The long awaited Final Fantasy Type-0 is coming to the West in its brand new HD-remastered form this coming March. This past Tuesday, Brian Ashcraft and I stopped by Square Enix HQ in Tokyo for some hands-on time with the game. Type-0 is an action RPG where you control a party of three characters you…
Final Fantasy Type-0 has long been one of Square Enix’s most anticipated games and the Tokyo Game Show 2014 trailer does a good job showing why. Final Fantasy Type-0 was originally released in Japan for the PSP on October 27, 2011. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD will be released in North America and Europe on March…
The third Keshin live-action film, Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends, hit Japanese theaters this past weekend. As good as the previous two films were, this one was even better—largely thanks to some of the most amazing sword-fighting action scenes ever put on film. Good – The God of Practical Action Scenes In both of the…
Back in the day, I bought Super Smash Bros. for the N64 on day one. In high school, Smash Bros. Melee was constantly hooked up to the TV of our dorm. So needless to say, I played a lot of Smash Bros. growing up. But for nearly 8 years, I haven’t touched it—until I picked…
Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS is out in Japan. So while you wait anxiously for the upcoming western release, join me as I once again steal the Saturday Morning Stream from Fahey’s cold dead hands to bring you Japanese import gaming action. Now keep in mind two things as you watch. While I…
We here at Kotaku are big fans of the High School death game/courtroom drama of Danganronpa. But the two games out right now are not the whole story. There is also a duology of prequel light novels called Danganronpa Zero. And if you enjoyed either of the games even a little, you really must read…
Ghost in the Shell Arise hit Japanese theaters once again this past weekend with its final episode: Ghost in the Shell Arise – Border:4 Ghost Stands Alone. Unfortunately, instead of a grand send-off wrapping up the whole series, Ghost Stands Alone is little more than another average Arise episode Good – Two Ghosts, One Shell…
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, sequel to Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 4 Arena, is a fighting game. However, unlike many fighting games, it comes with a robust story in the form of a 14-hour visual novel. And since we’ve looked at Ultimax as a fighting game already, it’s only fair we look at it…
Danganronpa 2 hit Western shelves this week, and while it has an English voice track, which fellow Kotaku author Kirk Hamilton tells me is “decent with a few standouts,” the Japanese voice cast is—let me assure you—an anime fan’s dream. Character: Hajime Hinata Is played by: Minami Takayama But you probably know her as: Conan…
Let’s be clear up front: Heavenly Sword is a downright terrible film. It is a cheap-looking mess of a movie that neither fans of the game nor series newcomers are likely to enjoy. Good – Some of the New Plot Points If the film does one thing right, it’s that it’s not afraid to change…
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax shares a lot with its predecessor Persona 4 Arena. When it comes down to the 2D fighting, they are largely the same game. However, outside of the fighting engine, there are a lot of new additions that make it worth playing—especially for Persona series fans. New Playable Characters Perhaps the biggest…
When I was a kid in the days of the original Street Fighter II, the plots in fighting games consisted of the instruction manual, the before battle/after battle one-liners, and a single picture at the end of the game—if that. Even then I wished for meatier plots in fighters; and over the years my wish…
While it has “Persona 4” in the title, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is really a sequel to Persona 3 as much as Persona 4—especially as Ultimax now includes every member of the Persona 3 main cast we are likely to get. [Spoiler Note: All the information in this article and the included videos are from…
At the start of the new live-action Lupin III film, Fujiko, seeing one of her fellow thieves avoid a pressure-sensitive museum floor by using a rocket pack, utters, “You’ve got to be joking”—which is more than a little apt as it was exactly what I kept saying again and again over the next two hours…
Remember the days when you would go to an arcade, put a quarter into the machine of your favorite fighting game, and wait for a challenger to walk up, put in his own coin and fight you? So it goes with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Ultimax comes with an online “Lobby” mode. For it, you…
Welp, I had so much fun two weeks back filling in for Fahey with the Saturday Morning Stream that I decided to do it again. Only this time, with the new Persona fighting game in my hot little hands, I just couldn’t wait till Saturday. So join me as I play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax…
You’ve seen live sporting events and live concerts. Now Japan brings you the world’s first “live anime,” Minarai Diva. Minarai Diva is the story of two idols in training: Ruri Aoi and Ui Harune. Over the course of each episode, they write lyrics to and even sing a newly completed song by the time it…
While the plot, setting, and characters may all be of Zelda lineage, make no mistake, when it comes to gameplay, this is a Dynasty Warriors game through and through. Good – Dynamic Battles In the game’s story mode, each battle begins with a simple main objective—usually something along the lines of killing the main enemy…
Everybody remember the Zelda rap? Well then, get ready for a drive down nostalgia lane where we are going to look at the history of the Zelda main series as told by its TV commercials. And while this is not all the Zelda commercials by any means, these peeks into the past, showing how the…
New anime music is one of the things I look most forward to each season. And as we have 44 new anime for the summer season, we also have 44 new openings and endings—not to mention the new second-half themes from last season’s anime that are still on the air. So below are some of…
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