Retro Japanese Games Finally in English with Game Vecanti, Shogun Showdown

[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. Brad from Game Vecanti joins the podcast as we talk about retro Japanese games that are now finally in English. Brad has cataloged over a hundred retro Japanese games that received brand new localizations, and we get into the best of the best and why these games are finally reaching Western shores.

[00:00:34] And in the game section, I get into the samurai-styled roguelite Shogun Showdown. Let's start with the feature on retro Japanese games with new localizations with Brad of Game Vecanti. Today's feature is about retro Japanese games that got a first-time localization on modern consoles. Hopefully I'll come up with a snappier podcast title, but we're going to dig into classic Japanese titles that you can play on Switch or Steam in English right now.

[00:01:04] Joining me to chat about this phenomenon is a special guest. So guest, please introduce yourself. Hi everyone. My name is Brad, or Bossed528, if you've seen me on social. I'm a professional game designer. I've been one for 10 years, and currently I'm also a game design instructor. I'm a big fan of games, of course. I love obscure games. And because of that, I also run a social media account called Game Vecanti, which you may have seen around.

[00:01:32] But it's where I post obscure game media six days of the week. Thanks for joining me. So today's topic is a bit open. I wanted to bring you on to chat about Japanese games that got a first-ever English localization in the past several years. Basically, just kind of within the Switch era, although we can be flexible as well. But it's certainly during the peak of the Switch that we've seen this phenomenon of Japanese titles in the 90s and 2000s finally get an English translation after literally decades.

[00:01:59] And these are official translations, so we won't be focusing on fan translations. And I brought you on because you graciously assembled a super list of games that fall under this criteria that's available for everyone to see on the internet. First of all, what inspired you to start keeping track of these types of games? Yeah, that's a great question. And of course, thanks for having me on here. I wanted to say that before I got going. So what inspired me? I really love obscure games. And I kind of noticed this phenomenon like myself, like, oh, this older game got a translation.

[00:02:28] But I noticed like no one on the internet, at least as far as I could see, was keeping tabs on it. So I want to say back in 2022, I started up a pretty simple Excel spreadsheet where I would keep a personal list. And initially, you know, it started kind of small because it really started to build up. I found after that, gradually it became 20 items, 30 items. And at that point, that was when I was like, okay, this thing is turning out to be pretty big. I think there's a lot of variety on here. There's RPGs, there's visual novels.

[00:02:57] And it would be great to share this with people. So I looked for good ways to get that out in the public. So I decided to do a Google site just because it's simple to use. It's free to host. It allows me to have some visuals to attract people to some of these different games. And so I took that sheet and I would adapt that into a site, which did take a few days. And of course, I had to like grab images from some of these games and some of the games, like, you know, we were getting pretty obscure. So yeah, that was kind of my process.

[00:03:27] And eventually when I finally launched it, when I hit the send post, I noticed it really started to pick up. And I was very excited to see people were interested. Pop quiz. Do you know how many games are currently on the list? Oh, geez. I think we are around 100. We might be above 100. I would say it's enough to make it take a bit when you open the page. So I would estimate like 100 ish. Okay. I have the real number. You currently have 119 games.

[00:03:55] So yes, you have crossed the 100 games mark. So congratulations on that. Thank you. Were you surprised that your list got so much traction? I often see it circulating on social media, even years after you've made it. I guess a little surprised. I knew that like people would be really into these kinds of games. But I think what surprises me is the sheer number of how many reacted to it. I kind of like expected like, okay, maybe it'll get like 100 retweets or posts.

[00:04:22] But I didn't expect 10k or, you know, it appearing on different places. So when I saw that, I was really happy. And of course, like I get people who reach out to me as well with suggestions, which I'm really grateful for. So I couldn't have made the site on my own. There was a lot of people who came out and they were like, here's six games you missed. So I'm grateful. Yeah, I feel like every few months I see it. And one of the reasons why you're on the podcast is that I got reminded of the list because it was just on Blue Sky.

