Review by Matt S. To save Akihabara – nay, the whole world! – from a growing vampire threat, you’ve got to suit up, hit the streets, and rip the skirts off school girls. Okay, you’ve got to rip the pants off businessmen and the shirts off tourists too, but we…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Cris Tales is the first Columbian JRPG I’ve ever played… perhaps the first one ever? Anyhow, the good news is that it is exceptional. It’s aesthetically beautiful, has some innovative gameplay mechanics, and it weaves a wonderful story. In this video, I discuss what makes the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It’s rare that we get a JRPG that can be considered to be genuinely innovative. Cris Tales might have been inspired by the genre’s classics, but it’s a far more modern and bold game than I think even the developers realised they were making. It all…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. We’re three months into the Dee Dee Zine now, and it is going from strength to strength. I honestly think that this is the best issue yet, and if you’re into games, art, and culture from Japan, you’re going to get a real kick from this…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Utawarerumono Zan 2 is coming out in Japan on PlayStation 4 and 5 soon – July 22. We don’t have an announcement of a western release as yet, but NISA did bring us the first one and, as we wrote in our review, it was actually…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. The second Monster Hunter title to land on the Nintendo Switch in a matter of months, Monster Hunter Stories 2 is a very different experience. This game is a pure, true JRPG, with turn-based combat and the full narrative experience. And I absolutely love it. As…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I have no idea how I missed the original Monster Hunter Stories on the 3DS, because the idea of Monster Hunter, but in turn-based JRPG format, is very much my jam. See, as much as I enjoy the aesthetics, design, and concept of Monster Hunter, I’m…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. It’s fan service, it’s satire, and it’s fun! Akiba’s Trip took the whole hikikomori trend in Japan, as well as the social and cultural concerns that have come from it, and spun it into an entertaining PSP game about a decade ago. Now it has been…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. One of the nicer (if smaller-scale) announcements that came out of E3 this year was that Square Enix was going to do new re-releases of the first six Final Fantasy games. This “Final Fantasy Pixel” remaster series was going to be closer in tone and aesthetic…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. As I was playing Legend of Mana, I found myself constantly wondering at just how innovative and beautiful this game must have seemed back on the PlayStation, where it originally released in 1999 (2000 in North America). On its art and aesthetics alone, this is one…
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