A quick word of warning before we begin: All of the English interpretations of Japanese text found here are for better or worse my own, and often paraphrased for brevity's sake. Please consider them general aids designed to convey the gist of what's going on or indicate the general mood of a scene rather than … Continue reading Descendants of the Light
Langrisser begins here. Not with the 1991 Mega Drive game of the same name (released in the US as Warsong), but in 1987, with Elthlead. This computer-born strategy game pits the familiarly named good King Sieghart against the dark forces of Böser, although the campaign here isn't a linear series of battlefields but a persistent overworld designed … Continue reading Before the beginning
How could I possibly resist a Shin Megami Tensei themed SRPG, the happy combination of two of my favourite things - tiny people waiting to be ordered around a large map and demon-infested 90's cyberpunk? And oh, that soundtrack! Hidehito Aoki's work on Majin Tensei's soundtrack is just superb, a sort of dark industrial goth rock via the SNES' soft-sounding … Continue reading HUGE art… and really tiny scraps of strategy
The Lords of Midnight's manual opens with what ordinarily would be described as some self-important trumpet blowing: "Welcome to the World's first-ever Epic game..." it boldly declares, weary 21st Century eyes reflexively performing a well-practised roll at the sight of such easily ignored waffle. The thing is, between the game's advanced age (at the time … Continue reading Night has fallen and the Foul are abroad!
This supposed fifth episode in the "Nameless Brave Saga" is, like so many other games with decorative subtitles, actually the first entry in a PC exclusive SRPG trilogy by Chrome Six (as far as I can tell they made these games and nothing else). At a glance Angelic Vale looks like yet another game straight out of the … Continue reading Episode V: Roots of “Diabolic Embryo”
Berwick Saga, Tear Ring Saga's 2005 PlayStation 2 follow-up, managed to annoy me before I'd even opened the box. The reason is down to the subtitle, "Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174", a rather grandiose label that at first blush appears to imply Shouzou Kaga, the game's creative lead and strategy-loving force behind Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, had 173 … Continue reading New tricks
There's something about Langrisser Millennium, Masaya's 1999 entry in the long running SRPG series, that we need to make very clear very quickly: It's not like its older and infinitely better known tactical forebears by design, even going so far as to have the back of the box spell out this game's desire to be a new … Continue reading A fresh start in a new era… well, maybe
Pioneer's 1995 "Active Real Time SRPG" Bounty Sword takes place in a world of steampunk-ish gritty fantasy, a place where the divide between the almighty power of forgotten ancient technology and true magic is barely the width of a fairy's finger, where people from all walks of life take on whatever dangerous jobs turn up at the … Continue reading Sword, swords, and strategy
There's some minor confusion over the English title of this 2001 PlayStation strategy game: Is it "TearRing Saga", as shown so clearly on the save screen? Perhaps it's "TearRingSaga", as written on the title screen, the disc, and the box's spine? Or could it be "Tear Ring Saga", as printed on the back of the … Continue reading Fire Emblem Saga
In 1945 a mysterious black moon appeared in the sky and waves of mythical beasts - goblins, gorgons, naga, and worse - began to roam the land, their only goal to kill, without malice or anger, every human they could before they expired. It's now 1999. Humans have been erased from entire continents and the situation is … Continue reading Students, statistics, and bloodthirsty beasts
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 