Tako no Himitsu with Christophe Galati, Pokemon Fit Shop XY

[00:00:01] and Tokyo Base, Tokyo Base, Tokyo 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. Returning guest and Daniel's developer, Christophe Galati joins the podcast to chat about

[00:00:25] Paco no He needs to, a GBA inspired JRPG. We talked about the game's development origins in Japan, Octophe Powers, and how to get iconic game positions to contribute to your project. For the feature, I take you inside Pokemon Fit Shop XY, a limited time pop-up shop that

[00:00:42] brings you back to the callos. And I'll close out with a bit of news highlighting a lot of upcoming gaming events right here in Japan. Let's start with Christophe Galati and Tako no He needs to.

[00:01:00] We're going to lead off with the game section today as we talked about Tako no He needs to, Ocean of Secrets and upcoming GBA inspired JRPG. Joining me is a special guest, so guest. He's introduced yourself. Hi, I'm Christophe Galati.

[00:01:12] Maybe you remember me from this podcast when I told you about my first game, Savi Mists of Tako, but then the developer from Octophe No He meets Sue and then back on the podcast to talk about it as we are launching Octophe's Satuacompan pretty soon.

[00:01:25] Welcome back to the podcast. Yes, you joined me a few years ago actually. It seemed like not that long ago but it was maybe two or so years ago where we talked about your first game, saved me Mr. Tako, which was a game-boy inspired platformer adventure.

[00:01:38] And now you've got a brand new game on the horizon. So give the listeners the pitch, what is Tako no He needs to Ocean of Secrets? So Tako no He meets Sue, Ocean of Secrets kind of has the same intention, who has to pay

[00:01:51] your match to specific era of gaming. So with Tako I did the game-boy and now I'm doing the game-boy advance, but basically yeah it's like an action RPG kind of golden-surn meets Tehranigma and yeah my main goal

[00:02:05] is to talk about secrets and trauma and through the eyes of like a rich cast of characters like you can pay more than six characters in the game. And they all have unique path, that you can see when the story unfold.

[00:02:20] So yeah it talks about secrets, trauma, we read that stuff but yeah we've with a colorful aesthetic and a nice gameplay and the other's on the cast like it's an action game so

[00:02:32] you can come back real-time battle, but you can switch characters on the fly like just press a button and you switch between the flicker factor of your body. And you can also pair octopuses because the game is the sequel of Sabimist Tako so octopuses

[00:02:47] are back so you can pair octopuses to character and use octopuses to do magic spells and kinding the same fashion of golden-surn, the spells are used as a ball in battle but also in puzzle when you are exploring.

[00:03:02] For example the ill spell you can ill yourself with it but you can also make plants growth and stuff like that. You have a huge world to explore and we've cool characters on octopuses.

[00:03:13] Tell me about the origins of its development, did you start working on this game right after your first title? Yes basically Tako was first released in 2018, like October 2018 and in 2019 I got the

[00:03:27] chance to be selected in an artist's residency program in Japan so I went to Villa Cujoyama in Kyoto so I like early 2019 I got to spend five months in Kyoto to start the development

[00:03:40] of this game which was a huge opportunity for me especially after being kind of burned out after the first one I got the chance to like live like in the forest in Japan and just

[00:03:51] focus on the new game and on myself what I wanted to do and create. Tako was already personal but this one is even more personal in terms of themes and messages I want to talk

[00:04:05] about. But yeah it started in Japan so that's why this one I'm confident in tipping the Japanese name because Tako had a Japanese name at first but published also told me to

[00:04:16] change it for Western audience so this time I didn't so yes that's why the game is called Tako Nohimitsu because we wanted to have Tako as it's the sequel of Tako and the VIP

[00:04:28] but the main team is really secrets and I'll just secrets turn to trauma turning to secrets and this secrets are used by people in power towards the world basically and in the games they are

[00:04:40] manifesting in form of Shadowman's story just secrets and trauma so that's all tight together and we will get the world as secrets the character as secrets everything is like you will unlock layers after layers while you play so it's very like in the JRPG fashion it's very

[00:04:57] story driven but it's still an action RPG like we wanted to have kind of a light aspect kind of like we have in quintet games like the illusion of Gaia or Trenma right the game

[00:05:08] please kind of simple but it's supported by just strong story I feel and a specific mood and we really wanted to go for that mood and yes you all are aesthetic but in our case we don't

[00:05:20] have one playable character we have like six sense development started in Kyoto can we expect any sort of Kyoto related references or influence on the game oh yes of course my games were always

[00:05:32] inspired by Japanese game as a whole because they grew up playing a lot of them but yeah basically like the residency I was in like the La Cajayama is kind of almost replicated as it is really

[00:05:43] in the game you can go to this place at one point so very in place very inspired by it the game as it's in itself basically like I'm really gravitating towards the drag culture

[00:05:55] do I regard to this do I quit this do I quit this stuff like that since quite a while and in Kyoto I got to see the racquines while I was in the residency

[00:06:05] so some of them are basically appearing as cameo in the game as well and also like my personal experience like as you may know and then I may have talked about it in the first podcast but for

