I must admit, stocking shelves is such a bore. Having worked in gas stations for about a decade, replacing product was always the thing I least liked to do. I mean, none of it is fun, honestly. Sweeping, mopping, ringing customers up, and cleaning toilets — few jobs I’ve ever held felt more degrading in the day-to-day. I suppose in that sense, I am grateful for Roadside Research ’s more fantastical take on the convenience store drudgery. As a 1 to 4-player co-op simulation game, tackling these mundane efforts is much more entertaining on its own, and doubly so given the alien-invaders-as-store-clerks premise it holds itself to. Publisher: Oro Interactive Developer: Cybernetic Walrus Platform: Played on PC Availability: Released February 12, 2026 on Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC Between stocking shelves, mopping up feces (an activity that brings me no joy to relive, even jokingly), and charging customers for goods, you’ll be trying to avoid suspicion from said customers and the government agents that accost you. My early impressions of Roadside Research  are, unfortunately, nearly as limited as the current gameplay. With very few character customization options and a limited variety of interactions available to you in any given scenario, there’s not much to take away from the game beyond having a good time with your friends. When you have a full group of competent players, even the slow trickle of research tasks are of little concern. There is very little threat of discovery from your hunters should you simply perform your tasks efficiently. Additionally, store customization is limited and your available tasks are equally sparse. Only a few item options are present, and the only real work to be done lies in pumping gas, scrubbing messes, and taking people’s money — a great approximation, indeed.  If you’re looking for a way to kill a few hours with friends, Roadside Research  is not a particularly compelling option in its current state. That said, I do find the game has a lot of promise. Should more varied research tasks be implemented, and should agent involvement escalate in future updates, running the gas station disguised as aliens could be quite a lot of fun.

Thanks, I hate it. Yes, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  is as mid as you’ve probably heard by now. Let's get that out of the way right from the jump. More pointedly though, the unusually selective and narrow manner in which review codes were distributed for it ahead of embargo, compared to the last few games in the series, would seem to suggest that SEGA knew it to be so. Publisher: SEGA Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio Platform: Played on PC and Steam Deck Availability: Released February 12, 2026 on PS4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC, Nintendo Switch 2 For a bit of context as to where I’m tackling Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  from, my on-ramp to the series was Yakuza 0 . I loved it, and eagerly devoured Yakuza Kiwami  and Yakuza Kiwami 2  soon after. I then got to the remaster of Yakuza 3  and frankly found its overall clunkiness to be a bit of a chore. I never ended up circling back to it, having stopped somewhere around the midpoint about four years ago. I’ve since leapt ahead and completed the three new Like a Dragon  titles. This long preamble is to lay completely bare the fact that, if ever there were someone for whom Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  should be explicitly for, it’s me. Yet with all of this weight in its favor, I still found the game to be a frustratingly regressive and sauceless experience. The story kicks off with former yakuza bigshot Kazuma Kiryu having left mainland Japan behind. He’s running a beachside orphanage in Okinawa and just trying to raise his adopted kids in peace. The land they’re living on comes under threat of development, thrusting him back into the world of organized crime — all while Kiryu tries to make sure he’s home in time to look after the children each night. It’s a great narrative setup that, in its original form, managed to keep the welfare of the kids front and center in the player's mind. Unfortunately, this remake crams so much unskippable new stuff into the first several hours that it derails this focus entirely. Early on in the adventure, Kiryu happens upon the leaders of an all-girl motorbike gang who were not present in the original. They aim to protect and empower women to stand up to the rival gangs who prey upon them openly in the streets. Kiryu is quickly convinced to join as they plead the case that they need his strength, which is a pretty weird feminist message that even he points out the awkwardness in. This would all be fine as a way to introduce a side activity for the player to loop back to later should they wish, but the core questline immediately demands that Kiryu then find and recruit ten members, then organize them into fighting squadrons, and then lead the charge on besieging a rival gang's turf. It’s a whole diversion that is quickly revealed to be fairly analogous to Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii ’s crew recruitment and treasure hunting in its scope and depth. Its existence as a feature is entirely fine despite its clunky and laborious introduction. The problem is that it’s only a couple of hours later that the revised storyline demands once again that Kiryu engage with a whole lot more of it. It ends up hogging so much of the game's first few chapters that it leaves one feeling as if the biker girls and their problems are Kiryu’s main focus and not the plight of the orphans under his care. While the visuals are a massive upgrade from the original game, they could still use some work. I tend to see little point or purpose in remakes which creatively aim to just be a 1:1 copy of the original but with updated visuals or whatever. If the original version remains available, then experiencing it in the best approximation of its original form holds more compelling artistic value to me. I’m actively welcoming of change in the type of product that the Kiwamis represent. The issue is that so few of the changes made here feel as if they’re for the better. Drastically reducing the number of substories should be an endeavour in cutting bloat and improving what remains. It doesn’t, though, as most of the substories featured in Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  are very short and completely forgettable. Some are cute for those who have played the newer games, such as introducing an early prototype of the Street Surfer personal vehicle seen in the two games — Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth , and  Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii  — most recently released and furthest along in the saga’s timeline. The downtown Ryukyu map, where much of the game takes place, has also been shrunk, presumably in an effort to make the whole locale not feel sparse due to so many substories having been cut. This in turn makes giving the player the Street Surfer at all feel jarringly pointless from a gameplay perspective. There’s variation made to the brawling system with the addition of a second meter and a weapons-based fighting stance for Kiryu, as well as buffing auras for elite enemies. None of it means much in practice, though flinging nunchuks around is at least amusing. A parry mechanic has been introduced that feels unnecessary, but isn’t really intrusive or bothersome. The issue is that so few of the changes made here feel as if they’re for the better. Drastically reducing the number of substories should be an endeavour in cutting bloat and improving what remains. Look, there is a level of quality to be found at the game’s foundational level. It is a Yakuza  title after all. The immersive