Anima is an irredeemable game that shouldn't be played by anyone, regardless of how much you pay. The game was visually dated at launch. The buttons can't be changed. Combat feels slow and wonky. Story is riddled painfully generic fantasy cliches. The cast is either woefully annoying, boring, or unlikable. Voice acting was done clearly by amateurs, or first time voice actors. Overall, I recommend you stay far away from Anima. Even if it ends up free, it's not worth it.
First Light acts as a prequel to Second Son, and while narratively sound with solid gameplay, there isn't a lot to do apart from collectible collection, and challenge missions. While there are some solid performances, especially from Laura Bailey as Fetch, First Light doesn't have a lot of replay value after the roughly 5 hour story (less if you skip side activities). Worth a look if you can get it on sale, or have PS Plus, but I'd struggle to recommend it at full price ($20).
Metroid Fusion admittedly has a bit of back tracking, something synonymous with the Metroid-Vania genre, but Fusion shines with a strong combination of exploration, hidden secrets, story, and aesthetics. There can be a bit of a difficulty curve with this game, but if you stick with it, you'll pick up a few tricks that can help you out.
Fire Red's port to the Switch comes with some bug fixes, though it is lacking an online component to make it up to date, and to replace the lack of a wireless connection. Had this port allowed for online trading, it would have been a major step up. It's still the solid game from 22 years ago, and one that's still enjoyable to this day, but some quality of life improvements would have made it a 10/10.
Nocturne's remaster helps bring the classic title back to life with some quality of life improvements, including voice acting, auto battle, the choice between Raidou and Dante as a "rival" character, various endings, and challenging gameplay, but some archaic game design choices do hold it back from being a recommendation to SMT newcomers. It does have one of the deepest combat systems, and one of the most engaging narratives, making it a must play for newcomers, but it wouldn't be the title I recommend to those who don't want a punishingly hard game.
Tales of Berseria is still a fine game, but this is a remaster that should have been an upgrade, either free or at $10 if you owned the PS4 version. The original game is less than 10 years old, and despite this version some minor performance upgrades and better textures, I'd still recommend the last gen version over this "remaster". It still plays well, and has a solid story... but it should have been an upgrade, and not sold at the price it is.
A blast from the past, with a slick coat of neon paint, and an excellent 80's inspired soundtrack, and you have a callback to older times that's aged well. And it can be enjoyed in single player, or with a friend/family member via couch co-op. The only real knock is the short play time, but I recommend it because it's a blast to play, and doesn't tend to be very expensive to buy.
Proud Nordics is the textbook definition of an overpriced re-release. This should have been an upgrade for previous owners of the original Ys X, not a more expensive product than the original game. At most, this should have been a $20 update.
I admit I was apprehensive of Unicorn Overlord prior to starting it, due to the change in genre of past Vanillaware games, but this change in genre helps Unicorn Overlord shine from its predecessors. Rather than a platformer with RPG elements, Unicorn Overlord is an RTS where positioning, team composition, and equipment can be what separates defeat from victory. Add on an excellent story, world building, character development, and satisfying gameplay, and you have an instant classic that shouldn't be missed.
Monstrum Nox on the Switch is still a very good game (see my PS4 review), but in terms of performance, it doesn't hold as much of a candle compared to the PS4 version. It's okay to play on the go, but if you wanted to play it at home, I'd be quicker to point to the PlayStation, or PC versions.
Suda-51's brand of strange games won't appeal to everyone, and if you weren't on board with with his games beforehand, I admit Romeo is a Dead Man won't likely change your mind. But to those who enjoy his strange humour, stories, and gameplay, this will be right up your alley. Part hack and slash, and part third person shooter, but filled with a few minigames, Dead Man has plenty of variety and quirks to make it an interesting game. Add on a solid soundtrack, and it fires on all cylinders to make the game standout. The only real gripes I have is that there isn't a whole lot of replay value after beating the game, aside from restarting at a higher difficulty, but otherwise, I highly recommend Romeo is a Dead Man.
