Returning to their original naming convention, Utawarerumono: Past and Present Rediscovered is the sequel to the Utawarerumono prequel spin-off Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten. This new title by Aquaplus adopts the same turn-based JRPG format used by the previous title, but with expanded features and numerous quality-of-life improvements. It continues the story of Oshtor, Shunya, […]
Ys IV is perhaps the most complicated game in the Ys series to talk about and one of the strangest releases in Nihon Falcom’s overall history. Released at the tail end of 1993, Ys IV was a return to the gameplay set up in Ys I and II, using a top-down perspective and simple “bump” […]
The Mega Man Star Force subseries came at a time where the public’s perception of Mega Man had long since been flagging due to the sheer saturation of games. As such, Star Force didn’t get to thrive as much as its predecessor subseries Battle Network, receiving only half of the games that it did before […]
Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin became a surprise favorite of mine in the year it was released. It combined a lot of the mainstays of the mainline Monster Hunter games with the fun of a turn-based system while also cleaning up the faults of its predecessor in terms of tone and game balance. […]
In Etrange Overlord, many missions have ‘hidden’ optional objectives, which you’ll need to complete if you want to gain more experience to upgrade your Happy Life Level and earn the related unlocks, such as increased weapon upgrade caps. While these become visible after clearing a level, knowing about them ahead of time can mean saving […]
Etrange Overlord is an action RPG with musical interludes produced and written by Sohei Niikawa, the creator of the Disgaea series, whom we interviewed previously. The project is a collaboration between his company SuperNiche LLC, BROCCOLI Co., and Gemdrops, Inc. Notably, the president of Gemdrops previously worked with Niikawa on Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, another […]
Pokémon is currently undergoing a lot of change. The ninth generation of the series has brought the series into an open world format with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, while Legends: Z-A brought the series into full real-time gameplay. While we’ve got more than a year to wait until the next game in the series further evolves things, […]
Released back in 2023 (or 2024 for those in the west), Ys X: Nordics was the tenth numbered game in Nihon Falcom’s golden oldie Action RPG series. Having played it for myself back then, I really liked the game and it became a personal favorite despite some quirks that needed ironing out. Not long after […]
Wayblazer Dämmerung (Hyakusen no Jou ni Kawatareshi Toki) is an adult visual novel developed by Eushully, a company with a long history of developing visual novels that heavily feature standard JRPG elements. It centers around the journey of two young men as they gather like-minded individuals in a bid to cure the festering rot within […]
The remake train of Dragon Quest just doesn’t seem to be slowing down. While we still wait for the next new numbered installment of the series, remakes of the Erdrick trilogy have been keeping us occupied for the past few years. Now, we’re skipping ahead a whopping four games for our next remake, the rather […]