A monthly roundup of games enjoyed by the writers of The Pixels
Rejoice! We’ve reached the halfway point of the year! As is tradition, the gaming industry used June as an opportunity to showcase both new and upcoming games. Our writers here at The Pixels have been preparing themselves for the plethora of titles to be released and they’re ready to rock! That doesn’t mean we’ve been resting on our laurels.
This month, Linguistic Dragon, our EIC and consummate expert in all things Ultima, shared his first impressions on Whispers in the Moss, a title crammed with classic JRPG mechanics meshed with a distinct visual style. He describes it as “a charming throwback to an age gone by.” Fans of JRPGs from yesteryear should check it out. On the subject of classic JRPGs, Tiger Castle wrote up a critique of The Legend of Dragoon for the PS1. Despite its shortcomings, it’s still highly regarded, thanks to the involved combat system and memorable characters. It’s definitely one title that I still need to play to completion.
4JGaming entered the fray with a review of Tales of Kenzera: Zau. Fans of Metroidvanias may not find many innovations to the genre in this title. However, they may resonate with the heartfelt story within. Right behind was a review of Crow Country by Derek Wright. A throwback to classic horror games, Crow Country impressed our writer through a combination of 90s PS1 visuals and tight gameplay mechanics.
Red put a bookend in June with a review of Metal Slug Attack Reloaded. Announced during the Nintendo Direct, Metal Slug Attack Reloaded is a remake of the mobile game originally released on iOS and Android. It is a tower defense game featuring characters from the Metal Slug series. Despite having to micromanage units and relying on gacha mechanics to progress, Red found this game to be quite enjoyable. Best of all, there are no microtransactions to worry about, unlike the original title.
Now that the front end has been taken care of, let’s see what’s been happening behind the scenes this month.
This was a lighter month with life refusing to give way for gaming. My son and I finally completed our playthrough of Final Fantasy IV. Which, to my surprise, my son didn’t enjoy as much as I did or thought he would. It remains a game that I love, though I do see far more warts than I did when I was younger. The pacing issues, massive difficulty spikes, and a reliance on fake outs didn’t bother me when I was younger but wore out their welcome quickly upon this recent revisit.
Outside of that we’ve dabbled in SMT-V Vengeance. This is a game I was really anticipating and so far I’ve enjoyed my 30 hours in it. The game hasn’t grabbed me as much as I’d like, and I don’t think it would fall into my top 100 games of all time. But it has so far shown itself to be very much worth the cost and a great value.
I beat Final Fantasy Tactics. And I’m afraid my life will never be the same, again.
OK, that may be a bit exaggerated, but I feel that it’s criminal that this game didn’t get a proper sequel. I’ve spent 15 years trying to beat this game and I finally did it! Having a guide explain the mechanics of the game to me like I was five truly helped me with conquering this mountain. I’m not sure when I’ll play it again, but that story will stay with me for a long time. Gods, I love Final Fantasy.
Next on my list was a return to Inkopolis Square in Splatoon 2. I had made it halfway through the single-player campaign a long while back before other games distracted me. Now, I’m ready to return and finish the story once and for all. Plus, I have access to the Octo Expansion. From what I heard, the expansion blows the single-player story mode out of the water. Er, ink, so to speak.
Like I do every June 23, I played some Sonic the Hedgehog on my Genesis to celebrate Sonic’s birthday. 33 years and still going strong! Happy Birthday Sonic!
My legendary self-restraint ensured that I survived the Steam (and GOG) sales by only purchasing two games: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. See, I’m in what you might call my Tolkien-phase right now, doing everything from rewatching the adaptations (all of them, not just PJ’s) and reading as much of the books as I can get my hands on. Children of Hurin, why you so sad? So far, Shadow of Mordor seems like a reskin of most action games with an open world, just replace Batman in Arkham City with a Punisher/Ghost Rider-like ranger-wraith. We will also accept Assassin’s Creed. The familiarity is equal parts reassuring and vexing, but I’m in it to win it thanks to the lore. After that, it’ll be Shadow of War time.
This was also the month that I pulled the plug on my fifth (or sixth?) playthrough attempt on Final Fantasy XIV, and yes I still haven’t made it out of A Realm Reborn. It’s a repeat of the Endwalker situation. Look, I’m sure the story gets better but it sure takes a while to git gud, and in the amount of time I’m sinking into ARR, which may just be the worst intro to any Final Fantasy game barring XI, I realized I could just play games I’m actually enjoying. Will there be a sixth (or seventh?) attempt? Probably not.
I recognize I probably have maybe three (or four?) MMORPGs left in me before I die, a subgenre where time sink is the key phrase. ARR’s emote quests, fetch quests, skippable NPC chatter, and pointlessly running from A to B over and over just isn’t that fun without the retrospect of having played to the end and looking back with fondness. Not even playing through it with my best friend could salvage it. When attempting to meet up across time zones with only a bit of time to spare in our busy schedules, things like routine maintenance, downloading, waiting in queues, being locked out of your account, etc. can wreck the time.
