Welcome back, folks! By the time this column goes live, it'll... not quite be Halloween! But it is tomorrow, and that's good enough for us. I unfortunately always miss Halloween; I haven't really dressed up for Halloween in over a decade. I didn't even have time to carve a pumpkin this year. Though I'll probably sit down and watch a horror movie this weekend—wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't. Anyway, news!
Quick Pick-Up from Nintendo 's Indie-Direct
Nintendo had a surprise Indie World showcase this week! It was fairly short, clocking in at just 20 minutes—even shorter if you're focusing on the games that actually came out of Japan. Cynicism about how many indie-RPGs are trying to bite Chrono Trigger's apple after all these years aside, Threads of Time genuinely looks interesting and has some pretty sprites. And shout-out to Sword of the Sea, which coasts by entirely on how fun it sounds to zoom around on a flying sword; sometimes, all you need is just one cool idea. Anyway, here are some notable Japanese games from the showcase!
Kitsune: The Journey of Adashina is definitely the pick of the litter when it came to this showcase. The story of a fox-girl and her froggy friend: you explore a city and unlock new paths forward by lighting lanterns while evading grotesque monsters. There's plenty to do, like fishing or palling around with the locals. The vibes remind me a bit of the old short Kakurenbo , albeit with a less-oppressive cityscape. This one arrives on the Switch and Switch 2 this Spring 2027. (A pity it couldn't come out in autumn; its lovely red palette is perfect for the fall...)
Image via www.youtube.com © Bit Egg Inc, Gamirror Games
Coming from the Thai developers Bit Egg Inc., Lost & Found Co. is a hidden object game about helping a tiny dragon regain their power. This is done by Where's Waldo?-esque item sleuthing on massive maps. It's a simple idea, but it works through fantastic art direction. It takes genuine skill and a great eye for art to have these massive screens filled to the brim with tiny characters without making the screen a morass of imperceptible details. Look forward to this one arriving on the Switch early in 2027.
The North American broadcast of the Indie World showcase didn't feature One Turn Kill, but it aired in the Japanese broadcast. I can't really explain why, either. And it's a shame, because it's a fantastic game for folks who need a bit of a randomized card battler. The idea is simple: you have a deck of cards that correspond to attacks, and you have to use your cards to kill your opponent in just one turn. The catch: you only have a limited pool of points to use cards, so you need to make well-balanced decks with cards that complement each other in order to boost their power and successfully kill your opponents in one turn. One Turn Kill is already on Steam , but it's now available on the Switch and Switch 2—and it's available at a bargain price of US$6.39 until November 13th.
And while they weren't announced on the Indie World Showcase, we can also spare a moment to point out two of Shueisha Games ' upcoming releases also coming to the Switch. You can already play Shroedinger's Calls and Urban Myth Dissolution Center on the Switch, but Switch 2 versions are now available—and anyone who has a Switch copy can buy an upgrade pack for each game's corresponding Switch 2 version for a mere 99 cents. Hear that, Square Enix ...?
Metal Gear Solid Star Reveals Canceled Lost Planet Project
We're in a bit of a gold rush at the moment with video game adaptations. Superheroes are more or less mined out (shame, I'd have liked a Static Shock movie). And while the quality of recent game adaptations has been all over the place, they're the new "it" thing. Though it's worth remembering, video game adaptations aren't strictly new. Sure, the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies might have emboldened studios to start snapping up game properties left and right; we've had plenty of film adaptations for major game franchises since the early 1990s, from the live-action Super Mario Bros. to the live-action Double Dragon, to Wing Commander, the borderline experimental Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil movies... your mileage varies when it comes to the quality of those films, but attempts were made.
Tangentially related, a lot of the vocal talents involved in games tend to show up in mainstream media. Cam Clarke , who's got extensive roles in video games, got his start in The King Family Show back in the 1960s. Paul Eiding 's been everywhere from Ben 10 to Doogie Howser, M.D. And Metal Gear Solid's star, David Hayter ... has also been a scriptwriter. Lots of folks (myself included) would be quick to reference his starring role in Guyver 2: Dark Hero , the kick-ass direct-to-video sequel to the live-action The Guyver movie where Mark Hamill turns into a gigantic insect. He also, famously, wrote the script for Fox's 2000 X-Men movie. And he revealed earlier this week that he had one more surprise script in him: a 2008 project intended for a live-action adaptation of CAPCOM 's Lost Planet!
