Steeling the Will to Fight: A Review of Vanguard Bandits (PSX)

Introduction

Robots! There, now that I have your attention, I wanted to briefly talk about a game I enjoy called Vanguard Bandits. It’s a humble game. It’s not Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, or Tactics Ogre, it’s just Vanguard Bandits. I first discovered this game a few years ago, after I first played Popful Mail. I enjoyed Popful Mail a lot and wanted to play through more of the titles that Working Designs had brought over to the West. I had briefly heard some of Vanguard Bandits' OST online and was already into SRPG-type games, so I checked it out. My initial run was quite short, only playing until Chapter 5 before I got distracted with other stuff.

I came back to this game about a year or so later when I was in a Discord server that was for SRPGs. They had monthly events where there’d be two Games of the Month, and anyone who beat any of the two games would be awarded a cool role in the server and bragging rights. It was a fun little event, I wish more servers did stuff like that. Anyway, the two games for that month were Vanguard Bandits and La Pucelle: Tactics.

Since I had already planned on restarting my run of Vanguard Bandits, I saw this as the perfect opportunity. And by the time I beat it, I had really found myself enjoying the game a lot. I didn’t have a blog site back then to really summarize my thoughts, give my opinions, or talk about minor details that I found interesting. So that’s why I’m here today. So, I hope you enjoy it!

A Fantasy of Cosmic Proportions: A Review of Cosmic Fantasy 2 (TurboGrafx CD)

 Introduction

From being one of the first RPGs to feature fully animated cinematic cutscenes, to being the game that initially put Working Designs on the map, to being labeled as Electronic Gaming Monthly’s Best RPG of the Year in 1993: it's Cosmic Fantasy 2. Developed by Nihon Telenet, Cosmic Fantasy 2 is an RPG for the TurboGrafx CD and is seen as a cult classic in the niche gaming market. It was one of the best-selling games on the console and was popular enough for NEC to consider making the game a pack-in title for the TurboGrafx CD.

In addition to everything else I just mentioned, it also recently received the honor of being played by me. And while I can see why it was very well-received back in the day, my thoughts on the game as a complete package are a little more complicated. So let’s not waste any more time and start talking about Cosmic Fantasy 2!

Into the Boundaries of Time: A Review of Exile (TurboGrafx CD)

 Introduction

Today, I want to take you back to the distant past, all the way to the 12th century, and talk about a little-known game called Exile. Exile is part of a side-scrolling Action-RPG series, XZR, developed by Telenet and Riot. The series originated on the NEC PC-88 platform and eventually made its way to home consoles such as the Turbografx and Sega Genesis where it dropped the “XZR” moniker, and went by the name “Exile.” 

Unboxing a Special Mail Delivery: A Review of Popful Mail (Sega CD)

⭐Introduction⭐

Nihon Falcom is a company that, for a little over forty years, has developed and released games and series that have fundamentally changed the face of role-playing games while also receiving international acclaim. They are often credited with pioneering the action role-playing genre, as well as popularizing the use of personal computers in Japan. While their most well-known games consist of series like Ys, Dragon Slayer, Trails, and The Legend of Heroes, I wanted to talk about a slightly more underrated game from Falcom—Popful Mail: Magical Fantasy Adventure…or just Popful Mail for short.