Video Game Reviews

Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited
Nippon Ichi / NIS America
Reviewed on: PS Vita
Also on: PS3
Street: 08.12
This multi-tiered experience lends fans insane amounts of gameplay while leveraging a quirky sense of humor. The art is beautiful displaying vibrant colors, great characters, and a diverse cast. The mechanics range from intensely strategic tactics battles to town development. The battles play like a game of chess where characters are affected by range, terrain, power ups and of course elemental difference. During battle you can position your units to perform multi-tiered attacks, or even combine them with monsters to modify their abilities. If that isn’t enough you can also deal in the underhanded politics of Hell by manipulating senators into providing you with resources and troops, while additional buildings pop up in your town. Add some light-hearted humor from the penguin-like Prinnies constantly saying “dood” and you get the amazing balance of technical and goofy. Go pick this up and unlock the true power of SARDINES! – Thomas Winkley

Doorways: The Underworld
Saibot Studios
Reviewed on: PC (Exclusive)
Street: 09.17
Much like their horror movie brethren, survival horror games are getting to be hit and miss these days—with emphasis on ‘miss,’ unfortunately.  Don’t get me wrong, Doorways and its predecessors have succeeded in creating an atmospheric, disorienting environment that is sufficiently haunted by mangled freaks.  However, while navigating said environment, it’s difficult to ignore the ghosts of survival horror’s past that exist within the game’s execution.  Yes, dead-eyed amputees who shamble around on prosthetics made of rusted shopping carts are scary—especially since the player has no means of self-defense other than running away.  Despite the solid scare factor that these encounters possess, I kept wanting to ask, “Hey, aren’t you that dude from The Suffering?” The game offers a semblance of storyline—the main character is a special agent hunting for a killer—but the dissonance between the game’s action and the storyline make it feel like the latter was more of an afterthought.  From a graphical standpoint, Doorways is impressive for an indie game—gritty textures and ominous lighting are used to great effect—it just feels like it arrived a bit too late to the survival horror party.  –Alex Springer

Fairy Fencer F
Compile Heart / NIS America
Reviewed on: PS3 (exclusive)
Street: 09.16
In Fairy Fencer F, you go on a quest to collect some very special weapons known as furies. These furies are left over from a glorious battle between a vile god and a goddess and contain the life force of a fairy. You start off as Fang, who just wants to eat delicious food all day. In pursuit of that end, he pulls one of the mythical furies from its pedestal and meets the fairy inside, Eryn. She informs the lazy Fang that he is now a Fencer, and must collect the furies scattered throughout the world. The characters are odd: Fang is brutally honest about how he feels, and their interactions with each other are a fun read. The graphics aren’t anything special, but they’re not horrible. There’s a lot of customization for your characters—some affect your battle stats and others are just to look pretty. The combat is turn-based, with a bunch of different options, including “Fairize”—combining the fairy’s power with your own to get a boost to your stats. It all sounds silly, but it’s a JRPG, so that comes with the territory. Combat and characters considered, it’s a game worth checking out. –Ashley Lippert