Samantha Lienhard's Blog

Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025 is Here!

October is here, and I’ll be honest, I was tempted not to do Celebrating All Things Spooky this year, considering how backed up my backlog has become even by my standards!

But with some good horror games looming over me, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Just be aware that I might not be able to stick to my usual pace of reviews (although I’ll still try). So let’s get started with Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025!

Contest

As usual, there will be a contest! Be sure to pay attention to the rules, as some details have changed.

Prizes:

Alan Wake (gift sent through Steam)Alan Wake’s American Nightmare (gift sent through Steam)Not It: Spookiest Edition (gift sent through Steam)Silent Hill 4: The Room (gift sent through GOG)Dead Age (Steam code)Lakeview Cabin Collection (Steam code)eBook copy of The Book at DerniereBook copy of It Came Back$15 sent through PayPalYou pick a game for me to review!

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in November.

Rules:

No purchase is necessary.Only comments made between October 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM EDT and October 31, 2025 at 11:59 PM EDT will be counted.1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any Celebrating All Things Spooky blog post, including replies to other comments or posts from previous years = 1 point.You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.You must earn at least 5 points to qualify for a prize.The top 3 qualifying point earners will win prizes.The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible.The winner will be contacted by November 2, 2025.Sale

Meanwhile, you’ve got some sales to watch out for again! For the rest of this week and up through the weekend, my zombie comedy novella The Zombie Mishap is available on Amazon for just $0.99!

Looking for something a bit scarier? As we get closer to Halloween, watch for similar sales on my horror novellas The Book at Dernier and It Came Back!

When it comes to the visual novels I’ve worked on, the lighthearted supernatural otome game The Last Act is currently on sale on Steam! Meanwhile, I don’t know if the horror visual novel Not It will get a sale closer to Halloween or not, but I’ll keep an eye out.

Conclusion

For the rest of the month, I’ll highlight horror games and other spooky games (and sometimes other media) as often as possible, giving this blog a spooky feel in honor of Halloween. I’ll try to cover a variety of game types and styles, so stay tuned.

The scariest thing facing me is my backlog, but don’t worry about that. Let’s get Celebrating All Things Spooky 2025 started!

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More Details on Yakuza Kiwami 3 + Dark Ties

For me, the best announcement from TGS was Yakuza Kiwami 3 and its unexpected companion game Dark Ties, starring Yoshitaka Mine.

A few more details have surfaced since then, mostly through a Famitsu interview with director Ryosuke Horii.

(I’m relying on Google Translate here, just so you know.)

They’d originally intended to make Mine’s story something that could be watched as a video (maybe it as originally planned to be new cutscenes added to Kiwami 3, like the added Nishiki scenes in the first Kiwami?), but then they decided it would be better if he was playable. It seems this decision was at least partly made because of how popular Mine is.

When they announced Dark Ties, they described Mine as having an antihero approach in his substories, and Horii touches on that in the interview, saying that Mine doesn’t approach substories with the “defeating evil and protecting the weak” attitude that the other games’ protagonists have.

Overall, it sounds like they intend Dark Ties to be a darker story, which sounds pretty interesting.

The interview also describes the nature of Kiwami 3 as a remake, and how they felt if they kept it too close to the original Yakuza 3, it would feel boring/pointless since Yakuza 3’s remaster is readily available. Therefore, they approached it differently than the previous Kiwami games and treated it like a new work, and they don’t intend for it to replace Yakuza 3.

Another interview emphasized that as well, with Kiwami 3 involving bigger changes than Kiwami and Kiwami 2 had. Sadly, it also confirms the removal of the Revelation system.

(I’ve been hoping Revelations would come back to the series and appear in newer games, so I’m especially disappointed that they won’t even be in Kiwami 3.)

Moving on from the interviews, there’s also one big piece of information that has surfaced from TGS – the length of Dark Ties. Since it’s packaged with Kiwami 3, I thought it might be significantly shorter than the previous Gaiden games. I was hoping it would at least be the length of the Kaito Files, not as short as Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga. However, some previews mentioned being told it will be similar in length to Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name.

If it really ends up being that long, that’s incredible. I’m really looking forward to it.

What are your thoughts on the latest details about Dark Ties? How do you feel about their approach to Kiwami 3 as a remake?

