This Week in Games

Classic Visual Novels Get a New Lease on Life

Welcome back, folks! I had someone ask in the comments to last week's column why I hadn't mentioned the SAG-AFTRA strike with voice actors in the U.S. The simple answer: the news came in after our cut-off time. Nevertheless, That Bitch™ at This Week in Games supports the striking voice actors. They deserve to have their likenesses protected from AI scraping. Those folks work hard to hone their abilities, and that effort should be properly respected and compensated. In other news: I made it to Chapter 7 in Xenoblade Chronicles 3! We're actually in the home stretch! At this point, the one thing I really want to wrap up before heading into the endgame is the class mastery quests. I don't even want to max out the classes, I just want the stories, man. Then we can head into the DLC.

Longtime fans of indie visual novels had a surprise last week when news broke that Katawa Shoujo was releasing on Steam and Itch.io, a full twelve years after its original 2012 release!

Why the long delay? Well, Steam still had an extremely rigorous selection process for games back in 2012 when Katawa Shoujo was originally released, that might be a factor. (I remember it being a very big deal when Recettear finally got a Steam page in the U.S.) But there's no time like the present, yeah?

While I'd like to have seen some updates regarding some of the game's sprites or artwork, I understand that that might've been outside of people's hands. For now, what Katawa Shoujo's Steam release does have is Steamdeck support. The Steam port is also the all-ages version of the game; see, the original Katawa Shoujo VN gave players the option of omitting the sex scenes entirely. The Itch.io version has them all by default; anyone who wants the original experience on Steam is invited to download a patch (also made available on Itch.io) to restore the adult content. Reportedly, Katawa Shoujo will be made available for free; Four Leaf Studios has always kept Katawa Shoujo as a free game, and instead encourage folks who wish to put money on the table for the game to donate to charity instead.

There's a long tail to the Katawa Shoujo saga, so strap in for a long history lesson: the story begins with an artist by the name of Raita Honjō. They're the main character designer for SEGA's Valkyria Chronicles games, while also having designed a few beloved characters for Fate/Grand Order (specifically Ibuki-Doji, Minamoto-no-Raikou and Aoi Yuuki Shuten Doji). He's also responsible for a ton of doujinshi like his long-running (adult) Mahou Shoujo series (which was sadly never animated outside of his own attempt at an animated short in 2012). Back in the year 2000, he made a Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind doujinshi. In the back of the doujin, Raita had thrown up a number of off-the-wall ideas for visual novels. See, back in 2000 it was still extremely common for visual novels to get adapted into anime; ToHeart and Tokimeki Memorial burst those doors wide open, and the moé boom was supported by a healthy list of animated adaptations of other visual novels like Shuffle! or Clannad (twice, in the latter's case). So VNs had more of a fire under their butts, hence Raita's illustration. In this case, he drew up an idea for a visual novel set in a school for disabled people; all of the characters were the archetypal love interests (student council president, rich ojou-type, energetic track-and-field athlete) with some kind of disability (deafness, blindness, deformed limbs caused by thalidomide...). And there the illustration sat for six years, with nobody really thinking twice about it.

So one day, a bunch of people on 4Chan randomly fixated on the image (as they do), and wondered, "Hey, wouldn't it be neat if we actually made a game out of this?" So a few regular threads ensued where multiple anonymous users metaphorically threw darts on the board for ideas and names of the characters. But since 4Chan isn't exactly conducive to completing any kind of project (what with the threads getting deleted and the whole "everyone is anonymous" system), it didn't get very far. Eventually, a few dedicated users decided to stop messing around and actually make the game, so they grouped up, formed a studio, and actually set to work making Katawa Shoujo. They even messaged Raita for his blessing on the project (which he gave them).

Katawa Shoujo's development was pretty... fraught. Not for lack of effort on behalf of the developers, mind; it's just that a bunch of kids on the Internet realized that making a VN is a collaborative effort, and over the years the newly-dubbed "Four Leaf Studios" saw a lot of people join and leave the project. Eventually, the team coalesced into a group of folks who stuck it out; after starting Katawa Shoujo in earnest in 2007, they released a demo in 2009, then released the full game in 2012. It was definitely an ordeal—even a game as "simple" as a visual novel takes a ton of organization and management to get off the ground, and many of the members of Four Leaf Studios were people who'd never made a game before. But Katawa Shoujo eventually released to positive sentiment on behalf of the gaming community. Most folks regarded it with amused curiosity, seeing its origins as more of a curiosity point than the game itself. But a lot of people appreciated its emotional storytelling, even if a few of the arcs suffered from the rotating writers over the years. And, amusingly, most if not all of Raita's original suggestions made it into the game! Reportedly, Raita loved the game when it was shown to him at Comiket. The devs also memed on their way through the game's development; long-time Code Geass fans might remember folks asking what Lelouche's disability was, all because Lelouche was at one point a class member in the Katawa Shoujo demo. He was replaced with a generic student afterward (he was "too distracting"), but there were still other classmates who referenced Haruhi Suzumiya or To Heart 2's Ikuno Komaki. Hey, they were still big in 2009!

