Kotaku East

If Playing Animal Crossing is as Boring as Watching the Movie, I’m Out

This past week saw the Western release of Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the 3DS. Despite having never played an Animal Crossing game myself—largely due to its part in the most heartbreaking gaming tale I have ever heard—I decided it would be fun to sit down and watch the 2006 Animal Crossing anime film. This…

This Game’s DLC Lets You Hit Level 99 In An Hour

I’ve already talked a bit about how hard Shin Megami Tensei IV was on the default difficulty—and how the game makes you humiliate yourself in order to switch to easy mode. But if even easy mode is still too much for you, you can always download the first DLC dungeon. It completely breaks the game.…

Brock from Pokémon Can Drive, Pilot, or Operate Almost Anything

Remember Brock from the Pocket Monsters anime? He left the series a few years back to go be a Pokémon Doctor, but can still lives on in our hearts as the dude who can operate nearly anything put in front of him. That includes rockets. And drawbridges. Recently on 2ch, Japan’s largest online forum, an…

UPDATE: Chinese Man Forgets Wife And Child At Temple To Visit Arcade

A woman and her three-month-old child were sighted crying at the gates of the Confucius Temple in Nanjing last week. The reason why the woman was so distraught was because she had lost her husband and couldn’t find him anywhere. Reported byJiangsu China, a local printed version of the Xinhua news agency, the young mother…

Update: It’s a Hoax! Alien Invasion In China? Man Claims To Have Electrocuted an Alien

Chinese microblogs are abuzz today after pictures appeared on Sina Weibo, of a Chinese man claiming to have found an alien. That’s right, one Chinese man claims to have found an alien! First pointed to us by our good friends at the Shanghaiist, the extraterrestrial was discovered by a Mr. Li in Binzhou Shangdong province.…

My Afternoon At Beijing’s Nonexistent Game Conference

Last Thursday, the annual China New Generation Cyber Game Industries Expo was held in Beijing. The expo was meant to show off the latest in China’s ever expanding online gaming industry. The only problem was…the event didn’t happen. Last Thursday, I had met a contact for lunch in Beijing. After lunch we had planned to…

The Tales of The Abyss Anime Captures the Heart of the Game

This past weekend marked the yearly celebration of all things Tales with Tales of Festival 2013. I had such a good time that after coming back from the event I decided to sit down and watch the anime adaptation of my favorite game in the series: Tales of the Abyss And while it is not…

Stephen Hawking: Devil Summoner

For decades, Stephen Hawking has been one of the world’s most famous scientists. But despite that, I wasn’t expecting him to make an appearance in a game about capturing devils. While not actually named “Stephen Hawking,” Shin Megami Tensei IV’s STEVEN is about as close to being the man as you can be without inviting…

Japanese Fans Weigh in on Their Favorite Tales Games

This past weekend in Yokohama, 25,000 Japanese fans gathered for Tales of Festival 2013 over the course of two days. And since the conversation at an event like this turns to all things Tales, we at Kotaku East decided to give voice to a few fans about their favorite Tales games and more. As you’ll…

The World of Dragon’s Dogma is Going Portable (But Not The Action)

Okay, so it’s not actually a handheld port of Dragon’s Dogma. Capcom has announced Dragon’s Dogma Quest for the PS Vita: A 2D “network compatible RPG” set in the Dragon’s Dogma world. Dragon’s Dogma Quest will be available free to download. Basic gameplay will also be for free, but there will be purchasable in-game items.…

Tales of Festival was Four Hours of Pure Joy For Fans

Each year, Bandai-Namco holds a giant Tales-centric event in Yokohama. This year’s, Tales of Festival 2013, had nearly 12,000 fans in attendance each day. With concerts, new game announcements, and an array of voice actors from across the games, it was an unbelievably entertaining way to spend four hours. On the second day of the…

How Shin Megami Tensei IV Stripped Me of My “Gamer Pride”

Like a lot of gamers out there, I take a lot of pride in my skill at video games—perhaps too much. At this point in my life, I’ve been playing video games for close to two-and-a-half decades. Somewhere in my late teens, I decided that I had to master the games I played, not just…

Now You can Buy a Tales Towel… With a Hood!

This past weekend at Tales of Festival 2013, Bandai-Namco displayed an impressive amount of merchandise. Some of it was sold at the event or in stores, other items were prototype items for merchandise scheduled to be released in the coming year. There were posters, programs, wall scrolls, post cards, and T-shirts. There were all kinds…

Defence Of The Diaoyu Islands, Chinese Newspaper Style

Chinese media company Global Times is a controversial company. They publish a lot of ridiculous articles, slideshows and videos. They’re prone to making mistakes, particularly when it comes to Japan. Despite all their issues, there is one thing that they’re doing that no other major Chinese news outlet is doing, they’re hosting video games. On…

In China, There Are Too Many Giant Rubber Duck Rip-Offs

The world-famous Rubber Duck art installation is spawning a slew of imitators in China. This weekend, at least ten fake ducks appeared across the country in what could only be called a quack up. Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman created the original 54-foot-tall inflatable sculpture, which has been displayed in Amsterdam, Osaka, Sydney, and more recently,Hong…

Chinese Health Study: Video Games Making Children Dumb

China has released various studies in the past about the adverse effects of video games on the development of young people. Over the weekend the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Wuhan, Hubei province released a report showing that more than half the city’s teenagers have less understanding about life and death than primary school…

To help get players interested in Dead or Alive, Tecmo Koei is also releasing Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate as a freemium “base pack”, Siliconera reports. There will be a handful of playable characters and a free online mode included. Story mode and more characters will be available for a fee. To contact the author…

Parents Donate Dead Gamer Son’s Organs To Save Sick Patients

We’ve seen this story many times; a Chinese gamer partakes in a grueling marathon of Internet gaming and then passes away. These stories rarely have a good ending. But for five people in Guangzhou, China, the untimely death of one young man means a new life. Reported on Sunday by the New Express paper, 18…

Truly Surreal Paintings of Japanese Celebrities

Forget canvases. Forget dull poses. Forget all that. That’s exactly what artist Hikaru Cho is doing, so you should, too. Here, you are looking at Beat Takeshi—well, a painting of Beat Takeshi. In case you are not familiar with Takeshi, he’s a famous movie director, actor, and comedian. He also starred in a notoriously difficult…

Expect more about Bayonetta 2 in next Nintendo Direct, hints Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya via TwitterUPDATE: Never mind. It turns out this is a generic response Kamiya gives to lots of questions; no news. The next Nintendo Direct kicks off June 11 am at 10am EST.