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Wayblazer Dämmerung is an adult visual novel that incorporates turn-based dungeon crawler gameplay to keep their audience engaged with the game for long amounts of time. With four veteran artists working at the helm, it offers an impressive set of visual assets that help bring to life its fantasy setting. Although its story has incredible potential as a worldbuilding piece, its execution is a bit unsatisfying because of its flexible approach to story progression, leaving the sequence of events mostly up to the reader’s discretion. As a result, the cohesiveness of the story is compromised, with overall momentum greatly being butchered by the segmentation and non-linearity of the common route’s events. The lack of character for Mark further compromises this, with romantic segments largely feeling like self-inserts instead of budding relationships between members of the team. Despite these shortcomings, there’s still a lot to love with Wayblazer Dämmerung. For one thing, it establishes a pretty interesting setting that both old and new entries into the series can take advantage of. It does this through the partial resolution of some issues, where the relevant character’s arc finishes despite the persistence of the issue in the setting. Additionally, the healthy amount of equipment and items present in the game makes it actually plausible to build characters different from what you’d normally expect. Although there are stats that are glaringly more impactful than others, the numerous fallbacks present as quality-of-life functions in the game allow players to adjust the overall experience of the gameplay portion according to their own preferences. This extends to resources as well, where in-game references such as the glossary help with planning out your farming side trip. Except if you’re looking for a monster drop, which you’d have to sift the Unit List for because apparently they’re not included in the resource glossary as something that can be directly referred to. If you’re looking for a timesink with a decent story and a grindy gameplay loop, Wayblazer Dämmerung fits the bill nicely as Eushully’s present-day entry point to their expansive visual novel-slash-RPG series. Although a bit on the pricier side, chasing full completion of the game will surely get you back that bang for your buck, especially if you play with the external adult patch distributed by Shiravune. There’s also a DLC available, adding an additional dungeon and a new recruitable character. Now the only question is, do you have enough time to do so?
Production limitations unfortunately lower the ceiling for DMLC! in a way that makes any recommendation have a blatant caveat, having left me really wishing it had a bit more budget and emphasis placed on its look and sound. Its writing can also be a touch convoluted at times. Not every character is easy to like, and the “main love interests” aren’t as focused on as some others. The mere concept of the story sounds somewhere between parody and a touch cynical, and you’re likely to come away saying “I expected something different” if you go into it blind. However, I think there’s a lot of heart to the story it’s trying to tell. It features an initially wacky backdrop to initiate a story of several deeply troubled and flawed individuals struggling to come to terms with and move on from a wide variety of difficult circumstances, trying to grasp complicated emotions as they relate to those in their lives. The protagonist and several supporting characters have some great developments and character moments, and the story takes some wild and unexpectedly gripping turns. In some ways, DMLC! punched above its weight class, delivering something I enjoyed and liked more and more as it went on. Even if I didn’t entirely love its final conclusion.
Fighting Force Collection is a curious title. It seems solely aimed at people who enjoyed these titles back when they were released. Neither of them are particular cult classics and while I was happy enough to play both of them again, not enough has been done to bring in a new crowd . I feel the lack of different versions of the games or much in the way of other bonuses really just makes it feel like a bare bones product just thrown out for the few people craving their next retro fix. If you enjoyed the Fighting Force games back in the day and have a hankering for jumping back in, I would say go for it. But in a market full of retro rereleases, Fighting Force Collection doesn’t even scratch the top dogs of the market. Much like the original releases, there isn’t enough here for it to be a true standout.
While I was a little skeptical of the new direction for Dynasty Warriors: Origins at first, I found myself thoroughly impressed after diving in. The more complex take on hack-and-slash combat kept me playing this for hours at a time, and the plot and character moments kept me gripped, even as someone familiar with the series and various takes on the story it’s based on.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins Visions Of Four Heroes is a nice addition to the main game, but it has its highs and lows. The highs, such as Zhang Jiao’s story, a few additional moments in other scenarios, and just being more of the already excellent Dynasty Warriors: Origins make this package hard not to recommend. But the price is somewhat high, and some of the new additions aren’t really the highlights I would’ve hoped for.
