I love video game item shops. Even when I can’t afford the curios on display it’s always fun to examine them, read the flavor text, and plan a wishlist of future acquisitions. Item shops also often act as respites from a long and tiring video game journey. In the PC game Roulette Knight, though, they’re where you go…
Every console has had amazing RPGs.
The Witcher 3 is a sprawling single-player RPG with so much to do it can be overwhelming. The game world is huge. Points of interest litter the map. Dialogue trees mean you can play through pivotal scenes in different ways. I can think of far worse games to be stuck on a desert island with for the rest of my life.…
Long Gone Days is an RPG (still in Early Access) set in a modern-day war, and is as much about the relationships you form with your colleagues as it is the actual combat.
Tabletop role-playing game Pathfinder recently announced its second edition ten years after Paizo published its first. “We can do a much better job now than we did 10 years ago,” Paizo said. Paizo hopes to make the Core Rulebook more approachable, streamline combat and include more art. Playtesting begins August 2nd.
Yesterday one of the regular members of my Dungeons & Dragons group had to cancel, so the rest of us decided to roll some new characters for a one-off campaign. Shortly before our gathering, one of them texted to ask if it was alright if we all played as bards. “We’ll be like a traveling pop punk band!” they said. As…
Slay the Spire, a roguelike where you try to deckbuild your way out of brutal dungeons, went into Early Access on Steam last November and has since been slowly winning over unsuspecting players who go into it with low expectations. I am one of those recent converts.
Mass Effect: Andromeda was met with disappointment, and, in the worst parts of the internet, harassment campaigns. The game had Mass Effect in the title but it didn’t quite feel one. But Mass Effect: Andromeda deserves to be remembered as more than just another hyped AAA game that failed to meet fan expectations and…
Rxcovery is an RPG about a hospital patient with only 30 minutes left on life support. Players explore a hospital full of monsters in order to raise enough money to save their character’s life. It’s a tense combination of turn-based combat and maze-like level design and this week’s Indie Pick.
Elex is a terribly constructed video game full of glitches, lag, eye-sores, and confusing mechanics. I would not recommend most people go through the pain of playing this RPG. And yet, despite all of this, I am obsessed with Elex. I can’t stop playing it. In a year of incredible releases, Elex manages to be one of…
Child of Light is a beautiful game and a mesmerizing experience that crafts a perfect fusion between RPGs and platforming. In many ways, it encapsulates what I love most about JRPGs, which are wondrous worlds with engrossing mechanics and a charming cast.
Beamdog, a studio made up of many ex-Bioware developers, are releasing an “enhanced” version of classic 2002 RPG Neverwinter Nights.
After dabbling with ocean exploration and a traversable overworld in the previous two entries, Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth takes Atlus’ first-person dungeon crawler back to its roots. It’s five player-created characters adventuring their asses off.
In 2001, after a mere nine issues ending with an unresolved cliffhanger, popular fantasy comic series Battle Chasers was put on hold so creator Joe Madureira could pursue game development. If recently-released turn-based RPG Battle Chasers: Nightwar is any indication, it was a good move.
When I was about ten years old, my brother Mike introduced me to my favorite game, a JRPG for the PS2 called Radiata Stories. It was a fantasy love story about a young man, Jack Russell (yes, you read that right) whose dreams of becoming a knight are shattered after his teammate, Ridley, is nearly killed. Later, Jack…
In the past, I’ve thought a little about making a game, but never got around to learning actual coding. Recently, I’ve started to develop that abstract “what if” idea into a passion project of my own. I’m learning how to create maps, program quests, and write cutscenes with the help of a program that can build RPGs.…
Released today for the PlayStation 4 and PC, Blue Reflection is an exploration of the relationships young women forge and the personal growth that comes from sharing experiences with friends, all in the form of a stylish magical girl role-playing game. Beats the hell of ninjas in bikinis with water guns.
Dujanah is a gorgeous and bizarre indie game full of glitch cats, existential spider-men, and death. With key narrative moments and a small arcade of games that focus on death and dying, it imparts an important lesson of acceptance. We take a look in this critical video.
The Switch is such a familiar part of the gaming landscape now that it’s strange to consider that Nintendo’s hybrid device is about to head into its first holiday season. What’s even stranger is that for Baby’s First Christmas, Nintendo’s lineup is overloaded with deep single-player fantasy adventures: role-playing…
