Even without any personal nostalgia to draw from, there’s always something enchanting about rural Japanese settings in games. From Persona 4 to Root Letter, Boku no Natsuyasumi to The Kids We Were, it’s not an uncommon backdrop, but one that always comes with its own unique magic. It’s that same …
A good metroidvania always hits the spot. It doesn’t need to be groundbreaking, or to reinvent the wheel; just the right balance of mobility, intertwining level design, and upgrades that change how you move around and interact with the game space. Get those fundamentals just right—easier said than done, admittedly—and …
When you win a dance battle in Ooblets—because dance-offs are how these particular collectible monsters compete—you get a chance to collect a seed from the leader of the other team. But rather than snatching the spoils from a vanquished foe, or ensnaring them in a little ball, you give a …
Being the huge gremlin that I am, the first thing I did after firing up the Alienware m15 R7 was install Final Fantasy XIV. Not the most graphically demanding game to test a laptop that’ll run you a cool four grand, I know, but it’s also where I spend most …
There were plenty of exciting announcements in this morning’s Future Games Show at Gamescom: a shadow drop of an English update for the Steam version of Wizardry: The Five Ordeals; an intriguing-looking climate change-themed city builder in Floodland; the release of a demo for character action game Soulstice; among many …
Saints Row isn’t entirely devoid of merit. The vehicular gameplay is awesome. The visuals are splendid. The narrative is infinitely more grounded compared to its immediate predecessors. But for all of its strengths, the experience is brought down exponentially by tiresome side content and a mediocre cast who fail to …
Sound quality and comfort—skip past all the buzzwords and tech jargon, and that’s really what matters in a wireless headset. A quick and easy setup is useful, too, and battery life matters in a wireless set, but what it ultimately comes down to is: does it sound good, and is …
A new dungeon crawler is always good news. A new game that channels a sumi-e art style is always good news. A new game revolving around yōkai is always good news. So one that hits all three of those targets? Well that’s very good news indeed. Enter Labyrinth of Zangetsu, …
It’s hard to overstate the impact of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It took an excellent but comparatively niche franchise and threw it into the mainstream, and did so without diluting any part of what made the series special to begin with. (Heartthrob characters and tea dates are the perfect gateway …
It’s probably a little weird to be writing a review of the Retroid Pocket 2+ a few days out from the release of the Pocket 3, but here I am. Such is the price of indecision, I guess—I’ve been eyeing up retro handhelds for a while, but with so many …