Four Leaf Studios split up after Katawa Shoujo, albeit amicably; everyone went off to work on their own projects. Mike Inel, who did most of the animations for Katawa Shoujo, still does plenty of animation work on YouTube (as well as some work on adult video games). The artist Rtil still does art to this day, I've seen him at some local conventions. He also did some work on Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (warning: page links to NSFW art). Ge-B (note: page contains some NSFW art) and Weee (a.k.a., raemz) mostly do art these days, with Ge-B having released a few doujin of her own at Comiket and Weee doing some art for light novels. And Suriko has continued working on other VNs like A Tithe in Blood.

I wish I had more to say about my personal experiences with Katawa Shoujo, but sadly even though I was really rooting for the game during its development I never actually finished it. I only beat Shizune's storyline (her being the deaf student council president). What I can say is that Kenji's character really hits differently these days—and not in a good way. See, back in the day, Kenji was one of those mind-rotted conspiracy theorists that you could just point at and make fun of. Even the game framed him as a total buttmonkey, and the game underlined that if you were hanging out with him you had definitely done more than a few things badly. In today's day and age, though, Kenji's mind-rot (most of which revolves around misogynistic conspiracy theories about women) doesn't quite read as funny, since the Internet is lousy with real-world Kenjis today.

I highly doubt that we'll ever see a Katawa Shoujo sequel, if only because the main Four Leaf Studios folks have scattered to the wind and are all working on their own projects these days. Heck, I doubt that we'll ever see another project in the same vein as Katawa Shoujo; the Internet has changed a lot, the places where people congregate are way different, and it's not as easy to get as many excited people with more enthusiasm than common sense in a room together to actually make something a reality. Still, we can appreciate Katawa Shoujo for the tiny miracle its own existence is and for the way it's touched the lives of both those who worked on it and those who enjoyed it. It's nice to see it back.

Hey, so back in May we reported on AQUAPLUS' preparation for its 30th anniversary and the possibility of it making new entries in some of its esteemed visual novel series. We're getting those! Shiravune announced a localization of Utawarerumono: ZAN, a musou-style beat-'em-up based off of AQUAPLUS' long-running fantasy series. But I want to focus on AQUAPLUS' other big franchise because it's the momentous return of the ToHeart series!

The announcement is rather simple for those who can't speak Japanese: a ToHeart remake is in development, featuring an all-new voice cast. Kana Ichinose will voice the "main" girl, Akari, although there will be an option to play the game with the original voice cast. Further details on the ToHeart remake will be available at the AQUAPLUS Festival this November.

It's hard to underline how important ToHeart was to anime and visual novel culture back in its heyday, both because we're so far removed from it and because it's fairly distant from anime fans. I saw someone on Twitter snarking about how it's the kind of game some VN diehard would insist was a massively foundational work and how the robot-maid is one of the best-written characters ever but, uh... yeah? It probably is? I mean, I've never played Quake or Unreal, I'm not gonna pretend those games aren't massively important in gaming history just because I don't know the first thing about them! And yeah, Multi the robot girl was a massively-beloved character in 1997—if you ever wonder why so many robot girls in the 90s and beyond had the weird techy headphone robot-ears, she's why. She even cameoed in an official Touhou game—Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream.

ToHeart takes a ton of cues from that other seminal visual novel, Tokimeki Memorial; you play as a student trying to win the heart of the charming redhead Akari. What makes ToHeart so special is that it's an ensemble piece; all of the characters have their own unique plot and development, ranging from Akari being the main character's loving childhood friend to Multi and her quest to behave more like a human to Tomoko the class president. Unlike Tokimeki Memorial, there weren't really any Earth-shattering gimmicks on display that changed how you interacted with the characters or the world. In fact, ToHeart is a mostly hands-off approach, with only a handful of actual decisions to be made at certain focal points. Really, it was the strength of the character writing that made ToHeart such a powerhouse of a series in the 90s. It speaks to Leaf and AQUAPLUS' efforts that they basically made lightning strike twice with To Heart 2, even when the sequel featured an all-new cast—albeit with some more exaggerated characters, like Lucy being an alien. Or my favorite of the cast, Tamaki Kousaka, whose vice-like hands can erase people's memories (by accident).

