Batman: Arkham Shadow, the latest Meta Quest 3 pack-in and a follow-up to the much-respected Arkham console games, seeks to put you in the role of the caped crusader more directly than before. And though this isn’t quite the first VR Batman game, it’s certainly the first larger-scale attempt. So how is it? And is it worth buying a headset to play?

Developer Camouflaj, perhaps best known these days for its work on Iron Man VR, has been focusing its efforts on virtual reality, and it shows in Batman: Arkham Shadow through its well-considered (if conventional) setups. It’s also a bit slow to get going? Lots of early-game tutorials make sure you know what to do, as if it’s your first VR game. Which, for some, may be the case, as it becomes the Quest’s latest system seller.

Shadow follows the events of Batman: Arkham Origins and is most inspired by the confined gameplay of Arkham Asylum. There’s a ton of well-known voice talent, including a lot from the old Arkham cast! And that’s a good investment for this game, which is so much about those voices. You’re set off to take down the Rat King, a newly-created villain for the game, but along the way you see a lot of characters you might know.

Fundamentally, this game is about punching. Which, hey, VR does well! You complete a series of quick-time events to fight, throwing specific punches and countering through various means. This isn’t a “think about your opponents’ weaknesses” game; it’s decided for you. Which is fine? There are so many enemies to fight in this game, and it would rather see you push through them quickly.

It's in larger room encounters that Batman: Arkham Shadow is at its best. In these, you use perches, vents and such to help pick off enemies one by one, studying movements and bringing in some of your gadgets to help when needed. It's during these fights that Shadow truly opens up and lets you be creative. When we started watching guard patterns and scouting out just the right vantage points for unseen takedowns, that felt really nice. This is, fundamentally, an accurate recreation of the Arkham scheme, and just how enjoyable that was to people is a lot of why this game exists! But the perspective does change a lot about how it feels.

Taking out foes and finding hidden collectibles contributes to an experience meter, allowing you to upgrade various abilities. It’s also a game that likes giving you new abilities from time to time, as you find a need in the mission, climb to the roof for a delivery and then head back down to use it. A lot more time is spent in the process in this game, physically moving from place to place. We suppose it’s a good way to break up combat sequences and keep you immersed in the identity, but do be prepared for the time investment.

There’s still something of a theme park-like ethos to “big-budget” VR game design. Environments are more set dressing than places to spend lots of time. You get a lot of exposition through audio between encounters. It’s also more than happy to use that audio to not-so-subtly nudge you to your next objective. Rarely does Batman: Arkham Shadow want you to stop and smell the roses, and doing so will result in increasingly direct reminders of the thing to do next.

And maybe that’s for the best! Batman: Arkham Shadow is full of dark environments with similar sorts of dingy decoration. It’s true to the source material, and the low lighting does help mitigate the inevitable visual downgrades you get when rendering the resolution and double display of VR. It’s an action game through and through, and other Quest titles are happy to provide different pacing for those who want it.

That said, Batman: Arkham Shadows is not a bad looking VR game, and Camouflaj has clearly been pulling out tricks to get the most out of the hardware. For example, there’s some pre-rendered lighting in spots, putting your focus on particular corners. You can see the seams, sometimes. For example, we moved a grate from a green-tinged vent, and it stayed bright and green. But it’s likely worth those exceptions.

Batman: Arkham Shadow feels comfortable to play in a small room or even seated, with some creative use of the crouch button to reach lower objects. Conversely, the game doesn’t do a heck of a lot for room-scale players, but it’s likely a compromise worth making for the game. Other titles will make you want to walk around; this is extremely a stick-to-move experience.

We've encountered some bugs along the way, getting stuck on craggy rocks or having doors fall down and leave invisible barriers instead of opening. These are the sorts of things we expect will be patched up relatively quickly, but still thought it worth noting for early players. Generally, reloading the checkpoint has solved the issue, but sometimes that means losing a few minutes of progress. We also had a bit of difficulty with the cape controls, as the activation wasn’t as reliable as we wanted. Hopefully that can be tuned a bit!

While it may not have the immersive mechanics to be a great VR introduction, Batman: Arkham Shadow is fun to play and faithful to its Arkham predecessors. And yeah, picking off enemies one-by-one feels great.

Batman: Arkham Shadow, developed by Camouflaj and published by Meta, is available now for Meta Quest 3 and 3S. It’s included with new headsets, and costs $49.99 for other buyers.

The post Review: Batman: Arkham Shadow Lets You Wear the Cowl appeared first on Siliconera.

As a developer that often worked on Mega Man games, we often see Inti Creates create original titles that are clearly inspired by them. In the case of Card-en-Ciel, we have a game that has a Mega Man Battle Network approach when it comes to aesthetics and gameplay. However, while it may look familiar and feels inspired by the other title, it lacks its charm of the other series.

In a world filled with VR full-dive games that people jump into, there are incidents that require accomplished hackers and detectives to solve. After getting an urgent message from someone working alongside a Rust Tactics VR game development team named Ancie, Neon the Gaming Chair Detective finds himself dealing with corruption and data tied to many different games. There involve abnormalities, bugs, characters from other titles are appearing where they shouldn’t, and Muses are buffing certain enemies with their songs. It’s up to us to work alongside Neon and Ancie to set things right in dungeons based on certain other “games” invading Rust Tactics. 

The thing is, Inti Creates isn’t great at telling a story in Card-en-Ciel or making its world appealing, something Capcom excelled at when it came to the Mega Man Battle Network games. When we go through the story dungeons based on full-dive games, each one looks practically identical. The structure of square rooms connected by brief “bridges” gets incredibly repetitive, especially considering the similar Mega Man titles managed to inject so much personality into the “net” we’d visit as MegaMan.EXE. When you enter an area inspired by an in-game series, there are no outward or immediately recognizable distinctions. Just the same blocks. Even the enemies you fight aren’t only drawn from that “title,” as instead Inti Creates pulls from its actual game library and original ones created for Card-en-Ciel. 

While this can make the idea of going through Card-en-Ciel dungeons a little boring, I feel the turn-based, deck-building gameplay actually improves upon the Mega Man Battle Network formula. When you’re dealt cards or pick them up after fights and while exploring, you’ll find they either deal HP or break damage to opponents. HP damage wears the enemy down and defeats them. Break damage affects the attack meter, keeping them from being able to take action against you and weakening their defense against HP attacks. Each round, you start with three points, and cards can require between 0-3 points to use. 

All cards are also used for movement to evade attacks or move so you can target enemies. Icons on each one show if they’ll move Neon up, down, left, or right. So you need to get out of ranged of the telegraphed attack under your feet that happens in X number of turns, you need to play one of your cards to move instead of taking the action shown on it.

While those are the three basic uses for cards, there are other factors to consider. Some are yellow. If you see the opponent’s timer counting down to show they are about to attack, you can play that card to counter and take action during that turn. Cards can have additional effects that add buffs, cause clones to appear, create 0-cost cards that deal damage and break damage, ensure cards of the same type get a boost, or affect future turns. 

There are also Muses to content with as you play Card-en-Ciel. You tend to start with one available when you enter a dungeon, with additional ones found in fights on floors. Once you collect one, you can trigger their buffs in battle by meeting requirements. So you may need to play the same card twice in a row, which means ensuring your deck is stacked with duplicates of a certain type. Another Muse might require you to play a three-cost card or for there to be exactly five cards in your hand after taking an action. Likewise, enemies can have Muses on their sides too, providing them buffs and adding junk cards to your hand that could force movement or affect your deck. 

It’s really quite clever, and I loved whenever I’d see a cameo from a returning Inti Creates game character in Card-en-Ciel. For example, Azure Striker Gunvolt and Gal Gun folks are here! But at the same time, since the story isn’t really compelling or well-executed, the cards and enemies based on “original” characters aren’t very appealing. In many cases, it feels like they’re excuses to insert some extra fanservice. But since we don’t know who they are until this title, it rings a bit hollow and doesn’t have the same appeal as it would if it involved actually recognizable people. Though personally, I also found the Muse and Ancie fanservice a bit overdone here. Others might enjoy it! But it was so out of place in the roguelike that it struck me as being more odd than appealing.

Once a fight is over, you will see certain options available in the “node” where you fought. You can choose to recover some HP. You can enhance one of the cards in your deck. It is also possible to station one of the characters in the cards you have, removing them from your deck in the process, for buffs. There can also be random events triggered after a fight is done that affects your cards and deck. Not to mention if you avoid fights for too long or make certain choices in those events, your Memory Gauge goes up and inflicts negative effects in fights until you battle enough to reduce it.

As Card-en-Ciel is a roguelike, there are elements that put you in a better position for future runs if you win. You can forge Wild Cards, which give you a chance to do better in a pinch during a fight. When recuperating with Ancie after a run, you can put points into determining if rarer cards come up, Neon’s HP goes up, Treasure Chests show up after battle, or other benefits come up. There are also different difficulties to choose from when heading in, which can help with players’ experiences. 

Though to be honest, I didn’t get much out of the PvP mode. This feature unlocks after a few runs. It offers a daily dungeon with leaderboards or an opportunity to face others. The daily dungeon is fine, but I got nothing out of the fights against others and would just… rather go through the base dungeons on different difficulties instead. 

I enjoyed Inti Creates’ approach to gameplay in Card-en-Ciel and appreciate how it built on the tactical deck-building found in the Mega Man Battle Network series. While it looks similar, it feels like its own thing. That’s great! Unfortunately, the actual story surrounding Neon and Ancie’s adventure is pretty weak and not handled well, and there’s no personality to any of the dungeons we explore. It’s a case where there’s some good gameplay we can sink our teeth into, but the style isn’t quite there even with colorful characters and some fun cameos. It can be entertaining, but lacks Mega Man Battle Network's charm.

Card-en-Ciel will come to the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 24, 2024, and a demo is available on the PC via Steam and Switch. 

The post Review: Solid Card-en-Ciel Card Lacks Mega Man Battle Network Charm appeared first on Siliconera.

Sword Art Online left an indisputable imprint on the anime landscape since its adaptation in 2012, and it continues to influence shows that are coming out today. Of course, with the premise centered on people playing a VR MMORPG, many video games naturally followed. Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is unequivocally made for veteran fans of the franchise, which might sound great on paper, but it packages itself into a niche category that only die-hard enthusiasts will find the experience cathartic, isolating much of its casual audience.