[00:06:16] semi-sortako things where not really good with the publisher and back in that time so the game also talk about those issues with power dynamics between artists and the publisher who's one of the

[00:06:28] character also yeah like each character there a theme and most of them are inspired by my own life so yeah it's really will be a very personal but still deep game and a lot of things I

[00:06:41] so in my life and in Japan will be translated into it yeah it's quite literally a generation or leap for you going from game boy and now game with vans in terms of inspiration did you always have

[00:06:53] this sort of road map where your first game was going to be similar to the game boy then your next game was going to be GPA and maybe your next title be Ds and so on

[00:07:02] yes that's kind of the goal actually because when I started semi-sortako I was quite young I was 19 years old and it was kind of like a learning process to master a era of gaming

[00:07:14] and I had kind of a very rough childhood and teenage years like I had a lot of semi-d issues but I actually like finally started this year like I won my trail against my family this year

[00:07:27] so I had a lot of issues growing up and game hours what at mischore vibe I feel because yeah it's going kind of dark but yeah what kind of living with this on my side like

[00:07:37] saying like I want to die basically but at first I was like before dying I want to finish beating this game because one of my brother was a game collector so he had a huge collection

[00:07:47] it was my way out of what I was experiencing but as I survived it was like first it was playing a game then it was making my game and basically like it's what's how I arrived in the

[00:08:00] game industry years after years making games to express myself and survive because I feel as a survivor I have a responsibility to talk about stuff so that's how I go I went into game

[00:08:11] industry and basically I owe yeah I made games and so yeah that's why when I was making tacos the goal of no-march paying homage to these specific heroes of gaming that helped me was already there

[00:08:25] so yeah I want to make games that can help people the way games that helped me that's my goal deep inside so yeah I wanted to use those aesthetics because I feel like those retro aesthetics

[00:08:36] are very good to make sure the players use their imagination because we see a lot of discourse about realism in games and people seeing that you need great graphics for the game to be immersive

[00:08:48] but I feel like retro aesthetic where very immersive because you had to imagine a lot of things in your head so I can't want to replicate that but using those retro aesthetic with my personal

[00:09:02] experience so even though it looks retro in terms of meanings and playing the world display in science again it's very modern so it's basically kind of like an inverted corner capsule like you

[00:09:13] find a game you think it's from the past but it's modern for the time so that's the mood right from taco and yeah when I see the tacos was doing well I guess yeah it kind of stick with me

[00:09:26] for at least a trilogy I think when I will see in 10 years if I still do games but the goal was really to create a strong IP with iconic characters and the make it evolve in the gaming

[00:09:36] history now you're really pitching this as a GBA inspired game which you explain the origins of it and not as for example an SNES game or a Genesis game so what would you say is maybe the key

[00:09:48] indicator in terms of gameplay or visuals between the GBA and the Super Nintendo for example well for my personal experience I must run to GBA because it was a console I own

[00:09:59] so as far as I was more drawn to them but yeah in terms of aesthetic it's very very close truly the resolution is not the same the Sponitaendo is for free ratio but GBA is more

[00:10:11] rectangular I guess I'm not all to say that but it's not the same resolution we don't have as much inputs also GBA only have AB it's the one type Y and X right button so they don't have the same

[00:10:25] moment of buttons the resolution is not the same and I guess the colors are maybe a bit more very vibrance but it was mostly due to the screen I guess but GBA was basically sold at the time

[00:10:37] as portable SNES but the thing that is less good on the GBA than the SNES is a son chip GBA is in famous for that we had a lot of debates of our home close we are to the original material

[00:10:53] in our sounds so yeah it was at two decides so basically which was both like in the game you have the option to switch between instrumental music and ritual music so yeah that's the things

[00:11:04] about GBA I guess but yeah for me it's very basically because it was the console I had when I was a teenager so that basically the one where I started to have my own taste in game before that I was

[00:11:17] mostly playing the game my was her head then when I got the GBA I was starting to have my own games so basically the first one that I beaten that my brother was Goldenson so that's why it's

[00:11:27] a very special game for me because it wasn't my thing yeah goldenson is that's another game series I really like but there hasn't been a lot of new games that come out recently where I think oh

[00:11:38] that's really inspired by Goldenson but when I see top of no he needs to I definitely see the golden son inspirations and I think there's definitely a lot of people who want a new golden son game

[00:11:48] well it's something similar to it and are you more of the fan of the original golden son or the sequel the last age I think I prefer the Los de Los Tades into the design but yeah I think

[00:12:00] the Los Tades are a very different mood and Goldenson one is very straightforward and it was a big twist to have the playing the villain which were not the villain Goldenson 2 and Goldenson 2 as

[00:12:13] it's called the Lost Age is more growing through the roots of the world and the mythology and the civilization kind of stuff which I feel was I'm more drawn to that as I love mythology I love

[00:12:25] archaeologists I think that's in Goldenson 1 you are basically going to from turn 2 turns and exploring environment in Goldenson 2 you're more into run wins very magical places which I like more

[00:12:40] and the ending is in the second one where both party joins and the ending is very good so yeah I think I like the second game more for the first game is more hard because you can see in the game as

