Fans of MAGES. have not seen a new IP from the developer in nearly three years, but that will change in August with the launch of eye-catching visual novel Iwakura Aria. The game launched for Nintendo Switch about a year ago in Japan, making its Western PC release is the first time it is available on that platform. Its dark,…
Nearly a year ago, PQube announced it would publish otome crime-solving cinematic visual novel Bustafellows season2 in the West in 2025. And it is making good on that promise! The sequel to Bustafellows (which DDNet Editor-in-Chief Matt describes as being right up there with the best crime fiction works he’s…
Him, The Smile & Bloom is a surprisingly “innovative” otome, at least…
Last month, PQube announced that it will bring Iwakura Aria to Western…
Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s weekly catch-up news feature, the catch-up coffee. With each issue I will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!…
Read More
Curse of the Sea Rats is a cute concept that needs to compete in a badly over-saturated genre. I’m now at the point where seeing “Metrodvania” in press materials will make me groan. Not only because the term itself has, like with the roguelike, lost almost all meaning from its…
Read More
Visual novel ghostpia Season One is described much like other visual novels: it’s a movie you can read. The genre gets a lot of heat from “gamers” for being boring and having no action, but I quite love them. There’s something cozy about visual novels, even the most horrific ones.…
Read MorePQube and developer, Crazy Goat Games, have announced that its Heroes of Might & Magic-like, The Dragoness: Command of the Flame, is coming to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch this year. This is a game that we actually previewed last year, and walked away with a…
Read More
Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent is a game that seems to have a lot of promise. Unfortunately, the launch in Japan hasn’t set the world ablaze, but perhaps PQube will be able to turn it around with the Western localisation. The game is one of those immediately recognisable grid-based JRPGs,…
Read More
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School has proven to be quite the enduring horror property. Remakes and remasters of this thing have been appearing on consoles, phones and PCs since its original release way back in 2001. And now it’s on Nintendo Switch. Perhaps the best platform for it of…
Read More
A deluge of Harvest Moon/Rune Factory/Stardew Valley-likes have come out of nowhere, but there really has been a lot of them in recent months. Perhaps it is something cultural. Perhaps developers are observing an increasingly tired and agitated community around them as the ongoing terrors of climate change, pandemics and…
Read MoreContracts are a tricky thing, especially for indies. On the one hand, having a publisher can be enormously beneficial, as they provide resources, marketing, PR and more. More than a few indies would never have had hit games were it not for the support of a publisher. But there’s a…
Read More“Princess Maker-likes,” like Lair Land Story, are a niche within a niche, but it’s a genre that can be oddly compelling. They’re spreadsheet simulators, in which 90 per cent of the game involves carefully managing a girl’s development by carefully selecting her daily activities. But while that might sound dull,…
Read MoreIt’s an immersive storytelling atmosphere brought together with a calligraphic art style. This is how I’d describe Labyrinth of Zangestu, an up-and-coming turn-based dungeon RPG currently in development by KaeruPanda. Sounds good, right? We’re keen too. This is a significant departure for the team, which was previously best known for…
Read More