Extremely promising in terms of vibes. The cast is pretty fun, I like the writing and what's going on here. I also like the little details like being able to choose the more polished "studio" art style versus the "doujin" art style. (I picked the doujin art style. I play Higurashi with the original sprites. That's my style.)

However, I'm extremely glad this game isn't actually coming out until next year because DAMN this game's responsiveness is bizarre. Sometimes I find myself mashing through dialogue too quickly and accidentally skipping dialogue or picking an option I didn't mean to, but other times it really doesn't feel like my inputs are registering. Hopefully this will be fixed by the time the full game comes out, because I'd really hate to see something this neat get screwed over by bad controls.

The first level of this one was a fucking blast. It felt like something with a kind of Pizza Tower vibe, though I know Antonball came out a while ago? There's Going Fast, there's fun movement mechanics, the animation and spritework is Real Good. Unfortunately the other level didn't click with me as much because it fell into the trap of Precision Timed Platforming that I don't really fuck with. I wish it hadn't just because it's very fun and chaotic!

The environments are very pretty and flying around is pretty fun! I’m curious to see where everything goes. There are a few things that I hope get smoothed out between now and release, like a lot of the animals looking worse than everything else, but that’s fine even if they don’t. I am not sure if I like the art style used for the kid’s face for whatever reason, though, and I can’t actually say what bothers me about it.

Very cute! I like the character designs and animation a whole lot. The dialogue lays it on perhaps a little too thick with the puns (and I say this as a dragon quest fan), but it seemed fun enough to be worth going for. I enjoyed the fucked up cyborg rat pirate king and the muscle mommy bartender.

Eh. I kind of like the aesthetic, but the fourth wall breaking feels a little clunky perhaps. Maybe if it was a little better edited... like. I feel like I can come off a little elitist here, but come on indie devs. Surely you can shell out for an editor for your script. Hire me, I'll do it. I can forgive it if it's a long-ass game with the occasional error but it's happening consistently within the first couple dialogue boxes.

The combat feels pretty alright but why the hell is like, the first platforming challenge after you learn how to double jump and wall jump an instakill rising acid wall? Who does that?

It's picross baby! Honestly I'm always glad to see themed picross, I think they're neat. When DO we get another nintendo one.

I'm not actually good at this game but I DO think it's neat. You play as a dead cat trying to return to the world of the living and reunite with your beloved human, which involves trying to figure out how to break out of the fucked up hellish afterlife. It's got a neat roguelike vibe where you get powers when you die, but it also puts you closer to losing Yourself. What happens if you beat the game as a fucked up cat furry demon instead of a cute little kitty? I do wonder.

It's neat. I feel kind of bad at it, but it's got a great vibe.

This one seems pretty fun! The art and animation style is very cute, and I like the vibes. I also like the quack button, that's Good. However, there's kind of a weird problem in that it causes my controller to vibrate and I need to tab out of the game to get it to stop? (this is a Switch pro controller, btw.) I don't know if it's a demo issue or what, but it's weird.

Like I'm sure many roguelikes go for, does instill that "one more run" vibe, but I don't think I'm patient enough for this. Yeah I do like my grid based strategy but the directional stuff is a little tough to get used to. I also kind of feel like they're laying the "you're the baddies" on a little thick, and trying a little too hard to be funny? I do like the protagonist alright though.

I haven't actually gotten a chance to play a SaGa yet, before this, but man, what a wild ride this demo was. The only available story is a delightfully insane jumble of Concepts, in which a magical girl has her powers stolen by a fuckin space marine or something? And then she has to get them back by wandering around and collecting cats? While pretending to be a normal schoolgirl making friends with boys who keep investigating supernatural phenomena? And then she world hops to somewhere completely wild??? I had a great time, is what I'm saying.

The battle system is equally baffling. I don't think I was ever completely clear on what I was actually doing, but occasionally it would sort of click and I would completely kick ass at a fight that I'd wiped on multiple times. It felt really satisfying when I actually managed to execute combos and interrupts and whatnot. Perhaps I am on my way towards being a SaGa pervert...

Outside of that, it's a little... hm. I don't know if I'd say it looked cheap, necessarily, but it was definitely an unexpected presentation style outside of the battles, which look excellent. I mean, graphics aren't super important to me and I like VNs so the weird maps and the VN cutscenes don't bother me, but I wonder if it might turn other people off....

I'm not sure how I feel about this one, honestly. It's got a neat vibe, but I do feel like the fights honestly feel like more of a pain in the ass than its obvious inspiration, Undertale. (It's the fly, man. Fuck the fly.) Obviously I know you can choose violence but come on. I feel like it's got a little more mean-spirited vibe than Undertale, but I'd have to play more to be sure and I'm not 100% I'll be doing that...? I mean, I really do like the art direction here. I like Doggy. I don't wanna fight that damn fly though.

