This Week in Games

Saltgirls

Welcome back to Summer, everyone! I've been hanging back and watching everyone talk about Final Fantasy XVI and... it sounds like I need to eat my words because it looks like they pulled it off? Sure, it sounds like the combat breaks down a little in crowds, but everything I've seen involving the game looks fairly solid. There's also something to be said about a game that allows for visible romances between characters in their 30s. Also: from what I hear, they added an enclave of POC characters later in the game, so it looks like folks at Square Enix listened to their fans of color at some point. Credit where it's due, I'm glad to hear my misgivings about the game were misplaced. No Xenoblade news today, so let's just dive in!

Hey, Skullgirls! The little indie fighting game that could have kept chugging along despite more troubles being tossed at it than you can shake your fight stick at. From getting dumped by their original studio to an Indiegogo campaign that got sabotaged by fans angry that their favorite starlet wasn't introduced into the game, to years of working for the minimum wage to complete five DLC characters, to the game almost vanishing from storefronts overnight because of Konami's miscommunication, to the studio collapsing in the wake of the biggest tempter-tantrum on behalf of the studio's disgraced then-owner, you could write a book about the history of Skullgirls and its mixed fortunes. Through it all, it's been a labor of love for the devs at Lab Zero/Future Club. They even made a nifty mobile game, Skullgirls Mobile, that's a darn good adaptation of the full fighting game and expands on the main game by offering some prequel storylines for the major characters. It's through Skullgirls Mobile that we learn of how Fillia came to be conjoined with the sentient hair-parasite, Samson, or what Princess Parasoul Renoir's life was like before she took charge of the Canopy Kingdom and its Anti-Skullgirl forces. And thanks in no small part to the mobile game, Skullgirls: Second Encore is still getting new content, over a decade after its launch: the current season pass adds no less than four characters, each with their own stages and story modes. They also add tons of story to the game, from Annie of the Stars (an immortal Skullgirl huntress masquerading as a child actress) to Umbrella (Parasoul's younger sister) to Black Dahlia (an elderly cyborg and hired muscle for the local mob) to Black Marie, the titular Skullgirl herself. And even after all these years, Skullgirls has some very vocal defenders--chief among them are the hosts of the ongoing Skullgirls Launch Party, Woolie Madden, and Matt McMuscles, to actual EVO champion Sonicfox, whose exploits earned himself an in-game cameo (to the chagrin of people whose personality is hating furries).

Yeah, that's a lot of history, but hey; I love the game. I'm bad at it but I still love Parasoul loads (you all know how I am about chesty redheads). I anguished for ages over getting the official Skullgirls poster from EightySixed; wouldn't you know it, only a handful of people cared about Parasoul enough for them to bother stocking it. Anyway, Parasoul and Skullgirls became a hot-button issue this past week when the devs at Future Club announced some art changes coming to the game.

So, let's start from the minor stuff and work our way upwards; some displays during the combo count were changed, because a good number of the characters added to Skullgirls are underage and it's a bit creepy to have the combo counter show "BARELY LEGAL!" when you're playing as a kid in-game. The intros to Filia's and Big Band's story modes have been changed; the underage Filia is no longer shown getting felt up by a mobster at a diner, nor does she flash her panties when Samson fights them back. Meanwhile, we no longer see an image of Big Band, a black man, curled up on the floor while being beaten to death by corrupt police officers.

While Skullgirls has made its reputation off of its sexy characters and animations, helped in no small part due to artist Alex Ahad's character designs and the after-the-fact hiring of famed Internet erotica animator Z0ne, the art team has had a few moments of going back and covering up underwear; back in 2015, they had changed about 36 frames of animation to cover up shots where characters were flashing their panties, apropos of nothing. That this time, they focused on one of the cutscenes featuring an underage character (one that's also been criticized before) feels fair. "Time and place" is a factor with these things. As for Big Band's story... yeah, the image of a black man getting lynched by police officers is a bit too charged for a game like Skullgirls at this point, especially after highly-publicized cases of racially-motivated police brutality like the case of George Floyd. Even if Lab Zero/Future Club didn't mean to make a statement, it doesn't keep the scene from feeling really uncomfortable given current contexts. It seems pretty fair to me that Future Club probably doesn't want to mishandle real-world problems in their game.

