Bullet hell fans rejoice, another entry has been made available on both iOS (version 4.0 and higher) and Android for everyone to enjoy. This time, it comes in the form of an old favorite from SNK Playmore called Blazing Star.
As someone who started the Atelier series when I first played Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis on the PlayStation 2, the ninth title of Gust's flagship series, I’ve since been enamored with the franchise. Although the series has always been known for its alchemy system, the character development in the game has always been top-notch and included deep, rich backgrounds and succulent designs. Atelier Meruru: the Apprentice of Arland is a wonderful representation of this. It’s a throwback to the time when a game didn’t have notable "different" endings that were actually the same, wasn’t bogged down by battle after battle involving superfluous moral messages, and companies weren’t trying to one up competitors with awe-inspiring shiny high-def graphics. In other words, Atelier Meruru is a JRPG enthusiast's delight.
Read more: Atelier Meruru: the Apprentice of Arland (PS3) Review
In the last Hyperdimension Neptunia, we saw intrepid protagonists save the world known as Gamindustri from evil. In Hyperdimension Neptunia MK2, brought to us by NIS America, we find Gamindustri has been taken over by a dark force called Arfoire. The player’s job is to travel and look for others to help rescue the world again. But, along the way, you need to change the views of people you interact with and convince them to actually join you. The gameplay is turn based with a free roaming component where characters move around the battle area to perform attacks that have different radii. When not in battle, the game is text based and uses 2D backgrounds. (There is a lot of reading involved.) If you’ve ever played a visual novel, then you will find this game to be similar. The first thing you’ll notice in the new game is the intro song called “Kirihirake! Glazy?star!”[1] voiced by Nao. It’s great, so don’t skip over it; I recommend listening every time you start the game.
[1] Song translated from Japanese reads as “Kirihirake! Gracie?Star,” but NIS named it “Kirihirake! Glazy?Star” in the US release.
In 2004, a man named Daisuke Amaya released a freeware game known as Cave Story for the PC. A labor of love, Amaya spent the better part of more than five years developing, designing and programming the pixel-sprite 2D platforming game. Publishing the game under his pen-name “Pixel”, Cave Story is Amaya’s loving homage to many of the 2D platforming games of his youth.
Fate/Extra is one of the latest chapters in the highly popular Fate/stay night series by visual novel maker, Type-Moon. Fans of the franchise will be pleased to know the game scenario was written by Kinoko Nasu who wrote the original Fate/stay night story and most of Type-Moon's flagship titles. The game was developed in collaboration with Imageepoch who also worked on the Black Rock Shooter PSP game, while Aksys Games handled the American localization. As a warning, this review does contain a few minor spoilers but nothing you won't figure out within the first couple hours of playing.
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