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Professor Layton and the New World of Steam Delayed to 2026, New Gameplay

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam got a new trailer at TGS… and also a delay announcement.

It’s not a huge surprise; getting this late into 2025 without a release date made it seem pretty likely it was no longer set for this year.

On the other hand, I still remember being disappointed that it probably wouldn’t be out in 2023, and since then its 2024 release window has been pushed to 2025 and now 2026.

(Let’s just hope this isn’t a repeat of the Inazuma Eleven situation, with its constant delays.)

All right, with the delay news out of the way, let’s take a look at the new trailer.

The trailer doesn’t have subtitles yet, although the description says they will be added later.

As it is, we get some great new shots of Layton and Luke, and we also get to see some gameplay. It’s a short segment, but it looks very Layton – visiting a location from the map, tapping a character to get a puzzle, etc. Unfortunately, there isn’t much new shown.

The music choice is also… unique, and I cracked up listening to it. A Professor Layton rap was not on my bingo card.

There also was a playable TGS demo, and some players have uploaded videos, such as this one:

For me, the demo footage was great to see, because it really feels like Layton. There were some concerns when it was first announced, but it doesn’t look like they’ve made any drastic changes to the gameplay we know and love.

I’m looking forward to Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, although I can’t help but worry about it with all these delays. Still, Fantasy Life i saw numerous delays as well and came out to great reviews (I haven’t played it yet), so maybe the same will happen here.

What do you think of the latest New World of Steam videos?

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Yakuza Kiwami 3 Confirmed, With a Mine Gaiden Game

Yesterday was the RGG Summit, followed by a deeper dive with the RGG Direct, and while I didn’t get the announcements I was hoping for (Kenzan and Judgment 3), I can’t say I’m disappointed.

The big announcement was the one everyone expected, since it leaked last week, Yakuza Kiwami 3.

Now, I was never crazy about getting a Kiwami 3. I found the Yakuza 3 remaster to be fine. Noticeably older, sure, but still fine to play. I wanted them to spend their time on other games as well.

So I went into the Kiwami 3 trailer with some skepticism that only grew stronger as they mentioned story changes and showed that Rikiya, Nakahara, and Hamazaki have been recast and now look completely different. (At first, I was the most upset about Rikiya, but now I think the drastic change to Hamazaki is the worst since it makes him look like a totally different type of character.)

But then, after announcing Kiwami 3, they revealed they had something else to announce…

…a new Gaiden game starring Mine???

I never in a million years thought Mine of all characters would get a Gaiden game, but Dark Ties is a new game packaged with Kiwami 3 that follows Mine in a prequel story.

That won me over. I love Mine, and I’m ridiculously excited for a whole Mine story. I was excited enough thinking it was just bonus content like Kiwami 2’s Majima Saga, but then they called it “Gaiden” and treated it like its a new game. It’s not clear yet how long it will be compared to the other Gaiden games, since it’s being sold as part of Kiwami 3, but it sounds like it’ll have a decent amount of content at least.

They announced a new live action Yakuza movie after that, which I don’t care about as much, but Dark Ties was enough for me.

After the Summit, the RGG Direct went into more detail about both games in a deep dive, and it somehow got even better. My ambivalence toward Kiwami 3 vanished when they revealed that there’s more orphanage content.

I’m not joking. I love those early hours of Yakuza 3 where you spend time at the orphanage with the kids, and I was worried a remake might reduce that. Instead, there’s a whole new lineup of daily life activities at the orphanage where Kiryu can cook, garden, catch bugs, and more. It sounds like there are new substories with the kids, too.

There are new mini-games and other additional content, and overall I ended up feeling a lot more interested in Kiwami 3 than I was before.

Am I still worried about potential story changes? Yes. I like Yakuza 3’s story, and I wouldn’t want to see most of it changed. But I’m optimistic that it won’t be anything major.

Click for Yakuza 3 and 7-8 spoilersI’ll bet they’ve made the biggest changes to Kashiwagi’s death scene, since it was retconned in 7, whether that means actually showing him survive or just making it more plausible.

