Gaming off the Beaten Path

Don't hold me to it, but this review is probably going to be a relatively short one. Some games just don't provide much to talk about. On one hand, you have the classics, those 10's that I keep going on about, and other really good games that offer up all sorts of reasons to sing their praises. On the other, you have the truly awful stuff, the Rocky and Bulwinkles and Rise of the Robots' that are so offensively putrid that you can't help but talk about them, just for how shockingly bad they are. Then, you have games like Fallen Legion. It's not that FL:FOR is bad. It isn't. It's that it's so, so painfully average that there just really isn't much to say. The graphics are good, but they aren't great. The story has its moments, but it isn't particularly memorable or unique and it tends to hang on insignificant events for too long. The combat is well designed and different from other games in the genre, but its repetitive and often leads t

Last week I gave my initial thoughts on the dark, brooding atmosphere of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. I feel like I struggled to adequately explain just how different this game is design wise from anything else I have ever played. While I'm not sure I did the atmosphere justice, I don't think I will have any such issues with the gameplay. Lets start with the combat. For as different as SMTN is aesthetically, the combat should feel right at home to any JRPG fan. You have a party of four, with each character outfitted with a set of magical or physical special moves. It's good, old fashioned turn based combat, with just enough twists to make it feel refreshing and unique. You get one action per turn for each character in your active party. However, you can increase the number of actions you can take in several ways. Land a critical hit or exploit an enemy weakness and you will get another action that turn. Don't have anything impactful to do with a particular character? Y

Are video games art? It's a question that I think a lot of people that are really into gaming grapple with and have been grappling with for a long time now. Those of us that grew up in an era where video games were "just toys" or "only for kids" have certainly heard plenty of folks opine that they most certainly are not. But in recent years, as the industry becomes more popular and gaming becomes more mainstream, more and more people have been asked to, or forced to, view video games as a media format. I'm sure it happens with every new format, just as our parents were confused by the stupid video games, theirs were confused by the stupid television, and theirs by the stupid radio, and so on. But that isn't what we are here to talk about, it's a different topic for a different day. We are here to talk about my first foray into the Shin Megami Tensei, or Megaten, franchise. For years, I have avoided playing any of these things because their close atta

After last week’s appetizer, it’s time for the main course. I’m not going to lie, this is probably going to be a long one.  I know all about the whole “recommended word count” for online articles and this post is going to blow it out of the water.  I can also say for certain there will be spoilers, probably some big ones, for both the original Final Fantasy VII and the Remake.  So, strap in, grab yourself a beverage and read on because its pretty much illegal to go anywhere anyway.   In the first article I posted when I re-started my blog last year, I ranked my top 10 titles from the previous generation, a list that saw “The Last of Us” finish in the number 3 spot.  I talked about how that game set a new standard for how a video game could look, sound and be presented.  It raised the bar higher than I had ever seen on a console before, pushing the PlayStation 3’s hardware to its limits in every way.  Well, the bar has been raised again.  The FFVII remake is un

Here’s a fun fact: Ehrgeiz means “ambition” in German. Sorry, I didn’t know what else to start with.  I have been thinking about covering this very, very strange game for a while now and looping it in with Final Fantasy VII seemed like the best idea.  Your first question was probably “what does a random 3D fighting game from the 90s have to do with Final Fantasy VII?” (Actually, your first question was probably, “how the hell do I pronounce the title? But whatever.) It’s simple.  Most of the cast of FFVII are playable characters in this game.  Before I get really going, the more hardcore FFVII fans out there are probably all like “why didn’t you just review Crisis Core?”  Well, it’s been a while since I played it and while I do have access to a copy of the game, I don’t have a functional PSP to play it on.  Crisis Core is awesome, and I’m not sure I could get too in depth with my thoughts on it since its been so long.  So, back to Ehrgeiz we go. As I m

Yet again, we have a first.  Looking back, I realized I have yet to review a Sega Genesis game.  And no, Sonic Mania doesn’t count. That’s probably because I was a Nintendo/Sony person growing up.  Nowadays, the PlayStation and XBox are almost interchangeable.  Sure, there are a few exclusives, but for the most part developers are going to release the same game on both systems.  Hell, some games even have cross play between consoles.  That wasn’t the case in the 90s, when your choice of gaming console drastically altered which games you could play. This also meant the big first party developers spent a lot of time trying to ape each others’ big name series’.  Nintendo was always looking for their own Sonic, while Sega was on a never ending quest for their own Mario and Zelda.  The generally did a pretty good job making games comparable to the former, but often struggled with the latter.  There were quite a few second rate adventure games on the Genesis that j