Once upon a time, Rune Factory was a simple matter of asking “What if Harvest Moon had some combat bits?” That was perfectly adequate in its own right, because it did add a fun way to take a break from farming and small-town socialising and to flex some muscle, but…
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It’s easy to understand why Elden Ring Nightreign exists. The multiplayer side of Dark Souls and, later, Elden Ring has been enormously popular over the years. So too are games designed around an endless gameplay loop, whether that be Fortnite, roguelikes, or anything in between. Nightreign will be loved a…
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I’m an artistic person, it’s in my genes. I’m also a very Type-A kind of person, and I prefer chill games that help me relax to games with violence. So, as a cozy game about using colourful spray paint to make a town vibrant again, Spray Paint Simulator is right…
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Look, I don’t know who decided that King Arthur worked well with grimdark, but I’m going to convene the Round Table of artists and put a stop to this nonsense. The actual fantasy of King Arthur and his knights should be flowery bastions of virtue doing good things for the…
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Scar-Lead Salvation is very close to being a very good game. The creative energy is good, the aesthetics are appealing, and the action is tight. Unfortunately, while it was clearly inspired by Returnal, it misses the mark in several critical areas. You play as Willow, who is either a woman…
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I love love. It is beautiful to see what can blossom between people, whether platonic or romantic love. I’m a very monogamous gal — I feel best when I give everything I have to one person, who, in turn, gives everything back to me. But that’s just my personal preference.…
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Last year’s Duck Detective: The Secret Salami was one of my highlights of the year. A wonderfully slim yet totally fulfilling 2-3 hour noir satire, the game offered just the right balance between quality humour, puzzles that were both puzzling and made you feel good about yourself, and the all-important…
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7’scarlet has been around for several years on Steam, but the Nintendo Switch has become a solid home for the visual novel genre, so why not have it on this nice, slim, near-perfect “reading” device? I doubt many otome fans would say that it’s their favourite Otomate project, but at…
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Like its predecessors, Death end re;Quest: Code Z looks like it should be a pretty standard Idea Factory JRPG. You’ve got cute anime girls, most of them with very large assets, and magical girl-style transformation screens that make full use of those assets for maximum impact. Then you have long…
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AFL 23 grew from a shaky start to become something that most fans of the sport could love. It followed Big Ant’s usual MO of, shall we say, responsive patching post-launch, as the feedback rolled in and the ever-vocal sports game community made it clear what they liked and didn’t.…
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