Reviews

When it comes to feeling unease and just plain creepy, there is nothing better than Japanese Ghost stories. Movies like Ju-On and Ringu series (or their American adaptations: The Grudge and The Ring series) are probably two of the most famous films in this category and while they never really produce any jump-scares or focuses heavily on blood and gore, they provide a tense, uneasy feeling throughout the film.

The Yomawari series from NIS nails this feeling, as they're a disturbing and twisted take on an Urban Ghost story that will is guaranteed to make players feel uneasy about the entire situation they find themselves in. Now compiled into one game on the Nintendo Switch, players will be able to enjoy both titles - Yomawari: Night Alone and Yomawari: Midnight Shadows - on their TV or portable.

 Night Alone sees you in control of a young girl who while walking her dog, experiences a near-miss with a transport, only to find her dog is now missing. Upon returning home, her elder sister offers to look for the dog in the dark streets. After a few hours, the young girl decides to search for her sister and her dog only to find creatures in the shadows scattered all over the town. Midnight Shadows gives us a more emotional story by putting the fate of two best friends - Yui and Haru - on the line. As the two friends are separated after watching a fireworks display, they attempt to find each other in the dark city.

 Both Yomawari games share some similarities, mainly that they both involve young children somewhere around 8-12 years old searching for someone/something at night full of creepy ghosts/spirits, and both dealing with a loss, something that really sets the story apart from other run-of-the-mill horror titles.

 There is no fair way to say that one game has a better story over the other, as they both deliver an emotional punch out of the gates and keeps it rolling until the very end. I've also never had a game that made me audibly gasp, sad and pissed off during a tutorial scene, setting the mood for what would come almost perfectly.

 Gameplay takes inspiration from run-and-hide horror titles like Amnesia and Outlast but takes place in a top-down perspective. Players have no defence against the spirits and ghosts, and can only run when encountering the creatures. You can't run forever though, as running requires stamina which when drained can slow you to a stop, leaving you open to being captured. Players also are given the ability to hide in a bush or behind objects, as well as distract them by throwing objects.

 While most games give you a point of view for when you're hiding, Yomawari has a much more effective strategy to making hiding one of the most stressful things you can do in the game by darkening the screen and using your heartbeat as sort of echolocation for how close the enemy is to you. It's a subtle mechanic that is extremely effective in this type of horror game.

Both Night Alone and Midnight Shadows have the same type of gameplay, but I do find that Midnight Shadows refines the controls and make it work better. Plus with the ability to take control of both Yui and Haru, as wells as the multiple endings based on items found during exploration really drives the game more than Night Alone.

There is something deceptively creepy about Yomawari's cute graphics. As most of the obviously human characters have an adorable almost chibi likeness, and the environments looking like a modern-day Japanese town, the darkness surrounding the town is unsettling and almost feeling unnatural. Monster designs are also very creative, based on Japanese Urban Legends and delivering a very macabre look, whether it's just a simple shadow creature to a giant face with spider-legs, or a bunch of hands with a number of eyeballs staring out at you.

These things are the things nightmares are made of. Yomawari: The Long Night Collection is a great collection for any horror fan as both games give you plenty of content, a great amount of replay value and plenty of genuine scares that will make you want to put the console down but a story that is so good that you won't want to.

Review based on the Nintendo Switch version of the game provided by NIS America - visit our site for the original review
https://gameitall.com/yomawari-the-long-night-collection-review/

The life of a shinobi in training is a difficult one and there is seldom any time for relaxation. So how to you keep your Ninja skills fresh but have a relaxing summer vacation with your friends. By having a LiveStreamed water-gun tournament!

This is essentially the plot behind the latest Senran Kagura title, Peach Beach Splash, an event hosted by a mysterious benefactor that sends the busty ninjas of the series to a water park for a Water Gun Tournament with the magical rule that the winners get to have whatever they desire.

Now if you haven’t played a Senran Kagura game, these titles usually involve a school of ninjas kicking plenty of ass and then having a one-on-one showdown with other ninjas from other schools, this usually ends in cloth ripping action that leaves one or more fighters too embarrassed to keep going. It’s ridiculous, but the gameplay is solid and can be a lot of fun if you can get around the perverseness of the titles.

Peach Beach Splash (henceforth called PBS because I’m too lazy to write it all out each time) doesn’t hide the perverted nature of the game, constantly reminding you that you’re playing a game with female characters having especially large chest area and wearing beach attire that might be a little too tight for some.

