Kongregate has given us some really interesting titles over the last couple of years, both through their official website and on mobile. Bit Heroes is their first major stab at bringing a social MMORPG to life after a slew of other genre types, and Juppiomenz has done an excellent job producing a workable model for mobile.
I am Setsuna lives in an interesting space between being a heavy nod to ‘Chrono Trigger’ and an attempt at an art-house take on an old-school JRPG. It’s trying to be stylish and original at the same time as reminding players how much they enjoy the old classics. Somewhere in the middle the game gets a little muddled and it doesn’t always reach the high-notes of either approach.
SquareEnix is fast approaching the point where they will have release more re-release retro content than new games this side of the millennium, but when a company has such a vast and genre-defining back catalog it’s hard to argue against seeing some of their titles getting a lavish remake. Adventures of Mana is in fact the second remake of the originally titled ‘Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden’ (also known as ‘Mystic Quest’ and ‘Final Fantasy Adventure’ outside Japan) after the less than successful ‘Sword of Mana’ version on the Game Boy Advance, and this version easily trumps it’s last-gen equivalent on all fronts by staying closer to the source material.
After languishing in development hell for what felt like an eternity and starting life as ‘Final Fantasy Versus XIII’, this title has gone through a lengthy period of work before finally being rebranded as a man-line instalment into RPG gaming’s most famous series. Continue reading
Whilst the original Suikoden side-story ‘Suikogaiden Volume 1’ was very much a sampler of the world, companion piece and introduction to its leading man, Volume 2 is a much more fleshed out visual novel experience that delves deeper into the player character’s personal story and manages to tie in both elements of Suikoden II and III in a manner that bridges both games beautifully.
Developed by Swedish team ‘Image and Form’, Steamworld Heist is a semi-sequel to their previous effort ‘Steamworld Dig’. A semi-sequel because the opening cinematic quickly destroys the planet of the original game before sending the action into space for a turn-based squad orientated tactical RPG that’s brimming with imagination. Continue reading
It would be very easy for people to glance at the Wave Light Games catalogue and assume that Strike Team Hydra is just a simple reskin of their excellent ‘Demon’s Rise’ series with a Science Fiction coat of paint. If this were the case it would still be worth your time, as the Demon’s Rise games are some of the best tactical games on mobile at the moment (and hey, it worked for Games Workshop with ‘Warhammer 40K’), but Strike Team Hydra is so much more than that.
