Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post about the marvelous Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake and found myself wondering what it would be like to move on to the forthcoming Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, knowing that the experience it offered would be significantly more primitive.
Category Archives: Square Enix
Final Fantasy Tactics – Huge Final Fantasy Tactics fan excited to play it for first time
The year is 1998… After playing Vandal Hearts and Shining Force III, I long for more great tactical RPG experiences and discover Final Fantasy Tactics in an issue of EDGE magazine. I’m very much aware of Final Fantasy at this point. I’ve dabbled in FF7 and played some of the older games via emulator, but Tactics looks different. Not just because it’s a sub-genre of RPG but also because the visual theme is clearly a world away from the cyberpunk techno-future of Midgar and not even close to the mech-suited steampunk of FF6. It is a reminder for many, and a revelation for me, that Final Fantasy can be anything and, in this case, what it can be is a very down to earth fantasy setting so grounded that it could be mistaken for historical drama were it not for its wizards and Chocobos. I would find out, years later, that it was inspired by the War of the Roses, so that historical flavour makes total sense.
Dragon Quest III – Remade in Japan
We’ve all heard how important the original Famicom release of Dragon Quest III is to the gaming population of Japan. One of the biggest selling games of its era, it was so popular that publisher Enix switched the release day for all future entries to a Saturday in order to prevent kids and adults from bunking off school/work. The game is beloved by generations of gamers and regularly appears in Japanese “best game of all time” lists.
Live A Live – An episodic odyssey
In the late Nineties when I got online for the first time and started discovering emulators, my eyes were opened wide to the joy of Super Nintendo RPGs. I’d sampled a couple here in the UK. Secret Of Mana was a revelation and stealth Final Fantasy release Mystic Quest: Legend was, er, another RPG we could buy. But in those early days of the net, I discovered a world of adventure. Proper Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, Harvest Moon… It felt like an unending supply of amazing games. And that’s before I even got into fan translations…
Games From The Black Hole 
