This Week in Games

Interview with Tom Fuji, Game Designer for RPG Time: The Legend of Wright

Welcome back, everyone! We at This Week In Gaming-central have been hard at work keeping up with all the gaming news worth opining on. And as you can imagine... that means I didn't get any time to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this past weekend. But like I said, I've been hard at work! For one, we had to wrap up that review for Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions, as well as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R. And that last one was a lot of fun to cover!

I remember when I first discovered JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the only games we could feed off of were the Heritage for the Future ports and the PS2 games based off of Phantom Blood and Vento Aureo (which I still have to remind myself isn't titled "La Bizarra Ventura de GioGio," even though it should be). I had no context for characters like Daira or Straizo, nobody knew how King Crimson worked, and nobody ever thought the Duwang Gang would ever get a better translation than "Diamond Is Not Crash." But I remember one day I was riding to a convention with some buddies who, after all these years of me begging them to, finally checked out the JoJo manga courtesy of the Phantom Blood anime. I didn't say "I told you so," I just enjoyed the fact that they had finally discovered what I loved about JoJo. All-Star Battle R doesn't have rollback and that sucks tons, but it's nice to see something that's just so loving and venerating to the source material. All the "You thought it was [x]" memes are tired as heck, but I promise you I will high-five anyone who walks up to me and declares "There must be no other place as pretty as this town." We're all better for JoJo finally having hit it big, and we even have new episodes of Stone Ocean to look forward to... even if they are trapped in Netflix Jail and Netflix put zero effort into promoting it. This really does feel like a picnic. (ᴄʜᴇᴡ)

This is This Week In Games.

(Man, I really hope we can get a nice banner for this column, things feel so naked without one...)

Our starting bit of news is something I've been dreading all year: Dragalia Lost's days are numbered, and its end has been scheduled: the mobile game is scheduled to be shut down on November 30. The cash shop is no longer selling premium currencies or packs, but the gacha can be rolled up until the end date.

Dragalia Lost was a fascinating project: a collaboration between Nintendo and CyGames (makers of Granblue Fantasy), it was Nintendo's attempt at launching their own original mobile game with gacha elements. Fire Emblem Heroes makes cash hand-over-fist for Nintendo, sure, but they wanted to see if they could get another notch on their belt, especially after the unfortunate failure of projects like Miitomo. Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour do well, but nowhere near the astronomic heights of Fire Emblem Heroes. And hey, who better to collaborate with than the makers of one of the biggest gacha games in Japan?

As many Dragalia Lost fans will tell you, Nintendo seemingly tossed it out the window. You'd expect Nintendo to actually promote Dragalia Lost somehow, but outside of some lip service in Nintendo Directs, Dragalia Lost didn't see much support on that front. Once it came out, you'd be forgiven for forgetting it was even a Nintendo venture at all. Euden didn't appear in Smash Bros (not even as a Mii costume, bizarrely enough), and it took a hot minute for there to be a Fire Emblem Heroes crossover in Dragalia Lost—and even then, while you'd expect for the opposite to also happen to cross-promote both of the games, there was never a Dragalia Lost collab for Fire Emblem Heroes.

And that's a pity, because Dragalia Lost was fun. Sure, the balance early on was a bit wonky: the gacha wasn't very fair, the game was a little repetitive and there wasn't much to do but grind. But later events and updates added newer, more engaging characters; the gacha was made a bit fairer by removing Wyrmprints from the gacha pulls; there were high-end raids that were still a grind-fest but gave folks something to strive for between events and main story updates. And while not a ton of the characters were horribly original (Euden is pretty bland, as heroes go), there were still plenty of standouts in the cast: Chloe, the cat-eared wizard (whose Gala version pretty much broke the game) and the dragon Jeanne D'arc (not that one or that one, or that one), and the exercise-obsessed Celleira and the fairy Notte (who had a funny story about exercise together) are stand-outs. For my money, the Best Girl™ was Mym: the humanoid form of the dragoness Brynhilda, who had decided she was Euden's wife and was doing the Lum Invader-thing of calling him "Darling." She had a skin-fang, for people who like that, and she's a chesty redhead who can turn into a fire-breathing dragon (and if she does it a second time, she becomes a super dragon—yeah, Mym was a high-tier character).

Three years is a very respectable lifespan for a mobile game; many don't make it past one. But it's nevertheless a shame that Dragalia Lost dies so young. The art was charming, the music by singer DAOKO was catchy and memorable, and the game itself was fun when it was firing on all cylinders. It's a shame that so many charming characters are landlocked in a gacha game, and it sucks that there won't be any way to play or experience it once the 30th rolls around. I really hoped Dragalia Lost would catch on. Gonna miss it.

