Blending refreshing systems like aiming and the ability to stock enemy encounters to fight them all at once when you feel like it, Fantasian’s turn-based battles are simple yet revolutionary. By implementing real-life dioramas as the main visuals, the locations have a sense of place few games can match. From story to music, everything in this game has been crafted with love and attention to detail, resulting in a game of superb quality overall.

The Red Strings Club is a game with refined dialogue and sublimely implemented choices. It sets a new standard for story-driven adventure games that can be seen as literature.

Infinity Nikki is an ambitious title that combines dress-up elements with open world gameplay. While it succeeds in creating an open world that feels unique and fresh, it comes with flaws such as an underdeveloped combat system.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink does a great job of incorporating elements from the original game at a high standard of quality. The story could have been introduced better, unlockable characters would have benefited from a bit more care and the lack of a map or mini-map is baffling. That being said, Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s exhilarating action and gorgeous visuals more than make up for its shortcomings.

Scarlet Nexus’ stylish psychokinesis-based action is tons of fun. That being said, the player’s attacks tend to leave big openings for the opponent, and with many enemies that have a specific weakness you need to strike, it can become quite stressful. While I had some issues on the story side as well, the well realized characters and great pacing were enough to make me overlook its shortcomings.

After many missteps, Paper Mario Origami King is a return to form for the series. It fixes many of the issues that marred previous entries, and allows the player to casually enjoy puzzles together with a wide array of beautiful locations and quirky characters, while the wonderful sound alone is reason enough to play.

As the first single-player Star Wars action game to be released in a number of years, Jedi: Fallen Order provides a novel opportunity to visit a variety of planets and explore them in depth. However, it fails to build upon innovations from earlier Star Wars action games such as implementation of Force abilities and ease of navigation, with the result that part of its design feels stuck in a previous era.

When The Past Was Around feels heavily inspired by Florence. While it is easy to fall in love with its gorgeous artwork and music, its puzzles fail to support to the story’s narrative. There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment when solving the game’s harder puzzles, but they are often utilized as traditional videogame obstacles rather than meaningful tools that contribute to the story.

The reactions of Pokémon when items are used can be a little underwhelming, and the photography scoring system feels a bit off, but each of the Pokémon and the detailed world they inhabit are so well crafted that it all really comes to life. While the premise of replaying the same course over and over to take pictures may sound a bit too simple, the different Pokémon you encounter and the stories they provide prevent the experience from becoming tedious. New Pokémon Snap has us hoping that future installments in the Pokémon series will learn from its stellar world building.

TOEM is a cute little game made by a Swedish studio that feels like a paper-made terrarium. From its unique art style to fun photography mechanics, user-friendly controls and a clear and lilting sound design, everything in TOEM works and feels polished. This is the kind of game that players may have a lot of fun with regardless of their skill or preferences. The ending of the game’s cozy journey is quite touching as well.

Metal: Hellsinger is a heavy metal FPS that feels like a love child between Doom and a rhythm game. While the lack of variation in its maps and boss battles is a pity, killing hordes of demons while listening to one of 2022’s best soundtracks is an exhilarating experience for sure.

Goro Majima takes the lead in Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. This is an action-adventure game with a unique setting in which fan favorite Majima becomes a pirate in modern-day Hawaii. Fans can finally use his iconic fighting style during battles, while an all new combat system that incorporates the game’s pirate theme is added as well. Although the main story doesn’t utilize the game’s spacious field to the max, the game packs in a lot of content to enjoy.

Gato Roboto is a metroidvania with lots of references to the games it was inspired by, but at times it also feels just as unfriendly and inconvenient as some of those classics do today. It’s also much more difficult than you would expect from a game that stars a cute cat in mech armor, but it’s well worth it if you’re up for the challenge.

With low-texture pixel art and an FM synth-rock soundtrack, Blazing Chrome is best described as a spiritual successor to Contra games from the 16-bit era. A 16:9 aspect ratio, devastating enemy attacks and upgradable weapons give Blazing Chrome a unique sense of thrill and exhilaration. Heavily inspired by older games yet original at the same time, Blazing Chrome’s refined level design will have you learn each time you die. Fighting your way through this classic run-and-gun game is like reliving an experience that never gets old.

