Elminage Original is a retro-style first-person dungeon crawler that probably has a ton of mechanical depth. It might even have a worthwhile story and interesting quests to tackle, and perhaps even a smattering of cool abilities and character classes to play around with.

If it does, though, I can hardly tell. READ MORE

The PSP has seen a surplus of off-kilter RPGs in the twilight of its life, even in America, where it is no longer even considered a viable platform in the eyes of the general public. This is due mostly to the fact that Western game companies refuse to develop for the hardware at this point, and thus the only games being made for it at all are from Japanese developers. Games such as Ragnarok Tactics can be released stateside with relatively few resources, and these titles are arguably all that are keeping the system alive now. READ MORE

As a system reaches the end of its life, it tends to have one final flurry of quality titles as it goes. This is that time for the PSP, as the Japan-centric system gets what will likely be its last wave of translated RPGs. Most titles like these are destined to be ignored in their time and rediscovered later, but Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time has two things going for it that others don’t: Vita compatibility (at launch this time!) and a design that’s already detached from the current norm.

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The dungeon-crawler and I have a tough relationship. It’s one of those love-hate things, those rare occurrences when I can completely understand why masochistic gamers keep plugging away at them despite being repeatedly beaten down. There’s some sort of addictive pleasure to keep going, even when the game rips everything away from you. Unchained Blades (thankfully) manages to properly balance both the oddly-addictive challenge with a good dose of fun that will appeal to the core dungeon JRPG fan as well as the uninitiated. READ MORE