[Review] Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince
Posted on 1 year ago by Elias in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: December 1, 2023
Developer: Square Enix / Tose
Publisher: Square Enix
There has been a resurgence of great turn-based RPGs over the last decade – the Switch itself becoming somewhat of a bastion for fans of long stories and level grinding, with no shortage of adventures to unwind with as the system moves ever onward in its lifespan. Monster taming games have been around for quite some time, emerging in 1987 with Megami Tensei, a mature-themed romp through a world of demons and pacts, but soon joined by more lighthearted franchises like Dragon Quest V’s monster recruiting mechanic, Pokemon’s Game Boy games launching to huge success, and the lesser known series Monster Rancher’s disc-related gimmick spurring many monster-taming fans to action placing every CD they could get their hands on into their PlayStation in order to spawn a new and potentially powerful creature. Dragon Quest Monsters’ titles play more like your classic castles and dragons adventure, just with a team you raise and strengthen a little differently than you might if you were playing something like Final Fantasy. The series now returns with Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and players will get to see another side to a mainline game’s most evil villain character while simultaneously becoming a very powerful monster wrangler.
[Review] Super Mario RPG
Posted on 1 year ago by Elias in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 17, 2023
Developer: Square Enix / ArtePiazza
Publisher: Nintendo
As a classic of the SNES era of RPGs, a remake of Super Mario RPG was a bit of a shock reveal earlier this year. Originally a collaboration between Nintendo and Square, it was a bit of a surprise back then as well. With a complete and from the ground up remake, we see new 3D graphics, crisp menus, and a bit of extra content for a game on Switch that many would say is one of the best RPGs of its time – but what about now? Let’s take a look at how Super Mario RPG fairs in today’s standards, as spoiler free as possible.
More: highlight, Square Enix, Super Mario RPG, top
[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
[Review] Virche Evermore – ErroR: Salvation
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 9, 2023
Developer: Idea Factory
Publisher: Aksys Games
Curling up with a book is one of my favourite pastimes, and I have always thought that the Switch’s handheld mode makes it the perfect fit for visual novels because of this. Fortunately Aksys Games agrees with me, and has supported the system with a plethora of otome since it first released. With Virche Evermore – ErroR: Salvation, the publisher has brought a noticeably dark story that, although it won’t appeal to everyone, stands out for its exceptional worldbuilding, engaging cast, and superb presentation.
[Review] Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 17, 2023
Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Naruto is a series that needs no introduction at this point; if you’ve ever looked into anime before (and even if you haven’t) then you’ll almost certainly have encountered the rambunctious, optimistic, orange-clad ninja-in-training with the grandiose dream of becoming the Hokage of his village. With his story concluded, his son Boruto is now currently starring in his own manga and anime series, and anyone familiar with CyberConnect’s Ultimate Ninja Storm series knew it was only a matter of time before we had a game starring the two of them, with the previous game’s expansion, Road to Boruto, offering a glimpse of that future. Naruto x Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections might not be the game that long-time fans were hoping for, and it’s definitely not the celebratory title that the franchise deserves, but it is nonetheless a solid entry in the long-running franchise and a worthwhile pickup if you’re craving some more Naruto-themed arena-fighter action, provided your expectations don’t go beyond that.
[Review] Spells & Secrets
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 9, 2023
Developer: Alchemist Interactive
Publisher: Merge Games
Roguelikes and roguelites are an interesting genre of games, being predicated as they are on doing the same content repeatedly with incremental progress, in a way that would be extremely frustrating and tedious in just about any other circumstances. It takes a special kind of game to get that balance just right, to make each death feel more like a minor setback than a crushing defeat, and inspire you to venture forth into its murky depths for “just one more run” until you finally succeed. Spells & Secrets., developed by Alchemist Interactive, has some interesting ideas to contribute to the genre, but unfortunately it fails to capture any kind of real magic.
[Review] Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue
Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 16, 2023
Developer: Inti Creates
Publisher: Inti Creates
Inti Creates has certainly earned a reputation for developing high quality 2D action titles having brought games such as Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon and its sequel as well as the Blaster Master Zero series to the Switch over the years. The studio’s latest game, Yohane the Parhelion: Blaze in the Deepblue, is based on a fantasy spinoff of Love Live! Sunshine!! The setting lends itself well to a video game and it has a solid foundation that makes it fun while it lasts, but unfortunately it doesn’t capitalize on this enough to make it any more than a middling experience at best.
[Rapid Review] WarioWare: Move It
Posted on 1 year ago by Edan in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: November 3, 2023
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
One of the most encouraging things about WarioWare as a franchise, is that it’s always just been like that. Seriously – go back and play 2003’s original entry (which you can enjoy via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass), and you’ll see every bit of the quirky and offbeat charm that the series still exudes today, fully formed at its point of origin. Multiple entries across every Nintendo platform since the GBA haven’t dulled the appeal of playing rapid-fire five-second microgames in quick succession. Now we get a traditional WarioWare outing in the form of Warioware: Move It on Switch. A direct continuation of the motion-based waggle-fest that was WarioWare: Smooth Moves on the Wii, this one sees Wario and co. whisked away to an island resort to, let’s face it, just play a bunch of minigames.
[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?
