NEO: The World Ends With You Review

I’ll start by saying I didn’t play the first game and didn’t see any recap here. That being said, I was never lost in the story; you’ll just know certain characters from the original title.

NEO: The World Ends With You (TWEWY) starts with an introduction to the main character Rindo. He is hanging out around town when he gets a text from his friend Tosai to meet up. So they meet up, and Tosai gives you a rare Reaper Medal. Rindo and Tosai go to meet up with another person, when Rindo suddenly gets a vision of destruction. Moments later, both Rindo and Tosai are tossed into the Reaper’s Game. The Reaper’s Game is an alternate universe that takes place alongside the current universe.

In this universe, monsters attack the people currently playing the game. Using your badges, you and Tosai fight off these monsters until you get some more allies to join up in the fight. The game’s goal is simple: complete the missions and defeat the big enemies before the other teams to get more points. Winning means you get your wish granted, and losing means you disappear. Oh, and you are told you only have a week to do it; no pressure. In all, the story will easily run you 30-40 hours.

NEO: TWEWY is an action RPG at its core, but the battles are still instanced. When you get into the fight, the combat is real-time, and you control multiple characters at once. Before going into a battle, you equip your badges that count as your attacks. You can only have one badge equipped at first – it might seem limited, but I understand why they did it this way. When fighting, you only use a single button to attack with each character, but you control multiple characters at once.

At first, it is only two of you, and you use simple buttons to attack like square and triangle. Eventually, as you fill out your team, you start to use multiple buttons simultaneously. For instance, my team has an L1, R1, square, and triangle attack pattern. However, L1 and R1 can be charged, so I have to hold those buttons down while building up my combo with my other attacks. My hands had to get used to this type of playstyle, which admittedly took a couple of hours. If I could use multiple buttons per character, it’d be overwhelming. It works extremely well when you get your bearing and find the right combos.

Collecting the badges, you use in combat has become one of the chief driving factors for me in the game. Switching up attacks and seeing what they did in combat was fun. Sure, you have some stinkers, but most of them were enjoyable to use once or twice. The big driver for me was the fact that some of them evolve into new and more powerful attacks. I had one that would toss a rock down on someone, and when it changed, the rock becomes a whole car. They don’t all evolve, but the ones that do will keep you grinding for a while.

Outside of combat, you will solve puzzles for the Reaper’s Game. These involve finding graffiti, getting certain meals or outfits, delivering items, or fighting enemies. Sometimes you have to use your character’s powers as well. For example, Rindo can alter time forwards and backward, to collect items or learn passwords. Tosai can put pictures together in people’s heads to help them remember. Another character literally invades people’s thoughts to get clues or help out on side quests. Each of them has a tiny puzzle attached, so oftentimes it isn’t just a button click.

While doing side quests will net you more cash and EXP, the bigger bonus comes from your social network. Doing side missions nets you Friend Points that you can spend on your network. After helping someone out, they join your network, and you can spend your points on them to get various buffs. When you are close to a new friend, you can also see what you need to do to get them in your network. Some buffs are passive, like converting your cash pins into actual cash, while others provide tactical advantages in combat. It might sound like a minor thing, but it kept me doing the side quests.

There are a few other side things to do as well. Food gives permanent buffs, so keeping your team fed is essential. Each character has a specific kind of food they like as well, so finding their favorite is helpful. There is also an extra stat known as Style. Style points help you unlock perks on new clothes you wear. You start off with something like 20 style points, and some of the clothes require over 100 style to give you an extra benefit. The question early on is do you want to get something with low Style to get the bonus buff, or just take the raw strength and defense.

NEO: TWEWY is a very stylish game; from the art to the music, it oozes character. Some of the design choices are questionable, but it all works for the most part. The weirdest one for me was the camera angle. You can’t move the camera around, and it has a very low angle. While traveling the streets, the buildings bend almost like it is a fisheye camera angle. It isn’t game-breaking, but it isn’t something I’ve seen in other games before.

NEO: The World Ends With You is a unique and colorful action RPG that packs a fun combat system. While it’s certainly not for everyone, those drawn to its stylish vibe will absolutely love it.

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Scarlet Nexus Review

Scarlet Nexus places a heavy focus on its story, offering players two branching paths of adventure through the selection of one of its two main characters. For my completed playthrough I used Yuito Sumeragi; there are male and female protagonists available, both with differing story arches.

Yuito Sumeragi is a young man who has dreams of joining the Other Suppression Force (OSF) after a member saved his life as a child. He is a descendant of the founding father and has relatives in the highest ranks of the OSF, making his climb to the top even more difficult than regular recruits – having to impress both his family and superiors at the same time.

