Joe Gribble's Reviews
A mixture of bad design choices, minimal testing, persistent and worrying issues, and a disappointing conclusion and lack of content is what has put an end to The Binding of Issac - What was a swan song to the Rougelike genre has now instead fizzled out, not with a glorious finale, but instead with a disappointing, flat note. I would rate The Binding of Issac Afterbirth + a 6 / 10. If it's on sale, then by all means pick this up, but for the asking price of £10 for new adopters, it certainly isn't worth the price, and is something I'd see Maxis or EA employing. Not Nicalis. Here's hoping that Mod Tools can save us.
All in all, Enter the Gungeon is an enjoyable little indie game in a similar vein to The Binding of Issac, yet is different enough to be set apart from it's counterpart in many ways - The difficulty, the variety, and the god-damn puns are more than enough to satiate any Binding of Issac naysayers, and will keep you challenged for over 30 hours or more! I would rate Enter the Gungeon an 8.5 / 10.
For launch though, Siegecraft Commander rushes out the gates with a healthy amount of content that should satisfy you strategy and Worms-loving junkies for months to come, especially with that glorious Cross-Platform multiplayer! I can't wait to see what Siegecraft Commander has in store for the near future, and will be monitoring it's progress closely.
Regardless, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance HD is an enjoyable romp that'll last you a good number of hours. If this is your first Kingdom Hearts game, then for the love of God almighty PLAY ALL THE OTHERS PREVIOUSLY. You won't understand a single thing otherwise! The combat can be clunky at times, and can be a bit annoying to control, but once you get a knack for it, you'll be hooked.
Overall, there's not too much more to say on Rise & Shine - Some characters are likeable, some just disappear, and some are just killed off outright for irony's sake - The gameplay is difficult, and doesn't hold your hand too much, and the references to gaming culture are up there in the hundreds. If you're looking for a good-looking and challenging game that may make you chuckle here and there and go "Oh that's from xxxxx game!", then Rise and Shine is certainly for you. If you were coming into this expecting all laughs and something a bit more casual, then I'm afraid you may be disappointed...
All in all, Alwa's Awakening is an enjoyable retro romp built from the ground up for nothing other than retro-junkies. If you grew up on the old Amiga, NES, SNES, or even Mega Drive titles, then I'd certainly say for you to give this title a fair chance...However if you're just looking for a way to get into the subgenre...Then I'd look elsewhere.
Nights of Azure looks pretty. It feels pretty. It sounds pretty, but it's heart is ugly. Bland, samey and generic - Sure, perhaps if you haven't played a JRPG Hack'n'Slash before, then give this a shot, otherwise you'd most likely find better for your money elsewhere.
Overall, Berserk: Band of the Hawk is probably the best adaptation of the manga's story to date, and lives up to the chaos, havoc and authentic visual style of Berserk - Where it falls short, however, is when you start to compare it to other Musou titles, or if you try to jump in without ever seeing a single speck of the original story - My recommendation? Read the first 16-or-so chapters of the Berserk manga, to learn the underlying characters, story and premise, then move onto playing Band of the Hawk; that way the movie cutscenes and dialogue will fill in all blanks up until the end of the game, which stops short around an arc or two where the manga currently rests. If you've played Musou games in the past, this title may seem extremely simplistic and a bit watered down, but for newcomers to this subgenre of war game, there really isn't a better introduction, or a better time to get into them than right now.
All in all, Lego Worlds is an amazing Lego game...But as an exploration / sandbox game...It's nothing more than flat, boring and short-lasting. Definitley worth the money if you have a kid who loves Lego, but not if you have two or more children that'll be wanting to clamber around the controller. All you'll get are tears due to the bad optimisation (On console) and lack of +2 player co-op. It's fun, but in short bursts.
Asides from confusion, one thing that Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is good at is providing interesting, well written character dialogues and interactions between it’s varied and colourful cast of 16 school students – From Akane, the Gymnast with the heart of a tiger, to the eccentric and folklore-spewing Ghundam, to the calm, quiet and reference-spewing Chiaki, each character has their own unique charm, quirk, and memorable piece of backstory that’ll stick with you throughout even the final moments of the game.
I wanted to love this title, having a Mystery Dungeon game on my PS4, however I’ve come to the stern realisation that, maybe, Mystery Dungeon games should just stay on handhelds, for now. Tohou Gensou Wanderer gets a 6 / 10 for me. The asking price of £40 is FAR too high for something like this, but if you like Mystery Dungeon games, or the Touhou franchise, give it a shot!
Persona 5 is a masterful game, which has breathed new life into the JRPG genre; it has injected a flair of style that hasn't quite been matched before, and as such, has become a new standard for JRPGs to match. Despite this though, the game is far from perfect, but is most definitely the most powerful evolution of Persona to date. Here's hoping we don't get 20 Persona 5 spinoffs and Persona 6 will be able to finally encrust this franchise in the annals of history forever.
I want to love Shiness, I really do, however little things here and there keep pushing me back more and more; it annoys me, since this game has the sort of charm and love that I look for in games, just graphical and battle-system based issues keep it locked behind a low score. Shiness gets a 6.5 / 10. I REALLY want to give this title a 7 / 10, but for the reasons above, I feel like it needs a little more work to achieve this vision.
All in all, The Silver Case is a long, enjoyable visual novel that is feeling the aches of time – The controls haven’t aged well, nor has some of the dialogue…But if you can fight through it, and battle against the urge to fall asleep during some of the lesser parts of the game and understand what the bloody hell is happening, you’ll possibly find yourself with a new gem courtesy of Suda51…
All in all, Dark Rose Valkyrie is a flawed game. It’s a disappointing game. It’s a game that falls prey to every single issue Idea Factory is known for…However if you like Idea Factory’s games (Unlike me), then this may very well be your new favourite IP from them…It’s certainly for a niche market, having not sold well even over in Japan shipping only 12,000 copies at retail on the first week of release back in 2016, however if you’re in that niche market, you could find more positives than I could.
[The Crash N. Sane Trilogy is] ...the perfect sendoff to a lovingly crafted collection, which I hope introduces a whole new generation of gamers to the orange marsupial! Now…Let’s await a Spyro remaster…Or Jak and Daxter….Please…?
All I have to say now is, well done Falcom. Well done. You've got a new Ys fan, and made a certified masterpiece. I haven't played a game that's captivated me this much since Rogue Galaxy, back in 2007, so keep it up. Not just for us, but for the betterment of the JRPG genre.
Overall, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a fine visual novel that improves greatly on the Danganronpa formula – The only things holding it back however are a somewhat fractured, filler-ladened plot and some poor characters.
Overall, what’re my thoughts of Culdcept Revolt? All in all, Culdcept Revolt is a confusing blend of Monopoly, Fire Emblem, Mario Party, Hearthstone, and Yu-Gi-Oh…But that pot gets far too muddled far too quickly – The beginning tutorial is confusing, characters are often bland, with little to no motivation and reasoning behind them, and overall, the game looks and plays like a budget DS title. If you’re interested in this sort of game, and inside of this ‘extreme niche’, then you’d probably be better off just playing the less serious and more mechanically sound “100% Orange Juice”, which follows the same sort of mechanics and gameplay.
All in all, as a newcomer, Middle-earth: Shadow of War brings somewhat clunky controls, unnecessary loot boxes and an ending effectively locked behind either paying or grinding leads to a sour first impression. The game looks brilliant, sounds brilliant and really grips you with it’s updated rendition of the Nemesis System… But I can’t help but feel that there’s better out there. It’s a fun walk through Mordor, but a fun game…? Perhaps not entirely.