Rundown (6/16/2024) S3 2024 is Done and Dusted (2024)

This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: S3 2024 is Done and Dusted
• TSF Showcase 2024-24 Sekainohate de Aimashou [Meets True Love on the World End] by Sun Takeda
• Microsoft Gaming’s Summer Showcase (Xbox is the Schrödinger’s Cat of Gaming)
• Doom: The Dark Ages Announced (Doom 666: Gettin’ Medieval)
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Announced (Nothing Obscure About This, No Claire Farron In Sight)
• South of Midnight Gameplay Reveal (4 Minute Trailer, 3 Minutes of Cutscene)
• Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Gameplay Reveal (Little Changes Beyond Aesthetics, But That’s Okay)
• Perfect Dark Reboot ‘Gameplay’ Reveal (I Think This Is a Vertical Slice Covering a Disaster)
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure Announced (They REALLY Wanted to Call This Life is Strange 2…)
• Atomfall Announced (More Details Required to Form Proper Reaction)
• Gears of War: E-Day Announced (Gears of War 0: Please Forget About Judgment)
• The Adorably All-Digital Xbox Series X is REAL! (Natalie Almost Rambles About Xbox Storage Prices)
• Ubisoft’s Summer Showcase (Ubisoft Forward Happened)
• Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP? More Like ReNOT! (Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP Gameplay Reveal)
• EPIC LEAKS (Epic Games Store Leaks Unannounced Titles)
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Been Formally Unveiled (Natalie’s History with Dragon Age)
• Cassie’s First Impressions of Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Cassie’s Corner Returns)

Well, that was… very mellow all things considered. With game development talking so much longer these days, it’s not surprising that these summer showcases lack a certain oomph, as there’s just less to really show. Sure, more games are available now than ever but the AAA industry is ultimately seeing fewer releases. And while showcases featuring indie games have been a mainstay for a while… they’re niche showcases for games that appeal to specific people.

Now, combining the past three weeks… yeah, there was a sh*tload of news. And when you factor in Nintendo’s previously announced June Direct, this will be a stacked middle of a generation year. It’s just that things aren’t condensed into one 24/48 hour period. This, combined with a more mature and cynical industry, is what makes things feel distinctly different than the E3 of yore. …Also, the lack of a live audience of people. Not a chat audience. Real people with flesh and blood and stuff. I guess you have reaction-folk who can fulfill that niche but… come on, we all know 80% of those are just AI at this point.

I really don’t have much to say about it other than… I’m glad it’s over and I can get back to focusing on my fiction writing, as I’ve been slacking on it. I mean, I kind of have to in order to write a XXXXXX word behemoth like this in a week.

So, without further ado, here’s a 5,900 word TSF Showcase— what the f*ck is wrong with me? Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Time for another blast from the past my adolescence! As I mentioned in the Ame Nochi Hare showcase, there were three big ongoing TSF manga that I was following back during my teenage years. Ame Nochi Hare, Nyotai-ka, and Sekainohate de Aimashou. Big, ongoing, stories that all captured a different approach to a TSF transformation, and ones that helped teenage me understand the narrative potential of a TSF story.

I’d love to talk about Nyotai-ka sometime, but that work was licensed by Project Hentai, who opted to only release the series physically. I could, theoretically, order and scan the book myself so that I could use snippets in my Rundown… but that’d be a lot of work, and I don’t want my mother to stumble onto a physical hentai collection. So instead, I’ll just talk about Sekainohate de Aimashou.

Sekainohate de Aimashou, or to use its official English title, as seen in various series logos, Meets True Love on the World End, is… a fairly typical slice of life gender bender manga. Ryoma Yona starts as an average high school boy with a girly face and frail frame who winds up saving a prince from another world. As a reward for sacrificing themself for royalty, Ryoma is revived, but also transformed into a girl and made the prince’s financé. Naturally not wanting to have their autonomy and identity decided for them, Ryoma resists and… hi-jinks ensue.

Unlike the past few showcases, this story is so long and semi-episodic that it doesn’t really make sense for me to go through things by chapter, so I’ll start with a primer on the four main characters

Ryoma is generally kind, somewhat oblivious, and feisty whenever the prince does something they disapprove of. Which, naturally, happens a lot. They are willing to do a lot for their friends and family. They have all the home economic skills of a housewife. And despite regularly insisting that they’re a boy, they adapt to the role of being a girl… pretty easily all things considered. (Also, I’m calling them Ryoma, not Ryouma, because that’s how it’s spelled based on the cover of volume 3.)

The prince, Emillio Ordlock, is a haughty and pompous sort, starting out as an intimidating figure, eager to destroy those he disapproves of. But he gradually softened up over time after dealing with Ryoma, who never gives him a much needed reality check. He’s rarely stupid, yet struggles to adapt to being seen as a regular person or understand Ryoma’s increasingly maidenly heart.

Ryoma’s little brother, Yuuji, is a tall, strong middle schooler who looks like he’s supposed to be 20 or something. He was pretty much raised by Ryoma, and takes to girl Ryoma in a troublesome way. He develops a crush on them, wants to do ecchi things around them, but Ryoma is too committed to seeing Yuuji as their little brother to ever read suspicion into his actions. Meaning they’re basically Emillio’s romantic rival for the first part of the series, before he gets shipped with the next character.

Alicia Barbelle is the alien princess of Titania who comes to earth to take Emillio for herself. She starts the series as what one would expect. A conceited ojou-sama who cares for only herself, views Ryoma as a romantic rival, and uses her profound rich girl assets to achieve her goals. However, throughout the series she undergoes an arc that, weirdly enough, grants her more growth and development than any other character in the series.

Okay, so what exactly happens in this comic? Well, a lot of the early chapters can be grouped into a handful of buckets. There is some school activity going on where the guys obsess over Ryoma, while the girls try to foil or one-up him, only to fail. The prince must attend to his princely duties, whether it be in government or in social soirees, and Ryoma gets involved in some manner. Yuuji thinks about doing something pervy to their siblings, Emillio catches him, and Ryoma catches the two in the act and blames Emillio. And what I’m just going to call ‘general’ chapters that follow plot beats one could find across the broader slice of life genre.

However, the comic gradually shifts from a more episodic affair to be more storyline driven, with the core of the comic being split between two storylines. Except instead of being continuous story arcs, they are broken up throughout the series. The first I’ll call the Alicia Arc, which is spread over chapters 7 to 10, 17 to 18, 20 to 21, 28 to 32, and the second half of 41 to the first half of 45. While the second is the Ordlock Family Romance Arc, which I’d say is spread across chapters 23 to 26, 34 to the first half of 41, 42, and the second half of 45 to 49. Both of which amount to 17 chapters, or 16.5 if you want to split chapter 42 between the two.

This is a… strange way to go order a manga when viewed in the abstract, as it has the reader juggling two ongoing storylines along with regular slice of life antics, but whatever. Let’s get into the recap. And if you’d rather just read it for yourself, skip down to the conclusion, where I give the straight dope on the series.

Also, in case it isn’t obvious, this is an old fan translation that went through a bunch of different groups, so the quality runs the gamut here.

Sekainohate de Aimashou – The Alicia Arc

Alicia Arc, naturally, follows Alicia, a haughty blonde ojou-sama with elf ears who has superhuman strength and, predictably, is super heavy. From her very introduction as a transfer student— because there’s always a transfer student— she makes a strong impression. She immediately demands that Ryoma, not knowing who they are, act as her servant. With duties including undressing her, carrying her during a class marathon gone awry, and acting as bait so Alicia can escape from the erotic ire of horny teenage boys.

But before Ryoma can be taken advantage of by these boys, Emillio shows up, Alicia glomps him, explains her schtick as a space princess, and promptly gets into a fight over who the prince will be marrying. Alicia levies her political power, looks, and renown, but Emillio is not interested in crazy rich girls. She refuses to accept no as an answer though and after learning that Emillio is engaged with Ryoma— not merely a commoner, but for a ‘guy,’ she unleashes her true power. The power to grow giant size! Yes, Alicia is not only a blonde elf, but a giantess too, and I know that’s at least somebody’s fetish out there.

She promptly hulks out, attempts to murder the students who see her, before grabbing Ryoma. But before she can smack them into the ground real good, Ryoma frees themselves… and lands directly into Alicia’s giant boobs. Alicia tears up her shirt, Ryoma inadvertently unhooks her bra, and Alicia suffers the humiliation of a lifetime. Being exposed to a bunch of commoners. She swears revenge and proceeds to get it the way an ojou-sama ought to. With money!

