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.

 

There is nothing that Shinjo regrets more than leaving his sister alone that faithful day, something he did for the banal reason of deciding to listen to a business phone call instead of spending time with her. A classic setup that the game takes full advantage of by giving you the choice to try and change the events of that day, but to no avail. You may have been able to change any other choice in the present, but it is impossible for Shinjo to go back in time and make the right choice in that situation. And as such, it is impossible for the player as well. With nothing else to lose at the end of his life, the only thing that Shinjo wants is to get closure on what led to his sister's disappearence. His method of doing that is simple: He will hire 6 actresses, 6 women who represent the stereotypes known of the otaku culture that represents Akihabara (a shrine priestess, a maid, a magical girl cosplayer, an idol, a web critic and a videogame streamer), and these 6 women will play their part in an interactive video game in which all of them are kidnapped in a method that resembles that of the original incident. It is a decision that the public is given no context to. Something they find outrageous, insulting, vile in all of the ways that people would think making a videogame out of a real life tragedy would be. It turns the whole world not just against Shinjo, but against the very company he realms. Its a character-defining decision so serious that it serves as more of an inciting incident for the story as a whole than the actual inciting incident, which comes the following day.
At the time when all of the actresses should have met up, Shinjo notices that one of them is missing. The reason of that is already known by the player, who will have recently played the storyline: Aoi Shinjo, the game's token maid and the middle child of the Shinjos, has been kidnapped. Not for her part in the game, but by someone in real life. A mastermind that is enacting all of the events which Shinjo (as I will refer to Daiki, while Aoi will be referred to by her first name, as the game does) wrote for his storyline. A mastermind which proceeds to call Shinjo and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that if he continues with the production of the game, they will make sure that the same tragedy happens again, following the script which he outlined.

That is the point at which the demo ends, and it is a fantastic hook. But one that serves as the followup to the previous conflict, which the game had already been exploring.

Yukimi Kurahashi is the token streamer, and more importantly, a game designer who had been hired to Shinjo's studio after being deeply inspired by his first game. As such, once she started her own prolific streaming career, she became the face of the studio she loved in a way she never intended. And as of now, she is the one who has to deal with the majority of the consequences of Shinjo's actions. As even her attempts of running her stream has her be bombarded with hate messages and demands of a public that desires to know the purpose behind her chief's actions. 

 

And, of course, the game she's playing is World's End Club. Another game by Izanagi Games. 

 

At almost every moment of the game, if Shirosawa Games, the in-universe studio, is present in the narrative, then you can expect Izanagi Games' own history to manifest itself. Billboards for Dark Auction are shown in the stablishing pictures of the street, standins of the game will be present during dialogue scenes, and every scene at the studio itself will be mired with standees and merchandising of these dead games encircling everyone. It is so frequent that it becomes obvious that this is an intentional choice. There is no point where the game wants you to forget that these characters are surrounded by death. They lost the people they were close to, they are working on a game about the disappearences and presumed deaths of people, and simply entering the studio will have them be greeted with the ghosts of games that have come before them. You can never forget that these characters come from games which you did not play, or games which you may have played and been lukewarm about, or games which you may have loved and watched be forgotten. The game will not let you forget the faces of the ones who are gone, and it will do that by utilizing the unbelievably dissonant technique of putting standins of anime characters in almost every serious scene that happens in this building. Shinjo will call Aoi and ruminate on the sadness of the thought that, despite what she may have claimed, she did not want to take part in this project made as a prayer towards their dead sister's death. And they will have the ghost of his dead sister be metaphorically represented by Pai, the character from World's End Club, who is watching him from the side of the frame.

 

This is a bizarre, utterly baffling choice that gave me and everyone else I know extreme whiplash. Its the kind of creative decision only a mad man with nothing to lose would make, which is exactly how the game describes Shinjo's decision. Akiba Lost is one of the most shameless games I have ever seen. Not only does it make no attempt at hiding the blatant parallels with its real life history, it weaponizes them to further sell the audience on the idea that yes, this is a game that is likely to be dead on arrival. This is a game that will celebrate all other games from the studio that were dead on arrival. This is a game that is bound to die, but nevertheless is proud of being the final swan song to a studio which no one celebrates. This is Izanagi Games' Final Fantasy. And never, never, have I hoped more that a game could capture the same kind of shocking success which Final Fantasy had, even when I know that is impossible.

Because God, I could play a game like this every month and not get bored at any point.