Promise Mascot Agency with Oli Clarke Smith, Nintendo Osaka, Switch 2 Direct Analysis

[00:00:08] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and gaming culture in Japan's capital. Your host, Mono, here to bring you a slice of gaming life from Tokyo. Today, director from Kaisen Gameworks, Oli Clarke Smith, joins as we're looking at Promise Mascot Agency, the Japanese mascot management open world adventure game. Mascots, K-Trucks, the Japanese countryside working with Ikumi Nakamura, how they got Shuhei Yoshida to do a voiceover.

[00:00:34] We get into everything about this fascinating new title from the creators of Paradise Killer. In the feature, I head back to Osaka to take you inside the city's biggest Nintendo store, Nintendo Osaka. And I break down the good, the bad, and the weird about the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Let's jump into the games with Oli Clarke Smith and Promise Mascot Agency.

[00:01:01] Today in the game section, we're looking at the upcoming Promise Mascot Agency from Kaisen Gameworks of Paradise Killer fame. Joining me to chat all about it is a special guest. So guest, please introduce yourself. Hello, I'm Oli, the game director on Promise Mascot Agency and Paradise Killer. Thanks for coming on the podcast. If you're going to talk about a game, you might as well get the director of the game on the podcast. So let's get right into it. Give us the pitch. What is Promise Mascot Agency?

[00:01:28] Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me on the podcast. I'm a massive fan. Promise Mascot Agency is an open world mascot management crime drama where you play as an exiled GQTA lieutenant who gets exiled to a dying town on the coast of Kyushu in Japan. He is tasked with rebuilding and turning around the fortunes of a bankrupt mascot agency. And in our world, mascots are not people in suits. They're living creatures.

[00:01:53] They all have their own hopes and dreams. And it is an open world RPG where you explore this town and recruit mascots, send them out on jobs, help them when they get in trouble on jobs and help them achieve their dreams and their life goals. And then help revitalize this cursed dying town. Yeah, the game definitely has a really interesting mix of inspirations. You've got Japanese mascot culture. You've got the Yakuza. You've got business management. How did all these ideas come together?

[00:02:21] Did the initial concept start from, we want to make a game about Japanese mascots or what? Our art director, Rachel, pitched it as a, like a Kairosoft game, you know, like the Game Dev Story developer. Like a 2D management game, but we were finishing up on Paradise Killer, an open world game. And we wanted to do something similar to that and build on what we've learned from that. So we wanted to do something bigger and better. And all of us are, you know, we've been to Japan a whole bunch of times and we love going to the country.

[00:02:49] And we wanted to have a game like the Yakuza games where you can do a bit of virtual tourism and hang out in a space. And so we wanted to do a big open world Japanese town. And when we were pitching for it, we hadn't really settled on the story. The story came last. And we had to do a pitch document to send that to people to get funding. And I just put in there, it's, you're an ex-arge Yakuza, just because I needed to send something that day. And then it stuck.

[00:03:15] And then after we finished Paradise Killer, we got an email from the people that are funding the game, Kowloon, saying, would you like to work with Akumi Nakamura? And of course we said yes. And we had almost nothing to send it. And so she helped us develop all of these crazy characters and the setting and different types of mascots. Yeah, the mascot element is really, really interesting. And that's the thing that sticks out most to me. And the ones in Promise Mascot Agency, they remind me more of specifically the Yurukara mascots,

[00:03:43] which are specifically created to promote tourism or businesses. So when developing the game, did the team do a lot of research on these types of mascots? And what were some key takeaways when it came to designing a good Japanese mascot? Yeah, we've spent a lot of time looking at Japanese mascots and how they're used. We watched a lot of videos of mascot fails on YouTube, but there's also some really good videos of people going to the competitions and kind of explaining what's going on.

[00:04:10] There was a YouTuber, only in Japan, they go to these events and explain why mascots are important, what they use to promote, and how they interact with the crowd. So we took a lot of that. In terms of the designs, we did some designs in-house, but a lot of them come from Kumonakumura and her concept artists. They went for weirder mascots, creepy and grotesque, but still cute. So a real life mascot like Kumon is very, very cute and very well known, very lovable and friendly.

[00:04:39] We took like that, but what if it was more creepy? You're providing a home for mascots that have nowhere else to go and need some help. One of our original bits of inspiration was actually a Takashi Miki film, Yakuza Apocalypse, where it's one of his bizarre horror films where Yakuza becomes a vampire. But in that is a blood crazed frog mascot who just arrives partway through the story and starts roundhouse kicking Yakuza. And we saw that that is what we want to do in our game.

[00:05:08] We don't want to do the cute mascots. We want to do the crazy chaotic mascots. Yeah, there's a lot of iconic Japanese mascots. There's, of course, Kumomon from Kumamoto, which you mentioned, who is pretty undeniable, maybe the most famous, at least right now. Some other ones I like, I like Sanomaru from Tochigi, which is a dog. And he has a bowl of ramen on his head. And he has these kind of like potato skewers as like a katana. And maybe one that's similar to the vibes of the one in Promised Mascot Agency,

[00:05:35] but Melon Kuma from Yubari in Hokkaido, which is kind of like a, how would I describe him? Like a snarling, kind of photorealistic grizzly bear. But he has a giant melon as a head. And Yubari is famous for melons. So for me, one of the key elements of a great Yurikara mascot is that it should integrate something about the place it's advertising in its design. Do you have any personal favorite real life Japanese mascots? Melon Kuma is my favorite just because you see such a great reaction from kids.

[00:06:04] Like being scared of the big snarling bear face, but he's still a very cute looking, like his body is still very cute. We really like Chitan. Funny you mentioned Yubari actually, because all they are getting is set in Fukuoka. Well, it's that near Fukuoka on the coast of Kishu. We actually looked at Yubari as an example of an abandoned, well, like a decaying Japanese town. And so that's kind of a nice coincidence. What about from the game? What mascots from Promised Mascot Agency are amongst your favorites?

[00:06:32] You have a system manager of the agency, Pinky, who is, she looks like it. Well, she is a severed Pinky finger. And she is our, you play as a character called Michi, kind of a stoic, he cues a man. But we built these two as like a man's eye act where you have the straight guy and then you have the chaotic comedian. And Pinky is the chaotic part of that. And she is a severed finger with a lot of anger management issues. World has been bad to her. She's suffered a lot in her life, but she's ready to make another go at it.

[00:07:02] And it's cool because at the beginning of the game, Michi has to cut off his finger as penance for the mistake he makes with his Yakuza family. And then he comes to Casamachi, the town where the mascot agency is and meets Pinky. And they form like a new double act. And I really like her, but I also really like one of our most iconic ones is Tofu, the first mascot he recruits, who is a crying block of Tofu.

[00:07:29] And I like him because he was the first one we put into the game. So he has been through everything, all of our takes, our test case for everything. All the hell that we put our mascots through in the mascot battles, he's seen it all and been through the rigor. So I have a close connection to him after all these years. And the game is also set in Kyushu, which is a bit unorthodox for most games set in Japan. So what led to deciding that Kyushu should be the setting for the game? That was driven largely by Kumi and Mai.

[00:07:58] When we approached them to work on it, we didn't have any kind of specification. We kind of assumed that it would be more of an urban setting. But Kyushu suggested a few different places because it's not very often you get a game set in the issue. She suggested a few different parts of towns. And one of the ones that she suggested was a more deserted town because she does a lot of urban exploration and ruin exploration. And there's a lot of good scenery around there. And you can tell a more interesting story.

[00:08:26] And we hadn't really considered that, but it played into everything about this town that is suffering from poverty and depopulation. But you have to make your mascot agency a success there when there's almost no one there. So how do you go about that? And so we have a lot of gameplay where you renovate the town, revitalize the town, help open new businesses, help the townsfolk by doing quests for them and helping them achieve their dreams so that then they can hire your mascots to work at their businesses. And everyone wins.

