they still merchandise the hell out of it, ofc, but they're between a rock and a hard place when it comes to earnestly trying to sell or revive a series known for being broken a hundred times over (not as true of Bases Loaded)

they made a new retro version in 2016, so they're about due for retry

icymi, the Digital Pictures FMV library (which includes a few games already reissued by LRG & several others, including the recently-announced Slam City & Prize Fighter), was recently sold to them, too—as in, it seems they personally own them, not their former or current companies

nope, it's by the European team that did Rainbow Cotton, X-Out etc for ININ

anyway, R-Type Cosmos 1+2's out in March, so that might be make or break... that or that Formation Z game they've been making forever, and if they really expect that to save them, they're screwed

two other affiliated companies are also implicated; Granzella's statement says their backpay has been paid in instalments & will be cleared up by spring... so, the reportage is only misleading inasmuch as it might imply the issues are localised to Granzella, but they still owe a bunch of money

(the other takeaway: the complete difference in reactions to this news from laypersons vs. JP gamedev associates who are like "must be nice to work for a company that publicly admits to not paying ppl, what an age we're in")

Granzella's statement claims that the reportage is inaccurate; they say employees were consulted about & agreed to postpone salaries for a 3mo stretch in '23 & it took until mid-'25 to pay them back

whatever the case, the firm takeaway is that Granzella's barely stayed afloat since 2023

these are all made near-solely by Kimura: the first game, Elemental Dragoon (made in RPG Maker MV), is free due to having bugs that Kimura couldn't fix & therefore didn't feel it was right to charge people

the new games (prequels to Emerald Dragoon made in RPG Maker MZ) are ¥1000 each

ah, damn

does it run any better?

well they just turned Ripple Island into an Overcooked clone so I won't even try to guess how Route 2026 is gonna turn out

oh and IGA said they're still not quite done with OG Bloodstained... Switch 2 port, I suppose

Naito originally made+released XeGrader for MSX2 back in March—that ver's not currently available (due to off&on talks with Kazuhiko Nishi re modern MSX, iirc) but it will be back for PC this yr not the cleanest footage, but here's a basic annotated clear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaI07Y5-3w

...despite what the president said, he didn't immediately resume work on Ubusuna once Gear dropped

they've only alluded to the circumstances here and there but it sounds like the final game was rebuilt/redone in a very short amount of time, and Iuchi says it's in their top-3 toughest projects