Dragon Quest Treasures is a very chill, very laid-back game. It doesn’t ask too much of the player, but gives them a wonderful, vibrant world to explore, filled with sparkly treasure to loot. It would never work as a numbered Dragon Quest – it’s too limited for that – but…
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Crisis Core is one of the better efforts to take a beloved classic video game (in this case, Final Fantasy VII) and build on it. In this case, it’s a prequel. It’s a depiction of the leadup to the legendary events that feature Cloud and his team, and is so…
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I have had the opportunity to get some good hands-on time with Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion, the remake of a PSP classic and one of the very few Final Fantasy games that I hadn’t played previously. I absolutely love this thing. From my preview of the first…
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I’ve had the chance to settle down and get stuck into a substantial chunk of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII – Reunion, and I am so impressed with this game. It’s the first time I’ve played it (I missed it on PSP for years), and yeah, it’s really, really enjoyable.…
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There has been a deluge of Harvest Moon and Rune Factory-likes in recent years. Square Enix, bringing the resources of a large publisher to bear, has made the best of them. Harvestella is the new benchmark for the genre, combining breathtaking aesthetics, superb characterisation, and – the first time I’ve…
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It might be a remake of a remake, but Tactics Ogre Reborn is one of the greatest games of its genre. It effectively established the genre, many years ago, and has barely lost anything in the years since. I have to hope that Square Enix has prepared this release to…
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Star Ocean is such a wonderful series, bringing together very classical fantasy JRPG action with science fiction space drama. After a SIX year wait, we finally have a new one, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a real return to form for the series. In addition to the full,…
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Star Ocean acts as something akin to the “b-tier” for Square Enix. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are, of course, the big guns, but this series is not insignificant. It’s been around for 25 years now, and The Divine Force is the sixth of the main series entries. I’ll tell…
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Valkyrie Elysium isn’t for everyone. The game has a specific tone and structure that has ensured that it will only ever appeal to a small, niche demographic. And yet it shares structural, thematic and aesthetic similarities with, in one way or another, the likes of Chaos Legion, NieR (original, not…
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Valkyrie Elysium seems destined to be one of the rapidly forgotten Square Enix titles… and yet it doesn’t deserve to be. In playing it I was strongly reminded of games like Chaos Legion and NieR (before NieR: Automata convinced people to reassess the original); games that have a loftier aesthetic…
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