(s) Archive

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 »

Alana Hagues I started my Suikoden journey only two and a half years ago for this very podcast. Before these episodes, I’d only played the first two games (of which Suikoden II has become one of my all-time favourites), and with Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes on the way, this felt like the perfect time to jump into the next game… Read More »

Spring is that wonderful time of year when chipmunks emerge from their burrows, snowpants are shoved to the back of the closet, and fresh new video games burst forth from the ground.

Inspired by the Zelda series and Terranigma, Holomento is an open world action RPG with procedurally generated dungeons, a town reconstruction system, and the ever-present threat of permadeath. Follow generations of Travelers through a vast 3D world, battle elephant-sized rats and other monstrosities, and invest some money in the Stonk Market. Yes, that spelling was absolutely correct.

You’ve heard of Warriors (or Musou, if you’re feeling fancy) games before. Of course you have! Ever since Dynasty Warriors 2 landed on the PS2 back in the olden days of the year 2000, the one-versus-one-thousand brand of beat-em-up has been a staple, hitting every major console release, most minor console releases, and a metric… Read More »

Now that Sony has made it official that they are closing the PS3, PS Vita, and PSP PlayStation Stores this summer (boo), we wanted to take the opportunity to re-share this feature that we ran in 2016. While web-based store links for these platforms stopped working last year (we originally featured direct store links in… Read More »

Eva Padilla Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a game that surprised and delighted me frequently, and not in many of the ways I initially guessed. Certainly, there was “Backgrounds are stunning” and “That is the best-looking, gosh-darn dango I’ve ever seen.” But then in comes “This game has 4 DLCs on Vita, and each one… Read More »

Enjoy life during the Stone Ages in Roots of Pacha, a new farming game with vivid pixel graphics, an adequate number of prehistoric animals, and a focus on co-op.

Sidequests tend to exist in a vacuum. The fetch quest you undertake for the old, toothless man in the mushroom hut? Yeah, nobody’s going to know about it. Rarely is extra content acknowledged by an RPG’s world or characters; side quests are inconsequential to the bigger picture these games are trying to paint. They’re great… Read More »

Quick, what’s the first thing that pops into your head when someone mentions Pokémon Sun & Moon?  For me, it’s Team Skull, and I’ll bet most of you would say the same.  Imagine Pokémon Sun & Moon without Team Skull for a moment. Pretty “meh,” right? Indeed, those guttersnipes with their sick rhymes, ill dance moves, cartoony… Read More »

The tentatively titled Project Triangle Strategy was a standout at February’s Nintendo Direct. A promising SRPG entry into Square Enix’s HD-2D series that started with Octopath Traveller, Project Triangle Strategy looks to evoke classic politically charged SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. And hey, it’s shaping up pretty dang well from the early… Read More »

Kaleb Curry Radiant Historia is not Mega Man Battle Network. That may seem obvious to most, but to me—a decade younger and craving some more of that sweet, sweet MMBN action—it was a deal-breaker. I played 15 minutes of this lovely game and then never gave it a second thought for ten years, all because… Read More »

Welcome to Beacon Pines, a quaint mountain town inhabited by a wide assortment of anthropomorphic cuties and filled with an even wider assortment of dark secrets and bizarre occurrences.

If you’re a big JRPG fan, you’ve probably heard of Shin Megami Tensei. Atlus’ demon-summoning RPG series has been around for nearly 30 years under its original Megami Tensei moniker. In the US, however, releases were sporadic at best and often underwent heavy localization to fit Western sensibilities. It wasn’t until the 2007 release of spinoff title Persona 3 that… Read More »

After more than 530 days, Nintendo finally gave fans what they have been waiting for for the past year and a half in the form of a 50-minute Nintendo Direct. Many thought that this would be the time to provide details about one of their most anticipated upcoming titles, the sequel to The Legend of… Read More »

Welcome to RPGFan’s Games of the Year 2020! First of all, we know we’re releasing these a little later in the year than we have in the past, but with some big titles releasing late in the year, we wanted to be sure we gave our staff the appropriate time to come to a decision… Read More »