Edit: You might as well ignore this review because the game is no longer available. It's a very hard one to rate because it's really quite charming but the production quality is low. I found it a bit jarring at first because the dialogue will talk about a room full of people but the image is an empty room. This is definitely a game on a budget. Music is very basic. It is partially voice acted. Same as every other game in the world, cheesy American voicing, the dialogue isn't particularly strong either but for some reason, for its masses of flaws the game keeps making me want to go back. The characters are likeable and it's quite fun in the fact that it's not all dark and dreary in tone and major plus that no one is incredibly annoying, like in Final Fantasy where they manage to write a cast full of A' holes. The characters in this don't make me want to club them to a brutal end. There is just a great amount of charm here and I'll definitely update this score as I get further in, this is just early game first impressions after 4 hours. I can't pin point what it is but it's very likeable. It's so light hearted with characters that if real would (love them, or hate them), be people you'd remember. It has a very happy vibe to it and I've been playing in little half hour spells before bed and it has been a great chill and unwind kind of game. I must add too that it is save anywhere, which is a bonus. I actually feel a bit tight giving it a 7 and think had this game had a bit more spent on it that I would have very little bad to say. Character designs I like too. Nothing flashy but a good job. Looking forward to seeing where the story goes and more mini adventures. You're basically a pilot for a criminal space crew who do dodgy deliveries and each outing is like a little adventure. As for metacritic 0/10. After all these years they're still incapable of keeping the formatting of what I type. I didn't just type a wall of text. They are also responsible for my only ever password leak in my 40+ years alive. They really need to pick their game up with the websites backend.
I've not long been playing it. Just one night. Now this is a free game and I don't really care what it's like, the OST is worth a 10 alone. It looks great. I didn't have room on my SSD and played from a HDD and the issues were minimal, so I imagine this would be buttery smooth if I swapped it to the other drive. Controls are great, the graphics and tonal control over the graphics are fantastic. First impressions are very high. I will say the character's don't know when to shut the **** up and a couple have little girl voices when they're not little girls. So VA is a bit of a weakness but this game is damn free and so polished outside of the acting. Can't really complain at all so far.
Wow, this having a rating higher than Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma is wild. It's not even in the same league. It's a good game. I've sat with my girlfriend playing this and it is probably the best SoS game I've sat with her playing. Certainly better optimization, than Mineral and Olive Town. Olive Town seemed to be better gameplay though. It looks great, music is a bit hit and miss with some songs being a bit annoying. The game just seems to hold itself back unnecessarily. Like the fully upgraded bag is just not even close to big enough. My GF is constantly having to go back to the house to make space. An option to craft, or buy extra storage, not only for storage but so different item types can be stored separately in different boxes is severely missing. As is a dedicated fridge. Farming is restrictive due to field restrictions. Farm redesigning is non existent. It does have a great gameplay loop but this really feels like an old game in new packaging. There are just so many times when I'm saying why don't you do that and she replies you can't do it in this game. They should have completely modernised this game and they didn't and it shows in the lack of many staple gameplay elements from games in the genre. I wouldn't say it's a lazy remake in the fact it is a good recreation but it is lazy in the fact it needed a lot of quality of life improvements that they just haven't added. Still, for what it is, it's really good but **** Valley, Rune Factory Guardians of Azuma, Harvestella and Coral Island all absolutely destroy this game. I'd say Rune Factory 5 is better too if you can deal with RF5's bad optimisation. A real missed opportunity because with just a little more development this game could have been a 10. The total lack of farm options is a real set back though. I'm not going to do a playthrough myself when my GF is done cos 3 small fields and basement for crops, lack of storage and no farm design is a big no for me. I don't see the point in some mechanics like uprooting and storing trees, when they don't give you sufficient storage to go storing trees for 3/4 year. If you can overlook the flaws, you'll be hooked. It's too mid for me to entertain with zero design elements. I've played too many great farming games to play this at this stage. Still enjoying helping my GF out with it. To have no dungeons, little storage, limited fields and no farm design is too many things missing.
Absolutely boring. It has no charm at all. OST sounds a bit amateur. Moving around feels like something from 30 years ago. I didn't enjoy playing, nothing made me want to play more. For the record, I love puzzle games and there are way better puzzle games out there for pennies on eshops and steam. It's like games just get sparkling reviews these days for being a bit different. Different doesn't equal fun.
Dialogue a bit cheesy. Ugly as hell, it looks pretty terrible. I love action RPG's, so not that it's not my type of thing mashing up baddies. I just didn't find it much fun. Tbh with this type of game where you die, level up and try again, I think the Skyforce games are way more fun. Hades is obviously very popular, I just don't get the attraction personally. I enjoyed Ball x Pit, and a few others that play in a similar way too and found them more entertaining. Glad I got this on game pass cos it would have been money p1ssed up the wall.
I'm dropping it. It's a good game but a bit of a slow plod. Just personal taste but the very well written and executed dialogue is a bit boring and there's a bit too much just running about and yapping. I think this game would be great for people in to open world games cos it looks like there's plenty to explore. Probably a great game for someone else but after a great first impression, it just isn't holding my interest. Character building is quite a heavy focus and I just don't find the characters very interesting. I'm not a Potter fan though. Gave it a try and whilst I don't find it entertaining enough to justify my time, this could easy be a 10/10 game for some people. I'm not throwing shade with the 3 score, that's just my personal enjoyment and I think the price this game goes on sale for now, it is worth taking a chance on. Looks nice and the voice acting is actually pretty good for the most part. OST does the job, nothing special but fitting. Absolutely give it a try though.
