This Week in Games

EVO Reveals: What Is An Art to a King?

Welcome back, folks! Having submitted my panel applications for this Autumn's Kumoricon, I find myself in that most unfun of positions of needing to wait to see if they've been accepted. Bah. Always the anxiety of whether you'll be accepted, then the anxiety leading up to being in front of more people than you expect would actually show up, followed by the satisfaction of having spent some quality time sharing knowledge with folks. Nothing to do but wait it out. Speaking of conventions, my favorite VTuber was going to Anime Expo this weekend. But I've never been to AX; the pictures of the crowds make my skin crawl...

Sony Decides to Step on Rakes, Announces Total Transition to Digital-Only Media by 2028

Welcome to the video game industry, where we can't afford to make games, can't afford to buy games, and can't afford to make consoles that play games. In today's news about stuff we can't do: Sony has announced their decision to cease production of physical games by January of 2028, citing "consumer preference." Being that Sony is a major manufacturer for BluRay media, this has been understandably criticized on a wide scale by major swaths of the industry. The reasons to dislike this are many, not the least of which being that Sony sure did pat themselves on the back over allowing people to use and play their physical games however they wanted in an open move to criticize Microsoft's then-decision that the Xbox One would also be a digital-only, always-online console.

As if to illustrate why this is such a bad move, this decision came on the same day that Sony announced the closure of their PlayStation Stores for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita. Global markets can expect a total shutdown by the start of 2027; Latin American and Middle Eastern regions can look forward to the storefronts going dark as early as later this year. Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua specifically have until August.

I'm a staunch opponent of digital-only futures because the infrastructure to support a digital-only future does not exist. There are still many places within the continental United States that do not have access to broadband Internet connections, and unless a lot of rich people become a lot cooler really, really fast, that will not change by 2027. See: why the Google Stadia fell. Even under ideal scenarios (i.e., people living in coastal metropolises with the best Internet connection commercially available), the broadband for streaming games to a console from the cloud just isn't there. The problem gets worse the farther away you get from the continental American continent; I have written at length about how much online gaming did not work for me while growing up in Puerto Rico. And that's before we get to Sony putting their hands into people's pockets and removing paid digital copies of films from their libraries.

The upsides to this are... none, actually. Games are still outrageously expensive. Sony can't even follow in Nintendo's mild generosity to make digital copies of games cheaper. So the margin that's supposed to cover manufacturing and distribution costs goes straight into their pocket. And then there's the ripple effect that'll go throughout the rest of society; remember, there's still a market for second-hand copies of games. Local game stores, retro shops, game swaps, libraries—these all get hosed over if and when Sony decides to not supply folks with a physical copy of games. Countless games have been removed from online platforms like Steam before, but there's still the luxury of a game being part of your library and freely available if you already bought it (this is why I still own a copy of the 2013 Deadpool game in my Steam library). You can't even take that for granted with Sony. Remember: plenty of games in the PS3 and PS Vita library aren't accessible on your PS5. Literally the only (legal) way to play Xenogears is to get a PS Vita and buy it there. Also worth considering is the situation with games and licensed music; all of those modern AAA titles with fancy needle drops will have issues once the rights to those songs expire. Oh, and remember: many copies of PS1 titles on the PS Vita and PS3 store are also a whole US$4 cheaper. Your only hope is for some of these games to get added to the PS Classics collection, infrequent as they are.

Sony's announcement has been met with widespread criticism. Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation underlined the need for the industry to actually make efforts in keeping games accessible, given how eagerly they wipe their own games from the face of the Earth. "The reality is that the vast majority of video games produced over the last two decades were not made for dedicated home video game consoles, let alone pressed to physical media," he said in a post on Bluesky. "If platform owners are deciding to eliminate physical media and older digital storefronts, then we'd also like to see trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association offer meaningful solutions for archives and museums to legally preserve digital-only content and make it accessible for research. [...] Asking museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI and hope it'll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution." Notably, the ESA helped kill the Stop Killing Games movement in California by claiming that private servers (like those used in Minecraft) were illegal and "infringe on the intellectual property rights of game publishers."