The main attraction of Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is supposed to be its multiplayer experience. But as you need to make a reasonable dent in the primary campaign to unlock the multiplayer and the characters available, let's dive into this aspect first. Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream harbours an independent brand new story tailored for the game, presumably occurring sometime after the Alicization Arc. Without going into spoiler territory, characters introduced in this arc play a pivotal role in the overarching story. A new, updated beta system called Galaxia has been added to ALfheim online, aiming to enable players to relive their most cherished memories of the game. However, a critical error has now ensnared Kirito within the Galaxia system. Kirito will now need to navigate Galaxia, assisted by many familiar faces throughout the Sword Art Online timeline, to figure out how to return to the real world.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream has the best storytelling and cutscenes across all the games, and some of the moments that transpire are superb. One that stands out vividly is right at the beginning of the game, where Kirito realizes he is participating in an anomaly of the programming, and a fight quickly ensues. It felt like the scene could have been ripped straight out of the anime, which will surely place a gleeful smile on any fan's face. My only critique is that the overall plot requires a good knowledge of Sword Art Online. The story can be very "meta" at times, as characters across the Sword Art Online multiverse interact with one another. It's like watching Avengers Endgame without seeing the prior Marvel films leading up. You can do it if you want, but you'll be confused about certain parts.

The gameplay structure of the primary campaign is where things get a bit iffy. There are five chapters in total, all with several quests. Initially, your character will be transported to a new location, and you will have to travel to specific points on the map while fighting monsters along the way. In order to conclude the quest and move on to the next part of the story, you must defeat a minor boss battle. As you can tell from that description, the setup is very basic. What also does not help is that every location in the game feels empty and rigid due to an invisible barrier stopping you from fully exploring the environment. This often made me awkwardly zig-zag across the map to find a direct route. There are a few collectables you can pick up as well, which I assume is an attempt to make the environmental space not feel barren, but they are tedious to gather because of the terrain layout.

The combat is somewhat of a mixed bag, but enough distinction between the classes make it more enjoyable than not. There are six fighting classes: fighter, tank, rogue, ranger, mage and support. Each character is automatically categorized into one of these classes and plays distinctively differently from one another, which adds a lot of diversity to the combat. Kirito, in the fighting class, has his iconic dual blades, which allow him to excel at close combat while moving reasonably fast across the battlefield. Agil, part of the tank class, will move slower in comparison but will be able to endure more hits, and Llenn in the rogue class will utilize a massive gun, allowing her to attack from far away, mimicking the Fatal Bullet gameplay format. Usually, in a quest, you will pick one character to be your main fighter and can then select additional characters to join your team, but sometimes, you'll have to play a particular character, forcing you to try out all the classes. If you want to complete the main storyline as soon as possible, you'll want to stick with the fighter class as they feel stupidly overpowered, but all the classes have some merit to them.

Regarding the real-time combat system, there is the standard stuff you would expect to see, like normal and heavy attacks. Each character also has special and ultimate moves, which are excellent to use if you find yourself in a tight spot. However, you will have to wait for a brief cooldown before reusing one of these manoeuvres, which encourages you to think before you act. But the lock-on system is what brought down the combat for me. The game encourages you to lock onto opponents, as you can then dash towards enemies and unleash a string of combos, but it rarely works. Most times, when I tried to implement it, I would be left in mid-air or at a strange slant, so I would often attack opponents without using it, which made any flying monsters a bit trickier than the game intended.

After progressing through an hour or so of the primary campaign, you will then unlock the multiplayer mode, which shares a lot of parallels with Granblue Fantasy: Relink, as it encompasses real-time combat mashed up with MMO gameplay mechanics. The multiplayer is divided into three modes: free roam, co-op quest and boss raid. Free-roam is by far the best, as you can leisurely walk around the entire map, fight enemies and take on daily challenges. This was a breath of fresh air compared to the main campaign, which constricted where you could explore (yes, the invisible barriers are a sticking point). It reminded me a lot of Dauntless's open terrain environment, which may not be a complimentary statement to some, but I always like the relaxed atmosphere the game attempted to encapsulate.

In comparison, the co-op quest inhabits a more frantic vibe as twenty players are split into five squads, running through a massive dungeon to reach a boss at the very end. You have thirty minutes, but most lobby groups should be able to do this within the 15-20-minute range. On successful completion of this mission, you will then be rewarded with better weapons and different cosmetic appearances. Although looking at the scoreboard at the end to see how your performance faired to other players was interesting, the rewards didn't really incentivize me much to continue playing.

The boss raid was easily the weakest mode out of the bunch. Again, twenty players are broken down into five squads, but this time, your goal is to defeat an astronomical boss battle while your team attempts to score the most points. It felt repetitive as there was not much cooperative play, as you're mainly just striking the enormous adversary with endless attacks. The enemy's fighting pattern is nothing special either, and they would repeatedly recycle the same moves. Honestly, I got bored during the first boss I took on. I did a few more for good measure, but it somehow became even more mind-numbing.

There was a clear executive effort towards the Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream multiplayer experience, but it's average at best. When you're trying to get players to commit hours to multiplayer content, you need to offer something unique and different, but throughout, I got a severe case of déjà vu because I've partaken in this repetitive action in endless other titles. Within a short period, I felt like I had seen everything, got the t-shirt and was ready to play something else. You would only start investing serious hours into the multiplayer if you were a massive Sword Art Online fan who wanted to gain every item possible. But you would probably be a lone ranger in this pursuit because convincing others to tag along would be hard unless your friends are also gigantic fans.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream shines in some departments but flops in others.  
I wish the game had concentrated more on the primary campaign because the story here is terrific, and with a few tweaks to the open map environment and battle mechanics, it could have been a quintessential play for any fan. But the multiplayer feels so half-baked and unrewarding that only hardcore fans will enjoy the long, tedious grind to grab every morsel item.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream is now available on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The post Review: Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream Will Only Appeal to Hardcore Fans appeared first on Siliconera.

Having only spent time with the Mario Party games on Nintendo 64, it was high time to change that with Super Mario Party Jamboree. This latest entry on the Switch is packed full of an impressive level of content. While not all minigames and modes are worth a look, this is generally the most fun I’ve had with a party game in a long time.

After a short introduction, you get to explore the hub island. It is here in Super Mario Party Jamboree where players can shop, take in the vistas, and find the different modes. Each island in this title hosts a different game mode. There are quite a few to check out from the minigame island to Bowser’s Challenges to the normal Mario Party island.

It is on Mario Party island where most of the action happens. Players pick between one of 20 (plus two unlockable) characters from across the pantheon. This is a pretty solid cast, with the usual suspects of Mario, Peach, and Bowser. But also some more intriguing additions like Ninji and Shy Guy, who I like to play.

There are also seven different game boards — four at the start — to pick from. Each game board has a completely different feel when compared to the others. In addition, there are mechanics with each board that help them stand out. For instance, there is the Mega Wiggler board. Here, players go around a simple forest with only a handful of red bad spaces to land on.

The main crux of this board is the Mega Wiggler in the middle of the forest. Players can hop on the back of it but he could move at any point. This would result in the player ending up in a different part of the board than they might want to. It is a neat risk-and-reward system. Do you hop on the Mega Wiggler’s back for a possible shortcut? Or do you play it safe?

The other boards you get, including two returning ones from N64 titles, also come with their own exciting gimmicks. Rainbow Galleria (my personal favorite) is a huge colorful mall with escalators to zip from floor to floor and unique stamps to collect. Roll ‘Em Raceway is an odd map with everyone racing around in cars that doesn’t get too out of hand, thankfully.

The general goal of each Super Mario Party Jamboree board game is to have the most stars at the end. Every player takes turns rolling the dice. You could land on a spot with an exclamation point that will grant a random item. But you could also land a red space and have negative effects, like losing coins.

Along the way throughout the board, there are also random stops like shops. Here, you can buy extra dice, custom dice, or even items to hinder your opponents. After all four players take a turn, it is then time for a minigame. There are more than 110 minigames so it took a few matches before I even saw a repeat minigame.

Minigames have a lot of variation to them, such as free-for-all or even 3-vs-1 modes. For instance, a free-for-all game mode might be Light-Wave Battle. Here, every player is essentially battling against the others. You can jump to hop over the waves your opponents send out to avoid defeat. But you can also double jump to ground pound classic Mario-style and send waves. The last person standing wins coins.

Even a simple minigame like this one has a neat level of depth to it. Do you focus on defense purely by just jumping? Or do you risk a ground pound, which has an animation that leaves you vulnerable to waves for a moment? Then there are the fascinating minigames like the three on one modes. Here, you might have a player control a Bomber Bill and try to eliminate the other three players before five rounds are up.

There are still more minigames, such as ice skating to collect coins or a hide-and-seek take on whack-a-mole. The variety is pretty impressive and each minigame pretty fun. I often looked forward to the minigame at the end of each round as one of the highlights of the games I did.

However, I will say the more you play, the more you realize there is a bit of repetition in the minigames. Sure, there are more than 110, but there are a lot of similar modes. One of the oddest parts is there are a lot of run away modes where you have to escape something. And each of these minigames does little to differentiate from the other besides a simple palette or map swap.

Outside of the core board game island, there are other modes to extend your time with in Super Mario Party Jamboree. This is where the game largely loses its quality and my interest. There are different islands for special game modes like flying around in the Paratroopa Flight School or the Overcooked-like Rhythm Kitchen. The former is horrid, where the player uses motion controls to act like they're flying around. It is ridiculous and frustrating to control.

Rhythm Kitchen is a cooking battle mode where you engage in different food-related minigames to score the highest. But it is a bit too hard to understand how the scoring system works that it feels a little off. Then there are the other forgettable modes like Toad’s Item Factory where you maneuver balls to their destination and the motion control-only minigame location.

The Koopathlon even sounds great a glance, being the showstopping 20-player online mode. Unfortunately, it gets a bit too messy quite fast. 20 players in minigames is a bit too much and overwhelming at times, and the minigames here repeat way too often. Minigame Island with only minigames to play over and over fares a bit better but even it loses its shine after a bit.

The only extra mode that truly captured my attention beyond the normal board games is the new Bowser mode. Here, seven players work together to take down the Impostor Bowser through minigames. The creativity of these unique minigames really shine through, such as stopping bombs from Impostor Bowser. Having everyone work together in a sort of PvE mode feels unique, but it does have its limitations due to only offering 10 minigames in total.