A perfectly serviceable Assassin's Creed game with an interesting story, but some gameplay jank that holds it back from greatness. I wish there would have been less naval battles, and more polish towards the parkour and melee combat.
Nioh 3 reinvents the Nioh formula, and improves upon already stellar gameplay by throwing in some elements similar to Elden Ring. Included are some stealth elements (like crouching), jumping, and a style change between a bulkier Samurai, and a speedy Ninja. It also juggles the player between three time periods, the Sengoku Era (the mid 1400's to early 1600's), the Heian Era (794 to 1185), and the Bakumatsu Era (1853 to 1867), all with historical figures from each time period. I was a little skeptical at first of the removal of the mission structure, but the open world format works very well with Nioh. With optional bosses to fight, Crucibles to purify, bases to take over, and other collectibles find, as well as enemies to fight along the way, Nioh 3 shows how to do an open world game correctly.
I've been a bit of an on again, off again Mario player, and I just got into Odyssey, and I gotta say, it's probably the best Mario game I've ever played. It boast creative level design, thanks to the ability to transform into most enemies by throwing Cappy at them. It's highly replayable, full of hidden goodies for completionists, and filled with plenty of memorable tracks. While it might be hard to get it on sale, Mario Odyssey was well worth every dollar I spent for it, and it holds up incredibly well for a near decade old game (feel old yet?).
Honestly, I didn't like the original Legacy of the Duelist, but Link Evolution improves upon the game way better, by actually allow you to play throughout Arc V, and adding Vrains duels to the story. There are also special summoning animations for certain monsters, which adds a lot of visual flair to Link Evolution. There are still some duels that can be a bit tough, or the opponent duelists having really lucky RNG abuse, but I highly recommend Link Evolution.
This might be a highly subjective point of view to have, but SMT V is the perfect JRPG. It's a difficult to learn, but satisfying to master JRPG, aided by an excellent story, cast of characters, large roster of recruitable demons, and tons of replay value for different endings. There also a lot of side quests for completionists, and a lot of secret bosses to battle. Overall, SMT V is a must buy for JRPG fans who want a great story, and a solid alternative to Pokemon for monster capturing.
Leave it to the Nintendo version to be the most unnecessary way to play Dispatch. One of the things that made the PS5 and PC versions of this game so much better to play is the option to have certain things, like nudity, foul language, and crude acts to be censored. While you can play the game uncensored in certain aspects, you can choose to censor options you might not want to see. The Switch 2 (and Switch port, by proxy) version does not give you the option of toggling censorship on or off, forcing you to play the game uncensored... all the while allowing AI Generated Hentai games with uncensored nudity on the Nintendo store. Plus, the price of game did go up. It was originally under $30 on PS5 last October for the standard edition... but now it's pushing $40. Buy it on PC/PS5 instead, and skip the Nintendo versions.
Leave it to the Nintendo version to be the most unnecessary way to play Dispatch. One of the things that made the PS5 and PC versions of this game so much better to play is the option to have certain things, like nudity, foul language, and crude acts to be censored. While you can play the game uncensored in certain aspects, you can choose to censor options you might not want to see. The Switch (and Switch 2 port, by proxy) version does not give you the option of toggling censorship on or off, forcing you to play the game uncensored... all the while allowing AI Generated Hentai games with uncensored nudity on the Nintendo store. Plus, the price of game did go up. It was originally under $30 on PS5 last October for the standard edition... but now it's pushing $40. Buy it on PC/PS5 instead, and skip the Nintendo versions.
This game pulls no punches with its difficulty, and high volume of enemies that it throws your way. It will very much feel like an NES/SNES game in terms of difficulty, but not necessarily in the best possible way. If you like old school shoot em ups, as well as Robotech/Macross, this game isn't for you. It's punishingly difficult for no reason, feeling more like they tried blending in Gradius, with Robotech, and Touhou, but ended up making a mess.
