Hard Off Shinjuku with Alex Kraus, Mina the Hollower

[00:00:08] Welcome to Tokyo Game Life, a Tokyo-based video game podcast focusing on Nintendo and gaming culture in Japan's capital. Your host Mono here to bring you a slice of gaming life from Tokyo. Hard Off Ambassador Alex Kraus returns as we chat Hard Off Shinjuku, a new major retro game store in one of Tokyo's biggest shopping districts. We dive into this unusual Hard Off location, what it means for the future of the company, and decide our favorite Famicom model.

[00:00:35] In the games, I look at a title heavily inspired by the Game Boy Zeldas, Mina the Hollower. Plus, I break down all the important game announcements you should care about from the Direct and beyond. Let's get into the feature on Hard Off Shinjuku with Alex Kraus. Today's feature is about the newly opened Hard Off Shinjuku, a new hotspot for retro video games and secondhand media.

[00:01:01] Joining me to chat all about it is a special guest. So guest, please introduce yourself. My name is Alex Kraus, and I am an official ambassador for the Hard Off Corporation. And I've been a member of that program since it started a few years ago. And so, yeah, I'm here to talk about the new location in Shinjuku and maybe what it means for the company going forward. Thank you so much for joining me. Long-time listeners will probably remember you from our Hard Off episode, and you also came back for Book Off.

[00:01:31] But now we are getting really specific with Hard Off Shinjuku, one of their newest stores. But first, I got to know, how is your ambassador card? Did you need to update it recently? Yes. Like I said, I've been a member of that program since I started it. So, yeah, I'm still a member. Okay. Is it like once a year you need to renew it or anything like that? Yeah. Basically, if you're a member already and you actively participate, you don't really have to do anything. But, yeah, they send me a new card every year. Okay. Nice. Let's get into Hard Off Shinjuku, a new Hard Off location.

[00:02:01] And I'm sure Hard Offs open all the time, but this one is really interesting due to the location. And for me, it is probably the quickest I visited a newly opened Hard Off. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts about visiting these brand new Hard Offs, since I know you've been to a lot of them when they first opened. So let's start at the beginning. How did you first hear about Hard Off Shinjuku? And was the location surprising to you at all? It might have actually been your account that I found it from. Oh, really?

[00:02:27] Because, yeah, I normally keep tabs on the newly opening store, but this one slipped by me. When I saw a Shinjuku location, I was like, what? Shinjuku? And the reason it's so surprising is because, as your listeners might know, Hard Off tends to, at least traditionally, they tend to open locations that are sort of on the outside of cities, usually on your middle-sized and large-sized cities.

[00:02:51] They'll open more towards the outskirts or towards the suburban shopping areas, or sometimes even in more rural locations. So to have one right in the middle of Shinjuku, and this is their first store there, is pretty surprising. And I think maybe it signifies a change for where Hard Off is going to pick for their locations going forward. Yeah, Shinjuku is more of a gaming hub than a lot of people realize.

[00:03:20] There's also a Sudugaya when it comes to retro gaming. I do think most of it don't think as the place to go to check out gaming stuff. And Hard Off Shinjuku opened on April 27th. And I'm trying to remember how I heard about it. I think I just heard about it one day before, either through the official Hard Off account or somebody reposted it. But I was also equally shocked that, whoa, Hard Off or Shinjuku is getting a Hard Off in just a few days. And I checked it out on April 28th, so one day afterwards.

[00:03:48] And it is in Marui Min, a huge department store focusing on male fashion. And this really is in the main Shinjuku shopping area. So it is an incredibly central location for a Hard Off that we rarely see in Tokyo. Many Hard Offs and secondhand stores are, like you said, are in more remote or suburban areas. And if you are a tourist in Tokyo, this is one of the easiest and least out-of-the-way Hard Offs to visit. Do you think this is a shift in Hard Offs' business strategy?

[00:04:16] Are we going to see more Hard Offs in the main shopping areas in Tokyo soon? We have a couple other stores that they've opened recently. Last November, they opened one in Kinchicho, which is right on the Chuo Line. It's basically just a few stops to the east of Akihabara. That one is also really easy to get to because it's right off. You just get off at Kinchicho Station and walk across the street, literally, and you're there.

[00:04:45] That one, coincidentally or maybe not, is also in a Marui department store. Oh! So maybe Hard Off has this relationship with the Marui company. And also last year, they opened another one in Gakue Daigaku, which is in Meguro. That one is not so much downtown as the other two, but it is a lot more central Tokyo than what Hard Off typically open.

[00:05:11] That one is also really easy to get to from the Gakue Daigaku Station. So both of these stores are a lot more central Tokyo than what Hard Off has typically opened in the past. So I think it's fair to say that we will see more of these in the near future. Yeah, the Tsurugai is also in Marui Annex. So maybe somebody at Marui really loves retro gaming. They're trying to get Tsurugai and Hard Offs in there.

[00:05:36] And during the Parco Game Center event a few months ago at Shibuya Parco, there was a Hard Off pop-up shop inside of the Game Center. And I thought, it's so weird that there's a Hard Off in Shibuya, complete with junk bin diving and so forth and so on. But that might become more common. So now this is shop number 1082. And according to their site, there are 1084 Hard Offs. So some new ones have opened just in early May.

[00:06:03] And I'm curious about what Hard Off Hardcores do when a new store opens. Is it common to go on opening day? Is there any sort of tradition or ceremony that people take part in or what? It depends on the person, obviously. But one of my close friends is a Japanese YouTuber named YuYu. And he has been to the whole country of Hard Offs three times. Wow. He's done the whole country three times.

[00:06:30] He always goes to the grand opening if possible. I guess sometimes it's not possible. But if possible, he's there. So whenever I get a chance to go to a grand opening, which is only occasionally, I always meet him there. But he is probably the most hardcore ambassador that I know. He also sometimes participates in the company volunteer activities like cleaning up trash and things like that. Pretty crazy.

