Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Jul 312020
 

We’ve talked about Tango Gameworks’s upcoming action adventure game GhostWire: Tokyo twice in the past.

The first was when it was announced at Bethesda’s 2019 E3 conference, where it caught my attention because of its supernatural premise.

We talked about it again much more recently, after the PlayStation 5 showcase. I noted that it had more action than I expected, although it still looked interesting.

Now some new details have surfaced through an interview with IGN.

In the interview, director Kenji Kimura describes Ghostwire as taking place “in an original version of Tokyo where most of the people have vanished” and says the protagonist gains “paranormal abilities, through the use of hand gestures, to help solve the mystery.”

You’ll be exploring the city and fighting paranormal creatures using these powers, and these abilities can be powered up as you play. The part about hand gestures is further explained to be based on Kuji-kiri gestures.

As for the enemies themselves, they’re based on yokai, as well as urban legends and similar stories.

Curiously, they wouldn’t say who the protagonist is when asked. I don’t know why that would be a secret, so maybe there’s something important about the main character’s identity that we’ll learn later.

The question of horror came up a few times in the interview (to the point where it feels like the interviewer really, really wanted GhostWire to secretly be a horror game after all), but they made it clear that GhostWire: Tokyo is action adventure, not horror.

GhostWire sounds like it could be a fun game, and I hope we get to see more of the protagonist’s supernatural powers the next time it’s shown. Are you interested in GhostWire: Tokyo?

Jul 292020
 

We’ve talked a little bit about Nier Re[in]carnation, the upcoming mobile entry in the Nier series.

A closed beta test just began in Japan, and we already have some details about the game from participants.

According to Reddit users who got to try out the beta, the story, environments, music, and general Nier atmosphere seem to be strong so far. There are also weapon stories unlocked by leveling up each weapon.

The gacha aspect has been a concern, and there is gacha for both weapons and characters. However, it doesn’t sound like the gacha is being pushed. Opinions from the beta test are that it will be a f2p-friendly game.

(Then again, this is only a beta test showing the start of the game… but here’s hoping.)

Meanwhile, another player has uploaded 13 minutes of Nier Re[in]carnation gameplay footage, so we can get our first extended look at the game.

From this short look, I can already tell the soundtrack definitely has that Nier feel.

The gameplay video begins with side-scrolling gameplay, but then it moves into a 3D area where the character can move freely. After leaving a grayscale area, she enters a ruin-like area that really reminds me of places from Nier.

I can’t read Japanese, so I don’t know what’s going on, but she talks to some sort of shadowed figure, and then it switches to a new side-scrolling section in a desert town. The characters are promptly shot, but Mama (the little floating creature that accompanies the protagonist) interrupts and the scene rewinds.

This leads to our first look at Nier Re[in]carnation’s combat. It’s a turn-based combat system, although you can run around in the combat area, possibly like how it’s handled in Dragon Quest XI. It goes back to the protagonist in the ruins after that, and she seemingly gets a weapon.

Overall, Nier Re[in]carnation is starting to seem pretty interesting, although I still need to finish Automata. What do you think of the new details and footage from the Nier Re[in]carnation beta test?

Jul 272020
 

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, the sequel spin-off to Persona 5 for the Switch and PS4, still hasn’t been officially announced for a western release, although it’s been out in Japan since February.

Localization has been quietly confirmed, however… through a financial report.

Koei Tecmo, who is developing the game, quietly included Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers for “the West” as part of the future titles of their latest financial presentation, as reported by Persona Central.

It’s been widely assumed that Persona 5 Scramble is being localized, but up until now it hadn’t been confirmed.

This sort of thing has happened in the past; the localized version of The Snack World or another Level-5 title showed up in a financial report before it was ever officially announced. Maybe this means we’ll get to see more from Persona 5 Scramble soon!

Meanwhile, I’m still debating about buying Persona 5 Royal…

Are you planning to pick up Persona 5 Scramble?