Xbox Series X|S Sales Surpass 250,000 Mark In Japan

I read on another site that Microsoft moved over 12,000 consoles last week in Japan. Pretty impressive despite console shortages and no real Japanese exclusives as of yet.

That is really cool. Hopefully they can keep it up. It doesn’t need to do Nintendo numbers; just good to see the Japanese market enjoying these consoles. Hopefully Xbox will earn some good will and there will be a positive word of mouth, which in turn should keep sales consistent if not ramp them up.

@KingLeo31 interesting - I hadn’t really thought of Xbox working on Japanese exclusives. They did it with the Mistwalker projects of Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, as well as Infinite Undiscovery. As well as timed Star Ocean 4, Tales of Vesperia and Eternal Sonata. Would be really cool if they went back to working on some Japanese projects as I loved most of the above.

@K1LLEGAL if they can continue this run of budding success, add projects from Kojima and Tango Gameworks, then hopefully more Japanese exclusives will follow.

@Kingleo31 that would be beautiful. I feel like the Xbox of today would have acquired Mistwalker as an internal studio if possible. It’s a shame it got lost in the old Xbox management; as their output since has not been as exciting.

@K1LLEGAL I regret them not buying Mistwalker so much! Their last JRPG intended for Xbox 360, “Cry On” was sadly cancelled and thus the end of a very brief relationship.

With upcoming games like Soul Hackers, I can see people that just want to play those JRPGs on next gen hardware willing to get an Xbox in the region.

It's really impressive. The best part for us is more Japanese support on Xbox.

Great to see the format doing so much better there. More japenese content on Xbox will be very welcome..

The whole xbox one generation has sold just over 100k over the whole generation, so this is really good news, awesome and the fruits of their labour are finally paying off, they had many trips to Japan, hope the Japanese support for Xbox keeps going strong in players and developers!

@Royalblues the chip shortage will definitely play a part in how many consoles Microsoft is able to move over there. But if these sales figures continue to trend upward like they’ve been doing in recent weeks, the prospects of more Japanese content gracing Xbox will surely continue.

It seems as if Microsoft has won the favor back with its Japanese fan base the 360 help cultivate. It’s had it’s work cut out for it after the disastrous Xbox One generation but the tide appears to be turning.

@Kaloudz The PS5 is the ugliest now, though 🤣. And biggest, which is something that Japanese hate.

@K1LLEGAL
I think MS wanted to acquire Mistwalker but the studio did not want to be bought. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey are still two of my top games from the 360. Especially Lost Odyssey.

I would love to a see a sequel to both.

Well, since the PS5 is almost the size of a normal Japanese apartment, something like Series S seems like a sensible choice

nice to see xbox doing well. 300k by the end of the summer maybe? with 350k by the end of the year.
maybe on TGS 2022 there will be surprise; Atelier series coming to Xbox?
hopefully smaller japanese developer also will pay attention to xbox again...I miss Mages, Idea Factory & D3 Publisher games on Xbox.

@SplooshDmg Japan belongs to mobile devices and Switch (which is a mobile device) but we're celebrating that Xbox is "something" again in Japan 😛.

@NeoRatt @K1LLEGAL @Kingleo31 I'm definitely interested in Tango and also what the other Japanese studios can do. I have only played The Last Story from Mistwalker, I was hyped and bought the limited edition but the game disappointed me. I loved Pandora's Tower and I wasn't excited about it. Ganbarion (Pandora's Tower) only makes One Piece games now. I haven't played Lost Odyssey nor Blue Dragon... yet.

@SplooshDmg Digital sales are much higher now than years ago and even higher after the pandemic started. However, for some reason that I don't understand, Nintendo fans still want their games physically and thus Nintendo rules the physical charts. And I say that I don't understand it because I'm also a Nintendo fan that grew up with SNES and N64 but I still don't get it. A N64 cartridge is (was) a high-tech cartridge with the full game and circuitry comparable to the hardware. A Switch cartridge is a cheap SD card with the version 0.0 and missing patches and DLC.