[00:06:58] But yeah, there are some very hardcore Hard Off ambassadors who are going to every single grand opening all around the country. All right. So let's actually go into the shop. And I want to talk about the design of the shop. First of all, it's on the fifth floor inside the department store. And I don't think I've ever seen a Hard Off inside a department store like this. Because normally it has its own building or at least its own floors with signage on the outside. But you said there is another Marui Hard Off somewhere.

[00:07:26] So are there other Hard Offs besides these two that are housed inside department stores? Or is this kind of unheard of until recently? The other one that comes to mind is the one in Shiba that's at Marinpia building. It's Marinpia Ale. But that one is a whole floor of Off stores. So you've got the Off House, the Hard Off, and then Book Off, which is actually a different company. But they're all together on one floor.

[00:07:55] And yeah, my immediate impression of seeing Hard Off Shinjuku is that it looked a little fancy to me. It has a big blue wall with the Hard Off logo. And it is fairly spacious with nice display cases. How does the look of this Hard Off compare to some of the more recent stores? It looks a lot like the one in the Kinshicho building. It's less than one floor. I would say the floor space is fairly small compared to a standalone store. The fixtures are new.

[00:08:23] And the prices are a bit on the premium side. Yeah, and the thing I appreciated most, when you get off the escalator, the first thing is, of course, the game corner. I kind of wonder if this is specifically because this is supposed to be more of a tourist-focused Hard Off. And therefore, they tried to put the games front and center. But I was really impressed by the selection they had just one day after opening. When you go to these secondhand stores, they could have 300 video games or they could have three. You really never know. What did you think about the stock situation at Hard Off Shinjuku?

[00:08:53] And is it common for new Hard Offs to have a pretty big stock like this? I thought it was average, to be honest. Prices for the software were okay. I thought prices on hardware were high. The one thing that really caught my eye in terms of product mix was that they had this aisle of Japanese souvenirs, such as, like, antiques. They had the koto. They have a daruma. They have these big decorative shogi pieces.

[00:09:23] They have some getta. And there's a sign in English that says something like, why don't you buy a souvenir for your trip? So it's really clear who they're trying to target with this stuff. A typical Hard Off does not have that kind of stuff, usually. You might find that kind of stuff in an off-house, which will have interior decoration corner. But to have this in a standalone Hard Off was pretty unusual. So this is obviously very tourist-focused.

[00:09:50] I will say that the items that they have were, like, antiques. So they were very nice, quality, handmade items. A lot nicer than what you might find in a standard souvenir shop. But definitely a little bit different product mix than usual. That's interesting. I actually didn't notice that when I went. And I am curious if Hard Off is making more of a swing towards tourists. Because, of course, for retro game fans, they all know Hard Off. Have you noticed a trend in Hard Off trying to appeal more towards foreign tourists recently?

[00:10:20] Yeah, I would say that shops like this one are definitely targeting the tourists. I don't think they're marketing directly to tourists, per se. I haven't seen, for example, a lot of English language signage. I've seen some, especially in the, for example, at the Ueno location. I've actually seen signs in the Ueno location that they were looking to hire English-speaking staff. Oh, wow. And it had a recruitment sign in English, which is pretty unusual.

[00:10:47] But I haven't seen any sort of outside advertisements that seem to be directly targeting tourists, to be honest. A part-time job at Hard Off would be kind of a killer job for, like, a Japanese language student. If you're studying Japanese and then you go to work at Hard Off, that would be really fun, I think. Yeah, I was thinking about it for half a second. But I'm like, that doesn't really fit my music type. Yeah. So you'd have to be a student or have some other kind of spouse visa or something. I don't know. Right. What were some gaming items that really stuck out to you?

[00:11:16] So, like I said, the antique corner and sort of Japanese collectible corner was really neat. It's something that made the store pretty special. And then right next to the Japanese antiques, they had a retro corner. And these were, like, electronic items that were significantly old, basically getting near antique level. One of the items they had in their retro corner was a hot drink display case, like what you would find in a convenience store.

[00:11:45] Looks like it was probably from the 80s or 90s. Oh, wow. And they were selling that for 11,000 yen. Somebody out there wants that, I'm sure. Yeah. And in their junk display case, they had a handful of Nintendo Game & Watch that were junk items. Maybe they weren't working. I'm looking at the tag of one of them. It says, employee was uncertain about whether it was working correctly or not. And the prices on those were actually pretty good.

[00:12:13] They had a Popeye Game & Watch at 4,000 yen, which is actually pretty good even for a junk item. Even if it's not working, it makes a great kind of shelf display kind of item. So that caught my eye. I was thinking about buying that, actually, but I didn't. And they also had a really nice selection of vinyl records and Laserdiscs. So, for example, I found Namco Video Game Music Record, which I think came out in 1982 or so. Oh, wow.

[00:12:43] I believe it was one of the first standalone video game commercial music releases. It would have to be, I think. Yeah. So they had that for 4,000. And they had some Laserdiscs from Tatsunoko, which have cover art by Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy fame. Some people might know that he worked for Tatsunoko when he was really young, working on several different anime productions for them.

[00:13:09] So I found some, I found this one called Genesis Climber Mospeda. I don't know this one, but it does have artwork by Amano on the cover. Hmm. Yeah. So those were the most interesting items to me. Yeah. Those are some really great deep dives. For me, I mostly just floated around the game corner. But I felt like they had a little bit of everything. They had Famicoms. They had Wonder Swans, Neo Geo Pockets.

