As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently editing my latest novel, and with the rate things are going, it is definitely coming out sometime this month. The novel itself is primarily a summary of stories I wrote back when I was a teenager, recontextualized around a greater narrative I had loose plans for… about 5 years ago. I consider the material to be very personal, but also very… messy, as my writing skills have developed a lot over the years, and the imperfections with the narrative construction in these stories are obvious to me. This makes reading these stories difficult for me, let alone retelling them in a clear and concise manner, and ensuing that through editing is a more time consuming process than what I would like. But it is almost over, and within a few weeks I will be able to begin production on the next novel. Because the train of creativity is powered by thousand year atomic batteries and if it stops, it will blow into bits!
Again, it’s the awkward time in which very little news surfaces, and right now people are jonesing for a new Nintendo Direct so they have something new to talk about, as right now only minor tidbits are floating to the surface. Such as Sega teasing a PC game release in a very hamfisted way by updating the store page for the PC version of Bayonetta with a picture of a sheep. This appeared in conjunction with an Australian Classification rating going up for a title by the name of Catherine Classic, and an update to the ESRB rating of Catherine that lists the game for PC. Therefore making it more or less official that the original 2011 version of Catherine will be receiving a PC port.
Now, if this were announced, say, 2 years ago I would have been positively thrilled by this news, as I never did get around to completing Catherine way back when, and would have liked to give the game another go. However, an expanded and updated version of this title, Catherine: Full Body, has since been announced, is set to release very soon in Japan, and a western release has been confirmed. This begs the question of why Sega is even bothering with the original version when it will inevitably be overshadowed by Full Body, and I honestly cannot fathom what is going on in their minds. Which is quite upsetting, because this will be the first modern Atlus game to come to PC, and I would want it to have the same level of success seen by Valkyria Chronicles, Bayonetta, and Yakuza 0. I mean, successful ports beget more ports, and I want Persona and Shin Megami Tensei to come to PC, goldarn it!
In… completely unrelated news, the Japanese government is known to cater to domestic corporations, which is part of the reason why gaming bars have had to go through some hoops to remain open in recent years, and why game rentals were outright banned back in the 80s. However, some recent legislation was passed that, among other things, limited the ability for consumers to alter the gaming products which they own. In short, distributing tools and programs to modify game saves, services that modify game saves and consoles, along with distributing product keys without permission of the software maker, are all now illegal in Japan.
While I get the laws regarding product key distribution, and few people seem to be voicing opposition about their illegality, the other two just seem needless. Game save modifications are not really a problem outside of multiplayer games, and with modern tools it should be easy for developers to spot cheaters and subsequently ban them. Sure, Nintendo does not seem to get how to do it, but they’re Nintendo. As for hardware modifications, altering hardware to play pirated games is rather rare nowadays, and most modifications are done on older consoles with the expressed purpose of keeping them in working condition. These two things are honestly not very big issues, and even if they are now illegal, the people who do this sort of thing will still do it, and I doubt it will often be worth it for companies to go after these people, when banning them is so much simpler, and in most cases, is sufficient.
That about covers the news that popped up this past week, unless I want to get into Smash Bros datamines, but I like to wait on rumors and only discuss them once the evidence is insurmountable, especially for Nintendo stuff. Anyways, until next time, seeya.
Header image is from the anime Student Council’s Discretion.