Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 17

Could We Get Ace Attorney News This Sunday?

Is it finally happening?

Edit: They have confirmed it is in fact not happening.

Yesterday was Capcom’s TGS show, and it was basically just a quick overview of their recently-released games (including the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection) followed by a ton of Monster Hunter Wilds information.

But near the end of the presentation, after talking about their current sales, they moved on to “an announcement from the Ace Attorney series,” and I had a moment of shock realizing we might actually be getting a new game announced at TGS after all. Instead, they announced a “product introduction trailer” for September 29.

Now, the way it’s described, it sounds like it could just be an overview of the series to let everyone know what games are available and how to play them.

But if that’s all it is, this is a very strange way to do it.

Why would you announce and schedule a simple overview video instead of showing it at the end of the TGS show? It’s also been announced that it will go live on September 28 at 11 PM PT / September 29 at 2 AM ET. That means this video is premiering at the same time in all regions. For regular videos, they have no problem uploading a Japanese video first and then an English trailer hours later.

Moreover, don’t forget how Dragon’s Dogma 2 was announced. Fans’ hopes were crushed when Capcom’s 2022 showcase brought up Dragon’s Dogma only to announce a “10 Years of Dragon’s Dogma” video instead of a sequel, but then the video a few days later ended with Dragon’s Dogma 2 being announced.

It feels like this means something.

Now, I remember the “unmissable” TGS showcase. I remember the Ace Attorney social media accounts changing their profile pictures. I remember the out-of-context Earth screenshot. Yes, I remember all the times we’ve gotten our hopes up for no reason, but that’s not going to stop me from doing it again.

What will be announced this Sunday? Will it be the long-awaited Ace Attorney 7? The Great Ace Attorney Investigations to explain the mysterious misplaced Van Zieks captions? A new anime? Or will there be no announcement at all and it’s simply a scheduled series overview trailer?

I know what I’m hoping for, but what do you think?

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Let’s Talk About the Level-5 Showcase

Yesterday was the Level-5 Vision 2024 showcase, and it was a mix of highs and lows.

They started with Fantasy Life i. We already knew it had been delayed from its October 10 release date, and it sounds like that was done to make it even bigger (and hopefully better). I have mixed feelings about that, but fortunately the game looks great!

I do find it amusing that they’re marketing it as having “the largest open world in the history of Fantasy Life,” considering that as far as most people are concerned, this is only the second game. It’s technically the third, because of the mobile game, but still.

Anyway, Fantasy Life i has been delayed all the way to April 2025. Well, at least that gives me time to catch up (hah) on my backlog.

The next game they showed was Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

As a huge Professor Layton fan, this is the one I’m the most excited about, and I loved what I saw. The town being menaced by a ghostly gunslinger named Gunman King Joe is the sort of insanity I look for in my Professor Layton plots. On top of that, the gameplay looks like exactly what I’d expect from the series – with even a glimpse of the map used for traversal – now in a 3D world.

Some of the characters looked a little off to me, especially Luke, but overall I’m really excited for New World of Steam.

It still only has a general 2025 release window, but at least it hasn’t been delayed yet.

The next trailer was for Decapolice, showing off the theme song and several of the characters (why are these characters named things like Harvard and Cambridge?), and it all looks pretty neat. I started to think that maybe Decapolice wasn’t delayed even farther out after all.

But it is. Decapolice is now set for 2026.

They didn’t give specific reasons for the delay, only that they’re evolving it into a better experience, which has that same “bigger and better” impression I got from Fantasy Life i.

After that, they finally showcased Megaton Musashi W: Wired, to announce a new mode and other additional content being added in November.

Next up was the long-delayed Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. The new trailer introduced a ton of stuff, such as a new mode with a customizable character and town-building, and ended by saying it “will evolve into a game that can be played infinitely.” It’s now set for June 2025.

This speaks to the same thing that has me worried about Fantasy Life i and Decapolice. It’s good that they want their games to have a lot of content, but it feels like they’re pushing that so hard that they can’t actually finish them.

After that, they revealed a remake of the first Inazuma Eleven, set for 2026. That was the first of their two new games.