[00:13:38] They had PlayStation, Sega hardware, Nintendo stuff, Neo Geo CD. But what stuck out for me is that they had a trio of semi-rare Famicoms. They had the twin Famicom, which is the combined Famicom and Famicom disk system from Sharp. And this was priced at 33,000 yen. And the original day one price of the twin Famicom was 32,000 yen. So it's kept its value all these years later.

[00:14:01] Then they also had the new Famicom, aka the AV Famicom, at 22,000 yen, which is the new style NES in the States. And ironically, I learned that the AV Famicom did not come with an AV cable. They just expected you to use the one with your Super Famicom or something. But that's just a funny thing to think about. And then at 44,000 yen, they had the square button Famicom, which for listeners, if you don't know, it was the first edition Famicom with a square A and B button.

[00:14:31] So do you have a favorite Famicom? And are these fair prices for these Famicoms? Sitting right next to me right now, I've got a twin Famicom. That was purchased at Hardoff. It's the red color one. Oh, okay. My friend found it out in Chiba somewhere. It was a junk item. It was only 5,000 yen. Oh, wow. And I haven't tested it yet. I'm expecting that the cartridge slot will work, but the disc will not because that's typically how it is.

[00:14:57] The drive belt of the disc disintegrates over time and it needs to be replaced. So purely for looks, that one's my favorite. I would say for the new Famicom, that's a high price. I would say 10,000 is a good price to pay for a new Famicom. And the square button one is pretty rare. And I don't know what the market price is for that one, so I can't ring you on that one. Yeah. It was really awesome to see one in person.

[00:15:23] I'm sure maybe I have seen a square Famicom in person, but to have it just, oh, it's sitting in Shinjuku is a little surreal. So I was glad to see that. And it wasn't on a prominent display or anything. It was just shoved in the middle of all their other Famicoms. But they did notice that it had square buttons, hence the higher price. So yeah, I guess we should talk about the prices. I guess it is extremely relative. But you said before you saw the software was maybe okay, but the hardware was a bit higher priced than normal.

[00:15:51] Do you think this is just because of the location or do you think it's a trend in hard off? Are things getting more expensive in general? Let's use that new Famicom as an example. If you go out to Guma or Tochigi or someplace like that, you would probably expect to pay about half of that price. So yeah, I think this is for tourists who have a lot of expendable income to drop and who are also benefiting from a really beneficial exchange rate right now.

[00:16:19] Everybody knows the yen is really cheap. So tourists come in thinking that the whole country is on sale, basically. And even if the prices are a little bit inflated, they don't really care because they're getting a big cut on the exchange rate. I will say that the junk that they had in their showcase was very fairly priced. I'm looking at some of the photos that I took. Junk Wonderswan, 2,000 yen. Junk DS Lite, 3,000. Junk PSP, 5,000. I think that's pretty much in line with every other store.

[00:16:49] So those prices were fine. If you're looking for something that maybe you can fix or if you don't mind some cosmetic damage or whatever. But the items that were warrantied and were tested and cleaned up definitely seem to have a premium attached to them. Yeah, I'm thinking what was the most expensive software I saw there. And behind the glass case, I saw a Serial Experience Lane game for PlayStation. And it's priced at 132,000 yen.

[00:17:19] So are you aware of this lane game and why it's expensive? Yeah, it's a rare game. It was based on an anime. For some reason, it was extremely popular in Russia. I don't know why, but all my Russian friends are crazy about it. And actually, it's good that you picked that one because that's a very good barometer of checking the prices. So the cheapest that I have seen that game recently was probably 80,000. Okay.

[00:17:45] And I would say average is maybe 100,000 to 120,000 is probably about average. 130 is a bit high. But yeah, that's a good one to pick as a barometer because it's easy to make a one-to-one comparison to other shops with. Yeah, I'm always curious about, oh, what is behind the glass? Because it could really be anything. Because they have like Dragon Quest 1 behind the glass as well. They have Predator for the Famicom with Arnold Schwarzenegger on the cover.

[00:18:13] Of course, they have Billy Hatcher for 5,500 yen, although you could argue it's priceless. So it's really funny to just see what is behind the glass. It's not always the rarest game ever. Sometimes it is just, oh, here's Biohazard 2 for the GameCube is here. Yeah. Some of the classics, they sold millions and millions of them. So I'm thinking about stuff like Super Mario Bros. 1, Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Quest 1. Oh, and of course, how can I forget the Pokemon games? Yeah.

[00:18:42] So what are your overall thoughts on Hard Off Shinjuku? Is it just another Hard Off? Is this the next step of Hard Off stores? Somewhere in the middle? Good? Bad? Or how do you feel? Like you said, it's really easy to stop there while you're maybe doing something else. If you're in the area and have some free time, really easy to stop in, look around. It probably won't be the shop that I, number one, want to revisit. But it's really easy to stop over when you're doing something else. Like you said, the Tsurugaya is also nearby.

[00:19:12] I'd probably prefer to go to the Tsurugaya if I had the choice. But yeah. And definitely easy to stop over while you're doing something. You don't have to travel too far. That's something that makes it different from other Hard Offs where you might have to travel a few hours out of your day just to get there. You mentioned earlier about the pop-up shop that they had in Shibuya earlier this year. So I think perhaps in the near future we will see a permanent store in Shibuya.

[00:19:41] They continue with this trend. They haven't announced such a store, but I wouldn't be surprised if one opened. Yeah. I think that they know that maybe tourists have limited time. People always ask me for my advice and I'm like, if you want to go to a really good Hard Off, you have to sort of leave Tokyo. But a lot of people don't have that kind of time built into their schedule. So perhaps for them, this is a happy medium. So I think maybe that's who they're trying to target with this. Yeah, I definitely agree.