I am fully aware of my fanboy stance when it comes to Grasshopper Manufacture, and I believe that most people who are fans of their titles have the same stance as me: you either vibe with their titles or you don’t. I would go out on a limb and say Romeo is a Dead Man is one of their easier titles to jump into. Much like No More Heroes, Shadows of the Damned, or Lollipop Chainsaw, it’s a title that cleverly uses addictive combat and gameplay while slowly indoctrinating the Grasshopper way onto the unsuspecting gamer. You’ll get the absolute most out of Romeo is a Dead Man if you’re a fan of Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51, but even if you are new to the "Sudaverse," you are still presented with an absolutely wild and refreshing AA-feeling title. If you were a gamer around the PlayStation 2, 3, and Xbox 360 era, it will absolutely ring that nostalgia bell. If you always wanted to know why a certain section of gamers go wild for the name Suda51, or you’re like me and have replayed the entire Kill the Past series in sheer anticipation for this one, Romeo is a Dead Man is a great game. It does a fantastic job of reminding gamers that there is a healthy middle ground between "Indie" and "AAA." Long live Suda and the cult of the quirky AA game.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is a game I feel is only a few small changes away from being the best of its ilk. Its dedication to being accessible means that newcomers will likely have a great time with it, but that’s at the cost of overbearing quality of life and mechanical changes. Its adventure and explorative elements are left wanting due to the across-the-board simplification of puzzles and Reimagined’s overeagerness to tell the player exactly what to do. In some places, it feels as though it’s a remake that’s embarrassed of its own legacy when it really shouldn’t be. It’s a stark contrast to the Erdrick trilogy remakes, which wholeheartedly embraced and expanded upon the things that defined them. On the other hand, this is an ambitious remake in other places. Most notably, the artistic facelift leaves it as perhaps the best-looking Dragon Quest game to date thanks to its diorama style and excellent use of color and lighting to convey mood. This is especially important in that the story is still Dragon Quest VII, one of the very best in the entire genre. Here in Reimagined, it’s been elevated thanks to new additions to the story that are emotionally considerate of its legacy while also being surprising for returning players. Thanks to voice acting and more expressive cutscenes, it’s also the most fun version of Dragon Quest VII’s story to simply watch unfold. Tying all of this together is the familiar yet strong core gameplay of Dragon Quest, and you have a great, if undoubtedly imperfect iteration of one of the series’ more hard-to-breach titles.
Sadly and not so shockingly, Ebola Village isn’t going to be the title that dethrones any of the kings of horror. And looking at it, did any of us really think it would be? There are flashes of good in the game, but for the most part, it just feels like a painfully phoned-in Resident Evil Village clone with a poor excuse for a story and some unintentionally shocking and funny things going on in the rather short run time. I knew I was in for a ride when the game gave me an option to watch a movie. I assumed it was the intro, so I chose to watch it, and the game just opened up my browser and started playing a bizarre live-action short film based on the game, which was oddly hosted on a Resident Evil fan channel on Youtube rather than implemented in the game itself. Whatever strange puzzle-coded apartment you live in, I wouldn’t recommend you leave to venture out to Ebola Village, not even to save your family. Instead, save your money and pick up literally any other bigger-name horror game, and you’ll have a better and more cohesive time. Now, excuse me while I go get hepatitis and try to immunize myself from this series.
While full of comedy and amusing situations which are enjoyable in their own right, Ren'ai 0 Kilometer has some moments where we get a real insight into the characters and their relationships. It’s an interesting look at the bond between sisters, the forms that familial love can take, and the odd bit of drama to spice things up. The visual novel itself is quite dated in some ways, and the modern release of it by kawaiinium certainly has some issues that I would’ve liked to see ironed out. Despite this, it’s still worth experiencing.
More so than any of the slow burns this series has to offer, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon feels like an endpoint that they unfortunately had to build an entire JRPG to get to. The road to get there is forgettable, and the ending left me with a somewhat bitter taste that made it not feel as worth it as I’d hoped, even as a series fan. So much of this game consists of recycled ideas and stories that were either done substantially better in previous games or that have been done so often that they’ve become stale. While Trails games have their commonalities, they usually mix things up enough between games such that they’ve yet to feel this outright repetitive. Even during the slow parts, rarely have I been so downright bored as I was playing this game at several spots, especially before Act 3. It’s not completely devoid of highlights, but they don’t quite make up for its deficiencies when it comes to the experience of playing this game. Horizon just doesn’t have a whole lot I found as fun or enjoyable as I’d hoped, even when compared to the more outwardly flawed entries of the series. Combat is less enjoyable and the cast of characters largely felt like they were going through the motions. The story has a lot of shakeups once it gets going, but increased scope does not mean an increasing worth of investment. It seldom offered much that truly stuck with me for good reason. I’ve been patient with this series, but my patience only goes so far when it drags its feet just to arrive at the conclusion it does.
