Joe Juba
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Game InformerLatest Reviews
Even in an industry with unlikely genre hybrids like MMO/shooters and puzzle/RPGs, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin presents a strange combination. It’s a fast-paced action game that has you unleashing stylish combos against a screen full of monsters. However, it is also a farming game that emphasizes the value of community and growing high-quality rice. Finding a harmonious balance between those extremes of the gaming spectrum might seem impossible, but developer Edelweiss makes it work surprisingly well. However, even with that significant challenge overcome, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin still succumbs to minor pests and blights that eat away at the fun over time.
Vergil made his first appearance as a playable character in Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition. He was again added to the cast in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition. Even Ninja Theory’s DmC reboot featured DLC that let players control him. By this point, a belated appearance from Dante’s katana-wielding twin brother is practically tradition – and I enjoy it every time. Because even if Devil May Cry has pulled the old “You can play as Vergil now” move before, the character is a perennial favorite for a reason: He is a hell of a lot of fun to control, and that still holds true in this enhanced version of Devil May Cry 5.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise draws people in for many reasons. Over the years, it has provided stealth-focused infiltration, stylish encounters, high-seas adventures, and other elements – but not always in equal measure. Each installment hits different sweet spots for different players with varying degrees of success, but for the first time in the series, the balance feels perfect in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. With its engaging combination of combat, open-world exploration, crafted story content, and settlement management, this Viking saga is an epic with a little something for everyone.
As a narrative genre, sci-fi has limitless possibilities. It encompasses far-flung concepts like time travel, rampaging monsters, android assassins, and more. Even with all of that within reach, most sci-fi stories limit their scope to exploring just a few big ideas. However, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim shows no such restraint. It’s an all-inclusive, pulpy feast that draws inspiration from every corner of the sci-fi kingdom; it’s The War of the Worlds plus The Terminator plus Neon Genesis Evangelion plus several other well-known media that would spoil important plot points if I mentioned them. But here’s the most amazing part: It all works together.
The Battletoads were products of a strange era, sitting at the intersection ‘90s ‘tude, gross-out cartoons, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles phenomenon. That’s a peculiar cocktail for a side-scrolling brawler, and a challenging one to reimagine for a modern audience. Does this reboot strike a successful balance between old and new? That’s a fair question, but it’s so far down the list of problems that it’s also irrelevant. The biggest and most pervasive issue is much simpler: Battletoads just isn’t fun.
The original Final Fantasy VII is one of the most influential and adored games of all time, representing the best storytelling, gameplay, and technology its era had to offer. Its monumental impact on the role-playing genre is hard to overstate – but even harder to replicate in today’s landscape. That struggle between history and innovation is the engine that drives Final Fantasy VII Remake; the legend of the original looms large over it like the metal plates above the slums of Midgar, but this new version refuses to simply exist under a shadow. With smart (and surprising) additions to a classic world and its inhabitants, Final Fantasy VII Remake artfully appeals to nostalgia without being bound by it.
When a detective wakes up surrounded by empty bottles in a trashed hotel room, crime fiction has trained us to fill in the blanks with all sorts of issues – substance abuse, egomania, heartbreak. Because Disco Elysium incorporates some of these common elements, it fooled me into thinking I was in familiar narrative territory. I was not. As the hours unfolded, this investigative RPG surprised and delighted me at almost every turn with its complex world, fantastic dialogue, and ability to convey a constant struggle with the warring facets of one’s own mind.
Your crew on the Unreliable are some of the best and brightest in Halcyon – but considering the sorry state of civilization in deep space, that isn’t saying much. Your compatriots include a religious zealot, a heavy drinker, a compulsive cleaning robot, and other imperfect individuals. However, despite their flaws, this plucky team can help you find remarkable and unconventional solutions to the colony’s biggest problems. Whether you want to heal a rift between warring factions or destabilize a governing body, the underdogs of the Unreliable can get it done.
In elementary school, I remember filling out worksheets full of boring arithmetic problems. I know “practice makes perfect” and all, but once you understand the core concept of addition, solving 1+2 is functionally the same as solving 3+4. The components may vary slightly, but you don’t approach one problem any differently than another. The Sojourn faces an incarnation of the same problem; this first-person puzzle game gradually introduces new ideas, but reinforces each one to exhaustion through repetition, without the escalation that makes you feel like your understanding is evolving.
During the glory days of arcades, the brawler genre was king. Practically every virtual street was packed with goons and bosses waiting for beatdowns, and players were all too happy to oblige. The River City series was an innovator of this era, incorporating elements of RPG-style progression and open-world exploration. Though River City Girls still has those things, it lacks the same experimental spirit that gave rise to them in the first place. This installment sticks close to its precursors’ classic formula, but that unwavering faithfulness is both a success and a liability.