Welcome to RPGs Coming This Week, the column that increasingly covers titles from all over the world, and boy do you love to see it. The second golden age of RPGs is international! This week, we’re discussing new releases made not only in Japan and the US but also China and Argentina. Let’s dive in,… Read More »
Vay is not a game I expected to see revived in 2024. This Sega CD title was localized by Working Designs in 1994, but despite it having nifty animated cutscenes, it could not escape the looming shadow of console darling Lunar: The Silver Star (also localized by Working Designs). Vay had a mobile por… Read More »
Bomberman Quest is the result of throwing Bomberman into one of the Gameboy Legend of Zelda games. It’s a mashup of Bomberman’s bomb-based gameplay with Zelda’s structure and mechanics, which becomes evident about two minutes into playing it. Since this is a mashup, the game deserves a hybridized na… Read More »
What is bravery without a dash of recklessness? Five Retro Encounter panelists recently finished the first Dark Souls, and it’s every bit as impressive, intense, and moving today as it was in 2011. Today the panel talks about the game’s undercooked second-half environments, the fully-realized… Read More »
I got my first console back in the late nineties when I was around twelve — a PS1. In the preceding months, I spent hours thumbing through gaming magazines and getting excited about specifically playing Final Fantasy VIII (which was due out soon) and Final Fantasy VII (which I’d bought a magazine wa… Read More »
NieR: Automata is one of the most influential games of the previous generation and one of my favorite games of all time. So, when a NieR-like game gets announced, I sit up and listen. When Stellar Blade was revealed in 2019, it quickly slotted itself into my most anticipated list. Every trailer pain… Read More »
On this episode of Random Encounter, we’re diving into a magical alpine journey and revisiting a classic RPG. First up, Abe joins us to discuss Dungeons of Hinterberg. This action RPG with Zelda and Persona-like elements is set in a beautiful Austrian resort town, combining combat, puzzles, and soci… Read More »
This edition of RPGs Coming This Week solidifies 2024 as an exceptionally strong year for RPGs. I mean, we knew that before the year even started, but it kind of hits differently when you lay it out week after week. And this week, seven solid titles grace storefronts for the first time. Not all of t… Read More »
The mid-to-late ’90s are by far the peak of creativity and ingenuity for legendary development house Squaresoft. Buoyed by Final Fantasy VII’s success on the PlayStation in 1997, Squaresoft created a wide range of experimental titles for the platform, blending genres like survival-horror (Parasite E… Read More »
The action RPG landscape is dominated by Metroidvanias and Souls-likes these days. As the subgenre gets more crowded, developers must find ways to make their games stand out amidst a sea of clones. Aside from The Surge, there haven’t been many sci-fi-oriented Souls-likes, and outside of Code Vein, t… Read More »
Let’s praise the sun! Doo-doo-doo-doo The Dark Souls of RPGFan podcasts has finally arrived! Dark Souls is one of the most celebrated RPGs of the 2010s, helping to establish an entire new genre of RPG. Today, one Dark Souls newcomer and four Souls-like veterans discuss this challenging, carefully-cr… Read More »
Everyone needs a chance to escape the doldrums of life on occasion to refresh and re-find themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. For some, this could mean taking a trip to a whole different environment and possibly discovering a new course for their life. For many, that’s one of the reaso… Read More »
A lot of people will point to the Super Nintendo or the PS1 as the “Golden Era” of RPGs, and there’s certainly something to that. But the PS4 is full of so many excellent RPGs, and they run the gamut between big budget, AAA titles, smaller AA titles, and indie darlings that took the genre in unexpec… Read More »
Sieges are prolonged military campaigns rooting out a city or a settlement’s inhabitants and defenders. Fortunately, soulslite action RPG Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn’s campaign isn’t an excruciatingly long siege, despite its title. It offers players an entertaining gameplay loop that manages not to… Read More »
We are just rats in a maze. I turned 32 years old during my playthrough of System Shock’s remake for consoles. I am just old enough, I think, to remember a time when first-person shooters shared far more in common with mazes than gymnasiums or amusement park rides. Yellow cards, blue cards, green ca… Read More »
The indie RPG scene is ever expanding, and while indie RPG music makes its way into many a Rhythm Encounter episode, we wanted to make an episode just about celebrating the music from indie devs. We enjoyed it so much, we may even make this a regularly recurring topic! But, for now, come journey thr… Read More »
No niche will be left unserved in this edition of RPGs Coming This Week… except the tactics fans. Sorry, but SRPG junkies have to wait a bit longer for their fix. For everyone else, let’s just dive into this week’s embarrassment of riches! B-Project Ryusei Fantasia – July 15th (Windows) B-Project… Read More »
The Atelier series has seen numerous crossovers over the past 25 years. Be they collaborations with Capcom and NIS like Cross Edge and Trinity Universe, one-versus-one-thousand Musou games like Warriors All-Stars, or even town management sims such as Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of t… Read More »
I’m the first to admit that my knowledge of Musuo/Warriors games is severely limited. I’ve only played three spin-off titles from the celebrated hack-and-slash subgenre. The first two were Fire Emblem Warriors and Touken Ranbu Warriors, which I immensely enjoyed. However, it was… Read More »
Panzer Dragoon Saga is gaming’s most well-hidden masterpiece. And while it is not necessarily cloaked in underground obscurity nor buried under obtuse design, playing it legitimately today requires a monetary devotion that is practically unachievable for all but the extremely wealthy, making it a ra… Read More »
There can only be one. Since time immemorial (May of 2019), Retro Encounter has held quiz shows to determine which Retro Encounter panelist knows the most about the subject we celebrate every day on our beloved website. Today, five former RPGFan quiz show winners duke it out in a trivia free-for-all… Read More »
The release history of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is a somewhat long and strange one. Commercially overshadowed by its immediate predecessor and successor, it was initially released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. After several years, the game got a remake in 3D for the PlayStation 2 as Kin… Read More »
On this episode of Random Encounter, we’re celebrating our 300th episode with a special draft! Four years is a long time in the video game industry, so we’re making predictions about what things will be like when we record our 400th episode in April 2028. Jono has gathered all the hosts from the RPG… Read More »
This edition of RPGs Coming This Week is, once again, for the visual novel enjoyers. And yet, I feel like now’s a good time for unversed folks to check it out. With everything going on lately, I know for sure I’d love a quiet evening reading an engrossing tale on my Nintendo Switch. If that sounds l… Read More »
It’s now par de course for ATLUS to release expanded follow-up releases of their titles, the first being Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3: FES back in 2008. Nearly 20 years later, with almost as much of a mouthful of a title, we have been blessed with Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance. This version-1.5 g… Read More »
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