Genre: Action
Developer: Omega Force
Publisher: Nintendo

It's at least understandable when a third party developer tries to squeeze a cross-platform game down to the pathetic 150 gigaflops Nintendo Switch hardware, and the result looks rubbish. But this Fire Emblems Warriors sequel is a Switch exclusive-- why then does it have quite literally zero lighting? Why do objects, characters, and primitive pre-baked shadows pop into view mere feet in front of the camera? Why does the framerate constantly drop in the low twenties and teens? The game was targeted exclusively for this hardware, for Pete's sake!

For the life of him, this reviewer can't recall a single song from this game mere minutes after turning it off. Memorable music with actual compositional quality, and not just churned out of a sweat shop factory somewhere, is nigh impossible to find in today's video game industry, and this title is no exception. There isn't much in the way of sound effects either. The voice acting is grating, because it's dissonant with what's happening in the game: the middle of a war, and everyone sounds over-the-top cheerful? People don't talk that way in real life grocery stores, much less in a war zone!

The core gameplay of slicing through countless enemies in huge swathe-like attacks is as fun as ever, but the game is constantly bogged down by interruptions. For starters, this reviewer has never encountered so many tutorials in a single title, ever. There are dozens and dozens of them! For that matter, why does a game like this need so many mechanics in the first place? There is no immediacy to what should just be a fun action game, without bolting on cooking meals, superficial and silly camp upgrading, ten different attack types, and on and on.

The Nintendo Switch is in dire need of an overhaul, from top-to-bottom. The hardware can't even handle basic, modern-day 3D graphics with any level of competency. And even the staple Nintendo series are starting to feel pretty stale, suffering from a lot of sequel-itis. In the case of this latest Warriors title, it's dismal from top-to-bottom: absolutely bare bones graphics which even then can't even remotely maintain a stable framerate, boring audio, and gameplay that gives this reviewer a headache.