Rundown (8/03/2025) How Square Enix Fumbled Final Fantasy

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This Week’s Topics:

Rundown Preamble Ramble:
Why Don’t Zoomies Care About Final Fantasy?

So, a topic that I have seen come up over the past year and change— especially after the smashing success of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33— has been why the Final Fantasy series does not resonate with a younger audience and why ‘kids today don’t like the things I liked when I had their virility.’ This is a topic I have mused over before, and I received thoughtful responses from my commentors. But after letting that thought stew in the Rube Goldberg pressure cooker I call a brain, I have come up with a lot of reasons for Final Fantasy’s decline in cultural relevance.

Why did the series fail to capture the hearts of a new generation? Well, the answer is complicated, but I can sum it up in three paragraphs. In Japan, Final Fantasy was a powerhouse series since its debut, with the Famicom entries all selling incredibly well, same with the Super Famicom entries. The series became an international mega-hit with the release of Final Fantasy VII (1997) and this relevance was carried forward by the downright legendary run SquareSoft had throughout the PS1 era. FF8, FF9, and the landmark title of Final Fantasy X (2001) for PS2. You could even throw in Final Fantasy XI (2002) as a successful early 2000s Everquest-like MMO. Just not a mainstream success, because MMOs are for freaks.

This cultural prominence lasted maybe a decade, but faded away sometime around the release and cultural appraisal of Final Fantasy XIII (2009). The series then had another shot with Final Fantasy XV (2016) to reinvigorate things, but despite strong sales, the game was ultimately released in an unfinished state, requiring a paid season pass to flesh out the title. …Yet even that was not enough to fix the FF15, as it was a game made of problems. Then the series finally cut a break with Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020), a veritable dream game 15 years in the imagining, but after playing it, and jumping ship to a new, less popular, platform, people stopped caring. They got what they wanted with FF7R, the desire for a direct sequel, released four years later, an eternity in COVID time, was not quite there. And attempts to broaden the series further with FF XVI failed to resonate with audience, given the different characters, mechanics, and vibes.

…Which is the big thing that differs Final Fantasy from most other major IPs like this. Every game is truly something different, and this inconsistency, this desire to change the way basic, fundamental systems and presentational elements work, has deteriorated the brand identity. What is a Final Fantasy game is no longer clear, and it frankly hasn’t been for about twenty years. Final Fantasy has a Final Fantasy problem.

That is the short version, but I feel that it is missing a lot of nuance. Square Enix had something big from 1997 to 2001, but then things slowly fell apart, due to a confluence of factors.

The first one was the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). A highly ambitious film that suffered from a bad script, overly loose vision, terrible budgeting and financial planning, and the costs of cutting edge technology. The film was a financial failure for SquareSoft, put the company as a whole in a bind, while preventing Final Fantasy from expanding past the realm of games. If it was a successful film— if it was just a condensed version of Final Fantasy VII‘s Midgard section— if it was the 3D CGI Akira (1988) of the early 2000s— we would be living in… a better timeline. Instead, this disparaged series co-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, led him to leave, taking several key staff members along with him.

The second factor is all the other people who left SquareSoft from about 1999 to 2003, such as people from the Xenogears team led by Tetsuya Takahashi, who went on to form Monolith Productions. The company was becoming bigger, the rampant creative energy of the PS1 era was fading away, and the pressure to deliver high selling hits was growing. Certain people, with some hit games behind them, left for greener pastures. It’s something that happens with basically every game studio, detonating a clear end of an era. The only major exception I can think of is Nintendo, but I’m pretty sure Nintendo puts something in their water to keep people in The Complex.

The third factor is, of course, Enix’s acquisition of Square. Now, you might say that they were not acquired. That the studios merged. But there is no such thing as a true merger in business. There is only a top and a bottom, and SquareSoft was definitely the bottom, with Enix being the top, bringing in their own management, and they kind of fucked up all the good things SquareSoft had going for them. Now, the exact reasons are murky and would likely require digging through and reading between the lines of dozens of interviews. But you can plainly observe that something was wrong just by looking at the titles released before and after, the direction the company took during the late 2000s, and how muddled the name Final Fantasy became.

They had big plans to continue Final Fantasy as a brand, to capitalize on its international recognition, but they… struggled to maintain the momentum that they had fostered. Which brings me into the remaining factors. All of which could be summarized as ‘no Final Fantasy game after FF10 hit quite the same.’

Final Fantasy X-2 Was Too Different:

SquareSoft was quick to push out a sequel to Final Fantasy X with the cutely named Final Fantasy X-2 (2003), offering the first direct sequel in the series. And while it sold oodles, it was a somewhat contentious sequel, and failed to capture the same allure of the original as, well, it wasn’t a game about saving the world or characters undergoing significant arcs. It was about three plucky young treasure hunters wearing cool early 2000s fashion while searching for the protagonist of the first game. It did well, but by being the most girly pop JRPG to leave Japan for a hot minute, it was definitely a pivot for the brand, and not one that was designated as a spin-off. It was technically a mainline numbered entry.

Or, to give a more 2003 explanation: It was a girly game for girls. Playing a game full Asian pop stars was gay (unless you worked your dick to it). And this was an era where 14 to 34 White males were the main demographic for video games in the West. I mean, they still are today, but that’s changing.

Kingdom Hearts Failed to Sell The Series:

Square Enix also attempted to broaden the series appeal with, Kingdom Hearts, a sister series to Final Fantasy that featured overlapping iconography, including items, jobs, and various names. But the most notable overlap were characters from Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 10. Ideally, this would have been a great way to advertise the games to a broader, and younger, audience, especially given the pervasive popularity of Kingdom Hearts. …Except these characters were not going to be in the latest Final Fantasy game. They were always from years-old games that you could buy if you were curious, but not new upcoming releases. Since its inception, it always looked back at Final Fantasy, rather than pivoting the series forward or premiering new characters for new games. …And then they just removed the Final Fantasy connections after, basically, the first two games. Not really a failure, but a missed opportunity, as there were few ideal jumping on points for Kingdom Hearts fans to become Final Fantasy fans.

Square Enix Could Not Let Go of FF7:

Square Enix decided to double-down on the success of Final Fantasy VII a solid seven years after its premiere with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and this… this just hurt the brand. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005) was a confused and needlessly opaque movie that tried to create a continuity after the ending of Final Fantasy VII, rather than the bold, ambiguous, conclusion of the original. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (2006) was the Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) of the Final Fantasy series. I fuck with it so much that I would fuck it, but its earnest edge is seen as cringe in the eyes of the blind or illiterate. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (2007) was a mostly tasteful prequel story to the original FF7, but marred by various eccentricities brought forth by a shift in tone and subject matter. While the 2005 Final Fantasy VII tech demo to showcase the power of the PlayStation 3 might have been the worst thing to ever happen to the series.

There is no reality where the E3 2005 tech demo for Final Fantasy VII was not a trigger for a collective desire for a remake of Final Fantasy VII. It was presented as one, got people thinking how good the endearingly fugly FF7 would look in these photorealistic PS3 graphics (2005 was a time before any non-fictional human had an HD TV). No matter what Square Enix did with the series, people always wanted a remake of FF7, as that is the game they liked. That is the world, the characters, and the vibes they fell in love with, and they want to feel it again, to show it to a new generation. They could have just done a Final Fantasy VII remake, but they refrained from doing so… for a decade

They, boldly, announced Final Fantasy VII Remake at E3 2015, co-developed by CyberConnect2. …But then the game underwent a developmental restart, was pushed back to early 2020, and was not actually a remake, or at least not fully one, in a move that still confuses people to this day. And to think, they could have just not included the meta-narrative continuity ghosts that literally nobody asked for.

FF12 Didn’t Hit At The Right Time Or In The Right Way:

Final Fantasy XII took forever and didn’t hit right. After FF10, the premiere PS2 Final Fantasy, it took Square Enix five years before Final Fantasy XII (2006) could be released after a tumultuous development cycle. Now, FF12 did well. Very well. As well as FF10 did in Japan, and netting 6 million copies internationally, making it the 9th best-selling PS2 game. However, the game lacks the same cultural impact as FF10 or any of the other single-player numbered titles since FF7.

This is more of a vibes based analysis, but I was actively getting into Final Fantasy around the release of FF12, and I saw precious little discussion about it beyond critical praise. The game just did not have the same fandom reaction, it has lacked the same critical reappraisal, as I don’t think the game touched people in quite the same way as earlier entries, and… I simply don’t know much about it beyond the broad strokes. When I should know all about it. It did not quite resonate with people, and I think that’s because of a matter of timing more than anything else.

FF12 released internationally around the same time as the PS3 and Wii, being a supposed swansong for a system that was seemingly undergoing its final years. It was not as exciting as the games coming out the same holiday season. While the game sold well, it was small potatoes for an old SD platform next to the like of… whatever came out for the PS3 at launch or Xbox 360 that holiday season.

FF12 was also released after an absolute killer generation for JRPGs, allowing Final Fantasy fans to diverge and experience something comparable to what Final Fantasy made them feel. Whether that be Dragon Quest, Suikoden, Shadow Hearts, Dark Cloud, Kingdom Hearts, or so forth. In the series’ PS2 absence, it was supplemented, and while none of these titles were Final Fantasy, the niche it had carved was finding other games to become enamored with.

Furthermore, FF12 came out in an era where longer, character-driven, and more cinematic games were spreading across more genres than just JRPGs. These features, once best in RPGs, were seen as doable across a wide variety of genres, and if a mainstream audience wanted these things, they had plenty of more action-driven alternatives. Yes, XII had real-time combat, but this was before the delineation of action RPG was widely understood.

