Isekai Villain - PS5 Review

Isekai Villain by developer Exe-Create and publisher KEMCO—Sony PlayStation 5  review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes. 

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Hello everyone and welcome to the next instalment of KEMCO RPG: Isekai Villain! This time we get to witness the tale of a regular dude who gets transported into his favourite webnovel, but as a villain mob character!

Isekai Villain starts out with a guy walking home while reading a webnovel on his phone, falling in an open manhole, breaking his leg, passing out, and then waking up to find himself a part of the Crown Eaters, a gang of villains in the webnovel he was reading. The catch? He’s a low level grunt named Gray. The other catch? The Crown Eaters aren’t part of the story past the early-ish chapters. Gray now has to balance his old world sensibilities, new world budding villainy, as well as trying to survive as a villain grunt.

While Isekai Villain is pretty similar to the other same stylized KEMCO RPGs, there are a few notable differences in how it’s handled. For those who haven’t played a KEMCO RPG, well, it’s a pretty generic retro style RPG for the most part. You’ve got your random turn-based battles, dungeons to explore and find treasure in, bosses to beat, sidequests to complete, and characters to interact with. What is somewhat interesting here is that unlike in most RPGs of this nature, there isn’t a world map, just a location directory. This makes going between different areas a lot easier for sure. While you’re in a location, be it town or dungeon, you get a 2D area to explore, chests to open , and characters in town to talk to and shops to visit. Dungeons will also have those random battles.

As is tradition with most KEMCO title with the same art style, there are plenty of quality of lifestyle options for players. Getting in too many battles and need to tone them down? You can reduce encounter rate. Need to farm some enemies? You can increase the encounter rate to every step. Enemies too hard? Well, there are five difficulties to choose from. Also back for your pleasure is the “store” and all that comes with it. Essentially the store is the place where you can buy “cheats” with earned in-game currency. Every three battles in-game you get a number of evil gems depending on difficulty setting. You can use these gems to exchange for permanent passive effects, such as increased exp or money, items such as keys that let you into special areas, or you can exchange for lottery pulls, where you might win the best weapons or armour. The Evil gems are fairly easy to earn on the easiest difficulty, so if you really need the boost and aren’t playing for the challenge you can grind some out to help you out.

In terms of combat, things are mostly traditional RPG style. Combat is turn based and you have a character gauge at the top of the screen indicating turn order based on a character’s speed, with different moves available such as normal attacks, skills, items, or you can stand by to recover some MP. You also have summons you can use as well, although only once per summon and character per battle. Some stronger enemies will have a guard you can break by using skills matching the symbols under their sprite. For example, a down arrow indicates a skill that hits a full column, whereas a star symbol is a single target. When you go to use a skill it will also show you the associated symbols. Guard breaking an enemy allows other characters to chain in and use follow up moves, potentially resulting in massive damage to a strong enemy or boss.

Acquiring new skills is a bit of an interesting departure. Unlike how it’s usually handled, in Isekai Villain skills are unlocked through a skill tree. You can earn skill points primarily through reaching certain milestones such as levels, or increasing your notoriety within the villain community. Once you’ve acquired some skill points, you can unlock and upgrade skills in each character’s skill trees. Needless to say the further down the tree you go, the better the skill usually is, but the more costly it is to use and get to.

Another cool introduction is passive skills. These are earned by performing certain actions or milestones, either in or out of battle. For example, using different types of skills will increase or earn some passives, while switching your party formation to a certain layout may unlock others. These can usually be upgraded by performing the same actions repeatedly a set number of times if the skill can be upgraded.

Among the neat aspects this time around we actually have a sort of LITE base building. When you return to the Crown Eaters base, once you unlock it you can go talk to a certain NPC and get them to build stuff in your backyard. These buildings can have a variety of purposes, some unlocking stores or game mechanics, and some just giving a general stat increase to your characters. Most buildings that feature some sort of shop or gameplay mechanic can be strengthened to increase the effects, making it worthwhile to check in occasionally if you have some extra building materials.

Now, I do have to talk about the storyline a little bit here. It isn’t exactly bad, but it does have some ups and downs. For the most part, characters in Isekai Villain tend to be rather un-idealist. They're all for going for what they want, but are more than willing to recognize that things aren’t always going to work out if you don’t make changes or compromise on things, both in the heroes party (not you) and for the villains. Also props to the devs for having good and bad people on both sides of the conflict and not stacking it one way or the other. Unfortunately the translation is…pretty rough to be honest. There are a ton of awkward sounding sentences or words I didn’t feel were particularly well translated. A bit of a departure since most of the KEMCO titles I’ve played have tended to have a decent translation. While it isn’t the worst, it definitely makes getting involved in the plot a little tougher.

In case you are a returning KEMCO JRPG enjoyer, the style is in the more anime-esque style instead of the more RPG-maker more realistic style. The music, backgrounds, and a bunch of enemy sprites are certainly reused from other games, but I feel like if you’re playing these KEMCO titles you probably don’t mind too much. While the music direction is similar in that regard as well, at least all the music and animations are well fitting.

