Highlight Archives

Square Enix Chill Out Arrangement Tracks – Around 80’s Mix

Posted by Patrick Gann on October 24, 2025

In Square Enix Chill Out Arrangement Tracks – Around 80’s Mix, Square Enix answers the question, “What if lofi hip hop radio beats to relax/study to featured music from our earliest NES and Game Boy RPGs?” Specifically, six games get represented across this album: the first two Final Fantasy games,… Read More »

The Outer Worlds 2

Posted by Zek Lu on October 23, 2025

I played The Outer Worlds 2 wanting to be surprised. I wanted the sequel to take the rough promise of the first game and turn it into something deeper, not bigger for the sake of being bigger. I followed developer interviews about the team leaning into classic RPG trade-offs and focusing on a denser… Read More »

Retro Encounter 471 – Star Ocean: The Second Story Part II

Posted by Ben Love on October 23, 2025

The Second Story, the second time around. On this week’s episode of Retro Encounter, we finish up the second half of Star Ocean: The Second Story. We become friends with an ancient psychic beast, gather up the last remaining party members, wast time in the aptly named Fun City, and finally take the… Read More »

Deep Sleep: Labyrinth of the Forsaken

Posted by Mark Roddison on October 22, 2025

A blend of turn-based combat and point-and-click adventure is something I hadn’t encountered; not until Deep Sleep: Labyrinth of the Forsaken filled that gap with a thoughtful story, solid puzzles, and a surprisingly robust combat system. It’s all wrapped in a pixel-art style, steeped in dread, and… Read More »

Lord of Loot Board Game Review

Posted by Jerry Williams on October 21, 2025

Anyone who’s played games like Dungeon! or DungeonQuest knows the joyful simplicity of throwing dice, finding treasure, leveling up, and wrapping up an easy-going adventure against goblins, vampires, pudding, and dragons. Lord of Loot harkens back to these old fantasy tabletop games that likely borr… Read More »

Random Encounter 333 – Gotta Beat ‘Em All

Posted by Jonathan Logan on October 20, 2025

On this week’s Random Encounter, we are catching ’em all and beating ’em up! When Pokémon Legends: Arceus was released in 2022, it signalled a newer, more experimental type of Pokémon game. Now, Game Freak is back with Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the second entry in the Legends series. With a new real-tim… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 10/19/25

Posted by Adem Yilmaz on October 19, 2025

In this edition of RPGs Coming This Week, spooky season kicks into high gear. From vampires and ghosts to superheroes and fantasy maidens, there’s no shortage of Halloween costume inspos right now. Not for me, though. I’ve mostly been parked in front of the TV playing horror games. I’ve been neck de… Read More »

Shuffle Tactics

Posted by Dom Kim on October 18, 2025

From screenshots and gameplay clips alone, Shuffle Tactics looks like an extremely sensible combination of Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, and Final Fantasy Tactics. The endless replayability of roguelite deckbuilding meshed with the added depth of turn-based combat on an isometric grid sounded lik… Read More »

Little Problems: A Cozy Detective Game

Posted by Neal Chandran on October 16, 2025

One of my favorite book series growing up was E.W. Hildick’s McGurk mystery novels. Protagonist Jack McGurk and his friends were elementary school-aged detectives who solved kid-level crimes, such as kidnapped dolls or a missing baseball glove. Trifling matters that adults easily dismiss are big dea… Read More »

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree

Posted by Jerry Williams on October 15, 2025

Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree feels as if playing an anime town builder with Hades-like combat on the side. While enjoying aesthetics, humor, and story beats similar to slice-of-life anime in parts, I find it difficult to know exactly where TGST’s central voice lands. That said, games do… Read More »

Crowdfunding Chronicles: Fallen Fates

Posted by Tina Olah on October 14, 2025

If you show me a colorful alien world peppered with strange plants and even stranger rock formations my eyes will immediately grow by three sizes, so when I first discovered today’s game of choice I knew I had to tell you all about it.

