Mourning Rachael Lillis – This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks! It’s been a heck of a week for me, being a humble VTuber fan; earlier this week was my favorite VTuber Silvervale’s birthday (a fun time was had by all), and then the very next day my interview with Mori Calliope went live! I never thought I’d get a chance to interview one of Hololive’s talents; I hope to interview more VTubers in the future.

By now, you’ve likely heard the news that voice actress Rachael Lillis died this past Saturday following a long bout with breast cancer. While beloved for her roles as Utena Tenjou and Lt. Commander Yuriko Star in the Revolutionary Girl Utena and The Irresponsible Captain Tylor dubs, Lillis’ true claim to fame was her work on the Pokémon anime. Her voice introduced older Pokémon fans to the tomboyish mermaid Misty as well as the girl boss Jessie of Team Rocket (as well as a few incidental Pokémon like Vulpix, Goldeen, and the ever-beloved Jigglypuff).

When her sister shared the news that Lillis was battling cancer, the Pokémon community united as one in support of Lillis’s care. So, too, is it united in mourning of a talent who defined so much of Pokémon for such a long time. Currently, the GoFundMe page operated by her sister is still up, with any donations going towards Lillis’ posthumous medical bills and memorial services. At the time of writing, a copy of the Time magazine issue featuring Pokémon, autographed by 24 of the original 4Kids cast members from the Pokémon anime, is still being auctioned on eBay. While the original intent was to use the proceeds for Lillis’ medical care, the earnings will be donated to a cancer charity instead.

The Pokémon fanbase is sharing plenty of sweet memories associated with Lillis. Seeing more people share happy memories of her in her absence would be nice. The world of Pokémon has gotten a little smaller now without her.

Tango Gameworks Gets A Second Chance At Life

Sometimes, a tiny miracle isn’t an old obscure game getting a second shot. Sometimes, it can be a whole studio getting a new lease on life. Man, is this some welcome news.

Tango Gameworks’ shutdown this past May was a punch to the gut for fans everywhere. Not only was Hi-Fi Rush a rousing success for the company, but even Microsoft was singing its praises. Better yet, Hi-Fi Rush was slated for release on Sony‘s and Nintendo‘s consoles. The game was emblematic of the kind of smaller-budget success that Microsoft desperately needed in the wake of their vanishing goodwill and floundering hardware sales, but even an award-winning game like Hi-Fi Rush was enough of a success in the eyes of Microsoft, with the company shutting the studio down without a second word. This event left the upcoming Nintendo Switch port for Hi-Fi Rush (which we know was in production courtesy of some datamined shirts featuring Switch branding) lost to the aether. While founder Shinji Mikami had long since left Tango Gameworks by that point, people still mourned the studio and its potential; a certified hit like Hi-Fi Rush doesn’t come around every day—and neither does a studio like Tango.

This is where Krafton comes in! Best known as the studio behind PUBG, Krafton has worked with Microsoft to revive Tango Gameworks, specifically opening the door to expanding Hi-Fi Rush as a franchise. This does not include The Evil Within or Ghostwire: Tokyo (the article linked above underlines that those belong to Microsoft), but Microsoft‘s loss is our gain at large. Better yet, there’s reason to believe that Krafton is putting in the legwork to really get the band back together; John Johanas, the director of Hi-Fi Rush, was brought back to resume his work on the series. I’ve seen folks hope that this means more of the ex-Tango Gameworks crew is being offered an opportunity to return to the fold, but I haven’t seen as much in black-and-white, only that Krafton and Xbox are “working together to ensure a smooth transition.” It would be phenomenal if the folks laid off by Microsoft had first dibs on returning to work. It’s a dream offer, an opportunity entirely too rare for the gaming industry, and a tiny miracle all its own. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the unparalleled losses we’ve seen in the gaming industry for the past few years, but what the hell, for once, the little guy won. All the best to the folks at Tango, I for one won’t be crying if the upcoming Hi-Fi Rush 2 takes a miss on Microsoft‘s platforms for their troubles. Players, you’re due for a reunion with Korsica!

My particularly-longtime readers will likely remember that my very second column covered the auspicious (not to mention out-of-left-field) crossover between Taimanin RPG and Black Lagoon; the former an adult mobile game based off of the Taimanin Asagi universe of visual novels from LILITH Soft, the latter a gritty manga/anime created by Rei Hiroe about a crew of modern-day pirates with plenty of Hong Kong Bullet Ballet-inspired flavor—as well as T&A. No joke, that column wound up being one of my most-read for that year, by a country mile. Anyway, Taimanin RPG is getting another anime crossover! It’s with Highschool of the Dead!

