There are plenty of games out there that share the defining mechanics Pokémon has perfected over the years; collecting, training, and battling monsters. With the likes of Yo-Kai Watch putting a uniquely Japanese spin on the little JRPG subgenre, Moco Moco Friends feels like the logical extension of that motif…
Read MoreDragon’s Dogma is an interesting beast that appeared on Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 a couple of years ago now. Having seen a re-work with the moniker of Dark Arisen not long after, Capcom’s giant beast of exploration, dragon hunting, ogre slaying, and chimera tracking now makes its…
Read MoreMario & Luigi: Paper Jam went so very close to irritating me. As much as I enjoy the RPG spin-off series that makes unlikely good use of Nintendo’s two platforming superstars, I have become increasingly frustrated with the company’s persistence that Princess Peach should be a damsel in distress in…
Read MoreKeisuke Kikuchi simply cannot get away from dark games with dark themes. The producer behind the Fatal Frame (or Project Zero) series of horror games has taken on the task of producing Gust’s newest IP, Nights of Azure. And, while Gust games are often more meaningful and serious than their…
Read MoreI must admit, I do feel like I’m running out of things to say about developer Gust’s Atelier Dusk series. That’s not to say the games aren’t worth writing about, but with Atelier Escha & Logy Plus, this is now the fifth time I have written a review for a…
Read MoreTwenty, even thirty hours into Trails of Cold Steel, and you’ll still be getting to know the class of nine students that form the core cast (and that’s not saying anything of the other characters that become important later on). This is a slow burn and dense game, and, while it does…
Read MoreSummon Night 5 is a strategy JRPG and part visual novel, released for the PSP, but also playable on the PlayStation Vita. It’s not going to revolutionise the genre, but it is, nevertheless, a very fine example of it. Related reading: Strategy RPG fans really need to check out Disgaea…
Read MoreIt’s always a good idea to play the worst games in your favourite genres. That way you can appreciate the good ones. Chronus Arc is one of the worst JRPGs I’ve ever played. In theory it wants to be a glorious throwback to the SNES JRPG tradition, but in practice…
Read MoreXenoblade Chronicles on the Nintendo Wii (and, later, New Nintendo 3DS), is a sprawling game with ambition well beyond what anyone thought the console could handle. At the same time, despite the game’s openness, its love of sending players on fetch quests, and the near endless incentive to keep backtracking…
Read MoreLevel-5 has, for the longest time now, been hesitant to localise its Yo-Kai Watch franchise into western markets. One presumes that the underlying reason for that hesitancy is due to the intense cultural relevance the Yo-Kai games have to Japan, and the assumption that a great deal of the underlying…
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