NBA 2K22 Review – Minor But Compelling Roster Additions

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Also on: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Visual Concepts
Rating: Everyone

Like every NBA team, Visual Concepts must get ready for another season and try to improve its roster and make the lineup stronger. Last year's entry was all about making the jump to new-gen hardware and truly taking advantage of the tech with impressive graphics and lightning-fast load times. You could say the developer found its core players when it made that move, but as with every roster, there's always room to grow into a title contender. Visual Concepts hasn't found its championship year, but it made some solid improvements and changes to get there eventually. NBA 2K22 may not feel significantly different from last year, but some bright spots make it more fun to play and set a promising foundation for the future.

The gameplay, which has always been top-notch, doesn't make any huge shifts from the formula. It took me a few games before I truly appreciated the enhancements. This year focuses on rewarding your basketball IQ and having more realistic features, like fatigue, factor into your performance. That doesn't mean your star players won't shine and easily be able to dominate the game, but you might miss a few more baskets or get blown past for being out of position more than in previous entries. It's a change I'm all for, as previously it felt like overpowered stars mattered more than playing good team basketball. 

The defensive game is where the tweaks are most noticeable, as positioning can make or break you. If you don't cut off your man appropriately or commit to the wrong play, you pay for it. Blocking and shot contests are reworked, so predictable plays are properly defended more realistically. I also really like the new shot meter, which takes into account shooting ability, distance, fatigue, and defensive coverage. Getting a basket is a good mix of skill and player talent that previous entries have struggled to perfect. You also can't take anything for granted and assume that since your player is elite, the shot will go in, and forcing a shot up often fails. Some new dribble moves provide more variety to ball handling, and this is another area where the differences in player skill are evident in how they look and feel when dribbling. 

As for modes, MyCareer probably saw the most significant changes, taking place entirely in The City. In this sprawling multiplayer hub, players can do everything from shopping for new clothing to playing in pick-up games and tournaments. That means you're no longer following a huge cinematic, authored storyline as in previous years; instead, you're living out your NBA career in this venue, visiting agents at their headquarters, meeting with reporters for exclusive interviews, and going to the practice facility for team practices. Visual Concepts has leaned into the RPG elements, with a huge quest system that ensures your player always have something to do, whether it's working on their NBA career, advancing their personal brand, or taking on online challenges for extra goodies.

MyCareer still has a story path, playing as "MP" an up-and-comer who turned heads with his YouTube channel and is carving out his own unique path in the NBA. This approach feels fresher than previous years, with Visual Concepts choosing to show the different ways players can make a name for themselves and how social media can play a huge role in a player's rise to fame. You can decide to focus solely on basketball or build your brand with ventures into music and fashion. During my time, I released a track with rapper The Game and started my own clothing line for comfortable but stylish athletic apparel. The story is silly at times, but I enjoyed it for that reason. This mode also adds some fun diversions from the NBA season, but be aware that if you do enter the fashion track, you're expected to use the virtual currency (VC), which you can earn in-game or buy using real-world money, on clothing to impress. That said, the mode is still a grind, and it doesn't help that most quests are repetitive, sometimes being a rehash of the same content (the music trivia is egregious) or require you to participate in boring fetch quests. The City is still a pain to get around until you open up better vehicles and additional fast travel options beyond your apartment. 

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You only enter The City as a male MyPlayer, which is disappointing. NBA 2K22 does bring back The W if you want to forge your own WNBA career. While this mode laid a great foundation last year, it's disheartening that Visual Concepts didn't build off it more for NBA 2K22. The only significant addition is the ability to practice with other WNBA stars to learn their skills alongside some gameplay improvements to better mirror the women's game, especially in the passing department. However, the mode feels vacant of meaningful interactions and rewarding content. I'd love to see scenes and press conferences to really showcase my player's personality and choices about her path in the league, as you see in MyCareer. 

MyGM is also very similar to last year, except with more staff members for various positions to hire, such as a sleep doctor or perimeter defense coach. This encourages you to think more about hires. Do they fit your coach's system? Do you put up with staff members who have a negative trait or two in favor of their other superior skills and perks? It's a small addition but gives you a bit to think about when assessing your team's needs. This mode is fun but is beginning to lose its allure due to not having any significant changes in recent years.

