Vampyr excels in making its mechanics, systems, and presentation mirror its protagonist’s inner struggles. It associates vampirism with disease and corruption, immersing us in a claustrophobic, hostile city whose inhabitants are at the mercy of predators of every kind – including the main character, Dr. Jonathan Reid. The game starts with a discussion on mortality, framing dying as a blessing: …
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Birth by Sleep, originally released for the PSP, is a great prequel that excels when it comes to expanding the Kingdom Hearts’ universe and lore, even though it never quite succeeds at justifying its burdensome narrative structure: there’s this great expression in Portuguese, which can be translated literally to “forcing a friendship,” that is basically how anyone feels about the …
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Kingdom Hearts is an ambitious crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy that, much ironically, is at its best when it’s not covering either brand, but being its own weird thing. The protagonist is a boy named Sora, who lives on an island and dreams of traveling with his friends, Kairi and Riku, to discover new places. One day, they start …
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