There are Japanese buying digital games and subscriptions for Series S/X. I have very few Xbox One physical games, my Resident Evil games and little else. I don't have any optimised for Series S/X physical game, not even Resident Evil 2 and 3 and my intention was to own all the main Resident Evil games physically, but I own hundreds of digital games in spite of my Game Pass subscription. Imagine Japan, which is all about freeing up space... except Nintendo fans. Heck, even I have physical Switch games! But that's because they're cheaper than anything Nintendo-published on the eShop.

@SplooshDmg @Royalblues On Miiverse, a Japanese asked me why I was so interested in Maiden of Black Water when it was a Japan exclusive. Of course, Japanese are not all about Japanese stuff. They love our stuff (and our features). The main takeaway here is more Japanese support on Xbox and that doesn't mean that we only like Japanese games either. I'd say I'm 50/50 between Japanese and Western games.

@SplooshDmg The fact is that digital sales are much higher now but Nintendo fans are more about physical. Physical charts are no longer relevant.

And yes, the eShop is highway robbery. That also has some influence, at least on me.

@SplooshDmg Yes, they are useful to see what Switch games sell more but physical charts are not relevant in the way you use them. The ratio has changed massively so you can't compare Switch physical games with Xbox physical games anywhere in the world, not to mention that Nintendo doesn't have a Game Pass equivalent. I just wanted to explain this to you but... whatever.

@Banjo-
You should at the very least play Lost Odyssey... It is a 100+ hour commitment, but the story is probably one of the best stories in video gaming ever.

@NeoRatt I'll do it. So it's better than Blue Dragon, then?

@Banjo-
I would describe Blue Dragon as an solid JRPG.

Lost Odyssey is a solid JRPG with an exceptionally great story.

@NeoRatt @Banjo- I would say this is accurate. They are both really good; but the story in Lost Odyssey will make you feel something. And the soundtrack is one of the best i’ve ever heard for a game - I still revisit it. I will be honest though I can’t comment on how well the gameplay has aged but it’s a turn based RPG so i’m sure it’s fine.

IDK if "now 3000% less pitiful than before" really counts as a milestone but at least it's moving up instead of down! I still wonder how gp cloud is doing there. Mobile just devastates console there.

@K1LLEGAL @NeoRatt I'm sure that I'll play both eventually. I take my time with RPGs and I have some in my backlog. I'm currently playing Octopath Traveler, which I'm liking.

@Royalblues Yes and let's not forget that Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 almost tied, with PS3 behind until the last-minute cheap revisions. Most of the world buy whatever is more convenient and this generation is more balanced, with the exception being Switch because it's mobile and launched in early 2017. The PS brand is strong, it's the casuals brand and the default console of last generation but not as strong as Sony fans believe inside their PS bubble where the rest barely exists.

@Royalblues Who says no to a free Dreamcast?!! I thought I understood Japan.....

@K1LLEGAL
I have replayed some of Lost Odyssey to get all the achievements. The game has aged fine.

@NeoRatt Then Lost Odyssey before Blue Dragon in my RPG backlog list.

@Royalblues yeah the shovelware sucks. Maybe I can help you a little with indies. For me, there are a couple ways to go about it. Anything on GP is usually pretty good quality as are most of the games shown in Indie World or ID@Xbox. That said ID@Xbox and the Indie Gaming guild have channels that actually show gameplay and whatnot.

@SplooshDmg well you are asking the right questions but Install Base is probably a better forum for this. Couple of myths the X is actually just as if not more popular than the S. It’s not the size factor. I mean I’m sure it’s attractiveness helps with impulse buys. Stock wise Japan usually gets more S than X so that might be why people think it’s the size. As for why it’s rebounded 1) The XB1 was an expensive paperweight in Japan. The numbers we are currently seeing seems more like a reflection of how bad that system was and less of how good the Series are doing.. 2) Gamepass probably. I mean Yakuza did go back into the service as we might not have sub numbers but MS has said in the past it was the fast growing market for them. in fact I’m willing to bet the subs actually put number the console base because if xCloud/PC which technically are packed together in an ultimate sub so.