Sony was also criticized by noted developer Hideo Kojima, who has a few titles he is working on in conjunction with Sony. "Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative," he tweeted. "We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That's what I'm afraid of. This is not greed."

The good news is, this isn't the first time Sony has made these kinds of terrible decisions. Not too long ago, Sony took heat for their attempt at forcing Steam players of Helldivers 2 to link their accounts with their Sony accounts in order to access the game; widespread backlash cowed them into reversing the decision. Politely voicing your opinion via every accessible avenue (Sony social media, mostly) is a pretty good way to go. But a lot of people have simply decided they want to wash their hands of Sony. And I think that's valid, too. What a great way to chop off your own feet at the ankles.

EVO Updates

I know I said this last time, but it feels like we just had an EVO. I have to wonder if they're not hosting too many of these. There's a reason (regional EVOs in the US, Japan and other places with strong local fighting game communities), but it still feels like a lot. Anyway, there's a bit of news to cover for these games, so let's do that! Lots of new characters were introduced, especially.

Last week, we were struck with the reveal that the eleven-year-old BlazBlue Centralfiction would be getting a brand new character in an update. This was shocking, given that this is just a plain old update being offered for what is otherwise a really old game. Heck, most of the reveal is in honor of BlazBlue's fiction, depicting major wins from known players at tournaments. Anyway, we've been introduced to the character, who has a suitably BlazBlue-esque name: Trinity Glassfille! (See, because she's a girl and she wears glasses...)

I don't play BlazBlue, and I only dabble in fighting games. But my verdict: Trinity is adorable. I love her fluffy pigtails (they're kinda like Ann's from Persona 5, yeah?) She's an alchemist who's appeared in the game's story since the first title, BlazBlue Continuum Shift. She even got brand new art from BlazBlue's creator, Toshimichi Mori, who had since left Arc System Works. Granted, we don't have a release date for her—this is just a reveal, after all. To wit: if you want her, you'll need to reinstall your copy of BlazBlue Centralfiction on Steam or break out your PS4 copy, because again, Centralfiction hasn't been ported to anything newer. Still wild that we're getting a whole new character without any kind of port.

I was marveling at an 11-year-old game getting a new character, but SNK decidedly has that beat: SNK announced The Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 R, a port of the third Art of Fighting title onto Steam. Not only that, but two characters are being retroactively added to the game after all these years: King and Yuri. King is the SNK universe's famed Muay Thai practitioner, famed for originally passing as a man to compete. She's got a strong fandom in SNK (show me an SNK character who doesn't), and has appeared in almost all of its premier fighting games, starting with the original Art of Fighting. As for Yuri, she's the little sister of Art of Fighting protagonist Ryo Sakazaki, and also a fan-favorite when it comes to deep-cut cameos.

You'd worry that their sprites would look out-of-place in such an old game (think the reverse problem Morrigan's 2D sprite had in all of those CAPCOM crossover games). But, no: their sprites don't look so much as a pixel out of place. It's like they were always meant to be on the roster. The only issue is that Art of Fighting is a really weird choice for a game to get this kind of treatment. I was gently corrected a while back for claiming it had no fans, but it is nevertheless the least of SNK's major fighting games, taking a distant third behind the likes of Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters. Heck, you could even argue it takes a distant fourth behind the likes of Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Maybe even fifth if you factor in Samurai Shodown. It's not as dumb a decision as getting CR7 into the City of the Wolves roster, but it feels weirdly cut from the same cloth. This feels like it will lose SNK money.

Going back to Arc System Works, the upcoming DLC character has been revealed. Following after Jam Kuradoberi, we've got everyone's favorite robotic shitposter: Robo-Ky! More than just a robotic double of Guilty Gear protagonist Ky Kisuke, Robo-Ky is a menace who suffers as much as he slays. This time, he's coming back in a new body (rented from a shop), with a new power source (a hercules beetle on a tread mill, "working as hard as an entire video game dev team"), and some new attacks, he's sure to be a load of trouble you'll look forward to dealing with. Robo-Ky drops on July 2, so he'll probably be available once this column goes live.

