The Secret of Mana remake launched last week, to a somewhat mixed reaction. It still retains the charm and adventure that made the original such a classic, but a lot of people aren’t too pleased with the switch to 3D graphics and voiced dialogue. I’ve only played a little bit so far, …
Tokyo RPG Factory’s 2016 debut, I Am Setsuna, was a masterpiece. More than simply a throwback to the JRPGs of the ’90s, it was a deep exploration of the very concept of nostalgia, and the weird cocktail of emotions that comes with it. That didn’t stop it from being …
Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood‘s regular content updates are now well underway, with patch 4.2: Rise of a New Sun marking the second major update since Stormblood‘s launch last year. If you’ve been playing the game at all since its 2014 relaunch, you surely know what to expect from each new …
Like seemingly everyone else on the planet, I have a huge backlog of games that I’ve bought at some point in time but haven’t got around to actually playing. I’m not overly concerned about this, to be fair—I’ve tried to do the #backlogzero thing before, and the stress of it …
Anyone hoping to spend 2018 catching up on all the great games they didn’t have the time to play last year might be out of luck, because 2018 is looking like it’ll be another big year. There’s a lot to be excited about—and, no doubt, a lot of stuff that …
Omega Quintet was a welcome addition to the PlayStation 4 library when it first came out in 2014. At the time, Japanese developers were only just warming up to the PS4, so it lacked the sort of bright, colourful JRPGs that have always found a home on Sony’s consoles. Then …
Set within a lordly mansion in the 19th-century English countryside, Ebi-hime’s kinetic novel Blackberry Honey tells a sweet, heartfelt story of unexpected romance among a pair of maids. After being unceremoniously dismissed from her previous job at Hartwell, she finds herself new work at Bly estate. A maid’s work is …
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS4, PSV) The majority of coverage of Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana focused on its sub-standard localisation effort. Though that criticism was deserved, it overshadowed everything else that made Ys VIII such an enjoyable game. True to its franchise, Ys VIII is an action RPG …
Shoot ’em ups are famous for their difficulty, but they also tend to find that sweet spot where the challenge is rewarding rather than frustrating. Most modern shmups will happily give you unlimited continues, letting the challenge from the game come from trying to keep that continue count as low …
Over the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion in support for entry-level game development tools like RPG Maker and GameMaker. Such tools were once written off as too simplistic to make “real” games, but the current indie boom has given these engines and the games made with them a …
