[Preview] Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch | 0 comments
It always seems to happen the same way: just when I think I’m ready to take a break from playing big, sprawling JRPGs that threatens to suck up every ounce of my free time, along comes a game like Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes that immediately makes me reconsider. After spending the past few years deep in development following an immensely successful Kickstarter campaign in 2020, the turn-based RPG will finally land on Switch next spring and will hopefully help scratch the Suikoden itch that Konami has ignored for over a decade. I was fortunate to have a chance to demo the game in Los Angeles recently, and while I only got to experience a small sliver of the opening chunk of the game, I really enjoyed what bits of the story, combat, and exploration I played.
[Review] Persona 5 Tactica
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 17, 2023
Developer: Atlus / P-Studio
Publisher: SEGA
From dancing and dungeon-crawling to road-trip adventuring, the Phantom Thieves have been awfully busy since the events of 2017’s Persona 5. Of course, with that game being one of the most acclaimed RPGs of the past decade, there’s been plenty of fan demand for spin-offs and sequels, some of which have been truly excellent. That said, even as a fan of Joker and company I was having a hard time getting excited about Persona 5 Tactica – 2021’s Persona 5 Strikers put such a nice bow on the characters’ stories that I didn’t expect a shift to grid-based strategy to shake things up enough. The good news is that it’s a solid tactics game that introduces some fun ideas to the series, even when its story beats don’t quite hit the mark.
More: Atlus, highlight, Persona 5 Tactica, top
[Rapid Review] Little Goody Two Shoes
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 31, 2023
Developer: Astral Shift
Publisher: Square Enix Collective
Little Goody Two Shoes is the first game I’ve experienced that truly feels like a fairy-tale story come to life, and I’m not talking the family-friendly Disney variety. The quaint countryside village of Kieferburg may seem like your average sing-songy folk town at the surface, but murmurs of a witch in the woods and strange happenings nearby have residents becoming paranoid. To make matters worse, protagonist Elise is getting caught up in the middle of it all, after a strange supernatural encounter promises to grant her her life’s wish if she manages to complete strange tasks before the end of the week. What follows is a tense, often funny narrative adventure that frequently had me on the edge of my seat, even when the tedium of its time-management gameplay began wearing on my patience.
[Review] Fashion Dreamer
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 3, 2023
Developer: Syn Sophia
Publisher: XSEED / Marvelous
It’s a bit of surprise that it’s taken so long for a game like Fashion Dreamer to land on Switch, especially after developer Syn Sophia’s Style Savvy series of games proved that there’s an audience craving laid-back games about designing clothes. The bulk of recent releases in the genre have been microtransaction-ridden smartphone games, so there’s been some excitement among the cozy-gaming crowd that Fashion Dreamer could be a more premium alternative. It’s also a bit of a departure from its predecessors, focusing more tangibly on the clothes themselves than the culture around them. But is that enough to make Fashion Dreamer an easy recommendation for aspiring clothes designers?
More: Fashion Dreamer, highlight, Syn Sophia, top, XSEED Games
[Review] Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 20, 2023
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
As I reflect on my time spent with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, there truly wasn’t a single moment when I wasn’t having an absolute blast. Any time it seemed impossible that there could possibly be any other surprises left in a game that already had been bombarding me with creative ideas left and right, to my delight, I was always proven wrong. At its core, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the same joyful platforming adventure that Nintendo has crafted for decades. The key difference this time is that the developers have designed a fundamental sense of novelty into every stage, every new mechanic, every visual flourish. The result is a side-scroller that always feels fresh, fun and exciting in ways that few genre peers have accomplished.
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[Review] Cocoon
Posted on 1 year ago by Nicholas Serpa in News, Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: September 8, 2023
Developer: Geometric Interactive
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Cocoon’s mechanical brilliance is the subtle kind, the kind that sneaks up on you. I knew going into my playthrough that this was the next project from Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of highly acclaimed side-scrollers Limbo and Inside; that type of pedigree sets high expectations, which for me were amplified further after a summer media demo left me with more questions than answers. The most important distinction to note with Cocoon is that it’s more outwardly a puzzle game than either of its forebears, and a very clever one; its trippy, entangled web of worlds is one big metapuzzle that’s true depth astonishes the deeper one dives into it. It’s also a game that somehow builds atmosphere masterfully, but frustratingly refuses to contextualize its world or provide any real stakes, narrative or even lore to engage with. Having rolled credits, I’m still unsure what exactly was the point of my little mechanical bug’s world-bending journey; this, combined with some technical issues on Switch, results in a game that somehow manages to both impress and disappoint at once.
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[Preview] Little Goody Two Shoes – PAX West 2023
Posted on 2 years ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
If you’ve never heard of the classic fairytale “The History of Little Goody Two Shoes,” don’t worry, you’re not alone. This over 250-year-old story may have been one of the first children’s books to reach a widespread English audience, but its tale of a poor orphan’s journey journey to a life of riches hasn’t prevailed in the cultural zeitgeist in the way other classics from that era have. That hasn’t stopped Square Enix Collective – the indie publishing division of the JRPG giant – from greenlighting an experimental new release called Little Goody Two Shoes, which they bill as a “mysterious new fairytale anime adventure with a dark twist.” I had the chance to demo this off-the-wall title at PAX West recently, and while I had no idea what to expect going in, what I played was unsettling, beautiful, and immediately absorbing.
More: AstralShift, highlight, Little Goody Two Shoes, Square Enix, top
6 narrative-rich Switch indies we played at PAX West 2023
Posted on 2 years ago by Nicholas Serpa in Features, Switch | 0 comments
We’ve already highlighted a ton of great games that we had the chance to demo at PAX West 2023, but some of the best titles at the show this year were ones that look to be experimenting with storytelling in new or compelling ways, often innovating with game mechanics too. Here are just a handful of narrative-rich games that we had the opportunity to play during Seattle’s big annual gaming expo – and if you’re a fan of particularly off-the-wall premises and presentation, you’ll have even more to look forward to.
[Preview] Rift of the Necrodancer – PAX West 2023
Posted on 2 years ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
It was all the way back at PAX Prime 2013 that Crypt of the Necrodancer – a very successful dungeon crawler rougelite with rhythm-based combat – first started getting widespread love. Upon its full release, the game became so highly acclaimed that the team behind it was eventually able to work with Nintendo on a Legend of Zelda-themed spinoff called Cadence of Hyrule. Back for another victory lap, developer Brace Yourself Games attended PAX West 2023 to show off their latest project, Rift of the Necrodancer. While it’s a much more traditional rhythm game than the developer’s previous experiments, my demo with Rift highlighted some interesting twists on the genre that I think will surprise even seasoned fans of the genre.
[Preview] Fashion Dreamer – PAX West 2023
Posted on 2 years ago by Nicholas Serpa in Previews, Switch | 0 comments
It’s a bit mind-boggling to think about, but somehow the Switch has gone its entire lifespan so far without receiving a Style Savvy game from Nintendo, despite getting three great titles in the series on the 3DS. Fortunately for fashion fans, XSEED Games and Marvelous are bringing a spiritual successor of sorts to the platform with Fashion Dreamer, a Switch exclusive that represents something of a new approach to the genre, emphasizing freeform play and social sharing in ways that just wouldn’t have been possible during the 3DS era.
