City Connection's latest emulated Saturn reissue has been announced: Assault Suits Leynos 2, Masaya's Japan-only sequel to their influential side-scrolling mecha action games Assault Suits Leynos (Target Earth) and Assault Suits Valken (Cybernator) One of the comments I saw in reaction to this announcement is that "it's the best hardcore 2D mecha action game ever made, right until the fighting starts" and while I think that's overstating just how unfun it actually is, it definitely tries to split the difference between the previous two games and instead embodies the worst elements of both, and it strikes me as practically unfinished.
(It was also a product of a completely different team than the prior games; the people behind those games split to form their own studio, and their first game was Front Mission: Gun Hazard aka Valken-but-Square-owns-it.)
It'll be out on PC/PS/XB/Switch next year, and aside from the basic emulator functionality—save states, rewind, etc—it'll include some simple tweaks like an extra durability toggle and hint displays for the missions, but they're not going all-out like they did with Batsugun.
That said, they are going to the effort of translating it for the first time, which they decided not to mention in their announce but instead left to a random dev to tease on twxtter; City Connection has a very flaky history with teasing but not delivering localisations of their vintage reissues, so it's nice to have this hard-confirmed right away:
City Connection's locked down a release date for Assault Suit Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute: it'll be out on April 25 in Japan, and it's getting a couple of different physical packages for PS5 and Switch—a standard physical version that comes with a sticker (¥3850), and a special-edition box that comes with an official fan book, an OST with the music from both Leynos games and another reversible jacket with illustrations from 4 as-yet-unidentified guest designers (¥7150). There's also a bunch of retailer tchotchkes that I don't care to list, including the customary Famitsu DX mega-set with a big tacky crystal whatever. (The standard digital release is priced at ¥2980.)
Leynos 2's a very sloppy game and I don't know that it's going to be able to withstand the added performance hit inherent to City Connection's emulator, but I'm still glad the series has some sort of momentum... the Leynos remake's nearly a decade old, after all.
(clockwise from top left)
Watari U (Hades Project Zeorymer Ω, Final Exerion, etc; prolific fan artist)
Koh Inaba (Gundam: Witch from Mercury, Xenoblade X & 2, lotsa late-'00s From games including Armoured Core 4/Answer, etc)
Naohiro Washio (loads of Gundam including Iron-Blooded Orphans, Infinite Space, etc)
Hiroyuki Kani (former From designer with long ties to Armoured Core, from Project Phantasma to 4 Answer)
heads up: City Connection's announced that the Japanese PS/Switch versions of Leynos 2 Saturn Tribute will not support English—as with other recent releases, it seems that the EN versions are being held hostage by whichever boutique publisher they're currently working with, and will be available globally on those platforms whenever those publishers feel they ought to come out. (The Xbox/PC versions will launch with English support.)
the Japanese store listings are all up (Switch + PS + XB + PC) and with them, they've finally revealed the specific enhancements they've made for this reissue:
- the ability to continue unlocking mechs/weapons during the second loop
- an in-game recreation of the weapon/equipment data card includes with first-print copies of the Saturn version
- optional support functions to halve booster energy consumption, increase shield durability and/or increase mech HP, plus simple in-game strategy/tips for each mission
- button config includes rapid-fire options for single-shot weapons