I’ve seen a lot of debate about whether they might let Mine survive the ending. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I like Mine’s sacrifice and would normally not want such a retcon. On the other hand, they retconned Richardson’s death, and it feels worse to have Mine stay dead if the guy he sacrificed himself to kill somehow survived.

So in short, because of the Richardson retcon, I wouldn’t mind Mine’s death also being retconned.

On the other hand, some fans are worried they might retcon Kanda’s death or at least Mine’s involvement in it, to make Mine more palatable as a protagonist. I really hope they don’t. The scene with Mine bringing in Kanda’s head is one of the first real defining moments for him, and I’d hate to see that changed.

Fortunately, since they seemed to be emphasizing Mine’s “darkness” and that he’s more of an antihero in his story than someone like Kiryu, I have hope that they’re willing to leave him as he is.

Meanwhile, Dark Ties was confirmed to have its own side content, such as “Kanda Damage Control,” which sounds like this game’s version of the Akame quests in Gaiden, here framed as trying to do damage control for Kanda and improve his public image. That’s hilarious, I love it. Dark Ties also includes substories and a coliseum with some sort of dungeon survival mode.

Overall, I am excited! Even though the RGG Summit didn’t announce the games I was hoping for and only showed the tiniest bit of Stranger Than Heaven, the Mine game made up for it all.

Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties will be out on February 12. Looks like I have until then to catch up.

(In unrelated news, Capcom’s TGS showcase came and went without any new Ace Attorney game, but the Phoenix Wright Trilogy is getting a free update to add quality-of-life content and bonus features that basically brings it up to par with the other collections. That’s great news, and it was nice to at least get something from Ace Attorney during the show.)

So, are you interested in Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties? How long of a game do you think Dark Ties will be?

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The Prince of Tennis Otome Remaster English Translation Announced

The surprises keep coming.

While it feels in some ways like there’s been a slowdown of otome localizations compared to the last couple of years, that doesn’t stop us from getting some pretty unexpected announcements.

A couple days ago, Konami announced The Prince of Tennis: Sweet School Festival 0-40 and more… and The Prince of Tennis: Doki Doki Survival eternal passion Tie Break Game, remasters of three PlayStation 2 otome games (the second one includes two games), for the Switch, Switch 2, and PC. At the time, it was assumed they would only be available in Japanese.

But today, an English version of the website appeared (along with a Chinese version), and a Konami press release came out listing Japanese, English, and Chinese as the supported languages.

That’s pretty unexpected, and it came out of nowhere. I’m not familiar with the Prince of Tennis games, but I’m all for older otome games being translated.

(Now let’s hope it’ll be a proper translation and not an awkward machine translation. The English website looks like a promising sign.)

These games weren’t even on my radar, but we can add them to the list of unexpected localizations. These games are originally from 2005-2007 respectively, so it just goes to show it’s never too late.

On top of that, we got a release date for Hakuoki SSL ~Sweet School Life~, which Eastasiasoft announced back in April. It will be out on February 12, 2026.

Every now and then we get a sudden rush of otome game news, and this looks like one of those times. Are you interested in the Prince of Tennis games?

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Capcom Details Its TGS 2025 Online Program (Is There Still Hope?)

As we discussed previously, Capcom is holding a TGS presentation on September 24 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET.

That’s pretty much all we knew before, but now they’ve gone into some more detail.

The TGS 2025 Capcom Online Special Program will last 40 minutes and feature Pragmata, the Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection (which was announced in the Japanese Nintendo Direct), Street Fighter 6, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Monster Hunter Stories 3.

It will specifically not include new updates on Resident Evil Requiem.

So, where does that leave us regarding Ace Attorney hopes?

The most discouraging part is that it does not say “and more,” “and other updates,” or any variation on that. There’s no indication that there will be new announcements at this showcase.

On the other hand, Capcom sometimes specifically says a showcase won’t include new announcements, and they haven’t done that here either. They’ve only specifically de-confirmed Requiem’s presence. That means there’s still a chance that in between focusing on the already-announced games, they could toss in a surprise announcement or two.

So yes, even though this isn’t the most encouraging news, I’m still hopeful that TGS will give us the news we’ve been waiting for. And if I’m wrong… well, at least I’m looking forward to learning more about some of the other games on their list.

What do you think we’ll see at Capcom’s TGS show?

