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.
Nintendo’s decision to revive the Famicom Detective Club series seems to have kick-started a mild rush of new games that are, effectively, mystery visual novels, but have point-and-click elements and light puzzles to keep players interested and intrigued. That’s a good thing. This genre is excellent. And Aksys’ decision to localise Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death is a…
I am a firm believer that as many video games, be they popular, good, bad, and loathed, should be preserved as possible. All these retro collections that have been released by publishers to cash in on their classic properties (and undermine the value of emulation and the second-hand market) have…
Nintendo’s timing with its no-pressure comfort food games has been fortuitous. Animal…
For people who enjoyed the vibes of Monster Hunter, but found the…
Gosh Ryza’s gorgeous. Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key, the game, I mean. Not the character (but yeah, also her). The third and final chapter of Ryza’s story is almost upon us, and I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with the opening chapter or…
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Now that Fire Emblem Engage has settled down a bit, I wanted to talk about the series as a whole, because Nintendo’s inability to see the value of making these games accessible on modern platforms is starting to get frustrating. Related reading: All Fire Emblem titles released in English, ranked!…
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Over in the world of literature, there has been quite the kerfuffle over the last week or so. News broke that the estate of Roald Dahl, and the publisher of his books, Puffin, would be taking the author’s body of work and, on the advice of sensitivity readers, making several…
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Odencat isn’t exactly a household name, but this Japanese studio, behind the likes of Fishing Paradiso and Bear’s Restaurant, has been steadily building up a reputation for interesting ideas, executed well. The team’s next game is called Meg’s Monster, and it’s got a lot of promise. The game’s concept is…
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I am really quite confused by the release of Spy Bros.: Pipi & Bibi’s DX. This is an obscure arcade game that almost no one would remember, from a “series” that never got a sequel. It was one single arcade release, and then it was relegated to MAME history. Sure,…
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Netflix has done something that no other company had really managed to do before; tap into the Japanese film and television market and get a lot of it localised and easily accessible in western markets. While Japanese films remain as rare as hen’s teeth on any of the other subscription…
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“It’s more of the same!” You just know that this is going to be the main comment (and complaint) about Octopath Traveler II. “It’s too much like the first.” Except it’s not. Of course it’s not. Octopath Traveler was a narrative-driven game that focused on the stories of eight distinct…
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Like a Dragon: Ishin is a spinoff of the Yakuza series, but it is also so much more than that, as we explore in this video. Yakuza films and samurai films have a long history in Japanese cinema, and they’re actually more closely related than many might think (thematically, at…
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There are three things I look forward to in a Yakuza game: Exceptional writing and storytelling, a vibrant and interesting open world (rare, given how dull and bloated most open worlds are), and an authentic setting that makes me homesick for Japan. Like A Dragon: Ishin! might not have “Yakuza”…
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With the release of Theatrhythm this week, I’ve found myself going through all my Final Fantasy CDs and setting up playlists on my iPhone. One of the reasons I love this series as much as I do is because of the music, so, while it’s fresh in my mind, I…
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