This Week in Games

One More Direct for the Road

It's that time again! No, I'm not talking about Summer Games Done Quick... but you should still be watching (and donating) to that anyway. Yes, my friends, it's Nintendo Direct time again! My wish to discuss at least one more Nintendo Direct before I depart has been granted, and I am ever so thankful. A Mini Direct, to be precise, but a Direct nonetheless, filled with surprises galore! Let's not waste time—we've got announcements to discuss!

NINTENDO DIRECT SUMMARY: ACTUALLY, I THINK WE SAW IT COMING

Well, we got a lot of good third-party announcements from this Mini Direct! I think most folks came away from watching this feeling quite happy. Yeah, that leaked Tactics Ogre re-release I'm really excited for wasn't shown, but there were plenty of other announcements to make up for it. As usual, I'm not going to cover everything here, especially if it's something that's already out, out very soon, and/or announced elsewhere. I'm sure you all know about Portal by now, right?

First off: Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak is available as of today, but Capcom announced that we can expect several more updates to the game across the remainder of the year into 2023. Sounds swell!

And then we have… NieR Automata. Well, I guess if you haven't played this on any other platform, you've now got it on Switch. It's a native port, not some online cloud-gaming thing, so I do wonder what's going to be scaled down to get it running on the Switch. Probably a framerate drop, I'm guessing. Also, I want goofy Nintendo character costumes like in the Bayonetta ports. Who doesn't want to see 2B and 9S as Peach and Mario?

Super Bomberman R 2 doesn't look too shabby at all, even if it is a reminder that Konami could be making more games with their stable of classic IPs but simply chooses not to. Still, that 15-versus-one multiplayer defense mode sounds like a blast (har).

I never really got into the Megaman Battle Network games, but I know a lot of people who absolutely swear by these titles, so it's great to see them getting all bundled together. Who knows, I might want to give them a proper playthrough now that they're all together like this. It's unfortunate that the GameCube action-oriented spinoff Network Transmission isn't included, but apparently there are some rights issues involved, so it's understandable. I think all of the GBA games on modern platforms is more than satisfactory enough.

And hey, it's our old pal Pac-Man. Pac-Man World was a surprisingly engaging PS One action game series that managed to stand out from the pack (har) of similar 3D platformers clogging the market at the time, and a lot of folks have been hoping the series would make some sort of modern return. While it's not the fourth installment some folks were really hoping for, a ground-up remake of the first game is certainly welcome, especially with how few well-made whimsical 3D platformers get made these days. Unfortunately, one element of the original isn't returning: Ms. Pac-Man.

Yes, Ms. Pac-Man has been carefully retconned from every Pac-Man-related rerelease recently, replaced with a character fans have dubbed “Pac-Mom.” The story behind this is long and bizarre, but the short version is: Namco didn't fully own the rights to Ms. Pac-Man due to a complex development licensing arrangement decades ago, and those rights somehow got sold to trash-tier drugstore checkout mini console maker AtGames, whom current Bandai-Namco does not want to deal with. Thus, Ms. Pac-Man had to get Thanos-snapped out of existence. Will it affect the gameplay of Pac-Man World Re-Pac much? Probably not, but it does mean that games more prominently featuring the Ms are not likely to be re-released anytime soon.

We first talked about Return to Monkey Island not too long ago, and now we've got more gameplay footage—and the announcement that it'll make its console debut on Switch first, with other platforms to follow. Switch just seems like the right place for classic adventure games, y'know?

It's not a Nintendo Direct without a surprise release drop, and this time, it's a roguelite platformer from… CyGames? Yes! It's Little Noah: Scion of Paradise! This is quite a pleasant surprise: the Little Noah character and world (designed by beloved illustrator Akihiko Yoshida) come from a mobile game of the same name, which appears to have been released as the generically titled Battle Champs in some territories. The mobile game shut down a while back, but CyGames seems to like the character and setting so much that they made a whole new game around her just for funsies. If you're curious, I suggest giving Scion of Paradise a shot – it's quite good!

Hey, do you like trains? I'm not a train person, but there are plenty of folks out there who just can't get enough train sims in their life. And that's where RAILGRADE from independent Japanese developer Minakata Dynamics comes in. In-depth building and management simulations like this are surprisingly sparse on Switch, so I hope it finds an audience.

RPG Time: The Legend of Wright looks really cute. The “kid draws a game in their notebook you can play” concept isn't new, but it's also an idea that hasn't yet been done very well (remember Drawn to Death? Yeah, I didn't think so). I'm hoping it turns out nicely, because I adore the look of it.

More Sonic Frontiers footage. This time… in space! Well, cyberspace. These levels look a bit more structured than the open world we've seen footage of so far, and I'm happy to see them filled with the colorful, abstract geometry that made the classic Sonic games so visually striking. Can we just, like… go back in that direction, Sega? Please?

You might have forgotten that there was a Doraemon-themed Story of Seasons game. I did. But it did well enough for Marvelous and Bandai Namco to team up again for a sequel! Chalk that up to Doraemon’s enduring popularity in Asia, I suppose. Anyhow, it's Story of Seasons, so you know what to expect. It'll be pleasant, I'm sure.

Harvestella is Square Enix's first big crack at an RPG/life sim hybrid in the vein of Sakuna and Rune Factory. You've got a farm to tend to, a bigger world to explore, a bunch of NPCs to interact and form relationships with… and a whole lot of monsters to kill. See, the world of Harvestella has five seasons, and the fifth season, “Quietus,” is the season of death and destruction that you and your companions want to put a stop to. (I'm a little weirded out by this, since the hometown of my youth is called “The City of Five Seasons” and has seen numerous large-scale natural disasters hit since I moved away. Hmmm…)

Dragon Quest Treasures has a new trailer and a release date—December 9! It looks like it may scratch a bit of the itch left behind by the lack of a new Dragon Quest Builders.

