TWIG Goes On Vacation, But The Gaming Industry Doesn't

Welcome back, folks! So, I know what this looks like, and by the time you read this, I will be in San Diego on vacation. But this past Sunday rolled around, and I was preparing myself to write this week's column, only to remember I was supposed to be on vacation. But then I realized, my flight was on Wednesday, and I normally finish my column on Wednesdays anyway, so I could rustle up a quick column over the week and still take a week off, yeah...? (Look, I don't know what to do if I don't have this column to work on, cut me some slack.)

If I don't talk about Metephor: ReFantazio a lot, it's because I haven't had a chance to play it. It was in development for eight years, and actually had some cosmetic DLC in 2018's Etrian Odyssey Nexus of all places (you could get Hulkenberg as a menu avatar long before we knew who Hulkenberg was). And when it came out, I was still too busy to play it! While much of what makes Metaphor tick comes from Persona (and small wonder, it came from Katsura Hashino, longtime Persona director), the story and artistry in Metaphor are all its own. It's definitely a standout RPG, and one I'm disappointed I haven't had a chance to check out yet. The love I see folks online have for the entire cast really speaks to strong character writing. The game has sold two million units in the year since, which definitely speaks to its success.

Atlus is still rather committed to people playing Metaphor, too; in an anniversary livestream from this past October 10, Atlus announced a new "Guidebook Edition" of the game that'll be released early next year.

The "Guidebook Edition" name comes from the fact that this version of the game includes a 55-page digital guidebook detailing parts of the game's lore and mechanics. The guide, however, covers only the first arc of the game; anyone who wants the complete walkthrough will need to buy Future Press' full guide. In addition, the Guidebook Edition includes a digital artbook, a digital soundtrack, and DLC packs for Shujin Academy and Jouin Academy uniforms (with corresponding battle themes and music). In a rare display of generosity from Atlus, anyone who already has a copy of the Atlus 35th Digital Anniversary Edition gets the guidebook for free. This version of the game will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. There's no word yet of a Switch release, but I'll be surprised if that doesn't get addressed in the future...

SNK had a lot of phenomenal fighting games, besides Fatal Fury or King of Fighters. But a lot of them struggled for attention in the US, not helped by so many releasing on the Neo Geo home console (which itself was fairly expensive at US$649.99 in 1990, hence not very popular). One of those famous titles was Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle. A sequel to Savage Reign, Kizuna Encounter is a bit of a mix of SNK's previous fighters; it's a weapon-based fighting game like Samurai Shodown—but not exclusively. It has a rolling system akin to The King of Fighters, along with the tag-system from Real Bout Fatal Fury (where standing on a designated zone allows you to swap characters). More importantly, Kizuna Encounter is a death-match; you can swap at any moment, but once your character's health hits zero, you lose—one round, first to fall loses.

While Kizuna Encounter did see a release in America, it's fairly obscure nevertheless—and things only got worse for the PAL release, of which only five known copies exist. Prices can reach as high as five figures! Also, the original game was written by a young Hidetaka Suehiro, aka SWERY65.

The good news is that modern players don't have to spend US$11,000 to pick up a copy of Kizuna Encounter; they can get one right now on the eShop for US$8. But a new version courtesy of the NEO GEO Premium Selection line out on Steam ups the ante: it not only includes cute bonus features like a practice mode and a jukebox, but it also includes nine-player lobbies and four-player co-op in matches. The co-op is particularly big as a deal, as it was always present in the ROM but never officially made available in the arcade release. It also includes two new playable characters—and it's still only US$20 (with an introductory sale until the 18th, bringing the price down to US$15). A tiny miracle? For sure, I'll put this one on the board. It's not every day an obscure fighting game gets not only an updated port, but one that adds extra content. I look forward to seeing it at more fighting game locals!

People definitely seem to be enjoying Digimon Story: Time Stranger. I don't have much of a bead on how it's doing in non-Digimon circles, outside of folks going slack-jawed at Venusmon (I don't get it, wasn't it the whole meme how Digimon either evolve into fridges with Gatling guns or dominatrices?). Despite whatever issues Time Stranger might have, it's doing well enough at introducing folks to Digimon. One thing I appreciate: the lack of focus on Digimon Adventure. There is definitely some fan service at work about certain Digimon or groupings, especially if you know where to look and what to look for. But it's a completely generalized thing, and not too much attention is called to it. It looks like Bandai Namco has found another set of references to draw from—and it's still within Digimon's extensive history! Let's pull up this cute animated prelude that Bandai Namco released this week...

