Games you missed out on in May 2023
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Despite one of the biggest games of the year releasing this month, it hasn’t scared off indie developers from releasing their games. In fact, May was one of the biggest months in terms of releases, and a large number of games are definitely worth picking up.
If Zelda isn’t your thing we have some great – and some not-so-great – recent releases we’ve played this month that might catch your eye. Here’s all the games you might have missed out on in May 2023.
Winter’s Wish: Spirits of Edo – GY
While some would say that Winter’s Wish is simply a Hakuoki rip-off, it's far more tightly written with a more interconnected story. You play as Suzuno, a young girl who is the last surviving member of a clan that holds mystical powers. Using the clan's power, she can read the emotions of those around her, which allows her to help the shogunate defeat an evil force affecting the capital of Edo.
There are six samurai to choose from here, each with a distinct personality. These are all common archetypes in Otome games, but it still gives a nice variety. I also appreciate that it gives you more clues as to when you are straying down the wrong path. This helps a lot on multiple playthroughs, when you are trying to find all the endings or unlock all of the CGs.
It doesn’t do anything special, but it is a solid story that will keep you intrigued with some tense decision-making. I captured my imagination enough that I wanted to see all six routes, with not only the good but the bad endings too. It’s a cliche, but Otome fans will enjoy this one, though it doesn’t have enough of a mystery to attract those outside the genre.
Score: 7/10
Version tested: Nintendo Switch
The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story – GY
You play a murder mystery novelist who is hired to investigate the discovery of a skeleton at a rich family estate. Throughout the story, you uncover more about the family’s dark past, and use clues from their history to solve the mystery in the present. The majority of the game plays out in FMV, and the acting from everyone involved is truly excellent and really helps to sell the story in ways that animations couldn’t.
For long periods you will feel like you are watching an excellent J-drama, but these are interwoven with periods of piecing clues together to uncover that chapter’s mystery. The way the mystery solving is set out is like discussing the story with a friend, where you bounce ideas off the game in order to come up with the answer. Getting an answer wrong doesn’t lead to a bad ending, but will send you back to the reasoning phase rather than just letting you try again, which can be a little frustrating. It also suffers from the same issue as Phoenix Wright, where you can know the answer but don’t phrase it in the exact way the game wants.
These minor niggles aside, it really is an excellent story. It’s tightly woven with clues to the eventual conclusion woven throughout from the very beginning. I thought there were glaring plot holes at first, but these are well wrapped up by the time the epilogue comes around. If you like games that challenge you with twists and turns then I can’t recommend it enough. It uses the interactive elements well, but could have tightened up how right and wrong answers are handled.
Score: 7/10
Version tested: Mobile (Android)
Ravenlok – GY
The gorgeous art style, and fantastical, Alice-inspired world-building will pull you in, but the repetitive gameplay will drag you right back out. Ravenlok makes a few too many essential game design sins to make it enjoyable to play, despite the few things it does right. The majority of the gameplay is made up of fetch quests, which is never a strong choice, but it is made worse by the fact that you can’t pick up the items until you have activated the quest.
There are a lot of these. The only other aspect to the gameplay is the boss fights which are also wholly uninspired. Attacks are slow and almost always come from the front, meaning if you get around the back of the beast you are safe to hack away. The other issue with the combat is that it is incredibly basic. You mash your basic attack and wait for your other attacks to charge. If you are low health and have no potions, then simply run away and use ranged attacks. After all, no one has any ranged accounts to counter you.
There are further sins. Small health potions are the best value for money, so you’ll end up purchasing a lot of these, and your own option is one at a time, and then using them also one at a time. The biggest sin is perhaps that you can’t remap your controller. The Dash – your only dodge – is on a face button instead of a trigger, and the awkward positioning of the shield makes it essentially unusable. A whimsical soundtrack, interesting style, and fun world, can’t pull Ravenlok out of the category of ‘not fun to play’.
