This Week in Games

I Didn't Plan For This Much Capcom, It Just Happened

Welcome back, everyone! I don't actually have much to ease folks into this week. I was working on a review for Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories, so no Xenoblade this time. We're working on getting the Spring Manga Preview Guide underway, so it might have to wait a bit. Sorry for the trouble.

This is...

Be it now or the heyday of the 8- and 16-bit era, CAPCOM was mostly known for its action games. Street Fighter, Mega Man, Strider—even its modern-day hits like Monster Hunter and Devil May Cry all lean more toward finely tuned action. But the company does have an RPG series, which is often looked back upon fondly: Breath of Fire.

A story of the ongoing battles involving a dragon boy named Ryu, a winged woman named Nina, and the forces of evil, these games have never been the biggest hits in the world of RPGs—but to know them is to love at least one of them deeply. April 3 was the 30th anniversary of the series, and series illustrator Tatsuya Yoshikawa commemorated the milestone with an illustration of Ryu. Er, the Ryu from the first Breath of Fire.

The Breath of Fire games took place in a fantasy world filled with early-'90s-era animal people (think classic Shining Force with its centaurs). While the games were mostly your average turn-based RPGs, the party system usually had some kind of fascinating transformation mechanic. For example, the first game allowed you to combine your party members into bizarre new entities with their own unique abilities, some of them useful for traversing the map. Breath of Fire II introduced Shamans, whom you could fuse with your party members for stat boosts. Breath of Fire III, meanwhile, utilized Dragon Genes, which you could combine for new powers or forms. And so on.

Of course, the central linchpin was Ryu being a descendant of the Dragon Tribe, and with it came the ability to transform into an actual honest-to-God dragon in the middle of fights. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter was an odd outlier for the series, but one that was ahead of its time. In that game, Ryu had limited energy, and attacking and being attacked would deplete it. Losing your energy or health would mean a game over, but you were intended to lose several times in order to see the entire game through. Every time you "restarted," Ryu's energy pool would increase, letting him use his more of his abilities. This design decision was absolutely hated in the PS2 days, but I feel it would have been better appreciated in today's era of Soulslikes.

The stories were also pretty metal; Breath of Fire II in particular is infamous for how closely to the hilt it plays the whole "kill God" angle, forcing Ryu and his party to investigate a mysterious religion called St. Eva—or rather, as they come to discover, "Deathevans"—a monstrous scar left upon the world after the defeat of the evil god Tyr at the hands of the first Breath of Fire's Ryu and company. And if you loved SNES-era CAPCOM OSTs, Breath of Fire had you covered: there were some fantastic heavy metal jams in the first two games that later gave way to some very memorable earthier arrangements in the latter two games.

So what happened to Breath of Fire? Well, Dragon Quarter's divisive reception in the PS2 days were definitely the death knell, but I'd argue that the seeds were sewn way back with the release of Breath of Fire II on SNES. See, in the those days, CAPCOM didn't quite have the manpower to localize a whole RPG. Most of its games at the time were action games, so there wasn't terribly much to translate. RPGs were much harder to handle, given the book-long scripts you had to deal with. This was also why so many 16-bit-era RPGs like Final Fantasy III (a.k.a. "the one with Terra") and Phantasy Star IV would retail for up to $80-$100—the localizations were just that hard to pull off.

Squaresoft collaborated with CAPCOM for the release of Breath of Fire, but once CAPCOM saw that the game was a modest success, someone must have figured they could just axe Squaresoft out of the equation and keep all of the rewards for themselves. The result was one of the most infamous localizations ever made. While it's still legible, the translation was sloppy and messy and definitely does the story and characters a massive disservice. Noted localizer Clyde Mandelin goes into exhaustive detail in an old blog entry from 2016, and it's fascinating how much was messed up.

CAPCOM has reissued the games before, at least: the first two Breath of Fire games were ported to the GameBoy Advance in the early '00s, with a few neat additions like CGs for some cutscenes tossed in. Breath of Fire II's localization was never improved upon, sadly. Breath of Fire III and IV were also later re-released on the PSP, but that was largely it. The first two games are currently available on the Nintendo Switch Online service—and again, the second game's script is still a mess, even though they took out an instance of a character saying "Damn." Priorities, I guess?

In my opinion, they're totally worth checking out; you're likely to find plenty about them to enjoy. Hopefully, CAPCOM throws the series another bone someday that isn't just a referential costume in Street Fighter...

As I've mentioned before, I spent a good chunk of my life up in the boonies of Puerto Rico's mountains (15 minutes away from the now ruined Arecibo radiotelescope, in fact!). Internet connection and decent TV signal weren't things I could take for granted, and I went without them for a good part of my life. That meant that even when Pokémon Go landed in 2016, there really wasn't much I could do with it. Pokémon just wouldn't spawn at home—I had to go into town for that, and even then it took a few weeks after the game's release for Puerto Rico to get actual service from the app.