[00:12:52] they add to catch a lot of stuff they try to do a bit of both because you have the enchanted civilization raising in the third game and you go from turn to turn like in the first one but it's a

[00:13:05] bit to a rich game I guess but it was still good I think even though it kind of kills the series but maybe we can have a fourth game one day because you need a big killfanger exactly or

[00:13:20] we can you can just play Takenohi needs to and maybe you have the same feeling as a new goldenson the magic system is very goldenson and we have moto is a collaboration on board to make some

[00:13:32] but for me yeah it's a more prone to the melancholy of usually of guillotine running ma in the field of the way you control your character it's more like those games but on top of that you have

[00:13:44] like a big job of you party like in Final Fantasy 6 I guess with very diverse character not one main character somehow and yeah each character is different and in the like in Final Fantasy 6 sometimes

[00:13:57] the party splits so you have to choose a character you want to play in each other and so you are basically stuck with some characters sometimes so yeah it's it's how I did with that call

[00:14:08] like a thicker things from a lot of games and try to make a new one with something Japanese games do a lot I feel about who withstand games yeah I definitely agree with that since Takenohi needs

[00:14:19] to have an action style battle system was there ever any thought about making like a more traditional turn-based ERPG structure in terms of battles or you always set on making an action RPG

[00:14:31] yeah and there were times because I mostly programmed the game myself and I did it for Taku as well but compared to Taku AI much more complex for Taku Noi needs to so I had a bit of struggle

[00:14:45] programming that so no I worked with another developer to help me with this things but yeah at some point sometimes I'm like yeah I'm really struggling to get action really feeling good so going turn-based

[00:14:58] will be cool help but yeah I'm a little user turn-based RPG player but my goal was always to take a console and like as long as the I evolve in console going more and more towards turn-based

[00:15:12] your RPG so I guess my nice game will be one maybe yes but if I manage to succeed with this one but yeah I feel like it could have been a turn-based your RPG but I really wanted to get

[00:15:28] as the action feel of the Ranic Mar and the Legion of Chaos so you mentioned earlier this is kind of I guess a sequel to save me Mr. Taku how much of a sequel is it that this start directly after

[00:15:42] the first game for example or is it set hundreds of years later or tell me more about the setting of the game yeah when basically when the game is starting it's like eight hundred years after

[00:15:50] same image of Taku so a lot of things happened since then but so yeah it's a direct equal when you like the turn you're in in the new game are the same as in Taku but the evolve a lot

[00:16:04] like the geopolitics is very much different so you basically if you play the first game you might recognize some stuff like some tonnames, places names and even some characters are like the

[00:16:14] airs of the one of the same Mr. Taku stuff like that and even gameplay wise like some game mechanic are back from the first game even though it's not the same kind of game

[00:16:23] like some spells are inspired by the ads we have in Taku but yeah so it's a sequel but you don't have to if you haven't played the same you start to know it's okay you don't have to play it to

[00:16:33] understand the game but if you have played it there will be things that will be easier to figure out figure out I guess in terms of story because there is an implication like our semi-satako ends

[00:16:47] is the key of what happened in the centuries after that but basically it's a Konomi too when the Taku Nami starts, Octopus has kind of been erased from history nobody know what

[00:16:58] Octopus is and there is no Octopus is anymore so that's why when you're a character find one in a sealed void they will really don't know what it is but the army kind of follow him because of

[00:17:11] that you'll see in the game but yeah Octopus is a basically being erased from history since then so it's one of the big secrets of the world so you will have to uncover what happened and

[00:17:22] but basically with the old cast of playable character we also get to discover that as for them they didn't know what an Octopus was before that and the world of the semi-satako there was a war between

[00:17:32] humans and the Octopusies and people don't remember that on least the people in power knows that and basically it's kind of like you know current world like we have the UN nation in

[00:17:44] in our world and in the game of the world of the game we have the circle which is basically an alliance of all the world leader who we watch history and maintain peace so the world has been

[00:17:55] and peace since the eight hundred years but after the Octopus is where genocide basically so yeah there's a lot of to uncover about that and why Octopus some Octopusies were sealed whereas the ours Octopus is remaining somewhere

[00:18:14] basically as you all you know geopolitical situation of the game world is very tense because yeah like while the animals are disappearing shadow monsters are appearing everywhere you choose a true mouth of the world and yeah it's also like there is an election presidential

[00:18:29] election that's in one of the country with there is a lot of stuff right but um my jades like it will be yeah by a packed in an action game so I hopefully it really

[00:18:40] help people me more in mercy and all of that you also recently announced that motoya sakuraba and masanore hikiki will be contributing music to the game sakuraba of course famous for dozens maybe hundreds of games star ocean mario golf dark souls and yes golden sun

[00:18:57] hikiki has also worked on terrenegma dangan rampa and many other games how did they get involved with takono he meets you yeah so basically while i love those those games there are many references so at one point like when it was these eight decided we

[00:19:12] are going to do a kickstarter it became like forest it would be a good way to to get to to be a stretch goal like having more music from them because it's a budget we don't necessarily