The Dragon Quest Overture is one of the most iconic, beloved themes to any video game out there, such that not only have folks not-so-jokingly joked that it ought to be Japan's national anthem, but to the point where I can and will well-up a little if I hear it—especially the GameBoy Color version, seeing as I cut my teeth on the Dragon Warrior I&II collection on the GBC (or orchestral, the orchestral versions are good too but the cymbal crashes get a bit much for me). It was played during the opening ceremonies at the Olympics in Japan not too long ago, and I don't think we'll ever see such an iconic bit of composition for a video game franchise ever again.

Sadly, such an iconic bit of video game composition was made by a tremendous heel.

Composer Koichi Sugiyama, composer for the Dragon Quest anime (and also one-time composer for Godzilla Vs Biollante, one of the best works of practical effects ever), is noted for sabotaging the music for the Dragon Quest series for ages, resorting to hollow MIDI tracks in order to prop up sales for his orchestral concerts and subsequent albums. That kind of petty nickel-and-diming left a lot of Dragon Quest games with substandard soundtracks (just ask anyone who played the original versions of Dragon Quest XI). On a much more significant level, Sugiyama was also a noted homophobe, historical revisionist, and warcrime denier, such that even Square Enix had to distance themselves from his comments. Sugiyama even spearheaded a movement to take out a full-page ad in The Washington Post begging people to please stop talking about the Nanking Massacre that totally didn't happen anyway, by the way.

So yeah, as the header says, a drama is being produced detailing Sugiyama and how he came to compose the Dragon Quest overture.

The Wind Rises makes a strong argument that we should judge art only on the merit of the art itself, as the world is less wonderful without it—after all, according to the movie, lots of slaves died making the great Pyramids in Giza (this has been debunked). I reject that notion. Art doesn't spring from the aether, it's made by people. It reflects the ideals and beliefs of the world around them, and in turn it can inspire others. And when the artist is using the money they get from their art to fund outright bigotry and harm, you can't really separate "art" from "artist." The one is letting the other do tangible harm. I don't throw stones at people who still really, really love Sugiyama's music, because I still feel wistful for Rurouni Kenshin and Please Tell Me! Galko-Chan!. You can't exactly stop loving the stuff you love. But for me, there's a lot of stuff out there that's made by folks that aren't tools. I'd rather focus on those. I cut myself off from Dragon Quest on the basis of Sugiyama's involvement until he was no longer associated with Square Enix; with him having passed on, the only thing keeping me from playing Dragon Quest is a lack of time. Do I expect anyone else to be that strict? Heck no. But I personally don't value my nostalgia over games or books over people that are being hurt.

I'm sure there's a lot of story to be told about Sugiyama composing for Dragon Quest, but I'm sitting here waiting for someone to make a biopic on Yuzo Koshiro. There are a lot of great, passionate composers in the video game industry that don't deny warcrimes, I'd like to know their stories.

One thing I miss about the PS2 was just how many JRPGs you could find for the console. It was definitely a heyday for the genre: even with the rise of the first-person shooter as the "in"-genre and more and more gamers dismissing JRPGs as "weird anime games" (the result of so many games copying the aesthetics of Final Fantasy VII but not the writing), we were spoiled with all the bizarro games we'd see on the PS2. And with how (comparatively) cheap it was to develop for the PS2, it was certainly a lot easier to see weird one-off games get released for the console. These days, you can still find plenty of weird JRPGs on the Nintendo Switch—I mean, we got the entire SaGa series in the US now. And there is no shortage of JRPG-inspired gaming to be found either, with games like Cosmic Star Heroine or Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass. But there are still a lot of franchises folks have come to miss from those halcyon days, lost to legal limbo and developers splintering off from their old home studios. Ask me how much I miss the Izuna games one of these days, I'll tell you all about it.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I found we had a Kickstarter for spiritual successors to Wild Arms and Shadow Hearts!

There's a lot to unpack here. Matsuzo Machida created the Shadow Hearts games way back when dark JRPGs based off of the cosmic horror and real-world history circa the 1920s (to wit: Al Capone and the Anastasia Romanov are major characters). The games were bizarre yet moody, with protagonists that could fuse themselves with demons to transform into super-powered forms. Yes, even the Native American woman could do it in the third game, though with her own flavor of fusions. Shadow Hearts was also renowned for its very intricate methods of character progression: every party member would have game-long sidequests that served as the means for gaining new skills. There was also the Judgement Ring, a mechanic where abilities in combat and sometimes even character interaction would be affected by timing a little spinning roulette to hit on the right mark. All in all: a creative, irreverent, yet memorable series of games that never left the PS2-era: Shadow Hearts: From The New World, the final entry in the series, was released in 2005—and Machida hadn't worked on the series since the previous game, Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Meanwhile, Akifumi Kaneko was best known for producing the Wild Arms games. A series of Western-infused JRPGs, Wild Arms is known for its anime blend of spaghetti-western aesthetics, science fiction, post-apocalyptic settings, and lots and lots of whistling. It's always been a well-regarded C-list JRPG series that also managed to get its own anime adaptation back in the day, but none of the games have ever sold well enough to even earn the PlayStation "Greatest Hits" banner. The first game was noteworthy for its creative character setups: each player character had vastly different abilities both in and out of battle. The protagonist was best known for having an ARM—basically, a gun. There was a really fun mechanic where you could use Dragon Bones (read: gun parts) to customize your ARM's abilities, making it easier to reload after an attack or facilitating counter-shots.

