DENNIS GAGLIARDOTTO
Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection Review
Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection is the ultimate package for fans of the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series to celebrate a history of some of the greatest and unique music to ever appear in a role-playing game. Having a great cast of characters from decades of adventures and stories crossover and dance is as goofy as it is exciting and enthralling, and with some of the finest music around, it makes perfect sense for Persona to revisit the dancefloor just like it was done for Persona 4 Dancing back on Vita in 2015 not with just one or two, but THREE massive releases compiled into one beautiful package that rivals the discography of some of music's most iconic artists.
Corpse Party: Book of Shadows (2018 PC Release) Review
For nearly two decades after its initial release, Corpse Party has remained unique in its design, characters, and perception of horror that is still unparalleled to this day. From the ever evolving lore to the personalized experience each game gives you, Corpse Party sticks with those that play it with tailor-made playthroughs and memorable moments that are as shocking and sad as they are mysterious and profound.
Home Sweet Home Review
What Home Sweet Home does within the genre is almost a blend of what works and doesn't work within the genre - a mix of playing it safe, trying out new ideas, and executions in some areas that may or may not have worked out. Home Sweet Home is unique in what it tries to do and the inspiration behind its Thai folklore helps, but in a lot of cases it finds itself bordering a forgetful experience that starts off strong but quickly becomes a frustrating and unrewarding mess.
METAL MAX Xeno Review
With Humanity on the brink of extinction, its unique view on how technology ruined the world - almost Horizon Zero Dawn-esque - keeps things intriguing for the player throughout, and while the world is empty - understandably so - that feeling of hopelessness and scarcity lingers with the player as they traverse through Dystokio.
Walden, a game Review
It is without a doubt that throughout American history, Henry David Thoreau is one of the most recognizable names in classic novels alongside George Orwell, Mark Twain, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Thoreau's Walden, which dates way back to the 1850s, seems like one of the last things you'd expect to be adapted into a video game, yet the small team at USC Games managed to pull off a decent game that gives the book more depth, serving almost as an educational and interactive companion to making Walden a more personal and relatable experience.
Heroine Anthem ZERO Review
Who sang the song that calmed the seas? Heroine Anthem ZERO is a stunning game that has lots of great qualities about it and gets you interested from the get-go of its adventure thanks to its captivating art and score that caresses your ears and eyes and makes you feel warm all around, and while the adventure at its core is a delight, the mechanics and gameplay of Heroine Anthem ZERO unfortunately diminish the experience and ultimately leaves more frustration than pleasure.
Gravel Review
Gravel sees Milan-based racing enthusiasts and developers Milestone SRL come back to the off-road and showcase their expertise in a title that favors a more arcade approach to the off-road experience, having an almost Sega Rally Championship vibe fused with a bit of Dirt - two amazing series that I feel sometimes get overlooked on the topic of some of racing's best. Milestone SRL is certainly no stranger to racing titles either. These guys have done nothing but, in fact, giving us majority of the MotoGP and WRC series. While Gravel has some of the best track designs I've seen in a long time that keep it consistently fun, the overall presentation of the game keeps it from becoming a game you should undoubtedly pay attention to.
Dynasty Warriors 9 Review
Dynasty Warriors 9 is a fresh take on the long running series, giving it a more expansive environment thanks to its new open-world approach, as well as tons of characters and weapons to choose from in a historical setting that, outside of Assassin's Creed, is unfortunately rarely seen. While it's great to see games like this have a different outlook to keep things from getting stagnant and predictable, the open-world focus of Dynasty Warriors 9 ends up doing it more harm than good.
Tokyo Tattoo Girls Review
Tokyo Tattoo Girls is misleading in a lot of ways. For those like me that saw the trailer earlier in the year, we were all a little dumbfounded as to what exactly was going on. It just showed slideshows of the characters in the game that would occasionally switch to a shot of them getting tattooed. Makes sense I guess, I mean, these are girls. In Tokyo. Getting tattoos. The name speaks for itself, but unfortunately, beyond this and what was shown - or the lack of it for that matter - there isn't much beyond that.
Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online Review
Nep-Nep and the gang of console inspired heroines return to bring players into a brand new landscape of virtual MMO goodness that takes inspiration from the likes of .hack and Sword Art Online while of course having that Neptunia charm players have grown accustomed to over the years. While many Neptunia games have either seen simultaneous releases with the Vita or future ports, Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online is built from the ground up for the PlayStation 4 and makes sure to deliver a Neptunia experience unlike ever before, with fresh combat, increased quality in animations, and so much more without having to dial things down a bit for parity.
