Why are forgotten civilizations so ubiquitous in our stories? Humanity has, for all of written history, always lived in the ruins of the past. The Pyramids of Giza were more ancient to Cleopatra than she is to us, and the Egyptians who built those pyramids were far from the first people in the area. It’s … Read more
Western RPG video games have always stayed closer to their tabletop roots than Japanese RPGs. Not only is there a huge lineage of many of the most popular and most influential Western RPGs like Baldur’s Gate being literal adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), but even the games that exist outside of the license remain obviously … Read more
Before Xenoblade Chronicles, there was Xenosaga. That’s not what we’re talking about today. Before Xenosaga, there was Xenogears—a directorial debut for the sometimes controversial, though no doubt beloved, Tetsuya Takahashi. Off the heels of working on field maps and graphics on several genre-defining titles (Final Fantasy IV–VI, Front Mission, Chrono Trigger), Takahashi and his wife … Read more
The SaGa series is an old one, almost as old as the ever-present Final Fantasy, yet to my knowledge it’s been either maligned or unknown in the West until somewhat recently. Part of that reputation may be that the series is the brainchild of Akitoshi Kawazu, a man most well known for Final Fantasy II … Read more
At Summer Game Fest this past June, it was announced that the much-anticipated Atlus roleplaying game Persona 6 is finally in active development. With that exciting new entry looming on the horizon, now seems like the perfect time to revisit the place where the Persona franchise got its roots. You might be thinking “well that … Read more
With the current state of video game patches and updates, most games are changing increasingly fast. From minor balance changes to fully reworked designs on characters or mechanics, there’s rarely a multiplayer game that stays true to its original form. This is no different for League of Legends. Released in 2009, this multiplayer online battle … Read more
It’s easy to dismiss Pokémon Red and Blue as ‘having aged poorly.’ And, to an extent, coming back to the original Game Boy from the Switch, many of the quality-of-life features present in later generations are sorely missed. It’s certainly annoying to have to deal with the item limit, for example — I could not … Read more
