Highlight Archives | Page 8 of 52

Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026 – Summer Road Hands-On Preview

Posted by Matt Wardell on March 25, 2026

One of my biggest regrets from Tokyo Game Show 2025 was that I didn’t get my hands on Summer Road, often touted by Japanese developer Rebuild Games as a roguelite RPG enjoyed in 10-minute chunks. At Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026, I finally returned to the nostalgic suburban streets, and frankly, I c… Read More »

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection

Posted by Zek Lu on March 25, 2026

Revisiting older games can be sobering. Sometimes they age gracefully. Sometimes they reveal ideas ahead of their time. And sometimes they expose every compromise that once hid behind a smaller screen. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection stands firmly in that last category. This was my first time… Read More »

Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026 – Disc Creatures WORLD Hands-On Preview

Posted by Matt Wardell on March 24, 2026

Like many of you, Pokémon holds a special place in my heart. Though if I’m being honest, my RPG tastes have… evolved since the days of Game Boys and car rides. Disc Creatures WORLD, developed by the two brothers making up Picorinne Soft, shares that same reverence for Nintendo’s iconic monster-catch… Read More »

Tokyo Indie Games Summit 2026 – Bandit Knight Hands-On Preview

Posted by Matt Wardell on March 24, 2026

To look at Bandit Knight, it’d be easy to mistake it for one of Square Enix’s recent HD-2D games, such as Octopath Traveler or the upcoming The Adventures of Elliot. The Square Enix inspiration doesn’t stop there; the character sprites in Bandit Knight gesture and spin around to convey joy or frustr… Read More »

Why We Don’t Want LLMs in RPGs

Posted by Pete Leavitt on March 24, 2026

In an era where all human knowledge is available to anyone with an internet connection, the truth is often more obscured than we’d hope. The sea of lies and disinformation is one thing, but the greater threat lies in the counterfeiting of humanity. It was bad enough when social media obliterated our… Read More »

Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy Hands-on Preview: Worlds Collide

Posted by Zek Lu on March 23, 2026

Thanks to the wonderful team at Square Enix, I recently had some hands-on time with Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy ahead of release. Let’s cut to the chase: if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably been holding out hope for a proper console Dissidia again, something closer to the original or Duod… Read More »

Escape From Ever After

Posted by Neal Chandran on March 23, 2026

Nintendo’s Paper Mario series (The Thousand-Year Door, in particular) has left quite an impression on the RPG world. In recent years, we’ve seen many Paper Mario-inspired RPGs such as Born of Bread, The Outbound Ghost, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling, and more. The latest Paper Mario-like to com… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 3/22/25: Stranger and Etranger Things [UPDATED With Some Duellum]

Posted by Mike Salbato on March 22, 2026

Welcome to another edition of RPGs Coming This Week! After a slow few weeks, we have a pretty full lineup for our last full week of March, across several genres: RPG, adventure, visual novel, and, honestly, however we want to classify Etrange Overlord may be up for debate. But we don’t often get to… Read More »

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

Posted by Audra Bowling on March 20, 2026

Ride on, Rangers: Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, the third entry in the monster-collecting JRPG spin-off series, is here! Can humans and monsters unite to save the world? Bonds of kinship prevail in a fantastical tale revealing how past sins echo through time. Heartwarming and poignan… Read More »

Etrange Overlord

Posted by Paul Skevington on March 19, 2026

Even if I wasn’t aware of the background behind Etrange Overlord, I’d still be drawn to its energetic visual style and quirky premise. Knowing that it is the first project from Sōhei Niikawa (legendary creator of the Disgaea series) since he went independent adds an undeniable appeal to the project.… Read More »

Pokémon Pokopia

Posted by Ben Love on March 19, 2026

Pokémon spin-off games are as broad-ranging and varied as the colorful creatures that populate their digital worlds. From puzzle games to pinball, from roguelike dungeon crawlers to photography simulations, it’s practically a law of nature that if you can picture a game concept, you can probably put… Read More »

Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights

Posted by Audra Bowling on March 18, 2026

First impressions can prove quite misleading, a sentiment explored many times over in the otome visual novel Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights. What initially appears to be a more light-hearted romantasy tale contains surprising depth as you delve into its routes, culminating in a… Read More »

