Orna: A Geo-RPG

It’s surprising that more games haven’t tried to ride the wave of interest that ‘Pokemon GO’ generated in geo-tagging games. To date there have been few serious attempts to do something new with the idea, which has remained largely unchanged since the launch of ‘Ingress’. Orna is a small, Indie team that’s taken on this challenge and for the most part they have risen to it spectacularly, adding some novel concepts that bring a lot of interest to the game. There’s precious little in the way of hand-holding too, with players effectively dropped into the world and given the onus to get on with things one turn-based battle at a time.

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Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

There are two schools of thought to Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness; there are those who think it’s a triumphant example of a traditional JRPG from Square Enix and those who derive the lack of significant process for the series and shallow story. Neither viewpoint is wrong, and that’s what seems to have led to this title being something of a black sheep of the 2017 games line-up.

Rogue Galaxy

Produced by Level-5 as their new IP following on from the wonderful ‘Dark Chronicle’ (known as ‘Dark Cloud 2’ in America), and their last game for the aging PlayStation 2 hardware before making the switch to the next console generation, Rogue Galaxy is a strange beast that showcases the very best and at times the worst of Level-5’s unique style.

The Legend of Solgard

Once upon a time there was an amazing game called ‘Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes’ that showed the world that match-3 RPGs could not only be good, but they could be exceptional. After seeing an original release on the DS it was given the HD makeover treatment in a lush edition for PlayStation 3 and was subsequently ported to iOS, Android and Steam. Sadly, despite being a paragon of the genre, a sequel was never made. Enter King . . .

Final Fantasy Dimensions II

Final Fantasy Dimensions II is a premium title that started its life as a freemium one. This much is apparent from the get-go and may have pushed a lot of players away when it initially released. Don’t be afraid however, because there are no hidden purchases, stamina bars or other detritus attached to the game to catch you off-guard. Does it merit the price tag of a premium game though?

Suikoden: Card Stories

Suikoden is a series very close to our heart, and without a digital re-release of ‘Suikoden Tactics’ or ‘Suikoden V’ we’re rapidly running out of titles we can easily access to review in time to take part in this year’s Summer of Suikoden event. Luckily an English Translation exists for the Game Boy Advance exclusive title, Card Stories.

Dungeons and Girls

Combining RPGs and CCGs has been all the rage for some time on mobile platforms, however few of them actually feel like they could feasibly function as an actual deck of physical cards. Dungeons and Girls, for all its anime-cliché trappings, actually have a good stab at producing a well-rounded package.