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Tales of Graces f
After a three-year wait and a troubled production history, the new and improved Tales of Graces has finally made it to Western shores with a new PS3-exclusive arc that continues the story after the events of the main game ("f" stands for "future"). But does the future look rosy for Graces f, or does it end up in a rather graceless heap?
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Xenoblade Chronicles
Monolith Soft's Xenoblade Chronicles is one of a triplet of Wii titles originally not slated for release in North America. Upon its eventual arrival, it certainly caused sparks, charming even the staunchest of critics out of their 9s and 10s. But is this the tale of a sword that pierces the heavens, or just a wild stab in the dark?
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The Last Story
Mistwalker’s The Last Story, from the pen of the “Father of Final Fantasy†Hironobu Sakaguchi and the second title in the Operation Rainfall campaign, has garnered rave reviews in Japan and inspired considerable hype for its journey to the West. But is it a tale worth holding out for? Or a story better left untold?
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Pandora's Tower
Pandora’s Tower is the last remaining title in the triumvirate of Wii games that Nintendo has been steadfastly refusing to publish in North America. While Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story have secured a release date, the fate of Pandora's Tower continues to hang in the balance.
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First impressions of TERA from a FF11 player
Last weekend, I finally got into The Exiled Realm of Arborea during the first closed beta test for North America. This high fantasy MMORPG touts action-based combat and - more importantly - sexy designs. If you're tired of playing a bland looking character with boring armor, you need TERA in your life.
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Bayonetta Demo
Although it's a slightly inferior port of a game built for the Xbox 360, I downloaded the Bayonetta "First Climax" demo from the Japanese Playstation Store. The result? I came.
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Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Resident Evil and first person shooting is a combination that has historically produced less than favorable results (See Resident Evil: Survivor). Umbrella Chronicles improves upon previous spin-offs and provides plenty of replay value in the form of unlockables and an improved co-op mode.
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Five Reasons Why You Should Play Mass Effect
Earlier this week, Sheila & the SPACE/CTV crew checked out the launch party for Mass Effect, BioWare's ambitious role-playing game. Mass Effect not only pushes the Xbox 360 to the limit but it redefines our standards for character interaction and development within a game.
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Super Mario Galaxy
Shake, tilt, shoot... whoohoo! I refuse to classify Super Mario Galaxy as a platform game. The clever gameplay and controls are out of this world. Even if it has a thick helping of straight-up platforming stages, I say the game deserves its own new genre.
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Granado Espada 2.0
Community Manager Hrin Danielle Kuek tells us everything we ever wanted to know about the latest Granado Espada client. Also in an exclusive interview, Hrin will address beta tester concerns and show us what else is in store for the MMORPG's English premiere.
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Phantasy Star Universe
My own story of why the highly anticipated Massively Multiplayer Online component of Phantasy Star Universe was a massive failure.
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Kingdom Hearts 2
Perhaps the hardest game one can be assigned to review is Kingdom Hearts. When you?re in your mid twenties like me, attending graduate school, thinking about marriage the last thing you want to write about is a morality tale involving an overgrown mouse and a duck with a sailor shirt.
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Drakengard 2
As one of the few original RPG titles published by Square-Enix at its release, Drakengard took flight with a roar, anticipation riding high on its wings. Today, interest seems to have faded with barely a whimper. Now its sequel has swept onto the stage. Will it be love ? or will it be ambivalence?
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Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song
Artwork for the SaGa series always has an unmistakable otherworldly touch. Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song's instruction book depicts timeless watercolor works by Tomomi Kobayashi. So where is all that beautiful art in the game?
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Dragon Quest VIII
Dragon Quest VIII takes several old and new concepts, blending them into a game that's not without its flaws. The crisp cel-shaded graphics by developing studio Level-5 paint the illusion of a perfectly modernized RPG.
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Final Fantasy XII Demo
It's about damn time. The Japanese FF12 demo was last seen during E3 over a year ago, after which FF12 inexplicably disappeared off the American map. Now packaged with Dragon Quest VIII is an English version of the demo with the Japanese voices.
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Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 4 does away with all preconceived notions of the Survival Horror genre. Fast moving, intelligent enemies who can adapt to your every move replace the series' staple of slow moving zombies. The action varies from careful sniping to in-your-face, and the way you choose to deal with any encounter is up to you.
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Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Curse of Darkness is the sequel to the much loved Castlevania III and is the second 3D Castlevania game released by Konami for the Playstation 2. Despite having the building blocks for an excellent Castlevania game – Ayami Kojima's artwork and Michiru Yamane's music – Curse of Darkness failed to meet the high expectations that its marketing campaign had built up.
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Granado Espada
The Korean market is constantly flooded by cookie cutter MMORPGs and it was Kim Hakkyu's dream to evolve the genre by developing a new MMORPG geared to fire interest in even the most fickle of offline RPG players. FLAREgamer is here to give readers the first and only english preview of this highly anticipated import game.
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Shadow Hearts: Covenant
In the world of Shadow Hearts: Covenant, history and mythology meet and make one really crazy baby. Mary explores the latest title in the best series you’ve never played.
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FFXI: Chains of Promathia
Still doubting XI's ability to be a part of the Final Fantasy series? Most people believed that a game being online meant that good a story can't be conveyed. The XI myth is finally busted.
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Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Even diehard fans of the series joked that the game title indicated how long we’d have to wait for it to come to North America. But finally, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has arrived, in a shiny Director’s Cut edition, no less. It didn’t take Mary long to remember just why we were willing to wait almost three years for this.
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Mario Party 5
It's been five games, they've been fun. Nintendo finally realizes that players are getting tired of the same old formula and that it's got to go.
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.hack//series
It first burst onto the scene with its ambitious goal of revolutionizing the RPG world. It's been nearly a year since the first .hack game was released, and now it's three down and one to go. Did it spread like a virus or is it just a fad soon to be erased? The journey so far ...
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Tales of Symphonia
The Tales series makes the jump to the Gamecube, and to 3D (sorta)...How does it hold up?
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Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has been highly anticipated since word got out about it, and words flew. Constantly. As much as I myself loved FFT - and quite a few friends - we had apprehensions about FFTA. Were they unfounded, or did Square Enix pull through for us?
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FFXI: Vision of Zilart
An avalanche of changes or more of the same? A firsthand review by an importer who has been playing FFXI since its release last summer.
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Final Fantasy X2
Sheila's take on Square's slap it up and call it a day game. Did she get around to fully finishing the game? No. Does that make her review any less valid? With this game? Hell no!
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