Games reviewed… eventually
If you grew up on the Internet during the early-to-mid aughts, you almost certainly remember escape-the-room games. These were an absolute staple of early Flash gaming, with titles like The Mystery of Time and Space, Don’t Escape, and (perhaps the one most deeply resonant for me, with its screens well and truly burned into my … Continue reading Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Building mystery and tension is a key component of any story. Without it, it’s all too easy for us, as readers, to give up; after all, if there’s nothing to solve, or to puzzle over, or simply to ponder, why bother reading on? It’s the mark of a great writer to craft that sense of … Continue reading One Night Stand
Like the rest of the known universe, I love Batman. It doesn’t seem to matter what he’s in, or how often DC shows me another rehash of his tragic origin story, I still find myself consuming pretty much any and every piece of Batman media I can find. There’s something endearing about his earnest gloominess … Continue reading LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
There are all sorts of interesting ideas for games floating about out there. If you can think of a concept, I’m sure it’s all but certain that someone has made a game on it. Obviously there’s all the standard ones, like heroes embarking on a magical quest or people out for revenge and all that … Continue reading A Mortician’s Tale
I’ve been looking forward to this one! Today we’re taking a look back through one of the most enduring, beloved JRPGs of all time. Frequently cited in greatest of all time lists, Chrono Trigger stands apart from many of its contemporaries purely for not already being part of a long-established series like Final Fantasy or … Continue reading Chrono Trigger
When you ask folk about the legacy of Final Fantasy IV, you can be quietly assured of a glowing response. People remember it for all sorts of reasons; for its consolidation of everything the early games experimented with and presenting it in one excellent package, for introducing the world to ATB and trying to bring … Continue reading Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Final Fantasy IV’s legacy speaks for itself. Since its release in 1991 it has been routinely cited as among one of the best games ever made, and certainly holds a special place in the hearts of many as the point where Final Fantasy began to metamorphosize into the franchise it is today; that this game … Continue reading Final Fantasy IV
When it comes to genres that I confess to not knowing much about, visual novels are quite high on my list. There are all sorts of good, legitimate reasons to not play a genre - I don’t touch horrors as a rule because I don’t enjoy the sensation of being scared, and I avoid grand … Continue reading Dungeons & Lesbians
The fact that Metal Gear Rising exists baffles me. If you know anything at all about the Metal Gear franchise, you’ll know it’s a series known for helping to popularize stealth games, for bringing movie-style production and sensibilities to gaming, typically in the form of lengthy cutscenes and the occasional big action set-piece, and for … Continue reading Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
As our slow playthrough of the Final Fantasy series progresses inexorably through the myriad games in this never-ending franchise we have finally reached the end of the NES era. This time around we’re playing Final Fantasy III, a game that took an extraordinarily long time to see an English release. In fact, it wasn’t until … Continue reading Final Fantasy III
The Almighty Backlog 