Video Game Thoughts

First conceptualized while developers Chip Moore and Dylan Takeyama were in college, the pair set out to match the gameplay style of older tactical RPGs, such as Fire Emblem and Shining Force, with a modern look. Created in GameMaker, the game saw a successful Kickstarter campaign before being surprise released on Steam and later ported to the NIntendo Switch. The story follows a group of military academy students who get swept up in a questionable war before finding themsel

Developed as the second game from Black Tabby Studios, a Canadian based indie developer consisting of husband and wife Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard, Slay the Princess is psychological horror visual novel that tasks players to, surprise, slay a princess. While this may seem like an overall straight forward goal, it becomes clear pretty quickly that there's much more going on. We begin our journey as an unnamed character in the woods. The narrator sets the scene that we a

In 2011, a user on the internet's dumping ground, 4chan, posted an image of a HobbyTown location that was undergoing renovations. The image featuring a large carpeted room, fluorescent lighting, and pale, yellow dividing walls, began circulating on the site, and in 2019 was the featured image for a post on a paranormal themed board asking for "disquieting images that just feel 'off'". Another user replied to the post, supplying the image with its first description. Mentioning

Inspired by his childhood in Ecuador, Julián Cordero originally conceived of a game that would use the universal language of football in order to convey his memories of growing up. Wanting to avoid the high budget look of sports games like FIFA, as they didn't represent the soccer that he grew up with, he struggled with how best to move forward. With a little help from his University Professor Gabe Cuzzillo, the designer of 2019's Ape Out, he was inspired to bring the place t

As the first original intellectual property released by publisher Dotemu, Absolum combines everything the publisher had learned working on other side scrolling beat'em ups they had published for other developers, as well as Guard Crush Games' experience as the co-developer for Streets of Rage 4. Looking to create something new and bring the beat'em up genre to a new audience, the team decided to add roguelike elements to the game after with them in Mr. Nightmare X, the DLC fo

Serving as the much anticipated follow up to 1999's Chocobo Racing, the game that would become Chocobo GP floundered in development limbo for well over a decade. Originally announced in 2010 as a 3DS title, Square had outsourced development before quietly cancelling the project in 2013. in 2021, trademarks for Chocobo GP and Chocobo Grand Prix were filed before the official announcement of the title, which would release in March of 2022. The game was plagued with decisions th

As the name might imply, Raptor Boyfriend is a visual novel dating sim in which players can simulate dating a raptor. Not limiting itself to just being a dinosaur dating sim, which would frankly be enough to pique my interest, the game allows the player to also court a bigfoot and a fairy. While the core concept of a high school dating sim featuring cryptids is loosely based on Twilight, the developers drew more direct inspiration from Life is Strange, Night in the Woods, and

Developed as the debut title for indie studio All Possible Futures, The Plucky Squire follows the exploits of Jot, a writer and protagonist of a children's storybook, and his friends as they battle against the forces of the dastardly Humpgrump. As the studio was founded by James Turner, who had previously worked for Game Freak designing Pokémon from generation five onward, and Jonathon Biddle, who had worked for Devolver Digital as the creative director for The Swords of Ditt

Released in 2020, Going Under is the first game developed by indie studio Aggro Crab, and follows the tumultuous unpaid internship of Jacqueline "Jackie" Fiasco. Having earned her degree and hoping to enter the working world, she lands a "job" working for Fizzle, a beverage company subsidized by the much larger conglomerate company known as Cubicle. Though eager to get firsthand experience and hopefully being hired to a paid position, any dreams of a normal job are dashed alm

Beginning development in 2016, The Gap began with the "simple" idea of traversing the multiverse. The story focuses on neuroscientist Joshua Hayes, whom we control, who by the time we begin the game has lost it all. We awake, disoriented and confused, in his apartment in the not so distant future. With clear signs of a troubled life, with missed calls, subscription services lapsing, and nothing but the faintest and concerning clues as to what has led us to this point, it's up

