Resident Evil 7 biohazard (Free) is one of the most important Capcom games of the last 10 years as far as I’m concerned. It felt like a turning point for the publisher back in 2017 when we saw the PS4 get multiple superb releases from Japan within a short period including Persona 5, Yakuza 0, NieR Automata, and more. Resident Evil 7 biohazard was the start of what I consider the “Capcom is back” phase that is still going on. The publisher consistently puts out games I love each year, and Resident Evil 7 biohazard was the start. Since launching on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, it has seen PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades and a cloud version for Switch in select regions. More than 13 million copies later, Resident Evil 7 biohazard arrived on iPhone 15 Pro, macOS and iPad (M1 and later), and this is easily Capcom’s best Resident Evil port yet to Apple hardware.

What set Resident Evil 7 biohazard apart back in 2017, was in how it was genuinely a horror game first and foremost. Fast forward to today, Resident Evil 7 biohazard remains excellent with its immersive and scary atmosphere, interesting story, stunning visuals, and more. The RE Engine is truly one of the best in the business, and it has been awesome seeing it scale down to iPhone 15 Pro while delivering smooth gameplay and great visuals. Yes, Resident Evil 7 biohazard on iPhone is actually a great version of the game in general, not just great because it is on a phone or iPad. Not only is the full experience present here, but it actually feels better to play (with a Backbone) than it did back in the day on PS4 where I first played it. Resident Evil 7 biohazard was always a technical showcase even on consoles, but being able to play it with HDR at and targeting 60fps on my iPhone 15 Pro is something else.

If you’ve not played Resident Evil 7 biohazard before, it is a great entry point into the series, and one of the best Capcom games. The first person horror experience has you taking on the role of Ethan Winters looking for his wife while trying to survive gruesome enemies, solve puzzles, and more. While the prior games like Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 had more of an action focus, this one went back to the first person survival horror roots. I know there’s a lot of discourse for first person, third person, action focus, and horror focus in the Resident Evil community, but I can safely say that Resident Evil 7 biohazard, Resident Evil Village, and the remakes of 2,3, and 4 are all worth playing for fans of the series. It is great that we have such a spread across the different kinds of main Resident Evil games as well today, and that’s even reflected on iPhone with both Resident Evil 7 biohazard and Resident Evil Village being available alongside Resident Evil 4 Remake and Resident Evil 2 Remake joining in.

When Resident Evil 7 biohazard was announced for iOS, an auto fire option was revealed. I wasn’t sure if we’d see Capcom put more effort into touch, or just hope players use a controller as usual. Having now played Resident Evil 7 biohazard on my iPhone 15 Pro, the team bringing the game to Apple hardware has done a lot more here compared to Capcom’s prior releases, but it isn’t as good as Assassin’s Creed Mirage is when it comes to controls. This is definitely a big step in the right direction though. You don’t need to use on-screen buttons for all navigation anymore. It feels like a port that actually does more for touch controls than Resident Evil Village or Resident Evil 4.

In addition to the usual touch control customization, you can toggle an auto fire option on and various control settings before getting to the other surprising part of Resident Evil 7 biohazard on iOS. This release actually has a few notable graphics options. The display options also have HDR support, which was toggled on by default on my iPhone 15 Pro. On the graphics side, you can use one of three presets: prioritize graphics, prioritize performance, and balanced. You can also adjust screen resolution (1560×720, 1952×900, 2342×1080, and 2556×1179), FOV (70 to 90), toggle motion blur, and toggle depth of field.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard in its current state even on the prioritize performance mode can’t maintain a locked 60fps all the way. There are drops, but I ended up sticking to this mode with a higher resolution option selected to play. I find it hard to enjoy most first person games at 30fps, especially with bad frame pacing. Capcom needs to improve the 30fps cap’s frame pacing in Resident Evil 7 biohazard because it doesn’t feel perfect. Visually, Resident Evil 7 biohazard looks excellent and makes use of the full aspect ratio aside from the 16:9 cut-scenes. I don’t have a supported iPad to test out Resident Evil 7 biohazard though, but it played a lot nicer than Resident Evil 4 Remake did on my MacBook Air. This video is a good showcase of how it runs on different iPad models.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard is a free to try game on Apple hardware. The full game unlock is priced at $19.99 (including Not a Hero and Dirty Coin) with an additional $19.99 for an upgrade to the Gold Edition with all DLC included (Banned Footage Volume 1 and 2, End of Zoe, and Survival Pack). The major DLC for Resident Evil 7 biohazard is also really good and having all of it for $39.99 with a comparatively excellent conversion plus it being a universal purchase across iPhone 15 Pro (and Pro Max), iPadOS, and macOS with iCloud save syncing makes this an amazing value proposition for newcomers to the game. This price also matches the Gold Edition bundle price on Steam.

While I wanted to give Resident Evil 7 biohazard a fair chance with touch controls to try out the auto fire option, I also used my USB-C Backbone One controller to see how it felt with traditional controls. The first thing to note is Resident Evil 7 biohazard only seems to support Xbox button prompts even when using a DualSense wirelessly or my PlayStation edition Backbone controller. Capcom confirmed that keyboard and mouse gameplay is not supported in Resident Evil 7 biohazard on iPad or iPhone.

Speaking of Steam, I redownloaded Resident Evil 7 biohazard on Steam Deck to see how it feels today. After some cut-scene issues with Proton, a surprise considering the game is Steam Deck Verified, Resident Evil 7 biohazard ran flawlessly. Obviously a PS4 generation game is expected to run better than PS5 or cross-generation titles, but Resident Evil 7 biohazard is a joy to play on both iPhone 15 Pro and Steam Deck. The latter is definitely the best way to experience it on the go, but this iPhone 15 Pro version is close. If you were turned off by how Resident Evil 4 Remake or Village ran on your phone, you should give this one a shot to see how much better it runs and feels.

Resident Evil 7 biohazard on iPhone 15 Pro is Capcom’s best conversion yet in the series, but it isn’t perfect. A bit more optimization would go a long way, but this is finally a game I can recommend on iPhone without big caveats. It is even good to play with touch controls now, but something like a Backbone or Razer Kishi will give you the best experience. I also love being able to take my progress to my MacBook Air and continue playing there. Resident Evil 7 biohazard gives me hope that we might see a similarly performing port for Resident Evil 2 Remake whenever that arrives on iPhone 15 Pro. Until then, this is Capcom’s best Resident Evil port on iPhone by a big margin, and Resident Evil 7 biohazard itself is an excellent entry in the amazing series.

Ever since its release in 2021 for Japan, my friends who play Falcom’s games kept telling me about how good The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak (henceforth Trails through Daybreak) was despite some rough edges at launch. It felt too good to be true back then because for a series like this, people (including myself) often joke about the barrier of entry across different platforms. I ended up trying the Japanese demo for Trails through Daybreak and was in love with the combat system and the visual upgrade. I had no idea about the story back then. Fast forward to today and I’ve played Trails through Daybreak across Steam Deck, PS5 (including the PS4 version), and Nintendo Switch. It is an incredible experience. I’m going to cover and compare every version I have access to, but this review will focus on the PC version on Steam Deck.

Trails through Daybreak is just special when it comes to its story, characters, and world. I’m not going to pretend like I suddenly like the older games less or anything because I love most of them, but Trails through Daybreak just feels like such a step up doing everything right without any ifs and buts. Usually, a Trails game recommendation from yours truly includes caveats like playing many other games to get the best experience, or even needing to have played prior games to not miss out on important plot points. We’ve had a few good entry points over the years like with Trails in the Sky (PC or PSP), Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita, PS4, PC, and PS3), or even my recommendation on Switch which is the Crossbell duology. Right now, I can say that newcomers who want to play Trails and are completely new to it, can play Trails through Daybreak directly. Sure, having played earlier games gives me a better experience with context, returning characters, and seeing the world from this side, but I don’t have any hesitation in telling newcomers to play Trails through Daybreak directly. It is that damn good.

So what makes Trails through Daybreak’s story so special? It begins with Van Arkride who is a Spriggan. As a Spriggan, you take on the kinds of jobs the police don’t and will not bother doing. Set in Calvard (yes, finally!), Trails through Daybreak’s story begins with Van being approached by Agnes who needs help finding her late grandfather’s memento. As Van, you take on all kinds of quests that progress the story, or side quests that actually were interesting to do despite some still being obvious fetch quests with not even an attempt to hide things. Van is basically my favorite Trails protagonist already, and I feel like I might regret saying this in a year or so. I don’t care about that right now, but Trails through Daybreak’s Van is everything I wanted from this game in how he makes decisions, approaches different quests, important character moments, and more. Even the banter between the main cast is excellent.