The second was, as expected, the Yokai Watch spiritual successor that was teased last year. Now, this is the game behind the “Ghost Craft RPG” trademark, but apparently that is actually what they’re calling the genre. The game itself is called Holy Horror Mansion, which I’m not crazy about as a title.

You use a camera to interact with ghosts, and while there is definitely some Yokai Watch DNA here, it looks very different. Its release date is “Who knows?” so at least they’re self-aware when it comes to the delays.

The announcement of Holy Horror Mansion made a lot of Yokai Watch fans lose their minds. With the game being teased as the next concept for Yokai Watch, a lot of people expected it to look and play like a new Yokai Watch. I don’t share those complaints. While I’d love to see more Yokai Watch, Holy Horror Mansion looks like it could be a fun game in its own right.

Unfortunately, my impressions were tarnished by the concerns that the backgrounds used in the teaser trailer were made with generative AI. I don’t support the use of generative AI in creative works, so that was disheartening to see. Now, I can’t actually tell if art is AI or not unless there’s something blatantly wrong with it. Maybe it’s just concept art with some oddities. But you can take a look at the evidence and see what you think.

The more concerning part is that this controversy led to people bringing up a report from Level-5 last year about how they were using AI in their work, which includes using ChatGPT to come up with concepts/details for side quests in Decapolice. Now that’s disheartening. Experiencing stories thought up by AI just isn’t what I want to do. At all. Even aside from all the other AI concerns, that makes it feel like those side quests are just filler, nothing that really matters to the world, since their concepts could just be generated.

So yes. I love Level-5’s games, and I think their upcoming games look great, but between the constant delays, the apparent scope creep, and now the AI concerns, I ended up with mixed feelings about the whole thing. Maybe the long delay to 2026 is enough time for them to change their minds about using AI?

How do you feel about the games shown in yesterday’s Level-5 showcase?

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Pirate Yakuza – The Unreliable Narrator Theory

When we discussed the newly-released Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on Friday, I had mixed feelings about the game’s premise.

One of my criticisms was that everything has the trappings of classic historical pirates even though the game is set in the present day, which contributes to the sense of it being too silly compared to the rest of the series.

But now I’ve seen a few fans toss around a theory that could explain everything – and it makes a lot of sense.

The start of the trailer implies that this is a frame story in which Majima is telling someone else about what happened to him. In that case, we need to take into account the possibility that Majima is an unreliable narrator. And if he is, these anachronisms and sillier aspects could be considered his embellishments to the actual events.

(It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done something like this. Notably, the enemy transformations in Yakuza: Like a Dragon are just Ichiban’s imagination because he’s a big JRPG fan.)

So I’m calling it now – the first time we see that pirate ship, it’s going to cut back to the frame story to have someone object that pirates don’t use galleons anymore, and Majima will tell them to shut up because it’s his story and he’s going to tell it the way he wants.

If that’s actually what’s happening here, I’m much less critical of it. Realistic modern-day pirates, while more suitable for a serious story, probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Choosing the fun option for the player to experience while having it actually be an embellished version of the “real” events would actually be a great way to do it.

Meanwhile, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was confirmed to be much longer than Gaiden, with the main story stated to be around 1.3 to 1.5 times longer. That would explain the higher price point ($60 compared to Gaiden’s $50), especially if it has a sizable amount of side content.

All in all, I’m feeling more positive toward the idea of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii than I was on Friday, especially since there are ways it could all make sense. Of course, this theory could be wrong and they just actually have pirates in galleons firing cannons at each other and fighting with cutlasses in 2024. What do you think about the unreliable narrator theory?

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The Pirate Majima Game is Real! (Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Revealed)

Earlier this week, we discussed the rumors of a pirate-themed Like a Dragon game.

I thought the story premise sounded questionable and hoped it would be a historical spin-off instead.

But no, the leak was accurate! Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has been announced for February 28, 2025. It is set after Infinite Wealth and stars Majima, who loses his memory and becomes a pirate captain while trying to remember who he is.

The RGG Summit was held this morning at 6 AM Eastern Time, which was too early for me to normally be up. But by chance, I woke up at exactly 6 AM, so I tuned in a few minutes late to watch the rest of the Summit. I’ve seen people say the trailer contains spoilers for Infinite Wealth, which I didn’t pick up on at all, so I’m guessing they were in those first few minutes that I missed. To be safe, I won’t watch the trailer again until I’m caught up.