I didn't buy the full game because I wasn't keen on the demo. It seemed pretty great but after a few laps I just felt that the physics were a bit off. It was all a bit weightless, the drifting and steering just felt like I was driving a plastic car. It looks great and a lot of choice, courses that I played were good, just didn't like that the driving felt so light. I'll try it again at some point but that light feel stripped the fun out of it for me. Other than that it was good but that is really the key component to a race game and it missed the mark for me. Obviously I was playing a pre release version and if it has been improved, then so will my review when I buy it. I didn't like MK World but after I demo'd X Worlds, I went and reinstalled MKW and appreciated the feel of the racing more. I can take or leave kart racers. Always loved them but they're wearing a bit thin now after 30 years. These modern kart racers are doing nothing to improve on what Mario Kart was doing on Wii, or MK8 on WiiU and it doesn't feel like anything significant is being brought to the table to be like wow, this is the new benchmark for kart racers. I think a Star Fox Arwing Air Racer would have made a nice new take on the racing and have a fast air racer. Like a linear flying kart dog fighter. I don't know but something more is needed to add life back in to the genre now that neither Sonic, or Mario seem to be doing. Just feels like same old with a new coat of paint.
The years 1-2 isn't included with the game, it's a download that once used, can't be retrieved again, so game has low resale value because you can only trade the base game, years 1+2 applies to the box art only when it comes to resale. The world game is damn boring. Restricts your moves and even restricts your buttons for a while. The dialogue is like the sort of filler junk you'd complain about in an RPG. The game has a sluggish feel. Music is pretty rubbish. 18 character base roster is a joke when they had 90 characters they could choose from. Ken looks homeless, Blanka looks like some goofy toy. Changing animations on the character game start screen is pretty cool but that's about the only nice thing I have to say about the game. The menu's are a bit dark and messy. The DLC is abysmally priced. Making that already poor trade in value even worse. I'm a big fighting game fan. I own over 50 fighters but SF6 just bores me. I find everytime I put it on, I end up switching it off and playing 3rd Strike, or Garou Mark of the Wolves, or even leaving the Switch altogether to play some Tekken on Steam. One good thing I can say for SF6 is I've never liked Tekken but SF6 was so rubbish I took a chance on Tekken 8, which turned out to be absolute fire and I enjoyed it so much I bought Tekken 7 too. My disappointment in SF6 led to me getting two amazing games. You can keep your BS Capcom with your 18 character base roster and £80 DLC. Tekken 8 has a 32 character base game thanks and is more fun to play. I'm not supporting any company anymore that withholds massive portions of the game and tries to call it DLC. That's not DLC. DLC is to give extra content, not to withhold half of the game you already paid for. And get Yoko Shimamura back in your music department. 3 decades of crap music is long enough.
This game was really fun. Great little rails target shooter. I wish there was stuff like this in Switch 2 with a gun type device. All these old Wii titles that made use of motion controls were great fun. Sin and Punishment, Mario Galaxy, loads of them utilised motion control and it made things more fun. I owned Sin and Punishment on Wii twice and playing on emulator now for old times sake and it just isn't as much fun. Crossbow would be completely pointless on controller. I wish there was a fun collection on Switch/2 like we had on Wii. Sadly Nintendo seems to be going away from fun and heading towards the same old games you can play on any other platform. We need more fun like this on Switch 2. That was the whole point in Nintendo, non serious fun and Link's Crossbow is a prime example. I miss the Wii.
Incredibly boring. Honestly I feel a 2/10 is generous. I feel like I just wasted hours having no fun. With games like this I feel that 3D came too soon. The hardware just can't deliver a good experience. It's showing age pretty terribly. Very clumsy controls, endless invisible bump battles, horrible camera. Whenever it is invoking a dark atmosphere it uses some image bending effect that is pretty nauseating. The story seems like it will get interesting but it's just a frustrating play. Animations in and out of rooms, areas and battles, although short, they just add that extra time that makes everything drag a bit. Visuals have that unpleasant murky look that was often seen in that era. OST is pretty good as are animated scenes but again really aged with instruments sounding like a toddlers first instruments collection. Dialogue is very mid. It is a game that is crying out for a remake but in its original form, it's not a nice play, even then, why bother? Just make a new game. It's a pass for me. I started gaming in the 80's and the 2D games were great through the early consoles but the 3D in this era was just messy and it felt like a chore to play pretty quickly. Potential there is great but potential is all it is. If you haven't played the Xenoblade Chronicles games, then straight bypass this and head on over to those on the Switch. The enjoyment level is immensely higher. I can't do a direct comparison because I have better things to do than finish Xenogears to compare. What I can take away is the difference is like night and day. There are just far too many great games out there now to be wasting time playing this. Maybe it was great when there was nothing better about but todays games destroy Xenogears. The last game I got stuck in to rather than casual short sessions was Clair Obscur, no one in their right mind would choose to play Xenogears over Clair Obscur. Pretty much every game I have sunk hours in to in 2025 have been significantly better. If you don't have nostalgia for it, then give it a miss. In short it's ugly, boring and dated.
Good hack and slash. Not amazing but I found it more enjoyable than Musou games. Everything is pretty good but nothing was great. I'd recommend it as a budget title but it often has a hefty price tag.
