News by Matt S.
It’s the first catch-up coffee for the year!
Welcome to Digitally Downloaded’s regular catch-up news feature. With each issue we will bring you the best news that you may have missed. Grab the biggest mug you’ve got, fill it with your favourite brew, and catch up with us (and our favourite news anchor, Dee Dee)!
Hey, Imageepoch is back (kinda)
Remember Imageepoch, the developer/publisher that was particularly prolific on handheld consoles, and produced some hidden gems on those platforms, including the likes of Stella Glow? Remember how it went bankrupt among some wild circumstances (including owing 1.1 billion yen, and its CEO temporarily disappearing)? Well, that CEO’s back with a new company, and apparently that new company’s first game will be within an Imageepoch franchise.
The new company is called Mikage, and the new title will be announced on February 9.
What could it be? Time & Eternity? Stella Glow? 7th Dragon? Imageepoch really was a favourite of ours for its wild, creative, ultra-niche ideas, and penchant for what can only be called extreme fanservice. All the best to Mikage, and we’ll be paying close attention come February.
The Nintendo Switch’s best rhythm games have more coming
If you’ve got a Switch, and you’re a fan of rhythm games on any level at all, then you’ve surely already purchased Voez (which was a launch title) and Deemo. At launch, they were already sublime experiences, but the developer and publisher behind both have been really good at updating them with even more stuff. And both games have yet another update due soon.
The Deemo update in late January will add five new tracks of music, as well as Nintendo Labo support, for the keyboard peripheral that you can build using the cardboard. Following the update you’ll be able to play ten tracks or so using the keyboard as a controller… which is perfect since that game is all about playing piano-based music.
There’s no details regarding what will come with the next update to Voez, but if past form is a guide, it’ll be another half dozen-to-ten music tracks to add to the already ridiculously comprehensive track list. That update, like with the Deemo one, will be completely free, and come in February this year.
Nekopara Vol. 2 lands on console in February
The adorably fanservicey Nekopara delighted us when it landed on Switch last year. Apparently it was a success, both on the Switch and PS4, because the second volume is coming, and it’s not long away. It lands in February, with an exact date yet to be determined.
The game will have English, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Japanese subtitles, and if it’s anything like the first, the quality of the translation will make it well worth picking up. For those who haven’t been following along, Nekopara is a very traditional VN in which the player follows the often-silly antics of a couple of catgirls and their master, who has recently left home to set up a bakery.
The PC version of the Nekopara series features hardcore sex scenes. Those have naturally been removed for the console version, but there’s still a whole lot of underwear and suggestive dialogue left in. As I noted in my review, I felt that the lack of hardcore sex actually helps these particular games, as they give them a lighter, more silly tone.
Here’s the Atelier Lulua boxart, and it is just perfect
It’s not the most exciting news – box art is box art, and there were no new screenshots to go with it, but Koei Tecmo has released the box art for Atelier Lulua (in Japan, at least), and I figured I’d share it, since it’s the slow period of the year for news anyway… and it’s just so perfect. Lulua is just the prettiest game character ever.
Here’s the box art for both PlayStation 4 and Switch:
And here’s the base art:
Mel Kishida, the artist behind Lulua, and the original Arland series before it (and, as a side note, the breathtakingly beautiful Blue Reflection), is just a master of the form. There’s no one out there that does beautiful elegance quite like Kishida, and I get more excited for this game by the day.
