Mario Kart World

(Available for Nintendo Switch 2 only)

Nintendo launches their brand new console generation with a new Mario Kart – which is a real difference in launch strategy since most of the time Nintendo likes to launch a console with a strong single player game with games like Mario 64, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Breath of the Wild.

Mario Kart World does make some sort of sense to launch this console with, Mario Kart 8 was the best selling game on the Nintendo Switch 1, having come out one month after the console’s release and building up extremely good lifetime sales. Adding an open world aspect to the game was what Nintendo wanted to do to entice new players over the new console, but the game has been met with some controversy- mainly the fact that in America, it is being sold for $80- a brand new price hike in game software. Last I checked, it was £73 in the UK, another major price hike just not to the same extent. As such, I’m really going to be asking myself if this game is worth that extra price tag, but it won’t play too much of a factor in my scoring since I want to judge the game that we’ve got regardless of price.

This game was confirmed to have started development as a Nintendo Switch 1 game but was then swapped over to the Nintendo Switch 2. While I think you could have this game on the first Switch, I don’t think it would be the same quality as it is here. If you come into this from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, you’re going to have a very different experience, because while there are several distinct tracks with 30 at launch, they are all interconnected on an open world map. As a result, the game offers three modes- Grand Prix, where players go through 4 races to see who is the best of a total score depending on position in each race, Knockout Run, which acts as a Battle Royale involving you racing across the open world and if you’re not in specific location at a time you will be eliminated, an the return of Battle Mode.

There’s also Free Mode where you can just drive across the world and take part in several challenges. There’s not much to them, but they are surprisingly addictive.

Basically, the game is trying to do something similar to Forza Horizon and also a bit of Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing, since now your car can turn into a jet ski to glide across water as well as some parkour for driving against walls but I found that difficult to get the hang of.

PROS

• Grand Prix and Knockout Run

I wasn’t too sure how I would feel about the Grand Prix mode since the big difference this time is that rather than just going from track to track you now drive to the next course, so for example for Mushroom Kart you do 3 laps from Mario Bros Circuit, then you drive from there to Crown City. I will stress a couple of things- the track design is very good and all of the tracks can be done as a three lap race- some exceptions notwithstanding for courses that were designed with more than 3 laps in mind. You will lose some laps in Grand Prix mode or in the Online Mode, because in online races if you select a course nearby the one you just did it will have you drive to said course and all but one of the laps will be taken up by just driving to said lap, so you can have some trouble getting used to this, but you can go into free roam mode and learn the tracks for yourself there with no pressure.

The game does a have a good mix of new and returning tracks, but I think the people in charge of this game really liked Mario Kart 7 since there was 4 of those tracks, but when I actually double checked they didn’t get too much of an emphasis over others since Mario Kart Wii showed up a lot here too as well as Mario Kart 8. I would make the argument that one in particular looks better than the version on the Switch.

The track design is really good, and if you did have a way of not having a three lap course on each I would have marked the game down, but the fact that you have an option for both means that I actually really enjoy this new way of doing Grand Prix and online races, it certainly made sitting around and waiting for the track to be selected more interesting.

As for Bowser’s Castle, I think it’s okay and is a slight step up from 8 Deluxe in terms of track design but it’s not as visually memorable. For Rainbow Road, I don’t want to spoil too much about it, but it was always going to be better than 8 Deluxe, since that was one of my least favourites.

Knockout Run is the new mode that has been added. I’ve already explained that it’s like Battle Royale where you drive to several courses in a rally and 4 racers get eliminated each time until you have one left standing. This was the best new mode in the game, it’s utterly addictive and it adds an extra sense of pressure since if you lose time by being hit by an item, you may not get the time to recover! I love this mode and it has obviously taken a lot of the player base by storm since it was much easier to get into a lobby for this mode over the main racing experience, but we’ll have to wait how that progresses as more people get a Nintendo Switch 2.

As for the item selection, I think it’s pretty good. The new items are a mixed bag. I like the new Hammer Bro item, but the Golden Shell loses effectiveness after a certain point in the game. Probably my favourite returning item would be the Mega Mushroom, I missed it in the last game so it’s return is so welcome.

• Soundtrack

This game has one of the best Mario Kart soundtracks ever made! It’s a good mix of new and old, and even draws from the rest of the Mario series and creates great remixes out of nowhere. Honestly, this is a soundtrack that I really want to come onto Nintendo’s music app, because I would love to listen to this as time goes on.

• Graphics and Performance

Obviously this is the first 1^st party Nintendo game that was made specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2, so there isn’t much to compare it against since unlike Nintendo’s other 1^st party releases this game has been made with this console in mind and isn’t an upscale. I will stress however with all that said, it looks very good and runs well at a very stable 4K 60fps most of the time. I rarely had framerate drops and it’s a very good looking game, the team did a phenomenal job. I’ve already commented that the track design looks very good, but I will say that in terms of the open world that sometimes the tracks blend into the open world too well so you may not know where the track begins unless you’re familiar with it.

The performance never dipped online, in fact it was really not noticeable half the time that I was playing online.

MIXED

• Free Roam

I will stress that I like this mode! It was surprisingly well done. You actually can press the start button on the opening menu and go straight into Free Roam as the last character you played as, and it’s very easy to swap characters, you just select the map and press a character and you’ll be warped to where they are.

I felt this was very enjoyable when I was playing this game in Handheld Mode (which by the way, the game runs very well in this mode too).

My issues with this mode lie with the challenges. They are good, I especially like the ones that were used in the water since the water physics in this game are fantastic and some people have even suggested that Nintendo do another Wave Race game, but the challenges are a bit too short- they’re at most 30 seconds long! They don’t really stand out. I would like some beefier challenges in future content updates, and you don’t get much from unlocking them either, just tags to place on your ride for online mode.

• Character Selection

There’s not much wrong with the character selection, you get a few extra characters to unlock by getting a cup in each of the Grand Prix’s, but they’re just the Mario mainstays. It’s stretched out a bit by offering outfit selections for each of the characters which you unlock by consuming food items in either the Grand Prix, Knockout Run or Free Roam- but you’re probably best off doing that in Free Roam mode if you’re aiming to unlock specific costumes since they are locked to certain foods. The food also does act like a mushroom and provides a boost, so not too surprising there, so it’s not exactly a new item per se.

The problem I have is that the character roster is also bulked out by not only the Mario NPCs but there are several characters missing. It’s great we got newcomers like Pauline, but the Koopalings are entirely gone and Donkey Kong is the only one from his side of the universe there. I wasn’t expecting characters like Dixie or Funky Kong to make the cut but I was definitely expecting Diddy Kong! Put simply, I would like a few more characters to be in the game in the future.

• Battle Mode

Battle Mode is what you’d expect it to be, and it’s not bad. Personally, it will never be as bad as Base Mario Kart 8 Battle Mode, but the problem I have with it is that there is no specific Battle Mode maps, so there isn’t much character. Other than that, it’s pretty typical. I only really tried out Balloon Battle online and it was fun especially considering that most of the items are returning so you just keep playing until someone gets a red shell, but overall it’s not so memorable.

