Review: Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo

Khloe Turner
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Review: Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo

The small world of otome games

Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo is another title developed by Otomate that can be added to the niche collection of otome games, a Japanese genre of story-telling particularly targeted towards girls and women. Typically, players play as a female protagonist and aim to develop a romantic relationship with one of the male lead characters.

Winter’s Wish is a pure adventure otome game that supposedly takes place in the Kyoho era of Japan, however, suffice it to say that it is not quite historically accurate. The game can definitely appeal to those appreciate of historical fantasy; while there are some period-based lexicon and attention to minor details, Winter’s Wish is more-so a fun, fantastical journey with the main goal of achieving romance.

The otome fanbase predominately resides within Japan, China, and Korea, but there is a sizable amount of dedicated fans in the US and other countries. Winter’s Wish was released on the Nintendo Switch with an English translation on May 18th, 2023.

The dread of threads

Winter’s Wish begins with a young woman named Suzuno, who has been living in isolation for years atop a snowy mountain following her father’s death. She had been chased out of the nearby village after being deemed a demonic entity, because Suzuno harbors this curious ability where she can see “threads” around people’s necks. These mysterious “threads” can present themselves in a variety of colors which depict the wearer’s emotions and potential fate. Suzuno recognized that she is the sole person of this ability since the age of nine, and talking about them incites fear in her neighboring villagers.

For example, red threads mean that the individual is angry and blue threads indicate sadness, and so on. However, Suzuno becomes very uneasy when she detects black threads, which indicate that something absolutely terrible is about to happen to someone.

One day, Suzuno encounters two unknown samurais and they tell her that the shogun has requested her presence. One of the samurais, Tomonari Takamura, reveals that they are part of the shogun’s “oniwaban,” a top-secret group tasked with extinguishing these frightening monsters that are popping up all over the place. Since Suzuno now knows of this secret group, she has no choice but agree to meet the shogun. However, before they depart, Suzuno detects a mass of black threads encompassing the entire village, spelling a certain doom . . .

A tale of the Kyoho era, again.

The plot of Winter’s Wish is rather iffy. It was hard to take seriously and will certainly not appease those who value strict adherence to historical accuracy. However, taking place in the Kyoho era is merely a setting placer to provide character and background aesthetics, as well as to give a general timeframe of when these story events are happening. Otome games all kind of blur together in this regard.

Suzuno, the player character, is of importance to the oniwaban because she is able to predict and detect the “blightfall,” which are demonic monsters brought to tangible fruition via the negative emotions of people. The black threads reveal the presence of these monsters. The main plot of Winter’s Wish is accompanying the oniwaban on their missions, but fortunately the story prevents itself from becoming overwhelming and muddled by dividing its game paths into three districts: the Castle Town, the Entertainment District, and the Samurai Town. This separation allows for individual story arcs and more involved, fleshed-out interactions between Suzuno, the bachelors, and other minor characters.

Strange routes to romance

The main story aside, most people play otome for the love and romance, and Winter’s Wish has got plenty of that. After the prologue, players get to choose which district they want the story to follow and each of the three districts contains two different eligible bachelors. All routes are two chapters long, and once one specific bachelor is pursued, there are more chapters to follow.

The eligible bachelors include: the quirky Tomanari, the caring Kunitaka, the cocky Kinji, the vivacious Ohtaro, the serious Genjuro Kuga, and the lackadaisical Yoichi.

In order to purse one of these love interests, players must accumulate affection by selecting the correct choices when prompted. Different bachelors have their own personalities and means of interpreting reciprocating affection from Suzuno. When successfully pursuing a love interest, you unlock that bachelor’s “Affection” ending or “Sorrow” ending. The final decision the player makes which determine which ending is received. There are also several “bad” endings, which are kind of like “game overs.”

You can pursue any male love interest in any order accept Tomanari and Ohtaro. Tomonari’s route will be unlocked once you have completed at lease one other route, and Ohtaro will be unlocked after you finish the affection ending for Tomonari.

I initially went for Kunitaka, who presents himself to be easy-going, patient, and protective. He certainly gives off this fraternal vibe, so it was a little awkward for this slow-burn friends-to-lovers arc to blossom. Kunitaka is a very sweet man and the story with him is fine; he has got a little bit of angst as he feels inferior to the other members of the oniwaban. Otherwise I would not say Kunitaka’s route is interesting in a visual novel sense. A great boyfriend for reality, just decent in fantasy.

Literally objectified love interests

The wild thing about the bachelors of Winter’s Wish is that Suzuno cannot read their threads . . . because the male leads are not actually human. The members of the shogun’s oniwaban are “vessels,” or inanimate objects that have acquired a soul. Vessels look human, and need to eat, sleep, and develop relationships. However, the oniwaban vessels have their memories and hearts sealed in order to efficiently fight against the blightfall with their “Snow Sacrament” ability. As such, falling in love with Suzuno and rediscovering their inner memories and feelings can have detrimental consequences.

As Suzuno grows closer to any of the guys, the story unfolds in a myriad of interesting ways. Each character has their own backstories, character strengths and unique flaws. Both Suzuno and the men learn to love and become vulnerable, offering some well-written dialogues and character development. Suzuno does not need the ability of thread reading in order to understand the thoughts and feelings of her beloved. To be honest, every single storyline provides a likeable romance. Each character is distinct and charming enough to win over any sort of player, and it is highly recommended to play through all six romances!

Lots of telling, not much showing

The illustrations of Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo are phenomenal, so props to the leading artist Nagaoka. Every character was dressed aesthetically pleasing and did give off an Edo period feel, and Suzuno and the love interests had a nice, vast array of visual emotions.

The soundtrack is also really appropriate to the settings and well-orchestrated. The sounds are gentle and whimsical, and do not distract from the ability to read attentively.

While the artwork is phenomenal, unfortunately a lot of the minor and background characters do not receive visuals at all. There is simply not enough illustration. Winter’s Wish is one of those games that majorly relies on telling you what is happening, rather than showing you. Some action scenes that could have had a lot of potential–such as combat against the blightfall–are hardly depicted. There is an initial banner portraying a spider-like monster, but nothing to follow throughout the game. The most one will witness is quick slashing of swords and several sound effects.

Perhaps the lack of visual offers a proactive use of the imagination, but frankly, otome visual novels like Winter’s Wish hardly feel like a video game at all. Players get to make choices to win the affection of a bachelor, and even then, the interactions are scarce. For the most part, there are only two to three dialogue options you can pick from. The first several of hours of playing Winter’s Wish, I hardly touched any buttons at all except to save the game and check the dictionary. Due to the lack of actual gameplay, there were times that the story felt sluggish and lost my interest entirely. Otome is incredibly niche in this regard.

Final thoughts

If you are generally a fan of otome, I would say that Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo is decent enough. Players get to read and enjoy a fantastical tale without doing much else, aside from the occasional decision-making. The game takes about ten hours to beat at least once, but certainly much longer if you are aiming to complete all possible routes and sift through extra content.

The characters are charming, fun, and infused with sweet and exciting romances. Any and every route is steadfast and detailed and the relationship development is fun to read. It is impressive to say the least that there truly is not a single dislikeable character, even when he or she is not one’s cup of tea.