So anyway, this Prelude serves as some backstory for Time Stranger, touching on details like the in-universe Agent Alpha anime (who looks a lot like Joe from Cyborg 009). More importantly, it also touches upon Inori Misono's little brother, who gets referenced a lot in the game, as well as a certain glowing Digi-Egg. Most of what happens isn't strictly a spoiler for Time Stranger, but it's stuff that won't make sense unless you play the game. What matters is how the boy in the video, Yuu, finds the Digi-Egg and falls in with a Deputymon that protects him from a Kuwagamon. The kicker here: when Deputymon chooses to protect Yuu from a Machinedramon, Yuu's care for his new friend (and the latent power of the Digi-Egg) makes Deputymon digivolve... into Justimon.

Now, I've gone on record before about how Justimon is my favorite Digimon (and yes, he's effectively a Kamen Rider Digimon, which is why he's my favorite). But bear with me, there's actual lore here, and folks that remember Digimon Tamers might be familiar with some of it. See, Tamers had a late addition to the cast: Ryo Akiyama. The show didn't do a good job of explaining who he was, but that's because he was from a series of Digimon RPGs on the Wonderswan, Bandai Namco's handheld console designed by Game Boy creator Gunpei Yokoi. Neither the Wonderswan nor Ryo's games were released in the United States, which is a pity; the only other way to recognize Ryo would've been his blink-and-you-miss-it cameo in Our War Game, and even then, kids in 2000 had no way of knowing why this particular kid was important. As it turns out: he's something of an unofficial Digi-Destined: his games on the Wonderswan, Digimon Adventure Anode Tamer and Cathode Tamer, have him rescuing the other Digi-Destined from evil Digimon resurrected by Milleniumon. This helps underline why Ryo appearing in Tamers is such a big deal: he's an in-universe video game character who turns out to be an actual dude, who by extension has met the other characters of an in-universe fictional cartoon who are also, as it turns out, actual people who live in another dimension. It's like if Blankman learned that Batman is real and lives in his city. (Blankman isn't too deep a cut, is it?)

So, how does this connect to Prelude? Well, Ryo's official partner is Cyberdramon... who officially digivolves into Justimon. That's one part. The other part is that Millenniumon is a composite Digimon, who is the result of an unholy fusion (Jogress? DNA Digivolution?) of Kimeramon... and Machinedramon! So by extension, Prelude takes the scenic route to call back to the final battle of an older Digimon RPG that was never released in America. (Fun fact, Milleniumon has also been retconned into being the cause of everything that went wrong in Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02, the lore is wild.) It's one of the deepest cuts Bandai Namco could have done, outside of referencing, I dunno, Capsule Zaurus.

... And it's not even the only deep cut in Time Stranger.

Eagle-eyed fans might have noticed one of Aegiomon's disguises in Time Stranger consists of a yellow hoodie and a black beanie. It's a cute look... and it lines up with the outfit of the protagonist from Digimon World. While Digimon World's protagonist doesn't necessarily have an official name, he's given the in-game nickname of Mameo, since he has a Mamemon on his hoodie in one of the games. But his name in the English localization was "You" to emphasize him as a player stand-in. Aegiomon's hoodie and beanie are supposed to belong to Inori's little brother—whose name is "Yuu." It's a bit of a stretch, but from where I'm sitting, it stands up to scrutiny. Call it a funny, unforeseen coincidence that comes from the English translation, like the "q/9" twist from 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors.

It's a bit of a shame that all of this would fly over the heads of folks, largely because so many of the older Digimon games just haven't been re-released in any capacity. And Time Stranger puts in a lot of work to keep things consistent within its own mechanics, from how certain Digimon evolve to certain lore connections between Digimon. It's not unlike how in Shin Megami Tensei, fusing Barong and Rangda inevitably produces Shiva, or Flauros and Decarabia's continued bromance. Time Stranger was a great step in the right direction for the series in how much interest it's garnered for the franchise, but I can only hope Bandai Namco doesn't squander the opportunity.