Score: 5/10
Version tested: Xbox Series S
Planet of Lana - GY
A mix of Inside’s puzzle platforming and Ico’s vibes, Planet of Lana marries together two wonderful games. You play as a young girl, whose whole village is captured by machines. She must team up with a cat-like creature called Mui in order to sneak past monsters, and find her way to save her community.
If you’ve played Limbo or Inside, you know exactly what gameplay you’re in for here. Most puzzles take place over a single screen, and the girl has limited movement options. The main difference is controlling Mui. You can direct Mui to reach places you can’t or distract enemies while you sneak past, but you always have to ensure that both make it to the other side. This is where the Ico comparison comes in.
My main issue is that it borrows too much from these games. It has the wordless story-telling of Ico, with exactly the same beats, where you come to rely on Mui before you have to separate for a short time. You know this is coming, because in these games it always is coming. There are some pacing issues where it asks you to look at the environment, and the puzzles – save one near the end – aren’t too difficult.
Planet of Lana does many things right, and there are certainly parts you’ll remember, it just doesn’t do too much different. It needed something more to subvert your expectations, but when the inspiration already did this, it’s harder to take it further. Still if you haven’t played these three games, you’ll definitely enjoy your time, or even be wowed by what you find.
Score: 7/10
Version tested: PC (Steam Deck)
Convergence: A League of Legends Story - OB
Convergence is the latest in a series of indie games expanding the world of League of Legends, and it might be the most successful yet. It’s a 2D side-scrolling action platformer that’s not quite a metroidvania but sits very much adjacent to the genre.
Convergence tells the story of Ekko, a time-manipulating Champion who I absolutely suck at in League of Legends. Here, though, he’s an absolute joy to play as, with fast, snappy combat abilities and a very creative adaptation of his main game skill set. There are times where traversal and combat can feel a little bit clunky, but when it works, it works very well.
It’s clear from the outset that Double Stallion, the developer behind Convergence, has a lot of passion for Ekko and the League of Legends world at large. Every moment, story beat, and line of dialogue is carefully crafted, and with an art style as gorgeous as this, it makes for an experience that will please just about any League of Legends fan.
Score: 8/10
Version tested: PC
Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook - OB
I really wish I knew what Monster Menu was trying to be. It feels like it’s trying to be a dungeon crawler, a survival crafting game, and a strategy RPG all at once, but it fails on all three counts. The basic gameplay loop is as follows: you explore a dungeon for a bit, collecting bits and pieces throughout, you battle creatures in the field in a strategy RPG format, and then you repeat until enemies get too strong and you die.
There’s a big focus on cooking using both the ingredients you find in dungeons and the monster bits left behind after battle, but there’s not a great deal of recipes and they don’t really feel like they’re doing much. One meal might give you a boost to attack, but it usually means a marginal difference in power, and with how much the difficulty spikes as you progress through dungeons, it doesn’t feel worth it to even bother.
What’s left is a game with a weird amount of dodgy fan service, an almost nonexistent story, a SRPG battle system that feels largely hollow, and a dicey frame rate on Switch. I’m sure, somewhere, there’s somebody for whom this is the perfect game, but that somebody is certainly not me.
Score: 4/10
Version tested: Switch
After Us - OB
After Us is a perfect example of how a strong, beautiful art style isn’t enough to carry a game sometimes. It’s not that it’s a bad game, it’s certainly not by any means — After Us is a visual delight and its gameplay is… fine? It’s fine. You run through an open world, parkour around the place, rescue some spirits and get yourself some more abilities.
It’s nothing special from a gameplay perspective, but man, that art style. It’s a beautiful, surrealist world, supported by fluid animations, touching sound design, and a story that, while not anything spectacular, is quite nice nonetheless. It’s fun to play, but it just doesn’t leave much of an impact in the way that similar games like Journey did.
It doesn’t help that my PC struggled to keep a consistent frame rate and no amount of fiddling with the settings really helped. This, admittedly, isn’t super uncommon with pre-release games on PC, but it seems like some of the Steam reviews have said the same thing, so it may need just a little bit more time in the oven.
Score: 6/10
Version tested: PC