Overall Isekai Villain is a decent addition to the KEMCO RPG line-up. While a poor translation makes it a little harder to enjoy the storyline, there are a good number of features to allow you to customize your experience to create the difficulty level you want in your RPG. The colourful cast of party members are all extremely unique as well, and not very often you find their type of personalities. If you are looking for another retro JRPG to pass some spare time, check out Isekai Villain. Just remember, don’t be too evil now.

Score: 7 / 10

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Akuma Rise - PS5 Review

Akuma Rise by developer Exe Create Inc. and publisher KEMCO. PS5 review by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Well everyone, here we are with another KEMCO title. Last time we had a departure from classic JRPG, but this time we’re back in the turn-based JRPG genre with Akuma Rise.

Akuma Rise takes place in the Shadow Realm of Adribune, a land of various species of demons. It is here that the game starts off with our protagonist Kaine washing up on the beach of the Oni country. He is discovered by the local princess and rescued, only to discover he has amnesia! Oh no! Things couldn’t get much worse in the Shadow Realm either: the Overlord is missing and his second in command is causing trouble. Heroes from the Radiant Realm are attacking the locals, and now Kaine doesn’t really remember anything other than his name and his goal of finding some type of “fragment”. Thankfully for Kaine, the Oni princess Iroha is interested in helping out, and Kaine is interested in beating up the “heroes” that are attacking from the Radiant Realm.

Akuma Rise is a pretty traditional JRPG in the KAMCO flavouring that it’s probably become known to you by now. KEMCO JRPGs tend to come in two flavours, and this one is the standard turn-based battles with a turn order and a more “cartoonish” art style. Gameplay consists of going between towns, or castles in the case of Akuma Rise, by traversing the world map and making it through a dungeon between you and your next goal, all while completing sidequests along the way. Enemy encounters are random, but you are bequeathed a pair of boots very early that adjusts encounter rate between: normal, every step, or none (or half if you’re in an uncleared dungeon).

Towns allow you to nap at an inn for a quite reasonable charge, purchase equipment and items, or if he’s around, an old man will create orbs for you. These orbs act as a sort of secondary equipment-like accessories. While you have a weapon and armour slot, you also have five orb slots. Three of these are for equipable magic, and two are for passive effects, like stat increases or experience gain increases. Magic orbs have an element and a rank. The element is the type of magic used, for example might is fire and attack buffing spells, while rank determines how much an orb can be upgraded. Magic orbs will gain their own exp after battle when equipped, and the spells they hold will level with them, dealing more damage or reducing delay time if they don’t do damage. Alternatively you can infuse new orbs with old ones of the same element to get an exp boost.

Both orb types can be increased in rank if you have the correct items to do so. No worries about running out, as you can farm for these later in the game. For magic orbs ranking up allows them to level further, whereas the passive effect orbs will increase their effect. For example a five percent stat increase will turn into a ten percent increase. There are a bunch of different orbs with different effects, some magic orbs even combine different elements and spells, so it’s kinda fun to mix up your team every so often.

Now that you’re all geared up, it’s time to set out. Exploring the Shadow Realm is dangerous, and you’ll for sure be getting into all kinds of fights. During battle you have access to a list of commands on your turn that include: item use, defense, magic orb skills, power skills (which are unique character-based skills), and a basic attack. Enemies and allies are set on a three by three grid each, and enemies can take up multiple spaces. Different skills, and sometimes your basic attack, can hit single or multiple tiles on the grid adding a bit of strategy or forethought.

If you’ve been following my reviews on KEMCO titles for a while, you may have noticed that this style of KEMCO title usually comes with “quality of life” options for those who want an easier time and aren’t in it for the challenge. Well, it’s back here in Akuma Rise, and it’s a fairly decent midpoint between “absolutely busted” and “no help at all”. Every three battles from common enemies in-game that you actually fight will reward you with ten of a special resource. This resource can be exchanged at an in-game shop like premium currency in an online game, either to get items, adjust certain gameplay elements, or to roll for new equipment. This also applies to all save files. For example, you can exchange a set amount of the resource to increase the amount of experience earned permanently. Another option is to draw a piece of equipment from a random pool and maybe get an awesome magic orb or armour. Unlike some of the other titles, the shop and equipment selection in Akuma Rise is very reasonable and doesn’t fully break the game or offer too little if you’re struggling.

Between the freemium currency shop, the battle rate adjustment, the four difficulties offered, and the option to speed battles up to three times the speed, there are a lot of methods to cut down on grinding time. I hit level 99 well enough before finishing the game, and most enemies or bosses weren’t too much of a challenge, difficulty setting depending. That being said you can always increase the difficulty and not purchase the boosters if you’re interested in the challenge.

Sporting a more cartoonish art style and some enemies that will definitely be familiar to enjoyers of other KEMCO titles with a similar art style, Akuma Rise doesn’t really break new ground on the aesthetic side of things. That being the case there’s nothing wrong with the art style or music direction, so take it as you get it. Keep it in mind it is also available on a phone App Store.