@NEStalgia hmm an article on PureX with over 40 posts one of two things

Console war
Nes

@mousieone

@NEStalgia You should have used a NES vs. Master System meme if NES is what @mousieone means.

@Banjo- don’t encourage @NEStalgia

NES is a meme all on their own. No other meme necessary. Speaking of that person have you don annihilation yet?

@SplooshDmg Well you can look up regionally most played lists. I think DQ11s is still on the Xbox Japan Most played. If you want that, you go to the regional Xbox Store (I'd use MS Edge or a browser you don't use so it doesn't auto log you in), then just look up the charts there.

As for discussion, I remember reading a comment from a Japanese gamer (not on this board) that they wanted an Xbox or Playstation as a kid but their family purchased a Wii. Their family wanted something the whole family could play, not just the one person. It stuck out to me because if you look at the games that do quite well for Switch, they are mostly Couch Co-Op games. And yes Japan is a heavy mobile gaming zone but I believe the Switch succeeds there not because it's portable, but because it's a family gaming device. Honestly, the Switch is pretty big to be using on a train or bus compared to a phone. This is pretty evident when you see that the OG model sells way better than the Lite. If it was "Mobility", then the Lite would be the dominant SKU. Naturally, people will buy the game on the system that they own.

Then, you look at GP and the games and their variety and you can kind of see how Xbox is reclaiming numbers everywhere. I mean sure hardcore peeps complain about "Peppa the Pig", but at the end of the day a system that can be sold to Daddy, Kiddo, and Mommy makes more sense. In other words, they have you, now they want your wives and children ^__^

To round this back to Xbox and Japan. The Xbox had a bad gen with XB1, but it's not like Nintendo didn't have a bad one with Wii U. They rebounded and we're seeing Xbox do the same. Sony hasn't rebounded. PS continues to decline. That's not to say I think they've completely abandoned Japan but clearly their priorities are the territories that make them more money. And of course they'll continue to invest in Exclusives like FF7R. However, they are being realistic to their prospects there. Which is the thing I go round and round with people with. These numbers, while nice, are what Xbox has always done in the region. I mean maybe more, maybe less but like they aren't even at 360 level numbers. Also a few good weeks isn't exactly stable ground, is it? Between Kojima and the head of Xbox Japan hiring, they are planning to do more in the region. Maybe, that will help push them into 1mil units territory. However, at best the system will always be a backup; at worse, well it is a less expensive paperweight? It just always feels like Xbox is two steps away from not being a thing in Japan at all.

@SplooshDmg Don't underestimate Bethesda. Japan has a strong infatuation with Skyrim. Aonuma was influenced by it for BotW. Starfield, TES, etc are definitely big draws to Xbox in Japan, I'm sure. Japan tends to not buy consoles unless there's a game to go with it they want to play, so you might see a sudden jump in Xbox sales when Starfield drops. I don't mean to Playstation levels let alone Nintendo but a very perceivable jump.

@mousieone Can't spell "meme" without "me"!

No, still on Mizuki. Though I have to say you have me extraordinarily apprehensive about doing annihilation. I end up playing that thing right before bed, and I'm afraid I'll end up sleepless as a result. I still get flashbacks of the vase.

"now they want your wives and children ^__^"

But BillyG doesn't work there anymore.........

@SplooshDmg I feel like I need to read a spoiler walkthrough of the annihilation route before I play it. I close my eyes for ResE and Callisto trailers. I don't do gore! Psyncin in the Vain creeped me out but I pushed through it. I somehow managed Doom VR. The vase in Ota route shudder.

Weirdly I loved CSI Miami And CSI NY. Didn't love the gore parts per se, but loved the shows. But I couldn't take CSI vegas and stopped watching....too much gore....went too creepy..... and I feel like that's exactly what annihilation route will be like. The rest of the game is Miami/NY.

@mousieone I haven't annihilated anybody yet but don't give me ideas 🤣. What game are you (and NEStalgia) referring to, if any?