That said, the extra modes are just that: additional content to enjoy. The quality of them matter little when the actual board games at the center of Super Mario Party Jamboree are exceptional. I enjoyed all seven of the board games and would gladly go back to them. Playing this game offline in person with others is the most fun I’ve had in a party game ever. The sheer level of variety and chaos ensured that every match I did was completely different from the last. Even playing alone against bots, which I usually don’t enjoy in a party game, was fun against the CPUs.

Super Mario Party Jamboree is up there for the best in the series. It boasts the most amount of content from high-quality boards to characters to minigames. The variety is enough to carry this game on its own, but the quality of the core experience is exceptional as well with how each board works and the many different types of minigames. Though the additional modes, with the exception of Bowser Kaboom Squad, are all pretty much misses, they do nothing to take away from the top-tier solo and multiplayer party experience Super Mario Party Jamboree has.

Super Mario Party Jamboree releases exclusively for Nintendo Switch on October 17, 2024.

The post Review: Super Mario Party Jamboree Offers an Impressive Amount of Content appeared first on Siliconera.

On first glance, Neva is a cozy game about nature and woodland friends. However, as soon as you load the game up, it quickly reminds you that nature is brutal. Within minutes, a bird has died and turned into a black husk, while a majestic wolf-deer is murdered by horrors.

This tone is not surprising when you realize who the developer of Neva is. It’s the latest game from Nomada Studio, whose previous game Gris was a beautiful yet harrowing exploration of grief. Neva feels like that the natural extension of that game. It takes the combination of beautiful visuals and dark subject matter and turns it towards the brutal conflicts of nature. And with it, the puzzle platforming now gets tougher and gains more combat mechanics.

You play as a woman named Alba, who is not directly named in-game. She serves as a protector for a vast forest, along with her wolf-deer hybrid companion. However, at the start of the game, this companion is killed, leaving behind a cub named Neva. The game then chronicles a year in the life of Alba and Neva, as she raises this pup into an adult so it can become the forest’s new protector.

The game itself is a puzzle platformer. You venture through the often-surreal wilderness, leaping across platforms, air dashing across gaps and climbing vast structures to progress. Along the way you encounter dark, corrupted enemies that threaten the sanctity of the forest. With each season, Neva takes a more active role in combat and can be called on to stall enemies with bites or damage enemies Alba can’t reach.

There’s an obvious Ghibli inspiration within all this. It’s not hard to look at our protagonist’s fierce defense of the forest, accompanied by a large wolf creature, and immediately see Princess Mononoke’s San and Moro. Similarly, the corrupted enemies, with their writhing black bodies and mask-like faces, bear more than a little resemblance to No-Face from Spirited Away.

That said, the game avoids feeling like an imitation, and more a work that exists in the same headspace. For a start, its visuals avoid the Ghibli style entirely. This is definitely the studio who made Gris, with its painterly aesthetic and minimalist design. You could take a screenshot of any part of this game, and it wouldn’t look out of place on a gallery wall.

However, the moment-to-moment gameplay is a huge contrast to the slow-paced, meditative puzzle-solving of Nomada’s previous work. The emphasis on combat adds fail states that Gris lacked, and the primary emotional state of the game is anger rather than sadness. There’s a sense of something profoundly wrong happening to these woods, and Alba and Neva must right the wrongs. It’s defiant and aggressive.

This means Neva is a lot more challenging than it might appear. I went into the game fully expecting the kind of slow, relaxed experience of a lot of artsy, narrative-driven projects. You walk a lot and solve puzzles. Sure, that is here too, but the extra difficulty adds an exciting new layer. Combat offers a tiny health pool, the limited moveset can make encounters with large groups tense, and some platforming segments combined Alba’s moveset in specific ways that must be figured out with some ingenuity. By no means is this Dark Souls, but anyone coming into this expecting to casually walk through it with ease may find themselves surprised.

This was welcome, as it created for some great moments. Sections where the scenery breaks open during combat, shifting the environment you’re trying to position yourself on. Sometimes enemies will use the scenery itself to fight you, or flying enemies will enter the fray. These enemies force you to change your tactics and make you focus on your positioning.

I also really loved how Neva shook up its platforming sections. The scenery shifts are a big way the game keeps you on your toes, but then some sections also require you to send Neva to attack switches while you’re in mid-air or combine your double jump and air dash in new ways. There’s also a section during the Winter chapter that deliberately screws with your perspective, and it’s easily one of the best parts of the game.

The real shining moments of the game are the moments of peril where you’re helpless and Neva jumps in and saves the day. These moments are the real heart of the game. Mechanically, they usually add something new to your kit that you’ll be using during the next section. Narratively, they show the building relationship between Alba and Neva in a way that’s highly effective despite the lack of words.

This minimalist approach to story is something that Neva does incredibly well. The only word spoken in the entire game is “Neva” whenever you call for her. Otherwise, the game’s narrative is communicated entirely through gestures and moments. We never get long exposition about the origins of the corruption, we just know it’s bad and must be stopped. Anything left unexplained is for the player to interpret as they see fit. Is it a reminder of the cruelty of nature that must be respected? A critique on pollution and its effect on wildlife? Or could it be seen as an allegory for death and rebirth? It’s all valid, and you’ll be left pondering these questions long after the game is over.

In fact, I struggle to find much I didn’t like about Neva. Any critique I have feels either like I’m nitpicking or trying to turn the game into something it’s not. Could the moveset be a little more expansive to make some sections feel less repetitive? Sure, but the game’s simplicity is a major asset in how the game delivers its narrative. Are there sections where the scenery can sometimes get in the way of the path a little too much? Sure, but these are rare and usually during quiet times where you’re simply walking. I certainly don’t recall any moments where fog obscured combat, for instance.

The game is, admittedly, short. My playthrough took just shy of four hours to complete, and aside from some optional plants you can make bloom, there’s little incentive to replay the game. However, those four hours are beautiful and heartfelt, and something you’d likely want to experience again.

Neva is a sweet little game that left a significant impression on me. Every frame looks like a painting, there’s a surprising amount of challenge and the way it builds these characters without saying a word is masterful. If you’re a fan of short, artful experiences in games, you need to play Neva.

Neva is out now for PC, PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X/S.

The post Review: Neva is a Beautiful Tale of a Girl and Her Wolf appeared first on Siliconera.

The Ys series is one where if you're into the games, you're really into it. It forgoes traditional JRPG conventions by having each game serve as an adventure in the life of protagonist Adol Christin, almost like a throwback to classic adventure novels. The newest title Ys X: Nordics aims to bring it into the swashbuckling world of piracy. However, that's not exactly where the games strengths lie.

The story kicks off with Adol meeting Karja, a fierce "pirate princess," on his travels. Inadvertently, a magical tether binds the two. This connection sets the stage for an action-packed journey during which the pair must confront a looming magical threat. Their dynamic avoids the overdone "reluctant partnership" trope. Instead, Karja actually accepts her bond with Adol pretty quickly, which brings a refreshing sense of camaraderie to their interactions.

Ys X: Nordics draws heavily from Norse mythology, with plenty of Viking-inspired culture sprinkled throughout the game. The pirate ambiance obviously adds to the flavor of the setting. The characters Adol and Karja interact with are enjoyable and the adventures they go on fit all the themes. I found the premise of a swashbuckling Adol to be both refreshing and engaging. However, it quickly becomes clear that the game’s sea-based mechanics aren’t up to par with its land-based exploration.

Ys X: Nordics introduces an entire naval mechanic involving ship-based exploration and combat. However, ship combat is where Ys X falls short. This sure as heck isn't the intricate, multi-layered naval battles of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. It's not even the arcade style system from Kingdom Hearts III's Port Royal. Ys X opts instead for something so simple it's hard to call it a minigame, much less a full mechanic.

Sea battles amount to little more than locking on and firing cannons, with the occasional special volley attack peppered in. After a few encounters, the novelty fades, and it starts to feel quite bland. It doesn't help that the ship moves pretty slow. It especially stands out because the Ys series is famously fast, especially in combat.

Also there's not a lot to do in the water other than just make it to your next destination. Honestly, when I first got the ship, the freedom of sailing around seemed pretty exciting. However, the uninteresting waters and slow pace really takes the shine off of it quickly. It’s a shame, as the pirate theme fits Adol and the game so well, but the execution falls short.

On the flip side, exploration and combat on land are where Ys X: Nordics stands tall. Adol and Karja’s adventures take them across various islands filled with dungeons, plains, or towns to discover. The smaller, scattered islands break away from the massive single-location structure of recent Ys games. The openness and occasional variety make this aspect feel especially like they're going on some grand escapade.

Navigating once you're on these islands is quite fun, especially with the help of your mana abilities. These are powers that you use in the field not for attacking, but for exploration. For example, one ability emulates a grappling hook. Combining Adol and Karja's natural speed with the additional locomotion from these abilities makes exploration feel so smooth.

However, the meat and potatoes of a Ys game is always going to be the combat. It's why fans pay the price of admission. One of the most compelling aspects of Ys X is its fast-paced combat, a hallmark of the series. Luckily, Ys X: Nordics knocks this out of the park.

The game introduces a new "Duo Mode" where Adol and Karja team up for powerful attacks, and I found this to be the highlight of the combat system. Switching between the two characters mid-battle felt seamless, and the chaotic energy of teaming up added a lot of excitement to fights. Duo Mode is so effective that I rarely saw the need to switch out of it. Most of the fights /i did I ended up just lamming through fight in Duo Mode.

To be fair though, I was playing on "normal" difficulty the entire game. Higher difficulties might demand a bit more strategy before leaping into the fight. I know some of you die-hards don't get out of bed for anything less than "Nightmare."

As you progress, you'll unlock new abilities via a skill tree system. The tree has nodes, which are enhanced by slotting "mana seeds" into them. These provide both passive buffs and for certain nodes along the tree, new combat techniques. While not the most revolutionary system, it’s intuitive and offers some flexibility in building your characters. The seeds come in different types, each offering different bonuses and stats. Therefore, experimenting with combining the different seeds is crucial.

As you gain more techniques, it only makes battles look even flashier. Some battles can actually look like an anime episode. This is of course helped by the gorgeous art style of the game. I would say it's the prettiest Ys game yet.

