Shared Fantasy, the first sociological monograph about roleplaying games, is about a period when established players are dealing with a new wave of younger players with different priorities. The period is 1978.

Guardian Heroes (1996) by Treasure and Sega. Operetion Gurdian Heroes and Complete Works art by Tetsuhiko Kikuchi (HAN).

I did a pixel redraw thing for Final Fantasy 3

Next Mecha Guy of the day is Roger Smith from The Big O!

golden witch

Only one volume left to go! Imagine telling someone this back in 1989, when Viz first tried releasing the Fist manga. Or in the mid-90s, when Viz tried for a second time. Or in the early 00s, when Gutsoon tried for a third time. Man, if only more manga were given this many tries in English...

Oh dang, I didn't notice the news until now, but Depersonalization - a big Chinese indie hybrid RPG based on tabletop Call of Cthulhu - got its english translation overhaul a couple weeks back. I'd been holding off on playing it because I'd heard the initial translation was pretty wonky.

I've only got the first of those, but I want to read more.

I've been shouting about this game since the day it came out. Genuinely one of the best side-scrolling brawlers EVER. Incredible depth means that even on the ultra-highest difficulty (where every enemy moves like a hummingbird and stings like a truck) it's possible to 1cc it consistently.

I have been so busy writing through The Trials (con crude and the destruction of my laptop) that I haven't had time to post any of my work since SGF. I can’t write any more today, so I'm going to play catchup. First up: I previewed Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound for @ign.com and it rules.

Lots of slashing, raging, and bird-PTSD'ing in the new Ninja Gaiden: RAGEBOUND! Watch - youtu.be/JWzOSToEuKM

Final Fantasy Tactics (Creative Studio 3), out Sept 30th

New Review: Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Part 1) The first TV anime adaptation of Romance was actually an adaptation of an adaptation, as it was based on Mitsuteru Yokoyama's 60-volume magnum opus It may not always be a looker, but the first 22 eps of this show are damn good

Alright, it's looking like the ultimate answer to "does Hundred Line really have 100 distinct endings?" is "mostly true", because the game's script is indeed a giant monster of very different routes and scenarios. The review consensus is positive too, with a few rather minor caveats.

#SuperRobotWars Y releases Aug 28 Writing a summary but most important thing they said is planning for next game started right after 30 released, but they wanted to change to a new engine first so that's why it took so long, future games after Y won't take that long www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHcM...

The veil lifts... Kumori awaits. 🕷️Kumori joins NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound — a masterful assassin from the Black Spider Clan. 🥷The reckoning begins summer 2025. Wishlist NINJA GAIDEN: Ragebound now! store.steampowered.com/app/2542120/... www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1X0...

We've begun the search for Treasure Island! 🏝️ Be sure to check out our marathon of episodes 1-5 on our YouTube channel! 📺 👉 youtu.be/2PiiR5ib-MI #TMS60th

Got an update for you about Tokimeki Memorial's Sega Saturn. The patch's team has been slowly working on the English translation and is making essentially a help wanted ad. The current patch crashes a lot and we could use people with hacking and debugging experience. Let us know!

Baldur's Gate 3 was my most hyped game for 2023, Romancing Saga 2 remake was the one for 2024 and now...it's looking like it'll be Hundred Line for 2025.

I want to watch the new Gundam soon, but life seems to be conspiring against it. *shakes fist at the heavens*

Saw the whole thing now, it's a fantastic dive into the history of wargames/strategy games and how cultural changes affect how we "play" war as a society. Great work George! It's outside of the scope of the video, but I want to add a fun trivia about when civilian units were added to wargames - 1/4

www.1101.com/n/s/mother_p... Hobonichi is publishing a series of articles based on a chat between Shigesato Itoi and Marcus Lindblom, talking about the localization of Earthbound. It's a pretty cool glimpse behind the scenes! The rest of the series will be published throughout the week.

I've deleted the Japan-releated comments, because I realized my own description was leaving out some nuances, even if it did contribute to making an often simplified comparison into a more complex one. I'll have to think about how to better present that information later.

A writeup detailing the differences in the AM Show prototype of Gradius III included in Gradius Origins (sorry for link to trashsite) x.com/Shingi/statu...