As the story progresses with Van, you are joined by more from one of my favorite Falcom game casts ever, and I’m not exaggerating. You’d think Falcom might fumble and have some characters join with not enough screen time, but they thought things through here. Not only do characters like Judith and Risette have great designs, but they just elevate the whole plot throughout. Trails through Daybreak still is a Trails game, but it feels darker and more mature throughout, including in dealing with specific topics you don’t usually see in many Falcom games. Van and company definitely meet some interesting characters across the factions in the game.

With Trails through Daybreak, Falcom wasn’t just willing to change things up when it comes to the narrative and setting, but also give us a dramatically different combat system. When I see people excited for Atlus’ upcoming RPG Metaphor ReFantazio because of its combat system, I just remember how Trails through Daybreak did it first in 2021. If you’ve watched gameplay footage of Trails through Daybreak, you might think that you can either go with action (Field Battle) or turn-based (Command Battle) combat here. While you can make your way through most encounters with the former, some force you into Command Battles. I found myself enjoying the mix of both, and the system even lets you start off with one and switch to Command Battle with buffs or other stat changes. The action combat is pretty simple, but it helps that normal enemies don’t seem bloated when it comes to their HP.

Command battles feel like a step above what we had in Trails into Reverie here. When you initiate Command Battle, you can move within a blue circle and do normal attacks, change targets, perform Arts (using EP) that take time to activate, perform Crafts using CP, Shard Skills, use S-Crafts (with excellent cut-scenes), and much more. I feel like the Trails through Daybreak combat system has tons of potential even after how well-realized it is in this game. Being able to melt popcorn enemies around a more powerful foe using the action combat and then swapping to turn-based to take on the harder ones in a mob never gets old. I know I can try Trails through Daybreak II’s Japanese release to see how things changed, but I’m going to be patient for the localization and also see what happens in Kai no Kiseki (out this year in Japan).

In terms of gameplay structure, Trails through Daybreak is very much like a normal modern Trails game, but every aspect of the systems has been improved with the addition of an alignment system, much better sidequests, and generally a snappier experience. Not only does the game itself feel like the best Trails has ever been, but even subtle UI changes help make it feel modern.

Speaking of feeling modern, Trails through Daybreak is the first game on Falcom’s new (at the time) engine, and it shows. Obviously this isn’t cutting-edge, but Trails through Daybreak is a huge step up from the Cold Steel games and Reverie when it comes to visuals and even character models. Katsumi Enami’s character designs translate brilliantly to 3D models, and it was great seeing them return to the series after the excellent work in the Crossbell games. Outside character models and UI improvements, Trails through Daybreak looks gorgeous compared to earlier games. I already thought Trails of Cold Steel III was a step up from the first two games but Trails through Daybreak feels like we are finally a generation ahead. It also helps that the game scales really well making it retain its aesthetic even on the Switch.

If I had to pick one thing that didn’t hit as hard for me in Trails through Daybreak, it would be the music. As a huge fan of basically every Falcom game soundtrack, I felt like Trails through Daybreak was lacking as many great songs I wanted to listen to outside the game. While in-game, it was all good, but Falcom game soundtrack to me are always experiences outside the game as well. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve heard the Crossbell, Trails of Cold Steel series, or Ys soundtracks. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but I was hoping for more songs I’d want to listen to outside the game beyond just seven or eight right now. Voice acting has been consistently great, and I’m glad the volume level issue I ran into with a few prior English dubs in the series isn’t present here.

Trails through Daybreak PC port features

So far I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Trails through Daybreak, and the PC port is only going to get more praise because it is one of the best PC ports I’ve ever played. PH3 went above and beyond here. Not only are all the features I’ve come to enjoy in the developer’s PC releases included, but there are a few I never thought I’d see in a modern Falcom game, including a PC-exclusive one. Before that, let’s cover what makes Trails through Daybreak’s PC port so good. Aside from graphics options, Trails through Daybreak on PC gives you more control over the high speed mode (turbo mode) letting you set different speedup factors for field exploration, field battles, and command battles. I used this mode almost all the time and still have ended up with more than 70 hours on Steam Deck as of my current save which is in new game plus. The PC version also lets you skip startup logos to save time when you want to resume your save. Speaking of saving time, as with PH3’s other ports, you can also directly resume from latest save when launching the game through Steam to save even more time.

When it comes to display and graphics options, strap in because there is a lot to cover here. Trails through Daybreak lets you adjust display mode (windowed, borderless, fullscreen), select monitor, resolution (320×200 up to 4K on my monitor), select refresh rate, toggle v-sync, adjust frame rate limit (30 to 360fps), adjust FOV (25 to 65), change screen brightness, and enable HDR on supported displays. The HDR setting in Trails through Daybreak is the first time any Falcom game has official HDR support as far as I’m aware. You can adjust HDR peak brightness and HDR UI brightness here. It looks amazing on my Steam Deck OLED.

On the graphics side, Trails through Daybreak lets you select from one of many presets (performance (aimed at low end laptops or handhelds), console (matching the PS5 experience outside resolution and frame rate), default, high (aimed at gaming PCs), and ultra (high end gaming PCs)). You can toggle motion blur, depth of field, adjust three different draw distance settings (character, level of detail, and light draw distance), shadow resolution, shadow filtering, shadow caching, and local shadowing. On the rendering quality side, you can adjust resolution scale (50% to 200%),

One more thing to note is you can preview the game image behind you as you change specific settings. This is also something I want to highlight as most games don’t let you see realtime differences when you are tweaking graphics options. For anti-aliasing, Trails through Daybreak lets you use basic screen-space AA, FXAA with a high quality profile, 2x MSAA, 4x MSAA, and 8x MSAA. You can also use sparse grid supersampling and transparency supersampling here. Aside from that, more quality options include portrait supersampling and minimap anti-aliasiing which dramatically improve the UI specifically. You might think these are small things, but having played Trails through Daybreak across basically all platforms in the last few weeks, these two specific settings generally make the PC version look like a lot more care went into it when you look at dialog with portraits and the minimap. The latter specifically looks poor on consoles.

The final graphics settings let you adjust screen space reflection quality, volumetric lighting quality, a high-resolution cubemap setting, and use a new water shader option from PH3. This specific setting requires reloading the current map. It is quite a nice option to have here. The screenshot above is zoomed in from my Steam Deck with the modern shader at the bottom and the original option on top.

When it comes to PC-exclusive features, aside from the big boost to frame rate target and resolutions that are obvious upgrades, Trails through Daybreak has a show BGM option that you can have display the current track name and soundtrack position. You can set this to only have it display when a new song is encountered or display it at all times. This feature was in the Crossbell games and it is amazing to see it brought to Trails through Daybreak since the console versions don’t have it. Trails through Daybreak on PC also has full keyboard and mouse support as expected from PH3. I didn’t test this though as I played the PC version exclusively on Steam Deck. On the controller side, you can choose button prompts or have it auto detect. The button prompt options are mouse/keyboard, Xbox, DualShock, Steam Deck, Stadia (yes, I’m serious), and Nintendo Switch. I ended up sticking to DualShock button prompts here. The Trails through Daybreak controller options also let you tweak camera sensitivity, targeting cursor sensitivity, vibration intensity, and stick deadzone options.

As you can see, Trails through Daybreak is a fantastic PC conversion that I consider the gold standard. But how does all this work in practice when playing on Steam Deck? Well it is possible to play at a locked 60fps or even aim for 90fps thanks to how scalable the port is, but I settled on 45fps at 90hz for the best combination of graphics that exceed console while looking great on the Deck’s own screen and running well. I started off with the the default and console presets before tweaking some things like shadows to lower options. Most of the settings are on medium, but I opted to increase some things like minimap MSAA and specific draw distance options from the lower settings. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. It also seems to offer over 4 hours of battery life with HDR using these settings.

Before getting into the platform differences and comparisons, I want to note that Trails through Daybreak has no save data bonus that I can see from prior games. I have every single Trails game available on all platforms installed with save data store locally, and there was no in-game bonus or detection of any of that. You can however transfer the PS4 and Switch demo data to the final game.

Trails through Daybreak PS4 version and improvements from launch

Trails through Daybreak’s launch version on PS4 in Japan was capped at 30fps and lacked some of the quality of life features we are used to with the series in the West. It was then patched to offer an uncapped frame rate (which was basically 60fps on PS5 through backward compatibility) and also the ability to skip S-Crafts. Right now, the PS4 version on PS5 runs at 60fps, but the visuals and load times are not as good as the native PS5 version. You can toggle the frame rate cap from the settings in the PS4 version.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 improvements and features

The PS5 version of Trails through Daybreak has no graphics options, but looks crips and runs at 60fps. It also supports PS5 Activity Cards to track progress of certain things and quickly get back into your save file from the dashboard by saving time that would be wasted watching company logos and splash screens. Basically Trails through Daybreak on PS5 is a very polished experience and I have no major complaints with it.

