In the beginning of 2022, I had the goal of playing as many games as possible. That goal didn’t exactly go according to plan, due to the lack of balancing between games, anime and the most common issue that I struggled with – some form of choice paralysis; not being able to choose what to do next and as such I end up procrastinating.
That said the games I did play throughout 2022 have been pretty solid choices. We delve into a few releases that came out in 2022 but also a bunch of older classics. A majority of the games were played on my PlayStation 5 (with many played via its backwards compatibility), but I did play a game or two on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Switch. Overall I was unfortunately only able to finish 31 different video games throughout 2022, which is lower than 2021’s 38 games.
Like my 2020 & 2021 posts, I have compiled my thoughts over on Anime UK News and stored them on my blog! They were essentially a collection of what I liked/disliked for each one, and some will have more to say than others but that’s because of the huge scope of the experience. Like before, they are long but I didn’t want to trim down my thoughts as some of this info might make you interested in these titles.
Due to the length of the post, I have decided to split the list into two parts. Part 1 will cover the first 17 games I completed, which were during January to June.
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes
Koei Tecmo’s Musou games got so big that Capcom made their own version with Sengoku Basara, but many will know that the earlier games had a fairly rough history in the west because it was localised and butchered to tie into Devil May Cry, which failed. This was followed by a sequel and its fighting game spin-off not seeing a release outside Japan. However, as the developer entered the seventh generation era, the third instalment saw a release on the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii for both Japan and the west. The western release was back to its original form in representation and was renamed as Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes.
Now if you have followed my gaming journey, you’ll know that I own and played the Sengoku Basara HD Collection which includes the first two games plus the Heroes expansion. I enjoyed these Musou games a lot and during my PS3 collecting journey in 2017 I ordered the US version of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes because the UK version became hard to find at the time, but it was only until January 2022 when I finally started playing it.
In terms of the game’s completion I have played through all 16 characters across 18 playthroughs. Due to the branching structure, you had to work on a couple more playthroughs for specific characters to unlock the 16th and final character for the roster. Each character has their own play styles which works for the most part pretty well during the battles. I would say the main cast work better than others as they’re quick, fast and does the job on the game’s set of goals. The weakest characters I found were the gun/bow types because they were slow and took too long to progress through their respective playthroughs. That said, the game’s campaign is interesting as you have multiple choices on which battle you want to go next, and each playthrough does unlock more routes.
One of the surprises that I had with the game was its English dub, which I didn’t expect given the franchise’s nicheness, but apparently half of the cast did return for the anime adaptation so that’s pretty cool. Each playthrough for a character takes about 3-4 hours depending on how you handle each battle, whether you go straight to the boss or try to get each part of the map. Getting each part of the map does reduce the difficulty of the boss battles which is a nice reward.
Overall Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes is a repetitive game and while it took me about 43 hours to complete the experience, it felt rather rewarding than just focusing on a character or two and calling it there. Considering it was the first game to complete for the year, it’s good to get a long game out of the way for the backlog! If you are a fan of the Musou genre I recommend this game especially if you want a translated version of a Sengoku Basara instalment. That said, if you want a more modern take on the graphics and gameplay then I guess it’s worth jumping into the franchise with Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi that’s on PlayStation 4 though it was only released in Japan.
Toukiden 2
When it comes to the Monster Hunter type genre (which I may as well call it Hunter RPG at this point), I’ve only played two games at this point. In 2021 I played the first two GOD EATER games, which were interesting but the weapon setup was complex and the progression was stalled due to high HP enemies followed by dozens and dozens of missions that often require specific materials to progress because of the difficulty. Fast-forward to January 2022 and I have played Koei Tecmo’s take on the genre with Toukiden 2, a sequel to the successful Vita game Toukiden: Age of Demons (which did get remastered on PlayStation 4 as Toukiden Kiwami). The Toukiden games as a whole were designed for the Vita so the graphics are simple, the framerate is capped to 30fps and there’s a lot of focus on quests and fighting Oni, the main monsters of the series.
That said, Toukiden 2 was a surprising experience. Koei Tecmo definitely put a lot of effort on its main story which is pretty interesting and provides a solid cast of characters, all voiced in Japanese, that you hang around throughout and its definitely the game’s strongest point in terms of progression. There are six chapters in total, with a seventh focused mainly on grinding missions which was too much time to spend so I stopped there, but I did have a good time with what the story was offering. The character designs look decent but it is distracting that the anime 2D designs that show up aren’t exactly the same as the 3D character models, but saying that the actual CG cutscenes were pretty good. I hear Studio 4C animated a prequel for this game so Koei definitely did their best to appeal to a lot of fans out there.
In terms of the gameplay, the progression is pretty good in terms of pacing and there’s very little grinding required as the level-up system is determined by what equipment you use, for instance choosing the right weapon and armour so you can proceed without getting killed. I did struggle a lot with this because around the half-way point I always felt that I was under-powered and that was still the case even after I finished the story.
You see, fighting Oni in this game is going to be a hit or miss for many people, because it’s got a game design in place where they are basically immortal unless you cut off their limbs and purify them each time. While this idea sounds great on paper, I don’t think it executes very well in the final product primarily due to the higher HP enemies as you progress and as a result, it feels like a chore and you’re stalling a lot. Maybe it would feel better if the game was clearer on whether you are doing damage to the enemy outside of some colours in a specific field of vision that you can use.
Another interesting mechanic that I am fine with is the use of the Miasma that’s prevalent throughout most of the world map whilst you explore. Basically in these zones, there is a time limit which is pretty generous and easy to deal with and when the bar, set around the map navigation, becomes full your character basically dies. Red will fill fast, Purple is a steady pace, and Blue is very slow. Blue is only there when you encounter a stone that can purify parts of the area, allowing you to travel to more parts of the map and even sort out quests or mini-boss fights. You can also fast-travel which is very handy for how large the world map is.
Introduced to Toukiden 2 is the Demon Hand which is a pretty cool idea, but is pretty useless during combat unless you fill up its blue gauge that allows you to do a special move that can knock out an enemy body part which is handy. You also use the Demon Hand to climb up areas because you can’t jump at all which is weird. Another special move that can be used is a small gold diamond that fills up on the top-left corner allowing you to also knock out an enemy body part.
