Heather Alexandra

The soundtrack to Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers is now live for digital download on iTunes. Masayoshi Soken’s score offers some of this year’s most powerful moments, and it well worth grabbing if you’re a fan of Final Fantasy XIV or good music in general.

Twenty Years Later, Chrono Cross Remains A Musical Masterpiece

I’m playing Greedfall right now and enjoying myself in spite of some misgivings. One thing I miss at the moment—and it’s something crucial to role-playing games—is a solid musical score. There’s moments of rousing action music, but it’s very limited. That got me thinking: What RPG has the best music? The answer is simple: It’s…

Some Of Monster Hunter World‘s New Gear Sure Is Ugly

Monster Hunter World’s latest expansion, Iceborne, is a massive addition to the base game. It adds tons of new monsters and brings back old favorites. That also means new armor, and while plenty of it looks badass, a few pieces are bafflingly terrible. Iceborne offers a lot of good armor sets. The Master Rank Tobi-Kadachi…

Farewell Is A Fitting Goodbye To The World Of Celeste

Celeste is as perfect a platformer as has ever been made. Its mixture of charming visuals, fantastic music, and challenging levels added up to one of 2018’s best games. That seemed to be the end of it; the story was over, the mountain was climbed. But a final epilogue chapter, added this week, brings a…

Put on your funny hats. I’m playing Greedfall with my good pal Paul Tamayo right now on Twitch Come join chat to talk BioWare RPGs, pirate ships, and more! 

Ten Hours In, Greedfall‘s Detailed Role-Playing Can’t Make Up For Its Unpleasant Setting

I have not enjoyed playing Greedfall, the latest role-playing game by Spiders. That’s not because it is a poor experience in terms of how it plays. Greedfall offers a BioWare-esque adventure with branching quests, companion characters, and exploration. Greedfall frustrates me because it’s a game of half-measures. In the nearly 10 hours that I have…

Jump, dash, double jump! Chris and me are hopping into Celeste’s bonus chapter nine right now on Twitch. Come join chat and we’ll talk about life, mountain-climbing, and more!

The Sega Dreamcast Changed My Life

Today is the 20th anniversary of the U.S. release of the Dreamcast, so we thought it was appropriate to reshare this piece on the console’s legacy that originally ran September 9th, 2016. The Sega Dreamcast was released 17 years ago today in the United States. A console defined by experimental games and features far ahead…

What To Know Before You Start Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Monster Hunter World’s newest expansion Iceborneis huge. There’s a whole new tier of monsters to face, a whole new catalogue of armor to craft. But if you’re returning after a long absence or hopping in for the first time, you won’t be able to play Iceborne right away. The good news is that there are…

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne: The Kotaku Review

2018’s Monster Hunter: World was a successful update to the long-running beast-slaying series. Fully functioning ecosystems and updated combat crafted an experience where each battle was a unique challenge even after hundreds of hours. World’s latest expansion, Iceborne, is massive. Building up a solid framework, it brings dozens of new monsters and ups the difficulty…

Why It Matters That Star Wars Jedi Knight Is Coming To Switch

2002’s Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and 2003’s Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy are coming to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. These games have been available through Steam and GOG, but plenty of players missed out back in the day. A whole new generation of Jedi will get to experience these…

Where is my DRAGONATOR?! Heather and Paul are braving the frozen wastes in Monster Hunter World’s latest expansion, Iceborne, right now on Twitch Join us in the chat!

Playing World Of Warcraft For The First Time Ever Is Wonderful

World of Warcraft Classic is allowing tons of dedicated and longtime fans to relive the early days of their favorite game. For someone like me who never had any experience with World of Warcraft, it’s a different sort of time capsule. It’s strange to be a total newbie to one of the biggest games in history,…

PlayStation 3 servers for Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, and The Last of Us will be disabled tomorrow. Most players have long since moved on to the PS4, but if you’re eager to enjoy some fun multiplayer modes consider logging in today for one last time.

I Keep Quitting Dragon Quest XI Thanks To Its Atrocious Music

Ever since my friend and Kotaku comrade in arms Tim Rogers reviewed Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age last year with glowing praise, I’ve been trying desperately to play it. The combat is snappy, the world is gorgeous, and the prospect of a sweeping story excites me. But every time I play, I…

This Cute Kaiju Rampage Is The Best Dreams Level I’ve Played So Far

There’s plenty of games about fighting and hunting monsters, but not enough games about being a monster and smashing things up. Thankfully there’s Dreams, the incredible creative game that’s led to everything from serialized puppet shows to playable Final Fantasy VII Remake battles. Some intrepid Dreams players have even teamed up to make the perfect…

It’s Final Fantasy XIV patch day and it’s all about buffs! Ninjas are getting much needed love and Samurai attacks have tons of potency increases. Arcanist and Summoners have changes to how Ruin works too. You can read all the changes here.

Ahoy! Gita and I are playing Man of Medan, a spooky game by the creators of Until Dawn, right now on Twitch! Come join chat to talk about ghoul, wendigos, fashion, and what you had for lunch.

Control‘s Clever Combat Tweaks Make Every Fight Feel Fresh

Control mixes Remedy’s signature quirkiness with mind-bending architecture and super-powered combat. One of the first things protagonist Jesse Faden does is find a transforming gun call the Service Weapon, a paranormal device with regenerating ammo and other tricks. It removes busywork from combat and makes each encounter exciting. In order to establish a solid rhythm,…

Final Fantasy XIV‘s Depiction Of The World Ending Is A Bit Too Real

To quote my 100% non-fictional friend Barret Wallace: “Planet’s dyin’, Cloud.” As our society feels closer and closer to an irrevocable change, as the Amazon rainforest burns and the ice caps continue to melt, I find the fragility of our world reflected in the narratives of my favorite games. Final Fantasy XIV’s latest expansion, Shadowbringers,…