Scarlet Nexus places a very heavy focus on delivering an impactful story adventure. Humanity is under threat from extra-sensory beings known as Others. Long into the future, a special psionic hormone was discovered within the human brain. This special hormone unlock a hidden potential of the mind with some humans, granting them supernatural-like powers. This surge of powers attracted horrifying, mutant-like creatures that descended from the skies looking to feast on the hormone, devouring the brains of every human they encounter. Traditional military weapons and tactics were no match for the Others, leaving humanity’s final hopes of survival in the hands of the psionics of the OSF.

If delivery of narrative and enjoyment of story was the only benchmark to meet, Scarlet Nexus would have knocked it out of the park. The developers combine a stylized delivery of story, using animated character portraits and environments, gorgeous cutscenes, and great voice over work. It all came together to create a story that had me gripped from start to finish. Unfortunately, it struggles with issues that have plagued these type of titles for years.

The design and creative direction of the game are both very linear. From the corridor-like environments to the predictably constructed phases, it struggles with repetition and pacing issues, leading to much of its direction being very predictable and lackluster.

You complete a mission, get flooded with story, and then have an intermission where you can chat with your allies, give them gifts, and learn more about them. This in itself isn’t a bad design, but the flow of the experience suffers when the game favors either combat or narrative too heavily. Oftentimes I was almost exhausted at the thought of another fight, and other times I was dreading yet more dialogue. Even though both the story and combat are very above average, the pacing will not be to everyone’s liking.

Scarlet Nexus focuses on combat and story above everything else. The side content – meaningless side quests that offer very little outside of rewards to aid in combat – are cumbersome. They offer very little thought on managing several quests at once, or even tracking down objectives. Exploration is also nonexistent; there is nearly always a singular path to reach your goal, and straying from that path never offers more than items or other minor perks. The linear design will likely appeal to some, but I would have enjoyed more meaningful side content in a game that is rich in its story and world. Put simply, it feels a wasted opportunity.

Thankfully the side content can be completely ignored, which I did for much of the latter stages of the game. I wanted to push forward in the story, learn more about the characters and this intriguing world, a setting that has quickly become one of the best Bandai Namco has ever delivered. Even the opportunity to completely immerse myself in this creative environment was hampered by a repetitive and often frustrating combat system.

On its surface, the combat system in Scarlet Nexus is fantastic. The visuals are gorgeous, the enemy designs are incredible, dark, and disgusting – even terrifying in places. However, as the game progresses, its lack of depth and variety start to become monotonous. Playing as Yuito Sumeragi, you use psycho-kinetic abilities that allow you to use your mind to pick up nearby objects and hurl them at your enemies. Trash cans, metal grates, crates, even cars; there’s an impressive array of items that can be tossed around in combat. Some of the more powerful items deliver brief but easily manageable quick-time-event style button prompts that are impactful and enjoyable.

Combining these psycho-kinetic with sword combos allows for some intense combat sequences, but the basics don’t really grow much from there. As you progress through the game and recruit more allies, you unlock special Struggle Arms System (SAS) actions (what’s with these games and strange acronyms?). The SAS attacks allow you to use the supernatural-like abilities of your allies as if they were your own. There’s a good variety on offer. You can slow down time, imbue your weapon with special elemental damage, use defensive skills to become immune to damage, and unlock the ability to teleport. The variety and delivery of these features is fantastic, but its the necessity of these skills that breeds repetition.

Most of the SAS abilities are tools specifically designed to defeat specific types of enemies. Certain enemies become invisible during combat, other enemies become immune to damage as soon as you’re within melee range. You can use SAS abilities to counter these actions, but it’s mandatory. Instead of opening a new wave of potential combination attacks and abilities, it simply acts as a tool required for you to progress.

That’s not to say there isn’t still a level of satisfaction, especially in the latter stages of the game when enemies of multiple types attack you at once. Stringing together the right set of SAS attacks to take down a string of foes is an impressive feat and one that feels great – at least the first few times – but it quickly becomes stale. Compounding this issue is the game’s awful camera and lock-on mechanics.

Trying to focus on one specific enemy is far more difficult than it should be and even when focused, there’s not enough movement in the attacks to close the gap, often leaving you swinging at nothing as the auto-targeting picked up the wrong enemy and turned the character around. Manual target switching is an option, but each time you hit a new enemy, the target automatically changes. It’s a cumbersome system that really detracts from what could be a flowing combat experience.

This creates for a thoroughly frustrating experience on any difficulty setting that isn’t easy. All Others have a weak point, a part of their body that you can exploit to unlock more devastating attacks. However, much like the SAS abilities, these are more mandatory than optional. It can be the difference between taking 30 seconds to defeat and enemy and five minutes. These weak points are displayed with visual cues, but you are unable to lock on to these particular parts of an enemy. More often than not, you’re fighting with the camera and lock-on system to get to a very specific part of an enemy and hope to hit it with the minimal movement offered with combination attacks.

