(s) Archive
2021-02-10
Best Discovery: Necrobarista Having stepped into an editing position amongst my duties as Video Manager here, I’ve been privileged to play or see many otherwise unfamiliar titles. When Zach reviewed Necrobarista, I wasn’t sure what to expect from my playthrough for capture, but I in turn was captured by the game’s charm, genuineness, and aesthetic.… Read More »
I’m a sucker for ambition. Show me one game that reaches for the stars, stumbling every step of the way, and one that knows what it is and executes it to perfection? I’ll pick the former every day of the week. This year, however, in a rare convergence, my top three games and my three… Read More »
Best RPG: Yakuza: Like a Dragon In November, the Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio team gave 2020 a shot of pure joy in the form of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. A reinvention of the beloved RPG brawler, LAD trades real-time fisticuffs for full-blown turn-based RPG combat while keeping everything else that Yakuza fans love. Leaving behind… Read More »
2020 has been a precarious year. Through all of the trials and tribulations, the one thing I found comfort in this year was playing RPGs. In that regard, 2020 was great! I present to you a list of my favorite games I played throughout this year: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Never in my whole life… Read More »
2020 has been an…interesting year, at least in terms of gaming. I certainly never expected that I’d ever be able to play or want to play some of the games on this list. But 2020 has been a year for defying expectations, usually for worse but just occasionally for better. With my GOTY picks, I’d… Read More »
Remake of the Year: Final Fantasy VII Remake I move at mach-speed-molasses when I play games, so I’ve only actually played two RPGs that came out this year: Final Fantasy VII Remake and Trials of Mana. The fun part is they’re both remakes, so let’s pit ’em against each other! These games are largely differentiated… Read More »
2020 was a disastrous year in many respects, but at least we got some great new video games and ample government-mandated time and opportunity to play them. I ended up knocking out several 2020 releases, at least enough for a ranked top 5. (You probably see where this is going.) Retro Encounter of the Year… Read More »
Retro Encounter Game of the Year: Mother 3 Mother 3 blew me away. After multiple failed attempts to play it, I’m beyond happy our Retro Encounter episodes finally encouraged me to get around to it. Mother 3 is a stone-cold masterpiece and surpasses EarthBound in almost every way. I could go on and on about… Read More »
3) Mythic Ocean Mythic Ocean is a visual novel with a 3D open-world feel, a go-with-the-flow vibe, and some pretty funky characters. Its imaginative setting is an odd “limbo” where the world just ended and it’s now time to figure out how to make a new one. Mythic Ocean is a very interesting game whose… Read More »
Best PS2-era RPG of the Year and Also 2011: Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition I really like Dragon Quest VIII. I like Dragon Quest VIII so much, it became my golden standard for JRPGs and nurtured my obsession with PS2-era JRPGs. Their overarching scope, the broad variety of game mechanics, and the hardcore biblical scale of… Read More »
Whether we like it or not, 2020 is going to be a historic year for a bunch of reasons. The start of the 2020s is forever shadowed by the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on everything, including the video game industry. Despite all this, 2020 still managed to push out some great games and, more… Read More »
Preview in new tab I don’t think I’ve ever struggled to write about my favourite games as much as I have this year. Not because I couldn’t come up with anything, but because it meant looking back at a year I’d rather forget. At times, I’ve barely had the energy to play video games; at… Read More »
2021-02-08
A new year means new visual novels, and today I bring you The Sky Left Us, a challenging ecological tale. With influences ranging from Nausicaa to Disco Elysium, the game offers a sci-fi storyline centered around environmental issues and classism, with an intriguing and stylish cast of queer characters to befriend and romance.
2021-02-02
Tyler Trosper Monolith Soft has become synonymous with the Xeno games, whether it’s the Xenoblade series or, to a lesser extent, Xenosaga. However, GameCube owners know of another RPG series by the famed company created in conjunction with tri-Crescendo: Baten Kaitos. Seventeen years after my initial playthrough, my return to the first game in the… Read More »
2021-01-29
Let’s talk Barry Manilow. Bear with me here. 1978. The Even Now Album. “Copa Cabana.” It’s a song I bopped to regularly as a child, tucked away in the backseat of my grandma’s convertible with the wind slapping away at my face. It’s a banger, plain and simple, but there’s a tragedy hiding under all… Read More »
2021-01-28
Have you ever found yourself playing a classic point-and-click game and thinking, “Golly. That dastardly pirate and/or gangster over there really needs a surprise punch in the snout”? BROK the InvestiGator, brought to you by the developer of Demetrios, will allow you to do just that.
2021-01-20
It’s become a bit of a cliché to say that 2020 was a tough year for many of us, but well, it was. Luckily, if there was one thing many of us could count on, it was amazing VGM to help us get through it. Whether it’s a new OST from a surprising indie title… Read More »
Buried Stars OST Buried Stars is an engaging visual novel with a fantastically tense atmosphere, and its music certainly helped to convey the claustrophobic sense of stress and unease that the plot was going for. I adored the vocal theme “Be Honest,” but the instrumental tracks used throughout the title were also quite excellent and… Read More »
KINGDOM HEARTS – III, II.8, Unchained χ & Union χ [Cross] OST by Adam Luhrs I previously described Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s soundtrack as a “musical smorgasbord of absurd dimensions.” I realize now that I should have kept that superlative in my pocket because the soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts III is even bigger. With 10… Read More »
Haven Original Soundtrack Where the heck did this come from? I hadn’t heard of Haven until its appearances in summer 2020’s many virtual game showcases, and quickly became entranced by the setting and visual style. The music seemed pretty nice too, but it wasn’t until I bought Danger’s full soundtrack that it really sunk its… Read More »
Best Original Soundtrack KINGDOM HEARTS – III, II.8, Unchained χ & Union χ [Cross] – Original Soundtrack Well, we have been waiting quite a long time for this one. But it finally happened. And not only did we get the full KHIII soundtrack, but — as has been done in past releases — Square Enix… Read More »
The “Overlooked Final Fantasy Music” Award: Final Fantasy III: Four Souls So, I may have been touting FFIII music as overlooked ever since “Elia, the Maiden of Water” showed up in the A New World concert repertoire. Whether you’ve heard it there, in the extremely well done Crystal Tower series in FFXIV, or even in… Read More »
Shin Sakura Wars Kayou Zenshuu (New Sakura Wars Vocal Songs) Picture an alternate history in which Mel Brooks was born in Japan, he directed a series of Tokusatsu musicals in the 90s, and then SEGA dug up his work decades later and said, “This…but EVEN MORE!” That’s Kohei Tanaka’s soundtrack for Sakura Wars. Heck, even… Read More »
Overall Favourite – 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim Original Soundtrack A video game about school kids, giant mechs, yakisoba pan, idols, and more needs a varied soundtrack to match its overwhelming world. Luckily, long-time Vanillaware collaborators Hitoshi Sakimoto and Basiscape have created what is easily their best work. I can’t think of another soundtrack like 13… Read More »
2021-01-13
“…when the time comes, you get the chance to really test the cut of your sails, and show what you’re made of… well, I hope I’m there, catching some of the light coming off you that day.” John Silver, Cyborg That’s a quote from the best Disney movie ever made — Treasure Planet. You may… Read More »