Fabula Nova Crystallis Ruined Square Enix:

I am not sure what did more damage to the brand. Fabula Nova Crystallis or the FF7 E3 2005 tech demo. Fabula Nova Crystallis was Square Enix’s master plan for the future of Final Fantasy. A plan for games to share a central theme to bring them together, spread across multiple different platforms, aesthetics, and gameplay styles. It was a highly ambitious plan that originated in 2003, and something that seemed possible for Square Enix. After all, SquareSoft was developing FF IX, X, and XI at the same time, and announced them together. However, those three projects were developed by veterans, all doing their own thing, pursuing their own ideas, in their own worlds, with their own visions. This was nothing like that. It was basically the opposite, and this top-down approach only hurt the developers’ abilities to so much as determine what this purported trilogy of games would be.

This creative uneasiness was further hampered by how the technology for these games was still in development. The Crystal Tools engine was a next generation game engine designed to facilitate easier development across multiple titles. To be Square Enix’s in-house tool kit for creating console games of all kinds. This has been a long-standing desire within Square Enix… and there is a reason why their biggest games all use Unreal nowadays.

Because the act of creating an in-house, versatile, engine is a complicated endeavor, and Square Enix simply was not able to develop this tool. They tried with Crystal Tools, tried again with the Luminous Engine, and the best thing I can say is that they were capable of some truly impressive visual feats. The worst thing I could say is that these engines are the primary cause for production delays amongst these games. I’m not going to say they should have just licensed Unreal, but… it worked out for Lost Odyssey. And The Last Remnant, I guess.

Now, this would not be the worst thing in the world if they kept these games under wraps and only revealed them when they were mostly complete. However, Square Enix did not do that. They announced all three of them at E3 2006.

At that point in time, the three games part of Fabula Nova Crystallis were the turn-based Final Fantasy XIII, the action-based Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and mobile Final Fantasy Agito XIII. While FF13 was in development for roughly two years at this point, barely any work had been done on Versus and Agito at this point. This did not stop Square Enix from releasing CG trailers of FF13 and Versus, both of which were, to be fair, amazing. However, they came so early it kicked off an immense hyper cycle and began years of speculation and hope for these new groundbreaking titles. However, Crystal Tools delayed the projects. FF13 was the priority, Versus was in such a development quagmire it was hard to say when it was in active development, and barely anyone cared about Agito, because it was a mobile game in a pre-iPhone era. For you Zoomies reading this, it was a time of rampant creativity and experimentation, but these Japanese Feature Phones were blatantly inferior to handheld gaming in basically every way. …Except for digital distribution.

I won’t get into the background of the games that came from it, but I want to highlight that this, this series of games, represented Final Fantasy for a decade. They spent a decade chasing after a ghost they unleashed in 2006, and literally every game that came out of it was lousy with problems. I have a soft spot for Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and XIII-3 Clairevengenace. They are all flawed games, but carry with them an earnestness and such audiovisual triumph that I could not possibly hate them.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII eventually saw a complete reboot intoFinal Fantasy XV (2016), and while I have never played it, I can respect the game. A team was trying to make and reimagine a dream too big to ever be developed by… well, 2010s Square Enix. The game was shipped half-finished yet given years of support before being callously cut off due to a corporate falling out I still don’t fully understand. It tried a lot, did most of what it needed to, and I think it is a game rife for some retrospective analysis.

I think Final Fantasy Type-0 is… fucking shit, a 3/10 experience that Square Enix was smart to not localize for PSP in 2011. Most games I was negative about in the past, I’ve come around to. But Type-0? No. I hate how it looks, hate how it plays, and hate how it handles its themes of death and forgetting the fallen. I don’t care if I didn’t play the real game, I played 40 hours. That’s enough. However, outside of Japan— where this was THE PSP game for a hot minute— this game was pretty much just a Trojan horse for the FF15 demo. A spin-off title.

It took ten years, and the end result was a series of games… full of problems. That is not to say they were failures. FF13 sold very well and FF15 broke 10 million units sold, a first for the series. But BOY did it hurt the brand identity, and I genuinely cannot see either of these tent pole games bringing in fans of the series. That sounds insane to say for FF15, but there is no other game that looks, feels, or plays like that game. And if a game does not look, feel, or play like another with the same name on the cover… can you truly say they are part of the same series?

Final Fantasy XVI Failed To Capture the Base:

The outlook on Final Fantasy was looking pretty good after Final Fantasy VII Remake. Square Enix proved they could deliver a compelling action RPG with vividly crafted worlds, ample side content, loveable characters, and a story that, while a bit sticky, was ultimately fulfilling, complete with various minigames. It was critically lauded, a lovely game for people to play as the world seemed to fall apart during COVID lockdown, and the fulfillment of a 15-year-long dream.

Furthermore, the series was undergoing a resurgence with the growing popularity of the top MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV. A game that, while its own thing next to the single-player Final Fantasy games, helped endear people to the series. Particularly its more classical and magical interpretations, rather than the modern/sci-fi flavors seeing in 7, 8, 13, and 15. So, what do they do? Get the development team of FF14 to branch off and make the next mainline title. Brilliant move. What do they deliver? Final Fantasy XVI (2023). A flashy character action game with a story full of truly detestable people, institutionalized racism, a protagonist willing to brush it off, and a game where the literal goal is to rid the world of magic. …What?

Yeah, FF16 was subject to a lot of criticism for its departures. Lacking a proper party system, lacking the optimism of much of the series up until this point, and a desire to be like Game of Thrones rather than be like… Final Fantasy. It’s not a bad game, but I distinctly remember people saying the game was better if you skipped over the story and treated it as a spectacle-driven action game. Which… No. Some RPGs have doo-doo stories that don’t matter, but that is not acceptable for a post-FF6 mainline Final Fantasy title.

I may be misrepresenting the game somewhat— I only know what I see and have told when talking about games I have not played— but despite its critical acclaim, FF16 did not sell oodles. It sold about half as much as XV did in Japan, and only 3.5 million as of this past March. Partially due to being a console exclusive, taking a while to hit PC. But I think the real death knell is that it was a Final Fantasy game that did not cater to the base, and was drastically unlike the past two big console entries. It did not do poorly, but it most certainly did not do Final Fantasy numbers.

Why Should The Youth Care About Final Fantasy?

So, why are Zoomies not connecting with Final Fantasy? …Let me ask a question. What games would you expect them to connect with? These people were born during or after the ‘golden age’ of the series. They grew up when the series was going through a rough patch, and why would they play the sixteenth entry in a series that looks nothing like the last 15. They lack the emotional connection to this IP that people in their thirties who played these games when they were 12 would have. If they want a classic feeling JRPG, there are plenty of others flooding the market. There are oodles of SNES and PS1 era classics they can go through if they have a high tolerance for stuff released before they were born.

If they want a quality RPG, with characters and themes they can relate to, they have Persona. If they want something more upbeat and urban, filled with side activities and fun characters, the Like a Dragon series takes like 1,000 hours to dig through. If they’re a Nintendork, there’s Fire Emblem and over 500 hours of Xenoblade right there on the Switch. If they want a one in done classic feeling but premium JRPG, there’s Dragon Quest XI and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake. Do they want something more tasky and like Animal Crossing? Fantasy Life 3: The Girl Who Steals Time is pretty good from what I heard.

They can say buck all this fuckin’ Asian trash and play Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Baldur’s Gate 3. If that’s too radical… there are a lot of gacha live services that are just JRPGs with bigger budgets and more grind. If they want a quality RPG that you can goon out to, there’s always Rance. …Y’all kids like Rance, dontcha? …What about Falcom’s Trails series? If you want to flush your personality down the toilet and spend 1,000 hours delving into one of the most dense narratives in gaming, there are worse options. …There’s also Ys if you want to play a game that people don’t know how to pronounce.

With so many consistent, quality, options, why bother taking a risk with a Final Fantasy?

And to all my Minulls (Millennials) in the audience, don’t ask why the children don’t like the things you loved from your youth. Ask them why they should love the things you loved in your youth. View the lives of younger people from their perspective. And if you can’t do that, well, that’s a skill issue. Fix it or die in infamy!

Akumako: “And with that, we out!”

Eh? No! We’re not done yet.

Akumako: “Goldarn it Natalie, we’re already 3,600 words into the—”

I have deliberately only been talking about the MAINLINE NUMBERED Final Fantasy series, the new console releases, but the series actually does have a very strong history of spin-offs and handheld games… for at least a few years. While Final Fantasy was struggling to adopt to HD systems, it was garnering a new generation of fans (like me!) by re-releasing older titles on handhelds with enhanced ports, remakes, and side games.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and its many spin-offs and side games for Nintendo consoles, spanning the Wii and DS. The GBA enhanced releases of I, II, IV, V, and VI. The fully 3D DS remakes of III and IV. The PSP re-whatevers of Final Fantasy I, II, III, and IV. The Final Fantasy Tactics sequels and PSP remake. And the oft-forgotten Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (2009), which I still think is a highly underrated game in the series and one of the best looking DS games.

The Final Fantasy series, on handhelds, was cooking with FIRE during this era, and that’s not even acknowledging the more wild stuff, like the fighting game spin-off Dissidia. …But after 2012’s Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, the good times kinda sorta stopped. Remakes were put on hold as Square Enix started creating what I consider to be pseudo-Final Fantasy series. Namely Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, a game so Final Fantasy that it would be plagiarism if made by another studio. And Octopath Traveler, which is… just classic Final Fantasy.

These games inherited the minutiae, the tone, and much of the iconography. But not the name, and I think that was a mistake. Not because I think it would have led them to sell better if they were called Final Fantasy: Bravely Default and Final Fantasy: Octopath Traveler. I mean, they would have. But because I think it would have been good for the brand. It would have kept it relevant to a new generation, kept the traditional JRPG arm of the series alive. …As opposed to what Square Enix has been doing the past decade. Treat it as something the series has moved past.

