One – also known as Kagayaku Kisetsu e – is one of the legends of the visual novel genre. Originally released way back in 1998, it was one of the early projects by a developer called Tactics, which is notable because many of the creative team moved on from that studio to found Key. Yes, the studio behind Little Busters!,…
Most of the time, Kemco is the publisher that churns out cheap and tacky JRPGs that make RPG Maker projects look professional. And it does them at a shockingly fast rate. And then, every once in a while, it discovers something that is genuinely interesting. Raging Loop is a hell…
Cults and sinning seem to go hand in hand. Sure, some of…
Terra Nil is a story of hope that we sorely need right…
Softstar is Taiwan’s answer to Square Enix, and Sword and Fairy and Xuan-Yuan Sword are like Taiwan’s Final Fantasy. Both properties are huge in their native language, but have struggled to get much of a foothold outside of Chinese-speaking territories. Publisher, eastasiasoft, is trying to establish them worldwide, however, and…
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It has been seven years since the last proper Dragon Quest Monsters title (Joker 3, back on the 3DS), and that one wasn’t released in English. It has been 12 years since the last Dragon Quest Monsters game was released in English (Joker 2, on the DS). It was worth…
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Early in November, The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet’s second DLC – The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 2: The Indigo Disk – would be released on December 14. One week away! Players will soon be traveling to Blueberry Academy as an exchange student. Today, Game…
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SteamWorld has been kicking around for 13 years now, when the humble little SteamWorld Tower Defense landed on the Nintendo DSi via DSiWare. It has become a surprisingly robust if generally unheralded IP since then, dipping into genres as broad as RPG, XCOM clone and Mr Driller-like. SteamWorld Build is…
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Cupid Parasite is one of the stronger visual novels launched this decade. In Matt’s review for DDNet, he writes, “Comedy’s always hard to get right, especially when there’s an underlying subversive quality to it, but Cupid Parasite never falters… This is one of Otomate’s finest.” That was two years ago,…
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I spent the final few months of 2015 obsessed with The Legend of Legacy for 3DS. As I noted in my review, I played it every time I had even just a few minutes to spare. The game is often considered to be a spiritual successor to SaGa, though it…
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Level-5 has a lot going on right now, juggling multiple games in development. Two of them were announced at the Nintendo Direct in February 2023, while some of them (there is overlap) were shown off earlier this year at Level-5’s Vision 2023 Tsuzumi event. Four of these titles had a…
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While I wasn’t a big fan of the port of Gothic to the Nintendo Switch, I do remain a big fan of the developer, Piranha Bytes, and more generally the “Eurojank” RPGs that Piranha Bytes has been such a cornerstone of. The Switch port of Gothic II has been a…
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Nobody official has come out and said it, but lets be real: fashion/communication game Fashion Dreamer is basically a spiritual successor to popular DS game Style Savvy (AKA Style Boutique, AKA Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode). Fashion Dreamer launched for Nintendo Switch earlier this month to some good reviews and a…
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Since as far back as the Game Boy Color, Square Enix has taken strides to compete with the likes of Pokémon and Shin Megami Tensei to offer a monster collecting and battling JRPG series of its own. Dragon Quest Monsters might not be quite as high profile as some of…
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