I still think the premise of Majima getting amnesia and becoming a pirate is a bit too silly. And… even though they’re modern-day pirates, they look like classic pirates?! They’ve got a galleon! They’re firing cannons! It feels a bit too goofy to me for a series where the main stories are usually pretty serious despite all the wacky side content, but I have my fingers crossed that the story will still be good.

It features brawler combat, now with the ability to jump, and you can switch between two combat styles: “Mad Dog” and “Sea Dog.” Despite my skepticism about the game’s premise, I love those names.

They also showed off a handful of mini-games, and this is the game the auditions were for. Instead of hostesses, they’re part of a new live-action scenario called “Masaru’s Love Journey: My Dream Minato Girl,” in which the new supporting character Masaru searches for romance. I’m not sure why it’s about Masaru instead of Majima or what it means for gameplay (will we be playing as Masaru? are we giving him love advice as Majima? is this a wingman Majima mini-game?), but it has the potential to be interesting.

Now, the Japanese title is is Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii, so it’s strange that they both dropped the “Gaiden” and shoehorned “Yakuza” into the English title.

With it being another Gaiden title, I’d worried that it would be a digital-only release in the west like Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, but not only are we getting a physical standard addition, but they also announced a physical Collector’s Edition that includes an acrylic standee of Majima, a pirate flag, a coin pin, an eye patch, and a voucher for the digital deluxe content.

(Where was this energy when Judgment came out?? Do you know how much I wanted a Judgment Collector’s Edition?)

It’s kind of ironic for me that the first Like a Dragon game I’m skeptical about is getting a Collector’s Edition. I’ll probably get it anyway since I love the series so much, but I wish one of the games I’d been super excited for had gotten that treatment.

I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t tease another game at the Summit. They really spoiled us with that first Summit in 2022, and since I have some mixed feelings about the pirate game, I was really hoping they’d announce at least one more. Instead, the only other things they showed were the upcoming show, the Kiwami Switch port, and a new merchandise line. It just goes to show that even though they did it once, we can’t expect multiple announcements every time.

Anyway, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a reality, and it’s coming next February. Are you excited for it, or do you have doubts?

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The Tales Developers Hope to Remaster “as Many Titles as Possible”

The recent Nintendo Partner Showcase took me by surprise with several announcements, one of which was Tales of Graces f Remastered.

A since-removed retail listing made it seem as though Tales of Xillia would be the next Tales remaster, so the Graces news was especially unexpected.

It was soon revealed that Tales of Graces f Remastered is only the first of a Tales remaster project, with more to come. Now we have a few more details thanks to a Famitsu interview with producer Yusuke Tomizawa, translated by Automaton.

It seems they originally intended to release remasters in chronological order, but “due to various circumstances, trying to stick to chronological order too much made us unable to release anything” and instead their new goal is “prioritizing titles that had the highest potential for release.”

No further context is given, which makes this a curious statement.

Quite a few Tales games released in between Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Graces, so if the remaster plan started with Tales of Symphonia Remastered last year, that would mean they’d originally intended to remaster Rebirth next, then Legendia, then Abyss, and so on and so forth, but ran into difficulty. Without clarification, though, it’s unclear if he meant that or if they’d intended to start from the very beginning with Phantasia.

Now their decisions of which games to remaster take fan feedback into account, which apparently led to them prioritizing Graces f. (I’m surprised, I would have thought Abyss had the most requests.) Their ultimate goal is to release “as many titles as possible.”

This feels like it could be interpreted in either a positive or negative way. On one hand, wanting to remaster as many Tales games as possible sounds great! It should mean we’ll get more than just a handful. On the other hand, saying they couldn’t go in chronological order raises concerns that they’re going to skip over the earlier games after all.

But here’s an interpretation that takes both statements into account – what if they realized those earlier titles would require a lot more work, so they jumped ahead to a highly-requested game that would be easier to remaster, to get it out in the meantime while they’re working on the longer project? A Tales of Rebirth remaster, for example, might not be shelved but simply moved ahead since it will take longer to have ready.