Akumako: “So, you think they should have pulled a Final Fantasy Adventure and Final Fantasy Legend and just rename these games to do better for the brand, despite being made by contracted third parties?”

I mean, yeah? With an IP like this, it’s important that it is marketed to a wide variety of audiences and making a subseries is a good way to broaden the appeal. Would it have solved the problem? No, not fully at least. But it would not have diluted the brand, increased sales, and possibly encouraged people to be fans of the Final Fantasy. Well, assuming there are people who are fans of Bravely Default and Octopath, but would not say they are Final Fantasy fans which…

Akumako: “Yeah, no, it does not work that way Natalie.”

But— But Octopath Traveler sold over 3 million units, and—

Akumako: “Shut the hell up! You made a good point, got distracted, we passed 4,000 words, and we have a Nintendo Direct to cover! This is why we don’t get anything done!”

Let me at least give you my conclusion, you HARLOT!

Ahem. What I learned by going through this list of missteps is the importance of a consistent output, in delivering games that contain the same key values in order to keep an IP alive and relevant with successive generations. Something that, in this world of prolonged game development, I worry may be difficult to maintain.

Yes, games like GTA VI are going to be bangers even though GTA V came out in 2013 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Yes, Donkey Kong Bananza has been a smash hit even though Donkey Kong has not been an A list IP since 2010. However, these IPs have massive cultural factors behind them. Most people know GTA. Most people on the street could probably identify what a Donkey Kong is. I think you need to play a Dragon Quest if you want to become a legal adult in Japan, per their amended constitution. Even if Zoomies have never played a Halo, they know who Mister Chef is. There are new Sonic fans being broken in by hard bats of autism every year. (I’m an autistic Sonic fan, so I can legally say that.) But what the hell does a Final Fantasy even look like? A big chicken? A deformed bear with a giant head orb and tiny bat wings? Blue menus?

To keep gaming IPs alive, you must offer quality, recognizable elements, consistency, and cast a large net of appeal. If you don’t do that, and don’t maintain the value and identity of a brand, then it will cease to mean much of anything.

Akumako: “Thank you for coming to my TED Talk!”

I could never do public speaking like that, ya stinker. It was hard enough for me to read a Rundown out loud in the past.

Atari Acquires Thunderful Group
(It Was Either This or Bankruptcy, I Guess)

So, here’s a company I have not thought about in a hot minute. Thunderful is a Swedish game publisher formed by the mixing of Image & Form, Zoink, and the Nintendo Scandinavian distributor Bergsala. When they first formed in 2019, I was awfully optimistic about the company’s future prospects, as it was using the resources of established indie devs and an establish games publisher to become something bigger. And they did become bigger, acquiring additional studios as time went on, expanding with new ventures, and putting out bigger, higher budget titles.

Things were going well for them… or at least I assumed, as the past year and a half has been rough for them. From laying off 100 people, divesting Headup Games, parting ways with Bergsala, and shedding other subsidiaries. It slipped me by last year amongst all the other stories of the industry crumbling, and looking at Thunderful’s latest financial report pairs a pretty dire picture. The studio is losing money like crazy, and the answer as to why is simple. They are publishing a lot of games, but they are not selling well enough, not making back their budget. Their in-house operations have remained successful. But when a company has two main revenue sectors, and one is showing EBITA margins of negative 222% in 2024, down from negative 107% in 2023, there are plenty of reason to fear for the future of the company.

Their net loss in 2024 was roughly $90 million dollars, and I didn’t even think that was possible. I didn’t know the company was big enough to suffer from such a loss! But it is, and their financials tell a tale of doom. I mean, nearly half of their assets are attributed to ‘goodwill’ and the value of their equity was slashed to less than half of what it was the prior year. …At least they don’t have a lot of debt. This company’s financials are bad, they need somebody to save them, or else they are going to go under within, possibly, a few months. But who would be willing to buy up a medium-sized indie studio that still has several games in the pipeline that need tens of millions of funding?

…Atari?

Yeah, Atari acquired Thunderful this past week for a bit over 5 million, which is positively chump change for a game studio, but it is about the least that could be asked for 82% of outstanding shares, giving Atari complete control of the company.

Now, I do not like the modern incarnation of Atari, Atari SA. I do not trust anybody who dives head first into NFTs and casinos. But it seems that the company is trying to become more of a ‘retro gaming powerhouse.’ I do not like how they have bought up companies like Digital Eclipse, Nightdive Studios, and MobyGames. Two of the best re-releasers of video games and an invaluable resource for gaming history. But they are good companies to have given their quantity of lucrative contract work and more lean development cycles. You buy companies like this because you recognize the skills and dedication of the people working for them.

However, I am a very simple-minded accountant who wants to see modest profits in most companies. Atari has been reporting net losses for several years, so I’m skeptical of their future and ability to turn things around. Even more so after their acquisition of Thunderful as… Atari SA doesn’t have that much money, and in terms of operating expenses, Thunderful is a bigger company than they are. So, if Thunderful is bleeding money, then how does acquiring Thunderful really help anyone? What is the plan here? I can see this as an act of respect, kindness, and opportunity by the hands of Atari SA’s founders, but what is their plan?

Sadly, that is something we’ll need to wait until an investor meeting or interview to figure out, as the press release tells us squat. And we may need to wait years to see if this gambit works. If it doesn’t… well, that’s just bad news for gaming as a whole, I hate to say it.

Natalie Does Not Understand Gamindustri
(She’s Also Nutso)

As a shut-in with limited exposure to what the youths of the modern era are doing, I have a documented habit of being shocked, if not flipping out, when learning the hard facts about the games industry. Where players are going, where the money is being made, and how people are choosing to spend their time. So, when I saw this IGN/GameIndustry.biz video crop up in my feed, I knew it would be a punch in the gut for my oldhead-ass.

Akumako: “Natalie, you’re 30, you’re not an oldhead!”

Yes, that is true, but I was someone who, even when I was teenager, looked not to people my age to learn more about gaming, but to media run by people a good 10 to 15 years older than me. To proto-influencers who would wax about their childhoods in the 80s and 90s. The first big retro game boom started when I was, like, 12. I was there during the advent of online console gaming, the rise in mobile, and the mass commodification of gaming after investors were shook by the 2008 financial cataclysm. But I didn’t like what was going on at the time! I fell in love with and became invested in a curated, retroactive, and enthusiast-driven view of the games industry, and have held these values— virtues if I may— as being representative of what gaming should be.

Pretty much since then— since before I started this blog in the Neolithic era of 2012— I have been resisting this idea that multiplayer is bigger than single-player, that mobile is bigger than console, and that user retention and exploitation are what makes the biggest successes in gaming. Because I want to believe in the value of deliberate, artistically poignant, and design-rich experiences. That these are, in some way, superior next to something that makes the most money or amasses the highest amount of users. Because there was a time where these metrics— artfulness and commercial success— were running in parallel. …Or at least I like to tell myself that. That the three pillars of commercial, critical, and cultural success should be in alignment as a rule, and that any deviance is a mistake. A mistake born from someone fucking up, having malicious intentions, or just being awful at marketing.

…This has not been true since I started following the games industry.

Akumako: “What about with Nintendo and certain big independent games that broke out and became mainstream hits?”

Nintendo is made of space magic and a persistent statistical outlier when conducting industry analysis. Nintendo is in the Nintendo industry! Indie hits never do as gangbusters as you think they do. 3 million units sold is a lot for an indie hit, but for a AAA game? That is a financial failure. And if you look at the top ten games by sales, retention, or whatever, it is consistently dominated not by the best games on the market, but the best marketed and the best titles at engaging users.

Case in point, the first hard-hitting factoid of the actual topic of this segment. IGN this video’s presenter, John Davison—

Akumako: “Not to be confused with John Davis from Student Transfer or Jonathan Davis of Korn as featured in Girl In My Dream.”

According to this harbinger of despair, while the Switch has sold a massive number of units, many of those were just children who used the device to play Fortnite. Following the iOS App Store delisting, the Switch became the cheapest Fortnite device on the market, and the game has seen over 81 million Switch users. Now that Fortnite is back on iOS, it is predicted that more users will play Fortnite on their iPhones and the Switch playerbase will decline.

Speaking of Nintendo, despite the dominance of the Switch, Nintendo systems are rarely seen as the preferred devices for gaming. They are well behind even Xbox in most categories, which sounds impossible to me, and makes me have some doubts on the data present throughout this presentation. Through IGN’s owns study, Millennials (Minulls) prefer mobile above all other platforms, with 32% choosing mobile and 15% choosing PC. While Gen Alpha (Alphers) are vehemently mobile focused, with 83% preferring to play on mobile and 15% preferring to play on PC. Meaning only 2% prefer playing on consoles, period. Which I personally view as damn-near apocalyptic concerning the future of dedicated game consoles.

PC gaming is undergoing a shift away from desktop PCs to gaming laptops and also to dedicated PC handhelds like the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally, which is why analysts are so fixated on the market. Because they are not viewing it as a console alternative, but as growth in the PC marketplace, where it is very difficult to determine player numbers outside of platforms. Plus, it is seen as an extension of the narrative that Zoomies and Alphers value convenience over anything else, preferring having everything on their mobile computers (phones and laptops) over something fixed and less mobile.

Now, I have to ask if the value of ‘convenience’ a temporary value or a permanent value? Is the reason why Zoomies and Alphers prefer laptops, handhelds, and mobile gaming because they live lives with a lot of transit and limited space? They go to school, work, hop on public transit, hang out at friends’ houses, and likely live in American Standard™ 10 square meter bedrooms? When/if they are able to make a living and spend their leisure time at a home, will they transition over to dedicated ‘fixed’ hardware like televisions and desktops they can customize to their liking?

