A bold fresh start for the series, Tales of Arise masterfully turns JRPG familiarities into an incisive reflection on imperial oppression. Rebellious uprisings against oppressive, imperial regimes are a JRPG staple. Slave revolts and underground resistance movements are about as familiar to the genre as fighting gods and amnesiac, spiky-haired …
Button City might just be the quintessential “wholesome game”. It’s got the low-poly graphics, the cute, anthropomorphised characters, and the hyper-saturated pastel colour scheme. It’s got a simple but moving story about making friends and finding a sense of belonging, told through an assortment of quirky loveable misfits, pop culture …
There’s something wonderfully, refreshingly small about Arietta of Spirits. It’s a pleasant surprise, too: with its clear Legend of Zelda inspiration, vibrant pixel-art depiction of a beautiful world, and premise of venturing between the real world and that of the spirits, it’s easy to assume Arietta would be some sort …
There’s a lot to like about My Time At Portia. First released in 2019 for PC and consoles, its blend of comfy, crafting-centric life sim with a slice of adventure and a little dash of mystery made it an easy game to just lose yourself in for a while. But …
Psychonauts 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2005 cult hit Psychonauts, is a game I can only describe as “mental”. It’s apt, as the game is “mental” in the way it is written and designed by the idiosyncratic mind of Tim Schafer and the Double Fine team, and in the …
Cotton isn’t exactly a household name, and that’s a damn shame. “Cute-’em-ups” are a delight, with their blend of super-cute presentation and classic shooter action, and 1991’s Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams and its handful of sequels more than earned their place alongside the TwinBees and Fantasy Zones of the world. …
If you ask most people today what they like about adventure games, it’s almost always some echo of what Telltale brought to the genre: compelling characters, weighty themes, choice and consequence. Less so is it about the genre’s crunchier roots, from the likes of Monkey Island or King’s Quest to …
No More Heroes III is the kind of wildly creative adventure you don’t experience often in today’s gaming landscape. And yet, it’s exactly what you should expect from a studio whose relatively long motto begins with “Punk’s not dead.” Unlike the traditional action game, No More Heroes III features considerable …
Armature Studio’s Where the Heart Leads is a dense narrative game, with an apparent 600,000 words of dialogue and tons of decisions to make throughout the game. That word count is neither a positive or negative, however: it gives players the chance to craft their own story, yet drags along …
Samurai Warriors 5 is a step in an exciting new direction for the series, and a fascinating exploration of the legacy of Nobunaga Oda. Samurai Warriors has always excelled at drawing a distinction between historical accuracy and authenticity. Its retellings of the Sengoku era always stay true to key details …