CONS

• Unlocking Characters

Now it’s really annoying to unlock all the different costumes if you don’t have a guide. But the worst one is unlocking all of the NPC characters! It’s just pure luck that you get transformed into a NPC character that you haven’t unlocked already- and this is the only method I found to unlock them so far. I will dispel the myth that there is no Mirror Mode in the game, it is unlockable, but it does require quite a few achievements in order to unlock it. You might want to look that one up online, though there is still at the time of review no 200cc mode in the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is future content update material.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really like Mario Kart World. It feels like a step up from Mario Kart 8 in many ways. The track design is really good, I do like the open world even if it isn’t as good as a Forza Horizon open world in terms of things to do, Knockout Run is one of the most enjoyable modes to date, and the item selection is really good this time around- there aren’t many bad items in the bunch, I’m not upset that Kart customisation is gone, I honestly thought that it was a bit unnecessary. The physics are great even if the parkour element is hard to get a hold of, and I really think that the character selection does need an update, plus unlocking the NPC characters needs to be streamlined.

But, this has been incredibly addictive! I have been playing it non stop and just enjoying my time in Free Roam mode to learn the tracks and get new costumes while I’m waiting on the train, and I really have been enjoying my time online. I didn’t get a chance to test performance out when doing Local Multiplayer for this review, but the performance and graphics were great in both docked and handheld mode. I’m not sure I can justify the increased price tag for the content available at the release, I would recommend getting the bundle now before they include Paid DLC down the line. It’s a really great game.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

And now Reece’s review

Mario Kart World is the flagship launch title for the brand-new Nintendo Switch 2 as well as the 10th Mario Kart game overall.

Mario Kart World is a racing game that sees the player compete on over 30 courses in both single player, local wireless with friends or online against players across the globe to get the highest ranking they can.

Pro:

Graphics.

Being the flagship game on Nintendo’s new console a lot of resources were put into the  development of Mario Kart World.

This is clearly seen with the graphical overhaul compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. With the new and improved animation style where the drivers and karts are more expressive with plenty of pull and stretch in their animations when drifting or performing tricks off ramps.

The game runs at 1440p in Docked Mode when playing on a TV screen and 1080p in Handheld Mode. This is in comparison to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe that ran at 1080p in Docked Mode and 720p in Handheld mode.

This makes the game visually look crisper and sharper on the Nintendo Switch 2 and on a TV when in Docked Mode. Aside from the resolution the game also looks much more vibrant with its new art style moving away from the futuristic high tech look of Mario Kart 8 with its anti-gravity mechanic to the more natural environmental focused design and more saturated colours to help the game pop when played in Docked Mode.

Frame Rate.

Mario Kart World performs a lot better than I was expecting after seeing the brand- new expansive courses and open world style along with the 24 player races. As the game still run at a fixed 60fps when offline playing single-player and even when venturing online I never encountered that much persistent lag or dropped frames when playing with others around the world.

Even in handheld mode I did not notice anymore dropped frames compared to playing the game docked so was very impressed playing the game on the go. The only downside is that the game with its great performance and amazing visuals drains the battery pretty fast compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This is because from a full change in handheld mode the Nintendo Switch 2 went flat in roughly 3 hours. To help with this I would suggest reducing the brightness and turning off the rumble function with the vibrating Joy-Cons.

24 Player Races.

The biggest change seen when racing is that the number of drivers has doubled from 12 drivers to now 24 during a race. This makes the game a lot more intense since more drivers means more chaos, especially when 200cc gets added in the future due to being the only gameplay mode not in the game at launch.

It can make it more frustrating to get 1^st place and earn three stars in all the Grand Prix and Knockout Tours, but it is worth it as long as the player isn’t always in first place with a target on their head from all the other 23 racers on the track.

50 Drivers.

Mario Kart World features the most characters on the roster in a Mario Kart game at launch and features most of the typical fan favourites returning.

In addition there are now unlockable extra drivers based on enemies and characters from other games that the community has dubbed NPC drivers to distinguish them from the main cast.

Unfortunately a few regular drivers have not made their return in Mario Kart World that have been in multiple prior games and these include fan favourites like Diddy Kong, Dry Bowser and the Koopalings.

The most obvious missing character is the player’s avatar with the Mii. As Mario Kart World is the first game to not include them since Mario Kart Wii launched nearly 20 years ago from the debut of Mario Kart World.

Nintendo did create a huge DLC pack for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe called the Booster Pass that included 48 tracks but also 8 characters. So in the future if Nintendo creates another DLC on the same level then the missing characters could make a return along with new characters never before seen.

120+ Costumes.

After ten entries Mario Kart finally includes costumes for its drivers aside from the Mii driver with all of the main drivers getting at least one extra costume unless they are one of the NPC drivers. Players get new costumes by eating certain meals from items at food stops and each costume is unlocked by eating certain foods across the map and can’t all be received from the same food repeatedly.

These costumes can be all new designs or call-backs to prior games like Mario and Peach’s having costumes from Mario Odyssey to wholly new designs never seen before like the various All-Terrain series of costumes that multiple drivers can unlock.

Tracks.

The tracks in this game were all fantastic with more having a focus on driving in the various environments than only being circuit racers like most tracks in other games. In total there are 30 tracks with 2 tracks (Crown City and Peach Stadium) having bonus variations that the player races on in some of the different cups.

Then of those tracks there are 16 new tracks and 14 retro tracks making their return from prior games with most being either Mario Kart 7 or Mario Kart Wii tracks. The highlight is the new Rainbow Road, as it is just a visual triumph and looks so incredible with a wide variety of locales with natural based tracks to the more fantastical Boo Cinema track in the Leaf Cup.

Knockout Tour.

Easily the best part of this game is the new Knockout Tour mode that sees the player choose one of eight new cups that has four tracks like in Grand Prix in each. However instead of simply racing round the course now the player has to race against the other races through a series of checkpoint along the route of those four courses.

Then whoever is in the last four positions gets eliminated from the race until only the final four remain with first place winning overall.

This mode is pretty fun with the offline CPUs driving but the most enjoyment is when playing with friends or online with other people around the world, as real players put up more of a challenge than the regular CPU A.I can.

Rails and Walls.

The new movement mechanic in this game is the ability to now ride the rails available in the game to build up boosts and reach other paths on tracks to get an advantage over other racers or shortcuts.

The anti-gravity mechanic from Mario Kart 8 has also now been upgraded to no longer be solely on anti-gravity section of tracks, as now players can ride any wall or vertical surface as long as they get onto it first either by jumping onto them by ramps or doing tricks into them.

Open World.

The new game direction for Mario Kart World is now the ability to drive Free Roam outside the courses when not in a race.

This mode offers a lot of freedom and fun to drive around the map solo or with friends to then find collectibles, but the best part is being able to test out tracks and shortcuts while not being in a race or time trial.

It’s also how players unlock additional costumes for the cast along with Stickers as rewards for finishing the P Switch challenges, the ? panel and the Peach Medallions. So the open world has plenty to do and explore since all the tracks are loaded in at once for the player to drive between and take in the sights of the full map that normally aren’t seen when driving by in Grand Prix or Knockout Tour.

Photo Mode.

A very unexpected feature is the new photo mode that the player can use by pausing Free Roam and pressing the minus button. This gives the player a lot of options with a lot of poses along with expressions unique to all the characters to help give them more personality.