…I mean, some people will make that transition, but despite whatever analysis one could do, they will not actually know until that time comes. Maybe they will embellish in consumer goods, or perhaps they will just continue to use their phones as their everything machine, choosing to trap themselves in an engagement haze, because it is easier and cheaper than buying anything new. And, if someone is going to have one electronic device nowadays, it simply needs to be a phone.

You need a phone to make accounts on a lot of platforms with mandatory multifactor authentication. Governments around the world would make phones a legal requirement if they could, but then they’d need to buy them for poor people, and they don’t wanna do that. Most apps and major websites are designed for mobile first. Some culture defining services are so app-driven they may as well be inaccessible on web browsers. Mobile devices are smaller, always with you, and are designed for easy use, babyproofing nearly everything. I might be a low-end mobile user for a 30-year-old, using it as work tool and portable video player, but I know that plenty of people live on their phones. Mayhaps even billions. So, why would they use or want something else for playing games? They already have their wonder slab!

However, as the IGN man continues, the devices people play games on are becoming increasingly irrelevant due to the downright obscene prominence of Fortnite and Roblox, whose metrics are so obscene, so pervasive, so expansive, it feels wrong to call them video games. They may as well be their own mediums. Moreso Roblox than Fortnite, as it truly is just a platform. One with 90 million daily active users, an environment that IP holders want to populate as it offers oodles of free advertising through user-generated content, allowing people to engage in the IP far more than they would through official channels. With their recent Squid Game collaboration drawing in so many more engagement hours that you would not be wrong for describing Squid Game as a gaming property over a TV show.

This in turn makes people more likely to identify as fans of Squid Game, more likely to engage in dedicated communities, buy related merchandise, and speak about it to others, getting them in on the fandom, perpetuating the IP while costing the rights holders no additional costs. And this is why there is this push towards User-Generated Content or UGC, as the growth sector for gaming. Because it is effectively free engagement, and what do IP holders like more than free engagement? …NOTHING! Because engagement is phat dochy!

This desire to capitalize on the gaming audience, on gaming fandom, is part of the reason why there has been such a push for cross-promotion, licensed brand deals, and a desire to crossover and cross-pollinate everything, to make merch drops into events, promoted through FOMO and limited release periods. Whether it be celebrity events in Fortnite, Pac-Man doughnuts, or Pokémon shoes. In a world where user time and engagement is the most valuable commodity, games are one of the best ways to keep users engaged with an IP. And they are a great avenue to explore for licensed merchandise, as gamers are eager to spend on merch related to things they have spent hundreds of hours engaging with.

However, using ‘gamers’ like that may be a mistake. IGN and GameIndustry.biz have noticed a shift in how gaming is perceived by different age groups, referred to by generations because age demographics are considered passé in the 2020s. With Minulls being more platform and medium focused on their interests, having been weened on general publications, forums, television, and magazines. While Zoomies and Alphers are more IP focused. They are not fans of movies, games, or musical genres, but fans of series, brands, specific titles, and specific artists. They have had the ability to fixate on interests since they developed a true sense of self. They have avoided the identity of a channel or broader brand, and self-selected what they are into. Or, alternatively, were shoved into a niche by specific algorithms which are designed to keep them in their niche.

All of this is reflective of the consistently spoken assertion that there used to be a monoculture back in my day, but not anymore. Something that I keep hearing, but only from a specific group of people. Namely, hetero White men. What I believe happened is that, compared to the 70s or 80s, there is just a deluge of avenues for information. There are so many alternatives, that people simply have no reason to read the four newspapers, watch the four channels, and listen to the eight radio stations that were perpetuated across the country.

Akumako: “Wait, I get the four channels thing, but where did you get the newspaper and radio station numbers?”

I made them the fuck up!

Akumako: “Goldarn it Natalie! Stop this 50/50 facts and vibes shit! You’re gonna get people killed at this rate.”

That’s the plan, love.

However, there were always subsets for the non-heterosexual-White-males. We call these subsets Real Culture. And what happened through the 90s and 2000s is that those markets were deemed relevant as communications technology grew cheaper, and were in turn catered to, if not exploited, by the same vultures who control the White Hegemonic Media Empire. Nowadays, more variety exists, more people are able to find communities and niches, but that is because it became easier to divide and partition communities. You don’t need to read a paper to find a writer you like, you follow them on Bisky. …Or RSS their site via Thunderbird if you’re a Dumbfuck.

This is great and has done wonders for certain fragmented and obscure communities— the trans community barely existed outside a few cities in the world before the 1995— but this has also severely harmed the very concept of a mainstream, and transformed people who would be cultural generalists into cultural specialists.

But, narrowing my focus to just gaming, my beloved— mah Jawn— it has made the idea of a mainstream games industry— or being a general games enthusiast— a declining concept. While I am a dirty stinky weeb who gobbles up Japanese soft power like it’s a box of High-Energy Biscuits set to be incinerated, I try to keep a handle on the broader console/PC gaming industry, as it is something I am deeply passionate about. Yet, based on my observation, the data snippets I have been feeding to my lower brain, and this IGN presentation, that is not the case for The Youths.

Akumako: “And that leaves you straight shook because what the kids are into is weird, different, and you don’t like it?”

Nah, it’s more that I worry that they won’t be able to experience what I have experienced. I want them to learn the values and lessons I have learned as I think they have made me into a smarter, compassionate, and empathetic person. I want each successive generation to be better, kinder, and smarter than the one that came before, in every metric possible. But if they are growing up in a different world, if they are being fed different media, if they are existing in different spaces, I worry that they won’t gain the same values. I worry that they will be corrupted by powerful corporations, and malicious bad actors, who benefit from them being dumb sheeple, too addicted to engagement to recognize when they’re being abused.

…Also, I like the idea of people being gaming generalists, and consider people who are only into genres or narrow slices to be… just frustrating. If someone’s only into visual novels… fuck off and play some real games. If someone’s only into FPS… fuck off and play some real games. If someone’s only into Fortnite or Roblox… fuck off and play some real games. If someone is only into Mario and Zelda… fuck off and play some real games. If someone’s a retro gamer to the core and thinks gaming fell off a cliff in 201X… fuck off and play some real games. Have your preferences, but try to keep abreast of what is broadly going on.

Akumako: “Natalie, you barely knew what a Roblox was before the pandemic.”

So did a lot of people in my space! But I still want to learn, want to gain an understanding of it, but the more I learn, the more convinced I am that to save gaming, we need to kill Roblox.

Akumako: “…Wut?”

Much of the explosive growth seen in gaming over the 2010s can be attributed to mobile gaming, yes. Yet, in the current landscape, a lot of the daily hours and daily players are just playing a handful of games, with the biggest being Roblox. It is a platform, not a proper game, but that does not change my stance. I think Roblox should not exist, and it must be shut down in order to save gaming™.

Akumako: “Nat, did you take your medicine this morning?”

Listen to me, you Persian jackass! I might not have ever played Roblox, but every time I hear about its impact, its userbase, and how much money it must be raking in, I am terrified. It is bigger than Steam, bigger than PlayStation, it is the biggest platform in gaming. And for that reason, for being this online centralized platform that is owned by a publicly traded corporation, invested in growth, invested in profiting off of children, I do not think it should exist.

Roblox players are taught to NOT leave the platform and play other games. They are kept in the Roblox ecosystem, and I worry that most of them just stay there, not leaving, not moving, just engaging with it as the video game platform. An always online platform designed to siphon the most amount of money from the people providing its succulent UGC, teach developers non-transferable skills, and feed people engagement-driven experiences, rather than Real Games.

If I could shut it down, I would, preservation be damned. Because I think it would save the games industry as a whole, and allow these tens of millions of people to experience new things, support a wider range of creators, and broaden their love of video games. Of art. And encourage them to create beyond the realms of a dedicated tool set.

Akumako: “…Natalie, would you do the same for Fortnite? Honor of Kings? Or any other super game?

Uh, yes. Because I earnestly believe that super games, much like corporate monopolies, should not exist. They consume an incredible amount of resources to keep their always online servers running. They have and will continue to ruin lives with their predatory monetization and, ultimately, stifle the imagination. Because no matter what UGC you are engaging with, you are still engaging with the same fucking game. And I detest that as much as I detest the idea of someone watching the same TV show on loop, the same movies, and listening to the same music, for years and years. There is so much art, so many creations, in the world that it is spiritually wrong and intellectually evil to only engage with a narrow snippet.

Akumako: “…You… You believe in ushering in a cataclysmic event if it makes the world a better place, don’t you?”

Yes, yes I do. I would enact mass destruction if I believe that it will destroy those who control the world. …But I believe I am losing the plot.

Akumako: “We had a plot?”

For as much as I want to voice the triumphs of a broader gaming industry… I cannot blame anyone for wanting to stick to their safe space, to what they know, and to be shy when confronted with a new system, new ideas, and new games. Because finding games in the modern games industry is a damn mess! Per the IGN video that this essay is supposed to be a response to—

Akumako: “This article’s far longer than the video itself, and it was 26 minutes…”

—770 games were announced during the Summer events season so far (Gamescom hasn’t happened yet). That is too much for even a website dedicated to games to cover in any real detail, and if one is trying to get into more games, where the hell are they supposed to start? How does one get into gaming in this current hectic landscape where there are a few monolithic super games and dribs and drabs of games that, for a newcomer, will be cryptic, weird, and confusing.

Roblox kids aren’t going to know what a JRPG is or what a Metroidvania is, and they would encounter a new type of friction as they try to learn how this new genre, this new perspective, works. You remember being like 8 and not understanding how a game worked on a fundamental level, with nobody there to help you? Imagine feeling the same way when you are 18! You could try to engage with something new for recreational purposes, or you could just jerk off to TikTok. (I would say learn a useful skill, but what are useful skills in the modern gig economy?)

