Samantha Lienhard's Blog

It’s a weekend full of sales… and not just because of Black Friday, either.

November 25 was the 15th anniversary of Danganronpa, and now there’s a huge Danganronpa sale on Steam to celebrate.

The sale includes the first game for $1.19, and honestly, at that price it’s worth taking a look at if you’re at all curious about the series.

The other games are on sale as well, but the biggest catch is probably the Danganronpa 1/2/V3 Bundle for $13.24, which, despite its name, appears to also include Ultra Despair Girls.

Meanwhile, there’s also a bundle that includes Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, as well as a small sale on Shuten Order.

Moving on to other games that aren’t Danganronpa but exist adjacent to it, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy might not be on sale on Steam, but the Switch version is on sale at Amazon for $39.99. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve played about 70 hours, and I’m confident recommending it as one of my favorite games of this year.

There are also some good Ace Attorney sales right now, as the physical Switch copies of the Apollo Justice Trilogy and the Investigations Collection are on sale for $24.99 each.

All the Ace Attorney games (and Ghost Trick) are also on sale on Steam as part of the Capcom Black Friday Sale. The Phoenix Wright Trilogy and Ghost Trick are each $9.89, while the Apollo Justice Trilogy and the Investigations Collection are each $19.99. On top of that, the Ace Attorney Anthology lets you bundle the Phoenix Wright Trilogy and Apollo Justice Trilogy together for $26.99.

VGP also has a ton of excellent deals (I picked up a few visual novels earlier in the week), but I especially want to draw attention to Persona 5 Strikers for $3.56. Strikers is such a great spin-off that it’s a steal at a price like that!

This are just a handful of the sales out there, but they’re the ones that stood out to me the most. What are some of the best sales you’ve seen this weekend?

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I don’t think we ever talked about the Steins;Gate remake, probably because I thought “Why?” when I heard the news and then forgot all about it.

Steins;Gate Re:Boot was announced last year, intended for a 2025 release.

It recently got delayed to 2026, quickly followed by the announcement of a PC release and localization.

Steins;Gate Re:Boot is a remake of the original Steins;Gate that features updated character designs, new locations, and (the part I’m most interested in) new story elements.

To be honest, my main thought about it is still largely “Why?” because aside from the character sprites now having animation, I think the original game looks better. On top of that, they held a showcase that confirmed it’s using Steins;Gate Elite’s script as a base. I never played Elite, but I know it cut a significant number of lines because of the anime-style presentation and is often considered the inferior version as a result, so it’s disappointing that Re:Boot is using the reduced script.

On the other hand, a new ending has been added, so I’m curious about what that could be.

Now, there’s been a fair amount of fan attention drawn to some oddities in the trailer like unexplained glitch graphical effects in the backgrounds, as well as the emphasis on it being a reboot rather than just calling it a remake, which has caused speculation that it could actually be a secret sequel revisiting the events of the game after Anonymous;Code…

…which I haven’t played yet, so I can’t offer many thoughts on that.

So there’s only one thing for me to do, and that’s to catch up on these games before Steins;Gate Re:Boot comes out! If it really is just a remake, though, I’m much more interested in the sequel that was teased so long ago.

What do you think of Steins;Gate Re:Boot?

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As we discussed, there was a broadcast on Saturday to discuss the upcoming new Utawarerumono game.

Indeed, the broadcast provided our first look at the game, as well as it officially being announced for PS5, Switch 2, and PC.

I haven’t looked into it in too much detail, since I’m not caught up on the series.

However, it’s the sequel to Monochrome Mobius and is a turn-based RPG like that rather than the strategy RPG / visual novel hybrid of the main games. From the screenshots, it looks beautiful!

Additionally, a Switch 2 version of Monochrome Mobius was also announced.

Localization hasn’t been announced yet, but it seems pretty likely. I’ll have my fingers crossed waiting for the news.

I still need to play Mask of Truth and Monochrome Mobius, but who knows? The sequel is due out sometime in 2026, so maybe by the time it’s out here, I’ll have caught up!

Are you interested in the new Utawarerumono game?

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Nippon Ichi Software has officially announced Shinigami Hime to Ishokan no Kaibutsu for the Switch, Switch 2, and PS5, a game described as a “fairy tale-destroying adventure.”

According to the translated information from Gematsu, you play as a girl named Mono who learns that her sister has an illness that turns people into picture books from which they emerge as monsters.

She forms an alliance with a monster called Mel to enter the picture book worlds and save her sister.

Why am I so intrigued by this game that I’m already writing a blog post about it, you might ask? Because it’s the third game from the team behind Liar Princess and the Blind Prince and The Cruel King and the Great Hero.