In addition to the usual zooms, tilts and frames but the option I found most useful was having the ability for the driver to face the camera which a lot of photo modes in other games don’t do.

Unfortunately photo mode has the big downside of cutting the frame rate in half down from 60fps in normal gameplay down to 30fps.

Con:

Grand Prix Intermissions.

In a decision that some fans are happy with but I personally did not enjoy was being forced to do intermissions for the Grand Prix.

As in prior games all tracks were made up of three laps of the chosen track but not anymore as now instead the player will only play one lap of their chosen track in each cup.

With the other two laps instead being counted as the drive to the track along way that mostly involve driving through straight highways and not that many turns. This makes it very frustrating when wanting to play the tracks back-to-back in Grand Prix mode but instead spending only a third of the time on the actual track players want to race on.

This carries over online with random players where for some reason the player cannot chose a three-lap version of the track as the game will force an intermission onto the player. So to get around this players instead have to choose “Random” to force the game to load a three-lap version of whatever track is chosen.

Item Balancing.

While it is a lot of fun and chaotic to have 24 players on each race at a time it does come with a very frustrating downside if the player is usually at the front of the pack. As now there are an extra 12 drivers who all get the chance to pull a powerful item from an item box including the Lightning or the Blue Shell.

In most of my races I have found that instead of the usual 0-1 Blue Shells from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe I am now seeing 3 or more Blue Shells in each race on a three-lap track with this becoming even more apparent on Knockout Tour due to how long the intermission highway parts are.

This can make it very frustrating when trying to get three stars on the Knockout Tour as the player has to be in 1^st place at every gate along the way otherwise they will only get two starts or less.

Driver Selection Menu.

The user interface for the driver choice is a complete mess in Mario Kart World and so frustrating to use and navigate quickly.

Now with 50 drivers to choose from with over 120 costumes to collect really clutters the entire screen instead of making it a neat choice like in every other game having all the drivers on one screen instead of needing to cycle between screens.

To declutter the screen I would suggest taking inspiration from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when it brought in extra colours for Yoshi and Shy Guy.

As keep all the drivers on the one screen, but when you select the driver it then brings up a sub menu where the player then chooses the costume out of the ones unlocked while making the others non-selectable.

This would not only declutter the screen to only having the default drivers but speed up choosing the driver as the player no longer needs to cycle past every other driver and costume in the way to choose a later driver on the roster.

Kart Customisation.

One of the best recent additions to the franchise was the ability to customise a player’s kart fully starting with Mario Kart 7 on the Nintendo 3DS. Players were able to choose the kart, wheels and glider in Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe compared to Mario Kart World where it has now been removed and simplified. Instead players only get to chose their specific kart and driver to race with so players loose a lot of freedom in customising the Kart to specific tracks or playstyles.

Battle Mode.

Battle mode has seen such an unfortunate downgrade in Mario Kart World because unlike in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the Battle Mode no longer takes place in unique arenas. Now each map is usually a part of a race track or a certain part of the Free Roam map that the player is now confined to for the match. This makes Battle Mode feel extremely rushed and unfinished to be put in to make sure there was enough content for the game to launch with instead of just the usual racing modes.

NPC Drivers (Unlocking and Roster).

While Mario Kart World does have 50 characters on its roster, a majority of those are random enemy NPCs from prior games like Goomba or Spike. While some of these will be unlocked at the start of the game like Cow or Sidestepper the rest will need to be unlocked through random RNG that is out of the player’s control. This is done by having another driver in the same race use the Kamek Orb on the player ahead of them to unlock a new NPC Driver. Unfortunately these are course specific for a lot of them like Swoop or Fish Bone and cannot be unlocked through other methods making them incredibly time consuming to unlock.

An easier and more rewarding way would be to unlock them through encountering then in Free Roam or as rewards for beating Time Trials or winning each Grand Prix and Knockout Tour with a Gold cup for example.

Free Roam Progress.

The three things for players to do in free roam are the nearly 400 P Switch challenge, finding 150 ? Panels and finding all 200 Peach Medallions, however the game only shows you how many P Switches and Peach Medallions the player has collected on the map screen so far, but doesn’t tell the player how many there are overall or in each location of the map making so without a guide it will be nearly impossible to find them all. This is an issue since the game does track the ? Panels around each course but do not do the same for the two other collectibles.

Rewards For Free Roam.

Unfortunately with all the challenges that players complete in free roam the only rewards are more stickers to show off on the player’s kart or profile. To help cut down the randomness of unlocking the NPC drivers through Kamek Magic instead it would be a lot better if players could also unlock those drivers through finding them in free roam. This would help cut down on grinding certain tracks repeatedly and hoping the other drivers pull and then use the Kamek Magic item on the drivers ahead as a lot of these drivers are course specific.

Conclusion:

An amazing launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2 that does a phenomenal job showing off the new console’s hardware and capabilities.

This will definitely be one of my most played games going forward to play with friends but also online and would recommend it to people who buy the Nintendo Switch 2 due to how much content is in the game at launch alone.

Score: 9.0/10

Blue Prince

(available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. PlayStation 5 version used for this review)

Blue Prince is a breakout indie game that came out a couple of weeks ago from a developer named Dogubomb. It’s very hard to describe what this game is like. It’s sort of an escape room roguelike. You’re playing the nephew of a wealthy individual who just passed away in a mansion that resets itself every night.

There are 45 rooms known to exist, and in the uncle’s will, he leaves everything to his nephew under the provision that he can find himself the 46th room. You basically create the blueprints for the house every day, with the day ending when you can either no longer travel because you’ve blocked yourself off or you’ve run out of the number of steps you can do.

Blue Prince not only requires a ton of strategy because there are a ton of puzzles to solve throughout the house, some of them with permanent answers and some of them changing their answers with each run (for example, the darts puzzle in the billiards room changes a lot) but because this game is all about discovery, I won’t give away any of the answers- as a result, it might be a bit difficult for me to discuss this game. All I can say is that I do recommend this game, but if you want to go into it completely blind, leave the review here and come back to it after.

PROS

• Puzzles

The gameplay in this one is incredibly addictive- most roguelikes are! You have to figure out good routes to get to specific areas in the house where you think the 46th room might be, but even then, there’s a lot more to it than that. I played this game just trying to get to one specific area only to find that it didn’t pay off when I succeeded, and I had to become a bit cleverer.

You have to figure out via trial and error what keys will work where, where will be blocked off, you have to hope you don’t find many locked doors, you have to plan your route around the house, etc.

The rooms come in several colour varieties, orange is for hallways, purple is for special item rooms, and the red rooms come with many exits but they also come with a knockback- one that you will encounter early on is the Chapel, which comes with many exits but it comes with the drawbacks that you have to donate money every time you enter. You’ll get the hang of it the more you play, and you can even upgrade rooms as you go and some puzzles come with permanent solutions, so you won’t have to redo it, or if you do, it just becomes a routine thing- but you have to pay attention! Look around the rooms and really start thinking through every little detail and take notes! The game even tells you to do this.

I took notes on my phone and had plenty just noting down certain number combinations that I thought could be codes for something later down the line, or if I figured out how a certain special key could work, I noted that down for future references for future strategies.