MyTeam, where you open card packs to create the roster of your dreams, got one of my favorite additions: drafting. Now you can build a roster by flipping over three cards in a pack of five to create your team at various positions. It adds some unpredictability and luck to the equation, but I enjoyed creating a team this way to play others online. Depending on your wins and losses, you get extra rewards and more attempts at drafting players to keep making your team better. 

For those who like getting goodies and seeing your work going toward something, seasons are now across all the game's main modes. Seasons run every six weeks and allow you to get free items like clothing, card packs, and more. All you need to do is complete objectives (mostly playing games) to reach certain reward tiers. Modes like MyTeam and MyCareer have daily rewards that give you small freebies just for logging in. This is a smart change; I always felt like I had something to look forward to, and it helped to have some rewards to chase as an incentive to keep playing. While this is an improvement, microtransactions still rear their ugly head in NBA 2K22; most players put down VC to up their player's stats faster or get lured by cosmetic items to improve their look. You earn VC by playing games, but it is a grind, which is why so many reach into their wallets. At the very least, clothing pricing seems more reasonable, but players only have slow-moving skateboards to navigate The City, which seems like a carrot to get them to upgrade. 

Instead of walking into the arena and making a grand statement, NBA 2K22 just plays decent basketball. You'll see a few highlight clips, but none that make you want to keep watching in awe. Still, NBA 2K22 is an improvement over last year, even if it's disappointing that it's not making more significant moves. Hopefully, next year we see more shakeups to the lineup to make the game a little more exciting and feel like Visual Concepts is gunning for that championship title. 
 

Score: 7.75

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Concept: Build on the innovations from last year's new-gen console debut while adding some new touches across all modes

Graphics: The ultra-realistic player models and their on-court moves wonderfully resemble the real world. The little details, from the crowd to sweat on the players, are a nice touch

Sound: Once again, the soundtrack provides energizing beats to get you in the zone, while the commentary still stands as some of the best in sports games

Playability: The new shot meter goes a long way in providing a smoother, more natural experience. Those with high basketball IQ on both sides of the court should often prevail

Entertainment: NBA 2K22 makes some smart and interesting changes and refinements. Unfortunately, they aren't a large enough leap to truly dazzle the audience

Replay: High

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MLB The Show 22 Review – A Reliable Contender

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Also on: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch
Publisher: PlayStation Studios
Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment San Diego Studio
Rating: Everyone

MLB The Show 22 is a savvy veteran, a game that continues to perform well on the field, despite some modes feeling like they are falling behind the times. Developer Sony San Diego once again finds new ways to capture the realism of the sport and add even more excitement to the already fantastic batting and pitching battle. Given just how much content is here, not every mode received the attention we want, but Sony makes up for them with excellent new experiences.  

Down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, you are on the bench, unable to do anything other than chew on your nails and cheer on your teammate at the plate. In years past, in this moment, you'd be in the batter's box swinging for the fences, but it's now your friend's turn. Even without wood in your hand, sitting in the dugout as your friend tries to knock one out of the park is surprisingly intense. This experience unfolds in a wonderfully designed cooperative mode within Diamond Dynasty. Through this new avenue of play, MLB The Show nails the thrill of being on a team, giving you the chance to discuss strategies, execute hit and runs together, and hopefully scream in celebration when your buddy crushes a walk-off home run.

Cooperative play is great fun but surprisingly sparse in matchmaking options, allowing for just 2v2 and 3v3 matchups within the desired pitching and fielding difficulty groups – that's it. Given baseball is a nine-person game, it's disappointing that higher player counts aren’t supported, but the lower number creates more gameplay opportunities for each player. I applaud Sony's decision to alternate at bats from player to player, meaning you can't send your best-hitting friend to the plate in critical situations – it's always who's next in the order. I also like how cooperative play encourages spending time in other Diamond Dynasty modes to unlock better cards through card collecting, as the players featured on them are who you can send to the field.

Chasing elite diamond-ranked players is still a grind in Diamond Dynasty, but I didn't feel as strong of a pull to spend real money to buy packs of cards as much as I have in years past. Most of the modes offer excellent rewards that help build out the roster quickly. Most of the early recruits will be of the silver and gold variety, but you will get a few diamond-ranked stars early on.

