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What are the best exploration games for the Nintendo Switch?

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Jul 23, 2022

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10 Games Considered

Best exploration games for the Nintendo Switch	Price	Genre	Platforms
-- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild	$59.99	Action-Adventure	Wii U, Nintendo Switch
-- Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings	$59.99	Role-Playing	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, PlayStation Vita
-- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	$59.99	Fantasy Role-Playing	Windows, Xbox, PS, Nintendo Switch
-- Super Mario Odyssey	$59.99	Platformer	-
-- Fe	$19.99	Adventure, Action, Platforming	Nintendo Switch, Windows, Xbox One, Playstation 4

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

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An open world game where exploration feels exciting

Most open world games follow the same pattern - they give you a map that's full of blips, forcefully guiding you to marked locations, causing you to ignore everything along the way. Breath of the Wild steps away from this design choice by having a map where only you can mark points of interest. It's up to you to survey the land from high vantage points, choose a direction of heading, and find interesting locations. As a result, exploring and paying attention to the world actually matters, making it a really enjoyable and refreshing experience. See More

Top Con

Weapon durability system can feel tedious to some

When you attack enemies, your equipped weapon quickly loses its durability, breaking when it reaches zero. This can force you to switch to new weapons multiple times during a battle, adding a micromanagement aspect that can disrupt the flow of combat. You're not just fighting enemies, you're also fighting the flimsiness of your arsenal. On top of that, most weapons can't be repaired either. This can diminish the joy of finding new weapons, since that cool sword you just found will be gone thirty minutes of gameplay later. See More

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Genre:Action-Adventure

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An engaging cooking skill

Breath of the Wild features a very interesting cooking skill, allowing you to combine up to 5 different ingredients to create useful dishes or elixirs that can aid you on your journey. While the cooking process itself is really simple, only requiring you to light a fire and use a pot, experimentation is what makes it truly interesting. There is no in-game recipe log to give you hints, so most of the time you're experimenting with ingredient combinations, which can make finding a good recipe feel like winning the lottery. Some guesswork is eliminated because most areas are saturated with ingredients that can be used to create dishes useful to that specific area. For example, the cold area has ingredients that can be used to create dishes that boost your resistance to cold, so your character won't be shivering and dragging his feet as you explore. Because most of the dishes you make are useful, it can also motivate you to explore just a bit more, since there might just be a useful ingredient on top of that next mountain. As a result, Breath of the Wild has a surprisingly engaging cooking skill that blends well into the core of the game, making the experience more fun as a whole. See More

Top Con

Cooking can feel inconvenient

There's no in-game log or cookbook to record cooking recipes you discover. The only method of checking a recipe is by examining a cooked item in your inventory, which isn't very reliable since you can only check it as long as you have the item. As a result, you have to memorize and/or write down any and all cooking recipes you discover, which can feel cumbersome to some players. See More

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Wonderfully crafted puzzles

There's a vast array of puzzles found in Breath of the Wild where you use your abilities to move, manipulate or destroy the environment. It can be very simple like destroying rocks with a bomb to unblock a cave entrance. Or it can be fairly complex, requiring you to rotate and connect massive platforms, move stone orbs through an area filled with obstacles, and create pillars of ice on a waterfall to cross a bottomless pit. Regardless of the type of puzzle you encounter, they motivate you to think creatively, making it a delight when you arrive at the solution, especially because there's always a treasure waiting at the end. See More

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A variety of fighting methods keep the combat fun

There are many ways you can fight the monsters in Breath of the Wild. You can go for close combat, using swords, spears, clubs and many other weapons, besting your goblin-like enemies with well-timed parries, dodges, slashes, and strikes. Or you can fight enemies from afar by shooting your bow, throwing your boomerang, or lobbing an infinite supply of bombs while maintaining the distance as the monsters try to helplessly get near you. You can even be stealthy, sneaking up on unsuspecting lizard-folk and stabbing them from behind. If none of the above works, you can also use the environment to your advantage. This usually involves things like pushing boulders off cliff edges, dropping them on top of oblivious casualties. All of these provide a great amount of variety that keeps the combat from going stale for the whole playthrough. See More

Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings

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Creative concept of entering paintings to explore new worlds

The many fantasy-like worlds you explore through the mysterious paintings are very pretty and whimsical. Going into the paintings themselves is fascinating since it's something you don't get to do in real life, and you get to learn more about Lydie and Suelle as you go along. Gathering resources and fighting monsters while surrounded by waterfalls and flowery forests helps keep the gameplay from getting too repetitive or stale. All of this adds a more magical feel to the game's more ordinary slice-of-life sections. See More

