Samantha Lienhard's Blog, page 41

Grasshopper Manufacture Teases News With Anniversary Countdown

Grasshopper Manufacture has launched a countdown website to celebrate its 25th anniversary, with the message “Something’s gonna happen.”

The countdown will end on June 9, so it’s quite a ways off – just over 71 days from the time it went live.

They’re clearly teasing news… but what kind? A Lollipop Chainsaw remake is set to be released this year, but since Grasshopper Manufacture is not involved with it, it’s unlikely to be related to that.

So then what could this mysterious countdown be for?

The company’s anniversary is on March 30, which made me wonder if the end date of June 9 is significant to the announcement itself. June 9, 2005 was the original Japanese release date of Killer7. Since then, Killer7 received a PC port, but isn’t available on any other modern consoles. Back in 2019, Suda51 said in an interview with Nintendo Life that Killer7 only contains 1/3 of his original script and that he hoped to make a complete version of Killer7 in the future. Could this countdown end with the announcement of the long-awaited extended Killer7?

On the other hand, maybe the countdown date isn’t important. In 2021, Suda51 reiterated that he wanted to remaster Flower, Sun, and Rain and even had a partner picked out to handle it.

Suda51 also said in 2021 that Grasshopper Manufacture would make three new IP over the next ten years, so this announcement could be for something entirely new.

Of all of these possibilities, I lean toward Killer7 the most because of the release date. One way or another, we’ll find out in a few months. What do you think Grasshopper Manufacture’s countdown is for?

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My Top 5 Wii U and Top 5 3DS Games

Less than 6 hours remain until the 3DS and Wii U eShops are shut down.

On Friday, we talked about our last-minute purchases, but now I’d like to take a look back at some of my favorite games on the two systems.

(My backlog being what it is, I still have many unplayed Wii U and 3DS games, so my top 5 could change in the future.)

For the sake of not having my 3DS list be entirely Ace Attorney games, I’ve decided to make these lists specifically for games that I personally played on the platforms in question.

So with that classification in mind, here are my favorite 5 games I’ve played on the Wii U and 3DS.

Top 5 Wii U Games5. Affordable Space Adventures

Many Wii U games have been ported to the Switch, and the handful of exclusives that remain tend to have fans hoping they won’t remain stranded on the Wii U forever, but there’s one game that I feel just wouldn’t be the same on any other system: Affordable Space Adventures.

In my review I talked about how well it makes use of the Wii U GamePad, to the point where it’s integral to the experience. It’s a challenging, clever puzzle game that found its perfect home on the Wii U.

If you haven’t heard of Affordable Space Adventures before, it’s one you should consider picking up before the eShop closes.

4. Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse

The Shantae games are available on just about every system nowadays, but the Wii U was where I first discovered the series, with Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. I enjoyed the start so much that I went back and played Risky’s Revenge first, and then when I moved on to fully play Pirate’s Curse, I liked it even better.

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse has less of a Metroidvania structure than Risky’s Revenge due to the multiple islands you explore, but it still had plenty of exploration and was a blast to play. It’s funny, fun, and has a fairly interesting story.

Of all the games I’ve played in the series so far, Pirate’s Curse is my favorite. It might not be a Wii U exclusive, but it’s one of the games I’ll always associate with it.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles X

But for one that is a Wii U exclusive, and remains so despite fervent hopes of a Switch port, Xenoblade Chronicles X stands out as not only a great JRPG, but the first open world game I actually loved.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is quite different from the other Xenoblade games, with more of a focus on exploration and worldbuilding while the story takes a backseat. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every second I spent with it, and I hope Monolith Soft returns to this world someday – not just with a port, but also with a sequel.

2. Bayonetta

The Wii U is also where I discovered the Bayonetta series. Having initially dismissed it as not something I’d enjoy, the Bayonetta 2 demo convinced me to preorder it – and the first Bayonetta was included with it.

I found Bayonetta to be exceptionally fun despite my misgivings, and it became an unexpected favorite. And that brings us to…

1. Bayonetta 2

What could top Bayonetta but more Bayonetta? This might be controversial, since a lot of fans prefer the first game, but I found Bayonetta 2 to be even better than its predecessor and my favorite game of 2014. It was a bit easier than the first game, but the gameplay was pure fun once again, the story was even more compelling, it removed some of the more annoying features like instant-death QTEs, and it was just an amazing game all around.

The first Bayonetta game is multiplatform, and Bayonetta 2 came with it to the Switch, but let’s not forget that Bayonetta 2 gained life on the Wii U. Playing those two games on the Wii U gave me some of my most fun gaming experiences ever.

