I know I’m late with writing this review. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, otherwise known as “the remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics” was released while I was away in Japan, and it’s been enormously difficult to catch up, given that I’ve needed to prioritise the new games, also releasing like a broken dam right now. However, that’s a me…
The HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III went down really well with players and critics, so it was perhaps inevitable that Square Enix would give the same treatment to the first two titles in the trilogy. Wisely packing them together (much as the port of Dragon Quest 1 and 2…
Game Freak can’t do anything without pissing off a good chunk of…
In all the ways that really matter, Persona 3 Reload on the…
Mugen Souls is a game that is all about larger-than-life excess. The action is over the top. The narrative and characters are ridiculous and, despite being chibi in visual design, larger-than-life in personality. This is not a game interested in subtlety or nuance. It’s brash and in your face from…
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Trinity Trigger set out to capture nostalgia for 90s JRPGs. That is precisely what the game delivers. Were it not for the fact that the game looks modern, I myself would have thought I was playing a long-lost classic from the era. It is an action JRPG, where you control…
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Have you ever felt like a game was made for you? Something that so perfectly matches your favourite aesthetics, gameplay style, narrative and theme that it’s like the developers pulled it directly from your inner core? Labyrinth of Zengetsu is that game for me. Related reading: For another example of…
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I really wonder if there will ever be a time when I don’t leap at a re-release, remaster or remake of any of the first six Final Fantasy games. I already have all of these pixel remasters on my PC, and yet here I am playing them again on the…
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Once on the DDNet podcast, we got to talking about “canon” games – ones that many people would consider to have historical or aesthetic significance. These are games that are worth going back to, even after technological increments have iterated and refined their design. For the JRPG genre, we immediately…
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I worry that the wonderful folk at the developer, Gust, have lost their creative thrust with Atelier. That’s not to say Atelier Ryza 3 here is by any means a poor game, because it is lovely and comforting, but the last five Atelier titles have been a nostalgic return to…
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The difference between a very fine game, and an inferior, derivative pastiche can at times be very slim. Mato Anomalies is an excellent example of just how fine this line can be. Clearly inspired by Persona, and a novel attempt and bringing a kind of neon-noir approach to the genre,…
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There is a problem when you make something subversive: how do you back it up with a sequel? If the sequel is too familiar and follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, it is no longer subversive by definition. It has lost its creative identity. This is unfortunately the case…
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Koei Tecmo is no stranger to the classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The entire Dynasty Warriors series is, of course, based on that classic text. In many ways, it’s what makes Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty such a captivating game, because it’s such a different creative take on…
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Gosh Ryza’s gorgeous. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key, the game, I mean. Not the character (but yeah, also her). The third and final chapter of Ryza’s story is almost upon us, and I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with the opening chapter or…
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