Frontwing’s Grisaia series, which kicked off in 2011 with the Japanese release of first installment The Fruit of Grisaia, has come to be regarded as a particular high point for the visual novel medium.

Indeed, back in 2015, the /r/visualnovels subreddit voted The Fruit of Grisaia as number one on its list of top 10 visual novels (later republished on GameFAQs), and the community still holds the game in high regard today, as evidenced by its prominent position on the subreddit’s comprehensive diagram of recommendations.

Grisaia’s high ranking on /r/visualnovels’ list was particularly exciting to enthusiasts of the medium, as growing localisation company Sekai Project had already run a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring the whole series West in the twilight hours of 2014 and the start of 2015, potentially opening it up to a whole new audience that was perhaps less familiar with acquiring Japanese visual novels and patching them with fan translations.

But what makes this series so remarkable? Let’s take a high-level look at it.

Read the full article on MoeGamer .

At the time of writing, the Wii U may be yet to play host to a brand-new, original mainline Zelda title — Breath of the Wild will be one of the last retail titles for the system — but it’s home to one of the best spin-offs the series has seen.

Unlike its stablemate Super Mario, Zelda actually hasn’t seen all that many spin-offs over the years, with only Link’s Crossbow Training on Wii and the two atrocious CD-i titles springing immediately to mind. This is perhaps because Zelda is an inherently more “serious” affair than Super Mario — sure, it has its moments of levity, but it’s always been less focused on cartoon silliness and as such it would be rather strange to see perpetual protagonist Link doing things outside his normal remit such as playing tennis or golf. (That, of course, didn’t stop him making an appearance in Mario Kart 8, but that was something of an outlier.)

That doesn’t mean that there isn’t scope for the series to explore gameplay styles outside the mainline titles’ “explore, dungeon, puzzle, boss” formula, and Hyrule Warriors is a potent proof of concept that demonstrates the ensemble cast the series has built up over the years is more than strong enough to carry a game that doesn’t focus exclusively on Link.

Read the full article on MoeGamer .

As we’ve discussed over the course of the last few articles, Gust’s Nights of Azure has a very strong sense of its own identity, both as an individual work and as part of its developer’s catalogue.

Every aspect of the game as a whole contributes to this coherent identity: its distinctly operatic, tragic Gothic narrative; its blend of action RPG gameplay with monster-raising and character customisation; its small cast of distinctive, memorable characters.

Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic, however, is its overall aesthetic. While, at times, drawing inspiration from other, similar works, there’s no denying that Nights of Azure takes ownership of its own identity to create a highly distinctive work that stands out even amid the rest of Gust’s back catalogue.

Read the full article on MoeGamer .

How do you describe a piece of interactive entertainment? Chances are the first thing you mention is the way it plays, or the supposed “genre” it is part of.

Final Fantasy is a JRPG; Gears of War is a third-person shooter; Mario games are platformers. And this isn’t only true for mainstream games, either — even the most esoteric indie games tend to be described in terms of their mechanics. Fez is a puzzle-platformer; The Binding of Isaac is a roguelike shooter; Minecraft is an open-world building and survival sim.

While you may then elaborate on that by describing the setting — sci-fi, fantasy, cartoonish crazytown — it’s highly likely that this is not the first thing you mention. Interactive entertainment is pretty much the only artistic medium in which we do this.

This article was originally published on Games Are Evil in 2012 as part of the site’s regular READ.ME column on visual novels. It has been republished on MoeGamer due to Games Are Evil no longer existing in its original form.

Read the full article on MoeGamer.

Originally intended as a pack-in game for the Wii U as a demonstration of the GamePad’s capabilities, Game & Wario has been considerably overshadowed by its eventual replacement Nintendo Land.

But it’s a great game in its own right, both as a showcase for the Wii U GamePad and as a title that provides enormously varied quick blasts of entertainment whenever you feel like it.

It’s very much an old-school Nintendo game, in other words, and while it’s rather different from previous WarioWare titles, it’s an excellent addition to any Wii U owner’s library.

Read the full article on MoeGamer.

Nights of Azure is one of Gust’s most mechanically interesting games — particularly in how much it differs from the company’s usual output — but it also has a fascinating, ambitious narrative.

Combining a deeply personal tale with a more conventional JRPG-style “save the world” narrative, the overall atmosphere of the game is very distinctive and quite unlike your average JRPG, if such a thing exists. It blends drama, romance, action, horror and mystery together to create something altogether unique that is very much worth experiencing.

And it pulls the whole thing off with such wonderful style, such a beautifully clear sense of its own identity, that you can’t help but be compelled by the tale it tells.

Read the full article on MoeGamer.

Been tweaking the back-end of MoeGamer to hopefully make things a little easier to organise and find in the long run. The changes are subtle, but they'll hopefully make a difference — to me, if no-one else.

