At present, Celestian Tales: Old North is a bit of an odd bag, feeling more like a prologue to something bigger than a full title standing on its own.

Gamers who appreciate DRAGON: A Game about a Dragon's visuals will probably appreciate its humorous writing and gentle exploration while forgiving its brevity and roughness.

Regardless of which starting boon is selected, and which quests are solved differently the second time around, replaying Artifact Adventure doesn't address the repetitive combat or flatness of the characters.

The Dwarf Run had several frustrating spots that did not make me happy, but it also displayed some entertaining scenarios and went into an unexpected place at the conclusion. Alexander Mirdzveli has fashioned a title that does a good job of appealing to veterans of PC RPGs. It is unlikely to appeal to those without fond memories of those titles though.

While Saturday Morning RPG won't blow RPGamers away with its overall presence, it has a ton of heart and soul.

Enjoyment of Siralim seems highly dependent on how much grind and padding one would be able to handle.

Overall, The Huntsman: Winter's Curse comes off as an interesting little title that fills a spot for those wanting something fairly short and easy to get into.

In spite of the irritations, I have a bit of affection for Dungeon Punks — it let me ride on a gorilla, after all. I can't overlook just how much time I spent waiting for its freezes to end though, and without a fix for that it's impossible to give a recommendation. No arcade cabinet which experienced constant technical trouble would have gotten enough business to justify its existence, and the ability to play online with friends doesn't help much when everyone will be cursing the constant dead space.

God Eater 2: Rage Burst cements the series as the best alternative to Monster Hunter, and potentially surpasses it for those looking for a narrative within the gameplay experience both series offer. All of its parts work together to make enough improvements and updates on the previous entry, while keeping its flavour intact.

This is not the worst game ever. Somehow, the experience adds up to more than the sum of its parts, and it manages to be a mostly inoffensive adventure. Its predictability is a bit like comfort food, in that it recalls a childhood of being easily entertained. The battle system isn't interesting enough to hold up the game on its own, but fiddling with stats to avoid a level grind can be rewarding in its own right. There are probably worse ways to spend a couple dozen hours, but on the other hand there are also better.

The developers of Blade & Bones intended their game as an entry in the style pioneered by Demon's Souls and perfected by its successors. Although its combat system clearly misses that mark, the game still manages to greatly succeed on other fronts including its Metroidvania design, wondrous world, open-ended exploration, cleverly hidden and densely packed secrets, and magical environment visuals. Players looking for robust, weighty battles with responsive and fluid controls will not find that here, but those craving a beautiful game that entices exploration of every nook and cranny and knows how to reward players with meaningful treasures and discoveries are in for a truly satisfying experience — so long as they remember to avoid the dreadful combat.

Darkest Dungeon is a game that absolutely deserves to be played. It is an emotional ride for the player, a fun tactical battler, and an RPG that amazingly manages to live up to its horror theme. The art direction is sublime, the sound remarkable, and the direction astounding. Worth more than its bloated weight may let on, Red Hook Studios manages to deliver a product both mentally challenging and rewarding, complete in the truest sense of the word. Just expect it to take a good long while to get there.

It doesn't pass muster as one of the 3DS's better offerings, but neither did I experience great hatred for Dragon Sinker while playing it. It offers enough engagement to not fade from the mind swiftly, without justifying someone's immediate and unswerving attention due to the plethora of superior options out there. Saying it's better than most items published by Kemco may not be great praise, but it's accurate.

Mercenaries Saga 3 is just about as enjoyable as its predecessor, though the slight difficulty increase would make me place 3 above 2 by a narrow margin if forced to choose. I also remember the lead mercenary's name of Marion Balbastre thanks to its constant repetition by one character, though whether this is a positive I can't really evaluate. Both of these games offer entertaining packages to be found by rooting around in the 3DS's digital library, and deserve to be experienced by more people.

I can't deny that the fifty or so hours spent playing Valkyria Revolution had some fun times. The litany of problems present made it more enticing to stay in an endless loop of free missions rather than return to the story though, and even when doing that I kept finding issues quality improvement should have spotted. If this is the best Sega could do to revive the Valkyria franchise, no wonder it's been dormant for years.

