In this weeks Retro Replay,  we take a look back at one of the most divisive Final Fantasy games ever, FFVIII. Not only did it have to follow up one the most popular RPGs ever, it also tried to introduce new thematic elements to the genre. Was it successful? Read on to find out.
 
Final Fantasy VIII had a lot against it at the time of its release. Of course, the most significant thing was that it was put in the unenviable position of following the blockbuster that was FFVII. Worst still, the game took the series in a new direction, …read more

In this weeks Retro Replay, we take a look at one of the earliest 3D racers on the PSOne. This weeks game has also created some unintentional alliteration in the title. Woops.

When I first got my PSOne, I had two games with it: Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Ridge Racer Revolution. And while SFA2 was a terrific game that occupied a lot of my time, Ridge Racer was the reason I purchased the console in the first place. Here I was, in my own home, playing a 3D racing game. It was incredible.

We’re taking a break from all of the JRPGs we’ve been playing lately to jump into one of the forgotten PSOne era survival-horror games: Dino Crisis.

There really was little in the way of true horror games before the release of Resident Evil in 1996. Though it was cheesy, and didn’t age particularly well, it introduced horror gaming to the 3D generation and created the sub-genre of survival horror titles. However, while it was new for games, RE was pretty standard stuff by horror standards. A strange virus creates a town full of undead zombies, blah, blah, blah. Three years later …read more

After tackling The Legend of Dragoon last week, this time we take a look at another PSOne RPG: Star Ocean – The Second Story.

One of the trappings of earlier role playing games is that the majority of them are set in cliche medieval fantasy worlds. Even the few that break from the norm, such as the vague steampunk aesthetic of Final Fantasy VII, still go back to the swords and magic we’re all used to. This is what made me so excited to play Star Ocean: The Second Story back in 1999. I’ve always been more of a sci-fi …read more

Once a week, we take a classic PlayStation title and play it again, to see how it holds up years later. This week we’re going to take a look at The Legend of Dragoon, Sony’s answer to the 32 bit RPG boom.

For a lot of people in North America, Final Fantasy VII marked their introduction to the RPG genre. Sure, many claim that the SNES era was the Golden Age for RPG’s, but none had the impact of FFVII. The game combined an epic story, flashy visuals, and some great CG cut scenes into the first huge JRPG in North …read more