
Square Enix has been making news again – this time for posting a loss of 5.7 billion yen in its most recent financial statement, having posted a profit of 5 billion yen for the same period last year – the loss now being blamed on intense competition in the Japanese video game market and the fact that for some inexplicable reason foreigners refuse to buy its fine titles.
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Family Mart has launched a peculiar “blue slime” nikuman (meat dumpling) based on the iconic Dragon Quest monster – prompting much abuse by fans with nothing better to do than play with their food.
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Dragon Quest X Online has been unveiled, though the news that it is apparently both an MMORPG and developed by Square Enix has prompted a great deal of scepticism.
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Ero-artist Mahito‘s happy fixation on the ladies of Dragon Quest provides some rather spectacular artistic (and erotic) results.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Dec 27, 2010 06:03 JST
- Tags: Dragon Quest, DS, Monster Hunter, Nintendo, PSP, Rankings, RPG, Sony, Wii

A ranking of Japan’s best selling games of 2010 not only proves a major embarrassment to Sony, with not a single title on the PS3 making the list, but also manages to raise some depressing questions about the tastes of the Japanese gaming public…
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Shigure is an artist whose works are as diverse as they are sumptuous, with the influences he claims from such famous artists as Range Murata and Okama readily ascertainable. His illustrations, although admittedly not at the same level, are rather pleasing to behold all the same…
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A survey of 3,000 Japanese gamers asking them to identify their favourite Square Enix game franchise yields results which are predictable, if at times out of step with actual sales…
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, H, News
- Date: Jun 4, 2010 08:14 JST
- Tags: Arcade Gaming, Dragon Quest, Marketing, Oppai, Pantsu, RPG, Square Enix, TCG, Wii

The latest game in the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest Monster Battle Road Victory, is due to be released on the Wii soon, and a number of observers have been commenting on the rather salacious direction the title seems to be taking…
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Dec 28, 2009 18:16 JST
- Tags: Dragon Quest, DS, Nintendo, Pokemon, PS3, PSP, Rankings, RPG, Wii

The 30 top selling games of 2009 amply demonstrate the Japanese market continues to revolve around Nintendo, RPGs and the occasional dash of Sony, with precious little in the way of originality or novelty on display, not that these games are necessarily bad.
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Square Enix has officially announced long rumoured massive cuts to its workforce, with the company set to sack 10% of its employees in a move it insists is not “restructuring” but is instead an act of “organizational invigoration.”
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Japanese gamers asked to identify the games they shed the most tears over have once again provided a list of top RPGs, and, of course, Clannad…
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Japanese RPG fans quizzed about their favourite RPG titles have given a fair acquittal of their tastes, even if the list is predictably heavy on Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy at the expense of more original titles…
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