Comprehensive Game Reviews

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From AAA titles to indie games, we cover it all. Our comprehensive reviews provide detailed insights to help you find your next favorite game.

High On Life 2 Review - Skate 'N GunWho knew that adding a skateboard to a first-person shooter would make for a better game? It's an unconventional approach, for sure, but developer Squanch Games isn't exactly known for following conventions. If 2022's High On Life was Metroid Prime by way of Rick and Morty, then High On Life 2 looks to Ratchet & Clank , Sunset Overdrive , and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for new ingredients to add to its eclectic mixture. The end result is an improved sequel--absolutely bursting with creativity and out-of-the-box ideas--that nonetheless suffers from a few familiar shortcomings. Like the first game, High On Life 2 plops you into the space boots of a silent and nameless protagonist, complete with an arsenal of talking alien weapons. The story setup is much the same, too, except instead of hunting down an extraterrestrial drug cartel that wants to turn humans into a narcotic, you're killing off the celebrity propagandists, financiers, and scientists behind an extraterrestrial pharmaceutical company that wants to turn humans into a narcotic (one with much better branding than the drug from the first game). You're also on the wrong side of the law this time around, swapping your role as a bounty hunter for that of a rogue assassin, illegally murdering your way across the galaxy. The nearly identical setup is an odd choice, but your wanted status makes for some interesting deviations, and the pivot to Big Pharma as an antagonist sharpens the anticapitalist satire. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsFeb 19

Review: Reanimal Revives the Little Nightmares Style Experience When the Little Nightmares series lost Tarsier Studios as a developer, following its Embracer acquisition, the developer’s absence ended up immediately felt . However, that sort of experience isn’t lost to us. The company’s latest horror adventure Reanimal is a similar sort of beast, though one that’s more gruesome than its past games. A boy is in a boat. He’s alone, heading toward an island. As he drives through the dark, he eventually stops and pulls in a young girl from the water, who immediately tries to attack him. They separate, ending the altercation, and move onward. The two are alone, searching for missing friends. What happened to them? Why were they separated? Where are all these hostile beings coming from? Reanimal might not give you all the answers, but maybe you’ll draw your own conclusions by playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsuEUAqptzQ Like the Little Nightmare series, Reanimal focuses on the horror that comes from being very small children with very limited ways to respond to the hazards around them attempting to traverse foreboding areas. There’s more freedom in how to tackle things this time, as there’s nonlinear progression as you go to different areas to search for missing friends. However, when you are in spaces they are incredibly atmospheric, with occasional puzzles that involve observing surroundings or working with your CPU/human-controlled sibling. There can be traps. You’ll need to use your brain to figure out the right actions to move forward. There will also be major encounters with the sorts of large-scale opponents like we’d seen in Little Nightmares , forcing us to run or figure out a way to successfully deal with what might appear to be an unstoppable force. Now, in some of those situations I did notice some bugs. The biggest ended up being some frame rate issues in Quality Mode. I did notice that seemed to be addressed in a patch that was released just around Valentine’s Day, however. Performance Mode, which prioritizes frame rate, always seemed to work well. Especially in handheld mode. I will say that I do wish some elements of Reanimal had been handled a bit differently. The non-linear nature I think takes away from the narrative a bit. While in Little Nightmares 1 and 2, we had a very defined since of things and story being told, the obscure tendencies and vagueness of Reanimal took away some of the punch of some set pieces. It’s also a far darker game with lots of blood, corpses, and unsettling imagery, with lots of references to suicide. Given it’s a horror game, that’s not necessarily bad, but pairing that with the story structure meant I found myself looking for meaning in some of it that didn’t seem to be there. Images via Tarsier On the plus side, the art direction is very good. The locations and perspective used is quite cinematic. This applies to every situation. General exploration, escaping or fighting enemies, and even quieter moments all end up seeing otherworldly and haunting. The enemy design is also quite well-handled, with some truly frightful entities roaming about. Another thing I liked about Reanimal is that if you are taking your time or good at handling the dangerous situations, you can come across a number of collectibles. The big one involves finding the five coffins in the world, but it’s also possible to get posters to unlock concept art, masks to change how the brother and sister look, and light candles at statues. It offers a little replay incentive, especially if you want to see a short epilogue or want an excuse to go through the adventure again with someone else. Images via Tarsier Speaking of which, the multiplayer in Reanimal works well, but there are some GameShare issues. Only one full copy of the game is needed, with the person owning it as the host. I did notice lag that hampered some of the more treacherous encounters when playing it over the internet with another person. So I think local multiplayer would be the way to go on the Switch 2. If you don’t have someone to play with, the CPU intelligence is quite competent in single-player, and I’d recommend going it alone if you can’t have someone sit in locally to join you on this console. Reanimal is an ominous, tense adventure that puts you in unsettling situations and leaves you to draw your own conclusions about what’s going on. So much so that it almost feels like the end is only the beginning of analyzing what’s happened here. While short, there are some interesting puzzles and encounters, the pacing is good, the NPC intelligence in single-player is competent, and there’s some great character and environmental design elements at play. A few bugs that will likely be patched out in a few weeks aside, it’s a great horror game. Reanimal is available on the Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC . The post Review: Reanimal Revives the Little Nightmares Style Experience appeared first on Siliconera .