Fun Fact: I wrote a huge LOST PLANET movie for Warner Brothers in 2008, and then the entire financial world crashed, and that was the end of it. — David Hayter (@DavidBHayter) October 27, 2026
It's been ages, so it's likely very easy to forget that Lost Planet had a bit of time in the sun. The original Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was released in Japan in December 2006 (the very next month internationally). It was a rather straightforward third-person shooter: playing as Wayne Holden, you brave the frigid climate of the planet E.D.N. III while shaking your fist at the tyrannical NEVEC Corporation attempting to colonize the planet. The Akrid, giant insects that inhabit the planet, assault you at every turn; using a variety of weapons and power armor called "Vital Suits," Holden guns down the Akrid in a bid for survival. There's a catch: being that it's so cold on E.D.N. III, Holden and other survivors harvest biofuel from the Akrid known as "T-ENG" ("thermal energy"). This functions as your health, but also as a time limit: your T-ENG reserves constantly drop as you traverse E.D.N. III, forcing you to hunt down more and more Akrid as you march forward through the cold.
While Lost Planet did well enough in its time to earn two sequels and a spin-off, those didn't arrive until much later in 2010. That means someone at Warner Bros. was very keen on the Lost Planet property right out of the gate and was striking while the iron was hot. But as Hayter explains in his tweet, the project was put on ice as the 2008 financial crash came and went. Credit to whoever at Warner Bros. had the twinkle in his eye.
The Lost Planet series went on to experience some mixed fortunes. As mentioned earlier, it got a sequel, but it's... weird. While the first Lost Planet had a multiplayer mode, Lost Planet 2 was made with multiplayer in mind from the get-go. It's possible to play the game alone, but it's extremely recommended that you don't because your A.I.-controlled partners are dumb as rocks and will sandbag you at every turn while you're doing that bloody train mission. When the game works, it works; it plays like a squad shooter version of Monster Hunter at times, and you can do tons of wild stunts with your grappling hook. But Lost Planet 2 didn't land for a lot of people; it's up on Steam, but hasn't been for sale since 2021 while CAPCOM investigates some compatibility issues with Games for Windows LIVE. Lost Planet 3 also left players rather cold; developed by Spark Unlimited, it focused on the tribulations of Jim Peyton, which set the stage for the first Lost Planet. It was more of an open-world affair, but folks bounced off of the maps and didn't gel with T-ENG being reduced from your health system to a currency system (though Lost Planet 3's story did earn it some nods).
And that's unfortunately the end for Lost Planet in North America, because E.X. Troopers was never localized.
E.X. Troopers was a Nintendo 3DS/ PlayStation 3 spin-off from 2012 where players mounted Vital Suits to kick butt in multiplayer missions. It had a completely different aesthetic, but was also completely sick. Here, your T-ENG was more of a resource in combat where you could use it to boost your health in a pinch or to fuel super attacks. You could tap into melee combat for sick combos, unlock costumes for your characters by clearing missions, and craft new weapons using parts from monsters. In a lot of ways, it took the formula Lost Planet 2 attempted and made it work. While the 3DS port lacked online play, it did feature local co-op. But sadly, neither version of the game ever left Japan. More's the pity. There has been some scuttlebutt that E.X. Troopers was made as a result of the canceled Mega Man Legends 3, or at least utilizing some of its assets; I don't buy it, if only because E.X. Troopers entered development long before Legends 3 did.
And that's the unfortunate story of Lost Planet: a series that very quickly ran its course in its time, and whose film adaptation never made it out of the starting gate. I hope it someday sees some kind of revival, since the basic formula still works and the multiplayer angle, as with Lost Planet 2 and E.X. Troopers, can work. And at the very least—I hope David Hayter got paid for that script.
