This Week in Games

Welcome Back To The Stage

Welcome back, folks! I had a fun experience this past weekend: I checked out a local game store and played a few rounds of the Digimon card game. It's really fun! I'm especially taken with the "Hatching" mechanic, where you can keep a side deck for hatching an egg and raising a separate Digimon on the side from your main field. It's a cool mechanic that facilitates play on the main field while still rendering homage to Digimon's roots as a virtual pet. I appreciate that kind of thematic mechanical reference. Also, I'm rather amused at how well the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake is doing. Who would have thought, right?

Time to put another tiny miracle on the board! Not too long ago, we were reeling from the news of Yggdra Union and Riviera: The Promised Land being re-released on Steam and the Nintendo Switch. That last one had a major "in Japan" asterisk on it, but eventually Yggdra Union's Switch port came stateside. All we could do was wait for the Riviera port. Well, the wait is over! Riviera is back!

Man, I know that PSP port also had voice acting (although I never played it), so it still feels so special to hear the cast of Riviera properly voiced. Anyway, the remaster features updates to the old game like various difficulty modes, five different sound sources (I imagine they'd let you choose between the original Wonderswan, GameBoy Advance, and PSP soundtracks), the option to skip events, and your choice of Japanese and English voice tracks. Its visuals have also been completely updated for newer screens. I'm not entirely sure about those character sprites; they seem to have the same effect as the weird, blobby sprites from when ports try to remaster pixelated games. But it's not too different from how Riviera looked on PSP.

For folks who've never played Riviera, a lot of the appeal might be hard to grok. And I don't blame you, because the original game was somewhat clunky. A cross between a visual novel and an RPG, Riviera was originally released on the Wonderswan, earning an updated GameBoy Advance port a few years later. That port was brought over to the U.S. by Atlus—and I fell quite deeply in love with that game. It told the story of Ein, a Grim Angel tasked with preventing the land of Riviera from being overrun by demons and returning to its original form of Utgard. Along the way, he falls in with a variety of Sprites; the human-like people who populate Riviera. There were Fia and Lina, a fencer and her childish archer roommate; the tomboyish Serene; and the motherly witch Cierra. Ein's familiar, a cat named Rose, also tagged along (and has an ending all her own, but it's a doozy). Along the way, Ein will be forced to fight Ledah, his taciturn Grim Angel mentor; and Malice, a ruthless Grim Angel.

There was a lot of background lore to Rivera since it took place after Ragnarok (a war between demons and the Norse gods). Much of that lore was later expanded, in a way, in the subsequent Yggra Union, where the likes of Maria (a fallen angel) and Hector (a devious mage) were expanded upon. This led to the rise of Sting's Dept. Heaven games, all detailing the ongoing battle of the Norse gods and the many tribulations of the poor Maria. This included titles like Gugnir on the PSP, various Yggdra Union spin-offs, and Knights in the Nightmare on the DS—a completely buck-wild strategy game with a bullet-hell shooter as its interface system. There were other planned titles in the Dept. Heaven series, but the series eventually ran out of Steam and Sting moved on to other projects. Before Izuna came around, these were the games I was obsessed with.

Riviera: The Promised Land releases this November 28 on the Nintendo eShop; it's currently at a discounted price of $29.74 (down from $34.99). That sale will stay in place until December 4. For sure, pick it up; it's a charming game.

Who remembers Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin? It was a fun hybrid action game/farm sim. Playing as a harvest goddess, you used your farming abilities to help tame the land (and fill the bellies of your companions) as you helped reclaim an island from encroaching demons. It was a charming game that even got itself a 13-episode anime series. It passed undetected by many people, sadly, but it holds much appeal for folks that liked games like Okami. I expected it to be just another game for my backlog, but Marvelous and Edelweiss have surprised us with news of a spin-off!

Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation will feature a different goddess: Kokorowa. In a stark departure from Sakuna, a warrior-goddess of the harvest, Kokorowa is a goddess of invention whose domain revolves around gears and wheels. The trailer leans into this further, showing her traveling with an automaton as a companion (the cute Takebina). Where Sakuna was more of an action-platformer, Kokorowa hints at being more of a strategy game. Precious little about the story is available at the time of writing; I'm going on a limb, but it appears as though there will be more strategic elements, as Kokorowa will have unique automatons she can build and command to go against an opposing army of mass-produced robots.

Seeing a series take such a drastic thematic leap from its predecessor is interesting. From what I gather, Edelweiss is a doujin circle whose previous games range from side-scrolling shooters like Asterbreed to beat-'em-ups like the Fairy Bloom series. I imagine you can't keep a doujin circle from wanting to experiment with their titles. We'll keep you guys posted on how Sakuna Chronicles: Kokorowa and the Gears of Creation develops.

I've made it no secret that I dislike The Game Awards. It's artifice, and overwrought pageantry irks me. The Game Awards, to me, only serves to further sow antagonism between game players and the established gaming industry, especially given I hate what it represents for the industry, and I hate that people give it so much wasted oxygen every year. (All that money in promotion only matters because we give The Game Awards attention.) And let's not forget last year's "Please Wrap It Up" debacle, in which a Japanese award winner was requested all too quickly to cut their acceptance speech short. So, let's cover more of their shenanigans this year.

The big stink this year would be Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's nomination for Game of the Year. Shadow of the Erdtree is a phenomenal DLC; make no mistake—it's sophisticated enough to be a game unto itself, which is no mean feat given how massive Elden Ring itself is. By all means, it's a game that deserves all kinds of nods, but read back what I wrote. It's DLC—an expansion. So, what's it doing alongside other games? Since when is DLC in the running for best game? Sure, we don't want to snub the work that went into Shadow of the Erdtree's development, but it isn't a stand-alone release.

Previous controversies with nominations like Sifu being nominated as a "fighting game" (even though most fighting games have a competitive element against other players, which Sifu didn't have) or Multiversus being nominated when it wasn't even officially released yet, felt pretty bad. This one feels somewhat worse, because if DLC is suddenly in the running, hey, I've got a series worth talking about...

Yeah, yeah, I know my not-beating Xenoblade Chronciles 3 is part of my brand just as much as mentioning Izuna or carrying on about Boktai but bear with me here. The Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy is more like a hexology of games, with each entry having a DLC expansion that is effectively its own game with its own unique mechanics. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 pioneered this with Torna: The Golden Country. It was pretty central to the story of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, detailing the destruction of the Titan/continent of Torna, illustrating Mythra's lowest moment, letting players finally see who the ancient hero Adam was, as well as letting people see the beautiful but tragic relationship between the Blade Jin and his driver, Lora. It was at one point in development going to be its own chapter in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, until it was decided that it would've messed with the game's pacing too much. Not a bad decision, considering Torna: The Golden Country is 40 hours long (the median length for most other games!).

It features three different continents to explore, a wholly revamped battle system that improved upon the system from the main Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and was even sold as a stand-alone release with its own cartridge and everything. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 each followed along with their own 40-hour pseudo-sequels in the form of Future Connected (which illustrates the further adventures of Shulk and Melia after the events of the main game, while also allowing players to explore the Bionis' Shoulder), and Future Redeemed (which serves as a prequel to Xenoblade 3 and helps bridge the gap between it and its predecessors). Future Connected and Future Redeemed didn't get their own stand-alone releases, but again: they're long enough and even mechanically different enough from their respective "main games" that you could consider them unique titles. Oh, yeah, and they've never had any sort of nomination for Game of the Year. Yes, I remember that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 got nominated the year before, do not cite the old magic at me, I was there when it was snubbed for "Best Soundtrack".

