Dragon Quest – Going solo

Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post about the marvelous Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and found myself wondering what it would be like to move on to the forthcoming Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, knowing that the experience it offered would be significantly more primitive.

Final Fantasy Tactics – Huge Final Fantasy Tactics fan excited to play it for first time

The year is 1998… After playing Vandal Hearts and Shining Force III, I long for more great tactical RPG experiences and discover Final Fantasy Tactics in an issue of EDGE magazine. I’m very much aware of Final Fantasy at this point. I’ve dabbled in FF7 and played some of the older games via emulator, but Tactics looks different. Not just because it’s a sub-genre of RPG but also because the visual theme is clearly a world away from the cyberpunk techno-future of Midgar and not even close to the mech-suited steampunk of FF6. It is a reminder for many, and a revelation for me, that Final Fantasy can be anything and, in this case, what it can be is a very down to earth fantasy setting so grounded that it could be mistaken for historical drama were it not for its wizards and Chocobos. I would find out, years later, that it was inspired by the War of the Roses, so that historical flavour makes total sense.