That’s a valid point. I think it’d be nice to see more old-school JRPGs with smaller budgets where lip syncing and all that isn’t an issue to begin with. A small studio could crank them out with abandon and maybe give nostalgic enthusiasts their old-school fix. I know there are titles here and there that fit that bill…

Voice overs in Japanese RPGs are universally awful. Even FFXV’s voicework is underwhelming at best and outright cringeworthy the majority of the time. I think people get nostalgic for old Japanese RPGs because the sprites and scrolling text were minimalist enough to let your imagination fill in the gaps. There’s…

Not trying to make light of Margeret Cho’s concerns here - I think they’re legitimate - but discrimination is a two-way street. Minorities in Asian countries are extremely marginalized. I’ve lived in Japan for over ten years and minority roles in entertainment and media are played up for laughs at their expense. Most…

Totally. Most of Arby’s deli sandwiches are decent and the curly fries are amazing. I have a theory that they get a lot of flak because the food is arguably the least visually appealing of all the fast food chains. Still, there are definitely a ton of local delis that are supposedly “institutions” and are just gross.…

Good lord. Out of curiosity, I read this dude’s breakdown of why he loves the prequels and it was pretentious as fuck but at least intelligible. This.... this is some next level word salad.

It would also be nice not to make light of male victims of domestic abuse just because they’re dudes.

While if accusations of “15 dollars for 10 hours of work” are legitimate, then whoever agreed to something so blatantly outrageous is clearly more than a little gullible, a lot of people, especially in creative sectors, do tons of pro bono work when they’re just getting started in hopes of getting a foot in the door…

I take joy in the idea of him deleting his channel because he’s clearly matured significantly over six years and obviously is trying to distance himself from his previous persona. It takes courage to stop resting on your laurels and start from scratch (not that it’s a terrible risk for Kjellberg at this point, but…

Just from a business standpoint, this seems like a horrible decision. Console and PC gamers are way more dubious of free to play elements than casual mobile gamers and I’ve even had conversations with friends in the industry who are saying that free to play is soon going to start fizzling out across all platforms.…

A lot of revenue will surely go to his agency but he’ll still make a moderate killing off of this. It’s also possible the entertainer, his agency and a few other companies created a “seisaku inkai” - in which case revenue is usually held in escrow until a predetermined date.

International Men’s Day is used as a platform for various charitable organizations and mental health organizations to raise awareness about male victims of domestic abuse, mental health issues and substance abuse issues among men. I get and appreciate the sarcasm here, but that’s the primary goal of the day as far as…

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, actually (maybe in itself a waste of time), and I think what’s killed JRPGs is the insistence on higher and higher production values. Most JRPGs have inherently silly stories that are best told with crude graphics and text with no voice acting, so that you can fill in the…

It’s quite possibly different now, but I worked at Starbucks for around five years in college and there were definitely a lot of shady labor practices going on. You got benefits, yeah, if you worked a certain number of hours, but there were no guaranteed hours. You’d have a 40 hour week one week and then 3 hours the…

Okay, bruh.

“Just not that fun anymore” kind of rings false with me. I think what he really wants to say (but probably can’t for brand image reasons) is, “It wouldn’t be profitable anymore.” I mean, there are lots of people that view and appreciate old black and white movies, even silent films, for their artistic and historical…

God forbid a professional writer getting paid to write should write correctly, you know?

I’m not trying to be “that guy,” but would it hurt for Kotaku to edit their articles? This piece is fraught with spelling errors and grammar mistakes, and all it would take is an extra pair of eyes or even a quick once-over by the author to fix it. I’ve noticed the writing on this site getting increasingly sloppy,…

I didn’t used to be into speedruns but now they fascinate me. The hours of work that go into bending the game’s code to your will, and on top of that, the perfect execution required to shave seconds off your completion... It’s not something I’d have the patience for, but speedrunning videos have become some of my…

Japan is absolutely not more open when it comes to gender and sexual identity. It’s changing gradually, but transgender and gay individuals are ostricized to an arguably greater degree than in the US, and LGBT celebrities - mostly “talent” actors on variety shows - are exclusively played up for laughs as ludicrous,…

Yeah, I concede to that. It doesn’t mean it makes good business sense.