The point here isn't to snub Shadow of the Erdtree in the name of making Xenoblade look better (especially since folks have pointed out that The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC also merits consideration). It's to point out that The Game Awards have some serious shenanigans going on with their nominations. As some have pointed out, this year's slate of Best Fighting Game nominations includes Multiversus, which already won Best Fighting Game in 2022. Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes is rightfully feeling snubbed for that.

Man, The Game Awards just feel like such a wash. I wish there was a way to ensure that figures and newcomers to the industry like Brianna White (nominated for her performance as Aerith in the Final Fantasy VII Remake games), Surgent Studios (nominated for best impact courtesy of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU) or LocalThunk (nominated for Best Indie Game courtesy of Balatro) could get the recognition they deserve without having to depend on such a dog-and-pony show. Especially since so many awards get skipped over for more odious "world premieres" for upcoming titles. Sometimes, it really feels like the worst thing about video games is everything surrounding them.

I'll be honest: it feels like ININ Games just came out of nowhere a few years ago. They've come into their own, but I'm surprised at how quickly they've crept up on us regarding beloved retro games and indie titles. They've been major champions for Success's Cotton series, handling ports for almost all of the games in the past few years (and even netting some of the game's physical releases). They've worked very well with Taito in releasing some of their remasters and collections, as well as those amazing remakes of Tengo Project's classic titles like Pocky & Rocky Reshrined or the recent Shadow of the Ninja Reborn. And they've even handled the physical releases for recent indie games like 80 Days and Overboard. It's always pleasant to see another retro title come down the tubes with their involvement. So imagine my surprise when this bit of news came out this week: ININ Games will now be handling Shenmue III's distribution.

I know what you're thinking because I'm thinking it too: "Shenmue III? That came out five years ago!" Yeah, it did, but it only released on PlayStation 4 and Steam. And it's mostly missed any recent consoles (notably, the Xbox). This is a bit of a weird one, I know; Shenmue III was a rather contentious title upon release. Sure, the Kickstarter campaign was a record-breaking affair, but the actual game itself confused folks. Yū Suzuki's famous epic about a martial artist seeking revenge for his murdered father was quite beloved when it was released on the original Dreamcast at the dawn of the 2000s and earned all kinds of accolades for its in-depth martial arts combat (itself based on Virtua Fighter's system) and open-world exploration, but it went missing for about twenty years. In the years since, titles like Grand Theft Auto picked up what Shenmue dropped and ran with it, taking the games much farther than Sega ever had. If anything, the Like A Dragon games are a much better modern take on Shenmue's concept, from the hard-hitting cinematic story to the locales packed with minigames and collectibles (and tons and tons of Sega references). Bless his heart, Suzuki kept trying, and I'm glad we live in a world where Shenmue III was made... but also, I think it's fair to point out that Shenmue III feels quite lacking in comparison to its many modern successors.

Still, an interesting failure is still interesting; Shenmue III was, for better or worse, Yū Suzuki's vision, and we're better for its existence. Even if it wasn't the game we hoped it would be, a lot of folks still believe in Shenmue, and they deserve to play the game on modern consoles. (Come to think of it, it's kinda weird that the first two Shenmue titles aren't on the Switch...) As mentioned earlier, folks are hoping that this means Shenmue III will come to Xbox... while others hope that'll open the door to a possible Shenmue IV. Given the massive cliffhanger that Shenmue III left us with, yeah, I'd also hope that folks got some closure. Who knows, maybe Suzuki just needed to shake the rust off. We'll keep you posted on how this story progresses.

What does it mean when a major studio decides they don't want anything more to do with Twitter? Well, it seems we're about to find out. miHoYo, the studio that has given the world major gacha franchises like Honkai Impact Third, Genshin Impact, and Honkai Star Rail, recently announced that they would no longer make game announcements on Twitter, opting instead to keep their announcements on their HoYoLAB website. While the accounts are still making tweets as usual, they will not include any announcements for the games, such as new banners, events, or sales.