Overall Akuma Rise is a pretty fun title to add to the KEMCO JRPG pool. While the plot is maybe a little cliché and the assets reused from previous titles, there’s enough in the new storyline and characters to keep it entertaining if you don’t think too hard about it. Definitely a pick up for those looking for a retro JRPG that want something to play in the background or casually.

 

Score: 8 / 10

 

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Fortuna Magus - PS5 Review

Fortuna Magus by developer WorldWideSoftware and publisher KEMCO—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

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Hello everyone and welcome to a new flavour of KEMCO rpg! Today we will be looking at Fortuna Magus, a bit of a shorter title with a more straight-laced JRPG gameplay.

Fortuna Magus tells the tale of Amane and Tia, whose father disappeared a number of years ago and their sister left to go find him. They are drawn into a struggle against the kingdom when they defend a magus, a person capable of using magic, that the kingdom has deemed a threat to the peace. Now put on the wanted list for defending a discriminated against group, Amane and Tia embark on a journey with Rett, the magus they helped, in order to learn the truth behind why their father went missing and what their sister has gotten herself into.

In this KEMCO release, we’ve gone back a little in terms of how the game plays. A traditional JRPG style with random encounters while walking around field areas and a pretty basic structure compared to some of their other titles, Fortuna Magus tends to play it more straight than adding some of the gimmicks or mechanics that have been a part of similar styled titles. All the tried and true combat is there: turn-based battles with turn order based on unit speed, normal attacks, skills that use MP, special moves that can be used when you fill a gauge similar to a limit break, defence and item commands, and different elements and attack types to play with.

What is a bit more of an underused trait in most RPGs is how you learn new skills. By meeting certain level and element requirements and performing certain actions in battle you can learn new skills. These could be improved versions of your current skills, a new special move, or maybe even a combo attack. This is labelled as the Revelation System in the game, and it can seem a little random at times, but it is pretty fun to use one move and then get a chain of other moves that completely wipe all the enemies off the screen. You don’t see this done very often, so it’s a neat addition to keep the game from feeling too lacking in interesting mechanics while still holding true to the retro spirit.

Those of you familiar with KEMCO titles should also have guessed that there is a point shop, however this one is significantly less game breaking than pretty much any other point shop in a KEMCO title. While there are equipment pieces that reduce damage taken or confer passive bonuses, items that can raise stats, and items that can raise element levels, they are largely inexpensive. But the game seems to be built around the assumption you’ll be using the shop. Seriously, some of the bosses can be pretty big bullies, so unless you spend some time grinding monsters for points to buy stat increases and earning exp to level with, you’re probably going to get hurt a decent amount.

Another interesting aspect of Fortuna Magus is that there isn’t a world map to roam around like you’ve probably gotten used to in these KEMCO titles. Instead you have a map with red and blue dots representing fields/dungeons and towns, where you will instantly go to when selecting. Add onto that the fact most fields are about three fairly small areas, and the game isn’t very long story wise, and you’ll end up with a much shorter title than what you’d probably expect. That being said it isn’t bad, just be prepared to get through half the story in a handful of hours pretty easily.

There are some sidequests available for you to participate in as you play through the game, and titles to earn that can be equipped like any other gear. So it’s not as if Fortuna Magus is particularly lacking in content for what it’s worth, despite how short it is. The story is surprisingly engaging and full of more plot turns than I was honestly expecting, so that’s also a nice bonus. On the other hand, you’ll probably be quick to notice that the assets are pretty much all very generic looking. While I can’t confirm 100% if they used an RPG maker style engine for the game, I’m pretty confident they did. Not saying this is bad, just don’t go expecting any fancy unique and flourishing artwork or designs.

Overall I have to say that Fortuna Magus was a bit of a pleasant surprise. While definitely shorter than I was expecting, the story was engaging and the characters were pretty varied. The Revelation aspect is an underused mechanic, although it tends to be hit and miss with whether you will enjoy learning skills a little more randomly than pure level requirements. If you’re interested in a quick nostalgia trip, definitely keep Fortuna Magus on your radar!

Score: 8 / 10 

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Dragon Spira - PS5 Review

Dragon Spira by developer Exe Create Inc and publisher KEMCO—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes 

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Well hello there, and welcome to another review of a KEMCO title! We’ve been through a few of these in the past, each with their own charm, and now it’s time to take a look at a new title: Dragon Spira.

The world of Dragon Spira is an interesting place, where The Divine created six spirit beasts to rule over the world, along with different races for most of them. However that didn’t go over so well when the spirit beasts rebelled, and were sealed into eggs. The Divine created humans to replace them, and left them with some relics and wisdom before disappearing. One thousand years later and humanity is doing pretty well for itself, all things considered. Unfortunately, danger lurks, and a hero is needed to stand against the coming evil! (that’s you by the way).

So you end up with a traditional JRPG party of four plus a mascot creature (who is also helpful in battle at least) to venture forth. Now, most of you who are familiar with KEMCO titles should know that they generally come in two flavours: old-school Final Fantasy like or old-school Dragon Quest like. This time we’re going with the Final Fantasy like style.

