Game Reviews

A Cozy JRPG Throwback – Octopath Traveler 0 Review Octopath Traveler 0 is a prequel to the original Octopath Traveler, adapting the content from the mobile (gacha) game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent and reworking its content into a regular single player turn-based JRPG. After playing through this game for over 80 hours and … Read more

Classics Brought Back to Life – Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake Review Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake is the latest remake in the Dragon Quest series. It’s the most convenient way to play Dragon Quest 1 and 2 on modern platforms. The largest changes are a new script featuring many changes … Read more

War and Politics Comes Alive with Voice Acting – Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles Review Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles is the latest remaster of the original Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s a blast to play through with its biggest new feature being full voice acting in all story scenes of the … Read more

The Avengers of Alchemy – Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian Review Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian is the latest game in the Atelier series. It has a very similar name to that of the gacha game (the gacha name being Atelier Resleriana: Forgotten Alchemy & the Liberator … Read more

A Classic Adventure Returns – Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Review Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is an extremely faithful remake that retains the charm of the original game while introducing many quality of life features seen in modern game design. With fully animated cutscenes, battle animations and voice acting, it’s the definitive … Read more

An Alchemist in a Hostile Land – Atelier Yumia The Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land Review Atelier Yumia is the latest game in the long running Atelier franchise. Atelier is an IP with many games, with over 26 mainline games at the time of writing. You don’t need to have played any other … Read more

A Vibrant Journey – Visions of Mana Review Visions of Mana is the latest entry in the Mana series. Like its predecessors, it has a very vibrant and whimsical atmosphere and extremely addicting action combat. Although it’s a AA game in its budget, it really stands out and makes an impression compared to most other … Read more

A Wordsmith Mage who uses a Lexicon instead of a Spellbook – Leximan Review Leximan is an indie game in a similar vein to Undertale where you play as a mage that specializes in lexicon magic. It’s not an exaggeration, in this game you choose and form words to create all kinds of spells to use against enemies … Read more

Getting Meta in GameDev Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution Review Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution is the latest spinoff in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series. It stars “older” Neptune from Megadimension Neptunia VII, who, to put very briefly, is an alternate version of the main series’ protagonist from a parallel universe. Game Maker has a storyline of its … Read more

A Clumsy Cute ’em Up – Rainbow Cotton Review Rainbow Cotton is a 2024 remaster of its original release in 2000 on the Dreamcast now made for modern consoles. It’s the 5th entry in the Cotton franchise, but the plot in Cotton is generally just filler (the original games were arcade games) and you can … Read more

You’re Not Dreaming, It’s Fire Emblem with Deckbuilding – Dream Tactics Review Dream Tactics is a 2D tactical RPG made by indie developer Spectra Entertainment. It’s a fun mix of GBA Fire Emblem with deckbuilding mechanics. The artstyle is one of the big highlights of the game. The character sprites during cutscenes are good, but … Read more

A Brutal JRPG in the style of SaGa Frontier – The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered Review The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered is a remaster of the original Legend of Legacy 3DS game that was developed by FuRyu. It’s a very unique JRPG that focuses mostly on its gameplay and less on its narrative. … Read more

Solving Mysteries using Magic in Warsaw – The Thaumaturge Review The Thaumaturge is truly an RPG at its heart. It has an intriguing blend of both historical fiction and fantasy, set against the backdrop of a politically charged Europe. The game’s main strengths in its characters, factions, dialog choices, and voice acting. There are many … Read more

Amazing SRPG with Many Distinct Routes – Sword of Convallaria Demo Impressions Sword of Convallaria is an 2D strategy RPG with two modes: Fool’s Journey and Spirals of Destiny. Fool’s Journey is a “gacha” game SRPG, where you need to roll to recruit characters and grind your playable characters’ stats. This mode has limits on … Read more

A Revolutionary Platformer Game – Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Review Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the newest entry in the Prince of Persia series. Unlike the other Prince of Persia games, this title is a Metroidvania game (a 2D side-scroller and platformer where the focus is on exploration to obtain new … Read more

Enjoyable Turn-based Tactical Game with Demon Fusion – Persona 5 Tactica Review Persona 5 Tactica is the latest entry in Persona spinoffs and is a tactical JRPG offering a very enjoyable experience. Going into the game, I had concerns that the game would be a difficult tactical game similar to XCOM. XCOM-like games can be … Read more

A Brilliant Monster Collecting Game – Dragon Quest Monsters The Dark Prince Review Dragon Quest Monsters The Dark Prince is the newest game in the Dragon Quest Monsters series. The Monsters subseries is a spinoff of the Dragon Quest games, like how Dragon Quest Builders is another one of Dragon Quest’s spinoffs. The main difference … Read more

Metroidvania Game Starring A Bunnygirl – Tevi Review Tevi is a very addicting indie metroidvania game with bullet hell elements. The artstyle is very colorful and cute with great animations. The enemies and boss fights are great and the controls are smooth. There is an extensive story that gets dark at times too. Tevi is … Read more

