Violet Wisteria is two things – firstly, it’s a brute of a game that wears its old-school homage on its sleeve. It’s also heavily inspired by the classic Valis series of fanservicey magical girl platformers. Things start off really well with a story sequence pulled directly from the PC-98 era of design. Gorgeously rendered art pieces explain the situation that…
Cults and sinning seem to go hand in hand. Sure, some of them claim to follow the bible – but they also tend to make up rules that work for them rather than actually interpret and understand what is obviously in front of them. Cult of the Lamb is freaking…
Read MoreTerra Nil is a story of hope that we sorely need right now. Despite an almost endless stream of warnings over the last few decades, humanity continues to treat climate change’s real and growing threat with blase indifference. The Paris Accord in 2015 was meant to be a turning point,…
Read MoreI’m not going to lie, it isn’t hugely unexpected that my first news article of 2024 is about a game that is over a decade old. We are in the age of the remake/remaster, after all. But dungeon-crawling RPG Legend of Grimrock isn’t getting a remake. It isn’t getting a…
Read MoreLast September (2022), eastasiasoft posted a video showcase that was a Softstar special; in it, the publisher and developer announced four titles coming to consoles. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 (which has already been released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One as Xuan-Yuan Sword VII) specifically was set to be…
Read MoreIn Touhou Mystia’s Izakaya, Mystia’s restaurant has been ransacked and she will have to rebuild it to once again be considered the best tavern in Gensokyo. Collect ingredients and recipes during the day. Create the perfect ambience with outfits, decorations, and music. Then, at night, execute the perfect dinner service…
Read MoreThe release of Atari 50 last year represented a change in mindset about how retro compilations are packaged up. I hope so, anyway. Including development documents, timelines, video interviews, and other materials made Atari 50 essential, even if those classics aren’t really your kind of games (as is the case…
Read MoreFor the past few days, PowerWash Simulator developer FuturLab has been sharing short videos teasing the free update that dropped today. The videos had people guessing that players would be cleaning Santa’s Workshop, and that’s exactly what we got! Today’s update is rooted in its new map, but there are…
Read MoreIt seems that developer stillalive studios is on my radar lately. It’s completely accidental: I’m just interested in the games, then notice who developed them. I first wrote about Garden Life: A Cozy Simulator in the November 27th edition of the catch-up coffee; that was about its launch date being…
Read MoreSoftstar is Taiwan’s answer to Square Enix, and Sword and Fairy and Xuan-Yuan Sword are like Taiwan’s Final Fantasy. Both properties are huge in their native language, but have struggled to get much of a foothold outside of Chinese-speaking territories. Publisher, eastasiasoft, is trying to establish them worldwide, however, and…
Read MoreIt has been seven years since the last proper Dragon Quest Monsters title (Joker 3, back on the 3DS), and that one wasn’t released in English. It has been 12 years since the last Dragon Quest Monsters game was released in English (Joker 2, on the DS). It was worth…
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