For those of you new to KEMCO titles, Dragon Spira is a very retro stylized JRPG, but in a good way. You have a party of heroes that ventures out into the world to right wrongs and uncover hidden secrets along the way. Getting into random turn-based battles is a mandatory experience here, all done in a pixel-graphic and MIDI sounding adventure.

Between bouts of random encounters and facing off against powerful bosses, you will be exploring dungeons, towns, taking sidequests from characters or the guild, and maybe challenging optional areas if you’re feeling confident? You may need to rethink that last one though. When the game says “powerful enemies here”, it means you’re getting one-shot.

Dragon Spira runs the traditional set-up: visit a town, find out there’s something important to do in a dungeon nearby, find and enter dungeon on world map, clear dungeon, report in to town, rinse and repeat with the next town. It’s a tried and true formula of JRPGs through the ages. Thankfully KEMCO tends to do away with a lot of the frustration of some of the older games when going for their retro feel. Such quality of life options include: being able to teleport to any town or dungeon you have previously set foot in, indicators for where quests are available, the option to warp back to quest giver when complete from the quest menu, and many other small but handy bits.

Exploration of dungeons is pretty straightforward, where you walk around aiming for the depths and the boss that’s sure to meet you there, getting into random battles along the way, and maybe seeing a cutscene or two. At set intervals there are teleportation circles that you can use to warp between different zones, as well as braziers that can summon enemies as a set of three individual battles so you can get exp, money, stones, and RP more efficiently, more on those last two later.

Combat in these types of KEMCO games is a little interesting, as player units are in a vertical line with front and rear options, while enemy units are placed in a 3x3 grid so that they fit. Some enemies will take up multiple squares.  Combat is taken in turns based on speed of units with faster units taking earlier and more frequent turns, as indicated by a handy turn order bar at the top of the combat screen. When in combat you have a number of tactical options available to you: attack, job, unique, item, defense, summon, and if you have the mascot character unlocked summon.

Unique and Job refer to skills, which cost MP but hold special effects, deal extra damage, or multiple enemy tiles. Each move has it’s own range, so pay attention when deciding what skill to use. Unique are character specific and are solely learned by that character, but Job skills are learned as long as you have the required job equipped and at the right level. Summon just calls your mascot to stand in front of the unit that summoned it, which is also the only time you can use the mascot character’s Wonder Skill ability to help you in battle.

Yup, you read that right, we get jobs. Now, I feel no shame in telling you I’m an absolute sucker for a decent job system, and I feel like Dragon Spira delivers a decent system. You start out with a set of jobs, and a bunch of locked jobs you can’t access yet. Basic jobs can level from JP earned primarily through combat, and default jobs will level to 25. Once you hit 25, if you have a specific item, you can use it to unlock an advanced version of that class allowing you to level it to 50. Some of the locked jobs require hitting that level 50 with more than one job class. There are both active and passive skills awarded to you as you level your jobs, and your jobs can be swapped at any time outside of combat or a cutscene, so feel free to play around with them. It is important to note that jobs can only equip certain types of items, so if you make it through a good chunk of the game without getting a decent dagger and equip a thief job, don’t expect that to go super well. While job levels are not shared across party, you don’t lose anything from switching jobs, so you can always swap back if you don’t like the job you’ve changed to.

So, let’s take a poke at a really weird but interesting feature: the sugoroku board. If you don’t have any idea what that is, don’t worry, neither did I. Basically you can think of it kinda like a mario party board, or maybe a Jumanji board if that’s more familiar. As you pass over or land on certain tiles, you gain the item or stat associated with that tile. On certain tiles or at the end of the board, you may distribute all the stats you’ve earned through tiles. Yes, you can replay boards, so you can do this pretty much indefinitely. Do note that the higher the player party level the more costly it is to move tiles on the board.

So how do you move tiles? Well, you earn RP from battles, or the board, and you spend a set number of points based on board and party level to spin a roulette wheel that has 1 to 6 on it. What you land on is how far you go. At intersections where you have a choice of direction, you also spin to determine where you go. You can find items to choose a desired roll, so don’t worry too hard about missing a tile. You can always come back and try again.

So you KEMCO veterans are probably wondering at this point: does this one have the store? The answer is yes, it does. For those of you confused, these types of KEMCO titles tend to have a sort of store where you can exchange kaishin stones earned through combat or as certain rewards for either permanent cross-save game modifiers like increased exp earned, or exchange for items or an equipment gacha roll where you might end up with some ridiculously overpowered gear.

Overall I have to say I’m quite a fan of Dragon Spira. The combat is pretty fluid and has a lot of options for you, the job system is a decent mesh of easy to use and tactical options with a fair number of jobs available, and the sugoroku boards are an incredibly interesting addition to the game. The story is pretty engaging, the characters are unique in their portrayal, and each job class has their own outfit sprite in addition to the general character sprite. I would definitely recommend Dragon Spira if you’re looking for a really fun retro style RPG.

