Fantasian: Neo Dimension

A game met with much anticipation as it's been hinted to be their final game project, Fantasian sees Hironobu Sakaguchi return to write and produce and Nobuo Uematsu to compose the soundtrack.  But does it serve as a high note to go out on for two legendary names of the industry, or does this final fantasy just not bring the magic?

Mistwalker of course was founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi after his departure from Square Enix in 2003, and while they did produce a few decently-received games for the XBox 360 and Wii, they hadn't really done a high-profile release since 2011, mostly relegating their output to lower-stakes mobile releases.  Fantasian seemed to mark a return to form as a narrative-driven cinematic RPG reminiscent of the old Final Fantasy games, and despite being exclusive to Apple Arcade managed to amass a decent following - enough for Square Enix themselves to codevelop a port with Arzest and give it a wider release on consoles, in effect bringing Sakaguchi and Uematsu's careers full-circle.

Fantasian was also a unique turn for Mistwalker in many respects.  The game was developed in Unity, and rather than simply using CGI backgrounds they actually built dioramas and digitized photos of them for the game, giving them a more realistic yet slightly surreal touch compared to the Playstation-era Final Fantasies.  That said all the characters in the game are still CGI models, so there is a definite and slightly awkward contrast there.  The Neo Dimension port adds voiceover in both English and Japanese, and it's well done in spite of the often-clunky dialog.  The game also invokes Lost Odyssey's Memories with its amnesiac protagonist and frequent flashback scenes told in a sparse, very wordy style with scrolling text effects and voiceover, which are easily the best part of the storytelling.

In terms of design it's a fairly streamlined turn-based RPG experience, with turn-based combat, a small handful of abilities per character, and items to inflict one-off elemental damage or restore HP or MP.  A bit like Chrono Trigger is the fact that most abilities have given ranges - a radius around the cursor or a straight line - and will hit any enemies in their path.  Spells can be angled into curved shots to hit multiple enemies - a useful tactic in many battles, and particularly battles with dozens of enemies.  Exploration is also fairly standard fare, having you wander through the labyrinthine environments in search of hidden treasures, which are often locked behind chests that require specific types of single-use keys.  The sudden camera shifts, paired with the fact you keep moving in the same direction after one unless you completely take your thumb off the stick and then move again, can get a bit jarring, but there is a convenient minimap in the menu to prevent it from becoming disorienting.

Yes, dozens.  There are frequent battles where you'll fight many enemies at once.  Sometimes these are boss battles, but more often they tie into another mechanic called the Dimengion Machine.  Essentially, what this does is store up to 30 (later 40 or 50) enemies you'd normally fight in random encounters, which you can then fight in one big marathon at any time you choose; typically about 10 will be on the field at time, with enemies replacing defeated ones until you've cleared them all.  They do go surprisingly quickly with line and area-clearing skills, though, and one can even tag small crystals that appear on the field with their attacks to get temporary buffs or bonus turns.

The game is fairly basic (and very linear) for its first half, but jarringly adds many new mechanics in the second.  Suddenly you have skill points to unlock character-specific ability trees, not unlike Final Fantasy XII's license boards or Dragon Quest XI's skill panels, equipment crafting, a tension meter as a new combat mechanic that operates somewhat like a Limit Break, and the ability to swap characters mid-battle a la Final Fantasy X.  My guess is that the first half of the game (initially released standalone on Apple Arcade) was criticized for its basic design, so they added many new mechanics to the second half in an attempt to punch it up.  It would have been nice to see them be integrated a bit more smoothly into the Neo Dimension port, but they opted to keep it as originally presented.  But worse than that is that the pacing takes a nosedive, with enemies barely giving a pittance of XP and the player having to slog through fights with 40+ enemies on a frequent basis owing to the absurd encounter rate.

Fantasian, for both good and ill, resembles an early '90s era Final Fantasy game more than any other Mistwalker effort I've played - it's got a familiar but enjoyable (to a point) gameplay loop, an archetypal story with a lot of goofy dialog and contrived plot points, a visual style that blends 2D and 3D elements reminiscent of the early PS1 era, and relatively brisk pacing with enough mechanical intricacies to keep you interested for the entirety of its ~40 hour runtime.  It doesn't hold a candle to the best of the Final Fantasy games, but it is much better than Mistwalker's previous overproduced and poorly-paced fare and frequently invokes the crisp, satisfying design that made the Final Fantasy franchise a classic to begin with; something so many other lame copycats have tried and repeatedly failed to do.  I should probably mention as well that I always felt Sakaguchi role in making FF such a legendary series was heavily overstated; yes he pitched the first game, wrote the scenarios of many of its classic entries and even directed the first five, but he was never its sole creative force; he'd always worked alongside several other writers and designers to flesh out their ideas and have them meld together in a satisfying way.  VI, VII and IX - easily the most popular Final Fantasies where he served creatively - were all especially large collaborative projects, and while he was their scenario writer and producer, other big names at Square like Masato Kato, Yoshinori Kitase, Takashi Tokita, Hirohiko Ito, Tetsuya Takahashi, Tetsuya Nomura and of course Nobuo Uematsu also played major roles in giving them their identities.  Sakaguchi can certainly make a project come together, but without all those other big talents there to help putty up the cracks, the shortcomings in his writing and design become all the more prominent; they've only become more obvious with the rise of so many other other fantastic players in the field since his heyday too. Fantasian has some hints of old Final Fantasy's ingenuity, but they're sandwiched between a lot of baffling design decisions and some really bad character dialog and plot points.  As a possible capstone to two legendary gaming careers, it's better than Sakaguchi's last couple efforts, but still leaves much to be desired.

