This Week’s Topics:

• Rundown Preamble Ramble: Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Is Delayed Again!
• TSF Showcase 2024-05 Boku Tamasaburo by Ono Shinji (Yoshimura Tatsumasa)
• Deus Ex Capitalism (Embracer Canned a Deus Ex Game in Pre-Production)
• It’s Fate That You Stay Away! (Fate/Stay Night Remastered Is Getting An International Release)
• The Volition to Shapeshift! (Former Volition Staff Establish Support Studio Shapeshifter Games)
• State of Play Slurp Up! (The Un-Nintendo Direct)
• Sonic Generations is BACK! (Sonic X Shadow Generations Announced)
• Supermassive Games Got Done Dirty… (Sony is Having A New Studio Replace Until Dawn)
• The Open World Woes! (Natalie Rambles About Palworld – Week 2)

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Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Is Delayed Again!

Let me just start by saying that Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Sensational Summer Romp was… a mistake. I announced the project before I had a finished outline, and rather than focusing on telling a dedicated and focused story, I let the project grow. What I initially envisioned as being a standard 100+ word novel has ballooned into something that will be over 700+ words.

As such, this project consumes a lot of resources, namely time, passion, and energy, all of which… are in pretty short supply as my deadline passes the 120 mark. I initially wanted to release Acts 1, 2, and 3 of the story this summer, but I am only about 60% done with the draft of Act 2. No editing passes have been done, and while I have the sprites for the central characters, I would still need to make and conceptualize header images for every chapter.

This is simply too much work for me to take on without compromising on something, or suffering from creative burnout. As such, I am delaying Act 3 of Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Sensational Summer Romp to summer 2025.

Verde’s Doohickey 2.0 Sensational Summer Romp is meant to be the culmination of everything I have done throughout my first decade of writing. I am adamant about completing it, and nothing short of death or permanent disability will prevent me from finishing it. However, there is only so much energy I can invest into a story with such a large scale, so many characters, and so many wild concepts without risking creative burnout. I want to prioritize quality with this work and, as such, I need to delay Act 3. If I were to force it out when I originally scheduled, it would just be a shitty time for everyone. It would worsen the first two acts, the story would be rushed and unpolished, I would need to make too many compromises. 

…Also, I don’t want to be strapped of creative juices when it comes time to write Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Justice X White Genocide.

Now, I would feel bad about this… though, I truly think this is for the best, and to any who are critical of this delay… I’m still going to release over 300,000 words throughout the month of June. And if that’s not enough for you… I don’t know what to tell you. 

Okay, that is a significant enough schedule overhaul that I think issuing a new tentative, preliminary, and always flexible schedule:

• Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp Act 1 – May 29, 2024
• Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp Act 2 – June 14, 2024
• Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Justice X White Genocide – November 5, 2024
• Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp Act 3 – July 1, 2025
• Psycho Shatter 2000: Black Vice Mania – December 12, 2025
• Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp Act 4 – July 18, 2026.
• Psycho Shatter 2001: Weiss Vice Omake – December 21, 2026
• Psycho Shatter Alternative: Kaede ♥ Senpai ~Kiwami~ – March 20, 2027
• Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp Act 5 – August 1, 2027
• Illmalice – 2030 or later
• Psycho Shatter VN: Vice Novus – 2033 or later

Yes, I plan things out that far in advance.

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TSF Showcase 2024-05
Boku Tamasaburo by Ono Shinji (Yoshimura Tatsumasa)

We’re going back to the past yet again with a super obscure 1983 TSF manga provided by Natalie.TF all-star ChariShal with Boku Tamasaburo. I would offer some backstory as to this comic, though there really isn’t any as far as I can tell. It came out 40 years ago, the series was seemingly canceled after seven chapters, and if you want the full story, you would probably need to dig up old magazine notices and interviews. Also, the mangaka responsible for it passed away in 1995, according to Manga Updates, and I have not heard of any of his other works. Also, quick disclosure, I helped Chari out with the proofreading process. Now, without further ado, let’s just get into this comic!

Titular protagonist is Tamasaburo Sakanishi, a 13-year-old kid with a crush on one of his classmates, Kanako Minakuchi. Rather than just stew in insecurities, Tamasaburo just shouts at her, introducing himself, and asking her out on a date. Kanako accepts, and everything is looking right as rain for Tamasaburo… until a baseball zooms itself into his crotch, sending his balls up into his inguinal canal. Unable to yank them out, Tamasaburo heads home and hopes that his balls will return. Instead, as he prepares for his date the following day, his entire body undergoes a rapid TSF transformation. Complete with a bigger chest, narrower waist, broader hips, a higher voice, and a flat crotch.