Note that the comparison image above has been zoomed in and cropped to show the differences even when this article is read on smaller displays.

Trails through Daybreak PS5 vs Switch

Trails through Daybreak on Switch is a native port from Falcom itself just like Nayuta was before. Barring those, all Trails games have been ported by external studios with the quality being very inconsistent outside the Crossbell games which are immaculate on Nintendo’s hybrid system. If you played recent modern Trails games on Switch like Cold Steel IV or Reverie, Daybreak’s port is much better, but it still falls short of even the PS4 version when comparing them on the same display. The load times are longer, resolution lower, frame rate target lower, and it just feels like it is only worth it to play exclusively in handheld.

Even early areas of the game suffer from some issues and can’t hit the 30fps target consistently. Despite that, I put in dozens of hours on Switch just to see how Falcom’s new engine feels on Nintendo’s hybrid system. With the compromises to make Trails through Daybreak run on Switch taken into account, it is still worth your time if you only play on Switch and will stick to it handheld. Just avoid playing it docked if you can since the visual cutbacks are a lot more prominent when playing docked.

Trails through Daybreak PC vs PS5

While the PS5 version looks crisp on my monitor, it has some minor shimmering and aliasing issues when moving around, especially in open areas. The PC version scales well above this if you have the necessary hardware. The PC version also supports much higher frame rates in addition to all the PC-exclusive features I covered above. Trails through Daybreak on PC is the definitive version of the game by far. On the console side though, the PS5 version is the way to go for its improved visuals and much faster load times compared to the PS4 version, let alone the Switch version that is only worth getting if you exclusively play on Switch in handheld mode.

Trails through Daybreak Switch vs Steam Deck

Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is a version I’d choose even over PS5 right now, so it is a big step above the Switch version in just about every way, especially if you have a Steam Deck OLED where you can experience HDR, better battery life, more responsive inputs, and more. If you have both platforms, I recommend getting Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck right now.

When I played Trails from Zero to Azure, I considered the duology as Falcom’s best Trails experience. Then I played Trails into Reverie and loved it so much, but I think Trails through Daybreak is the best Trails game. While I have no hesitation in saying Ys VIII is my favorite game in that series alongside Ys Oath in Felghana, I’m glad to now have Trails through Daybreak alongside the Crossbell duology as the best Trails experiences available today on modern platforms. Trails through Daybreak on Steam Deck is also my favorite way to experience Falcom’s newest masterpiece by far. Not only is it a fantastic Falcom game, but one of the best RPGs you can play in 2024, and knowing what released, you know I wouldn’t say that lightly. It joins Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and Balatro at the top of my Game of the Year list right now.

Back when Apple announced multiple big console game ports for iPhone 15 Pro and iPad (with macOS in some cases), I had already experienced three out of the four games announced. The one I hadn’t really played, and one I decided to skip playing until iPhone, was Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Free) from Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed Mirage was billed as a return to the more traditional entry in the series with a shorter runtime. That might not sound great to those who haven’t paid attention to Assassin’s Creed, but despite how good most of the new games are, there has been a desire from the fanbase for older games. I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey quite a bit, but they are very long RPGs. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a shorter experience, and I was curious to see how it would scale on Apple hardware. Since launch, I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone 15 Pro and PS5 with my progress syncing between both platforms through Ubisoft Connect for this review.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set in Baghdad, and you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq on his journey. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set before Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and it was originally planned to be an expansion to that before being changed into a full game in the series. It initially felt weird going back to the classic parkour, stealth, and well assassination focus compared to the full action RPG the recent games have, but I have no real complaints with Assassin’s Creed Mirage when it comes to the story and gameplay. It feels great to have a modern game with a classic series focus, and I hope we see more like this in the future in between the larger RPG entries in the series.

Having waited nearly two weeks since launch to see if any update releases to fix any teething or launch issues in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, I’m going to assume this is what players should expect for the near future when it comes to features and port quality. On launching the game, you need to download about 7.5GB in-game. I didn’t test playing with Ubisoft Connect as my aim was to play Assassin’s Creed Mirage across my PS5 and iPhone 15 Pro. I did try playing offline a few times and the game let me load my save. I can’t check if this works throughout though.

The Resident Evil ports and Death Stranding play great with a controller, but are quite a mess with touch controls. Assassin’s Creed Mirage on the other hand has seen the developers actually add a bespoke touch control option for playing on iPhone 15 Pro and iPad that makes it feel like a big and modern mobile game rather than a console game ported over with a ton of on-screen buttons. This is something I hope more developers do when bringing over console games to mobile. Just slapping a virtual button for every single input on a controller isn’t feasible anymore unless your game has only a few action buttons. Assassin’s Creed Mirage feels tailor made for iPhone 15 Pro when it comes to its controls at least, aside from a few tiny touch targets.

Customizing controls in Assassin’s Creed Mirage lets you move virtual buttons around across different control sets (swimming, base, etc), and also lets you increase or decrease button sizes. I like how the game has a red zone to indicate overlap issues as well when you are trying to tweak the layout to your liking. The issues I have with the UI in Assassin’s Creed Mirage have to do with a lot of the non gameplay sections. The touch targets in some menus are often too small. While the game is capped at 30fps as of this writing, there’s no need for the menus to feel sluggish as well. I hope this aspect can be improved over time.

I waited a few more days before publishing this review because I wanted to try it on my new Backbone One PlayStation Edition USB-C controller, and I’m glad I did. This feels like one of the first few games I’ve played where it not only properly detects the controller with PlayStation button prompts, but it also has Backbone One button prompts for the menu and other non gameplay buttons. The game plays perfectly with a Backbone as well.

Visually, I was mostly impressed with Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but the performance is where things fall apart. Playing with the high graphics preset results in a good image, but performance is unacceptable. I ended up tolerating the game’s performance in the medium settings, but combat really struggles. In addition to the unstable frame rate in these parts, frame pacing is also an issue with the 30fps cap not being perfect. Even if you play on the low graphics preset, there are drops from 30fps, albeit not as bad as in the medium or high presets. This is quite disappointing, and I hope patches can improve this at least on the low and medium presets. High will likely be best for newer iPads.

MrMacRight on YouTube has an excellent video covering how the game is across different iPads. I don’t currently have an iPad that can run Assassin’s Creed Mirage though. I do have the game on PS5, and I was curious to see how I’d feel playing it on that and iPhone with my save syncing across. The PS5 version runs and looks a lot better with 60fps gameplay and a much crisper image. I did enjoy Assassin’s Creed Mirage on my iPhone as a way to continue playing bits of the game though when I was away from home.

While I like the gameplay and story, I want to highlight the music. Assassin’s Creed games usually excel on this front, but I think the audio design in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is just superb. This is one to play with headphones for sure. The voice acting is a bit inconsistent in English, and I also wanted to check out some of the other dubs. You need to download more data in-game for this so keep that in mind especially if you want to play with Arabic voices.

This is more than a solid base for Ubisoft, and it is a few patches away from being superb. Having cross progression through Ubisoft Connect makes it even better though. While this isn’t a game I see myself coming back to later on unless it gets some notable DLC, I hope to see Ubisoft continue bringing cross progression support. I enjoyed using it in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Riders Republic, and Immortals Fenyx Rising on console already, but seeing it on mobile is a good sign for future Ubisoft ports.

One aspect I want to cover is the price point. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a free to try game with a $49.99 unlock for the full game, just like on other platforms. In addition to this, there are optional DLC packs like the Deluxe upgrade, weapons, and more. The reason I bring this up is to make sure everyone knows that these are the same DLC packs sold on consoles and not new ones for mobile despite the way things appear on the App Store page. I don’t like having this stuff in a full price premium game, but sadly that ship has sailed with Ubisoft’s releases. Just keep in mind that you only need the Assassin’s Creed Mirage full game unlock and nothing more to get the proper game experience.

I’m in two minds about Assassin’s Creed Mirage on iPhone 15 Pro right now. It is a great game and Ubisoft put in a lot of work into making it feel good to play with touch controls, but the performance issues hold it back right now. Since Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available as a free to try game, I recommend giving it a shot, but make sure you play until you get to experience some combat so you can properly judge how it will run on your own device. Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a great entry in the series, and it is worth your time even if you are a newer fan to experience a modern take on classic Assassin’s Creed. I can’t wait to eventually see how Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels on iPad after playing it on PS5.

Having played the original Shin Megami Tensei V over four times on Nintendo Switch, I clearly loved the game despite its few flaws. Back then I wondered if we’d just see it ported to more platforms eventually with all DLC, or have to wait for the Switch’s successor for any sort of re-release. Maybe we’d get something like Persona 5 Royal that was built on the original, or something like Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse. I didn’t expect Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. Having spent over 170 hours with Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance mostly on Steam Deck, but also on Switch and PS5, I can safely say that I’m glad Atlus handled it this way.

