(s) Archive
2024-04-06
It’s getting close to a year since the release of Final Fantasy XVI, and I enjoyed my time with the game’s focused narrative presentation and tight, explosive combat. The level of polish on these two fronts strikes me as a direct response to criticisms thrown at predecessor Final Fantasy XV for its scatterbrained storytelling approach… Read More »
2024-04-03
Michael Sollosi Final Fantasy IV was my first RPG; I played at a sleepover with two other friends in 1993 or 1994. It was my gateway into all RPGs, and as a result feels like a genre staple. But Final Fantasy IV is so obviously influential to Square(soft)’s future output and to RPGs in general, that those feelings… Read More »
2024-03-28
This year, RPGFan has been lucky enough to spend a significant amount of time returning to the Mana series. It’s been 15 years since the last mainline game, so the anticipation to delve into this beloved world is intense. Fortunately, we were able to demo the game both at a media event and PAX East… Read More »
2024-03-20
I Hate You, Please Suffer by scitydreamer. The splash screen of Dari’s latest game features that title, the credit, and a hand flipping the bird. When I first noticed Dari’s work, I was a little put off. I think there’s a fine line between game development punk rock and just being an edgelord (as they’re… Read More »
2024-03-13
Campaign-based, cooperative board games like Gloomhaven have been around for several years, with famous series like Descent leading the genre. Once Gloomhaven hit the market in 2017, it dominated the #1 spot on BoardGameGeek.com’s list of highest-rated board games voted by users until last year, now sitting at a modest #3 spot at the time… Read More »
2024-03-03
Michael Sollosi When I played Dragon Quest XI in 2018 I was awestruck. Everything from the game’s expressive monster animations to the snappy turn-based combat to the fairy tale story was pure, distilled Dragon Quest, but in a modern presentation so gorgeous I could scarcely believe it. But would my favorite RPG of the 2010s… Read More »
2024-02-28
Undertale Yellow is a fan game for 2015’s subversive RPG sensation, Undertale. It was released in December 2023 after seven years of scrupulous development by a group calling themselves Team Undertale Yellow. Undertale’s creator, Toby Fox, was not involved in any aspect of development, but the team did receive his blessing when they first embarked… Read More »
2024-02-24
I have never dreamed about being chased by an animated skeleton. In fact, my dreams these days tend to involve mundane things like going to a buffet or finding a new cage for my hamster, and if I were to wake up in an alternate reality based on said dreams, I would simply enjoy the vast quantities of food available.
2024-02-21
One aspect of Final Fantasy VII Remake that was near-unanimously despised was its excessive use of crawl spaces to mask loading screens. You know the ones: crevices, plank bridges, and the like that you navigate by holding the analog stick in a single direction as Cloud and friends inch along. People figured these would disappear in Final Fantasy… Read More »
2024-02-13
It’s an inevitability: someone points out that a game you’re interested in has a distinctive look that reveals the engine the game was built in. If you’re lucky, the person is surprised this game was built in a specific engine because it doesn’t look like THOSE types of games. What may have started as a… Read More »
2024-02-02
My Top 5 RPGs: 5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Trails into Reverie reignited my passion for The Legend of Heroes: Trails series, making me extremely excited for what’s next. I adore its characters and story resolutions, and give special kudos to protagonist C for phenomenal character development! 4. Long Gone Days Long… Read More »
Best Game of 2023 (That I Played): The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom When The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released in 2017, it was heralded as one of the greatest Zelda games of all time, if not one of the greatest GOATs, period. Knowing everyone was eagerly awaiting word… Read More »
I had a difficult 2023 for several personal reasons, but finding excellent new RPGs to play was never a challenge. I’d love to talk about a few of them; first a few honorable mentions, then my six favorite 2023 RPGs. Missed Connections: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate III, Diablo IV,… Read More »
Proof That Giving Gust Time and Money Is a Great Idea of the Year: Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key Ever since 2019’s Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout reignited the Atelier series, the Secret (Ryza) sub-series saw drastic improvements from one entry to the next. The vast… Read More »
Best Gateway Into Chinese RPGs: Wandering Sword I had no idea what I was missing out on by not playing Chinese RPGs until I played Wandering Sword. The unique Wuxia-inspired setting, deep character building mechanics informed by martial arts fantasy, and ingenious mix of CRPG and JRPG influences combine to form an unforgettable instant classic.… Read More »
Every year, I find myself behind in gaming. Not to say I haven’t played any games released in 2023, but I’ve found progress slowed by the number of amazing games over the past several years. TOO MANY GAMES! Unfortunately, several 2023 games will also spill over into my 2024 backlog. I will try my best… Read More »
Favorite Game of 2023: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom If you ask most people what seasons 2023 had, you’ll get, well, a funny look but also an answer of the expected four. But for me, I missed summer. My 2023 was late winter, spring, Zelda, autumn, and winter again. Tears of the… Read More »
Game I Can’t Believe Released in the Last 12 Months: Fire Emblem Engage The latest entry in the Fire Emblem franchise, Engage, released January 20th, 2023, but it feels much longer, likely due to the overshadowing influence of its predecessor. The megahit Fire Emblem: Three Houses may well be my favorite game of the last… Read More »
And we’re back today with our individual Editors’ Awards for Games of the Year 2023! This year we have as many editors contributing as I can remember: 16! That’s a lot of cool lists to read. You will notice that we give our writers a lot of freedom with how to approach these, but that’s… Read More »
I played far fewer new games this year than typical. My backlog is enormous, and I didn’t get to three very important remakes that I wanted to play before declaring the best remake of 2023 (Super Mario RPG, Front Mission 2, Star Ocean: The Second Story R). However, there were a handful of stand-out titles… Read More »
Best RPG of 2023 that I Finished: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty I’ve already said enough about how impressed I was with Cyberpunk 2077‘s first and only expansion, so I’ll give a quick summary here. Phantom Liberty condenses the base game’s greatest storytelling strengths into a refreshingly tight package. It could stand entirely on its own… Read More »
Hello, RPG friends! This year, I continued my grand tradition of playing short, 5 to 20-hour games, mostly on Steam and Xbox Game Pass. Below are some of my top choices from 2023, featuring new games and backlog classics! Best Fairytale World: Ravenlok In the ninth month of 2023, I wandered through an enchanted mirror… Read More »
New Guy Walks in With an Obvious Game of the Year Pick: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom What can I even add to the conversation here that hasn’t already been said? Tears of the Kingdom is just that awe-inspiring. It’s the perfect balance of sandbox freedom, bespoke puzzles shrouded in a densely… Read More »
The Go Away Rean Schwarzers Award I’m seeing double here: four winners! Congrats, Rean Schwarzer, you somehow won this award again for the fourth time. So yes, notice the plural. There are two of them now. Yep, two of them. I can see the developer meeting now. Falcom: Everyone loves Rean, so what’s better than… Read More »
2023 was an incredible year for video game releases (and a disgusting one for video game company layoffs. Let’s hope 2024 makes huge improvements there). Still, I always manage to play far more “old” games than games from the current year, so I split my selection into two categories — games first released in 2023… Read More »