Wow, what a throwback. The original Highschool of the Dead manga dates back to 2007, when folks were obsessed with zombies. The setting was simple: a gaggle of high schoolers (most of them girls) slaughtered their way through an army of the dead after a zombie outbreak in modern-day Japan. Shenanigans ensue, with the gang having to dodge lewd cults along with the starved undead. I’d hate to call it “lowbrow,” if only because that would be me throwing a lot of bricks from inside my glass house… but also, Highschool of the Dead is pretty up-front about shoving womens’ fronts into the POV. Created by writer/artist duo Daisuke Satō and Shōji Satō (no relation), the series sadly went on hiatus due to Daisuke’s health issues, and the hiatus became permanent when he passed away from health complications. Shōji Satō, not wanting to continue the series without his friend and work partner, moved on to other similarly sex-and-violence-infused manga like Triage X and Divine Raiment Magical Girl Howling Moon, feeling that it was better to honor Daisuke by putting the effort that would’ve gone into Highschool of the Dead into newer works instead.

Meanwhile, the Taimanin universe is a long-running series of visual novels, H-OVAs, and associated mobile games set in a world where Japan’s criminal underbelly cooperates with demons, vampires, and other monstrous beings. Groups of Anti-Demon ninjas—”Taimanin”—fight against them… but a lot of that fighting involves outfits getting shredded and ninjas being put into compromising situations. Shiravune has brought over two of the core Taimanin games, Taimanin Asagi and Taimanin Yukikaze, with the door open to other games like Hell Knight Ingrid or Mama wa Taimanin getting licensed and released later down the line. The games have also expanded into gacha, which opens the door to endlessly putting the Taimanin into various lewd scenarios without needing a whole VN to justify it. The game has featured (worksafe) crossovers with other anime before, like the aforementioned Black Lagoon crossover as well as a crossover with Super Sonico. The Black Lagoon crossover even featured artwork from series creator Rei Hiroe for added authenticity.

Similarly, the Highschool of the Dead crossover will feature all-character art from Shōji Satō. The playable characters include the series’ main girl, Rei Miyamoto, samurai-girl Saeko Busujima (bring a towel), and girl-genius Saya Takagi. While their basic art features the girls in their standard uniforms, the trailer also shows Rei in a unique “Taimanin” outfit—another trailer released a few days later teases Saeko’s and Maya’s Taimanin gear (as seen in the picture above). This isn’t the first time Highschool of the Dead has collaborated with a gacha game; late last year, they collaborated with Queen’s Blade Limit Break. It gave me something to mess around with when I was in skilled nursing after my accident (remember that?).

Highschool of the Dead might be an old T&A action series, but it’s still got a lot of passionate fans; even in the comments to the trailer above, some Japanese fans are wondering if this collab might lead to a continuation of Highschool of the Dead in the manga. It likely won’t, but I think the loyalty shown for this series speaks volumes. I can’t chalk it up to the T&A alone because I’ve seen plenty of T&A series come and go (I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else talk about Howling Moon, in fact), and I don’t think it’s because of the mystique of a series having been left hanging. Maybe in another world, Highschool of the Dead would’ve run in Heavy Metal Magazine, and its unique grindhouse sensibilities would make it a counter-culture icon, but it’s already kind of there, and it’s nice to see it back in some capacity.

Don’t expect this collab to come to the U.S. in any meaningful capacity, though; Taimanin RPG spruiked its chances. The game’s Extasy version had been localized and thoroughly shot itself in the foot following a mix-up involving players earning too much in-game currency and The Powers That Be deciding the best way to balance that was to make the players pay back the in-game excess. So Taimanin RPG Exstacy shut down earlier this month. Thankfully, there’s still a Taimanin mobile game (Action Taimanin), but it gets pretty nickle-and-dime-y with how expensive some of its outfits can get for some of the characters. Not only has it not featured any of the collaborations from its RPG counterpart (so no Taimanin Revy or Sonico), but it’s also entirely worksafe, which might disappoint some players. I imagine any enterprising fan has ways of playing Taimanin RPG somehow in the U.S., but it’s a shame nonetheless that the game got smothered in its crib from such an utterly bone-headed decision. We’ll get ’em next time.