Score: 8 / 10

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Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined - PS5 Demo Preview

Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined by developer HexaDrive and publisher Square Enix—Sony PlayStation 5 preview written by Pierre-Yves with a demo available on the PSN.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Astral Takers - PS5 Review

Astral Takers by developer Vanguard and publisher Kemco—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

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Hello and welcome! Today we’ve got another Kemco/Vanguard title for you: Astral Takers! You up for some old-school RPG action? Ready to explore a world fraught with peril and interpersonal challenges? Well, look no further than Astral Takers! 

If the title Astral Takers seems somewhat familiar to you, you may be thinking of a title I reviewed a while back called Dragon Takers. Yes, the games are related, no I won’t say how because of spoilers, but I would suggest playing Dragon Takers first if you care about potential plot spoilers, and if you care about that sort of thing. Astral Takers can still be played as a standalone however, so no worries if you aren’t picking up Dragon Takers.

In Astral Takers we follow the adventures of Revyse, Fio, and Aurora, a trio that developed when Revyse discovered Aurora who had lost her memories and Fio decides to help out. Plots will be uncovered, villains will be defeated, and the secrets hidden behind Aurora’s identity shall be revealed! You will visit many locations in a linear progression through the world while fighting random enemy encounters and tough boss battles (maybe).

I will tell you right now that Astral Takers is very generic and very cliché. Is that a bad thing? Well, no, not really, but it doesn’t really set itself apart in any way that matters either. This also extends to adventure and combat, not just the storyline. Towns you visit are fairly generic, and you can expect the standard fantasy RPG tropes to come alive. Like I said, not exactly a bad thing, but certainly doesn’t stand out from the crowd.

Combat will occur either when scripted for boss fights or as random encounters when you’re on the world map or in a dungeon. Upon getting into a fight, we start up the old turn-based RPG gameplay. A little bit off from the common style, in Astral Takers you determine all your actions at the start of combat and then characters take action, rather than only when their turn comes up. Higher speed stats mean your turn will be sooner in the turn order.

Taking from Dragon Takers, enemies will have elemental and type weaknesses to exploit, which you can take a peek at in the turn order, and enemies of a single type get grouped. Grouped enemies cannot be targeted individually, but can be hit with attacks that hit a group of enemies or when performing a single target action on a group enemy will be decided in the group for you. It’s a little annoying when you want to focus down a single enemy in a group but the game has your damage split between the enemies.

Unlike Dragon Takers, there isn’t an interesting skill assimilation mechanic, so everything you get is based on your own progression, whether it’s from leveling when you get enough exp or from plot progression. Thankfully the game is pretty easy to farm exp in, as you can hang around a heal point, which are plentiful, and wander back and forth for a bit. With an auto battle function that’s usually good at “nuke the enemies ASAP”, you can build up levels fast if you are having a tough time.

One of the interesting background lore pieces is that Revyse is a summoner. Whenever he finds an echostone, he can bring it to a summoning circle to summon a heroic figure, thus expanding your party roster. While you still need to equip your extended party, they can be swapped in and out pretty much at will, allowing you to get the most out of their skills. Have an enemy that’s immune to magic attacks? Swap your mage out for a physical damage unit. Enemies dodge magic? Get more melee units. Pretty handy really. Worst case you can use some of their skills outside of battle to return to a dungeon entrance or to heal party members.

There is, unfortunately, a decently big complaint. This is the same complaint I had with Dragon Takers and has not been improved in Astral Takers, but the menuing system is arse.  Navigating menus is somewhat unintuitive, equipping gear when you aren’t buying direct from a shop is a nuisance, the gear in your inventory is automatically sorted by type not by recently acquired so you could lose stuff you’ve picked up in your infinite pockets, and good lord is the border around your selection incredibly tough to see. While certainly not game breaking to any degree, it is incredibly frustrating.

As for the graphics and soundtrack, I have to say they’re pretty good. The soundtrack is pretty much what was heard from Dragon Takers, so if you’ve played that be prepared. Also the enemy sprites will actually move in combat and ally characters during cutscenes will move a bit and express themselves. It isn’t anything next gen, but it is pretty decent. I mean, it is a phone game port, so you can’t really expect too much, although there are a few improvements that would be nice to see.

On a plus side, Astral Takers is very lenient about allowing you to save. Pretty much as long as you aren’t in combat or a cutscene you can save wherever you want. It’s really handy if you don’t particularly have the time to commit to an extended period of playing. The game also autosaves a lot so losing a lot of progress is basically a non issue, which is also really nice. Couple that with being able to swap out party members really easily and there are a lot of nice aspects to Astral Takers.

Overall Astral Takers is a pretty generic RPG but certainly not a bad one. While the storyline may be a little generic and the gameplay rather traditional, there’s something to be said for that nostalgic feeling it brings to mind. While Astral Takers may not be for everybody, and won’t really offer anything new to the genre, it has a solid base that makes it pretty entertaining.

