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Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash is a tiresome game that is only good for some completely mindless action for diehard fans of the anime.
Despite its lovely aesthetic and heavy worldbuilding, the messy plot and inability to show nuance or interesting developments make this an ultimately dull experience.
An ill-conceived parkour game with aged graphics and gameplay, but with an undeniable thread of lost potential underneath that makes me wish the development team had spent more time in the planning stage. PC version reviewed.
RWBY: Arrowfell feels empty and one-note, which is a far cry from the stylish action-packed show it draws inspiration from.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is an unashamedly ruthless platformer. Originally on the Master System, it follows the title character in a quest to punch scorpions and die from being bad at rock-paper-scissors. There’s more to it than that, but you’d be forgiven for never knowing that because this game is the bad kind of challenging. With slippery controls, big enemy hitboxes, and a tiny, tiny attack, you’re going to likely spend most of your time repeating the same few levels and seeing your ghost floating out of your body.
Balan Wonderworld is not comfortable or fun to play. It isn’t memorable. If you want to understand everything happening, you have to buy the ebook and go to that outside source for an explanation. It is bland, repetitious, and has design choices that are the opposite of ensuring a good quality of life.
Open Roads is a game that relies heavily on a lo-fi aesthetic, but all that ambiance is surface level and doesn’t offer actual substance.
Return to Derceto Manor in this reimagination of Alone in the Dark, a love letter to the 90’s cult classic horror game. PS5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes. Alone in the Dark is a bland entry in the survival horror genre that fails to say anything with its themes, and that barely holds up.
Fashion Dreamer isn't the Switch Style Savvy successor I was hoping for, and what's here is a very basic, tedious experience.
Paleo Pines is a cute farming simulation game in which players care for friendly dinosaurs, but it is unoptimized and poorly paced.
Loop8 feels like a game that wants to be more poignant and meaningful than it really is, due in part to problematic pacing issues.
Redfall has some relatively interesting concepts, and could make for a decent multiplayer shooter, but is lacks the substance to see it through.
Technical issues aside, The Callisto Protocol is mostly forgettable.
If it was a budget title, Samurai Maiden might be worth someone's time as a guilty pleasure. Unfortunately, it's not.
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.
The Hundred Year Kingdom is a brief, simple, tedious, and unchallenging civilization builder in which you manage a world while a goddess compliments you.
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.
There are reasons people might be happy about Akiba’s Trip: Hellbound & Debriefed. It’s a win for folks who enjoy the series, as they’ll finally get to play the one that started it all. Those who appreciate obscure games getting a release outside of Japan might be pleased to see it show up worldwide. Not to mention it helps with game preservation efforts, as this is a PlayStation Portable title being “rescued.” I’m glad people who want it have a chance to play it. But it’s a big step back from Akiba’s Trip: Undead & Undressed and incredibly frustrating.
Makee definitely knew what it wanted Rise Eterna to be. I applaud some of its ideas, like how the developer tried to implement a crafting system and skill tree. But on the whole, it doesn’t offer the same balanced challenges as its contemporaries.
Another installment of Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology is upon us. This next chapter in the series places players in the town of Little Hope, a mysterious and enigmatic city beset with tragedy and a dark history. Similar to the previous entry, Man of Medan, this bite sized story attempts to scare players while convincing them that their choices will result in life or death for mostly under developed cast of characters.