This Week in Games
One More Before The Clock Strikes Twelve
by Jean-Karlo Lemus,
So here we are—the last TWIG of the year. I've only been doing this for a few months, but as I wrap up this year's column, I can't help but feel a little wistful. I'm glad you guys have come back to read this week's column, and I hope you can spend some time with friends when you're done! If you haven't noticed, I published a review for Witch on the Holy Night earlier this week. It's a fun kinetic novel! I'd never played a Kinetic Novel before, but it's a fun format, and I wish it garnered more visibility and respect. What I can say is that, despite being a Lunar Legend Tsukihime spin-off, this game (from what I played) sadly lacks... la criatura
Neko-Arc isn't just a troll character in Melty Blood! She has a storied history of appearing in all of Lunar Legend Tsukihime's bad endings, taunting players for their foolish choices along with Ciel-sensei and giving people hints on how not to get stuck with bad ends. And then she became a joke character in Melty Blood, where Salty Suite inhabitants all came to learn and fear her eye beams. She's always been a beloved(?) figure in the annals of TYPE-MOON's history. Hers was the first Nendoroid ever produced (a friend of the column David Cabrera once reviewed the Ultimate Neko-Arc Nendoroid 11 years ago in Astro Toy). TYPE-MOON even joked about making a Neko-Arc movie for April Fool's, complete with a hilarious take on what an "American" Neko-Arc movie would be like ("Neko-Arc Evolution," indeed).
Anyway, we know why we're here, so let's not waste more time. This is...
Microsoft Takes Aim At Federal Trade Commission, Claims They're "Unconstitutional"
As always, we prefer to focus on Japanese games or games inspired by Japanese games, but if there's ever any news that's just too big to ignore, we have to give it attention. And that's precisely the issue here. We've covered the ongoing moves the FTC has made to potentially block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, given its possible violation of Antitrust laws. Microsoft has evidently shifted from "Uwu, we're just a smol multi-nationaw company, we awen't bweaking any waws!" to outright litigation.
Filing a 37-page complaint, Microsoft goes so far as to claim that the FTC is unconstitutional and that its complaints towards Microsoft violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution and the separation of powers. Microsoft also finds it unfair that the FTC's complaints are heard by administrative law judges appointed by the FTC, not the federal circuit and district court system. The company goes on to claim that this "violates their Fifth Amendment rights."
This is, in my opinion, some serious bullshit and potentially dangerous. It's well-known at this point that Microsoft isn't quite in the position it was back during the 360 era; their difficulties in breaking into the Japanese market have been well-known, and the gaming landscape has changed such that their most visible first-party titles aren't the industry darlings that they used to be. We've come a blissfully long way since the days when grim, grimy third-person cover-based shooters were the dominant genre. But unlike Sony or Nintendo, Microsoft has nothing else to fall back onto. Sony went deep into "prestige gaming" and stories about sad widowers killing mobs with their kids, while Nintendo never stopped doing their own thing and rode out that era where everyone just wanted to see them die. So, of course, Microsoft pulls a Disney and buys people to do for them what they can't do on their own while curbing the market.
What makes this so dangerous is that Microsoft is a big company, and they have the funds to take this fight all the way to the top. This legal battle could wind up before the Supreme Court and potentially end with a serious dismantling of the FTC. And, uh, that's not a good situation to imagine considering how much we don't like monopolies around here.
We'll only be able to wait and see as far as this story is concerned. But just for this, I'm hoping Microsoft gets a good slap to the face for their trouble. For crying out loud, all you guys had to do was get Bungee to make an Oni sequel.
Sylveon Comes To Build-A-Bear Workshop
So. Build-A-Bear! They're in almost every (remaining) mall in America. It's kitschy and a bit overpriced, but there's something to the whole process of making your own stuffed animal that's oddly appealing. (Full disclosure, I have a pink axolotl from them, which smells like cotton candy.) Build-A-Bear has made some cool collabs with Pokémon before, particularly for the myriad Eevee evolutions. For folks who have to have 'em all, you can finally get the final remaining Eeveelution: Sylveon!