[00:04:49] And it wasn't even a recent tweet that you made on Blue Sky. It was maybe from two years ago. But people keep finding it. People keep retweeting it or reposting it. So yeah, it has a life that's much, much longer than I think a lot of people expected. I am very tempted to just go through all these games one by one and talk about them. But I guess we should get into the big question. Why is this happening? Why do you think we are getting such a flurry of first time localizations for these games that range from iconic to pretty obscure? Why didn't this happen earlier, for instance?

[00:05:19] Ooh, that is a really good question. And I feel like the answer is so varied depending on the developer. Hmm. So, for example, I know some companies, I've seen this a little bit, but they would see and acknowledge that there is demand for their games outside of Japan. So, for example, I like to use Nihon Falcom. Oh, yes. You know, if you've heard of them, the developers of East and Trails, they have talked about their precedent has mentioned in interviews that the engagement they get on their social media page is primarily from English speakers.

[00:05:49] So they are out there seeing this kind of demand. Yeah. And speaking on Falcom, again, their budgets on their RPGs have really ballooned in the years. And so they now develop for a bigger market. So there is that sense of we need to make sure some of our older titles are also available to some of these people. So I think that's one of the angles to it. And I think like there's many reasons, right? Like in the PSP era, there were stories of some games getting blocked on the platforms,

[00:06:18] especially visual novels or ones with less gameplay. Like, for example, Working Designs, the company in the 90s, if you've heard of them, they did the Lunar localization, kind of famous for sneaking in, you know, like the Bill Clinton jokes, those groups. They mentioned they tried to get the Soccer Wars series out on the PSP, but they said that Sony would not let them because, you know, it wasn't a game is basically what they said. If I'm quoting that correctly, they basically were like too much text, not a game.

[00:06:45] So I think in terms of some of these like visual novels and adventure games, that that's also one of the potential reasons. And then if I had to mention a third potential reason, I think like there's generally more acceptance to different kinds of games, because if you think about like back in the 90s, when things would release, they would have different cover art, right? Like you would have some of those like westernized cover arts with the muscular characters or, you know, whatever.

[00:07:14] And it just kind of felt like a disconnect. But nowadays, you know, they are acknowledging that people are into stuff from Japan. They like the anime stuff, the manga stuff, like there's more of an understanding. And I do think like there's still more more to be done in terms of like the understanding like games like dating sims. We may still not get official translations of, but I think in general we've come a long way. Yeah, I have noticed that many games on the list are actually visual novels, and I would assume

[00:07:42] these would be the least likely to get localized due to all the text. But maybe I'm off base here and there's a bigger drive to localize visual novels amongst the fan base compared to the other genres. So why do you think so many visual novels in particular are finally getting localizations? It's a very good question. And gosh, if I had to guess, I'm by no means a professional, but I think it's like if you consider a game like an RPG and the localization it takes for that, right?

[00:08:07] Usually those are dubbed traditionally, so they would have to hire English actors. And there's a lot more to translate, right? There's items and weapons descriptions. And sometimes there's graphics like towns need new signs for the English speakers. So I think visual novels in general are, yes, they do have a lot of text, but I think their development teams are generally smaller. And they can really have people focus primarily on just the text and not worry about having

[00:08:36] to cast actors or get things dubbed and stuff. Yeah, that makes sense. Even though, oh, technically there is a lot of text, but the type of text is easier than if you had to make a new model for like the item shop in some JRPG, for example. Yeah, totally. What was the first game on your list that made you think, whoa, I can't believe this is finally getting localized? Ooh, I feel like I've done that with like all of these, but I think me personally, the

[00:09:04] Famicom Detective Club games, like when those were announced, I was like really excited because I was a fan of the Super Famicom release of the second game. That was something I really loved when I played the fan translation of that, like, gosh, maybe a decade ago. So I was really excited, not just to see that get an official release, but also, you know, getting that first game, which never had a fan translation. Yeah, for me, I think it was Romancing Saga 2, the localized version of the mobile game

[00:09:33] that was imported to consoles in 2017. And in Japan, Romancing Saga 2 is one of the elite JRPGs of the SNES era. It's held in such high esteem, but it is a very niche franchise in the West. And I thought, wait, we are getting a brand new English localization of an SNES JRPG. What is going on? And they certainly didn't stop there because many other Saga games also got a first time translation. And again, I don't mean to give you another pop quiz, but what publisher or developer do