This is actually one of the features that makes PBS great, the game isn’t afraid of making fun of itself and still delivers a game that is a surprisingly deep shooter that is a blast to play. Most matches involves 5 on 5 battles in which players can choose one of their favourite Senran Kagura girls and select a water gun of their choice, from fine-aimed weapons like the Water Pistol and a Water Sniper, to rapid fire blasters like the twin pistols, gatling gun and assault rifle, to powerful weapons like the hose and bazooka.

Then we’re thrown into a fast pace watergun war where your objective is to get your opponent as wet as possible. Matches are usually quick bouts between the two rival team, or a horde of cannon fodder enemies that can quickly surround you if you’re not careful enough.

Since this is a game with Ninjas, you can expect everything to be fast. While the characters themselves are quite quick, they are helped by a water pack that can help them slide, double jump or hover at the cost of some of the water in their tanks. This forces players to think about the use of their weapons and abilities as refilling water can leave them open for attacks.

To accommodate the fast pace action, the game gives you two different ways of aiming, an automatic targeting system which you point your girl in the direction of your opponent lock on and start blasting, or a manual “spray’n’pray” mode. Given the speed and the frequent dodging, I recommend using the Automatic targeting, which surprising doesn’t take away from the fun of the battles.

Aside from waterguns, players can also do a melee attack to stun opponents and open them up for attacks. Players can also use trading cards earned by completing matches or spending in-game cash, which can help bring in special abilities to the battle. Duplicated cards can be sold for XP towards weapons, abilities and to the characters themselves.

Matches end when all players are down, however players generally have the ability to pick their allies back up. There is a perverse way of stopping of course, by walking up to a downed opponent and using a ducky watergun, spray water on the downed opponents chest, butt or face until their swimware falls off. There is no nudity in this as it is censored in a bright light, but it does serve as an embarrassing end to an opponents battle and at the same time gives you extra points.

Most of PBS content contains a story mode for all the Shinobi Academies participating in the event, which gives them a good 10 missions of play each, plus several different challenge modes and a great online mode. For those who like to play dress up, players can purchase customizable items and swimsuits, then dress up their favourite Ninja.

For those who like using the PS4 share feature, the Shower Room contains a diorama section allowing you to set up a scene with the characters and take fun screenshots.

If you can get past some of the more perverted features and jokes in the game, Senran Kagura is just a fun, light-hearted shooter that is just an absolute blast to play. I highly recommend to give it a try.

When NIS released the first Witch and The Hundred Knight, I’ll admit that I had some difficulties getting into the game, but it wasn’t for the game’s lack of charm. The game focused on a magical familiar called The Hundred Knight (rather than being 100 creatures, he was the Knight of a Hundred Tactics – according to the in-game witch tomb) and his Witch Master as they fought against other witches for more power. The Witch and Hundred Knight 2 keeps a lot of this charm but is easier to get into and to learn its mechanics, it also features an original story that doesn’t need the original to fall back thanks to a new cast of energetic characters.

Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 follows 2 sisters, Amalie and Milm. One day Milm goes missing from their village, only to return with a scar on her forehead, this is a symptom of Witch Disease, in which any child infected with it would die and become a powerful witch when the scar opens to reveal a third eye. Amalie and Milm leave their village in fear and in search for a cure.

The game jumps a head in time to the day that Milm undergoes surgery to remove the third eye, only to awaken as the powerful witch Chelka mid-surgery. Summoning life into Milm’s favourite doll – The Hundred Knight – they escape. Amalie – now part of the Witch Hunting organization called Weiss Ritter or WR for short, must now hunt her former sister.

Of course there is more than meets the eye when it comes to JRPGs, and Witch and The Hundred Knight 2’s story has plenty of twists to keep you engaged. However it’s the cast of characters that makes Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 stand out, either from their cool design like the members of the WR’s witch killing generals, to the entertaining foul-mouthed Chelka who sadistic experiments end up with (sometimes) comical effects, lets not forget that the game also features a Giant Drag-Queen Raven Butler.

Still it’s the Hundred Knight himself that brings the charm to the game much like the original. The Hundred Knight doesn’t speak, instead makes cute little cooing noises when questioning, affirming and going against something. He takes everything completely literal and acts as a punching bag and loyal minion for Chelka that its hard not to fall in love with the adorable character.