Unraveling a Post-Apocalyptic Tale – CRYMACHINA Review CRYMACHINA is the latest game from FuRyu, known for The Caligula Effect 1 and 2 and Monark. It’s a hack-and-slash action RPG that’s fun and it definitely has a unique plot with great reveals, but at the same time it does have similar flaws to the developer’s previous … Read more

Mythological Heroes Competing in Feudal Japan – Fate/Samurai Remnant Review Fate/Samurai Remnant is an action hack-and-slash (and musou/Warriors) game set in feudal Japan with visual novel elements. It’s a really fun game with a complete campaign, likeable characters, and a very intriguing story. I was most impressed by the fully-fledged routes in this game with … Read more

A Captivating, But Quiet Journey with 7 Adventurers – Silent Hope Review Silent Hope is an interesting idea dungeon crawler, with the premise of the game involving using seven “chosen one” characters to find out why everyone suddenly cannot talk in the kingdom. The player also wants to find out what happened to the king … Read more

Grinding and Achieving Big Numbers in Feudal Japan – Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Review Disgaea 7 is an SRPG, but with a huge emphasis on leveling (no permanent deaths) and making strong builds through copius amounts of customization. Like other Disgaea games, it has a humorous story with a few serious scenes. This … Read more

A Trails Game with Thrilling Platforming and Action Combat – The Legend of Nayuta Boundless Trails Review The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails is a very fun, light-hearted action JRPG with an amazing attention to detail on its characters and lore. It’s a spinoff of the Trails (or Kiseki) franchise and its story is not … Read more

Hits all of the Right Notes – Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles Review (Rhapsody 2 & 3) Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles is a collection containing the games Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess and Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom, which were originally released on the PS1 and PS2 but are now available on modern … Read more

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg Review In our review, we won’t provide any spoilers for this game. We’ll only give you a basic premise of the first hour of plot and we’ll discuss gameplay elements introduced later without spoiling the associated narrative. The Atelier series is a very long-running series of JRPGs with … Read more

Trails into Reverie Review In our review, we won’t give you any story spoilers for this or any of the other Trails games. We’ll only give you a basic premise of the first few hours of this title’s plot. Trails into the Reverie is an amazing conclusion and epilogue to both the Erebonia and Crossbell … Read more

Amnesia: The Bunker Review Amnesia: The Bunker is a first-person survival horror adventure game. Although it’s the fourth game in the series, it doesn’t require knowledge of any of the previous games to understand the plot. The Bunker’s plot is very narrow in scope. I won’t spoil the plot and I’ll only give a brief … Read more

Loop8 Summer of Gods Review Loop8 is a JRPG, but with a heavy focus on managing relationships with the protagonist’s friends. It also emphasizes traveling in time loops if things don’t work out, and the game takes place entirely in the month of August (the 8th month), hence the name “Loop8”. Unfortunately, the game does … Read more

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum Review The Lord of The Rings: Gollum is a spin-off game starring the character Gollum that is true to Tolkien lore, but has very rough gameplay. You don’t need to read the novels, watch the movies or have played the other games to understand or enjoy the plot of … Read more

Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook Review – A Little Undercooked Monster Menu is a very addicting dungeon crawler with a few faults that hold it back. It was developed by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NISA for the West. It has character artwork from Harada (known for Disgaea’s character artwork). This title is a … Read more

Trinity Trigger Review Trinity Trigger is a action RPG developed by FuRyu and published by Marvelous Games. It plays like an indie game and is meant to be inspired by older action JRPGs such as Secret of Mana and Ys: Origin, where you move characters on an isometric map and attack on-screen enemies. Trinity Trigger … Read more

Process of Elimination Review Process of Elimination is a very unique mystery visual novel full of twists. The story is compelling albeit a bit slow to get started at first. It has turn-based SRPG gameplay that is extremely unique to the visual novel genre. These SRPG sections are never hard and it’s integrated seamlessly into … Read more

Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key Review Atelier Ryza 3 is a very fun and light-hearted JRPG. It does require knowledge of the previous two Atelier Ryza games (you don’t need to play Atelier Sophie 2 released last year though) because there are numerous callbacks to old plot events and … Read more

GrimGrimoire OnceMore Review GrimGrimoire OnceMore is a remaster of the video game GrimGrimoire, a Vanillaware real-time strategy (RTS) game that was originally released in 2007. It’s a very fun and colorful game with a charming art style with plenty of illustrations, addicting gameplay, and a story with many twists and turns. This remaster has plenty … Read more

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse Review Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the fourth installment in the Fatal Frame series, which was originally released in 2008 but now finally localized in the West. The game is set in 1980 (no smartphones!) on Rougetsu Island, a remote island in Japan that is … Read more

Trails to Azure Review The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure is the fifth entry in modern The Legend of Heroes series (I’ll refer to it as the Trails series). The game was originally released in Japan in 2011 for the PSP, but now in 2023 it has been localized in English by NIS America … Read more

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty Review Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is an action RPG Souls-like video game developed by Team Ninja. Wo Long plays like a spiritual successor to the two Nioh games, except the storyline is not related to the Nioh series. Rather, this game’s story is heavily influenced by Chinese mythology and legends set … Read more

