The Week JRPG Fans Won

Welcome to “Siliconera Speaks Up,” our new newsletter for the site! This’ll be a summary of the past week’s anime or gaming news, as well as a little reminder of things to come. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Top 10 Stories From the Past Week

1. I Played Through World of Warcraft Shadowlands for a Cosmetic to Use in The War Within

2. Hololive CEO Would Like to Collaborate With AAA Game Developers

3. Gundam Breaker 4 Has Restrictions on Fumina, Mobile Doll May

4. SuperGroupies Restocking NieR Automata Ver1.1a Merchandise

5. A Trails in the Sky Remake Ends the “Where to Start” Debate

6. Full List of Tales of Graces f Remastered Changes Detailed

7. New Disney+ Anime Includes Sword Art Online the Movie

8. How to Get the Caesper Treasure in WoW: The War Within

9. Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker PS4 Maintenance is Ongoing

10. Suikoden I and II HD Remaster Release Date Set

Notable Mentions

• Gundam Seed Freedom New Screening Will Have Extra Epilogue

• Cult of the Lamb Weddings Being Held at PAX Australia

• Pokemon Lampent LED Lamp Will Light Up September 2024

• Bandai Namco Teases More Remastered Tales Games

• Review: Emio - The Smiling Man is Nintendo’s Darkest Story

Speak Up Sesh

Last week was yet another exciting week in the gaming world thanks to the Indie World Showcase and Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase stream on August 27, 2024. While the general consensus online prior to the show seemed quite negative, people changed their tune once the announcements were underway. JRPG fans must have been hyped up to see games like Tales of Graces f Remastered, Trails in the Sky the 1st, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, and Atelier Yumia. That’s not even the full list of Japanese RPG games on the horizon for the Switch and other consoles. My timeline showed me some cozy gamers who were satisfied with the line-up as well, so the JRPG fans weren’t the only ones eating well that day.

The Trails in the Sky the 1st remake and the Tales of Graces f Remastered port are fantastic news for their series. In Trails’s case, it provides an easy starting point for people who’ve always been curious about the series but didn’t know how to get in. Considering all the online debates get into about which game to start from (as well as how scary Trails fans can be), it can be intimidating to take anyone’s advice. 

As for Tales fans, it’s less the fandom and more Bandai Namco. Though Tales of Arise was a critical and commercial success, it didn’t really feel like a classic Tales game. The idea to port old games from the series rather than risk another anniversary title (like what Zestiria and Xillia were) was a great idea. It’s an impossible wish, but I still hope to see some of the classic 2D games reach the west.

During our last newsletter, I talked about the hololive booth at ANYC and the later online debates about VTuber presence at conventions. This week, the topic of where VTubers fit in the anime and gaming space popped up again with the possibility of hololive collaborating with AAA Western developers. That’s something Cover CEO Motoaki “Yagoo” Tanigo personally wants to see happen.

He mentioned in the interview we had with him that HoloEN hasn’t been as profitable as the main Japanese branch. It’s hard to judge if he’s only talking about stream revenue or if he means as a whole with that comment. It might be more difficult to supplement stream revenue with merchandise sales when you’re not in Asia though. I’ve personally never seen any official hololive merchandise in my area outside of con season. In comparison, I saw official (and unofficial) goods of VTubers in any store that sold anime merchandise. Considering how much money licensing and exporting can cost, it might not be a surprise that VTubers in the west are seen as “less profitable,” especially since financial reports prove just how important merch sales are.

World of Warcraft has been huge on Siliconera lately! Lots of people have been reading our guides and features on that game. Combined with the Ace Attorney Investigations port, Trails in the Sky, Tales of Graces f, and Gundam Seed Freedom, and it’s like we’re back in the late 2000s. Er, that was when all of that stuff was popular, right? Barring Gundam Seed, which had its heyday earlier on in the 2000s, of course. Summer vacation may be over for the kids, but fellow millennials will hopefully be able to re-experience those carefree school days with those classic franchises when the games come out.

Major Releases This Week

• Bakeru (Nintendo Switch, Windows PC) - September 3, 2024

• The Casting of Frank Stone (PS5, Xbox Series X, Windows PC) - September 3, 2024

• Touhou Danmaku Kagura: Phantasia Lost (Nintendo Switch) - September 4, 2024

• Date a Live: Ren Dystopia (Windows PC) - September 5, 2024

• Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Windows PC) - September 6, 2024

• What the Car (Windows PC) - September 9, 2024