Much like the original, Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is a Dungeon Crawling Action JRPG where players retake control of the Hundred Knight as he sets out to his master’s bidding. Hundred Knight can use 5 different type of weapons (Sword, Spear, Hammers, Staffs, Lances) which can be used in a variety of combos by simply equipping the weapon to an attack slot. The various enemies that the player will have to face all have different weaknesses and vulnerabilities, some weak to cut attacks, other by blunt force and others by magic, players will have to align their combos correctly so that they’d be able to easily defeat their opponents.

To make this easier, players are also given access to Facets. These are stat-changing helmets that affect special abilities and strengthen specific weapons. Players are able to carry 3 into battle with them to help deal with different scenarios and can be switch at ease by pressing the trigger buttons. Players are also able to make use of their home base which can help to level up your weapons via Alchemy, by sacrificing other weapons or material that you pick up along the way, I cannot stress the importance of this mechanic as it saved my skin in multiple boss battles.

The music for The Witch and The Hundred Knight 2 is your typical fantasy fan fare and does well to set the tone, the audio is never really over bearing and the voice acting is spot on for the characters and hardly seems out-of-place, which feels great to say about a JRPG which have the tendency to be hit or miss. However with most of the game’s “cutscenes” being a visual novel presentation, some of the scenes involving combat or even more comedic motions feels lost to flashes on screens with “take this!” “oh yeah! Take This!” text.

The Witch and The Hundred Knight 2 is a very newcomer friendly title without much throw back to the original, it also takes steps to explain the mechanics better and delivers a great story in the process. If you’re looking for a charming hack’n’slash JRPG, The Witch and the Hundred Knight 2 is one of the best released this year so far. We highly recommend checking this one out even if, like me, you had difficulties with the original.

There is only a handful of developers that catch my attention like Vanillaware. They have been a company that has prided themselves on cool hand-drawn graphics that are nothing less than amazing, with games like Grimgrimoire, Odin’s Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade really highlighting some amazing art on every level.

The 2013 beat’em up from the studio, Dragon’s Crown, kept that feeling as well. The game looked amazing on both PS3 and Vita when it was first released, and with the release of the PS4 version – Dragon’s Crown Pro, players can look forward to crisper character designs in 4K resolution, however those looking for an update to the game in Odin’s Sphere Leifthrasir, you’re going to be a bit disappointed. Considering that we’ve never done a review for the original Dragon’s Crown, lets start here.

Dragon’s Crown tells the story of a fearless adventurer (you) and your helpful rogue, who are in search of a mystical item called the Dragon’s Crown. This item gives its wearer the ability to control all dragons and become a unstoppable force to be reckoned with. However there are plenty in need of help from an adventurer like yourself, from taking on invading orc armies, harpies, wyverns and more, with every quest bringing you one step closer to your goal.

It’s easy to tell that Dragon’s Crown was inspired by Capcom’s Dungeon & Dragons arcade series, in which players choose a role from one of various classes and begin an epic quest. Dragon’s Crown is no different, as players can choose to play between 6 classes, the all-rounded Fighter – who uses a sword and shield for attack and defense, The Amazon – a two-handed attack focused character, the Dwarf – The game’s grappler character, The Elf – Speed and range, Wizard – Offensive Spellcaster, and Sorceress – Defensive Spellcaster.

Each class has different abilities and attacks, making it worth players to try out each class before deciding on who they’ll be using to complete the game with. My personal favourites included the Fighter, the Elf and the Sorceress however I found myself using the later of the 3 only when I was playing with a group of people as her use in single-player wasn’t as effective.

While the entire game can be enjoyed single-player, Dragon’s Crown works best as a co-operative brawler for up to 4 players, which can be preformed in one of three different ways. The first (and honestly best) way to do this is Couch Co-op, where players can pick up their controllers and join you in-game from the start, the other is using computer controlled characters which can be found and resurrected via bones found in levels. The final way is online co-op, however this is oddly not available from the start of the game, instead players must clear several levels before the stables that are available for Online Play to be built.

One of the great things about Dragon’s Crown Pro for returning players is the ability to pick up where you left off and to still enjoy the game with those who are playing the PS3 and Vita versions thanks to cross-save and cross-play capabilities. I was able to test this out with my save file from my Vita version of the game which I still regularly played, in which my most recent saved character was available to download and continue from where I left off, in terms of the online play, after re-unlocking the stables with my new profile, I was able to find a match fairly easily with a friend who was playing the PS3 edition.

