Akiba Lost is a Game about Dead Games

This post will contain full spoilers for the Akiba Lost demo. Most of these spoilers are things already listed in the game's description, in fact, I write this post as more so a recommendation to anyone else who might not have heard of this game, but its still something worth commenting on.

 

The moment I finished the demo I knew that, unless the game were to severely disappoint in every single aspect of its story, Akiba Lost was bound to be my game of the year.

I am an easy person. 428 Shibuya Scramble is my favorite game of all time. Akiba Lost gives me the 428 gameplay formula (or rather, the Machi gameplay formula, given how this game uses that game's structure of multiple days being used as time blocks, rather than select hours) without anything that serves as a particular point of annoyance to get in the way of the inherent enjoyment I find in managing multiple characters at the same time and seeing how their choices interact with each other within the time grid. If you want a game that gives you that same high, Akiba Lost is likely to feel that need, as Shibuya Scramble Stories likely will be next year.

There is a crucial difference between the two, however. Shibuya Scramble Stories is a game that has the renown of many of the original production team and staff of 428 Shibuya Scramble coming back. Its the return of the team behind one of the 2000s most acclaimed hidden gems, which has been sparking up interest at every step of the way. This has not happened for Akiba Lost, this game will launch in September, and thus far the coverage on this title has been so lackluster that the only way I learned about it was through scrolling discord chats on servers which I am not even active in. This is a game that is likely to be dead on arrival.

And that is custom with most games release by Izanagi Games.

You likely haven't heard of Izanagi Games, if you have heard of Izanagi Games, you know that mentioning them here would not generate wholly positive feelings in the minds of most people. They are known as a studio that releases flop after flop within the market, regardless of how much renown there is behind the staff of the projects they publish. The complaints are common: Unfinished storylines, cheap presentation, truth be told, recent cases of use of generative AI artwork within their latest game: Dark Auction (formerly titled Dark Auction: Hitler's Estate) have been what many consider the final nail in the coffin in terms of their cheap production, despite the studio making official announcements on working hard to replace said assets with man-made ones. Once the controversy arrived, it was impossible to win back those who had already given up on the studio.

I say all of this because Akiba Lost is a game that indirectly tackles all the subjects I just listed.

The game's protagonist is Daiki Shinjo, the game designer and director of a game development company that is dying out from flop after flop being released. Not only that, but Daiki Shinjo has cancer. And with less than a year left to live, at the yearly Tokyo Game Expo, he announces a new game without the previous knowledge of anyone involved: The game will be titled AKIBA LOST, and it will be a game about the unresolved case of his little sister's disappearence, alongside the 5 other girls who went missing that day.

An Archive of Three Reviews

This post will, obviously, contain spoilers for all games listed here. Some of my opinions have shifted (I would not word my feelings on Umineko the same way, even if my feelings towards the game are the same, if not more negative), but as is the purpose of this blog, I have decided to archive three reviews of mine which I believe stand as something worth preserving.

Consider this a filler post until I feel like updating this blog again.

Kumitantei Shows Its Hand in Episode 1

This post will contain full spoilers for Episode 1 of Kumitantei - Old School Slaughter.

 

I will inform everyone here involved, for context, that I have an indirect connection to this game. A friend of mine, who goes by the online handle of lukiauriga, worked on this game as a playtester, an experience he has been quite positive on during our conversations. I'd like to believe myself someone who wouldn't let their heart be swayed by the method in which I became aware of the work which I engage with (after all, there is nothing more insulting to the artist than to be told that people only appreciate their art because of their presence as a person, rather than for the merits of the work itself), but I nevertheless felt the need to clarify my connection as to have full transparency between myself (as an artist, as a critic) and my audience. As well as reminding them of something that should be obvious:

Every work of art you engage with has had one, or more commonly, hundreds of hands that have all touched on it and cared enough to have their name listed in its credits. If you were not present in the same conversations and meetings that the development team was present in, its not likely that you can ever imagine the dedication that the artists involved had in creating something that can be completed in a day's time. Those months of hard work by dozens of people are something which I can only speculate on, a concept in my mind which I can only assess secondhand, like a detective attempting to piece together the steps of the killer's plan. Do not take me as someone who knows more about this game than the people involved in this game do. During this review, I will attempt to only make one claim about my personal knowledge: That I have a reasonable argument as to why a Danganronpa game is designed the way it is, something which I will attempt to prove based on the finished product of your average Danganronpa game. And in turn, I will apply that same knowledge in comparison to Kumitantei, a game that is made to stand in its own merits, despite its status as a love letter to the no-longer-dormant Danganronpa series.

If you are one of the people who worked on the game, stand proud, you have created something that is worth the price of admission. Keep chasing the high you crave, regardless of what anyone may say about your work.

With the introduction out of the way, lets talk about Episode 1 - Apathy Within and Below.