@NEStalgia I had a bad time playing Doom 2016 the first time. I posted that I preferred the original Doom's graphics. Years later, I beat Doom Eternal on Series X, 60/120fps, UHD, almost 100%, and I loved it. It's like Metroid Prime Evolved. Doom Eternal is one of my favourite FPS ever. I went back to Doom 2016 for getting all the collectibles in a second playthrough but still don't like it and gave it up. It's boring, heavy, distressing...

I don't enjoy gore but in some gameplay dynamics like specific survival moments and intense self-defence is kind of justified and satisfying, e.g. Resident Evil (not in 7 where it's very cinematic and unnecessary), Doom Eternal and little else for me. I don't like gory films.

Yes, Japan also loves The Lord of Rings. Breath of the Wild's areas names seem to be inspired by it 😂.

@Banjo-AI Sominum Files (1, the sequel nirvana just dropped. 1 is on gp! )

@SplooshDmg I already did both unlocks from it thankfully. I somehow naturally got the b ending first because I'm a sadistic sociopath apparently, then went back to the "white" room.

@NEStalgia I didn't know about it.

@SplooshDmg And that's why MS haven't tried to get very many Japanese Exclusive titles lately. Kojima aside (He's in his own league), MS doesn't compete playing that game. One thing people need to remember is that Japan of 2002 (Because that's when Xbox came out there) is not Japan 2022. Back then Japan dominated the gaming sphere. The best games were Japanese, the best devs were Japanese, and the consoles were all Japanese. The little American upstart was just that, an Upstart.

But Japan 2022 is mostly a double AA and Indie market. Not that that's a bad thing, but just that they aren't massive high budget affairs. I mean maybe the Monster Hunter games. but that's okay. I can't stress enough that a good game doesn't need a massive budget, but anyway they also seem to have pretty good indie respect because their indie Expos are top notch and better than the ID@Xbox shows. Just saying. Not that I diss those because they get viewers and that's what counts for indie games; eyeballs.

MS does need Japanese content, but it doesn't necessarily need to be exclusive. Just like they need Western content. Actually, they pretty much just need content. You need stuff to put into your ecosystem. As a console, Xbox is a complimentary console. Their biggest selling point is their ecosystem. That's what they sell, and that's what they are good at selling. Most people complaining about the showcase thought it sold GP well, just not Xbox.

So to your points and my own. XB1 flopped because MS didn't try at all. 360 did better but the Company still failed compared to the others and they actually made attempts and tried. Series X/S is doing better because MS is doing Xbox in Japan, and they aren't trying to over extend like in the 360 era to move the needle. They are just doing them and well it's working enough.

I'd like to point out I am really excited for the Kojima game, not because it's an "Exclusive Japanese developed game" but because I really wanna see what he does with the cloud. I want to see cloud gaming because I navigated from a game made to work with the cloud from the ground up. It's exciting and I'm glad he and MS were able to make the deal happen after the bottom fell out of Stadia.

@NEStalgia You and that vase? There is so much in store for you. Hurry!

@SplooshDmg I suck True scared but psychological thrillers sure

@Banjo- Ai Somnium Files

@Banjo- It's a Japanese visual novel, a detective murder mystery (full English VA). 70% of it it is comedy and light hearted. But when it's dark, it's really dark.

Unlike ace attorney where murders are impassioned crimes, covered up. This is a serial killing. It has realistic depictions of the really effed up stuff the serious sickos do.... And the annihilation route as these two keep reminding me it's the total dark route. Given the entrance to that route, I can only imagine how traumatizing the rest of that route is going to be 😬

And yeah doom 2016 and eternal are pretty different but both good. Doom vr is 2016 based. Rough on the squeemish but doable. Otoh I won't touch doom 3 with a barge pole. Seriously creeps me out.

Ai som is different. Less blood fountains and more seriously effed up arranged corpses for display by deviant nutjob. Even when you know it's coming it's just..... Disturbing.

