Operation Backlog Completion 2026
Aug 052026
 

You know, I wasn’t planning to write this post.

When I posted about the upcoming Direct on Monday, I thought that would cover it. I’d tune in, get a better idea of the game, and leave it at that.

But the Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Direct actually got me much more excited than I was before, so I decided to cover it after all. Be sure to check out the full Direct if you want all the details, since I’ll be covering the highlights for me.

(And if you want to go into the game completely unspoiled, stop reading now.)

First off, we got a much better idea of the game’s structure… although there are still some unclear aspects.

Up until now, it was a little confusing, because they showed that you could pick one of the four lords’ stories and that you’d play directly as the lord, but what appeared to be an avatar character had also been spotted. Now it’s a bit clearer. The player’s character, Eshmel, exists five years in the future and is facing a climactic battle. They then travel back in time to change the fates of the four lords.

It’s still not certain if you’ll play as the lords first, then get a timeskip, and then go back to change things as Eshmel, or if you’ll actually start the game in the future and head back into the past to experience each story.

Either way, another interesting thing revealed in the Direct is that you can switch between the lords’ stories whenever you want and even play them in parallel! That’ll do a lot toward getting me to actually see them all this time…

Now, Free Time is the main thing I wanted to learn about, and we got a lot of new information. In addition to things like the arena and recruiting characters, you can also travel across the world map to visit towns and dungeons, with movement costing time that passes in between battles. The most unexpected part is that dungeons feature turn-based combat like in a JRPG, instead of the usual strategy RPG combat used in the rest of the game.

I still have questions about the game’s structure and how the parallel playthroughs work, but I’m excited. I’m more interested than ever in Fortune’s Weave, and I’m looking forward to playing it next month!

Be sure to check out the full Direct for the rest of the new information shared. What are you looking forward to the most from Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave?

Aug 032026
 

Nintendo has announced a Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Direct for tomorrow, August 4.

It will start at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET and last for around 20 minutes.

Fortune’s Weave was one of the most exciting announcements for me in June’s Nintendo Direct, and I’ve been planning to play it.

I still have a lot of questions about it, though. To me, it feels like they haven’t said much at all besides introducing major characters. In particular, I want to see what the gameplay structure in between battles will be like and how the hub area will function.

I loved Three Houses (well, the one route I played), but I was so burned out on the monastery by the time I finished. In fact, I blame that for why I never got back around to doing the other routes. I keep telling myself I will someday, but now Fortune’s Weave is coming out…

(I also enjoyed Engage, but there I mainly found battles fun and didn’t have a strong attachment to the rest.)

Anyway, I’ll tune into the Direct to see what they have to tell us about Fortune’s Weave. Are you planning to watch?

Sep 122025
 

Today’s hour-long Nintendo Direct is over! Did it have an amazing announcement that made me lose my mind? Not quite.

Did it still have some exciting surprises I can’t believe were announced? Actually, yes.

I’ll be covering the highlights for me, so be sure to check out the full Nintendo Direct if you want to see everything.

The Nintendo Direct began with a heavy focus on Mario for the 40th anniversary. I was hoping for a new 3D Mario game, but we didn’t get that. We did get a Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 bundle, however, with each game also available separate digitally. It’ll be out on October 2, so that’s pretty soon.

I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy, if not quite as much as 64/Sunshine/Odyssey, but I never got around to playing the sequel. I’m tempted to pick it up for the Switch and finally play it there.

They’re also releasing Rosalina’s Storybook as a physical item, which is neat.

The new Yoshi game also got my attention. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is a Switch 2 game announced for Spring 2026. It looks cute, like the sort of game I might play someday.

Speaking of Spring 2026, that’s also the release window for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, which got a new trailer at this Direct. I need it.

I love the new feature where you can grab a Mii and put them next to another one. That’s going to be great. (Of course, I hope they still randomly interact with each other on their own, too. That’s half the fun.)

It’s too bad it doesn’t have a release date, but you know what did get a release date? Hades II! Hades II will be out digitally on September 25, with the physical release to follow on November 20.

That’s really close. I might wait for the physical, not only because I want a physical copy, but also because I’m drowning in my backlog.

Meanwhile, I don’t know what Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI did, but Square Enix is jumping ahead to make Dragon Quest VII the next remake. Dragon Quest VII Reimagined will be out on February 5, 2026.

I have the 3DS version, but depending on how they compare, I might be tempted to get this one.

(Are we ever going to hear about Dragon Quest XII again??)

Soon after that came the news no one expected… Virtual Boy being added to Nintendo Switch Online, complete with a physical add-on accessory. I never saw that one coming.

Then came a welcome surprise for me… a new remake of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly announced for 2026!

I had hoped to see Fatal Frame, but I was still surprised.

I never got around to playing Fatal Frame II on the PS2, and I was always disappointed that the Wii remake wasn’t available in North America, so I am definitely excited for this. Maybe we’ll see a Fatal Frame VI one of these days after all…

Metroid Prime 4 got a release date of December 4, Donkey Kong Bananza is getting DLC, and then it was Pokémon time.

Okay, it’s not a new Pokémon Mystery Dungeon like I predicted/hoped. It’s… Pokémon Pokopia, where you play a Ditto transformed into a human and shape the land into a home for other Pokémon. It sort of has Animal Crossing vibes, so I’m intrigued.

I thought they were announcing another game, too, but it turned out to be a DLC announcement for Z-A. Getting DLC announced before the game is even out was a little disappointing…

…but then the next announcement happened, and…

……

You can’t imagine my shock when I saw Nagito.

Danganropna 2 is getting a full remake in 2026, but not only will it include the original game, it also features an alternate scenario with different victims and culprits. It sounds like it’s going to be just as long as the original game, too, so we’re essentially getting two Danganronpa games in one.

They’re calling it Danganronpa 2×2. Danganronpa 4…..?

So that was absolutely wild.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 got a new trailer and a March 13, 2026 release date. I’ll definitely have played the second game by then, of course.

Finally, the last big announcement for me was the one they ended on: a brand-new Fire Emblem game. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave looks beautiful, it’s due out in 2026, and it… seems to be set in the same universe as Three Houses?

I’m intrigued.

All right, those were the major highlights for me from the Nintendo Direct. It doesn’t have me running out to get a Switch 2 just yet, but there were some nice surprises in there. What were your favorite announcements?