Legacy of the Duelist is a barebones effort to bring Yu-Gi-Oh! to the previous generation of consoles, where it does bring both single player and multiplayer options to the table. For the single player, you are going through the storylines of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, as well as GX, 5D's, Zexal, and Arc V, though Arc V is only a tutorial duel without forking over some additional cash. And they even omitted some other duels from the story in order to sell them to you as DLC. And the AI of these duels is very inconsistent. Some duels that should be hard are pushovers at times, and some duels that should be easy can be maddeningly difficult, requiring dozens of attempts. Another issue I have is the lack of an ability to purchase cards in bulk, and needing to open packs individually. It artificially inflates the playing time by doing so. Otherwise, it's just standard Yu-Gi-Oh!, rules, restrictions, and active day card bans from the trading card game. It can be easy to hop into, but hardly does anything special for Yu-Gi-Oh! fans.
Banner of the Maid does a lot of things good, but has a few minor issues that hold it back from a higher grade. Let's start with the good. This game is absolutely beautiful to look at. From nicely drawn portraits of the cast, to the pixel art being on par, or potentially better than classic PS1/SNES games. It also uses a unique setting for the game, being Napoleon's time of French History, and the story is well told with a dynamic cast of characters. The multitude of playable classes with their quirks makes strategic planning a key point between victory or defeat. Then there's the card system at the start of each chapter, which gives you the choice between 2 randomized cards, that positively benefit your side. And lastly, there's a Heroic Attack you can build up to, that can allow for a 100% hit rate attack that multiplies damage for one attack by 1.5 times it's original power. Now, the cons. The story pacing can be inconsistent at times. Some points take forever to reach, but others can go by very quickly when they should take more time to develop. The localization can be very hit or miss, as this was originally created by a Chinese indie team. I can't speak for a one for one translation, as I am not familiar with Mandarin, nor Cantonese, but I noticed some rough translations to English (and some French as well, as I am a bilingual English and French speaker). There is also a sort of social aspect, where you can boost your relations with certain factions, and affect recruitments and endings. It mostly boils down to dialogue choices, though I wish they could have used side quests as well. Overall, Banner of the Maid is solid diamond in the rough, hidden gem for RPG fans. I highly recommend a purchase, and on sale, I'd easily say it's an 8/10.
Samurai Maiden isn't perfect, but it's an enjoyable game with solid combat and some isekai charm thrown in. It has solid voice acting and good soundtrack, but can be repetitive at times, and is short for a single playthrough. On sale, this can be a hidden gem for certain players, though don't expect DMC/Bayonetta levels of replayability or challenge.
Aside from some visuals being drab and washed out at times, NieR Replicant is a perfect example of a video game that acts as a remake, but isn't quite a remake. Replicant retells the story of the original NieR, but updates the visuals, story telling, and narrative, as well as fixing some of the gameplay from the original game. It is highly replayable due to the various endings, but the story will keep you hooked from the first minute you play.
The fact that this same team made Quantum Error, yet falls into the same pitfalls as Quantum Error without making the necessary improvements between games, speaks volumes about their quality control. Similarly to Quantum Error, Code Violet is a visually dated game, not even on par with the original Uncharted game, an early PS3 title. Assets are poorly animated, making the animations of a PS1 game look cutting edge with how lifelike and fluid with how animations flow. Framerate is very inconsistent, not able to reliably be at 30 frames most of the time. Dull story, dull characters, bland environments, and doesn't hold a candle to the game it is trying to be a spiritual successor to. Dino Crisis at its absolute worse looks like a Shakespearian masterpiece compared to the kindergarten play that is Code Violet. And I will copy this line I used during my Quantum Error review for Code Violet: "I get that this is a smaller scale studio/indie studio that made this game, but if you are selling it at Triple A price, you get graded like a Triple A studio. And on that metric, Code Violet gets an F." Even at $1, Code Violet will feel like a scam.