Before going on, there are three things I want to talk about regarding this transformation. One, Tamasaburo is a first-year middle schooler, which I extrapolate into him being 12 or 13. 13 sounds better, so I’m going with that. This makes his transformation into someone with such… developed features a rather strange choice. Yes, puberty affects different people at different rates, though he’s… fully developed. Also, it makes any instance where female Tamasaburo is sexualized by adult men, and there are a lot of those, extra scuzzy.

Two, this is actually a surprisingly good TS/TG transformation sequence from a creator established outside of and before the subculture really came into its own. You have the gradual discovery, the shock and panic over having a different body, highlighting different bodily parts, and gradually doling out the changes to both the audience and protagonist. 

Three, I find the whole mechanism to Tamasaburo’s transformation to be very cute. For those not in the know, when they say that AMAB people’s ‘balls drop’ they are referring to the testicles being released from the inguinal canal, where they are then left dangling in the scrotum. Most men never bother trying to shove their testicles back inside there because… it hurts. Testicles are not meant to be that close to body heat, as it kills the sperm. However, many trans women, and trans femmes, engage in the process of tucking their testicles back into their inguinal canal and keeping their testicles in place using their penis and a gaff. Doing so makes their crotches flatter, makes it easier to wear femme clothing, and offers a certain level of comfort. Well, after the first few days, when it hurts like a ripe bastard. (I wore a gaff for ~12 hours a day for 5 years, so I know all about this stuff.)

Now, I don’t actually think Yoshimura Tatsumasa had this trans angle in mind when writing this story. This was 1984 after all. I just find it to be funny that there is a TSF protagonist who transformed by doing something trans women do to help curb gender dysphoria and present as female.

Anyway, where was I? …Right!

Since he still has a date this morning, Tamasaburo improvises, dresses up in his sister’s clothes, adopts the pseudonym of Tamago, and poses as a girl to meet up with Kanako. He passes well, gets flirted on by some delinquents, and manages to hit it off with Kanako, while preventing her from getting too angry with his regular identity. In fact, it goes well enough for Kanako to invite Tamago back to her home where they relax, have tea, talk about who Kanako likes, and have a proxy date that ends when Kanako… just falls asleep. Even though it’s, like, 11:30 in the morning. Still, a win’s a win, through his invasion of her privacy Tamasaburo is confident that Kanako likes him, and everything is going groovy… except for how he is still a girl.

That brings the first chapter to a close, and Boku Tamasaburo has already established that it is more of a… TSF disguise story. A story where the transformation is used as more of a social superpower, allowing the character to deploy two identities while navigating around different social situations and form dual relationships with people. Kind of like how it was deployed in 1972’s Doron, yet extended into a more comedic, chapter-based, setup. Despite having what is regularly referred to as an attractive female body, Tamasaburo is not interested in doing anything sexual with his female body. He uses it as a tool to reach his goals and, based on some of the looks he throws together, he likes looking pretty.

However, this is not a one-way transformation, as Tamasaburo eventually learns how to switch between these two forms. Yet rather than featuring two different switches for switching between forms, such as sex/electricity, hot/cold water, or gender affirmation/magic, Tamasaburo’s transformations are triggered by one thing. Pain! If Tamasaburo trips, gets bonked on the head, or undergoes any sort of physical shock, he switches forms. This is a highly versatile transformation tool for an 80s comedy manga, because slapstick was still en vogue, and allows the story to switch Tamasaburo’s sex in inopportune moments. It is something that can easily be manipulated, just as easily done by accident, and the transformation time takes… a few minutes to play out, though it gets faster as time goes on. Now, I’d ask how tripping or getting bonked in the head gets Tamasaburo’s balls out of his canal… except I don’t really care.

The subsequent six chapters all build on this disguise angle in their own way, and all center around Tamasaburo’s pursuits of Kanako, as he is just a regular old loverboy like that. Chapter 2 follows Tamasaburo, still stuck in girl mode, as he goes to the pool with Kanako to keep the school playboy, Masao Kusakari from wooing her. Mostly by lying and framing him as a pervert while enjoying the perks of being the hottest girl at the pool. I’d say it showcases Tamasaburo learning what it means to be desired rather than desiring someone else but… he’s 13 and I don’t want to touch that.

Chapter 3 sees Kanako attend a beauty contest for teen girls to earn a trip to Guam, only for Tamasaburo to enter the contest as Tamago, leading to a lot of the usual hijinks. Scoping out the girls changing room, using the wrong bathroom, breaking kayfabe by acting masculine while in a female space, and Tamasaburo being seen as the prettiest girl of them all. Even after Tamasaburo trips and discovers how to undo his transformation, he still riles up the horndogs in the audience with a wardrobe malfunction. That might sound lecherous, but in execution I found it to be more cute than anything.