Quite simply not playing this. I'm fighting people with swords and then step off a shallow riverbank and die. What through? Death by twisted ankle? It sent me back a right hike by dying. I'm not playing something where the slightest bit of exploration inexplicably kills me and makes me walk all the way back through the bit I literally just finished walking through. Nice looking, nice sound, dumb gameplay. Combat is clunky too. How long to swing a sword? It's like everything has a delay on it. Maybe it's supposed to impose the feeling of swinging a heavy sword. It just imposes the feeling that maybe the Chinese supermodel holding the sword is already carrying too much weight in her **** and doesn't have enough strength for the sword too. I got some unheard of Chinese ARPG on Steam recently for about £2.50 and it was way more fun than this and the girl had bigger **** but could still manage to swing her sword with good speed and strength.
It's probably great for some people but it feels dated to me. Music is weird. There are a lot of load screens. Characters not particularly interesting. Battles are OK. The world and moving around it feels dated and lacking. A bit like a less smooth version of one of the better SAO games. I like anime and the styling is nice here but none of it matters if it just feels old and not much fun. It's just not worth my time hence the 0 score. Of recent I've played a variety of games, Xenoblade X, Clair Obscur, Tales of Graces F, Ace Combat 7, Zelda Echoes, Tekken 8. They were all fun and with Tekken, I'll only visit it occasionally, it was still exciting though. There is something that makes me leave it installed and makes me want to go back and play again. Metaphor Refantazio just makes me want to free up the drive space it's using. There is just nothing in me wanting to fire that game up again. After playing Clair Obscur, the dialogue and VA in Metaphor is noticeably mid. I did play a turn based game this year I didn't like much at all. The Romancing Saga 3D remake thing and I had pretty harsh words about that but looking back, I found it way more fun than Metaphor.
I started with a 7 score but came back to lower. It just lacks vibe. Doesn't have that charm of other farming games. The music especially is low standard and the game just doesn't look that great. Even after the ability to move fast is unlocked, I still can't be that bothered moving between areas. It's just pretty uninteresting. Dialogue is a bit poor. Some is OK but it has that cheesy undertone, American cheese, like Hollywood, WWE etc. A few characters are likeable but many aren't. I don't know, it's hard to pin point the problem but I'm just not finding it fun. I've played Guardians of Azuma recently and that was so much better. Yes pricier but at a cost to return ratio GoA was better by a long, long way and as it's available physical it is resellable and actually ended up costing me less than it was to buy Wylde Flowers digitally. Another (not a farming game so can't compare within the genre like I did with GoA) I just finished was Expedition 33 and going from that to Wylde Flowers just feels like a leap back 20 years and not in a good way. Lacking is the only word I can think best describes it. There is just better stuff out there to play. Coral Island and **** Valley are easy recommendations over this. I would even say Rune Factory 5 and Pioneers of Olive Town too. It's not a high grade farming game. I wish I'd gone for Hello Kitty, or Fantasy Life instead.
I've not got a lot to say about this game. Honestly I just found it boring. It's ot the genre because I do like this style of game but it didn't click with me at all. Nothing stands out as being bad, just nothing good either.
Unbearable. I cannot tolerate the utter BS dialogue like it was written by a 12 year old. Just outright Z grade Hollywood style crap fronting as an action game. Imagine the most dire cheesy teenage action film possible, then digitise the characters and add some rubbish button layouts and you have DMC 5. Wasted money even at sale price. If someone spoke like that in life it would be all of 2 minutes before they were sparked out on the floor for being the most irritating little peasant in existence. Why the hell would I pay money to listen to a complete tool? With all the good reviews I went in blind expecting a banger. What I got was a pointless dint in my wallet.
Lovely music and that's about it. I just can't take to the characters. I'm not talking woke stuff cos I haven't come across any of that yet. They're just not likeable. It's not an enjoyable play and I'm not giving points for OST. It's a game and I'm not giving points for music when I don't enjoy the gameplay. Shame because I feel a potentially good game was possible here but it feels like it was written by obnoxious 12 year olds. It's not just this game, I had the same issue with FF10 and that is I don't have any interest in saving people I want to kick in the face. Glad it was on game pass because I'd have been pretty pee'd off if I spent money on this. Far too many good games released in the last 12 months to bother with this.
It's beautiful and for the first time in as long as I can remember the voice acting is actually good and the characters don't make me want to kick them in the face. Story is engaging. The sound is almost like an RPG style spin on the Amelie soundtrack and effects are great too. Now I am not huge on menu turn based combat (I do like strategy turn based though) and when I play turn based games there is always a high risk that I won't enjoy it but this is nice. It includes real time dodge, or parry for defence but menu attacks with real time inputs to increase power. Honestly it just works. It's keeps you engaged instead of waiting through animations and makes turn based fun. It's a bit like the Xenoblade games in that aspect with the timed button press. The world is linear with forking paths where paths lead to an enemy and a treasure, or the story destination. The game has invisible walls, so you don't explore the surrounding scenery much but there are still lots of things to be found. Tutorials are fed at a good pace and don't make you feel like you're sitting a memory test. It's hard to comment on graphics because nothing plays well with my PC due to using a HDD but the world is stunning and even using a slow drive, there were minimal issues. The whole game just sets an atmosphere where everything gels. The characters, graphics, world, music, story, battles. All departments are singing from the same hymn sheet. It's very cohesive and complete. RPG systems in place for upgrades and swapping bits in and out are fleshed enough to do their job but not stupid amounts of time sat in menus. Get to your save spot, manage the party and move on. It would be unfair to call this anything short of a masterpiece. It excels at everything. It's near perfection. What it gets wrong does not justify any point reduction. Simply outstanding and will go down in gaming history. The story, yeah, you really won't guess where it's going and it has a fantastic ending that you play through. So basically not just sitting through a cut scene, it's gameplay right through. Due to it not being my preferred type of game, it's not my fav game ever but it's still top 5 for me, regardless, I would say it's probably the best game ever made if I ignore personal views.
