The Black Knight Finally Gets His Own Spirit Event

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - As himself, not as a Mii Swordfighter.

Over the weekend (and for some residual days after, including today), the Square Enix Japanese RPG Octopath Traveler is celebrating its Nintendo Switch two-year anniversary with a Spirit Event in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with four spirits based off its eight main characters.

Starting from the top left and then clockwise...
Olberic & Primrose as the Black Knight and red Bayonetta.
H'aanit & Ophilia as blonde Pit and Palutena. (They also have a small pet Wolf, not shown.)
Alfyn & Therion as black-coat Dr. Mario and black outfit Sheik.
Tressa & Cyrus as pink Villager girl and Robin.

Why am I bothering to write about a game I've never played (despite the free and extensive demo featuring Olberic and Primrose) getting new spirits in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate? Because something very special happened: The Black Knight, previously recognised on KoopaTV (with a whole memorial article) as “an absolutely amazing soldier”, finally gets his time to shine in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Note that he appears in the artwork above!

Ace Attorney's Takeshi Yamazaki Leaves CAPCOM... But That Doesn't Mean Ace Attorney is Dead!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Evidence and logic suggest the series has no reason to disappear.

Boy, do I hope this article does not age poorly.

CAPCOM's director for the DS-era and 3DS-era Ace Attorney games (think the two Ace Attorney Investigations games as well as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney–Dual Destinies and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney–Spirit of Justice), Takeshi Yamazaki, is retiring after 15 years on the job. He's not leaving the industry, but he does want to do some other things besides work at CAPCOM. Pretty much his whole résumé, according to Giant Bomb, is around the Ace Attorney series.

Popular coverage and speculation are saying things like, “Takeshi Yamazaki has left! Ace Attorney is cancelled!”

A few reminders. One, Yamazaki has been employed at CAPCOM all of this time since the release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney–Spirit of Justice back in 2016. CAPCOM, if they ever intended to continue the Ace Attorney series (and they've provided indications that they do), probably has the whole “Ace Attorney 7” already written and well into production. If that is the case, then “Ace Attorney 7” should be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show 2020 ONLINE (thanks, CCP Virus) at the end of September 2020. Takeshi Yamazaki has had to be working on SOMETHING for the past several years, right? Or else he would've left some time ago.

Two, Yamazaki is far from the only guy writing stuff. Sure, he's the director, but unlike previous director Shu Takumi who wrote the first four games basically by himself, Yamazaki had staff and a lot of help (both in and out of CAPCOM). See a list here. For example, Masakazu Eguchi was the main guy who worked on Turnabout Storyteller in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney–Spirit of Justice.

This is the note we found when trying to get further answers about the future of the Ace Attorney franchise.
I guess we'll have to come back on this topic in two and a half months.

Let me know in the comments section if you've found any contradictions in my logic. The Ace Attorney series will live on. It isn't tied to one man. If you need proof of that within CAPCOM, see Takeshi Yamazaki being Ace Attorney director to begin with after Shu Takumi, and see the existence of Mega Man 11 after that imbecile Keiji Inafune left. (Thank you, Koji Oda.)


It's sort of nice to write something about Ace Attorney besides advertising that CAPCOM has once again put the series on sale. ...By the way, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is on sale for the next 7 days on the Xbox One at 50% off. That's three great games for $15! While Takeshi Yamazaki didn't direct those (Shu Takumi did), he does still have credits “planning” their DS incarnations.


It turns out that there was no Ace Attorney announcement at the Tokyo Game Show 2020.
Though CAPCOM did randomly—not at an event or anything—announce that The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles would be a thing.
If you look at the timeline for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, it's clear that CAPCOM was working on it while this very article was being written in 2020.

KoopaTV's Live Reactions to Nintendo Treehouse: Live | July 2020

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Are they acting like they normally do this?

We haven't seen a Nintendo Treehouse: Live since E3 2019, and that one was an error. With E3 2020 cancelled and us getting a FakE3 2020 instead (but with no Nintendo presence), I suppose this event is the closest we're gonna get.

Nintendo of America is going to show us some gameplay of Paper Mario: The Origami King, as well as “a first reveal and gameplay for a title in a franchise new to developer WayForward”, which doesn't appear to have anything to do with the main event. (Spoilers: It's called Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia.)

By the way, I'm the main KoopaTV staffer here reacting, because I'm kind of the only one looking forward to Paper Mario: The Origami King. Hmph. Few others wanted to show up. Check out the replay below and follow along with our log:

What's the deal with Deadly Premonition? 2 Is Out

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Explain it to me like I'm fiv-... like I'm 17+. ESRB, you know.