In personal taste, I am not much of a fan of visual novels. The lack of player input is rather disappointing and not being able to see visuals for most of the story and combat feels lackluster. Winter’s Wish is cute, but a bit of a bore at times. Otomate has made lots of other titles like Cupid Parasite, Code: Realize, and Collar x Malice, which offer better writing overall.

Review: Demolish & Build: Classic

Bryan Applegate
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Review: Demolish & Build: Classic

NOTE: Demolish & Build: Classic was reviewed on a PS5. It’s also available on PS4 and Switch.

INTRO: The Rise of a Classic (Heh!)

Demolish & Build: Classic was released for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch on January 21st, 2023.
It is a game about an employee in a demolition company that is in debt. Is Demolish & Build: Classic a good, solid foundation for a new series (Kinda like Silent Hope)? Or is it a terrible game whose hopes for branching out into a franchise should be demolished?

STORY: You Destroy and Build stuff… okay?

The story is quite basic.

Basically, the story for this game is rather simple. A bit too simple, personally. You’re an employee in a company that is in deep debt and it’s up to you to clear that debt by destroying stuff in various contracts, but avoiding the destruction of innocent, non-designated property to ensure max profits at the end of each contract.

GAMEPLAY: Demolish & Build: Classic Has You Destroy and Build stuff

The gameplay of this game is a bit complicated. The controls were tough (for me!) to get used to. The vehicle controls were difficult to adjust to. The game tries to help with a constant display in the upper-left corner detailing the controls and which button does what, but the font is so small!! It’s hard for me to read, due to glasses, so this game does not cater well to those with poor eyesight.

In addition, the map in the lower-left corner of the screen does NOT convey where to go too well, nor do the objective pop-ups help much either. The latter especially does NOT tell you a direct route to get there. I suppose it’s a way of open-ended navigation to each objective…

FINAL THOUGHTS: A Mixed Foundation

In conclusion, the game is a mixed foundation, but it does do its simple job well enough. It did well enough to get 2 more sequels, for some reason. Did this game deserve to get 2 sequels? Maybe. I did at least have fun with the game while I played it.

I give it a score of 7/10.

Review: Aquarist

Saim Khurshid
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Review: Aquarist

We tend to drop all hope for anything with the word simulator in its description but my experience with the aquarium simulator game, Aquarist was anything but. As I perused through the functions and steadily completed task after task, I found the experience to be nothing short of inspiring. 

The journey that I have undergone in my time playing Aquarist, can only be described as life changing. The amount of love and care that fills this Aquarium building and selling simulator cannot be underestimated. Truly, I found myself drawn back to the game, time after time, looking to see what else it would throw at me this time. 

FISHIES!!!

From the very beginning, it was made clear that this was not just any Aquarium builder. Believe me, the research placed into making sure that the process of building the aquarium and ultimately taking care of marine life was top notch, but that is not what truly sold the experience for me.

Once the tutorial ends, we are guided by our father to a trashy garage and told to convert it into a shop. It was here my pessimistic mind first began to think that the charade was over and that the repetitive grind to boredom was to begin 

I was wrong.

After I finished cleaning up, the junk either trashed or sold, the garage started to bear exactly what was in store. Transparent outlines became visible by the walls, each unveiling a shelf filled with items. Many tables came available for me to place my aquariums. I got to work!

The better you build, the more your fish are worth…. The more the fish are worth, the more they reproduce, the more they reproduce the more there is to sell, the more you sell, the more money you have to build. This cycle would continue on and money would increase.

It keeps evolving:

  • Customers come in, you have to keep the store stocked.
  • Private contracts that would teleport you to the clients locations (each time some place unique). These clients would have you fix or build brand new aquariums.
  • For every job, there would be a fee, and it was up to you how much you wished to spend to get the job done, as you were free to keep whatever remained.
  • The marine often sends special samples of endangered fish, tasking you with increasing their numbers and selling them off. In return, you would get the ability to now buy those fish from markets.

But what is the goal, you ask?

At the top of the screen, the objective read clearly… make 10,000 in cash to unlock the Aquarium. Reach the goal and you will get a bigger store with more tasks and even more places to put fish. Reach the goal again in the new shop and you get an even bigger place to run your business. The grand gameplay loop could keep one hooked for hours and hours on end.

In the start it seemed difficult to play but soon, money started rolling in and the target was reached.

Meh…

The tale of Aquarist is nothing out of this world and it does not have to be. You are a young fish lover aspiring to be a renowned businessman in the field. All dialogue and story push that narrative and do not really affect the way you may choose to play this game.

Niggles:

Aquarist has some annoying quirks that can bother players. Sometimes, you have to walk a long way just to do a simple task, which feels like a waste of time. Also, some things that should be easy, like taking fish out of the tank, end up being a pain because you can only do it one fish at a time.

Another problem is that the game doesn’t explain well if certain fish can live together peacefully or not. This can lead to surprises and confusion when your fish start fighting unexpectedly. It would be better if the game gave clearer advice about which fish can get along in the tank, so players can avoid problems and enjoy their aquariums more.

The sound can be inconsistent, with some elements being quiet while others produce ear-shattering noise. (Note: Keep sound down when picking and putting down aquariums.)

But these are just as they seem, just niggles and minor inconvenience that are easily overlooked in the vast offerings of this game.

What an Experience!

As my time with Aquarist comes to an end, I find myself longing to play more of this wonderful experience. 

Yes, it may feel a tad bit slow at times but with a little push, any true appreacter of games, will easily spend hours in this wonderful little game. It is quite evident from the get go that a lot of effort went in. As the game proceeds, this feeling only becomes better and the loop more enticing.

Review: Torn Away

Daniel Waite
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Review: Torn Away

Torn Away is a hard-hitting experience that will test your emotional state. This hard-to-swallow title ploughs its way through challenging subject matter and tough-to-watch interactions. On top of this, it blends childhood innocence with the brutality of war. The result? A captivating plot that will bring a tear to your eye!

This linear adventure game was developed by perelesoq and published by OverGamez. Moreover, it is distinctly visual novel in its approach, ensuring a slow and deliberate time. This voyeuristic style may not be for everyone. However, consider this an interactive visual novel as there are plenty of puzzles to complete and areas to explore.

Torn Away is uncomfortable to play. 

War is harrowing enough. Yet, when you add a young child to the mix, you know that things are going to get messy. This immature emotional landscape juxtaposes the cruel adult nature of this World War II title. Additionally, every second of the 4-hour gameplay is punishing to watch. As such, if you are anything like me, you will have to take a break as the action unfolds.

You control Asya, a ten-year-old girl who wishes to lead a normal life. However, Europe is under siege and innocent families are being kidnapped to work in German labour camps. Months pass and Asya eventually escapes this prison. She may have got her freedom, but this young protagonist is not safe. Only when she passes through Germany and Poland back to the Soviet Union will this brave young girl feel at home.

Basic gameplay. 

