Animal Crossing and Rune Factory both hold my attention long after their objectives run dry. Sometimes, you get to write your own quests.
Category: Video Games
Kindred Spirits and Progress Markers
Kindred Spirits on the Roof is available on Steam and other digital PC storefronts. People still love the look and feel of physical books – they’re just nice objects to see lined up on a shelf to or to hold in your hand. The latter is even practical – crack open a novel and you …
Persona 4, Yosuke, and Messaging
Persona 4 is available on Playstation 2. Persona 4 Golden, an expanded version, is available on Playstation Vita and PC (Steam). I’ll be honest; I had very different post brewing back in May, about an entirely different topic. Arguably a more fun one. But a lot has happened since then, both in the world at …
Superstar Saga and Personality
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is available on Gameboy Advance, 3DS, and Wii U. I’ve always loved it when Mario gets out of the Mushroom Kingdom for a spell. Sure, his classic platforming feels like comfort food, and – as Super Mario Maker makes abundantly clear – it’s remarkably flexible in its simplicity. But every time Mario steps outside …
VA-11 Hall-A and Low Perspective
It’s hard for me to consume stories about war. They always leverage it to say something important, and I deeply appreciate that. But for me, they’re simply too far removed from my own experience. Enter VA-11 Hall-A.
Untitled Goose Game and Expression
Untitled Goose Game is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and XBox One. Untitled Goose Game is the best role-playing game I played in 2019. Sure, it’s billed as a puzzle and a stealth game. But at its core, it’s the purest form of video-game sandbox that I’ve experienced in years. The point of a …
Xenogears and Ambition
Xenogears was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Its plan for long-form storytelling across multiple games is something we see everywhere in franchises now. The blending of action-based and RPG-style combat feels like a precursor to the “action-RPG” niche that handily outnumbers turn-based games in the genre nowadays.
Final Fantasy and Identity
It always kind of astounds me whenever someone says that they’re a fan of the Final Fantasy series. Not because any individual entry in the series is that bad. More because the series is so wildly inconsistent.
Floor Kids and Density
Floor Kids is available on Steam, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. Our priorities can shift a lot over time. Back when I was in school, I’d play the same video game cover-to-cover a dozen times because that’s what was on-hand and appealing. It’s how I could draw you a full map of the entire first …
Pokémon Sword & Shield and Concessions
This is only the second time I've talked about a game before it's even released - and both times, it's been about the now-yearly release of a new main-line Pokémon title. I usually prefer to let something sit in my mind before I go back to it with properly-formed thoughts, but this franchise really gets …
Tokyo Xanadu and Alternate Takes
Sometimes games playing follow-the-leader actually turns out pretty well for us as consumers. That’s how you end up with something like Tokyo Xanadu, which is nothing if not borrowed ideas.
Kanon and Sentimentality
I may have technically been watching anime way before, but one of the first that grabbed me was the Kanon, and it’s the one that I still credit with getting me hooked on anime in the first place.
Fate/Grand Order and Franchise Faces
Media franchises are bound to shift and change over time. Sometimes, this sneaks in more gradually though a series of slow deviations. And out of this, you get things like Fate/Grand Order.
Subsurface Circular and Solvable Games
The idea of a “solvable game” is usually reserved for competitive games, particularly board games. But then there are adventure games and Subsurface Circular.
Gris and Gaminess
It’s hard to deny that Gris is nothing short of a fantastic game – and I don’t mean that in a “review-score” way, but more in the traditional way; that it’s gorgeous, poignant, and transportative. Unfortunately, its myriad positive points in that field can feel compromised at times by Gris’ seemingly-obligatory affordances to its format.
This Thing Is Neat 