After Ryoma teaches Emillio to cook, as part of the ongoing ‘taming the rich brat’ character arc, the characters see a news broadcast announcing that 90% of the world’s stocks have been purchased by one company. The Titania corporation. …Which is utterly impossible. Not all stocks are publicly traded. You cannot buy something that is not for sale. And if someone were buying that much stock, somebody would stop them.

Alicia officially has more power than any ruler in history, and the resources needed to make most world governments bow to her knees, but she doesn’t want to dominate. Oh no. She wants to get revenge on those who wronged her. She ties up the classmates in handcuffs, lures Ryoma to her executive office, and gloats. But before explaining… how she wants to get revenge, Ryoma calls her out for solving this problem with money, and requests they settle this disagreement with a game.

If Alicia wins, she gets Emillio. If Ryoma wins, she will “put everything back to the way it was.” Which I think would hurt the global economy even more. Alicia agrees, and at the request of Ryoma’s father, the two settle on a game… aquatic butt wrestling. (For the record, this was years before Keijo began publication.)

Alicia is “most beautiful and powerful woman in history” (according to her) so she wipes the floor with Ryoma, getting one point from victory before Ryoma gets crafty, ducks down, and lets Alicia go flying off into the water. Unfortunately for her, she cannot swim and weighs almost 100 kg. Ryoma dives in to save her… but that doesn’t go as planned. Instead, Ryoma actually starts drowning and is saved by Emillio, while Alicia is saved by Ryoma’s younger brother, Yuuji.

Alicia is swooned by Yuuji’s selfless act and, comes the arc’s resurgence in chapter 17, she is completely lovestruck. When confronted by this by her executive aid, Camilla, she tries to deny this but… the girl has a photo collection of this guy. She’s way too deep to be in denial. So, she does what any alien would do and follows the advice of an Earthen magazine to figure out how to fall in love with an Earthling. Per this tome of wisdom, she learns that the secret to romancing Earthlings is to bump into them while holding bread in your mouth, get in an argument, and fatefully meet up again. Which… if manga has taught me anything, it’s that that’s a surefire plan.

Unfortunately, Alicia has yet to learn the Earthen concept of subtlety and takes things too far. She wears a princess dress, has a baguette in her mouth, and a plate full of hot soup, runs into Yuuji, and winds up giving him third-degree burns. Panicking, she chucks the boy into her car, imprisons him in a cell, and greets him as a dominatrix, because she believes this is the attire of an Earthling queen. I mean, it is. Just not the kind she’s thinking of.

Alicia then tries to confess to Yuuji… but cannot bear to say the L-word (typical anime girl) and instead tries to ask Yuuji if he loves another girl. He does— it’s Ryoma— and Alicia is inclined to let him pass her by, as she does not want to interfere with someone else’s love. …But then she pieces together that Yuuji actually loves Ryoma and grows to her giant size again, destroying her downtown office skyscraper. …For the record, she was depicted as being far smaller in her prior bout of ojou-rage, she went from 1956 Godzilla size to Heisei-era size! I guess that’s the power of ojou-rage!

The next branch of the arc sees Alicia turn over a new leaf. Her family has stopped sending money over, she can’t rent property on account of her prior feat of destruction, and the only property she had the funds to buy was a run-down onsen. With no other avenue (beyond getting other jobs), Camilla and the cronies all start working to get this onsen running, while Alicia is still focused on stealing Yuuji’s heart. …But without a car or bus pass, she’s got to walk over to his house.

It’s a test of Alicia’s resolve, her willingness to do things hard or outside of her comfortable ojou lifestyle, and… she predictably gets lost after trying to take a shortcut through a forest. After hours of wandering, she runs into Ryoma, who is busy catching bugs. They have some cute scenes together, showing off Ryoma’s more playful and boyish persona, before Alicia, thirsty and desperate, steals Ryoma’s drink. She feels awful about this, hating how she cannot do things for herself and needs to rely on others. While Ryoma reassures her that she’s growing as a person, there’s nothing wrong with getting support, and so long as she’s not creating problems for those she cares about, she’s on the right path.

This arc resumes with a Yuuji chapter where he gets amnesia and cannot reconcile the fact that Ryoma is his brother. His pervertedness is on full blast, almost rapes Ryoma in their sleep, and as he gets his memory back in the next chapter, he decides to run away from home and hang himself. This does not go as planned though, as some nameless guy rescues Yuuji and takes him to Alicia’s onsen so he can get a part-time job and support himself. (Insert economic and/or child labor joke here)

Since last checking in on her, Alicia has taken on the duties of running an onsen, and while she complains about the long hours and service expressed to patrons, she still does the work. She naturally encounters Ryuuji as he checks in, and with Camilla’s support, she takes on Yuuji as an employee, letting him tag along with her, while she tries to hide how shabby the onsen really is. It’s cute seeing her this bashful yet determined, and Yuuji appreciates it too. He’s inspired by Alicia, helps her out, and even says that he prefers this new Alicia.

Everything is looking up for Alicia. She went through a lot of turmoil, but is growing as a person, is closer to the man she loves, and is devoting her days to something meaningful. She’s not the girl she was at the start, and she’s growing day by day. This could just be their story going forward… but then Ryoma comes in to rescue Yuuji, as they do not trust Alicia and have been protecting Yuuji for his entire life. But Yuuji is not ready to return home after he almost sexually assaulted his sibling, and Alicia does not want to give him up. So they pose as a couple in front of Ryoma to make them lose their will.

Ryoma, however, is a rather stubborn person and after telling a story about how they raised and protected Yuuji, both parties relent to let Yuuji return home. Alicia is not strong enough to protect Yuuji like Ryoma. And Ryoma forgives Yuuji, as they only hold grudges toward aliens. It seems like their relationship is about to end… before Ryoma’s low income family gets footed with a 105,000 yen bill. (About $770 in today’s money, because the yen is weak at the moment.) This means Yuuji needs to work off the debt as a part-timer, much to Alicia’s delight.

The final stretch of the arc finally begins when Yuuji gets into a fight with Emillio… and realizes he has superhuman strength and can fly. This power’s only significant use sees Yuuji accidentally break down walls, which he immediately does upon arriving at the onsen, drawing Alicia’s ire and raising his debt. But that’s not important.

What is important is that two familiar faces arrive at Alicia’s onsen. And by familiar faces, I mean background characters from over 30 chapters ago. A pair of princesses who stay at the onsen with the goal of angering Alicia to the point where she winds up destroying the onsen in her giantess rage. Why? Because she was stuck-up in a way that these stuck-up princesses found uncouth.

The princesses have ridiculous demands, force Alicia to endure an extreme amount of work, even by the standards of an onsen owner, but… Alicia doesn’t crumble. She doesn’t get mad, she doesn’t vent, she just powers through it, enduring this all, because this is her mission, her duty, and her business. And so long as she’s not alone, so long as she has her staff, and Yuuji to support her, she can persevere. Her determination even leads her to risk her life to save these princesses, her political rivals, and in doing so, she earns their respect. Also, she beats up Yuuji until he agrees to marry her.

The Alicia arc is… basically a complete two volume manga in and of itself. Starting out, it offers madcap antics, with transformations, destruction, and general insanity. But as the arc goes on, the very nature of the story transforms to a narrative about personal growth and responsibility. About a high-class girl learning the value of hardwork, the challenges faced by common people, and becoming a wiser, fuller person… while remaining a frantic and highly emotional girl. Sure, she loses the rich girl haughtiness, but winds up being a kinder person through it all, all due to her unshakable desire to be with the one she loves. And for her dedication… she succeeds!

Considering this story was never pitched as a drama, or made out to be anything more than a romantic comedy, and this is ultimately the B-plot, I’m… honestly kind of shocked by how well it works. It has a lot of little oddities and some of its jumps can feel a bit sudden, but the story is fully complete, and makes for a fun read by itself. …However, it has nothing to do with TSF. The fact that Ryoma is merely a source for Alicia’s anger, as she does not want to be beaten in love by a ‘boy,’ could easily be substituted with something else.

Sekainohate de Aimashou – Ordlock Family Romance Arc

The underlying conflict of Sekainohate de Aimashou is Emillio trying to get Ryoma to accept him as their husband and become his wife so he can become king. However, as a royal, he naturally has a long line of royal family members who want to seize power for himself. Hell, the second page of the comic depicts him killing his elder brother in a duel.

The first of these rival siblings appears about halfway through the series in the form of Alex. A young long-haired effeminate boy who uses their childish appearance to get close to Ryoma as part of a ploy to hurt Emillio. Alex gives Ryoma the sob story of his life. How he developed trust issues after his mother was poisoned while testing his food. How the hostile climate they grew up in left them forever fearful of being betrayed. And how they fear Emillio will come for them next.

