Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Let’s Talk About the Level-5 Showcase

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , ,
Sep 252024
 

Yesterday was the Level-5 Vision 2024 showcase, and it was a mix of highs and lows.

They started with Fantasy Life i. We already knew it had been delayed from its October 10 release date, and it sounds like that was done to make it even bigger (and hopefully better). I have mixed feelings about that, but fortunately the game looks great!

I do find it amusing that they’re marketing it as having “the largest open world in the history of Fantasy Life,” considering that as far as most people are concerned, this is only the second game. It’s technically the third, because of the mobile game, but still.

Anyway, Fantasy Life i has been delayed all the way to April 2025. Well, at least that gives me time to catch up (hah) on my backlog.

The next game they showed was Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

As a huge Professor Layton fan, this is the one I’m the most excited about, and I loved what I saw. The town being menaced by a ghostly gunslinger named Gunman King Joe is the sort of insanity I look for in my Professor Layton plots. On top of that, the gameplay looks like exactly what I’d expect from the series – with even a glimpse of the map used for traversal – now in a 3D world.

Some of the characters looked a little off to me, especially Luke, but overall I’m really excited for New World of Steam.

It still only has a general 2025 release window, but at least it hasn’t been delayed yet.

The next trailer was for Decapolice, showing off the theme song and several of the characters (why are these characters named things like Harvard and Cambridge?), and it all looks pretty neat. I started to think that maybe Decapolice wasn’t delayed even farther out after all.

But it is. Decapolice is now set for 2026.

They didn’t give specific reasons for the delay, only that they’re evolving it into a better experience, which has that same “bigger and better” impression I got from Fantasy Life i.

After that, they finally showcased Megaton Musashi W: Wired, to announce a new mode and other additional content being added in November.

Next up was the long-delayed Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. The new trailer introduced a ton of stuff, such as a new mode with a customizable character and town-building, and ended by saying it “will evolve into a game that can be played infinitely.” It’s now set for June 2025.

This speaks to the same thing that has me worried about Fantasy Life i and Decapolice. It’s good that they want their games to have a lot of content, but it feels like they’re pushing that so hard that they can’t actually finish them.

After that, they revealed a remake of the first Inazuma Eleven, set for 2026. That was the first of their two new games.

The second was, as expected, the Yokai Watch spiritual successor that was teased last year. Now, this is the game behind the “Ghost Craft RPG” trademark, but apparently that is actually what they’re calling the genre. The game itself is called Holy Horror Mansion, which I’m not crazy about as a title.

You use a camera to interact with ghosts, and while there is definitely some Yokai Watch DNA here, it looks very different. Its release date is “Who knows?” so at least they’re self-aware when it comes to the delays.

The announcement of Holy Horror Mansion made a lot of Yokai Watch fans lose their minds. With the game being teased as the next concept for Yokai Watch, a lot of people expected it to look and play like a new Yokai Watch. I don’t share those complaints. While I’d love to see more Yokai Watch, Holy Horror Mansion looks like it could be a fun game in its own right.

Unfortunately, my impressions were tarnished by the concerns that the backgrounds used in the teaser trailer were made with generative AI. I don’t support the use of generative AI in creative works, so that was disheartening to see. Now, I can’t actually tell if art is AI or not unless there’s something blatantly wrong with it. Maybe it’s just concept art with some oddities. But you can take a look at the evidence and see what you think.

The more concerning part is that this controversy led to people bringing up a report from Level-5 last year about how they were using AI in their work, which includes using ChatGPT to come up with concepts/details for side quests in Decapolice. Now that’s disheartening. Experiencing stories thought up by AI just isn’t what I want to do. At all. Even aside from all the other AI concerns, that makes it feel like those side quests are just filler, nothing that really matters to the world, since their concepts could just be generated.

So yes. I love Level-5’s games, and I think their upcoming games look great, but between the constant delays, the apparent scope creep, and now the AI concerns, I ended up with mixed feelings about the whole thing. Maybe the long delay to 2026 is enough time for them to change their minds about using AI?

How do you feel about the games shown in yesterday’s Level-5 showcase?

Pirate Yakuza – The Unreliable Narrator Theory

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Sep 232024
 

When we discussed the newly-released Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on Friday, I had mixed feelings about the game’s premise.

One of my criticisms was that everything has the trappings of classic historical pirates even though the game is set in the present day, which contributes to the sense of it being too silly compared to the rest of the series.

But now I’ve seen a few fans toss around a theory that could explain everything – and it makes a lot of sense.

