Portable

Not long ago, puzzle games provided little more than a skeletal plotlines- as players moved through processions of unemotional posers. Titles like Portal changed that, adding a narrative which not only provided an invaluable impetus, ...

Seemingly, Retro City Rampage developer Brian Provinciano is a hexadecimal-chanting sorcerer. After alchemizing a provisional NES development kit back in 2002, he went on code Grand Theftendo– a game which miraculously adapted Rockstar’s urban sandbox ...

Level-5’s Guild01 was undoubtedly a curious concept, bundling a quartet of smaller games developed by Japanese gaming luminaries such as Goichi Suda, Yasumi Matsuno, and Yoot Saito. Whereas the compilation was released as a single ...

Across the past few seasons, the FIFA and Pro Evolution franchises have gradually integrated light role-playing aspects into their football simulations. However, this alluring amalgam is hardly new- developer Level-5 has been deftly blending the ...

Although the PlayStation Vita library lacks an original Monster Hunter game, stalk-and-slay supporters have been able to take solace in several viable alternatives. From Soul Sacrifice to Ragnarok Odyssey, a number of developers have adeptly ...

Robert’s Take: For many, the 16- and 32-bit eras represented the golden age of Japanese role-playing games. Although modern entries in the genre may exhibit cutting-edge visuals and nuanced play mechanics, there’s a large constituency ...

While Japanese gamers have enjoyed the virtues of visual novels for over thirty years (purportedly 1983’s Hito de Nashi no Rakuin ~Fukei Kankin Inukan Choukyou~ is the medium’s inaugural entry), the genre has only recently ...

Most players will attest to the visual superiority of Compile Heart’s dialog sequences. Across an array of titles such as Record of Agarest War, Hyperdimension Neptunia, and Mugen Souls character portraits are painstakingly drawn and ...

Players are forgiven for assuming SideQuest Studios are based out of Japan. Much like their compatriots Shin’en Multimedia, SideQuest is a German development house whose painstakingly polished output echoes the sensibilities of Nippon’s golden age ...

Across the twenty-six year legacy of the Ys franchise, reoccurring protagonist Adol Christin has witnessed a multitude of remarkable events during his succession of globe-trotting expeditions. In many ways, the series has shared a similar ...