Game rules.

Soundtrack? Banger.
Combat? Sick.
Characters? Chill bunch.

You wake up at a train station in a small town with no memory of who you are, or how you got there.

Reminiscent of walking simulators (positive) such as Gone Home and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Nostalgic Train isn't a wholly new gameplay experience, but what it lacks there it more than makes up for in its setting and the sense of place it has.

Between glimpses into the stories and memories of people around the town and trying to find yourself, you are invited to take in the lovely small town of Natsugiri.

The sunlight as it breaks through the bamboo at the peak of the day. The ever-present buzzing of the cicadas. The bookstore, shelves covered in books with no one but you to read them. The elementary school overlooking the burbling river that runs through the town. The train station at the heart of it all.

Where you are is reinforced time and time again, the memories tied to where they occurred, over the course of the game's story building a fuller picture of the town and its inhabitants. Places once lacking importance take on deeper significance as events progress. They may not be present but the more you learn of them, the more the lack of their presences is felt.

The game features both a Free Mode, in which you can explore the town, find scattered notes giving context and history to certain fixtures you'll find, and the Story Mode, over the course of which you'll come to know the town, its inhabitants, and quite possibly yourself.

What kid in the 90s didn't dream of going on an adventure with Sonic? This one definitely did, and this game delivers on that.

I haven't kept up with modern Sonic games, the most recent ones I've played being Mania and Generations so I don't have much to compare it with.

Soundtrack here is great.

What's less great is the level design. Levels tend to end just as they're introducing interesting ideas, and all too quickly as well.

Still, for a handful of hours, it's a decent time.

The rare game that clearly draws inspiration from Dark Souls but doesn't just try to replicate it, and is definitely the better for it.

Learning to use the different magic types to maximize effectiveness and take advantage of their various effects keeps things fresh.

Balancing melee, parrying and dodging in order to more quickly replenish mana stores, allowing for more frequent and more devastating magical attacks incentivizes taking bigger risks in a way that I found very enjoyable.

Nobeta herself and each boss character clearly had the most time spent on design wise. Basic enemies have far fewer distinguishing features, falling into a handful of distinct types. This does help to be able to more easily identify how to engage with enemies, which is nice, and most basic enemies have differently coloured variants, requiring shifts in tactics.

All around solid, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it.

I don't think I've played a game more prescient and pointed in a long time. Umurangi has so much to say, about fascism, art, apocalypses, the overwhelming sense of doom and the tiny tiny joys within, and does it all wordlessly and powerfully. As a mediocre creative myself, the photography is a good reminder to take joy in the things you make with your friends, but also a firm hand to point out that it alone will not save anyone.

The Macro DLC especially hits hard, replicating a feeling that i've had all too much these days, Its melancholic doom worn away revealing a white hot rage beneath. Umurangi Generation is Angry about the world, and so am I.