Reviews Articles and News - SiliconeraFeb 19

Fur Squadron Phoenix Review - An Out-Of-This-World Homage Reviewed on: Switch Platform: Switch, PC Publisher: Raptor Claw Developer: Raptor Claw Rating: Everyone One thing that seems certain in video games is that if a legendary developer neglects a beloved franchise, an indie studio will pick up the ball and run with it through a spiritual successor. We've seen it in spades with Metroid and Castlevania, and with how long its been since we've received a Star Fox game, it was just a matter of time before something like Fur Squadron Phoenix came along. A prequel to 2023's Fur Squadron, Fur Squadron Phoenix brings more modern visuals and missions than its predecessor, and in the process, delivers the Star Fox 64 successor I've wanted for nearly three decades. Fur Squadron Phoenix places you in the cockpit of a Starfighter as part of Fur Squadron, an elite group of fighter pilots who serve the Federation. The on-rails gameplay immediately calls back to the best sequences in the Star Fox franchise. You fly through a diverse collection of planet-bound and space environments, blasting away at the many enemies who dare take you on. As you play, you encounter standard enemies flying in formation, shielded ships that require charge shots or special weapons to take out, mechanical worms that emerge from hiding spots to fly straight at you, and, of course, end-of-level bosses that task you with dodging their attacks and blasting their weak points. Thanks to its colorful neon glow, superb soundtrack, and masterful pacing, Fur Squadron Phoenix presents consistently exhilarating dogfights that are absolute treats for the senses. The waves of enemies that fly towards you often presented unique challenges that kept me on my toes, and truly made me feel the progression of not only my skills, but also my characters. Meanwhile, the boss battles are largely inventive, providing an exciting culmination of each stage; I just wish I could say the same about the final boss, which is an arduous, bullet-spongy practice in patience that did little to put an exclamation point at the end of the otherwise fun campaign. And despite how much I loved my time with Fur Squadron Phoenix, I was also left wishing there was more to it, as eight stages – even if they're lengthy – fly by quickly. Despite how short the campaign is, you'll still have thousands of enemies to blast. Thankfully, you have an ever-improving arsenal that is unlocked through roguelite-inspired mechanics. Rather than unlocking upgrades through in-level items, you instead earn upgrade points every time you play a level – win or lose. This makes it so even my bitter losses at the end of a long stage didn't feel like a complete waste of time. The majority of the game takes place within a training simulation, but bafflingly, you don't earn any skill points in the real in-universe missions; these stages should feel more impactful and memorable, but instead, because of this arbitrary system, I always opted to replay the simulation missions. Upgrades available include damage boosts (including a permanent double laser), improved shields, and increased mobility. Obviously, improving health and damage is always great, but I especially loved pumping points into the four distinct special weapons. The standard Star Fox-style bombs are your default, but I quickly gravitated to a power beam that increases in damage as you use it, or the extremely useful multi-missile special weapon. Then, there's the nuke, which is also extremely useful in situations with a ton of enemies. These specials, when fully upgraded, can decimate the opposing forces. And when combined with your Overdrive ultimate ability, which slows time and increases your damage, you have more ways than ever to satisfyingly take down incoming adversaries. Through most of the game, you play as Robin, a bird who was previously a part of Phoenix Squadron. When Robin's crew is decimated during a mission, he's rescued by Fur Squadron, which consists of a ferret named Blaze, a fruit bat named Kiro, and an Axolotl named Axel. Each of these characters fits into the archetypes established by Star Fox: Blaze is the brave and fearless leader, Kiro flies like he has something to prove, and Axel is a tech genius. As you play through levels, each teammate will give you side objectives to complete, such as saving them from enemies on their tails, clearing a path of all debris, or flying through rings. By completing these, you level up the character who issued the challenge, which improves your Overdrive.   By the end of my playthrough, in addition to slowing down time, my Overdrive fully refilled my health and special weapon energy, plus gave my lasers a 260-percent damage buff. Additionally, each time you level your relationship with a specific character, you get a touching post-mission scene between Robin and that character. These scenes go a long way towards establishing personalities, connections, and narrative subplots, which is all extremely helpful since your squad mates' voices play as gibberish rather than real voice acting. This isn't a dealbreaker by any means, but when Star Fox 64 was able to have fully voiced characters in 1997, it's disappointing to have to take my eyes off the action to read what they're saying while in a mission. Though Fur Squadron Phoenix draws heavy inspiration from Star Fox, it leaves out smaller pieces of the formula. First, this a single-player title with no multiplayer, so if, like me, you have fond memories of competing in four-player dogfights, you won't find that within this package. Additionally, the levels are completely on rails, meaning that even in encounters that might make sense for it, there is no All-Range Mode to allow for free flight. Thankfully, for boss encounters that feel like they'd play better in something akin to All-Range Mode, Raptor Claw found creative ways for it to feel dynamic in a similar way. Despite those deviations from the series that inspired Raptor Claw to develop this game, Fur Squadron Phoenix is an excellent spiritual successor for those who remember that Fox and Falco exist outside of the Super Smash Bros. games. Nintendo may not know what to do with the Star Fox franchise, but Fur Squadron Phoenix makes a great case that the genre can still flourish in 2026. Score: 8.5 About Game Informer's review system

