Kotaku: Fantasy

Angry Birds, Infinity Blade, Fruit Ninja, and Pan’s Labyrinth Converge in The Dark Meadow

Mike Fahey — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EDT

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Combining the slingshot controls of Angry Birds, the swordplay of Fruit Ninja, the gorgeous Unreal Engine-powered graphics of Infinity Blade, and the dark fairytale them of the film Pan's Labyrinth, The Dark Meadow is the sort of iOS game nightmares are made of. More »

Game of Thrones cast talks dragons, puppet wolves, and the Khal Drogo dance. Plus, the scene George R.R. Martin doesn't want to watch.

Lauren Davis — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:30:00 EDT

Game of Thrones cast talks dragons, puppet wolves, and the Khal Drogo dance. Plus, the scene George R.R. Martin doesn't want to watch." alt="Click here to read Game of Thrones cast talks dragons, puppet wolves, and the Khal Drogo dance. Plus, the scene George R.R. Martin doesn't want to watch." src="http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/images/9/2011/07/small_gotcast.jpg"/>

George R.R. Martin teased and quizzed the Game of Thrones cast in a panel at Comic-Con yesterday. The cast shared their greatest GoT challenges and favorite scenes, the creators hinted at what's ahead, and Martin revealed the moment he won't watch on television. More »

Yes, Female Armour is Somewhat Inadequate

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 01:00:00 EDT

While this clip was minted with fantasy clichés in general in mind, seeing as video games draw from them (and are as guilty of perpetuating them) as anything else, this is still highly relevant. More »

From Hairless Hitmen to Heiress Heroines, This is Square Enix's E3 2011 Lineup

Mike Fahey — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:40:00 EDT

Square Enix's booth at E3 is going to be a total sequel fest this year, with new franchise entries for Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, Dungeon Siege and Deus Ex. Are they bringing any games that aren't sequels, prequels, or reboots? More »

The Quantum Thief: An Excerpt

Hannu Rajaniemi — Mon, 23 May 2011 10:00:00 EDT

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The Quantum Thief, released in the UK last year and in the U.S. this month, is a heist story set in a future of marching cities, ubiquitous public-key encryption, people communicating by sharing memories, and a race of hyper-advanced humans who originated as massively multiplayer online role-playing game guild members. More »

Taking The Cosplay Too Far: Surgically Altered Elf Ears

Mike Fahey — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 13:20:00 EDT

Elves are sexy. Vulcans are sexy. Pointy ears in general are sexy, but not so sexy that we'd carve ourselves up to get them. ABC News reports on the latest fad among young adults, getting your ear cartilage cut open and sewn into points. More »

Rift Combats Massive Player Influx With Massive Server Additions

Mike Fahey — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:20:00 EST

Response to Trion World's MMO Rift has been overwhelming, with the 17 servers allocated to North America for last week's head start blossoming into 39 to combat long login queues. The game launches tomorrow, with more servers on the way. More »

A Real-Time Strategy Game Of Thrones

Mike Fahey — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:20:00 EST

The bloody conflict in the Kingdom of Westeros comes to life in the first screens of A Game of Thrones: Genesis, the real-time strategy game based on acclaimed fantasy author George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. More »

All Strategy Gaming Needed Was A Little World Of Warcraft

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:30:00 EST

You like fantasy, right? You like strategy gaming, right? You like questing with other humans over the internet, right? More »

When Mega Man Meets The Dark Ages

Mike Fahey — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 16:00:00 EDT

CGHUB's CharacterFORGE challenged artists to redesign Mega Man heroes and villains in the vein of dark age fantasy characters, and the results so far are truly epic. See if you can tell which character is represented in these pics. More »

Square Enix Keeps Answering Possible Final Fantasy VII Remake Questions

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:00:00 EST

Because, well, people keep asking Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase about it. And since he's a polite guy, he keeps answering those questions. Aw, that's nice of him! More »

Square Enix Promise To Be More Timely With Future Western Releases

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:00 EST

Square Enix are known for two things: Final Fantasy, and massive delays for games released in the West. The former isn't going to be changing anytime soon, but the latter just might be! More »

Free Dark Elves In Every Blood Bowl

Mike Fahey — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:40:00 EDT

The PC adaptation of the Games Workshop board game that put the fantasy in fantasy football is getting a free dose of hot Dark Elf action next month. More »

Dressing Up In Pangya PSP

Mike Fahey — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:20:00 EDT

Tomy takes us through some of the multifarious ways you can dress up your adorable anime golfers in the upcoming Pangya: Fantasy Golf for the PlayStation Portable. More »