Score: 7 / 10

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Sobakistan: The Land of Dogs is Opening its Borders to New Adventurers!

Tokyo, June 1, 2025 | Indie studio TERLETSKI GAMES announces Sobakistan: The Land of Dogs, a narrative adventure game set in a totalitarian country inhabited entirely by anthropomorphic dogs. Presented in the style of a classic pixel-art JRPG, the game features black humor, puzzle elements, and sharp satire. Invitation to the great leader ‘Comrade Buddy’ funeral rehearsal will be available via Steam in 2026.

For the first time in its history, Sobakistan opens its borders. The nation’s Supreme Leader, Comrade Buddy, has staged a lavish rehearsal of his own funeral to witness the people's grief in advance. What could possibly go wrong?

Among the invited foreign guests is a journalist — the chameleon Henri Pascal, famous for his hard-hitting documentaries. You begin the game in his shoes, preparing to film a documentary about this secretive nation.

Steam Page: 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3742720/Sobakistan_The_Land_of_Dogs

Players will gradually uncover the secrets of Sobakistan, switching between six playable characters each one will appear in a set order throughout the game’s 13 chapters  to view the same events from multiple perspectives. A demo featuring two chapters and two characters — Henri Pascal and Harmony — is planned for summer–fall 2025.

Playable Characters:

• Henri Pascal – A chameleon and world-renowned journalist
• Comrade Buddy – The eternal leader and symbolic "sun" of Sobakistan
• The Supreme General – Head of the secret service and Comrade Buddy’s right paw
• Orbita – A puppy girl whose mysterious fate is tightly bound to that of the country
• Tadeusz Wolczetski – A school-age wolf cub who grew up too soon
• Harmony – A humble working dog and loyal citizen of Sobakistan

Key Features:

• A deep narrative with satire, dark humor, and moments of horror
• Consequence-driven choices and multiple endings
• Integrated puzzles and mini-games
• JRPG-inspired elements: item collection, turn-based sequences
• Metanarrative elements and breaking the fourth wall
• Unique pixel art aesthetic
• Developed by the creators of the original comic

Upon entering the country, Henri Pascal’s video camera is confiscated and replaced with a basic surveillance device that allows for text entry, low-res pixel snapshots, and GPS tracking. These are the materials the player works with throughout the game — creating an unconventional narrative toolset.

ABOUT TERLETSKI GAMES

TERLETSKI GAMES is a micro-indie studio founded by author, artist, and publisher Vitalii Terletskii in 2024. Originally based in Saint Petersburg and now operating out of Tokyo, the studio gained recognition for its humorous narrative games inspired by internet culture (Alt Girl for Skoof, Gnomes and Knights). Sobakistan: The Land of Dogs marks its first fully original, large-scale title — set to release on Steam in 2026, with console versions to follow. Terletski Games on X. || Steam Developer Page

Article by: Susan N.

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Covenant of Solitude - PS5 Review

Covenant of Solitude by developer Magitec and publisher KEMCO—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Covenant of Solitude is an RPG released by Kemco. Originally released in 2013 as an android/iOS title, it is now available on the PS5! While maybe a little graphically aged and somewhat standard JRPG fare compared to some of KEMCO’s other titles, Covenant of Solitude is rather fun and more engaging than you may initially expect.

Covenant of Solitude stars a young man named Fort, who has the power to talk to monsters. Living a rough life in a small village, Fort has his world burnt down when the Empire invades his village and slaughters the inhabitants. Fort must then find his place in the world and what he wants to do with himself and the people in it. Using his power that not only allows him to speak to but also to command monsters in battle, the power of a genie, Fort tries to carve out a place for himself.

By and large the plot of Covenant of Solitude isn’t anything particularly outstanding, nor are the characters really. While there are some interesting dialogue moments between Fort and the demon Wicca who signs a contract with him, most characters are either cartoonishly evil, extremely predictable, or kind of dumb. As an example, Fort seems to have the frustrating disability to be skeptical of anybody. He basically says at one point “why would somebody be nice to me if they weren’t a good person?”, which I almost threw something after reading. That being said, the writing isn’t bad, just pretty cliché or unsurprising.

The gameplay is very traditional JRPG style that is very reminiscent to me of the first Final Fantasy game. You will explore a world map, get into random fights, explore dungeons, find treasure chests, and do the occasional side quest as you go. In Covenant of Solitude there is a bit more to it. You can recruit different species of monsters to your party and give them different jobs. A monster’s species will affect their general stat distribution, for example the beast type characters have higher speed, while the job chosen determines growth path and skills. A fighter class will learn physical attacking skills and have a more attack focused stat distribution.

You will be able to change jobs by using a certain item, although new jobs are set at level 1. You may also be able to find special items that allow you to change to an advanced job class. However, if you do change jobs, you will get to keep previously learned skills.

