The "After Armageddon" part of Mega CD exclusive After Armageddon Gaiden's title reflects the game's setting: Here demons rule the world, and have done for so long most humans are nothing more than naked livestock, kept in pens and incapable of mouthing anything more complex than meaningless animalistic sounds. The pre-made team of demons you control … Continue reading The odd one out
As I've mentioned before Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra had a heck of a lot of work to do if it was going to win me back and I freely admit I came at this final entry with something of a hostile attitude, one fuelled by two games worth of annoying characters, poor writing, and various … Continue reading That meeting could have been an email: The Game
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse starts off so strong it's worth staying on the title screen for a while just to hear Yuki Kajiura's haunting musical piece "In the beginning, there was..." gently flowing around an otherwise silent scene of the ES Asher (these replace the AWGS' of Episode I) being constructed piece by … Continue reading Jenseits von Gut und Böse
Originally a Japan-only PSP game released in 2012, the game now formally known in English as The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails was Falcom's final release for Sony's underappreciated handheld - and it shows. Shockingly gorgeous to look at and crafted with the sort of confidence that only comes with hands-on experience and a specific, single, … Continue reading Review: The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails
I don't remember much about any part of this trilogy - the last time I played these games they were newly released US imports, which would have been... about eighteen years ago now - but I do remember they were stuffed full of religious imagery, a memory Xenosaga: Episode I is eager to refresh over and over … Continue reading Der Wille zur Macht
I've dithered over whether I should or shouldn't replay Aurogon's debut Chinese RPG Gu Jian Qi Tan (many of the staff actually ex-Sword and Fairy developers) for a long time now. The game left a huge impression on me when I first played it back in 2010; a second run through all these years later could never be … Continue reading Ancient swords and new ideas
Sword and Fairy, AKA Xian Jian Qi Xia Zhuan, AKA Chinese Paladin, AKA The Legend of Sword and Fairy, is a Chinese RPG series that's been running - almost exclusively on PCs - since 1995. It has found not only success within its own sphere of entertainment but outside of it as well, the stories … Continue reading Review: Sword and Fairy 7
When judged purely on its merits as an RPG 2009's Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is... it's fine. It's faux-retro in many of the ways I don't really want a game to be, with multi-level dungeons filled with staircases leading to dead ends (or a solitary chest containing an item that's never quite … Continue reading Four good-lookin’ Heroes of Light
If the screenshots of Gravity's Korean-born PC RPG shown below look familiar it's probably because you've spent some happy time with their best-known work, the phenomenally successful MMO Ragnarok Online. The same standard of spriting excellence found in their long-running online game is found in equal measure in this single player title, Arcturus' art remaining as much … Continue reading Never judge a game by its cover
Games are supposed to give us a playable hero to identify with - a central figure who is just that little bit stronger, smarter, sassier, and generally better than everyone else created to support them. They're designed to be the first person you notice on the cover and when playing they'll get all the best … Continue reading More important than the leading man
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 