What A Horrible Halloween To Have A Column – This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks! The Fall Manga Guide is finally up, and with it a lot of behind-the-scenes work I was doing. Does that mean I finally have time to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3? Nope! Not only do I have to prepare my panels for Kumoricon early in November, but I also got a review for a game fall into my lap—and it’s one I couldn’t pass up. You guys will see it in due time, but it’s one that I simply could not refuse. In other news, I saw the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Symphony this past weekend with some colleagues! Sadly, we were unable to score any of the neat Buster Sword lightsticks, but we saw a few kids with them. Good for them… Anyway, in the spirit of Halloween, let’s talk video games; why not?

This is…

Nihon Falcom President Opens Door on Complicated Discussion About AI Translation

Woof. Translations for video games and anime have become a massively poisoned well for any kind of level-headed discussion, no thanks to the upswell in people (many of whom can only speak one language) insisting that translators are inserting agendas into their work. It’s the most recent form of people complaining about “non-literal translations” (really, Atlus put that one to bed ages ago with their work on Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure). Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo has tossed fuel onto that fire with a recent interview from Tokyo Game Show; there, Nihon Falcom debuted a number of AI-fueled translations for quotes from an upcoming Nihon Falcom game, as offered by the AI engine ELLA. Kondo had a chance to expand upon his opinions about AI translations with a later interview with 4Gamer.

Kondo’s concerns are purely pragmatic: the Legend of Heroes games are, infamously, very long and have a lot of text. This means that translating them is a very time-consuming process. And it’s not a process you can sidestep: the globalization of the game industry means that for many games to turn a profit, international releases are a must. (To say nothing that only releasing your big RPG in Japan is just leaving money on the table.) Kondo hopes that AI can speed up the process so that Japanese games can be released in the U.S. much closer to their Japanese release date, thus ensuring sales.

There are a couple of problems with that. First off, AI is extremely inefficient, energy-wise. Training GPT-3 takes the equivalent of 1,625,000 hours of Netflix streaming of electricity. At a time when more and more are concerned about environmental sustainability in tech, AI is even more wasteful than any Web3 tech. This is one area that AI shows no concerns over improving; more sustainable energy isn’t made to offset the needs of AI; they’re used to raise the ceiling of how much AI can use.

Second, the technology is simply not at a point where it is reliable enough to work. A lot of people love to insist on how much better AI-fueled translations are, but just last week, we saw how AI-translated documents from GAME FREAK‘s Teraleak were attributed to an employee who did not exist because the engine couldn’t read kanji. In the time it takes to train engines to have basic literacy, you could just rely on the entire industry we already have. Remember: there is no such thing as rogue translators hijacking scripts because teams do projects with checks and balances in place. Any translation decision must ultimately be approved by higher-ups at production for brand consistency and marketing. Anyone who insists translators can somehow blackmail production into allowing rogue decisions is, quite plainly, a fool who doesn’t know how the industry works. Also, being someone who is bilingual, it’s striking to me that I only ever see these arguments get so heated around anime or video games. Growing up in Latin America means consuming plenty of translated media both ways. I’ve never seen people get this twisted over translations for Isabelle Allende or Gabriel García Marquez’s books. And those stories are crazy-political.

As an aside from that last paragraph, using AI would likely mean rendering a lot of jobs redundant, which Kondo acknowledges would be a pretty crappy thing for the industry. We don’t need more people losing their jobs in times like these.

Finally, the ultimate issue is that AI is a pain in the butt to correct. An AI translation doesn’t really save you any time; you still have to go line-by-line to make any kind of correction. After all, what are you supposed to do if the engine messes up on a kanji again? You can’t even correct the lines in isolation because you’d still have to refer to the original text to see what was being said. And remember, this kind of scrutiny would be needed for every last line. We don’t need lines like “I feel asleep!” or “Caught off-guard!” in 2024. Those are worse than any number of characters using the word “sus.”

All this to say, AI is pretty much a non-starter. Language is not math; it cannot be boiled down to hard mathematical rules, because even within the same language, you can have entirely different connotations. Someone from Georgia telling you, “Oh, bless your sweet heart!” isn’t complimenting you, for example. How do you teach an AI engine how to account for cultural or even regional idioms that have no equivalent in another language? As an example: when we tell people in Puerto Rico to stop talking, we tell them they can talk “cuando las gallinas mean”—in the time it takes to explain what it means to tell someone they can talk when chickens pee, a smarter translator would’ve just used a line like “make like a shellfish and clam it!”

