Root Letter Is About Catfishing Gone Terribly Wrong

Root Letter made me miss Japan. Developed by Kadokawa Games for the PS Vita and PlayStation 4, the visual novel adventure takes place in the city of Matsue within the Shimane Prefecture. The protagonist, referred to as Max, is looking for his high school pen pal, Aya Fumino, after he finds a 15-year old letter…

What I’m Most Looking Forward To Re-Experiencing In The Final Fantasy VII Remake

I bought the original PlayStation just so I could play Final Fantasy VII. Until then, all I’d had was a SNES and a Genesis, so I was in awe when the opening cutscene for FFVII began. The rest of the game was equally stunning, the visuals beyond anything I’d thought possible in a game. I…

Elite Beat Agents Is About Saving The World With Music And Dance

The world is in ruin, relationships are in tatters, and dreams are being crushed. How to help all these people? According to Elite Beat Agents, it’s through the power of love- er, music. Released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS and developed by iNiS, Elite Beat Agents is a wacky rhythm game revolving around a…

Speedrunners Helped Me To Better Understand The Weird Games Of My Childhood

Summer Games Done Quick starts this Sunday at 11:30AM CDT and will be livestreamed on GamesDoneQuick’s Twitch Channel here. The event runs from June 23rd to the 30th and is raising money for Doctors Without Borders. I’m honestly in awe of speedrunners. The dedication, skill, and stamina they show in their playthroughs is impressive. There’s…

Neon Genesis Evangelion Is About The Cost And Trauma Of Existence

Neon Genesis Evangelion’s characters suffer a lot. I learned about the series from one of my co-workers back in my LucasArts days. I’d seen some mecha anime, but nothing like Neon Genesis Evangelion. On the surface, it seemed to hit a lot of the trope checklist with a frustrated young pilot, Shinji Ikari, who’s essentially…

What Is Your Favorite Game On A Portable System?

Up until recently, I didn’t play many portable games. Even when I did, I liked to play them on a TV screen, which is why I used the Game Boy Player for my GameCube to play many of my favorite GBA games like Metroid Fusion, Astro Boy: Omega Factor, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish…

Final Fantasy V Reminds Me Of What I Loved About The Series

Talking about Final Fantasy has become complicated. A lot of my favorite Final Fantasy memories are from games in the series that are over a decade old. I’ve played through most of the main series Final Fantasy games, aside from FFV and the online ones. I genuinely enjoyed most of them (even XIII), though none…

The Difficult Dilemma Of Dragon Quest XI’s Post Credit Sequence

Dragon Quest XI is a very long game full of tragic twists and turns, so when my journey finally came to an end, it felt like a real accomplishment. The credits rolled. I’d defeated the main villain and brought peace to the land. I actually felt sad that my time with my companions was coming…

In Defense of Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest

The original Castlevania was one of the first NES games I played. So when the sequel came out for the NES in December 1988, I knew I had to play it. Simon’s Quest mixed up the first game’s action-platforming formula and gave players a Metroidvania-style game with RPG mechanics, revolving around a curse that Dracula…

We’ve updated our June 8 story about publisher Xseed’s game-crediting policy with a lengthy statement from company VP Ken Berry. He notes that the small but growing company’s policy has been for credits to provide a “snapshot” of who is at Xseed at the moment, but acknowledges room to revise the policy as the company…