Interview with Shohei Niikawa, Producer of DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER
Best known for the Rhapsody and Disgaea games, Shohei Niikawa recently left his long tenure at Nippon Ichi Software and struck out on his own. He's known for games with sharp, sarcastic humor with emotional twists; his previous game, Étrange Overlord , had plenty of this in spades. His newest game, DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER, was released just last week; we were lucky enough to pick his demon-loving mind regarding his newest game and where he hopes to go with his career going forward.
Anime News Network: DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER revolves around killing your underlings to boost your strength; what led you to develop this mechanic?
Shohei Niikawa: "Enjoying evil" was our most important concept when developing the art, including game mechanics, narrative, and UI. In a standard Strategy RPG (SRPG), the principles are "gather companions," "raise companions," and "win without sacrificing companions." Even Disgaea, which is said to be the unorthodox outlier in the SRPG world, adheres to these principles. In contrast, based on the concept of "enjoying evil," Demons' Night Fever broke the common sense of SRPGs with mechanics like "evil needs no companions," "exploit your underlings," and "sacrificing your underlings to win is the right answer!" Everything is the result of sticking stubbornly to the concept of "enjoying evil."
Demons and the Netherworld tend to factor heavily in your titles; why is that?
SN: Many games, especially from major publishers, often depict heroes, justice, and traditional fantasy worlds. I think we can leave that to major publishers with abundant funds and technology; it's not my job. My policy is to create things that don't exist elsewhere and do what no one else does. That's why I've walked an unorthodox path that major publishers wouldn't take. That's why demons and the netherworld appear so often.
DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER and Étrange Overlord are the first games you've made after leaving NIS; how does it feel to have a change of employer after 25 years?
SN: I'm making games with a lot of freedom and ease, and I'm very happy. In particular, an environment where I can create as much as I want whenever I want, unbound by time, day or night, can be said to be the best environment for a creator. There were many things that could only be done with a team within the same company like Nippon Ichi Software , but now I greatly enjoy developing in this environment.
What would you say are your biggest influences when it comes to your games?
SN: I decided to enter the game industry after playing Final Fantasy V . Until then, I was studying archaeology and intended to live by having adventures spanning the world like Indiana Jones. The wonderful gaming experience and shocking game mechanics of Final Fantasy V changed my life. I have not a single millimeter of regret. I am grateful.
If you could meet yourself when you were younger, what are some things you'd tell yourself?
SN: I'd like to tell myself, "While you're at Nippon Ichi Software , focus on making games with the internal staff!" and "Don't carelessly outsource development!"
What is some media you're enjoying at the moment, be it from Japan or America?
SN: Manga and movies. I try to enjoy some work almost every day. Those inputs will ferment in my brain in the future and become seeds for new ideas.
What do you hope people take away from DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER?
SN: If people feel, "I've never played a game with this kind of playfeel!", then the challenge of this title is a success. I've developed it to destroy the common sense of SRPGs and leave a new mark in SRPG history, so if that can be achieved, there is no greater joy than this.
Any final words for our readers?
SN: Demons' Night Fever is a work whose planning and conception began after I became independent from Nippon Ichi Software . I designed the concept, art, and game mechanics thinking that I would dare to make a game completely different from Disgaea. The tone of the scenario might be the usual feel, but please forgive me, as that's just my authorial style (laughs). Although I've worked on numerous Strategy RPGs and even received a Guinness World Record, this Demons' Night Fever is a crazy game that completely destroys the common sense of SRPGs. How this will be evaluated is up to God... or rather, the Evil God, but at least I am proud that we were able to provide a unique gaming experience and throw a stone into the history of SRPGs. The kind Arc System Works gave us friendly pricing. It's a price you can afford just by skipping a weekend's entertainment outing and dining out once. Game fans, please purchase it to become living witnesses to history!
