Atelier, Atelier Iris

Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm – A Step Forward

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cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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In 2006, a year after Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny, Gust released Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm in Japan; it would be another year after that before Western players would get their hands on it.

Atelier games are a fixture in developer Gust’s calendar; each of the duologies and trilogies that make up the complete franchise have enjoyed annual installments, and indeed the first Atelier Iris’ release in Japan in 2004 marked the beginning of a streak of yearly releases for the series as a whole that lasted until 2017. The company, of course, made up for the lack of an Atelier game in 2018 by releasing three in 2019, but, well, that’s a story for another day.

What’s kind of remarkable is that despite this non-stop release schedule, each Atelier game, even within the same subseries, feels noticeably distinct from the last. And this is particularly apparent when it comes to Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm. So let’s look at how this moves the series forwards.

Continue reading Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm – A Step Forward →

Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Give Me My Ragnarok – Final Fantasy II #17

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Our quest is nearly at an end! Today’s challenge is finishing off the Arcane Labyrinth and proving to Deumion once and for all that we are worthy of wielding the legendary weapons he guards.

If I wanted to, I could go back and do the whole thing again in the hope of getting legendary weapons for some of the other characters… but I won’t subject you to that right now. Especially not since Maria and Guy are both using staves rather than the bow and axe that Deumion would provide for them!

Next time, we’re on track to beat the game… after a few mishaps, of course…

Delving Into..., Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV: The Quintessential SNES Game

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One thing I feel like we’ve lost somewhat over the procession of console generations we’ve lived through is a feeling of “uniqueness” for each platform.

Sure, Nintendo still does its own thing and its games are immediately recognisable, but I’m talking more about a very clear look, sound and feel of games on a specific platform; partially a product of the hardware itself, and partially that of the companies specifically choosing to produce work for that platform in particular.

I hadn’t really spent a lot of time with Super Castlevania IV for Super NES until recently, but within about five minutes of delving into it in earnest thanks to the Castlevania Anniversary Collection for Switch, Xbox One, PS4 and PC, I’m absolutely convinced that it is the perfect example of what a SNES game really “is”.

Continue reading Super Castlevania IV: The Quintessential SNES Game →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Donald Duck’s Playground

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Growing up, I always had a certain resistance to explicitly educational games; I would much rather have been blasting aliens than doing maths problems.

However, if you were to cunningly disguise those educational components as a Sierra adventure game I would, of course, be well and truly on board. The folly of youth.

Enter Donald Duck’s Playground, then, second of the Disney/Sierra crossovers to be put together by Al “Leisure Suit Larry” Lowe, and proof if proof were needed that Sierra’s AGI engine wasn’t quite suitable for every type of game…

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Jessie Rasberry

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Final Fantasy VII has always had popular female characters in the form of Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie from the playable cast, as well as Scarlet and Elena from the extended cast of NPCs.

But I remember being intrigued by Jessie back in the original PlayStation release… and it seems I wasn’t alone, as judging by reactions on social media a lot of people are absolutely thrilled with the much more substantial role she has in Final Fantasy VII Remake.

With that in mind, then, let’s take a closer look at this thoroughly charming character that we finally have the chance to get to know a bit better.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Jessie Rasberry →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Jawbreaker

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Pac-Man didn’t make it to Atari 8-bit computers until 1982, but that doesn’t mean that people were short of some dot-eating maze-based funtimes until then.

Nope; we had John Harris’ Jawbreaker, an excellent Pac-Man clone that was extremely well-received at the time of its 1981 release — and which was so uncomfortably close to Pac-Man that Atari ended up suing publisher On-Line Systems.

Atari’s suit was ultimately unsuccessful, but Harris chose to play it safe and follow up the original Jawbreaker with a successor that was less obviously based on the Namco classic. But that’s a story for another day!

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One-Shots, Switch

Kawaii Deathu Desu: The Art of Finger Dexterity

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Back in the early days of gaming, it wasn’t at all unusual to find games built around a single, static mechanic that simply required players to show increasing levels of mastery over it.

There was a certain degree of “make your own fun” to these games; you might try to think up challenges to impose on yourself, or keep track of your high scores, or perhaps compete against a friend to see who truly was best.

These days, there tends to be an expectation that even “arcadey” games have a certain amount of depth to them. But titles like Kawaii Deathu Desu, developed by Brazilian outfit Pippin Games, demonstrate that sometimes all you need are two buttons and some twitchy fingers — plus some cute girls never hurt, either. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Kawaii Deathu Desu: The Art of Finger Dexterity →

Podcast

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 37 – The Art of the Remake

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Coming at you live from the continuing lockdown situation, it’s a brand new episode of The MoeGamer Podcast, featuring my good self and Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels!

The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You can subscribe to my channel on YouTube to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos (including the Atari A to Z retro gaming series); you can follow on Soundcloud for the audio-only version of the podcast; you can subscribe via RSS to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen on Spotify. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Or you can just hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.

Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 37 – The Art of the Remake →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Good evening! Hope you’re all doing well and have survived another week cooped up at home with all those video games you haven’t beaten yet.

I’ve been getting in some good gaming time; I beat Final Fantasy VII Remake, am making good progress on Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm for the MegaFeature, and have found some time to tinker with Level-5’s excellent Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl Gold too. There’ll be more on the latter when I’ve delved a little deeper into it for sure!

For now, though, let’s take a look at what you might have missed in the last week!

Continue reading Around the Network →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Dodge ‘Em

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The dot-eating maze game formula is most readily associated with Namco’s Pac-Man — but the genre had actually been around for a while already by the time our hungry hero had made his first appearance!

Atari’s Dodge ‘Em released for Atari 2600 in 1980, providing a peculiar combination of racing, dodging and dot-eating — but this wasn’t the first one, either! Dodge ‘Em was actually a clone of a 1979 Sega arcade title called Head On.

The reasons for the Sega game’s title will become apparent very, very quickly…

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