I’m a big fan of Shift-Up’s NIKKE. I try not to talk about it too much because, believe it or not, That Bitch™ works hard to avoid turning This Week in Games into This Week in That Bitch™’s Hyperfixations. That’s why I only ever mention Izuna in passing and don’t constantly talk about how often I watch the reveal teaser from last year (believe it or not, six times). And that means not talking too much about stuff unless it’s relevant. But I think NIKKE is particularly relevant this time because they announced an anime collab of their own! And it’s, uh… well, it’s definitely an anime with a lot of female characters to choose from.

It’s Neon Genesis Evangelion! It’s not the weirdest thing to cross over with NIKKE (I still think that would be Re:Zero), but Evangelion‘s sci-fi setting featuring mech pilots shooting down Old Testament-looking angelic kaiju sure fits with the rest of the scantily-clad cyborg women gunning down monstrous robots. As expected, the cameo characters include Asuka Shikinami Langley, Rei Ayanami, and Mari Illustrious Makinami. And they’re in their plugsuits, because of brand recognition. The art also features Misato, who will likely be a freebie. Honestly, I’m surprised they didn’t go for some twist where one of the EVA units is a playable character. It wouldn’t even be that out-of-the-ordinary for NIKKE, considering all of the other cyborg women with guns featured in the game. Just make some hand-wavy excuse about an experimental EVA unit built on a human scale; it wouldn’t be that different from a Nikke beyond its surface-level appearance.

So far, there hasn’t been any news on when the collab will go live. In the meantime, SHIFT-UP will hold a giveaway featuring promotional T-shirts. The giveaway is live through August 21. More to follow! I do wonder if and when SHIFT-UP will feature a Stellar Blade collaboration in NIKKE, though…

Bakeru Gets Western Release Date, “Mystical Ninja” Vibes Inbound

I love talking about obscure games, but make no mistake: there are a lot that passed me by in life. For one, I’ve never really played any of the Mystical Ninja Goemon games. I know it’s a beloved series with a loyal cult fanbase, at least (shout-out to my buddy Dave from high school; he was and still is a Goemon faithful). The story of the titular Mystical Ninja who defends Japan (and also has a giant robot), the series is actually quite extensive in Japan—but only three of the games ever came to the U.S. (Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the Nintendo 64 and Game Boy, plus Goemon’s Great Adventure). And being a Konami series, Konami has seen fit to bury the it! Following the 2005 Ganbare Goemon: Tōkai Dōchū Ōedo Tengu ri Kaeshi no Maki on Nintendo DS (which never even came to the U.S.), Konami has done a whole lot of nothing with the poor ninja. Nuts to the folks who like bright adventure games starring goofy ninjas armed with tobacco pipes, I guess?

Well, it took 19 years, but in the absence of any proper Mystical Ninja, studio Good-Feel and publisher Spike-Chunsoft have decided to bring back the bouncy feudal vibes with Bakeru! The story of a drummer fighting off an army of evil yokai and festival-goers led by an oracle, Bakeru promises fun goofy action and the ability to turn into heroes from Japanese folklore to fight bosses. And to really hammer in the spiritual-successor credentials, studio Good-Feel (who also worked on Princess Peach: Showtime! and Kirby’s Epic Yarn) worked on the original Goemon games back in the day.

Bakeru was originally released in Japan in November of 2023, so some dedicated fans have already gotten a chance to try the game out. According to folks who’ve tried out demo on the Nintendo eShop and Steam, the controls for the English version have been improved for smoother gameplay.

Bakeru releases September 3 for the Nintendo Switch and Steam. So far, there don’t seem to be any plans for a physical release, but I can see Limited Run Games picking it up. I’ll keep you posted on whether Dave picks up a copy!

Let’s wrap up with some quick tidbits

That’ll do it for this week, I think. With summer winding down, it’ll be downhill for the rest of the year. Tokyo Games Show is on the horizon, we’ve got the holiday rush—oh, and autumn means Portland Retro Gaming Expo and Kumoricon are on the horizon. Hopefully, you all can enjoy what bit of summer we have left! Be good to each other; I’ll see you in seven.

This Week In Games! is written from idyllic Portland by Jean-Karlo Lemus. When not collaborating with Anime News Network, Jean-Karlo can be found playing JRPGs, eating popcorn, watching v-tubers, and tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @mouse_inhouse or @ventcard.bsky.social.