The Essential Companion of Heroic Adventurers
I picked up Kingdom Hearts III expecting to play it on my own. But when my child saw some familiar Disney faces, this game became a father/child project that's been a blast to experience as a team.
An hour or more in, I was worried that Ikenfell's combat was going to be too simple for my personal preferences, but once the game feels confident that you get the basic concepts it begins to ramp up the complexity in meaningful ways.
I expected to try out Pioneers of Olive Town and play another game that was clearly outclassed by Stardew Valley. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by a game that doesn't quite surpass what other farming sims are bringing to the table but at least catches up to them.
Voice of Cards attempts to capture the magic of tabletops, but feels like a flash game in its simplicity, both mechanically and narratively.
When I was a young teenager my sister and I were still playing imagination games, essentially live action roleplays with no defined rules. We'd pick whatever show or game we were excited about at the time and port those characters and worlds into our play. We lived apart, but on certain weekends I would travel... Continue Reading →
I sometimes wonder if it is fair to continuously compare indie titles to series from AAA studios. Does Chucklefish ever tire of hearing that Wargroove is "medieval Advance Wars?" Would the minds behind Bug Fables prefer if their game wasn't constantly mentioned in the same breath as Paper Mario? These games are not just cheap... Continue Reading →
In November the crossover title Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity released on the Nintendo Switch. It was a game which blended the lore and characters of Breath of the Wild with the 1-vs-1000 gameplay of the Dynasty Warriors franchise. While I wasn't impressed with the storytelling in Age of Calamity, the mechanics redefined my expectations... Continue Reading →
There isn't necessarily anything new or groundbreaking about the combat but all of the elements from familiar titles come together to make a complex system with lots of factors to weigh together that really get you thinking.
I don't think anyone out there has been proselytizing Hades as the perfect game; rather, it simply seems clear that what works about the game is so strong that the issues are easy to bear.
The weird contradiction of 7th Sea is a game that in its attempt to give you more freedom instead creates structures that restrict your creative freedom.
