Noisy Pixel
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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.
To enjoy Sword of the Necromancer requires you to be invested in the narrative, but to do that, you’ll have to get through gameplay that lacks many refinements that a roguelike needs. The system of bringing monsters back alive to fight for you is limited because you have to manage only four slots of items, which often shadows the game’s most unique systems. As charming as this game looks, it doesn’t ever become a challenging adventure or an interesting experience.
Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed is a relatively harmless licensed anime arena fighter. Superfans may enjoy its presentation, but nothing is here to rewards them for their time. The fighting system lacks any real depth of engagement, which boils down to a mindless button-masher until there’s a winner. Like the franchise, for me at least, Zoids Wild: Blast Unleashed is just forgettable.
Tears of Avia attempted to present a larger-than-life indie SRPG but bit off way more than it could chew. Creating a world that players don’t care about and a battle system that is broken after the first hour is a huge misstep for any title in this genre. There are some great ideas here, though. Character designs, animations, and writing make for some of the best moments, but all at the cost of an unmemorable adventure. Score:
This is the Zodiac Speaking is a decent psychological thriller significantly hurt by the Switch’s underpowered hardware. The narrative is there, but everything else falls short in terms of visuals, graphical glitches, and sound. There are some nice features here, but I urge you to play the PC version if you can.
Kandagawa Jet Girls is not a good racing game, and its not even a good fanservice game. Nothing from the developer's previous works can be found here, and we are left with a dull and uninteresting experience. The quality animations and unlockable content can't save this game, which makes me wonder why it was localized at all.
Neversong is an aesthetically pleasing platformer with absolutely killer sound design and overall presentation. The six-hour adventure doesn’t overstay its welcome and is full of clever puzzles and interesting boss encounters. However, if you plan on playing this for the narrative, you’ll discover a decent set up that never pays off.
Forgotten Trace: Thanatos in Nostalgia has a great first chapter that may be overly wordy, but sets up a gripping mystery. However, it almost immediately turns into a mess due to poor pacing and character building. The timeline feature works to a point but fails to really capitalize on the system, which ends up doing nothing for the narrative. Hopefully, the sequel delivers a more promising structure for these characters to grow in.
Milky Way Prince: The Vampire Star uses an experimental visual style to tell a story about a topic that is very tough to talk about. While it exceeds in conveying these themes, it feels empty and pushy. All of the actual content in the game is condensed into the first few hours, and then there’s really nothing more to it. I enjoyed the artistic approach and themes, but the execution makes it tough to recommend.
There’s a lot of things that frustrated me while playing Arc of Alchemist. Throughout the entire adventures, there’s a variety of things that just make the game unpleasant. Had I played this game ten years ago, I might forgive it a bit more because of the unique mechanics that it introduces, but it just doesn’t work today.
Everreach: Project Eden is presented as a story focused action game that stands out with some main core mechanics: fast-paced shooting, RPG elements, and exploration. But unfortunately, every single one of these mechanics is executed in primary structures.
Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs: The Thrilling Steamy Maze Kiwami delivers a competent yet familiar dungeon-crawling experience, blending light-hearted anime storytelling with engaging roguelike gameplay. While the narrative is enjoyable and predictably steeped in anime tropes, the game's real strength lies in its challenging gameplay and strategic depth, particularly in its item management system and the unique Resonance Hot Spring feature. However, the game's themes and visuals lack innovation, and the PC port disappoints with its limited options and subpar controller support. Despite its solid mechanics and charming narrative, the game struggles to distinguish itself in a genre filled with more compelling titles.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd takes a notable step forward into the roguelike genre but fails to find its footing. While it successfully implements its gameplay loop and progression mechanics, it offers only a baseline level of satisfaction as a package. The distinctive comic-style presentation and impressive voice work contribute to the game’s appeal but fall short of igniting a strong desire for replayability. Fans of the Hellboy franchise may find deeper enjoyment due to their attachment to the source material.
Mugen Souls Z may be a product of its time, but the West has finally received the full experience. The story is downright insane in a brilliant way, but the gameplay has definitely not aged well. The added DLC and mini-game definitely make this a release for all niche JRPG enthusiasts, as your 10-year-long wait has paid off, and you can finally take these hilarious girls to the bathhouse.
Wandering Sword is a bit of a mixed bag that uses its brilliant presentation and vast player freedom to partially offset its dull storytelling, the lacking script translation, and dialogue structuring. Unfortunately, the pros weren’t enough to really stick the landing, as I had to force myself to get through a fair bit of the experience. The intrigue this cast and narrative carry doesn’t manage to reach anything meaningfully gripping or memorable, and that made much of this title an unfortunate slog. Still, it can be an addictive and enjoyable time for those who become compelled by its systems.
This puts Blanc in a precarious position. While length is not a determining factor for enjoyment, it can become a primary focus if there isn’t much else to offer. I went around the snowscape with a partner, searching for our families. Outside of the gorgeous aesthetics, both visually and sonically, no substantive content sparked any significant emotion. There weren’t a lot of facets done poorly, but they weren’t executed wonderfully either. And while there were some endearing and silly moments, I came out of the experience feeling like I went through an underwhelming roller coaster at a theme park.
Tales of Symphonia is a brilliant action JRPG that set a precedent for the genre. Even all these years later, its engrossing storytelling, vast array of side activities, character interaction, and layers of combative options all coalesce to make it a must-experience adventure. Yet, as a remaster, this specific release fails to hit the mark, ultimately providing a lackluster and disappointing resurgence that could have been so much more.
Actraiser Renaissance is a surprise return of a long-lost classic, but one which falls flat in execution in more ways than one. It has moments of brilliance, and there is undoubtedly substance and depth in its many systems. Still, all the moving parts don’t come together cohesively or logically, and it ultimately feels like two completely unrelated games taped together as one, with neither fully complementing the other. Old school fans will no doubt find the experience worth investing in after the tedious start, but for most other players, there are just plenty of far better alternatives.
Hot Wheels Unleashed is really nice to look at and sometimes fun to play, but I’m not sure who it’s for. The in-game currency model is unnecessarily convoluted and annoying most of the time. The difficulty is unbalanced to the point where I was forced to play on easy and swallow my gamer pride. The online multiplayer is where the most enjoyment is, but expect to invest hours trying to pull a car that can compete with some of the rarer racers. If Unleashed were a contender in a race, it would place 12th, like I did many times.
Bloodrayne Betrayal Fresh Bites is a title that deserved this re-release to get it in front of new players. Combat is initially fun and easy to grasp, and the gorgeous art is enough to get anyone into the door. However, once you are there, the slightly inconsistent art style of the protagonist and easy trivialization of the combat; makes this title hard for me to recommend outside of players looking to give themselves a challenge intentionally.