You also need certain combinations to solve certain puzzles, which can be an issue because you can’t guarantee that you’ll find the codes in your playthrough and even if you do, it might not work! I figured out by the end of it that there are at least two rooms required to be discovered in order to finish the game. You can choose either one of them to do it, but you will have to find as many of those rooms as you go along. Trust me, you need to be clever.

The puzzles are really engaging. I thought that the ones I enjoyed the most were the recurring ones, and I found it interesting that they got more difficult as the days went on! It took me 51 in game days to pull off finishing the game, and I don’t think I found everything in that time!

Man was this game addicting to play. I spent hours just trying to get a bit closer to the 46th room just hoping to find something that would give me a better idea or even an upgrade. When I finally did hit those major milestones, it gave me such a rush! That being said,

you can hit several points where you think you’d hit a milestone, but you don’t quite hit it, including one time towards the end where I thought I was going to finish the game only to have my run ended abruptly- it felt like a massive gut punch.

• Soundtrack

You wouldn’t think much of it considering that they weren’t really going for iconic tunes, but the ambience really fits the game! It really gives that sense of isolation and discovery with the tones and designs of the mansion.

It’s not the most amazing thing in the world, but the soundtrack changes as you go along depending on your progress. I think my favourite track is the final track of the game, since it gives you that brilliant sense of achievement.

MIXED

• Story

The story itself is actually not too much of a factor in this game since the gameplay is just you figuring out how to navigate your way through this changing house, but there is a lot going on in the story if you’re willing to find it. You have to find letters and documents spread along this house in a very Resident Evil way, and if you can pull it off, you’ll discover a remarkably interesting story.

I will stress however that I’ve always been a bit mixed on this method especially considering that this way of storytelling is quite easy to miss if you don’t pick up certain documents or books that tell you what’s been going on and why the nephew was chosen to receive the inheritance etc. While you can get through a large portion of exploring the manor including the library if you go to that room a couple of days in a row, I kind of wish there were more cutscenes with dialogue in them. The final cutscene really only works if you found enough of those documents, and even I felt like I missed a few of them and I couldn’t understand everything.

CONS

• Puzzles are too Vague.

I know that’s a bit strange to say since for the most part I was praising the puzzles, but for a few of them I had to look up a guide. I don’t want to give too many examples because I don’t want to spoil anything, but there was one in a certain room where I felt that I had no idea what I was doing and when I looked up the answer I said, ‘How the hell was I supposed to figure that out?’. I suppose it plays into the roguelike nature, and I can hardly bash it for that, but some of them I did think didn’t quite work, and I don’t think that there’s any shame in looking up solutions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Blue Prince is an amazing achievement. I adored the puzzle gameplay in this one and the only real shame I have is that I won’t get to experience this game for the first time ever again. It has the addictive nature of a roguelike, the soundtrack is amazing, and the sense of achievement when you’re done is ecstatic. I adored playing this and it’s one of the best games I’ve played so far this year. It’s currently available on PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass, I highly recommend giving it a go. It’s not the best-looking game but I’d give that a pass considering it’s made by an Indie studio, but the atmosphere is great to get lost in.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

Assassins Creed Shadows

(available for Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Playstation 5 version used for this review)

Assassins Creed has been around for such a long time that it has reached double digits of which anniversary we’re going to experience next, which is weird because it doesn’t feel that long to me, which is probably because I’ve been there since the start of the franchise. I’ll be honest, I haven’t cared for the recent entries to the franchise, I found Valhalla in particular a massive drag, and I found the other entries rather dull in many regards. I thought that other games came along and added more innovations whereas the teams involved in these games rested on their laurels, so much so that historical accuracy in the games went down significantly as time went on.

A Japanese setting for these games has been hinted at for a very long time, even hinted at during a short movie at the end of the Ezio saga at the end of Assassin’s Creed Revelations. It was believed for ages that we would get a Japanese setting for game three, which turned out to not be the case as it was set during the American Revolution instead. For years and years we went through many settings until during an Anniversary stream of a Ubisoft Forward that a game called Codename Crimson was there and would be set during the time of Lord Nokinaga in Japan, which would later be revealed as Assassins Creed Shadows and the game would have two playable characters, the Assassin Naoe and Yasuke, a real life historical figure who was a slave sold by Portuguese missionaries who would eventually become a samurai. Look up his life, it’s really fascinating!

The big factor that goes against this game is that we kind of have a game set in Japan while we were waiting for this game to be creed, and it’s called Ghosts of Tsushima- I really liked that game and since I reviewed it, my opinion of it has gone up even higher. This game doesn’t really offer too much new. If you’ve played an Assassins Creed game, you know what to expect here. You’re doing assassinations, recruiting people for the home base, exploring the open world.

I’ll stress that while this may not be one of my more positive reviews, that this is still a step up for the series. But I think that for every step forward that this franchise takes, it also takes a few steps back. The combat is like normal, but while Naoe plays like a typical assassin, Yasuke is a more tanky and up-close character. The storyline is again typical of this franchise, Naoe’s father is murdered by eight masked samurai, and she hunts them down one by one to retrieve something that they have taken, which really reminded me of Assassin’s Creed 2. I won’t spoil how Yasuke gets involved in the storyline since I actually thought that his introduction was one of the best parts of the storyline, but as a whole, I kind of think this game doesn’t really have an engaging narrative and has other issues as well.

PROS

• Assassination Missions

I thought that the assassination missions for the main storyline were much better compared to previous entries in recent memory, mainly because they give you some decent variety in how you’re supposed to track down targets and the actual missions themselves give you a lot of options on how to tackle them. This is obviously a big part of the game so I’m happy that they nailed them this time around.

• Yasuke’s Story

While I think that Naoe’s story is a bit generic and feel like the writers don’t really have any ideas for new assassins, Yasuke’s story is really great. I’m very dubious about saying whether or not Yasuke’s segments are historically accurate, since he is one of the few figures in this game who is actually based on real life figures, and I don’t like listening to people who say whether or not it is accurate because of a few bad faith actors who work on a racist agenda- so I don’t want to say one way or the other about whether it’s accurate. But either way, I found his story a little bit more compelling.

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• Open World

The open world in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is big, which I think works against this game because I usually prefer the more contained worlds, but there you go. That wouldn’t be too much of an issue other than the fact that the world feels kind of lifeless. I played the game in performance mode and the game looks fine, but it really stood out to me that there isn’t much going on in this world and there aren’t many landmarks to tie yourself to. It doesn’t feel like a world you can get yourself lost in like Breath of the Wild and it doesn’t have the beauty of a game like Ghosts of Tsushima. As a result, it doesn’t really nail anything. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it but it’s not great either.

• Combat

I’m not a huge fan of the combat in Assassin’s Creed, and this game really emphasised my opinion. I do like the combat this time more than Valhalla and I think that they have made some improvements to the weapon variety and controls, but the blocking mechanics only work when they feel like it, but I have been informed that I may be playing the game wrong so take that with a pinch of salt.

It doesn’t feel as fluid as Ghosts of Tsushima, which this game really invites comparisons to in several ways, especially with the emphasis of katanas and stealth. I will stress that it works in their favour that the enemies aren’t as dumb as in previous games.