Another area where Ys X: Nordics never falters is its music. The series has always been known for its rocking, high-energy soundtrack, and this entry is no different. Whether you’re engaged in a fierce boss battle or exploring a new island, the music elevates every moment. It helps keep you pumped and immersed. Fans of the series will be pleased, the soundtrack lives up to the standards set by its predecessors.

In the end, Ys X: Nordics is a solid addition to the Ys series, but it should have stayed docked. The ship combat, which should have been a thrilling new addition, ultimately feels bland. Despite this, the game more than makes up for it with its land-based exploration and fast-paced, duo-driven combat. Fans of the series will no doubt want to pick it up for the continuation of Adol’s story and the exciting new setting. And if you’re new to the Ys franchise, this isn’t a bad place to start.

Ys X: Nordics will come to the PS4, PS5, Switch, and PC on October 25, 2024.

The post Review: Ys X: Nordics Isn’t Always Smooth Sailing appeared first on Siliconera.

The AYANEO Remake line is fascinating. Each product is inspired by a retro console or handheld, from powerbanks and mini PCs to Android devices. The AYANEO Pocket Micro is the latest, and you’d be forgiven if you’d mistake it for a GBA Micro at a glance. However, while it is inspired by that comfortable and space-saving design, this is a robust, sturdy system that stands on its own as a potential pinnacle of Android gaming.

While AYANEO’s official site describes the Pocket Micro as “a delicate plaything you won’t want to put down,” the first thing that struck me when I opened mine is how substantial it is. It felt extremely sturdy and substantial when I took it out of the box. The glass paneled front is shiny and clear, and the aluminum case has a perfect amount of weight. It’s not so heavy that I felt I’d have trouble playing it over long periods of time, but the design is such that I did feel comfortable putting it in my purse when heading out somewhere. 

Also, while I described the AYANEO Pocket Micro as looking like a GBA Micro, it is far more comfortable than Nintendo’s handheld ever was. The power button is recessed and allows for fingerprint unlocking, so I found it never turned on inadvertently and felt safe taking an Android system that does have access to all my accounts out without worrying about anyone else cracking into it. The GBA Micro was always a device that, while I enjoyed, I stopped playing as frequently as I got older due to the controls not being comfortable in my hands. Everything is perfectly proportioned here. The analog sticks have a comfortable amount of resistance to them, featured exemplary accuracy, and had a great grip without adding any additional covers to the thumbsticks. The placement of the four trigger buttons is quite intuitive, and I appreciated how many additional inputs are available along the bottom edge and side of the Android handheld to check on the status of things, head to the main menu, or have an instant “out” to back out of programs. 

In terms of power, I found the AYANEO Pocket Micro to be quite capable. It has a Helio G99 processor. It played any game I threw at it perfectly. The screen is a 960x640 one with IPS original color, so everything looked bright and clear. With a click of a button, I could check the performance of any title I was playing to see the framerate, adjust the fan, and switch to a different performance mode when needed. I found the “balance” option was best in general, but did swap to the “game” one for HoYoVerse titles. The Controller option of that menu also made it easy to start adapting things and adjusting experiences based on preference in each title.

Speaking of gaming, I was also incredibly impressed with just how compatible the AYANEO Pocket Micro is with different programs and devices. While I couldn’t test Xbox Remote Play, I did play quite a few PS5 games with it. Though the size of the text was an issue, it worked perfectly with the app and I experienced no lag or issues thanks to the Android device and my home internet. It’s also paired incredibly well with the Crunchyroll Game Library. In particular, Blossom Tales II, Yohane the Parhelion, and are all ones I highly recommend. Captain Velvet Meteor and Wolfstride are a bit uncomfortable to play, due to the text size, sadly. HoYoVerse games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail work exceptionally well on it! Though again, the text size might be an issue and it is frustrating when the mobile versions of those games won’t remember I’m selecting the controller-supported option after doing so once. The only game I wanted to play on here, but couldn’t, is FFVII Ever Crisis. Which is no big deal, since there are plenty of other avenues for that.

Speaking of minor inconveniences, I’ve only experienced one issue with my AYANEO Pocket Micro, and it’s an incredibly minor one. If I would let the battery completely die, something that happened twice due to how much I’ve been using it and keeping it in my purse, then recharged it and started, the handheld would start with the internet turned off. I’d have to drag down the menu on the touchscreen to turn WiFi on again. But again, I feel like this is more of an energy-saving move and not any sort of defect! It’s something I haven’t gotten around to customizing, so I mention it only so if others find themselves in my position, they know to flip the in-menu toggle again.

As this is a dedicated Android handheld, it also means it is incredibly easy to set up and use. Immediately after I picked it up, I was quickly going through my Google Play library and adding any compatible game. (By the way, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy games and older titles like Forager run like a dream on it.) I immediately had all of the apps ready to go and customized to my liking within the span of a few hours. There’s a certain comfort and familiarity to it all, and it was easier to find my footing and be settled than it was with many PCs I’ve set up over the years. 

I’m constantly impressed with the AYANEO Pocket Micro. I didn’t realize how much of my mobile gaming could be covered by this handheld. I’d gotten incredibly behind in Zenless Zone Zero, and now I’m caught up. I never really touched my Crunchyroll Games Library subscription, and now I’m playing the titles there. I picked up Stardew Valley — again — to prepare for the 1.6 mobile update. It’s really such a fluid and comfortable handheld, one that I feel safe carrying with me at all times due to the battery life, construction, and its capabilities, and I’m amazed with how well AYANEO’s done with this one.

The AYANEO Pocket Micro project is on Indiegogo.

The post Review: AYANEO Pocket Micro Calls to Mind GBA Micro Gaming appeared first on Siliconera.

Fluorescent lights flicker, casting shadows against the walls of a dingy, dirty bathroom. A man stands in front of a mirror, his hands trembling and a pale band of skin noticeable on his ring finger. He stares, long and hard, at his reflection, scrutinizing, before he gathers himself and steps outside. Fog blankets the horizon, with the tops of trees and a distant lake all that remains visible. "I got a letter from my wife.." He begins, and with it, the story of Silent Hill 2.

I had some reservations when I learned that Bloober Team would be the developers handling the Silent Hill 2 remake. I did not care for The Medium at all, and I still consider it one of the worst psychological horror games I have ever played for a myriad of reasons — largely for how it handles sensitive topics such as child sexual assault, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. Given that Silent Hill 2 has similar themes, albeit it constructed in a different way due to their execution, I was not confident that Bloober Team would be able to execute on them properly, despite having direct supervision from Konami. I was equal parts happy and surprised to be proven wrong.

For those unfamiliar with the critically acclaimed and hugely influential horror game, on the surface Silent Hill 2 is about James Sunderland who has returned to the quiet, lakeside town, in search of his wife after receiving a letter from her posthumously. It's a strong hook that immediately informs the player that something isn't quite right, with James or the titular town. But digging deeper into the meat of Silent Hill 2, it's about guilt, punishment (sometimes well deserved, other times not), and retribution. There are other individuals who are drawn to the town for this reason, desperate to find a loved one or to escape the retribution that follows a guilty conscious in the form of Angela and Eddie. There too, is Laura, a young girl that seems unphased by the grotesqueries that wander through the foggy streets of Silent Hill and Maria, a woman who shares an uncanny resemblance to James' dead wife. Narrative threads tie these characters together, and James seems as though he is inflicted upon each individual he meets, neither making their situations better or worse, but simply a driving force as he carries his guilt, weighing heavy, on his back.

Since the game is so old, I won't be diving into any spoilers as the original isn't immediately accessible on modern hardware. The last time Silent Hill 2 was readily available was through the botched HD Collection that continues to live in infamy. Just know that the symbolism can at times be heavy handed in the remake, but doesn't detract from the overall feeling of the game. Certain monster redesigns, such as the Abstract Daddy or Lying Figures don't feel as impactful for various reasons, which kind of hampers their significance to the narrative and what they represent. But I can absolutely understand why something like the Abstract Daddy couldn't make it into a game in 2024 as it did in the early 00's, especially with the level of graphical fidelity was have now.

But concerning the actually atmosphere of the game, the Silent Hill 2 remake nails it. Silent Hill as a town feels alive, much like the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil, it is very much it's own character. Dense fog blankets the town, making streets hard to navigate, and there is a clear sense that Silent Hill could turn on you at any moment. In fact, there was an instance in which I had progressed to a point and the otherwise quiet town (with the exception of Lying Figures slithering around under cars and hurling streams of tar-like acid at me) was suddenly encased in howling winds that seemed to want to keep me from reaching my destination. It was an interesting change from the original that made the town seem hostile.

Environments also change as you proceed through them. While the town is not in the best shape, with the apartments, various shops and bars, and the Brookhaven Hospital all in some state of decay, this is pushed further as James continues in his desperate pursuit of finding out whether or not his wife could truly be alive. Wallpaper peels away, revealing barbed wire and rotten wood, darkness blankets the sky and rain seeps in through the cracks. The change is gradual, sometimes hardly noticeable and other times it's happens so abruptly you know that you've been pulled into another world. Your radio hisses with static as monsters of James' own making approach, staggering through the darkness as you wildly swing your pipe in their direction.

Combat is a lot more refined, but encounters are still dangerous. Generally when I play a Silent Hill game I don't use any of my ammunition until I hit a boss fight. I tend to just whack away at whatever feels bold enough to approach me or I just sprint past it. (Most of the time I just run. Resources are valuable and scarce in survival horror games after all.) But the Silent Hill 2 remake forced me to use the guns I had collected as I worked my way through the apartments, the hospital, and deeper into a mysterious chasm in an abandoned historical center that led me into a prison. I was playing on the Light combat difficulty, and even then I struggled at times, because enemies hit hard. That said, the game is pretty generous when it comes to healing items, which does remove some of that tension. But it was nice to know that the game wasn't exactly a cakewalk.

Puzzles are mostly the same, with a few new ones thrown into the mix, and all of the locations have had some adjustments made to improve their level design. The apartment has had some much needed changes, making it a far less labyrinthian experience. I felt as though the game provided me with just enough breadcrumbs to lead me from location to location without making me feel as though it was holding my hand. Which was great, because it made me feel like I was capable of solving these puzzles on my own even if some solutions were staggeringly obvious. And I really can't speak enough as to how much the level design has improved. It's made it easier for me to consider a third of fourth playthrough, whereas with the original it felt like pulling teeth having to revisit certain locations. (I'm already on a NG+ playthrough, and will definitely shave down my original 11 hour playtime significantly.)