Although I believe it’s because of this that we do not receive any new updates for the game itself as the game itself is the last updated version of the PS3/Vita game, with graphics smoothed out for 4K capabilities. With the ability to play with the older generation, we’re sort of held back from receiving major gameplay updates like we saw in Odin’s Sphere, which improved upon the PS2 classic.

Still, Dragon’s Crown Pro gives an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality and its something that can be respected as the game is just plain fun and beautiful to look at with its storybook style graphics, amazing boss battles, branching maps and plenty of quests to beat, loot to collect, and baddies to beat.

Dragon’s Crown Pro may throw off returning players who are coming back expecting something new, but the ability to play with friends who are still on the old systems and enjoying the game’s beauty in 4K is still something to behold. Fans of Vanillaware or beat’em ups in general should not pass up this second chance to enjoy this solid Beat’em Up RPG.

If there is one genre that I feel is difficult to make a bad game out of it, it is the Rogue-lite. Rogue-lites are meant to be hard out of the gate, eventually allowing your character to get better, evolve with the mechanics given and allow players to eventually get better before dying and starting all over again. It is a tried, tested, and true formula that just works no matter what the case, making a frustrating death an enjoyable gameplay feature.

However, as much as it is difficult to make a bad game out of the genre, its hard to stay memorable. With each title in the genre looking for something to help it stand out and to keep bringing players back. For City of Brass, a new rogue-lite from Uppercut Games who team members consists of BioShock veterans, it attempts to find that uniqueness by setting itself as an Arabian Nights-inspired first-person hack’n’slash.

City of Brass has players take the role of a cunning thief out to pull the greatest heist of his time to obtain the fabled treasure hidden in the heart of a ruined city. The city itself is filled with countless treasures, traps and undead creatures out for blood, and will stop at nothing to protect the city’s treasure.

Like most Rogue-lite’s, this is pretty much where the story stops and the fun begins. The main mission is to get to the middle of the city and lift the curse, a task that is easier said than done, but also to fulfill your greed by collecting priceless treasures and walk out with as much money as possible.

Players are given at first a short sword and bullwhip for weapons and some rags for protection. The game is heavily focused on close combat with the sword being your primary source of combat, while the whip has a variety of uses, mainly it can push, pull and stun enemies allowing you to prepare for a follow-up slice or stab.

Other functions of the whip includes setting off traps to allow you some slight invulnerability to pass them, fling yourself from hooks to reach higher ground, and collecting treasure from afar, making it the most versatile item to have in your inventory. City of Brass forces you to play smart, with a limited amount of health it is so easy to die and have to start all over again, however those who use their environments well can use enemies to set off traps, fling vases filled with gun-powder or blow up a group of enemies gathered around a burning vase. There is enough in the world that can help and hinder your progress to keep each circle exciting as you continue to the center of the city.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a rogue-lite without upgrades. City of Brass is difficult however the more experience you gain from collecting treasures, the more you level up and gain new perks to take with you into the city upon death. Once inside the city, you’ll have to improvise and use some of that loot to pay helpful genies to provide other helpful perks.

These perks include armour that freezes opponents when you get hit, longer whips, new swords with varying length and strength, the ability to turn off traps and health upgrades/restores. Sadly anything you buy in the city does not carry with you upon death, forcing you to start with the basics each time.

City of Brass is unforgiving when it comes to difficulty, but at the same time it attempts to be fair with it. If you die in City of Brass it is likely that you stumbled into a trap for being to careless or were hit by a charging skeleton that you couldn’t get out-of-the-way fast enough, either way its pretty much your own fault.

There is plenty to enjoy with City of Brass, with tight controls, plenty of traps, unforgiving difficulty, and plenty of secrets to discover. However its hard to say if the game is one that will keep you coming back for more treasure hunting after some time has passed, while the game has a lot of the core elements of great rogue-lite, its longevity depends on how much you enjoy using the bullwhip and how tolerant you are to dying.

Among indie developers, Retro inspired games can be treated in two different ways, either a cheap cash grab that is set to pray on suckers looking for a nostalgic trip to the past, or as a love note to the things that made the by-gone of gaming so great.

Luckily, Fox’n’Forests from Bonus Level Entertainment and Publisher EuroVideo falls into the later of that as a classic 2D platformer which shares a lot of similarities to classics such as Super Ghost’n’Ghouls, Castlevania and Actraiser, while doing more than enough to make it stand out for a modern audience.