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New Otome Localization Announced – Homura: The Crimson Warriors

Just when we got used to Idea Factory announcing otome localizations through live streams, yesterday morning they suddenly announced one on Twitter.

Homura: The Crimson Warriors, which first released on the PS Vita in Japan as Kurenai no Homura Sanada Ninpou Chou and received a Switch port last year, will be coming to the west in 2026.

That means it’ll join Temirana: The Lucky Princess and the Tragic Knights in IFI’s 2026 otome lineup, after the latter was delayed from its intended release this year.

Homura is another historical otome, and while I can’t help but wish they had announced the Birushana fandisc instead (why haven’t they yet??), it looks great. I love the looks of the characters, so I’m looking forward to this one a lot.

My only true disappointment is that it’s not clear if this one will get a Limited Edition.

IFI had been giving all of their Switch otome games Limited Editions, always mentioned on the website at the same time as the announcement, but then this year’s Battlefield Waltz localization got a smaller-scope special edition rather than a full Limited Edition, and only a standard edition has been announced for Homura so far.

I love their Limited Editions, and I especially loved that every release got one, so it’s a shame if they’ve started to cut back. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to Homura: The Crimson Warriors next year.

(In non-otome game news, RGG Studio accidentally leaked their upcoming announcement this morning. Oops?)

Are you planning to get Homura: The Crimson Warriors?

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New Details about Danganronpa 2×2

Danganronpa 2×2 was probably the biggest surprise of last week’s Nintendo Direct, a full remake of Danganronpa 2 that also includes a new version with different plot events.

Thanks to a new Famitsu interview with the producer, translated here by fans on Reddit, we have a few more details.

The first thing we should get out of the way is that this interview makes it clear the remake and new scenario are two separate stories, not one that branches partway through.

I bring this up first because I’ve seen a lot of confusion online about what Danganronpa 2×2 is. Lots of fans have been looking at the trailer’s trial footage, for example, and using that to determine what things will remain the same. But 2×2 includes a regular remake of Danganronpa 2 as well; the remake is the same story with redone sprites, backgrounds, etc. The new story is separate.

Moving on, the interview mentions that they originally considered doing this with the first Danganronpa, but that changing the story of the first game would have too big an impact.

That’s interesting. That makes it sound like they aren’t viewing the new story as a non-canon “what if” scenario, but as a reboot. He went on to say that events that take place before Danganronpa 2, like the first game and Ultra Despair Girls, are still the same but that we’ll have to wait and see if the ending still leads to the Danganronpa 3 anime.

(To be honest, my feelings toward the anime are so mixed, I wouldn’t mind this setting up a new timeline.)

There are a few things he wouldn’t go into detail about, such as mini-games and side content, but he did mention that the new scenario will be as long or even longer than the original game. It diverges shortly after the start, so it sounds like basically a whole new Danganronpa game.

I’m really excited for Danganronpa 2×2. I didn’t think a Danganronpa remake would interest me, but I’m so curious about what they’re doing with this new scenario.

What do you think about the latest Danganronpa 2×2 information?

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Exciting Surprises from the Nintendo Direct

Today’s hour-long Nintendo Direct is over! Did it have an amazing announcement that made me lose my mind? Not quite.

Did it still have some exciting surprises I can’t believe were announced? Actually, yes.

I’ll be covering the highlights for me, so be sure to check out the full Nintendo Direct if you want to see everything.

The Nintendo Direct began with a heavy focus on Mario for the 40th anniversary. I was hoping for a new 3D Mario game, but we didn’t get that. We did get a Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 bundle, however, with each game also available separate digitally. It’ll be out on October 2, so that’s pretty soon.

I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy, if not quite as much as 64/Sunshine/Odyssey, but I never got around to playing the sequel. I’m tempted to pick it up for the Switch and finally play it there.

They’re also releasing Rosalina’s Storybook as a physical item, which is neat.

The new Yoshi game also got my attention. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a Switch 2 game announced for Spring 2026. It looks cute, like the sort of game I might play someday.

Speaking of Spring 2026, that’s also the release window for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, which got a new trailer at this Direct. I need it.

I love the new feature where you can grab a Mii and put them next to another one. That’s going to be great. (Of course, I hope they still randomly interact with each other on their own, too. That’s half the fun.)