The voice acting can sometimes be hit or miss, but I feel like that more or less boils down to personal opinion. The original Silent Hill 2 had an unmistakable uncanniness to it, with the exception of Laura who just sounded and was written like an actual child, and the remake more or less refines some line deliveries. I don't think it's to the detriment of the game necessarily, though it does provide a different feeling and tone. James sounds less detached and strange, and straddles the line of pitiful and desperate well enough. Eddie is more or less exactly the same, and Laura is fine. She could be ruder, louder, more annoying, but that's a matter of taste. Angela is also mostly just fine. The issue I take is more the extra bits of dialogue she's given that peel back a certain mystery that existed in the original Silent Hill 2. But maybe the game does need to be more overt for a modern audience. What do I know. Concerning Maria, I do have a bias towards her original voice actress, but the new actress does a decent job of it. She sounds sultry when she needs to, furious at James' lack of consideration, or sometimes on the edge of being someone else entirely. While it might not be for me, it does the job.

What most enticed me about the remake, however, were the new notes and polaroids you can collect. You see, while most will argue about what makes Silent Hill truly Silent Hill, for me it has always been about theory crafting. Silent Hill as a series has required you to read, to piece together information to solve puzzles, but to also understand what is being inflicted upon it's numerous protagonists. There is always some kind of revelation at the end, one that feels satisfying in it's conclusion, but always leaves you wanting more and thinking about the little details that have been left unsolved. Silent Hill 2 remake has a lot of that in terms of how it seems more connected to Silent Hill 4: The Room than ever, outside of it's reference to Walter Sullivan, and the suggestion of James possibly being stuck in a time loop of suffering and despair has only continued to fuel long dormant fan theories. In that way, the Silent Hill series is very much alive and well once again. And I'm happy for it.

Overall, the Silent Hill 2 remake was surprising. It's surprising in the way that I'm already playing it over for a second time. It's surprising in the way that I enjoyed what the game had to offer, not being the biggest Silent Hill 2 fan myself. (Silent Hill 4 will always be my favorite, even if it isn't the best.) Maybe that distance is what has allowed me to appreciate it more. Though I highly doubt it. The Silent Hill 2 remake shows that Konami is just as capable as it's competitors in breathing life into their classic horror games. And I earnestly hope that other Silent Hill games will be given this treatment, or that it's success means a certainty of more new stories in this horrible haunted town in the future.

The Silent Hill 2 remake is available for PC and PlayStation 5.

The post Review: Silent Hill 2 Remake Shows the Spirit of the Series is Alive and Well appeared first on Siliconera.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero aims to capture the wild, acrobatic, over-the-top battles of the anime and its various iterations as characters vanish and reappear behind one another, counter each other’s counter moves, and fire off devastating blasts that leave the area a wasteland. When even the early story battles have that much mayhem in them, you’d better be ready for everything your opponents can throw at you right from the very first battle. Bandai Namco will throw some incredibly thrilling fights at you in this latest Dragon Ball game, but you’d best believe you need to be trained and ready before you start fighting against these ultra powerful characters.

I cannot stress this enough: if you have not played the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Budokai Tenkaichi arena fighter games, you need to head over to the Super Training menu and go over everything in Battle Training. I figured since I have a decent handle on fighting games I could give the commands a glance and hop right into playing the game. I was utterly wrong and got stomped immediately. I thought the game would at least let me learn the ropes by lowering the difficulty, but by the time I hit Vegeta in Episode Battle (the story mode), I was getting mauled constantly. I even turned on every possible Battle Assist, getting the game to help with combos, Dragon Dashes to catch up with hurled foes, and help with blocking, and it made next to no difference. You can’t just lower the difficulty and mash buttons, here. You need to learn the systems.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero’s systems are very satisfying and help you fall in love with game once you commit to learning them. Battle Training will walk you through each of your moves one by one, letting you practice them until you master them. Since there’s a lot to factor into every second of combat, you should take your time, here. For instance, basic movement involves far more than just walking around, as you can leap into the air and fly at will. You can also Dragon Dash to move far faster, allowing you to chase foes you’ve launched away from you or to make a quick getaway if you need to get to some cover to avoid an incoming blast.

This leads us to your Ki, the meter that fuels many of your handy abilities. Dragon Dash costs Ki to use (the yellow bar under your health bar), and while it recharges as you smack your foe around (or if you stand still and hold R2, which charges it fast but practically begs to get you smacked), you can burn through it fast if you Dragon Dash too much. Same if you use Ki Blasts to pepper foes with a few bursts of energy or if you hold the button down to launch a single, devastating one. You’ll also burn through Ki in a hurry if you use your character-specific specials (like Gohan’s Explosive Cannon). While managing a special meter in a fighting game isn’t unique, since it’s connected to movement and being able to use many of your best moves, it feels even more stressful to keep track of it in this game.

So, it’s got more in-depth moves and the special meter is tied into combat a bit deeper. Why would I be worried about getting trashed playing Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero? On top of this, there are in-depth dodge, clash, and counters system in play. If you’re about to get slammed up close, you can Vanish Assault to appear behind your enemy, trying to get the drop on them. You can also just hold Circle and use Perception to counter your opponent’s strikes. You can do a high speed evasion by blocking with perfect timing when you’re about to get hit, slipping away to hit back. Your throws, fast steps, and Ultimate Blasts can enter a clash state against your opponent, resulting in a short quicktime event where you’re suddenly mashing buttons to come out on top. You have lots of tools to quickly turn a bout around, but things can just as easily get turned around on you.

This all results in battles that are extremely chaotic if you don’t have all of these moves, skills, and combat possibilities firmly in your mind. Right from the start, and even at low difficulties, you and your opponent will be vanishing and reappearing around one another, entering sudden clash states where you have to switch what you’re doing, and alternating between chasing and hurtling away from one another. It all happens blazingly fast, too. The game gives you a fair amount of health to make it so the matches don’t end too quickly even while you’re getting the hang of this stuff, but it can still be a lot to learn and get the hang of.

But when you start to get it, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero looks and feels incredible. While I would argue that Dragon Ball FighterZ looks a little bit sharper when it comes to its characters and attacks, it doesn’t capture the feeling of movement and massive destruction that this game does. You will both be flying all over these massive battlefields, shifting from high-speed flight to an intimate beatdown where you’re doing dodges and counters against one another in the space of milliseconds. It captures this incredible spectacle because of all of these systems working in tandem – especially so as your attacks blow up the battlefield itself. If you slowed the game down to look at its visuals they don't look as good as FighterZ, but when everything's moving, it looks great. It’s relentlessly cool to look at these fights, and feels even better that you’re the one in charge of what happens.

Episode Battle is a good place to start practicing these skills; just don’t expect it to go easy on you. This story mode follows the narrative arcs of some of the major characters, capturing several major battles they went through. It manages to hit highlights from the various plotlines quickly and effectively without boring you with long plot dumps between fights, hitting a rare good middle ground for story that I didn’t see in Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash or Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections. The game gets to the point while still conveying the story and looking good while doing it, making Episode Battle pleasant to fight through. You can also bounce around several character arcs at will, so if you get stuck on a fight, you can switch characters and do someone else for a bit.

If you want something else that’s not in any previous Dragon Ball Z storyline, Bonus Battles offers some unique fights between characters in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. Maybe it’s just a hard battle where you are especially weak or it has some unique restrictions, but these offer special fights to test your abilities or just try out a battle between characters that would be different from the regular storyline. These add some extra fun for single player, but you can also design your own Bonus Battle for you or other players to work through.

Custom Battles sees you choosing who will fight and where they’ll fight. On top of this, you can set battle conditions for the fight. For these, you set a trigger condition (someone gets defeated, for example, or hits a certain level of health left), and then something will happen (they get transformed, lose access to certain moves, enemies will get harder, etc). You can also set up a story scene before, during, and after the fight, choosing effects, captions, announcer voices – basically creating your own cutscene (with some limitations). You can really do a lot with this – far more than I expected.

You can also post these Custom Battles online for others to play through, too. You can’t just create some miserable beatdown, though, as, like Mario Maker, you need to win the fight to be able to post it online. That said, players who want to set up creative challenges or to dabble with making their own limited Dragon Ball Z stories can do some neat things with this tool. It’s time-consuming, but is an incredibly neat extra for the game to have.

If you find yourself having trouble with some of the fights in Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero or are getting frustrated that you’re not progressing, there are Ability Items you can buy in the game’s shop that can improve your character’s powers when equipped. I didn’t find these broke the game – more like they gave you a bit of an edge in a fight. Plus, you can only equip so many on your character. Still, they make a difference and are fairly affordable as the game gives you Zeni constantly for every little thing you do in it. Even if you lose, simply playing as characters and doing things in a fight gives you Zeni, so you’re always getting a little something from playing it.

After being unimpressed with Jujutsu Kaisen Cursed Clash and Naruto X Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections, I was pleasantly surprised with Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. It looks spectacular in motion and really captures the scope of the franchise’s wild fights. With its many counters, fast movements, explosive field effects, and incredible blast moves, it makes you feel like you’re fighting for your life against relentless enemies. It will take some real training to get all of its battle expectations down, but it is absolutely worth it.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero will be available on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC on October 11, 2024.

The post Review: Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is Delightfully Frantic appeared first on Siliconera.

With slick controls, somewhat distracting visuals, and a story full of ups and downs, Metaphor: ReFantazio can be a mixed bag of an experience. Though I didn’t approach it or want to approach Atlus' new game as “fantasy Persona 5,” there are so many similar elements when it comes to both its gameplay and storytelling that it’s hard to fully divorce the two. Some parts of the worldbuilding and story may fall flat, but as a whole, it’s an entertaining ride thanks to its fun characters and fast-paced combat.