Originally conceived during the development of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet by director Shigeru Ohmori, Pokopia draws heavily from his earliest work in the series as a map designer for Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire. Feeling as though the idea of creating their own Pokémon habitats would be appealing for fans, he further developed the idea as a spinoff title as a new approach to the franchise. Lacking the experience of working on sandbox games, Game Freak enlisted the aid of Koei Tecmo

Developed by Mad Head Games, Adam Wolfe bills itself as a paranormal mystery adventure. Thrust into the role of paranormal investigator Adam Wolfe, we're presented with a handful of cases that ultimately tie into the larger mystery of our missing sister. With fights against elementals, cultists, and even a car chase sequence, all of the pieces are in place for what, at least on paper, sounds like a thrilling, action packed adventure. Set in San Francisco, our first case sees

Developed by Italian studio Stupid Pixel, Death Noodle Delivery began with the fairly simple premise of combining the arcade classic Paperboy with a dystopian, cyberpunk future. While the idea of delivering papers in even our modern era seems a bit odd, the conceit of delivering food, in this case noodles, helps to update the general premise. The game does a pretty good job of bringing the classic arcade action to modern audiences, delivering it with a side of cynicism and hu

As the sixteenth entry in the Fire Emblem series, Three Houses marked the first home console release in over a decade, with 2007's Radiant Dawn being the last entry before the series made the jump to handheld. After the unexpected success of 2012's Fire Emblem: Awakening, which helped save the franchise from cancellation, and after working on both Fates and Shadows of Valentia, the team at Intelligent Systems decided to partner with Koei Tecmo in order to create what they fel

Though serving as the ninth game in the Ratchet & Clank series, Rift Apart was the first game where development wasn't helmed by Insomniac's secondary team in North Carolina, instead being developed by the entire team at both studios. Serving as a follow-up to both 2013's Into the Nexus and 2016's remake of the first game, Rift Apart was designed to appeal both to newcomers and veterans of the series. Taking advantage of the Playstation 5 hardware, the team landed on dimensio

Beginning development in 2018 as part of CyberConnect2's new focus on creating new, original titles, Fuga: Melodies of Steel is a strategy role-playing game that served as the first self published title from the developer. Having worked on the .Hack and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, the title is a departure from their previous work in almost every way. Serving as the fourth title in the Little Tail Bronx series, acting as a prequel to the PS1 game Tail Concerto, the story fo

Starting as an experiment by Matt Stark in 2019, early footage of the prototype went viral in 2020, leading to him dropping out of university to focus on development. By 2021, he had developed the concept enough to establish the studio Robot Turtle in order to fully build out the game alongside Robot Teddy. The team took influence from other puzzle games, chief among them being Portal, including the way in which Portal slowly introduces players to new mechanics. The game cent

Beginning development in 2012, Far Cry 4 was originally going to serve as a direct sequel to 2012's Far Cry 3, set on the same island, expanding on the players' story and bringing back familiar faces such as Vaas Montenegro. After about four days of brainstorming, the team realized that this wasn't the game they wanted to make, and scrapped the idea to focus on a brand new setting and story. While I obviously can't comment on the direction the game didn't take, I can say that

Released in 2023, Meg's Monster is an RPG that takes very clear inspiration from Undertale, both in terms of world design and in its sense of humor. We play as Roy, an incredibly strong monster with a love for toxic sludge as he sets out to protect a young girl, Meg, in his quest to return her to the surface world. What the game lacks in length or difficulty, it makes up for in spades with its adorable sprite work and a genuinely novel and engaging combat system. Though the w

The year 2020, with all of the absolute insanity that led up to and occurred during it, will likely stand as one of the most fascinating times in modern history. I truly do not envy those who have to study everything that occurred during this incredibly strange year. However, one of the things that will likely help to show just how bizarre the world was is to look at the media that arose from it, and Five Dates, developed by Wales Interactive, does a fairly good job of captur