This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks! I cannot claim any genuine, deeply-set interest in sports outside of semi-ironic memes (go Birds), but I’ve had the World Cup in my periphery. While soccer/football has led to many an altercation in the past (remember how Team Yell is based on football hooligans in the U.K.?), it’s quite touching to see people from all walks of life being brought together in earnest through the World Cup. Mexico and South Korea embracing each other as siblings, tourists from Japan marveling at how big everything is in Texas (as well as the boundless generosity of complimentary chips and salsa)… I live for solidarity like this. Travel broadens the mind. Folks are nice around the world.

This is…

Let’s Talk About RPG Maker

RPG Maker gets a bad rap, I think. While it’s considered the domain of quick asset-flip cash-grab titles clogging Steam, it’s an incredibly flexible engine that has enabled decades’ worth of would-be developers to produce their titles and share them with the world. It’s open-ended enough for people to do some wild things you wouldn’t expect, but simple enough that anyone can use it. All it takes is a little imagination. I myself doodled around with RPG Maker back in high school. (I wonder if anyone from the old Charas forum would remember me?) It was the game equivalent of a weeb’s DeviantArt profile, but it was fun to experiment. And many others have made genuinely amazing titles through the game. Fear and Hunger and its sequel, Fear and Hunger: Termina, Yume Nikki, Ao Oni, Hylics, Meltys Quest (don’t play that one unless you’re 18 or older, kids!)… we’d be without a lot of beloved indie hits if it weren’t for RPG Maker.

Developers Gotcha Gotcha Games have introduced RPG Maker U2U, the newest iteration of their RPG-making suite. Originally teased back in March and currently without a confirmed release date, the new engine features a pretty enticing new graphical option: “Perspective 2D.” It’s effectively HD-2D, given its cinematic camera angle, the details afforded to 2D-rendered textures (like rustling leaves in trees), and 3D light rendering. It’s not quite as good-looking as a dedicated HD-2D title like Octopath Traveler or the HD-2D Dragon Quest remakes… but it doesn’t have to be. Its default assets are good enough to get anyone started on a project, and the engine is open-ended enough that anyone who wants to zhuzh it up can deliver. I saw someone joke that the ensuing RPG Maker porn games made through the engine are going to be astounding, and… like, yeah? How am I going to disagree?! I’ve never actually played Meltys Quest, but this is the biggest shot in the arm RPG Maker has had in years. You can follow their official Twitter page for more updates.

In related news, it might get a little harder to find those new games on Steam, since Steam has gotten rid of the “RPG Maker” tag. For the most part, devs are fine with it; there is, after all, a great deal of prejudice towards titles made in RPG Maker, so this makes it harder for folks to pass over any of the aforementioned titles potentially made in the engine. I’d be concerned about what this’ll mean for curating the RPG Maker community (yes, there is one), but I guess a Steam Curator group does just as well. Will this cut down on the prejudice towards RPG Maker? I’d like to think so! I think the type of folks who cringe at RPG Maker are the type who would never play Yume Nikki to begin with, but who knows what makes someone get into a title.

Speaking of the community, the RPG Maker forums had a touch-and-go moment over the weekend. The reason being, Gotcha Gotcha Games announced last week that they’d be shutting down the official RPG Maker forums. I’ve seen this likened to the burning of Alexandria. The comparison is apt: the forums have become a must-read source of wisdom for RPG Maker throughout its 14 years of existence (sure would’ve appreciated it back when I was in high school!). And it also includes useful features like game plug-ins. There’s also the whole issue of generational knowledge being lost on the Internet, since dedicated forums keep getting shut down and modern social media is extremely inefficient at archiving information for more than a few days. When it comes to a whole engine and platform like RPG Maker? Yeah, that’s a huge loss for all of the soon-to-be devs. The good news is that the sheer outcry on behalf of the community made Gotcha Gotcha Games take efforts into archiving the forums. But that, not being their first move in the matter, has injured trust within the RPG Maker community, which has already started archiving the information on its own.

Interview with Shoon T, Director of Rain98

You might have heard of Rain98 by now. A visual novel set at the turn of the millennium, Rain98 has you (the player) interacting with Reina, a mysterious but disaffected young woman who plans to perform a ritual that will end the world, all in the name of preventing future grief. With its somber tone, the hush of rainfall, and the wide blues painting Reina’s lonely bedroom, you spend your time getting to know this woman of the apocalypse in the hopes of maybe arriving at someplace better. We were lucky enough to sit down with Shoon T, the game’s director, and pick their brain about Rain98‘s many aspects.

Anime News Network: What would you say is the “theme” of Rain98?

