I have always been a fan of RPG’s, including to a lesser degree JRPG’s. But I have never even looked at any of the Shin Megami Tensei titles. Like many games with Japanese roots, the over sexualised schoolgirl vibe has not been something I particularly like.
And on top of that, the batshit crazy storylines can be pretty overwhelming.
Read More
Wartales is an open-world, tactical turn-based RPG and it surprised me out of the gate. It’s a subtle mix of Banner Saga, Baulders Gate and even some Skyrimesque freedom too.
Not what I expected from a game I had never heard of.
Read More
It’s Bunkers & Badasses, Baybee!
Welcome to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. What better way is there to while away your time in space than a game of Bunkers & Badasses.
A table-top fantasy RPG being played by Valentine, Frette, and you, The Newbie. And with Tiny Tina as the Dungeon Master, well, anything can happen.
All in a very Borderlands way of course.
Read More
Full disclosure: I’ve not played any previous Rune Factory games.
I’ve read that they employed a top-down view and that this is the first time RF has moved to 3D. I like Harvest Moon and I’ve played a bit of Stardew Valley, so I’m familiar with the idea of a farm/village sim.
I was keen to check out how Rune Factory 5 also brings monster fighting into the mix.
A review code was supplied for this coverage
Read More
So a HUGE disclaimer right off the bat before we talk Elex 2.
I am a massive fan of the Piranha Bytes stable of games. The Gothic series, Risen series and, of course, Elex are some of my favourite games ever.
These games are all slightly different to the more popular role playing games we all know and love.
Some don’t like them at all, others have never played them, and then, like me, there is a group of absolute die hard fans.
Read More
By the time I got an Elden Ring review code, it was release day. I was at work and couldn’t download it until Friday night. Which meant I couldn’t play it until Saturday night, time and TV access permitting (which is not always a thing).
Life is busy, full of commitments that don’t align with a From Software title. Notorious as they are for not allowing the game to be paused.
This review approaches Elden Ring differently.
(An Xbox code was supplied by Bandai-Namco)
Read More
Kingdoms of Amalur on the xbox360 was a cult hit before it stopped being mainstream. Action RPG fans loved it and even with rough edges, it had popular appeal. There weren’t many gamers of that age that didn’t glass over and have nice things to say about it.
There’s always a game you regret selling or trading, for me this was it.
When I heard that KoA: Reckoning was getting the HD treatment, I was over the moon. One of those games that guided us out of the last generation with fond memories. I thought I knew it fairly well, but the first couple of hours were not lodged in my memory.
I selected my character, for some reason a shapely dark elf (again) and set off.
Read More
ESO Greymoor heads to Skyrim. A land held in high regard by adventurers world wide. A cold, bleak, and formidable landscape that only the strongest are willing to explore.
This is Western Skyrim, home of the Nords, a 1000 years before the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Five years since The Elder Scrolls Online was released and following the annual major updates of Morrowind, Summerset, and Elsweyr comes Greymoor.
The fourth ‘chapter’ release for the venerable ESO. With plenty of DLC and updates between each of these major releases it is astounding how much content is now included in ESO.
Read More
I absolutely love Sega’s Yakuza games, a rich, slightly quirky crime series set in the fictional Japanese city of Kamurocho, so it’s no surprise that I have fallen head first into Sega’s Judgment (PS4 exclusive), a game not directly set in the Yakuza universe but there’s some elements that the two games share, nonetheless.
It’s hardly surprising there are similarities in game play, though: Judgment’s made by Ryu Ga Gotuku Studio (Ryu Ga Gotuku is actually Japanese for Yakuza), the same studio behind some of the latter Yakuza games, and while there’s no appearance of the Dragon of Dogma Kazuma Kiryu in Judgment, the setting is a familiar one for fans of the Yakuza series: Kamurocho, a fictional Japanese city modelled on the real-world Kabukich?, Tokyo’s most well-known “red-light” district.
I have to say, it’s great to be wandering the streets of Kamurocho again with it’s bright lights and streets layered with signs and craziness.
Read More
I had no idea what to expect when my editor asked me if I was keen to take a look at Octopath Traveler on PC.
I’d obviously heard about Octopath Traveler on the Nintendo Switch but that was about as far as it went. That said, I’m about mixing things up, so I said “Why not?”. The game is, after all, a big deal apparently.
It’s fun, too.
Read More
This week Koru-Cottage readers, we are lucky enough to have a guest writer, Nick Dorn @ngunsnz, to give us the low down on Ni No Kuni II. Enjoy.
There are a lot of things I came to love in my time with Ni No Kuni II.
But there was one thing above all that stuck out to me, and that was the amount of charm this game has, charm that has me hooked, and is one of the many reasons that makes Ni No Kuni II such a fantastic JRPG.
Read More
