This Week in Games

E3, I barely knew ye

Welcome back, everyone! I hope that freak freeze billowing over the country doesn't have you guys trapped. I know folks have really been feeling the ice down in Texas. Even in my town, it's viciously cold in the mornings; there's even frost on the cars. But hey, the sun is starting to set later and later. We'll finally begin having actual daylight again soon! In Xenoblade news: still mopping up around Colony Lambda, partly because I'm a munchkin and I want my characters to get some useful skills from other classes, partly because I still had one or two sidequests to wrap up.

Also, you guys are starting to catch onto my tastes in things more than I'm expecting, what with my Fediel comment from last week. I'm feeling a kind of way over that; it's not often I feel that seen. Thanks for sticking around with me enough to pal around with me like that, folks!

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There were big waves last year when Fortnite featured a Dragon Ball collab. Not only were Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, and Beerus playable, but there was a massive themed world you could explore and pal around with other fans. Fans might have bemoaned the absence of other Dragon Ball characters, but for a one-and-done? That was the best way to handle a collab with Dragon Ball. But with the success of Dragon Ball: Super Heroes in theaters, we needed more. Well, Fortnite decided to go even further beyond because we got that.

So, first off: the Dragon Ball Adventure Island, Kamehameha weapon, and Nimbus cloud are back. Anyone who missed out on those can nab them again. But as far as playable characters, we have two new Z Warriors to look forward to: the postboy himself, Piccolo, and the world's angriest nerd, Son Gohan. Gohan doesn't come with his new Beast form, but Piccolo's lighter skin tone and furrowed brow suggest his Orange variant. Sadly, Piccolo's famous aforementioned "postboy" shirt isn't available, but Vegeta's old "BADMAN" shirt wasn't available either, so oh well. Oddly enough, considering the two characters (as well as the events of Dragon Ball: Super Heroes), they didn't make the Special Beam Cannon a new weapon—that strikes me as a bigger missed opportunity. It was right there!

The items will be available until the 23.40 update, after which the DBZ-themed items go back into the Fortnite vault. So if Gohan or Piccolo were your faves, this is your chance to get 'em!

AquaPlus's properties are all but long-forgotten entries to anime fandom at large (which sucks for me because I'm a sucker for Tamaki Kousaka and nobody makes any merch of her anymore). And AquaPlus's COO Naoya Shimokawa wants to change that! In a recent interview, Shimokawa voiced their desire to hopefully revive some of AquaPlus's old properties, singling out ToHeart, Comic party and White Album. The key, according to Shimokawa, is to focus on making these games inexpensively but with a modern style. This follows HIKE's acquisition of AquaPlus, a company formed by three studios. Shimokawa hopes HIKE's prior experience in indie game development can encourage younger developers to breathe new life into visual novels, which would be vital to ensuring that, say, a potential ToHeart 3 could ever be a success.

I remember an old ANNCast episode featuring a friend of the column Daryl Surat where he argued about the relentless churn of the moé phenomenon, using as an example how few people who onboarded through then-current titles like the Kanon or Clannad anime would bother going back to look at its originators like ToHeart. And while I don't think it's particularly necessary to go back and consume older works in a genre if you become a fan of it, it's a good idea for folks who like the genre. I'll never call a mecha fan a "bad fan" if they never go back and watch Gaiking or UFO Grendizer after falling in love with SSSS.Gridman, but at least let them know it exists.

And when it comes to VNs featuring winsome, whimsical casts and touching, heartfelt stories, AquaPlus had folks covered with not just one but three titles. ToHeart in today's age is a bog-standard romantic comedy featuring a mostly-faceless protagonist and his quirky cast of classmates (one of whom is a robot and was the reason robot-girls from the 90s had weird round spiky "headphones" for ears). Back then, though, you could find no better example of a VN than it. It even received an animated adaptation and a sequel VN with an even better cast—ToHeart 2 had two childhood friends, a grumpy librarian, and an alien girl who comes from a world where matches are the most valuable form of currency. Then there was White Album, a bittersweet romance about a college student navigating his feelings for a friend who moonlighted as an idol singer. Originally an adult VN, it received a work-safe PS3 re-release in 2010. And finally, we have Comic Party, a fun VN about a group of friends trying to release doujin together at the titular Comic Party, a reference to the bi-annual ComiKen doujinshi marketplace. It also got an anime adaptation and is licensed by RightStuf in the US.