The story is undeniably heart-stopping and beautifully written. Furthermore, the layers of emotion and the cruel scenes that unfold will make you gasp with shock and horror. Yet, the story’s complexity isn’t matched by the simplicity of the gameplay. The rudimentary ideas allow the plot and the emotional state to stay centre and fore. It was this approach that makes Torn Away so incredibly touching and moreish. 

The action focuses on a linear style that is defined by small areas and an array of basic tasks. Additionally, there is a blend of point-and-click ideas, simple 2D and 3D platforming moments, and some stealthy experiences. Each of these layers works exceptionally well with the harrowing story. What’s more, the plot never outstayed its welcome, even though it was emotionally draining. 

Torn Away looks amazing. 

A sombre game needs an understated and earthy edge. Thankfully, Torn Away delivers this during every scene. Moreover, there were occasional glimpses of hope and desire that were reflected in the lighting and heart-warming imagery. Yet, these beautiful moments are few and far between. Accordingly, the story drags you through some grim and uncomfortable encounters that are tough to watch. 

The audio enhances the sinister and brutal nature of the gameplay. The cold ambient sounds and awful reminders of war will chill you to the bone. Additionally, the acting delivers a blend of light-hearted and dark elements. It was these cold and calculating moments that rammed home the tough storyline. The innocence of the protagonist is never lost. However, her emotionalised dialogue and desire to return home will test your resolve.

4 hours is a long time!

Torn Away uses a simple approach throughout its short playtime. Yet, with so many items to select and loads of puzzles to complete, it could have been a pig to play. Thankfully, though, the inputs are responsive, and the controller layout is intuitive and well-considered. 

4 hours doesn’t seem that long for an indie title. However, you will not be able to complete this in one sitting. The brutal nature of the plot and cruel themes ensure that you’ll need a rest. Furthermore, if you rush your way through this, you are bound to miss fine details. As such, I recommend taking your time with this exceptional game. 

Torn Away is a spectacular indie game. 

Like every great war film and game, Torn Away will stick in your mind. Every moment was practically perfect, even if it was tough to swallow. The cruel gameplay is beautifully written. Moreover, the characters are interesting, and the environments are breathtaking. Consequently, this is a spectacular indie game and I recommend buying it here! Can you make it home? Complete the puzzles, avoid detection, and encounter some horrific sights.

Review:OXTO

Matt Cooper
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Review:OXTO
After a year on PC, OTXO blasts its way onto consoles. Does it have enough bang for its buck?

I’ll see you on the beach

Developed by Lateralis Heavy Industries (A studio consisting of just one developer) OXTO, pronounced Oh-Cho is a top down shooter roguelike that hits consoles with a bang. Set in an eerie supernatural mansion, OXTO (Which means wolf) follows an unnamed protagonist on his journey to find his long lost lover. It’s a simple plot, but one that works well within this genre. Your goal is simple: traverse each randomly generated floor within the mansion, battling your way to the top of the mansion to save your lover from the horrors within. The game begins with a brief but enthralling cutscene in which the player sits on a train finding a strange mask. Upon picking up the mask, the character is transported to the unknown. I loved the simplicity of this cutscene, coupled with the sheer mystery; it really engages and invites the player in. The sleek pixel art visuals told through a black and white colour pallet really suit this game. It’s a simple yet stunningly beautiful style.

Washing up on a beach with no knowledge of how we got there, the game really begins. Walking up to the mysterious gothic-looking mansion really sets the tone for the player that we’re in for a weird and wonderful ride. You are greeted at the mansion by a unnamed man who sets the scene for the player through text dialogue. With this type of rogue like they could have easily just focused entirely on gameplay, but I love that Lateralis Heavy Industries have taken the time and care to include these text dialogue options for the player to use if they so choose. If you choose to talk to the man you are taken into a tutorial displaying the game’s mechanics. If not’ you go cold turkey and arrive at the games main hub: The infinite Foyer.

Kick the Damn Doors In.

It’s here in the foyer where you’re introduced to the game loop of OXTO. Speaking to the bartender, he offers you three drinks to purchase which act as your abilities for that specific run. There are up to 100 abilities in the game, offering a variety of gameplay styles from fast-paced to focusing on your main ability: Focus. Focus acts like ‘Bullet Time’ from Max Payne, slowing down time enabling you to pick and choose your targets with precision. The core gameplay loop is simple to understand, yet hard to master. Taking clear inspiration from games such as ‘Hotline Miami’ and ‘The Hong Kong Massacre’, OXTO follows those types of games with its top down focus and twin stick gameplay. Movement is sleek and easy to understand, while aiming I feel is the best I’ve come across in this genre for quite some time. Precise movements from your analogue stick are responsive and not as chaotic as other shooters in this genre. Rolling and traversing over objects is simple and rewarding, allowing the player to really try to become inventive and tactical with their movement, considering the amount of enemies that can be on screen. The health bar is also a welcome addition to this game, not having to worry about the prospect of getting one shot from a shotgun off screen as in ‘Hotline Miami’.

Guns feel unique, satisfying and downright unstoppable at times. The variety of guns in the game is excellent with more guns to be unlocked permanently by finding vending machines throughout your runs, making each attempt at clearing the game unique and fresh. The real gem in the gameplay loop is the kicking mechanic; bashing through doors, exploding enemies behind that door really makes you feel like an absolute badass. Lateralis Heavy Industries have done an incredible job at making this simple melee button feel like your main choice of violence at times. Bosses are varied and unique on each floor of the mansion, raising tension levels to the max as you encounter various supernatural beings. Whether it be a inbred basilisk or the devil itself, the game tries to make each fight feel different and varied, albeit with mixed results. Quite a lot of the time I felt as though the way for me to beat the boss each time was simply run in a circle and abuse the focus mechanic to blast my way through. The gameplay also accentuates the pixel art style, blood splattering everywhere in crimson red on the black and white background makes for an incredible visceral sight.

When The Rhythm Starts To Play

With a game like this, the music is key. The music in this game is absolutely incredible. Astonishingly, along with developing the game, Lateralis Heavy Industries also fully created the soundtrack for the game. (which can be found here: OTXO Original Soundtrack – Album by Lateralis | Spotify) The booming synths of a track or the intoxicating beat found within each song really allow the player to feel like the ultimate weapon. The soundtrack adds a multitude of layers to the gameplay, whether it is tension for clearing each room or hype for the upcoming boss battle. Composer Nathan Haddock has created something quite remarkable considering this is a complete solo effort. The music really helps carry the game throughout its gameplay loops.

Sound design in OXTO is also top notch. The sounds of kicking the doors in really help create this feeling that you can be unstoppable. The guns sound design is some of the best I’ve come across in the last few years. Crisp reload sounds, including a beautiful reload audio design for the M1 Garand. The gunshots echo throughout the rooms you enter, which was both haunting and exhilarating as I battled my way to the end of the game.

It’s not a spiral, it’s a loop

With this being a roguelike, permadeath appears in OXTO. I go back and forth on my opinions on the permadeath mechanic. In games such as ‘Hades’ I think it works wonders, but only due to the permanent upgrades obtained from the vendors in the game. I think that’s where OXTO can lose its momentum, there are not enough permanent upgrades within the game to keep the game feeling fresh. With up to 100 abilities, it would have been interesting to see if making a mode where some of these abilities stay permanent could have allowed the game to innovate and create unique gameplay strategies for the player. The AI in the game can also create varying results.