Game Informer ReviewsFeb 19

MSI MPG 272QRF X36 Gaming Monitor Review

IGN PC ReviewsFeb 18

Review: Tokyo Scramble Is a Major Fumble You know how sometimes you get so desperate for anything Dino Crisis- like that you end up giving games that are probably going to disappoint you because they are nowhere near that a chance because they seem to maybe involve similar situations? Well, that’s why I opted into Tokyo Scramble . I figured a survival-horror puzzle game that’s all about surviving encounters with “Zinos” and evading their assaults could maybe scratch that itch or, at the very least, present a goofy challenge. It failed on every front, and by the end I was hate-playing it just in the hopes that maybe the ending would try something interesting. (It doesn't.) Anne is a teenager on a train when a natural disaster hits. Is it an earthquake? Nope. It’s Zinos. Which are like dinosaurs, but also sometimes look like praying mantises, horseshoe crabs, or other creatures instead. Areas are destroyed and buried, and she seems to be all alone. She’ll need to use apps on her smart watch, which she names Diana, to do things like blind the beasts, trigger electronic distractions, unlock gates, restore power, and cause other interactions to find a way out from underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1XLnTY3uS0 Let’s get into why exactly Tokyo Scramble is a bad game. First, the story is terrible rather terrible. It is goofy and campy in a way that could have been fun if it leaned into the B-movie nature in the way Earth Defense Force does. But it isn’t so bad that it’s somehow good. It’s just all bad. It doesn't even look good. Like at a glance, you might be mistaken and think it is fine due to a cinematic segment or being so preoccupied with not making a sound and seeing where you should be going. But if you really look at Anne or Ray's character models or get into like a subway car or safe space where you can see a Zino up close, but duck out of the way to avoid actual danger, you'll notice they don't look great and some textures look poor. The problem is the characterizations and personalities of absolutely everyone is pretty bad. Anne does not react properly to the situation in any way or at any time. All of her friends don’t always seem to care about the fact that Anne is underground and near death, and instead are so self absorbed that they’re talking about like infighting, crushes, their band (named Tokyo Scramble, of course) and even maybe being mad at her for something insignificant? (Some don’t even believe she’s in danger initially!) And instead of Anne reacting in a horrified manner, she’s just… chatting sort of like normal? After a few episodes, as the game is broken up into chapter-like stages, Anne’s brother Ray comes up and… honestly, I got the impression that he was maybe acting more like a boyfriend than her older sibling? (Did I mention the English voice acting and script are bad?) But at least he seems to grasp how dangerous the situation is and came to help? Screenshots by Siliconera As Anne is defenseless and not able to directly use a gun/cars/weapons to deal with Zinos, the main gameplay mechanic in Tokyo Scramble involves one stealth puzzle after another. She can run, briefly, but if her heart rate goes above 150, you’re going to be forced to slow down and have a bad time. She can use apps on her phone to occasionally do helpful things to aid in evasion, like flash a Zino to temporarily blind them or cause an electronic item to make noise. However, her smartwatch’s battery is limited and you’ll only be able to perform a few actions each stage. If Ray shows up, he might be able to kill some Zinos if you run to certain spots. But for the most part, you need to move cautiously, be aware of the audio and visual sound effect cues that show a Zino is aware of you, and try and get through the levels. This part seems like it should be fun, but it’s not! It’s incredibly limiting, due to the battery power element, even if you go with the easier difficulty. If a Zino catches you once, you’re dead and need to restart. This can be frustrating, because there are no clear indicators of which spots might be “safe” in some situations. Another problem I ran into is the third-person camera view is so close to Anne that you’re not going to get a good view of your surroundings and enemies, and there’s no real peek-around-corners-or-above-cover mechanic. This is a nuisance when it comes to tracking Zinos and figuring out where you need to go. Because it is very clear where the goal always is, but sometimes not how to get there safely. Images via Binary Haze I’m going to be frank. Sometimes, I would get so frustrated that I’d flat out run where Anne would need to go instead of dealing with sneaking around. What’s worse is that worked way more often than I expected it too. Which made me feel ridiculous that I wasted time trying to do things the “right” way. Because sometimes the NPC Zinos are really stupid and easy to outrun or evade, and other times I’d run into a situation with suddenly brilliant opponents, overwhelming numbers, or some sort of poor level design that would lead to cheap deaths. Also, the last three episodes are absolutely terrible. Is what I’m about to say a spoiler? Probably, but it’s bad and you deserve the warning. There are massive difficulty spikes at this point. The checkpoints aren’t great. One is a sort of boss fight situation that involves summoning down pile drivers to actually attack. But the cover is terrible, you’re supposed to do a lot of running and evading with multiple Zinos, and it is very easy for Anne’s heart rate to skyrocket, forcing you to restart the process because the camera perspective meant you didn’t see there was another enemy also nearby. One segment involves constantly running while a bad character model flails behind you, screaming wretchedly, while you need to try and figure out which direction to go and how to dodge its occasional assaults. All for an ending that sucks. Great job, Anne. Images via Binary Haze Oh, there’s multiplayer too. It’s bad! I played it briefly, but nobody had a good time or wanted to play past the first episode. Which is understandable, because each person controls one part of Anne. One person moves her. One person controls the camera. Then the apps and ability to run would be assigned to other people. It can make progression near impossible. Tokyo Scramble is a mess of a game, and it’s not even a situation where it is so bad that some element of it is in some way enjoyable. The story is bad. The script is terrible. The stages can involve areas that are poorly designed or feature massive difficulty spikes. The multiplayer basically makes it impossible to survive. I wasted about five hours on this game that I will never get back. Tokyo Scramble is available for the Switch 2. The post Review: Tokyo Scramble Is a Major Fumble appeared first on Siliconera .

