This Week in Games - Seasons of Books and Keys, and Bloody Roars and Expensive Consoles
Welcome back, folks. Smarter folks than I have covered the news regarding BioWare. Chalk up that studio right up there with Bullfrog, Maxis, Origin Systems, and countless others that EA Games has mulched over the past 40 years. A lot of folks would be quick to say BioWare "was a shell of its former self," but Nintendo keeps making Metroid games that people come back to despite titles that would have seemingly killed the franchise. It breaks my heart that in the wake of 400 developers getting their lives upended, there isn't a single CEO seeing the consequences of running them into the ground.
PlayStation 6 Likely to Cost US$1000+, and Helix Isn't Far Behind
Normally we don't pay attention to leaks around here. But because there's so much writing on the wall, we figured it was worth touching on this one. Leaks abound regarding the upcoming PlayStation 6 and Helix, the upcoming Sony and Microsoft consoles. We know those consoles won't be cheap; noted leaker KeplerL2 claimed the PS6 had a bill of materials of around US$1000 as of this past June. KeplerL2 stands by that, as a recent post on NeoGAF claims that the memory on a PS6 alone costs about US$680. These consoles costing upwards of US$1000 is all but guaranteed. Not just "US$1,000," beyond that. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma even went so far as to confirm that the upcoming Xbox console, code-named "Helix," will cost anywhere from US$1,200 to an eye-watering US$1,800. For folks keeping track at home: that's anywhere from two and a half Switch 2s to almost four Switch 2s. Do not expect a PS6 to be any less expensive.
So, what does this mean for us? Anyone hoping for a last-minute swerve will keep hoping. The RAMpocalypse will only get worse before it gets better; companies are tied up in current contracts until at least 2028, 2030 at the latest. Even if the miraculous happens and the bottom falls out of the generative AI industry (the current cause of the component shortage disaster), prices are unlikely to change. We'd likely have bigger issues at hand, like the economy collapsing in the wake of the only thing supporting the United States stock market; even if the swift, painful end of generative AI slashed prices for the PS6 and Helix, we'd still have to worry about your average member of the public being able to afford one.
And that's a shame because developers are going to produce games for those consoles, one way or another. While many suggest Sony should scrap the PS6 and continue with the PS5 for the near future, this isn't very feasible; Sony has likely already had contracts and deals in place for the sourcing and manufacturing of PS6 materials for years now. (For reference: I remember reading about Sony already going through preliminary phases for the PS3 back in 2001—when the PlayStation 2 had just released). This is done for the same reason you don't leave printing out your homework until ten minutes before class: some damn thing will go wrong at the last moment. And, of course, there are the developers: it's very likely that there have been deals for a while regarding certain developers to get dev kits for the upcoming consoles to make killer apps.
Would it be better if Sony just took the loss and cancelled all those deals? I don't know. And the answer is likely closer to "they'd never want to." Both Sony and Microsoft are in a deadly game of chicken, itching to get the drop on the other by releasing a new console. The smart thing would be to rebound their efforts on the current hardware; even if producing a cheaper model of current hardware is impossible, hey, give folks a reason to enjoy the thing they have. But that's not going to happen; again, even if Microsoft and Sony made the decision to double down on their current hardware yesterday, it'll still be another five years before they see any results. Contrary to popular opinion, Grand Theft Auto VI cannot support the entire gaming industry on its back (crazy, I know).
It would definitely help if we woke up one day to find that the generative AI industry had fallen down the stairs into some cement boots and accidentally tripped down a well somewhere looking for that cask of Amontillado. Again, such a thing would likely rip the floor out of the current economy—we couldn't even argue "The sooner the bandage gets ripped off, the sooner we can heal" because it's still a very big tree that's going to rip down everything around it. This is a purely self-inflicted wound on Sony and Microsoft for all their dalliances with generative AI; it turns out they're part of the reason their own hardware is starting to cost so much.
Unfortunately, there's not much else that can be done. This is the industry that developers, CEOs, and consumers have asked for years; not much to do but ride it out until the ship runs aground. The sad truth is, gaming will survive four-figure consoles. It's everything else we're gonna lose in the wake of it that bugs me.
Katsuhiro Harada Talks About Resurrecting Bloody Roar; Turns Out, It's Complicated
You know him; you might have some strong opinions about the guy, but Katsuhiro Harada came back over this week regarding another hot-button gaming issue that he deemed worthy to break down. While Harada has been busy working on... whatever he's been working on with SNK, he's mostly been keeping his head down and eating waffles with Kenny Omega. But in response to one user floating the possibility of SNK buying the Bloody Roar IP, Harada felt the need to clear the room. Apparently, folks have been asking him about it for a decade.