Twitter has been a sinking ship for a good long while, ever since Elon Musk bought it out. There is a laundry list of issues with the website: bots are now rampant, the algorithm for the site changes seemingly on Musk's whims for the day, and a lot of outright hateful rhetoric gets the spotlight whether you want it or not. The recent decision to effectively nullify the Block function, allowing blocked users to still see your tweets and profile, hasn't helped—especially considering Twitter's massive harassment problem. And that's before you get to the site's hard-coded policy on allowing any and all content posted on the site (from text tweets to images) to be scraped for training their Grok AI. Small wonder people are leaving in droves. miHoYo is similarly joined by CAPCOM in seeking greener pastures than Twitter, especially with the latter opening several BlueSky accounts for their biggest titles (Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Ace Attorney, Street Fighter and Dead Rising).

This isn't even the worst of it; all three major video game consoles in the United States (the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series X|S, and the Nintendo Switch) featured Twitter connectivity out of the box. All three consoles each had a button on the face of their controller specifically for taking screenshots and clips of in-game action, with further connectivity in their hardware to upload and share this multimedia on your Twitter account. Hell, we even had games designed with this connectivity in mind—famously, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 features an in-game gacha system for rolling new rare Blades, purely so players could share the excitement online of finding new exotic Blades for their party (like the elusive KOS-MOS from Xenosaga). Within the past year, all three major consoles have cut this functionality; those buttons might take screenshots of your in-game shenanigans, but if you want to share them online, then you'll have to do your own legwork.

On the most basic, cynical level, it behooves studios and publishers to follow their audience. If their audience has decided to leave for another platform, then hey, pick up sticks and move along with them. Though it also says something that a lot of studios decide they don't want anything to do with a platform entirely, it's no wonder the terse nature of how studios communicate on Twitter is partially shaped by how the audience on Twitter behaves. Lest we forget, Nintendo needs to endcap all of their announcement tweets with a statement confirming that, no, they will not be discussing any new Animal Crossing games during the Super Smash Bros stream. Twitter allowed for interaction from fans to studios, so it directly emboldened a lot of bad actors to go fully knife-out in their toxicity; I can only hope the community managers for those brands and companies get hazard pay for their trouble.

On the one hand, I don't mind publishers abandoning Twitter functionality. Call me old-fashioned, but when I'm playing a game, I want to play the game, not show off that I'm playing the game or brag that I managed something or other. My achievements are between my controller and myself. But I do think there is something sad about publishers ditching Twitter functionality entirely. Gaming has always had a hint of being something of a spectator sport, going back all the way to folks huddled around someone at an arcade getting a high score at Asteroids. There's a community in boasting about our favorite moments from our favorite games. While I won't miss games being designed to be viral, I think something like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 being designed with an in-game gacha system purely for folks to show off rolls speaks to a kind of experimentation that we've lost. Like, sure, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 would likely be a lot better if those rare Blades were easier to collect (especially since they gate some of the best sidequests behind their acquisition)... but also, there's something very genuine when folks compare their Rare Blade acquisitions. There's a mysterious appeal to some of those Blades you might not have met in your journey. In an age where games are scoured through in their entirety, I think anything that helps build mystery is a plus.

It's a time of change for the industry. I don't think any further consoles will emphasize multimedia sharing in the way current consoles do (and if they do, it's likely because the decision to ditch Twitter connectivity came too late in console development). They had a nice thing going, too bad someone else had to ruin it for everyone else.

That will do it for this week. It's already Thanksgiving next week. Wow, can you believe it? Thanksgiving! Dealing with family over the holidays is a cumbersome matter for some, but I hope you are all able to spend Thanksgiving with people you love. It's a good time to check in on your friends and loved ones, or even creators you care about. Remember to spread goodwill with folks early and often. Also, please don't burn your houses down trying to deep fry a turkey, the pots have markings for the maximum oil level for a reason. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.