Ah well, that means more time to dedicate to Dragon Quest XI on Switch, for which there are no lines to get in. Deities, I love Dragon Quest.
It is crazy to think that the month of June is already over! Before you know it, this summer will be over, but at least I will have played some amazing games in the process. For most of this month, I have been charging through Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and experiencing the rich lore of the grimdark 41st millennia. This game is a Computer RPG that has ports on both Xbox Series and PS5 consoles, the latter of which I chose to play. The game is deep and immersive, offering some great turn-based strategy combat similar to X-Com and Baldur’s Gate. Get ready to read a lot, however, because this title skimps on the voice acting as the game progresses.
I recently took a break from the grimdark to take a plunge into a much more active RPG, Elden Ring. Prior to playing it this month, I never played the title, and so I was unaware of just how difficult the game could be. I have played my share of Souls-Bourne games, but this one gives me the ability to do something I always wanted to do in those titles, blast bad guys from a distance. Yes, I went the Astrologer/ Spell Caster path, and I don’t care who knows because I am enjoying the game. With as large as this title is (and considering how much I die in it), the chances are that I will be playing this game for quite a while.
As a collector, I’ve been after the SNES King of Dragons and Knights of the Round carts for some time. They’re hard to find, and as such, expensive as hell. Both games were staple rentals when I was a kid, and cemented my love of classic beat em’ up style gameplay. There’s something so viscerally satisfying about pummeling your way through an army of baddies with nothing but your fists (or sword!) and a special attack or two.
Luckily for me, both titles, as well as a slew of others, are included in the Capcom Beat em’ Up Bundle, which I purchased on the Nintendo Switch eShop for about ten bucks. That’s a stellar deal, as not only do you get other classics like Final Fight and Captain Commando, but also some truly memorable brawlers I’d never heard of prior to purchasing this collection.
Warriors of Fate plays similarly to Knights of the Round, swapping Arthurian legend with classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore. Armored Warriors sees you in control of a mech that can replace, and thus upgrade, its parts for varied styles of gameplay. And easily the oddest title of the bunch, Battle Circuit plays out like a fever dream fusion of manga, sci-fi, and Looney Tunes wackiness. Sure, you can choose the standard tough guy as your playable character, but other options include a stretchy super-hero a la Mr. Fantastic, a cat lady who could easily be a cousin to Felicia from the Dark Stalkers series, and an extraterrestrial plant monster straight out of Little Shop of Horrors. Weird as the playable characters are, the enemies you face are even more bizarre, with everything from cyberpunk biker gals to slug-riding robot knights standing in your way. It’s a hell of a trip.
Man, June flew! I spent the first part of the month blitzing my way through the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake. It’s a particular favorite of mine since it first came out, so I wanted to see how the remake treated it. While it sanded off some of the rougher edges that endeared me to the game in the first place, I’d still say it did the original justice, and it was nice to revisit it in some fashion!
Then it was back to Ultima adventures [Editor’s note: See? What did I tell you? Ultima Expert!], and I polished off Ultima VII: The Black Gate and Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds this month. Black Gate was interesting on account of having last played it in full a good eighteen or so years ago – I think it was maybe the second or third RPG I’d finished ever, at the time, too! Revisiting it with considerably more experience under my belt made me see it in a new light, and I honestly enjoyed the replay more than I was expecting as a result. Though combat leaves something to be desired, it’s still a gem of the genre.
Underworld II was also a good time, though I think I preferred its predecessor on the whole. Liked the premise and story better, but the difficulty curve and pacing left something to be desired. Good game, just higher highs and lower lows to the first entry in the spinoff series. Glad I played it, but I may not be as quick to revisit it.
Final Fantasy Tactics, I mean do I really need to add anything in? I am playing Mod from FFHacktics called The Lion War Remixed. Basically, it adds all the functionality of WotL and tweaks how the proposition system works, but uses the localization of the original. [Editor’s note: OOOOOOO!?]
Elden Ring DLC. Its the biggest release of the summer for the best Soulsbourne game that’s come out yet.
LoL TFT. Gotta have my little time waster. I enjoy auto battlers. They are simple, random games that burn about a half hour, its kind of perfect for just zoning out and listening to podcasts.
La Pucelle Tactics. Never played it before. Have a nice fresh look at some of the tactical RPGs that came out on the PS2.
The Steam summer sale is happening so I may be picking something off my wishlist soon.
And so ends June. What have you been playing recently? What did you finish? And what’s next on your backlog? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you all again next month! Same Pixel Time! Same Pixel Channel!
Ryan Cheddi – our friendly, neighbourhood caffeine addict – is a man of many talents: an engineer, a gaming historian, a fiction writer and a streamer. He is also a self-avowed Sonic the Hedgehog fan. You can check out his cool beans at his site – Games with Coffee – or find him on Bluesky as @GameswCoffee, and Instagram as @games_with_coffee. He streams on Twitch, also as GamesWithCoffee.
