Sales on games I haven't heard much about

I'm looking at my Switch eshop wishlist. There are several games on sale for 20-50% off that looked good when I added them, but that have few to no reviews from people I trust. Maybe you all can help me decide if they're worth it.

If you don't have any advice on these particular ones, drop something that's on sale that's worth getting. Let's help each other find great stuff for less money!

Arietta of Spirits: It looks like a pixel-art homage to The Legend of Zelda, which pushes all of my buttons. However, that might be all it has going for it. Any thoughts.

Black Book: Another one that has beautiful art and an intriguing premise. I'm a fan of deckbuilding games and folklore, so maybe it's perfect?

Sunless Skies: Sunless Seas is a great game, and I put quite a few hours into the Switch port. Is its sequel/side story as clever and well-written?

Cris Tales: I'm not sure I should add another RPG to my library when I already have so many left unplayed, but I don't always make the best decisions.

Daemon X Machina: I enjoy mechs and bonkers anime, so this is probably a no brainer, right?

Astria Ascending: This looks like an ur-JRPG, and I am weak to them specifically. Art is gorgeous and I'm intrigued by the story.

I have limited experience in Sunless Skies but from what I played I don’t see any reason why a fan of seas wouldn’t take right to it as well.

If you really really itch for a spiritual Armored Core then Daemon x Machina is… okay. It’s got a nice aesthetic and putting the mechs together is nice but the missions kinda dragged for me and it’s also not bonkers anime enough.

I've played some Cris Tales on Game Pass. It's..okay. The graphical style is unusual and it has some interesting gameplay ideas around time manipulation but it's extremely talky even for an RPG and the voice acting and script are just kind of so-so. I wouldn't tell anyone to stay away from it if they were really interested but if you were on the fence I would personally skip.

Thanks for the comments! There's so much good stuff out there that it's hard to spend the time or money on something that's just "okay."

I played through Arietta of Spirits. It's a little simpler than a Zelda game. There's not much in the way of puzzles in dungeons or the combat. It's very much a "walk to the objective and mash away at enemies on the way there". It's charming enough in it's look and story, but a little plain.

@brian_: I appreciate that. I do like the look and animation, but if it's that's all it has going for it, I'll probably skip it.

Black Book is great, I would recommend it. I personally appreciate that it is a narrative-focused game with deck building mechanics (like a Steamworld Quest) versus the more common run-based deck builder (e.g., Slay the Spire).

The Slavic aesthetic/folklore is very unique and I like the music a lot. The story goes to some interesting places too.

Sunless Skies is worth it. Stressful, but great. I didn't play much of Seas but played a ton of Skies and the writing is great and the controls are dicey and the difficulty gets nuts, but it's a really awesome experience.

@sethmode: That's great to know. Sunless Seas is one of those games that comes along only once in a very long time, and it's good to know that Skies is cut from the same cloth.

i don't know if it falls in the 'unsung' category (though i do have to thank @rorie for his coverage of this game way back when and getting it on my radar)...

but it bears mentioning that Children of Morta is $8.5ish USDs right now on the eshop and for that game the price is a total steal.

it combines elements of diablo (randomized dungeon crawling), bastion (narrator and twin stick) and rogue legacy (roguelike-ish with persistent upgrades after death) and it might be the perfect switch game for me. the pixel art is gorgeous and performs well on switch (both handheld and docked).

really enjoying my time with it thus far! and at the risk of CONTROVERSY i find this is scratching the same itch as hades but this one is sticking (whereas i kinda bounced off of hades after 1 clear).

@mellotronrules: I ADORE Children of Morta. I think I got it as soon as it was released on the Switch. It's as good or better than Hades, in my opinion. It also has some of the best pixel art animation I've ever seen.

If it's under US $10, it should be an instant buy for anyone even remotely interested in it.

The corruption mechanic completely ruined Morta for me. I understand what they were going for by having it but what they’re going for is Just Bad.

@efesell: I thought it was thematically and mechanically appropriate, and gave me a chance to try new strategies with new characters. It never lasts for more than a few runs, so I'm confused why it completely ruined the game for you. You can still make story progress and see new vignettes.

@laughingman: If it wanted to encourage using other characters then it should have just done that. Reward players for switching from run to run.

Instead it just came across as oh I see you’re having a lot of success with that character well you cut that out right now.

@mellotronrules: oh man that might be a good option for Load Our Last Save! Haven't touched that in a while!