Skip to main content

Review: HEIR TO THE QUEEN

Even without knowing the term "isekai", you have probably at some point encountered a story or piece of media that follows its basic framework. A Japanese term meaning "another world", isekai stories deal with the notion of being adrift in a setting quite unlike one's own; they follow protagonists who are ripped away from a world much like ours and dropped into an unfamiliar place or time. Be it Edgar Rice Burroughs's depiction of Mars as a futuristic kingdom in the Barsoom books   or the fantastical realm of Oz, the specifics matter less than the intent - to challenge the protagonist's preconceived notions and lead them to personal growth in the face of unexpected conflict.  I lay all of this out for you because I think the intent with Heir to the Queen, a small-scale adventure game, was to hit the basic points of the isekai journey under the constraints of a threadbare budget and no larger media presence. That's speculation on my part, though, sinc...

State of Affairs for the Blog


 
Hello to all the fans I may or may not have! SO... it's been a fucking while, huh?

Time, money, and personal issues made it less than convenient to keep up posts on this here blog, much as I wanted to expand into new and untested waters.  I wish it weren't the case, I'm sorry to have not kept up updates of some kind, but I hope that you'll still take the time to read this post (and, indeed, the forthcoming material which I'm about to discuss).

I just put up a Patreon page that I urge you to consider checking out and maybe contributing to if at all possible - it helps ease my personal troubles AND enables me to do more with this blog and the KURT OF CAMBRIDGE brand as a whole.  Even if you aren't able to contribute, I'd ask that - should my material past and future resonate with you to any degree - you think about sharing said Patreon with your friends, family and assorted acquaintances.  Every little bit helps, after all.

Regardless, I'm pushing on with new content - reviews, think pieces, any and all pop-culture writing I can generate based on material of interest to me and (potentially) to you.  In the spirit of that, here is what you can look forward to in the near future
  • Within the next two weeks, an OUTLAST review (yes, the original 2013 game, because why the hell not and also kind of relevant)
  • My thoughts on the likes of the first three Mega Man games, Castlevania for NES, Mega Man X and potentially a game or two more - expect this towards the end of May
  • I'm toying with the idea of more Let's Play or equivalent material for the YouTube channel
Hopefully, you'll find something to like about the writing I have coming up.  Please feel free to comment below and tell me what you think, or suggest other games/assorted works you wish me to cover.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Post-E3 Games Showcase Era, Summer 2024 Highlights: Part II

In the ashes of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, amid the bloat and pretense of the games industry, always must there be a presentation... always must there be game trailers... and always must there be those who commentate. So it is that we find ourselves in the aftermath of this year's collected summer showcases, a cavalcade of announcements and information to parse in its wake. For my part, I set forth to note the games that stood out among the pack. Today, we go over the high points of the Future Games Show , the Xbox Games Showcase , the PC Gaming Show and, yes , even the Ubisoft Forward . Heaven help us all... Future Games Show The High Point: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami The premise of “riffing on the hardboiled detective story with talking cartoon animals” would be a fine selling point for a game in itself. The choice to also lean into a sticker book aesthetic, complete with characters hobbling around as barely moving objects in a scene? Now that's a fun time ...

Review: MIND PORTAL

Release Date: January 12th, 2018 Developer: Daniil Titner Publisher: Daniil Titner Version Reviewed: PC Copy Purchased There's a saying in certain circles that you can make a good movie out of anything, but to do it sometimes you have to rip out the source material's guts.  The intent of that saying is, I feel, quite clear in its central focus - highlighting how some projects have to work harder than others to hammer competency out of flawed material - but I think the sentiment can also apply to other mediums, like gaming. Take, for example, the first-person platformer, a sub-genre which exists primarily as an extension of the first-person shooter genre being so prevalent for sooooo long.  Make no mistake, I like works like Mirror's Edge (or, say, Jumping Flash ) for at least trying to offer something different from the gun-toting norm, but the execution of such works tends to leave a lot to be desired (no matter how much time, energy and money is thrown at the d...

2023 in Gaming: The Five Least Promising Games

New year, new chance to hope against hope for good things before being crushed by the inevitable heartbreak of video games being a mess right now. In all seriousness, despite how easy it is to be cynical about the state of the industry, I still find value in examining the forthcoming slate of titles and offering my perspective on how much - or little - they have to offer. For today I have elected to pinpoint the five games whose marketing leaves much to be desired. Time will tell if I prove correct in my predictions here, but at this moment these are my feelings as to how entirely not enticing these games appear.  The FIFTH LEAST PROMISING: Dead Space Releases January 27th The Basic Premise: It's the future, everyone's miserable and doing contract work like cracking planets for minerals. One such ship, the Ishimura, goes dark and eventually worries people enough to send a rescue crew to try to fix the situation. Enter the Necromorphs, space zombies of maybe supernatural origin...