Startling Adventures is a 2001 PlayStation disc by Capcom containing three entirely independent adventures, all of which can be played in any order or even flitted between at will. In this regard it feels very much like Level 5's "Guild" series for the DS; a varied compilation of games released under a single unifying label, a digital … Continue reading One bad apple…
Pocket Dungeon is as much a succinct description of the contents within as it is a game's title. You see, even though this game was sold as a PlayStation disc, the portable part of Pocket Dungeon is not a cute minigame to be put aside after five minutes or a clever extension of a traditional title, … Continue reading Battery powered dungeons
There are just a few weeks of school left before the main cast of this Tokimeki Memorial spinoff graduate, and no doubt more than a few of them hope the classmate they've spent the past few years awkwardly blushing at will be waiting for them under the school's very special tree - the one that promises … Continue reading Rewriting the romantic rulebook
1995 was an exciting time for video game fans. Optical storage media felt like it was the first step into a laser-based future, every 2D game was made by people with years of experience in the craft, and every 3D game seemed to be bursting with enthusiasm for this underexplored frontier. The future really was … Continue reading Wow, what a start!
TwinBee RPG is the straightforward name of a straightforward game; one where you, the player, are sucked through your TV during the intro sequence to help out the cast of your favourite show (spoilers: It's TwinBee) after things suddenly take a turn for the worse for Light, Pastel, and Mint. As with any other playable self-insert experience your … Continue reading Pop’n RPG!
Tokimeki Memorial 2 is a lavish PlayStation exclusive experience, one where every event and cutscene has been crafted to the highest standards using vast quantities of spoken dialogue and premium quality artwork - no wonder it spans a frankly absurd five CDs. That's more than any of Squaresoft's chart-topping RPGs released around the same time, and … Continue reading Konami’s second go at first love
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
One of the joys of buying strange little Japanese PlayStation games in particular is that you never quite know what you're going to get: Maybe you'll end up owning an(other) adventure game or train driving sim, or maybe you'll end up riding hot air balloons over impossible landscapes or blasting away in zodiac themed tunnel … Continue reading A bug’s life
You know when I started my latest playthrough of Vagrant Story the original plan was to use this refresher to discuss its masterful (and arguably unbeaten to this day) use of light, shadow, and colour to convey mood, time, and temperature, to wax lyrical about how it wields texture and sound to create a "real" abandoned place … Continue reading Love for the broken
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 