Last month was the Stealth Game Community Game-Along, and that means it’s time for a roundup! After ever Community Game-Along, I round up the submissions from as many participants as possible so everyone can see what people played and maybe get some ideas for games to play in the future! You can also check out #StealthSeptember on Twitter to see everyone’s thoughts and submissions.
Happy Spooktober, everyone! It’s time for the return of one of my favorite Community Game-Along themes: horror games! Playing a horror game or spooky-themed title is a great way to get ready for one of the best holidays of the year: Halloween! I may not go trick or treating anymore, but I can still get in the spirit of the season with a creepy game!
This year, I followed up the always-busy JRPGJuly with an Action RPG Community Game-Along for August, and I’m glad to see so many people participated! Some folks even doubled up and picked a game for JPRGJuly that worked for ARPGAugust, which is a great idea! Read on to see what everyone played in August, and look forward to the October Community Game-Along post in just a few days! (If you want to start preparing now, the theme is horror games!)
Over at Tales of the Backlog, Capsulejay reviewed Ys Origin and Beyond Oasis, and Jakejames Lugo also reviewed Beyond Oasis over on his Youtube channel. At JRPG.moe, Griffin reviewed the Japan-exclusive Dreamcast game with a fun title, Napple Tale: Arsia in Dreamland. I’d never heard of this game before Griffin started playing it before ARPGAugust, but it looks super adorable and apparently the creative team was comprised of mostly women!
Chestnut at Gamer Girl Confessions played Diablo III, and Fullmetaldrippy reviewed Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix. Then, the M Disc Gauntlet returned with Secret of Evermore.
Okay, looks like #ARPGAugust gives me good reason to get to SMT Devil Summoner 2. It’s one of the few of my unplayed games I’d bought new..like ten years ago. No clue why I forgot, the first one is great fun.
Oh! And it came with a cute Jack Frost plushie, dressed as Raidou! pic.twitter.com/FCpiyXhmK4
— Hayley Winter✨ (@driftglass) August 6, 2018
Meanwhile, @SweetieAshe played Ys VI, @Akrophin played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, @cassiehalladay played Nights of Azure, @zhel played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, @bunnycartoon played Bloodborne, @driftglass played Monster Hunter: World, @kaitou_al played Bioshock, and @daswhalebeard played Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
#SquadGoals #ARPGAugust pic.twitter.com/MObQOymtzO
— Simon (@sparrowtimes) August 17, 2018
Finally, I’d like to congratulate @sparrowtimes for finishing Bloodborne, @mdiskplaylist platinumed Bloodborne, @felghanas beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and @charassic for completing Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom! Great job to everyone who completed their chosen games this month!
Thanks again to everyone who participated in August! Enjoy the last few days of StealthSeptember, and start gearing up for HorrorGameOctober!
Otomate Party 2018 was held on September 8th and 9th this year, and with it came a slew of new otome game announcements! Otomate holds the yearly Otomate Party event to celebrate its recent and more popular titles with events featuring voice actors from the games and reveal some brand new games while they’re at it.
Following the company’s announcement earlier this year that they would be shifting focus to the Nintendo Switch, all console Otomate game announcements were for Switch, rather than PS Vita. I’m excited for more Switch otome games, but sad to see companies slowly dropping support for my beloved Vita! Luckily, there are still lots of otome games for the PS Vita being announced, like the Kenka Bancho Otome sequel, Kenka Bancho Otome 2nd Rumble!!.
Otomate, however, is all about the Nintendo Switch now. Watch the reveal trailer to see the whopping nine new titles and ports for the Switch at Otomate Party 2018 and read on for further explanations and impressions!
In honor of Metal Gear Solid‘s 20th anniversary, the Community Game-Along theme for September is stealth games! Okay, I wish I could take credit for that, but I actually had no idea September 2018 was the 20th anniversary of Metal Gear Solid! It is great timing though, isn’t it?
The stealth Community Game-Along was actually suggested by @Westraid at the end of last year, and I thought it was a great idea! If you’re new to the Chic Pixel Community Game-Alongs, they’re monthly themed gaming events where all you need to do to participate is play a game that fits the theme. For September, grab a stealth game and share your impressions using #StealthSeptember on social media!
July marked the return of the JRPG Community Game-Along, aka JRPGJuly, and I dare say it was the biggest one yet! It’s taken me quite a while to sort through all the contributions. Phew! Unfortunately, I’m not able to include everyone, so I highly suggest scrolling through #JRPGJuly on Twitter to see the massive range of games played throughout the month. Read on for some highlights!
Wow, it’s been ages since I did a First Impressions post! My First Impressions series is pretty self-explanatory: basically, it serves as a chance to share my opinions on a thing (almost always a game) before I finish it and write a full review. This time, I want to talk about Tengai ni Mau, Iki na Hana (天涯に舞う、粋な花 or “refined flower, dancing on the horizon”), an otome game by Otomate that released back in April for the PlayStation Vita.
Tengai ni Mau, Iki na Hana was voted by my lovely Patreon supporters to be my import game review for April, and I was super excited to play it! That is, until it turned into one of the most frustrating otome games I’ve ever played…