My experiences with Pokémon Go aren't unique, even for folks in the continental U.S. This bars many rural-locked players out of a lot of the content in the game. Without any gyms or Pokéstops, you can't participate in raids, earn research challenges, restock on Pokéballs, or the like. This was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic—folks couldn't exactly go outside, after all.

Niantic offered a solution in the form of Remote Raid passes. While these took in-game currency to acquire, these allowed players to engage in Raids without needing to go to actual hubs in the real world. Players could engage in raids from the comfort of their home, have a chance to catch rare Pokémon, and even play some of the cooperative elements of the game together.

But it looks like Niantic didn't like that much, considering it a bug and not a feature. So while the company is not taking the option away, it is "rebalancing" it.

The long and short of it: Remote Raid passes are seeing a price hike up to 195 Pokécoins, with a three-pack going up to 525—currently, they're 100 for a single and 300 for a three-pack. (It should be noted that 550 Pokécoins cost about US$5.) Players now have a daily limit of five Remote Raids they can take part in, which might be modified for special events, but you can only carry up to three passes at a time. If you get a Remote Raid pass as a reward from Research Beakthroughs while at the maximum for passes, it'll be turned into a Premium Battle Pass instead. Finally, Five-Star Raids now earn "more Candy XL than before."

Niantic's reasoning for the rebalance is due to Remote Raids "[dominating] the experience of playing Pokémon GO in a way [the developers] never intended." Niantic's desire is that the focus of the game be playing with "friends, family and your community," and the remote raids apparently interfere with that. So convinced are the developers of this that they even end the update notice assuring that this will "preserve and improve the experience of playing Pokémon Go."

Many people have voiced criticisms of this decision, and honestly I'm with them. Given my own experiences with Pokémon Go, the excuse of wanting to "preserve the unique gameplay experience" rings hollow—you can't play it in rural areas, at all. Putting a cap on raids basically punishes people who don't live in cities. And while it's certainly nice when local joints all pitch in and invite Pokémon Go players who are trawling through town (which we'll definitely see more of once spring gets into full swing), that's just...not an experience everyone can have. Especially since, for a lot of people, going outside still doesn't feel very safe.

Also, if the issue is playing the game "as it was intended"...who cares so long as people are connecting? For all we know, people are organizing online to handle these raids. How's that any less valid than wandering downtown for hours on end? Do you really make that many more friends going out to Raid spots and engaging in Pokémon Go raids together?

I like to think this decision can be reversed, given how unpopular it is with the player base and how much it screws over folks in the flyover areas. I'm all for the social aspects of Pokémon, but that's just not a reality for the entire player base.

Speaking of Pokémon, there was some pretty big news from Creatures, Inc. this past week. The CEO/president and vice president suddenly announced that they'll be stepping down from their roles. Tsunekazu Ishihara (whom fans might recognize from the Pokémon Directs) will relinquish his role as president and Hirokazu Tanaka follows him in retiring as vice president. They will be replaced by Yūji Kitano and Tomotaku Komura, respectively.

This isn't the end of Ishihara's association with Pokémon; he's currently keeping his position as CEO and president of The Pokémon Company. For reference, all of the Pokémon games are overseen by a consortium called The Pokémon Company, composed of Nintendo, GAME FREAK, Creatures, Inc., and the other associated interests involved with releasing the merch, anime, cards, and so on. Creatures, Inc. is currently the company credited with developing the 3D models for the Pokémon games.

So what does this mean for the Pokémon games? It's too soon to say. People of course want to jump the gun and believe that the Pokémon games will now be better, but that's a stretch. As much as I love Pokémon, that old fan chart which lists Pokémon fans along with Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. fans as "gluttons that wouldn't be satisfied with all the treasures of Heaven" is about the most accurate fan joke out there.

With that said, Pokémon games do suffer from their yearly release schedules, I'll always agree on that. That the president of Creatures, Inc. is stepping down after there's been so much blowback concerning the 3D models in the Pokémon games feels like there's a connection. I'm pulling that assumption clear outta my butt, sure, but you can't stop me from making it.

Does this mean that the games will slow down their production? Likely not—there are tons of moving parts to the Pokémon franchise, and the games have to tie into a regular production cycle demanding new content for the card games and anime. As as long as the card game needs new sets, we'll be getting new generations of games at a steady clip.

What I'd like to think is that Creatures, Inc. will have an easier time organizing itself and developing assets for the Pokémon games. GAME FREAK and its associated parties have had to do a lot of catching up on 3D assets after sticking with handhelds and 2D assets for such a long time. The Pokémon models were supposed to be future-proof as of the 3DS games, but that didn't work out. I can't pretend I know what goes into developing 3D models; I just know it's not easy, and even importing pre-made models into a new game or engine isn't a life hack. Some new blood at Creatures, Inc. might be the shake-up the company needs in order to streamline production and bring those models into 2023.