Metaphor: ReFantazio takes place in a fantasy world that consists of many different races called "tribes." Each tribe has unique traits, and it doesn’t take long for the game to show you the average state of this world is "cruelly racist." The Protagonist, as an elda, gets it the worst. Nonetheless, he, along with fairy companion Gallica and other friends, strive to save the country from the dark ambitions of the archmage Count Louis. Louis not only killed the king, but cursed the prince into a coma as well, all to rule the kingdom. With a proper heir absent, people argue between the Sanctist Church’s more rightful claim to the throne and the new order Louis promises to bring about as king. Then, a rock bearing the king’s face appears in the sky and proclaims that whomever gains the most support from the populace shall become the next monarch.

Thus begins a competition among the most determined to see who can capture the hearts of the people. The Protagonist and his friends vow to secure the throne for the prince so that he, not Louis, can lead the country down a brighter path. That’s easier said than done though, considering they have to deal with the corrupt Sanctist Church, Louis’s schemes, and other candidates’ interference. Clocking in at well over 80 hours even if you don’t do all of the side content, the story evolves beyond this premise, of course. While it can get predictable at times, it’s not a bad thing and I still enjoyed it for the most part. I’ve never actually laughed out loud when playing Persona 3 through 5, but there are some points at Metaphor: ReFantazio that, for both good and bad reasons, elicited a little chuckle or guffaw.

You know how media or moral guardians usually (and inaccurately) depict child predators as a skeevy-looking stranger or whatever group they want to point fingers at that day? Even though statistically, most children know their attacker? The racism that’s depicted in Metaphor: ReFantazio is kind of like that. It’s asinine, shallow, and childish, usually boiling down to NPC chatter hurling insults (not even slurs) while you’re passing by or cartoonish scenes of racial injustice. While the memorandum gives in-lore reasons as to why certain tribes have a worse reputation than others, very few in-game characters make charged comments about cuisine or appearance. Considering how, barring the eugief, they’re all basically human variants, it makes the very harsh racism feel forced. Yes, sometimes writing shouldn’t be subtle, especially with the rise of anti-intellectualism. But there’s a way to be on the nose with your themes without verging into caricature territory.

One of the first things Metaphor reminded me of was Zootopia. Zootopia’s allegory of racism falls apart the moment you think a little bit. Prey animals have a legitimate reason to be scared of predators. Meanwhile, in real life, there’s no legitimate reason to be scared of everyone with a particular skin tone or cultural background. In Japan though, where racism in media is not usually analyzed beyond the surface level, Zootopia was viewed as a triumph of social justice in entertainment. Since I’m not physically in the country, I only have the Internet to rely on. From what I can tell, the Japanese Internet applauds Zootopia for avoiding preachiness and “forced political correctness” to spread its message in a family-fun film.

Racism and prejudice in Japan is a topic that’s far too broad to discuss in a video game review. But to put it simply: the average Japanese person in Japan doesn’t have a lot of personal experience with the everyday racism that people of color in Western countries experience. The low rate of people with passports may also contribute to them not having firsthand experience with microaggressions or more. Of course prejudice exists, and bullying is a very serious societal issue there. But when it comes to racism? I’ve seen takes from Japanese people ranging anywhere from “Foreigners in Japan who think we’re prejudiced are just too sensitive; people stare because it's like seeing a legendary Pokemon in the wild” to “We’re not shooting people of color over their skin tone, hence we’re not racist.”

This is not a knock against Japan in particular. Come on, I live in Canada. However, this was all to note that when an average Japanese person who may not have extensive personal experience with racism tries to write a story delving into racism, it can ring hollow for those who have to deal with that. This isn’t a surprise; Western-made games can be that way as well, which is why elevating minority voices is so important in creative spaces. It’s hard for a member of the racial majority to have a full perspective of what life’s like for the “other” and conversations about those experiences aren’t as common compared to the English space.

When Metaphor: ReFantazio wants to focus on political corruption, greed, and the dangers of ignorance, it’s far more compelling. Hardly surprising, considering what Persona 5 was like and how universal those issues are. The way Metaphor: ReFantazio tackles its themes will likely resonate with a Japanese audience. But from a Western perspective, it reads as horribly naive. If they’d released this game back in 2018, maybe it would’ve been fine. In the social and political climate of 2024, though? Oof. Fortunately, while it makes a pretty horrible first impression, thanks to the way it handles the racism bend, the game does grow on you when it starts to introduce and focus on other plot elements.

Now, let’s discuss how the game actually feels. Prior to the optimization update on PCs, the game was a stuttering mess. After the patch, it runs butter-smooth. I would like to extend a very sincere and heartfelt "thank you" to people who complained and reported issues. You guys saved my eyes and sanity. Visually speaking, the game can be hit or miss. I personally like the watercolor look it employs for portraits, menus, and scenic spaces. The filter over the 3D movies looks fairly bad, but it adds to the overall fictional fantasy aesthetic so I can appreciate its addition. One thing that either grows on you or doesn’t is the battle UI and the fact that everything is always moving. Pre-optimization, the battle UI seemed so messy and busy what with the cartography lines and all. Post-optimization, with the better FPS, everything moves so fast that the overall effect is much better.

Outside of battle though, the constant moving can be terrible, especially in the gauntlet runner. There’s a running joke that Strohl gets carsick (runner-sick?) a lot. He was already my favorite due to his Japanese voice actor and his personality, but this endears him to me more. The gauntlet runner can be a nightmare at times. It’s always shaking and rumbling when you're on the move. Depending on how many hours I spent in-game, this could be either manageable or a serious eyesore. The text box is always moving too, which can be distracting at first glance. You really do have to give yourself some time to adjust to the game, though I can’t say how much of my current comfort with everything comes from familiarity or, again, the update.

The fantasy world of Metaphor is pretty fun to explore, and I liked to talk to the NPCs to get a feel of each individual town. The cities all feel very distinct, and it was a huge sigh of relief to leave Grand Trad behind early on. Dungeon designs were a lot less inspired, as they all kind of looked and felt the same. There's something about the map design and the overall graphics that make them look like something I'd see in Fire Emblem: Three Houses or Three Hopes, which was kind of strange. Exploration's not that fun, but at the very least you can defeat weak enemies on the overworld without having to waste time trouncing cannon fodder you're twenty levels stronger than.

If you liked Persona 5 or Persona 3 Reload, you’ll like Metaphor: ReFantazio. For one thing, the gameplay loop is exactly the same. You have deadlines that you must meet throughout the story or else it's game over. During your free time, you can explore dungeons and make headway on the main mission, or you can hang out with your companions and level up your Royal Virtues. A new inclusion in this is that when you're going to dungeons, you might need to use up several days' worth of travel time. This means that you'll need to be a bit more mindful of how you plan your time before your deadline. There are also some exclusive rewards that you can get from leveling up your Royal Virtues or relationship levels in addition to new Archetypes, much like how you could get bonuses in social links in the Persona games.

The reason why Persona 4 wasn't included in the above is because the combat in Metaphor: ReFantazio uses the same modern take on turn-based battle that those two games did. It's fun and addictive, and the feeling of unlocking more skills and Archetypes is quite rewarding. For me, the familiarity of the established Shin Megami Tensei and Persona battle system was welcome, since it makes it easy to pick up and start. But I can understand others viewing it as a con. Additions like the front and back lines, Synthesis, and the option to skip a turn can really expand your strategies, so it's not one-to-one to past games from director Hashino.

There's an extra layer of planning between battles, thanks to the game not letting you switch Archetypes on the fly. See an enemy you know has a Pierce Weakness and you don't have anyone who can hit it? Better shove one in or regret it later. It’s great that there aren’t limits as to what Archetypes characters can unlock. While everyone has their own specialties, due to differing stats, it’s still nice to know that I have the option of using, say, Hulkenberg as a makeshift mage or healer should my more dedicated magic users run out of MP. I also highly recommend that you take a look at the weather report before heading to dungeons. Even if it's more worthwhile to fight enemies on bad weather days, the bonus isn't big enough to justify going through hell if you have to deal with enemies like my nemesis, the Guptauros.

As a whole, Metaphor: ReFantazio is quite charming and fun. It’s interesting to see so many familiar elements from Shin Megami Tensei and Persona in this sort of high fantasy game. But I also wish that Atlus had tried something completely different, especially since this is a separate IP. At times, it doesn't feel like there's enough difference between this and what Persona 5 brought to the table. I went into this game wanting to judge it on its own merit, and yet it refuses to let me leave behind Joker's specter. Granted, Metaphor's story does have a lot more intrigue as it goes on. There’s probably something to make of all this—that promises to branch away from the status quo usually don't pan out, leading to little actual change—but I’m sure I’m just reading too deeply into this metaphor.

Metaphor: ReFantazio will come out on October 11, 2024 for the PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

The post Review: Metaphor: ReFantazio Takes Time to Grow on You appeared first on Siliconera.

It’s amazing how many Touhou Project games end up localized or released worldwide. We’re getting easy access to mainline entries, spin-off projects, and even indies inspired by the series. One of the most notable recent ones is Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, which is a rhythm game that features traditional and shoot’em up inspired stages. It’s definitely worth trying, but certain elements might leave those unfamiliar with the series feeling left out.

I’m talking about the story, first and foremost. In Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost, you go through a campaign to find out what’s gone wrong in the setting of Gensokyo this time and unlock new rhythm stages. The whole region is something of a wasteland, dilapidated and desolate. Reimu Hakurei, our ever present recurring heroine, is there to hopefully set things right. However, she completely lost her memories. So in addition to restoring things around her, she needs to rediscover her own identity. This means finding the Fragment of Memory Mitama Cards and perform the Reigen Kaisei prayer.

This is the only part of Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost that doesn’t feel “right.” The execution of the story isn’t great. The localization is fine enough, but you can tell the original script might not have perfectly articulated things. It makes assumptions about the player’s familiarity with the series. The pacing is bad. It’s just not well done. And since you are forced into it, it’s a bit disappointing.

At least it doesn’t matter that the story isn’t anything special. The  Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost gameplay is fantastic and not held back by it. You go through incredible songs from throughout the Touhou Project series. Passing them means advancing, succeeding, and unlocking more tracks and cards. The library of songs is vast! They’re fantastic even if you are entirely new to them! It’s just wonderful. The optional extra missions, which can involve getting certain combo lengths, are manageable. I also liked how there are stage gimmicks that can make a run feel more fun in the campaign.

