Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm

It's not going to replace The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in terms of scale, imagination, or beauty, but the fundamental elements of a decent RPG (role-playing game) are all here. Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm borrows heavily from a range of fantasy RPGs, providing us a colorful semi-open world which, if not original in look or concept, is nonetheless pleasant to view and explore. It's also easy to navigate and do what needs doing, thanks in part to some smart control assists, such as an auto-target lock feature when blocking and no need to tap to jump (your hero will automatically climb obstacles and leap between platforms simply by running up to them). It's better to play with a traditional gamepad than a touch screen, but the touch screen controls are wholly serviceable. And the adventure is expertly paced, frequently switching between battles, dungeon exploration, and time spent chatting with non-player characters, which makes it tough to get bored with one activity before it's time to move on to the next.

Where things start to get a little shaky are the puzzles. Don't expect much hand-holding when you get stuck. You'll need to think about how you can use your abilities in various ways and keep an eye out for objects to experiment with to overcome many of these contextual problems. There's also a noticeable lack of personality. Most of what players get up to will likely feel familiar, even bordering on pilfered, especially for fans of the genre. And while a couple of characters -- Gen, most notably -- are memorable, most are nondescript quest givers and background players you'll promptly forget the moment you walk away from them. Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm is competently constructed and a fun way to spend a half hour here and there, gradually progressing its simple story, but it's unlikely to suck in players the way the very best role-playing games do.