Shoon T: “There are several themes I want to explore in Rain98, but at its core, I think it’s about how people come to terms with the overwhelming anxiety and fear that seem to permeate the world around us. Today, there is a vague anxiety about the future, a sense of social stagnation, and a kind of fundamental fear that is difficult to put into words. In some ways, I feel that these emotions echo the unique atmosphere in Japan during 1998 and 1999, just before the turn of the century and the Y2K fear. In Rain98, I wanted to portray those fears, not as grand events or ideological conflicts, but as something deeply personal. I wanted to create a work where the anxieties of an era and the fears of an individual slowly seep through these small, intimate moments. Reina calls herself “the Angolmois of the Fin de Siècle” and claims that she will destroy the world. Whether those words are serious, a joke, a prayer, or something else entirely—I hope players will gradually discover their meaning through the story. Is Rain98 a story about saving the world? Destroying it? Or neither? Rather than providing a clear answer from the beginning, I want players to spend time with Reina and arrive at their own understanding.”

ANN: How did you settle upon the monochromatic look of Reina’s bedroom?

Shoon T: “I wanted Reina’s room to feel like a place where time had stopped—a reflection of her inner world. Tokyo in 1998 was overflowing with color: neon signs, advertisements, magazines, arcades, fast-food restaurants, and countless storefronts competing for attention. In contrast, I wanted Reina’s room to feel detached from the outside world—quiet, cold, slightly unreal, almost like a sanctuary. The monochromatic blue palette was chosen to emphasize her sense of isolation from the world around her. It is a room, a shelter, a coffin, and even the bottom of an aquarium all at once. By limiting the color palette, small details become more striking: the blue of the rain, the glow of a cigarette, reflections in a mirror, the pale tones of Reina’s hair and skin. Her room is both a living space and a manifestation of her inner self.”

ANN: Perfect Blue and Serial Experiments Lain have been cited as influences for Rain98. What other works have influenced it?

Shoon T: “There are quite a lot. Rather than drawing direct inspiration from any one particular work, Rain98 feels more like a fusion of influences from many different works, all brought together through its core themes and concepts. Films such as CURE, Ringu, and Dark Water deeply inspired me with their uniquely Japanese, rain-soaked atmosphere and lingering sense of dread. What interests me is not the idea of a monster attacking from the shadows, but rather the feeling that everyday spaces themselves gradually become unsettling. For depictions of 1990s Tokyo, I looked closely at works like Love & Pop, Tokyo Eyes, and Bounce Ko GALS. In terms of dialogue and loneliness, I have been influenced by […] Lost in Translation, where two people simply spend time together without a clearly defined destination. Emily Dickinson’s poetry has also been a source of inspiration. […] While Rain98 contains elements of psychological horror and suspense, it is ultimately grounded in Japanese aesthetics—nostalgia, lingering traces of memory, and concepts akin to wabi-sabi. I hope players enjoy not only the story itself but also exploring which influences may be reflected in particular scenes.

ANN: Did you base any events in the game on real-life events from 1998?

Shoon T: “No specific incident is recreated directly. I never want to consume real-world tragedies as entertainment. However, I was very conscious of the atmosphere that existed in Japan around 1998. The sense of stagnation following the collapse of the bubble economy, anxieties surrounding end-of-the-century prophecies, the excessive brightness of youth culture, and the darkness hidden beneath it. […] Rain98‘s Tokyo is built from fragments of these memories. Tokyo in 1998 and 1999 possessed a uniquely strange atmosphere. It felt as though society was moving toward the future while simultaneously moving toward an ending. It was vibrant and pop, yet fragile and dark. That contradiction has profoundly shaped the world of Rain98.”

ANN: There have been many difficulties for visual novels on Steam; are you concerned about Rain98 getting refused for its darker themes?

Shoon T: “I would be lying if I said I had no concerns. Rain98 deals with sensitive themes such as death, self-destruction, cults, violence, and psychological instability. However, our intention is never to present these subjects as a sensational spectacle. In particular, depictions involving self-harm or death are not meant to glorify or endorse them. Rather, they exist to explore the loneliness that can drive people to such extremes and how those experiences can change the way they see the world. We fully respect the standards of platforms such as Steam and will approach age ratings, content warnings, and any necessary adjustments with great care. Although Rain98 is a dark work, its foundation is not an endorsement of violent destruction. That is something we want to communicate clearly and responsibly.”

ANN: What is one thing from 1998 that you’d like to see brought back today?