[00:19:22] had in the past to hire them directly but yeah i wanted to have some guest track from them because they love the games they work on and my economy too is inspired by those games so

[00:19:33] it could it could be a nice thing so personally i wanted it and because they're not the principal composer the ones with and link most of these soundtrack is the one who made the

[00:19:43] same in start-acoustine track mark on to a nachie so he did basically the most of the soundtrack but we wanted to have some guest track all of us well and yeah basically what happened like

[00:19:54] it took a lot of time to reach to them so basically like as a website we've formed to contact him so i tried in english in japanese and i never got any answer for like a year or two

[00:20:08] and at one point like i worked to him on instagram and like on instagram like you can't message people can't see your message like to work to them they have to have a proof of the message

[00:20:20] yeah like and what happened like is what like in 2016 sacordaba went to Paris in France to do a concert and so at that time i sent him a message like i read i answered to one of his

[00:20:31] story to tell like oh and repair is and he liked the message at that point so i could basically write on to him on instagram thanks to that mommessage oh wow not both ten years ago so i did that

[00:20:44] and he told me like oh right to me because i think it was his wife and link in instagram account so she told me like oh right for the website and i think them that i already did twice

[00:20:54] and they realized there was an issue on the website basically thanks to me so due to that they were like oh yeah thank you for letting me know and of course like we will make a music for you so that

[00:21:07] can't of help i guess so thanks to having a bit of knowledge in japanese i'm rich to him on myself and no i'm working with an interpret so be called 12 but yeah which to him like that

[00:21:18] and he wrote the he already made one music for the games that you'll see in the demo and you also on the teaser yes online which is the boss battle music which is very good then some

[00:21:30] like yeah we're about the light motif of Takono-Mitsu is in it so it's ours but means the meantime while waiting for Sakura-Bat when Sir i contacted other composers including ikichi and basically like he and Sir but when Sakura-Bat and Sir that was like one now we are Sakura-Bat

[00:21:49] so that's the one we work with but to the masanoli kichi kept waiting to me but the game like he's attivated to work on it so by angien they also made tracks for it so we have both

[00:22:03] a way not both i guess and not yeah and a thanks for the because making games is expensive and as i said the quick was quite odd so i don't really do two issues at some point so no Tako is bringing

[00:22:13] me money and i'm basically creating my game company last year i'm a proper game company so due to that i was i managed last year to earn public funding in France which helped me a higher ringer team so

[00:22:25] no i'm not alone on the game anymore and that's how i basically add enough to pay for a guest composer as well but there will be a stretch gollins a kickstarter to add more music

[00:22:36] for them of course yeah let's get into it you recently launched a kickstarter for the game so why go the kickstarter route well at first i didn't want to make a kickstarter but the game industry is

[00:22:46] what it is now so basically i was kind of naive i guess but when in 2002 when i had the first demo of Tako no emits you ready like a vertical slice i went to basically most of the

[00:22:56] publishers i wanted to work with and i was thinking like oh i already made one game that is quite known i feel like it was covered a lot by press and streamers were on it launched so i felt like

[00:23:10] it would be easier this time to get funding than the publisher and turns out we are in the post covid crazy so there is like lots of people being fired away where and publishers are not invested in

[00:23:21] animonie anymore or we basically you have to have to prove them the game popularity in order for them to invest in it so you so the way to prove the popularity is to be very valuable

[00:23:34] publicly at many steam wishlist for example if you have a lot of steam wishlist for the because they know that if you have in you know like ten thousand wishlist they know how many

[00:23:44] you need will sold at launch basically they can project themselves and the issue for me was that Tako did very well on the switch but did not do well on steam right so when people google

[00:23:57] semi-sortakuan steam and see that it's on real like forty reviews they do the like make them confident that my next game will do well on steam even though Tako sold they were

[00:24:07] well on on switch and you don't have this kind of proof you come do this kind of projection on the switch is shop because it's very more obscure than steam in terms of that data and

[00:24:18] and what is everything is like data oriented like you need to have data to prove that you will sell or the wise people don't invest so yeah most of the people you're turning

[00:24:28] now the game is good but we don't know if we can sell it you've no doubt there are plenty of example of action RPG or indie RPGs that do very well but basically most of them are to go

[00:24:38] to Kickstarter like history of Kickstarter under tell did it cross code did it chain decals see of stars most of the RPG did kickstarter actually so basically many publishers to be like do a Kickstarter and if it succeed maybe we'll sing your game

[00:24:54] so they kind of push me that direction I guess so we did it so we are doing it due to that but at first I didn't want to do that because like for me it's basically putting all the

[00:25:05] risks on myself I guess and not on the publishers that should take those risks give the trust in the game but that's how it's industries nowadays so I don't believe the company

[00:25:16] do really really well and I won't have to rely on the publisher at all right I guess but yeah that's how it is yeah I recently talked to another indie developer the developer of

[00:25:28] Shachingo and he also had a Kickstarter he said oh every indie dev should just do a Kickstarter no matter what so I think that's definitely getting a more popular option so tell me about some of the

