(s) Archive

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 over seven years,… Read More »

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 for his papa and little sister.… Read More »

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/Seiken Densetsu games until as recently as 2024’s Visions… Read More »

日本人作曲家 菊田裕樹さんほど、人々の記憶に消えない痕跡を残したゲーム作曲家はいないでしょう。 菊田さんは、30 年以上にわたり、『双界儀』 (1998 年)、『クーデルカ』 (1999 年)、『インディヴィジブル 闇を祓う魂たち』 (2019 年) などの作品を手掛けてこられました。また、『聖剣伝説２』 (1993 年) から『聖剣伝説VISIONS OF MANA』（2024年）に至るまでの『聖剣伝説』シリーズの大半の音楽をご担当されています。 『聖剣伝説２』の象徴的なオープニング テーマが深く脳裏に刻まれている JRPG ファンを探すのに、さほど労力は必要ないでしょう。過去 10 年にわたり、菊田さんはその多彩な芸術的才能を活かし、世界中のさまざまなインディー ゲーム プロジェクトに貢献していらっしゃいます。 Scarlet Moon Promotions を通じて、私たちは菊田さんに芸術的感性、SF への愛、VGM の目指すべき方向性に対するお考えについて一連の質問をする機会を得ました。以下が、その対談の内容です。 このインタビューは、こちらから英語で読むことも可能です。 RPGFan: 以前のインタビューで、自分の作るVGMの目的は、聴く人を楽しませることだとおっしゃっていました。ゲームのストーリーやシーンに合う音楽と、ゲームのコンテクスト外でも聴くことができる音楽を作ることの間で、どのようにバランスを取っているのでしょうか？ 菊田さん:ゲームのBGMというものは、どれだけ密接にゲームのストーリーやシーンに寄り添えるかどうかが大切です。どれだけ素晴らしく印象に残る楽曲だとしても、ちゃんとゲームそのものに寄り添っていなければ価値がない、と僕は考えています。そういった、BGMとしての役目をちゃんと果たした上で、さらに作曲家としての個性を乗せることが出来るとしたら、それこそがゲーム音楽作曲家というものの、本当の実力なのではないでしょうか。僕自身は、そういうふうに考えて、自分の仕事を頑張っています。 RPGFan: 菊田さんは、今までのキャリアの中で古典的なSF小説に関連した名前をいろいろな場面で用いておられます。ゲーム化を期待するSF創作物はありますか？また、サウンドトラックを作曲してみたいSF物語はありますでしょうか？ 菊田さん: 正直なところ、ゲーム化を期待するSF創作物は、たくさんありすぎて選ぶのが困難ですね。しかし、あえて挙げるとすれば、Stanisław Lem の Cyberiad です。科学とファンタジーと歴史と哲学を見事に融合させた傑作で、愛着があると同時に、物語の構造がゲーム的で、親和性が高く、僕自身がゲーム化したいという願いを持っている作品でもあります。また、サウンドトラックを作曲してみたいSF物語ということであれば、僕が長年のファンとして憧れているAlfred Elton van VogtやBarrington J. Bayleyの作品ならば、どれでも作曲してみたいです。 RPGFan: 「Scarlet Moon」では、日本国外のゲーム開発者との協力や、さまざまな新しいゲームのジャンルにも挑戦されていました。外国人のゲーム開発者と仕事をする時、音楽の感性はどのように変わりますか? 菊田さん: 仕事における方向性や完成度という意味では、日本だから海外だからということでは何も変わりませんが、さまざまなコンベンションにゲストとして招かれたり、海外のファンに会ったりしてきた僕の所感として、日本人より外国人のほうが、ゲームやコンテンツに対する情熱の総量が大きいのではないかと思っています。嘆かわしいことですが、どうやら日本に住んでいると、いろいろな楽しいコンテンツが溢れている状況が当たり前のように感じられて、日本人の持つ感性によって生み出される作品の価値を低く考えたり、創作者へのリスペクトを忘れてしまう傾向があるようです。 むしろ、日本以外の人々のほうが、日本らしいコンテンツを理解し、求め、その価値を高く評価しているのではないかと感じます。現に、僕のところに来る面白そうな提案は、圧倒的に海外からの方が多いのです。たとえそういった提案がどのような経緯で僕のところに持ち込まれるにせよ、僕は、人間が持つ情熱や誠意や心の力をとても大切なものだと考えていますし、他のどのような要素にも増して、僕と一緒に仕事をしたい、僕と一緒にものを作りたいと思ってくれる人間のことを、大切にしたいと考えています。 RPGFan:… Read More »

Hello RPGFriends! If you’ve ever wanted to see your boss or least favorite co-worker arrested for a crime that you yourself pulled off, Spill the Beans is the game for you; and in this case, your boss is a cat, your co-workers are monsters (of the supernatural kind), and the crime is stealing a priceless recipe.

