The survival game genre has exploded in recent years, with countless options flooding the market. Most of these titles hyper-focus on crafting mechanics – a design trend that became ubiquitous after Minecraft’s success, shoehorned into games where it doesn’t always make sense. As someone who cherished the original Survival Kids…
Read MoreRaidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army was originally released before Persona 3. That was a very different time for Atlus as a company and this entire property. Before Persona 4 and, particularly Persona 5, took the broader Shin Megami Tensei name to the mainstream, SMT were these dark…
Read MoreThere is arguably no bigger name in the world of interactive films and FMV games than Paul Raschid, who directed The Complex (2020) and wrote and directed Five Dates (2020), The Gallery (2022), and Ten Dates (2023). And his games always drop at the best times; for example, online dating…
Read MoreAs I mentioned in my review of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware, one of the most impressive features in the Switch 2 is the ability to use the right Joy-Con as a mouse pointer. I fully expected that to be a dinky, silly gimmick, but as it turns out, it’s…
Read MoreMario Kart didn’t need to go open world. It was a much-vaunted feature of Mario Kart World leading up to its launch, and the moments where you’re dropped into the open world and left to just cruise around and complete little missions are, frankly, boring. Thankfully, everything else about the…
Read MoreI’m a huge fan of Boyfriend Dungeon, a dungeon-crawling action adventure simulation game where you don’t just use your weapons in battle — you also form deep, meaningful relationships with them. When Date Everything! was announced, my brain immediately jumped to the idea of it being similar to Boyfriend Dungeon,…
Read MoreIt’s incredible to think that Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is 13 years old at this point. It feels like it was just yesterday that it was turning heads as a new spin on the JRPG genre and a brilliant homage to Final Fantasy in particular (Flying Fairy as the subtitle…
Read MoreIt’s been a difficult few years for Level-5, from the highs of the likes of Professor Layton, Ni No Kuni and Yo-Kai Watch a decade ago to the lows of… well, everything that it’s done with those properties in recent years. Level-5 just hasn’t been the same company since the…
Read MoreOnce upon a time, Rune Factory was a simple matter of asking “What if Harvest Moon had some combat bits?” That was perfectly adequate in its own right, because it did add a fun way to take a break from farming and small-town socialising and to flex some muscle, but…
Read MoreIt’s easy to understand why Elden Ring Nightreign exists. The multiplayer side of Dark Souls and, later, Elden Ring has been enormously popular over the years. So too are games designed around an endless gameplay loop, whether that be Fortnite, roguelikes, or anything in between. Nightreign will be loved a…
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