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I went into Summer Lesson: Hikari Miyamoto pretty blind just to see how someone would feel after importing it on a whim. I expected a game filled with fan-service and interesting uses of PSVR’s interactive controls. While it definitely lived up to both of those expectations, I was also quite pleased to find that the gameplay itself was both solid and incredibly complex (in a good way). My main point of frustration came from the subtitles which were very hit or miss. Sometimes they would be slightly out of sync with Hikari’s spoken lines and other times they would simply not be present at all. There are also points where being too close to Hikari will hide the subtitles from your view. These annoyances were minor though and I didn’t lose too much sleep over them. In the end, I spent somewhere in the ballpark of 10-12 hours playing. A single playthrough takes around 45 minutes to complete, but you won’t be able to see all of the Second Feel events or attain a high rating in just one playthrough. I found myself wishing for more content, but in the end I was still very happy with what was presented. The game’s $59.99 price tag may seem a little steep for what’s included, but it offers a type of experience that you’ll be hard-pressed find anywhere else. For those who don’t mind a language barrier, there’s also a 3-in-1 release which is only $10 more and includes Hikari, Allison, and Chisato’s routes (albeit with none of the DLC). Any way you slice it, this one’s worth picking up even if only for the sake of curiosity.
Overall, I found The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia to be a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the main focus of the game was on the boss fights and those were handled exceptionally well. While the difficulty will certainly seem daunting to some people (myself included), I can’t fault the game or the developers for making it hard as nails. After all, that’s really the point of such a title. On the other hand, I found the other big piece of the game, the story, to be somewhat lacking and deserving of more content. At the risk of assuming too much, I think that the boss fights were likely created first and the story was added as an afterthought. Some players may not care about this as much, but I was slightly disappointed nonetheless. Using a heavy dosage of macros to crawl through the later boss fights, I was able to clear the game in around 15 hours. I’ve seen people on Steam claiming that the game took them only a few hours to complete, but I see no way that those claims hold water. Even with macros, there are ten boss fights and all but a few require a great deal of trial and error to beat. Because the story was lacking, I can’t give this game a perfect score. What I can say though is that it’s certainly worth your consideration if you’re a masochist or just really enjoy interesting shooters. With its regular price on Steam set at just $14.99, The Textorcist is certainly worth picking up and trying for yourself.
Fate/EXTELLA LINK proves that sometimes little tweaks can make a huge difference in a game. The combat here is so much better than in the previous game. It’s much faster and far more fluid. The new mission objectives make the stages feel alive and ever changing. Last but not least, the soundtrack here is one the best I’ve heard in a long time. At its $49.99 price tag, you get about 15 hours of story missions and a slew of extra missions that unlock while you’re progressing through the story. If you are a fan of the Fate series, this is a must own title. The characters and story alone are well worth the price of admission here. If you love Musou games, this might be the best of one of this generation. This game did what a good sequel should do, it improved on the first game in every way possible and I cannot wait to see what’s in store for this series down the line.
Regardless of how many people you play the game with, a match of BATTLLOON generally takes less than 5 minutes, or possibly up to 7 minutes. As such, I was able to encounter all the features of the game in less than an hour, spread across two different play sessions. While that may dismay some, since usually more content is always a good thing, I still think that’s fair for a game that only costs $6.99 on Switch. If you think that’s too much, I suppose you could always wait for a sale. That said, I was mostly pretty pleased with the game. It may not be the strongest UNTIES title to date, but it’s a lot of simple fun for a low price. Sure, I wish it had a bit more content, and it seems a huge missed opportunity it doesn’t have online play, but this could still be a fantastic party game when played with drinks and a group of close friends. If you’re looking for a relaxing and colorful title, then BATTLLOON might just be for you.
Killer7 is a game that defies convention at every turn. Nothing it does ever feels by the books, sometimes it seems to deliberately break certain “rules” just for the sake of breaking them. It’s a shooter, but it does things so differently from other shooters, its hard to really put it in the same category. The game oozes style in all aspects. If you’re in the mood for something that’s astonishingly unique, it’s really hard to go wrong with this game. It’s $20 on Steam, a single playthrough will last about 15 hours, and there’s extra modes you can unlock to play around with for added value. It’s well worth the money and certainly worth your time.
I feel like RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore is a must buy title for fans of hack-n-slash and rogue-like games. This game combines both in one flawless package and plays just as good as it looks. The story and writing here are both very high quality and will have you laughing out loud at the character’s antics in no time. My only complaint is having to restart the entire level when dying on a stage but this is a very minor beef with such a great package. If you have a sweet tooth for a solid game on your Nintendo Switch, RemiLore will certainly satisfy your craving.
