There isn't much here that has not already been done in Japanese RPGs before and if you keep up with the Naruto manga or anime, there is nothing you haven't already read or watched before.

If you can learn the system down to your bones, then this will be a fulfilling adventure.

Sovereign Syndicate is a game of highs and lows. If there is to be more to the story, the gameplay portion would need some rethinking to make it work. But on the positive side, I loved the world and characters, and I’d be excited to see more of them. If you’re in it for those elements, then Sovereign Syndicate shouldn’t disappoint. After all, everyone loves a sharp-dressed minotaur.

Echoes of Time is the most robust game in the Crystal Chronicles series and has more longevity than many RPGs on the system.

It is a good RPG for the casual gamer and maybe for the Lord of the Rings modern-media fan, but anyone who seriously enjoyed, say, "Xenogears" will have an incredibly difficult time enjoying this little scrap of meat. It's pretty, it sounds nice, and it has all the trappings of a Lord of the Rings product, but it ultimately lacks substance.

Episode 3 has left me wondering what's going to happen, but passively so. I couldn't imagine feeling this way when I began the season, but obvious setbacks for the team have likely hindered inspiration and execution. I want to laud their efforts and sing their praises, especially considering everything that has happened, but the facts are that Episode 3 has only given the series buoyancy, which is hard to accept at this point in the season. While it is a positive experience, I can't help but feel lukewarm about poor Clementine's fate in this harsh world.

Star Story: The Horizon Escape possesses an indescribable "cool factor," but I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. I felt like the variety of gameplay styles and creative ideas should have kept progression fresh, but instead the game was a more casually paced affair that I couldn't play for more than 5-7 minutes at a time. Perhaps it's just my personal taste, but when I'm playing a graphic adventure, I want to be engrossed to play a marathon session like I'd be engrossed in a book that keeps me up past my bedtime because it's such an incredible page-turner; unfortunately, the thin narrative of this game lacked the punch to keep me coming back for more. Star Story: The Horizon Escape is not a bad little game and it has some good ideas, but I want to see Evil Corporation's future projects take this game's concepts to the next level.

If you like to ruminate and piece together the details of a story, this one's for you.

Darkspore may touch the imagination in ways Diablo doesn't, but the gameplay cannot move beyond the mechanical and the meaningless.

Although still intended for kids, the beginning promises more creativity.

I have such mixed feelings about Eliza. With regard to what it does well, it stands head and shoulders above the competition. In terms of the concepts explored, exemplifying how directionless adulthood can be, and its presentation, Eliza is exceptional. Regarding the actual narrative, pace, and flow of the writing, Eliza can be a slog to get through that frequently left me wondering, "Why am I doing this in the game right now?"

Ultimately, Astria Ascending is as flawed as it is fascinating. It has its moments, but the story is uneven, the dialogue is rough, and the combat is fine, but it doesn’t do enough to stand out in a crowded genre. It hurts to say that, as at some points, the story feels like one that needs to be heard, and there are some parts that I won’t soon forget. As the satellite falls to Earth, it mostly burns up on re-entry, but there is a painful beauty to it all while it lasts.

While by no means the pinnacle of the series, it’s a more than worthy successor to Vigil Games’ legacy and a very enjoyable action-adventure title that fans will get a kick out of. I can only hope that Airship Syndicate will one day be able to finally give us the conclusion to this epic saga of Heaven, Hell, and the Balance between them.

Great for strategy roguelite fans.

It's starting to feel stale.

Innocent Life would be more of a game for a casual gamer or, because of the ease of difficulty, maybe someone just starting out in the series.

Sure, it's nice to have, but it's also pointless and limp, and you can't cook pancakes with it. But hey, if you missed the party back in 2005, it's definitely a worthy pick up.

While Summon Night: Twin Age does not push the envelopes in any area, it has a certain charm to it that can't be denied.

The Surge 2 is a decent Souls-like title that has solid gameplay but lacks much to call its own.

Fae Farm can flip-flop from feeling new, fresh, and polished to an Early Access title that needs some refining, but if Phoenix Labs has the resources to follow up with post-release patches, they could address every qualm I have. None of these things would require a total overhaul, or to be thrown out and started again from scratch. It’s things like balancing enemy damage, capping the number of times an animal can be interacted with per day, and reconsidering the relationship between potion ingredients. Despite its teething issues, Fae Farm is a worthwhile game with a lot to offer. With the correct follow-up tweaks, it could become the next go-to game in the farming sim genre.

It’s difficult for me to say this, especially with so many positive elements in the game, but I found Crowns and Pawns: Kingdom of Deceit to be mediocre. It doesn’t do anything inherently wrong, but there is nothing very memorable about it either. My lasting impression is that the game played it too safe and colored too neatly inside the lines. Clearly, a lot of love, effort, and resources went into creating this game. I wanted to adore it, but I have no interest in playing any future games in a hypothetical Crowns and Pawns series. I suppose players looking for a classically-styled point-and-click game will definitely get something out of it, but it’s not a game I would recommend buying unless it’s on sale.

It's an interesting start, but Dead Patient has a long way to go if it aims to impress fans internationally.

Overall, the ways Broken Roads challenged me were fascinating and frustrating, sometimes simultaneously. It definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, though I suspect some will adore it. If you’re the reflective type, it’s sure to get the gears turning. If nothing else, it’s much cheaper than taking Philosophy 101 at a university.

Needless to say, Reckoning is a repetitive experience. If you've played the first five hours, you've seen everything the game has to offer except a few bosses and superficially different environments.

There's a lot I really like about Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth — Hacker's Memory. The core game is still as solid as the previous entry, and the extra Digimon sometimes make all the extra grinding worth it, but this is another 60 hours of what is essentially the same game. Die-hard fans will love it, and it's still way better than most other Digimon games out there, but as a sequel it only just hits the mark, and that's mostly down to the great foundations laid by the first game. Hacker's Memory is more of a remix than a brand new release, and there's nothing wrong than that.

By sanitizing the romantic aspects inherent to queer dating, Dream Daddy succeeds in being a feel-good story but not a feel-good story, if you catch my drift. It is, at the very least, wonderfully inclusive, with avatar customization options that allow for significant flexibility in defining your dad's identity. The entirely hunky cast of supporting dads is also quite diverse, though some of their sound bites are unusually low-quality and compressed. Maybe that's something the developers can address down the line. As it stands, Dream Daddy is still a worthwhile endeavor thanks to the quality of its moment-to-moment writing. It's just a shame the romance feels so sterile.

Forgettable, but certainly not the worst option for JRPG'ing on 3DS.

Chasm's procedural dungeon, though a technical marvel, ends up woefully underutilised and results in a title that does little to set itself apart from its peers.