Top Con

No English voices even though previous Atelier games included them

For some reason, Atelier Lydie & Suelle doesn't have an English dub and just has the original Japanese voices with English subtitles. There's nothing wrong with only having the Japanese option, but it's really weird considering the other Atelier games in the West have English voice acting. New players don't have much to worry about here unless you can't stand having to read subtitles. If you're a fan of the series and you're used to the English dub, you might be thrown off by the change. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

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Charming and colorful anime art style

The art style is has many bright colors and well-drawn characters. Everyone has all sorts of colorful hairstyles, eyes, and outfits like pink, blue, and crimson that aren't too over-the-top. Their eyes have cool swirls for pupils, their skin tones are radiant, and every character has a bright and lovely smile. This is a beautiful anime style that looks good in the 3D cel-shaded graphics and the 2D cutscenes with still art that are more like a visual novel. See More

Top Con

You won't find a sprawling narrative here like in most RPGs

The stories in the Atelier games are more about everyday life mixed in with whimsical fantasy. This isn't the kind of RPG with the type of layered, rich story with dramatic twists and turns that you'd expect from the genre. If you want a heavier narrative with more to say, you won't get that with this game. See More

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Slice-of-life story and gameplay that's relaxing and laid-back

There's a sweet simplicity to the story and gameplay that focuses more on everyday life. Playing as the two twins, Lydie and Suelle, you're mainly trying to make ends meet and become the best possible alchemists you can be. You pass the days at your own pace as you take on jobs from the townspeople, leading you to explore the worlds inside of paintings, gather materials, and craft those materials into items through alchemy. It's nice that this game lets you kick back and relax with a more low-stakes story and simplistic gameplay. See More

Top Con

Graphics for environments aren't that great

The visuals for the environments don't hold up to how pretty the cel-shaded graphics are. The textures are low-quality with jaggies sticking out. It's not so bad on the PC version and the PlayStation 4; things are much more obvious on the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation Vita. There are also some invisible walls that cut you off in places like open arches leading to shops, making the maps feel a lot smaller. If you can handle limited maps with so-so graphics, then these problems aren't that big of a deal in the long run. See More

Top Pro

Engaging gathering and crafting system with alchemy as the game's main focus

Atelier Lydie & Suelle focuses on gathering materials and synthesizing them into alchemy formulas as the main mechanics. You can lose yourself in the game for hours as you explore the fantasy-like levels, picking up resources from bushes, hacking away at trees, or mining them from rocks. You can take as long you want to gather the stuff you need before going back home to your alchemy lab, or your atelier. The puzzle-like 4x4 crafting grid has a neat strategy in how you can make the most out of your ingredients. If you just put your ingredients wherever on the grid, you'll end up with a bad product. Arranging your ingredients together in certain ways on the grid boosts the end product's effects, like putting them near green squares to improve your product's healing effect, which improves the item's overall quality. Going for quality gives you more experience points to level up and more money from the jobs you take on. Taking your time to gather the materials you need and synthesizing them into the best possible items pays off in the end. See More

Top Con

Not for people who hate repetitive busywork

If you can't stand doing the same things over and over again in games, then Atelier Lydie & Suelle probably isn't for you. The whole game is about exploring maps to gather materials and then crafting those materials into something useful through alchemy. There are some turn-based battles thrown in, but these more or less take a backseat to the alchemy mechanics. The heavy focus on gathering and crafting can end up feeling like busywork, turning the game into a drag for players who hate that kind of thing. See More

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Solid turn-based combat that's welcoming to beginners

Atelier Lydie & Suelle's combat is simple enough for beginners who want to try out a turn-based JRPG. The interface is clean with basic commands for attacking and using skills, magic, and items. It's easy to get the hang of when to go on offense while your health is high, and when to switch to healing when your health starts to get low. The combat doesn't overwhelm you with complicated tutorials or mechanics, staying at a beginner's level with some room to grow down the line. This is a really good choice to start with if you want to get into turn-based combat before moving onto other games. See More

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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Deep lore rivaling classic fantasy literature

Skyrim inherits the stories and world-building of The Elder Scrolls series, which stretches back 20 years. It has numerous stories surrounding the various races (orcs, elves, lizardmen, demons, etc.), mythical beasts, gods, cataclysmic events, parallel worlds, and just about any fantasy trope you could think off. What's even better you can read the lore in books found in-game, allowing you to immerse yourself for countless hours. See More

Top Con

Forgetful NPCs can break immersion

After completing certain story quests NPCs get new lines added to their dialogue based on your decisions. Sometimes the NPCs might become forgetful and return to their default dialogue, which can break immersion, especially if they talk about an event that's been long resolved. See More

