Curated category
Japan-exclusive video games
- Mitsumete KnightMitsumete Knight, released in 1998 for the PlayStation, buries an odd detail in its story. A bomb threat happens inside a church, a moment the game leaves…
- Gensō Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no TokiGensō Suikoden: Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki dropped into Japanese game shops on the 9th of February 2012, and by the end of that first week it had sold…
- Star Wars (1987 video game)Star Wars, released in 1987 by Namco for the Family Computer, arrived in Japan with something unusual attached to its announcement: a photograph of George…
- Final Fantasy IIIFinal Fantasy III launched on the 27th of April, 1990, and within its first week sold 500,000 copies in Japan. By March 2003, that figure had reached 1.4…
- Gensō SuikogaidenGensō Suikogaiden placed Nash Latkje at the center of its story. He served Holy Harmonia's Southern Border Defence Force on assignments that would entangle…
- Tokimeki MemorialTokimeki Memorial launched on the PC Engine in 1994 with a premise built around scarcity. Konami handed players a calendar, a cast of potential partners, and…
- Tokimeki Memorial (video game)Tokimeki Memorial arrived on the PC Engine on the 27th of May 1994, carrying a premise that made seasoned game journalists stop cold.
- Durarara!!Durarara!! begins with a headless rider on a black motorcycle that sometimes neighs like a horse, weaving through the neon-lit streets of Ikebukuro.
- Namco × CapcomNamco x Capcom arrived in Japanese game shops on the 26th of May 2005, carrying inside it nearly one hundred characters drawn from two of the largest video…
- Tetsujin 28-goTetsujin 28-go arrived in 1956, the creation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, and it asked a question that would echo through decades of Japanese popular culture: what…
- Lucky Star (manga)Lucky Star began, in its creator's own words, as nothing special. Kagami Yoshimizu told Newtype USA in June 2005, "I don't really think my production process…
- Granblue FantasyGranblue Fantasy launched in Japan in March 2014 on Android, iOS, and web browsers, built by a studio called Cygames. What made it remarkable from the start…