Any fans of Acquire Corp? To me they're an underrated developer.
For years they were know for games set in feudal Japan, with most of their games being rough gems that demand a bit of persistence but really pay off.
Their first was Tenchu, one of the original 3D stealth games. There had been many good ninja platformers before, but this was the first game were you felt like a ninja.
After Tenchu 2, they lost the franchise due to publisher shenanigans and created the Way of the Samurai series, a completely non-linear (but still narrative-driven) action adventure game. A full playthrough is like 2 hours long (it's meant to be about as long a movie), but there are at least 4 completely different main storylines and many random events to witness making different choices, so in the end I probably spent at least 15-20 hours on it. Great game. Then there's Shinobido, which was basically them doing their own Tenchu spiritual sequel, Kamizawa (where you're a Japanese thief), and Sumioni.
In a completely different register they also developed the (controversial?) Akiba's series, smaller games like Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman (stupid ass localized title), and more recently, have made pretty big RPGs under contract, like the Octopath Traveler games and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. They may not have as strong an identity anymore since Tenchu, Way of the Samurai and Shinobido are all dormant, but it's good that they're still making notable games.
For years they were know for games set in feudal Japan, with most of their games being rough gems that demand a bit of persistence but really pay off.
Their first was Tenchu, one of the original 3D stealth games. There had been many good ninja platformers before, but this was the first game were you felt like a ninja.
After Tenchu 2, they lost the franchise due to publisher shenanigans and created the Way of the Samurai series, a completely non-linear (but still narrative-driven) action adventure game. A full playthrough is like 2 hours long (it's meant to be about as long a movie), but there are at least 4 completely different main storylines and many random events to witness making different choices, so in the end I probably spent at least 15-20 hours on it. Great game. Then there's Shinobido, which was basically them doing their own Tenchu spiritual sequel, Kamizawa (where you're a Japanese thief), and Sumioni.
In a completely different register they also developed the (controversial?) Akiba's series, smaller games like Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman (stupid ass localized title), and more recently, have made pretty big RPGs under contract, like the Octopath Traveler games and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. They may not have as strong an identity anymore since Tenchu, Way of the Samurai and Shinobido are all dormant, but it's good that they're still making notable games.