Sylveon will be an online exclusive for the Build-A-Bear website, so you don't have to worry about leaving your bed to get one. It comes pre-stuffed and with a fancy voice-box with five lines, even if the lines are just it saying "Sylveon~!" in different inflections. It's also got a cute set of jammies and a cape because it's winter, and the entirety of the United States is currently under an arctic vortex. The whole shebang comes down to $72, though it is possible to get the individual parts (the cape, the Sylveon, and the jumper) individually if you're so inclined. And if you're interested, Build-A-Bear also has a bunch of other Pokémon available on their site; a quick glance reveals Gengar, Snorlax, Pikachu, Grookey, and a freaking adorable Alolan Vulpix aw crap of all the times for me to not have a spare $56! Also, these Pokémon come with cute little outfits of their own, and many have their own little voice boxes. You can't inject them with scent packs (a pity, those things last--my Axolotl is several months old at this point and still has a whiff of cotton candy), but a lot of them have voice boxes of their own. So they make fantastic gifts for any young Pokémon fan in your life. Or yourself, it's 2022; life's too short not to have a pile of plushies in your life. Treat yourself; living on a PC is happier with a plushie in your lap. Blåhaj will never forget your birthday.
New Wizardry Comes To Mobile, In Japan And America
Wizardry is one of those things I wish more American gamers knew more about. It used to be the king of PC RPG gaming. It established many of the conventions that would follow through on first-person dungeon-crawling RPGs throughout the ages up until Etrian Odyssey (and the failed The Dark Spire). And then it wound up having more fame in Japan, an OVA was made, series creator Robert Woodhead retired from game design and founded AnimEigo (although he framed his wedding as a choose-your-own-adventure sequence that his guests controlled), and the remaining Wizardry games were made by a Japanese studio that tried to play as faithfully to the spirit of Woodhead's original games as possible. It's like if John Romero retired after Daikatana, but wound up founding a manga publisher and Doom became a storied franchise made by French developers who somehow never stopped tapping into Doom's Metallica-fueled vibes. Life goes places, man. We have a new Wizardry game coming out soon, and it's touching down on both sides of the pond!
Now, a few details need to be clarified: first off, Wizardry Variants Daphne is a mobile game, and it will be free-to-play, with "some in-app purchases," as the website announces. What this means, we don't know yet; I'd utterly despise for a game like Wizardry to be a gatcha title. Hopefully, it just means there's an item shop.
Besides that, the Wizardry staples are there! The whole game is in first-person, which the story uses to amazing effect: the story trailer starts with us witnessing our own execution at a guillotine, for one. The Wizardry staple of forming your own party is also present: the trailer shows us traveling with an Elf, a Dwarf, and even a Beastman... er, Beastwoman. She's a catgirl, is what I'm saying. Like the Puma Sisters from Dominion Tank Police, she has big hair and everything. Hey, maybe there's more of Robert Woodhead's anime stuff in here than we thought!
With that said, we hope that Wizardry's traditional brick-to-the-face difficulty is still present. While I'm not one for claiming that games should castrate you at the "start" screen as a matter of principle, there's a degree of challenge that first-person dungeon crawlers are meant to have. I've mostly been spoiled by how Etrian Odyssey has handled these things: still complex, but with plenty of modern conventions to make the game playable for a modern audience. (Arguably, the absence of these concessions is why The Dark Spire failed--it was just too old-fashioned and far too demanding as a result.) So here's hoping Wizardry doesn't stick you in permanent losing situations.
There's no set release date for Wizardry Variants Daphne outside of an "Early 2023" window, but you can bet that I'll be playing this one once it comes out.
Cotton Comes To Switch, Local ANN Writer Hopes Studio Remembers They Once Made Izuna Games Too
I was amazed to see Cotton Fantasy come to the United States! Released in December of last year, the famed cute-'em-up series brought smiles to fans nationwide with Cotton's brand of spell-shootery. If you missed out on it last time, you don't have to worry: it's coming to Steam this January!