Many thanks again to Niikawa-san for answering our questions, and many thanks to Steve Willis for facilitating the interview for us! DEMONS' NIGHT FEVER is currently available on Steam , PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
Five Deaths for Halloween
Halloween is the time to spoop or be spooped! It's a time when we let ourselves get scared of stuff and experience fear in places where you're not really in any danger (even haunted houses have safewords). And nothing has terrified humanity quite like death, the ultimate end of all things. Death has been portrayed as many things: an antagonist to outsmart, a relentless hunter, the embrace one is destined to return to. And games are no different in those portrayals. In honor of Halloween this weekend, we'd like to offer tribute to five depictions of death in video games.
Image via megamitensei.fandom.com © Atlus
#1: The Reaper, Persona 3
"Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey," so on and so forth. Given how much of Persona 3 revolves around the imagery of death as part of its thematic basis in the story of Orpheus and his journey into Tartarus (as well as its commentary on teen suicide rates in Japan), it stands to reason that death should be a tangible character in Persona 3. But—while Thanatos itself is a figure that represents Death in a way, being a Persona based on the literal manifestation of death in Greek mythology, that's not the figure we're going with today. We're going with the Reaper!
While it was encouraged to explore every inch of every floor on Tartarus for treasure boxes or the elusive Gold Shadows, sticking around for too long would attract the attention of the Reaper. Appearing as a robed corpse with a revolver, the Reaper would chase you down relentlessly. You could fight them, but the Reaper was a tough cookie. There were late-game quests for beating him, but you'd usually want to rely on the busted Lucifer/Satan combo spell Armageddon to one-shot the guy, just to be sure. Doing so was also a bit of a turning point for the game, since that effectively meant you could continue to explore Tartarus to your heart's content. The Reaper would go on to make further appearances in later Persona titles, but you'll never forget the first time you hear their chains rattling and Fuuka warning you that she "senses Death..."
Image via castlevania.fandom.com © Konammi
#2: Death, Castlevania
The original Castlevania was already a monster mash-up of all of the classic horror icons: Frankenstein's monster, mummies, Black Lagoon-esque mermen, werewolves... so what better choice for a boss than the actual Grim Reaper? Being an absolute menace, courtesy of the infinite sickles he could spawn, Death has gone on to become a mainstay of the Castlevania games. Crazier still, he's also gone on to be Dracula's right-hand man. Dracula himself has not just some skeleton in a robe helping him, but the anthropomorphized manifestation of death itself. Fitting for a vampire who is a literal manifestation of Chaos.
Death is invariably a tough boss to defeat, being fast and absolutely merciless with their attacks—and with those confounded infinite sickles. And because "4" is associated with death in Japanese culture, you can expect his health to be a neat 4444 HP (my condolences to Mista Guido). But also, Death is quite affable. He's not a nice guy, make no mistake, but Death is fiercely loyal to Dracula above all else; if someone else is trying to sit on Dracula's throne, Death wastes no time in delivering the final blow to them. And he accepts no substitutes or heirs. Alucard, Dracula's son, earned no quarter from him (Death even stole all of Alucard's gear). And Soma Cruz, Dracula's reincarnation, didn't catch a break from Death. Death only has eyes for Dracula, plain and simple.
We'll leave the cosmological ramifications of the Belmonts, Morrises, and Soma killing the literal manifestation of death for someone else to resolve; I'm not prepared to explain how killing the pale rider affects entropy in the world of Castlevania.
Image via megaman.fandom.com © Capcom
#3: EraseMan.EXE, Mega Man Battle Network 6
While most of the Net Navis in Mega Man Battle Network were based on Robot Masters from the classic Mega Man series, a handful of them were original creations. This introduced the world to unique figures like LaserMan.EXE, SharkMan.EXE, and GateMan.EXE. And this also gave us EraseMan.EXE, the gaseous demon-looking Net Navi from Battle Network 6. Of course, his localized name obfuscates things a touch in order to keep with the E for Everyone rating; in Japan, he's called KillerMan.EXE, making his theme way more blatant. Regardless of the region, he's an out-and-out assassin, and even involves protagonist Lan in a few hit jobs as training. His design is much more demonic in nature, making him look much more like the kind of thing you'd find in Buddhist Hell than the typical depiction of the Grim Reaper. But it's a striking look in a game where even the most heavily armed Net Navi just has a techy-looking sniper rifle. You can almost forgive CAPCOM for never retroactively adapting this guy as a Robot Master.