[00:10:02] you think is the most represented on your list? I noticed Square has seven entries. It's funny you mentioned that. So I don't know if they are the most, but when I was making this list, I noticed Square was one of the big people when they even did the whole Radical Dreamers thing for Chrono Cross, which I thought was also one of the big mind boggling, like what? Like, really? I can't believe you're actually releasing this. That's really cool. Yeah, I definitely agree on the Radical Dreamers. It needs to tell a few game. If that gets any sort of release or localization, I'm always surprised.

[00:10:32] So I was very excited to see that. And yeah, I think in terms of notoriety, I think some of Square's first time localized titles are perhaps the most well-known, particularly Live Alive, which got a full-blown remake, as did Trials of Mana. And if you'll let me go into old person mode for a little bit, there was a time where Seiken Densetsu 3, aka the sequel to Secret of Mana, was lauded as one of the best games ever. And it never came to the West. And it was just going to be a game that Japan always had.

[00:10:58] But in a random Nintendo Direct, Square announced, hey, the original game is coming over and we are remaking it. And I hear the remake is good, but I'm not sure if people played it and then dubbed it the best game ever. But is there a game on the list that you think made a pretty notable impact with its first ever English localization? Hmm. That's a very interesting question. I feel like I got to go into the Trails series here because I'm a huge Trails fan. So when those were announced for their localizations, I was very excited. But back in the early days when they were translating the Trails games, it really did

[00:11:28] have a small community, a small following. And I think over the years, the more they've done, that has definitely built into something a whole lot bigger. And if you look at the Trails series in the Americas and in Europe now, we've pretty much got almost all of the titles. I mean, heck, one of the new ones is coming out in two weeks, right? So we're just about caught up. And you see it a whole lot online on social media. It's becoming like its own like Tales of in terms of size. I think that community has grown a lot.

[00:11:54] So I think if I had to pick out a series on this list that's really cultivated into a following, I think that's what I would think. Yeah. So let's go ahead and get into some of our favorites. I recently did an episode on the podcast about Moon Remix RPG Adventure, and it got its first ever localized release in 2020. And yes, it is on the list. And I absolutely love this game. I loved everything about it. And I'm very much trying to make my way through the other loved elite style games. Now, I live in Japan.

[00:12:20] And yes, I do play games in Japanese sometimes, but I do prefer to just turn my brain off and play games in English. And having these on modern hardware, it really does go a long way. So what about you? You mentioned Trails, but what are some other games that stick out on the list as some of your favorites? Let's see. So I would definitely say Doku Say is one of my favorites of corporations. Doku Say is one of the early like dating sims. It's a very important game. And that was another one that was very big to me when it came out.

[00:12:49] And when I played it, I thought the script and the translation was very, very well done. So I would call that one of my favorites here. Yes, the Trails, of course. And Detective Club, of course. I've already kind of talked about those, though. Let's see. What else? I think from what I've seen of the Type Moon stuff has been very good. So I'm actually playing Fate Stay Night right now, that new translation. And I'm very impressed with what I've seen. And the Tsukihime remake I played last year, and that was very high quality.

[00:13:19] So yeah, I was very impressed with basically a lot of the visual novels I've seen from this list, just kind of in general. What about in terms of being underrated? What's the game on the list that finally got localized and you think people need to pay attention to? I would pick one that I probably haven't even played. I've had a lot of people come to me and tell me like, Kowloon High School Chronicle. Like, this is a really good game. Like, you have to check this one out. I haven't played it myself, but I've heard it's a very interesting blend between like a visual novel and Dungeon Crawler.

[00:13:48] It's got some good stuff in there. So that one sounds really cool. I would probably pump up Moon as well. I think it's still pretty underrated. I know there's some people who have gotten into it thanks to Toby Fox of Undertale fame, of course. But Moon can always get more players. The Princess Maker games, I think, are also pretty underrated because I would consider these to be fairly important games in terms of like game history. They have like four on Steam available in English.

