#PC
#PC
by Omar (@siegarettes)
“Downwell is a game about a young person falling down a well, battling enemies with gun boots, and sometimes visiting shops.” -Downwell Official Site
I’m generally not one to use the game’s tagline, but that’s about as succinct as summary as you’ll get. Developed by Ojiro Fumoto, Downwell is most aesthetically confident and complete game I’ve played since FOTONICA. That extends from the artwork all the way down to the feeling of each moment of play. I first witnessed it at Chicago Bit Bash, and even within the truncated time I spent with it felt GOOD.
By: RJ (@rga_02)
In 2013 Compile Heart decided to branch out and create the Galapagos RPG label. Under that label they would produce a variety of games targeted towards the Japanese audience with a more serious tone than their usual Neptunia RPGs. Fairy Fencer F was the first game to be produced under that moniker. With industry veterans such as Nobuo Uematsu and Yoshitaka Amano (both known for their wonderful works on the Final Fantasy series) working on this project and with a more toned down plot than the usual Compile Heart game, this game seems like it was geared towards the gamers who have been avoiding CH due to their Neptunia notoriety. Did Compile Heart achieve that goal? Let’s find out.
By: Omar(@siegarettes)
There’s a trend in the realm of dark fantasy towards a homogeneous aesthetic. Tolkien-que worlds into situations marked by lives filled with horrific daily violence in order to bring a sense of “maturity” or gravitas. Tormentum: Dark Sorrow removes itself from that trend by presenting a world of warped steel and flesh, lavish and intimate in its construction. Well, visually removed, at least.
By: RJ (@rga_02)
This review of Final Fantasy XIII-2 is from my experiences with the game through the PS3 and the PC port. I have played through the English & Japanese version of FFXIII-2 on the PS3 and the initial version of the Steam port.
I recently had a conversation about Final Fantasy in a cafe recently. He noticed I was playing Final Fantasy IV and struck up a small little talk about the franchise we both loved. We talked about the highs and the lows, and what we’d like to see in the future. Then he made a comment on how Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the poor man’s Chrono Trigger but with a better battle system. Now, I was inclined to agree about the battle system, but Final Fantasy XIII-2 is nowhere near the fabled SNES classic.
by Omar (@siegarettes)
Let’s be real here. When Canabalt released in 2009 it redefined a genre, creating a new one in its wake. The monochrome style, pulsing music, and endless obstacles created something immediately compulsive. Every game in the genre has been chasing it ever since.
Enter FOTONICA. Originally conceived as Tales of an Unspoken World for a TIGSource game jam, it evolved and iterated upon until it reached its current state. FOTONICA mixes washed out low poly landscapes somewhere between Rez and Vib-Ribbon, a driving soundtrack, and Santa Ragione’s sharp design sense to create something distinct.
By: RJ (@rga_02)
Here’s a bit of a disclaimer. My love for FFXIII is well documented. I platinumed the game two times on the PS3. Hell, I even bought a copy for the Xbox 360 - a console I don’t even own. I recognize its faults, but I tend to look past those and enjoy what is presented before me. There is something beautiful beneath all the uncertainty. And with its recent release on the PC, I wonder if it can recapture that beauty for me.
By Omar (@siegarettes)
I made a decision and a man died. I didn’t have to. I knew that it might happen before I made it, I had the chance to back out but I still went ahead. I did it because I was selfish, because I wanted to get to where I needed to be faster, not because it was the only way. I hovered over the “LOAD GAME” option and realized that I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t fair. I knew what could happen, and now I needed to live with it.
This was the moment that defined my experience in Vagabond Dog’s Always Sometimes Monsters. Monsters is largely built around giving you choices void of “correct” choices. Even so, in this instance I was wrong. My moral compass told me I had betrayed the vague sense of values I’d lived by. I deserved to live with the consequences. Even then, the game never came out to punish me for it. Somehow, that made it worse.