Chapter 4 sees the 13-year-old Tamago and Kanako enjoying their vacation in Gaum, alone, with no supervision. Tamasaburo gets even closer to Kanako through their female relationship. He saves her from child predators by seducing them into jellyfish-filled waters. And another bout of lewd hijinks are underway during a limbo competition. A competition hosted by racist stereotypes who… were not okay, even in the 80s. The competition follows a similar setup from the beauty contest and seeing Tamasaburo win because he turns back into a man at the precisely right time. It’s a pretty novel idea, as I guess limbo is an instance where boob shrinking can be beneficial and boners are not, though it is a strange thing to fixate on as the crux for a chapter. The competition also bears no prize for Tamasaburo, which is weird as this entire trip was a competition prize.

Before moving to chapter 5, I need to acknowledge that this work is a sex comedy, though in a slightly more lecherous way than I prefer, due to the use of disguise, i.e. subterfuge. Much of this series is just about Tamasaburo using his Tamago identity to get physically closer to get his jollies off. From looking at her boobs, watching her present herself more casually, or just copping a feel. It is, of course, all played for comedy, and not meant to be serious, yet it is not as transparently playful as, say, Electric-Exchanger, and Tamasaburo is never punished for his perversions.

Chapter 5 is the school physical chapter and it is divided into two halves. The first half sees Tamasaburo getting a physical while in his girl form from a mostly blind male doctor. By stealing the doctor’s glasses and pretending his back is his chest, he is able to bamboozle the poor old man. Which is a sufficiently humorous and goofy premise, though it is founded on some questionable sequencing. Why doesn’t he just perform a physical shock on himself to return to normal to avoid this conflict? Because it’s funnier this way. Now, why doesn’t he go to school as male and then become female after falling down in his chair, which should be considered a physical shock? …That’s a tougher nut to crack.

Everything works out for Tamasaburo, yet again, and Kanako even invites him out to the movies after school. …But he is something of a greedy Gus and poses as a female doctor to scope out Kanako’s naked body. He steals clothes and a wig from… somewhere, breaks into the announcement room, and engages in all sorts of shenanigans with Kanako. Massaging her boobs, enlarging her smaller boob using a dirty toilet plunger, and presenting his growing boner— which points forward, like a real penis— as his pregnant belly. It’s almost absurd enough for me to love it… just not quite.

Chapter 6 is a far more traditional disguise story, as it sees Kanako invite both Tamasaburo and Tamago out to a hot springs village. Meaning the core of the chapter is about Tamasaburo crossdressing and transforming between these alternate personae in order to avoid suspicion from Kanako, while getting into many a scramble. Ruining a honeymoon (and marriage), performing an accidental strip show for… at least 27 men, dressing up one of those peeing child statues, and getting into a TF malfunction in a hot spring. I have a real soft spot for chapters, or episodes, that follow this format, as it is always a good vessel for confusion, misconceptions, tension, and excitement. You pretty much know the protagonist won’t get caught here, but the new location and the constant flipping back and forward leaves a lot of room for comedy, and this one sure delivers.

Chapter 7 follows a similar idea, though with the context of a lively birthday party. Tamasaburo  invites Kanako over, he manages to get closer to her by transferring a ping-pong ball between their mouths and playing… Twister? Well, it’s more like bingo mixed with twister, which is still a good enough excuse to get Tamasaburo’s face crushed between Kanako’s thighs and panties. The sexual tension is too much for Tamasaburo, he loses, and is subjected to a most severe punishment. Crossdressing! 

Before continuing, I should clarify something that reinforces the idea of this being more of a disguise or alternate identity story than a TSF story. While Tamasaburo’s body changes as part of the transformation, that is mostly his primary/secondary sexual features. His face is androgynous and does not change, while his voice changes, he can apparently flip between them at will, and his hair does not grow or recede— he just uses a wig. Because of these factors, he can fulfill his male and female personae while physically being either sex. Which means if he is wearing baggier female clothing and a wig, he winds up passing no problem, as he looks just like Tamago. …And when he tries crossdressing, everybody just thinks he is Tamago.

Desperate and locked into a corner, Tamasaburo tries crossdressing again, this time aiming to look ugly. He doesn’t like doing this, and knows he is just making himself look bad, yet he has no alternative. Unfortunately, even this was not enough, and he still gets clocked as Tamago, leading to a… pretty half-ass conclusion that raises a lot of questions about Tamasaburo’s sewing skills.

That’s how the comic ends. With a final chapter that did not actually feature any physical transformation. Though it does, in a sense, feel like a sufficient place to end it. The final chapter sees Tamasaburo in his biggest bind yet, and it’s not clear where the story could go next without changing its status quo. Such as giving Tamasaburo a confidant, or advancing his relationship with Kanako.