Those are my top 5 Wii U games, and even though the Wii U itself is generally considered a failure, you can probably tell I had a lot of fun with it. But you know, despite how much I love these games, the 3DS was even better for me, so let’s move on to the next list!

Top 5 3DS Games5. Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure

I will keep pounding the table for Rhythm Thief until it returns. Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure is a rhythm game about a thief looking for clues about his father’s disappearance and fighting a resurrected Napoleon, and as I mentioned in my review, it’s structured like a Professor Layton game with rhythm games instead of puzzles.

I love Rhythm Thief. The gameplay is fun (even for someone like me, for whom rhythm games are hit or miss), the story is insane, and the only bad thing about it is that it ends with a sequel hook. I’m still waiting for that Rhythm Thief sequel, Sega.

Physical copies of Rhythm thief were nearly impossible to find even back when I played it in 2016, so I recommend picking it up on the eShop now.

4. Tales of the Abyss

How Bandai Namco decides what Tales games to port or remaster is a mystery, but they decided to port Tales of the Abyss to the 3DS, and I’m glad for it, because that’s the version I played.

While it didn’t dethrone Tales of Symphonia as my favorite Tales game, it earned a spot among my top favorites in the series. It has a compelling story and interesting characters, as well as a lot of little details that flesh out its world. It’s one of the best, and right now the PS2 and 3DS are on the only places to play it.

3. Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy

I love the Professor Layton series, and the sixth mainline game is no exception. The conspiracy-filled globe-trotting adventure of Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy rose up to become one of my favorites, as the story and character kept me invested alongside the variety of fun puzzles to solve.

Azran Legacy is the conclusion of the prequel trilogy’s story, and it did everything I was hoping for. I wouldn’t recommend starting the series here, but you should play it eventually.

Both Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy are difficult to find physically nowadays. I’d like to think Level-5 will port them now that they’ve made their glorious return (with a new Professor Layton game in the works!), but there’s no sign of that happening yet. Only the original trilogy has even received mobile ports.

So if you’re looking to get into the Professor Layton series, keep in mind that two of the games are still exclusive to the 3DS.

2. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice

From the sixth Professor Layton game to the sixth Ace Attorney game – the next game on this list is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. While you might sometimes hear me complain about Spirit of Justice and place it low in my series rankings, here it is as my second-favorite 3DS game. You see, Ace Attorney is my favorite series. Even a “bad” Ace Attorney game is still a great game.

Spirit of Justice has a lot of great things (although Nahyuta is not one of them), and it fixed up a lot of my gameplay criticisms about the previous entry, Dual Destinies.

While Spirit of Justice has a mobile port, its two non-canon “Asinine Attorney” joke cases are exclusive to the 3DS. Judging by the way things went with The Great Ace Attorney 2’s similar cases, Asinine Attorney will likely remain on the 3DS even if Spirit of Justice does get remastered eventually.

(On a side note, it’s a strange feeling to look back at my review and see my comments hoping we’d get The Great Ace Attorney and Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localizations before Ace Attorney 7. Well, at least one of those things has happened…)

Anyway, that brings us to the last game on this list…

1. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Even though Spirit of Justice improved the gameplay from Dual Destinies, ultimately Dual Destinies is one of my top games in the Ace Attorney series and the game I’ve picked for my favorite 3DS game. Gameplay quibbles aside, I loved everything else about it, especially its story and characters.

It’s one of my favorite entries in my favorite series, and the time I spent playing Dual Destinies was a joy. I love so much about this game.

(Especially Simon Blackquill.)

Dual Destinies, like the others in the series, has a mobile port available, but it’s otherwise only on the 3DS. Both it and Spirit of Justice are digital-only in the west, so this is your last chance to buy 3DS copies. Here’s hoping we see these games ported or remastered in the near future!

In the meantime, it and Spirit of Justice are both on sale for $2.99 until the eShop shuts down – and don’t forget to start the games before then in order to purchase their DLC!

There are many other games I could have put on this list, like Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (which is exclusive to the 3DS, so keep that in mind), but when I looked over the 3DS games I played, these five came out on top.

Conclusion

The Wii U and 3DS have both been wonderful systems filled with many memorable games for me, and these are my current top 5 games for each platform. The eShop may be shutting down, but the systems themselves live on – I look forward to playing the games I picked up ahead of the eShop’s shutdown.

What are your favorite 3DS and Wii U games?