I’m going to cover how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels for those who played the original and also for newcomers who likely are going to experience Shin Megami Tensei V for the first time through Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. This review will not have any story spoilers for the base game or the new Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route. I will also be covering how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels on Nintendo Switch compared to the original, which platform you should buy it on if you’re new to the game, and more.

It feels weird writing about Shin Megami Tensei V as a new release but here we are. After more than four playthroughs of the original, I wanted to keep playing more, but I decided to wait for potential ports or a re-release. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just a new enhanced port for current consoles and PC, but a dramatic improvement in just about every way over the original. After having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance twice and currently halfway through my third full playthrough, I can safely say that this is one of Atlus’ best games for replaying. I just love spending time in the world, so what exactly was changed or fixed in this new version?

Before getting into the story content, if you didn’t enjoy the open zones and general structure of Shin Megami Tensei V, that has not changed here. If you enjoyed everything the original had aside from its overall narrative (or lack thereof with many characters poorly developed or just tacked on), this Vengeance route is a huge improvement, but it also has many changes to the narrative. In a lot of ways, playing the original route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like an enhanced new version of a game with quality of life features and all the technical improvements. The new route in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feels like a remixed take with new story content, new characters, lots of new voice acting, fantastic new music, new areas, changes to the original story, and its own different endings. Yes, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route doesn’t have just a single ending.

When you start a new save in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, you get to choose which route you want to take soon after. Taking the girl’s hand results in you being on the Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance route, while not taking her hand results in you being on the original game’s route, but with the new features and quality of life improvements. If you play Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch, you get to carry over three demons into the compendium, some items, and additional items based on the endings you had in your save file. I laughed when three of my maxed out level 99 demons were carried over into Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch.

When it comes to the story, my issues with Shin Megami Tensei V weren’t that it wasn’t in your face throughout, or that I wanted more social elements. My issues were that some characters just showed up randomly during important moments when you don’t even remember they exist. One specific character seems to be super important, but I barely even remembered they existed until the ending of the game. The true ending in the original game also involved doing some missable quests that you wouldn’t even bother looking into unless you were going to complete every quest it had. I’ve done every quest the original game had on Switch with the DLC, and really thought they should have handled many aspects of the characters and story better.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new route fixes most of this. Not only are there more interactions, but you actually see the cast grow with you and the world changing. Everything feels like it is part of a cohesive story that isn’t full of holes anymore. The new character interactions, additional dialogue in older scenes, remixed bosses, changes to cut-scenes, and more all come together to make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel like the actual main game. I even enjoyed having Yoko in older story moments with new voiced dialogue and more context to specific situations. Barring Yoko, the major new story addition is the Qadistu. I won’t reveal too much about them, but they definitely served to improve Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s story a lot, and I enjoyed every interaction I had with them.

I can’t comment on every ending Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance has, but the ones I did get I liked. I did like the change to going for different paths here compared to the original. Knowledge from the original does help in a small way, but be prepared to have Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance surprise you both mechanically and narratively.

Before getting into the visual and performance improvements and other technical details, I want to highlight some of the gameplay changes in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. I can’t say for sure if this was only because of some of the new features, or because I knew every older map in and out, but I found Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance easier overall. Being able to save anywhere and using the sky view made exploration much less stressful here. Beyond that, the combat changes and additional negotiation options make Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance feel more complete. The only thing I dislike is the change to the Estoma ability that uses Magatsuhi gauge here instead of MP. You can’t spam it like you could in the vanilla game, and I got annoyed at the amount of enemy encounters in one specific map here. The challenge mode is also a lovely addition because I enjoy taking on older bosses or enemies again. I didn’t finish it all because it feels like a lot of it is meant for min-maxing.

If you’re new to Shin Megami Tensei V in general, I think the new Vengeance route is basically better than the original in every way. I’m curious how people who play this route first and then play the original will feel about the story across both. If you already played Shin Megami Tensei V, playing the Vengeance route will feel amazing with the story additions, changes to existing aspects of the game, and all the new boss fights and music. Even if this release just included the Vengeance route and was only on Switch, I would’ve been satisfied. Thankfully, Atlus and Sega have brought Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance complete with the original route and prior DLC to all current and last generation platforms.

Visually, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is a huge upgrade over the vanilla game since I focused on playing it on Steam Deck. Aside from the massive image quality and frame rate improvements over Switch, the new areas in the game are gorgeous. You saw some of these in the “New Locations” trailer, but seeing them in game at a high resolution is really something. When it comes to character models and new demons, I think Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is one of Atlus’ strongest releases in years. It has an impeccable aesthetic that oozes the Shin Megami Tensei vibe I love from Atlus. This also carries over into its music.

I’ve never hid the fact that Shin Megami Tensei V has a sublime soundtrack. I listen to it regularly even years after it was originally released. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s new music feels like a blend of Ryota Kozuka looking to deliver something that lives up to Shin Megami Tensei V, but also reaching back into his Shin Megami Tensei IV vibe. The new boss themes in particular are amazing. I can’t wait for the full new soundtrack to be released. Outside the music, the new voice acting in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is very good across the board. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance might be my favorite Atlus re-release yet, and I don’t say that lightly.

I’ve been playing it on Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and PS5. On Steam Deck, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance arrives Steam Deck Verified. This isn’t always a guarantee of something running well, but having done more than two full playthroughs specifically on Steam Deck, I’m very impressed by how Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks and runs.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck settings, graphics options, and features

If you play on a Steam Deck OLED, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can hit 90fps (and even higher on both Steam Decks when played docked) in many areas of the game, but it isn’t locked 90fps. At the default preset by turning a few things up and shadows down, I only saw it drop below 60fps in a few specific situations, but it almost always runs well above. The menus are capped at 60fps though. On my Steam Deck OLED specifically in handheld mode, it regularly runs at above 80fps even while exploring. The major area I noticed frame drops below 60 was the Fairy Village. You go there quite early on. Even the new locations hold up really well including the more open areas.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PC doesn’t have 16:10 support, but it has Steam Cloud support and full controller support. If you aren’t happy with the image quality at 800p, I recommend forcing 1080p for the internal display and playing at 30 or 45hz with some drops for the most crisp handheld experience. Speaking of handheld experience, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance even on its default PC settings at 800p on Steam Deck is a huge upgrade in visuals and performance over the docked Nintendo Switch version that rarely held a stable 30.

I also played Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on my 1440p 144hz display to see how it felt there. 1080p 60fps isn’t really possible on Steam Deck. I also tested 1440p and 4K and you can imagine how that went. I stuck to playing at 720p even docked to see how the game held up at frame rates above 90fps. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance can easily hit above 100fps on Steam Deck at 720p even in some open areas. It just isn’t consistent and you’re better off locking it at 60fps or playing with a 90fps target and fluctuations. VRR would’ve helped a lot on the Steam Deck OLED’s 90hz screen in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. You can play at a lower resolution of course, but I didn’t want to settle for under 720p here.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance’s PC port lets you choose button prompt options including an auto option, adjust keyboard controls, rebind controls for field and menus, and adjust a few graphics options. You can toggle ambient occlusion, motion blur, and anti-aliasing. The display options let you adjust screen mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), resolution (640×480 to 4K), toggle v-sync, and use a frame rate limit (30, 60, 90, 120, 144, unlimited). There are no additional options, and I was hoping to see draw distance and other features we see in Unreal Engine PC ports. Hopefully this can be added in a potential update.

Overall, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is an absolute joy to play, and it might be my favorite console to PC conversion that I’ve played on Steam Deck alongside Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for 2024. The load times are also very fast on Deck.

Shin Megami Tensei V Vs Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Nintendo Switch

Having beaten Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch multiple times years ago, I was curious to see how this new upgraded version of the game felt on the same platform. There are now a few more post processing options even on consoles like anti-aliasing which you can toggle on. It just can’t handle the game and drops from 30fps even indoors on Nintendo Switch both docked and handheld. I got used to it and put over 30 hours into the game on Switch OLED. If you played the original and enjoyed it on Switch, you will not have trouble playing this new version.

Comparing Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance to Shin Megami Tensei V has some visual changes. Even the FOV seems a bit different in the wide option the game has compared to the original. Beyond that, the new post-processing option toggles are not present in the original game either. I didn’t have enough time to test every location to compare because I was focusing on the Steam Deck version for this review, but it feels like Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t going to be much different in terms of performance compared to the original. If you are ok with that and want to play the new route on the same platform, this version is fine.

On the PS5 side, I can’t remember the last time I was this impressed by the glow up a game has seen moving from Switch to PS5/Xbox Series X. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance looks incredibly crisp, runs flawlessly, and loads instantly on PS5. It even has PS5 Activity Card support.

Having played it on Steam Deck (main platform), Switch, Switch Lite, PS4 on PS5, and the native PS5 version, you might be wondering how the Xbox version is. Well, I didn’t take a code on that platform because I pre-ordered it there already. If there’s a notable difference between Xbox and PS5, I’ll update this review in the future.

