This Week in Games

The True Secret of the Dragon is Guns

Welcome back, everyone! With everything having calmed down slightly, I finally got some time to play Xenoblade 3!

We also received a delightful surprise earlier this week! Back in late March, I was lucky enough to review Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key. And just last week, in honor of Ryza 3 reaching 300,000 units sold, Koei Tecmo released an accolades trailer for the game...

Check out the 18-seconds mark! That's me!! They quoted my review! This is the first time one of my reviews has been used as a blurb in any capacity. I'm obviously thrilled about the opportunity, and I'm ever so grateful I get to do this stuff. It's time-consuming and I burn the midnight oil, but I'm proud to help put the word out about all these fun games.

It's never a happy day when I have to write about fellow journalists losing their jobs.

VICE's beloved gaming website, Waypoint, is now facing its shutdown. The website is due to close on June 2.

Waypoint, like many other gone-before-their-time sites like USGamer and 1Up.com, worked hard at creating deep dives into video games. Its mission statement was to offer readers an "immersive dive into the culture, passion, and politics of gaming." That's the kind of phrase that makes certain kinds of video game fans break out in hives, but it's also the kind of thing that really makes people come to appreciate games. It's the domain of beloved figures like Noah Caldwell-Gervais and his day-long videos scrutinizing every aspect of beloved video game franchises, of Jeremy Parish's incredible Game Boy/NES Works videos detailing every single video game ever released on those consoles. It is the pursuit of looking at video games as more than just electronic curiosities but as the beloved things we dedicate hours of our time out of raw passion and love for the worlds they make, characters they introduce us, and moments that still echo in our memories years after the fact. And, because games aren't farted into existence by executives, Waypoint also examined the political context behind these games and their creation—their sign-out for their podcast was "Fuck capitalism, go home."

The personalities at Waypoint were many and beloved; Patrick Klepek, Rob Zacny, Ricardo Contreras, and Gita Jackson are only a few of the larger-than-life figures that many fans welcomed into their homes through Waypoint's podcast. And the fan love was next-level—Waypoint's success carried it for six years. To put it into perspective: I've only been doing this column for 10 months. My predecessor, the talented Heidi Kemps, had kept this column running for five years before passing the baton to me this past summer. I can only hope I'm lucky enough to do this for five years.

So, what killed Waypoint? Well, it certainly wasn't a lack of support. By all accounts (and Patrick Klepek's voice himself), Waypoint was doing great. More than anything, it was profitable. But "profitable" sadly isn't enough for some; you gotta have exponential growth, which just isn't feasible.

Without tooting my own horn, games writing matters. Just last week, I saw tons of my readers in the comments sharing their memories and wishes about Mega Man Battle Network and the Mega Man series at large—games that are, at the very least, the better part of 20 years old. And the stories of the men and women who made these games matter; from charting Toby Fox's life path as an Earthbound rom hacker to Yoshi-P begging Final Fantasy XIV fans for a second chance (and later earning their loyalty), there are whole libraries' worth of stories behind the games we love. And it weirds me out how this not only doesn't get talked about, people would rather it just gets forgotten. I repeat the whole bit of "women at Activision Blizzard had their breast milk stolen out of the fridge" not just because I have it out for Activision Blizzard, but because from now on someone who spent years of their life working at Blizzard will see World of Warcraft and have to remember a miserable time in their life.

The demand for constant growth isn't just lethal to game journalists; it has also killed off many a great game series. I remember when the Tomb Raider reboot was released and Square Enix designated it a "failure", in spite of having sold 3.4 million copies. We've seen whole genres like single-player games or horror games written off because executives insist they're not popular—when in reality, there's no way to squeeze every last cent out of a game with a 12-hour runtime. While I won't disclose how much I make working on This Week In Games (it's enough both to satisfy my wallet and my love of covering games), it bears mentioning that this isn't an easy gig and it's not one you'll get rich doing. And it's sadly one where you're likely to see your life's work vanish in a second. Just ask the many expats at 1Up who later watched USGamer crumble.

As always, I make the call to my readers to rally behind the creatives whose work you enjoy—this stuff is intensely ephemeral, surviving at the whims of executives who would sell their mamas for a nickel. Show some support and love to the Waypoint expats; I hope they can find someplace else where they can keep doing what they love. And to folks celebrating that they lost their jobs: I hope the things you love don't vanish from your line of sight.

We've talked about Cygames a few times before here. Best known as the creators of the beloved Granblue Fantasy mobile game, Cygames is currently near the top of the mobile game market. While some of its other titles like Dragalia Lost and the American server of Princess Connect! Re:Dive have seen untimely shut-downs, Cygames is still very keen on expansion—hence the news from this past week that it will be opening branches in Europe and America.