Reviews Articles and News - SiliconeraFeb 18

Crisol: Theater of Idols Review - Drained DryThe best thing Crisol: Theater of Idols has going for it is the world it is set in. The game clearly takes many cues from the likes of Resident Evil and BioShock in terms of cultivating a sense of mystique and atmosphere in its opening hour, with tension-building sound design, closed-off environments, and unnerving enemies that are visually human-like but move in an unnatural manner. Unlike those games, however, Crisol begins to lose its edge when the enemies become too numerous and easy to defeat, undermining the sense of danger that first built up its setting and undercutting the game's best mechanic. The first-person shooter gameplay grows increasingly dull as the layouts of different arenas become repetitive, keeping combat from evolving in exciting ways. And while the narrative framework of Crisol is interesting and immediately draws you in, the actual story is held back by another drag: its protagonist. In Crisol: Theater of Idols, you play as Gabriel, a soldier of the god of the sun who has infiltrated the perpetually stormy island settlement of Tormentosa, a locale that is part of Hispania, a nightmarish version of Spain. Gabriel is waging war against the sea god for his master and receives his mission instructions through visions that the sun god sends him. He must make his way across the island, working alongside the remnants of a human resistance that is struggling to survive against statues that have been given some form of sentience and now move with murderous purpose. Throughout it all, he is dragged further and further into the history and politics of the ongoing war between the two deities. The best part of Crisol is its blood-for-bullets mechanic. There is no ammo in Crisol--instead, you refill each firearm by injecting Gabriel's blood into them. This, obviously, hurts. As a result, Gabriel's health and firearm ammo both pull from the same resource bar. This is not too much of an issue on the easiest difficulty, but on the harder ones, this blood-for-bullets mechanic makes for an interesting risk-versus-reward gameplay loop. You have to carefully manage how much you reload your firearms. Continue Reading at GameSpot

