I don’t like being particularly cruel in reviews, but IronFall Invasion never needed to leave the 3DS. It was bad enough there thanks to its totally worthless storytelling and generic, bland gameplay. With the Switch it doesn’t even have the distinction of being one of the more technically impressive tech demos on the console. It truly has nothing going for it.

It’s hard to shake the feeling that Fantasian was a project designed to give several legends of the JRPG genre closure. By revising their great classic and both modernising and paying homage to it in equal measures, they can look back at their careers with the satisfaction of having completed a full journey of their own. For people that clearly love storytelling so much it’s hard to imagine a better way to finish up.

Perhaps part of the reason I have a higher tolerance for this game is not just that I love the base property, but I also love those old N64 bad 3D platformer efforts. Remember Chameleon Twist on the N64? Probably not, as it didn’t exactly win over the critics and was actually one of the most expensive N64 games. I loved it though. Or what about Glover? Or Bomberman 64? Snow Bros. Wonderland is a bit more modern than those titles, but you’re probably right that it has a dash of that heritage and tradition in it. And so you are probably right that the audience that is going to love Snow Bros Wonderland is vanishingly small. Unfortunately for you, you’ve landed in the middle of a Venn diagram where one circle is “Game Critic” and the other is “Snow Bros. Bro”. And so now your name is going to be attached to a glowing score for the game into perpetuity, because I really did love every moment of this game.

The basic reality is that a work as derivative as Dokimon is lazy. That’s not to say a lot of work wasn’t put into it. I’m sure the developer and whatever team they had spent many, many hours cobbling this together. But it’s creatively lazy and contributes nothing to the monster-taming RPG genre. And so all that work has ultimately gone to waste.

Talisman is really just a glorified game of Snakes and Ladders when it comes to players having the agency to determine the winner. They simply don’t. There’s a lot to like about the presentation and theming of the board game, and unlike its previous Talisman project, Nomad’s done a sparkling job with the presentation and aesthetics of this one. For that reason, it is the definitive version of Talisman out there, but there are just so many board games that were released in the past decade that have ruled Talisman obsolete from a game design perspective, and so many of those have a digital edition too.

Farming Simulator remains an excellent experience. It’s educational, in that you’ll walk away with it with an appreciation for what farmers go through so you can eat. At the same time, once you are familiar with its systems and loops, it becomes laid back and almost meditative for the way you’ll go about what is mechanically a repetitive grind, but aesthetically and thematically a rewarding loop that keeps you both engaged and stress-free. Farming Simulator continues to appear like it should be a mess of paradoxes, yet in action, it just works.

The Devil’s Whisper is so niche that as far as I can tell I’m the first one that’s reviewed it, anywhere. Including user reviews on Steam. It’s a pity that it’s going to fly under the radar like that, because it’s a fun blend of a homage to B-horror movies with its own unique identity. It is also clearly a work that the developers cared about a lot, given the effort that went into designing the narrative and the voice acting. I do think the art has let it down and made it difficult to convert people on the Steam page into buyers, but I recommend looking past that, because this is a decent VN worth your time.

To be frank, here, I don’t think enough was done to make Planet Coaster 2 enough of a sequel. Adding water parks and slides, and more rides in general, were all perfectly rational ways to expand on the Planet Coaster experience, but we’re in an era now where DLC is getting Game of the Year nominations, and I do think that this feels more like a massive DLC drop at 50% of the price of a base game than a new, full-priced game. And as fun as the emerging “Frontier Simulation” formula is I also can’t help but wish that the developers would challenge themselves to try and create an actual simulator at some point. Make something with teeth, folks! You might be surprised just how invested your players get when their decisions have consequences for their parks, too.

Goblin Slayer is a perfectly adequate tactics JRPG that people who have nostalgia for the genre back on the PlayStation will have a particular fondness for. Mileage may be slightly better for the fans of the anime, but even then I think the big problem this game has is that it’s very superficial and shows very little interest in making any kind of statement or point. In other words, it plays exactly like an ‘anime tie-in’ game, and nothing more or less than that.

It has taken me an age to review this game – it was released a month ago – because one of the good things about a slow-paced slice-of-life visual novel is that you can mess around with it in between playing other things, but it has never been far out of my mind as I’ve played it. To fully appreciate it you’ve got to be comfortable with glacial pacing and an earnest attempt to take something that looks like it should be fanservicey and give you something to think about instead. Calibrate your expectations just right and SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky may just surprise you.

Digital Eclipse is onto something special with its “interactive documentary” approach overall. Atari 50 has become the standard against which all retro compilations should be judged. Additionally, I appreciate the intent and effort that went into Tetris Forever a great deal. I just hate, so much, how licensing has let everyone involved with this effort down.

Dragon Quest III was a pioneer and was very far ahead of its time. The first Final Fantasy had only been released shortly before this game, yet in terms of storytelling, worldbuilding, and themes, Dragon Quest III was much more sophisticated than Square’s inaugural title. The HD-2D engine is just the cherry on top. Thanks to that, this is one of the best retro remakes I’ve ever played.

Yakuza Kiwami is an excellent game, and if this is the start of the entire series making its way to the Switch 2 then it’s still worth having it on the device in the interest of completion. It’s a solid 5-star game that unfortunately is just a bit too much for the Switch to do full justice to.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is an objectively well-made product that is perfectly playable and it’s both empowering and entertaining. But it’s also nothing more than a product, finely tuned for passive consumption, right off the content mill.

To finish with a comparison: A game like Light de Deux highlights what can be achieved when an indie developer properly scopes out their resourcing limitations and works within that. No AI, no case of scope overwhelming the capabilities of the developer. It was a smaller-scale game, but a complete, lovely little thing to actually experience. Lovecraft wrote many smaller-scoped stories and the developers of Innsmouth 22 could have retold. It might have been a better idea for them to work towards Innsmouth 22 over a period of time after first starting with some smaller efforts that would get their creative processes, art assets, and cash flow working first. Sadly first impressions count, and no matter how intriguing the game project, if this developer makes a second I’m going to be much more wary about giving it my time.

I don’t quite think Shin Chan is that bad as Matt makes out, but the tone is jarring, and I do kind of feel that I’d get on just a little better with the core game that’s here without him present – though I’ve little doubt that his presence probably helped shift more than a few copies when Shin Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town first debuted in Japan earlier this year.

Hidden in my Paradise is an exceptional hidden object game that captured my attention for several hours. (And trust me, that is not an easy feat.) You can play whether you have two minutes or two hours to spare. Yes, I have major beef with the controller optimisation or lack thereof, but there is so much to make up for that. The snap aspect, the fine details in the items, the amount of layering of items in the paradises, the art style, the freedom to create levels, and the sheer number of objects have made Hidden in my Paradise a shining example of the genre. I have collected every item and created every snap in every paradise. I have collected every item available. I did the same for the content of the Halloween update. The only thing to do for now is begin anew and hope for more extras.

Ys and I will never be best friends. I love storytelling in my RPGs, and Ys is quite firmly committed to making me press buttons instead. More than ten games into the series and I still wish the developers did something, anything, to make Adol interesting enough to be a frontman that has more entries now than most of the absolute greats of fantasy literature. He’s no Thomas Covenant or Pug, that’s for sure. Still, despite this dispute between myself and the series, I can appreciate what so many others live and why this has become such a cult favourite over so many iterations. No other JRPG property does extreme-paced action as well as Ys, and with Ys X, that quality is supported with a sense of wonder and adventure in the exploration that makes it very difficult to put down.

I don’t usually like marking a game down for bugs, because when the patches come in the review becomes dated. However, Wildermyth really is a bad example of bugs letting the experience down to the point that the game, as wonderful and moreish as it is, is difficult to recommend right now. Add a point to this score in a few months when, in theory, the worst of its crippling bugs have been patched out, and then settle in for the perfect tabletop RPG experience when you haven’t got friends around to play a real session of Dungeons & Dragons with you.

