Operation Backlog Completion 2025
May 302014
 

Let’s talk about Ace Attorney.

If it wasn’t obvious from my glowing review of Dual Destinies and my explosive excitement when the new game was revealed, I love Ace Attorney. It’s one of my favorite series, and I just can’t get enough of it.

Now, my favorite Ace Attorney character is Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. He even got his own spin-off game, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth. I played it, and enjoyed it. It wasn’t as great as many of the games in the main series, but it was still a lot of fun.

So it irks me to no end that Gyakuten Kenji 2, also known as Ace Attorney Investigations 2, has yet to be released outside of Japan.

AAI2 was released in Japan on February 3, 2011, and Capcom has no plans to release it anywhere else. Fans eventually worked them down from “no” to “maybe,” but other than vague statements about factors that could influence it (the sales of Dual Destinies, for example), there hasn’t been any more progress.

Dual Destinies met its sales goals, but we haven’t heard anything about AAI2’s localization. In the meantime, a couple different fan translations are underway…but it sure would be nice to be able to play the game in a legitimate way.

Eternal optimist that I am, I hold out hope that localization will be announced at E3, which begins on June 9. In fact, I’ll spend every minute, up to the very end, expecting a surprise “Investigations 2 is coming to the West” announcement. And who knows–maybe I’ll be right this time.

But in case I’m not, on July 1, we’re going to have a write-in/call-in, where every interested fan contacts Capcom and asks them to localize Gyakuten Kenji 2/Ace Attorney Investigations 2. Take a look at the official Facebook event.

If you’d prefer to participate without joining the event, you can contact Capcom through a variety of channels:

Capcom Entertainment, Inc.
800 Concar Drive, Suite 300
San Mateo, CA 94402-2649
Phone Number: 650.350.6500

Capcom’s American contact info:
http://www.capcom.co….jp/ir/english/inquiry/
Capcom’s European contact info:
http://www.capcom-europe.com/contact

Capcom’s English language Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/capcomunity?ref=br_rs

Capcom Unity’s Ace Attorney boards:
http://www.capcom-unity.com/ace_attorney/go/forum/viewboard

Capcom Twitter pages:
https://twitter.com/Capcom_Unity
https://twitter.com/Capcom_UK
https://twitter.com/capcom_france
https://twitter.com/Gyakuten_capcom

Original petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/AAI2US/petition.html

Come on–join the Facebook event, give me a shout in the comments below, and show Capcom how much we want to play this game!


Updated to reflect the new date for the write-in/call-in campaign.

May 212014
 

Last week, the semester came to an end. That means I have more time to relax (and work on my writing, of course) now, but it also means that for the past couple of weeks, I was pretty busy. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was aware that my third SpeckLit drabble would be published on May 9, and I told myself I would write a little announcement about it.

Well, better late than never, “Cursed” is my attempt to place a curse on a character with only 100 words to work with. And it turns out I remembered to write my announcement on the perfect day, because today marks the release of my next drabble, “Monsters.”

Maybe I should work on some more drabbles soon…

But in the meantime, I have freelance work and several stories to keep me occupied. See you around!

May 072014
 

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I support Kickstarter projects–mainly video game projects. I’ve gushed at length about A Hat in Time, and I’ve referenced Asylum when discussing other games, such as Scratches. Well, I’ve backed three more games over the past few days, and since none of the three have met their goal yet–and time is running out–I thought I’d talk about them a little bit.

The Great Gaias

First up is The Great Gaias, a roleplaying game inspired by old classics like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears. With 60+ hours of gameplay, lots of sidequests, and a strong story, it sounds like it’ll be a great game for fans looking for a return to the old JRPG style.

The Great Gaias will have a turn-based combat system with tactical elements. Boss battles are promised to be dynamic and unique. And if you miss Final Fantasy’s Limit Break system, you’ll enjoy the powerful Deathblows, each of which works uniquely depending on the character. The thirteen playable characters all have their own personal stories, skills, and abilities, and with thirteen classes (clerics, dragoons, rogues, etc.–you know what we’re talking about), there should be a wide variety of parties to try.

I really love turn-based RPGs, and something about this one just caught my attention. Maybe it’s the inspirations it cites or the level of detail given to its description. Whatever it is, I backed it, and I really hope to see it succeed. The problem is (at the time of my writing this) it has only 26 hours left and just over $1500 to go to make its goal.

So if you love those old JRPGs, take a look at The Great Gaias.

Source

I learned about Source when it was confirmed as one of the indie games coming to the PlayStation 4. Now, I don’t have a PS4 (yet), but it’s also coming to the PC (and the Xbox One, but I don’t have one of those, either). As soon as I watched the video for Source, I knew I had to back it.

It’s an exploration-based, metroidvania-style action adventure game, and while that isn’t one of my insta-interested genres, Source looks awesome.

Beauty, mystery, a sense of what-exactly-am-I-looking-at… and that last reaction is entirely intentional, as part of Source’s goal is to create a surreal world that you won’t understand until you explore and experiment. Puzzles, combat, and metamorphosis through death… Source just isn’t quite like anything else.

As I write this, its Kickstarter campaign has 3 days left to go, and it still needs to earn about $33,500. That’s no small amount to get in just a handful of days, so check if its unique sense of wonder captures your attention like it did mine, consider backing it.

The Eldritch Cases: Dagon

The Eldritch Cases: Dagon is described as “a Lovecraft horror adventure.” Do I really need to explain why as a fan of H.P. Lovecraft and adventure games, I jumped on this one as soon as I heard about it?

The game takes place in Innsmouth, where the Esoteric Order of Dagon is secretly in control, along with Dr. Herbert West, the warden of the local asylum. (Yes, this game is a Lovecraft-fest.) Now we’ve got Insmouth, Herbert West, and asylums to add to my excitement. There are two playable characters: Detective Thomas Malone and nurse Rose Babcock. It has classic point-and-click adventure gameplay and promises you might meet “a very old one.”

If there was any doubt left in my mind by the time I got that far down the page, it vanished entirely when I read the game’s atmospheric inspirations, which include Scratches, Dark Corners of the Earth (I’ll play it if I ever get my copy to work), and Silent Hill.

Best of all, Dagon is planned to be the first game in the Eldritch Cases series. A series of Lovecraftian adventure games. This needs to become a reality!

Right now, The Eldritch Cases: Dagon has 8 days left to earn its remaining £10,000. My fellow horror fans, I’m calling on you to help support this game!

So there you have it: The Great Gaias, Source, and The Eldritch Cases: Dagon. Three very different games, all of which appeal to something in me, and I hope to something in you as well. You can learn more about them at their Kickstarter pages, or press me for further comments. I may not be an expert, but I’d be happy to explain in more detail why I hope these games succeed.