It’s too bad it doesn’t have a release date, but you know what did get a release date? Hades II! Hades II will be out digitally on September 25, with the physical release to follow on November 20.

That’s really close. I might wait for the physical, not only because I want a physical copy, but also because I’m drowning in my backlog.

Meanwhile, I don’t know what Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI did, but Square Enix is jumping ahead to make Dragon Quest VII the next remake. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will be out on February 5, 2026.

I have the 3DS version, but depending on how they compare, I might be tempted to get this one.

(Are we ever going to hear about Dragon Quest XII again??)

Soon after that came the news no one expected… Virtual Boy being added to Nintendo Switch Online, complete with a physical add-on accessory. I never saw that one coming.

Then came a welcome surprise for me… a new remake of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly announced for 2026!

I had hoped to see Fatal Frame, but I was still surprised.

I never got around to playing Fatal Frame II on the PS2, and I was always disappointed that the Wii remake wasn’t available in North America, so I am definitely excited for this. Maybe we’ll see a Fatal Frame VI one of these days after all…

Metroid Prime 4 got a release date of December 4, Donkey Kong Bananza is getting DLC, and then it was Pokémon time.

Okay, it’s not a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon like I predicted/hoped. It’s… Pokémon Pokopia, where you play a Ditto transformed into a human and shape the land into a home for other Pokémon. It sort of has Animal Crossing vibes, so I’m intrigued.

I thought they were announcing another game, too, but it turned out to be a DLC announcement for Z-A. Getting DLC announced before the game is even out was a little disappointing…

…but then the next announcement happened, and…

……

You can’t imagine my shock when I saw Nagito.

Danganropna 2 is getting a full remake in 2026, but not only will it include the original game, it also features an alternate scenario with different victims and culprits. It sounds like it’s going to be just as long as the original game, too, so we’re essentially getting two Danganronpa games in one.

They’re calling it Danganronpa 2×2. Danganronpa 4…..?

So that was absolutely wild.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 got a new trailer and a March 13, 2026 release date. I’ll definitely have played the second game by then, of course.

Finally, the last big announcement for me was the one they ended on: a brand-new Fire Emblem game. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave looks beautiful, it’s due out in 2026, and it… seems to be set in the same universe as Three Houses?

I’m intrigued.

All right, those were the major highlights for me from the Nintendo Direct. It doesn’t have me running out to get a Switch 2 just yet, but there were some nice surprises in there. What were your favorite announcements?

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The Nintendo Direct is Real… and It’s a Long One

Well, the rumored Nintendo Direct for this Friday (at which Ace Attorney 7 is rumored not to appear) has been confirmed.

The Nintendo Direct will be held on September 12 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET and feature upcoming Switch and Switch 2 games.

Not only is this the next general Nintendo Direct I’ve been waiting for ever since the official reveal of the Switch 2, but it’s also going to be 60 minutes long.

Aside from console reveals, this is the longest Nintendo Direct ever.

All right, with 60 minutes worth of announcements, it feels implausible that there won’t be some exciting news in there. And if there’s a strong focus on Switch 2 games, this could end up being the Direct that convinces me to get one… but anyway, let’s talk predictions.

It seems like a safe bet that Metroid Prime 4 will get a release date, so that’s the first of my predictions. I’m also going to predict announcements of a new Fire Emblem game and a new Animal Crossing. There have been rumors of a new Pokémon spin-off being announced, so I’m going to cross my fingers and say it’ll be a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon after all these years.

And maybe, if we’re really lucky, we’ll get a new Monolith Soft announcement.

The 13th is also the 40th anniversary of Mario, so maybe they’ll unveil a new 3D Mario. That’s one of the big things I’ve been hoping to see for the Switch 2.

And of course, just because there’s no Ace Attorney 7 doesn’t mean there couldn’t be another Ace Attorney announcement… like The Great Ace Attorney Investigations.

I know I’m unlikely to get all of my wishes, even with a 60-minute Direct. Nevertheless, I think this list of predictions isn’t too unreasonable outside of that last one (which is still possible!), so maybe a few of them will come true. What do you think will be announced at the Nintendo Direct?

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