News by Matt S. Utawarerumono was one of the surprise delights of 2017. Atlus localised and published two games in the franchise, and the mix of visual novel and tactics RPG really worked for a lot of players. You’d be looking at dozens of hours of play in each game…
Read MoreReview by Clark A. At first glance, The Alliance Alive bears a stylistic resemblance to a respected 3DS JRPG from 2015, The Legend of Legacy. Lo and behold, the combined forces of Cattle Call, GREZZO, and FuRyu are responsible for both titles. Heck, Atlus has even reprised its role as…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I’ve reviewed so many Atelier games now. Atelier Lydie & Suelle concludes the third complete trilogy that I’ve worked through since first discovering the franchise. Atelier Rorona back on the PlayStation 3 was my first, and if the games before it were even released in Australia,…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The Witch and the Hundred Knight is, essentially, Nippon Ichi’s effort at making a Japanese version of Diablo. It wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, but with its interest in playing with a very Japanese view of Grimm-style fairy tales produced something that was oddball from start to…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Betrayal is a common theme in Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. We first meet our young king protagonist as he desperately flees a coup organised by one of the chief retainers of his father. A few hours later, our team of intrepid heroes prove their…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Penny-Punching Princess is a new IP being brought to our shores courtesy of Nippon Ichi. It’s an action dungeon crawler with a clever twist; everything involves money. I’m not just talking about equipment here. You can bribe and defeat enemies simply by throwing money at the…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Yakuza games can be such a glorious mess at times. Each title in the series pulls together so many completely disparate elements that the end result is a weird, and often downright surreal, soup of gameplay mechanics, aesthetics, tone and themes. And yet the overriding fact…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Dark Rose Valkyrie is one of my favourite Idea Factory JRPGs. As I outlined in my review, the game does a remarkable job of blending a more mature combat system and darker storyline about betrayal and military themes with Idea Factory’s traditional clothes ripping and underwear-heavy fan…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Dragon Sinker isn’t exactly subtle about its inspirations. It’s so slavishly loyal to the early era Dragon Quest titles that it may as well be a fan-made project. Yet, while it is mechanically very similar to the source of its inspiration, it’s also a game that…
Read MoreReview by Ginny W. As an avid player of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, nothing incites more fear in me than a franchise trying on a MMO skin for the first time. When the franchise is one that prides itself on parodying other genres, I’m even more wary. Related reading:…
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