That leads us to Yasuke, so most of what I was just describing was Naoe’s. Yasuke is a bit overpowered, and it feels like he is playing the game on an easier mode for the most part, but I just think that his combat doesn’t feel like an Assassin’s Creed game, so maybe Ubisoft should have made a Yasuke game as a spinoff to this franchise. So, while I do enjoy Yasuke’s combat, it does feel out of place in this game.

CONS

• Vague Objectives

This was the worst part of the game for me. I hated that everyone was so vague with where you had to go. Once you selected a mission it would give you three clues on where you’re supposed to be going, and it wouldn’t give you an exact marker unless you could send some scouts to where you think the clues were leading you and just hope that you would get lucky. That’s if you had scouts available!

All I can say is that this was so annoying. I think Assassin’s Creed Shadows really needs to have map markers in order to just get on with the story missions. It meant that getting the viewpoints from the tops of towers really took up a lot of my time just to figure out where I was supposed to be going. There must be a better way of doing this outside of trial and error.

• Length of Side Content

This was really emphasised with the castle missions which involved assassinating a certain number of samurai in order to get more gear. I don’t really think that these games suit an RPG format- I might be a minority in that one, but I stand by it. Second, these missions were way too long. Some of the castle missions took me over an hour and it wasn’t because a couple of times I made a mistake and got ambushed, sometimes it was just for finding the samurai! Sometimes it would take me an extra 20 minutes just to find a samurai because these castles were so huge!!

It’s not just that, there was other side content like this and plenty of it, but normally I like a bit of side content, but this just felt like they were padding on the runtime particularly because parts of the skill tree were locked behind this content. I think that all of this caused the game to overstay its welcome.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is perfectly fine, I actually think it’s a good game in many regards, and it has improved, but the side content is way too long and takes ages to do- I went back to my favourite game in the series, Black Flag, and the side content in that game was a breeze to do. I also felt that the objectives and maps were way too vague, and I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out what to do.

For everything that I think that this game does right, it makes several errors too, and it really affirms that I am just not into this series anymore.

FINAL SCORE: 6.5/10

Ender Magnolia

(available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Nintendo Switch version used for this review.)

Ender Magnolia is the sequel to indie Metroidvania, Ender Lilies, which I previously reviewed and put in my top five games of 2021. Ender Magnolia once again has the exact same studio making it and was announced during a Nintendo Direct earlier this year when it was released on early access via Steam and had a release date of Autumn of last year – that didn’t happen due to internal delays – and has since come out this January.

If you didn’t play the last game, it’s basically a Metroidvania where the bosses you defeat become spirits that you can use in your own attacks, mapping them to different buttons, and each one could come with a different attack. It kind of plays like a Souls game, since you wouldn’t get the whole story, but you get it through flashbacks and holes in the ground. The first game conjured up images of Bloodborne, this one however feels closer to something like Lies of Pain, in fact that’s quite apt since you’re swapping from spirits to homunculi. Lily is out and Lilac is our main protagonist of this game, with a very similar story of a small boy who has to defend himself in a world that has gone horribly wrong – though I won’t give anything away, I will say that it’s a more engaging story this time.

If you like good Metroidvanias, this has the same deal. You unlock new abilities and new areas, and like before you can fast-track to any rest stops which are also used to equip relics or any abilities that you pick up. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot of difference, this is a whole bunch like Ender Lilies, but I wouldn’t call this glorified DLC.

PROS

• Combat

The combat is still great. As I mentioned, you’re collecting homunculi this time, not spirits, and that’s a funny thing – this time, there are a lot more bosses that unlock abilities instead of combat, so there is a little less mixing and matching, since when you collect certain materials, each homunculi gets three special attacks, and there are a lot of options to mix and match, as well as upgrading them, depending on your combat preference. 

Even the starting homunculi comes with three different attacks, which I would recommend trying each one out just to see which one suits you more. As before it’s very quick-paced combat, though boss fights and many creatures will telegraph attacks very heavily, so you have to keep a close eye on what enemies are doing to time your dodges.

Lilac has a much better dodge move at the start of the game compared to Lily in the previous game, which really comes in handy and is a massive improvement.

• Story

As I said before, this one is more engaging. This is mostly because unlike Lily, Lilac isn’t a silent protagonist, he does have dialogue and more of a personality. There is obviously stuff that you have to uncover via memories from beating bosses, but you also have more interaction between Lilac and the various homunculi, even unlocking extra conversations at rest spots which adds a lot more character to these characters! It’s not much different from what Ender Lilies was doing, but I think many people will appreciate the in-depth plot.

• Visual

I already thought that Ender Lilies was a beautiful looking game, and Ender Magnolia is no different. I think it’s fantastic. They have certainly created more variety in the locations and creature designs this time, in fact the design work certainly feels more varied – even though they were trying to get away from Bloodborne I could definitely see the influence. The environments also have some interesting contrast, they actually put in places that are similar to the first one; the gardens where they have a lot of poisonous plants feel similar to the last game, but the area that was similar to Feudal Japan felt really different than anything I saw previously.

I won’t sugarcoat it, I think that this is a really good looking indie game.

• Soundtrack

I liked the first one, and this one is no different. It still uses a lot of great piano pieces and it especially sounds great when you get to some of the boss fights. It’s amazing what the team can do with a very minimalist soundtrack and it still sounds amazing! As we pointed out on the Professionally Unprofessional podcast, don’t buy the soundtrack on Steam – it’s available on both Apple Music and Spotify.

• Difficulty Select

This is actually a new feature that has been added, and it’s available at any rest stop, and I would recommend switching it back and forth since some of these bosses are really damn difficult! The difficulty selection doesn’t really change too much, mainly just how fast the enemies attack, but the fact that it’s here is a good addition since I think that it makes the game more accessible.

CONS

• Not Many Fixes

I looked back at my Ender Lilies review, and I found it interesting that they haven’t actually improved in many areas. One of the problems I had with Ender Lilies was that it was quite short, and to their credit, this game is longer than that one, but it doesn’t feel like we fixed the other big issue that I had, which was there doesn’t feel like there is much of an issue with dying. You don’t lose any of your materials which you use to buy upgrades and equipment from the shop, which by the way, it doesn’t take much effort to grind! If you keep going back and forth between rest stops, you will have enough materials to buy whatever you want for an upgrade. 

Frankly, I think that the game needed that. I put this issue in the Mixed category last time because I was glad that the game wasn’t being too punitive to its player base, but I think that they should have included something in the upper difficulty levels to balance this out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Ender Magnolia is a really good follow on from Ender Lilies. In most areas, I would say that it completely improves on the previous game. The one thing I thought through this was that despite the fact that it innovated from the last game, it doesn’t always feel like it. It feels like a bit more of the same, and while I was glad that we got more of that, I don’t think it hit me in the same way the first one did.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that this game is fantastic, this is in no way a downgrade, if anything, you’re getting more bang for your buck, but I will stress that in some instances you are going to need a guide if you want to 100% this game, but the map is also very good in helping you to figure out where you missed stuff. 