Update on Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, with a brand new team being introduced: the Samurai Outriders. Like the other teams, they're a good mix of surprise picks and old fan-favorites. First up, the Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider, complete with his hot rod. No complaints there: Reyes is a cool dude who's just been itching for a chance at the mainstream. With the MCU in its current state, I can see his appearance in a fighting game making him a new favorite. Then there's Blade—simply put, one of the ice-coolest characters in all of Marvel. No notes. Such a shame we can't even get another game with the guy, eh? Up next is Loki, who... I mean, I get it: he's popular. He's got that Tumblr Sexyman appeal. But the team's called "Samurai Outriders." I know Spiral and the Silver Samurai would've been hewing a bit too close to CAPCOM's style, but he feels weird for this team. Otherwise, a great choice. And finally, back by editorial mandate, it's Deadpool, complete with Nolan North's performances. Fourth-wall jokes? Fourth-wall jokes. Deadpool's doing the Jack'O pose, he's referencing the Mortal Kombat "Toasty!", and actually has an attack called "Random bullshit, go!"

Up next, Bandai Namco revealed Bob for Tekken 8. Bob is... contentious, to some players. Put simply: it's because he's fat. He debuted way back in Tekken 6, and he's quite a bit faster than you'd expect from a man of his size. I guess in a game where you box kangaroos and robots, a fat guy being fast and strong is a bridge too far. (I know I'd never put myself into Johnny Knoxville's shoes and take on Butterbean...) Anyway, Bob is designed as a rushdown character and can even use his belly to parry through some attacks. He honestly looks pretty fun to use. Man likes riceballs and burgers and can punch like a prizefighter, and he arrives this August 24 (or August 19, if you have early access).

Also, Bandai Namco was funny and referenced the famous video of an instructor punching a kangaroo to save their dog with Leroy Smith and his beloved Sugar, and famed Tekken kangaroo Roger Jr. as the kangaroo. They even had Leroy wear the same plaid shirt as the guy in the video. This is in anticipation of Roger Jr. getting a new trailer on October 11... at EVO France. (See, I told you there are too many of these EVOs...)

Finally, RGG Studios revealed a new character for Virtua Fighter Crossroads. (Also: the Crossroads logo does the cute Resident Evil thing where the "Vi" in "Virtua Fighter" is colored differently to reveal a "VI"—because this is the sixth Virtua Fighter game.) Anyway, the new character thus far is a total mystery: a masked martial artist known only as the Bakunawa Killer. They do that sick Mercenary Tao-thing where they toss out a barrage of kicks while their hands are tucked behind their backs. I love when people do that. Pai Chan recognizes them after kicking off their mask, but we get no clues who they are—so the tone of a dark Hong Kong kung fu flick is being preserved. I've seen some theories floating around, from the Killer being the return of Shaolin monk Lei-Fei to even being Lan Di from Shenmue. That wouldn't even be entirely ridiculous, given that Shenmue was originally envisioned as a Virtual Fighter RPG. Heck, Crossroads' cinematic approach even makes it akin to that original intent! We won't get any answers on the Bakunawa Killer until 2027, though.

Old Franchises, and Will They Come Back

I've been keeping touch with a good friend of mine from back home. Currently, they're undergoing some treatments for a cranial tumor (so far, so good!). For reference, this friend is the guy who got me into Xenoblade Chronicles; I was very skeptical of the series for the longest time, up until I stayed over at his place for a weekend and he excitedly showed me his Collector's Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U. Suffice to say, he's very excited about all the Xenoblade goodies coming out through the rest of 2026 (and for Muramasa: Revenant Blades), and hurriedly got himself a Switch 2 in anticipation of all the stuff coming down the pipes. As we talked last weekend, he asked me what game I'd like to see come back. I said Shining Force, but I figured this would've made for an interesting discussion here. Let's talk about five Japanese franchises and whether we might see them again.

