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Egglia Rebirth is a surprisingly dense game. The more I played, the more things began to fall into place. What I initially felt was just a mobile title ported to the Nintendo Switch quickly became a more in-depth and interesting turn-based RPG.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus dares to be different and, while sometimes it can feel like a bit of work, is quite refreshing!
Despite those small things, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection blew me away on the PS5. The breathtaking landscapes and fluid gameplay heighted by the addition of improved feedback from the DualSense controller took a fantastic experience to another level.
Three decades have passed since the original’s release! But hey, Windjammers 2 is here, and it manages to deliver on core points.
Fans of golf RPGs? We’ve had a tough time of it lately. Recent Mario Golf entries have failed to deliver the depth of the Game Boy gems. The sequel to indie hit Golf Story, Sports Story? It’s on the way, we hear, but not as quickly as fans would want. So if you like this particular combination, you may be seeking out a stopgap.
God of War is a lore heavy game with a seemingly endless supply of pickups, quests, and side dialogue centered around Norse mythology and the relationship between a father, Kratos, and his young son Atreus.
Ultimately, Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker marked the end of an era. Plot threads from A Realm Reborn onward come to a close. The story is rife with fanfare, paying homage to past expansions in ways that sometimes feel overmuch or hit in just the right way.
Without fondness for the original games, you might find Shining Pearl and Brilliant Diamond less than compelling. With it, though? You’ll be fine as long as your expectations are in check. They’re faithful remakes!
Oink Games’ line of analog titles is all about packing value into an attractive, portable package. It makes sense, then, that Let’s Play! Oink Games is similarly slick. The collection, out now, includes four of the studio’s most popular releases, packaged up for both local and online play.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon ticks all sorts of boxes. It is absolutely a puzzle game. You need to deal with falling “blocks” in a timely fashion. It also feels like an action-RPG. You need to consider your health, your equipment, and the amount of damage you’ll take. Roguelike elements come up too, due to being kicked back to camp when you die and opportunities to unlock relics for future runs.
Fortunately for fans of the genre who might look to review potential new games for their libraries, Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani is a game with exceptional characters. It’s handled well, with great interactions and lore. The result is a visual novel that’s is a blast to play.
That’s what makes Monster Rancher 1 & 2 DX so fascinating. You see, Monster Rancher makes more sense now than it did then.
But of all the ones I’ve played, and consider that includes every localized Otomate game so far, Cupid Parasite is the one that best embraces the absurdity of the situation. It gets absolutely bonkers, which makes it all the more amusing and appealing.
The downside is, while it can still be compelling, the way it’s handled can also make things tedious. In review, Danganronpa S pales in comparison to the minigames its based upon.
With new visuals, greater accessibility features, and a re-orchestrated original soundtrack, Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster keeps modern sensibilities in mind while maintaining the feel of the original release.
Galdra Studio’s Arcadia Fallen is that sort. It attempts to take people on an adventure while challenging them with some puzzles and offering opportunities to bond with (and romance) allies. However, it also provides a chance to shape a protagonist’s personality with answers, have multiple “correct” answers, and shape a story while letting someone be themselves. While it might not be entirely revolutionary, it accomplishes its goals and tells an interesting story.
This has been the year of me playing games I’d usually never pick up and going, “Wow, this is a good game!” So let me begin this review with this — Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi is a good game that fell completely under my radar. From developer Experience, Undernauts is your typical dungeon RPG, but that doesn’t mean it’s your average DRPG.
lue Reflection: Second Light, which is essentially Blue Reflection 2, is a game of many mysteries. Why did Ao and a number of other girls wake up to find themselves in a deserted school? Where are they? What caused them to lose their memories? How is it that some young women can turn into magical girls called Reflectors? While the players possess as little insight as them (unless they played or watched previous Blue Reflection stories), Gust’s latest is good at doling things out in a surprisingly relaxed way.
Shin Megami Tensei V is an incredible and memorable experience. It does some extraordinary things, both in terms of gameplay and its story. I’d even say the experience could be daunting, but in the most positive way. It is going to test you and make you think.
A lot of puzzle games involve finding the right place for things. In Tetris, you try to organize tetrominos to create perfect rows. In Puyo Puyo, you want the puyos to fall into the right places to trigger combos. Upon closer review, Unpacking is a game that is sort of similar, though the item placement involves no competition, no stress, and almost no worries about doing things “wrong.”