This Week in Games

Big Names, Big Departures

Once again, I'd like to thank my readers who thought of me amidst the Izuna news last week. I appreciate being thought of like that. I like it when friends think of me when they see stuff they know I like. I never understood the appeal of people who replay trailers to see if the little tassel on John Openworldgame's belt means he's gonna collect tea cozies. Still, I'm replaying the IZUNA (Working Title)™ trailer to get a better look at Izuna's new design. Conclusion: it's a good remix of her original design. The flower print that used to be on her scarf looks to be on her one pant leg, and she still has an asymmetric look with the one kabuki pant and the one fishnet legging. Her new skirt does an excellent job of evoking her old biker-shorts-under-a-skirt look while just being a skirt. It's a creative way to remix the old design and keep all the important colors and silhouettes while making an entirely new outfit. I miss her old flintlock pistol and the stack of talismans on her belt (which were a good way of reflecting in-game items on her person), but I'm preemptively giving Success a major thumbs-up for the new look. I'm on pins and needles for new IZUNA info. Speaking of stuff I like—I got myself something pretty nifty last week!

Longtime readers know that we love Shuckle here at This Week in Games. I have a lot of favorite Pokémon, and I love Porygon and Scizor... but at the end of the day, Shuckle is the Pokémon I like most. Look at 'im; he's just a little mold worm, derping around and fermenting berries in his rock. I plan on getting a full row of Pokémon keycaps, but they're pricey (I managed to get mine on sale for $22), so it'll take some time to assemble the full set of 12 custom F-keys. Kudos to Hirosart for the keycap!

Man, it's been rough for Platinum Games. Originally formed from a group of CAPCOM ex-pats after CAPCOM closed down Clover Studios (responsible for several beloved hits like Viewtiful Joe and Okami), Platinum aimed to dedicate itself to defining and redefining the "character action game," the genre that many of Platinum's devs gave rise to in the wake of the creation of Devil May Cry back at CAPCOM. Stylish, frantic action games with an eye for unmistakable style were their bread and butter. And chief among them was the vice president of the company, Hideki Kamiya: an outspoken firebrand of a man whose uncompromising vision helped give birth to Bayonetta. While Bayonetta is considered a classic, things haven't gone well for Platinum as of late. Sure, they've had their hits, like having worked on NieR: Automata with Square Enix (which was a much-needed moneymaker for them). On a smaller scale, there was Astral Chain, a phenomenal game with character designs by veteran mangaka Masakazu Katsura. On the other side of the scale, you have the murdered-in-its-crib Scalebound, a character action game intended for Microsoft's consoles that was supposed to be about a stylish young man and his dragon partner. Bayonetta 3 was mired in controversy upon release due to allegations of poor treatment and compensation from the lead voice actress of the game at the time (which was ultimately disproven). Even outside of the controversy, Bayonetta 3 was somewhat contentious among fans for its mechanics and story decisions. And then there was the tremendous failure of Babylon's Fall, the live-service game Platinum produced in conjunction with Square Enix—which didn't even stay afloat for a year.

Platinum's got yet another big blow to deal with: Hideki Kamiya is leaving.

This leaves Platinum in a very uncertain position. The news has taken the Japanese game industry by surprise, especially since Platinum was currently working on Project GG, an Ultraman-inspired project from Platinum meant as a spiritual successor to the Kamen Rider- and Super Sentai-inspired Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101. It's likely that with Kamiya leaving, Project GG is either already canceled or soon to be formally canceled—of course, it all depends on what Platinum does or says. As for Kamiya, he claims that the decision "came after a lot of consideration based on my own beliefs [,] and was by no means an easy decision to make."

Many are theorizing that Kamiya is likely to turn up again somewhere under a Chinese-owned studio, as Chinese studios have recently been acquiring a significant amount of Japanese talent. It is too soon to say; Kamiya's departure will be effective on October 12th. We'll see then.

This is more of a cute thing than anything else. In commemoration of both Arc System Works' 35th anniversary as well as Guilty Gear's 25th anniversary, Arc System Works is setting up a Pop-Up store in Japan later this autumn!