1. Shining Force (Camelot)

Sega's answer to Nintendo's Fire Emblem had one leg up on Nintendo's strategy series: it actually released in the United States! Shining Force was a series of strategy RPGs on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. While there was some continuity between the games, it's loose enough that each game can be enjoyed individually. And there's a lot to enjoy; while the strategy components are rather simple (there isn't exactly a weapons triangle), it's still fun to arrange your units and attack enemies with the right spell or weapon to maximize damage. It helped that the cast for these games are invariably charming; your Knights are all Centaurs, your Archers and Priests are all elves, and many other colorful characters will join your Force, from rat-folk thieves to flying bird-people to a charming li'l turtle-guy. Shining Force 2 also upped the ante by expanding your progressive options: each class earned a new potential promotion, allowing Knights to become winged Pegasus Knights instead of Paladins; Archers to mount mobile Brass Guns instead of becoming Snipers; or even the supportive Priests to become fist-tossing Master Monks instead of Vicars. Camelot's stellar music was also in full display, paving the way for their later work on Golden Sun.

There were a few Shining Force titles across Sega's ecosystem, including mobile spin-offs on Game Gear like Sword of Hajya (once available on Nintendo's now-defunct Virtual Console) or console-based spin-offs like Shining in the Darkness (a first-person dungeon crawler that kept the graphical charm). There were even a few expansions on the Sega Saturn, like Shining Wisdom (a top-down action-RPG in the style of Ys) and the ambitious Shining Force III, a sprawling epic told across three scenarios on three releases. Unfortunately, Shining Force III also marked Camelot's final game with Sega: the rest of their career later on would be dedicated to the Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games with Nintendo. And while the handheld games did include RPG elements, it's been mostly sports games for them ever since. Oh, and Golden Sun, but that one's also in limbo after the release of Golden Sun: Dark Dawn in 2010. Sega has meanwhile continued the Shining Force series on their own, with other studios contributing to them. (Fun fact: Shining Soul on Game Boy Advance was the first title ever produced by Grasshopper Manufacturing!) Not a lot of the latter-day Shining titles have returned to the strategy genre, instead bouncing around genres. Shining Tears, Shining Force EXA, Shining Tears, Shining Resonance... many games with Taka Tony's character designs (thank you!), but painfully few strategy games. The few strategy titles in the series have either been remakes (like the stellar Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon on GameBoy Advance) or never brought to America (alas, poor Shining Force Feather...)

Will it come back? Probably not.

While there have been new Shining games, Sega seems content with letting Valkyria Chronicles and Total War be their premier strategy games (especially with Valkyria Chronicles boasting Raita's designs—I still want those art books!). We got Blade Arcus Rebellion from Shining in 2019, complete with Taka Tony's character designs... but that's a fighting game, and it never even released in America. A proper Shining Force doesn't seem to be in the cards at all. Hell, Sega hasn't even referenced Shining Force in the Sonic Racing games. Ports of Shining Force and Shining in the Darkness are all we can hope for, it seems. Could Sega even make a new Shining Force? Of course, they wouldn't necessarily need Camelot for that (by all accounts, Shining Force Feather was great and it's a tragedy it was never localized). But if there's something Sega hates more than doing what Nintendoes, it's using their old franchises for anything...