(Tales of Rebirth is one of the few games left on my original list of untranslated games I wanted to see translated. Come on, Bandai Namco. It’s your turn.)

Overall, I think this interview is a positive sign for the future of the series and the revival of Tales games that are no longer readily available. Which games do you think they’ll remaster after Graces?

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Let’s Talk About the Latest Like a Dragon Rumors

We’re getting closer and closer to the next Like a Dragon announcement, and rumors have begun to fly.

Let’s talk about what is confirmed first.

Fact: RGG Studio is set to reveal a new game at TGS that they say fans will be “surprised” about. They also selected the actresses who will appear in an upcoming game, after holding a contest. It’s not clear if those refer to the same game or not.

Fact: An RGG Summit will be held this Friday, September 20, where they’re expected to announce the next Like a Dragon game. It’s unclear if this is the same game as the TGS reveal and there was just some misinterpretation about when it would be announced, or if they’re two separate games.

Fact: Sega recently filed a trademark for “Yakuza Wars.”

Up until recently, we’d assumed Yakuza Wars was the surprising game they were set to reveal. However, it now appears that Yakuza Wars is a Chinese gacha mobile game, which is kind of disappointing but probably means it’s not the big Summit/TGS announcement after all. Since RGG isn’t developing that game, I wouldn’t expect it to get more than a brief mention.

So what could their next game be? Judgment 3? Kenzan remake? Like a Dragon 9? Dead Souls Kiwami?

Enter the pirate rumors.

It seems there’s a leaker teasing a game to be announced soon. Some people think the teases are for a new Ninja Gaiden game, but others are convinced it’s a pirate-themed Like a Dragon. A Like a Dragon pirate game would certainly be a surprise. Infinite Wealth already did a lot with water and Ishin had swordfighting (and guns), so it doesn’t feel implausible. A fan on Twitter also pointed out that when the actresses’ auditions were announced, there was a map featuring a ship visible in the background.

Things have taken a stranger turn, however, with an older claim surfacing that says it’s a modern-day spin-off in which Majima loses his memory and becomes a pirate.

That sounds like a questionable story premise to me. Given the choice between the two, I’d much rather a historical pirate game with the cast playing new characters a la Ishin than a Majima amnesia plot. But no matter which it is, there had better be a sea shanty mini-game to act as this game’s karaoke.

Of course, this whole rumor could come to nothing. The original leak could be for Ninja Gaiden while the Like a Dragon game is something entirely different. Even the claim that RGG teased the Majima game seems to only refer to a tweet about the Majima coat hanger merchandise, which is a stretch to consider a hint toward a pirate spin-off. We’ll know soon enough, though, because the RGG Summit is only a few days away!

Do you believe the Like a Dragon pirate game rumors?

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A Reynatis Demo is Available Now

A demo is now available for Reynatis, the upcoming action RPG from Furyu.

According to the demo announcement on Steam, progress is not carried over to the full game but you can get some bonuses if you’ve completed the demo.

The demo is available for all platforms Reynatis is coming to (PS4/5, Switch, PC).

We’ve talked about Reynatis quite a few times now, not only because it looks like my sort of game on its own but also because of its collaboration with The World Ends With You.

I’m interested enough in Reynatis that I already have it preordered, so I don’t know if I’ll try the demo or not, especially since progress doesn’t transfer. On the other hand, it might be good to check it out (especially to see if the Switch version has any performance concerns).

Reynatis is due out on September 27 in a year so stacked with great releases that I’m nowhere near caught up on them, but it’s one I definitely want to play sooner rather than later.

(In completely unrelated news, Voltage has a big announcement coming on September 20, so that could lead to yet another game added to my list. The upcoming weeks could be crazy.)

Are you interested in Reynatis? Are you planning to play the demo?

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Professor Layton and the New World of Steam Will Be Playable at TGS

TGS is coming up at the end of the month, and I have my fingers crossed for exciting announcements.

One of my most-anticipated games that’s already been confirmed to be there is Professor Layton and the New World of Steam!

Level-5 announced their TGS lineup today, and Professor Layton is on the list. Not only will New World of Steam be featured at TGS, but it will even have a playable demo!