[00:20:08] If they open up a Shibuya Hard Off, do you think it will be in Shibuya Parko? Could be. Yeah. I bet the Shibuya Parko, as your listeners might know, is a really popular shop for or popular building for all kinds of gaming-related stuff. The Nintendo store is there. The Capcom store is there. The new Sega store is there. I'm sure that the rent on that floor space is incredibly high. Yes. Can they make enough turnover to justify it? I don't know. That's the question, right? Yeah.

[00:20:38] For me, Hard Off Shinjuku is the closest Hard Off to my home. So I would definitely try to swing by when I can. And yeah, if you live in Japan, it is very important to know what is the closest Hard Off to your home. Everyone needs to know this. And at least for me, it kind of does feel like a big step up from the Ueno or Kijijoji Hard Off locations, which have smaller gaming sections. And to me, those feel even more tourist price than the Shinjuku one. But I think Hard Off Shinjuku, the prices are probably just only going to go up. Get in now while you can.

[00:21:05] But I agree with you on, from a tourist perspective, if you are in Shinjuku and you want to experience Hard Off, this is maybe your best chance. And I think out of the Tokyo Hard Offs, I would say this is maybe, at least for now, maybe the best one. Would you agree? Or do you have a preference for another Tokyo, maybe Nijusanku or Inside Tokyo Hard Off? The one I mentioned earlier, the Gakue Daigaku one in Meguro. It opened last year. It's a standalone store.

[00:21:33] It's small, but it's very organized. I would say go visit that one. Okay, nice. Yeah. All right, great. Yeah, it's really fun to see that, oh, the Tokyo Hard Offs are growing and they're actually pretty good or worth visiting. So it should be interesting to see, oh, a year from now or five years from now, will just every station on the Yamanote line have a Hard Off? Maybe that's the future. Right. So Hard Off Shinjuku, check it out. But first, you've got to check out what Alex is up to. So Alex, where can people find you?

[00:22:03] Sure. I am most active on Blue Sky. My username is Alex F Kraus, A-L-E-X-F-K-R-A-U-S. I am also on Twitter and I have some of my treasures are in a store on Etsy. So please come visit my Etsy store. Great. And the links to everything are in the podcast description. So listeners, check it out. Alex Kraus, once again, thank you so much for joining me. My pleasure. Hey, folks.

[00:22:31] Marty Estes here, one of the hosts of the Nintendo Dads podcast. Nintendo Dads is a weekly conversation about all things Nintendo with a dash of fatherhood sprinkled on top. We cover it all from news, rumors, and speculation, what we've been playing, and even a little bit of parenting issues. We love Nintendo and hope you do too. And if that sounds like you, we'd love to have you give us a chance each week.

[00:22:57] We record live on Thursday nights at 830 Central where you can watch along with us on Twitch, YouTube, X, TikTok, and Facebook. Or you can grab each episode in an audio version when it releases every Friday. And your podcast service of choice. Also, be sure to check us out at our website, nintendodads.org, for all the things I've mentioned, plus lots more content. Let's-a go!

[00:23:31] Yes, this is a rare episode where the game section has no Japanese games, but it does indeed have one that is heavily inspired by them. And by them, I mean the Game Boy Zelda titles. That's right. Yacht Club Games' Mina the Hollower. This dev is famous for, of course, Shovel Knight. Even if you haven't played that game, you've at least seen him. What video game character has the widest gap between played their game and seen the character? Maybe Lucas from Mother 3 is the winner, but Shovel Knight has got to be up there despite

[00:24:00] that game being very successful. Name a game Shovel Knight isn't in. That's right. You can't. I was kind of wondering, what else did Yacht Club Games make after Shovel Knight over 10 years ago? Did I Miss Something? And they did indeed develop some spinoffs, but Mina the Hollower is their big return to making a new retro-inspired action game. This game took a long time, but like with Silksaw, you can see the years of passion seeping from the game. It's a fantastic action-adventure game that uses its influences smartly while also doing

[00:24:29] something different, albeit with many moments of frustration. It is a fun time that will occasionally set your hairline back a bit. While Shovel Knight was heavily influenced by NES games like Mega Man, Mina the Hollower instead borrows liberally from Game Boy and specifically titles like Link's Awakening and the Oracle games. Now, the Game Boy Zeldas, I love them. Link's Awakening is still a top-tier Zelda and my favorite 2D Zelda by far. And the Oracle games are also extremely underrated, and I'd snatch up a remake whenever they get around to that.

[00:24:58] Not only are those games great, they have one of my favorite art styles ever in a game. The pixel art is so specific, so wonderful, so genius in how it uses its limitations to create something grand and imaginative. There's been a few games that kind of aped that GBC aesthetic, but Mina the Hollower is easily the best one in terms of capturing the visuals. And the hook of, hey, this looks like the Game Boy Zeldas. I mean, that alone is enough to put it on my radar. You don't even need gameplay. Just show me those sprites.

[00:25:26] And Yacht Club Games is very smart in that they perfectly balance the limitations of their graphical inspirations, but also focus on conveying how you remember it looking like. For example, Shovel Knight looks like an NES game, but obviously there was no way that could be done on the NES due to the color palette and other graphical feature limitations. But you feel like it could have been on the NES. And the same thing is happening here with Mina the Hollower, where you see it and think, this is a perfect rendition of a Game Boy Color title.

[00:25:56] But obviously, when you compare it or really dig into what the game is doing, it's far beyond the capabilities of everybody's favorite little kiwi green handheld. This can sometimes work against it, though, where visually it can be a bit too busy and overwhelming, especially in the main hub called OSX. And I'll just say it, way too many NPCs. In something like Zelda or Dark Souls, which is also a major inspiration for this game, every NPC matters. Not so much here, where so many just scurry past you or are there just to populate the

[00:26:25] screen. It does feel like they said, OK, guys, everyone designed one animal NPC and it will be put into the game no matter what. That's a minor nitpick. And I know there's too many creatively designed characters in the game is maybe objectively a poor criticism. But it does look like a dream Game Boy Color title. Yet despite being heavily Zelda coded in its aesthetics, it's not a Zelda clone. It's a gumbo of Castlevania, especially early on Zelda and Dark Souls.

