Kotaku East

Kit-Kat Sandwiches! Japan Has Kit-Kat Sandwiches.

From the country with the most interesting Kit-Kat flavors, comes this: a Kit-Kat sandwich you can order at a fast food chain. Sure, why not? Though, I bet somewhere someone in a moment of snacking depravity has put Kit-Kats between bread. However, no fastfood chain has ever sold such madness to the masses. Until now.…

Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Final Fantasy XV Demo Too Much

This week, the Final Fantasy XV demo was released across the world to those who picked up Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. However, it’s important to remember that it is just a demo and not necessarily the same experience as the full game. I mean, look how much Final Fantasy XIII changed between its demo and…

First Look at the Naruto Stage Musical

Maybe it’s good! There’s a big difference between looking at stills and sitting in a theater and experiencing an actual Naruto musical. But for now, let’s look at photos. Actually, I’m not sure what to make of this. Some of the photos look kind of goofy. Then again, others look very cool. At least the…

Tales of Zestiria Takes a Cue from Classic Literature

Imagine if Don Quixote was a JRPG and the title character really was fighting giants while everyone else saw windmills. That game exists and it is Tales of Zestiria Tales of Zestiria is the story of Sorey, a young man who grew up not in a village of humans, but a village of the spirit-like…

Konami Pledges To Make More Metal Gear

The timing on this announcement is very, very interesting, don’t you think? I certainly do. Earlier this month, Hideo Kojima said Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain would be his final Metal Gear. Yesterday, it was discovered that Konami appeared to be erasing the Kojima brand from Metal Gear. There was concern that Kojima…

Hoax Alert: The Grandson of Sony’s President Didn’t Fry a Pistol

I’m not even sure that Sony President Kaz Hirai has a grandson or even a son for that matter. But I am certain that, despite Twitter claims, this is bullshit. In the photo, a young man is surrounded by girls who are pointed to the handgun he’s apparently fried in home economics class. It’s a…

Poll: Anime That Are Better Than the Original Manga

Often when you see an anime, you might think the original manga was better. But do you ever feel the reverse is true? That the anime is more interesting than the source material? A recent Japanese poll asked just that. According to website My Navi, five hundred adult men and women were asked which anime…

Get Rich Beating People Up in Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 rewards you for beating the crap out of street thugs and gangsters in the form of gobs of cash. Gobs and gobs of cash. The story of Yakuza 0 takes place in Japan in the 1980’s. History lesson time, kids! Back in the 80’s, Japan was enjoying an economic bubble the likes of…

Incredible Japanese Cardboard Creations 

Meet Monami Ohno. The art school grad excels at making highly detailed models and sculptures out of cardboard, whether that’s 1/1 scale cardboard guns, anime robots or model tanks. Ohno’s work has not gone unnoticed in Japan. She’s appeared on the evening news, in magazines, and on websites. She also holds workshops to teach her…

They’re Making A Yakuza Stage Play

They already had a live-action movie and a TV show, so I guess a stage adaptation was only a matter of time. Next month, Sega’s popular video game, Ryu ga Gotoku (龍が如く) – or as it’s better known in the west, Yakuza – will be getting a stage adaptation. The stage adaptation, which will be…

Today, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XI service for the PS2 and Xbox 360 will end in March 2016. However, it will continue for the PC version.

Final Fantasy XI Gets Smartphone Version and New Spin-Off [Updated]

With the amount of money smartphone games make, this shouldn’t be that surprising. But Square Enix is bringing a version of Final Fantasy XI to smartphones. It’s called Final Fantasy XI Mobile. There’s also a new FFXI spin-off title called Final Fantasy Grandmasters. Update: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Final Fantasy…

Drew Barrymore Knows How To Eat in Tokyo

If you ever need advice on what to eat in Tokyo, you can always ask Drew Barrymore. She sure knows. Recently, the actor and movie producer was in Tokyo and uploaded a series of photos of her culinary adventures to Instagram with the hashtag #tokyofoodtour. So! One morning, Barrymore’s breakfast looked like this. She had…

Spider Infestation Reminds People of Totoro

In the Studio Ghibli anime My Neighbor Totoro*, there is a scene in which the family moves into their new house and finds the attic crawling with soot sprites. This is kind of like that, but WITH SPIDERS. On popular Japanese blogs like My Game News Flash, the below video is reminding people of that…

To Make Attack on Titan ‘Real’ You Need Drones and AR

And a dancing Titan. Don’t forget that. It’s very important. YouTuber Kamo C uploaded this video, showing how augmented reality was used to create a 50-meter (164-foot) Colossal Titan. The animation isn’t Hollywood quality, but that’s okay, because the result is rather impressive. And large. A 10-meter (32.8 foot) AR marker and a drone was…

Burger King Perfume Coming to Japan. Apparently. 

And it seems the fragrance, which is dubbed “Flame-Grilled,” will be released only in Japan. On April 1st. Hang on a second… But wait, this is supposedly an actual product. According to Burger King Japan, April 1st is now “Whopper Day” in Japan. It’s not a national holiday (dammit!), but website Fashion Snap reports that…

Pokémon Fusions Continue to Make Dreams Reality

When you take two Pokémon and mix them together for something entirely new, that’s called Pokémon splicing or Pokémon fusion. And it makes for some wonderfully cool creations that cannot be found in the games. A few years back, Kotaku covered the resurgence of Pokémon splicing through website Pokémon Fusion as well as in these…

Square Enix honcho Yosuke Matsuda told Nikkei Trendy that the company had “a little surprise” to announce this year. When asked for details, Matsuda replied, “It’s not possible to say now, but it’s a JRPG and for home consoles.”

Dreamfall Chapters: Book Two Feels Like a Second Beginning

I just finished the second book of Dreamfall Chapters, yet I still feel like I am waiting for the story proper to get going. Book One: Reborn focused mostly on Zoe—her life inside the world of dreams and her life after waking up from her coma. Kian, the game’s other protagonist, was relegated to a…

Let’s Compare the Tales of Zestiria Anime to the Game

In late December 2014, a special anime covering the first hour or so of the then upcoming PlayStation 3 RPG Tales of Zesteria aired on Japanese TV. And while the game and anime counterpart both tell the same basic story, it’s interesting to see what is the same and what is different. Before we start,…