I bring all of that up because Machida and Kaneko decided to join forces to establish a Kickstarter campaign for spiritual successors for both of their beloved franchises: from the ashes of Shadow Hearts and Wild Arms come Penny Blood and Armed Fantasia!

So, all that stuff I established about the predecessors? It applies to their spiritual successors. Armed Fantasia channels Wild Arms 1's three-character party and Western setting, including something called the Force Meter which allowed a character to interrupt a lethal blow aimed at a party member. Penny Blood, meanwhile, is a dark and moody JRPG, and the concept trailer we saw showed a gentleman in 1920s New York City fusing with a spirit to become a weird ghostly knight to fight a grotesque frog-demon—with a rhythm-based prompt to ensure their attacks landed.

Kickstarter campaigns for spiritual successors aren't all that uncommon, but this one is unique given that it's two games meshed together. Kaneko and Machida's logic is simple: getting the funds for JRPGs is already hard, but trying to make successors for two obscure JRPGs in a time when JRPGs aren't exactly in their height anymore is even harder. By combining the games into one campaign, they hope they can help support each other while ensuring each other's success. And it's worked so far! The campaign saw both games earning their funding within the day, and at the time of writing they may well reach the $1 million threshold which would allow for their games to be released on home consoles (the basic plan was to just release on PC). The campaign also has very conservative stretch goals: past the home console ports at $1 million, the next would be a vague "Complex Addition" at $1.5 million. All of the "feelies" for the game are so far locked off behind a weird "Battle system" that's basically a call for social media interaction: Facebook comments, fanart, that sort of thing. The main goal for the KickStarter is to prove that there is demand for these games (hence why the campaign goals are so conservative—you don't really think a console JRPG can be done for just half of a million bucks, do you?).

Regardless: I'm gonna be watching this story closely. It's not every day you get to see a success story happen in front of your eyes. JRPG fans have a lot to look forward to, it seems.

Konami sure is a whipping boy, yeah? Basically torching all of their best franchises and running into the uncaring arms of the Pachinko industry, lots of folks have plenty of reason for having it out for the once esteemed company. Konami is home to a lot of beloved franchises like Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, Ninja Goemon, Tokimeki Memorial and Silent Hill, and everyone just about wishes all of those franchises could be rescued elsewhere. It doesn't help that many of the creative minds that helped make those franchises what they were have left for greener pastures: Konami burned their bridges with the now would-be filmmaker Hideo Kojima, Koji Igarashi has abandoned Castlevania in favor of making his own horror-infused side-scrollers with Bloodstained, and... well, you get the point. This past week, Konami raised a few eyebrows by establishing the Official Game Shop, an online store where you can buy all kinda of merch for the properties they still own. And they also sell games on their store!

...Games you can buy elsewhere. And that all feel like a kick to the face.

A quick glance at the site reveal some weird no-name titles like Beat Arena, Biozone and the generic Puzzle Chronicles. There's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection (with an included pin!), which... is also available in various brick-and-mortar stores. There are the Castlevania: Lord of Shadows games, if that's your speed. And then there are the real gut-punches: stuff like Silent Hill: Homecoming (which isn't even one of the good Silent Hill games), Metal Gear Solid V (which famously scrubbed Kojima's name off of the box), and Metal Gear Solid Survive. Y'know, the Metal Gear game literally everyone hates.

Oh, but don't worry: all the DLC for these latter-day Metal Gear games is available for purchase too! Yay...?

As you can see, the selection kinda sucks. I've seen folks point out that if they had at least something like Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots, the store would have redeemed itself. And I'd agree. It doesn't take much to have a better starting roster than the paltry offerings available there. But it doesn't look like Konami is interested in putting in that effort. A pity. I'd still buy a Boktai rom in a heartbeat if they made one available...