[00:14:15] Now, I've heard the translations are a little stilted, not the greatest, but I still think it's interesting that these are available. And I don't see people really talk about them all that much considering they kind of pioneered that whole training simulation genre to a degree. Yeah, I definitely agree with those as well. And yeah, some of them are on Switch. And I want to say Princess Maker 2 maybe got a full-blown remake last year or the year before that. So they're still pumping them out. Yeah, I forgot all about that.

[00:14:44] Yeah, I think they redid some art or something. Yeah. I think that technically doesn't qualify for your list because I think Princess Maker 2 got an official release and then the remaking that official release or something weird like that. But yes, if you want to play Princess Maker, there's plenty of first-time localizations out there. For sure. One underrated one I want to throw out is Mr. Driller Drillland. It's a puzzle game. So I'm sure you can manage without any English text, but it does have a story mode with a lot of cut scenes and dialogue. But I think this is peak Mr. Driller.

[00:15:13] And for whatever reason, Namco was just like, let's just translate and HDify this game nearly 20 years after release. So let's just check out Mr. Driller Drillland. I promise you, it is fun and it often goes on sale. Oh, yeah. I agree with you. Yeah, yeah. Mr. Driller Drillland, that's one of my favorites. I've been so pushy about that one with some friends. I'm always like, whenever it goes on sale, I'm always like, you got to get it. It's so good. Yeah, I definitely agree. And yet there are still some retro Japanese games that were finally made available in

[00:15:42] the West, yet are untranslated. Now, who could be doing such a thing? And the answer is obviously Nintendo. For example, just a few days ago, we got the first ever Western release of Sutei Hakun when it was added to Nintendo Switch Online. And some other first time Western releases on NSO include the GBA Star Fees, Paneled Upon, Wrecking Crew 98, and several other titles. What do you think about Nintendo's strategy of putting some retro Japanese games unlocalized on Nintendo Switch Online in Western markets?

[00:16:11] It's very interesting. I know Nintendo has the connection with Smash Bros, where a lot of people recognize some of these characters, even from simple things like stickers or spirits. And I think they do want to garner some of that with some of these releases. And I think they figure some of these releases don't lean too heavily on the text. So some of them that they release untranslated are ones people can very well complete without that and kind of take in the cute little character they saw in Smash Bros that they might have liked.

[00:16:41] Now, I would ideally, of course, hope for them to translate more stuff. But maybe they don't picture it being worth their time, potentially. But it's probably the reason we don't see them put Mother 3 untranslated. That would make people very upset, right, if they just dumped it on there, wasn't translated. And it's probably not very playable. And some of their more obscure stuff, like Metal Slater Glory, for example, their Famicom

[00:17:08] adventure game with all that text is simply not playable without it being in the language that people can understand. So I think to a degree, they aren't being unreasonable with what they pick here. But I wish it was better, personally. Yeah, it is cool that Nintendo is aware of these games and that they're even putting it out in Western markets like Sutei Hakun. I would not have imagined five years ago that Nintendo was putting out Sutei Hakun for Western gamers.

[00:17:34] And even stuff like Devil World, which was Shigeru Miyamoto's first ever console game that he directed. They just threw that on NSO maybe a year or two ago. And that is technically the first Western release for that game. So I'm not sure if it counts as a quote unquote new game, but if you want to put on your game of the year list, you can maybe legally do so since it technically came out in that year. I know I did that. Yeah. Now, many strange and unexpected titles have gotten localizations, but of course, many haven't.

[00:18:03] What's a retro Japanese game you'd love to add to your list after getting a first time localization? Oh, man. I feel like I could list like hundreds of things, but of course, we don't want to be here for six hours. So let's see. The first one I always think about when people talk about this or mention this is the Soccer Wars series. Desperately one through four to get translated and released. I think a lot of people will really love those games if they just give them a chance outside of Japan.

[00:18:31] So that's my top pick. I think after that, I would probably do the Tokimeki Memorial series. I think similarly, kind of like what I was saying earlier, like there's been some stigmas about dating sims and how those are kind of the punching bag genre. But I think if these were put out in the world and people really got into them, I think they would understand just what makes them so special. And I have got a bunch of random things that I would also really like, like Metal Slater Glory. Oh, yeah.

