Kotaku East

Don’t Be Surprised if Tales Characters Appear in Smash Bros.

So Namco Bandai is making the new Smash Bros. games. Know what that means, don’t you? There’s a really good chance Namco characters will pop up in Smash Bros Tales director and producer Yoshito Higuchi tells The Official Nintendo Magazine that he would totally be happy if Tales characters appeared in Smash Bros. Of course…

Here Is the Future Computer World Japan Predicted in 1969

Computers are an important part of our lives. They have transformed the way we lived. Right now, we are living in the future. But what did that future look like in a 1960s Japanese children’s magazine? Like this. In 1969, Shonen Sunday published a series of articles called “Computopia”. They depicted how computers would be…

Dragon Quest X Plays Like a Co-op Final Fantasy XII

While doing our Kotaku East live stream of Dragon Quest X last week, the most common question I got was “What is the battle system like when you’re in a group?” Well, at that time, I was just starting out and had yet to get a full group going. However, since then I have spent…

Sony trademarked two new games: Rain and Until Dawn. Go ahead, imagine the trailers IN YOUR MIND.

The Playable Races of Dragon Quest X

One of the staples of MMORPGs is the ability to choose the race of your character in addition to his or her class. In this, Dragon Quest X is no different. There are six playable races in DQX. Some of these are completely new, others are found in thousands of different fantasy works. However, one…

Who Needs Manga When There’s Cosplay?

It’s August. For Japanese otaku, the month means that the biannual Comic Market, AKA “Comiket”, is right around the corner. The event is an opportunity for amateur and pro manga artists to sell their limited edition, self-produced creations. In the last few years, cosplay has become a bigger part of Comiket. It isn’t just the…

Dragon Quest X now has twice the servers after Square Enix added servers 21-40 earlier today. Level up!

Paper Evangelion Lantern Lights Up a Japanese Shrine

Spotted at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, the most important Shinto shrine in Kamakura, here is a paper lantern that features an Evangelion Unit-08, the latest Eva unit slated to appear in upcoming anime Evangelion 3.0 Evangelion 3.0 director Hideaki Anno drew this Eva Unit-08 as part of the shrine’s “Bonbori Festival” (“bonbori” is a Japanese lamp with…

When Anime Boobs and Baby Dingalings Must Be Changed

Ask any anime fan, and they’ll tell you: cartoons in Japan are different from their localized counterparts. Last night on Japanese TV, the issue was explored for the Japanese viewing public, who was surprised to learn that English language versions of anime are edited. The show was Sekai Marumie! (世界まる見え！ or “The World Exposed!”), which…

Forget the Booth Companion Insanity, What Makes this Game Expo Are the Gamers

Every year over the past decade, China Joy has been delighting video game fans in and outside of China. The most memorable parts of the show that are caught on camera often focused on the booth companions and some times the games. What gets left behind by all the glitz and glam of China Joy…

This Is the Olympics of Cosplay

Just as the Olympics in London kicked into high gear, the annual World Cosplay Championships came to a close on August 5. The event, which drew participants from twenty countries, duke it out in colorful outfits for the title of cosplay champ. Held every year in Nagoya, 2012 saw new countries, such as the UK,…

China Bans TV Shows Based On MMOs

Currently Chinese TV viewers (myself included) have very limited options when it comes to what to watch. The government run China Central Television (CCTV) currently offers 22 channels of mindless drivel, revisionist historical dramas. The other twenty-odd provincial Satellite channels only offer mildly entertaining reality TV shows. But with the new guidelines that leaked out…

This Olympic Medal Winner Has a Dream. She Wants to Voice Video Games.

Twenty-one year-old Satomi Suzuki won two medals at the London Olympics: a silver for the 200m breaststroke and a bronze for the 100m breaststroke (she also scored a team bronze medal for the relay). Winning three medals is the stuff of dreams. But Suzuki, has another dream entirely. She wants to voice video game and…

Man Sells Family Fortune To Play MMO, Then Claims He Was Robbed

A Chinese man in the northern Shandong province of China sold off 38 kilograms worth of gold bars to fund his online gaming habit. In order to explain why the family fortune was suddenly missing, he went to the police to report that he was robbed. Midday on July 30th, the man, surnamed Yan, reported…

First Look at the New BlazBlue

Here’s the latest entry in the BlazBlue fighting game series. It’s called BlazBlue: Chronophantasma and features new characters Amane Nishiki, Bullet, and Azrael as well as new moves for your favorite BlazBlue characters. Chronophantasma begins arcade location tests in Tokyo this month, and it will be released at game centers across Japan this winter.

Why Eating Sushi Off a Naked Person Is a Bad Idea

Nyotaimori— often translated as “female body arrangement”—is the practice of eating sushi off a woman’s naked body. It is not mainstream in Japan by any stretch. Yet, as sister site Jezebel points out, the tradition survives in the West. During the 1990s, thanks to Hollywood movies like Rising Sun and a flurry of media coverage,…

If You Don’t Use Your Dragon Quest X Character Online, It’ll Get Erased

Unlike previous Dragon Quest games, Dragon Quest X is an online MMO. So far, the game’s online experience has been surprisingly painless. But here’s one thing that some players *might* find painful. According to Square Enix, if you do not log in for online play for over three months, it’s possible that the game’s server…

How a Judo Olympian Spawned an Anime Meme

Nearly a week ago, Japan’s Kaori Matsumoto took Olympic gold after defeating UK judoka Sarah Clarke Romanian judoka Corina Caprioriu. Matsumoto’s spirited judo and her ensuing Olympic win have spawned a meme online in Japan that compares the gold medal winner to Neon Genesis Evangelion Unit 01—the unit piloted by Eva hero Shinji Ikari. This…

Samurai Meets Star Wars in a More Civilized Boba Fett Helmet

Samurai. Skyrim. Or even ancient Mayan prophecies. Star Wars helmets are fertile ground for artistic reinterpretation. But now, it’s all for a cause that’s bigger than simply awesome art. The As You Wish Helmet Project is a charity art endeavor that features over 40 reworked Boba Fett and Clone Trooper helmets to be auctioned off,…

Can Someone Put This Dam in a Video Game? Please?

Video games have the ability to take us, well, anywhere. We can visit other planets, we can visit destinations far away, and we can even travel back in time. I’d like to go here. Here is the Irganai Dam in Dagestan, Russia—the largest derivational hydroelectric power station in the country. Construction on the plant began…