Category Archives: Articles

All the non-Cover Game articles and features in one place.

Dragalia Lost

Dragalia Lost: Kindness and Captivity

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It’s event time again in Cygames and Nintendo’s Dragalia Lost! If you’ve not played a game like this before… get used to this endless and occasionally exhausting cycle!

The Kindness and Captivity event, which will be running until November 12, concerns a young Sylvan girl who seeks the aid of Euden and the gang in driving the Imperial forces out of her village.

Naturally, things aren’t quite as simple as they first appear, and, as these things tend to go, things culminate in a battle against a rather large and ferocious beastie.

Continue reading Dragalia Lost: Kindness and Captivity →

Essentials, Puzzlers, Shmups

Shmup Essentials: Murasaki

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As we’ve discussed on numerous previous occasions, the shoot ’em up genre is a lot more diverse than you might think.

Over the years, we’ve seen this initially straightforward genre blossom into something that encompasses a wide variety of distinct mechanics: the precise navigation of danmaku games, the pattern recognition and twitch reflexes of twin-stick shooters, the emphasis on memorisation and “risk versus reward” of Gradius-style games and plenty more besides.

One of the most interesting ways in which developers have experimented with the genre as a whole is through combining it with other genres. To date we’ve seen attempts to blend it with fighting games (such as the Suguri series), platform games (such as Rabi-Ribi) and even puzzle games. Murasaki, a 2014 release from Japanese doujin circle Katatema, falls into the latter category.

Continue reading Shmup Essentials: Murasaki →

Waifu Wednesday

Witchfu Wednesday: Patchouli Knowledge

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Happy Halloween! What better way to celebrate than with some witchy waifu funtimes?

I had to think a bit for this one. I’ve encountered a few delightful witches over my gaming career, but I’ve also already written about a couple of them in detail — most notably Alice Kamishiro from Supipara and Metallia from The Witch and the Hundred Knight.

“Why not take a bit of a sidestep, then?” I thought. Why not take a look at a character I have little more than a passing familiarity with, but would like to know more about? That way I can call it research for a Cover Game feature I’ve been mulling over for a while. And I can also make at least one person on Twitter very happy in the process. (Hi, Kenji.) So, then; let’s learn about Patchouli Knowledge together.

Continue reading Witchfu Wednesday: Patchouli Knowledge →

One-Shots

Xenon Valkyrie+: 16-Bit Procedural Platforming

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You might think the “roguelike” subgenre is oversaturated (it is). You might think the term “roguelike” is widely misused (it is). But that’s not to say there aren’t still good examples of games with roguelike elements being released.

One such example is Xenon Valkyrie+, a game originally developed by Spanish coder Daniel Fernandez Chavez (aka “Diabolical Mind”) and enhanced for its PlayStation 4 and Vita release by solo French developer Fabrice Breton of Cowcat Games. If that pairing sounds familiar, you may recall we looked at their previous collaboration Riddled Corpses EX a while back.

Riddled Corpses EX impressed me a great deal, so when Limited Run Games offered a physical release of Xenon Valkyrie+ a few months ago, I thought I’d jump on it and see what else this dream team could come up with.

Continue reading Xenon Valkyrie+: 16-Bit Procedural Platforming →

One-Shots

Taiko no Tatsujin Drum ‘n’ Fun (Demo): Motion and Music Don’t Mix

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As regular listeners of The MoeGamer Podcast will know, I greatly enjoy music games, but I’ve never had a chance to play the Taiko no Tatsujin series to date.

Well, I figured, it’s probably time I rectified that situation, isn’t it? Various installments in the series are often held up as all-time classics in the genre, after all. Plus it’s hard to resist that super-cute artwork — which, if you didn’t know, is the inimitable work of Yukiko Yoko, wife of the man who brought the world the Nier series. How’s that for a weird-ass twist?

So it was with some excitement that I downloaded the newly released demo of Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun, one of two parallel games which mark the first time the series has ever officially come to Europe. And… well, read on.

Continue reading Taiko no Tatsujin Drum ‘n’ Fun (Demo): Motion and Music Don’t Mix →

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Kathryn Lapucelle

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Well, we’ve covered all the other “main” waifus Ramius, Riche and Gurigura from Evenicle so far, so it’s only fair we give Kathryn some love too!

Kathryn is the last playable character to join protagonist Aster’s family, and she is, for sure, an interesting one — both from a narrative and a mechanical perspective.

Let’s just say that you should probably approach with a certain degree of caution.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Kathryn Lapucelle →

Essentials

PS2 Essentials: Auto Modellista

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Even today, Capcom’s 2002 racing game Auto Modellista stands out as a bold and striking experiment.

By combining relatively conventional arcade-style racing gameplay with an eye-catching cel-shaded visual style, the game successfully distinguished itself from many of its peers — though sadly, relatively mediocre reviews, mostly focusing on the game’s handling and its attempts to straddle the line between deep simulation and arcade racer, meant that it sold fairly poorly.

That doesn’t mean it’s not worth checking out by any means, however — particularly if you are someone who, like me, enjoys the customisation aspect of deep sims but hates “realistic” handling. Let’s take a closer look — and keep an eye on Sunday Driving for the next few weeks to see the game in action for yourself!

Continue reading PS2 Essentials: Auto Modellista →

Dragalia Lost

Dragalia Lost: Trick or Treasure

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Hot on the heels of Loyalty’s Requiem, Nintendo and Cygames’ newest mobile title finds itself in the midst of another special event — this time in celebration of Halloween.

So far this is very much in keeping with Cygames’ previous way of doing things in titles like Granblue Fantasy, and indeed a common approach with free-to-play mobile games in general. It certainly keeps things interesting and lively!

Let’s take a closer look at the event, what it involves and why you might want to engage with it.

Continue reading Dragalia Lost: Trick or Treasure →

One-Shots

VenusBlood Frontier: Divine Conquest

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If you are one of the many people disappointed in the recent news surrounding Sony cracking down on content with even the slightest whiff of “adultness” about it, you need to start paying attention to the Japanese PC games market if you’re not already.

Parallel to all the kerfuffle  surrounding the cancellation of Omega Labyrinth Z and the news that Xseed was being forced to cut out the “Intimacy” feature from the upcoming Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal, the localised Japanese PC games market has quietly been becoming an even more open and welcoming place to fans of games with adult content than it was already: just recently we’ve seen the release of AliceSoft’s excellent Evenicle on Steam, MangaGamer is continuing to work on English versions of the Rance series… and a long-running, well-received series of fantasy-themed games is getting a much-anticipated localisation.

I’m talking about VenusBlood Frontier, an upcoming Kickstarter-funded localisation project that, as I type this, you have a little over a day to back if it sounds like something you might want to see more of. Hop on over to Kickstarter if you’ve already made your mind up… or read on if you want to know more.

NOTE: For those who care about such things, I am a Kickstarter backer of this project but am otherwise unaffiliated with either Ninetail or JAST USA. Continue reading VenusBlood Frontier: Divine Conquest →

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Gurigura

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Between the ten different waifus in Evenicle, there’s someone who will appeal to everyone.

Hell, there’s pretty much someone who will appeal to everyone even within the core playable cast of four. And even if someone isn’t your “type”, there are still plenty of interesting and compelling things to discover about them.

As a loud, noisy loli, Gurigura isn’t the type of girl who usually pushes my buttons. But she definitely grew on me over the course of the game, and I came to regard her with a great deal of affection.

NSFW images after the jump!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Gurigura →