[00:18:58] Which I just mentioned is one I would love to see, even though it has a fan translation. I think it would be great to get out there. Sega Gaga fan translation on that one feels like it's coming and then it doesn't happen. It's like a seesaw. So I would love to see them do something official with it. And then, gosh, I could go more obscure. Like I want to see Air, which is one of the key visual novels. Mitsumete Night is one of my personal favorite untranslated games, which is getting even more obscure.

[00:19:27] But it's made by Red Company and the team behind Tokimeki Memorial. So it's kind of a hybrid there. And yeah, at that point, I would just pick out different companies like Leaf, Aqua Plus. Like I would love to see more of their library, like Comic Party in general. I would just love to see as obscure as they can come. I would get excited for anything that's relatively unknown. Yeah, Sakura Wars is a good pick. A few years ago on the podcast, I did an episode about Sakura Wars GB. And we all came to the conclusion that, oh, this is the best looking Game Boy game ever. It looks amazing.

[00:19:58] So even for that to get a localized version would be pretty incredible. Yeah, yeah. And that one is really interesting to me because it's like a Sega Nintendo. Kind of, I wouldn't call it like a collaboration, but it was a release for a Nintendo platform that was pretty major back in the time when Sega still had their console. Yes. So listeners, go back and listen to my Sakura Wars GB episode. We do talk about the weird like pocket Pikachu Sakura and we get really in depth. So listeners, if you haven't listened to that episode yet, go back and listen to it.

[00:20:27] But in terms of this, some games I hope get a first time localization. I guess going back to Love to Leak, their other two games have no English translation. So you'd hope that they would be translated one day. And Onion Games, I believe we talked about on our Moon episode. I believe Onion Games does have the rights to UFO and LOL. So I guess we're just waiting. And again, going back to Square, Bahamut Lagoon is another notable SNES JRPG that Square hasn't remade or localized yet. But I think it's got to come eventually.

[00:20:57] And let's talk about impossible localizations. Are there any retro Japanese titles that are somewhat notable or at least ones you think are interesting that you believe will never, ever, ever get a real deal full blown English localization and Western release? Oh, well, in that case, like if I did like super obscure into some of these like random games, I feel like I'm like the only fan of in the States. Like, for example, like Tactical Fighter. I love joking about this on my social accounts.

[00:21:26] Like it's a Sega Saturn, like training simulation game. It's not very well known. I don't think it's ever going to get re-released. And it's not done by a major developer or publisher either. I want to say it's MediaWorks off my gut. I think that's what I'm remembering by who made it. But some of those ones where it was like a one shot released on like a Saturn or a PlayStation. I think a lot of those that are really cool, but not under a major developer are. Unfortunately, in that boat where it's like no chance there.

[00:21:55] And the unfortunate thing is people can't really discover it unless they really try to import these things. So it's like if there's ever a company where someone's passionate about re-releasing games, people aren't really going to be digging so deeply unless they are really digging deeply themselves. Yeah, for me, I kind of jumped to licensed games. I think a lot of them, they have too much red tape. I don't think Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 is going to get localized any day now. If you want to have a really good one that would never be localized, just say Mother 3.

[00:22:24] If you say Mother 3 will never be localized, you'll probably be right at least for a very, very long time. But on the flip side, can you think of any retro Japanese games that you think would definitely get localized, say within the next two years? The next two years. The efforts to get a lot of the Aqua Plus library on Steam and in English, I think that's been an ongoing thing. We've been getting the first White Album came out. We had some of the Dungeon Traveler games. So they're really trying to get into their libraries.

[00:22:52] So I'm willing to bet at the very least, White Album 2 will be coming out, which is considered one of the masterpiece visual novels. So that will be a pretty big deal in that scene once that releases. I'm also hoping that Air, the key visual arts, Air, visual novel, is also going to be a thing. Because I want to say this year is actually its 20th anniversary, or maybe it's 25th. That's one of those. But I have a feeling to coincide with that, that that could be a very smart play, especially since Canon slash Canon.

