June2020
Class Act
Nihon Falcom’s long-running The Legend of Heroes series finally hits Nintendo Switch in this third entry in the epic Trails of Cold Steel story arc, a direct sequel to Trails of Cold Steel II that takes place less than two years after the Erebonian Civil War portrayed in both that game and its epic predecessor. This is an enormous,...
April2020
Review Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories - A Totally Unique Experience Marred By Technical Problems
I feel the earth move under my feet
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately. It’s by far the least interesting thing about Granzella’s Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, the revival of a PlayStation 3 title originally set to come out in 2011, but your reaction to it will likely be the biggest factor in terms of whether or not you’re...
March2020
Review La-Mulana 2 - A Deep And Challenging Metroidvania For Your Switch
Passing the torch
As indie game development has massively ramped up over the past decade or so, there’s also been an equivalent rise in the popularity of the Metroidvania genre. We’ve seen countless fascinating examples of how elements of the genre can be bent or expanded upon to create amazing new experiences, but one of the finest examples of...
Review La-Mulana - Packed With Peerless Puzzles That Demand Dedicated Players
It belongs in a museum!
If there’s one element that it feels modern game design has largely left in the past, it’s mystery. There are some bastions of it still around today, such as the delightfully esoteric Dark Souls series, but most games these days just aren’t made to have impenetrable secrets. By that, we mean of the sort that can grind...
Review Langrisser I & II - Fire Emblem’s Erstwhile Rival Gets A Second Shot At Glory
Back from the dead
Back in the early '90s, there were two very similar fantasy-styled SRPG franchises that battled each other for relevance: Fire Emblem and Langrisser. Though each series offered certain defining gameplay or stylistic characteristics that the other didn’t, they were about neck and neck when it came to the overall experience being...
Review Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo - A Fine Shmup Selection, But Input Lag Remains An Issue
Continued delay
Just as Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo is the companion game to the earlier release of Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha, what you're reading now should also be considered the companion to our earlier review of the latter title. We suggest, to help digest the full context of this review, that the reader also hop over and read this companion...
February2020
Review Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha - Great Games Shamed By Horrendous Input Lag
Delayed reaction
At face value, Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha is an excellent proposition – a collection of some of the most beloved shmups and arguably the best titles Psikyo ever produced. At the humble price of $39.99, the new owner of the Psikyo properties, City Connection, is offering four must own shmup titles and two solid STG at an average...
October2019
Review Disgaea 4 Complete+ - An Often Overwhelming SRPG That Genre Veterans Will Adore
Give it a try, dood!
The Disgaea series has always been one of those in gaming that could best be described as an ‘acquired’ taste. The sheer amount of complexity and micromanaging offered up by each game is nigh peerless in the genre, and though these games are a veritable feast for those who love a nice thousand-hour grind in their RPG, it can...
Review Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers - A Slow-Paced Starting Point For Genre Newcomers
My First JRPG
Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers is an RPG aimed primarily at younger players and those who perhaps haven’t dabbled in the genre before. Telling the story of Sherry, a young girl who’s whisked away on a time-travelling adventure after time itself is frozen during a New Year’s countdown in her hometown of Clocknee, it’s a...
Review The Alliance Alive HD Remastered - This 3DS Classic Is Worth A Second Look On Switch
Back from the dead
Back in 2018, the 3DS was still receiving a slow, but steady trickle of new releases despite the Switch stealing the spotlight with its runaway success. Though many put away the old handheld in favour of bigger and better things, there were still plenty of excellent titles released in this period, one of them being The Alliance...
May2019
Review Lapis x Labyrinth - A Cavalcade Of Colour And Complex Systems
Jump, magic, jump
Lapis x Labyrinth is a lot. From the crowded HUD and gem-filled explosions of its 2D action gameplay to the procession of stat boosting systems and vast item lists of its role-playing layers, Nippon Ichi Software’s cute and colourful dungeon platformer threatens to overwhelm, but nonetheless skilfully onboards players for a...
March2019
Review The Princess Guide - A Rewarding Action Title Ruined By Obtuse Mechanics And Poor Design
"Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited"
Should you scold your warrior-princess because she keeps turning her subordinates into frogs and you think it is a bit extreme as far as disciplinary measures go, or should you praise her because she just survived being double-teamed by enemy mechs without any squad support? This...
February2019
Review The Liar Princess And The Blind Prince - An Alluring Fairytale With A Sad Ending
Cool story bro
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Once upon a time there was a game called The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince. When you looked at a screenshot of this game, or perhaps a brief video of it in action, it seemed the fairest Switch game in all the land. Alas, that beauty hid a mortal ailment, for The Liar Princess and the...
