So would I recommend Starfield? It depends on what you want out of it. If you’re chasing that perfect, seamless space fantasy, the kind where you lose yourself in the stars and never see the boundaries, this won’t get you there. If you’re here for the Bethesda loop, the busywork, the side quests that turn into five more, the slow creep of “one more thing” turning into another hour, this might help pass the time, though there are far better games for it. It barely gives me enough reason to keep going. It almost works, and then it crashes again.

Friends of Mineral Town has moments where certain features would have benefitted from further modern upgrades, but this is still a satisfying remake of the beloved classics.

Fortunately, Square Enix hasn't merely cashed in on the nostalgia, and has fired on all cylinders to provide these games with a loving upgrade at a outstanding price point.

Neither a very good Etrian game nor a very good Mystery Dungeon game.

As excellent a conclusion as we could hope for.

It's impossible to deny that Rune Factory 3 is the best entry in the series. It has improved in just about every area it possibly could: the battles are more dynamic, the farming isn't monotonous, the characters are deeper and more intriguing, and the dialogue is full of variety.

Lover Pretend is a fun, enjoyable slice-of-life narrative for romance fans with some pleasant character-driven story moments throughout its run. It’s an overall solid visual novel if that’s the kind you’re in the mood for, and it put a smile on my face more often than not when I was playing it. I’d recommend it to otome fans for that reason alone, as it adds another great VN in the sub-genre to the Switch’s already extensive lineup.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership has you covered if—and only if—Mario RPG mechanics are your favorite thing and you want the largest mass of them yet. If they aren’t, you’re probably going to struggle to get over the initial five-hour hump before the game truly begins. While I didn’t outright hate most of my time with the game, would I have even seen it through to its conclusion if I weren’t reviewing it, even as a fan of Mario RPGs who wants to see Nintendo make more? Possibly not. Perhaps the best thing to do about Mario & Luigi: Brothership is to hope Nintendo realizes the missteps here and has the resolve to try their hand at the franchise once more instead of abandoning it again.

If you're looking for fun, lighthearted RPG-ing with some laughs along the way, DeathSpank won't do you wrong.

Overall, Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection is a solid package, especially with an MSRP of $29.99. Even though it isn't the definitive version of the game, it is a solid way into the franchise and the best way to experience The After Years.

The game stands out among the crowd with its immediately eye-catching aesthetic and its roguelike mixture of tactics and horror. It’s an oppressive game that teaches the player through repeated failure, granting new insight to use in future encounters. The game’s mechanics may seem simple, but there is a beautifully crafted battle system with all the tools needed to beat the nightmarish enemies and bosses at their own game. While the roguelike elements add in some repetition and grind, I highly recommend Othercide to tactics fans looking for something different. If given proper time and attention, Othercide is an incredibly rewarding tactical RPG that will push players to their limits. It’s difficult and frustrating at times, but it all pays off in the end.

A Telltale-esque title set in suburban America that hints at maturity.

Despite all my complaints, I initially had fun with Dying Light 2. The first quarter of the game was engaging. I think if the rest of the game played like this, I would have way more positive things to say, but the fact is that it’s just not done. This is clearly an unfinished game mired in mismanagement. I don’t blame the developers at all; the leaders and executives behind this work are responsible. What works here is clean and well done, albeit with some boring AAA niceties. After the first quarter or so, though, the game absolutely falls apart in almost every respect. I’m sad for what was produced here, but if I’m being honest, I’m more sad that I invested nearly thirty hours of my own time into this. Don’t make the same mistake I did.

Virginia is an intensely intimate, powerful and thought-provoking experience masquerading as an homage to supernatural detective thrillers, and it is one of the most important games of 2016.

It may sound like Rune Factory 2 is a worthless game, but that's only my tendency to focus on the negative, and it is especially frustrating because the developers made so many avoidable mistakes.

An enjoyable and short-ish adventure game, Whispers of a Machine is well worth a thoughtful playthrough.

Unless you've played a million Dynasty Warriors games or can't stomach Dragon Quest without turn-based gameplay, this is definitely worth playing.

Indivisible takes three different genres and melds them together expertly to create something wholly unique.

Symphonia alone is worth the price of admission.

While I encountered few serious technical problems during my playthrough, I did have one instance where I loaded into a cutscene before I was supposed to with Yuma sitting suspended in a void until the game caught up to me. This didn’t impact my experience but seems worth mentioning. After a pre-launch update, I also noticed a few lines of dialogue seemed to be missing audio, although it was a sporadic occurrence. All in all, I greatly enjoyed my time with Master Detective Archives: Rain Code. As mentioned earlier, it feels like a lost relic of the PlayStation Vita in the best possible way. While the egregious fanservice may be a turn-off to some, for Danganronpa veterans and fans of other narrative adventure titles like the Zero Escape series, I highly recommend taking a trip to Kanai Ward. Just be sure to pack a raincoat.

At the end of the day, though, Dodgeball Academia hits all the right notes to become a smash hit multimedia entity. Not only can I see an animation and comic book or manga series, but I can also picture a plethora of Dodgeball Academia merchandise like stickers, apparel, toys, phone accessories, dodgeballs, and much more. So you should enroll in Dodgeball Academia today and become the sports anime protagonist you’ve always wanted to be.

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter took me by surprise, successfully combining blatant inspirations from the big cheeses of action RPGs and reinterpreting them in a fine, nibble-sized package. It looks simultaneously beautiful and intentionally rough, and its combat is challenging but (mostly) fair. I’m not sure it needs to continue doubling in size with its potential third entry—it’s a little fighter, and rat’s good enough.

Opening the time capsule that is Baten Kaitos reveals a hodgepodge of gameplay ideas, story beats, and even visual styles from island to island that reaches for the stars but doesn’t land among the clouds. Instead, it crashes back into the earth with the rest of the mortals. Although it is more fallen angel than god, there are definitely parts that shine, such as Mizuti meeting with her family—but they would have shone even brighter if they weren’t lost amidst the game’s weaknesses.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister takes the mantle of the “most” Dungeons & Dragons video game out there, if not quite the best. Though the game has a modular adventure setup that strongly suggests there will be more stories, this one falls too flat for its 40- to 50-hour length. However, the combat system is merely a few tweaks short of perfection, so I’d still be interested in sending my heroes on another adventure in the realm of Solasta.

Evaluating World of Final Fantasy as a complete package feels a little strange because its target audience is so ambiguous. I've been playing Final Fantasy for the majority of my life, and yet it's almost as if WoFF has no idea how to appeal to me as a longtime fan. I love the series for a multitude of reasons, but WoFF's fanservice feels cheap, and does disservice to the original works it references.

Not just another Diablo clone.

Cryptmaster does what it sets out to do capably. Monotony never strikes in this nearly fifteen hour jaunt since the gameplay always changes, though always vocabulary-based. If words are your thing, I cannot think of a single game that does what this game does better. This isn’t a type-as-fast-as-you-can first-person-shooter. Thoughtful, patient play drives success, so sate that frenetic itch you have elsewhere.

Fae Tactics definitely has its flaws, and the glitches I encountered were about as hard to overcome as the many daunting challenges it presents. However, the fact that I rated it so highly in spite of these limitations is a testament to just how nuanced its gameplay mechanics are and how absolutely thrilling the game can be when the right strategy comes together and everything falls into place. If the game can be successfully patched so that the glitches aren’t an issue anymore, then I would easily recommend this title to SRPG fans looking for an undeniable challenge, since Fae Tactics certainly delivers that.