GameSpot - Game ReviewsFeb 18

Mewgenics Review – Captivating Combat, Questionable Comedy Reviewed on: PC Platform: PC Publisher: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel Developer: Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel Release: 2014 Mewgenics is difficult to assess; it executes some ideas incredibly well, while others are clumsy and grating. I adore its combat, which makes for excellent roguelike gameplay and has been well worth my extensive playtime. Simultaneously, the game's humor and breeding mechanics have really brought my opinion down over time, as both elements have gotten old as my playthrough went on. Even so, the combat and breeding are two distinct parts of the game, and the former takes up so much playtime that it's easy for me to push the latter to the side. Mewgenics makes me uncomfortable often enough that I can't ignore it, but man, that combat is incredible. An early combat encounter in the desert biome To complete a playthrough of Mewgenics is a gargantuan task, taking anywhere from 150 to 200 hours of gameplay. Therefore, in order for Mewgenics to do something successfully, it has to remain enjoyable or entertaining for that entire time. Its features need to have a long shelf life to remain fresh for hundreds of hours. In an inspiring feat of game design, its combat achieves this. The battles in question have players control four cats of various classes in turn-based encounters across roguelike runs. Each cat starts with random new abilities, and it's always fun to experiment with new builds and team compositions. There are so many items, moves, passive abilities, and field events that it's impossible to predict how a run will go, and no matter how it varies, it's almost always fun. Even dozens of hours in, I was consistently surprised by new interactions between Mewgenics' varied systems, whether it was in excitement when I had a potentially game-breakingly powerful Fighter cat, or in horror as I realized a negative trait on one cat meant it accidentally permanently killed another of my party members. I facepalmed when I tried to grow grass in a blizzard, only to create a tile of icy spikes. I felt genuine relief when it began to rain in the desert, and I could fill my water bottles. As good or bad as it goes, there's always another run, and that next run is going to feel remarkably different. Even with my criticisms of the game, the thrilling and engaging combat makes up the vast majority of your playtime, for which I'm thankful. A fight in which I somehow spawned in with 22 flies as allies The soundtrack is also stellar, with area-specific tracks that shift dynamically based on the situation. Each song also gets lyrics when you fight the area boss, which almost always improves it. I particularly enjoyed the frenetic jazz in The Crater, and shamelessly admit I journeyed there more times than necessary just to hear the music. On the other hand, Mewgenics' worst feature is its humor. NPCs are stale stereotypes with voice lines that had me rolling my eyes, and the game's insistence on fecal humor is particularly exhausting. I was tired of poop jokes 10 hours in, but there were still countless more hours to go. I enjoy the game's creativity and willingness to send players to bizarre locations (like the moon or the Ice Age), I like some of the meows (one has autotune), and I generally liked the pop culture references. But as the game went on for dozens of hours, the things I did enjoy faded into the background, while the things I didn't enjoy continued to stand out as annoying and gross. One recurring fight begins with a man eating a child, and even though it's quick and cartoony, it only gets more unpleasant over time. An unpleasant encounter, where my option most likely to succeed is to eat a dead cat There's also the subject of the game's name. Between runs, you breed various cats to combine their stats and create genetically superior warriors for the next run. The house the cats gather in is inconveniently designed because all the cats cluster on the floor and run back and forth, making them difficult to click on. I would have appreciated a menu to organize them by stats or age, but instead I have to chase them around with, ironically, my mouse to find the ones I'm interested in. You can decorate the house with furniture, but it's not a very interesting process – it's best to just buy stuff with the best stats and cram it in each room to improve breeding results. Overall, it's a clunky system that I tried not to spend too much time with. Long-term progression happens by completing runs or donating cats to the game's various NPCs. In either case, you rarely keep any cat in your house for very long. Cats die on runs or come home and die of old age. If they live, it's best to donate them to an NPC to unlock more item storage, improve the shop's offerings, or get some other long-term upgrade. Tink, one of the game's NPCs Your pets are disposable, both because you can easily make more and because you're incentivized to get rid of them. Since you churn through cats so quickly, you start putting much higher value on combat viability and vilifying defects and negative quirks, of which the game has many. "Mewgenics" is obviously a pun on the word "eugenics," but I was still taken aback by how ruthless the system feels. In a world defined by combat viability, you're not just breeding to get good stats; you're eliminating cats with disorders and bad stats. I have a room in my house exclusively filled with "star" cats, with each pet marked with a star to indicate they have the best stats. Meanwhile, circle cats have one or more negative stats, so they're pushed into a different room. Other cats are donated or left unmarked in another separate room. Mechanically, it makes perfect sense, but I'd be lying if I said my segregated house didn't make me uneasy. The "star" room in my in-game house Like the excessive poop and cartoon gore, I think these breeding patterns are intended to be funny or shocking. It's another joke; the setup is "what if you had a game where you raise cartoon cats," and the punchline is "and then you segregate them based on genetic strength and breed them for combat." On paper, it's a shockingly dark reversal of what you expect from a game where you raise pets. I actually do think this is funny in isolation. It's absurd! It catches you off guard. But like most jokes, it doesn't stay funny for hours and hours and hours. After a while, it just becomes the status quo. After a while, you're just earnestly doing cat eugenics, and that gets old and uncomfortable. Because the breeding happens in between the game's fantastic runs, it's hard for me to come to a firm consensus on how I feel about Mewgenics. Its combat mechanics truly stand out, and in isolation, might make it one of my favorite games of the year. But even though those hours and hours of combat comprise almost all of my playtime, the odd, upsetting creative decisions stick with me. Despite Mewgenics' best attempts to kill my appetite, dozens and dozens of hours in, I'm still hungry for another run. Score: 8 About Game Informer's review system

