This new alternate storyline is one that long times fans will enjoy but still might leave new players on the out. If you’re looking for a solid brawler with a dramatic story that samples from perhaps one of the most iconic shounen manga you should definitely consider giving Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise a shot.

Gundam Breaker 4 is like watching an old friend rebound from tough times. It may not be as great as its mainline predecessors in some regards, but it is a solid course correction from the last few dire entries. The repetitive stages and diluted weapon options are a noticeable step back, yet so many quality-of-life improvements to this new entry in the gunpla action RPG series make it much a smoother experience to play. While completing the main story took me roughly around 17 hours, I'm just about to reach the 60 hour mark because I keep making entire new gunpla builds to take on the highest difficulty stages on their own. It takes virtual model kit building to the next level and the potential of crafting something truly masterful, or horrific, is only limited by a person’s imagination.

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined still encapsulates much of what makes Dragon Quest VII resonant, but with every possible edge sanded off. It succeeds at streamlining a lengthy adventure at the expense of player discovery and friction. Besides being able to reach the credits more quickly, I find it difficult to declare this version as an improvement on what came before.

Front Mission 1st: Remake is a good time, if not quite a great one. For all its bumps in the road, and in a strange way, perhaps in part because of them, there is immense satisfaction in clearing each stage. Regardless, I’m glad the series is getting some love again, and I’m pretty pleased with Forever Entertainment’s crack at things overall. If their quality of work is maintained going forward, I suspect we’re in for some real treats with the second and third installments.

A delightful RPG experience. Though there are problems around its edges with prolonged battles and a weak overall narrative, its ability to maintain a deck-building card game inside a RPG in inventive ways continually is nothing short of awesome. Once it clicks with you, it’s hard to not stop theorycrafting, experimenting, and optimizing your deck.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness feels like a solid title that got trapped in old gimmicks. It’s beautiful, but empty. There’s nostalgia, but in the wrong places. I still enjoyed much of my time with it, and I’ll even revisit it soon for the bonus dungeons. So many little things hold Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness back, but there’s still something under the flawed surface that’s worth giving a shot.

Despite these technical issues and occasional let-downs with the choice mechanic, Man of Medan represents a bright start for the Dark Pictures Anthology. It delivers almost exactly the same great stuff that Until Dawn did, although it does suffer from sticking to the formula a bit too much. With some polish and further innovation, the rest of the Dark Picture Anthology could be even better than what it follows on from.

Despite the narrative not fully coming together in the end, as well as some repetitive gameplay structure, Crymachina manages to be a compelling RPG. It's possibly my favorite FuRyu title to date, and certainly one of the more interesting ones. Regardless of its uneven nature and short duration, I think it may leave a lasting impression on me - at least a little bit.

Andromeda has a spirit that I don’t want to see squashed by technical failures and a few questionable design decisions. Andromeda is ambitious and above all else it has heart - the deeper I got into the game, the more glued to it I became. Had it been anything less I would’ve sat my controller down and given up, but the journey most certainly made the struggle worth it.

Star Renegades offers a great artstyle and robust combat system for fans of turn-based RPGs and roguelikes. It doesn't have much to tell in terms of an outward storyline, and some of the roguelike elements feel a little thin, but it's a solid experience if you know what you are getting into.

While the subject matter was interesting, giving a reason for such a world to exist, it just wasn’t as thought-provoking as the subtitle “An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of Truth” might suggest, though that could simply be tongue-in-cheek. Everhood Eternity Edition allows more players to experience this tale about doing the right thing, along with more battles for those who enjoy it. I however didn’t feel the need to keep repeating the cycle, and while I found some enjoyment in the later part of the game, it didn’t hit all the right notes for me.

As of right now, Kingdoms of Amalur is a good introduction to a universe that doesn't have any other entries. The fluid combat is brought down a bit by overstuffed quest design and repetitive dungeon areas, and the front-to-back storyline is a little basic, but it offers a solid foundation to a world whose fate is once again uncertain.

Elex is a hard game to genuinely recommend, it does so many important things to only an acceptable level or worse. It's a game that's carried based on the strength of its quest design, or more pessimistically, one that's let down by a general lack of polish and uninteresting combat. It feels like a nice refreshing counterpart to some modern rpgs that treat their quest lists more like chores, but as a complete package, it falls disappointingly short.

The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind is a great nostalgia trip for those that experienced the original main series game. Other than that, though, what it has to offer is outclassed by better, more popular games. However, if you do want to experience the oft-talked about Morrowind setting in a more modern game engine with more modern gameplay mechanics, and are able to look past its flaws, this might be a good time-waster for you.