Scarlet Nexus boasts a story that is impossible not to recommend. Bandai Namco has created a truly intriguing world that, even after completing the game, has me yearning for more. The option of playing the second main character, which boasts a different story direction, would be the perfect remedy if not for the other areas of the game falling short. Repetitive mechanics and frustrating combat design hamper what could otherwise be an incredible adventure.

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Legend of Mana Remaster Review

When Legend of Mana begins, players choose between a female or male character and then select a weapon. You aren’t locked into the weapon choice, but the character is the one you’ll be for the entire game. The world you inhabit was once home to a great mana tree that spread magic throughout the world. The tree was burned down, and everyone fought for the remaining mana until there was none left. You start playing at a time when the world is empty, and it’s up to you to rebuild it. You then set out from your home on a 25-30 hour adventure.

You begin with your house and a single town to place on the map. The items you place down on the map are called Artifacts. They can be towns, mines, jungles, lakes, and other areas you will explore. Generally, each new Artifact has one quest for you to complete, along with treasure to find. It’s an odd system because there isn’t a main story for you to follow at first; just a number of minor quests to complete. The only downside to this system is if you don’t know where to go for the next quest. There are no waypoints, so often you’ll have to speak with everyone you see until someone gives you a mission.

The combat in this game isn’t turn-based, but instead features a more action RPG-like system. You get into fights, and then the actual fighting is in real-time. It makes for a hit-and-miss combat system that you can sometimes exploit or be exploited by. You can’t swing up or down; just left and right. You have to move your character up and down to get someone above or below you. The hitboxes work the same way; sometimes, you find the mark easy, while other times your weapon goes right through the enemy. That being said, I was able to completely stun lock a couple of bosses by repeatedly doing two-hit combos in the corner. I’m partial to turn-based combat, and this game would have benefited greatly from it.

Legend of Mana also gives players the chance to find monster eggs and hatch them into creatures that travel alongside you. Much like the combat system, the AI leaves much to be desired. Your allies will sometimes be on the opposite side of the screen doing nothing while you are off fighting. Other times, they are taking out three enemies before you can even charge up a special attack. Know what’s cool? Consistency. That’s a really cool thing to have in combat. If you can play with two people, I recommend it, but you’ll also completely dominate the game.

Special attacks are learned from weapons and by crafting instruments to use magic. During combat, you fill up your special bar and press one of the buttons to activate your abilities. These have to do a slight charge up before launching, which often means the enemy will move before you strike. I mostly used large area of effect attacks to avoid this problem. You are invulnerable when charging up your special attack though, meaning you can use it to get out of a sticky situation instead of doing damage.

When you aren’t fighting, you will be back at your house doing work around your yard. Here you can forge new equipment, make new instruments, planet seeds, and take care of your monsters. The price of weapons and armor is absurd, so crafting is beneficial. I upgraded from an iron axe to a silver axe as soon as I got blacksmithing and saved about $3,000. Seeds provide food to feed your monsters to make them more powerful or sell for extra cash. Your monsters can join you on your adventure and fight with you. You can send extra monsters to gather items and gain experience when you are away as well.

The monster-catching mini-game probably could have been its own game. You need to find a monster egg and catch it; simple as that. The eggs are moving when you find them, so you need to lure them into food and wait for them to sleep. The problem is if they see you, they run the other way and ignore the food. Each egg hatches a different type of creature, and then you can decide if you keep it, sell it, or have it stay in your barn. You can only hold five, so selling them eventually becomes mandatory. It’s a fun little side quest you get to do while playing. The only downside is that there aren’t many eggs to find; either that, or I missed them.

As far as improvements are concerned, you can save anywhere and the game autosaves. This is a considerable improvement, because you can easily get killed in battle early on. There is no way to speed things up, but you can turn off encounters if you want. The soundtrack has been rearranged, but you can still use the original music. The PlayStation 4 version used for review had no bugs, crashes, or frame drops.

The Legend of Mana Remaster plays things a bit too safe with its combat system, but this action RPG still proves to be a worthwhile experience. Any old-school Mana fan will not be disappointed.

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Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection Review

Whether one chooses Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, or Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, all three titles have a well-deserved reputation for their brutal action. Skill and reflexes always come out on top, and simply spamming attacks like you would in other hack-and-slash titles will lead to a diminished health bar and some damaged pride.

Rather, one must learn when to attack, keep distance, or switch up one’s weaponry. Blocking, dodging, and rolling are absolutely crucial, and the L1 button will quickly become one’s best friend before too long. With multiple foes on the screen at any given time – even early on in all three titles – crowd control becomes a key skill.

When it clicks though, one feels incredibly powerful. There’s a flow to each battle, and learning when to Izuna Drop after a combo and when to break out some good ol’ fashioned Ninpo Magic can mean the difference between making it to the next chapter and a swift boot back to the last Save Point.

