Aussie readers of DDNet, have we got a treat for you! (Note: this competition is only open to Australian residents. Apologies, overseas friends, but I’m sure we’ll have another contest for you soon) Stranger Of Paradise is one of the finest, and smartest, games in Square Enix’s storied series. As we wrote in our 4.5/5 review: Do you know that…
Video by Matt S. I’ve been reading Drizzt Do ‘Urden novels in the Dungeons & Dragons universe for over 25 years now. He and his crew are some of my favourite fantasy characters of all time. To this day when I play D & D my characters will generally use…
Read MoreList by Matt S. I’m a big fan of itch.io for the freedom and open platform that it allows for developers to be creative, experimental, and directly canvas the audience for feedback for games that are not yet ready for primetime on Steam and its ilk. In addition, itch.io allows…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. As some of you will know, we’ve been doing regular streams over the last year or so on the DDNet YouTube channel, showcasing the latest and greatest games, while chatting with people about those games (and just about everything else) as we go along. If you’d…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. Disgaea faces a big problem, which Disgaea 6 exposes; when you’ve got a series that has parodied JRPGs through raw exaggeration, how do you keep that series’ energy going? How do you take something that is already hyperbolic to an almost grotesque degree, and build further…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. This week in the week in review! The GBA turns 20: https://twitter.com/MattSainsb/status/1407204087397982213 Epic Game Store leaks a bunch of Trails titles: https://www.siliconera.com/trails-to-azure-trails-into-reverie-legend-of-nayuta-localizations-leaked/ People are paying top dollar for digital fashion: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/21/inside-cyber-fashion-market-digital-clothes-sell-thousands/ Is there a Castlevania Advance inbound?: https://www.siliconera.com/castlevania-advance-collection-rated-in-australia/ Final Fantasy IX to get an animated adaptation:…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Nintendo’s latest Mario Golf game has now landed! Mario Golf: Super Rush is a delight, blending excellent standard golf, with some really entertaining, manic “party” games and ways to play. What’s more, the game has a story mode that is just gorgeous, and looks like it…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. You’ve got to feel genuinely sorry for Japan. The Olympics was such a big deal and source of pride for the country, and for it to be trashed completely by a once-in-a-century pandemic is a cruelty that the country didn’t deserve. Nonetheless, the Olympics are going…
Read MoreReview by Matt S. It has been great to see Taiwan become a growing force in video games, in no small part because culturally and aesthetically there are synergies between it and Japan that has meant that many of the games that come out of Taiwan do great things with…
Read MoreNews by Matt S. Dragon Star Varnir has been one of Idea Factory’s successful experiments on PlayStation 4. The dark fairy tale-infused JRPG offers excellent, original combat, a rich narrative and, of course, Idea Factory’s usual fan service infusion. Now it’s coming to Nintendo Switch, and will launch in North…
Read MoreVideo by Matt S. Bandai Namco’s Scarlet Nexus is a blistering-good game with a compelling theme. In this video I discuss the broader implications of the narrative and those themes; why it’s relevant and allegorical to today’s world, and why more and more artists, across all media forms, are making…
Read More