Going by its original Japanese title, COTTOn: Rock 'n' Roll (sic), it offers the same experience as the U.S. release Cotton Fantasy--though I can't tell if the Steam release will be in English. The page is, but the trailer isn't. At any rate, it's a delight of a game to traipse through, especially since it's got a ton of cameo characters! Of its six playable pilots, four are from other games. Key among them is Kawase, from the Umihara Kawase series. She's even got a unique mechanic where she can lure enemies with her fishing rod and cram them into her backpack!
Once again, while I'm happy Success is showing Cotton lots of love, I wish they'd give a glance to the Izuna the Unemployed Ninja games. There were only two of them on the Nintendo DS, including Izuna's two cameos in Rondo of Swords and Windy X Windam, but heck, even Izuna got to rub shoulders with Cotton in Rondo of Swords. Give her a weird little monster to fly around on and let her toss swords, shuriken, and talismans or something!
Izuna notwithstanding, folks interested in checking out the Cotton games would do well to check out COTTOn: Rock 'n' Roll. Look forward to it releasing on Steam this January 5th!
Fan-favorite Visual Novel Kanon To Receive Switch Port in 2023
While they were never to my taste, the Key VNs were a trio I had a degree of respect for. Sure, they leaned a bit too hard on the whole "sad girl dying in the snow"-trope (and Clannad had some serious shenanigans to it), but folks who loved those anime and visual novels were ride-and-die for them. Heck, I know a doujinshi artist who's been drawing new books for Kanon's Akiko almost every Comiket since 2007. That's fifteen years of dedication for one lady who makes toxic jam! Most waifus don't get a fraction of that kind of attention from folks!
And Key knows folks have that kind of passion, which is why Kanon will be getting a port onto the Nintendo Switch this Spring 2023. The port adds several updates, including color readjustments for certain event CGs and a 16:9 ratio. The voice cast for the female characters is unchanged. And... that's about it. Relatively paltry for a remake, but when it comes to these older VNs, the convenience of being ported to a console is enough of a draw. (That's something I like about gaming in Japan--it's a lot more common for less-conventional forms of software to get released on consoles, so visual novels on consoles are a common sight.)
Will this game get released in the US? I'd like to hope so. As mentioned earlier, the Key anime got a lot of love in its heyday. While I don't know if folks have "make fan-works of characters from Key-works for 15 years" levels of passion, I'm always down to see more fan-favorite VNs make the leap to the US, especially ones as influential as Kanon. We'll keep an eye out for this one.
Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits:
And that's that. It's a slow week as everything winds down in 2022. I've had a lot to reflect on; I made a thread on Twitter of my favorite reviews and columns that I worked on this year. This was a good year for me! I got to work on a lot of fun projects, and best of all, I got to write This Week In Games. I've said it before, but working on this column has been a real dream come true. I'm lucky to have the audience I do, and I'm fortunate to do this stuff for a living. Not everyone has been this lucky, so I hope you guys know that if 2022's been rough for you that my heart goes out to you all. Being told to grit your teeth and bear your situation or that "it gets better" is like wearing sandpaper underwear (I know, I've been there), but in one of those bits of perversity from the universe, it's sadly some of the truest advice you could ever get. Grab the ropes, set your jaw, and ride it out until you see your chance; then grab on with your teeth, if you have to, and don't let go. When the dust settles, it'll just be you standing. You can worry about clean-up when the adrenaline wears off. Remember that you're never as alone as you think; no misfortune can last 100 years, nor a body that can resist it (it's a thing people's grandparents always say in Latin America). No matter what 2023 brings, you can count on me being here week after week, banging the drum for JRPGs, VNs, and unemployed ninja.
Deep breaths, folks. Pop the champagne, cry out your last, and kick down the doors to 2023. We'll hit 'em high, and we'll hit 'em low. Be good to each other; I'll see you in seven.
This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with AnimeNewsNetwork, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers and tokusatsu, and trying as hard as he can to be as inconspicuous as possible on his Twitter @mouse_inhouse.
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