Suikoden, perhaps best summed up as “Pokémon meets Game of Thrones,” is one of my favorite video game series. So it’s been a pleasure to play through the new remaster of Suikoden 1+2, which comes out tomorrow. The bugs are fixed, the entire script is reworked, and it looks gorgeous. Highly recommend

Some indie games wear their inspiration on its sleeve, but few can go really the distance on their first major release. #Shujinkou is a fantastic title, with great dungeons crawling and story served in tandem.🌸 Full Review: www.rpgfan.com/review/shuji...

Lizardcube in partnership with SEGA is happy to reveal Shinobi:Art of Vengeance We’ve been hard at work since Streets of Rage 4 and really humbled to have the opportunity to revive this legendary franchise with SEGA youtu.be/duSFn7ptRIw?...

Thinking about Knights of the Chalice 2... how a single dev made a ultra-hardcore 3.5 D&D CRPG that has multiple modules AND a great module editor... ...but for many reasons, from pricing to artstyle to AI use, has been stuck at under 100 reviews for 3 years (while still getting regular updates) :/

A few typesetting examples from this round of announcements. The Cyborg vs Devilman one is a personal favorite.

A Very Big Discotek New Year's! Abridged Version! Stream archives are here: Part 1- www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmW6... Part 2- www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8KK... Clips & more- x.com/discotekmedi...

Happy New Year! I can hope it'll be better than 2024 at least.

Proud of this: for Thanksgiving Weekend, I wrote a nice long piece about @therightram.bsky.social’s “Detective Comics” run - “Gotham Nocturne” - for @secondwindgroup.com. Always thrilled to write about comics. One of the best superhero runs in recent memory. READ: www.patreon.com/posts/column...

Xiaomei and the Flame Dragon's Fist, an indie Kung Fu Master tribute initially released in 2019 and later ported to the Mega Drive, is now available on Steam store.steampowered.com/app/3125850/...

Nice. While I'd prefer the original Ever17 as a matter of principle, the remaster isn't horrible or anything. Reading about a few changes without context, some may sound odd to me, but the main story is still there. Others simply make me curious and I'm generally interested seeing the end result.

So happy that Sentai is giving the Bastard!! anime reboot a physical release. I don't use Netflix, so I'm excited to finally watch this anime. We'll never get the manga again in English, but I'll gladly take this, at least.

I'm glad that the remake of Romancing Saga 2 is getting such good reviews today. I was a big fan of the earlier release from 2016-2017. If you can dig into the concept of playing as a whole line of succession with the emperors of your choosing, then I think you'll have a wonderful time!

THE INTERNET ARCHIVE IS BACK WITH FREE BOOKS AND MOVIES AND A BILLION OTHER TYPES OF MEDIA WHO CHEERED archive.org

Kiminozo getting delayed due to Steam review seems almost like a running gag at this point.

Quite a few unexpected spoilers here, I'd say, but all of that makes me even more excited to play Romancing Saga 2 later this week.

Share an opening animation that you like from a video game. The localized version of Mega Man X5 may not have the actual Japanese song, but the minimalism surprisingly works here. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJQm...

Lloyd was always charming in his own crazy way. Good voice acting in both English and Japanese too!

Happy Romancing Saga 2: Revenge of the Seven release week for those who celebrate! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzWs...

I'm afraid that I mostly skipped the Dragon Quest Dai remake at the time, just due to lack of time for anime, but I should watch it sooner or later! I was actually fond enough of the previous anime adaptation from so many years ago, which just suddenly stops in the middle of a story arc.

Hashimoto also composed the soundtrack for Akito the Exiled, the Code Geass spin-off, which was certainly very distinctive and one of the interesting choices that director Kazuki Akane made.

Final Fantasy IV is my "I know there are better JRPGs, sure, but this one was my first/favorite". I sold off most of my SNES games at fire sale prices, which was a mix of dumbness and desperation, but I couldn't bear to part with this one. Not while I can help it, at least.

I believe it was a mix of SRW games and random Gundam anime OPs, such as 08th MS Team's, included on fanzine CDs. However, my first actual series was 0083 on VHS followed by Zeta fansubs. Very awkward path, I know. www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9q0...

I never got anywhere in Star Voyager (1987) for the NES, but the title screen music is alright. www.youtube.com/watch?v=abXa...

I hate how a bunch of US anime BDs lack Japanese extras. Not just the fancy physical ones and such, but the on-disc content!

Taniguchi doesn't get a lot of actual anime work these days, but he really hit that sweet spot in the early 00s.

Oh, that looks alright. I should check it out.