Thankfully, the controls have been carefully crafted to handle even the toughest of threats. Though there are some variations between the three titles (and different characters like Rachel, Momiji, and Ayane), the control scheme primarily consists of an attack, special attack, projectile weapon, Ninpo Magic, block, and jump. There are plenty of subtleties that come into play when other weapons are thrown into the mix, but players are always in control throughout. If the player bites it, it’s usually one’s fault. The trilogy is unforgiving, but never cheap.

There is something that can make the titles a bit easier to handle though: Its Hero Mode. A new addition to Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (and making its return in Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge), this mode allows for players to automatically block when low on health. Although it only lasts for a limited amount of time, it still makes things a bit too easy. Still, we appreciate the fact that it’s a nice alternative for those who are on the verge of giving up the path of the ninja and going with its Acolyte mode, or worse: its condescending Ninja Dog mode.

Originally released for the PlayStation 3, Ninja Gaiden Sigma kicks things off with a bang. Hayabusa village is under siege, and Doku has taken the Dark Dragon Blade. Following the path of the ninja, our hero Ryu Hayabusa sets out to restore order. Arguably the best of the trilogy, its large areas, light puzzle solving, and steep difficulty curve are still fresh after all these years.

This release is more of a touch-up than an overhaul, but the changes present are welcome ones. Running on the PlayStation 5 via PlayStation 4 backwards compatibility, its demonic fiends have never looked so good. There are some loading hiccups when picking up certain items or quickly transitioning to new areas, but their brevity prevents them from ever being too much of a problem. Just be warned that the pre-rendered cutscenes were not remastered, paying host to a blurry, lower resolution that is a sharp contrast to the crystal clear action of the main campaign.

Taking place a year after the original, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 has players contending with the Four Greater Fiends, which are looking to resurrect the Archfiend. Ramping up the game are bigger battles – players will fight giant buddha statues, dragons, and even the Statue of Liberty in what amounts to spectacles of the highest order. The title is far more streamlined than the original release; there’s even a dedicated button you can press that shows you where to go next. Still, the action is still as heated as ever – always a plus.

It proves to be a fairly solid port, maintaining a steady frame rate even when there are multiple enemies on the screen. There’s some censorship with blue “blood” after limbs are chopped off and the odd bout of loading mid-action, but a day-one patch will bring its gore and decapitation back to their rightful place.

Finally, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge has Ryu going toe-to-toe with the Regent of the Mask. This foe is a worthy adversary, placing a curse on Ryu known as the Grip of Murder. What follows is a journey to stop this alchemist from destroying the world.

The core gameplay in the game is similar to previous entries, but elements like quick time events, pause menu skill trees, an assistant that’s just a little too helpful, and an even more linear progression system prevent this entry from reaching the heights of the previous two. It’s not a bad game; it’s just inoffensive. The port is up to the task though, with no slowdown or loading hiccups from our time with the game.

There’s no better way to see the Dragon Ninja Ryu Hayabusa in action than with the Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection. Those that can deal with the odd loading stutter can experience some of the finest hack-and-slash combat on the market today.

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Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown Review

Arcade warriors weaned on six button layouts will be thrown for a loop at the three button control scheme found here – at least at first. Consisting of a guard, a punch, and a kick, what seems simple hides an incredible amount of depth.

Combos are just the start; there’s also varying throws, down attacks, wall moves that are dependent on the arena, back attacks, jump attacks, and even moves that come after certain moves. For the dedicated among us, feats of glory like Akira’s guard-breaking “Toryu Tenshin Hazankai” will keep players training until they can pull each one off with ease.

There’s no need to memorize pages of combos if you don’t want to though; Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown allows those with a firm grasp of the fundamentals to stand their ground. The ultimate goal is to find an opening, and punishing whiffs and poorly timed blocks is the key to success. Those that wish to learn all of Wolf’s wrestling grabs can certainly do so (and look cool while doing it), but its core foundation allows for all sorts of players.

Fighters live and die by their roster, and the 19 base characters of this title offer up a healthy amount of variety. Drunken kung-fu, lucha libre, kickboxing, and judo are just some of the practices players can dive into. The fact that there are no newcomers takes some of the wind out of this version’s sails, but there are enough variations to keep things interesting.

Unfortunately, those flying solo won’t have much content to keep them busy. A standard Arcade Mode against AI opponents, an Offline Versus mode, and a Training Mode with basic Tutorial, Command Training, and Free Training options are the only things available. The Quest Mode from the original release is MIA, greatly hampering its replayability. What is here is serviceable, but the series has previously seen much more single-player content on tap.

Rather, the key selling point of Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is its online play. Ranked Matches are the main attraction, with players rising through the ranks and taking down all those that stand in their way. To keep things as streamlined as possible, players can choose the type of ranked players they come across, their connection quality, and their opponents’ disconnect rate – a nice touch.