ToHeart laid the foundation for a lot of subsequent bishoujo games and in its own way was formative for the moé boom that later dominated anime in the '00s (with several Key VNs also doing their fair share). So the announcement of a sequel is big news—especially since that means there's a chance for the VN to get released in the U.S. Shiravune has handled the licensing and releasing of a number of AQUAPLUS games in the U.S., like the aforementioned Utawarerumono: ZAN (as well as the other Utawarerumono games) and even some of ToHeart's distant spin-offs like Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 In Another World. Sadly, Steam blackballed Dungeon Travelers 2 from being hosted on the platform, even though it was already rated by the ESRB for its release in the U.S. on the PS Vita. Regardless, the outlook is good for Shiravune to release the ToHeart remake in the US! Hopefully, this also leads to the ToHeart anime adaptation getting licensed and rescued in the U.S. The now-defunct Right Stuf held the license and even dubbed the series back in the day, but that series is now lost to limbo in the wake of its being sold to Crunchyroll.

Ah, the Olympics, the something-or-other that has the thing with the such. I can't pretend I care much about the Olympics, if only because I had completely forgotten that we were slated for the Olympics this year, let alone that they were taking place in France. What I can say is that the Olympics usually come with some kind of attached video game; in years past, this would be a collection of mini-games related to the many events at the Olympics, featuring teams and athletes (like taking part in the games that year. One of the games that my parents would later get me for my Sega Genesis as a toddler (not counting Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which came packed-in with the console) was 1993's Winter Olympics, based off of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. As a side note: having watched Cool Runnings as a child, I was very confused and disappointed that it wasn't possible to play the bobsledding mini-game with a Jamaican bobsledding team.

Anyway, since 2007 the biggest games to have come out of the Olympics were the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series. Co-produced between Nintendo and Sega, once the fiercest of rivals in the gaming industry, they featured... well, Mario Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog competing at the Olympic games, usually in whichever city the Olympics were being hosted that year. They also made sure to include a bunch of their friends, so it was possible to see unholy things like Waluigi completely killing it at Aerobics or Dr. Eggman (somehow) lapping Sonic at track-and-field. The most recent entry, 2019's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, was pretty well-received and even had a fun 2D mode featuring old 16-bit versions of the events with all of the playable characters done up in their old SNES/Genesis-era sprites.

You may now be wondering, "Hey, if this is an Olympic year, where's this year's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games France 2024?" Well, funny story! And by "funny" I mean "irritating": the International Olympic Committee decided they didn't want to make one. They didn't want to make one because they wanted to focus on NFTs. Lee Crocker, a developer on several of the Mario & Sonic titles, explained to Eurogamer, "They wanted to look at other partners and NFTs and esports. Basically, the IOC wanted to bring [it] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money."

To be fair, all of the preparations made for the Olympics happen a good many years in advance—heck, the current Olympic games aren't even done yet and we already know that the 2028 Olympic Games will be held in Los Angeles. The IOC's decision to axe Mario & Sonic was made in 2020. This also means that the decision to bank on NFTs would've been made roundabouts then. So when 2022 rolled around and NFTs became a laughingstock, they were likely too deep to change their minds. It doesn't stop any of this from being a complete disappointment, mind you; in place of Mario & Sonic is Olympics Go! Paris 2024, a free-to-play smartphone game that can give you a commemorative NFT if you link your wallet. It's likely worth less than nothing!

The loss of the Mario & Sonic games doesn't just represent the loss of a fun series of party games, though. It was a momentous occasion for the gaming industry! Previously, the only way to get Sonic and Mario in the same game was through Super Smash Bros. Mario & Sonic represented two former rivals burying the hatchet in the name of fraternity and sportsmanship, which is what the Olympics are (supposed to be) about. It's sad to think that we might never see another game with such a low-stakes crossover ever again; sure, some folks might have wanted a big, flashy dramatic game with Mario and Sonic teaming up to beat some amalgamated evil... but it was nice that we didn't get that and instead just got Mario and Sonic being buddies with each other and palling around. And, really, that's what those two guys are all about anyway.

