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Even though this took a lot longer than I expected, I really had a great time with Mary Skelter Finale. This is everything I could’ve asked for in a story conclusion, with a great ending and tons of extra content. The dungeon crawling is a ton of fun, even if the maps are huge and puzzle-filled at times, and the combat has enough depth to keep you coming back for hours on end. If you’re a fan of the series, at $49.99 the asking price is a no brainer. You will love this. In fact, fans of the franchise that haven’t snagged up one of Idea Factory International’s fantastic Limited Editions, should highly consider it. At roughly $105 it isn’t cheap, but it is packed with goodies like a hardback novel set, soundtrack for the entire franchise, a poster and more. If you have never played Mary Skelter and want to see what it’s all about, this entry includes all of the story bits from the previous games, so there is no reason you couldn’t jump in right here and have a great time as well.
I am very glad I decided to review Metallic Child. I had so much fun exploring each level and watching Rona’s story unfold. The combat here is easy to get into, and has enough depth that advanced players have plenty to dig into as well. The bosses were all unique and a lot of fun to challenge, and the little extras they threw in here were a great bonus. Things like Rona’s customizations that give her starter weapons or perks, a ton of unlockable messages that build the world, and even some awesome fan art to unlock. It took me around 10 hours to complete the main story, but I could easily spend another 10 obtaining everything and doing post-game challenges. This game is well worth the asking price of $24.99. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys a good action game, or a cute android protagonist. You won’t be disappointed if you pick this one up.
I have enjoyed my 25+ hours with Garden Story for Switch so far. While I have cleared the story, there are still a few upgrades I don’t have, and more cosmetic unlockables to get for Concord to wear. The game is a very chill, relaxing adventure, aside from the bosses which are more hardcore for some reason. However, casual players can still enjoy it using the option to disable death if they so choose. I prefer not to use such an option unless necessary, but it’s a nice inclusion if you want it. The game is marred by a few relatively minor flaws, like the previously mentioned inventory issues. However, it’s a rather unique and enjoyable little journey overall. You can nab Garden Story on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99, and it is also on Steam. Can you help Concord, the unlikely grape hero, restore peace to an ailing grove?
Overall, I found Kitaria Fables to be an okay game. It’s a cute indie game full of adorable animal characters and an interesting enough story. But the endless fighting of the same enemies over, and over, for bettering my equipment to survive the next area of monsters, really burned me out and distracted from the charm. If you love games where you’re constantly fighting monsters for materials and equipment, and you don’t mind every now and then taking a break to chill and farm, you’ll definitely have a good time with this one. Sadly, if you’re looking for a new farming sim to relax with, I would look elsewhere. The farming in Kitaria is only there to provide the crops and/or income required for your adventuring, nothing more.
The Blind of the New World is a phenomenal and unique sci-fi story for the ages. The characters really bring a story about living in a “utopia” to life. I love Seejay and Chohyun’s story, and that doesn’t happen without the exceptional writing, localization, and a nice soundtrack to boot among other things. I spent 9 hours on this game, and those are 9 hours I’d happily spend again in the future. I’ll be more likely to do so knowing that it costs $9.99. It’s a great release and you should definitely check it out. Congratulations to TALESSHOP and may you bless us with more releases in the future.
At $29.99, Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! isn’t a bad game per se, however, it’s one that I feel is going to struggle to find an audience. I understand that they are trying to take the series into a new direction, however, Umihara Kawase is niche enough as is, and I can’t imagine too many people are going to look at this game and be willing to pick it up. There is a huge learning curve to Umihara Kawase in general, and the game doesn’t do enough to make itself inviting to new players either. Again, a more fleshed out single player experience and proper training mode could have gone a long way in making this one feel more approachable. It also doesn’t help that many players are going to recognize very few, if any, characters outside of Kawase, and that’s assuming they even knew Kawase to begin with. There is online play complete with leaderboards, ranked, casual and private matchmaking, but I have never been able to find a match, and I don’t think I’ll be finding many in the future. So really, your mileage with Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! is going to depend on whether or not you can convince your friends to come over and play this game with you. If you can manage that, you’ll probably have some fun. I can’t help but feel like this could have been a nice bonus DLC mode for Fresh! instead of a whole new release. I’m not opposed to them exploring multiplayer options in future Umihawa Kawase games, but I’d rather see the series stick to its single player roots.