Factoring out the terrible mobile games, Legends Z-A has to be the worst mainline Pokemon game by a whole country mile. Too small of a space to travel, removal of a few quality of life improvements, too inconsistent of performance, and way too repetitive. Z-A should have had more time in the oven, and this stagnation from Game Freak is why other franchises are starting to make better Pokemon inspired games than Game Freak.
Metroid Prime 4 suffers from some baffling choices that hold it back from being a fantastic game. Beyond did not need to be an open world game, when the original formula worked for previous games. Beyond should have included music by default into the game, and not nickel and dime you for extra for a basic feature. It's visually nice for a Switch game, though with some occasional frame stuttering (could be the age of my Switch, though). It does boast a good story, and some awesome gameplay, but it suffers from many games trying to up the ante from previous game franchises by becoming open world, and not properly filling the world up with enough meaningful things to do. Wait for a sale before you buy it, or replay the previous Metroid games.
While not a conventional Final Fantasy game, 16 does quite a bit that I really like, including very spectacular Devil May Cry like combat. It is also a more mature title than most of the other games, and I'm not just saying that because of the M rating. It feels like they went down a darker tone when creating this story and version of the Final Fantasy world, and it resonates very well with a dark fantasy tone. Add on a well written story, and excellent performances (especially Ben Starr and Ralph Ineson as Clive and Cid respectively), and you have an excellent game that appeals to both action game fans, and Final Fantasy fans.
On sale, UFO Robot Grendizer is a fine game that pays homage to old school beat em ups, and Go Nagai's classic works. At full price, it's a woefully short game without too much replay value once the credits roll.
It's not a bad game, but for a Warriors title, Three Hopes lacks what makes good Warriors games like, in my opinion, Gundam Reborn, Orochi 3 and 4, and Samurai Warriors 4 lack. And that's a variety of playable characters that feel different. Outside of the lord characters, Shez, and maybe one or two of your favourite students coming back from Three Houses, the rest of the characters can be benched without too many problems. And aside from going through different routes, which is honestly a bit tedious with this game, there isn't really much replay value with Three Hopes. It's still a well polished game, with a well written story and character development, but I would be hard pressed to recommend this game to either Warriors fans, or Fire Emblem fans at full price.
Not quite as good as the original Life is Strange game, but Before the Storm acts as a solid prequel point for the first game, and fleshes out Chloe's character a bit more before the events of LIS 1. Chloe's ability to backtalk people acts as an alternative option to getting through different dialogue options. It's also fairly short ****, so I'd recommend getting on sale if you're curious.
Typical predatory gacha slop without any redeeming qualities aside from nice looking character models, but even then, it gets bogged down with ridiculous level scaling, and predatory enough transactions to make Hoyo look reserved by comparison.
Coming included with both DLC campaigns, Desperate Escape and Lost in Nightmares, the PS4 port of RE5 is a solid addition, with some minor improvements to performance and graphics. I strongly recommend this game with a co-op buddy, and if you can get it on sale.
Some aspects of Kingdom Hearts have aged well, including visually, the humour, story telling, and music. Some aspects haven't aged well, including some voice acting performances, and the precise platforming. It does run very well, with minimal performance issues, and does appeal to a lot of nostalgia with levels based on classic Disney films. But the game does suffer with a few issues, including a wonky camera, and a very unbalanced endgame with a crazy annoying end boss gauntlet. I'm sure if I played Kingdom Hearts when it was just starting off as a franchise, I'd probably wax more poetically about how much **** it is. The game was a solid 7 out of 10 until that point, but that infuriating end gauntlet made it impossible to progress further, and it killed my interest in the franchise going forward.
Attack on Titan 2 improves upon the first game by tightening up the gameplay, and adding new weapons, but struggles a little with side content to give more bang for your buck. If you liked AOT 1, AOT 2 has plenty of improvements, including a larger roster of characters, joint attacks, and a customizable protagonist.