In my time playing the game, the AI baffled me at times. Sometimes it was incredibly sophisticated and attempted to flank my movement, whereas at other times, it would mindlessly funnel its way into a room where I was waiting to eliminate it in one swift sweep. The most annoying enemy in the game tends to be the turrets as they bizarrely have been given no colour indicator, often resulting in them unfortunately blending in with the environment.

Verdict

Sleek visuals, simple yet intriguing narrative and an absolutely incredible soundtrack; OXTO really is a force to behold in this genre. Superb sound design and variety of weapons and abilities, coupled with the focus mechanic help create varying gameplay styles to test and innovate. It’s only the erratic AI and some choices relating to the game’s upgrades that can make OXTO lose its momentum in the long term replay ability aspect. But OXTO is a game I would highly recommend, a real fun blast.

Review: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Phant0m
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Review: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

“an amazing adventure”

Stunning, Fun, Huge, and so much more. This game can be described with so many words, and I would, but I dont like to waste your time so, Hi my name is phant0m and these are my thoughts on… Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Stunning Looks

The games graphics are amazing, I personally used performance mode and can easily describe it as smooth but a little blurry. Nevertheless the game still looked wonderful, the diverse map of FF7 Rebirth is one of the greatest i’ve ever seen, colorful tropical areas are well detailed and full of life, theme park areas are vast and fun to explore, and the outdoors are flush with plants galore. It truly does feel like i’m in another world. A wonderful world that can be cute, dark, or vibrant. Furthermore Character designs are stupendous. Every character has awesome details around their body or face, and the well animated cutscenes make you feel the characters emotions through facial animations or great body language.

Combat

I have mixed feelings on the combat of this game, although its fun at times the simplicity of the enemies doesn’t excite me, they usually only have a few moves and if it wasn’t for the diversity of enemies themselves id be finding myself bored and tired. But the difficulties do a good job of balancing the game, when on normal you feel some difficulty for rushing the game and if you’re on easy you’ll pass through the game mostly for the story, and if you’re on the endgame hard difficulty you will struggle a bit if you’re a casual gamer.

Gameplay

Besides combat you can expect to find many fun experiences, from minigames to card games and side missions. Everything feels so fleshed out, without spoiling, there is probably an activity for any type of person in this game; They are super different and holds the top spot for some of my favorite minigames of all time. You can also build relationships with your companions over small conversations and side quests which are super funny and outrageous, I wont say all of them are good, but only a small amount of them are tedious, while the others do a good job of letting you know more about your own if not other characters, even small ones from the previous game.

Story

The story here is huge, and sadly with its big size it falls a bit short; especially near the end, but in this huge story there were also such amazing moments. Final fantasy knows how to write a character driven story and your connection to these characters enhances the plot. I at most times found myself crying because I understood their motivations, fears and hopes; the emotions especially went heavy for the character Barret who I ended up caring for the most. His excellent dialogue that can range from funny too deep and emotional was seriously such a step up from ff7 remakes one sided version of the character. Everyone else also gets a significant boost in their arcs except for characters like aerith which makes sense for the theme of her character.

Characters

Speaking of characters, they truly are the center piece of this game! Well written, designed and performed. The performance of these characters are well done and purposeful, although cloud comes off a bit bland, I think we all know they made it that way on purpose, yet it disappoints me at many corners since his emotional moments in the game truly stand out and I could use a bit more emotional cloud in my life.

Music

But the music had me emotional at nearly all times, the games music deserves several awards because it is beautiful, fun tunes pop out in your face for more energetic and scenic moments, sad moments get filled with sorrowful and at times suspenseful music and I wouldn’t want it any other way. There’s not only great music but there’s a ton of it! I’ve even added several tracks to my own playlist because it’s so good! The boss battle music is especially amazing, I don’t think I could think of much better tracks out there.

Performance

The game ran awesomely on the ps5 storage! Sadly on my extended ssd the game tended to freeze a lot but I believe it was my own fault for not owning a faster ssd but I haven’t ran into issues with any other game like that. But once I did the transition it ran fine. Only a few stutters and frame drops over the course of 40 hours. The only other issue I can name is that the game looked a bit blurry but they recently added an update that allows a sharp performance mode to show it off clearly!

Verdict

Anyways if you’re wondering. I do recommend this game, it’s exciting, new and a breath of fresh air for gamers who want character focused storytelling and gameplay. I give this game a 9/10 the only drawbacks are the scattered and confusing ending. Those were my thoughts on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth! Thx For Reading! Keep doing great things! Your good at them. Bye 🙂

A Closer Look at Deddy Bear Plushies

Andrew Edney
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A Closer Look at Deddy Bear Plushies

Dive into the whimsical world of Deddy Bears with the irresistible Deddy Bear 30cm Plushies.  

These collectible Deddy Bear Plush Characters come in Deddy Bags/Body Bags. Teddy Bears are complete with fun and quirky Autopsy Report. There are 8 endearing characters to collect.

Impulsive, Fun, Super Cool and completely On-Trend, Collectible Deddy Bear Plush in their Deddy Bags/ Body Bags are the beautiful balance between Fright and Adorable.

  • Beautiful balance between Fright and Adorable
  • A must for those who are all year-round Fans of Fright
  • Pick your Favourite Character from Spekter to Bundle, from Howler to Beezlebear and more.
  • Super Squishy, Super Cute, Outrageously Cool, Incredibly Soft, Simply Amazing

The Deddy Bear Plush range strikes the perfect balance between fright and adorableness. Collect all 8 unique character soft toys (each sold separately).

Available from Smyths – https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/search/?text=deddy+bears

Review: Balloony

Laurence Wall
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Review: Balloony

The evil Dr. Blimp has stolen the precious helium bubbles, so pump yourself up and prepare for some platforming action as you travel the world to take them back! But be careful, this world is littered with dangerous foes and treacherous obstacles. Any slip-ups, and you might find yourself being scattered to the wind!

Originally designed for mobile platforms, Balloony is a 2D platformer primarily designed for a younger audience. While this caveat of being designed for mobile may, for some folks, be an excuse for a less clean and less developed experience, I do not think so. And since it has been ported to the Switch, I will treat it as though I’m playing a Switch game.

After completing every level available, and staring at the title screen for a couple of long, difficult minutes, I can’t help but feel severely underwhelmed, not just at the experience, but at almost every single aspect of this game. Where to begin? Well, let’s start with the levels themselves. At no single point throughout the whole time playing Balloony can I say that I was even vaguely challenged. The fact that this game is designed for a younger audience base is no reason why it shouldn’t be challenging. Adversity helps us grow as people, striving to push through difficulty is one of the most satisfying things to experience as someone who loves to play games of all kinds.

But was this supposed to be easy? I’m not so sure. We have to take a look into the mechanics of the game to assess this factor. You are a balloon. You can roll, you can jump and you can fly. Simple as that. The problem is, that the flying mechanic is ridiculously overtuned. By spamming the fly button, you can pretty much hang in the air for as long as you want. Oh, is that an obstacle or a group of enemies, maybe a maze of spikes? Just tap tap tap and fly over the top. Almost every single level in the game can be cleared through an obviously unintended method, by just flying past everything.