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Conquest remains a satisfying avenue of play for card collecting and leveling. This mode's abridged three-inning format is better than ever thanks to A.I. rebalancing. Conquest's computer opponents now put on a strategic clinic, diving into the bullpen, using pinch runners, bunting runners over, and pitching to double plays. The balancing also affects your game, as pitchers begin to tire much faster – sometimes comically so after just a pitch or two. These are welcome changes that removes some of the repetition in gameplay motions.

If you love the three-inning format, Sony added another excellent mode for quick play: The aptly named Mini Season delivers three-inning games and a short 40-game season that you can get through in a weekend. It's an excellent addition that provides a nice selection of rotating missions but can be a bit frustrating early in your Show playing, as the A.I. teams you face replicate squads assembled by real Show players, meaning you could meet an all-Diamond team while you are still sending out gold and silver players. I developed a fun routine of bouncing between Mini Season and Conquest, a path that rewarded me with packs of cards and quick experience boosts for my rank and players.

As for the action on the field, MLB The Show 22 is once again a showpiece of iteration. Building upon an already great foundation, Sony continues to find ways to tighten up the play, add more realism, and reduce repeated moments. Variety is showcased within the the new fielding animations for all types of hits, the ways players charge balls, and new home run animations. It's also easier to read pitch release points, and the ball has a bit more weight to it, meaning you'll see more realistic ground ball hops and flight trajectories right off of the bat.

The feel of the play remains remarkably fluid, but don't be surprised if you walk more batters than you have in past iterations. There's a more pronounced penalty for missing Pinpoint precision, leading to the ball sailing out of the strike zone. As a pitcher runs out of gas, Sony makes you work in later innings, and you'll likely rely on bullpen arms more, a nice little way to keep you on your toes and change things up.

While making many strides forward, The Show 22 comes up a bit short in several areas. Repetition is a common theme in the commentary booth, consisting of two new voices: Jon Sciambi and Chris Singleton. They deliver great insight into the sport and play well off each other but don't have nearly enough lines. If a switch hitter comes up, don't be surprised if he's called a unicorn because you don't see many of them anymore. I believe I've heard this dialogue 50 times already.

Some modes also didn't receive much refinement. Franchise mode is largely unchanged, offering slightly tweaked trade block logic, payrolls based on 40-man rosters, and budget and contract improvements. Road to the Show is a repeat performer from last year but still delivers plenty of fun and the deep connected player experience to Diamond Dynasty.

Players looking for new meaty season-based experiences will find them in the vastly improved March to October mode. With the focus shifting away from "win now," you can take your team through multiple seasons, enjoy nicely streamlined drafting and team building, and focus on individual player efforts. I was surprised how much it scratched my Franchise mode itch.

A week after launch, MLB The Show 22's online performance is shaky, delivering periodic latency and hard crashes (sometimes without XP rewards). Online stability continues to be a huge hole in MLB The Show's yearly swing. While the new Switch iteration offers all the content of the PlayStation and Xbox versions, it suffers from framerate stuttering and significant graphical flickering. It's still playable and fun but doesn't carry the big lumber of its console brethren and feels like it's barely holding on.

MLB The Show 22 doesn't put up an all-star performance this year, but continues to be consistent in all avenues of play and finds new ways to make you want to spend time at the ballpark. Playing with friends in cooperative play is the standout feature if you can use it, but the on-the-field play and March to October also impress.

Score: 8.5

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Norco Review – Soul Food

Reviewed on: PC
Publisher: Raw Fury
Developer: Geography of Robots
Rating: Mature

Point-and-click games cemented the vast potential of interactive narrative at the turn of the century, employing innovative environmental/dialogue puzzles with evocative pixel art and chiptune music. Nowadays, we lose ourselves in impossibly large sandboxes with equally extensive choice-driven plotlines. It’s fitting, then, that Norco feels like a precious relic from the Sierra-led Golden Age of digital adventures. Geography of Robots’ debut title ponders unchecked capitalism and classism at the heart of America’s oft-neglected Deep South. Moreover, Norco’s retrofuturistic and net.art aesthetic is propped up by some of the best surrealist storytelling I’ve witnessed since Kentucky Route Zero.

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Norco reimagines the bayou as a series of interconnected nodes on a map. I bounced around numerous venues, parsing historical manuscripts in rundown shops, buying dog food at the convenience store, fetching hallucinogens from grimy bathroom stalls, and speaking with the citizens. Each vignette pops with psychedelic hues – rivers sparkle beneath the tree line, half-light casts long shadows across grassy knolls, watercolor-clouds form above the empty freeway. Norco’s writing might indicate that the city is distorted and diseased, but it’s gorgeous to behold, nonetheless.