Obviously named Cygames America and Cygames Europe, its goal is to help expand Cygames' reach across the world. While I doubt this means we'll see the metric boatload of Granblue doujin making its way to the U.S. (alas, I'm always down for more Kumbhira and Fediel), this is likely going to help Cygames plenty. For one thing, the company doesn't have to depend on third parties to ensure its stuff is brought to the U.S. For another, they don't have to worry about possible partners pulling out of a deal and leaving a game stranded. The decision to shut the Princess Connect servers down came from Crunchyroll, after the game had made $14 million worldwide (and the U.S. was responsible for approximately 66% of that revenue).

Will this lead to Princess Connect coming back to the U.S.? Probably not, but I'd like to think so. In the meantime, nothing to do but sit back and wait to see what comes next from the house Vyrn built.

I'm always surprised to see NIS release a new game that isn't a Disgaea title. This past week, we saw a trailer for its newest title, the gruesome-looking Xicatrice!

That title is cute; "xicatrice" is a misspelling of "cicatriz," the Spanish word for "scar." Between that and the gruesome imagery, I'm thinking a lot of these kids have some serious baggage.

Anyway, I'm getting a lot of different vibes from this game. The basic school setting with the visual novel interface reminds me of 13 Sentinels, but the first-person battles are straight-up classic Shin Megami Tensei, especially given the contemporary setting. The story is based around a group of classmates that consist of the "Reserve Anti abnormal Unusual-talent Team" [sic], a group of students with superpowers like "Loss" or "Evasion." There are also mysterious creatures called Doppels, which appear to be twisted monstrous versions of each student.

The game appears to be divided into three parts: a "school" part where characters go to their daily classes and partake in lessons; the "Skill Build" component, wherein characters learn new abilities (possibly derived from their performance in their classes); and "Battlem" where they will face off against monsters. Of all things to have as a reference, the battle mode reminds me of Criminal Girls, with chibi versions of your active party in the four corners of the screen.

I can only hope the battle mode isn't as annoying as Criminal Girls; while it's interesting on paper for characters to take action randomly as per their equipped skills and abilities (attacking if they know attack skills, buffing if they have buff spells and MP available, etc), it's nevertheless a bit annoying to not have any way of controlling battles—especially if the CPU makes a decision you disagree with. Also, here's hoping the minigames in Xicatrice aren't as skin-crawling as Criminal Girls...

For now, that's about all we have on Xicatrice. It's scheduled for release in Japan on June 29 for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PS5. At the time of writing, there is currently no news on a U.S. release, but I'd expect one before too long—Xicatrice hits a lot of RPG vibes that might make it a good cult hit westside.

Let's keep up the Japan-only trip! Aniplex is also working on a new title, this one a visual novel. Titled Murder Mystery Paradox: Fifteen Years of Summer, it doesn't have a trailer out yet, but it does have a Steam page. Taking place in 2004, you play Itsuki Amazawa as he visits his adoptive mother's childhood home. A series of mysterious disappearances occur on the island, with much of the evidence incriminating Itsuki. The meat of the game is Itsuki trying to clear his name as he tries to keep more people from disappearing. He'll also be trying to gain the trust of several locals, who presumably might become victims themselves.

That's about all we have to go on so far. As I said, the game doesn't even have a trailer on Steam, just screenshots. But it's an interesting concept, and the page being in English does give me hope that this game might come to the U.S. Aniplex brought over a physical release for the TYPE-MOON kinetic novel Witch on the Holy Night a few months back. While I have no clue how well that went for them, it was nevertheless cool to see such a lavish physical release for such a fan-favorite title. Even if Murder Mystery Paradox only gets a digital release, it'd be fascinating to see brought over. Here's hoping!

For now, Murder Mystery Paradox only has a vague "2023" release window. Plenty of time for Aniplex to make up its mind on a U.S. release!

Fancy that—Double Dragon news only a few short weeks after Matt McMuscles makes an incredibly comprehensive "Wha Happun?" based on the Double Dragon series. For the uninitiated: Double Dragon was one of the old arcade/8-bit pillars of Gaming that became the foundation for the side-scrolling beat-'em-up like Final Fight. Its DNA can still be felt in modern games like the Scott Pilgrim VS The World.

Double Dragon eventually fell off but was temporarily revived by WayForward's Double Dragon Neon. It's been a bit since the last actual Double Dragon game, Arc System Works' Double Dragon IV. While that version didn't quite capture the fandom's imagination, there's still a bit of love for the series. Thankfully, Double Dragon is getting another chance—but not from Arc System Works!