You'll notice the top menu bar has expanded a bit, now with several areas. "Cover Games" lists all the games that have had the Cover Game treatment since April 2016; Essentials currently simply contains the Wii U Essentials articles I've started recently — I intend to expand this to cover other underappreciated systems in the future; One-Shots provides quick access to the one-off articles about games that were noteworthy but didn't, for one reason or another, get the Cover Game treatment.

Perhaps the most noteworthy addition is From the Archives. Here there are presently two categories: MoeGamer 1.0 features all the articles from before April 2016 (i.e. from before I started the Cover Games approach and took a rather less organised approach to posting) while READ.ME will eventually become an archive of visual novel-centric articles from the site I used to run, Games Are Evil. Over time, I'd also like to incorporate the Swords and Zippers JRPG-centric article I had on Games Are Evil, too, though I need some alone time with the Wayback Machine before I can do that, since GrE no longer exists in its original form.

I'm happy with how MoeGamer is coming along — that it's becoming a comprehensive resource for those interested in Japanese and Japanese-inspired games and visual novels. I still need your help, though: the contract for my most recent "day job" recently came to an end, so I'm presently without a regular source of income. It'd be great if Patreon income from the MoeGamer project was able to help fill these "gaps" when they arose, so please, dear Patrons, I encourage you to share articles that you particularly enjoy on MoeGamer — and share this Patreon page to encourage people to sign up and help support my work.

On that note, I'm interested in hearing ideas for potential rewards I can offer for becoming a Patron, since I'm conscious I don't have any at present (aside from a credit on MoeGamer itself) and feel this may be what's stopping some people from signing up to assist. If you have any bright ideas for what a struggling, unemployed writer might be able to provide for his potential audience, please send me a message or leave me a comment.

I'll leave you by saying yet another hearfelt "thank you" to those who have supported me and my work up until now. I hope you'll continue to support my continued efforts on MoeGamer, and help to spread the word far and wide to those who might be interested.

Thank you, once again. Your support means more than you probably know!

(Image source: My Girlfriend is the President, Alcot/JAST USA)

 Any time someone claims that Nintendo’s flagship action-adventure-kinda-sorta-but-not-really RPG series The Legend of Zelda is stagnant and doesn’t try anything new, the perfect rebuttal is The Wind Waker.

Originally released in 2002 to a somewhat surprised Gamecube audience that wasn’t sure what to make of its cel-shaded visuals and seafaring-heavy gameplay, The Wind Waker has subsequently proven itself to be a timeless classic in the series as well as one of the most interesting Zelda titles there has ever been.

And with the HD remaster for Wii U, the definitive version of the game now exists thanks to some much needed tweaks and updates as well as full widescreen support and glorious high-resolution visuals.

Read the full article on MoeGamer .

Gust, as we’ve established, is a company that doesn’t like to do things entirely conventionally. As such, it’s entirely fitting that a Gust action RPG isn’t quite what you’d normally expect from the genre.

Nights of Azure is a fascinating game from a mechanical perspective in a variety of different ways. Drawing influences from a variety of sources including From Software’s popular Souls series, Falcom’s Ys franchise, monster-raising games such as Pokémon and even elements of tabletop role-playing, the whole experience is one you can easily lose yourself in.

The result is a game that is initially surprising and baffling in roughly equal measure, but taking the time to get to know what makes the game tick really pays off in the end: it’s one of the most interesting takes on the action RPG for a long time.

Read the full article on MoeGamer .

Hello patrons and prospective patrons!

Once again, I'd like to start with, once again, a hearty thank you to those who have generously contributed to the MoeGamer project over the course of the last year. I've been delighted to see people supporting my work both financially and with social shares, and I hope that will continue in 2017.

Speaking of 2017, the plan is to continue largely as I have done last year, with a single Cover Game each month — starting with Gust's Nights of Azure this month — punctuated by additional articles as and when I can fit them in.

These additional articles will often be one-shot looks at games that I want to fit in between the Cover Game features, but starting this month I'm also beginning a new "Essentials" series. This focuses on a single underappreciated system (initially the Wii U) and highlights the unique experiences you can have on that system and not anywhere else — or, in the case of games that have subsequently become multiplatform, why the underappreciated system's version is the most interesting way to explore it.

I'm going to make one big change, which is to incorporate more frequent updates on this Patreon page. Specifically, I'll be sharing the introduction to each article on MoeGamer here on Patreon, with a link to read the full article on MoeGamer itself. This provides another means for people to discover my articles, plus some more regular posts here on Patreon itself.

You can help, too! Follow @MoeGamer on Twitter and like or retweet posts you find particularly enjoyable. Share MoeGamer's articles on social media such as your own Facebook, Twitter and Reddit accounts. Tell your game-loving family and friends about MoeGamer. And feel good about supporting long-form, in-depth explorations of underappreciated video games in an age of increasing attention deficit disorder!