Sam Howitt
@samuelhowitt.bsky.social
I wrote a lot about Final Fantasy and now I'm branching out to other videogames. They/Them Words at pixpen.co.uk
In case you missed it, over the weekend I put up a new blog post for Golden Sun's 25th anniversary!
Sam Howitt@samuelhowitt.bsky.social · 4d agoNEW BLOG POST: For Golden Sun’s 25th anniversary, I wrote about why those two GBA games resonated, their strengths as RPGs, and the impact they made on my own tastes. pixpen.co.uk/2026/08/01/m...
I've spent the past 8 years writing 777+ articles on everything from big hits to indie gems and untranslated treasures across dozens of formats. Japanese tape-loaded adventures, Taiwanese horror, Korean RPGs, British strategy... I bet I can show you something new! kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster
kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com
In case you missed it, over the weekend I put up a new blog post for Golden Sun's 25th anniversary!
Sam Howitt@samuelhowitt.bsky.social · 4d agoNEW BLOG POST: For Golden Sun’s 25th anniversary, I wrote about why those two GBA games resonated, their strengths as RPGs, and the impact they made on my own tastes. pixpen.co.uk/2026/08/01/m...
This week: Fifty picks past and present--twenty-five new reads, twenty-five from the archives: critical-distance.com/2026/08/02/a...
August 2nd
Welcome back readers. Before we hop in, I just want to offer a quick reminder that the Friendslop Jam we’re hosting is underway, and you’ve got two weeks and change to get your writing …
critical-distance.com
genuinely, this is a huge missing link I the development of Japanese adventure games and the whole visual novel genre its influence is felt in so many of the most popular works even today I wrote a huge piece on it and the way it's influenced the genre canonfire.net/post/7022178...
024: Kamaitachi no Yoru かまいたちの夜 (Night of the Sickle Weasel/Banshee’s Last Cry)
CANON FIRE is made possible by the generous contributions of readers like you. Support more writing like this on Patreon. Thank you! Chunsoft may have one of the biggest discrepancies in reputation...
canonfire.net
Game Vecanti@gamevecanti.bsky.social · 2d agoAn English fan translation of "Kamaitachi no Yoru" for SFC has been released by "ButThouMust": github.com/ButThouMust/...
NEW BLOG POST: For Golden Sun’s 25th anniversary, I wrote about why those two GBA games resonated, their strengths as RPGs, and the impact they made on my own tastes. pixpen.co.uk/2026/08/01/m...
Moving Elements – 25 years of Golden Sun 1 and 2
This article will have major spoilers for both Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. As of the day this article has been published, it has now been 25 years since the release of Golden Sun for t…
pixpen.co.uk
NEW BLOG POST: For Golden Sun’s 25th anniversary, I wrote about why those two GBA games resonated, their strengths as RPGs, and the impact they made on my own tastes. pixpen.co.uk/2026/08/01/m...
Moving Elements – 25 years of Golden Sun 1 and 2
This article will have major spoilers for both Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age. As of the day this article has been published, it has now been 25 years since the release of Golden Sun for t…
pixpen.co.uk
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's excess is as unmistakable as it is endearing. A moving, messy journey that accumulates feeling through its best and, more importantly, its most tedious episodes. I love this game, and I'd love it if you checked this out! medium.com/@abrambuehne...
Catching on Rough Edges
There’s a dungeon hidden in the guts of Shinra Manor. Much of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s eleventh chapter is spent there, solving…
medium.com
Today's the 25th anniversary of Golden Sun! I'll have a blog post up later today about it, and you could go to this page to make sure it goes to your email as soon as it's up. pixpen.co.uk/subscribe/
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pixpen.co.uk
Here's an ideal example of showing off the Westwood Dragon Ball Z dub reusing music from the Mega Man cartoon.
we are fundraising for being able to move out of our current place and cover moving expenses. any amount helps. please share if you are able gofund.me/ba6906dc7
Donate to Help our household move, organized by Moss Soothing
Hello, I am Moss, a protected person living in Canada with C-PTSD, debilitating anxiety and agor… Moss Soothing needs your support for Help our household move
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I've written up my Golden Sun 1&2 blog post! I'm now going to spend the next week doing some edits to make sure it's in an ideal shape. Make sure to half half an hour spare on 1st August to read it on pixpen.co.uk This is going to be one of my longer posts.
Pixpen
Trying to understand how games work
pixpen.co.uk
Okay, this piece I'm getting together on Golden Sun 1&2 could end up being the longest thing I've ever written so far.
The Japanese word "meccha" is pronounced "meh" "cha".
