This Week in Games

Stray Kids, Hives, 'Mins, and DLsite Making Money

Welcome back, folks! In my continued efforts to keep this column on the straight and narrow, I avoid talking too much about Carnelian's efforts with the recent Kao no nai Tsuki Remake visual novel. It's been out for a few weeks now, and as far as I can tell, it's been doing rather well in Japan. That's well and good, but Carnelian pointed out that she and her team are also looking into a possible stateside release. Decorum restricts me from really saying much, and goodness knows I probably used up all kinds of karma just by wishing for Izuna 3, but uh... please?

Ah, Onion Games. While not quite the household name that Grasshopper Manufacture or Yokō Tarō might be, they're best known for making phenomenal games that appeal to people who love their offbeat titles. Their past titles include quirky cult favorites, like Chulip (a game where you interact with the world by kissing everything—hence the title, since "chu" is Japanese onomatopeia for kissy-noises) or Rule of Rose (a very dark PS2 horror game where a young girl at a boarding school combats the horrifying machinations of a gaggle of maladjusted girls named The Aristocracy of the Red Canyon). Their most influential title, however, is moon: Remix RPG Adventure (sic). An "anti-RPG," you play as an inhabitant in a land of monsters who has to mend the world after a hero "saves the world," which normally includes a lot of cruel things, like breaking into people's houses and stealing the gold coins in people's pots. You do this by healing the hearts and souls of the people around you, earning Love in response to their friendship. While originally passed over for release in the United States, Toby Fox (Real One™ that he is) has gone on record concerning how much of an influence moon was to Undertale. In fact, it was Fox himself who inspired designer Yoshiro Kimura to release moon in America, years after the fact!

It's been a few years since moon finally released in America, and the good news is that Onion Games is finally bringing another one stateside: Stray Children!

Stray Children reminds me a bit of moon with a hint of the tabletop RPG Bliss Stage thrown in: you play as a child who is transported to a world where a stronghold of children hide in fear from the Olders: monstrous adults who wish to feed on children. You can fight Olders off with violence... or try to talk them down from battle by whispering the right words to them. The trailer also showcases plenty of wild, crazy set pieces and artistic flourishes (special credit goes to the photorealistic fish that just... shows up, I guess).

Much of the presentation might remind people of Undertale, especially the battle mode, where the protagonist has to evade attacks while talking to enemies. Surface-level comparisons like that do both games a disservice, especially given the history between Onion Games' titles and Toby Fox's own work. And there's plenty of room for both in the industry, especially since Onion Games' track record speaks for itself. And hey, what's the worst we could get? A bad RPG that also serves as a treatise on the melancholy of aging and the need for cross-generational sympathy? The game doesn't quite point out where the Olders come from, either, and kids gotta grow up sooner or later...

For now, Stray Children is only releasing on Steam. It was released on Switch in Japan back in 2024, so I'd imagine a console release in the US isn't too unlikely. Definitely look this game up; at worst, it'll stick in your mind. At best, it'll make you cry all over your joypad and make you reconsider your life (par for the course for Onion Games' stuff, really).

Who had a little-remembered Game Boy Advance title getting ported on their Bingo card? We have a forgotten retro title getting a second lease on life —somewhat out of nowhere, too! Put another one on the board!

Scourge: Hive didn't make many waves back in the day, mostly being remembered as a poor-man's Metroid. And given the protagonist "Jenosa Armaon" looking like a recolored Samus Aran in a recolored Zero-Suit hunting a parasitic alien known as "Scourge," you'd understand why. But Scourge: Hive also doesn't play at all like a Metroidvania title—it plays like a speedrun challenge. The way it works is like this: the Scourge is an alien virus that can replicate anything it infects, be it organic, inorganic, or even energy-based lifeforms—and Jenosa herself has been infected with the Scourge. The good news is, Jenosa can destroy Scourge-copied aliens, but she has to use the right weapon on the right target: your flamethrower works great at purging biological life forms, but those will actually power up any inorganic enemy. And while EMP weapons are great for shutting robots down, they'll make energy-based lifeforms stronger. The bad news: Jenosa's infection rate is constantly increasing, forcing her to stay on the move. Once it hits maximum, you die. Worse still, Jenosa can't shoot and run at the same time, forcing you to be precise while you dodge enemies and avoid further infection. So you're constantly on a mad dash from save point to save point to maintain Jenosa's Infection rating.

Adding to that is Scourge: Hive being an isometric game, not a side-scroller. This adds an extra layer of difficulty; as you can imagine, aiming is a bit more complicated given the isometric angle, to say nothing of platforming. And this is on top of other obstacles, like environmental puzzles. Isometric platformers are always a risky bet; ask anyone who's played Solstice or Landstalker. But when they hit right, they hit great, and it definitely works in Scourge: Hive's favor.