Before pivoting into the conclusion, let me quickly talk about the artwork here. I always find the 80s to be a fascinating era to look back to when it comes to anime and manga, as it was home to the biggest transformation of aesthetics. You had artists trained in older styles and aiming for something more realistic or based on the western cartoon inspired works of the 60s and 70s. Yet you also had the artists who were doing their part to define what would become the dominant style throughout the 90s. Which eventually led to what most people imagine when they hear the anime art style.

Boku Tamasaburo is definitely more old school, still containing many classical cartoon sensibilities while also aiming to capture some form of reality. Expressions are still exaggerated and eyes are, generally, large and given a great deal of attention. I personally found it to be cute, filled with a lot of endearing small details, tiny expressions, and sprinkles of visual ambition, such as the limbo sequence. It’s clearly the work of a skilled creator, just one who operated in a different time with different standards. I also need to give shout outs to Chari for their scans here, as they really do the artwork justice. They are so high resolution and clean that you can see every pen stroke.

As a 40-year-old comic, I of course find it to be an interesting historical relic in mapping the evolution of the TSF genre. Boku Tamasaburo came out a decade after the genre really got started with works like Joka he… and Boku no Shotaiken, yet before seminal works like Ranma ½, which helped mainstream the concept of TSF.

On that note, I brought up how it still feels very much based in the conventions of a disguise or alternate identity story, rather than something more internal or personal. And how its perversions are very much a product of their time, aimed to match the sexual fantasies of the shonen audience it was aiming for. Not necessarily being a girl, but being able to get close to girls, get to see their boobs, and be seen as safe and comfortable around them. However, that does not mean Boku Tamasaburo fails as a TSF story.

The story is ultimately about the protagonist dealing and coping with a transformation, reaping the boons and withstanding the banes that come with it. Whether it be making use of newfound assets or trying to hide one’s transformation to preserve their reputation around their loved ones. Throughout the story, Tamasaburo does become more comfortable and happy with his female form, with the sixth chapter starting with him going shopping for new clothes and enjoying the stares he gets for being such a cutie. He wants to transform back at the start of the story, yet once he finds a way to get back to normal, he just uses this as an asset. He does not view this form with scorn, and near the end of the story, he is starting to take pride in it. It becomes a part of him and… that’s something that I like it to see. 

Sure, a single irreversible transformation has more drama and gravitas than a gender fluid power fantasy, but… gender fluid power fantasies are dope! When Boku Tamasaburo leans into this, and chooses to be a playful sex comedy, I think it has moments of excellence. However, the work lacked sufficient time or room to really expand upon its burgeoning identity. If it got another volume or two, I’m sure it could have found its voice and vibe and become something that I could hold up as a classic. Yet it comes just short of that. 

I’d still openly recommend Boku Tamasaburo as a historical artifact that features the early development of many familiar TSF trappings, and a historical curio that could have easily been lost to time. Though, I wouldn’t say you’re missing out on something special or foundational, like many of the other relics Chari has unearthed. It’s a lot of fun and well worth a read.

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Deus Ex Capitalism
(Embracer Canned a Deus Ex Game in Pre-Production)

Well, here’s a story that played out in a predictable way. Another Jason Schreier Bloomberg piece dropped this past week, revealing that Embracer Group canceled a Deus Ex video game that was in pre-production at Eidos Montreal for two years (as part of larger layoffs). This was met with the usual waves of “fuck Embracer” from people who were rightfully upset that a game in a vastly promising yet perpetually cursed series was shuttered yet again. As is becoming a recurring theme, while I understood the source of the frustration, I was bothered by how this anger was directed.

I have no love for Embracer. I was fascinated by their actions 5-ish years ago and found their efforts to accumulate the resources of various AA developers and discarded IP to be promising. However, as they continued to grow and grow, they became highly susceptible to risk, and their size became untenable. Which makes them prone to failure points if one of several things happen. Gaming undergoes a ‘decline’ after a perceived high. Investors stop putting money into game companies, or companies in general. A global recession happened or felt like it was happening. Or they got bamboozled by an 8% investor who bailed on a $2 billion contract at the last minute.

…Unfortunately for Embracer, all of those happened in one year. As such, I find it hard to really get angry at them, as they were put into a shaky position in general, and pretty much every major western gaming company has been plagued with layoffs. Which, as should have become  obvious after the Microsoft story last week, means project cancellations. 