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Don’t Forget to Make Your Final 3DS & Wii U eShop Purchases

The end of an era is upon us. On Monday, the 3DS and Wii U eShops will shut down forever.

Nintendo gave us ample forewarning, with the announcement coming a year in advance, but if you’re like me, you probably held out for some potential last-minute sales.

Capcom pulled through with a final 3DS eShop sale in North America. All of their 3DS games are on sale for $2.99 each, except for those that were published by Nintendo instead. This is a great chance to pick up the Ace Attorney games at an incredible price, especially since Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice are digital-only (and I loved both games).

NISA also put Culdcept Revolt on sale for $7.49 and RPG Maker Fes on sale for $2.99. I remember getting Culdcept Revolt at launch… and it’s still in my backlog. NISA has a somewhat more impressive sale in Europe due to the games they published there.

Finally, Gurumin is also on sale for $1.99. Although I played the PC version, not the 3DS port, it’s an easy recommendation at that price.

We’re only a few days away from the shutdown date, so I doubt any more sales are on the way. I’ve been making my final 3DS and Wii U eShop purchases, from games too expensive to pick up physically like Yo-kai Watch 3 and Dragon Quest VIII, to digital-only titles like the Parascientific Escape series, to virtual console titles like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky and Golden Sun: The Lost Age.

All in all, I ended up with a list of 15 games to pick up from the eShop, along with a couple physical 3DS games I ordered in anticipation of the prices shooting up once the eShop closes down.

If you’re still figuring out what you want from the eShop, I’ll repeat my recommendation of the Ace Attorney series. I still have hope Capcom intends to port the fourth, fifth, and sixth games to modern platforms, but there’s no guarantee. (Hopefully someday I’ll look back on this with the same fond smile as when I read my old posts where I was desperately wishing for The Great Ace Attorney.) For the Wii U, Xenoblade Chronicles X is an easy recommendation, since it’s an excellent game stranded on the Wii U with no Switch port in sight.

What 3DS and Wii U games do you recommend people pick up before the eShop shuts down?

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Anonymous;Code Release Date is September 8

Last July, one of the exciting announcements from Spike Chunsoft’s Anime Expo 2022 showcase was that Anonymous;Code would be released in the west in 2023.

Now the release date has been announced. Anonymous;Code will be out on September 8.

Not only that, but it’s actually getting an English dub. I was pretty surprised, since none of the others have gotten a dub (and it’s a rarity for visual novels in general), but it seems like they’re going all out for this release.

(If you prefer to pay with the Japanese voice acting, that will also be an option.)

Anonymous;Code is the most recent entry in the Science Adventure series, which also includes Chaos;Head and Chaos;Child, Steins;Gate and Steins;Gate 0, and Robotics;Notes and Robotics;Notes DaSH.

It seems like it’s generally recommended to have played all of them before Anonymous;Code (though maybe not DaSH, since I’ve seen it classified as a spin-off), so I have my work cut out for me.

Occultic;Nine also fits in there somewhere, but it’s an incomplete light novel series with an anime adaptation of debatable quality and an unlocalized visual novel adaptation that was supposed to get an expanded port with additional story content, but that was cancelled. If you specifically remember Occultic;Nine not being part of the Science Adventure series, it’s not a Mandela effect, but rather a retcon. It’s part of the series now, and apparently relevant to Anonymous;Code just like the others. Maybe I’ll give the anime another try.

Getting back to the matter at hand, you might be a bit wary of Anonymous;Code because of the poor state Chaos;Head Noah was in when it launched in English last year. However, the translator for this one seems to have a good track record, so we shouldn’t run into those same problems.

Are you looking forward to Anonymous;Code?

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Amnesia Crowd: Romance, Suspense, and More

One of our romance games we discussed in February was the otome game Amnesia Later, the first Amnesia: Memories fandisc included in Amnesia Later x Crowd.

After finishing that, I took a short break and then moved on to the second game in the collection, Amnesia Crowd.

The content here is a bit more varied than in Later. First, each character has a new “suspense” story, set during the events of the original game. While this means a return to a silent protagonist with Orion providing commentary, the stories more than make up for it. As a fan of mystery and suspense games, these were an absolute delight. They even have some light point & click elements.

Then there is the “work” segment of the game. This is a new world (with a new Waka, and I still want a Waka fandisc where we date every Waka) mostly told with chibi character sprites.

It features mini-games as you work various jobs at the cafe. Playing these mini-games and interacting with the LIs in between lets you unlock a variety of different scenarios. The mini-games are simple, so it can get tedious to try to play these routes all in a row, but it made for a nice change of pace interspersed between regular routes.

