For people who enjoyed the vibes of Monster Hunter, but found the challenging, highly technical action combat to be overwhelming, Capcom came up with the Monster Hunter Stories series. The first two were enjoyable, but with Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, Capcom has landed on something really special indeed. It also feels like Capcom’s response to criticism that has…
The game that got me looking at Odencat was Fishing Paradiso, which was an absolute pleasure to review many, many moons ago. Now, the Japanese developer has announced that its acclaimed 2023 RPG Meg’s Monster will launch on smartphones this May, with pre-registration available on both the App Store and…
Another Eden Begins is a time-travelling turn-based JRPG whose development is being…
Dragon Quest VII did need a reimagining. I don’t say this as…
I swear, I can’t get through a day without talking about a remastered version of an older title being released! Today, the news is about Xuan-Yuan Sword: Mists Beyond the Mountains, the third instalment in the series. The classic pixel art turn-based RPG was first released in 1999. The game…
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Developer, Sting, has announced a remaster of Riviera: The Promised Land. This is genuinely exciting because Riviera is a true cult classic, and a remake is long overdue. One of the more interesting qualities of this game is that you don’t really have free movement around the world. Rather, it…
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In recent years (thanks largely to the success of the Ryza trilogy), Gust and Koei Tecmo’s Atelier series has grown from being a very niche and micro-budget JRPG property to become something that, while not exactly mainstream, holds itself well in the market and can find an audience beyond genre…
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The Rhapsody games are some of the best RPGs out there… yet the second and third games in the series never launched in the west. In January, Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles was announced; it puts Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom together…
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Persona 5 has become a full-on franchise in its own right, having already had a spin-off rhythm game and a Musou-like action sequel. And now there’s a tactics JRPG coming. It looks so, so good, and Atlus in Japan has just released a new trailer to remind us of that…
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I feel for the people who are saying Final Fantasy XVI isn’t “their Final Fantasy.” I’m an arena FPS fan. I know what it’s like to watch something you love fall out of favour and either disappear entirely (Unreal, Tribes) or watch it try to contort itself into something else…
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With Final Fantasy XVI still very fresh in mind, the podcast crew sat down to talk about it. There is a lot to talk about with regard to this game, but perhaps the most interesting theme it has running through it is how well it handles war as a subject.…
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Loop8: Summer Of Gods is too easy to overlook. I know, I put it to a side myself while I was playing much larger and high-profile games (such as Final Fantasy XVI). I do feel like I did this game a disservice, however, as it is different and has the…
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Final Fantasy XVI is a spectacular blockbuster that is also so much more than a simple “AAA-game”. Where most blockbusters aim to manipulate the player’s emotions but have little ambition beyond that, Final Fantasy XVI dares to challenge players with a narrative of depth and poignancy. It is the rarest…
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Once, many years ago, I read an argument that the enduring popularity of Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons in its homeland in Japan has to do with a very real desire for a “sea change” or “tree change” among Japanese urban populations. If this is true (and I believe there is…
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