This Week in Games

Welcome back, folks! I’m quite stunned at how well last week’s column did! We’ve been racking our brains for a bit regarding topics to cover on This Week in Games and little subsections I can throw up. I appreciate readers’ openness to covering more than just the most recent news. Like I said in the comments, be sure to send some gratitude to our editors; Gunawan does good work as an editor, and Rebecca’s help has been indispensable when it comes to covering otome or boys’ love games. And, as usual, my eternal thanks go to Lynzee, without whom I wouldn’t even be writing for Anime News Network. Anyway—news time!

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Valis Games Celebrate 40th Anniversary

Women fighting in fantasy worlds while wearing metal bikinis was a whole thing in the 1980s. Kickstarted by the late Mutsumi Inomata‘s Leda – The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, countless characters came to swing swords and wear skimpy outfits. You saw it everywhere in anime, like with Johji Manabe‘s Outlanders or Ryusuke Mita‘s Dragon Half. The same way that Anna-puma and Uni-Puma are the extinct megafauna versions of modern-day catgirls, Yohko and her peers paved the way for modern premium girls like Tade from Delicious in Dungeon. Some of these “species” even exist today, like SNK‘s own “Psycho Soldier Athena.” Her evolution has been pretty wild, for sure. Others, like Popful Mail, have sadly faded into obscurity. And tragically, Valis is the latter. Originally released on the PC-88 in 1986, the original Valis: The Fantasm Soldier told the story of teenage student Yuko Asou, who is recruited to save the three worlds from the machinations of the evil Rogles. This, of course, involves Yuko fighting in skimpy gold armor (with a skirt!).

The Valis games were side-scrolling platformers; beating bosses would gain Yuko power-ups in the form of health, new weapons, or even new outfits. The real draw was the cutscenes; using the power of the PC-88, the Valis games prided themselves on their stunningly animated cutscenes. Sure, they’re quite rudimentary by today’s standards, but those lip-flaps on the PC-88 were groundbreaking. Later releases on the PC Engine (TurboGrafx, for us Americans) upped the ante with full voice acting. It was a standout in quality, and put the series on the map. It seems quaint by today’s standards, but back in the late ’80s it was simply that astounding for a game to have that kind of visual fidelity.

And then it all came crashing down in 2006 with Valis X. Originally made to celebrate the franchise‘s 20th anniversary, Valis X was an official adult visual novel that tried to retell the Valis saga with explicit tentacle scenes and lesbian sex. It was the first Valis game in 14 years, and it effectively killed the franchise. Longtime Valis fans weren’t really interested in the Valis games becoming a visual novel, with or without the porn, and visual novel fans weren’t really interested in the sex offered. So Valis X has mostly been the end of the series for another 20 years. Which brings us to today, with Valis‘s 40th anniversary.

While SNK‘s Athena still makes appearances in The King of Fighters and the like, Valis hasn’t been so lucky; the best anyone could hope for was the trio of Valis compilations released by Edia starting from 2021. These thankfully cover the entirety of the franchise (minus Valis X), including variants such as the Valis ports for the Famicom/NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis. But Valis is otherwise confined to the annals of history, a notable has-been whose name is only uttered by an increasingly aged fanbase.

Is there hope for Valis nowadays? Well, it would be pretty easy to adapt Valis into a modern-day action-RPG. Plenty of Nihon-Falcom’s games have done that. If you want to go with the costume-swapping gimmick from the later spin-offs, you could look to Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII for an example of a good combat system. Or better yet: let people make their own nightmarish, gaudy outfits for Yuko to travel around in! All that is easy enough, but I think the real problem holding Valis back is that the visual and audio fidelity those games prided themselves on just isn’t special anymore. Having anime-level animation and full voice acting is pretty commonplace these days, as seen in games like the modern Dragon Quest titles or the recent Trails in the Sky games, all complete with lush art and music.

Heck, we even get games that let us choose between Japanese or English language tracks. I feel like the only way you could really sell a Valis game on those merits would be to go all-in on working with a modern-day hotshot artist and casting a beloved seiyu in the starring role. Get Yuko and her metal bikini designed by Tomomi Kobayashi or Yūsuke Kozaki. Cast Fairouz Ai or Sally Amaki to voice Yuko. Go for a throwback 1980s anime look, with backgrounds drowned in pastels and brushstrokes. Go for a textured 2D look along the lines of the 2015 King’s Quest, or Arc System Works‘ recent attempts with their 2D fighting games. It’s only fitting that a game that prided itself on looking like a TV anime reinvents itself by capturing the aesthetics of 1980s anime stylings. The biggest problem is, are there even enough people around who even care about Valis…?

Battle Skin Panic Arrives on MangaGamer

A real blast from the past has landed on MangaGamer; Gainax and War Machine’s PC-98 classic Battle Skin Panic is now available on MangaGamer! While the game has already been available on Itch.io and DLSite for a while now, this marks the game’s premiere on MangaGamer‘s website. It’s not strictly an erotic game, since there’s no actual penetration, but there’s a lot of explicit nudity. Think of it as an ancient precursor to Senran Kagura, courtesy of Gainax. Yes, that Gainax.

