The Other Side of Japanese Gaming News

21.06.2011
Welcome to the first edition of "The Other Side of Japanese Gaming News," where I'll lead you through the entire half of the gaming net you can't read to show you all you've been missing. Some of the following come from Japan, while others just trend here. Check them out below, and keep tuning in on Tuesdays for additional doses of Japanese gaming news and culture.

When the cover art to Japanese Action-RPG Pandora's Tower was first shown off, more than a few Japanese netizens noticed an odd coincidence. The facial proportions of main characters Ceres and Ende matched those of Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning and Versus XIII's Noctis. But the question remains: Is it just a subliminal coincidence, or is it a conscious attempt to cash in on the two well known character designs? .

It's easy to forget now, but the PlayStation Network going down was actually just the last in a series of troubles buzzing around the big black monolith. This comic, Chinese in origin, shows the entire ordeal through the eyes of one man--based on PS3 jailbreaker George "GeoHot" Hotz--who is just trying to get linux to once again run on his PS3... which is, of course, re-imagined as a prepubescent moe android.

First, he's interrupted by Sony as he hacks PS3-chan. Then he is pressured by Sony to confess while Microsoft pitches him a Windows 7 phone and Anonymous demands to also be able to "fool around" with PS3-chan. Then suddenly personal information comes "gushing out" of PS3-chan as GeoHot runs away laughing and Anonymous feigns ignorance of the whole thing.