It’s funny, how things come around full circle. The earliest JRPGs were inspired by early computer RPGs, which were in turn inspired by tabletop RPGs, each taking the essence of what came before and adapting it to a different format. With Voice of Cards – first The Isle Dragon Roars …
Every time I review an Atelier game, I always seem to wind up talking about their laid-back charm and how wonderfully uplifting they are. That may be partially due to a lack of creativity on my part, but it’s most just because… well, it’s consistently true. Gust has spent decades …
If there’s one thing you can say about Edge of Eternity, it’s that it’s not lacking ambition. While most indie JRPGs tend to go for nostalgia and classic appeal, here’s one that seems to take its inspiration more from the likes of Xenoblade Chronicles as it shoots for graphical splendour, …
Blue Reflection was one of the most uplifting, joyous—dare I say wholesome—games of 2017, even if that point seemed to get lost on a lot of folks. A story about an aspiring ballet dancer who suffers a career-ending injury, and then finding new meaning in a life that she’s mostly …
Good news: Compile Heart’s excellent dark fairy tale-themed dungeon crawler Mary Skelter 2 is coming to Steam, and very soon: January 14 (NZT)! Mary Skelter 2 originally came out for PS4 in Japan in 2018, and then globally on PS4 and Switch a year later. Rather than a direct sequel, …
Last month, The Pokemon Company continued its tradition of remaking earlier Pokemon games with Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. Fifteen years after their original release, these remakes of Pokemon’s fourth generation seek to catch the zoomer nostalgia wave and re-establish the Sinnoh region ahead of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. But do …
Playing Monster Rancher in 2021 is a surreal experience, to say the least. On one hand, it’s a ’90s game through and through, when CDs were still the standard music format and the relative novelty of a disc-based game console made a fun gimmick out of putting your music into …
Don’t be fooled by the cute anthropomorphic cats and dogs or the soft, colourful art style: Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a dark, confronting game. Telling a story about the human cost of war through the eyes of some of a group of children as they fight for survival and …
The Caligula Effect is one of the most criminally underrated games of recent memory. A deeply intelligent JRPG that turns the familiar “save the world” premise completely on its head, that takes a more nuanced and thought-provoking approach to moral philosophy than just about any other game ever made, that …
Mary Skelter Finale brings Compile Heart’s provocative trilogy to a close as it adds a unique, multi-party twist on the classic dungeon crawl. At a time when pop culture is particularly interested in reinterpretations of classic fairy tale characters, few works stand out like Mary Skelter. Its decidedly fetishistic tone …
