M2 just wrapped up their DOJ Rinne Tensei launch stream, which they announced with a promise to run down their M2 ShotTriggers plans for 2024... but the only game they really touched upon was Aleste Branch, the WIP Aleste game they've had cooking for a few years, and which was initially projected to be released in the first half of 2020.
Director/programmer (and renowned Battle Garegga superplayer) Masato Yamanaka, along with special guest Keiji "KG" Takeuchi (ex-Compile composer, worked on several classic Aleste games & other Compile STG), played the latest version of Aleste Branch for a little whileβthey completely scrapped and redid the visuals since the first reveal, which partially explains why work is still ongoing, but the broader takeaway is that they're entirely content to keep working on it until they think it's ready, and they get a kick out of not sharing real info. (The heavy implication is that it's a console-first game, but even that's not a lock; it certainly looks like it'd easily drop onto APM3.) They do suggest that it might be close to being done and that it could come out early-ish next year, but they might flip the table again, who knows! They might have shown the logo for the first time, maybe? I forget.
No info on further Toaplan releases, or new M2STG games, or the Data East releases they half-promised, or "Gakuen", or that one ninja STG I forget the name of, or a Senxin Aleste port, or friggin' Ubusuna, the Hiroshi Iuchi-directed game announced almost a decade ago. Oh well.
@ArcadianRhythm left a comment on your post
Don't they usually do a dedicated "here's what we're up to" stream closer to New Year's, or is that what this was supposed to be?
That was my presumption but come to think of it, idk if they actually said as much... (just checked: that was it for 2023)
Whatever the case, Hiroshi Iuchi's due for his yearly blog updateβlast we heard, they'd hired multiple designers and were finally, for-real entering full production on Ubusuna, so for the first time in a while, I genuinely think we're going to see it in action soon.