[00:08:56] We like doing stuff that you wouldn't normally think to do. And so when someone suggested a setting you don't normally see, we said, yep, we'll have that. And in the same way that an agency is based out of an old love hotel. And again, Ikumi provided us a few different options for that, like an abandoned warehouse. But then she also suggested a love hotel and we got that. That is silly enough to work and is a kind of unique part of Japanese culture, which being in the UK, we don't really have a concept of.

[00:09:26] Yeah, it seems like Ikumi Nakamura, she really contributed a lot to the game. And for listeners, if you're not familiar with her, she, of course, worked on Okami, Bayonetta, The Evil Within and now has her own studio. So what was it like working with her for a promised mascot agency? Well, it was hard to believe it happened. We were taking some time off at the end of Paradise Killer. And then we got this email saying, would you like to work with that? And we had a very awkward first meeting because it was meeting one of our heroes. And because, you know, we're huge fans of Bayonetta and Okami and Evil Within.

[00:09:55] And she's such a talent. And she's used to working with a team that has like a dedicated concept artist and has a process being in AAA. But because we are indie, we don't have a concept artist. We just, we're very free and trusting with people that we work with. So we gave her briefest outline of like, we need a main character. We need a mascot assistant. We need his Yakuza boss, who we want to be a lady. And we need these types of mascots. And please just go nuts.

[00:10:24] So she gave us a huge document, a Bible to work from, lots of different pieces of concept art, lots of different options. Rather than dictating anything, she said, here is what I would do, but here are your options. And then we built the game early on in collaboration with her, like what it would end up looking like. And with all the different characters and relationships and personalities and settings and mascots. And, you know, she suggested stuff that we hadn't originally planned for.

[00:10:49] Like she told us about local heroes that some Japanese towns have, which are not mascots in the same way that Yurikara are. But they are costumed heroes that promote safety or promote local interests. And she originally suggested those as mascots, but that wouldn't work for us because they don't have the same proportions. So then a whole new gameplay element came about where we have these local heroes and you can recruit more and convince people to be heroes and get more of this type of fun and silliness into the game. Yeah, Nakamoto, definitely not a bad get.

[00:11:17] Even if she just looks at one piece of concept art, I think that's a great enough contribution. But she seems like she really, really designed and really set the direction for the game in many, many different ways. Yeah, she was also a joy to work with. And for her, it was a big change and like a refreshing change to not have to fit in with any kind of structure or like much direction from us. Whenever we work with someone on the team, we always say, here's the outline of what we want. Here's the kind of thing that we need game-wise.

[00:11:45] And then we just trust people to make something that is meaningful to them that fits in with that. And it's very rare that we say no to anything. With her, especially being early on in the project, she found it quite nice to be able to, like, we wouldn't give her too much direction and we wouldn't say no to very much. And she was very surprised at how quickly we implemented stuff because it didn't have to go through rounds of approval or anything like that. It's just like, yep, we get something. We put it in the game and it was a very cool relationship. Okay, we've gotten into the background of the game, but let's talk about the actual gameplay.

[00:12:14] And like how the concept is a blend of all these different inspirations, the gameplay also seems to have a lot of different mechanics. So walk us through the gameplay loop of Promise Mascot Agency. Okay, so there's a lot in this game. More open world in a K truck, a Japanese truck. And it's a countryside town, so there's a lot of distance to cover. That's where we went with the vehicle. And so you go out into the town and then you recruit mascots by offering them different employment perks and bonuses.

[00:12:43] Then you send them out onto jobs. But to get a job, you need to be able to work job locations and job clients. So you'll go out and meet new NPCs around the town, like the shopping association chairman, a mechanic, a bar owner, and speak to them and convince them to hire your mascots for jobs. And then you choose which mascots to send. Each job has a tie up and you get bonuses if you manage to match them up. And when a mascot goes on a job, there is a chance they'll get into trouble.

[00:13:08] You can send them off with items to help them get out of trouble, like a bento box or a Pocari sweat style drink to help them through troubling times. But when they get into trouble, like they get stuck in a door, they set by the kitchen, they get stalked by YouTubers looking to capture pranks on videos. You play a card game where you send your heroes out and the card game is pretty simple. We needed some conflict and some friction in the game, like a JRPG battle. So you have these cards and they look great with cards and they have different stats.

[00:13:38] And what you're trying to do is combo different cards because the obstacles that the mascots get stuck in are treated like enemies. They have a life bar. So you're trying to do damage to this door that's a bit too narrow for the mascot to get through. So you are tipping away at the health of that door by playing these combos of hero cards. And then when the mascot gets through their trouble, they get rewards. And then you're putting out into the town to meet more people.

[00:14:06] Sometimes you need to take the mascots in the back of your truck to locations. You need to go and help towns by finding occultic notes or fishing for lost items or visiting shrines and cleaning up the shrines that are dotted around the town. And all the while there is this criminal conspiracy going on in the story, which you are trying to unravel and find out the reason behind your exile.

[00:14:31] Since a lot of the gameplay elements are pretty distinct from each other, how did you go about balancing the exploration, battles and management elements? So our goal with the game was not to make like a very hardcore simulation game. The style of the game I was looking to make was what I referred to as like a PS2 hangout game, which is the way I described games that were made by Irem and Acquire in the PS2 era.

[00:14:56] So like Disaster Report, Raw Danger, Way of a Samurai and stuff like Deadly Premonition, which came after PS2 generation, but definitely feels like a PS2 game. Kind of worlds where you can hang out and chill in them and engage with the gameplay at your own pace as much or as little as you want to. Similar to like the Accuser stuff, you can stick to the main quest in those games, but you can engage in lots of side stuff. And we've got plenty of side stuff to do.

[00:15:20] We just wanted a game where you hang out in this town, soak in all the vibes, get engaged with the story and the management aspects of the game. But it's not, you know, a hardcore experience. It is like a fun, local world RPG. And there are failed states, friction and conflict within the game systems, but it is certainly not easy.

[00:15:41] It's not just like a, you know, turn your mind off and choose through the game kind of game, but trying to find that sweet spot of engaging, but not super hardcore in the management. You know, I do enjoy those games, but I played the A-Train games and I really enjoyed digging into all those systems, but that wasn't quite right for the game. We wanted to find the balance between this blend of open world and simulation and story. And it's taken a long time.

[00:16:06] We didn't really understand the complexities of getting into all of this stuff and trying to find that right balance because all of our systems feed into each other. There's no unlinked system. So any collectible feeds into the management simulation. Finding, speaking to people in town, actually find heroes, which helps you out in the management simulation. And then the management simulation changes how the town looks and the different opportunities that are open to you in the town.

[00:16:31] So like finding the right balance on that has taken a load of play testing and a load of iteration, but it's, we've finally got to what I think is quite a nice balance. So how does the battle system work exactly? Do you level up your mascots and they learn new moves or are all the attacks handled through the support cards? So the mascots have a number of stats, like motivation, popularity, and happiness. And when a mascot gets into trouble, those stats, when a mascot is out for a job, it works on a day and night system.

[00:17:01] So like we simulate the passage of time in the game. And so every time a mascot is on the job, it ticks down. And if they get into trouble, then when they are fighting one of these obstacles, the obstacle starts with a life bar and that life bar takes damage based on the mascot stats. So the better your mascot is, the more likely the mascot is to be able to solve the problem themselves. But if they can't, you have this deck of cards representing different heroes.

[00:17:28] Like we have a captain's side, a hero of traffic safety. We have the local teacher that becomes a hero. So we have Otto Nien-Yen who promotes recycling. And you can find multiples of those cards and level them up so that those cards become better. And there are five different types of obstacles, like confidence, environment, trowel, animal, malfunction. And each of those cards has a corresponding stat. And you have a number of actions.

[00:17:56] So you play, each card costs an action to play. But some cards give you more actions and allow you to draw more cards. So you're trying to create these combos of cards. So like early on, you'll be able to get through by playing a combo of two or three cards. But our current record on the dev team is a 38 combo, which we didn't think was possible. And luckily, the UI holds up. We were worried that all the cards would stop breaking and falling off the screen, but they still work.