For the uninitiated, Bloody Roar was a series of fighting games developed by Eighting and produced by Hudson Soft. (You might recognize Eighting from a number of their fighting game titles; they've got quite a long list of them from Inuyasha: Feudal Combat to Kamen Rider: Climax Wars to last year's Hunter × Hunter: Nen × Impact.) Bloody Roar's gimmick was that its myriad combatants not only focused on a specific martial art, but also had the ability to turn into massive humanoid animals. The games had a small but loyal following in the early '00s, but basically died after 2003's Bloody Roar 4. While the IP has languished in limbo for over 20 years, Konami recently secured the IP.
In response to fans online talking about Bloody Roar, Harada went into a (long) explanation regarding the difficulties of reviving the IP. Keep in mind, Harada is speaking from 31 years of experience working in the industry, so he knows his stuff. "If the company that owns the rights to that IP analyzes the business potential and concludes that it could generate profits commensurate with the company's size, then a remake, sequel, or reboot is certainly possible. The phrase “commensurate with the company's size” is actually a pretty important keyword here, so I can't leave that part out," he explained at first. But he also established a number of key obstacles. For starters: timing. Harada used the example of Street Fighter IV, which was released a decade after Street Fighter III. He acknowledged that while that time period was colloquially known as a "dark age" for fighting games, plenty of fighting games (many of them from Bandai Namco) had been released to the market to great success. Former CAPCOM employee Yoshinori Ono, who was once a strong cheerleader for Street Fighter, was able to leverage those successes into getting Street Fighter IV approved. Harada also acknowledges that in some cases, a long absence can actually be a benefit, since you could bank on fan excitement after a game has been gone for a certain amount of time. (I'd posit Donkey Kong: Bananza as a good example of this; fans of Nintendo's great ape were starved for a new game featuring the big lug after nothing but Donkey Kong Country Returns ports for ages and ages.)
But the other part of the equation that Harada emphasizes is "whether someone will emerge within the organization that owns the IP who has the confidence to BET on that IP, the authority to make it happen, and the willingness to take that risk." Going back to CAPCOM, the Marvel Vs. CAPCOM series is a great example; those games were originally made courtesy of certain individuals at CAPCOM and Marvel (later Disney) who had rapport with each other and were able to get the ball rolling on the titles. Once those key individuals left the company, there wasn't anyone left to champion the games, especially after Marvel Vs. CAPCOM Infinite turned out to be a disappointment. Harada underlines that even if the personal love for the IP isn't there, the project can still come to fruition if there's "a very strong business case with a high probability of success." In other words, if you can prove that there's a market for a thing and you can at least get the basics right. Harada also points out that even if there's no news going on, there's still a chance things are being worked on behind the scenes, using the examples of Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive 7 (and revealing that DOA producer Yosuke Hayashi had approached him for intel regarding the state of 3D fighting games).
Harada wraps up by urging that fan feedback is also vital, underlining that many projects get rolling in the wake of feedback encouraging a producer that a given project might be viable. A good example would be the #FreeMvC2 hashtag started by fighting game streamer and commentator Maximilian_Dood, which led to a lot of streams and artwork in support of the game and potentially encouraged the release of the Marvel Vs CAPCOM Fighting Collection. But he also stresses that the feedback needs to be "positive and friendly," and many people reading your messages will tune you out if you open with rudeness or self-deprecation. He also claims that online petitions really don't move the needle much, since anonymous signatures lack "credibility... significance, or commitment." Instead, Harada suggests that fans "communicate your genuine passion and enthusiasm directly to the people who can actually make decisions." (See? This is why I always tell folks to share their opinions politely and respectfully.) Harada also insisted that fan passion and corporate decisions are not inherently incompatible forces, stating, "Even to continue delivering the games that fans want, a business needs to remain economically sustainable" and "considering profitability and respecting the passion of creators are not necessarily opposing concepts."
All this is to say that Harada likely isn't the guy who can bring back Bloody Roar even if he wanted to. If Konami owns the IP, then Konami are the folks we'd have to talk to. And, of course, bombarding their mentions with demands for a new Bloody Roar aren't really the way to go. We should take cues from the #FreeMVC2 movement and illustrate passion for the games through the usual methods: make fan art, stream the game, host and promote tournaments at your local fighting game scene. If you don't have a fighting game scene, start one—the entirety of Melty Blood's reputation was made on the back of a laptop in a hotel bathroom and a dream. Not everyone lives in a metropolitan city with a thriving game community where major events like Portland Retro Gaming Expo exist—but that doesn't mean that getting the word out about Bloody Roar or anything else is impossible. (Heck, I can't even pretend I'm the Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja guy; there are at least three other people out there who do a way better job of commissioning artwork of Izuna!)
