What’s not to love about smashing together virtual reality, mechs, and killing some Nazis? Unfortunately, the execution isn’t just lacking, it fundamentally removes many of the best elements of those things, undercutting the strength it could have were it a deeper experience.

The story is cute yet predictable, the puzzle solving fun, and the rhythm challenging. You can finish the game, discover all of the secrets, and claim that platinum trophy in under six hours if you’re purely looking to add to your trophy count.

In many respects, this entry feels more akin to an Arkane game and not enough like the Wolfenstein experiences we’ve come to know and love. At the very least, the future is bright, especially if Soph and Jess come along for the ride. Their brilliantly written and performed sisterly banter somewhat makes up for this largely disjointed and underwhelming venture into the franchise’s broader horizons.

DATE A LIVE: Rio Reincarnation is great for fans of light novels, but especially for fans of the DATE A LIVE series. Even those who aren’t familiar with the series won’t be too confused with what’s going on, as the reading is easy and characters easy to like.

Wargroove is the sort of game that brings back a feeling people had long forgot. Advance Wars has been absent for years and, while there were similar sorts of games like Tiny Metal, they didn’t quite capture the same magic. Wargroove does.

Much like the anime that came before it, Kill la Kill: the Game is weird, wild, and loud, but also a bit shallow. But unlike the anime, the Game doesn’t have the same feeling of scale to it, the same feeling of unrestrained creators working with a healthy budget and top-tier industry names.

The headset becomes a magician’s prop, and you the performer. But its welcome wears thin too quickly, its traps, tricks, and inner workings too easily revealed, and gimmicks too often expected. It’s just not the magic of video games that I was hoping for from two of magic’s greatest.

Taken as a whole, it is an entirely new and interesting take on genres that are as old as gaming. Billions has such great moments at times that it’s rather surprising that these genres hadn’t been smashed together already. Billions leaves plenty to be desired everywhere else though—in visual fidelity, art direction, sound design, and even game balance. Clearly, this is a first step on a new and mysterious frontier. Hopefully, not the last.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is a pretty cool game. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is an awesome extension of it.

Like gamey meat, it’s not for everyone. Some players may want more to do than run around looking for seagulls and messages in bottles in between story moments and the occasional “fight” sequence. The story (which we have not spoiled here) is likely to resonate with many people, but for some it won’t be enough to overcome a lack of fun gameplay to take players in between exposition. It is a worthy attempt, but just falls a bit short.

A fun, yet at times frustrating, pixelated adventure game. Some of the boss battles can really try your patience, and limits on recovery items (medkits and Coke) certainly don’t help matters as you push toward the final episode. On the flip side, there are all kinds of hidden areas to return to and explore further; even if I haven’t seen a percentage log, there’s just something about knowing you’ve 100% cleared a game.

A massive game that can get even more massive if you date to venture outside the box and get creative on your own. But even if you don’t care for sandbox-style gameplay, there is more than enough story to keep JRPG and Dragon Quest fans occupied. If the first game seemed a little out of your comfort zone as a traditional Dragon Quest fan, rest assured that Dragon Quest Builders 2 smooths out nearly all the first game’s rough edges, has plenty of Dragon Quest fanservice to shake a slime at, and has plenty of tools to make the sometimes icky survival and resource management of the genre easy enough to deal with. With so much to do, fun, engaging play and a cute, lighthearted story that takes its time to breathe, Dragon Quest Builders 2 is the best kind of sequel.

SolSeraph is a game that was made with good intentions and a lot of heart. The developers wanted to pay homage to a classic, but unfortunately missed the mark on almost all fronts. The platforming bits are frustrating with enemies coming out of no where to knock you off. The city-building parts never get deep enough to challenge you or force any decision other than stacking barracks and watchtowers along the roads. As someone who loves city-builders, I just wish it was a better game.

The dense career mode, weekly online events, and the upcoming inclusion of the 2019 F2 season will have me coming back to this game long after the official F1 season is over.

Layers of Fear 2 excels in many aspects of psychological horror, but it also undermines itself. While it creates many layers of fear, there’s little connective tissue between them to make the narrative coherent enough to engage with. Overly video-gamey segments reveal the mechanics underneath, removing the tension in favor of fail states and cheap game over screens. However, its binaural audio and moments of reality-warping terror do wonders to instill a sense of unease in the player. It’s worth peeling back the layers in Layers of Fear 2 for all of the moments that don’t rely on the old horror tropes, but this journey into madness falls just short of being a pleasure cruise.

Some issues hold me back from giving The Sinking City full marks, but I still recommend it. Whether you’re a fan of Lovecraft, horror in general, or even a good old mystery, you may get a lot out of Frogware’s latest.

The mini-games are a fun new addition to the combat system but don’t totally eliminate the repetitive nature of the fights. The memorable cast of characters and kooky storyline helps to keep things fresh but ultimately this isn’t too different from the first Citizens game.

This is a game that is well aware of its pedigree, and every person involved in making it has given their all to deliver on that prestige. Aside from some minor performance issues and localization typos barely worth mentioning, Bloodstained is an incredible feat in independent video game development. I’ll be coming back to this one for years to come.

Super Neptunia RPG feels like a good idea gone awry. On paper, having everyone’s favorite Hyperdimension Neptunia characters come together for a more traditional JRPG style makes plenty of sense. That’s especially true since the classic JRPG style is a wealthy mine for comedy. But instead, Artisan Studios made a game that looks and feels cheap, due to a bizarre focus on platforming that detracts from the experience more than it adds.

Whether playing the respectfully challenging campaign mode to unlock all kinds of parts, stickers, and more, or skirmishing with strangers and friends both online and off, those who have fond memories of the original will get their money’s worth out of the racer, without a doubt. The sliding mechanic still takes some getting used to after all these years, but it just wouldn’t be CTR without it.

Judgment is a new game from a developer that has spent so many years on one story, with one protagonist, who sees the world through one perspective. This is the Yakuza experience, but with a refreshing change of character, tone, and voice. Judgment has a familiar skeleton, but the flesh and blood housing it is new. Longtime Yakuza fans have a lot to look forward to here. But, admittedly, having a new setting, new characters, and new mechanics laid over top of the same framework dulls some of that “fresh” feeling. It’s a totally new story from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, but it isn’t a totally new game. And that’s totally fine.

World End Syndrome is such a beautiful visual novel and it expertly weaves its romance and mystery elements together to create a truly alluring adventure. It does a very good job at subverting your expectations but it’s lengthy prologue may mean that some will switch off before the game reaches the really good bits.

The $60 price point for recycled assets and a game that has more reading than voice over just seems a little too steep for me.

A serviceable motorcycle road racing game.

Considering that this is the PQube’s first venture into game development, Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa, is still pretty impressive. It’s a delightfully gripping visual novel, with beautiful artwork, as well as a really entertaining mini-game. It’s a very easy game to recommend to those who love visual novels and enjoy a bit of fan service.

Regardless of its tragic lack of special features, Trails of Cold Steel II is, like the one before it, an incredible game and must for JRPG fans.

Joker’s Wild taught a lot of lessons, but mostly, it’s shown that it is worth it to experience all of things live in real time, rather than joining in after the fact. Something big is coming, and Season of the Drifter began paving the way for the future.

As it is now, it’s a bit half-baked and feels rushed.