On July 10, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise releases exclusively on Nintendo Switch, priced at $50. It's a sequel (and prequel) to the 2010 cult classic Deadly Premonition, which got a $30 re-release on the Nintendo Switch last year. Who is in the cult? Well, there's former KoopaTV staffer RawkHawk2010. That's sorta all I know.

My impression is that the Deadly Premonition games have poorly-executed gameplay, lopsided production values (there's voice-acting but not much effort put into...other aspects of the game, such as graphics and technical performance), and bizarre plots and cutscenes, featuring a dude named FBI Special Agent Francis York Morgan. I wonder if that makes it like a combination of the Ace Attorney series (my favourite ever) and the No More Heroes series (which I also like). Though if I like them individually... that doesn't necessarily mean I'd like them together.

I also read that it's an open-world survival horror game, which I believe, since this dog terrifies me.
(I don't like open worlds or surviving horror, so...)

I don't know if this whole thing is some kind of inside joke/meme and I'm just not in it, or people genuinely enjoy their Deadly Premonition experiences. Like, there is part of the former with No More Heroes since a lot of it exists to satire other games and media. They both share being the result of the eccentricities of their oddball Japanese developers—Swery65 for Deadly Premonition and Suda51 for No More Heroes.

(Though since I mentioned it, Ace Attorney is fantastic and you can like it in an entirely legitimate manner on its own merits.)

But even my liking of No More Heroes has limits, given my disgust with Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes.

Is Deadly Premonition worth looking into as a series? Convince me one way or the other.


Ludwig has never watched Twin Peaks, so comparing Deadly Premonition to it doesn't help Ludwig's understanding of it at all. He's looking for your comments.

Donkey Kong Country for Nintendo Switch Online... isn't enough...

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Remember when you were happy with what you had?

I wasn't going to write an article about this—and if I was, I was going to wait until next week—but Nintendo put out a whole press release and everything today so I suppose I'm obligated to cover it. Starting next week, you'll be able to play Donkey Kong Country with your Nintendo Switch Online subscription, on top of Natsume Championship Wrestling and The Immortal. As you may expect, Nintendo's focus is on Donkey Kong Country.

My first reaction to hearing about this? “Alright now everyone can move on to begging for EarthBound, I guess.” ‘cause that's what everyone does on all of Nintendo's videos in the comments section. Take a look at this screenshot of the top comments from February 2020's update:

Nintendo Question & Answers: 80th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Didn't they just ask these questions?

Back in May 2020, for Nintendo's annual report, president Shuntaro Furukawa answered several questions from investors and shareholders about the state of the business, mostly about COVID-19 and its implications.

Then a few days ago (around June 26, 2020), Nintendo held THE 80TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS. They took more questions and delivered more answers, many of which continue to be about COVID-19 and its implications, or about mundane things that you should already know about if you're investing in Nintendo. Like, if those guys read KoopaTV (and knew English), they wouldn't waste time asking these. 

Here were the 11 questions, of which few are worth me commenting on.

1. Since it currently costs nearly 5 million yen to purchase one minimum trading unit of Nintendo's stock, making it difficult to invest, we would like you to consider splitting your stock. In addition, what is your stance on the fact that Nintendo is not yet included in the Nikkei225 Index?
2. Nintendo Switch is in short supply due to the huge success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I feel that Nintendo was not able to support this sudden increase in demand, which led to a major opportunity loss. Please tell us about your future plans for handling the production system, sales methods, and predictions for demand.
   

Fortnite's Black Lives Matter Event Experiment

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - They were doing it for clout, but it's also an interesting social experiment.

Did you have a nice Independence Day? Here at KoopaTV, we wanted to focus our independence energies towards Hong Kong. Epic Games, the developer of the uber-popular Fortnite, put their just-as-valid independence energies towards a We The People event in Fortnite's Party Royale mode, hosted by CNN FAKE NEWS contributor Van Jones, along with Jemele Hill, Elaine Welteroth, Killer Mike, and Lil Baby. They wanted to talk about systemic racism in media, culture, and entertainment, and unfortunately, Fortnite is a big player in all of those.

Just for a little background, Party Royale is a pretty new Fortnite mode that's being used to feature live shows/broadcast content, such as concerts and movie showings. Players get to sit back and watch, stripped of distractions like weapons and goals. Creative people have a big interest in wanting to showcase their work in front of the massive audience that Fortnite can bring. Previous showcased things include deadmau5, Diplo, Inception, and Batman Begins.