[00:25:40] goals in rewards for the Kickstarter it's live now if you're listening to this listeners so check it out but go ahead and tell us to run down about the rewards and what we can expect from the Kickstarter

[00:25:51] oh yeah I guess it's pretty like what we can expect from an indie Kickstarter basically you can have the base digital game you can have the switch digital game as well but you can also

[00:26:05] already pre-order physical version of the game on least a base game but also a collector edition with an upbowl and key chains stickers so you can have that now also some bundle where you can

[00:26:16] draw design and NPC design a box design a site quest in the game if you like that don't a bit more expensive and they are very limited but you can also like tech port in the project

[00:26:27] this way but yet that we also be stretch goals like as I mentioned more music from some composers more carer like a bonus character like we have six playable characters but there are more

[00:26:37] I want to do so that could be that's our stretch goals stuff like that like a new game plus bonus dungeons do our stretch goals that will be announced three if we reach the initial goal

[00:26:49] so yeah there will be a lot of stuff like that and we are also publishing a demo along with a kickstarter already so you'll be able to try the game already which might help also with the kickstarter but

[00:27:00] yeah there will be a few bundles but it's basically what it is for most of energy starter I guess no fingers spectacular or very different but so yeah the physical bundle like we have mockups

[00:27:14] of it and yeah I already want it on my shelf. Yeah I'm looking at it now I guess the top two highest tiers are executive producer credit and yes B featured as an NPC so I am tempted to maybe

[00:27:27] make you put like a podcaster NPC in the game so I need to think about that. Are you planning on finding a publisher after the kickstarter is finished or do you plan to just self publish the game?

[00:27:37] I guess it will depends because like we are trying to raise 50 thousand dollar with the kickstarter but see it won't be enough to make the full game. So for me my goal is like to go step by step

[00:27:50] like last year I thought it's going to get a game company I managed to get money for the pre-production of the game thanks to being in France so no I pay a team to work with me but yeah it's a

[00:28:02] gun like it's to raise money with the kickstarter with this money ask again for other public funding and hopefully other public show do put inside the game what we made because it's the game is the budget I like create what thousand dollar so basically I raised like a

[00:28:19] tier of it already on my own I hope I get the second tier and there will be remains the last tier that I get up I'll be show with but if the kickstarter does really well with won't need that I guess.

[00:28:30] Are you aiming for a simultaneous release on PC and consoles or will you go PC first then consoles or is it just too early to tell? If I can I'll do both PC and console but like we're

[00:28:41] talking about switch again steel but by the time the game is finished it will be switched to I guess whatever it will be called but yeah we will see but yeah I do definitely want the game

[00:28:52] to be on an Nintendo system and hopefully at lunch that's what we did with semi-mistartacos or hopefully we can do that as well this time. So when can we expect talking of he needs to be in

[00:29:03] our hands? Well when this podcast we draw up you can already have the demo in your hand yes actually which is like more than one hour of gameplay and then yeah for now I'm aiming for 2020-26

[00:29:16] for the GBA-2015 anniversary which is on 2020-26 but as always it will depend on funding if I can hire a team that can work with me also all the way like right now I have a team

[00:29:30] but everyone is freelancer because I don't have enough saving to properly hire people right so hopefully that's something that will change in the future and we can really secure a fixed team that will be great that will be the ideal and to keep that team for the next

[00:29:47] game as well it will be cool to make it stable in time but for that you need money both taco and the economy to need to sell so maybe the keycens are we'll do well we have

[00:30:00] example of that but it can also fail hopefully it won't fail and the if it's succeed hopefully we have enough to find the good balance to work on the game properly and effectively

[00:30:11] basically the code base is here we have a few things to rework as always but you can already place the game most of the systems and features are already in so hopefully now if we'll be mostly

[00:30:24] making the content which is already planned so yeah fully like things can really start now alright final question if one of the characters from taco no he needs to becomes a playable fighter in smash brothers who would you want it to be and what kind of moves

[00:30:42] would they have hmm yeah I'll say but we have very diverse characters like some of them are like they're like are kind of like free classes you have a protector that can contact us but can we

[00:30:55] affect any attacks you have warriors that can attack and you have the creators that do special damage and can also boost the team so basically like a weapon triangle stuff we have that but yeah I

[00:31:10] guess the most unique character we have is one with a dark queen I guess that's something you don't have a lot in games so I guess this one would be the most unique but right now the one with

[00:31:23] the character designs that is more striking out I guess is the one with the star on his face and the blue blue hair but yeah the protector class not sure but I guess it will if we the character is

[00:31:35] in smash bros it would be like kind of like pros and enough you'll have the character and the octopus of course as they are paired in the game so basically this way it could be many of them

[00:31:48] like for the dragon quest character where you have basically already dragon quest heroes as skins that could be something like that as well and fighting with the octopus that could be nice

[00:31:58] but yeah we'll see if the game does really well I guess maybe it could be a trophy assist at least yeah you don't know it'd be good or a mecos tomb with the octopus

[00:32:08] awesome well Chris once again thanks for joining me on the podcast where can people find you and where can people find talk on our him into yeah thanks for having me and you can find me