This mess is furthered by two more points highlighted by the IGN video. That audiences keep feeling nostalgic about their childhood. With 71% feeling increasingly nostalgic, and anniversaries functioning as culturally relevant moments. But what the hell does being nostalgic mean when someone’s first game was Fortnite at age 7, and they’re 18, still playing Fortnite? We’re literally three years away from that being a reality! Does that just mean they’ll keep playing Fortnite until I bring it down with my—

Akumako: “REDACTED!“

The second point is a rising number of Chinese games hitting the market, which are seen as a big deal, but I think that is due to one simple fact. They are Chinese-developed games that are launching internationally, simultaneously, and can be tracked via international platforms like Steam and PSN. China’s (basically) as big as The West in gaming parlance, and Western games do not do as well in China, because they don’t care about Caucasoid trash.

I think the Chinese games industry branching out and delivering AAA experiences, like Wukong: Black Myth (2024) and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers (2025) is a great thing, as they are more bespoke single-player experiences that will broaden people’s understanding by being different video games. Well, for the most part. I think internationally-geared Chinese media is too invested in their own history and mythos. I don’t find 0 CE to 1600 CE to be an immediately captivating time period anywhere. Especially when you could make a dedicated fantasy, sci-fi, or near-modern-day game. And China, of all countries, should be all over depicting their modern cities in international media. A lot of people outside of China do not know what a modern Chinese city looks like, and a game set in one would be an excellent form of soft power, and I WANT TO EAT YOUR SOFT POWER! Put it in my mouth. NOW!

Akumako: “…You done?”

Yep, and now I—

Akumako: “And now you need to write a Nintendo Direct Rundown, you nimrod! We’re over 9,000 words in and, knowing your stupid-bitch-ass-bitch’s-ass, we’re gonna be another 9,000 words in by the time we’re done!”

Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase 2025 Happened
(Bring On The Switch 2 Ports!)

And it’s finally time for the first real Nintendo Direct of the Switch 2 era! …Except it’s a Partner Showcase focusing mostly on third-party games, featuring a lot of Switch 2 ports, and few of the coveted first party titles. Oh, well. It’s mildly disappointing, as I just wanted some second looks at already announced games, some release dates so people can catalog The History and plan their purchases. Figure out what they are going to play and when in Q4. Instead, this was more of a grab bag of ports, a stray remake, a new game in a dormant IP, and three JRPG bangers-to-be.

All of which is made all the less exciting knowing that most of these games will not see a proper physical release, and will instead be distributed via the eWaste that is Game-Key Cards. This is an unfortunate reality for most third-party Switch games, as their only options (currently) are to release on a prohibitively expensive cartridge or a chip with a few megabytes of capacity. I swear, people would rather pay an extra $30 for a physical game than buy a damn Game-Key Card! They would BITCH about it, especially if the game is less than 8 GB, but at least they would get something tangible. Someone should try that just as a multimillion dollar social experiment.

Let’s start with the boring stuff first.

After launching to rampant acclaim and ‘middling’ support, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was announced for Switch and Switch 2, coming to the platforms on November 14, 2025. I’m a bit surprised that Spike Chunsoft waited so long to bring the title out for Switch, but I think this is a bandwidth issue. They wanted to get the game established on other platforms, fix bugs, and roll out the first wave of post-launch support, before expanding it to a mass market device that is more popular in Japan. One could argue that the Switch should have been the lead platform from the start. But development would have begun near the start of or before the PS5 launched, so I’m guessing that developing a Switch version just wasn’t in the cards, and it will probably run like butt anyway.

Plants vs. Zombies is a game I have a high level of fondness for, having playing the Xbox 360 version when I was a teenager. I think the game was creative, brilliantly designed in many respects, and highly influential not only in the tower defense genre, but across the board with a lot of its pristine game design. It represents an era of hope and optimism towards casual and mobile gaming that never came to be. PopCap could have kept making digital opium for a small fee, but EA has prohibited them from doing what they were excellent at. In an attempt to ape a nostalgia cycle, and give the developers a non-live service to work on, they are remastering the original as Plants vs. Zombies Replanted. Featuring HD-er graphics than the original, local co-op and PVP with no online for some reason. The title will debut on October 23, 2025 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, Steam, and Epic Games Store.

After recreating, reimagining, and bringing back the concept of a Pac-Man 3D platformer with 2022’s Pac-Man World Re-Pac, Bandai Namco decided to do… the same thing with its sequel. Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is a full ground-up remake of Pac-Man World 2 (2002) with more than a few creative changes. The color palate and general vibe of the environments is far more bubbly and vibrant than the more muted original, making many aesthetic departures. But it better fits the modern concept of a 3D platformer for a retro gaming icon. There’s a co-op helper drone to collect doodads and stun enemies à la Super Mario Galaxy. Pac-Man can speak, which is sick and wrong. And various doodads like unlockable outfits and stage-based missions were added.

It’s a far more transformative remake than I’m guessing some purists would like, but I also see the value in Bandai Namco changing things up to train their staff, teach them how to iterate, and learn what works or does not work in modern game development. Maybe if this keeps up they’ll make a new 3D platformer! But if not, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac launches on September 26, 2025 for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and Steam.

The fact that Persona 3 Reload (2024) didn’t come out for Switch always felt a bit weird to me, as the game does not look that much better than Shin Megami Tensei V (2021), a game using the same engine from the same developer. Hell, I remember theorizing that they planned on releasing P3R as a launch title for Switch 2, as that would have been a great fit, being a girthy JRPG. Instead, I guess they couldn’t get the dev kits in time, and are instead releasing the Switch 2 version of P3R on October 23, 2025. …Also, P3R will only go for $60 on Switch 2, but it will be sold as a Game-Key Card and the $35 expansion pass will remain a separate purchase. That’s just swell! You guys could have just included the game, and DLC, on a Game Card, charge $89.99 for it, and profit off of the meme. But noooo! The cowards backed down yet again!

Also, Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2 were announced for Switch 2, continuing Sega’s roll out of the Like A Dragon series on Switch 2, with both titles debuting on November 13, 2025. They’ll probably just spew the 3, 4, and 5 remaster trilogy in 2026, but who knows. It’s not like any human will have the time to play each one of them before the next one crops up.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection Announced
(NOT The Monster Hunter People Crave)

One of the problems of me not playing a lot of modern releases, or having a good weekly general gaming touch-in podcast, is that it is very easy for me to misunderstand the reception to certain games. And Monster Hunter Wilds is one of those games. I know it received ample critical praise, but the general community sentiment has been largely negative per my purview. With numerous criticisms over the narrative progression, a lack of player freedom for the first few hours, a reliance on a roadmap rather than a girthy launch slate, and generally poor PC optimization.

That last point, based on the people I do talk to, is plaguing PC gaming pretty hard at the moment. Even with a disgustingly expensive GPU, it is hard to get good, stable, performance on certain games. Maybe it’s because programmers issuing patches frequently leaves games unoptimized. Maybe middleware is getting too bulky. Maybe publishers just don’t care. Or maybe gaming hardware is the seventh priority for computer component manufacturers nowadays. Because AI has better margins, and AI is going to be forever and ever! Orz…

Anyway, Monster Hunter Stories is Capcom’s primary Monster Hunter side series, a turn-based JRPG that turned heads with the release of 2021’s Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. I played the demo, thought it was a cute and intriguing alternative for their series, and an example of a higher budget creature collector, which people allegedly crave. Last year, the series was expanded with a re-release of the original 2016 3DS game, Monster Hunter Stories, and while not big sellers, the second game sold over 2 million units. So, they are giving the series another go with a third entry, Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, and it looks… different.

The Stories subseries was initially poised as a more child-oriented alternative of the series, meant to ween a Pokémon fan into becoming a MonHun fan, but part 3… is not aiming for that. The art style has shifted to feature considerably more mature characters over the kids of the prior entries. The lighter cel-shaded art style was traded for something that is clearly imitating of Breath of the Wild. The cartoonish redesigns of monsters have been switched in for scaly beasts, and the storyline presented in the trailer is considerably dour. Well, that and a bit eye-rolling, trying too hard to present a monster war as a serious matter and the protagonist as a divinely chosen hero. It does not look bad, but this shift in style and general visual language of the trailer make it feel a lot more… generic as an RPG.

Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflections will launch in 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and Steam.

Once Upon A Katamari Announced
(A Sequel 14 Years In The Making!)

While I have only played the first game, I am quite fond of the Katamari series. I love it simplistic yet iconic art style, perverse jovial tone, stellar soundtracks, and simple yet tricky gameplay all make it an all-timer series in my book. However, the Katamari series had a rather shaky history, in no small part due to Namco’s greed and demands to make this indie tier concept into a bigger series. The 2004 original was a smash hit, expanded to international audience, and led to a bevy of sequels throughout the late 2000s. The 2005 successor for the PS2, a PSP release the same year, a 2007 Xbox 360 title, a 2009 PS3 game, a 2011 PS Vita launch title, and a bunch of mobile games that people don’t care about because they’re not Canon! They don’t belong in the White American Gaming Bible!

Why did the series fade away? Well, because most games were just rehashes of the same general concepts, with a couple gimmicks, new story beats, and new levels thrown in. All released rapidly in a short time frame. This led to fatigue from the audience, its once endearing quirkiness lost a certain spark after its lead creator left, critical reception diminished, and Bandai Namco was diverting resources elsewhere. Like The IdolM@ster, or Code Vein. So they tested the waters with an outsourced remaster of the first game in 2018, waited two years to port it to more than two platforms, and then released an expanded version of the second one with a brand-new side mode in 2023.

Having already brought back the series’ biggest hits. Established everything you need for a new game in Unity. And taught a development team how to make a Katamari game, Bandai Namco has decided to bring the series back with its first new non-mobile entry in 14 years. Once Upon A Karamari.

