Mana Khemia

Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy – Making the Grade

5 Comments

cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
< Prev. | Contents | Next >

For most people, a “good” RPG consists of some combination of a compelling story, solid combat mechanics and satisfying progression.

Many RPGs have stuck with the conventional “experience and levels” system over the years, simply because that is a proven progression mechanic that works well, offers continual rewards for continued play and tangible improvements in your characters over time.

Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis did something a little different, where character combat effectiveness was directly tied to your engagement with the game’s core alchemy system. And its sequel Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy follows suit — but rather than simply rehashing the previous game’s mechanics, it adds an interesting new twist. Let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy – Making the Grade →

Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Desch’s Destiny – Final Fantasy III #6

1 Comment

After last week’s wandering around not being quite sure what we were supposed to be doing next, this week we get back on track and get quite a bit done!

We climb the Tower of Owen, fight Medusa, admire Desch’s selfless commitment to his destiny and take on Gutsco the Thief. But disaster strikes! Will our heroes be able to recover from this? You’ll have to wait until the next episode…

Enjoy the video below and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

Evercade, Interplay Collection 1, Puzzlers

Titan: Break Out, In and All Around

1 Comment

How do you improve on a classic formula? It’s a question many artists have explored over the years, and an easy answer for a lot of them seems to be “add more stuff”.

Atari’s Breakout is an immensely influential game, which subsequently begat Taito’s wonderful Arkanoid and all manner of other imitators from over the years.

French developer Titus Interactive observed that most Breakout clones over the years stuck rigidly to the “paddle at the bottom, single screen of blocks” formula. So in 1988, they set out to make something a bit different. The result was Titan, a title that has been newly resurrected for modern audiences thanks to the Interplay Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming system.

Continue reading Titan: Break Out, In and All Around →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Pandora

Leave a comment

Many of the most passionate people in the gaming industry got their start in its early days.

This was most definitely the case for Shahid Ahmad who, for a number of years, was well-known as a champion of indie games on the PlayStation Vita platform. Prior to that, he put out a number of well-regarded games in the 8- and 16-bit home computer eras — with one of those being the subject of today’s video.

Pandora tasks you with exploring and solving the mystery behind a spaceship that has been missing for a very long time. See how I get on with it in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-4165360

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Chloe Hartzog

4 Comments

The Atelier series has always been full of excellent female characters. And they’re all much more than just a pretty face.

Chloe Hartzog from Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy is a prime example. In fact, Chloe is particularly noteworthy because of the deliberate choice to make her embody pretty much the polar opposite of almost everything one thinks of when one contemplates a “pretty anime girl” supposedly on the side of the protagonist.

That, of course, makes her supremely interesting. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Chloe Hartzog →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Demon’s Souls

1 Comment

I’ve held off on exploring the Souls series for quite some time, because I know you need to invest a bit of time and effort to “git gud”, as the kids say.

Well, just recently I started to make that effort. And wouldn’t you know it — I’m having a good time! So much so that, having been enjoying Demon’s Souls on PS3, I went and picked up the whole Dark Souls trilogy for PS4 in a nice box set ready for some indeterminate point in the near future.

In the meantime, enjoy my experiences as a relative newcomer to the Souls series in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Shmups, Switch

Rigid Force Redux: An R-Type By Any Other Name

1 Comment

The mechanical genre that we refer to as “shoot ’em up” actually covers a number of different gameplay styles. And, as with everything else in this world, it displays distinct fashions and trends as the years go by.

Back in the early days of gaming, the fixed shooter was king. Then we moved into the beginning of the horizontally and vertically scrolling age, the former of which in particular flourished throughout the 16-bit home console age. The rise of polygons brought with it a shift to “2.5D”, where 3D graphics were combined with 2D gameplay for added spectacle. And today, many — though not all — shooters focus on the elaborate choreography of the “bullet hell” or danmaku subgenre.

This is an oversimplification, of course, but the fact remains that we see fewer shooters in the style of those from the late 16-bit and early 32-bit eras than we used to. Which is why Rigid Force Redux, a recent Nintendo Switch and Xbox One release from German developer com8com1 Software, was such a pleasure to explore.

Continue reading Rigid Force Redux: An R-Type By Any Other Name →

Videos

Atari A to Z: Vicky

Leave a comment

There were two girls called Vicky in my tutor group at secondary school. One was short and angry, and the other was pretty chill most of the time. My best friend at the time “went out” with the chill one. This game isn’t about either of them.

Instead, it’s about a Viking warrior descending into the underworld to do… something or other involving a bunch of objects that have been scattered around a randomly generated maze. Sadly, it’s all in Polish so that’s about all I can tell you about the context of what’s going on — but it has a very nice intro sequence and is a fun exploration-centric game that doesn’t require any knowledge of Eastern European languages beyond said intro!

Enjoy my experiences in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more.

header-4165360

Data East Collection 1, Evercade

BurgerTime: The Original Foot Lettuce

2 Comments

Ah, the early ’80s — a time of exploration and experimentation in the world of video games. What subject matter would make for a good game — and particularly, what would make a good arcade game that would encourage people to part with all the small change in their pocket?

In 1982, Data East came up with BurgerTime, an unusual game that casts players in the role of chef Peter Pepper (no relation to his near-namesake who, it is said, once picked a peck of pickled peppers) and tasks them with making burgers by… uh… walking on them.

Does it make sense? Absolutely not. Is it fun? Yes. Is it monstrously difficult in both its original arcade and NES incarnations? Hell yes. And you can enjoy the latter version as part of the Data East Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming system, too. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading BurgerTime: The Original Foot Lettuce →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

4 Comments

Think I forgot to do one of these last weekend. Apologies if you count on it to set your clocks by or anything — although given that when I do remember I’m frequently late, I wouldn’t do that anyway!

It’s been a retro-centric period here on MoeGamer recently thanks to the Evercade, and I’m having a lot of fun exploring these older games — plus they make a nice complement to the Atelier series, which demands a lot more time and attention to study in detail. Plus there’s a whole lot more interesting games to explore from the Evercade’s launch lineup, so expect some more historical pieces on these games in the near future!

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what you might have missed in the last week or so. Hit the jump and let’s get started!

Continue reading Around the Network →

The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.