 

Developer: Mistwalker, Console ports by Square Enix/Arzest

Publisher: Mistwalker, Console ports by Square Enix

Released: 2021, 2024

Platforms: iOS, macOS, tvOS, Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, XBox Series

Recommended Version:  Neo Fantasian, in addition to the upgraded presentation, adds many balance tweaks, a difficulty select and the option to utilize the battle themes from numerous Final Fantasy titles.

Lost Judgment

The second game in the Judgment series sees Yagami and his allies return for another complex crime drama story, this time taking place largely in Ijincho.  But does it keep the faith of the Yakuza format in fine fashion, or is this one judgment that should just be lost itself?

The second game in the Judgment offshoot series from the larger Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise, Lost Judgment once again stars Yagami, Kaito and several allies returning from the last game.  This time they're out to untangle another complex mystery involving several seemingly unconnected elements - a school with a serious bullying problem, a police officer arrested for groping, and a man found dead in an abandoned building in Ijincho.  Per Yakuza standards the story only gets more complex as it goes, though it never introduces any severely outlandish elements (unlike some of the mainline games) and ultimately remains credible and relatable.

As in the last game, Yagami is a more versatile fighter than most in the series.  He retains his two fighting styles from the previous game - Crane for a faster style with sweeping attacks (better suited to fending off groups of enemies) and Tiger (a harder-hitting style better suited for single combat), and additionally picks up two more.  One is the Snake style, based on counterattacking and disarming armed enemies (based on aikido), and the other is Boxer style, based around evasive footwork and heavy strikes. The latter is available during one of the game's many minigames, although if you purchase the School Stories DLC you can also use it during normal battles.

Being a more detective-oriented experience, the gameplay works in some related elements.  Yagami gets the aid of a directional listening device, a bug sweeper and a detective dog during various missions, which adds a little more variety to the proceedings than just walking to the next waypoint and seeing another cutscene.  Stealth and parkour segments also come into play periodically - while not particularly deep, they're also never overly long or irritating, so they're a decent if not amazing addition.  One also gets a skateboard to get around town faster than on foot, which lends itself to a couple of minigames, as well as being able to collect icons for points to trade in for various prizes.

Per series standards, there are numerous side-stories to do in Lost Judgment, with many having little bearing on the overarching story but providing a bit of levity in an otherwise fairly serious-minded game.  As much of the action takes place around a high school, though, many can also be considered an extension of the overall story, having Yagami get involved with various school clubs that all have their own subplots to untangle and minigames to complete.  Doing so of course also earns you plenty of SP and bonus items to utilize, further incentivizing their completion.  on top of that, the series' usual plethora of minigames return - mahjong, shogi, poker, blackjack, arcade games, etc.  Yagami even gets a Sega Master System in his office (oddly a western model rather than the Japanese Sega Mark III) and can play a handful of classic titles for it, with four more available if you purchase the Detective Essentials DLC.

Speaking of DLC, it's probably the best-handled DLC the series has yet had.  In addition to the story-based expansion The Kaito Files (starring Yagami's long-time ally), there are two more - the Detective Essentials pack adds a number of extras to many of the game's side missions, including new Extracts (strong temporary powerups), side stories, a new skateboard and drone frame, and a new super boss to fight at the end of the Gauntlet.  The School Stories pack, as the name implies, adds more content to each of the game's school-based minigames and side stories, including the aforementioned Boxing style becoming available outside of its school club.  Basically, while you may not want every single thing they give, they provide enough variety in each pack to make them worth a purchase overall (and aren't just lame costumes or similarly superfluous things).

So, while Lost Judgment doesn't change up the formula of the Yakuza series overly much, it does end up being one of its better entries in many respects.  With a strong and relatable story, a web of complex characters and interactions to experience that still ultimately remains grounded and human, and probably the most polished take on real-time beat-em-up styled combat the series has had to date, it's a quality game in most every respect.  And of course, it has no shortage of content to complete for die-hard series fans and completionists, with enough there to last you well over 100 hours of playtime if you want to do it all.  If you're completely worn out on Yakuza by this point this one may not do a lot to change your mind, but if the series continues to have you hooked, it's one you'll definitely be well-served by playing.

Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Publisher: Sega
Released: 2021, 2022
Platforms: Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series, Amazon Luna, PC

Recommended Version: All versions seem to be identical as far as I can tell.

FUGA: Melodies of Steel

FUGA: Melodies of Steel marked the beginning of a turn for Cyberconnect2, intending to shift focus to original IPs after a decades-long run of mostly making licensed titles.  But does this gamble end up paying off for them, or was this a misstep for a long-profitable company?

CyberConnect2 is a name I mostly associate with janky action titles and mediocre licensed games based on popular anime franchises, and a quick look at their page on Mobygames confirms they've had very little in the way of successful original IPs.  I vaguely remember seeing the cutesy action game Tail Concerto in a few game magazines in the '90s, but never really played it.  I did try Asura's Wrath on the Playstation 3 many years later, but like most who did, found it underwhelming; while it has undeniable energy and some jaw-dropping visuals, its very clunky combat, heavy emphasis on QTEs and having the true ending launched separately as paid DLC left a pretty sour taste.  Indeed, it also met with very lackluster sales on both PS3 and XBox 360, which quickly shut down any plans for a sequel or followup.

FUGA was one I overlooked for that reason, but upon seeing some positive coverage for it on social media (and it being discounted on Switch at the time), I decided to give it a chance.  Technically it is set in the same universe as Tail Concerto and a few other games they've made, but the gameplay couldn't be more different.  In fact, after only a short while of playing I began to describe it as "Banner Saga done better", as like that game, it combines turn-based combat, roguelike elements and an overall heavy mood that makes every choice you encounter carry more weight.  Granted, the choices you face aren't as ambiguously-framed as Banner Saga's, but you still have to put a lot of thought into what actions you take at each juncture, especially as FUGA utilizes an auto-save feature and you can't simply roll back mistakes without restarting the entire game.