[00:32:19] basically on most social media the event tiktok by using the game demo on steam and of course the Kickstarter campaign so yeah the social media more prolific on Twitter or X we have to say now

[00:32:36] but they more on all of them great and listeners delinquent to everything including the link to the Kickstarter page are in the podcast description so definitely check it out once again thanks for joining me yeah thank you

[00:32:55] today's feature is on pokemon fit shop xy a clunky sounding name for a very straightforward event there was a pop up shopping Kawasaki featuring the new pokemon fit aka sitting cutie's line of

[00:33:06] plushies now by was i mean they don't have it anymore so if you want to go to it I'm sorry it's gone gone forever though you can still buy the plushies at any pokemon center in Japan and experience

[00:33:19] the event by carryously through me right now if you're out of the loop pokemon fit or sitting cutie's as their known in america is a plushy merch line where the gimmick is that every single

[00:33:29] pokemon gets a plush that can fit in the palm of your hand yes every single pokemon jinx panko heat more all your favorites get a plushy this is great if you have some obscure favorite

[00:33:42] pokemon those LG and plushies aren't going to sell out like say char mander they were originally quite cheap only about 1100 yen which is a good price considering that a lot of the other merch

[00:33:53] at the pokemon centers can easily set you back 2000 or 3000 yen so it's a clever affordable piece of merch that is a great impulse buy however i think the prices have been jacked up which

[00:34:04] I'll get to later the latest release of the pokemon fit line is gin six aka pokemon xy this hit just a few weeks ago and the pop up shop in Kawasaki's atry department store was made to

[00:34:15] celebrate this moment i checked if there were other pokemon fit pop up shops and gin five did get one at the exact same venue so i imagine there will be future pop-up shops here as well yes i can just

[00:34:26] go into any pokemon center and buy the same thing but i was very curious about the themeing of the store and it does have some exclusive items as well so i headed over to Kawasaki station

[00:34:37] which is only one stop away from shina gaulah station maybe take the express train Kawasaki is south of Tokyo but i honestly haven't been there a whole lot anytime i had down there

[00:34:46] i'm likely going to yokohama it was my first time ever at Kawasaki station i won't get into my whole trip but even around Kawasaki station there's planning to do there's huge department stores a place that kind of looks like a fake Italian neighborhood and aquarium museums

[00:35:02] shotengai shopping streets it's not a bad day trip at all that's probably why i love going to all these gaming events in and around Tokyo because they often bring me to a new place i would have

[00:35:11] never discovered on my own but let's get back to the pop-up shop i got to Kawasaki about 915 a.m. and looked around the expansive station that's connected to a lot of department stores including the one holding the pop-up shop there were quite a few windows decorated with

[00:35:26] huge art of the jinsik's pokemon and these looked fantastic obviously i'm a big pokemon x y fan and i even featured it on this podcast during its 10th anniversary last year so definitely go listen

[00:35:38] to that episode it is a real to just be walking around a train station and oh here's a huge mural dedicated to a decade old pokemon game the pop-up shop opened at 10 a.m. and although i went

[00:35:49] during the second weekend of the event i was certain that it would be pretty busy and low in behold i was right it was a little hard to find at first since the line was actually outside

[00:35:58] the department store building and the signs weren't exactly helpful but i got there around 930 and people were already lining up there was probably maybe 20 or 30 people ahead of me they also gave me a time entry ticket but thankfully it was for 10 a.m.

[00:36:13] of course my wife was with me who isn't a pokemon fan at all but she endured it was fun to see all the other people in line who had plushies with them or other pokemon

[00:36:22] apparel and my wife is easily the person in line who cared the least about pokemon after 30 minutes of waiting we finally got in and walked around this huge spiral that let us

[00:36:32] into the entrance of the pop-up shop due to the time ticket system the shop didn't feel crowded there was plenty of space to move around and take photos i was worried it would be a mad dash

[00:36:41] to get gran ninja or whoever but no there was plenty of stock and the japanese customers were really orderly in calm there's a big sign out of the shop showing which pokemon are sold out

[00:36:51] so imagine later in the day they do run out of stock oh and i forgot to mention it doesn't just have all the calis pokemon but all their forms as well so every vividly in pattern all the fur

[00:37:01] fro designs even zygard in all his forms including those that debuted in sun and moon so you can get an incredibly specific plushie if you so choose they're grouped up thematically like all the starters were together and all the legendaries were together but you also got to put

[00:37:16] go-go somewhere so there were shelves organized by pokemon x number two the pop-up shop was elaborately decorated with calos aka french imagery each shelf had a banner on top of it highlighting some aspect of calos culture one was seen after i cafe with a coffee cup i dormed

[00:37:32] the pokeball one was modeled after a flower shop featuring fla bebe there was a bakery one with punkaboo i guess it was for pumpkin bread a perfume shop with aromatees these are small

[00:37:43] additions but they really added the character of the store they would be a bit boring if it just looked like the inside of a warehouse but the big decoration was on the back wall which was

[00:37:53] modeled after classic french buildings with awnings there was a little balcony in the middle of the buildings where some of the pokemon sat great photo op this is why you come to these pop-up