Videogame academics and researchers interested in games as social spaces will be very interested in how the Party Royale develops, if it continues to. It's definitely still an experiment, and I'd consider this specific We The People event to be... a failed experiment. You can watch the whole thing for yourself here if you want—I did to prepare for this article—but you can also skip it and just keep reading my thoughts and a complication the event faced. Warning: Contains some really awful (but safe-for-work) rap music:

KoopaTV Advocates for Hong Kong Independence (香港独立)

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - KoopaTV supports 香港独立!

You are supposed to pronounce the Chinese letters as “Xiānggǎng dúlì.” It means Hong Kong Independence. How did “Xiānggǎng” get romanticised to Hong Kong, I dunno, but what I do know is that the Chinese Communist Party is severely mistreating the Hong Kong region and the millions of people that live and work there. The only way to resolve this is for Hong Kong to have independence.

To be clear, when we covered the Hong Kong Liberation controversy back in October with Activision-Blizzard and Hearthstone (and the broader reasons why Hong Kongers wanted liberation and what that meant), there were tons of protests over an awful extradition treaty that'd violate Hong Kong's autonomy. It wasn't for people wanting Hong Kong to actually be an independent country.

Then the Chinese Communist Party Virus was inflicted upon the world, including Hong Kong, and the protests were stopped. During that time, China was plotting measures that would further deteriorate Hong Kong's autonomy, to the point that now United States policy is to no longer consider Hong Kong and China separate entities. Those measures include banning treason and subversion, which is code-word for “you will be arrested for protesting.” And many examples of arrests and police brutality have taken place over there.

Tencent and Nintendo Announce a New Pokémon Game

By OLI KANG - Finally, a MOBA for Pokémon fans!

Tencent, a multi-billion dollar Chinese conglomerate, has been partnering with successful gaming companies for years and is now planning a move with Nintendo. Tencent entered the console gaming sector by collaborating with PlatinumGames and Marvelous. This turned out to be a wise strategy as it helped Tencent create games based on popular game franchises.

On June 24th, 2020, Nintendo announced that it would partner with Tencent Holdings to create a new Pokémon game. The partnership is Tencent Holdings' latest attempt to enter the console market and consolidate its partnerships with Japanese firms. This new Pokémon game is a real-time, 5-on-5 multiplayer game (or MOBA to be exact) called Pokémon UNITE.

Photo by Jay on Unsplash

Pokémon UNITE Features

For the most part, Pokémon UNITE looks a lot like Tencent's other well-designed multiplayer games, especially League of Legends. The new game will have a familiar screen arrangement and will feature popular Pokémon characters. Pokémon UNITE will allow mobile and Nintendo Switch players to work with teammates to take down their opponents.

KoopaTV's June 2020 Review Newsletter

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring progress!

In normal times, the KoopaTV June 2020 newsletter would be reviewing the month of June with a heavy focus on the events of that year's Electronic Entertainments Expo (E3). Unfortunately, there was no such conference this year—not a legitimate central one—so June was more like any other month of the year.

That said, in terms of KoopaTV, that still makes for an excellent experience, so let's talk about it. There's a brand-new opportunity starting today, as well.

KoopaTV's Top Five Recommended Experiences of June 2020

Core to KoopaTV is our published content that you get to interact with (and get rewarded for). Every month, we highlight the top five. That said, there are other pieces of content—they are all works of art, really—that doesn't get to be in the top five, and they're still absolutely things you should check out.

1. Not All Cops Are Bad. This One Stomped on Mario! — It's super-important to note the relationship between us Koopas and your Earth cops. It's bad. We therefore generally support measures to take the police down at least one notch... but this one guy on footage did a good thing. We think it's worth checking out.
2. A Closer Look at Paper Mario: The Origami King — We learned a lot more in June about the battle system and characters in Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Ludwig has some thoughts and analysis on it.
3. What or Who is a BOOMER BILL? — A KoopaTV exclusive investigation into what or who a Boomer Bill is, after the rest of the Internet is confused by the LEGO-Nintendo partnership.
4. Pokémon Smile's “Let the camera see your face!” Made Me Pokémon Frown — Ludwig initially complained that Pokémon Smile doesn't even work and the camera feature is a fail, but it got updated, so now read his thoughts on it as an experience! (Further elaborated on later in this newsletter in the next section after the page break.)
5. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate June 2020 Fighter Usage Stats: Last Before the Min Min Era! — As Super Smash Bros. Ultimate enters a new day in its metagame, Ludwig caps off version 7.0.0 with the final usage stats, as well as a data-driven rant about Nintendo's foolish politically correct (and detrimental) decisions around delaying their own tournament out of respect for Black Lives Matter.