jbu3
Dull. Repetitive. Music that grates on your ears. The twists at the end of each episode land with a thud, since you’re never invested in any of the characters.
We’re more than ok with mystery games where its investigations are on-rails, as long as there’s compelling questions that keep us engaged. But this game? This game is all about walking around, asking each question that’s in your journal, then answering a series of multiple choice questions before moving on to the next chapter. We’re not exaggerating when we say that this game made us feel consistently drowsy. Not the way we hoped to ring in 2024, but ah well.
We’re more than ok with mystery games where its investigations are on-rails, as long as there’s compelling questions that keep us engaged. But this game? This game is all about walking around, asking each question that’s in your journal, then answering a series of multiple choice questions before moving on to the next chapter. We’re not exaggerating when we say that this game made us feel consistently drowsy. Not the way we hoped to ring in 2024, but ah well.
2019
A charming murder mystery with a lovely aesthetic, an engaging collection of oddball suspects, and puzzles that take some level of considered thought without making you bust out a walkthrough. Short and sweet!
2024
Indika's philosophical, theological conversations around good and evil won't win any awards for originality. But it's such a potent blast of dark humor, we couldn't help falling in love. If you can stomach a feel-bad narrative that gets pretty dark at times, you really ought to check it out.
2024
Throwback survival horror, just the way we like it: unnerving, chock full of bizarre puzzles, a runtime that doesn't overstay its welcome and makes it easy to decide "We'll give it another go" on a whim. Survival horror might be a departure of sorts for SFB Games, but they nail the genre the same way they've nailed detective adventure games. We wholeheartedly recommend this one.
2023
The sequel to Stasis, a truly underrated horror adventure game, expands everything in a number of ways. Expanding the cast to three principle characters was a brilliant move: it makes solving puzzles between several rooms exciting instead of tedious, and it gives you plenty of colorful chatter.
The gore and body horror still stretches from effective to juvenile at times, but when it comes to bleak, sci-fi tragedy (with a few excellent jokes sprinkled in to lighten the mood), Bone Totem delivers in spades.
The gore and body horror still stretches from effective to juvenile at times, but when it comes to bleak, sci-fi tragedy (with a few excellent jokes sprinkled in to lighten the mood), Bone Totem delivers in spades.
2021
The Chrono Jotter is a gruesome, "death game" style murder mystery that features cannibalism, suicide, and cosmic horror. It also happens to be one of the more empathetic games we've played. Much like The House in Fata Morgana, the most horrific exteriors can hide a loving tragedy that's worth experiencing. Give this a shot, especially now that it's received a reworked English translation this year.
Every pet you speak with keeps going on and on, taking an eternity to get to the point. And the humor is extremely hit-or-miss. But hey, it does what it says on the tin: you run around a big city as a little kitty, getting into all sorts of trouble. It was at its best when we were doing our own thing, ramming pedestrian's legs to make them drop their phones or attempting ill-advised jumps. It's a good time! Just...yeah. Way too much talking, and this is coming from a visual novel fan.
The translation is rather stilted at times, you can practically play it with your brain on autopilot (aside from the quizzes they occasionally throw at you), and it's clear that they haven't done much, visuals aside, to update these decades-old adventure games. But the cast still grew on us, so we can't quite say that we had a bad time.
It might run like garbage on the Switch, but this is Kazutaka Kodaka at his best: engaging mysteries, a truly eclectic cast of goofballs, and shocking twists and turns. They've shed most of the baggage from the worst bits of Danganronpa, too! This was a delight to play.
Despite being a 2017 game, Ghost of the Dusk sticks a little too close to the classic Jake Hunter formula for our liking. There's very little room for deduction when moving the case along, and you'd need a magnifying glass to solve some of the pixel hunt investigation screens! That, and the localization is pretty atrocious: plenty of typos, missing words, and more. We won't deny that the central mystery kept our attention, even if it wasn't nearly as "haunted" as the game first suggests, but it left us wanting something more substantial.
This would be one star if it weren't for an impressive horror sequence halfway through.
It's certainly a pretty game, but looks don't mean anything if they get in the way of playing the damned thing. It's so insistent on maintaining its cinematic approach that there are no button prompts, no feedback on what you're pressing. It's a game where the block button is more of a suggestion than a command!
Choices equally baffling and infuriating dogged us throughout our playthrough, leading up to an underwhelming ending. If there's ever a Hellblade III, let's hope Senua finds a better saga.
It's certainly a pretty game, but looks don't mean anything if they get in the way of playing the damned thing. It's so insistent on maintaining its cinematic approach that there are no button prompts, no feedback on what you're pressing. It's a game where the block button is more of a suggestion than a command!
Choices equally baffling and infuriating dogged us throughout our playthrough, leading up to an underwhelming ending. If there's ever a Hellblade III, let's hope Senua finds a better saga.
This is a 15-20 hour, side-scrolling ARPG that gets off to a slow start, but the cast is charming enough that it isn't too big of a deal. I did end up wishing there was more to the town-building (you complete side quests, which often result in new items being sold or new buildings entirely), but as a game built to introduce folks to the setting, it did the job well, and I'm eager to check out the "real" Eiyuden Chronicle game next year.
Crisis Core is the worst kind of prequel: it answers some questions you might've had about Zack, but then proceeds to sink its hooks into things that never needed explaining in FFVII.
Truth be told, we had a pretty decent time with the combat itself: the roulette leads to amazing moments where you can spam your most powerful spells without draining any MP, and the side missions are delightfully bite-sized!
That said, we can't score it any higher than one and a half stars. Yes, the story and writing really is that awful.
Truth be told, we had a pretty decent time with the combat itself: the roulette leads to amazing moments where you can spam your most powerful spells without draining any MP, and the side missions are delightfully bite-sized!
That said, we can't score it any higher than one and a half stars. Yes, the story and writing really is that awful.
2016
In spite of its tortured development process and a slew of canceled DLC, Final Fantasy XV defies fate and flourishes. Incredible performances all around, the road trip vibes are impeccable and wholly unique, and combat is a delight! By the time its second half rolled around and we were fully In It, we finally understood just how special this game is. Salute to Noctis, The King of Kings, and his oomfie followers. Y'all made for one hell of an unforgettable journey.
We didn't gel with Final Fantasy VIII's combat system (to the point where we had to dig ourselves out of a hole towards the end), and the major plot beats weren't all that compelling compared to, say, a game like Final Fantasy XV.
That said? Squall, Laguna and Rinoa's stories were so well-realized, and we were in tears by the time the game wrapped up. Visually, it also holds up like a dream: even several decades later, the way it seamlessly integrates pre-rendered video and in-game models is astonishing, the out-there designs of buildings and vehicles are eye-catching, and of course, the music itself is wonderful from start to finish. Even if the combat isn't your jam (it sure wasn't ours), it's all well worth seeing this game through from beginning to end.
That said? Squall, Laguna and Rinoa's stories were so well-realized, and we were in tears by the time the game wrapped up. Visually, it also holds up like a dream: even several decades later, the way it seamlessly integrates pre-rendered video and in-game models is astonishing, the out-there designs of buildings and vehicles are eye-catching, and of course, the music itself is wonderful from start to finish. Even if the combat isn't your jam (it sure wasn't ours), it's all well worth seeing this game through from beginning to end.