It honestly makes me think that perhaps the game was originally designed without the flying mechanic, and then it was added at the last moment and not properly play-tested. Despite this, I tried not to cheese every level and play through them the proper way, and even then, I encountered no difficulty. Young children are not stupid, and I believe they don’t need to be pandered to and underestimated. Real game difficulty takes time to design and figure out, time which seemingly hasn’t been taken here. The bosses are one of the most egregious aspects in this regard. Most of them are simply scaled-up enemies who you have to bonk on the head 3-5 times. Where are the interesting mechanics or unique attacks? They just move up and down or side to side. Emotionless 2D sprites who convey absolutely nothing of any value to the player. The fact that a young child may play this as one of their first games and believe this is how the majority of games are designed is a very sad thought indeed.

But what if difficulty is not an important factor? That’s fair enough, I can understand someone who might want something relaxed or thought-provoking. Well, let’s begin with the main character… a balloon. The devs really shot themselves in the foot here. It’s a circle with 2 eyes and a mouth. That’s it. There’s nothing of interest going on here. Some of the most popular 2D platformers of all time invest heavily in their character design. So why not take a page from their book? Just look at Mario, Sonic and Rayman to name a few. Great designs with a ton of history and personality. Of course, this isn’t a triple-A game. So how about Celeste, Hollow Knight, Shantae or Braid? All of these characters are interesting to look at and have mechanics that we haven’t seen in other titles. They offer something fresh, something new and exciting. Balloony does none of this. You don’t learn mechanics or gain new abilities, or develop as a character or a player through this experience.

For me, a lot of this boils down to the mood and personality of a journey. The world building is really important in this regard, even in a simple platforming game. Why are there cactus walls in almost every level? Couldn’t the devs come up with a more interesting barrier that blends with the environment of the level? Why are the same enemies in every setting? Bored of wasps and mosquitoes? Well too bad. The music is repetitive and uninspired, or even missing from the winter world entirely. Why should I bother collecting all the stars in every level when I don’t feel inspired by the world? Even if we do treat this as a mobile game, not a Switch title, mobile games have evolved so much in the past 20 or so years, that Balloony truly feels like an unfortunate relic from the past.

But what about the good? There must be some right? Well if you force me to give the game some praise, the control scheme is very easy to pick up (even if the jumping is stiff and locks you into a certain direction). I didn’t encounter any game breaking bugs. In addition, it’s decent value for money if you want to collect all the stars and cosmetics. But even this is a bit of a reach.

Whether it’s overly punishing hitboxes or bland level design, Balloony struggles to get its feet off the ground. There’s so much inspiration out there when it comes to 2D platformers, and yet it feels as though almost none of the things that made those games great made it into this title. If you’re looking for an engaging experience then you’d better look elsewhere, because this game has gone down like a lead balloon.

Review: Flooded

Daniel Waite
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Review: Flooded

Flooded is a title that I knew very little about until it hit my desk. Furthermore, the idea of a reversed city builder not only confused me, but it put me off. Now, this very short-sighted stance soon faded away as I battled lashings of floodwater whilst attempting to stay alive. Additionally, its straightforward gameplay loop and occasional hurdles and bumps in the road add enough variety to keep you entertained.

This apocalyptic simulation title was developed by Artificial Disasters and published by Forever Entertainment. Moreover, there is a sense of drama and tension whenever you tackle each stage. The impending doom and the never-ending floodwaters keep you on your toes. What’s more, the procedurally generated action and the ever-shifting quests will test your patience. However, it is this continual fluid approach that makes it so challenging and moreish.

Flooded has a light-hearted story.

Though Flooded focuses on death, destruction, and despair, the story has a morbid sense of humour. The light-hearted nature and the colourful characters will make you smile and chuckle. On top of this, the random nature of each stage and the drip-fed mechanics will pique your interest throughout. Alongside this, there are 3 game modes to focus your attention and a simple learning curve to tackle.

You control a group of miners who must work their asses off if they wish to survive. Their little island is slowly fading away, and they must gather resources, build new structures, and build artificial layers of land if they wish to survive. Matters are made worse as natural disasters and asshat pirates test your resolve. Luckily, though, these are minor moments and the action allows you to focus on the task at hand without being unbearably cruel.

Wonderfully basic.

I didn’t expect to like this game as much as I do. The simplicity combined with the cruel sacrificial elements brings a wry smile to your face. Alongside this, there is enough variety to prevent the action from becoming stale. Whether you have to mine a certain number of resources, build a specific building, or upgrade an array of properties, the game keeps you busy. 

Whilst you are focusing on the task at hand, the tidal clock is forever ticking. As such, the inevitable happens and the outer layer of your island is lost to the deep blue. Sadly, any buildings that lay on these tiles will be lost as well. Accordingly, you must plan your city building wisely or lose your valuable assets in no time at all.

It is this sense of loss versus gain that makes Flooded so addictive. You have to make tough decisions if you wish to progress across each era and make it to the other side. Moreover, the random nature of each task is hard to keep on top of. Consequently, you will experience plenty of lows as you attempt to stem the inevitable sense of failure.

Flooded lacks finesse.

Graphics don’t make a game. Flooded has taken this idea to the next level as it is very simple visually. The stage design and assets lack detail and the colour palette is simple and easy on the eye. Moreover, the UI is clean and this helps you when the shit hits the fan. The top-down perspective helps you to navigate the more complicated stages and the basic cinematic breaks up the rudimentary approach. Though this won’t blow you away, it works particularly well and the refined design suits the doom and gloom nature of the theme.

The audio is just as straightforward. The simple soundtrack is complemented by some excellent ambient noises. Additionally, the basic sound effects are effective but underwhelming. Normally, I’d find this disappointing and annoying. However, Flooded gets the balance right and the audio creates a sense of drama and despair.

Excellent controls.

I believe that this was designed for a mouse and keyboard. Yet, it is a pleasure to play on a gamepad as the layout is intuitive. On top of this, the tutorial is excellent, and the inputs are responsive. Though it takes a little time to get used to everything, once you get the idea, you will play it without any worries.

Flooded has no right to be as addictive as it is! This excellent title mixes things up nicely as the procedurally generated action and 3 game modes keep you busy. Moreover, each mission doesn’t monopolise your time and this makes it an ideal casual experience.

Flooded is a gem of a game.

I fear that many gamers will overlook Flooded. Its basic presentation and weird ideas will put many players off. Yet, if you give this a chance, you will enjoy an addictive and strategic simulation game. On top of this, the gentle learning curve and procedurally generated nature of the gameplay ensures that no attempt is ever the same. Subsequently, I love it and I recommend that you buy it here! Can you survive the never-ending tidal waters? Gather your resources, build to your heart’s content, and hope that luck is on your side.

Review: Rise of the Ronin

Mani Naghshbandi
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Review: Rise of the Ronin

Samurais were trained soldiers who were trained with bows and swords and their skills were unique. Since 1185, the administration of Japan by samurais began and it was a start to a turbulent period in which many wars and bloodshed occurred. the shoguns were hereditary military leaders who actually controlled the country, although legally the emperor had a higher position, but in fact the shoguns had more power.

