Touting itself as a love letter inspired by retro anime and PC-98-era gaming. Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog immediately caught my attention, as I’ve found myself drawn to that era of Japanese-centric titles. Having recently played through games like Policenauts and the fan translation of Dead in the Brain, Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog successfully scratches that nostalgic itch for retro anime and sprite-based visual novels that were popular in the 90s.
Outside of its genuinely interesting sci-fi, mech-inspired story, if there is one thing Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog excels at, it is its visual presentation and overall aesthetics. I am quite picky when it comes to my anime-inspired or JRPG-adjacent games, particularly when a non-Japanese studio handles them, so I was apprehensive about how a Welsh-based developer like Space Colony Studios could manage a project so deeply rooted in a distinctly Japanese intersection of media. Thankfully, Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog... Read more