[00:23:21] I don't know how to pronounce it. Sorry, guys. But they released that last year to celebrate anniversary. So I could see potentially happening as well. So yeah, you got to put out whatever game you want localized. You got to put it out there in the ether and somebody will pick up the vibes. So hopefully those games that you mentioned will be localized. And I think we can wrap it up. So that was our look at retro Japanese games that got a recent English localization. Every game we talked about today, you can play right now. Go play Moon. Go play Mr. Driller. You don't need new games.

[00:23:51] This list will keep you plenty busy. Over 119 games and growing. So Brad, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Where can people find you? Thank you so much for having me. Where can people find me? I am on Twitter slash X. You can find my personal account is Bossed528. And you can also find my alternate account, GameVacanti. That is where I do the obscure game posting. And both accounts are also on Blue Sky.

[00:24:17] I have not started posting on GameVacanti on Blue Sky yet. That is something I'm hoping to do soon. But it is there if you wanted to throw me a follow. Fantastic. And the links to everything, including this very, very important list, are in the podcast description. So listeners, check it out. Brad from GameVacanti, once again, thanks for joining me. Yeah. Once again, thanks for having me. You know, I'm always pleased to talk about obscure stuff, retro stuff. And it was a lot of fun. So thanks again.

[00:24:50] Today in the game section, I want to rave about Shogun Showdown. Yes, you can call it Shogun Showdown. I won't be mad. But it is a turn-based roguelite that released last fall on Switch. It was one of the many random games I bought during the holiday break. And honestly, this is one of the games that stuck with me the most. It's from Robo Atino, a solo developer who has put out some smaller stuff on itch.io. But this is their first big release. Not a Japanese developer. So another rare episode where the game section has no Japanese developed titles.

[00:25:17] But obviously, it has quite the Japanese flair to it. If a game is about a samurai, I'm automatically interested. If it was Viking Showdown, I mean, it would still be a good game. But I think I would have totally ignored it. You got to put a samurai or you got to put Kirby in your game to make me pay attention. Rogue games. It's one of the most prolific indie genres. And for good reason. If you have a solid gameplay concept, you can use the rogue structure to provide players with quote, infinite gameplay. I am a fan of these types of games.

[00:25:46] But for the majority of them, I play it for a few hours and think that's cool. And then never touch them again. The only ones that really hit with me were Hades and Bellatro, which was my game of the year last year. But now I think Shogun Showdown has entered that pantheon. The game is really brilliant with its simplicity while also providing the perfect amount of depth and variety to every run. No run feels the same. And there are just so many amazing tools at your disposal that you never feel like you're drawing the short straw when building up your character. Yes, it is technically a roguelike deck builder.

[00:26:16] But fortunately, it's not about building a character and watching it play out. There's a lot of player agency and strategy required. It's a 2D side view turn based game where you need to clear waves of enemies. Every action costs a turn, whether it's equipping a weapon, moving on the map, turning around or attacking. It might seem slow at first, but once you understand the rhythm of a battle, you're blasting through a turn in a second. If that. The stages are set up like duels, but instead of 1v1, it's 1v mini.

[00:26:44] It's all about approaching the enemy and thinking about what weapon to use and when. Each weapon has a cooldown, so you need to carefully consider when to use them. Your weapons are basically like cards that you can play to attack other enemies. And the game is filled with awesome weapons that you can buff and customize throughout a run. Ironically, the katana is probably the most boring weapon since it just attacks the enemy next to you. If you really want to have fun, you're going to want to use a weapon like the meteor hammer, which attacks an enemy in front of you, then bounces back and hits the enemy behind you.

[00:27:13] Or the tanagashima, which is, yeah, a gun. You gradually unlock more and more weapons as you play, so there is a rewarding progression system where it's like, wait, I have a gun now? There are dozens and dozens of weapons, including shurikens, spears, lightning attacks, bear traps, plus a few support-related tiles that warp you to the center of the stage or let you do double damage on an enemy. You'll probably have maybe, let's say, six or seven tiles per run.