One of the bigger ones involves Parasoul and her army, the Black Egrets; in-universe, the Canopy Kingdom is framed as a borderline-fascist monarchy, with the day-to-day life being a blatant parallel to post-9/11 America, complete with color-coded "Skullgirl Watch Levels". The Black Egrets themselves make this pretty obvious, as they all infamously wore red bands on the arms of their uniforms bearing Parasoul's insignia... while also dressing like literal stormtroopers. In 2012, this kind of pulpy design choice was no big deal; but as with Big Band, in the current clime, Nazi-coded characters read really differently--so Parasoul and the Black Egrets are ditching the armbands so as not to potentially allude to real-world hate groups.

These changes have brought a ton of discussion (some in bad faith, some in good faith) about "artistic compromise" and whether it's worth changing these things so many years after the fact. While a lot of bad-faith actors claim Skullgirls is a "dead game" (because people make new characters for dead games) or that this is the result of Skullgirls having been "taken away" from the original developers (it's not--among many other Lab Zero ex-pats, Mariel "Kinucakes" Cartwright is still working on the title after founding Future Club in the wake of Lab Zero's implosion, and she was the lead animator at Lab Zero) or that this goes against the wishes of the "original" creators (it's not--Ahad and Zaimont were still working at Lab Zero when the original panty shots were taken out and signed-off on it). The fact remains: folks have been working on Skullgirls for over a decade, and they've probably changed as people. Z0ne, one of the former animators, certainly thinks the team has the right to change their minds about in-game content. So what happens when your artistic vision changes throughout your own life, and you're not the person you used to be when you started working on something?

Be it Ahad or Cartwright, the artists at Lab Zero/Future Club were very deliberate in their handling of this game and its presentation. I've seen a few Japanese artists (one of whom is rather dear to me because they're the only other artist I've ever seen that's as obsessed about Parasoul as I am, God bless their soul) worried what these changes mean for the cast, and honestly: I don't think it'll mean much. Hell, Parasoul herself is still intensely relevant to the story, both as Umbrella's older sister and as one of the major players in the setting. She's even the main character of the Skullgirls Webtoon (which already makes it a must-read).

I think Skullgirls is gonna be fine. These changes feel like the result of people who've worked on it had grown a good ten years and feeling like some things they did might not be the best idea anymore. There are plenty of Abridged Series makers who've come to regret certain jokes in old episodes or comedians who have retired jokes in their repertoire; with Skullgirls continuing its development and sure to continue to add new content (I mean, there are still 26 characters they could make), I think it's fair to let an older and wiser art team do their thing.

So, full disclosure: I fell off of Love Live! after the first series. Nothing against Aquors or the like, I just never had the chance to get into Love Live! Sunshine!! or any of the subsequent shows. I'm plenty convinced that the new shows are crawling with characters as loveable as the girls from μ's, I just haven't had the chance to meet any of them. The most I know is that the one girl goes "It's Joke!" in English. Love Live! already has several video games to its name, most famously the shuttered School Idol Project mobile game and its sequel. But you know what we needed? A platformer!

Get IntiCreates on the horn!

So, full disclosure: despite working at Anime News Network, I don't get to watch that much anime because my spare time after work is occupied keeping up with my favorite Vtuber or playing video games (also, before I got my PS5 I didn't have anything that could play BluRays without going through the headache of swapping cables around). I'm not that up-to-date on the most-current anime, and even during my This Week in Anime days I seldom had time to watch more than what was assigned to me. All this to say, I had no idea that a fantasy spin-off of Love Live! Sunshine!! had been made starring Yohane, the alter ego of Aquors' resident chuuni Yoshiko. It even features fantasy versions of the other Aquors girls! I don't know what the overlap is between "Fans of Aquors" and "People that want an Aquors-themed fantasy platformer", but screw it--it's from IntiCreates, I'll take it! Best known for their work on Mega Man Zero and the Gal Gun games, IntiCreates has made a name for themselves on the back of their stellar 2D games. This upcoming Love Live! project promises to uphold that legacy. Titled Yohane the Parhelion: BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE, you'll play as Yohane, exploring an underwater dungeon and fighting off mystical creatures. The game will be a mix of Metroidvania with some rogue-like elements: Yohane can use items she finds in the dungeons to forge new weapons while finding her friends from Aquors grants her new powers she can use to reach new areas in the dungeon. Meanwhile, some areas in the dungeon will feature randomized layouts, so you can't just sleepwalk through the dungeon even after multiple playthroughs. I like this idea, I would have liked to see it in a Castlevania title by Koji Igarashi.

