Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Fantasy Life i Delayed (Again)

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Aug 192024
 

The Nintendo Direct in February 2023 had a huge number of exciting announcements, including the great return of Level-5 with DecaPolice, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and Professor Layton and the New World of Steam.

Fantasy Life i was eventually delayed to 2024 and given a Summer 2024 release window, and then at this February’s Nintendo Direct, it got a release date of October 10.

The delay made me a little nervous…

…and now it’s been delayed again.

The announcement says they’ve decided to “change the release date,” which I was faintly hopeful about since it doesn’t actually use the word “delay,” but Nintendo of Europe tweeted about it and called it a delay. So I doubt this is one of those rare cases of a release date being moved up.

More information will come at Level-5’s live stream, which was originally planned for April but was itself delayed to summer and still has no specific date.

As a Level-5 fan, I was so happy to see their big return, but now I’m getting worried. Maybe Fantasy Life i’s new delay is a strategic one, to avoid it being released on top of highly-anticipated games like Metaphor, but it doesn’t feel good that all of the games announced last February still seem to be in limbo. Plus, as a Professor Layton fan, I can’t help but worry this will push New World of Steam even further out.

On the other hand, I don’t want Fantasy Life i to be rushed, either. Here’s hoping that when it does come out, it’ll live up to its predecessor.

In unrelated news, Silent Hill 2 got a new story trailer that looks pretty good (although it’s uncanny to hear lines that are word-for-word the same as in the original but being said with new voices) and Final Fantasy XVI is coming to PC on September 17. Gamescom is tomorrow, so we might get some new announcements there as well. There’s a lot of great games coming out, so I hope Fantasy Life i will be one too when it has its time to shine.

Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club 3-Part Demo Announced

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Aug 162024
 

I still can’t believe that only a few months after I said I wanted a new Famicom Detective Club game, not expecting it to happen, one is actually coming out.

We’re less than two months away from the release of Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club for the Switch, and now a demo has been announced to let us try it even sooner.

Nintendo has opted for an unusual format for this demo, as it will be released in three parts. The prologue and Chapter 1 will be available on August 19, Chapter 2 will be added on August 22, and finally Chapter 3 will be added on August 27. Demo progress can be transferred to the full game.

This is an interesting way to handle the demo, and it makes me wonder if they’re imagining it almost like a book club format. Give players one chapter at a time to discuss while awaiting the full release. That could spark more discussion around it. And since Emio drew so much attention from the marketing campaign, a lengthy demo is a good way for new players to see if they’ll like it.

Releasing the first three chapters as a demo also supports my prediction that Emio will be significantly longer than the first two games, since that would be a significant chunk of an 11-chapter game.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll play the Emio demo or not. I’ve got plenty of games in my backlog to occupy me until the full release… but on the other hand, I’m excited to experience this new mystery (and a head start will help me finish ahead of the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection)!

Are you planning to play Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club? How do you feel about this 3-part staggered demo format?

Bakeru Coming West on September 3, Demo Available Now

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Aug 142024
 

Last year, Otogi Katsugeki Mameda no Bakeru came out for the Nintendo Switch only in Japan.

It’s a 3D action platformer developed by Good-Feel, the company behind games like Yoshi’s Woolly World and the recent Princess Peach: Showtime, and is seen as a spiritual successor to the Ganbare Goemon series.

(The producer of that series founded Good-Feel.)

Set in “Fairy Tail Japan,” you set out to defeat the evil spirits and save Japan, using drums for combat and transforming into different forms to use different abilities.

And it’s coming west!

Titled simply Bakeru for its western release, the game will be out on September 3 for both Switch and PC. A couple new attacks and a new enemy have also been added, which is interesting.

Sadly, it appears like it will be a digital-only release in the west.

I’ve never played the Goemon games, but there’s a demo available for Bakeru, so I gave it a try. It seems like it will be a lot of fun! It’s stage-based, which I don’t enjoy as much as the more open collect-a-thon style of 3D platformers, but it still seems like the sort of game I’ll want to play eventually.

Are you interested in Bakeru?

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