The overall setup is a surprisingly grim one too in spite of its cute aesthetic.  You follow a group of children whose parents were abducted by the fascist Berman Empire, who begin to fight back after discovering a massive tank known as the Taranis - a powerful tool of war in itself, but which also contains a weapon called the "Soul Cannon" that can instantly destroy anything in its path at the cost of a crew member's life.  Gameplay mostly consists of a linear progression as the crew searches for their parents, getting into occasional battles as well as finding powerups or materials.  On occasion you'll encounter branching paths with varying degrees of danger involved - the tougher ones will often give greater rewards, but the battles along them are considerably more dangerous too and can potentially leave you in a bad state, so you have to weigh whether its worth the gamble.

Combat is a pretty straightforward turn-based affair, though it has a slight similarity to Grandia in that some attacks can delay enemy turns or leave them stunned, causing a potentially deadly attack to be delayed or canceled entirely.  At any given time you control up to three weapons, each manned by up to two characters - one will man their respective weapon, while a second character aiding them grants an innate bonus - a boost to attack power, healing a small amount of HP during an attack, having a higher chance to get a critical hit, and so forth.  Characters (and their respective weapons) can also be swapped around at any time if you need to adapt your strategy, though after a switch you won't be able to switch again until three turns have passed.  Weapons come in three basic forms - machine guns do low damage but have good accuracy (especially against evasive flying units) and focus on supporting allies or stripping enemy armor; cannons are the opposite, inaccurate but powerful; and grenade launchers have a balance of both stats and special abilities that focus on inflicting status effects on enemies.

Managing your team loadout is also a major component of battle strategy.  As fights drag on, characters can be come Depressed, which stops them from using skills and Link Attacks, Injured, or KOed, which renders them unable to fight until they recover.  The odds of these being inflicted on characters goes up as your tank's HP decreases; however, being at low HP also causes a character's mood to become heightened, which gives them a greater chance of entering "Hero Mode" - a state that boosts their abilities for their next five turns.  These vary from character to character, but all are quite powerful - doubling healing effects, guaranteed critical hits, increasing that character's speed, and so forth, which can help turn a nasty situation around.  Link Attacks operate somewhat like Limit Breaks, allowing a powerful one-use ability to be used by two characters that have their Affinity maxed.  Like Hero mode, these are all different from character to character, but are often powerful and offensive in nature - delaying turns, adding status effects, or just adding extra damage.  Using these mechanics to your advantage, as well as winning battles efficiently (in relatively few turns and with minimal damage) all contribute to your battle ranking and grant a boost to your earned experience.

FUGA, like many modern RPGs, also takes cues from the character interaction and life-sim elements seen in games like Fire Emblem and Persona, and manages to put its own spin on the idea too.  As you travel you'll occasionally have periods of free time, during which you can take control of any of the children aboard the Taranis and venture around, partaking of side-activities to earn items, build bonds with characters or even partake of some light side-missions.  There are quite a lot of them, too - simply talking to characters is a straightforward way to cure depression and build bonds between characters (which also enable Link Attacks in battle), but there's plenty of others too.  Resting consumes a large amount of time but cures injuries, you can "fish" off the back of the tank to recover scrap items, which in turn can be used to upgrade your weapons.  There's a farm on the lower levels that can yield ingredients for meals, which grant a temporary stat boost to your team, and you can even do a bit of dungeon crawling to find useful items.  Each rest period also has all the characters present make "wishes" which, if you spend the time to grant them, will give their mood a big boost and enable them to use Hero Mode in battles for that chapter.  Like a good Persona or Fire Emblem, it's a very clever way to flesh out the characters and make them more effective in combat at the same time, and FUGA executes it very well, even better than its inspirations in some ways.

All told, I'm impressed with Cyberconnect2's efforts on FUGA.  It draws obvious inspiration from Banner Saga's progression and high-stakes storytelling that makes every choice you encounter feel weighty, Persona's character development tying into combat performance, and just about every grimdark war drama under the sun, but it surprisingly succeeds on every front, making for an experience with compelling gameplay and a quite dark story even in spite of its cute aesthetic.  However, they've also hinted that it may not have been the best idea on their part to undertake a game like this; with a development budget of over 327 million yen (roughly 2.4 million USD) and a relatively high asking price of $40 for the base version of a digital-only game, it remains to be seen whether the game will turn a profit.  Indeed, Cyberconnect2 has hinted on their Twitter account that the reason they began self-publishing was so they could make games like this, without a big-name publisher looming over them and compromising their vision in search of profitability.  I certainly hope that FUGA pays off for them, though, as it's a wonderful experience that could easily mark the beginnings of a great franchise.  Even if it doesn't make them money, though, they've announced FUGA 2 and 3 are already in development, so it looks like they're going to stay the course regardless.

Developer: Cyberconnect2
Publisher: Cyberconnect2
Platform: PC, Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, XBox One, XBox Series
Released: 2021
Recommended Version:  All versions seem to be mostly identical.

The game's DLC is mostly cosmetic, mostly consisting of costume packs for the characters.  There is also a "Digital Deluxe Edition" available as a straight purchase or upgrade over the base game; this gives another costume set, as well as a digital art book and soundtrack, some free items and a "Dummy Soul" that lets you use the Soul Cannon once without having to lose a character.

Shin Megami Tensei V

After a number of spinoffs, side-games and remasters of varying quality, Shin Megami Tensei V marked a return for the mainline franchise, going back to its dungeon crawling, demon-recruiting roots.  But does Shin Megami Tensei's fifth numbered entry capture what made the series great to begin with, or is this just another gimmicky, overdone flop?