Protagonist Kay returns just as her titular Louisianan community is on the brink of erasure. Kay’s younger brother Blake is nowhere to be found, and her estranged mother, Catherine, recently succumbed to cancer. In the months before her death, Catherine was conducting research on a floating anomaly at a nearby lake, earning the suspicion of evil oil conglomerate Shield. As Kay, I wandered through a weird, modernized Norco, hoping to find Blake and complete Catherine’s lifework. Norco teems with delightful twists and frightening realizations that brought me face-to-face with washed-up detectives and grotesque machines, among many other eccentrics. There’s a lot of dialogue and world-building, but the prose’s dreamlike and philosophical quality makes every block of text a joy to read.   

On the rare occasion that I had trouble keeping up with the lines, I accessed Kay’s “MindMap,” a smart subversion of the conventional quest log where important objects, NPCs, and locations are linked. Here, I could reminisce about significant events and relationships for additional details, progress the plot, or recall secondary objectives. Norco primarily touts puzzle-based gameplay, but don’t be fooled; the loop is chock-full of its fair share of nuance. At one point, a multi-part task required me to hover over backdrops with a cellphone camera to reveal invisible solutions, giving revisited areas an added level of depth and wonder. There are even peripheral puzzles that I could’ve missed if I hadn’t meticulously explored environments with my cursor, masterfully paralleling the enigmatic and illusory nature of the story.  

My one gripe with Norco is its tacked-on combat system. From time to time, Kay and her ever-growing band of party members – e.g., a stuffed monkey, a fugitive security droid, etc. – cross paths with aggressors. Attacks are minigames that range from replicating on-screen patterns to clicking enemy weak spots in timed intervals. I quickly grew weary of these redundant encounters. In a game packed with unique design choices, fighting paled in comparison, and I’m relieved there are only a handful of these sequences.

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I’ve never played a game like Norco, which elegantly celebrates and admonishes its cultural roots while simultaneously chronicling a strange doomsday scenario. Kay and Catherine’s shattered America is not so dissimilar from our own – burgeoning industrial complexes threaten to displace low-income families, automated systems supersede human workers, and the filthy rich work around the clock to deter upward mobility. The game isn’t always gloomy. One cool night, I sat atop City Hall and gazed at the constellations with a stranger. Hours earlier, I flipped through treasured memories on a faulty flatscreen TV. Norco is an unforgettable reminder that there’s an inherent beauty behind the madness.

Score: 9.25

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Persona 5 Royal Review – Revealing Its True Form

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Publisher: Atlus
Developer: Atlus
Release: 2020
Rating: Mature

When it launched in 2017, Persona 5 represented the next evolution of the Persona formula. Persona 5 Royal amplifies the stellar turn-based combat and masterful social mechanics, as well as the complex systems surrounding them. But it also adds new characters, story arcs, and a meaty post-game palace that ventures even deeper into the world’s lore to deliver the definitive way to experience Persona 5.

The gameplay loop of the original remains intact: You hunt for corrupted individuals, infiltrate dungeons based on their personalities, and battle through tons of enemies – all while going to school and developing relationships with various confidants. Connecting with people from all walks of life, learning their stories, and strengthening your bonds remains rewarding from both a character development standpoint and in the way these relationships give you useful perks. If you haven’t played Persona 5 before, this is the perfect way to start.

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Even if you did play the original release, Royal gives you plenty of reasons to return. In addition to restructuring the way you level up your relationship with Akechi, leading to more meaningful interactions with this important character, Royal adds Kasumi and Maruki, two all-new confidants. While I like the stories of both characters, I especially love the bonuses they give along the way: Kasumi increases your HP and gives you an awesome dodge ability for when a shadow is about to ambush you, while Maruki raises Joker’s maximum SP, which comes in handy during lengthy palace infiltrations.

Kasumi and Maruki offer humorous and heartfelt interactions, and while Kasumi eventually joins your party as a full-fledged Phantom Thief, that doesn’t happen until the new post-game palace. While I’m disappointed she isn’t in your party for the vast majority of the game, her constant presence in the story means you’re already familiar with her when the time comes. That new palace and its surrounding arc serve up an interesting look at the weird way the world works following the events of the original conclusion, and offers puzzles, dungeon elements, and is unique from the other palaces in the game. I was initially worried that the addition of a new final boss battle would take away from what made the original finale special, but without spoiling it, this new end boss delivers a climactic and cinematic endcap to your journey as the Phantom Thieves.