Shoon T: “Perhaps… waiting. Today, when you contact someone, they respond almost immediately. Maps, reviews, and answers are available within seconds. That convenience is wonderful, but I think it has also reduced the amount of ambiguity and uneventful time in our lives. Back in 1998, there seemed to be more room for imagination. I also miss places where you could encounter something unexpected—arcades, CD stores, magazine racks. Instead of searching directly for what you wanted, you would simply find unknown things entering your field of vision. I think we still need such experience today.”

ANN: Do you have concerns about how Rain98 will be accepted by people who weren’t alive before 2000?

Shoon T: “A little, but I’m even more excited. Rain98 is not simply an attempt to recreate 1998 with historical accuracy. For people who never experienced that era, it may feel almost like an alternate world. There were no smartphones. The city was saturated with information, yet there were fewer places to escape loneliness. It was less convenient, but it possessed a much stronger sense of texture and noise. At the same time, I believe the emotions portrayed in the game transcend generations. Anxiety about the future. The fear that you may never become someone special. The moment when you meet another person changes the shape of your everyday life. These are feelings that remain deeply relevant today. In fact, younger players may not experience Rain98 as a nostalgic past at all. Instead, they may see it as a “lost alternative future.” I think that would be a fascinating way to interpret the game.”

ANN: What is something in Rain98 that you’re especially proud of?

Shoon T: “The character Reina herself. She is not an easily lovable heroine. She can be unreasonable, cold, difficult to deal with, and sometimes even cruel. Yet I have tried to portray her contradictions and emotional fragility with as much care as possible. I don’t want players to see her as a romantic partner. I want them to experience her as someone they somehow ended up living with. Managing her moods, talking with her, going outside together, sharing meals, listening to the rain. Through the accumulation of these small moments, I hope Reina becomes someone who remains in the player’s memory. I am also proud of the way the text, sound design, UI, visual noise, color palette, and artwork come together to create an immersive, almost trance-like state of absorption. I don’t want Rain98 to feel like a game you simply read. I want it to feel like a game you sink into. Like descending to the bottom of an aquarium. Like being trapped in a rainy room with a strange girl. That sensation is something I feel we’ve succeeded in creating.”

ANN: Conversely, what are some things you’d like to have done but couldn’t implement?

Shoon T: “The game is still very much in development, so it’s difficult to say! (laughs) There are countless ideas and an enormous list of things we would like to implement. Ultimately, though, our goal is to find the balance that creates the best possible play experience.”

ANN: Do you have any final words for our readers?

Shoon T: “I believe the time players spend with Reina will become something truly irreplaceable. We are working hard to create an experience unlike anything most players have encountered before—one that expresses a uniquely Japanese sense of beauty and atmosphere. I hope you’re looking forward to it. Development is still ongoing, and we regularly share progress updates on our Discord server. (We also have chat rooms where people discuss daily meals, favorite films, and games!) We’d love for you to join us.”  

Many thanks to Shoon T for answering our questions and for their deep insight. Fans can wishlist Rain98 on Steam; its release date is currently TBA, but scheduled for sometime later this year.

Pride Month 2026: LGBTQ Rep in Japanese Games

With June as Pride Month, we figured it was a good idea to highlight some of the many queer characters that have existed in Japanese games. Folks from all walks of life have enjoyed and made games since video games were invented, and by extension, games have starred all kinds of characters in the years since. So let’s talk about them! A few clarifiers: obviously, we’re sticking to Japanese games. So Jimmy Hopkins from Rockstar North’s Bully will be sitting this one out. Second, we’ll be focusing on main characters in games, not side characters. So the piano tutor in Phantasy Star II will also be sitting this out. And as always, this list isn’t comprehensive; there are hundreds of other characters we could also point out, and readers are more than welcome to mention them in the comments. So let’s start!

1. Rhajat, Fire Emblem: Fates

Ah, Tharja… quite possibly one of the most popular characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening. She’s got the goth-girl vibes with her black hair and dark personality; she’s got the obsessive personality for folks whose favorite flavor of ice cream is “Flag dipped in Red 40,” and she’s… deeply obsessed with the player unit, Robin. As in, she keeps an active tally of how often she tosses and turns in their sleep. And Tharja’s obsession with Robin stays true regardless of whether you play Robin as a man or a woman, but Tharja can only marry a male Robin (she can’t reach an S-Rank Support with Female!Robin). Seemingly to correct that, we have her alternate-universe self in Rhajat from the next Fire Emblem title, Fire Emblem: Fates.

Following in her predecessor’s footsteps, recruiting Rhajat involves rescuing her at the last minute from a stray Faceless that was hiding in her extradimensional house (long story). Rhajat is so grateful to Corrin for this that she becomes deeply obsessed with them—regardless of Corrin’s gender. But unlike Tharja, Rhajat can actually marry a Female Corrin. The ending even reflects this, with Fem!Corrin and Rhajat adopt a pair of kids together in their epilogue. Aww.

