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Review

Square Insider Reviews Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV

Brendan    2016-08-24    0 comments

In hindsight, Kingsglaive was obviously expected to be Final Fantasy XV’s emergent multimedia universe darling. I would argue that position has been usurped by the consistently excellent anime Brotherhood. Whereas Brotherhood is quite good, Kingsglaive is just good enough. This isn’t to say that Kingsglaive is bad. With stunning visuals and a gripping score, the foundation for an excellent movie...

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD: The Square Insider Review

Brendan    2015-05-28    2 comments

When Type-0’s localization was finally announced at last year’s E3, gamers in the western hemisphere breathed a sigh of relief. Hajime Tabata’s second outing on the PSP would finally be reaching avid fans via an official release on the PS4 and X1. For gamers desperately searching for a sign that the Final Fantasy series is, at long last, correcting its...

Tomb Raider: The Square Insider Review

Brendan    2014-03-13    3 comments

Lara Croft’s presence in the gaming industry could be called ubiquitous, to say the very least of a character that has been a staple of the gaming experience since 1996. Lara Croft has played a key role in the birth of the action-adventure genre, has spanned four generations of hardware, all in more than 9 games that have collectively sold...


The Art of Thief: The Square Insider Review

Brendan    2014-03-05    3 comments

After five long years of development and fomenting anticipation, Eidos-Montreal’s Thief was released to expectant gamers worldwide last week. While Garret’s long-awaited reboot has proven to be divisive, developer Eidos and publisher Square Enix partnered up with Titan Books to release The Art of Thief. This book of concept art and other artistic assets celebrates the game’s release, the artistic...

Lightning Returns: The Square Insider Review

Brendan    2014-02-24    5 comments

There's quite a lot to be said about LIGHTNING RETURNS: FINAL FANTASY XIII but chances are that most of it has been said elsewhere. It’s the concluding game in a wildly polarizing trilogy with a protagonist that is way more popular in Japan than she is in the west and, atop that, Square Enix has borne repeated criticism for developing...

Square Insider Reviews 'The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy'

Brendan    2014-01-11    4 comments

There are few things that I adore as fervently as the Final Fantasy series. Regardless of your opinion of the current state of the franchise, there’s no denying that a series with over 25 years of history is a force to be contended with. In 1987, a nearly bankrupt game company by the name of the Squaresoft released what it...


Retro-Review: Final Fantasy XIII-2

Brendan    2014-01-03    5 comments

FINAL FANTASY XIII-2. It was the sequel nobody asked for to the blockbuster game that galvanized the fans of the franchise. After Square Enix stoically endured the varied reactions to the previous installment, FINAL FANTASY XIII, the company decided to revisit the world and mythology of Gran Pulse in an effort to prove to gamers everywhere that the FINAL FANTASY...

Retro-Review: Final Fantasy XIII

Brendan    2013-12-24    4 comments

FINAL FANTASY XIII. It’s a game that hardly needs an introduction, even four years after release. It was hotly anticipated. Wildly hyped. And, in the end, deeply controversial. In the thirteenth year of the new millennium, it’s only appropriate that we take undertake a retrospective review of one of the PS3’s most defining games just as Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy...

Advent Children Completes It's Mission

Xin    2009-04-20    0 comments

Originally released in the fall of 2005, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was met with mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. Four years later, SquareEnix is giving the movie a director's cut of sorts with Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, this time in beautiful HD. "You are my living legacy..." theSTORY. By now, we're all familiar with Advent...


Retro Review: Final Fantasy VIII

Xin    2008-09-20    0 comments

Before we start, let's just agree that there's no way to fairly review this game nine years after it's release. I can't review it based on what I remember from 1999, and holding it up to today's standards just wouldn't be fair. So instead, let's just grade it on how well this title holds up nearly a decade after it's...

Crisis Core Import Review

Brendan    2007-10-05    0 comments

It’s been 3 long years since Crisis Core, the prequel to Final Fantasy VII, was announced at E3 2004. Since I’m a nerd with almost no life to speak of, I did the unspeakable.But ways & means is not the point of this roughly penned import review. Long story short: it's a masterpiece. Gameplay Crisis Core’s gameplay is relative simple....

It All Began with an Invasion

Brendan    2006-12-15    0 comments

The latest installment in Square Enix’s power-house franchise packs an unforgettable punch that undeniably proves that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Ivalice is a land at war; the Archadian Empire has initiated a brutal crack-down on its neighbors in order to compete with the Rozarrian Empire in the west. The latest to fall into Archadia’s...


Dirge of a Series

Brendan    2006-11-14    0 comments

An interesting romp through unfamiliar locales that ultimately fails to deliver what fans were expecting, in the omnipresent shadow of its predecessor. Welcome to Dirge of Cerberus, the PlayStation 2 debut of gun-totting Vincent’s back story. Set a year after the events of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and thusly three years after the original PlayStation installment, Dirge of Cerberus...

Advent Children: A Review

Brendan    2006-10-14    0 comments

If you've never played Final Fantasy VII, or are entirely ignorant to the vast franchise that has met with indescribable success on the different platforms that producer Square-Enix has churned out, then you may want to reconsider the DVD you’re mentally holding in your mind. However, if you’re into taking a risk, or even delving into a movie entirely separate...

Romancing SaGa: A difficult journey

sifar    2005-11-09    0 comments

Romancing SaGa: Minstrel's Song was first released in 1992 for the SNES and was made exclusive to onry Japan. Ten years after, Square Enix decided to create a remake for the PlayStation2 with complete upgrades to every aspect of the game. Many are reluctant to try Romancing SaGa after the game maker's previous SaGa title, Unlimited SaGa which sold fairly...