Various Games I'm Looking Forward to in 2026 And Beyond
Unexhaustive list of upcoming games I wanna play
Asalam akeikoum how's it going. Nintendo announced a Nintendo Direct happening on June 9 at 2300 JST. I quickly made up a realistic, professional prediction list of games I'm into that could get news there.
Fire Emblem Banshisenkou
I really like Fire Emblem Fuukasetsugetsu because it finally tried to do something different in its character writing and gameplay. However, it became mainstream, so now the next game ironically seems to be more of the same instead of taking risks once again. Maybe I'll be proven wrong with the new details in this ND. But for now I'm not very interested in it, except for its variety of black characters and seeing Sothis again.
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
Kinoblade 4
Dunno when it'll get revealed but really looking forward to Monolith Soft' next game. Xenoblade has the best cutscenes in games nowadays imo be it in terms of coolness, direction, camerawork, how it's not confusing what's happening, etc. They're my favorite together with the best attack animations in Super Robot Wars, especially OGMD, if you cound them as cutscenes. And it's a Nintendo game and Nintendo is the sole company that likes money enough and is thinking ahead enough to realize that not being racist is the future, so Kinoblade4 is bound to have even more cool and cute and moe black characters than in 3.
Super Robot Wars
New SRW announcements have been via ND for several years now. But it's way too soon to announce the next game, judging from TomaP's past comments, or how the series is clearly not going back to yearly releases. However, Bandai Namco Forges could reveal the next OG game? The SRW Y Expansion Pack definitely has a second part too, maybe it could get announced here.
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
Gust
I'm scared Atelier is going to be more and more like a mainstream RPG series, similarly to Tales of ARISE. Judging from this Automaton interview, the developers are aware of this issue, with how a lot of older Atelier fans thought that Atelier Yumia wasn't Atelier enough. But I think Gust are having a huge misunderstanding by believing that only old JP fans love the Atelierness of Atelier.
But well, if they want to satisfy shareholders, dumbass higher-ups will probably tell them to keep going mainstreamer and mainstreamer.
There's also how this contributes to more and more joseimuke erasure. That's why nowadays I always make a point to say "shonen jump anime is mainstream now" instead of "anime is mainstream now". No one cares about Pretty Series or Aikatsu.
I'm also still waiting for Yoru no Nai Kuni 3.
https://ko-fi.com/post/Atelier-Yumia-Nov-16-2024-live-stream-TL-summary-E1E3166G8U
https://ko-fi.com/post/Games-I-Like-On-Sale-F1F31R6QB8
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
FullMetalFukumi
Tales of series and ARISE series
Speaking of Tales of ARISE, I thought the second game in the ARISE series would get announced at Keira Knightley's brother's first birthday party of the year. But it wasn't. So maybe it'll be at this ND? Maybe another remaster will get announced there.
Man it's so sad Bamco don't wanna do Tales of remakes,. Imagine if they hired Gemdrops to do a new Phantasia remake the same way they did with Star Ocean 2.
FullMetalFukumi
Rune Factory and Bokujou Monogatari
Marvelous could fully reveal Rune Factory 6, the brand new Bokujou Monogatari game, and the multiplayer Bokujou Monogatari. These were all announced in the Marvelous May 2023 showcase alongside Ryuu no Kuni Rune Factory/Gaurdians of Azuma.
FullMetalFukumi
Sega
Sakura Taisen remasters will definitely happen at some point but I just hope they don't mess it up with LLM upscaling or LLM translations or something. I'm still hoping for Shin Sakura Taisen to get ported to Switch 2 and PC and get full voicing. And I'm still hoping for a sequel and a Sakura Kakumei Zero or something.
I had some high enthusiasm since the Sakura Taisen 30th anniversary teaasers early this year. But now I'm not as hyped anymore about the "Crazy Taxi is back and we used LLMs to make references so we could make the backgrounds but everything in game was made by humans so it's ok" announcement.
At least I'm happy Shin Sakura Taisen is getting a sequel as a stage play. Will definitely watch it insha Allah when it's out on DVD.
FullMetalFukumi
Kyle Hilliard
Skeith Ruch
Nasuverse
Maybe some new trailer for Fate/Extra Record to announce a release date and the new publisher, if they found one?
FullMetalFukumi
Dolls Nest
Would be nice if the game got ported to Switch 2. There's still no news regarding the PvP mode too, so maybe they could release it alongside a port.
https://ko-fi.com/post/Dolls-Nest-Short-Early-Impressions-J3J61E580Z
SaGa
Romancing SaGa 3 remake will definitely happen at some point. Hopefully before it happens, there's enough people at Square Enix who know it's possible to be Black and from West Asia (or anywhere else) so they actually make Khalid black. FF16 could never.
They could also announce SaGa Sapphire Deep or whatever the next game will be called. I still haven't played most of the games in the series though, so I'm not in a hurry for a new game.
Zelda
I really like BOTW and TOTK. After two open world games I hope they do something a bit different though.
I couldn't care less about remakes that "upgrade" the graphics so if there's an OOT remake and it's the exact same game with "better" graphics I'll just stick to the original. Would be awesome if they copied what fans are doing with randomizer and made an official one too.
I feel like compared to other Nintendo series, Zelda is the one series they don't do 1:1 coypaste remakes that much(Zelda DX aside), and they tend to do brand new game with similar vibes instead. So if there's a new OOT game, it won't be an OOT remake but rather Toki no Ocarina 2 just like Kamigami no Triforce 2. You could say "Majora's Mask is Ocarina of Time 2! it'll mess up the timeline!!" but the truth is no one at Nintendo cares about the "timeline", only USAjin do. The devs are just gonna keep making stuff up with each game.
But I can't get too hype either because sadly Nintendo is too coward to put real galge elements in and make it so you can simultaneously date Darunia Impa Saria Ruto Malon Nabooru Zelda.
Heaven Burns Red
Ever since Another Eden Begins got announced, I convinced myself there's gonna be a Heaven Burns Red console game too at some point since it's also published by Wright Flyers Studios/GREE.
There's also how Heaven Burns Red co-publisher Key/Visual Art is wholly owned by Tencent now, so they have the money. But then again, Tencent higher-ups, like any other higher-ups, are money worshipers who'd rather fund Daouda Hokage of Dallas Become Homo Sapiens fame than original Japanese games, so maybe I'm delusional.
As a reminder, Heaven Burns Red is one of my favorite games nowadays and the sole sociage I'd recommend playing. I'm doing a Japanese let's play of the game, and translating the news live streams every two weeks on Twitter 2. I then convert the live translation threads into articles here.
Heaven Burns Red Chapter 5 Arc 2 Spoilers
FullMetalFukumi
That's all I have in mind I think? Thanks for reading. If you liked this article, subscribe to the newsletter to get future articles in your inbox. Subscribe to the YouTube. You can also get a paid subscription on Ko-fi to read exclusive articles and bring me one step closer to making "woke political games journalist otaku" my main job.