Fox’n’Forests focuses on a Fox named Rick who enters a mysterious Forest after chasing his prey. After failing to catch his food, he meets a Partridge name Patty who guides him to the great old Season Tree who tasks him with finding the bark that was stolen from him and has thrown the seasons of the forests out of whack.

Rick is then given the power to control the seasons, as well as a bad ass crossbow/bayonet weapon, and he sets off through the forest to find the missing bark. While like most 16-bit games, the plot itself isn’t anything amazing, it does enough to get you out the door and on to a season changing adventure.

Like most 16-bit era games, the real joy of Fox’n’Forests comes from its gameplay. Rick has all the basics – Double Jumps, bayonet attacks, cross-bow bolts and various other moves you’d expect from a 2D platformer, however one annoyance is that Rick can only shoot while standing still. That being said, it is something that you can get over as the game give some tight controls and the ability to upgrade Rick to have new moves and upgrades that make it a minor inconvenience.

The level design to Fox’n’Forests is easily one of the bests done for a retro inspired title as each level has multiple branching paths in a similar fashion to classic Sonic the Hedgehog. Each path gives a different experience to a level, offering hidden rewards that can be used to help Rick by trading with Patty. There is one drawback to this however we’ll touch on this in a bit.

Rick’s powers to change the seasons is one of the more interesting mechanics in this game. While the season change is set per level, it offers new ways to solve puzzles and deal with threats, for example, the first level allows you to change the season to Winter to turn the water to ice, allowing you to stand on it and make new paths to your objectives.

The end of level bosses are also a real treat, however a bit easy. Each of the bosses use a season change gimmick to help defeat them, like the first world features a giant frog who fires blobs into the sky, changing the season to Winter freezes the blobs and hitting them with your bayonet launches it back at him. They’re fun little challenges that gives a payoff to most of the trouble you go through in the game.

While most of the game is linear, Fox’n’Forests does have a problem with padding thanks to force back-tracking which makes that great level design I mentioned a bit of a chore. Players need a specific amount of saplings before moving on to each area in the game, most of the time, these can only be acquired after upgrades have been purchased or new powers were found.

Fox’n’Forests is very impressive for a 16-bit indie title, as its artwork is so well done that I could have mistaken it for a classic that I sworn I played on my Super Nintendo re-released for PC and modern consoles. Throughout the game I got the nostalgic feeling of enjoying “The Magical Quest – Staring Micky Mouse” thanks to the game’s backgrounds, animations and music.

While there is little replay-value, Fox’n’Forests is a fun 16-bit adventure game that is worth a playthrough.

It took me a while to realize that Crim’s The Lost Child was a follow-up to the Underrated PS3/Xbox 360 action adventure El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, as both games are completely different in play style. One is a dungeon crawling JRPG where you battle and capture lovecraftian creatures, while the other was an action adventure brawler about finding fallen angels.

There is some good that comes from this, the first of which is that The Lost Child stands on its own merits and delivers a strong JRPG that is hard to put down.

The Lost Child tells the story of Hayato Ibuki, a journalist for an occult magazine. After investigating a rumour about a supernatural occurrence in the subway tunnels, he is saved from being hit by a train by a mysterious woman who hands him an equally mysterious case.

Hayato is then visited by Lua who claims she’s an Angel sent from Heaven to guide The Chosen One in order to defeat the demons infecting the world. Equipped with a gun-like relic called the Gangour, Lua teaches Hayato how to capture and control demons. Lua and Hayato go on a quest to find Lua’s missing sister and solve some of the supernatural phenomenons happening around Tokyo.
 
Out of the gate, The Lost Child has a very similar feeling to the Shin Megami Tensei series as you go through dungeons, fight demons, and eventually collect them like Pokemon and have them fight for you. This is all done though the Gangour, which is powered up in battle and then used to unleash a capture stream that will add the Astral – the game’s term for demons, fallen angels and other creatures – to your party.

Overall, The Lost Child is a classic Dungeon Crawling adventure. Players explore Layers, the game’s term for dungeons, in first person view and must solve puzzles and battle monsters. The Layers are generally well laided out and it never feels annoying to deal with, while battles and monsters hits the perfect difficulty curve.

Battles usually consists of Lua and Hayato along with three controlled Astrals as they attempt to defeat or capture other astrals. In battle, players can charge up the Gangour to increase the chance of capturing the Astral and upon using it on Hayato’s turn, uses the extra power of the Astrals in the attack. While Hayato and Lua are the only ones can level up by collecting EXP from battles, Hayato is able to assign karma to Astrals to level them up manually.

