If you’re looking for something to chew on until Guilty Gear Strive releases June 11th, look no further than its story. Guilty Gear’s narrative is far from “easily digestible,” so let’s all take a lore laxative and gloss over some of the story’s broader strokes. Below is an overview of every character’s story arc leading up to the events of Strive. It’s the kind of series that uses narrative to justify changes to characters' in-game moves between iterations: a beautiful, if not convoluted, piece

Walking down the street to check the mail at my hometown’s post office is an eerily different journey today than it was a year ago. I still pass the local pizza joint on the town square—a literal cornerstone of a small town community—but time has changed more than just ourselves. Despite the marks near the building’s roof acting as a reminder of its survival from the fire years before, the restaurant is still there, but not really. It’s hollowed out. Empty. It’s closed, for good, thrown to the v

Hey, for the love of Nayru, listen! The Legend of Zelda would not be what it is without its music. In 1986, composer Koji Kondo struck gold when The Legend of Zelda released in Japan on the Famicom. As players loaded up the game, the unforgettable melody from the “Overworld Theme” began to play over the main menu screen, and it never really stopped. The success of the series would go on to snowball into its first 3D release on the Nintendo 64, Ocarina of Time, but just as the visuals gained an

Between pandemic lockdowns and uncontrollable fires changing the color of the sky, it’s easy to slip into the thrall of learned helplessness. Twenty-twenty has been suffocating, but playing Hades gave me a breadth of insight. We’ve all had a rough year isolated from the life we previously took for granted. Maybe you miss getting sloshed at a bar with your pals. Maybe you long for a lost loved one. This year altered the context in which we all live our lives, and now, in that new context of living, Hades provides fascinating parallels to a world forever changed.

Something about FFXI stuck with me, glued into my brain with a strong nostalgia for when MMORPGs prioritized players over loot—but those times haven’t been lost. You can still experience FFXI for yourself right now, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down. If anything, its world of Vana’diel is getting more populated in 2020. To celebrate, I got ahold of Director Yoji Fujito and Producer Akihiko Matsui to ask them some questions about FFXI's currently thriving landscape, how they've managed to maintain it after all these years, and what they've got planned for the future.

Hades feels alive in a way that previous Supergiant games have not. Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre were all created and released to the world; Hades, however, continues construction. Instead of creating a world to be released all at once, they’ve been actively developing it along the way via Early Access. Supergiant has been using the inclusion of mechanics, features, and entire characters as building blocks for narrative exposition, and it pays off in a way that a single official release could not.

World of Warcraft Classic may bring Azeroth back to its original state of affairs, but game development practices have come a long way since 2004. The world has changed in unfathomable ways in the past fifteen years, and while WoW Classic strives to emulate the conditions of its original release, the gaming industry is not what it was back then.

I only ever got halfway to level cap as a Tarutaru White Mage (Caelum on Bismarck server); still, the world of Vana'diel completely enveloped me. Everything from its menu-based UI to the party-based leveling methods could be a nightmare for newcomers, but the lack of in-game guidance ushered in a community driven by looking after one another.

In order of however I felt like talking about them If last year helped me come to terms with anything, it's this: everything I adore has flaws. Through remarkable gameplay, effective storytelling, and a growth of constructive criticism, video games in 2018 provided some pretty memorable moments. I’ve missed out on quite a few appealing gems: Moss, Celeste, Moonlighter—that’s a whole list in itself. With that said, I played some pretty damn cool games this past year. As I continue to fill the P

Arthur’s journey in Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) begins and ends with a willingness to operate at his speed, and he’s in no rush. Items are picked up individually. You cannot sprint through camp. Food is cooked one meal at a time. There’s a general weight to movement. From narrative delivery to character movement, the game’s most inconvenient moments are what affords its world such authenticity. The slower the pace, the more time you have to recognize detail—the better you can remember the adventure.

You only have a small handful of minutes to prepare (up to) three dishes to be tasted and judged by official members of the Battle Chef Brigade. These competitions seek out the fiercest hunters and most sensational of cooks, ensuring every recruit mastered their personal culinary craft. Brigadiers need brains in the kitchen—that much is certain—but you must collect your own ingredients and, depending on the match's main theme ingredient, that could require some serious chops. You, however, are not alone. You’re competing against a fellow chef, and they left the kitchen to harvest ingredients like thirty seconds ago.

Remothered: Tormented Fathers starts off on an existential level. “A name is a trace,” says Madame Svenska, and old woman recounting a tale to one Mr. Manni. “It presents us to the world. But does it tell our story or really describe who we are?” Before cutting to black, Madame Svenska mentions how bizarre her confused memories are to describe — and I couldn’t agree more.

The frenetic nature of Dragon Ball reverberates throughout each and every clash of characters. Among the chaos, DBFZ focuses more on improvised choreography instead of memorized series of inputs.

I cannot comprehend the depths of a mother’s attachment to her creation -- I can only conceive the idea of motherhood, not the reality of it. Such divine development deserves appreciation. I will never know how it feels to grow a human being inside myself, but I admire those who do. That is a bond I will never know. In this regard, I am no different than the machines in NieR: Automata.

You’re the shot caller. You’re the shepherd. You’re the Reader guiding these exiles through the pursuit of their freedom, and you’re the player on the couch watching it all unfold, reading along every step of the way. Most decisions you make aren’t directed by stats, items, or any other quantifiable upgrade, they’re regulated by your relationships. The consequences of your actions and how they affect those around you becomes a labyrinthine tango of decision making, confrontation, and damage control.

Resident Evil 7 was one of the most memorable games of 2017. Not because of its visuals, but the sound design.

“Okay! So…. Hi, nice to meet you — I’ll be the one doing the voice of your dead father.” Awesome Con 2017 had provided fans the chance to ask LaMarr anything during his hour-long Q&A; this was part of LaMarr’s response to a question about Samurai Jack and the differences between working with Greg Baldwin and the late Mako Iwamatsu. Mako’s daughter had come to a recording session with her son (also named Mako) to see Baldwin perform the role her father held for four seasons before his passing.

Victor Vran’s identity is a mystery in more ways than one. The titular character masks his past with a calm, collected sheen, but don’t be fooled. He’s got his demons like everyone else, both in-game and out.

Empathy: Path of Whispers makes its intentions clear before you even start playing. This game revolves around compassion and understanding, but empathy is a difficult response to intentionally elicit from players. In Empathy‘s case, you’re expected to empathize from the beginning, and it’s all thanks to the name. It’s a bit like Babe Ruth calling his shot. The only problem is we’re not all Babe Ruth.

You play as a fox. A poor, little fox caught in the middle of nature’s take on an existential crisis. The silver lining is that this poor, little fox learns to command the seasons and their elements, and eventually proves just how much one small thing can affect. Seasons After Fall‘s gameplay blossoms similarly.