On the bottom right corner of the screen you also have extra moves to use; like healing yourself, using a Leech ability to gain health when you deal damage to enemies, and also extra power from Mitama, which are heroes of the past who provide you with extra moves. This concept I haven’t used much because I always felt I was even more under-powered due to the abilities that take time to be unlocked and a lot of notifications stating I can’t use these abilities due to inactive statuses.
Despite my criticisms, I do think Toukiden 2 is a pretty solid game in general, and perhaps the hunting gameplay genre was just not for me. I always felt under-powered and while the game has these Mitama powers I could never fully grasp how they work and when I do try them I always felt I was making the fights worse in the long turn. That said, there are a lot of interesting elements in this game and I think as a whole Koei Tecmo did alright in the end. Playthrough overall was about 15-18 hours I reckon.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise
After finishing Kiryu Kazuma’s saga, Ryu ga Gotoku Studio decided to create a Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken) video game using the Yakuza gameplay with Hokuto ga Gotoku, known outside of Japan as Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, which also stars Kiryu’s VA as the voice of Kenshiro himself! And you know what, this is perhaps one of the best anime video games out there and while that doesn’t sound like a hard thing to accomplish, the studio has put a lot of love and effort to provide an experience for newcomers and fans of the source material.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is an original storyline that doesn’t follow the manga after a specific point and by doing this introduces a new direction for Kenshiro to face, such as encountering a new city, and interacting with the city’s leader, the guards and of course the enemies both from within the city and across the desert that emerge here and there. The story is very strong and while some aspects might feel simple, it offers a pretty solid conclusion and I found myself very happy with the results. Most of the scenes are also voice-acted and there’s an English audio option for those who prefer dubs.
Now as mentioned, this game is basically a tweaked version of the Yakuza formula. You have substories that provide additional mini-storylines which reward you with XP if you complete them, and there are a bunch of mini-games like a casino, nightclub, baseball (but hitting bandits than a ball), a rhythm type game and a couple of others; like hunting down specific enemies, and a gladiator arena to fight opponents similar to the underground in Yakuza. In addition, the animations from the enemies especially when you get yourself into the battles are all cycled from Yakuza so you could argue there wasn’t much effort put into originality here.
That said, the battles is where they really put some more effort into the mix because Kenshiro does not play around when it comes to combat. During these segments you will have a skull that fills up next to the enemy’s health, and once it fills up you can then achieve a special attack, called Hidden Channelling, that will allow you to instantly kill them quick and smoothly, in other words they were already dead to begin with. The QTE is randomised from what I have seen but there are various outcomes to defeating enemies which is neat. There’s also catchphrases that appear which you can use to attack enemies with, which is amusing.
The abilities for Kenshiro is split into four paths; Body Tree for increasing Health & Attack power, Skill Tree for unlocking new battle moves, Mind Tree for improving the Seven Star Gauge which is a special move that allows you to be stronger in battle (like Kiryu’s Super Heat move in Yakuza), and Fate Tree dedicated to the Destiny Talismans that provide specific power-ups or change to gameplay. I haven’t used the Talismans that much to be honest but you can manage without them for the most part.
What I do like about the combat is that you need to master the skills and not constantly spam the same attack to get through the combat. Dodging is key to survival especially during boss fights, because they love to block your moves or parry in response. And if you do well enough the skull will fill up for you to use a hidden channelling move in return.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a really solid anime game and while it does reuses a lot of Yakuza‘s assets, I felt that it did enough to stand out as its own with an interesting storyline and great cast of characters. In fact, this game was so investing that it actually made me want to check out the original 80s anime so I suppose that was probably one of the goal’s for SEGA and the team behind the game to begin with. In terms of playthrough stats, I finished the story in about 16 hours with a bunch of sub-stories and side content also played throughout.
JUMP FORCE
Due to licensing, Bandai Namco delisted JUMP FORCE from digital platforms but I managed to get the game a month before it was removed, and also purchased the DLC packs that came with additional characters, which was admittedly acquired at the worst possible time (I was going to get them when they went on offer, but either my timing was wrong or they reverted back to normal price earlier than planned).
A couple years after releasing J-Stars Victory Vs. on PlayStation 3 and bringing the game over to the west for PlayStation 4, Bandai Namco produced another crossover game called JUMP FORCE which is more streamlined and a sort of downgrade in various areas from its predecessor. Rather than having two characters and an assist vs another two characters and an assist in a large area, we only have 1 vs 1 with the option to swap with two other characters (like Marvel vs Capcom) in a smaller fighting arena.
That said, and despite its mixed reviews, I actually think JUMP FORCE is probably one of the biggest surprises in terms of enjoyment. The gameplay is actually pretty fun and I do enjoy the combat that has to offer. The problem for hardcore gamers is that it’s very basic and not as complex as other fighting games. In addition, the game runs at 1080p 30fps which even on PS5 via PS4 Pro, does not offer any performance improvements other than loading times perhaps being faster – even though it’s ridiculous and tedious that those loading times happen every single time. The difficulty of the fights is there, but it’s basically a case of they take less damage, and from the looks of it if you want to level up your abilities you’ll need to grind a lot and maybe play online, but I was able to manage without issue and reached Level 51 when I finished the final boss of the story.
The character roster has some interesting inclusions new to this game compared to J-Stars Victory Vs, with classic characters like Dai (Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai), Yugi & Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and Ryo Saeba (City Hunter) all the way to newer IPs like Boruto (Boruto: Naruto Next Generations), Asta (Black Clover) and Deku, All Might, Kacchan & Shoto (My Hero Academia). Also Light & Ryuk (Death Note) are in the game as guests and are not playable, plus Ryuk is not voiced which makes their scenes so weird to watch.
In terms of the character selection, it’s alright but not as great as J-Stars Victory Vs. and while the DLC selection does offer some more variety like Giorno Giovanna (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind), Yoruichi Shihōin (Bleach) and Biscuit Krueger (Hunter x Hunter), there’s not enough characters and voiced dialogue to make the game even better. The custom character idea is pretty cool, but design-wise it looks out of place compared to the rest of the team.