I think the wildest part of this whole thing is that everything associated with Yohane's fantasy adventures--both theYohane the Parhelion game and the Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR anime--were April Fool's jokes. Anime franchises always go all-out for their April Fool's gags (I still live for the Super Sonico-meets-Ultraman short Nitroplus made a few years back). They don't always come to fruition, but with Yohane it feels more like April Fool's Day is the day for most anime companies to do market research than have a laugh... We can look forward to Yohane the Parhelion on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam this November 16th!

As my editor said to me in a DM earlier this week, "Ryza returns!" In the wake of Atelier Ryza's third and final game launching this past March, Koei Temco recently announced that everyone's favorite alchemist hit another threshold--2 million units sold worldwide!

This is a big deal for the Atelier series; while it's always had a very loyal and dedicated fanbase, it's mostly been a cult series. Ryza's record-breaking sales are a notch not just for the franchise's belt, but for Gust as well! And right before the Atelier Ryza anime starts up this summer, too!

In celebration of this news, KT and Gust are sharing some goodies across their games. First off, this July 21st, several exclusive outfits will be brought back to Atelier Ryza 2: Lost Legends & the Secret Fairy. These include a cute "Nostalgic" straw hat for Ryza, "summer"-variants on each party member's outfit (which, for Ryza means... ditching her off-the-shoulder jacket/shawl? That thing was never achieving much in the first place). It also brings back Ryza's Puni shirts, which are uh... just really long t-shirts. Just long enough to barely avoid an upskirt. I dunno, maybe they're her sleeping shirts? I'd nap in a Puni shirt. Finally, Ryza's Sonnet of Dawn costume rounds out the set. Each of these outfits was previously pre-order bonuses or early-purchase bonuses; it's nice of Koei Temco to bring them back for newer fans!

It doesn't just stop at Atelier Ryza, though--some of Koei Tecmo's other games will also see Ryza-themed goodies! Yuri from Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water will see a hat and outfit that grant her Ryza's iconic duds (itself also originally an early-purchase bonus), while Blue Reflection: Second Light will give Ao a "Ryza Style" that grants her the same outfit (itself originally a "Premium Box" bonus). This, I think, is a great way to push some of KT's other titles; a lot of people still haven't played Fatal Frame (and it's a great series to play for the spoops). Meanwhile, I've never heard of Blue Reflection, and I think I need to correct that. Ao there made me look twice; I thought Blue Reflection featured character designs from Tony Taka, whom I hadn't seen in a dog's age. Nope--it's Mel Kishida, best known for their work on Hanasaku Iroha.

We here at This Week in Games love Japanese RPGs, and it's great that we're starting to see people finally grow out of that early-00s attitude of "We need to find a Final Solution for Japanese games". And while I'm glad to see Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest continue to make inroads with American fans, we shouldn't neglect the smaller franchises like Atelier. Those games plugged away in the background for ages and ages, and much like Story of Seasons it makes me happy to see that they're suddenly busting out in terms of popularity. We all need cozy games like those once in a while. Good job, Ryza. I'm hoping for the best for her anime's premier this July 2nd. Knock 'em dead, sweetie!

I don't talk much about the games added to the Nintendo Switch Online service because, uh, a ton of them get added, and not all of them merit me going over them with a fine-toothed comb. But the Sega Genesis games added this June 28th include one particular Sega Genesis classic I wanted to gush about for a minute.

First up is Crusader of Centy. Gonna be honest: I'd never heard of this one before. It looks like a fantastic Genesis-based take on the Legend of Zelda formula. Not a lot of people talk about the Zelda-clones that popped up on Sega's consoles, which is a big shame; the likes of Beyond Oasis were very inspired and had a tone all their own. Crusader of Centy is one of the more-renowned Sega Zelda-likes. It's got that Sega charm (the Motorola 680000's music just hits differently).