Trulon: The Shadow Engine Review
Taking the simplistic and inevitably addictive nature of card games and incorporating them into an RPG sounds like a great time to be had, giving the feeling of, "What if Yu-Gi-Oh! was an adventure game or something along the lines of the Pokemon Trading Card Game on Gameboy Color, but for the modern age on current-gen consoles", and while Trulon: The Shadow Engine does well to give a bite-sized RPG, its use of cards isn't so much a focal point as you'd expect, and comes with a lot of technical mishaps along the way.
The Gamer's Lounge Interview with Prideful Sloth, The Developers Behind Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Dennis Gagliardotto from The Gamers Lounge was lucky enough to set down and talk with Prideful Sloth about their game Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles were they talk influences, thoughts behind gameplay and much more.
Mary Skelter: Nightmares Review
Mary Skelter: Nightmares has you adventure with two main protagonists, Jack and Alice, who escape a supernatural concoction called The Jail, which spontaneously came to be one day and began consuming humans via torture, actual ingestion, holding them hostage, and many more tragic and sinister activities that have also caused corruption both inside this living tower as well as the surrounding city. Explore dungeons and floors within The Jail to help break out others, find items and resources, and inevitably tear down The Jail and give humanity a second chance.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Review
Stranded on a cursed Island, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana takes you on a journey of recollection, mystery, and adventure as you go on a journey in the shoes of Adol Christin - the recurring main protagonist throughout the Ys franchise. While stuck on the island due to an attack on his ship, The Lombardia, Adol must find a way to get back hope and find others along the way that have been stranded to help him on his journey.
Observer Review
Observer, brought to you by the talented folks behind a horror hit Layers of Fear, has a cyberpunk setting that's believable and curious to go through. You'll play as an old man, Dan Lazarski, who's been a neural detective - a specialty officer with the ability to hack into the minds of suspects - for quite some time that's looking into the disappearance of his son, who suddenly calls him one day but seems to be in a need of help...
Tacoma Review
Tacoma sees developer Fullbright take on their next mission with a title following their big hit Gone Home, which captured the minds, hearts, and feelings of players around the world back in 2013 on PC before being ported to consoles just last year. Though Tacoma has a lot of similarities to Gone Home, it shouldn't be seen as such just because it's the same developer. Traits carry over, but despite that, the overall atmosphere, premise, and execution is very different from what players had to go through with Gone Home. There will still be tons of emotional value and context provided in the game, with a diverse cast to help bring the narrative to life, and as the player explores the ship of Tacoma, they will uncover the secrets within and all the events that have transpired since the ship has taken off and the people on board had joined the crew.
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles Review
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles has you playing as an explorer who gets shipwrecked along with their crew on the land of Gemea, an unfamiliar and uncharted territory for everyone who ends up there. After waking up, your crew is nowhere to be found, and as you escape the cavern you find yourself in, the player is then greeted to a beautiful, vibrant world in which there are towns, villages, a ton of wildlife, mystical creatures known as sprites that help you along your journey, and much more.
Valkyria Revolution Review
Valkyria Revolution brings back the beloved series in a brand new direction from its Valkyria Chronicles predecessors and takes everything we've known mechanically about the series' past and turns it on its head. While hardcore fans of Valkyria Chronicles may be disappointed by this new direction, Revolution does well to stand out and become its own thing. This is a brand new look for the series and introduces some welcoming new elements that freshens it up, but there are also lots about it that feel either backwards or much to be desired.
Perception Review
Unable to see but plagued by nightmares and images of mementos, Cassie forces herself to travel to a house that's caught her attention due to similar events that have occurred in her dreams. Despite being blind, she's determined to investigate what exactly has been haunting her, and uses her echolocation ability to help traverse the darkened land before her, and uncover secrets of the large mansion.
Dark Rose Valkyrie Review
The year is 1929 and a good portion of humanity has been wiped out thanks to a rapidly spreading Chimera virus brought down by a meteor impact. Japan is forced to close off their nation to keep the virus from spreading, but many lives have already been lost in the process. A special military unit known as ACID, the Anti-Chimera Interception Division, is formed to combat this deadly virus and the effects and horrors it has on people, turning them into corrupt creatures with inhuman power. It's a great premise that has a sci-fi horror-ish spin on it but delivered in a more lighthearted, fun fashion, but the story is heavily undermined by the poor quality of the overall game and lack of polish delivered in almost all directions.