This Week in Games

Theatrical Rings, Dragon Kin, and An Excuse To Talk About Banana Hair

Welcome back, folks! People who've kept up with my column know about the Mage: The Ascension campaign I've been running for some Discord friends. Because my players need a breather (and I think it's a good enough spot for a minor recap), I'm going ahead with a "stuck in a game" episode of sorts. Of course, I'm using actual game music. But me being That Bitch™, I'm going for RPG music that isn't used so often—a little Final Fantasy II, a little Actraiser, some Sword of Mana for flavoring... I think the most "well-known" music I'm using is the Rak'tika Greatwood theme from Final Fantasy XIV (you know, "La-Hee") and Aldia's theme from Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I'm not a cruel Storyteller, but I am one who likes to keep people guessing.

More and more studios are leaning into the video game industry as the current cash cow, snapping up every marketable video game IP they can. The most recent addition to this pile: Elden Ring, FromSoft's recent mega-hit. The studio in question, this time, is production company A24, with Alexander Garland onboard as director.

I don't mind that so many studios are jumping onto video game movies to make money because it's easy to just not watch the bad ones (vis-à-vis, "If the movie stinks, just don't go!"). I can tolerate a few Minecrafts and The Super Mario Bros. Movies if it means we get one Sonic the Hedgehog. Studios are trying to jump onto any recognizable IP in an attempt to flip it, especially since IP loyalty is such a priority that it'll be easy enough to make some folks clap like seals because someone lifted a line from the game verbatim. (In hindsight, it's rather amazing the original Resident Evil didn't shoehorn "master of unlocking" somewhere.) Still, a lot of games—especially recent ones—already have stories and are cutting their legs off at the knees in an attempt at re-creating "cinema" with their cutscenes. What could we gain from Alex Garland turning Elden Ring into a movie? Where do you even start with an Elden Ring movie? Sure, the game has reams of lore (the relationships of the myriad Gods and Demi-gods of The Lands Between, the politicking and histories of the many tribes and factions therein). Still, lore is useless without a person to serve as a fulcrum for it all. Elden Ring's appeal is exploring a world that's moved on and deciding where it should go.

I've seen some folks claim that an adaptation along the lines of The Green Knight would be ideal—and I mirror that sentiment. A story of an Untarnished exploring a world that's larger than they are, beset by ancient horrors that attack him out of habit and not genuine malice—too far gone in vengeance older than the hills to recognize their battles have been over for eons. I'd watch that, but I also have hours and hours of VaatiVidya and Zulli the Witch videos I could watch instead.

The more pressing matter is whether this thing even makes it to theaters. Sure, Bandai Namco will have to be involved; they've got the wallets to see this through. But all you have is a director. The three most important things in a movie are the script, the script, and the script—they've had a director and even a star for that Blade remake, and that movie's dead in the water. It feels like every few years, someone shows up on the pages of Variety claiming that an Akira adaptation or a Robotech movie is coming soon. The beauty of so much of Elden Ring's storytelling being sequestered into implication and item descriptions is that you can ignore a good chunk of it and focus on specifics. A24 and Garland have a ton of leeway with what they can do, assuming they don't get railroaded into making a movie about Patches the Thief and his adventure in being forced to solo Miquela, Blade of Malenia, or whatever. Still, I can just play Elden Ring.

I don't know; something about this project has me cynical about the entire deal. Maybe it's because I've seen Sega and Paramount and others announce five projects based on other Sega IPs that have been in production hell since their announcement (I genuinely don't think that Golden Axe comedy cartoon is happening). Maybe it's because we've had games using mocap actors for their characters for ages already (going back to Onimusha, even) to the point where having Sam Elliot played by the current popular action star feels like a downgrade (I've never even played Splinter Cell, and I'd still feel robbed if anyone other than Michael Ironside was in the role of Sam Elliot). Whatever the reason, it's fine if either Elden Ring hits theaters or crashes and burns in production.

Sinners was great, wasn't it? I bet it'd make a killer licensed game on the PS2.

It's been a few months since the Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. As I was starting to wonder when we'd get news about the remakes for the first two games, Square Enix obliges us and puts up the pre-orders for the games, including the Collector's Editions!

I'm not crazy about this Collector's Edition set. Much like with the Dragon Quest III set, it includes the game and a bunch of cute acrylic standees of the cast. While Dragon Quest III included standees for all of the playable party member classes, Dragon Quest I & II gives you the final bosses for each game (Dragonlord in both of his forms, Hargon and Malroth), plus the Hero and Princess Gwaelin, along with the heroes of Dragon Quest II. Curiously, they also included a dog (referencing the Princess of Moonbrooke's initial appearance when she's polymorphed into a dog). They also included an as-yet-unnamed character, who seems to be a newcomer to the party of Erdrick's Scions—more on her later.

Pre-ordering the game in any capacity earns you in-game goodies: a few stat-raising seeds and the Elevating Shoes (which grant one EXP per step taken). You can get all of these items in-game without the pre-order. The Collector's Edition, however, also adds a few rare items: the Mad Cap, a strength ring, one Arriviste's Vest, and a pair of Slime Earrings—no word on if those are available through normal gameplay. If you have your Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake save data lying around, you can also earn a save bonus in the form of costumes in each game—a whole one apiece! You'd think you'd get something cute like a set of armor based on the Hero from Dragon Quest III, or maybe even Sage's garb—but the costumes in question are a dog costume and a cat costume that you can also get in-game, so I don't blame people for feeling underwhelmed by the offerings.