[00:18:23] So you can get some very big combos going by chaining together these cards. And you need to go and meet these heroes that are on the cards out in the world and enter quests and find them as pickups within the world. Okay, so listeners, 38 is the number to beat. If you get over 38, definitely tweet at Kaizen Gameworks about how much better you are at their game than they are. And you're not really fighting enemies, but more like situations. Like in one of the trailers, one battle revolves around, but a mascot getting stuck in a door.

[00:18:51] And then you use the cards to defeat the door's health bar. So was it tough to come up with different obstacles for the mascots instead of just fighting typical enemies? Or did the idea of mascots trying to overcome something a bit more abstract really unlock a lot of ideas for the dev team? It made things a lot easier. What we knew early on that we had to improve the physical humor of mascots. And so when you look at mascot videos, you always see videos of them tripping up or getting stuck in doors or station turnstiles.

[00:19:20] We wanted to do that. And I think part of what we tried to do with our games is have a level of comedy and humor in them. And it is funny, like going into a battle, we present the battle screen almost like a JRPG or like a fighting screen where it will say tow through versus slightly narrow door. And that is funny seeing that the way it's presented like that. And we do have some more typical enemies.

[00:19:48] There are nightmare mountain spirits attack their mascots. There are creepy stalkers. But there is also stuff where the mascot gets a vending machine too hard because it's not working. And then like bottled tea spews out of them and stuff like that. So it's a good mix of stuff that the mascot messes up at and stuff where people are trying to ruin a mascot's day. And the main method of transportation, like you mentioned, is a beat up K truck. So what led you to decide to include a K truck in the game? And how are the controls?

[00:20:17] Are we talking GTA 4 or Ridge Racer? So the original idea for that was we just love K trucks. We think they look really cool. Our director's goal in life is to have a K truck filled with shibas in the back. And I made a portfolio piece with that of a K truck in the Japanese countryside. So we thought, well, that would be really cool to be able to drive around like that. And foolishly, we thought, well, that will be, you know, we're a small team trying to do this in a sensible amount of time.

[00:20:42] And doing third-person open world exploration is going to cause a lot more problems than doing a vehicle. And we were completely wrong. Like finding the balance of fun and physics on the truck has been a long, long process. But we've got into a really good place. It's funny you mentioned Ridge Racer because my original spec for our program that handled the truck was, I like Ridge Racer, let's make it like Ridge Racer. Where, you know, get sideways around corners very easily.

[00:21:09] And we have an element of that, but that didn't feel right for the truck because it is a beat up old, you know, workman's truck. So we've got a, I think it sits on the right side of Arcady versus realistic, but you still get a feeling of the truck struggling. Like on some of our steeper hills, the islands, the town is built on an island around a big mountain. And there are some very steep roads that the truck does struggle with.

[00:21:36] But like, I think that gives a really good feeling of weight and heft and driving a real vehicle. But there is still a handbrake button and there is still a nitrous boost. And then you can upgrade the truck when you meet the mechanic. You can work with him to upgrade your truck to add wings to it. So you can fly to add a boat function to speed boost and to put a rail gun on the back to fire Pinky. Your assistant out at things in the world to open up new routes through the game. So can you also do like tricks with the truck or anything like that?

[00:22:06] Is this secretly a new Tony Hawk game? That's on our nice to have list, putting a stunt system in. What we do is when you go to reading off the side of the mountain, we do a lot of behind the scenes physics work to make it the best experience possible so that you are not. Like when we didn't do that, you'd throw yourself off the mountain and then you just bounce all over the place. Now we do a lot of corrective physics in the air to help you land and you land on your roof, we flip you over.

[00:22:33] So it feels like you do get that sense of maintaining your line. Like you were doing a Tony Hawk's game where you're trying to get the three different places and you get that. We did want to put in a Tony Hawk style, but certain direction system so that you could do flips. Oh, like a recent, like a dragon games, when you're doing the crazy deliveries on the bikes, there's a simple trick system.

[00:22:59] So we did talk about doing that, but we ran out of time and that would have been a nightmare to integrate with our physics system. Okay. I guess players just have to settle for, oh, your truck turns into an airplane, which I think is a good thing to land on. And yes, GTA six comes out later this year, but I'm pretty sure there's not going to be a K truck in that game. So you've got to play promise mascot agency. If you want to try the K truck in a video game. Oh, we've been so fingers crossed that they were not going to put their game at around the same time as us.

[00:23:28] We'd have just had to delay all sorts of things. Actually, we announced our release date as April 10th, but our original release date was April 2nd. But that is when Nintendo are doing their new switch to direct. So both this and Kaisen Gameworks previous game, Paradise Killer, have an open world structure. What did you learn about open world game design from Paradise Killer that you've implemented into promise mascot agency?

[00:23:49] One of the problems with Paradise Killer's open world is that narratively forced a lot of the characters to be clustered in one half or third of the island. And it was a real struggle to get a good distribution of characters. And I think in some ways it worked out because you get these moments in Paradise Killer speaking to a lot of people and then moments of real quiet and exploration on the other side of the island.

[00:24:13] But with PMA, it was much easier and we did a much better job distributing gameplay around the island. There are still some expansive areas of no one to speak to. So you do get having senses of lowliness and isolation in games, really important. Open world exploration. And so the lessons from PK were generally around the balancing of where things go and the routes between them. Some areas are intentionally confusing to navigate, some are not.

[00:24:41] And so there's been a lot of work on telegraphing and tweaking the landscape after playing Breath of the Wild and seeing stuff that they do. And thinking, oh yeah, these are such obvious lessons about how they use the terrain to guide people to destinations and trying to be a bit more Nintendo-like without thinking around that. What are some general tips you can give to beginners trying out the game? Explore, explore, explore.

[00:25:07] There's a lot out there and there's a lot of people to meet and a lot of people that will help you in your quest to resurrect the mascot agency. We have implemented a feature called Ask Pinky, your assistant that sits in the back of your truck. Because what we didn't want to do is put loads of stuff on your task list without you asking for it. And just be one of those really overbearing open world games. So now you have to relax to ask Pinky for advice.

[00:25:35] Because Mitchie, the character, has come from the big city, Kusa lifestyle, and is now managing a mascot agency in the countryside. And so he doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't know how to run a business. So the game players need to ask Pinky for her advice. And she will point out to you, I think there's a mascot we could recruit over here. I think there's this person that could do some help or this is how we can improve the agency. So don't be shy with that function. Okay, I got to ask you about the voice cast. Because when I saw it on paper, I did a double take because I thought, no way this is true.

[00:26:05] But you do have video evidence. So I guess it is true. So the protagonist of the game, Michi, is voiced by none other than Takeya Kuroda, who is perhaps best known as the voice of Kazuma Kiryu from the Like a Dragon series. So how did he get on board with the project? Well, that was a total surprise to us because we've done Japanese-only voice acting. So we worked with a really good localizer in Japan who did a fantastic job on the localization, but he held auditions for the main characters. And just turned up.

[00:26:34] Because I guess his agent is on the lookout for roles for Yakuza. And he just turned up. And of course, we said yes to that. So we didn't ask him. And it's a different role for him because although he's playing another Yakuza lieutenant, this one is a lot different from Kiryu. With it being set in Kiryu, he had to learn how to speak in Kiryu dialect. Oh, okay. So he had a number of sessions in the recording studio to get that right. And I think he's done a really good job of doing the...

[00:27:03] Well, it's hard for me to say that he's done a good job of playing the dialect because I don't know it. But I'm told that he's done a good job. He's done a really good job of bringing Michi to life in a way that we didn't think was possible. Because we had no idea about how Michi would sound. We didn't know. In our heads, we knew what kind of character he was. But, you know, as soon as you give that to someone else with their interpretation, you never know quite what you're going to get back. And I think he's delivered a stern, stoic Yakuza. Also, like a very friendly guy. Michi doesn't have the permanent frown of Kiryu.

