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The Opening To Vagrant Story Still Holds The Heck Up

On a whim last night, I downloaded a copy of Vagrant Story to my PlayStation Vita (may it never, ever break). It’s one of those games I missed out on but always meant to go back to, especially since I’ve been digging into director Yasumi Matsuno’s back catalogue lately. Having played Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics…

Thanks as always Kotaku for letting us host the site for the weekend! Hope you enjoyed our thoughts on Animal Crossing, the Xbox, Starfleet, Trails, the Famicom, robot revolutions and more. While all good things do come to an end, sometimes they can come back in mysterious forms. Cing, the developers behind Last Window and…

Who’s Your Favorite NPC In A Game?

NPCs can make or break a game. My PC introduced me to some of my first NPCs. In Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, a variety of NPCs were there to test your morals and virtues so you could grow as an avatar; as a kid, I really thought I was helping people by giving…

A new video from Bandai Namco reveals both Ultra Instinct Goku and female Super Saiyan Kefla will be joining the Dragon Ball FighterZ roster this spring as part of FighterZ Pass 3. Kefla is a fusion of fan favorite Dragon Ball Super characters Caulifla and Kale. Hope you’re ready to eat your vegetables.

Six Years Later, Minerva’s Den Remains The Best BioShock Thing

BioShock: The Collection is out now, bringing Rapture and Columbia into glorious high(er) definition. But the most important thing is that the collection includes the best BioShock title ever made: Minerva’s Den. It is a humble piece of downloadable content for BioShock 2 and it is damn near perfect. This piece originally published in September…

The Bittersweet Journey Of A Short Hike

A Short Hike isn’t just a delightfully relaxing game. It’s also an unexpectedly real outing, with an ending that hit me hard. Initially, I approached A Short Hike, created by Adam Robinson-Yu, as I do so many other games: running here and there to finish quests with the mindset of trying to complete the main…

Starfleet, You’ve Changed

The final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, “All Good Things…” was the best way to finish one of my favorite shows of all time. So I was thrilled, but also wary, of revisiting these iconic characters again. For the most part, I’ve been happy with Picard so far. The acting is superb, the…

I Finally Got My First Xbox

I’ve never wanted to own an Xbox console, if I’m being completely honest. For the past 19 years Microsoft has put out exclusive after exclusive that don’t appeal to me in the slightest. The consistency is actually kind of impressive. Not that Xbox consoles or exclusives are poorly made—they’re just usually not for me. Even…

The Weird, Funny Things That Make Pokémon Sword and Shield So Delightful

The idea behind Pokémon games is a weird one. Kids trekking across the country in their quest to collect cute, sometimes dangerous, creatures is strange enough. But the things I saw while playing Pokémon Sword? Hoo boy. I haven’t played too many Pokémon games. With every new generation of the mainline RPG series, however, I…

The Brutal Lessons Gaming Taught Me About Revolutions, Robots, And War

I recently had lunch with a friend who works in tech and he posited to me the ethical question of how we should treat AI as they get more and more sophisticated. He mentioned how machine learning and AI has progressed in ways that would push even science fiction authors to disbelief. As their thought…

I’m replaying VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender after chilling with the chill barista game Coffee Talk If you want to know how to make some strange cyberpunk drinks, here’s a video with some of the best.

I Can’t Get Enough of Trails of Cold Steel III‘s Intense Battle Music

I love picking fights with tough monsters in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, even when I don’t have to. Why? Because it means I get to hear one of the game’s fantastic battle themes over and over again I’ve heard a lot of great tracks during my 80 hours with the…

Last Window Is One Of The Best Murder Mysteries In Gaming

The duology of Last Window and Hotel Dusk has become my favorite series on the original DS. The two games are noir at their best, involving murder, robbery, and explorations of the sordidness of human nature. They’re also some of the best written games I’ve ever played. It’s been a few weeks since I finished…

Revisiting Animal Crossing: New Leaf Was A Mistake

There’s a reason why I don’t return to Animal Crossing games long after I stop playing them. But stupidly, I decided to break that rule last week. I have some regrets. When Animal Crossing: New Leaf released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, I sank hundreds of hours into building up my virtual town, Tennant.…

The Owl House Is Off To An Enchanting Start

While animated shows often cater to specific age groups, there are many that strive for a mix of humor, action, and emotional weight that can appeal to all audiences. The cartoons that manage this feat always seem to draw a devoted following overnight. The Owl House, which premiered on Disney Channel this past month, appears…

An Ode To The NPCs We’ve Robbed

Hi Kotaku! It’s Ben, Narelle, and Peter back as your guest writers for the weekend. It’s been too long! Since we were last here, we’ve traveled to many worlds, visited countless cities, and met some of the most unique NPCs in gaming. The one factor that they all share is that they have items, gold,…

The makers of tactical stealth game Mutant Year Zero are back with a new one called Corruption 2029 It looks a lot like Mutant Year Zero but with futuristic cyber-soldiers swapped in for mutant ducks and pigs. The game will be out February 17 on the Epic Game Store.

Blizzard has addressed concerns surrounding glitches that arose during the world-first race to complete the Mythic difficulty version of WoW’s latest raid, Ny’alotha. Game director Ion Hazzikostas told Kotaku the team plans to “improve our internal testing processes as well as our responsiveness,” given that these races are often streamed live. Check out my updated…

Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has finally responded to the popular fan request that Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu join the cast of Tekken 7 Apparently, the Bandai Namco board members believe Harada himself is a better fit for Yakuza. I’ll take either option, to be honest.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game enters the Sword and Shield era today with the release of the first expansion based on the Switch game. The Sword & Shield expansion introduces Pokémon V, special pocket monsters with the ability to evolve into Pokémon VMAX, including Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon.