In the gaming industry today, it seems like many developers won’t release a new title without including an open world as a feature for the player to explore. Open worlds used to be something that set games apart, a mark of innovation that players had never experienced before. This made games more immersive, creating the …
March 28 marks ten years since the release of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts II, the second entry in the beloved RPG franchise. Although there have been other releases since on handheld platforms, this year’s upcoming release of Kingdom Hearts III will mark the franchise’s long-awaited return to consoles. Because of its lengthy development time, the …
Was it the bald waiter…. On the catwalk…. With the bomb? Down below the targets speech starts on the catwalk, hanging high above on the lighting rig is Agent 47, the plan is foolproof; destroy the winch that keeps the elaborate set of lighting held up and send it tumbling down onto our show curator …
When I start an article off with a title like “What Killed Final Fantasy”, I can only assume that some readers will agree that it’s dead and be intrigued, some readers will be offended at my insult to their favourite gaming franchise, and the rest will be Square Enix’s current demographic: the artistically blind. Final …
The news about the much anticipated FF VII remake keeps coming, however it might not all be good. Popoptiq.com already reported on the brand new trailer recently released claiming to be gameplay footage, and while the trailer certainly appears tantalizing for the remake, the rest of the news coming out of Square’s appearance at PSX 2015 …
I have been a fan of Kingdom Hearts for almost twelve years, roughly the entire lifetime of the series. While I wasn’t a day one adopter, I can recall eagerly awaiting Kingdom Hearts II, which I did get right away, satiating my hunger on the Game Boy Advance entry Chain of Memories. I vividly remember being shocked …
As the clock ticked down on this years most exciting and inventive episodic title, it was tough not to feel a sense of trepidation and fearfulness in the wake of its finale, and while Life is Strange hasn’t shirked the ending problems that were faced by other choice-based series like Mass Effect or The Wolf Among Us, it has certainly learned from their mistakes.
With Girl Power in Gaming, we’re exploring the role of females in our favorite hobby for the month of September. The series will attempt to explore gender dynamics, pre-assigned roles and both positive and negative examples of female characterization in the digital world. The history of Lara Croft as a character is something that has …
This past week at the D23 Disney Exposition Event, a ton of news regarding the future of Disney franchises was unveiled including the announcement that a Big Hero 6 world will be featured in Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts III. With the inclusion of Tangled and Big Hero 6 in Sora’s latest adventure, the speculation of …
As much as every episode of Life is Strange has ended on an increasingly strong note thus far, The Dark Room has taken this series to a Return of the King level of resolutions, with a number of plot lines having come to their surprisingly pleasant, or seethingly uncomfortable, heads in this penultimate chapter.
Square Enix did more than tease game mechanics for the much anticipated Kingdom Hearts III at this years E3 event, instead fans were delighted to see a full fledged trailer. I for one struggled to contain my excitement when I saw a trailer with a more complete look at gameplay on Square Enix’s stage after waiting for …
It was a great many years ago when most of us entered the bustling metropolis of Midgar and first encountered the virtual version of a living breathing post-apocalyptic nightmare. It was a place of steaming machines, surreal emerald lighting, and an omni-present police state operated by the most powerful corporation in the world, all perched …
Kingdom Hearts: Dream, Drop, Distance gave players two things they had been asking for since Kingdom Hearts II: 1. Story advancement and 2. More Riku. Widely considered another strong entry in the series, it is Dream, Drop, Distance’s finale that separates it from the pack because it finally gives Riku a chance to shine brighter than Sora.
There’s a lot to love about Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to Disney and Square-Enix’s mashup of their respective properties. It plays smoother than the first one, the plot elements are better balanced between the whimsical and serious, and all around the production blows the first game completely out of the water. With that said however, KHII does share one key commonality with its predecessor, and that’s a final section that handily outshines the rest of the adventure.
It’s been a full ten years since the last numbered Kingdom Hearts entry, and as such, Kingdom Hearts III has been the product of much anticipation since dropping its first few tidbits back in June 2014. Finally we now have our first look at the game in proper form, with dynamic, action-packed gameplay being showcased and a split-level …
Sony unleashed at their 2015 E3 press conference what may be the most ultimate fan service announcement ever: Square is remaking one of the best role-playing games of all time, Final Fantasy VII, for the new generation. Something that gamers have been clamoring for since being teased with technical demo footage back at 2005’s E3, the Final Fantasy VII …
ActRaiser Developed by Quintet Published by Enix Available on SNES, Wii You know what happens when you don’t check in on your Animal Crossing town for a while? Replace a little village with the whole world, and switch out those pesky weeds with nasty monsters, and you’ve got the basic state of things at the start …
The latest episode of Life is Strange, Dontnod’s coming-of-age odyssey of a girl who discovers she can time travel, has dropped today, and it may have just changed gaming forever. Nobody saw that twist coming, and I would be amazed if anyone didn’t gasp audibly at the final curtain reveal. Chaos Theory is going to be talked about for the rest of the year as easily one of gaming’s most jaw-dropping moments…but let’s start back at the beginning, shall we?
This is probably the most low-hanging fruit I could have selected to cover, but let’s face it, this game has a Metacritic average of 83 on PlayStation 3 and 82 on Xbox 360 and has sold over 6 million copies, but is still one of the worst games many gamers have played. All the more baffling because it’s not just a bad game, but a complete and total embarrassment to the Final Fantasy name that, until this point, carried a serious pedigree.
Kingdom Hearts is a series whose plot is constantly in a state of conflict with itself. At the center of this conflict is a level of tonal inconsistency that is put into place by even choosing to merge the happy-go-lucky innocence of Disney with the moody and brooding, self-serious Final Fantasy franchise to begin with. The vast …
Kingdom Hearts has a way of telling complex stories that produce more questions than answers. As such, Kingdom Hearts games tend to run long. With the minor exceptions of Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days, each of the games has managed to build a strong fan base that continues to pine for Kingdom Hearts 3 (Before I die Square Enix, that’s all I ask–before I die). The longest game to date is Birth by Sleep, which clocks in at a healthy 45 hours of gameplay that purely moves the plot forward. That does not include any time players might spend mucking about with meld commands, building command decks, playing mini-games, or fighting in the arena. Players are willing to invest so much time in Birth by Sleep because although Birth by Sleep failed to pick up where Kingdom Hearts 2 left off, it provided players with new game mechanics that improved gameplay tenfold, and it presented three unique perspectives on the events that lead to Kingdom Hearts.
With the debut of the second part of Life is Strange, Dontnod has proven that their first episode was far from a fluke. Intense, expansive, and grounded in reality (well, except for those time travel bits) Out of Time takes this series even further toward a potential Game of the Year nomination.
Final Fantasy: Record Keeper launched quietly last week, but as a mobile-only title in a long-standing series that focuses primarily on console releases, that’s hardly a surprise. However, there are definitely a few reasons you should check out this title, even if you’re adamantly against the typical free-to-play model of mobile gaming.