Amnesia: Later x Crowd and Other NGPX Highlights

Yesterday was the New Game Plus Expo, which you can watch here if you want to catch all the announcements.

The biggest news was probably that we’re getting the Switch port of Amnesia: Memories, along with Amnesia: Later x Crowd.

Amnesia is an otome visual novel we discussed last year, but Later x Crowd is a bundle of the two fandisks (Amnesia: Later and Amnesia: Crowd) that were never released outside of Japan.

So while seeing an Amnesia port wasn’t too exciting, seeing it followed by Later x Crowd was big news.

Now, I had mixed feelings when I finished Amnesia, but I’ll pick up Later x Crowd for the sake of the two love interests I really liked, and because apparently Later has part that focuses on Waka, the unromanceable side character I preferred to half the actual love interests.

It also looks like the limited edition will allow you to choose whether you want Amnesia: Memories, Later x Crowd, or both, so that’s cool.

Aside from the Amnesia news, Idea Factory also showed off the trailer and June 28 release date for Birushana, which would have been much more exciting if the trailer hadn’t accidentally gone live last week. It also turns out that Aksys is handling the Jack Jeanne localization, not IFI or PQube, and that was officially shown as well.

So does this mean Amnesia was the mysterious third otome title teased by Idea Factory last year? That’s unclear. It seems probable, but they haven’t actually said so yet.

(They also teased an unannounced game, with their hints being a black cat and a cauldron, which has added to the confusion since they didn’t specify if that’s otome or something else.)

Anyway, outside of the otome news, there wasn’t a lot at NGPX that caught my eye. Dusk Diver 2 localization had already been announced, but was featured prominently at the event, and that looks like it could be cool. The PS2 stealth game Kamizawa: Way of the Thief is also being remastered, so I’m curious about that. And even though NIS Classics Vol. 2 isn’t out yet, a third collection has now been announced, containing La Pucelle: Ragnarok (the La Pucelle remake that was never translated before) and Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (based on the PlayStation version).

None of the other games stood out to me as much, but let me know if I overlooked one that was a favorite for you!

Oh, and I’d just like to point out that Amnesia: Later originally came out in 2012. Amnesia: Crowd originally came out in 2013. After all this time, they definitely fit into the “that’s never getting localized!” category, so I’m adding it to the list of unexpected localizations. The Yakuza spin-offs are surely next (please).

Are you excited for any of the games announced or showcased at the New Game Plus Expo?