@mousieone What did you people get me into? I'm going to have to get a PC version and hack it to skip the green route so this point

@mousieone "that's what counts for indie games; eyeballs"

Now you're just doing this on purpose

@SplooshDmg sighs Well I can understand the resentment for established titles. Like if Persona 6 was a Switch exclusive, I would get being frustrated from someone who’s bought a PS5. However, with new unproven titles? Like Blue Dragons is at least partially owned by MS, you want them to not invest? And yes I’ve seen people wanting MS to port the game. Scarlet Nexus had a huge marketing budget thanks to MS; but I’ve seen people get angry with even that. Damned if you dammed if you don’t.

The current approach seems to be less resentment and more about what works. However they still are going to want some caveats; time marketing etc for money. They aren’t a charity. People need to not let things like that bother them,

Yeah you know when I go to a theme park l; I do they angry because I can’t put one in my backyard . Whatever Kojima is cooking up it’s not going to be like a traditional games. People need to let go of the anti- streaming issues for a game like that. Of course physical media makes sense for preservation and consoles but some experiences are “in the moment”.

@NEStalgia well eyeballs and knives you know.

You must finish the yellow line too. It has super creepy factor as well.

@mousieone ohhh great.... . I hate you people for getting me into this. I'm now invested and apprehensive to continue at the same time

@SplooshDmg I might try and see if it's on Game Pass.

@SplooshDmg Cool, I will try the first one since it's on Game Pass.

@SplooshDmg Why could you people not tell me these things before hooking me on it? 😡 The hook and the vase haunt me. And I know the green route is worse. And now mousie tells me yellow will do it too whyyy. You work for Naix don't you?

@Banjo- It's super addictive story and characters. Once it hooks you you can't get it out if your head. Both for good and bad reasons

@SplooshDmg I learned Spike Chunsoft only exists to hurt me when I bought my first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game.

Geeze. I seriously may end up not finishing the game. Was it the green or pink (resolution) route that was so soul crushing? I legit may find a walkthrough first. I can take it better when I know what to expect. I really never expected such a messed up game from the start. I mean yeah, the carousel alone is pretty messed up, but I didn't think that was just a taste of way worse. 😫.

Like I said, I LOVED csi Miami and ny and law and order og. But couldn't stand at all Vegas. I'm kind of particular about what kind of sadism I can tolerate I guess.

I couldn't take Trevors torture session in gtav either

Lol let me know if the sequel is more or less graphic and creepy. Psyching I'n the Vain goes a bit past the level of creepy I'm ok with. The vase and hook go way past. But I'm too attached to the characters to stop now

Also curious if somniums are improved. The time limit really discouraged exploring everything they made in them and encourage just logically racing to the right answers which sucks.

@SplooshDmg I think doki gained it's reputation for looking like a dating sim but actually being horror. Tough the horror aspect turned me away from it completely. I went into ai expecting a defective story and not eternal dispair

Danganronpa doesn't seem like it gets nearly has heavily dark as ai. I just rebought the whole trilogy and boardgame spin off on switch hoping to complete it. It can't be nearly as bad can it?

How about zero escape? Finally grabbed nonary on gp.

To me the thing with ai is...I don't to horror. I know I don't do horror. Jurassic Park crossed lines for me. The original. The arm. Ugh.

But nothing about ai seemed like it would go that way. It's like the last quarter of the game just has this total tone shift. You could say it opens with the carousel and that should be a clue.... But it's not, that's a lot more by the book for the genre than the other stuff. And it has that whole 80s detect movie vibe at that point...

@SplooshDmg interesting, I didn't know zero escape was that dark and disturbing. It seemed ok at the start..... I'll probably go ahead and delete that. I thought I was finally going to catch up on all these VNs I missed and instead it looks like I'll just be waiting for another ace attorney . Why are all the VNs so psycho?

Danganronpa I definitely don't get the super dark vibe from in the air sense. The fryer basket thing doesn't seem the the same league as the arranged and mutilated bodies in ai. Or whatever zero escape does. Hopefully Danganronpa, even 3, won't end up in that same league.

"Zero Escape starts off as "Let's play a game", followed by murder,"

Sounds like my relationship with soulsborne.