Akumako: “What about Katamari Damacy Rolling Live for Apple Arcade?”

What about shutting the hell up? Apple Arcade games are not real games until you can buy ’em, and torrent ’em!

So, what’s the hook this time? Well, abusive DADGOAL the King of All Cosmos destroyed Earth. So the Prince needs to go back in time, travel across the land, and gather myriad doodads in order to make a new world by committing the greatest sin of all. A time paradox! This will, naturally, add a new form of variety to the settings of this game, going from dinosaur times to modern day. There will be a bevy of power-ups to make the clutter collection process faster. All cousins return along with several new ones, and you can customize your playable character. Four player online multiplayer is a marquee new feature, allowing for a truly great amount of chaos. And there is of course a new soundtrack, featuring surefire bangers from new and old artists. …Also, they are selling like 60 old songs via DLC. Because it’s illegal to just release a quirky game without DLC these days. You gotta mess with those key resellers somehow.

It hits pretty much every note that I think people would want from a Katamari sequel, and while I think some of its power-ups seem a tad gimmicky, they should at least offer something different to the ceaseless consumption. Once Upon A Karamari will be released on October 24, 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, Switch 2, and PC via Steam.

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Announced
(Cool, But What’s With That Name?)

Square Enix was pretty much the ‘winner’ of this Nintendo Direct, featuring a whopping four titles between the Japanese and English Directs, and all of them were HD-2D titles, because that’s kind of their thing at the moment. Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake got another showing, and it continues to look good, if a bit too reminiscent of the DQ3 Remake, but with fewer characters or features. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake got a free Switch 2 upgrade, making me, again, ask why is Nintendo making people pay for performance patches? I bought your damn hardware, Nina. You should give me better performance as a thank you.

The first of the other announcements was a new HD-2D action RPG IP by the name of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. Mechanically, the gameplay is about what one would imagine. An overhead action game about traveling through a big narrowly designed world, fighting monsters, and switching between weapons. The core gameplay, if only due to its 2D/3D perspective and pixelated textures, reminds me of a more lethargic version of what Ys was doing with the ANOFO trilogy. But I think the inspiration is more part SNES Mana game, part 2D Zelda, with dungeons, puzzles, and even a fairy companion dubbed Faie. Yes, Faie the fairy. Not even Fae the fairy, which would have been cute in its uncreativity,. Per the subtitle, the game is centered around traveling forward and back through time by up to a thousand years.

It all looks fine, but if this were not a Square Enix title, and not an HD-2D title, I think this would just be another indie 90s throwback, as it’s not doing much unique or novel. Not every game needs to be bold or new, but there’s something about this that just strikes me as a bit… vacant per the trailer. Maybe I could gauge that myself, as there was a demo released, but the demo was exclusive for Switch 2, and I have not bought a Switch 2. …Yet.

Having said that, I need to indulge in a few brain worms that cropped up when observing this game.

First, I need to ask what the hell is this name? The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales? Well, it uses ‘the’ twice in a title, without even a glue word like ‘of’ or ‘in’ to break it up. It acts like Elliot is a unique name, when, it’s not. Admittedly, it’s not as common as I thought it was. Not even a top 100 name. But it still sounds rather mundane. Why does this first, and likely only, entry in this series need to have two titles? Why not just call it The Adventures of Elliot— even though he is going on one big adventure. Or maybe just The Millennium Tales? …Wait? What do you mean tales? This is one game! One story!

Second, I think that Square Enix is playing with kerosene whenever they make a game about traveling through time, as it practically invites comparisons to Chrono Trigger. A game they have done very little with since a messy PC port in 2018. It just makes me ask why this is not on Switch, why it was never brought to PS4, and why Square Enix has not made an HD-2D version of Chrono Trigger a priority? I mean, maybe they are doing that, after proving they could make remakes of classics like Live A Live and Dragon Quest III. But what was stopping them from doing a basic re-release back in… 2020? I don’t know how to develop games, but would’ve done it for free!

Third, I have to ask who is developing this title. The official press release says that the game is being developed by “Team Asano” but that’s kind of a misnomer. If you look at the credits for a game ‘developed by Team Asano’ you will find a dedicated section in the credits listing them. Using Octopath Traveler II as an example, there are 22 unique credits (excluding special thanks) for Team Asano. Ranging between logo designer, pixel artist, localization director, producer, and many support roles. Meanwhile, Acquire Corporation had 75 unique credits on Octopath II, including the director, writer, programmer, and oodles of designers. Furthermore, Team Asano is also just a team within Square Enix, and not their own internal studio or division. They are still Square Enix. So, I consider Acquire to be the main developer on the project. Team Asano, née Square Enix, provided an essential role in the game’s development, and not just for the money. …But it’s an Acquire game first and foremost.

Also, as another example, who developed Triangle Strategy and Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake? Not Square Enix. They farmed that shit out to Artdink. You know, developers of Battle Construction Vehicles, Sword Art Online: Lost Song, and A-Train! If the remake was bad, I would say they were damn fools, but seeing as how the remake broke a million, I guess this was an inspired decision.

So, who is developing The Adventure of Elliot: The Millennium Tales? …I’m going to guess the former Tokyo RPG Factory devs, whose studio was shut down in 2024. They were founded to make the next Chrono Trigger, failed, and went on to make a decent overhead action RPG in 2019 that gives me similar vibes. Am I wrong? Probably!

The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales Elliot’s Millennial Millennium Tale will be released for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC in 2026.

Octopath Traveler 0 Announced
(Continent of Champions Redux!)

In this modern era of needing to wait 5 to 10 years for a game’s successor to come out, it’s always a bit stunning when a sequel comes out less than three years after the original. Not that I’m complaining. I yearn for the days when sequels came out a year after the original, but even though game devs could make PS2-tier games in a fraction of time as they could in 2003, they just can’t do that. Slim ‘indie’ operations lack the horsepower to churn out games in two years tops. While big ‘AAA’ operations need to iterate on everything and make it look superb. And middle grounds do not exist because… they don’t! We is binary bitches in a binary world!

Akumako: “Natalie, there are too many games coming out as it is. Why do you want to make the market even more cluttered? You JUST went on a tirade about how people are overwhelmed by variety, how they are spending too much time on their safe forever games! And putting out more games that do Like A Dragon release schedules ain’t gonna help that!”

…Point is, I was surprised to see a third Octopath Traveler game announced as part of this Nintendo Direct, and confused that its name was Octopath Traveler 0. At first, I thought this was just done for cynical reasons. That Square Enix thought the series would sell better if they made the next game a prequel that requires no prerequisite knowledge. A theory that kind of falls apart after realizing that Octopath II featured a new cast, new setting, and is so far removed from the first game, it may as well be in its own world. …Not that the average game-liker would be able to intuit that looking at the box. 2 means it’s a sequel, hombre.

Instead, it seems that the intention of this project is to reframe, repurposes, and re-do various things from the mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent (2020). A game that Square Enix hasn’t shut down… yet. The producer message put out shortly after the announcement was helpful in understanding what this meant, but also rather vague in the specifics. In short, Octopath 0 is an adaptation of CotC, changing a lot of things around, maintaining the core story, and ditching a lot of the playable characters in favor of a more curated cast of over 30 heroes. A cast that contains wholly new characters, characters from CotC, and also the eight from the first Octopath Traveler. That is weird for a prequel.

One of the most pertinent changes is the introduction of a player created hero character and the decision to expand the town developing base building mode from CotC into their destroyed hometown, Wishvale. With the story being split between finding the scattered residents of the town to help rebuild. Recruiting allies to help your cause. And seeking revenge upon those who tried to destroy everyone the protagonist knew or cared about. It is a solid concept for a JRPG, if a bit too familiar, but I feel that it is missing the point of the series.

Something that made Octopath stand out was its lack of a central protagonist. You played as a collection of eight travelers who joined together to help each other’s goals. So choosing to make the protagonist a player-made, player-named, customizable chosen one hero is stretch that feels almost antithetical to the series’ namesake. Similarly, the game fixates on rebuilding the town of Wishvale after it is destroyed in a fire, meaning you are not really traveling across a land either. You have a home base where you can reconvene.

Though, I will say it delivers upon something the series should have always done, since its inception. Feature an eight person party. I LOVE the idea of RPG parties being massive squads of warriors who just plow through anything in their path, but the reason why the preferred limit is 3, 4, or sometimes 5 is because it makes combat go faster and prevents any character from feeling ancillary. Octopath 0 works around this by pairing up characters, letting the player swap between them, choose who is in front, and let the backliner stack up boost points to decimate the enemies. Which sounds plenty good to me. It’s better than the Neptunia approach of just swapping between them whenever you see fit. It makes the player feel like they have a darn army, without delaying things too much.

I have seen some people upset that this is a repacking of a mobile game they have not played, rather than a brand new game, made specifically for them, but I want to praise Acquire for this decision. The studio spent a lot of time and effort crafting CotC, and this is an efficient way for them to repurpose ideas, assets, and systems while preserving work from a mobile game that will be delisted in due time. Even if you don’t like live services, isn’t this what you want? To see all the best elements packaged into a proper retail release? Because I love it when live services are taken apart and repackaged as real games that you can play in perpetuity.

Admittedly, 0 is more transformative than anything I would expect, but if it makes the game better, that’s good! I might complain about all the cool stuff that was cut in the conversion, like the various Square Enix collabs. But I won’t complain as much as I would if this was another Mega Man X DiVE Offline situation. I’d rather have a good game that could be better than a faithful slog.

Octopath Traveler 0 will be released as a $50 budget ($60 digital deluxe) title on December 4th, where it will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Akumako: “Wait, if this is a repurposed side project, then what was the point of that unrelated introduction? Shouldn’t you cut it?”

Eh… nah. Content is content, bae.

