Final Fantasy XVI almost gets it completely right. It continues the franchise’s recent trend of action gameplay and moving further away from its turn based roots. The developers have chosen to make Final Fantasy XVI more in line with other AAA third person affairs in hopes of finding a larger fanbase. It largely succeeds at that but not without making some pretty major missteps. A tale of Fire The plot of Final Fantasy XVI is a dark and twisted tale of the world of Valisthea. You take on the role of Clive Rosfield, crown prince to the kingdom of Rosairia. His brother, Joshua, is the Dominant ..read more

The DioField Chronicle is an interesting game. It sits in a genre Square Enix rarely plays with and its not part of any of the company’s existing franchises. In the middle of what some could say the company’s strongest years, it could represent the future of Square Enix. A company looking to embrace its former identity as a home for experimental rpgs when it was split between SquareSoft and Enix Corporation. If that’s the case, I happily welcome that future. The DioField Chronicle proves the company can do more than just Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. The DioField Chronicle is developed by L ..read more

Babylon’s Fall has got to be Platinum Games’ biggest failure. This was to be their biggest project. A Destiny styled action role playing game that fell flat on its face at release. The game did so poorly that Square Enix is pulling the plug on it eleven months after release. I spent a week obsessively playing the game so I can get the platinum trophy before its shuttered. Let’s take a little bit of time to go over what I think was its downfall and why it didn’t click with the market. What I Liked So, I spent a week playing this game so of course, in can’t be all bad. The thing that kept me com ..read more

One of my favorite game publishers is Square Enix. They work mostly in the JRPG space but they always find a way to make games that take the genre in interesting directions. With the first half of 2022 done, I wanted to take a look forward at what they have coming in the future…and boy is it a lot. Live A Live (7.27.22) – Switch Live A Live is one of those SNES games that SquareSoft refused to publish back in the day. I’m not sure what the reasoning was but sometime in the early 2000s fans took upon themselves to translate and release the game to the emulation community. For many who played i ..read more

Stranger of Paradise sounds like it should be a dream game for me. Combine the fast paced and thrilling combat of Nioh with the story and depth of Final Fantasy. To an extent, that’s partly true but a few missteps keep from being the dream collab that I expected. The Origin of Chaos For as long as I could remember, I’ve loved Final Fantasy. The story and the worlds of each game always found a way to grab my imagination. Stranger of Paradise is the first game in the franchise that I was disappointed by on first sight. Before it was announced, there had been rumors that Square Enix was set to an ..read more

Monark is such a weird game for me. When I originally got the code I fell in love with the game. Everyday I couldn’t get enough of it until I did get enough of it. Monark is a strategy role playing game and a rather good one. It’s just that it’s easy to forget that fact when you have to repeat battles over to stand a chance in the next story encounter. In a more traditional role playing game, this wouldn’t be an issue. However, in a strategy game, that can be a huge detriment. Coming to us from developers Lancarse and a few of the original creators of the Shin Megami Tensei series, including t ..read more

I knew absolutely nothing about Labyrinth Legend before playing but I’m glad I did. Labyrinth Legend is a retro inspired, indie dungeon crawler. It’s one of a few indie games, like Giraffe and Annika, being published by NIS America. Apparently, it first released on mobile and PC back in 2020 and has now finally hit the Nintendo Switch. These seem like the perfect platforms for it to be if you ask me. Labyrinth Legend begins with a text scroll explaining your objective in the game. You are a lone adventurer who has made their way to the Kingdom of Kanata in search of a royal treasure. Once you ..read more

For years I had never played the original Final Fantasy. For some reason or another, the multiple ports of the game just seemed to past me by. Then in 2018, I started playing the mobile port and I was captivated by it. Unfortunately, I never finished the game because something happened to the device I was playing on and there was no cloud save. Though I wanted to try again on a different device, I just couldn’t get into using the touch screen and the archaic design of the game. That’s where the Pixel Remaster of the game comes in. The original Final Fantasy is a masterclass of a game. The dev ..read more

If you’re a fan of Hiro Mashima’s Fairy Tail or Rave Master, you should keep your eyes on Edens Zero. Edens Zero is his latest manga sensation. Kodansha Comics, the western publisher, has a description of the manga you can read below: “It’s here! The creator of Fairy Tail, manga superstar Hiro Mashima, is back with a high-flying space adventure! All the steadfast friendship, crazy fighting, and blue cats you’ve come to expect … in space! A young boy gazes up at the sky and sees a streaming bolt of light. The friendly, armor-clad being at his side tells him gently, “That’s a dragon.” The ..read more

I walked into void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium not knowing exactly what I’d get and was left pleasantly surprised. Until the New Game + Expo, I had no idea what this title even was but the trailer piqued my interest. Even though this game released during a busy period, don’t let it sneak passed you. I found Void Terrarium to be the perfect companion piece as I played Sony’s two latest exclusives. Void Terrarium starts off a bit strange. The opening has you playing as a rat in a 2D environment until it activates your true player character, a lone robot. Once awaken, the robot meets a girl who ma ..read more