Game Informer ReviewsFeb 17

Review: I Want to Reexperience Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse Though I only offered the highest of praise for the first Paranormasight , I began to look at it with more critically since then. I still like it a lot and recommend it to anyone looking for a nice J-horror-inspired visual novel. But there’s certainly room for improvement. And boy, did Square Enix deliver. Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse takes everything that made the first game unique and amps it up to eleven, fixes issues I didn’t even know it had, and delivers a truly touching story that had me crying in bed at 5 AM. It is, without exaggeration, a game everyone should experience. The story is told through the perspectives of four characters. Yuza Minakuchi is an apprentice AMA diver who faces ostracization from the villagers of Kameshima (based on real-life Kamishima). Sato Shiranami is an amnesiac girl who loves to watch TV and is a houseguest of the influential Wakamura family. Yumeko Shiki is a housewife who also works for the police’s Paranormal Affairs Bureau. Arnav “Avi” Barnum is a fantasy writer in his 40s and a self-described "free-spirited lad." These characters find themselves entangled in a complicated web of curses and murders, all of which stem from past grudges stewing in the Ise-Shima area. Sometimes it can get tricky keeping track of all the incidents the game brings up in rapid succession, even with the in-game encyclopedia, so keeping notes is handy and recommended. Screenshot by Siliconera As we saw in the February 2026 Nintendo Direct, there are underwater exploration segments when playing as Yuza. The controls are a lot better than I expected from a mini-game in a visual novel, and you can level him up the more items you collect. Yuza’s not the only character with this kind of involved segment, too. These mini-games all help to break up the usual routine of investigating and chatting, keeping interest fresh. Though the game only ever really brings out these breaks from the norm once or twice per character route, I don’t think that’s a bad idea. It takes a minimum of ten hours to reach the normal ending, so too many would’ve distracted from the main plot. That pacing is something that the development team greatly improved on between the first and second games. I personally prefer how the cast felt smaller and more intertwined in Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse , though that makes sense since they’re in a more rural area than the first game’s Tokyo. The sequel also has a better plot, in my opinion, making for a less jarring mood shifts. I’m going to spoil a bit of the first game, so if you haven’t played it (and you don’t have to to play the second one, by the way), skip the next paragraph. The first game starts at a breakneck pace, with decoy protagonist Shogo going all in on murdering fellow curse bearers to perform the Rite of Resurrection. At the end of his route, the game takes you to the story chart, where you’re prompted to go back to the beginning. You see Shogo dead, and the rest of the game proceeds in this new timeline. Most of the game focuses on the characters solving the mystery of the curses and preventing non-allied curse bearers from going around killing people. The pacing slows down so badly in the middle that even though I still enjoyed the cast and story, it was odd to me why writer Takanari Ishiyama did that. In The Mermaid’s Curse , you start with an introduction of the four main characters, as well as the main setting. The game sets up the main mysteries in investigation segments, and then the “Surprise” equivalent moment happens about a third of the way into the game. I much prefer this more traditional story structure. Ishiyama still loves his non-linear storytelling, though, because The Mermaid’s Curse introduces the Recollection system. Some conversations may trigger a Recollection and, if you’ve met the conditions for them, you can go back to them on the Story Chart to see what the characters were doing earlier in the narrative. This Recollection system works well in a mystery game. You can naturally include scenes about a reveal before the player’s made aware of it, for example. Screenshot by Siliconera The one thing that I find frustrating is the number of hanging plot threads. I'm guessing the true ending will tidy them up. Unfortunately, like the first game, there isn’t a visual hint for which chapter you need to enter for it. I’ve scoured the entire ocean as Yuza. I went into every single chapter to exhaust all the dialogue options, as well as clicked on anything and everything I could see. Nothing. Twice, the game gives hints to it. It’s the same hint both times. As someone who got the true ending in the first game without help, I’m truly lost this time. Fair warning that a satisfying conclusion likely hinges on you getting that golden ending. As a whole, the writing for Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse feels more polished and cohesive than the first game without compromising on the established world or signature quirks. It balances the darker moments out with fun quips and colorful eccentrics, and the deep dives into Japanese history and folklore that serve as the backbone of the plot are really interesting. For me, it's on par with media like Fullmetal Alchemist and Steins;Gate —it's a story I'd like to forget all about and experience again for the first time. It’s a sequel that can proudly stand on its own, and a strong way to kick off what looks like a new franchise or series for Square Enix. Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse will come out on February 19, 2026 for the PC, Switch, Switch 2, and mobile devices. The post Review: I Want to Reexperience Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse appeared first on Siliconera .