Elli is the textbook definition of a simplistic platformer. While nothing was overly outstanding, it was just fun. If you can ignore the plot holes and plain soundtrack, it’ll definitely be a treat for the gameplay alone. However, it’s just not right now as the game is priced at $19.99 USD, and I clocked in eight hours from start to finish. In conclusion, please consider picking this up during a sale to get the most out of your dollar.
That being said, I still feel what the game does right by far outshines its flaws. If you’re looking for something different that is a bit darker than your average JRPG, I would highly recommend you pick this game up today. You will not regret it, and while I can compare certain aspects of it to other titles, there is really nothing else like this out there today. I spent about 30 hours on one run and quite a bit more to get the other endings via New Game+. This one is well worth the $59.99 price tag, just be prepared for a rough ride and be sure to save often. Death is around every corner and you will be re;Questing a lot!
This version of Resident Evil 2 has far exceeded all my expectations. At the end of my 16 hour campaign with both Leon and Claire, I felt like I had just seen an old friend for the first time in years. A friend who has experienced many changes, but is still the same old person you knew years ago. What the 2002 remake of the first Resident Evil did for the original is multiplied tenfold in this remake. The remake of the original Resident Evil took huge leaps forward within one generation and took creative liberties by adding mechanics and story portions that enhanced the game. But in the end, it was still fundamentally the same game. This remake is still essentially the same game, but wholly different at the same time. In fact, it complements the original and you can put the two side by side and appreciate what each iteration does for the series. This game takes bold steps in recreating the story beats while keeping things fresh. Capcom ensured the story wouldn’t stray too far from the original, and while I knew what was going to happen to certain characters and events, the moments that lead up to one another created so many twists and turns that made me gasp and stare wide eyed at my screen. The gameplay meshes the old school along with the familiar third person shooting mechanics making traversing as smooth as butter and blasting away at enemies just as satisfying. So please, do yourself a favor and start off 2019 with a bang.
Overall Almost There: The Platformer is merely an okay experience. Far from interesting, it is still structurally and mechanically sound. Having played for about an hour and half, this does make for a decent time waster. For about $9.99, it could very well be worth looking at for fans of hardcore platformers. Bony Yousuf had the idea of a hardcore platformer and has indeed delivered on that idea. Perhaps with more tricks that could be performed or less waiting involved, next time a truly marvelous speedrunning game could be produced. In my opinion, speedrunning is about finding an alternative solution to go faster. As such, if future projects would delve into that, they would most likely be highlights for me.
Despite my few beefs with the game, if you are a fan of the series Dead or Alive 6 is a must own title for you at the $59.99 price tag. The game is still very sexy with tons of jiggle and service fans have come to know and love. The fighting is still deep and fun like always, and honestly I feel like the game just simply plays so much better than the previous one did. I can pull off moves and combos here easily that I had a much harder time pulling off last time around. If you’ve always been interested in fighting games but thought they were too complex for you to enjoy I think you should give this one a shot. The game is so well made and easy to pick up that I think anyone could hop right in here and have some fun.
There are literally no complaints I have with this game. It combines all my favorite parts of a series that I love and make them even better. For those of us who have followed the series since its inception, this feels like a love letter from the developers to us. Of course, if this is your first game in the series, there is still a lot here to recommend. But you are going to miss out on some of the brutal difficulty and many of the references and call backs throughout the game. That being said, I can still recommend this to anyone who is interested in drawing your own maps (with some handy recent tools that help auto-map some) and who is interested in a difficult (but fair) combat with strategic character builds. This game took me 80 hours to beat on Expert and an extra 20 hours to beat the final labyrinth and two bonus dungeons that unlock after you roll credits. You also have the option of New Game+ in which you can choose to carry over your whole Guild with all the items and maps that you want (other than story items). So even that 100 hours can be dwarfed by how much long term content you can take advantage of. The $39.99 retail price seems paltry compared to the amount of content you get, and at this quality. This is very likely to be my favorite RPG of the year, and we already have a strong contender for my Game of the Year. Oftentimes as a part of the gaming press we set aside a review game and never come back to it. But there is no way that is going to happen with Etrian Odyssey Nexus for me. I cannot wait to go through the game again with an all new crazy party combination. A Farmer as my main tank and a Nightseeker as my main healer? It’s possible. This entry isn’t just the last of the series, but it’s the best. Hopefully we can have another entry eventually, in whatever form that takes.
All in all, I was pretty pleased with Wargroove. Not only did it satisfy my nostalgia for Advance Wars, it expanded my expectations in wonderful ways. Best of all, it’s a super affordable package, only costing $19.99 for at least 20+ hours of content (though far more if you want to see everything). Yes, there are still some important kinks to iron out, but I can’t help but recommend this to fans of Advance Wars and tactical games in general. And if you find it too easy, you can always challenge yourself by trying your luck against other players. If you need a new strategy obsession on every major console, do yourself a favor and pick this up.
