Yggdra Union – Better together

I’ve loved tactical RPGs ever since Vandal Hearts in 1997. I can’t get enough of them and will take a chance on pretty much any game in the genre. It usually pays off, but not always… The very best games in the genre tend to come from Japan, which sometimes leaves me battling against the language barrier of import-only releases rather than the rank and file of an enemy army. In the Sega Saturn era, in particular, I took a chance on some amazing looking SRPGs like Black/Matrix, Terra Phantastica or FEDA Remake, but despite perseverance and a deep familiarity with the genre, I’d often find myself slogging through walls of text or struggling to understand their intricate game mechanics.

Mother 3 – Never not funny

I can still remember the first time I heard about Mother 3. It was long before I’d heard of Earthbound, and may even be before I’d played any RPG. It was in the news pages of Computer & Video Games magazine, previewed as Earthbound 64, an upcoming RPG for the N64’s forthcoming disk drive add-on, the 64DD.

QuickSpot – And now for something completely difference

If you’d like a perfect videogame example of how form dictates content then look no further than the Nintendo DS. A handheld games console with two separate screens, one a touch screen, and a microphone built in to boot, the Nintendo DS was a games console completely unlike anything before it. For many its convention-breaking form represented a sort of Homer’s car of games consoles; a confluence of gimmicks at a time when convention dictated new hardware offer only better graphics than the last. But for others, the dual screen handheld represented untold creative possibilities for new types of games, previously impossible on traditional tech. Thankfully, there were many developers who agreed and as the platform grew in popularity, the DS library exploded with creativity. Big publishers got involved with the sorts of original concepts you might only expect from indie game developers today as those weird new hardware features planted the seeds of innovation.

Raw Danger – An original perspective on survival horror

I first played the original Disaster Report, released over here as SOS: The Final Escape, a couple of years after its 2003 European release and… I was shook to my core! This survival horror game from Irem, purveyors of the finest arcade games but not necessarily innovative modern developers in my eyes, had created a game unlike any other in the genre. Free of traditional violence or even enemies, it made the hostile environment of an earthquake-devastated city itself the main antagonist. Helping others, investigating the cause of the disaster and getting out alive was the name of the game and I found it so refreshing compared to everything else on the PlayStation 2.

Ys Origin – When low budget feels high quality

In my ongoing quest to discover, understand and play both the Ys series and the works of Nihon Falcom, I remarked in my Ys III blog that Falcom is a games company that exudes a feeling of luxury. That’s certainly true in the company’s early boom years when it was pumping out truly remarkable Japanese computer games that stood head and shoulders above their peers, and it feels true today with modern works like the lavish Ys VIII or the sprawling Trails series. But what of the middle part, the darker second act of Falcom history, when Ys Origin was made?