Should you get Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on PS5 or Switch?

At this stage, the only reason I’d recommend anyone play the Switch version is if they have no other platform to play it on and want to exclusively play in handheld mode. The downgrades compared to current platforms are just too big right now. Obviously this wasn’t an issue back at launch, but for those who have multiple platforms, keep in mind that every other version is better right now, and it absolutely shines on both Steam Deck and PS5. Hopefully Atlus can do an upgrade for the Nintendo Switch successor for those who buy Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance on Switch right now.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance isn’t just the definitive version of a game I loved years ago, but one of Atlus’ best RPGs in a long time. I always enjoy revisiting games I love every few years, but Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is just an incredible upgrade and release on its own. It is one of the best games you can play on Steam Deck in general, not just for this year.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

Before venturing too far into this review, I have to apologize for being a little late with it. Without early access to the mobile version, I got to start at the same time as the rest of you, and I didn’t want to review a game like this without doing some thorough examination. I had been greatly anticipating SaGa Emerald Beyond ($49.99), you see. I like the SaGa series more than the average person, and I still think SaGa Scarlet Grace is one of the most enjoyable RPGs in recent history. But the satisfaction in these games tends not to be easily extracted; effort is required, and so here we are. Let’s get on with it, shall we?

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room first. This is a very expensive game by App Store standards. Indeed, at $49.99 USD this is the exact same price that SaGa Emerald Beyond is selling for on other platforms. From one point of view, this makes perfect sense. It’s a new game, it came out on the same day on mobile that it did elsewhere, and it’s the same game content-wise. Why should it be cheaper? In a way, wanting games to be cheaper on mobile is simply feeding into the image of these platforms being inherently lesser somehow. Thinking of it that way, price parity almost seems like proper acknowledgement that mobile isn’t just a dump.

On the other hand, this is mobile gaming. We’ve seen games cease being updated before, and we’ve seen games pulled before. Heck, The Last Remnant, a SaGa game in all but name, vanished from the App Store ages ago with some vague promises from Square Enix that it would return when it was fixed. Perhaps as you read this sometime in the future, it has returned. But the possibility of games breaking and getting delisted is a more real concern on mobile than it is elsewhere, and one we have to consider. It stings a little when you lose a game you paid five or ten bucks for; losing one you paid fifty for, even temporarily, would be a real test of one’s patience.

Ultimately, you’re going to have to dig deep and answer that question yourself. I want to tell you not to worry, but I can’t. I’ve been covering this beat for over a decade now and I am not naive to its problems. Square Enix is better about this than some publishers, and that’s the only real reassurance I can give you. I won’t blame anyone for the price affecting their decision of whether to buy the game on mobile or not, and I’m sure Square Enix was prepared for such hesitation when it priced the game the way it did. That’s all I’ve got to say about that. The absolute state of things that I have to spend three paragraphs talking about prices in a game review.

I’m of the belief that the SaGa team might have been caught off-guard by the response to SaGa Scarlet Grace. This series is not typically well-received in the West, after all. Indeed, more often than not it is reviled by most of the media and the general audience. Over in Japan it tends to fare better, though it certainly has had its highs and lows with fans and critics there as well. But SaGa Scarlet Grace was different, wasn’t it? I daresay that people kind of… liked it? Look, I’m a SaGa Sicko. I always like these games (not Unlimited). But I’m usually only joined by my fellow SaGa Sickos, and that isn’t what happened with SaGa Scarlet Grace. A lot of people really enjoyed it, a fact made all the more impressive by how clearly modest its budget was.

I think that might be what brought us to SaGa Emerald Beyond, at least broadly speaking. This game feels like it was made on a similarly shoestring budget, but that’s not really too surprising. I think one of the reasons SaGa survives, beyond the series creator Akitoshi Kawazu’s senior position with Square Enix, is that even when it fails it doesn’t leave the publisher holding a big bill. And if a streamlined approach worked last time, why not this time? What’s more unexpected, given the history of the series, is how… safe?… this game is in its basic structure. Relatively speaking, of course.

If SaGa is known for anything, it’s that it’s very uncommon for any two games to be terribly similar to each other. Sure, there are persistent elements. Sparking new skills, the unusual character growth system that sprung out of Final Fantasy II, multiple playable characters, and so on. But those systems are usually fit into new frameworks, a double-edged sword if ever there was one. That’s not what happened here. SaGa Emerald Beyond isn’t exactly like Scarlet Grace, to be sure, and I’ll get into that shortly. But it presents itself an awful lot like it, and I’m not sure why but I feel a bit disappointed by that. It’s like asking your wild friend to surprise you at Baskin-Robbins and getting a scoop of French vanilla. Hey, it’s a good flavor. I love French vanilla. It’s just that I was just expecting Boogers & Caramel Melody or something.

Okay, so. Emerald Beyond. You’ve got your choice of characters, a sum of six in the end. You are going to get a very different experience based on who you pick. You are going to get a different experience based on whether you’ve finished the game with certain characters already. Playing the game again with the same character will often lead to different results. There’s one character whose true ending won’t even open up for you until you’ve fulfilled some very particular conditions (don’t choose Ameya for your first playthrough, trust me). If there is one way this game separates itself from prior games in the series, it’s in this wide variety of potential routes through the game. If you only do one playthrough of this game, you’ve missed most of it. If you only do three playthroughs of this game, you’ve missed most of it.

A single playthrough can be very short but rarely longer than fifteen hours, but you are assuredly meant to keep on playing it again and again with new characters and new paths. This is something some players will love and others will hate, but it certainly helps the developers get a lot of soup out of a rather small amount of ingredients. It runs rather thin storywise, but I doubt you’re coming to a SaGa game for the story no matter how much text this particular entry likes to throw about. You’ve easily got over a hundred hours of game ahead of you if you want to see the game all the way through to its intended conclusion, and that’s both the value for money you want to see but also a crushing commitment.

It’s fascinating from a design standpoint because on the surface this is a very linear game, penning you into small locations until you fully see them through rather than letting you run about. But it turns out to be very non-linear in a deeper sense, and the way it achieves this is completely bonkers. I respect that, because I’m a SaGa Sicko. Others might be less thrilled, particularly since these repeated playthroughs lead to a lot of recycling that can wear on one’s soul. The story that’s here is well-written and the localizers have again done a bang-up job, but there’s not enough substance in it as a whole to keep one sated on their fifth or sixth run. You really have to be in love with the mechanics to keep sticking it out, or really like connecting thin strands from the stories of different characters.

The battle system is the star of the show again. Structurally it’s a lot like the combat in Scarlet Grace, with a heavy focus on offense and making sure you set up your big moves (called Showstoppers here) while trying to interrupt the enemies in such a way that they can’t bust out their own on you. There’s no healing in battles here, so you really have to plan your moves carefully. Any damage taken is serious business, particularly in boss battles. On the whole, I’d say Emerald Beyond is a lot more lenient in difficulty than Scarlet Grace, but when it starts cooking (and it will) it demands good strategy and serious situational awareness. Of course, there is a bit of the ol’ RNG in here as usual as it pertains to picking up new moves via Sparking and stat increases, but your brain is going to be your most powerful weapon. You’re going to have to fall in deep, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for SaGa.

Man, I don’t know. I’m sitting here trying to think if Emerald Beyond is an RPG I would recommend to the average person or if it’s just something for SaGa Sickos and I’m torn. Personally speaking, I love this game. I don’t know if I love it quite as much as Scarlet Grace, but that’s one of my favorite RPGs of the past couple decades. Emerald Beyond not quite living up to that is not a knock on it. But I really do love this game. It’s so mysterious. There are so many surprises to find, and small details to pick up. You absolutely have to lose yourself to it in order to find its best qualities, and that is something that is right up my alley. The thing is, I don’t know if that’s up the average player’s alley. I found the repeat playthroughs in Bravely Default brilliant narratively and mechanically, but most people hated them. So I’m having trouble finding my compass here.

Here’s the thing: if you’re a SaGa Sicko, get in. I can’t say where you’ll end up ranking it in the series, but it’s not Unlimited and I think that’s probably enough for you. If you’re not, you have to ask yourself how into digging out opaque mechanics and non-obvious narrative elements you are. If you take SaGa Emerald Beyond at face value, you’re not going to get much out of this. A single playthrough is paltry and it’s just easy enough to wave you through. The story isn’t going to do much for you, either. Just like with the mechanics, you really have to work to get things out of the narrative here. And unlike with the mechanics, I’m not fully sure the effort is worth the reward. But those mechanics! That combat system! It’s all amazing stuff, the kind of meat an RPG fan dreams of when they’re having particularly lovely dreams at night. It’s SaGa, baby. No one else bakes these pies.

