Pundits who claim that the plotlines of Japanese role-playing games have atrophied into a puddle of tired tropes likely overlooked 2010’s Hyperdimension Neptunia and its two sequels- subtitled Mk2 and Victory. Throughout the imaginative franchise, ...
Read More »Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars Review
I once had a psychology professor who claimed that self-preservation was the stimulus behind almost all human action. According to the instructor, a person’s desire to own a spacious house wasn’t just motivated by conspicuous ...
Read More »Go! Go! Nippon! –My First Trip to Japan- Review
On the surface, Go! Go! Nippon! My First Trip to Japan‘s plotline seems like a setup for a lively eroge title. After the visual novel’s protagonist befriends siblings Mokoto and Akira while online, he’s invited ...
Read More »Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Review
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 ...
Read More »Attack of the Friday Monsters! A Tokyo Tale Review
Look past Retro Game Challenge’s collection of faux-Famicom titles, and the title divulges an implicit takeaway: despite cultural and geographical differences, the medium of gaming created an undeniable similarity across Eastern and Western childhoods. Much ...
Read More »The Starship Damrey Review
One of the more curious cartridges to inhabit the slot of Japanese 3DS’s was 2012’s Guild01. A compilation of four distinct games, each conceived by a different luminary, the title demonstrated publisher Level-5’s periodic propensity ...
Read More »Corpse Party: Book of Shadows Review
What Is The Concept? Corpse Party: Book of Shadows‘ purpose in life is to show you anime characters dying in truly horrifying ways. Their desperate struggle to defy fate, their thoughts, feelings, and suffering, are ...
Read More »Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom Review
What is the concept? After nearly fruitful seven years and the imminent arrival of new hardware, the waning days of the PSP are upon us. While some will bemoan the portable’s persistent struggles for market ...
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