Seems fun but perhaps a little fiddly. It looks pretty good aesthetically, and I do like the gameplay concepts here, but I don't know if I have the resources for it. When drilling through stuff you are always moving, and that's a little bit of a pain for me? I don't know. I'm not sure if it's for me.

Extremely cute and stylish! The gameplay seems pretty simple and I imagine people who are better at games will think it's too easy, but I'm curious to see how things turn out in the full game with all the different flavors of gameplay. I do understand that they can't show off everything in the demo, but the trailer at the end was a pretty exciting tease. Peach is very cute and the Theets have incredible Little Guy energy. I also like that you can slide down rails, that's very cute.

Oops! I immediately purchased this after I finished the demo. It was on sale, okay, and I have been craving Picross. This is even more dangerous than standard Picross, because you have a little wizard spirit friend who unlocks puzzles for you when you solve riddles by combining the subjects of previously solved puzzles. It's so dangerous. I cannot wait to play all of it. You also get puzzles of janky failed attempts at making concepts your Little Guy tried to make before you came along and started actually solving the grimoire. I love this. I think there are also fan-submitted puzzles too?

Thank you Jupiter. You are real ones.

I really like the majority of things about this. The art is great, the premise is cool, and I’m interested in seeing where things go. But, uh, this is kind of a weird complaint to have about a VN, but at the same time I think they made a weird decision… that being that the D-pad has specific functions, so if you try to use it to select things in menus you accidentally go into an investigation segment and use up one of your limited actions. I also feel like I skipped some dialogue boxes for reasons I cannot imagine outside of idk I pressed the button weird. The game does come out next year, though, so they’ve got time to smooth things out.

Aw this shit is good as fuck, dude. It looks great, sounds great, and the gameplay is addictive as hell. RTS never quite grabbed me all that much, but I really dig what’s going on here. It’s definitely got the stuff I like from Fire Emblem going on, but it’s very clearly different enough that I’m really digging it.

I didn’t actually complete chapter 1 because I got so distracted by literally every sidequest, but I am pretty curious to see where the story goes and what kinds of characters I get to recruit on my way through. Not sure if this is a Day One thing because I have SO many meaty games to get through, but I do recommend the demo. It’s nice and chunky! Seven hours of free video game. You should try it!

This game definitely seems pretty fun! Penny definitely felt like she could get away from me at times, but I imagine mastering the movement is part of the fun. The cutscenes were pretty cute, even if they're kind of limited. I like the art style, it's good.

Demo seems a little short to get a good idea of things, but it was pretty fun. I did see a LP of the gameboy Donkey Kong which was this kind of puzzle platformer and it seemed pretty fun, so I'm curious how complex it gets as it goes. I hope the ending of the GBA game is still in this because it was extremely funny. There's a LOT of stuff on the table to buy, though...

Seems intriguing, and the art style is very nice. It's got that fun brain bendy adventure game type of vibe. However, the translation is a little spotty. The wording's a little clunky and it need another editing pass as far as proofreading goes... Even so, I wouldn't mind playing the whole thing.

Pretty intriguing so far! I remember getting the DS original back in the day but I was a stupid baby so I didn’t get very far. The game looks extremely nice, and I think it’s very cute how they updated the DS lookin’ gadget to a Switch lookin’ gadget. I hope this means the glorious return of CING. Maybe they’ll do a remake of Hotel Dusk so I can play that, too…

Seems neat! I’m not really great at this type of gameplay but it was pretty fun. I was kinda sad they left stuff blocked off so I couldn’t go full metroidvania, but the story and artwork were neat. Honestly the biggest thing that keeps me from wanting to actually buy it is that like. Listen I know this industry is super fucked in every company and they’re all garbage. But Ubisoft sucks shit.

I did like this, actually! The opening leaves me curious about where things will go with these goofy goobers, and I’m pretty charmed by the MC’s looney tunes antics. I was expecting far worse from a bishoujo game from the 90s. With that said, the translation is a touch iffy-not unreadable, mind. The dialogue feels pretty natural, but there’s a case where a character named Minami was called South in the name field and a professor probably has the wrong pronouns. Probably. I hope it gets edited before the full translation release.

The vibes are pretty neat, and I like the art style and atmosphere. It didn't quite grab me that hard, but I do think the vibes are cool enough that I'd consider picking it up maybe perhaps.

I didn’t play the full demo because I hit the main menu without saving because I thought that might let me save. It didn’t give a “are you sure” warning or like, do any autosaves I think??? Not sure if i screwed something up or not. Anyway I liked this cute little Paper Mario-like, it’s extremely charming and the aesthetics are very good. I’d definitely be interested in playing more, it looks very promising.

I am SO excited for this game and the demo makes me want it even more. I haven’t played DQM past the second one so I’m pretty excited to mess around with the newer systems like talents and seasons and such, and I’m super excited about the story and concept. It’s mother fucking Dragon Quest 4 Babey! I cannot wait to play as my boy Psaro. I hope there is a part where you get to teach the local animals to talk. There probably won’t be and I’ll still have fun if we don’t but I want to teach the cat how to talk with the secret of evolution. Hell yeah.

