Resume the fight for freedom… until the end of February, at least.
2025 is getting underway, with all the usual psycho reissue lines kicking back into gear and the onslaught of low-profile remasters and ports beginning in earnest. Of course, those publishers hoping to monopolize a traditionally quiet time of year must be stressed about the Switch successor announcement looming over everyone’s heads, but after years and years of waiting for it to drop, that would be foolish. start treating the big ones. reveal as a foregone conclusion…right…?
ARCHES ARCHIVES
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (global)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Namco
What is this? The Nintendo vs. System conversion of Namco’s Famicom tennis game, originally released in Japan in 1987 and ported for feature phones in the early 2000s; Players choose one of 16 identity-breaching characters and one of 4 courts before facing off against a CPU player or another player in a race to win six games of tennis. (Aside from the removal of the longer single-player tournament mode, I believe this version is identical to the Famicom version in terms of audio-visuals and mechanics.)
Why should I care? Namco’s legacy of home tennis games, including the cult title Turbografx-16 world court tennishave very obvious mechanical roots in this game, and any re-release of this particular game, let alone this extremely obscure version, has been a long, long time coming.
Useless fact: vs. family tennis It was distributed in such low quantities that some of its developers have openly questioned whether it was actually formally released; After some inquiries, it appears that it was only released in select Namco-owned arcades, hence its scarcity.
EGG CONSOLE
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (global)
- Price: $6.49 / ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Nihon Falcom
What is this? The MSX2 adaptation of Falcom’s popular action and combat RPG Ys II, originally developed and published for the PC-8801 in 1988 and adapted everywhere in the months, years and decades since, including a reissue of the original PC-88 a few months ago; This port preserves and maintains the form and content of the original while making the necessary hardware-specific changes and concessions, the most obvious of which are a slightly lower resolution, an increase in screen colors, and the lack of FM audio, with music and sound restricted to the PSG chip (which sounds very similar to that of the Sega Master System or Game Gear, for reference).
Why should I care? Unlike the previous MSX port, this one runs comparably to the PC-88 original, and the PSG versions of the background music have a certain charm that can’t be found in the original game or the vast majority of its ports, so you might want to take this opportunity to revisit the game with a nice new soundscape.
Language barrier? As usual, you’re seeing that certain UI/menu options are in English and almost everything else is in Japanese, including mission details/prompts that you’ll need to be able to read to progress.
FILES IN G+ MODE
Psycho Mystery Series vol.7: Yokohama Bokushikan
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: $7.99 / ¥800
- Author: MODO G
What is this? The seventh entry in Genki/And-Joy’s Psychomystery paranormal mystery adventure game series, which spanned approximately a dozen volumes, as well as radio dramas and e-books, from 2005 to 2007; When her fiancé, Mamoru, asks his childhood friend, Mamoru, to evaluate the demon-repelling mirror stored in their family mansion, detective and unrequited love interest, Haruka, invites herself to the evaluation, alone. to discover that the fiancé’s father has been murdered…
Why should I care? The will or unwillingness between Haruka and Mamoru takes a decisive turn in this episode, or so I’m told; What’s more, there was a significant change in production style starting with this episode that many choose to interpret as the soft beginning of a new “season” of the series.
Heavy-handed literary/historical reference? a lot Kojiki in this one.
OTHER
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $39.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Bandai-Namco / Sony / Shift / Dimps
What is this? A remaster of the dystopian multiplayer hunting action game published by Sony freedom warswhich was originally developed by Shift and Dimps and published for the PlayStation Vita in 2014 and, for some reason, Bandai-Namco picked it up for remastering; This version maintains all the hook-filled hunting action and several competitive, cooperative and persistent faction-based multiplayer modes from the original, while increasing the resolution and frame rate up to 4K/60 FPS depending on platform, adding extensive adjustments balance (including higher levels). player speed) and a new extra hard difficulty mode, customizable controls, and access to all previous DLC.
Why should I care? I can’t offer any personal impressions on this one: my time with the Vita was short-lived, and of all the many I didn’t…monster hunters I could have played, I went with Soul Sacrifice – but it was clear at the time that Sony seemed to be using most of its chips on this game to push the Vita to new levels of popularity… and sure, that didn’t really work, especially outside of Japan, but seeing this The game not only resurrected but signed with another, less silly published one, it bodes well for many other noteworthy one-off titles hiding firmly under Sony’s wing. At least Bandai-Namco deserves credit for publishing this earlier. Wild monster hunter…
Helpful Tips: Cross-play is only present between the PS5/4 versions, and not between PC and/or Switch. Physical buyers should also note: the physical version is currently exclusive to Japan/Asia and also exclusive to PS6 and Switch.
Ys Mémoire: The Oath at Felghana
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (global)
- Price: $29.99 or equivalent (digital) / $59.99 or equivalent (deluxe physical)
- Publisher: Falcom / Marvelous/XSEED
What is this? The final touch to Falcom’s 2005 polygonal reinvention of the 1989 title. Ys III: Ys Wanderers, originally released for PC in Japan and ported to PlayStation Portable in 2010, with a global release for the PC version in 2012; This remaster is based specifically on the PSP version, which included several additional features and modes that were not present or added to the PC version (including new gameplay+ options, various difficulty/accessibility settings, and system changes), plus new features like double speed mode, a new dual-language dubbing with voice dialogue from the player character from the Adol series, classic or redesigned character portraits, and scene skip functionality.
Why should I care? ys memory has essentially usurped the original in canon: while the original was essentially an unrelated side-scrolling action RPG that had the Yeah With the name added, this remake reconciles some of the original’s inconsistencies with the series’ broader story, while completely rebuilding the game in the style of the then-new Ys VIwith a focus on slightly technical overhead slam action combat and occasional side-view platforming in deference to the original, and this particular remaster makes more nods to the original by allowing Adol, who was unusually talkative in Ys III but given his usual non-speaking role in the new version, he speaks again. (I should also remind people that the original Ys III I came to EGG Console a while ago, so no need to worry about old games being covered in endless remakes.)
Useless fact: The original PSP and PC releases of the first. For example, I can remember the case of a Japanese company that encouraged such collaboration, particularly on consoles.