We hope that after the embarrassment of the 2024 Olympic NFTs, the IOC will wind up and go back to Nintendo and Sega for further Olympic games. Just having Mario and Sonic as your spokespeople is the kind of marketing that most companies would willingly donate a limb for. In the meantime, you can lament the loss of virtual Olympic athletes like Mark Nutt—and prepare for the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games—with an old column of The Mike Toole Show where our good friend Mike Toole spins a yarn about the anime based off of the mascot for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games

Fans of cult games know the name Castle of Shikigami, albeit not the whole story; the series is mostly known in the U.S. due to the hysterical performances of the U.S. release of the second title.

See, it's not even bad because of stereotypical bad voice acting, it's also terrible mixing and balancing. Anyway, the rest of the Castle of Shikigami games mostly live in the shadow of the poor dubbing of the second game. A bit unfair, since the Castle of Shikigami games are pretty neat danmaku shooters along the lines of the mainline Touhou games or Mushihimesama. The first game had a neat mechanic where shooting made you move slower but also drew all nearby power-ups or point icons to your character. There was also a fun mechanic where scoring was multiplied based on how close a bullet was to your character's hitbox.

At any rate, Studio Cosmo Machia has announced a crowdfunding campaign on Campfire for Castle of Shikigami III. This isn't a new game or anything; it's just a PC release for the game. A U.S. release isn't even confirmed, but it's still an appreciated gesture; Castle of Shikigami III hasn't been seen in 17 years since its original release in arcades, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii in Japan. At the time of writing, the campaign stands at a little over a third of its ¥3 million goal; should it surpass the goal, they have a stretch goal at ¥15 million to port the game to 'the latest consoles', and the entire series being ported to consoles at ¥20 million. They're also working with Alfa System, the original creators of the Castle of Shikigami series.

As mentioned earlier, there's no word on whether this might lead to any kind of re-release in the U.S., but the first two games are available on Steam in the U.S. Though it would be nice if this led to a re-release of the third game in the US—we haven't seen it stateside since its Wii release in 2008. Hey, have to leave that door open. Hope costs nothing.

It's a Gunda—oh, wait, nevermind, it's another Fortnite collab. These are really piling up lately; it felt like such a big deal when we covered stuff like the Dragon Ball collab or the My Hero Academia collab, but now it feels so pedestrian for there to be another Fortnite collab with an esteemed long-running anime series. I wish I wasn't so apathetic towards it because this is a great way of getting new people interested in these franchises! But, y'know... Fortnite. It's nice that it's getting all of these collabs, I just wish it was with a better game. It's like hearing scuttlebutt about a Slayers video game only for it to be a single branded Lina Inverse wig in Party Animals. Anyway, Gundam and Fortnite are crossing over, folks!

The collab carries the title, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance, and is inspired by the upcoming CG anime set to premiere on Netflix. It'll play out as your ordinary deathmatch, with a minor twist: players on either team can score points that energize their side's chosen mobile suit, either the Gundam EX or the Zaku II Solari. Once the unit is powered up, one team member can pilot it to run roughshod all over the opposing team. It sounds fun enough. We don't know what else the collab will bring, but the collab won't drop until October 17th (same as the anime), so there is still plenty of time for skins and emotes to get revealed.

I'm optimistic, honestly; from what I can gather, the Gundam/Call of Duty collab left fans fairly satisfied—provided, a lot of that had to do with the related skins being as good as they were. I'm sure the folks at Epic can make a decent collab out of this. Sure do wonder what a Requiem for Vengeance event would've looked like in Gundam Evolution, though...

That'll do it for this week, I think. While I haven't touched upon it in an official capacity (since it deals with American studios), the massive layoffs at Bungie this past week continue to illustrate the corporate blight in the gaming industry; CEOs and investors who are only interested in scavenging for the tiniest percentage they can squeeze from a stone. The need for studios and creatives of all sorts to unionize in the U.S. is only becoming more apparent; hopefully, more studios can follow Bethesda's lead and unionize before we lose any further creatives in the industry. Any of the thousands upon thousands of laid-off game developers we've lost over the years could have been the next Roberta Williams or Richard Garriott. We need more of those people in the industry and fewer CEOs. Support the devs however you can on Twitter; raise awareness, signal-boost their portfolios, whatever it takes to make sure they can get some stability back. It's the least we can do for them. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.