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I have to say Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society is one of the best DRPGs I’ve played in a long time. The exploration is great with lots of variety, the artwork is fantastic and combat has tons of depth as well. The story is very interesting, and I’m very interested to see how the second half of this plays out. In the end you’re getting an amazing game with over 100 hours of gameplay for $49.99, and the game is well worth that. If you’re fan of DRPGs or RPGs in general you don’t want to miss out on this. I’ve played a lot games in this genre in my many years of gaming, this one of the best!
Overall, I think Neptunia: Sisters Vs. Sisters is a fine entry in the franchise. The new characters are a lot of fun, the story is well written and feels like a Nep game, and combat is really fun as well. I got some help from a friend on Twitter, so I was able to get the true ending during my playthrough. There is the endless tower you could challenge and an awesome photo mode here to play around with for hours as well. I feel like this one is well worth the $49.99 asking price. I think it’s pretty insane that IFI has decided folks who want the swimsuit DLC should have to buy the Digital Deluxe Edition at $69.99 with no way for anyone buying a physical copy to obtain these, and I probably wouldn’t be as pissed about this if there were any alternate costumes in the game, but that’s not the case. I hope something they do in the next entry is bring those back. Doing that and adding some more CGs to unlock would go a long way to making this an even more solid Neptunia title. That being said, fans shouldn’t miss this one, the sisters are still as cute as you remember, and this a fantastic adventure.
At the end of the day, Samurai Maiden is a mediocre game that could’ve been better with just a few tweaks. There should’ve been some unlockable costumes, more enemy variety and a few tweaks could’ve been done to combat to make it feel less cheap. In the latter stages where the bigger enemies get a ton of minions, you will see just how cheap this can all be when you’re getting hacked on and juggled by things you cannot see. That being said, this is still a decent action game that has a great soundtrack, some good looking graphics and an amazing voice cast. I feel like the price tag is a bit much, but if you picked this one up on sale I think most folks would be satisfied with it. I know I really loved seeing Tsumugi and these girls grow closer on this grand adventure, even if it certainly wasn’t a perfect one.
Overall, Absolute Tactics: Daughters Of Mercy is a good SRPG that is dragged down by its subpar story. The gameplay here is good and fans of the this genre will find a lot to love here. The story being the way it is really hurts this, since most of these games you are driven to complete the story maps to see how it progresses. The bad writing here makes you not really care halfway through, so it begins to feel tedious. I spent right around 17 hours with this one on normal difficulty, but this will vary depending on the level of difficulty you choose to play on. It’s hard for me to fully recommend this one at the $24.99 price tag, unless you are just a hardcore Strategy RPG fan. That being said, if you snag this one up on sale down the line you will probably find things you enjoy about it.
Star Ocean: The Divine Force is absolutely the return to form I so desperately wanted for the series, and it’s a game I legitimately, whole-heartedly adore, but it’s also held back by some baffling design decisions and outright unacceptable performance issues. The music is fantastic and the cast even more so, with strong performances across the board. The story is serviceable and does a fair job at touching on some fundamental philosophical questions about governance and humanity, though it lacked the “wait, what?” surprise factor I expect from SO titles. The world is lived in and warm, and benefits from the addition of D.U.M.A. for faster and more vertical exploration. It’s also gorgeous, from detailed locales to beautiful character designs.
While I’m not sure I liked This Way Madness Lies more than their previous releases, this is still a really solid RPG, with witty humor, deep combat and fun story. This isn’t a very long game – you can wrap it up in about eight hours on the standard difficulty – but it’s quality and well worth the $9.99 asking price. If you are a fan of Zeboyd Games’ other releases, you should snag this up ASAP. You will find a lot to love here. If you haven’t played any of their other offerings, and love humorous RPGs, you should certainly give them a shot. You’ll be glad you did.
