Feature Sub-Page Archives | Page 13 of 14

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Outstanding Overworlds

Posted by Stephanie Sybydlo on April 22, 2018

Zelda’s many games don’t always take place in Hyrule. Especially in the games that don’t feature the Link-Zelda-Ganon trinity, our green-clad hero ventures somewhere different, like in Majora’s Mask, Link’s Awakening, and the excellent Oracle games. It’s also nice that even if most of the… Read More »

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Bombastic Boss Battles

Posted by Mike Salbato on April 22, 2018

As we’ve talked about in other sections, the Zelda series is big on tradition: It’s why Gohma appears in more games in the series than most bosses. But there’s great and inventive boss encounters, whether you’re fighting Ganon again or some of these big baddies below that we’ve only seen o… Read More »

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Memorable Music

Posted by Stephanie Sybydlo on April 15, 2018

You know your series has winning compositions when you can rearrange, remix, reorchestrate, and re-release themes composed 30 years ago, and still make them sound fresh and exciting. We don’t need to introduce anyone to the main theme song of Zelda, but from the NES titles to Breath of the Wild, the… Read More »

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Delightful Dungeons

Posted by Mike Salbato on April 15, 2018

What’s a Zelda game without labyrinthian dungeons? Well, okay, it’s Breath of the Wild. But until the Switch game came and turned convention on its head (in a good way), every game in the series was home to usually eight or nine dungeons, usually built around a theme — there’s often “the fire one,”… Read More »

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Masterful Mechanics

Posted by Stephanie Sybydlo on April 8, 2018

It’s not just clever items that provide the Zelda series with some of its innovation and charm, but also clever use of gameplay mechanics. Some of these are very much Zelda traits, like the transformational masks in Majora’s Mask. Breath of the Wild’s gear and stats are to be expected in m… Read More »

Hylian Highlights: Celebrating The Legend of Zelda | Incredible Items

Posted by Stephanie Sybydlo on April 8, 2018

The Zelda series is one built on tradition: Even Breath of the Wild features some classic ones in new wrappers. The inventive items that return in each entry are dear to many of us. And while we appreciate the classics like the bow and arrow, boomerang, and magical rods, we mostly wanted to focus on… Read More »

20 Years of Essential RPG Soundtracks (Part 2)

Posted by Mike Salbato on March 28, 2018

Welcome to Part 2! Below you’ll find our selections for the last decade, and believe me when I say some of these choices made it in by only one or two staff votes: There were some really close calls, but all that means is that we’re fortunate enough to have a ton of great music in our games. Note: E… Read More »

20 Years, 20(ish) Still-Wanted Localizations (Part 2)

Posted by Mike Salbato on February 28, 2018

Part 2 of our Still-Wanted Localizations feature includes “The Big One,” and likely some games you may be surprised to see! More Games in Part 1! The Love-de-Lic Trilogy: Moon, UFO: A Day in the Life, Lack of Love Writeup by Robert Fenner Love-de-Lic may have only released three games over the cours… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy Mystic Quest

Posted by Marcos Gaspar on February 20, 2018

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: Musical Awakening by Marcos Gaspar I was around five years old when I played my first ever Final Fantasy game (suitably, Final Fantasy). I remember spending hours each day playing as much of it as I could understand until I hit a wall I couldn’t climb: Gurgu Volcano. I st… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy Tactics

Posted by Michael Sollosi on February 20, 2018

Final Fantasy Tactics: Learning Through Failure by Michael Sollosi The first time I played Final Fantasy Tactics, I died right away, attempting Chapter 1, battle 1. And battle 2. And battle 4 (Dorter Trade City took me a couple of tries). And many battles thereafter. It wasn’t because these fights a… Read More »

The Best RPGs of 1998: Part 2

Posted by Mike Salbato on January 31, 2018

Seriously, how did 14 games of this caliber all launch between late September and December? Some of these Best RPGs of 1998 are often still cited as some of Nintendo, Konami, Square Enix, and BioWare’s finest. The Best RPGs of 1998: Part 1 Fallout 2 September 30th, 1998 Writeup by John Tucker The or… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – The Final Fantasy Legend

Posted by Robert Fenner on January 20, 2018

The Final Fantasy Legend: I Like to Picture Jesus in a Tuxedo T-Shirt by Robert Fenner Yeah, it’s actually a SaGa game, but we didn’t know that at the time. The Final Fantasy Legend was not the first turn-based RPG I’d ever played, but it was the first I’d ever owned. At age 5, I was proba… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XIII-2

