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It almost feels like Star Ocean: The Divine Force’s existence is some sort of miracle. Even more so because, while there are some elements that can feel a bit dated and it isn’t exactly perfect, it’s generally a joyful and solid experience.
When you pick up an otome visual novel for your Switch, you figure you are getting a game that will feature intricate romance stories with detailed characters, but Paradigm Paradox doesn’t exactly fit into the typical mold. Which is fine! The problem is, the game as a whole feels rushed, with the world’s lore and characters’ relationships speedrunning their way to good (and bad) ends.
Bayonetta 3 is over-the-top in every possible way, and I get the feeling newcomers and long-time fans of the series will appreciate that.
Stretch your legs, clean your whiskers, and dive into Nine Noir Lives. Enjoy a "point-and-lick" comedy-noir adventure, full of humour, crazy characters, and intriguing locations. A punny detective game with visual novel elements and a surprisingly earnest core beyond its snarky exterior.
Explore the mean streets of Skopp City as Ann Flores, a lone-wolf combat specialist on a mission to find her missing brother. Sample the cyberpunk city life in 2D/3D exploration segments and fight off threats in an agile side-scrolling combat areas. Switch version reviewed.
While there is a simple and undeniable pleasure in the simple act of raising parameters and figuring out the best way to schedule Chilia’s time, Lair Land Story hasn’t aged gracefully. Its combination of raising sim and visual novel works in theory, but not in practice due to the overwhelming and frankly shoddy story, and lack of emotional beats to keep the player hooked. Individually there are two good tastes to be found in this game, but their combination ends up lesser than their sum.
Playtest an entire crafted world with your school buddy Kenta, an aspiring game designer with his own RPG! Switch versión reviewed.
Explore a supernatural RPG with stylish summoners and dark dangers lurking under the neon lights of a cyberpunk Japan. It is up to the agents of Aion to decrypt destiny and save the world from apocalypse! PS4 version reviewed. A dungeon crawler strung together by a flimsy story, but serves as a good entry point for SMT fans.
While it's unlikely to transcend genre preferences, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a gift for those who love JRPG trappings. There are lands to explore, combat systems to optimize, and lore implications for longtime franchise fans. And at the very least? You certainly get your money's worth.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is a monster of an expansion and proves the series will remain a mainstay among international audiences.
Last Call BBS is a collection of games that may or may not seem familiar. After all Exapunks’ Hack*Match and Eliza’s Kabufuda Solitaire are both here. There’s also a take on Solitaire called Sawayama Solitaire. But they’re all puzzle games designed to make someone think.
Just as the “Yurukill” in the title Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a portmanteau of the Japanese “Yurusu” (to pardon or forgive) and the English “Kill,” the game itself is a combo of two seemingly incompatible genres. It is a puzzle-solving adventure and a flashy scrolling shooter. The result works far better than one might think at first.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a Musou game that asks a lot of “what ifs.” What if Byleth didn’t come to Garreg Mach as a teacher? What if someone else ended up aiding Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard when the three encountered bandits? What if, instead of a traditional tactical game like Three Houses, Three Hopes was a more active one? The answers to all of them, perhaps not shockingly, are rather fascinating.
Fishing Paradiso is the kind of game you get if you like fishing in Animal Crossing or Story of Seasons.
AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative is another fascinating Kotaro Uchikoshi game that builds on the original's foundation.
There are certain otome games in which the romance is absolutely there, but might not always feel like the main focus. For example, Hakuoki is absolutely romantic, but it also a thriller offering an alternate, supernatural take on the Shinsengumi and Bakumatsu period. Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei feels similar, due to it being a Heian period piece offering its own alternate take on the events after the Heiji rebellion.
So it goes with Metal Max Xeno Reborn, where yesteryear’s vehicles of war and destruction are the future-present’s platforms of hope. One could also say the same for the game itself, salvaged over the course of years and redeveloped into something quite different — and much better – than before.
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge feels like a time capsule. You can tell going into it that the people at Tribute Games deeply respected the source material. They did their research, both in terms of watching the show and playing past titles.
Even if Tempest is one of those Switch otome games that dares to be different, in terms of its gameplay, story, and tone. I appreciate what it does, even if that does mean I needed to spend a lot of time with it to unlock routes and endings. It’s just a shame that I encountered so many crashes.
Increased enthusiasm for tactical role-playing games in recent years is leading to a wealth of fun indie experiences in the genre. Dancing Dragon Games, a small JRPG developer, partnered with Dark Deity publisher Freedom Games for its own entry, Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. It isn’t just an homage, though, offering overlaid tactical systems that make it feel mechanically distinct. The scrappy release isn’t much of a looker (though there’s some nice sprite work!), but the gameplay is what matters, and there’s a lot of thought to it.