(s) Archive
2013-11-21
Into every generation of consoles, some great games must fall, and on the DS, when it rained, it poured. In fact, the DS saw its cup of great games runneth over so immensely that we had 100 games on our initial list of those that we thought had a legitimate chance to make our top… Read More »
2013-10-16
Over the years, those of us who love RPGs have spent a lot of time with Sony’s consoles. The PlayStation 2, for example, was the undeniable king of home consoles for RPGFans of its time. However, when it comes to handhelds, the PlayStation Portable faced an uphill climb from the day it was released. In… Read More »
2013-03-06
You can blame Yuzo Koshiro for making your heart rate leap whenever you hear the opening chords of the terrific FOE battle theme in Etrian Odyssey IV, the recent 3DS dungeon crawler. He’s also responsible for composing the music for the rest of the Etrian Odyssey series, Actraiser, Streets of Rage, and he contributed to… Read More »
2013-02-13
Valentine’s Day is upon us, and love is in the air! Or it could be. For some of us. And maybe sometimes you want to observe from a safe distance and live vicariously through others, be it real people or virtual. We all talked about relationships in our favorite genre, and six of us came… Read More »
2013-01-19
By: Stephen Meyerink and RPGFan Staff, translation by Shota Nakama and Stephen Meyerink Yoko Shimomura is one of the most prolific and well-beloved composers in the video game music scene. With a diverse body of work ranging from Street Fighter to Kingdom Hearts, Shimomura-san is truly one of the most versatile and talented musicians in the field. She recently took some… Read More »
2012-11-14
The Video Game Orchestra, or VGO, was founded by the Japanese musician Shota Nakama, and has performed many shows at a number of different venues since 2008. This past October, the VGO played live at Symphony Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, and RPGFan editor Damian Thomas was there alongside OSV Managing Editor/RPGFan alum Patrick Gann to… Read More »
2012-08-06
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a game that fills an unusual niche. While it technically falls outside of our coverage here at RPGFan, we couldn’t overlook its significance as a title that celebrates twenty-five years of magic, moogles, and music. It’s an enjoyable rhythm game with an impressive presentation, but more than that, it’s an experience… Read More »
2012-01-18
RPGFan editors had a chance to interview Nobuo Uematsu and the other members of his band, Earthbound Papas, at MAGFest this year. Find out about the formation of the band and other topics from Uematsu himself!
2011-09-23
Every few weeks a story surfaces concerning violence and depravity attributed to video games. A grown man beats his daughter to death for turning off his console before he could save his progress in Fallout 3. A man guns down seventy people and is later found to be a fan of Call of Duty. A… Read More »
2011-08-20
Ah! The good old 90s! The editors here at RPGFan have fond memories of that decade because it was the period that most of us really got into the RPG genre. It was a time when RPGs were a “niche” genre, and we sometimes had to wait months before we saw the release of another… Read More »
2011-04-29
Our top ten ladies listed below are part of a celebration — one of femininity, positivity, and strength. Females are becoming increasingly significant and prevalent in modern video game storytelling, and we cherish those who are presented in the most positive light with this list. Still, for every light side, there is a dark side,… Read More »
We went a little beyond the original scope of this feature with two additional short lists, featuring our picks for some non-RPG honorable mentions, and our Hall of Shame, with characters we wish were given better roles to play. If you somehow landed here first, check out part one, featuring our favorite female RPG characters!… Read More »
2011-01-01
Just for fun, Bryan Grosnick wrote up a fun counterpoint of a list to this feature — RPG Sequels We DON’T Want To See. We found it too entertaining not to include it here for you all. Enjoy! Intro by Mike Salbato RPG Sequels We DON’T Want To See Writeups by Bryan Grosnick The Legend… Read More »
Part 2 of our Further Exploration feature includes high-flying adventures, dreams of a complete space epic, and more! Like with page 1, several plot elements of these writeups fall into spoiler territory, so keep that in mind as you read through! Intro by Mike Salbato Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator Writeup by Neal Chandran… Read More »
We’ve all played RPGs that we didn’t want to end. Or perhaps one that we wanted to know more about what happened before the story we were playing through. This got us thinking, not to simply make a list of games that we liked, but to talk about not only why we liked them, but… Read More »
2010-07-25
It is all too common to find stories and articles about the negative impacts of gaming and the adverse effects it has on peoples’ lives, especially regarding interpersonal communication. How many people have angrily shouted at children or partners so engrossed in a game that they tuned out the world? Well, I am here to… Read More »
2009-03-08
Even though there are still a few RPGs being released on the PlayStation 2, a lot of RPG fans have now moved on to the next-generation consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii… okay, maybe not the Wii but that’s another story altogether. In any case, we thought this would be a… Read More »
2008-11-29
Recently I took on the monumental task of reviewing the entire backlog of Dragon Quest soundtracks to fill out our soundtracks section. I’d reviewed over a dozen Dragon Quest albums in past years, but this was like take an intense month-long music appreciation course where the sole subject was Koichi Sugiyama. It was a marvelous… Read More »
2003-03-02
Akihiro Hino is not only the producer, director and main programmer of Level 5’s second title Dark Chronicle (known as Dark Cloud 2 in the US), but also the company’s president. Dark Cloud, Level 5’s first title, sold 800,000 copies worldwide and its sequel Dark Chronicle managed to sell more than 250,000 copies in Japan… Read More »
We will start off this feature series with Square executive director and producer Akitoshi Kawazu. Joining Square 18 years ago, he has been responsible for Final Fantasy I and II‘s game design and served as director and producer of the 1999 RPG racing hybrid Racing Lagoon. Most importantly, however, is his involvement in Square’s second most successful… Read More »
Last November, Sony Computer Entertainment announced a spectacular sweepstakes campaign to promote the five biggest RPG releases of the holiday seasons. The lucky winners were supposed to go on trips to various destinations across North America and Europe. And while the trips fell victim to recent global tensions, the campaign at least led to the… Read More »
This feature series’ last interview will focus on Namco’s hit title Tales of Destiny 2. Its producer Akira Yoshizumi joined Namco in 1988, and after amounting a lot of experience in both sales and promotion, he was appointed Tales of producer last year. Despite boasting sales exceeding 800,000 copies in Japan, a stateside release of… Read More »
Daisuke Uchiyama entered Bandai in 1994 and since then has worked on Dragonball Z, Dragonball Final Bout, and First of the North Star. As producer of the .hack series, he has been coordinating the work of a team including character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame), scenario writer Kazunori Itou (Ghost in the… Read More »
Serving as planner and designer of the recently released fifth installment of the long-running Breath of Fire series, Makoto Ikehara and Tatsuya Yoshikawa have been integral parts of the game’s development team. Both joined Capcom more than ten years ago in 1992. Breath of Fire V – Dragon Quarter has sold 200,000 copies in Japan… Read More »
2002-12-02
Inon Zur is a game, television, and movie composer. Recently, Mr. Zur has composed the scores for Icewind Dale II and Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. We spoke with Mr. Zur and had a few questions to ask him regarding his work on Icewind Dale II. RPGFan: So how are you doing today, Mr. Zur? Inon Zur: I’m… Read More »