All these shows had their time in the sun but mostly faded from memory. A bunch of their characters appeared in Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match, a 2011 fighting game that featured tons of AquaPlus characters, but that's mostly been it. As mentioned before, these properties are pretty old—I can't blame modern fans for taking a pass on them because so much about them is just from another era. These games are museum pieces—but that's exactly why Shimokawa believes we need new blood for them. There's plenty of space in the world for VNs about cute summer romances, and if they can nail the charming casts like those in ToHeart and ToHeart 2, they can capture the hearts and imaginations of fans everywhere. Also, I want to see Tamaki Kousaka and Konomi Yuzuhara in their mid-thirties. It's been over 20 years since ToHeart 2 came out. Are they a trouple now or not?!

Electronic Entertainment Expo, alias E3, has long since been a cornerstone of the videogame industry. Organized by the Entertainment Software Association, E3 has been the home of some of the biggest reveals and debuts in the industry for decades... until Nintendo decided they didn't need to depend on E3 to build excitement for their newest releases and decided to cultivate a closer relationship with their consumer base with their much-beloved Nintendo Directs. Ever looking over Nintendo's shoulder, Sony quickly followed suit with their State of Play streams; even Microsoft hosts its own streams to announce stuff (we just had one last week). And this goes hand-in-hand with an increasing amount of cynicism towards E3; more and more, gamers grew less enamored with all the second-hand hype built at E3. Being a trade show that generally wasn't open to the public didn't help matters. So it seems that this year, it's hit critical mass: the first E3 being held since the start of the COVID pandemic will not feature Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft.

The sentiment from many fans has been that E3 has become increasingly irrelevant in the gaming industry. Gaming is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but if there's something people hate, it's feeling like something is being sold to them. People have grown tired of the concept of "bull-shoots"—promotional trailers of games that are ultimately non-indicative of the game being promoted. Even with E3 opening itself up to the general public, there doesn't seem to be much draw to E3, no mystique. And this is before you factor in the controversies surrounding its parent organization, the ESA—like leaking the private information of over 2,000 games journalists. Not like game journalists need to worry about angry types who don't like them not having given x-game a 10/10.

Now, I say that, but E3's decline has coincided with the rise of something I consider worse: the Game Awards, Geoff Keighley's self-aggrandizing game award ceremony show. In the past few years, more top-shelf games have used the awards show to promote their hyped-up releases. Noted gaming dud Cyberpunk 2077, before serving as a launching pad for a much better anime series, had a positively puzzling performance by Grimes to promote it in honor of the music they composed for the game; in retrospect, that performance is a whole lot of smoke-and-mirrors, given how Cyberpunk 2077 turned out. And that's kinda the thing: The Game Awards are all of the smoke-and-mirrors of E3, only even more of a clown show given Keighley's desperate clawing at "legitimacy." Also, remember how just a few months ago, the last Game Awards show was end-capped by some random kid walking on-stage and making an anti-Semitic joke?

We don't need these extensive smoke-and-mirrors shows, especially not now that all of the biggest publishers have their own broadcasts for building hype among fans. Even smaller boutique publishers like IntiCreates use Twitch to broadcast their news to fans, letting their followers help get the word out on Twitter. It's a great way of organically building a fanbase while cultivating a relationship that isn't just, "Do you guys not have phones to play this game you obviously wouldn't want in a million years?" It's a real shame; there was a romance to E3. Flipping through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly and seeing all the news about games was always exciting. But also: when you're like me, and you like those JRPGs that the big names in the industry keep telling you are "obsolete" until they go blue in the face, you start finding that the games you come to love don't need to be pushed into your face by breathless stage-trotters. Many of my favorite games were the weird ones that get tiny paragraphs and single images dedicated to them at the bottom of the page. I don't know how you guys feel; I'll be the first to say I'm a stick in the mud. But also, less can be more—a lot more. Last week, I covered Yggdra Union's Steam port; I don't remember what game was Game of the Year™ in 2007, but I do remember playing Yggdra Union. And I'm pretty sure you also have one or two games with a special place in your heart that didn't need big, fancy stage shows to be pitched to you.

Speaking of studios making their announcements on Twitch! This past Monday, NIS America held a stream on their Twitch channel in honor of Nippon Ichi Software's 30th anniversary! Best known for creating the Disgaea series, NIS has tons of other beloved games that endeared them to JRPG fans worldwide. And they had big news to share with American fans! First up: a new Disgaea is incoming!