Though it still won't appeal to those who don't like reading lots of text in their games, it's amazing how much an improvement in pacing can do. Mask of Truth takes what Mask of Deception's second half had finally started to do and gives the characters and story the telling they deserve. It must be said that without the slow build-up to put everything in context and build the emotional connection between the characters, the latter parts might not have paid off as well as they did. In the end, it's highly satisfying to be able to say that across its combined fifty-hour total, the Utawarerumono duology has been a hugely rewarding experience with a story that will linger long in the memory.

It's been a fairly long wait for Boot Hill Bounties, but Experimental Gamer Studios has certainly done enough to resurrect interest in the Wild West RPG trilogy. The game marks a strong second title, and new players shouldn't be afraid of jumping straight in here — though checking out the previous title certainly wouldn't hurt. Signs are good that the developer will be able to make a fitting conclusion to the trilogy.

Secret of Mana came at a time when expectations for RPGs were completely different than the present. This remake treads so much familiar ground that it is unlikely to attract many new players to the series, although it does capture what remains fun about the game quite well.

Chamber of Time is an incredibly uneven experience. It’s an amazing recreation of the Little Witch Academia universe with impressive art and fantastic voice acting. However, that accomplishment is squandered by how tedious the navigation of the academy becomes, bland fetch quests, poor AI, bad boss design, and sub-par combat. This could have been a good game with better choices, but instead it’s difficult to recommend to even the most rabid Little Witch Academia fan, much less the broader RPG-playing public.

Cosmic Star Heroine doesn’t quite match up with the best of the 16-bit era’s RPGs but is definitely worth the attention of anyone today who was at all interested in the project during its long genesis, which is a lot more than many deliberate throwbacks can say.

Anyone interested in a title that is charming and rewarding to spend huge quantities of time exploring should most assuredly check it out, and while the narrative won’t blow people away, it’s also not constantly forcing itself into the forefront. This may not be for everyone, but it most assuredly clicked with me.

Overall, The Greater Good is a decent enough game, with graphics being the main mark that often hinders the game rather than helping it. They simply didn’t work at times as I didn’t know where to go because a rock formation that seemed part of the background graphics was actually something to jump on, or the entrance to a tavern was between two other background images. Other than that, the battle system is tried and true, with a decent amount of strategy raising the difficulty. The story has an interesting premise, sees a satisfying conclusion, and even has a small epilogue.

It took me about five hours to reach the final mission of Moonfall Ultimate, only to be confronted with what appeared to be a glitched set of mission instructions at the end. I tried going through the game again using a different class, and encountered the same glitch, except this time I ignored the text and just plowed through everything as best I could. There are plenty of hack and slash titles available, and this one doesn’t stand out in any particularly positive way.

While it’s not as polished in its graphics, it’s an enjoyable game that’s more accessible to newer fans of the genre, yet with deep enough combat systems and a difficulty slider that might make the dungeon crawler expert take notice as well. Stormseeker Games has put forth a strong debut title and will be worth keeping an eye on from this point forward.

OK K.O.! Let’s Play Heroes is a decent supplement to the cartoon series. It appears to achieve what it set out to do, but never sets its sights particularly high. There’s some good fun to be had and plenty of enjoyable moments, but it’s not a game that’s likely to stick in the memory for very long.

It’s difficult to recommend Sacred Earth – Promise as a standalone title, though certain aspects are definitely laudable. Perhaps once sequels are created to flesh out the world more it will be seen as the precursor to a venerable series. I enjoyed many of the witty lines and appreciated the combat’s intentions, but this is not the rare indie title which will immediately garner acclaim from everyone.

The Long Journey Home doesn’t outstay its welcome. A successful journey should take most players around ten hours, which is a good length for those who just want to get home and enjoy the accomplishment while the gameplay cycle remains enjoyable. Meanwhile, the way the universe is generated with seeds means that those who are interested in seeing everything the game has to offer as well as find new challenges have many reasons to keep coming back. It never offers the most in-depth or exciting gameplay moments, but the overall experience of The Long Journey Home is an enjoyable one.

I can’t think of any other games in which I deliberately shrank my protagonists so that they could each fit in a stack between two other creatures, so World of Final Fantasy Maxima definitely gets credit for exploiting an unseen niche. Actually playing it was also entertaining, though every time I progressed with the overall narrative frustration resulted. Square Enix’s track record in recent years has been a highly mixed bag of quality, and World of Final Fantasy Maxima fits right in.