And finally, we have official confirmation of Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 3 Portable coming to Switch! It would've been nice if all of the platforms were announced together so we didn't have to hear all the social media “why not Switch?!” complaints, but the staggered announcement likely came from both Microsoft and Nintendo wanting to feature the games prominently in their platform-specific presentations. Ah well, Persona for everybody! Hooray!

Speaking of Persona…

SEGA WANTS TO TAKE ATLUS TO HOLLYWOOD

We frequently see articles claiming that “the game industry is bigger than Hollywood,” but in reality, that's not true. Despite how huge gaming is in 2022, there is still no game out there that's as accessible to the global masses as a big film release. And with film-and-TV-slash-streaming multiverses bringing in the big bucks these days, there's prime opportunity to expand Brands™ beyond gaming into even more mainstream media.

One of the more recent success stories in this space has been the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, which both raked in a whole heap of cash for Sega. But Sonic's not the only gaming property Sega wants to bring to a different medium. In an interview with IGN, Sega producer Toru Nakahara—who has been heavily involved in both Sonic films and the upcoming Sonic Prime—mentioned that he sees potential in big Hollywood adaptations of Atlus's games.

“Atlus’ worlds are filled with high drama, cutting-edge style, and compelling characters… Stories like those from the Persona franchise really resonate with our fans and we see an opportunity to expand the lore like no one has seen—or played—before.”

While Nakahara mentions other Atlus titles like Catherine and Shin Megami Tensei as well, the big point is obvious: Sega sees a lot of potential in the idea of a big Hollywood Persona adaptation. It makes sense: live-action character drama mixed with the spectacle of CG Personas waging battles against supernatural beings sounds like a formula for a hit in that teen and young adult demographic marketing types all love. Plus, the Persona name has nerd cred already. It's not a terrible idea at all, really…

…though after seeing numerous awful western live-action adaptations of Japanese properties over the years, I can also understand why the very thought of Hollywood Persona would make most Atlus fans nervous. Personally, I think Persona as a concept can still “work” without being set in Japan and addressing Japanese social issues, but I also feel like most Western movie and film production types would totally misconstrue what makes the games so interesting to people in the first place.

Of course, this is all speculative, and it's possible nothing will come from it… but if you see a live-action Persona series emerge in the next couple of years, you shouldn't be surprised.

ASSORTED NEWSBITS

• Bandai Namco and Koei Tecmo are teaming up for a new Monster Rancher game… with a twist. See, instead of raising moderately-sized monsters, you're raising ginormous kaiju. And not just any kaiju, either—you're bringing up the famous monsters from the beloved Ultraman tokusatsu series.
  
  An English-language Asian version of Ultra Kaiju Monster Rancher is due later this year. No word on a North American or European release yet, but Ultraman production company Tsuburaya has been trying to push the series harder into international markets—heck, there's even an Ultraman pinball game now! Interest in classic tokusatsu and kaiju is at an all-time high abroad, so here's hoping for wide international distribution of this one… but if it doesn't leave Southeast Asia, you've still got plenty of importing options.
• Star Ocean: Divine Force has a release date of October 27. That's a lot sooner than I was expecting, honestly. The Square Enix YouTube channel has also posted a bunch of introductory gameplay and story footage, so check that out if you're interested.
• Meanwhile, surprise sleeper hit Stranger of Paradise is getting a DLC expansion called Trials of the Dragon King. Sounds a lot like the Bahamut class-change trial in the original Final Fantasy…
• Taito, in collaboration with expert emulation masters M2, have announced a new classic collection: the Ray'z Arcade Chronology for Switch and PS4. This set covers the three games of Taito's Ray series -- Rayforce, Raystorm, and Raycrisis -- and includes newly-remade, arcade-accurate HD versions of the latter two games along with the usual array of M2 extras and gameplay-tracking gadgets. Release is set for early 2023, and it's quite likely the set will come Westward, likely through one of the small-run boutique publishers.
• More games have been announced for the MegaDrive Mini 2! After Burner II, Columns III, Megapanel, Outrun, Puzzle & Action Ichidant-R, Splatterhouse 2, the anime-licensed Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, and the unreleased puzzle game Star Mobile make up new cartridge game selections, while arcade ports of Starblade, Ninja Warriors, and Night Striker join the Mega CD lineup. Ninja Warriors and Night Striker may not be the best ports of those games, but their soundtracks and extras are nothing short of fantastic. There's also a big flight-stick accessory called the Cyber Stick being released alongside the system – the original 1990 Cyber Stick worked with both X68000 PCs and the Megadrive, and it's been faithfully recreated using a USB port instead of the old connector. Perhaps it'll work with modern PCs as well? Also, Alien Soldier was confirmed on a separate Uncle From Another World stream, so that makes this a must-buy. (Like it wasn't already.)

And that wraps up what is likely to be my last ever Nintendo Direct lineup. I'm not leaving TWIG just yet, but unless there's a big surprise presentation in the next few weeks, I think my days of snarkily summarizing announcement megastreams have ended. So, what was your favorite announcement from the Direct? Did anything particularly surprise (or disappoint) you? How about the prospect of live action Atlus adaptations—could they work, or are they a bad idea all around? And will they just announce Rocket Knight Adventures for the MD Mini 2 already?! Jeez, you're killing me here, Sega! Bring whatever you want to say about this week's gaming news to the forums, which are linked below as usual.

Enjoy the holiday weekend—I'll be here playing games, keeping tabs on AX news, and hoping I saved enough quartz for a Castoria roll. Laters!