Sony Computer Entertainment’s President and Global CEO, Andrew House, has called the PlayStation Vita a “legacy console” for every market outside of Japan and Asia. In doing so he effectively killed off any chance of a major western publisher again putting any real energy into the device going forward, by strongly…
Read MoreTamsoft, the developer of Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed, is in some ways the perfect match for Compile Heart’s premier franchise. But in other ways the licensing of the franchise to the developer has resulted in a confused title that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Related reading:…
Read MoreI don’t like games that are difficult for the sake of being difficult. If you’re going to create a game like Bloodborne, then the difficulty makes sense – the rhythm of the game requires and in fact rewards players for failing. But La-Mulana is the kind of game that is…
Read MoreI love fishing. I’m terrible at it, but I love it. I’m not even exaggerating when I say I’m terrible at it. I once spent a whole week on a houseboat in a prime fishing river, with all the cool baits and fishing rods, and didn’t catch a single fish…
Read MoreMost games for children are terrible. It’s strange to say that, because playing games is an inherently youthful activity and you would think it would be relatively easy to tap into the spirit of play to make a decent game for a child, but developers too often mistake “developing a…
Read MoreOreshika: Tainted Bloodlines combines some old JRPG sensibilities with a good number of interesting twists that make this title fresh yet familiar at the same time. This creates a comfortable mix that sometimes lacks the depth of narrative we have come to expect from the JRPG genre, while still giving…
Read MoreThere’s something about Flame Over, a roguelike firefighting game from Laughing Jackal, that is terrifying. Before your little firefighter is a series on rooms are slowly burning, trapping the people and cats within. The goal is simple – save those trapped inside, and then save the building before the grim…
Read MoreHyperdimension Neptunia is clearly an important and commercially successful franchise for Compile Heart and Idea Factory. After three “main” JRPG releases on the PlayStation 3, ports of all three to the PlayStation Vita, and the first PC release in the franchise, we’ve also seen the publisher experiment with bringing the…
Read MoreNihilumbra is a strange mix between a puzzle platformer and a narrative storybook. You play a Born, a shadow that has somehow escaped from the Void (which is what it sounds like). One a part of the Void, you move the world painting it in colours all while trying to…
Read More“Oh my, this game is going to be controversial.” These were my thoughts almost immediately after I started playing Criminal Girls: Invite Only (I may or may not be paraphrasing my thoughts to remove expletives there). And after reading the first batch of reviews I guessed correctly – already there…
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