Next up is the Sega Genesis port of the arcade-classic Ghouls and Ghosts. It's as challenging as ever if you want to test yourself. There's also Sega's classic Shinobi; the same way Nintendo had Ninja Gaiden, Sega had Shinobi and its hero Joe Musashi. Shinobi isn't quite as challenging as Ninja Gaiden, but every bit as cinematic. It's a long-forgotten Sega franchise (like anything not named Sonic the Hedgehog or Like A Dragon); we haven't seen good ol' Joe ever since 2002's Shinobi on PS2, and its distaff counterpart Nightshade.

Now, the one that caught my eye was Landstalker: The Treasure of King Nole! If the music and aesthetic of this game seem familiar, it's because developer Climax originally collaborated with Camelot, the creators of (and the Golden Sun series) on Shining in the Darkness and the original Shining Force. The American cover art, courtesy of the late and great Greg Martin (formerly of Hanna-Barbera studios) makes protagonist Nigel look like Prince Ren from The Pirates of Dark Water, but the Japanese cover art does a better job of selling the Zelda connection. And hey, Nigel even has a fairy helping him! His adventure starts as the fairy Friday promises to guide Nigel to the treasure trove of the fabled King Nole, opening the door to Nigel exploring an island crawling with cute towns and mysterious dungeons. Unlike Zelda, Landstalker was handled from an isometric perspective, which came with its own flaws. Combat is a bit stiffer, and the platforming can be rough, but the charm nevertheless bleeds through. Friday is sassy, and she has phenomenal banter with Nigel. There is also the Doronbo Gang-esque trio of Kayla, Ink, and Wally, who dog Nigel at every turn.

There isn't anything like Landstalker, and it's sadly a series that's been orphaned. It had a distaff spin-off on the Super Famicom, Lady Stalker, and Nigel and Friday would eventually reappear in the Dreamcast title Time Stalkers--but following Climax Entertainment's shuttering in 2014, that's been that. Again, Landstalker is a bit stiffer than a good Zelda, but it's got all the charm of a good 90s fantasy anime like The Slayers or Ruin Explorers. I'm thrilled to see it back, and I hope tons of people try it out. Also, while you're at it, check out Shining in the Darkness, it's got a lot of the same vibes and aesthetic. Old-school Shining games, man, they don't make 'em like that anymore...

June 23rd was Sonic's birthday?! I feel so bad for not having that committed to memory! Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was my very first videogame. Sonic has felt like a good friend of mine growing up, and it makes me happy that he's finally found his footing in recent years (especially with those kickass live-action movies--Sega did what Nintendon't with those). Sega didn't forget, though, although they mostly resorted to giving him Sonic Frontier DLC for his birthday. It feels weird that there isn't a new game or anything ready for his birthday, like what Sega did with Sonic Generations (the clip of a live convention crowd shouting "Happy birthday, Sonic~!" makes me well up). But hey, DLC is still better than the GBA port for Sonic the Hedgehog 1.

At least the DLC is pretty comprehensive! First up, there are some new challenges added to Sonic Frontier, as well as a new collectible Koco. They also added a new, er, New Game Plus, which is always a great addition to open-world games. But most importantly: Sonic has new moves and attacks in-game. Key among them is Sonic's signature spin-dash. Seriously, how Sonic Frontiers went so long without Sonic's most iconic ability is beyond me, but no time like Sonic's birthday to correct it.

Sonic's had a good year, at least; between Sonic Frontiers being a solid game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 being well-received in theaters, the IDW comics being as fun as ever, and the upcoming Sonic Superstars, things are looking bright for the Blue Blur. Birthdays when your father is in prison are awkward, but if I can paraphrase Michael Rooker, That Man might have been Sonic's father but he ain't his Daddy. And Sonic's in great hands at the moment. I think. I look forward to plenty of fun adventures with the guy. Happy birthday, Sonic!

I think that'll do it for this week. Summer has only just started, but we've got no shortage of fun games coming down the pipe--and Autum is only shaking up to be even better! Feel free to let me know how your own adventures in your playthroughs are coming along--I don't have the time to play everything and I'm interested in stuff you guys might be playing that I wouldn't otherwise check out. Racers, MOBAs, RPGs I don't know about... I'm down to hear from you guys about it! In the meantime, be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.