Very excited to be getting my Golden Sun 1 & 2 piece out there. I'm having so much fun writing it! The hope is to get it ready for 1st August, and you could fill in your email address on this page so it'll be delivered to your inbox as soon as it's up. pixpen.co.uk/subscribe/
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pixpen.co.uk
INCOMING CANON FIRE! With razor sharp action refined over a decade, a gorgeous paper craft presentation, and surprising tenderness for its queer characters, MAJOGAMI is peak Inti Creates. So of course it's dragged down by the worst writing they've put to paper. canonfire.net/post/8226811...
069: Majogami
Positioned as Inti Creates’ 30th anniversary project, Majogami builds upon decades of 2D action game concepts developed at the company. Following Shiroha, a girl gtrapped in a papercraft world,...
canonfire.net
As of today Final Fantasy X is 25 years old! Without a doubt, my favourite videogame. I'd like to think what I wrote on it a few years ago captures my feelings on it well. pixpen.co.uk/2021/02/08/t...
The Future is a Foreign Country – Final Fantasy X
This article contains major spoilers. The first playable moment of Final Fantasy X put into perspective a lot of what this game does for me. Main character Tidus has to make his way to the big blit…
pixpen.co.uk
That's credits rolled on Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and so I'll be focusing on getting a piece written for both of those GBA games. That ended up being a very tough final fight that I was very close to losing. Both my party and the boss down to a sliver of health, that turn could've gone either way.
you tell someone that you feel like something you like is losing its identity to appeal to a broader audience and they start talking to you like a shareholder
INCOMING CANON FIRE! Now up on canonfire.net, a retrospective of AZURE STRIKER GUNVOLT! The flagship series from Inti Creates, devs of Mega Man, Bloodstained, and Gal Gun. Gunvolt sees a decade of high quality pixel art, fast action, and a rollercoaster of experimental gameplay styles.
ICYMI: "Final Fantasy XIII treats the question of insurrectionary violence against a terror state as a foregone conclusion from the moment we enter into the gameworld." @noescapevg.com explores Final Fantasy XIII's anarchist vision:
Final Fantasy XIII's Anarchist Dream - Unwinnable
While the party doesn’t find a cure or stymie for their divine curse, they do find and reaffirm the need for solidarity.
unwinnable.com
The problem here is that the Western AAA industry isn't "the only world we've ever known or can conceptualise"... Most people have been living in a very different world for over a decade. It's games media that actively chose to stay in Geoff Keighley's PR Dreamland, where 2012 never ended...
Aftermath@aftermath.site · 3w ago'Grand Theft Auto VI, The Last Blockbuster' GTAVI won't be the last AAA video game, but it sure does feel like the last one we'll ever see at this scale. aftermath.site/gta-vi-grand-t...
This week: 23 picks on disc-ourse, ARGs, Warframe, and much more: critical-distance.com/2026/07/13/j...
July 12th
Welcome back readers. Hey! Kaile’s monthly recap is live. You, too can check out their excellent work by joining our Patreon! On the weekly side of things, we’ve got 23 new-and-cool pic…
critical-distance.com
NEW BLOG POST: I watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 25 years after it originally released pixpen.co.uk/2026/07/11/h...
Hollywood Hopes – Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
If I wanted to be ungenerous, I could say that the increase in fidelity of videogames has at times convinced game developers that they could make films. Chris Roberts took Wing Commander to the sil…
pixpen.co.uk
NEW BLOG POST: I watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within 25 years after it originally released pixpen.co.uk/2026/07/11/h...
Hollywood Hopes – Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
If I wanted to be ungenerous, I could say that the increase in fidelity of videogames has at times convinced game developers that they could make films. Chris Roberts took Wing Commander to the sil…
pixpen.co.uk
I've got an upcoming blog post about Final Fantasy The Spirits Within that I'll publish on Saturday, 25 years after it released. If you want it to go straight to your email once it's up, you can set that up here: pixpen.co.uk/subscribe/
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pixpen.co.uk
They act as if this was all inevitable, when we all know that it wasn't. They've deliberately been putting things in place to make the state of gaming as crumbled as it is. #blog #gaming
Consoles Acting as Gods
innerspiral.lol
INCOMING CANON FIRE! The first entry in an AZURE STRIKER GUNVOLT retrospective, the flagship games from the creators of Mega Man 9 and 10. A reimagining of what a Mega Man style game, Gunvolt delivers detailed pixel art, high speeds, and experimental mechanics. canonfire.net/post/8214967...
064: Azure Striker Gunvolt
CANON FIRE is made possible by the generous contributions of readers like you. Support more writing like this on Patreon. Thank you! This entry is part of a retrospective on the Azure Striker Gunvolt....
canonfire.net
Play old games: They’re good and good for you by @marcnormandin.bsky.social "There are better ideas for weathering this particular storm than taking financial advice from a company that seemingly buys studios just to close them." Read on:
Play old games: They're good and good for you
With prices skyrocketing and more and more bad news about contemporary video games every day, here's a suggestion: play old games!
skyboxcritics.com