From 1603 to 1868, the power was in the hands of the Tokugawa shogunate, and the Tokugawa period was the most peaceful period since the beginning of the samurai era, domestically and economically, and the samurai saw a lot of progress during that period.

Finally, in 1868, after the Boshin War and the Meiji Revolution, power was taken from the shoguns and returned to the emperors, and the era of the samurai ended at the same time as the Tokugawa period.

The history of Japan and the samurai have always been popular among people over the years, and many books, movies and series have been made about the samurai, which are very good and appreciated by viewers and readers, and have made the samurai very popular. The interest and demand of people for samurai content has made it successful.

So, the video game industry has also moved towards the production of games related to the samurai era, and many games with the presence of samurai have been produced, which have been successful, and there have been many discussions among fans about which one is better.

Although the number of samurai games is very large, the number of games that focus on the real history of the samurai and show it accurately and well are very few, and my hope for the story of the rise of the ronin and the display of Japanese history in this game is very high. Has this game been able to show the history of Japan as expected and at the same time the gameplay and other parts of the game be enjoyable? In the following, you will get the answer to this question.

STORY

The story begins with the Shogun learning about the plan of the rebellion and the production of weapons for the rebellion in the depths of the Korosu mountains. Upon hearing the news, the Shogun orders the killing of all the people in the village and the massacre begins. Meanwhile, a boy and a girl about 4-5 years old are escaping from Shogun’s forces who are rescued by a woman who is a veiled edge, she takes them to veiled edge village and trains them for years and turns them into veiled edge samurais.

The veiled edge samurais have a blade twin that always fight alongside each other and are powerful together, at the end of the prologue and in 1853 your character is separated from his/her blade twin and you have to choose which one to continue playing as. After that you go to Yokohama in 1858 to start the search for your blade twin and on the way you meet Ryoma Sakamoto who is an influential and important figure in Japanese history, after getting to know him more you get involved in Japanese political issues. You will join Ryoma and get to know more about the historical figures and history of Japan.

Your choices during the game are very influential in the story process and it may not go according to the real history, but with the right choices, you can advance the story of the game like the events that really happened in history.

You can choose between anti-shogunate and pro-shogunate missions and have different quests according to your choice and advance the story in different ways.

In this game, you will witness that people sacrifice themselves for the people and the future of their country and their beliefs, you will see the revolution from many angles, which may sometimes be painful and sometimes joyful, you will see the long and many years of resistance of the people of a country In the face of oppression, you will see that they believe in the future, you will see that people fight against American and British colonialism and go to war with their rulers to expel the colonialists. Undoubtedly this game has one of the best narratives of revolution, colonialism and Japanese history.

Finally, the game ends in 1868 and gives you an experience between 20 and 22 hours, which I think is quite a suitable time for the main story of a game, there are three chapters in the game, and every chapter has a new location.

The story of searching for your blade twin is mixed with the historical story of the game, and some of the real and historical stories are a little far from reality due to the addition of the blade twin story, and I think that this process of mixing the two stories could have been done a little better.

Each character has their own way of thinking and their own solutions to solve problems, there are too many characters in the game that you dont get to know well during the main story but they play imprtant role in the story and that makes them easily forgettable and causing confusion in the main story.

BONDS

Your relationship with each character or people in each region has its own bond, and by doing tasks related to that character or region, your bond level with that region or person will increase, and you can do more side quests related to that character or more activities related to that area will appear on your map.
If your bonds become stronger with some characters, the romance feature will be unlocked with that character.

GAMEPLAY

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The gameplay is very diverse, smooth and fun.

There are a total of 9 primary weapons in the game, each of which has its own unique way of fighting, power and speed, each of these weapons has a large number of combat styles, some of which can be acquired during the story and some by doing side quests. each of these combat styles increases and decreases your strength against a type of enemy, and you must choose the appropriate style according to your enemy to make the fight easier, each combat style has several martial arts, by holding the R1 button and pressing one of the X, square and triangle buttons, you can use the martial art you want.

You can guard by holding L1 and avoid getting hit until your ki or stamina runs out, each enemy reduces a different amount of your ki according to the intensity of the strike and the type of weapon.

With square, you can hit enemies with normal attack, the triangle button is counterspark or parry, which you should press in the short time before the enemy’s weapon reach you to reduce a significant amount of enemy’s ki, of course, only one counterspark for Destroying all of the enemy’s ki is not enough and you have to do this several times to succeed in exhausting the enemy and when he is exhausted and a red circle is placed on the enemy, you can hit the enemy with a powerful attack by pressing triangle. It will either kill him/her completely or reduce a large part of his/her health.

In addition to primary weapons, there are also sub weapons that are more useful for long range attacks and increase the variety of gameplay significantly.

You can equipe two primary-weapons and two sub-weapons in your loadout at the same time and by holding R1 and using d-pads, choose from the weapons that you have already added to the loadout.

You have a grappling rope from the beginning of the game with which you can grab the enemies and pull them towards you or climb the marked places.

Indoor fights can sometimes be annoying because of the camera and you have to bring enemies outside to fight them.

In most battles, you have one or two people with you, and by holding L1 and pressing the d-pads, you can change the character under your control and play as any of the two or three people who are with you in that fight.


In addition to weapons variety, there are items that can increase the power of your weapon or give it the power of fire, poison, etc., some of these items are also used for healing, with healing items, you can not only increase your health but you can Revive your injured companions in the fight.

In the skill tree, there are four types of skills: strength, dexterity, charm and intellect, each of these has a number of skills related to fighting or conversations that you can unlock and upgrade using the points you get during the game. You can increase the number of your healing items and more.

Parkour in the game is not very entertaining and is just jumping and climbing some buildings or climbing with grappling rope.

The glide in the game is very enjoyable and you can jump and fly from high places, but I did not use this feature much in the game.

The stealth part of the game is very easy and unchallenging due to the bad AI of the enemies and it is one of the weak points of the gameplay. I assassinated an enemy in front of another enemy looking at us just few meters away and he didnt even noticed it.

There are three difficulty levels in the game, the difficulty level of dusk or normal is challenging, but by repeating the fight several times and learning the boss moves, you can win and complete the mission, if you feel that a part is too hard and you cannot get through it it You can easily set the difficulty level to dawn or easy and you will easily get through it.

LEVEL DESIGN

The level design of the game can become repetitive and is a bit annoying, but thanks to the fun gameplay, this problem is not too annoying.

VISUALS

Visually it’s a very average PS4 game, but it’s not bad by any means.

The atmosphere of old Japan is well represented and gives the player a historical feeling.

The very beautiful art style of rise of the ronin is very enjoyable and it has worked very well both in showing the beauty and showing the war and the ugliness.

There are three graphics modes in the game that you can choose, performance mode which gives you 60FPS with low resolution, RT mode which is low resolution and unstable 60FPS in the unlocked frame rate mode, and the parts that have RT in RT mode are very little, which makes this mode completely unnecessary, graphic mode has the highest resolution and if unlocked frame rate is turned on, the frame rate is more than 30 but unstable, my choice was to prioritize graphics with unlocked frame rate, but if you want to Enjoy the high frame rate and the resolution is not important to you, performance mode is the best choice.