Octopath Traveler 2 Review Octopath Traveler 2 is a Japanese role-playing game developed by Acquire and Square Enix. The game follows the success of the original Octopath Traveler, and builds upon it with improved gameplay mechanics, a brand new story, and a new cast of characters. You don’t need to have played the original Octopath … Read more

Like A Dragon: Ishin Review Like A Dragon: Ishin is a action-adventure video game developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and published by Sega. The game is set in Japan’s late Edo period and features a unique blend of action-packed combat, an engaging storyline, and a wide range of side activities. It was originally released … Read more

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society Review Labyrinth of Galleria is a very engaging dungeon crawler filled to the brim with many gameplay mechanics allowing you to build any kind of team you’d like. It also has one of the best stories I’ve ever seen in a video game. I won’t spoil any of the … Read more

Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake Review Our review of this game will contain no spoilers. I’ll cover a brief synopsis of the characters and plot presented in the first half hour of the game and any screenshots shown herein will be spoiler-free. Spongebob is a cartoon that has lasted over a generation. When I watched … Read more

Neptunia Sisters VS Sisters Review Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters is a very fun and light-hearted action JRPG that I strongly recommend you to check out. The humor and writing is the best part of the game because it parodies the real life video game industry. The Neptunia games are JRPGs but with a big twist: … Read more

Samurai Maiden Review Our review of this game will contain no spoilers. I’ll cover a brief synopsis of the characters and plot presented in the first half hour of the game and any screenshots shown herein will be spoiler-free. You play as a Japanese high school girl, Tsumugi, who is teleported to Japan during the … Read more

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero Review Our review of this game will contain no spoilers. I’ll cover a brief synopsis of the characters and plot presented in the first hour of the game and any screenshots shown herein will be spoiler-free. I’ll also explain where this game takes place in The Legend of … Read more

The Gallery FMV Video Game Review We will have no spoilers in our review. We’ll only summarize how the two stories work, and give a brief summary of the first 5 minutes of the game. The Gallery is a live action FMV video game where you make decisions to determine how the game plays out. … Read more

Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed Review Destroy All Humans is a series of games where you play as an alien invading Earth. It’s an open world action game where the protagonist, Crypto, has a wide array of powers to use, from telekinesis, mind-reading, and copying a human’s form to aid him in his goal of … Read more

Yurukill – The Calumniation Games Review Yurukill: The Calumniation Games is a fun game that combines escape room puzzles gameplay with arcade-style shoot ‘em up gameplay. It has a very interesting setting and many distinct characters that interact with each other. The shoot-‘em-up gameplay is very addicting and the escape room style puzzles are fun … Read more

Kao the Kangaroo Review Kao the Kangaroo is a very fun and colorful platformer. It’s not a lengthy game and it certainly is a smaller budget title, but for the scope it’s trying to achieve it’s an enjoyable experience. It’s a good reimagining of the classic Kao the Kangaroo games and if you’re looking for … Read more

The Cruel King and the Great Hero Review The Cruel King and the Great Hero is a very fun 2D JRPG full of colorful storybook-style artwork and an interesting cast of nuanced characters. Our review of this title will have no spoilers, and we’ll only summarize the first ten minutes or so of the game’s … Read more

Elex 2 Review Elex 2 is a very fun third-person action RPG. There are many impactful choices your character can make in dozens of quests. Although the combat can feel low budget at times, the skill tree allows you to make your own character specialized in how you want to play the game. As well, … Read more

Monark Review I won’t spoil any of the game’s plot in this review. I will only provide a brief synopsis of the first hour of the game’s story and characters. Any screenshots shown herein will be non-spoiler in nature and will be from the first few hours of gameplay. I’ll explain game elements present later … Read more

Martha Is Dead – Preview Impressions – It’s a Tastefully Horrifying Game Martha Is Dead is a first-person horror game set in 1940’s Italy that manages to be both lovely and horrifying at the same time. I won’t give any spoilers in our impressions of the preview build. The only kind of spoiler I’ll say … Read more

Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP Review Dimension Tripper Neptune: TOP NEP is an on-rails shooter game taking inspiration from the 1985 arcade game Space Harrier. You don’t need to have played either Space Harrier or the mainline Neptunia games to enjoy this title, but you will definitely enjoy all of the references to those games … Read more

The Caligula Effect 2 Review (PS4) Home » Game Reviews » The Caligula Effect 2 Review (PS4) Our Score: 7.5/10 Our review of the game will contain no spoilers. I will only provide a brief overview of the first half hour of the plot in this game, and I’ll also discuss some of the plot points and characters introduced … Read more

Mary Skelter: Finale Review (PS4) Home » Game Reviews » Mary Skelter: Finale Review (PS4) Our Score: 8.5/10 Our review of Mary Skelter Finale will contain no spoilers at all! We will only explain the basic premise of the story and show CG’s that happen within the first half hour of the game. Mary Skelter: Finale is the third … Read more