Ah, the time-honored tradition of video game characters gussied up in promo art for pop-up stores! Of course, Sol and Ky are stealing the show in their freshly-ironed shirts... but also, holy crap, that might be the best Jack-O' has ever looked. It's not much, but she even looks a bit more like her actual age in that art (especially since she and Sol had a kid together, that kid being Dizzy). The mature look is adorable for her. I hope the games reflect it more. Anyway, merch! There's a wide variety of merch featuring the Guilty Gear cast in their Sunday best; you can choose acrylic standees, posters, pins, and a wall scroll. There are also hoodies and t-shirts and a nifty framed picture of the official art of the fancied-up Guilty Gear cast. But there's also some merch for Arc System Works's other properties—specifically, what appear to be Kunio-Kun/River City Ransom pins. And they're not even the River City Girls version—it's full-on the original NES sprites.

Folks looking forward to snagging the goods can hit up Bic Camera Group from November 3-19. According to the tweets, there will also be an option to make a mail order, provided you'll be waiting until February 2024 for them to ship. Also, it's all in Japan; hopefully, you have someone to serve as a middle-man.

We've talked some about Taimanin Asagi before; usually a series of adult VNs about a cadre of ninja women and their misadventures with the forces of evil that lurk within Tokyo's urban underground, the Taimanin series has mostly passed over the American markets outside of fan-run efforts or the Action Taimanin spin-off, a worksafe 3D action mobile game currently available for mobile devices. I understand that Black Lilith, the owners of the Taimanin series, are pretty reluctant to license out anything from those games in the US. I remember a few years back when Yara Naika of Media Blasters fame had to explain to fans that localizing the Taimanin H-OVAs was an absolute non-starter. That seems to have changed some this year; first up was the news that Shiravune would release the original Taimanin Asagi visual novel on Steam, due out October 26. And now we have... another Taimanin mobile game coming to America! Who had "Two Taimanin Asagi Games Come To America" on their 2023 bingo card?

I've discussed Taimanin RPG. The last time I covered it, it was back when I had just started writing This Week in Anime, and it was featuring a collaboration with Rei Hiroei's Black Lagoon manga. I don't think we'll be seeing any of the collaboration content coming stateside, if only because of rights issues, so I'm not holding my breath for the Black Lagoon or Super Sonico stuff. But the game has five years' worth of content to go through, so it'll be interesting to see how it's handled in localization! Folks do worry about its longevity, though. After all, Princess Connect's American version was killed off before it could "catch up" to the Japanese version. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

So, the obvious question is, how will the US version handle the 18+ content? Simple: it won't, at least not on iOS or Android. According to the FAQ, there will be a version with the Adult content on Johren and Nutaku and worksafe versions on Steam, the App Store and Google Play. But only the Steam version can link up to Nutaku or Johren, letting you play the Nutaku/Johren version with whatever date you have on Steam. It seems complicated but also lets folks play the game in public.

Taimanin RPGX also has some improvements that won't be in the original Taimanin RPG, preventing the games from being linked together. According to the FAQ, Extasy features "more advanced gameplay experiences than Taimanin RPG," along with PVP battles and guilds. I'm guessing the devs decided they needed more "gamified" elements for a US release. What has me concerned is the "VIP mode"; apparently, players in the US can shell out a few bucks for extra features. These can be fairly humdrum, like extra friend slots or free Gacha rolls... but they also include a lot of advantageous stuff like increased Rank XP, increased AP recovery, or actual features like the VIP shop, Guild functionality, and Dispatch mode. The FAQ doesn't list if VIP mode is a monthly payment or a one-time thing. I'm suspicious of it either way. Action Taimanin is already pretty bad at nickel-and-diming players for character skins to an absurd degree (some premium skins cost $30; that's a whole game for sticking a character in a maid outfit). There's also the miserable case of Annerose, a whole character locked behind a $50 paywall. Hopefully, this is just a one-time feature... otherwise, the outrageous monetization could kill the game in its crib. Sure, some folks are down bad enough for Asagi and friends to shell out the extra cash every month, but that $30 could go towards a lot of better stuff.

So far, we don't have an official release date for Taimanin RPG Extasy, but it's available for pre-registration on the game's website. Maybe we'll keep you posted...? I don't know; I've fallen off on Action Taimanin; I definitely won't keep up if this game also assassinates your wallet every month.

