The Attack on Titan anime and manga hype a few years back completely passed me by, so reviewing Attack on Titan 2 (or A.O.T 2, as it’s known in Europe and Oceania, presumably for licensing reasons) put me in the odd position of approaching it as a newcomer to …
Koei Tecmo
Dynasty Warriors 9 feels like the game that Omega Force has been wanting to make since the series’ birth. They’ve finally got the budget and technology to really capture the grandiose epic of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and to convey that feeling of being a soldier on the …
I’m pleasantly surprised at how much I’m enjoying Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. I wasn’t a big fan of the previous Dissidia games, and this one’s 3-on-3 focus certainly didn’t fit with my general dislike for team-based multiplayer games. Perhaps more significantly, I have a weird bias against Dissidia at a …
I wasn’t a big fan of Nights of Azure when it first came out. I liked some of the ideas behind it, and the art direction and character designs are fantastic, but I felt that clunky gameplay and poor storytelling held it back. In the years since, I’ve come to …
I used to be one of those people who wrote off the Musou series as “boring” and “repetitive”; a mindless button masher with little going for it beyond the brief satisfaction of swatting enemy grunts away like flies. I’ve come to appreciate the series a lot more in recent years, though, …
Over the years, Koei Tecmo’s Warriors series has made a name for itself as one of the foremost efforts to gamify history. Dynasty Warriors took inspiration from Romance of the Three Kingdoms – one of the most significant pieces of historical literature the world has ever known – and forged …
Nioh wears its Dark Souls inspiration on its sleeve, but it builds on that with deeper combat and captivating story of Sengoku-era Japan. It’s hard to talk about Nioh without making comparisons to Dark Souls. Team Ninja’s latest outing wears its influences on its sleeve: methodical combat built around a …
Toukiden 2 makes a strong case for changing the term “Monster Hunter clone” to “Toukiden clone”, setting a new bar for the Hunting RPG genre. I propose that from here on out, “Monster Hunter clones” be referred to as “Toukiden clones”. True enough, the original Toukiden drew heavily on Monster …
Atelier Firis gives the Atelier series a new focus on a connected world and a transitory story, perfect for a delightful coming-of-age story like this. I haven’t played an Atelier game since a brief stint with Atelier Iris on PlayStation 2. It’s not that I don’t like the series; I …
I just checked my playtime on Toukiden: Kiwami: 82 hours, 30 minutes. And, somehow, I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. For those not in the know, Toukiden: Kiwami is a hybrid sequel/re-release of Toukiden: The Age of Demons, Omega Force’s (Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors et al.) take …