I also love how much more complicated the synthesis system is even if I miss the old conceit that the monsters got married and left you an egg. Maybe I can still imagine that’s what’s happening???

Also I’m a Sugiyama hater but I very much did go HEY IT’S THAT SONG FROM MY CHILDHOOD. It really was nostalgia all along.

One bad thing is that not being able to directly order your monsters in tournaments still sucks. I told my monster who cures poison to do the tactic that ostensibly cures status effects and that dude absolutely refused to cure anyone in my party of poison. Like everyone was poisoned but it kept attacking. Come on buddy.

Purchased

Ah I liked this demo a lot! The battle system is pretty fun and the story and characters are pretty cute. It does seem a little old school but I do dig it! I’m kind of curious to see where it goes. I also like that you can see the different portraits from the different versions of the game, which like man, the PSP generation sure looked like that, huh. Also seems to have some replay value since you can presumably play through with Claude as the main character as well. But ah, so many games….

Very much Just Kind of Okay, unfortunately. It’s cute but feels kind of aggressively hijinks focused in a way that feels kind of generic rather than fun. Also the text sound feels weirdly loud and it reads a little janky. I do like that there’s a bingus cat though.

I had a pretty good time with this one, especially as someone who enjoys switching gameplay styles around. Is this a roguelite? I guess, right? Anyway I appreciate being encouraged to pass the baton to different characters as I go deeper into the dungeon, because it keeps things from getting repetitive. I didn’t really want to put it down until I finished it despite getting my ass kicked several times and having other games I wanted to get to.

The story is a cute fairy tale, and I like the princess. The English twitter’s been giving bios for the characters and it kind of makes me wish they had any dialogue or anything. I DID appreciate the cameos from other Marvelous games in the forms of Story of Seasons Cows and Woolies from Rune Factory.

I did find the resource management with the runes to be a bit of a pain, but everything else was a lot of fun. I don’t actually know when I’ll end up having time for this but I hope I do!

Another entry in the burgeoning “figure out what’s going on based on context clues and enter the answers into a book that helps you figure out what’s going on” genre like Obra Dinn and Case of the Golden Idol, it seems. This one makes me feel kind of dumb because I’m not always sure what it’s asking for… still seems neat, though! I’d be interested in it, I think.

Definitely seems promising! The art is very nice, the music slaps, and the puzzles are kinda fun. Kind of feels like Chrono Trigger meets Tales of meets Mario and Luigi. The default fight difficulty does seem tuned a little high, though that might be because it just kind of drops you into the middle of things. I feel like I might’ve preferred being taken through the start of the game proper instead of being tossed around bits in the story, honestly; I get the impression they wanted to show off with the goofy pirates but I don’t think the main party got as much of a chance to shine. Still, it definitely seems like a game to watch!

Hell yeah this rules so far all the characters are weird little failgirls and the concepts are super juicy. I am not especially good at the gameplay which is unfortunate, but I would make a wholehearted attempt to Git Gud in order to figure out what in the hell is going on in this game and with these delightful weirdos. The chemistry between all the characters so far is just amazing, and I really want to know about the spiritual prequel as well. A friend of mine is big into Crystar and I was not quite aware how much the character writing ruled in this particular way??? Definitely want it when it actually comes out.

I keep playing Pikmin demos and every time I have a genuinely excellent time but I keep like. putting off actually buying the games. I really need to actually buy pikmin someday. Anyway this game feels like it's going to whip, I love Oatchi and would absolutely die for him and the squad is pretty fun. I was a little thrown by what was going on with Olimar though, is this like a soft reboot or something or does he just keep crashing? Maybe I will understand if I actually play Pikmin.

On the gameplay side it’s a pretty standard TRPG, though it has cute character portraits and the characters themselves have potential. The dialogue is perhaps a bit stilted, though… I don’t think the translation is the best. I dig it alright but it’s not super duper impressive.

This was really cute and fun! I liked it a lot, the characters are charming and the gameplay is pretty neat. I’m kind of bad at the diving part to start out but the restaurant part isn’t too bad in terms of being a reasonable pace. I’m sure it ramps up as the game goes on and you get more customers, of course, but it starts out kind of relaxing compared to the more tense diving bits. I really want to see where it goes!

IT'S PICROSS BABEY!!

Seems pretty neat! I think I’d definitely like to pick it up at some point. The eerie vibes combined with the chill fishing create a pretty neat atmosphere, and I’m pretty curious to dig in more! Hopefully I don’t experience horrors beyond my comprehension.