Once you’re set to go with your party of Fort and up to three monsters, you’re ready to tackle the world. This means a decent amount of fighting, by the way. In combat is very traditional fare: select command, attack in turns until all commands are complete, repeat. You can attack, use a skill, defend, use an item, etc. and certain weapons have different effects, such as hitting back rows for full damage or hitting in a pattern. Spells can also hit rows or columns and there is an elemental alignment chart. Upon victory you are awarded with experience and money to fund your vicarious lifestyle.

Dungeons are an interesting experience. They certainly aren’t the worst designed areas I’ve seen, and the minimap certainly helps you navigate, although they do tend to be either needlessly roundabout or uninspiring. There are a few dungeons with gimmicks or traits that make them interesting, such as a fire and ice dungeon. In here the ice you slide on and the fire you take damage when walking over, yet they are somewhat few and far between.

Sidequests are a little weird as well. While there aren’t many, it would be interesting to note that a fair amount require a certain monster at a certain level, such as a vampire at level 30 in order to complete an objective. A rather unique way of doing things, but since units not in the party don’t directly earn exp, leveling one if you aren’t actively using them could be a hassle.

There is an in-game store where you can buy items basically at any time you have free movement, so running out of healing or revive items isn’t really an issue. There is also a store where you can buy special items for points you earn from killing enemies, which are usually game-breaking items or super good equipment. Interestingly enough, you don’t earn points super fast, so it would still take some work to afford these items.

Graphically and musically Covenant of Solitude isn’t really that great. I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but it’s definitely not beating the “2013 phone game” allegations even when ported to console. A bit of an update would have done it really well, even if it was just replacing some environment textures to add more variance or giving some better looking character portraits. As I said earlier, not the worst, but certainly could be better.

Overall I don’t really know how to feel about Covenant of Solitude. It isn’t spectacular by any means, but it isn’t bad. I definitely had more fun playing than I expected, but I can’t really say why? Perhaps it just has a sort of nostalgic charm that draws you in. Nothing over the top or super fancy, no gimmicks, just traditional JRPG mechanics and storyline, but that isn’t bad every now and then.

Ultimately, Covenant of Solitude is a perfectly average experience. While it doesn’t do anything new or exciting, or even really put it’s own spin on things, it also doesn’t lack in the backbone that made older JRPGs so entertaining. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. If you’re looking for something to play in the background, or to do while waiting for something else to release, this might be a neat little tide over until something else comes along, but I certainly wouldn’t claim it as a “big name RPG”. Give it a look to see if this is something right for you.

Score: 7 / 10

 

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EnglishSpanishFrench-------- [ All ] --------AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAssameseAymaraAzerbaijaniBambaraBashkirBasqueBelarusianBengaliBhojpuriBosnianBulgarianCantonese (Traditional)CatalanCebuanoChichewaChinese (Literary)Chinese SimpChinese TradChuvashCorsicanCroatianCzechDanishDariDhivehiDogriDutchEmojiEnglishEnglish United KingdomEsperantoEstonianEweFaroeseFijianFilipinoFinnishFrenchFrench (Canada)FrisianGalicianGandaGeorgianGermanGreekGuaraniGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHawaiianHebrewHill MariHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIlocanoIndonesianInuinnaqtunInuktitutInuktitut (Latin)IrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKazakhKazakh (Latin)KhmerKinyarwandaKlingon (Latin)KonkaniKoreanKrioKurdish (Kurmanji)Kurdish (Sorani)KyrgyzLaoLatinLatvianLingalaLithuanianLower SorbianLuxembourgishMacedonianMaithiliMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMariMeiteilon (Manipuri)MizoMongolianMongolian (Traditional)Myanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianNyanjaOdia (Oriya)OromoPapiamentoPashtoPersianPolishPortuguese (Brazil)Portuguese (Portugal)PunjabiQuechuaQuertaro OtomiRomanianRundiRussianSamoanSanskritScots GaelicSepediSerbianSerbian (Cyrillic)Serbian (Latin)SesothoSetswanaShonaSindhiSinhalaSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSundaneseSwahiliSwedishTagalogTahitianTajikTamilTatarTeluguThaiTibetanTigrinyaTonganTsongaTurkishTurkmenTwiUdmurtUkrainianUpper SorbianUrduUyghurUzbekUzbek (Cyrillic)VietnameseWelshXhosaYakutYiddishYorubaYucatec MayaZulu

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Lunar Remastered Collection – Xbox Review

Lunar Remastered Collection by developer and publisher GungHo—Microsoft Xbox Series X review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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Spirit Valor - PS5 Review

Spirit Valor by developer Exe Create Inc. and publisher KEMCO—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.

 
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Spirit Valor is an interesting title from KEMCO and Exe Create Inc., the same people that brought us Astrune Academy if you saw my review for that. Another turn-based RPG with some twist elements thrown in, Spirit Valor is a pretty entertaining journey through a fantasy world, so let’s take a look at what it has to offer!

In Spirit Valor we take on the role of a spirit summoned by a mighty warrior to help in the defeat of an Overlord, one who controls the rise of demons in the world. Unfortunately, there is a magic outburst from the warrior, and so the spirit is stuck in the warrior’s body. Unable to return home to the spirit world, and feeling a sense of obligation to fulfill the warrior’s goal of defeating the new Overlord, the spirit inside the warrior’s body gathers three other companions to set out and save both the human and spirit world from the overlord.