Okay, so real talk: I had to look up the differences between Suda 51 and Swery 65. Both are best known as maverick game designers who have made a pile of stylish cult classics beloved by fans, but I'm not entirely sure who made what. Swery65 is best known for Deadly Premonition, the infamous so-bad-it's-good take on Twin Peaks, as well as D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. Suda 51, on the other hand, has a ton of classics going back to the PS2 era: Killer7, Killer Is Dead, Lollipop Chainsaw, the infamously ruined-by-John-Riccitello-before-he-ruined-Unity Shadows of the Damned... oh yeah, and the fantastic No More Heroes trilogy. While their numbered nicknames might have you confusing them (like me), they're pretty different in their approaches. Swery65 prefers headier, tripper experiences in his games, while Suda51 is better known for over-the-top action, stylized visuals, and tons of parodic takes on Americana. They're teaming up to make a new game, Hotel Barcelona!

Why has it taken so long for these two to work together?! Anyway, the influences from both are immediately apparent. Suda's sense of stylization and love of Americana is evident in the character designs and the setting; the trailer bills Hotel Barcelona as a "2.5D Slasher Film Parodic Action. Speaking of the character design, you can thank King of Fighters character designer Hiroaki Hashimoto for designing the protagonist. From Swery, you get the game's trippy concept: the protagonist is killing her way through an army of wild serial killers, but she's caught in a loop: every time she dies, she's sent back to a safe point. The Death Loop will eventually let the protagonist call upon her past self to help out in the fight against the serial killers. Also, many of the bosses are appropriately larger-than-life, including a giant baby puppet. If the trailer is anything to go by, each serial killer has a classic slasher-esque poster to their name, too.

It's a fascinating concept, to be sure, and it's got tons of Suda51's iconic grindhouse-style blood and gore. The protagonist's specials even summon what looks like a butchered dude all screwed into medical equipment. Now, the gameplay does admittedly look a bit simple; maybe it's the game being in an early stage, maybe it's just the trademark Suda51 high-contrast on all of the characters, but the visuals do look like they need a bit of work. And while it looks like our protagonist can swap between weapons (we see her fight with both swords and a big sledgehammer), we are still determining how in-depth combat will be. Still, Suda51 and Swery65 have earned the right for their games to be a bit janky. So far, we don't have a release date for Hotel Barcelona besides a vague 2024 launch window. But you can look forward to it releasing on Xbox platforms, PS5 and Steam.

Things have finally come to a head over at the House of Play. Sony dropped a pretty big bomb this week with the announcement that the current President over at Sony's Interactive Entertainment branch, Jim Ryan, will be stepping down from his position. His retirement is to take effect in March of 2024. Ryan will have served as the President of the PlayStation brand for about 30 years.

This news has hit gamers rather hard, and the rumor mill is bustling. The rivalry between Microsoft and Sony has never been bigger, and many are no doubt thinking that this is connected to Microsoft's successful acquisition of Activision-Blizzard. But also, there is a massive rise in Microsoft die-hards who let Sony live rent-free in their heads, so I'm not too keen on putting any weight into that. Sony is in a shaky position, and they have been for a relatively long time. Sony was definitely on top of the world back in the PS2 days; the PlayStation 2 is still one of the best-selling consoles of all time, and its library consists of not only massive AAA hits like the beloved Jak and Daxter games, the Sly Cooper series and the Ratchet and Clank games as well as some amazing mid-budget Japanese games like the Katamari Damacy games, SkyGunner or the wide variety of Shin Megami Tensei games. But that lead vanished once the PS3 rolled around; between its exorbitant $600 price tag and the perceived lack of decent exclusives, the PS3 struggled for a good while. And through it all, Sony has maintained a veneer of arrogance, as though their decisions will become industry standard once the rest of the world catches up to them. Meanwhile, they peer over Nintendo's shoulder in case that silly "motion-control" shtick catches on. So it is currently with the PS5; while it has some decent games, it doesn't have a ton of exclusives to justify buying a $500 console, and many of Sony's experiments like the PlayStation Portal or the PlayStation VR 2 aren't doing much to cut the mustard.

