JRPG Archive

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – Review

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

It's not Might & Magic 10, but it is fun!

Don’t let the faux-anime art style or puzzle-based gameplay put you off – Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a great handheld role-playing game that should be in every RPG collection.

Faithful readers may be scratching their heads right now, given my attack of this game in my October 11, 2010 post titled Ultima, The Bard’s Tale, and Might & Magic – Where are the Real Sequels, in which I summarized it as “a shallow, JRPG-style story with zero original Might & Magic lore, and a match-three-colors puzzle game” and compared its visuals to Space Invaders.  (In my defense, I also called it “incredibly fun and addictive.”)  Readers may also be wondering why I am reviewing a game from 2009 on the eve of 2011.

The answer to the second question is that it took me a long time to finish this game.  Since picking it up over a year ago, Clash of Heroes has entertained me through jury duty, several train rides and doctors’ waiting rooms, and visits to my in-laws, and recently has been the game I chose to play instead of PC and console games while at home.  As my appreciation for the game grew, I decided to post a review despite the game’s age.  Regarding the first question – regardless of its quality, I don’t consider this game to be a true Might & Magic RPG.  Therefore, I stand behind most of my original statements.

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Demon’s Souls Follow-Up Project Dark Announced for 2011

Project Dark successor to Demon's Souls

Usually, the only Dark Project that would get me excited is Warren Spector’s masterpiece Thief.  However, I may have to make an exception in this case, given that this Project Dark is the follow-up to From Software’s brutal 2009 RPG Demon’s Souls.

Whether Project Dark is a role playing game is unclear at this point, but From Software’s history strongly suggests that it will be.  This is the Japanese studio responsible for Demon’s Souls and the King’s Field series.  My guess is that Project Dark will be an RPG.  And if it’s a successor to Demon’s Souls, it won’t be an easy one.

Originally announced for the Playstation 3 during Sony’s presentation at the Tokyo Game Show on September 15, 2010, it now appears that Project Dark will be available on both PS3 and XBox 360 in 2011.

Source: 1Up

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale: Thoughts on the Japanese Indie JRPG

Recettear main menu

Recettear: A Surprisingly Fresh and Enjoyable Indie JRPG

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is a Japanese indie RPG developed by EasyGameStation for Windows in 2007 and localized into English by Carpe Fulgur LLC in 2010.  The game is an anime-style JRPG with a twist – instead of playing the role of the hero, you play the role of the proprietor of the ubiquitous “item shop” that appears in 99% of RPGs (western and Japanese).  While this may sound tedious, it is actually a lot of fun.

Recettear is reminiscent of Torneko’s quest line in Dragon Quest 4, in that you are a merchant who can enter dungeons to find rare items to sell in your store.  However, unlike in Dragon Quest 4, in which Torneko himself entered the dungeons, in Recettear you hire a variety of adventurers to do the dirty dungeon crawling work for you (although as the player, you control the adventurer – see more details after the jump).  As the game progresses, your adventurers-for-hire level up.

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