(s) Archive

The joy of reading is in the interpretation, after all! Today, Hilary Andreff brings us Mother 3 and One Hundred Years of Solitude and discusses how they pair together!

Suikoden is an oddity. You may see a game from the series pop up on a “Best RPGs of All Time” list, you might hear other fans speak of it lovingly, but nailing down exactly what makes the series so beloved feels like trying to hit a moving target. Some insist it’s all about worldbuilding,… Read More »

First revealed at E3 2021’s PC Gaming Show, SacriFire is a stunning new RPG inspired by 90’s favorites such as Xenogears and Vagrant Story. Featuring exquisite 2D-HD graphics in the vein of Octopath Traveler, the game will send you on a morally complex tale combining fantasy and sci-fi elements with religious themes.

As many of us know, RPGs have not historically done the best job with representation, particularly for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. But things are getting better, and there are still some examples from older games that stand out. So here at the end of Pride Month, we want to celebrate LGBTQIA+ representation by taking… Read More »

Eva Padilla Knights in the Nightmare is one of the strangest, most baffling titles I’ve ever played. It has the soul of an experimental indie title of today wrapped in that nostalgic PSP SRPG glow. And, despite this playthrough becoming a more of a sample than the plunge I had hoped for, I can still… Read More »

Some RPGs get the attention and recognition they rightly deserve. Some RPGs are lesser known in the gaming world, but you still find many who recognize them by name. And then there are RPGs that fly under the radar and live in obscurity within their small niche of fans, waiting for that one breakout game… Read More »

Bitmap Books is an independent British publishing press specializing in retro gaming books. They were founded by a graphic designer and focus on bringing visuals together with (sometimes exclusive!) industry interviews and features to celebrate vintage interactive media. They do a mix of licensed books and compilations; some of their recent titles include The Art… Read More »

I wasn’t just excited for people to finally get to play a definitive version of a game that was stuck on the PlayStation 3 and didn’t play the best. I was excited that new people would get to discover the queerness of NieR. It’s something I wish I’d noticed the first time I’d played both of these games.

In the beginning, there was Chaos. From Chaos sprang Gaia, who created Uranus as her equal. The Earth and the Heavens then birthed the Titans, but Uranus feared his children, and he hid them away. Refusing to accept that fate, Kronos rose up to slay his father and become King of the Gods. Kronos then… Read More »

Father’s Day is when we give thanks to all the great dads out there, and why should it be any different when it comes to our favourite fictional fathers? Here at the RPGFam, we’d like to celebrate who who feel are the 30 Best RPG Dads, whether they’ve inspired us to save the world, watch… Read More »

I’ve always lamented the fact that the Rune Factory games aren’t set during a zombie apocalypse. Actually, this is a lie. The thought has never crossed my mind, though a glimpse of Wanderlost has me convinced that mixing a wholesome farming RPG with undead action and wilderness survival is a brilliant idea.

Boss Fight Books (BFB) is a fascinating publisher because there seems to be no limits on what they will put into print. Originally founded back in 2013, they aimed to create a video game equivalent of the 33⅓ books: digestible but in-depth analysis beyond the pixels and models we see on-screen. Their catalogue is wide and varied, from… Read More »

Ever since Cris Tales was revealed a few years ago, several of us at RPGFan have been looking forward to it. An absolutely gorgeous RPG with an innovative take on time travel, every time we caught a glimpse of Dreams Uncorporated & Modus Games’ work, we stopped and savored it. There are several reasons Cris… Read More »

RPGFan Chapters is back again with a detailed look at what everyone is probably expecting to see in Bitmap Books’ upcoming A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games: Games! But first, for anyone who missed our earlier coverage or needs a refresher, here’s our story so far: Two weeks ago, we provided an overview of the… Read More »

Last week, we shared a preview of A Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games by Bitmap Books. In it we covered things like the quality of the book itself, subjects the book touches upon, and gave our overall early impressions. This week, we are coming back with two short excerpts from the book itself. As we… Read More »

Make your way to a magical land filled with chatty frogs, perverted dwarves, and shadowy dreamscapes in Oddventure, a turn-based RPG mixing Earthbound with Alice in Wonderland and classic fairy tales.

Mega Man. The Blue Bomber. The Super Fighting Robot. He doesn’t need any introductions: He’s classic. He’s iconic. He’s a monolith. A lone warrior created by esteemed scientist Dr. Light is sent on a mission to destroy eight robot masters. Along the way, he must survive hordes of enemies, perilous traps and bottomless pits, and… Read More »

Genshin Impact has been a source of many surprises. Even on a surface level, it delivers on gameplay in a way that perhaps no free-to-play single-player game ever has. Weapon types, elemental effects, and terrain provide ample thread with which to weave spectacular tactical tapestries, all within a real-time action combat system. But as one… Read More »

Alana Hagues Prior to these episodes, I’d played four numbered Dragon Quest games, and two spin-offs. Nothing about Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen should’ve been surprising, right? This is a series that has built its reputation on consistency, and Dragon Quest IV has all of those typical Dragon Quest hallmarks. And most of this game is exactly that! The… Read More »

Throughout the Castlevania series, rarely is the morality of the villain ever called into question. The goal is simple: kill Dracula, or prevent the resurrection of Dracula. The story is simple, and there’s rarely any time for pathos or reflection. These same goals are shared with Netflix’s Castlevania, but we get more time to spend with the characters, both “good” and “bad.” And through four seasons, we’ve seen that humans can be just as evil as the Prince of Darkness. After all, they are the only ones who can reach into Hell, as one character says towards the end of season 4. It’s humans that caused Dracula to shun the world, and even in death, Dracula’s presence is pervasive as vampires and night creatures attempt to revive their master to punish humans.

So many vital gaming series began in the ’80s. It’s only in recent years — as developers celebrate 20- and 30-year milestones — that many of us have really stopped to think about how much of our lives we’ve spent with the likes of The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy, Mega Man, and so… Read More »

The idea behind RPGFan Chapters was to explore the relationship between RPGs and the printed word, from ridiculous game novelizations to analysis and commentary. The RPGs we love so well grew from text, and I always wanted to make space for current books to show the recent written work this relationship has borne — not… Read More »

We all breathed a sigh of relief when learning Sony reversed its decision to close down the PlayStation Store for the Vita and PlayStation 3. For now. I’ll be honest: we started putting this feature together when we thought all three were still going to close. But, even after Sony saved the day, we don’t… Read More »

Prescription for Sleep: Stardew Valley is the latest Prescription for Sleep album from Scarlet Moon Records, just released today. In addition to our album review that we posted on Monday, RPGFan was fortunate enough to conduct a trio of interviews via email with three key people behind the album. Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone is well-known to… Read More »

In the fall of 2019, a tiny studio named after the constructed language of pre-revolutionary Russian poets released a communist RPG without a combat system named Disco Elysium. It will likely eclipse 2 million copies sold worldwide by this summer. What is the secret to Disco Elysium’s wild success? The perfect answer is difficult to… Read More »