The story is pretty basic and the cutscenes don’t look too bad, but the character movement is very low-budget which tends to be the case with a lot of Bandai Namco’s anime game projects. Speaking of which, if you don’t have PlayStation Plus you won’t be able to access a lot of the features in the game, even the PlayStation Store or the Notice Board which is ridiculous.
That said, JUMP FORCE was a good time but it’s a downgrade from J-Stars Victory Vs. with its simplistic gameplay, reduced roster and limited features due to the online focus. I do think it’s worth checking out regardless because it can be a fun time, but only when its cheap and considering it’s no longer available it’ll be quite hard to jump in at this point, but if you do manage to find a pre-owned copy for cheap then I say give it a shot.
Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul
After finishing JUMP FORCE, I decided to check out the Saint Seiya game that I picked up a few years ago, which was bizarrely quite hard to find unless you find a non-English copy of the game. I was fortunate to find the game by chance in GAME’s pre-owned selection for 2 for £20 I believe which was a massive bargain.
Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul is an updated version of Bandai Namco’s previous game Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers released on PlayStation 3. It basically revamps a lot of the original with some improvements throughout. The story covers four major story arcs from the manga & anime; Sanctuary, Asgard, Poseidon and Hades. Each have a stage that offers 1-3 boss fights each time, sometimes with different characters or an option to choose from a selection.
This is a 1 on 1 fighting game and the combat is really interesting because you can’t just spam your basic attacks as the opponent can block or mess you up really fast. The trick is basically dodge, shield and attack when the moment is right so that you can proceed to the next stage. If you get KO’d Athena will appear and ask you to button mash X so that you can get back up, or you can simply get the game over screen and retry the battle without having to start from the beginning of the stage.
During combat you can reach a special zone where you’ll then be able to unleash a special attack which is really handy as it can knock out a bunch of HP from your opponent. In addition you can also use regular special moves which helps but you will want to time it right as the opponent can dodge or block them, and the same is also for the special attack which you can also do to them so it’s well balanced.
The story took about 8-10 hours to finish and the cutscenes are in 3D which look really nice. The story itself is also interesting and is very shonen considering this is a Shonen Jump franchise after all. But I did avoid paying attention to a lot of the plot points because I wanted to experience the story through the anime, which I’m somewhat doing with the CG reimagining series.
Overall Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul is a pretty solid fighting game and worth checking out, but it is quite hard-to-find in physical format so I suggest you get it digitally instead as it’ll go on sale for a cheaper price.
Code Vein
Despite playing a bit of Dark Souls and Nioh years ago, Code Vein is actually my first Souls-type game that I officially own and Bandai Namco did a pretty solid job with this.
Code Vein is a challenging game and despite sharing the Souls-like gameplay that many love from the FROM SOFTWARE games, you do have a few perks that benefit you on your journey. For instance, you have a second character that can tag along with you all the way and its more fast-paced like Bloodborne than the slower one-man-army approach of the others. The difficulty is there, but you can get through most of the game if you manage to level up your equipment and clothes beforehand.
Code Vein provides a whole bunch of options like different weapon types, blood codes that offer extra abilities and you can also use items to regenerate your health, add buffers etc. When you lose your health, your AI partner (or second player if you’re playing online) can offer you their health to save you. That said when you die completely, it’s just like the Souls franchise where you respawn back to a mini-rest area and you have to go back to where you died to recover the EXP you earned otherwise it’ll be gone permanently if you die beforehand. The EXP can be used to level up and acquire more Gifts which are the extra abilities you receive from interacting with other characters in the game.
The story is interesting and while some parts are left unexplained, there was a really interesting twist to the lore that has me curious for the future of the franchise. The characters are well done and the Vestige segments, which allow you to view the memories of other people, adds more context to their motivations. I do think the Vestige moments are slow and dragged out but they do add to the development of the characters. Vestiges are also crucial to unlocking the true ending of the game.
I spent 31 hours in total and managed to finish the game at Level 160, with all of the depth mini-dungeons explored, all vestiges acquired, all mini-save points found and got the best two-handed weapon possible. The final true-boss is an absolute pain and you have to turn off the camera’s lock-on to actually tolerate it because it gets you killed easily.
Now while this game probably won’t be as challenging as the Souls franchise, I do think Code Vein is a solid newcomer friendly game for the genre and worth playing. The character customisation is also really detailed. The game is pretty much available on all platforms, and as I played it on PS5 I was able to make use of the PS4 Pro version which adds a better resolution to go with the 60fps gameplay.
Super Robot Wars V
A few years ago, the Super Robot Wars franchise finally received an English localisation for the international audience on their crossover games, starting off with Super Robot Wars V which is the start of a new trilogy that included Super Robot Wars X & Super Robot Wars T.
Like the dozens of games before which were exclusive to Japan, Super Robot Wars V is a tactical RPG that lets you control multiple mecha units on the board to defeat the other opponents. You can get as many as about 16-20 units on the map at once and can control each of them at any time as long as its your turn on the battle. You also have commander ship types that you must protect otherwise it’s game over and you start the fight all over again. There are no checkpoints, though you can put the game on standby and come back to the same point later.
As Super Robot Wars is known for crossing over different characters and mechs from different anime and manga, Super Robot Wars V is no stranger to this, but most will be from studio Sunrise. The main ones are from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack, Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam, as well as non-Universal Century shows like Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Plus on top of that, you have Full Metal Panic!, Martian Successor Nadesico, Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragon, Getter Robo Armageddon, Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!, Rebuild of Evangelion (i.e. Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance), Space Battleship Yamato 2199, Brave Express Might Gaine and also classic Yoshiyuki Tomino shows Super Machine Zambot 3 and The Unchallengeable Daitarn 3.
While this game is a mish-mash of franchise, it is highly recommended that you know the whole storyline for a lot of these due to spoilers on specific plot points that appear. The main ones in particular are Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer, Nadesico the Movie: The Prince of Darkness, Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragon, and Space Battleship Yamato 2199. The rest do cover aspects but they’re not the main focus or can be skipped due to multiple branches along the way.
Also to note, due to licensing reasons, you can’t take screencaps or take recordings for any of the gameplay for Super Robot Wars.
