do is vast, which makes the eyesore of the new item machines weigh on the experience so prominently. Regardless, this is a great entry for fans of the series and newcomers alike.
Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 is a great collection that includes most of the must-haves from the SNK handheld. However, the Metal Slug games still suffer from noticeable lag, which hurts their inclusion. Despite that, retro gamers and those who love SNK fighters should own this little piece of magic handheld history.
The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eridanos has everything that fans loved with a little extra to make it the proper send-off for this title. The whodunit direction was a smart way to focus on the amazing writing this game offers while causing the player to break down the possible suspects and solve this mystery. This expansion is Obsidian at their best and compliments this entire experience so well. It’s just sad that there won’t be more.
Legal Dungeon is a title that takes the mystery-solving detective drama and quite literally deconstructs it into its base form of putting clues on a whiteboard for you to solve. On top of that, it supplies a narrative with copious cynicism that makes for a non-standard and extremely compelling experience that is so unique.
Sea of Solitude: The Director’s Cut is difficult to quantify the efforts of. I can appreciate the premise of the scope of negativity it attempts to convey, and the voice actors were clearly invested in their roles. However, nothing it says manages to stick and leave a semblance of meaningful impact when it comes down to it. The writing is too direct, showing a lack of needed subtly for the darkest elements of the character-driven narrative to hit home.
Monster Energy Supercross 4 is a stunningly beautiful game. It’s exhilarating and unique, but some elements feel unfinished. I’m sure Multiplayer will be the biggest draw to play with friends or race online, but I still had a lot of unexpected fun playing single-player races. While graphics are perhaps the best in the series to date, they still appear flat in some areas, especially the compound.
Overall, if I had to describe Everhood in a single word, it’d be “experiment.” It’s a game that tests interesting concepts to become its own thing. Combining adventure with RPG-Esque mechanics and an enjoyable take on rhythm combat that offers a unique experience for any looking for something new.
Gnosia takes the rules of a social game and turns it into a single-player science-fiction experience. Each loop will present you with more questions and slowly feed you answers to what is a compelling and unique narrative. The game is fueled by an amazing cast of insane characters and over-the-top mechanics that make it fun no matter how long you play.