Specs

Genre:Fantasy Role-Playing

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Unrestrictive skill-based RPG system

Skyrim has no set character classes or equipment/spell limitations. Instead, it allows you to form your own class based on how you decide to play. For example, sneaking increases your sneaking skill, hitting an enemy with a shortsword increases your one-handed skill, taking damage while wearing leather armor increases your light armor skill, and so forth. You can you play however you want and the resulting character will be a perfect match for your playstyle, giving Skyrim a different feel from other RPGs. See More

Top Con

Combat is too simple

Most of the time you can just whack an enemy until it dies and it involves very little strategy or planning to succeed. For example, targeting specific body parts doesn't deal extra damage, nor can you cripple an enemy. There are no vulnerabilities, so you can't set furry forest animals ablaze easier than humans. The enemies also lack any real variation in how they attempt to fight you – they just run at you swinging wildly or attack you from afar. Because of this the combat is very one-dimensional and can start feeling like a chore after a while. Luckily most of the combat issues can be fixed with mods, allowing you to enjoy a more varied and deeper combat experience. See More

Super Mario Odyssey

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Incorporates old school 2D gameplay in a cool way

In some areas, Mario can enter the surface of a wall, shifting the gameplay to a 2D plane. This also reverts Mario to his 8-bit era pixelated self, allowing you to play through a mini level in the style of the original Super Mario games. While it could've been done just to bait nostalgia, the developers added new, fun mechanics to the old formula, making it as fresh and enjoyable as the main game. See More

Top Con

Motion controls can feel awkward at times

Some of Mario's special moves need motion control inputs to perform, requiring you to rotate or tilt the controller alongside precise button presses. While this is an attempt to make the gameplay feel more engaging, it's not implemented that well. It simply makes the special moves needlessly challenging to perform, which can considerably detract from the gameplay. This is especially the case when playing in the handheld mode of the Nintendo Switch, since you're also swinging around the handheld display. See More

Specs

Genre:Platformer

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Tons of collectibles that encourage exploration

SMO is jam-packed with gold coins, purple coins, and power moons for you to collect. While collecting them all is completely optional, it can quickly become addicting to collect them. A couple of coins here, another dozen there, and another hundred there, all for that silly looking skeleton outfit. This can easily lead you to spend hours searching every nook and cranny in a level just to collect a bit more. See More

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Good level variety

There are 16 unique levels in SMO, including a large reddish desert, filled with colorful buildings and quirky skeletons, a gray kingdom built on the moon where enemies wear white top hats, and even a bustling metropolis where you can bounce off of taxis, swing on lampposts, and climb skyscrapers. There's a good amount of variation in the level designs and themes, so you probably won't get tired of exploring the levels that quickly, making even long sessions really enjoyable. See More

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Really fun possession mechanic keeps the gameplay fresh

Mario can take control of enemies and objects by throwing his hat on top of them. Once controlled, an enemy retains all of its abilities, allowing you to use them. For example, you can take control of a frog, enabling you to jump up to areas that would be normally out of reach. Or you can take control of a T-Rex and go on a rampage, smashing rocks, enemies, and everything else in your way. You can even control a Christmas tree and hop around for no real reason. This gives the usual platforming gameplay a great amount of variation while also making exploration a tad bit more exciting. It's simply fun to discover and use new and interesting abilities. See More

Fe

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Uses music as an interesting platforming mechanic

Songs are used to interact with the world and navigate the platforming aspects in interesting ways. Using various melodies, you'll be able to perform such actions as calling birds to help you cross large gaps, spring boarding off plants for super high jumps, and even summoning a stag to attack enemies. If you're ever lost, there is a melody you can use to call down a bird who will point you in the direction you need to be going. Using musical melodies to navigate the platforming is integrated incredibly well. See More

Top Con

Platforming is a bit unpolished at times

The platforming can feel a bit clunky or rough at times. For example, when climbing trees you have to jump to the top branch by branch. Hitting the jump button one time too many will result in falling and having to re-climb the tree from the base. It's just little unpolished details like this that can sometimes make the platforming feel a bit clumsy. See More

Specs

Genre:Adventure, Action, Platforming

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Enemy encounters can be tense

There's no combat in Fe, resulting in some pretty tense situations with the monsters. If you are spotted by the Silent Ones, rather scary robotic creatures, they can kill you on sight. Hiding in a bush or climbing a tree in a panic to escape can deliver some pretty exciting and tense moments. No matter how careful you are in the open world, some objectives will require sneaking past or evading them to grab key items. These situations can deliver some of the most exciting moments in the game. See More

