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.

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.

A retro murder mystery inspired by greats like Famicom Detective Club and Portopia Serial Murder Case, Retro Mystery Club Vol.1 had us hooked from the very beginning. This game's incredibly faithful, almost to a fault: like Portopia, there will be times where you're mashing the same menu verbs again and again, hoping to move forward, stuck in a rut until you remember the one thing you haven't yet tried. But in spite of that, it's a satisfying little mystery, one that genuinely surprised us at times.

Give it a shot! And maybe leave a review on the Steam page after you do: it's currently hovering around 6-7 reviews, which we hope doesn't discourage the publisher from localizing the other two games in this series.

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.

A solid, Saw-adjacent room escape game built around an interlocked mansion. The ending(s) were incredibly unsatisfying, and we wish there was more to Alex's character than "Damn, what a selfless role model of a girl." And the humor/horror balance leans too hard into humor for our liking: it destroyed much of the tension that its first hour effectively built. But if you enjoy writing down clues and plotting out solutions in a notebook, there's a solid chance you'll end up enjoying it anyway! (As long as you aren't playing it handheld: bouncing between a Steam Deck and physical journal is far from ideal)

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.