First impressions review, cos not had it long. Banging OST. Graphics a bit ropey at times, not sure if this is the game, or my setup though but sometimes the characters look like paper cutouts. Gameplay, it's a very fun fighter. I have always found this style of input boring in a fighting game preferring the fast play style of old arcade fighters and motion inputs but as the years have gone on a lot of those have lost their speed and fun. SF6, KoF 15 and City of the Wolves are just not on a par for fun with the old fighters, so I'm more open to this style now. I don't know why but DoA just clicks with me better than Tekken but on Tekken 8 something just felt really nice about it. It's smooth, stylish and something just feels nice. It just has a flow that feels good. I own easily 50+ fighters and I'm generally pretty good and having played them for over 3 decades I can generally pick up and play any fighter to an extent and tend to just do that as I like to play casual on many games and don't strive for high level competitive play, I'm actually considering investing a bit of time in to this one though. I think it could be rewarding. I always score based on enjoyment and negatives don't affect my score if enjoyment isn't impacted. For me this was a 10. I don't usually like OTT games and this is definitely a bit OTT but with the banging soundtrack it all merges well in to a very complete package that is very cohesive and nothing feels out of place. I will come back and change this to a proper review after I've sunk some hours in but for first impressions, I really like it. I'm tempted to knock the dust off the arcade stick for a proper session with this one.
Due to my PS4 missing parts and I'd nearly finished this, I bought it again on Steam a few years on. It's obviously not quite the same excitement 2nd time round. I get a bit of screen tear but that's quite possibly something in settings I've not sussed out. Overall though a very similar experience to PS4. I absolutely love this game and I'm going to be real here, it had a whopping head start having Motoi Sakuraba on the OST and a few by Go Shiina too. OST is important to me. The systems are not as complicated as I remember them being and tbh as long as you keep your equipment as best available and basic things like that, you don't really need to worry about the systems too much. The characters are really nerdy and I prefer this to the obnoxious little **** you usually get in Tales games. I love the game world, the music, the story. Everything just works. Whilst those things are pretty great, none of them are outstanding on their own but as a whole it just works. Gripes I have are that sometimes it can be a tad tricky to figure out what to do next, sometimes just speaking to the person in your party will give you a rough idea. This not knowing is usually because I didn't pay attention to some of the dialogue, or the place hasn't yet been discovered and labelled on the map. Also the warping around the map is bad. Not quite sure what they were thinking with that system. It often isn't available and not well implemented. If this game had just had a few tweaks with destination markers, quick travel and simplified systems, it could be a masterpiece but none the less, even the best of the best games have several flaws and the flaws in Zestiria don't stop my 10 score. I thoroughly enjoy it. Still remains my favourite Tales of. I almost saw it to the end last time and will this time. The only other Tales I played right through was Graces F. All the others had flaws that were bad enough to put me off playing. Abyss for terrible character, Vesperia got a bit boring, Arise felt generic and Berseria the pacing fell flat for me. I do love animated Adventure/Action RPG's, so my score is likely biased by that. I love Ys, Zelda, Xenoblade etc, so this is really right up my street. It feels a bit like a mixture of those. 10/10.
Well I thought I'd wasted my money here. No sooner had I seen Motoi Sakuraba did the music and bought it, to see immediately after that the lead character is an A-hole. I drop every game where a character boils my piss, FF10, Tales of Abyss, Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Xenoblade 3 being sone big ones that I just couldn't put up with. Well was already regretting my purchase. Honestly though the guy is a complete **** but not half as annoying as those in the games mentioned. The game looks amazing, the OST is amazing, the gameplay is fun. There are QoL settings in the pause menu, so if you missed something you need, you can get back to it quickly. There's very little grind. I'm not huge on deck builders, or turn based but I'm actually really enjoying this. It's fast paced and surprisingly simple to understand. I really have not wanted to put it down and have just stopped playing to recharge my controllers. The overall feel of the game, as in character writing and game world general vibe, reminds me of Neo Dimension Fantasian. I just really don't have anything negative to say.
I just don't get it. It's an OK platformer that looks like an 80's Commodore game. I just didn't find it fun to play, so I stopped. I'm not a huge fan of platformers but I really like a few, Tiny Kin, Mario Galaxy to name a couple but they were a fun play. I just didn't find Celeste very likeable at all. Tbh I had way more fun playing the Alex Kid Master System remake and that game is a bit clunky. Absolutely baffled by the glowing reviews for this. It should be a £1.30 eshop game.
One of the most overrated games ever. Graphics look like they are pieces of paper. When I saw trailers it looked nice but when I played, I thought it looked awful. Characters just walk straight through objects too, to the point it hust looked like lazy development. Very very clunky and not fun.
I don't care about graphics but these graphics really hamper gameplay, so it's a different story. Trying to figure out who is where. One of my lead characters had blonde hair in the portrait, then black hair on the map. It's just confusing to look at. I'm sure this game could have been a belter but the lack of controls and info within the maps makes it an absolute chore and just had me wanting to turn off and put fire emblem on. It's just a very messy way of seeing who your characters are and what their ranges are. I remember having a go on a game, might have been called Shining Force on the Mega Drive on NSO and it was way better than this. Quite frankly this looks like a good game that has been left an absolute mess and is stress, rather than fun. The whole visual aspect makes it an infuriatingly slow slog. You're just constantly trying to get the picture of layout, rather than strategising.