Top Con

Story can seem nonsensical

There is no dialogue in the game, so the story can be hard to follow at times. During cutscenes, sometimes you'll have no clue what's really going on due to their surreal and strange nature. A lot of the story is left up your own interpretation, which can be disappointing for those who prefer a solid, coherent narrative. See More

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Exciting ability progression

Abilities are learned gradually as the game progresses by collecting gems and also learning the musical language of the forest life from plants and animals. As you gain more abilities or learn how to interact with more creatures, you can then go back to old areas and find new paths that were previously inaccessible. For example, birds that may not have paid much attention to you before may now gladly carry you over large gaps once you speak their language. Plants can springboard you high into the air once you can communicate with them. This ability progression is an exciting way to keep things fresh, and makes visiting old areas rewarding with new secrets to be found. See More

Night in the Woods

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The simplistic gameplay is surprisingly fun

Running around the side-scrolling town as Mae day in and day out is more enjoyable than it sounds at first. It's mundane, but there's a lot of meaning to find around the town if you're willing to look for it. You go wherever you want, finding out stories about the townspeople and the town itself, or hanging out with friends for scripted story moments. Poking around all over town to find out the history is pretty cool, like the underground diner that Mae used to steal from back in the day, or the old shopping mall that barely gets any customers anymore. When you're not talking to people or going somewhere, you can play around with the rhythm mini-game as you practice with Mae's bass either in her room or in her old band with her group of friends. You can fall into a nice habit of checking in with the NPCs and locations you care about most, almost like in real life where you prioritize the people and places you spend the most time around. See More

Top Con

Some pacing issues with the story

The story slogs through the premise of Mae's anxieties and disillusionment for a long time until it suddenly switches somewhere in the middle. There are a few hints here and there about how and why the plot becomes a murder mystery, but these things seem inconsequential and not as important as Mae's personal issues. It ends up feeling strange to change things up partway through to something unrelated to the original premise. While the murder mystery isn't necessarily bad, it would have been nice to see a more focused insight and resolution to Mae's young adult troubles. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Adventure, Narrative

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Great coming-of-age story

The coming-of-age story in Night in the Woods is unconventional for a video game, making it more unique and intriguing. After dropping out of college, the main character, Mae, struggles with her own disillusionment in life and refusal to grow up, all the while her old friends find success and move on without her. You join in on that struggle as you live as Mae: aimlessly going around town talking to everyone and listening to their worries, browsing your laptop when you're supposed to be doing other important things, and even pressing a button to wake up in bed every morning as a reminder of how mundane life can be. You see all the ways she doesn't necessarily want to grow up, wishing she could stay a kid forever, but then she talks to an old acquaintance who thinks she's washed up now, making her feel anxious about her failings as a young adult. This type of story is familiar for anyone who has also had a hard time with similar problems, and eye-opening for anyone who hasn't. See More

Top Con

The main character is insufferable at first

It's hard to like Mae from the start for a few reasons. She's extremely self-centered, she likes to steal for the thrills, and she has no interest whatsoever in fixing her shortcomings. Her life seems to be one awkward moment after another where you can't help but cringe in embarrassment, like in one early scene where she gets drunk at a party and blabs away about her personal problems after spending hours telling herself she wouldn't. As you get to know her, Mae might grow on you, but if you're the type to lose your patience with people who are immature, then you probably won't like her all that much. See More

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Tragic, realistic setting and NPCs

Night in the Woods is set in Possum Springs, once a booming mine town but now a forgotten speck on the map, rife with poverty and decay. Its history is based on several real Adirondack towns, and its portrayal of rural decline is painfully accurate. The townspeople you talk to lament about having to close down their businesses, or wonder out loud how they'll make ends meet. Everyone's economic hardships feel real and relevant to anyone who's gone through the same thing or knows someone else who has. See More

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Well-written side characters

Every character feels like they have a history and realistic personal motivations, even when they're left unexplained. Mae's friends are all different yet interesting in their own ways, like Gregg who's always happy to see her and helps Mae feel like someone truly cares, and Bea with her biting sarcasm and apathy that seem to cover up her more complex issues. The residents of the town also talk about things in ways that are true-to-life, like how they gossip about their neighbors as you listen in, or just flat-out tell you sometimes to leave them alone. Every character in the game feels like a real person, whether they're central to the story or just one of the NPCs you see sitting on their porch all the time. See More

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

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Some character designs are distracting

There are a few female characters in the game whose proportions don't look right at all. Pyra and a couple of other characters have small frames and oversized breasts that look ridiculous. Their tight-fitting clothes and exposed skin make the proportions even more obvious, causing distractions during cutscenes. It's possible to tune these things out after a while, but it's still a strange design choice. See More