2. Guardian Heroes (Treasure)

Speaking of Sega! If you're an old-timey gamer (or you've watched Uncle from Another World—which you should; Takehito Koyasu plays the titular Uncle!), you'd know that famed studio Treasure was very closely affiliated with Sega. My predecessor Heidi Kemps has a phenomenal write-up about that, but long story short: Treasure produced a slew of wild and crazy action games for Sega's consoles up until there weren't any Sega consoles left to produce for. Classics like Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, and Alien Soldier are absolute must-plays for anyone who loves hectic side-scrollers. Heck, even their Nintendo output impresses, with the beloved Sin and Punishment on Nintendo 64 (which sadly never came to the United States until years later). But one of their real mega-hits was Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn: an ambitious action-RPG hybrid with up to four-player co-op, fighting game-style controls, experience points, a karma system, and multiple paths and endings—one of which even allowed you to fight against Treasure's most famous boss, Golden Silver. It's a wild ride that takes a slew of typical Dungeons and Dragons-style characters (a wizard, a ninja, a priestess, a fighter, and a knight) and has them charge into battle against waves of soldiers, robots, demons, foppish demonic noblemen and, uh... another wizard. The endings were also far-reaching, allowing you to either obliterate the demonic Netherworld or even invade Heaven.

The real nifty feature in Guardian Heroes was the Undead Hero, a skeletal warrior armed with a sword hell-bent on taking out their revenge on the people who betrayed his kingdom. Players could issue basic commands to the knight, helping them with enemy encounters or just soaking up a few hits for you. The Undead Hero also wound up becoming important in the sequel, Advance Guardian Heroes, wherein players controlled the Undead Hero as they inhabited the body of a nameless soldier in a rebellion during the distant future. Of course, the rebellion featured longtime Guardian Heroes foes as Gray the Wizard and the foppish Zur—and the twist that everything had been orchestrated by Demon, an entity from beyond heaven that sought to create the perfect warriors to serve them. Demon learned all too late why Shocker gave up on that old chestnut 'round the turn of the millennium. Was Advance Guardian Heroes a good sequel? No, not really; you lost the multi-path story and even the alternate endings, the game was ridiculously unbalanced in areas, and even the music was all kinds of worse. Just compare the original game's version of beloved boss theme Rough and Ready with the GameBoy Advance arrangement. I'm not even sure I could call Advance Guardian Heroes a good beat-'em-up RPG... but it sure stuck in my mind and obsesses me even to this day. It's probably the worst game I love to bits, and I'd gladly take a bullet for it.

Will it come back? Yyyyeeeeah, naw.

Treasure is, very sadly, on life support these days. Their last new game was Gaist Crusher God for the Nintendo 3DS. Gaist Crusher was Treasure's attempt at a toys-to-life game, seeing as those were all the rage at the time; you stuck a frame onto your 3DS and could snap on Gaist Crystals that unlocked new in-game weapons or missions. You could even transform the crystals into little rudimentary action figures. Unfortunately, Gaist Crusher was a failure (hence why it was never brought over to the United States); Treasure heavily downsized since then, and has mostly focused on re-releasing their older classics on current hardware. Sure, this means the likes of Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes are readily available on modern hardware—and all the better. And they even re-released Radiant Silvergun on the Nintendo Switch in 2022. But according to Wikipedia, their staff consists of, at most, ten employees. Who knows if they even have the team needed to make a new game, let alone a new Guardian Heroes.

The good news is that there is a stellar remake of Guardian Heroes out there, Guardian Heroes HD. This game not only expanded the game's graphics to fit a 16:9 screen but also allowed for a new "Remix" mode that updates and improves upon your controls, allowing for stuff like air-dashes. It even has online co-op. The bad news is, Guardian Heroes HD was only ever released on the Xbox 360's Xbox Live service, and nowhere else (though it is backwards compatible... on the Xbox One). Your best bet for Guardian Heroes would be a spiritual successor—and thankfully, we have that with Code of Princess, which even boasted some former-Treasure talent amongst its ranks. I sadly didn't find myself enjoying Code of Princess much, but your mileage may vary. That, and I played the 3DS original, not the updated port on Steam. And it's got character designs from Kinu Nishimura, with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek.