[00:26:53] And despite this hodgepodge of different genres, it doesn't feel derivative, though, because it takes interesting elements from all those games and puts them together into something that is very cohesive. And the game does have a very unique X factor, the burrow technique, where you can go underground and then pop out. This is used both in combat and exploration, and it is definitely more fun than rolling around in a Souls game. The structure is very Zelda-like in that there are X amount of dungeons you need to clear. You've got a hub city and then you can branch out to any of the dungeons, although the game does guide you in a specific order.

[00:27:23] But you could do them out of order if you are that type of person. At your disposal is the burrow technique, which you mostly use for finding hidden areas or escaping during combat. And you also have a myriad of weapons to try out. I went with the dual blades at the start, and now that I'm nearing the end of the game, yeah, I'm sticky with the blades. There's also a Castlevania-style whip, a shield for parry freaks, and a Mega Man arm cannon. But the blades are just so fast, and as somebody who has poured hours and hours into the Game Boy Zelda games, this is my bread and butter.

[00:27:52] You also get some disposable sub-weapons, including the axe from Castlevania, but there are some wackier ones, like a chained ghost you can summon or portals you throw out and warp to. Though, ironically, the axe is maybe the best one. It has good range and does a lot of AoE damage, so maybe stick with the axe if you can. This is why I never do magic builds in Souls games, because steel beats books every time. You can also equip trinkets to Mina, which give her special abilities or resistances. At first you only get one, and I was thinking, well, am I just going to get comfortable with

[00:28:22] one and stick with that the whole game? But thankfully, your trinket slots do expand fairly quickly, and I currently have six equipped. And when you get that mini, you can do some really interesting builds that focus on traversal, survivability, or combat, or a mix of everything. Let me just tell you the best trinket. It's the Pit to Bounce. That pops you back up one time if you fall into a hole. Not only is this a lifesaver for platforming, but you can also use it to jump one square further.

[00:28:49] So you burrow and then jump out, which clears two squares, and then you intentionally fall in the third square, but it will bounce you back up and then you can land on square four. I honestly wonder if I would even get past the second dungeon if I did not have this trinket. It is that useful. And of course, second best trinket, the one that gives you the Zelda sword beam. I don't know if it's doing a whole lot of damage, but it is really useful. And yeah, you want the sword beam, don't you? The fact that they put in the Zelda sword beam. The game knows what people want, and I love that about it.

[00:29:19] These trinkets, though, they aren't quite Zelda items here in terms of how much of a game changer they can be, but they are pretty close. The Zelda items are very much centered around puzzles, which there aren't too many of in Mina. You're not pushing blocks or timing switch presses that much. Every puzzle can pretty much be solved with your default burrow ability. And oddly, this game is giving me more appreciation for Zelda puzzles because, man, those things are very hard to design, aren't they? There's a reason why we don't have many real deal Zelda clones, and that's because coming

[00:29:47] up with dozens of puzzles themed around interesting action mechanics is nigh impossible. So if the puzzles are limited, what are the dungeons? They are less like Zelda dungeons and more like linear challenge areas that focus more on combat and platforming. Many of them aren't in closed areas, but feel like extensions of the overworld. So you're not traversing a lot of floors or unlocking doors or things like that. But they do have a lot of secrets, like hidden boss fights and trinkets, and each one has a very unique gameplay mechanic it's based on.

[00:30:15] Even the first dungeon, which you would assume would just be the default tutorial dungeon, takes advantage of the statue head mechanic that never really appears again. I haven't done all the dungeons yet, but the ones that stick out to me are September, which is a spooky harvest themed area where everyone is scared about a serial killer who maybe you will see. And Astral Ori, which is a cosmic themed dungeon that has you flipping switch ins and traversing obstacles in completely new ways. That last one definitely feels more Zelda-y out of everything.

[00:30:41] And while I do think that I would prefer more of the puzzle focused Zelda dungeons, I do like that Yacht Club Games instead went with, listen, we can't out Zelda Zelda, so let's focus more on combat and platforming with a light sprinkle of puzzles centered around those elements. And yeah, you are definitely jumping over a lot of gaps. It is a borderline platformer at times. And the combo of burrowing, then busting out of the ground to get more air and momentum. It's fun every time. I've seen people complain that this top-down Zelda-style movement is not appropriate for

[00:31:11] platforming, but I was forged in the fire of Rock's feather. The platforming feels exactly how you would expect it to feel. That said, there are definitely some borderline cruel segments where you will be rolling your eyes in disgust as your little mouse falls into a pit. There's a section where you're being blown by the wind, lightning is striking, there's enemies, and there's gaps. In a Nintendo game, they would probably pick two of those and then build upon it, but in Mina, the developer definitely feels like they delight in putting the most obnoxious or unfair obstacle in front of you.

[00:31:41] Can we be a little less Dark Souls-pilled, please? The Estus Flass system is a good mechanic, you can steal that, but please leave everything else. But if the game does get too frustrating or annoying, which it will, there are plenty of modifiers you can flip on. These can make the game easier, harder, or just weirder. There's one that turns off the weather. You can even turn off the Bone Loss mechanic, which is similar to the Souls mechanic of losing all your souls if you die and fail a corpse run. The game lets you just turn that off.

[00:32:10] You can de-Soulsify the game. And listen, after about two dungeons, I did flip that thing off. What would I gain from having it on? How would that make me a better person? The game gave me two levers, one that said Zelda and one that said Dark Souls, and I pulled the Zelda lever. Though ironically, I do feel there is an inverted difficulty curve where it is very tough at the beginning, but gets much easier as it goes along because you get more health, more sparks that delay the Bone Loss, and even items that reduce damage.