Being a parent of children interested in RPGs can be a challenge. There are more role-playing adventures available now than ever before. What was a niche genre during my childhood is now fully mainstream. The challenge lies in discerning which popular RPG titles are appropriate for kids today. Many of the most popular and critically… Read More »

Thanks for popping in on this list of top Legend of Zelda games. If you’re here for a consolidated recommendation of where to start, you’ve come to the right place. If you want detailed rundowns of all the games, check out part one for 2D Zelda titles and part two for 3D Zelda games. Below… Read More »

So you want to get into The Legend of Zelda series? In some ways, that’s like asking, “So you want to get into videogames?” The Zelda series is everywhere in the gaming world: on store shelves, in online discourse, and steeped in the design of many modern videogames. If you have managed to avoid the series for this long but are… Read More »

Welcome to part two of RPGFan’s “So you want to get into the Legend of Zelda series…” primer, where we go through the three-dimensional Legend of Zelda titles available on home consoles. Check out part one for a deep dive into the 2D entries, and part three for the Top 5 Places to Start your Zelda journey.… Read More »

The Star Ocean series is, in my opinion, massively underappreciated. Since beginning back in the mid-1990s, it has had quite the bumpy road, with entries generally releasing just once per generation and with wildly varying budgets and critical and player responses. Admirably, the Star Ocean games have never been afraid to make some unusual and… Read More »

Audra Bowling Fallout: New Vegas was my first foray into the Fallout series, and it is one heck of a great starting point. I’m not always a huge fan of some of the dated gameplay mechanics: why can’t I lug around as many jugs of purified water as I want and still fast travel, darn… Read More »

Though Square Enix had hinted at an eventual SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered over the past five years, it definitely came as a surprise when they shadow-dropped it on March 27th, 2025 as part of a Nintendo Direct broadcast. While I (Patrick) enjoyed playing through this remastered version of the classic PlayStation title, we had questions.… Read More »

“Made in Canada” used to be kind of a joke in the entertainment industry. Back in the late ’90s, Rick Mercer (one of Canada’s greatest satirists and the host of Talking to Americans) starred in a brilliant Canadian television series, Made in Canada. He played a cutthroat television executive working at a creatively bankrupt Canadian… Read More »

It’s common practice to control the main character in a video game, but this time, she knows someone is pulling her strings! DOWNHILL is a bewitching pixel-graphic action RPG and debut title from all-female trio Sisterhood Games.

When tactical RPG The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy was described by its directors Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi as having one hundred different endings, I was skeptical. It’s the kind of hyperbolic claim that dares you to doubt it. Of course, one hundred endings later, I’m here to inform you that it was, for… Read More »

Sharpen your weapons and raise a flagon of mead; Prelude Dark Pain is a new tactical RPG combining the gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics with the aesthetics of Dark Souls, The Witcher, and Hellboy.

The energy in the Boston Exposition and Convention Center ballroom was palpable even before the Final Fantasy x Magic: The Gathering panel at PAX East 2025 began. Since the previous card reveals in February, and since the set is due to come out next month, there has been a significant amount of interest and even… Read More »

Rob White I’ve loved having the opportunity to replay Suikoden II and play Suikoden for the first time with the recent remaster. It has confirmed to me that Suikoden II is still a fantastic game that holds its own even by modern standards. The first game very much feels like a prototype for Suikoden II… Read More »

In Zek Lu’s glowing review of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, he proclaimed it features one of the most impressive soundtracks he’d ever heard in an RPG. As such, it is an honor to have the opportunity to interview Lorien Testard, the masterful composer behind this unforgettable journey. Patrick Gann shared this admiration in his brilliant… Read More »

I readily admit that I am a collector of things. If a game I’m excited to play has a special edition, I’ll usually buy it. I like buying K-pop music because of the amazing packaging and photo books. If I discover a new band or musician that I really like, I can’t just buy one… Read More »

1. Shining Force II I visited my friend’s house and Shining Force II was blaring through the CRT TV speakers with its exquisite battle music as my compadre walked up to orcs and gargoyles in top-down strategic glory. Until then, I had only played traditional RPGs, so this blew my elementary school mind. “What is… Read More »

1. Final Fantasy VII Purchasing a copy of this landmark RPG from my local HMV store in 1997 was a shot in the dark for me. I hadn’t been that aware of JRPGs, or much of the broader Japanese entertainment culture, prior to this act. But the cover looked stylish, and the screenshots on the… Read More »

1. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen Dragon Quest as a series is what drove me to RPGs in the heady days before school, before even knowing to read. The original Dragon Warrior release on NES drove me to learn to read. And it was my continued history with the series that caused me… Read More »

1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic When I met my future wife in 2005, the only RPGs I had played up to that point were JRPGs. Furthermore, she did not even know what the term RPG meant (at the time). Both these things changed when we discovered Star Wars: Knights of the Old… Read More »

1. Fire Emblem If I owe my love of RPGs (and video games in general) to a single game, it’s Fire Emblem. The combination of fantasy setting and in-depth tactical gameplay was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and I fell in love with the robust cast of characters and well-developed setting of Elibe.… Read More »