Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Introducing May Mystery Game Madness!

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, My Games, My Stories, Video games, Writing  21 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 022022
 

All right, this year we’re going to experiment with another themed month! Because what’s another genre we love around here? Mysteries.

There’s not a holiday paired with it this time, so I picked May for the sake of alliteration. (If I missed a better choice, do let me know.)

Promotions

I’ve worked a little in the realm of mysteries myself, with the biggest example being “The Domino Lady Takes the Case,” my murder mystery starring the pulp fiction heroine the Domino Lady, found in Domino Lady Volume 3.

(My subsequent story “The Domino Lady Deceived,” found in Domino Lady Volume 4, is not a mystery so much as a heist/crime story, but there’s some overlap.)

Another is Sacreya’s Legacy, my zombie detective story. It’s a free serialized novella, but it’s also one of my earliest published stories, so… keep that in mind.

(I keep telling myself I will one day revisit Sacreya’s Legacy, though it hasn’t happened yet.)

Announcements

Meanwhile, over in the world of video games, I’ll be working with Snowhaven Games to take over the development of the upcoming murder mystery visual novel Drops of Death, so stay tuned for more information about that!

Contest

Now, when we hold an event, that also means a new contest! Be sure to read the rules carefully, as they’re slightly different from previous events.

This year, the available prizes are:

  • Domino Lady Volume 3 (ebook)
  • Domino Lady Volume 4 (ebook)
  • Phoenix Wright Trilogy (gift sent through Steam)
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (gift sent through Steam)
  • Master Magistrate (gift sent through Steam)
  • $15 sent through PayPal
  • You pick a game for me to review!

(Is this all a subtle ploy to try to get more people to play The Great Ace Attorney?? …I mean, the thought crossed my mind.)

If you choose the review option, your chosen game must be something I either own or is easily obtainable, which you can discuss with me beforehand. It must be a single game, not a collection (although the chosen game can be part of a collection). I will start playing it in June.

Rules:

  • No purchase is necessary.
  • Only comments made between May 2, 2022 at 12:00 PM EST and May 31, 2022 at 11:59 PM EST will be counted.
  • 1 non-spam, non-anonymous comment on any May Mystery Game Madness blog post = 1 point.
  • Retweeting any of my May Mystery Game Madness tweets = 1 point.
  • You must use an email address or website URL (or include another way of contacting you) in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • The top 3 point earners will win prizes.
  • The person with the most points will get their first pick of the prizes. The person with the second most points will pick second, and the person with the third most points will pick third.
  • In the event of a tie, tied winners will be contacted at the same time. If tied winners choose the same prize, duplicate prizes will be possible. A tie for third place will allow for more than 3 winners.
  • The winner will be contacted by June 2, 2022.

You’ve got a month of mystery game content to look forward to and prizes to win at the end! This time, however, I’ll leave it open for one post a week to potentially be switched to a non-themed topic, so that we don’t run into another situation where we ignore exciting announcements for a whole month.

(I keep unintentionally writing murder mystery month, but that’s not necessarily true. I expect most will be murder mysteries anyway, but mystery games without murder are also viable!)

So let’s get talking about some mystery games! To kick things off, what are your personal favorite mystery video games?

Small Development Updates on FFXVI and Yakuza 8

 Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Apr 292022
 

Okay… I really thought we’d have some sort of Yakuza news to discuss today, but no announcements were made at the Super Talk Stage event.

However, at least a small update came from it.

According to the translation here, the script and voice work for the next Yakuza game are in progress, and we should get more news later this year.

Unannounced projects are also in development.

Meanwhile, today also brought a tiny update on Final Fantasy XVI. As translated by Gematsu, Final Fantasy XVI is in the final stretch of development and will have a strong focus on story. Yoshida wants it to be the sort of game that brings back the enthusiasm of players who drifted away from Final Fantasy once they grew up.

(People are coming up with all kinds of strange interpretations of Yoshida’s quote, but that’s all it sounds like to me, or at most hinting that the story will have serious elements.)

So… is this the Final Fantasy XVI news we were told would be coming in spring? It doesn’t feel like that sort of big reveal, so I think we’ll have more news coming in the near future.

On the other hand, I was disappointed to not wake up to any Yakuza reveals this morning. Still, at least it’s good to know Yakuza 8’s development is going well.

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten Releases September 8

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: , ,
Apr 272022
 

As we hoped, yesterday brought Utawarerumono news regarding the upcoming new title, Monochrome Mobius.

Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten will launch worldwide on September 8.

Now, when it comes to platforms, things seem a little strange. In Japan, it’s been announced for PS4, PS5, and PC. However, it appears that only the PC version is being localized.

The official English website lists it for Steam, with early purchase bonuses of a digital art book and soundtrack. Shiravune is publishing it, and I think they’ve only published PC games in the past, but no other publisher has said anything about the console versions.

So there’s a good chance we’re only getting Monochrome Mobius in English on PC, at least for the time being.

(This makes me wonder about how Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth were delisted from PSN when their licenses expired, and the licenses have yet to be renewed. Do these games sell poorly on consoles?)

Anyway, the news came alongside a Monochrome Mobius trailer, so let’s take a look.

Like we suspected when it was first announced, Monochrome Mobius doesn’t feature strategy RPG battles like its predecessors. Instead, it appears to have regular turn-based combat.

It probably won’t be a visual novel, either, since we see a lot of 3D cutscenes in the trailer. However, the website and Steam page still put the primary focus on the story, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it still has a similar setup of being mostly story with battles interspersed between.

Monochrome Mobius is set ahead of Mask of Deception, so I’ll wait until I’ve played Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth before getting to Monochrome Mobius. I’m still exciting for it, though, because it looks great!

What do you think of Monochrome Mobius from what we’ve seen so far?

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