The Disgaea series has been NIS America's flagship series ever since they ended their deals with Atlus and took charge of their localization in America. A series of extremely intense strategy games with goofy, sarcastic characters (most important of them all, the squeaky-voiced and adorable explosive mascot penguins known as Prinnies), Disgaea has charmed players with its mix of ridiculous grinding (the level cap is 9999, with unit reincarnation being a series staple), cutting wit, and surprisingly emotional storytelling. It's built off of the idea of numerous Netherworlds existing in a shared universe; hence it's easy for characters to continue to meet old protagonists years after their stories have ended. Which is a great thing! The likes of Laharl, Adell, Rozalyn, and Mao have never worn out their welcome—and it's also possible to see cameos and even continued stories of other NIS characters like the priestess-cum-demon Prier, the Overlord-turned-sentient tome Zetta; the orphaned protagonist Asagi whose game was canceled in production and has become a recurring gag character; and the witch Marjoly.

This new Disgaea game, Vows of the Virtueless, takes place in a new Netherworld: Hinomoto, which is based on Feudal Japan. For now, not much is known outside the protagonists' names. There's the lazy swordsman Fuji and the in-universe Hinomoto-weeb Pirilika. What we do know are some of the new gimmicks to the game. First up is Jumbification, where characters can become big enough to exceed the stage itself. There's also Item Reincarnation, which allows you to turn items into other items. Considering you could find a stack of pancakes with a fantastic attack bonus that would otherwise be utterly wasted on a consumable item, this could lead to all kinds of degenerate items.

When I hear of a new Disgaea, I'm always unsure. I love the aesthetic, writing, characters, and stories of the Disgaea universe, but oddly enough, I don't have the patience for all the grinding. I really should go back and try Disgaea 2, at least, but I bounced off of the first Disgaea hard. Though I'm willing to admit I might have played that game wrong, I was trying to raise balanced units, and Disgaea... is painfully not that. I really do wanna see Rozalyn's and Adell's story play out; I loved those two goofballs.

The other announcement is genuinely worthy of NIS's 30th Anniversary, as it goes back to a much older franchise that is sadly overlooked: it's a compilation of the Rhapsody games!

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure was sadly overlooked when it was first released in the US in 2001 on PS1. A short strategy RPG with very "girly" themes (it was a musical game with several songs, all translated into English—also, your party members were puppets), it was the story of a country girl rescuing a prince from the witch Marjoly in the hopes of finding true love. Oh, and hey, Marjoly eventually made her way into the Disgaea games after she and her subordinates Crowdia, Gao, and Myao had a stint in Phantom Brave! The game didn't do very well, and Rhapsody had a small print run. Copies regularly go for triple digits. I actually have one in my collection back in Puerto Rico; it's one of the crown jewels on my shelf. (Fun fact: I also have a copy of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment; I got it and Rhapsody for $20 each at a GameStop. I missed out on getting a copy of Suikoden 2 at the same price because the ugly cover art turned me off.) Rhapsody eventually got a remake on the DS, but it's an entirely different game: the strategy battles are replaced with a traditional turn-based JRPG battle system. Not a bad idea, but I can see why preservationists would have preferred it to stay the same. Here's the thing, though: Rhapsody had two sequels that, for whatever reason, never came over to the US. NIS America has decided to change that with the release of Rhapsody: Marl Kingdom Chronicles, a collection of the second and third Rhapsody games. The first Rhapsody isn't included because it's already being released in the Prinny Presents NIS Classics Vol. 3 set in a two-pack with La Pucelle: Ragnarok.

The Marl Kingdom Chronicles Collection will release this summer and also come in a special edition physical set with both games, soundtracks, a cloth poster, two acrylic displays, and art cards. It'll be released for the PS5, the Nintendo Switch, and the PC. Hopefully, it'll have an easier time landing with fans now that JRPG fans are much more diverse in their tastes and aren't scared of JRPGs starring girls. As I write this, I recall a cosplayer I saw at a convention in Puerto Rico back in 2010 who made a fantastic cosplay of Rhapsody protagonist Cornet. Hopefully, they still love Rhapsody, and they're excited about this set...

A few months back, I was lucky enough to review Gungrave G.O.R.E.. It's a janky character action game that has let 18 years of development in the action game industry pass it by. Still, it's nevertheless a fun character action game courtesy of Yasuhiro Nightow's character designs (which you can currently enjoy in Trigun Stampede!). The game does have a lot of genuine bad decisions for its controls. They're genuinely clunky. And some stages are just... not very well-executed. I can let this fellow Gungrave enjoyer (?) demonstrate how weird things got in the original release.

But, and this is the crucial part: studio Iggymob has kept working on the game in the months after its release, dedicated to fixing the game's issues. The 1.0 patch was incredibly comprehensive, fixing many of the problems I had with the game upon release: there's now a full-auto mode for your guns, along with a toggle for when you need to swap to your charged Demolition Shots. Your directional Funeral Strikes can finally deflect projectiles. Extra voice lines were added for the various trash mobs. There are so, so many more updates—and that was just 1.0. 1.01 added a cel-shaded filter for the game to bring it more in line with its PS2 predecessors and a whole host of bug fixes. And now we come to the 1.02 patch, which goes and adds a whole extra playable character!