Super Robot Wars V starts off with two characters that you can chose to play as; Soji Murakumo and Chitose Kisaragi, each mostly cover the same main story but they do have different dialogue choices and the final few scenarios will differ depending on which character you chose. Along the way, you also have sub-scenario paths that you can decide where to go, but it does mean you only have access to specific units in your team. In addition there are also secret scenarios that are available which will unlock extra units for instance Bonta-kun and Evangelion: Unit 13. I have not managed to go through these secret scenarios but I did unlock the original Super Robot Wars characters from previous games along the way.
There are also two difficulty mode options; Beginner Mode which will let you breeze through the story without too much issue, and Standard Mode which is an interesting mix between Normal and Hard difficulty depending on whether you manage to win SR points. SR points are achieved by doing specific tasks like killing all enemies before the boss within a few turns etc. The more SR points you acquire, the harder the game will be.
During combat, you have a grid where you can control your team. Like Fire Emblem, you have limited space to move your character and can choose whether they should attack or standby. If you attack, you can also use special points to use abilities like extra power or 100% dodge their attacks. Speaking of percentages, the way the attacks work is like a game of chance. 100% means you are 100% likely to make a hit against the opponent, while 0% means they will dodge it completely and the same applies to the opponents against you. If you lose your HP, the character is out of the battle, however if that person is a major character in the scenario it can lead to a game over so be careful. Fortunately, the game is very generous on how you can handle specific situations.
The options available also include Spirit commands like dealing extra damage, an extra action and also have your teammates provide you with HP, SP points, 100% dodge success, and a special combo of abilities that let you increase accuracy and dodge completely which is very handy if you can’t heal at that moment. You can also upgrade these abilities and improve the characters and their mechs in-between scenarios using money. The money can be used to improve their HP, Armour, Sight, Mobility and EM points.
My team mainly consisted of my MC, the two secret original characters as well as Setsuna (Mobile Suit Gundam 00), Maito (Brave Express Might Gaine), Akito (Martian Successor Nadesico), Ryoma (Getter Robo Armageddon), Tetsuya (Great Mazinger), Ange (Cross Ange), Salia (Cross Ange), Hilda (Cross Ange), Amuro (Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack), Tobia (Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam), Athrun (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED), Kira (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED), Sousuke (Full Metal Panic!), Kouji Kabuto (Mazinger Z), Shinji (Rebuild of Evangelion), Judau (Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ), Hathaway (Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway) and Banagher (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn).
If you upgrade your team members consistently, they will be really good during combat and can make or break the situation you’re in, especially those that will provide a game over if you don’t defeat all of the enemies within a specific number of turns.
The story of Super Robot Wars V, despite the recaps of specific storylines of various anime titles, is insane and somehow works really well, especially with the dialogue interactions between each character is great. There is no voice acting, but I can let that slide considering how generous this cross-over is already. It also helps that this is a pretty long game, so there’s enough room to develop each character. The first playthrough will take 42.5 hours at least on Standard Mode, and that includes a couple game overs here and there. The hardest parts were in fact the ones where you had to fight the Evangelion due to their unique fighting capabilities (you can’t deal damage to them unless your attack power is roughly 4500 or higher in a sense). The game does provide New Game+ so you can carry over your money and progress over to the next playthrough.
Despite not having much knowledge for some of the shows here, it has done a great job introducing me to Getter Robo, Mazinger Z and Brave Express Might Gaine and their battle animations were all pretty epic. In addition, I also liked the Cross Ange cast considering the show’s reputation so I look forward to watching the anime for each of these (depending on availability of course). Space Battleship Yamato 2199‘s involvement was also great though the art style for some of the characters are slightly off (likely because they couldn’t use the original for approval reasons or other matters).
In terms of criticisms, the final quarter of the game does get very anime in terms of the battles. What I mean by this is that once you finish the enemies or the main goal, more enemies show up on the other side of the map which basically extends the runtime of the battle which can be quite tedious. It does get even more insane the closer you finish the story. The other criticism I have is with the main character Soji who is actually pretty unlikeable due to the way he interacts with everyone around him, and you can tell some of the characters ain’t a fan of him. He’s just cringe for a lot of the conversations unfortunately.
But it’s been a blast playing Super Robot Wars V. The combat is fun, the character interactions work really well, visually its very retro but it works and the pacing is pretty solid. The game is also quite expensive because it’s only available in Asia, so you’ll need to rely on Bazaar Bazaar or Play-Asia to find a physical copy or download via the Singapore PSN/eShop store to get the English version.
Gran Turismo 7
I haven’t played a solid racing game in a long while. I grew up playing Burnout 3: Takedown on PlayStation 2 and enjoyed similar arcade type games like Mario Kart and Sonic All-Stars Racing, but in general I never really felt like I had a good grasp of the more realistic type racing games. The closest I could think of was DiRT 2 back on Xbox 360 but the one that many think of when it comes to realism is Sony’s Gran Turismo franchise which I honestly felt I couldn’t get into due to its tagline – “A Real Driving Simulator”.
But Gran Turismo 7 was advertised as an newcomer friendly experience and I decided to jump in and pre-order it just to give it a shot, as I did manage to try out the GT Sport Beta demo when it was available for a short time. While it doesn’t have the arcade drift, Gran Turismo 7 was the biggest surprise I have had for a racing game in a long while.
So the way the game works is that you have an area hub with different options that you can access, but for single-player gamers the main place to go is the Cafe, which is where you go through these Menu Books which are essentially “compete in these races to unlock these three cars” and you don’t have to be in 1st place (the requirements are 1st, 2nd or 3rd) but I always make sure whenever possible to reach the 1st rank as this is a racing game after all. There are 39 overall and once you finish them, the game credits will play but you still have the post-game content which is basically you do whatever you want going forward. All the races that the Cafe asks you to compete in are located in World Circuit which is split into different regions; America, Europe, and Asia-Oceania with about 34 locations total as of the time of this write-up.
Alongside the Cafe we have Sports mode which I honestly don’t bother with due to the specific requirements which I find to be overly complicated and messy, and you also need PlayStation Plus to access these anyway. For the fancy photos you can take with your car, the Scapes section is for you and it’s very well detailed. You can also try out different mission and license challenges which are tasks like finish a race as fast as possible, and reach first without touching a car, wall or go off track. They are very challenging and I recommend you disable auto-brakes to get a better result.