3. Bahamut Lagoon (Squaresoft, now Square Enix)

Square released a lot of RPGs that never came to the United States. I can't blame them too much: the SNES era was chockablock with RPG releases from Square, and localizing those titles would've been way more than they could've handled. Consider how long and verbose an RPG like Final Fantasy VI is, and the need to not only release it in English but release it while the SNES is still relevant and not supplanted by the Nintendo Ultra 64. When you factor in how all of the mainline Final Fantasy games on NES and Super Nintendo released roughly within a year of each other in Japan, you understand why Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy V got passed over the first time around. And that's before we consider Square's other RPGs at the time, like the Romancing SaGa series, Live-A-Live, the Mana games, Front Mission... Squaresoft was busy during that era. One of their lesser-known titles at the time was also an ambitious one: Bahamut Lagoon, a strategy RPG in a world of flying castles and dragon armies. Your protagonist leads a resistance group against the Granvelos Empire, with the help of Princess Yoyo. Yoyo is important because she's one of the few remaining people who can control dragons, making her very useful indeed to the Granvelos Empire. What follows is a bit more complicated, character-wise, than you'd expect.

Bahamut Lagoon's mechanics revolved around your clutch of dragons; each one could be associated with a team of characters, with the dragon's stats affecting the team's. The more you fed your dragon, the more their stats improved, granting bonuses to your team. Certain thresholds also granted your Dragon certain elemental spells, which would also be passed down to your team. And if certain stats were just right, dragons could evolve into new and bizarre forms. If you love the bizarre Feyrbrand from Legend of Dragoon, Bahamut Lagoon has way weirder things to raise. It's very easy to bust this system wide open once you know how to farm for the right item, but it's fun—and your dragon's abilities also affect your team's abilities on the map. Fire spells could destroy bridges or set terrain on fire, while ice spells could freeze bodies of water to make temporary walkways. Lots of fun stuff!

Will it come back? Maybe?

Bahamut Lagoon has never had an official release in America, and I doubt the original SNES release is ever going to see the light of day in the United States. But, Live-A-Live managed to not only get a remake, it even managed to get a fancy HD-2D one at that! If there's a game that would look stellar in HD-2D, Bahamut Lagoon is definitely one of them, courtesy of its massive sprites.

Problem is, Live-A-Live's remake was possible because its original director Takashi Tokita still works at Square Enix, and fought for it to happen. Bahamut Lagoon was written by Kazushige Nojima, who is a freelancer these days courtesy of his company, Stellavista. While he still works with Square on several Final Fantasy projects, it's unknown if he has the pull needed to get the ball rolling on a new Bahamut Lagoon. And with Square Enix being even more reluctant than ever to kickstart "smaller projects," that adds extra obstacles for Bahamut Lagoon. Weirder things have happened, so who knows? Maybe this is just a tiny miracle waiting to happen. Maybe Toby Fox will be out drinking with some Japanese developers, mention Bahamut Lagoon off-hand and that'll be the first domino in getting an HD-2D Bahamut Lagoon?

4. Haunting Ground (CAPCOM)

I'm cheating with this one because of a technicality; the PS2 survival-horror cult-classic Haunting Grounds was an original title, and it's never been officially considered or even referred to as a spiritual successor to the Clock Tower games. But people have always thought of it as such, and not for no reason. Sure, it doesn't even have any OG Clock Tower staff, but the themes and pieces are all there: solitary young women exploring gothic mansions and castles as they find themselves enmeshed in horror plots far beyond their reckoning, forced to use their wits and whatever tools they can scrounge together to survive the horrors that cross their paths. The original Clock Towers were more of a puzzle affair, but Haunting Ground was straight-up survival horror: the story of Fiona Belli waking up in a castle after a car crash and escaping the ambitions of a mad alchemist. In what was a weird decision that was coincidentally echoed by the other PS2 survival-horror cult-classic dripping in themes of feminine sexuality, Rule of Rose, Fiona had the help of a cute dog who could help her sniff out items or attack her pursuers. There were even in-game mechanics regarding how well you trained the dog, named Hewie—and how well you treated him, with dark consequences for Fiona if Hewie was particularly mistreated.

