Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Aksys Showcase: Only One Otome, but Other Exciting Announcements

 Video games  3 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!

Could We Get Tales News at the Bandai Namco Summer Showcase?

 Video games  4 Responses »
Jun 302025
 

Did the Not-E3 showcases ever really end?

We had a few showcases last week and Anime Expo coming up later this week, and now in between we also have the Bandai Namco Summer Showcase announced for this Wednesday.

The showcase will be held on July 2 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET. It will feature a new My Hero Academia game and a bunch of already-announced games (including Code Vein II and Little Nightmares III), but could there be other surprises as well?

I’ve been patiently waiting for the announcement of a new Tales game from Bandai Namco, and this could be the place where we learn about a new remaster.

After all, they already said the next Tales remaster will be announced this summer. That makes a summer showcase feel like a pretty likely choice.

On top of that, the official Tales Twitter account posted on May 19 about the first three games in the series in honor of the 30th anniversary, and every week since then they’ve posted about the next few games in order, until today’s post about Xillia 2, Zestiria, Berseria, and Arise. Setting up these posts to end right ahead of the summer showcase also feels like it’s perfectly preparing for the next game’s announcement.

I love the Tales series (even if I still have a ton of them in my backlog), and I’ve been excited to see what they’ll announce next. Personally, I have my fingers crossed that the next remaster is a Japan-exclusive title getting translated for the first time, but we’ll see.

Do you think the Bandai Namco Summer Showcase will include Tales news?

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