Uchikoshi is kinda disturbing with the way he thinks. Nobody should think like that... Kinda makes you wonder how much of himself is in the characters 🤔

@SplooshDmg lol yeah, zero doesn't sound like it's for me at all unfortunately.

Danganronpa ... Probably fine. Hopefully fine.....I can't see Danganronpa having particularly gruesome imagery. Not on the order of the hook or vase.... It's how real that is that gets me I think.
Plus I have a strong imagination and a runaway mind. The vase is kind of Hitchcockian. You know what's there, so it's not unexpected. The x-ray is nothing but outlines, though detailed ones.. But on seeing that my mind just put together the rest is 3 the picture and the process of getting there in it's entirety. And then upon opening it, in reality it didn't show much. Less than the hook. But the shock of content you didn't know was there gets to me. What's really there isn't much, but what your mind reconstructs from it is horrendous. Then again, I defaulted to the b exit from Vain... Maybe my mind just works like Uchikoshis.

That said, also @mousieone I finished yellow/mizuki, and was braced for something creepy or disturbing but it never happened. Not sure what you had in mind but that was the one route where nothing particularly disturbing happened at all. Two revelations about characters that haven't been paid off yet, but nothing that made me gasp like the red route disturbing shockers. I did miss whatever I was supposed to notice during the fight scenes but definitely nothing really unsettling there. I assume yellow is this games version of a "happy" ending. Even pink sounds like it's worse.

I'm into green now 😨. Might take alooooong time since I usually play mostly a little before bed and that sounds like a really bad idea here.

@SplooshDmg @NEStalgia well you two are weird since neither of you thought it was disturbing where they found Shoko’s eyeball, I mean in was in someone stomach partially digested meaning they ate it while alive. But that’s totally normal I guess. Also the senator makes a comment to Date to be killed by your ___ _____. But again you missed that.

@mousieone hush, banjo got hooked on this now thanks to all of us so the spoilers could be bad

But, ahhh... Yeah that wasn't mizukis route, that was the shock twist at the end of ota/red. Now I see what you mean, and yeah that was one of the things that had me questioning why I'm playing this the other day . It was that and Iris taking the knife. Yeah that was super creepy and honestly worse than the vase even with nothing shown. Worse, that was the last thing I heard before I went to bed that night

Ahh yeah I did get that quote. That's one of the two character revelations without a payoff yet. It's just kind of dangling they're without knowing where it goes yet...a slight wow moment but without information as to why that matters yet, not a big shocker... I'm sure green answers that. The question is if my eyes will be open to see...

I dipped into green and saw the alt version of the polar bear. That wasn't super bad yet but if that's just the prelude I'm not looking forward to the rest.

@SplooshDmg I still can't tell if that means I should buy nirvana at full price, wait for a sale, wait for game pass, or add it to parental controls in my browser?

The somniums in the first game definitely suffered from the timer. Heck I got to the end of the last somnium in the yellow route, got to the third time you have to do the same thing to finished it and it bounced me out due to not enough time. It's just stupid that you can't really examine everything and play with the things they carefully included. Ironically Vain, my last favorite so far, was made less disturbing due to the time since I couldn't linger and dwell on the creepiness , you just gave to race to the TV's.

@NEStalgia @SplooshDmg I think it is Ota’s route but when I went back to check someone’s thumbnail spoiled Nirvana for me. Jerks. Thumbnails really is it so hard to not have a spoiler ad your thumbnail…

Anyway yeah I don’t know if the whole story comes out during the green route. I think part of it but the actually identity for the killer I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure you need to do some stuff with Iris mother and boss to get that answer.

Maybe sex them up maybe go to Tahiti.

Did you get the secret joke ending yet?

@SplooshDmg I skipped the part where it started talking about molecules. My brain hurt and all I really need to know was we have no idea what’s going on.

@SplooshDmg it wasn’t a laser.

@mousieone Ugh, yeah, I've already found it hard to search for anything AI without Nivrana being what comes up. The internet can suck.