Unfortunately, the netcode in this title could use some work. We faced a bit of lag and some disconnects from the 30 matches we played, despite the fact that we had a wired cable Internet connection. Finding an opponent was a straightforward affair, but the core experience could have benefited greatly from rollback netcode. What is present here gets the job done, but something as key to the experience as this could have been greatly improved upon.

The three button setup of Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown has stood the test of time, providing an incredible amount of depth with a strong emphasis on the fundamentals. It’s just a shame that the spotty netcode drags down the overall experience; those looking to seek out new challengers best come with a bit of patience.

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Biomutant Review

The Toxanol Corporation, the games representation of human greed and disregard, was responsible for a cataclysmic event that saw the world thrown into turmoil. Drilling into the planet’s crust and polluting the world’s oceans, mankind has pushed nature to its limit and it broke – at least at first.

It’s not too often that you get to experience a post-apocalyptic world that’s filled to the brim with vibrancy and color. While the initial introduction of the story represents a very real and very dark potential future for mankind, that gloom and dread is quickly replaced as you’re introduced to The New World. This world is in blossom, and creatures of all shapes and sizes inhabit the lands. For the most part, life is good.

That is until you learn of the Tree of Life, the source of all power and life in The New World. It’s under threat by radiated creatures that were mutated and evolved after the Toxanol Corporation polluted the world. Cue the player, which is tasked with creating a custom anthropomorphic creature, choosing a class, and embarking on a journey to save the world.

Immediately, mere seconds into the game, the expectations of a post-apocalyptic world are thrown aside as a gorgeously bright world unfolds at your feet. Biomutant features a massive game world that is available to explore in its entirety just after the introduction. Of course, there’s remnants of human civilization like wrecked huts in the woods and sprawling towns reduced to rubble. However, this is nature’s world, and it was reclaimed many moons ago.

This is Biomutant’s biggest innovation: its setting. The New World embodies the post-apocalyptic environment perfectly, but gives it enough unique charm and character to present a new frontier to explore, free from the regular tropes of the setting. The most intriguing aspect of the world is its characters, made up of small creatures and critters of all sorts of varieties. Some have settled into region and formed tribes, others roam the world as merchants, and some have become mutated and terrorize entire regions.

Unfortunately, Biomutant’s efforts to reinvigorate the post-apocalyptic setting doesn’t quite manage to do the same with the open world formula. You’ll be running around taking outposts and strongholds from enemy tribes, doing basic fetch quests, and conquering regions. It’s a very familiar design in an unfamiliar world, which is just about enough to forget you’ve trodden this path before.

Helping alleviate the repetition of the open world mechanics as a kung-fu inspired combat system that sees a small furry creature floating and flipping around enemies like a scene from The Matrix. There’s a huge variety of weapons to experiment with – both melee and firearms – each with different strength and weaknesses and an impressive list of different combination attacks. As you’re swinging, slashing, and shooting you way through, carefully placed prompts appear to help you flesh out the final few buttons in a devastating combo attack, which is then thrown up on the screen in a “THWACK” style reminiscent of comic books. All too often in these large, open world settings, the quality and experience of the core gameplay mechanics take a back seat to the scope and wonders of the world. Thankfully, that’s not the case for Biomutant. The combat is great, rewarding, and challenging, and some of the boss encounters are absolutely fantastic.

Further compliments to Biomutant’s combat come in the form of its crafting and gear system. There’s a huge amount of weapons and armor that you can collect, equip, and customize. The crafting, while initially quite shallow, opens to near endless possibilities as you continue to gather different bits and pieces of old world junk that you can combine into a massive sledgehammer that sets foe ablaze with every swing. While on the surface this appears simply a great aspect of its design, the freedom of choice and creativity is integral to the game’s narrative design.

As you take down forts, capture enemies, and net rare insects, you’re often confronted with a choice. The choices and consequences system challenges you to forge your path and direction in a battle of right and wrong, good and evil, even left and right. Many of these choices in themselves have minimal consequence, but as your character continues to battle with the forces of light and dark, the story evolves and characters interact with you in different ways. It culminates in a heartwarming (or heart-wrenching) ending as you experience the consequence of your journey, for better or worse.

Biomutant is a charming entry into the open world space. The anthropomorphic creatures that inhabit its world are easy to love, the excellent narration of the story fills its world with character, and the combat is fluid, fast, and deadly. If you’re a fan of open world games and want to experience a new setting, it’s an easy buy. Just be warned that you’ll instantly recognize many of its gameplay loops, and not in a good way.

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NieR Replicant Ver1.22 Review

The 2010 releases of NieR Replicant featured two different characters, one with an older male character and the other with a much younger male character. NieR Replicant ver.1.22 features a younger protagonist, in line with the original Japanese version of the game. As such, fans familiar with the title can expect new plotlines, dialogue, voice overs, and all the other goodies that come in the remaster package.