The gameplay is also great since the execution for the stages are honestly super sound. Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost is a rhythm game with both a traditional approach and one that adds in a shoot’em up feel. The Kagura stages are the more typical ones. There are six lanes, each tied to a different button. Notes drop, and you press the keys in time with standard or held notes. But what really gets neat is when a Danmaku stage comes up. When this comes up, there are between two and four lanes, based on difficulty, with two on either side of the main screen. You then also move back and forth to avoid the bullets from the enemy and “fight” by shooting, occasionally also moving back and forth on-screen when arrow indicators appear to help you dodge. It’s really innovative and fresh! The downside is, movement is pretty slow when going back and forth, which might be an issue in certain songs and on certain difficulties.

The only thing I’d really recommend doing is customizing your controls. The initial inputs threw me off a little bit. Not because they’re bad! They rely on the face buttons and are both comfortable and responsive. Just depending on your familiarity with other rhythm games, you might feel more comfortable assigning those lanes to six different buttons. Which is really easy to do, as custom key binding is an option here. It’s especially helpful when the danmaku battle comes up, since then you know right away what inputs you need. 

I really appreciate the chances that Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost takes, in terms of gameplay, because it is a solid rhythm game! The track listing is fantastic. It’s drawing from all the amazing Touhou Project music we love. I just wish the story was either handled better or more approachable for those who aren’t familiar with the series, as that’s going to be quite a barrier for most people to overcome if they give it a chance. Knowing you need to go through that to even unlock your songs is a lot.

Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost is available on the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam. 

The post Review: Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost Is at Its Best in Rhythm Game Stages appeared first on Siliconera.

I appreciate when a Metroidvania game tries to refine and polish its mechanics, or when it mixes things up with a familiar formula. Crypt Custodian is one of those Metroidvania style titles that shines in its simplicity. While the game felt closer to an isometric platforming title, the blend of genres mixes nicely in this game. Add a cute premise and an adorable cat hero to boot, and you have me on board.

Pluto is a good boy, the best one to ever be. Unfortunately, time has come for Pluto to depart to the land of the dead. After meeting Kendra, the guardian of the land of the dead, Pluto is declared to be perhaps not the best boy ever. Sentenced to clean the afterlife forever, Pluto now has to make new friends in order to break into the afterlife’s Palace that the good ghosts inhabit, where a mirror into the land of the living allows them to visit them and guard over their loved ones, in order to make things right for himself and every other stranded ghost left outside.

While thinking about adorable animals and pets meeting their end is not my priority, Crypt Custodian handles this well, and the premise is simple and treated with levity. As Pluto meets new characters and animals, players will also find polaroid photos of their lives and how these animals met their end. The little stories contained in the polaroids offered context into these characters in life, and collecting all the photos paid off in the end.

Exploring the world of Crypt Custodian is really fun. Pluto starts as a fast and somewhat agile character to control, and as you progress through the game and get upgrades and new tools to navigate the world, he becomes even more agile and control gets more precise. During combat, his main tools are a very fast melee attack and a reliable dodge, as well as some special moves that Pluto can activate after filling the special meter. These are really useful and I found myself using them very often, as the meter filled very quickly. Enemies usually take few hits to take down, but so does Pluto. Because of that, fighting depends on smart positioning and knowing what each enemy is capable of in order to take them out strategically. Some encounters can be challenging, especially in some challenge rooms and with some of the curses you can acquire in order to get resources. However, I never found the challenge level frustrating, and it was always enjoyable to do all the side content and completely exploring each area.

There’s a nice variety of mobs to dispose of, with each area having completely unique types of enemies. They all boil down to different flavors of melee or ranged damage, but the way each one attacks, the timings, or even their reaction to being damaged or defeated is different. This made every new area exciting to explore and get used to both platforming and fighting.

Combat is not the only thing you’ll be doing, as exploring is a major part of the experience. The isometric perspective is refreshing for a Metroidvania style game, and platforming in Crypt Custodian is very precise. The game offers very useful indicators for when you will land after a jump and the minimalist visual style makes it so that there’s never confusion on where enemy hits will appear. My eyesight can get tired easily or I can struggle to read the screen if too much is happening. But since Crypt Custodian keeps things clean and readable this wasn’t a problem, and I found no frustration in the game’s controls and readability.

Each area has a unique art style and color palette, with my favorite ones being the house basement, the abandoned theme part, and the blue area with the astral shifting enemies, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetics. The latter in particular has a fantastic gimmick where dashing will shift enemies to different dimensions, making some available to interact with and others impossible until you shift again. Crypt Custodian has some really neat ideas going on. The minimalist style doesn’t allow for a ton of expression in its art, but I still found it appealing in its own way. The afterlife felt mysterious and inscrutable, and the simplicity of the style conveyed that nicely.

It’s in the character and enemy sprites where the more expressive art style appears with Pluto and his friends being incredibly cute and funny. Pluto is always a joy to watch, from its funny expression to the way it moves. In fact, losing the early dodge for a more reliable one made me a bit sad, as seeing him tumble around was very funny and I loved it. Enemies all have a similar style, being usually different variations of bug-like designs. Their designs are generally very readable and a glance helps you guess what they might be able to do. However, it’s boss designs where the game gets even whackier and avant garde. Early game bosses look quite normal, but late game there are some really funky looking dudes and spooky creepy crawlies, with the Moon Man looking straight out of a nightmare one could have had as a child.

I really appreciate Crypt Custodian for knowing its strengths and exploring them throughout the roughly 10 hours it took me to complete the game. The mix of Metroidvania and isometric platforming elements mix really nicely in a title where precision and readability are king. You won’t find a nail-biting challenge in this game, but some extra post-game boss rush modes can prove really demanding and give you that edge. And while the subject matter can be a bit much if you’re sensitive the same way I am to pet an animal death, Crypt Custodian made me look back fondly and remember my childhood pet and every animal I’ve ever loved.

Crypt Custodian is readily available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam.

The post Review: Crypt Custodian Gets That Simple Is Best appeared first on Siliconera.

Venomous snakes, overlarge and the color of sinew and raw red meat, slither over a well worn path. Flies buzz around corpses that have been claimed by lush, green jungles. Corruption grows, black tendrils seeping through green-blue waters now turned putrid. And somewhere, deep within the vines and ruins of Nahantu, a presence stirs — Hatred manifest. Which is apt, consider Diablo IV's expansion is titled Vessel of Hatred. And while Diablo IV does draw players back to the once explored jungles of this southern continent, Blizzard Entertainment has cast a new light on this region, and used it to expand further on the MMO-lite systems that appeared in the base game.

To say that I was anticipating this expansion would be an understatement. While not the perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, the narrative of Diablo IV had me intrigued as to where the series could go next. There was the familiar strum of an acoustic guitar, the tease of the Prime Evils returning to Sanctuary in some shape or form. Vessel of Hatred builds upon these things, but not in the way that I expected. Because as a series, Diablo has always been straight forward. While the binary lines of good and evil are often obscured, you know that, at the very least, you will be fighting back against the spawns of Hell and their masters.

But instead of plunging players back into the fiery pits and the Realm of Hatred we were acquainted with in the base game, the entirety of this campaign takes place in the jungles of Nahantu. As mentioned previously, this region isn't entirely foreign. Some of it appeared or was mentioned in Diablo II, a game that Diablo IV continues to try and channel to it's benefit and detriment. Or what I believe the general audience, and to some extent even die-hards, remember that game being. It's still gritty and gross. Killer flies attempt to swarm you as snakes dart at you from shallow pools of water. There are abominations that prowl within the jungle, but these enemies are very much the same that appeared in various areas of the base game. It doesn't matter much, as what you kill isn't as important as to how fast you kill it.

This new region is rich in culture, taking deep inspiration from Latin America. It's in the architecture, in the clothing the citizens wear, and in the Spiritborn, Diablo IV's new class. Summoning strength from the Spirit Realm, the Spiritborn channels four animals — well, one very large insect and three animals if we're being technical. You can call upon the Rezoka, the jaguar, to deal fire damage in fast, swiping slashes, Kwatli, the eagle, to launch yourself in the air and slam down on enemies to electrify them, crush them with the raw strength given to you by Wumba, the gorilla, or spew poison at your foes with the power of Balazan, the centipede.

Overall, the Spiritborn is a somewhat well rounded class. I liked the option of being able to choose from four different types of damage, even if I favored the burn damage from Rezoka and the poisonous puddles provided by Balazan. Much like the Sorcerer, I felt funneled into specific builds, but I'm liable to give Wumba a shot once the game releases in full. As it stands, the Spiritborn is a nimble, close-range fighter that excels best when you're mashing your dodge button to weave in and out of combat. It reminded me most of Rogue, a class that I previously loved, but have come to otherwise abandon in the late game for the less involved Necromancer. While the Spiritborn is no doubt exhilarating to play, it isn't my speed. But those that love fast and frenetic movement will absolutely enjoy this class, and based on what I played and saw (since Blizzard Entertainment allowed us to group up with other reviewers given access to the game ahead of launch), it seems like it's capable of doing an incredible amount of single target and AoE (Area of Effect) damage.

I ran through The Undercity, one of Diablo IV's new ways to level, which is effectively a series of small dungeons that require you to gather essence from random spawned fonts, while killing enemies to build up time so you don't get kicked out before defeating the final boss and reaping your rewards. You can also offer tribute to increase the amount of rewards you get and what kind. It's a more effective way of grinding out gear and materials than Helltides, for example. My Necromancer was more than strong enough to blast through The Undercity on his own, even on the higher Torment difficulties, due to some good luck regarding a few uniques I picked up, but paired with a Spiritborn, we were speedrunning these micro-dungeons with incredible efficiency.

And in the end game the Spiritborn continued to shine, as Diablo IV has edged closer and closer into becoming an MMO-lite. Yes, the base game allowed for you to see players scurrying about in the world, and world quests were kind of a thing that existed but never quite caught on. But Vessel of Hatred takes this a step further with a new end-game dungeon The Dark Citadel. Unlocking it is a chore, and I'm not sure how much I like the idea of weekly rewards tied to what is effectively a World of Warcraft raid appearing in the ARPG. Blizzard Entertainment has also added a Party Finder into the game, which I'm sure many will be using to clear this new gauntlet of content, which cannot be tackled alone. Which is probably for the best, because The Dark Citadel is hard. Like, really hard. This in combination with how the campaign ended, leads me to believe that we're going to get a lot more expansions. And probably not far spaced apart.