Translation is an art form all its own, requiring an understanding of dictionary definitions and cultural context. And sometimes, getting the point across is more important than just transcribing the literal words. For example, as part of my day job, I had to take some lessons for translation certification; one test had us translating an interview from Bono, wherein the writer got a little cute and made an allusion to Bono doing stuff “with or without you.” Any fan of U2 would know that that’s a reference to their song of the same name—but it’s wordplay that doesn’t work in Spanish, because the reference is orphaned once you translate the phrase and you can’t translate a text in Spanish only to leave a term in English in the name of a little wordplay. An editor’s note is also not an option because, as a clown voiced by Mark Hamill once said, “If you have to explain a joke, there is no joke!” This is a decision I saw supported throughout my work in Manga Preview Guide; while reading Sugiura Shigeru’s Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke, the translator decided to replace lyrics to old Japanese songs woven into the story with lyrics to similarly-old songs from the United States.

These are all decisions that an AI can’t make and wouldn’t know how to make. You can teach a computer what people say, but you can’t teach a computer how people talk—that’s a vital difference. I don’t think AI will ever get to that point. And if we’re never gonna get to a point where an AI can come up with as creative a pun as “Phoenix Wright” in response to “Naruhodo Ryuchi.” I don’t think Kondo has much to look forward to in any kind of experimentation with AI.

It’s well known that game developer Masahiro Sakurai, creator of Kirby and renowned director of the Super Smash Bros series, is a workaholic. When development officially ended on Super Smash Bros, we expected Sakurai to take a long sabbatical. Why wouldn’t he? The man hooked himself up to an IV drip to keep working on Super Smash Bros Ultimate during a bout of food poisoning. His work on Ultimate was also something challenging to outdo, ignoring some of the landmark crossovers he managed to nail down (which likely will not be repeated in a new Smash Bros), he made a game that celebrated video games. Every new character dug deep into their history and how they played in their games, even breaking the mold Smash Bros had established for itself if it had to—like with Steve’s resource management, Hero’s menu-based skills, or the option to use classic fighting game inputs for Ryu, Terry Bogard and Kazuya.

This was why folks were excited for Sakurai’s Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games channel. Coming with both Japanese and English language tracks, Sakurai used his time off from game development to focus on key aspects of game design. Starting in August 2022, Sakurai covered a wealth of topics from his own experiences, from sound design to general workplace motivation. It is a vital resource for anyone remotely interested in games, not just development or design. And it’s a genuine labor of love: Sakurai’s final video for the channel was released this past week, and he revealed some fascinating aspects about the channel. Chief among them: the whole thing cost Sakurai almost $600,000 to produce. Between translations, editing, production, and other details, Sakurai dug deep into his pockets to create the videos—and he hasn’t really seen any of that back in any material way. This suits Sakurai just fine; his main concern was giving something back to the industry to inspire future game creators.

This is, I think, a vital thing. There are piles of tomes of generational knowledge in game design that are essentially getting lost. With more and more of the founding members of Nintendo‘s stable entering their golden years (Shigeru Miyamoto is 71 years old), we’re approaching a world that wakes up without the talents that shaped our childhoods. And that’s assuming they stay with the industry; many other developers with equal amounts of expertise to share might find themselves laid off or otherwise give up on it after the industry treats them that badly. Look no further than American McGee, best known for the Amerian McGee’s Alice games; I don’t blame him for washing his hands of the game industry after EA Games refused his pitch for a third Alice game, after all of the other projects he’s tried getting off the ground. I hope he and his family are happy and thriving with their Plushie Dreadfuls (he’s even got a new Alice collection coming!). But also, man, imagine some of the insight he might have to share with folks if he wasn’t shunted him off with a half-hearted “So long, good luck!” It’s a bad time for the industry; reminding people of the joys of game design while also giving players a peek at how the sausage is made is more important than ever.

Ah, but there’s more to the story. As anyone who’s played Sakurai’s games on the highest difficulty can tell you, he likes a bit of trolling. Remember when I said that Sakurai “took his time off” from game design to make his videos? Well, in his final video, Sakurai revealed the truth: all of these videos were made within six months. More specifically, six months back in 2022.