Like Supermassive Games’ previous titles, The Quarry plays out like an interactive horror movie. While the improvement in playability is welcome, the game does not provide enough interesting events and twists throughout its voluminous playtime, which makes the story drag. The game’s unique Movie Mode felt like a wasted opportunity too.

Improved lighting makes PES look even more stunning than last year. Dribbling and shooting motions are more varied and feel more authentic, resulting in a more exhilarating soccer match.

With Resident Evil 3, Capcom again succeeds in delivering a game that, as a remake, is nearly flawless. The problem is that the original game it is based on was never so great in the first place. And while there’s some fun to be had with multiplayer component, it’s not clear what Capcom’s main focus was for the package as a whole.

With its new mechanics, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment offers more tactical and refined action than its predecessor, Age of Calamity. On the other hand, the slow pace of unlocking features and progressing through the story gives it an undeniably slow-starting feel. Because it centers on the theme of the Imprisoning War, it offers fewer elements that will excite fans of the original series, but the new episodes told through its original characters are compelling.

Trials Risings’s fail-and-retry gameplay is as fun and addictive as ever. However, the tutorials aren’t as user friendly as they could have been, and the tandem mode and edit mode aren’t that appealing either.

As a combination between the River City and Downtown areas, River City Girls’ town warmly welcomes all fans of the long-running River City Ransom series. For new players, the cute, poppy characters and the over-the-top battles should feel entertaining enough. However, the story is not tightly plotted, and generally not interesting enough for someone not familiar with the genre.

In RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, the player sets out on an adventure inside the notebook of an elementary school student. The immense variety and care that went into this game in surprising. As the hero of the game, you’re not just exploring and fighting, as there are many minigames and amazing little details to enjoy on each page of this notebook adventure. The game doesn’t hesitate to take you out of the notebook either, offering even more variety of content in all sorts of forms and shapes. That being said, in the end you’ll realize that RPG Time is more like an interactive storybook than an actual RPG with deep gameplay mechanics. If you were looking for the latter, RPG Time won’t be for you.

Taking its cues from Nioh and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty boasts a number of challenging mechanics. The simple yet profound Kisei system and the Morale Rank system are innovative features, and the sheer speed of the combat is addictive. However, while the fundamentals of Wo Long are excellently made, it suffers from a number of problems both large and small, including an unwieldy UI, a one-dimensional story, and a lack of variety in both melee attacks and enemy types. If developer Team Ninja’s Nioh series is anything to go by, it’s possible that many of these problems will be resolved in future updates and DLC. For now, at least, Wo Long is a highly enjoyable game that falls just short of hitting the next level.

While the more story-driven experience of the new Volta mode definitely makes for an ambitious soccer game, it’s too bad that the story itself is so monotonous.

Everywhere in the world, people have fallen in love with this adorable goose and the friendly villagers who never punish it for its pranks. However, the village the game takes place in is way too small, and the harsh challenges that are thrown at you after beating the main game don’t match the cutesy atmosphere.

Everything that makes Eiyuden Chronicle great is introduced in the first part of the game. From the 120 heroes that you can recruit to the epic one-vs-one duels, its game systems always make you feel the heat of the story. While the difficult turn-based battles might not be for everyone, as long as you prepare well they are a lot of fun to engage in. The soundtrack is great, but when played with headphones the sound balance seems a little off at times. Recruiting the 120 heroes functions as a rewarding side activity. Not being able to develop your town as you wish without certain heroes can prove frustrating at times, but the way your fate is influenced by the particular set of characters you’ve crossed paths with is a part of Eiyuden Chronicle’s unique charm.

With great battle mechanics and karakuri crafting, Wild Hearts stands out as a unique hunting game. When playing alone it can feel a bit intimidating, but the difficulty becomes just right during multiplayer, which allows for interesting ways to chain different karakuri devices. While as a new IP there are certain elements of the game that could be improved upon and while there are some technical issues that hold it back, Wild Hearts is a game without any real major flaws.

Quantic Dream successfully depicts a universal SF theme from a fresh angle by using a game system where choices the player makes stand central, and does so with incredibly realistic visuals. If only the story had been constructed a little more cleverly, there would have been no hesitation in calling this a gem.

Jumping around as a ninja in a cyberpunk world makes for a great retro-style game. Whenever a new type of action or mechanic is introduced, Cyber Shadow feels genuinely fresh. While its progression might be overwhelming at times, it’s a satisfying package for sure.