There are currently 424 cars in the game from different manufacturers like Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Subaru, Suzuki, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and many more. There’s a lot, and you can acquire more cars by either winning specific races, beating missions and license challenges to Gold or Bronze ranks, and even buy new or used cars. The game does rely heavily on the GT credits so you’ll have to continue winning races to earn more, or spend microtransactions to speed up the process. There are also ticket roulettes which are basically loot boxes but you can actually see what the items have to offer as you try it out. You can buy new cars in Brand Central, buy used cars in Used Cars and if you are super rich, there’s also the Legend Cars section.
As I’m playing the PlayStation 5 version of the game, it runs really well with fast loading times, solid presentation and a consistent 60 frames per second. There is an option for ray-tracing but it apparently reduces the FPS so I didn’t see the point in using it. The most interesting part of the gameplay is the weather as it changes throughout the course of the race – so it can go from a nice sunny day to torrential rain that will impact your performance. The best one is in my opinion driving in the nightime as your car’s headlights will display and you need to be cautious as you steer throughout the path. The maps are also varied from areas in America, Europe and Asia. The Japan levels are pretty fun as you drive through big cities while the others are neat in terms of driving through forests. There are also dirt track levels that will challenge you in terms of patience.
Going back to the topic of the Cafe tasks, one thing to pay attention with when you progress through the game is the Performance Points (PP) which will determine whether your car is in the right range to be strong enough to reach the top spot of the race. For instance if you are heading to a race that requires 600 PP, you’ll want a car that is close to that number. I do warn you though as you will also need a car that is fast enough to catch up to the top three spots as you always start later than the other drivers. In addition, you can upgrade your car in the Tuning Shop to increase the PP value with different tires, engines, brakes and more.
However, by upgrading the PP value you will also be at risk of causing your car to swerve so ridiculously it would be extremely difficult to progress in the races that require you to go left and right each few seconds – and this can make or break the results of your race. The TCS will also help you out depending on the situation as it will make taking corners much smoother but you’re at a risk of having your car swerve much faster on faster speeds.
In addition to the Tuning Shop, there’s also GT Auto where you can clean your car, do a quick maintenance so that it’s running properly and even customise it with colours or decals. Before you start a race you can also do a last minute adjustment to the car of choice by swapping tires that best fit the condition of the race and even make manual amendments in the settings to your preference of speed and performance.
In terms of playtime, I spent a solid 28 hours in total going through all of the menu books and earning at least Gold rank on three of the five license challenge sections available. As much as I do recommend Gran Turismo 7 a lot, this is an ‘Always Online’ game – because the developers wanted to avoid cheating in the multiplayer, and combined with the massive amount of grinding needed to get all of the cars (which the developers have done to push people into spending real money through Microtransactions) will ruin your experience if you want to go for 100% at a suitable pace.
I can confirm you do not need to spend microtransactions at all for the single-player campaign as you will earn enough credits to upgrade your car’s performance and acquire a new car or two here and there to progress. But saying that, the issue is still there in terms of the credit earnings from the races, which was reduced in one of the earlier updates to avoid people earning credits faster and due to the always online experience, the game was unplayable for 30 hours straight which is unacceptable. If this game had offline access and no forced grinding to complete the game then I would have given it a near perfect rating.
Saying that, Gran Turismo 7 has been patched a few times as the weeks go by and Sony did listen to some feedback with regards to the credit setup. Due to the always online setup I will have to suggest you go for the digital route in this instance (and assuming you have 107GB of storage space!).
Onechanbara Z2: Chaos
A couple of years ago I picked up the Japanese PS3 release of Onechanbara Z Kagura with NoNoNo and while I did not finish it, I played a bit and understood what the gameplay was like (and I had positive impressions despite the franchise being low-budget, which is part of D3 Publisher’s charm). Eventually I picked up the game’s sequel which was localised for the west by XSEED (and published in Europe by NIS America), but did not play it until April 2021.
Onechanbara Z2: Chaos is an action hack n slash game that is basically D3 Publisher’s attempt on a Devil May Cry style game but with mostly undead enemies, or spirits as they call it. The game lets you control four different characters, each have some differing playstyles but for the most part its swords, chainsaws and gauntlet fist weapons, but they have different characteristics and attitudes which worked well in the English dub.
Each chapter is basically the same structure – you progress on a path and in some instances you’ll end up trapped in a barrier where you’ll have to kill all of the enemies on the screen but at the same time you have a mini-goal of trying to get the best score and rank each time. The score can be achieved with doing different combos and having your teammates join the fight which will benefit you in situations with big bosses or tons of enemies in the same area that may be overwhelming if you’re on your own. The teammates won’t appear all of the time as you will have to wait a brief while before each character is available to temporarily join your fight.
There are 16 chapters in total and each one has a variety of areas to differentiate, though there are some content recycled from the previous game. The gameplay is decent and because I’ve been playing the game on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility it does run at a solid 60fps. However, the biggest issue I have with the gameplay is the camera because locking on is an absolute pain to deal it. In addition to the fast combat and shoddy camera, I have experienced at least two instances of dizziness likely caused by motion sickness from the game which wasn’t fun. Fortunately the game is pretty short with about 4-5 hours of playtime.
There is more content available like missions but the game in general relies on replaying the story campaign on harder difficulties to unlock the rest of the items. The story is decent but I found the interactions between the main leads to be the most interesting part. Overall the game is a decent time, but it’s D3 Publisher so you should expect low-budget content.
SG/ZH: School Girl / Zombie Hunter
Not long after finishing the previous game, I decided to use this opportunity to also check out the other D3 Publisher game I have in my backlog which is the spin-off game SG/ZH: School Girl / Zombie Hunter. This one was interesting because it’s a third person shooter with zombies and was published by Aksys Games. Aksys Games did provide a physical release in Europe but it’s pretty rare so I went for the US version that was cheaper and readily available.
Similar to Onechanbara, this is also a low-budget game and there’s no English dub this time around. You can tell the budget was low as the cutscenes are weird and the gameplay is not as polished as you would expect. Honestly SG/ZH: School Girl / Zombie Hunter literally plays like a PS2 game which is an amusing experience. The concept is pretty decent though, as each mission requires you to either reach a destination, take out all of the enemies, destroy a few items, collect a few items, survive for a certain amount of time, defend for a certain amount of time or straight up defeat a boss.
