This Week in Games

T'was The TWIG Before Christmas

Welcome back, everyone! It's the home stretch for Christmas in the U.S. (if you celebrate). With the frigid cold and the winter storms raging throughout the country, I hope folks are keeping comfortable. I'd show off my fancy decorations, but I'm bad about decorating for holidays—they always sneak up on me.

We've been busy on our end, too much so for playing games just for fun, but we do have time to hear out a very salient question from folks on Twitter! This question comes from young little Saito Masatsugu over in Japan:

Really good question there, Saitom! I wonder what the folks at home think?

This is...

Before we go into the news, I wanna take the time to show off something really neat that I found! If you've read my column for any period of time, you'll know that I was raised on a healthy diet of GameBoy Advance games. And two series I definitely loved with all my heart were Mega Man: Battle Network and Hideo Kojima's Boktai. And fittingly, these two games crossed over: Django and his Solar Gun could be equipped by Mega Man.EXE, there was a Pile Driver Program Advance, and it was even possible to access a "Sol Cross" form inspired by Django's Sol Trance form.

There have been a few games based off of Battle Network's fun brand of trading-card-fueled/tile-based action gameplay, like Hero.EXE and One Step From Eden. But this past week, I discovered a new one on Twitter: Lunar Lux! I hadn't heard of this one before, but it caught my eye. And they definitely knew how to draw me in:

The "Soul Gun." As in, the "Gun Del Sol." And its animation even resembles the Solar Gun's Solar Spread! A lot of the faffery I enjoy is obscure enough to not get a lot of cute references like these (not a lot of Alien Soldier going around these days). Lunar Lux is definitely on my radar now and I'm hoping it gets a Switch port in the future! All the best to the folks working on it, I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys cook up! Full disclosure: this isn't any kind of paid advertisement, I've never been in contact with the Lunar Lux people. Alright, now we can go for some actual news.

It's as the title says, folks.

Fortnite's calvacade of crossovers grows ever-larger with the addition of playable skins based off of heroes from My Hero Academia. Players can now purchase Deku, Uraraka, All Might and Bakugo skins to use in all modes of the game. There's also an item for recreating Deku's Plus Ultra punch, as well as a bunch of associated "back blings," themed weapons an pick-axes for the heroes, and a new map based off of the Hero Training Gym with its own exclusive playable mode. All in all, not quite as extensive as the Dragon Ball map, but still plenty of fun stuff. Hats off to Epic: they've really had their fingers on the pulse when it comes to the anime that kids enjoy. Hey, I wonder what else has happened with Fortnite—

Oof. In news that no doubt has James Stephanie Sterling wagging her eyebrows and and sneering, "I told you so!", Epic got slammed by the FTC for some decidedly shady practices. This is a result of two fines imposed by the FTC. The first is a record smashing $275 million fine for violating COPPA; this is, according to the FTC, due to Epic collecting private data from its audience of children without any actual consent from parents. Adding to that are what the FTC claims were complicated processes in removing the data once requested from parents. There's also the matter of harassment; the FTC claims that Fortnite defaulting to voice chat even for children's accounts opened children and teenagers up to unwarranted harassment from other users. Considering the rash of children getting bullied for not buying exclusive skins or emotes and being "Default," yeah, I'm with the FTC on this.

There's also the accusation of "Illegal Dark Patterns," which itself clocked in an also record-breaking fine of $245 million. In this case, the accusations involve confusing button layouts that corral people into buying things by accident, a lack of safeguards preventing kids from buying things without parental consent (the FTC also namedrops Amazon, Google and Apple for doing similar things in the past), and for blocking access to purchased content if purchases are disputed. This makes sense, until you realize it includes all your past purchases; far from preventing people for buying a skin and getting a refund on it by claiming it was "an accidental purchase," it just makes any kind of dispute an unattractive prospect by holding all of your purchased items hostage.

Epic has issued an apology for the whole deal, though it does come off as particularly simpering—especially when the FTC report points out that Epic employees had been reporting many of these issues as early as 2017. Thank you, FTC, for slamming unethical games studios with record-breaking fines! You're the real heroes here.

Ah, IntiCreates. They may have a house style that they never vary from, but you can count on them to make a darn good 2D action game. This past week, IntiCreates gave us a trailer for their newest action offerings: a Castlevania-style romp titled Grim Guardians: Demon Purge. And it looks great!

The gameplay reminds me of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin; players swap between the Kamizono sisters as they race through corridors and bash up demons. Shinobu has her submachine gun (and it sprays out spent casings with every shot), and Maya has her talismans and swords. You can swap between the sisters on the fly, and there's even a two-player mode where you can use both siblings at once. It's good stuff!

To the trained eye, the most amazing thing about the trailer is that this is all a big, fat Gal*Gun: Double-Peace spinoff! The Kamizono sisters debuted in that game, as did the demon-girl Kurona (you can peep her looking into the mirror in the trailer). The games even have the same initials ("GG:DP").

Gone is the Gal*Gun series' ribald humor, though—this game seems to be taking the girls in a much different direction. I won't say this is better; Gal*Gun has kept the lights on at IntiCreates, but it also has a lot of genuine fans, and I won't deny folks their cheesecake. What I'm mostly curious about is if longtime Gal*Gun Ekoro will ever make an appearance in Grim Guardians. Heck, with how extra IntiCreates is with their DLC, I wouldn't be surprised if Gunvolt or Jason from Blaster Master Zero also made cameo appearances. Or, y'know, poor old Beck from Mighty No.9.

Grim Guardians: Demon Purge has scheduled its release for this February 23rd, 2023. We'll keep an eye on it.