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is coming from Modus Games, who have licensed the Double Dragon games. I have a few misgivings because the game looks to be recreating the original so much. Like, sure, aim for that nostalgia, but the only thing I personally know about Double Dragon is that damn garage and the Lee brothers coming out to beat up goons after Marian gets sucker-punched in the gut.

But with that said, Modus is at least taking some effort into making it a stand-out beat-'em-up. For one, there's now a fun "Offense/Defense" system where you can summon a backup character to cancel into a combo extension. There is also a kind of bounty system at work; your playable characters can seek out the leaders of one of four gangs in the city in exchange for currency, which can be used to power up your characters. It also gives you two new characters to play: Uncle Martin, a guy with a riot shield (okay), and—predictably—Marian.

I don't wanna sound flippant, but I'm a little bummed out that it's not the Marian from River City Girls. This one is more like her original depiction, only this time in order to prevent people from gut-punching her, Marian is packing heat: she's got a gun and a bazooka, and her combos are all about gunning people down. Kudos for giving her a design that really plays well with Marian's original look, at least; we can just headcanon River City Girls is Marian in her 40s after bulking up and letting her hair naturally go white.

That's another thing that impresses me, though. Currently, Double Dragon exists best in people's mindscape as cameo characters in River City Girls, with River City Girls 2 featuring Marian as a playable character and Billy and Jimmy Lee (voiced by the Game Grumps, Arin Hanson, and Danny "Sexbang" Avidan) as characters in the dojo. I'm surprised there isn't more of a retroactive attempt at incorporating more of the River City Ransom world into Double Dragon, though given how much this game is basing itself on the original Double Dragon, that probably puts it long before anyone in River City was born.

And that's the other factor some folks might bring up: "When is this game supposed to take place?" As Matt McMuscles points out in his video, the Double Dragon series is a gnarled knot of continuity, the result of the rights to the game being given to just about anybody who asked. Like, there's a Double Dragon V...but that was based on the American Double Dragon cartoon, and Arc System Works' recent Double Dragon was a new Double Dragon IV. Which is probably why this game is titled as a "Gaiden" game. It's a good approach; there is such a thing as caring too much about timelines and lore. (Just look at the absolute mess the Zelda series has in the name of having a "timeline.")

There's one last disappointing thing to cover: apparently, online co-op won't be available upon release. That'll be patched in later on. My tone is a bit more negative than I intended—I really am excited about this title, I'm just a persnickety little pedant. But a Double Dragon game without online co-op upon release feels like a bad move. I'm pretty sure anyone who wants to play a Double Dragon is willing to wait a few extra weeks (maybe even months) if it means getting co-op on launch.

We currently don't have a solid release date for Double Dragon Gaiden, outside of a vague "Summer 2023" release window. It'll be releasing on pretty much everything: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Steam. I would like to wrap up this story with the wish that Matt McMuscles considers making an episode of "Wha Happun?" on Boktai or Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja before his ability to materialize sequels out of the aether wears off.

We've talked about the Touhou series before, a long-running series of bullet hell shoot-'em-ups set against a backdrop of Japanese mysticism made by ZUN, a guy with a cool hat who loves his beers. There have been plenty of Touhou spin-offs, too, covering all kinds of funky genres. And Touhou: Mystia's Izakaya definitely exists on the outskirts of conventional genres—a charming little restaurant simulator starring Mystia Lorelei, the bird-brained night sparrow from Imperishable Night who can drive people crazy by singing.

In Touhou lore, Mystia sells grilled eel skewers by the side of the road as she tempts mortals into getting lost...so obviously the best course of action is making a restaurant sim where Mystia spends her days gathering recipes and her nights tending to the many, many hat-wearing girls in Gensokyo and their culinary requests. Satisfying her customers gets Mystia money, while messing up too badly will make the girls use their signature danmaku attacks on your hapless stall.

Mystia's Izakaya is already available on Steam, but developer Phoenixx announced a Nintendo Switch port set to arrive sometime in 2024! While there's no word yet on a U.S. release, I really hope we get one. The Touhou games and their spin-offs have come to the U.S. more reliably in recent years, and this game is a cozy one. I'd love the chance to play it in English, and I think we could all use a game about a bird girl making grilled eel skewers for her buddies. Here's hoping!

That'll do it for this week. It's the lull before the storm; by this time next week, we'll be smack dab in Tears of the Kingdom's release! Anyone with any sense will be keeping their game out of the shadow of The Legend of Zelda; people have been waiting for that one for ages. Hopefully, folks haven't been too spoiled on the leaks. We'll be here to keep up with any news coming out on that or other games—who knows, something might set the world on fire in the next week. As always: be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.