That said, the story was forgettable due to how slow the cutscenes were, and the level variety isn’t there as it reuses the same locations. Considering this is a game with school girls stuck in a high school in the middle of a zombie apocalypse I suppose they didn’t want to wander about in other areas outside of the school like in Highschool of the Dead for budgetary reasons. The game also uses a lot of blue barriers to block you from reaching some areas though you can still hit enemies from that distance.
The game has about 6-7 main missions per chapter and 4 mini-missions each which offer the same variety as the ones above, though with an added sniper section. I think the game was a decent time since each mission is pretty short, but overall I wouldn’t buy at full price which is what it’s currently going for on digital platforms. At least the game runs at 60fps when played on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, compared to the PS4 version which has a lower framerate.
Ratchet & Clank: QForce (Full Frontal Assault)
I decided to go back and revisit the PlayStation 3 once again and finish off the remaining Ratchet & Clank titles I own on the system, which were the spin-offs. The first game I picked was Ratchet & Clank: QForce, also known in North America as Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, and it’s a tower defence game that is surprisingly good fun.
The concept is that you have to reach the opponent’s base before returning back to your own to defend from any on-going forces. And in-between these instances you will need to explore the area and slowly unlock the enemies base’s defences so that you can safely get to that point without being hit to death. Along the way you can also locate mini-item bases that offer weapons if you manage to beat a mini-puzzle which requires you to time the points on the screen. After getting a new weapon to your roster, you will need to go back and defend your base from incoming enemies that appear on either the left or right sides which is thankfully noted on your screen pretty well which makes travel easier.
Your base can be protected with turrets, shields and mines that does include the disco dancing ball which is pretty effective even against larger enemies. These can be acquired by using the game’s bolts that is essentially currency. Do note that you will start from scratch for each level which does make sense otherwise the game would end up being too easy, however your weapon upgrades will carry over so if you want to go back and beat some challenges this will be very useful.
In terms of length per level, it will depend on what weapons you choose along the way (for instance you have to choose between a regular blaster or a drill weapon on one item box) and their upgrades because it could make your progression faster. I found each level took on average about 30 mins to an hour depending on the situation. But overall the difficulty was pretty balanced and fair so I didn’t find it too hard to finish the story mode. Speaking of which, there’s only five levels and the game is pretty short running at about 4-6 hours playtime.
That said, I do think the game’s length is pretty decent considering the game’s repetitiveness and focus on online multiplayer. The online servers are still active but I did have a go at its online mode tutorial so I got a rough idea on its gameplay which is pretty interesting as well with money appearing the more you capture specific mini-bases in the area. I didn’t go for a Platinum because it requires online multiplayer (you don’t need PlayStation Plus for PS3 online but there’s no one playing the game).
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is another spin-off of the Ratchet & Clank Future saga series and I would consider it to be the least favourable one in the series. The game’s concept is pretty good with a four player storyline and there’s a lot of cool ideas involved throughout, but there has two big issues – a different control scheme which can be completely messy at times, and pacing issues.
Let’s start with the pacing issues. There are 9 chapters in the campaign and they are ridiculously long. You would think it would be much faster with four players together but that’s not really the case as there’s a lot of moments throughout that are very slow and quite frankly just tedious to progress. These chapters feel like multiple levels at once and while there are some cool aspects throughout like the puzzles, it’s very repetitive and overstays their welcome. One level for instance was on a lighthouse esque scenery and it was just too long and sufferable which is unfortunate considering there’s some fun parts like the boss fight.
The control scheme is different but I feel like it struggles to decide whether it wants to be a twin-stick type shooter or a regular Ratchet & Clank game because the way you change weapons is just awful. Not to mention the AI partner isn’t always there as you can die and the AI wouldn’t want to help. The difficulty is decent but you would probably have a better experience with another player. The weapon selection feels off as a lot of the guns don’t do much and the one weapon you think would be useless (the one that turns enemies into animals) is ridiculously overpowered even on boss fights which is hilarious.
The playtime was about 12-14 hours and I feel this game is not the best in the franchise. I will say that the RYNO segments (the ones where you go through trying to get a monster from one part of the level to the other like a mouse following a path) is actually pretty fun as its short and doesn’t overstay its welcome but is also rewarding at the same time. While I did get more trophies in this game compared to QForce, multiplayer is need for the Platinum.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2: Sisters’ Generation
Nep Nep. It’s been a while since I last played a Hyperdimension Neptunia game. I was originally going to play this remake after the first one back in September 2021 but other things had gotten in the way. After delving through a bunch of games and thinking about the Vita instalments, I decided it was a good time to continue where I l left off with the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth games and it’s been an interesting experience.
For context, I have played the original version released on PS3 known as Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. It was a much better experience compared to the original that came before, which was a nightmare to progress due to its battle system despite the interesting characters and story. But since mk2, the Neptunia franchise pretty much kept the same battle system from mk2 onwards. Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 was a complete remake of the original first game from start to finish, but Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 is mostly the same as before with some tweaks to the mix.
One big difference is that there’s now an additional ending to the story, which is basically the ‘good’ ending of the Conquest storyline, which was infamous for being dark. In addition, the game also has the same assets and mechanics from Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 which does feel a bit cheap at parts. And lastly we have a unique but tedious mini-game called Stella’s Dungeon.
The story of Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 is the same as the original – Nepgear (SEGA portable girl) must unite with Uni (PlayStation portable girl) and Rom & Ram (Nintendo portable girls) to rescue their older sisters and protect Gamindustri. It’s an enjoyable time and there’s a vast amount of characters that join the roster, with Cave (based on the very hard bullet hell games so there’s a lot of references to her dodging people in condensed crowds), 5pb (an idol), Falcom (an adventurer based on Nihon Falcom games Ys & Legend of Heroes), and more. Characters Nisa and Gust from the original do not return, as those publishers were not involved with the Re;Birth instalments. You can build the trust of each character with Lily Ranks which gives you some extra bonuses during combat like reduced SP, faster turns and more.
