(s) Archive
2021-02-10
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 clichĂ© 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 »
2021-01-07
Blitzball. A smile has cracked across someone’s face, and only because the word is written in isolation. Blitzball. An annoyed player resets their PlayStation, determined to beat the Luca Goers in the finals. Blitzball. A silly laugh is shared between two star-crossed lovers, neither aware of truths above their knowledge. Blitzball. A small fishing town… Read More »
2020-12-31
Included among my approximately 4,296 hobbies is browsing through comic book websites and gazing in wonder at the preview art of rarely-translated European graphic novels. A few exquisitely-drawn tomes have even ended up on my bookshelves; so when I first noticed Vesper: Ether Saga on Kickstarter, my curiosity was definitely piqued.
2020-12-30
Around the mid-2010s, a niche JRPG series began to pick up steam and quickly became (in)famous around the JRPG world. That series was Hyperdimension Neptunia, whose main selling point was its cute characters and commentary on the gaming industry. For most critics, the series was nothing more than a mediocre RPG series that managed to… Read More »
2020-12-17
Welcome to RPGFan’s Most Anticipated Games of 2021, where we take a look at some of our most anticipated titles for the upcoming year! When we put together our list of the Most Anticipated Games for 2020, there were some clear, AAA titles that we knew we couldn’t miss. That might not be as true… Read More »
2020-12-09
What are you trying to prove? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot lately, and one that feels particularly important right now. That’s probably why Something Classic Games‘ Shadows of Adam struck such a chord with me: it asks the same thing. What are we trying to prove? Who are we proving it… Read More »
2020-12-03
I’m sure at least three or four of you out there have played both Chrono Trigger and Dark Souls, perhaps even wondered what would happen if you were to mix the two. If so, Chrono Sword may be the answer to your question; a Souls-like action RPG with isometric pixel graphics and a strong narrative that blends time travel with a gothic fantasy world.
2020-12-02
Prologue Long, long ago, there was an idea for an RPGFan feature series that centered around books. Absolute cheese novel adaptations of games, game/novel pairings…basically the intersection of interactive fiction and print fiction. Multiple writers expressed interest and the idea grew. What you see before you is the latest chapter in that venture, and what… Read More »
2020-11-29
Peter Triezenberg Final Fantasy X-2, as a story, is such an anachronism. It is both too weird to be a sequel to Final Fantasy X, and also not weird enough to stand on its own. There are glimmers of potential scattered throughout the game’s plot, such as themes of civil unrest, rebuilding in the wake… Read More »
2020-11-25
The majority of JRPGs we’ve played, including the iconic classics, could theoretically boil down to this basic formula: A ragtag party of adventurers saves the world from an evil god-tier supervillain and everyone lives happily ever after. This is just like the childhood stories we were told that were rife with “happily ever after” endings. As we… Read More »
2020-11-20
Flashback Friday is a weekly column that focuses on fond memories in RPGs. Please be advised that spoilers about the series in question may be present and will not necessarily be marked. RPGs have never featured heavily in the arcades. Sure, there’s a handful like Golvellius, but they’re a rare breed. That’s not surprising, given… Read More »