[00:38:02] shops for the fun, theming and picks there are also these gigantic banners hung on the roof featuring the legendaries and starter pokemon along with big wall coverings of the buildings from the calos region there are also big x and y statues inside the store by this i mean

[00:38:15] statues of the letter x and the letter y i'll let you guess which one was blue and which one was red kind of weird things just pop in there and it was hard to take a picture of since they are

[00:38:25] transparent one cool activity if you can call it that was this scanner where you place a pokemon plushy inside and then on the TV right above it it shows the polka dex entry of that pokemon

[00:38:37] zero idea how this works unless it just scans the barcode or something but it is pretty amazing you put in silvion and then boom silvion shows up on the tv you need to also have something similar

[00:38:48] to this where you put all your clothes in this box and it actually knows what's inside feel free to write in and explain this technology to me because it's just pure magic

[00:38:58] near the house of the shop was this weird conveyor belt of pokemon fit plushy's not from gin sicks not sure why this was here but the other major activity was mega pokemon gacha here you can play a huge gacha machine shaped like a pokeball

[00:39:11] you get a random pokemon fit plushy and they put that plushy inside this inflatable bag shaped like a pokeball this has been at some other pop shops and even pokemons centers around Japan

[00:39:21] i mean it does look cool to see the plushy in this weird inflatable bag you can carry around but it was quite expensive it's 1500 yen and you don't know what pokemon you're going to get

[00:39:32] also the selection is about five pokemon you get entae or mu or chimchar or eron it's just a really random assortment of pokemon this also required a time ticket to use

[00:39:43] and i actually didn't have one for eleven a.m while i was in line but that was because i completely misunderstood see when i heard mega pokemon gacha i assumed it was to get a plushy of a mega pokemon

[00:39:56] like from xy but no it's more like mega comma pokemon gacha it is strange that there are no mega pokemon plushies even though all the forms were represented i guess they could do a mega

[00:40:08] pokemon fit line later on once they finish all the generations what pokemon did i pick up i got Grinja and Sylvia on to my favorites from that generation and they were all on my championship team

[00:40:19] now i mentioned earlier that pokemon fit plushies were originally the low low price of 1100 yen but i saw that the plushies here had tiered pricing for whatever reason some were 1400 and some were 1700 my total was near 4000 yen for two very small plushies i don't know if these

[00:40:36] prices are the same at the other pokemon centers or if i paid some secret pop up shop tax but if you were looking to save so many this event wasn't for you but i do wonder is the pokemon

[00:40:47] fit stock just ravaged at your normal pokemon center here they had tons of plushies of all the pokemon from jinsix but at pokemon center shibuya for example is Sylvia on sold out i like 10

[00:40:57] 30 a.m i definitely see the merits of doing this instead of hitting up around a pokemon center if you want to guarantee a specific plushy oh and in terms of exclusive merch you can get a free cloth bag

[00:41:08] if you spend 6,000 yen or a postcard if you spend 2000 yen i got a postcard of a noi bat plushy which i guess is pretty unique i admit valuable no unique yes so that was my excursion

[00:41:21] to pokemon fit shop x y it only ran for two weeks so if they do another pokemon fit shop in the future you've really got a tight window it was very fun though i loved the thaming and it was

[00:41:32] great to see all the plushies of the totally awesome roster of jinsix i got to touch some of the villain patterns i'll never have digitally as a big x y fan it was a joyful experience

[00:41:42] and it led me to spending a wonderful morning and afternoon around calisocustation sadly i can believe for god to see one of calisocust most notable tors attractions the world's smallest escalator yes the shortest usable escalator in the world is in a department store near calisocustation

[00:42:00] i completely forgot to go check it out but there's always next time okay that's it for the future now for some news we are in a post direct era but that doesn't mean that news is slowing down

[00:42:17] let's start with some tokyo related news because there were quite a few pop-up shops and limit events happening very very soon dragon quest carnival would take place from july 20th at yokahama's minato mirai around the same area as last year's pokemon worlds event it'll feature a stamp rally

[00:42:32] an exhibit focusing on dragon quest 3 HD a slime coloring activity a cloud cafe and some deque decorations around the area most of it will be centered around landmark plaza which was where a lot of the pokemon worlds events were this looks pretty awesome and i've definitely had over

[00:42:47] there i actually already have my reservation for the cafe and slime painting experience also starting the same day in yokahama world portars is a pokemon after school cross egg name pop-up shop featuring new merch focusing on i didn't know how to describe this it's

[00:43:03] girls hanging out after school it has a very vivid almost neon art style there are some photos bots and some merch featuring new art it's a bit unorthodox for pokemon pop-up shop so hey during

[00:43:14] my deque excursion i might as well just swing by here as well that's not although as long the ports all around japan will also hold a special split tune 3 event with exclusive merch photos bots and other activities from july i i twenty second i think the closest participating

[00:43:29] la la port is in kalsaki which is where the x-fi pop-up shop was oddly enough i'll try to make my way out there somehow some way and the last upcoming pop-up shop is mother 2 no he meets 2 or the

