Stellar Blade very much wants to be a merger of NieR: Automata and the Soulslike formula. It’s a flashy science fiction romp through a decrepit, decaying world, and the ambience is certainly going to be familiar to NieR fans. It’s also undeniably well-made. However, for all the comparisons people have been making to the likes of NieR: Automata and Bayonetta…
Mugen Souls is a game that is all about larger-than-life excess. The action is over the top. The narrative and characters are ridiculous and, despite being chibi in visual design, larger-than-life in personality. This is not a game interested in subtlety or nuance. It’s brash and in your face from…
Read MoreChina is a nation and culture that we would all do well to learn more about. It is a nation on the rise, and will almost certainly overtake America in terms of its economic weight in the near future. For now, the softer side of diplomacy and cultural influence remains…
Read MoreDeconstructeam is a developer I admire on principle alone. This is a team of people that are committed to building narrative experiences, and using gameplay mechanics as part of the fabric of storytelling. This is, I believe, how games should be, and Essays on Empathy and The Red Strings Club…
Read MoreKarmaZoo is a wholesome little thing with some real potential to become a multiplayer favourite. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a couple of other critics, and a member of the Pasta Games dev team to play through some of the co-op experience. Though I’m not someone…
Read MoreAround this time next year, there will be a special event near Fuefuki in the heart of Yamanashi Prefecture (the one you travel through to get to Nagano from Tokyo). For decades there has been an annual recreation of the Battle of Kawanakajima, one of the most compelling and dramatic…
Read MoreNow that we’ve got devices like the Steam Deck and the Ayaneo line, the cheap portable emulation consoles from Anbernic, Retroid and the like face some challenges. Yes, those other devices are more expensive, but they’re also vastly more powerful. Are people still inclined to want devices that cap out…
Read MoreTrinity Trigger set out to capture nostalgia for 90s JRPGs. That is precisely what the game delivers. Were it not for the fact that the game looks modern, I myself would have thought I was playing a long-lost classic from the era. It is an action JRPG, where you control…
Read MoreHave you ever felt like a game was made for you? Something that so perfectly matches your favourite aesthetics, gameplay style, narrative and theme that it’s like the developers pulled it directly from your inner core? Labyrinth of Zengetsu is that game for me. Related reading: For another example of…
Read MoreI really wonder if there will ever be a time when I don’t leap at a re-release, remaster or remake of any of the first six Final Fantasy games. I already have all of these pixel remasters on my PC, and yet here I am playing them again on the…
Read MoreA simple re-release on the Nintendo Switch GBA platform would have been better than Advance Wars 1+2: Reboot Camp. Nintendo and developer, WayForward, did two things of substance for this “remake”: They gave the game a graphical overhaul, and added native online play. Neither of which justifies this project in…
Read More