Though, I would like to clarify what type of cancellation this was. As this new Deus Ex game was still in the pre-production, testing, and conceptual phase. Per the article, this project “was slated to enter production later this year.” This might surprise some people but… a lot of games suffered the same fate, are suffering the same fate, and will suffer the same fate. All because video games exist within the system of the world and… do I even need to go through this spiel again? I sound like an AI chatbot with how much I come to the same conclusion of ‘this is a systemic issue, and one should hate the game, not the player.’ But… that is because the same shit keeps happening. And my response does not change that much from week to week.

So, I hate to say that this Deus Ex game was probably doomed regardless of the owner, and already had a good chance of getting canceled just due to when it entered pre-production. …But I just said that, and it’s true.

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It’s Fate That You Stay Away!
(Fate/Stay Night Remastered Is Getting An International Release)

Huh. After Witch on the Holy Night was localized this past December and the Tsukihime remake saw a localization announcement at Anime Expo 2023, this really shouldn’t surprise me. 2004’s Fate/Stay Night is one of those visual novels of near mythological importance due to its massive impact. It not only birthed a prolific multimedia series with a truly daunting scale, but it sent ripple effects across both the world of visual novels and doujin. It left such an impact that I feel out of my field trying to talk about it as… I don’t really care about Fate/Stay Night.

For one, it’s on my shit list for not properly capitalizing its title, being legally written as Fate/stay night. And for two, I find it very hard to personally care about this series. I do not like anything about the premise of the Holy Grail War, from the use of classes to repurposed historical figures to even the whole battle for a wish that happens every however many years. I hate the whole slave/master dynamic they have going on with the servants. The character designs never really appealed to me for whatever reason. The protagonist looks like an anime-ified pre-transition teen version of myself, right down to the baseball tee and black pants. That was my look throughout high school. And whenever I brushed paths with the sprawling franchise… I just shrugged it off, not finding anything to latch onto. 

However, the game is still influential beyond a doubt, and not just in Japan, as the fan translation struck a chord with many a teenager back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Like CaptainCaption of re:Dreamer fame! So I guess you could say that I don’t want to touch this game, but I still respect it. …Wow, that is probably the most backhanded compliment I could muster. “I respect you Fate, but I will not speak to you, look you in the eye, or shake your hand.”

Anyway, Fate/Stay Night Remastered is just a remastered version of the 2012 PS Vita release, Fate/Stay Night Réalta Nua. Meaning there will be no sex scenes or anything, full Japanese voice acting, and whatever doodads they added in that release. The game will be released in English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese for Switch and PC via Steam sometime in 2024. Hopefully, the localization has some money behind it so there isn’t some screed about how the old translation was better. Because goodness do I hate it when those troglodytes leave their orifices.

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The Volition to Shapeshift!
(Former Volition Staff Establish Support Studio Shapeshifter Games)

Game development is so expensive these days that it’s basically impossible for a new AAA studio to just spawn from the ether. Companies like that require a lot of funding, staff, and contract work in order to stay afloat and pay the bills. It is comparably easy to open up an indie studio for a van’s worth of people. …Though the indie market is hostile and for every success story you hear, there are at least seven games that just failed to penetrate the market. Becoming a mobile studio is feasible, and is more appealing to many investors, but… then you are making mobile games that are designed to extract money from the exploitable.

However, there is another approach that… honestly makes a lot of sense when you stop and think about it. Opening up a support studio! If you look at the credits for basically any major console game these days, you will find various support studios who helped out with the title. This is common practice, and has been for a decade, and with the scale of development getting bigger and bigger, it will only become more common.

Just for an example, 2024’s darling controversial sensation Palworld makes its credits public, and developer Pocket Pair worked with a bunch of studios to make this game. VnQ provided QA. Caprine Co. Ltd. offered programming support. Plus Signal Co., Ltd. provided SFX work. Studio Sledgehammer Inc. supplied character art. Keywords and Lakshya Digital did a bunch of stuff, because they’re Keywords and do everything for everyone. Active Gaming Media, Inc. did the localization. Shift Inc. did… a bunch of stuff, because they have more employees than Nintendo. It does not take just one studio to make a multi-million-dollar game these days. It takes, like, five, at a minimum.

As such, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a group of former Volition staff rallied together to form a ‘co-development studio’ called Shapeshifter Games. …That is a great name for a TF games studio, but they just made their logo a damn wolf/bear and probably won’t be working on anything that cool! Drats! 

…Wait, no, not drats! This means that a bunch of developers down in Champaign, Illinois found their footing after their livelihoods were suddenly taken away from them, rather than moving up to Chicago for software jobs. That’s great! I don’t have much to add other than I hope they succeed, get to do fulfilling work for kind clients, and make enough money to keep them going for years to come.

I mentioned this back when Volution closed in August, but they were located in a college town, without much outside industry, and too far from Chicago to really commute there and back. Which I actually think is a pretty good place for tech companies because… they have a steady stream of passionate young people willing to work for peanuts if they get to buff up their resume. …Or they could just work at one of the many tech startups that students establish there.

