VERACITY IN GAMING
VERACITY IN GAMING
Aki Nogishi
JP AUTOMATON writer
Interview: How the personality test game Refind Self sold over 200K copies through collaboration between the developer and publisher
Refind Self dev Lizardry and Playism rep. Shunji Mizutani reveal how publisher and developer worked together to create an engaging indie game
The Idolmaster Shiny Colors: Song for Prism’s ambitious switch to 3D and the CRI middleware technology that aided the process
An interview with the creators of The Idolmaster Shiny Colors: Song for Prism about how they made the impressive leap from 2D to 3D.
Final Fantasy XVI demo sparks linguistic debate in Japanese fandom
The way a certain monster's name was pronounced in the Final Fantasy XVI demo has caused a split in the Japanese fandom.
FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida’s T-shirt choices cause him to trend on Twitter
Right before the release of the Final Fantasy XIV Patch 6.4 - The Dark Throne, Naoki Yoshida caused excitement among fans with two special T-shirts he wore.
Naoki Yoshida spotted playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom during FFXIV broadcast
"Yoshida Zelda" started to trend on Twitter in Japan thanks to FFXIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida making an appearance in a livestream while playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on his Nintendo Switch.
Square Enix’s next president shares his love for FFXIV
Square Enix's soon to be new president, Takashi Kiryu, joined a Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) stream and expressed his love for the game.
FFXIV gear causes nipple-like mark to appear on male Elezen’s chest
Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) gear causes strange nipple-like mark to appear on the male Elezen’s chest. Is it really a nipple or just a shadow?
The Idolmaster fan & singer Gen Hoshino has song covered by his fav Miku
The Idolmaster fan & singer Gen Hoshino has his song "Koi" covered by his favorite idol Miku Maekawa in The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage.
Square Enix’s new yuri RPG Towa Tsugai welcomes fanwork with its guidelines
Square Enix launched yuri RPG Towa Tsugai in Japan. The company has established guidelines regarding fan-made derivative works based on the game, and the content of these guidelines has drawn the interest of users.
Free TTRPG, Sandcastle, released by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has announced the fantasy TTRPG Sandcastle. The rulebook is available in English along with two campaigns for low level players.
Japan’s National Tax Agency releases Let’s Play vid of tax return “game”
Japan’s National Tax Agency has released a Let’s Play video for a fictional game called Kakushin Simulator. It's a publicity video designed to let people know that tax returns can be completed on their smartphones.
FFXIV bug causes Warrior’s Shake It Off to heal absurd amount of HP
A strange bug has been discovered in Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) that causes the Warrior’s Shake It Off ability to heal a ludicrous amount of HP.
FFXIV Patch 6.3’s exquisite steamed bun animation draws attention
Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) Patch 6.3’s exquisite steamed bun animation draws attention. There is a scene that shows Zero breaking a dumpling into two, and the accompanying animation is enough to whet the player's appetite.
Spy x Family & Japanese government collaborate to promote social security numbers
Japan’s Digital Agency has launched a collaboration between the government’s My Number Card (Individual Number Card) system and popular manga and anime series Spy × Family. The campaign aims to encourage more Japanese citizens to apply for their own card.
pixiv to ban transactions on its services regarding certain content including incest and bestiality
pixiv's Service Master Terms of Use will be updated on December 15. The update will apply to certain transactions on services such as BOOTH, pixivFANBOX, and pixiv Requests. pixiv lists content such as sexual exploitation of minors, incest, and bestiality, stating such content goes against the rules and policies of international credit card companies.
Harvestella dev interview: What they decided to change after getting feedback on the demo
Harvestella, a life simulation RPG from Square Enix, is set to release on November 4. For the occasion, we sat down with the game’s developers to learn more about the improvements and additions that have been made since the release of the demo.
Square Enix warns users about unauthorized login attempts by a third party
Square Enix has posted a notice titled “Precautions for Guarding Against Unauthorized Account Access.” According to the notice, Square Enix is currently experiencing an attack by a third party that is trying to gain access to its Account Management System by using a combination of email addresses and passwords thought to have been obtained from the online services of other companies.
FFXIV’s Patch 6.21 makes Hephaistos a little more manageable for players
Square Enix released Patch 6.21 for Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) which lowered the raid boss Hephaistos' HP. In addition, the FFXIV development team has put out a statement regarding illegitimate waymarks that were put in place by third-party tools.
FFXIV sees illicit waymarks proliferating in one of its high-level raids
Final Fantasy XIV's Pandaemonium – Abyssos: The Seventh Circle (Savage) raid is seeing an increase in the use of illicit waymarks, and these waymarks have been dubbed "rule bypassing waymarks" by FFXIV players in Japan.
A pixiv clone site has been created, and users were using “magic words” to try to take it down
vpixiv is a malicious clone site that has caused quite a stir within Japan. The site was created via unauthorized copying of the data from artist community site pixiv. In response to vpixiv, pixiv users were adding “magic words” to their profiles as a method to have their account pages deleted from the clone site.
Service for the Karakuri Circus mobile game is coming to an end, but onlookers wonder how it survived as long as it did
The Karakuri Circus mobile game Karakuri Circus ~Larmes d’un Clown~ has been operating for three and a half years and with a specific character (Fatima) getting an oddly large number of gacha cards added to the game, rumors spread that Karakuri Circus LC had landed a whale supporting that character.
A Soul Hackers 2 tagline about the game being a successor to Persona and SMT doesn’t sit right with Japanese fans
An advertising tagline for Soul Hackers 2 in Japan has given rise to some complicated feelings among fans of the series. When promoting the game via TV commercials, Twitter, and other media, Atlus has used the tagline: “The new Atlus RPG that succeeds Shin Megami Tensei and Persona.”