As Sakurai explained in his final video, he had worked on a proposal for a new game as development on Sora (the Kingdom Hearts character) was wrapping up in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. The proposal was accepted, but Sakurai would still have a few months gap while a team was assembled to work on his new game. This left him some time to goof off—which wasn’t typical for him, since he likes going from one project immediately to the next. His solution was to use that time frame to plan and record his videos, making hundreds of scripts within weeks. The whole time we enjoyed his videos, he worked on a new game.

Of course, questions abound about Sakurai’s new project, but Sakurai himself has stated that he is unable to offer more details at this time. So, I think it’s fine to let that sleeping dog lie while we wait for further news. Regardless, I think it’s worth thanking Sakurai and his crazy work ethic for everything he’s shared with the industry. Shine on, you beautiful man with a cute cat.

Vampire Survivors To Cross Over With Castlevania—All of Castlevania

You might have played Vampire Survivors, that phenomenal little pixel game that has effectively stunted major AAA games. It became the talk of the town when it was released in 2022 by virtue of its simple mechanics (walking around as your weapons automatically fire, mowing down enemies to level up your character). But it was also profoundly addicting; upgrading your character on runs was a fun system, and the game’s presentation was not unlike that of a slot machine in hitting the right endorphins to motivate you to try and get one more round in. Its developer, Luca Galente (alias “Poncle”), worked in the gambling industry and used his experience to design a game that would be addicting but not maliciously manipulative to motivate people to waste money. Even now, the game is just $5—a bit of a step up from its original price of all three (3) of God’s American dollars. Sure, it’s got plenty of DLC, but the game is a phenomenal package, loaded with secrets that’ll keep you poking around for hours. It’s kicked off what people have come to call the “bullet heaven” genre, which now includes titles like HoloCure or Goddess of Victory: NIKKE‘s Memory of Goddess minigame (which proved so popular, it was revived after its associated event ended).

While it was believed that Vampire Survivors had directly lifted assets from Castlevania, it actually hadn’t: Galante had used a generic asset pack. Provided, some of those sprites were a bit too close even for his comfort, and were modified. Vampire Survivors is nevertheless steeped in Castlevania parody, from the whip-toting protagonist Gennaro Belpaese, the supernaturally-handsome Arca Ladonna, and of course, the titular vampire Bisconte Draculó. He doesn’t appear in the game, mind (Vampire Survivor not having any vampires is a bit of a running gag), but he’s on the title screen at least, and he looks imposing. Vampire Survivor had clearly been noticed by Konami, who was nice enough to allow them to use some Contra characters for a DLC pack, but it seems Konami has decided to go whole-hog. In a move that has made fans everywhere delighted, Vampire Survivors is getting a Castlevania DLC pack—and it’s got everything.

No, I mean it—everything.

Everything. Do you miss Soma Cruz from the Aria of Sorrow games? He’s here. And so are Mina, Julius Belmont, and Yoko Belnades. Do you miss Castlevania Bloodlines? Neat, this DLC has you covered—I’m quite sure that was Eric Lecarde in the trailer, tossing spears around while Reincarnated Soul plays. How about Sonia Belmont from Castlevania Legends? She’s not even canon, but she’s here. For the love of God, Reinhardt and Henry from Castlevania 64 are in here. And don’t worry, they paid attention: characters like Juste Belmont and Shanoa still have their little after-images for when they move around. It’s Christmas in Halloween: over 20 new characters, over 30 new songs from across Castlevania‘s history, over 40 new weapons—and, of course, the titular castle. They have everything.

The DLC will be priced at $4 (almost as much as the base game), but this just might be the most worthwhile DLC for a game that I’ve ever seen. The worst part is that you have to wait right until Halloween to get it—October 31st. Not to worry: Poncle has been counting down to the DLC’s release by sharing the upcoming remixes of Castlevania songs on his Youtube channel. Things are rough for Castlevania fans, because Konami hasn’t been doing much for those games. It seemed like a new compilation of the beloved Nintendo DS titles was the most we could hope for. Poncle will do what Konamisn’t, and ensure that anyone hankering for some good ol’ Castlevania goes home with a heaping plateful.

I didn’t even ask for this, and I feel like I should never ask Poncle for anything ever again.