Alright, let me try to sort this out. If you’re a total SaGa beginner and don’t want a game to beat you up too much, you’re probably better off going with Minstrel Song. If you don’t mind getting beaten up, Scarlet Grace is still the high-water mark. I like its story better, and I like how it handles its outside-of-combat mechanics more. So I guess what I’m saying is that those who are new to SaGa probably shouldn’t go with Emerald Beyond as their first choice. But once you’ve cut your teeth on SaGa one way or the other, do make sure you play this one. I think it’s better than it’s getting credit for at the moment, and to be fair that is on the game for hiding too much and being too subtle on the whole. This is way up there in the series rankings for me, and that’s after carefully digesting it for a lot longer than optimal traffic dictates I should have.

It’s the most obvious thing in the world to say about a SaGa game at this point, but SaGa Emerald Beyond isn’t going to be for everyone. Setting aside my personal feelings, I can say that it’s probably opaque to a fault, and it’s trying to stretch itself a bit too thin for how much time it wants you to put in. It’s a fantastic little RPG puzzle box in the mechanical sense, and players who come to RPGs for strategic battles will get their fill here. I think even outside of that, there are a lot of neat non-obvious aspects to this game that are waiting to be found by the observant player. In the end Emerald Beyond is another SaGa game that is preaching to the choir, but it’s a choir worth joining if you think you’ve got the patience for it.

Just like with Hades, I’ve enjoyed revisiting an old favorite of mine in Katana Zero (Free) from Askiisoft and Devolver Digital with its new mobile release through Netflix Games. Katana Zero did soft launch recently on mobile already, but the full worldwide rollout should now be live as of this writing. I’ve been playing it early through a pre-release build from Netflix, and I’m shocked at how good it plays with touch controls, but there are a few issues. Before getting into the review, for those new to Katana Zero, the title is a reference to a line used in the game when you finish a section of a stage.

Having enjoyed and beaten Katana Zero multiple times before on Switch and PC, I was well aware of how difficult some stages are, and also how annoyed I was for specific bosses. In the translation to iOS, Katana Zero has lost nothing, and I’m quite surprised by that. It almost makes me want a port of Hotline Miami from Devolver, but I digress. As with my other port reviews, I’m going to also cover how the game on mobile compares to other platforms I’ve played said game on, and help you decide which one you should get.

Katana Zero is a stylish action-platformer with stunning pixel art, mesmerizing animations, and superb music. While most games in the genre have a story that gets the job done with a focus on gameplay, Katana Zero is the rare game that punches (slices?) well above its weight in every single category. It is very much a once in a generation experience, and I don’t say that lightly. After every few stage sections when you get used to a new mechanic or enemy type, Katana Zero throws something new at you. This could be with a brand-new stage type, boss fight, story moment, and more. Expect to take about 5 hours or so to see Katana Zero to its end, but it took me a lot more during my first run through it on Switch back in the day.

The core gameplay in Katana Zero involves platforming, attacking, dodging, jumping, stopping time, and more. You end up using a combination of all of this to make it through a stage section. You can keep playing through a specific section if you die until you manage to clear it. If you hadn’t caught on from the title screen and the opening, Katana Zero wears its synthwave and VHS vibe proudly. When you die, you get a VHS-like rewind effect. In fact clearing a section also has you ejecting a tape.

Speaking of the length, Katana Zero feels like it is built for speedrunning. It has a few settings that save your time, like being able to skip the VHS rewind animation on death and almost instantly restart. I recommend enabling this because it does get annoying when you make a mistake a few times in a row on a specific level and see the same animation play out.

Given the structure and difficulty, there is a lot of trial and error as you learn a specific level segment before moving to the next one. This may or may not be an annoyance for you. I expected it given the genre, but there are a few bits that annoy me to this day. When watching Katana Zero trailers or gameplay, you’d think this is a very fast-paced game, and you’re right, but there’s a lot more to it. While the opening levels feel pretty straightforward, there is a lot of depth and strategy at play in Katana Zero. Each level, enemy placement, point of interest, object, and more work together to make you feel like a puzzle solving samurai genius with one of the best soundtracks in gaming.

If you played Hotline Miami, the addictive one more chance style action is at play here. You will die often, but every death is a learning experience. This aspect might turn some players off, but outside of maybe a handful of deaths, I’ve never felt like my time was being wasted in any level of situation. I will say that some of the boss battles are frustrating, and that’s really my only complaint with the core game. It is a sublime experience, but I never really enjoyed some specific moments in my Switch or Steam playthroughs. Those aren’t fun when experienced on mobile either as you can expect.

On Switch and PC, Katana Zero plays perfectly with a controller. On iOS, you can of course use a controller, but I was more interested in seeing how the developers adapted the game for touch controls. On the controller side, I tested using a Backbone One on an iPhone 14 Plus and my 8BitDo Pro 2 on iPad Pro. It all works well. On my iPhone 15 Pro, I used touch controls, and found them to be very good outside one issue. The action buttons and interaction button can all be resized and moved around. The analog stick for movement has three settings, but none of them let you properly fix the joystick including the fixed setting. I have to imagine this is a bug or a mislabelled setting. If you aren’t used to playing platformers on touch controls, this will take you some time to get used to, but I think the team has done a fantastic job with the controls on iOS.

Katana Zero looks brilliant on iOS. It has some border artwork on iPhone 15 Pro during gameplay, and has black bars in menus and interfaces. On iPad Pro, there are just black bars around the 16:9 gameplay. It looks crisp though, and performance has been very good on my devices. Katana Zero is capped at 60fps on PC so I didn’t expect support for more on iOS. I did notice a variable frame rate in some parts on iPad Pro (2020), but performance was excellent on my iPhone 15 Pro.

If you’re new to Katana Zero and have a Netflix subscription, I’d definitely try it out on mobile before buying it on another platform. If you don’t have a Netflix subscription, I’d recommend getting Katana Zero on Switch or Steam Deck to play on the go with the latter being the best version with no performance issues at all.

I mentioned the soundtrack being great, but it really is one of the best game soundtracks in many years with it touching quite a few genres through its runtime. This is definitely one to own on vinyl. If you have no interest in the game and have somehow made it this far into a review of said game, at least listen to the soundtrack. You will not regret it.

While I’m not sure I’d say Katana Zero justifies subscribing to Netflix if you don’t have an active subscription, it is immediately one of the best games on the service, and a fantastic, and near-perfect, conversion of a magnificent game. If you have a Netflix subscription, drop everything else and play Katana Zero right now. It is that good. Replaying it has not made the wait for Katana Zero DLC easier.

The term “remaster” started losing all meaning in the early PS4 and Xbox One generation when we saw a few games just see bare-bones ports while being called remasters. Since then, we’ve had remakes that are more re-imaginings like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Resident Evil 2, and also games officially called remasters that are more like remakes with Metroid Prime Remastered and Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (this one is called a remaster on Nintendo’s website in Japan). So when Braid, Anniversary Edition (Free) from Thekla, Inc was announced as a remaster, I wasn’t even sure what to expect because the original game looks gorgeous and felt great to play when I tried it last year on Steam Deck as well.

Having now played Braid, Anniversary Edition on iPhone and iPad through Netflix, Nintendo Switch, and Steam Deck while trying the original game on my older Steam Deck, I see that a lot more has gone into this release than I expected, and I’m not even talking about the extras. In this Braid, Anniversary Edition review, I’m going to cover whether this is worth getting if you already played the original, and also why this is worth your time if you’re new to the game and comparing all versions as usual.

If you’ve not played Braid before, it is a puzzle-platformer with a gorgeous aesthetic, incredible music, and excellent mechanics intertwined into the various levels. These range from different ways of manipulating time that either directly let you control time, interact with the environment in interesting ways, or even have time controlled by your own movement. There’s a lot that changes across the levels, and even though I’ve played the game twice before, I enjoyed revisiting the old areas and seeing how well the extra content has been added into Braid, Anniversary Edition. In a lot of ways, Braid, Anniversary Edition feels like a deluxe 4K Blu-Ray remaster of an older movie you loved chock full of bonus content, interviews, and extras. I don’t think I’ve seen this much attention put into those areas of a re-issue of any game outside something from the masters of reissues at Digital Eclipse.

For newcomers to Braid, you can experience this without any of the extra content, and even toggle the older visuals if you’d like to play it like it was back in the day, but on modern platforms. If you already played it, you might first wonder what was “remastered” visually, but toggling the old and new graphics which you can do just about at any part of the game will show you how much attention has gone into translating the colorful painting aesthetic of Braid for modern platforms while making it feel just as you remembered the original in your head.