[00:27:39] I would say this game doesn't really emphasize the idea of specific builds, like in a lot of other deck builders where you were trying to min-max a specific strategy. Here, you can literally beat a run just with the tiles your character starts with. In fact, there's an achievement for that. Planning out your attacks and executing them smartly is way more important than just what tiles you have. I've had runs where I had awesome tiles I buffed up, but lost because of poor planning, and runs where I felt like my tile synergy was pretty weak but managed to win because I played smartly.

[00:28:07] And once you get really good at the game, rounds go by so quickly and you feel awesome as you're just mowing down waves and waves of enemies without getting hit. Even though it's turn-based, it's not menu-focused, so you can do a turn action by pressing a single button. This almost makes it feel like an action game at times because you're executing action so quickly. Equip swirl, equip bow, move forward two squares, KO the enemy next to you, KO the enemy four tiles away with the bow. All of this can happen in like two seconds if you're good. You can queue up to three tile actions, so it's awesome just to hit the attack button

[00:28:37] once and see all your tiles pop off, possibly clearing an entire stage. You start each run with the character with different starting loadouts and a signature action. The signature actions are the main differentiator between the characters and have a massive impact on how you play and how you're going to win. They are all based around movement in some way, and since positioning your character is incredibly important, you need to take advantage of your hero's signature action to progress through a run. It's not something you can ignore. The wanderer can swap positions with an enemy next to you, which could result in an enemy

[00:29:06] attacking another enemy if you timed it right. Making enemies attack each other or knocking them into each other is a major component of the game. The ronin can push enemies, which does collision damage if it bumps into another enemy. The jujutsu-ka has maybe my favorite ability where you can throw someone who is behind them forward and then that enemy crashes into another enemy. Since turning around costs an action, having an ability that lets you get rid of the guy behind you is so useful. You can also buff these signature abilities since between stages you visit a shop where

[00:29:35] you can buy things to buff your character or your tiles. Compared to a lot of other roguelites, there aren't that many skills to pick from and some do seem way better than others, but many of them are really fun to use. Like a buff where your enemies are poisoned when you use a signature ability on them. Or another one where you gain a shield if you're attacked. Or one where every enemy is frozen if you do a combo kill. The shield and the frozen ones, I mean those feel like the best ones because it does buy you a lot of time, which you desperately need.

[00:30:03] But I had fun with stacking poison abilities or getting one that lets you turn around without needing to waste an action. All of them feel like you're unlocking something interesting in a run. After each run, whether you win or lose, you're back to the starting hub where you can unlock more tiles. And if you do win, well, the game is not over because you can then progress to a harder difficulty, aka a day. Each day provides a new challenge like tougher enemies or less buffs for the hero. I'm up to day five out of a possible seven days, so I still have a bit to go.

[00:30:30] At first I thought, well, I'm good with this one character, so I'll just grind it out until I get to day seven. But honestly, all the characters are really fun to use and are more suited to specific tiles. So what I like to do is go through all the characters once and then cycle back around. So some characters are on day five, some on day four. Maybe the chain master is still on day three. That's probably my least favorite class, but it's not bad. I'm not really a do it again, but harder type of guy when it comes to roguelites.

[00:30:56] I kind of only do it in Bellatro to unlock stuff, but the game is just so fun to play. And there's so many things to unlock that you want to get better and see what other challenges the game throws at you. And again, when you beat each day, you get a little bit more of the story, which is not super deep, but it is kind of interesting. They get through with their single quote before you fight them. And even then, they kind of flesh out a little bit of the story and the characters. My favorite boss is easily Sato the stage master, where you fight on a kabuki stage and the rounds are themed after a play.

[00:31:25] The titular shogun itself is pretty challenging, but not insurmountable. Oh, and when you beat a boss, it does this dramatic blood spur animation, and it makes you really feel like you've completely obliterated them. Oh, and that's another thing. When you clear a round without getting hit, it says obliterated instead of cleared. It's a small little touch, but it is awesome when you completely destroy the enemy and you see a big obliterated flash on the screen. And oh yeah, I haven't even mentioned what the game looks like. It's what I would describe as fancy 8-bit pixel graphics.