Studio Gainax is better known as the anime studio built by otaku, for otaku; originally a company that created garage kits, it went on to produce a slew of widely beloved anime. With the input of young hotshots like Hideaki Anno and later talents like Hiroyuki Imaishi, they’d create worldwide hits like Gunbuster, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the Blazing Transfer Student OVAs. The studio eventually collapsed; many of its younger talents spun off to form Studio Trigger, where they’ve maintained their manic, high-energy, and heart-wrenching anime, with hits like Little Witch Academia and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Anno himself broke away from Gainax and went on to found his own studio, Studio Khara, where he’s worked on whatever his heart feels like, be it the Rebuild of Evangelion films or Shin Ultraman.

All this to say that Gainax‘s legacy in anime is pretty well known. But they’ve also dabbled in games! They even had some major titles to their name. You’ve probably heard of the Princess Maker games, simulation games that have you raising a child of destiny in the hopes that she becomes a wise and fair princess. Many of those Princess Maker games are thankfully available on Steam. You can even thank Gainax‘s history with Princess Maker for their Petite Princess Yucie anime (or not?).

But Gainax has other gaming cult favorites. Sega Genesis fans might remember Alisia Dragoon, a fantasy side-scroller starring a lone spell-casting woman and her quintet of animal pets. This game was produced by Game Arts, but published by Gainax. It also had a novel magical system, with Alisia’s thunderbolt spell recharging over time, requiring you to pace your shots to effectively wipe screens of enemies. Players also had a pseudo-pet-raising mechanic in which Alisia’s partners grew over time with use. Of course, different pets were better at different things, and their attacks had unique patterns and recharge times. So it was up to players to figure out which pet helped most in which scenario. Alisia Dragoon is a beautiful Genesis game with a similarly beautiful soundtrack; it’s sadly hard to find. There was once a hole-in-the-wall retro game shop at the market in Rio Piedras near my dorm that had a copy. I don’t know if the owner realized what he had, but I remember him having it at a price I could’ve afforded if I wasn’t an utterly broke college student…

That brings us to Battle Skin Panic. Created by Nao Minda (who also made Pretty Ninja Himekage, which you can find on Steam), the game stars Mimi Bando, a teenager who is the heir to the Rasshin Kassatsu Ken: a deadly technique where you get stronger the less clothes you wear. (Just roll with it.) The setup is simple: Mimi’s got some rivals that harass her all day, and some crab people (creople) from underground are hatching a plot. Battles in Battle Skin Panic take place with a card-based system, allowing Mimi and her opponents to attack each other. But Shame is also a stat, with some characters getting weaker when inflicted with more Shame while others shrug it off entirely in their single-minded pursuit of defeating Mimi. There are also Undressing attacks, where you disrobe your opponent further and further, until they’re naked. For what it’s worth, Hidefumi Kimura went ham with designing everyone’s lingerie. (And yes, those can get ripped off too.)

As MangaGamer notes, Battle Skin Panic was originally released on the PC-88 in 1990, with later ports onto the PC-98 and the MSX. This version of the game is based on the later PC-9821 port, which is effectively the most recent version. What a shame that MangaGamer couldn’t get this ready in time for our after-dark column last week, but oh well! Never a bad time for porn.

Cygames To Host Dodgers Stadium

Dodgers Stadium has been racking up a ton of collaborations over the years. From a One Piece-themed night earlier this summer to two Hololive-themed events, the Dodgers have opened their doors to anime culture. And while most people wouldn’t expect weebs and baseball to mix, the two interests have plenty of overlap—baseball episodes aren’t quite as iconic as beach episodes. You can bet that if an anime has a baseball episode, it’ll be one of the best in the series. At any rate, the home of the Dodgers and their fans will be opening their doors to another bit of Japanese culture sometime soon: Cygames.

The collaboration is scheduled for September 2. While Cygames hasn’t mentioned any specific collaborations for the evening, they have underlined the main “event,” as it were: distribution of replicas of Dodgers champion Shohei Ohtani’s championship ring. The press release also mentions “a booth where visitors can interact with Cygames‘ content.” While Cygames doesn’t lack for content to host at this event, with the myriad gaming franchises they own, a few contenders come to mind. Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls comes to mind, considering Yuki Himekawa is the dedicated baseball fan among the Cinderellas. Granblue Fantasy is another contender, given that Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok only just released earlier this July. But given that the booth specifically mentions interaction, and that the interaction will inevitably be in English, I think it’s pretty obvious that that requires someone good at presentations…

… In other words, the chances of some umamusu-mischief are pretty high. Hey, it still wouldn’t be the wildest thing Gold Ship has done. We’ll keep posted for any updates on the baseball antics. Also, special thanks to Arthur on Twitter, who has revealed he had asked the Dodgers to make one of these collabs three years ago. (Gold Ship, don’t ruin this for the poor guy…)

Let’s wrap up with some quick tidbits:

That’ll do it for this week. I’ve got a personal request this week; Colombia has suffered a disastrous earthquake this past week, and at the time of reporting, I’m seeing death tolls in the ballpark of 250. This is on top of the recent earthquake in Venezuela this past June. I’ve got some family ties over in Colombia; I, as well as countless others, would appreciate it if you kept Colombia in your thoughts and sent some support. 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.