The Awakened Fate Ultimatum draws heavily on tired anime humor and noodling about transcending one's fate. Perhaps a smack with a cake pan or a high-intensity training montage would have fuelled its own will to power.

I can truthfully say that Mary Skelter: Nightmares is the very first game I have ever played in which giving a woman multiple meatless pancakes demonstrably raised her affection for my character. I can also truthfully say that it exceeds the level of quality seen in my previous experiences with Idea Factory and Compile Heart. That comes with the significant caveat of a point where the game refused to recognize I had the critical item for progression, until after about 150 tries it finally allowed me through. Cranking the quality up from completely wretched to only somewhat wretched isn’t all that much of an accomplishment though, and leaves me no wiser than before about how these companies remain in business.

While the online makes for a fun social outing, Dungeon Hunter: Alliance doesn't do enough to stand out in a crowd. With its uninspired gameplay, joke of a story, and its constant recycling of just about everything, it's barely worth the $13 price tag. There are better Diablo clones worth your buck, and this is simply not one of them.

It's hard to find any reason to place Sacred 3 above the majority of action RPGs released recently. It doesn't do anything particularly well, with every aspect having been done considerably better elsewhere. Fans of the first two games in the series will likely prefer to pretend this never happened.

It all adds up to a game that’s more commendable on paper than in its execution. GreedFall: The Dying World is an ambitious title by a smaller developer that tells a story from a perspective not often seen in the medium. A story about the horrors of colonization, not to mention told from the point of view of the colonized, is a laudable endeavor. But there isn’t much about the game that makes it a fun outing. Characters lack personality, and it’s entirely up to the player to seek it out where it exists, combat is an overly complex mess of options layered on a foundation made for brute-forcing, and both presentation and technical optimization are in need of fine-tuning. With the change away from the more action-oriented combat being a questionable one, fans of the previous installment may still be on board for another chance to visit the world of Teer Fradee, while all others may want to miss the boat this time around.

This isn't a good tactical game, and I'm hard-pressed to actually recommend it to anyone with standards.

Dokapon Journey fails to impress.

There are many unique mechanics introduced here that have a lot of potential, but between the lack of interesting ways in which said mechanics are used and the terrible controls, they only work to hinder the game. The game is also one of the buggiest games I’ve played; its litany of bugs range from falling through walls, to abilities that don’t work correctly or unintentionally trivialize encounters and obstacles, and even bugs of the game-breaking kind. This is a game with great ideas but horrid execution, both from a technical and a design perspective, and it’s really a shame. Here’s hoping the developers will take what’s good here and execute better on it in the future.

Even as a compilation of the iOS content, Squids Odyssey ends with a 'to be continued' notification because the story is far from concluded, though developer The Game Bakers is unlikely to wait long for further updates. I feel like I got my fill of calamari with what I've already had though. Unless future installments receive a great deal of fine-tuning, my time with squid does not need extension.

As the basic framework of a game, it serves adequately, but that's about the most praise possible.

Mariage is a game with some decent ideas that are completely undone by execution. The concepts for the battle system are good, but balance is lacking. The idea of carrying over stats to a second generation is enticing, but there is so much grinding that any interest will be sapped long before reaching the end. Mariage‘s adult-oriented material will also narrow its player base somewhat. There’s just not enough good about Mariage to balance out all the issues the game has. Mariage is not an experience players will want to make a long-term commitment to.

Ragnarok DS could have been a happy marriage between the addictive combat of an MMORPG and the enjoyable stories found in the best offline games.

While I have spent most of this review ragging on Harvest Moon: Skytree Village's issues, I am glad I played the game because it satisfied my curiosity in regards to how Harvest Moon has changed in the last five years. While there are inklings of interesting ideas, the overall package feels hollow, as though it's missing a spark of greatness where other games have succeeded. Skytree Village doesn't offer enough incentive to keep players actively engaged, and I can only hope that the next iteration of the series makes some drastic changes to get this series back on track.

Though the combat holds up, it’s just too difficult to find a way to recommend Element: Space as a whole. There’s not much of interest from a narrative standpoint, while all of the good points about the gameplay are offset by the technical problems. It’s a shame, as there’s a good base underneath it, but even with giving leeway based on the small size of the development team, the annoyances currently outweigh the good.

My biggest piece of advice when it comes to this game is to play the demo. You will experience everything the game has to offer in it and you will know very quickly whether you can stomach the fan service.