November2018
Retro gold from a pre-Neo Geo era
Although SNK is best known these days for its fantastic Neo Geo console and arcade systems – of which approximately a bajillion games are already available individually on the Switch – it's easy to forget that the Osaka-based company enjoyed 12 years developing games before the Neo Geo arrived in 1990. The SNK...
October2018
Review Yomawari: The Long Night Collection - Fear And Frustration In Equal Measure
Alone in the dark
Horror of the simplest form is often the scariest. The danger that lurks unseen. The shifting darkness that stirs only in the corner of the eye. A distant scream or a whisper that’s impossibly close. It’s this ideal that’s helped games of a terrifying persuasion extend their roots among the small budgets and remits of the...
Review Disgaea 1 Complete - The Best Way To Rediscover This Turn-Based Tactical Triumph
Aye Aye Dood!
Shortly after Switch’s launch, Disgaea 5 Complete brought the tactical RPG series’ unique brand of colour, combos and comically excessive levelling-up to the console. A year and a half later it’s joined by an HD remaster of the game that kicked things off fifteen years ago, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness – now rechristened Disgaea 1...
September2018
Review Labyrinth Of Refrain: Coven Of Dusk - A Dungeon-Crawling RPG That's Not For Kids
Puppet power
The classic dungeon-crawling RPG has been around for a long time. From the Ultima games right through to the Wizardry series, we’ve been treated to a genre that’s remained very niche, but still incredibly compelling when in the hands of the right developer. So when Nippon Ichi - the Japanese studio most commonly known for...
Review SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy - A Sexy Street Fighter That's Perfect For Beginners
Girls aloud
Rest assured, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy knows exactly what kind of game it is. Which is handy considering it’s being released in 2018, where any sort of game with this much of onus on unrealistic cup sizes and objectification is likely to have the social media mobs banging at the door, pitchforks in hand. Thankfully, it’s a game...
August2018
Review God Wars: The Complete Legend (Switch)
Strategy? Tactics? Stractics!
As we await next year’s ‘proper’ Fire Emblem entry on Switch, strategy and tactics fans have several alternatives in that nebula of sub-genres to tide them over. Between games like Mercenaries Saga Chronicles, Disgaea 5 Complete and The Banner Saga trilogy (or even Mario + Rabbids
July2018
Review Touhou Genso Wanderer Reloaded (Switch)
Time to shrine
Ah, The Touhou series. Well, depending on your experience and exposure, the ‘project’ is either a long-standing production line of ‘Danmaku’ (curtain fire) bullet hell shmups, a vast array of parody and homages ranging from Castlevania clones to 3D fighters (in the form of Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle), or a vast,...
June2018
Review The Lost Child (Switch)
Pokémon meets Ghostbusters meets Etrian Odyssey?
If you find the setting for most modern JRPGs to be rather too much like the old JRPGs, The Lost Child might be of some interest. Set in present-day Tokyo, it casts you as Hayato, a junior reporter for an occult magazine who soon falls into the old journalistic trap of becoming part of the story...
Review Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
Ysy to love
Though Nihon Falcom’s Ys (pronounced 'ease') has been sending gamers off on action-RPG adventures since 1987, you’d be forgiven for not being familiar with the series, with the last mainline release on a Nintendo console being the Japan-exclusive Ys V in 1995. Since then, Ys has seen something of a renaissance on PlayStation...
Review Fallen Legion: Rise To Glory (Switch)
The best form of defence is attack
RPG developers have long struggled over how to make a turn-based battle system that excites on a visceral level. If nothing else, Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory suggests one possible solution to such a conundrum. This side-scrolling role-playing game features a competently written narrative as well as light...
Review Happy Birthdays (Switch)
You've got the whole world in your hands
It’s quite hard to categorise a game that tries its hardest to defy categorisation, but it’s often something that needs to be done, in order to inform the consumer what they will experience. Happy Birthdays is best surmised as a sandbox game which, while layered with wonderfully cute visuals of flora and...
March2018
Review Penny-Punching Princess (Switch)
Money makes the world go ‘round
Imagine a world where money is at the centre of everything we do, where the rich prosper and the poor suffer. Imagine a world where a handful of cash can bribe you into, or out of, certain situations, where – hang on a minute. Yes, Penny-Punching Princess revolves around the idea of money ruling pretty much...