…Nah, it’s better to work at an established company run by adults who can impart knowledge, rather than smart dudes who think they know everything because they know one complex thing. Because even if they have a 4.0 and get on the Dean’s List and have all these extracurriculars, they’re still a dumb child who lived in a glass ball.

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State of Play Slurp Up!
(The Un-Nintendo Direct)

I don’t know if it is more of a cultural difference or just a cyclical feedback loop, but State of Play never really manages to garner the attention or enthusiasm of a Nintendo Direct. Possibly because Sony has never been as successful at cultivating a uniform aesthetic and a true core audience. And when it comes time for them to showcase a title… it just feels like a bunch of trailers stitched together. Kind of like Microsoft’s E3 shows throughout the latter 2010s. 

I didn’t actually watch the State of Play itself, but there were various announcements made. With the big one being a prolonged overview trailer of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. Having never played the first one, I was confused by nearly everything shown, though I do respect how indulgent it is in its eccentricities and how passionate it is about… everything.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach will launch for PS5 in 2025

…Also, PlayStation Studios, Sony Pictures, and Kojima Productions are working on a stealth action game called Physint for next generation hardware. Yep, a next generation game that… has not even started full production. I would call this a premature announcement, though these things are made prematurely mostly to recruit staff and curb leaks. Some might say they set unrealistic expectations, though I would say that is because people don’t know how things are made. 

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Sonic Generations is BACK!
(Sonic X Shadow Generations Announced)

It’s deeply baffling how Sonic Team just… didn’t go back to the template of Sonic Generations after it came out in 2011. The game did not bomb, though it only sold 1.85 million copies within its first holiday season. That number might sound good… but it really wasn’t, as Sega was pushing this game hard. Sadly, it was a budget release during one of the busiest months of that gaming generation, so… a lot of people just picked it up a year or two later. I know I did.

This is all a shame, as Sonic Generations had the lowest amount of bullshit out of any Sonic game. Stages ranged from great to excellent, barring the more middling Crisis City and Planet Wisp. And the side missions were… Actually, no, those jank-ass special missions were endearingly incompetent at worst. And you could listen to Race to Win during all of them! The game laid such a good foundation that it became home to a swarth of mods, including the celebrated Unleashed Project, yet never saw a true successor.

Akumako: “What about Sonic Forces?”

…Don’t be an ass.

Anyway, Sega is giving Sonic Generations the old remaster refresh to help keep the series relevant and keep Sonic fans satiated, if unsatisfied. …Except that is a pretty scary idea after how the last basic-ass remasters went. 

Sonic Colors Ultimate was broken at launch and was never fixed. You’re straight up better off playing the Wii version upscaled via Dolphin with a 60 fps code, a HD texture pack, and running it at downsampled 4K. It looks better and plays better too!

Sonic Origins is a grossly inferior product compared to the numerous widescreen fan ports that the series received, including Sonic 1 Forever, Sonic 2 Absolute, and Sonic 3 AIR. Further granting evidence to the theory that Sonic fans are the best at making and optimizing Sonic games. Even better than Sonic fans! …Wait.

Fortunately, this at least looks to be an in-house job by Sonic Team, or at least that appears to be the case, and various fan sites are operating under that assumption. 

Akumako: “Yeah, of course Sonic Team is developing this shit! Because it’s a remaster and expansion!”

That’s right my demonic daughter!

Akumako: “We’re cousins. …Or, sisters? Demon lineage is—”

This remaster is Sonic X Shadow Generations and will feature its own sub-campaign, of indeterminate length, following Shadow and feature the recreation of various stages from Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog, and probably more titles. Only snippets of gameplay were shown, so it’s not yet known if these will be up to par with the high quality stages of the original. However… being a Sonic fan is about hoping for the best while expecting the worst. So, I’ll just leave it there.

Sonic X Shadow Generations will be released for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC in autumn 2024.

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Supermassive Games Got Done Dirty…
(Sony is Having A New Studio Replace Until Dawn)

Maybe I’m just not up to date on PlayStation lore, but I’m pretty sure that something nasty happened between PlayStation and developer Supermassive Games. They signed on to work with Sony as a second party developer and did a lot of little odd jobs throughout the PS3 era. LittleBigPlanet DLC, some PlayStation Eye party game, and an HD remaster of Killzone that I either never knew about or completely forgot about. However, they had breakout success with 2015’s horror adventure game, Until Dawn, and were quickly put on the VR train until their relationship just ended when they made 2018’s Bravo Team. The premiere shooter for PlayStation VR. 

