The game is fine but definitely has some issues. Combat is bad, the camera not great, tricks are fairly basic, and stages are very hit or miss. Despite that, the game is fairly out there and ambitious for being a heavily Jet Set Radio homage.

The game also crashed at least 5-6 times in my playthrough. This did cause me to have to replay the final boss, which features the worst combo of controls/camera in the game. This game certainly won't be for everyone but if you've got some nostalgia for the Jet Set series, this does a decent job of recreating that, warts and all.

I really dig the style of this game and the music is pretty damn good, the rest is abysmal.

The game mixes wrestling and all the tropes that come with that, with a turn based RPG. All cities are dedicated to various classic wrestlers and themed around this. All attacks are based around this as well. Stylistically, it all works really well.

Then you play it, and it stops working well.

The gameplay itself is boring and maddening. Especially given the game length (my playthrough was a little over 40 hours while skipping a lot of side quests). The various special attacks/tag team/triple team moves almost all feature QTE. Most of the time, your special attacks are the quickest way to get through these fights, so you'll be doing QTE pretty much every attack for 40+ hours.

The game features a ton of playable characters but the core mechanics will not change a whole lot.

You can move around the various stages and avoid some battles (the enemies you have to fight will be seen on screen at all times) luckily, but not everything can be avoided. Plus, you do have to be leveling up to get through the game.

Throughout the stages, you'll come across items that can damage you. Oftentimes these will dish out a ton of damage. The hit detection is bad too, so there were times I never really felt like I had hit something, only to get hit with a big spike to my health. To make matters worse, you don't really get a lot of time where you're invulnerable after taking environmental damage, so one fluky hit from a spike sticking out or a fireball can turn into multiple hits or death.

The game lets you save whenever you're not in a battle but there were a few time where I'd lose progress because I forgot to save after something and then get killed by environmental damage.

The game attempts to break up the monotony by adding racing levels or various other types of gameplay. None of these were enjoyable. The car levels in particular were frustrating because of the hit detection and invulnerability period issues this game has. These areas would often feature car damage meters where, if the meter hits zero, game over.

The game has a healthy amount of characters that, because of the story, you'll be constantly swapping between. It gets to be a little too much near the middle part of this game, where it felt at times where I'd have one conversation with something or exit one area with a group, only to immediately swap over to a different group of characters to play as.

The biggest annoyance though with this is, because of the swapping and the fact that damage taken carries over, and that all these groups have separate money/inventory/equipment, it gets to be a pain remembering to heal, stock up on supplies and new gear, and all that with groups you are constantly ping ponging around. The game also sometimes auto fills spots in your party when you obtain characters but then sometimes it doesn't. So sometimes I was walking around with two party members with one just in reserve because the game just didn't feel like adding them to my party.

I could keep nitpicking this game to death but I just can't keep going. This game could've been something really neat and fun. Instead, it's just a major disappointment.

I was a pretty big fan of Echo Generation, a game from the same devs as Ravenlok. I had no clue they were making a new game but one look at this game and it was instantly obvious.

Cococucumber, the devs in question, have a style that I think is gorgeous and Ravenlok is no different. A very pixel heavy look but there's something about this specific look that I really like that's different and hard to describe.

Ravenlok's Alice In Wonderland inspired story and setting lends itself to this style even further. There are some nice looking areas in this world.

Unfortunately, the similarities between Ravenlok and Echo Generation end there, as the differences between these two are not in Ravenlok's favor.

Ravenlok is an action based hack and slash style game. Gone are the RPG elements and the replacement doesn't feel as interesting or original. You have your standard sword attack, shield block, dodge, and a variety of special attacks.

You get many of these special attacks relatively quickly which is nice as it provides a good variety for combat. It's nice mainly because the core mechanics of combat are very dull.

The special attacks don't add much from a visual standpoint unfortunately, but they did help speed up combat sections and help thwart large groups.

You also have potions to heal and I never really found myself running low on these, so the game feels a bit more arcadey at low difficulty. This isn't inherently bad, it just makes the combat feel a bit dull and repetitive, even with the four special attacks thrown your way.

Bombs are another item you'll be able to purchase and find, another item that does nice damage and helps speed the combat process up, especially against bosses.

The camera in these combat situations is easily the worst part of this though. The camera is very limited in what it allows you to do. You can move the camera left or right but can't go 360 degrees. Because of that, and because of how combat stages are laid out, I would constantly find myself in situations where I wasn't able to track the boss because he would be below me or too far to the left or right. Since you could only essentially tilt the camera to the left and right, there are so many blind spots and positions that just make the combat more annoying.

The story is nothing that original either since the game takes most of its inspiration from Alice in Wonderland. Some of the takes on these characters though is pretty interesting.

The game is a pretty short experience though, a full completion run for me taking under 10 hours. So even the negatives aren't all that bad as the game overall is pretty enjoyable. Just feels like a bit of a step down from their previous release, which is a bit of a disappointment. Worth giving a shot if a trailer interests you (it's currently on Game Pass as of this review) but if RPG combat isn't a big turn off, Echo Generation is probably a better choice.