Atlus is a company with a long history and a definite place in RPG fandom.  Fittingly, Shin Megami Tensei is a series with appeal for fans of tech-heads with its focus on high difficulty and character management, but it also has enough spinoffs and side-games to make it appeal to almost any type of RPG fan.  Whether for those who enjoy action games with a slight RPG bent (Raidou Kuzunoha), school-life/dating sims mixed in with the dungeon crawling element (Persona) or even turn-based tactical combat (Devil Survivor).  Even within each of those branches they've experimented quite a bit, though for a while I felt they had a lot more misses than hits; whether due to overreliance on DLC and having to purchase features that came standard in earlier games (SMTIV), a premise that mostly just grated on me (Persona 5) or just generally mediocre design (Tokyo Mirage Sessions).

So, Shin Megami Tensei V became the first game in the series I picked up in nearly seven years, hoping that Atlus had finally gotten their game together and not just turned into another soulless shlock factory after being bought out by Sega as I'd long feared.  Within only minutes of starting it's clear that V is trying very hard to run things back to their early games - the overworld uses the same pegs-on-a-map art style as the Super Famicom games, and it wastes little time jumping right into the dungeon crawling experience - in fact, right after the intro (and some tutorials) end, it's almost all business.  You're in an enormous 'dungeon', surrounded by demons, managing scarce resources and forging alliances with demons through negotiation to give yourself a chance to survive.

In terms of design, SMTV mostly draws from Nocturne, working in a few elements from Persona and SMTIV (though fortunately, none of the terrible ones that drove me away from that game).  Heavy focus is placed on elemental strengths and weaknesses, and the Press Turn system returns once again - basically, you get one turn pip for each character in your party (up to four), and getting a critical hit or striking a weakness turns it into a flashing pip, which effectively grants another action before your turn ends.  Using this to your advantage, you can effectively get up to double the amount of actions per turn by making good use of elemental spells and/or attack items.  However, the opposite is also true - missing an attack or having it blocked costs you a pip in addition to the one you would have normally spent, and an attack being absorbed or reflected causes you to lose ALL of your remaining pips, ending your turn immediately.  Enemies can also just as easily exploit Press Turns by hitting your allies' weak points or getting criticals, which can quickly turn the fight in their favor if you come unprepared.  Having the right team setup for whatever area you're going into, as well as whatever bosses you're facing, is essential to victory.

You can do some things to offset glaring weak points in your team, though.  The aforementioned items are one - you can use them to block attacks of a particular element or exploit an enemy's weakness, though as they're relatively tough to come by in the field and expensive to purchase, this option is best used sparingly.  Another option is blocking, borrowed from Persona 4 - this uses a full turn pip, but puts one of your characters into a defensive stance, letting them withstand one attack without it counting as hitting their weak point; you'll still take damage from it, of course, but it's a better option than giving your enemy more turns to wreak havoc with.  Managing one's turns efficiently helps greatly too - if a demon's going to be a liability in a fight, it's often a good idea to switch in one without their particular weaknesses, even at the cost of a turn pip and maybe bringing in a weaker monster.  It's a good idea to never let enemies get the jump on you - landing the first strike before the fight even starts (borrowed from IV, as well as the Persona games) will give you a much better chance of getting a free turn, or at the very least, starting the fight on even footing with your opponent.  And of course, if all else fails, there's no shame in running - better to cut your losses and survive than to risk losing a big chunk of progress.  The game also helpfully shows a percentage chance of your team successfully running from the fight you're in - something I wish more RPGs would do!  Encounters are also visible on the map as in SMTIV, giving you a chance to avoid them if you don't wish to fight at that time.

Something else that can help turn the tide in a fight is Magatsuhi - a plot point in Nocturne, but here it also plays a role as an in-game mechanic, somewhat similar to limit breaks from Final Fantasy or the Pep Skills from Dragon Quest XI.  As you make your way through battles, you'll see a meter labeled "Magatsuhi" on the screen gradually fill; once it does, you can spend it to perform many different effects.  The one you start with and keep throughout the game is "Omagatoki: Critical", which turns every hit made that turn into a critical strike, letting you dish out heavy damage.  Others, unlocked later and often tied to a specific Demon's race, include buffing up the party for a turn, earning extra Experience and Macca from that battle, making all attacks Pierce (ignore defenses) for a turn, or even restoring some MP to the entire party.  Demons can likewise use Magatsuhi buffs, though, so it's best to end the fight quickly (or prepare to defend against a heavy onslaught) when they're about to use one.

As in most SMT games, there is a heavy focus on resource management in this one.  Item drops from battle are somewhat uncommon, enemies give fairly little macha (Cash) as well, and healing is quite expensive (charged by the point), so even staying topped up is a bit of a struggle.  Your main source of income this time are Relics - otherwise-useless items generally found by searching vending machines.  They also seem to replenish themselves after a time, so it's often worth it to fast-travel around the maps and search all the vending machines again if you need some quick cash.  Items can of course be used to heal or attack, but their main use is in demon negotiations - talking to various monsters mid-fight and trying to convince them to join you; often requiring that you answer questions correctly and pay them money, items or some of your HP or MP first.  Demons themselves can level up in battle and even earn some new skills, but they rarely gain much beyond their first few levels other than some minute stat boosts.  So once a demon starts to fall behind, it's best to make use of another iconic series mechanic, demon fusion - combining two or more demons together into a new powerful form, carrying over some of their attributes and abilities to a fused, say, Angel is much more useful than one you could just recruit in the wild.

A new strategic bent here is Skill Potentials - how well-attuned a demon is to a particular element.  Those attuned to it will get a bonus to any spells of that element (shown with a +1/+2/etc. by the spell name), while those who are attuned against it will similarly get penalties (with a minus sign before it); you can still learn those spells and cast them without issue, but they'll be significantly weaker than normal.  These can be improved on the protagonist by purchasing Miracles, while on demons they are largely fixed; however, one can also acquire rare items called Sutras that will improve a Potential by one tier, up to a maximum of +9.