sense of place that each location communicates is as wonderful as always, even if the visual fidelity feels a little lacking. The whole system for blinging out Kiryu’s flip phone and gaining passive buffs for doing so is delightful. There’s plenty of charm to be found in many of the characters and scenarios, and I did get quite invested in all of the Animal Crossing -esque orphanage management. The fact that Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  cannot help but feature a solid and good base experience despite itself really just serves to amplify the aggravation it made me feel about everything piled on top of that foundation, though. From top to bottom, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties  feels exhaustingly cynical. It’s as if its creation were a chore that the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios team would just inevitably have to deal with, but had little drive or passion to really do. The choice to recast a prominent role with an actor who has confessed to sexual assault, and then putting him in a scene where he fingerpoints mockingly at another character for being jailed for the same crime, is utterly baffling. The choice to have removed a trans-positive substory added in 2019’s Yakuza 3 Remastered,  while also now delisting that version of the game from individual sale, is utterly deflating.  The included Dark Ties  add-on is a prologue adventure that serves to flesh out the character of Mine. It’s fine, but its 7ish hours isn’t worth the price of admission if you’ve finished Yakuza 3  before and it’s the only part of the package that you’re interested in. The ways in which the character is written throughout it just aren’t that compelling. I can’t help but feel as if it would’ve been better served as a smaller thing, either interspersed throughout the main game or frontloaded like the Haytham chapter that kicks off Assassin’s Creed III , alas.  If there’s one remarkable thing I can say about Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties it’s that it truly made me empathize with its protagonist more than any other game in the series, as just like Kiryu, I spent the entire experience wishing I were sitting on a beach with my loved ones.   Verdict Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties is a depressingly tired experience and an absolute low point for the series.  Please, RGG Studio, let Kiryu rest. Image Credits: SEGA and Jam Walker Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" Originally released in 1995 as The Dark Eye , 2026’s Edgar Allan Poe's Interactive Horror: 1995 Edition  is an uncanny, point-and-click retelling of some of Edgar Allan Poe’s most notable works. Annabel Lee , Berenice , The Cask of Amontillado , The Masque of the Red Death , and The Tell-Tale Heart  (among others) are all played through or directly read to the player throughout the course of the game, and the events of the main story proper serve as a reflection on these stories and Poe’s own life.  Developer:   Inscape, GMEDIA Publisher:  GMEDIA Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released February 15, 2026 on Steam . Starting as a nameless man, the player approaches a manor and is bid welcome inside, thus beginning this sordid journey. In this house, the player shuffles through the dreary, run-down rooms to find the next appropriate person to speak with or item to interact with for further story progression. The environments are quite bare, but there are some interesting artistic choices within the abode. All character models are stop-motion puppets, cutscenes are FMVs, and much of the off-putting artwork is 2D imagery. Seeing the puppets in motion is unnerving, especially so because of their lifeless eyes and exaggerated features. Unlike many adventure games from the 90’s, there are no puzzles to solve, inventory to manage, or quests to complete — you simply click objects or people until the next story sequence occurs. In this way, the game serves more as an interactive play, where scenes are dictated to you with only minor input by the player. That interactivity does lead to some interesting engagement, however. As you explore the house, your character will slip into these dream-like states where you go from the overarching story into reenactments of Poe’s works. Within these dreams, players do the same lever-hunting as outside of them, but there are also opportunities to switch perspectives between the murderer and victim so you can see both sides of the story. Poe’s works have stood the test of time for a reason. Tackling themes of death, loss, and fear, Poe was masterful at evoking the terror of uncertainty in his writing. This game captures those feelings well in the visuals and voice performances we are treated to. The unsettling nature of the imagery and dialogue is further enhanced by the soundscape. Every element of these reenactments serves to elevate the stories they tell into something truly unique. I honestly don't think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it. The imagery is just as unnerving as the writing. That said, I must recommend you steer clear of Edgar Allan Poe's Interactive Horror: 1995 Edition . While the game is likely relatively short, I encountered a game-breaking issue multiple times that left me unable to complete the game. When you want to save or back out of the game, you must press the ESC key twice, which will bring you to the main menu — at least that’s what is supposed to happen. In four separate instances, I attempted to save and exit, only to have the game take me to a black screen, which locks up the game and does not save progress. The final time I encountered this issue was accidental, as I had resolved to run all the way through the game without saving. Alas, my sweet little black cat jumped up to my desk and hit ESC, ending my furthest journey — a sign, if there ever was one.  But I persisted and found some workarounds for that save issue. I really wanted to finish this game. But then, on my next attempt, an interaction that was supposed to advance the story did not occur properly. When I backed out and reloaded, the interaction was no longer available, and I was softlocked from progress. Were these issues present in the original release? Could they have been addressed in some way before shipping this version? With the help of the publisher, I was able to work through some of these bugs, but how realistic is that for the average user without a direct line to the support team? Even after resolving these issues a few times, I encountered similar errors later on. That brings up the larger question of game preservation — what is the most appropriate way to bring these stories into new generations? While many developers aim to completely overhaul games to fit with modern audience expectations, GMedia has opted to bring the game forward in its original state. There are no added quality-of-life adjustments or changes to the voice work and art contained within the game. But an issue that causes complete progress loss any time you try to use a basic game function is untenable. Without a way to skip dialogue, having the threat of freezing or complete obliteration of your file is an absurd ask. I was unable to find complaints about such issues in searches related to the 1995 version of the game, but even if they existed there, these simply should have been fixed for the updated version. Verdict Edgar Allan Poe's Interactive Horror: 1995 Edition  is a bleak, fascinating, and truly unique take on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, but it suffers from some egregious technical issues. Despite the artistry involved, I cannot in good conscience recommend a game that does not fully function. Image Credits: GMEDIA Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.