...Just don't stop using the N64 trees, I say. Keep the fans in their place.

This past week, we received news that Legendary has acquired the film and TV rights to CAPCOM's Street Fighter franchise. Considering that video game adaptations are in vogue at the moment (Sonic the Hedgehog, The Last of Us, and Super Mario Bros. come to mind), it's not unusual for CAPCOM to take a bite at that apple. Provided, CAPCOM does have two infamous attempts at bringing Street Fighter to theaters...

The 1993 Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme needs no introduction. While I do maintain that it's not bad as far as action romps go—it's still fun, after all—that movie went down in history as a bomb. The saving grace was, as many have noticed, the late Raul Julia's stellar performance as M. Bison and his many charismatic scenes where he utterly steals the show from his peers. Also, the cinematography shines. I've seen screenshots of the movie adapted into black and white, and Bison's scenes where he's addressing his cronies genuinely look like they're out of a beloved 1940s cinema classic.

Full credit to the late five-time Academy Award nominee Bill Fraker for his work—the guy had a chance to shoot a movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and he jumped at it.

But then there was Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li in 2009, meant to tie into the Street Fighter IV game. That was bad. I never even bothered trying to watch it—life's too short, man. Chun Li has always been one of the foremost female characters in video games, right up there with Samus Aran or Lara Croft. She's an Interpol agent, so making an action movie starring her should have been a no-brainer. It's a real shame that they completely bombed it, because a female-led action movie along the lines of Cynthia Rothrock's or Michelle Yeoh's classics is always a good time. (Seriously, if you haven't seen Rothrock's Undefeatable, look it up!) Ain't no Academy Award-nominated cinematographer saving that mess.

There have also been several animated takes on the World Warriors, from the so-bad-it's-hilarious dubbed-in-Canada Street Fighter cartoon to Street Fighter II V (which I actually miss a ton; I really hope Discotek rescue licenses it someday) and the beloved Street Fighter II animated film where Chun Li rearranges Vega's face after taking a very famous shower. Considering the many, many characters in Street Fighter and its many connections to other CAPCOM series like Final Fight, it might be better to make an animated series for television. It'd be easier to explore the many stories for all of the protagonists, because I don't think there's any other way to sell folks on a Bollywood-inspired Dhalsim feature.

And more's the pity. Can you imagine a buddy cop take on Final Fight? A modern-day ninja action flick starring Guy? Lots of possibilities, but too many executives are far too square to approve them. For now, we haven't seen any projects being greenlit or announced. We'll have to sit tight until they finally do announce something. Hopefully, they nail this one.

It's been a complicated week for the Resident Evil 4 fandom. Let's at least cover the good first. In a move not unlike that one week where Nintendo fans went bananas over the creation of "Bowsette," a fan-made genderswap of Bowser under the effect of New Super Mario Bros.'s Super Crown power-up, Resident Evil 4 Remake fans came upon a curious question: "What if Ashley Graham were a mouse?"

The idea spread among the fanbase like wildfire, with even the official Resident Evil Twitter account acknowledging the meme. I'm not wild about the name—"Moushley" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue the same way "Bowsette" did—but it's a cute gag that's potentially a lot easier to incorporate into the game than Bowsette. All we need is a new DLC: make a little mouse charm for Leon's attaché case, and bam, the fans will cheer.

Until then, industrious Resident Evil 4 Remake players have made the next best thing: a mod for Moushley to show up in Resident Evil 4 Remake, "Raccaccoonie"-style.

It's a cute mod and a fantastic display of how much fandom efforts can converge: from one fan's doodle to another fan actually making a 3D model to yet another fan modding the thing into the game itself. "If you give a fan a Moushley," I suppose. This was too cute to not give a spotlight.

But fandom nonsense had to rear its ugly head, and we also got to see the nastier side of matters this past week. Apparently, Resident Evil 4 fans hadn't been happy with Ada Wong's new voice actress, Lily Gao. Having first entered the Resident Evil scene as a mid-credits stinger in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Gao offered her voice as Ada for the Resident Evil 4 remake. The recasting was controversial from the get-go, be it because Gao was simply a different person from Sally Cahill or because...ugh, the decision to cast her was "woke," whatever the hell that garbage is supposed to mean.

The Resident Evil 4 Remake has seen some review-bombing entirely over Gao's performance, and Gao herself was the subject of heavy online harassment. As reported by Forbes, the harassment levied at Gao reached such a point that the actress has either hidden or privated all of her posts on Instagram—save for one post discussing the role of privilege in society.