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Likable cast of main characters

Each of the protagonists in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are positive and optimistic in their own ways, standing out as a bright and sunny cast throughout the story. The main character, Rex, is a young guy who loves treasure hunting and exploring, and he believes in always doing the right thing. His optimism is infectious and helps drive the main quest forward. His main companion, Pyra, is a peaceful young woman entrusted with a dangerous power that she wished she didn't have, making her fear her own destructive potential. She and Rex find strength and hope from one another to keep pressing on. The rest of the main cast are just as upbeat, if not more, like the cheery engineer named Tora who works hard to keep up with how powerful Rex and Pyra are as a team. The healer of the group, Nia, tends to be grumpy, but she's cool with joking around and smiling when she wants to. Everyone's positive attitudes are uplifting and refreshing, making them enjoyable to spend time with. See More

Specs

Genre:Action Role-Playing

Top Con

Annoying anime and JRPG tropes

The anime and JRPG tropes can make Xenoblade Chronicles 2's story and characters downright unbearable, even for players who enjoy Japanese media. The antagonists are mostly one-dimensional with impractical, edgy designs. Rex gets embarrassed in exaggerated ways whenever he's close to Pyra, some of your companions exist mostly as dumb comic relief, and there's an android-type character that's heavily implied to exist as someone's maid. These issues bog down the plot in cheap ways, lifted straight out of any generic anime you might come across. The game also goes all-in on the tired JRPG trope of a group of friends joining together to defeat a god--even one of Rex's combat lines talks about how they'll actually defeat their enemies "with the power of friendship." This route would have been fine if the game had tried to spice things up, but sadly, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 feels like more of the same. These stereotypes are overdone and cringey, and they'll more than likely be a deal-breaker for players who already dislike these types of tropes. See More

Top Pro

Lots of opportunities for fun banter between party members

There are many chances for your companions to chit-chat or blurt out whatever's on their mind while you explore together, letting you get to know them better outside of cutscenes in the main quest. Your party members will cheer each other on in battle or caution you to retreat when your health runs low, say good morning to everyone when you wake up at an inn, or talk one-on-one for regular conversations at certain times. Spread throughout the world are optional markers that you can select for Heart-to-Heart moments where some or all of your party members can talk to each other about almost anything. They'll reminisce about their pasts, or tease your other companions and joke around. Sometimes you'll even get to see new sides of characters that help flesh them out even more. All of these small details and conversations help your party feel like actual friends and teammates, not just a band of characters that happen to be on the same journey. See More

Top Con

Performance problems in both docked and handheld mode

Even after a few patches, there are still some framerate issues while playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on a TV or in handheld mode. While playing on a TV, there are some framerate drops, but they're not so bad. They only happen when there's a lot going on, like during hectic battles with a bunch of abilities firing off with particle effects everywhere. On handheld mode, the framerate drops in the same instances, and it's pretty noticeable. Some more patches should fix the drops in due time, but until then, you'll have to expect some dips in performance here and there, especially in handheld mode. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful soundtrack that gives more life to each environment

Xenoblade Chronicles 2's gorgeous music adds a lot to the game's expansive world, making the levels seem larger and the towns and cities feel more alive. There are daytime and nighttime versions for most tracks, helping to set the tone either for sunny days or moody nights wherever you are. Exploring the glittering lakes and lush forests inside of a Titan while the nighttime version of "Kingdom of Uraya" plays is a great experience, with a mesmerizing chorus singing over romantic and adventurous pianos and wind instruments. If you arrive to the kingdom's capital at night, right away you'll get a sense of the city's mystery from the soft acoustic guitar and nostalgic, echoing sound effects in the background. These types of moments with the music help to flesh out the world even more, telling a story through the soundtrack that sticks with you alongside the visuals. See More

Top Con

English voice acting is hit-or-miss

Even though some of the voice acting in English is amazing, there are other characters whose voices just sound bad in comparison. Characters like Rex and Nia who have Yorkshire and Welsh accents, respectively, sound fresh and charming, but the ones with American accents usually sound out of place or forced. Luckily, you have the option of playing with the Japanese voices instead if you'd rather not take the chance on the English voice acting. See More

Top Pro

Tons of content and high replay value with New Game+

The main story will easily take you over 60 hours to complete, not including side activities, and the New Game+ mode unlocks even more optional content. The story itself is packed with action-filled and emotional cutscenes, and beyond those, there are lots of side quests and secrets elsewhere that you can explore at your leisure. Special, hard-to-reach areas of the map have valuable treasure with money and rare items, and there are a bunch of side quests that you can find from NPCs in town or out in the open world. New Game+ gives you the chance to find even rarer items and new unlocks in your characters' skill trees, letting you take on stronger monsters that you might not have been ready for in your first playthrough. You could also bring along different party members for side events and get to see any of their unique dialog that you missed out on the first time. There's so much to do and discover that a completionist will no doubt find 200+ hours of content here. See More