In light of this paranoia, Alex launched an elaborate plan to kidnap Ryoma. Arming bombs around their house in order to kill Emillio. And having Ryoma attempt to poison the prince… only to muck up the plan by drinking the poison themself. This gesture of self-sacrifice leaves Alex baffled and angry, as that is precisely what his mother did, and he’s been mourning her ever since. Refusing to let an innocent person die, they launch an attack on Emillio’s castle, teleporting into the room where the poisoned Ryoma is being cared for, and give them the antidote.

The two have a heart-to-heart as the prince watches from security cameras. Alex lets their fears and inhibitions flow out, Ryoma comforts them like their late mother, and as a thank you for this, Alex gives Ryoma a potion to turn back into a man. …And at this sight, Emillio sounds the alarms, tears down the walls, and goes after them himself. Cornered, Ryoma takes Alex’s grenade and threatens to detonate it if Emillio hurts Alex. They have another one of their heartfelt speeches, voicing the value of family, how Emillio and Alex should cherish each other, that sort of thing. After some hi-jinks, Emillio agrees… but feels the need to spank Alex for attempted assassination. I know that spanking is frowned upon these days, but I think it’s warranted here.

With Alex sent back to his kingdom, Emillio and Ryoma go about their usual bickering. Emillio is still amazed at how kind and boisterous Ryoma is, and wants them to know how much he appreciates them. Except he cannot just say it, because he’s a child of alien political subterfuge. And while Ryoma is outwardly aggressive, rude, and bossy around Emillio, it’s really just a form of tough love, as they want Emillio to be a better, kinder, and more respectful person. They see good in him, but also give him sh*t because… dude kind of stole Ryoma’s autonomy and identity. Sure, they might like being a girl, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to just force someone into an engagement.

After this, Alex invites Ryoma and Emillio to a dance at his castle in the nation of Denver. Ryoma is reluctant, but gets stuffed into a pretty dress by Emillio’s maids. At the dance, Ryoma grazes about, unsure what to do or how to function in high class society, before being greeted by a man on the castle balcony. A tall man with a lion-esque mane of hair named Nicolai Leonow. He’s Emillio’s younger brother, ruler of Luzania, has a weak constitution, and… the dude is just transparently evil.

His first villainous act is with a bombing, an attempted assassination that kills five guards and this causes Emillio to go on high alert. He does not want Ryoma to die because of him and, out of his love for them, he offers them a potion to return to their original form (and to cover their family’s living expenses). This is clearly a move done out of compassion, a way for Emillio to make things right for Ryoma, and to free them from the threats that come with being a prince’s fiancé. It is a moment of development from him, as he was so adamant about keeping Ryoma like this, showing how seriously he values their relationship. But Ryoma does not see it that way, calls out Emillio for being selfish, and Emillio gets brash, calling Ryoma “a bother.” It’s a communication failure born from high tensions and a lack of sleep.

Ryoma then travels through the teleporter door to go back home… only to get kidnapped by Nicolai. When Ryoma wakes up, they find themself in a cold empty mansion, stripped naked, where they wander into a room full of stuffed corpses with horrific zombie-like faces. After seeing this and being aghast, Nicolai regales Ryoma with how much of a twisted bastard he truly is. Describing how he’s grown desensitized to death after seeing so many people around him perish. And how he wants nothing more in his life than to test his resolve against Emillio and hopefully, for one final moment, feel the joy of life.

Ryoma rightfully explains that they have no value as a hostage and that Nicolai has nothing to prove against ‘idiot prince’ Emillio. But before anything else can happen, Emillio comes in, agrees to a 1 vs. 1 duel, and the brothers draw swords, ready for a dramatic battle. …Only for Nicolai to get in a quick stab and win. This pisses off Nicolai, so he does what any mad king would do. Use science to cause his enemies profound despair! Though, when I say science, I really mean magic. The science of these alien societies is very loose, and is presented more like magic. Partially due to the 18th/19th century European aesthetic, and partially due to how wildly disproportionate it seems to be.

Anyway, Nicolai used his science-magic to turn Emillio into a beast. A hulking fluffy monstrosity incapable of speech, but still recognizes Ryoma. Upon realizing who this beast truly is, Ryoma cries tears of joy, happy that, no matter what form he may be in, Emillio is at least alive. But before their reunion can commence, the two are rushed out of Nicolai’s castle by guards and are sent out into the wintry wilderness, alone, with only a little bit of food to keep them going.

They take up refuge in an isolated church (Christian missionaries really did get everywhere), which protects them from the elements, but not much else. It’s blizzard season, making any voyage outside a dangerous one. There isn’t a town they could reach before freezing to death. They only have each other, and as the long nights stack on, Emillio finds his sanity slipping, hid thoughts growing more aggressive and bestial.

This is all part of Nicolai’s plan. To have Emillio’s mind slowly drift to that of an animal, and slay Ryoma. Shortly after this, the transformation will fade, Emillio will become human once more, and he will be faced with the reality that he killed the person he loved more than any other. A sick twisted plan that narrowly works… before Ryoma reflects on all they’ve been through. On how much Emillio has grown. On the kindness he is capable of. And looks forward to the future they will have together. All before topping it off with an ‘I love you.’

Emillio assaults himself, fights against his inhibitions, and as Ryoma tries to stop him… they remember they still have a transformation reversal serum Emillio gave them. The next day, Nicolai arrives at the church to feast upon Emillio’s despair, only to find it empty, and to be ambushed by Emillio, with an army of soldiers behind him. Ryoma, the blessed little thing they are, says that Nicolai will have a chance to atone, and they laugh… unleashing a torrent of blood from their throat.

Nicolai then explains their backstory. How they truly do have a weak constitution due to how they were born and… this is where things get crazy, so buckle up!

Nicolai was conceived in response to learning that Emillio’s mother was pregnant with him, and in order to have him be born earlier in the line of succession, his family accelerated his birth. This resulted in Nicolai being born… seven months premature. He was barely alive afterwards, and throughout his childhood, he was blighted by ailments and was told he would not live into adulthood. He was seen by his family as a failure, his mother was hanged for her failure to birth an adequate child, her final words being “look Nicolai, it’s your fault. Because a failure like you was born.” This despair intensified when he learned of Emillio. A healthy, genius prince born a single day before him. Nicolai despised Emillio, and devoted what remained of his life to amassing power and seeking vengeance.

All Nicolai wanted was to prove his worth, to defeat this brilliant prince who had everything he lacked. But with his life near an end, he was denied even that. Nicolai then takes his sword… and severs his throat, ending his life. It’s an incredibly dark storyline to insert into a story like this. And while the hyper premature birth is a bit silly— two-month-old fetuses are a centimeter long— this, conceptually, is pretty on brand for European royalty. Children were treated as pawns to consolidate power. Bloodlines were condensed in ways that harmed the children who inherited them. Women were abused and murdered for giving birth to ‘defective’ children. And I’m sure that children were ripped from the womb early just to be born first.

The drama and tension between Ryoma and Emillio throughout all this is very strong, really showing the love and affection the two have built up over their shared experiences. A love that leaves them denying their base urges, smiling even in the face of death, and always supporting each other as they withstand hardships. It really feels like the storyline that should lead the two honestly confessing each other and starting their life as a couple. …But I think the editor or readers or something didn’t take well to this direction.

After attending Nicolai’s burial… Nicolai comes back! Yeah, he just died, but he’s back to life… except not really. It turns out that Nicolai… extracted his brain cells and used a device to duplicate his brain and memories. Meaning he’s not a digital copy, he’s just a brain in a vat! He projects himself as a hologram, is able to travel anywhere… and you better believe he appears throughout this final stretch of the arc! Also, he saved his sperm and tried to convince Ryoma to impregnate themself with it. For the record, there’s no way a dude born seven months premature can produce virile sperm. People born two months premature are lucky to be able to procreate. Instead, Ryoma rightfully throws it into the woods, where it gets lost in the snow.

Now we get to the bad part of this comic. After their bonding experience in Luthania, Ryoma is being a fussy bitch and getting mad at Emillio for not remembering what happened when he was a monster. Ryoma is usually your typical hot/cold tsundere type, but here they just lose sight of their principles and get out of line. They basically forget the development they underwent, generalize their relationship, and faff about for several chapters, all because the other one doesn’t want to apologize. Which, for the record, is a sign of a dysfunctional relationship. Swallow your pride or else you’re never gonna make it!

They whine, they bicker, other characters come in and point out Ryoma for being the unreasonable one— when they should be defined by kindness. After the two take some time away from each other, Ryoma makes Emillio bacon and eggs while talking about how… they don’t actually mind being a girl. The world’s a big place, no one is the same, and it’s not a big deal if there’s a boy who became a girl running around. Which… is about as good as you could ask for for a 2012 manga.