Another new one is Essences - items that work on a similar principle to demon fusions, letting you take the 'essence' of a demon and apply it to another, earning some skills or, for the protagonist, adopting their elemental strengths and weaknesses for himself.  You can pick and choose whatever skills you like from these, but elemental strengths and weaknesses are a package deal, so once again, consider carefully before you use one in this manner.

Some more distinctly "JRPG-ish" elements show through too.  One that caught my eye right away was a game-spanning collectible sidequest in the form of Mimans; somewhat similar to the Tiny Medals from the Dragon Quest series, collecting enough of these and returning to the in-game shop will earn you free items, many of which are difficult to come by otherwise.  A pretty clever, if somewhat cheesy, way to encourage the player to search every nook and cranny for goodies.  Finding Mimans earns you a small bit of Glory - a currency you can spend at the Dark temple to unlock Miracles, which give you all sorts of useful bonuses and new abilities - more Magatsuhi gains, slow HP/MP regeneration when the Magatsuhi meter is full, gaining stat bonuses on fused demons, more skill slots on your protagonist and his demons, and Potential boosts, to name just a few.  Glory is a fairly scarce resource to come by (otherwise mostly just found in limited quantities from scattered containers throughout the game), but you can also farm it by by defeating rare, fleeing-prone enemies called "Nigi Mitamas" with randomized weaknesses; not dissimilar to Metal Slimes and similar monsters in many JRPGs.  There is also an optional DLC that causes Mitamas to spawn much more frequently, to the point where it's basically pay-to-win DLC; I'd highly recommend skipping that if you don't want to make a complete mockery of the entire gameplay loop.

SMTV also looks and sounds quite good, though I felt a bit more polish could have been dedicated to it in this regard.  Graphically it's very clean, sharp and stylish per series standards, though the game's framerate does dip a quite bit at times; particularly in wide-open areas with a lot of monsters around or during some of the flashier screen transitions and spell effects.  The audio mixing is also a bit off - voices and sound effects seem excessively loud by default - though you can tweak every aspect of this to your comfort level.  It also made my Switch run quite hot - the fan was blasting almost the entire time I played - so I ended up taking a break every couple hours or so hoping it wouldn't damage my system.

So, with Shin Megami Tensei V, has the series finally come around full-circle and become good again?  In terms of core gameplay it definitely has; it's a quintessential return for the core SMT franchise, with a fairly minimal story but heavy focus on dungeon crawling and party management, and mechanically, it's polished and fun to play.  The punishing difficulty of the early games is there if you want it, but there's also an easier option for more casual players (and an even easier "Safety Difficulty" available as free DLC for newcomers).  The lousy design choices in 4 have almost all been cast out, through the crappy DLC model that's plagued them since the Sega buyout remains in full force.  The serious performance issues on the Switch are also a detriment, with the choppy framerate and seemingly unoptimized design causing my systems' fan to run full-blast at all times made me fearful it would damage my system.  Maybe if there's a later updated version that optimizes it (or gets released on a more powerful platform) I'd say pick it up, but as it stands it's a game I like in many respects but can't quite recommend.

My review of this game's followup version, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Atlus, Sega, Nintendo
Platform: Switch
Released: 2021
Recommended Version:  N/A

Dark Deity

 Dark Deity makes no secret of its inspirations, with even its Kickstarter campaign page admitting that it's directly inspired by Fire Emblem and strives to copy its gameplay and aesthetics.  But as I've said on many occasions, a blatant copycat is no bad thing so long as it's well-made. Dark Deity mimics its inspirations surprisingly well, with fluidly animated combat sprites, a complex and well-written narrative (even retaining Fire Emblem's signature one-on-one character interactions) and grid-based combat that emphasizes individual skills and carefully moving your units ahead as a group so that enemies don't single out characters and pick them off.  It does diverge in a few ways, though - weapons don't wear down with use and characters wield four apiece throughout the whole game, each emphasizing different stats and enemy weaknesses, and all can be upgraded with tokens earned in battle.  The "weapon triangle" is a bit more complex, factoring in not just what weapon types both characters are using, but the armor they wear as well.  Permadeath isn't in the game, but a character who falls in battle will suffer a permanent penalty to one of their stats, letting the player decide whether it's worth it to keep going with the penalty or restart the battle to try again.  It does suffer from a few annoying technical issues, with prominent lag in some menus and scene changes and switching over to mouse/keyboard control if you so much as move your cursor slightly on the PC version, not always swapping back when you press a button on a gamepad.  But even with a few hiccups, Dark Deity is a very solid effort that fans of tactical RPGs with a focus on characters and storytelling should enjoy.

Developer: Sword and Axe LLC

Publisher: Freedom Games

Released: 2021

Platforms: PC.  Ports are also planned for Switch, Xbox and Playstation, though they have not been released yet as of this writing.

Actraiser Renaissance

Billed as a remaster of the SNES cult classic, Renaissance is actually more of a full-blown remake, adding numerous new mechanics, a redone soundtrack (with Yuzo Koshiro returning to update all the tracks) and a visual style oddly reminiscent of an early PS1 or Sega Saturn game - CGI models turned into sprites are the pervading graphical element here.  The sidescrolling action stages give you slightly more of a moveset to utilize (tip: your down-slash gives you a crazy amount of invincibility frames), while the city building is much more goal-driven, giving you numerous milestones to hit and occasionally having you defend your settlements in a minigame that feels like a cross between a tower defense game and a real-time strategy.  You set down forts and barricades to slow enemies while moving around hero units to engage them, and when things get too dicey you can also utilize your god-powers (formerly just used to clear terrain for your cities to expand) to deal damage and slow down enemies.  It does have a few strange technical issues - I saw an awful lot of screen-tearing on the PC version, and turning on Vertical Sync in the options didn't seem to fix it; however, turning the framerate setting to Unlimited did.  But even with those, it's a pretty solid update of a well-regarded SNES title, and worth a play for old and new fans alike.