Posted by Mike Salbato on January 16, 2018

Time Paradox by Nathan Lee I don’t remember the circumstances of why I picked up Final Fantasy XIII-2. I had never played a Final Fantasy game before (besides a little bit of FFIII which I did not enjoy), and did not even play XIII. I think the reason was either I was in my experimental phase of gam… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XIV

Posted by Mike Salbato on January 9, 2018

Final Fantasy XIV Memories: (Feel) (Think) (Hope) (Tell) by Mike Salbato I talk about Final Fantasy XIV everywhere that I can on RPGFan, but if I have to pick one moment, one thing in the game that sticks with me as a defining experience, it remains to this day the final battles in The Final Coil of… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XV

Posted by Mike Salbato on January 9, 2018

Final Fantasy XV Memories: Super Eos Bros. by Peter Triezenberg It’s more-or-less impossible to divorce Final Fantasy XV from its inordinately long development. I was in seventh grade when this game was first announced as Versus XIII, and by the time the game was in my hands, I had graduated from co… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XIII

Posted by Peter Triezenberg on January 5, 2018

Final Fantasy XIII: Blinded By Lightning by Peter Triezenberg Final Fantasy XIII is a difficult game to defend. It’s got serious problems, born from its tumultuous development and a lack of oversight from the developers. Yet, it’s also the first game I played on a newly opened PlayStation 3 back in… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XI

Posted by Derek Heemsbergen on December 29, 2017

Final Fantasy XI: Camaraderie by Derek Heemsbergen I lost a lot of my life to Final Fantasy XI. Then again, I lost a lot of my life to every Final Fantasy that came before it, too. I spent much of my childhood and adolescence immersed in RPGs, drinking deep of their narrative draughts to escape the… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy XII

Posted by Robert Steinman on December 29, 2017

Final Fantasy XII: Better Late Than Never by Robert Steinman Final Fantasy XII should have been the Final Fantasy game made for me. It had the director of Tactics, a fantastic new artstyle, and a complicated new battle system based around strategy and careful planning. I was super excited to play it… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy IX

Posted by Alana Hagues on December 19, 2017

Final Fantasy IX: Tonight We Dine on Whale Zombie by Alana Hagues Final Fantasy IX was one of the first games I was ever good at. I’ve got really fond memories of training up each of my eight characters, making sure everyone had learnt all of their skills. It was incredibly rewarding, especially as… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy X

Posted by Alana Hagues on December 19, 2017

Final Fantasy X: Comeuppance by Alana Hagues Oh, America. I remember how you wished you could play the international version of Final Fantasy X. You had to wait until 2014 to get your hands on all of the nasty challenges waiting for you. Me? Well, I had to experience them when I was nine years old.… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy VIII

Posted by Mike Salbato on December 15, 2017

Final Fantasy VIII: Air Bud VIII: Time Kompression by Mike Salbato Having not played Final Fantasy VIII since 1999, I’m hazy on many aspects of the love-it-or-meh-it game today, but one thing I’ll never forget is my battle against Ultimecia, the biggest, baddest sorceress this side of Esthar. She ha… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy VII

Posted by Rob Rogan on December 15, 2017

Final Fantasy VII: Step Aside, NBA Live by Rob Rogan When Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997, I’d been gaming since I was a wee lad playing Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out and Tecmo Bowl on the NES. It was a hobby I enjoyed, and I dabbled in various genres, but I hadn’t played many RPGs. Then, on that fatefu… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy V

Posted by Robert Fenner on December 5, 2017

Final Fantasy V: Cartography FTW by Michael Sollosi Final Fantasy V’s world map is an exercise in foreshadowing. In the first two-thirds of the game, players traverse two separate worlds and may notice a veritable gallery of inaccessible areas: a pyramid in the center of an impenetrable desert, a te… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy VI

Posted by Mike Salbato on December 5, 2017

Final Fantasy VI: Shaved Moogles by Mike Salbato I adore Final Fantasy VI, which some of you may already know from comments I’ve made over the years. But my fellow editors will likely have better-written prose to sing the praises of my favorite Final Fantasy. Instead, like I did in 2010 when I envis… Read More »

Memoria: Our Favorite Final Fantasy Memories and Moments – Final Fantasy III

Posted by Peter Triezenberg on November 28, 2017

Final Fantasy III: Get a Job by Peter Triezenberg Fun fact: Final Fantasy III was the first game in the series I played to completion (on the Nintendo DS, thankfully: I’m not planning on going anywhere near the Famicom original). That’s not to say it’s one of my favorites, per se, but I do have… Read More »

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