Then again even the box art of Nirvana spoils stuff for the original. I mean it stars Mizuki with Aiba, so that alone tells me some of what to expect But that sucks that Nivana gets spoiled so easily, it's less than a week old.

I'm amazed how well they put the mystery together though....I've finished purple, started 2 frames of pink (then lock) then finished red, yellow, and started into green . All that remains is green and pink, and I still haven't a clue what's going on. Lots of threads, theories, conjecture, and tons of holes in all of them. Pretty amazing to keep the mystery going so long. I read that with red, you have enough to inference the whole thing and there's now out of nowhere twists in this like Ace atty....but.....so far, I don't see how. I do have some theories, but there's too many gaps to connect it all still, and contradictions in my theories.

AFAIK the way the rest works is I can do part of green, then lock, then part of pink, then lock, then finish green, then finish pink.

LOL, you're starting to SOUND like Date. But no, no secret joke ending. Wonder how you get that? I assume it's pink route somewhere.

@SplooshDmg so is it actual horror in the creepy, bloody, sadistic "Psyncing in the Vain"/Hook/Vase sense of the word, or just questioning the universe sense of the word? I.E. is it a game for me?

One disappointment about the sequel, to me, is that it's not Date. Granted, Mizuki and Aiba are tied for my favorite character in 1, and yet I feel that Date is the glue that holds it together, he's what gives it the classic detective noir vibe, and his interaction with Aiba is half of what makes Aiba. I love Mizuki, but I can't love Mizuki as the player protag the same way Date is. I love the world weary detective motif. World weary pervy detective with a sassy AI sidekick is just icing on the cake.

@SplooshDmg That's good (so far) that it's not as gory. But, yeah, I'll wait till you're done. There's always that green route/whats-for-dinner surprise lurking in these games.

IDK About "existential horror". Lurking inside a serial killers brain reliving the murders is horror (Vain), bodies on hooks is horror.....cosmic horror....is that really horror?

Maybe it works out ok. Date, to me, was just the perfect character for the role and set the whole noir vibe of the world flawlessly. I like Mizuki more as a character, but Date is kind of one with the world and heavily contributes to the vibe of it all. Like I said, aloof world weary detective just does a lot for it. Dressed in all black...it just....works, even when you see him as a flawed human, on the case, he's just the suave vibe of the night.

I'm sure the new game works well in that regard....but...there's this sort of Dirty Harry/Bogart/classic intensity to Data that I can't imagine it replaces, even if it's "as good", though if the story doesn't go as dark, then that might be for the best. Because everything about 1, and Date's vibe, is just dark dark dark.

@SplooshDmg so I played green until the lock and played pink from there. The ugly stuff must be after the lock. I'm playing with the volume so low I can't hear the voices because the music puts me more on edge..... And nothing happened so far lol. Though interesting exposition that's still contradictory. Amazing I'm this far in and know so much and still can't really put it all together . I'm loving the puzzle but so darned on edge for the bad stuff

@SplooshDmg hmmm any non story spoiler info about what to expect to take the edge off it?

That's in green not pink right?

Lol nirvana sounds like it's a blast unless it goes all cataclysmic suddenly.... And with ushikoshi, it probably does...

@SplooshDmg I've been bracing for impact since the start of green. Actually since the mid of yellow when mousie told me there was something in there but it was actually in red and I'd already had it Is it more gross (vase) or more disturbing (hook)? Or just worse?

Or maybe more importantly, what's the location of it? Right now I'm cringing wherever it went in green.

I'm still expecting Nirvana is going to pull a "green route" somewhere. It just doesn't seem like it would be an Ushikoshi game without it. It would be nice if it didn't though, I could look forward to the sequel without the stressful cringe feeling I have playing green.

@SplooshDmg That's good to know. Not that I don't brace for that building every time they show it because....well...nothing good ever happens there. The one gory scene there so far wasn't so bad because it was less psychological than the hook/vase, but it sounds like there's something much worse coming...

@SplooshDmg interesting.... Much as I hate the REALLY dark stuff, I have to say the noire tube really suited the first... Not sure how I feel about it changing too much. How does the creepy/gory factors compare?