It's incredibly basic mechanically and a little too long, even with its already short run time but overall Planet of Lana does just enough to overcome some of those flaws.

The 2.5 puzzle platform inspirations are very obvious throughout Planet of Lana. Inside and Oddworld are definitely felt throughout, especially as the game's story progresses. It's not reinventing the wheel when it comes to what a 2.5 puzzle platformer can do but everything for the most part ranges from serviceable to really good. There is nothing inherently bad about Planet of Lana.

The biggest drawback to this game though is the incredibly basic puzzles and mechanics. I never really found myself struggling to get past the puzzles.

The overall look and sound of the game, for the most part, is fine. Nothing too mind blowing, though there are later parts of the game that do a good job of playing with the scope of your environment.

Some of the set pieces are pretty as well, the end game moments in particular are beautiful in the ramp up.

You won't be traveling alone though as you have an adorable sidekick to help you on your journey and assist you in moving forward.

Miu is very helpful in these levels and often time your friend's safety leads to some of the more interesting puzzles. Your death or the death of Miu will lead to resetting the stage and while there were times I cut it too close and died after Miu getting seen at the last second, it never really felt cheap or punishing. It oftentimes was because I just wasn't patient enough.

Overall, the game is pretty short and has some nice moments. It's charming and runs without any major issues. The controls are a little too tight but that's really it from an overall technical 'feel' standpoint. If you enjoy 2.5 puzzle platformers, this one is pretty good but just be prepared for a game feel you're fairly familiar with.

Pokemon goes open world with Arceus and it's definitely a change that I've always hoped for. Being able to just explore areas and find new and different areas, with maybe new pokemon to see, is a great idea on paper so it's surprising it took this long to actually see this attempted. The end result, for the most part, is a solid first attempt with a lot of room for improvement still.

The areas themselves are pretty great to explore. The game does a good job of making each area you can go to feel unique and worth covering every inch of. Whether you're climbing around mountains dealing with Ice Pokemon or you're swimming around beachy areas looking at water Pokemon, each area does a good job of setting itself apart without feeling too much like an obvious attempt to fit different types of Pokemon in one area.

Like many Pokemon games too, you'll earn HM style upgrades to make this exploration easier as you progress. In Arceus you'll be able to use a flute to call upon various Pokemon, all with unique traits that will come in handy. Whether that's a Pokemon that you can ride on to quickly get from point a to point b, a Pokemon to make sure you don't drown, or a Pokemon that helps you scale rocks or other various kinds of land, or even a Pokemon that can find buried treasure. These skill traits are good for the most part, though some feel less important in the grand scheme of exploring.

Along with a bit of a format change, the game's emphasis also feels a bit different. The Pokedex gets a lot of attention in this game and for the most part, that primary focus works well.

Now, each Pokemon has a set of goals in your Pokedex. They vary slightly depending on the kind of Pokemon, some are pretty standard and common, like defeating a certain amount of them or catching a certain amount of them. Sometimes it changes up though, whether its seeing a Pokemon use a certain move a certain amount of time, or defeating a Pokemon with a certain type of move.

The end goal with these Pokedex tasks ultimately is to "master" full knowledge on a Pokemon by getting it up to level 10. Luckily you won't have to do every single task in order to get it to full expert level which is good for not getting too tedious.

There's no specific big picture end goal for mastering the Pokedex in full in regards to the main story but there are side quests throughout the game that will task you with mastering specific Pokemon with a reward for doing so. You'll at times be rewarded with rare candy and things like that so the rewards for these tasks, at times, is definitely beneficial.

The only real issue with the new Pokedex first focus really is battling feels de-emphasizd a bit too much.

Random trainer battles are nearly non-existent in this version. You'll at times come across them but for the most part these are story driven so they pop up a lot less frequently than in previous Pokemon games where you could come across them on various routes. In order to level up with any kind of consistency, you'll have to do a lot of battling with random Pokemon in the open worlds.

On paper, this isn't all that bad but I did run into some frustrations with this. Wild Pokemon seemed to run away with a decent amount of frequency, which when it happens, your party will earn no experience. That obviously isn't anything new but with the increased focus on leveling up through these random battles, it tends to be a bit frustrating when you're trying to grind a few levels with your party and having to constantly deal with Pokemon running away.

Even move learning takes a pretty big step back. Any type of moves you learn after leveling up isn't really expressed directly. As soon as you're done with a battle, all the experience you gain, levels you gain, moves you learn, even evolving that can take place is all thrown at you all at once on the open world. The game is focused on getting you right back to exploring the open world in front of you but these two aspects clashed for me. I was constantly forgetting about new moves I could learn from my Pokemon or forgetting that a Pokemon could evolve because this info was being thrown at me so quickly without much time for me to take a bit of time to see what was going on with those aspects to the game. Especially since you can be attacked by these wild Pokemon as soon as you get out of a battle.