Let’s Bring In The Quick Tidbits A Little Early This Week

Five Spooky Games to Try This Halloween

Ah, Halloween. To hear the more dramatic folks say it, it’s when the veil is at its thinnest, and we’re as close as we’ll ever get to the departed on “the other side.” “All Hallow’s Eve” precedes November 1, “All Hallow’s Day,” wherein saints and martyrs are honored. Meanwhile, off in Mexico, the Day of the Dead (celebrated in some areas on November 1) is a day to remember the departed and appreciate the thin line between life and death. As morbid as it sounds, there’s nothing better for appreciating mortality than enjoying it and safely discovering the many ways you can buy the farm. Halloween is the day we get to scare ourselves crapless, the devil takes the spirits who might have come all this way to grab our ghoulies. So there’s no better time to appreciate some horror games! I figured this is a good chance to list some fun games for the spooky season.

Of course, this being Anime News Network, we have to prioritize Japanese games—so heartbreakingly, I can’t mention stuff like Pathologic (which you should still try out!). Also, I’m keeping this list to stuff that’s available in the U.S. in a legal capacity. So, uh, I can’t really list Sweet Home, as much as I’d love to. Not without encouraging folks to do some naughty, naughty things. But I can list these five games for the occasion!

1. Silent Hill 2 (2024)

Yeah, as much as I normally hate giving obvious answers, it would’ve been an absolute disservice, not to mention the Silent Hill 2 remake. I mean, for one thing, it was actually good; none of us had any faith in Bloober Team pulling it off, but they hired a few Silent Hill consultants, put in the work, and made sure to do right by a game that people have a lot of love for—just like last year’s Dead Space remake. In doing so, they’ve not only become the poster child for letting even the most disgraced game studios cook (studios that have made bad games can make good ones!), but also, they’ve given us a great horror game.

Much like the original, Silent Hill 2 is a disturbing psychological horror wherein James Sunderland explores an abandoned town, searching for his wife. His journey leads him to cross paths with many other lost souls—and all the while, the town of Silent Hill begins to reflect more and more of James’ tortured psyche. The game is loaded with plenty of gruesome monsters and horrifying situations—like James having to stick his hand in a filthy toilet to grab a clock hand or the use of the disgusting syringes to restore James’ health (sure hope you don’t have a phobia for needles, clean or otherwise). The remake also adds two new endings to the collection of endings Silent Hill 2 already had. If there’s a horror game for the season, Silent Hill 2 is it.

2. Clock Tower Rewind

Another remake, this one of an old point-and-click adventure game. You might be more familiar with Clock Tower‘s spiritual successor, Demento—also known as Haunting Grounds. The original Clock Tower was the story of the orphan Jennifer Simpson as she explores Barrow Manor—and comes face-to-face with the horrifying Scissorman.

Clock Tower is noteworthy not just for its phenomenal spooks and engaging story (which featured multiple endings)—it’s also noteworthy for Jennifer herself since she’s based on Jennifer three times over! As many others have noticed, Jennifer Simpson was inspired by Jennifer Corvino, the protagonist of Dario Argento’s 1985 horror classic Phenomena—and Jennifer Corvino was, in turn, played by a young Jennifer Connelly (a year before she did Labyrinth, even)! Much of the imagery in Clock Tower pays homage to Phenomena, and even now, people like to poke fun at the “Jennifer” connections. For one thing, all modern art (including Mariel Cartwright‘s new art for WayForward Tech’s Clock Tower Rewind) makes sure that Jennifer is as close to Connelly’s look as you can get before lawyers get involved. And Jennifer Simpson has in turn inspired more than a few horror protagonists of her own, be it in appearance (see: the also-Connelly-esque Jennifer Banion from 1564 Studio’s sadly-unfunded The Girl Who Wasn’t There) or in personality—after all, Jennifer Simpson doesn’t walk away from Clock Tower without a bit of PTSD, which inspired other, later female protagonists to also show a bit of vulnerability after their life-changing experiences (like Aya Brea from Parasite Eve or Miku Hinasaki from Fatal Frame.

Clock Tower Rewind releases this October 29, making it a perfect game to play all Halloween long, even if it means staying up past the stroke of midnight. Especially if it means staying up past the stroke of midnight. What better time to fight for your life with a slice of ham?

