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.
Bandai Namco unveiled the second title in its anime soulslike property, Code Vein II, during all the announcements and “Direct” game shows last week. Just recently they sat us down to watch (sadly, not play) a small snippet of the game and it is looking pretty impressive. It’s hard to try and co-exist in a genre that has Elden Ring…
It’s incredible to think that Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is 13 years old at this point. It feels like it was just yesterday that it was turning heads as a new spin on the JRPG genre and a brilliant homage to Final Fantasy in particular (Flying Fairy as the subtitle…
To put this review very simply: The Nintendo Switch is my favourite…
It’s been a difficult few years for Level-5, from the highs of…
“These days, because technology in graphics have advanced as far as they have, you have this very clear contrast between graphics that are almost photorealistic and those that really lean into the side of animation. I feel like there’s less of a middle ground as it were, and you’ve really…
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NOTE: THIS RECORDING STARTS ABOUT 5 MINUTES AFTER THE BROADCAST: You’ll hear me trying to figure out something at the very start. I had the most horrible sound feedback at the start of the broadcast last night, so this video had been edited to remove that bit. The rest of…
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November is traditionally the biggest month for releases in the year, and 2022 is no different. There will be a lot of stuff released for your gaming pleasure this month, so the big question is… what will you be playing? Will it be the next Pokemon, the new God of…
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It’s getting so close now! Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (known as Fatal Frame in America) was the fourth game in the series, but previously only available in Japan for the Wii. Koei Tecmo is finally remedying that, and you’ll be able to play it on PS4, PS5,…
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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 you to be transgressive,…
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Welcome to the month’s podcast, everyone! As always we’ve got a great show to share with you this month. We kick things off by discussing all the big releases happening in November (there’s a lot). Then we chat about sequels, and specifically, what is the best approach to take. Should…
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Japanese horror tradition is more about tragedy than violence. Whether it’s the yurei (ghost) stories of old, the modern horror of The Ring or Ju-On, or games like Yomawari here, the focus isn’t on giving you big monsters to slay bloodily. Nor is it torture porn, and focused on inflicting…
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Taiwanese publisher/developer, Softstar, is best known for being a rising global force with its RPGs. Sword & Fairy and Xuan-Yuan Sword are rapidly gaining prestige worldwide (and with good reason, too). There’s more to the “Square Enix of Taiwan”, though. Softstar is also the company behind the Richman series of…
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Star Ocean is such a wonderful series, bringing together very classical fantasy JRPG action with science fiction space drama. After a SIX year wait, we finally have a new one, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force is a real return to form for the series. In addition to the full,…
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Star Ocean acts as something akin to the “b-tier” for Square Enix. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are, of course, the big guns, but this series is not insignificant. It’s been around for 25 years now, and The Divine Force is the sixth of the main series entries. I’ll tell…
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