Fragile Feelings is a somewhat different take on the common yuri setting of a girls’ school, focusing on a young assistant teacher and school nurse. Despite failing to immediately grab my attention and a slow feeling through much of the visual novel, the relationships between the characters and writing kept me interested enough to want to find out more until it started to become more and more interesting. While I have some minor gripes, by the end I felt like it was certainly worth reading through Fragile Feelings.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie ties a neat ribbon on the much-prolonged and at times rough arcs of Zero/Azure and Cold Steel. It has plenty of issues of its own, including a relatively weak main plot, gradually declining soundtrack quality, and combat that reeks of excess by this point through feature creep. However, it uses everything the series has built up thus far to make for an experience that is dense with fun things to do. There’s a lot here I was hoping to see more of with the previous Cold Steel games, so better late than never on that front. Trails into Reverie is a hard sell if you aren’t already a fan of the series and haven’t played a good amount thus far (even the much more turbulent Cold Steel IV), which hurts it more than many games in the series. But it does quite well to make sure that the people who have kept up thus far feel sufficiently rewarded. It’s not the highest mark of this series by any stretch, but I found it to have still been probably the highest one Trails has had since Azure.
FOCUS on YOU is a short experience, but a very pleasant one. It’s very easy to recommend, especially to fans of titles like dating simulators and romance visual novels, except for one big point: it’s significantly overpriced for just over an hour of a very limited experience, even if just how niche this is justifies it to an extent. Still, Yua is adorable, and it’s a great showcase of what can be done with romance games in VR.
If Terminator 2D: No Fate’s prime objective was to release into the world a game worthy of the legendary Terminator 2: Judgement Day in the style of the games out at the time the film was popular, then the mission was an absolute success. Terminator 2D: No Fate joins Terminator Resistance as games worthy of the first two films in the franchise. While it’s lacking a little too much Arnie and may not have the runtime some would want, I couldn’t have been happier with the title. Despite having finished it at least half a dozen times now, I still find myself being sent back in time and trying to stop Skynet over and over again
LOVEPICAL-POPPY! doesn’t miss a beat with its comedy, and it’s a fun time whenever spending time with any of the heroines or the other members of the dorm. There are plenty of romantic moments as you get into the heroines’ routes, and the gameplay systems are used well to see their inner thoughts as they fall in love. The routes and heroines all feel distinct, and while I’d consider some better than others, each has something that I enjoyed about it.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels like a representation of where the franchise is in a way, stuck with one foot in the past and one in the present, without a clear direction of where it wants to go. It certainly has some great moments, is enjoyable overall, and is worthy of the franchise name, but several aspects of the game come off shallow. Waiting eight years since the initial announcement hasn't helped establish this title as the definitive next step for Samus either. While not a complete misstep, it isn’t the strongest action-adventure game or what I personally have come to expect from the same series that put out titles like Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime Remastered. It’s nice to have Samus back, but if there’s a follow-up, next time I’d like a little more Metroid in my Prime.
Kirby Air Riders is like a box full of charming toys. There’s a lot to poke your nose into and prod away at, but it’s not long before I realize there just isn’t much to its many offerings. While its sense of polish and variety is impressive, this has come at the devastating cost of focus. You get lots of ideas and gameplay quirks that are individually fun for a while, but seldom do they come together to form something especially satisfying or cohesive. In its attempts to have lots of things that might please everyone, it winds up not doing any one thing all that exceptionally. As a racing game, it’s mechanically shallow and tracks offer little in terms of skill or engagement, often focused on looking nice rather than providing the player with fun challenges that are interesting to revisit. City Trial fares somewhat better, but having only one map whose changes generally aren’t that impactful means it has to fall back on randomness to do anything interesting. Sure, there are things like Roadtrip or Top Ride that are kind of fun in their own right, but again, these are just a collection of distractions rather than anything substantive on their own. I suppose that’s fitting as the final form of an old GameCube that suffered from many of the same issues, but it’s a shame that time didn’t do this format as many favors as I was hoping. I think fans of the original game will like, if not love this, so in that sense I can’t call the game a failure despite my many misgivings with it. It wanted to be a bigger version of Kirby Air Ride, and for better and for worse, it wound up being precisely that.
A Maiden's Serenade explores Takumi's relationships with five very different heroines and grows together with them. It has plenty of amusing moments and a particularly fun friendship dynamic, but it also explores jealousy, family issues, and the difficulty of understanding each other. Some parts were a little lacking, but overall, it was a good read focused more on relationships than anything else.
In Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Sandfall Interactive made something amazing. You can feel how much love and care went into every aspect of the game, and the result is an RPG that’s exciting to play and tells one of the most powerful stories in gaming, backed by incredible music and visuals. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a generational masterpiece and my new all-time favorite RPG.
Dirtbag Mahjong is a relatively casual little single-player Mahjong game with a fun little twist, starring an irreverent sitcom-esque basement full of largely sapphic/LGBTQ+ goofs. The story mode is hit and miss in its humor and gameplay, but I enjoyed enough of it for what it was. It’s a relatively casual little game best enjoyed at your own pace, where it can be decently fun.