It was inevitable that Yakuza 6 would not be the end of Kazuma Kiryu. It should have been, since it finished the series in spectacular fashion. However, this is the video game industry, and when you’ve got a bankable star, you keep returning to that well until enough people get…
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There’s a certain end of the video game industry that mistakes emotional manipulation for quality narrative. The goal is to find the right voice actors, get the players invested enough in the world that they spend a lot of time in it, and then make sure those key scenes are…
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Archetype Arcadia has an awful lot of content. The PR material claims 50 hours, and while I have a gut feeling that that’s assuming a fairly slow reading speed, I read quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised if I did actually spend that long getting to the end. It’s generally…
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There are times when it genuinely feels like the artists who work in game development teams only know Zdzisaw Beksiski and H.R Giger. These two artists are magnificent, don’t get me wrong, but they are so often the inspiration behind a game’s aesthetics that it’s become a visual cliché. And…
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Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is what all Assassin’s Creed games should be: Uncomplicated. As I’ve regularly repeated over the years, Assassin’s Creed is my one blockbuster vice, and I love the series despite it being increasingly representative of so much of what I dislike about AAA games. But this one brings…
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Disclaimer: I’m making this quick disclaimer so it’s clear and up-front. I did work with Big Ant in the past, and contributed to cricket games that they have previously released. During the term that I worked for Big Ant, and for two years afterwards, I did not review their games,…
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Type-Moon’s Fate series was right up there with the franchises I wanted to see Koei Tecmo apply its Musou formula to. In fact, I raised it with the developer several times when I’ve had interview opportunities, so I’m claiming the existence of Fate/Samurai Remnand as my victory (which also bodes…
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I’m not going to lie. My nose will grow. Lies Of P infuriates me to play. Of all the ways to approach the Soulslike “hard game”, this is the least suited to my preferences. I understand that there will be an audience for it, but that’s not me, it won’t…
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It would be easy to dismiss Monochrome Mobius as being a “too-traditional” JRPG, turn-based warts and all. Indeed, that is what far too many other critics have done when covering this game, and that’s doing it a disservice. It seems that just about everyone has missed what makes this a…
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I wasn’t expecting Armored Core VI to be a Soulslike, but I was expecting some kind of transformative experience. Perhaps that’s a bit much to ask of FromSoftware, but for more than a decade now, since Dark Souls itself in 2011, FromSoftware has grown to become renowned for a certain…
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