Top Con

Terrible pacing issues toward the end of the story

The final section of the game is an absolute slog, filled with way too many cutscenes and frustrating barriers, ruining the flow of the plot. As you play through the last levels, you'll run for a few minutes through an area, sit through a long cutscene, run again, get stopped by another cutscene, and so on until you reach the final boss. The worst offenders are the environmental barriers that you can't get past unless your party members have certain passive abilities unlocked from their skill trees, like having Wind Mastery to make an air duct push you up higher over a wall. You'll have to go back and grind the requirements for these abilities if you haven't already, forcing the story's momentum to a halt. The barrage of cutscenes and the unskippable environmental barriers are awful design decisions that could ruin your time with the finale. See More

Top Pro

Action-packed and engaging real-time combat

Combat here is frantic and busy, with many abilities to keep track of, as well as special attacks and party-wide finishers that do more damage based on how well you time a few QTE sequences. Things start out basic with simple auto attacks, and as you land these, your abilities become available to use for either more damage, more crowd control and enmity gain, or healing spells. Quite a few damage-based abilities are stronger when you're in front of an enemy, behind it, or on their flank, so you'll want to constantly change up where you stand to maximize your damage output. You also have your special attacks that are freed up as you keep using abilities. Timing your button presses during QTEs for an Excellent rating will do the most damage, and it will also fill up your party gauge the fastest. Once your party gauge is full, you can chain special attacks together from each of your companions to unleash a powerful attack, with the giant damage number popping up on the screen to show how well you did. It sounds like a complicated system, but the game does a good job of introducing things one at a time with easy-to-follow tutorials, helping you to learn everything as you go. See More

Top Con

Objective markers on the map are frustrating and unhelpful

Trying to find your way to quest markers is really frustrating because of how poorly-designed the overhead map is. All you have is a vertical line at the top of the screen that shifts with your orientation, and a red square with an exclamation point that's meant to point you toward the next main quest, or blue squares for side quests. Your only indications of where to go are the number telling you how far away you are and an arrow to guide you up or down. While trying to go in the general direction of the marker, you'll run into obstacles or dead-ends, forcing you to backtrack and wander around for about an hour before finding where you need to go. Because the open world is so huge with a crazy amount of verticality, these objective markers are way too simple, making exploration a pain for those who don't want to look up guides online. See More

Top Pro

Exploring the open world gives you a great sense of adventure

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has an incredibly huge and unique open world filled with dense locations, giving you the feeling that you're truly on an epic quest. You'll cross sprawling maps filled with docile creatures, hostile monsters, and secret locations with valuable treasure, until you find one of the game's many living, breathing settlements. Smaller, tight-knit towns are as impressive as the game's bigger, more technologically-advanced cities because of how lively everything feels, packed with many bustling shops to buy gear and food, and NPCs to chat with and pick up side quests from. The ground you walk on is actually on the backs and the insides of gigantic Titans--huge, peaceful dinosaur-like creatures tall enough to reach the clouds. You can find a whole kingdom with a purple sky and red trees on the inside of one Titan, and an entire holy city with impressive classical architecture on the back of another Titan. The world's scope and size really instills the sense that you're on an amazing adventure with so much to explore and discover. See More

Top Con

Overly positive themes take away from the more serious story moments

It's great that this game is so positive, but the story has trouble balancing the upbeat themes with its more serious, dramatic moments. This happens on both a small scale with specific plot points and on a larger scale where it becomes harder and harder to suspend your disbelief as the story goes on. At one point, there's a tense scene filled with urgency where you need to rush off to save someone as soon as possible. Then, as soon as those cutscenes are over, some of your party members suggest that you go have fun with a side activity that's tone deaf and inappropriate for a time like this. Because everyone's so cheery and optimistic, it's tough to take the game seriously when it explores more grounded themes like war, corrupt religions, and philosophical science fiction. The times when the story tries to be dark and mature, it comes off as fake and comical, especially later on in the game. It's a shame that there's no balance between the two, resulting in dramatic or touching story moments that might only make you scoff or roll your eyes. See More

Detention

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Balanced and intuitive puzzles

