This Week In Retro: Eschatos (Patreon)

April 7, 2011: Japanese retro gamers flock to the Xbox 360?

by Diamond Feit

The Xbox will turn 20 years old in 2021, and the Xbox 360 turned 15 last year, so there is no question that Microsoft's early console work is decidedly retro at this point in time. The tale of Microsoft's struggle to push their foot into the living room doorway is a long story, but the short version is it took many years and a significant amount of money to make "Xbox" synonymous with "PlayStation" in most territories around the world.

We must specify most territories because there was, and continues to be, a notable exception to Microsoft's video game reach: Japan. For a myriad of complex reasons, the Xbox just never took off in the Japanese market, and the brand itself holds almost no name recognition here whatsoever—an astonishing failure when you consider that both "Microsoft" and "Windows" were (and still are) hugely popular in Japan.

As much as we can crack jokes about the Bill Gates hamburger ad or the goofy oversized "Duke" controller, no one can dare suggest Microsoft didn't make an honest effort to fit in with the other consoles. The electronics giant operates a dedicated branch in Japan to this day, partners with local talent to develop new franchises, and continues to turn up at Tokyo Game Show each year despite having a consistently lonely booth compared to any competitor. It might be a lost cause, but so far Microsoft shows no signs of backing down from the challenge of taking on Nintendo and Sony in their home turf.

During this two-decade-long battle, there have been a number of high-profile Xbox-exclusive games made in Japan for Japanese consumers. Mistwalker's JRPGs drew the most press given the pedigree behind them, but Tecmo's 3D Ninja Gaiden games were well-received and the Dead or Alive series (and their bikini-clad volleyball spin-offs) sold quite well. None of these releases were able to turn the tide in Microsoft's favor, but their existence (and general reception) stands as proof that the American corporation made an earnest attempt to earn a place in the Japanese market.

However, there were other Japanese Xbox-exclusives that fell into the cracks, one of which turns 10 years old this week: Eschatos. Released for the 360 on April 7, 2011, it too had a creative team behind it with a legacy, Unlike any of the above games, however, it didn't feature advanced graphics or cross any technical boundaries. Instead, Eschatos is an unapologetic retro game, one that laser-targeted older Japanese fans, but was made for a console few Japanese people owned. It is a beautiful anomaly that has fascinated me for a decade.

Eschatos is a shooter, but not a first-person shooter like so many other Xbox-exclusive games. Eschatos hearkens back to the earliest days of video gaming; it is a scrolling space shooter, a genre that ruled the world in the late 1970s but gradually faded in popularity as the 1980s wore on. By 2011, first and third-person action games had seized ownership of the name "shooter," but a vocal cadre of players still held a torch for spaceship-based shoot-em-ups. With major game publishers shifting their attention (and budgets) to grand spectacles designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience, the task of catering to classic shooting fans fell to smaller developers such as Cave or even individuals like ZUN, creator of the Touhou Project.

Such was the case with Qute, a small Japanese developer/publisher of video games. Formed in 1999, the company first released the acclaimed Judgement Silversword, a shoot-em-up for the handheld Wonderswan Color. Originally a 2001 freeware game, the retail edition did not hit stores until 2004, a full year after Bandai officially pulled the plug on the struggling platform. Despite those circumstances, or possibly directly due to those circumstances, Judgement Silversword's initial print run sold out within hours—proof that fans of the genre were alive and well in the 21st century, ready to support studios that served their niche interests.

With this experience behind them, it makes a bit more sense that Qute took a chance on publishing Eschatos for the unpopular Xbox 360 platform in 2011. Like past Qute releases, Eschatos is a vertically-scrolling space shooter; the game's official website makes an appeal to fans' "nostalgia'' for the 1980s. That said, Eschatos looks far more advanced than anything the Wonderswan could handle, with 3D polygons replacing 2D sprites and action that changes perspective as the spaceship's (fixed) path progresses.

For a game steeped in specific fan tastes, Eschatos is remarkably accessible to shoot-em-up novices. There's not much story to worry about (it's the 22nd century and UFOs are invading from the Moon—go get 'em), nor are there complex skill trees or systems to manage. Eschatos doesn't even offer anything in the way of power-ups: The ship starts with two guns and one shield which never get any stronger. Eschatos is a pick-up-and-play experience, a true throwback to the arcade era when anyone could sit down and learn all there is to know about a new game instantly.

While I've fired my share of space lasers, I am a novice in the shoot-em-up genre, so I have no authority to judge Eschatos on its gameplay or historical merit. I recognize this sort of high-score hunting repetitive game isn't going to please all comers. If you're out there shrugging your shoulders or worse, turning up your nose at the prospect of blasting UFOs for nothing more than bragging points, this week's anniversary will do nothing for you.

However, one undeniable quality Eschatos offers the world is its stellar FM synth soundtrack. Composed by Yousuke Yasui of Super Sweep, the music pulses with high-energy and absolutely makes me feel like I am qualified to pilot an aircraft and defend the Earth. I first became aware of Eschatos through its soundtrack, and while I never convinced myself the game was worth 7000 yen (Japanese games are expensive, yo) the CD was surely worth whatever I paid for it.

Online data suggests Eschatos never sold more than a few thousand copies at retail, but that was likely all Qute could have hoped for given their chosen platform and audience. Despite the popularity of the Xbox 360 in every region outside Japan, the game never officially launched in any other territory. However, the shoot-em-up genre has only grown in stature in the past decade, and Eschatos has been available globally on Steam since 2015 (along with its soundtrack).

Meanwhile, Qute is still out there, just like Cave and ZUN, delivering full-throttle bullet-dodging games to their fans in 2021. The company's most recent shoot-em-up, Natsuki Chronicles, was another Xbox exclusive when it debuted in 2019, but then made its way to PlayStation 4 and Steam just two months ago. The years haven't improved Microsoft's standing in Japan at all, but by now there's enough video game fans to support every genre (and platform) in every region...to one degree or another.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts on Twitter and playing games on Twitch.