Review by Matt S. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga ended on a cliffhanger; a conclusion that drew some criticism when the game was newly released on to the PlayStation 2, but set up the sequel perfectly. The reality was that Atlus never wanted people to play just one of…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. The original Atelier Rorona was an important game, but it was a raw one. It set up the two subsequent sequels (Atelier Totori and Atelier Meruru), and provided the foundations which would also inform the later Dusk trilogy (Atelier Ayesha and Atelier Escha & Logy are…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Battle Princess of Arcadias is what happens when a Japanese developer decides to poke fun at the role of the princess in traditional fairy tales. Coming to us from Nippon Ichi, it’s an attempt by the developer/ publisher to break away from its previous focus on…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Digital Devil Saga has long been the forgotten child of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Abstract, cold, and remorselessly dark, this effort by Atlus was supposedly meant to be an accessible game in a franchise notorious for not being accessible at all. From that perspective I’m…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Yoko Taro, the mind behind the Drakengard series (and, of course, Nier, which is all but a Drakengard game), is one of the industry’s true mavericks. He seems to delight in confounding expectations and delivering games that are thematically unique and remorselessly intense. Drakengard 3 is…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Given that people insist that “walking simulators” like Gone Home are not real games – because, I assume, there isn’t a kill count – I can’t imagine they would consider Hakuōki: Stories of the Shinsengumi is a “game.” Hakuōki is a visual novel which, for 90…
Read MoreReview by Brad L. There once was a time, in he 90’s, when I would frequent videogame arcades. Many of my peers were playing titles such as Time Crisis, Daytona USA and whichever iteration of Street Fighter was currently out. For me personally, I was always drawn to Bust-a-Move (or…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Interesting bit of trivia here; back when I was starting out in the world of professional games criticism, one of the first games that I got to review for a magazine that I really loved was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Called Lucifer’s Call in Australia, my…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Fighting games based on anime franchises are a bit like film tie-in games; they can either offer something genuinely thrilling for fans of the franchise… or they can wind up being a nothing game living in the shadow of the genre’s finest, and failing to do…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels is an odd game. In an era where collectible card games (CCGs) are typically free-to-play and focused on multiplayer, Millennium Duels has an up-front cost, doesn’t demand microtransactions after that, and is more focused on the single player experience. As a result, this…
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