…Then everybody barges into Ryoma’s house, Alex and the phantom of Nicolai hit on Ryoma, and the story jumps ahead in time in… a way that I just hate.

When two people get together in a story, I want to see them get together. See them go on dates, be in love, be together at ceremonies, and live together as a couple. But here? There are two pages dedicated to the prince’s wedding, where Ryoma does not appear, and two pages showing Ryoma doing laundry before picking up her 4-year-old son. I’m glad the story actually confirms that they get together in the two extra pages, but… this just seems terribly rushed. …And so many romantic comedy manga series end this way for some reason.

Sekainohate de Aimashou – The Big Conclusion

Overall… I have really mixed thoughts on this series. I think that when the series works, it works incredibly well. The comedic antics between the cast of characters are funny. The characters are a lot of fun to watch, however basic their characters may be. The artwork, while a very late 2000s style, is expressive and detailed. I think that the two storylines that I outlined— because somebody had to— are good, entertaining stories. Well, except for the end of the family romance arc…

However, the mix of storyline focused chapters and more disconnected episodic affairs is one I’m not particularly fond of, as it makes anything not storyline-driven feel like filler. And I’m not sure the story quite understood what its identity should be. The emphasis on Alicia and Yuuji’s storyline. The dark twist with Nicolai. Everything about the last few chapters. It all makes me feel that something happened in the series’ development. Something that caused the creator to lose focus and do whatever they wanted to do at the moment, right up until they had to wrap it up after a four-year run.

And I think the biggest casualty of this loss of focus is… how the story treats its genderbent lead. Ryoma does the Ranma Saotome thing of asserting that ‘I’m actually a guy’ and wants to go back to normal for the majority of the series. Which is a fine starting spot. But rather than really dig into the gender and psyche of Ryoma… the series just isn’t interested in assessing that. The comic makes passing mentions of how Ryoma is thinking like a girl now. The way they dress indicates they are comfortable being seen as a girl. But… a lot of the time I feel you could replace Ryoma with a tomboy and it would not make much of a difference.

(I am using a more classical definition of tomboy here. A girl who is prone to boyish behaviors and interests, typically dislikes longer hair and skirts, and prefers more ‘aggressive’ play styles. The term tomboy has been co-opted to mean 24 other things in recent years, and I don’t know why.)

Ryoma is a little cutie, I think they are adorable, but the story simply is not interested in telling a TSF narrative about someone being thrown into an unwanted situation and learning to embrace what they’ve been given. I tried finding something to latch onto or some greater theme, find some deeper gender exploration to dig into, but… there just isn’t much here.

So, do I recommend Sekainohate de Aimashou? …I do, as a manga, as both of its main arcs go hard in places, and it is some thoroughly edible slice of life antics during the interim. As a TSF manga though? …No. This would just leave someone hungry for more.

As for Sun Takeda, after this project he moved onto Gleipnir. A comic about a boy who gains access to a furry monster bodysuit that he crawls inside of. …After the darker shift and loose body horror seen in the Nicolai chapters, this makes perfect sense to me. Takeda clearly had a fascination with transformation, and it seems that Gleipnir was far more successful than any of their prior work. It lasted from 2015 to 2023, saw 14 volumes— all of which have been officially localized into English, and saw a 2020 anime adaptation. It seems like something I might dig but my manga bandwidth is kind of dominated by TSF Showcases.

Also, in March 2024, they launched Guardian in Young King OURs. A hero manga created for a post One Punch Man, post Chainsaw Man world. I read the first two chapters, and it’s… cool, looks really good, but it’s hard to tell what substance it’s building up to. So… no TSF, but they’re still working on stuff and seemingly finding success. And that’s just swell in my book.

What else is there to say about Xbox or Microsoft Gaming that I haven’t gone over the past few months? The brand is having a bit of an identity crisis, there has been so much back and forth about its future, and it has become incredibly difficult to be excited or have any faith in Xbox. Mind you, I think Xbox kind of lost the ability to be truly faithful after the masks off moment of the Xbox One reveal. And now the division is so big that… they cannot afford to do anything but prioritize profits. Even if that means going multiplatform and remaking the Halo trilogy… according to some slugs I found outside of my window.

However, I am deeply interested in seeing what will become of Xbox, as the shifting tides of this real life narrative is something that keeps me invested in the gaming newscycle. So I did my due diligence and watched this showcase. Some people seem to think this was one of their best showings of titles of all time. Which… I can see it, but I just viewed this as a 90 minute chunk of games that people may or may not be interested in, with minimal filler from executives. I will not look past their prior faults just because they showed good games. Especially when a lot of these major games have caveats attached to them.

Also, that IGN article I linked made me accept that… people just unlearned what gameplay means. It’s part of a detail I noticed when playing Russian roulette with gaming video creators and they criticize ‘gameplay’ in a way that… I just find indecipherable. Gameplay is something where one is playing the game, and is making inputs the game responds to. Typically it does not include fiddling around in options, but some games are all about fiddling, so the jury’s out on that!

Anyway, I have oodles to go through, so let’s get started. First with little nuggets and then things I have more than one paragraph of things to say about.

Things opened with military industrial complex propaganda with Call of Duty Black Ops 6. I have long since shifted from viewing this series as a consumer, and now view it strictly as a financial instrument. As an IP, investment, and property that generates billions every year. It also stands for… basically nothing, as indicated by how they used music by The Prodigy for this debut trailer. You know, a group favored by counter-cultural movements in the 90s who hated the military industrial complex. (Though, no shade on The Prodigy. They did the work, they should get paid.)

Starfield is getting DLC, dubbed Shattered Space, which offers what looks to be the most interesting snippets of the game so far. Something filled with vibrant colors, cosmic horrors, and floating through zero gravity while shooting at freaks. For the record, that is a highly underrated mechanic. (Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare played around with it, but CODorks hated that game, so the industry refused to evolve into the realm of space FPS.) However, the gaming community largely shrugged off Starfield as a dated title without much meat to its bones or intrigue to delve into, with even the modding community being less enthused by it. Maybe Bethesda can turn it around… but I kinda doubt it.

Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn looks like a surprisingly robust action adventure game from a small developer with surprisingly high production values, and it will only retail for $40. Also, it’s coming from the developers of Ashen, an indie multiplayer soulslike, so… I guess I was at least partially right when I said indie studios would grow into real-ass AA studios. …But then I played the demo for an hour, because I was curious, and it’s just another soulslike title. Except it lacks the weightiness of the Souls games, the enemy movements are murky, and it has an EXP multiplayer system that really does not work with gameplay this loose. It’s fine, but… no, no, I don’t have time to review games anymore. I’m sorry. (Also, the UI options don’t work as advertised.)

Fable Reboot got another mostly CG trailer, but at least they showed ‘gameplay’ of a character… walk around town, past a giant frog, and mime a conversation with an NPC. Admittedly, there was some in-engine stuff, but for a reimagining like this, I say give me gameplay or give me nothing. Or, better yet, just give me an HD-er re-release of Fable II and Fable III. Neither of those games are certified classics, but I loved Fable II— I played through it like four times— and think Fable III was damn good for a game made in 18 months. Both games would be perfect for Switch 2! Not Fable (2004) though. That game is f*cky and fussy.

Mixtape is the obligatory 90s nostalgia narrative-driven adventure game, complete with a licensed soundtrack, a novel low poly stop motion art style, and super powers that let characters fly. By all accounts, it looks like a perfectly good title from developers who want to create something that idealizes and preserves their childhood memories in the form of interactive fiction. But I’m also painfully aware that the people who are nostalgic about being 90s teens are pushing 40 now, and… I feel like now is a point where 90s nostalgia is at a lull. Y2K and the early 2000s are the current fascination, per the 20 year nostalgia cycle. And after a decade of 90s nostalgia, I feel that this depiction is too clean. …Maybe because it only follows a bunch of Cascadian Caucasians.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle continues to look like a high quality game that captures the look and tone of the original movies well. However… I dislike the fact that this is a game with a heavy narrative focus and third person cutscenes, but the gameplay is in first person. It makes me feel like there needs to be a transition of a changed focus between every cutscene and every gameplay segment or else there will be a disconnect of some kind. I mean, I got mental whiplash when the game cut from a cutscene to gameplay. I genuinely thought I was looking at a different game for a second. Also, the game looks better than it did during its first reveal. I think it’s just improvements to the lighting, and it is still targeting a 2024 release.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers… is another Nioh and Sekiro like action game set in China where the player fights highly detailed and large bosses while traveling through scenic environments, killing fodder to hone their skills. I get that soulslikes are a big genre and people like this aesthetic. but… come on now, put a cartoon crab in it or something.