While EraseMan.EXE has that nasty-looking scythe, he's a Cursor-attribute Net Navi. So his attacks are more beams than anything else. This extends to the Cross Form he bestows upon MegaMan.EXE, giving MegaMan's battle chips the ability to instantly kill any virus whose health includes the number "4."
Image via kidicarus.fandom.com © Nintendo
#4: Reaper, Kid Icarus series
What does it say about a monster when it's not even the most annoying monster from its own game series...? Reapers are hard to forget in Kid Icarus; looking like the traditional Grim Reapers (hence the name), they'll plod around until they catch Pit in their line of sight and go absolutely ballistic, calling down little Reapettes to charge him down. They don't summon as many Reapettes in Kid Icarus: Uprising, but they at least look a bit more interesting than their old look. (Though the fabric on their robes looks like it comes from an old couch...)
The sad thing with Reapers is that as fun and memorable as they are on their own, especially as "death"-y enemies go, they're completely upstaged by other monsters. You'd think a Grim Reaper siccing miniature Grim Reapers on you would be bad enough in a tough game like Kid Icarus, but you'll quickly sigh with relief at the sight of a Reaper because at least it's not an Eggplant Wizard. Reapers can take a chunk of health out of you, but that's all they can do; an Eggplant Wizard leaves you turned into, well, an eggplant. You can't even fight back when that happens. And the Tempura Wizards from Kid Icarus: Uprising are even worse...
Image via darksouls.fandom.com © FromSoftware, Bandai Namco
#5: Gravelord Nito, Dark Souls
For a game that marketed itself so much on the "Prepare to Die" slogan, the actual Lord of Death tends to get short shrift. Gravelord Nito was one of the three figures in Dark Souls lore to find a Lord Soul, granting them dominion over an aspect of the world. Where the god Gwyn and the Witch of Izalith used their souls to become a god and to create the magic of Pyromancy, Nito was known as "the First of the Dead" and used his powers to empower it. Being that the First Flame created disparity in the world of Dark Souls (including life and death), and that the Eternal Dragons that Nito, Gwyn and the Witch fought were in fact eternal, Nito being around could've been anything from a self-fulfilling prophecy to an actual shift in the fabric of reality. This is without Seath the Scaleless also helping the Lords by revealing the secret of dragon immortality lying in their stone scales, mind.
For someone referred to as "the First of the Dead," Nito certainly looks the part: a shambling pile of bones and skulls that vaguely resemble a hunched, hooded figure with a death mask. He even has a massive scythe-like growth on one arm, his famed Gravelord Sword. And his powers include spreading "a miasma of death and disease." He even sacrificed the greater portion of his Lord Soul to ensure that death would come to all living things, seeing it as a relief from the pain and suffering of life. So you can imagine his frustration when the Curse of the Undead started up.
Dark Souls lore being what it is, it's hard to say much else about Nito. His influence extends far into Dark Souls II, with the Milfanito race existing thanks to his efforts. But there isn't much done with Nito outside of hunting him down in his lair and killing him for his Lord Soul. We can still give him credit for being one of the deadliest Deaths in gaming.
And that's our list of Deaths—and our Halloween column! I hope that my readers have a nice little Halloween; I hope you're able to give out lots of candy to trick-or-treaters (and have a bit left over for yourselves!), and I hope you're all able to enjoy the chilly evenings with some good spooky fun. It's okay if all you do is make some dirt-and-worm brownies for yourselves, just don't forget to share them with someone. You probably don't wanna scare the living daylights out of them, but nothing's truer to the spirit of Halloween than giving folks sweet treats and thumbing your nose at the stuff we should be running away from. From all of us at This Week in Games, I wish everyone a happy Halloween! (And once again, thanks to Videajames for once again supplying our Halloween art this year!)
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.