*This is an expanded review for the video game Iron Lung, published on 02/12/2026 . If you would like to see the original mini-review, you can check that out here . What makes a video game “good” or “bad”? I suppose that is the eternal question for all art, not just video games, but in a medium as vast as this, what sort of thresholds are there to meet, or bars by which to be measured? I always come back to intent (what were the developers trying to do and say), execution (what does the work provide to us), and interpretation (how did the work make me feel). A bit vague, but important touchstones to look back on when genres, controls, and stories are all so wildly different game-to-game. Iron Lung  is a minimalist horror experience in which your goal is to navigate your submersible underwater to photograph increasingly unnerving phenomena. “Minimalist” may be underselling just how little we are given, actually. Confined to a single, small space, with only a few things to interact with, your options are quite limited. A brief introductory message and vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective, but very little exposition exists to explain the stakes or the story of this world beyond this. Publisher:   David Szymanski Developer:   David Szymanski Platform:  Played on PC Availability: Released Mar 9, 2022 on Windows PC (Steam). Released Dec 19, 2022 for Nintendo Switch. You’re not going to get a tutorial, either, as Iron Lung  throws you into the breach with little more than a console and a four-button control key to work with. Thankfully, the controls are shown on screen and are easy enough to get in tune with due to the simplistic nature of the gameplay. Such simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing in games. A single button can be used to great effect when placed in myriad encounters. Think of the jump button in many platforming games — this single button will allow you to defeat enemies, navigate vertical platforms, leap across open spaces, and engage with the environment.  In this game, nothing interesting is ever done with the simplistic controls to make it feel rewarding or engaging. You just go until you hear the clicks signifying your distance to an obstacle and press your dials until the noise stops. When you do eventually reach your destination (as marked on your map), you’ll go to the viewport and take a picture. When looking at a game’s visuals, it’s not just about how photo-realistic an image is, but more about what the image is meant to convey. Do the environments tell us a story? What does a character’s design tell us about their personality? There are many avenues to take in communicating via visual language. For its part, Iron Lung does attempt to do so and mostly succeeds in the submersible itself. You can tell that it is run-down, with leaks and rust all visible in the space. Clearly, the people sending you down below do not think you’re coming back, nor do they seem to care if you do. But so little is actually shown here that it becomes more engaging to simply stare at the console and see your numbers and radar adjust as the game progresses. But what about those pictures I mentioned? Well, they may be even more uninteresting. The photos start mundane — perhaps almost indecipherable — but progressively attempt to settle into a more uncanny or unnerving image set. Frankly, nothing shown here, even by the end, felt interesting enough to evoke a feeling.  But so little is actually shown here that it becomes more engaging to simply stare at the console and see your numbers and radar adjust as the game progresses. On the other hand, the audio does a much more commendable job in that respect. While it is similarly minimalist with no background track, the creaks and groans of the submersible do serve to create tension. You never really know if this moment will be your last, and each event that transpires seems intent on ending your escape. The clarity and realism in these sounds are not particularly high, but I think that brings me back to my point about evoking feeling. It doesn’t need to be true-to-life; it only needs to effectively communicate what is happening at any given moment. Whether it signifies increasing pressure, scraping against an underwater shelf, or proximity to my target, the sound just needs to get me to understand. It needs to make me feel like I'm in danger — and it does that just fine. Despite the suspense often created by these sounds, I can't help but come away from Iron Lung  wishing there was more to do or uncover. While a full playthrough will land somewhere between an hour or two, most of it is spent watching a dial. There’s absolutely nothing engaging or interesting about playing the game itself. It is, quite frankly, tedious. Without any mechanical complexity, story, or music to fall back on, the game must rely on a few jump scares to keep the audience awake. I suppose there is something admirable about a creator deciding to limit the scope of their work to exactly what they felt was necessary, but in the case of Iron Lung , that minimalism cuts too close to nothing. With no story or real visual component to speak of, your enjoyment may just come down to how interested you are in the unseen. Iron Lung Mini-Review (Original) Iron Lung is a minimalist horror experience where your goal is to navigate your submersible vehicle underwater in order to take pictures of increasingly unnerving phenomena. Vague, garbled dialogue hints at your objective and the stakes, but you’re not going to get much in the way of exposition. You’re not going to get a tutorial, either, as Iron Lung  throws you into the breach with little more than a console and a four button control key to work with. A full playthrough will land somewhere between an hour or two depending on how fast you adjust to the controls, making this one a brief encounter. With no story or real visual component to speak of, your enjoyment may just come down to how interested you are in the unseen.

In Romeo Is a Dead Man, the "Time Shocking Labrynth" is a minigame in which you must answer seemingly random, rapid-fire questions from your fellow FBI member, WorstPink. This minigame is entirely optional, and confers no benefits upon completion other than unlocking the trophy/achievement "Romeo is a Wed Man." It's worth noting that providing the wrong answer at any point in the quiz will start you back at square 1. The questions are always delivered in the same order, and the answers are always the same. So if you're just looking to get through it, here are the answers to each question. WorstPink Quiz Answers  I'm excited.  I haven't checked.  I don't remember.  My heart.  Leave them alone.  I'm trying to forget it now.  The time before I go to sleep.  A break.  Sometimes.  Yes.  The final gas in a battle royale.  When I feel like I'm about to cry.  DoDonPachi Resurrection.  Wait for someone to contact me.  Comedy.  Just one foot.  Someone else's face.  My feet.  A poster of my favorite movie.  Keep drinking from it.  Left.  Escape.  Bondi blue.  Like today I can finally change.  I don't care about the color of the sky.  In bed.  Leave one on.  I only ever notice when it's about to die.  I'm always holding onto it.  In a dream.  The Space-time forest.  A tunnel of trees.  Gladiolus.  The path in the middle covered with fallen leaves.  An orange light floating in the sky.  I was just thinking the same thing.  Nothing.  "When the wind stops, the tribulations shall pass, and two shall be chosen."  The small pond.  Yeah, it was silver and shiny.  In the middle of the pond.  I'll hold the rod upright to maintain tension.  I'll reel it in slowly and carefully.  Release it into the pond.  The waiting.  The suspension bridge on the mountain.  A shortcut to love  It looks like it's flickering on and off.  Yeah, it's definitely looping.  The forest to the left.  I think someone is guiding us.  The forest is listening to us.  I'll just barely touch your fingertips.  We'll pop into an old cabin.  "The Rouge Love Letter"  Well, I might as well take a look.  There's a poem written in red letters.  "Speed You ♡ SOSS"  There's something orange approaching.  I'm sorry for coming in without permission!  Someone possessing WorstPink.  I don't remember.  No one has said it yet.  I think it was you.  The 43rd question.  I was going to go straight back.  I want to keep talking.  Being lied to.  Everything has been a lie.  Have you ever been in love?  I just took a peek…  I had forgotten.  Anytime.  Return WorstPink  The love letters on the table  It touched my heart  OK.  "The madness."  Steal the cassette player  Steal the love letters.  29  The Space-Time Forest.  A wanted fugitive.  A friend.  Yes.  12  Blast beats.  50  I don't know.  They haven't announced their official position.  It's about to be.  No.  It's alive.  You were possessed by an evil spirit.  It's paint.  It could be a dream.  I can't calm down.  A gold ring.  Yes... I want to be together with you forever. I'm confused, too. Alternatively, if you just want to see what happens, here's a video of the entire sequence.