Avowed, a narrative-driven action RPG from the developers of Fallout: New Vegas was shown with a flashy trailer that emphasized flashy setpieces. Because you cannot really sell world building and complex characters in a few minutes. Hopefully when this title launches later this year, people will actually be able to assess what should be its biggest selling point. …Unless this actually isn’t Obsidian’s The Elder Scrolls. But per other preview footage, it’s at least pretty close to that.

After Doom Eternal was such a critical and commercial success, I’m surprised it’s taken this long for a new Doom game to be announced. Though, I guess that’s just because I’m still conditioned to expect 3 year sequel turnover. The game launched right as the pandemic began. It had a year’s worth of DLC. And was not fully done until October 2021. So it makes sense why a new Doom took a while, and that’s before addressing the pre-production question of… where do you go after this? They already went to Mars, Hell on Earth, and the realm of gods. The answer? The past! Both in the sense of being a prequel, and in the sense of taking place in the middle ages.

Doom: The Dark Ages is set in a medieval yet still sci-fi world, features a revised arsenal including a giant spiked boomerang shield, and looks to reprise the same intense action of the modern incarnation of the series. Just with wider open environments and an art direction… that I really am none too pleased with. They took The Dark Ages literally by making everything cloudy, dismal, and crafting locales of gray and brown. While there are specks of color to help one see through the noise, it reminds me WAY too much of dull 7th generation shooters. At least the game also features giant mech suits and dragon riding, so perhaps the developers know what they’re doing, and the game will be easier to view without streaming compression.

Doom: The Dark Ages will debut in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a turn-based RPG with a realistic art style and level of AAA visual flair that, out of all the titles featured here, probably left the strongest impression on me. Turn-based RPGs rarely get big budgets, and aside from Like A Dragon or more PC-oriented series, I cannot think of many that feature a more realistic art style. Yet here this game comes walking in, boasting some utterly lavish locales and a fully stacked film-quality CG trailer only to surprise me by not being a third-person action game. Instead, it’s a game that clearly took cues from… Persona 5 and Lost Odyssey.

Developed by Sandfall Interactive, a French studio formed by ex-Ubisoft developers, Expedition 33 follows a group of plucky adventurers on a quest to defeat a deific being, known as the Paintress. A being who has been ‘painting death’ by killing people above a certain age, and she just erased everybody above the age of 34. Which, when broken down, is a pretty damn archetypical JRPG plot, though the game sure as hell doesn’t look like one..

Its vistas are vastly detailed fantastical landscapes. Animations are flashy and slick. The menus are extensions of characters, but are quick to navigate. And battle commands have an associated action. Whether it be timing a button press, doing some quick aiming, or whatever little thing to make the turn-based combat more engaging. It all looks like it has a real flow and speed to it, which is important in modern RPGs, after digital dopamine has ruined people’s attention spans.

It looks like a AAA western game with a hideously oversized budget… but it’s being developed by a studio with less than 51 employees. They might have support studios helping them out, and they have both an Epic Games grant and funding from Kepler Interactive, but this is still wildly impressive. I have to wonder how they are doing something like this. …I also have to wonder how they got away with calling a game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. What even is that title?

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Will be released for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2025.

South of Midnight was revealed last year as the latest title from Compulsion Games, developers of Contrast and We Happy Few, and… I didn’t even bother mentioning it. The announcement trailer gave no indication of what the game was like, and after the mess of We Happy Few— a survival game that people thought would be more narrative driven— I didn’t trust ’em. Also, they are a Montreal developer who wanted to make a game set in the American South, featuring a female Black protagonist. My skepticism was warranted.

However, they finally showed gameplay of South of Midnight and… it is a third-person action adventure game whose gameplay was heavily book ended by cutscenes every few seconds. Huh.

The game has well crafted locales that show a post-apocalyptic setting retaken by nature— an aesthetic that I always love to see. Has some imaginative creature direction with its deformed monsters, its giant island alligators, instead of island turtles, and its colorful catfish friend who helps the protagonist, Hazel. There are some playful ways Hazel can traverse the world, including a grapple hook, a glider that summons wind currents, and a double jump— you love to see it. But the gameplay itself… looks like a plain hack and slash with some basic Uncharted-esque climbing.

South of Midnight also has a… strange presentational quirk. The game’s cutscenes run at a choppy stop motion like framerate, yet appear to be in-engine, while the gameplay runs at a solid framerate, presumably 60fps. (My eyes are bad with motion, so I cannot really tell fps without a side-by-side comparison.) Which makes the divide between the gameplay and cutscenes look jarring. Which is especially an issue when looking at a 4 minute trailer that is 3 cutscenes and 2 gameplay snippets with varying degrees of interactivity.

I want this to be a title that props up this studio into the mainstream and makes them a bigger name, as I can tell it is trying to achieve an aesthetic largely absent in the world of big budget gaming. But despite having a clean looking trailer, I worry that the game might have major issues.

I guess I’ll just have to wait until South of Midnight launches for Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2025.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater got another trailer and… it continues to look like a faithful remake of Snake Eater, but with a modern visual flair and various changes. Going back to what I said about re-whatevers last week, I am ultimately fine with this remake doing whatever it wants, as Konami just re-released Bluepoint’s remaster of Snake Eater last year. Mind you, the release had its own set of issues, but they have been patching the game, and fans largely fixed the experience on PC. They always do.

As for the remake… yeah, it looks to hit all the marks. It is clearly faithful to the mechanics and concepts of the original. It features new VO from the original cast, which is a good thing. And while the art direction (coloring) is different, I don’t really mind, as the game is aiming for a more photorealistic look than what was possible on PS2. It’s different… but the original is also widely available, and it seems that the story and character designs will remain untouched. Which is good, as that is a strong contrast to what Bloober Team was doing with Silent Hill 2. (It would be hilarious if Konami decided to remaster the original Silent Hill 2 after the remake gets a 67 Metacritic…)

Edit 6/16/2024: I was wrong, the game actually is just reusing the old VO.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be released for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2025.

Following the announcement of the Perfect Dark reboot in 2020, there was some… not so good news about the project. Apparently it was going through its own breed of development hell. Development was stalled, the game was in a rough state, and the game is a big, protracted mess. As such, I did not expect to hear anything about the game for a good while, for it to go under the radar and maybe get quietly canceled. Instead, they showed a gameplay trailer of the title that looks… more like a Deus Ex spin-off than what I’d imagine from Perfect Dark.

Set in a futuristic greenery-filled city bordering an abusive desert, the trailer offers an abridged walkthrough of a mission where titular Joanna ‘Perfect Dark’ Dark tries to prevent some manner of attack. This sees her capture the voice of someone, break into a secluded area, sneak around guards, snatch some info, do parkour, and use detective mode vision to find various doodads of intrigue. However, she gets caught, leading to a cinematic escape where Joanna rushes through setpieces to defeat armed guards and leave with the information intact. But during the escape, she undergoes a flashback where she and some men encountered a mysterious entity.

…Yeah, I’m going out and saying that this is just a vertical slice created to give the impression that the project is decently far along and to show what the team should strive for with the final product. The placeholder UI, robust scripting, the way the game flips between two different environments, and the general scale of the world… it just does not look like a real game. I think they pulled an Anthem (Bob Dylan’s Beyond: No Souls) and are using a brief gameplay demo to mask development issues with the game.

Also, and this is a minor point, but one that I saw people briefly complain about, but Joanna Dark’s new design is… strange. Joanna’s gone through some strange depictions over the years. Starting with the N64 British hottie look she debuted with, getting a European anime makeover with Perfect Dark Zero, and the reboot initially teased a more modern look. Short hair, long bangs, retaining a more youthful look. Here though? She looks like that 40-year-old White lady you see at your job. With so much attention to detail with her freckles and blush that it looks… synthetic. Especially when contrasted with the people walking the streets in the rest of the trailer

…Actually, hold on a moment. The thumbnail has a shot not seen in the trailer and… are these the same face? I am bad with faces, and need to really try to see the differences between two people of the same complexion and age, but… these appear to be two different faces. The cinematic trailer was probably made earlier, so it’s possible they tweaked her design afterwards. But still, it’s weird to see.

I want this game to succeed… but if there’s smoke, there’s fire, and while it’s possible the game has recovered and the insiders were reporting on old information, I don’t know. This looks like it might just be a disaster waiting to happen. Perfect Dark (202X) was not given a release window or list of platforms. Also, to anybody calling this Perfect Dark 3, the third game was actually Perfect Dark Zero. Perfect Dark 2 was for the GameBoy Color. It supports the GameBoy Printer, so that sh*t is canon with a K… for Kodak!