Vessel of Hatred continues not some time after the ending of Diablo IV. Lilith has been slain, and her father, Mephisto the Lord of Hatred, has been imprisoned in a stone. If you're familiar with the Diablo series, you've seen this song and dance before. Because for some reason, this seems to be the only solution to imprisoning beings of great and terrible power. The player character is on the hunt for Nyrelle, a young girl who more or less made the decision to seal said Lord of Hatred into the stone, and it now threatens to overcome and wholly corrupt her. Again, the game is not subtle about it's various metaphors and imagery to the very end. And brutality in Diablo IV comes in handfuls in what feels like an attempt to further distance itself from the maligned Diablo III, which arguably had some of the darkest lore the series has had to date.

Violence and death are plentiful because it must be so, the narrative must remain cynical and cyclical even with small rays of hope desperate to shine through. It is what fans want, but it doesn't do the game any favors. I'm not sure if I was more tolerant of it in the base game because I had a deep desire for a new Diablo game, or if I just really loved Lilith. In Vessel of Hatred it feels wanton, necessary because this is what the brand is now. A man is flayed open, driven mad, because that is just the way the world is. People are driven to the brink in the wake of Reaper of Souls, pushed further to the edge because of Lilith's promise of free will and our denial of it. Sacrifices are made out of a desperate sense of self-preservation, but for what?

I won't spoil the end of the expansion, but it was so on the nose that it nearly made me laugh. I have a clear idea of what could happen, but given how abruptly it ended and how far away we seem from actually fighting a Prime Evil, I'm not sure when we'll get there. I'm not even sure if I'm interested at this point. But Diablo has always been good at sucking me back in through it's seasonal content, that continues to introduce new mechanics. I will give the development team that, in that Vessel of Hatred is the product of these hit or miss seasonal cycles, pulling what players were most receptive to, and just keeping it in. However, I'm not too keen on some adjustments made to unlocking the aforementioned end game content. I'm just glad I have a high level character to blitz through it and unlocking it before jumping into the next season, because I know I will.

The Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred expansion has me torn. I love a lot of the new changes, and I really wanted to say that I loved the story, but I don't. Since I'm largely someone that does play a game for it's narrative, it's strange to be on the other side of that. Now I'm in it for the gameplay, the number crunching, finding the most effective build to run dungeons ad nauseam while listening to whatever post-hardcore song shuffles through the playlist I've constructed overtime just to keep me going. If anything, I suppose it's fun, and players looking to sink their teeth into more engaging content will have a good time. I just wish I loved it more.

Diablo IV is available right now for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Vessel of Hatred will release on October 8, 2024.

The post Review: Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred Leans Further Into Being an MMO-Lite appeared first on Siliconera.

I love mobile rhythm games like Love Live School Idol Festival, Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage, and I-Chu. The idea of collecting character cards, building them up, and using those decks to ensure I’m strong enough to clear song stages has always been thrilling. Plus, Japanese idol music is pretty good. I-Chu: Chibi Edition seemed like exactly the type of game I’d want, since it is all that minus free-to-play nonsense. Except even though this is a single-purchase game, so much of those mobile trappings get in the way. Not to mention, the translation is shockingly awkward.

Etoile Vie School is a school for young men of varying ages to attend to become idols. They train in different courses to ideally become strong performers. Where do we come in? We’re the producer who helps them on the way. Though that really means we collect character cards to form teams, use those decks to earn points as we play through rhythm-game songs, and read extremely short visual novel chapters that go over their journey to stardom. 

Basically, here’s how the gameplay loop goes. You play through a song on easy with your crew of five “talents” recruited from the gacha. (These cards can be combined or leveled up to become stronger.) After beating certain songs, you can read through a handful of story chapters. A new track then opens up, you beat it, and you can read more story chapters. 

Now, before we go further, know this isn’t an otome game. While your “avatar,” who acts as a producer, is a woman, there’s no romance here. All of the side stories that had those elements in the mobile game are absent in the I-Chu: Chibi Edition. I was incredibly disappointed to hear about that, so it’s best to know that before you pick it up. 

You’re, as far as I’ve seen, locked into the “easy” difficulty to unlock more of the story in I-Chu: Chibi Edition. Which you need to advance to unlock more of the gacha banners. The easy versions of songs are honestly too safe sometimes, and I’ve yet to not get a full combo on one. Especially since all of the virtual “friends” you can select for assistance have maxed out parties.

Though honestly, skipping the story might not be a bad idea. The localization is bad. There are so many awkward phrases here and strange word choices. The punctuation and spacing between letters is incorrect at times. It isn’t as bad as what happened with The Villainess is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom, but there are times when it feels close. Which is weird, as I’ve found PQube translations to typically be rather solid. 

I was also disappointed by how much unlocking there is for a console version of a mobile game. At this point, someone is paying $30 for I-Chu: Chibi Edition. At the very least, all of the songs should be available immediately in the free-play section, so you can jump right into any tracks you enjoy. But no. They’re not. You need to go through the story to unlock them. Similarly, not all the gacha banners are available either. Again, you need to unlock them. 

Speaking of which, I have a lot of issues with how the gacha is handled in I Chu: Chibi Edition in general. The odds seem as bad as they would be in a mobile game. After five hours of playing, I only have one LE card, and it is for Li Chaoyang. You’d think that, given this is completely offline and pulled from the mobile version, the rate could be increased so I’m not swamped with Rs and RRs. It’d be nice to see LEs more often.  

Which is all a shame, since the rhythm game portion of I-Chu: Chibi Edition is quite fun. Once you do start unlocking a substantial number of tracks — let’s say around 10-20 — you’ll start finding favorites! I felt a lot of them were catchy, and the vocalists performing them all seemed pretty talented. The Normal and Hard difficulties start to feel enjoyable, and Maniac can be genuinely challenging. 

I like the idea of I-Chu: Chibi Edition, as having a one-purchase version of a mobile game that grants you to access to almost everything is appealing. However, the way it forces you to unlock everything, the awkward localization, and the still frustrating gacha system hold it back. The music is good! The rhythm game element is pretty solid! Once you get some decent cards, you can make some strong teams! It’s just all of the other stuff surrounding it bogs it down.

I-Chu: Chibi Edition will be available for the Nintendo Switch on October 3, 2024.  

The post Review: I-Chu: Chibi Edition Is Bogged Down by Its Mobile Roots appeared first on Siliconera.

Otomate isn’t shy about making otome games that are outside the range of normal expectations, with some some being dark like Virche Evermore or silly like Cupid Parasite. What we can count on is the developer going all-in on a theme. 9 RIP, the latest Switch otome that involves dating characters inspired by urban legends, ghosts, and supernatural entities, fully commits to the bit. In so doing, it also tells multiple stories of otherworldly encounters that feel like their own (romantic) urban legends.

Part of what makes 9 RIP such a unique otome game is its execution. While all three of the storylines begin on a common route, they diverge based on a choice made early on. So at the outset, we’re presented with a young woman about to graduate high school, but preparing to declare what she’d like to do next and if she’ll attend the college her mother desperately wants her to attend. Making one of three decisions while considering how to handle the problem causes the story to branch off into three main tales. Each one has at least two potential love interests tied to otherworldly elements. (If you’ve cleared other routes, this goes up to three on one path.) It’s really fascinating, as we get to see how her destiny splits and multiple encounters and results based on her decision.

It also means that the ensuing romantic storylines on each path get to more heavily feature the selected characters tied to it. They’re better integrated to the story, which means both their love stories and the overall arc feels stronger. This doesn’t mean you won’t encounter some of these other leads in the arcs that don’t feature them as a candidate to chase. As an example, when you first meeting Koyo in that storyline branch, you’ll also encounter Kureha and Yui. However, Kureha and Yui are supporting cast members there, and play larger parts in another branch. It means everything ties together in a more tidy manner, which I appreciated and felt enhanced the overall experience. 

As does the insanity system. While there are the typical choices that can increase affection with particular love interests, there are others that affect the heroine’s mental state. In each of the routes, our avatar ends up in varying predicaments. The sanity gauge comes into play based on the sorts of reactions we can select for certain situations and predicaments. These can, in turn, affect our fate. It’s an interesting element, especially since it does tie in with the horror and supernatural themes at play. After all, the character does end up in some dire predicaments, and some of the love interests are intimidating or unsettling individuals. 

Speaking of which, I genuinely love the range of love interests available in 9 RIP, as it really feels more varied than most otome games. There are so many romance options, and they really fit the theme of the game well. In fact, I think the selection means it’d be even easier for a player to find at least one that appeals to them. They’re all pretty well written, with distinct personalities that come through and are appealing for various reasons. Also, while there are occasionally “scary” moments, there’s a good sense of balance between drama, comedy, romance, and supernatural segments. The only suggestion I have is that since the characters are tied to different storylines, it’s valuable to make a few saves on one of the save file pages so you can jump back to get on the route where you can pursue your favorites. 

What’s also great about 9 RIP is how well this otome game nails the general aesthetic and ambiance. Otomate understood the assignment. The UI, color schemes, and details all perfectly capture the mood. The CGs range from typical ones you’d see with love interests, in addition to some in which you can see the nature of these otherworldly companions and perhaps even darker tendencies. It is good at establishing and maintaining a mood, which really suits the theme well. 

The only thing that really got to me is a stylistic choice regarding perspectives. In other Otomate otome games, there would occasionally be options to see parts of the stories from other characters’ perspectives. So maybe we’d see what the love interest was thinking. In 9 RIP, you don’t get that choice. As part of the normal progression down a path, it will suddenly cut from the heroine’s viewpoint to that of one of the guys we can pursue in that route or an NPC. Occasionally, it is interesting or helpful. However, sometimes it really took me out of the moment — especially if it didn’t add anything valuable to the moment and was just the guy thinking how he’s instantly drawn to her or wants to be with her — and I’d have preferred if that was optional.

9 RIP is another one of those Otomate otome games that experiments with what we expect from these sorts of dating sims, and it’s a great success as a result. The chance the developer took on storytelling means the love interests get more moments with the heroine and also feel like stars of their storylines. It involving urban legends and some horror staples mean we get some unexpected and fun romance options. Plus, the aesthetic is great. There are a few elements that might not be as appreciated people, but I feel like that comes down to personal tastes rather than actual failings on the part of the developer or game itself. 

9 RIP will come to the Nintendo Switch on October 15, 2024. 

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