Developer: Square Enix/Sonic Powered

Publisher: Square Enix

Released: 2021

Platform: Steam, Playstation 4, Switch, iOS, Android

Wildermyth

A game which combines turn-based tactical combat, resource gathering and character building a la XCOM and even has procedurally generated characters and story points, leading to a unique tale and ongoing world-building each time you play it.  But does Wildermyth actually succeed where several games before it have failed, or does it just fall prey to the fate so many procedurally-generated adventures do and start to feel lifeless and stale after a while?

2021's Wildermyth promises a lot - a game that manages to have not just a heavy focus on character building and tactical combat, but procedurally generated characters and story beats too, as well as choices actually affecting the way things play out.  I was certainly skeptical upon hearing that - a lot of other games with such quests (ie Daggerfall) just begin to feel very samey after a time, with quests just feeling like stiff Mad Libs (go to Dungeon X to get Y and return within Z days) and characters failing to be memorable on any level for the same reason.  Not to mention the common problem many such games face - detailing out one intricate story path is a costly endeavor, let alone several, so you usually just get one story that remains 95% the same save for changing a few lines of dialog.

So I was actually surprised that Wildermyth manages to pull off what it sets out to do, and doesn't fall prey to feeling like a stiff fill-in-the-blank.  Characters actually feel well-realized and interact in realistic ways, developing rivalries or romances (sometimes depending upon your choices) and their dialog changes accordingly, always feeling surprisingly natural as it does.  Story points are randomized to an equal degree, but are written just as well, affording opportunities for storytelling in addition to occasional boons (or disadvantages) for your characters.  Even falling in combat affords more storytelling chances than most - characters can sometimes sacrifice an item to get away, survive but lose a limb, or even sacrifice themselves to save one of their allies, which will give them a temporary boost that might just turn the tide of the battle in their favor.  All nice ways to avoid the old trope of "just hit reload', and all open doors for future story beats.  Characters who manage to survive in spite of everything will also age and eventually retire, (with Warriors doing so the earliest, Mystics the latest) so recruiting fresh blood whenever possible is a good idea.  You can even choose to memorialize deceased characters or let them be forgotten, which will shape your world's history and legends in the long run.

Combat itself is a fairly simple affair, with grid-based movement and turn-based actions, though you're afforded the freedom to move your teammates in any order during your turn.  Characters fall under one of three basic classes - Warrior, Hunter or Mystic - and gains new abilities upon each level earned, which allow for quite a bit of customization.  A few such abilities include getting throwing knives (weak but usable as a free action up to three times per battle), traps to damage and ensnare enemies, or the ability to light tiles (or enemies) on fire to damage enemies that pass through them.  Magic also works in a different way than in most games; rather than simply conjuring fire or projectiles from thin air, one must "infuse" their magic into environmental objects, which can then be used offensively in a number of ways - ropes or cloth can entangle foes, braziers can set them ablaze, and wood can send a hail of splinters at them.

Between battles, one is taken to a map screen, where the action unfolds somewhat like a 4X game - moving to new territories, clearing them of enemies, and improving them to gather one of the game's five major resources - ingots, hide, fabric, heartwood and spellthread - on a yearly basis.  These in turn are utilized to craft new equipment or upgrade existing gear (by adding magical enchantments).  In addition, one has two choices for improving each tile - they can do a quicker job just to get the resources more quickly, or they can do a slower job but have a chance of getting a random item from it.  In addition, one can fortify tiles to slow down enemy raids and thin their numbers.  In general, one is only given a set number of days to complete a chapter, though clearing out enemy strongholds can extend it to a point, so managing one's time is an important strategic element.  This gets further complicated by the fact that your heroes can only heal over time; faster in a relatively safe, barricaded stronghold and much slower while they're travelling.  Still, you'll have to enter battle when your characters aren't all at their best, especially on higher difficulty settings where the enemy raids become frequent and aggressive.

Something else to note is that the enemies will grow stronger over time, adding new cards to their "decks" and gaining bonuses to their health, armor, damage, et cetera; the player can spend Legacy Points to avoid this as a timed event, but as these are also spent on other important things (recruiting heroes and improving tiles), this is best done sparingly.  They will also unavoidably gain at least one new card after every battle, and a couple of cards will be subtracted when you successfully complete a chapter, though they may gain more during certain events as well.

Fittingly, the player has their own means to offset this; the most prominent of which is the aforementioned crafting system.  Between battles, the player can utilize their resources to craft stronger gear than what they currently have.  Winning battles and story events will give them a choice of gear as well, though unusually for games of this type, equipment is a one-time use deal - once a character equips something, they cannot trade it to another character or remove it without replacing it with something else (an intentional choice to prevent the game from devolving into tedious inventory management).  Still, you're always given an exact readout of what benefits and drawbacks any piece of equipment will give you (as well as an online encyclopedia for all key gameplay elements only ever being a button-click away), so you can weigh risks and make informed choices.

So, while earlier games attempted it to varying degrees of success, Wildermyth is one of the few I've seen that actually lets your choices have a tangible effect on the narrative.  Being able to have a character make a noble sacrifice to save his friends, seeing them develop rivalries and romances (and have their children take up arms when they come of age) and eventually have them pass into legend is all stuff I haven't really seen before, save in something like Dwarf Fortress.  The tactical and 4X elements of the game are relatively simple, but still engaging; especially on higher difficulties, having to balance your time while continuing your campaign against the enemy hordes is a surprisingly harrowing task.  But even in spite of all this, it's surprisingly light on micromanagement and tedium, letting you get fully engrossed in your characters and see the history of your world get built before your eyes.  The game ingeniously blends elements of games like Jagged Alliance and X-COM together with clever character building and the choice-based narrative of several great western RPGs, and while it may not be the deepest example of any of these things, it also trims out most of their most annoying elements to create a slick, efficiently-designed and engrossing experience.