Life is Strange is a series that… had one wacked up trajectory. Original series developer, Don’t Nod, launched Life is Strange in 2015 as a Telltale-esque episodic game that, somehow, managed to become a hit with (mostly queer) audiences. And it did far better than publisher Square Enix expected. Which only happens in, what, one in ten titles?

The game did well, and… wait, I already talked about this last year when Don’t Nod announced their Life is Strange successor, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. Point is, Square Enix basically removed Don’t Nod from the series and gave it to a developer by the name of Deck Nine. They handled the series well, with Before the Storm (2017) and True Colors (2021) both being well-received entries, even if they did not have the zeitgeist factor of the original.

However, per an IGN exposé released on April 5, 2024, opinion on Deck Nine sank like a rock. I thought I covered this article, but I guess I was busy on account of tax season. Big surprise there. The short version of the article is that higher ups didn’t want to be known as developers of queer girls games. Management promoted and protected asshats (named Zak Garriss) who should have been given the boot regardless of their position. And the studio, somehow, employed f*ckwits who tried to hide Nazi symbols into the game. (For the record, when I reference Nazi symbols, I do so openly and out of vicious disdain.) All in addition to the usual specters of low pay, crunch, bullying, and so forth.

These are things that often queer and progressive fans of Life is Strange are especially prone to being bothered by. And I know that this article soured some of them on Deck Nine as a developer. However… the devs still gotta ship games, and the Life is Strange IP (which is ripe for a TV adaptation BTW) still needs to keep churning!

The fifth/sixth entry in the Life is Strange series, Double Exposure, is… a direct sequel to the 2015 original. The now 20-something-year-old Max Caufield is trying to make her way as an adult and her friend, Safi, was murdered. However, Max is a girl who turned back time to save her girlfriend from getting shot, and destroyed a whole town in the process! So, naturally, her inexplicable powers manifest themselves yet again. …Except this time she has the ability to traverse two timelines. One where Safi was murdered, one where she wasn’t, in order to uncover a murder mystery that grows more complex with every episode.

That sounds like a… somewhat derivative take on the original game. Max’s female friend was murdered in that one, so she created an alternate timeline to learn more about the mysteries surrounding her school and powers. While this one is more of a broader town-size mystery. It’s an evolution, what I would have expected from a direct successor, but it’s a bit weird that such a similar idea is being explored so many games later.

Also, I cannot ignore the most important question that every fan thought during this trailer. Where the f*ck is Chloe? Depending on the players’ actions in the first game, she can either live or die, and fans generally view the one where Chloe lives to be the canon ending. (Except for me, I view that as the untrue ending.) And from who Max refers to Safi… it sounds like they might be in a romantic relationship.

Needless to say, with all of this in mind, it will be interesting to see how the discourse on this title fares when it releases on October 29, 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Rebellion, the studio who devoted themselves to the Sniper Elite series the past… decade, has unveiled a new IP that… based on the name and post-nuclear premise, is clearly meant to be their spin on the Fallout series. Atomfall is set in a post nuclear disaster alternate 1950s future Britain. A setting where there are roaming mechs, bandits, and WW2-era weapons, but the environments are still beaming with greenery and the effects of the nuclear fallout are more fantastical.

Ethereal lights leaking out from the world, corpses kept alive by enigmatic blue substances, that sort of thing. It actually looks really cool, but I need to know how the game is structured and designed. They say it is a survival-action game, but what does that mean? How much action, how much exploration, how many RPG elements, etc.

I guess I’ll need to wait until the game debuts in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Gears of War is… in a curious spot. The series isn’t close to being dead or anything, but it lacks the same pedigree as Halo and its brand value kind of faded away during the Xbox One generation. Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 were considered good games, but they did not appear to hook players for very long. I think Game Pass hurt Gears 5 in particular, as people were inclined to just play through the 10 to 15 hour campaign, solo or with a friend, and then move onto whatever Q4 2019 hotness captivated them.

A stray mouse told me that they are remastering the original Epic Games trilogy, after having only done the first game in 2014, and… I think that’d be a good call. The Master Chief Collection has done wonders to keep Halo alive, even while the series is in stasis. And I know there is a wide number of people who were into Gears on Xbox 360 but moved on to new systems.

Instead… Microsoft and The Coalition are turning back to the clock with a prequel, dubbed Gears of War: E-Day. A game set on the day where the Locust Horde emerged from underground and began assaulting the main planet’s cities. It’s a sensible place to set a game, at a mythologized moment where central characters became soldiers of renown, but… people already know how this will end. The Locust kills a quarter of humanity in a day, the duo of Marcus Fenix and Dom-Dom both live to fight many, many more battles, and humanity is left licking its wounds as they enact a battle plan. It will be a bummer ending and… then what? Will will they retcon something about Marcus and Dom-Dom blowing up a massive weapon and saving a good chunk of humanity

Also, they already did a prequel game, Gears of War: Judgment, and nobody remembers that.

Now, if they are going to do a prequel like this… now is the best time. Gears of War is reaching its 20th anniversary. The series has an opportunity to appeal to fans new and old with a prequel. And going back to basics like this might be refreshing for those who did not enjoy the time skip that followed the trilogy that epitomized the 7th gen of gaming.

No release date or platforms were announced for Gears of War: E-Day.

Much like what happened to the PS5 last year, the Xbox Series consoles are all getting refreshes late this year, adding additional storage to existing models. Meaning that the Series S will have a whopping 1 TB, while the Series X will get 2 TB. As someone who switched to a 4TB M.2 SSD last year, those are baby numbers, incapable of holding a library of modern games. And the same is true for the newly announced Xbox Series X All Digital Edition. A system that will only ship with 1TB.

I was preparing to go on a tear about the storage practices for Xbox Series consoles… but it turns out I’m a dummy! Firstly, Xbox Series consoles support the use of external SSDs and HDDs as a means of storing games, and playing older Xbox games. Meaning all you need to do is buy a good external HDD in order to manage storage.

And if you do want to buy their stupid proprietary expansion cards… you could pay $150 for an extra TB of storage, or you could try using a third-party adapter with the recommended NVMe drive. …I wish they were like Sony and just let you install an 8 TB NVMe drive if you want to. Now if only SSD prices weren’t rising…

Also, prices of Xbox are apparently rising too! The 2 TB Series X will cost $600. The 1 TB Series S, which is just a recolor of a variant already released, will cost $350. While the brand new digital only Series X will cost… $450. The same price as the digital-only PS5, but without the option to slap a disc drive onto it.

…Why do I think they’ve just given up this generation?

I chose to not discuss Ubisoft after all the controversy that happened back in 2020 and 2021, painting Ubisoft as a company that fostered rampant abuse. Not quite on the level of Activision Blizzard King— they didn’t kill anybody as far as I can tell. But to the extent that I took the lead of other individuals and opted to seldom talk about their games going forward. Also, they are 10% owned by Tencent, and with where their stock has gone over the past few years, who knows when that number will tick up.

It has been pretty easy for me to ignore them, as I find most of their output to be… pretty easy to ignore. They aim for a mass market with their appeal, and they seldom release titles that see critical and commercial acclaim. Heck, the only game they released in the past few years that spoke to me was Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. And their recent slate really just seems like most of the same.

Star Wars Outlaws looks to be the sort of game that Star Wars fans were clamoring for during the PS4 generation, and in the same direction as what Lucasfilm was attempting with 1313. Which, frankly, is what fans really need after the movies went in an irreparably terrible direction with Episode 9, and the TV shows have run the gamut. Mind you, it does look to be pretty well nestled in the AAA template that Ubisoft helped form over the past decade, but that’s not a bad thing.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is basically the Assassin’s Creed game people have been asking for since Assassin’s Creed II made the series a juggernaut. An Assassin’s Creed game set in a fully realized feudal Japan. However, this is coming after titles like Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Ronin, which aimed for similar things, and with… less Assassin’s Creed-ness. I’m mostly indifferent toward the series, but the swordplay has never been the most compelling, and the stealth system is something I found overly formulaic when I played Black Flag a decade ago. I can tell that improvements have been made since then, but it still looks like another entry in what is ultimately a very safe series.

I’m sure it will still be solid, the Assassin’s Creed games, monetization notwithstanding, typically are. But I think the most interesting thing about the game is how it features historical figure Yasuke, the African Samurai. This drew some ire from the sorts of people whose opinions are best discarded, which is just sad as he’s pretty well liked in Japan. If he wasn’t, why would they make so many Japanese works featuring him?

As a last minute addition I saw as I was getting ready to transfer this text into WordPress, Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP got its first proper gameplay trailer!