Akumako: “ARGH!”

Nintendo Switch Price Hike Announced
(Bunk All This Tariff Ish Maaaaaan…)

Adding this as a quick addendum to this week’s Rundown, Nintendo has announced that various Switch and related products will undergo unspecified price hikes that will go into effect August 3, 2025. This includes the Nintendo Switch original, OLED, and Lite systems, but not the brand new Nintendo Switch 2. Marking the first time in my memory that a game system’s price went up as it was being phased out. Similarly, various Nintendo Switch 2 accessories, Amiibo, and the Nintendo Alarmo Clocko will see price increases. Games will stay the same price, and Nintendo Switch online will stay the same, but who knows when/if that will change.

So… yeah, this is just a response to the Trumps moronic nonsense tariffs. This is an additional tax imposed upon US customers that allows the Federal government to collect money from its citizens, and NOT foreign corporations. The panic and confusion around the tariffs offer opportunities for corporations to boost their profit margins under the guise of a necessity, similar to how food companies have been making mad profits since the peak of COVID. Food production costs have not gone up significantly, or at least nowhere in proportion to how much prices have been raised at the local grocer.

Anyway, I guess I should take this as an encouragement to just buy a Nintendo Switch 2 controller ASAP, because I am weak like that.

Also, as a last minute addendum to the addendum, that will be irrelevant when this goes live, but this looks to be a roughly 15% price hike. Because America is a dying country and we are past the era of the US dollar dominance, because of President Dump Fuck. Hmm… I might want to hop over to Real Europe to set up a bank account when I go to visit Cassie.

Darksiders is NOT Dead!
(The 15 Year Dream Will Be Realized!)

Drats, I completely forgot that THQ Nordic— who I thought was going to become Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-Earth Enterprises & Friends or some crap— had their own showcase a day after a Nintendo Direct. I didn’t watch it, but I did perk up when I saw that Darksiders 4 was announced, as that is… quite a pleasant surprise.

This is a last minute addition, so I’ll keep the history brief. Darksiders (2010) was a God of War X Zelda style action game created by Vigil Games. A promising Texas-based studio who was miraculously able to establish themselves with a new IP. One based loosely around Biblical mythology, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and a war between Hell and Heaven on modern Earth, rendering cityscapes into fantastical ruins. The game only centered around one of these horsemen, War, and the game did about as well as one could expect for a new action game hitting the market. Hell, considering how it was sandwiched between Bayonetta and God of War III, I think that even netting a million sales, in a month, was beyond impressive.

This, naturally, led to a sequel, but what Vigil initially planned for a sequel was a bit too ambitious. The first game ended in a cliffhanger where War summoned the other three horsemen— Death, Famine Strife, and Pestilence Fury. But making an online co-op multiplayer Zelda-like was too daunting a task for the studio, especially with a new generation brewing over the horizon. So, they decided to make a more expansive, RPG-flavored, and large-scale action game. This resulted in Darksiders II (2012), the a damn good action RPG… that the developers never got to fully finish. This game was prohibitively expensive to develop for a firmly AA title, costing over $50 million, and was being developed when publisher THQ was undergoing financial issues. They hoped Darksiders II would help save the company, but it didn’t. It sold 1.5 million copies in its first few months— damn good numbers in my mind— but that was not enough to make miracles happen.

THQ then filed for bankruptcy in early 2013. Studios, IPs, and licenses were sold for cheap. Nearly finished games were sold for a couple millions, and many of their lesser IPs, including their name, were picked up by Nordic Games. Ubisoft bought their mostly done Obsidian-developed South Park game. Crytek bought the Homefront IP for half a million. Deep Silver bought Volition and subsequentially did something to that studio— I don’t know what. And nobody wanted Vigil Games, so they shut down in January 2023.

The teams from Vigil were then scattered amongst two studios. The plucky indie operation that is Airship Syndicate, who made Ruined King: A League of Legends Story (2021) and Wayfinder (2024). While others became part of Crytek USA, who… shit, nobody knows who Crytek is nowadays. Basically, Crytek was trying to become what Epic Games is today. They had their engine, CryEngine, made a some impressive FPS, namely CRYSIS (2007), pivoted to consoles, and tried to expand with their live service shooter, WARFACE (2013), along with some fairy tale MOBA called Arena of Fate that they canceled in 2017. They are still around, but their pivot into being a major software provider, into making impressive shooters, did not pan out.

Anyway, Crytek USA was closed a year after being founded, but the team went on to form Gunfire Games. They partnered up with the newly formed THQ Nordic on a few projects, used Occulus money to make some VR titles, before establishing themselves enough to develop Darksiders III (2018). A far smaller, more focused, game than its predecessor, but a quality time that did well enough to make the IP viable going forward. In fact, THQ Nordic believed in this IP enough that they also published Darksiders 0: Genesis (2019), a top-down two-player co-op action game from Airship Syndicate.

This was all good, showed that the IP was well and alive, and both games were succusses. However, it remained to be seen what this meant for the future of the IP, especially with THQ Nordic having canceled so many games after the industry started declining in 2023. There was reason to fear that the series was on ice, and that the main studio of Gunfire Games was busy chasing after a different trend after releasing Remnant: From the Ashes (2019) and its sequel, Remnant II (2023), both of which have done very well for the studio.

However, Gunfire is going ahead with a full Darksiders 4, and it promises to be what people wanted from a Darksiders sequel for the past… 15 years? A single-player, or multiplayer, action game featuring all four horsemen going about some manner of cataclysmic adventure, likely set right after the first game. Nothing material was shown— just a generic CG trailer with some voice over— but as a title from an established IP, established studio, without an extreme gap between releases, I will allow it.

Darksiders 4 was not given any release date, but it is slated to come out for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

In the meantime though, they should probably do a remaster of III for PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2. Because the game had technical issues out the gate, and DLC, so a Darksiders III: Refuried would make at least some sense. …G-Get it? Because the first was War-mastered, then we had the Death-initive, and the third game is about Fury, so it would be Re-Fury-ed? …Anybody?

Akumako: “Go back to playing Dokyusei: Bangin’ Summer, ya dumb bitch“

Fiiiinnneeee~!

…Will anybody realize that I was referencing the Darkstalkers are not dead announcement that never amounted to anything? Probably not. I got Darkstalkers and Darksiders confused as a teen, but I think that was a ME issue.

re:Dreamer Version 0.20.0 is FINALLY Done!
(The Third Last Minute Addition)

Ah, fudge. Another last minute thing I need to stitch onto this Rundown? …Yeah, it’s important, so I may as well talk about it briefly.

re:Dreamer has undergone one of the more extreme developmental delays I have seen in… ever. After releasing Version 0.19.0 on August 17, 2024, its sole developer, CaptainCaption, has been struggling to finish up a planned fifth anniversary update for the title, originally slated to be released October 7, 2024. Instead of taking about two months, it took… 350 days for the update to be finished. But now Version 0.20.0 is out and available for Substainer and Backer patrons. The update itself is quite significant, featuring over 100,000 words of new and rewritten content, but much of it is another darn rewrite of existing content, revising day two of the Keisuke route. Not even adding in the pool scene that has been a WIP for… I dunno, a year and a half?

Why did this take CaptainCaption so long? Basically, health issues. They’ve written a bunch of posts about their cat scratch fever, mono, nausea, inability to do more than a few hours of work most days, and memory problems. Life was very hard for them for a couple months, I think it has gotten better, and hopefully they will stay on the up and up. I do not know that for certain, and considering the fragility of Cap’s medical situation— they are stuck on HRT, have corticobasal syndrome, look up the list if you’re that curious— I’d speculate that stability is fleeting.

Personally, I am just glad to see that this project is still kicking along, as there were definitely a few months where I worried that this would mark the end of this project. But Cap is nothing if not tenacious. I’d imagine that they’d pull an Osamu Tezuka and still be working on their final project whilst on their literal deathbed. And at this point, I just want them to get better so they can finish as much as re:Dreamer as they can. Because re:Dreamer is a truly special game, and one that I look forward to going back to in… a little under a year. Press-Switch took the June 3rd spot last year, but I ain’t allowed to talk about that no mo’ for political reasons.

Progress Report 2025-08-03

Bangin’ Summer be bangin’ yo!

This past week I started learning how to use some financial planning software called eMoney, and in perusing all the different ways that a retirement account could be entered, all the variants, just threw me off my rocker. I don’t like giving retirement advice for two reasons. One, it sounds like a fantasy for so many people of my generation, who lack any ability to plan for retirement. Two, there are just too many different options for untaxed savings/investment accounts in this country. 529 Plans for education. Health Savings Accounts for people with certain insurance plans. Traditional tax deferred IRAs. Non-deferred Roth IRAs. 401(k) retirement accounts. 403(b) retirement accounts. SIMPLE IRAs. Self-Employed Pension IRAs. The recently introduced Trump Accounts. All of which have their own usage and limits that I don’t remember, as I only deal with these every few weeks, and the tax situation around them is so complicated.

It all makes me want an actual tax reform that takes all of these concepts, and throws them into two buckets. A traditional ‘deferred tax’ retirement account. And a Roth ‘tax free’ retirement account. Let people withdraw as much as they need for K-12 and college university education— like a 529 Plan. Let them withdraw as much as they need to buy medicine or pay doctors— like a Health Savings Account. Let them take out $10,000 when buying a home— like with almost any IRA. And let everybody put away more money, without these fussy income restrictions— like a Roth IRA— or income allowances— like an SEP plan. And, yes, I would say they should be allowed to invest in whatever the hell they want. If they want to put their entire savings into a private equity firm because their brother works for them, then go for it. If they want to bet it all on meme stocks or crypto and accumulate millions in untaxable capital gains they can only eat into when they turn the magic age of 59½, sure, why not?

