Video by Matt S. Utawarerumono is truly beautiful stuff. It’s a gorgeous visual novel, with some quality turn-based tactics action backing it up. But while that is good stuff, it’s what inspired Utawarerumono where the game finds its greatest magic – it’s inspired by native Japanese (Ainu) culture, and that…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. We finally get a chance to play the first chapter of the Utawarerumono series! The previous titles that were released in the west were sequels to this one, Prelude to the Fallen, which is a remake of the original Utawarerumono. The original Utawarerumono had sex scenes…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. If you haven’t heard of Baroque yet, don’t worry. Though it has been released on Sega Saturn and PlayStation, as well as a remake on Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2, it has always been super-niche, and there’s a number of reasons for that. For one thing,…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. “It’s not a good look, Nintendo!” wrote one pundit just a few days ago when Nintendo outlined its 2020 content strategy recently, and there wasn’t that much on it. Nintendo was lazy and in trouble for not releasing an endless stream of new content for its Switch…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is Nintendo’s next big project – a full-scale remaster of its Wii classic, with completely redone art to bring it firmly into the HD era. It’s difficult to remember that this game – absolutely gorgeous in terms of production values – has…
Read MorePreview by Matt S. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game for which the ambition of the developers behind it has always been compromised by the limitations of the platform they were working on. Originally, it was a Wii title that somehow brought the scale of a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Trails of Cold Steel has emerged as one of the most noteworthy JRPG properties over the past year, and all of this is finally coming to a head as the fourth and final chapter lands later this year, courtesy of NISA. Related reading: Our review of…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. It is an objectively good thing that the Chinese game development scene and market is opening up to the rest of the world. If you want proof of that, you just need to look at Lianhai Billiards Club, because no western developer would ever think to…
Read MoreVideo by Harvard L. The Longest Five Minutes is a clever, clever little game. It takes the JRPG format and narrative structure and cleverly re-works and subverts it, while also providing players with a truly wonderful retro-styled thing. Related reading: Check out our review of the game here In his…
Read MoreRetro reflections by Matt S. It’s the Pokemon “clone” that deserves so much more than what it gets. For whatever reason, Dragon Quest Monsters (or, at times, Dragon Warrior Monsters) is one of Square Enix’s most inconsistent properties, despite being so very good. Perhaps even better than Game Freak’s thing…
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