Life is Strange: Double Exposure revives Max Caulfield’s story, but the introduction of a convoluted dual-timeline mechanic and an uninspiring cast make it a less memorable entry in the series. While Max’s iconic wit shines through environmental interactions, technical bugs and disjointed pacing detract from the experience. Despite some nostalgic moments, this return to Life is Strange’s world struggles to capture the charm that made the original special.

Zenless Zone Zero introduces players to a post-apocalyptic world where they navigate mysterious hollows and battle various enemies. While the combat is visually impressive and the character designs are appealing, the game suffers from a lackluster narrative, repetitive missions, and a heavy reliance on gacha mechanics. Although it has potential, Zenless Zone Zero currently struggles to stand out in the crowded gacha game market.

Forspoken: In Tanta We Trust is a lacking experience that doesn’t provide enough substance on a gameplay, character, or story level to justify its existence. At most, I found some enjoyment in the new combat ideas and the dialogue between Frey and Cinta, yet their executions only reach a surface level. After the credits and accompanying conclusion, which also contains blatant sequel bait that will likely never be fulfilled, I wasn’t left feeling any more invested in the land of Athia than I previously was.

When playing through Affogato, your brain becomes curious as there is a strong idea and concept to behold. However, the execution of each of these elements is unexceptional and doesn’t pull off anything memorable. The inspirations behind them are clear, but they don’t mesh well together in this format. I found myself loving the aesthetic, but the beauty fades before your very eyes as you trudge through the game, diminishing the experience over time.

Fia and the Wondrous Academy has a remarkable cast whom I always loved seeing interacting on screen. But almost every single facet tied to the gameplay experience provided no fulfillment, simply being an exercise in going through the motions for the sake of obligatory progress. No matter your history with the Mado Monogatari IP, this outing is not worth your time.

Strong environmental puzzles, unfortunately, don’t do anything to save GYLT, and as such, there’s nothing here I would really recommend to anyone other than to a younger gamer just getting into the genre. Horror fans will have seen everything this game has to offer before, and a lack of anything gripping will stop newcomers from sticking around for its brief runtime.

Chinatown Detective Agency is clearly a game that is aiming high, and I can appreciate its attempt to revive a genre closely tied to my childhood. But a game that creates this many roadblocks in the way of progress, some that make it nearly impossible without a guide, and some that are likely unintended, needs to be critiqued. This title feels unpolished and unfinished, and while I could see it eventually getting heavily patched to resolve its many issues, it will cost $25. With that price point, I expect far more quality control.

No Place for Bravery, while visually interesting on the surface, is left shallow and clunky. The combat is choppy and frustrating, the stage design is confusing with perspective, enemies and other NPCs lack personality, and the majority of the sound design is unbalanced and often desynced from the actions on screen. However, it excels as a psychological horror experience. The entire game would have been much improved if they had focused on that. While the experience only lasted about 10 hours, it wasn’t an amount of time I’d say I enjoyed.

Dead or School’s combat can be fun in (very) short bursts, but it all ultimately falls flat hard and fast. It has the pacing of a freemium mobile game that’s dragging itself thin, begging you to spend money to speed it up. Except you can’t even do that to shorten your own suffering. With a larger budget and community feedback, I’m sure this team can deliver an excellent experience, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find that here.

Those who stick out Forspoken until the end may derive enjoyment from how certain elements were tackled like I did, though, ultimately, it’s all too little too late. At the very least, exploring the open world and completing optional tasks after completing the story can be fun, albeit in brief doses, since there’s not much of interest within the environments.

Panorama Cotton isn’t a fun game, and what may have once been a technical showpiece for the Sega Genesis simply has no relevance today. This probably isn’t something you want to play; regardless of the cute character sprites, enjoyment takes a dive moments into the experience. You’re better off playing Space Harrier.

What Happened gives you very little reason to even care about answering that question. The narrative is consistently flimsy as you dive into the mind of an unlikeable protagonist. There are very few moments of redemption with some well-detailed environments and clever transitions, but that is not nearly enough to keep you invested. If the motion sickness doesn’t get you to turn the game off, then the self-deprecating storyline and in-your-face symbolism will cause you to roll your eyes to sleep in no time.

Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is not an experience I recommend to anyone. Regardless of your familiarity with the series, I can promise you that this is not worth the time. Even fans who love the source material will get nothing positive from this title, as the miserable gameplay loop and surface-level storytelling will do nothing to initiate or enhance anybody’s love for the IP. What is here is more representative of a mobile game’s structure, with a console coating that’s mostly deceitful above all else.

Shadow Corridor is for someone who desires a challenging experience while having no attachment to the actual experience. Lacking enemy variety, one-hit death, and hindering systems had me more afraid of the mechanics than the game itself. This horror game requires patience; without it, you can probably sit this nightmare out.