I love both of those games, and when I finished Cruel King, I mentioned that I wanted to see what the team made next. This looks once again to be a new style of gameplay, but I’m really intrigued by it.

You’ll destroy parts of the picture books, gain skills to manipulate the world, and learn the pasts of the girls infected by this illness to free them from their trauma.

Both of their previous games were beautiful and emotional, and while the premise of this one didn’t immediately capture me in the same way, I’m sure it will be just as strong.

Now I just have to hope NISA announces localization. Are you interested in this new game?

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So we’re fresh off the release of the Tales of Xillia remaster, which came out at the end of October, and the last we heard was that a Xillia 2 remaster was in progress and the next remaster would be announced soon.

The phrasing made it sound like Xillia 2 wasn’t the next in line, so everyone speculated about which Tales game might be remastered next…

…and the answer turned out to be Tales of Berseria.

Tales of Berseria Remastered was announced today for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and PC. It will be out on February 27.

I’m sort of baffled.

I know Berseria came out in 2016, so it’ll be almost 10 years old by the time the remaster comes out, but only one mainline Tales game has been released between then and now. On top of that, it’s still readily available thanks to its PS4 and PC version. It just feels like one of the Tales games that needs a remaster the least.

The remaster has some quality-of-life additions, such as a plot destination icon, and all the original DLC (costumes and items) is included.

Unlike Xillia, where I had mixed feelings, I have no need to get Tales of Berseria Remastered. But that’s fine. My backlog will keep me busy for a while anyway. I just wonder when we’ll hear about the next Tales game… and if any of the older titles will ever be remastered.

What do you think about the Tales of Berseria remaster?

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Back in August, we discussed both bad news and good news for the Corpse Party series: although Corpse Party II was delayed to 2026, the Corpse Party Tetralogy Pack had been confirmed for a western release.

Well… not anymore.

About a month ago, Xseed Games tweeted that they had “run into an unanticipated complication” that could prevent them from releasing the Tetralogy Pack and stopped pre-orders as a precaution.

And this past Friday evening, they followed up with the unfortunate update that the games’ contents “did not comply with current platform guidelines.”

The Tetralogy Pack, as well as the digital release of the games that weren’t already on the Switch, has been cancelled.

Corpse Party and Blood Drive are both on the eShop already, so since their tweet says the problem was with multiple games in the collection, it sounds like both Book of Shadows and Sweet Sachiko’s Hysteric Birthday Bash break content guidelines.

(I would have otherwise guessed it was just Birthday Bash, since that one has so much fanservice compared to the others.)

On the other hand, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that even content in the other games is no longer acceptable, and the games already on the eShop just aren’t being removed even though they wouldn’t be accepted if they were new games.

There’s no denying it, something has definitely changed with Nintendo of America’s content guidelines. For the whole Switch era, Nintendo was the more relaxed platform when it came to censorship. Third-party games could do just about anything as long as it was covered by an M rating. But this year, several companies ran into trouble with western Switch releases, Idea Factory being the most prominent one. Now this incident leaves no room for doubt.

Fortunately, the Japanese version of the Corpse Party Tetralogy Pack supports English. As soon as Xseed made that first tweet in October, I ordered a copy from VGP. They’re all sold out now, but you should keep an eye on Play-Asia and VGP if you want the Corpse Party Tetralogy Pack.

What will this mean for Corpse Party II, though? I’d hate for them to tone down its content in anticipation of problems. Right now all we can do is wait.

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Remember the upcoming sequel to Monochrome Mobius?

I keep forgetting about it, but Utawarerumono: Shiro e no Michishirube was originally announced for this year, and then it was delayed to 2026.

There hasn’t really been any news about it, though, not even platforms.

Now, however, Aquaplus has announced a broadcast to be held on November 22 at 3 PM JST / 10 PM PT / 1 AM ET (I think I got my time conversions right).

According to the translation from Gematsu, the broadcast will focus on Shiro e no Michishirube and feature a few of the voice actors. It will be followed two hours later by a broadcast about the mobile game.

So, it sounds we’ll finally get some solid information about the new game!

I say “we” despite the fact that I’ll probably avoid reading too many details about it at all, since I still haven’t caught up on the series. Speaking of which, it’s been way too long since I played Mask of Deception… I need to start Mask of Truth one of these days…

Anyway, are you looking forward to news about the new Utawarerumono game?

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I woke up today looking forward to Idea Factory’s promised otome game announcement, so when I got online and immediately saw Over Requiemz localization news, my first thought was that we’d misread the signs and it wasn’t the Birushana fandisc after all.

