[Review] Warriors Orochi 4
Posted on 6 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: October 16, 2018
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Koei Tecmo
The Warriors series spans decades across a multitude of eras, spinoffs, and properties, and has become a cornerstone in what it means to have feel-good hack-and-slash gameplay that’s as fun as it is memorable and unique. Warriors Orochi itself – a crossover between the Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors series – is over ten years old now, and with each new entry has come new mechanics, more playable characters, and a story that’s as wacky as it is over-the-top with its action prowess. Warriors Orochi 4 has its biggest roster yet, spanning 170 characters across both series each with their own era, specialty, class, weapon, and fighting style. The biggest difference between this and other entries, however, is the inclusion of magic, which really helps to change things up and introduce a fresh and exciting way to execute moves and combos out on the battlefield.
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[Review] Dragon Ball FighterZ
Posted on 6 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: September 28, 2018
Developer: Arc System Works
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Arc System Works has had a long history of developing and publishing refined fighters going all the way back to the late 90’s with the original Guilty Gear, so it’s undoubtedly a match made in heaven for the studio and Dragon Ball to partner up and deliver one of the best 2D fighters in quite some time, Dragon Ball FighterZ. Having initially been released in January, I’d like to think that Dragon Ball and fighting game fans alike were consumed by it completely. It was difficult to put down as it had an intriguing story, introduced new characters like Android 21, and played and performed like a dream. Fast-forward a few months later, and now Switch owners can experience the fight for themselves with a stellar port that brings with it all the beautiful animations and accessibility with little to no sacrifice other than a missing d-pad.
[Review] The Gardens Between
Posted on 6 years ago by Vincent Ward in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch (eShop)
Release date: September 20, 2018
Developer: The Voxel Agents
Publisher: The Voxel Agents
From the moment I started The Gardens Between, I was immediately and gently guided into a universe of nostalgia and serenity, and these calming yet overwhelming sensations followed me through my entire short playthrough. So effortlessly is the player breezing through the story that encompasses this world, it almost pushes them to believe they’re not controlling the world-but simply, living in it.
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[Review] Valkyria Chronicles 4
Posted on 6 years ago by Jakob Vujovic(@jakovujo) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: September 25, 2018
Developer: SEGA
Publisher: SEGA
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a the long-awaited return to the franchise’s roots. After ten years, some strange PSP sequels and odd unwanted offshoots like Valkyria Revolution, this is the first full-on watercolor outing since 2008. If you played Valkyria Chronicles, then you already have a good idea of what to expect here – and from that standpoint this is exactly what could be expected out of a (good) sequel.
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[Review] SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy
Posted on 6 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: September 7, 2018
Developer: SNK
Publisher: NIS America
SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy takes the powerful female stars of the King of Fighters franchise and gives them a game all to themselves, bringing together an illustrious cast of fan favorites while retaining smooth and flashy gameplay. Although familiar in its presentation and charismatic roster of fighters, the game is a little different from its mainline King of Fighters counterparts by making it extremely accessible to newcomers or casual players of the genre, while also being a fun pick-me-up for seasoned players. Accessibility comes with sacrifice, however, making just about every character’s move-set slim and uneventful, with most of the roster feeling similar in their fighting styles.
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[Review] Octopath Traveler
Posted on 6 years ago by Jakob Vujovic(@jakovujo) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: July 13, 2018
Developer: Square Enix / Acquire
Publisher: Nintendo
When Octopath Traveler was first pitched at Nintendo’s January 2017 Switch unveiling event, Square Enix’s brief trailer talked up a classic-style JRPG something akin to The Canterbury Tales. Its focus on the stories of eight travelers with its key art of each character exchanging tales in a pub evoked the timeless format of Chaucer’s narrative poem. For a less distant comparison to this style of fantasy RPG, Octopath Traveler pitched something closer to tabletop role playing games. *You* choose your path. In a very loose sense, this remains true. The game has an unconventional structure where you do pick the characters and the order that you want to play their stories out. Once you lock yourself into one of the game’s roughly hour-long story chapters, they play out linearly with no room for meaningful deviation and almost no regard for the unique path you’ve taken to that point. The final game, as it turns out, makes very little use of what could have been a very ambitious project of offering player-driven crossover stories. Realistically, this idea was probably always too ambitious for a game of this style. As glaring as the dissonance between story and play often is, it’s more productive to look at what Octopath Traveler gets right, rather than what it doesn’t prioritize.
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[Review] Semblance
Posted on 6 years ago by Jakob Vujovic(@jakovujo) in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch (eShop)
Release date: July 24, 2018
Developer: Nyamakop
Publisher: Gambitious
Semblance is the kind of game that gets lost on the Switch eShop amid the dozens of weekly releases. As a 2D puzzle-platformer it doesn’t do itself any favors in this regard – not in the broad sense of the genre, at least. Still, in its brief five hour runtime, Semblance does exactly what it needs to. It takes a core concept that’s fun enough to play around with on its own and builds on it in a way that’s as calculated as any competently assembled progression of puzzles does.
[Review] Pato Box
Posted on 6 years ago by Dennis Gagliardotto(@LyonHart_) in Reviews, Switch eShop | 0 comments
System: Switch (eShop)
Release date: July 9, 2018
Developer: Bromio
Publisher: Bromio
Pato Box is one of the weirdest games I’ve played in recent memory. On the surface, it almost looks like it has some sort of fusion between Punch Out!! and Sin City sprinkled with Hotline Miami, but once the game begins and gameplay actually starts, you begin to notice a shift in tone, progression, and even genre going from section to section. It’s a unique experience that may not be for everyone, but should be commended for blending tons of styles and creating something as goofy as it is intriguing.
[Review] Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Posted on 7 years ago by Jakob Vujovic(@jakovujo) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 29, 2018
Developer: MachineGames / Panic Button
Publisher: Bethesda
When MachineGames rebooted Wolfenstein with The New Order in 2014, most people didn’t expect that its story would elevate it from a mediocre shooter bogged down with odd gameplay design decisions to a minor classic. The reboot was only really Wolfenstein by name, taking place in a dieselpunk alternate history World War II where Germany developed and dropped the first atom bomb on America, leading to the surrender of the Allied forces and the Third Reich’s world domination. It really only carries on the name of its protagonist, “B.J.” (or William J. Blazkowicz), along with his propensity towards killing Nazis.
[Review] Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana
Posted on 7 years ago by Philip(@P_Trah) in Reviews, Switch | 0 comments
System: Switch
Release date: June 26, 2018
Developer: Falcom
Publisher: NIS America
Nihon Falcom, or just Falcom as they’re more commonly known today, is a Japanese video game developer known for producing some of the earliest JRPGs alongside rival companies previously known as Square and Enix. Although Falcom has a history of developing their many titles for PC, titles will often get ported onto consoles after the fact for a broader audience to experience. For a very long time, Falcom was mainly focusing on the PlayStation family of consoles, but with the incredible success of Switch, Nintendo is getting a port of Falcom’s latest entry in the Ys series – Ys VIII: The Lacrimosa of Dana. Falcom as a company has a lot of history under its belt, but how does Ys VIII live up to its hearty legacy?
