Highlight Archives | Page 2 of 38

Final Fantasy Piano Collections, Ranked

Posted by Patrick Gann on August 23, 2025

If you polled casual and die-hard RPG fans alike for which series’ music they’re most familiar with, I would assume Final Fantasy comes up a lot. Nobuo Uematsu’s name is known and celebrated, and rightfully so! If someone charged me with the task of ranking all of the Final Fantasy original soundtra… Read More »

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Patch 7.3 – The Promise of Tomorrow

Posted by Caitlin Argyros on August 21, 2025

I’ve mentioned in past Final Fantasy XIV reviews that the third major patch after an expansion is usually where the storyline of that expansion wraps up. Endwalker was an exception, as it concluded the entire MMO’s story arc in the main 6.0 patch, but Dawntrail returns to the standard format. These… Read More »

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition

Posted by Tom Naylor on August 21, 2025

Ten years ago, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt graced our gaming platforms. It was an overnight smash hit, becoming the best-selling game of 2015 in the UK alone by its first week. CD Projekt RED, its developers, went from a rising star to a household name in a flash. It introduced millions of people (many… Read More »

Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Prologue Hands-On: A Cozy, Nostalgic, High-Velocity Adventure

Posted by Sean Cabot on August 20, 2025

Fighting against an ever-expanding game backlog is the closest comparison I have to experiencing a truly Sisyphean task, especially with how many RPGs I still need to play. The Trails series is the clearest example of this. With so many entries and such an interconnected story, it feels like even tr… Read More »

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster

Posted by Tom Naylor on August 20, 2025

For many years, System Shock 2 was one of gaming’s white whales, at least where digital distribution was concerned. A combination of rights issues and a hunt for the source code spearheaded by dedicated fans meant that the game would not see an official release, digital or otherwise, until 2013. At… Read More »

Caves of Qud

Posted by Aleks Franiczek on August 19, 2025

After 15 years in the making, Freehold Games’ Caves of Qud finally left Early Access in December 2024. After half a year of playing, I finally finished the campaign and feel qualified to review it. Many reviews I’ve seen of Caves of Qud begin similarly: the writer tells a fun anecdote particular to… Read More »

Crowdfunding Chronicles: The Twelve Slot Saloon

Posted by Tina Olah on August 18, 2025

Today’s installment of Catfunding…er…Crowdfunding Chronicles takes you to a Wild West wonderland populated by a colorful array of cute animals with guns, hats, and world-changing wishes.

Rhythm Encounter 164 – Sean Schafianski: The Sequel

Posted by Mike Salbato on August 18, 2025

It’s been almost exactly 11 years to the day since we last welcomed video game arranger, producer, and saxophonist Sean Schafianski onto Rhythm Encounter, so it’s long past time we had him on again! With a string of excellent new arrangement albums throughout last year and this year, there’s so much… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 8/17/25

Posted by Adem Yilmaz on August 17, 2025

This week, there isn’t a lot to cover, but we do have an interesting contrast: two smaller titles that I’d rather no one sleep on (no pun intended) coming out alongside a port of a blockbuster game that absolutely no one slept on. RPGs Coming This Week casts a spotlight on all worthy releases in the… Read More »

Dice Gambit

Posted by Mark Roddison on August 15, 2025

Sometimes, a name hides far more than it suggests. Dice Gambit sounds like a modest, digital board game built around simple bets. So imagine my surprise when close inspection uncovered a cleverly designed tactical RPG packed with interlocking dice-based mechanics, sharp class-based combat, and nuanc… Read More »

Retro Encounter 466 – RPG Confessional IV

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on August 14, 2025

What about podcasts? You guys got any podcasts? In this week’s episode of Retro Encounter, the host re-opens the RPG confessional, a place where we admit to series that we’ve never played before, much to our shame. Don’t worry, though, we’re just here to encourage our friends to play good stuff! Who… Read More »

OFF (Remaster)

Posted by Aleks Franiczek on August 14, 2025

OFF is one of the preeminent forbears of today’s wide variety of narratively off-kilter, classic JRPG-inspired indies. The original game, made in RPG Maker 2003 and released in 2008, ignited a creative spark whose radical flame burns in many hits to follow: from Space Funeral to LISA: The Painful to… Read More »