If there is one thing that I adore about games like The Lost Child, it is the art style, and the monster design for this game is top-notch. All the Astrals feel like they’ve been given a lovecraftian design (which makes sense when you play the game further) and really gives a horrific look to them.

One complaint that I do have about the game is its investigation gameplay in which Hayato navigates Tokyo looking for hints and clues to the supernatural events around him. This out of Dungeon Crawling gameplay is a bit of a bore it doesn’t do much to progress the game.

Players gain a memo from the office of their magazine, talk to witnesses which usually give no helpful information and then Lua chimes up with a Layer in the area. In a time where JRPG’s give you a lot to work with outside of dungeons, it was kind of let down that the investigation portion of the game had nothing to it.

While it may be a follow-up to El Shaddai, new comers to the series shouldn’t be afraid of missing anything directly as The Lost Child holds its own without adding any confusion of missing elements from the previous game. If you’re looking for a dungeon crawler to enjoy on The Switch or add to your collection on PSVita, The Lost Child is definitely one I recommend to check out.

“From the Wolf to the Bear, the clans declare that it is time to take throne.” This quick poem sets in motion League of Geek’s digital board game of backstabbing, demons, curses, spells and anthropomorphic animals – Armello. Where 4 clans of heroes, the Wolf, the Bear, the Rat and the Rabbit, must fight for the throne against a king suffering from a curse known as the Rot.

Armello is an easy to learn yet difficult to master style of game that draws you in with its visuals and keeps you going with its lore. Originally released on PC and the Playstation 4 in 2015, the team at LoG have worked hard to bring the game everywhere else and finally delivering it on the Nintendo Switch.

As a digital board game, the game is already set up for you to just start enjoying. Players choose from 8 different heroes (or more if you purchase the DLC or Complete editions) from 4 different clans, the Wolf, the Bear, the Rat, and the Rabbit, each with their own stats and dedicated skill which can help them change the tide of the game. Each player has the same goal – defeat the corrupted king and take over the throne.

The king is extremely powerful and won’t go down easily, so there are some options to win the game – by taking on the King one-on-one, by collecting Soul Stones to purify the Rot curse, by collecting more Prestige than the other players by the time the king’s health reaches zero, and by collecting more rot than the King.

Like any good board game, the base rules of Armello is simple – players move accordance to action points which are modified by the tiles they move to, mountains take 2 points while rotted lands removes 1 health, shrines restores 1 health, ruins starts a small game of chance, and cities are conquered to give you additional money every turn. Of course, there are other players, and computer controlled threats such as the King’s guards and Rot carrying Banes, that will stand in your way. When this happens, you’re set to roll a set dice in correspondence to your strength, which advises how many times your aggressive and defensive moves are. Players that have their health drop to zero, are sent to home base – with the winner of the fight gaining a prestige point.

Then comes the more complicated feature, the cards. Each players comes with 4 cards which represent Inventory, Spells and Traps, all of which can be used to improve your stats or hinder your opponents. These cards can be used during battles as well where they can be sacrificed along with a die to ensure one of your dice roll is set.

When it comes to the Switch version of Armello, the game feels perfect like a perfect fit and is fully optimized for hybrid console to the point that I believe that this might be the best version available on consoles. The game looks and plays great when the console is docked but it works even better when the game is portable, something about being able to take this anywhere you want is a big plus.
The game runs very smoothly with only minimal loading lag as the game a new turn. I like to think this is thanks to the game’s major art focus being the battle cutscenes and their amazingly drawn cards leaving the heavier 3D works in the characters and board to a minimal, which works for the game’s style. The music also delivers promises of high fantasy and tension as players play their turns and fight their battles, all thanks to a beautifully done orchestral score.

Armello is the perfect blend of those who enjoy high fantasy story lines like Game of Thrones – or more accurately in the case of Armello’s animal heroes, Redwall – but wanted a more personalized version of Risk where your quest for domination is based on your skill, strategy and build. The portability and the ease of access of the Switch version makes it the best way to play the game.

The Metal Saga is a series that you might be familiar with, considering that the game was only released in Japan with exception of Metal Saga (Metal Max 4) on the Playstation 2, the series has actually has a long series spanning 25 years. The latest – Metal Max Xeno – marks a come back for the series and brings it to a new audience.