My only real gripe with Crisis Core: Reunion, is that there isn't the option to have the original voice acting. Aside from that, Crisis Core Reunion is a perfect spin off of Final Fantasy VII, taking gameplay cues from Kingdom Hearts, and showing off Sephiroth's fall from SOLDIER hero into the villain we see him as in the mainline game. Pair that with an excellent story, replayability, solid controls, a top tier soundtrack, and polishing off the rougher visuals from the PSP original, and you have one of the best remakes of the 2020's.
A solid reimagining of Final Fantasy VII, with high quality visuals, tight-knit combat on par with Crisis Core or Kingdom Hearts, excellent remixing of classic songs, and ironing out the kinks of the original, Final Fantasy VII Remake is a new spin on a classic game that feels accessible to new players, and a love letter to old-school fans. There are side activities to keep completionists busy, but an engaging story for story focused players to enjoy. A must play for this generation.
For a first attempt at turning Attack on Titan into a console video game, the game of the same title captures plenty of what made the anime great, including a faithful recreation of the story up until the Beast Titan's introduction. Some of my issues include how awkward using throwable weapons can be at times, and a somewhat repetitive nature, but diehard AOT fans will love this game. It does also boast an incredible original soundtrack that feels like it could have been in the show, though there's sadly no music by Hiroyuki Sawano or Linked Horizon in here.
Some minor performance hiccups aside, Xillia's Remaster on the Switch preserves an incredible, and unforgettable adventure, while being able to enjoy it on the go. Definitely would recommend the game on consoles instead, but you'll have fun with Xillia on the go if you get a Switch copy. Edit: Kept crashing on me in the late game, where every other room I'd go into would shut off the game. It's ridiculous that the cracks in this remaster would show so late into the game, especially when the only issue I'd previously deal with would be just some minor moments of lag.
It's a strange game that relies quite heavily on a very quirky and absurd sense of humour, but Thank Goodness You're Here! shines with a short run time, and mature humour. It might not be everybody's cup of tea, but growing up with English shows made me get a laugh every time something random happens.
Dark Deity 2 does make some improvements over the first Dark Deity, including being available on other platforms. It does take a lot of notes from Fire Emblem, with the addition of Bonds (basically support conversations). And the game does let you train between stages, provided you have the coin to spend. A very nice little hommage to old school Fire Emblem, and at a good price to boot. I highly recommend it.
Bland and uninspired, The ARTcade game is a poor use of a horror franchise such as Terrifier. Whenever I think of what genre Terrifier should have been adapted to for a horror game, I'd have thought an isometric multiplayer horror game, or even a stealth heavy first person horror game. Not a Scott Pilgrim-esque beat em up, with an overly cartoony art style (no pun intended). A lot of potential creativity from an oddball character such as Art the Clown is striped away when we look at the genre of this game being very limited. The finishers aren't as whacky or creative as the films. It's not a broken game, in terms of playability, and the soundtrack is decent, but this is not a good use of the Terrifier IP.
A very drab, and mundane COD experience, ruined even further by the storefront being littered with generative AI Images. Truly makes you wonder how lazy Treyarch/Activision was in the development of this game. Any time a studio uses generative AI for images or voicelines, it makes me seriously wonder if they used generative AI for other aspects of the game, and that calls into question if the developers phoned it in. And anything that uses generative AI immediately gets a 0 out of 10.
An innovative on rails shooter that holds up incredibly well today, with a non-linear path, satisfying gameplay, and tons of replayability. My only gripes is the short length, but the non-linearity makes up for it.
So, episode 3 on the Switch just straight up doesn't work. Beat episode 2 earlier this week, go to start episode 3, and an error prevents me from playing episode 3. Switch fully up to date, and this game fully up to date, but it crashed 4 times on me in the recap of episode 2 each time I tried to start the game. It had to auto generate episode 3 for me, which is one of the reasons it's getting so negatively criticized from me, on top of having the same muddy visuals, with poor draw distance that season 2 had. It feels like this season, as well as the rest, were poorly optimized during Telltale's development for the Switch, and aside from the Batman games, Walking Dead should be skipped on this handheld.