Persona 5: The Phantom X

Posted by Audra Bowling on August 13, 2025

Persona 5 certainly has an impressive list of titles under its umbrella, with both the original “vanilla” version of the traditional RPG and its upgraded Royal counterpart co-existing alongside numerous genre spin-offs, including Strikers, Tactica, and Dancing in Starlight. By this point, it only ma… Read More »

Sword and Fairy: Together Forever

Posted by Audra Bowling on August 13, 2025

When western audiences think of grand, epic fantasy journeys, there’s no doubt that an RPG powerhouse series such as Final Fantasy comes to mind, or, when thinking of action RPGs, their thoughts might drift to Ys. With that in mind, the wuxia action RPG Sword and Fairy: Together Forever is a phenome… Read More »

Random Encounter 328 – The Phantom X Menace

Posted by Jonathan Logan on August 11, 2025

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re discussing a mobile-based gacha spinoff of a beloved JRPG and a Wii U classic that has finally made its way to a modern console! Persona 5 has more than its share of spinoffs, including Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Strikers, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and P… Read More »

Shining Force CD

Posted by Scott MacDonald on August 10, 2025

Believe it or not, Shining Force CD was one of my white whales of gaming. It’s trapped on the SEGA CD with a divisive library that largely doesn’t interest me, giving me few reasons to buy the system. SEGA released Shining Force CD late in the system’s lifecycle, and the SEGA CD isn’t known for its… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 8/10/25

Posted by Adem Yilmaz on August 10, 2025

This edition of RPGs Coming This Week brings a good mix of gameplay and narrative-focused titles. If you’re looking to get immersed in a compelling narrative, we’ve got that, and if you’re looking for some deep turn-based action, well, we’ve got even more of that. Let’s dive in! Mythscroll – August… Read More »

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster

Posted by Paul Skevington on August 9, 2025

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster comes over 12 years since the publication of the original iteration. Bravely Default itself is something of a touchstone for the JRPG community, frequently working its way into conversations surrounding the genre. Despite this, I never quite got around to en… Read More »

RPGFan in Japan: Tokyo Tourism in Games

Posted by Matt Wardell on August 8, 2025

As a kid, I was surprised and overjoyed to learn that so many of my favourite geeky things spawned from the same small island nation, far across the globe from small-town Canada. Seriously, Donkey Kong and Dragon Ball came from the same place?! Now, it’s mind-boggling to think I’ve lived here for ov… Read More »

Retro Encounter Final Thoughts: Breath of Fire II

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on August 7, 2025

Matt Wardell For years, the Schwarzenegger-esque barbarian on the North American SNES boxart of Breath of Fire II called out to me, begging me to dive into Capcom’s once-illustrious JRPG series. I answered that call, and as it turns out, that roided warrior is but a sixteen-year-old boy, searching f… Read More »

Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on August 7, 2025

Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers for the base game of Chained Echoes. Chained Echoes felt like a game creator Matthias Linda needed to make. Without a doubt, Linda knows and loves the classics, but Chained Echoes’ cohesion and vision make it stand out from the “retro-inspired” pack. It j… Read More »

Interview with Secret of Mana composer Hiroki Kikuta

Posted by Matt Wardell on August 6, 2025

Few video game composers leave such an indelible mark on their audience as Japanese composer Hiroki Kikuta has. His three decades-plus of soundtrack work includes Soukaigi (1998), Koudelka (1999), Indivisible (2019), and, oh yeah, he sired the music for Secret of Mana (1993) and many subsequent Mana… Read More »

The Red Bell’s Lament

Posted by Audra Bowling on August 5, 2025

Once bitten, twice shy is a sentiment that can easily apply to video games, especially when those games involve vampires and extremely depressing time loops. It can be a struggle even to keep going after that first bite, a description fitting for otome visual novel The Red Bell’s Lament. This VN wea… Read More »

Sam Dillard Launches Mana Cinematica Kickstarter

Posted by Hilary Andreff on August 5, 2025

Sam Dillard is a self-described “creator of animation & albums based on my favorite game soundtracks” and fan of RPGs. Remarkably, he’s also self-taught and continues music projects out of pure love and passion from a corner of his home. His Kickstarter history began in 2013 and boasts multiple… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 163 – Princes, Expeditions, Dating, the 1980s, and More

Posted by Mike Salbato on August 4, 2025

Call it spring, some spring and some summer, or the most accurate but boring moniker, “Q2 2025,” but the second quarter of this year saw the release of some VERY musically important titles in RPGFan’s coverage. While Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 looms over everything in the RPG space for this time pe… Read More »

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