The puzzles are pretty straightforward and intuitive. Most items will serve practical purpose, rather than relying on the absurd logic that some other adventure games suffer from. For example, wire cutters are used to cut gates, paint thinner is used to dissolve paint, etc. Most puzzle items are used in the general area of where you pick them up, so there's not a whole lot of running around. While most of the early puzzles are fairly easy, some of the later puzzles can be quite tricky. However, they are still perfectly solvable with a little brain power. All in all, from an adventure gaming standpoint, it's certainly balanced. See More

Top Con

No auto saving can result in frustration

Saving can only be done at specified save points. Forgetting to manually save is quite common when you're wrapped up in the creepy atmosphere and story. When you die, it's rather frustrating to have to replay large sections of content. See More

Specs

Genre:Survival Horror, Adventure

Top Pro

Dread-inducing sound design

The soundtrack isn't a typical soundtrack. Rather, it is purely environmental ambience and effects. There are no gentle melodies or soothing tracks at all. Rather, the audio itself involves a lot of screaming, scratching, moaning, humming, and strange otherwordly tones. Forgoing music for strange ambience was an interesting design choice, but it definitely pays off here as it makes you feel entirely uncomfortable, and the sense of dread is captured incredibly well. See More

Top Con

Some minor pixel hunting

Some items are hard to find, resulting in a bit of pixel hunting from time to time. While this is the norm for seasoned adventure gamers, some may be frustrated by having to repeatedly backtrack and search areas for missed items. See More

Top Pro

Creepy horror atmosphere

Jump scares are few and far between. Detention focuses more on atmospheric horror through it's rather oppressive and bleak environment. To emphasize the dread, most of the game's artwork consists only of dark shades and washed out textures. Almost everything is depressing and bleak - the story, artwork, and sound design - resulting in a real horrific atmosphere. Roaming through the dark halls of a deserted school and its flooded grounds while being hunted by disturbing looking ghosts results in some downright terrifying moments. See More

Top Con

Very short

The whole game can be played in about 3-5 hours. See More

Top Pro

Horror elements incorporate Taiwan's real life history to disturbing effect

Detention takes place in 1960s, a time period in which Taiwan was under martial law. The story focuses heavily on the social struggles of the time. Much of the game's horror elements are heavily inspired by the atrocities committed during this time. The creepy and disturbing factor is amplified due to the fact many of the notes and items scattered throughout the game are based on real historical events. The hopelessness and despair is felt throughout, especially when experienced through the eyes of the young and innocent protagonist, Wei. See More

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Tense gameplay

There is no combat or weapons in this game, making an encounter with the many ghosts a tense and frightening experience. Since you have no way of fighting directly or defending yourself, your only survival options are to use stealth and trickery. In order to sneak past a ghost, you will have to hold your breath and slowly creep by. You can't be detected when holding your breath, but managing your air supply while sneaking can be pretty suspenseful when a ghost is right next to you and starts to give chase. If you absolutely can't get past despite your best sneaking efforts, you can lure a ghost away from it's spot with a food offering placed on the ground. But, even in this case, you'll have to be very careful you're not seen when the ghost comes looking for the treat. See More

Top Pro

An altogether tense horror experience

Detention does a great job of ensuring a tense horror experience from start to finish. The entire atmosphere is just downright creepy, often washed in dark with very few light sources. The ghosts look absolutely horrific. Having to sneak by them can create some of the most tense moments in the game. The story intertwines pieces of Taiwan's tragic real life history with the in-game narrative which gives it a historically accurate, but disturbing feel. On top of all this, the screaming and otherworldly sound effects which play in the background give you a constant sense of unease. See More

Octopath Traveler

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The job system lets you tailor everyone's playstyles however you want

While everyone begins as their own set job, such as warrior, dancer, and so on, you can further customize everyone to your liking. As you progress through the story, you eventually get the option to assign secondary jobs to everyone, meaning they get the benefits of both their main job and the second one you give them. You can give your warrior access to healing magic, for example, to shore up his weaknesses, or double-down and assign him a more combat-oriented secondary job. You can't give more than two characters the same second job, though, so you have to be selective in how you choose to customize everyone. See More

Top Con

The origin stories are repetitive

All of the eight origin stories, the initial chapters, virtually play the same. You get introduced to the character and their world, they work through their struggle, and then there's a boss at the end. This samey structure can make back-to-back playthroughs of origin stories feel like a slog, since there isn't much variety aside from the individual characters themselves. It may help to space out the origin stories to keep things from feeling repetitive. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

You can play through the eight separate character stories at your own pace

As Octopath Traveler is more of an intimate, character-based story, you have the freedom to experience each tale however you want. The stories themselves are mostly well-written with a wonderfully mature tone, with a seriousness that isn't overdone, and a nice sense of brevity that lets you fill in certain blanks with your imagination. You can start with one character and play through his or her origin story, and as you explore the world map to travel to new locations, you run into other characters' stories that you can complete in any order you prefer. The first character you choose is your "main" character, whose story you see through to completion throughout the game. This freedom of choice makes the game perfect for picking up and playing on the go or in short bursts. See More