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In the 100 hours leading up to that post-game content, I loved revisiting the original palaces with their minor additions. Joker now has access to a grappling hook, which lets him swing to new points in palaces to find hidden treasure chests or the new collectible Will Seeds. Each palace’s three Will Seeds are often hidden behind grappling sequences, puzzles, or difficult battles, but if you collect all three and bring the resulting item to a new character Jose in Mementos, you earn valuable accessories to equip to your characters. While they all give you powerful perks or moves, my favorite was one that buffed an ally’s next magic attack to an extreme degree; I can’t tell you how many times that move helped me turn the tide of battle. As you progress through the story, you also accumulate Showtime moves, team-up attacks that play out through funny, over-the-top cutscenes that also have the capacity to get you out of hot water if you're in trouble in a palace.

Revisiting the memorable battles against palace rulers is made even more fun as they now have additional forms that play off the themes of their sins. Since the palaces are based on the cognitions of the palace rulers, I loved seeing how they incorporated the bosses’ transgressions and twisted views in unique ways. While each of these forms adds something exciting or compelling to the way the battles play out, one boss battle operates on a time limit, and Royal’s version adds additional dialogue and a new form without adding time to the clock, leading to frustration. Regardless of that one misfire, thanks to these additions, the palace boss battles are overall better than those in the original game.

With so many additions and improvements, Persona 5 Royal is an improved version of what was already one of the best RPGs of the last decade. Whether you’ve been itching to enjoy the Phantom Thieves’ journey again or looking to experience it for the first time, Royal wears its crown well.

Score: 9.25

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Concept: Get the Phantom Thieves back together for this director’s cut of Persona 5, which includes new characters, gameplay mechanics, and areas

Graphics: The visuals haven’t changed from the initial release, but even three years later, Persona 5 still oozes style and visual flair

Sound: One of the best soundtracks of the generation is supplemented by new tracks that diversify and strengthen the musical offerings. The new voice actors slide seamlessly into place with the already excellent cast from the original game

Playability: With complex social systems and superb turn-based combat already present, Royal adds gameplay enhancements great and small

Entertainment: While new characters and a new post-game palace are the biggest selling points, the tweaks and improvements make this the best way to experience one of the best RPGs in recent memory

Replay: Moderately high

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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Review

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S
Also on: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive
Developer: TT Games
Release: 2020
Rating: Everyone 10+

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a massive game, consisting of roughly 400 playable characters, nine movies to journey through, and more puns, jokes, and sight gags than even Jar Jar Binks can handle. Developer TT Games has been making Lego games for a long time, and this ambitious project shows this studio at the top of its game, delivering brick-smashing fun and wonderfully absurd Star Wars humor from start to finish. While nailing the little moments, the immense scale of the project appears to have been too wide for TT Games to harness, as some of the content is uncharacteristically dull or uneven.

The perfect example of this experience bouncing between highs and lows occurs on the planet Ahch-To, where Luke Skywalker retreats to close himself off to the Force in The Last Jedi. In this desolate location, TT Games throws in a silly porg joke wherever possible, and makes Luke Skywalker hilarious to the point that he hums his theme song as he tries to ignore Rey. We also learn Luke has set up a sizable operation to harvest green milk from this island’s space walruses. All of this content spins Star Wars' lore in delightful ways, but the journey to it is often a slog, pushing the player to do little more than run great distances from point to point. Along the way, there's little to see or do, and the few diversions that do pop up on Ahch-To lack either the creativity or complexity found within the game's proper levels. The bulk of side content, which is a big part of this experience, mostly comes up short, despite delivering fantastic rewards, like more playable characters.

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For the first time in a Lego Star Wars game, the galaxy can freely be explored when planets are unlocked by completing episodes. TT Games’ artists did a phenomenal job recreating these planets; each is teeming with life, vivid details, and plenty of fan service. Tatooine’s sprawling Mos Eisley spaceport is densely packed with aliens and vehicles and feels distinctly different than a desolate location like Hoth. All of these locations blend realistic backdrops with clever brick creations that players can interact with. The atmospherics and lighting found in many of these places are particularly impressive. The haze that accompanies Leia’s meeting with R2-D2 on the Tantive IV looks fantastic, and smaller details like a lightsaber’s vibrant glow reflecting off surfaces – including the plastic head of the character wielding it – is another nice touch.

