When Lunar debuted in North America in 1993, it was a standout in the emerging Western market for Japanese RPGs. Lunar featured detailed, animated cinematic cutscenes, plenty of voice acting, high-quality music, and–most importantly–an endearing story packed with engaging and memorable characters. While it wasn’t the first CD-ROM-based JRPG to hit the market, it was…
If there’s one thing that can be relied upon in our increasingly confusing digital age, it’s the jiggly opiate of the masses that games like Zenless Zone Zero provide. Gachas ostensibly make their money peddling cute anime girls (and boys, to be fair) to the average consumer. This isn’t an assertion I’m making so much…
Call me soft, but I’m still sad about the sudden, undignified death of Volition, the 30-year-old Saints Row studio that got executed by the Embracer Group after the latter’s $2-billion mystery deal—pitched as a “groundbreaking strategic partnership”—collapsed at the last minute. With Embracer scrambling to stay afloat and Volition’s final game, a rebooted Saints Row,…
Currently sits at PEGI 18 in the UK. The visual novel The Hungry Lamb: Traveling in the Late Ming Dynasty launched on Steam last April, and it was a hit — like, one million copies sold, 40,000+ ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reviews kind of a hit. Those who had been waiting for the title to come to…
Malasombra is now on Kickstarter. A new action-adventure platformer for the NES has just begun crowdfunding on Kickstarter and has already sailed past its initial target of €10,000, earning €31,819 as of the time of writing (over three times the amount the developers initially set out to raise). Malasombra is the work of a group…
Even for a lack of dedicated microphone, software, or lighting, the latest addition to Sennheiser’s headset lineup is looking pretty tasty for gamers. Sennheiser just needs to get the pricing right. Joining the likes of the HD 650, HD 800 S, and HD 599, the new HD 550 sit in the ‘entry-level’ category for Sennheiser….
“I think that they seek the uniqueness and fun of Japanese games”. Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai was recently awarded the Art Encouragement Prize from the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs for his remarkable achievement with the ‘Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games’ YouTube channel. As part of that, he conducted an interview with…
Tokyo’s Shinagawa market is “huge” and “crazy”. Japan is pretty awesome when it comes to celebrating tech and video games, so it should come as no great shock to learn that it has the best flea markets (or ‘car boot sales’, if you’re in the UK) in the world. While an early trip to a…
“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back”. VR pioneer and Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey caused a stir in the world of retro gaming with the ModRetro Chromatic recently and has made no secret of the fact that he’s keen to produce other consoles in the future. He’s just dropped…
“Truly a monumental moment for Xeno Series fans”. Mobile phone spin-off Xenosaga: Pied Piper, a 2004 Japan-only release created by Monolith Soft, Namco, and Tom Create, has finally been preserved—and it will soon be playable in English. “After many years of tirelessly searching for Xenosaga Pied Piper, the day has finally come where it has…