Remembering Final Fantasy VIII

Mike Fahey — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:20:00 EDT

PopMatters recently posted an extremely in-depth look back at Final Fantasy VIII, exploring the themes, emotions, and insight into human behavior that make one of the most neglected entries in the franchise great. More »

Square-Enix Brings Toys, Not Games, To NYCC

Jim Reilly — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:00:00 EST

While the rest of the other video game publishers at the NYCC brought video games for fans to check out, Square-Enix brought lots and lots of toys. No playable demos. No trailers. Just toys. More »

High Quality In-Game Final Fantasy XIII Gameplay Images

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:00:00 EST

While these Famitsu images themselves are not brand new, the high quality scans of them are. They're the best FFXIII images you'll get until Square Enix releases them officially. More »

I'm So Sorry - If Oblivion Was a Music Video

Mike Fahey — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:30:00 EST

I tried my best to avoid ever sharing this epic creation by Chris Dane Owens, but someone at Bethesda thinks it's a good representation of what Oblivion would look like as a music video. More »

The Making of Dwarf Fortress

Maggie Greene — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:30:27 EST

Gamasutra has a lengthy (10 page) but interesting interview up with Tarn Adams, the programmer behind Dwarf Fortress. The interview touches on a lot of issues: the history of Dwarf Fortress and how it came to be, game mechanics, the follow that's sprung up in the game's wake ... More »

FF I & II PSP Dated For Europe

Mike Fahey — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:40:55 EST

If you really wanted them, you'd have already bought them. Square Enix has announced the European release date for the PSP remakes of the first two Final Fantasy games. Previous slated for a general Q1 2008 release, they've narrowed it down to the 24 hour period the calendar likes to call February 8th. The remake of the first game is probably the best time I've had playing it since the original on the NES, with the updated graphics and snazzy wide screen presentation adding a protective layer of freshness that keeps the antiquated gamelpay from going stale. As I mentioned previously, the beauty of the region-free PSP pretty much steals the wind from this announcement's sails. As I discovered when the Europe-only version of Tales of Eternia was released, importers are your friends, and I'm sure the English-speaking Europeans already jumped on these. Good news for those who don't read English perhaps, but then they wouldn't understand this post anyway. More »

Garriott's New Playhouse

Mike Fahey — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:10:59 EDT

While the majority of last night's Tabula Rasa event took place at Britannia Manor MK II, the festivities came to an end at the site of Britainnia Manor MK III, Richard Garriott's new Texas castle, 10 years in the making. During a gap in the presentation, Garriott took some time to explain why his new house is going to be an 8 year-old's wet dream. First off is the tower, which is pictured here. Excuse the darkness of the shot, but it was taken at nearly 1AM by a large sweaty man wearing a hard hat. The five story tower will form the central point in the sprawling manor, and will consist of an observatory at the top, planetarium underneath it, and a giant room-sized elevator that travels the bottom three floors. More »

Clip: Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings Gameplay Trailer

fdemarco — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Here we have #9 in a series of FF XII Revenant Wings gameplay trailers. The game looks like it will fall right in line with all the other excellent FF titles we've had thus far. Being new to the whole Final Fantasy milieu, I'm finding that I enjoy the handheld titles better than their console counterparts. Especially Final Fantasy X2. God, I hated that game... Flynn De Marco More »

The Masters of Fantasy Art Exhibition

Mike Fahey — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 13:40:51 EST

If you've ever played a pen and paper RPG or read a D&D based fantasy novel, odds are you've seen Keith Parkinson's work. One of the greatest fantasy artists of our times, Parkinson also did covers for many computer games, including Everquest and its first three expansions, and was a founding member of Vanguard creator Sigil Games. Sadly Keith passed away in 2005 due to Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. In his honor, Sony Online Entertainment has now announced "The Masters of Fantasy Art - A Tribute to Keith Parkinson", an exhibition that will be featured at Art Institutes in five major U.S. cities between now and the end of July, starting in San Francisco. More »

Interview With Akitoshi Kawazu, Final Fantasy XII Producer

Jason Chen — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:40:01 EST

Want to know about the guy who produced the game you're going to lose 60 hours of your life to? Head on over to Eurogamer, where they've got an interview with Akitoshi Kawazu, whose last FF game was FF II on the NES. He explains the change to the battle system: More »

Gandalf Vs. Darth Vader

lsmith — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:36:30 EDT

It's really not so sinister as the white wizard clashing with the Dark Lord of the Sith, but Terra Nova is trying to figure out why so many virtual worlds feature magic. The best hypotheticals in the snippet: "But still, why magic rather than technology or the supernatural or even history? All of them can easily separate the real from the imagined without distracting the player. Why magic?" More »