Each love interest has a romantic after story, which is the main feature. These are set after the stories in Later (so the main character gets dialogue and thoughts in these) and show the further development of their relationship. I think I’d give the edge to the Later after stories, but Crowd’s were still enjoyable.

Click for Amnesia Crowd spoilersWhile I’m not the biggest Toma fan, the part of his route where Kent and Ikki saw the cage and drew their own conclusions was so funny, and then the later scene with Shin made it even funnier.

There’s also a “communication” after story for each love interest, where you pick dialogue choices to fill up an affection meter and then get a new scene. I would have liked if the conversation flow felt a bit more natural, but it’s a neat idea.

While those are Crowd’s main features, there’s one last section where you can interact with Orion, take a quiz about Amnesia, and unlock new scenarios. You also can play poker and blackjack against the love interests, although there isn’t much to that mode.

Overall, Amnesia Crowd has a good variety of content, with the after stories being a great way to conclude the romances and the other stories providing additional fun. I’d say I enjoyed it more than Later, despite Later having the advantage in some areas. With both fandiscs being enjoyable, I’d say Amnesia Later x Crowd is well worth it for any Amnesia fan, even if you only like a handful of the love interests like I do.

(There is one more fandisc, Amnesia World, which is still exclusive to Japan. From what I’ve read, it has a bigger focus on mini-games. We’ll see if we ever get Amnesia World localization – maybe if IFI decides to announce more otome games beyond Charade Maniacs.)

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Persona Mobile Game Persona 5: The Phantom X Announced

Do you remember a couple years ago when a mobile game called Code Name: X was ?

It appeared to be related to Persona, although some people weren’t even sure if it was an official collaboration at first.

Well, it is, and now it’s been officially announced as Persona 5: The Phantom X.

According to the details translated by Persona Central, Persona 5: The Phantom X will be a free-to-play mobile game with in-app purchases (probably gacha, although that hasn’t been confirmed).

The most interesting thing to me is that this game has its own cast. Despite being set specifically in the world of Persona 5, you play as a new protagonist, who gains a partner in the form of an animal (an owl, this time) and awakens to his Persona along with classmates of his. Igor has a new assistant in the Velvet Room as well, a woman named Merope.

It features the daily life and bonding mechanics, as well as exploring the Metaverse at night to fight enemies. In short, it looks and sounds exactly like a regular full-fledged Persona game.

If I saw those trailers without context, I wouldn’t guess it was a mobile spin-off.

I’m intrigued by Persona 5: The Phantom X, although wary since it’s most likely a gacha game. Since the gameplay looks like a regular Persona game, I’d imagine gacha elements would be introduced by having either Personas themselves be gacha, or party members added through gacha. There’s going to be a closed test on March 29, so hopefully we’ll learn more about it after that.

So far, Persona 5: The Phantom X has only been confirmed for a release in China. What do you think of what we’ve seen so far?

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Thoughts on the Process of Elimination Demo

Last year, we discussed the announcement of a detective game called Process of Elimination.

It looked intriguing, and now a demo is out so you can play through the start of the game (and transfer your save data to the full game once it’s out later this year).

Process of Elimination is an unusual blend of genres. It’s a visual novel about a group of detectives trying to stop a brutal serial killer called the Quartering Duke, and like many detective visual novels, it has gameplay for the investigation sections.

Except here, that gameplay is almost like a strategy game.

When an investigation begins, you’re given an overhead look at the area and have a limited number of turns in which to investigate the scene. The detectives have stats, which you’ll match up against the “mystery points” needed to find pieces of evidence. There are other actions you can do as well, such as analyzing a piece of evidence to find new areas to investigate.

It’s… strange. Since some of the stats/actions use similar terms, I found myself struggling to remember the difference between inferring and inspecting, or assigning two detectives to inspect an area versus having one assist the other. I’m sure those aspects become easier to grasp once you’re more familiar with the game, but it’s still odd to check a detective’s stats to see if they can find evidence. If you don’t assign actions to the detectives, they’ll act on their own, too. Detectives simply can’t be trusted to work together efficiently without guidance.

After completing the investigation in the demo, the characters discussed the case. While they largely figured it out themselves, there were a handful of questions for the player to answer, so those probably will become more central to solving the case later on.

The demo left me interested in the story, but puzzled by the gameplay design. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to playing the full game. Process of Elimination will be out on April 11 (April 14 in Europe and Australia). Are you looking forward to it? Have you tried the demo? What do you think of its investigation style?