NieR Replicant ver.1.22 follows the journey of the protagonist and his younger sister Yonah. Afflicted with a deadly disease, Yonah is the main character’s motivations as he explores a broken world in the hopes of finding a cure. A legend speaks of two books: Grimoire Weiss and Grimoire Noire. As two opposing forces – the light and the dark – Grimoire Noire looks to bring disease and calamity to the world. The main character discovers Grimoire Weiss and sets out on a journey to rid the world of Shades: evil entities summoned into the world to bring death and destruction.

All sound a bit familiar? It’s difficult to criticize a game for a cliché plot, which tells of a young brother is searching for a cure for dying sister. However, at the time of its release, it didn’t feel quite as cliché. It’s easy to overlook NieR Replicant ver.1.22 as an effort to cash in on the success of NieR: Automata, but there’s something far deeper and more meaningful in play.

If I were to have reviewed NieR Replicant after the first 20 or so hours of play, it would likely have been the kind of score that results in hate mail and threats. While old school has a certain level of charm, it doesn’t quite hit that level here. The story is incredibly slow to start, with nothing massive happening for a good 20-25 hours – depending on how you play. Couple that with the archaic exploration and questing system, and you have one of the most painfully challenging experiences I’ve played this year.

The game world is relatively large but consists of only a few regions, regions you will return to over and over again, and then again, and then one more time. Both the main quest and side quests will have you doing meaningless deliveries for much of the first half of the game, spending more time running between locations than doing anything else. At times, I dreaded even turning the game. However, as each hour passed, I began to appreciate the journey.

NieR Replicant’s core systems are outdated. Exploration is dull and unrewarding, and visually it’s an upgrade, but nothing to get excited about. Despite this, there are two main components to its success: the combat and the story.

The combat is everything you want it to be. The game boasts several difficulty levels and an auto-battle system on Easy. It’s a complex system, one complicated further by a poor tutorial system. Once you start to learn the sidesteps, the attack combos, the magic spells…it takes a bit of time and patience to get there, but once you do, NieR Replicant’s combat is absolutely thrilling. Thanks to the various difficulty settings, there’s something for everyone. The higher difficulty settings will see you nearly fall to a single swipe of a powerful enemies attacks, while the auto-battle mode on Easy is a fantastic way for fans to explore the story and characters of the world without needing to master the combat.

NieR Replicant’s shining jewel is the boss battles, a gentle mix of real-time RPG action and manic shmup mechanics. There are several challenging fights throughout the game, with bosses of all shapes and sizes looking to cut your adventure short. The combat system offers the player a lot of tools to duck, dive, and counter attack, and you’ll need to use a combination of the entire arsenal to emerge victorious in some incredibly intense and exciting battles.

Much like the narrative, the combat takes a long time to really get to the meat and potatoes. For the first half of the game, you’re limited in the number and type of weapons you can use, the spells you have available, and the combo attacks you can pull off. It’s a bizarre system that, ultimately, becomes very rewarding as you feel free of shackles after the halfway point. However, it does make the earlier stages of the game less compelling.

While much of the first half of the game felt more like getting up and going to work than booting up an exciting new release, there is a light at the end of the tunnel; I only wish I got to the end of the tunnel a little faster. I spent a lot of time exploring, completing side quests, and gathering materials, only to be physically drained mid-point. I didn’t even unlock the fast travel option until about 30 hours in. But then, as a light sweeps across a darkened room, everything started to click.

The side quests became more impactful, the characters more interesting, the combat evolved in an instant, and the story explodes onto the scene in fantastic fashion. It’s a bizarre experience, and one I struggle to relate to anything in the modern gaming sphere. It’s a slow burn, across every aspect of the game, and one that may be a little slow for some people. If you have the patience and the desire to dive deeper, its abundant side content and multiple endings have a lot to offer.

Despite being a great game and a worthwhile remake, NieR Replicant ver.1.22 is not for everyone. Some of the dated design elements are frustrating and needlessly time consuming. The story, while incredible, is locked away behind multiple playthroughs and endings, with its true value being entirely subjective depending on how much time you’re willing to invest. However, none of this is news to fans of NieR: Automata. Put simply, if you’ve been waiting for a deeper, darker dive into the world of NieR, ver.1.22 will not disappoint.

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SaGa Frontier Remastered Review

When you start SaGa Frontier, you choose between seven different characters. The stories for each of these characters are different, though some characters overlap a little. The character Red watches his parents and siblings get killed and narrowly escapes death himself. Gifted with a power that lets him become a superhero, he sets off a quest to find and defeat the evil BlackX. It is an older JRPG, so expect some generic names and plotlines.

The character Blue has to search the world and learn all the types of magic he can. His twin is also learning the magic of the world, and Blue must stop him. T260 is a combat robot dug up by a couple of kids, but can’t seem to remember its mission. After smacking around a couple of other robots in a battlebot competition, you leave the planet to find out your purpose. You’re probably not going to play through every character, but there should be a couple you want to try out.