[00:32:38] I haven't gotten to a Bone Loss death in the many hours I've had with that mechanic turned on. Also, I highly recommend turning on more underlamps, which is your healing base, and the underlamps before bosses to reduce runbacks. If you've got those three things on, it does feel like a more fair Zelda game than a Souls-like one. But hey, you can pick your poison. There's also a modifier that makes you weaker, so go with that if you are a crazy person. What else do I love about the game? I mean, it's just brimming with secrets.

[00:33:05] Even the hub area has so many things I had no idea existed until I had done most of the dungeons. And this isn't because, oh, you did a dungeon and now this is unlocked, but because I'm more familiar with the game mechanics or simply more observant. There are all these weird side missions and character interactions you can just stumble across. I found a fisherman and he got eaten by a huge fish. I fought a stinky guy. I've bumbled into so many weird houses and caves and hidden areas. You never know what kind of minigame or side quest you'll come upon, whether it's racing a ghost or riding a bike down a sewer, Battletoad style.

[00:33:35] Going back to what I said earlier, it does feel like they all got together and said, think of something cool and it will be in the game no matter what. I will say there is no real map though, so navigating it is a bit harder than it needs to be. And you unlock fast travel way later than I would have liked. And even then, it's not that fast. The game has more friction than I'd like, albeit it's not insurmountable. Yet, this makes me a bit more hesitant to say, if you love the Game Boy Zeldas, you will love this game because it's clearly more frustrating and difficult than the Game Boy Zeldas ever were.

[00:34:04] But it does capture the visuals and the detailed exploration of those games in a way many doppelgangers don't. And yes, don't be afraid to turn on those modifiers. I mean, it's your game. If you think flipping on the double bones modifier will make the game more fun, then by all means, please do so. So Mina the Hollower is just a wonderful action adventure game made with a lot of love. And it looks awesome. If it were just a wee bit more Zelda-y as opposed to Souls-y and sanded off a bit more of the

[00:34:32] frustrating or obtuse elements, it would be near perfect. But as it stands now, it's at least very, very good. That's all for the games, so let's check out the news. An infinite amount of games were announced. I can't possibly list them all here, but at the very least, we gotta start with the Nintendo Direct. The first General Direct in nine months. If you got pregnant during the September Direct, that baby is out now.

[00:35:01] Now, what was the biggest announcement? I mean, if I had to pick the thing I want to play the most, it is probably the Pocopia DLC, but let's just say the Ocarina of Time remake, of which we saw two seconds of. Despite it not being highlighted too much, there is indeed a lot to talk about. Voice acting was possibly teased, and we saw young Link sleeping, which revealed a more, I suppose, realistic art style, but it is still heavily stylized and very much inspired by the original Ocarina of Time art.

[00:35:29] I mean, knee-jerk reaction is that it does kind of look like those Unreal Engine upgrades of Ocarina of Time. The art style is intact, but it has more realistic lighting and textures. And this is kind of more in line with my expectations. I didn't think they would just shove it in the Breath of the Wild engine or mix it up too much. It will look like that 90s Zelda art style, but at a much higher resolution with richer details. You will know it's Ocarina of Time just by looking at it. And there's a lot of fun things to spot, like Link's outfit looks like it has the Kulkiri symbol from Breath of the Wild on it.

[00:35:59] However, that symbol is inspired by the Kulkiri Emerald from Ocarina of Time. So Ocarina of Time inspired Breath of the Wild, which is now inspiring the Ocarina of Time remake. Listen, time shenanigans in Zelda are very commonplace. And if you are eagle-eyed, you also get a peek at his hat, which might have a few decorations on it. And his tunic in general kind of looks like it's woven with grass. So a lot of really interesting and new details. So in terms of visuals, we know that it won't be one-to-one, which is a good sign. They were mixing it up a bit more than I expected.

[00:36:29] I do wonder if this would just be like Star Fox, though, which takes a bold swing in terms of story and visual design, but the gameplay is the same. 2026 date, and it's obvious that this will either have its own direct or will be heavily featured in the September direct. Yes, we are already talking about another direct seconds after this one ended. I do think the Zelda 40th anniversary campaign is coming with this game, the movie, and maybe one more side project. But I do think this was maybe too much of a tease, though.

[00:36:56] Even with the Tears of the Kingdom teaser that came out four years before the game did, that had way more meat on that bone. But this teaser did give me a little bit of confidence in that Nintendo is at least doing something different and interesting with this game. Albeit right now, we only know that it's surface level. So stay tuned for the September direct. And I was not really excited about a second Ocarina of Time remake, despite the original being one of my favorite games of all time. But man, I did get chills when the trailer started. That's how they get you.

[00:37:25] And let's go back to the real MVP. Pocopia is getting an expansion pass. First of all, you can now dive and build underwater for free, which is fantastic. Go ahead and build Poke Atlantis. The paid expansion has three waves, including two new towns and more features. The first one is Bubbly Basin, which is an underwater region, and that's coming in August. Great. That's all you needed to say. I did expect more of an icy locale, though, or maybe even Lavender Town. So this was a big surprise and quite different from the game's normal Kanto inspiration.

[00:37:56] Now, will anything dethrone Pocopia for Game of the Year with me? It's not looking likely, but hey, other games, take your shot. Though a real contender could be Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, which is a direct follow-up to Three Houses, which was my 2019 Game of the Year. It's hitting Switch 2 on September 17th. That's a crowded month, but man, I might just be playing Fire Emblem. Hardcore fans have poked and prodded at every single frame in the trailer, but what sticks out to me is that they totally revamped the exploration and the between battle segments.

