youtu.be/wJim_t5tJcM?... Here's another one that's 18 years old. The world was so different back then when Naruto AMVs ruled the internet for a while.

I don't know how the AMV scene is nowadays with Youtube's nonsense, but it's probably changed to quick musical clips with Tiktok shorts.

Layton is slated for next year along with Decapolice, but I think Layton will come out first with Decapolice being pushed back.

But I'd be shocked if we do get both games next year! Both are puzzle solving games with detective protagonists.

Might be a while until we get Y9/LAD (whatever the title will be). They can keep the RGGverse going for a while with the Kiwami remakes and potential spin-offs.

Since Dark Ties will be a Mine spin-off, I wonder if we'll ever see a Nishiki spin-off. Kiryu's ten year prison arc leaves a lot to tell.

Looks like the mystery games are mostly already announced games for Yakuza. Yakuza Kiwami 3/Dark Ties (new one), YK0 Director's Cut, Yakuza Kiwami 1 and Yakuza Kiwami 2.

Outside of YK3/DT, the other games will be getting new versions for PS, PC and Xbox.

I'm skeptical how one could keep the company lights on without people being hyper obsessed with their favorite characters, but as long as you've got a strong story, characters and interesting gameplay... Fans will throw money at anything.

Another new gacha game known as Duet Night Abyss is also doing away with their gacha and stamina based systems too. Are we entering a new era where you no longer have to roll for waifus and husbandos?

Either way, I think we might see another generational gacha shift depending on the success of these games. Ironic that GTA 6 is coming out for next year too.

(Also I needed an excuse to make and post this image... There's already tribe wars starting and none of the games are officially out)

More coherent thoughts!

Ananta is shaping up to be the most ambitious while NTE and Wangyue feels like they'll hit their niches. NTE and Wangyue are the only ones with open betas so far. Ananta's demo will release for TGS 2025.

It's easy to see why Toei falls back on him every three years since his Rider works are very popular. I hope he shakes things up with his next run for Zeztz.

Bad points: Yuya Takahashi is the main writer. It's too soon to bring him back when Geats was just three years ago. Not to mention, he tends to recycle his writing tropes that he's been doing since Ex-Aid.

Ex-Aid was one of my favorites, Zero-One and Geats not so much.

Anywho, it's good to hear that Kondo and Falcom are buckling down with figuring out how to end the Trails series. This means they'll be producing the games much slower with more care in writing the story.

After the blunder of Daybreak 2 and Kai's ending, they really can't halfass things now.

It's a bit sad to hear. It would be easy to put on the tinfoil hat and say "Gacha games have been killing JRPG games along with visual novels", but that'd be a bad generalization to make.

However, I don't think it's entirely wrong either. More like one piece of a larger puzzle.

Even if they do release this game, it's going to be very hard for Level-5 to regain trust with the fans. I still want to play Decapolice someday, but that might keep getting pushed back into forever too.

That was supposed to release in 2023, but then it got delayed into 2026 now...