I will say that I think it hasn’t improved on some of the issues of the previous one, and that I think it’s not an incredibly long game even though it is longer, and some of the issues haven’t been fixed, I’ve decided to give it the exact same score that I gave Ender Lilies, since while I think it has improved I don’t think it has the same impact as that game.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

Metaphor: ReFantazio

(available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. Xbox Series X version used for Calvin’s review; PC version used for Elliot’s review)

Metaphor ReFantazio is the final game to come out from Atlus in 2024 and marks the conclusion of the 35th Anniversary of the studio, being developed by Studio Zero. It aims to combine a whole bunch of the studio’s previous works.

The game itself is another turn-based RPG, very similar to the Persona series. You’re tasked with being a protagonist going on an adventure in order to save a fallen Prince who has been placed into a magical coma which was the result of a previous regicide attempt. The story picks up with a Count named Louis having committed another regicide on the Prince’s father. He takes the throne, but the spirit of the King creates an effect using his leftover magic which determines that the next King will be one who wins over the hearts and minds of the populous. Thus, the protagonist and his various allies enter a tournament to maintain the prince’s throne whilst also attempting an assassination attempt on Louis in order to wake him up.

I know it sounds a bit convoluted, but it’s not too difficult to understand. If you have played previous Persona games, it has pretty similar story beats. It’s even comparable to Persona 5 Strikers as it uses travel as a major aspect of the game.

While many people have said that this game needs to be viewed on its own merit, it’s very difficult not to compare it to the Persona series given how much of the game is built around the skeleton of that franchise. Battles are very similar, and they both use weakness-based systems to gain extra turns, the team makeup is very similar, and even the classes that you get access to are very similar. You also have the same social links that you would have in a game like Persona 5, but much less this time around.

Personally, I think Metaphor is very strong in many ways. While I would like to go into great detail about them, I would like to avoid spoilers for people who haven’t played it, especially since a single playthrough is very long. I did pretty much every side quest there was to do, with a couple of exceptions, and my playthrough lasted around 65 hours. So, I will stress that there will be no spoilers beyond what has been shown in trailers in regard to the plot.

PROS

• Story

I already got into the basic plotline of the story, and while that does take you around 5 to 6 hours to get to (yep, the first dungeon is really beefy) it’s actually a very well-done story that dives into several themes. Many of them get fleshed out over time, but a major one that does come about early on is the nature of our love of fantasy novels. It’s very much done early on and where it goes is really rather interesting, and in fact, it has a few great plot twists.

It helps that the characters are really good too. I wouldn’t say it is as good as Persona 5, but definitely there with the other Persona RPG casts.

I think that the strength comes from the fact that it’s a very different setting to a usual Atlus RPG> Because they’re going for a sort of sword and sorcery world with a bit of a weird uniqueness to it to make it stand out such as some steampunk elements, it means that not only do they have a different setting to work within, they have different characters to work with, because unlike the Persona games, you don’t have to have characters that could only exist in a high school. This means that a lot of different characters can be explored, and they do a great job of it.

Louis might also be one of the best antagonists in Atlus’ history. He goes down a very interesting route, which I can’t spoil, but he is very much one of those despicable villains with very interesting motivation to his actions.

• Battle Systems

The battle systems are very strong. If you’ve played Persona 5, this will be very familiar to you. Though, unlike that game, you aren’t swapping Personas but instead Archetypes which work as the class system. You gain and upgrade these Archetypes through the social links. For example, the warrior one comes from the first companion you meet, and you can upgrade that Archetype if you become closer with him. Thus, I think you should really put some effort into upgrading those social links.

Identifying the weakness of enemies is good because it adds extra returns for your team, and you will gain extra experience points and money if you can win the fight without taking a hit.

The big issue with the battle system is the fact that rather like the same point Elliot will make in his review, it does seem weird that you can’t swap archetypes mid battle- though you are given the option to inherit skills from other archetypes provided you have enough of the in game currency to transfer those skills over, though the good news is that once you’ve paid for that skill it becomes available for any archetype.

The big difference between this and Persona is that it adds an action element. You can launch a turn based battle at any point, but if you can successfully deal enough damage outside of battle before you launch the fight, it will lead to the opponents being stunned for one turn as well as receiving extra damage, and then giving you free hits. Plus, if you’re successful over enemies that you are a slightly higher level than, you won’t even need to go into turn based battles, you can just beat them on the outside.

Personally, I really liked this aspect, and it added a lot to the dungeon crawling parts of the game, especially when revisiting previous dungeons for new side quests.

I actually think that this battle system is something that can easily go forwards into the next Persona games. I really appreciated that unlike some of those games, the protagonist does not need to be standing to avoid a game over. The battle system does have a few extra complexities to it, but I’ll leave that for you to discover- just trust me when I say that this is a great battle system.

• Visuals

I’ve always felt that this engine that Atlus has been using is very versatile, and it seems that it moved into this generation very well, considering that this may be the first game they made with this generation in mind. I definitely think that this looks better than the recent Persona 3 remake, but that’s not to say that one didn’t look good.

I really did enjoy some of the visual effects they did in this one, especially considering that they had to create some different environments than what the team is used to creating.

• Soundtrack

Considering that this is an Atlus game, you won’t be very surprised to hear that this soundtrack is really good. It really is good!! I personally think that it was fantastic, and the use of various musical styles that blended together really made the whole score stand out.

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• Dungeon Design

The designs in terms of layouts are pretty good for the most part, and I particularly liked the dungeons that tied into story quests, because there were some really imaginative ideas.

The dungeons that involved the side quests, however, do tend to repeat themselves with some sight changes, which is where I have a bit of an issue with the whole thing- but to be fair, considering just how many side dungeons there are, it may have been a bit of a stretch to expect the team to be completely unique with each one. They did have some interesting concepts in each one, which made bringing certain archetypes to different dungeons very beneficial.

• Weather Conditions

This is a mechanic that is introduced partway through the game and the best way I could sum it up is to say that if the weather conditions are harsh in a dungeon, they will stop you from taking advantage of an enemy’s weakness, and this can make certain boss fights or mini bosses much more difficult if not damn right impossible. I had to give up a boss fight and camp for a day to avoid the weather effects at one point. I do think that this has something to do with the time you’re given, since each location gives you a certain amount of free time before, during, or after story missions, but on the other hand, I often found that it was more of an annoyance than it was a strategy. It also doesn’t help the fact that it takes a really long time in the game until you can manipulate the weather to your advantage, and even then, it sometimes wasn’t possible.

I don’t like the fact that one of the main confidant missions is locked behind changing the weather- if you don’t want to go in with a real challenge, that is.

CONS

• The Final Boss

The final boss is awful in this game! And this isn’t indicative of anything else, the boss fights for the most part are pretty good. They are often a challenge, but they don’t feel impossible.

The final boss is really long and really annoying! Again, I can’t spoil what it is, but it really felt like a massive difficulty spike, even by final boss standards. All I can say is, if you know that the end of the game is coming up. Grind like hell or else you’re going to have to turn the difficulty of the game down to beat it- which is what I did.

