I think this might be the best game in the series so far. The turn-based RPG gameplay has gotten a huge upgrade compared to Y:LAD and the aesthetics and writing are hugely appealing. This game really does a lot to explore it's two main characters between Ichiban's shonen-esque optimistic heroic and the 50+ year old Kiryu looking back on his life and coming to terms with his self-sacrficing stoicism. I love how much opportunity there is for the characters to just talk with each other between walk-and-talks, bond bingos, and table talks. I gained a much deeper appreciation for the cast than I would've if it was all main story stuff.

Backed the original kickstarter and finally got to play this over the last few days.

I enjoyed this game a whole lot, to the point where I consider it a GOTY contender. The pixel art is gorgeous and the music is beautiful. The story's deliberate usage of comedy and anachronism might be jarring to some but I found it to remind me of the highlights of tabletop roleplaying with friends.

The game is unabashedly the product of online queers and as an online queer it was perfect for me.

This game was made right before Yakuza 0, and it shows in a lot of good ways. A lot of the side content is very entertaining and the long battle setpieces are some of the most fun in the series. Something I really enjoy with the side content is how you're essentially building the protagonist into a folk hero by helping the citizens of bakumatsu-era japan with their problems.

I also think the game's combat is quite fun, quite effectively translating the typically barefisted brawling into weapon-based combat styles. Ironically, the style that is purely hand-to-hand is easily the weakest one.

That being said, for all the fun I had with this game, it is marred by the spectre of japanese nationalism. A lot of the people in the story are real historical figures that have been warped into either just the yakuza character they are in the mainline series or depoliticized criminal/politician homunculi. As an american socialist, I'm all too familiar with the mythologizing of 19th century politicians and the consequences of such.

Another complaint is that the game demands you gear up, and it demands you spend quite a bit of time finding ways to make money in order to do so. Thankfully, I was a diligent farmer, and at a certain point I was selling so many vegetable orders that late-game weaponsmithing was hardly a hassle.

While overall a very enjoyable experience and in the upper tier of the RGG series, the game is inevitably tinged with the uncomfortable nationalism that comes with a fantastic realism retelling of real actual historical events with real actual historical figures that shaped modern Japan.

Settlemoon is an idle game inspired by MMOs. It is about a fantasy world of bugs that has lost its sun. You must run the town of Settlemoon, building and stocking shops and attractions and sending adventurers out on quests while keeping a moon in the sky.

The game is designed to make a lot of it's exact mechanics unclear, with very minimal tutorializing. If you're ever stuck, it's worthwhile to check the steam forum or try to find other places of discussion. As someone who has played their share of MMOs, this feels very much along those lines.

I spent about a month and a half going through my first playthrough. It is a beautiful yet melancholic game, but not overbearing in that sense. This might be one of my favorite games to come out this year.

Chroma Squad is a tactical RPG about a team of stuntmen who get fed up with their job on another toku show and decide to start their own. However, as their efforts progress, they end up being thrust into a real toku adventure.

Like any tactical RPG, it's divided between combat and non-combat sections. The combat sections involve the crew fighting different monsters of the week, usually divided into 2-4 fight segments and culminating in a giant robot vs giant monster battle. The non-combat sections revolve around managing the show's budget, working with a management agency, answering emails, and crafting or purchasing suit parts and weapons.

The combat sections are the highlight of the game mechanically. Since it's a sentai show, the game emphasizes teamwork and flashiness, and rewards them with audience points, which at the end of the "episode" are converted into fans and income. Team members can toss each other further than simply walking and perform team attacks more effective than individual attack.

Sadly, like some toku shows, the mech battles have a lot of spectacle but are typically much more underwhelming than the usual combat. It's largely a matter of chaining punch attacks by hitting the sweet spot on a meter, occassionally broken up by big attacks and having to defend to minimize damage.

The studio management sections are simple but satisfying. You figure out how to effectively budget your show and check silly emails that typically include dialogue choices that may aid or hinder you. The only hangup is that buying crafting materials requires buying "packs", similar to a pack of cards. I suspect this is a holdover from Iron Galaxy's other titles, although I have not played them.

But that's all mechanics, it's time to talk about writing and aesthetics. The devs have a clear love for tokusatsu and it shines through from the commentary on the harm Saban has done to toku localization to the silly and charming monster designs that would fit right in with an actual show's rogue's gallery, to the spelling-error prone narrator meant to mimic old subtitles. It all heightens the experience and makes the game very memorable.

Overall, I highly recommend this game. If you are a fan of the world of tokusatsu or a newcomer with faint childhood memories of people in costumes fighting monsters, you will have a fun time.

(Duke Nukem voice) It's time to review a video game.

Duke Nukem 3D is a fun little FPS romp. Admittedly, that is undercutting a little since this game was absurdly innovative for its time, showing just how much you could do with the Build Engine compared to earlier FPS engines. It's just that also a lot those things you can do are such exciting things as "hand $100 bills to strippers" and "say a one-liner in response to gibbing an enemy".

In addition to expanding the possibilities of what you can do in an FPS, Duke nukem features a variety of fun gimmicky weapons. There's something incredibly amusing about shooting an enemy with a shrink ray and then crushing them under your foot.

There is also the character of Duke Nukem. New media is usually inspired by older media, and time and time again video games have taken inspiration from films. Duke is meant to embody the 1980s action movie juggernaut with his penchant for explosions, overwhelming machismo, and goofy one-liners. I must admit, I am a fan of modern Duke Nukem memes where he takes this comical overconfidence to more everyday scenarios. At several point I found myself referencing these memes in response to all the goofy things that happen in this game.

All in all, I had a fun time exploring this older title. I only played the first three episodes that made up the base game, but who knows, maybe I'll give The Body a try. Maybe see if I can find any of the other old Duke Nukem expansions lying around. The vacation-themed one seems particularly amusing to me. And that's not even getting into my desire to play the still-in-development ultra-british fan pack, Duke Smoochem.

If you buy this game, make sure to play it through EDuke32.

Slayers X is a spinoff of Hypnospace Outlaw, being an in-universe game made by the character Zane Lofton (with help from a high school friend), now a father in his late 30s.

The game is modeled after build engine games like Duke Nukem 3D and Redneck Rampage and parodies their edgy sense of comedy by filtering it thorugh the lens of a 37-year-old teenage boy who doesn't like to swear in front of relatives. The monster is defanged, or perhaps it never grew its fangs in to begin with.

Although it doesn't quite hit the emotional highs of Hypnospace Outlaw, it comes from the same sense empathy for internet weirdos as well as capturing the same general sense of comedy.

As for the gameplay, the game is pretty fun to play, with weapons that are goofy gimmicky twists on the usual sort of FPS loadout of the time. Dual pistols held sideways, a shotgun that shoots glass sharts (sic) collected by breaking windows, a sludge grenade launcher that summons rats to aid you, a chaingun with enough recoil that pointing it at the ground makes you fly, a triple friecracker rocket launcher, and of course, hacker-themed laser blasts that you fire out of your hands like a kamehameha wave.

Like any build engine game of its salt, the levels are meant to mimic real-world locations (or at least the locations of the Hypnospace Outlaw version of Boise, Idaho) A dollar store, a mini-golf course, a laundromat, upper-middle class suburban homes, and of course, the Boise potato festival. You really get a feeling for the sort of working class life Zane lives.

All in all, if you're a fan of retro shooters, edgy 90s pop culture, or were brought to tears by hypnospace outlaw, I can't recommend this game enough.