[00:27:33] He's a bit more easygoing and has a lot of different challenges to overcome. And he can't just solve everything with his vests. So there's some different type of Kuroda-san in this. Yeah, it seems like this game has a lot of good fortune. Ikumi Nakamura just showed up. And then Kiryu also just showed up. So a lot of great things are happening. So that's really great to hear. And some other voice actors in the game include Ayano Shibuya, who I know, especially from playing Pura in Zelda. And Swery, who we all know as the director of Deadly Premonition.

[00:28:03] And also Shuhei Yoshida, the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment. And one of the key figures of the PlayStation. So how did this happen? How did Shuhei Yoshida join Promised Nascot Agency as a voice? So just good luck and fortune on our side. He had seen the game previously. We sent it to Sony to look at. And he was having dinner with some of our friends at Cowlain Nights who funded the game. And they said, oh, you should be a voice in the game. And he said, yeah, he'd be interested.

[00:28:31] But then our localizer, Serenisal, used to work with Shuhei at Sony on Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. Shuhei used to be his boss. So that was a very easy email for Rupiakia to write and say, you know, I'm working on this game. I understand you're interested in doing your voice so we can make that happen. And then he plays Monogay, a mascot who wants to open the game center.

[00:28:55] And Monogay is a kind of conjunction of two Japanese words that are supposed to mean weary gamer. And so Shuhei having his mom dreamer in games was the right person to be a game center owner. But he's chasing his dream of doing something new. What do you think the recording session was like? Hey, I know you're one of the most important people in video game history. But could you do another take? He was very nervous, apparently. Very nervous about doing it.

[00:29:21] Because it's not so swearing because they're not used to doing voice recording, voice acting. So they were very nervous about doing it. But Rupiakia is a really good localizing voice director. And then the team at ZenRX in Tokyo did a really good job of directing and coaching people. And again, people having to learn dialects that they're not used to. And I think both of them did a really good job considering it's not their professional talent. They've done a really good job. And I think that's down to the team.

[00:29:50] And also, Ayana Shibuya, he mentioned she plays Pinky, your assistant manager. And I'm biased because I'm working on the game. I genuinely think it's the best performance I've heard in a game. And I want her on stage getting the Jeff Healy Award for best performance. She's got such a range. And she's really funny. Her delivery is really, really funny. Even though she doesn't have a lot of voice acting in Zelda, her voice as Pura is pretty iconic for Zelda fans.

[00:30:18] So I'm definitely looking forward to hearing more from her. So we could just spend the entire episode going through the other voice actors. But are there any other voice actors you want to shout out? Eric Saito is Matriarch and Mazuh, Michi's boss. And she does a really good job of being stern, like the stern boss, but also a very compassionate mother figure to the Yakuza member, her family.

[00:30:42] I'm completely blanking on the name, but Captain Sign is played by a voice actor who played Dark Link in Majora's Mask. Oh, okay. And he plays Captain Signer, a super sentai hero, a tokusatsu-style hero. And he does a fantastic job. Okay, cool. A lot of Zelda connection. More than I expected. But that's really cool to hear.

[00:31:05] Yes, it's wild when we get these list of actors that Rob Hyakki picked back, and then we start doing the IMDB crawl to see who we got. And it's wild seeing everything that they've done. Final question before we wrap up. Let's say you get a phone call, and it's from none other than Masahiro Sakurai. And he wants one character from Promised Massacre Agency in Smash Bros. Who are you picking, and what's their moveset? I'm always impressed with how well that game integrates non-traditional characters.

[00:31:35] Into a fighting game, and it gives them such a complete set of moveset. So I think it would be really fun to have Mitchie and Pinky in the truck. And Mitchie is feared as being, his nickname is the Januxer, because he wields a broom and cleans up his family's problems. So I think you could start with him, but then Pinky keeps coming in as a tag character. And the truck could be called in, and she could be lauded from the truck.

[00:32:00] Like the, because I say we have a railgun where you can fire her around the world to open up new routes. And that's modeled after the Evangelion lift. Oh, okay. So I think that'd be really funny to have her launch in like the special move from Streets of Rage, where the camera pans back and there's a guy in the police car firing a rocket into the scene. You could do something really funny with it. But also have some mechanic where your actions in the game allow you to recruit more mascots.

[00:32:27] So you get to like a larger team, like where the Pokemon trainer and Olimar and Smash have characters with them. So I think you could do something really funny. You know, I would need Sakurai-san to do that for me because his knowledge about game design for Eclipse is nothing. Awesome. Well, stay next to your phone because you never know. Maybe at least a spirit. So I then go from there. That was our look at Promise Mascot Agency.

[00:32:53] Put it on your radar, on your wish list, or if you're listening to this episode past April 10th, you can buy the game now. So, Oli, where can people find you and where can people find the game? You can find the Game Search for Promise Mascot Agency on all platforms. It's coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Switch. And I have to say that the Switch version is really special. It's a full open world Unreal Engine game. And our programmer, Harry, is doing a fantastic job getting it optimized for Switch.

[00:33:23] A year ago, that was a 7 frames a second game. It is now a 30 frames a second game. And you can also find me at Choppermon on Blue Sky. C-H-O-P-E-M-O-N. And Kaisen Gameworks on Blue Sky as well. Kaisen Gameworks is everywhere on all social media. So check out our YouTube. Fantastic. And the links to everything, including the game, are in the podcast description. So listeners, check it out. Oli Clark-Smith, once again, thanks for joining me. Thank you very much for having me. Been a pleasure.

[00:33:58] I know this is Tokyo Game Life, but we're heading to Osaka once again this year to look at Nintendo Osaka, which is Nintendo's huge merch store in the city. I actually have one more Osaka-themed feature coming up as well. It is kind of nice to take a weekend trip and then, well, you've got three new episodes worth of content just from that one weekend. Now, I went to Osaka primarily to visit Donkey Kong Country, which has been featured now on two different episodes. And I actually wasn't even sure if I can make it to Nintendo Osaka at all.

[00:34:25] It really was a get in, go to Universal, then get out type of trip. When we got to Osaka, we had a little bit of time to kill and my wife wanted to go to Dotonbori, one of the most iconic hotspots in the city. Also, it is in Yakuza 0 if you played that. Now, Nintendo Osaka, not near Dotonbori, so I couldn't just swing by. Then I went to Universal and did that. But right before we headed back to Tokyo, we had a few hours to kill near Osaka Station before we headed back to Tokyo. And what's at Osaka Station? Nintendo Osaka.

[00:34:56] Specifically in the Daimaru Umeda store, which is right between Osaka and Umeda Station. Osaka Station is one of those super stations where technically it's like three completely different stations that all merge into one. It's almost like a mini city. You've got Osaka Station, Umeda Station, and Osaka Umeda Station. Don't get it mixed up. And this department store has a lot of notable hotspots beyond Nintendo Osaka, like a Pokemon Center, a One Piece store, and a Capcom store with a cafe. But for me, Nintendo Osaka is number one on that list.

[00:35:26] This was Nintendo's second big merch shop they opened up in Japan these past few years. Nintendo Tokyo opened up in November of 2019, and Osaka was a few years after that in late 2022. Nintendo Kyoto followed up a year later in 2023. And yes, with this segment, I have officially covered every official Nintendo shop in Japan on this podcast. Hooray! Though, I will probably cover Nintendo Tokyo again, because why not? And when you enter Nintendo Osaka, you'll definitely think, hey, this looks a lot like Nintendo

[00:35:56] Tokyo. And it's very clearly modeled after the Tokyo location, but there are a few interesting differences. For one, it's much larger than Nintendo Tokyo. Tokyo is 300 square meters. Kyoto is 740 square meters. And what's the size of Nintendo Osaka? You have about one second to guess before I tell the answer. And that answer is, Nintendo Osaka is 8, count them, 800 square meters.