I'm sleeping in. 20 Minutes Till Dawn is a bullet hell/bullet heaven action roguelike where the player faces off against multitudes of foes in a near pitch-black arena. Taking place in the dead of night, you’ll need to survive for 20 minutes to see the dawn and live another day. But is this a life worth living? Developer:  flanne Publisher:  Erabit, flanne Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released June 8, 2023 for Windows PC and MacOS (Steam); September 9, 2022 for Android and iOS; December 21, 2023 for Nintendo Switch. The premise and flow are quite familiar and easy enough for newcomers to wrap their heads around. First, you’ll pick a character to use in the coming fight, with each character having unique abilities and strengths. Next, you’ll pick a primary weapon to use through the night. Finally, you’ll select the arena in which you will battle. Once that is done, the proper game begins, and the hordes shuffle toward you. Using your weapon of choice, you’ll take out the foes until you earn enough experience to level up and select some form of upgrade. These upgrades come in a few different forms: Basic stat boosts, summons, and supporting effects. Stat boosts are just as they sound, simple mathematical increases (or decreases) to things like your bullet damage, health, or speed. Summons are creatures and objects that have a physical presence outside of the player and do damage to enemies. Lastly, supporting effects are things like shields you can use to protect yourself or elemental effects like freezing your foes upon hit. The options for starting abilities are fairly limited, but each has its own evolution path, and many can combine with other upgrades to form powerful fusion effects. As you fight and the timer ticks down, you’ll not only fight increasingly large numbers of ghouls, but also occasionally need to face down more powerful bosses or elite enemies. These enemies are visually distinguished by their size and color scheme, but are also much more powerful than their normal foe counterparts. Upon death, these elites drop a chest that provides the player with the choice of one of three tomes. These tomes are a stat boost or an ability that is unique to each character or equipped weapon type, and are generally extremely powerful. After surviving the full 20 minutes, the battle just kind of ends. There’s no sunrise to signify the coming of the day, and no monster to end the run. Everything just disappears, the screen goes black, and your score shows up in the middle of the frame. Quite an anti-climactic end to an otherwise enjoyable sequence. Whether you live or die, runes are awarded as currency to purchase permanent upgrades and to unlock new characters and weapons. Weapon and character unlocks are quite cheap, and given the large amount of runes awarded at the end of a completed run, you’ll have everything unlocked in no time at all. 20 Minutes Till Dawn is visually striking, but lacks the complex mechanics or variety needed to lift it above the field . Perhaps the most apparent feature of 20 Minutes  is its distinct art style and color scheme. All enemies, player characters, environments, and objects are depicted in greyscale, with some defining features or projectiles splashed with red to make them stand out.  In still images and menus, this presents a striking picture, but the lack of color variation makes visibility in action difficult. So many enemies appear on screen at any given time, but without any major difference in the gradient used between specific mobs, high-priority targets like projectile users end up blending into the crowd, even after you see their attacks coming after you. When combined with the myriad effects the player is throwing out, the individual elements become extremely hard to differentiate from one another. Most other aspects of the game are inoffensive, if not a bit underwhelming. The music and sound design are serviceable, but nothing particularly stands out. The designs of the enemies and characters are lackluster, and nothing really changes between runs, even when you bump up the difficulty. “Fine” is not a word I love to use when evaluating a game. I want to see the vision, I want to dive deeper into what the developers are trying to say or what they are trying to do. I want to feel the ways in which they have tweaked the game mechanically to create an engaging or fulfilling experience, and I want to take from a game just as much as it takes from me.  Unfortunately, I do not feel that 20 Minutes Till Dawn  has provided anything that sets it apart from an already crowded bullet heaven field. The lack of progression systems, muddied visuals, and competent gameplay systems all blend to form something that works, but doesn't really leave a mark in the process. No need to stay up late to see this night through — just rest and find something else to play in the morning. Verdict 20 Minutes Till Dawn  is an appealing prospect. A visually enticing bullet heaven with a large cast of playable characters should be a surefire way to have some fun, but it doesn’t quite land here. A combined lack of visual clarity, enemy variety, and mechanical depth are the defining characteristics of this game. You’d be better off spending the night somewhere else. Image Credits: Erabit, flanne

Master of Piece  is a roguelike autobattler by I M GAME where you command pieces on a game board through a series of encounters, aiming to reach the end of the board to defeat a final boss, only to do this all over again. While all of the concepts and mechanics of Master of Piece  will be familiar to anyone who has played Slay the Spire  or its many derivatives, this title sets itself apart enough to remain an engaging experience throughout. In the current version of the game, there are two different playable piece sets, each with its own unique starting individual mercenaries and distinct class abilities. The mercenaries that are available for you to find through each run are also unique to whichever specific starting class you have chosen. While the options certainly aren’t infinite, the variability in starting mercenaries and abilities does lend itself to some sort of open experimentation.   Developer:   I M GAME Publisher:   I M GAME Platform:  Played on PC (Steam) Availability:  Released in Early access on February 4, 2026 for Steam. With that opening selection, you’ll be treading familiar ground if you’ve played the genre. You’ll be presented with branching paths that run through a series of battles, events that may confer positive or negative effects, and shops to upgrade your characters in some way, all of which culminate in a large boss battle. Once this boss battle is complete, you move onto the next zone and repeat the cycle. Once you have fully finished a run by defeating the final boss or dying, you are then sent back to the Departure Ground to start over. The Departure Ground is a pretty barebones home base, but it serves as the implementation vehicle for a few functions. First, this is where you choose your starting loadout after the initial tutorial run. Second, it’s where you can view your archives to read up on events you saw in your previous runs, see your run history, and view any other mechanical or story-related information you have gathered in your playtime. And finally, it’s also where you can construct buildings that empower you, such as one that gives you the ability to change your path during a run, regardless of normal constraints. As there are only two main characters to choose from and only a few buildings to craft, the grounds are quite limited in their offerings — though that may not be a bad thing. The lack of stuff to do at the Departure Ground means more time spent engaging with the battles and roguelike structure proper. It’s a good thing, too, as the battles are where Master of Piece  sets itself apart most. Your objective in each battle is to destroy the enemy’s standard while simultaneously protecting yours. If the enemy team destroys your flag before you can eliminate theirs or you lose all of your pieces, you lose the game and must restart the run. This makes the setup and strategy of play a bit different than many other roguelikes. Rather than protect your individual pieces, it may be best to sacrifice them to a powerful enemy just to ensure the safety of your standard. Boss battles are perhaps the most exciting feature here, because the boss serves as both the enemy standard and as an attacking or board-affecting piece. Each boss has distinct abilities that will shape your strategy and piece placement/movement, so it’s best to be open to adjustments in your plan.  