For the first time the now-iconic Yakuza series is on a Nintendo platform. To an extent you could question just who this port of Yakuza Kiwami is for, as it is obviously a drop down in fidelity over what is available elsewhere. On the other hand, this has been an excuse to drop back into one of my favourite series…
Have you ever wondered what a version of 1980s America (Showa 66) would look like if overtaken by Japanese culture and influences? Okay, probably not. But it’s a great setting for a game! In Showa American Story, the Japanese economic bubble in the USA never popped; immigration surged and Japanese…
First and foremost, Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t a Dragon Age game.…
Xenoblade Chronicles X, first published for Wii U in 2015, is an…
Sand Land, an action RPG based on the manga of the same name, was announced nearly a year ago and I admit that I haven’t given it much (okay, any) coverage. That’s entirely my bad. But better late than never? Sand Land is set in a world with extreme water…
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Given the almost fearsome reputation that Dragon’s Dogma has as a cult favourite (that actually sold better than most people realise), it’s easy to forget that the game wasn’t all that well received at first, and that its Metacritic rating is “only” 78/100. It was a fair analysis however, for…
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If the promise of JRPG-style hijinks across a painstakingly-recreated Shibuya sounds good to you, then you’ll want to pay close attention to Reynatis, the latest FuRyu special that NISA will publish out west. FuRyu continues to be the Japanese studio for creative ideas. If The Caligula Effect and Monark struck…
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Granblue Fantasy turns ten this year – yes, time really does fly – and it is one of the all-time most successful mobile games. It has soared to over 25 million downloads in its home country alone – and that means about one in five Japanese people have played this…
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Back in 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment Shanghai and developer Sense Games announced AI Limit, an action RPG set to launch for PlayStation 4 as part of the second wave of PlayStation China Hero Project titles. The program, supported by SIE Shanghai, supports Chinese developers to enter both local and international…
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Visions of Mana was this close to being on my list of most anticipated games of 2024, but because it’s been 15 years since a mainline series entry I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. We got a glimpse of the game when it was announced The Game Awards, but…
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Last September (2022), eastasiasoft posted a video showcase that was a Softstar special; in it, the publisher and developer announced four titles coming to consoles. Xuan Yuan Sword 7 (which has already been released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One as Xuan-Yuan Sword VII) specifically was set to be…
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Xbox has been pushing action RPG (with social sim elements) Dungeons of Hinterberg pretty hard in the second half of 2023. First, it was featured in June’s Xbox Games Showcase. In October, the game’s social elements were shown off in an Xbox Partner Preview. Today, the developer streamed a video…
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I am downright chuffed to be writing that Square Enix has revealed a new entry in the Mana series! Visions of Mana is the first mainline instalment in over 15 years. It promises to return to the series’ action-RPG roots while taking players on an adventure with a soul guard…
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Astlibra Revision is a JRPG with an interesting concept: take a familiar story that gradually evolves into something unexpected, subverting traditional plot elements and characters. It first launched for PC in October 2022, and since then fans have been requesting a Nintendo Switch version – and it’s about to happen!…
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