[00:43:42] secrets of earthbound a new pop-up shop event happening at parko shibuya featuring never before seen documents from the creation of mother 2 aka earthbound this was hope we'll need to mother projects

[00:43:53] big event that they were teasing for many many months honestly i was disinfecting it to be a bit bigger or a bit more unorthodox because they were really teasing it as a never before seen type of

[00:44:04] event but it is really just an exhibit and kind of a pop-up shop and it's always at the same place as all the other earthbound pop-up shops however it does seem to have a lot of things that people

[00:44:16] had never ever seen before and also the original clay figures that are on the instruction manual and also on a lot of the old school earthbound art and promo picks will be act the exhibit so you

[00:44:25] can see them with your own eyes this is not a free exhibit though 1500 yen and you do need reservations for the first weekend and also during another three day weekend later in August so be aware of that

[00:44:37] as for real deal games Nintendo is typically teasing a new in-rated game possibly called imio on Nintendo accounts tweeted out the same images and trailer of a man wearing a paper bag with a smile drawn on it with the English account asking who is imio

[00:44:52] the Japanese name also seems to be pronounced imio where the aconji is laugh and the oconji is man so it could also be read as smiling man this is a really out of nowhere announcement

[00:45:04] and i love how daring Nintendo is with desadvertising they would never do this for like Mario and Luigi for example but is Nintendo really developing an in-rated horror game or are

[00:45:15] they just publishing a game from a third party developer a lot of people have been throwing out the word blu-gur team either way it seems to be very unorthodox yes Nintendo has released emrated games before and even horror titles like fatal frame and eternal darkness but it is

[00:45:29] strange to see them return to the genre either way and this wasn't in the Nintendo Direct which is pretty odd they opted for the mysterious drip feed announcement over featuring it in a direct

[00:45:40] so i wonder why that is you think that revealing a game in a direct will be the best way to go about it but maybe this game is stranger than we think Nintendo Kyoto also recently revealed

[00:45:49] brand new merch items from local artisans in Kyoto we got some stationary a tote bag woodblock prints a fan not the most interesting element of this new merch line is that it's only at

[00:46:01] Nintendo Kyoto not Nintendo Osaka not Nintendo Tokyo I wonder if this sets high precedent for exclusive merch at the stores but one center already does this but they do typically cycle the

[00:46:12] merch to the other stores every now and then does this mean there'll be some items that you can only get into no Tokyo and not in-conci obviously Kyoto is kind of a special case because that is

[00:46:23] Nintendo's home base so if any store is going to get exclusive goods it would likely be that one but i would like to see a bit of diversity in exclusive items every now and then just to make

[00:46:33] the store feel a bit more special not so long is getting an English release on august 6 this is the spiritual successor to the boku no natsu yasu mi franchise and it's from the same developers

[00:46:44] your boy living out summer vacation in an idyllic japanese countryside town but it seems to be far more open and free form than past boku no natsu yasu me titles i think a lot of people were expecting

[00:46:54] an eventual English release since it's not officially connected to the boku no natsu yasu mi franchise and it serves as a very clear entry point into this type of game now the nintendo directed

[00:47:04] out a new expansion for not some own in Japan but the english version just seems to be the base game and i can imagine the english version of the DLC will come over eventually i think i could

[00:47:12] theoretically get this game cheaper in Japan and it would probably be better to play in japanese but i am very curious how they localizes so i think i'll try to pick up an english copy last bit of

[00:47:22] news in tinnoswitch online is back and better than ever with new in yes and femicom games urban champion goth decay junior math mach writer the mystery of Atlantis which is the first ever

[00:47:32] release for the west solar jetman and kobra triangle japan is also getting go moku narabe i renzu which is a go game shin onigashima which is a fairly notable japanese only title and machong

[00:47:44] no this is not yaku man this is machong we are nearing the end of the 40th anniversary of the hemocom celebration in Japan so i can see this being the one last big hurrah for the femicom in terms

[00:47:55] of new in so games which is the should you play well golf is a classic but in yes open it's just easier to parthen understand urban champion is a novelty in that some kids

[00:48:06] there it to be the worst Nintendo developed title and it's certainly not good but worst is a very strong word i would say it's at least worth checking out so you can just say you played it though

[00:48:15] but that's not the only in a so news the first original in dinsets of no star fee games are now available in the west and in japan i think a lot people know the legendary star fee the dees game but that

[00:48:25] is actually the fifth star fee game if you're never played the star fee series it's closer to curb you than say mario and it stars star fee which i think most people know as an assist trophy

[00:48:35] in smash brothers so if you want to know star fees origins now you can check it out this is a series i've always been meaning to cover on this podcast and now i can finally dig into the gba titles

[00:48:46] they are a little expensive in japan so i'm glad they were eventually just uploaded for quote unquote free on in so so please look forward to my future star fee episode maybe this year we

[00:48:56] will see okay that's all for now thanks as always for listening be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app leave a five story review as well it really helps with

[00:49:05] visibility 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 finding links in the

[00:49:15] podcast description if you like the podcast be sure to share with your friends and on social media if there's anything we want to talk about recover don't be shy just message me on twitter the next episode will be on July 28th see you next time muttony