The artstyle is simple, but I really love the look. At the start of each fight, you’ll place pieces down into open field slots, and they’ll move according to their speed. IF two pieces have the same speed, a roll is done to see who goes first. Each piece will then move two spaces forward (if available), perform an attack, and end their turn. Beyond the broader picture, many different enemy and allied abilities can shape how each battle goes. If you have a piece that gets more powerful upon attacking or taking damage, it is best to put them in situations where they engage directly with an enemy. Pieces with high speed and attack but low health are better served by finding open avenues to attack the standards directly. Some pieces are even better for support functions, such as empowering allies or weakening enemies, rather than confronting foes directly. This level of strategy is further compounded by the items, rumours, and relics you can find in a run. Relics are permanent team-wide buffs applied in each battle, which can sometimes be upgraded to provide insanely powerful effects. Rumours are individual passive effects that are granted to a single piece, but massively improve the capabilities of a single unit. Items are single-use effects, and often very situational. Out of these, I find items to be the least interesting or beneficial, but they may come in handy in a pinch. By contrast, rumours and relics are so powerful that they can almost immediately shape your long-term strategy. Out of these, I find items to be the least interesting or beneficial, but they may come in handy in a pinch. For an early access title, I am more than happy with what is available here. There is already a large number of enemies, zones, relics, and items here for your enjoyment. A comparable assortment of rumours and traits exist, as well. While the possibilities are not unlimited, the situations you may find yourself in and the variety of tools at your disposal make this game feel like a complete offering. Visually, Master of Piece  is quite gorgeous. The artsyle is simple, but has a board game-like aesthetic for your mercenaries and the board itself. There’s a highly stylized, animated quality to the objects on the screen that is really eye-catching, and while many of the basic pieces look similar, the unique mercenaries have a more visibly distinct feel. Truthfully, I don't have many complaints about Master of Piece at all. I suppose I don't love the music, but it is inoffensive. While the premise may sound derivative, it is executed well, and the battles are engaging, ever-evolving dances that are accentuated by the appealing visual style. The strategy involved and variety of options available do offer enough runway to stay fun for a decent number of hours, but I’m really excited to see the improvements and additions that come along, as well.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats The Rising Tide is the latest DLC follow-up to Square Enix's acclaimed 2023 release Final Fantasy XVI . In this new addition, we follow Clive, Jill, and Joshua to Mysidia so we may find answers to the mystery of Leviathan the Lost. Final Fantasy XVI was one of the most unique games in the entire franchise, and also one of the best. With its fast-paced combat, darker world, and excellent soundtrack, it released to critical and commercial success last year. I, myself, was so engrossed in the journey of Clive (and by extension Joshua, Jill, and the rest of the cast), that I ran through it multiple times to really soak in the world, themes, and music — something I rarely do with long games these days. As the final DLC for Final Fantasy XVI , The Rising Tide aims to expand upon the worldbuilding introduced in the main story, improve upon some gameplay elements, and let us spend a little more time with the cast we came to love. The story is best left experienced (I won't be spoiling anything here), and I really enjoyed it. We get some nice worldbuilding and lore related to the new region, plus some great new characters, as well. It's shorter than I anticipated — with my story playtime rounding out at about 4 hours — but for a DLC offering at this price, it's a pretty normal length. We get some minor character moments with Jill, but it seems like less than we were promised/lead to believe in the marketing. We get the answers we're looking for with Leviathan, but Jill is left out in the cold again. At least she has something to do this time around. A closer look at the wave we've been wondering about for the last year. Despite my enjoyment, it may come as a surprise to hear me say that the story is a bit of a letdown when compared to the main game. An often overlooked aspect of Final Fantasy games is the length they go to explore the themes presented in them. Final Fantasy XVI itself explores in earnest topics like systems of oppression — how those systems succeed, how they affect people, and what it means to be free of them. Much to my chagrin, The Rising Tide doesn't seem to say much of anything new at all. Its primary focus is to tell you what happened to Leviathan. The sidequests and some plot beats do, in a few ways, speak in concert with the major themes of the main game, but it never feels like the focus in the same ways that it is in the main plot. On top of that, the DLC takes place just before the final battle, so any implications on the world at large can be conveniently ignored. No mention of the events makes its way into the final sequence, either. All of that is to say — I think it's okay that it is the way it is. Final Fantasy XVI was a complete story, and while something more substantive would have been nice, it doesn't drag the DLC down much. The presentation is neat. Great cutscenes and music, but peppered with the same style of NPC stare-down dialogues we got in the main game. If you enjoyed the main story or previous DLC, you're going to get more of the same here in this regard. The final run of the DLC is an especially incredible visual treat. The combat doesn't have any major changes to things like system mechanics when compared to the base game, so if you loved it before, you get more of that. There are some great additions, however, that really improve the experience. New eikonic abilities, accessories, and buffs to some older abilities really open up the variety for playstyles. With the Ramuh and Bahamut reworks/buffs, it is now entirely viable to run a full magic build, if you are so inclined. Clive using one of the newest additions to his arsenal. There are some exceptional fights here. While I'm not a huge fan of how the eikon battles play, it's hard to understate just how cool they are to experience. The major one in The Rising Tide is similar to all the others in the sense that it is shallow mechanically, but visually incredible. We were told that the fights in this DLC would be more difficult than the main game, but I'm actually not sure that there is anything noteworthy on that front. I had not played since the release of the previous DLC, Echoes of the Fallen , but I did not encounter any major difficulty issues, even on Final Fantasy mode (outside of some growing pains trying to remember how to play in the first place). Something is different about the tonberries here... Much of my time with the DLC was spent on the Kairos Gate game mode. It is a sort mash up of arcade mode and an encounter rush type mode. You get a score for your performance in the fight, that score determines your grade, and you get points to spend within the game mode. Those points can be used to buy things like ability upgrades that are temporary or permanent within the mode. You also receive things like accessories and equipment as rewards in this mode. It's a nice addition overall, but I will say the final fight was a big disappointment for me. The Rising Tide dropped right after a major update which saw changes to some content in the main game, as well. You can now pet Torgal faster, fast-travel to quest givers upon completion, and there are new scenes and cutscenes in some of the sidequests. There were also some changes and buffs to the way certain eikonic abilities work, as previously mentioned. While there may be some shortcomings in terms of the depth of the story, there is still so much to love about The Rising Tide. As a companion piece to Final Fantasy XVI , it succeeds in elevating the base game by virtue of its gameplay additions. If nothing else, it reminds us that Final Fantasy XVI is a blast to play. Verdict A great new addition to one of 2023's best games. The exciting, fast-paced fights throughout Mysidia are also a visual treat. And, as always, Soken continues to impress with the new pieces on the soundtrack. Side content is hit-or-miss, and it's only about 5-10 hours long in total. Definitely recommend for anyone itching to spend more time with Final Fantasy XVI , even at this price point. Image Credits: Square Enix