[00:38:26] In Three Houses, you were in a school, and then you could use action points however you pleased to recruit new members and increase your stats. And then when you ran out of action points, the next real-deal story battle starts. Here it looks like you have a set amount of turns that you can use up before the next big story or side battle. We also see some Shadows of Valencia-style dungeon crawling, so I do think this game is going to have a much larger emphasis on exploring the world than in previous Fire Emblem games. And the eternal struggle of strategy RPGs is, what do you do between battles?

[00:38:55] A big story mission could be 40 minutes to an hour, and people don't want to just jump right into another one. They need some time to decompress. Three Houses pulled this off masterfully, engaged less so, but now it does look like they are either greatly expanding the in-between stuff or making it less segmented between you have rest time and now you have fight time. And instead, the main story missions are more integrated into this new style of field exploration. So lore stuff. You definitely see the characters use crests from Three Houses, and the calendar has some

[00:39:25] speculating that this might be a sequel as opposed to a prequel, which was a major topic of discussion during the first trailer. Three Houses was the only Fire Emblem game where I actually cared about the lore of the world, so returning to that does have me excited. It takes place in Dagda, which is right under Fodlan, and it's also where Shamir is from, so I'm interested in seeing why they move the setting. Also, we have confirmation that there are likely four routes, and the avatar system returns, and this time you're an angel or something? You look weird, okay?

[00:39:54] Now, who will I pick? Knee-jerk reaction? I love Lita, the dancer. I mean, she wants revenge. That seems like a good enough reason to conquer the continent. But it's going to turn out that Kai, the least picked character, will actually have the best stats and story. I'm calling that now. October 22nd, we're seeing Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, the follow-up to 2022's Switch game. I saw many scoff at this announcement, but Switch Sports sold 18 million copies. This is secretly Nintendo's biggest holiday title. Not Ocarina of Time, it's this.

[00:40:24] It's not going to sell 10 million in its first quarter or anything like that, but don't be surprised in five years if this is secretly one of the best-selling Switch 2 games. Woohoo Island is back, as are many returning games, and some new ones like thumb wrestling, skateboarding, mini wave race, and prop plane. But, I mean, the best sport is bowling. Everything else is just a bonus. I was a big fan of the Switch version. This is more of that, so let's run it back. I am a little disappointed that there's no Chambara or soccer, but maybe those would be added later.

[00:40:54] And clearly, there's no baseball, because some team is hard at work on Mario Baseball, which I'm sure will come out next spring. You've got to believe. Another big announcement was Xenoblade Mega Drive. I'm sorry, Xenoblade Genesis, the newest title in that series. But it does seem like more of a hard cut from the previous games, featuring more of a fantasy aesthetic. It kind of looks like a mix of The Three Houses School System and Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's got to be the pink hair. I've only played X out of all the Xenoblades, and I did really enjoy that game, but it's

[00:41:23] one of those franchises where I played one, liked it, but I thought, yeah, I get it and I'm done. Persona and Metroid Prime also kind of fall into this camp for me. But this does seem like a good way to get into the series as opposed to Xenoblade 4. It's coming out next year. But this year, all three Xenoblade games are getting Switch 2 editions. And we didn't see any other Switch 2 editions for first-party games, so I wonder if that well is drying up. It is rumored that my beloved Pikmin 4 is getting a Switch 2 edition, but we didn't see that here.

[00:41:52] So if we are getting that, maybe it's more slight than something with a big DLC pack. Let's get some ports out of the way. Stellar Blade, Dragon's Dogma, Devil May Cry 5, Lies of P. Those are all coming. But the most important port and or remaster is Muramasa Revenant Blades. This is easily one of my most wanted ports of the Switch era. Yeah, something like Mother 3 or a Xenogears remake, that would be neat. But in terms of why on earth hasn't this happened yet, Muramasa is at the top.

[00:42:21] If you don't know, this is an action RPG from Vanillaware, originally released on the Wii and had an enhanced edition on the Vita. And only on the Vita. So for many years, it was trapped in the Vita Crystal Prison. But finally, it's back in 4K and maybe with some new content and features. But we at least know that we have all the Vita campaigns. 2027, but this is a must-buy for me unless they somehow horribly mess it up. Okay, let me just look at the list of what was announced in Go and Order. Onimusha Way of the Sword, finally announced for Switch 2.

[00:42:51] I played the demo at TGS last year and I have high hopes for this game. If you are a parry freak, like every other button is a type of parry, so check out this game. Big Walk is a big get. That game is definitely going to make some waves on Switch 2. Kairosoft, funnily enough, got a big spotlight with One Piece Grand Gourmet. I don't know if they've done a lot of IP work before, but this is the perfect transition for the company since they have their core game so refined. So just slap on somebody from Shonen Jump into the game and get some sales.

[00:43:18] That's exactly what Pongkull is doing as they are releasing a Jujutsu Kaisen Vampire Survivors clone. DK Challenge? We sort of have retro achievements on NSO now. You do some Donkey Kong related challenges across a series of games and get some collectible cards. A very cool idea, but I don't know if I like this staggered drip feed. The first three months are DK, then they will swap it to something else. Why not just make it permanent and then just keep adding more and more challenges? I don't like the feeling of I need to be rushed to play through some challenges in

[00:43:47] Donkey Kong 3 for example. But I do like that Nintendo is dipping their toes into this pool with adding even more interesting and unique features to NSO. Star Fox popped by and there is a demo, but honestly, I might just hold off until the full game, which hits in just two weeks. Final Fantasy Resonance, a HD 2D Final Fantasy game. What a surprise. This is incredibly exciting, but I did learn that this is sort of a revamped version of the mobile game called Brave Exvius. So somewhat similar to what Square did with Octopath Traveler Zero.