Tbh I'm now at the point in the first where characters reveal everything. Interrogating the killer on green route now. Still before whatever horrendous scene awaits. Bit I have to say I'm disappointed with the sci Fi plot twist. I was into the detective mystery only to be foiled by a non existent theoretical. And disappointed that it's actually insistent with one of their own points so you really couldn't guess it because it actually contradicts their own in game logic (namely the brain defect of the killer from birth, mentioned twice, should prevent the entire solution from being possible and they just ignore it. Kinda sloppy for a detective mystery in a deus ex machina way.

@SplooshDmg Yeah, I mean I don't mind some junk science here and there as tools like aiba or the psync. But the entire premise of the killers motivation is just conveniently ignored by the entire premise of how it was done. You can't do that in a whodunnit. You need the clues to remain consistent so the reader/viewer can use the evidence to deduce effects. They also did two other major things that break the genre. They introduced the existence of the character late. They swapped the wrong character in Sos som, showing Iris when it was not actually iris. The devs said they did it so players don't figure out the twist too early.. but you can't do that in a whodunnit. You can't put false evidence all over narratively unless it's characters putting false evidence as part of the plot. Who wrote this drivel, Marsha Clark and Mark Furman??

I love it overall but the revelations are a big disappointment for the genre. They need to take notes from even ace atty. That fails by introducing least minute details but it does it logically.

@SplooshDmg Did he actually know who she was at that point? I didn't think the plot to tell him got that far by then, meaning at that point he didn't even know she existed, only that he was being blackmailed about the corpsicle?

Between that and the brain defect that breaks the plot....it's just two big nonos in a whodunit. The writer can't invent fake evidence, or resolve the plot by ignoring established evidence (unless it's a game about the Warren Report where magic bullets are perfectly valid evidence ). The reader shouldn't be thrown off the deductive path by logic-defying information inconsistent with the other information (unless the bad information comes from a character and is part of the plot.)

I still have whatever the really bad scene is in green, and then the final part of resolution, but all the exposition for the most part is done now...so....great roller coaster ride, but definitely disappointing in that regard...you couldn't figure it out from the clues, because one big clue that prevents the result was completely ignored, and one was fake. IDK why they actually explained the brain defect since it runs contrary to their premise.... Definitely sloppy mystery writing with that.

@SplooshDmg It's after she set him up to go see the corpsicle and threaten the blackmail, anonymously, but at that point I think it was before actually introducing Iris into it. Remember, you brought him in right after discovering the corpsicle, before the investigators found it missing, so the psync was merely after he was lured to the warehouse to see it (which is when Date saw it) and he got the anonymous "I know what happened 18 years ago, say nothing to no one, you'll be contacted later for demands" call. So at that point, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know Iris exists, let alone what clothing she wears to have in his mind. Definitely a narritive flourish, but an ill conceived one.

I know the devs (not Uchikoshi, one of the others) said they did it to not spoil the twist. But it was just...amatuer.

The brain defect definitely breaks the resolution though. The whole idea is that oxytocin isn't produced by the brain. Suddenly getting a rush of it from any other brain would have a radical effect on them. Even if they're still insane, they'd absolutely be different. Date is clarified, but the killer's arc is just, again, sloppy.

I think I could deal with it in Nirvana, now knowing it's not a real detective noir. The first one mislead because for 80% of the game you're trying to analytically solve an elaborate and well written murder mystery only to find the solution is "oh, space magic"

FWIW, the game wasn't supposed to be so bonkers originally. Originally it was supposed to be some VR thing. There was no Aiba or AI Ball at all, that was added in when they moved on from the VR idea to fill a gameplay void. Eugh, imagine that whole game as a VR game, with no Aiba, just alone in the somniums....shudder.

@SplooshDmg Ugh, that's just the wrong way to build a mystery game. The whole thrill is trying to piece it together and answer the riddle! Those little details in the timeline are everything for the amrchair sleuth trying to piece it together. These guys need to study more Arthur Conan Doyle....

Pffft. You KY kids don't know what potholes are. We INVENTED potholes!