Rhythm Encounter 168 – Dear me, I was… Not Born Yet in 1995

Posted by Mike Salbato on October 13, 2025

With another quarter come and gone, we reflect on the games and music released in the last three months to showcase some of our favorite discoveries! From new takes on classics, to brand new music IN classics, alongside straight up new games, there have been several notable happenings in RPG music.… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 10/12/25 [UPDATE]

Posted by Adem Yilmaz on October 12, 2025

This week, I fully expect a certain game to dominate everything else in terms of attention, mind share, revenue — name any business metric you can think of. That’s the reality of Pokémon being the juggernaut franchise that it is. But here we try to give every release a fair shake, and try we will ri… Read More »

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Posted by Audra Bowling on October 10, 2025

I’m something of a newcomer to Fire Emblem, having heard of Nintendo’s flagship SRPG series but only discovering its tactical intricacies for myself with Fire Emblem Awakening on the Nintendo 3DS. Since then, I’ve been enamored with the franchise’s more recent titles, but hesitant to try out its ear… Read More »

Absolum

Posted by Jerry Williams on October 9, 2025

Dotemu, game developer and publisher of some repute, has proven its design acumen with Streets of Rage 4, a game that breathed life into a beloved series thought dead and the beat ’em up genre as a whole. Fast forward to today, and we are staring at what is assuredly another hit: Absolum. While not… Read More »

Retro Encounter 470 – Star Ocean: The Second Story Part I

Posted by Ben Love on October 9, 2025

The Second Story, but first in our hearts! On this week’s episode of Retro Encounter, we got marooned on an underdeveloped planet called Expel and discussed Tri-Ace’s western debut title Star Ocean: The Second Story. We compared the finer points of the PSX original with Second Evolution and Second S… Read More »

Illusion of Itehari

Posted by Audra Bowling on October 8, 2025

An illusion is imagery that appears, for all intents and purposes, to be real. But what if, beneath the facade you’ve known your entire life, buried truths could fundamentally reshape and break all that you know and hold dear? Otome visual novel Illusion of Itehari explores its themes in an altogeth… Read More »

Lucy Dreaming

Posted by Paul Skevington on October 7, 2025

There’s no shyness in Lucy Dreaming regarding its influences. When I’d wake from slumber as a teen in the nineties, my remembered nighttime gaming visions looked like this. Back then, the quality of video game storytelling drove many of us away from action titles and towards more accommodating forms… Read More »

Random Encounter 332 – Tactical Fantasies

Posted by Jonathan Logan on October 6, 2025

On this week’s Random Encounter, we have a remaster of one of the greatest strategy RPGs of all time! When Final Fantasy Tactics was released on the PSX in 1997, it marked the entry point for countless RPG fans into the world of SRPGs (aka TRPGs), and what an entry point it was. By piggybacking off… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 10/5/25

Posted by Adem Yilmaz on October 5, 2025

In this edition of RPGs Coming This Week, October immediately gets in full swing. From timely spooky and spooky-adjacent games to homages to old titles of times past, this week has seemingly everything you could ever ask for (or realistically play). So let’s dive in! House of Necrosis – October 6th… Read More »

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless

Posted by Ben Love on October 4, 2025

Disgaea has had a bit of an odd journey as a franchise over the last few years. After the monumental success of Disgaea 5 Complete on Nintendo Switch, developer Nippon Ichi Software made some pretty significant changes to the series with Disgaea 6, much to the chagrin of the series’ fanbase. Perform… Read More »

The Indie Side of Tokyo Game Show 2025

Posted by Matt Wardell on October 4, 2025

Tokyo Game Show 2025 has concluded, and a few days out I still find myself sorting through the many goodies I received, photos I took, and notes I wrote. Beyond the pomp and spectacle of giant stage displays and events from companies like SEGA, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Level-5, and Koei Tecmo, I… Read More »

Wander Stars

Posted by Audra Bowling on October 3, 2025

No matter how far apart they become, wandering stars will always seek each other out. Indie RPG Wander Stars tasks players with embarking on their own sci-fi action anime adventure using the power of words to battle opposing forces encountered along the way. A delightful homage to classic anime, man… Read More »

Golden Oldies: Our 25 Favorite “Old” Characters in RPGs

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on October 2, 2025

I just turned 40 this year. In JRPG terms, I died at least five years ago. But alas, I live! All joking aside, as a staff we make fun of what constitutes an “old” character in RPGs, so we decided to get together and write about some of our favorites! Who did we miss? Are we all just impossibly old?… Read More »

Digimon Story: Time Stranger

Posted by Audra Bowling on October 1, 2025

The Digimon anime franchise will always hold a special place in my heart: I grew up watching the shows and found their stories about the importance of bonds and connections to be genuinely heartfelt. While the plots lean towards a younger audience, there’s also a universal and timeless quality. My e… Read More »

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