[00:44:17] This makes me a little less excited than a from the ground up brand new Final Fantasy game. But hey, it could still be good. The problem with those gacha games isn't necessarily the gameplay. It's the monetization scheme. So if they just lift the story from the mobile game and insert it into a compelling JRPG, it might be worth checking out. Pikuniku 2, this game looks really fun. Should I check out Pikuniku 1? Am I dumb for skipping this franchise? Maybe. And we also saw Dragon Quest Monsters The Withered World, which is coming this December.

[00:44:44] So if you want to play a JRPG, you will have plenty of options this holiday. The Duskbloods. This is one of my most anticipated games in the Direct. And we got about two seconds and news that there will be a closed beta test. From says that it's still coming in 2026, but they do like to delay their games. You would think since this is being published by Nintendo, they can kind of wrangle from in. So I do think this will hit this year. I can see a test next month, then maybe a Duskbloods Direct in August or September,

[00:45:14] and then it releases, say, around Halloween. After that was Splatoon Raiders, which again, I love Splatoon. I will be picking up this game, but it does still feel like a single player salmon run. I'm curious if the exploration or traversal is really what sets this game apart. But fortunately, on June 30th, there will be a Splatoon Raiders Direct. So maybe we will finally see what trick it has up its sleeve. Dr. Rune Chapter 5, I promise to play it all when it's finished. Metaphor is finally coming. So again, JRPG fans are feasting.

[00:45:43] We got a Scissorill and hey, a new Atelier game, Atelier Caria, got revealed. It is sad to see Atelier reduced to Scissorill. Ryza would not have let this happen. We also got Kingdom Hearts 1 through 3 and more shockingly, Kingdom Hearts 4 returns and will come to switch to Day 1. It really is getting to the point where if a Japanese third-party publisher is releasing a game that's not Day 1 on Switch 2, what are you doing? I'm looking at you, Atlas. But I thought it was a fantastic Nintendo Direct.

[00:46:12] Very much up my alley despite having zero Mario or Kirby games. I mean, let's look at the calendar for the rest of the year. Star Fox this month. Then Splatoon Raiders in July. August is Pocopia DLC and maybe we will see some Switch 2 editions that we don't know about yet, like Pikmin 4. September is Fire Emblem. Oh, and Orbitals, which is not a first-party game, but it is a Switch 2 exclusive. And Nintendo is pushing it quite hard. October is Switch Sports Resort and maybe Duskbloods. November has got to be Ocarina of Time.

[00:46:42] And December is maybe something we will see in a fall direct. That's a pretty good lineup with a lot of diversity. And that's just a first-party lineup. You've got your casual games. You've got your hardcore games. You've got remakes, spinoffs, so forth and so on. Plus a flurry of other third-party games. Onimushi is coming day one. That's a AAA game from a major third-party publisher. Day one on Nintendo hardware. We used to not get a lot of those. And I mean, Modern Warfare 4 is also coming, if that's your thing.

[00:47:09] And oh yeah, in the other shows, there were quite a lot of other third-party announcements for Switch 2. The big one has to be Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is coming day one on Switch 2 next spring. So you've got about nine months to cram in the first two games. But hey, Final Fantasy 7, day one on a Nintendo platform. It happened. It took 30 years, but it happened. And no, the Crysis Core remaster does not count because that is a remaster. Resident Evil Veronica is also hitting Switch 2. Again, Capcom is unmatched when it comes to third-party support.

[00:47:40] Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis. Rayman Origins Retold. Elden Ring is finally coming soon. Wolong 1 and 2 are hitting Switch 2. Bloober Team is making a Star Trek horror game. A new Spyro. A new Alien Isolation. A new Crazy Taxi. That kind of looks bad, but hey, it's still coming. Monster Hunter Wilds. Kronos 2. Yooka-Lay-Lay-Kart. Mighty Cuphead Adventure. Godzilla Destroy All Monsters. Castlevania. Barbie Collection. Need I Go On?

[00:48:07] Also, like every game in the Wholesome Games Direct is probably going to come to Switch 2 one day. I've definitely seen some people very disappointed by this Direct, and I guess I can kind of understand that if you have zero intention of playing Fire Emblem or returning to Woohoo Island. But for me, there's a lot of first-party stuff that has me excited, a lot of third-party stuff, and next year, that feels like the real pop-off year with Pokemon and maybe some Nintendo franchises we haven't heard from yet, like Smash or a new Mario platformer.

[00:48:34] I think those could easily appear in 2027. But the next six months alone seems incredibly packed. I think a lot of people forget that there are other games outside of the Direct that are also coming to Switch 2, and you are allowed to play them. Now, will we get a fall Direct? I think extremely likely. I do believe Nintendo is going to do a Zelda 40th anniversary marketing campaign that highlights the movie, Ocarina of Time, and maybe some other small Zelda game project. And hopefully a Zelda flavor at Baskin-Robbins in Japan.

[00:49:05] Plus, we got to see more from Duskbloods, and while we know about some 2027 games, we don't have any dates just yet. So Nintendo hasn't revealed all their 2026 cards. So if you're feeling a little down on the Direct, there's more coming, trust me. But for me, the Direct was absolutely a home run. All right, is there any Tokyo news? Square Enix Cafe and Shop just opened up, so I will be checking that out pretty soon. And the Death Stranding and Shibuya Parko collab has now started and runs until August 30th.

[00:49:33] Also, I'm recording this so I don't forget, buy tickets for Dragon Quest Dive, the big Dragon Quest exhibit, which starts in July. In fact, let me in the podcast right now so I can get tickets. Thanks, as always, for listening. Be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast on your favorite app. Leave a five-star review as well, it really helps. This podcast is also available on YouTube, so I'll like and subscribe to you there as well. I'm on Blue Sky, Threads, Twitter, Instagram, just search for Tokyo Game Life or find the links in the podcast description. If you like the podcast, be sure to share it with your friends and on social media.

[00:50:03] The next episode will be June 28th. See you next time. Matane!