Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
Here’s the thing: I find that a lot of gaming-focused mice don’t put ergonomics particularly high on the list of priorities. That’s not to say they can’t be comfortable, but the focus is very clearly on the design and the features that will give the user a competitive edge. And that makes sense, but it’s a lot of money for…
Well, fellow Final Fantasy fans, here’s our chance. For years now we’ve been begging Square Enix for a new 2D, pixel-based Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy Resonance isn’t Final Fantasy XVII, but after the success of the Octopath Traveler series and Dragon Quest remakes, it’s pretty clearly an effort by the…
A persistent issue I have with video game adaptations of stories from…
For some time, Konami has followed the trend with its Castlevania series,…
Since as far back as the Game Boy Color, Square Enix has taken strides to compete with the likes of Pokémon and Shin Megami Tensei to offer a monster collecting and battling JRPG series of its own. Dragon Quest Monsters might not be quite as high profile as some of…
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My Time at Sandrock is a very entertaining game that should never have been released on the Nintendo Switch. Or, I should say, the problems with the game better be exclusive to the Switch and a consequence of the hardware and not, simply, poor development, because otherwise the game should…
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The last Train Sim World I played was the original, and I thought it was a magnificent experience. Train Sim World 4 doesn’t feel much different from my memory of that game (admittedly four years ago now), but it didn’t need to play or look differently in the first place.…
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At a very quick glance, Howl looks like an intriguing tactics game with a gorgeous, sombre art style. What it is more like is a turn-based Chu Chu Rocket… just not as charming, appealing, or worthwhile. The protagonist of Howl is a deaf prophet. Your goal is to help navigate…
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CASCHA Games’ Concealed caught my attention for several reasons. The game has gorgeous art direction for one thing, and the promise of a horror visual novel set in a school is always a good way to catch my attention. Those two things go together beautifully. Unfortunately, this is going to…
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“505 Games lays off 30% of staff, will focus on sequels and “previously successful” games because that’s what works.” It’s the latest headline in what has been a bloodbath year in the games industry as developers and publishers, large and small, have hemorrhaged staff and slashed their plans. Earlier this…
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Super Mario RPG is an all-time classic. Ask people to list the top 20 SNES games of all time and you’re almost certain to see this one in the mix somewhere. A quirky collaboration between Nintendo and Square Enix to apply some light Final Fantasy qualities to the iconic plumber,…
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I’ll just get this warning out of the way up-front: There’s an explicit depiction of an apparent suicide in the first ten minutes of Virche Evermore -ErroR: Salvation-. It’s by no means the only content warning found in this incredibly dark visual novel. I overview some of the (many) other…
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I recently got my hands on the Analogue Pocket, after two years of missing every hardware allocation the company released. In the end, I was fortunate that I had a pal on social media was looking to offload theirs, because I sincerely doubt Analogue will have enough stock to meet…
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You would think fashion was an easy concept for video games. I mean, sure there won’t be visceral bloodletting (though a catwalk fighting game would be amazing…), but fashion lends itself to collectability, which is how many games keep players invested, and who doesn’t like playing dress-up with pretty characters?…
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