The Skywalker Saga is at its best within the condensed, story-focused levels, which hark back to this series’ earlier designs. Hunting for minikits and kyber blocks is fun, often pushing the player (or couch co-op duo) to solve puzzles or break objects to reveal new paths. These stages are worth replaying when more character classes (such as the Sith) are unlocked. Some minigames are overused, such as R2’s terminal hacking, but the moment-to-moment gameplay flow in these levels is smooth and delivers fewer roadblocks than in other Lego Star Wars titles. On the note of R2's hacking, you can earn an upgrade later that allows you to pay to bypass them.

Strong focus is applied to combat, featuring all-new lightsaber techniques and cover-based shooting – both disciplines get the job done in enjoyable ways. Neither offers much depth, but their simplicity works for the conflicts, allowing stormtrooper platoons to fall quickly. Carefully placed headshots knock their helmets off, and yes, you can wear them! Jedi can also through their sabers and use the Force to hurl objects at enemies. These mechanics get stretched out in boss battles and push the player to sew in evasive maneuvers to dodge attacks like Darth Maul’s rage-filled charge. Even unlikely characters like BB-8 or C-3PO are capable of combat and are fun to control.

Some stages offer vehicular play to bring Star Wars’ intense space battles to life. I had a blast piloting an X-Wing in the Death Star’s trench and the Millennium Falcon in an asteroid field. Most of these conflicts lack difficulty, yet deliver plenty of excitement when chaotic storms of TIE fighters encircle your vessel. Along with the characters, there are plenty of ships to unlock.

The best part of The Skywalker Saga is the pursuit of unlocking all the characters. Given how big the adventure is, this is a dizzying proposition, but thankfully, you won’t feel like you are digging for a needle in a haystack when looking for a specific character you want. You can exchange well-earned studs for clues that lead to character locations and unlocking requirements. Studs can also be spent to enhance skills and unlock new abilities for the different character classes. I like the newfound depth that TT Games has applied to the tried-and-true Lego formula.

Despite being periodically uneventful, the Skywalker Saga is a thorough and fun examination of all three Star Wars movie trilogies. It delivers the same sensation of being overwhelmed as opening a Blu-Ray collection of films and not knowing which one you should start with. The player can bounce between trilogies and veer off a story path at any time to explore the galaxy far, far away. Some discoveries may be as dull as sand, but others may deliver something great, like Babu Frik as a playable character or seeing what Kylo Ren's bedroom looks like.

Score: 8

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Rune Factory 5 Review – Enduring Rough Edges For Great Reward

Reviewed on: Switch
Publisher: XSEED Games
Rating: Teen

Some games, like The Sims and Animal Crossing, draw you in with their comfortable routine, easing you into the mechanics and letting you make the experience your own. The Rune Factory series exemplifies this gameplay style, blending farming, socializing, and dungeon crawling.

As someone who has played the franchise since the Story of Seasons spin-off’s first entry 15 years ago, I’ve always loved how the action/RPG captures a sense of discovery. Whether it’s unearthing a new locale that provides fresh items and monsters to raise or learning more about the eccentric people of the town, there is a satisfying sense of progression in the nigh-endless options for how to spend days. Rune Factory 5 succeeds in this regard, and in many ways, it is one of the better entries in the series. Unfortunately, some technical issues, like horrible framerate, alongside poorly designed combat and upgrade systems, dilute the experience. 

Rune Factory 5 continues the tradition of an amnesiac plotline to drive the narrative. You mysteriously end up in the town of Rigbarth, with no recollection of how you got there. All you know is something’s amiss as monsters are invading the land. To search for answers, you take a job as a ranger. This allows you to take on requests from townspeople and go on investigations to suspicious places in hopes of finding your next clue to the greater mysteries at play. Of course, to make an income to live on, you’ll need to farm along the way. 

The plot does its job of getting you in the world and providing twists to keep you exploring, but it’s the townspeople that make the experience. The cast is one of the series’ strongest, with likable and interesting characters aplenty. They’re not as over-the-top as some past entries, but I was engaged by their personal struggles, like Lucy missing her father, in addition to more comical situations, like Ryker always wanting to nap. Having character-focused quests provides additional layers to their everyday personalities. 

