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Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV (FFXV) is the latest entry in the seminal RPG series that is a mainstay of Square-Enix (SE). In it you play the role of Noctis; a prince on his way to his royal wedding accompanied by his retainers. This is the first game in the main series to truly cross into being an action RPG, and SE bills it as “A Final Fantasy for Fans and First Timers”. This distinction may be great for first timers, but is a bit of a mixed bag for fans. There’s a bit of something for everyone, and a lot of small details they get right, but the gameplay itself is…
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Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
On the surface, LOH:TOCS may seem like a traditional JRPG, but it’s really a sweet love story of an unworthy noble and his love affair with a delusional, undignified, working class poor boy. On a serious note, the game is easily summed up as one part Persona 3/4, one part Suikoden, and three parts Trails in the Sky. You play as Rean Schwarzer in his first year at Thors Military Academy. He and his 8 classmates belong to a special trial program called Class VII. In Thors, The other five classes (that’s right, there’s no class VI) are split into nobles and peasants. As you’d expect, the nobles are real…
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Alto’s Adventure
OK, so this isn’t going to be a long and in-depth review. I just wanted to talk about a game I found enjoyable. It’s not a perfect game by any means, but what I played of it was extremely relaxing and enjoyable. The music is subtle and calming while managing to avoid becoming repetitive. In games like this, I often turn the music off and the sound effects off, but this game is different. The sound of the board carving the snow is much like white noise, both in it’s monotony as well as it’s zen-like nature. As you might gather, Alto’s Adventure is an endless runner with procedurally generated…
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Amnesia: Memories
So, I’m a girl named Heather…or maybe my name is Amber…or was it Rebecca? Ever since this damn bug-boy crashed into my brain, I can’t remember a damn thing! There sure are a bunch of girly boys here who seem to be willing to help me figure it out. And that, my friends, is the entire premise of Amnesia: Memories. Tune in next month when I’ll have yet another gripping review for you! All joking aside, Amnesia: Memories is actually quite an entertaining story, or maybe I should say stories. When the aforementioned bug-boy crashed into your head, he took you to a sort of limbo and tells you that…
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Corpse Party
I’ve never been this terrified playing a game. That is, early on. The beginning of Corpse Party is great at getting the player into the creepy setting. The music, the story, all of it…the creepy factor is through the roof. Having played the first or second games is not necessary as the game’s story does a great job of catching the player up. In traditional XSEED fashion, the game is translated wonderfully with only a few mistakes throughout and the ones that I found were just spelling errors that slipped through the cracks. There is no English dialog, but all of the Japanese dialog is exceptionally voice acted. In fact,…
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The Legend of Legacy
I just want to preface this review by saying that I haven’t officially finished the game. After 60+ hours, I’ve got a good chunk of time invested in The Legend of Legacy, so I can give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. The Legend of Legacy is a spiritual sequel to the Romancing SaGa series, developed by FuRyu, and published by Atlus. For those of you who may not be familiar, SaGa games don’t play out like traditional JRPGs, and are quite the niche titles. Characters randomly learn skills during battles, stat growth is random, depending on your actions in battle, and said battles can go very…
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Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax
People call BlazBlue and Guilty Gear “anime fighters”, but games that get labeled as such are rarely based on anime prior to their release. Perhaps a better term is “air-dash fighters” as it seems to be a common mechanic in games like them. Dengeki Bunko, on the other hand, is a manga publisher in Japan similar to Shonen Jump. Dengeki Bunko has numerous manga lisences under its belt, so with with French Bread (Melty Blood and Under Night In-Birth) developing the game, and SEGA publishing the game, it kind of acts as a huge cross-over game with a solid fighting system. The stages and the music that goes along with…
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Persona 4 Dancing All Night
Well, damn! I was not expecting to enjoy this game as much as I did. If you’re a fan of the Persona 4 characters and their story, just go out and buy it and jump feet first into the story mode. Rise Kujikawa has a new voice actress, and it has spurred a lot of stupid discussions in online forums. Basically, Laura Bailey (who played an awesome Rise and does great voicework for many projects) had a scheduling conflict and needed to be replaced. Is it a permanent switch? Who knows at this point? She’s an Atlus staple VA, and will be back for other roles for sure. My feeling…
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BlazBlue Chrono Phantasma Extend
BlazBlue is one of my favorite 2D fighting game series. I never really clicked with Guilty Gear, but BlazBlue and the characters in it just seem to sync with me. I have always liked the convoluted time-warping story and most of the English voice actors. I know, I know! I’m horrible for liking English voices, but if you’re not a fan, you’re in luck as all the Japanese voices are here as well. Oddly convenient, BBCPEx is split into two files. The main fighting game is a 3.35gb file while the story and library mode comes in a 2gb file for a total of 5.3gb. For a digital user, this…
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Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX
I didn’t want to like this game, going into it. ‘It’s too cutesy,’ I grumbled. ‘I have no prior knowledge of this series, save for a few random screenshots I’ve seen on Twitter and Facebook. How am I supposed to review this?’ Well, after spending a week or so with this game, I can admit that it has grown on me. Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX is basically an enhanced version of Project Mirai 2. I am a total virgin where this series is concerned, but not to rhythm games in general. Elite Beat Agents is a personal favorite of mine, as is PaRappa the Rapper, and to a lesser…
Handheld Gaming Reviews