There were a bunch of points in it, where I thought that even if you levelled up a bunch, this was going to be very difficult for not very sensible reasons.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Metaphor ReFantazio is a really strong RPG, probably one of, if not the best to come out this year, and Atlus really should be taking this idea and running with it going forward. The characters are strong, the story is great, the combat is really enjoyable, and I really grew to enjoy the world. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s a really good one and I would really insist that any RPG fans try it out, particularly if you enjoy Atlus’ previous games.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10

And now Elliot’s review

I mentioned in my Persona 5 Tactica review last year that I really wanted Atlus to move on and do something other than another Persona 5 spin-off. And while we are still waiting for any sign of Persona 6 existing, we have gotten something new from the same team. Metaphor ReFantazio was, believe it or not, announced all the way back in December 2017, being given the temporary name Project ReFantazio, and wasn’t seen from again until Xbox’s Games Showcase in June 2023, where it was fully unveiled with a new title. Metaphor ReFantazio was developed by Studio Zero, published by Sega and JP: Atlus and released on 11th October 2024 for PlayStation 4 & 5, Xbox Series X/S and Windows. 

Story

(There’s a lot of go through here so this is going to be very abridged, sorry if you get confused)

The King of Euchronia, Hythlodaeus V, is dead, having been murdered by Louis Guiabern, and the prince is gone, dead according to the general populace. You play as a member of the Elda tribe, an especially rare race, accompanied by a fairy named Gallica, who becomes a member of the royal army with the hopes of meeting a mercenary called Arvid Grius. Not long after he meets a former noble named Leon Strohl da Haliaetus and ends up battling a monster called a human, during which he unlocks the mysterious power of an Archetype. The two later find Grius who informs them that the Prince isn’t dead, merely cursed, and the only way to break said curse is to kill its caster, who just so happens to be Louis. They make plans to assassinate Louis at the King’s funeral, plans that end in failure as a mysterious magic prevents Grius from dealing the killing blow, giving Louis the opportunity to kill his would-be assassin. The magic came from a strange rock in the sky, claiming to be the spirit of the late king, who announces that whoever gains the most support of the people of the kingdom will inherit the throne, with Louis immediately being the second most likely to win. After a tournament is declared by the church, our protagonist chooses to participate, not to win the tournament, but to get closer to Louis, finish what he and Grius started and save the prince. 

This story is epic fantasy incarnate. This game is very unlike anything else that this team has ever made, and the execution is exquisite. The world building was filled with depth and wonder, the characters had just as much charm as your usual Persona cast, and the themes were handled immensely well, giving the subject respect without being too preachy with its messages. This is a very long game but not a single minute of the story is wasted, fully immersing you in the world and will have you frothing at the mouth to see what happens next. 

Presentation

The game uses a similar art style to Persona 5, though with one big difference. The colourful and suave aesthetic of Atlus’ flagship series has been replaced with a more traditional fantasy look, though it’s still stylish in its own way. Menus and scene transitions have almost an oil painting look at them and can be genuinely beautiful to look at. The pause menu alone is something I’d happily display on my wall. 

In my opinion, Atlus are the kings of character and enemy design, and this game does not disappoint. There are multiple fantastical races in this world, some with small differences, Clemar Tribe having horns or Roussainte Tribe having elf ears, to much more prominent ones, like Paripus having animal ears and tails or Eugief basically being humanoid bats, so no doubt there was a lot more room for unique character designs. The designers took full advantage of that and created, in my opinion, some of their best-looking characters to date. Enemy design doesn’t go as wild as Persona or Shin Megami Tensei does. There are some very interesting looking enemies roaming this land, especially the humans, though most are your typical fantasy affair, knights, goblins, the occasional dragon, amongst others. Not that that’s a bad thing obviously, there’s still a large variety of enemies, and they all fit this new setting perfectly. 

Voice acting, of course, is great. Like a lot of fantasy based games, a majority of the accents used sound in some way British, which honestly works really well, making it appear that, despite the different races, they all come from the same kingdom (though, I will admit, it was a bit of a weird choice to make the necromancer Scottish). One surprise is that the main protagonist isn’t completely silent, this game follows the footsteps of Granblue Fantasy Relink and has your character speak whenever you’re given dialogue options, and often will during cutscenes. If I had to point out any actor in particular, without a doubt it would be Joseph Tweedale as Louis, giving us a performance and a voice that’s perfectly regal, egotistical and so very punch able. 

If there’s any part of the game that’s been getting a lot of praise, it’s the soundtrack. And rightfully so. Once again, this game abandons its predecessors’ style and funk, for a more typical fantasy sound, though believe me, these tracks are far from typical. Easily, the most unique part of these songs is what sounds like a monk chanting throughout, it not only makes the songs more memorable, but increases the intensity of it as well. Even without that though, this soundtrack is without a doubt one of the best of the year, it absolutely deserves the notoriety it’s received. 

World & Level Design

Before we continue, it’s only appropriate that I talk about one key factor that Persona fans will know all too well, the calendar. Yes, just like Persona, the date will be displayed to you in the top right of your screen at all times, and yes, pretty much all of your main story missions have a date in which they will have to be completed or it will end in an instant game over. The time limit given is long enough that you should be able to complete the main mission with plenty of time to spare, but not enough time to be able to do everything in a single playthrough. 

The Kingdom of Euchronia is a big place, and the game wants you to know that. There are several types of locations that you can travel to, from the key hub areas to the dungeons, and some smaller locations you’ll only get a menu or cutscene for. How do you get to these places? By using the gauntlet runner, or course. The gauntlet runners are a luxury form of transportation in this world, used by only the wealthiest and most noble of citizens, so it only makes sense that you have one. Don’t think that travelling from place to place is going to be quick however, as travelling to a new location will take at least a full in-game day to reach, and in some cases multiple. You do get the ability to teleport to the hub areas, but for the smaller locations your runner has to walk. Now it makes sense that you would be able to teleport to the main town and cities as you’ll likely be going to and from those consistently, but I don’t understand why you can’t teleport to dungeons or smaller locations. First time heading there, fine, I have no problems with that, but if it’s for a second visit, say I want to grind or I was under levelled the first time so I had to try again at a later date, being forced to travel for multiple in game days to get there is infuriating. Time is very important in this game, and because of this, it’s very easy to waste it. 

The size of each city and the activities you can do there entirely depends on which one you’re visiting. Some are massive, split into multiple sections and different places to shop and explore; to the point where the map is a necessity. Then there are ones that are tiny, and only take up one or two map screens, though there’s still plenty to find in them. In each one, you’ll find the same variety of shops, weapons, armour and consumables, with each hub’s stores containing different weapons that will better match your party’s level. 

Combat

Metaphor ReFantazio combat is turn-based, once again, taking a lot of inspiration from the Persona series, but that’s only when you look at the basics. This game takes the base of Persona’s turn-based style of combat and modifies it in enough ways to make it entirely its own. Though it’s still very similar to Persona, so I’m just going to stick to talking about what’s new, so I’m not repeating my Persona 3 Reload review. 

For starters, outside of combat, you are able to attack enemies in the hopes of getting an advantage in combat; yes, like Persona, though this is a bit different. This time, the game won’t be happy with you just hitting the enemy once, next to the health bar will be a yellow bar that you’ll have to deplete if you want to enter combat with the upper hand. Doing so will really benefit you, as the enemy will enter battle with a chunk of its health gone, it will be dazed, and you get the first move. The one problem with this is that the enemies can not only recover from their daze after being hit a few times, but there’s no consistent pattern – there have been times where I’ve wailed on an enemy with multiple heavy hitting strikes and they still remain dazed when it’s their turn, and in the next fight the opponent will recover after one normal attack – meaning that you can’t strategize around it and have to rely on RNG, which annoyed me more than I’d like to admit. You can of course just enter combat without attacking the enemies at all, though, if you ask me, it’s worth at least a try. You really need to be careful though, because if a monster hits you just once you’ll immediately be forced into combat with them going first. This is exactly what I mean when I say it uses Persona as a base and then changes it ever so slightly. It feels familiar but makes you look at it in a different way, and I really like that. 