Saying Goodbye (For Now) What FFVII Rebirth can teach us about life...and letting go. My first Christmas memory is unwrapping an NES, meant for the entire family, immediately hooking it up to the TV in the room, and playing Ducktales until my family forced me to stop. Our family Christmases were always held in the metro area of our home state. Both sides of my family lived there, so it was always convenient to have one big trip for the holidays. The trips were always long, and we relied on family to put us up for the nights we were there, but we always visited everyone we could. After all, this might be the only time we saw our family for the year (or even years). I generally hated these trips (or any other trip to the cities), but there was always at least one bright spot — visiting my uncle. I was really too young to understand the particulars, or even to know my uncle well, but every time we visited, it seemed like he had something for me. He was especially supportive of my art, providing me with materials to draw and color as much as I wanted on his table — or his floor, which was my preferred spot. He once gifted us a large box of art supplies that seemed to last forever. A box of crayons, colored pencils, pastels, and paints — it was the go-to whenever I felt like creating something new. It was always there when I needed it. My uncle passed away in 2000, and it was a difficult time for my family. Especially so for my dad. Both my grandfather and grandmother had passed away within the last few years, and he had now lost a brother. To be honest, I don't remember much of the time we spent with family at these funerals or gatherings, but what I do remember was seeing my dad cry for the first time at my grandmother's funeral, and for the second time at my uncle's funeral. I didn't really know how to process anything that was going on. When we arrived back home, a friend lent me Final Fantasy VII for the PSX. We were a few years removed from the massive frenzy surrounding the game, but I had never played it and didn't know much about it at all. I had played Final Fantasy I, IV, and VI, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the series, and since I didn't have to go to school anyway, I figured I'd give it a shot. What I got was a deeply moving and personal experience. An absolutely stunning game, in terms of visuals and scope. Aside from being a fun RPG with cool guys, big swords, and killer music, Final Fantasy VII ( FFVII ) is also a game about life, death, grief, and acceptance. Through Final Fantasy, I was able to gain a better understanding of not only these things and how they affect people, but I was also able to contextualize and process the events that I was going through. The most famous event in gaming history is a powerful moment, to be sure, but even beyond that singular bit, much of FFVII 's mid portion deals with the party's previous losses, their grief, and their acceptance of the events past and present that haunt them. It is my favorite part of the game. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is the second of three installments in the Final Fantasy VII remake project, which was announced in 2015. Rebirth , in particular, covers that aforementioned mid portion of the Final Fantasy VII story, and aims to do so in a larger fashion. Much like 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Rebirth extends and extrapolates the events to give us a more in-depth look at the world, all with a great new coat of paint. Rebirth has a great balance of new scenes and characters with retelling the old story in both a recognizable and satisfying way...some of the time. In between all of the great character moments and exciting action of the battles, the game manages to muddle the big moments of the original game, more often than not. Major moments from FFVII are often presented in a tonally inconsistent way with the original, or even move from one tone to the next in the same scene, giving major moments no time to breathe. It is an extremely long game with so many things to collect and see, yet it somehow never makes adequate time for the moments that really matter in the narrative — moving at breakneck speed from somber goodbyes to slapping butts all within the same cutscene. I am not particularly averse to change, or having a new spin on old material. Much like with music covers, I don't think it's worth doing unless you've done something new with the material. So, for me, it's not that things are different; it's how they've deviated that confuses me so frequently. Which, in retrospect, is a shame. I do believe there is a great game in here somewhere . For all the narrative faults, there's so much to love. The soundtrack, with over 400 songs, is a phenomenal blend of arrangements of old songs and new material. The combat is fast, fun, and flashy. The characters, voicework, and cutscenes are some of the best I've ever seen in a game. So why, then, does this feel so hollow in the end? Fun and flashy, the combat absolutely delivers. My major grievances are with just a few elements of the game: Overwhelming side content and main story presentation. The side-content, in particular, really wore on me as I played through the game. Mountains of filler collectibles and towers litter each map — all of which distract from the actual good and fun things you can do. Unfortunately, you need to complete everything in order to do all of the sidequests and get many of the good moments and content in the game. You need to pick those leaves, and hit those towers, and collect that trash in order to get your best materia or unlock the character quests. Throughout that, Rebirth throws minigame after minigame at you. There seems to be a bespoke minigame for about 40% of the quests in each area. This sounds like a cool idea in theory, but most are really underdeveloped. Some have bad controls, some are broken mechanically, and most are just plain boring, but you have to do them all. You want to have a moment with Aerith? You'd better play this boring ass mushroom picking thing we threw in here, buddy. For the story, there's a lot more to love. Great action, voices, characters, and emotional moments throughout the game kept me engaged and wanting to see more. Not just the retreads of the original FFVII, either. The original beats of the story end up being some of the best moments. They give us a deeper understanding and appreciation of the characters and world that just wasn't possible back on the Playstation, but they fumbled the major incidents from the original game in ways that had me asking ' why ' more frequently than I would like. The final moments of the game are especially baffling. I feel like I have a good grasp on what happens, what they're going for, and where they're taking it for the next game, but I do wonder how a new player (one who has not played Final Fantasy VII before) takes all of what is happening in. The individual areas in Rebirth are massive. To me, it's not just that the ending is intentionally confusing/misleading — it's that it takes a major bite out of the events, in general. So much of the messaging is lost in these moments, all so they can save them for the next game in the installment. This was frustrating enough that I began to question whether we really needed 3 parts at all. So much of this game was tedious in terms of the actual gameplay experience. Could it have been condensed into a better game? By the end of this project, we will have spent 10 years, and what we get is a retelling that can realistically only land in one of two places: A fundamental change of the events that took place in the original FFVII , or a significantly worse, bloated retelling of the original narrative. To be honest, I'm not really sure where I want them to land here. It might be more exciting to have them do something drastically different in terms of outcomes, but I don't really have faith that this team could pull off anything satisfying. Landing on the original plot, would be nice because it's an all-time classic, but then I wonder what the point of all the plot ghosts and rainbow worlds and other nonsense over the last 10 years was for. So when I sat down to review this game, I had to think about how I could possibly score it. It is often a lot of fun, but is maddening to me in so many ways, as well. As I ruminated on the things I liked and didn't like, I quickly realized I couldn't score it at all. It became impossible for me to really take this work on its own merits. Every scene or mechanic was, in one way or another, chasing the ghost of a game that came out in 1997. The story, in particular, was impossible for me to decouple from the original work and the major impact it had on me at a vulnerable point in my life. Rebirth , then, has once again given me a valuable reminder that the cycle of grief can manifest in so many different ways. Only this time, it's dealing with the death of my time with the Final Fantasy VII universe. I will probably not play the next game. My frustration with the game and its errant retelling has really soured me on the project as a whole. I just have to accept that this game, and this trilogy, was not meant for someone like me. There are so many other people who get the chance to play this game (and the others in the trilogy) without their expectations or experiences colored in the way mine are, and I truly hope they enjoy it. In the end, I can take some comfort in the fact that my memories of my original experience will stick with me forever. Final Fantasy VII is a core part of my gaming identity, and even if I don't necessarily count it among my favorite games, it came at the perfect moment in my life. The original Final Fantasy VII , much like that box of art supplies from my uncle, will always be there for me, just waiting to be picked up whenever I need it. Photo credits: Square Enix