...Jesus, Mary, and Joseph H. Christ. They're actually doing it. After literal decades and well over a thousand episodes, Ash finally winning the Pokémon Championship in Galar has been followed up by the earth-shattering announcement that he and Pikachu will retire from the Pokémon anime, and that a new anime titled Pokémon Ultimate Journeys will replace it, featuring two new protagonists.

Okay, rant incoming: I hate the mentality a lot of people have had going into this. People freaking hated Ash for so long, and unfairly at that. People hated Ash being a kid. They hated that he "was dumb." They hated that he was "such a bad trainer." They hated that he never evolved his Pokémon or let them go off on their own journeys. So much of the hatred towards Ash was, to me, people kvetching about having outgrown Pokémon but not wanting to actually admit it.

Ash was a great protagonist. He was enthusiastic about his journey, start to finish. He was unendingly grateful to all of his Pokémon friends, even tearfully letting them go off on their own journeys in the name of their own happiness. What he lacked in fourth-wall-breaking genre-savviness or knowledge about Effort Values, he made up for in his unending delight at going to new places, seeing new things, meeting new people and making new friends—and to me, there's no better or more-important theme to Pokémon than that.

I once again have to quote Satoshi Tajiri's old interview with Time Magazine: "When you get your first bike, you want to go somewhere you've never been before. That's like Pokémon." I've always hated the old Pokémon intro (you know the one); Pokémon isn't about the competition. Heck, even the Japanese intro focused on how mysterious Pokémon were and discovering things about them was the fun of it (also, it's a better song). So folks blaming Ash for, I dunno, being a kid rankled me. Folks act like a 10-year-old ranking 16th in regionals is some big failure, or that Ash not aging is some affront to humanity.

Okay, got that out of my system.

Ash Ketchum never really appeared in the Pokémon games, at least not canonically. The Pokémon anime was its own continuity, separate from the manga and the games. Pokémon: Yellow Version intentionally gussied up the in-game art to make your player character Ash (while redesigning certain Team Rocket encounters to turn them into everyone's favorite losers, Jessie and James), and there was a very cute reference in Pokémon Sun/Moon where Mimikyu's stalker-closet showed a picture of Pikachu hanging off of the shoulder of a familiar looking kid in a red cap and a blue jacket, but that was it. And even then, Ash was the face of the franchise.

The biggest heartstring tuggers in this come from the voices behind Ash. Sarah Natochenny, who's been Ash's voice actress for the past 17 years, posted a touching retrospective on herTwitter. Meanwhile, Veronica Taylor, Ash's original voice actress from the 4Kids days (and also the voice of Manuela in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, not-sorry for ruining your crush), shared a lovely in-character speech on Ash's departure for all the folks who've stood by Ash ever since he woke up late on that fateful morning all those years ago.

Pokémon has always been about journeys, especially pursuing new ones. So in spite of all the bugs and complaints about tree textures, I look forward to seeing where the Pokémon anime goes from here and who next will make friends with all of the colorful characters in its many memorable regions. (Especially since Penny from Scarlet/Violet really could use some friends.)

It's a day that ends in a "y", time for Square Enix to re-release Final Fantasy IV! And all of the other 2D-era Final Fantasy titles while they're at it. Finally freed from the iOS/Android/PC prison, the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection compiles the first six games in the series for consoles. The games will feature redone pixel art for all of the characters, making their squat sprites resemble their classic Yoshitaka Amano art just that much more faithfully. While each game can be bought individually and digitally, there will also be a physical release available on the Square Enix store.

This one's a little hard to cover, because Final Fantasy ports are dime a dozen. I can't begin to count all the myriad times Final Fantasy IV has been ported to some new console, and it's hard to point to any kind of "definitive" version. The GameBoy Advance port for Final Fantasy IV had some nifty features like a dungeon where you could bring in any of the game's memorable and beloved party members to run through it, while the subsequent DS remake rebuilt the game top-to-bottom with 3D visuals and the Addition system. The other ports have a similar story.

Still, considering how some of these JRPGs can be so easily lost to time (alas, poor Breath of Fire 2, we can't get so much as a version with a decent translation), it's worth having these classics reissued regularly. And heck, I've never even played Final Fantasy V, so this will be a good opportunity to take part in the Four Job Fiesta! And heck, Final Fantasy VI is an indisputable classic. The music alone makes the game a must-play. You might have heard Dancing Mad, but you haven't experienced Dancing Mad until you've actually gone through Kefka's tower and fought in that epic battle against the deranged god.

Now, you'll note I haven't shown how much these games cost. That's, er, because the Square Enix tax is in full effect. There's a collector's set that includes a two-album record set, figurines, and an art book, as well as a simpler physical copy for Nintendo Switch and PS4. And, uh, these are worth USD$250 and USD $75, respectively.

$250 for the collector's set, I can get behind. $75 for the "normal" release really feels excessive, that's about how much Final Fantasy VI went for back when it released in the 90s. Square Enix really love nickle-and-diming folks for this stuff. And they haven't even given the games a better font! They still have the same janky font from the mobile ports! Like I said, these games are definitely worth experiencing, but uh... maybe not $75 worth it.

That'll do it for this week. With Christmas around, I wanna hope you guys are able to spend time with folks you care about. And if possible, spare a thought for the folks who can't. Christmas doesn't have to be about fancy gifts: some of my happiest memories with friends are just baking cookies or brownies with folks. It's astonishing how easy it is to make room for other folks. Don't discount how much you can have an effect on people by just giving them a little bit of your time. And with that said, don't be afraid to give yourself something nice too. Doesn't have to be anything big or fancy or expensive, but don't be afraid to treat yourself. This year is ending, so keep fast folks. We're not out yet! Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.