There are plenty of things to criticize, from its dated technology to its dungeons with wearying mechanics, but Final Fantasy VII Rebirth manages to hit the nail right on the head. Beyond its fantastic battles and its ever-crazy reinterpretations of scenes from the 1997 game, it's the feeling of having accomplished a great and beautiful journey in the company of an unforgettable group of characters that prevails once the credits have been reached.

Last Epoch is the perfect game for you if Diablo 4 has disappointed you and you're wisely waiting for PoE 2. After 4 years of early access and listening to the community, Eleventh Hour Games has succeeded in creating another great Hack'n'Slash, a perfect blend of the genre's ARPGs, Lost Ark and Dr.Strange. A well-stocked endgame content and thousands of items to farm follow an interesting but not memorable campaign. The game will easily hold you hostage for dozens of hours and more if you're a fan of the genre, and will suit veterans and neophytes alike, even without being as accessible as a D4.

Skull and Bones isn't incredible, but neither is it a nameless wreck. For those who didn't play Black Flag back in the day, it's still a good experience to have as a pirate, with then some pretty memorable battles and also the pleasure of customizing your ship and equipping it with the best weapons. But if you've ever had an experience with the opus released in 2013, it's clear that this title will certainly leave a bitter taste in your mouth. While the sea battles are a real highlight, the rest of the game seems bland, with redundant missions and a feeling of limited exploration. Despite this, the whole game remains pleasant to play, with a campaign lasting between 25 and 30 hours.

Overall, Mario vs Donkey Kong is good, even very good. The remastering work is clearly perceptible, and it's a real pleasure to (re)play these levels, which have been redesigned to suit the videogame standards of modern Mario games. Unfortunately, we can only regret that this overall success has been sabotaged by some really annoying flaws, giving the impression that we're being wasted. Mario vs Donkey Kong is therefore, in our opinion, a good game to play from time to time to relax, provided you're not too much of a stickler for detail. A good game for the young, the very young or video game neophytes, who won't pay too much attention to the small details we've pointed out, and who will especially frustrate regular players accustomed to more accomplished optimization.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden really could have been a great game that could have made its mark on the narrative RPG genre. With an innovative concept, a poignant story and choices that make the player think and affect, there was enough to satisfy, not to mention some sumptuous landscapes, successful immersion and a well-thought-out combat system that could have been developed further. All these good ideas are ravaged by poor technique, NPCs from another decade, boringly repetitive gameplay and exploration, and uninvolving combat that deserved better. The whole RPG aspect of the game is unfortunately far too superficial and obsolete, and we're simply content to move forward in the story to find out what's good about it.

If you take away the game's classy art direction and particularly well embodied main characters, there's not much left for Suicide Squad to convince. Its service-oriented looter-shooter mechanics break the rhythm into a thousand pieces, and the shameful repetitiveness of the mission objectives (5 different types over 10 hours of play) undermines what little motivation there is left to dig deeper into its botched endgame. It's just a decent, pretty romp to be enjoyed with friends, but certainly not at full price.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is the A-JRPG that many gamers have been waiting for, and which will delight fans of Monster Hunter, Tales of, Kingdom Hearts or Genshin Impact with its depth of content that can keep you playing for hundreds of hours if need be. With addictive gameplay, an interesting cast of characters, a satisfying story mode and an endgame that holds you hostage for long hours, alone or with others, Cygames' game is one of the pleasant surprises of the new year. Despite its frustrating shortcomings, which we hope will soon be rectified.

Persona 3 Reload makes all the changes and improvements you'd expect a worthy remake of a cult title. The original is vastly improved in almost every respect, with far more satisfying and dynamic gameplay, richer social and relatively modern graphics. This almost perfect if a massive amount of content hadn't been left out. been left out. The lifespan remains massive, and it's an excellent way of discovering or rediscovering Persona 3, but it's far far from being the complete version of the game we've been dreaming of for years.