While the characters have different stories, they all take place in the same universe. You’ll see the same enemies, same locations, and same people. I personally didn’t have an issue seeing the same spots in a different order, but some players might get burned out. Exploring all the nooks and crannies of a place can get your new party members or equipment. I did notice that some party members would only join my group if I was a specific main character. You can recruit Blue’s twin into your party if you aren’t Blue. However, I couldn’t recruit T260 with Red, which was unfortunate.

SaGa Frontier can be brutal when it comes to combat. It is an old-school turn-based RPG, one where one wrong encounter can mean death. I walked into a bio lab looking to chat with some people, only to be attacked by skeletons that killed me in a single turn. That said, you can easily out-grind the enemies if you put some time in. Humans level up by killing enemies as usual. Robots need new equipment to become more powerful and can learn programs from enemy robots. Monsters get stronger by absorbing enemy monsters you defeat. They all have strengths and weaknesses, so a balanced team is the best option.

While in combat, you can use a variety of weapons and skills. By using basic attacks, you can learn new skills that can be equipped. You can only have a certain amount of these on at a time. To learn magic, you must find a mage and buy it from them. Combining skills, magic, and attacks can result in a massive combo attack. These do extreme damage to the enemies and can change the fight in an instant. Enemies can do these combos as well, and you better believe they will use them. The max party size is five, and I have combined four attacks on a single turn. I’m not sure if you can do a five-man one or not.

As far as side content is concerned, there aren’t really many side quests to do. There are a few dungeons to explore with extra loot and optional bosses. These sometimes have puzzles that will lead you into an intense encounter with the promise of legendary equipment. There are some side scenarios, but it is sometimes hard to find the ones for your main character. You can’t access certain rooms or talk to specific NPCs without being the right protagonist.

The remastered edition of SaGa Frontier has some welcome improvements. First off, there is an eighth protagonist you can play as named Fuse. You run into Fuse with Red a couple of times, and he even teams up with you. A speed-up option has been added for both combat and world travel. There is also a New Game Plus mode, so you can bring some items forward with you. The graphics and sound have been upgraded and improved, but you can still tell it is an older game. You can also run from battles much easier now. Sometimes it is quicker to run from weak enemies than to fight them.

I did have some problems with the game. There isn’t a tutorial, so some things aren’t clear. Red transforms into his hero form to become stronger in combat. The game doesn’t tell you that he doesn’t get EXP while in this form, so using it too much will actually weaken you long term. I didn’t mind the lack of waypoints, but sometimes the objectives are vague. The game universe is extensive, and having to search multiple planets can get frustrating. The big one for me is the markers on specific doors or openings. There will be an arrow to show you that you can open a door or enter an area. Sometimes that marker is there, but you can’t go into the area until you progress in the story. It might be just me, but I often found myself looking for a switch that doesn’t exist.

SaGa Frontier Remastered is a good slice of JRPG nostalgia that will please fans of the original classic.

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Little Nightmares 2 Review

Little Nightmares 2 starts with you waking up in a creepy forest. You don’t know who you are, how you got here, or how to escape. There is a brief tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game, but after that the nightmare begins. Someone has been laying bear traps and other hunting traps to catch people. When you finally find out who the culprit is, you realize just how much danger you are in. A giant hunter is capturing people and stuffing them as one would do to animals.

While sneaking through his cabin, you find a young girl that is your size. Though she runs away at first, she eventually joins you on your getaway. There is a tense chase scene that ends in your escape from the woods, but this is nowhere near the end for these two. The city that they arrive in is just as twisted in as the woods they narrowly escaped, with piles of clothes depicting that whatever happened here took people away without any warning. Those left want to kill you and your friend at any cost. The title runs for approximately six to seven hours, but there was a lot of trial and error involved during that time frame.

Little Nightmares 2 is a horror puzzle-platformer with a dash of combat. You spend most of your time solving puzzles and finding keys to move on to the next area. The puzzles get more and more intricate and complicated as you go deeper into the game. Some had me stumped for up to ten minutes, but the limited amount of actions you can do means that the solution is just something you haven’t thought of yet.

After the puzzles comes the chase. Something always triggers the boss to hear or see you as they chase you down. It can get pretty tense, since one screw up will lead to you getting caught.

Combat is not what you’d typically find in the horror genre. You can sometimes find axes or pipes that can be used to bash smaller enemies. Because of your tiny size, there is a slight delay with each swing. This means that you need to time it right or you are the one who dies. It doesn’t matter what hits you; you die in one shot. It is an excellent addition to the sequel that doesn’t overstay its welcome. You only have to use it a few times, so you don’t get burned out on it.