The start of the trailer implies that this is a frame story in which Majima is telling someone else about what happened to him. In that case, we need to take into account the possibility that Majima is an unreliable narrator. And if he is, these anachronisms and sillier aspects could be considered his embellishments to the actual events.

(It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done something like this. Notably, the enemy transformations in Yakuza: Like a Dragon are just Ichiban’s imagination because he’s a big JRPG fan.)

So I’m calling it now – the first time we see that pirate ship, it’s going to cut back to the frame story to have someone object that pirates don’t use galleons anymore, and Majima will tell them to shut up because it’s his story and he’s going to tell it the way he wants.

If that’s actually what’s happening here, I’m much less critical of it. Realistic modern-day pirates, while more suitable for a serious story, probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun as a swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Choosing the fun option for the player to experience while having it actually be an embellished version of the “real” events would actually be a great way to do it.

Meanwhile, Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii was confirmed to be much longer than Gaiden, with the main story stated to be around 1.3 to 1.5 times longer. That would explain the higher price point ($60 compared to Gaiden’s $50), especially if it has a sizable amount of side content.

All in all, I’m feeling more positive toward the idea of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii than I was on Friday, especially since there are ways it could all make sense. Of course, this theory could be wrong and they just actually have pirates in galleons firing cannons at each other and fighting with cutlasses in 2024. What do you think about the unreliable narrator theory?

The Pirate Majima Game is Real! (Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Revealed)

 Video games  5 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Sep 202024
 

Earlier this week, we discussed the rumors of a pirate-themed Like a Dragon game.

I thought the story premise sounded questionable and hoped it would be a historical spin-off instead.

But no, the leak was accurate! Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii has been announced for February 28, 2025. It is set after Infinite Wealth and stars Majima, who loses his memory and becomes a pirate captain while trying to remember who he is.

The RGG Summit was held this morning at 6 AM Eastern Time, which was too early for me to normally be up. But by chance, I woke up at exactly 6 AM, so I tuned in a few minutes late to watch the rest of the Summit. I’ve seen people say the trailer contains spoilers for Infinite Wealth, which I didn’t pick up on at all, so I’m guessing they were in those first few minutes that I missed. To be safe, I won’t watch the trailer again until I’m caught up.

I still think the premise of Majima getting amnesia and becoming a pirate is a bit too silly. And… even though they’re modern-day pirates, they look like classic pirates?! They’ve got a galleon! They’re firing cannons! It feels a bit too goofy to me for a series where the main stories are usually pretty serious despite all the wacky side content, but I have my fingers crossed that the story will still be good.

It features brawler combat, now with the ability to jump, and you can switch between two combat styles: “Mad Dog” and “Sea Dog.” Despite my skepticism about the game’s premise, I love those names.

They also showed off a handful of mini-games, and this is the game the auditions were for. Instead of hostesses, they’re part of a new live-action scenario called “Masaru’s Love Journey: My Dream Minato Girl,” in which the new supporting character Masaru searches for romance. I’m not sure why it’s about Masaru instead of Majima or what it means for gameplay (will we be playing as Masaru? are we giving him love advice as Majima? is this a wingman Majima mini-game?), but it has the potential to be interesting.

Now, the Japanese title is is Like a Dragon 8 Gaiden: Pirates in Hawaii, so it’s strange that they both dropped the “Gaiden” and shoehorned “Yakuza” into the English title.

With it being another Gaiden title, I’d worried that it would be a digital-only release in the west like Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, but not only are we getting a physical standard addition, but they also announced a physical Collector’s Edition that includes an acrylic standee of Majima, a pirate flag, a coin pin, an eye patch, and a voucher for the digital deluxe content.

(Where was this energy when Judgment came out?? Do you know how much I wanted a Judgment Collector’s Edition?)

It’s kind of ironic for me that the first Like a Dragon game I’m skeptical about is getting a Collector’s Edition. I’ll probably get it anyway since I love the series so much, but I wish one of the games I’d been super excited for had gotten that treatment.

I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t tease another game at the Summit. They really spoiled us with that first Summit in 2022, and since I have some mixed feelings about the pirate game, I was really hoping they’d announce at least one more. Instead, the only other things they showed were the upcoming show, the Kiwami Switch port, and a new merchandise line. It just goes to show that even though they did it once, we can’t expect multiple announcements every time.

Anyway, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is a reality, and it’s coming next February. Are you excited for it, or do you have doubts?

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