All that's good and well, but what does the Scourge port bring? Well, for starters, it has a ton of accessibility options: there's a rewind feature for practicing hard sections—and a "turbo" feature if you need an extra challenge. There's also a new save state function. There's a gallery with the original box art and manual information, as well as screen filters and a cheat mode menu. And where the original was only released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, this new port will release on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Switch this October 10.

The Game Boy and Game Boy Advance are a treasure trove of classic titles that, unfortunately, got passed over because they were portable; Scourge: Hive was a weird choice to bring back, but we don't judge tiny miracles like that around here. I hope folks check it out; it's never too late to give a title its due!

The struggle against payment processors continues! Unfortunately, little progress has been made, and the battle has expanded, given many recent attempts at incorporating real-world ID verification across the United Kingdom (and oh joy, all that info has been leaked). But there's some good news... at least, in Japan. Well-known storefront DLsite, a site regularly used by creators of adult-rated comics and games, has introduced a new payment system that exists outside of Visa and Mastercard's gaze: Minna no Ginko Payment.

The system is simple: by pairing your viviON account ID (needed to create a DLsite account) with the online bank Minna no Ginko, you can use your MnG funds to purchase goods on DLsite. And... that's it! Minna no Ginko handles the rest. You can buy ASMR or adult VNs to your heart's content! Well, I use the royal "you" in this case—the service will not be available to users in America, even though DLsite is. Or, at least, was; once Visa and Mastercard had their say, there's no practical means for someone in America to actually pay for anything on DLsite.

For folks wondering if there's a workaround: sadly, there isn't. Overseas users can't open an account, and Minna no Ginko's owners don't guarantee the app's functionality when used abroad. But baby steps! The service exists, we just have to let this one play out on its own time. In the meantime, continue to write Visa and Mastercard, and continue to ask your local legislators about the ridiculous standards payment processors impose (it's likely Fire Emblem or Game of Thrones would be "against terms of service" for Visa and Mastercard, after all).

A bit of news that might have gotten lost is Nintendo's acquisition of Dynamo Pictures back in 2022. Since renamed "Nintendo Pictures," the acquisition made sense: Dynamo Pictures had handled motion capturing and animation, and had handled several Pikmin shorts for Nintendo. If you're wondering what they've been up to since, well, Nintendo put out an animated short that very quickly caught people's attention...

The short features a baby being amused as their toys are carried around by invisible creatures, leading to a genuinely heartwarming moment when, inspired by their pacifier getting caught in their mobile, they take their first steps—just in time for their mother to catch them and see it.

It's a genuinely cute clip, and the ending honestly made me well up a bit. But the question on everyone's lips was, "What's the clip even for?" A lot of sharp-eared fans noticed right away that it was likely a Pikmin-related short. After all, the pacifier resembled an asset from a Pikmin game, the music itself was a dead giveaway (being a song that had been used in several other Pikmin games, and even Pikmin Bloom itself establishes that ordinary humans can't really see Pikmin without the game itself revealing their wanderings. The assumption was confirmed when Nintendo updated its Nintendo Today app with a new version of the video. Here, we can actually see the Pikmin puttering around, carrying the baby's toys and fussing with its pacifier. The music is also replaced with a much more "Pikmin"-esque arrangement, switching the piano music for staccato xylophone. (Also, the ending is way better: as the mother hugs her baby, the Pikmin around them bloom. Aww.)

Some people are theorizing that Nintendo accidentally released the wrong video or that they released a version without the Pikmin layer, which doesn't strike me as anywhere near the truth. You don't just accidentally upload a whole video without half of the effects fully rendered, especially not with a completely different backing soundtrack. This was intentional, especially since the upload on Nintendo's official YouTube channel (shared above) still features the non-Pikmin version. I dunno, maybe Nintendo really wants to establish that humans can't see Pikmin without "Nintendo Magic?" Some folks have also pointed out that it makes no sense for Pikmin to exist alongside humans, but none of the Pikmin games explicitly claim to take place in a world without humans. Besides, characters like Captain Olimar (who regularly interacts with Pikmin) aren't human; they're Hocotatians.

The purpose behind the video remains unclear. Is a new Pikmin game being made? Are we getting an animated series, perhaps? We don't know yet! But I think it's fine if this remains a cute animated short that only Real Ones™ recognize. Nintendo has wanted to expand its branding's reach, so having some exclusive content on Nintendo Today is a good way to reward people who do a little extra digging. And we all could use a good low-stakes mystery every once in a while. What I wanna know is why that mother doesn't have a Chibi Robo to help keep that baby's bedroom clean...

That'll do it for this week. I regret to inform you all that I'll not be writing This Week in Games next week; I will be flying to California—and not for work this time! I'm going on an actual, full-on vacation for the first time in my professional life. I'll be hitting up Twitchcon and likely hanging out with a bunch of online buddies from my VTuber fandom. I'm not sure what to expect. My time at PAX West a few weeks back taught me that I'm utterly at a loss with myself when I don't have work to do. But I already have a hotel reservation and I fly out on Wednesday, so I can't chicken out now. Ah well... Be good to each other, I'll see you in seven!