There are 80 tracks to painstakingly unlock in I*CHU, and by the time you have them all, you’ll also have a team of pretty boys who are powerful enough to make hard mode for these tracks playable. At that point, it’s finally a full-scale rhythm game, and indeed more generous with the content than many of the others on the Switch. Unfortunately, it really needed to be redesigned to remove all the mobile game elements from it and leave players with a simple, straightforward, but enjoyable rhythm game. That core heartbeat of I*CHU is a lot of fun and very worthwhile, but it’s let down by an annoying gacha system being kept over from the mobile original (despite no longer costing players anything) and an infuriating series of visual novel “minis” that you need to spend hours in to unlock all the music.

I do wish there was more to Light de Deux, not because it feels incomplete but simply because there really could have been greater ambition behind it. We’re talking about a rare game with dance as the central theme. There was the opportunity there for the developer to really come out with something that had something big to say. Of course, it would also be unfair of me to criticise the game for it, given that we are talking about an independent developer weaving magic out of fumes. Games cost money to make and if you make the most of what you can resouce. In that context, the developer definitely punched above their weight with what they’ve delivered here. I hope that Light de Deux is a success and perhaps, down the track, if they get to the point where they have more resources, they can come back to Susanna and Mark and give us a more fully fleshed-out story about the relationship and experience of being a ballet dancer.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 has a lot going for it. Thanks to the “Tales” feature it’s possibly the most accessible RoTK game to date, easing players in by giving them a clear set of targets to prioritise. Once you’re comfortable with that the depth of strategy and a staggering array of ways to play make for a deep experience with dozens upon dozens of historical play. I still find it odd that Koei Tecmo decided to remake this game, but ultimately I’m glad that it happened.

Square Enix picked an exceptional game to remake, and then did an exceptional job in remaking it. Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is a true epic and a game that comes across as ambitious to this day. While the raw storytelling is a little limited, the concept is strong and compelling, the combat system is tactical and entertaining, and bringing the game into three dimensions means that we can finally see the full scope and vision behind this adventure of generational consequence.

9 R.I.P. is, ultimately, a playful take on urban legends and more akin to that classic film, Ghost, than something more visceral. If you’re out there looking for proper horror with a similar theme, Death Mark 2 is going to be a better recommendation for you. But it’s okay that Otomate didn’t make that game, either. After all, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to get it on with a hot ghost, even if 9 R.I.P. missed the opportunity to make one of these boys look like anime Patrick Swayze.

Neva is what happens when you let actual artists make a game. That we rarely get works like this is depressing, but there’s no sense that anything in Neva was produced according to what a suit thought would be best for the share value. Yes, Neva lacks in subtlety, but it is nonetheless a beautiful, heartfelt and evocative experience. It makes it clear up front that its goal is to make you cry, and even though you know what it’s doing, you are going to cry on cue at the end of it.

Mario Party has been a multiplayer mainstay for me since right back with the original on N64. To this day the first three are on high rotation thanks to the N64 Online app. It’s really lovely to see Nintendo find creative form with Super Mario Party Jamboree by producing something that largely focuses on the basics. The new maps are excellent, the range of minigames is a delight, the bonus modes are fun, and the energy is playful and joyous. I went into this thinking it would be Nintendo’s equivalent to filler leading into the Christmas season. Turns out it was much more than that and this is a major project that everyone that enjoys multiplayer should pick up.

Without a doubt getting the most out of RPG Maker WITH requires a substantial time commitment, and there’s no point to buying the software just to play other people’s games – you can download the demo for that. If, however, you’ve ever had the creative itch to play with this wonderful genre, then the tools couldn’t be easier and you don’t need to know a line of code. Get out there and get creating!

If you’re looking to scratch that EDF itch, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 is a decent enough way to do it – but EDF 6 is considerably better and more engaging, and that does make it a harder game to recommend. It’s still fun, for sure, because EDF mostly has that pizza-like quality that even when it’s slightly bland and predictable it’s still quite good – but I can’t help but feel that a fully-fledged World Brothers sequel should perhaps have taken its LEGO-like destruction mechanic a little further, or leaned more into the abject silliness of some of your comrades.