Review by Matt S. Bandai Namco’s Tales franchise has always been good at telling classical JRPG stories, using classical JRPG tropes. From Tales of Phantasia right back in 1995, though to the most recent, Tales of Berseria, released in 2016, Bandai has never strayed too far from the established path in…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Tales of Vesperia is the first major JRPG release for 2019. I’ve always had a complex relationship with the Tales series for its combat, so in this video I take a short look at the combat system – what I enjoy, and what frustrates me. Be…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I never had the opportunity to play The Last Remnant on its initial release in 2008. It was a console exclusive on Xbox 360, and I didn’t spend much time playing that console at all. I’m so glad that for the remaster Square Enix brought it…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I’ve already reviewed the Atelier Arland trilogy multiple times. For each game in the series. Rather than do yet another review, when I’ve really run out of things to say, I thought I’d instead write generally on why I love this particular trilogy so much, even…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Marenian Tavern Story is basically classical Atelier but with a different name. The team at Rideon took a crack at it with Adventure Bar Story a few years ago, which showed a lot of promise but ultimately fell short of its goal. Marenian shows a lot…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists is the next new release for the long-running, and dearly beloved Atelier franchise. We knew it was coming out in January in Japan, and now we have the global release date to share! The game releases just a few months later,…
Read MorePreview by Matt S. If there’s one thing that Fire Emblem Heroes proved without a shadow of a doubt, it’s that the mechanics of a tactics JRPG can be tailored for mobile quite nicely. Langrisser has, over the years, been Fire Emblem’s closest rival, and Langrisser’s development team apparently noticed…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The main reason to buy World of Final Fantasy Maxima on Nintendo Switch is so that you can have it on your Switch. The addition of “Maxima” to the original title does denote that there’s some extra stuff that has been added for this release, and…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. “They did what to my precious Pokémon Blue/Red/Yellow?!?” I was not amused with the news that Nintendo’s glorious high-definition remaster of the game of my childhood was using the same gimmicky and dull monster catching minigame of Pokémon Go on mobile. Pokémon Blue is a precious memory to…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Famitsu has carried the news that Nippon Ichi Software in Japan has announced a brand new JRPG, for release in the home country early next year. Titled Destiny Connect, it looks like a dream-like story of childhood fantasy and has a fairy-tale aesthetic, and it looks…
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