Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
If I were to create a laundry list of what I look for in a JRPG, the simple reality is that the Ys series doesn’t tend to check many of those boxes. They’re not known for in-depth narratives, iconic characters (aside from the series protagonist, Adol, who has a very “blank template” look to him), or particularly thoughtful, nuanced combat.…
To get this out of the way up-front: We need to be wary about art (games, films, books, whatever else) that depict apocalyptic scenarios where some form of invader from without swarms the world and you’re in control of the last nation standing, holding back the horde. It’s an incredibly…
Hello everyone, and Happy Holidays! What a year it has been, too.…
It’s that time of year again! We’re counting down the days to…
I wasn’t expecting Armored Core VI to be a Soulslike, but I was expecting some kind of transformative experience. Perhaps that’s a bit much to ask of FromSoftware, but for more than a decade now, since Dark Souls itself in 2011, FromSoftware has grown to become renowned for a certain…
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I truly cannot believe that someone created a digital adaptation of War & Peace. For those who aren’t familiar with classic board games, War & Peace is a lot to learn. It’s a board game that recreates Napoleon’s various military campaigns across Europe. That doesn’t sound so bad in itself,…
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There is something fascinating about how frequently the classic JPRG genre has become something that independent game developers have decided to pastiche. It’s more than perhaps any other genre. Yes, there are plenty of modern games that channel retro shooters like Doom, and many independent developers are inspired by Mario.…
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Thank the maker for Aksys. The publisher of the most niche of niche visual novels has announced that it will be bringing Spirit Hunter: Death Mark II to the Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation in late February 2024. Death Mark II is actually the third in the series, after Death…
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With Armored Core VI just around the corner (unfortunately we didn’t have a review ready for launch because of all the disruption over the last couple of weeks, but we will get one turned around as soon as we can), it’s good to see FromSoftware stepping back into some of…
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One of the great things about Football Manager is that you don’t need to be an incredibly hardcore fan of the sport to enjoy managing your team. You’ll want to know the basic rules of football, of course, but beyond that you’re given a sandbox to try things, fail, learn…
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Having spent the last two weeks packing my home of eight years up, moving, and now staring down the barrel of unpacking it all, I’ve come to a very simple, sharp realisation. Well, two realisations. One is that moving is exhausting and sucks. The other has to do with games…
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Of the list of licenses that I have always thought would excel with Koei Tecmo’s Musou formula applied to it, Fate is right up there with Sailor Moon, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. It has everything that a great Musou needs – an excellent range…
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Corsair has updated its flagship K70 keyboard yet again with the K70 Max RGB. It is, of course, primarily designed for gaming and include features that are going to make you better at your action game of choice. However, it also offers quite a nice typing experience, and on that…
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I struggle to think of a more consistent developer than Otomate. The Idea Factory otome specialist developer produces games at such a rate that I’m convinced the only reason we don’t get all of them in the West is that the localisers simply can’t work that fast… and that’s a…
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