[00:36:21] So it is the biggest Nintendo store of the three, almost triple the size of Nintendo Tokyo. Now, it's still crowded, but it's a crowd you can navigate through, unlike at Nintendo Tokyo, where you can be legit shoulder to shoulder at times. The entrance has a big red pillar at the front with the Nintendo Osaka t-shirts proudly on display. Nintendo Tokyo also has this type of pillar, but it's more to the side, while in Osaka, it's front and center. Now, the t-shirts do have Nintendo Osaka written on them.

[00:36:49] So if you want some exclusive merch that you can only buy here, the t-shirts are it. I've never bought one of these tour shirts because they are pretty expensive, like $60 or $70. But now I kind of regret not buying them since I've now visited all three stores. Do you have any idea the number of people I could impress by wearing a Nintendo Osaka t-shirt, only to follow it up with a Nintendo Kyoto t-shirt the next day? And behind the red pillar is where they have a lot of the newest merch they want to highlight. In this case, the new Hanafuda themed merchandise.

[00:37:17] I picked up a shirt and got some memo pads for my wife, but as a whole, I absolutely love this line of merch. You can't go wrong with anything here, but the shirt especially is killer because it has a great stitching of Napoleon Mario on the pocket. Like Nintendo Tokyo, each Nintendo series has their own little merch area, with Pikmin being in the middle. The Pikmin statues actually debuted first here, and then they added them to the Nintendo Tokyo location. All the other statues you see here are at Nintendo Tokyo too, along with some merch beneath the pedestal.

[00:37:47] I will say that Inkling didn't have a whole lot of merch under her compared to the Tokyo location. Maybe Tokyoites are bigger Splatoon heads? The Isabel statue merch layout is kind of funny because it's just houseware items like an electric kettle and a tumbler. There's even a basket of fake oranges for ambiance. And since this store is much bigger than Nintendo Tokyo, I have to believe that stuff is in stock for typically a longer period of time because they have more room. I saw the Emeo merch on display here, and there was even a Labo display right next to the NSO controllers.

[00:38:15] Yes, Nintendo Labo is alive and well in 2025. How many new Labo kits do you think were sold in 2025? Over or under 1,000? The great thing about all these merch displays is that the aisles are bigger than one person wide. You can actually walk in a 3D space. The only really jam-packed area was the line for the register, but otherwise it was much easier to navigate than the Tokyo store. Another distinct element of the Osaka location is that there is a lot of wall space.

[00:38:41] Since there's one main entrance as opposed to two entrances, like in Tokyo, they have more spaces to put merch. A lot of the new DK stuff was placed prominently on the wall shelves next to the Mario merch, which I think is a little more eye-catching and it makes it seem like these are important items. On the right wall, there are these unique clothing display sections. Inside the wall, there's like a hollowed out cube with shirts on torso mannequins. They're quite high up, so they really stand out and they make you want to get a closer look. And is there an Amiibo wall? Yes.

[00:39:11] Although it is smaller than the one in Nintendo Kyoto. It is kind of tucked away in the back of the store, where there's actually kind of like a little, not alcove, but like a small extension from the left wall near the register. It's very easy to miss unless you're right next to the register, and this is where they also have a huge display for whatever new Nintendo game they're showing off. In this case, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. At Nintendo Tokyo, this huge display is at the back entrance, and typically it's well decorated with a lot of related merch, but in Osaka, this section is more of an afterthought.

[00:39:41] And just like Nintendo Tokyo, the Osaka store has a big statue of Pixel Mario jumping out of a pipe. While the Tokyo one is outside, this one is right next to the store, so you can get an easy photo op with the Mario statue and the Nintendo Osaka signage. The Osaka store is kind of the middle child in a lot of ways. It mimics the Tokyo location and doesn't have the visual splendor that you find in the Kyoto location. The Kyoto store is just much more unique in terms of layout and photo ops, like the flag Mario statue.

[00:40:08] The Osaka store is very much a clone, but just bigger, albeit the walls do have some more eye-catching displays. You might be asking, well, if Nintendo Osaka is just like Nintendo Tokyo, but bigger, doesn't that make it better? I mean, technically, yes, but I do think that the statue layout in Tokyo is superior, since they all are kind of close together, while in Osaka they're pretty spread out, and the merch display under each statue is a bit richer in Tokyo. Plus, the new game display area in Tokyo is much more visually striking.

[00:40:37] So, ironically, all stores have their own strengths and weaknesses. It is funny to think about which one would be your favorite, since they all sell the exact same stuff, but the Osaka store does have a lot of deja vu if you've been to the Tokyo location. But if you're near Osaka station, for whatever reason, and you're a Nintendo fan, I mean, you gotta go. Like I said earlier, this floor has a small Capcom shop, and yes, a Pokemon Center. For whatever reason, it was unbelievably crowded in the Pokemon Center. There was even a line to get into the store, so I had to skip it.

[00:41:07] Always next time, though. It does feel like starting with the Kyoto shop, they want to make future Nintendo shops really different from each other. And speaking of that, they did announce that Nintendo San Francisco is opening up soon, and I wonder if that's going to be a clone of the Tokyo and Osaka locations. I'm not going to cover Nintendo San Francisco on the podcast, sorry, but you gotta think they're going to open up another Nintendo store in Japan eventually. I mean, Sapporo, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Hiroshima, all very likely candidates.

[00:41:36] I think any place that has a full-blown Pokemon Center could also support a Nintendo store. Somehow, someway, I'll cover them all. Please look forward to my Nintendo Wakayama episode. All right, that's all for the feature. Let's get into the news and the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. There's probably some Tokyo-related things I can talk about, like a new India event or whatever, but let's just focus on the Nintendo Directs.

[00:42:05] There was a Switch 1 Focus Direct that I'm going to just blaze through. Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life Living the Dream, awesome. Awesome inclusions to the Switch library. I think I've predicted Tomodachi Life is coming to Switch every single Direct for the past five years. And it makes sense because the 3DS game sold seven million copies. It always felt to me like Nintendo was sitting on what's secretly one of their best performing franchises for just no reason. But now we have it coming out in... 2026. Both of them.

[00:42:33] I mean, if it's not ready, it's not ready. And as we'll see with the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo has a lot of other games they want you to think about this year. Oh, and Marvel Cosmic Invasion from Tribute Games, who worked on Shredder's Revenge, that looks fantastic. I wanted them to do either a Simpsons or an X-Men game next, and this is at least X-Men adjacent. Okay, Switch 2 Direct. It's finally here. And did it live up to expectations? Sort of. There are a lot of games I want to play, both from first parties and third parties, and

[00:43:02] the tech is very impressive and honestly better than I expected. After the Direct, NVIDIA confirmed that it has ray tracing, DLSS, and variable refresh rate. So this is a beefy console. The performance upgrades to Switch 1 games are definitely immediately noticeable, and they have me excited to check out old games and what are now, I guess, cross-gen games. However, I do wish we got more from EPD teams. The game pricing is surprising, and it has a very stressful pre-order system, especially for Japan, which I would definitely get into.

[00:43:31] June 5th, $450 US or 49,980 yen. Though there is an even more expensive version of Switch 2 in Japan that I'll save for later. The price was pretty much what I expected. I always thought $400 was a bit too good to be true. And when you see the tech capabilities of Switch 2, you understand why this thing is priced the way it is. The date is a bit earlier than I expected, so that was a nice surprise, but it is an unorthodox summer release for our console, which might help it be plentiful this holiday season.

[00:44:00] We got a lot of info about the hardware, although Nvidia told us even more later on, but the screen supports 1080p HDR and can render at 120Hz, which was much higher than I expected. The dock also supports 4K output, which seemed obvious, but there were some late rumors that said Switch 2 dev kits couldn't output 4K, and that turned out to be nothing. While we didn't get that many details about what's under the hood, the games spoke for themselves as both first-party and third-party titles looked absolutely stunning and a significant

[00:44:28] upgrade from Switch 1 visuals. Ironically, they never touched on DLSS at all, but like I said, Nvidia did talk about it later on. But again, we saw a lot of titles that ran incredibly well, so Nvidia's secret sauce is probably the reason why. Another hardware surprise was support for 3D audio, and I hope Nintendo takes advantage of this with a lot of their first-party games, especially with Mario Kart. It also has more storage, which is fine, but also who cares because you do need to really buy an SD card.