The disappointment continues with the news that the I & II HD-2D Remake will be available on the Switch 2 via a bespoke copy—albeit exclusively as a Game Key Card. I'm not as vitriolic towards the Game Key Cards as most, but I find this a bit of a waste—especially since there's little difference between the Switch and Switch 2 releases. Also, this game will be released in late October. Not everyone will have a Switch 2 by then. Marvelous has shown what most publishers could be doing, courtesy of their release of Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma on the Switch 2 being a full-blooded copy of the game, not a Game Key Card. I hold no doubt that this was at great expense for them; in an interview with RPGsite.net, Marvelous USA CEO Ken Berry describes it as "a long-term business strategy," citing that "building up goodwill with our fans is always a good investment."

Those are strong words from Berry, considering Marvelous is nowhere near Square Enix's size in terms of budget, but that raises the question of why Square Enix suddenly got so cheap with remakes for their biggest franchise. At the very least, they could offer an upgrade pack for the Switch 1 copy or even offer a manner of future-proofing for the game by allowing for enhanced capabilities on the Switch 2. (Notably, even Marvelous is offering upgrade packs for Guardians of Azuma.)

That leaves what these games will offer on their own. I don't expect too much from the Dragon Quest I remake; having cut my teeth in the early 2000s with the Dragon Quest I & II collection on Game Boy, even that version was a bit pared-back by the original Dragon Quest being relatively short—if you know what you're doing and manage to deal with the grind, you can beat the game in a weekend. Maybe we'll see a few extra lines that further tie the game in with its prequel, especially since Dragon Quest III went so far as to flesh out certain background elements to add more bosses. But there's just not much to add and not much space for anything to be added in the first place. Hell, the original Dragon Quest I didn't have any bosses—just the showdown with Dragonlord. Maybe the Green Dragon guarding Gwaelin or the Living Armor protecting Erdrick's Armor can be considered bosses if you squint, but they're just early encounters with enemies you can find later on. (Though they might get a few pithy lines of pun-filled dialogue in the remake.)

Dragon Quest II has way more room for expansion, owing to the game being so much larger than its predecessor—arguably, too big (the pacing goes completely sideways once you get a ship and sail around the world). I can see a few new bosses being introduced, maybe with their own little side-quests that introduce them. This is where we unpin that one extra character from the acrylic standees. She might be a fourth character joining the famed Legendary Line Luminaries. Famously, the original game only gave you three characters for your party: the Prince of Midenhall, the Prince of Cannock, and the Princess of Moonbrooke. Each of these were cousins, descendants from the lineage of Erdrick (and grandchildren of the Hero from Dragon Quest I). Later Dragon Quest titles would give the player four-character parties, but DQ2 got away with just a three-person party by being the first game in the series to feature a party system. So, adding in a new character to round out the party is a pretty predictable move. Not to mention, pretty much all character development for the Luminaries ends once the Princess of Moonbrooke joins their ranks anyway—not that there was much development for either of the Luminaries in the first place. Adding a new character is a great way to ensure a 40-ish hour RPG has something for players to chew on, plot-wise. It'll be a weird addition, though, like Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! giving Ash two new friends who weren't Brock or Misty.

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake arrives on October 30th on Xbox Series X, PS5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.

The fighting game community has various beloved artists, from industry pros like Bengus and Akiman to fan-loved amateur artists like the incredibly fast hungry_clicker. CAPCOM has decided to shine a light on indie talents through an art contest!

In honor of Street Fighter 6's second anniversary, CAPCOM is holding a second art contest (last year's winners can be found here). The rules are simple: artists are encouraged to submit art of each of the game's 26 fighters (including recent additions like Elena). From there, CAPCOM's folks will pick a winner for each character, with the winning art being used in-game as Challenger art and distributed to all current players. Players will also see all of the submissions in the Battle Hub, where they can vote for their favorites. Submitting art will also net you a special in-game title.

CAPCOM is no stranger to art contests, though they are less common nowadays. Understandable enough; there's a lot of legal red tape involving contests (obtaining rights and permissions from artists and clearing all the legal red tape comes to mind). CAPCOM was rather famous for implementing art contests for the classic Mega Man games where winning designs would be used as new Robot Masters. Famously, One-Punch Man and Eyeshield 21 artist Yūsuke Murata wound up designing two of Dr. Wily's famous Robot Masters: Dust Man and Crystal Man, along with a third unused submission, "Double Man"). Famously, the Robot Master Knight Man was also created by a young man from Canada named Daniel Vallée. Sadly, such a thing isn't done as much anymore, and game design and development have become more complicated. Even with Mega Man, later games had to relegate designs to just one or two Robot Masters, which fit a given concept (Sword Man and Clown Man were developed through the templates of "a robot holding a sword" and "a robot with extending arms").

Outside of Mega Man, these kinds of art contests represent a great way of uniting the gaming community, channeling the creativity inspired by the love of these games and celebrating the fandom. It's also a good way to get new stuff for a game, even if it's just splash art (though it would be neat if more fighting games held contests to design new costumes for each character, now that I think of it). This kind of thing is doubly important, where more and more executives are attempting to diminish the efforts of artists via the use of generative AI. Sorry-not-sorry, even the best AI-generated art can never hope even to get a fraction of even the ironic love fans have for even bad designs--like Ken's ugly "banana hair" from Street Fighter 5.

That'll do it for this week, I think. We're counting down to the Switch 2's release! I don't know who among my readers managed to nab a pre-order or who will be braving the opening day rush, but I'm hoping for the best for you guys! I'm still waiting for Nintendo to send me an email so I can order one from their site. I'll get one eventually—I need it for work, after all. Look forward to a nifty little surprise from me early next week! I've been working on a fun project that I've been happy to have been tapped for. Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven.