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…
Terra Nil is a story of hope that we sorely need right…
The release of Atari 50 last year represented a change in mindset…
Super Mario RPG is an all-time classic. Ask people to list the top 20 SNES games of all time and you’re almost certain to see this one in the mix somewhere. A quirky collaboration between Nintendo and Square Enix to apply some light Final Fantasy qualities to the iconic plumber,…
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I’ll just get this warning out of the way up-front: There’s an explicit depiction of an apparent suicide in the first ten minutes of Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation-. It’s by no means the only content warning found in this incredibly dark visual novel. I overview some of the (many) other…
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You would think fashion was an easy concept for video games. I mean, sure there won’t be visceral bloodletting (though a catwalk fighting game would be amazing…), but fashion lends itself to collectability, which is how many games keep players invested, and who doesn’t like playing dress-up with pretty characters?…
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Nintendo’s WarioWare series has represented the company at its whimsical purest since the Game Boy Advance. Players play through hundreds of micro-games, each a few seconds long, in rapid-fire succession. With every minigame being a microcosm of pure and unfiltered creativity, WarioWare has always boasted vivacious energy and charm in…
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If you polled the Star Ocean fan base on which is the finest in this relatively obscure but long-running sci-fi/fantasy series, Star Ocean 2 would pop up quite often, if not in most cases. I would personally argue that Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time is slightly more…
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Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade was meant to be out much, much earlier in the year. It had even briefly appeared on some eShop storefronts around the world. Something must have been wrong with it, however, as it was unceremoniously pulled and put back into development for some months.…
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Inescapable: No Rules, No Rescue is not the Danganronpa clone it seems to be. It looks the part, but rather than being a “death game,” it’s closer to the first 90% of Lord of the Flies (the part where there’s tension but no murder) than Saw. Or Blue Lagoon were…
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Unfortunately for Crymachina, NieR: Automata exists, and so as a concept “post-apocalyptic world where robots ask existential questions about what it’s like to be human,” is probably a theme that should be scratched from all other developers’ brainstorming sessions. Despite that very prudent advice, the team that took on Crymachina…
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Exactly two things got me through the darkest days of the pandemic. One was my family, and a careful consideration of hygiene and risks in equal measure. The other (without exaggeration) were the Jackbox Party Pack games. Related reading: Many years ago we reviewed the very first Party Pack. Our…
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I don’t believe that games “age,” as new things come along to replace them. It’s a silly thing to suggest of an artwork. Is the Mona Lisa no longer relevant because people have Wacom tablets? Of course not. Is Shakespeare “dated” because Disney’s Marvel films are made on a bigger…
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