Trial and error plays a massive part of the game. There are a boatload of traps in this game, which change from area to area. You are going to die, and you will likely die a lot. The checkpoint system is generous, but sometimes you have to redo annoying parts. If you do not enjoy this type of gameplay, you will not enjoy Little Nightmares 2. When you have to play through a single section 15 times in a row, you can quickly get burned out. That said, there is always a solution if you keep grinding.

Having a young girl travel with you might feel like an escort game, but that isn’t the case. Oftentimes she will be the one who leads you to where you need to hide. She was never once caught, except when it had to happen while I was sneaking. She helps you climb over taller obstacles, holds switches for you, and will drag you up a cliff if a jump is just a little too far. You split up pretty often as well, so you aren’t always babysitting her. All things considered, she is a pretty useful AI partner – a rarity in games today.

As far as optional content goes, there are two things to find. Your character wears a hat, and you can find them hidden throughout the levels – I found four out of 12 or so. They are hidden well and easily missed, so keep your eyes open. You also run into what are called glitches. These are shadow silhouettes of small people like yourself. I’m not sure what these unlock, but something is supposed to happen if you get enough. Again, these are hidden about as well as the hats, as they blend into the scenery and are hard to see. Completionists can bank on a couple more hours of play time.

There is one thing that this game absolutely nails: the atmosphere. The sound design, art direction, and level layouts all give off a creepy vibe. While you don’t know where you are, you really do not want to be here. It isn’t horror in the classic sense, but more of an intense feeling of dread as you play. To put it another way, I never jumped in fear, but I was very tense during many sections. I also recommend using a headset or headphones for this game. There is one puzzle in particular near the end that relies on sound to solve. It sounds decent enough with speakers, but it is a much better experience with a good pair of headphones.

Little Nightmares 2 improves upon the original with more terror, better puzzles, and a fantastic atmosphere. Fans of horror or puzzle games shouldn’t hesitate to pick this one up.

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Sword of the Necromancer Review

Sword of the Necromancer follows the story of Tama, who is trying to revive her lover Koko. She soon learns of a sword that can bring back the dead, and sets out on a journey to find it. She quickly finds the sword, but soon discovers that it only works on monsters and cannot be used to bring back Koko. Screaming out in frustration, she demands to know why it isn’t working. The Necromancer then appears, telling her that the blade’s real power can be unlocked if she can find and defeat him. With this new mission in her sights, she dives deeper into the dungeon to find her prey.

The story of how Koko and Tama met is all a mystery – at least, at first. Koko is dead from the offset, but you don’t know how it happened. As you beat bosses in the dungeon and progress deeper and deeper, new story bits are revealed. Regular flashbacks show how their relationship started, the places they traveled, and ultimately how Koko met her demise. These are a nice touch, but there is one problem since this is a roguelike: you die a lot. That means you might never see the full story, simply because you couldn’t get to the bottom of the dungeon. The help out with this, the game includes settings to make it easier on the player.

For those of you who don’t know the roguelike genre well, you have to restart after you die. However each death allows you to bring back materials, EXP, or something else to make it worth your while. You can thankfully adjust what you bring back when you die, making it much easier to progress. When you die, you lose your weapons and a certain amount of levels. This means anything you’ve leveled up in the dungeon will be lost when you inevitably die and return. It is a nice option to have, but it also feels like a watered-down version of what the game is meant to be.

Combat in Sword of the Necromancer is pretty straightforward. Utilizing a top-down view, you make use of both attacks and dodges to get through each fight. However, the sword itself can revive monsters to fight for you. Though a great idea in theory, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. This is due to its control scheme, as you only have four buttons – three, if you include the sword needed to revive monsters. When you bring a creature back to life, it takes up one of your empty buttons. You then spawn the beast, and it fights on its own accord. To make things worse, the AI is very hit and miss. I’ve had them smack a boss down before I even got a swing in, and I’ve also had them run around doing absolutely nothing but dying.

Like the main character, the monsters will level up if you let them fight enough. They earn new stats, like crit damage or more health, and they are able to restore their HP when they level up. You can pick up new weapons like spears and axes, along with jewelry that buffs your stats, but none were as useful as a full monster squad. The only reason I wanted another weapon was to bring it back for upgrades. Even then you have to bring both that weapon and the sword, leaving only two slots left for monsters; the numbers just don’t add up. It would help if you had a primary and sub-weapon equipment slot, and then slots for the monsters.

Outside of collecting monsters and weapons, players will find materials and lost diaries. The lost diaries chronicle other adventurers who have attempted to claim the sword for their own, which are short and to the point for those interested in lore. Though materials can be used to upgrade weapons, they cannot be used to upgrade monsters, which would have made them infinitely more valuable. On top of weapons feeling somewhat weak compared to monsters, each upgrade requires a ton of materials. I didn’t even bother after testing it a few times.

Although Sword of the Necromancer has some exciting ideas, they never fully pay off. Be sure to check out some gameplay footage first to get a feel of what this roguelike has to offer.

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