The battle system is like a mix between traditional turn-based RPGs and Valkyria Chronicles‘ tactical RPG gameplay. You can move your character around in a specific window and you then have the option to attack with some combos of various kinds, use special attacks or support moves, an EXE Drive that provides super moves which can be very handy in bigger fights, and the usual items, defend and escape if needed. The game uses a queue system where your character has to wait for their turn before they can attack which is similar to the Shin Megami Tensei games, where some abilities can move you forward in the queue or the enemy further back.
In addition to the combat system, you can customise your characters with different cosmetics like a hat, costume or for the CPUs additional components to make them even stronger during fights. You will want to constantly update their move sets and equipment because the game can get pretty challenging out of nowhere. But if you want more of a challenge, near the end of the game you’ll unlock the colosseum which features boss battles and group battles that can earn you extra XP, credits or change the shares of each region (also you won’t get a game over if you do lose your HP which is a plus). You can also create Discs which give you extra support like faster earnings, reduced damage against specific enemy types and increase the lily ranks of your teammates.
Just like the previous games, the share system is still here. When you finish a quest or take part in the colosseum, you can move around the shares between each region which determines the ending of the game as well as any characters you may unlock. Getting 15% between each region and 40% below Arfoire will let you reach Chapter 7 & the True End route. Getting 70% for one region before Chapter 6 will unlock a specific ending for that region. The Conquest route requires watching a few major cutscenes in Chapter 2 and getting 55% shares on Planeptune before Chapter 6 as well as unlocking the CPUs (which each require 50% in their regions, which as you can tell is overly complicated and time consuming). The share system is a cool idea but the problem is that when you go into New Game Plus, the characters have to be re-unlocked which is another pain to deal with. To reach the Holy Sword route, you’ll need to follow the Conquest requirements as well as having all CPU members receive a Lily Rank of 8 with Nepgear which can also be a grind-fest.
The worlds have some variety but they do re-use a lot of areas with some tweaks to the dungeons as well as differing enemies. If you are cautious and look at every bit of detail that is shown after a story plot-point or two, with the info notes throughout the map, you will also unlock new plans. These plans include Change Dungeon, Add Enemies, Change Items and also other integral items like Destroy Symbols (kill battles before they even start) and Symbol Attack Gains (receive EXP/credits etc with the former).
Now the story itself is good fun and the combat is also pretty enjoyable when you’re not stressed due to the difficulty. But from here is where I want to talk more on the PlayStation trophies related to the game. You see, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 does have a fairly easy Platinum to achieve, but it’s challenge is down to patience and time. In addition to having to earn all of the endings, you’ll also have to get Level 99 for every character, defeat a secret boss, earn a culminative total of 100 million credits, use 200 plans and complete the most tedious of them all – Stella’s Dungeon.
Stella’s Dungeon is an RNG mini-game where you have the character Stella traverse in a dungeon and you have to wait and see if she manages to complete the task without dying. If she reaches all of the areas in a dungeon, that’s cleared for the completion. The challenge here is that the amount of time she takes to complete a dungeon is based on real-time i.e. if it takes 3 hours to finish a dungeon, you literally have to wait 3 hours. Not to mention, Stella can die so you will have to start all over again to see if she can live the next.
When Stella dies, she will lose all of her equipment making the mini-game completion even more ridiculous. This is why I made the decision to acquire the 79p DLC which will not only half the time it takes for Stella to finish the dungeon, but will also allow her to keep the equipment when she gets killed. The developers did fix this tedious aspect with Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 at least (but it is recommended you get the 79p DLC for that game too for the equipment saving and timesaving for different reasons).
But that’s not the only problem. You will also have to get access to every single dungeon in the game which will also require having access to specific plans like Add Enemies to unlock those dungeons. There are four dungeons that can’t be accessed until New Game Plus and they’re located in Chapter 2, and if you’re not careful enough they are easily missable which can be a nightmare to deal with.
The positives of the mini-game is that you can save the game after Stella starts her dungeon exploration, turn off the Vita (either by sleep mode or switching it off entirely) and then come back later in the day to get the result, so you don’t have to be actively staring at the screen to see if she is making progress or not.
Because of the Stella Dungeon mini-game, my playtime took 3 complete playthroughs, and a couple of days waiting for the mini-game to be completed for the Platinum trophy. I did admittedly also spend an extra 79p to increase the Level cap from 99 to 399 to get the secret boss and some of the tougher enemies in the hidden dungeons out of the way because even if you’re max level you can easily get killed or spend ages just to get the items you want which is also a massive pain.
That said I also acquired the free DLC packs which actually sped up the game’s progress as well thanks to a weapon for Nepgear which basically killed or took out a majority of the enemy HP in a few turns which really caught me off guard but it was a nice addition (especially since I have already experience the game’s challenges and such with the original PS3 version).
Overall, Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 is a pretty decent remake for the original game. I do wish they had more variety but I suppose the blame is down to Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 1 taking the assets and such beforehand. And I do wish they made the mini-game a lot faster but its not a bad concept in general.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3: V Generation
After finishing Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 I continued the Nep Nep remake journey with the Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3, which is the remake/remastered version of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory, the last game in the PS3 trilogy. I played Victory not long after mk2 and enjoyed it a lot, so going into this version it’s pretty much identical with a few changes here and there.
The world map is different to the predecessors as we have Nep going into a different dimension which features Plutia, their version of Nep. The gameplay is similar to the original, with the EXP gauge modified so that it relies on the SP availability you have which doesn’t replenish when you move around the world map. Getting your character’s K.O.’d during combat also means you can swap them out with another character if they are available in your party selection.
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 has one big difference to the original and that’s an extra secret boss fight and that’s about it. Stella’s Dungeon from Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2 also makes a return with this version of the game, and thankfully they listened to the feedback and made it much more streamlined and easier to complete, as it can now be sorted at a faster rate than before. No need to spend hours having to unlock a path through every dungeon since in this game you just need to find specific materials in select areas and you can unlock the keys to get the higher areas.
The trophies in this game are sort of easier, but the big hurdle is getting Lily Ranks for each character (non-DLC) which to be fair was faster than I had expected as you can rank up four characters in one go if you have extra disc items to help increase lily rank growth in your equipment.
The game does have multiple endings; Normal, Good & True. The latter two are in a similar path as you basically need to view all scenes found in specific locations to unlock that final ending. The ending also determines whether you have all or select members in your party available to you for the final boss and map.