This is an odd remaster, as I’m really unsure how the rights are supposedly managed. Grasshopper, the original developer, is not involved, and instead the remake is being headed by Extreme Co. Ltd. subsidiary Dragami Games. They announced the project two years ago, and despite showing off some screenshots, they have refrained from showing any gameplay. I said I would refrain from assessing or discussing this project until then, and… they just dropped the first trailer.

…And it’s more of a mixed upgrade.

Remastering games is often harder than I give them credit for, as they are built around specific engines, specific toolsets, and when you port things forward to more modern software, sometimes things just break. The biggest casualty in this process is almost always lighting, shading, and overall coloring. Which sucks, because colors are what makes a game’s visual identity, and while new colors can be better, they typically look best when adding more saturation, when adding more color depth.

The original Lollipop Chainsaw was never the prettiest game on the block, as it was an Unreal Engine 3 title, and that engine was made for Gears of War. The game clearly wanted to do a poppy art style, but instead compromised around this weird mishmash, and looking back on it… it looks kinda like ass for a fair amount of its runtime.

There is a lot that could be done to improve it, and over the years people have done just that. PS3 emulation had gotten really good as of late, and people managed to make games from that generation look better than ever with Reshade. I inadvertently clicked on a playthrough using just that when searching for comparison footage of the original and… it looks so much better than both the original and remaster it makes me angry.

The technology is out there, it’s open source, but rather than trying to emulate something like that, the developers here aimed to make a game called Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP look more realistic. I don’t want to be too harsh on them, but… they are trying to sell this game as a $50 remaster, as the most widely available version of this game, and I don’t think this is good enough. It does not look awful, and if I wasn’t spoiled by emulation, I would be inclined to say it looks alright. But the more that I learn and see about this remaster, the more I hope the modding scene tears this game to pieces and restores the look of the original.

To better illustrate these visual differences, I made a quick comparison mockup on easy to find scenes. I pulled the original gameplay footage from a Let’s Play by theRadBrad.

Aside from the visuals, the game will have minor gameplay tweaks, new weapon variants, 30 costumes, and 4 hair colors, a time attack mode. All pretty bog standard remaster features.

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP will be released for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC on September 25, 2024.

…Also, it is apparently going to come out on PS4 and Xbox One, but not on September 25, 2024. And the physical release is not coming out until October. Sounds like they had to meet a Q3 deadline.

It would not be S3 season without a deluge of leaks, and after the initial rush of showcases faded, some sleuths started playing around with the newly released EpicDB. A site that scraped public information from Epic Games Store in a manner similar to SteamDB. A wonderful tool for getting information on games, and source of many leaks of yore.

A bunch of places have already reported on the list of games, including ResetEra, Gematsu, and the scum mines of Reddit, so allow me to be unoriginal and copy over that information.

• Selma by RockStar Games, which is most likely Red Dead Redemption (2009) based on the 10 GB file size.
• A Turok game by former Embracer subsidiary Saber Interactive
• Utah by Sony Interactive, which is The Last of Us Part II Remastered per the game’s file structure.
• Skobeloff by Square Enix, which metadata says is Final Fantasy XVI
• Momo by Square Enix which, based on the pre-order DLC, is the much rumored Final Fantasy IX remake.
• And over a dozen different code names without enough information to be decipherable.

In response to this, Epic closed off parts of their website and EpicDB is broken as of preparing this article for publication. And… yeah, of course they would do this.

In terms of scale, this is far from the GeForce now mega leak or the Capcom ransomware leak and there has been buzz about all of these titles already. …Except for that potential new Turok title. The series is mostly remembered for the quadrilogy on the N64. Which puts the series in a strange spot when it comes to 90s shooters. Most nostalgia and love for that era is based on PC titles, but these Turok games were designed for the N64 first and foremost.

However, a revival of the IP would not need to necessarily look back that far, as there were two reboots of the series. The first being 2002’s Turok: Evolution. A notoriously rushed attempt at redefining the series for a new generation on new hardware, targeting three new consoles. See the obligatory What Happened? for more info. A sequel was planned, didn’t pan out, and then the publisher, Acclaim, died out. The IP and rights to the game were then picked up by Disney, who believed in the title strongly enough to build an entire studio to support its development.

This gave way to Propaganda Games. A developer who… is the textbook example of why one should never trust Disney in the world of video games. They owned this studio, oversaw everything, instituted a perpetual culture of crunch, and kept pushing them to take on bigger titles. And when Propaganda was a year away from finishing their biggest title, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, Disney shut them down.

…Sorry about that, I was supposed to talk about these leaks.

Honestly, leaks are so commonplace that I’m surprised more publishers just don’t announce things via press releases, just with words, to help curb speculation. The culture around leaking, around insiders trying to amass clout by sharing information they got from hacking or asking people who work in the industry, is not a good one. It only exists because there is a thirst for people to know what is going on at major studios, and for people to accumulate internet clout by sharing information. If publishers were more open about their operations, there would be no need for leakers.

However, the games industry is a deeply secretive one, and publishers have learned the value of hype and surprise. They want to control the conversation, market effectively, and only announce things when it is right for them. If people don’t know something, if this knowledge is denied, there will always be a contingency who wants to know. But if everybody knows everything, if new projects were announced via dull press releases, then the industry would lose the invaluable pizazz that it uses to translate into profit.

…sh*t, I hate status quo endings like this.

Oh Dragon Age! You’re a series that… I haven’t played since 2011.

I played the first game shortly after its release in 2009, and I enjoyed it. I thought the characters were an enjoyable batch— at least Morrigan and Leliana. The game had a lot of richly detailed lore and history that was conveyed in an enjoyable fashion. The action RPG combat, while a bit neutered in the console version I played, was a fun evolution of KotOR. I remember being quite impressed with voice acting, but voice acting on that scale was still novel to me at that time. And I remember the game looking dated as heck on launch. Still, a game I would not mind re-experiencing again.

While 2011’s Dragon Age II… was a game I did not think too highly of at the time. I thought it was a huge step up over the first game visually. The cast was a more varied and enjoyable batch of weirdos, so I tried using all of them instead of a few of them. The combat was a lot more mashy and action-focused, but in a way that felt less strategic, more console oriented. The game was notoriously short on assets, only featuring a handful of battle environments that were repeated for side quests. And the core story… I honestly don’t remember what happened. Just that there were three acts with a time skip.

2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition was a game I remember being excited about leading up to release… only to never wind up playing it. Not because it was bad— it got rave reviews, and was GOTY 2014 in some places. But I remember its recommended system requirements being higher than the computer I built the prior year. (I built that PC for like $650.) So I passed it by… and never got around to it. Though, I actually have a GOTY copy thanks to Tencent’s Epic Games.

Little did I know that Dragon Age: Inquisition would basically be the last BioWare game for a decade. (Mass Effect Andromeda was okay and made by a different developer, Bob Dylan’s Beyond: The Anthem is a tale of abuse and controversy, not a game.) The studio has been torn up and thrown through the wringer, and only after several project restarts have they managed to whip up a game far enough along to get a public gameplay reveal, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. Or, as it has been retitled, Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

I have my own thoughts on this title. I think the choice to present the game with a highly cinematic early game chapter is a curious idea, as it makes the game look like a highly linear affair with limited RPG elements. I think the choice to have the game start on a dark and stormy night is a bad one, as the rain does not affect the character models. It is not clear if you can control your companions or set them to perform abilities, like in prior games, and if not… that robs the game of a key element of strategy.

Overall, I think the game looks good. The production values and polish seem quite high and, after almost a decade of development hell, it seems that the team remaining at BioWare has been given the necessary resources. I’m still cautious about how it will shape up, and if it will suffer from streamlining. However, with it set to debut this fall, I’m sure they’ll trickle out more details in the coming months.

But… I’m not a real Dragon Age fan, and only played through each game once a decade ago. So, instead I am going to interview a tried and true Dragon Age II defender, long-time Natalie.TF contributor Cassie!

Natalie: “Say hi to the people Cassie!”

Hiiii~!

Natalie: “Let’s get historical. What is your history with Dragon Age, and BioWare in general?”

I first learned about Dragon Age when I was like, 14-ish or something when my mother told me she had pirated some new games and offered for me to try. One of those games was Dragon Age II and I went into it completely blind and thoroughly enjoyed my time (bar one certain story quest that haunts me to this day with its body horror). That was my introduction to the series and I think I played through the game maybe 4 times.

In short I’d describe the game as a very fun experience and I’d honestly be willing to replay most of it again today. The companions and story/quests are the obvious highlights and I remember liking and enjoying most of the companions. Enough so that I played Isabella over ‘my character’ in every instance possible on my first try and loved the personalized ending I got where my and her character sailed off on a ship to obscurity at the end of the game. It was the first time I had seen something from a game that seemed so customizable/personable in an ending. Not to mention how every configuration of party members would allow them to have ‘party banter’ between them which is often laugh-out-loud, genuinely funny dialogue. Big plus. The combat was everything I could ask for at my age and every other element was either polished or flawed in such a way to not be obnoxious.