Bunji "The Wolf" already had several playable stages to himself in Gungrave G.O.R.E.'s basic release. With the new update, it's now possible to play through the entire game as Bunji. The Vergil to Beyond The Grave's Dante, Bunji's move set is a bit more focused on speed and footwork than Grave's heavy haymakers and high-caliber shots. Also, he's got spirit wolves he shoots out. Bunji has to be purchased from the Upgrade menu, but if you're still playing Gungrave G.O.R.E., then you probably have the in-game points to spare.

The news gives many fans (myself included) hope that Quartz Angel will also be given the jump to fully playable; she had a unique melee-based move set that made her differ from Bunji and Grave. It would be plenty of fun to play through the entire game as her. Fingers crossed! Kudos to Iggymob; this is way more effort than I'd ever expect anyone to put into Gungrave G.O.R.E.. You guys are doing right by our favorite undead gunman.

Our Twitter page called it "the end of an era," and I can't think of a better way to put it: on March 31st of 2023, Love Live! School Idol Festival will be shut down.

In what could only be considered the worst news to get during a franchise's 10th anniversary, the beloved rhythm game is being shuttered in anticipation of its upcoming sequel, Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 Miracle Live!. Fans of rhythm games and sapphic themes alike mourn the loss of the game. And for a good reason, Love Live! and its original cast were fun. The Love Live! game received a tie-in anime featuring the original nine idols from μ's (pronounced "muse"). I recall the old ANN Preview Guide for that first episode where people couldn't explain protagonist Honoka just randomly dancing into traffic in a musical number—but it stuck with folks, and for years afterward, Honkers and her friends nico-nico-knee'd their way into people's lives inspiring tons of fanart, cosplays, covers, doujinshi, and high-quality rips. Memes were plentiful, from trash-goblin Nico Yazawa's aforementioned "Nico-Nico-Nii~!" cries (which apparently, her whole goddamn family did), Nozomi Tojo's inappropriate touching, Hanayo Koizumi's bottomless appetite for all things rice, and Kotori's infamous photobomb-face. But most importantly: the music was genuinely amazing, and it was hard to hate a feel-good anime about a girl building a group of friends in the name of saving her school in the face of an incoming shut down in honor of preserving the memories of her mother and grandmother.

The Love Live! game was similarly fun; you get all of the great songs from the anime and then some, plus an entertaining rhythm game. Of course, better and rarer school idols made it easier to S-rank songs on higher difficulties (plus, of course you wanna show off your SSR-rank Nozomis, of which I never had enough). Still, the game also made sure to fill out your ranks with all of μ's' classmates, all of whom had their backstories and quirks. And a lot of them were adorable too! Eagle-eyed viewers could see them in the background of the Love Live! anime. Oh, and then there was Love Live! Sunshine!!, which people also really love, but I never got into. I'm not about to fling mud at Aquors fans; that's not my style. But the Love Live! game accommodated both μ's and Aquors by just doubling up on the game: you could continue to play through the "μ's" version of the game or swap over to the "Aquors" side at any moment.

The good news from all of this is that you'll be able to transfer your album and game data from Love Live! School Idol Festival to the new Love Live! game. The website has instructions on the steps you need to take to pull that off. In the meantime: if you play Love Live! School Idol Festival, enjoy it for the two months you have left. And if you don't, well, you can enjoy it vicariously through the suffering of people trying to roll for their waifu.

Before we wrap up this week, I have a request for any of my readers that might be located in the PDX area. One of my favorite local comic shops, Excalibur Comics, is in a really tough bind. Starting when you read this, from February 3rd to February 5th, they'll be holding a massive sale to help keep their store afloat. Between struggles from COVID and other misfortunes, Excalibur's future is in peril. Excalibur is Portland's oldest comic shop, owned by a father-and-daughter duo for forty years. And they've been very good to me; their staff embraces new readers and will always try to help new readers find books they love. I'm more of a manga-man than I'll ever be a fan of Western comics. Still, through Excalibur, I was able to enjoy plenty of fantastic comics: Ghosted in L.A., Kaijumax, and much of the latter-day run of the now-defunct I.D.W. Transformers run. And their owner puts in the extra mile; she's been nice enough to deliver my books to me during the worst of COVID. The old motto goes, "Keep Portland Weird." There's nothing weird about Excalibur: just really good people who are nothing but lovely to the nerd community here in Portland, and my town is just a lot bleaker without them. If you can spare the time, visit them and help 'em out. Believe me, they'll appreciate it.

Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.