Ani-Game

When I first heard that Octopath Traveler 0 was evolving out of Champions of the Continent, I’ll admit I was cautious. The mobile game had some great ideas and a surprisingly strong story, but it was also very much designed around gacha systems, daily play habits, and bite-sized progression. Turning that into a full, premium console RPG felt like a … Read More

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

Eighteen years is a long time to wait for anything, let alone a sequel to one of your favorite games. As someone who has been playing Metroid for as long as I can remember, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond feels less like just another Nintendo release and more like the closing of a very long chapter that’s been left hanging since … 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

When Kirby Air Riders was first announced for the Nintendo Switch 2, I honestly had to double check that it was real. Kirby Air Ride has always been one of those strange Nintendo cult classics. People who love it really love it, but it has also spent its entire life living in Mario Kart’s shadow. It came and went on … 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