The comparison below shows the new graphics (left) with the old graphics (right) on my iPad Pro (2020):

For those who played Braid before, aside from the remastered visuals and improved soundtrack quality, the highlight is the commentary. I thought we might just get a commentary track playing while making our way through the game normally (which is included if you’d like), but I’m stunned at how much has been added on top of that for those who really want to go into the weeds of Braid. Not only do you get to check out different kinds of commentary with interview dialogue during parts of the game, but there’s a commentary world on its own that lets you experience design, programming, sound & music, and visuals as different categories of commentary. I’d say this commentary feature on its own is worth the asking price of Braid, Anniversary Edition for me, but there’s so much more than that in this release overall.

Before getting into the mobile port and platform-specific features and differences, if you’re wondering whether Braid, Anniversary Edition is worth buying or playing if you already have played it before, the answer is yes, if you care about the extra content or want to replay it. This is now the best version of Braid, and instead of just giving it a fresh coat of paint (I couldn’t resist) and porting it to more platforms, Thekla did so much more. My only real complaint with the release itself, is that there’s no physical version right now, and I will use this chance to grumble about no physical release of The Witness as well. If you already own Braid on Steam, Braid, Anniversary Edition is available at a 50% off discount for existing owners, and this is a no-brainer purchase if you like the game.

Braid, Anniversary Edition on mobile is available exclusively through Netflix. I tested it on my iPhone 15 Pro, iPad Pro (2020), and iPhone 14 Plus. On the iPhones, Braid, Anniversary Edition has fullscreen support which I didn’t expect. On iPad, there are black bars above and below the gameplay. Performance is solid across the board as well. The issues I ran into have to do with touch controls. If you play with a controller, which Braid, Anniversary Edition supports, these will not bother you, but I am disappointed to see no customization for the on-screen control button sizes. The touch targets for some controls are too small on the iPhone 15 Pro. I found them acceptable on iPhone 14 Plus though.

On Steam Deck, Braid, Anniversary Edition has black bars above and below the 16:9 aspect ratio gameplay. It targets your screen refresh rate (90fps on Steam Deck OLED, 60fps on Steam Deck LCD, and 144fps on my monitor) but seems to use v-sync (double buffered) where if the game cannot hit the target frame rate, it drops to half that for a few seconds. On the Steam Deck OLED, I noticed it sometimes went from 90fps to 45fps for a few seconds, but it always shot back up. There are no graphics or display options in Braid, Anniversary Edition on PC that I can see on Steam Deck.

On Nintendo Switch, Braid, Anniversary Edition looks gorgeous on the Switch’s OLED screen. I also tested it on my Switch Lite. The only difference here is load times are longer and the swapping between SD and HD graphics sometimes has a delay on Switch compared to mobile and Steam Deck. I have no qualms in recommending it on Switch if you’d prefer to get it there.

Being able to change from the older to newer graphics on the fly also highlighted how much better the soundtrack quality is in Braid, Anniversary Edition. Everything sounds clearer, and this perfectly complements the visual upgrade we see. Speaking of the visuals, not only is everything gorgeous on high resolution modern displays, but seeing assets redone and new animations hits home how much work went into this release.

As a value add to Netflix, Braid, Anniversary Edition is an amazing boost to its gaming catalog for newcomers to the puzzle-platformer, and another fantastic game on the service that likely wouldn’t have hit mobile alongside other platforms. Playing Braid, Anniversary Edition has been just as much fun as it was experiencing the Xbox 360 version years ago, and I hope it gets a physical release in the future. I also hope the mobile version sees some touch control improvements in potential patches though.

After the Among Us collaboration DLC, I had no real idea what to expect from Vampire Survivors (Free) for its next potential DLC. I assumed that was a sign that we’d just see popular indies like maybe Risk of Rain, but never in a million years did I think we’d see Vampire Survivors collaborate with Contra. Can you imagine telling someone Vampire Survivors has a collaboration with a Konami IP, but it isn’t Castlevania? I sure wouldn’t have believed you back then. Today, the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC is launching worldwide for iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC platforms. I’ve been playing it for review on all non mobile platforms since the mobile DLC isn’t up yet. Alongside my review for the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC, I’ve also covered a bit of how the account and cross save system currently works in beta.

If you’ve not played Vampire Survivors since it launched, you’ve missed out on a lot through free updates and paid DLC releases. Read my co-op impressions of the Steam version here, 1.0 launch review here, Legacy of the Moonspell DLC review here, Tides of the Foscari DLC review here, and Emergency Meeting DLC review here. It was already a superb experience, but each update and DLC only enhanced things. So how does the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC feel for a Contra fan, newcomer, and someone who just wants more Vampire Survivors? I’m going to try and cover all that in this review.

On paper, Vampire Survivors Operation Guns brings in 22 new weapons, 11 new characters, a new map, Contra music (including six new tracks), and more. You initially start by just getting access to the new stage (Neo Galuga), which is awesome not only for the Contra theme, but because of its layout in general. What initially starts out as just a nice themed stage ends up quite surprising. I don’t want to spoil things, but I recommend paying attention to the prompts on the map sooner than later when you notice something new. One more thing I love about the stage is how the Contra power-ups have been translated to Vampire Survivors. The team went all out, and this is easily my favorite release involving Contra since probably Contra Hard Corps that I recently got to enjoy on Nintendo Switch Online. I’m not counting the M2 anniversary release of course and I’ve not played Contra 4, but you get the picture.

So the stage looks and feels awesome, but what about the characters and weapons. As usual, you start out with nothing and need to unlock the first new character from the new stage. After you unlock Bill who is the first Vampire Survivors Operation Guns character, you can slowly work your way to getting the rest which have their own requirements usually relating to evolving weapons. Speaking of weapons, I can’t get over how awesome the animations are for the weapons, the particle effects, and interactions with elements of the stages. Vampire Survivors Operation Guns feels like a labor of love throughout, and if you love Contra Hard Corps and the original games, you will adore this DLC.

Whenever I review a DLC pack, I also like covering the current state of the game in question. While pushing for absolute chaos, Vampire Survivors Operation Guns on my Steam Deck OLED never dropped below the high 40s for its frame rate before the 30 minute timer ended. It usually hovered around the high 70s mark. I disabled damage numbers as I usually do when I play, but I did enable them just to see how much I could push the game for this review. I’m impressed with the current state of the game on Steam Deck and Xbox Series X. The Switch version is excellent, but the worst platform to play the game on right now.

If you’re wondering about the mobile version, I had the least progress in that version and the Switch release since I have put so much time into both Xbox and Steam Deck. This brings me to the cross save feature that’s currently in beta. I moved my Steam Deck (LCD) to the beta version of Vampire Survivors and created an account. This process is simple. Once created, I uploaded my progress from Steam Deck to the cloud. I have access to the account (beta) through the beta build on iOS that I used on my iPad. I got my Steam Deck save to my iPad and picked it up right there. I don’t have the Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC on iOS yet, but everything else worked fine in the sync. The only complaint I have is auto sync not being possible, but I understand the reasoning for that with how save data is handled in this game. You can read about the poncle account system here.

Coming back to Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, and it is time to cover the music. The new Vampire Survivors arrangements for Contra songs are incredible. I can’t wait for the soundtrack on Steam to get updated so I can transfer these to my phone. Just like with the visuals and weapons in Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, I think the team has gone above and beyond for the music. Other than arrangements, there are also Contra songs from Contra 4 and Contra Hard Corps.

At this point, Vampire Survivors DLC is a lot like Dead Cells DLC where it is hard to not recommend buying any of it. Vampire Survivors Operation Guns, like the Emergency Meeting DLC, is a must-have regardless of whether you are familiar with the source material or not. It enhances the game and made me play a lot of Contra Hard Corps on Nintendo Switch Online today. It is an essential purchase if you like Vampire Survivors given the value and quality.

Vampire Survivors Operation Guns Steam Deck Review Score: 5/5

Thinking back to when I first got my iPhone, one of the earlier games I bought was a decent little take-off of Nintendo’s 3D Picross called Oh! Cube. It was implemented fairly well, and I had a nice time going through all of its puzzles. I expected more games along those lines, but just as on consoles, they never really came. Well, here’s one: PiKuBo (Free). It’s pretty clear what it’s doing if you’ve played 3D Picross before, but the devil as always is in the details. Is it worth trying out? Investigation time!

Let’s talk the money stuff first, because that’s how the world works. As you can see, it’s free to download this game. It won’t hassle you with ads or anything. You get the first puzzle pack without paying a cent, which is a nice way to see if you’re into what it’s laying down or not. You get just over thirty puzzles to solve, with some nice tutorials that explain things to new players and will feel excruciatingly long if you already know what you’re doing. At the time of this review, there are two more puzzle packs available as IAP. Each one offers thirty-six additional puzzles to solve. I imagine if the demand is there, the developer will make more packs available. All up, you’re paying a couple of bucks for around a hundred puzzles. Not bad.

