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Movie Direct incoming!

And now it's already at 8.26%, making it Nintendo's second-largest shareholder outside of Nintendo, itself, according to The Associated Press. As of this post, Nintendo has yet to provide any comment.

According to Eurogamer, the PIF is now at 7.08 percent. Eurogamer has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

I didn't know what to title this thread.

Maybe this is common, and I just haven't noticed, but I realized something while rewatching the reveal trailer for Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster. While the trailer initially seems to be just the Japanese narration with English subtitles, I noticed that when the narrator says the titles of the games, he says the English titles instead of the Japanese ones. This stood out to me specifically with the second game because the Japanese title is simply Baten Kaitos II, but the narrator specifically says the international title, Baten Kaitos Origins.

I decided to check this with the actual Japanese trailer, and sure enough, it's different.

Here is the English-subtitled trailer. The narrator says the full English titles of each game, "Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean" and "Baten Kaitos Origins," in English, starting at about the 30-second mark.



Here is the original Japanese trailer. Here, the narrators says the full Japanese titles, "Baten Kaitos: Owaranai Tsubasa to Ushinawareta Umi" and "Baten Kaitos II: Hajimari no Tsubasa to Kamigami no Shishi."



So, basically, this suggests that the Japanese narration was also intended as the international narration, and was tailored accordingly.

I don't know if this is common and I just haven't noticed, but I guess it fits into a larger trend these last few years of lower-tier games being left in Japanese, which makes it cheaper and easier to release them internationally for niche audiences. The same would be true for the promotional material. (Although, it's still odd that even though both Baten Kaitos games have existing English dubs, they're being removed from the remaster for some reason.)

Wave 3 & 4 trailer:



So, the new hero is Masha the Lapidarist, and her special power is crafting accessories. Hope she has a good Hero Quest.

The new Challenge Battle is apparently something with roguelike elements, which sounds interesting. The new costumes are legacy outfits that are appropriate to each character (although, I'm not sure why Taion's outfit is (spoiler)'s final form). I like these much better than the swimsuits.

Wave 3 is due out February 15, so it looks like it's about time for me to dive back into Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

I was not expecting to see anything about the Wave 4 story DLC. We see what appears to be an older Shulk, Rex and Noah(?) facing off against Alvis for some reason. (NOTE: No, this does not spoil the plot of XC3.) Can't tell if this is a prequel or not. Looking forward to it, though!

OK, overall, I didn't get too excited about this Direct, but there are a few things of note.

- Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC Wave 3 & 4

Wave 3 is due out February 15, so not long to wait. I'll talk about this in the XC3 thread.

- Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection

Just a day or so ago, I was wondering to myself why they never brought Etrian Odyssey to Switch, and assumed it was because it didn't have dual screens. And now, here it is! I assume you can still use the touchscreen if playing in handheld mode.

I'm not normally into first-person dungeon crawlers, but I'm a little bit interested in this. It's low priority, though.

- Game Boy for NSO and GBA for NSO Expansion Pass

This was surprising, but hey, I'm glad us low-tier NSO subscribers haven't been forgotten!

- Baten Kaitos 1 & 2 HD Remaster

This has been rumored for a while, and it was more or less confirmed just before the Direct due to some leaked artwork. (Also, the original artist tweeted some cryptic emoji yesterday.)

File these under my "games that got away" category. They came out during my phase of not wanting to play RPGs, even though they looked enticing. I've since regretting missing out on them, and now I'm happy to have the chance to right this wrong.

This will get its own thread.

- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Another two-minute trailer. At this point, I assume this game will simply get its own big Direct sometime between now and April.

I'll talk about this in its own thread.

BONUS - Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg

This was not in the NA or EU Directs, but it is being released outside Japan. I wonder if this would be a good Atelier game to try...

Overall

I feel a bit lukewarm about this Direct. Even with Zelda and Xenoblade, I think Baten Kaitos is the most exciting thing for me because it's something I've been hoping for for a long time, and there wasn't much shown of the other things.

Grade: C

Not sure if this can be seen outside the US, but here's a brilliant parody based on the TV adaptation of The Last of Us, except now it's Mario Kart. (And the actor playing Mario is actually from the Last of Us TV show.)