Other than that, there isn’t that much to say about Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 that I haven’t mentioned already from my experience playing through Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 2. The Victory story and gameplay was pretty much the peak of the franchise, though saying that I haven’t yet played Megadimension Neptunia VII (the original or the remake version VIIR) so that could be better. The next logical step after Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 would be to go into Megadimension Neptunia VII but the plan is to wrap up the Vita spin-offs at some point which other than one of the games is way shorter in length.
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark
In late 2021 I picked up two games by Japanese developer Experience. These are part of a unique J-Horror visual novel trilogy called Spirit Hunter, which puts its emphasis to Japanese yokai monsters and spirits. The game is also a hybrid between visual novel and adventure exploration, similar to Zero Escape, with visual novel dialogue combined with segments that rely on dungeon type exploration and point & click elements.
Spirit Hunter: Death Mark is the first one in the series. Death Mark starts off right out of the door with a great premise – you’re cursed, you have no idea who you are and you’re only hope is going to a mansion with a talking doll who can help guide you and others who are stuck in a similar situation. The curse also has a time limit and your goal is to try and survive by facing these spirits. The story is presented in chapters, as you eventually encounter different spirits and characters throughout your journey, and each of them have great backgrounds and attitudes. The detective character in particular is pretty cool and plays an intriguing role in the story.
The story also provides different dialogue choices that may change the story progression, and when you get into the main gameplay aspect, the decision to who you pick to assist you in your investigation can impact the ending and outcome of that situation. For instance, the wrong character could lead to your death, while the wrong choices could lead to your assist character’s demise in the most gruesome way possible. The game does have to provide a balance in terms of tone and violence in order to avoid Japan’s CERO Z rating, but the horror aspect is there and done well.
Speaking of horror, the game isn’t scary in terms of jump scares but rather its atmosphere and tone. The spirit designs are creepy and what they do certainly makes you want to go ‘nope’ if you were in that situation. The solution to surviving these spirits is a great homage to the J-Horror genre because it’s not done with the western mindset that physical items and guns can solve the problem – what Death Mark does is different by having you figure out why the spirit is in their state and how you can use that knowledge to either defeat them or save them. A random item you may find in one room could hold the key to protecting you in that moment. There will be dialogue choices or decision that are timed, and you should not waste these moments otherwise you will die sooner than later, so the emphasis of having to make a quick decision in seconds plays a big role in this series.
Death Mark is a short length story, with 9 hours of content to get through all of the chapters, their good & bad outcomes for each arc, and the overall two main ending routes in the end. The length is just about right as it provides good pacing to tell its story without dragging each arc for the sake of it. There’s also an additional story chapter that was not included in the Vita release at launch which is a pretty solid arc that helps provide a good idea on where the franchise would go from there. I also really liked the ending of the story which has a nice resolution that wraps up our main character’s journey from start to finish.
Also, the artwork and character designs by Rui Tomono and Fumiya Sumio are perfect. Not only do they provide a different representation to the game but it also captures that horror aspect for the spirit designs really well. It’s unique and would love to see more of their work on other projects. Spirit Hunter: Death Mark is a pretty solid visual novel experience, and I highly recommend you give the game a shot.
Spirit Hunter: NG
Following the success of Death Mark, Experience released a follow-up called Spirit Hunter: NG which features a new cast of characters, setting, spirits and a whole new story altogether.
Spirit Hunter: NG shares the same structure as Death Mark. Your character is cursed but is forced to play a game that results in your death if you don’t deal with the spirits that are around in the city. You meet various characters along the way, and there’s some added plot points that differentiates itself from Death Mark – for instance your character can use an ability that lets you view visions of spirits or other people based on the bloodstains laid around.
The story is also darker than Death Mark in terms of the character’s situation, where anywhere he goes is pretty much not safe and your choices do impact the situation more than before, for instance how well you react to your friends and their fates. If you decide for whatever reason to pursue the bad ending then you’re going into one of the more depressing outcomes you can have. I do think that Death Mark is scarier in terms of the gameplay but Spirit Hunter: NG does a great job with the storylines, more specifically one about the Screaming Author arc which is truly fucked up when you learn more about its backstory.
The gameplay is also modified in various areas. The user interface has been changed, but the general concepts still remain such as pointing at which parts you want to interact, acquiring items and which partner to choose during the investigations. Spirit battles are pretty much the same, with the main difference being the UI redesigns.
Spirit Hunter: NG also introduces a subplot involving D-Mail which are text messages requesting you find a card from time to time that provide extra background information for the world building. Also introduced are some branching paths that change the story and conversations, for instance you have to choose who’s more important to you between some individuals at a certain point. There are also moments where you can decide how to react to a conversion, which can range between being angry or happy, but they don’t make much of a difference outside of additional extra items in the background lore.
Death Mark is also referenced heavily throughout the story which is a nice added touch but you don’t need to play the previous game to understand the full story for this one.
Overall I found Spirit Hunter: NG to be another great addition to the franchise. The story is interesting, the characters are likeable, and the art style continues to shine. The game also has a ‘Scary Mode’ which introduces more jump scares but I focused on the default mode for the story. The game’s length is roughly the same as Death Mark but if you want to get the Platinum trophy you’ll need to get all three endings that require making some save slots at a few certain points in the story.
Sisters Royale
This is a short one but a nice addition to the mix. Sisters Royale, also known as Sisters Royale: I’m Being Harassed by 5 Sisters and It Sucks (Sisters Royale: 5 Shimai ni Iyagarase o Ukete Komatteimasu), is a shoot em up that consists of you controlling one of each sister as they battle their own to grab their love interest. There are five stages in total, with a different theme for each, and there’s a boss fight at the end.
Much like other console versions, you have the option to keep continuing when you get a game over but the high score total will reset back to 0. That said, the game offers a solid challenge for the content that it has, with different difficulty modes available to change the pace. In addition each sister (which there are 5 in total), has their own style of combat against the obstacles on the screen.
Overall it’s a fun short game, and I’ve tried out each of the sister characters at each difficulty to change up the pace. Sisters Royale is available digitally but I found a physical version available in Japan that has English support.
And that concludes Part 1 of my list of video games I played throughout the year of 2022. You can view the rest of the list here!
The Normanic Vault 
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