Metal Max Xeno is set in a world that feels like a cross between Mad Max and The Terminator. Set in a world where an artificial intelligence name NOA began its attack on mankind some time in 2030. By 2090, mankind has been almost entirely killed off by giant metal monsters called “Sons of NOA” or “SoNS”.

The Players take control of Talis, a young refugee turned Monster Hunter when his camp was destroyed by the SoNS. With the need for revenge, Talis stumbles upon a Tank, one of the great weapons that Monster Hunters use to take down the SoNS, and finds his way to the last human refuge, the Iron Base. After Talis makes his new home the Iron Base, he attempts to search for survivors while taking on deadly monsters that now inhabit the wasteland that was once Tokyo.

While Metal Max isn’t going to win awards for its direct story of a boy out for revenge against the NOA, there is something about its world that is captivating. It feels almost like a love child of Mad Max meets the Terminator with a cast of interesting characters, but it also doesn’t really bring to many new ideas to the table.

Metal Max Xeno plays out like a traditional Turn-Based RPG. As Talis, players use their tanks to roll around the wasteland and search for monsters to hunt and find survivors, doing so decreases the percentage of humanity’s chances of survival. There are multiple tanks available to find in the wasteland that can hold various type of weapons and parts that can be brought at the Iron Base or salvaged in the wastelands.

But riding in a tank isn’t the only way to explore, players can take chances on foot to deactivate traps, find treasure or explore ruins and dungeons. The biggest problem here is that humans are squishy and are easy prey for the various monsters out in the wasteland, making moments then the tank is destroyed due to HP/Shields dropping to 0 or exploring ruins tense moments.

One of the better aspects about the game is the customization of the tanks.
Each tank can equip various weapons and parts to increase its power and load out. These includes various cannons, guns and special weapons, all of which (along with the tank itself) can be customized to in a variety of colours to allow you to really express your tank as your own.

However, in battle these parts can also suffer damage making them useless in battle, other weapons also have a set amount of ammo requiring you to choose your fights wisely, after all, nothing is worst then getting in a fight with a warship made out of a Brontosaurus with no cannons available because you took pot-shots at a group of giant ants.

Sadly there isn’t much to say about the visuals as most of the environment consists of ruins and a lot of sand, however the monsters (both organic and machine) are pretty unique while the character design by Hentai Artist Non Oda are well done. The same can also be said for the music, while the tunes fit perfectly in for the world, there wasn’t any catchy tunes that stayed with me.

While I enjoyed my time with Metal Max Xeno, I found myself rather conflicted about how memorable the game was by the end of it. It was almost as if Metal Max Xeno was playing it a bit too safe and didn’t bring anything really new to the table, but still provided an interesting story, a fun Turn-Based Battle system, and enjoyable characters that it deserves a playthrough.

So, here's the deal: I'm not a huge CoD nerd, but I play it from time to time. And it just so happens, that Black Ops 4 got me hooked so hard, that all the way back on the beta I got to max level on console, and was halfway through on PC. And the fun thing is - I'm not even sure that BO4 itself is the sole reason for that.

BO4 came out at the perfect moment for me - I got tired of team/hero-based shooters, and I wasn't enjoying Destiny 2's PvP anymore, so I basically had no PvP shooter to play, and out of nowhere - BO4 beta came, and it just felt so nice!
The thing about CoD is that it's kinda stuck in time, and that's not really a bad thing. The core gameplay is still that visceral non-stop action, with instant respawns and immediate feedback to your success. It is also a series where a single person's skill can carry the whole game, which is hard to come by in team-oriented games these days.

All of that combined kinda works great in 2018 if you just want to run around and shoot people in the face, not worrying about anything.
If you dive a bit deeper - you'll find that it's one of the nicer iterations of the sandbox as well. It's not a Jetpack Hell from Black Ops 3 (not that I had an issue with it personally, but people didn't seem to like it that much), and it's not too old-school, like WWII was. The specialist choice now actually matters and that brings a bit of the "hero-shooter" feel to the age-old setup, which is a nice touch.
And on top of it all - you have Blackout, a Battle Royale mode which people seem to enjoy (not really my thing), and an amazing iteration of Zombies.

So yeah. If you like shooters, got a bit tired of your team not pushing that damn payload, and just want to vent-out while grinding some sweet skins - BO4 is the perfect game for that so far. Been playing for like 20-30 hours already, and plan to keep on doing just that.