[00:31:52] So colors and shading you wouldn't see on the NES, but still that style. All the characters are simplistic yet very distinct, and the game has gorgeous backgrounds. It kind of looks like an 8-bit version of if you mixed Dark Souls with Japan, but it's not that deathly serious in tone. The music is also incredibly catchy with MIDI versions of Japanese instruments like the shamisen or the koto, and very visceral, crunchy sound effects when you're using weapons or attacking enemies. It's one of those games where screenshots don't do it justice.

[00:32:20] You've got to see it in action and hear the music to understand how everything comes together. So if you're hungry for roguelites and want something where skill is more important than builds, I highly recommend Shogun Showdown. It's on Switch, on PC, probably some other stuff, and it's only $15. Put it on your radar. That's all for games. Now for the news. I'm recording the news section a bit early since I'm going to Universal Studios Japan this

[00:32:49] weekend, so if Nintendo revealed a brand new trailer for Zelda on Switch 2 on Friday, um, whoops, I'll talk about it later. But what's the biggest news in the world of Nintendo? Obviously, Hanafuda. For whatever reason, Nintendo has made a big push about Hanafuda recently in Japan. They're collaborating with a bathhouse in Harajuku called Kosagiyu, where you can rent Nintendo Hanafuda cards and play them. They've also recently had free introductory pamphlets to Hanafuda in Japanese game stores,

[00:33:16] and the latest batch of Nintendo Tokyo merch is brand new Hanafuda-themed items like towels, bags, glasses, and a t-shirt. This is pretty out of nowhere. I guess there is a gap between Donkey Kong and Xenoblade, so you've got to show something, but I'm honestly loving it. I love Hanafuda, and I own a few Nintendo-branded Hanafuda sets. It may seem intimidating to play, but the most popular game, Koi Koi, is actually quite easy to understand. There's a lot of free apps where you can just play Koi Koi, but if you want the Nintendo

[00:33:45] experience, Clubhouse Games on Switch has a Hanafuda game, and you can even use the Nintendo Hanafuda cards, including the Mario ones. Nintendo revealed Switch 2, so are we going to get Hanafuda 2 soon? Maybe. But some bad news in the Nintendo-verse, Nintendo is sunsetting the My Nintendo Gold Coins program this March. Gold coins, if you're unaware, are what you get when you make eShop purchases, and then you can use those coins for discounts on other purchases.

[00:34:11] So for example, if you have 300 gold coins, it's like having $3 of eShop credit. This was unanimously beloved because, hey, you always got a discount, even if it was 50 cents, you're still getting a discount for basically doing nothing. But sadly, that's going bye-bye. And Nintendo announced that the current voucher program will not be applicable for Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive games. I have to imagine this double whammy is because Nintendo is implementing another program for Nintendo Switch 2.

[00:34:37] And I think it's safe to say that $70 is going to be the default price for first-party Nintendo games on the hardware. So a voucher system where you pay $100 for two games, that might be too good for Nintendo to keep going. I mean, if Nintendo Switch 2 games are going to be $70 each and you pay $100 for two games, you're saving $40, which is quite a discount. They could implement a Switch 2-specific voucher program or you pay $120 for two games. But man, that's not super exciting.

[00:35:05] Hey, we now give you the honor of paying $60 for games. I do wonder, will these even be replaced? Or will it just be, hey, tough luck? Maybe they could tie the gold coins to NSO, which they currently don't do. But the vouchers are NSO exclusive and they've already said that these won't work for Nintendo Switch 2. So I am very curious to see what incentives they have for NSO in the Switch 2 era. Only about one in five Switch owners is subscribed to NSO, which again, is that good? Is that bad? I'm not sure.

[00:35:34] But it is a massive potential moneymaker for the company. So they should be trying to make it as appealing as possible. All right, let's wrap up. 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 available on YouTube. So like and subscribe there as well. I'm on Twitter, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram. Just search for Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description. If you like the podcast, be sure to share it with your friends and on social media. If there's anything you want to talk about or cover, don't be shy.

[00:36:04] Just message me. The next episode will be on March 9th. See you next time. Matane! See you next time. Thank you.