The story mode will be wrapped up within five hours but there is an exploration mode if you haven’t quite had your fill of bugs. Here you’ll be able to take control of other creatures and, as the title suggests, explore. There are short video logs dotted around the place if you want to try to find out more about what happened to the world. Although, once you realise that the other creatures are even harder to control than the sugar glider, and have encountered your fair share of crashes, you’ll probably decide that you don’t actually care that much about the reasons for humanity’s demise.
Tokyo Tattoo Girls is a simple strategy game which can be fun in small doses but is sadly not interesting enough to keep you playing for long. The story is poor, the characters are strange (and not in a good way), and the gameplay is lacking. The artwork and tattoos look gorgeous, so it's a pity they weren't in a better game.
Overall Operation Babel is a frustrating experience. The game mechanics aren't explained particularly well, and so you'll need a lot of patience to figure out how everything works. If you're a newcomer to the genre then you're better off playing something like Ray Gigant. While Babel has some interesting mechanics, it definitely lacks a lot of the polish of similar titles like Stranger of Sword City. Simply put, there are a lot of quality dungeon crawlers out there on Vita that do a much better job than Operation Babel.
It's a real shame that even though the game looks so bright and colorful the whole package is just incredibly dull. With only a handful of game modes, a bland story, and no local co-op mode to spice things up a bit, it's not going to take you long to tire of this. Even if you're a fan of the anime it's probably better to give this one a miss.
I really wanted to like this game more than I do. It looks very pretty and there's a large range of weird and wonderful weapons to collect, but sadly that's about all it has going for it. The story is dull, the combat is bland, and it just feels really repetitive. Overall, it's not a very challenging game and is unlikely to hold your attention for long.
While Fall of Light: Darkest Edition does have an interesting tale to tell, it's wrapped up in so many layers of mediocrity that it's unlikely you'll get far enough to care. Poor combat, annoying death mechanics, and an irritating inventory system make the game tedious to play through.
Song of Memories is just such a bizarre game. It tries really hard to be different with it's sudden and drastic tonal shifts in storyline, but it's not a game that is going to be held up as one of the greats of its genre. Its sluggish early pacing, forgettable characters, and dull rhythm mini-game means that this can only really be recommended to the most die-hard of fans.
Despite Inescapable having some similarities to visual novels and puzzle games such as Danganronpa and Zero Escape it can’t really be compared favourably to them. The narrative starts out so sluggishly that it quickly loses any tension and the handful of puzzles you get to solve are just too simple to be fun. It’s a shame as there are some interesting group dynamics but it all gets bogged down in so many pointless conversations that it quickly becomes monotonous, and the pacing saps any desire to replay for a different ending.
The game has a fairly short runtime (by RPG standards) of around 25-30 hours, but even then it soon begins to outstay its welcome. It’s a shame as the story really is intriguing to begin with, but after fighting your way through lots of tedious dungeons and doing the same attacks over and over again, you’ll find it hard to care about humanity’s fate.
A good time loop mechanic is supposed to give you enough variety so that repetition doesn't set in. Unfortunately, this is where Loop8 falls flat. You’ll be going over the same conversations and they’re just not interesting enough to make it worthwhile. It also doesn’t help that there’s only a small variety of enemies, and that the underworld is mostly just the town with a different colour palette. It's hard not to get annoyed when you realise that you’re still not strong enough to take out the next boss, and have no choice but to repeat the last few weeks.
For a game made by a small team it’s very ambitious — but that’s also the problem. Environments are far larger than they need to be, and the title struggles to load in textures and has a fair amount of pop-in. There are also loads of systems, such as party energy levels or crafting, which are never fully explained or seem to be particularly useful... It definitely feels like developer Midgar Studio should have reduced the scope of both the story and some of the gameplay systems, because this may have allowed it to add more polish to the areas that work well. It’s a shame, as the game does have plenty of potential, but it’s a little bit too rough around the edges to fully enjoy.
James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe do an absolutely fantastic job at bringing the three main characters to life but even they can’t lift the frustration and tedium of having to repeat the same actions over and over again. Unfortunately, by the time you finally figure out how to change the outcome of the loop, the ending will make you wonder if it was even worth it.
Astria Ascending is a beautifully hand-drawn game with an old school JRPG feel. It tries to keep the experience modern with some much needed quality of life improvements, but annoying bugs hold it back. It's a bit of a shame that the story is fairly forgettable but the fun combat system does help alleviate this to an extent. With a very detailed job system and plenty of optional side content to get involved with, there is entertainment to be found here if don't mind the grind - but as an overall role-playing adventure, Astria Ascending has clear flaws.
There's a fair amount of side-quest stuff to do such as playing mini-games in the maid café or helping out locals with their problems, although none of it is particularly innovative or memorable. There are also loads of different quirky weapons and hundreds of different clothing options to collect. Roaming around Akihabara while wielding a keyboard and wearing a Gundam cosplay made out of cardboard boxes is kinda fun, despite how average the game is overall.
Spacebase Startopia doesn't have quite the same charm and humour of the original 2001 classic. The campaign missions are short and fairly repetitive, and the combat feels really basic. It's a shame, but even with an online multiplayer mode, this shallow simulator is not a particularly engaging experience.
While Neptune and her friends are just as enthusiastic and charming as ever, both the gameplay and story feels a little stale. It’s great that the developer has managed to seamlessly blend together real V-tubers with the ladies from Gamesindustri, but it’s a real shame that there’s nothing else that lifts this game above average.
Even if you're not familiar with Blacksad's previous adventures, fans of games like L.A. Noire or any of the Telltale adventures will find something to like about Blacksad: Under the Skin. It's a real shame, then, that the game is so buggy on release. Numerous technical issues really spoil what would otherwise be a very entertaining whodunit.
If you're a JRPG fan and can see past its dull dungeon design and grindy friendship system, then there is still fun to be had here, but you'll have to push through layers of tediousness to get to it. The Caligula Effect is a game with plenty of good ideas, but sadly, they're just not executed very well. It feels like developer Aquria has tried to implement so many ambitious concepts, but it doesn't actually take the time to flesh them out, and instead, repetition has been used to fill in the gaps.
It's a shame that Labyrinth Life didn't choose to go the route of Criminal Girls 2, where it released with mini-games in tact but had artwork that was redrawn by the original Japanese team to be a bit less smutty. Releasing the game without many of the naughty mini-games means that you see it for what it truly is; an uninspiring dungeon crawler that, apart from the challenge dungeons, is a bit of a dull slog to play through.
While this strategy game does a great job at creating a unique look, the gameplay doesn't really do enough to hold your attention. It's pretty simplistic and won't take long for you to master which unfortunately means that it ends up feeling fairly repetitive. It's a shame as when the game does introduce new mechanics in the boss fights things can get pretty interesting but there just aren't enough of these types of battles.