Redemption Reapers is a messy tactical RPG that could have been so much more. The presentation and character design are simply generic, with a narrative that will likely never grab your attention. There are some unique systems of character movement, but too many systems work against the player creating an unfun experience from beginning to end. Here’s to hoping updates based on player feedback make Redemption Reapers better in the future.

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle is a game that you’ll want to end as soon as it begins. I feel like it’ll find success as a novelty game where people challenge their patience or within indie circles of pretentious gamers who argue that this narrative is genius and we’re the ones not capable of understanding its brilliance. Regardless, it’s not a good game, but in retrospect, I’ve never experienced anything like it, so that’s a positive.

Blightbound is a perfect example of a game as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle. There’s a story, customization, and many characters, but they all take so much time to experience and have so little payoff that I can’t really recommend this game to anyone in its current state. Coming from the studio that made Awesomenauts, Blightbound feels like a step down in terms of execution and polish. It’s disappointing to see something that clearly had lofty ambitions fall so far short of what it could have been.

Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution stands out for a novel protagonist choice and some new characters with endearing dynamics. Yet, the tiring and frustrating combat design, dull narrative, and overabundance of lackadasical growth make this an adventure you're better off avoiding. This is an unfortunate, substantial drop in quality from Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters.

Death end re;Quest: Code Z is an overly eager follow-up to Compile Heart's darker RPG series, suffering from a noticeably rushed main narrative and botched character dynamics. Further, the gameplay genre shift has been handled rather poorly, with dull progression and unnecessarily frustrating growth permeating the experience. Unless you're a dedicated fan of the Death end re;Quest series, Code Z is not worth your time.

Classic Collection is so bad that it is actively driving people back to the original game as it bleeds players, and given that the original is less than a third of the price, I can't blame anyone for that. This is an unfinished, shoddy product that doesn't feel good to play, and that's if you can play it at all.

Rendezvous is a very messy experience. I wondered when it would be over, a feeling one shouldn’t have while playing a game. It’s possible to become hypnotized by the dazzling display of futuristic cyberpunk Indonesia, but that facade doesn’t last long after the first hour. There’s clearly passion put into world-building, but beyond that sphere of craft, there’s no substance within the gameplay or narrative. As a result, Rendezvous is dry, and its flavor profile leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.

Deadly Premonition 2 might be fun for a tiny group of gamers, but I had a terrible time drudging through it. The B-movie esque plot and narrative scenes can be enjoyable in a cringy sort of way, but everything from the graphics to the controls makes it insanely hard to enjoy. Instead of wasting 20 hours with this game, I’d say you’re better off just going back and replaying Deadly Premonition.

While variety is said to be the spice of life, Compile Heart needs to learn that if they want to make genuinely engaging titles, they need to take a step back and try to make these games more fitting of modern hardware and just more fun to play instead of pumping them out at breakneck speed to appease fans’ on a surface level. Diehard and dedicated fans of the Neptunia franchise who want more of the same may derive enjoyment from this title, but otherwise, you are better off staying away.

Samurai Maiden is an action title boasting conceptually sound ideas that grievously fall flat due to poor optimization, rigid movement, unnecessarily high enemy numbers, and artificial difficulty by extension. The replayability offered by greater difficulty modes is rendered moot. Granted, exploring the stages for collectibles and platforming can be enjoyable. The cast is pleasing to see converse and bond, too. Still, the lacking narrative and gameplay-related drawbacks significantly hamper the experience. At one point in development, there was a promising time to be had here, but it’s been mired by severe faults.

Redfall is an anomaly because a game with this good of a team behind can't possibly be this bad, and yet, it is. There are these drips of looter shooter, RPG, and multiplayer elements sprinkled throughout, but none of them work together, delivering a messy and almost incomprehensible experience. Still, gunplay and exploration stay consistently fun, thanks to the satisfaction of taking down enemies and the level design. That being said, the single-player campaign is dull, but the multiplayer campaign could provide bouts of fun comprised of laughing at the strange AI behavior or the fact that no one can find keys to a door.

Bright Memory shouldn’t be played; it’s just not ready. The one-person developed action is a decent concept, but it should have been released as a demo in anticipation for Bright Memory: Infinite. The Xbox Series X version adds nothing to the experience, but if you’re eager to spend an hour mindlessly shooting enemies and rolling your eyes, then, by all means, pick this up.

Library of Ruina offers a dark and compelling narrative with engaging turn-based card combat and rich voice acting that brings its unique characters to life. However, the game is hindered by excessive grinding, poor port quality on the Nintendo Switch, and a steep learning curve that may overwhelm new players. While its depth in character customization and distinct visual and audio presentation stand out, the repetitive gameplay loop and static visual novel elements may detract from the overall experience. For the best experience, it's recommended to play this intriguing but flawed title on PC.

The gameplay of Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains is an unoptimized mess. There is no attempt at balancing or scaling, with the only positive being a unique presentation. When it comes down to it, this has the capacity to become truly and unironically great, but the translation and mechanics need to be rebuilt from the ground up. As it is now, you’re better off not wasting your time and money.