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.
It’s such a tough gig to be an indie VN developer. It’s a niche genre at the best of times, and the resources that you have to dedicate to it are going to be limited. It’s a question of what you throw money into to try to make your project stand out. In the case of The Devil’s Whisper, the…
Planet Coaster 2 is good. But then Planet Coaster was good, and this is really just an iteration of that. Frontier Developments has found its niche and is now focused on driving that nail home over and over again. With Planet Coaster 2 you get lots of new toys to…
I’ve not seen the controversial Goblin Slayer anime or read the light…
SINce Memories: Off the Starry Sky is a spin-off of an incredibly…
The Japanese are a growing force in global tabletop game design. While the association with Japan and video games is long and deep, traditionally we haven’t embraced too many of their tabletop games (classic or modern). This is partly because many of the best were never localised, and partly because…
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The Legend of Heroes series turns 35 this year, and with 21 titles in it, it is inarguably the most ambitious and largest-scope JRPG property in existence. Unlike Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, The Legend of Heroes is constant, with every game taking place in the same universe, sharing a…
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Have you played VA-11 Hall-A yet? If not, you need to. Right now. Before you read the rest of this story. The game is just that good and I cannot believe you’ve missed out on it so far. It’s also why you need to be excited for .45 Parabellum Bloodhound.…
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The Battle Cats have been doing the rounds for some years now. Originally released way back in 2012, the property is still going strong, with people even boasting at how many thousands of dollars they’ve spent on the “free to play” mobile original as recently as this year. There was…
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Welcome to the July episode of the Digitally Uploaded podcast! This month, we kick off discussing all the big games in July, highlighting anticipated titles like Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, Battle Cats Unite, and The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak. We also discuss niche titles and ports like Spin…
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I’m consistently surprised that these “fandisc sequels” to popular otome games get localised. Just recently we saw one for Cupid Parasite, and now there’s one for the excellent Radiant Tale. I would think that given how niche otome titles are, sequels to those otome titles would have an even more…
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Love & Country, a World War 1 period piece visual novel by a rookie studio, is both very surprising and also inspiring. It’s almost certainly going to fly right under the radar, but it’s a tightly-written, smart little thing… and also very, very steamy. Dear lord is this game sexy…
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It was inevitable that Monkey Ball would be inspired by Fall Guys. Given that both properties are best known for giving players a fun and chaotic gauntlet to navigate – albeit one by rolling and the other by running – the Fall Guys proven success as an online experience was…
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What if you were playing a JRPG where the combat system was actually a puzzle? That’s the best way to think of Thistlemine. On the surface, it looks like a simple indie JRPG, but you’ll realise that there’s something different about this one by the time you’ve run into your…
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The pitch for Republic of Pirates is straightforward enough: It’s a very light Anno, with a pirate theme. That should make it a pretty safe bet for a lot of folks out there, especially when it’s also priced as a very budget-friendly Anno. I’m not usually one to talk about…
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