My Favorite Takeaways From the June 28th Partner Direct

I came out of the June 28^th Nintendo Direct pretty satisfied. Albeit, I tend to watch both the Japanese and English directs, since they typically have 1 or 2 different games, and this partner showcase was no different. I try to temper my expectations for these things. I’m never in it for the hype as much as just seeing new or cool things that look genuinely interesting to play. I wanted ot have this up on the same day as the direct, but..uh, shit happens. So without further a-do, here are some of the things I found most interesting from the June 28^th Partner Direct. Also, these aren’t in any real discernable order, just the things I found particularly interesting.

5. Grim Grimoire: Once More

I have an unbiased love for Vanillaware as a developer. Everything they make is always very pretty and stylized. Their games also tend to be pretty simple, which brings more attention to the pleasing art direction their titles are known for. “Grim Grimoire” is a PlayStation 2 RTS. It feels a lot like a tower defense, with enemies coming in waves that you have to deal with, and this was during a time before the genre littered the Flash Game scene accessible on every middle school computer. As of now, “Once More” has only been announced for Japan, but hopefully it’ll see an English release.

4. Monster Rancher Ultraman Kaiju Crossover
I don’t know shit about Ultraman, but I don’t care. “Monster Rancher” is the unloved step-child of the monster raising and battling craze of the late 90s. It didn’t really have the same push and sticking power as “Pokémon” or “Digimon,” probably because the game worked was pretty inaccessible for most children. Instead of catching monsters in the wild, “Monster Rancher” would generate them off of CDs or DVDs that the player put into their PlayStation. It was a pretty funny gimmick, and I remember old GameFAQs guides listing country music albums, death metal, and other oddities as ways to get some of the rarest and strongest monsters available.

The series saw a light resurgence last year with the rerelease of the first and second games onto modern consoles, which where I guess this concept came from. Much like ‘Grim Grimoire,” this was a Japan-only Direct announcement, but it has since been revealed that an English-language version will be released in the SEA region.

I probably won’t be picking this one up at launch, but I’ll keep my eye on it. Raising Kaiju’s sounds interesting enough as a concept, and “Monster Rancher” has just enough nostalgia for me that this seems like a worthwhile grab, eventually.

3.  Live-A-Live

We’ve known about this game for a while, but there being a demo is the main reason it’s on here. Just from fan feedback, square seems to be real hit-or-miss with a lot of their pixel remasters, so it’s nice to have a “try before you buy” option here. The original “Live-A-Live” was Japan exclusive, and ended up finding it’s following elsewhere through fan-translations.

The game gives the same visual vibes that Square is using for the Dragon Quest 3 remake, and I kind of hope they continue using this style for any of their other older properties. Both the Square and Enix halves of the company have solid 1-off RPGs that I think could find their audiences today, and it’s my hope that “Live-A-Live” helps kickstart that process.

As for the game itself, it has a very interesting premise of following different protagonists in different time periods. Each period tweaks not only the visuals, but also the gameplay. It’s a very experimental kind of game, and I think that openness to try something different and wild is what drew people to the original Super Famicom version. My only hang-up is the $50 price tag. It’s not really a surprise since Square loves charging a premium for their games, but it makes me want to consider cheaper options before diving head first into an RPG that can be finished within the better chunk of a weekend.

2. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Few things interest me as much as old Survival Horror games, and “Lorelei and the Laser Eyes” fits right into that niche perfectly. Horror games, or I guess adventure games, from the early 3D-era have this kind of nostalgic charm to them. It’s really cool seeing something tackle that aesthetic on a home console. The PC indie scene has no shortage of games like these, and I thoroughly enjoy a lot of those too, but I’m here to highlight the one that got shown off by Nintendo. The game isn’t releasing until sometime in 2023, and I kind of hope it keeps a low profile. What was shown in the trailer already looked kind of wacky, so I’d like to keep whatever I can about it a mystery until I get the chance to play it myself.

1. MegaMan Battle Network Collection

I was pretty late getting into the “Battle Network” games, and ended up really enjoying them once I finally gave them a try. A “MegaMan” RPG wasn’t something I expected to end up liking, but curiosity got the better of me back in middle school. These games aren’t impossible to find, hell any old game can be found with a couple of google searches, but the most recent “official” way to enjoy some of these titles goes away when the WiiU eShop closes down sales in a few months.

My only real questions for this are “will they make it possible to 100% the games that required you to trade battle chips” and “Are they going to use the most up-to-date versions of titles that have them?” There were DS remakes of the first “Battle Network” and “Battle Network 5” that added a few enhancements and new characters to fight. The collection says “10 games” though, so I’m guessing it’s just the mainline numbered GBA titles.

There’s lots of room for a “MegaMan EXE.” Collection to go, since there were a couple of spin-offs too, including a few platformers. For example, there was a Japan-only WonderSwan game that would make for a cute novelty, if nothing else.

Honorable Mention: Boku no Natsuyasumi: Shin-Chan

I’m placing this as an honorable mention since it came out right before the direct, but wasn’t featured in it. “Boku no Natsuyasumi” is a really cute and laidback kind of adventure game series that had a following in Japan. The games were exclusively on PlayStation, but last year the newest title released on the Switch; furthermore, it was a crossover game with “Crayon Shin-Chin.”

Translator Tom James was the first to break the news of an English localization, as it was kinda’ not touched on when the developers announced the upcoming PS4 port releasing soon. This is another one of those announcements that’s really interesting to me as a novelty. I love seeing games I’d never expect to get localizations end up with them, even if this is probably a quick and dirty MTL for the South-East Asia region.

If you like games like “Animal Crossing” or “Harvest Moon,” I’d recommend checking this one out.