The Atelier franchise has long been one that suits the gatcha “free-to-play” genre. Thanks to the over-20 games that have been developed across two decades, there are an almost unlimited number of characters to draw on, and the core alchemy system that sits at the centre of Atelier lends itself…
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Originally released back in 2017 on PlayStation 4, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ was a JRPG that was unfairly overlooked… including by me. Looking back at my review, I scored it 3.5/5, but in hindsight I was probably unfair to it, as the game has stuck with me much more than that.…
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Every so often a project is announced that just sounds incredible. Shallah is one such game. In development by JP Games (the new studio headed by Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy Type-0, and The Third Birthday), Shallah promises to be a “cutting-edge RPG for adults”…
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Granblue Fantasy turns ten this year – yes, time really does fly – and it is one of the all-time most successful mobile games. It has soared to over 25 million downloads in its home country alone – and that means about one in five Japanese people have played this…
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It is finally happening! For years and years now, Fate/Stay Night has been perhaps the most important visual novel to never be released (officially) in English. Despite launching a massive media property, including untold numbers of games that have been localised, the original visual novel has languished, only available to…
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Persona 3 occupies an interesting role within the broader Persona series. Unlike Personas 4 and 5, there is less of an emphasis on the “J-Pop” bubbly quality that significantly lightened the mood of those two titles (however serious the underlying message of each was). Unlike Persona 1 and 2, Persona…
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What do tornadoes, a cult, and a man in a trunk have in common? You’ll be surprised. Bahnsen Knights is the third in LCB Game Studio’s Pixel Pulp series. The series takes pulp fiction, gives it a paranormal twist, and turns it into a video game. To date, it has…
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Reigns has become a substantial little platform that the developers, Nerial, and publisher, Devolver Digital, never thought would extend as far as it has. Yet it has, and now it seems like there’s no end to what the developers can do next, now that they’re tapping into everything from popular…
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I briefly wrote about tactical hack’n’slash game Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior in my Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 highlights. It is developed by Sand Door Studio, beginning as a student project before evolving into the studio’s first title. It features a nifty system that sends players back to the…
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I honestly don’t accomplish a whole lot in one year. But the one-person developer of The Nameless: Slay Dragon sure must, because they’ve been working on the turn-based RPG for three years and it’s nearly complete. The game was announced today and is set to be released for PC via…
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