CONCLUSION

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Rise of the Ronin is an epic and wonderful story from the end of the samurai era, which shows the historical events of Japan and the unity of the Japanese people against oppression and colonialism. There are too many important characters that you dont get to know well and this makes them easily forgettable, this is the biggest problem of the story.

Its super fun and smooth gameplay is never repetitive, although the level design could be better.

Visually, it is an average ps4 game.

Review: Castaway Station

Thomas Hopkinson
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Review: Castaway Station

Castaway station is a rogue-like card game set in a sci-fi based fantasy world. The developers for this game are an indie studio called Bad Zombie Games. It released last year, specifically on July 12th 2023 for PC (Steam).

This is one of those games I would describe as “fun, until it isn’t”. After a certain point, you enter autopilot and want the game to play itself. The narrative is a good motivator to keep going though, as it is quite interesting. It is the reason why I have kept playing the game and intend to play more. If you value narrative very highly then I can see you enjoying this game despite it’s flaws.

The search for castaways

Screenshot taken during the opening cutscene

The story of the game starts off with a bang… literally. Yu and her crew, who went to go survey an anomaly, end up stranded on a nearby planet after the main ship exploded. Yu, in a separate small ship, crash landed because of some debris from the main ship. The rest of her crew were in the main ship, with any survivors escaping with pods to the nearby planet. Yu has no idea how many people managed to survive the ordeal, but her goal is simple, to find people who did. It’s quite an eventful opening, one that hooks you in on the narrative for sure.

The characters are what make the narrative shine as a whole though. Each one feels real and well thought through. I found myself liking all the characters in this game, for different reasons. They all offer something different to the experience. My favourite character, as of now, would go to a certain foul mouthed robot, mostly because of the humour it provides to the game.

The narrative is a stand out element of this game and I found myself very invested in it.

What awaits you out there?

Screenshot of one of the mission maps.

The way you survey the land is by doing missions. On the mission screen it gives the option to choose from a few different missions. Once you beat all those available missions more will appear. Upon entering a mission, it brings up a map screen with different points of interest, which you visit sequentially. Sometimes there are missions that have branching paths, though the only thing you have to go on in regards to what you will see in a given area is the title of the area of interest. On each mission map there are three things you will come across, enemy encounters, rest spots and dialogue sections.

The dialogue sections are quite interesting as they result in different outcomes depending on what you choose. For example, one of them effected my next battle, while another caused a battle to happen. This is a good implementation of choices, as they actually matter to the gameplay. These dialogue choices also further add to the games narrative as a whole and allow you to forge a more personal journey as well as increase replay value.

Item rest points are areas were there are some items for you to pick up. These are very uninteresting but always welcome when you are in need of items. Items are quite useful in this game as they provide a range of effects ranging from positive ones for your characters to negative effects for the enemies.

Enemy encounters are were the battles happen. There is no way to know what enemies you will encounter before going in though so you have to be ready for anything. There can be any number of enemies show up, typically you find groups of weaker enemies and stronger enemies by themselves. Upon beating one of these encounters you get several rewards including some cards. The damage you have taken retains until the end of the mission so make sure to take care of your health during the different encounters. Should the health of a character reach 0, it’s not only the mission they go from, but the whole run.

While the gameplay is decent overall, it lacks variety, causing it to be extremely repetitive in nature.

Pick a card…. Not just any card though!

Screenshot of an encounter where I am selecting an enemy to use a card on.

Cards are what make this game what it is. Cards are lost when you expend their uses and do not return. You can restore the uses of a card though, which I would advise doing for good ones. I didn’t refresh cards at all myself, instead using the currency to upgrade weapons, which really hurt me in the long run.

There are quite a few different types of card. Attack cards and defence cards are straight forward doing exactly as you would think. Then there are the more interesting cards such as team work and location cards. Teamwork cards allow party members to help each other out in some way, these can be useful in taking down enemies efficiently. Location cards have all types of effects to them. They are tied to the environment you are battling in. Some can be quite useful while others can actually be harmful.

Each mission allows you to bring two characters. With the different combos available of characters and equipment I was able to get quite creative with my strategies. As well as their own unique main weapon, each character gets different cards from the same equipment so it’s important to see what equipment fits which character best. Though, with the somewhat lacking enemy variety once I found something that works I didn’t need to change it really.

The way the card system works makes it so that you want to waste your weaker cards so you can get new stronger cards. The issue with this is that it drags battles on for quite some time. However, if you don’t do this you aren’t playing optimally. Combat animations being quite slow further adds to the slowness of combat. I think the developers realised how slow it can be and added in the cards that allow you to escape, which I used often.

Now one of the coolest things about this game is that you can actually customise your own cards. I typically made a lot of low action point damage dealing cards as damage is always great to have. You can really do what you want with these though and I would encourage you to make a wide variety of custom cards. Each character has their own attributes you can tie to these custom cards as well, which can be useful. I should also note custom cards cannot be lost not matter how many times you use them. However, you can only use them once per encounter.

The card system as a whole is fairly good, though there are some problems with it.

Ugly monsters, beautiful presentation

Screenshot showing my favourite area visually.

This game features quite a smooth art style that is easy on the eyes. The monsters all look really good and are animated well, the same goes for the playable characters too. The game has many backgrounds it uses for enemy encounters and there is some great variety there, with all of them looking quite detailed.

The main thing I want to talk about here though is the cutscenes. These were a nice surprise to have in the game. They are in fact fully voiced too. I was always excited to see one these. Though, I am sad they are usually quite short and that there isn’t many of them, but I will take quality over quantity.

The sound in the game is very good. The music sets a good tone for the game’s atmosphere. I’m glad there is multiple battle tracks as I feel it could have gotten a bit annoying after a while. The different actions in the game all sound very punchy. In game design terms, it’s some good use of juicing. I appreciate the effort put in to the amount of sound in this game, some things didn’t really need to have a sound but it’s great they do.

The presentation is another aspect I think this game does well, it feels well polished in that sense.

A good entry point for both rogue–likes and card games

With how this game shaped up to be, I would say it is quite a good experience overall. I would really recommend it to people whom haven’t played this type of game before. I actually hadn’t played a card game myself before, never mind a rouge-like card game and found this one to be easy to understand. However, hardcore fans of both types of game may be left wanting a bit more from it. If you would like to get this game for yourself though you can visit the Steam page here.

Shōgun the Latest Japanese-Set Hit to Sweep Western Entertainment 

Andrew Edney
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Shōgun the Latest Japanese-Set Hit to Sweep Western Entertainment 

IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay.com

It’s somewhat rare for a television show to sweep entertainment headlines in the winter months. This has become even more uncommon with the stacks of sludge dumped onto the many different streaming platforms, making it even more difficult for the masses to find and converge on a very good show. That all changed in 2024 with Shōgun – the FX-made historical drama miniseries that’s taken entertainment by storm. Set in 17th Century Japan, it’s another product set in or from the country that has, again, made it big with Western audiences.