After that, I tried Origins at my mother’s suggestion and didn’t really enjoy it as much. The older game had lower graphics and at the time I was a big snob over things like that and other small things that I don’t remember kept me from properly enjoying it as much as DA2. My first and only run ended when I got stuck maybe 70-85% of the way through and lost any interest in continuing it.

I was patiently waiting for a sequel to release and continue the series. That came in the form of Dragon Age: Inquisition which I have… mixed feelings about, mostly positive.

The game was an amazing graphical upgrade over its predecessors, so much so that my paltry Radeon HD7990 simply couldn’t handle the game on max graphics. Inquisition is its own unique story, taking an origin point completely unexpected from the DLC of the prior game for its main story which was a fun twist and a nice connection to DA2 as a fan of the previous one. However it also sidelined the main build-up and final events of DA2’s main story and that kinda fell flat. Inquisition is a long game with an intriguing campaign that feels ‘rewarding’ in how you rise up against these unbeatable forces and claim victories and renown.

Inquisition’s gameplay is a similar mixed bag. The War Table reinforces my prior statement by making you feel like you are in control of a large organization with time-based operations performed by others in the background that can affect the world. Such as repairing bridges or even taking over and establishing bastions/fortresses.

The combat has some weird differences to the prior games, but I would attribute my lengthy playtime of DA2 to my sensitivity to this issue. It is the best system of all the games with variety in classes, skills and they have the impact they need to. Good times.

The real downfall of Inquisition lies in its ‘open-world’ design, requiring you to traipse large (if pretty) areas to collect tidbits, random quests and just… stuff. It’s so much and so wide and I personally do not enjoy this kind of gameplay. It can feel agonizingly slow, tedious or straight up time wasting at occasions and provides a dilemma. The obvious solution to the issue is to use the in-game mount system to travel fast but that means you don’t have your party with you and suddenly you’ve lost the main part of the game.

Much of my love for DA2 can be directly pointed to the companions and their party interactions as you play through the game. Which sadly brings me onto the main problem with Inquisition, and that’s simply that too many of its characters are just unlikable. I don’t know why but on my 3-4 playthroughs I thoroughly struggled to find any of the characters likable or attractive (which for a game with many romance options is a bad look) the entire time. I had to use mods to give my own character a hair length beyond tickling their nape. It is amazing how much such a little thing like this brings down this game so much.

I have not played any games in the series in a long time. Between the agony of seeing Diablo 3 being so bad after Diablo 2, Inquisition only partially living up to DA2, I stopped thinking about the series.

I am only really aware that BioWare is the company behind Dragon Age as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic which also featured the reaction dial common to these games. Not much else.

Natalie: “Now that you’ve seen footage of Veilguard, what are your thoughts on the title?”

Honestly, I’m surprised by how good it looked!

Natalie: “…Anything more you want to add?”

My biggest concern has to be the combat right now. Despite not vibing with the style, which feels a bit cartoony for my taste, graphics speak for themselves in the trailer. However there are many unknowns about the combat, there was no UI toolbar for skills and the characters use of both a bow and twin daggers as a rogue is really weird. I hope that it isn’t too different from the previous games in style.

Natalie: “The lack of a toolbar is likely due to how the game is being developed with consoles as the priority. As such, it’s hard to say if the toolbar will be present in the PC version. Would your thoughts on the game change if there wasn’t a toolbar?”

Absolutely.In the trailer we saw the game pause every time they used their single spell. It ruins my immersion by interrupting the flow of battle. While I understand it for consoles due to a lack of buttons, for PCs, it is unnecessary.

Natalie: “You seemed concerned about how characters can use both ranged and melee options. Most likely, characters will have multiple starting weapons but allow players to specialize in whichever one they prefer. It’s rare for modern action games like this to force the player to use one weapon type. Is this a problem for you?”

It is. Traditionally, you could only equip one weapon, bow or dagger.In one perspective it could be seen as a limitation but to me that is how you specialize the character. You are either an archer or a duelist. It just feels… ‘wrong’ to me that it’s not that way. Perhaps it is a backward way to think, as more freedom is more freedom. But I just liked the way it was, being able to use both makes each feel less unique.

Natalie: “What would you say is the essence, the core appeal, of Dragon Age as a series?”

The companions and the stories. I think that most people would say this too, people love the characters and how they interact with each other. The party banter as you play, even things like Hawke and Varric keeping count of slain enemies and yelling score to each other in the midst of battle. It seems small, but it’s the biggest and most memorable thing. It is why Origins is a loved game and set-off this entire series that has continued this trend for at least two games even if the last has somewhat failed. The story is the medium to push the characters to the player through and enjoy them.

Natalie: “Why do you consider Dragon Age II, a game often criticized for being rushed and underwhelming, to be the best in the series? Is it mostly down to the characters and more direct structure of the game?”

That’s a better way of putting it than I could myself, that’s probably it. In addition I would say that it was the first game of the series I played, and this probably factors into it too. The setting and general vibes, also that huge dragon fight in the mine pit was so good. I could ramble about this game for a while.

Natalie: “How long did it take for you to leave the damn Hinterlands in Inquisition?”

Bloody ages! WORST, AREA, EVER. It is the perfect example of what I hate about open world games and the first thing I think about when I think of things I dislike about that game.

Natalie: “It’s been a decade since Inquisition, so what do you want to see from Veilguard?”

Honestly, this is a simple answer. More of what made Inquisition good in the first place. More areas to explore (as long as it’s not too big or vague). More characters (likable ones) and quests to play through them with. And of course it better be damn pretty, though if it was the same level as Inquisition I wouldn’t mind if the game was good to match. The story will also be my main focus, and I have strong expectations for the boss fights after Inquisition’s perfectly done High Dragon series. Northern Hunter is the best dragon design and I will take no arguments.

Natalie: “Anything else you want to say to the people at home?”

Stay Floofy!

This is rapidly becoming an addiction… And that team in the corner there is such a hodgepodge of malarky.

2024-06-09: Wrote 4,200 words on the Xbox showcase. Finished up the TSF Showcase subject. Got 1,600 words in, lost motivation.

2024-06-10: Wrote 4,000 words for TSF Showcase, because my brain is peanuts.

2024-06-11: Focused on editing this massive Rundown so far and added some new bits (about 2,200 words?) Also, did the Cassie interview. Also worked on the chapter 6/14 outline for the next novel. Got 1,400 words before I had to stop. Too much craziness.

2024-06-12: Focused on PS1988’s outline, adding about 2,500 words. I gradually realized that I will need to do two things. Rearrange a few chapters to make more sense (a semi-common tactic in novel writing) and I will need to dedicate a chapter to exposition, because this lore is beyond stupid. It’s just insane. Also, had to replace the Malcolm X stand-in character with Yasuke, because Malcolm X wouldn’t f*ck a Japanese woman.

2024-06-13:Spent way too much time doing other bullsh*t and PokéRogue. I tried blocking the site via my router, but the router the internet guy urged me to use isn’t working. Got the Rundown ret-2-go, wrote 1,200 words for the Rundown, forced myself to write however many words of PS1988 before going to bed early because of construction.

2024-06-14:I did my best to focus, and made some good progress today. …Despite getting sidetracked by shower touch ups and getting a shower door! I finished the sixth chapter outline, realized I needed a different chapter to introduce a character, and came up with a fresh idea for an Indonesia chapter and outlined it in a day. (It probably sucks, but I’ll work on it.) I also went through my overbearing pile of rampant notes (7,500 words) and curated them to the appropriate chapter, and revised what I had written the yesterday. With all the sh*t I added, this outline is currently about 15,000 words… by the 60% mark. The good news is that I think I outlined the harder chapters and figured out how to combine the more disparate elements. Though, I did need to cut King X Treme and replace him with a Black/Japanese girl and a cum ghost. Yeah, I need to finish chapter 2 by the end of June at a f*cking minimum. (Unless ST gets updated before month-end.)

2024-06-15:I did more outlining work, which mostly involved casual research to locations, checking maps, and doing some revisions. But I managed to figure out the outlines for TWO more chapters. One in Irvine California, and one in DC. I did not actually know the proper layout of DC, and I think it is a horrible waste of space. Way too much grass. Tomorrow/Monday is going to be the Reagan chapter. That’s gonna be FUN!

Current Word Count:0

Estimated Word Count: 88,000

Words Edited:0

Total Chapters: 16

Chapters Outlined:11

Chapters Drafted:0

Chapters Edited:0

Header Images Made:0

Days Until Deadline:142