Category: Feature
Animal Land Satsujin Jiken
Enix kickstarted the whole mystery Japanese adventure game craze of the 80s with Portopia Satsujin Renzoku Jiken, which was followed …
Cease and Desist – Parodies and Infringement in Video Games
Much of the video game industry was the Wild West during the 80s, particularly in Japan. Since it wasn’t regulated …
Paladin (Dark Age of JRPGs)
Paladin (or “The Paladin“, as written in-game) is an early action-RPG released by Bothtec in 1985. Various Japanese sites indicate …
Cross-Series Cameo: Adol in Lunar: The Silver Star
Video game publishers occasionally cross-reference competitors titles in cheeky ways, though sometimes have to be done subtly to avoid copyright …
Riglas (Dark Age of JRPGs)
Most RPGs of the 80s utilized an overhead view or a first person perspective, while a select few (such as …
Weird 2 (Dark Age of JRPGs)
I thought a game named Weird 2 would be an interesting game to cover for this column…but nope! It’s actually …
Overseas Sequels
The cultural appeal of certain video games can vary greatly around the world, sometimes having vastly different receptions based on …
Sengoku Turb
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The campaign …
The Three Great She-Devils of Square
Among the Japanese RPG fanbase, there’s a specific term for a set of female characters largely disliked by the audience: …
Holy Umbrella: Dondera no Mubou!
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The campaign …
Revengers of Vengeance
Revengers of Vengeance may not come up in conversation often, but when it does, it’s usually because of its title. …
Love and Destroy
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The campaign …
The Tale of Oeilvert – Final Fantasy’s Forgotten Heroine
One of the big appeals of Final Fantasy IX was the way it appealed to the nostalgia of longtime series …
Captain Rainbow
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. Captain Rainbow …
Emerald Dragon
This entry was written for the Japanese Video Game Obscurities book, which is currently being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. If you …
Primordial Pauline: How Did Mario’s First Girlfriend Get Her Name?
The story of how Mario got his name is fairly well known – in the original Japanese arcade release of Donkey …