Of course, Rhajat is far from the only queer romance option in Fire Emblem Fates, but she is the only lesbian option. And she’s exclusive to the Birthright route, whereas Niles (the exclusive gay romance option) is exclusive to Conquest for… some reason. And while there are plenty of other characters from throughout Fire Emblem who have queer overtones to them (Lucius and Raven from Binding Blade and Hilda and Marianne from Three Houses come to mind), Rhajat is one of the few canon options. But just in case goth chicks aren’t your speed: Dorothea from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is also openly bisexual, making ample references to being attracted to both men and women and having paired endings with Byleth regardless of their gender.

2. A, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

There are a few characters in Xenoblade Chronicles who are queer on some level. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Sheba the rare blade is a particularly notable woman-lover who seeks to form her own “entourage” of women (and only women—men “do not satisfy her standards”). The party members Mòrag and Bridgid also have a very close relationship. And Xenoblade Chronicles 3 introduced Juniper, who exclusively goes by they/them pronouns (a decision maintained by an official Nintendo of America tweet). I think A is the most interesting of them all, given all of the lore and Gnostic references that went into her background.

Throughout the series, three important sentient computers play a role in the plot: Ontos, Logos, and Pneuma. (Here’s a hint: you meet the last two in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.) As a trinity, Logos and Pneuma represented masculine and feminine characteristics, with Ontos being “somewhere in the middle” to mediate between them. Because of reasons in Xenoblade Chronicles, Ontos manifests as Alvis, a white-haired man. And due to events in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Alvis manifests as Alpha; because he doesn’t have anyone around to balance their personality, they decide to abandon the world and take a whole ship of digitized souls with them (long story). Heroes Rex and Shulk tried and failed to stop Alvis the first time, but eventually, circumstances led to a facet of Alpha/Ontos breaking free, composed of lingering memories of their time spent around Shulk. Hence: A, both part of yet not the whole of Ontos, and yet just as much Ontos as Alpha or Alvis. For added Gnosticism, you could also argue that A represents a Sophia archetype, existing as a syzygy of Alpha—all this to say that Ontos contains multitudes, largely informed by who they have around them. Also worth noting is the Biblical verse associated with Ontos/Alvis/Alpha/A, as inscribed on their Core Crystal when seen as the Trinity Processor (Philippians 3:13, quoted in the image to the left). Man, someone ought to write about Xenoblade Chronicles…

3. J.J. Macfield, The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories 

Content warning: the following discussion involves the topics of self-harm and attempted suicide.

Hey, did you know this was the first game I played by Hidetaka Suehiro? And in the opening sequence, I got to see the titular J.J. Macfield get struck by lightning, burn alive while thrashing in pain, reconstitute her skin, then bawl her eyes out from the experience after her precious stuffed animal crumbles to dust in her hands. Talk about first impressions!

Swery65’s The Missing is very gruesome like that. While searching for her friend Emily, J.J. finds herself having to resolve several environmental puzzles, the solution to which invariably involves her maiming herself somehow. Breaking her neck to invert gravity, setting herself on fire to burn down briars, tossing her own severed head down a lane at a bowling alley… she goes through a lot of trouble. Along the way, we see J.J.’s text message history with her friends, revealing plenty of young-adult anxieties. She’s got the clingy friend who’s a bit too attached to her, a cool college professor who offers whatever guidance he can, and a tense relationship with her clingy mom. 

All through the game, major references are made to J.J. having a “big secret.” At first, the assumption is that J.J. is hiding a romantic relationship with Emily from her mother. What we learn later in the game runs deeper: J.J. is a closeted transgender woman. Not only is she dealing with a ton of anxiety from her mother possibly sending her to a psychologist over it, but she also gets doxxed and harassed by classmates at school, leading to her having a suicide attempt. The entirety of The Missing is J.J. fighting her self-loathing and finding her desire to live while paramedics are trying to resuscitate her. Eventually, she wakes back up… and we see that we’ve been playing as J.J.’s idealized self all along. Either J.J. hasn’t officially started transitioning yet, or she still boy-modes at school, but we still see J.J. in her assigned-male-at-birth body once she wakes up. For bonus points, it’s even possible to replay the game with boy-mode J.J., complete with unique voice acting. The Missing is an incredibly harrowing experience… but it’s also a deeply affirming one. It’s nice to complete challenges in-game and get pictures of J.J. being happy.