Shōgun becomes the hit show we needed

There was an announcement that House of the Dragon, The Bear, and The Boys would all be returning at the same time in 2024, making for a blockbuster summer of TV. Thanks to Shōgun, though, we didn’t need to wait months before the best shows of the year hit the small screen. Despite the setting and story, unlike many live-action movies, Shōgun isn’t drawn from a Japanese-made story. Instead, it’s the second miniseries adaptation of the 1975 novel by British writer James Clavell. The first miniseries was released in 1980 to critical acclaim.

Its successor, 44 years later, has landed with very similar levels of praise. Released on February 27 for a ten-episode run, Roger Ebert gave the series a 3.5 out of 5.0 score, praising the writing and the expertise in the adaptation as a sign that great TV shows can still be made. Clearly, audiences were keen on such a show, with the first episodes hitting nine million views in the US to pip The Bear Season 2 as FX’s biggest hit premiere on Hulu. Shōgun has landed very, very well, to say the least.

The viewership and review scores speak for themselves and, being a miniseries, there’s a reduced chance of it failing to stick the landing – especially as the novel it’s adapting ends particularly well. One of its most appealing aspects is its setting. Feudal Japan and the legends of samurai warriors create instant intrigue in just about any medium of entertainment. Yet, strangely, it’s been a historically seldom-explored theme. Perhaps it’s because of the costs or the quality of what’s come before, but at least Shōgun isn’t alone in Japanese works making it big in the West.

Raw appeal of Japan

Japan, obviously, dominates one distinct medium of entertainment in Western markets, but hasn’t had a particularly prominent presence here for a while. The best samurai TV shows, like Lone Wolf and Cub, were made in the 70s, while The Trusted Confidant, which started in 2007, has barely made a dent in the West. The best of samurai cinema, of course, is credited to Akira Kurosawa. His black-and-white films from the 40s, 50s, and 60s – as well as his later works in colour – remain the epitome and a great source of inspiration in other mediums.

More modern productions have made way for animated films. This certainly isn’t a bad thing as the creations, particularly out of Studio Ghibli, are loved around the world and have won stacks of awards, but they are niche at the Western box office. Last year, of course, this trend was bucked by the record-breaking Godzilla Minus One. Hollywood’s 2014 Godzilla did well to change the focus to the human characters, but this Toho-made film took that to another level, fully earning its Academy Award and $104 million worldwide gross – $3.1 million of which came from the UK.

The interest in Japan has even been on the rise in other perhaps unexpected forms of entertainment. In a sector that has found much of its success by leaning into ancient Greek, ancient Egyptian, and Irish myths, some may be surprised that historical Japanese themes are finding a lot of success on the betting site. Ancient Warriors and Shogun of Time have quickly become hits among the established slots. It’s quite telling that, among the hundreds of slots spanning different themes and features, these two Japanese-themed ones are finding an audience.

Japanese fiction writers of different formats have also found their way to Western audiences en masse. In fact, of the two million works of translated fiction sold in the UK in 2023, one in four were Japanese, as were half of the top-selling titles, per Penguin. What You Are Looking for in the Library (2023) and The Art Skura (1984) are two of the big headline acts of this trend. Then, of course, there’s the manga. Reaching huge audiences, sales have exploded from 434,000 in 2012 to two million in 2022 in the UK alone. In 2024, the medium’s still selling very well.

Japanese-set and Japanese-made entertainment products are surging in the UK and further west right now, with Shōgun hopefully being just the start of a run of prestige Feudal Japan shows.

News: Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller

Daniel Waite
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News: Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller

The Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller from PowerA adds a sense of colour and style to your gaming set-up. This incredible accessory is the perfect option for gamers who wish to have a mappable controller with an amazing battery life. Additionally, its RGB lighting will brighten any room. Therefore, investing in this device is a no-brainer.

This completely wireless controller gives gamers the freedom to play without the risk of tripping. Moreover, the large battery life can be boosted with the handy 10-foot USB-C cable. As such, if you happen to run low on juice, you can stay in the game with ease. On top of this, there are RGB zones and rear mappable buttons that can be altered on the fly. Consequently, this is the ideal tool for lovers of all genres.

The features of the Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller.

Personalized RGB.

The Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller features multi-zone RGB lighting, offering 24 different colours across four individual lighting zones. With three dynamic lighting modes, gamers can create thousands of unique colour combinations, personalising their gaming experience like never before.

Immersive & Competitive Gaming Experience.

Thanks to its motion controls, users can delve deeper into their favourite games, experiencing fluid and responsive gameplay. Whether it’s aiming, steering, flying, or exploring, this controller offers exceptional immersion. Specifically designed to give any gamer an edge, this controller is equipped with two mappable Advanced Gaming Buttons, allowing players to program them on the fly, even during intense gaming sessions, without the need to navigate through system settings or apps. With this feature, gamers can gain a strategic advantage over their opponents.

Convenience & Comfort.

Users can enjoy wireless freedom with all Nintendo Switch models. With up to an impressive 20 hours of power on a single charge and the convenience of recharging through the 10 ft USB-C cable, players can focus on their gaming without worrying about their battery life. The controller’s design, textured grip, and analogue sticks guarantee hours of comfortable gaming experience.

When is the Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller available?

The Nintendo Switch Lumectra controller can be purchased now from PowerA.com and other major retailers. Its $59.99 may appear steep, but I believe that you get a lot of bang for your buck. Not only does this look fantastic, but it is filled with great tech. Accordingly, if you want something that looks unusual whilst offering a versatile approach, then this is the device for you.

News: The Gap

Daniel Waite
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News: The Gap

The Gap is a psychological puzzle title that takes you on a journey of madness and discovery. However, at its core, it has a touching story and a list of strong characters. Moreover, the bite-sized stages and slow and methodical gameplay keep you returning for more. This excellent title has been well-received by its audience. Accordingly, it has a whopping 100% Steam rating and an impressive 80% from Metacritic. Furthermore, here are my thoughts after I previewed it in August 2023.

You may be wondering why I am discussing a game that has already been released. Well, Crunching Koalas has released it on Nintendo Switch. Subsequently, you may enjoy this uncomfortable experience whilst commuting to work or between jobs. Furthermore, I recommend playing it with headphones as you can shut out the surrounding world whilst enjoying every eerie element.

What’s The Gap all about?

The Gap tells a story of one man’s struggle to find a cure for his family’s illness through the exploration of parallel realities, including memories dear to his heart, forcing him to dive deeper into his psyche. Joshua Hayes is a neuroscientist, whose family is affected by a rare neurological disorder that slowly eats away at one’s capability and mental well-being. The struggle and fight of the family are witnessed through the lens of his highest and lowest moments. While exploring the raw, minimalist spaces, he comes across items that act as gateways to his past.

When is it released?

If you love the idea of a dark and twisted psychological thriller on your Nintendo Switch, then The Gap will be right up your street. This creepy endeavour is now available with 10% off (available until the 10th of April) to celebrate the launch. As such, if this article has piqued your interest, you can click here to buy your copy.

(More information on Crunching Koalas can be found here!)

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