It’s Mother Fucking Kirby Baby! I never got around to playing the version for the Wii because after a certain point I could never quite get around to playing anything that wasn’t portable on some level, so I’m excited to actually play this one. I did watch a LP and thought it was pretty neat though! I have been missing the more technical copy abilities with, like, actual move lists from Kirby games for a while now, so I’m excited for this one. Also excited for that Magolor epilogue!
Purchased

I know Octopath isn’t super well regarded among the hardcore JRPG-heads of Backloggd but I personally liked it! It definitely had areas where it could be improved, sure, but I had a lot of fun with it. It had great music and I enjoyed the characters’ storylines, and it was pretty fun to see how they all converged at the end.

Octopath II seems like it’s doing its damnedest to improve on the first game’s flaws and add more spice, which is very cool! The characters having different path actions depending on the time of day is pretty neat, though I am curious to see how they may or may not overlap the way skills in the first game did. I also really like the characters themselves, which was a great part of the first game! Even if the demo doesn’t get to it, it sounds like there will be more of an effort to have characters interact with each other, and that’s already starting to feel like the case with in-battle banter. I also thought it was neat to have guest party members, too. I started out with Temenos, and his dynamic with Crick was deeply enjoyable. He was also very enjoyable in general. I had high hopes for that horrible twink and he completely delivered. Throne’s story has that interesting dark flavor and I’m curious to see how their actual dynamic plays out! And I’m very excited to see the rest of the cast, of course. I wanted to start with Osvalt but it sounded like you were stuck in prison for way too long to get past the demo, so they definitely tried to nerf The Best Character Class Action from being on your team the whole time… but Temenos had a great opener so it helps.
Purchased

God I kind of miss the good old stylus gameplay from the 3DS. If the Switch had a second dedicated touchscreen and stylus it would be too powerful. The field stages’ wavy lines in particular are taking some time to get used to with a joystick versus how intuitive the stylus was. Other than that it whips! I can’t believe I’m actually considering digital deluxe for the extra songs… but like I fuckin love the music across Square’s various franchises so maybe? Augh I prefer physical but To Zanarkand….
Purchased

A lot of people say 6 wasn’t very good and based on the demo I think this one is a lot more immediately fun and memorable based on the characters. They’ve got fun chemistry and I laughed quite heartily several times. I did find it a little tougher than the other Disgaea demos, admittedly… I guess it’s because you get only two unique units? Anyway it’s nice to have a disgaea about a bunch of funny adults. Cannot wait to see what’s up with Fuji and his adoptive daughter man.

An intriguing introduction, to be sure. I like the art a lot, and I’m pretty curious to see where it goes and how the gameplay actually plays out. It seemed like A Dream so is it all going to be dives into the heart? It’s also kind of neat to see stuff from cultures I’m not super familiar with outside of very broad strokes. That music Atma used to distract the civil defense guy was pretty neat honestly I’d listen to more

When is Dragon Quest not aggressively charming? Especially when monsters are involved, I love those goofy lil dudes. This game seems like a great theme and I’m pretty excited to see more of it! The treasure hunting mechanics do feel a tad janky though, some of the pictures weren’t terribly representative. Although while I love Eric and Mia I am absolutely bummed that My Boys are not present. You know who I’m talking about. I want idiot teen Jasper and Hendrik!! Where are they!! okay they’re off in heliodor but I miss them man.

This is kind of a weird one because I like the vibes of the art and writing and whatnot but I have no idea what the fuck is going on with the gameplay. Is it totally random what your dudes attack?? I just want to hit the body and kill then man especially since you can salvage parts sometimes if you don’t destroy them. Also the stats seem a little confusing honestly. I think I would like to see someone else play the thing instead of playing it myself!

Definitely has those Sonic vibes, and I really liked the art and music. I’m not as certain on the controls, though… they felt a little floaty and I kind of wish there had been a little more clarity in how the hitboxes work on enemies and a little more speed. There are straightaways that feel like you’re supposed to be able to Go Fast on but the speed doesn’t really increase. It should! I want to go fast!!!

It's kind of baffling that they didn't change the demo to include the improvements to the time progression that the full version has, because oof, I absolutely understand how much people were complaining about how quickly time passes in this game. With that knowledge going in, though, I actually had a lot of fun and did make it up to the end of Chapter 2. The setting is interesting and very pretty, the farming is fun, and there are a few really neat characters and ideas here. I'm very excited to see what else the game brings! The music is also very good. I hope to pick it up at some point!

I’m kind of surprised by how low the few existing reviews are for this because it’s very charming and it feels very solid. It’s definitely Baby’s First Farm Sim and goes out of its way to hold your hand but like… it’s based on a children’s show. The character designs that seem specific to this game are definitely the highlights, with fun takes on the standard fantasy races along with ADORABLE BIRD PEOPLE??? THERE IS A FIVE YEAR OLD PENGUIN CHILD. He’s so cute I almost died. Obviously the demo doesn’t show off everything you can possibly accomplish in the game but it’s very pretty and everything works nicely. I don’t really remember much about the original Doraemon SOS Demo but the vibes of this one are immaculate, I’d definitely consider it. The only things that really bugged me were the controls for moving animals into the barn and the fact that outdoor farm decorations take up planting space.

