Review by Matt S. Football (yes, yes, “soccer” in some parts) is a highly tactical sport. Sure, players don’t run around in turn-based fashion, but the ebb and flow of a match, and the way that each player has their defined role and ability set… well, it’s all downright Final…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. You can’t really fault the developer (Chara-Ani), or publisher, NISA, for trying. On the back of Fire Emblem becoming one of Nintendo’s most important properties, it’s not surprising on any level that someone would want to dust off Langrisser (originally Warsong in the west). It was,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Hero Must Die has one of the most interesting premises you’ll ever see in a JRPG. It’s almost distressing that it struggles so completely to execute against that potential, and the reason is simple: It stubbornly sticks to being a JRPG. The attempted gamification of the…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Hero Must Die. Again is a powerfully evocative game in many ways. You play as a hero who, after saving the world from a demon, dies. As a reward, he’s granted five days from heaven to tie up his loose ends and, perhaps, have one more…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Through Shinto-based storytelling and mythology there is a fun concept in Japan; Hyakki Yagyo, which translates as “The Night Parade of 100 Demons”. That’s only a rough translation, since the “parade” is made up of yokai, which are not really demons, but rather spirit creatures. Nonetheless…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Katana Kami: A Way of The Samurai Story came out of nowhere. I didn’t realise that Spike Chunsoft was localising it, and going into it, I didn’t really know that much about it. It will be one of my favourite games of 2020. It represents a…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The swan song for the incredibly talented Japanese developer, Neverland, Rune Factory 4 was one of the finest titles released on the Nintendo 3DS. A beautifully elegant little game, Rune Factory 4 perfectly blended action JRPG dungeon crawling with everything that we love about the pastoral…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I never thought that I would struggle with a Level-5 JRPG. From Yokai Watch to Ni No Kuni, White Knight Chronicles (yes, I was a rare fan), and right back to Dragon Quest VIII and Dark Cloud, the company has been nothing if not a consistent,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Three Yakuza games in one collection is a big ask of a player. A very, very big ask. For “open world” experiences that take place in the smallest of open worlds, each Yakuza title has a habit of sprawling and becoming the most labyrinthine crime dramas…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Arc of Alchemist is Idea Factory’s first title for 2020, and there’s a lot to like about it: it’s charming, it respects the player’s time (in fact, at around 15 hours in length it’s one of the briefest JRPGs I’ve played in quite some time), and…
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