Developer: Worldwalker Games

Publisher: Worldwalker Games, Whispergames

Platform: PC

Released: 2021

Recommended version: N/A

NEO: The World Ends With You

The sequel to The World Ends With You, which came out thirteen years after the original and three years after the somewhat divisive Switch port of the original.  But does NEO prove to be a worthy sequel to a cult classic, or is this trip back to Shibuya not worth taking?

The World Ends With You quickly attracted a cult following after its initial release in 2008, being heavily acclaim for its inventive mechanics, amazing soundtrack and utilizing the DS's system features well in its design.  So of course, the fans wanted to see a sequel; despite it being teased several times with character cameos in Kingdom Hearts and the original game getting ports to mobile phones (and later the Nintendo Switch), it ultimately took a long time for the game to be put into production; largely because the developers' time was so heavily focused on the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

In 2021, though, our wishes were finally granted, and NEO: The World Ends With You was released.  This time as a full-3D console game rather than a handheld, though that didn't stop them from keeping the game's iconic graffiti/pop-art visual style.  The game also painstakingly recreates the real Shibuya, incorporating many elements that had changed in the thirteen years between games and even using some real-life names rather than fictionalized ones (Tower Records rather than Towa Records, etc).  As ever the soundtrack is fantastic, with a lot of familiar (albeit remixed) tunes and several great new ones to fully immerse you in the urban art feel of the game.

Gameplay is of course reworked for the sequel, though it's proof that more isn't necessarily better.  As in the original TWEWY, the central focus is on letting you build a deck of 'pins' that afford you attacks and can only be used so many times before requiring a short period to recharge and become usable again.  This time, though, rather than having a team of two, you get up to four characters at a time, with each character using a single pin and being mapped to a single button, somewhat similar to games like Valkyrie Profile and Indivisible.  There's also a slightly more "fighting game" feel to the mechanics, since things like drawing lines to create chains, pressing to create fire, etc obviously wouldn't work on a controller; instead, you land a combo with one pin, then have a small window to land a followup attack and build meter; once it fills, you can press the Circle button to unleash a powerful super attack on your enemies.  However, your meter will also start to drain if you go a long time without setting up and landing a combo, so keeping the momentum going is important.  However, it's not always easy to do this - most pins require landing several hits before the enemy is put into a stun state, and you only actively control the character whose button you've recently pressed - while you're doing that, the rest of your team is still active on the field and vulnerable to enemy attack (although they will attempt to automatically dodge if you're not actively attacking with them).  This can be pretty problematic when all of you share the same health bar, and especially so when some enemy attacks will stun characters or pin them down your characters and continuously inflict damage, or inflict them with poison, with no audio cues whatsoever to indicate you're taking damage elsewhere.  Like the original TWEWY you do have to be diligent in managing your team's health and attack meters so you don't get caught in a bad spot, though with a team of 6 all active at once it is tricky at times, particularly on higher difficulties.

Some other familiar mechanics - fashion and food - remain mostly intact, though with some small tweaks applied.  The food system is still your primary means of gaining stats, though you now buy food in shops and eat it right away (gaining the stats as well), with each character having foods they like and dislike; foods they like will give slightly more of a benefit to them.  However, there is still a cap on how much you can eat at a time, indicated by the battery meter in the upper right; this will only decrease after you fight battles, though at a significantly faster clip than it did in the original game, making stat grinding less of a chore.  Fashion is also considerably less restrictive now - characters can equip items the moment they buy them, though each piece of gear also has an associate battle bonus which will only activate if that character has a high enough Style stat; so you can still get some of the benefit of new gear without having to spend a ton of time grinding Style, but it's still to your benefit to raise that stat.

Another relatively new feature is the Social Network, which serves as a way to earn rewards like pins and clothing, as well as unlock some in-game features like alternate difficulty settings, enemy health bars, instantly converting money pins to cash, and so forth.  More features are unlocked as you meet more characters during the narrative and establish links with people you already know, and you can then spend Friend Points to earn their reward once that happens.  Friend Points are earned as part of the story for clearing key battles as well as for completing side missions.  One annoyance is that these are sometimes tied to timed battles, and taking too long to finish them will earn you a silver or bronze ranking and, with it, fewer rewards.  You can replay previous days as many times as you wish to try again, though as this also entails redoing all of the events of the story it can get a touch tedious, even with the ability to fast-forward through cutscenes.  Making use of hard saves is therefore a good idea.

As in the original game, there are plenty of times where you have to stop and solve various puzzles - clearing combat challenges or searching out NPCs and getting keywords from them, then 'imprinting' them on other characters to have them take a separate course of action and, by extension, open a path for you.  These can get pretty involved as the game goes on, with a lot of time traveling and trial-and-error with various keywords required to progress, and at times it does get pretty drawn-out.  Certainly makes you glad that the game doesn't have forced random encounters.

NEO: The World Ends With You follows the format of its predecessor almost to a fault.  It still looks the part with its pop-art colors and graffiti-inspired style, and even sounds the part with its soundtrack that fuses rock, rap and techno songs to great effect, but the gameplay doesn't feel quite as refined; in fact it gets downright manic as the game progresses, and with four characters duking it out with huge groups of enemies all running off the same health bar and a constantly-shifting camera it can get pretty tough to survive some fights, let alone get Star ranks.  It is a fairly leisurely casual playthrough, but if you want to go for full completion it gets very grindy, with over 300 pins and almost as many outfits to collect through various combinations of trading, buying, doing side missions, farming from drops and evolving through battle; you'll definitely want a guide handy if you're going for that.  It's still a slick, stylish and entertaining title, but it doesn't hit quite the same as its excellent predecessor.

Developer: h.a.n.d.

