The sexiest thing Level 5 can do it Rouge Galaxy 2.

I lol’d when you cross edited your voice over yourself when referring to the voicemail number for Hitpoint . That was super funny. Glad to see this back Derek! When i really started watching the weekly update was a mere couple of months before you retired it. Welcome back!

So glad this is back! JRPG Weekly Update, The Game Collection, and HitPoint is all KZfaq really needs!

JRPG Weekly Update!!!! We’re back baby!

Welcome back!!! It's nice to hear your thoughts, particularly on what's going on at Square Enix. I love a lot of their smaller titles, but I just haven't been buying them lately because there have been so many such similar ones so close together - and when they all require 100 hours or more, it's impossible to keep up! Not to mention, a number of them were barely marketed, which not only meant that people weren't really aware of them but also kind of made it feel like Square themselves weren't all that bothered about/interested in them. It's hard to care about a game when it feels like the company publishing it doesn't really care much about it.

I love this format! I feel like hit point is great when I'm doing chores, workouts, something I could save for a planned activity while this is more of a quick hitter and I can listen pretty quickly and catch up on the news! Glad to see the JRPG weekly update is back

Wheres your coffee Derek?

All is right with the world again. Great to see this back

Glad to see the return of one my favorite youtube series! looking forward to your discusion with baku about squares decision personally i dont think its that big of a deal. haven't gotten to overload yet but from all the hype surrounding it, ill have to bump it further on my neverending need to play list.

What a treat to wake up to!

Ys III is a part of the EGGCONSOLE line. They’re standalone releases for about $6.49 each. They all release on the US eShop with English translated *menus*. The games are still in Japanese but you will at least be able to easily navigate the menus in order to do things like change settings or save/load state. The games run exceptionally well from all the ones I’ve tried. If you’re keen to check one out that doesn’t have a language barrier, Xanadu is in full English since that’s how it was originally. :)

I finally started the Unicorn Overlord demo this morning because I thought my internet was down when it was really some ass who unplugged the router on accident. It feels like a story I’d love to watch even if I didn’t play it. It’s Vanillaware so it’s obviously gorgeous. The sound and writing impressed me while it lasted. Haven’t delved into the combat much. It was a tutorial chapter and I didn’t really have any customization choices. Might go back to it in a bit.

Glad to see the weekly update back! Also the new haircut looks fantastic!

A contributing part of why I like JRPGs, or any hobby comes to the community. I can’t keep up with the entire community-everyone involved in it, but I do choose to keep my eyes on you and yours. Thank you for making videos like this when you feel like you should. You kindle the fires of the JRPG community for those who stay gathered around. ❤️‍🔥🪵🤲

SquareEnix has a market cap of 4.5 billion US. Unless something gets leaked we will never know what got canceled, but SE is a long, LONG ways from being in big trouble. Pruning the company will probably be a blessing.

With the popularity of Unicorn Overlord of which I’m now a huge fan I’m just hoping Level 5 goes back to those good ol days as far as the SRPG genre like what they did with Jeanne DArc.. Still extremely excited for Fantasy Life

Love having the JRPG Weekly Update! Also love the SD voice over!

Thank you for mentioning the RPGFan 'Review Card Collection' book, Derek! 😍

Incredibly thankful for the return of this.

I've been slowly playing through Unicorn Overlord and I have to say it's pretty fun. My only complaint is the game seems to have a balance issue. I'm playing on hard and most stages feel like either a cake walk or pulling teeth with very little in between.

I think SquareEnix' canceled games and strategy shift is around the NFT games initiatives that were launched by the previous CEO. All of these are now probably gone. I anticipate the new CEO will still be more selective on the new projects. We're not likely to get a new DioField Chronicles or a project of that kind/size, unfortunately.

Weekly updates are back!!!

Hey Derek! Maybe Mike sent you a copy of Unicorn Overlord, but I did as well. Perhaps a name mixup? Either way, I hope you enjoy the game when you get to it!

nice comeback! and i enjoy more dynamic montage!

I enjoy the weekly update, glad it's returned.

That Slime game looks like it's gonna play like a 2d tales game but with 3d graphics. Never seen the anime but the game looks interesting

I really hope the "cuts" that Square-Enix is making are the "live-service-y" games. Maybe I'm being selfish, but I also don't think their forays into that realm have been working out the best for them... But I also hope this doesn't mean they'll stop producing AA gems like Harvestella and the Live a Live remake altogether. Maybe spacing them out a bit more would help with sales, quality over quantity.

This is awesome, always love some RPG news from anywhere I can get it! Keep up the good work!

Not gonna lie, I'm all for that 'saucy' Level-5 game if it ever comes into fruition 😏 Pretty keen for Death End Request Code Z as well. Great video!

I’ve missed this, happy to see it return. Thank you.

THE UPDATE IS BACK AWWW YEAH! My opinion on the Square project cancellations is similar to David Vinc's: I'm choosing to be positive and read this as then wanting less Babylon and Chocobo GP-esque disasters, and hopefully even their smaller-tier franchises like Mana and SaGa can get more robust budgets, marketing, and room to breathe so we don't get another flood of games like the last few months of 2022, where they released so many RPGs so close together that they were competing with themselves, and a lot of gems got unfairly buried in the deluge. I am very interested in what a more M-rated Level 5 game would look like, especially since when it comes to art and character design, they tend to go against the grain of what you'd expect from RPGs made in Japan. And for the 'EGG Console' Ys releases on Switch, they've already released Ys 1 and 2, and these are straight ports of the PC-88 releases available for purchase at fairly reasonable prices (usually around $7 USD) but while the menus and manuals are available in multiple languages, the games themselves remain untranslated in Japanese, and likely all this will apply to the upcoming Ys III rerelease as well. Even though it's a bit irksome that they're untranslated, it is still a wonderful bit of games preservation for versions of these classics that are not otherwise easy to get ahold of

Love to see this back!