4. Dion Lesage, Final Fantasy XVI

Man, the Dragoons are always the coolest characters in Final Fantasy. Cain Highwind, Cid Highwind, Aranea Highwind… a lot of “Highwind”s in this job, come to think of it. Final Fantasy XVI gave us Dion Lesage, one of the many Dominants who house and control Eikons. In Dion’s case, he’s Bahamut, Final Fantasy‘s famous and destructive dragon. The Prince of Sabrenque, Dion, is also the leader of his nation’s order of Dragoons. In Japanese, he even abdicates his royal title in the name of the Dragoons. He’s a noble, principled man who is willing to give his life to help protagonist Clive achieve his goals.

In his private life, Dion is deeply committed to his partner, Terence. The two met and grew up together as children, and Terence stayed by Dion’s side, nursing him back to health later in life. The two became a committed couple at Dion’s insistence, rank and title notwithstanding. And the two are very affectionate with each other; while many games still hesitate to include gay men, Final Fantasy XVI  went on a limb and actually shows Dion and Terence kissing. They are unmistakably, undeniably in a gay relationship with each other, and Dion’s love for Terence informs a lot of his decisions over the course of the game’s story. They unfortunately don’t have a happy ending; Dion sacrifices himself and presumably falls to his doom while trying to give Clive a clear shot in his battle against Ultima. That’s a whole issue in and of itself (“bury your gays,” and all that). But credit where it’s due: Dion and Terence are depicted as loving and affectionate with each other, as any other heterosexual couple.

Square Enix was famously defensive of them, too. Famously, Final Fantasy XVI was banned from sale in Saudi Arabia due to “unwillingness to make the necessary modifications.” While just what those modifications were has never been spelled out, homosexuality being banned in Saudi Arabia makes it pretty clear that it was Dion and Terence’s kiss that was the offending content. So even if Dion and Terence don’t get their happy ending, we can give Square credit for standing by their story.

5. Kainé, NieR

Yokō Tarō sure loves violent, aggressive women. Sometimes they have white hair, sometimes they don’t. And of the violent, foul-mouthed women in the Drakengard and NieR games, few are more violent, foul-mouthed, or white-haired than Kainé, the swordswoman who joins Nier on his quest to rescue his sister—or daughter, depending on the version of the game you play. While Kainé does have a soft side (she can sometimes be seen roasting marshmallows by a campfire), she is not one to mince words, and she’s not one to show patience to people who waste her time. Heck, she travels the world in sexy lingerie and couldn’t care less if you can see all the way to California. And—she’s intersex.

It turns out that the harassment Kainé suffered while she was younger was part of what motivated her to dress the way she does, emphasizing her feminine characteristics. But Kainé is one of the few intersex characters in all of gaming. And in true Yokō Tarō style, she’s also a bit of a hot mess. Some supplementary material explains that Kainé… really… gets a kick out of killing Shades. If it helps any, she also inherited her bad language from her grandmother, who also cussed like a sailor in addition to affirming Kainé’s identity as a woman. And it was her grandmother’s murder at the hands of a Shade that not only led to Kainé getting possessed by a Shade but also to her going on a roaring rampage of revenge against them.

A lot of media that handles queer characters usually errs on the side of making queer characters “unproblematic.” In that vein, we can thank Yokō Tarō not only for giving us an intersex character but also for allowing her to contain multitudes. Even if she’s a remorseless killer, Kainé is a fascinating character—and in a setting like the NieR series, where everyone has more issues than Time Magazine, that says something. Along those lines, shout-out to Angel from Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, the other intersex character from a Japanese game… who is also one of the main villains in the game. I guess queer wrongs come along with queer rights?

And that’s our list! We wanted to keep this one short but sweet and cast as wide a net as possible across orientations, publishers, and characters. This is far from a comprehensive list, and hopefully, we can see more and more diverse characters populating it in the future. Games, as with fiction at large, are about exploring a world unlike our own—and in that vein, it’s only right that doing so includes more people from all walks of life. Remember, Donkey Kong says “trans rights!”

Let’s wrap up with some quick tidbits:

That’ll do it for this week. This article goes up on a work-holiday for me; I’d like to take the occasion to maybe see the new Masters of the Universe movie. I’ve also heard great things about The Furious and Backrooms. It’s a great start to the summer as far as film is concerned! And for folks who are following the World Cup, I hope everyone experiences exciting matches and an appreciation for our neighbors. Do yourself a favor. Share some international cuisine while you’re at it. And remember that the Galarian Gym theme is also a fitting football chant. 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 Japanese RPGs, eating popcorn, watching VTuber content, and watching tokusatsu. You can keep up with him at @ventcard.bsky.social.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.