I’ve been playing hidden object games to chill out for twenty years. They may soothe my mind, but they don’t remain there — everything blurs together over the years. A few titles in the genre have stood out recently (such as Crime O’Clock), but Hidden in my Paradise raises the…
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Xenoblade Chronicles X, first published for Wii U in 2015, is an anomaly in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. It is a standalone sci-fi story set in a separate universe from Xenoblade Chronicles, published after the first game but before Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna — The Golden Country,…
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Ys isn’t the oldest JRPG property out there, but it’s one of them, and it’s also one of the most prolific. If you ignore all the re-releases and just concentrate on the main series, there is just one period where there was a substantial hiatus (1996-2002). Otherwise, the longest fans…
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At some point, someone sat down and decided to make an RPG which would be narrative-heavy, but it would be almost entirely emergent narrative. Where every plot direction and key moment was a consequence of the player’s actions. Where characters and their personalities would be entirely defined by player decisions,…
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At the beginning of October, D’Avekki Studios released a demo for the PC version of Dark Nights with Poe and Munro. I knew something was up — why would you release a demo for a game that is years old? — but I didn’t know what. The studio’s fourth and…
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On the one hand, the people behind I*CHU: Chibi Edition have done the world a big favour. The developers and publishers (PQube in the West) have taken a mobile gacha game that was effectively killed a half-decade ago and given players the opportunity to enjoy it in its full glory…
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Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly catch-up news feature, the catch-up coffee. I will bring you the best news you may have missed with each issue. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!…
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Dance is a difficult subject to tackle, for many reasons. These challenges are, fundamentally, why it’s not a topic that video game developers typically touch (or filmmakers, or novelists, or painters, or most other art forms). The Ukrainian developer behind Light de Deux has given a ballet-themed visual novel a…
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The remake of Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII is now out in the wild, and it is a very good game. It’s excellent for newcomers while also offering something for the series faithful, all wrapped up in some truly gorgeous art. We were able to send some questions over…
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Remaking strategy games comes across as an odd decision, because strategy games are principally defined and remembered through their mechanics, and that is something that typically improves over time. Take Civilization 2 as an example. It’s my single favourite strategy game of all time, but it would be downright strange…
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