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Liberated feels incomplete. The writing is poor and never really explores the characters. It never tells you much about them or allows you to get invested. Its a go, go, go game. Not necessarily a bad thing, but we’ve seen examples of this done and still maintaining a good story. Even with nonsensical dialogue, fun gameplay can save it. Unfortunately, neither are here.
Shantae and The Seven Sirens is fun at its purest form. The characters are charming, and will usually deliver the giggles. The gameplay while simple has challenging platforming. I couldn’t tell you how many times I fell to my death because I was impatient. I like to go fast and furious. The environmental art is vibrant, and the design of characters are imaginative. Oh, and the Half-Genies. Yeah, those designs are especially wonderful.
Despite some minor nitpicks, I still absolutely loved Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. Bug Fables: An Everlasting Sapling has an aesthetic only rivaled by its inspiration. While I would‘ve loved to have self-aware humor, it didn’t hurt the overall silliness. The game runs flawlessly, and the banter while not laugh out loud hilarious, was still full of under the breath chuckles. Until Paper Mario is released come this July, this is the quintessential paperized adventure.
Despite a few niggling issues, Dungeon of the Endless is an incredibly satisfying mix of Roguelike Dungeon Crawler, Tower Defence and Resource Management.
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen has an intriguing story, great characters, and a decent SRPG battle system. The story of seeing where Hakuowlo starts and where he goes from there is really the selling point here. I did have some complaints about the censorship going a bit too far and the battle system is not amazing, but overall I highly recommend it. It's certainly a candidate for my best visual novels of 2020 list.
Saints Row the Third has always been one of the most fun games I’ve played and Saints Row the Third: Remastered brings that to a new group of players. Perhaps it could have made more improvement as a Remaster considering the price charged, but the amount of sheer fun you can have makes it well worth playing. There are tons of things to do from structured missions to achievements based on driving on the wrong side of the road. This is not a game that you will be done with by just completing the story.
I would highly recommend YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story to visual novel fans who play visual novels for the story, more than romancing the heroines. I would also suggest that it is not suitable as a beginner’s visual novel but would be more appreciated by someone familiar with the genre. In several ways, this was not my style of a visual novel. Despite this, I rate it very highly. YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story is a story that I feel visual novel fans should experience and many will appreciate, even if it means stepping outside of their comfort zone.
Ion Fury is one of the best First Person Shooters to come out in years. Jaw dropping retro graphics, an awesome arsenal and action bursting from every seam, this is a must play.
Streets of Rage 4 is a time machine for the virtual world. Everything it does, it makes sure to infuse the era that saw this franchise truly raise to dominance. The animations are all so fluent, while the hand drawn visuals are really well done. The music fits perfectly with the aesthetic and that heavy bass does a lot to emphasis each punch. This is a game that’s perfect for small hour sessions.
While Sakura Wars does have some issues with the repetitiveness required to see all of the content and the battle system not being as fluid as it could be, the majority of my experience has been great. The interactions with the characters particularly stand out and the game’s focus is definitely on that. The patch which came out around release alleviated some of the issues I experienced playing prerelease, but did not completely erase them. I still recommend it, but it still falls below expectations in some ways.
Whilst the story that surrounds Stella went over my head, the world it built combined with an outstanding soundtrack still managed to touch me in ways I didn't consent to.
I would personally recommend Making Lovers to visual novel fans who enjoy games with less focus on story, but more on characters and relationships. All of the characters are likeable, all of the routes are interesting and production values are high all around. It's a great entry to visual novels too. It's not a perfect title, but it gets a strong recommendation from me.
Overpass is as rough as the terrain they are trying to make you traverse. Badly implemented systems, boring gameplay and a slew of technical issues make this a painful experience from start to finish.
Children of Zodiarcs does well to stand with the heavyweights. It has enough uniqueness to it that you won’t consider it another clone. The banter between characters is excellent. While I enjoyed the orchestrated soundtrack, voice acting was missed. It would have done so much to add to this great game.
One Step from Eden is for those seeking a challenge. It’s for those with quick reflexes, and can think on-the-spot. Every enemy can move quickly. However, in those rare times I’d hit a hot streak, I was doing really well. I think that by lowering cool down rates, it would be immensely helpful. I don’t play games to be frustrated. I want to have fun. This was usually not fun. It’s not all doom and gloom though. The abilities and animations are all well done, but the particle effects do cause a brief freeze. It was never an interruption, just an annoyance. Unfortunately, it’s the over ambitious vision that bogs down the game. Too many abilities, unavoidable attacks that inflict massive damage, and healing is pointless. Enemies eat through it like that, despite there being several opportunities for it. Balance is One Step from Eden’s other weakness. With all this said, I do still think the specific target audience will adore this. They’ll eat this up.
Overall, I really enjoyed Warriors Orochi 4 Ultimate. There’s something satisfying about mindlessly mowing down thousands of soldiers and then using a variety of skills to bring down more difficult enemies. The story isn’t the most amazing thing in the world, but I feel like the gameplay more than makes up for it and the sheer amount of content in the game makes it worth the price, despite it admittedly being a bit high.
As a retro throwback, Knightin misses the mark. Making a game based on the worst parts of its inspiration unsurprisingly leads to a mostly negative experience.
Dead or School is a fun romp for those seeking tight game play. However, don’t expect to be immersed. It’s marred by horrible localization, preventing any investment. The mystery that appears is decent though. Worth keeping in mind that Dead or School will start slow. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do enough for me to comfortably recommend purchasing it at full price
Langrisser is an extremely fun, engaging adventure. The way the story branches into fully fleshed out detours is such a breath of fresh air. I’m tired of games with multiple endings not investing much effort in making each route unique. The actual gameplay is very fun overall and I can see why it inspired several other titles. Langrisser has gotten a lot of criticism for its visuals. It’s robotic. While I would‘ve loved to see pixel-art, I don’t find the aesthetic hurt my experience. And to be frank, I didn’t notice it after a while. The frame rate is mostly stable, unless casting magical spells. On the bright side, you’re able to relish in the death you bring. It will also solve within a second or two. Quick and painless. The illustrations are lovely, and the banter is fun. All in all, I feel like this is well deserved recommendation.
In the end, I find myself rather mixed on this title. It has some very good points – the character interactions, the voicing and the way it works as an introduction to the world of Azur Lane. There’s even a huge selection of characters to unlock even if it doesn’t cover the full range of Azur Lane characters. While there are positive points, there are certainly negative ones too. The constant button pressing and going back to the map to proceed. Battles being too short and too easy to need to do much. The user interface only really works well if you have a controller. In the end, I think this is going to be one mostly for fans of Azur Lane rather than fans of anime games in general.