Chernobylite is an enjoyable sci-fi romp through the exclusion zone surrounding the infamous, failed power plant. I’ve racked up 39 hours in the game, which was enough to get all the achievements. However, there are also multiple endings, though you don’t need to replay the entire game to get them all. The game recently arrived on PC (Steam and GOG). Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions will arrive in September. Subsequently, the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 will get the game sometime thereafter. Chernobylite is currently available on Steam and GOG for $29.99. Do you have what it takes to survive the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and complete your mission with all team members alive?
At the end of the day, I have to say I had a great time with Shadowverse: Champion’s Battle. The characters and story are great, and the game is very easy to pick up and play. The online modes will let you battle with your friends online and this adds a ton of replay value to the game as well. I think some of the later boss battles are completely unfair and will frustrate some players. You just have to stick with it and change your deck up accordingly until you take them down. I put right around 35 hours in this one and there is still some post game stuff I could take on. If you’re a fan of the Shadowverse anime, this one is well worth your coin at the $49.99 price tag. Fans looking for a good collectible card game to pass their time with on the Switch would do well to snag this one up as well.
Samurai Warriors 5 is one of the best games I’ve played this year. I didn’t think I would be saying this when I started playing it, but the more I experienced this title the more I got into it. That’s a rare thing for me in gaming these days, and I’m very thankful when it happens. The art style, storytelling, and music are all top tier. While the combat hasn’t changed a whole lot, the tweaks make it fast and a ton of fun. I do wish there were more weapons and characters to choose from, since this series has a ton of both that didn’t make the cut here, but this a great start for a refresh of the series. If you are a fan of Samurai Warriors, pick this one up today at the $59.99 price tag and you will be very satisfied with this entry. If you have never picked up one of these games before, this is a fantastic starting point for you. If Koei Tecmo keeps up this level of quality, this series has a bright future ahead of it.
It’s hard to say if Earth Defense Force: World Brothers is better or worse than Iron Rain. If you stick with tried and true EDF characters to play as, it’s probably better. If you try to use its weird gimmick characters, it’s probably worse. While some missions in an EDF game can be a bit frustrating, I definitely think they do their best to make each mission fun. Even at its worst, it still controls and plays well. In both of Yuke’s Earth Defense Force games, I feel like frustration is the status quo. Enemy placement seems less thoughtful and even when the enemy design isn’t something you have to struggle against, you’re still left with the controls not feeling very good. Between that and so few characters feeling good to use, the times in which I had fun in this game are few and far between.
I enjoyed my time with Neptunia ReVerse. It was great seeing these loveable characters interact with each other again, and I appreciated how much this game improved upon the original. ReVerse is such a significant improvement over Hyperdimension Neptunia, that if your only experience with the first game is the original, I highly recommend picking this one up to see how much it changed. If you’re new to the series, this is probably the best way to get into the Neptunia franchise, seeing as how this is a remake of the very first game. If you already played Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1, I think you can skip this one since the story is essentially the same. I think $50 is a bit high for an upgraded port of a PS Vita game, so I recommend waiting for a price drop before picking this one up. Neptunia ReVerse is available right now for PlayStation 5.
Akiba’s Trip is still one of the most unique franchises in gaming. I mean, what other game can you pick up a crazy weapon like a rice cooker, beat down a vampire with it, and then strip their clothing? This may sound crazy, but it’s just a ton of fun. The story is great no matter which path you choose, and it took me around 28 hours to complete all three of them. There are still some sidequests and items I need to collect to have 100% of everything. There are some annoying bits of combat and some muddy textures, but these are very minor flaws. If you were a fan of the previous release, you should definitely pick this one up. You’ll find more of what you love here at the $39.99 price tag. If you are new to the series, this is a great place to jump in, since this is technically the first title in the franchise.
Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with UnderMine. It takes a fair amount of time to beat the game, at least 20-40 hours. That’s highly dependent on your skill level, of course. There is also a hidden mode to unlock, called OtherMine. To overcome it, you’ll have to push forward without the benefit of permanent progression upgrades like you’ve had in the main campaign. Naturally, this means you’ll have to make do with the random items you find along the way. UnderMine is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99. You can also find it on Steam and Xbox. Do you have what it takes to conquer the mines, and the OtherMine?