[00:44:55] And this time, Switch 2 only supports micro SD Express cards up to 2 terabytes, so buy one of those now. I'm not a tech head, so I cannot tell you whether the Switch 2 hardware is what it should be, but Nintendo did a great job in presenting the power of the hardware in practical ways, i.e. highlighting some features that are very easy to show off and having visually stunning games. And I think the information Nvidia shared later on gave us a lot of perspective about how powerful the console really is.

[00:45:20] Two of the bigger hardware functions they highlighted was the mythical C button and the mouse controls. Ironically, I thought they would lean way harder into the mouse controls than they did. They really did just treat it as an option as opposed to one of the main ways you'll be interacting with the system. They spent far more time on the C button, which launches the game chat feature. I don't know why it's not the G button, but it is Nintendo's answer to Discord. You can join a group and chat and screen share with others, albeit the screen sharing is

[00:45:48] maybe at 15 frames per second, if that. Game chat also supports a camera, which is not like a Game Boy camera type of capsule that you plug into the top, but more like a stand that you put on a table. There's even an option to have a very streamer-esque setup where it shows you in front of your screen and then everybody can see you. I mean, let's not pretend this is anything new. Xbox and Sony have been doing party chat for what, 15 years now? But the feature set is pretty robust and it is what you want. And some things like being able to screen share while you are in completely different

[00:46:17] games is kind of interesting. And I think kids would get a kick out of being able to stream themselves in front of their game with their friends with minimal setup. Now, I'm curious about how you actually initiate this on the console. Who makes the room? Can you send invites? Can non-friends join? Do we still have friend codes? A lot of questions, but this is a big new feature that Switch 1 doesn't have that promotes multiplayer, something Nintendo leaned on heavily in this direct. They also showed off Game Share, where other people can play the same game even if they don't have the cart.

[00:46:46] So we are back to the DS download play days. That thing really was ahead of its time. This is going to be just so useful for families and get-togethers, and it's not a feature that will move units, but I'm glad it's included. Okay, going back to the mouse feature, this was easily my most anticipated explanation. But they didn't get too deep into it. They just said, yes, you can use it as a mouse. They did indeed show off the dual mouses, and there's even a game that's entirely about that that I'll touch on later, and we saw some third-party titles utilize the mouse,

[00:47:15] and even some first-party ones as well, like Metroid Prime 4. But it is framed as being something that you can do, not something that you should do. And they still never showed off or explained how you're supposed to use it when you're on the couch. I guess you really do need to just rub it on your leg, or always play near a table. There are definitely a lot of games that would benefit from mouse controls, though. I think once people actually play Prime 4 with the mouse, it will click with a lot of folks. Mouse, click, did you get it?

[00:47:42] So when it comes to hardware, the most impressive element really was that it's just so much more powerful, and games run so much more smoother. But I am still hoping that the mouse becomes the Dark Horse amazing feature of the Switch 2. All right, let's get into the games. I was expecting a lot, and once you sit down and look at all the releases, Nintendo was still on track with their philosophy of trying to release one Nintendo-published game a month. But many of the titles they revealed were pretty out of left field, and some obvious inclusions didn't show up at all.

[00:48:09] But the biggest game of the Direct, perhaps of the Switch 2's life, Mario Kart World. As expected, it's basically an open-world Mario Kart where you can pretty much drive anywhere, with the courses seamlessly built into the world. You can still do cups and Grand Prixs, but they're all grouped together and connected, which is really impressive. So once you finish a race, you drive to the next course, and then you get a rolling start to begin the race. I love this idea, as it's so visually different from the traditional start of a Mario Kart race.

[00:48:36] And speaking of visuals, everything looks fantastic, with more dynamic lighting and incredibly detailed karts and character designs. And we get a lot of new characters here. I think Nintendo Kart is officially on ice, but instead they dug deep to give us a ton of weird characters and racers. There's Nabbit, Goomba, Pokey, Fishbone, the Moo Moo Cow, who was the all-star of the Direct, Cattaquack from Mario Sunshine, who will be my main, Sigby, Peepa, Dolphin, and many, many more.

[00:49:04] There's about 50 confirmed racers, and that's probably not even all of them. Let's get crazy, though. I want to see Gooigi. I want to see Blarg. I want to see the Jason Mask enemy from Super Mario Land 2. As for the new features, we see Tony Hawk-style grinding on rails and even wall jumping. And as we saw in the Treehouse, the grinding on rails actually gives you a boost, and you can actually grind in places you wouldn't expect, like the edge of a track. I think this is a really incredible addition to Mario Kart, and it really opens up the different routes and different methods you can use in a single race.

[00:49:32] We also see kart transformations, like some sprout wings as opposed to using a glider, and Nintendo did confirm that no gliders were in the game. And there were some karts that were just straight-up boats. And that's another confirmation from Treehouse, which I did watch a little bit about. I didn't watch all of it, so I won't get into the nitty-gritty about all those details. But we now know that kart customization is gone in terms of choosing your wheels or choosing the glider, and instead it's just one kart. I think this is really great as it opens up for a lot of weird and wacky vehicles. We saw bikes, we saw ATVs, we saw boats.

[00:50:02] The Moo Moo Cow is riding on what looks like a boombox with wheels. So we definitely have a lot of diversity when it comes to the types of vehicles we can drive. Another feature that stuck out to me was that Mario ate a big burger and then his costume changed. We saw a lot of costumes for the human characters, but I'm still unsure if this is a power-up or just a cosmetic that's unlocked or what. Also, what about the monsters? Are there Goomba cosmetics? Can I be a blue Goomba? But all will be answered in the Mario Kart World Direct that happens on April 17th.

[00:50:31] Many asked, where do you go from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with its 96 courses? Well, Nintendo absolutely figured it out, and I'm excited to get my hands on this thing. Every now and then you just see a game and think, well, that's 100 hours of my life right there. So that was a brand new spanking game, but then Nintendo was like, hey, how about old games? Enter Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Games, enhanced versions of Switch 1 titles. There are basically two tiers, visual enhancements like the Zeldas, where you can now play them at higher resolution and frame rate,

[00:51:00] and DLC upgrade packs. Both are paid, but the visual upgrades are free if you have the expansion pack tier of NSO, something I predicted quite a while ago. And man, Zelda looks good. Just seeing Link on that horse for about three seconds sold me on this concept. I'm still missing about 700 Korok seeds in Tears of the Kingdom, so I might as well get them in 60 frames per second. We also saw enhancements to Prime 4, which uses mouse controls and offers performance in graphics mode,

[00:51:27] but both support at least 60 frames per second, which is fantastic. We even saw Pokemon Legends ZA, shockingly, running at 60 frames per second. Switch 1 Prime 4 to Switch 2 Prime 4? Yeah, that's an enhancement. But Switch 2 version of ZA just looks so much better than the Switch 1 version. It truly is crazy. Maybe because the bar for the Switch 1 version is at the floor, so even PS3 level enhancements are just blowing my mind.

[00:51:53] It gave me some modicum of hope that Gen 10 on Switch 2 won't be a technical disaster. They also said that other games will get enhancements, including Scarlet and Violet. So yeah, I want to see what that looks like. What I didn't predict were upgrade packs that are basically bundled with new DLC. Super Mario Party Jamboree and Kirby and the Forgotten Land are getting brand new DLC content exclusive to the Switch 2 versions. This was honestly kind of shocking and a little disappointing. I mean, why is HAL still working on the Forgotten Land?

[00:52:21] Though maybe this is a smaller team inside of HAL because perhaps they're working on a different game. But I don't really want any of Nintendo's partners spending so much time trying to beef up Switch 1 games when they should be working on brand new Switch 2 titles. The Mario Party expansion, Jamboree TV, does utilize a lot of the Switch 2's features though, including the mouse controls and a clever use of the camera where all the players are embedded into the game in fun ways. I mean, this doesn't look bad at all. They put a lot of effort into it and there's plenty of new stuff.

[00:52:49] But still, why isn't it all hands on deck for a brand new title? I don't know how exciting DLC packs for games for the prior console generation are to the average person. I mean, I love Forgotten Land, but I don't know if I'm dying to jump into Star-Crossed World, the new expansion pack. I have to think more Switch 1 games are getting content. Probably not some of the older ones, but Kirby is from 2022, so I think anything after that is game. Pikmin 4 DLC has to be coming. And again, that will probably be good, but I want Pikmin 5 instead.

[00:53:18] With the rising cost of game development and the time commitment, I do get that Nintendo perhaps sees value in putting out something, even if it's small, even if it's an addendum to an old game, to keep their new releases flowing. But I wanted to see more brand new titles during this showcase. But perhaps I just monkey-pod myself because we did see a brand new game, Dragon Drive, a wheelchair basketball game that utilizes the dual mouse controls. Yes, wheelchair basketball. Murderball, they call it. I really wanted to see a game utilize the dual mouse configuration,

[00:53:48] and well, I got what I wanted, I guess. But this game looks pretty slow and bland. Have you ever seen wheelchair basketball? Like real wheelchair basketball? It's actually pretty exciting and intense. Maybe it plays better than it looks, and the dual mouse setup might contribute greatly to it being fun, but it feels very much like a, quote, launch title-esque announcement. Parentheses bad. Also, I can't imagine this is from an EPD team. I would be shocked if it was. To me, this feels like Snipperclips,

[00:54:17] a Western indie title that Nintendo found and is going to publish. Oh, and another brand new title, Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, which is an interactive display or exhibit where you are on the Switch 2 Joy-Cons, and you walk around, learn about the Switch 2's hardware feature, and play some minigames. I like the miniature visual style, and it is a quintessential weird thing for Nintendo to put out. But shockingly, this is a paid digital title. It's 990 yen in Japan, so I imagine it's about 10 bucks in America, which doesn't sound like a lot, but, like, Bellatro is 15 bucks.

[00:54:47] And this game isn't slightly worse than Bellatro. It should really be pre-installed on Switch 2, but Nintendo is very hesitant about giving away games for free. You need a pandemic before they do something like that. I am a little curious about getting it due to the sheer audacity of charging for this thing, but I can't imagine reviews will be kind to it. Will this be the lowest-rated first-party game on Switch 2 on Metacritic? I mean, maybe. On the NSO front, GameCube NSO is finally coming. This has been rumored for a long time, but it's here.

[00:55:16] Wind Waker, Soul Calibur 2, and FCOGX will be there at launch. Soul Calibur 2 is the most exciting one for me. I wanted Namco to put out a classic Soul Calibur collection, but I will just settle for this. We also saw some upcoming titles, including some very expensive and rare titles like Pokemon XD and Chibi-Robo. So they are definitely digging deep with the GameCube catalog. But I have to think this might be the nail in the coffin for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD. Now, let's look at some third-party titles, of which there were a lot. And by third-party titles,

[00:55:46] I mean mostly old, old ports, but a lot of beloved games, and we do have some new games confirmed as well. Elden Ring was shown off first, perhaps the most softball guests for a third-party title. No Night Train though, I have to imagine that will come later. Now, I have a PS5, but I don't get to play it that often due to my living situation, so it's hard for me to sit down and dedicate a lot of time to a game I can only play on my TV. So while a lot of these games are titles people have played, I am excited that they are finally on a handheld, and I have an option to go back and forth

[00:56:14] between the TV and the handheld option. Street Fighter VI, with the first two batches of characters, awesome. Definitely picking it up. Kunitsugami, this was one of those titles that came out last year where I thought, okay, this has to come to Switch 2, so I'm just going to wait. We also saw Final Fantasy VII Remake and Cyberpunk, two huge games, two heavy hitters, and Cyberpunk is at launch. Hitsman, awesome game that I won't double dip on because I don't want to have to unlock everything again, but to have this on the go is pretty insane.

[00:56:44] And IOI even teased that their 007 project is coming to Switch 2, which is absolutely amazing. This type of a release really makes you realize that devs are targeting Switch 2 for day one games in the AAA space. Deltarune chapter 1 and 4, day one. I'm not sure if this is the whole game, is there a chapter 5? But whatever, it's coming. Hades 2, Enter the Gungeon 2, big indies are coming. We even saw two seconds of Silksong. Actually, let me just burn through the day one game lineup here.

[00:57:13] Here's what's available on Switch 2, day one. Mario Kart World, Switch 2 Welcome Tour, Street Fighter 6, Split Fiction, Hogwarts, Hitman, Bravely Default HD, Yakuza 0, Deltarune, Civ 7, Survival Kids from Konami, so that series is coming back. Cyberpunk, Kunitsugami, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 for some reason, Rune Factory, Nobunaga's Ambition Awakening, Fast Fusion, Fortnite, Ridge Racer Arcade, that's cool, and the GCN titles, Wind Waker, Soul Calibur 2,

[00:57:43] and F-Zero GX. That's all day one. Now, you might be thinking, well, there's like one real new game there, and that's true, but I do think Mario Kart is meaty enough to satiate most people for launch. And not everyone has played Cyberpunk or Street Fighter 6 or Kunitsugami. I'm sure there are tens of millions of Switch owners that only play on Switch, and there's weirdos like me who have a PS5 but would prefer to play titles on Switch. On day one, there's definitely a ton to check out, and DK, which I'll get to soon, isn't too far away.

[00:58:12] There were two more big third-party inclusions. Koei Tecmo is back to bring us Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, a Tears of the Kingdom themed Warriors game. Look, these aren't for me, but KT cranks them out, they sell a million copies, and then they turn a profit. I'm just waiting for Xenoblade Warriors, because that seems like the most obvious game ever. And the last third-party game was perhaps the most shocking title in the entire Direct, the awkwardly named The Dusk Bloods, a new From Software title

[00:58:41] directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2. So they pulled a Bloodborne, and this game is very Bloodborne adjacent as it looks like it takes place in kind of a steampunk Victorian England setting. Also, there are vampires and dinosaurs. It's described as a multiplayer-focused PvPVE game. What does that mean? I don't know, and they didn't really explain it. But they showed off a lot of characters that might be playable. So it could be like Night Reign, where you pick a pre-made character with special abilities

[00:59:11] as opposed to building out your own character. But man, what a gift for Nintendo. It's absolutely a system mover for a specific type of gamer. I was kind of worried that it would just be some weird multiplayer spinoff, a novelty, but it's directed by Miyazaki. This isn't being farmed off to another smaller team inside From Software. It's the next Miyazaki game. Not Elden Ring 2. This. It's dated for 2026, so pretty far away, but expected in many, many directs until then. Kirby, not content with having DLC

[00:59:41] in his three-year-old game, is back with Kirby Air Riders and is directed by Masahiro Sakurai. Wow is all I can say. To go back to this game after so long, he must have a good idea for the follow-up. Very strange to have two big racing games in what's going to be a six-month span, so I wonder what Sakurai has up his sleeve to really make this game stand out when Mario Kart is also right there. It does beg the question, what's going on with Smash Bros.? Are we getting a new Smash Bros. from a different director? Is it actually a game

[01:00:11] that hits, say, year four of the Switch 2's life? Will it be doomed to be a Nintendo Switch 2 edition title? I definitely assumed that Sakurai was working on Smash and not this. But this means that Air Riders and the next Smash will go in some very unexpected directions. And Sakurai did confirm that Bandai Namco is working on it, the developers of Smash Ultimate, so yeah, what's going on with Smash? It would be funny if HAL is secretly working on Smash though. Last game showed in the Direct, a brand new 3D Donkey Kong

[01:00:39] platformer action game, Donkey Kong Bonanza. This has to be from EPD-8, the 3D Mario team here in Tokyo. This was rumored for a long time and it's finally here. But a new 3D DK before a 3D Mario? I didn't expect that at all. But this is a completely new direction for Donkey Kong. He has his new, more expressive, cartoony look and he's out of the jungle and in... the mines? Or a variety of rocky, treacherous environments. They seem like the surface of an alien planet, but the official site says

[01:01:09] that DK is exploring the underground world, so maybe it's a journey to the center of the Earth type of concept. It just looks so different from the other country games and even Mario. It's this very colorful but also kind of harsh environment. DK is incredibly agile as he can jump, climb up walls, and roll, but the main gimmick seems to be destructible environments. DK can dig into the ground, punch through walls, pick up rocks, and crash them into each other. He's literally out here busting down mountains. Particle effects galore, move over Astrobot.