Suffice to say, this is utterly unacceptable. Never mind Gao's own excitement about playing Ada Wong, this isn't how you treat people. That this is harassment aimed at a woman (let alone a woman of color) doesn't help; the whole thing reminds me of the harassment tossed at Kelly Marie Tran following The Last Jedi. It's disgusting behavior on behalf of fans and it's not enough for people to sit back and stroke their beards disappointingly after the damage has been done. It's on people within their own communities to call out this toxic behavior and let people know that it is not acceptable. You don't get to kvetch over whether someone's performance was decent if you can't treat people with a modicum of respect. Do better, people.

Well, this is hysterical to read after last week's Sony news. The slap-fest between Sony and the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard union continues, now with an actual lawsuit over an actual monopoly. Where congress members were begging for an inquiry into Sony's alleged monopoly over "high-powered gaming consoles" in Japan last week (ignoring, y'know, Nintendo), this week the US Justice Department has issued a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard over its practices involving Call of Duty and Overwatch league salaries.

Basically: Activision Blizzard imposed a salary cap on teams. Referred to as a "competitive balance tax," this limited player compensation (which Activision Blizzard insists was "in the spirit of competition" and "never affected player income"). Activision Blizzard reportedly settled with the Department of Justice over the lawsuit, and in quite a hurry at that.

Coincidentally, the same day that this news broke, Activision Blizzard revealed a new character for Overwatch 2: Lifeweaver, a pansexual man from Thailand.

While we at This Week in Games would never refuse a queer character of color ever being added to any game, Activision Blizzard has not earned the benefit of the doubt for this character—especially since rainbow marketing is a very cheap and easy way to divert attention from yourself when you're in the news for less-than-cool reasons. It's not above Activision Blizzard to try sleight of hand in order to control the discourse: in 2018, Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 were announced at the height of the company's controversial treatment of Blitzchung after he had voiced his support for the protests in Hong Kong.

There's also the matter that Overwatch doesn't really do much with these announcements for these characters—Symmetra was revealed as being on the Autistic spectrum, but it's not like Overwatch ever really explores that outside of a throwaway line in one of the comics. Tracer is a lesbian in a committed relationship, and this means jack-all during capture-the-flag matches. At least when Guilty Gear -Strive- revealed that Bridget was a trans woman, this was the capstone for a very heartwarming story about her finding her own path in life. And while there is no doubt that many developers at Activision Blizzard endeavor to do justice by the Thai community and the pansexual community, the same can't be said for the executives that created the Diversity Space Tool.

While This Week in Games will accept and embrace any and all characters of color across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, anything from Activision Blizzard will make us wonder how many women had their breast milk stolen out of the fridge during development.

This past week, Nintendo announced a new division to the company: Nintendo Systems. Composed of engineers from both Nintendo and DeNA, Nintendo hasn't said much about the new division, mostly that it'll “strengthen the digitalization of Nintendo's business” and create new “value-added services.” With DeNA being best known for its mobile offerings, it's easy to presume that this means Nintendo is redoubling its efforts in the mobile gaming space—but that might not be the case. In an exclusive interview with Variety, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that mobile games won't be the future for Mario games.

This makes sense. While Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Run have seen some success, Nintendo's mobile offerings have all been dwarfed by Fire Emblem Heroes, which has proven challenging to recreate (much to the lament of Dragalia Lost fans everywhere). And according to Miyamoto, "Nintendo's core strategy is a hardware and software integrated gaming experience." While Nintendo can certainly be accused of trying too hard to reinvent the wheel with its games and interfaces, when its attempts at innovation work, they work. Open world games are still trying to catch up to Breath of the Wild, after all, and even if it's been six years since Super Mario Odyssey, it still feels amazing as a platformer.

And remember: Nintendo's first mobile app was barely even a game! It was the social networking app Miitomo, where participants would make a little Mii (compatible with their My Nintendo account) and use the voice generation from Tomodachi Life to ask questions and send them to their friends.

Miyamoto is cagey about when we'll hear about a new game starring the Bros, dangling a vague "please wait for our next Nintendo Direct." So until then, I think it's safe to assume Nintendo Systems will be in charge of handling some behind-the-scenes matters for Nintendo's online account systems. Hopefully, the division can streamline how My Nintendo works. It certainly marks Nintendo knuckling down for business—let's not forget that late last year Nintendo founded its Nintendo Pictures subsidiary in order to produce more animated content for their franchises. Let's see where this goes...

That'll do it for this week. As always, thanks for coming by and joining us for these columns weekly. There's a lot to look forward to later this spring and summer, and I look forward to sharing it all with you guys. If you have a moment, please look into ANN's Spring Preview Guide. My fellow contributors work very hard on it and I'm sure they'd appreciate the consideration. Be good to each other, and I'll see you in seven.