Strong Shadows, Little Light While the franchise has existed since the eight-bit era of video gaming, the Intelligent Systems-developed and Nintendo-published Fire Emblem series wouldn’t see the light of day outside Japan until the company released its Game Boy Advance system worldwide, and since then, it has garnered acclaim to the point where it’s oftentimes impossible to find legitimate criticism amongst mainstream reviewers. When a remake of the franchise’s very first game, given the English subtitle Shadow Dragon, saw its release, I saw this as an opportunity to dive into the series, thinking the rerelease would delive

Kiryu for Prison While the original version of the first installment of Sega’s Yakuza series, known as Ryū ga Gotoku (“like a dragon”) released in Japan in 2005 and the following year outside the country, I didn’t hear about the franchise until recently, with this reviewer starting his venture into it with its first and thus far only prequel, Yakuza 0, and resulting in a general positive impression. A remake, Yakuza Kiwami, released for the PlayStation 3 and 4 in Japan in 2016 to commemorate the franchise’s tenth anniversary, with a worldwide release only for the PS4 occurring the following year, and again