It’s Picross baby!!

Seems kind of neat, and I am pretty curious to see where it’s going… but maybe on a computer. I dunno, I’m not quite sure if the button mapping on the Switch quite works for me. Anyway the pixel art is nice, although the attempt to scare me with a cat was not quite effective. I just wanna pet that kitty.

This seems pretty darn promising! I do feel like the art style is just a bit too pretty for the ingame models, which are kind of boring, but I definitely had fun with my time here. The strategy gameplay is really fun, and I like the world and characters quite a bit! The story itself seems a little breakneck in terms of pacing, which I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing. I like the interactions between characters during sidequests and maps, which is pretty good since that’s the sort of thing I’d be worried about being left behind in a fast paced plot. Lady Waltaquin is definitely the MVP here, she seems slightly unhinged and I love to see a girlboss winning.

This game is extremely anime and i’m not sure if it’s going to be the fun kind or the pejorative kind. I was having an okay-ish time with the story segments but several things set off my No Thanks warning bells, such as the way the one lady’s boobs were drawn and her getting kind of weird about the sweet baby boy protagonist…… but I don’t think the gameplay was compelling enough for me to find out. It kind of felt really bad honestly.

I don’t understand how fighting game inputs work :(

Holy shit this whips, it’s like if pikmin was a platform puzzler with bugs who formed a cargo cult. I absolutely love it and want to play more. The only real criticism I have is that the timing on the glide jump feels a little funky especially at first, but I feel like it got better once I had a longer glide. Definitely want to get this one for sure.

Hmmm there are some cute vibes to this. I like the little guys, the dress up, and the Pikmin kind of feel, but quickly solving procedurally generated puzzles with no fun little picture reveals is not what I go to Picross for. I like picking away at a puzzle and seeing what it turns out to be at my own pace. So it might be a nah from me

I’m not super big on SRPGs and honestly the gameplay segments are taking a bit to get used to, but everything else whips honestly. The artwork is incredible and the characters, story, and world are super compelling! I’m really excited to see where it all ends up going, because the demo really gives you a great taste of what to expect. Also Advocat is SUCH a sexyman holy shit

AH YES A SICK REMAKE OF THAT GAME I WAS GONNA PLAY A ROM OF AT SOME POINT… I guess they had to whip out the HD 2D and the voice acting because everyone who’s interested has already probably pirated and played the fan translation, huh. Thankfully the remake additions make a nice looking game look even nicer, the soundtrack is a banger, and the voice acting is a neat addition! I’m very excited to see the whole thing. I read a let’s play long enough ago that I think it’ll be a pretty fresh experience.

I do kind of feel like I may have screwed myself a little trying to do a pacifist run of the ninja chapter, though, and I kind of wonder if I missed out on the memory card for Cube………… oh well!!
Purchased

Wahoo : )

Oh I am SO excited for this shit. The gameplay’s pretty fun and seems to put a lot more importance on strategy which is wild for a musou? Like… it feels like people actually accomplish things when you point them in a direction and order them to do something instead of requiring you to take control? I am genuinely unused to this even if I do like taking control. Anyway the gameplay is important but holy shit the story swerves here are wild. I only played the Blue Lions bit and am not sure if I want to play more because I have no idea how ng+ will work, but I cannot wait to get the full game and see what the fuck is going on with Arval and Shez, and the changes to the world state and appearances of a bunch of important background characters who were mentioned in the original game but never appeared in person is good stuff. But really I was hooting and hollering from the opening cutscene! You are definitely going to want to play 3H before playing this if you want to understand literally anything, but it’s good shit. It even carries over what you named Byleth in your 3H save! It’s so rad!!!
Purchased

This is a game I kind of wanted to like for the vibes—it’s got that death game thing going on that I dig, and the artwork and the music is pretty great! I also really liked a chunk of the cast, particularly Binko… but man, they really didn’t put their best foot forward with the wrongfully convicted first guy, huh. The setup of the story is interesting, but the twist behind Sengoku and Rina’s shared past is so strongly telegraphed that it crosses the line from dramatic tension to Sengoku feeling like an infinitely dense dumbass. I lost the four part trial to keep Rina from killing him and while I would be horrified at a real innocent man being executed even if he was kind of a dumbass, it felt like a fitting end to a limp dishrag of a character who spent like several puzzle rooms rubbing salt into the emotional wounds of a traumatized teenager because he was too stupid to pick up on the flashing warning lights. Maybe I would’ve stuck it out if the reviews were better but I get the impression it doesn’t improve much.

