I still haven't haven't played the new Shantae and suppose I should probably get around to it. It's been out long enough that I probably should have tried it by now. Order of Ecclesia is also my favorite Castlevania game. :)

As to Atelier Lydie & Suelle, I had to look that one up, but after so doing, honestly I may bypass on it. Given the sheer volume of games being released nowadays, I can't help but feel that I can do better than a truly generic JRPG "for girls" anymore.

Have you tried Yume Nikki? It's a surrealistic adventure game that kind of reminds me of Earthbound.

It's ok to say "perverts".

Atelier games aren't generic. The idea in this series is that your characters work at an alchemy workshop. Unlike most RPGs you find/buy/obtain recipees and ingredients you can use to craft al kinds of items like potions, weapons, accessories, armor, etc and give them special properties.

Rol should be playing it right now, he can tell you more things about this entry than I can.

I've never heard of it before just now. Looked up some footage a moment ago and it looks quite awesome! I definitely enjoy surrealism in games. :D

In fact, I think I'll place this right after Iconoclasts as the second game I'll try out in the immediate future.

The game's free on Steam too! Though there is a re-imagining that isn't free, I'd recommend playing the original first anyway.

Well I'd really like to ask you more about some of your interpretations, once I fully complete the game. Though in my case I didn't expect the story to disappoint me based on the choice of gameplay/combat, because I find that the writing can often be very far removed from the choice of gameplay, and I'm no longer surprised to find a compelling story in almost any type of game. On top of that, prior to playing the game I heard that Square Enix were ok with the story portion of the Nier/Drakengard series (I have not played any of those games yet), but needed to improve the gameplay/combat portion to give the series the proper attention it deserved, so they contracted Platinum Games for this particular entry in the series.

I did however expect that the combat aspect of the gameplay would be the main takeaway from this game, in particular because it was developed by Platinum, and I got the sense that the focus lied heavily on the stylish combat, after playing the demo, where you didn't get much of a sense of the story. Even when I continued on in the full game it took a while before I became really interested in the story. But I especially liked how they let you explore the world and its inhabitants, and how the story unfolded through those interactions.
And while the combat was really enjoyable and well made as well, I don't look back at it as the main takeaway of the game, as I do with Devil May Cry, or from what I've played/seen, Bayonetta. When the gameplay is as good as it is here, and it's not the first, or even the second, thing that comes to mind when someone mentions the game, says a lot about how good of an experience it was overall.

I'm not completely finished with the game, but I'm probably very close as I just finished Route C. And I think D will be finished by just making a different choice in the last battle. So I'll see what that ending brings, and what new side stories opened up, and if there's possibly an additional ending beyond that, etc.
But I'll get back to you once I'm done with the game as I'm curious to hear some of your thoughts about it.

Oh and I bookmarked that article you linked. I'll be sure to check it out later.

You need some Zelda in your life

Shadow of the Colossus remake.

Only boxes it doesn't tick are the retro aesthetic one and female lead. But Agro is female and is essentially the second lead protagonist so there's that :P


Nice to see Mirror's Edge on your list by the way < 3