3. Yume Nikki

A lot of important Japanese games got their start as RPG Maker titles (we’ll look at another one in a few). Yume Nikki sticks out for its vibes—after all, it’s an intensely vibe-oriented game. Playing as a shut-in named Madotsuki who steadfastly refuses to leave her room, you retreat into your dreamscape in your tiny room and explore a variety of bizarre worlds. Much of the imagery in Yume Nikki has become rather popular, like the bird women or the Five-Armed Girl and the alien pianist—or the enigmatic Uboa. But there’s no real explanation for anything—and why would there be? When have dreams ever made sense? There’s precious little in the way of story or dialogue; none of the characters Madotsuki meets really say anything outside of bizarre noises. What little progression there is comes from the Effects: objects that Madotsuki can find in the various dream rooms that grant her abilities. Some are purely cosmetic (like changing her hairstyle), and some are pointedly worthless (like turning Madotsuki into a disembodied head). But others help Madotsuki find new paths in the dream realm. And only once you find all 24 effects do you really get the ending to the game…

The lack of story and the confusing nature of the dream realms can be frustrating, but the imagery and locales in Yume Nikki are truly unforgettable. From a run-down village seemingly built within a fenced-in encampment in the desert to a massive Steam engine lurking in the void, there are new and bizarre locations just around the corner from wherever Madotsuki roams. The game is short on gore or in-your-face horror (outside of the bloodcurdling screams creatures make when you stab them to death with the Knife effect), but the worlds are just unsettling enough to make you not want to walk to the bathroom in the dark. Also, you can’t beat its priceon Steam, being that it’s free (though you might have to change your PC’s AppLocale to Japanese). Just note, Yume Nikki has a major content warning for themes of suicide.

4. Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

I had the pleasure of reviewing Mask of the Lunar Eclipse last year; it’s still a great survival-horror game to sink your teeth into. Playing as one of three youths, you explore an abandoned island as you try to solve the mystery of a curse that has already killed two people. The series’ iconic Camera Obscura returns, wherein you must take photos of attacking ghosts to vanquish them, but you can also play using the Spirit Lens Flashlight. Being a survival horror game, there’s a strong amount of jank to the game; your characters move slowly, reaching for an item might get you a sudden jumpscare as a ghostly hand tries to grab at you, and many encounters take place in tight hallways or cramped libraries where you don’t have much space to maneuver around violent ghosts. But that’s all par for the course for these kinds of survival-horror titles. And with the added bonus of a Ghost Encyclopedia (which also keeps track of the “Bloomed” variants of ghosts that you can find), there’s plenty of reason to go back through the game and find all the creepy crawlies. This is another one that’s perfect for playing in the dark. I just hope your room isn’t too far from the bathroom…

5. Ao Oni

I figured I’d push my own limits on this one; Ao Oni is a game I’ve seen spoken of a ton, but I’ve never really played it and I don’t know much about it other than the creepy titular blue Oni that kinda looks like the creepy “You’re not perfect…” guy from Courage the Cowardly Dog. Anyway, Ao Oni joins Yume Nikki and Corpse Party (which I’ll cover some other time) in the pantheon of Japanese RPG Maker projects that became cult hits and franchises in their own rights. The iconic Oni is a monster that chases you down as you explore a creepy mansion with your friends. You can’t really fight it, either; the best you can do is hide when you see it coming or try to stymie its approach with obstacles. But you should also be careful: each one of your companions that falls to the Oni becomes one themselves, adding further threats that you need to navigate as you work your way out of the mansion.

Ao Oni was eventually given a remaster, but the buzz I see on it is that it’s not that great; this is a case where you should embrace the jank of an RPG Maker game and play the original. Thankfully, it’s plenty available on Steam and the Nintendo eShop.

That’ll do it for this week. Halloween is more of a “fun” holiday than anything else, but folks look forward to it every year for a reason. Be sure to take the opportunity to do something fun; dress up, pass out candy to trick-or-treaters, or watch some gruesome slashers with some buddies. Or at least dress up just for yourself. Eat candy, stay up too late, maybe even give the Boogeyman a howdy-do. From This Week in Games, we’d like to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

Big thank-you to Videajames for the sweet Halloween card; be sure to look them up on Bluesky and Twitter. Give them a look; they’re good people. 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 @ventcard.bsky.social.