Saviors of Sapphire Wings / Stranger of Sword City Revisited fits its intent to include a title more suited to novices along with a title more suited to veterans, but Stranger of Sword City is really the reason the dual-pack is worth picking up at all. It's Experience's best game to date, offers a style not seen much elsewhere, and new updates improve it markedly over its original release. Dungeon crawler fans should definitely give it a try, and those new to the genre will at least be able to acclimate a bit.

Experience has the dungeon crawler formula down, and their gradual incline in quality is a promise of great potential for reinvigorating the genre.

Depending on your perspective, Soul Hackers 2 can be seen as a happy medium between dungeon crawler, RPG, and social simulation. Or it can be seen as being in a sort of no man's land, where it incorporates elements of each while not quite excelling at anything. I come away feeling more toward the latter here, where no singular element of the game really managed to excite me beyond base satisfaction. Soul Hackers 2 is an adequate, experimental Megaten entry with some bright spots, but it doesn't quite all come together as well as I hoped it would.

I found my time with Regalia to be mostly enjoyable, despite some glaring issues that presented themselves to me in what felt like an oversight on the developer’s part. However, knowing this game was kickstarted, it’s an impressive title that gave me hours of enjoyment and things to do. If you’re looking for a game that rings similar to the titles Regalia has drawn inspiration from, or are looking for a hammy homage to the JRPG Regalia might just be for you.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is an approachable action RPG with satisfying combat but a narrative that unfortunately left little impression on me. While combat itself is enjoyable, battle variety is somewhat lacking, quests feel typical, and the narrative is forgettable.

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition is a wonderful remaster marred by an unoptimized Switch port. While you could argue that they could have gone further in places, like maybe offering players the ability to further customize which parts of the experience they wanted to be presented with old or new graphics, it feels nice that one of my favorite PS1 era JRPGs got so much love. I adore both of the games in this collection from the bottom of my heart, and I’m glad they’re more accessible than ever. I hope the Switch version can be an easier recommendation in the future, especially since the only way to own it physically seems to be on that platform.

All in all, the game is serviceable for what it is, but the tone of the game throws me for a loop, and the dungeon-crawling aspects aren't that interesting to warrant bouncing back and forth from dungeon to school and back again for multiple sessions. While the game is retailing at $50, I still feel that this game is a little too expensive for what it offers. This feels like the perfect game to grab on sale, rather than rushing out to the store and getting it immediately on launch. That said, there's still enough here to satisfy people with a deep urge for dungeon crawling or anime slapstick, I suppose.

When it all comes down to it, Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force's Switch port is probably not the best way to play the game, but considering that the performance itself is perfectly fine in most scenarios - especially in handheld mode, you can't go wrong with picking this version up if you're specifically looking for a more relaxed JRPG to play on the go. Ghostlight's first Switch effort is a solid showcase, and if nothing else leaves me excited to see what other titles the company can bring to the platform moving forward.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is incredibly impressive when viewed as the first game project developed and released by Leenzee. It’s ambitiously put together when it comes to the marriage of its various flexible gameplay systems and a game world that’s constructed seamlessly. Its depiction of the late Ming dynasty is fascinating because it isn’t afraid to show the brutal circumstances that loomed over this time period, even when separated from all of the dark fantasy elements that provide flavor to it. I enjoyed my time a lot with Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, but its horrid performance and optimization on PC unfortunately damaged my overall enjoyment.

Beast of Winter has a lot of beautiful locations alongisde great artwork, and expands on interesting lore threads that had previously been relegated to text dumps and exposition, as well as a couple interesting boss encounters -- It's a solid afternoon's worth of more Deadfire, but it feels piecemeal and diversionary.

Much of this review probably sounds negative, and that's a shame because World Of Final Fantasy is a fantastic throwback to earlier entries in the series and a damn good RPG in its own right. If you are ok with a 30 FPS cap and an experience that's the same as the PS4 version, then this PC port is perfectly playable. I've yet to encounter any technical bugs in my time with it and the art style makes up for the lack of graphical options in my opinion, just know going in that the port is lacking in several ways. If you are a fan of the franchise and didn't play it when it came out last year on other platforms, you probably won't be disappointed jumping in with this version.

The game itself is solid, but just not quite there enough to be a strong recommendation as of this publishing.

Odyssey suffers in the same way Origins did as it searches for an identity within both the stealth and RPG genres. We obviously deeply appreciate the addition of such RPG mechanics and Odyssey often fines a nice middle ground between the two, but it ultimately isn't consistent enough on either spectrum to fully flesh out what the game could potentially be. If you enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Origins or want a game you easily sink over eighty hours in through exploration alone you will probably enjoy Odyssey, but if you’ve grown tired of the general monotony of the series you might want to wait until Ubisoft does something more innovative with this IP.

While Shining Resonance Refrain may not be mind-blowing, it still has its own charm that I could appreciate.