Featured

Anime centered around pop idolatry is hardly novel, with series such as AKB0048, Aikatsu!, Show by Rock!! and The Idolm@ster, each extending their own portrayal of the lives of teenaged songstresses. But with the exceptional ...

While Western gamers were able to enjoy the aesthetic grandeur and engrossing gameplay of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, they weren’t able to appreciate Tomohiko Deguchi’s directorial effort. Regrettably, both the Stateside and European releases of ...

Not long ago, being a Japanese role-playing enthusiast in the West meant dealing with uncertainty.  After all, it was common for exceptional experiences to never see a stateside release. If you wanted to enjoy games ...

While Western players might not recognize the Kunio-kun series by name, they’re likely to have appreciated some of the long-running franchise’s localized iterations. From Renegade, River City Ransom, Super Dodge Ball, Crash ‘n’ the Boys: ...

Confrontation in games takes many forms. Fighting games require the ability to predict an opponent’s next move, instantly responding with a fury of quarter-circle gyrations and successions of complex button presses. While role-playing games often ...

Conceptually, games built by combining multiple genres offer the possibility for innovation. There’s a chance that the components will intermingle stylishly, providing synergistic dividends and a sense of novelty. But there’s also the possibility that ...

As game worlds have grown, so has the push to provide players with guidance. But occasionally, instruction can border on the overt, diminishing the thrill of exploration and discovery that can make play feel so ...

Travel to Japan and an appreciation for rail transit is inevitable. Whether you’re traveling in a sleeper car between Ueno to Aomori, taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to race between Tokyo and Kyoto, or just ...

Gust’s oeuvre is filled with gentle artistry. Across the Atelier franchise, protagonists go on inspirational journeys of self-actualization, mastering the venerable craft of alchemy in an effort to prevent impending tragedy. In the Ar Tonelico ...

While overlooked by scientists, the tenets of Darwinism have slowly crept into video games. In real life, numerous insects have developed a resistance toward pesticide or as Cope’s Rule suggests, a collection of species that ...