Game Demo: Seasons of Books and Keys
Mea Culpa time: I'm not the best at keeping up with current games. And I wanna work on that. So when we got word this week that Shueisha Games had just put out a demo for Seasons of Books and Keys, we decided that now was the best time to fix that. And none too soon, too; Shueisha Games has been around for a bit, roundabout since I started working on This Week in Games. You might remember one of their earlier titles, Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimension—which I had the pleasure of reviewing four years ago. We also had a chance to speak to the game's co-developers. Shueisha Games is indeed connected to the publisher, so they've released titles like Jujutsu Kaisen Rumble: Survivation (a Jujutsu Kaisen-themed Vampire Survivors-esque title), but most of their games have been original titles. You might recall another of their upcoming titles, Chronoscript: The Endless End (which we also covered in this column!). There have also been games like Urban Myth Dissolution Center and Oni: Road to be the Mightiest Oni. So their output has been pretty varied—and a lot more interesting than making more shonen brawlers. Not that I'd say "no" to, say, a SPY×FAMILY-themed cooking game or a Kaguya-sama: Love is War-themed competitive puzzler.
So here we have Seasons of Books and Keys. This one is a rare adaptation from Shueisha Games, from a novel of the same name written by Honobu Yonezawa. You might recognize him as the author behind Hyou-ka, a similarly book-themed series. The demo only encompasses the first chapter of the game. (I confess to never having read the novel it's based on, so I can't say how much that covers in terms of the story.) The story revolves around high schooler Jiro Horikawa and his stoic friend Shimon Matsukura. The two work in the library, which tends to be dreary and uneventful... except for the times when people come to them with strange problems. And it doesn't get stranger than when a cute upperclassman approaches Jiro and asks for his help in opening a safe her grandfather left her. Jiro and Shimon have a great set of deductive skills, so they're perfect for the job—but the mystery of an unlocked safe quickly becomes something larger than the two of them in short order...
While I've only played a handful of visual novels in my life (Lunar Legend Tsukihimei, Witch on the Holy Night, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, and a smattering of Phoenix Wright), Seasons of Books and Keys stands out with its presentation. It can be hard to make presentation gripping for a visual novel, being that for the most part you have images and text to work with—and maybe sometimes voiceover. Sure, you can pull all that back if your art is just that good and you throw in some effects as a flourish; Witch on the Holy Night pulls that off just fine. Seasons of Books and Keys goes for a bit of a creative approach; much of the game is in "negative space," with the characters sitting at tables or standing around in a void. As opposed to being placed over them, the text is usually placed around the characters, arranged like a proper novel that formats text around illustrations. It's a good creative choice, and one that ties into the game being about books and librarians.
The other twist is the game's gimmick. Jiro has the ability to "bookmark" specific memories, remembering specific moments with crystal-clear detail. In a neat twist, these "bookmarks" are saved alongside the game's proper save files—your save files. You can only access the bookmarks during certain key moments, but they're vital to solving the mystery at the core of this chapter. The game also throws unique puzzles at you. Your friend Shimon is pretty sharp, so there are occasions where concepts are arranged as text puzzles that you need to arrange, like a multiple-choice quiz whose suggestions you need to pick apart, or a "Mad Libs"-style. Your "Bookmarks" become key to some of these puzzles, fleshing out the matter at hand while also serving as responses to Shimon's brain-teasers.
It's a lot of smoke and mirrors for what is handled very easily in a novel by just a quick shift in perspective—but it feels unique here by virtue of you having to make those choices. You start the game seeing all those blank Bookmarks, seeing Jiro note certain moments as important. You'll wonder why these moments are so important—until the story asks you to go back to them and re-examine them. Even if you're bad at whodunnits, you'll feel smart when you finally start making the connections that the story wants you to make.
So far, Seasons of Books and Keys—the visual novel—doesn't have a release date. But the demo is up on the game's Steam page; the first chapter is pretty engrossing, and Jiro and Shimon are a great pair of protagonists. So definitely check it out! Going forward, I want to make these Demo previews more of a thing. Man, am I glad I finished Xenoblade 3 when I did... Also, if folks want to check out more of Honobu Yonezawa's writing, you can at least check out The Samurai and the Prisoner, which is available translated into English by publisher Yen On.
Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits:
That'll do it for this week, I think. Let me know how you guys are feeling about the demo overview! We'd like to cover more demos in the future. I can't promise I'll cover everything, especially with just how many titles release every day (let alone every week), but I'd like to do a better job of keeping up with them. Be good to each other; I'll see you in seven.
This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching VTuber content, and watching tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors. discuss this in the forum |
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.