Digitally Downloaded – Page 830 – Your specialist source of news and reviews for games, anime, manga, film and literature

Review: Bravely Second: End Layer (Nintendo 3DS)

March 7, 2016

3DS Review/Bravely Default/Bravely Second: End Layer/JRPG/Nintendo 3DS/Reviews/Square Enix

Review by Matt S. When Square Enix released Bravely Default in 2013, people lauded it as a glorious throwback to the classic Square Enix of old, where rich turn-based combat, a job system straight out of Final Fantasy V, and old-school random encounters met with an ultra-traditional tale of four…

Review: Return to PoPoLoCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale (Nintendo 3DS)

March 7, 2016

3DS Review/JRPG/Marvelous Entertainment/Nintendo 3DS/Return to PoPoLoCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale/Reviews/simulation/XSEED Games

Review by Nick H. On paper, the idea of mixing a traditional JRPG with a Harvest Moon-like farming simulation seems like a great idea. In execution, Return to PoPoLoCrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale starts to come across as a series of half-measures that is still a good deal of…

Catch-up coffee Monday: March 7

March 6, 2016

catch-up coffee monday/Frogwares/Jotun/Monster Hunter Generations/Monster Hunter X/News/Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter/Square Enix/Star Ocean/Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

News by Lindsay M. Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly news feature, Catch-up coffee Monday. Each Monday we will bring you the best news from the previous week that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and…

The Friday Ten: PlayStation 4’s top ten indie games (to date)

March 4, 2016

Armello/Friday 10s/Hand Of Fate/Hohokum/Indie/Kromaia Omega/Layers of Fear/list/Never Alone/PlayStation 4/Submerged/The Banner Saga/The Friday 10/The Witness/Top 10/Toren

List by Matt S. The PlayStation 4 has plenty more years in it yet, but one of its most compelling selling points has been the robust support the console has enjoyed from independent developers. As much as we all like the blockbusters, we also like a good, earnest indie game.…

Review: Layers of Fear (Microsoft Xbox One)

March 4, 2016

Bloober Team/Horror/Layers of Fear/review/Reviews/walking simulator/Xbox One

Review by Lindsay M. Video games are art; this is a well-established fact at this point in time, in large thanks to my fellow game writers. Video games (usually) aim to contain visually pleasing elements combined with writing, music, character creation, art design, and even programming. Imagine how much more…

takeshi-kitano-joins-hollywood-ghost-in

March 3, 2016

film/film review/Ghost in the Shell/Hollywood/Paramont/Takeshi Kitano

News by Matt S. I’m skeptical of any Hollywood attempt to take a Japanese property or idea and spin it into a film. The Ring remake was a beautiful disaster. The Hunger Games (admittedly a book first) was a series of films that looked like Battle Royale with a bigger…

Review: Screencheat (Sony PlayStation 4)

March 3, 2016

Australia/FPS/local multiplayer/multiplayer only game/PlayStation 4/PS4 Review/Reviews/Screen Cheat/screencheat

Review by Matt S. I’m not usually big on the whole FPS genre, let alone multiplayer-focused FPSers, but for Screencheat I’ll make an exception any day of the week. A solid throwback to the fond memories I have of split screen Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, Screencheat is a unique, creative…

Review: Mega Man Legacy Collection (Nintendo 3DS)

March 3, 2016

2D platformer/3DS/3DS Reviews/Capcom/Mega Man/Mega Man Legacy Collection/Nintendo/Reviews

Review by Clark A. Although Mega Man is by far Capcom’s most prolific franchise, it’s been about half a decade since the company devoted any serious resources to it. Capcom hasn’t erased the blue bomber but rendered him the equivalent of a niche Mickey Mouse. He’s retained his iconic status…

its-hinamatsuri-in-japan-come-celebrate

March 3, 2016

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Feature by Danica Dee. Today is Doll’s Day, or Girl’s Day in Japan (Hinamatsuri). One of the lesser-known Japanese special days outside of the country, it’s nevertheless an important religious holiday, and I thought it might be nice to highlight it here today. Hinamatsuri is, as the name suggests, a…

On creating languages for Far Cry Primal

March 2, 2016

Academic/Andrew Byrd/Brenna Byrd/Far Cry Primal/Interview/Interviews/linguistics/Ubisoft

Interview by Matt S. Okay, so one of the coolest features in Far Cry Primal was easily the fact that Ubisoft commissioned an entire language for it to tell its story through. Now, creating a language is not a simple matter of taking existing words and coming up with some nonsense…

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