Calamity Angels: Special Delivery is an ambitious title that took one-note jokes way too far. A title about deliveries at its epicentre has promise, and the character designs are very enjoyable. Combat has moments where the absurdity all connects, and a wonderful finishing move is shown on screen that always brings a smile, but that smile quickly becomes a twitchy bunch of frustrated nerves when the party will not listen to commands. The constant chatter and disdain from the party is easily annoying, and while the game is only twenty hours, it still feels painful herding them to complete the most basic survival instinct-related things. This constant source of manufactured tension sadly overshadows most of the good on offer here. This courier is anything but dull, but the chaotic frustrations will cause many prospective clients to look elsewhere.

In the end, Elminage sticks far too closely to old-school mechanics that just no longer provide for a fun experience.

Sadly, The Caligula Effect really just amounts to a waste of time. It's a shame because there's some neat ideas within it, particularly on the premise and story side of things, that are stuck behind terrible design choices and poor implementation. Despite its short length — approaching twenty hours depending on how well players can avoid the mindless drones — there's no reason to abandon other plans to give it a try.

In the end, Cross Edge is a disappointment.

Achtung! Cthulhu Tactics is the kind of mash-up property that by all rights should have the right ingredients to hit that sweet spot. By all accounts, the original property actually does manage to do just that. But the digital adaptation lacks on several fronts, not the least of which is the unfortunate underusage of the occult element of its namesake. The grindy battle system with little enemy and environmental variety is also nothing to write home about. Cthulhu Tactics sounds like an intriguing mix of its two titular elements, but fails to deliver on the promise of either.

I wanted to love Fae Farm, but honestly, the full package was mostly disappointing. It is a game that tries to compete with the popular farming sims, but never quite does enough to stand on its own feet. While there are kernels of good ideas, they are marred by questionable design choices, with quests and goals that never feel satisfying. I am all for the coziness revolution, but Fae Farm, unfortunately, feels anything but.

Of Orcs and Men joins the list of games that have failed to deliver after some early promise. This is a pity as the concept of a game examining the point of view and culture of those fantasy races that would traditionally be shoved into the role of the antagonist forces without a second thought is an appealing one. Unfortunately, Of Orcs and Men squanders this opportunity and the result is a mediocre, all-too-short experience that won't live long in the memory.

Combining tactical RPGs and soccer is a good idea that could be further developed and improved upon, but Ganbare! Super Strikers really misses the mark in execution. The lack of substance that prevents the game from soaring once the novelty of the premise wears off and the flaws in the balancing become noticeable. As someone who generally prefers to play games single-player, the game failed to impress and I doubt this will hold much appeal in the multiplayer department for anyone who isn’t already a hardcore fan of both soccer and Tactical RPGs.

Those looking to spend more time with the goddesses will at least enjoy more of their humour, and VTuber fans will likely get a kick out of their cameos. However, gameplay is very much lacking, with everything being done considerably better elsewhere, and ultimately, as an overall experience, Neptunia Virtual Stars remains a disappointment.

The problem with Pong Quest on a whole is that for a crossover, it doesn’t lean heavily enough into RPGs to be interesting for RPGamers, and by the other side of it, you can only play so much Pong before it gets stale. Pong Quest is a cute experiment that is plagued with just too much damn Pong and not enough RPG.

What’s hard about WitchSpring3 is that there is so little in it that is enjoyable. There is no personality in the game, and everything that is happening in the story or the gameplay feels so unremarkable. I appreciate how short an experience it was and that it was very direct in its approach, but there was so little in it to explore and engage with. This is a hard game to recommend as it can be welcoming for some gamers, but this port feels as though very little effort was put forth. WitchSpring3: Re:Fine is a boring and hollow experience that cannot be recommended at a $39.99 price point.

I do not enjoy being harsh on any game, but I can’t recommend Nova Hearts. It’s a game with no spark or excitement. While I don’t mind some chaos and messiness in my stories, and prefer that, the story, characters, combat, and music all suffer from a level of disjointedness that is too noticeable to overlook. This is one of those games where more time in the oven and a less-is-more approach truly could have helped it hit its full potential. Unfortunately, as it stands, Nova Hearts is a half-baked game that tries to do too much, and does none of it well.

From its trailers and screens, Fara promised an epic role-playing adventure in a beautifully crafted world. In actuality, Fara produces an extremely short adventure game with average music and visuals, insufficient difficulty and story, and hardly any RPG elements. While some RPGamers may find Fara to be a worthwhile use of two hours, most would be better off leaving this unwilling hero stranded on that island to fend for himself.