Over the course of this generation in gaming, more than a few Nintendo-published Wii titles have never made it outside of Japan—despite it being the best-selling console of the generation. One of these unfortunate titles is Kiki Trick, a video game based completely around listening. Somewhat resembling music title Rhythm Heaven in both style and…
Over the last week as I have spent more and more time with Bravely Default: Flying Fairy—a Final Fantasy in all but name—I have found myself thinking about the classic Final Fantasies and how they compare with the most modern non-MMO iteration, Final Fantasy XIII. When I first played FFXIII, many months before it came…
I vividly remember watching the Nintendo press conference right before the Tokyo Game Show in 2011 where they announced Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. I remember because I could not stop laughing for a good ten minutes after I saw the nonsensical title pop across my screen. I dismissed the game based on its name alone…
As I’ve said before, I was a fan of the Valkyria Chronicles series from the moment I first saw its debut trailer. Not only was it beautiful but also it got me, a man who never liked strategy games growing up, to spend countless hours on them. I love the series (though VC2 has more…
Last week we at Kotaku East showed you how to play Valkyria Chronicles 3, even if you don’t understand Japanese, using a collection of translations and guides from across the internet. Of course, for the more patient of you—or just those who want everything translated and in one simple package—there is another option, if you’re…
With just under two weeks until the release of the newest Evangelion movie, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, we at Kotaku East are taking a look back at the previous films in the Rebuild of Evangelion series. When I talked about my history with Evangelion a week or so back, I mentioned my dislike…
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is Square Enix’s newest RPG on the 3DS; and while it may technically be a new IP, it shares a lot in common with the famous JRPGs of yore. The gameplay is your typical turn-based system, but with one new twist: the “brave” and “default” system. By selecting “default” on your…
Historical fiction is one of those concepts that gaming handles best. Whether it’s Einstein building a time machine to kill Hitler or assassins battling Templars in the Renaissance, gaming alone among popular media allows people to interact with a world both familiar yet radically different from our own. Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best…
In the year-and-a-half since the Japanese release of Valkyria Chronicles 3, it’s become painfully apparent that it will not be leaving Japanese shores–at least in the foreseeable future. If you are one of the many fans of the series dying to play the newest Valkyria Chronicles, fear not! You are not alone. Thanks to the…
From the moment I laid eyes on the first Valkyria Chronicles’ trailer, I knew it would be a game I would love–for the art style, if nothing else. As it turned out, the graphics, while as beautiful as I had expected, were only one part of a great game. The plot was excellent, the setting…
As it stands, Valkyria Chronicles 3 is perhaps the most infamous of last generation’s games to never get an international release. However, Valkyria Chronicles 3 isn’t the only Valkyria Chronicles game never to leave Japanese shores. Valkyria Chronicles D (the “D” stands for “Duel”) is a browser-based/iOS game released on July 26, 2012, in Japan.…
Consider this a look back. Valkyria Chronicles 3 is one of the most infamous of last generation’s Japan-Only PSP titles. After the moderate success of the previous two games in the series around the world, it is surprising that the latest iteration never left Japan. But whatever the reason it was never picked up for…
009 Re:Cyborg is a new anime film based on Cyborg 009 by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama, the director of Blood: The Last Vampire and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Based on those previous works, I went into the movie expecting a military-related story that explored what it…
Project X Zone is a new strategy RPG that takes famous characters from Capcom, Namco-Bandai and Sega franchises and combines them all into one mega-crossover adventure. There are characters from everything from Sakura Wars to Darkstalkers. But this crossover gimmick is far from all there is to the game and it easily holds its own…
Tales of Xillia is a great game—perhaps the best JRPG on the PlayStation 3. It was the second best-selling PS3 game in Japan last year (ninth best-selling in Japan overall), with 660,000 copies sold. And in a country where anything over 100,000 copies sold is considered a financial success, Tales of Xillia was a run-away…
What roleplaying games have that separates them from other types of games is their focus on story more than gameplay. And with this deep exploration of the story comes a game far longer than other genres. While you will spend an average of ten hours on most single-player titles, RPGs can easily last triple that…
Thanks to the surprise popularity of Macross Frontier, the Macross franchise has been riding a wave of popularity for the last five years. However, as popular as Macross Frontier is, the longest series in the franchise was 1994’s Macross 7 (52 episodes, a movie, and an OVA). So this year, as part of Macross‘ 30th…
This last week I picked up the Capcom/Namco-Bandai/Sega mega crossover Project X Zone. The game sports characters from Space Channel 5, Resident Evil, and Tales of Vesperia, just to name a few. But nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for the utter and complete insanity of this game. Read on to see…
Project X Zone is a game that combines many of Capcom, Sega, and Namco-Bandai’s most famous franchises into one mega crossover—including series like Street Fighter, Valkyria Chronicles 3, and Tekken, among many others. On the battle map, it’s like most strategy games. On your turn, you move your characters around a grid-based map and attack…
Tokitowa is an ambitious game. It mixes sprite-based anime graphics with a 3D world, has dating sim elements, and debuts a unique battle system—all in the same package. Moreover, all these elements are tied together with a complex, time travel narrative. But is Tokitowa able to pull all these different elements into a complete, polished,…
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