Casting Shadows When Elden Ring first released in 2022, it cast such a large shadow that it basically became an inescapable part of online discourse – whether you played it or not. That shadow didn’t just cover every game that came out around the same time (sorry, Horizon), but it also extended to FromSoftware’s games themselves – past and future. In many ways a departure from their previous games, Elden Ring might raise questions about the direction FromSoftware games might take, and to some, they might wonder if anything else could live up to Elden Ring . With the release of Shadow of the Erdtree , I’d say we end up with more long-term questions than answers (both in-game and in reference to FromSoftware' s direction itself), but it stands as a monumental experience. A massive, winding world, with great fights, music, exploration, and mystique, Shadow of the Erdtree follows what I would consider a general FromSoftware thread - the DLC is high-quality content, it is harder than the base game experience, and it does not answer most of the mysteries of the base game. Instead, Shadow of the Erdtree focuses on one major aspect and creates many new questions in its wake. Publisher: Bandai Namco Developer:  FromSoftware Platform:  Played on PS5 Availability:  Released June 20, 2024 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X Kindly Miquella atop a familiar steed. Where Shadow of the Erdtree differs from other FromSoftware DLC is mainly in two specific ways: extremely long and vast by their DLC standards, and the character progression is not as directly tied to the main game. For the first point, it took me somewhere between 30 and 40 hours. Unfortunately, I did not take down specific times, as I did not initially plan to write a review on the experience. There was talk about the DLC map being about the size of Limgrave (the starting point in base Elden Ring ), but this is clearly larger, more intricate, and frankly, more interesting. So much of the new map feels more intentionally built than the base game. The side areas feel less samey and repetitive, and the bosses are more unique in form and function. Gone are the days of cat statue repeats or Godrick clones. We don’t have to walk down the same copy-pasted mineshafts any longer. Individual areas and dungeons have so many paths into and out of them that it can be easy to miss an area here or there if you aren’t keeping track. The Shadow Keep was especially exciting to me. I came in through a back door and found no less than 4 exits to this legacy dungeon before I spun back around to take down the boss. It seemed as if every time I ran through the area, I found a new item I missed or a room I didn’t see. The excellence of The Shadow Keep, then, makes some of the other aspects of the DLC exploration so disappointing. Too many of the winding paths, or caves, or dungeons end up providing nothing of substance. So many of the cool hideaways give you a low-end smithing stone (which you can just buy) or a weak spirit ash (which you will likely never use). It can feel a bit like entitlement to complain – Shadow of the Erdtree gives many weapons (including new types), spells (also new types), and ashes of war – but having so much space dedicated to literal junk is just plain disappointing. The dark and eerie Land of Shadow offers much to see and experience. The second major departure, character progression, adds a bit of an interesting twist on how you power up in the DLC. While your levels are still very important for things like health, FP, stamina, and equipment/spell requirements, additional levels are noticeably less impactful than the Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes on your Damage, Damage reduction, and spirit ash strength. These new collectibles directly scale your damage and damage reduction – no leveling necessary. For many, these will be integral in beating some of the harder bosses. If you start to struggle, this is a great place to start for a quick boost. It also ties in nicely with the exploration loop. As these items are scattered throughout the Shadow Lands, venturing out and exploring becomes integral to the experience. These upgrades do not transfer to the main game, so there’s a bit of a disconnect there, but you’ll still get a decent number of runes to spend on levels or items. Shadow of the Erdtree excels in every way that Elden Ring proper does; the DLC has great boss fights (especially remembrance bosses), extraordinary freedom in build and weapon variety, and great music. For my money, I’d say the DLC is just flat out a better product than the main game in key areas as well. My previous complaints of ER notwithstanding, Shadow of the Erdtree feels more deliberate in its construction from top to bottom. They used what worked well in the base game to craft something that plays to the game’s strengths and either discards or minimizes its weaknesses. The NPCs, for instance, are more important or interesting than what you’d generally find in the base game, and have branching questlines. A plethora of unique spells, Ashes of War, and weapons await for you to try. Regrettably, some of the faults of ER do still fester. Weapon and spell balance is way out of whack in both PvE and PvP, with many options just being flat out better than other tools in their class by a significant margin. Some of the spells are so weak (or so powerful in a few cases), you must wonder if they’re all just bugged in some way. Major bosses with great lore relevance get no introductory scene or dialogue. And the DLC continues the FromSoftware tradition of barely including a story, and what is there creates more questions than answers. I know that the way FromSoftware presents their stories is already fairly polarizing – I myself am somewhere on the fence with it, in general. For those that don’t know, these games do  have a story, but not really a narrative. At least, not in a traditional sense. You get an opening scene that vaguely states what you are supposed to do, and in some games, they might explicitly tell you why you should be doing these things. Then, for the rest of the game, 98% of relevant world or plot information is tucked away in item descriptions. While a vast majority of the text lends itself to worldbuilding (flavorful descriptions that describe events that happened in the past or the way specific factions or people felt about an event), some of these descriptions are vital to understand the events you are currently going through. For many, the hunt for information is the best part of the ‘Souls” games. People spend weeks, months, and years hunting down every item and secret in the game. Gathering the texts and rearranging them on their corkboard like a detective uncovering a deep-state secret is not only fun, but it is the point  of the experience. Often, the conclusions people reach are not explicitly stated in-game — requiring leaps in logic or guesswork to make the pieces fit. For me, while I do enjoy that part of it quite a bit, I would absolutely appreciate a little more clarity as the game progresses. I should not need to reach an endgame area to learn why Steve, the second boss, is here trying to kill me (he’s recently been divorced by Tim, Final Bossman, and now they’re having a property rights squabble — you just happen to be walking down the wrong side of the street). You'll face foes both fearsome and strange here in the Land of Shadow Shadow of the Erdtree not only follows this, but I feel there is less clarity on why you need to be here at all until you’re reaching the end of the DLC, where, surprisingly, things are neatly laid out for you. And while the why does eventually get some semblance of clarity, the how  is only briefly referenced, and the DLC creates 10 mysteries for every answer it provides for the main game. If you came in here looking for anything other than what one guy, specifically, might have been up to from Elden Ring, you’re kind of out of luck. If that all sounds a bit daunting, the community has a number of YouTubers or redditors who can cleanly lay out what everyone has found thus far. For what it's worth, I played through the DLC with a level 200+ character and used multiple different weapons and styles as part of the experience. Once I finished the DLC, I brought these new toys with me to the base game on NG+2. Some of the new goodies absolutely trivialize the main game, and going back, the enemies might seem almost docile. I fully recommend you play through the DLC for the first time as an endcap to your adventure. Verdict Shadow of the Erdtree serves as a monumental achievement in FromSoftware’s library. I firmly believe that the combination of exploration, music, boss fights, art direction, freedom of exploration, weapon and armor variety, and any number of other successes has coalesced to create FromSoftware’s best DLC to date. A tight, fun, and ultimately moving experience that I would put in the upper echelon of their work, period. While the game might hold on to some controversial aspects of Elden Ring’s initial design, the DLC elevates, improves, or contextualizes so much of what has come before that it’s hard to say this is anything other than a masterwork. For every fault or flaw I might come up with, a million bright spots wash over them like a blinding light. At times serene, and at other moments haunting, Shadow of the Erdtree is here to sweep you off your feet - dead or alive. Marginally harder than the base game, you might run into some hard walls if you are not prepared. However, if you finished the main game and all of the side content there, you shouldn't find yourself struggling too much. Image Credits: Bandai Namco and FromSoftware