Amnesia: Later x Crowd is an honestly baffling product. For all of Later’s faults, Crowd makes up for them two-fold, providing one of the most fun and emotionally rewarding gaming experiences I’ve had in a long time. Memories may be the overall better story, but Crowd is the overall better game, and this package is held back only by the lackluster Later. Even with that, though, Crowd was legitimately so good – in spite of the typos and untranslated text in After Story – that I can’t help but recommend it. It’s worth the $49.99 price tag.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero is an outstanding JRPG with a great story, memorable characters, solid turn-based combat, and an absolutely amazing soundtrack. Going back to my question in the beginning, was the game worth the wait? The answer is a resounding yes. While the game’s localization can be a bit rough in some places, this shouldn’t hold you back from experiencing this title. I highly recommend this game to fans of the franchise, JRPG fans, and even newcomers. For the price of $39.99, it is definitely worth it.
In the end, while I do have my complaints, I still had a ton of fun with Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve been extremely off and on burnt out lately and I’ve started and played so many games in the last year, only to lack the drive to actually finish them. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was exactly what I needed. I jumped at the chance to review it back when it was announced and it didn’t completely disappoint me. It kept me occupied for over a month and I didn’t have my usual urge as of late to jump ship and find another game to try and get sucked into for a little while. I don’t know what I would have done this summer without Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I look forward to getting back into it to sidequest some more in the future and I’m anxious to see what comes out later, as far as DLC content is concerned. It wasn’t the perfect Xenoblade game I expected and was hoping for. Nonetheless, it was overall a wonderfully fun JRPG experience.
At the end of the day, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon☆Breath is a decent title overall. Fans of the series will have a great time with the cast of characters they love, and shmup fans will find some good gameplay to sink their teeth into. I don’t think this one has a ton of depth, but it is fun to play in short bursts, just to see how much you can improve on each stage and boss. Collecting all of the different collectibles is fun and adds a ton of replay value. I do think the $39.99 price tag is a bit much, but if you’re a big fan of the series, you’ll probably be alright with it. Everyone should pick this one up at some point, but maybe when it’s on sale.
Overall, I feel like Dusk Diver 2 is a solid title. There is plenty of great fighting action, the story is entertaining and the game looks great. The only real complaint I have with this one is even if you’re leveled and upgraded properly, some enemies feel like damage sponges. This makes some random encounters drag out a bit too long for my tastes. If you’re a fan of 3D Beat-em-Ups with some good world exploration and fun characters, this one is well worth the $49.99 price tag.
Even with these issues, though, Stray is undoubtedly one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year. The freedom of exploration offered by the novel protagonist, the dense world-building, and the atmospheric sound design all coalesced to provide an emotionally-moving and poignant game that I still can’t stop thinking about. I have a couple trophies left to get, but even if I didn’t, I’d still boot up the game just to walk around the city, drink in the sights and sounds, and find a comfortable place to catnap so I could listen to the stray purr contentedly. Despite its short length and some technical issues, Stray is definitely going into my list of impactful games and I’m really happy I had the chance to play it.
I have a love-hate relationship with Rune Factory 5. I love the relaxing atmosphere and simple daily life activities, straightforward combat, and the Rigbarth citizens. My experience was unfortunately muddied by questionable enemy design, an absurd difficulty spike, and numerous issues and bugs that found their way into the final product. I think if you’re a longtime Rune Factory fan you might find something to like. However, if you’re a newcomer, I cannot recommend buying the game at its $59.99 retail price until they fix some of the issues I mentioned earlier. If the game is on sale, and the game is updated, I say knock yourself out. The best way to play the game is on PC, and I guarantee you’ll at least love the characters and simple farming life.