Scott Pilgrim EX

Posted by Matt Wardell on March 17, 2026

The year is 20XX. The great city of Toronto is beset with three warring gangs: the Demons, the Robots, and, perhaps most fearsome of all, the Vegans. If that’s not bad enough, local legend Scott Pilgrim witnesses his best friends-slash-Sex Bob-omb bandmates kidnapped by the mysterious Metal Scott me… Read More »

Random Encounter 343 – Pokémon vs. The World

Posted by Jonathan Logan on March 16, 2026

On this episode of Random Encounter, it’s the end of the world as we know it, and Ditto feels fine! First up, Ben is here to chat about the latest Pokémon spin-off, Pokémon Pokopia. Man is dead, and the Pokémon rule. We don’t think that anyone expected that we’d get a post-apocalyptic Pokémon game,… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 3/15/26: Just the One, Actually

Posted by Mike Salbato on March 15, 2026

While I’ve only recently taken over running and writing intros for our weekly RPGs Coming This Week column, it’s been fun getting to introduce each week’s lineup. Both because there’s usually something coming out that looks promising, and I enjoy alluding to each release but saving the details for b… Read More »

Slay the Spire II Early Access Review: And Slay Some Monsters, While You’re At It

Posted by Jerry Williams on March 14, 2026

Slay the Spire may not have been the first PC deckbuilder, but it almost certainly set the stage for a new genre that has absolutely flooded online marketplaces. Often imitated, rarely surpassed in terms of quality, Slay the Spire has enjoyed a large fanbase dedicated to modifying the game and seein… Read More »

Retro Encounter 481 – Best Final Bosses

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on March 12, 2026

The only thing we can believe in, with absolute certainty, is Retro Encounter, Jack. This week on Retro Encounter, we chat about bosses. But not just any bosses–no, we talk about final bosses. They’re supposed to be a final challenge, but are they always? Do we even want a challenge at the end? How… Read More »

Code Vein II

Posted by Audra Bowling on March 11, 2026

Truth be told, I don’t have a lot of familiarity with Souls-likes. I can list the number of games in the punishing-yet-ultimately-rewarding genre I’ve played on one hand, but I hold great respect for them and those gamers who strive to master them, even while wholeheartedly admitting they aren’t in… Read More »

Life is Strange Remastered

Posted by Matt Wardell on March 10, 2026

Adolescence is a messy, awkward journey filled with emotional peaks and valleys. If you could turn back time, would you take back that awful, if honest, thing you said to your mom? Would you reconnect with that old friend you grew apart from? Would you save that unpopular girl from getting hit by a… Read More »

RPGs Coming This Week, 3/8/26

Posted by Ben Love on March 8, 2026

Welcome back once again! There is an intriguing lineup of RPGs coming this week, with some differing gameplay and presentation. Hopefully, it’s a “something for everyone” type of situation, and we’re fortunate to also have staff members with hands-on experience covering our titles this week. From ee… Read More »

Retro Encounter Final Thoughts – Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on March 5, 2026

While Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones holds a special place in my heart as the first of the “older” FE games I’ve tried, I was also charmed by my play-through of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Both the supports you can uncover and the characters you recruit are great, and I liked the plot twist rega… Read More »

Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection Hands-on Preview: Back on the Grid

Posted by Zek Lu on March 4, 2026

Thanks to the wonderful team at Capcom, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the upcoming Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection. This is actually my first time playing through these games, and I’m coming in with plenty of questions about how well this Nintendo DS era of Mega Man RPGs holds up.… Read More »

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

Posted by Niki Fakhoori on March 3, 2026

Any series builds up expectations by virtue of its existence. The Warriors titles, with their plethora of classic games and cross-franchise spin-offs, have numerous precedents: expansive playable casts that span worlds, decades, and even universes; superficial stories to justify said casts; and stra… Read More »

Esoteric Ebb

Posted by Aleks Franiczek on March 2, 2026

If imitation is a form of flattery, Esoteric Ebb is to Disco Elysium what Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels was to Pulp Fiction. Simply put, Guy Ritchie’s directorial debut wouldn’t exist in its final form had Tarantino not carved such a strong stylistic claim on the film industry at the time, ye… Read More »

Random Encounter 342 – Adventure Islands!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on March 2, 2026

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re talking about two new games that both take place on very different islands! First, Bob is here to chat about the standalone sequel to 2023’s Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse. This visual novel brilliantly mixes r… Read More »

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