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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?
The core combat and structure of Hyper Jam‘s hyper-kinetic battles are sound and fun in and of themselves, but there’s just not enough meat on the bones. I had fun getting used to Hyper Jam‘s particular depths in the four hours I played, but wish there was more to see and do. At $15 on consoles (and a slightly discounted $13 on Steam), I can’t say it’s not priced appropriately as a budget line multiplayer game, so make of that as you will. I hope the developers can flesh out Hyper Jam down the road with more of everything, because that would give this colorful, fun arena fighter a much longer shelf life.
Despite some issues specific to the Vita version, I walked away feeling quite impressed with NeuroVoider and I’m certain that I will continue to play it off and on now that this review is done. Aside from my reservations with the touchpad input and the sound issues, it’s still a very competent shooter and an interesting rogue-like. Since this game relies heavily on trial and error, there really is no cookie-cutter answer for how long this will take you to play. I found that my longest run was a little over an hour, though most of mine fell somewhere between 30-45 minutes. My overall playtime was somewhere in the ballpark of 7-8 hours. If you throw multiplayer into the mix, your times may vary further. In summary, NeuroVoider’s interesting use of randomized loadouts, high replayability, and reasonable price point of $9.99 (for the Vita version) earn it a thumbs up from me. Having said that, I’d forgo playing this on the Vita and spend the extra $5 or so to pick up a version that supports multiplayer.
I had a good time with Sakura Sakura. The writing is fantastic, and I caught myself laughing out loud many times while playing this one. It does drag on a bit, especially in the beginning, but so long as you aren’t looking for a super serious story I think most will give it a pass on that. You get 30+ hours of gameplay here for $34.99, so if your jam is a very funny romantic comedy with some amazing girls, this is must-buy title.
While I think Dragon Marked for Death isn’t balanced very well for a single player game, I think the online play more than makes up for that. There is a ton of quest variety, the levels have tons of depth and the game is just simply a blast to play with a friend. I’m not even a big fan of multiplayer games like this, and if I had more time I’d still be playing right now. I think the amount of quests here and replay value more than justify the inexpensive entry price, and hack and slash fans should grab a friend and be all over this one.
So that about sums up my thoughts on Graveyard Keeper. It’s a really fun game whenever it’s not being tedious. If the game had some sort of faster travelling system or even just a run button, it would make traversing the map a ton more fun. As it sits right now I love this game, but looking at it critically it may not be for everyone. Because as much as I love the premise, the execution is a little lacking. You do get a lot of bang for your buck, seeing as how I clocked in at a little over 50 hours for about $20 on Steam, which is a lot of play time. But when most of it is tedious grinding, it doesn’t really help the game’s case.
This is one of the best games in the Senran Kagura franchise. The story here is what started it all and some will find it a bit dark compared to the stories we get today. I loved it back in 2013 and my feelings on it have not changed to this day. These characters are so well written that I felt connected to them and that is why I fell in love with this series to begin with. The fan service is great and it wouldn’t be Senran Kagura without it, but there is a deep, rich story here with amazing girls underneath all that. That has not changed even to this day, even though some of newer titles go much harder on the fan service. The combat in this game is a ton of fun, and if this is one of the best soundtracks in all of gaming. It will take right around 8 hours to complete each squad’s story and there’s a ton of free missions to play with as well. It’s worth every penny of the $39.99 price tag, and if you’ve ever wanted to explore the series for the first time, now is the perfect time to do so. If you’re like me and have loved it since 2013, picking this up is a no brainier.
With the main game split into eight acts, it took me a little over four hours to get through Engage mode. There is some enjoyment to be had floating around a derelict space station for a bit, but in the end it comes off as a game which isn’t bad per se, doesn’t particularly excel at much. The various design pieces don’t quite fit together, but are forced to fit like an impatient kid with a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle. For $19.99, considering how short the game ended up being and the technical issues affecting the experience, I’d give Downward Spiral: Horus Station a chance if there were a decent sale, but a pass at full price.
If you’ve never experienced Atelier Rorona there is no time like the present. Atelier Rorona ~The Alchemist of Arland~ DX is the best release of the game to date, and while some may find the price of these re-releases a little steep at around $90 for all three, this is a quality title with hours and hours of gameplay to be had. The inclusion of the DLC and the fact it is portable if you snag it up on the Switch still make this a pretty attractive purchase at what breaks down to 30 bucks a title.