Wow, I want some of whatever people are smoking to rate this above RF5. RF5 might have major optimisation issues but it destroys this. Had more fun in one day of playing RF5 than I've had in a week of this. So it looks great. The actual farm looks awful but the rest has plenty of charm. The sound is a mixed bag. The music is kind of good but also a bit annoying. Definitely OK overall though, nothing making me want to turn the sound off. Gameplay. This is where it falls short. It's just boring. The controls aren't clunky at all but they're also not very tight. Days are just far too short. Obviously cozy games like this are repetitive by nature but this really feels like groundhog day. By the time you've done a tiny bit of farming, the day is gone and so is your stamina and you're off to bed. Again on the topic of stamina, the moment you go over, your health just gets wied out. A couple of accidental extra swings of the axe then you wake up with a fee. There's just nothing much to do, not a lot of fun to be had. Nothing special about the characters. Outside of lovely character art and a rather cheerful vibe, there's just no substance to this. I'm an old school gamer. I can make allowance for older games but people most have some seriously strong nostalgia glasses on to play this. It is the only farming game I have disliked and I've played quite a few and played thousands of hours. To name some of the better ones - **** Valley, Coral Island, Story of Seasons, RF Azuma, literally any other farming game I've played, including cheapo eshop £2 jobbies have been better. Very little to like sith RF3. So bored with it.
I'm not far in and wasn't sure if I'd like it after not liking Link's Awakening. I am playing on Switch 2 so don't know of it has terrible performance on Switch 1 like LA does but what a great game so far. It's like classic Zelda with a new twist. Really fun so far. It's not as good as Skyward Sword but in 2.5 hours with this I had way more fun than the 10 hours I spent with both LA and BotW. It feels like real Zelda again. I hope there are more proper Zelda's like this to come on Switch 2.
Well, I like Weeby stuff. I guess I am moderately Weeby but this game is so far past my threshold for cringe that it is completely ruined by it. Even when I knew noone could see what was on screen, I still felt embarrassed even though I was alone. The character writing in some cases is absolutely awful. After a while some new characters got introduced and not only did the level of cringe continue, it got worse. Graphically it's nice. It's a bit paper cut out like 13 Sentinels but without the horrible clunkiness of that game. OST is alright. I remember thinking a few tracks sounded nice but none stuck in my head, or had me looking for them on youtube. Gameplay is great. Grid based battles that are simple to get to grips with and fun. The outdoors sections of the game that look like a cheap board game aren't much fun. It's like Danganronpa vs Fire Emblem but without the charm of either. It was a really dumb move from the devs to ruin this with such ridiculous characters. They even manage to make the guy from Final Fantasy 10 seem palatable, they're literally that bad. Two in particular a little round kid and a brother, if you've played, then you'll know. I'm gonna keep this spoiler free though. If you haven't played Fire Emblem Three Houses and Danganronpa, then there is absolutely zero point in getting this inferior mixture of the two. Just play those instead. Anyone with a Switch should play Three Houses anyway, it's the best Switch game. 100 Line was a potentially top grade game, ruined by idiotic writing.
This would be a good game but ruined by rubbish controls. When I press jump, I expect sonic to jump, not 2 seconds later. You can't have a fast paced game with very slow controller response. Double jump is also dumb because if you jump against a wall, it clings on and jumps back the other way. The game can't tell if you want to double jump, or wall jump. It merges the two as it pleases which quite often ends with a double jump ending up jumping off a wall backwards in to an enemy behind you. It's a shame because it seems like a good game but ruined by poor controls. Not jumping when you press the jump button, in a game that revolves around jumping, is a pretty terrible oversight from the devs.
Wow, these reviews are wild. Very, very boring game. The styling is quite nice and the music ranges from OK to really good. It pretty much ends there though. Dungeons are super boring. If any other game had done pathetic dungeon's like those, it would have been ripped to pieces. Voice acting is incredibly annoying for most characters. Dialogue is passable. It feels really dated overall and like it would have provided just as little fun even in its era. This game actually made me feel guilty for the low scores I've given some other games recently. It just feels like going through the motions. There is nothing exciting. Nothing making me want to carry on playing. I don't care for most of the characters and if they suddenly got wiped out, I wouldn't be remotely bothered. I can't think of a turn based Switch 1 game I enjoyed less than this. Even from Kemco. The brave and default system doesn't particularly add much. I don't play an awful lot of turn based games but in recent years I can think of off the top of my head Romancing Saga 2 remake, Neo Dimension, Refantazio, Arafell, Digimon Cybersleuth, Rise of the 3rd Power, Octopath, Chained Echoes, Cosmic Star Heroine. Literally every game I can think of off the top of my head was more fun. I thought I was getting a bargain at £31. It was actually a rip off, it has not given me any value for that £31 at all. Just cost me money to drive an hour round trip to trade it in and lose £11 on the game cost plus fuel money. Pure ****. Might as well have just flushed cash down the ****.
