Death's Door, the second game by Acid Nerve (of Titan Souls fame) is, at its core, an extremely competent adaption of the classic 2D Zelda formula. Your journey as the Crow, a lowly worker in some sort of bureaucratic afterlife, will take you through several different areas in which you solve little puzzles, talk to NPCs, battle enemies and carefully observe the environment in order to figure out how to access hidden items and upgrades.

When you aren't looking at the beautiful isometric maps that are distinct enough to make the lack of a map feature a non-issue (seriously, this game has some A+ natural navigation), you're probably fighting a bunch of enemies. Combat is, at its core, a somewhat simple affair, but with the added benefit of several multi-purpose tools (your basic attack is also your projectile parry, your grappling hook will eventually become an offensive tool, and so on), exploitable environmental hazards and surprisingly aggressive enemies, you get a decent package that encourages free-form combat as much as this kind of game can. Bosses are a bit more traditional and, for the most part, provide great exclamation points for one part of the game before moving on to the next.

Unlike some genre contemporaries, Death's Door pretty much throws side content out of the window and puts the focus on engaging exploration. Of course, not every area is a winner (the forest overworld might be a bit too convoluted for its own good) and while the encounters feel as deliberate and hand-crafted as they are, more opportunities to play around with late-game upgrades would've been nice. Thankfully, the game's excellent audiovisual presentation combined with its endearing, yet never overly chatty writing, rarely allows for a dull moment.

Death's Door also wins my hypothetical "Best True Ending" award this year, because despite some heavy hints in the game's second half, it's something I did not see coming.

If you're looking for a fun and polished action adventure experience, the ten to fifteen hours you will spend with this game are well worth your time.

Tails of Iron is a surprisingly messy affair, both in terms of the amount of frog blood our heroic rodent Redgi spills over the course of his journey and in terms of flow and polish. With a well-executed first act focused on simple tasks and easy enemies, the game puts a strong foot forward and allows you to experience its best aspects: the art style, music and overall world feel. Make no mistake though: Tails of Iron, even as it opens up, is not a Metroidvania. Curiosity-driven exploration takes a backseat as you accept side quests that put a marker on your map. You will then head to what was most likely a formerly empty dead end, fight a few enemies and return to reap the quest's rewards. Yes, there are a few optional bosses to find and conquer, but apart from the occasional weapon or armor piece hidden in plain sight, freeform spelunking is somewhat discouraged. Main quests are more elaborate, but fundamentally work the same way.

One of the two big problems Tails of Iron has is its map. While things certainly ramp up towards the end, with one surprisingly funny area being a standout (you'll know it when you get there), most of ToI's second act is spent in less than exciting tunnels, caves and other kinds of below-ground locales. While most games released in the last few years almost cheekily dance around the dreaded sewer level, this ratventure really takes the plunge and serves up not one, but two (technically three) major underground areas back to back. Weirdly brave, yes, but also surpremely unexciting to traverse.

The second issue lies with the way enemies react to you, and vice versa. Some reviews praise Tails of Iron for its combat, one even going so far as to suggest it as an ideal entry point for people who are entirely new to the Souls-adjecant school of methodical action combat. I absolutely do not share this sentiment. While early encounters and most regular enemies are fun enough to handle and don't pose much of a threat once you get to grips with the controls, pretty much every boss battle is an exercise in frustration thanks to extremely fast, barely telegraphed gotcha-type attacks that deal huge amounts of damage. I tweeted earlier that bosses in ToI feel like "playing Hollow Knight as a heavy-rolling Dark Souls 1 tank build", which is probably a dumb comparison, but it's also the most accurate mental picture I can think of. The complete (?) absence of dodge roll iframes on your character and enemies aggressively auto-dodging your attacks if they aren't in a vulnerable state transform combat scenarios into an almost turn-based affair. Sneaking in extra hits to speed up fights, something we all love to do if we feel cocky, is either way too dangerous or straight up not possible. Your secondary weapons and tools will certainly help to alleviate some of the challenge – and to be fair, every boss can be beaten after a few tries – but the later ones in particular still feel designed to catch you off guard on your first attempt.

If you happen to thoroughly enjoy the game's combat, there is a great 10-hour package waiting here, despite the environmental shortcomings. Personally, I found ToI's battles to be both undercooked and overtuned, which makes it hard for me to recommend this game to action fans. The story and overall presentation are pretty strong, especially for a smaller team, but the lack of assist options means I also cannot recommend it as a purely story-driven experience.

Part of me wants to love this game, but unfortunately, its big flaws are almost always present on the screen in some shape or form.