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Saint Maker: Religious Horror and Growing Dread

Back in February, developer Yangyang Mobile sent me a review code for their newest horror visual novel, Saint Maker. Now that we’re free of romance month, it’s time to take a look.

Saint Maker follows Holly, a girl who signs up for an event at a convent in order to get away from her current home situation. There she meets Gabby, who would rather be anywhere else, and Sister Adira, the strict nun in charge.

The story deals with religious fanaticism taken to extreme levels, together with some supernatural happenings. At first, it felt slow and more depressing than anything else, but once the creepy incidents around the convent took a stronger focus, the story picked up and had me invested in seeing what would happen next.

As you play, you have numerous choices to make, but most only result in minor changes. This serves a narrative purpose; for example, Holly has trouble speaking her mind, so picking that sort of option will result in her backing down because she can’t do it. Some do affect the ending, as there’s an extended ending scene if you pick certain choices, but the majority of Saint Maker feels like it’s one step away from being a kinetic novel despite the number of choices. Having so many choices with little or no effect made me wish for fewer choices instead.

There also is no narration. Internal monologue helps a bit, but not entirely. This means that scenes with action usually mean the screen shakes and you have to use the context from the dialogue to figure out what happened. Narration would have helped to make those parts flow better.

The art is fine, with CGs that have some slight movement instead of being still images, and the music works well for the story. It is fully voice acted, as well.

Getting back to the story itself, some parts were predictable, but it also had some surprises in store. While the early hours might feel like it’s against religion in general, it becomes clearer later on that its true indictment is against people who use religion as a defense while they do terrible things and faith that becomes twisted into something unrecognizable.

Once the supernatural aspects of the story come into prominence, it gets quite creepy, as well. I’m not sure if I would say it’s scary, exactly, but it’s certainly unsettling, with a growing sense of dread the more you realize things in the convent are not all right. I wish the supernatural elements had been explained in more detail, although some ambiguity serves this sort of story well.

Saint Maker is short, probably taking between 3-6 hours depending on how fast you read, but it doesn’t feel rushed. The short length fits its story, and I’m glad I had this chance to review it.

If the developer’s name sounds familiar to you, their past games include The Letter – not the survival horror game of the same name we discussed once, but a horror visual novel I’ve been meaning to get around to for quite a while. Maybe this will be the year!

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Professor Layton News, Ghost Trick Release Date, and Ace Attorney Sale!

Yesterday featured both the Level-5 Vision 2023 showcase and a Capcom Spotlight showcase later in the day, so we have quite a few things to talk about.

Level-5 Vision 2023

In Level-5’s showcase, they reiterated their new commitment to releasing all of the games showcased worldwide, in multiple languages.

All are planned for 2023 or 2024 releases (and since everything was given a 2023 window except for Professor Layton, that’s probably a 2024 title).

They started with another trailers for Decapolice, which looks like it should be a lot of fun. A detective investigation game with turn-based combat sounds like it was made for me. They also had a new trailer for Fantasy Life i (the “i” stands for “island,” “Internet,” and “individual”), and while it does look like it has more of an emphasis on customization than the first game did, it still looks like it will follow the original game’s direction. I’d like to see more of the game world beyond the town, but I’m excited.

Next came Megaton Musashi: Wired, a mech game that is an updated re-release of the previously Japan-exclusive Megaton Musashi X.

Then the fourth game Level-5 showed was the one I was waiting for the most, Professor Layton and the New World of Steam (with proper capitalization in its title and logo now). It still feels like a dream that we’re getting a new Professor Layton game, and while the new trailer is short, we do have some more details to work with.

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam is set one year after the events of Unwound Future and features Layton and Luke reuniting in America, in a town called Steam Bison (seriously). No one in America knows who Professor Layton is, while Luke has already solved mysteries there and become known as a detective, so that’s an entertaining way to play with the usual dynamic.

This trailer gives us our first look at Luke, as well as art showing some new characters and steampunk devices.

Curiously, the trailer says, “This time, it seems like the more puzzles you solve, the more the city will develop.” I don’t entirely know what that means, and some fans are worried it will feel less like a Layton game, but I’m intrigued by the potential. What I hope for from that concept is a Professor Layton game that progresses like usual, but earning more picarats and solving optional puzzles makes the city change and grow. The games always have some sort of side mini-game, and I could see city development taking a similar form.

