Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Yakuza 8 Plans, Judgment’s Future, Unannounced Titles Planned

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Nov 172021
 

Back in October, an announcement from Ryu Ga Gotoku posted on the official website confirmed both that the company was being restructured and also that the next Yakuza game was in development.

Yakuza 8 (although who knows what they’ll title it in the west, since Yakuza 7 became Yakuza: Like a Dragon) has now been mentioned again in a new interview with director Masayoshi Yokoyama in this week’s Weekly Famitsu, translated by Gematsu.

In it, they first mention that the restructuring is normal for a company like this, and then confirm that Yakuza 8 will follow Ichiban as the main character again. It also will be “set several years after the story of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.”

(Yakuza games often take place in the year they’re released, so that makes sense.)

Since Yakuza 8 was already confirmed, of greater interest to me is the mention of Judgment. He says that Judgment is “very important” and goes on to say that they will “actively challenge [themselves] to create new titles, not only for Judgment, as circumstances permit.”

Now, I read that in an optimistic way. I interpreted “not only for Judgment” to mean a new Judgment title is all but confirmed to happen eventually, which made me happy that the rumors of the series ending were false.

…But most people online, it seems, interpret it in the exact opposite way and are upset that this interview confirms Lost Judgment is the last game in the Judgment series. This seems largely due to VGC reporting that Yokoyama said they would “cherish” the series and then recounting the earlier rumors. In my opinion, the lack of the “not only for Judgment” quote and the repetition of the rumor makes the outlook sound more negative.

Meanwhile, Twinfinite claims Yokoyama said he has high hopes for the Judgment series continuing, but there wasn’t a specific quote.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, you might be asking why I haven’t played my much-anticipated Lost Judgment yet, and that’s because I decided to finish the Yakuza series first due to Lost Judgment including a spoiler for Like a Dragon.

(It’s killing me; I want to play Lost Judgment now.)

One final interesting piece of information from the interview is that “unannounced titles outside of both series are also in the works.”

That could refer to more spin-offs, being outside the mainline Yakuza series, or another licensed spin-off like the Fist of the North Star game, or maybe even a whole new IP. Whatever it is, RGG Studio has proven to me that it’s something I’ll want to keep an eye on.

Here’s hoping we still have a chance of getting Kenzan and Ishin in the west…

How do you feel about the latest updates from RGG Studio?

Norn9: Var Commons – Romance and a Vanishing Plot

 Reviews, Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: , ,
Nov 152021
 

We’ve got one last review that came too close to October to be written after I finished the game, this time for the otome visual novel Norn9: Var Commons.

I picked up Norn9 for one simple reason. The main theme was composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

I know, that’s not a good way to decide on a game purchase, but that’s how I ended up with a copy of Norn9, and this year I finally decided to play it.

Unlike the previous otome games we’ve discussed, Norn9 has multiple protagonists. In fact, you initially play as an elementary school boy, who is going through his normal life when he suddenly finds himself seemingly in the past, and then is picked up by a futuristic flying ship.

You’re introduced to this ship and the people on board through his eyes before you get a choice of which character to follow next, one of three young women who are the actual protagonists.

Each protagonist in turn has three love interests, so while nine love interests feels like a lot, it works well being split across three heroines.

These characters all have psychic powers of one kind or another, and they’re on a mission for an entity known as The World, on their way to receive orders about how they’ll use their powers to maintain world peace. This is a pretty intriguing setup, which makes it all the more disappointing that the plot just sort of fizzles out.

Most of Norn9 does not deal with the main plot at all. The end of each route returns to the overarching story to wrap things up, some more than others, but it often felt rushed to me, like it didn’t want to dwell on the plot too long.

And the epilogue, meant to clear things up, left me feeling even more confused on some points.

So let’s talk about the romances. Like I said, there are three protagonists and nine different love interests. The heroines all have distinct personalities, which was nice, and there was decent variety among the love interests. Some were more memorable than others (okay, I admit, it’s been just over a month and I’ve already forgotten a good number of them) and the actual character writing was generally solid.

Norn9 had a lot of funny moments and romantic moments that made me enjoy playing it, but everything about the story just left me feeling like it was incomplete.

Now, there’s a fandisc/sequel that supposedly fixes a lot of these plot issues and tells a good story. Unfortunately, it was never translated. Here’s hoping that one of these days they decide to give Norn9 another shot and translate the fandisc here as well! I didn’t have the best time with Norn9: Var Commons, but I enjoyed it enough that I’d pick up the fandisc if it ever comes out.

Chaos;Head Noah and Chaos;Child Bundle Announced for Japan

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Nov 122021
 

When I played and reviewed the visual novel Chaos;Head this October, I mentioned how unfortunate it is that there is no completed fan translation for the updated re-release, Chaos;Head Noah.

Well, maybe we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of an official translation just yet.

In an interview with Dengeki, translated here by Gematsu, Makoto Asada from MAGES. spoke about three things.

Anonymous;Code has been delayed to 2022, Mystereet is being ported while its sequel is put on hold indefinitely, and Chaos;Head Noah will be bundled together with Chaos;Child in a new release set for February 2022.

That last one definitely caught my attention.

Since Chaos;Head Noah isn’t available on modern systems, they decided a package containing it and its sequel would be the best way to make it available to more players.

Of course, this is just for Japan. There’s no reason to believe this means they’ll finally translate Chaos;Head. However, if you had asked me a week ago, I would have said chances of Chaos;Head Noah being localized were next to nothing, because they wouldn’t devote resources to translating a game available on nothing more modern than a Vita, even though the creator said in 2018 it was possible.

But now, with a new release coming for modern platforms? This is the best chance we have of getting Chaos;Head Noah in English. Do you think it will happen?

 Older Entries  Newer Entries