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin (SoP) offers a heavy action experience. In many ways similar to Team Ninja standouts Nioh and Nioh 2, SoP offers a long and interesting take on the classic Final Fantasy. With hyperactive, punishing bosses and loot galore, you'll never find yourself bored while playing. Pros Fast-Paced, complex, and varied combat Beautiful soundtrack that contains new versions of classic sounds More missions and fights than most people could handle Multiplayer is cooperative and engaging Excellent voice acting Cons Story is very straightforward. Can be corny, but is always earnest. Progression through DLCs or endgame can be annoying Verdict Developer:  Team NINJA, Square Enix Publisher:  Square Enix Platform:  Played on PS4/5 Availability:  Released March 18, 2022 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC Genre:  Action RPG

A Naked Dash of Discovery Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the latest installment of the Ace Combat flight simulation games by Bandai Namco, and the first since 2014’s Ace Combat Infinity . It also happens to mark the first time I have ever played a flight simulation game at all (even one as supposedly arcadey as this). As a genre that I had never really had any interest in exploring until another reviewer I trust mentioned how much they loved this game, I was a bit befuddled – but, boy, was I missing out. Ace Combat 7 combines exciting dogfights, stealth flying missions, and base destruction with great music, clean visuals, and some really solid voice work to create an astounding experience, even for newcomers like me. With a multitude of missions, jets, weapon types, arenas, and objectives, the core experience of Ace Combat 7 never gets old, even if I found myself frustrated at times. Luckily, there are multiple difficulty modes, and no penalty for changing from one to the other if you switch. Publisher:  Bandai Namco Developer: Bandai Namco Studios Platform:  Played on PC Availability:  Released January 18, 2019 on PS4 and Xbox One, February 1, 2019 on PC, and July 11, 2024 on Nintendo Switch Before each mission, a briefing screen will explain the scenario. To put this up front, I am not good at this game. After I completed the main story for the first time, I hopped online and got smoked. I can’t aim a damn thing properly and barely get around flying, but I managed to pull myself through the game’s story mode, and eventually finished off the side missions from the DLC as well. My piloting skills were especially suspect in the beginning – trying to figure out how to get around, worrying about roll, pitch, and yaw – all while flying and seeing how those things affect your turning and speed in any direction, etc. Well, it was a bit overwhelming at first for me. However, I decided to stick it out because I got a feeling on that first mission that I couldn’t really shake. It was like I just knew that something great was here, but I just needed to get my feet wet a little more.            Unfortunately, that process took a bit longer than I would have liked it to. One of my biggest complaints is that the game does a poor job of really onboarding you into the Ace Combat experience. Tutorials for basic maneuverability options and controls don’t even show up until several new missions in. Some things are just straight-up not explained at all. I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants for a huge part of the experience. I played on easy for about half of the story and, in that time, I had only died once to anything other than a spectacular crash into a mountainside or lawn. It was definitely a struggle for me, but once it clicked, I found that some of the movements I struggled with became almost second nature. Beautiful vistas await you as you soar through the skies As a child, I always laughed at my dad when we’d play something like Mario Kart or Gran Turismo, and his body would contort for every twist and turn he took on the course. It was as if he believed that tilting himself and the controller in the direction he wished to go would will the car or kart to do the same. Yet, here I was, thirty-three and counting, twisting myself along with the jets as missiles flew by my cockpit, ducking and weaving as I raced through a canyon. I know my wife must have loved seeing me in action. Truth be told, I get motion sick quite easily now – much to my dismay when it comes to VR or other games I’ve wanted to play – but I did not feel anything during this game that I would consider sickness. I like to think that my torturous movements helped with that. The gameplay loop for Ace Combat 7 ’s story mode is simple – a new mission begins with a cutscene, which then leads to a mission briefing where your objectives and map are laid out to you. Usually a good idea to listen well to this, as the briefing will give you a better idea of what types of weapons you might want to bring, or plane types you might want to fly. Then, you’ll head into some menus where you can buy new planes, parts, etc., before moving on to your prep, where you select your plane and weaponry. Missions usually fall into some combination of these 3 types – dogfights (that is, plane-on-plane battles), Stealth flying, and objective destruction. The dogfights are definitely more my speed. Zipping through the thunderous skies, blowing up an enemy jet, and swinging around to take on a new one is exhilarating. Crawling through a chasm at 1/18th my normal speed, hoping not to be seen, is not. I can see a world where speedrunners or great pilots love these missions and work their hardest to fly through in record time and love every second. But that’s not me – I’m built different (worse). Once the mission ends, you might have to land the jet, and then it’s on to the next one. Some scenarios might require a more deft flying touch. There is a story here, and it is fine. The game’s old now, but at the risk of spoilers, I’ll keep it vague. Cutscenes can feel disconnected from what you, the player, are doing in the gameplay, but I think it works. I didn’t find anything too profound – there is a war, and you have to fight it – but the direction things took was enough to keep me invested. I think those moments all pay off in a way at the end, so it’s definitely not something I would skip.             Flight controls are tight, if not a bit obtuse at first, but once you get some of the basics down, you’ll be soaring upside down or sideways with relative ease. Weapons are vast and varied, but all function mostly the same, with a few exceptions. You have your standard missiles, a machine gun, and a special weapon. This special weapon can be anything from more anti-air missiles, bombs, air-to-ground missiles, or even a railgun (my personal favorite for dogfights). Different missions might call for different weapon types to get through effectively. Generally speaking, the dogfights are where the game really shines. It’s so fast and fun, and the music never disappoints – always seeming to pick up and work in sync with the moments in-game. The soundtrack here is truly special. I feel like it's among the very best I’ve ever heard, period. Songs like Daredevil, Charge Assault, 444, and Archange elevate the experience well beyond what I would have envisioned. They manage to create moods both intense and emotionally moving at times, in spaces you didn’t know you’d want them to. Keiki Kobayashi really provides us with something special here, and I hope if you pick the game up, you’ll enjoy it just as much as I did. Multiplayer is an afterthought for me. There are a few differing modes – A free-for-all Battle Royale and Team Deathmatch. They function as you would imagine them to. Dogfights in team or solo settings, with points awarded for kills - top scores win. I did not put much time into it, but it’s basically the same as a dogfight in the story, but the pilots are better. Unfortunately, the multiplayer is not very active on Steam. I was only ever able to see a few lobbies at a time in the searches. You might have better luck on the Switch version. A great atmosphere that is elevated by superb music. Verdict Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is an excellent game. As my first foray into the combat flight simulation genre, I was almost always engaged or enthralled with the hectic experience. Notable standouts in the game here are the music, dogfights, and customization. I am left in awe of some of the moments you get to zip through, and it has created a new fan out of me – not just for Ace Combat games, but flight sims in general.