Ryan's retirement is somewhat timely; he's in his 60s and likely has a nice golden parachute to rely on. But while I don't think this is in reaction to the other moves the other players in the game industry are up to, this could result from many bad decisions compounding on each other. Current Sony has lost out on many beloved mid-lane titles that buoyed the PS1 and PS2 (they're all enjoying the Switch and the massive audience that gives them). Sony's decision to shut down its first-party Japanese studio likely doesn't help. At the same time, Sony never treated its first-party titles as well as they deserved, the likes of Parappa The Rapper or Patapon or Gravity Rush had very loyal fans. Sony's decision to go all-in on big, fancy "prestige games" (and a lot of The Last of Us remasters) doesn't help either. You play one game about a sad murder-dad, you've played 'em all...

We don't know much about who will take up after Jim Ryan. Hiroki Totoki, the current president of Sony Group Corp, will serve as an interim president for the interactive entertainment branch while they set up for their next president.

Oh boy, this old chestnut again. In a recent interview, CAPCOM President Haruhiro Tsujimoto stated his belief that, given current game development costs, games are being sold too cheaply. "Development costs are around 100 times higher than they were in the days of the Famicom," he is quoted as saying, "but the price of software hasn't risen so much." Tsujimoto has also pointed to CAPCOM having raised the salaries of its employees by 30% as one of its major expenses. So far, CAPCOM is one of the few remaining publishers that has kept its games at the $60 price tag that games have nominally been at since the HD era began with the PS3 and the Xbox360—many developers are already raising the prices to $70, with some claiming we need to introduce the idea of "AAAA" games to accommodate the price.

Of course, many fans have quickly pointed out the obvious: if game development is so expensive, make cheaper games. Nobody is necessarily complaining about the quality of recent CAPCOM hits like Street Fighter 6 or the Resident Evil IV remake, but many are in agreement that games don't need bleeding-edge graphics. It is a self-evident answer, especially since the decision is at gamers' expense. I agree with this; Vampire Survivor showed the world that if your gameplay loop is good enough, people don't care if your game is (literally) a pile of asset flips. I also point out that Tsujimoto has underlined the salary increases of the employees at CAPCOM. So, uh, how much do the suits make? How much are the executive bonuses? Iwata proved to the world that there's a straightforward solution to the problem—just cut your president's salary.

Many others have pointed out an ancient argument that game prices have stayed consistent despite inflation. According to this old line of thought, old NES titles would retail for about $120 in today's money, and it's perfectly fair for games to raise their prices to compensate. There are two problems with this math, as I see it. First, if you modify the prices to $120, the companies will start calculating for even greater profit margins instead of offsetting current development or manufacturing costs. I like James Stephanie Sterling's take on this, "It's not about need, it's greed." The other issue is that games already cost $120; the current $60-$70 price tag is just a shell price. Between Day One DLC, tiered Digital Deluxe pre-orders, season passes, and any DLC sold after the fact during development, a game can quickly run you far more than that original price tag and well into the $120 price easily.

Nintendo is a great example; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate retails for $60, but if you want all the DLC characters, then you'll have to shell out another $55 for both DLC packs. That's $110 for the "complete" game. If you want to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3, that'll be $60... plus another $30 for the content hidden behind the Season Pass, which includes many extra game modes and a few heroes. $90, total. (Unless you nabbed the fancy collector's set that retailed for $90, I've spent $120 on Xenoblade Chronicles 3.) It gets even more egregious now that some developers are experimenting with making games available even sooner to players who pay an extra premium. There is no end to the things studios and developers tack onto a game to pad out that introductory price—and they're not gonna stop tacking them on if they make $70 the standard price.

It feels like Nintendo is the only studio that's caught on not using the absolute height of technology as a good way of keeping solvent. People have complained about the Switch's "weaknesses"; Nintendo has laughed all the way to the bank with the sales of hits like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. (Albeit, Breath of the Wild also had a ton of DLC—that's another $120 game if you want that fancy motorcycle.) When it comes to the devs on the ground floor, heck yeah, they need to be paid better. But if your business is developing games and your multi-million-dollar projects aren't making enough... maybe tone down the scope a little.

That'll do it for this week. I do think we have a busy Autumn and Winter ahead of us, but there are sure to be plenty of surprises to keep us entertained well into 2024. While I chomp at the bit for more news on IZUNA (Working Title)™, I look forward to what else the next few weeks have in store for us. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.