Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia were inspired by the director’s desire for a new Vanillaware game
Ender series director Keisuke Okabe reveals how his love for Vanillaware games like Odin's Sphere influenced Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia.
VERACITY IN GAMING
VERACITY IN GAMING
Verity Townsend
Automaton West Editor and translator. She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.
Atelier Yumia demo’s motion sickness-inducing camera effects to be patched out in full release, says Koei Tecmo
Koei Tecmo's quick move to address common player issues with the Atelier Yumia demo has been praised by the community.
Anime figure and model kit maker Kotobukiya opens official US online store
Good news for game/anime figure and model kit collectors stateside- Kotobukiya now has an official online storefront in the US.
FromSoftware adds three classic Armored Core games to PlayStation Store
Armored Core (1997), Armored Core: Project Phantasma (1997) and Armored Core: Master of Arena (1999) are now playable on PS4 and PS5.
Japan reveals the top 10 anime adaptions of manga that people want to see in 2025
The 2025 results for the annual Japanese poll of manga people most want to see made into anime are in- with Nue’s Exorcist taking the top spot.
Final Fantasy 14’s Yoshi-P was initially unsure about referencing Final Fantasy 9 in Dawntrail
Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail is packed with overt homages to PS1 classic FFIX, however Naoki Yoshida explains that this wasn't always the case.
Your Name director discovers that Nihon Falcom is carefully preserving his work from 25 years ago
Anime director Makoto Shinkai revisits Nihon Falcom, where he began his career working on opening animations for games like Legend of Heroes III and Ys II Eternal.
Pokémon Go dev Niantic confirms plan to sell game business to Scopely for $3.5 billion
Niantic officially announced the planned sale of its game business to Scopely for $3.5bn, describing this move as “Niantic’s next chapter.”
Upcoming Japanese figure skating sim ICE on the Edge combines anime graphics and realistic choreography
Set to release in 2026, ICE on the Edge is a figure skating game featuring choreography by former Japanese pro figure skater Akiko Suzuki.
Genshin Impact: Ifa’s Japanese voice actor suddenly changed; fans speculate that the reason is political
Mihoyo has announced that actor Showtaro Morikubo will no longer be voicing Ifa in the Japanese version of Genshin Impact.
This surreal Switch title has an Easter Egg where you literally crash the game
With its fourth wall-breaking quirkiness, Optillusion's puzzle game While Waiting actually encourages you to crash the game.
Masahiro Sakurai praises Atlus’s hard work on Metaphor: ReFantazio
Super Smash Bros. and Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai recently shared his opinion on Metaphor ReFantazio and its artwork.