An unfortunate aspect of games hosted on Steam is the inevitability that their licenses will run out and the game will eventually be delisted. This time, it's the Psikyo Portal; a platform on Steam that allowed you to buy several classic tate (read: vertical) arcade shoot-'em-ups. The set has been available for a bit, but its Steam license is running out; the press release notes that October 31 is the cut-off date for purchasing any of the titles, which includes classics as the Strikers 1945 (not to be confused with CAPCOM's World War 2-era shooter, 1942), the Gunbird series and the Samurai Aces collection. The good news is that the Psikyo collection is available on other platforms, and the announcement confirms they'll be available until further notice, so the games can still be picked up on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. The games also have physical versions floating around, as the two volumes of the Psikyo Shooting Library.

There's a lot of discourse regarding remakes, but I'm largely indifferent to them. I don't really mind remakes much because I think it's valid for creatives to reexamine their previous work, maybe even reimagine it. As much as people insist that they would prefer a straight-up, no-frills remake of Final Fantasy VII with updated visuals, I'm glad the Remake trilogy takes the wild swings it does, because it's embracing how much everyone knows the original Final Fantasy VII and embraces its own legacy. But I think the thing everyone can agree on is how remakes would go down easier if the original game being remade were still available. So here comes CAPCOM, not getting the hint!

In a recent podcast with The Game Business, GOG.com manager Marcin Paczyński explained his difficulties in getting access to the original PlayStation 1 versions of the first three Resident Evil titles. Says Paczyński, "CAPCOM were like, 'We have all of those remakes. It's already a superior experience to those games.' They didn't see the value in bringing back the vanilla versions."

Again, I'm indifferent to modern remakes. Some are good, some are bad. I won't lose sleep about a new game getting made. I definitely don't think a remake replaces an older game; I maintain that the easiest way to get people to play an older game is to make it available to people: host it on Steam, re-release it on modern consoles, anything. There's still an audience for that, as the rabid support for the Marvel vs CAPCOM collection among fighting game fans has shown. Remakes simply aren't the original game (wild, I know). Look at the Final Fantasy IV remake on DS; it's a great remake, sure, but it's a top-to-bottom change from even the original Final Fantasy IV, from the Addition system that granted characters new abilities to the total re-imagining of how some abilities worked (like Darkness simply buffing Cecil instead of acting as a screen-wipe). And there are a lot of versions of Final Fantasy IV besides; the GameBoy Advance version has its own updates and additions that the DS version never included. And your only option for playing either of those games is hunting down an old copy.

This is part of why the Final Fantasy VII remakes don't bother me; it's easy enough to just play the original. You can get a copy of Final Fantasy VII on plenty of modern consoles these days; it's not hard to track down. It's a lot harder if you want to play FF7 in its original context, which I think is a valid thing to do; console-specific ports can have their own unique bugs or quirks that I would argue are still part of the experience of playing a game in context. (For people who argue otherwise: note how speedrunners will keep to, say, the PAL release of a game instead of the NTSC, due to minor differences in how the in-game physics behave.) But if they made a reimagining of Final Fantasy IX as a rhythm game, I'd be fine—Final Fantasy IX is widely available.

What disappoints me here is the reaction from CAPCOM's executives: they don't know what they have, and they don't value it as they should. A game is more than its technical aspects. Sometimes, it's not a matter of just playing a "prettier" version of a game: you want the original version. I love the Klonoa: Phantasy Reverie collection, but it still breaks my heart that the collection doesn't include a port of the original PS1 Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. Sure, the version of Klonoa it has is nevertheless a must-play... but it's not what the original game looked like. The Resident Evil: Nemesis remake might have cutting-edge graphics, but maybe someone wants to play the old version—and I think that should be accounted for.

Gaming executives need to appreciate their own games more. I'm a lost cause —I'll buy anything with the words "MYSTERY DUNGEON" slapped on it (this is how you trick me into a windowless van). But as much as I love Shiren the Wanderer: Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island, it doesn't invalidate Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer on the DS. And the same goes for other series and their fans, or else nobody would ever want to revisit classic Mega Man. The love for these games is what they represent: memories of playing them when we were younger, love of a certain song or sequence, or maybe even the simple desire to share these games with people close to us. That's what it means to play games.

How do you become an executive and not even understand why people enjoy playing, seriously...

That'll do it for this week, I think. Now, this time you won't actually see me next week; as I write this, I actually am in San Diego for Twitchcon, and I will still be in San Diego this Sunday. Like it or not, I'm going to have a week off. It's too late to bail now. As you read this, I'll probably be in line at Twitchcon to meet Silvervale. So I guess I have to have fun now? I've never gone on vacation. Be good to each other. I'll see you in fourteen. (I will be very sad if Izuna news comes out this week...)