OK, well lets get the elephant in the room out of the way. We all know these guys fail over and over to optimise games from 1 frame in 5 seconds on Pioneers of Olive Town and complete lag and stutter on Rune Factory 5 upon leaving any building and many times in between. Well true to form, there's plenty of lag here too in Guardians of Azuma. It's not a Switch 2 thing. This company just don't seem to have a grip on making software run smoothly, it is however far less annoying than those I mentioned and certainly not like that motion sickness inducing mess that Nintendo put out for Link's Awakening. It isn't there from the start and it showed for me around in game day 7. You might think Christ, that early but I do have most of farm 1 and a bit of farm 2 in that area already filled and lots of people in the town working and constantly active. I'm not excusing any of it because it shouldn't be happening, merely explaining that my area is pretty damn busy at a very early stage of the game. Why a 10 score then with these performance issues arising already after just a few evenings playing? It really isn't that immersion breaking and the game is really one of the best in its genre for what I've played of it so far. I don't score off an acumination of parts, I score based on my overall enjoyment. At first I wasn't sure I thought all a bit meh, average RF, SoS game. Then suddenly it all just opened up. It's a very tame introduction to give you a feel for the game and I thought that was it but then suddenly every aspect of the game just came to life. New characters, new stories, new travel, new exploration, new items, new quests, cooking, battles, bonding. Everything just suddenly turned up to 11. I'm finding it really exciting to play. I just had to come off because everyone was going to bed and I could have happily sat playing all night til the sun rises again. I think if you know about this game, then chance is you'll like it. It's not the sort of thing you just stumble on if you have not interest. It's an action JRPG, with farming, crafting, building and relationship sim where you get to romance someone with boobs 5 times the size they should be. It's super Weeby. If you haven't got a bit of Weeb in you, then stay clear, it will be a 0/10 for you. In Rune Factory style, there is just crazy amounts of stuff going on from battling giant monsters, to farming, to dating. What I like is that something just takes my interest but I don't feel like I'm stuck in that time constraint that many farming games frustrate you with. There's no stamina dieing with half of your tasks not done, you can just wander off from the story quest for a bit and do some side quests, or a bit of redesigning the farm. I never feel like the game has me pinned in a corner to do what it wants me to do, it has a decent sense of freedom. Not gonna lie, the control scheme on the farm is taking me a little bit of time to get used to. The mouse function though, OMG, so fast. You don't even have to tell it what to do sometimes. You can literally click hold and drag and it will harvest, you don't even have to release the button and it switches to water, then you do need to manually select seeds but again, just click and drag. No fertiliser in this game. You use magic to boost crops. There are some little quirks here and there such as trees obscuring the view of crops and a few other minor annoyances but overall the farming works really well. If you prefer to grind, you can. Just don't switch to mouse control. I'm finding I just pop one joycon out of the grip for sorting the farm woth the mouse, then back in to the grip for everything else. I would usually play with loose joycons but with this having action elements, I play with the grip. So then the action. Time stops for you to eat things for recovery, it freezes whilst you access items and items take effect before leaving the menu, meaning you don't get smashed because you're trying to find items whilst fighting. There is a good choice of weapons and upgrades. You will make use of a crossbow as a secondary weapon and it's all very customisable with 2 weapon slots and 3 defence clothing slots (all upgradable). You get to take a party to assist you. It has unlockable specials and magic, perfect dodge allows a slow mo attack, it's all really quite fun. There are all sorts to find, unlock and collect across the maps. Battles are a bit like modern Ys (8-10) controls. I feel like I can see all sorts of bits from other games in it but never thinking oh they've copied that. Like certain elements remind me of Zelda, some elements reminded me of Tales of games, some bits remind me of Xenoblade games. For me, as long as it carries on like it has been so far, then it's a masterpiece within its genre. I love it. If you aren't sure if this game is for you, it probably isn't. Save yourself 56 quid.
I will start by saying I score based on cost to fun ratio. If you want to score based on individual aspects then the score would be higher but looking pretty and controlling reasonably well etc does not make the game any more fun to me. It's a good game but that's all. It's far from great. It's just a boring play. I do prefer it to SonicXW cos Sonic felt really light. The cornering and drifting etc just feels powerless in Sonic XW and Mario Kart does have that illusion of weight, I'll give it that. However, it has uninspiring tracks and feels gimmicky. It's a step down from MK8 and MKWii. I find I play one cup and turn off, two at most, then don't play again for a long time. Nothing pulls me back in to play. If anything it just wastes disk space and I regularly delete it to use the space for other games. I tried the online but I'm a definitely more of a local player, not an online gamer. The online felt chaotic and I soon went off it after a day, or two. I don't like open world games anyway but the open world bit did have bits of fun to be had again though, got boring fast. I know some shops still sell at £75 but you can pick it up for £60 from reliable games companies online and I think that's in the right ball park for a first party game. I think you have to be really big on kart racers and delve deep in to this to really enjoy it and get your money's worth. If you're a casual kart gamer then Mario Kart 8 is way more fun for a quick pick up and play. Way more fun all round really. I think the issue lies in that Mario Kart isn't a game you buy, play and trade. Whereas usually a £60 game I would trade back in for £40 and I'm only out of pocket by £20. By nature MKW is one you keep and play again down the line and at £60 it really needs to be more fun than this for something that's not going to get traded. If I'm parting with a full £60, it needs to give me more for my money. I got this game day one as well as RF Guardians of Azuma. Azuma was worth every penny of the £65 but in the end cost me £23 after trade in. MK World cost me £35 digital and if I had to put a price on it's value to me, I'd say £8. Gameplay 5/10, value 2/10. I give an overall 3/10.
It jist isn't great. The art work is good but shows its age on modern TV's. Controls are clunky, brush is even worse. I spent ages trying to figure out a puzzle just to realise it wasn't a puzzle and I just needed to read a sign for the game to progress. Combat is pretty lame as are camera angles. It's a massively overrated game. It could have been amazing but poor execution of gameplay holds it back in so many ways. There is no reason to play a game like this unless you have exhausted all Zelda'sand Zelda likes and still want more. Fairune was way better than this. It looks **** but the gameplay is great. Okami is the other way round, looks nice but no fun.