Then I took a closer look and realized the announcement wasn’t from IFI, but from Aksys!

Yes, instead of waiting for a special event or live stream like usual, Aksys randomly announced a new otome game localization this morning, so you never know when exciting news will come.

(Maybe they didn’t want IFI to have the only otome news today?)

I’ve been curious about Over Requiemz ever since it was announced for Japan and I saw people talking about it. It seems to be some sort of dark Wizard of Oz inspired story, and the love interests are murderers? It looks really interesting, so I was hoping this one would be localized.

Over Requiemz will be out in Summer 2026!

And of course, that wasn’t the only announcement for today, because we still had Idea Factory’s live stream to look forward to!

As expected (it would have been crushing if all the hints were false leads), they announced Birushana: Winds of Fate!

I loved Birushana, and I’ve been looking forward to the fandisc ever since. This is one that will not sit in my backlog for long, I assure you.

Birushana: Winds of Fate will be out in 2026!

(They’ve announced a standard edition and a “plus” edition, so I think it’s pretty clear we’re no longer getting limited editions. It’s a shame, because IFI’s limited editions are fantastic.)

I’m so excited for Birushana, and you know what? 2026 is starting to look pretty solid for otome games!

IFI has Temirana, Homura, and Birushana all set for 2026, Aksys has Otome Daoshi and Over Requiemz, EastAsiaSoft is bringing over the Hakuoki spin-off, and there are a few others from smaller companies as well.

…It wasn’t that long ago I was worried the otome localization market was slowing down, but maybe I misjudged. My backlog is in trouble!

Meanwhile, yesterday’s State of Play Japan didn’t have too much exciting at all, aside from a handful of nice trailers for games we already knew about, so I was even happier to get some great otome news today! Are you planning to get Over Requiemz and Birushana: Winds of Fate?

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There’s a new State of Play set for tomorrow, and while they tend to be hit or miss, I’m more excited for this one than usual.

This is specifically a State of Play Japan, with a focus on games from Japan and across Asia.

It will be hosted by voice actor Yuki Kaji and streamed tomorrow, November 11, at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET, on Youtube with English subtitles available.

You know I love a lot of Japanese games, so of course this one is going to get my attention. Can we possibly go through 40 minutes of Japanese game announcements without something that catches my interest? It could happen, but it’s not likely.

Now, for once I’m not going to talk about hoping to see Ace Attorney tomorrow. I doubt they’ll make any Ace Attorney announcements until the update for the Phoenix Wright Trilogy is out, which won’t be until the 19th. So I don’t expect to get our long-awaited Ace Attorney news tomorrow.

But dare I hope for Kingdom Hearts? We got a tiny shred of Kingdom Hearts IV news a couple months ago, which amounted to a thumbs-up and assurance that it’s happening, but nothing concrete in years. We’re due for a trailer.

I think it’s too early to see the third Final Fantasy VII remake part, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking since I haven’t played Rebirth yet.

Since it specifically mentioned games from Asia, not just Japan, maybe the Stellar Blade will be there, too.

Oh. This is just making me realize how far behind I am on my backlog.

Anyway, backlog or not, I’m excited to see what will be revealed at the State of Play tomorrow, and I’ve got my fingers crossed for Kingdom Hearts. What are you hoping or expecting to see?

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Idea Factory is teasing a new otome game announcement… and it might be the Birushana fandisc after all this time?!

Two days ago, Idea Factory International tweeted a short video along with the caption “Soon…” and an emoji of a leaf blowing on the wind, as well as otome tags.

It was clear they were teasing an otome game announcement, and the video suggested a Japanese setting, so all of us who have been waiting for the Birushana fandisc to be localized got hopeful again, even knowing there are other games they could be teasing instead.

Today, they followed up with another tweet, this time with a longer message: “Down the path you go, the winds guiding you. See you on 11/12”

Not only does this let us know when we’ll get this announcement (November 12), but it also feels like an even stronger hint toward Birushana. The Birushana fandisc has the subtitle “Ichiju no Kaze,” which involves the wind. The apparent Japanese setting plus the message about the wind feels like a hint toward this being their announcement.

I played Birushana back in 2022 and loved it, and I’ve been waiting for the fandisc ever since. At first I thought they were just waiting to release the Cupid Parasite fandisc first, but the more time has passed without the Birushana fandisc being localized, the more I worried we might not get it after all.

But now it looks like we’ve got a real chance! I’ve got my fingers crossed, but whatever IFI’s announcement is next week, I’ll be excited to find out. What do you think they’re teasing?

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