I can’t really say much about the shmup sections because I only experienced the one, but it seemed okay. I must confess I am not familiar with The Shmups so I can’t judge too much. Also the save checkpointing is really bizarre… I guess it’s to keep you from fucking yourself over on a puzzle, but I had to start several lengthy scenes over because my battery ran out in the middle and man, sometimes a girl wants to read a chunk of VN when her battery’s at 15% you know?

Ohhh this was a fun little mystery FMV! I enjoyed forming hypotheses and was delighted when I actually figured out the mystery even if I wasn’t sure if the game was giving me the options for it. It was a fun time, and I’m glad Square Enix is publishing weird little games like this every so often. It’s better than The Quiet Man and NFT shit, anyway…

The art is cute and neat and the sound/vibration has some neat stuff to it, but man. Fuckin slenderman right off the bat? Also one of the puzzles had some really janky and unforgiving “shine the flashlight on these things” mechanics that I didn’t feel like messing around with further. No thanks man.

Game… weirdly compelling. I’m usually more into story-driven stuff than retro sandboxy stuff, but I still like those sandboxes? It’s fun. Exploring is fun. I feel like maybe I should tone the difficulty down for a breezier experience though, MP management feels weirdly difficult…

This game is absolutely going to be good as hell, I cannot wait. The mouthful and copy abilities are a lot of fun and are working out really nicely in the shift to full 3D over 2.5D. I always love my good lad kirb! He’s so cute! So is everything else! One minor quibble is it felt like the boss ran a little long but I wonder if that was just ice not being the best power up for the job. I did want to try it out because it was the first time it showed up, though.

Purchased

Eh. I don’t really have much to say about this one, it’s cute enough but not especially compelling. I liked Etrian Odyssey demos but I might just not be a dungeon crawler person

So, if you have a Switch and you have any interest in TRPGs, you should play the demo for this. It’s basically an early access preview that the devs released in order to look for feedback like with the Bravely games and Octopath Traveler, and if you play it Nintendo will send you a survey asking for your input.

Granted, this game is shaping up to look really solid even from this really early demo! The graphics are beautiful, and the gameplay has a lot of neat ideas like manipulating the terrain with spells and even being able to scout things out in exploration segments before the battle themselves, and you can even do sidequests to change parts of the environment in your favor!

As far as the story goes, it doesn’t seem super original for this genre, but the choice mechanics are really cool. I like that you’re leading a democratic army where you have to persuade your allies to vote for your preferred choice. I also really like the mechanic that lets you hit a button during cutscenes to access character’s profiles, which seems super handy in a game with a lot of characters from different factions.

There were only two major things I thought needed improvement. One is that the voice direction needs… a little work… and the other is that I didn’t like how characters recruited in Side Stories were relegated to the Encampment of Plot Irrelevance. I hope in the full version they get to vote or at least provide arguments you can use to persuade the people who do vote! Also the camera feels maybe a little squirrelly.

But even if those things aren’t fixed, I’m still really excited for this to come out! It looks like a great way to fill that Final Fantasy Tactics-shaped hole in my heart.

Purchased.

I know enough about Touken Ranbu to know I’m not big on the way some of the characters were translated to 3D models for this game, that’s for sure. Other than that it’s a warriors game all right.

Seems cute, if kind of simplistic! I’m not sure how much I’d pay for it, but I kind of wonder what kinds of hidden paths there might be. There are hidden words and that’s neat!

Thoroughly “meh” honestly. The characters are fine conceptually but the game feels like it rockets through scenes that could develop their characters and the art isn’t great. It also feels like the only actual option to survive encounters is to budget 70 spirit points in order to use the “not die” option. Also I feel like the game isn’t super well designed for the Switch since the options don’t highlight super well.

It’s more Picross! Shit I love Picross! I should probably get the other Picross S games just because I want more Picross.

I get the criticisms people have of this game, as at present the battles are pretty easy and the movement is perhaps a little janky… but I’m not sure I care? It feels like a chill, dry-witted DM taking you through a nice little adventure as he puts some sweet Okabe tunes on. I like it, it feels like it’ll be a good chill out game with a Yoko Taro spin.

This game seems pretty neat! There’s a lot of mystery here, and I’m curious to see where it goes. Though, like, do I need to know the original Blue Reflection to get into this…? Anyway, while the battle system and concept seem interesting, the models seem a little janky. I mean, I’ve dealt with worse, but it’s maybe a little offputting.

It seems neat! I get what people are saying about the gameplay being kind of ass, but I don’t really think it seems bad enough to make me, like, hate it. It’s definitely kind of budget, but I like how the character portraits look and the characters themselves are neat! The logs are cool! I’m pretty intrigued to see where stuff goes. I would consider picking it up!

I’m new enough to Metroid that I don’t really know if I screwed myself over or if I’m just bad at video games or I couldn’t figure something out… that said I did enjoy what I played of this, although I find it baffling that you can’t save your progress and carry it over to the full game. Like why isn’t that a standard feature in demos for games like this?

