Atlus’ various Shin Megami Tensei spinoff series’ have always been good at using various JRPG traditions to frame social or political commentary. The two Digital Devil Saga games offered some deep insights into the role of religion in society, while Persona 4 was, in part, a deconstruction of the nostalgia…
Read MoreFans of the series have been waiting for a long time for the localisation of the second chapter of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Having announced only a week prior to its release that it was finally here, the Second Chapter has been made digitally available on both…
Read MoreSword Art Online: Last Song hits a lot of really comfortable notes along the way, making some improvements to gameplay over the original game that should make it more accessible to most players. However, the target audience here is clearly fans of the source material, and others might not come…
Read MoreI first got a taste for Zodiac two years ago, where, as a freshly announced game, it occupied a major-sized booth at Tokyo Game Show. Buggy as it was back then I saw an awful lot of potential in it as a 2D RPG with similar production standards that won…
Read MoreStella Glow is Imageepoch’s swan song. Heartbreaking as it is to see yet another set of capable creative minds disbanded, it’s the most apt tune the company could have composed to go out on. It’s a game that brings the company full circle; Imageepoch kicked off with the niche but…
Read MoreThe PC used to be the gaming platform with the biggest shortage of niche Otaku games. Most of the time, PC players would be getting years old games like Ys and Recettear which small but dedicated translation groups would tackle. Fast forward to now though – we’re getting all the…
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I love RPG Maker. I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. I love anything that encourages people to be creative and get “hands on” with their favourite hobbies, rather than being passive consumers of it. I love Tyranobuilder because it lets people make their own…
Read MoreJapanese doujin soft developer, Orange_Juice, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the business, and what better way to celebrate a milestone in game-development than to develop a game to mark the milestone? Having made the excellent digital board game 100% Orange Juice for the 5th anniversary, their 10th sees the…
Read MoreThe Tales franchise has always been best known for its characterisation and the rich relationships that it builds between its protagonists. Despite each being a lengthy RPG that typically deals with world-shaping (or shattering) events, the core appeal of each Tales title has typically been the little conversations that characters…
Read MoreOver and over again the developers behind Dragon Quest Heroes insisted that the game wasn’t a Warriors game. Despite all the screenshots showing a game that looked like it was following the same path that One Piece Warriors and Hyrule Warriors did for their respective franchises, Square Enix was adamant…
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