Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s Director On Localization Changes: ‘I Didn’t Mind Much At All’ 

In the heated ongoing conversation over “censorship” in localization, we’ve heard a whole lot from fans and even translators, but we haven’t seen much discussion from Japanese developers. Which is why, when speaking to Tetsuya Takahashi this week in Los Angeles, I asked him for his thoughts on the matter. His answers were a little…

Hasbro’s Marvel Knights Figures Look Like TV Stars

Fans of Netflix’s comic book shows can realize the dream of having a tiny plastic Krysten Ritter, Jon Bernthal or Charlie Cox on their desk this fall, when Hasbro releases its Marvel Knights series of six-inch Legends figures. And who doesn’t want to build a Man-Thing? Just like the Marvel Netflix-verse, the Marvel Knights line…

Curious about Koji Igarashi’s successor to the Castlevania series? Heather Alexandra played 10 minutes of new demo at E3 that you can watch right here.

Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best

Hideo Kojima's 1988 game is a cult classic for good reason

The Makers Of Final Fantasy XIV Are Still Deciding How To Add Blitzball

Blitzball is coming to Final Fantasy XIV, but director Naoki Yoshida doesn’t know how to make it happen. He’s torn between two options, he says, and both of them sound pretty good. Blitzball, which is sort of like underwater soccer except players can poison one another, is both a minigame and significant plot point in…

God Of War Director, On Kratos’ Beard: ‘It Smells Of Pine And Dead Trolls’

The newest God of War hopes to give Kratos some much-needed depth by focusing on character dynamics and new mechanics. Also new: Kratos’ massive, manly beard. I sat down with game director Cory Barlog to ask some hard-hitting questions about Kratos’ new look. Heather Alexandra, Kotaku: Let’s talk initial design : what made you decide to…

Thirty Minutes Of Splatoon 2 Single Player

We’ve seen Splatoon 2‘s competitive game andco-op Salmon Run mode, but what about those of us who’d rather go it alone? Here’s 30 minutes of Splatoon 2‘s story mode, direct from the Nintendo E3 2017 Treehouse stream. There’s a ton of rail grinding, tentacle shooting and boss fighting in Splatoon 2‘s single-player story mode, which…

IO Interactive Goes Independent And Keeps Hitman Franchise

This past May, Square Enix announced it was parting ways with IO Interactive. Today, that studio says it’s now officially independent and will keep the rights to the Hitman series. Below is a statementfrom IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak: In its 19 years of history, Io-Interactive has brought you original and exciting entertainment; from Mini…

Dragon Ball FighterZ Compared To The Manga

Doesn’t Dragon Ball FighterZ look incredible? And the best part might be that so much of that look is taken straight from the Akira Toriyama’s original art. These comparisons are via Twitter user Mizumaki_7:  This is wonderful. Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea,…

Pokémon‘s First Japanese Theme Song Returns

When the original Pokémon TV anime debuted in Japan on September 8, 1998, the theme song was “Mezase Pokémon Masutaa” or “Aim to be a Pokémon Master.” Now in 2017, the theme is back! The current series Pokémon Sun Moon began using the theme this week to mark the 20th anniversary of Pocket Monsters. If…

Keiji Inafune Opens A New Studio With Level-5

Keiji Inafune of Dead Rising fame and Akihiro Hino of Professor Layton fame have established a new company called Level-5 Comcept. This subsidiary is completely owned by Level-5. Comcept is the name of Inafune’s earlier company, which launched the rocky Mighty No. 9 and oversaw a failed Red Ash Kickstarter campaign. The studio, however, did…

Anime Hit Your Name Makes Cosplay Easy

If you are looking for outfits for a Your Name cosplay (or ways to express Your Name fandom), look no further! Bandai is releasing the real-life version of sleep shirt Mitsuha worn in the film. Priced at 6,804 yen ($61), it will be released in Japan this August.  Or you could get the jacket Taki…

Rockstar Games responds to the shuttering of popular GTA V modding tool, says Take-Two “were not specifically targeting single player mods.” Read the full statement here. 

An Indie Shooter Where One Team’s Invincible, The Other’s Invisible

Competitive first-person shooters operate on all sorts of sets of unspoken rules. Teams should be, more or less, evenly powered. Opponents should die occasionally. Everyone should be visible—at least, most of the time. Aftercharge aims to break those rules. I got to play a few rounds of an early PC build of Aftercharge during “The…

The Real Story Behind Xenogears‘ ‘Unfinished’ Disc 2

Xenogears, widely considered one of the greatest role-playing games ever made, has long felt to fans like an unfinished product thanks to its controversial, seemingly unfinished second disc. Although western gamers have assumed that the team simply ran out of money, the real story—as revealed by director Tetsuya Takahashi to Kotaku today—is a little more…