In the meantime, Konami also has made some waves with the announcement of a revival for a "title beloved by fans around the world" that they'll be revealing at this upcoming Tokyo Game Show on September 13th. It's tough to get excited. Even if it's a new Suikoden title, you just know there's going to be some kind of catch like "it's just a Pachinko game" or "it's being made by Silver Shamrock and it'll melt kids' faces into bugs when they start it up." We'll keep you posted in the meantime.

By and large, RPG Time is one of the most charming games I've played in a long time. Between the characterful sketches, its loving nods towards gaming conventions from all sorts of genres, and the constant surprises waiting literally at every page, the game is just dripping with creativity. I reviewed it a few weeks ago, and we were also able to sit down with Tom Fuji from DeskWorks to get some further insight on the game.

Anime News Network: "The idea of a game portrayed by drawings in a notebook is unique; what inspired this creative direction?"

Tom Fuji: "It's based on memories of my childhood. I used to play with a notebook and a pencil in a classroom where kids were not allowed to bring any computer games. The idea of animated pencil-drawn pictures was inspired by the unique effects in a Japanese children's TV channel called Ugo Ugo Lhuga.

ANN: "The story of the game underlines protagonist Kenta's desire to become a game designer. Does his reflect the experiences of any of the game staff in particular?"

TF: "It's not that the game staff always wanted to become game designers since they were in elementary school, but rather that the team was built mainly of my old classmates who went to a school to become game designers. Since it is one of the popular dream occupations among children in Japan, I think there are a lot of elementary school students who dream of becoming game designers."

ANN: "Despite its title, RPG Time constantly dabbles in various genres like bullet-hell and action, rather than just RPGs. What led to the decision to include the wide variety of minigames?"

TF: “A new kind of fun appears every time you turn the page” is one of the key concepts of the game. I realized that one of the ways to give players new kinds of fun is to introduce new game styles, and that's why the wide variety of genres began to appear in the game."

ANN: "Did anyone in staff create a real-life version of the notebook?"

TF: "We had school desks and chairs in the development studio to figure out whether the crafts in the game were possible to create in real life. Most of the pencil-drawn pictures in the notebook have been done by the hand of a team member."

ANN: "Following from the previous question, did anyone on staff experiment with real-life materials while planning minigames before applying them in-game?"

TF: "We were actually making handcrafted versions of the mini games like the Tutorial Dungeon and the world map during the game's development. The sense of reality would be lost if there were things that the game master, Kenta, couldn't do in real life, so we tried to avoid unrealistic things that couldn't be handled with two hands as much as possible."

ANN: "Were there any minigames you wanted to make that you weren't able to put into the game? Could you give some examples?"

TF: "I love games with conveyor belts. Since the initial stage of development, the same thing had been planned for one of the pages of the notebook, but it was somehow forgotten and I realized that there is no conveyor belt in the launch version of the game. I swear I won't forget to incorporate that into the next game!"

ANN: "What do you feel Japanese RPGs could learn from other video game genres, or Western RPGs?"

TF: "I think RPGs are a genre in which it is easy to incorporate various interesting features, and I feel that RPGs that combine the fun of other genres will appear more in the future. Although Japanese RPGs have their own culture and history, I believe they will seek new kinds of fun by learning from not only Western RPGs, but also films or other entertainment mediums."

ANN: "In that vein, what do you feel other genres, or Western RPGs, could learn from Japanese RPGs?"

TF: "I have the impression that as a game developer and player, what country a game is from has been less important nowadays. I think the games saying they've been influenced by Japanese RPGs seem to be easy for Japanese players to be familiar with. I love JRPGs that are made outside of Japan, and I'm inspired by them as well."

ANN: "RPG Time represents DeskWorks' first video game; what kind of projects would the studio like to tackle in the future?"

TF: "One of the concepts of DeskWorks is “cramming in a load of ideas.” The studio is aiming to bring some new experiences to the world."

ANN: "What are some games that the staff is currently excited about?"

TF: "That's a tough question to answer because there are so many games that the staff is excited about, but we're especially looking forward to games that take on new challenges."

ANN: "Do you have any final words for the American fans reading this?"

TF: "RPG Time: The Legend of Wright has become a game packed with a lot of ideas from beginning to end. Enjoy the exciting adventure that unfolds in a classroom till the end!"

And that's the way it is. We sure had a lot of heavy news about JRPGs this week. Goes to show: games can come to mean a lot to people, both for the people that make them and the people that enjoy them. Take some time this weekend to send some good vibes to a creator you like: sometimes creating can feel like a serious treadmill, and folks could always use a pick-me-up. I know we covered some hard stuff here, but hopefully there's still stuff to look forward to. Do we have Wild Arms fans in the wings? Anyone else eulogizing Dragalia Lost? I wanna hear from you guys. Wish me luck in getting to enjoy Xenoblade for once. Be good to each other, I'll see you guys in seven.