As an action/RPG and relationship/farming sim, Rune Factory offers a nice variety of ways to spend your time. Focusing on the townspeople can open side adventures and eventually lead you to love. Catering to farming ups your profits quickly, allowing you to upgrade everything from your house size to even the stock available from stores in town. Entering dungeons and besting their bosses often advances the plot, but you can also level up, learn new weapon combos, pick up items for crafting, and tame some monsters to work on your farm or battle with you. The game has an engaging loop, and I never felt like my days were empty, but it dawned on me quickly that many of these systems are just average or subpar in their design.

For starters, the combat, while improved from previous entries, is clunky, and the awkward multi-button combination abilities don’t help. You tap R to dash, but holding it down brings up your magic. The small difference in input is the recipe for disaster you’d expect; my magic menu came up when I was trying to dodge more times than I’d like to admit. That being said, I liked the number of different weapons available and how they all feel unique, from melee-focused boxing gloves to heavy long swords that pack a punch. Using various weapons changed my approach to combat. For instance, with speedy, less-stamina-depleting dual blades, I could afford to spam attacks and combos, while heavier weapons made me stand back and wait for openings to wail on enemies. 

Unfortunately, Rune Factory 5 doesn’t encourage much experimentation with its different weapons. Players have to level up each weapon’s proficiency to learn combos and new attacks. Starting back at square one didn’t seem worth the effort for me, and had I not been trying to get a panoramic view of the game for the purposes of this review, I would have stuck with only one or two weapons the whole game.

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I enjoyed seeing the bosses’ cool designs (one personal favorite is a colorful octopus), but fighting them is very humdrum. Bosses are about watching enemy patterns, but I never felt challenged, especially once I brought tamed monsters into the fight. You can also bring villagers you befriend to battle alongside you. They provide powerful team-up attacks with your character, but they all start low-leveled and must earn fighting experience before becoming useful. All my villager combatants died too quickly for my liking, and I didn’t find the grind worth it, so I often left them behind in favor of monsters I tamed. 

That’s the thing about Rune Factory 5; everything is fueled by gaining levels. On the one hand, this can be satisfying; on the other hand, it can require tedious grinding. It’s not just about your combat level; your cooking, forging, crafting, and chemistry levels also center on this progression system, where trying new recipes creates better items, weapons, and armor.

The only way to unlock recipes is to blindly experiment, buy recipe bread (available in limited quantities every day), hope an NPC reveals one in random conversation, or receive bread as a quest or festival reward. Once you reach higher levels, seeing what you can create becomes really fun. I made a plush monkey shield, and could cook everything from a chocolate sponge cake to star-shaped hashbrowns. Though, upgrading weapons, armor, or farm tools was too much trial-and-error for my liking.

Since you can craft, harvest, forge, cook, and mix potions, you pick up numerous items on any given day. Unfortunately, inventory management is a mess, making this quite the pain. Your backpack can only carry a certain number of items, and I constantly ran out of space. I lost so much time moving items to storage, which I also had to expand constantly. To add insult to injury, the game doesn’t automatically group items together when you move them to storage, forcing you to find ones to pair together to save space. 

Even though I got annoyed with my inventory space, it never dulled my love for the exploration and joy of finding new things. From searching bandit hideouts, crystal caverns, lava caves, and more, every new area is an opportunity – whether it’s locating rare items and ores for crafting, finding powerful monsters to tame, or acquiring a new fruit that can be used in a cooking recipe. Every trip you take feels rewarding - even if it’s simply to walk around town to discover something new about a villager.

Festivals and special events help split up the calendar, and I liked their interactivity, making me complete mini-tasks like dodging beans and creating my own monster team for a tournament. Sadly, the events are brief, and the rest of the day is lost because villagers just continue to stand around the festival grounds. Having more to them than one main, short event would go a long way toward making these celebrations feel worthwhile and impactful.

Rune Factory 5 is rough around the edges, but I still loved my time with it. Something about how all the parts work together keeps pulling me to it. Even after completing the main story, I’m still playing, as I have recipes I haven’t unlocked, a romantic journey I’m embarking on, and many upgrades I can still do to the town. It has its flaws, but Rune Factory 5’s enchanting loop of constant progression and discovery helps mitigate a lot of these annoyances, so they don’t sting so much. 

Score: 7.5

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