So set out the warrior “Richard” (totally not a spirit, shhh), Alice, a young warrior in training, Finn, the flirty knight, and Vallerie, a spirit researcher. Those of you who remember old school Final Fantasy titles, like the first game, or who’ve played Astrune Academy will have a pretty good idea how things will play out, but for those of you who haven’t, we’ll take a look at what makes Spirit Valor enticing.

Spirit Valor has a pretty standard JRPG game loop. You go visit someone of importance and have a cutscene, you get told where to go, you explore a dungeon, you repeat. This is pretty basic fare for many JRPGs. You’ll explore a world map, getting into random fights until you either enter a town or dungeon. Feel free to explore the various local settlements at your leisure, buying and equipping new equipment, talking with the townsfolk, and picking up any chests you may see hidden around, as is pretty common in these types of games.

Once you enter a dungeon, there are a few things you’ll probably notice right off the bat. First of all, you’ll probably see a little panel on the floor and a weird floating rock tower somewhere nearby. The panel is a warp point, which will bring you to any other panel in the dungeon you’ve stepped on. If you step on it, the floating rock tower is a sort of enemy adjustment device. Basically, battles in the dungeons are random encounters, but the towers near the warp points allow you to adjust encounter rate, as well as summon a set of three battles to use for gaining levels, money, or items. While the first time you interact with a tower you can either increase or decrease the encounter rate slightly, after reaching the last tower you can either stop random encounters or greatly increase the encounter rate. This is pretty handy when you return to an area for a sidequest and don’t want to bother with way too weak enemies while looking for the sidequest objective.

So, what about when you actually get into a battle? Well, this is where Spirit Valor brings out some interesting ideas. Basic combat is turn based, with a sliding bar where both enemy and ally icons will move along indicating each turn order. Faster characters mean faster moving icons. Once it comes to your turn, you can perform your actions. While Spirit Valor has the basics, like attack, defend, and item use, it also has a pretty unique spirit summoning system going for it.

In battle, you can opt to spend a percent portion of your max mana pool to summon a spirit, at varying strength depending on your mana used. The spirits you summon however are actually somewhat random, determined by the area you’re fighting in, and will change each time a spirit gets summoned. Being a spirit himself, the main character doesn’t have that option, but the rest of your party members still do. So let’s say one of your party members summons a spirit. Well, there’s a chance the spirit will stick around and ask to make a contract with you. If you agree. That spirit will lend you it’s power. You can have up to ten spirit contracts per character, but can only “equip” four at a time. You can swap these out outside of battle.

Now, forming a contract with a spirit doesn’t mean you can summon them whenever, it actually means you can use their abilities as skills. Spirits also have levels, and as you bring them into battle with you they will level up, gain new skills, and maybe even evolve! You can swap them out and level other spirits to see if they gain skills you want. Some spirits can provide healing or buffs, and some have large single target damage.

In addition to the spirits and their skills, you also have these things called mana stones. Basically they’re sort of like discount pokeballs. You can throw one at an enemy, and if they have a skill that can be used, there’s a chance you can “capture” the monster’s skills at a certain chance. These mana stones that have a skill can be used three times before they either break or lose the skill. If the mana stone loses the skill, you get the mana stone back and can use it on another enemy. If it breaks, a spirit is released and a character can contract it, or the warrior can learn a skill from it. If you either summon a spirit or break a mana stone and receive a spirit you already have a contract with, that character’s spirit will get a power increase.

Those of you who have played Astrune Academy may remember the store system, where you can exchange gems you’ve gained for items, or permanent buffs applied to your game. Unlike in Astrune Academy however, the items don’t include primary equipment, just accessories, so it’s much tougher to “break” the game, although you can still purchase experience and money increases. These can also be toggled, so you can adjust the game to your preference.

Spirit Valor is a pretty nice retro style JRPG that still manages to put some interesting twists on things. The graphics are definitely a little more old-school looking, but fit really well with the style. As a nice added bonus, while the storyline is somewhat generic, there are still some twists, and tropes that are commonly used that are either subverted or altered in a pretty interesting way. Probably one of the more interesting storyline decisions comes in the post-game, where there is a split in how the story goes based on what you choose. I thought the choice to go this route was pretty interesting, and while I liked the split in direction it went for, being unable to carry over from one plotline to the other is a little annoying. What I mean is that completing one of the branches doesn’t allow you to keep playing with all the stuff you’ve gained in that route. You have to reload from before the branch, although it isn’t too bad, and you can earn the equivalent back on the other branch.

Overall, I actually had a lot of fun with Spirit Valor. It’s a nice JRPG with a pretty unique twist and a solid storyline. The characters all have unique personalities, the graphic style is very fitting for the game type, and there are a number of quality of life options for players. If you’re looking for a smaller JRPG to fill your time, Spirit Valor may be something for you!

Score: 8 / 10

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