This game seems pretty neat, but I’m not sure if I’m Definitely going to get it. The pixel art is pretty nice and the story seems intriguing… but I’m worried the kind of game it is might not gel with me. It looks like it might get haaard… though it does seem fun! I don’t know! I might wait and see what other people say.

Not sure I’ll ever buy it but I didn’t hate playing it. The humor perhaps skews a little more lol random than shitpost dadaism, but I did smile once or twice. Both the portrait art and the pixel art is charming, though I can’t really say I was sold on any of the actual characters, though, which seems bad for a game about getting to know your classmates. I do like the slavcore vibes though.

Not sure how I’m feeling about this one to be honest. I think it might be trying to be a souls thing? Maybe? The combat feels fun but pretty unforgiving, but the cutscenes feel like they’re from an awkward early PS2 game… it might be a little tough for a wuss like me. Love the cute crystal hippo at the start though.

Oh, this game is going to own. It has that same quirky humor and quick gameplay, but it has a pretty different approach than the ones they put out before. I’m pretty curious to see how all the characters play; I watched someone else play the demo too and so I know how all the ones available in the demo play, but some are still a mystery! I do hope there are boss fights like in the other Wario wares too.

This game’s pretty neat, but I’m not sure how much of a picture of the game the demo presents. There’s a nice story here about a family coping with grief, and the art has charming Stardew Valley vibes, but I kind of wonder if the gameplay will get more complicated with the addition of the fairly absent spirit or if it’s just going to be slashing and rolling. I kind of wish the demo was a little meatier than it is, though it did pique my interest a little.

This game seems like a really interesting experience! Graphically it looks neat, and having read up on the game I really like the idea of passing through the stories of NPCs as various different player characters. I tried it out on the Switch which may or may not be the best idea; I know in their review Jim Steph Sterling mentioned one of the minigames doesn’t control great and I wonder if it’d be better to give it a shot on Steam. Regardless of where I try it I want to give it a shot though!

Picross But With Sega! The music is pretty good and I like the subject matter, but it’s kind of a bummer that there’s only three clip Picross puzzles. I still definitely want it though.

Supergreatfriend tried this out on one of his streams so I was not surprised by the plot being a bunch of furry children bashing fash in a weird tank that, in a desperate situation, can use one of their souls as ammunition to instawin boss fights. I did not, however, know that there is a collectible that is an in universe comic you can read that basically feels like Furry Tintin. This game rules and I definitely want to buy the whole thing at some point.

A charming puzzle platformer that uhhh probably isn’t for me! The art’s nice and it’s got them exploration 2d platformer vibes ala The Metroidvanias, but each locale has a different portal gimmick. I’m not sure if I like them! Especially the gimmick where a ring of shadow closes in on you’re moving including when you’re platforming! So yeah not for me!

Holy hell this demo slaps dude. I’m so excited for the actual game, it’s really fun to play and it’s got the same fun vibe as the original. I do wish they let you have the whole team to see their dynamic, though, because Nagi seems like a riot. I’m kind of sad Minamimoto didn’t really bounce off Rindo and Fret’s stupid banter, but it does make sense for him to be above it all. Maybe he’ll get more involved later? Anyway, the game looks great, the character portraits are really fun and dynamic, and the music rules. I think the way they adapted the gameplay from the chaotic DS original is a lot of fun and honestly way more comprehensible, though it feels like it’ll take some practice to get good! The one problem I have is the overworld can be a little rough to navigate with the fixed camera angles, but it’s not too much of a problem. I’m glad pigs are back too. Purchased.

Much like the first game (which I have played the demo of but never picked up fully), the central conceit of this game is a lot more appealing to me than the mainline MH games because one, I’m better at turn based RPGs, and two, I want to befriend the monsters instead of just killing them! Honestly the true goal is Monster Hunter Snap, but a mons game is close enough to what I want. Especially a game where you hatch adorable weird baby monsters that look like they have zero thoughts in their heads. So between that and the exploration aspect involving the different mounts having different abilities, this game seems really good! The story is a little generic but I feel like the characters are charming beautiful art direction carries it. I also appreciate that I got to make a weird little gremlin girl with a snaggletooth to play as. With all that said… I’m not really feelin’ Navirou here. He’s not objectively bad I guess but I really wish we could have a normal-ass Felyne friend instead of this janky cartoon animal. Especially when the misguided rival Hunter lad has a cool ninja cat! What the hell!

It’s a musou! Honestly I haven’t actually played any of the main series musou games so it was pretty fun to see what was up with it. The graphical style of this entirely is pretty neat, and I’ve gotta admit that I like that it’s about Nobunaga! Anyway between Age of Calamity and Fire Emblem Warriors I’ve enjoyed them so far, and this seems like more of a good thing. Though, the subtle mechanical differences between this and the other Warriors games I’ve played is kinda screwing me up. I wish the demo showed off how at least one or two other characters in the main gameplay mode so I could see how differently they play from Nobunaga.