One more detail from this trailer is that the puzzles are being developed by a group called QuizKnock. I’m not familiar with QuizKnock, but a fan on Reddit who follows their content had a lot of praise for them, so that’s the best thing I’ve heard about this new game so far. Layton’s Mystery Journey suffered from both a weak story and weak puzzles, and the puzzles are what I was most concerned about going into a new entry. So although the original Puzzle Master, Akira Tago, is no longer with us, the fact that Level-5 has called in a team of accomplished puzzle designers to work on the new game fills me with much more optimism.

The trailer also claims this adventure will “go beyond your wildest imaginations,” and I sure hope so. After Layton’s Mystery Journey, I want this one to return to form with an intense mystery culminating in an absurdly bizarre twist.

Finally, Level-5 concluded their show with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. I never got into the Inazuma Eleven series, but this game stood out to me for the past several years as a sign that Level-5 might be in trouble. First announced in 2016 as Inazuma Eleven Ares and expected to release in 2018, it was delayed repeatedly and then renamed to Inazuma Eleven: Great Road of Heroes and announced for 2020, only to be delayed multiple times again before being announced for 2023 as Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road of Heroes. Now it looks like it’s finally on track, so I’m happy to see this game escaping its troubled development.

Capcom Spotlight

That was it for Level-5’s show, and then Capcom had a showcase later in the day! Their release dates all leaked ahead of the show, but at least that meant I learned early that Ghost Trick would indeed be getting a release date. The remaster of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective will be out on June 30, and digital preorders are available now.

Preorders also come with some bonus digital content, four backgrounds and two extra music tracks. The game itself features a remastered soundtrack and some other extras.

I love Ghost Trick, so I already preordered. I still wish it was getting a physical release outside of Japan (especially since Japan is getting a special edition), but I’ll absolutely buy a digital copy if that’s what we’ve got, at least to show support.

Now, they said during the pre-show that there wouldn’t be any new game announcements, so I dampened my faint Ace Attorney hopes. Ghost Trick is pretty much all I cared about from the showcase, since I’m not the biggest fan of Resident Evil 4 and therefore didn’t care about the Resident Evil news as much as usual.

(Ace Attorney did appear in the showcase when they announced their upcoming digital theme park to celebrate Capcom franchises, though. Some people think this is a means to sell NFTs. I won’t buy NFTs even for Ace Attorney. I’d much rather spend money on new Ace Attorney games, or perhaps merchandise like these adorable things if they would just please start selling them here.)

Ace Attorney 3DS Closing Sale

But while there wasn’t any Ace Attorney news, we do have reason to discuss Ace Attorney. With the 3DS eShop shutting down on March 27, Capcom put all of their 3DS games on sale, and it’s an even better sale than the last few 3DS sales they’ve had. You can now buy any of the 3DS Ace Attorney games for $2.99 each from now until the eShop closes. The DLC episodes remain $5.99 each, however.

Phoenix Wright Trilogy: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-trilogy-3ds
Apollo Justice: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/apollo-justice-ace-attorney-3ds/
Dual Destinies: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-dual-destinies-3ds/
Spirit of Justice: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/phoenix-wright-ace-attorney-spirit-of-justice-3ds/

(I picked up Apollo Justice during the last $4.99 sale just to have an extra copy, because I thought that was the best sale it would get.)

I still hope they’ll port the later games to modern platforms, but if you’ve been meaning to get the 3DS games, at least they have one last sale to close out at a great price.

Conclusion

Phew, we ended up with a lot to talk about today. What did you think of Level-5’s showcase and the new Professor Layton news? And are you excited for Ghost Trick getting a release date?

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Bayonetta Origins Demo is Out Now

We talked about Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon when it was announced during the Game Awards 2022.

Bayonetta Origins is a T-rated prequel spin-off starring a young Cereza.

How it fits into the series overall is a little unclear, particularly in light of certain aspects of Bayonetta 3’s plot, but the premise seems intriguing and it sounds like it will expand on the role of faeries in this world. It also has a gorgeous storybook-style presentation that I love.

While it had a tiny teaser demo within Bayonetta 3 itself, a proper Bayonetta Origins demo is now available. It covers first couple of chapters, and your save data will transfer to the full game.

I haven’t finished the entire demo yet, but I’ve played enough to be interested. Although following a young, unsure Cereza takes some getting used to compared to the usual Bayonetta, the game looks beautiful and plays well so far, and the map makes it look like it will be a decently sized game after all.

I’m looking forward to finishing the demo and playing the full game when it launches later this month. Have you tried the Bayonetta Origins demo yet?

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