Reviews Articles and News - SiliconeraFeb 17

Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse Review – A Spine-Tingling Dive Reviewed on: PC Platform: Switch 2, Switch, PC, iOS, Android Publisher: Square Enix Developer: Square Enix Rating: Mature Humanity has always been fascinated by the supernatural. Tall tales and legends persist through the ages, passed down through tradition and storytelling, for many reasons, whether parables, entertainment, or sometimes, bearing shreds of a greater truth. Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is steeped in these concepts, throwing the player into an enthralling rural mystery filled with murder, betrayal, love, and curses. The first game, 2023's Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, quickly became a cult classic: a horror-thriller with dark themes, lots of dialogue, and strange puzzles that required creative solutions. Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse follows in those same footsteps. It's an adventure game where you can hop between events and viewpoints in a timeline, tracking the events surrounding the small island town of Kameshima. Yuza, whose parents died in a disaster at sea years prior, has returned to the town to become a shellfish-gathering ama diver with the help of his friend Azami. A chance encounter with an apparition bearing his face, however, changes everything.   Alongside Yuza, there's a memorable cast of characters who get wrapped up in the events on Kameshima and the nearby mainland. Tsukasa and Sato round out Yuza's hometown friends, alongside several other free divers like Chie, Kikuko, and Yuza's grandmother, Tsuyu. Housewife-investigator Nameko and her psychic assistant Sado form a terrific detective duo, a dynamic that answers the question, what if an unassuming Columbo-esque detective partnered with a jujutsu sorcerer apprentice? Fantasy author Avi and the inquisitive Circe, meanwhile, act as a bit of comedic relief, even when their stories get incredibly heavy. All of them are beautifully illustrated in expressive 2D portraits set against the vibrant panoramas of each area. Paranormasight's brush-stroke aesthetic feels timeless in the best ways. The Mermaid's Curse is built on slowly unspooling and unraveling its threads to uncover the mysteries beneath. It's a slow start compared to most, even its predecessor; the story took a little while to get its hooks in me, but after several shocking revelations in a row, I was feverishly scribbling notes, jaw agape at what was unfolding. Director Takanari Ishiyama should become a household name for adventure fans. Several tragedies are set to befall Kameshima, and by hopping around the events, progressing forward, and then leaping back through Recollections – a specific mechanic that opens up past memories to explore – you'll need to figure out how to resolve all of them. The early parts of the story are a little heavy on Recollections, which can make it tough to keep track of characters and their individual drives. It doesn't take long for Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse to shift into higher gears, though. Quiet, peaceful, even mundane island life gives way to supernatural curses and mysterious deaths, and each focal-point character gets wrapped up in their own pursuits. The mysteries are still as wonderfully head-scratching as the first game. Many of them pull off my favorite trick: asking you to name something – a character, place, or subject – without any multiple-choice answers or chance for coin-flipping guesswork. These solutions require scouring the menu's Files and Profiles section, where deeper information about history, cultures, traditions, and more gets filed away for you to peruse like an in-game encyclopedia. The Mermaid's Curse does a better job of directing you towards those answers than its predecessor, but it does typically ask you to deduce an answer. Its solutions are often obfuscated just enough to feel rewarding to uncover, without feeling like you're hitting cognitive brick walls over and over. There are also a few more tactile puzzles and interactive moments than before, too. The Paranormasight team doubles down on the effects of both its 360-degree panoramas and its adventure game format, adding more tangible objects and little UI bits that end up becoming revelatory tools in the right moment. My favorite is a hand mirror, used to great effect during a section where your character is trying to see if something is behind them. It's absolutely spine-tingling, and while The Mermaid's Curse doesn't have quite as many jump-scare moments as The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, it's still a thrill-inducing adventure. Little noises and visual cues shoot ice through your veins, and even some of the mystery solutions involve putting yourself in terrifying positions to elicit new information. Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse honors the depth the adventure genre has had over the years. It's easy for some to see a game where you primarily choose dialogue prompts and talk to characters as mechanically simple. However, The Mermaid’s Curse proves the powerful malleability of the adventure format, re-enacting psychic stand-offs and terrifying encounters with the otherworldly through seemingly conventional means. There's a devilish glee in discovering a clue that's been hidden under your nose the entire time, the kind of joy only found when the mundane becomes anything but. And that's where Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse hooked me, possibly more than its predecessor. Its lens narrows in to focus on a tighter, more intricately connected crew, but its supernatural tales ultimately become utterly human. What is immortality, truly? Why do we pine after myths and legends? What do the objects of our desires say about us, and what are we willing to do for them? And what do those pursuits turn us into, when the road comes to an end? Paranormasight: The Mermaid's Curse is a brilliant modern adventure game, filled with mysteries, delightful characters, and gorgeous art. Truly, I never thought we'd see a second Paranormasight; its predecessor felt like a one-off flight-of-fancy for Square Enix, destined to be a fond oddity for genre aficionados. Now, I can only hope there's more in store. Score: 9 About Game Informer's review system

