I have wanted to get back into Final Fantasy XIV for quite some time. I am a massive fan of everything it offers, from the art direction to the scope of the world and adventures that are held within it. I love the way that it handles narrative within the MMO format, and the massive range of locations to visit.…
It’s been three years since the last Fire Emblem (Engage). In a world of annualised franchises, that’s almost quaint, given how commercially successful the series is for Nintendo, but I’m very glad that Intelligent Systems is given the time to explore what it can achieve with its property. Fortune’s Weave…
The Touhou Project continues to be one of the most interesting experiments…
We finally have the version of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that Monolith Software…
Suikoden might not have quite the same profile as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but this is a beloved cult JRPG franchise, stretching back to the original PlayStation. And I really do mean beloved. Many who have played it list Suikoden 2, in particular, list it as one of the…
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The best way to learn a new language is to actually practice that language in real-world context. If you travel around Japan you will, at some point, almost certainly be accosted at least once by a group of school kids who are clutching a workbook and told to practice their…
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Return to Heryon in Edge of Memories, Midgar Studio’s new project set in the same universe as 2021’s Edge of Eternity. The people behind Edge of Memories have great experience under their belts, including character designer Raita Kazama (Xenoblade Chronicles X), writer Sawako Natori (NieR), singer Emi Evans (NieR, NieR:…
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There’s a literary device called the Deus Ex Machina (no, the game series didn’t invent that cool-sounding word), which describes when an author uses a plot device to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story. It’s possibly the most difficult literary device to use, since, if you calibrate it…
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Fans of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will soon get their chance to uncover more about three characters in the game — Marisa, Seign, and Markus — as each gets paid DLC that shifts the spotlight onto them. The stories feature insight into their perspectives on the events occurring in Allraan.…
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It’s not every day that you get to interview one of your heroes, but that was certainly the case when I got to run a quick Q & A with Hironobu Sakaguchi. For those that don’t recognise the name, Sakaguchi is the one who gave us many of the early…
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If I were to create a laundry list of what I look for in a JRPG, the simple reality is that the Ys series doesn’t tend to check many of those boxes. They’re not known for in-depth narratives, iconic characters (aside from the series protagonist, Adol, who has a very…
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To get this out of the way up-front: We need to be wary about art (games, films, books, whatever else) that depict apocalyptic scenarios where some form of invader from without swarms the world and you’re in control of the last nation standing, holding back the horde. It’s an incredibly…
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Koei Tecmo’s JRPG house, Gust, is a factory for the genre. It’s just as well that their output is a reliably good time, but they are without a doubt a studio that churns out its work. Fairy Tail 2 comes four years after the original (with a whole lot of…
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Fantasian spent so long as an Apple Arcade exclusive that I was worried that Apple had somehow wound up actually owning the game, rather than just licensing it, and it would never make its way off that platform. Not that Apple Arcade is bad, but this kind of deep, rich…
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