While Haunting Ground was dinged a bit during its original release for being a little jank (which is par for the course for a survival horror game, really), it's become a beloved cult classic. Sadly, used copies of the game go for hundreds of dollars. It's a real shame, considering Haunting Ground's great music, gothic tone, and perfect horror flick vibes. All you need is Vincent Price giggling in the background.

Can it come back? I don't know.

The original Clock Tower was recently ported to modern consoles, courtesy of Limited Run Games, so folks have access to the best unofficial video game adaptation of Dario Argento's Phenomena, complete with an off-brand Jennifer Connelly (heck, there's practically a cottage industry in horror games for Jennifer Connelly-esque characters because of it!). But Haunting Ground? Tough to say. It hasn't really been seen since the PS2. Sure, Fiona and Hewie have made cameo appearances in other CAPCOM games, but Breath of Fire fans can tell you all about how that's a cursed existence.

But on the other hand, we're in the middle of a major boom for survival-horror games. Between Silent Hill f and the Silent Hill 2 remake (and that upcoming Silent Hill 1 remake), and the recent successes of the Resident Evil games, horror fans are pretty well-fed. Sure, it would probably cost a good chunk of change, but a brand new Haunting Ground done up in the RE Engine isn't entirely outside of the realm of imagination. It's doable. If CAPCOM doesn't have the old Haunting Ground code lying around (and that'd be a pity, old PS2 survival horror games have a particular aesthetic to them I miss), a sequel or a remake would work just fine. The question is, how much money does CAPCOM want to sink into an old PS2 cult-classic...?

5. Azure Dreams (Konami)

I thought long and hard about this one. At first, I wanted to list Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, a Legend of Zelda spin-off on the Nintendo DS starring Tingle. It even got a sequel, but neither game has been released in the United States because of how thoroughly Americans despise Tingle. Our loss. But I felt like I could go deeper than an obscure Nintendo spin-off. So I considered Alundra, an action-adventure title from Matrix Software about a young man who can enter dreams to help people with their trauma. There's some Landstalker DNA in Alundra, too! But I'd be talking out of my elbows if I went with Alundra—and besides, I was confusing it for another PlayStation game, Azure Dreams! Coming from Konami, Azure Dreams stars a young adventurer who scales a mystery dungeon-styled tower in the name of collecting riches to improve his local town. Along the way, he can also collect items to woo one of seven eligible bachelorettes in town. He can also tame specific monsters he finds in the tower, commanding them to help him fight other monsters as he climbs. It's a unique and very fun setup.

Azure Dreams also had a GameBoy Color port, which even released in America. Featuring the same title, it offered a wider range of monsters to collect while also giving monster battles a unique turn-based approach (inspired by the runaway success of Pokémon, understandably). Both titles had their fans, but for the most part are lost to time; about the most we'd see from the series was its sequel on the Nintendo DS, Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal, which... wasn't very well-received...

Can it come back? *sucks air through teeth*

Go back up there and read the publisher name next to the title—Konami. It's taken Konami this long to make a new Castlevania game, Belmont's Curse—and Castlevania is one of Konami's tentpole franchises. It took this long for Konami to release and port the first two Suikoden games to modern consoles. Sure, Silent Hill is doing pretty well, but that hasn't exactly spread out to Konami's other franchises. Maybe someone at Konami will see reason and port it. Even a PlayStation Classics release would be darn swell. But this one's an obscure title from a not-terribly-popular genre (traditional Rogue-likes), and it's from Konami. Forget tiny miracles; this game needs an actual miracle. But it costs nothing to hope...

Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits:

That will do it for this week. I wasn't able to cover this last week, as it happened far too close to the column's publication to mention, but Venezuela was crippled by a pair of earthquakes on June 24. The damages are considerable; I encourage my readers to offer some manner of support to any charity supporting Venezuelans (I myself made a donation via Doctors Without Borders). In the spirit of global fraternity and goodwill that gaming offers us, I encourage my readers to extend a hand to the people around them. Help can and does come from the most unexpected of places, and sometimes that place can be you. 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.