Set the universal individual contribution limit to $25,000 for youngsters. $30,000 for those over 50 ‘real adults.’ Let parents invest up to $5,000 into a child’s account before they turn 18 a become legal-2-sex. Let employers put up to $5,000 into their employee’s retirement accounts as compensation bonuses, but not self-employed people— make a damn S-corp if you want that benefit. Have the Federal government give every US citizen $1,000 in one of these accounts upon birth. Index all of these numbers. And call them… United States Health, Education, and Retirement Accounts, or USHER accounts.

I understand that rules, regulations, and limitations exist for a reason, but goldarn do I hate it when something is so complicated, when these are just pots of money. We don’t need 14 different standards, we just need two! TWO! Put me in charge! I can fix EVERYTHING!

2025-07-27: Busy day! Had anime time with Cassie and the sick Shiba, went out for hair cuts, goofed around with Cassie a bit, then wrote the 4,500 word Preamble Ramble, because I wanted to voice my full opinions on this matter. Also, I was busy with friends and errands, so I did not do my calls today. It’s a Sunday. I’ll do ’em for the rest of the week.

2025-07-28: Had to work for like 3.5 hours, fiddled with new financial software (eMoney) my boss bought, and helped set up my mother in the new financial software, which took a few hours, as I’m still learning the tools. I managed to clear the Coming of Age route in Hundred Line and am planning on taking a break before tackling the last four routes (Romance, Monster, Mystery, and SF). Because I want to bang during the summertime with Classmates! Wrote 700 words for the Hundred Line review/ramble/whatever it ends up being.

2025-07-29: Wrote 4,100 words for the Rundown (BAD NATALIE!) and started playing Dokyusei: Bangin’ Summer, but the Steam version seemed to just… not function properly, so I spent about four hours playing the first day, learning how things worked, and redoing things as I tried to figure out what was wrong with the game. Then I said screw it, bought the JAST USA release, and tried playing that. Because I like JAST. They are the spiritually correct store to buy a game like this from. Ultimately, I THINK I figured it out and got it to work in the JAST version.

2025-07-30: WELP! I realized that There was NOT a problem with my Steam version of Dokyusei. The problem is that this game is full of 90s adventure game math and is deliberately cryptic despite its accessibility features. SO! I searched for a walkthrough of the game, realized its formatting was a wet dog’s ass, and decided that I would follow, edit, and then repackage this walkthrough alongside my review. This will add 6+ hours to my time with this 20 hour game. FUCK! Only got partway through the FOURTH day in this 21 day game and my playtime on Steam alone is already over 10 hours. How Long to Beat says that’s long enough for a standard playthrough! URGH! Why am I so bad at playing games? Made header images for this Rundown. Decided I should try to start editing it.

2025-07-31: 4,600 words for Nina Tendo’s Direct. Finished the edit of this 14k word beast, posted it on Natalie.TF at around 22:15. …I had about four hours of work to do in the middle of the day, hence the delays. Also, I had to do research for the Octopath 0 announcement. Then I did some financial analysis before going to bed. Checking my accounts, importing data, double-checking my taxes after realizing I was overwithheld (I love having a mortgage), getting pissed at the market tanking my IRA by $1,000 since I last checked, planning my Switch 2 purchase, boring adult stuff.

2025-08-01: Wrote 1,250 words for the Switch price hike and Darksiders 4 bits! Played more Dokyusei.

2025-08-02: Did morning chores, then more Dokyusei. Played for like six hours, then realized I was just kinda tired of it for the day, probably just the tension and looping music getting to me a little bit. I think I’m over halfway done, currently on August 21, before the big branching point. Very good game, legendary, classic game, but it takes a lot out of me to play. So I read some TSF manga for good measure. Also, progress is slow because sometimes I screwed up the scheduling, then had to replay parts of the game. It is a game that WANTS you to make oodles of save files, because messing up is so dang easy. Wanted to do a little more, but a friend was online, and I take time to talk to my friends when they want to talk.

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. skillet 08/04/2025 Reply

    In the gamindustri segment, I noticed you namedropped both Fortnite and Roblox, but it was just Roblox that took most of the heat. Now, this is all armchair anecdotal speculation, but as a semi-occasional Fortnite player, that sounds about right to me. Although Epic supposedly has such a stranglehold, I’m not really convinced their recent pivot towards a larger Metaverse has really been working out for them. The three premiere game modes introduced with that brand shift have all kinda flopped while diverting resources from the battle royale fans actually care(d) about, and even UGC’s appeal is similarly niche. It’s a bizarre case of them getting too big for their britches and trying to force something no one asked for, not unlike EGS itself. Matches are filled with bots and player growth has largely stalled, and for a while now the game has mostly been relevant because of collabs, making a weird sort of self-perpetuating speculative bubble that’ll probably pop someday if there isn’t a shakeup of strategy. So keep praying and you might just get your cataclysmic event! Though, like many deaths, it’ll probably be slow and anticlimactic.

    1. Natalie Neumann 08/04/2025 Reply

      I might have not explained this as well, but Roblox is an order of magnitude bigger than Fortnite, and that much is made clear by the IGN video. I was going to grab some screenshots for the Rundown, but I already put so much time into this, I chose to be lazy.
      Growth stalling is okay if a game still has over ten million regular players. When/if Fortnite declined in popularity, it will likely be a slow process. But I am more curious WHERE the people who have been playing Fortnite every day will go, if they will just find another battle royale, or ‘move on’ from video games as a whole, like so many casual game-players have over the past few years..

  2. MegaZeroX 08/29/2025 Reply

    Yeah that Final Fantasy analysis seems spot on. I’m a zillennial (’95) and grew up with FF1 and FF2 GBA remakes. I later played FF 13 and liked it (learning the valuable life lesson that you can’t trust internet opinion), but then like, I’m not a person to play an MMO or action RPGs, so there wasn’t really more after that. Since then, I’ve moved onto things like Trails, SMT, Fire Emblem, and a bunch of CRPGs in general, which doesn’t leave me much room for more fandoms, so I don’t even know if I’d pick up a future game regardless of what Square does.

    People I think don’t realize that much of the downturn of the game market is due to market saturation. There are so many gaming products on the market, and they don’t really “go away.” Like, you have access to so much content that you can last a lifetime on just free content, and if you have a budget you can go crazy. People are more and more isolating themselves into specific subgenres or small collections of series, and maybe only rarely buying games outside of their normal communities. And Final Fantasy has kind of lost that community because what would the individual communities for FF13, 14, 15, and 16 even have in common?

    1. Natalie Neumann 08/30/2025 Reply

      As a fellow ‘zillennial,’ it has been a hot minute since I heard that term.

      The market saturation issue is a problem with games, but it’s also a problem due to a change in business model. Throughout gaming history, there have been other highly saturated markets, where several games come out every week, physical game stores struggle to maintain inventory, and digital storefronts saw so many releases each week or month, it warranted lists, previews, and summary articles. However, four things happened in the past decade or so that has made the market so… uneviable.

      1. Digital libraries and emulation really took off. Nowadays, every new game is competing with a litany of games released over the past 40/50 years. Digital storefronts and backwards compatible consoles have allowed game players to carry their games with them, and platforms like Steam have enabled people to build up a living library of titles over the course of 20 years. Meaning that every new game has to compete with the games in players’ backlogs. However, it’s actually worse than that. While older games are still woefully underrepresented on modern systems, which lack over 85% of all titles released before 2009, many of these games are increasingly available via emulation. Emulation has thrived across the world, particularly in low income markets, for decades, and now it is so easy, so many devices are capable of it, and there are so many impressive games that can be emulated, that it consumes a lot of players’ time, if not dollars. If someone have a hard drive with hundreds of ROMs of some of the best games from 1985 to 2006, they don’t have an active need for more games.

      2. The quantity of new releases grew to dizzying heights. While AAA titles have declined in their output over the past generation, the indie boom of the late 2000s and early 2010s never really stopped, and with the easy of digital distribution, more people are making games, and more games are coming out overall. Many of them are not good. Slop, spam, and shovelware meant to make a quick buck have all risen in prominence due to lax certification standards adopted by the likes of Steam, PlayStation, and Nintendo. However, I do not think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say that good games are coming out every day. This influx of choice can bury games and makes game development rather perilous, as they need to compete with an attention economy before potential customers can even consider purchasing a title.

      3. Live service games changed everything. Live service games have consumed a disgusting amount of players’ time relative to packaged games. So, even if people are spending more time playing games now than ever before (they are not, that figure peaked during the pandemic), roughly 90% of all gaming time is dedicated to service games. Meaning packaged games need to fight for a really small share of total player time. This, by extension, also messed up the economics of games and how much players expect to get from a title. I remember during the Xbox 360 era, a $60 game only lasting eight hours was often seen as too short to warrant a purchase at full price, at least per internet discourse I was reading at the time. But now, the time and value proposition for people is all out of wack. You can have a great time with one live service as an F2Per and cheap $5 games you pick up every month or two. And if games are not making money, people literally cannot afford to keep making them.

      I would argue that consistency is more important now than ever for a lot of series, in order to maintain, placate, and keep a fandom alive and content, as they will be one’s base, they will sing a game’s praises, and so forth. But in chasing trends, in trying to expand what the series could be, they just lost sight of that one thing, and had these seven year gaps between entries so different that they may as well be new IPs.

      Also, you raise a good point in how players are isolating themselves in light of this complexity, preferring a staple of reliable games, live games, or subgenres they particularly like. Which, for the record, scares me, as I think people should try to maintain a diverse genre diet of different games. …Which I know sounds weird, as someone who has mostly covered gacha games, RPGs, and visual novels over the past few years. I’d play more if I could, but time is cruel…

      Citations:
      https://gamehistory.org/87percent/
      https://www.matthewball.co/all/stateofvideogaming2025