Coming out very late in the PlayStation 2’s life cycle, Odin Sphere perhaps didn’t get as much attention as it deserved. It was a critical darling (and rightly so) and sold fairly well, but it was niche game fighting against a newly-released PlayStation 3 and all the hype that goes …
This week, Square Enix released Romancing SaGa 2 on iOS and Android. With the publisher’s obsession with porting older games to mobile, there wouldn’t be anything remarkable about this release, if not for the fact that this is the game’s first official localisation in 23 years since it came out in Japan. …
One of the best things about the recent surge in indie game development is the chance to hear stories from so many different voices; voices that are all but locked out from the traditional, AAA route. The relative accessibility of game creation tools, running the gamut of complexity from Twine to …
Tokyo Game Show is all wrapped up for this year, and if there’s one important takeaway from it, it’s that 2016 is looking amazing for fans of Japanese games, and JRPGs in particular. Between new announcements, new footage for previously-announced games, and one delay that everyone saw coming, this year’s TGS gave us …
Playing through Dragon Quest for the first time in 2015 was a weird experience. It’s a game that hasn’t exactly aged well, but somehow, that made it a fascinating and rewarding experience. It’s a snapshot of the early days of console RPGs, an insight into where many of the genres standards originated. Despite …
There’s something special about going back and experiencing old games with fresh eyes. I’m not talking about revisiting childhood staples, though that is great too, but playing games for the first time that are 10, 20, even 30 years old. Some games buckle under the weight of their age, others hardly …
An English version of Bravely Second: End Layer, the sequel to the hit JRPG Bravely Default, is probably a ways off yet. An international release hasn’t even been announced yet, though it’s looking highly likely that it will happen at E3 later this month. There’ll be at least a few …
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 …
We haven’t had a new IGAvania in six and a half years, but finally, Koji “IGA” Igarashi has come out of the shadows with a new project: a “A gothic, exploration-focused action platformer” called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. His is probably not a household name, but as the person …
Last month, long-time RPG developers Obsidian Entertainment released Pillars of Eternity, to widespread acclaim. To call it highly anticipated would be an understatement – is a game that raised just shy of $4 million USD on Kickstarter, with more than 70,000 backers – and by all accounts, it lives up to …