Following this, Supermassive partnered up with Bandai Namco for a multi-game contract and 2K Games for what was basically a sequel to Until Dawn, just aping off of another horror setting. Clearly, something happened during or leading up to 2018. Yet rather than let this relationship fade back into the past, Sony had decided to remaster and enhance Until Dawn as… Until Dawn for PS5 and PC. Huh. It’s almost like they’re trying to erase the legacy of the original by not only using the same name, but having a completely unrelated studio do the remaster. …Which is what they are doing as, rather than contracting Supermassive, this remaster will be done by a small UK studio that Sony acquired back in 2023, Ballistic Moon.

This whole thing just strikes me as… weirdly petty. Everything around it can easily be read in a negative light though there are some positives. It is nice that they are letting a new studio cut their teeth by porting a game over to UE5— which is not as easy as one would hope it to be, and the enhancements seem nice. New animations, a new perspective for those who dislike fixed camera angles, new locations, new music— wait, no, that last one is… debatable.

Regardless of my mixed thoughts on this remaster, Until Dawn for PS5 and PC (2024) will be released for PS5 and PC sometime in 2024. 

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The Open World Woes!
(Natalie Rambles About Palworld – Week 2)

It’s time for a new recurring segment here at Natalie.TF, as I’m still playing Palworld with Cassie, and while I will review the game, I also feel like putting out weekly tidbits about it. Kind of like what I did a decade ago when playing Skyrim. …Wow I have zero memory of actually writing those. And I’m not linking them.

Anyway, Palworld is the first true modern open world game I have played in several years, and I am quickly remembering the reasons why I don’t get along with the genre. A lack of direction and an overabundance of minutia. When playing an open world game, I like to go through things area by area, zone by zone, clear them, and move on once I am satisfied with my progress. However, few open world games properly accommodate this playstyle, and nearly all of them have an intended progression path… that is never obvious to me.

In short, I don’t know where I am supposed to go in Palworld, and regularly find myself perplexed by certain areas I’ve come across. Such as the beach peninsula located to the west of the starting area, and the forested peninsula further west. These areas don’t really have unique pals to capture and are generally around the same level cap a player will breeze through while clearing the tutorial. Why are they designed this way? Why are they filled with such weak common pals, when they have nothing else of unique value? Actually, let me look at a level map for— …What is this?

Looking at this map created by Rock Paper Shotgun, I marked the starting area with a red star and… I’m at a loss for words. This design makes sense if you want various starting areas but… not in any other instance. This is dumb!

Moving from one tangent to another, exploring these areas is also less than ideal due to how Palworld handles… exploration. Movement is slow, progression relies heavily on fast travel points, and players are constantly getting overencumbered. This creates a gameplay loop of players routinely returning to their base to drop off materials, rearrange their inventory, check on their base workers, and shove off to the next point of intrigue. This all would work… if not for the weight system.

The weight system is a holdover part of the survival game genre and I, frankly, do not see it as a tool to create interesting decisions. It discourages players from carrying around extra materials and resources, i.e. not bring anything but essential tools. And it makes resource accumulation a fraught exercise. 

The world of Palworld is littered with stone to mine, trees to chop, and ore to harvest. However, the weight of these materials discourages players from mining them while out adventuring, as… wood, rocks, and metal ore are heavy. This proves to be especially frustrating when it comes to higher tier materials, such as coal, sulfur, and quartz. Materials that players need, yet cannot use without pausing their exploration, backtracking, and putting it into a box for later. It… it just sucks. If there was some way I could modify my server to double, triple, or pentuple the capacity for all players, I would do that so damn quickly. Except I can’t… yet!

Now, let’s talk about the minutia, namely, the titular pals. When starting out in the game, I never paid too much mind to what pals I was using. By the time I published last week’s rundown, I had established a stable team of five critters with decent elemental coverage. Unfortunately, pals have the exact same problem as Pokémon. They have stats that can be upgraded via sacrifices. Passive abilities that they are born with and cannot be changed. And their own movepool that can be customized using skill fruits. It has pretty much all the things I dislike about building a team, or just playing a Pokémon game, and while I wanted to ignore it… Cassie made it hard to, what with her forging The Ultimate Weapon! …A Caprity with insanely high stats. …Cassie likes green things and fluffy things.

This is where I started seeing what the true endgame was for Palworld. Breeding various pals in order to create the genetically superior pal, while also feeding them other pals to boost their power. Also known as a bunch of boring number manipulation that I have no patience for yet I kept getting tempted by. 

The balancing for pals is also strange, as while pals can one-shot opponents found in the field, pals can often struggle to damage even lower level bosses. Now, this could just be because I’m not using good type matchups on enemies, and that is true. …My counterpoint is how the game weirdly discourages players from approaching encounters with ideal type matchups. 