After spending a hundred hours at the side of Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu, the verdict is clear: Infinite Wealth is one of the most solid episodes in the saga that began some 18 years ago. Well-paced and better constructed than its predecessor, this new Like A Dragon engraves its turn-based gameplay in the marble of the series, thanks to some excellent ideas that allow it to assert its own identity against other JRPG greats. With its concrete narrative and gargantuan content, it manages to be interesting from start to finish, before stumbling at the end with a conclusion that is likely to be debated and a new game plus at $14.99.

Tekken 8 is a more than generous game, and a wonderful love letter to lovers of the license. It's a shame that its story mode is too redundant in terms of gameplay, and that its solo modes are a little less interesting than those of some of its rivals, because it would otherwise have been the best fighting game released recently without any possible dispute. The heart of the game will really be to fight with other players, the other modes being rather limited and relatively short. If the balancing follows, Tekken 8 will also be very interesting on a competitive level, even more so than Tekken 7.

Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is a pleasant surprise at the start of the year, with a satisfying gameplay offering everything that's best in the Metroidvania genre, without forgetting to innovate. The cartoonish art direction, clichéd story and extravagant action scenes may be a quality or a flaw depending on your sensibilities, but that shouldn't discourage you from playing it, as it's so much fun to explore, fight and perform incredible acrobatics with disconcerting ease.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising is an excellent surprise. The game features an original combat system, has a cast rich enough for everyone to find something to their liking, and boasts an excellent online mode. Comparisons with the previous opus are inevitable, but the recycling seems to have been done intelligently: we keep what's good and improve the rest while adding things on top. The game is well worth the price for a new one, even if Versus players may be left a little hungry, with few additions to the single-player section (and not the best part either). In fact, it's this lack of single-player content that prevents us from considering it a must-have, unless you're a real fighting game enthusiast or a fan of the license.

Dragon Quest Monsters Le Prince des Ombres will bring back memories for fans of Dragon Quest IV, and will be convincing for fans of the license or of J-RPGs. However, it may also hold back the arrival of new players, as its technical aspects may pose a problem, despite a really advanced synthesis system, an excellent soundtrack and good ideas such as the season system. In the end, the best way to find out whether it's for you or not is to play the demo.

Rogue Trader delivers everything you'd expect from an RPG set in the vast Warhammer 40,000 universe. A dark atmosphere, numerous cruel choices, excellent companions, exploration of the galaxy and its dangers, good tactical combat and even some rather successful space battles. Realization is also quite good for a game of this genre, but it's far from mainstream, with a lot of text to read on the one hand and daunting character progression on the other. Our biggest regret is that, like many other games, Rogue Trader will probably come out full of bugs that will take a while to resolve.

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is a well-made licensed product. Without ever making a fuss, Lightstorm's title immerses us in the universe imagined by James Cameron thanks to a visually superb open world, but whose recipe has been around for a long time. Far Cry's skeleton is no longer solid-boned, and while it's more than enough to keep you going for 20 to 25 hours, it's unlikely that you'll retain anything from the experience, unless you're a hardcore fan of the license it's based on.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Realms of Ruin has a lot going for it, including high-quality production, numerous game modes and a variety of factions, but it suffers from one of the worst flaws of any video game: it's not very interesting or fun. Managing your army is unsatisfying, lacking control and options on the one hand, and on the other, the game is slow, cumbersome and punishing. It takes a lot of effort to get used to its particular gameplay, and is likely to put off many players.

Persona 5 Tactical is a good little tactical game that should please fans of the licence, as well as gamers looking for original gameplay. It could also appeal to those who regret that Mario + The Raving Rabbids is exclusive to the Switch. Some of Persona 5's strengths, such as its music and cast, can be found here, although the Chibi design, linear progression structure and lack of ambition in the story greatly limit its potential. Waiting for a promotion to get your hands on it seems to us to be the wisest option.

Like A Dragon Gaiden plays out like the filler season of a good anime: we meet up with characters we love around an adventure that has no significant impact on the story, with the exception of two or three elements distilled along the way. This is a title that retains the usual qualities of the series, which is enough to make it a very good game, but it is unfortunately marred by haphazard combat collisions and a story that is too long for its own good.