Top Con

The eight character stories never really come together

While the individual stories are all great in their own ways, the characters don't ever join together as a cohesive group of allies. You can pick and choose who you want to bring along for combat, and who to explore with, but they hardly acknowledge each others' existence. The most they do is speak a few words to certain characters here and there, but there's nothing substantive to help everyone feel like a group that's working together. It makes the story feel hollow with too much wasted potential. See More

Top Pro

Engaging classic turn-based combat with plenty of strategy involved

The battles are a great throwback to older JRPGs with enough of a contemporary twist. You have the familiar setup of a party of four characters standing in a line opposite the enemies, all of whom have their own weaknesses for you to figure out. Your party takes turn attacking the enemy to find their specific weaknesses, whether it's to sword attacks, certain elemental spells, and so on. Once you find it, pummeling their weakness depletes their armor, and then you land your strongest hits to combo for massive damage. But their weaknesses can change as the battle goes on, so you have to strategize with how to maximize your damage before that change happens. The system is pretty engaging in the way it keeps you on your toes for every fight. See More

Top Pro

Gorgeous old school visuals with a modern touch

Octopath Traveler is a beautiful game that updates the nostalgic JRPG formula, especially with the graphics. The characters are all expressive 16-bit sprite models in 2D, calling back to games from the SNES era, while the backgrounds are in 3D with an incredible amount of detail. Walking through snowy mountains, across beaches, or through deserts, parts of the backgrounds glitter in the sunlight in captivating ways. It's a unique style that appeals to longtime JRPG fans while keeping things modern enough for the current console generation. See More

Perception

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Great horror audio design

Since the protagonist is blind, much of the horror in Perception is delivered through audio. The lack of detailed visuals and having a clear picture of your surroundings help to make the sounds stick out a bit more. Hearing constant footsteps in distant rooms, doors slamming, and all the bumps and scrapes in the dark can be pretty disturbing and amplify the horror. See More

Top Con

Fairly generic horror premise

Exploring the haunted house you saw in your dreams is far from an original premise, and has been done a million times. See More

Specs

Genre:Horror, Adventure

Top Pro

Easy mode makes it accessible for all

There is an easy mode where the ghost can't hurt you. This is great for players who just want to enjoy the story and soak up the atmosphere without having to watch out for danger. While it ruins much of the tension and fear, it's still a great way to experience the adventure without worry. See More

Top Con

Can become boring

Walking around in the dark only using vague outlines of objects can lose its appeal fairly quickly. There's not much to look at, and this simplistic style may wear thin after the first hour or so. See More

Top Pro

Tense atmosphere

Stumbling around a strange house only using echolocation to guide you can be daunting enough, but the addition of a scary presence who stalks you creates some very scary moments. Having to stand perfectly still in a dark corner or hiding behind some boxes while some unknown entity strolls through the room really gets the heart racing. Every footstep or tap of your cane can alert it to your whereabouts, making each step a fairly nerve-racking experience. See More

Top Con

Getting caught by the ghost feels cheap at times

Being spotted and caught by the ghost is sometimes a matter of pure luck. Having it appear randomly when you're not even making any noise can be frustrating and dampen the excitement of carefully managing your footsteps. Sometimes, it will just show up to ruin your day, often giving the impression that it's simply spawning next to you. Depending on your difficulty level, this either sends you back to entrance of the house or to the game over screen. See More

Top Pro

Unique premise creates compelling gameplay

Using echolocation to get around as blind girl is a very interesting premise. By taking a step or tapping your cane on the floor, it sends back information that you can use to navigate the house. However, this same noise can also alert a ghost to your location, meaning you'll need to tread carefully while you search the sprawling house. Carefully navigating the house, searching for clues, and avoiding the ghost all come together to create some pretty compelling gameplay. See More

Top Con

Bland visuals

While walking around using echolocation is a unique mechanic, it creates some pretty boring visuals. Walking around in the dark in video games is usually pretty annoying and uninspired, and this is no exception. Lighting is extremely dark with neon highlights around objects such as doors, tables, and walls. It's a very promising idea; it just doesn't translate well to being visually pleasing. See More

Top Con

Voice acting is poor

Much of the voice acting is overacted to the point of sounding forced or very generic. Sometimes when Cassie is scared or in a panic she will utter one-liners meant to portray her fear, but they normally just come off sounding humorous. See More

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