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, Fantasy Life i, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam will all have playable demos in addition to being included in Level-5’s live broadcast, while Decapolice is listed as only having a video showcase. There was no mention of the new titles (two are listed now instead of just one) set to be announced at the upcoming Level-5 Vision.

I’m surprised that Professor Layton will have a demo while Decapolice won’t, since Decapolice is supposed to come out first. I already thought Decapolice had probably been bumped to 2025, but maybe Professor Layton will come out ahead of it after all.

Although the TGS demo will be in Japanese, I’m hopeful that we’ll get a better idea of what New World of Steam will be like. I’ve been getting nervous about Level-5’s delays lately, but I’d like nothing more than for them to knock it out of the park with an excellent demo.

(People who play the Professor Layton demo will also get a hint coin keyring.)

A small gameplay segment was shown last November, but I don’t believe we’ve seen anything since then. Hopefully this will be a longer segment that provides a good look at the new game.

Are you looking forward to seeing more of Professor Layton and the New World of Steam?

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Astro’s Playroom is a Fun Little Platformer (and I’m Excited for Astro Bot)

One of the few standout titles from the June State of Play for me was the 3D platformer Astro Bot.

Astro Bot came out a few days ago (on September 6, the same day as the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection!), but while waiting for it, I decided to play Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-installed on the PS5.

Astro’s Playroom part tech demo, part 3D platformer, and part PlayStation celebration.

It shows off various aspects of the PS5 controller while you explore 3D platforming stages as a cute little robot and collect coins and collectibles related to PlayStation’s history. There’s a room in the central hub where all these collectibles go on display.

Stages are mission-based rather than the more open collect-a-thon style I prefer (with one exception), but they’re still a lot of fun, with a lot of little secrets to find. My only complaint is that I didn’t enjoy the parts that were heavy on motion controls very much.

In addition to finding collectibles, there’s an additional set of collectibles you get through a gacha machine by spending coins found in the levels. Unlike real gacha, this is fun. For one thing, there are no duplicates. For another thing, coins are pretty readily available.

And the collectibles made me so nostalgic. Seeing an old PlayStation console or a PS2 controller made me think back to the days when I used to play those all the time. It was a nice trip through PlayStation history.

Astro’s Playroom is a short game and only took me a few hours to play. But those were a fun few hours, and it left me excited to see what they’ve done with a full game in Astro Bot.

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The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is Here!

Today is the day. The Ace Attorney Investigations Collection is now out for all modern platforms.

Investigations and its sequel were the only games in the series that never made it to the 3DS, which made it feel a bit like Capcom had left them behind. And Investigations 2 had never received an official translation.

That makes this collection a momentous release, much more so than the Apollo Justice Trilogy earlier this year.

I already played the Investigations Collection and reviewed it over at MonsterVine, so you can head there to read my thoughts on this excellent remaster. I’m so happy this collection exists, and I’m thrilled that more people will get to play these games at last.

(Rest assured, I preordered a physical copy of the collection as well and it arrived today. There’s no way I was missing out on that!)

I’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time.

All the way back in 2012, I blogged about the fan movement “Operation: Objection!” that hoped to show Capcom we wanted Investigations 2 localized. Two years later, we were holding a write-in/call-in event. A few months later, I was still at it. By the next year, we had a newly-revived movement to show our support.

I eventually put Investigations 2 localization on my list of pipe dreams, where it remained year after year after year…

By 2022, I had all but given up. I wanted to believe the Investigations duology would be remastered, but we’d had no new Ace Attorney announcements since The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (which itself felt like a miracle to have translated). I told myself that if there was no Ace Attorney news by the end of the year, I would finally give in and play the Investigations 2 fan translation. So the following May, I finally played the fan translation and came out of it hoping for an official translation harder than ever so that more people could play.

And now it’s finally here.

I’ve spent so long going into every single video game event hoping for an Investigations 2 localization announcement that it feels strange to no longer have to. What will I pin all my hopes and dreams on now? I guess I’ll just have to double down on wishing for Ace Attorney 7.

In the meantime, I can’t wait to see reactions from people playing these games for the first time. Are you planning to play the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection?

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