Vanillaware's 2011 PSP exclusive Grand Knights History is bursting with the developer's trademark visual splendour - and the game knows it. So proud is this strategic battle buffet of its good looks the team took the time to include an anytime, anywhere, screenshot function, making it easy to share direct captures of the game's warm tones … Continue reading A fighting fantasy
Look, I'll admit it - when Ys Seven was in its teasing pre-release advertising phase I didn't like what I saw at all. Why has the artwork been changed? What's this about a party system? And there's no PC version at all? Seriously?! Whatever this made-for-PSP Ys was going to be, it sure as heck wasn't going to … Continue reading The same in a different way
Over the past few days I've been replaying my way through Zettai Zetsumei Toshi 3, the PSP exclusive sequel to Irem's great but questionably localised (and now sadly expensive) Raw Danger. It's a playable disaster adventure shot through with an unexpected dose of chilling realism, the game's opening transitioning from a conspicuously ordinary bus ride into the city … Continue reading A city with one street
It's clear from the moment you begin that Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is a far more extensive remake of the original Super Famicom game than PSP stablemate Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is of its equivalent PlayStation progenitor. Even those fateful opening questions on faith, family, and friendship have been reformed into something new, … Continue reading The Wheel begins to turn…
Japan's capital city may be no stranger to invasions by fantastical beasts but the games depicting these dramatic events rarely attract a staff list as notable as 7th Dragon 2020's, a "dragon hunting" RPG produced by none other than Reiko Kodama (Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia), directed by Kazuya Niinou (Etrian Odyssey, both Dragon Quest Builders), and graced with Yuzo … Continue reading 2020. Tokyo. A dragon hunting RPG.
[You can blame the appearance of the adorable lilac border surrounding these images on my Galaxy Fraulein Yuna Collection UMD, which includes Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire as a semi-relevant bonus. I did consider cropping them to only show the game, but to do so after that pack bothered to make such a rare game officially … Continue reading Going out with a bang
"Oh don't you worry DISSIDIA 012 [duodecim] FINAL FANTASY" I say after the long (but appreciated) data install's just finished and I'm now going through the pre-game setup questions "I can still remember spending some time with the original... w-well over a, um, over a decade ago... I'm sure I'll be absolutely fine diving back … Continue reading Finding my style
I was determined after the accidental skeleton-rattling therapy session that was my time with Tokimeki Memorial: Girls Side Premium Third Story this time around my Konami dating experience was just going to be fun - not a resounding success of perfectly picked perks and a queue of loved-up girls waiting outside my classroom door, nor … Continue reading Kimimi’s Social Rehabilitation: Part 2
Knowing a game's a farmed-out low-budget spinoff of a wildly popular series should be all the information anyone needs to avoid the release in question forever, a game to be left unbought on a shop shelf next to all the movie themed cash-grabs and box-ticking trend followers hastily shoved out a greedy publisher's door... unless … Continue reading Meownster Hunter
The Phantasy Star Universe branch has always felt like the distant third-cousin-by-marriage on Sega's beloved sci-fi RPG family tree; a whole era of Phantasy Star games that definitely existed but for all the goodwill they failed to generate at the time they may as well have not bothered turning up, sadly echoing the largely disappointing … Continue reading The ugly duckling
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 