I initially had ARC Raiders at a 1 out of 10, but it's been dropped down to a 0 for the use of generative AI. And before someone counters "oh, it's only voice lines, what's the big complaint?", that's just a surface level excuse to start normalizing lazy behaviour. And if people excuse lazy behaviour with minor things like this, it will embolden developers to go lazier with major segments like level design, or story writing. Even with that aside, ARC Raiders is a bogstandard extraction shooter, with predatory microtransactions. A must skip, especially with generative AI used in the development.
I've played many a bad game before, and I have to say without a doubt that Rogue Warrior is the worst game I've ever played. It's visually dated for the release year, looking more like an early PS2 game than a mid generation PS3 game. It runs very poorly in certain sections, going down to 15 frames or less during snowy sections especially. Enemy AI is very dumb, where they don't even see you sometimes, even though they're looking directly at you. Guns feel very unsatisfying, where the only real difference being the ammo capacity. It's also a very short game, where the main campaign only clocks in at about 2 hours (the only real solace of the game). I only played this through PS Plus streaming, and this game isn't even worth it then. It's an incompetent shooter trying to be edgy, but comes off as a parody of 80's action films. Do not play whatsoever.
When so many new games seemingly cost an arm and a leg nowadays, games like PowerWash Simulator 2 that decide to be sold at a reduced price are greatly appreciated, especially for the amount of content that gets put on offer for the lower price. The game offers plenty of missions, and replay value with with co-op with your friends, in a very relaxing environment. For about half the price of a new game, you get about 30-60 hours of gameplay, depending on if you're playing just for main mission completion, or a completionist run. Aside from the controls being a bit different from PowerWash 1, and needing time to readjust, PowerWash Simulator 2 is a worthwhile game to play.
So this is my first time playing a Dead Space game (but I've seen the animated films and read the books), since I briefly touched 2 back on the PS3, and this remake does a lot of things excellently. The first is the atmosphere. These dark, tight corridors make encounters with the Necromorphs feel very terrifying when you see them. And unlike most horror media, the idea that dismemberment is usually the only way to eliminate them is a unique idea that changes how you play. Add on a wide array of weapons, and you have many ways to take out Necromorphs. And that's disregarding powers like Stasis, to slow enemies or the environment, or picking up items with a sort of "telekinesis" like ability, to aid in exploration and combat. The story is somewhat simple, but effective, involving an alien monument that causes those exposed to it from the Ishimura, dead or alive, to mutate, adding a nice layer of body horror to the game. Another change to the game from the original is that Isaac is now voiced, by his go to voice actor since 2, Gunner Wright. Overall, this remake nails the spirit of the original game, while also ironing out some of the problems from the first game.
There are things I both like, and dislike about Fire Emblem Three Houses, as someone who's played Fire Emblem since the very beginning in the West (being the 7th game). The first I like about Three Houses are that the multiple routes are all included in one game, and the perspectives add a lot of replay value to a Fire Emblem game that others don't really have. Combat is improved by all characters being able to use all weapon types, but able to benefit by working on certain abilities. Skills and battalions can add new tactical depth tp the game, making strategy top notch for this game. And you can even recruit other characters from different houses into your army by training certain stats, which adds a lot of management, but it's also a weak point to me. It's very overwhelming for no reason, and the hub area is something I really dislike, because rather than feel rewarded for doing certain tasks, it always feels like I'm doing the wrong option. I feel like Three Houses was on the right track for a hub area, but Engage managed to make it better. I feel like if Three Houses had Engage's hub, it would be a 10/10 game. It's a solid game, aided by an excellent story and characters, with new wrinkles added to combat, but the hub area is what drags it back for me. For me, Three Houses is a very solid 8/10.
