Review by Matt S. The opening line of dialogue in NieR: Automata could have been pulled directly from Nietzsche or Kierkegaard, if those men were militant androids about to go to war with an army of genocidal robots. Related reading: On why NieR: Automata’s predecessor was the best game of…
Read MoreReview by Pierre-Yves L. Digimon World: Next Order is a tale of balance. Brought into the Digiworld with no way back, the self-named protagonist will need to find their way back to the human world with the help of the Digiworld residents that they now find themselves allied with. Under…
Read MoreGame Theory by Matt S. Final Fantasy isn’t a game that people generally cite as an example of philosophical depth. Indeed, most people don’t see it as much of anything; it’s rarely considered a “great” Final Fantasy game, and very rarely played except by the purists and franchise historians. And…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Dragon Quest VIII is one of the best JRPGs ever crafted, and the 3DS is a great platform for it. I could leave the review at that and slap a score on it, but that would be rather lazy, so here’s a bunch more words about…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. For all its success, very few developers have attempted to emulate From Software’s “Souls” franchise (Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne); perhaps because developers realise what a monumental task these games are. It’s easy to chalk them up as just super-challenging action RPGs, but in reality it’s…
Read MoreArticle by Matt S. When Nintendo announced that it was producing a Fire Emblem game for mobile devices, I more-or-less guessed the form that it would take. Earlier in the year, gumi had localised Phantom of the Kill for mobile devices, so I knew the genre would work, and I…
Read MoreInterview by Matt S. The recent Tales of Berseria really, really impressed us. For a series that has, traditionally, struggled to appeal outside of its core audience, Berseria represents the best opportunity that Bandai Namco has had in some years to develop a new audience around the venerable franchise. Related…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Wow. Just… wow. I figured, going into Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers, that I would enjoy myself. Koei Tecmo so rarely disappoints me with anything to do with Dynasty Warriors – or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, for that matter – that I just assumed that a tactics…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The retro-throwback JRPG has been a genuine trend in recent years, and it’s not just in the indie space, either. I Am Setsuna and Bravely Default, for example, are games published by the godfather of the genre, Square Enix. Related reading: Our interview with the developer…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. I’ve played all the Kingdom Heart games at some stage or another, but even so, I’m no longer sure I actually know what’s going on with the series. The continuity between one title and the next is obtuse, and I’m not sure whether it’s deliberate or…
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