Miguel Moran
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Writing For
TheSixthAxis Latest Reviews
When The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy launched, Kazutaka Kodaka joked that his studio Tookyo Games might go bankrupt if the game didn’t do well. Thankfully, the massive visual novel experience ended up doing so well he later clarified that the team no longer felt that bankruptcy was a possibility. Despite that, it felt like it might take a miracle for the team to be able to put out another game if they were so close to shuttering after completing this one. As it turns out, Kazutaka Kodaka treated us like the victims in his own infamous twist-filled mystery thriller games. He quickly announced the development of a new game alongside DMM Games and Spike Chunsoft where the gimmick is that it is actually five different games in one – and that smorgasbord title is called Shuten Order.
I have to admit, I’ve got mixed feelings when it comes to the Demon Slayer franchise. I’ve never really enjoyed Shonen battle series, save for the ones I grew up with, like Naruto and Bleach. I appreciate that Demon Slayer has become a similar entry-point for countless fledgling anime fans across the world, but as someone with no real passion for the series, seeing some of my favourite animation and game studios working in the mines pumping out content for it has me feeling jaded. I’m a massive fan of the CyberConnect2 developed Naruto Ninja Storm series, but it’s an interesting feeling to play a game without also having a personal attachment to the source material. I don’t feel like Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 is a bad experience at all, but I also don’t know if it’s an entirely necessary or groundbreaking one.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from No Sleep For Kaname Date. As a big fan of the AI: The Somnium Files games, it’s hard to picture where in the timeline a third entry could fall that would cleanly follow up on the ending of the second game, while also giving us the characters that this one seemed to be specifically focusing on. Much like how the series tasks you with disregarding your main options and seeking out a hidden third path, that’s the exact route that the developers have ended up taking with this No Sleep For Kaname Date.
I’m slowly maneuvering through a neon-lit club that’s been the site of a casualty-heavy shooting alongside another teammate. The music is blasting and the lights are dazzling, but nobody is here save for a few terrified civilians, a handful of armed attackers, and crude piles of innocent bodies on each dancefloor. It’s grim, and I’m tense as I search every room for enemies. I slowly swing a door open…and it swings back towards me to close. I swing it open once more, and it returns back at me yet again. Before I can press the button to open it a third time, it pulls all the way back to reveal a shotgun-toting enemy who was behind it all along, and I laugh and scream as I frantically start shooting take him down. It’s fun and tense, it’s stupid and scary, and it’s Ready or Not.
I’m a massive fan of TRON, but more specifically, I’m a massive fan of TRON: Legacy. The 2010 sci-fi sequel has been cemented in my subconscious since the day it came out. The world it built has always been so captivating to me, with sleek metal obelisks and neon colorized highlights dancing around in my dreams most nights. It’s all complemented by gripping audio design, from the roar of the light cycles to the zap of a bouncing identity disc and the iconic Daft Punk curated score. Every opportunity I get to revisit that world is a thrill, so I’ve been chomping at the bit to get my hands on the latest spinoff of my favorite sci-fi property – TRON: Catalyst.
I’ve been a huge fan of Keita Takahashi’s work for years. As a kid, Katamari Damacy was a weird and wacky sandbox that was so much fun to pick up and play. Returning to it years later helped me appreciate not only the touching story of togetherness that the game culminates in, but the effort that was put into making the simple act of play so perfectly satisfying.The blending of lofty themes with intertwined gameplay didn’t just elevate the themes, but is still fun as heck to play in it’s own way. I had high hopes that To a T would take this further. The game does have a poignant and heartwarming message behind it, but the lack of any kind of satisfying or consistent gameplay to go along with it makes this more of a mixed bag than gaming bliss.
Typically, the big reason the Rune Factory series always appealed to me a bit more than its sister franchise Harvest Moon, was because of the more fantasy-focused setting. While Harvest Moon always presented a pretty chill and down-to-earth Japanese farm fantasy, the Rune Factory series always leaned a bit more Western and high-fantasy in its style. I’ve come to associate that setting with the series, which made the initial reveal of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma and its traditional Japanese twist on the setting make me feel a bit conflicted. Despite a vibe shift and new setting, though, this game is an incredible new take on the Rune Factory series that shines just as bright as my favourite entries.
I never played the original Fantasy Life on the Nintendo 3DS, so I jumped into Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time completely unaware of what I would be signing up for. As my customised character was tossed through a time portal to an ancient island, I gradually found my feet, settling into a quaint life-sim fuelled by a choice from over a dozen job-altering Life selections. This was plenty interesting, but by the time I got used to that loop, I was whisked through another portal and dropped onto an entire other island where the entire ebb and flow of the game completely changed.
DOOM Eternal is one of my favourite games of all time, and easily my favourite entry in the long-running id Software franchise. It’s the only shooter I’ve played where the end of every encounter makes me feel like I just finished jogging up the stairs for an hour. It’s a game that tests all your senses and fires all your synapses and locks you into a gameplay loop where you never. stop. moving. In DOOM: The Dark Ages, you need to stop moving. The game has swapped the jump and dodge action of the last entry with a new combat loop focused more around universal weapon utility, slower and steadier battles, and a melee parry system. It’s a wildly different direction, and while the result is absolute demon-blasting ridiculousness that’ll make anyone smile, it never quite reaches the same constant highs of the last game.
Sometimes a video game is an epic. It’s daunting, and it’s forever, and it’s a slate of marble you slowly chip away at for weeks and months and an entire year. Other times, a video game is lightning and fireworks. It’s an instant flash, and immediate dopamine, and a bag of chips that’s empty before you know it but also maybe empty before you have too much of it. It’s Shotgun Cop Man.