Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song is a work that embraces its past and chooses not to hide it. It makes no effort to appear more modern than it is, and perhaps that is exactly what makes it so captivating. A complex journey, at times hostile, yet capable of offering a sense of freedom that few contemporary JRPGs can provide. And now that it finally speaks Italian as well, one can say that its world is, for the first time, truly open to everyone.
Absolum is one of those roguelikes that tells not so much the story it contains, but the one it evokes through its beautiful aesthetic style. A story made of difficult choices, of ambitions that challenge caution, of an authentic desire to leave a mark, however small, however fragile. And in a world where everything seems to rush forward without ever looking back, a side-scrolling beat ’em up that chooses to slow down and force you to think is a small miracle.
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero on Switch 2 delivers the same energetic, content-packed fighter as other platforms, capturing the magic of the franchise despite a few technical compromises. Its biggest strength is portability, which adds real value for fans. However, if you don’t care about playing on the go and own another platform, the superior experience can be found elsewhere.
The Berlin Apartment is not an anthology. It is not a collection of stories. It is a single story told by those who remain. By those who silently observe every departure and every return. And that someone is us. The game doesn’t put us in the protagonists’ shoes. It puts us in the shoes of the home they inhabit, carrying the full weight of a century of history.
Octopath Traveler 0 is, in every respect, a solid entry in the franchise, even if not the best of the three, and it introduces a series of good ideas that we may well see again in the next, inevitable instalments: from the inclusion of “cozy” mechanics, with the construction of a village, to the addition of a second line during battles, which significantly broadens the player’s range of strategic options.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond delivers exactly what it needed to: a strong and worthy sequel to a trilogy that ended eighteen years ago. Its gameplay innovations and dungeon-level design shine, but the open-map sections and some late-game pacing issues hold it back. Retro Studios’ attempt to go beyond a ‘safe’ sequel leads to a game that’s excellent, yet unlikely to astonish modern players the way the original did in 2002.
Horses is the kind of experience that doesn’t look for compromises and has no interest in pleasing everyone. Santa Ragione plays with incendiary material and does so with a confidence that’s almost disarming. It’s a “small” title, one that inevitably divides, because it demands from the viewer the willingness to look exactly where we usually turn away. And that’s precisely where its value lies: in its ability to dig, provoke, unsettle and, above all, leave a mark.
Even on Xbox, Silent Hill 2 Remake is a product with a dual nature: on one hand, you notice every detail, every crack, and every bloodstain that previously went unnoticed; on the other, you miss that unsettling uncertainty, that sickly slow pace that kept you glued to your seat. It’s an ambitious, bold operation, sometimes successful, sometimes betraying the original. If you want pure nostalgia, be ready to be shaken; if you want modern horror that doesn’t forgive, be prepared for some compromises.
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for Switch 2 leaves a dual, almost suspended feeling. On one hand, there is the tangible pleasure of rediscovering a game that maintains a rare narrative solidity and an engaging quality. On the other hand, however, it is impossible to ignore how time has affected the formula, making certain moments more predictable, some mechanics more rigid, and some design choices less surprising than they were a decade ago.
Project Motor Racing is a title that takes a stand, and it does so without compromise. It doesn’t aim to please everyone, it doesn’t want to be yet another flashy racing game that confuses realism with visual spectacle, and it doesn’t intend to hand out easy wins or deliver a career that passes by without leaving any mark.