This would be such a good game but it's so clunky. They really need a remake rather than HD remaster. I'm so sick of drawings not working right that it just becomes frustrating.
I don't play many visual novels but practically everyone I have has been better than this. At least where the story has been bad, the characters have been likeable. Not all but a lot of the voice acting is bad. The graphics just look like paper cut outs and they kind of just walk straight through objects. The colour scheme grows old really quickly. The damn buttons though. I'm forced to push a button to read things in order to continue the story and that button isn't always obvious. Sometimes it's a combination of X, or A and other times you need to go and speak to someone different. It's very easy to keep repeating dialogue trying to find the right button and for a game that already lacks immersion, it just makes it even less immersive. One of the most over hyped games I've played. The combat is alright but nothing special but it's mostly just a very boring visual novel. Can't actually believe I paid £28 for this when I've still got visual novels on my console that I haven't played. I just jumped on the hype train and wanted to see what all the fuss was about and that soon turned in to a train wreck that once I've traded it in will leave me £14 and an hour round trip down. Ugly, boring ****.
I'm just going to start with saying I prefer the WiiU version. I prefer the map on the second screen and I found the camera movement smoother. Looks wise it's pretty much the same. The big difference is the Switch version has a much more readable font size. It's swings and round abouts really because that font size was a big issue but the WiiU felt better to play. As for the game, I don't like big open world exploration games but I have always loved XC X. You get round the world so fast. Fast run, big jumps and the camera really lets you take in those surroundings. I find in other games I feel like I didn't really see everything when running and have to constantly stop to double check if I ran past loot, or passages. In XC X it just works, it's fast, you take it in, the world looks amazing, the world is full of life. It's just so smooth to explore. It's still a Xenoblade and that combat isn't for everyone. If you haven't played a Xenoblade before, it's very much like the Final Fantasy 14 MMO style. You auto attack and choose your specials at the most relevant time to get the most out of them. It's neither turn based, nor action. This isn't a story heavy game like XCDE and is more about running round, quests, discovery, battles and enjoying the scenery. Some of the music is really good too. It's not always amazing music but where it's not that great, it is quite memorable and fitting for the game still. I don't really sit and play this day after day (probably due to the lack of story), I put it on every now and then and blast out a few hours, then come back to it later. I think it really suits doing that, mash up a few baddies, explore a new area and then go back to it later. It's a great port of the game. Is it the definitive way to play? No. For me it probably is because my eye sight is crap and I struggled with the WiiU version a bit in that sense but I feel the WiiU version just feels a bit smoother and is the better of the 2. Doesn't change the fact that this game scratches an itch and I love having a game that I can leave for months and return to and just pick up where I left off with minimum effort to get back in to it. It's a stunning game world that I never tire of. There is no other game quite like it for me. I can play another Xenoblade, or FF14 as I mentioned earlier but Xenoblade X just has its own vibe I don't get from anything else and as someone who doesn't hoard games and usually get rid the moment I'm done, it is one of very few games that I don't trade in. In short, great game, great port, better on WiiU. Cant go wrong with either version though as long as you're OK with that type of combat. Just as an extra, for those of you who love playing in menu's and swapping things out, there is loads of that to be had if you choose to.
I give it 7 and I'm a Tales fan. I had scored this 10 originally but then the game started to drag a bit. It's OK. Too long, too much filler. At 48hrs with DLC, it could have easy been 35hrs. OST was not Sakuraba's best and the dungeons are really a bit crap. It was pretty good but I prefer Zestiria in nearly every way. Battles, game world, OST, general vibe. The story in Graces F does a lot more than Zestiria but it I didn't find it very likeable. It goes a bit wild like in Xenoblade 1 but it isn't as captivating. It's one for the Tales of fans but I would be hard pushed to recommend this to your average gamer.
I could barely make it through any of the demo. My head was truly done in with the music after 1 minute, after 10 minutes my brain was fried. The game was pretty good but really not in to the excessive use of shoulder buttons for a platformer. That music makes it unplayable though.
I've only played demo, so will update later when I've played the full game. The OST is pretty cool. Whilst not particularly memorable, it is very noticeable. I thought the music was great for the scenes but without playing it too safe. I quite like the graphical look. Not sure why. It's a bit **** but something just likeable there. I'm not typically a turn based combat player, so my opinion on that is probs not worth much but I have enjoyed it. This is now an edit and an upped score cos the invisible bump battles were doing my nut in but a mechanic has been introduced to collect up to 30 enemies, then fight them all at once. What a God send. It literally just introduced it at the point I was getting sick of spamming on 3 weak enemies. Really loving the game now. I'm actually a bit gutted cos not going to have free cash to buy it for a few weeks and now the demo is done, I want to carry on playing. The game has just clicked with me. I have actually bought Romancing Saga 2 which is arriving tomorrow and having completed both demos now, I wish I'd opted for Neo over Saga. Considering Saga looks way more like my type of game, I defo enjoyed Neo more and will be getting the full game asap.
Haven't got round to buying this yet but loved the demo. The music, the styling, bit of farming, bit of action. Sakuna of Rice and Ruin got really good scores and works in a similar way, farm sim and action RPG. Both genres I like but Harvestella is way more enjoyable than Sakuna. It's one of those where I can't pin point why it's good but it just is, it all works really nicely together. It's very Japanese in the way it plays and feels. If you typically don't like Japanese game styles then don't bother with this, it won't be for you. This is action like an Ys, Tales of, or SAO. Not action like AC, or DMC. It has a very Japanese feel to combat.
