Boot Hill Heroes | Review

Boot Hill Heroes | Review

Boot Hill Heroes is the first game from indie studio Experimental Gamer, a developer which aims to bring elements from classic RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger and breathe life into the genre once again. This very small team had a successful kickstarter campaign in late 2012 and Boot Hill Heroes was released on Steam and XBox Live Arcade in October and December of 2014 respectively. It originally caught my eye because of its striking resemblance to Earthbound and I thought it would be the perfect game to play in the run up to the release of Mother 4.

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Kingdom Hearts 3 | Review | PS4

Kingdom Hearts 3 | Review | PS4

In my last Kingdom Hearts video it would be an understatement to say that I was pessimistic. Square Enix’s insistence on releasing games in the series so frequently on every platform imaginable, with massively fluctuating quality in aesthetic and gameplay terms, has left the series in the unfortunate position of having more bad games than good. But I thought I’d give Kingdom Hearts one last chance, knowing all along that if Kingdom Hearts 3 went the way of Final Fantasy XV (a buggy, ugly, unfinished train wreck) I could safely say I would never buy another Square Enix game again. Ever. So unlike a lot of commentators I’ve noticed on social media who outright bum every nonsensical story trailer or screenshot of one of Tetsuya Nomura’s ludicrous cast of Final Fantasy rejects, you can rest assured I’m about to give this game exactly what it deserves.

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Kingdom Hearts III: Should You Be Worried?

Kingdom Hearts III: Should You Be Worried?

Kingdom Hearts, what a unique video game franchise. Despite only having two numbered games in the series so far, Kingdom Hearts has a mind boggling amount of entries across an equally mind boggling amount of platforms many of which are essential to understanding the overarching plot. Kingdom Hearts 2.8 is the latest piece of the puzzle and all of it is meant to contextualise and precede the highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts III.....It’s also a load of old bollocks!

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South Park: The Fractured but Whole | Review

South Park: The Fractured but Whole | Review

South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the sequel to the critically acclaimed Stick of Truth is here at last to coincide with season 21 of the South Park TV series. A lot has happened in the humble town of South Park since The Stick of Truth: PC Principal took over South Park Elementary, SodoSopa brought gentrification to the town and the Canadian Devil Beelzaboot released his freemium Terrence & Phillip game to exploit children for money. So, has South Park: The Fractured but Whole changed and matured along with the show and how has Ubisoft inevitably managed to mess it up?

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Enderal | Skyrim Mod | Review

Enderal | Skyrim Mod | Review

The Skyrim Creation Kit, possibly the greatest video game creation tool ever that isn't designed for that specific purpose. Through it, modders have developed whole systems within Skyrim such as real time strategy, setlement building, tower defense, sex slave simulator...you name it, someone has modded it in to Skyrim. And now, developers SureAI, the same people who brought us Nehrim for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have created an entirely new game using Skyrim's 'creation engine.'

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Edge Of Eternity | Interview With The Composer | Cedric Menendez

Edge Of Eternity | Interview With The Composer | Cedric Menendez

Cedric Memendez is a composer working with Midgar Studio, a French indie studio currently working on the JRPG inspired Edge Of Eternity. The game was a massive kickstarter success and also reached its stretch goal to bring on help from Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda. In this interview we talk about recording with Mitsuda and the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra. The history of Midgar Studio and their previous games and Cedric Menendez's early Japanese RPG inspirations. As well as some discussion on sound design and finally we change the subject, as I ask about the game itself and the turn-based mechanics of Edge Of Eternity.

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Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness | Review

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness | Review

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is an unfinished game. Not in the way you might have heard before; as a complete product that is 20 hours long (far too short for a JRPG of this type, and in the Star Ocean series to boot) and not in the way that Drakengard 3 was unfinished; that game only needed a few bug fixes, a bit of optimisation and a budget to speak of....No.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness is a completely unfinished game.

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Final Fantasy X/X-2 & the Awful "Will" Audio Drama

Final Fantasy X/X-2 & the Awful "Will" Audio Drama

We have two videos for you today! An in-depth discussion and review of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster and a much shorter video summarising the 'Final Fantasy X -Will-' audio drama. My co-hosts Tom & Luke had never played an RPG before Final Fantasy X and 15 years later, the game remains one of their favourite games of all time.

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Way Of The Samurai 3 | Review (PC Port)

Way Of The Samurai 3 | Review (PC Port)

If there's one thing that can be said about every entry in the Way Of The Samurai series, it's that they have insane amounts of potential. Way Of The Samurai 3 takes the criminally under-used setting of Sengoku period Japan and with its gameplay, sets out to give players a massive amount of customisation, and choices that drastically change the outcome of the story. At first glance, this game seems to retain all the things that made the first two games enjoyable. Except this is Way Of The Samurai 3, we have jumped a generation from the Playstation 2 to 3. (Xbox 360 too) ...and now, after the fans demanded it, a PC port hits steam. So we are safe to expect more polish, better controls, a more involved story, and graphics fitting of a seventh generation console, right?....

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Yakuza 5 | Review

Yakuza 5 | Review

Yakuza 5 is a fighting/driving/hunting/dancing/karaoke simulation/action-RPG game by SEGA. The Yakuza series, (known as Ryu Ga Gotoku in Japan) which has won excellence awards in its home country with practically every new release, is basically the Grand Theft Auto of Japanese gaming. Yakuza 5 was originally released in December 2012 but Western audiences have had to wait 3 years for a version which didn't require them to learn Japanese. Was it worth the wait? Oh god yes!

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Undertale | Review

Undertale | Review

Undertaleis a predominantly one man project created by Toby Fox. Funded with a successful Kickstarter campaign which far surpassed its $5,000 goal, Undertale managed to raise a total of $51,124 and took over 2 and a half years to complete. Earlier in the year I cited Boot Hill Heroes as a perfect example of how the classic RPG genre accredited to games such as Chrono Trigger & Earthbound are both utterly timeless and just bursting with unexplored potential. Undertale takes a sledgehammer the size of the sun and just hammers that point home with the force of a billion stampeding chocobos.

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Mother 4 | Interview With The Composers

Mother 4 | Interview With The Composers

Following my Shuffle or Boogie article on the music of the Mother series, I had a chance to interview Shane Mesa & Dani Person who are hard at work on the music for the upcoming fan-made fourth entry in the series, Mother 4. While I decided not to badger them for a release date, the answers they gave were both promising and inspiring. It seems the music of Mother 4 is in safe hands.

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