If that wasn’t enough, there are multiple versions of Mushihimesama for you to experience including Arrange, 1.5, and Novice Mode designed for newcomers featuring simplified bullet patterns and the ability to auto-bomb. Each “version” of the game offers some differences such as remixed soundtracks and different scoring systems. Any good shoot ’em up release would have a whole list of options for you to play with to further customize the experience, and Mushihimesama delivers on that front as well. You can change the aspect ratio, screen orientation and size, display the inputs and high scores, and have the ability to enable additional game windows for a “picture in picture” effect.
Much as I wish I could rave about how amazing the game is, it’s unable to reach the heights I thought it capable of. But since the ending hints there’s gonna be a remake of the next game in the Wonder Boy series, I hope that can fully realize its vision while still being a balanced experience. A fun trip down memory lane, but hard to recommend for anyone other than expert platformers, especially for $34.99.
Touhou Hyouibana ～ Antinomy of Common Flowers is a pretty decent fighting game. It’s fast, fun, easy to play, but has some meat for advanced players as well. I think the online community not being there hurts the replay value of this one a bit, but if you have some local friends you can duke it out with, you should have a great time. Touhou fans should be all over this one, but the $34.99 price tag is a bit much for what you’re getting here, but if you can snag this one up during a sale, I think most people would be satisfied with the quality.
At the end of the day, Guilty Gear -STRIVE- is a very solid title. The game looks and plays fantastic. The artwork and overall aesthetics here are the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Arc System Works really made this game more accessible to non-fighting game fans, but they did simplify things a bit. I still feel like in order to really enjoy this one, you’d have to get used to all of the advanced mechanics the game has to offer to play with online competitors, since there are very few options for players to enjoy offline. There is a very basic Arcade Mode, Training, Survival and, of course, the anime Story Mode. The Online Versus Mode is where this one really shines, and they have done a great job making it work for players of all skill levels. While I think the lack of some single player modes and the smaller roster holds this back a bit, it’s still one of the best anime fighters I’ve played.
NINJA GAIDEN: Master Collection bundles three good action games that are still fun to play years after their original release dates, and have made a pretty smooth transition over to Nintendo Switch, despite some of the hiccups I mentioned earlier. While some aspects didn’t age well, like Sigma‘s camera issues, I still think these three titles are solid action games and worth picking up. I think that NINJA GAIDEN fans, and fans of action games in general, will still find a lot to love here. The games still have fun combat, good music, beautiful character models, and the baddest ninja in the world, Ryu Hayabusa. A standard edition copy will cost $39.99 on the Nintendo eShop, and I feel this bundle is definitely worth that. If you want something extra, you can also get the deluxe edition for $49.99 which comes with a digital art book and soundtrack. Are you ready to fulfill your ninja fantasy and step into the shoes of the world’s strongest ninja?
Smelter is an impressive piece of ambition. The originality that comes with the pairing of 2-D action platforming and RTS is easily commended. The brilliance and execution of the action platforming stages is overwhelmingly impressive, so much so that they’re able to carry the game on their own. However, the flaws of the RTS segments of gameplay mar the experience, as does the overall disjointed feel of gameplay when transitioning from fast-paced action to the crawl that is the RTS. The weak story and shallow characters fail to help the effort, though the attempts at creating a history and having a plot twist or two are appreciated. Lastly, I will be impressed with Smelter’s visual aesthetics and soundtrack for a long time to come. The 20 USD price is fair for the near 15 hours of gameplay and I would only encourage the purchase further should that price ever drop. Despite its missteps, Smelter is still an easy recommendation for any fan looking for an energetic bit of challenging, yet fun, high-paced 2-D action platforming.
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir is a solid, enjoyable mystery to play. I loved exploring Myoujin Village and learning about the cast, or swapping between the orchestrated arrangement and original chiptune songs. The game is also a time capsule into Nintendo’s past and the early days of graphic adventures on console, and has aged remarkably well. I sort of wish they’d included the original version of the game, if only for comparison’s sake, but having the music is a nice touch. The game even comes with a Music Mode you unlock after completing it. It’s a nice touch. Will this title wow veteran visual novel and graphic adventure aficionados? Not really. But for its place in the genre’s history, I think it’s worth a shot.