Publisher: Square Enix

Platform: Playstation 4, Switch

Released: 2021

Recommended version: I've tried the demos of both versions, and the Switch has the usual lower resolution and framerate of most multiplatform releases, but remains a serviceable version.  However, I prefer the PS4 for the same reason - a more consistent framerate keeps the frantic combat more manageable.  A PC port has also since been released on Epic Games Store and Steam, though I have not yet played that version.

Nier Replicant Ver.1.22474487139...

 A remaster of the low-key hit Nier, which proved to be the last game released by cult company Cavia before their closure.  But does Ver 1.22474487139 prove to be a worthy update to the original cult classic, or should fans simply stick to the original?

Cavia as a company was a pretty low-key name for a lot of its existence, mostly known for producing licensed titles and a few originals like Drakengard, which were largely regarded as mediocre save for their grim storylines and twisted themes.  NieR was the last game they released before being absorbed into their parent company (who would later merge with Marvelous Entertainment to become Marvelous AQL), and like many of their original offerings, its reception was muted at first; however, it went on to become a cult classic for its grim, emotional storytelling and innovative narrative design, probably helped in no small part by the runaway success of its sequel, NieR Automata.

NieR's original release was an odd one, though, owing to some regional disparity.  In Japan there were two versions that differed slightly; "NieR Gestalt" was released for the XBox 360 and had the player control Yonah's father, while the Playstation 3 got "NieR Replicant" and instead had them play as Yonah's brother (a much more bishonen design).  However, when the game was localized for other regions, we only got Gestalt's protagonist regardless of platform choice.  The narrative and gameplay was nearly identical regardless, but it seemed that Square was trying to appeal more to a Western audience (whose games, movies, shows etc. generally feature older protagonists) when the game was published outside of Japan.

The 2021 remaster, however, goes in the exact opposite direction, only affording you the opportunity to play as Yonah's brother, with the "dad" protagonist making an appearance in some of the game's added content.  The story has also had some new scenes added - some that were intended for the original game but cut owing to time constraints, and some new scenes that help bridge the story gap between the original NieR and Automata.  They do a surprisingly good job with it too, as it all feels natural and well-integrated; more than I can say for the added content in games like Final Fantasy and some of the more recent Atlus outings.

Another point of criticism for the original NieR was its rather bland visual design; environments were large and empty and combat animation was rather stiff.  This of course gets updated in the remaster too; while the environments' designs don't change in any significant way, they definitely take advantage of the added technological power of modern platforms, with much nicer-looking textures, flora and fauna seeing a new level of detail, and more expressive character animation on the whole.  The overall style also more closely matches Automata's, with a dark-clad protagonist standing out against the lighter washed out environments.  It looks really good for the most part, though some of the more distinct character designs (Grimoire Weiss in particular) don't stand out nearly as much, going from a black-and-gold motif to looking flat gray in most shots.

The voice acting for the remaster was also overhauled, with the protagonist getting two new VO's (Zach Aguilar and Ray Chase); no surprise given the age shift.  Nearly all the dialog in the game is now voiced as well, with many actors from the original reprising their roles - definitely a good thing to most fans, as the voice acting was one of the major highlights of the original NieR.  Liam O'Brien in particular is perfect as the arrogant Grimoire Weiss, while Laura Bailey's Kainé perfectly captures the pain and angst of her character and the tragedy she's endured.

Probably the most significant change overall, though, was the revamped combat system.  While not hugely different from the original NieR, Replicant 1.2's physics and overall feel have received a major overhaul under the supervision of PlatinumGames' Takahisa Taura, who also worked on Automata.  The result is certainly evident, too - combat went from being a stiff, tedious affair to feeling much more fluid and satisfying, with every blow feeling significant and affording the player the ability to seamlessly switch from attacking to effectively dodging, parrying and countering enemy blows.  As in any good combat-focused action title, one can also easily switch between ranged attacks and melee owing to the intuitive setup, using the shoulder buttons to govern blocks, parries, ranged projectiles and stronger ones that must be charged up before firing but do significantly more damage.  It's still not on the level of depth as something like, say, Devil May Cry or Bayonetta, but I actually ended up looking forward to battles instead of dreading them, so it's still a major improvement over the original.  One can also now access items (both healing and temporary buffers) and change up their special attack selections via a D-pad quick menu, ensuring that the player is never drawn away from the combat for long.

One must keep in mind that the core game is essentially the same despite the remaster, though.  So it's got a lot of the same faults that befell the original - somewhat clunky physics and movement, a lot of rather boring sidequests and sub-missions (many of which just feel like filler meant to make the game longer and add achievements rather than feeling rewarding to do), and a fair bit of tedious farming being required for some things.  That said, one can ignore most of the sub-missions if they wish to and still get the full story experience, so only die-hard completionists need to deal with these.  One must also play through the story a total of four times to see everything; not just the four endings, but several new story elements are also revealed through subsequent playthroughs, with a fifth and new ending added for this version.  So even if you do only bare-basics to complete the main story, it's a fairly time consuming experience if you want to see all NieR's narrative has to offer.

In short, NieR Replicant 1.22474487139... is an excellent remaster, taking a cult classic game, keeping everything that made it such and improving upon several things that drew criticism in the original.  It's still the same game at its core, but with smoother action and combat, nicer visuals on the whole and some very well-integrated new elements, there's a lot here to enjoy for fans of the original and newcomers alike.  If you skipped the original NieR or just found it too clunky to be fun, give the modern remaster a go; you'll see why it's so beloved amongst fans of strong, emotional storytelling in games.

Developer: Toylogic
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Playstation 4, XBox One, PC
Released: 2021
Recommended Version:  The console versions seem to be more or less the same.  However, there are reports among some users that the PC port features bugs and bad optimization as that platform's port of Automata did, so keep that in mind.