Overall I had a fantastic time with Yurukill: The Calumniation Games. I loved the story, characters, art style, music and the gameplay is some of the best I’ve experienced in a long time. I feel like fans of either of these genres would have a ton a fun with this game. The shmup sections are pretty challenging but there is an easy setting for folks like me that suck at them greatly. You can adjust this to your liking and take them on in higher settings in the challenge mode that features online leaderboards. It took me about 13 hours to complete the story here, but I feel like there is a bit of replay value here just taking on various shooting in the unlocked mode. This one is easy to recommend at that $39.99 price tag and will likely be one of the best and most unique titles released this year.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. The characters were charming, well-acted, and gorgeous; I’m a sucker for historical fiction, and experiencing an alternate version of the Genpei War made for a really exciting scenario; and the sound design was completely on point. Unfortunately, the game also suffered from some glaring grammatical issues that cannot be ignored. If you’re a fan of samurai or historical drama, Birushana is worth checking out, but that recommendation comes with a massive caveat thanks to what I found as less-than-professional proofreading. In the end, your tolerance for grammatical errors is YMMV, and for me they weren’t enough to take me out of the game entirely, but for others it might be a bridge too far.
I didn’t really know what to expect out of Touken Ranbu Warriors, since I knew nothing about this franchise, but what I found here was a very competent Musou game. The missions are fun with just enough variety to keep things interesting. The characters are a lot of fun, and while the combat here is pretty basic, it felt great as fan of this genre. The game looks and runs great on PC, but I think this one might be a little on the easy side for seasoned Warriors players. Though I feel like most of them will enjoy it anyways, since the gameplay is so smooth. You get around 20 hours of story missions here for $59.99, and probably a dozen or so more hours if you want to unlock everything this one has to offer. If you are a fan of Touken Ranbu, then you should probably pick this one up ASAP. There is a lot of fanservice here for you to enjoy from one of your favorite franchises. Fans of Musou games in general should probably give this one a look as well. I know I certainly had a good time with it overall.
Overall, I have to say I had a really good time with Trek to Yomi. The combat was fun, the story was great, and I loved the overall aesthetics here. It was great to explore all the unique areas the game has to offer, discovering interesting collectibles along the way. The game is a bit on the short side at just 7 hours playing on the normal difficulty level, but with multiple endings and challenge levels to choose from, there is plenty of replay value to justify the $19.99 price tag. If you’re a fan of older samurai movies or just love a good sword based action game, you can’t really go wrong with this one.
Overall, Seven Pirates H is a solid release for EastAsiaSoft. There is a great story here with some fun characters, a unique and spicy minigame for fans to enjoy, and the combat is solid as well. The only thing I feel holds this back is its length. I would’ve liked a few more hours with the girls just to flesh out their personalities a bit more. If you liked the previous releases in this series, this is well worth your coin at the $39.99 price tag. Players wanting to jump into these fan service filled beauties are in luck as well, since you need no prior knowledge of the previous releases to have a great time here. Hopefully, if this games does well for EastAsiaSoft, they will consider bringing over the last game in this series, Castles Panzers, at some point down the line.
The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a simple game, but it has a lot of heart. The characters here are wonderful, and they tell a great story with messaging I think we can all appreciate today. I think this one is well worth the $29.99 asking price, even with my few minor complaints. The physical Storybook Edition of this one is great as well. It will set you back $59.99, but it comes with a nice hardcover artbook, a soundtrack download and very cute Yuu Plushie. The artbook is really neat because it has a great design and contains the illustrations you can unlock in game. I am very glad I decided to review this one. I had a lot of fun here, and this wonderful story will stick around with me for a while. If you’re fan of storybook adventures, RPGs or just want a good to experience a good story, this one is well worth your time.
Overall, I felt this was a wonderful Nintendo Switch port. The game runs great, the graphics are good and the inclusion of all the DLC at the $35.99 price tag with the launch discount for this whole package is a great deal. It only takes a few hours to complete one run of Gal*Gun: Double Peace, but there is a lot of replay value here in seeing the story bits for each of the girls, unlocking all the hidden goodies the game has to offer, and there is even a score attack for those looking to challenge their personal best. PQube and Inti Creates have done a great service to Switch gamers by porting the last of this amazing franchise to their console. This gives them a chance to experience the entire Gal*Gun saga for themselves! Now if you will excuse me, there is a cute angel from the first game I must hunt!