Underdog Detective is a brand new live action FMV game charting the adventures of Du Xun, an amateur detective and antique dealer of charmingly questionable repute. He's spent his whole life in Underdog Dwelling, Shendu's (now Luoyang's) 7th Century human rubbish dump, a place where the unlucky or unfavoured wash up against their will and … Continue reading Review: Underdog Detective
[Just so you know: everything said below is based on the launch 2009 v1.00 PC disc patched up to v1.04a, which I believe is the final version of the original doujin release. If you're reading this after the game's welcome Switch/Steam debut: 1) Hi! 2) Some minor details have definitely changed] A Touhou/Castlevania crossover sounds … Continue reading Symphony of the [Gensokyo] night
Shmups occupy a strange space in gaming: They "should" be cheap because they're short and because they're shmups - ancient games where you shoot whatever scrolls into view until you die or there's nothing left to shoot - and yet in spite of this mindset following the genre around like a bad smell since forever … Continue reading Review: Sol Cresta
Both Denmaku Clubs were created as PC exclusives and initially sold as separately packaged (and purchased) programs before later being included on the same DVDs as the XP compatible releases of Sakura Wars 1 and 2 shown in the photo above, each one bundling together a bevy of nifty themed extras to do with the … Continue reading Sakura Wars Corner: Denmaku Club 1 and 2
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'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
[A quick note before we begin: Going forward you'll be able to find all of these Dragon Quest X diary posts under the new ~Dragon Quest X Play Diary~ tag] At a bit of a loose end and with my brain turned to mush after writing an unreasonably enormous review on brand new Taiwanese RPG Sword & … Continue reading My Dragon Quest X Play Diary: Part 02
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
In its original form Dragon Quest X remains online only and exclusive to Japan (the upcoming offline version is an entirely separate and heavily reworked entity), although it's a little easier to get into these days thanks to a Final Fantasy XIV-style relaxation on its entry requirements: Anyone living in Japan (or pretending to be) … Continue reading My Dragon Quest X Diary: Part 01
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
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 