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Why Everything is Dark Souls
Every film wants to be a cinematic universe, and every game wants to be Dark Souls — according to some. The cynic inside us already has an answer to why: the games of From Software have a large, paying fanbase, and other studios want a slice of that pie. A manager who sits at least…
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Xenogears Screenshots
This is a collection of 75 high-quality (and hopefully interesting) screenshots from the Playstation game Xenogears. They were taken in RetroArch with the crt-easymode shader applied. This is not a comprehensive tour of Xenogears, but it does feature a variety of areas including some from late in the game. To find out what makes this…
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Evolution of Healers in JRPGs
Magical healers have had a role in mythology, religion and fantasy literature since forever. You’ve heard of Jesus of Nazareth? Total healer. We will come back to him later. In role playing games, healers were there even before computers. The first edition Dungeons and Dragons (1974) gave rules for three types of characters: fighting men,…
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What Avatar: The Way of Water did to me
Avatar 2 recaptures the magic of the first film without feeling like a retread — mostly. With the world of Pandora and the way of the Navi explained in the first movie, the sequel seems like the time to build on those foundations and tell a new, more complex story. I wanted Avatar: The Way…
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What made Xenogears great? An In-Depth Review
Xenogears released in 1997: after Final Fantasy VII, before Final Fantasy VIII. At a time when the Square Enix development cycle could stretch to a year and a half (Final Fantasy games included), Xenogears took over two. Even that wasn’t enough, not even close: Xenogears is, at best, 75% complete. Links: Screenshots That’s nothing, though.…
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Western-Style JRPGs: A Brief Overview
Where do we start when it comes to Western-style JRPGs? Perhaps we should get clear about what we are looking for. After all, the wording is ambiguous. Does a game with JRPG mechanics that was made by a Western company meet the definition? If you believe that a JRPG must, categorically, come from Japan (as…
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A videogame exploration blog about games that take you to other worlds. We feature long-form analysis, video game history articles, and many other fun essays about RPGs, action-adventures, and more.
Talk to me on Mastodon or at hello@greatadventuresreview.com.