Despite its substantial content and solid gameplay, Warcraft Rumble is not a game that players will be unanimous about. It suffers from a number of shortcomings, such as the fact that free-to-play progression is slowed down, that load times can be a little long, that there's no fun to be had, and that it can be frustrating. However, it will also find its target audience, who will love the universe and be able to enjoy it even if they don't spend much time on it each day.

If you've been waiting for Modern Warfare 3 to deliver an incredible, never-before-seen campaign, then you'll have to pass, but if you're in it for the Multiplayer, then this Sledgehammer Games title will win you over. Despite a timid campaign that may seem far too short and empty, the Multiplayer and Zombies modes make up for it. We rediscover the sensations we've come to know through previous opuses, and the Zombies experience is a pleasant surprise. Despite our initial skepticism, once we're into Operation Deadbolt, it's hard to stop.

Super Mario RPG is one of the strangest Mario games in its history: with its world of characters seemingly drawn from an entirely different universe, its darker-than-usual graphic style and its turn-based gameplay, the late Squaresoft's game is one of the Super Famicom's diamonds in the rough that had never before made it to the Old Continent, with a proper localization. A mistake that has now been rectified, with a meticulous translation, a graphical overhaul that does justice to the 1996 game and gameplay adjustments that allow younger players to enjoy it.

In the end, and fortunately, the story is well-paced and fairly well executed. Alan Wake's highly immersive narrative is its strength, and we can't wait to discover the DLC that will doubtless answer our questions, offer us new ones and flesh out the Remedy-verse, as well as certain characters we'd very much like to see again - whether in additional content, Alan Wake 3, or why not Control 2.

Mission accomplished for Robocop: Rogue City. It's a pretty good game for fans of the license and 80s action films. Everything is faithfully reproduced and even enriched, while offering a gameplay that makes good use of Robocop's particularities, both as a cybernetic policeman serving the city and as a killing machine. In this context, it's quite amusing, even pleasant, to follow Alex Murphy and his little phrases before a big massacre. However, the game won't be of much interest to other players. Its content won't appeal to them, it's too short, too repetitive and too poorly produced to justify its price tag.

Star Ocean The Second Story R is the kind of remake we'd like to see more of. Thanks to a host of changes and additions, it manages to bring up to date a title that has always been considered the must-have episode of the saga. Whether it's the graphics, the soundtrack or the more dynamic combat, this title has won us over and taken us back in time to rediscover the second opus in a licence that deserves to be brought back to the fore. Of course, it also has a few shortcomings, such as the fact that the real challenge awaits you only on Universe difficulty, or that the perfect counter-attack isn't always intuitive.

Wario Ware Move It! is a decent addition to Nintendo's series of absurd microgames: with a concept that brings it very close to the Wii's Smooth Moves, this new episode mixes dozens of convincing challenges with other, much more imprecise proposals and sometimes very vague instructions. It's also one of the sparsest Wario Ware releases in terms of content, taking 6 to 7 hours to play through all the microgames, with no real reason to come back to them afterwards.

We didn't think a new 2D Mario would manage to surprise us in 2023, but it has. The new team at the plumber's bedside have outdone themselves, offering Nintendo Switch players a fun platformer that surprises from its first to its last stage, and is absolutely delightful. We can only criticize the game's lifespan and its somewhat limited challenge in the quest for 100%, but nothing that will prevent you from having an excellent time.

Endless Dungeon surprises by offering a well-thought-out, modernised evolution of its original recipe. It manages to mix genres and offer multi-faceted gameplay, with a certain complexity, but without becoming too heavy-handed or untenable in co-op. What we end up with is a rogue-lite with a good balance between strategy and action, with a strong tactical twist in single-player, and which requires good teamwork and a lot of communication in multiplayer. In both cases, it's a game you should try out for yourself to discover a fresh, innovative game that you can't help but want to play again and again.

This should probably boost the popularity of Marvel games. Spider-Man 2 is a real slap in the face when it comes to game-movies, but above all it's a great way to end the year. While a few redundancies in the ancillary activities may detract from the 100% enjoyment, the well-crafted storyline, comfortable gameplay and attention to detail make this third opus the autumn blockbuster that many have been waiting for.