Operation Backlog Completion 2025

Let’s Talk About Shuten Order

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 072025
 

I can’t believe we haven’t talked about Shuten Order until now.

Shuten Order was announced back in May, while we were busy discussing mystery games, and it’s one of the upcoming games I’m most interested in.

It’s being developed by Too Kyo Games and Neilo, and what sets it apart the most is that it has 5 distinct genres depending on which route you’re playing.

Set near the end of the world, you play the reincarnation of the murdered Founder of the organization known as the Shuten Order. With your memories gone, you have four days to find and kill your murderer, with the five ministers of the Shuten Order as your suspects… and each minister has a route.

The Minister of Justice’s route is a mystery adventure, where you’ll investigate a crime by gathering evidence and questioning witnesses. The Minister of Health’s route is an escape game, where you’ll solve puzzles to escape a room and survive the death game. The Minister of Science’s route is a multi-perspective visual novel, with choices to make that affect the outcome. The Minister of Education’s route is a romance adventure, where you have to build affection with three heroines and confess your love. And the Ministry of Security’s route is a stealth horror game, where you have to solve puzzles while being pursued by a killer.

It’s such an interesting idea for a game, and I’m really intrigued by it.

Shuten Order will be out on September 5 for the Nintendo Switch and PC. (Will I even be done with Hundred Line by then? We can only hope…)

Unfortunately, it seems like Shuten Order is going to be a digital-only release in the west. Oddly enough, there is a special edition, but only for the PC version; it’s a handful of physical items alongside a Steam code.

It looks like Play-Asia has a multi-language edition of Shuten Order, so I might get that to have a physical copy.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on Shuten Order? Which route are you most interested in?

All Hauntings Restored to Silent Hill 4 on PC

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: , ,
Mar 212025
 

Henry Townshend from Silent Hill 4We’re talking about Silent Hill news again today, not related to one of the upcoming games but rather my beloved Silent Hill 4.

Silent Hill 4 has been on GOG for a while now, but while it had fixed some of the bugs the original PC version had, it was still missing several hauntings.

(Including the infamous doll haunting.)

While it’s not necessary to have all the hauntings, it was disappointing.

Now, as part of the GOG Preservation Program, Silent Hill 4 has seen several improvements, including the restoration of all hauntings. Back when it initially came to GOG, that was the first thing I wanted to know about, so I’m delighted that it’s now complete.

I’ve been tempted to buy Silent Hill 4 on PC because I love it so much (and because I only have the Xbox version, which has some graphical glitches when played on an Xbox 360 like I did). Now that the hauntings are restored and the PC port sounds like the best available version, I’m more tempted than ever.

I don’t replay games often thanks to my backlog, but this is one beloved title that I make an exception for.

Have you played Silent Hill 4 on PC?

Let’s Talk About the New Silent Hill f Trailer and Details

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Mar 142025
 

As we discussed, yesterday was the Silent Hill Transmission live stream.

Although no other games were featured, we did learn more about Silent Hill f.

I went into it with nervous anticipation and came out with cautious optimism. I still have some worries, but we’ll get into that in a little bit.

First, they showed a new trailer, which gave us our first look at the protagonist, Hinako, and some story details. We also see some unsettling monster designs, what looks like an Otherworld transition (those red plants/flowers look like they’ll be the dominant theme of Hinako’s Otherworld), and a scene of what looks like some sort of ritual.

That last part is especially interesting to me, because one of my top hopes is that the game will involve the cult in some form. Granted, the masked people in the trailer don’t look like the Order we’re used to, but I’d be happy with a Japanese branch of the same cult as a connection back to the main series.

The Steam page also provides some hints about the story and themes, as it includes a content warning for “depictions of gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying, drug-induced hallucinations, torture, and graphic violence.” It sounds like the psychological horror will definitely be there.

Getting back to the Transmission, they followed the trailer by talking more about the game’s writing, music (with the Fog World music being composed by Akira Yamaoka), and the overall direction.

While they didn’t show any gameplay, they did show a story summary that describes Hinako “solving puzzles” and “fighting strange enemies.” That, together with Hinako wielding a pipe at times in the trailer, makes it pretty clear that this will be a survival horror game with both puzzles and combat.

The other thing that stood out to me the most was their reason for setting this game in Japan, since the other games are set in America. Apparently, they felt the series was starting to lose its Japanese identity, so they decided to make the new entry completely Japanese.

That’s an interesting perspective, especially since it does feel like the later games were missing something.

Now, the biggest question that remains for me is whether Silent Hill f will actually connect back to the main series in some way or if it will be entirely separate. They said there will be references for longtime fans, but that still leaves it unclear. And that’s my biggest concern. It looks like it will be an interesting horror game, but if it’s being called Silent Hill despite being set in a completely different country from the town of Silent Hill, I want to see a connection.

Since we don’t even have a release window yet, I’m sure they have plenty more to show us about Silent Hill f. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that it turns out to be a great Silent Hill game.

(And in unrelated news, NIS announced five new games today, including one called Shinigami Hime, which is a new game from the team behind The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and The Cruel King and the Great Hero, so you know I’ll be anxiously waiting for a localization announcement. In even more unrelated news, there’s going to be a live adaptation of The House in Fata Morgana, which… I don’t even know what to think about.)

In the meantime, what are your thoughts on Silent Hill f?

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