Brigandine is one of those cult franchises that you don’t really expect to be on any development radar, but every so often someone dusts it off because there is a tiny core out there and there’s not much else really scratching the itch. The original Brigandine was a PlayStation 1 release, and then in 2020 there was the excellent Brigandine:…
“Cry to save the world,” “’Classmate’ (i.e. breed) to save the world,” “Defeat a person’s deviances (sorry ‘distorted desires’) to save the world,” “Sing to save the world.” The JRPG genre is positively filled with these abstract ideas of turning a certain emotion or action into a mechanic to build…
Miyamoto Musashi is a great protagonist for a video game like Onimusha:…
Elden Ring is an incredible game, and I already have a very…
Brigandine is one of those cult franchises that you don’t really expect to be on any development radar, but every so often someone dusts it off because there is a tiny core out there and there’s not much else really scratching the itch. The original Brigandine was a PlayStation 1…
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“Cry to save the world,” “’Classmate’ (i.e. breed) to save the world,” “Defeat a person’s deviances (sorry ‘distorted desires’) to save the world,” “Sing to save the world.” The JRPG genre is positively filled with these abstract ideas of turning a certain emotion or action into a mechanic to build…
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Miyamoto Musashi is a great protagonist for a video game like Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Musashi is famous for his prowess with the sword, with the historical figure being undefeated after more than 60 bouts. He also authored books on martial arts, and is considered a martial arts legend.…
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Elden Ring is an incredible game, and I already have a very in-depth review covering why I consider it to be a genuine masterpiece within the “games-as-art” canon. I’m not going to re-litigate that in reviewing the Switch 2 release of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition. Everything that applied to that…
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Why, FromSoftware. Why? The Duskbloods is so damn intriguing, and having played it during the network test, I’m even more intrigued. Richly, evocatively urban gothic, like a Dracula or Jekyll and Hyde gone even darker, Duskbloods has all the potential in the world to be something I connect with even…
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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…
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We finally have the version of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that Monolith Software intended. The original release on the Nintendo Switch was an exceptional game with some truly ambitious scope, but that came at the expense of frame rates, and even I, a person who doesn’t usually care for frame rates,…
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Blue Reflection has been a difficult series for Koei Tecmo to manage thanks to its enormously niche premise. Four products in, it’s also difficult to suggest that bad missteps were not made along the way. The original Blue Reflection got itself released and then un-released in parts of the world…
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I have lost track of how many times I’ve played Final Fantasy X (and X-2) now. I remember playing it for the first time on the PlayStation 2, and then getting into fights on early-era bulletin boards on who was best out of Rikku, Lulu and Yuna (Rikku, of course).…
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Here’s the problem with playing a single-player spinoff from a multiplayer property: If you don’t particularly care about the multiplayer that the franchise is built on, the single player, where developers will almost always double down on the various in-fanbase jokes, aesthetics, characters and themes, is really not going to…
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