Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army was an interesting departure for Atlus and their Devil Summoner series. Coming from a company typically known for in-depth role-playing sagas, Soulless Army still had MegaTen-style RPG underpinnings, but then contained an action-oriented combat system and more adventure-esque exploration in a project that reminded me of what Square had attempted many years before with Parasite Eve. While not without faults, it was a fresh take on the series and held a lot of potential should Atlus see fit to give the idea another try.
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Category: Video Games
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Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
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Rhythm Heaven
Honestly? I never expected Rhythm Heaven to come out in the United States. Its predecessor–a game known as Rhythm Tengoku on the GameBoy Advance–never came our way. Now, part of that was simply down to timing; it hit in Japan as the GBA was on its way out in favor of the DS, and by the time it had gone through localization and planning for a release over here it would have been even later to the party.
There was another reason that it ended up becoming a must-have import title and not a game given to the whole world, however; the game was very Japanese.
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House of the Dead: Overkill
House of the Dead: Overkill is, for me, Sega’s most daring project since Jet Set Radio back in the days of the Dreamcast.
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Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie BBQ
For a long time now, I’ve had a thing for Little Red Riding Hood. Not any specific girl, mind you, but the overall idea of the character herself. It’s a tale with a lot of potential, you’ve got to admit: young girl with a distinctive look, trying to save a loved one from the threat of a vicious wolf. I’ve even had, for many years, the perfect game based around the character planned out in my head. You’ve got Little Red Riding Hood, dressed in a blood-red Japanese Elegant Gothic Lolita-style outfit, traveling through the dark and daunting German countryside (complete with fully German voice acting), hunting down the bloodthirsty werewolves she has unwillingly been tasked with killing. In grand Devil May Cry fashion, the action is fast and furious, and you must fill your enemies full of silver bullets until they are severely weakened, giving Riding Hood the opportunity to relieve them of their heads with a swing of her mighty sword.
…er, anyhow, what I’m trying to say is, Little Red Riding Hood as a game character is an interesting proposition, and when I found out that not only would there be a game with her in it, but with her battling zombies of all things (another favorite of mine), I simply had to give the game a go.
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Retro Game Challenge
Shinya Arino–one of the two members of Japanese comedy duo Yoiko–hosts a late-night TV show in Japan called GameCenter CX. GCCX is a celebration of video gaming, but more specifically, it is a celebration of the days gone by of video gaming. Arino himself is a huge game fan, and every episode–at least, for every episode I myself have personally seen–he helps bring us a look back at gaming’s golden days, from what titles were released by a particular company back in the 80’s, to interviewing folks like Yuu Suzuki about his start at Sega, to meeting a man living somewhere in Tokyo who proudly owns every Famicom (Japan’s version of the NES) game ever released.
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Persona 4
Each character is a tragic hero, and yet, they are at their core nothing more than ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. Because of this, we can relate to them, progress with them, live the adventure that is Persona through them.
Eleven years ago, I wrote those words as part of the opening to the official GameFan strategy guide for a quirky new RPG brought to the United States by Atlus called Revelations: Persona. It is funny that they would then end up being at their most relevant nearly a decade later at the release of the franchise’s third official chapter, Persona 3.
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Valhalla Knights
Though survival horror may have swept into my life and stole away my heart, there is no genre of video game that I have loved longer or more completely than Japanese RPGs. Almost twenty years ago I first set out into the world of Phantasy Star, and from that moment on, I knew the genre was for me. Unfortunately, the love affair has been a bit rocky as the years have gone on. I still love JRPGs, but there’s just no getting around it; the genre, in my eyes, just hasn’t seen the kind of gameplay progression that other genres have seen, and has suffered because of that.
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Rule of Rose
Way back in 1999, I got my first taste of Konami’s new horror series Silent Hill. While the mechanics behind the game itself weren’t of the utmost quality, all of the story-line elements had been crafted with such care and dedication that Silent Hill was no longer a game, but a mental and emotional experience. I bring this up because my introduction to Rule of Rose brought up many of the exact same feelings. Not since the tale of Harry Mason and the search for his lost daughter has a horror title so perfectly, yet so seemingly easily, created an entire universe and mythos that clicks from the very moment it begins.
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