Morning! What a nice surprise ✌🏻

Great upload. I backed Eiyuden chronicles for switch physical copy but DID very much have concerns about performance. I didnt mind graphics or some fps hits but the load time hits I did not expect. That loading into combat combined with often sub 20fps made me simply double dip and buy a physical ps5 copy instead. I am still very happy to have supported the game however. Who knows maybe the switch 2 pulls off a ps4 pro kinda thing where regular switch games run better on it :)

Hey, the weekly update is back! Curious to see where you go from here.

Yesss! Jrpg update is back!

I got eiyuden chronicle on PC but I've also convinced myself not to play it until all the dlc is out for it. In the mean time I have Trails of Cold Steel IV and Trails into Reverie to try and complete before Daybreak releases. Speaking adjacent to that do you plan to upload the videos/vods of your game playthroughs from twitch?

That cooking battle is definitely bugged like crazy on the Series X. Almost every recipe except a few gets horrible scores, including the final boss chefs’ signature dishes. It seems like they would have to completely rework the scoring system to have it be decent.

Awesome!

Don't burn yourself out , if there's no news for the week, definitely take a break because I remember that's why you stopped before

Yay! Missed the weekly update!

Glad you enjoyed the book!

For Squarenix, I hate to say this but moneywise they should focus on one major release on all platforms with tons of marketing. Then on the side release tons of ''older stuff'' with a fresh coat of paint on mobile since it cost them pennies.

Lewd games from Level 5….? I’ll allow it!

I loved Death End Re Quest. Amazing and underappreciated.

Derek you look rly good man

Hopefully that SQEX news doesn't affect the FFIX remake that is rumored.

This is cool to see.

I missed this. Loved this video.

Interesting news. I have accidentally seen the op of a new upcoming game for Japan. It's called "The Rising Sun Marriage" and I want to play that game. But it is Japan only and I don't even know what type of game it is. But it has very sexy waifus and looks like a kinda dark fantasy game. Something funny I learned about UO is that there is a certain character that you will never even see unless you know exactly what you're doing. Just like most strategy games. Have fun with it. I didn't buy it because it is not the type of gameplay I enjoy playing.

Finally it’s back!

It's back baby!!

is Level 5 finally making "Ushiro" please, PLEASE!

9:57 Dammit Derek... you cost me money again! ;P

I missed the weeky update

I think Hino is speaking to Japan, not the West given our censorship push. They have no issue with violent or sexy games, it's when they come here that Western journalists and more ideological types take issue with creator's content. It's very doable, but the state they come in state side will be a different story left to mods or getting the Japanese version. I do wonder if Hino is seeing the cultural divide between the West and East and wants to tap into that and the market not being served. Again, I don't think this partially because Level 5 has to navigate Western censorship. Level 5 is Japan only I still believe, so it's why I think the concern is mainly for Japan and however the West can get it will be something to come later. I'm interested to see what they want to create as it seems a retro direction of the 90s. If it is talking about handling it with mature themes it could go beyond fans service and just be for gamers age appropriate. Niche means more focused isn't aiming high and big sales can only be a bonus for such projects. I could have sworn SE already say they were going to be selective with AAA games instead of making AA games like was said prior. It doesn't sound like they know what they are doing with shifting messages over a year now. They are losing money on abandoned projects (which I wonder if they are referring to how quickly a game fails and they abandon it and not just projects cut short in development.) That is on top of losing money on big title releases. I predict they will continue to lose money with the direction they are bulling ahead on. Hopefully Eiyuden gets fixed soon. A shame it came out that way and wonder if they couldn't have possibly delayed it to get it ironed out.

I assume all Eiyuden bugs on Switch will be handled by the time the physical I’m waiting on releases. It’s like 28 GB and they opted for the 16 over the 32 GB cartridge so it’s gonna require downloads anyway. Are companies skimping on testers and using players as beta testers now?

If it's an erotic Professor Layton, what will they use instead of matchsticks?

I think people forget that Square Enix's networth is in the billions (judging by the US Dollar and not Yen). The ""extrordinary losses"" is nothing new to Square Enix since they were always on the verge of bankrupcy in the past. A 100 Million Dollar loss is just a slap on the wrist for the company.

Have you been working out?? You look fit as hell. Also need to replay rogue galaxies, my brother made me play it on the ps2 and remember to enjoy it but i don't remember the story at all.

If you look at their wiki with all their releases, square has released around 50 games since 2020 lol

what HAPPEN TO ICONIC HAIR!!!? and most important of all where your coffee hahaha

What’s the game in the video cover?

Forgot to comment earlier 😅 glad to see this again

White Knight Chronicles had sooo much potential.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

I'll settle for Yokai Watch 4 being brought over to the West.

All that I want from Level 5 is Ushiro!!

Might have been good to mention that Ys III is only being ported to the switch in Japan (or is not being translated at least).

Hello derek 🎉

Weekly wassup🤙

Probably game like Forspoken, Babylon fall, and Foam Star that got cancel. Also, once again, waifu sells :D

I like the idea of new game announcements having their own video in this format. The podcast is simply too much of a time sink, and I've never really been one to have an interest in those sorts of discussions. So people can get exactly what they want

Rabbit & Bear needs to get cooked themselves after the way they screwed us all over. ♨

Anyone know who the girl is on the thumbnail? For...reasons...

Yo

The last game is h*ntai by the way.

I hope Level 5 make a "cheating" plot where the guy get cuukoo by another person. By cuukoo, I mean stolen love partner.

boomboom's showing