Palworld operates on a basic nine element system, yet every element only has one strength and weakness. Except for fire, which has two strengths, and neutral, which has no strengths. This is, conceptually achievable within a five pal team, each with three move slots, though it requires some finagling to get them arranged, and it makes sense to switch out one’s team regularly. Both to accommodate new pals and to adapt to the elements of pals common in new areas. …Insert Pokémon comparison here.

Unfortunately, there is no good way to level up pals without making them part of your party. No training camp you can assign them to, no items to use on them, and leveling up pals is… both fast and slow. The level scaling boosts up low level pals quickly, yet after a point it staggers and pals will typically stay a few levels below the player. So, rather than having leveling be a passive experience, players need to grind for it. …Or maybe I just wasn’t fighting enough bosses, even though I made it a point to farm them.

Also, some pals are just better than others and there is no way to evolve them into other pals. Despite how many of the creatures look like they could be part of a Pokémon or Robopon or Digimon like series of evolution lines, that just is not a feature with Palworld. Which… is pretty lame. Digimon evolution lines would work SO well here!

Akumako: “Sounds like you hate the game!”

Huh? No. I actually still like the game, It just has a lot of crap that I wish was different about it. This is sadly part of a major defect with me, in that I find it harder to appreciate the vision and systems of a game compared to, say, a comic. 

Akumako: “…Didn’t you write, like, over 350 video game reviews?”

Yeah! That doesn’t mean I’m good at it! 

…Joking aside, I am still having fun with Palworld. I still like seeing what new areas have to offer, collecting pals, and taking on bosses. I’m just a bit out of my depth with how these games are supposed to be played, as I have made abundantly clear by now. I do think it is a genuinely good game, and I am quite excited to see where it will go given its continued success.

This past week, Pocket Pair announced that the game saw 12 million players on Steam and 7 million on Xbox. While that does not translate directly to sales, because of Game Pass, that is still a massive number of players for any game to see, and indicates that Palworld has quite the life ahead of it.

Realistically, I think Pocket Pair will go on a bit of a hiring spree so they can get more devs with UE4 experience (and there are a lot of those) to work on this project. Fix bugs, help implement new features, expand the scope, etc. They have a big game on their hands. And while it will fall off over time and see a major decline in a month or two, I’m sure that they want people to keep coming back, and keep talking about the game. 

That’s kind of the make it or break it for a game like this. Not necessarily consuming the lives of a few people, but giving all players an excuse to come back every few months with major updates.

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Progress Report 2024-02-04

2024-01-28: I got back on the writing saddle and just barely managed to squeeze out 3,000 words for VD2.0 CH 6-24 before hitting a blank spot in my outline, so… gotta do that tomorrow. I wanted to write more, but Cassie and I had to watch 7 anime episodes and wound up playing Palworld for about three hours. So… yeah. I love Cassie, she’s my best bud, but she can be a time vampire.

2024-01-29: I was busy working today, because ProSeries finally added state tax returns. And guess who had to load them into 120+ clients? Not my boss! My only objective today was the TSF Showcase, and I wrote 2,800 words. …On a single volume manga. I’d say I should rename this website to “Natalie… the fuck?” but I already did!

2024-01-30: I was busy today, and Cassie roped me into playing Palworld for 2.5 hours, so I only wrote 2,000 words for the Rundown.

2024-01-31: Another busy day, so I only managed to get 1,000 words for the Rundown and about 700 words for VD2.0 CH 6-24.

2024-02-01: Wrote 1,400 words for the Palworld segment and got this Rundown ret-2-go, all 7,500 words! That left me with little time for VD2.0 CH 6-24, but I still managed to crank out 550 words. Would have done more, but I like playing with Cassie.

2024-02-02: Oops! It was another work day, I was busy for a full 9-to-5, and I wound up playing Palworld with Cassie again. I only started writing at around 21:00, spend an hour on the bike and showering, and only wrote 2,400 words for VD2.0 CH 6-24 before I got tired. Bad Natalie!

2024-02-03: Shit. I only got done with 2,400 words today because I was busy playing with Cassie, again, and had some bad creativity blocks with the ending of this chapter. Still, the main chapter is done, and I couldn’t really work on the Posse Logs, as I was too tired. After I do the Posse Logs, I really need to finish the outline for Act 2.

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Verde’s Doohickey 2.0: Sensational Summer Romp
Acts 1 and 2 Progress Report:

Current Word Count: 286,542

Estimated Word Count: ~350,000

Total Chapters: 34

Chapters Outlined: 31

Chapters Drafted: 26

Chapters Edited: 0

Header Images Made: 0 

Days Until Deadline: 115