Pretty unique turn-based JRPG for the 3DS, directed by THE Yasumi Matsuno, responsible for the Ivalice games, Tactics Ogre, etc. It's really short for a JRPG, with NG and NG+ being only 16 hours total (for me), but I don't mind. It looks like it's heavily inspired by tabletop RPGs, what with the characters all being board pieces, the style of narration, and the significance of dice in gameplay. Combat is mostly your typical turn-based fare, with the addition of the dice system that lets you roll dice to determine whether or not attacks hit. Character customization and managing equipment is pretty fun too. It's not too deep in the writing department, but I enjoyed everything it had to offer.

Really great game. While not quite as refined as Zero 2 or 3, the core gameplay and level design was still a lot of fun. However, I did find some of the changes and new mechanics a bit disagreeable though. The part system managed to be almost as obtuse as X5's, the new cyberelf system removed the fun of collecting them, the change in EX skill acquisition was dumb, etc. The removal of elemental chips was genius though, as it alleviates the franchise's long-standing issue with weakness abuse sucking the fun out of bosses. Serves as an amazing epilogue to the Zero series, too.

Absolutely remarkable 2D rogue-like. I tried it a few years ago and I got bored of it quickly, before even getting the first boss cell. But I picked it up again and played all the way through to the secrete ending, and had a blast. It's very satisfying to play; carefully rolling through and parrying attacks to methodically tear apart waves of enemies. There's lots of different weapons to use, and runs are fairly consistent. Some may call this a negative, but they're too hung up on the "rogue-like" side of things. I don't want to be stuck with shitty weapons or a boring run because of bad RNG, and thankfully, in Dead Cells, this won't happen. It's perfectly replayable too, with you unlocking higher difficulty levels that change up enemies, make things less forgiving, and even open up new areas. The game looks and sounds great too.