Ani-Game

The Atelier series has been around for a long time. Long enough that it can feel a little intimidating from the outside. We’re talking more than two decades of games, spin offs, sub series, and different protagonists, all tied together by a shared focus on alchemy and character driven stories. For years, it felt like a niche franchise that quietly … Read More

The Monster Hunter series has always been about preparation, mastery, and the thrill of taking down massive creatures through skill and persistence. Monster Hunter Stories takes that familiar world and flips the core idea on its head. Instead of hunting monsters for parts, you befriend them. Instead of a loose framework that exists mostly to push you toward the next … Read More

Some games hit you with nostalgia before you even press a button. Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved did exactly that for me. From the moment I booted it up on my Switch, I was taken back to the era of mystery games that defined my time with the Nintendo DS. Those slow-burn, text-heavy adventures where you poked at environments, questioned … Read More

I’m a huge fan of Critical Role, so went into The Mighty Nein with a lot of excitement. The show lives in the same world as The Legend of Vox Machina, but shifts the focus to a different corner of Exandria. Instead of tagging along with a well known crew, we travel to a new continent and meet a fresh … Read More

When I first heard that Koei Tecmo and AAA Studios were teaming up again for another Hyrule Warriors title, I expected more of the usual musou chaos. I’d dabbled in the previous Hyrule Warrior entries but always dropped off after playing  a few missions, and mowing down endless Bokoblins. What pulled me in this time was one simple detail. Hyrule Warriors: … Read More

I went into Anno 117: Pax Romana as a total newcomer to the Anno series. I have spent the last few years dipping my toes into building sims through games like Civilization, Jurassic World Evolution and Two Point Museum, so I felt ready to try something with a different flavor. When Ubisoft announced a full city builder set during the … Read More

I have played a lot of games across a lot of systems, but the Dragon Quest series has always had a special place in my heart. Growing up as a massive fan of Dragon Ball, I gravitated towards Dragon Quest because of Akira Toriyama’s distinct art and then came to fall in love with the charm and sense of adventure … Read More

Tales of Xillia was one of the earliest entries in the series that I tried back on the PS3, and it stuck with me in a way few JRPGs of that era did. When Bandai Namco announced that a remaster of the game was coming as part of the Tales Anniversary Remastered Project, I knew I had to jump back … Read More

Heart Machine and Devolver Digital teaming up for a new game is an instant attention grabber for me. Heart Machine, the studio behind Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, has built a reputation for fast-paced action and striking visual design, while Devolver has long been the champion of weird, bold indie games that don’t play by anyone’s rules. Their collaboration … Read More

By the time I started up Jurassic World Evolution 3, I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Frontier Developments has carved out a neat little niche with its Jurassic World Evolution series, part management sim, part dinosaur sandbox, and this third entry continues that trend in true Frontier fashion. They’ve shipped it relatively quickly after the … Read More