As a matter of due diligence I’m just checking in on this thread and I have some mixed news.
My links to the hacked save file are currently dead. I’m looking into fixing them but that will take time. I don’t have reliable hosting of my own. I’m considering putting the file onto the Internet Archive or at least a Google Drive, as those both seem a bit less tenuous than my previous solution.
Never mind, I fixed the links to the patch. Honestly, not sure where the broken URL even came from. I have a theory but I can’t recall whether or not it’s true; more importantly, it doesn’t matter. The file is once again available and that’s what matters here!
The creator of these games seems to be hard at work on a new, seemingly polygonal and thus 3D game. I don’t know the name of it It seems to be the “Cyber Shinobi” game (surely they can’t be thinking of going with that title. I think that’s the name of an old SEGA Game Gear game) they showed off at C95 in 2018 (I mentioned it here, but I haven’t kept up with subsequent Comikets, alas). There are several short videos of a newer, fancier build of the game here in this Twitter post and it seems much improved from its state in 2018. Seems to be some kind of cyber-ninja, waifu dungeon crawler type thing? Might be sort of a Souls-adjacent thing since there’s a post here about poison swamps. This video also shows off Souls-esque glow around the protagonist, but it also shows off a lot more air game with jumping and mantling far in excess of what’s possible in most Souls/Fromsoft games, with possible exception of Sekiro and maybe Elden Ring to a lesser extent.
The old 2018 video gave off more of a Tenchu/Metal Gear Solid impression. Tough to say how much of that spirit has been preserved after 4 years of development.
There are other videos of it sprinkled across wahiko94’s timeline but at the end of the day it’s all sparingly interspersed between large swathes of Kantai Collection and Uma Musume fan art so I can’t easily dig it all up in a single post. I did scroll back a good way through their timeline and its reams and reams of Uma Musume fan art. Honestly that’s an improvement over the years where it was just ship girls flashing their panties.
Anyway, in having sifted through several years worth of posts I’m inclined to think that I linked every recent post/video of Cyber Shinobi. Pretty sure wahiko has been silent about this game since 2018 right up until this year, which may indicate that the release is in at least closer proximity than it was before. I mean, there was also the years of pandemic and whatnot. A good time to be silent and work on a game, I wager. Still, I don’t imagine this’ll be coming out any time soon. From a technological perspective this game seems as though it might be much more involved than any of their previous games.
I can collect a more comprehensive set of links to materials for this new game in this thread or a new one once more information about the new game comes to light.
Still, I think the new game is chasing the Fromsoft trend to some extent. Not necessarily a bad plan per se. I’ll play it. Well, I’ll try anyway. Don’t think we’ll see this release any time soon, and certainly not with an English translation.
I’ve seen no signs of an English translation for Hack9 Solid which is mildly frustrating but not at all surprising given how long it took to get English versions of Hack9 and Hacker9.
At some point I still need to try to stream playthroughs of the English versions of Hack9 and Hacker9 but it just hasn’t been a priority for me. Still, I imagine I’ll get around to it eventually.
I’ve accumulated a bit over 3 years of experience with streaming games on Twitch since I started this thread and the main thing I’ve learned during that time is that I’m a thoroughly mediocre to poor streamer.
Making videos turns out to be something that I was good at in the days before YouTube, but now it’s a much more cutthroat game and I lack the energy (and familiarity with the tools available to me) to do it. Making walkthrough videos for these games still sounds good in theory, but in practice I lack both motivation and energy, so I reckon those projects will stay on the backburner until my morale improves. Nary a breath shall be held in fond hope for that referendum.
Part of streaming Hacker9 will probably involve repeating the save file hacking process I used on Hack9 because I have neither the skill nor patience to grind these games naturally.
I actually gave Hack9 and the save file to a friend of mine on Twitch and he said the game was still crushingly difficult. In point of fact, he said he couldn’t beat the final boss. That’s deeply concerning to me, though I do wonder if he was using everything at his disposal. There’s certainly a cruel quality to the game’s RNG with respects to weapon drops, so every run still hinges at least a bit on luck. Won’t know for sure until I make another attempt for myself.
Anyway, that’s all i know about what’s up with wahiko94 and their development activities. That’s also everything new and [un]interesting with my own [lack of] progress in giving these games a more thorough look.