Game Informer ReviewsFeb 17

Nioh 3 Review – Taking The Throne Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, PC Publisher: Koei Tecmo Developer: Team Ninja Rating: Mature Just as the original Nioh was one of the first games to emulate Dark Souls to great success, Nioh 3 is among the first major Soulslikes to use an open-world blueprint post-Elden Ring. However, Team Ninja has always excelled at applying its own sensibilities to a now well-worn blueprint, and Nioh 3’s rewarding approach to open-world design is a shining example. Tack on a thrilling new Ninja gameplay style, and this third entry asserts itself as the pinnacle of its series. The newcomer-friendly plot sees the customizable 17th-century hero Tokugawa Takechiyo on the verge of being christened Japan’s next Shogun. Your ascension enrages your jealous older brother, who reasonably responds by surrendering his soul to evil yokai and plunging the land into demonic chaos. This darkness transcends time and space, so stopping him means time-hopping across historical eras, from early antiquity to the 19th century, to remove its influence on corrupted historical figures all vying for the same power. Though the plot becomes repetitive – visit an era, cleanse the corrupted soul of someone who really wants to be shogun, repeat – it is ridiculous fun (as all the best time-travel stories are) with a nice bit of emotional weight in the theme of discovering what it truly means to be a leader.   Nioh 3 doubles the series' intense and mechanically dense action with the new style shift mechanic. A button press instantly swaps between two gameplay styles: Samurai, the traditional Nioh gameplay experience of stance-switches and the Ki Pulse timing mechanic to restore stamina mid-attack, and the entertaining new Ninja. This shinobi-focused class trades defense for speedy evasion and sword stances for a plethora of cool ninja tools and magic. I love the Ninja as someone who generally favors maneuverability over power, and it became my default style. It adds a fresh Ninja Gaiden-inspired twist to Nioh’s action and is a blast to play. Great combat balancing means both styles are equally viable; you can theoretically beat Nioh 3 using only one of them. However, the game provides good incentives to switch things up. I loved mastering Burst Break, a powerful timed counter executed by switching styles right before certain attacks land. More broadly, regularly switching between what’s essentially two completely different characters kept the action feeling fresh throughout the 70+ hours I spent playing. Samurai duels can be combat chess matches defined by precise blocking and parrying while carefully using Ki Pulse to extend more deliberate weapon strikes. Ninja gameplay is a frenetic treat of keeping adversaries off balance with constant movement, chipping at them from afar using tools, while unleashing flurries of acrobatic, combo-heavy strikes. Boasting separate loadouts and flexible progression, including free skill point respec for the dense weapons skill trees, there’s plenty of freedom and incentive to experiment and change things up if gameplay becomes routine. In true Nioh fashion, there’s an overabundance of options for customizing and improving your character. From summoning powerful creatures to aid in battle, like Guardian Spirits and Soul Cores, to unlocking helpful class abilities for each Style, plus multiple methods of improving/recycling the endless amount of loot, there’s a ton of useful systems to dig into. It unfortunately means a lot of time is spent poring over various menus, but the game introduces new features at a good pace. Some major tools don’t unlock until a dozen or so hours into the adventure. I appreciated having plenty of time to grow accustomed before learning yet another mechanic, while still giving me something new to sink my teeth into deep in the adventure. Nioh 3 wisely ditches the previous entries’ linear zones and dated mission selection for various expansive maps that players can freely explore. As proven with Elden Ring, this structure makes coping with Nioh 3’s steep difficulty much more palatable; hit a wall, and simply explore elsewhere to sharpen your skills or find better gear. I found Nioh 3 to be the most approachable entry because of this structure, especially since everything you find – along with the act of wandering itself – improves your character in some way. Killing an optional boss you confront while trekking may reward a new class ability for the Samurai or Ninja styles. Opening a random chest could unlock a new crafting recipe for a powerful weapon. Finding collectibles like hidden Kodama spirits or Jizo statues rewards skill points and permanent passive perks, such as raising the drop rate and effectiveness of healing elixirs. Additionally, tiers of exploration rewards provide small but crucial stat bumps simply for uncovering the world, and fill the initially blank maps with icons revealing goodies you missed while in an area. Passively gaining strength while making it easier to do clean-up later compelled me to turn over every stone like few games of this ilk. This speaks to how impressively each of Nioh 3’s boatload of systems feeds into a gratifying escalation of power. The open worlds may lack mind-boggling emergent moments, but they regularly satisfy my power-hungry and completionist desires to make the numbers go up. Crucibles, challenging corrupted zones that reward powerful yet risky weapons that can hurt you almost as much as the opponent, are great destinations to gain strength. These hellish areas offer nice breaks from the overworld while often acting as a deliciously challenging final test of a region before moving on to the next one. Nioh 3 is a fantastic leap forward for Team Ninja’s generally great but increasingly stagnant take on Soulslikes. I had to stop myself from seeking out the next awesome hidden boss or from learning a cool new weapon to see credits to write this review, and the experience largely manages to maintain its excitement throughout its lengthy runtime. Nioh 3’s hardships are many, and failure is plentiful, but its thrills are bigger and more impressive than ever before. Score: 9 About Game Informer's review system

Game Informer ReviewsFeb 16