Compile Heart’s ambition in trying to leave its comfort zone should be lauded, but unfortunately, Dark Rose Valkyrie‘s release in a period full of landmark JRPGs (not least among them Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV) highlights how tough it is to make a JRPG that can stick the landing. In leaner years it would be endearing enough for a player to push past its awkward aspects, but against such stiff competition, there’s simply no reason to settle for this botched execution.

Underneath its shiny graphics and dynamic movement, most of its characters aren't distinct enough to be interesting, let alone loveable in the way that great visual novel characters should be. The writing isn't bad, but it's too repetitive to carry an entire game's worth of storytelling and dialogue.

Boiling it all down, Lighting Returns is a flashy combat system lacking some basic components that's wrapped up in soporific item hunts and fetchquests that don't feel worthy of the time that's required to do them.

Antigraviator is the kind of game that disappoints by showing the bones to be a great experience, only to fall short of its lofty goals in nearly every aspect.

The game is perfectly, almost proverbially, meh.

As a puzzle game in its own right it's mildly diverting, but doesn't hold up against the platform's best in any real way.

At the end of the day, Virtua Tennis 4 is a game that trades largely on its lineage-but given that this game, like VT2009, continues to muck up a really good formula, it's hard to imagine gamers continuing to be forgiving of Sega's recurring missteps.

It seems impossible that a game featuring multi-partner dating and demon-battling with an army of combat children could somehow be boring, but there it is.

As interesting as the moral choices might be, The Awakened Fate Ultimatum is too many dungeons, too few combat options, and too many of the same themes Nippon Ichi has dealt with before.

In short, I was satisfied with the game, but not overly impressed. The faint thrill of Jedi-dom was indeed there, but in the end it's just another action game in a vast, overflowing ocean of them.

The Sinking City is a perfectly acceptable detective game that gets bogged down by mediocre open-world adventure. While I respect Frogwares’ ambition to explore new areas, with results this shoddy, they should have stuck to what worked. Without tacking on hours of worthless travel and open-world nonsense, Sinking City would have been a high-quality cosmic horror mystery. In its current form, I can’t recommend anyone but the most devoted Lovecraft fans make the journey to Oakmont.

Everything except Altair's athletics feels underdeveloped and painfully shallow, making the end result an overhyped attempt to recoup the development costs for something that's little more than an extended tech demo.

XBlaze - Code: Embryo isn't the most offensive visual novel I've ever played, but it's ultimately dragged down by a lackluster story, dull characters, and the infuriating TOi system.

Fans of the blockbuster might enjoy the set dressing applied to this pinball table, but those looking for a solid pinball board underneath the veneer might be left wanting.

It is a mere sheep in wolves clothing that uses only the most socially timid and comfortable clichés like cigarettes-for-trade and prison escape maps to paint a PG-rated teen-friendly novelty amusement park interpretation of prison life.

With an interesting main storyline, creative enemies, and fundamentally solid gameplay, it's too bad that that Arcania: The Complete Tale's technical flaws prevent it from being a must-play. There aren't enough decent action-RPG hybrids for console players as it is, and Arcania isn't going to do much to fix that.

It has great art direction, well-crafted early stages, and exciting boss battles. Sadly, all of this great work is upended by the introduction of these terrible water levels, and their inclusion makes Spinch just another retro platformer that misses the mark.

As it stands, the framework of a promising tycoon game flickers beneath the strobe lights, but it struggles to justify the cover charge. Moments of satisfaction are undercut by clumsy onboarding and a lack of personality, leaving the whole experience feeling flatter than it should. Unfortunately, Disco Simulator hints at a better party than the one it ultimately throws.

So the game doesn't have any real characters at all, the graphics are nothing special, and the story actually gets in the way of the gameplay... Now if someone would just make a game where these wonderful play mechanics made some sort of logical sense, we'd be cooking with gas.

Although I got a few good laughs out of the first hour or so, the appeal of calling men in turbans "bitches" while plowing through repetitive environments ran out long before the credits rolled. I walked away from the game bored and left it unfinished, having no regrets.

As it stands, Pid is a misguided platformer that is set to quickly disappear from memory.

The bottom line is that Resident Evil Zero's title perfectly describes the content and play value of the game itself.

The very definition of a missed opportunity. Thirsty mecha fans are still stuck in that same desert, and they’ll have to wait for something to quench their desires a while longer.

Let's Tap!, with its bright, accessible aesthetic and peppy, J-pop soundtrack, has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I can only evaluate the game as it exists, and Let's Tap! has a few shortcomings too many to wholeheartedly recommend.

Despite featuring a gorgeous and carefully-designed world, Obduction fails to execute on its central identity as a puzzle game. And, when three quarters of the experience consists of walking from one point to another and sitting through loading screens, it’s difficult to imagine that Cyan Worlds respects the time of Obduction’s players. Returning the favor, I ended up having very little respect for their game.

Outward‘s main issues are that it’s an average experience with a lot of competition to contend with, and that it doesn’t lean into its core concept hard enough. It would never have stood apart from the crowd with its production values, but it had a chance (and missed) at making a mark by failing to establish a truly unique identity.

It seems a shame that this inferior sequel makes us all take turns.

Like its name vaguely suggests, Skydive: Proximity Flight doesn't quite hit its mark.