[01:01:38] This is such a creative take on the DK formula. I mean, he's got pants now. Pants! The destructible environments and world manipulation does kind of remind me of Tears of the Kingdom a little bit. In that game, you have infinite freedom when it comes to navigating and interacting with the world, and Bonanza lets you literally shape the world in interesting ways. It's far more action-focused than your typical Mario as well. We don't get a good feel of his attack moves. I mean, it is a lot of punching, but he can also pick up parts of the world and swing them around like weapons. There was one enemy

[01:02:08] where he punched off his body and then punched the skeleton. Awesome. It really does feel like DK is the Incredible Hulk, where you can just destroy anything in your path. But I imagine it won't just be mindless and there will be a lot of exploration, platforming challenges, and maybe even some puzzles. It hits in July, just six weeks after Switch 2's debut. And it honestly looks like a legit Game of the Year contender. I love how they refresh DK in such a big way. Now, I was definitely expecting more from EPD. I wanted to see Animal Crossing or Splatoon

[01:02:37] or even a tease for 3D Zelda. I didn't expect them to be released this year, but I did want to see a little tease at least for 2026 games. And we didn't get any of that. Let's run through EPD real fast. One and two are really just support studios and not the lead. Three is Zelda, which don't have anything unless they are working on the Switch 2 editions of the old games. EPD 4, maybe they are working on Welcome Tour, but apparently they may be behind the Playtest game, which didn't show up here. EPD 5, no Animal Crossing or Splatoon.

[01:03:06] Six is support. Seven is likely working on Rhythm Heaven and or Tomodachi Life. EPD 8, probably DK. EPD 9 is Mario Kart and EPD 10, who was behind Pikmin and 2D Mario. They weren't present here. So yeah, a lot of EPD teams are accounted for, but it's been so long since we've had an EPD title that I kind of expected more. But it's pretty obvious that they really only wanted to focus on 2025 titles. And we have a pretty good picture about what to expect for the rest of 2025 for the Nintendo Switch 2.

[01:03:34] Here's a theoretical calendar. June, Mario Kart and Welcome Tour. July, DK and Jamboree TV. August, Kirby Starcrossed World. September, Air Riders. October, Prime 4. November, Pokemon Legends ZA. December, Hyrule Warriors 3. So a mix of new games, DLC, and cross-gen games, which I think is a pretty typical launch window. And keep in mind, this isn't even the first year, but the first six months. Kind of an eclectic

[01:04:04] lineup of games, not something you'd expect Nintendo to lead with, but there's a lot of exciting games on the horizon and in 2026, anything goes. Now, the big thing that's very specific to Japan is that Japan actually has two different Switch 2s. There's a Japanese-only one and a multi-language Switch 2. The Japanese-language one does not let you choose language options and you can only link Japanese Nintendo accounts to it. The multi-language Switch 2 is the same as all international versions where there's no restrictions when it comes to linking Nintendo accounts. Now,

[01:04:34] why is Japan doing this? Scalpers, plain and simple. They saw that PS5s were being scalped to an absurd degree and being sold overseas, particularly China, due to the favorable weak yen. You literally didn't see a PS5 in stores until years after it launched here in Japan and there were many stories and pictures of people with huge hordes of PS5s that were being resold. Nintendo doesn't want this type of story to be associated with Switch 2, so they did a very unorthodox, though likely effective, way to combat this. Since the Japanese only Switch 2 prevents account linkage

[01:05:03] from other regions, there's no reason to resell it outside of Japan. But wouldn't scalpers just pick up a multi-language Switch 2 instead? Well, this Switch 2 is only being sold on the Japanese My Nintendo online store, so not in retail stores at all. And there are many restrictions when it comes to pre-ordering it. For one, you need a Japanese My Nintendo account. Also, you need to be an NSO subscriber for over a year and you need to have over 50 hours of playtime on your account, not counting free games. Only then are you allowed to enter a lottery

[01:05:33] and if you are selected, you have the tremendous honor of buying a Switch 2. Oh, and also, this Switch 2 is priced at 70,000 yen, so 20,000 yen more than the typical Japanese-only version. So, a lot of obstacles if you want to switch in Japan where you can connect your non-Japanese account. Now, the amount of people in Japan who have and are actively using a non-Japanese Nintendo account probably pretty small, like less than 0.1%. However, I do fall under this umbrella. Pretty much every foreigner in Japan who play Switch

[01:06:03] likely uses their US or foreign account since that's probably what they used before moving to Japan. I have a US account which I made before I moved to Japan and a Japanese account. I really only use the Japanese account to access the Japanese eShop or to redeem download cards, but I use the US account to actually play my games and access the US eShop. Sometimes games are cheaper at one store than the other and especially for Western indies it can take a long time for them to hit Japan so I buy them via the US eShop. So, I have a very unique situation yet this anti-scalper method

[01:06:32] specifically inconveniences people like me. And not just foreigners either. I've seen comments online from Japanese people who said they play games in English to study English or use eShops from other countries to access certain versions of games that aren't sold in Japan. But I can't argue with the results. Switch 2s in Japan? Will they be scalped? Yes, but probably at a significantly lower rate than PS5s were. And I have to imagine that the amount of people applying to buy a multi-language switch through my Nintendo are incredibly small and are likely people who actually want it.

[01:07:03] I mean, how much profit are you making if you flip it? It's a tremendous amount of effort to maybe get a few thousand yen more. But of course, I'm very nervous about pre-ordering one here since I only have one avenue in Japan to get an international switch. You might think, just get a Japan-only switch, but all my save data is on my US account. I also want to access the US eShop and Pokemon Home is connected to my US account, so I need to save my Pokemon. And if I don't get picked via the lottery, well, I have no idea how I can possibly buy one in Japan. They might lighten

[01:07:32] the restrictions eventually, but we could be talking months. So it would likely be easier to get a switch from overseas than ship it to Japan. I already did the registration thing for the US, and I'll try to reserve one online once the US reservations open up. If I can't get one through the Japan lottery, importing one from overseas may be the way to go. This very convoluted situation that weirdly specifically affects me kind of puts a damper on the whole Switch 2 launch. I've already come to terms that I'm not getting it launch day and I can wait a few weeks, but waiting months is a bit too much.

[01:08:02] Hopefully it all works out, but it is a bit of unneeded stress. But don't worry when it comes to the podcast, even if I'm not playing Mario Kart or Donkey Kong, I will find somebody who is and they will come on the podcast near the launch date. So don't worry. Many, many great Nintendo Switch 2 focused episodes are coming in the future. Well, to wrap it up, Switch 2 Direct, it paints a pretty solid if unorthodox picture for the first six months of the console's lifespan. I'm really excited to see just the sheer amount of third-party games hitting the console, and I expect a lot more day-and-date AAA games hitting Switch 2.

[01:08:33] On the Nintendo front, Mario Kart and DK look like Game of the Year material, but the focus on DLC for old games has me a little worried. But I do think we are getting a direct either in June, soon after the console launches, or September at the latest to paint a picture for the Switch 2's first spring. Hopefully, I will have one by then. Alright, let's get out of here. Thanks as always for listening. Be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app. Leave a five-star review as well, it really helps. This podcast is also on YouTube, so like and subscribe there as well. I'm on Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram.

[01:09:02] Just search for Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description. If you like the podcast, please share it with your friends and on social media. The next episode will be on April 20th. See you next time. Matane!