Recent reviews by Waxinlyrical

I can see what the developers are trying to do but it's not quite for me. The mechanics of the game want you to keep pressing forward, never stopping at any moment but that just feels like it's encouraging thoughtless gameplay - I'm basically ignoring everything as much as possible just to get to the next door over and over. The over-emphasis on speed makes it so it's hard to make the weapons feel good to use too since you are just trying to blitz through everything so you don't have weapons that feel like they have weight or impact.

Last note: It's really weird that for a game that is trying to go so hard on the old 80's/90's anime vibe that there is so much Japanese text splattered on everything but no Japanese voice dub option. The corporate streamer girl that acts as the game announcer gets on my nerves just like English dubs in the 80's and 90's did.

I bought this because I liked the developer's previous game (Battle Chasers: Nightwar); in many ways this feels like a step backwards from that. The writing, dialogue and pacing of the story is markedly worse; the side quests tend to not be very interesting and while I know they were trying something new with the Lane system overall I felt like it did not land well.

All in all it's hard for me to recommend this.

This is probably going to be blasphemous given all the positive accolades heaped upon it but I could not bring myself to like this game. Controls are awkward, death comes often (and it feels frustrating when it does because of said awkward controls), and I personally need a bit more guidance and hand holding before being thrown into a big solar system of weirdness.

Before anything else: Play this game with a controller, for some reason the mouse/keyboard controls are very unresponsive.

I enjoyed this latest entry in the DanganRonpa series. You play this game expecting crazy characters, improbable murders and those "Aha!" moments where you put everything together, and this game delivers that in spades. Unfortunately the class trial mini-games seem to have get worse with every installment, so if you're like me and just like the logic solving aspect of class trials I would recommend turning the difficulty of the mini-games down.

The ending is controversial, no doubt about it, but I personally loved what they did with the lore of the DanganRonpa universe. It's certainly a good sign that Spike Chunsoft is not afraid to mix up the formula and deliver what it thinks will be a good engaging experience for the player.

A love letter from the '90s. A popular but prematurely abandoned comic book series resurrects itself as a JRPG with randomly generated dungeons. Progression system is deep and satisfying, combat is demanding and grindy at the start but rewards those with determination and persistence with a feeling of mastery at the end. The main story is serviceable but isn't anything spectacular, but some of the side quests and lore entries are better written.

Overall, this is clearly a product of love from a team who has much reverence for a bygone age of gaming. I'd recommend it highly if you liked both the comic book series and old school JRPGs. For those who do not fall into that category, the rougher edges are harder to ignore but I think this is still worth your time and money.

TLDR: Ghost Trick meets Groundhog Day, set in a casino mansion. The premise is interesting, the puzzles are fair (if perhaps a little unsatisfying to solve sometimes), the visuals stylish, and the music is great. Mechanically I wish they went a bit further with the various powers you can unlock, and from a narrative standpoint while being generally well written I wished the various characters had more time spent on them so they developed beyond simple archetypes like "The guy who drinks a lot". All in all though I enjoyed this quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone who's interested.

An absolute masterpiece. A big, breathtakingly detailed world full of swords and sorcery, beasts and beauties, the best of men and the worst of men. The journey the Witcher 3 sets you upon is long and epic, and at every point along the way I was enchanted. Could not recommend higher.

Imagine Ace Attorney crossed with Battle Royale. If that sounds at all intriguing to you, I'd heartily recommend DanganRonpa.

Only minor quibbles I have is that the pacing and the revelations of the last episode are somewhat of a letdown to me personally. Without going into spoilery details: There's a bunch of stuff they deemed unnecessary to actually explain, and most of it is so absurd it kills the suspension of disbelief for me.

That said, I enjoyed my time with the game. There's also an excellent Japanese translation mod available that lets you experience the game in the original intended form.

Life Is Strange falters towards the end, and definitely has its rough and uneven sections, but I still thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It tries to do interesting things with story telling in games, and its implementation of time-travel powers is remarkably well-designed. The characters are charmingly written, and even the villains display a humanity that makes them sympathetic at times.

Also did I mention it's probably the best High School Hipster Waif Photographer Chick with Time Travel Powers simulator you can buy?

Like last year's 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers, Magic Duels seems to be suffering from a serious case of "One step forward, two steps back".

Wizards has taken the brave new step of making the yearly Duels installment into a free-to-play service, that they've promised to continually update. The cost for this, however, is a punishingly slow unlock structure, that is made even more frustrating because of the low power levels they stick you with at the beginning.

As an example of how slow you can expect to unlock things in this game: I've spent 4 hours and have earned enough in-game currency to purchase 3 packs, i.e. 18 cards.

The Story mode is an attempt to fill in some of the back story of the various Planeswalkers, but it is generally an exercise in frustration. You are forced to use deliberately underpowered decks against competent AI with access to far better cards than you, which translates to you praying heavily on RNG for a chance to progress. I hope you enjoy trying to use Lilian's Black Cats to fend off an army of opposing Angels.

All in all, there is very little to recommend for this. I understand that Wizards is reluctant to sacrifice the profitability of their existing Magic Online and paper card game platforms, but Magic Duels is hardly going to put a dent in the online CCG space that Hearthstone dominates.