I do have one bone to pick with those puzzle packs, though. The puzzles contained in each follow the same general difficulty curve as the included pack, which means that several are wasted on extremely simple puzzles that you’ll solve in a matter of seconds. Presumably anyone buying these packs has already played the initial set, and I don’t see why we’d want to be going back to the basics again. So many of the puzzles are quick and simple that the whole thing ends up feeling a lot smaller than you’d ideally like. Perhaps future packs can be themed so that those who want easier or harder puzzles can get what they specifically want? Just spit-balling.

The puzzles run the gamut in terms of difficulty, and I’m generally satisfied with the challenge of the harder puzzles. Moving beyond that, the most important thing about a game like this is in how it controls. Like its 2D counterpart, 3D Picross plays best with a stylus, some buttons, and a resistive touch panel. There are always a few challenges when it comes to adapting this kind of game, even to an iPhone. One is in how to handle the swap between marking and breaking cubes. Another is in how to fit larger puzzles on the screen while leaving the cubes big enough to work with. PiKuBo approaches this tricky task with some interesting ideas.

By default, touching the screen will simply allow you to move the puzzle around. You can pinch and… de-pinch? Un-pinch? Do the opposite of pinching. That will allow you to zoom in and zoom out on the puzzle. There are some arrows on the side of the screen that allow you to move layer by layer through the puzzle, and that’s a pretty standard way to handle that. Now, if you want to paint or break the blocks, there are buttons for that. You might think you touch the one you want to use and just go to town. Well, kind of. When you tap the button for each action, it will stay active until you tap a cube. After that, there’s a short window where if you keep tapping, you’ll keep performing that action. Once it elapses, the action is de-selected. This mitigates accidents, and I think it’s a good idea even if it is a little annoying at times.

In general, I think it controls as well as it can. The screen real estate is certainly tight on bigger puzzles, and accidents will certainly happen from time to time, but those are issues with the original 3D Picross games as well. If you make a mistake, you’ll lose a heart. Run out of hearts, and you’ll have to start the puzzle over again. You can also lose by running out of time. When you complete the puzzle, you’ll be given a rating from one to three stars based on how you did. When you finish a set of puzzles it will be marked with a crown so that you know what you’ve already finished.

In terms of options, you get a selection of four different paint colors to use for the cubes. You can turn the music and sound effects off independently, turn off the cooldown on the paint/break buttons, use a left-handed mode, and reset your progress in case that’s a thing you want to do. There’s a quick save option here as well, in case you need to stop playing in the middle of a big puzzle to go make some pasta or something. And that’s about it. The graphics get the job done, and the music is nice, chill stuff for solving puzzles to.

PiKuBo is a great way to get your 3D Picross fix on mobile, with a good selection of free puzzles and additional puzzle packs available at highly reasonable prices. It’s all wrapped in a highly functional interface and topped off with some nice tunes. Since the first pack is free, you don’t even need to take my word for it. Give it a download and try it. My only real gripe is that the extra puzzle packs have some extremely elementary puzzles included that really shouldn’t be taking up space when we only have around a hundred to play with. Otherwise, this is a very nice puzzler for Picross lovers.

Over the last few years, there have been many indie games that debuted on PC and consoles that felt like they’d be a perfect fit for mobile. Some of those took years to show up on mobile while others never made it so far. Devolver Digital and Four Quarters’ dark fantasy roguelike RPG Loop Hero (Free) hit mobile this week through Playdigious, and just like Slice&Dice, it feels dangerous to have installed. Don’t even ask me what will happen when Balatro finally arrives on iOS, but I’ll worry about that when it happens. Back to Loop Hero, which has been my obsession recently as I started playing it on Steam Deck and Switch to prepare for the iOS version that I got access to earlier this week. There’s a lot to unpack in Loop Hero’s gameplay, but the one constant in the time I put into it prior to release was being disappointed in myself for not playing it sooner.

A reductive way of describing Loop Hero’s core gameplay loop (sorry) is a blend of an autobattler, deckbuilder, and roguelike. This combination makes it feel unlike anything else I’ve played before. You don’t actually control what your unnamed hero does, but influence things around them. When you first start playing Loop Hero, your hero starts walking around the path fighting whatever fodder enemies spawn in the hope of getting good drops in the form of cards or items (gear). You use these cards to influence things around you ranging from heals or stat boosts to all sorts of other things. Said cards let you summon specific establishments or terrain types and each has their own flavor ranging from summoning specific enemies to buffs and more. Positioning matters and with your own experience you will start understanding how to get better with this.

What initially begins on a small looped road where you start moving in a loop might end in a complex map where you’ve littered the environment with all sorts of things to give yourself buffs while summoning more powerful enemies to get better loot and slowly making progress to take on the boss. On paper it sounds like the gameplay in Loop Hero might be a bit too complicated for touch controls, but it actually works almost perfectly. The game ships with a few options to pause time after battles or while you’re making a decision and such, but it also has options to speed things up in and out of combat. I found my own balance here and Loop Hero started to feel more like a zen experience despite the carnage happening on screen.

As you continue looping on a specific run, you need to properly balance laying down cards to spawn more powerful enemies because you don’t want to be overwhelmed. You can retreat when safe as well and take some materials with you. These are used to build permanent upgrades or help you with your next run. The way Loop Hero is set up, I never found anything I did as a waste of time. I either learned something that helped me plan better for the next run or had actual in-game items available that helped me grow stronger. It all comes together very nicely, and this is all just for the first hero. There are three in total, and while I found the balance a bit off, I feel like I need to spend more time with the others to understand if that’s actually the case or it is more me not having as much experience with them.

While the gameplay initially seems like that Charlie meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, it really comes together and makes you see the genius it has to offer. I really would love to see how the gameplay loop in Loop Hero changed during development and how the team managed perfecting it more or less as they have in the current version of the game.

So Loop Hero has superb gameplay with how it blends in different systems together, but I want to highlight just how gorgeous the pixel art aesthetic is. It feels immersive across the board and the aesthetic never lets up with how perfect it feels even in the small menu interaction animations. The card art, character portraits, small enemy animations, combat, and more all come together perfectly. The iOS version from Playdigious even has art to fill up the black bars that feels right at home with the game itself.

Loop Hero’s soundtrack from blinch is also notable with how catchy it is, and how it never gets old no matter how much you hear it. Every little sound effect outside the music is also exactly what it should be. Loop Hero’s audio design in general is consistently high quality.

On iOS, Loop Hero feels perfect and it runs flawlessly, but there are a few interface issues. These are mostly to do with some font sizes being a bit too small even with the larger size option enabled, and a few touch targets being too small. The game ships with a few options for tweaking the interface so you can tap to select and place cards or items versus dragging them, and this is a welcome option because I ended up swiping into multitasking on my phone sometimes when I meant to play a card in Loop Hero. The touch target issue isn’t a dealbreaker on my iPhone 15 Pro, but the current Loop Hero mobile conversion feels a lot better on my iPad Pro. It also has iCloud save support that has worked fine in my testing outside of one instance where I had to force quit the game and relaunch it to sync correctly.

In fact, the more I played Loop Hero on iPhone 15 Pro, the more I wished it had a portrait mode. The gameplay style perfectly suits portable play, and it would make me spend a lot more time with the game if that option was available. Maybe this is for the best, but jokes aside I really wish Loop Hero had portrait mode support on iPhone. Playdigious told me there is no plan for this now, but I hope they consider it for a potential future update.

If you prefer playing with a controller, you can use controllers with the iOS version. I played Loop Hero on iPhone 14 Plus with my Razer Kishi V2 and it worked perfectly. I also used my Xbox controller on iPad to test it and everything works as it should. The game seamlessly swaps between touch controls or showing controller prompts depending on your input just like the PC version does on Steam Deck when I use touch (mouse) or the Steam Deck’s own controls or Switch when I played with a combination of touch and button controls there. Check out the screenshot comparison below for how the UI differs with touch and a controller.

Speaking of Steam Deck, having played Loop Hero on Valve’s handheld and Nintendo Switch before, I enjoyed it the most on iPad. It isn’t a lesser experience on any platform really, and I recommend playing Loop Hero on all portable platforms. It just benefits so much from portable play with its one more expedition and loop nature.

Loop Hero is a free to try game on mobile and I urge you to download the game and see how you feel about the gameplay yourself. Some aspects might not hit as hard for all players, but the demo gives you enough of an idea of how the game plays and feels on mobile. I think Loop Hero is absolutely worth the asking price on Switch and Steam Deck so it costing a fraction of that on mobile makes it even easier to recommend.

Loop Hero feels like a game that was always intended for mobile, and the conversion from Playdigious is almost perfect. At a fraction of what it costs on other platforms, not only does Loop Hero feel right at home on mobile, but it is the best version of the game. It is going to be a mainstay on my iOS homescreens for a long time. I just hope portrait mode can be added eventually because it would make Loop Hero absolutely perfect on mobile.