When in combat, you’ll notice that there are a series of gems in the top left corner, these will indicate how many moves you can make that turn. Of course, it’s not as simple as that, because the number of moves you can do can and will change depending on how your turn goes. Every time you hit an opponent’s weakness, the gem will grow smaller instead of disappearing, giving you an extra move this turn. If an enemy dodges an attack, two of your gems will vanish or if the opponent is immune or reflects a certain attack, your turn ends immediately and it’s on to theirs. These gems are simple and easy to understand, will help you keep track of your turn, and can even help you strategize on your next move.

So now let’s talk about the Archetypes. Archetypes are your primary source of power and are what dictates the abilities you’ll be able to use. There are a surprising number of Archetypes you can unlock and use in this game, each of which giving you different benefits and abilities, outside of just different types of attacks. Each one has a different set of weaknesses which you have to keep in mind and are best used against certain enemies. They also use different types of weapons, the type of damage that weapon will deal should be obvious by sight alone. One massive difference between these and Personas is that swapping between them isn’t just exclusive to the protagonist, every member of your party has access to every Archetype you unlock and can wield their abilities. Though, if you’re really attached to one Archetype but could really use an ability from a different one, there’s no need to worry as you can equip each Archetype with a few abilities from others, giving you a massive advantage. The Archetypes are insanely awesome, and I love them. I love that they’re all useful in some form and are very different from one another – hell, the attack combo you perform outside of combat changes depending on the Archetype equipped. My one real criticism is that you can’t change Archetypes mid-fight. If you go into combat with the wrong kind of Archetype, you’ll be going in with a major disadvantage, and the fact that you can’t change them feels somewhat unfair. You do have the option to restart the battle during your turn, but even then, it doesn’t give you the option to swap them around. It’s not as bad in the later game, when you have more allies in your team, but during the early portions, it can feel really unfair at times. 

One ability that I really like are the Synthesis Skills. These attacks require two compatible Archetypes to be on the field at the same time. The skills will use up more gems than normal abilities and will require MP from both the attacker and the member with the compatible Archetype, but it will deal a damage at a higher level than your normal skills at the time you unlock them, and they will often leave a debuff on the enemy afterwards, such as a decrease in one of their stats, or a temporary weakness to the attack’s type. The reason I like these is because you really have to think when the best time to use them would be, whether or not the extra cost is worth the benefit. It’s the type of powerful attacks I really enjoy using in turn-based games. 

Now I will give you a fair warning before we move on, this game is hard… like, really hard. To put it simply, it’s a step above Persona but not quite on the same level as Shin Megami Tensei. It’s pretty obvious that combat heavily leans towards your opponents’ favour, giving them abilities that will make their stat debuffs and status ailments futile, giving the stronger abilities that will just give them more moves per turn, that can be used every turn, and sometimes the game will even ignore its own rules and not destroy one of the gems after they perform an attack (which I know for a fact isn’t a glitch as it happened consistently after particular attacks). Thankfully, unlike Persona, it’s not an instant Game Over if your leader goes down in a fight, but that doesn’t make things much easier. I will admit, I only got a handful of Game Overs, partially due to hours of grinding around the end game, though there were still plenty of battles that I left with minimal HP. While I do like my games to be difficult, this game did go a little too far at times, feeling more unfair than it maybe should have. 

Raising Your Rank

Just like Persona, you’re not going to spend all of your time running through dungeons and completing side quests. A number of social elements and activities have been carried over into this one. 

First of all, everyone’s favourite side activity is back, the Social Links – which is called Follower Bonds this time around. Just like in Persona, you have a myriad of friends with their own issues and substories, and interacting with them will give you extra benefits in and out of battle. The benefits this time around however are somewhat different. For starters, not only are there fewer bond levels for you to gain, but now romance isn’t an option anymore. The main perk you’ll get for increasing your Follower Bonds are Archetypes. Every follower you befriend has their own Archetype that you can unlock and make stronger by increasing your bond level with them. After reaching a certain level you’ll even unlock more powerful Archetypes, giving you an entire plethora of new abilities. Having the followers linked to the Archetypes is a decision that I really love, it gives you more incentive to keep an eye out for and to level up each follower. And seeing as some Archetypes require others to be at a certain level in order for you to unlock them, it’s highly recommended that you try to get closer to as many people as you can. 

Social Stats are also a thing, this time being called Royal Virtues. There are five in total, and you can increase them by taking part in certain activities in the hub areas, like talking to the townsfolk, sitting down and looking at scenery and just spending time with your allies. Sometimes, when trying to increase a Royal Virtue, you’ll have to pick a dialogue option, the better the choice the more the virtue will be increased. These mostly act as a roadblock for Follower Bonds, forcing you to have a particular trait as a high enough level to continue with the subplot. Though I don’t mind this as much as I would with Persona games, because I feel more inclined to level up my Follower Bonds with them being linked to Archetypes, so I find levelling these up as more of a necessity than I normally would. 

This is an RPG, so side quests are very much a mandatory addition. There are multiple types of side quests that you can take, from simply going to a shop to buy something, to tackling a massive dungeon and fighting a boss at the end – some of these could possibly have you returning to main dungeons you’re already conquered. Some of these quests have time limits, requiring you to have completed them by a certain day, while others you can just take your time with, as they won’t have an end date. Some of these won’t just be given to you by randoms you find on the street, as some of your party members will ask you to take on a task or two as part of their Follower Bond. None of these side quests ever feel like a waste of time, the simple ones are super quick and easy to do, while the longer ones are great for quick level ups or for finding better equipment. 

I’ve mentioned already that to reach some places, you’ll have to spend a couple of days travelling on the Gauntlet Runner. Well, you’ll be happy to know that you won’t be spending all that time twiddling your thumbs and doing nothing. The Gauntlet Runner has a ton that you can do on it to help with any of your other side activities. Some of your Follower Bond conversations can only happen when you’re on the Gauntlet Runner. There are a lot of ways that you can increase one of your Royal Virtues, from spending time with your party members to reading books. Sometimes a monster of some of your rivals in the tournament will come into contact with your Gauntlet Runner, leading to a fight, potentially a mini boss. It may be annoying that you have to spend in-game time just travelling, but there is no better place for improving yourself than while on the road. 

Conclusion

This game takes the model that Persona and Shin Megami Tensei has perfected and takes it into new avenues that greatly succeed. This game has been nominated for, and has won, multiple awards, and if you ask me, it is entirely deserving of them. I’m not sure if this is just a one off or if this is an attempt to create a new series, but I would absolutely love to have another game of this style and potentially in the same world. If it hasn’t been obvious enough, this is an absolute must play game for anyone who is a fan of Atlus, or just anyone who likes RPGs in general. Yet another example of why Atlus are one of the modern-day kings of the genre. 

9.4/10