Wow, the user score is unreal. It's a pretty good cheap game but that's about it. It's worth your time and money and that's it. Nothing spectacular. It looks pretty terrible but is a good play. Even in this budget bracket, there are a lot better games.
I'm quite simply not playing it. It clearly requires a lot of tutorial and there is no way I'm listening to that dumb voice that's absolutely drowned in phase, or flange. Two sentences and it was starting to grind, I can't listen to that. I'm not bothered if the voice has been altered but that is pretty **** sound design and way too irritating to listen to.
I couldn't play this game long enough to even get to the political nonsense I was hearing about. It was just OTT annoying characters from the get go. I can't tolerate Hollywood acting at the best of times. I certainly can't tolerate it done worse and with PS2 graphics. It looked bad and the characters got on my nerves. I even felt ripped off getting it free, as it wasted my time and I had to delete something to free up space for it.
I only played a little bit of the demo. It looks alright, controls pretty tight plenty of effort gone in but the humour is dire. It just isn't funny. I think you'd have to be really young to enjoy the humour. It basically feels like playing Tony Hawk as a sweary cat that kills zombie unicorns. It's a shame because there is a great game underneath all the **** they stacked on it. The whole game theme is just a poor choice. It felt like a good game drowned in annoying noise and neon.
It's OK. Difficulty on normal is just fine, so I don't get why people are moaning at it. The thing for me is the camera is pretty bad and it is hard to distinguish between yourself and the enemy sometimes. I often find myself thinking I am a different person on the screen. The enemies look too similar to you. There is some stutter, not lots but can't say that bothers me, for those of you who are a bit more anal about graphics, it might be an issue. The colour scheme all feels a bit dark and a bit neon. A bit Hollywood OTT looking. The combat is fun to an extent but so far I'm an hour in and I'm getting a bit bored already. It feels a bit like a linear Warriors game to me as in it looks nice, combat is nice, very hack and slash mash up some baddies but lacks a bit in that over all feel. It's one of those where on paper it is great and there isn't an awful lot to fault but at the same time it just isn't fun enough overall. It's like the parts are great on their own but the sum of those parts aren't exciting enough to make me want to keep playing. It doesn't really do it for me in the way some action JRPG's do. Ys Felghana is out this month, as usual on everything bar Xbox and it's a lot more fun hack and slash than what NG 2 Black is. I'm starting to feel like everything that releases on Xbox has a better alternative on PS, Switch, or Steam and that any releases I'm excited about don't come to Xbox. I'm starting to feel like I made a bad console choice. I've had it a long time now and nothing has blown me away on it.
It's kind of hard to review because there is nothing wrong with it but it's also not a 10. It's a 2D side scrolling puzzle platformer. Not so much mario like, more like if you slowed down Rayman a bit to throw in a few puzzles. It really is all good. Graphics, sound, puzzles gameplay are all great but the game just lacks that something special to make all of those parts come together as a 10/10. I know it is a completely different style of platformer but Tinykin got me pretty excited to keep playing whereas Max doesn't. I think if you are going for a side scroller like this then Gianna Sisters I also found more enjoyable but for free on game pass, it's well worth checking out. I'm not a huge fan of platformers, so a 7 from me could easy go up a point, or 2 for someone who likes the genre. A solid game and if it wasn't on game pass, I think £6-8 would be a fair price. It's a pretty nicely polished game. Credit where it is due, you can do a lot worse than Max Brotherhood.
There is a good game hidden here somewhere but it just feels so clunky that I don't want to find it. The narrative is actually great and that is something I rarely say. I did enjoy the short time I spent with it but the gameplay soon had me bored. I know this is a game from 85 originally but this game isn't anything like the 85 version, it's a modern adaption, except they missed out the modern bit. For a game to be made like this in this day in age is absolutely piss poor. There are 1000's of indie devs that could have done this better. Why is it such a horrible view too? It could have been done like A Link to the Past, or it could have been silky smooth movement with a good top down like Falcom games such as Ys but instead it is pure clunk. I feel like this was a totally wasted opportunity. I never played the earlier games, so I'm a newcomer but this just has given to the wrong developer written all over it. Even though it is different to what I usually go for, this game had potential to be something I'd really like. If they had bothered putting any effort in to making it look and play nicely I'm sure I would have liked it. Anyway I give it a 3 due to funny dialogue.
So in fairness I'm not far in but for once a game with actual decent voice acting and lead characters that don't make me want to kick them in the face every two minutes. The OST is fantastic. The game world looks really nice. Due to the above the whole thing feels cohesive and gives a great atmosphere. Not sure how to describe the combat. It's action but somehow manages to feel more like Xenoblade Chronicles than something like Tales of, or Ys. The story is moving fast. That's something that usually gets on my wick. People say urgh you dropped a game in 5 hours, you haven't even given it time. If you went to the cinema and sat through 5 hours of film that did nothing (sorry LotR fans) you'd be livid but in video games people seem to think it's OK. I don't have 5 hours to piss up the wall being bored, so for me it's important for the game to get its arse in gear and keep me wanting to play. It just has a feel of being very well crafted, like the teams worked as an entity, unlike some games where it feels like the writer, graphics, sound and gameplay teams never exchanged a single conversation. For me that is essential for a good game. That sum of parts. I don't care if there is a tiny bit of pop in, or the odd bad song etc but as long as the overall thing has a togetherness about it and this game nails it. So far very fun and enjoyable and left me excited to play more. Can't ask for much more than that. Played on Series X.
