Evolving Pokemon: How Black 2 and White 2 points to the future of 'catching them all'
Who says Pokemon never changes? Until recently, the franchise's story wasn't much more than an afterthought. Its main virtue was its consistency – you could always count on an evil organization showing up to destroy the world for no real reason at all. With Pokemon Black and White, a sliver ...
These Western-developed JRPGs deserve your time
In my drawer is an unopened copy of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Having really enjoyed it at E3, I made a point to pick up a copy for myself, then proceed to completely forget about it following a trip to Japan. It's still there, waiting for me to finally start clearing out my backlog. I thought of ...
Pressure's off: What Square can accomplish with Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. It's been a long, strange ride for ...
The World Ends With You's Solo Remix: A small step toward something greater
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. Well, that was a little ...
We can build on this: Why ideas in The Last Story should be embraced by RPG devs
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. When Hironobu Sakaguchi set out to ...
Five RPG extras that would probably be DLC in 2012
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. When the enhanced edition of Final ...
The Last Story review: Sakaguchi's experimental side
The Last Story appears to flip the script on Dragon Quest. Where Square Enix's seminal RPG series normally seeks to tell new stories within familiar mechanical frameworks, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's latest effort offers a very (very) familiar narrative while experimenting wildly ...
Can RPG fans enjoy Persona 4 Arena too?
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. I've had Persona 4 Arena in my house ...
Why Kingdom Hearts must return to consoles
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. It's time for Kingdom Hearts to go ...
Does The World Ends With You really need a sequel?
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. In about a week, Kingdom Hearts 3D: ...
