While I wasn’t a big fan of the port of Gothic to the Nintendo Switch, I do remain a big fan of the developer, Piranha Bytes, and more generally the “Eurojank” RPGs that Piranha Bytes has been such a cornerstone of. The Switch port of Gothic II has been a…
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It is interesting to compare the recently-released remake of Star Ocean The Second Story R with the upcoming Super Mario RPG remake. Both games are undeniably classics, and highly influential – Without Super Mario RPG proving that Mario works as an RPG hero we would never have had Paper Mario…
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It wasn’t so long ago that THQ Nordic dipped deep into its back catalogue of vintage PC games to release Risen on the Nintendo Switch. That Western RPG “classic” remained a fun time for its Caribbean-fantasy-with-pirates theme, despite being almost unplayable in places. Now it’s Gothic’s turn, and you’ve got…
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I’m not going to lie. My nose will grow. Lies Of P infuriates me to play. Of all the ways to approach the Soulslike “hard game”, this is the least suited to my preferences. I understand that there will be an audience for it, but that’s not me, it won’t…
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I feel so naughty. Risen is banned here in Australia. It was refused classification back in 2009, for predictably nonsense reasons (it features drug use, which the Australian Classification Board absolutely hates in the context of video games). It has never been re-classified, meaning that it’s still not available here…
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The “Loathing” property occupies a very distinct part of gaming and Internet culture. Kingdom of Loathing is 20 years old now (and still going strong!), and one of the pioneers in Web-based, massively online role-playing gaming. Thanks to hugely entertaining stickman character artwork and ridiculously entertaining nerd humour, it was…
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For years now Zeboyd has been the indie JRPG developer for delivering true love letters to the genre in a way that fans of the genre love. Cthulhu Saves The World and Cosmic Star Heroine are both magnificent, highly entertaining “retro” JRPGs that respect the player’s time and provide a…
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There is a moment, about 20-30 hours into Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, where you’re about to get into your first truly big battle as a commander (yes, it’s a slow build-up to that point). You’ll still remember what it was like at the start, as you led a rag-tag…
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What was Bilbo Baggins’ great quote from Lord of the Rings (the good one, not the TV series)? “Like butter scraped over too much bread”? Something like that. It’s a great quote and also the best way to describe Temtem. As a Pokémon clone it would almost be serviceable, if…
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If it wasn’t for a compromised localisation, Sword and Fairy 7 – Sword and Fairy: Together Forever in the west – would be right up there with Elden Ring and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as the best RPG of the year. In a year that has been almost painfully dense with…
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