Hey this whips. It’s like if Dangan Ronpa was an adventure game wearing a tactical rpg trenchcoat. I mean perhaps it’s not entirely Dangan Ronpa but it feels a little Dangan Ronpa what with the quirky cast made of mystery solving individuals with Big Specialties, and I’m pretty curious about the cast! They seem like they all have some fun stuff going on, and their quirks don’t seem too overbearing. I’m not sure how much I trust anything that’s going on and I kind of wonder if there will end up being some sort of timeloop… it’s neat!

picross :3

So I tried the other Monster Hunter demo that was on the Switch Eshop... Generations, I think? And man, that did not really tell you anything about what to expect and just kinda left you to ram your face into the game until you figured it out. As someone who never touched the series before, it was a real turnoff... but wow, this demo is way better at telling you how to play the game! I still struggled with anything above the Great Izuchi, but that hunt was pretty fun. I feel like if I were to actually buy the game it’d do a better job at easing me through the hunts and figuring out what’s going on. One problem I’ll admit I have is that muscle memory from Hades makes me keep using items when I mean to attack... maybe I oughta try rebinding the buttons for this game. Anyway, the aesthetic is really nice, the music is good as hell, and I love that you can have the ultimate team of the player character, A Good Dog, and A Good Cat. I’ll probably mess around more with the demo on and off to try out more weapons but I might consider actually picking this up at some point. You know, after I’ve finished some other things up.

Well, the final demo did what demos are supposed to do and made me pretty dang excited for the game! I was really turned off by the difficulty of the first demo, but they did a good job of balancing it a bit better so it wasn’t overwhelming. I will say that it feels like the battles do take a while, but I imagine things will feel more manageable in the actual game where you can take your time messing around with jobs instead of trying to accomplish what you can within a five hour time limit. Anyway, the characters are charming, and I’m intrigued to see where the story goes and what wild twists and turns the game has in store. The environments, monsters, and character designs are great... but I have to agree with most people’s take that the way the humans are rendered was a mistake. I think they should’ve tried textures more along the lines of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon remake or FFT:WoL’s CG cutscenes to make them look a little less stiff and doll-like. They’re not really a dealbreaker! I still wanna buy this bad boy. But it doesn’t look great, and I kind of hope in future Bravely endeavors they make some different stylistic decisions when it comes to the character designs. Purchased.

It’s more Disgaea! And the first fully 3D entry! Honestly it makes me kind of sad to see all the big sprite art franchises going to 3D, but if they have to do that, this is definitely how I like to see it. The cel shading style really makes the models feel pretty much just like how the sprites used to, and I feel like the style’s pretty great!

As far as everything else goes, it’s Disgaea. It’s not too horny yet, and the characters and plot are pretty goofy, as you’d expect. Of course, there are some more serious story beats hinted at, which makes me curious. This game actually integrates series staple mechanics like Big Numbers and reincarnation into the main plot, which I think is neat, and I like the hinted at theme of repeated reincarnation causing various kinds of personality degradation. I’m curious to see where it goes... but I really do have to try and complete the two other Disgaea games that I downloaded the demos of...

A VERY cute puzzle game. It's simple and the demo isn't terribly difficult, but there's a lot to collect and the mechanics are silly and neat. As someone with a really bad sense of direction I got the controls mixed up every so often... but I'd definitely consider picking this one up. There's not too much to say outside of that, though!

I fuckin love picross dude

Purchased

I'm not coming from a place of familiarity with WoD stuff so I'm just kind of like... this seems okay. I'm not sure if the low rating is warranted purely based on the demo, but I don't want to go to bat for it, either. I like VNs so it's not an issue of the presentation, either. There are some mildly strange writing inconsistencies like PoV shifts where there shouldn't quite be, but I do think the game mechanics are pretty clear and easy to understand. Nothing super exciting happened in the demo outside of Spooky Visions, though I only played it once and wanted to play a character who was chill. Still probably a better game set in Poland than the Medium though.

This game oozes style and I really love the art direction, and there’s some real cool ideas at play here. It comes off like Baby’s First Death Game and I’m honestly here for that, especially with the twist I’ve heard about.

Unfortunately the platforming feels like ass and nothing makes me nope out of something like a timer on an adventure game or RPG. That’s pretty much why I stuck with watching a playthrough of AI: The Somnium Files. I’m sure the timer is really lenient but nah. It’s definitely a me thing, timers make me anxious. But in any case, I hope someone I enjoy does a LP of it because it seems neat, but I don’t really wanna play it myself.

I love the theming and aesthetics of this game, but hm! I'm not sure if it's the sort of thing I'd spring for, necessarily. I think it might be fun, but the combat seemed kind of janky, especially the more technical bits. I like that the main character being a circus performer is integrated in her skill set as a Prince of Persia-esque protagonist, though. It's one of those "so many games, so little time" things that will probably get lost in the shuffle, unfortunately.