Overall, my feelings on Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ are a bit mixed. For those like me who find themselves already invested in the series, I feel that this title is a welcome edition. Its biggest downside is the fact that the Cantrella route is only 4 hours. Having said that, her route is perhaps the most memorable to date outside of the main story. It manages to expand on the lore of the base game without retconning any of those events and fits quite seamlessly with all of the other pieces. It’s also separate enough that it can stand on its own. All together, I spent a little under 23 hours with Wintertide. I would’ve preferred some of the more involved stories to last a bit longer, but at a modest price point of $49.99 for the standard PS4 edition, I can overlook that. I would highly recommend this title to anyone who has already played the first two. If you haven’t yet played those though, I’d suggest doing so before making the decision to pick this up.
All in all, I had a lot of fun playing Tales of Vesperia. So far I’ve spent over 75 hours on it and I can say that this definitive edition was highly worth pre-ordering. I’d recommend the game to most JRPG fans because, despite being a 10 year old game, I do believe it holds up well today and graphically, it isn’t half bad either. Although, because of the half-assed localization, the lack of story depth at times and the clunkier gameplay, I can’t give this game as high of a rating as I would like to. If you can look past the issues I’ve mentioned, or if it one day gets some kind of localization fix patched in, then go for it. If not, this might be a game you’re either better off passing up, or buying on sale (for reference, the MSRP at launch was $49.99).
All said, for $25 it’s hard to go wrong with Distance. The intensity and challenge are there, but don’t feel overwhelming outside of where it’s expected like, say, in Challenge mode. While the campaign’s attempt at storytelling can be hit or miss, the strength of its gameplay across all modes carries the day for it. Reckless and wild in all the right ways, Distance is the change of pace in racing games I didn’t realize I needed.
As a first offering, Towards the Pantheon is impressive, hitting many of the major RPG notes that makes a game of this genre outstanding. For RPG fans, many of the gameplay tropes are there; party based combat, unique skillsets, and traits and peculiarities both in and outside of battle, yet it all comes together and it works. While the ball was dropped in terms of story development and gameplay has its flaws, it was still very much a pleasure to play. I would recommend Towards the Pantheon to anyone looking for a solid 10+ hours of classic RPG to lose themselves in. Like me, it will take closer to 12-13 hours to complete your first run, and with a price tag as low as $1.99 during a Steam sale, there’s no reason to miss out. And finally, although the game is a far cry from perfection, I hope we see more from Connor Linning in the near future, for as he says, “If you fear failure, then consider that it is better to fail creating something that fulfills you than to fail creating something that is heartless.”
For the most part, I’d say I enjoyed The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. Sure, the gameplay is a bit stilted when compared to the wonderful art and music, but overall, it meshes pretty well. My biggest complaint is how short the game is, as I managed to beat it in 3 and a half hours, only skipping that one section. However, there is some replay value. You get achievements as you play the game and there are also hidden flower petals. By collecting all of them, you can actually unlock a side story where you play as the witch. It’s split into multiple parts and delves into the witch’s personality and motivations. While I didn’t get to experience it myself, since I didn’t find all the petals, it is a good reason to pick the game up again. For $19.99, you get a unique tale that is like nothing else on the Nintendo Switch. If that doesn’t sound appealing, then this isn’t for you. But if you like charming games that are short and sweet, then Liar Princess is an easy recommendation.
Heart of the Woods is the quintessential modern day fairy tale. With enough love, drama and touches of fantasy to make for a ride like no other. The best part is that it’s only $14.99 to enter this attraction. The future is bright for Studio Élan so get in on the fun early. Congratulations to the team on the launch!
Lovecraft’s Untold Stories can be a fun game, but its brutal difficulty will turn off many players, especially after you unlock additional characters. There are three difficulty levels, but the game can be pretty brutal at times even on the lowest one. The game’s lack of any way to save at will mid-level (short of finding the new checkpoint machine) will also turn off some players. It can easily take you 10-20 hours to clear one character’s story, depending on the difficulty setting and the character you’re playing as. As the starter character the detective is the easiest, so he may well take you less than 10 hours to beat. I have spent around 30 hours so far with several different characters. There are two more that I still haven’t encountered to unlock yet. It should be noted also that the developers are planning to continue adding to the game now that it has launched (on January 31st). Lovecraft’s Untold Stories is available on Steam for $14.99 or on Gog.com for $12.99. Do you have what it takes to survive the hellish nightmares that await you in Lovecraft’s Untold Stories?