Another issue I had with the new focus on the Pokedex is a lack of quality of life aspects to that. Because the game wants you to complete these Pokedex tasks, trying to bring up the Pokedex while in a battle doesn't seem possible (it's possible there is actually a way to do this and I just wasn't aware of it but there wasn't an obvious button or anything that alluded to this being possible). So if you find yourself in a fight against a wild Pokemon that you're trying to complete tasks with involving a very specific thing, you'll just have to remember it from memory. If you can't remember which type of move you're supposed to use on a type of Pokemon though, you'll just have to hope you can find some more while you pop open your Pokedex post-battle. It's not a huge loss or massive annoyance, but it's a noticeable omission given the focus being what it is in Legends. There are a few quality of life omissions that could make this game so much tighter and more enjoyable as well. Much like the inability to open the Pokedex during a battle, none are super annoying or frustrating but adding them all up, it does make the game feel like it has a lot of room for improvement.

One of the newer gameplay additions is the agile style/strong style move mastering. If you use a move a certain amount of times you'll eventually master it and be able to change up the move before you use it. If you choose to use a move in agile style, you'll attack faster but for less damage than usual. If you do a move using strong style, you'll attack slower but for more damage. Overall, this didn't really change much from my perspective but it feels like an addition that also has room for being interesting and more strategic in the future.

The game also replaces the gym battle system with something called noble battles. In each area, there is a Pokemon that's been taken over by some strange force that causes them to go into a frenzy and its up to you to fix that issue. You'll do that by throwing items at them and draining a health bar. You can drain it consistently with these items but if you want to drain the meter faster, you'll have to get these Pokemon into a battle. In order to get them into these battles, you'll have to do something to slow them down. Each Pokemon has a different method in order to accomplish this and the only consistent thing is how underwhelming all of it is.

In short, these noble battles are bad. You don't even need to use Pokemon to complete these. You can just keep throwing these unlimited supplied items until the bar is completely empty. A few of the noble battles become a bit trickier with the patterns the Pokemon use but none of them were interesting or fun. All were tedious and boring. You don't even get anything significant to completing these. All the HM-like Pokemon you get all happen prior to these, all that comes with them is a sticker in your book and the story progressing. They are just so flat and feel completely unnecessary.

Overall though, Pokemon Legends: Arceus shows a lot of potential and on its own, it's a pretty good first attempt at switching up the Pokemon format. The foundations are there in this version, but it just feels like it needs a lot more tightening and quality of life improvements to really knock it out of the park. Some noticeable frame rate issues also don't help matters but with time, this style of Pokemon game could be even better than the old format. Only time will tell if they can get it there though

The story is eh and the combat can be pretty bland at times but The Lost Crown is still really good and the most interesting Prince of Persia game since Sands of Time.

The Metroidvania style fits so perfectly with this franchise. Exploring the environments is fun and when you get a few upgrades to your movement abilities, hopping, running and sliding around some of the more complicated platforming areas is a blast. It does take some time to work up to that though and there are early moments that feel a little clunky when trying to travel around.

Boss battles are a challenge but they never feel impossible to overcome or cheap. When you do figure out their patterns and you have a full skill set of moves and attacks to unload, this is when the combat feels fantastic. The common stage enemies though never really get to this level and mostly just feel like a time waster and an annoyance at times more than anything.

The ability to take direct pictures of areas to return to and add them to your actual map is such a cool feature. It feels like one of those, "how did it take this long for someone to do this?" types of additions. The map is huge so its easy to get lost and forget about some sections when you do start to unlock new abilities so this feature really sped some of that re-exploration up which was great.

I do wish fast traveling was a lot better. There are fast travel locations immediately unlocked but late game you get an improvement to that that feels like something that should've been included at the start. Mostly because some of the beginning fast travel locations at times feel poorly placed, especially when trying to explore.

The story is serviceable. It's not gonna blow you away but it's not awful and completely irrelevant. Its easily the weakest part of this game but this game really isn't catered for some deep, enriching type of story.

Overall, The Lost Crown is a great game and well worth your time. The platforming is incredibly satisfying near the end of the game, it looks great, the music is solid (though at times I felt like the mix between music + sound fx to be a pretty bad), it brings some interesting ideas to the table, especially for Metridvanias. If this is the new direction of the Prince of Persia franchise, I'd gladly take another three games like this.

A short and sweet little April Fools release from Sega. A whodunnit on a train finding out who killed Sonic is a wild idea on paper. The end result is a super charming, short and sweet little game that, unfortunately, has a terrible gameplay loop. The only real gameplay involved is the standard ring collecting game. It's tiresome, it's boring, it is what it is.

The game is so short and charming and harmless though, that it's hard to be completely upset about this, since you honestly don't do a ton of it overall. The game is easy as hell on top of it all. If you are a big fan or confused by this idea, it's free (also free!) on Steam as of this writing. Give it a shot, it's a few hours tops and honestly, there's potential in this idea for something longer and more fleshed out, just leave the gameplay loop out of it completely.