Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Let’s Talk About Shuten Order

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 072025
 

I can’t believe we haven’t talked about Shuten Order until now.

Shuten Order was announced back in May, while we were busy discussing mystery games, and it’s one of the upcoming games I’m most interested in.

It’s being developed by Too Kyo Games and Neilo, and what sets it apart the most is that it has 5 distinct genres depending on which route you’re playing.

Set near the end of the world, you play the reincarnation of the murdered Founder of the organization known as the Shuten Order. With your memories gone, you have four days to find and kill your murderer, with the five ministers of the Shuten Order as your suspects… and each minister has a route.

The Minister of Justice’s route is a mystery adventure, where you’ll investigate a crime by gathering evidence and questioning witnesses. The Minister of Health’s route is an escape game, where you’ll solve puzzles to escape a room and survive the death game. The Minister of Science’s route is a multi-perspective visual novel, with choices to make that affect the outcome. The Minister of Education’s route is a romance adventure, where you have to build affection with three heroines and confess your love. And the Ministry of Security’s route is a stealth horror game, where you have to solve puzzles while being pursued by a killer.

It’s such an interesting idea for a game, and I’m really intrigued by it.

Shuten Order will be out on September 5 for the Nintendo Switch and PC. (Will I even be done with Hundred Line by then? We can only hope…)

Unfortunately, it seems like Shuten Order is going to be a digital-only release in the west. Oddly enough, there is a special edition, but only for the PC version; it’s a handful of physical items alongside a Steam code.

It looks like Play-Asia has a multi-language edition of Shuten Order, so I might get that to have a physical copy.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Shuten Order? Which route are you most interested in?

Aksys Showcase: Only One Otome, but Other Exciting Announcements

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 042025
 

As we discussed, Aksys held its Anime Expo showcase yesterday, with the promise of new announcements.

Now, let’s get it out of the way, they only announced one new otome game. That was a little disappointing.

But they had some other interesting announcements as well, so let’s take a look.

Although they didn’t stream their showcase, some people who were there in person were sharing updates as it went, so I kept track of the news that way. The first piece of information was the one I’d been anticipating, a release date for Mistonia no Kibou. With the official English title of Mistonia’s Hope: The Lost Delight, it will be out on November 13.

They also announced Path of Mystery: A Brush with Death, a murder mystery game that looks right up my alley.

The next few announcements didn’t interest me as much. There was Q Collection, a collection of three drawing-based puzzle games, Tristia: Chronicles, a bundle of two town/shop management games, and C.A.R.D.S. RPG: The Misty Battlefield, a card-based RPG. They also announced a Metroidvania called The Good Old Days that could be interesting.

Next up was the sole otome announcement, Otome Daoshi -Fighting for Love-, and while it sounds decently interesting, the reception to this one in Japan was pretty poor. It’s due out in 2026, but this is one I’ll probably wait on.

All right, so it’s rather frustrating that they had only a single new otome game announcement and it’s not a well-received title. I’ve seen a lot of fans wondering why they picked that one. (Maybe it’s because Idea Factory secretly has a huge lineup planned, but since they only announced two last time and one of those got delayed to 2026, I don’t know…)

Anyway, they finished with one final announcement, and… it’s one I’ve been following ever since it was announced three years ago, but I didn’t expect it to show up at an Aksys showcase! They’ll be handling the console release of Project Code M, the new game from the developer of The House in Fata Morgana.

(Judging by Novect’s follow-up posts, it’s still coming to PC as well.)

I was not expecting that at all, but it was a nice surprise to see Project Code M! It makes up for the disappointment of only getting a single otome announcement…

Which games from Aksys’s showcase stood out to you the most?

The 428: Shibuya Scramble Successor is Titled Shibuya Scramble Stories

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , ,
Jul 022025
 

Back in April, we discussed the announcement of a new successor to 428: Shibuya Scramble from its executive producer.

I still haven’t played 428: Shibuya Scramble, although I did start it. I’d hoped to finish it as one of May’s mystery games, but it was too long (and being balanced alongside too many other games) for me to get there.

But since I’ve started it, here’s hoping we’ll get back to it soon.

Anyway, let’s get back to talking about the successor. It now officially has a title, Shibuya Scramble Stories, revealed in a short trailer alongside some additional members of the cast.

They also blasted past their crowdfunding goal, as their Ubgoe page currently has them at over 700% of their intended goal.

(Speaking of crowdfunding, Volontés also made its goal, so I’m excited about that! They got an extension for their campaign and still have the rest of this week to hopefully hit the Steam version stretch goal.)

I’ve been enjoying what I’ve played so far of 428: Shibuya Scramble, so I’m happy to see they’re doing well with Shibuya Scramble Stories! Here’s hoping we get to play it someday too!

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